My lucky number thirteen. The number just happened to fall on the chapter where I was the most lucky in this tale of awesomeness but hey, kind of cool, right?
The discharged rifle that made me wince like a five year old getting a flu shot didn’t send flames of pain through my body nor send explosions of concrete whirling around me. The gun kept firing and I glanced at my attackers who were being attacked by the eighth trooper.
I say attacked, but since they were all focusing on me and all she really did was take two quick steps to the right and spray a hailstorm of bullets into the men lined up like ducklings it was really murder.
But do you think I cared about what correct wording my salvation needed right then? I most certainly did not.
The female trooper ran to me and opened her mask.
“You certainly have a way with people, Jericho.” Chloe said, her face illuminated in red glow.
“My devilishly good looks that all the ladies die over sometimes make men want to put me against a wall and shoot me to death,” I told her, lowering my arms which had fallen asleep somewhere through my bout with the Russian monsters. “Nice suit, sweetheart. You’re a regular iron maiden.”
Chloe shrugged and I again heard the clicking and gyrating of gears and small pistons as she lifted a shoulder and I had to fight the urge not to kiss her again. Curse you, inner nerd, curse you to helheim and back.
“What were those guys?” I asked as I made my way to what was left of the seven troopers. “Ah…” I muttered in disgust, “I see you hit them all in the head. Someone’s been playing Duck Hunt.”
“Lucky for us.” Chloe said as she came to stop beside me as I squatted down and poked a finger at one of the dead men’s chest plate. “The side of the helmet is the only vulnerable spot on the S-16. Just be glad it wasn’t an S-20, then it would have been our corpses being prodded right now.”
The red glow that ran through the veins of the suits had faded into blackness within seconds of the occupant’s death. “I’m guessing the S-20 is a lot bigger?”
“The biggest yet but it still has its weaknesses.”
Standing, I took my first look at my surroundings. The safe house seemed to be on some sort of hill but I couldn’t be sure, really, because of the lack of visible distance.
Then I remembered that I was freezing to death. “Say, Chloe. Where does a guy get warm clothes in 2340?”
Chloe smiled and tapped an ironclad boot against one of the soldiers she’d just wasted. “Let’s find your size, shall we?”
Instantly I squatted back down to begin my selection, “Best day ever.”
Inside, the safe house was about as normal as a safe house in the future could be if Chloe’s nonchalance was anything to go by. But to me it was like the fan-freaking-tastic Starship Enterprise.
I already felt bodacious strutting around in my new S-16 suit, bending and moving my arms and legs just to hear the awesome sounds the suit made. Chloe had sat down at a desk and was tapping away at a flat projection that floated above it whilst I was getting used to my new duds.
Chloe had given me a rundown on what the S-16 was capable of while she helped me get into one and my smile and eyes grew larger with each word she spoke. I grabbed a random desk and lifted it with one arm. Laughing, I put the desk back down and leaped into the air, touching the drafty ceiling nearly fifteen feet high.
“This is the greatest day of my freakin' life!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, cutting a perfect no-handed back flip and landing easily. “How fast did you say I can run in this thing?”
Chloe, who’d no doubt been in one of the suits since she was three, didn’t look away from the screen she was frowning at when she answered, “65.6 mph.”
“BRB.” I told her before darting outside into the snow.
“Wait, Jericho-!” Were the last words I heard her say.
I hit the snow-covered ground running and within seconds I was bounding at what I was guessing was 65.6 mph because I couldn’t go any faster. The frigid wind felt wonderful on my face. All the masks were too mutilated for me to wear. I skidded to a halt close to an outcropping of bare trees, touched one, then I was bolting back to the safe house as fast as my suit’s legs would carry me.
Chloe was still tapping at the flat screen and frowning when I ducked back inside, not even breathing hard. “Have fun?” Was her harsh question.
“You have no idea,” I said, sitting on a nearby stool then screaming as it crumbled beneath me and I landed on my back.
Chloe still didn’t take her eyes off the screen as she tapped her metal-knuckled hand on the stone bench that I just noticed was her desk chair. “The S-16s weigh nearly 400 pounds and aren’t currently used in actual battle anymore due to EMP bursts.”
“What?” I said, rolling over and getting to my feet, “Are you kidding me? If they had, like, ten of these back in 2001, the Iraqi campaign would’ve literally lasted twelve hours!”
Chloe stopped tapping at the screen and turned her head slightly in my direction, “How old do you think that suit you’re wearing is?”
I frowned, not expecting that, and gave my suit a glance over. Chloe had left the right forearm piece off of my suit so I could still use my glove with no problems. Opening and closing my hands as I stared at them, I said, “I don’t know… got some wear on it, I guess, so maybe ten years?”
Chloe’s burst of laughter made me jump it was so sudden. Laying her head on the desk, her black hair phasing through the screen she’d been tapping away at, she continued to laugh.
“Ok…” I said, seeing that I was wrong, “Twenty years?”
“Try almost two-hundred,” Chloe said, getting the reins on her funny horse and sitting back up. “What part of currently not used in actual combat did you not understand?”
“Oh?” I shot at her in agitation, “And I suppose that the seven guys you just hosed down with lead right outside weren’t in combat at all. Maybe they were just taking a leisure stroll wearing armor and toting machine guns.”
Chloe had once again returned to tapping away at the screen, “Those were just a few rogue fascists with neither motive nor brains. Perfectly feral at best.”
Hm. Feral at best, she said?
“Enlighten me, dearest Chloe, about which side you are on in this case. You mentioned the Fascists and the Lions."
“Bears.”
“Lions, tigers and bears, whatever,” I muttered, “Anyway, which side are you on?”
“Neither.” She replied simply, which was starting to really annoy me. What with her being all cavalier about the whole thing.
“So that makes you…?”
“Фракция.”
“Oh my freakin’ gosh, I don’t speak Russian,” I almost screamed, “You speak great English with a hot Russian accent to go with it. Lay off the foreign dialect, woman, I’m begging you.”
Chloe stood suddenly, “Возьмите место, пожалуйста,” She told me, waving at the bench she’d been occupying.
Frowning, I crossed the room and sat down. “Look, Chloe, I’m not really mad, ok? There’s really no need to sit me down like a freakin’-“
“Cмотрите на экран, Иерихон,” She said, pointing at the screen.
Sighing because it seemed I’d lost the language war, I peered at the screen. “Great.” I said, scowling, “Even the crap you’re making me look at is in Russian. Awesome, Chloe, really.”
Chloe wasn’t listening because she had started tapping again at the screen with one hand while reaching into a drawer with the other. She finished tapping at the green hologram and produced what looked like a headset from the drawer she’d been rummaging in.
Chloe then got behind me and started placing the headset on me, all the while jabbering in Russian. “Это - сканер нейрона. Это не использовалось в в то время как, потому что только нет очень многих американцев, оставленных,
чтобы нуждаться в том.”
Nodding just because I thought it would make her shut up, I tried not to sigh while she placed cold metal pads to my temples. Then I felt her hands on my shoulders, “Готовый?”
Since I figured she’d just asked me if I was ready, I nodded again, “Sure.” I said sarcastically, “Please have a defibrillator on hand just in case I happen to die of excitement…”
Chloe reached over my shoulder and tapped once somewhere on the screen.
I felt a small vibration coming from the pads attached to my temples but it wasn’t anything unbearable. Then things started projecting in front of me. It was just one symbol at a time that floated for about five seconds each before being replaced by yet another five second symbol. I was guessing that what she wanted me to do was just stare at the meaningless symbols like I actually cared so that’s what I did.
The boring tutorial of whatever only lasted around two minutes so I didn’t have to watch very long. Which was awesome because for some reason watching the symbols fade in and out was starting to give me a small headache. “Are we done now?” I asked, rubbing at my left eye.
“Нет, еще.” Was what she said in Russian.
But guess what I heard her say?
“No, not yet.”
Before I could say what the heck, Chloe tapped the screen again somewhere.
“Вы только что успешно закончили нервный просмотр русского языка. Спасибо за участие.” Is what projected in front of me.
And guess what it said?
“You have just successfully finished the neural scan of the Russian language. Thank you for participating.” I read aloud.
“Браво, Иерихон.” Chloe said, smiling and clapping her hands together, the resounded clangs of metal ringing around the room. “Bravo, Jericho.”
I stood. This was incredible. Bowing low, I said, “Twas ничто, действительно. Как я мог взять кредит на чью-либо умную разработку?”
Ha. I bet now you are wondering what I just said.
So, just for you, whoever you are, I had said, “Twas nothing, really. How could I take credit for someone else's clever engineering?”
So yeah, now I was fluent in Russian. Which rocked for real.
And before moving on to chapter fourteen, let me address the question bouncing around your right-frontal lobe, which is, “Did you learn any other languages while you were there, Jericho?”
So, just for you, again, I’ll answer your question so you can have some closure.
噢,但我沒有。 蓬勃發展。 完全是不願意為中國的,是你嗎
Chapter 14