Fall Semester, Third Year
Scope noticed everything now, from the frayed edges of the carpet in the hallway, to the place where the painters ran out of paint and had to get a new bucket. Everything seemed very familiar, yet new at the same time.
Even his own body felt louder and different than before. His blood raced through his body has he continued what began as a stroll and ended up a forced march. The sound of his heartbeat thrummed in his ears, and he dabbed at the sweat sliding over his body. His mouth went dry.
He realized that he hadn’t brushed his teeth this morning; his breath must smell horrible. He should turn back.
“No way,” he muttered to himself. “Not this time.”
But, couldn’t he do this tomorrow? Sure he could, he could head back to his room, brush his teeth, take a shower, put on some deodorant, and spend the rest of the night working on homework. Then, back tomorrow. He blinked out sweat, and made to turn around.
“Scope?”
Too late now. He turned around to see her in all her perfection leaning out and peering at him. He stared into her dark blue eyes and admired the way her bangs framed the gentle curves of her face. She wore a black tank top and olive green cargo shorts, rolled up her smooth, perfect legs. He stopped his eyes from their wandering over her body, and chose to stare at the magnificent carpet instead. Magnificent and maroon.
“Hi Monica.”
“Are you just going to stand there?”
He balked.
“Well, come in,” she said, smirking at him. Was it an unfamiliar smirk? His feet moved him into the room. What exactly compelled him to do this anyhow? Fear crept through him like a cornered animal.
She closed the door, something she never did. Actually it was against the rules for coeds to exist in the same living space without the door open at least a foot. Not that it mattered much, with the security cameras in their rooms. If they weren’t wanted together, officers were on their way already.
“What’s going on?” she asked, and went over to pick up a pair of ten pound dumbbells, sitting on the bed. She did everything casually, he thought.
“Oh, not much,” he lied, “Just thought I’d stop by and see what you’re up to.”
“I’m working out,” she said, and smirked again. “Now come on, what’s up?”
“Huh?”
“You’re sweating right through your shirt.” What? He was?
How had he gotten himself into this mess?
“I guess I am,” he said, feeling just as sheepish as he sounded.
“So what’s up?”
Words left him. In a moment, a short one, he looked into those huge, beautiful eyes, burning fierce into his soul. She’d already filled out, or started to anyway, into a lovely young lady. His stomach fluttered, and his senses fled him. He blurted out the question he’d contemplated every for the last six months.
“Monica will you go out with me?”
One of the weights dropped from her hand and landed on her foot. She gave a yelp of pain.
“Oww Mother of God!” came out of her mouth, followed by an immediate recoil. She’d never dared use any of those words. Scope rushed to help her, tossing the weight aside and examining her foot. Once they got her sock off they determined nothing was broken, though she’d probably bruise up pretty bad. Scope found himself kneeling before her.
“Did you really mean what you said?” she asked, staring him in the eyes. “Did you just ask me out?”
He nodded.
She smiled. Did she think it was funny?
“Ask me again,” she said, cutting off all thoughts of being the laughing stock of the school.
“Ah- um…will you go out with me?”
“I’ll have to think about it,” she said, bringing the smirk back to life again. “Scope stand up.” He stood. “You understand that if we go out you’ll have to treat me nice and kiss me sometimes right?”
Did he indeed. “Yeah,” he said, trying to salvage a little bit of cool.
“How about now?”
All thought left him in a mad rush. He had only enough brainpower to nod his head slowly while staring into her dark, endless eyes. The scene collapsed into Scope’s memory forever, moments in time that he could never purge. Monica leaned forward toward him, tilting her head up, closing her eyes. Her fingers twined around his, and her budding breasts pressed against his chest. Finally, her lips touched his. They were softer than he’d ever imagined.
They sat on her bed and kissed for two solid hours before a polite knock interrupted them. They separated, beaming and staring into each others’ eyes. When Scope summoned up the courage to open the door and look out, he didn’t find anyone. He looked back at Monica, still sitting on the bed and radiating.
“There’s no one there,” he said, and grinned.
Fall Semester, Fifth Year
They slumped into their chairs, away from the hail of arms fire and into the hail of expletives. Perhaps they were well-meant expletives.
“What the fuck were you guys thinking? When I give a fucking order, I fucking expect it to be followed. Is that clear, you shits?” Colby stared around at them, wild-eyed. His face was still smeared with mud and a mixture of other colors. It looked like he’d puked all over the ground and had his face rubbed in it. Even this, though, did not erase the fury in his eyes as they flickered from one member of the squad to the next.
They all sat in a little bunker in an unseasonably cold rain. The bunker looked like an old baseball dugout folded in half, so it was almost a perfect square. All of them sat there, only Scope not brightly lit with paint. Glen’s shoulder electric blue and orange. Monica had orange paint in her raven hair, Colby all down his front, and Marc was painted on his legs and ass. Gideon, though, was neon paintball hodgepodge from shoulders to knees.
“You think this is a game? It’s not, I’ll be fucked if it is. This shit is as close as it gets out there. And you know who looks bad? It’s me. None of the rest of you pathetic pussies gives a shit how we look to the rest of the school. Well you’re gonna start, that’s for fucking sure.
“Ross, you must be out of your ever loving fucking mind. Disregarding my orders, shit. If I don’t request that you get booted off my squad, you’re taking Glen’s post as Scope’s ass cover, understand me? I just demoted you to tree hugging.”
Glen’s look of admiration vanished after a second.
“But you were just gonna leave me behind, between orange and yellow groups?” Marc spoke up. In the dark his skin blended with the black of the walls, so that only the whites of his eyes showed.
“Bet your ass I would, if it meant saving my squad. You get out of Scope’s range and I consider you dead, understand me?”
All said and done, Colby had his right to throw this fit. His orders were not to be questioned. His position as squad leader gave him that absolute authority.
But it wasn’t all said and done. Colby’d fucked up every field exercise they were put on. He played it too safe, and relied on Scope too much, a reliance Scope didn’t want. He made needless sacrifices, indeed almost counted on working from less than a full squad. This happened time after time, while they scrounged for points and left the winning to teams who could adapt.
And so now, at last, when they could have won, Colby ordered them to pull back. Risk too great, leave it behind. Only, Gideon hadn’t followed orders.
“Man, how could you do that to your own squad?” Marc asked, fingering the place on his thigh splattered with yellow paint. It would be a big, nasty bruise tomorrow.
“Like this: leave him, he’s dead. Everybody else regroup.
“The strategy was fucking simple, people. But somehow you fuck it up every single time. How? How is it I get stuck with such a perfect group of fucking retards?” He seemed to remember Monica sitting there. “Oh, yeah, and one dumb cunt.”
“That’s enough, Colby,” Scope said.
“Oh, lord Jesus shoot lightning up my ass, now they’re talking back,” Colby sneered at hi
m. “You got something to say, why not say it to my face?”
Scope looked up, then stood up like it took a lot of effort. “I said, that’s enough.”
“Sit the fuck down, Scope. Or did you forget who lost us the last field exercise?”
“Get off our case Colby, we know we screwed up, okay?”
“You’re only making it worse on yourself, Scope, so keep flapping your lips.”
Monica started to put a hand on his shoulder, but Colby got right in her face.
“You two can do whatever you want when you’re not on my time. But you’re not sucking face here, not now.” He turned back to Scope, who trembled with rage. “What, you want to hit me, is that it? You don’t like me talking to your woman, your fuck buddy, is that it? Well, this time she fucked us over better than she fucks you-“
He stopped there, when Scope’s fist crammed into the side of his jaw. Colby fell to the side, taken by complete surprise. But no sooner had he fallen than he sprang back up. His punch took Scope off his feet. When he landed, he felt his squad leader’s knee in his balls and hands wrapped around his throat. Colby’s thumbs pressed into the sides of his jaw, at the pressure points, and a deep agony welled up into his skull.
By the time his vision faded back from the warm black of near unconsciousness, he noticed the figure of Gideon hulking over Colby. The squad leader’s broad, freckled face showed surprise, which wasn’t unusual, but also fear. At first Scope couldn’t make out Gideon’s fierce whisper, but gradually it came to him.
“Are you all right Bartleby?”
“I think so,” Scope rasped. Gideon turned back to Colby.
“-you’re going to apologize to Bartleby, then to Bellisara. And if you ever touch them again, Colby, they’re going to have a scavenger hunt to find all the pieces of you. Is that understood?”
Gideon moved the barrel of the sleek black pistol over Colby’s nose, up his cheek, and down over his jawbone to his chin as though in caress. Both fifteen year olds stared at one another for a second, before Colby’s eyes once again focused on the gun. Scope wondered where he got it. Ross’s right hand was covered in a black glove, and he had tiny goggles over his eyes. As they all stared, the action of the gun drew itself back with a click, while the safety switch toggled from on to off spasmodically. It was a Smartweapon system.
Colby nodded. Gideon let him go, dumping him on the floor in a heap.
It took a long time for Colby to stand up and attempt to compose himself. When he finished, he turned Scope’s way and muttered a tiny ‘sorry’. He stared at the floor as he turned toward Monica and did the same. In the feeble combination of the moonlight and the one bulb, Scope watched the fear turn to embarrassment. This crept up his face in a flush, until the embarrassment gave way to anger, then fury. He stormed out.
Some Time After the Academy
Scope shook his head and cursed under his breath. He moved through the bar, with its smoke and laughter and low conversation, as though no one mattered. Some eyes watched him as he went, in his brown trench coat and black slacks. His own eyes danced from table to table, assessing threat levels and probabilities. His hands flexed, as if they weren’t used to being empty.
He pulled up to a table and stood in front of it. Several men looked up at him, but one in particular was his mark.
“Mister Veritek,” Scope said. “I hope you’ll understand if I ask you to come with me, and alone. I don’t have any wish for bloodshed-“
Movement cut him off. Scope dropped to a knee and brought out twin silenced pistols, then fired them into the faces of the men flanking Veritek. Then he rolled to the side and came up firing at another three men. The bar began to clear in a hail of screams and curses. Scope had to crack his neck to shut them out.
He found Veritek trying to crawl away from him on hands and knees, with a small pistol in his hand. Scope walked up and kicked it when the man swung it in his direction.
“You’re coming with me,” Scope said.
Late Summer Semester, Fifth Year
“Glen, if you could just come with me.” The owner of the voice looked official, and the officers that flanked him were definitely familiar. One of them had eluded their squad on a field assignment that had cost the group Colby’s pride.
“Where’s he going?” Scope asked.
“We’d like to talk about what happened on the last field mission, if that’s alright with you, Mr. Bartleby.” His eyes moved over Scope, bored into his own eyes, and he had to look away.
“They can’t do this,” Monica sobbed. “They can’t do this to us.” She held onto the small notice deposited in their rooms: the squad was to be reassigned. They’d disperse and tag along with other squads now. Scope moved in behind her and slipped his arms around her shoulders, pulling her into his embrace.
“I’m afraid this is the way it has to be,” the man said.
“I guess I’ll see you guys later,” Glen said. These were the last words they’d ever hear him say. They were words that would haunt Scope and Monica both, until a year later when she finally collapsed.
Fall Semester, Year Six
“I, we can’t keep doing this,” Monica said. Scope was right behind her, holding her tight. He squeezed tighter.
“Don’t say that,” Scope said. “You have to.”
“But everyone, they keep disappearing. My squad got changed again last month, and Trang was a really good leader.” Her voice got tight. “I think they’re all dead, Scope. And I don’t want to lose you too.”
“You’re not gonna lose me,” he said. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Did you know Alexis, David and Feeney tried to jump the wall out of school on Hell Night? They’re all gone now. Just like Glen. I can’t do it. I can’t.”
“Shh,” he whispered. “We’re going to be fine.”
And it happened, just like the crack of a whip. Monica jerked out of his arms and sat up on the bed, staring at him. Her eyes were different, no longer wide and naïve, now wide and terrified. They seemed a darker shade of blue now too, as though they were a stormy sea instead of a calm sky.
“We’re not going to be fine, Scope. You have Gideon and Jaskie, and Heather Reynolds on your team. We all know how good they are. Who do I have? And my classes are getting harder. I don’t think I can keep up with it. Mr. Pierce is a slave driver, you don’t know what it’s like.” The stormy seas started to spill over.
“It’s not easy for me either,” he said, still trying to sound calm. He felt defensive. Was she saying his classes weren’t just as hard?
“They’re going to kill me, Scope! Don’t you get it? I fail and they’re going to make everyone forget I ever existed.” Scope sat up now, not bothering to cover his nudity.
“Monica, this isn’t going to do you any good. It’s only going to get worse if you focus on this like this.”
“I don’t care!” She screamed. “You don’t know what it’s like, always losing them, all of them. You don’t have to lead a new group every other month! I can’t win, I can’t do this anymore. I want to go back to the orphanage, I wish this had never happened.” Tears were sliding down her cheeks.
“You don’t think I have a tough time every day in my classes, or losing to Tripp at the range, or getting my ass beat by Talbaine every time we step on the mat? Because if you don’t think it’s hard for every single person at the school, you’re way more selfish than I thought.”
Monica only held her face in her hands, sobbing.
“You’re right,” he went on, “I don’t know what it means to lose somebody like Glen, I’ll never know what it means to have your squad changed.” He gave a bark of laughter. “I’m sorry baby, I wish I could do something to help you. I wish I could plant a gun barrel in Pierce’s face and tell him not to be a dickhead, but that won’t help either. I don’t know what I can do to help, and I don’t know what I can say.”
“Nevermind,” she whispered. “Just nevermind.”
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“What do you want me to say?” he yelled at her. “What do you want me to do? I’ll do it, I’ll do anything for you, I love you, and I won’t see you like this. Just name it.”
But her sobbing only intensified. She slid from the bed and curled up into a ball on the floor, pressing her forehead to the carpet as the tears came fast and wracked her body.
“Tell me, Monica, tell me!” A knock came at the door, and it opened a few inches. A voice spoke to them, and older voice.
“Belisara, Bartleby, I’d like you both to get dressed and meet me in the hall, please.” It sounded like Jennings’s voice.
A Week Before Graduation
Monica looked at him with hollow eyes, the blue of a poorly lit subterranean cavern. They questioned everything, not the least of which was his presence. Scope stared back into her eyes, hoping to find something there for him, but he was forced to look away when nothing came forward.
“We’re supposed to steal the prototype for a top-secret project for the Final Run,” she said in a flat tone. “It’s a secure facility, with a force of guards that numbers in the dozens. Lucky for us, the prototype is a small object, something we can stuff in a pocket.
“We’re going to keep the plan simple. Scope is going to have hawk eye position from this building across the street. He’s going to be our ordnance and our eyes in the sky.”
The other three of them looked at him. He’d never been in their squad. He’d been pulled away because Gideon was getting put with other people being pulled from their squads.
“Scope this is Eddie, this is Dennis, and this is Ivy. Eddie’s from my squad, but the others are new.” They exchanged pleasantries, albeit a little strained. Ivy kept glancing back and forth between Scope and Monica. “We’ve been thinking that we could set charges to blow out some of the upper story windows, leading security to believe that we were inserting there. From there, we’d head in through the front doors, retrieve the mark, and be out with Scope as cover fire.”
Scope closed his eyes. “Do you know where security deploys from?”
“First floor.”
“Do they have other exits beside the front door?”
‘There are side exits located here and here,” Monica pointed them out. “We also have Dennis, who’s going to hack the security wire as soon as we’re inside and take over the building’s systems.”
“You have to get him in first.” Monica nodded.
Scope stared at the blueprints for a few seconds. “We’ll be placing anti-personnel mines at the base of these exits, right?”
Dennis and Eddie looked at each other before turning back to the blueprint.
“Because I won’t be able to see them coming out until they’re almost on top of you guys. This building is only going to give me front face visibility. And if you don’t think it’ll take all four of you, it would be better to have one of you with ordnance on ground level on my left side.”
“Why is that?” Monica asked. He didn’t like her tone.
“Because I’m right-handed. I’ll be able to pick off the targets on the right hand side easily while keeping my left eye on anybody coming out from the left side. Switching from side to side is going to get the insertion crew dead.”
“I’ll stick around outside,” Ivy offered.
“And,” Scope added. Monica’s brow creased. “She’ll need to be able to move in case they have any sort of explosive elements. I’d recommend rigging her to the vehicle so she can have full fire access, but still be ready to drive at any moment.”
“Any more bright ideas, Mr. Tactics?” Monica shot at him.
“Just one, Ms. Bitter. Make that two. First, you should test out their response time so you know what sort of window you’re talking. Second, get ready to work with me instead of against me. I don’t want to endanger anybody I don’t have to.”
“Fuck off, Scope,” she said, and got up to walk away.
“Damn,” Dennis and Eddie said in near unison.
Five Days Before Graduation
Mines started going off before Monica and the two boys were within thirty feet of the front entrance. Scope came over the com and started blasting the corner of the building, hoping to keep them from coming around altogether. He liked this assault cannon for it’s punch power and explosive capabilities, but he was happier with a rifle in his hand.
“Your window just shrank to zero,” he shouted. “Get that fucking thing quick! Ivy, try to keep them inside that door.”
“On it,” he heard. Dennis came on next, almost a minute later.
“I’m hooking up,” he said. A few seconds later he said. “Okay, I’m having a little trouble getting through their security guy, hold on.” Another few seconds passed. “Okay, I’ve got it. I’ve got control.”
“We’re moving on,” Monica said. “Get those doors locked, and switch the gyro mounted guns off.”
“Affirmative boss.”
“What’ve we got Scope?” she asked.
“They’re holding back, but they don’t want to. I’m going to lay off and see if they take bait, then pound them if they do.”
“Negative, Scope, you bomb the shit out of them,” she said. Over her shoulder, he heard Eddie’s voice telling her to turn left. “Keep them away from those front doors.”
“You’re the boss,” Scope said.
“Damn right I am.”
“You have three bogeys heading into your vicinity, hold your position,” Dennis said. “I’m gunning them now.” Another pause. “Okay, move.”
“That is cool,” Eddie’s voice hit them. Monica reminded them to stay on task.
And so Scope went, blasting the security guards back behind the corner of the building, wasting precious ammunition as he did so.
“Ivy?”
“Yeah boss?”
“Status.”
“We’re cool boss. You?”
“We’re in the lab now. Searching for the mark. Yes! I have it. We’re coming back to front doors.”
“Hurry,” Scope said. “I’m almost out of ammo.”
Three minutes passed.
They burst out of the doors without warning him. He was just switching up the huge clip for the assault cannon when they emerged at a full sprint. Monica was shouting at them over the com when Scope rammed the clip home and pulled up a second too late.
Six men surged around the corner and opened fire. Eddie peeled off to the right, which was stupid, because it put him right in the line of fire of those coming out of Ivy’s side of the building. He went down before anybody could shout him a warning.
“Goddamnit Scope!” He blasted one man clear off his feet and into another, but by now the other eight were rounding the corner and taking up their positions. Another man lost half his leg while Dennis and Monica ran full tilt. He took off an arm with the next shot, and a head with another shot, but it was too late.
Dennis seemed to dive face first into the pavement, rolling and screaming.
“Come on,” Scope whispered. He fired another shot and missed. Monica went down.
When he pulled up the rifle, there was no one to shoot. Sirens wailed in the distance. Monica moaned into the com.
“Scope,” she cried. Ivy’s voice came over too, but he lost it. “Scope they, I think they shot me in the back.”
“You’re going to be all right, Monica,” he told her, tears already starting to brim in his eyes. “You’re going to be fine.”
“I can’t move my legs,” she said. “I never told you, I never got a chance to say-“
“Don’t,” he said. “You’re going to be fine, you listen to me, goddamnit.”
“I wanted to tell you I still-"
Scope couldn’t even tell her he loved her, the tears were stopping up his throat and nothing was going right and it never would. The goddamned school, nothing ever went like it should there.
“Monica,” he sobbed.
Some Time After the Academy
“I told yo
u I don’t have it,” Veritek sobbed. “I would give it to you, please, I’d give you anything, if I had it to give to you, you have to believe me.”
Scope looked down into his trunk and reached up to itch his scalp where his port was. He needed another dose.
“Please just let me go.”
Scope put his fingers through his hair. “No, no, there’s no way I can do that.”
“Please, I’ll talk to my people, whatever you want me to say I’ll say, just leave me alone. I know what you want.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Money, you always want money, is that right?” Scope had no idea what he wanted, to be truthful. “If you want it, I can get it, you’ll just have to wait and be patient.”
“I have the money I need,” Scope said. Veritek had the key code access to warehouses full of his TZP though. He had the scratch to deal with the itch in Scope’s head, to chase Clements away for another night. Only apparently he didn’t. Scope brought the silenced pistol up to Veritek’s face and pulled the trigger.