There is no sex, implied or otherwise, involving any characters under the age of eighteen in this story.

While this story exists outside of the Brandt family series (His Daddy's Car, Change, Searching, and Elements), reading those stories first will help you navigate, comprehend, and fully understand much of what transpires in this one.

Chapter One

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

"We need to talk..."

Four words that seldom bespoke of anything positive likely to come from the pending conversation. The four words being spoken by the pretty redhead were a surprise. Avery had been partnered with her when they had arrived at the youth center as volunteer tutors for under-performing middle school students, but she had studiously ignored him. What did she have to talk to him about? They didn't even know each other.

Avery tried to smile as innocently as he could as he glanced over at her; she had been introduced as Anna. He said, "Sure. Do you want to chat here, or did you have someplace else in mind?"

It was a perfect early autumn afternoon in the mid-country of South Carolina. The temperature was in the mid-seventies and the humidity was low. The few puffy clouds in the sky posed no threat but offered a contrast to the brilliant blue background.

Anna maintained a neutral expression on her face when she said, "Here is fine."

"Do you want to at least sit down?" Avery asked, sliding over to make more room on the planter ledge where he had been sitting when Anna had approached him.

She didn't reply, but took a seat next to him, setting her overstuffed backpack on the ground at her feet.

"You are the Avery English who attends North High School, right?" she asked.

"As far as I know, I'm the only Avery English that attends any high school in this town."

Their hometown had a population of just under two hundred thousand people. There were five high schools around the city, serving a diverse social and economic citizenry. The original Central High School in downtown had become the district's continuation high school, or the dumping ground for students anywhere in the city who were either a disciplinary problem or required special education of some sort. South and East high schools attracted students from those respective areas of town, both of which were close to the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. Definitely on the wrong side of the tracks. West High School was firmly middle to upper-middle class, while North High School was attended by those wealthy kids whose parents felt should have a public education even though they could afford the best private schools.

'You don't remember me, do you?" Anna asked.

Avery stared at her for a few seconds, and said, "No, I'm sorry but I don't."

The fact was, Avery did his best not to notice any girls. They had proven to be a distraction as soon as he showed any interest in them. He was exclusively focused on his studies, his community service activities, and his martial arts training. He liked girls, and Anna had the looks of someone that he would really like, with her long red hair, slender yet shapely figure, clear, bright green eyes, and lips that reminded Avery of blossoming flowers.

"We've competed against each other twice in the district debate tournaments," Anna informed him.

Avery glanced at her again and asked, "Did you used to have braces and wear glasses?"

Anna blushed and said, "Yes. I forgot that we hadn't seen each other since I got my braces off and had Lasik done on my eyes."

"Okay," Avery said, "Now I remember you. You go to West, don't you?"

Anna nodded and said, "Yes, I am a Junior there, just like you are at North. That means that both of us are going to need to start studying to take the SATs this year. I plan to take the test in November"

"I'm already scheduled for the test in November too," Avery said. "What about it?"

Anna glanced at Avery's eyes, and then up at the sky for a second. She realized that they were the exact same shade of blue. "I paid attention when you were explaining the laws of algebra to that Nicholas kid. You have a way of explaining mathematic principles that make them easy for someone to understand. I've always gotten A's in all of my math classes, but it has never been easy for me. Listening to you explain things to Nicholas suddenly made everything I learned in my algebra classes meaningful to me."

Avery nodded and said, "I guess I see the logic in math that a lot of people miss."

"Well," Anna said, "The math portion of the SATs is one-third of the score. If you help me study for the math portion of the test, I'll help you study for the optional essay portion. No college worth anything will accept your SAT scores if they don't include the essay portion."

Avery studied Anna for a few seconds. He knew that she must be competitive based upon her being part of her school's debate team, but was she a competitor of his? They went to different schools, so she couldn't possibly challenge him there, but was there some other way that she could?

"What makes you think I need help studying for the essay portion of the SATs?" Avery asked.

She smiled and said, "Because I always cleaned your clock at the debate tournaments. Your research was phenomenal, but your organization of the facts doomed you every time."

Yep, she was definitely competitive. Laughing, Avery said, "Actually, it was the organizational skills of my debate partner that doomed us. You just had the good fortune of being matched up against him every time we debated. I, on the other hand, destroyed your partner if you remember correctly. You scored enough points off my partner each time to barely overcome the points I scored against yours. I'm pretty confident in my essay skills, thank you."

Anna silently studied Avery for a moment. She realized that he was right about their debate partners. She knew from the way that she had seen him handle himself in the debates that he was confident in his abilities. She also knew from the way her aunt, who taught Health classes at North High School, raved about Avery English, that he was likely her academic equal in most subjects. She had also heard rumors that Avery English had little interest in girls. That fact alone would make him the ideal study partner for her.

Avery watched her watching him, and said, "I've been through several SAT test preparation exercises, so if I can share some of what I've learned with you, I wouldn't mind. Where and when would you want to get together?"

Anna considered the question and said, "We only have forty minutes left here after this break. We could study at my house, or yours. You're doing me the favor, so I'll let you decide."

Avery asked, "Will anyone else be home at your house?"

"Yes, my mom will be there. Why?"

"Because no one will be home at my house and we would be there alone. I don't think it would be a good idea for people to think that we were alone and unsupervised. That's how rumors get started and reputations ruined. Let me text my mom to let her know that I won't be home for a couple of hours and then we can go to your house."

"Okay," Anna agreed. "I'll drive you over when the tutoring session ends."

"I have my own car. I'll just follow you," Avery said.

Forty minutes later, Avery and Anna walked out to the parking lot together. They each pointed out their respective cars, got in them, and headed away from the youth center with Avery close on Anna's tail. Traffic wasn't heavy, but he didn't want to risk losing her along the way.

He needn't have worried, because Anna was just as focused on not losing him, so she maintained a constant speed and used her turn signals well in advance so that Avery always had a chance to match her moves. When Anna pulled into the driveway of a beautiful Tutor-style house and waited for the automatic garage door on one of the three bays to open fully, Avery pulled along the curb in front.

Anna was yelling something to him, so he turned down his radio to enable him to hear her.

She was yelling, "You can't park on the street. Pull in the driveway behind my car."

Avery put his car in gear and waited for Anna to pull hers into the garage before parking on the driveway in the space just outside the bay where hers was parked. She came out of the garage to meet him as he exited and locked his car.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I should have told you before we headed out that street parking is banned in this neighborhood."

Giving her a sincere smile, he said, "It's no problem. I'm just glad that you remembered before I got a ticket, or worse, towed."

Anna laughed and said, "My mom would kill me if I ever let an invited guest's car get cited or towed for being parked in front of our house. Come on, follow me."

Avery followed Anna through a breezeway that connected the garage to the house. They walked through a spacious mudroom into the kitchen.

"Would you like something to drink?" Anna asked.

"No, I'm good," Avery said. "Are we going to use the kitchen table to study?"

Without waiting for an answer, he headed towards the table, which was in the breakfast nook, and set his backpack on a chair.

"I thought we could study in my room," Anna said. "It will be more private and a lot quieter once my mom starts preparing dinner in the kitchen."

Avery took his backpack off the chair, set it on the floor, and then took a seat. He had a serious expression on his face when he said, "I would prefer to do it someplace where people could see us. If you think it will get too noisy here, we could go to the library."

"Hi, Ace." A woman's voice said.

Avery turned to see an older version of Anna coming into the kitchen. He said, "Hi, you must be Anna's mom..."

This was verified as Anna said, "Hi, Mom. This is Avery English. He's going to help me study for the SATs."

As the woman came over to the table, Avery stood to shake her hand and said, "I'm pleased to meet you, Mrs. Edwards. How did you know my nickname is 'Ace'?"

A shocked look came across Anna's face as she said, "She didn't. Ace is her nickname for me. My initials are A-C-E."

Mrs. Edwards laughed and asked, "What's your middle name, Avery?"

"It's Chance, ma'am. It was the name of an uncle who died in the first Gulf War. Kids tease me about it 'Avery' chance they get. That's why my folks and all my friends started calling me Ace."

Mrs. Edwards had a sympathetic expression as she looked over at her daughter. She turned back to Avery and said, "Anna can relate I'm afraid. We didn't consider the consequences for her when we used mine and my husband's mother's names for her. Her middle name is Carina, and though it is spelled differently, kids still associate her name with the famous Tolstoy novel, so we started calling her Ace too."

She brightened and said, "So, it looks like we've got ourselves a pair of Aces. Did you offer Ace something to drink, Ace?"

Avery and Anna laughed. Anna said, "That can get confusing really quick. If we promise not to tease each other, I think we should use our given names when we're together. Are you okay with that, Avery?"

"Sure."

"Good, and yes, Mom, I offered Avery something to drink earlier."

Mrs. Edwards nodded and said, "Okay. I'm going to start dinner. Avery, would you like to stay and join us for dinner?"

There was no way that Lynda Edwards would bring up the fact that Avery was the first boy that her daughter had ever brought to their home while that very boy was standing in her kitchen. Or, that she was thrilled that it had finally happened. Anna had always been so focused on her studies and other activities aimed at getting her into the college of her choice that her interest in boys had taken not just a "backseat" in her life, but her interest essentially rode in the trunk, locked safely away from her thoughts.

"I would have to text my mom to see if it was okay," Avery said.

Lynda glanced at Anna, expecting to see a hopeful look, but the expression she saw was completely neutral. She said to Avery, "Well, if you would like to stay, please get your parent's permission. We are going to be having homemade tacos, and we would love to have you join us."

"I'll text my mom right now," Avery said. He loved homemade tacos.

"Good," Lynda replied. She then asked, "Anna, why don't you take Avery up to your room to study. It will be much quieter there while I am working in the kitchen."

Anna looked at Avery before answering her mom, "I suggested that, but Avery doesn't want to be alone with me..."

"It's not you, Anna," Avery interrupted. "I don't want to be alone with any girl."

He turned to Anna's mother and tried to explain, "My family is known in this town to be quite well off, financially. My parents have drilled into me that our family wealth makes me a target for people who might try to place me into a compromising situation in order to profit from it. It's not that I don't trust you and Anna, but I just met you both..."

Lynda nodded, glanced at Anna, and then said, "Why don't you use the dining room table instead? I'll be able to check on you both but it will be somewhat quieter for you to study. Anna, you probably should tell Avery about your Grandpa Edwards."

Smiling at Avery and pointing, Lynda said, "The dining room is just through that door. If you leave the door open, I will be able to hear everything that goes on, and promise to protect yours and my daughter's virtue."

Avery saw Anna blush and suppressed a laugh. He picked up his backpack and followed Anna through the door, into the dining room.

After both got settled at the table, Anna said, "We've wasted a lot of study time today. How about we spend the time before dinner getting to know each other better? That might prevent uncomfortable situations like we've experienced just a few minutes ago."

Avery checked the incoming text reply from his mom, and then smiled and said, "Sure, Ace. That sounds like a good idea."

"First," Anna said, "I'm going to trust you with a secret that's never been shared with anyone outside my family. By doing so, I hope that it helps you trust me enough to know that I would never do anything such as your parents have warned you about. There are other reasons too, but this is the main one."

"If it's a family secret, won't your parents get mad if you tell it to me?"

Shaking her head, Anna said, "No, my mom told me to tell you. It has to do with my Grandpa Edwards. You see, my grandfather on my father's side died very wealthy. My parents inherited the bulk of his fortune, but the remainder of it was left to me in a trust fund that I get when I turn eighteen. The trust fund is currently valued at a little over seven million dollars. So, you see, neither me nor my family would ever be a risk for placing you in a compromising position for profit."

"It would certainly take money out of the equation as far as motivation goes," Avery agreed.

"Are there other motivations?"

Avery shrugged. He didn't want to sound narcissistic but he knew that most girls found him attractive for reasons other than his family's wealth. He was one of the most popular guys at North High School and would likely be able to date any girl there if he chose to.

Even if financial motivations were discounted, there was still the chance that some girl might try to get him to impregnate her just so he would be forced to marry her. That would put an end to his college and career aspirations. Nope, he wasn't going to take the chance.

He just said, "I don't want to complicate my life right now with relationships."

Anna smiled and said, "I have heard rumors in that regard about you, which is one of the major reasons I thought that we would make good study partners. I don't want the complications that come with relationships right now either. Do you think I'm pretty?"

"Of course. You're more than pretty, you're gorgeous."

Anna blushed and said, "And I think that you're attractive too. I'm pretty sure that I know the answer, but I want to be sure. You do like girls, right? You're just avoiding a relationship with one right now."

"If that is a polite way of asking if I am gay, then the answer is no. I like girls. What about you?"

"I'm not into girls," Anna teased. "I like boys, or at least I will like boys when I have the time for one of them."

"It does sound like we would be safe with each other," Avery agreed. "We might be able to help each other out in other ways besides studying."

"Such as?"

"Someone nominated me to be the Homecoming King. If I win, I'll need someone to attend the Homecoming dance with me. Asking one of the girls at North would complicate things for me. My dad has offered to hire a paid escort for me, but showing up with a grown woman to a high school dance would raise too many questions."

"But you're only a Junior. Are you eligible to be Homecoming King? I thought that was reserved for Seniors."

"Whoever gets the most votes, regardless of class becomes the Homecoming King. The same applies to the Queen. The Princesses are specific to each class though."

Anna considered what Avery was implying. He wanted her to be his date to North High School's Homecoming dance. "What if you don't win? Will you still have to go to the dance?"

"No. The winners are announced on Tuesday, October 21st the week of the Homecoming game. They get crowned at the game on Friday evening. The dance is the following Saturday, October 25th."

"If you learn that you won on Tuesday that would leave me only three days to find a dress to wear on Saturday."

Lynda had been trying to eavesdrop on the conversation between Avery and Anna but had missed most of it while standing at the stove cooking. Now that she had moved to a counter closer to the open door to chop tomatoes, she clearly heard the discussion about the dance. While she had been at the stove, her discussions with her sister about a boy at North High School were recalled in her mind and she realized that boy was the Avery sitting in her dining room. Lynda acknowledged that the boy that her sister had mentioned would be a perfect match for Anna because their ambition and drive were almost identical.

Lynda wondered if Avery had stopped growing yet. He appeared to be about six-foot-one, with an athletic physique, light-brown wavy hair that he wore surprisingly short, sparkling sky-blue eyes, and a captivating smile. This boy was mouthwateringly cute and Lynda hoped that Anna appreciated his looks as much as she did.

She stuck her head around the edge of the doorway and said, "Anna, you're pretty much done growing, so a size six should fit you for years. We'll go shopping for a dress on Saturday. If Avery doesn't have to go to the dance, then you can save the dress for some future event. There are going to be a lot more opportunities for you to wear a formal dress over the next couple of years."

Anna nodded at her mom while looking at Avery. Since the dance was going to be held at a different high school than hers, complications similar to what Avery was trying to avoid would also be minimized for her. She had never been to a school dance before, and the idea of going to one and being safe from any expectations from her partner was attractive to her.

"Here's my offer," she finally said. "You and I study for the SAT every Tuesday and Thursday before the dance. If you win, I will go to the dance with you as your partner under the following conditions: First, this is not a date. Second, you will dance with only me. And third, you will not allow anyone else to dance with me. I know that you will have friends that you'll want to hang out with, but I won't know anyone there but you. I expect you to respect that and not allow me to be ignored."

Avery nodded and said, "I accept your offer with these modifications: First, studying for the SAT is not conditional on you accompanying me to the dance. We already have an existing verbal agreement on me helping you study for the math portion of the SAT. Second, call it what you want, but if we attend the dance together, I will buy you a corsage, take you to dinner beforehand, and hold your hand when we walk or stand together. Third, as King, I will be expected to have one dance with whoever is elected Queen. Other than that, I will be exclusively yours and you will be exclusively mine for the rest of the night. Do you accept the modifications as described?"

"It sounds like quite the negotiation is going on in here," a man said.

Anna turned and smiled up at the man, "Hi, Daddy. This is Avery English. We're going to be studying for the SAT together over the next few weeks."

Avery stood and extended his hand, "I'm pleased to meet you, Mr. Edwards."

"I'm pleased to meet you, Avery. Any relation to a Chuck English?"

"Yes sir, Charles English is my father. Do you know him?"

"My law firm represents his company, Saturn Systems. I know your father very well."

Avery had a skeptical look on his face. He said, "My dad's company has an in-house legal team..."

"Of course, they do," Mr. Edwards said. "My firm handles all the intellectual property, patent, and related legal matters so that the in-house lawyers can focus on more mundane matters, such as contracts and corporate policies."

He turned to Anna and asked, "So, Ace, what are you and Mr. English negotiating?"

Anna giggled and said, "You shouldn't call me Ace when Avery is here, because his middle initial is a 'C' also and his nickname is also Ace."

Her father laughed and said, "That would make things confusing. So, Anna, what are you and Avery negotiating?"

"Avery has agreed to help me study for the math portion of the SAT and I have just agreed to his modifications to my offer to accompany him to North High School's Homecoming dance if he gets voted the Homecoming King."

Her father nodded, "That sounds like a win-win for all concerned parties. I better go check in with your mother. Are you joining us for Taco Tuesday, Avery?"

"Yes sir. Mrs. Edwards invited me and my mom said it was okay."

"Excellent. Is that your sporty little convertible on the driveway?"

Avery chuckled and said, "Yes sir, but it looks a lot sportier than it is. I wanted a Mustang, but my parents didn't want me to have too much power and they also wanted me to drive a car with only two seats so that I wouldn't be tempted to drive a bunch of classmates around in it. A Pontiac Solstice only has four cylinders so it gets good gas mileage, which I appreciate."

"It beats my hand-me-down Honda Accord," pouted Anna.

As he headed to the kitchen, Peter Edwards said over his shoulder, "At least your Honda has a backseat. I remember that being an important feature for a car when I was in high school."

Anna blushed brighter than Avery had witnessed so far, but he tried to hide that he had noticed. Sitting back down, he asked, "Where do you plan to go to college, and do you know what SAT score you'll need for consideration there?"

"The College of Charleston itself isn't too hard to get into," Anna said, "but I hope to be accepted into the honors program with a major in pre-law. I'm shooting for an SAT score in the ninety-fifth percentile or higher."

"Oh, you're planning to stay in-state too for college. I hope to get accepted at The Citadel. We may both end up in Charleston"

"Then we will be close enough that we can continue being study partners the rest of the way through high school and through at least our first four years of college. Are you planning on joining the Cadet Corps?"

Avery nodded and said, "That is my plan, but you haven't studied with me yet. How do you know that we'll be compatible or anything?"

Anna smiled and said, "We're too much alike not to be compatible. I also think that we will drive each other to be better. I will support your goals and ambitions if you support mine."

"And your goal is to become an attorney?" Avery asked. "Do you want to do patent law like your dad?"

"I want to be a prosecuting attorney. I want to help put the bad guys behind bars. I haven't decided yet if I want to stay local or look into a career with the Department of Justice. What about you?"

"It sounds like we have similar goals. My plans right now are to go through four years in the Cadet Corps and then enter the Army as a second lieutenant. I want to focus on cybersecurity before I eventually join Saturn Systems."

Lynda Edwards had been eavesdropping again. She said with a smile, "Our pair of Aces; fighting crime, kicking butt, and taking names. Come and eat dinner so you each have the energy required."

Anna's parents made a point to involve Avery in the dinner conversation. While she knew that they were simply trying to be polite hosts, Anna wished that they wouldn't ask Avery so many questions. She was afraid that they might make him reluctant to want to come over to her house again to study with her. She did like learning more about him though.

"Do you play any sports over there at North High School?" Mr. Edwards asked. "You look like you work out."

Avery shook his head, "No, sir. I have been taking Aikido lessons for the past eight years. The physical regimen that my Shihan puts us through is pretty demanding."

"Do you ever compete in any tournaments?" Anna asked. "I would love to come to watch you."

"No, I don't compete in tournaments. I started Aikido for the mental and physical discipline it teaches. I've achieved my goal of becoming a sixth dan and Shihan. I will start training in Krav Maga after the New Year. I hope to be instructor certified in that by the time I leave for college."

Mr. Edwards was staring at Avery in amazement, "How are you going to get trained in Krav Maga? I didn't think they allowed civilians to learn it?"

Anna glanced between Avery and her father, but it was her mother who asked the question, "What is a Krav Maga?"

Her husband answered, "Krav Maga is a style of martial art developed for the Israeli Defense Forces. Several other Special Forces around the world have adopted it as well. I don't know much about it beyond that."

All the Edwards looked to Avery at the same time. He smiled and said, "There aren't many places where a civilian can get Krav Maga training, but the owner of my dojo is a former Navy SEAL, and he has agreed to teach me."

"But what is it and why do you want to get trained in it?" Lynda asked.

"Krav Maga," Avery explained, "is a military self-defense and fighting system derived from a combination of techniques sourced from aikido, boxing, wrestling, judo, and karate. It promotes finishing a fight as quickly and aggressively as possible. Attacks are aimed at the most vulnerable parts of the body. If I am certified to teach it by the time I go to college, and I get accepted at The Citadel, I will be able to introduce it to any cadets interested in learning. That might give me an advantage when I become eligible to be appointed Regimental Commander."

"What made The Citadel your choice for college?" asked Peter.

"My family has a tradition of serving our country and our local community," Avery explained. "The men in my family have all served in the military until my dad. His asthma disqualified him from attending West Point so his brother, the uncle that I get my middle name from, went instead. My dad decided to work for technological advances to assist the military instead of serving. My mom is a city councilwoman and is considering running for the state assembly if Boyd Stewart retires."

"I believe that cybersecurity is going to play a major role in America's defense strategy over the next few decades, and I want to be a part of that. I have a Congressional appointment to West Point if I want to go there, but I would prefer to stay closer to home for as long as I can. After graduating from The Citadel, I plan on joining the Army. The Army has developed one of the top cybersecurity training facilities at Fort Huachua in Arizona. I hope to get assigned there for my post-graduate education. After my commitment to the Army is over, I expect that there will be a position waiting for me at Saturn Systems."

"It sounds like you've got your future mapped out almost as thoroughly as Anna," said Lynda. "It looks like you two will really benefit from studying together. How often do you kids plan to get together?"

Anna said, "Avery and I both volunteered for the same tutoring program, and we got partnered in that today. We were thinking of getting together each Tuesday and Thursday afternoon when the tutoring sessions are over, at least until we take the SAT in November."

She looked at Avery and said, "After that, I guess we'll get together as needed. What do you think?"

Before Avery could answer, Peter asked, "Do you have a part-time job, Avery? Anna should consider that when setting up a schedule for you both."

"No, sir. My parents feel that I should focus on my education so they provide me a good allowance for the chores that I do around our house. The last few summers, I have worked as a lifeguard at the country club's pool, but that's it."

~~~

Saturday, October 25, 2008

There was no denying it.

Anna saw the reflection of her and Avery in the mirrored wall as they entered the restaurant. They made a very striking couple, with him in his tuxedo and her in the emerald green dress that molded perfectly to her upper body before flaring out at her waist. Her hair was piled stylishly on top of her head, exposing the flawless skin on her neck and shoulders. Her hair color appeared darker when styled up on her head, more of a cinnamon shade than the lighter ginger shade of red hair people normally saw.

She had giggled when Avery had literally gasped at the sight of her entering the living room of her house where he had been waiting with her parents as she finished getting ready. Anna thought that she would be annoyed at her mother's insistence on taking a picture of her and Avery before they left, but she was secretly thrilled that the memory would be captured for her to revisit.

As Avery pulled her chair out for her, there was also no denying the fact that she was proud of him and proud to be seen with him. Anna didn't know which other boys at North High School were nominated to be Homecoming King, but she could not imagine any of them being as handsome or as much of a regal gentleman as Avery was.

She made her decision, "Ace, now that I see how nicely you clean up, as long as you don't step on my toes too many times tonight, I would like to ask you to accompany me to West High School's homecoming dance on November 8th. Are you free that night?"

"Wow, Ace, I would be honored. None of the other homecoming queen nominees stand a chance against you."

Anna laughed and said, "No, we will be but mere peasants at that dance. I just want another chance to play dress-up. There is the same side benefit for me being seen there with you that you will see tonight, and that is the rumor that you and I are a couple will dissuade members of the opposite sex from bothering each of us as much."

"So, you want to play that up?" Avery asked. "Let people believe that you and I are a couple?"

Anna nodded, "Anyone who doesn't respect that a person is already in a relationship isn't someone that either of us would be interested in. Right?"

The waiter appeared and handed Avery a wine list, "Good evening. Would you like something to drink?"

Avery handed the wine list back and said, "We're both underage. I'll just have sparkling water. Ace?"

Anna smiled and said, "I'll have the same, with a lemon wedge if possible."

"Absolutely," the waiter said, although his face showed disappointment that the attractive couple seated in his section would not be drinking wine. The loss of the alcohol charge on the final bill would probably lower his tip amount, that is if these novice diners even knew that a gratuity was expected.

"Back to our conversation," Avery said. "Being seen together at both of our schools might convince people that we were in a relationship, but that could have adverse effects at some point as well."

"How so?"

"Would you want people to believe that we were exclusive? That could make either of us being seen outside of school with a member of the opposite sex fodder for rumors that you might not like."

"But," Anna said, "If people don't think that we were exclusive, we wouldn't be a relationship deterrent for each other. I don't date and you said that you don't either, so the risk of us being seen with someone else outside of school really shouldn't be an issue."

The waiter delivered their drinks and patiently waited for them to select their choices from the menu before departing once again.

"Plus," Anna continued with a bright smile, "If I ever do decide to date someone else, you will be the benchmark that they will at least have to match. Trust me, there aren't many guys who look better than you and even fewer who treat a girl as nicely. Being with you is the first time that any boy has made me so glad that I am a girl."

Avery laughed and said, "Look who's talking. You're what every princess aspires to look like. You're amazingly beautiful and if you paid attention, you would realize that everyone in this restaurant feels the same way that I do. You make me proud and honored to be seen in your presence."

Anna beamed at him and said, "I am proud to be only yours, and I don't mean only when we are out in public. These past few weeks have shown me that I can trust someone outside of my family. I almost want to fail the SATs so that you'll stick around to help me study to take them again."

"That sounds a little drastic," Avery said. "Why don't we wait and see how else we might be able to assist each other once we're through with the SATs?"

"Besides being an occasional safe escort for each other?" Anna teasingly asked. She could envision herself accepting several more invitations to parties and other events as long as she was confident that Avery would be there with her. "The holidays will be here shortly and we both may have an invitation or two that we could help each other with."

Avery was non-committal, "Let's see how these first two dance events go for us."

~~~

As Anna sat at their table, politely declining offers from boys to dance, she watched Avery dance the obligatory "King-Queen" dance with a busty blonde girl that Avery had said was a senior. She had smiled even brighter when the song selected for the lone couple to dance to was "Beautiful" by Taylor Dayne.

The "Queen" had practically been drooling as she had taken possession of Avery's arm to be escorted onto the dance floor, and she looked positively livid that the song selection wasn't something more conducive to her desire to be seen slow dancing with Avery.

As soon as the song ended, Avery walked the "Queen" back to her table and then hurried to rejoin Anna at their table. Rather than taking his seat, he put out a hand and asked Anna, "May I have this next dance, Ace?"

Other couples had already begun moving onto the dance floor and several turned to stare once more at the sight of Avery and Anna together. Anna was smiling up at Avery as they walked, and had to stifle a laugh of joy when the next song began to play. Their first dance together would be to one of her favorite songs, "Lucky", by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat.

It was a soft, slow, romantic song about being in love with your best friend. Anna had heard the song months before she and Avery had become study partners, but the lyrics had stayed with her, instilling her with the hope that someday she would be in love with her own best friend, whoever that might end up being. Moving into Avery's open arms to begin the dance, she couldn't find any reason why that person couldn't someday be him.

Chapter Two

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

"We need to talk..."

These four words were becoming Anna's trademark greeting whenever she and Avery met up. This was funny to Avery, because the two of them talked almost every day, either through e-mail or on the phone. Anna still only used her four-word greeting when they were face-to-face.

In this case, she and her parents had just arrived at his house where both families would be celebrating the eighteenth birthday of "The Pair of Aces" as both families called Anna and Avery. With their birthdays being two days apart, his on February 2nd and hers on February 4th, it had been decided that February 3rd was the best day to pick for the celebration of both birthdays.

"Okay, let me check with my mom on how long before we eat," Avery told Anna.

He walked into the large living room and approached his mother. Anna remained in the foyer awaiting the answer.

He waited until his mother wasn't involved in a conversation with one of the other adults before asking, "Mom, Anna and I wanted to talk over some school projects before dinner. How long will we have?"

Laura English smiled up at her son and said, "The caterers will be prepared to serve at six-thirty. We're going to be having drinks with Anna's parents until then, so you and Anna have about a half-hour before you'll need to be in the dining room."

"Got it, Mom. We'll be downstairs if you need us for anything before dinner."

The English house had a fully finished basement, which included two guest rooms, each with a private bath, a small kitchenette, and a large entertainment area, with game tables for poker and a variety of board games, a pool table, a ping pong table, and lots of seating for people to just congregate. Avery led Anna downstairs, although she knew the way from all of their study sessions held there over the past almost year and a half. She went directly to the refrigerator in the kitchenette and got them each their favorite sodas before finding a seat on one of the sectionals.

Avery accepted the soda can that Anna offered him and took a seat across from her. "What did you want to talk about?"

"First," Anna said, "Summarize for me how you think we are as study partners now that we've been doing it for almost a year and a half."

Avery considered her request and said, "I think we are as perfect as study partners as you thought we would be. We both smoked the SATs that we studied for together..."

"No, you smoked the SATs" Anna pouted. "I was left in your dust."

Avery laughed and said, "Come off it, your composite score of 2190 was in the ninety-eighth percentile for all the tests taken. I think most people would consider that 'smoking' the test."

"Says the guy whose composite score of 2220 placed him in the ninety-ninth percentile," Anna said. "Other than us doing well on the SATs, how else do you think we have worked together?"

"I think we complement each other pretty well," Avery continued. "We each have our strengths, and we selflessly strive to impart those strengths to the other. The end result is that we have made each other better, just like you said we would. I know that I view several subjects differently based on my exposure to how you approach the same subject. Those differences have been one-hundred percent positive. We both got accepted at our colleges of choice, didn't we? Why, do you have concerns about us continuing as study partners?"

"God, no!" Anna exclaimed. "I actually think we would both benefit from expanding our study partner relationship beyond our academic pursuits and into other subjects."

"What kind of subjects?"

Anna was blushing, and Avery could see that she was having difficulty finding the right words. He moved over to sit beside her and put his arm around her shoulder in a supportive gesture that both of them had employed in the past.

"We're a pair of Aces, remember? We're pretty hard to beat together."

Anna smiled at him and said, "Neither of us wanted the complication of relationships, and I think our friendship has honored that for both of us. We still have a relationship though, Ace. You are my best friend, and I know that I mean something to you as well."

"You're damn straight you do. You're my best friend too," Avery assured her. "I would do anything for you, Ace."

"Be careful what you commit to," Anna teased.

"I don't have to be careful with my commitments to you. I trust that you would never ask me to do anything that I would ever regret."

Anna nodded and leaned into Avery's shoulder, "I certainly hope that you won't regret what I want us to study together."

"And what is that?"

Anna took a deep breath and spit it out, "Sex. I want you and me to learn about sex together."

Avery started laughing, but when he saw the serious look on Anna's face, he forced it to cease. He asked, "You were serious?"

Anna merely nodded.

Before a shocked Avery could respond, Anna continued, "You turned eighteen yesterday, and I do so tomorrow. That means you and I are both adults who have never had sex with anyone. I have been curious for years, and I suspect that you have too, but our avoidance of relationships has left us with little or no opportunity to learn what it was all about."

"I think we could handle this like any other study project. Both of us research and share their findings with each other. We combine our accumulated knowledge into a final project that validates our findings and provides a conclusion that we can both be proud of."

"How do propose we research sex?" Avery asked. "And, are you talking about you and me researching together, or with different people?"

"You and me. No one else. We would research through the internet mostly," Anna told him. "We learn all we can between now and February fourteenth and validate our research on that day. Valentine's Day is on a Sunday this year and my parents will be gone for the weekend. We can finalize our studying at my house."

Avery shook his head in disbelief, "Ace, I don't have any experience with sex as you have mentioned, but I do know that it is not something that we are going to learn all about from research on the internet and a day of 'validation' at your house."

"No, of course not. Valentine's Day will just be our validation of what we have learned between now and then. I envision this being an ongoing study project, lasting at least until we both head off for college this summer. Who knows, we will probably have occasional opportunities to continue our studies while in Charleston together."

"Ace, you know that I feel safe with you and trust you with my life. There is no one that I would have as much confidence in studying this subject with as you. I also know that my need to remain focused on my studies and avoid relationships will limit my options to study the subject with anyone else, even if I wanted to. Please give my idea some consideration and I think you'll agree that it is the best course of action for us."

Avery said, "Ace, have you considered what might happen if the intimacies that we would begin sharing changed our feelings for each other? What if I wasn't able to satisfy you or meet the expectations that your research provided you? I think we would be taking a big risk here."

Anna took his hand into hers and said, "Ace, I'm going to say three words and I want you to give me a chance to explain them before you say anything. Okay?"

Avery studied her serious expression and agreed, "Okay."

"I love you. There, you know that I have fully accepted your role in my life. I am not claiming to be in love with you, but I know that I love you. Who you are, what you mean to my daily life, what we have become as friends. Ace, you never have to fear losing my love for you. If you can say the same thing to me, then what is there to be worried about?"

Avery squeezed her hand in his and said, "Ace, I would die if I lost you due to something that I said or did to disappoint you. That being said, I would like to offer a counter-proposal for your consideration."

"What is that?"

"Let's not rush into things," he suggested. "I've heard guys at school describing sex with girls as being similar to a baseball game. For example, getting to 'first base' is usually associated with the guy and girl French kissing..."

Anna began to understand and said, "I think I know where you're going with this. My proposal had us going from start to finish our first time on a single day. You're proposing that we learn and validate the preliminary steps before having actual sex. How long do you expect the project to last before the final validation?"

"I think that will depend on when each of us feels confident enough in our grasp of the subject matter to agree to move on. You may master kissing while I struggle with it..."

Anna laughed and said, "There is no way that you, Ace, will be a remedial kisser."

"You can't be sure of that," Avery said. "It's a subject that I have barely studied."

"Me too, but that is one of the things that I know we will be great at together. I'll show you."

With that, she swung around and straddled his lap, facing him. Before Avery could object, Anna leaned in and placed her lips on his. Her hands were on his shoulders and she felt him initially tense, but his hands instinctively went to her waist. They explored the feeling of their lips on each other, but couldn't ignore the feelings that were affecting other parts of their bodies at the same time.

Avery really enjoyed the feel of Anna's lips on his and couldn't resist the urge to taste them for the first time. He threaded his tongue between his barely parted mouth and touched the tip to Anna's closed lips. He would have been satisfied simply to taste her cherry-flavored lip gloss, but at the touch of his tongue, Anna reflexively parted her lips and met his tongue with her own, adding the taste of ginger ale to the mix. The kiss was careful, gentle, and the initial meeting of their tongues was tentative, but Avery quickly became intoxicated with the kiss.

He had made out a few times the previous summer with one of the girl lifeguards at the country club pool, but those kisses paled in comparison to what he was experiencing now with Anna. Kissing her told him that every other kiss which had come before this had been wrong.

Anna had even less experience kissing. Her only times were the few instances at the summer camp where she had worked as a counselor. Three times over the summer the group of counselors would get together for a game of "Truth or Dare" and her dare would typically be to kiss one of the boys. Those times had been like her lips pushing against the boy's and his pushing back at hers. Now, being kissed by Avery, she felt as if she had been given a wrapped present, something infinitely precious.

The feeling of Avery's body beneath her was foreign but extraordinary, and a heat emanated from within her as a moan escaped into Avery's mouth. Anna reveled in being kissed by Avery but realized that she wanted more. She wanted to kiss him too. Her hands moved from his shoulders to his hair, pulling his mouth hungrily against hers. Soon, her tongue was competing more passionately with his, each seeking the taste of the other.

Avery placed his arms around Anna and pulled their upper bodies together. This caused Anna to slide further up on his lap where the radiant heat between her legs met the firmness growing between his. Their combined moans caused tickling vibrations on their lips, which served to alert them to a need for restraint.

As their parted lips separated, both started to feel breathless in a new and fascinating way. They sat, staring into each other's eyes. Words escaped them both as they tried to run an emotional inventory of what they had just experienced. Anna's hands remained in Avery's hair, gently caressing it, while he continued to hold her body against his. They couldn't tell which racing heartbeat belonged to who.

"Do you think we need to do more research on kissing?" Anna teased.

Avery smiled and said, "Since a baseball player can't get to second base without reaching first, I don't really see where we have a choice. Do you?"

Anna pulled back and sat beside Avery on the sofa. She said, "About second base and the rest of this baseball metaphor that you brought up, traditionally, it is the guy going around the bases, isn't it? The girl is a passive participant."

"You weren't passive on first base," Avery remarked. "I wouldn't expect you to be passive on any of the other 'bases'. However, we still have some details to work out before I'll feel comfortable with us going further."

"Which details are those?"

"Let's start with protection. Do you want me to start buying condoms, or did you have some other form of birth control in mind?"

Anna took Avery's concern about birth control as a sign that he had accepted that they would eventually have sex together, but he wasn't committing to a timeframe yet. She was okay with that. She picked up his arm closest to her and settled under it so that it was resting across her shoulders.

"I have been on birth control pills for four years to help regulate my menstrual cycle. You can get condoms if you don't trust the ninety-nine percent effectiveness of the pill, but I think we can risk it without them."

Avery nodded and said, "I'll give it some consideration."

He was silent for several seconds before saying, "What were your thoughts on how often we should perform our 'research' and where we could do it?"

Anna leaned into him more and said, "After what I view as successful research on kissing, I'm anxious to move on with more, but I believe it is something that we need to both be ready to do. So, scheduling should be mutually agreed to. As far as where, we have your bedroom on most days during the weeks when your mom is in Columbia, and we'll have my bedroom on the days when my mom is visiting my grandma, usually the Tuesdays and Thursdays that we have already been getting together on. Heck, I get access to my trust fund tomorrow, so I could even buy us a 'love shack' someplace convenient for both of us," she teased. "Did you have another location in mind?"

They heard Avery's mother calling them to come upstairs for dinner. Avery stood and held out a hand to help Anna rise. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him again, resisting her desire to quickly escalate the kiss to the point where they had left off the last one.

Breaking the kiss, she said, "Let's try to talk some more before my parents and I go home tonight,"

Avery began leading her towards the stairs. He said, "We need to keep all of our discussions about this research project verbal. No texts or e-mails. Agreed?"

As he took the first step on the stairs in front of her, Anna grabbed one of his butt cheeks and squeezed. "We need to communicate with body language too, Ace."

~~~

The joy, excitement, and appreciation that Avery had been displaying upstairs had vanished by the time that Anna sat next to him again on the sofa in the basement.

"Are you sure that you didn't know about this?" Avery asked her.

Anna pulled her feet under her so she could turn to more fully face Avery sitting next to her and said, "I had no idea. I've never even discussed a desire to visit Europe, with my parents or anyone else. What about you?"

Avery was shaking his head as he said, "No. I mean giving each of us a one-month fully paid trip to Europe as our birthday presents is generous, but..."

"I know," said Anna, "and they expect us to go together, which is great as far as I'm concerned because there is no one else that I would want to share the experience with, but what gave them the idea?"

"Do you think it's possible that our parents see us as more than just friends and study partners?" Avery asked. "Could they be trying to get us together as boyfriend and girlfriend, hoping that we'll click and eventually get married or something?"

Anna stared at her hands for a few seconds before saying, "I've tried to convince them that you and I are just good friends, but my parents fell in love with you the first night you had dinner with us. My mom hasn't started planning our wedding yet or anything, but she has made it clear that she hopes to do so one day."

Avery considered Anna's statement and said, "I guess my parents feel pretty much the same way about you. Whenever I come home from being with you, my mom checks to see if I am still wearing my class ring. I think that she feels that I should have given it to you by now."

Anna reached over and took both of Avery's hands into hers, "Ace, how would you and me being boyfriend and girlfriend affect the relationship we have currently? Think about it, especially in light of what we were discussing earlier. Would our relationship get more complicated? I don't know why it would."

"That's simple. Expectations would be different."

"What expectations?" Anna asked.

"For starters, the expectation that we would become the priority in each other's lives rather than our educational and career objectives. Would you sacrifice your life-long goals for me?"

"I know that you would never expect me to," Anna said. "And I would never expect you to do so for me. Let's look at what we know about our plans already. We're both going to be attending colleges in the same city, and while you're going to be much more restricted, especially during your first year as a cadet, we will still have lots of opportunities to grow our relationship. After four years, we may go our separate ways for a while, and the opportunities won't be as frequent, but they'll still exist."

"And what about after that? I'll be in the Army and could wind up being assigned anywhere in the world."

"Ace... Sweetie, I am rich. I can fly to be with you anywhere, anytime."

"Anytime that your own career would allow," Avery reminded her. "When you're just getting your feet under you in your chosen career, there may not be as many opportunities as you think to just jet away somewhere to be with your boyfriend."

"We'll see," Anna said. "We're talking years down the road. We should focus on right now. How would us becoming boyfriend and girlfriend alter our current relationship? I'll tell you how; it wouldn't. We would be together just as often, we would support each other just as much, we would still be the exclusive couple that everyone sees us as, and we could conduct much more meaningful research for our project. The intimacy aspect that you mentioned earlier would now have an important and valid role."

"Let me sleep on things and give them some more consideration," Avery said before leaning forward and kissing her gently on her lips.

Anna released his left hand and took his right into both of hers as she said, "Well, while you think it over, I'll just take this and start wrapping Angora yarn around it so that it won't fall off my finger."

Without pausing, she quickly slid his class ring off his finger, placed it onto her left ring finger, and made a fist to keep it securely in place. Avery was laughing at her actions, which surprised her. She thought he would put up some sort of objection to her assuming that she could take his class ring without him offering it to her.

When he stopped laughing, Avery said, "Can I make a counter-proposal?"

"I'm listening..."

Avery rose and walked to the kitchenette. He opened the refrigerator and then into the compact freezer section. When he turned around, Anna saw that he held a small wrapped package in his hand. He walked back over, stopped in front of her, and outstretched his hand.

"My counter-proposal is that you open your birthday present."

Anna knew that the size and shape of the present made it look like a ring box, but she wasn't going to get too excited just yet. Avery returned to his place beside her on the sofa as she began carefully unwrapping the package. If this was going to be as memorable as she hoped it would be, she would want to keep the wrapping paper and ribbon.

She set the unwrapped box onto her lap while she spread out the wrapping paper on the cushion next to her, smoothed out the creases, and folded it into a neat square. She then picked the box back up and slowly opened it.

"Oh, Ace, it's the most beautiful ring I have ever seen!"

She pulled the ring from the box and surprised Avery by handing it to him. She extended her right hand towards him, encouraging him to slide the ring on her finger.

"Wrong hand," he said, reaching over and picking up her left hand. He quickly removed his class ring and slowly replaced it with the new one. As he slid the ring onto her finger, he saw a tear forming in the corner of both of her eyes.

"Happy birthday, Ace. Now you have the visible evidence of us being a couple that you have wanted for months."

The ring box tumbled to the floor as Anna dove onto Avery. She showered his face with kisses until her lips eventually found his. While she had the strongest desire to do every naughty thing to Avery that she had ever imagined doing with a boy, she settled for another passionate kiss. She broke away only when she realized that she had somehow managed to unbutton Avery's shirt.

"Uh, sorry," she said as Avery quickly began getting his clothes arranged again before any of their parents might see him.

While Avery finished buttoning his shirt, Anna studied her birthday present. The ring was an oval amethyst framed in sparkling flourishes of round diamonds. More diamonds glisten along the romantic rose gold band. She didn't know how much the ring had cost, and would never ask, but if the stones were genuine and the band at least fourteen carats, the ring had not been inexpensive.

Anna smiled at a still flustered Avery and said, "Are you asking me to go steady with you, Ace?"

"No, I am rewarding you for putting up with me for the almost year and a half that you have been going steady with me without me acknowledging it. I'm acknowledging it now. I don't need to think things over, Ace. I have the best girlfriend any guy could dream of in you."

~~~

Saturday, April 24, 2010

"One month from today, we'll be on our way to London," Anna said.

Her head rested on Avery's bare chest as he leaned against the pillows of the hotel room bed. Although they were reasonably certain that all their parents knew that the two of them had been having sex for the last couple of months, they still made an effort to be discrete about it. Them spending the weekends together away from either of their homes had to tell their parents something was going on besides studying for finals.

"You know that we're going to be in Europe during the peak tourist season," Avery reminded her.

"That's why we decided to travel by trains and ferries as much as possible. It will provide us with the greatest flexibility in scheduling."

Avery brushed a few loose strands of hair from her face and said, "I know, and we'll only need to find a hotel room when we decide to stay anyplace for longer than a day, but that is where we might encounter sold-out accommodation issues."

Anna smacked his chest playfully and said, "We're young and in love. We'll be just fine as long as we're together."

From the moment that Avery and Anna had rejoined their parents that evening in February, holding hands and beaming with excitement, everyone knew that things had changed in their relationship. And things had changed, yet both agreed that the changes had been entirely for the better.

They didn't spend much more time together than before, but the time spent was now much more satisfying due to the intimacies that they could share, as well as the anticipation of the more passionate intimacies yet to be shared. They were no longer two 'Aces' striving to achieve their goals as individuals, they were now a 'pair of Aces', working towards their future together.

"Are we in love?" Avery teased. "The last I heard on the subject you loved me but weren't in love with me."

Anna giggled, "That's when I was an immature seventeen-year-old child. Now that I'm a mature adult, I can attest to my true feelings."

Avery laughed, "You did all that maturing into adulthood in just one day, did you?"

Raising her left hand and wiggling it in front of his face so her ring couldn't be missed, Anna said, "It was a very transformative twenty-four hours for me. My world tilted on its axis and my heart found its mate for life. What about you, Ace?"

Avery rolled over on top of Anna and asked, "Are you calling me a "world tipper", young lady?"

Anna smiled up and said, "When you're not rocking my world, you are. You are my world, Ace."

"And you are mine, Ace. Are you ready to get back to the reason that we booked this hotel room for two days?"

Anna pulled his lips down to hers and kissed Avery until she felt the reaction in his body that she was looking for. She broke their kiss and said, "We couldn't do that at the library, so do you want to re-examine your question about why we are here?"

Avery rolled off of her and said, "Okay, while it's not the main reason that we booked the room for two days, do you want to get back to writing your valedictorian speech? I thought that you wanted me to assist you with it."

"What about your valedictorian speech? You need one too, Ace."

"I thought that I would just help you write yours, and then use it for mine as well..."

Anna reached down suddenly and placed her hand around a very sensitive area between Avery's legs and squeezed gently, "Ace, I believe that you had better give up thinking if that's the best you can do. While I normally wouldn't hesitate to share my work with you, North's graduation ceremony comes first, so if you use the speech, then I'll be repeating your words seven hours later."

All of the district high schools would be graduating on the same day at a venue central to all of them, the downtown convention center. Central High School held a separate GED award ceremony later in the month. At the convention center, North High School's graduation ceremony would take place at 10 AM, followed by East High at 1 PM, South High at 3 PM, and finally, West High School at 5 PM. This allowed for the district Superintendent and other prominent guests to attend all the graduation ceremonies but made for a long day for anyone wanting to attend more than one of the ceremonies, such as Anna attending Avery's and then him attending hers.

Avery extricated his gonads from Anna's grasp and then jumped out of bed. He went to his backpack and pulled out several pages and brought them back to the bed. He handed them to Anna and said, "I guess the same holds true if you were to use my speech, but here it is. I'd like to get your opinion."

Chapter Three

Saturday, August 14, 2010

"We need to talk..."

Anna's tone raised alarm bells in Avery's mind. She had been uncharacteristically distant the past two weeks, cutting their phone conversations short, giving only the briefest replies to e-mail messages or texts, and avoiding his attempts for the two of them to be together. Her unexpectedly greeting him at his front door now, with these four words while avoiding his eyes was not a good sign.

"Okay, come on in," Avery said. "Let's go into the living room."

"Are your parents home?" Anna asked.

"Yes, they're outside on the patio. Why?"

"Can we go to the basement then? I need to speak with you in private."

No hello kiss, or even a friendly embrace from her. Without answering, Avery turned and led her to the stairs to the basement. He stepped aside and let Anna go down in front of him. His pulse was increasing as his growing fear fed adrenalin through his body. He employed every technique learned in his martial arts training to try to calm his breathing before Anna recognized what her words and actions had started.

Avery had been reliving in his mind their daily interactions since they had returned from Europe in an attempt to understand what he might have done to upset Anna. He could find nothing to explain it. Everything had been wonderful between them during their time in Europe, almost like a honeymoon for them and they had joked about their eventual honeymoon needing to be something even more adventurous and romantic if it had a hope of beating their tour of Europe.

They had returned more in love than when they had left, and the next month found them anxiously looking forward to leaving together for Charleston and their respective colleges. They knew that Avery would have more restrictions on his free time, especially during his first year in the Cadet Corps, and Anna had decided to rent an off-campus apartment rather than live in the dorms so that every opportunity that they had to be together could be realized without any obstacles.

Then, right before the end of July, some switch had been thrown in Anna. Avery recognized the changes immediately but had not been able to find a way to discover the cause. Now, two days before they were scheduled to leave together for college, Anna wanted to speak with him in private.

Avery expected her to head for the sofa where they had kissed for the first time, and hundreds of times since, but she instead sat on one of the chairs. She was still reluctant to look Avery in the eyes as he quietly took the chair next to her and waited for her to speak.

Tears were obvious in Anna's eyes when she finally glanced at Avery and said, "I love you, Ace, with all of my heart and all of my being."

Avery reached for her hand, but she pulled it away. He was shocked at her reaction, but said, "I love you too, Ace. What's wrong?"

Anna took a deep breath and stared at her hands folded in her lap, "We have shared everything for almost two years, and it's killing me that I can't share this with you. Oh, Ace, I have made a terrible mistake, and I need to protect you from it."

"You don't have to protect me. You need to share it with me so we can fix things together. We're a pair of Aces, remember?"

Anna was crying in earnest now, tears flowing in rivers down her cheeks. Avery retrieved a tissue and handed it to her. He wanted so badly to hold her in his arms but knew that she would not welcome him at this moment.

"My mistake would ruin your life, Ace, and I cannot allow that to happen. I will be leaving for California tomorrow to place some distance between us..."

Avery shouted, "NO! You need to trust me, Ace. You need to know that whatever this mistake is, we can handle it better as the partners we have always been..."

"Don't you think I haven't tried to find some way for us to work this out together?" Anna cried. "All I've done for the past two weeks, besides cry, is try to think of a way that I could share this with you without ruining your life and destroying all your dreams."

"That's something that I should have a say in," Avery argued. "It's my life and my dreams, none of which matters without you in my life."

"Ace, please let me explain. I would never exclude you from my life..."

"Living all the way across the country does a pretty good job of excluding me," Avery said. "What about your life and your dreams?"

"I was accepted at Stanford as well as the College of Charleston, so I have chosen to go there instead. Their law school is higher rated than Charleston Law, so that will actually work out better for my career in the long run."

"How does going to a different college solve this mistake that you say you made?" asked Avery.

Anna looked him squarely in the eyes for the first time since her arrival and said, "It doesn't. Being away from you is what will allow me to fix my mistake without ruining your life. That is what will protect you."

"What is this mistake that you can't fix with us together? None of this makes sense."

Anna shook her head and said, "Telling you would get you involved in the mistake. I can't allow that to happen. Please, Ace, I need you to trust that I love you more than life itself and that I am doing what needs to be done now if we ever hope to have a life together in the future."

In a terse tone that Anna had never heard Avery use, he said, "Maybe you'd better explain what you have planned for us so I can decide if I see us having this future you are alluding to."

Anna resisted the urge to start crying again. She had known that Avery would resist her plans, but she also knew that she had no choice. There was absolutely no way that she would risk ruining his life over her own stupid mistake -- not when she had the means to avoid that.

She stood, stepped over to the sofa, and took a seat, "Please join me here."

"I'm fine right here," Avery said. "Go ahead and explain your plans."

Anna was shocked. Avery had never rejected her before, but she had never done anything to break his heart before, and she realized that her announcement was breaking his heart. That wasn't her intention, and she had to try and quell the damage before it was too late."

"Ace, I want our relationship to continue growing, but there needs to be some distance between us for a while in order to protect you. This isn't permanent, and as painful as it will be for both of us, I know that we can make it work."

"Oh, you know, do you?" Avery asked with sadness in his voice. "You know how I feel right now and you know how I'll feel when I'm three thousand miles away from you, trying to remain focused on my studies while distracted by my worries over you."

Avery stood up and began pacing. Anna followed his every move with her eyes, hoping that he would look into them and see the pain that she too was experiencing. She just had to make him see that this was the only way.

"Ace, we can Skype as many times a day as our schedules will allow. While there will be miles between us, we'll probably end up seeing more of each other than we would if we relied only upon us being physically together."

Staring at the fish in an aquarium, he shook his head, "How can seeing you every day be okay, but being in the same town as you ruin my life? Can you explain that?"

Anna stood and strolled over to stand beside him. She reached for his hand and was surprised when he didn't resist. "I can't explain it right now, but believe me, it's true. It's not like we won't be able to be with each other on occasion. I'll fly to Charleston as often as I can to spend time with you once I know that doing so won't cause you any problems."

Avery turned to face her, "This is exactly why I always wanted to avoid relationships. You have no idea how you have complicated my life. How long does your plan have us being apart?"

Anna gazed up at him, "Ace, I do know. I had the same reservations about relationships if you remember, but I got over them when you came into my life. My life is just as complicated over this, if not more. You will still be close enough to your family to visit with them, spend holidays with them, and have their support. I'll be all by myself in a strange place with absolutely no one that I know or anyone I can trust. I'm doing this for us, Ace, and I promise that when the time is right, I will be able to tell you everything. I hope at that time that you'll agree that what I am doing is best, but if not, I'll understand."

Ace released her hand and walked over to the refrigerator, "Would you like something to drink?"

"No thank you."

"Have you ever heard of a single college couple in a long-distance relationship that lasted?" he asked. "Because I haven't. Why don't we just call it quits right now and revisit things once you trust me enough to be honest with me?"

Anna stormed over to Avery and shouted, "I will NOT break up with you. I love you and will always love only you. If you're too much of a coward to even try keeping us together, then you can break up with me. Is that what you want, Ace?"

Avery glared right back at her and snarled, "You dare to call me a coward when you're the one running away with her tail between her legs instead of staying and letting us fix things together? You're the one abandoning me, not the other way around."

"I am not running away, dammit! I am hiding the worst mistake that I have ever made from the man that I love." Anna was crying again in full force, "I couldn't stand it if you hated me, Ace. I have to make this right for you, for us. I really fucked up, and if you knew everything, I know that it would ruin your life, and I just know that you would hate me for being the cause."

Avery called upon over a decade of mental exercises to calm himself. He and Anna had never even raised their voices to one another, and now the tension between them was almost suffocating. "I could never hate you, Ace. Never."

Anna fell against his chest, sobbing. Her crying was breaking his heart and his instinct to protect her and make it better kicked in. Avery put his arms around her and held her racking body until she regained some composure. She was almost whispering when she said, "Oh, yes you could. I screwed up so bad that I know you could hate me for it. I already hate myself for it."

Picking her up, Avery carried her back to the sofa. He sat down with her in his arms and just tried to comfort her. He recognized that her emotional state was not that of someone changing her plans and altering their relationship voluntarily. Anna had made some tough decisions for them, but Avery knew now that she had made them selflessly and with great difficulty. He loved her too much not to support her.

He tried to explain as her relaxing body snuggled tighter against his, "Ace, never hate yourself. I know you, and I know that whatever this mistake is, you didn't do anything purposefully to cause it. I can see the turmoil that you are going through, and I believe that you know how frustrating it is for me to be helpless where protecting you is concerned. I know that you just want to protect me, and I love you for your concern, but how do you expect me to be able to focus and function without you?"

"Oh, Baby, that's what I have been trying to tell you," Anna cried, her face wet from the recent tears. "You will never be without me. There may be a greater distance between us, but I will always be yours. You will always be my only guy, and I will work harder than ever to make you proud that I am your girl. Please don't give up on us."

"When I gave you this ring, I also gave you my heart," Avery told her as he embraced the ring on her left hand. "As long as I have confidence in your love for me, I will never give up on us, but I will also never hold you back if that love wanes or you find someone new. I will not hold you to being exclusive to me anymore. That wouldn't be fair, or realistic. I just ask that you respect me by not going out with someone else while wearing the ring that I gave you."

Anna gasped. The words that Avery had just spoken were like a dagger to her heart. How could he think that she would ever not love him, or chose to be with someone other than him? Then she admitted that her actions and words were what made him doubt her. God, how was she ever going to convince him? Then she remembered something that she needed to tell him.

"I know that this doesn't prove my devotion to you in the way that you need right now, but I want you to know that I made you the beneficiary of my trust. If anything happens to me, you get everything in it."

Avery seemed to ignore her announcement as he said, "Do you want to say goodbye to my parents since you're leaving tomorrow?"

Anna sobbed, "Please, Ace, please."

Avery pleaded, "What do you want from me, Ace?"

"I want you to spend our last night for several months together with me. I don't mind if you don't feel like making love with me, but I want to be with you, to hold you, for you to feel my love for you, and know that it will always be there. I have a room reserved already, so all I need - all I'll ever need is you, Ace."

Avery was experiencing a whirlwind of emotions and struggled with how to verbalize them to Anna. Protecting and supporting her was instinctual for him, but her request for them to spend the night together -- the last one before possibly months of physical isolation - felt like she was trying to slowly remove a bandage from a wound rather than ripping it off in one motion.

"Screw it!" He thought. If he had only one more night with Anna, he was going to spend it making her feel as loved and supported as he could. He would deal with his own feelings after she had left.

~~~

They hadn't made love that night. Avery simply held Anna and let her try to convince him how their love would triumph, and the distance between them would not drive them apart. He couldn't help but think that she was trying to convince herself as much as him.

As the hint of sunrise began to shine around the hotel room curtains, Anna realized that they had spent the entire night talking, or rather she had spent the night talking while Avery simply held her close and listened.

"What time is your flight?" Avery asked her, noticing the sunrise as well. It was the first question he had asked her since they had arrived in the hotel room together.

"My flight to Dallas leaves at 3 PM. I make a connection there to San Jose.

"Do you want to go see if we can find someplace open serving breakfast?" he asked. "We skipped dinner last night so you must be hungry."

Anna caressed his face and said, "I'll let you feed me on one condition; we come back here afterward and you make love to me until it's time to check out."

"Let's see how you feel after breakfast." Avery was mastering the art of non-commitment, but Anna would not push him for anything in what she recognized as the delicate state of their relationship right then. She would do anything he wanted, except stay.

They both dressed in silence. When they reached the lobby of the hotel, the restaurant was just opening for its breakfast service. After being shown to a table and taking their seats across from one another, Anna smiled at Avery. She had a look of melancholy on her face.

"How many breakfasts did we share in all of Europe? We were there for over thirty days, and ate what, four breakfasts?"

Avery smiled at the memory. They had flown from Atlanta to London, arriving early enough for a brief tour of the city before renting a car to drive through the English countryside on their way to Folkestone. They spent the night in a quaint bed and breakfast but didn't leave their room until after breakfast had been served. They grabbed a quick lunch before taking the Chunnel train to Calais, where they spent the night in a hotel close to the train station. Their train to Amsterdam didn't depart until 11 AM, so they once more spent the morning in bed together rather than seeking breakfast.

Amsterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, Bucharest, Istanbul, Athens, Venice, Milan, Rome, Monaco, Marseille, Barcelona, Gibraltar, Lisbon, and then back home. Visiting all these cities allowed them to try cuisines of all varieties, and they took advantage of every one of them. Except where breakfast was concerned. They preferred to start every day together consummating their love. From May 24th through June 29th, breakfast could wait.

He finally answered Anna, "Three or four, but we always had a big dinner the night before."

Anna reached across the table and squeezed his hand, "It wouldn't have mattered. I awake with an appetite for only one thing, you. However, I realize that I need to keep you well-nourished if I expect you to perform up to your typical standards, so order whatever you want this morning."

They placed their orders, and then Anna asked, "Ace, why did you choose not to go directly into the Army instead of getting your degree first and then joining? Is the degree that important for what you want to do there?"

Avery knew that he had explained his reasoning to Anna and her parents long ago. He said, "If I enlisted in the Army right out of high school, I would bring them no value other than a warm body to shoot a gun or drive a tank. They would have complete control over what my specialty became and where I was stationed. By participating in ROTC and getting my degree in computer science first, I will have more say in my contract terms when I join. I will also go in as an officer rather than a mere enlisted man. That will allow for better pay and living quarters..."

"Is there any way to get your degree in less than four years? Can you take summer courses or petition out of courses where you can demonstrate that you already have the knowledge?"

Avery gazed into Anna's eyes, pondering her thought process by the questions she was asking. He said, "I can look into my options, but I had hoped that you and I might be able to spend at least part of our summer breaks together somewhere..."

Anna nodded in understanding of what Avery's concerns were and said, "Me too, but I am anxious for us to both get to our chosen careers as soon as possible. Once I know that you have achieved your goals, I won't have my mistake hanging over us."

"Wait a second, back up. Are you saying that this physical isolation that you are imposing on us will last until I have my degree, or last until after I finish my four-year commitment to the Army?"

"At least until you have your degree," Anna said sadly. "If we can be together while you are in the Army, then I hope to be able to join you, but it will depend on a couple of things."

"Well," Avery said evenly, "the Cadet Corps is a very structured four-year program that probably won't allow for any accelerated options, and even if it did, I would have to sacrifice being with you more than I am already going to have to. What about your dreams and goals? How come this mistake of yours isn't affecting them?"

Anna was becoming very familiar with what her hands looked like. She was staring at them when she said, "You don't know how much it has affected them, and I can't tell you right now. I still have them, and thank God I have the financial resources that will allow me to eventually achieve them, but I am going to have to change so many things in my life to stay on track. I know you won't believe it, but being separated from you is minuscule compared to some of the other changes that I am going to have to deal with. I am terrified of what I have to face, and it's killing me that I can't share it with you, but I'll do it on my own if it means that there is the smallest chance that you will continue to love me from afar and we can eventually have the future we both hoped for."

Avery didn't respond. He knew that any words he chose would not be supportive of Anna, so he kept them to himself. He ate his breakfast in silence as Anna watched him, barely picking at her own food. As soon as he set his utensils down, indicating he was finished, Anna did the same.

"You didn't eat very much," Avery said.

"I don't have an appetite for food this morning," Anna replied. "Let's go back to the room. We have more than four hours before checkout."

Avery stood and pulled Anna's chair back so that she could rise. They headed for the elevators. Avery hoped that his body could satisfy Anna's needs while his heart and mind remained preoccupied with the turmoil he had been feeling since yesterday evening.

Anna was acutely aware of the distress that she had brought to Avery. You couldn't love somebody and spend as much time together as the two of them had without developing an almost empathic connection with the other person. She couldn't do anything to lessen the heartache and pain other than try to instill into Avery as much confidence and faith in her love for him as possible. She was going to love him to death if necessary, until the very last minute before they had to leave the hotel.

~~~

Saturday, December 18, 2010

As his Skype application launched, Avery saw that Anna was already online. He requested a chat with her and was instantly greeted with her smiling face on his laptop screen.

"Hi, Ace," Anna said. "I miss seeing your handsome face so much."

Living in the barracks at The Citadel with dozens of other cadets had restricted Avery's ability to video chat with Anna. The library and most other public locations prohibited video chats, so they had only been able to Skype on those occasions when Avery had come home, which had been over the Thanksgiving holiday, and now the beginning of his Christmas break.

"Apparently, not enough to come home for the holidays," Avery lamented. "You missed Thanksgiving and now I'm told by your parents that you're too busy at school to take a break like the rest of us mortals. What's going on, Ace, your finals were completed last week, the same as mine."

"I know, Ace, but things are so much more competitive here at Stanford than I could have imagined. Not only do I need to maintain a perfect GPA, but I also need to have recommendations from one professor in order for another professor to accept me into their class. I found out just last night that I have to spend the holiday break working on research for my last political science professor to get a recommendation that I need for next semester. If I don't get into the class in January, it will throw my schedule of required classes off by one, if not two semesters. I'm sorry, you have to know how much I miss you and wanted to come home, but things just didn't work out."

Avery knew that Anna was facing the toughest educational challenge of her life at Stanford. They sent emails to each other daily, then texted and called when they had an opportunity, so her daily struggles were no secret to him. He still couldn't dismiss the nagging feeling that Anna was avoiding him for some reason. Why couldn't she do at least some of the required research from here? He decided to test her.

"How about if I fly out there next Wednesday or Thursday? I can have an early Christmas with my parents, and then come out to spend Christmas day with you. I wouldn't be able to stay through the New Year, but we could have a few days together. I could even help you with your research."

"Oh, I wish that would work," Anna said, "but I'm staying with the professor's TA, Holly at her apartment in Fremont. That's across the bay and we thought that it would allow us more time to work on the professor's research without one or both of us having to cross the bridge every day. This is her apartment that I am in right now. Holly, can you come here a minute?"

Avery watched as another person's body moved behind Anna's and he heard, "Holly, this is my boyfriend, Avery. Avery, this is Holly."

A face bespeckled with acne scars and partially obscured by stringy blonde hair leaned in front of Anna's laptop camera and said, "Hi, Avery. I've heard lots of good things about you from Anna."

"Thanks. Nice to meet you too. I guess I'll let you two get back to your research. I wish you both a Merry Christmas, and if we don't chat again before then, a happy New Year too."

Avery terminated the video chat before Anna had a chance to respond. He knew that he was being curt, but he couldn't help feeling insignificant to Anna, and he wasn't going to burden her with having to appease a boyfriend when she had more important things to deal with. Their relationship was obviously too complicated for her to manage now, and he wasn't going to increase its complexity in his own life by trying to fight her on it.

Approximately one-hundred and three miles to the south, Anna was sitting at the dining room table in her apartment, staring dumbstruck at her computer screen. Initially, she had been too shocked at Avery's disappearance from their video chat to realize that he had ended it purposely.

Anna glanced up at Holly, who was still standing behind her, and cried, "Oh crap, he's more upset than I expected."

"We had discussed this," Holly reminded her. "The tone in his emails and texts told you how excited he was at the prospect of seeing you over the holiday break. That boy loves you and isn't going to remain tolerant of not being able to see you for too much longer."

Tears were flowing down Anna's face. She scooted her chair back to prevent them from falling onto her laptop keyboard as she used the sleeves of her sweatshirt to dab her eyes. "I can't allow him to see me like this or everything will be ruined."

Holly handed Anna a tissue and said, "You need to do something to buy yourself more time. If he wasn't living in those stupid barracks, you two could video chat more often, and that might calm him down..."

"No place around him where there is a Wi-Fi signal will allow video chats. We've checked everywhere."

Holly asked, "How's his cellular signal strength?"

"I suppose it's okay," Anna said. "We've never had any dropped calls when we're talking on our phones."

"Get a coat on," Holly said.

Anna stood and asked, "Where are we going?"

"To the Apple store."

~~~

Monday, February 14, 2011

"The flowers are beautiful," Anna exclaimed. "Thank you."

"I'm glad that you received them. I'll need to thank your parents again for arranging the delivery."

Anna saw the disappointment evident on Avery's face and knew the reason. She had refused to give him her address, afraid that he would use it to try to see her without warning. She insisted that he use her parents as intermediaries if he wanted to send her anything.

"Things are just safer this way," she had explained. Avery hadn't liked the implied lack of trust that it demonstrated, but he had to accept it in order to continue supporting Anna.

"Are you gaining weight?" Avery asked.

Anna patted her cheeks and said, "Probably just the typical PMS bloating coming across on the camera."

Anna had followed Holly's suggestion and purchased Avery and herself each a new iPad with 3G technology. That had allowed Avery to utilize a cellular signal from anywhere he was to communicate with her in video chats almost every day. Anna got the added benefit of seeing Avery in his cadet uniform, which made her heart swell with pride.

"That means that it won't be long until your cramps start," Avery noted. He had prided himself on helping Anna through the roughest days of her menstrual cycles with heat pads, foot rubs, or anything else he could do to comfort her.

"Probably," Anna agreed. "Is that the Ashley River behind you?"

"Yes. I'm sitting on a low wall just outside of Inouye Hall. The reception is pretty good here and my next leadership session will be held inside at 2 PM. What time is your first class today?"

Anna had to be careful to keep her times straight. As far as Avery knew, there was a three-hour time difference between them. "I have a philosophy class at 11 AM." Her two o'clock telepresence class would align with that perfectly.

"Well," said Avery, "at least we're in synch on something. Although, I would prefer that it be Spring break rather than the occasional class time."

Stanford University would be taking its Spring break from March 12th through the 20th, while The Citadel would be taking its Spring break between March 25th and April 3rd. Anna had relayed the Stanford dates to Avery even though she would not be adhering to them herself. She would be done with her Spring semester by the end of February if things went as planned.

"Are you still planning on going home over Spring break?" Anna asked.

"That was my plan. Since I will be taking classes over the summer, I won't have another opportunity to spend any time with my parents until July 4th. You still haven't been able to get any of the summer classes that you were hoping for?"

"Not so far, and to be honest with you, I'm not really disappointed. I think I may try to spend as much of the summer at home so that I can drive down to Charleston on the weekends if that is where you are going to be."

Avery sighed and said, "Please don't take it wrong, Ace, if I assume an 'I'll believe it when I see it' attitude. I've been disappointed too many times this year."

"And you think I haven't?"

"It's Valentine's Day, Ace. I don't want to spend it arguing with you."

"Do you still love me?" Anna asked.

Avery glanced away from the tablet camera and stared out at nothing for several seconds before answering, "I still love what was. I don't know if that love still applies to what now is. You made choices for us that I have tried to be supportive of, even when it was obvious to me that you were making excuses not to spend time with me. I have difficulty reconciling who you were with who you have become."

Anna wasn't surprised by Avery's answer. Everyone from her mother to Avery's mother and Holly had been telling her for months that she was going to lose Avery if she didn't alter her plans to include him. She had to trust that he would accept her despite her terrible mistake and not let it affect his future.

"Ace," Anna said, "I know that I haven't been fair to you, but I did everything I could to protect you from my mistake. I did that out of my love for you and not to be selfish or deprive you of my love in any way. You have begun the college path of your choice, and I am prouder of you than words can express. If you will swear to me that whatever you learn of my mistake will not result in you changing your plans in any way, then I will share with you why I did what I did. I'll tell you all about the mistake that has changed my life as long as you don't allow it to change yours too. Will you agree to that?"

"I will only commit to not changing any aspect of my life plans that keep me in line with your life plans," Avery said. "If your life plans no longer have a place for me, then I would see no reason to alter mine. If your life plans do include me and I need to change in order to be there for you, I would discuss possible changes with you before making them. That's all I can commit to."

"Ace, I can promise you that the changes in my life do not alter my life plans. I am still pursuing the education and career dreams that I have shared with you. I will go further and swear to you that you have been a part of my dreams and future plans since we studied for the SATs together. None of that has changed. I meant it when I said that I know in my heart that my mistake could impact your plans much more than mine. If we can work together to keep that from happening, then I want you to know everything."

"We're partners, Ace. I've been telling you that since you told me you wanted to place some distance between us. We should make decisions like that together, and I promise you that I will not make changes to any of my plans unless we both agree on them. Okay?"

Anna nodded and said, "I won't ask that you promise not to hate me, but if you can find it in your heart to forgive me, I promise you that I will spend the rest of my life making things up to you."

"I promise I won't hate you, Ace," Avery assured her.

"I hope not," Anna sighed. "Anyway, I need to tell you everything in person, so give me a couple of weeks to finalize a few things, and then I will come to Charleston to see you."

Avery smiled and said, "I've waited six months to see the love of my life, I think I can wait a couple of more weeks."

"I said I needed a couple of weeks to finalize a few things," Anna reminded him. "It may take a bit longer to work out the travel arrangements and everything. I promise that I'll see you before you come home for Spring break."

"I'm sure you'll do your best. I just miss you so much."

Anna sobbed and said, "Over the past six months, missing you has come in waves, and right now, I am drowning."

"I should be there, to support you if for no other reason..."

"Ace, I don't want you worrying about me. We'll be together again soon. I promise."

Chapter Four

Thursday, March 17, 2011

"We need to talk..."

Avery greeted Anna's image on his iPad with the words that she so frequently used on him. His tone was not a happy one and Anna sensed that she was the cause of whatever was bothering him.

"Sure, Ace, what do you want to talk about?"

"First," Avery said, "please show me your left hand."

Anna had a puzzled expression on her face as she raised her left hand so that it would be in view of the camera on her iPad.

"You're still wearing the ring I gave you."

"Of course," Anna said. "I never take it off."

"But you promised me you would. I asked you to promise that you wouldn't disrespect me by wearing that ring if you were going out with another guy, and you promised. Remember?"

"I remember, and I've kept that promise because I haven't gone out with anyone. What's going on, Ace?"

"Then who is Trey? Why is it that almost every time I call your parent's house to speak with you over the past two weeks all I hear is, 'Anna's busy with Trey', or 'Anna is sleeping with Trey'. You're sleeping with some guy in your parent's house and wearing the ring I gave you? You don't consider that disrespectful at the very least?"

Anna smiled a sad smile of understanding and said, "Ace, I will tell you all about Trey when I see you a week from tomorrow. You'll even get a chance to meet him..."

"I have no interest in meeting your boyfriend," Avery hotly said, "and don't bother driving down. Just please take off the ring."

"I will never take off this ring," Anna exclaimed. "Ace, you promised to let me tell you about my mistake, and yes, Trey is part of that story, but he is not my boyfriend, you are. You will understand everything when I pick you up on the 25th, so please just be patient one more week."

"I am tired of playing the fool for you, Anna. You are the Ace and I'm just the Joker to you, and apparently your parents as well if they're letting you and this Trey guy carry on in their house. I need to get to class now. Happy Saint Patrick's Day. Please take off the ring."

Anna couldn't respond fast enough. Her screen went blank as Avery disconnected on his end. She glanced over at her mother and asked, "Why did you have to mention Trey when Avery called? Now I'm screwed."

"I'm sorry, Ace, I never imagined that Avery would jump to the conclusion that you were seeing someone else. It looks like we may need to stage an intervention with our other Ace. Let me discuss it with his parents."

~~~

Friday, March 25, 2011

"I can give you a lift to the bus station."

Avery patted one of his classmates on the shoulder and said, "That's okay, go ahead and jump on the onramp to I-26 and enjoy your break. I'll walk over to the park and grab a cab from there."

He had considered it a waste of gas and too much trouble finding a parking spot to bring his car down when he had returned from Christmas break. His dad had been more than happy to drive Avery in order for them to spend more time together, and he hadn't needed the car at all until now.

Taking the bus home was only a slight inconvenience compared to riding back home with Anna, who Avery was certain was waiting at the visitor parking lot for him. He wasn't going to share her with some other guy, and he would never consider her being unfaithful as simply a 'mistake'.

Avery left Stevens Barracks and headed toward the Earle tennis courts. He took Mims Avenue east towards the Alumni Center. He was just crossing Congress Street when a car pulled up beside him.

"Can I offer you a lift?" Charles English asked his son. "I'll even let you drive."

"Dad, what are you doing here?"

"I remembered this morning that I had driven you back after Christmas and you didn't have your car here, so I took the day off work to bring it to you."

"Wow! Thanks, Dad. Pop the trunk so I can stow my stuff, then you can drive us home."

His father pulled the trunk release and then jumped out of the car to hug his son. "I see the hair has grown back some."

"Yeah, I am no longer a 'Knob'. I still have to maintain a regulation haircut, but my head is now allowed to have a hint of hair on it."

Avery placed his bag into the trunk and went around to the passenger side of the car and took a seat. It was a warm spring day with low humidity which would make keeping the convertible top down very pleasant. His father climbed back behind the wheel and turned the car towards the freeway onramp. Avery was surprised when his father drove past the onramp a few blocks and pulled into the parking lot for a Waffle House restaurant.

"You hate Waffle House," Avery said. "Why did you pull in here?"

"Because this is as far as I take you. Your ride home is waiting for you in there. Go talk to her. I promise it will be worth your while. Your bag will be waiting for you at home."

Avery had never disobeyed his father, but knowing that he had just been tricked into a meeting with Anna inside the restaurant, he was tempted to not only disobey him, but he was also tempted to disown him.

"Dad, I don't want to see or speak with Anna. I have spent the last nine months patiently playing the fool for her while she shacks up with some other guy. Please just drive me home."

"Did you listen to what you just said?" his father asked. "And do you believe that I would set you up or accept Anna or anyone making you a cuckold? Anna loves you and has a story to tell that you need to hear. Your mother and I would not have been as supportive of Anna and her plans for you unless we too believed it was the best thing for you. Now, go listen to her. You will understand, believe me."

Feeling dejected and defeated, Avery climbed out of the car and approached the entrance to the restaurant. As he entered, he saw that there were few customers interested in eating waffles at one o'clock in the afternoon. There were two men seated at the counter, a young mother with an infant at one booth and Anna smiling up at him from the last booth along the window.

Avery walked over to where Anna was seated and said, "Tell me what you want so that I can get home."

She tossed a small package onto the table across from her and said, "Read that."

Avery picked up the small box. He noticed that it was empty, but read the words on it. "What is this, Swedish?"

Anna just said, "Read the section under 'Bieffekter'"

"I don't read Swedish," Avery reminded her. "You know that."

"Neither do I," Anna said. "That, Ace, was my mistake."

Avery was confused, but he found himself sliding into the booth across from Anna.

"Bieffekter translates to English as 'Side Effects'. Do you remember when we planned to take the ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki that I was concerned about getting seasick?"

"Yeah, the hotel referred us to a local doctor who gave you those patches..."

Avery looked at the box in his hands and said, "These patches."

"That's right," Anna said. "Scopolamine patches. I wore one behind my right ear for the rest of our time in Europe. Remember?"

"I remember," Avery said.

"Well, the side effects of Scopolamine, at least in my case, was that it made my birth control pills ineffective while I was wearing the patch."

"And you got pregnant, right?" Avery said with derision. "Who is the father, me or this Trey guy?"

Anna surprised even herself when her hand flew across the table and slapped Avery's face. "You bastard! Trey is not my boyfriend; he is your son -- our son."

Anna slid out of the booth as a shocked Avery sat rubbing his cheek. She went to the woman with an infant in her booth and brought the sleeping baby back. She took her seat across from Avery with his son in her arms.

"Anyone who knows you would recognize Trey as your son. He has your eyes, nose, mouth, hair, and stubbornness. The only thing he inherited from me is his love for you. Do you want to hold him?"

Avery's response was to reach across the table with both of his arms. Anna gently laid the baby in his father's arms and watched as Avery cradled his son against his chest for the first time.

"I died a little every day that I hid my pregnancy from you," Anna said. "I couldn't hide your son from you. I had originally planned to keep him a secret until you had graduated, but I couldn't do that to either of you."

"Why..." was the only part of the question that Avery could speak before Anna interrupted him.

"Because we all knew exactly what you would have done. You would have insisted that we get married, right?"

"Of course," Avery said. "I believe the same way now that I know."

"And that would have ruined your plans for your education and probably your career," Anna told him. She then smiled and said, "You're the bonehead who decided to go to a military college; one that prohibits marriage while you are in the Cadet Corps. I read the Blue and White books searching for a loophole and there isn't one. If we get married while you're a cadet, you will be discharged."

Avery felt a stirring in his arms. He glanced down and lost what was left of his heart at the sight of his son smiling up at him with a sparkle of love evident in his eyes.

"I'll quit and transfer somewhere else," Avery began.

"No, Ace, you won't. Remember your promise. We can't get married yet, but we can work things out..."

"How? You're going to school clear across the country. How are we supposed to work things out if we hardly see each other?"

Anna nodded and sighed, "I have another confession to make. I never went to California. I've been attending classes in Columbia at the University of South Carolina, some in person and some online. I'm sorry about all the deceit, but we had to keep you from trying to see me while I was pregnant."

"We?"

"Our parents have known about my situation from the beginning. While they left all the decisions up to me, they were in agreement that the only way to ensure that you followed your dreams was to keep my pregnancy a secret from you."

"That's not fair," Avery said a little too loudly. Trey wiggled and whimpered in his arms until Avery snuggled him closer and whispered soft assurances to him. He looked back across to Anna.

"I had a right to at least discuss what happens with us. Yes, I would have probably insisted on us getting married, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't have listened to reasonable alternatives in order to be there to support you. You never gave me the chance. You avoided me for nine months and stomped on my heart the whole time."

Tears had begun trickling down Anna's cheeks as she said, "You're absolutely right, it wasn't fair. Fair to you, fair to me, fair to us, but it was the best solution that I could come up with at the time to get you headed in the direction you have always wanted to go. I'm sorry that I deceived you so much and for so long. I will never do it again."

Avery considered Anna's deceit against how she and their parents had believed he would have responded to knowing the truth. He had to admit to himself that if he had known that Anna was pregnant, no one and nothing short of Anna's refusal would have stopped him from marrying her. That is essentially what she had done by hiding her pregnancy from him. She had been refusing to marry him to protect his plans.

"What now?" Avery asked.

Anna stretched her arms out and said, "Why don't you order yourself some lunch while I feed your son. Then, we'll discuss our future. Okay?"

Avery handed his son to his mother and motioned for a server to come to their table. He wasn't hungry, but he ordered something for him and Anna to drink while they talked.

The woman who had been holding Trey approached their table and handed Anna a large bag. She smiled at Avery and said, "Hi, I'm Angelique."

"Angelique is going to be Trey's nanny," Anna explained. "I'll need her once I start back taking classes so I wanted her and Trey to get to know each other as soon as possible."

"That makes sense. It's nice to meet you, Angelique."

"It's nice to meet you too. I've heard so many wonderful things about Trey's father." She then addressed Anna, "I'll be waiting over there if you need anything else."

Once Angelique had walked away, Avery watched Anna unbutton the top three buttons on her blouse and release a flap on her bra to expose one of her breasts. He only got a brief glimpse before his view was obscured by Trey's tiny head and a nursing pad, but he was impressed with how much Anna's formerly B-cup-sized breasts had developed during her pregnancy.

"I have another bone to pick with you," Avery said, but the tone of his voice told Anna that he wasn't really angry.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Naming our son Trey. Where did you come up with that name?"

Anna smiled and said, "Don't you like it? I think it fits him perfectly. However, it's not his actual name. Ace, meet Alexander Charles English. He is our third Ace, so I nicknamed him Trey."

Avery laughed and said, "I do like that. Alexander is your dad's middle name, isn't it?"

"Right, and Charles is, of course, your dad's first name, so he'll have ties to both of his grandpas through his name."

"Okay, I would have agreed to his name. Nice job. When was he born?

"He was born at seven thirteen in the morning on February 28th. I was in labor with him for almost ten hours."

"That explains why I didn't hear from you on the 28th."

"Or the 27th, if you remember. I had to make an excuse not to talk to you because if I had, I would have begged you to be with me in the delivery room. I knew that my labor was about to start and I wanted you with us so bad. I do have a video of the delivery to share with you though."

Avery nodded, "I would have loved to have been there, but I understand. You look amazing for someone who gave birth just three weeks ago."

Anna frowned and said, "There's still some flab that needs firming up, but I watched my diet and exercised as much as possible so my weight gain wasn't too bad. Of course, losing almost eight pounds of it when Trey popped out helped."

Sitting and watching mother and child, Avery considered the roller coaster of emotions that he had experienced within just the last hour. He never felt hatred towards Anna, even when he suspected that she was cheating on him, but he had certainly felt disdain for her and disappointment in her. Those feelings had vanished in an instant once he had held his son for the first time. His love for Anna resurfaced, only to be matched by a new love for the child that she had given him -- given them.

While he still resented her making decisions for them without involving him, that resentment was tempered by the pride that he was feeling in her for her courage and devotion to their love.

"Would you like to give him a bottle of water?" Anna asked as she was offering Trey back to Avery in her outstretched arms.

Avery accepted the offer by taking Trey into his hands and once again cradling him against his chest. "Sure, just tell me what to do."

"Cradle him so that his head is resting on your left arm and then offer him the bottle with your right hand. He doesn't usually drink too much water after his milk, but it will give him a chance to start bonding with his father. I have a breast pump and I'll start saving breast milk when we can all be together so that you will have an opportunity to feed him that as well."

Anna smiled and said, "I'll even allow you to take the coveted nighttime feedings."

Avery couldn't take his eyes off his son's face as he watched him sucking on the rubbery nipple of the water bottle. "I still think that we should get married," he said.

Anna was overjoyed with the interest that Avery was taking in Trey. Her smile was brighter and more heartfelt than any since she had learned that she was pregnant. She resisted an urge to laugh at Avery's comment.

"Ace, what would us being married accomplish right now other than getting you kicked out of The Citadel? I promise you that I will marry you as soon as you graduate, but until then, I think we can do the next best thing."

"Which is what?"

Anna slid out of the booth and brought the large bag with her. "Here, I'll trade you. Carry the bag and I'll carry Trey. There's someplace I want to show you."

Avery handed Trey to Anna, dropped a ten-dollar bill on the table to cover the drinks and a tip, and then picked up the bag and followed Anna and Angelique out to the parking lot. Anna used a remote to unlock the doors on a new minivan. Angelique opened the sliding side door and climbed onto the bench seat where a car seat was already secured. Anna handed Trey to Angelique, who placed the sleeping infant into his seat and began fastening the various straps that would hold him securely in place.

Anna opened the front passenger door and said to Avery, "Climb in."

Avery didn't climb in. He put his hand on Anna's shoulder and gently pulled her towards him. He wrapped her in his arms and softly kissed her lips. At the touch of Avery's lips to hers, Anna moaned and melted her body against his. Their passions were reigniting as they stood in a Waffle House parking lot, and only the sound of Angelique sliding the side door closed brought their attention back to where they were.

Avery pulled back slightly and said, "I hope that there is a chance for more of that later."

Anna smiled up and said, "There will be a very good chance for more of that and more of everything else. Come on, I'll take us home."

They had to backtrack a few blocks to reach an access ramp for US Highway 17 north, which would take them to the Septima Clark Parkway and then across the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. Avery leaned forward to look up at the two five-hundred-seventy-five-foot diamond-shaped towers, with the cables extending down to the bridge surface.

"I know," Anna said. "I never get tired of looking at the design either."

Immediately after crossing the Cooper River, Anna veered off from Highway 17 onto Coleman Boulevard. A right at the first intersection took them into the Patriots Point area. When Anna pulled into a large apartment complex, Avery noticed that it appeared almost brand new. Anna drove down an alley and used a remote to open one of the garage doors. As the door rose, Avery saw his Pontiac Solstice parked in one of the two spaces in the garage.

"Is my dad here or did he just drop off my car?"

"He either rode back home with my dad or your mom. They both drove down in separate cars."

"Why bring three cars, four counting this van?"

Anna smiled over at him and said, "So everyone would have a vehicle to use in tracking you down when you left The Citadel. Your dad spotted you first and called the rest of us to let us know."

Avery just shook his head and said, "So what is this place?"

"Come on, let's get Trey changed and in his crib, then I'll give you a tour."

Angelique unfastened Trey from his car seat and handed him out to Anna before climbing out and handing the bag to Avery. "I'm going to call Cash and see if he can meet me over at the Renaissance Hotel bar for a drink before we go on our date."

"Okay," Anna said. "Have fun."

She turned to Avery as Angelique walked away and explained, "Cash is her boyfriend. You'll probably see him around here from time to time when he's not working. He's a police officer with the Mount Pleasant department. He's the one that told me about this place when I was looking for someplace to live near Charleston."

Avery just nodded and followed Anna through a door on the back wall of the garage that led into an apartment, pushing the button to lower the garage door as he walked past it.

"Follow me," Anna said as she led Avery through a spacious kitchen, across the sparsely furnished living room, and up a flight of stairs. She turned left at the top of the stairs and entered the first door on the left side of the hallway. When Avery stepped into the room, it was obvious that they were in Trey's nursery.

While Anna laid the sleeping baby on the changing table, Avery examined the room. The only items in the room were the crib, changing table, and a dresser with a baby monitor camera sitting on top of it. The walls were still a plain, drab off-white and there was barely any color in the room.

Anna asked, "Do you want to change his diaper?"

Avery went to stand beside her and said, "Can I watch you do it first? I have never changed a baby's diaper before."

Anna smiled and said, "I would love to teach you."

She gave step-by-step instructions and could see Avery focused on both her words and actions, "Baby girls are easier," she explained.

"Why?" Avery asked.

Anna laughed and said, "Because they don't have the little hose that likes to wiggle around and spray the unsuspecting and ill-prepared diaper changer. You need to always be aware of that little thing whenever it is exposed."

Avery laughed with her and said, "I'll remember that. Thanks."

Anna finished with Trey's diaper and redressed him before laying him on his stomach in his crib. She led Avery out of the room, leaving the nursery door open a crack.

"Our room is next to Trey's," Anna explained as she led him towards the next door in the hallway. "Angelique's room is on the other end of the hall."

"How many bedrooms are there?"

"Four, although there is an office space on the first floor that could be used as a guest bedroom if we ever needed to."

She led him into the bedroom and turned to face him, "I moved in only last Monday. I haven't signed a lease yet, so if you don't like the apartment or the location, we can find something else. Except for the furniture in Trey's nursery, everything else has just been rented. I wanted us to have the opportunity to pick out furniture that appeals to both of us. We're a family now, Ace."

Avery started unbuttoning his uniform jacket and said, "I think that I could discuss things with you better if you had fewer clothes on."

Avery's expression of love had an effervescence that was addicting. Although Anna was more self-conscious about her body than ever before, she didn't hesitate to strip out of her clothes to stand before her guy for his examination. She knew that he appreciated what he saw as much as he ever had.

"I've never made love to a mother before," Avery teased while picking Anna up in his arms and carrying her to the bed.

"And I've never made love to a father before," Anna giggled. She then turned more serious, "But, it's only been three weeks since I delivered Trey. I'm not sure that my body has recovered enough to have vaginal sex."

There was no hint of disappointment on Avery's face as he smiled down at Anna, "Then I'll just have to kiss it and make it better. I'm in no hurry, and I certainly don't want to cause you any discomfort."

"Let's just take things slow and see how my body reacts," Anna said. "Here, I have a present for you -- well for us actually."

Anna strode over to the nightstand next to one side of the bed and opened the drawer. She extracted a small box and tossed it to Avery.

"Condoms?" he asked. "We've never used condoms before."

"I'm not sure that we'll use them today," Anna told him, "But I don't want to start back on birth control pills while I'm breastfeeding Trey. At my next gynecologist appointment, I'll discuss other options. Would you rather wait until then to make love?"

Avery answered by opening the box. He glanced inside and said, "When the time comes, this should last us an hour or two."

Anna laughed and asked, "A dozen aren't enough?"

Avery simply winked at her.

For the next thirty minutes, their bodies joined their hearts in physically straining toward recoupling with each other. They melted into one another with a synchronized moan of satisfaction. It was like they were immersing themselves in a healing bath. They both knew that the therapy would be successful.

Avery's slow and tender probing of Anna with his mouth and fingers brought only pleasure. This grew exponentially as they coupled completely for the first time in months.

~~~

Anna lay with her head on Avery's chest. She wore her hair loose and off her face; its coppery waves framed her lovely neck, caressed her slim shoulders, and tumbled down her back. Avery played with the strands cascading onto his skin.

"My memory of us together has sustained me over the months that we have been apart," Avery said. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but your plan is for this to be our home while we are both going to school in Charleston."

"It's not a plan without your input and agreement," Anna assured him. "Its current status is that of an idea. Do you want to hear the complete idea?"

"Sure."

Anna raised her head to look into Avery's eyes. Even in their post-coital disarray, her face had the clean lines and perfect proportion of a classic beauty. In Avery's opinion, cameras never captured her beauty completely.

"These past months without you had proven to me a fact that I have long suspected," Anna told him. "We're each other's other half, in just about every way you can think of. We're only half a person without the other. We need to be together."

"I couldn't agree more," Avery said.

"From what I remember, you will have enough course credits at the end of this semester to be a First Semester Sophomore. How does that affect your privileges for overnight and weekend furloughs?"

"If I can get five more credits over the summer, I will begin the fall semester as a Second Semester Sophomore," Avery explained. "That will assure that I have full weekend furlough privileges starting in August, but it also means that I will have to reside in the barracks over the summer instead of here except on the weekends."

"I think we should both take summer courses," Anna said. She saw the disappointment on Avery's face and explained, "Ace, Trey is at an age where he isn't going to need you here every day. Wouldn't you rather get as many of the heavy course credits out of the way now so that we can take lighter loads or finish our degrees early? That would make us more available to him when he begins to walk and talk and really learn things."

"But you and I won't be together either," Avery reminded her.

"I will come over every evening so that we can study together. I'll even pick up some dinner for us to share on occasion."

"That would make for a long day for you," Avery told her.

"It won't be that bad if I can get mostly afternoon classes, which it looks like I can. I'll be able to spend the morning with Trey, then Angelique will watch him until I get home, and then I'll spend more time with him before putting him down for the night. I've checked, and the bridge traffic shouldn't be an issue in either direction at the times I would be crossing. With my study partner to help and support me, I probably won't even have much homework to do while I am with Trey."

"It's not ideal, but I think your idea is the best that we can hope for right now. What can I do to help out financially?" Avery asked. "It looks like you've paid for everything so far. I need to contribute my fair share at a minimum. Can I pay the rent on the apartment, which I like, by the way?"

Anna leaned over, kissed him tenderly, and said, "Your parents have already agreed to pay for our living arrangements, whatever we decide. I can afford it, but they insisted."

"So, the rent is taken care of. What about utilities and other expenses?"

"We negotiated for utilities to be included in the rent. Our only other expenses will be food and Angelique's salary. My parents are paying Angelique as part of my college expense. They say it's a wash because I have scholarships covering my books and tuition, so my college fund is being diverted into our nanny fund. The interest I earn each month on my trust fund will leave us quite comfortable for the time being."

Avery nodded, "You had mentioned that the furniture is all rented. Can I pay for the permanent things that we pick out together?"

"I've got another idea," Anna said. "I mean it sincerely when I say that I have always felt that what is mine is also yours, Ace, but since we can't get married for a few years yet, we probably need to be cautious about combining too much of our assets until we're husband and wife. How about if we open a joint checking account with each of us contributing the same amount to begin with. We can use that to buy furniture and pay any day-to-day expenses equally. If you wanted, we could get a credit card under both of our names that we would pay off in full each month."

"Let's do it," Avery said. "I assume that the rental on the furniture is for a month, so we'll have time to get the account set up and pick out the furniture we want before the next rental payment is due. We'll have to wait until Monday to handle the banking side of things, but if you want, we can start checking out furniture stores this weekend."

"We could check out a few maybe," Anna said, "but there is something else I would appreciate your help with this weekend if you feel up to it."

"Sure, what's that?"

"I would like to start making this place look like our home, and I think that I want to start with Trey's nursery. I'd like to paint the walls and hang some paintings and other things on the walls to draw his attention. Maybe even a mobile from the ceiling. What do you think?"

"Count me in. Can we also get him something that plays music? I've heard that babies who listen to soft music develop an early appreciation for it. I always regretted never learning to play an instrument, so I would like for Trey to have a chance to appreciate music much more than I did."

"I think that's a wonderful idea. Are you getting hungry yet?"

"I'm getting there. How about you?"

"I'm famished. As the man of this house, why don't you head down to the kitchen and rustle us up something to eat while I check in on our son?"

"Two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches coming right up," Avery said as he headed for the side of the bed.

Anna giggled, secure in her knowledge that Avery would prepare them a hot delicious meal from the well-stocked pantry and refrigerator. He had always been the better cook between them, and he had never disappointed her with his culinary imagination.

"Just remember that your desert depends on how well you feed me," Anna teased.

Avery winked and headed downstairs wearing only his boxers.

~~~

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

There had been challenges over the months, but Avery and Anna managed to weather them together.

True to her word, Anna made an effort to spend time with Avery every day after her classes. She became a recognized fixture around The Citadel as she patiently waited for Avery to join her. He continued to rise in his ranks within the Cadet Corps, which reflected better on his status, but also came with increased responsibilities that extended well beyond his coursework. Even if their time together each day was only enough for a quick kiss, neither would complain. They were as together as they could be under the circumstances.

Avery received furlough every weekend, although not always for as long as they would have liked. Once he attained an officer rank, he could delegate more of the responsibilities, but he also had to support those under him by sharing responsibilities on occasion. A leader needed to demonstrate that he expected as much from himself as he did from his men and women.

Trey became a little mascot for the cadets in Avery's class and became a popular fixture at all of the sporting events or other activities that Anna and Avery brought him along to. At every clothing size change that an infant, and then toddler experienced, Trey was outfitted with a new appropriately sized cadet uniform. As a teasing jab at Avery, Trey's rank insignia always exceeded his father's.

Avery did get called in for an honors hearing when an upperclassman alleged that his relationship with Anna, including them having a child together, violated The Citadel standard for "Protecting and contributing to a positive image of The Citadel". With the evidence provided that proved the relationship between Avery and Anna preceded his enrollment in the school, including the events that led to the conception of their child, coupled with testimony from several witnesses that attested to exemplary behavior by Anna and Avery while together on the campus or in public, the allegations were dismissed.

Their behavior when in the privacy of their apartment was another matter.

~~~

Saturday, June 21, 2014

"Can I call you back?" Avery asked. "I'm almost done shaving, then I'll have Angelique get Trey dressed and we can talk uninterrupted. Would that be okay?"

"Sure, Ace. I'll just drink some more coffee and wait for your return call. I love you."

"I love you too. Hang one a second."

Avery moved his cell phone over to his son's head and positioned it, making sure not to let it touch the shaving cream still on his face. "Say good morning to your mom and tell her you love her."

"I love you, Mommy. I miss you."

Anna giggled and said, "I love you too, Trey. Be good for your Daddy and Angelique and I'll see you in a couple of hours."

Avery put the phone back to his ear and said, "I'll call you back in just a few minutes, and I miss you too."

"I'll be waiting," Anna assured him.

Avery set his phone down and returned his gaze to the reflection of his three-year-old son in the bathroom mirror. "Do you need to rinse your razor off?"

Trey's hand was covered in the shaving cream that had once been on his face as he mimicked his dad's shaving. Avery could hardly make out the toy razor in Trey's hand because it was obscured by the white foam. He turned the faucet on for the sink in front of Trey and helped him rinse both the razor and his hand.

"Now you rinse," Trey ordered. Avery smiled and turned the water on at his own sink and rinsed the head of his razor off as instructed. He quickly finished his last couple of passes with the razor on his face and then wet a washcloth to wipe the residual shaving cream off his face before handing the washcloth to Trey.

"Watch yourself in the mirror to make sure that you get all the shaving cream off your face," Avery said.

Trey had a serious expression on his face as he studied his reflection and turned his head from side to side to clean his face completely. Trey turned to his father for inspection.

Avery was proud of the result and told his son so. "Excellent job. Now let me feel your face for any whiskers that you missed and you can feel mine."

"Me first," Trey said as he hopped down from his stool and coaxed his father to bend down so that he could reach his freshly shaven face.

"Do I pass inspection?" Avery asked with a broad smile?

"Smooth," is all that Trey said before tilting his face up for his father to feel.

"Uh oh," Avery teased, "Your face is smoother than mine. That means that your mom is going to want to kiss you more than me today."

Trey giggled and held up his arms, indicating that he wanted his father to pick him up. Once Avery had picked him up, Trey bumped noses with his father and said, "Eskimo kiss!" and giggled.

"Okay," Avery told him, "Let's get you to Angelique so that she can get you dressed while your mom and I talk."

After depositing Trey with his nanny, Avery retrieved his cell phone and called Anna back.

"Hi, Ace," Avery said when she answered. "How did you sleep?"

Anna said, "Not too good. I went to bed after we talked and got a very busy head."

"What were you thinking about? Today?"

Anna sighed and said, "No, I'm fine with however things go today as long as the preacher shows up. I'm confident that our moms have everything covered since they have basically been planning today for four years. I was thinking about us."

Avery chuckled and said, "You're not getting cold feet on the day of our wedding. I know you better than that, so what about us have you been thinking about?"

"No, definitely not cold feet. I am excited to finally be your wife, although it really won't change much between us."

"Then what?"

"I should probably back up some," Anna said. "You remember when we spoke last night before bed, I told you that the bridesmaids had rented a porno DVD for us to watch during the party. It was pretty much just playing in the background all night and I didn't pay much attention to most of it. However, there were a few scenes that caught my attention, so I went back to them after our phone call last night to watch them again."

Avery assumed that Anna was viewing the scenes again for their continuing research into sex. They had enjoyed as active and imaginative sex life as two young lovers could considering the limited time that they had to spend together, but both endeavored to bring new ideas to their lovemaking as soon as they learned them.

"What did you learn," he asked.

There was silence for several seconds while Avery waited for Anna to speak. She finally said, "I learned that I have to be the most selfish and self-centered woman in the world, and you let me become that way."

Avery was shocked. Anna was blaming him for how she now perceived herself? How had she reached that conclusion?

"Maybe you had better explain in a little more detail," he told her.

"The movie that Kelsey rented was produced by a company that claims to be run by women making movies for women. The scenes focus more on the lovemaking between couples than just the sex act itself. I was able to witness couples making love, and realized that we never do that."

"What do you mean?" Avery exclaimed. "We make love every chance that we get..."

"No," Anna interrupted. "We don't. I realized that we don't make love. You make love to me and I let you."

"You've lost me..."

"Ace, I love what we do. That's the problem. I have gotten so used to the way that you make me feel, how you drive me crazy with everything that you do to me that I have always neglected to make love back to you. Think about it, you play my body like some sort of musical instrument, always taking the time. You have touched, kissed, licked, and sucked every inch of my body that could be touched, kissed, licked, or sucked, and I let you. Other than using my mouth on occasion to get you hard again, my mouth has been nowhere else but on your lips."

"I never stopped you," Avery said. "I just assumed that you either didn't feel the same desire for me that I felt for you, or..."

"No way!" Anna exclaimed. "I admit that I have always been a little afraid to appear too brazen or to initiate much between us, but you have always known my needs so well that I never had to do much more than let you do what you do best."

"I thought that you were satisfied," Avery said. "What more can I do to please you?"

"That's my point. You have always been the giver and I have always been the taker. By the time I have finished taking from you, my body has been turned into mush and I am usually too exhausted to give anything back, but just some cuddling. I know they were all scripted scenes between actors and actresses, but seeing the reaction of the men to the attention of the women made me see how much I was missing, and causing you to miss."

"I never thought that I was missing anything," Avery said. "If anything, I have been the selfish one, partaking of all the pleasures that your body could give me..."

"That's because you didn't know what you didn't know. I propose that we change that on our honeymoon, starting tonight."

"And how are we going to change that?" he asked.

Anna giggled and said, "That depends on whether you willingly submit to me making love to you or if I need to restrain you."

"Why wouldn't I willingly submit? What do you have planned?

"I plan on doing all the things that you have done to me over the years. I plan on exploring every inch of your body to learn all your sensitive spots like you have done with me. I intend to touch, kiss, lick, and suck every inch of your body that can be touched, kissed, licked, or sucked. I just need you to allow it to happen without resisting. I am going to screw your brains out and then hold your exhausted, bruised body in my arms until you've recovered; then I'm was going to do it again"

"That sounds promising, but I would like to offer a counter-proposal..."

"I'm listening."

"As you mentioned, I learned, and continue to learn about your body, but it has taken us four years for me to know what I know now. I paid attention each time we made love and filed away every moan, twitch, gasp, or other response from you to use at a later time. Every time, whenever you get aroused to what I assume is your breaking point, I back off and give you a release. I propose that you not try to learn all about my body in one day either. I won't stop your exploration as long as you are sensitive to me also having a breaking point."

Avery heard Anna yell to someone else in her hotel suite, "Kelsey, I won't need the handcuffs..."

"Oh, you're funny, Ace." Avery laughed. "So, do you still want Angelique to bring Trey to you when we get to the Chapel?"

"Are you still planning on being there by ten-thirty?"

"That's still my plan."

"Then see if one of our parents can take him so that Angelique can meet up with Cash before the ceremony. She is going to be stuck with Trey for the two weeks that we are on our honeymoon, so I want to give her a break today if possible. Did you finish polishing all the brass?"

Avery had received his commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Army at a ceremony immediately following his graduation from The Citadel in May. When he had signed with the Army, they gave him ninety days from that date to report for active duty, but Anna wanted him to wear his dress uniform instead of a tux when they got married.

"Everything is all set," he assured her. "How about you? You haven't forgotten your garter or anything?"

"Oh, crap!" Anna said. "I did forget the garter. Can you ask Angelique to bring it to me when she gets here?"

"I had so hoped that you would allow me to slip it onto your leg," Avery teased.

Anna laughed, "Nice try, Ace. I promise that you get to take it off though."

"Yeah, but then I just have to sling it out to the crowd of groomsmen to see who catches it."

"I'll have a spare on my other leg just for you, Ace. That's the one I forgot. You can keep that one as a souvenir of the day."

"Not good enough," Avery said. "I want you as my souvenir of the day."

"And you will be mine, Ace."

Chapter Five

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

"We need to talk..."

"I know I'm late again," Anna said in frustration, "and I'll gladly pay for you having to wait for me."

Becky Jensen shook her head and said, "I don't need to be paid, I need to be able to get home in time to fix dinner for my own family. This is the third time this month that you have been more than a half-hour late in picking up Trey."

"Do you think that I don't know that?" exclaimed Anna. "My family is going to be eating late as well, as are the families of those two other children waiting with Trey since their parents are probably stuck in the same traffic fiasco on Three-Eighty-Eight that I was. None of us can predict traffic incidents."

In a more sympathetic tone, Becky said, "I know, and I complain to my State Patrol husband all the time that if the blasted cops would learn how to clear a non-injury accident from the roadways and then get their own cars to the shoulder, there would be fewer accidents due to people trying to make up time lost sitting still for so long."

"God, isn't that the truth," Anna agreed. "When I finally got to where the accident occurred today, I saw four police cars in traffic lanes with officers standing around not knowing whether to scratch their watches or wind their asses."

Becky laughed and said, "I'm going to have to remember that one for my husband tonight. Well, at least it should be clear for you from here to Gate Two. You and the Captain are still sharing the one car, aren't you?"

Anna waved to her son to get his attention. Trey started zipping up his backpack as Anna replied to Becky, "No, we only share on occasion. My schedule is too unpredictable at times, with research for cases, court appearances, and everything else involved with practicing law. In fact, the only reason I'm picking him up today is that it's sort of an anniversary for us, so we're going out."

Trey stood patiently beside his mom while she was speaking to the head of his after-school study center. He knew that she never took long once he had joined her and she knew that he was ready to leave. True to form, Anna thanked Becky again for staying and then placed her hand on Trey's shoulder as she led him to their car.

Trey climbed up onto the back seat as soon as his mom had opened the back door of the SUV. Anna watched with pride as Trey tossed his backpack onto the seat, removed his Nintendo Switch, and then studiously fastened himself into his seat. Anna listened to make sure that she heard the seatbelt click before tussling Trey's hair.

"I always feel like your chauffeur with you riding in the backseat when there's no one else in front with me," Anna teased.

"I've been watching you drive for nine years." Trey teased back, "I feel safer in the back seat."

Anna smiled at her son in the rearview mirror and then pulled out of the parking lot for the daycare center. Where Whisky Road met Old Wrightsboro Road, she turned right and took that to Robinson Road. One more left turn and she was heading directly out of Grovetown towards the Gate Two entrance to Fort Gordon.

Besides serving the Gate Two entrance to Fort Gordon, Robinson Road provided access to several subdivisions and strip malls along its path. Traffic was generally light at most times, but when school buses were running, drivers could expect delays as students were either picked up in the morning or dropped off in the afternoon. Since she was running late, and it was already after five-thirty in the afternoon, Anna didn't expect to encounter much traffic and even fewer delays.

Maintaining the posted speed of forty-five miles per hour, Anna passed the Grovetown police department and watched in her mirrors as a gray van pulled out of the police department parking lot onto Robinson Road, traveling behind her. She paid the van no significant attention until she noticed it pull beside her in the center left-turn lane and accelerate. When she slowed to allow it to pass her and it remained beside her, she made a quick right onto Woodward Drive.

Anna knew the streets within most of the subdivisions between Grovetown and Fort Gordon, since many of the officers and enlisted men that she and Avery socialized with lived in them. Realizing that the van had braked fast enough to match her turn, she started running a route through her head.

She didn't have to check her mirror to know that the van was still on her tail, where the narrow residential streets with cars parked along the curbs would keep it. She didn't want to do anything that would cause Trey concern, but she knew that she would have to get back onto Robinson Road in order to reach the gate to Fort Gordon, where armed sentries would be posted. She would be able to wind through a few more residential neighborhoods, but there would be more than a mile of a wider Robinson Road between the last subdivision and the gate.

Then there was the intersection with Highway Seventy-Eight just before the gate. If she got stuck there at the light, she and Trey would be sitting ducks for whatever the people in the van intended, which based upon recent events in the news, was likely a carjacking. There had been several recent incidents where the driver of a car was forced out, leaving a child in the vehicle when the carjackers sped off. Anna was determined that this would not happen with her and Trey.

She decided that her best option was to call Nine-One-One and notify authorities of her situation. Her cellphone paired with the SUV's Bluetooth automatically, so Anna used the controls on her steering wheel to activate the voice command feature.

"Say a command," the robotic voice instructed.

"Call Nine-One-One," Anna said, much calmer than she felt. She glanced at Trey and saw that his focus had shifted from the video game he had been playing to her.

"Columbia County Emergency Services. What is your emergency?"

Anna replied, "My son and I are being chased by a van of suspected carjackers and we need help. I just turned south onto Dodge Lane from Woodward Drive and the gray van is still on my tail. I'll be turning left onto Bryan Circle in half a mile and taking that back to Robinson Road."

"Yes, Ma'am. Please describe the vehicle that you and your son are in."

"We're in a white 2017 Honda CR-V with temporary tags. I'm turning onto Bryan Circle now and the van is still following."

His headrest prevented Trey from seeing what was behind them, so he leaned over to look around it. "Trey, please stay seated straight," Anna said when she caught his movements in the rearview mirror.

"Units are responding. Please stay on the line and let us know your location as it changes."

Anna had to slow for a car pulling out of a driveway. She heard a "POP" from behind her and watched in her rearview mirror as the back window of her SUV shattered and fell out.

"Oh, God, they just shot out my back window," she cried. "Trey, bend down as far as you can. Slip the seatbelt off your shoulder if you have to."

She listened as the emergency operator relayed the "shots fired" status update to the responding units. Seeing a spot on this residential street where no cars were parked, Anna accelerated past the car that had slowed her progress. The van didn't have room for the same maneuver before parked cars once more made the road too narrow.

Anna flew through the right turn onto Robinson Road and pressed the accelerator to the floor to put as much distance between them and the van as possible. She saw the traffic signal at Highway Seventy-Eight about a mile ahead. It was currently green for her side of the road, but she knew that it likely wouldn't be by the time she reached it. She saw the van racing to catch up with them and considered her options.

~~~

Provost Sergeant Thaddeus Gibson was just completing his shift change update for the sentries at Gate Two when he heard the communication from Columbia County Emergency Services on the radio in the guard booth. The sentries routinely monitored local emergency channels to remain aware of any incidents that might impact Fort Gordon.

Recognizing that the incident being reported was heading in their direction, he ordered the sentries to secure the gate, then used his own radio to verify that Gate Three, about a mile west, off Highway Seventy-Eight, was also on alert. He watched as the two sentries at Gate two, one a Private First Class and the other a Corporal donned their flak jackets and retrieved their M-16s before stepping outside the booth to take up defensive positions.

Under normal circumstances, one of the sentries would have remained inside the guard booth, prepared to release the ten-inch metal posts that would erupt from the ground to block access to the base, and sent a base-wide alert if necessary. With the Sergeant present, both sentries were free to face any threats directly. The Corporal held his field glasses up to scan as far up the access road as the terrain allowed.

~~~

Captain Avery English checked the time again. Only two minutes had passed since he had last checked, but he always grew impatient when Anna was late to pick him up.

He stood and watched through an observation window as the students in the classroom finished their attempted assault on a fictitious enemy's electrical infrastructure. It was one of the several exercises that the students would have to successfully complete as part of their cyber warfare training here at the Cyber Battle Lab. Avery took pride in the fact that the exercises that he had developed weeded out more than eighty percent of the trainees, leaving only the very best candidates to move on to the advanced training required to become part of America's cyber defense organization.

Since many of the exercises in the Cyber Battle Lab required the students to wear headphones, there was no intercom or audio alert system installed in the building. Instead, red lights would begin strobing when a warning of any type was issued, and one of the instructors would retrieve the pertinent notification from their computer. Avery saw the red light flashing and walked back to his office to see what the situation was.

He saw that it was a simple notification of civilian emergency activity in proximity to the base. These types of notifications were common and usually intended to let the military and civilian personnel on the base know what areas outside of the base to avoid for a period of time. He saw that the area in question involved the route that Anna would be taking and hoped that whatever it was didn't delay her arrival too much. They had some serious celebrating to do that night.

~~~

Anna saw the flashing blue lights of law enforcement vehicles in her mirror, but they were at least two miles back and she was less than fifty yards from a red light at Highway Seventy-Eight with the gray van once more right behind her. She had made her choice of options, so now she needed to execute it.

Robinson Road had three lanes as it approached Highway Seventy-Eight. One of the lanes turned left only, one of the lanes went straight only, and the last lane went either straight or allowed traffic to turn right, heading west on the highway. She chose the right lane as soon as it came up but didn't signal a right turn.

She watched as the driver of the van vacillated momentarily, trying to decide whether to follow in the same lane, or try to pull up beside her in the lane to the left of her. That delay allowed Anna to accelerate around the car in front of her and speed onto the ramp to the highway. The van had to brake and then back up before it had the clearance necessary to follow her.

She would be breaking several traffic laws, but that was inconsequential at the moment. There was a concrete divider separating the onramp from the thru traffic lanes of the highway that extended approximately one hundred yards before the divider turned to grass. As soon as she cleared the concrete divider section, Anna looked for other traffic and then hung a U-turn across the grass divider and the west-bound lane. She was now heading east, back towards Robinson Road, where she would then be able to turn right and be on the access road to Gate Two.

Anna didn't know what type of engine was in the gray van, but it was undoubtedly more powerful than hers. By the time she had turned onto the access road, the van was once more directly behind her, but what was worse was the sudden sound of more gunshots. She glanced over her shoulder at Trey and saw his eyes were wide in surprise at what was going on. She then saw the tear in the leather seatback just inches from Trey's left shoulder and her heart almost stopped. She didn't know where the bullet had ended up, but it had come far too close to her son on its path.

~~~

The sentry Corporal shouted, "The lead vehicle is one of ours!" He could see the Fort Gordon sticker on the windshield through his field glasses. He had watched the maneuver that the driver had made at the highway and quickly ascertained that it was being chased by the gray van.

The Provost Sergeant had been listening from the door of the guard booth. He didn't need a report from either of the sentries to recognize that someone in the gray van was shooting at the SUV with the Fort Gordon access sticker.

"Prepare to engage the gray van!" the Sergeant commanded. Both sentries took up firing positions and watched as the two vehicles continued racing towards them. They ignored the sound of the hydraulics as the steel barricade posts rose from the ground.

"Fire!" shouted the Sergeant the second that the gray van came into range of the Sentries' M-16s. Three-round bursts from both weapons tore through the windshield and front grill of the van. Two additional bursts resulted in both tires on the driver's side of the van shredding completely.

The van swerved suddenly to the left and rolled onto its right side, sliding and skidding as it continued its motion towards the gate. It finally came to rest less than fifteen feet from the barricades. The sentries held their fire as the SUV with a young woman driving stopped with her front bumper resting against the barricade posts.

The Sergeant pushed the button to lower the barricade posts on the entry side of the guard gate and motioned for the driver to pull forward. Once the SUV had moved far enough forward, he raised the barricades again. One Grovetown police cruiser screamed to a stop behind the gray van. It was followed almost immediately by two Columbia County Sheriff's cars and a Georgia State Patrol car.

Anna jumped out of her seat and raced around to open the back door next to Trey. He fumbled with the seatbelt release more than normal as his panicked mother was also trying to get Trey out of the SUV so that she could examine every inch of his body. She paid no attention to the activity surrounding the van, or to the armed sentries taking up positions to shield her and her son from further risk from outside the base.

~~~

Captain Avery English was explaining the alert notification to three of his instructors when two military police officers found him. The one wearing the bars of a Chief Warrant Officer Three announced, "Sir, we have been instructed to transport you immediately to Gate Two. Please come with us."

Avery didn't hesitate or ask any questions. He instinctively knew that this involved his wife and son and he didn't want to delay getting to them. The MP's seemed to understand the Captain's urgency as they quickly turned and trotted towards the exit, confident that their charge would be right behind them.

The Cyber Battle Lab is the closest structure to Gate Two. Through the oddity of military map logic, the Lab was located on Nineteenth Street. Turning right out of the parking lot would lead to the Fort Gordon Prisoner of War cemetery, while turning left would lead to the intersection with another Nineteenth Street. A right at this intersection would take them to Gate Two.

Making the right from Nineteenth Street onto Nineteenth Street, The MP's and Avery immediately saw the commotion taking place just inside and outside the closed base entrance. Avery's heart was about to explode in his chest until he finally saw Anna surrounded by armed sentries and MP's, with Trey holding her hand. Avery ran to them, ignoring the salutes all around him.

"Are you both okay?" Avery asked.

Anna fell into his arms and said, "We are now. I don't understand why carjackers would shoot at us. Putting bullet holes in a car isn't going to increase its value."

"You were chased by carjackers?" Avery asked as he glanced out at the scene on the other side of the secured entrance to the base. Fire department EMTs had arrived and were waiting to examine the occupants of the van. From what Avery could determine, three male bodies were lying on the ground beside the van. One of those had a jacket of some sort draped over his upper body and head, indicating that he was deceased.

Anna turned and saw what Avery was looking at, and then said, "Can we get Trey away from here?"

"Sure," Avery said. He then released Anna and went looking for the Chief Warrant Officer who had driven him there. He found him talking to the Provost Marshal, a Major who commanded the security detail for Camp Gordon. Avery saluted the Major and said, "My wife would like to get my son away from the scene. Would it be possible to get us a ride to our house?"

The Major nodded and said, "This is going to be a jurisdictional cluster fuck for hours. Where do you live?"

"We own a house just across the South Carolina border, near Beech Island," Avery told him. "It's about ten miles from here."

The Major smiled and said, "Excellent. That will make things even more inconvenient for those red-necked yahoos out there. Give me five minutes and I'll have a car here to drive you and your family home."

"Thank you, Sir," Avery said as he saluted before returning to Anna.

"Let's wait over by these cars," Avery instructed her, taking her other hand. "A car is on its way to drive us home."

He led his wife and son to the Humvee that he had been driven in earlier. He leaned against the tailgate and put his hand on Trey's shoulder. "Hey, Big Guy, what did you think of the excitement?"

"It was noisy," Trey answered. "Especially when the window got broken."

"I bet it was," Avery said. "I'm proud of you for not bothering your mom while she was driving. Do you understand that some bad men were trying to steal our car and your mom got you both away from them?"

"Yep, Mom told me when the soldiers with guns came to help us."

"Your mom did a great job protecting both of you and we need to show her how proud we are of her. What do you think we should do?"

"Kiss her?" Trey asked.

"Great idea!" Avery said with a chuckle. "Why don't you start showing her right now?"

As soon as Avery removed his hand from his son's shoulder, Trey scooted over to his mother. Anna was giggling as she leaned down to allow Trey to plant a quick kiss on her cheek. She then rose and stepped into her husband's arms for the kiss that she wanted the most.

When an Army staff car, driven by an MP Sergeant pulled up, Avery released Anna from his arms and walked over to chat with the driver. He wanted to verify that this was their ride before signaling for Anna and Trey to join him. The armed MP in the front passenger seat, who was also a Sergeant, got out of the sedan, saluted Avery, and then opened the back door to allow the family to get in. Anna slid across the backseat, followed by Trey, and finally Avery. The Sergeant closed the door and retook his seat up front.

"Although you won't have a lot of choices with this gate out of commission," Avery said, "it would be fastest if you exited through Gate One. Then take Highway Seventy-Eight to Interstate Five-Twenty east. I'll give you further directions after that."

"No need, Sir," the driver said as he hung a U-turn. "We were given your address and already have it programmed into the GPS. We'll have you all safely home in about fifteen minutes."

It was only thirteen minutes later, but dusk was fully upon them when the Sergeant driving said, "My apologies, Captain. The GPS has apparently taken us to the wrong location."

Before Avery could answer, Trey exclaimed, "We're home!"

"Sir, this is your house?" The driver asked in obvious confusion.

"Yes, Sergeant. Give me a moment and I'll go enter the code for the gate."

The two Sergeants sat in awe as they examined what they could see of the estate before their eyes. The gated entry obstructed most of the house, but what they could see was very impressive. The driveway forked, with one leg heading to a circular drive that would allow them to drop their passengers directly in front of the huge, double-door entry, while the other leg went around the side of the house, presumably toward a garage area.

The house was of French Colonial design, having two stories with large, wrap-around covered porches on both levels. From the second-story porch, the view of the Savannah River would be spectacular. Judging from the number of windows, the Sergeants estimated that the house had at least six bedrooms and it must have been more than four thousand square feet in total under-roof space.

The Sergeant in the passenger seat said under his breath, "Man, I knew I should have been an officer."

The Sergeants were paying so much attention to the house, that they didn't notice the three men approaching the Captain from the bushes as he stood at the keypad entering the code that would open the gate. Their attention was drawn away from the house when they heard the first scream of pain.

"Christ!" the driver said as he quickly put the car into park and jumped out. The second Sergeant was close behind him as they drew their sidearms, preparing to engage the assailants. Their problem was that there were no longer any assailants to engage. There was only the Captain, standing over three injured and obviously disabled bodies on the ground. As the Sergeants each started examining the men, and collecting their discarded weapons, they were lost for words at what they saw.

One of the assailants had his right arm bent at such a horrendous angle that they knew without a doubt that the shoulder would be totally dislocated. The pain from that would be a close match to the pain that this man would be experiencing from the compound fracture of either the Tibia or Fibula that had penetrated the skin.

The second and third assailants were unconscious, with the swelling of their throats posing an immediate risk to their ability to breathe. While the Sergeants knew basic first aid, these men would likely need an airway established by a trained EMT or physician quickly or they wouldn't survive.

"I've already called Nine-One-One," Captain Avery said. "Please get my wife and son to the house while I wait for emergency responders to arrive."

"Yes, Sir," the Sergeants said in unison.

The one from the passenger side said, "We're going to have to report this to the Major."

"Definitely," agreed Avery. "I don't think that it is any coincidence that these men were waiting here at our house so soon after my wife and son were accosted in their car. I'm certain that the Major will agree, but please contact him once my family is safe in the house."

~~~

Anna knew what their house looked like, so she hadn't focused on it as the two Sergeants had. She had watched Avery as he left the car and walked toward the keypad for the gate. She hadn't had time to shout a warning or even gasp when she saw the three men with weapons rushing out of the bushes toward her husband.

Avery had tried to explain his martial arts training to her on several occasions, especially the techniques specific to Krav Maga, but nothing that he had described could have prepared her for what she had just witnessed.

As two of the men rushed toward Avery with their guns pointed at him, they had been met with simultaneous lightning-fast blows to their necks from Avery's fists. Each man had immediately grasped at their throats as they fell to the ground. The third man had started to raise his gun toward Avery's head when Avery dropped, and swung his leg out, catching the man's shin with the heel of his foot. As the man screamed in pain and began falling, Avery had grabbed the arm with the gun and used it to throw the man against the stone wall that surrounded their property.

Trey was trying to unfasten his seatbelt so that he could lean forward on the back seat to see what was happening that caused the two Sergeants to rush out of the car. Anna placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "Everything is fine, Trey. Stay seated and we'll be at the house shortly."

Trey sat back and then asked, "Mom, what are we going to have for dinner?"

Anna was tempted to reply, "Visitors", and while she knew that it was true that the events of the last couple of hours would likely bring several people to their house tonight, she didn't want to provoke Trey into asking more questions. Instead, she said, "How about macaroni and cheese with hot dogs?"

~~~

Avery assumed a position to wait for the EMT and authorities that would allow him to keep an eye on the three assailants while watching the two Sergeants escorting Anna and Trey into their house. He returned Anna's wave just before she closed the front door.

One of the Sergeants took up station just outside the front door as the other Sergeant drove the car back out to the entrance gate. As soon as the back of the car had cleared the gate, Avery entered the code that closed it.

The sound of sirens approaching in the distance accompanied the noise of the Sergeant exiting the car and walking to stand next to Avery.

"You should probably call the Major now," Avery advised.

"Yes, sir." The Sergeant began dialing his cell phone as he walked back to his car. The sound of approaching sirens was increasing in volume. Red and blue lights of the responding police cars were being reflected on the water of the Savannah River across the street. Sirens were being shut off as the numerous police and EMT vehicles neared the scene.

The first Aiken County Sheriff's deputy to arrive on the scene quickly exited his car and walked to the driver's side window of the Army staff car where the Sergeant was still speaking on his cell phone. When the deputy tapped on the window, Avery shouted to him, "Over here, Deputy."

Avery was still dressed in his Army Combat Uniform, or ACUs. The camouflage pattern was allowing him to blend in with the bushes behind where he stood so the deputy hadn't noticed him until he had spoken. With his right hand on the holster of his weapon, the deputy walked over to where he now saw an Army captain standing.

"Are you the person that reported an attempted assault by three intruders?" the deputy asked.

Avery responded by pointing to the three still forms of the men lying partially obscured by the lower branches of the bushes and the growing shadows of dusk. The deputy used his flashlight to illuminate the three bodies just as the first EMTs came jogging up.

Before Avery could explain what had occurred, the MP Sergeant trotted over to him with his arm extended, "Captain, the Major needs to speak with you."

"Very well, Sergeant," Avery said as he accepted the proffered cell phone. "Please explain to the deputy what transpired here."

Avery stepped to the other side of the drive before speaking into the phone, "This is Captain English."

He recognized the voice of the Provost Marshal who had arranged for his transportation home when he said, "Hold on Captain. General Curtane needs to speak with you."

Avery waited as he heard the phone on the other end being passed to his commanding officer. "Avery, what is yours and your family's situation. The sergeant filled us in on events at your house. Are you all secure?"

"Yes, sir," Avery assured him. "Is there something that I need to know about?"

"A helicopter should be arriving at your location shortly with three agents from Homeland Security. They have an urgent need to discuss something with you, the subject of which they refused to disclose to me. They did inform me not to expect your return to duty for the foreseeable future."

"Excuse me? Sir, we're in the middle of a critical training session, and..."

"I understand, Captain, but two hours ago I received direct orders from the Pentagon to provide our full and complete cooperation to the Department of Homeland Security where your duty to the Army is concerned."

"Sir, did you say two hours ago? That's at least an hour before any of this -- whatever 'this' is started. Is there anything more that you can tell me?"

"Only that the alert level for our unit has been increased and that we are to expect a contingent of visitors over the next several hours from a multitude of federal agencies. Major Wilton and his staff will be meeting with a security expert from DHS within the hour to discuss securing the base from all visitors starting at Oh hundred. Phoebe Lawson will arrive from Atlanta in the morning and we have a ten AM conference call scheduled with the other regional CISC offices. The subject of the call has not been disclosed, at least not to me."

Avery recognized the name of Phoebe Lawson, who is the Region Four director for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency out of Atlanta. He had attended several seminars and conferences where she was also a participant. He heard the distinctive sound of an approaching helicopter, so he wanted to get his next question to the Colonel answered before it was too late, "Sir, do I still report to you?"

"Officially, yes you do, but you will be presented with temporary duty assignment orders by the DHS agents on their way to meet with you."

The helicopter was landing on the street about fifty yards from the farthest emergency vehicle at the scene, which included six county sheriff vehicles, three EMT trucks, and two state police cars.

"Sir, would you like me to report back to you on what I learn?"

"That won't be necessary, Avery. I will be told what others believe I need to know. That being said, if there is anything that I can do for you or your family don't hesitate to call me."

"I will, Sir. Thank you."

Chapter Six

"We need to talk..."

Anna glanced up from her laptop and nearly fainted at the sight of her husband. His face was streaked with tears and held an expression of anguish such as she had never seen. Recovering quickly, she rose from her chair at the dining room table and rushed to him.

Throwing her arms around Avery and hugging him with all of her might, she asked, "Oh my God, Ace, what's wrong?"

Avery broke from her embrace and asked, "Where's Trey? Is he already in bed?"

Anna used her hands to wipe the latest tears from her husband's face as she said, "He's in his room getting ready for his bath. What's wrong?"

"I'll explain in a minute."

Avery walked to the downstairs bathroom, splashed water onto his face, and dried it off before heading upstairs. He instructed Trey not to get undressed, but to wait in his room while he and his mom had a talk. He returned downstairs to find Anna standing in the same spot where he had left her, the worry and confusion evident on her face.

Avery put his arm around her waist and led her into the living room. He sat on the couch and coaxed Anna to sit beside him, but she slid onto his lap instead so that she could remain closer to him. Once they were both settled, she waited for Avery to explain what had happened to cause him so much pain that he cried for the first time in all the years that they had been a couple.

Avery took a deep breath and spoke in a shaky voice when he said, "If you haven't figured it out, the incident with those men in the van and the incident in front of our house were connected." He choked back a sob as he continued, "They're also connected to another incident that happened earlier today. Both of my parents were murdered in their house."

Anna was too stunned to speak. Despair swelled within her chest and her heart seemed to flutter. She collapsed onto Avery as her own tears sprang forth, accompanying the sobs that soon racked her body. Avery's renewed sobs had both of them physically sharing the devastating anguish and loss as they clung to one another for several minutes. There were no loud sobs, no strangled breathing, there was nothing to indicate the emotional pain that they each felt other than the tears that slowly trickled down their faces. The thought of Trey discovering them both in this state finally brought Avery out of his suffering for the moment.

Then the immense pain, that came with the acknowledgment that there could be no denial of the facts, settled in. Avery sat silently as Anna rose from his lap and followed his earlier example of going to the downstairs bathroom to wash her face. She returned with a wet washcloth and gently wiped the tears from her husband's face once more. As she settled back onto Avery's lap, she leaned against him and asked, "What's going on?"

Ignoring her question for the time being, he said, "You and Trey need to go back to Fort Gordon tonight."

Anna leaned back to look Avery in the eyes, "Why? Why can't we stay here with you?"

Placing his hands on both sides of Anna's face and drawing her to his for a kiss, he said, "Because I won't be here and you both need to be someplace safe and secure. I have been temporarily assigned to the CISC under the Department of Homeland Security and will be leaving tonight for Greenville. The belief of the team investigating the murder of my parents, as well as the incidents here today is that they are all related to Janus."

"But you recused yourself from any of the testing of Janus..." Anna countered.

"Yes, because Saturn Systems was run by my father, but I still kept current on the development progress. The project is scheduled to go live next month and DHS believes that at least two foreign governments are trying to prevent that from happening. The survivors from the van are all North Korean agents. The men out front appear to be Middle Eastern. Security videos from my parent's house showed five men, but they were all masked."

"That doesn't explain why the men in the van were shooting at me and Trey," Anna said. "We aren't involved with Janus or Saturn Systems."

Avery lifted her from his lap and set her on the couch beside him, and then turned to face her, "Our guess is that they were trying to kidnap one or both of you as leverage against me. With my father dead, I am the only person with the biometrics required to allow for Janus to be moved from the development sandbox system to the operational servers for launch and distribution. That's apparently what they are trying to stop. They want to prevent Janus from launching."

"My God, Ace, that means that if they kill you, they'll accomplish their objective. If anyone needs to be secured within the gates of Fort Gordan, it's you."

Avery was shaking his head as he rose, "Killing me would be pointless for them once Janus launches. I need to get to Saturn Systems to make certain that happens as soon as possible in order to get the target off all of us. Testing is ninety-five percent complete, with only a few data mapping functions to be verified, so moving the launch up shouldn't affect the expected performance. I will be escorted by a team of counterterrorism specialists from DHS and probably better protected than the President until Janus goes live."

Rising from the couch and then holding out his hand to help Anna stand, he once more wrapped her in his arms as he continued, "Let's go get some things packed to hold you and Trey for a couple of days. If you pack your things, I'll help Trey with his."

As she turned to walk with Avery towards the bedrooms, Anna had a terrifying thought, "Ace, what about my parents? Has anyone checked on them?"

"I have no idea. Have you spoken with them today?"

"No, I have been kind of preoccupied since I picked Trey up. Should I try calling them now?"

"Which house would they be using this time of year?"

"They're at their condo in Myrtle Beach from October through March."

Avery started walking towards the front door. Over his shoulder, he said, "Text me the address for the condo before you call them, then go start packing. I'll let the DHS guys know to check on your parents and then I'll start on Trey's stuff."

"Okay, but be thinking about how we're going to break the news to Trey about your parents. We need to do that together, as well as explain why me and him will be staying on the base while you're away."

~~~

Bernice Rankin glanced through the crack of the bathroom door when she heard someone entering the hotel room. Recognizing her lover, Clay Jenkins, she paused in dressing as she greeted him, "You're pretty late."

"We're lucky I made it at all tonight," Clay said as he leaned into the bathroom to give her a quick kiss on the lips before stepping back toward the bed. He placed his service weapon onto the side table and began to unfasten his utility belt at the same time he was kicking off his shoes.

Bernie, as she preferred to be called, stepped out of the bathroom naked. She walked over to Clay and began helping him undress. "Problems getting away from wifey?"

"No, there was a clusterfuck of an incident over off Robinson Road this afternoon that I got dispatched to assist with. A van full of guys was trying to carjack some woman and her kid. Turned out that her husband is stationed at the base and she led the guys chasing her right into an ambush at Gate Two. I probably would still be there investigating had the Feds not shown up and taken everything over."

Bernie dropped to her knees in front of Clay and said, "Well, you're here now and we have time for a quicky if we don't dawdle. I have to get home by eight to beat Clint."

Seven months prior, Georgia State Patrol officer, Clay Rankin, had pulled over a silver Mercedes convertible with South Carolina plates for speeding. It didn't take much for the gorgeous blonde woman driving to talk herself out of a citation by offering Clay "the best blow job you have ever had". That had been the beginning of the once, and sometimes twice a week interludes between Bernie Rankin and Clay Jenkins. Both were married, happily in the case of Clay to his wife, Becky, and tolerable for Bernie who was the bored, rich trophy wife of Clint Rankin, the Solicitor for Aiken County, South Carolina.

Bernie finished her post-sexual shower and carried her clothes from the bathroom so that she could dress while Clay used the shower for his own cleanup. She switched on the local news to keep her company while she waited for Clay to finish so that he could walk her out to her car. This was a mid-range hotel, so the seedier elements that one might expect to be around the property of a lower quality establishment probably wouldn't be an issue for her, but why not take advantage of having an armed law enforcement officer see her to her vehicle?

The leading news story was a brief piece on what was suspected to be the attempted carjacking that Clay had mentioned to her. The Feds had indeed taken over the investigation and were being extremely tight-lipped. This was followed by a story about another lawsuit against the Augusta Country Club's membership restrictions. The third story concerned a brutal murder near Greenville, South Carolina that involved some tech company mogul and his wife. This story became the lead-in for the next one related to an attempted home invasion just across the Savannah River. The reporters didn't mention the names of the homeowners involved, but one look at the front of the house told Bernie the names of the owners who lived there, English.

She had never formally met the family that lived in the house, but every time she and her husband drove past it, he would curse the name. She had been able to discern enough from his grumbling over the years to understand that his vitriol was not aimed at the residents of the house themselves, but the name "English" specifically, and deduced that someone by that name had become a political adversary of her husband at some point. She switched to another news station in time to hear their version of the reported murders near Greenville and catch the name of the couple. It too was "English".

Bernie picked up her cell phone before walking to the bathroom door. "How late could you stay if I could stay later?" she yelled over the sound of the shower.

Clay stuck his head out and said, "I could call home and explain that I am having to work an extra shift. I'm scheduled off tomorrow, so it wouldn't be unheard of for me to work a double the day before. Why?"

Pulling the door almost completely closed, she said, "Just be quiet while I make a call then I'll explain."

Stepping back into the hotel room, Bernie listened to see if the sounds from the bathroom were too noticeable. Satisfied that they weren't, she dialed her husband's cell phone. "Hi, Sweetie. How far are you from Columbia?"

After her husband replied, she relayed what she had heard on the news. His reaction was just as she had anticipated. "Of course, Sweetie, I understand. You take care of whatever you need to and I'll see you when you get home tomorrow. I love you too."

Hearing the shower turn off, she pushed the bathroom door open fully and said, "I'm yours all night if you're up to it."

"How'd you swing that?" Clay asked.

"Some people that my husband and a few of his associates have had a hard-on over for the last few years just got themselves killed today up in the upstate. I knew that they would want to meet as soon as possible to discuss their options, so I simply made him aware of the situation and let his political ambitions do the rest. He'll be in Columbia all night."

Clay tossed his wet towel back into the bathroom and reached for his cell phone. He said, "Now, you be quiet while getting undressed and I call home. When I'm done, you'll be screaming for the rest of the night."

~~~

Avery heard the text alert and picked up his cell phone from the bedside table to read the message. He then relayed the information to Anna lying beside him, "Your parents are secure at the Naval Weapons Station at Joint Base Charleston."

"Thank God. I can't imagine what would have happened if they hadn't decided to take a day trip to Charleston and had been at their condo this morning."

Avery read another message that had just arrived. "Your mom was seen by a doctor who prescribed a sedative to help her sleep."

"That's good. She was hysterical on the phone when I told her about your parents. I'm glad that my dad was with her at the time, even if he didn't take the news much better than she did. You know, I think that the only thing that kept me from losing it worse when you told me was the fact that I was still somewhat on an adrenalin high from the earlier events. As I came down from that, being with you was my saving grace. Of course, being with you has always been my saving grace. I'm glad that you didn't have to leave tonight and we could spend the night together. We all need to be together, tonight of all nights."

Avery set his cell phone back onto the table and placed his arm back around Anna, pulling her against him. They were lying in a double bed within one of the bedrooms of the duplexes at Fort Gordon. Trey was asleep on a cot at the foot of their bed.

Avery knew that his family was as safe and secure as the United States Army could make them. They were sequestered deep within an Army base that was currently on high alert, with heavily armed sentries surrounding their current residence. An intruder would have to breach the secured gates of the base, then travel miles through alert and fortified base security measures before facing some of the best trained and equipped sentries surrounding this structure. Landing on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day would be less challenging. All of that aside, Avery was responsible for protecting his family and he wanted them close to him.

Anna began running her fingers through the hairs on his chest as she asked, "Is there anything that I can do to assist with arrangements for your parents?"

Avery had always admired Anna's strength and courage, but her stability and fortitude over the last few hours had been nothing but amazing, and he was so proud of her. He said, "Not yet. Their bodies probably won't be released by the medical examiner for a week or two. I'll try to meet with their estate attorney when I go to Greeneville to get that process started and to review what arrangements my parents have already made. We had discussed the basics related to their wishes years ago, but I can't assume that something didn't get changed since then."

"Okay. Just let me know when or if there is anything that I can do to help. If you need my dad to pull any strings with his firm to get you in to see the estate attorney on your schedule, I'm certain that he would do anything you asked. As the senior partner, he still carries a lot of weight there, even if he is semi-retired."

"Would you rather go to Charleston to stay on that base with your parents while I'm gone, or possibly have them brought here? The unit next door is vacant, and the impression that I get from the DHS team is that they have been told to do whatever we want as long as it doesn't jeopardize our safety."

Anna considered his question for a few seconds before responding, "Let me discuss it with my parents in the morning. We don't know when you'll get taken to Greenville yet. Between the incidents here outside the base and the one at our house, it may take a while for the different agencies involved to wrap up their investigations, or at least get them to a point where they'll let you leave the area."

"The guys from Homeland Security weren't as concerned about getting me to Greenville immediately once they had both the of the affected servers at Saturn Systems secured and us sequestered here on the base, but I think that they'll still try to get me there sooner rather than later. You're the legal eagle, could the Feds overrule the local authorities and whisk me away without their consent?"

"You're not a suspect or charged with a crime," Anna said. "At this point, we're all just material witnesses, so it would be difficult for the local authorities to justify denying the federal government being able to take you anywhere in the country."

Avery knew that sleep would be elusive for him this night, but he settled his head onto his pillow and let Anna find her normal position against his side. She would typically fall to sleep nestled up against him, and then eventually roll over, facing away. Like a compass seeking magnetic north, sometime during the night, while he slept, his body would roll towards Anna's. They would wake to find him spooned against her, with his hand covering her breast and his erection pressed against her firm, inviting derriere. Although they hadn't slept together every night in the last twelve years, each morning that they had awoken together, their positions had been the same.

As he heard Anna's breathing becoming more of the soft rhythmic pattern that he recognized as her succumbing to slumber, Avery's thoughts turned to Janus, and why it was worth dying for.

~~~

Janus was the Roman god that ruled over the beginning and end of conflict, or hence, war and peace. Often depicted as having two faces, one looking to the past while the other looked to the future, he was believed to preside over beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings.

Janus, the code name given to the top-secret development of an application that would protect America's cyber networks, while at the same time become a weapon that could disable the cyber networks of America's enemies. It would provide the strongest cyber security for government and private-sector networks, making them impenetrable and providing a gateway into other countries' networks and systems that could not be obstructed.

Janus, the idea of Avery's father, Charles English, who was also the chief developer within Saturn Systems and the guardian of all access to the launch of the application. A responsibility that he shared with only one other person; his son, Avery. During the years that Avery had spent at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, father and son had shared hundreds of hours discussing vulnerabilities in America's cyber security and potential in its cyber warfare systems. Many of the applications and processes utilized in these had been developed by Saturn Systems, and Charles English saw an opportunity to meld defensive and offensive capabilities into a single solution that he had named, Janus.

The American military and civilian cyber security operations had been testing Janus for eighteen months, and each attempt to breach a network protected by it had failed. Similarly, covert penetration tests of some of the most secure networks where Janus had not been deployed were completely successful and entirely undetected. Even though Avery had recused himself from any of the testings of Janus, he did know that others in his group had used it to penetrate foreign government networks without detection. One prankster had even used Janus access to turn the clock back on the system that controlled the launch of Russian spacecraft. Air Force observers laughed when they saw the three-minute timing error during the next attempted launch of a Russian satellite.

Avery and his father had last spoken over the weekend, when they had discussed plans for the families to get together for Thanksgiving. Charles English had mentioned that he had intended to transition Janus over from the sandbox, or testing server, to the main server in preparation for complete deployment onto all government networks and systems. Of course, no part of Janus physically existed at Saturn Systems; The location wasn't secure enough for something so sensitive and critical to American cybersecurity. What did exist in a heavily guarded vault at Saturn Systems, was a terminal that was connected via secure fiber optic cable to the secret government data center, somewhere in the Smoky Mountains, very similar to the legendary Cheyenne Mountain, home of NORAD. This terminal could be accessed with the biometric parameters that now, only Avery possessed.

Foreign governments and criminal organizations must have learned of the pending launch of Janus because several US government agencies had noted activities that signaled serious preemptive probing of American systems had been occurring over the past few weeks. Most cyberattacks don't just happen in an instant. There's activity that leads up to it. There's scanning and probing, researching a victim, searching for vulnerabilities and systems. There are developing strategies to gain access to those systems. There's a whole range of preparatory work, which is what multiple federal and defense department agencies had been seeing.

The Director of National Security was establishing a committee to oversee the deployment of Janus to commercial networks around the country on an expedited basis. The offensive components of Janus would be managed by the U.S. Cyber Command, but Avery knew that his team at Fort Gordan would play a role in that deployment.

"His Team." What did that mean anymore? Avery didn't know if, or when he might be allowed to return to his previous duties. He did know that his physical presence was required at Saturn Systems. His biometric features were the only ones besides his father's that the Janus application would recognize with the appropriate administrator rights to facilitate the transition from test to "live" server. Knowing his father, Avery also suspected that the same biometric authorization would be required to deploy the application each time.

Avery had chosen his education and career path intending to serve his country on the frontlines of cybersecurity, before and after his military duty was completed. It looked like he was being thrown into the heart of his objective with more urgency than he had expected, but he was ready. Or was he?

~~~

"I'll text you about where we can meet for breakfast," Lance Gallman spoke into his cell phone, and then immediately terminated the call from Clint Rankin. He had to make another call before it got any later.

Scrolling quickly through the contact list on his phone, Lance selected the one he desired and initiated the new call. It might be late for some people, but when the Attorney General for the State of South Carolina called you, you answered regardless of the time.

"Good evening, Lance," greeted William Felber, Greenville County Solicitor. "I didn't expect your call until tomorrow morning, but I assume you heard the news earlier than I had anticipated."

"What can you tell me about it, Bill?"

"Typical Gallman," thought Felber. Brusk and to the point as always.

"I think you should check in with John Graham," Felder advised. "Although I'm not sure how much he'll be able to tell you either. The Feds swooped in on the scene within hours and have shut everyone else out."

As the Director of the State Department of Law Enforcement, SLED, John Graham's agency should have been the lead organization investigating the death of a member of the state Senate. Lance Gallman would definitely call Graham next, but he wanted to learn what Bill Felber knew first.

"Tell me what you know," Gallman said. "I'll call John after that."

"I don't know much. Sometime this morning Laura English and her husband were attacked in their home by five unidentified assailants. Their bodies were discovered when someone from Charles English's company came by the house to check into why he had missed an important meeting. Responding deputies reported a brutal scene with both victims being deceased. Once they confirmed the identity of the victims and recognized that Laura English was a state senator, they contacted SLED. While the deputies were securing the scene, the person from Charles English's company reported back to his manager and this apparently created a shit storm that had federal agents arriving in droves..."

Gallman interrupted, "Why would the Feds be interested in the death of one of our state senators?"

"They aren't," Felber explained. "They're throwing a national security blanket over the incident due to the death of Charles English."

Gallman knew that Charles English had money. Hell, he had used enough of it supporting anyone running against Gallman for years. Lance Gallman was convinced that he would be a United States Senator today if Laura English hadn't thrown her political support and her husband's money behind his opponent two years ago. Her political influence in the state being turned against him was enough of an obstacle, but when her husband's money was piled on top of that, anyone that Laura English wanted to be elected, usually got elected. Gallman was trailing in the polls in his attempt to be re-elected in a couple of weeks due to the campaign that his opponent was running with the help of the Englishs.

Laura English had been a thorn in the side of Lance Gallman since she was first elected to the state assembly over ten years ago. A popular and politically connected city councilwoman, she had run unopposed for the assembly seat of the former House Speaker, Boyd Stewart. With his endorsement and guidance, she had consistently held key committee assignments that she skillfully leveraged to build her political influence even further frequently at the expense of Gallman's influence when was in the state assembly. When she had announced that she was going to seek the state senate seat for her district, the incumbent announced that he would not seek re-election and she once again won an uncontested election. Once in the state senate, Laura English had sought and received an appointment to the Judiciary Committee, which she had chaired now for the last three years. This role placed her in one of the most powerful positions in Columbia, and put her constantly in direct conflict with many of the legislative actions that the Attorney General wanted to sneak through into law.

Gallman thought quickly and said, "Get in touch with the clerk of the probate court for Greenville County first thing in the morning. Find out all you can about any wills that Laura English and her husband have registered and then instruct the clerk to send all copies to my office.

Chuckling to himself, Gallman justified his instructions with, "I suspect that they have established trusts for their estates to roll over into, and I want to ensure that South Carolina's inheritance laws are not being manipulated in any way."

Maybe he could achieve some satisfaction against the Englishs in their death that he had been unable to do when they were alive.

Chapter Seven

Thursday, October 8, 2020

"We need to talk,"

Clint Rankin wished he had a dime for every time that the Roger King, the Sheriff for Aiken County started a conversation with those words.

"Make it quick," Rankin said while checking the time. "I have a breakfast meeting with the Attorney General in a few minutes."

"Did you hear about the incident out on Riverside Parkway last night?" King asked. "The dispatch was for an attempted home invasion, but we could use your legal opinion on the circumstances."

"Is that the incident near Beech Island involving a guy named English?"

"That's the one," King confirmed. "The homeowner, named Avery English, was opening the gate at his driveway when he claims that three armed men menacingly approached him. He is a captain stationed at Gordon and also apparently some kind of martial arts master. As a result of his actions, which he claims were in self-defense, two of the men that he alleged to have attacked him have died from their injuries. The third guy is still in surgery where they have amputated his right leg and are trying to save his right arm."

"So, he killed two men with his martial arts skills?" asked Rankin. "Were any weapons found that could be tied to the three men?"

"Three hand guns were recovered at the scene. They each bear the fingerprints of one of the three men. Our question is, where does our state's 'Castle Doctrine' draw the line of where a person can be located to be covered under it. The incident occurred outside the gated entry to the house. According to the county records, it might have occurred on the county right-of-way along the edge of the street."

"In a civilian case, that's something that would have to be determined at the hearing," Rankin explained. "The determination of whether a Defendant claiming immunity under the 'Castle Doctrine' is entitled to that immunity is made at a pretrial hearing. What this means is that before any trial of any civil or criminal matter in which a Defendant claims immunity under the 'Castle Doctrine', the Court has to hold an evidentiary hearing during which witnesses must testify under oath. The Defendant has to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he or she is entitled to immunity."

"There's more," King said. "In addition to determining exactly where the events occurred, my investigators think that a case might be made that this Captain English used excessive force. There were two armed MPs from Fort Gordon in the car that transported the captain and his family home. Had they confronted the assailants instead, with their training and experience, would the use of deadly force have been necessary?"

Rankin considered this and asked, "Where is this Captain now? Do you have him in custody?"

"No, he and his family were escorted back to the Fort by the MPs and agents from Homeland Security. I have a call into our liaison with the Provost Marshal to request that Captain English be confined to the base and to arrange for my investigators to interview him and other witnesses."

"Why wasn't he interviewed last night?"

"The Feds wouldn't allow it," King explained. "They played the 'National Security' card with the investigators on scene and wouldn't let them near him or his family."

"Okay. Keep me posted on what the liaison says. The event occurred off the captain's base, but he will still be held to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, in addition to any charges my office might file. I'll discuss this with the Attorney General when I meet with him and then call you during my drive back to Aiken this afternoon."

Clint Rankin didn't really have to guess what direction Lance Gallman would want him to go where anyone named English was concerned. He would want him to take the direction that caused the most pain and inconvenience as the law would allow -- and then some.

~~~

Rick Acosta saw he assumed was a warrant officer with the Army's Criminal Investigation Division standing by the staff car as soon as he stepped off the helicopter that had brought him to Fort Gordon. He had called ahead to the Provost Marshal's office to request transportation that would take him to pick up Captain English and return them both to the helicopter. He held up his credentials as he quickly strode over to the car.

"Mister, I'm Rick Acosta, Department of Homeland Security. Thanks for taking the time to meet me this morning."

The CW5 had a neutral expression on his face as he extended his hand to shake, "Simon Grenz. I'm up from Hunter Field to oversee the protective service for Captain English and his family. You may want to have your pilot either leave and come back for you or take a break for a few hours..."

Acosta interrupted, "I'm sorry, sir, but my orders are to pick up Captain English and transport him to Greenville within the hour. Will that be a problem?"

Grenz nodded and said, "At the request of the local authorities in Aiken County, the base JAG officer, Major Harris, ordered Captain English to remain here until the detectives investigating the incident at his residence have had an opportunity to interview him. They should be arriving at Gate One within the next half hour. Assuming that all they want to do is get his side of the incident, it shouldn't take more than a couple of hours."

"Sir, I'm afraid that the Major is placing me into a position where I will be forced to go over his head," Acosta calmly explained. "Captain English's presence in Greenville this morning is a matter of national security."

"The Major is a her, and you can try. But I spoke with my superior office, Colonel Ochoa before heading here to pick you up, and I'm certain that he consulted with General Sykes about Major Harris' decision. It isn't likely that either would overrule the orders before the investigators from the Aiken County Sheriff's office arrive and begin questioning Captain English."

Acosta simply smiled and asked, "Will you allow me to see Captain English while we wait?"

"Of course. Jump on in and I'll escort you to him. My men should have arrived at the Directorate of Emergency Services with Captain English by the time we get there."

As soon as he had his seat belt fastened, Rick Acosta lit up the airwaves with texts to Washington, DC and south-central Texas. Between the two locations, he would find someone to provide the assistance that he needed to fulfill his orders.

In less than ten minutes, they were pulling up to the facilities for the Directorate of Emergency Services. Grenz was preparing to turn the car off when his cell phone rang. Acosta noticed the non-descript unmarked SUV with a South Carolina "County Government" license plate. Two men were sitting inside of it, which he assumed were the investigators from the Aiken County Sheriff's office.

After an extremely brief and one-sided conversation on his phone, a frustrated Simon Grenz turned to Acosta and said, "You can remain seated. My men will be escorting Captain English out momentarily. He is free to travel where ever you feel is required for national security."

"You might want to let those two detectives know that they wasted a trip," Acosta advised, pointing to the SUV.

Grenz glanced at the SUV and saw that the two men were getting out of it just as two of his MP's were escorting Captain English out the front door of the Directorate building. He quickly exited his own vehicle and moved to join his men. Rick Acosta was only a couple of steps behind him when they met the group on the walkway.

"I thought that we were conducting the interrogation inside," said the sheriff detective who had introduced himself as Wyatt Sellers.

"Why isn't the suspect cuffed?" asked his partner, Detective Travis Gray.

Acosta simply nodded at Captain English and then remained silent to allow Grenz to explain the changed situation to the detectives. First, he addressed his MP's and said, "Escort Captain English to my car."

As the MP's followed their orders, Detective Sellers asked, "Where are you taking him?"

"To the base heliport," Grenz informed him. "Captain English is no longer under the jurisdiction of the United States Army."

"What do you mean? He's still in uniform."

"I didn't say that he wasn't in the Army, I just said that he was no longer under its jurisdiction."

"How can someone be in the Army but not under its jurisdiction?" asked Detective Gray.

Before Grenz could answer, Acosta told the detectives, "I'm sorry, but you are not cleared for the details on that."

"And who the hell are you?" asked Sellers and Gray in unison.

Acosta removed his sunglasses, presented his credentials for their review, and said, "I am Captain English's escort off this base. He is now in the protective custody of the Department of Homeland Security."

Reverting to the 'command and control' tactics that he always used when dealing with civilians, Sellers said, "He is a suspect in a criminal investigation in Aiken County. We have legal standing to interrogate him and place him into civilian custody if we believe charges against him are appropriate."

Shaking his head, Grenz said, "You have no jurisdiction on a United States military installation. You could only take him into custody if he was transferred to you by my officers, or if he left the confines of this base and you were in a position to detain him outside of our perimeter. Since he is not in custody on this base, I cannot transfer him to you. Point settled."

Gray argued, "You're breaking the agreement between our two organizations. You are required to detain any military personnel suspected of a crime in our county until we have the opportunity to interrogate them and determine if criminal charges are warranted, and to then transfer them into our custody to face legal proceedings in a civilian court."

"You need to discuss that with Major Fallon Harris in the Judge Advocate General's office. They're the ones who determine if military personnel will face charges under the UCMJ or get transferred to local authorities to face civilian charges. I have been informed that I have no jurisdiction where Captain English is concerned. I'm sorry that you wasted the trip here, but the matter is settled from my perspective."

Gray tried a more conciliatory approach when he asked, "Who told you that you have no jurisdiction over an active-duty officer in the United States Army?"

Acosta spoke again, "I'm sorry, but you are not cleared for the details on that. Mister, can we go now? I have that deadline that I mentioned to you earlier."

Sellers was still agitated when he asked, "Where are you taking him?"

Acosta ignored the question, put his sunglasses back on, and turned back to the car. He didn't hear Grenz as he whispered to the detectives, "Greenville."

He winked at the two detectives and headed to his car. He didn't like usurping the investigation of a local law enforcement agency, and deeply resented Acosta's actions to get his orders allowing for the interrogation of Captain English to be countermanded. Getting a call from the Pentagon relieving his team of any jurisdiction over someone at Fort Gordon was unheard of. But the Pentagon receiving a call from the White House with those orders was also unheard of, at least for him.

After Rick Acosta had fastened his seatbelt, he turned from the front passenger seat to speak to Avery. After introducing himself, he said, "Mr. and Mrs. Edwards are being transported here this morning and should arrive shortly after noon."

"Thank you for arranging that," Avery replied. "I know that it will ease the stress on my wife."

He then asked, "Can either of you explain what the issue was with those two men? I didn't hear what was being said, but their body language was quite clear. They seemed upset with me leaving for some reason."

Grenz answered, "The only reason that you slept in a nice comfortable bed here on base rather than in the Aiken County jail is because federal agents 'got you out of Dodge' before the local authorities had a handle on what happened at your house last night. Two of the men you accosted died as a result of their injuries and those men we just left were sent here to get your statement and likely arrest you."

"There were four witnesses to those three men attacking me with handguns," Avery argued. "I had a right to defend myself and my family."

Grenz shrugged and said, "Maybe so, but until all the facts get collected and the investigation concluded, the locals believe that you should be in custody. Their custody. I can't say that I blame them."

"So why aren't I?"

"Because you are in my custody," Acosta explained. "While it's protective custody, until the locals can find an authority in this country higher than the one that wants you in Greenville, they can't have you."

Avery was silent for the rest of the ride to the helicopter, but his text messages to Anna said plenty.

~~~

"So, all you know is that they are taking him to Greenville?" asked Lance Gallman.

"That's what the CID special agent informed the detectives," confirmed Clint Rankin. "The DHS agent is escorting him on a helicopter to Greenville and he has some sort of deadline to meet getting him there."

Gallman took another sip of his recently warmed cup of coffee as he considered the news of the son of Laura English avoiding the Aiken County sheriff's detectives. Where in Greenville would DHS be taking him, and what was the urgency? He picked up his cell phone from the table and dialed his administrative assistant.

"Luna, get ahold of the Secretary of States' office and find out all you can about property or businesses recorded under either Charles or Laura English." He listened to her response and said, "Yes, they were the couple that was killed yesterday in Greenville. This isn't related to that investigation, but get back to me ASAP with what you learn."

He disconnected that call and placed another, to the Greenville County sheriff, Andrew Greer. "Andy, this is Lance Gallman. How well did you know Laura English or her husband?"

"If this is about the investigation into their murders, I can't tell you much of anything," Greer lamented. "The Feds swooped in so hard and fast that my people who were on site are still spinning. The Feds have the whole thing locked up so tight that I would be surprised if any sunlight falls upon the English house this morning."

Gallman sighed and said, "I know that must be extremely frustrating for you and your team, but I'm more interested right now in what you knew of the victims when they were alive. I assume that you had met them."

"Of course, several times at campaign events and other social settings. What would you like to know?

"Is there anyplace close to their house where a helicopter could land?"

Greer snorted and said, "Only if you could get the Feds to move one of the three or four already taking up space in the parking lot of the country club on the next block. They've been flying all sorts of investigators, technicians, and what not in and out of the area since yesterday."

Gallman considered this and asked, "How do they get from the country club to the English's house? Are they driven, walk, what?"

"It depends on whether the person arriving has a lot of gear, I suppose. Why?"

Ignoring the question, Gallman asked one of his own, "That would be the Green Valley Country Club, correct?"

"That's right. What's going on?"

Gallman was counting on Greer's allegiance to other sheriffs in the state when he answered, "The Feds are interfering with another murder investigation, this time in Aiken County. They are currently flying the prime suspect in that investigation to an unknown location in Greenville and we suspect that they are trying to tie this guy in with the English case. It's the English's only child who is positioned to inherit everything in both parents' estates. If we can get our hands on this guy, we might be able to take back control of both investigations. Determine if money wasn't behind the murder of Charles and Laura English."

"I wouldn't be opposed to that," Greer stated. "Even if it only helps my buddy, Roger King out in Aiken County with his investigation, I will be of whatever assistance I can. I take it that you have no firm idea of where they are taking this guy?"

"No," Gallman admitted, "But I'm speculating that it will be someplace associated with the English's, either their home or the company where Charles English worked."

"Owned, you mean. Charles English owned Saturn System. Their campus, as they call it, is located over in the technology park off I-85."

"Is there any place that a helicopter could land near there?" Gallman asked.

"Sure," Greer said. "There's lots of open space around the buildings where a helicopter could set down."

Gallman was an educated man who trusted his instincts almost as much as he trusted his intellect. If the information from the Aiken County detectives was accurate, and he had no reason to doubt that it was, the DHS agent had some urgent need to get Avery English to Greenville. Gallman couldn't imagine anything that urgent related to the murder investigation of Charles and Laura English, so his instincts told him to focus on the company that Charles English had run.

"Andy, how soon could you get a team to this Saturn System? I'll have a felony arrest warrant sent to you from Aiken County for your officers to execute on Avery English as he gets off the helicopter."

"What about the DHS agent?" Greer asked.

"The best that the Feds could do once we have English is get a judge to force us to transfer him to them," Gallman explained. "That will take time, and then they'll have to figure out where we're holding him. That will buy us enough time to find out just what this guy knows about both crimes."

"I'll have a felony apprehension team dispatched there immediately," Greer assured Gallman. "Start figuring out where you want to hold the guy because if I know the Feds, my jail will be the first place that they come looking for him."

~~~

Anna had started familiarizing herself with the Uniform Code of Military Justice long before she had started law school. Her interest had been to become knowledgeable about the laws that would apply to Avery once he had graduated from The Citadel and been commissioned in the Army.

She had been both shocked and at the same time impressed with the consistency of rulings among the various branches and service units that fall under the jurisdiction of the UCMJ. There were very few rulings that conflicted with one another, with precedence of prior rulings seldom being challenged to the degree that civilian court rulings were.

Major Fallon Harris was someone that Anna had met and had both social and professional conversations with since Avery had been stationed at Fort Gordon. A tall, athletic feminine vision that turned the heads of men and women alike, whether in her unform or in civilian clothes, Fallon Harris exuded quiet strength and confidence through her piercing eyes and quick smile. The same smile that she bestowed upon Anna when she had opened the front door of the duplex for her.

"Good morning, Major. Thanks for coming over. Please come in."

Anna stepped aside, allowing the Major to enter the duplex before closing and locking the door behind her.

"I was expecting your call," the Major said. "Where do you want to talk?"

"Trey is in the bedroom so why don't we sit at the kitchen table?"

Anna led her guest into the small kitchen. "Would you like some coffee?"

"No, I'm coffeed out for the day, but go ahead and have some if you want."

Anna indicated a glass of orange juice on the table and said, "I'm coffeed out too. How about joining me with some juice?"

Pulling out a chair across from the spot with the orange juice, the Major said, "Sure, I can do that."

Once both women were seated with their juice, the Major began, "I interviewed the two MP sergeants who witnessed the incident at your house last night. I am convinced that there are no grounds to charge Captain English with any crime. It was clearly a case of self-defense as allowed by the UCMJ."

"Oh, I know that," Anna said. "What can you tell me about the Aiken County sheriff pursuing possible charges in civilian court?"

"Obviously, they have both the right and the responsibility to investigate," Harris said. "Which is why I agreed to allow their detectives to take a statement from Captain English this morning. It was never my intention that he be confined to the base pending that interview and I'll be speaking with the CID special agent who pushed that order through."

"Avery got the impression that the detectives expected to take him into custody," Anna told her.

"He would have had to be in our custody first, which he wasn't. The detectives have no jurisdiction to arrest an active member of the military while they are on this base. They were shooting for cooperation that wasn't forthcoming. That being said, I am curious why the Aiken County sheriff would feel the need to take Captain English into custody over an incident that the county solicitor likely won't even be interested in pursuing. Just as under the UCMJ, your husband's actions are permissible under South Carolina law."

Anna nodded and said, "I agree. My interpretation of the 'Castle Doctrine' is that it fits the scope of this incident to the letter. Avery used the reasonable amount of force necessary to defend himself and others. If nothing else, the fact that he allowed one of the men to live shows that he restrained his actions accordingly."

"Unfortunately," Harris said, "I don't know the Aiken County sheriff, Roger King, or the county solicitor, Clint Rankin, well enough to gauge whether there might be political influences at play. I do know that Roger King isn't up for re-election for two more years, but whether there is something else motivating the county sheriff, it's hard to know."

"How do you think that you not seeking charges under the UCMJ would be viewed by a civilian court?"

"Would the judge in the case allow that fact to be brought up?" Harris asked. "You know more about civilian courts than I do."

Anna shrugged and said, "Probably not at a trial if one was held. The comparable sections of the UCMJ would probably be viewed as irrelevant, much like citing English common law would be. However, at the pre-trial hearing it might be allowed to show that the actions of Avery were justified under the laws that he has been trained to follow. His being granted immunity from prosecution under the UJMC could backfire just as easily, though."

"Because there is a greater perceived tolerance for violent actions by military personnel in the UJMC," acknowledged Harris. "Even though the military actually holds its people to a higher standard than the civilian laws do, especially where violence against non-military individuals is concerned."

"Let me ask you this," Anna said, "Does Avery being in the protective custody of DHS provide him with any immunity against arrest by local authorities while he is off this base?"

"I would think that most agencies would respect the custody of DHS," Harris said. "If they didn't, I would assume that the Department of Justice would have the particular agency before a federal judge within hours seeking a writ of Habeas Corpus demanding his release back to DHS. That is what you would do, isn't it?"

Anna pointed to the laptop sitting on the kitchen counter, and said, "I drafted the petition an hour ago. I would just need to add the agency's name and print it out. There are two of my colleagues standing by in Atlanta to present the petition to Judge Campos."

Harris smiled and said, "Send me their contact information. I'll draft a petition on behalf of the United States Army as well."

Chapter Eight

"We need to talk..."

Cole Aranda spoke to both passengers through their headsets, "We're approaching the Saturn Systems campus. Where would you prefer me to set down?"

His passengers, the guy from DHS who had contracted for his services, and the Army captain they had picked up at Fort Gordon hadn't said a word to him during the flight back to Greenville. They needed to say something now.

Rick Acosta glanced at Avery and raised his eyebrows in question. Avery answered, "The main building is the one with the flag poles in front. There is a back entrance to that building with a wide expanse of grass between it and the rear parking lot. If that area is clear of people, it might be the best spot to land."

Aranda searched out the windshield of the helicopter for the building that the captain had mentioned. He saw the flags and used them to verify the wind direction and adjusted his approach path accordingly. He would pass the front of the building and then swing the helicopter around to position them for a landing in the area described for the landing. As his altitude continued to drop on his approach, he kept his eyes open for any wires or other unmarked aviation obstacles, particularly along the four-lane parkway below them. He didn't see any wires, but he did see sudden movement from the open door of the warehouse on the opposite side of the parkway from Saturn Systems.

Aranda began immediate evasive maneuvers even before the first bullets started peppering the side of the helicopter. He turned right and began climbing, both to lessen the profile of the helicopter to the shooter, and to hopefully get them out of range of the gun being used. The headsets muted the sound of the bullets impacting the helicopter, but they didn't deaden it completely. Aranda felt at least five of the bullets striking the aircraft.

"We're taking fire!" he shouted over his microphone.

Avery replied, "Agent Acosta has been wounded by one or more of the shots. Head to the nearest hospital if you can."

"No can do," Aranda replied. "I've lost the tail rotor!"

~~~

"Shots fired! Shots fired!"

The Greenville County sheriff's felony apprehension team was just arriving at Saturn Systems in their unmarked vans when they heard the helicopter approaching. All of the members were focused on where the helicopter was preparing to land except for the drivers.

"They're coming from the warehouse on the right!" screamed the sergeant driving the lead van. He pulled to a stop in the middle of the street, directly in front of the warehouse, drawing his service weapon as he quickly exited the van, keeping it between him and the shooter or shooters in the warehouse. The other two vans were forced to stop behind him, and within seconds, a dozen heavily armed law enforcement officers were positioned behind the vans, waiting for instructions.

The captain in command squat-walked to the front of the lead van to converse with the sergeant, "They are targeting the chopper, not us?"

The sergeant replied, "That's my read. Sounds like at least two semi-automatic rifles. Do you think there are hostages inside?"

Without answering the question, the captain said, "Okay, let's get a perimeter set up around that warehouse. No one goes in or out until SWAT gets here."

Moving quickly back to the second van and took a seat behind the wheel. He could have radioed in from outside, but it would be quieter inside. Plus, he needed to call the sheriff himself on his cell phone. Using the radio to contact the dispatch center, he quickly provided an update and requested the immediate dispatch of the County Special Weapons and Tactics team to the scene. Once he was convinced that the orders had been relayed properly, he called Sheriff Greer on his cell phone.

Greer recognized the incoming call and answered it, "Have you got him?"

"No, sir, but we have one hell of a shit storm here." The captain quickly filled the sheriff in on the situation and his request for the SWAT team.

"And you say that the helicopter was the target of the shooters?"

"Yes, sir. The helicopter pilot high-tailed it out of here once the shooting started and the shooting ceased almost immediately. We haven't seen anyone leave the warehouse so we believe the shooter, or shooters, are still inside."

"Did you see where the helicopter headed, and do you know if it was hit by any of the shots?"

"The pilot turned east. I think he wanted to put the sun in the eyes of the shooters. That's a tactic that our chopper pilots were taught in the Corps. I saw at least three hits on the target before it turned and headed away."

"Hang on one second," Greer said, followed by muted conversation. "I have instructed dispatch to get an alert out to all county, Greenville, and Spartanburg units to keep an eye out for a helicopter in distress. I'm heading your way now. I should be there within ten minutes."

~~~

With the main rotor disengaged from the drive due to the failure of the rear rotor, Aranda focused on an autorotation landing. A helicopter pilot's primary control of the rate of descent is airspeed. Even at zero airspeed, the rotor is quite effective, as it has nearly the same drag coefficient of a parachute, even though it consists of blades rather than fabric.

Aranda focused on the task at hand rather than the injuries that one of his passengers might have suffered. He knew from practicing autorotation landings that an optimum landing maneuver stops all vertical movement, and brings horizontal movement and rotational movement within the craft to a perfect standstill. In practice, a perfect landing is rarely achievable. He would settle for a landing that they could all walk away from.

Using pieces torn from his BDU top, Avery was doing the best field dressing he could manage to the wound on Rick Acosta's head. He knew that head wounds bled a lot, and he could see the bullet slug embedded in the skull, behind and slightly above the left ear. He was concerned about wrapping the wound too tightly, possibly putting pressure onto the bullet and pushing it further into Acosta's head.

"Brace for impact!" Avery heard the pilot shout through his headset, loud enough to be heard over the ground proximity warning signal blaring from the instrument panel. He quickly pulled Acosta's head into his own lap to try and cushion it from further injury when they landed, or crashed. He sensed that it could go either way. He glanced out the side window but couldn't see the ground beneath them so he had no clue as to the area where they were about to wind up.

The sound of the landing gear lowering and locking into place had barely receded from their ears when they felt two sharp bounces, followed by the crack of one of the wheel struts. As the helicopter began tipping to its right side, the still spinning main rotor began throwing clumps of green grass from the gouges it was taking out of the ground. Friction from the ground contact brought the rotor blades to a stop and Avery could see that they had landed safely in a vacant lot.

He reached forward to pat the pilot on his shoulder and said, "I'm going to put you in for a Broken Wing Award."

Both Aranda and Avery knew that a civilian helicopter pilot wasn't eligible to receive the US Army award for successful execution of an autorotation landing under emergency conditions, but recognition of the skill shown was appreciated.

"Any idea where we are?" Avery asked as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. "Agent Acosta needs medical attention as soon as possible. There's a bullet lodged in his skull."

Aranda unfastened his shoulder harness and removed his headset before pointing out the window and saying, "I'm not entirely sure where we are, but someone in those police cars should be able to tell us."

Looking in the direction indicated, Avery saw two rapidly approaching police cars heading in their direction. "Finally, some good luck for a change," he thought.

~~~

"Slow the fuck down," Lance Gallman said. "What the hell are you talking about me getting your department into some gun battle?"

Andrew Greer was fuming so much that he couldn't hold his cell phone against his ear to talk. He placed it on speaker mode and screamed, "Why didn't you warn me about what to expect? You ask me to help apprehend some suspect from a helicopter and neglect to tell me that there are people armed with high-powered, semi-automatic weapons waiting to ambush the chopper. I have four of my officers in the hospital, two dead civilians, and three dead shooters, all because you are playing your fucking game of assuming certain information isn't important enough to share."

Gallman was dumbstruck as he tried to comprehend what Andy Greer was telling him. Finally, he said, "Andy, listen, I had no idea that there would be any risk to your people. You have to believe me on that. Explain exactly what happened and let's see if we can figure out what's going on."

Greer couldn't gauge Gallman's sincerity completely over the phone, but he sounded contrite. He quickly explained what his deputies had encountered upon arriving at Saturn Systems, the subsequent firefight between the armed individuals in the warehouse and his SWAT team that had resulted in the three shooters all being killed and four of his men with serious but not fatal injuries. He concluded with the discovery of two civilians that the shooters had apparently killed when they had first entered the warehouse to await the helicopter.

"What happened with the helicopter?" Gallman asked.

"It took several bullets before the pilot was able to move it out of range," Greer said, explaining what he had been told. "The pilot brought the chopper down in a vacant lot in Spartanburg County."

"Any injuries?"

"I spoke with Oscar," Greer replied. "His deputies reported that one of the passengers was transported to Spartanburg Medical Center with a gunshot wound to his head..."

"Which passenger?" Gallman knew that Greer was referring to Oscar Williams. The sheriff of Spartanburg County.

"The DHS agent. The pilot and the Army guy were unharmed. I have detectives heading to the scene now to transport them to my office to get their statements on what happened."

"Good. Let me know as soon as you have Avery English in custody. I'll have SLED take him off your hands."

The State Law Enforcement Division, while it legally fell under the Governor, frequently acted under direction from the Attorney General, so Greer wasn't surprised to learn that Gallman had recruited them to assist with helping to make Avery English harder for the Feds or anyone else to locate.

Gallman continued, "I assume that your investigation is still in its early stages, but have you found out who the shooters were and what their motives were?"

"None of them had any ID on them, but they all are definitely Middle Eastern. So far, the Feds haven't learned of the incident yet, but I expect that when they do..."

Gallman interrupted, "You're probably right, and because you're probably right, don't take English to your offices. Let me know where the SLED agents can meet up with your deputies as soon as they have him."

"Do yourself a favor," Greer advised. "Make sure that the SLED agents know that there may be threats against this English guy. Someone killed his parents yesterday morning, someone tried to kill or capture his wife and kid yesterday afternoon, someone accosted him at his house, and now someone tried to shoot the helicopter he was riding in from the sky."

Gallman considered Greer's comments. Maybe there was more to this situation than he had originally thought. How could he leverage a threat to the heir of the Englishs' estate to his advantage?

~~~

"Ace turn on the news!" Lynda Edwards shouted as she burst through the front door of the duplex.

Anna was in the kitchen preparing a sandwich for Trey and hadn't heard the car transporting her parents arrive outside. She quickly strode into the living room to see her mother trying to figure out the remote control for the television. She took the device from her mother's hand and said, "It's the middle of the day. There isn't any news on for another three or four hours."

"No," her mother said. "There's breaking news about a shooting in Greenville and something about Saturn Systems. We only heard part of it at the gate when they were letting us through. That's where Avery was headed, wasn't it?"

Anna didn't answer as she tried to figure out the strange remote control and find a network station that might be carrying the news that her mother had mentioned. As she struggled to find what she was searching for, her father came into the duplex, followed by a man and a woman, who Anna assumed were the agents assigned to protect them.

Trey came out of the bedroom at the sound of his grandmother's voice and ran to hug her just as the breaking news logo appeared on the television screen. All fell silent as they listened to the report.

"Shortly after eleven this morning, Greenville County SWAT team members confronted multiple persons barricaded inside a warehouse in the technology park section of the city. Our sources tell us that as a helicopter was approaching Saturn Systems in preparation for landing, several gunshots were heard, apparently directed at the helicopter. The helicopter flew away, but the gunmen remained in the warehouse ignoring all orders to surrender. When the SWAT officers entered the building, they encountered heavy gunfire, which they returned, killing the three gunmen in the process. Four officers received non-life-threatening injuries during the assault and are being treated at the hospital at this time. We have confirmed that a security guard and a maintenance worker employed at the warehouse were also killed. Authorities are investigating whether their fatal injuries were caused by the suspects or from the assault on the building by police..."

"What about the helicopter?" Anna shouted at the television. "What about Avery?"

"We're waiting to find out," the female agent said. "My name is Jessica Temple, but please call me Jess."

"And I'm Brian Pierce," said the male agent. "We have people making inquiries on your husband and our agent right now. Hopefully, we'll hear something within a few minutes."

Anna ran into the kitchen and returned carrying her laptop. Quickly sliding it into the computer bag that doubled as her purse, she didn't take the time to pack anything else.

"Your phones will work just as well in the car as they do here," Anna said. "One of you is going to drive me to Greenville, and I mean right now. Mom, please stay here and keep Trey calm while I..."

The ringing of her cell phone interrupted her instructions. Seeing Avery's name on the caller ID caused her to gasp as she answered, "Ace, where are you, and are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Avery assured her. "I take it you heard about what happened. I thought that you might so I wanted to call you so you wouldn't worry."

"We heard about the shooting but no one knows what happened to the helicopter." She put her phone on speaker mode so that everyone could hear Avery's report on what happened.

"Somehow, whoever is targeting us found out about my trip and they were there ahead of us," Avery explained the events calmly. He then said, "Agent Acosta is at Spartanburg Medical Center with a bullet lodged in his skull. The pilot is still with the helicopter waiting for investigators to arrive on the scene. I am sitting in a sheriff's patrol car at the moment on my way back to Greenville where they want me to make a statement about what happened."

Not waiting to hear more, Pierce pulled out his own cell phone and stepped out onto the front porch. Temple stepped into the kitchen to use her cell phone. Seniority dictated that Pierce report the situation to their supervising agent while Temple notified the DHS team in Greenville so that they could begin their own investigation -- after recovering Avery English from the local authorities.

Anna had taken her phone out of speaker mode as Avery continued to reassure her that he was safe and promising him that she would remain sequestered at Fort Gordon with Trey and her parents until they knew that the threat against them no longer existed. She let Trey talk to his father for a few minutes before taking the phone back.

"Do you still think that you'll be back here tonight?" she asked.

The original plan, which Avery had explained to her that morning, was for him to be flown to Saturn Systems, where he would launch Janus onto the servers before being flown back to Fort Gordon where they would all remain protected.

"I think we're going to have to play things by ear," Avery told her. "I'll keep you posted."

"Please try to call me every couple of hours so that I know that you're still okay," Anna implored.

"Count on it," Avery said, just before telling her, "I love you, Ace."

"I love you too, Ace."

~~~

Avery hadn't been paying attention to the scenery as the deputy drove. After all, he knew Interstate 85 between Spartanburg and Greenville like the back of his hand. This is how he knew that exit 60 was not the one that would take them to the county offices where the sheriff's office was. Unless the deputy was going to get a tour of the BMW manufacturing plant, Avery could see no reason for them to be taking this offramp.

The deputy activated his lights and siren as the patrol car reached the end of the off-ramp and turned north onto South Carolina Highway 101

"Where are we headed?" Avery yelled over the sound of the siren.

"Century Park," the deputy replied.

Suspicious, Avery asked, "What's at Century Park?"

"I guess we'll both find out. I was just told to bring you there and I follow orders."

Being in the back seat of a patrol car didn't afford Avery many options other than to sit and enjoy the ride. The doors could not be opened from the inside and the metal mesh divider separated him and the deputy. He considered calling Anna back to let her know where he was headed but decided to wait to see what the reason for the detour was first.

Avery was paying attention as the deputy killed the lights and siren when the car turned onto Brushy Creek Road. He saw the playground area of Century Park as they drove past it on the way to the parking lot and saw no children. Entering the parking lot, he noticed that there were only two other cars present. One was a compact sports car of some type, parked near the entrance to the disc golf park entrance. The other was a standard-issue police interceptor version of a Ford Explorer. This is the vehicle that the Spartanburg deputy pulled alongside.

While the deputy remained seated, two plainclothes officers got out of the Explorer and walked around to the passenger side of the patrol car. One of them stood at the rear quarter panel of the patrol car with his service weapon drawn as his partner opened the back door and spoke to Avery, "Sir, please place your hands on top of your head and interlace your fingers."

Avery glanced at the man and asked, "May I see some identification, please?"

"Sir, once you are out of the vehicle, I will show you identification. Now, please place your hands on top of your head and interlace your fingers."

Avery considered the request and the possible reasoning behind it. These guys were obviously not federal officers, so they likely did not know of the threats against Avery and his family. They were likely just the next leg of his transportation and had been trained to secure anyone that they transported in their vehicle. Avery decided to cooperate -- for the time being.

Interlacing his hands on top of his head, Avery waited for further instructions.

"Thank you, sir. Now, if you will slide your legs out of the vehicle and stand, please."

"This sure is a polite guy," Avery thought.

He did as requested. As he stepped out of the car, he saw the other officer, agent, detective, whatever these guys were shift into the standard shooting position with both hands on the gun that he had trained on Avery's center mass.

"Sir, please face the car and place your hands on the roof.

Avery turned and slowly placed the palms of his hands on the top of the patrol car. He had barely touched the warm metal roof when he felt the man grab his right wrist and twist his arm behind his back, where he quickly placed a metal handcuff around his wrist and tightened it. This was followed by the same actions for his left hand and wrist.

Confident that he had Avery secured, the man said, "Please turn around."

Avery did so. The man was holding up his credentials for Avery to view. The man said, "My partner and I are with the State Law Enforcement Division. Are you Captain Avery English?"

"Yes, I am."

Nodding to his partner, who had replaced his gun in the holster on his belt, the first man stepped back a few feet. The partner stepped up to Avery and said, "Avery English, you are under arrest for illegal flight to avoid prosecution."

Avery merely shrugged. He knew the charge was bogus and that some other factors were in play here. Until he understood more, he would remain silent and see where things went.

The first agent spoke again, "Captain English, do you have any sharp objects in your pockets or anything that might poke me?"

Avery didn't answer, so the agent proceeded to carefully pull everything in the pockets of his BDUs out and lay each item onto the trunk of the patrol car. After a thorough pat-down search, the agent used his cell phone to take a picture of the items removed from Avery's pockets before placing them into a clear plastic bag, which he then placed in the back of the Explorer.

This agent then opened the back passenger side door, which allowed the second agent to lead Avery to it. "Watch your head," he instructed as he guided Avery onto the backseat. After fastening the seatbelt around Avery, he closed the door and climbed into the front passenger seat.

Seeing the first agent settling behind the wheel, Avery found it somewhat curious that there had been no communication between the agents from SLED and the Spartanburg deputy in the patrol car. The term "plausible deniability" came to mind.

~~~

"What's the latest?" Kirby Wallace asked as he entered the conference room at Saturn Systems that DHS had commandeered. He had just returned from visiting Rick Acosta in the hospital where he had been informed that the bullet embedded in Acosta's skull had caused a concussion, but had not resulted in any brain damage. A full recovery was expected.

The conference room was functioning as a "war room" for the investigation into the deaths of Charles and Laura English, the search for their son, Avery English, and finally, as a command center for the cybersecurity experts tasked with tracking the current probing attacks against American networks.

Phoebe Lawson glanced up from her computer screen, wondering if the question from Kirby Wallace had been directed to any specific person in the room. When she saw others with the same questioning expressions on their faces, she decided that she would answer.

She said, "The probing is getting more intense, particularly with infrastructure systems and networks. Most ISPs are also reporting an increase in denial of service attacks, with approximately thirty percent being effective for short periods. So, in summary, American networks are still operational, but the stability and reliability metrics are taking a hit. We need to get Janus launched as soon as possible."

Kirby nodded and said, "Thanks, Phoebe, but what I really want an update on is the search for Avery English. What are our colleagues at the Greenville and Spartanburg sheriff departments telling us?"

They're stalling us," DHS agent Mick Byron answered. "All we keep hearing is, 'We're looking into it.' They know that we know Avery English was last seen by the helicopter pilot, Cole Aranda, getting into the back seat of a Spartanburg sheriff's car, but they're basically thumbing their noses at us, saying 'Prove it'."

"That's what I suspected," Kirby said. "Okay, get the home addresses for both county sheriffs. A U.S. Marshal felony apprehension team will be arriving from Atlanta within the hour. They will take both sheriffs into federal custody, where they will remain until they start cooperating. What about tracking English's cell phone? Have you tried that?"

The female DHS agent sitting across from Byron answered, "It's the first thing we tried. Nothing. The battery must have been removed from the phone."

"That's not a good sign," Kirby lamented. "It shows intent on the part of whoever has him. Are we at least confident that he is with friendlies?"

Byron shrugged and said, "I'm not confident of much of anything right now, but based solely on the stone-walling of the local authorities, I think the most likely scenario is that Captain English is in the custody of one law enforcement agency or another. These hicks don't like to play nice with anyone from the federal government, but what their motivation is here is anyone's guess."

"Has anyone spoken to Mrs. English to let her know that her husband is missing?" Kirby asked.

"Pierce and Temple are handling that," Byron said.

"It sucks to be them," Kirby thought.

~~~

Jessica Temple couldn't believe what she was seeing. Why was the wife of a man who was being targeted by multiple foreign governments smiling at the news that her husband was missing?

There were two reasons why Anna wasn't alarmed by the news. First was the strong belief that Avery was in the custody of a local law enforcement agency. As long as whoever had Avery played nice, he would cooperate with them and wait for his wife to do what she did best, which was wreak legal havoc on anyone that deserved it. The second reason was that, after hours of legal research, Anna had just found the answer to how she would wreak that havoc when the time came.

"Dad?" Anna called into the living room. Her father came into the kitchen seconds later.

"What's up, Ace?"

Anna quickly explained the phone call that she wanted her father to make on Avery's behalf. Peter Edwards Merely smiled before pulling out his cell phone and stepping back into the living room.

Anna turned her attention back to the two DHS agents standing with her in the kitchen. She asked them, "If Avery is so important to this country, how long would it take for you to get the President's Chief of Staff on the phone?"

Brian Pierce said, "Our boss could make that happen pretty quickly if we could explain the purpose to him."

Anna didn't hesitate to explain her purpose.

Chapter Nine

Friday, October 9, 2020

"We need to talk..."

Clint Rankin and Lance Gallman had just been buzzed in the door of the McCormick County Detention Center. The smiles on their faces disappeared when they saw a beautiful woman, dressed in a business suit, sitting at the desk that should have been occupied by one of the detention center guards.

Pointing a finger at Rankin, Anna said, "I don't know who you are." Then moving her finger to point at Gallman, she said, "But, you, I recognize. Are you here to see my husband?"

"Who the hell are you and where are the guards?" Gallman asked, his voice raised an active or two from normal.

"I am the pissed-off wife and Assistant US Attorney who is going to see you spending the rest of your life in a maximum-security federal penitentiary, Attorney General Gallman."

Realization came to Gallman only slightly faster than it came to Rankin, "Since the only husband I can think of that you might belong to is Avery English, am I to assume that you are Mrs. English?"

Ann ignored the question and asked Rankin, "Who are you?"

"I'm Clint Rankin, Judicial Circuit 2 Solicitor. Where are the guards?"

"Don't worry about the guards here, they're safe. We wouldn't put them in with the same animals that they put Avery with. Although, I think he has most of those animals pretty well tamed at this point."

~~~

The SLED agents had followed Gallman's instructions to the letter, delivering Avery to one of the smallest, meanest, and most desolate county detention centers in the state of South Carolina, the one in McCormick County. Here, the guards were almost entirely rejects from the state correctional center just a few miles up the road, where their brutality towards the prisoners had earned them the opportunity to quit or to be terminated for cause. The county sheriff was more than happy to have these guards to maintain order in his detention facility, which housed mostly former residents of the state facility who had been released onto his streets to commit more crimes.

A majority of the prisoners in the county detention facility had been incarcerated in one institution or another for most of the years that they had been alive. They had developed the social skills necessary for survival in a penal institution, which included a "go along to get along" philosophy for many. Being new to the environment, Avery didn't embrace the same attitudes as the other prisoners.

Upon arriving, the SLED agents had merely turned Avery over to the guards at the detention center, waited for their handcuffs to be returned, and then left. Avery had meekly allowed the guards to lead him into an empty cell without speaking a word as they verbally berated him, his parentage, and his military service. When they walked away, leaving his cell door open, he had a suspicion about what was planned for him.

Once the threatening prisoners were dealt with, Avery was able to quickly subdue the three guards, securing them in an empty cell. Free, with keys to all the locks in the detention center, he went on a search for a landline telephone. He would find the room where his cell phone and other personal belongings were stored after he had called Anna.

~~~

"Who's watching the prisoners then?" Rankin asked.

"There are only two prisoners left here," Anna explained. "The other twelve have been transported to hospitals in Aiken and Augusta. Your plans to make Avery the bitch for fourteen hardened criminals that were here didn't work out well for those who tried."

Rankin recalled the reports that he had read related to the incident where Avery English had confronted the three men in front of his house. The incident that Gallman wanted him to prosecute English for. Rankin hadn't given much thought to the skills that Avery must possess to so easily and handily defeat three armed men, but if he was responsible for sending twelve notorious prisoners to the hospital...

"Where is your husband?" Rankin asked.

"He's exactly where this country needs him to be," Anna stated. "He's at the Saturn Systems offices in Greenville."

Rankin nodded and said, "You should know that I still intend to charge your husband with second-degree voluntary manslaughter for causing the deaths of the two men within my jurisdiction."

Anna laughed at Rankin's threat. She said, "That will never happen, and I'll tell you why. First is the fact that the men who died as a result of their own actions were foreign nationals in this country illegally, here to commit a variety of crimes intended to weaken our country. That's a known fact. My husband, as an active-duty member of this nation's military, was defending this country from these men. You have no authority to bring charges against a member of the United States military for the performance duties that they are trained for and sworn an oath to carry out..."

"We are not in a declared state of war," Rankin countered. "I could argue that your husband acted without knowing the 'facts' that you claim and thus was not acting in accordance with his military oath, but as a civilian taking justice into his own hands."

Anna was shaking her head as she pulled some papers out of her computer bag and continued her explanation, "The 'Castle Doctrine' would provide Avery with immunity as a civilian. The second reason that Avery will not be charged with ANY crime is this Presidential pardon, which grants him permanent immunity from prosecution..."

Gallman decided to enter the conversation, "That pardon only applies to federal crimes. The President cannot grant a pardon for state crimes, which is what your husband is being charged with."

Pulling more papers out of the bag, Anna held them up and said, "Thirdly, this pardon from Governor McMatthews provides Avery with immunity from prosecution for any crimes on the books in South Carolina. However, the fourth and final reason why you will not prosecute my husband is the fact..."

Pulling a final set of papers out of the bag, Anna said, "I have been waiting here for the sole purpose of finding out who was responsible for abducting my husband and risking our national security in the process. Now that I have both of your names, I will simply enter them in these indictments right now and let the FBI agents do their jobs."

Rankin and Gallman heard the buzzing sound that indicated the detention center's inner door release had been activated and watched four men, wearing FBI windbreakers, step into the lobby to join them. They made quick work of handcuffing their charges.

When the FBI agents had the men secured, Anna found the appropriate sections within the indictments and entered their names. Looking up when finished, she said, "Lance Gallman, you are under arrest for kidnapping, false imprisonment, conspiracy, and malfeasance of office. I will be discussing additional charges with the Department of Homeland Security, not the least of which will be espionage, treason, and providing aid to the enemy."

She then looked at Rankin and said, "Clint Rankin, you are under arrest for conspiracy and malfeasance of office. I have not yet tied you to the abduction of my husband, and you better pray that I don't. However, you too can expect additional charges to be filed."

To the FBI agents, she asked, "The federal penitentiary in Atlanta, right?"

"That will be their home in about three hours," one FBI agent confirmed.

Anna pushed the button to release the inner door once more and as it buzzed, DHS agents Temple and Pierce stepped out to join Anna. The three watched the FBI agents escorting Rankin and Gallman out to the parking lot.

"On to Greenville?" Temple asked.

"As quickly as possible," Anna confirmed.

~~~

"The bullet struck the left side of Rick's skull forcefully enough to crack it and depress the boundaries between his frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes. There was no bleeding on the brain, just concussive shock. As a result, once the pressure is relieved his injured brain will start to heal."

"Thanks, Kirby," Bobby Brandt said. "So, no permanent loss of any functions?"

Kirby shook his head, even though he and Bobby were only having a normal telephone call, without any video. He caught himself and answered, "No, the doctors don't foresee any. What about on your end? Any progress with plugging the leak?"

"Does the name Bernice Rankin mean anything to you?" Bobby asked.

"No, should it?"

"The former Bernadine Delgado immigrated from Cuba at the age of 17 with her parents," Bobby explained. "Our investigators have learned that the family is all sleeper agents of the Dirección General De Inteligencia, or DGI. Bernice, as she goes by now, is married to the Judicial Circuit 2 Solicitor but uses her considerable feminine charms to elicit information from at least two other information sources with loose ties to our current situation. Under some rather persuasive interrogation, she revealed that she is in a long-term sexual relationship with the husband of the owner of the daycare center where Avery English's son goes after school. Her information on that was shared by the DGI with the North Koreans, which is how they knew where to target the attempted kidnapping of Anna English and her son."

Kirby asked, "But, how would she know about our transport plans for Captain English?"

"She got that information from another lover that we identified, CID investigator, Simon Grenz. He is currently in the stockade at Fort Gordon. His cell phone records prove that he made a call to a cell phone in Greenville within minutes of Rick Acosta and Avery English departing the base yesterday morning. The call showed up on the phone of one of the shooters killed in Greenville."

"Okay," said Kirby. "So, we have confirmed the involvement of North Korean, Iranian, and Cuban agents. Can we prove that their governments sanctioned their agents' activities?"

Bobby chuckled and said, "Our interrogators asked the surviving agents real 'nicely' if they were working for their governments and they all admitted to doing so."

"I didn't think that Curtane showing up here was a mere coincidence," Kirby said.

General Lester Curtane was the commanding officer for the United States Cyber Command. His arrival at Saturn Systems to monitor the launch of Janus wouldn't have to be considered strange, but Kirby had sensed that there was more to his appearance than curiosity.

"The President is meeting with his National Security Council," Bobby said. "We can expect a decision about a response within the hour. My guess is that the response will be for Janus to pillage before it burns."

~~~

Monday, October 12, 2020

"That's something for us to consider in the future," the President said to the participants of the conference call.

He was referring to the delay that the CIA had experienced in receiving details of the situations in Iran, Cuba, and North Korea after Janus had been deployed against their cyber networks. The "pillaging" of data would take months for analysts to sort through, but that paled when compared to the years that each of those countries to rebuild their infrastructure that Janus had effectively "burned" to the ground within minutes of its deployment. The three countries had been essentially returned to the stone age when anything connected to a network within their borders faced the wrath of Janus.

Janus had been merciless as an offensive cyber weapon. Citizens in each country had woken up to no electricity, no television, no cellular service; none of the conveniences of modern life. The internet was nothing but a recent memory for the millions of people who resided in the targeted countries. The side effect of this was the CIA agents in each country also had no way of easily communicating their reports to Langley.

"We will have to prepare our human assets better," CIA Director Schuyler Talbott said. "Set up a channel for them to deliver their reports somehow."

"The UN is going to scream," the Secretary of State commented. "What do we want our position to be?"

"We make the case that we have," the President stated. "The sworn testimony of foreign agents from each of the countries testifying to their actions and where the orders for those actions originated. Actions by foreign governments that resulted in the deaths of American citizens was an act of war, and we responded with measured actions that produced zero casualties but punishes the country for attacking us. Anyone see a problem with that?"

A chorus of "No, Mr. President" followed.

The President then continued, "General Curtane, where do we sit with the defensive deployment of Janus?"

"Mr. President, as you know, all of our military cyberinfrastructures were fully secured before we launched Janus against the enemies. Other critical U.S. government cyberinfrastructures have had, or, are currently seeing Janus deployed on them. I'll let Mrs. Lawson describe CISA's strategy."

Phoebe Lawson said, "Thank you, General. Mr. President, CISA is currently working with the Department of Commerce to identify critical cyber infrastructures where we would have the authority to mandate the deployment of Janus on their systems. These would include any hospitals that receive Medicare payments for patient care, government contractors, and the like. The Department of Energy is accelerating the deployment to all public utility providers, refineries, and nuclear-generating facilities. The FAA is already notifying all airports and U.S.-based airlines that the deployment of Janus will be required and providing details to them on how to participate in the deployment..."

Turning to his Chief of Staff, the President said, "I want weekly updates on the private sector deployment progress. Let's start thinking about drafting an executive order for me to issue if things don't move fast enough on their own. Our country is too interconnected for some rogue network system to leave us vulnerable."

The Attorney General said, "Compelling private companies and individuals to accept the deployment of Janus might face some strong legal challenges. I'll have my team start researching the constitutionality of a Presidential order in that regard. We'll also look at other options."

"Mr. President," Phoebe Lawson interrupted, "Janus was designed to protect primarily against cyber attacks from nation-states. I'm not a military expert by any means, but before you place a high priority on deploying Janus onto private cyberinfrastructures, you might want to ask for a threat assessment to gauge the actual risk not doing so would pose."

The President glanced at General Curtane, who nodded in agreement with Phoebe's comments. She continued, "The private sector is more at risk from criminal actions against their cyberinfrastructures than cyber attacks from a nation-state. While Janus could likely protect against most criminal activities targeting private cyber networks, I believe its greatest benefit to us might be adapting it to be more targeting specific to allow its offensive properties to punish developers of ransomware and other malicious programs."

Before the President could reply, his Attorney General said, "The United States government could not take action against criminals located in a foreign country, such as Bulgaria, where we know a lot of cybercriminals are. Unless we wanted to share Janus with the Bulgarian government, as an example, it could not be used as Mrs. Lawson suggests."

The President grinned and said, "I know who we can share it with. What do you think, Bobby?"

~~~

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with us here rather than in your office," Avery said as he shook the hand of Miller Banks, attorney at law.

"It's not a problem," Miller assured Avery and Anna. "I know that I said it when we talked on the phone to arrange this meeting, but once again, my deepest condolences. Your parents were very dear to a lot of people and will be missed by everyone, but I know that your loss is the greatest, and I'm sorry. It was a very touching celebration of their lives that you arranged, but I suppose there was no way that it wouldn't also be poignant."

"Thank you," Avery said. "Anna gets all the credit."

Avery's parents had left very detailed directions for how they wanted their mortal lives to be remembered and for their remains to be handled. Anna had followed them precisely. No funeral was held and only a few of their closest friends were invited to the celebration of their lives which was still going on downstairs. Their bodies had been cremated and the ashes mixed before placing them into a single container that was to be opened at sea off the coast of Myrtle Beach, where they had spent their honeymoon.

Anna took a seat at the small circular table in the office that Charles and Laura English had shared in their home. Avery took the seat beside her as Miller sat across from the couple. After unlocking his metal briefcase, the lawyer began pulling large envelopes and folders out of it.

"I doubt that much of what I want to share with you both will come as a surprise as I understand that Charles and Laura had discussed most of this with you," Miller said. "However, please feel free to ask any questions that you might have."

Anna and Avery merely nodded and let Miller continue, "As stipulated in their wills, you both become joint trustees of their combined living trusts. These are the original registered copies of the trusts in their entirety. I mention that only because the copies retained with the Secretary of State's office appears to have been misplaced. Keep these safe in case anyone questions the existence of the trusts because the filing numbers will be your proof."

"How about if you hold on to them and send us copies," Anna said. "If Avery and I can't trust my father's law firm to secure them for us, who can we trust?"

"We would be glad to do as you requested," Miller said. He certainly didn't want to disagree with the daughter of his firm's senior partner. "Now, the new combined trust assumes ownership of all of Charles' and Laura's real and personal property, as well as controlling interest in Saturn Systems. There is only one thing that I was instructed should be excluded from the trust and passed on to their son directly."

He picked up a sealed envelope and slid it across the table to Avery, saying, "I have no idea what this is, but your father was very specific in his instructions. It was to be given only to you and no one else."

Avery picked up the envelope and quickly tore it open. Tipping it, he slid three recordable DVDs onto the tabletop, along with a folded piece of paper. He opened the paper and read its contents before refolding it and sliding it back into the envelope, along with the DVDs.

"Thank you," Avery said.

"Do you know what is on those disks?" Anna asked.

Avery simply nodded and returned his attention to Miller Banks. The lawyer was picking up the trust documents and returning them to his briefcase, leaving only copies of the Last Will and Testament for Avery and Anna to keep.

"These don't have filing numbers on them," Anna said.

Miller shook his head and said, "No, when a revocable living trust is employed for an estate, the wills don't need to be filed because the trust makes probate a moot point. The trust documents have to be filed with the state, but the wills don't. That's why we always recommend the use of trusts to avoid our clients or their families having to deal with the probate process."

Before Miller could close his briefcase, Avery said, "As you know, my parents had no other living relatives besides me, Anna, and Trey. A few months ago, they discussed creating a separate trust for Trey. Did they ever do that?"

"We did discuss it," Miller admitted, "and I'll be honest with you, some of their decisions presented me with dilemmas relative to how best to advise my clients. Take naming you both as trustees of the combined trust. There are no provisions for the possibility of the eventual dissolution of your marriage at some time in the future. That is a risky step to take, but I have never seen two people more convinced of their belief in a relationship than your parents were with the two of you. This belief is what convinced them that a separate trust for your son wasn't necessary. They knew that the two of you would always make certain that his future needs were addressed."

Anna smiled at the revelation that Avery's parents had recognized the commitment that existed between her and their son. It's not that she hadn't realized their recognition years ago, but to have them so adamantly acknowledge their recognition when making legal decisions was heartwarming.

For his part, Avery had always known that his parents loved Anna as the daughter that they never had, and trusted her love and commitment to him as strongly as they trusted his commitment to her. This is what had allowed them to support her keeping her pregnancy a secret from him all those years ago. How many times had he heard his parents say, "A pair of Aces is hard to beat"?

Miller stood and said, "Anyway, there isn't really much that you have to concern yourselves with relative to the estates of Charles and Laura. Everything converts to the trust and you both have control over that. After the first of the year, you will want to meet with an accountant to discuss tax matters, both for the trust as well as yourselves, to ensure that you manage things most beneficially."

Avery stood, and said, "Thanks, Mr. Banks. Let me walk you down."

Anna prepared to rise but Avery pointed to the envelope on the table and said, "I'll be right back."

Understanding the intent of his gesture, Anna remained in the office but took the envelope with her as she moved to the more comfortable sofa to wait for Avery's return. With the office door left open, she could hear the activities downstairs winding down as people who had been celebrating the life of Charles and Laura English were gradually leaving the house. She considered for a second whether she should go down to bid farewell to the guests and decided against it. Her parents would handle the formalities for her, and apparently for Avery as well, since he was just stepping back into the office and closing the door.

Before joining Anna on the sofa, Avery knelt and removed her shoes. He knew that when Anna sat on a sofa with him, she always preferred to pull her feet up so that she was free to position her body either against his, or turned so that she could face him more directly. As soon as he took a seat beside her, this is exactly what she did.

"What's in the envelope?" she asked.

Avery picked up the envelope from the coffee table and said, "Something that I don't want around any of us. It's too dangerous, especially right now."

From the expression on Avery's face when he had read the note inside the envelope, Anna has her suspicions about the contents of the disks. She asked, "It's Janus, isn't it?"

Avery shook his head and said, "No, Janus, as an application, exists only on the servers that it has been deployed on. This is worse. It's the complete SBOM for Janus, and it's the only copy."

"SBOM?"

Avery explained, "It stands for 'software bill of materials'. Those disks contain a complete inventory of Janus' codebase including the open-source components, program code components developed specifically for Janus, and any known vulnerabilities in those components. Basically, this is the building blocks for the Janus application and it would allow anyone in possession of it to do exactly what my father did in developing the application."

"What are you going to do with it?" Anna asked.

"That's the problem," Avery said. "I need to hold on to it in case something with Janus needs attention, but anyone who understands computer software development must know that this SBOM has to exist. Any place where there is a suspicion that this SBOM could be is likely going to become a target for those who want to either replicate Janus, or shut it down. That's why I don't want it anywhere near you or Trey."

"So, what do you want to do with it?"

Avery stood and then assisted Anna to her feet. He said, "I'm going to take it with us to Saturn Systems and lock it into the terminal vault until I can come up with a more secure location before I meet with General Curtane. Are you sure that you don't want to wait here?"

"No," Anna said. "I want us to be able to head back to Fort Gordon as soon as your meeting is over. Hopefully, we'll be able to get there shortly after my parents do. They'll need to stop a couple of times with Trey riding with them."

"Well, the car is packed, so let's lock up and get on our way."

Chapter Ten

"We need to talk..."

"Will the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Fort Gordon allow us enough time?" Anna asked "Or do you want to wait until we get there?

They had just returned to their car after Avery's meeting with General Curtane at Saturn Systems. Anna was surprised that the meeting had taken less than thirty minutes, barely enough time for her to respond to several e-mails related to cases she was involved in. She wasn't surprised that Avery wanted to discuss the results of the meeting with her, though.

"We're not going back to Fort Gordon tonight," Avery informed her. "We have to meet with some people here tomorrow morning to discuss 'our future', as the General put it. Let's head back to my parent's house and I'll explain what I can."

Anna simply fastened her seat belt and nodded. She then said, "I want to call my mom and let her know that we won't be back tonight. Then I'll be all ears for what you want to tell me."

The call to her mom was over quickly. As soon as Anna had disconnected the call, Avery began, "The Army is preparing a dependency discharge for me. I was told that the DD Form 256 and DD Form 214 were being fast-tracked but that my discharge date will be the fifteenth..."

"That's only three, no just over two days from today," Anna exclaimed. "And who is the dependent that they think you need to be discharged for? Trey and I are fine with you remaining in the Army. You don't have another family squirreled away somewhere, do you?" Anna teased.

"Funny," Avery said. "I don't know. It may just be the reason they are using to prepare an administrative discharge but still providing me an Honorable Discharge Certificate."

Anna shook her head and said, "There's got to be a reason why they believe that you being in the military is a conflict of some sort. Could it be Janus since you now control it?"

"I don't control it, or at least not the launched version being deployed. General Curtane has a team handling the deployment for the government and CISA is handling the commercial and private deployments."

Anna sat silently considering Avery's comments when a realization came to her, "Wait! You said that 'We' have to meet with some people to discuss 'our' future. Since when is the United States Army concerned with the future of a single officer's wife? I'm an Assistant U.S. Attorney. I work for the Justice Department, not the Army."

"What makes you think it's the Army that we'll be meeting with?" Avery asked. "I think that if it was someone from the Army, the General would have said so. I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

Anna sighed and asked, "What would you like to see happen? I mean, how would you feel about being discharged from the Army now?"

Shrugging, Avery said, "There are two years left on my contractual obligation to the Army, and we had always planned that after eight years, I would leave the service and take a position with Saturn Systems beside my dad. I've been struggling since the word of his death reached me with how I might be able to juggle the remaining two years of my commission with trying to keep my father's legacy alive through his company."

"Maybe with all the other work that Saturn Systems does for the government besides Janus, the 'dependent' aspect of your discharge is the government believing that you need to be free to run things here."

"I doubt that," said Avery. "My father has assembled a pretty great leadership team at Saturn Systems, with continuity protocols that don't include me actively running things. Technically, you and I, through the trust, have the final say in everything, but daily operations could survive just fine without either of us being too involved."

"Fine," Anna said, "but would you want to become more involved?"

"Honestly, I think I would be bored out of my head. In the Cyber Command, I am involved in developing training and tactics to meet constantly changing threats to our country. It's dynamic and challenging work that I don't see existing at Saturn Systems."

Anna understood what Avery meant. She compared his passion to hers where prosecuting criminals was concerned. She would never want to trade what she does to practice the type of law that her father did. Intellectual property, patent filings, and estate planning were all necessary and valuable legal disciplines, but they weren't for her.

She asked, "How likely is it that you could find any role as stimulating and rewarding in the private sector that compares to what you have with the Army?"

Avery laughed and said, "Not likely. CISA and similar government agencies are almost exclusively reactive to threats, sending out warnings and advocating for stronger security for cyberinfrastructures for the commercial and private sectors. They have very little statutory authority to force compliance or compel change. There are several private cyber security organizations, but they usually focus on either 'white-hat' intrusion services, or monitoring for new viruses."

Anna hadn't noticed that they had reached the house until she saw Avery reach up and press the garage remote. She said, "There's still a few hours of sunshine left. Would you like to join me for a quick dip in the pool?"

Avery turned the car off, smiled, and asked, "With or without bathing suits?"

Anna smiled back and said, "Why do you think I said a 'quick' dip?"

~~~

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

"What time are these people supposed to be here?" Anna asked as she closed the door to the office at Saturn Systems that used to belong to Avery's father. She was wearing her favorite business suit, the forest green one that Avery thought flattered her figure without being too provocative and emphasized the color of her hair. That in turn brought attention to her perfect complexion, her sparkling green eyes, and her lips.

For his part, Avery was wearing his Army officer dress uniform, since he didn't know whether he would be meeting with politicians, civilians, or some government officials. The urgency of the meeting expressed by General Curtane yesterday implied that the people would have influence over Avery and Anna's futures, and first impressions only happen once.

Avery checked the time and said, "General Curtane told me to expect them around nine, so we have a few minutes. Do you want some coffee? We should probably get a carafe filled and a few cups in case our guests want some."

"I don't want any, but I'll go to the breakroom with you to help get things set up for the visitors. How many should we prepare for?"

Avery shrugged and said, "Six? We'll set up for that many in the adjoining conference room."

When they entered the breakroom, Anna and Avery saw the man from DHS who had introduced himself as Kirby Wallace. He was chatting amicably with another man who was a stranger to them both. The man was dressed in a business casual style, with a light blue long-sleeve chambray shirt tucked into charcoal gray slacks. Both Anna and Avery just smiled and waved, not wanting to interrupt their conversation.

"Excuse me, are you Mr. and Mrs. English?"

Avery turned from the cupboard where he was collecting coffee cups to address the man, "Yes, I'm Avery English and this is my wife, Anna."

Kirby Wallace was no longer in the breakroom with the man who had moved silently over to where the Englishs had been working on gathering the coffee service for their meeting. The man was close to six feet with short, sandy-colored hair. Avery took him for a former military officer by the way that he stood and maintained eye contact with the person he was speaking to. It was hard to determine his age or how long he might have been out of the military because his athletic physique still seemed appropriate for someone who maintained a daily PT regimen.

"Good morning," the man said as he extended his hand. "I'm Robert Brandt, but please call me Bobby. I'm sorry that I'm a little early for our meeting this morning, but I wanted to check in with Kirby and his team beforehand."

"It's not a problem," Avery assured his guest. "Anna and I were just putting together a coffee service for our meeting. Do you know how many others will be joining us?"

Bobby turned his attention to Anna and said, "You must be Anna. It's a pleasure to meet you." Turning back to Avery, he said, "It will be just the three of us meeting here together, but there may be one or two others that I will include remotely if the need arises."

Anna wanted to know more about their guest, such as who he was representing, but she resisted asking any questions and just returned the greeting. She then decided to ask one question, "Would you like some coffee?"

"No, thank you. My day started early and I've had more than enough coffee to last me for the day."

Hearing this, Avery picked up just two of the coffee cups he had been collecting as well as the carafe that Anna had filled with hot coffee. To Bobby, he said, "If you're ready, please follow us to our private conference room."

Anna walked beside Avery as they led their guest to the conference room. Anna filled their cups from the carafe as Avery closed the door to the room. He then addressed Bobby, "Please, take a seat where ever you want."

Bobby took a seat on one side of the table, closest to the large monitor hanging on the wall. Avery and Anna took the seats across from him.

The meeting began without preamble as Bobby said, "Let's talk about your futures. I understand that you, Avery, have already been informed of the decision to discharge you from the Army. I am here to explain why that decision was made, explain who made it, and explain your options going forward."

Anna couldn't resist any longer, "Who are you?"

Bobby smiled and said, "Fair question, and one that I am surprised you waited this long to ask. I am an official, unofficial. I am an enigma to most people in our government, but I serve the government and have since I entered the Air Force Academy all those years ago..."

"Maybe you can explain..." Avery began.

"I run a company called Brandt Consulting. We have hundreds of corporate clients that contract with us for a variety of consulting services, from network security to personal protective services. However, our core mission remains for us to act as the offensive component for the Department of Homeland Security. I hold a leadership position with DHS that few in this country know about, reporting only to the Director of DHS and the President himself."

"I never knew that there was an offensive component to the Department of Homeland Security," stated Avery, questioningly.

"You're not supposed to know," Bobby explained. "Until now. The President sent me here personally to explain about Brandt Consulting and to discuss a potential partnership between it and Saturn Systems. You see, the 'dependent discharge' is justified. Your country needs you."

Anna asked, "Why does Avery need to be discharged from the Army, though? He is proudly serving the country now."

Bobby smiled at Anna and said, "Because a partnership between Brandt Consulting and Saturn Systems would not be possible if he was still tied to our military. The offensive actions that we take against enemies of this country are not those that a nation-state can lay claim to, or be associated with directly without serious geopolitical repercussions. That's why few in our government know of my and Brandt Consulting's role within DHS. We function as a private consulting and security intermediary exempt from the legal and political components that limit our government's ability to take proactive steps to protect our country."

"Are these secret offensive actions legal and ethical?" Anna asked.

"The activities that Brandt Consulting undertake for our government are considered 'black ops' rather than secret," Bobby said. "The main difference between a black operation and one that is merely secret is that a black operation involves a significant degree of deception, to conceal who is behind it or to make it appear that some other entity is responsible. We employ a lot of 'false flag' strategies to implicate others, usually another nation-state that is unfriendly to the U.S. at the time. As far as the legality and ethical considerations are concerned, we leave those determinations to our legal advisors, many of whom are current colleagues of yours at the Justice Department, but more on that later..."

Avery interrupted and said, "So, we now have been briefed on this clandestine organization within DHS and the President's desire for Saturn Systems to partner with it in some fashion. Can you provide more detail on what exactly this partnership would entail?"

"Janus."

Avery glanced at Anna before turning back to Bobby and saying, "The government already has Janus. It was launched over the weekend and is being deployed even as we speak."

Nodding n agreement, Bobby said, "Yes, and it has performed better than expected in the actions required of it so far. We want to expand upon its design to create a viable weapon for use against targets other than nation-states."

Anna raised her eyebrows in surprise and asked, "What kind of other targets?"

"Foreign citizens who target individuals or organizations in our country, such as terrorists, organized crime or other criminals, anarchists, and so on. The United States government could not take direct legal action or launch a cyber-attack against a citizen of say, Bulgaria, who we could prove was responsible for ransomware attacks in our country, but Brandt Consulting and Saturn Systems could. Secretly, of course."

Anna heard the interest in Avery's tone of voice when he said, "Janus was not designed to target individuals. I would need to make so many modifications that it wouldn't even be the same application. What about maintaining a defensive component?"

"A rose by any other name," Bobby said, "would still smell as sweet. General Curtane and several others at Cyber Command believe that you have the tools and knowledge required to produce the cyber weapon, whatever you decide to call it, and the President agrees. The defensive components of Janus would remain available for that purpose, so we would be expecting you to develop an application that permanently shuts down threatening cyberinfrastructures, and possibly tracks any financial assets that could be pillaged to provide restitution for victims."

Intrigued more by Avery's interest than any true curiosity, Anna asked, "How would this partnership between our two organizations work? For example, who would identify the targets, who would decide what action to take, and who would have the final say about whether those actions were implemented?"

"All good questions," Bobby said. "Some of the answers are known, and some would need to be worked out. For example, potential targets would be identified by organizations such as CISA, the NSA, or reports from private cyber security organizations. Once identified, potential targets would be investigated by agents of Brandt Consulting to determine their possible affiliation with one or more nation-states. If our agents find sufficient evidence that an individual or organization is acting without the sanction of a nation-state, that evidence would be presented to you."

"Me, as in Anna English, or me, as in Saturn Systems?"

"Both. With your experience as a federal prosecutor, you are well-suited to act as both the judge and jury while evaluating the evidence presented of cybercrimes committed against citizens or private organizations within the United States. We'll look for your recommendations on how severe any actions against the offenders should be, based upon factors such as the financial impact on the victims, persistence of the offenses, risk to critical services such as actions that affect hospitals, and so on. Your recommendations would then most likely be reviewed by your husband and me to formulate our response strategy. As always, the final decision will remain with the President, but he typically agrees with my recommendations where these types of operations are concerned. I have a pretty good success rate."

"How good?" asked Avery.

Bobby grinned and said, "Perfect."

~~~

"The only rockets anyone will see from North Korea in the foreseeable future will be bottle rockets," the President's Press Secretary told the assembled members of the media. "Now the President will take a few of your questions."

Before the President could take a position behind the podium in the White House press room, reporters were clambering over each other trying to get his attention. The President pointed to a man that he recognized as being a correspondent with the Al Jazeera network.

"Mr. President, isn't it true that the actions taken against the cyberinfrastructures of three sovereign nations are a violation of international law, and isn't it also the case that the United States is exerting control over all of cyberspace?"

The President didn't hesitate to reply, "No, neither of your statements are true. I'll explain the second part of your question first since it justifies our actions in the first part of your question. The United States, and most developed countries, view cyberspace as being open to the unencumbered use by all countries, just as the oceans or seas of this world, the airspace above us, and open space beyond that. As with sea space and airspace, there are recognized boundaries where nations have the right to regulate who and what passes through them. Any country on Earth has the right to do what they wish within the confines of their own air, sea, or cyberspace as long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of another nation. When another nation's sovereign territory is breached, it must respond. That is what the United States has done. It is no different than our military sinking hostile ships within our territorial waters or shooting down hostile aircraft flying over our cities. And, as General Curtane described, make no mistake about it, North Korea, Iran, and Cuba conspired together to invade America's cyberspace, they were caught, and we responded in kind. Next question..."

The President pointed to the correspondent from National Public Radio. She asked, "Mr. President, the impact of the response from the United States on the three countries targeted has been compared to that of a nuclear attack in the devastation that the citizens of these countries have experienced. How do you condone such brutality and how do you think the American people will view our actions?"

"The strategy and the decision to implement it were not arrived at easily, or without consideration for the citizens of the countries involved. Every effort was made to mitigate the impact that a cyberinfrastructure collapse would have on critical systems. For example, none of the systems that regulate the cooling systems for any nuclear power plants were targeted to prevent them from reaching critical mass and causing a meltdown. The systems that manage the distribution of electrical power out of these power plants were shut down, but the power to manage the internal cooling systems remains. As far as how the American people will view the actions of their government, well, I hope that all of you will do your jobs properly and make certain that the facts are presented in a complete and unbiased manner. If that is done, the evidence that we have of the intentions of these countries will be crystal clear to the American people and they will fully support the response of their government on their behalf. One final question..."

The correspondent from CNN shouted over all of his peers, "Mr. President, should we be concerned about any retaliatory actions from other countries?"

"Just as our other military assets diligently protect our sea and air space, our Cyber Command is equipped to address any attempts or actions deemed threatening to U.S. cyberspace. And, as we just demonstrated, any threats against American cyberspace will be responded to swiftly, severely, and effectively. We will not tolerate threats of any kind that target our sovereign territory or our citizens. Thank you."

~~~

Thursday, December 31, 2020

"How does it feel to officially be a civilian again?' Anna asked.

Avery stroked Anna's bare shoulders, brushing her long hair aside so he could more fully enjoy the feel of her skin. He said, "I could ask the same thing of you. For me, it doesn't feel any different than being an unofficial civilian."

Once Avery and Anna had agreed to the terms of the partnership between Saturn Systems and Brandt Consulting, the Army didn't feel the same urgency to process Avery's discharge as they originally had. While he had not been required to perform any duties for the Army, since October 13th, his official date of discharge had been set for the last day of the year. This worked perfectly for Anna since it left her over two months to wrap up her existing cases and transition those that would remain open to other U.S. Attorneys. Her final day with the Justice Department thus coincided perfectly with Avery's final day in the Army.

"Well, I'm pleased to learn that you are just as pleasingly virile as a civilian as you were as an Army officer."

"And you are still the same tantalizing vixen that you have always been," Avery assured her. "How late do you think that we should let Trey sleep today?"

Anna said, "I told him that if he woke up before nine this morning, he would have to take a nap if he wanted to stay up until midnight. He made it until eleven last night, so he might just be able to ring in the New Year with us for the first time."

"When he sets his mind to something..." Avery agreed. "Anyway, did you check with your parents? Are they all settled in?"

Although Saturn Systems was located two and a half hours away, Avery and Anna had decided to keep their estate along the Savannah River as their primary residence. They would use his parents' house for those times when their presence at Saturn Systems was required for more than a day at a time. Anna had suggested to her parents that they sell their house and move into Avery's parents' house when they weren't staying at their condo in Myrtle Beach, and they had agreed. There was more than enough room in the house for those times when the entire family would be there.

"They aren't satisfied with the landscaping company that your parents used," Anna said. "My dad wants to know if we would mind them changing to the company that they used at their house. I told them that we wouldn't mind."

They both heard the chime from Avery's phone indicating that he had received a message. He picked the phone up from the side table and checked the screen. After reading the message he set the phone back down without replying to the message and said, "Bobby isn't wasting any time. He wants to schedule a conference call for Saturday to discuss a potential target for Vindex that his team has been investigating."

"Vindex" was the name that Anna had come up with for the modified components of Janus which Avery had developed for targeting and shutting down specific cyber systems and infrastructures without impacting others. The name was derived from that of the ancient Roman governor, Gaius Julius Vindex. Legend claims that Vindex was powerful in body and of shrewd intelligence; that he was skilled in warfare, full of daring for any great enterprise, and he had a passionate love of freedom and vast ambition. Anna said the name associated so many of Avery's qualities with the application that it had to be the one they selected to use.

"Have you determined how you will deploy Vindex when the time comes so that its origins are hidden?" Anna asked.

Utilizing the existing code for the relevant offensive components proven so effective within Janus had allowed Avery to develop a prototype application in less than a week. Sandbox testing had identified a few targeting challenges, but Avery had quickly found solutions for those. His biggest challenge had been determining how to deploy Vindex so that the origin was undetectable to any forensic tracing. In theory, Vindex would so completely purge the targeted cyberinfrastructure or system that no evidence of a Vindex attack would be present, and this is what his testing had proven to be the case. However, Bobby and he had agreed that a false flag deployment would provide even better protection of the origin, so that's what Avery had been working on over the last few weeks.

"General Curtane assisted me with identifying several weather satellites in geosynchronous orbit over areas that CISA and the NSA believe are the most active for cybercriminal activities. Uplinking to satellites is something that we regularly practice in the Cyber Command, so I used that experience to plant Vindex onto several of these weather satellites. When the time comes, Vindex can be downlinked to the targets directly from the designated satellite. Even if someone is eventually able to trace it back to its source, that source will be a dead end."

Anna asked, "When you reply, please ask Bobby to send me whatever their investigation has discovered so that I can review it before Saturday." Leaning up to kiss Avery on the lips, she said, "Plus, it will give me something to do while you and Trey are watching bowl games tomorrow. Come on, let's get in the shower."

Watching Anna climb off him and out of bed, Avery stared at her stomach. The tight flatness of her abdomen was surrendering to the barely noticeable swelling. He jumped out of bed and followed her into the bathroom.

As was their customary routine, Avery went to turn on the shower while Anna brushed her teeth. She would adjust the temperature of the water in the shower and begin washing her hair while he brushed his teeth before joining her. "Any progress with names?" he asked.

After spitting into the sink, Anna said, "What do you think of 'Brelan Carré'?"

"Where did that come from? I thought you were torn between 'Aften' and 'Adelle'."

The sonogram that they had both seen yesterday had indicated that they were going to have a daughter and the discussion on what they would call her had commenced almost immediately.

Anna finished with her teeth and turned to face Avery, "Those are the two that I think we should consider for her name, along with Carina, of course so she shares my middle name. I think that we will want to call her Brelan Carré, though since she will be our fourth Ace. We will finally have our four-of-a-kind.