Waltzing the War Zone, chapter 3 (Patreon)

Aldrich pulled the SUV through a wide set of doors at the back of the private hanger. As soon as they were in the shade of the building, John jumped out and went to close the doors while Lev started tapping away at his computer. Ah, security. Paranoia was the scent of home at this point, and that probably wouldn’t earn Tank any points on the positive side of the mental healthy tally sheet, but it was true.

Aldrich waited until John had secured the doors and Lev closed his laptop before he opened his own door. Tank and Lev followed suit. “The private plane will take you to Los Angeles and from there you are on a commercial flight to India,” Aldrich said. “Please don't get in any trouble.” He directed his glare toward John. Tank would've wilted under that particular expression, but John just gazed right back completely nonplussed. When Tank grew up, he wanted to be just like John. After a second, Aldrich rolled his eyes and then he turned to Lev. Do you know how much it terrifies me that out of the three of you, you're less likely to get in trouble than either of the others?”

“We’re all adults, Clyde. We’re not going to get in trouble.” Lev’s exasperation came through loud and clear, but as much as Tank adored Lev, he was slightly team Aldrich on this one. They were so going to land in trouble.

“Yes, you're all adults. But have you looked at your track record lately? I feel like I'm putting the three biggest troubled magnets in the universe next to each other and then just hoping that the weight of your collective bad luck doesn't cause a black hole.”

Lev narrowed his eyes. “You’re being an ass.”

“It’s my superpower. But this is the first time you are going into the field without either me or Sadler. Please keep in mind that the two people who are normally charged with making sure that you don't get too strange are not going to be with you.”

“Why isn’t Sadler coming?” Tank asked. She was brilliant, and, like the general had commented, she did have a higher ability to stay out of trouble than most people. When Tank trained with the unit, he trusted her. John was better in a fight and knew how to fight dirty, but Sadler had a subtlety to her dirty fighting that made people think she was nice even as she gutted them. Tank admired that.

“She’s in charge of running the entire base. I think she has better things to do than run off to India with you.”

“But sir, you used to run off all the time even when you were running the base,” Tank pointed out since the general’s words didn’t make sense. He loved Lev, and in a different way, he loved John. But Sadler and Aldrich were higher on the normal scale, and if they had pass as inconspicuous, going without either of them felt dangerous.

Aldrich pinned Tank with a glare that communicated the depth of his displeasure with Tank’s habit of overstepped the bounds of polite conversation. One of these days he was going to keep his feet out of his mouth, but clearly today was not that day. Luckily, John saved him from his own foot-in-mouth-itis.

“That’s because he fucked up some stuff. Sadler says she has to sort out his screw ups.” John had a sort of glee that suggested his impolite was intentional rather than Tank’s special brand of social cluelessness.

“I did not fuck up anything. I am a general. I am a highly respected member of the Armed Forces who has a great authority and commands respect,” Aldrich said firmly.

John snorted.

For several long seconds, Aldrich and John stared each other down. The discomfort was growing exponentially when Aldrich rolled his eyes and the hostility vaporized. “Fine. Maybe I fucked up one or two things in the paperwork, but I was too busy paying attention to the things that mattered like how to keep certain assholes out of jail after they decided to unleash their own brand of justice on some poor schmuck at the mall.”

“It was an outlet center, not a mall,” John said.

“I don't care of it was a fucking moon base. You shouldn't threaten to eviscerate people on the streets. The pantomime was just another layer of unnecessary.”

John shrugged without seeming too concerned. That was a story Tank needed to get to the bottom of.

“Clyde, we’ll be fine,” Lev said. The corners of his lip twitched. That traitor had the good dirt on John and his trip to the outlet center and he hadn’t shared. Tank started plotting campaigns with tickle torture and seduction until he got the information he wanted.

“We will all be fine, and I will make sure they stay out of trouble,” a woman said as she walked out of the hangar. She was an older woman with unruly curls that were turning gray and enough extra weight to round out the curves and make her look motherly rather than MILFy. While it was probably sexist, Tank was uncomfortable around women who embraced the sexy that way, probably because his own mother was a MILF and had an uncomfortable habit of finding men around Tank’s age sexually attractive. Worse, she was so damn willing to share her opinions. The last time Tank and gone home for a visit, Zhu had come over to the house with his new baby daughter, and Tank’s mother had humiliated him with an ungodly number of comments about how sexy men were when they tended babies. Had Marie come along on that visit, she would have either insisted they leave or she would have broken Tank’s mother into many, many pieces. Many.

“Cadet Tankersley, this is Barbara Baker. Barb, Cadet Tankersley, although everyone calls him Tank probably because he has the subtlety of one.”

“She's subtle enough for all of us,” John said in a voice that was not exactly admiring as he studied Barbara. Lev must've caught the tone because he shot John a quick look before he pasted a wide smile on.

“Tank, Barb is one of our newest recruits. She comes to us out of the CIA, which is very handy because on paper she has never worked for the government at all, so it's really easy for her to move around without making people think that the IF is trying to snoop on other people's territory.”

“Even when we are,” Aldrich said. “Your cover—Tank, you will be looking for information on a potential birth mother after finding out you’re adopted.”

Tank grimaced. That hit a little too close to home.

“John is your best friend from college. He went back to school after working as a long-haul trucker for several years, so hopefully that will explain his more anti-social quirks.” John flipped Aldrich off, but the general continued. “Barb is your adoption research coordinator who is tagging along to help you translate with various organizations that might not employ an English speaker.”

“Much of India speaks English, but Americans do tend to assume the rest of the world lives in some variation of ignorance, so that cover shouldn't raise any red flags,” she said. And on paper I just retired from my work with an international charity focused on improving health, so starting a new business where I help others with international problems is a logical move.”

“And I will be visiting a fellow scientist who has access to some technology we supposedly don't have access to,” Lev said. “The science people are far less territorial than the military side of our respective anti-alien task forces.”

“No you aren’t,” Aldrich said. “I’ve seen the science slap-downs. You just pretend to be nice to each other.”

Lev ignored Clyde and held a hand out for Tank. Tank took it, threading their fingers together. “Technically, we aren't supposed to know each other, but we are in the same hotel so I am hoping we can arrange a whirlwind romance.” Lev gave Tank a wicked smile that went straight to Tank’s cock.

“I thought the colonel was joking when she commented on the way you two looked at each other, even after three years of a long distance relationship.” Barb shook her head. “The first person who sees you two look at each other will know you’re in lust at the very least. On the flight to LA, let's work on a cover story about how you two met in the LA airport. At least if you fell in lust at the airport, that might explain some of the glances.” She waved her hand back and forth between Tank and Lev. Lev cleared his throat and Tank took his hand back, uncomfortable in his own skin now that she had pointed out that they were acting like teenagers.

“Whatever you think is best,” Aldrich said. “John, to keep in mind that Barb's in charge of the mission. She's the one with experience undercover, so avoid stabbing, shoving, punching, or sharing brutal honesty with random strangers in stores.” His tone took on a sharp edge.

“I can do subtle when I need to.”

“Then just assume you need to during this entire trip.” Aldrich nodded at each of them and then got in the SUV. John opened the rear doors to the hanger and Lev took out his laptop and they repeated the entire security dance on the off chance that someone had slipped an insect-sized alien drone into the hanger during the brief period when the doors were open. Tank crossed his arms to avoid reaching out for Lev as he sat on the concrete floor and typed away on his computer. When Lev gave them a thumbs up, Tank turned to Barbara.

“Have you been with the IF long?”

“About three weeks. Colonel Sadler asked me to join the mission.”

Tank was trying so hard to be an adult and pretend he could keep his hands to himself, but then Lev stood, brushed off his pants, and wrapped his arms around Tank. For a second, Tank tried to prove that he had some self control, but then Lev gave him a confused look, and Tank slipped his own arm around Lev’s waist and pulled him a little closer.

“Debra complained to Clyde that he didn't have enough women in the program and that meant that the program sometimes didn't have the diversity of viewpoints that it needed,” Lev said. He tightened his hold on Tank. “She also pointed out that when we were trying to do something subtle, walking into town with black SUVs full of men who were clearly soldiers and women who were even more masculine than the men because getting through special forces training is rough on women—that was less than subtle. She convinced him that the IF needs more women in the program to make it successful.”

“Is that a problem?” Barbara asked Tank, her voice sharp.

“Problem? What do you mean problem?”

Barbara frowned at him. “Do you have a problem going into the field with a woman?”

“Oh. That. Yeah, not a bit,” Tank said easily as he realized she was afraid he some sort of jerkface. “I am fine with women in charge. I’m fine with women who can kick my ass. I am fine with women who can out-program me. I am even fine with women who are good with fluid dynamics but who can’t walk across a room without falling down.”

“You're talking about Tracy, aren't you?” Lev asked.

Tank shrugged. “As a previous member of the physically inept squad, I have a lot of sympathy for Tracy, even if I will never trust her to stand behind me again.”

“You were stupid the letters stand behind you the first time,” John said without any sympathy. He headed for the staircase that led up into the private plane.

“He's got a point,” Tank admitted before he focused on Barbara again. “I have zero assumptions about your ability to do your work based on your gender. I just have trust issues with people I don't know. So if I seem a little twitchy around you and double check the door any time you are the last one through it because I don't trust you to lock it, please don't take that as a slight against your gender. It’s more my general paranoia and the limitations of PTSD therapy.

Barbara nodded. “Given the limited briefing I was given on your past, I can accept that.”

“He’s a good man,” Lev said. “He won’t judge you by anything other than your actions. That’s one of Tank’s best traits.” Tank leaned in and gave Lev a quick kiss.

Barbara sighed. “We are definitely going to have to come up with a new cover story because you two being strangers is not ever going to work. Let’s get on the plane and head for L.A.”

Tank pulled away from Lev. “I need to go home and pack.”

“We have everything you need for your cover on the plane. My biggest concern is making sure you don’t have anything in your pockets that could contradict your cover story, but we have the flight review the cover and make sure all three of you are ready to handle questions.” She looked toward the jet and sighed. Tank wondered whether her weariness was limited to John’s obvious displeasure at having a new team member or whether she was just as unhappy to get assigned to escort the rest of them.

Well, it wasn’t like Tank had never worked with someone who hadn’t liked him. The first year he and Roger and Zhu had worked with Ellie and Marie, words like hate and die and fuck off had been used so often that he was still surprised they had all become friends. Hell, even adding Roger to the friendship he and Zhu had shared had caused a few ripples.

And now Tank knew that an older version of him had his own pseudo-Zhu and they’d remained friends for life. It made Tank wonder how much of his life was his and how much the aliens had engineered. However, he wouldn’t find any clues about that mystery until he got to India.

Barb headed for the plane. Hand in hand, Tank and Lev followed.