To The Grave - Chapter Two

Central Atlantica Governmental Senator Wellian leaned on her desk and regarded the individual in font of her. "Are you positive that this is the best plan?"

"Positive."

"I’m not comfortable with an assassination attempt," she said. "Too many things could go wrong."

"It’s virtually guaranteed to be fool proof."

"See…there’s a problem with fool proof." She stood from her desk and walked over to the window overlooking the city. "There’s always someone who is not a fool that comes along to mess it up."

Central Access Agency Directeur Bermen ran his fingers over the arm of his chair. He couldn’t exactly tell the Senator that he had a plan in place that would take care of any ‘non-fools’ that should come along. "The attempt would cause Senator Plow to accept the CAA’s aide in tracking down this ‘assassin’, which will place us closer to her when the true time arrives."

"I’ve heard that."

"I want it stopped," she said in a hard voice. She had been planning to use the military to invade their northern neighbor, but it would be harder to do if people knew about it. "I can’t have my reputation marred over such a rumor."

"Of course, Senator."

She watched the Directeur leave, and smiled coldly. It was easy to plan and scheme her way into political power when the head of the country’s security force was on her payroll. A few million dollars here, a few million dollars there, and Directeur Bermen had been more than willing to betray all that he had vowed to protect.

The Senator wasn’t sure how many agents he had working with him to assure that she became Central Atlantica’s next Premier, nor did she care. All she wanted was to completely destroy her biggest competition in the race, and assure her victory.

~~~~~~~~~~

"You’ll be working with Sub-Agent Taylor."

Kyle looked the other woman over, and rolled his eyes as she remained at attention in front of the Captain. He stood straighter as the Sub-Agent turned to look at him, and suppressed a shiver at the look she gave him.

"Very well," Sub-Agent Taylor replied.

They both watched as the Captain left, then she turned to him again. "Just stay out of my way, Mr. Suene."

"Commander," Kyle reminded her, annoyed that he even had to. "I’d love to stay out of your way, but, unfortunately, the powers that be have decided that we should work on this together." He fixed her with his most charming smile, the one that had lured many a woman to his bed. "So let’s just get started, shall we?"

If anything, her cool glare intensified. "Look, you pathetic has-been. I don’t like you, I don’t want to work with you, and I don’t care what you do." She turned and stormed away.

"Bring me back a coffee," he called after her. "Best make yours a decaf." Kyle watched as she stopped, then stormed away around a corner. "Has-been?" he whispered with a shake of his head.

He sat himself in front of one of the computers and stared at the keys, unsure where to start his search. Finally deciding, he pushed a button, smiling as a screen appeared in the space in front of him. The three dimensional information, viewable only from his side, hung in the air, awaiting either a keystroke or manual touch.

Kyle reached into the information, touched a file to open it, and pulled a virtual page out to view. He pushed it back into the file before he had finished reading half of it, and pulled another page out. Soon, his fingers were flying through the cyber area over his desk, the information and leads going into one of three files. The first file was information that he immediately dismissed, the second file was full of information that needed to be followed up on, most likely hearsay he’d collected from the Internet, while the third file contained classified information that he was positive he needed. He wasn’t worried that he would mistakenly send any classified information over the Internet…he’d been doing this sort of searching longer than he could remember.

Setting himself to recognize certain words and phrases on the information he searched, he allowed his mind to wander slightly.

~~~~~~

The office was lit only by the autumn sunlight coming through the window, the lone occupant leaning forward in a chair behind a desk as she watched a small three dimensional news clip. Touching a small button on an in-desk remote control, the figures in the air in front of her restarted at a certain point and ran through the scene she had committed to memory.

Mouthing the words that came from the figures, and getting angrier with each replay of the scene, the woman glanced up as the door to her office opened and someone walked in.

"We have to leave in ten minutes, Senator."

Senator Plow looked up from the news clip as the characters froze above her desk, nodded at her aide, then swiped her hand though the image, distorting the figures slightly. "I want Central Access Agency Directeur Bermen on the phone immediately," was all she said.

A minute later, a small light blinked on her desk, and she stabbed at it as the news article looped through the scene again.

"What can I do for you, Senator?" a voice filtered through the speaker in her desk.

"You can explain to me why you have reactivated Commander Suene, and just what the hell he is doing."

There was a slight pause. "Commander Suene is a vital component in helping stop this potential assassination attempt." There was another pause. "There is a personal connection between him and the reported assassin, Senator."

"Why doesn’t that surprise me," Senator Plow replied dryly.

"Senator," The voice was smooth and oily, one usually use to appease a spoiled child. "I am well aware of the issues of the past regarding yourself and Commander Suene, but I ask you to trust me to do my job, and believe me when I tell you that this is for the best."

"It had better be," Senator Plow replied, her voice an arctic chill. "or when this is over, you’ll be looking for a new occupation." She reached out, stabbing at the button to disconnect the call. She went back to the news article, finally turning the volume on so she could hear the words that had plagued her for the past five years.

~~~~~~~~~

Central Access Agency Directeur Bermen sighed as the call was disconnected, and leaned back in his chair. He knew that Senator Plow would find out about Suene, but he wasn’t counting on her finding out about it not even sixty minutes after he had been reactivated to the military. She must have had his name and file tagged all these years.

He smiled briefly as he called up an old news clip, and pushed a button for it to play in the space above his desk. The reporter was half way through the report as she stood in the middle of an army base.

"…words spoken that many in the military do not agree with." The reported looked as various soldiers walked by, and she seemed to be searching out someone with a rank higher than a private. "I’m at the joint army/navy base in Halifax, looking for reactions to Senator Plow’s recent speech." She spotted someone, and walked over. "Commander?"

A good looking man in his early thirties glanced over his shoulder and his open features immediately became guarded. "No comment."

The reporter scurried around to stand in front of him, and the camera did a close-up of the name tag on his chest. "I haven’t asked a question yet."

"Don’t care," the Commander replied.

"I wanted to ask you…"

Commander Suene faced her completely. "Why don’t you take yourself, your camera, and any questions about that hard ass bitch off of the military base, and back into the sewers where all three of you belong." He nodded to the men and women with him, and they left as one.

Directeur Bermen smiled slightly as the scene froze in font of him. To say that Senator Plow had been irate after hearing that remark would have been a gross understatement. She had demanded the resignation of the Commander, and had become angrier when the military refused to even consider it.

He had specifically chosen and reactivated Kyle Suene to confuse and annoy the Senator, knowing that he could pull his plan off if she was preoccupied. Commander Suene fit perfectly into the Directeur’s plan to eliminate the Senator. Truth be told, he was impressed that Commander Suene had sad the words he had, and was even more impressed when he had refused to apologize for them.

In the events that unfolded afterwards, the Senator had used her influence and power to word the reports so that Commander Suene seemed more of a psychotic than normal.

Senator Plow’s reign had to come to an end, and there was no way that Directeur Bermen would allow her to become the Premier of the country; regardless of the costs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

He saw her coming from the corner of his eye, and waited until she was standing right beside him before acknowledging her presence. "What? No coffee?" he asked without taking his eyes off his search.

"Why did you retire." She stared, waiting his reply.

Kyle suppressed a laugh, but didn’t look from the information in front of him. "Why do you want to know," he asked in the same flat voice that she had used.

"I don’t want to work with a psycho."

Kyle smiled slightly but didn’t look at her as he reached into another source of information, tucking it into a file. "I’m not a psycho," he told her. "I’m sane. Even got a certified document saying so." His eyes flicked to her as he shut down his search and transferred all the information to his portable hand held computer. "Why don’t you cut the shit, Sub Agent, and tell me what’s going on."

She leaned back as he finally faced her. She had to admit that he was charming and seemed harmless enough, although she knew he was anything but harmless. She had thoroughly gone through his files, checking out his background in both his military and personal life. He didn’t seem inclined to do anything more than live off a pension and small inheritance in a cottage on the beach.

Where his personal life seemed to fit a ‘beach bum’ to a tee, his military career was in direct contrast to his now laid back demeanor. One of the most highly decorated soldiers in the military, Commander Kyle Suene had a reputation of complete dedication to getting the job done, regardless of what he had to do. 

"What happened in the Border Wars?"

Kyle took his time putting the small computer into his pocket as he contemplated what to tell her. By the completely condescending tone she used, the phrase Fuck off, bitch immediately came to mind, but he decided against alienating her further than she already was.

He finally looked at her. "Why."

She returned his gaze and noticed that he looked incredibly tired. "Forget it."

Kyle exhaled through his nose, then stood and looked down at her. "Let’s get one thing straight, Sub-Agent Taylor," he said in a barely civil voice, "My private life is just that, private. Keep your nosey little ass out of it, and we’ll get along just fine."

She stared as he left, confused as to why he referred to the time in question as his ‘private life.’

~~~~~~~~

Still annoyed when he got home, Kyle slammed the door behind him after he entered his cottage, paused long enough to open the door and slam it again for good measure, then strode over to the couch in the middle of the living room and basically fell onto it. His body barely had time to settle into the fabric before he was back on his feet and heading for the kitchen just off the living room. Getting two beers from the fridge, and pausing long enough to take off his weapon holster and put it on the counter, he returned to the couch and fell back into it. He put one beer on the floor and opened the other, downing nearly half of it at once.

He knew that he would be alone when he returned, the woman who had been there earlier would have already left. He probably wouldn’t see her again for a few months, since she traveled extensively and they only got together when she was in town. Jillian was one of his favorite ‘friends with benefits’, and was still pissed that their time had been cut short.

He took the small computer out of his pocket, placed it on his stomach and touched a button, staring into the information that sprung into the air above him. He finished off the first beer as he read through things he’d only glanced at earlier that day, and blindly reached down, opened the second beer and brought it to his lips.

He hesitated slightly as he heard a noise outside, then took a drink as his eyes flicked to the front door. He heard the noise again; the unmistakable sound of the boards creaking on the veranda that ran around the cottage. He had never bothered to fix the creaking, and looked at it as his early warning system. He casually flicked the small computer off, set the beer on the floor and got up. He walked into the kitchen, got his weapon off the counter and quietly walked to the front door.

He released the safety on his weapon as he reached for the doorknob, stopping when the person outside knocked on the door. He slipped the safety back on, knowing that someone intending to cause him trouble would have to be extremely stupid to announce his or her presence.

Looking through the small window by the door, and seeing who is was who had invaded his home sanctuary, he considered shooting the person anyway. He pushed the urge away and opened the door.

"Let me guess," he said in a mildly chastising voice, "you ran out of people to piss off, and decided to give me another try."

Sub-Agent Taylor closed her eyes briefly then smiled pleasantly. "Not at all, Commander. I came to discuss a few things with you."

"Wonderful," Kyle muttered, then motioned her in. He watched as she walked into the living room and stood by the corner of the couch. He closed the door and walked by the couch, scooping his beer up in one fluid motion, and continued on to an overstuffed chair and lazily fell into it.

She glanced surreptitiously at her surroundings, surprised that he actually lived in a half-decent place. When she had heard he lived on the beach, she had imagined a shack with standard third-hand furniture and beer cans littering the floor. She glanced down at the area rug that covered the gleaming hardwood floor, her eyes travelling up to the paintings that hung on the wall, and over to the various statuettes, vases and books that were artfully arranged on shelves set into one wall.

Kyle watched her as she took a few moments to survey her surrounds, and was glad that he’d actually taken time the previous day to clean up his place. Usually, he was a slight slob, but since he never knew when he might be bringing someone home with him, he tried to keep things in order.

"What’s your name?" Kyle finally asked, breaking the silence. "I can’t go around calling you Sub-Agent."

"Celia."

"All right then, Celia. What was so important that it couldn’t wait until tomorrow morning?"

"I want to know what set you off." She sat on the corner of the couch, looking as though she was ready to bolt if he so much as moved.

Kyle stared at her for a few moments, knowing exactly what she was referring to. Although nearly five years had passed, it still seemed like yesterday when he thought about it. "My wife and child were hit by a truck. They died. I was refused leave for the funerals. So I left," he said simply. "MP’s were waiting for me when the funerals were over."

"You went AWOL?"

"Yeah," he snarled, "I went AWOL." He closed his eyes. "I get back, get thrown in lockup for a week, then tossed back out onto the lines." He opened his eyes and looked away. "When I confronted my C.O., I was…detained, and then shipped off for a little assessment."

The silence grew as she stared at him, wondering why the files she read didn’t exactly match up with what she’d just heard. In the other version, he had suddenly gone AWOL, and had attacked the Military Police that had been sent to bring him back. After spending time in a lock-up, he was sent back to the front lines, where he then held a squadron of soldiers hostage before being taken down and hauled away for mental evaluation. There had been nothing in the files about a wife or child, or even a funeral.

"Did you attack an MP?"

Kyle snorted lightly. "No. He fell off the steps of the Church and broke his leg." He raised an eyebrow at the look she gave him. "Ask him yourself if you don’t believe me. As for the reported ‘hostage taking’…" He paused for a moment. "Never mind. It’s recorded as such, and that’s the way it’ll stay."

"Tell me," Celia said. She blushed slightly when he looked at her. "I mean, if there’s anything that will make me change my opinion of you, then you’d should tell me."

"Yeah." The reply came slowly, as he decided whether or not to tell her. "I guess you could say that it was a hostage sort of thing, but not really. It depends on how it’s looked at, and since it was written up and filed while I was in assessment, I couldn’t really fight it…not that anyone would have listened anyway. Anyway…I went to my commanding officer and was denied access. So, I tracked him down in the mess."

"You held him hostage?"

"No. I told him that I wasn’t leaving until I talked to him. He took it as a threat…" He smiled slightly. "Most likely because my squadron was just heading out on recon, and were fully equipped." He cleared his throat. "My squad backed me up, wouldn’t leave without me, and they wrote that up as ‘holding a squadron hostage’."

"I see."

"You see?" Kyle shook his head with a small laugh. "Let’s see if you can follow this then… Usual retrieval for someone AWOL would be to bring them back, and, depending on senior officer’s recommendations, either jail time or quarters confinement would be dealt out. Statistically speaking, bereavement leaves are granted ninety-nine percent of the time, with any AWOL issues being treated with a temporary confinement." He paused slightly. "At no time was my C.O. held against his will, and at no time was anyone attacked by me. I was removed from both situations with cooperation and without incident…except for the MP falling off the step."

"If what you’re saying is true, then why treat you differently."

Kyle gave her a bitter half-smile. "I went AWOL about two weeks after publicly calling Senator Plow a hard ass bitch." He could see the realization blossom on the other person’s face. "And nothing can ruin a career faster than a vengeful Senator."

"You’re paranoid," she said, trying to convince herself of that very fact.

He rubbed a hand over his mouth. "During my nice little forced vacation, I had a visit from the Senator." He watched as Celia’s eyes widened slightly. "She requested an apology and public retraction to the HAB comment. When I refused, she…made some…personal remarks, then left." He coughed slightly, more to clear his mind than throat. "Anyway, paranoia may be an apt description, but I’d more believe in someone being creative with the wording of the report."

"Why didn’t you fight it?"

"I didn’t feel like it." Kyle suddenly remembered he had a nearly  full beer in his hand, and took a long drink from it. He then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and regarded her coolly. "Is there anything else you wanted to know, or can I ask you to get the hell out now?"