"Did you need somethin'?" he asked, his clipped tone barely carrying across the room. He never raised his head, never moved.
"Yeah," she said, crossing the space. "I need you to not be so damn stupid."
He raised his head slowly, unfolding his arms to rub his palms over his face, sniffing softly before he turned his attention to her. "Excuse me?"
"I said I'd really like it if you wouldn't be so damn stupid, Ambassador." She took the security core from her belt, snapped one of the electrodes from the back and slapped it unapologetically against his chest over his heart. The core interface immediately came to life, several graphs recording the various biorhythmic information she needed for the globes.
"What the hell are you doin'?" he ground out, reaching for the electrode, but she shoved his hand away.
"What President Tanner hired me to do, keep your ass alive. But if you're going to make it harder for me, I'll quit in the morning." She pulled a stylus device from the side of the core and grabbed his hand, jabbing a finger with the tip. "You know, I heard you were a soldier back on Aretu, so I thought you'd have enough sense not to stand in front of an exposed window."
He looked from her to the window, either oblivious to or indifferent to the fact she held his hand, squeezing several drops of blood from his finger into the stylus tube. The core twittered in acknowledgement of the data.
"I wasn't—"
"Thinking? Obviously." Finished with retrieving the data she needed, she snapped the stylus back into place and gripped the edge of the pad on his chest. Jenifer contemplated just ripping the pad free without at least pulling the skin taut to ease the removal, but in the end she remembered she hated ripping off bandages just as much as anyone else. She laid her hand against his warm skin, bracing it slightly before gripping the electrode edge and yanking hard.
"Bloody hell!"
"It'll hurt a hell of a lot more if you get hit with a long range pulse blast." She eyed up the window and the surrounding cityscape, as much as she could call the broken horizon a city. "I wouldn't be surprised if these Xenos went retro and took a shot at you with one of those old time projectile guns. Messy, but they'd cut through this glass like butter."
Janus (Future Possible Saga Book Five)
It has barely been a year since Mankind took back our world from invaders. Earth has been left damaged and torn. We are practically extinct as a race. Now, Mankind has begun the job of rebuilding.
John Smith XXXIV of Aretu was a soldier before his queen asked him to serve as ambassador to Earth, and he is now out of his element. Restricted in his position to carry a weapon, he has no means to defend himself or his adopted son from those who would rather see “the alien” dead.
Jenifer With No Last Name is a gun for hire and answers to no one but her own common sense. She first refused the “job” of protecting the Areth ambassador, but a glimpse at the heart of the man convinced her to take the responsibility.
As if the Sorracchi weren’t enough of an enemy, Earth has home-grown problems called Xenos – humans who want to purge the Earth of all alien influence. Many hide behind masks, and some want John dead.
Earth moves forward, but is no longer alone. Our knowledge of the galaxy has grown beyond the limits of our own system, and we now have strong allies in the Defense Alliance, a coalition of advanced planets that welcome Earth into their ranks. Another fight is coming. Will we prevail?
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