Forge of War (Jack of Harts) (35 page)

“Hey!  I picked my drink up!” Samantha’s outraged voice shouted.

Jack turned back to see a man in a scarf like theirs standing far too close to Samantha and he mentally lashed himself for letting his attention waver.

“Too late, sweetheart,” the man said.  “It was on the bar when I tossed the penny.”

Samantha stepped right up to the man and Jack saw the bristling anger in her posture.  “No it wasn’t!”

The man gulped, but stood his ground.  “Yes it was,” he growled and Jack saw the man step forward and bring a hand up towards her mug.  And that was it.

Jack lashed out faster than most people could follow, latched onto the man’s throat, and pulled him away from Samantha.  He held the man high enough that the man had to stand on his tiptoes to keep from choking.

“Let go of me!” the man squeaked in outrage and Jack felt the crowd watching him.  He only had a few seconds to finish this before they would do something.  And most likely they would do something to the person they didn’t know.  Him.

Jack cocked his head to the side.  “Did you toss the penny after she lifted it?”

“No!  There’s rules and I’m following them,” the man said in an outraged squeaked.

Jack’s eyes narrowed at the response and he shook his head as he heard the man’s heart racing.  He focused and detected a bead of sweat on the man’s temple. He felt the man breathing hard.  “Kid, you just lied to me,” he said in a calm conviction meant to bring the crowd to his side.  “And trust me, I
know
you did.  So why don’t we try this again?  Did you, or did you not, toss the penny in a drink its owner made clear was not participating in the game?”

The man licked his lips in fear and Jack could tell he had the crowd around them wavering.  “I did not!” the man lied again.  “And what…what do you care?” the man squeaked.  “You’re not from around here!”

Jack had to give it to the man.  He was good at rabblerousing, and he felt the crowd slipping back away from him.  He would have to move quick.

“Why should I care if you slip a micky into my girlfriend’s drink?” Jack asked and was rewarded by confused silence from the crowd.  He’d used a term they didn’t understand here.  Jack sighed.  God bless the diversity of language.  A few people understood though, and he heard them explaining.  As the words flittered through the crowd, he heard them gasp in outrage at the charge.  Maybe he could salvage this after all.  It was time to strike.  “You trying to get lucky tonight?  You picked the wrong person.” 
That
they all understood, even the man in his hand.

The man swung his arm out towards the drink again and Jack lashed out with his free hand to grab the man’s wrist, tight enough to make the man squeal in pain.  “No spilling the evidence,” Jack said and felt the crowd turn dark around him.  He’d just accused one of their own of a very bad crime and was graduating to full on multiple joint locks.  If he was wrong, he was going to be in trouble.  Looking at the man’s desperation though, he wasn’t wrong.

“Barkeep!” Jack bit out.  It wasn’t the right word here he knew, but he figured whatever the guy was would get the reference and the adrenaline in his system was really making it hard to focus on his words.  The big burly man pouring drinks for everybody rumbled over and glared at Jack.  Jack looked down at the drink still in Samantha’s hands.  “Do you have the equipment to test that?”

The bartender followed his eyes and looked back at Jack.  “Yes, Sir,” he said, reached beneath the bar, and pulled a small wand out.  He slipped it into the drink and the end of it promptly turned bright red and an alternating wail of alarm emitted from it.  Jack felt the crowd’s rage shift from him to the man he held and knew he’d won.

The man lashed out with his free arm and his legs, trying to scratch and kick Jack in places he really didn’t want to be hurt.  He deflected the arm with the elbow attached to the hand around the man’s neck, and twisted to deflect the kicks as well.  He wrapped one leg around both of the man’s legs, locked them together, and brought the man down on the floor hard enough that his head thunked on the wood floor.  The man’s eyes rolled up in his head and he fell unconscious.

Jack disentangled himself and rose back up to his feet with a slow and purposeful motion.  He tucked a thumb in his belt and slipped his other hand into a pocket, making a show of being non-confrontational towards anybody.  He didn’t need a fight, and didn’t
want
a fight.  Of course, the chances of anybody fighting with him over that pile of filth were pretty much nil.  Still, it always helped to make a show of the fact that you weren’t looking for one.

He smiled at Samantha.  “Well, I can see what you mean about watching your drink here,” he quipped.

She pulled her hand from the drink and the bartender took it, placing it well behind the bar for safekeeping.  “That’s…not normal,” Samantha said, her voice quivering very slightly.

Jack scanned the crowd quickly, noting that they were following the conversation closely.  He would have to make certain not to insult them in general.  “I would gather that.  Still, it only takes one predator to hurt a lot of people.”  He felt the crowd agree and begin to disperse.  He’d timed the words just right to diffuse them, with her help setting it up of course.

“Jack?  Where did you learn to do that?”

Jack shrugged.  “Military trains us to do a lot.”

Samantha shook her head.  “No, I’ve seen military moves.  Those weren’t military.  Where did you learn them?”

Jack raised an eyebrow and his smile turned proud.  She really was a smart one.  “I trained some when I was a kid, learning to control and…coexist with my body and all that mystical mumbo jumbo the dojo hojos practice,” he said with a sly grin.

She ran her fingers up the scarf hanging down his chest.  “And your reaction times.  Where did you learn
them
?”  Emerald eyes stared at him.  “You reacted to him
before
he moved.”

Jack pulled in a long breath, buying time, and let it out again with a shrug.  “People twitch and jitter before they move.  If you know what to look for, you can have a good idea what they’re about to do.  I was just reacting to where he
planned
on going.”

Samantha walked her fingers onto his collar with a smile.  “Maybe.  You’re a pilot.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he answered with a proud smile.

Her eyes betrayed a shrewd and suspicious mind working on overtime.  “How
old
are you?”

Jack sighed, this time in acceptance.  She had finally come to the right conclusion.  “Not very,” he whispered back.  “I really
did
grow up with Taylor and Jennifer and all the others.  I really
don’t
look much younger than I am right now.  Maybe in a century it’ll be noticeable, but not yet.”

Samantha nodded and brought both hands up to wrap them around his neck.  “So you don’t age at all, do you?”

He bent down and tickled her ear with his breath.  “No, Ma’am.”

She giggled and slapped his arm.  “Stop that.”  She chewed her lip for a moment.  “So how long?”

Jack shrugged.  “I took the last of the Peloran treatments a decade ago.  They started noticing I got the really shiny side effects a few years later.”

Samantha nodded slowly in thought.  “And
that’s
where you got your reactions.”

Jack shifted from one foot to the other.  “Well, to be fair I
always
had good reactions.  But they
did
start getting better after that.”

“And that’s why you always make such a show out of being casual and easygoing?  You don’t want to move too fast by accident?”

Jack sighed.  “People don’t like people moving that fast.  And only panicked moms or raging weightlifters should be lifting cars.”  He shrugged.  “Master Richardson taught us to blend in so people would see…
us
…not…what we can
do
.”

Samantha bit her lip for a moment as she examined him.  “Did they know, back home?” she finally asked.

Jack nodded slowly.  “It was an open secret.  Everybody knew, nobody talked.  But when something needed doing that no one else could do, I’d get a call.”  Jack smiled.  “I always came.  The goodwill was worth its weight in missed shotgun blasts,” he finished with a wink.

  She sighed.  “And I think I finally see why you love that other life so much.  You never would have had to grow up.”

Jack sucked in a deep breath and beamed at her.  “And
that
is why…” He trailed off, waited for her eyes to open wide in a question, and pounced down to kiss her.  Her body melted into his and time seemed to fade away around them as he focused on the only important thing in all the worlds.  Her.

He didn’t know how much later it was, but some time after that he felt it was time to come up for air.  He pulled away and scanned the room, looking for whatever it was that had caught his attention.  It didn’t take long to spot Betty in full Marine Dress Whites at the far end of the bar standing in front of two peace officers and another cyber.  The two cybers looked at each for a second, communicating at cyberspeeds, and the other one glanced at him with a smile before turning to the peace officers.  Jack concentrated and their words came into focus through the background babble.

“The man on the ground tried to drug her drink,” the cyber reported with a wave of her hand towards Jack and Samantha.  “The Marine stopped him, very gently I might add based on the camera feeds.  He did nothing wrong.  We should arrest the unconscious one now.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” one of the officers said and both began moving through the crowd.

Jack smiled at the men and stepped back, bringing Samantha with him, to clear the officer’s way.  The officers tipped their hats in thanks and Jack returned them with a tip of his own cowboy hat.

“I could have taken care of him you know,” Samantha whispered in his neck as the officers picked the unconscious form off the floor.

“Yes, I know.  But this was best.”

Samantha looked up at him with a curious look.  “How so?”

Jack shrugged.  “Wrong or right, if you made the scene you would be remembered as the student who made a scene. 
I
on the other hand am an outsider here.  I took the attention of the room so it is
me
they will remember, not so much you.”

Samantha nodded in approval.  “Do you always think that far ahead?”

Jack chuckled.  “Never.  I just do what feels right, and look back to find out why when I’m done,” he finished with a smile.

Samantha examined him for several seconds.  She was about to say something when the next act came on stage.  Her eyes sparkled at the sight and Jack turned to see what the excitement was about.

His brow furrowed in interest at the first three musicians.  One carried in a bass violin taller than she was and two others sat down at the drum set and piano that seemed permanent parts of the stage.  Three more walked on after them, one with a saxophone and two with trumpets.  Jack cocked his head to the side, trying to figure out how that combination of instruments would sound.  He’d never seen anything like it before.

A seventh person walked onto the stage as the drums began to beat out a rhythm. The final arrival carried no instrument and made her way to the microphone as the bass violin joined the drums, rapid pulls on the bow filling the bar with its deep resonance.  The piano began to play, mixing in with the other two instruments and Jack blinked as he tried to figure out where this was going.  Then the trumpets and saxophone began to wail and his jaw dropped in amazement.  Finally, the singer joined in, singing some crazy lyrics about cats dancing on Mars.

Jack shook his head in amazement as the college students took to the dance floor with a relish.  He turned his focus on the saxophone and marveled at the way its player made the instrument sound.  He listened as they flew through the musical chords, at what sounded like random, with individual instruments taking front stage whenever they felt like it.

The bass violinist made a show of stepping away from her instrument and twirled it to the cheers of the dancers.  The drum player performed a quick solo of crazy drumming, and the twin trumpets stepped forward to run up and down the scale in a crazy intertwining melody that Jack could barely follow.  The pianist came to his feet, kicked his bench back, and took center stage for almost half a minute, banging away a tune Jack had never heard before.  It all went by so fast, Jack had trouble just categorizing what he was hearing.  It was some kind of jazz, but he’d never heard
anything
like this before.

In the end, it was the saxophone that trapped him though.  The saxophonist’s fingers blurred across the keys as he danced forward and took the stage for a few seconds, and the wail of the saxophone filled Jack with longing.  The solo ended and the saxophonist faded back to let the trumpets take over again.

Jack took a deep breath and shook his head.  “Whoa,” he whispered and turned to look at Samantha.  She returned his look with curiosity written on her face.  “I have
got
to learn how to play that instrument,” Jack said with a smile and pointed at the saxophone.  “It’s beautiful!”