Chapter Five

Darkness had fallen, his stomach was eating through his spine and his eyes burned with the glare from his monitors. Keiji looked over at Rick who was feverishly typing on a laptop Keiji kept secured on the premises. Rick was working on digging into the background of anyone in the chain of command within USCYBERCOM who may have touched either Oracle or Battlehawk. Keiji figured that would be best since Rick knew those players more intimately and could spot inconsistencies or aberrant patterns in their military jacket. Working both sides of the problem seemed to be the best use of their limited resources, so Keiji had been swimming in computer code to see if he could trace the source of the malware. Since they had blocked him from working on Ascaris, he dove into the bowels of the dark web and searched for any mentions of similar-behaving code being for sale. It made the most sense to identify the code origin then follow the leads to current implementations.

He sighed. “I’m brain dead. Let’s get out of here.”

He got no response but then remembered that Rick asked to borrow a pair of earbuds. Keiji took a moment to watch Rick work. If his focus on the screen in front of him and the speed of his fingers were any sign, then maybe he was onto something.

When Keiji had initially found Rick Davis and his connection to Oracle, he’d done weeks of research on the man before ever approaching him. In fact, some mental health—not to mention legal—professionals may intimate that Keiji had been borderline stalking the man. He hadn’t been joking when he’d name name-dropped Rick’s ex. He’d even called the man, pretending to be an assistant to a fictitious general who was looking at granting Rick a commendation and needed personal references.

Nicolas Gomez had nothing but good things to say about Rick. It was a little weird to be honest. When a couple breaks up there’s at least some animosity or dissolution about the relationship. ‘He worked too hard, never took my needs into consideration, was bad in bed’ etcetera. However, Nic and Rick—and didn’t that seem nauseatingly rhyme-y—just grew apart but still loved each other. And weirder still, Nic’s new husband even chimed in with a tidbit that they’d occasionally all had dinner and drinks together before Rick left town. Who was that friendly with their ex-partner?

Keiji thought back to his most recent ex and the dumpster fire that relationship had turned into. Catastrophic failure on all levels, and it had taken Keiji longer to pull the plug than it should have. What could he say but that complacency was a real thing. Then again, if he were completely honest, he’d never gotten the visceral vibes from Genji as he did the first time he’d been in Rick’s physical presence. Was it because Keiji had spent so much time learning about the man that he had some kind of mental allure that sucked him in?

Rick was gorgeous, and somehow even more so than in the photos and video that Keiji had seen as part of his research. His Northern European heritage was evident in the peaches and cream coloring. A broken nose occurred at some point. The slightly crooked protrusion was almost too big for his face, but also somehow exactly right. Rick’s cheekbones stood out in relief from his angular jawline, and Keiji really wanted to touch them. The sergeant major had removed the outer layer of his uniform and just wore a tan T-shirt that looked about one size too small in all the right places.

He cleared his throat and tried to clear his mind of untimely and inappropriate thoughts. “Hey,” he said a little louder. While the office building had cleared out for the day, Keiji still didn’t want to make too much noise and bring attention to their presence. It was entirely possible that there was still a rando working late.

There was no response from Rick other than the clacking of the keyboard. Too bad he kept his workspace spotless, and he didn’t have a wad of paper or a pencil to chuck at the other man. Making an executive decision, he went through shutting his system down. The moment he stood, Rick’s eyes flew up, the blue somehow even brighter in the light of the computer screen.

He took out one earbud. “What’s up?”

“I’m calling it. I’ve put out feelers where they need to be and now it’s just a waiting game to see if there are any bites. How’s your stuff coming?”

Rick closed his eyes and there was a thunk as the back of his head hit the wall. “Whole lot of nowhere. I’d love to finger Carpenter, but even though the man was an unmitigated schmuck today, his jacket is clean and so are his finances. There’s not one misplaced deposit or withdrawal in his documented accounts. I even went down a rabbit hole with some international searches and found nada.”

“You look like you’re about to pass out. Let’s get some food and sleep. We can pick it up again tomorrow.”

“Do we have time for that? What kind of timeline are we working with before the world goes boom? Do we even know if the world is going to detonate?”

“I do not know and no. But I know it could.”

“Fuck, it could every minute of every day. The amount of scary shit that goes on out in the world would have a good portion of the public cowering in the corner catatonically.”

“Scary shit that you’ve no doubt seen.”

“Some. Some I know about but wasn’t a part of. And some that makes its way through the underground gossip grapevine of classified activities that never happened.”

“What are those words that intelligence organizations use? Imminent threat? Actionable intelligence?”

“Yeah, those are some good ones.”

“Do we have enough? To be honest, I dont know, but I also know that my conscience won’t allow me to ignore the possibility.”

“Fair.”

“So food and sleep in that order. Let’s go, so we can come back with methodical minds.”

“Let me back all this up. Do you have a jump drive?”

Keiji smiled. “The moment it gets docked in my hidey hole all information searched, downloaded, or ever typed on the screen gets uploaded to a cloud storage with custom TLS protocols.”

“Fuck me,” Rick whispered.

Keiji tried to act as if he were considering the possibility. “I’m not opposed, but my research into you didn’t make your bedroom preferences clear so….”

Rick stood with a grace and fluidity that hours of sitting on the floor should have made humanly impossible. He got within inches, and Keiji would have sworn there were arcs of static electricity jumping between them. He was typically the more dominant person in bedroom entanglements, but in this moment Rick’s presence eclipsed him.

“We will discuss your habit of spying on me. My preferences are simple: Total. Sexual. Satiation.”

Holy shit, his heart was going to explode out of his chest. Hyperventilating was a real possibility and his skin tingled with expectation. Keiji was about point four seconds from forcing Rick against the back wall and claiming he live up to every promise in those words.

“Now put this away. I’m hungry.”

They ended up at a cheap hotel on the outskirts of Alexandria. On the outside it kind of looked a bit like the type of place where you’d sleep on top of the covers with your clothes on, but the rooms were actually quite clean and had been updated in the last twenty years. It made Rick’s neat freak heart happy that the floors were actually tile and not carpet with questionable designs. The linens had a hint of floral-scented bleach, but the room now held the mouthwatering scents of pupusas and churrasco from the Salvadorian restaurant conveniently located across the street.

“Oh my God,” Keiji moaned as he took a bite of his tamale.

The deep groan had Rick thinking back to the verbal duel they’d engaged in back at Keiji’s office. He knew Keiji had thrown down a challenge with his words and Rick was never one to not step up to the plate. The tension between them had been palpable, so clearly chemistry existed. But chemistry also caused deadly explosions. He knew nothing about Keiji other than the few morsels he’d shared. Hell, Rick was operating on some pretty fucking strong faith that he wasn’t one well-placed phone call away from spending the rest of his natural life in Leavenworth. Having thought all that out logically he still wanted to see if he could get Keiji to groan like that for much more pleasurable reasons.

Instead, he sat down at the tiny square table and worked on satisfying another of humans’ basic needs. The cabbage-stuffed pupusas had just the right amount of kick and when he spread a little salsa roja on top and squished it together, the flavors burst across his tongue and he couldn’t stop the moan that snuck out.

“Right?” Keiji exclaimed, “I don’t know if it’s because I was starved, this tastes like the best thing ever, or if that little hole-in-the-wall knows some ancient edible secret.”

“Who cares? You were right though. I needed this. It didn’t really hit me just how low I was until we walked into the restaurant and I smelled food.”

Keiji just nodded as he stuffed more tamale in his mouth. Rick held up the remote asking the silent question and Keiji shrugged. Living alone, Rick was comfortable with silence but a little background noise might help fill the air and ease the awkwardness between two strangers sharing a hotel room. Although come to think of it, Rick didn’t have that chest-fluttering anxiety that he often did in social situations with strangers. He had no problem taking charge of a room of enlisted men and women, but he would rather have a hundred fire ants crawling all over his dick than be in a room full of strangers he was supposed to greet and socialize with.

He found an older episode of Chicago P.D. and checked with Keiji. The other man didn’t shake his head or dive under the bed so Rick figured they were good to go. It was the one where Officer Roman was walking through a booby-trapped house. He normally wouldn’t watch any military drama series because it got annoying how wrong most shows got the details, but he still enjoyed watching shit get blown up. And this show offered a darker, more gritty police procedural than most out there. He liked a good beefcake drama like any other respectable gay man, but his favorite character was actually the older detective, Olinsky. The guy loved hard but didn’t give two fucks about taking down the bad guys by whatever means possible. Kind of how Rick imagined he might be if only he grew out the most awesome Fu Manchu moustache.

“You ever watch this show?”

Keiji shrugged. “I’ve seen an episode here and there, but I’m more a fan of the fire series.”

“My ex loved that one.”

“So, you and Nic.”

He gazed at Keiji over his food. He assumed there was a question coming, but preemptive conversation wasn’t an effective interrogation tactic. And while he and Keiji weren’t exactly squaring off across a table, Rick wasn’t ready to hitch his wagon to the other man’s one hundred percent.

“Okay, that’s where we’re at. How have you stayed friends?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Chalk it up to personal curiosity. It’s just when I talked to both him and his husband—”

A blob of salsa fell onto Rick’s pants as his jaw dropped. “You talked to both of them?”

“Yes, fate of the world. I had to know exactly what kind of guy you are. If it’s any consolation everyone gave you glowing references. It’s almost disgusting how well liked you are.”

“Glowing references or not, I still don’t appreciate your intrusiveness. At least when I enlisted, I was expecting an inquisition.”

“But does anyone really expect the Spanish Inquisition?”

“Cute. Seriously though, if I were a more paranoid or violent man, I might be so inclined to take issue with the invasion of my privacy.”

“Good thing for me then I guess. So? You going to answer my question?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Keiji sighed and crumbled up the papers the restaurant had wrapped his tamales in. He tossed them at the wastebasket across the room. “He shoots, he scores!”

Rick shook his head. “So, you know my entire biography. Tell me something about yourself. Japanese?”

“Born there and spent most of my single-digit years in Okinawa. Then all over Europe until I was old enough to decide for myself. My father is American.”

“Military?”

“Air Force. Currently back at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa with the 18th Wing. Which makes my mother quite happy as she’s from Ginowan. My father has forty years in service. The first eighteen years of my life I lived in nine different cities in three countries. When it came time to apply to university, I was so looking forward to being in the same place for four whole years.”

“I hear a but.”

“Believe it or not, I actually went a little nuts junior year. My brain was at war with itself. One part was telling me I still had at least another three years in Boston with graduate school, but the other felt compelled to spasm with these violent urges to make sure all my possessions were packed waiting for the day I’d finish class and come home to find out it was time to move on.”

“I see that a lot with my friends who have families. As soldiers we know what we are signing up for. The commitment, the risks, the sacrifices. But then we meet someone and if we’re lucky enough to fall in love then maybe, just maybe, they’re crazy enough to hitch their lives to ours. But the kids….”

“I was lucky. My parents did a good job of preparing me for a life of service, but that didn’t always make it easy.”

“Hmm, so are you an eagle or beaver?”

“What makes you think I’m not a terrier or a minuteman?”

“Are we going to list all the New England mascots?”

“Do you know them all? Because if so you’re some kind of savant or you have entirely too much time on your hands.”

The verbal jousting was bordering on ridiculous, but other than Masterson, Rick had had no one in his life who allowed his shit-disturbing skills out to play. He stared into Keiji’s dark eyes for enough heartbeats to really take a measure of the man. There was a raw honesty emanating from their depths, but a calmness also radiated from his presence. Two things that—given the imminent danger they supposedly faced and Rick was more and more inclined to believe—would be necessary to see their mission through.

Keiji stood. “You get the answers you’re looking for?”

“For now.” He got to his feet and closed the gap between them. “I wasn’t exactly planning on a sleepover, so I hope you don’t mind if I sleep in the raw.”

Keiji’s gaze traveled up and down Rick’s body. “Too bad they only had a room with two double beds.”

“I take up a lot of space. Toss and turn like you wouldn’t believe.”

“I don’t. Barely move at all. It creeps some people out.”

“Good to know.”

“Mmhm. You want the shower first?”

Rick walked slowly all the way around Keiji, only inches separating their bodies, before heading toward the functional bathroom. His skin tingled with desire, but he had no plans to give in. Not yet. Anticipation made the eventual experience exponentially more fulfilling. He absolutely loved teasing his partners. Edging them with the promise of a climax beyond their experience.

Was it smart to get involved with Keiji? Probably not. Okay, more like seventy/thirty in the bad to good ratio but there was a connection between them he’d never experienced before. Like the most decadent of desserts, with flavors that burst over one’s tongue. Totally consuming your consciousness until the point when reality slices in like a dagger, severing your life-sustaining supply of pleasure.

“Okay Davis, cool your jets.” In fact, cold jets sounded like exactly what he needed at this point. He made quick work of stripping and washing off the day. Their hotel wasn’t exactly the type of establishment that offered laundry services so he did his best to wash his clothes in the sink using a slab of generic soap with questionable artificial fragrance and hoped everything would dry before the morning.

He took a deep breath and let it out before opening the bathroom door. Keiji sat in the same chair where he’d eaten dinner. Upon first glance it seemed he was completely relaxed, but his thumb and forefinger rubbed against each other, revealing a level of anxiety that hadn’t been there before. Bad news? Nerves? Since he had only a towel wrapped around his waist, he headed for the bed closest to the bathroom. He was moments away from whipping the towel off and climbing in bed when there was a rush of air and a quick slam of the bathroom door. He smiled.