Chapter Six

Keiji stood at the end of the bed looking down at Rick. The expanse of his bare chest had a thick layer of muscle that he suspected the man worked hard for. The sheet had slipped down to his waist and Keiji took several deep breaths so he’d stop staring below the belt to get a glimpse of what the cotton hugging Rick’s lower half concealed.

“I’m all for a good eye fuck, but it’s getting creepy.”

Keiji jumped and reflexively moved into his fighting stance before he recognized that the deep whiskey-rough voice belonged to the man he was ogling. He relaxed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Busted.”

Rick groaned and rose onto his elbows. The sheet dipped another inch and Keiji’s breath caught in his throat.

“As I said, I’m flattered. But I am feeling a bit at a disadvantage here. You stand there fully dressed and I’m… rather not.”

Keiji grinned as he took a step closer to the bed. Yesterday, Rick had put him on his heels with building up the layers of sexual tension. It was time to give the man a dose of his own medicine.

Keiji leaned over the bed, bracing his fists on either side of Ricks torso. “And I rather like that. You know I watched you for a solid five minutes before you woke up. Not very good situational awareness for a soldier.”

Rick slid his leg up, creating a bit of a tent with the sheet. “I’m an office jockey, not a special operator. My life and death situations are minimal these days.”

Keiji leaned down a fraction more, eyeing the pulse point that thrummed at the base of Rick’s neck. “Self-defense skills a little rusty? I’d be happy to give you some refreshers if you need. A little hand… to… hand,” he said as he slid his right hand up Rick’s arm to grip behind his head.

The world spun as Keiji was covered by a very large nude man with a white sheet twisted around his legs. Rick pinned him to the bed, but Keiji forced his body to relax.

“You’re quick.” Keiji countered with a judo move and had Rick on his back again, securely pinned and wearing a smile that probably matched his own. Keiji stared down into Rick’s eyes. He watched as Rick’s breaths became shallow and his pupils expanded. A slight shift of his body and sure enough, Keiji had proof it was desire flooding Rick’s system with endorphins.

“I want to kiss you,” he said.

“I want to let you, but I barely know you, and you kidnapped me.”

Rick’s desire-roughened voice washed over him and Keiji found his arms shaking, but not because his muscles strained from holding Rick down.

“That does make this more complicated.”

“But not inconceivable?”

Rick shook his head. “We are men of action.”

Rick pushed against Keiji’s hold, he sat back and allowed Rick to sit up. Keiji effectively sat in a naked man’s lap, and he’d never wished he could will clothes away more. Rick gripped Keiji’s hips and Keiji placed his hands on Rick’s shoulders. His fingers tested the resiliency of the muscles and barely made a dent in the warm skin.

“You’ve never had a hookup before with a man you met at some club?”

“It’s happened. But this doesn’t feel like a hookup.”

His dick was sure happy about the idea of a hookup, but Keiji heard Rick. Heard him in a way that resonated deep inside. “No, it doesn’t. So what do we do?”

Keiji tilted his head, silently giving permission. Rick’s warm breath washed over his cheek and Keiji held his breath. Warm dry lips caressed his skin in a whisper of a kiss. He turned and grazed his nose along Rick’s, inhaling the pheromones that lured him like a siren on an elemental level.

The blaring of Keiji’s phone shattered the silence of the room. Nobody he actually wanted to talk to ever called him. So that meant it was someone he really didn’t want to talk to, or someone he really should talk to.

He climbed off Rick and grabbed the phone from the dresser. Keiji had no intention of picking up the blocked number. As he stared down at the screen on his phone, he saw Rick’s reflection on the screen climb out of bed and head to the bathroom. Keiji couldn’t see much other than an ass that a master could have sculpted. His phone chirped with a notification of a new voicemail.

“Who was it?”

He spun and saw that Rick was now dressed and his hair slicked back like he ran some water over it with his fingers to tame the strands from their sleep-tousled state. It sort of worked, but the ginger strands were putting up a fight. He had a morning beard and Keiji found he liked the rougher look on the typical tucked and pressed military man. Rick had his uniform back on minus the overshirt.

“Blocked number, but they just left a message. Should we listen to it?”

“Well, we could ignore it, but you could be the next Publisher’s Clearing House winner.”

He rolled his eyes and hit the icon for his messages.

Special Agent Cheápo, this is Special Agent Evan King. Or maybe I should say not so much a special agent Pacheo. Yes, I know who you are and that you have Sergeant Major Davis in your custody. I use that term generously by the way. Look, I’m supposed to threaten you to come in otherwise there will be dire consequences. You’ve got some serious balls by the way. Your stunt at the agency was some Jason Bourne-level bullshit. Not to mention my very best can’t get a lock on your signal and the fact that it rang at all and didn’t go straight to voicemail tells me you’ve got it turned on. Congratulations. Look, Im going to lay it on the line. I don’t know what is going on, but I believe we don’t have a complete picture. I’m going to give the two of you some rope, dont hang yourselves with it. Oh, and please tell Sergeant Major Davis that as far as Army CID is concerned, he’s been released after questioning and has been placed on administrative leave until the situation is resolved. Dont bother trying to track this number down, you’re not the only one with tricks.

“I don’t know whether to be glad or terrified,” Rick said.

“Let’s take our wins where we get them. We need to get back to work. You up for another day of deep diving on the laptop? I know it’s tedious, but we’ve got to find a lead before we can chase after the bad guy and save the day.”

“I need to make one stop first.”

“What’s that?”

“Find me the closest store because I am not sitting on the fucking floor all day. I need little, but I think my ass is still numb and flat from last night.”

A laugh escaped and he couldn’t seem to stop once it started. He ended up flopping on the bed and holding his stomach as tears ran down his face. When he gasped for breath, he knew he was in trouble.

Rick gently wiped the tears away and blew on Keiji’s face. “It wasn’t that funny.”

After he caught his breath, he processed words in his brain and fired enough synapses to get them out of his mouth. “I’m sorry, I think that was a hysterical delay to everything. I mean it is hilarious because I saw your ass as you walked to the bathroom and believe me when I say that it is far from flat. Now I’d be happy to grab it so you can make sure you can still feel everything back there.”

“You are so dangerous, you know that?” Rick growled.

“Danger is my middle name.”

“I think I’ve finally met my match in idiotic movie puns. Even Masterson might have a hard time keeping up with you.” Rick flopped over onto his back. “God, Tony. I can only imagine what went down if King’s people interrogated him. I really want to reach out and get a message to him, but I know I can’t.”

“Well, that is not strictly true. I mean sure you can’t call him up for some lengthy discourse, but we could get a message to him that youre okay and nobody would be the wiser.”

“You’d do that for me?”

Keiji nodded then cupped Rick’s cheek. He could kiss the man right now and Rick would let him. They knew it. Instead, he gently pressed his lips to Rick’s forehead for half a breath.

“Let’s go find you a throne.”

It had been several hours of brain-numbing research, and Rick’s frustration was probably going to make it difficult to explain his blood pressure levels at his next physical. “You know, I’ve been thinking that maybe we’re out of our depth here and need to pull actual people with investigative experience into our circle of sleuthing.”

Keiji looked over at Rick from his desk, “And do you know anyone you’d implicitly trust to have our backs?”

“My brother?”

“Someone stationed CONUS?”

“So picky. I just can’t help but think we’re doomed. I’m middle management of a group of Gen Z cyber operation specialists with just enough knowledge to make it look like I can pull this off and you, well to be frank I still don’t know exactly what you are capable of, but I have a feeling if our world were to suddenly resemble a John Woo movie you might be behind it all.”

“I only use my powers for good. And if we took what we have to anybody with real investigative experience how long do you think it would take them to laugh us out of the room? We need some actual evidence connecting the real culprits to either Battlehawk, Oracle, or Ascaris. Then you won’t end up in Army jail or whatever it’s called, I can leave Blackraptor with my reputation intact, and we might just prevent World War III,” Keiji said.

“Oh, is that all?”

“No, why the Army?”

Rick shook his head. “Fine Captain Non Sequitur. Because the Marines are a bunch of Neanderthals, I wanted to serve in a more actionable branch than the chair force, and I’m not a big fan of heaving fathomless water. My turn. Do you speak Japanese?”

“Touché. I do. Even though I’ve assimilated to Western culture, I still embrace my heritage. I speak only Japanese when with family.”

“I admit, I was curious because sometimes I think you’re like the all-American guy and other times I see another layer.”

Keiji spun in his chair with a smile. “I guess I let you see the second of my three faces.”

“Oh, we’re going with fake Japanese proverbs some idiot posted on Reddit and has become a fact?”

“And here I was trying to sound all enlightened and multicultural.”

Rick rubbed the back of his neck, “All kidding aside, you know when the Tokyo Olympics were on and they showed all those profiles of Japan. I couldn’t help but watch that and think, there is over a thousand years of culture and history ingrained in its people. That has to hold some kind of heaviness for some. Maybe history somehow influences patterns of behavior or thought processes. I don’t know, that’s probably stupid.”

“Now who sounds like a neuroscience journal? If this Army cyber operations gig doesn’t work out maybe you can go into the proverb business?”

Rick said nothing and Keiji’s gut clenched that maybe he’d taken the flippancy one step too far.

“You want the truth?” He turned his head just enough to catch Rick watching him silently. “You’re not completely off base. In my experience, Japan is one of those places where a person either lives for the moment or for the past. The bright lights and progressive lifestyle of cities like Tokyo counterbalance the heritage that is part of everyday life in places like Gokayama. I guess I find myself a bit of a stranger in both worlds. I don’t quite belong as a Westerner because I was raised to hold Eastern values at heart, but I’m not accepted as an Easterner because I’ve chosen to live in the United States.”

“Well, just so you know I… I like both faces.” Rick cleared his throat.

God help him, he liked all of Rick’s faces too.

“What about your dad?”

“Japanese American but born and raised in the States. It wasn’t until he joined the Air Force, not chair force fuck you very much, that he lived in other countries.”

Rick chuckled. “Oops. Sorry, I forgot. Does he….”

“Yeah, he does. More out of necessity to communicate with the in-laws but he’s grown to respect my mother’s culture over the years. They are one of the lucky ones who have managed to not only remain together despite the complicated life of military service, but still love each other as much today as the day they married. Maybe even more so.”

“That’s nice.”

There was a ding from Keiji’s computer, and he spun around to see what the notification was about. “Finally!”

Rick stood from his camp chair they’d appropriated from a local hardware store. Luckily, they’d been able to use the stash of cash Keiji kept in a safe, hidden in his office closet, just in case he needed to stay incognito.

“What’d you get?”

“Dark web, I put some teasers out with a portion of the fire control coding from Ascaris to see if there were any interested parties.”

“Umm, isn’t that like intellectual property of Blackraptor?”

“Yes.”

“And illegal to post that online, and most especially as something with marketable value for sale?”

Keiji rolled his eyes, “A, it’s not like I put my real name on the post. B, it’s the dark web, there’s enough shady shit on there that both our balls would shrivel up to read most of it. And C, we are trying to track down the people who are attempting to use stolen technology for many nefarious purposes. You really think they are following moral, ethical, and legal channels?”

“Right, God bless the morons who have made my career possible.”

“Yeah, nothing like those who just go shopping for computer code designed to infiltrate and destroy entire operational systems.”

“What little fishy came up for a nibble?”

Keiji navigated through multiple screens. “I was hoping someone connected to one of our three situations might pick it up. I know you’ve made your way through the background searches for the highest-ranking officers in Cyber Command who have any direct connection to Oracle.”

“Yes, and I’ve come up with absolute shit. The only saving grace is that because Oracle is still in the experimental stages, only specific units have access. I can’t even imagine what our minor research project would be if they networked Oracle across the entire U.S. Army.”

“Is that like a real thing?”

“Eventually. Hell, I can see a future where one system links all branches of the military so we can share information in real time with specific user groups—”

“Oh, holy fuck!”

Rick shot up out of his chair. “What? Did you find something?”

“No, but yes.”

“Okay, I’m going to need some clarification on that one.”

“We think we’re dealing with a worm, but one with AI coding, right?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe we’ve been thinking too big and need to think smaller. As you said we’re no investigative geniuses but we know our way around ones and zeros, right? Artificial intelligence is in everything these days on some level. We’ve got smart devices in our homes, at our work, and on our bodies. There is software capable of identifying a person based on the fact they walked past an ATM from thousands of miles away. The next book we want to read or movie we want to watch is suggested by algorithms that are commonly accepted by the public with a casualness that was science fiction twenty years ago.”

“Yes, if I let myself really think about the ramifications of someone exploiting all the technology that surrounds us I’d turn into one of those off-the-grid preppers.”

“We’ve been so focused on trying to identify a money trail for either buyers or sellers that we stopped looking at the source.”

“But we don’t know the source! We only know the results of its affect.”

Keiji stood and put his hands on Rick’s shoulders. He desperately wanted to rub his thumbs across the bristled cut jaw and kiss those lips tensed with frustration.

“We do.” Rick shook his head and Keiji nodded. “We do. Think about it. What do we have?”

“I had what I thought was a copy of the code embedded within Oracle but that turned out to be what got my ass shuffled into an interrogation room. Not to mention my jump drive got confiscated by Army CID. We have stories of medical drones going rogue and an experimental weapon selecting its own targets. But we don’t have access to the mainframes for either operation. If we did, maybe I could look at the live code and see if I recognize the same pattern I found within Oracle.”

“And there it is.”

“There what is?”

Keiji spun Rick around and forced him into the seat at his desk. He pulled up a window on his main screen. “Start typing.”

“Type what?”

“I don’t care. It could be the script from your favorite porno or your Christmas list for Santa from when you were ten years old.”

“Those two things should never be within one person’s brain at the same time.” But Rick started typing.

The screen flashed, and there was an alert that echoed out of the speakers in his monitors. “Now you and my system are besties. You can give it whatever commands you want and it shall obey.”

Rick looked up at Keiji. “Why does everything out of your mouth sound dirty?”

“It’s a talent I have, and maybe they only sound dirty because you thinkthey are. Me thinks that says something more about you than me.”

“So why am I sitting in the captain’s chair?”

“Because I just calibrated everything to your biometrics. Now let’s do what we do best. You’ve got five screens to work with and we have three systems to monitor for aberrations. I know Ascaris in and out but you know Oracle, and I’m sure you can navigate the source code of Battlehawk better than I can.”

“Are you suggesting we hack into DOD and Blackraptor operation systems?”

“I’m saying I already did. There was more going on over here than dark web shenanigans.”

“Oh, holy fuck!”

“I know.”

“Oh my God, you realize if we get caught they are going to throw us into the deepest darkest CIA black site on the planet?”

“Then let’s not get caught. Screen one Oracle, screen two Battlehawk, and screen three Ascaris. Four and five are recording every line of code that is identified as containing elements of the executable commands we input as suspect in the search algorithm you’re going to write as well as any keystroke either of us make so we can go back and review them without fear of any inadvertent or advertent code manipulation.”

Keiji’s breaths became shallow as adrenaline blazed through his system. His fingers itched to write out code. He dragged Rick’s camp chair over, entered a series of commands to split the holographic keyboard and allow two approved users simultaneous command. Ironically enough, the artificial intelligence he’d designed into his own system would recognize what parts Rick was commanding and which part he was, based on the same biometric behavioral authentication he used for security.

Their fingers flew across the keyboards and the screens glowed with hundreds of lines of code. He desperately wanted to watch what Rick was doing, but knew he had to focus on the Blackraptor software.

“Here’s the search algorithm. Can you get in without being identified?”

Keiji scoffed. “As far as they know I’m a seventy-five-year-old grandma from Wenatchee, Washington.” He pointed to the screen. “See, look, they’re trying to identify the source of the breach, but I’ve got our keystrokes routing through a proxy server that is bouncing every tap through a different country. Now this will not last forever so no lollygagging.”

He got Rick’s code activated and results were coming in immediately. Every line that had similar traits flew over to the fifth monitor for review by either him or Rick depending on which system it came out of. Rick’s ability to monitor both live systems simultaneously was sexy as fuck and Keiji got fixated on the man’s fingers as they flew across the keyboard. The scent of generic hotel soap mixed with Rick’s unique pheromones. After months of monitoring and studying the man, Keiji finally knew what it was like to experience the man’s presence. His crush did not die a hard death. He was going slightly mad with wanting the man.

“Wait, wait that’s it!” Rick exclaimed.

And kind of like when you shopped for, and thought you’d found, just the right unique gift for someone then started seeing the damn thing everywhere you went, the executable commands that modified the original syntax started appearing as if out of the mist. All three systems started lighting up like Christmas trees.

Keiji and Rick both did screen captures into secure drop boxes and created isolation cells within the source code itself.

“What do you say we really piss somebody off?”

“Maybe get them so riled up they let something slip?”

“This assumes there’s a real person out there running the scripts.”

“If this was you, would you allow the worm to run unsupervised?”

“Can’t hurt to try.”

The two of them started countermanding the changed executions and revising the systems back to the original code. Keiji’s cell phone rang, but he didn’t want to take his fingers off the keyboard for even a second. He knew he and Rick couldn’t keep this up indefinitely. The more time they spent within the hack the greater their chances of exposure and identification.

“Fuck, I’m burned!” Rick quickly backed out of the drone server and shut down the link.

“Come on baby, give me just a couple more minutes.” The saccadic rhythms of Keiji’s eyes nearly gave him vertigo, but he was seconds away from something big. He felt it in his bones.

“Yes, yes, yes!” Rick leaned forward and nearly blocked Keiji view of his monitor. “I got you, you fucker!”

He glanced at Rick’s screens and his fingers nearly slipped from the virtual keys to write gibberish as he recognized just what Rick had seen. All they needed was some tangible proof that—

“There, capture now. Now Keiji, there it is!”

He saw it just as Rick nearly pushed him out of the way to get the job done himself. He knew he only had a few seconds till he got burned within the fire control system and Rick was furiously backing out and scrubbing their presence within Oracle.

With one final keystroke, he sat back and let out a breath. “Chikushō.”

“Did you get it?”

“I got it.”

“Holy fuck, that was intense.”

Rick looked over at Keiji. “You saw it, right?”

He nodded.

“Vladimir Rybicki,” they said simultaneously.

“He’s the only one to use that sequence.”

“Not to mention he was kind enough to curse at me rather creatively there at the end.”

Rick smiled. “Oh, yeah?”

He nodded. “Something about my mother’s propensity for sexual congress with a yak?”

“Rude.”

Keiji looked outside and saw that darkness had once again fallen. “Let’s get this all shut down and we can figure out next steps after we get out of here. I don’t know about you, but I need some fresh air.”

It only took them a few moments, and they had deleted every atom of human presence from the minimalistic office space. He carried the camp chair and headed for the door.

“Hey!”

He spun around and froze at the desperate hunger burning in Rick’s eyes. Aching need filled Keiji and the raw desire he’d reined in roared from him. He reached for Rick but grunted with the impact as his back hit the wall. When Rick’s mouth met his Keiji swore their souls flowed from one to the other, somehow mixing to where neither could exist without the other ever again. How was it possible that a first kiss eclipsed every that came before? He gave everything to Rick and wrapped his arms around him to imprison the man’s bigger body. Rick’s hands cradled Keiji’s head as if it was precious while demanding he hold nothing back. As if he could. Somehow within this modernized shell of commerce Keiji found the source to renew all life.

Rick pulled back, breaking their kiss but maintaining Keiji’s gaze. Keiji clutched Rick harder, loathe to release the man.

“We need to go,” he said without releasing Keiji’s head.

“I know.”

Keiji’s face burned where Rick’s beard had abraded his skin and Rick’s lips were swollen, tempting Keiji to capture them once again and forget the outside world existed.

“This wasn’t the best place to start this. Sorry.”

Keiji kissed him again, softly, just to affirm their connection. “I’m not.” He arched against Rick and traced his lips down the corded muscles of Rick’s neck. Rick’s pulse pounded against Keiji’s lips and when he looked up the brightness of the smile that greeted him eclipsed the brightest rays of the sun rising over the Sea of Japan. Here they stood in a darkened office, surrounded by drywall and metal and glass but Keiji knew his life was irrevocably changed and this moment was one of the most beautiful he would experience in his life.