Defying Gravity
Ken sniffed the beer in his hand. He didn't really want to drink it, but Joe had paid for it and stuck it in his hand, so he felt obligated to take at least a few sips. Not that Joe was even watching; he'd gone off to the pool table on the far side of this lodge's après ski area and seemed occupied impressing a group of women clustered nearby. Ken could have joined him in a game, but he didn't want to and it wasn't because he was uncertain he'd win.
Nor did he want to join Ryu and Jinpei at the table where they were apparently sampling everything on the menu; he didn't have much appetite. But the last thing he wanted to do was join Jun, who was enjoying a dance remix of the latest pop hit, happily moving her body to the beat in the company of bunch of other people who apparently still knew how to relax and have fun.
Unlike him.
There she was; swaying her hips, moving her arms, tossing her hair, and smiling, while he sat at the bar feeling, for lack of a more nuanced word… unhappy.
How many missions had they waged against Galactor now? Twenty? Twenty-five? Somewhere in between? Ken set his beer down and rubbed the bridge of his nose, sighing. They were all starting to blur together –even for him. But why the hell shouldn't they? In the end they were all the same -Katse escaped, Galactor continued its assault on world peace and its headquarters remained undiscovered.
She was the girl of his dreams, there on the small dance floor. She was beautiful, and she was intelligent, but he'd encountered enough other beautiful and intelligent women to know that there was much more to it than just that. She was, dancing, smiling… To look at her, it was hard to imagine that she bore any responsibility for defending the Earth from the worst terrorist threat yet known.
She could fight with lethal skill, but even in the midst of the worst situations, on the hardest missions, if she was near him he could feel her aura of… gentleness? Was that the right word? She was strong. She was maybe even, somehow, the strongest of them all, but it was a… a caring strength. Okay, that made no sense! All he knew was that having her at his side, even in the midst of utter chaos, somehow made him feel… better.
So how the hell could it be that she also made him so damned unhappy?
He slumped further down in his chair, as the truth came to him, sitting at a bar he didn't want to be at, staring at a beer he didn't want to drink. She made him unhappy because she was his dream -just like peace was his dream, just like the defeat of Galactor was his dream. None of it was reality.
Sometimes, high, high up in a clear blue sky, flying his prop plane with only the sun for company, or a night sky with its canopy of infinite stars, he could detach from his life on Earth, ignore his stress and burdens, and for an all-too-brief time, feel... if not peace, at least the possibility of peace, of all his dreams.
But always, he had to return to the ground, return to reality.
And it sure as hell didn't seem like his life down here was going to be changing any time soon –in any way!
Reality: Gatchaman lived in a shack and he was broke ninety-nine percent of the time –in the eyes of the world, Ken Washio was a nothing. But he could endure that; it wasn't what frayed the edges of his mind and put knots in his stomach. No, he was the leader of the Science Ninja Team -the only hope for saving the world from Galactor. Ultimately the burden rested entirely on him.
And he was failing.
He could still remember the day that Dr. Nambu had assembled the fledgling team, with the paint on the God Phoenix practically still wet, and had announced to all of them that Ken would be the Team's leader, their number one. No one had seemed surprised, but Jun had smiled at him, her face radiant. Joe had shrugged, "Our leader, huh?" But then he'd looked at him with both relief and some resentment in his face. "Don't fuck it up, Ken."
But that was exactly what he seemed to be doing.
"If we die, we die together…" He could remember the first time he'd said that, to Jun, on their first mission. He'd meant it, yet he hadn't meant it. Thinking back now, he realized that he'd had no true fear of dying that day. He'd thought they were invincible, that Galactor would be mopped up in a matter of weeks. He'd been so cocky and smug, thinking that his coolest martial arts moves, some flashy throws of his boomerang, and his best jet-piloting tricks would be all that he needed to bring about victory. It had felt almost fun to take down a mecha then; it had felt exciting.
But he'd had no idea in those early days how it would begin to feel when Galactor just kept building more and more mechas, kept slaughtering more innocent civilians, kept recruiting more and more goons that he would have to slaughter. Galactor was relentless, never running out of resources, goons or schemes to steal, to destroy and to subjugate. He'd had no idea how exhausting, how… depressing it could become, especially as the glorious victory he'd envisioned slipped further and further from view.
Because he was failing.
Just a couple weeks ago, he'd defied Dr. Nambu's orders and taken the team up against Galactor's dragon mecha. Oh sure, he'd told them all that it could be their last mission, but now he knew that he hadn't truly accepted what his own words had meant. Only when he'd blearily regained consciousness with his face in a pool of water on the bridge of a defeated God Phoenix, broken and leaking on the ocean floor –only then had he begun to understand.
And then when he'd been trapped on board the dragon mecha, huddled freezing in a corridor, a victim of the minus bomb that he himself had detonated, he had truly felt death's touch upon him. For a fleeting second, the thought that he would never seen Jun again, or never embrace the sky with his plane again, had been a pit of immeasurable despair; he'd tried so desperately to think of something else, anything but that…
But he hadn't died then. He hadn't died yesterday either when they'd defeated Galactor's mecha ball, but again it had been so damned close… He hadn't even wanted to fight the mecha ball. Sure, the thing had seemed impervious, and he'd argued against doing anything reckless, had said they needed a plan first, but that hadn't really been it.
He'd been afraid. Afraid of facing death again, afraid of that unknowable, closed void that had swallowed up his father, and then his mother…
But he'd thought of a plan. He'd managed to infiltrate the mecha ball and force it to fly towards a giant magnet that could trap it and then obliterate it in a massive explosion.
But it had been so damned close.
He'd barely made it out in time. He'd soared down to the ground where the others were clustered, watching the wreckage burn. There had been tears running down Jun's pale, pale face. She had been so afraid that he might really be dead this time. He should have been exultant, flush with their victory over Galactor, but he'd only felt a sense of relief, and of fatigue.
He was still failing.
The dragon, the mecha ball… It was only by the most fantastic luck that he was alive, sitting here right now. How much longer was he going to be able to pull it off, keep taking as much of the danger as he could onto himself and managing to survive? Galactor, inevitably, would create another goddamned mecha, and another, and another, until-
How much longer was he going to be able to keep doing this, if things kept going on the way they were?
Dr. Nambu had told them all to celebrate by spending a few days skiing, as they were already in the mountains. So he'd skied all day today, and now he was sitting in the lodge, with a beer beside him, and Jun was dancing…
How could he celebrate? He could barely relax at all, and certainly not here.
He'd been watching a group of mountain climbers today, in the distance. One of them, the leader, had been climbing ahead of the rest, finding the best way to go and hammering in the pitons, but they were all joined by ropes. If he'd screwed up, if he'd fallen, then he might have taken all them down with him.
He knew what that felt like. Except he was climbing in a fog, weary but with no way to tell if they were close to a ledge where they could get some rest, or even if there were any ledge at all.
Yet sometimes, away from missions and danger, he would find himself next to Jun, or even just staring at her across the counter at the Snack J, and in the most mundane of moments he would just feel her aura, warm and soothing but beckoning with passion and stirring a yearning hunger within him. For a fleeting moment he would feel that it was going to be okay and he would be able to have and give everything. He could reach out and pull her into his arms and he would fill the empty space in his life, in himself, with the sheer bliss that was Jun and-
No! They had to defeat Galactor first. They had to complete their mission and save the world.
He was the leader; he had accepted the ultimate responsibility. Always, he could remember her radiant smile when Dr. Nambu had first named him leader, a smile so filled with trust.
But he was failing her.
He wasn't saving the world; these days he was barely managing to save himself. No, until Galactor was utterly defeated, his dream could not be. He hadn't earned it; he had to save the world first.
But he also had to save Jun. If she ever…
No, that was just… unendurable! But if it ever came to it, he would have to be able to save the world before Jun. He was the leader of the Science Ninja Team.
How the hell would he ever be able to do that?
That, not his own death, was truly his utter nightmare. There she was, dancing. She was his dream but she was also his weakness; he needed her but he needed to not need her. He needed to be a real leader.
He shoved his beer away. He had to get out of this place. He would find his coat and take a walk outside in the cold night air and try to clear his thoughts as he went back to their chalet. But he took one last look at Jun, and this time her eyes found and caught his.
She stopped dancing, and now she was walking towards him. He wanted to flee and he wanted to stay. Somehow, he stayed.
"You're not leaving, are you, Ken?" she said, "It's fun here. Don't go yet."
He looked down and tried to mutter something about having "things to do," but she reached for his hand and held it with her own. He couldn't help it; he looked into her eyes, her warm and knowing eyes.
"Don't worry, Ken. We're going to win."
"You don't know that!" He'd almost snapped in response, caught off guard. How could she tell what he'd been- Was it that obvious?
She was still holding his hand.
"No, but I believe it."
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Ken couldn't believe it.
"This wasn't supposed to happen," said Dr. Nambu. He moved away from the large screen on the wall of his office, as they all stared at what he'd just shown them on it –a massive meteor whose current trajectory would bring it crashing into the Earth. They didn't need to be told what would result if something that big hit the planet, even in an ocean or a deserted area. They all knew enough to know that it would be a catastrophe of epic proportions and that, directly or indirectly, it would kill millions of people.
"Not supposed to happen?" That was Joe, the first of them to emerge from stunned silence. "How long have you known about this?" he demanded.
"ISO astronomers have been aware of this meteor for many months. They believe it was displaced from the Oort Cloud, a fragment of a large comet," replied Dr. Nambu, walking over to the undersea window. "But every report that I received said that it would pass near, but not strike, the Earth."
"How could they all be wrong?" said Jun, "What happened?"
"Is Galactor behind this?" growled Joe.
"Yeah, this sounds just like something that Katse would do!" added Jinpei.
"Come on," said Ryu, "Even Galactor can't control rocks that are way out in space… Can they, Doc?"
"No, I don't think so," said Dr. Nambu, still with his back to them all. Turning, he added "But we can't claim to understand all the possible fields, forces or other objects that may exist out in space. Nor could we know with total accuracy the composition of this meteor, or how its mass might be altered as it come nearer to the Sun. All it would have taken was the tiniest shift in course, at that distance, to make something that would otherwise have passed by the Earth…"
He was looking at Ken now. Gazing back at him, Ken willed himself to breathe calmly. He'd been brooding for days, anxiously wondering what Galactor's next mecha would be, wondering if it would be the one to finally end it all. But now, it was worse than he could ever have imagined, and Galactor wasn't behind this at all; only fate and the random workings of the universe were to blame. He wanted to laugh, it was so damned absurd that it would come to this, devastation at the hands of a mindless, purposeless rock. In an insane way, he almost felt relieved. No one could expect the Science Ninja Team to stop something like this; when the terrible destruction came, it would not be his fault. The blood of the victims wouldn't be on his hands or haunting his dreams. Not this time. Dr. Nambu was warning them because he needed them to help with evacuations and to maintain order and to help victims in the aftermath of the meteor's collision. Yes, that had to be it.
Yet… the Doctor look worried as hell and his face was haggard, but he didn't look like someone bereft of all hope. And he was still looking straight at Ken.
There was somehow a way to stop this after all and it would be up to him to save the world, again.
"When's the meteor supposed to strike?" asked Ken quietly.
"In five days, eighteen hours and…" Dr. Nambu looked at his watch. "And thirty-three minutes. But I have a plan, Gatchaman, that I pray can prevent it from happening."
Ken glanced at the others. Jinpei and Ryu were staring at the image of the meteor on the screen. Joe was scowling, waiting to hear the plan. Jun was –Jun was watching him. Meeting his eyes, she gave him a small smile, but Dr. Nambu was speaking again and he quickly turned forward to face him again.
"There is technology in existence that, I have reason to believe, could alter the meteor's course enough to keep it from entering the Earth's atmosphere. Many years ago, when I was still a graduate student, I was acquainted with another student who, even then, was a brilliant physicist. He was, however, a… difficult personality -never content to work within the auspices of a university, or for the ISO. Over the years, though, I have made an effort to maintain at least minimal contact with him, and he has on occasion, been willing to divulge some information on his research activities. This much I know: he has somehow developed a way to create and sustain a localized field of… in essence, anti-gravity."
"You mean, like, a place where people and stuff would just… float around, like in outer space?" asked Jinpei.
"More than that," replied Dr. Nambu, "The force of gravity causes all objects, from particles to planets, to be attracted to one another, proportional to their mass and proximity to one another. This man, Dr. Virtanen, has somehow-" Dr. Nambu sighed before continuing. Whoever this Virtanen was, Ken thought, Dr. Nambu was far from certain that he could help them; he was just desperately hoping.
"There isn't time here for a lecture on particle physics and quantum field theory and frankly, he's been deliberately secretive about his work; even I don't know quite how it really works. But, he claims he can create and manipulate a force or field wherein objects repel, rather than attract, each other."
The word "repel" got everyone's attention, Ken noticed –including his own. Joe was still scowling though.
"Doctor, tell me this guy's managed to do more than just move a few molecules around in a lab, or he's completely useless to us!"
"I'll tell you what I know, Joe. About six months ago he told me that he was close to being able to create a vehicle that would move neither by driving over a surface nor by flying, as we understand it. Rather, it would be able to create an antigravity field that would repel it from the earth, and it would then be able to move wherever desired, in essence, floating on a localized cushion of anti-gravity."
"You mean hovercars, like they have in sci-fi novels? He can really make them?" asked Jun.
"He claimed that he was on the verge of accomplishing this, some months ago. I pressed him for details, but got nowhere. He has never been willing to share the findings of his research. That's the main reason he's refused ISO funding all these years, even though I'm sure it could have greatly accelerated his research. Fortunately for him, he inherited a substantial fortune from his late parents, but he still only has two research assistants and he-"
Ken could sure see why Dr. Nambu was desperate, but where was the hope in all of this?
"Doctor, we have less than six days left! Joe's got a point –how is this at all useful to us?"
"Virtanen admitted to me that the anti-gravity fields he claimed he can create are still experimental and… rather unstable, even in the hands of someone thoroughly expert in his methods and technology. They can result in a cascade of sub-atomic explosions that rapidly escalate to dangerous levels. It's partly for this reason, that he has begun conducting his research in the vacuum of space, in an orbiting station high above the Earth."
An orbiting station high above the Earth, capable of creating a powerful, repelling force…
Everyone was silent, but Ken could feel a ripple of hope resonate in everyone as this sank in. This actually sounded pretty damned good. So why then was Dr. Nambu still in a state of near-panic, and what did he need the Science Ninjas for?"
"There's something else, though, isn't there, Doctor?" said Jun quietly, "There's a reason you've summoned us."
"Yes," said Dr. Nambu, but he was looking at Ken. "Dr. Virtanen and his two assistants were supposed to meet with me today. They never showed, and now my sources are telling me that they were abducted, somewhere between the airport and the ISO headquarters."
Oh no…
"Galactor!" snarled Joe.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
It was just before sunset when they arrived. This city block was in a part of Utoland none of them were very familiar with -mostly nondescript brick apartment buildings, three or four stories high. All four of them were in their civvies, to not attract attention. Ryu was up there high in the air, somewhere, in the God Phoenix. They couldn't alert Galactor to their presence here -Ken would call him in only when the hostages had been located and freed.
If they could be located, that is.
But this was the last known location of the cab that Virtanen and his two research assistants had taken from the airport, ostensibly to get to ISO headquarters. Dr. Nambu had found out that much by accessing both security camera footage from the airport and a report of a stolen cab filed with the Utoland police. The cab that the scientists had gotten into at the airport had the same license plate number as the cab reported stolen that same day. The cab had, by luck, been equipped with an anti-theft beacon, and once activated, it had led the police to this city block.
Except that, according to Dr. Nambu, by the time the police had gotten here, the beacon had ceased transmitting, and the stolen cab was nowhere to be found... Finding a stolen cab wasn't the police department's biggest priority, so they'd shelved the matter. But then, they didn't know about its connection to the missing scientists. Whoever had been driving the stolen cab when it picked up the scientists at the airport seemed all too likely to be a member of Galactor as well as a car thief.
Ken looked around. The light of the dying sun gave a warm glow to Jun's face and made her hair glint as it moved in the gentle breeze...
Concentrate, he reminded himself sternly. There were four apartment buildings here, all about the same distance from where the stolen cab had apparently been when its beacon had stopped transmitting.
"Virtanen and the other two scientists," said Ken, "They're most likely being held captive inside one of these buildings."
"So what are we standing around for?" muttered Joe. "I say we sweep the buildings, kick in some doors -we'll find out pretty quick what the deal is here, and catch any Galactor scum by surprise."
A typical Joe "plan" -just go storming in...
"And which building do we start with?" said Ken, feeling his voice tightening.
Joe shrugged.
"We can't just guess!" Ken snapped, unable to keep his anger from showing, "We have to get it right -we need those scientists, alive and well, to save the world -in less than five days! We have to have a real plan!"
He could tell Jun was looking at him, even as he and Joe glared at each other. He could imagine her face -there'd be a hint of worry amidst the beauty, but also understanding. Compassion.
He couldn't look at her. Not right now.
"Fine," said Joe, after a moment, through clenched teeth, "Then we start with that one."
He gestured to the building he meant. "Only that one's got a basement parking garage, and that unit on the second floor is the only one with all its window blinds down."
"I think I saw someone peeking through the blinds there a few minutes ago," piped up Jinpei.
Finally, some logic. "That's better," said Ken. "In about fifteen minutes, it's going to be dark. Gatchaman and the Condor will quietly sweep that unit."
"Ken-" started Jun.
"You and Jinpei," continued Ken, staring covertly now at the windows of unit in question, "You two stay out here -if anyone slips past Joe and me, follow them."
Again he didn't have to look at Jun to know what her face would be revealing; she wanted to come with him.
And he wanted her with him. And he didn't. She was safer out here...
The plan worked though, and much better than he'd expected. Not exactly quietly, because Joe still did kick the door in, but at least the unit's occupants -half a dozen Galactor goons and three prisoners- were all very surprised. It was quick and easy work to take down the goons before they could escape or harm the prisoners. Ken contacted Ryu and told him to bring in the God Phoenix to pick them up. No need for subtlety now. Joe contacted Jun and Jinpei.
Dr. Virtanen, found tied to a chair in the kitchen, was a tall, thin man with dark hair greying at his temples. He was taciturn, even grumpy, providing only one-word answers to Ken's questions and not even bothering to thank his rescuers. Proud, thought Ken. That would go along with what Dr. Nambu had said about him. Probably deeply embarrassed to have been in need of rescue.
The other two scientists, though, were different -a man and a women, younger than Virtanen. Once liberated from the bedroom where they too had been tied to chairs, and gagged, they rushed into each other's arms, foreheads briefly touching as they embraced. The man was whispering to her, "I was so scared for you, thought this might be the end for us. I love you, I love you..." between kisses.
Uh... this was awkward. They seemed oblivious the presence of anyone else here, but it was time to be getting the hell out of here, not making out. Ken cleared his throat, glad his visor hid his face, but saw that Virtanen was staring at him, a strange expression on his face...
"Are you in love with anyone?" he asked Ken.
What?
"No," said Ken reflexively.
"Wise man," replied Virtanen, even as his eyes looked past Ken to the apartment's door.
Ken turned around quickly. Jun was standing in the doorway. How long had she been standing there?
Too long. Jun's head was slightly bowed. Her visor hid her face, but he didn't need to see her face to know what it would show. He hadn't meant to say-
Damn it... Would he ever be able to get it right?
XXXXXXXXXXXX
The rocket was cramped with five of them packed inside it, and if there was a viewscreen, he couldn't see it. But then, he and Jun were strapped in at the back of the compartment, with Dr. Virtanen and his two research assistants, Dr. Uriah and Dr. Silva, in front. He could tell they'd reached high orbit though, as the strain of liftoff had long since been replaced with smooth, easy sailing and the wingtips of his and Jun's capes were now floating around them.
"Docking in approximately five minutes," announced Dr. Silva. Some of her curly brown hair was hanging out the back of her helmet, and it too was floating about. She and Dr. Uriah were holding hands, Ken noticed.
He should be holding Jun's hand -he wanted to. But he wasn't...
She wasn't really supposed to be here. Dr. Nambu had wanted to send him and Joe up to the orbiting space station to guard the recently-rescued scientists and prevent any other Galactor-created incidents from interfering with the plan to redirect the meteor away from a collision course with Earth. It was only at the last minute, when Dr. Uriah pointed out that Gatchaman and the Condor's combined body mass, added to that of the three scientists, would exceed what the orbiting station's life support system could handle, that Joe was replaced with a smaller Science Ninja.
Stop thinking about Jun, he berated himself. Think about the mission, about the fact that they had not quite three days now to save the world -anything! How well did Dr. Virtanen's anti-grav repelling technology really work? Just how much money did Dr. Virtanen have, anyway, to have been able to afford to build an orbiting space station and have a rocket ship? And for a billionaire-genius, he didn't strike Ken as a very happy guy.
Granted, Gatchaman wasn't a very happy guy either; and what he would need to be happy, no amount of wealth could buy.
Even though she was sitting right beside him... But that was a dream, not reality. Reality was that they were on a mission of such critical importance, all previous ones paled in comparison. He had to be completely focused here, totally on top of his game. No excuses.
"Docking commencing," announced Dr. Uriah, as he and Dr. Silva ceased their hand-holding to begin pushing lots of buttons and pulling levers, and Ken heard clanking and thunking sounds from somewhere within the rocket.
They had arrived at the space station.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
The door of the sleeping compartment slid shut and clicked. Ken glanced around; it was small in here, but at least it was private. He raised his left hand towards his face and said "Bird Go," and he was out of his birdstyle and into his civvies. That felt somewhat better. He ran his hands through his hair, then raised his arms over his head, stretching out the kinks from a long day with much of it spent in a cramped rocket.
He'd been handed some sort of standard-issue packet by Dr. Uriah, which upon examining now, he found contained some basic toiletries -yay, a toothbrush- and an outfit resembling yoga garb, made of some silky, synthetic fabric that was the same shade of silvery grey as the walls. He could imagine what Joe would say about them if he were here, but they did look comfy... He didn't plan to sleep much -he was on guard duty here, after all, but as long as he kept his civvies close at hand in this compartment...
Yup, he realized, upon donning the garments. Comfy.
They'd arrived less than an hour ago, but Dr. Virtanen's instructions were for everyone to get some rest and start work, fresh, in the morning. Not that there was really a "morning" here, thought Ken, looking around. For all he knew, he could be in a windowless closet somewhere on Earth. Living space and working space were clearly both scarce at this station, from what Ken could tell, though he hadn't yet seen much of it yet. It was shaped like a wheel with spokes, he'd been told, upon disembarking from the rocket.
Now, looking around the sleeping compartment, he could see that the ceiling of the room was noticeably smaller than the floor, and that the floor and ceiling were both slightly curved instead of flat. So that meant that "up" was towards the center of the wheel, and the floor was the wheel's outer surface. And it was a real floor -he wasn't floating around, weightless. That had been one of his first questions, as soon as he was on board -how did they have gravity here?
"It's anti-grav," Dr. Virtanen had told him, smiling faintly. There's no attraction pulling you towards the 'floor' here. Rather, you're being repelled away from the 'ceiling.'"
He'd left it to Dr. Silva to explain that that the anti-grav generator was located at the very center of the wheel, where its spokes converged in a hub, so that its force was even all throughout the space station. There was a single corridor that ran throughout the entire wheel, so you could reach any section of the space station by going in either direction. He wouldn't have to worry about getting lost -if you kept going along the corridor you'd always come back to where you started.
"The spokes are hollow tubes with ladders in them," Dr. Silva had also explained. "We can access the anti-grav generator by climbing 'up' any of the spokes. And if it were ever to become dangerously unstable, we could eject the generator's reaction core away from the rest of the space station."
Well, the scientists had less than three days to configure the anti-grav generator to emit a big pulse that could be directed towards a specific, distant-but-closing-in-rapidly object -the meteor. And it was his job to make sure Galactor didn't prevent them from succeeding.
His and Jun's job, he corrected himself.
Where was Jun now? He hadn't seen her since shortly after they'd disembarked...
The door to his sleep chamber emitted a chime sound. After a couple repetitions, he realized it meant someone was outside the door and that he should open it. But he was out of his birdstyle now...
"Ken?" He could faintly hear Jun's voice on the other side of the door. God knows he hid a lot from her, but at least he could let her see his face, and find out whatever she needed to tell him. He hit the door's "open" switch.
She was still in birdstyle, but holding a packet identical to his. Standing somewhat stiffly, she looked a bit uncomfortable.
"This station only has three sleep compartments," she said, "I thought I'd be bunking with Dr. Silva, but she's with Dr. Uriah instead. And..."
Ken felt a little dizzy, and realized he'd stopped breathing. Get a grip! They were professionals, on a mission. Space was limited here, so they'd share; that was all. And it was logical -with anyone else here, she'd have to stay in birdstyle the entire time.
"Uh," he said, stepping back from the door and wishing very much he'd stayed in his civvies. "Right. Come on in."
XXXXXXXXXXXX
