Chapter 7: Bright Futures

They all stood waiting for the helicopters to land. "Let's go," Jake ordered after they touched down.

Angela couldn't leave without saying goodbye. "Be safe," she told him as she had on that night in New York.

"Yes, Senorita."

She kissed him before turning to leave.

"Wait!" he called, taking hold of her hand. He placed a slip of paper in it. "This will tell you how to contact me should you ever have need of me."

"Farewell, dear friend."

He kissed her hand. "Farewell." He let her go and walked away. Angela turned and left, feeling her heart ache. I'll never see him again.

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The General came to see them as they were pretending to have dinner. "Mrs. Tobin. Mr. Weber. I have good news. The survivors have been found. Captain Tobin and Lieutenant Weber are among them.

Kerry burst into uncontrollable sobbing, hysterical with relief and joy. Kurz hooted loudly. "Yes!"

The General beamed. "They should be here tomorrow afternoon."

Kurz settled down. "Thank you, General," he answered for both of them.

"My pleasure, Mr. Weber." The General left then, leaving the two of them to celebrate.

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Kurz stood impatiently with Kerry waiting for the plane to land. Kerry's nails were digging into his shoulder, but he didn't care. Angela was coming home! Two weeks they'd been missing. The longest two weeks of his life. But now it was over.

After an eternity, the plane finally came to a stop. Stairs were rolled over to the door as it opened. Grace Cutler stepped out first. She didn't seem to be fully aware of her surroundings. They guy behind her had to give her a little push to get her moving. He was someone Kurz didn't know. Angela came out next followed by Jake. Kurz launched into a dead run to greet his sister. "Angie!"

"Kurz!" She ran to him and wrapped him in a huge bear hug.

"You're OK!"

"Of course I am. It'll take more than a few crazy terrorists to get rid of me."

He clung to her as he had so often in his childhood, vowing never to let her go.

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"May I come in, General?" Jake asked politely.

"Of course, Captain. What's on your mind?"

"I need to add a few details to my report, sir."

"Oh?"

"I overheard a conversation between Lieutenant Weber and her mercenary friend." He related what the man had said about the Whispered.

The General's eyes went wide. "How does this mercenary know about the Whispered?"

"You've heard of them, sir?"

"Yes. There are very few people who know they exist. Technically, I'm not supposed to be one of them." He paused, searching for words. "I encountered one of them once. He was spooky as hell."

"Sir?"

"Seems the voices he heard had driven poor bastard insane." The General shuddered as he remembered. "Why didn't Weber mention this in her report?"

"Well, sir, the guy told her that she was on some list of people who might be Whispered."

"Oh," was all he could say. This could be trouble.

Tobin cleared his throat.

"Still, she should have mentioned it."

"Her friend seemed convinced that revealing the fact might put her in some kind of danger."

"Do you trust him?"

"She does."

The General thought for a moment. If the woman was Whispered, he didn't want her anywhere near him. "I think it may be best to send her somewhere else."

"I have an idea about that, sir."

"Yes?"

"She would make an excellent addition to my new team."

"We have no plans to include women in that program, Captain."

"General. I've seen her in action. She almost single-handedly rescued six people from a prison in the middle of nowhere, kept the peace between two teams with no reason to trust each other and kept Lieutenant Cutler from falling to pieces. She's got what it takes or I've never seen it."

"I don't know, Captain. That's a lot of strings for me to pull."

"Give me six months, sir. I guarantee she'll make us both proud."

"If she doesn't, Captain, I'll see that you're both transferred out."

"Thank you, sir."

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Kurz wished that Angela could tell him what had happened while she was gone, but the whole thing had been classified. Whatever had gone on out there, it had earned her a transfer to California.

At first, he had been disappointed to leave Japan, but he soon came to enjoy being back in the States. Especially after visiting the beach. It was a dangerous place to take a fourteen-year-old boy whose hormones were in overdrive. This promised to be a great last few weeks of summer.

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Angela was a little surprised by the suddenness of her transfer. She was told only a few days before she had to leave Japan. Something about the whole thing seemed fishy. She'd tried to ask Jake if he knew anything, but he was remarkably closed-mouthed about it, saying only that he was being shipped out too.

She wasn't to find out what he was up to until after they arrived. Kurz had gone off to the beach with some of the other kids on the base, and she decided to use the opportunity to get some information from her old friend.

"All right, Jake. Tell me what the hell's going on," she demanded after cornering him near the newly constructed AS training field.

"Why whatever do you mean, Angie?"

"Don't give me that crap, Jake. You know exactly what I'm talking about."

"Walk with me." He strode off forcing her to follow him. He led her over to one of the brand new machines, gleaming in the afternoon sun. Magnificent, she thought admiringly.

"What do you think, Ang?" Jake asked, indicating the giant robot.

"Impressive. What's your point?"

He grinned. "You've been brought here to be a part of the project under my command."

What's he up to? "What, you want me to polish it for you?"

His grin widened. "I want you to pilot it."

Angela stopped short, not sure whether she'd heard him correctly. She looked up at the AS and back to Jake. Her breath quickened. "There are no female AS pilots," she said at last, barely containing her excitement.

"There's one now. Unless you've got something better to do."

A smile forming, she slowly stepped over to the robot. Reverently, she placed first one hand, then the other on the sun-warmed metal. She heard Jake approach.

"You want it?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I do."

"Training starts tomorrow at 0600. Don't be late."

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Kurz got home later than he had planned that evening. He paused at the front door of the house, rehearsing the story one more time before entering. "Angie? Are you home? Sorry I'm late but…"

"Congratulate me," she said brightly, her expression more excited than he had seen it since she'd been accepted to the Academy. In one hand, she held a glass of champagne and in the other a bottle of root beer, which she offered to him.

"For what?" he asked, accepting the bottle.

"Your sister," she began, practically singing the words, "has just become an AS pilot!"

"What! No way! Hey, sis, that's awesome!" He hugged her as hard as he could, both of them laughing out loud. He let her go and demanded to know everything. She told him about the conversation she'd had with Jake that afternoon.

"He knew this whole time, and he didn't say anything?"

"He's been trying to pull one over on me for years. Looks like he finally succeeded."

"Wow! An AS pilot. Man, that's totally cool."

"Yes, it is." Her expression changed. "So. Why were you late?"

"Uh…" His face fell, and he stood there unable to speak, having forgotten the speech he'd prepared.

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"Aw, sis! Do we have to?" Kurz whined.

"I just want to meet your teachers, Kurz. That's what parent-teacher conferences are for."

Kurz' head fell forward and his shoulders sank as he realized he wasn't getting out of this humiliation.

"Aw, it can't be that bad," she said far too sweetly.

All his teachers said the same thing. He was a good kid. He was a good student, but they thought he might not be challenged enough in school. He tended to be a little to fresh with the girls. He had to smile at that one. As if! True, not all the girls responded the way he them wanted to. Admit it, most of them slap you. One girl had even kicked him in the groin! He shuddered every time he thought about that one.

"We're done right?" he said after talking to the biology teacher.

"No. There's still one more."

"Who? You've talked to everybody."

"There's still the music teacher. Funny you not mentioning joining the choir."

He growled.

"Hey, chin up. I promise not to embarrass you."

You already have, he thought glumly, but he kept his mouth shut.

"Now what's the teacher's name?"

"Mr. Davis."

"Lead the way, little brother."

Kurz' mood sank even lower when their eyes met. They were both rendered speechless for a long moment. Angela was the first to break the silence, and they talked about everything but Kurz. Aw, man! Please tell me she's not going to date my teacher. Six months later, they were married. Six months after that, Natalie was born.