After enjoying a surprisingly good egg salad sandwich from the cafeteria for lunch, Kess returned to the workshop, where she already had the SC-20K laid out in pieces across the table. After a few minutes of searching the shelves, she found the sniper module and placed it on the table, then began to take apart the chamber when a deep voice behind her ear said, "Are you messing with the sniper module?"

She nearly jumped out of her skin, then spun around on her stool to see Sam behind her, looking at her with scrutiny.

"I'm not 'messing' with it, I'm working on it," she said, casting him a dirty look before turning back to her work.

"Don't screw it up," Sam warned her.

"I'm NOT going to screw it up," Kess growled.

"You'd better not. Look, you're not even holding the screwdriver properly."

Kess slammed the point of the screwdriver into the wooden table and glared at Sam. "Leave me alone!" she shot at him in frustration.

"Boy, you're in a bad mood," Sam said snidely before strolling out the door.

Kess gripped the side of the table, resisting the urge to chase him down with the screwdriver and jam it up his ass. That asshole! Now I AM afraid that I'm going to mess it up…and I've done mods on hundreds of weapons! She continued disassembling the chamber, but more slowly. As she worked, her anger began to subside and the challenge that she enjoyed of thinking of ways to improve the weapon took over. Let's see, if I replace this with this…maybe if I loosen the tension on here just a bit…

"Hi," said a voice in her ear.

Not bothering to look up, Kess balled up her fists and pounded them down on the table. "Goddamn it, will you just piss off?" She yelled.

"Oh…uh...I didn't mean to disturb you," the startled voice apologised. Not Sam.

Kess spun around and stood up. There was a bewildered, bespectacled and slightly hurt-looking man standing behind her. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I thought you were…someone else," Kess explained sheepishly. Great first impression, Kestrel.

"Um…no problem," The man offered, then somewhat nervously extended his hand to her. "You're agent Sterling, I presume. Col. Lambert said I'd probably find you here. I'm William Redding. I pilot the Osprey which transports Sam to and from missions. I'm also his technical advisor and weapons support. I arrange the arsenal for his loadouts."

Kess smiled as kindly as she could at him, and shook his hand. "Yes, I'm agent Sterling. Please call me Kess, though."

Redding smiled back. "Fair enough. You can call me William, Will, Redding…it doesn't matter to me."

"Will has the least amount of syllables," Kess said with a grin.

Will nodded, then looked at the parts strewn across the table. "I heard you're modding Sam's SC-20K. I'm a bit of a weapons fetishist and was interested to have a look at what you have in mind for it."

Kess looked back at the gun and sighed. "I'm going to try to reduce the noise with the sniper module. I'd like to fit it with a silencer, but I'd need to make one that wouldn't bulk it up, yet still be effective. But I want to improve it without having to add anything, if I can, so first I'm going to try to make some modifications to the chamber mechanism to see if I can still get the same firing power with a minimum of gas release from the chamber."

Redding raised his eyebrows. "That is quite a challenge. I hope it works out. I commend you. I know I'd be too chicken to try it, especially since it's Sam's weapon."

Kess snorted. "You're telling me. Sam oh-so-kindly told me not to 'screw it up'"

A glint of recognition came across Redding's face. "Ah. I'm guessing he was the 'someone else' you were referring to?"

"Mmm-hmm," Kess confirmed.

Redding smirked. "Well. That's just Sam being Sam. I can tell you that I've seen your file and I have every confidence in your work."

"Thank you. It was nice to meet you." Kess said sincerely. "I'm sorry to cut this short, but I have an awful lot of work to do yet."

"I understand. A pleasure to meet you as well – I'll talk to you again soon," Redding said with a smile, and left.

Kess turned back to her work, smirking to herself as she removed another screw. Heh. I'm glad there's at least one nice guy around here besides Lambert. That guy was kinda cute, too.

After several hours of manipulating the parts inside the chamber, Kess was exhausted and out of ideas. The APDS round is just too powerful. No matter what changes I make to the firing mechanism, there's still going to be a noticeable output of noise. She propped her elbows on the table, folded her hands and rested her chin on them, deep in thought.

"Hey," someone said, jolting her out of her reverie. Kess looked towards the door to see Sam standing there. She groaned. Not again.

"Did you know it's almost 7 O'clock? You don't have to keep working," he informed her.

Kess looked at her watch. "Geez, the time really flew by…thanks for letting me know. I would have kept going until either the gun was finished or I was."

Sam's hard expression actually softened into a grin. "I hope you didn't – "

Kess held up her hand and cut him off. "Sam, don't even go there. I'm exhausted. I've been working nonstop," she angrily stated.

Sam's grin remained on his face, and he raised an eyebrow at her. " – have dinner yet, because I wanted to get you something."

Kess thought her jaw would hit the floor. What? Does he have a twin?

Sam leaned against the doorframe and folded his arms. "So? Whaddaya say?"

"I…well, I, uh…" Kess stumbled, still taken aback. "Well…sure."

"Come on, then," Sam said, straightening up and gesturing to her. Kess got up and they headed for the cafeteria.

"The cafeteria's still open?" Kess asked.

"24-7", Sam told her. "They should still have some decent food at this time. After 9 there's usually nothing but coffee and snacky crap. But we have employees working around the clock, so they keep it open."

"Oh," Kess said. I wonder why he's doing this? She thought. Maybe he feels bad about being a dick earlier?

As if he'd read her mind, Sam suddenly said, "First day on the job, ya know…we usually do a little something to welcome people to the team. Everyone else has gone home for the night."

"You still have work to do?" Kess asked.

"Nope, I've got my own pad that I live in here while on assignment. The homestead's in Maryland."

Okay, so it's not because of a guilty conscience. Well, I guess he didn't have to do this at all.

They reached the cafeteria and approached the hot food counter. There seemed to be only vegetable soup or roast beef left to choose from. Kess felt dehydrated so she opted for the soup. Sam chose beef, and they went to pay for the food.

"Are you sure I can't give you some mon…" Kess began.

"I said I'd get it, didn't I? Now go pick a seat," Sam gruffly interjected.

"Alrighty then," Kess said mildly. Don't lay the charm on too thick there, Don Juan.

The cafeteria was nearly empty, so she had no trouble finding a seat. She sat down and began to eat. The soup was a good temperature, but had been cooking in the pot for too long. There were globs of congealed tomatoey stuff here and there in it. Otherwise, though, it tasted fine.

Sam came and settled in the seat opposite her. "Thanks," she offered to him between spoonfuls.

"Don't mention it," Sam muttered, his eyes never leaving his roast beef. He cut off a big hunk and stuffed it in his mouth. He chewed it for several moments, then swallowed and began to cut another piece. "You got a husband, kids at home?" He asked, as he sawed through the meat.

Kess shook her head. "It's just me, myself and I."

"Hm," Sam said through a mouthful of food. He swallowed again and said, "Yeah, it's just me and my daughter at home."

"Oh yeah," Kess said. She wanted to ask about her to make conversation, but wasn't sure how he'd react to questions concerning his home life, so she kept quiet.

"Why'd you go with the soup? You vegetarian or something?" Sam asked.

"No, I was just feeling a bit dry," Kess stated.

"Oh," Sam said. "I hope you're not a picky eater. When we're on a mission, you'll have to take what you can get at times, ya know…the ration packets don't last long."

Kess felt her irritation level begin to rise. "I know that, Sam, I've been through survival training." She replied calmly.

"Okay, I just figured since you were a girl you'd be picky. Most chicks are."

Calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean… Kess repeated in her head. "Well, I'm not most chicks," She informed him.

"Yeah, I guess not. You're a pretty fragile-looking little thing."

Kess ground her teeth. "I'm stronger than I look."

Sam snickered. "Sure, sure, I believe you," he said mockingly.

I'm not even going to try to prove it to him. It's just a waste of energy. I'm not going to let him get my goat. Kess thought. She ate the rest of her soup as fast as she could, stood up, then gave Sam the most plastic smile she could and said evenly, "Thank you for dinner, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Remember, don't ruin my gun," Sam replied.

"I'll ruin you," Kess muttered under her breath as she walked away. Is he bipolar or something? He is a real piece of work, that guy, she thought as she walked back to her room.She was too tired to stew over it for long, though, and fell asleep as soon as she crawled into bed.


Chapter 5 coming soon!