Another day on base... Does Chuk still have a thing for our girl?


Eighteen


What in the hell were they recruiting these days? Jade rested her arms on the railing and studied the group of new sailors. Kids out of grade school? The twenty new swabs were clustered around the admitting petty officer, looking hapless and mostly bewildered. Watching their painfully earnest faces made Jade suddenly feel older than her years. She put her chin down on her crossed wrists and sighed, wondering if she'd ever really been that young and feckless.

"Can you people not stand up straight? What the hell are your spines made of, Jellah?" The petty officer barked loudly. "Pick up them damn bags and get in line!"

The new sailors looked at each other. "Which you want us to do first, commander?" The tall, crew cut boy closest to Jade drawled. "Gotta get out the line to get them bags."

Jade's lips quirked faintly, as the petty officer's neck veins started to bulge. The kid sounded a lot like her father, and she imagined briefly what she'd have been like in just this sort of line up, smart ass that she'd been.

"Are you finding this funny, ma'am?" The petty officer's attention had been drawn suddenly to his unwanted observer. "I'm not sure what the joke is."

Your toupee? Jade had to clamp her jaw shut to keep the words from emerging. The smart assed kid she'd been snickered at her. Been? "If I were you, I'd just take care of the problems you have right there, not look for more with me." She warned the man. "Those problems you've got a chance to do something about."

The petty officer glared at her then decided the woman he'd been told to be cursorily polite too wasn't going to go away. "All right, you lot of useless baggage. Go to that pile of bags, pick up the bag that has your god damned name on it, then walk back to where you started and get in line. Is that clear enough or d'you want me to stamp it in Braille letters on your god damned useless foreheads!"

Jade resumed her position leaning against the railing as the swabs picked up their gear and shuffled into place. Six of the new sailors were women, and she found herself studying them, making mental guesses as to their backgrounds and reasons for joining.

The two nearest her, she considered, were probably from poor families, in tough neighborhoods. They were almost twins; medium height, Latin complexion, dark curly hair and a permanent suspicious look in their eyes.

The redhead in the front of the line with the pugnacious chin and smattering of freckles looked like an only girl raised with a pile of brothers, some of which were probably already in service.

One of the remaining three was, Jade suspected, a cheerleader. She had the wholesome nubian good looks, and Log weave hair of one, along with a perky jaunty walk and a perfect smile.

Jade wondered what wrong turn she'd taken, and when she'd realize she'd taken it. Next to her was a short, curvy girl with a bulldog attitude that reminded Jade strongly of Chief Daniel.

Great. Jade exhaled, and turned her head slightly, startled to find the eyes of the last female swab fastened firmly on her. For an instant, clear, pale gray eyes met Jade's with startling clarity, and then they dropped, as the petty officer started to yell more orders.

Jade blinked. The girl was facing forward now, her blond head cocked to one side as she listened. She was fairly short, shorter than Mariela by an inch or so, and she was thick but had a well proportioned build. She held herself with a sense of secure confidence, despite the intimidating petty officer, and Jade felt an unusual curiosity prick her.

But not for that long, as the petty officer shoved them out the door, and towards the processing center. Jade pushed off the railing and ambled after them, pushing the hinged doors open and moving to one side of the room as the new sailors picked up their new uniforms.

A computer terminal was on a table to her right, and Jade went directly to it, bringing up a login screen and entering a collection of letters and numbers in a rattle of keystrokes.

"Hey." The petty officer was at her shoulder. "Are you supposed to be in there?"

"I have a password." Jade replied. She scanned the information she was looking for, and keyed in a further request. "Your swabs are unraveling." She waited for the man to leave, then examined the record.


The boat's bow bobbed up and down gently in the surf, providing a soothing motion that made the woman painting on its fiberglass surface smile. Cecilia West dipped her brush into a swirl of acrylic color, studied the canvas for a moment, and then continued her work. The underwater seascape had a wash of blue in a dozen shades, and the floor of the sea it's coating of coral and now she was going back in and putting in the vibrant color of fish and leafy ocean foliage.

Nearby, a small tray rested with a pitcher of ice tea and a bowl of fresh fruit. The slim, silver blond woman paused again, and selected a bit of melon, sucking on it as she considered her next stroke.

The sun splashed over her tanned skin, and she idly watched the golden light, taking a moment to simply live, adoring the present and giving a silent thanks to the goddess for perhaps the thousandth time.

The boat rocked a little harder, and she looked up to see a pair of large hands clasping the lower railing, long fingers tightening on the metal then straining as the hands were followed by a large, wet, partially neoprene covered body. Ceci smiled. "Hey there, sailor boy. Find the problem?"

"I surely did." James pulled himself up and over the railing, then removed a bag slung at his waist and dumped its contents onto the white deck. "That there fish got stuck in the intake valve."

"Ew." Ceci grimaced. "Jimmy, if I wanted sushi on the boat I'd have ordered out. Can you toss it overboard?"

The big ex-seal snorted, but scooped the messy item up and neatly chucked it over the railing. Then he squished over to where his wife was seated and peered at the painting, careful to avoid dripping murky salt water on Ceci's palette. "I do like that."

Ceci tickled his exposed kneecap, then leaned over and kissed the spot, tasting the tang of the sea. "I do love you." She told him. "I still think this has to be a dream."

Jim seated himself on the deck. "Seems that way sometimes, don't it?" His deep voice rumbled quietly. "Been through a lot, you and I have. Maybe it's just the good lord's way of saying we done all right."

Ceci studied the scarred, weathered face next to her; it's piercing blue eyes standing out with startling clarity. She traced a grizzled eyebrow gently. "Maybe."

The cellphone resting on the deck next to her warbled. They both glanced at it, then Ceci sighed, and picked it up. "Yes?"

"Ceci."

And then again, Cecilia gazed plaintively up at the sky; the goddess has ways of reminding you just how easily karma could change. "Hello, Chuck." She replied. "What do I owe the honor of this to?"

Charles Bannersley was her older brother, the head of their family, and one of the largest ambulatory anal orifices Cecilia knew. She was pissed at him, though she didn't think he really understood why, and wanted to hear his voice about as much as she wanted a salt-water enema.

James merely narrowed his eyes as he recognized the tinny voice coming from the phone Ceci was holding between them.

"I'd like to see you." Charles answered. "Candy and I are here, in San Francisco."

"Sorry." Ceci replied crisply. "I've got plans tonight."

"Fine. Have a drink with us first." Her brother came right back. "Can you spare ten minutes for your family?"

James rolled his eyes. "Lord."

"My family?" Ceci decided to allow her spleen it's moment. "My family's sitting right here next to me. Of course I can spare any amount of time for James." She paused. "And Jade and Victoria, of course. Why do you ask?"

A sigh traveled through the cell phone's speaker. "Cecilia, please."

Jim and Ceci exchanged looks. Jim's eyebrows lifted in amused surprise, giving him an expression very much like Jade's would have been in the same position.

Ceci considered, then shrugged. "Fine. There's a bar just off the marina here. Meet me in a half-hour. I can only stay a few minutes, though, Tori's picking us up for dinner after that." Poke, poke. Ceci enjoyed the jab at her family's straight-laced sensibilities.

"All right." Charles hesitated. "Alone, Ceci."

James straightened in outrage and almost grabbed for the phone. Ceci put a finger against his lips and held it out of range. "You're joking, right?" She told her brother. "Did you really think I'd subject Jim to you two? Get real." Her hand hit the end button and she dropped the phone on the towel next to her. "Into every life a little bird crap must fall, hmm?"

"Ah could go with you." Jim scowled.

"Nah." Ceci ruffled his drying, close-cropped hair affectionately. "I'll be safe. Charles is an idiot, but the last I checked, he wasn't suicidal." She tilted his chin up and kissed him. "Let me go toss some scandalous clothing on and find out what his problem is."

Jim watched her leave. He collected the tubes and other painting gear and tucked them away in the plastic bucket Ceci used, and tidied the area, then stood and made his way aft to rid himself of his scuba equipment.


"A bar." Charles loosened his collar, and glanced around. "Figures." He gave his twin sister a disgusted look. "I hate this place. Always have."

Candice fiddled with the table tent before her. She was of medium height, with reddish bronze hair and green eyes, as did her brother, though his hair was thinning almost to invisibility. "Yes, well.. What the hell did you expect, Chuck? You knew what it would be like."

He snorted, and took a sip of his whiskey, his eyes wandering over the diverse ethnicity of the bar. Candice poked him. "What?"

"Here she comes." Candice told him. They both turned to watch as their younger sister made her way up the wooden boardwalk towards them. "Well. She looks healthy."

Charles didn't answer. His eyes studied the relaxed, self-assured person approaching, unable to refute the positive changes since the last time he'd seen Ceci. She'd let her hair grow out a little, and it was bleached even lighter from the sun, contrasting with the sun darkened shade of her previously very pale skin.

She was no longer a ghost, eyes tensed in a remembered pain that never left her.

No longer lost.

She'd come home, and even Charles, who hated this place, and hated her choice, had to admit the truth of that. "Ceci." He stood and greeted her as she joined their table. "Thanks for coming over."

"Charles." Ceci greeted him with wary cordiality. "Hello, Candy."

Her sister smiled. "Hi, Cec. You look great." She leaned forward. "Did you color your hair, or is a new lipstick or…?"

"No." Ceci took a seat next to her older sister. "I've just been inside more than outside and put on ten pounds since you last saw me. But thanks for noticing." She caught the eye of the waiter. "Kahlua milkshake, please."

"That's different for you." Candy commented.

"I picked up some new habits from Jade." Ceci assumed a pleasant smile. "What do you two want?"

Her siblings exchanged glances. "Can't we just want to see you?" Charles asked.

"No." Ceci looked directly at him. "James told me what you did, Charles." She referred to her brother's refusal to pass on the Navy's notification of James's rescue to her. "It's a good thing you waited this long to contact me, because otherwise I'd have killed you for that."

"Cecilia."

"How dare you." Ceci slapped the table with her hand, making the silverware jump. Her brother and sister jerked in startled surprise. "You pretentious little son of a bitch."

Charles took a breath, clearly caught off-guard. "I did what I thought was best for you." He finally answered stiffly.

"Bullshit." Ceci snapped, looking up as the waiter brought her milkshake and hurriedly left, seeing the angry faces. "Do you have any idea how badly I was hurting, Charles? How many days of pain you could have taken away from me with that damn piece of paper?" She slapped the table again. "Do you know just how ironic it is that my estranged daughter had to come back into my life to bring me back my Jimmy?"

Candy leaned forward and took her hand. "Cec, what Chuck did was wrong. But he didn't do it to hurt you." She searched her sister's angry eyes.

"There is no way you can convince me of that." Ceci said, after a moment. "As much as you both hate James, you knew how I felt about him."

A silence fell. Charles looked down at his hands, his fingers twisted together. Candice took several slow, even breaths. "Yes, we knew." She finally said. "We never understood why, but we… " She glanced at her twin. "I knew." Another breath. "I'm sorry, Ceci."

Charles refused to look up.

"I don't want it to be like it was." Candice continued, filling the awkward silence. "I don't want to lose my sister, and not have you be part of my life."

"This is ridiculous." Charles suddenly looked up. "We shouldn't have to sit here and beg.."

"Charles!" Candice cut him off.

"NO, I'm not going to shut up." He stood angrily, then paused as someone gently cleared their throat next to him.

"Hi." Tori folded her hands in front of her. "Thought I recognized you. Mr. Bannersley, wasn't it?"

Ceci let her chin rest on her fist, watching her daughter in law in action. Tori had a sweet, engaging smile that totally didn't match the fiery sparks visible in her clear brown eyes. Her sense of presence was almost as significant as Jade's, and it was obvious the Latina had been taking lessons from her tempestuous and intimidating offspring.

Charles gave her a cursory stare. "What?"

"Victoria Vega." Tori stuck her hand out. "Jade's partner? We met at the funeral."

Charles gave her hand a perfunctory press. "Yes, well, you'll excuse us, please. I'm having a discussion with my sister, and I suggest you leave us alone."

Candice opened her mouth in outrage.

"You're yelling at my mother in law, and I suggest you sit down and lower your voice before I shove you into the Bay." Tori told him, in a mild, kind tone. She folded her arms, and in her snug tank top, her toned muscles looked healthily imposing. "Mind if I sit down?"


"Do you assess them?" Jade cornered the petty officer, after he'd taken the new recruits to their barracks, and gotten them assigned to bunks.

"What?" The officer stared at her. "Not my job, lady. They do that at intake."

"So where are their scores?"

"Scores? Who the hell cares?"

Jade felt like she was swimming through peanut butter. "How do you figure out where to place them if you don't have scores?" She forced patience into her voice. "Or skill assessments?"

"Are you some kinda idiot?" The man spluttered. "These dorks don't have skills, you moron. They're nothing but bodies with empty heads. They'll do whatever we train them to do. No one cares what their scores are."

The sheet of white-hot rage hit her before she could defend against it. One moment she was standing with her phone out with the notes app puled up, the next she'd grabbed the petty officer and slammed him against the wall, her hands reaching for automatic holds and a growl of pure animal emotion erupting from her throat. For a split second, she teetered on the edge of madness, and then her rational mind savagely ripped back control and forced her to merely push the man back against the wall.

Damn.

Jade waited for her throat to unclench, and then she took a breath. "I don't appreciate being called a moron." Even she heard the rough touch to her tone. "Especially from someone who's mental acuity rates lower than a watch battery's."

The petty officer was breathing hard, his hands clenching and unclenching, barely in control. "Who in the hell do you think you are?" He spat out.

For some reason, the question calmed Jade. She got herself under control, feeling the rage subside, leaving her knees trembling. What in the hell's wrong with me? She wondered uneasily. A pounding headache followed her return to sanity and she had to swallow before she answered. "I think I'm the person your bosses hired to find out why this place isn't working." She leaned forward. "Maybe I just have."

Now it was the petty officer's turn to swallow. "Now hold on."

They were alone in the room, and the man looked around quickly before he returned his attention to Jade. "I didn't do a damn thing. Just what I was told."

Jade stepped back and let her hands drop, feeling exhausted. "I've heard that before." She found the stool near the computer console and sat down on it. "Something's going on here, and I'm gonna find it."

The man hesitated, then walked over, and leaned on the computer console table. "Hey, look. You really from Washington?" His voice had lowered considerably.

Jade lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "I was hired by the Joint Chiefs, yes."

"All right, look.." The man shifted, and straightened suddenly, cutting off his speech as the door opened. "Sir."

Jade lifted her eyes to see the base commander enter. "Morning."

"Howdy, tadpole." Jeff Ainsbright entered and gave her a big smile. "We all set for dinner tonight?"

The petty officer edged away from her and his eyes took on a wary look.

"I think so, yes." Jade agreed. "Seven, you said? You want to meet at your office?"

The older man nodded briskly. "Right you are, tadpole. Chuckie tells me you're sweet on someone – you made the invite to him too, right? Love to meet em."

The complication of the situation almost made Jade wince. "They'll be here." She quietly affirmed. "Mom and dad, too."

"Great." The commander slapped her on the back. "Carry on, didn't want to interrupt anything. You find any holes yet I need to be plugging?"

Jade looked up at his weathered face, open and interested as it was. His smile indicated he expected no startling revelations from her, and at the moment, she wasn't sure if she had any.

Right? "Nothing concrete yet, Uncle Jeff." She said, "I'm still working through the data."

Maybe it was the way she'd said it. The base commander straightened a little, then glanced at the petty officer who was pressed against the wall doing his best imitation of a strip of wall weave. "Dismissed." He waited for the man to leave, and the door to close, then he turned back to Jade, his face now mildly concerned. "What the fuck is going on, tadpole? You really find something?"

Jade's lips tensed, as she found herself caught between conflicting loyalties. She felt a mild sense of confusion for the first time in her life, and she had to stop and collect her thoughts for a moment before she could answer. "I don't know yet." She finally answered honestly. "I might have… there's something I don't like in the numbers, but I haven't fully analyzed it."

The base commander put a large hand on her shoulder. "Tadpole, whatever you find, you bring it to me, hear? I don't care what it is, I wanna know."

Jade searched his face, seeing nothing but rock solid resolve in his eyes. "All right." She agreed quietly. "When I have something for sure, you'll know it."

He patted her cheek. "Atta girl. You doing okay, tadpole? You look a little pale t'day."

Jade winced, lifting a hand to rub the back of her neck. "Headache." She explained, with a light shrug. "Think I'll go take a walk outside for a few minutes."

"Right you are, my friend." Commander Ainsbright slung an arm over her shoulders and tugged her towards the door. "Fresh air's just the ticket.. I'd send you out on a boat if we were on the port, get you some salt in those lungs." He opened the door and they walked outside into the sunlight. "How bout a cup of java? That usually puts a patch on my noggin bangers."

Jade thought back to the petty officer then realized the man was probably long gone, chasing after the new recruits. "Sure." She agreed. "Then I'll go catch up with the swabs."


"Quite the little Lone Ranger, aren't you?" Ceci commented, as she and Tori watched her siblings' retreat into the golden rays of sun. They'd lasted through all of ten minutes of Tori's pointedly polite chatter, then decided to give up and leave them alone. Ceci hadn't minded, but she suspected her sister, at least, wasn't giving up and would be back in touch.

That was all right. She'd never really minded Candice, who generally just went along with Charles in some kind of twin like Zen mode. This time, however, Candy had spoken for herself, using the unusual 'I' instead of 'we' and Ceci had almost warmed back up to her.

A little.

Very little. But if Candy was, at this late stage in her life, attempting to develop a mind of her own, who was she to get in the way? "I feel well and thoroughly rescued."

Tori leaned back and propped her feet up on the chair Charles had hastily vacated. "Who, me?" She smiled a trifle sheepishly. "Jade's rubbing off on me a little, maybe."

Ceci chuckled, and nudged her glass over. "Want some?"

Tori's brow contracted a bit. "No.. my stomach's acting up." She exhaled, putting a hand over the afflicted area. "Or maybe it was just too many stressful meetings.. it's been in a.. knot all day." She finished the sentence softly.

Ceci watched her face, seeing the expression change as Tori's focus turned inward. "Tori?"

After a moment, the brown eyes flicked up to meet hers. "Yeah.. sorry. I was just thinking about something." Her fingers twitched as she resisted the urge to pull out her cell phone and call Jade. She's not a baby, and you're not her sitter, Tori. You can't call her to find out if she's okay every time you get a cramp. "We had a pretty traumatic thing happen last night… one of the kids I council at the church got thrown in jail by her parents. Jade and I went and got her out. I spent all morning getting her settled into a temporary space."

Ceci straightened, and took a sip of her milkshake. "Jail? For what?"

Tori paused, then sighed. "They found out she was gay."

One of Ceci's silvered eyebrows lifted. "I'd have to check, since I've been gone for seven years, but I don't think that's illegal in San Francisco." She paused. "Bakersfield, maybe."

"No." Tori shook her head. "There was a scuffle... her mother threw some things at her and a windshield got broken. They blamed her, and called the cops."

Ceci stared at her for a moment. "Good grief." She finally spluttered. "With the three strikes you're out law, if I'd have called the police every time I'd argued with Gigi, she'd be in Alcatraz by now."

Tori smiled. "You'd never have chased her around the garage with a baseball bat, would you?"

Jade's mother covered her eyes. "Have you gone insane? Jade's been bigger than I am since she was twelve. I'd no more have done that than tried to hopscotch to the moon." She shook her head. "No, James and I didn't believe in physical punishment."

Tori sighed. "My parents didn't either." She said. "Mental punishment was another story."

"Your mother's an asshole." Ceci pronounced. "But that's all right, kiddo, for a long time Jade thought I was an asshole, and the feeling was mutual. Sometimes you grow out of that stuff."

Tori propped her chin on her fist, and smiled. "You still think Jade's an asshole?"

Ceci had to think about that. Did she? "Well." She sucked on her milkshake. "I think she can be if she wants to be, just like we all can, but as a person? No. I don't think she's an asshole." Now her eyes lifted to Tori's. "She loves you, after all."

A faint blush darkened Tori's already tanned skin. "It's mutual." She played with the napkin from Ceci's drink.

"No, really?" Ceci chuckled. "I'd never have guessed. You two keep it hidden so well."

Tori's blush deepened. "Matter of fact, that's what I wanted to talk to you about, before we go down south. That's why I came out here a little early."

Uh oh. Ceci straightened, feeling a mild sense of alarm. During her years on the base, speeches like that usually presaged breakups and divorces, and she wasn't ready to hear that coming from Tori. "What's wrong?"

Tori caught the tension in her voice, and looked up, her brows contracting a little. "Wrong? No, I don't think it's wrong... it's just something I'm worried about."

Little alarm bells, the really annoying ones like the ones the Salvation Army collectors used at Christmastime started going off. "Now, Tori… listen." Ceci leaned forward. "I've known Jade a long time."

"Um… I know that."

"She has her moments, and I've seen most of them, but deep down, I think she's a good person."

Tori's forehead rumpled. "I think so too… listen, mom..."

"So, whatever it is you're having problems with, think hard, and don't give up on that kid too easily, okay? I did, and look where it got me." Ceci told her very seriously.

Tori's eyes closed, then reopened, and she reached over to take Ceci's hands in hers. "Mom." She drew a breath. "The only thing that's going to ever make me leave Jade is one or the other of us dying." She paused. "And even then, I'm not so sure."

Ceci blinked, now confused. "Oh. Well, that's fine then." She murmured. "Sorry, I thought…"

"I should have just talked faster." Tori smiled. "No, what I'm worried about is our relationship being front and center at dinner tonight."

Ceci thought about that. "Oh." She freed one hand and muffled a laugh. "I hadn't even… oh, boy. Yeah.." Now the laugh escaped. "Oh, my goddess.. those stuffed up military…" She stopped, and cleared her throat. "Ahmm.. I mean, well, yes, Tori. You do have a point there." Her face struggled to remain serious. "But don't worry about it – if they say anything, Jimmy will pick them up and toss them out the window, and they know it. If it's one thing everyone at that table already knows is, don't mess with my kid in front of her daddy."

Tori nodded in relief. "Okay.. I was just worried about it. I know Jade has strong feelings about how she grew up, and I didn't want to cause her any pain."

Ceci sighed. "Tori, you're so nice you should be regulated by the EPA." She reached over and patted the younger woman's cheek. "Did you ask Jade if she wanted you to give this a miss?"

Tori nodded.

"And she said no, right?"

Tori nodded again.

"So don't worry about it. C'mon, let's go see if Jim's gotten the seaweed out of his ears and gotten dressed, then we can take off."

They stood, and Tori suddenly took a step around the table, and pulled Ceci into a hug. "Thanks."

Oh, good goddess. Ceci returned the hug and patted Tori on the back. I'm becoming a mother… Eeeeeekkkk! She told herself wishing she had hit her stride with her own child.


The coffee helped. Jade had also detoured to her car and tossed back a half handful of Advil, and now she was prowling around the barracks looking for her friend, the petty officer.

The base was quiet, otherwise, most of the active groups were out on some kind of maneuvers, and only the new recruits, and the usual business units at the base were out and about and doing their daily tasks.

Jade entered the long, wooden barracks structure at one end, and looked around the empty interior for a moment before she walked down the large, central aisle. To either side were partitions with bunks in them, each bunk with it's footlocker, and open set of shelves made from what looked to her like old orange crates. Now that the new recruits had settled in, shirts were folded and in place, and the beds had obviously just been made.

Jade smiled. Probably remade a half dozen times before the petty officer had been happy with them, the dark blankets tucked with meticulous neatness around the thin mattresses. She remembered watching the new groups come in, and peeking through the window as they'd been badgered and badgered by the admitting officers.

Not her, she'd decided once. She'd have done it exactly right the first time out. After all, hadn't her daddy taught her to make a regulation bunk, and fold pants and shirts when she was only six years old?

With a smile, Jade continued through the room and out the other side, exiting onto a long, wooden porch with shallow steps that lead down to the muddy ground. She looked to one side and spotted her little targets, now dressed in their new clothes, struggling to follow the orders of a new, different petty officer.

Jade wandered over and watched for a few minutes, until the new officer noticed her and walked over. This one was a woman, dark with short, crisply curled dark hair and an efficient attitude. "Ma'am? Something we can help you with?"

With a better attitude, at any rate. "No, just observing." Jade replied. "Where's the guy you relieved?"

The woman cocked her head in question. "Petty Officer Williams?" She waited for Jade's nod. "Off duty, ma'am."

Uh huh. Jade looked over her shoulder at the recruits, surprised to find her slim, blond friend Kate looking back at her. The gray eyes met hers, and sparkled, then Kate looked straight ahead, her body stiffening into an efficient attention. "Good group?"

The new officer, whose name was apparently Plodget, looked behind her, evaluating the question seriously. "A few of them, ma'am. It's always the same, Most aren't much use, but we always do find a few that'll make it."

"What's your dropout rate?"

A guarded look fell over the woman's face. "I wouldn't know, ma'am."

"Ballpark." Jade pressed. "I'm sure you've got a feeling as to how many of these poor saps you lose."

"No ma'am, I don't." Plodget assured her. "We only get them for the first two weeks, then someone else takes over."

"Why?"

"That's just how it's done, ma'am."

Jade nodded slowly. "Where are their admitting records?"

"Haven't gotten here yet."

"Why not? You guys use a computer system to recruit. What's the holdup?"

Stolid, dark brown eyes met hers squarely. "That's just how it's done, ma'am."

"All right." Jade straightened. "I'll just go see if I can't change that for you."

Jade turned, and walked away, feeling the eyes on her back as she headed for the admittance center. She ducked inside with a feeling of relief, and went to the computer console, seating herself in front of it and cracking her knuckles slightly. "Okay. Answer time." She logged in, and this time, instead of going through the regular channels, she keyed in a master code. "Idiots." The code still worked, and dropped her to a command line. "Where do you want to go today, hmm?"

Master database was where Jade wanted to go, and a string of commands got her there. She accessed the file structure, and entered it through a back door, watching as the screen filled with line upon line of file records. Jade watched it for a few minutes, her eyes flicking back and forth searching for a certain pattern.

Ah. One long finger stopped the display. "Gotcha." She keyed in another command string, and accessed the recruits' records, bringing them up and comparing them.

Her brow creased. "What in the hell?" Of the twenty, ten were, as the petty officer said, fairly standard, pretty much ordinary kids from lower class backgrounds, with bad grades, and poor ASVAB test results, destined, if they did make it, to be shipped out as seamen or women in whatever grunt job the Navy needed when they spit them out of training. Jade had known hundreds like them. Some might, she admitted, if they worked very hard, break through the ranks and ascend higher, but most would happily fill a berth and take three squares a day for as long as the US was willing to give it to them.

But the other ten. Jade's eyes flicked over scores that damn well nearly equaled what her own were. High in technology, computers, math… Jesus, one was a class valedictorian who'd specialized in biochemistry.

And her little friend Kate, it seemed, had a rap sheet half the length of Jade's forearm including such interesting items as breaking and entering, armed robbery, and one, dismissed charge of attempted homicide. 'What in the hell?" She repeated, then shook her head and captured the data, opening a second command page with a flick of her fingers. She snagged the files she'd been studying and zipped them, then sent them up the network path into her own, now specially protected file space.

Jade drummed her fingertips on the keyboard for a moment, then searched another file, working from instinct and an innate knowledge of these systems, the core of which she'd helped design all those years ago.

There. She stared at the results. I thought I saw something wrong. I thought those accounts didn't match. One column of the screen showed a normal series of general ledger listings, the other… a list of twenty accounts that weren't linked anywhere she could find. She called one up, looking at the account balance, which was well into seven figures. The entries were regular, and substantial, and manually keyed, because there was no equivalent ledger account to charge them off against.

A bucket. A bucket full of money, which nothing in this system could account for.

Jade sat back, her heartbeat picking up. What in the hell have I found?

"Hey, Jade!"

She almost jumped at Chuckie's cheerful greeting. Her eyes lifted, to see him approaching, and she quickly closed the file and sent it to her file space, then closed out of the command windows she was using just as he rounded the console and peered over her shoulder. "Hey."

"Whatcha doing?" He looked curiously at the innocuous admitting records. "New spuds?"

"Yeah." Jade licked her lips, then signed out of the system. "Just checking them out. Interesting group." Her peripheral vision focused on his face, but saw nothing but benign interest. "You ever see what they're bringing in these days?"

"Nah." Chuckie slung a long, powerful arm over her shoulders. "Hey, we were figuring to go over to the Longhorn steakhouse tonight, that okay by you? Your daddy's a steak man, if I remember right."

Jade took a breath, and released it. "Yeap.. he sure is. My mother's going to pitch a fit, but I guess she can get a potato or something." She managed a smile. "She's a vegetarian most days... unless they've got fish there."

"Fish?" Chuckie snorted. "You must be kidding… but yeah, they've got potatoes, and I think they got some kinda green beans or something.. how bout your main squeeze, he a veggie lover too?"

Something twitched in Jade's brain. "She." The word came out in a calm voice, unexpectedly. "And no, Tori's as carnivorous as I am."

Chuckie went very still, his eyes fastened on Jade's face for a long, long moment. Then he slowly removed his arm and stepped back. "What?"

Jade allowed a hint of amusement to reach her lips, and she turned on the stool, leaning against the console with one elbow. "You heard me." She watched his face, watched the expression go from consternation, to uncertainty, to a detectable disgust, then back to a stillness. So. Jade felt vaguely disappointed.

"You're gay?" Chuckie asked, stiffly.

'That's right." Jade agreed. "Don't' worry, you didn't cause that." She added, with a faint smile. "C'mon, Chuck. Rise above your redneck roots."

He looked at his shoes, shock very evident in his posture. Then he lifted his gaze, and met her eyes, briefly, before he shook his head. "That's fucked up." He said, then turned and walked out, not looking back even once.

Jade sat back and folded her arms over her suddenly aching chest, surprised at just how much that had hurt.