Chapter 21


    <<Where did you run off too, we’re waiting on you.>> Kerry said.


    <<Heading back now, give me five.>>


    I made sure everything was clean in the back office and made a run for it back to the hospital. I don’t know about all the training, but this extra running about was making me tired.


    Sylvk was sitting up and eating when I walked in. He was at least now dressed. He put his fork down, and stared at me.


    No one wanted to move in any closer, till Doctor Hinada also stepped inside. With a swift hand she closed the door, and then sealed off the room.


    “I’m only going to say this once,” she said. So we waited. “Listen carefully.”


    Kerry moved then to Sylvk’s side, and she took his hand in hers. “That poison was no joke. I’ve sent in reports to the LTC. He’s the only one other than you and Major Kuba who know the truth.” She picked up a datapad, and before us a 3D image flashed up in red. “Your organs were shutting down. If you were any weaker, and if you’d been anywhere else but with my sister, you’d be dead.”


    Sylvk was obviously confused, he swallowed and looked up at Kerry who put a finger to his lips. “You have two minutes to study the image, then it’s gone.”


    Tara moved in, hugged her sister, whispered something I didn’t quite hear, and then left us.


    Kerry hadn’t let go of his hand at all and Sylvk locked fingers with her as she looked over the details from his scans.


    The big man paled as she was shaking her head, but then he looked at Rob. “If that had been any of you?”


    “We’d be dead.” Rob said, his voice grave.


    I sat on the chair beside him and Rob leaned on the end of the bed. “You really are as strong as an ox.”


    “I almost didn’t make it,” he said.


    Kerry got to the bottom of the page and cursed.


    There in flashing red was a price tag.


    “I can’t pay that,” Sylvk said.


    Kerry put her wrist to the image, and the price vanished. “Don’t worry about it.”


    “But…”


    She squeezed his hand, and the whole image vanished then. The timer up.


    I knocked for the three of them, connecting them in a real time private conversation. “I don’t trust the room.” I said. “Please talk to him.”


    “Talk to me?”


    “You remember anything else from coming out of the test center?” Kerry asked.


    Sylvk shook his head.


    “I accessed your system HUD in full.”


    “But…”


    “My full title is Doctor Kerry Hinada.”


    “Doctor?”


    Kerry nodded. “I’m not twenty-three, I’m twenty-nine.”


    He coughed. “Damn, you’re older than me.”


    There was an edge of silence around us, as he stared at Kerry making her blush.


    <<She’s still not letting go of his hand though,>> Doli said.


    <<Duly noted.>> I replied to her.


    “Lieutenant Robert Lynx,” Rob announced. “I’m thirty-three.”


    “I knew you had quality.” Sylvk was nodding now.


    “What do you mean?”


    “Leadership quality. You’ve led teams before. Teams like mine were.”


    Rob nodded, “On many different tours, yes. But never met anyone like you. You’re one of a kind.”


    When Sylvk looked to me, he asked. “Piotr?”


    “I am what it says on the tin, Piotr Argassa. Twenty-three.” I replied.


    “You and Major Kuba?” Rob asked.


    “We’re working on a project together.”


    “Top secret?” Kerry quizzed.


    “Top secret.” I repeated.


    “Sylvk Haba, twenty-seven. But—I’m just a grunt,” Sylvk said and glanced between his two friends. “Why the hell are you two with me?”


    “Bullshit,” Rob said, stepping forward. “You’re more than that, and you know it.”


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    “Oh, yeah? You’re officer material, Kerry’s a qualified doctor….” Sylvk raised an eyebrow at him. “Enlighten me, cause there’s nothing special to what I do.”


    “You’re the best tactical weapons expert in this academy,” Rob shot back. “You know every single cadet’s strength and weakness. You train harder than anyone, and you never ask for credit. That’s not ‘just a grunt.’.”


    I stepped in closer. “He’s right. No one else has your level of discipline or knowledge. You don’t just survive—you excel. And that’s what makes you special and dangerous to whoever’s behind all of this.”


    Sylvk looked between us, his expression unreadable. “Dangerous, huh?”


    Kerry leaned closer, squeezing his hand. “You’re the backbone of this team, Sylvk. Don’t sell yourself short.”


    Sylvk glanced to her hand then to me. I wanted to say something else, but suddenly I couldn’t. For a moment, the room fell silent. Sylvk’s hand hovered over a jagged scar running diagonally across his chest, the thick line uneven and pale against his skin. It was impossible not to notice how many there were—each one telling a story he hadn’t shared yet.


    “You know where I got most of these?” he asked, his voice low and distant.


    None of us answered. His gaze stayed fixed on the scar, and he didn’t seem to need us to respond.


    “First tour off-world,” he began. “Desert planet. Harsh terrain, impossible conditions. We were tasked with securing a medical supply route, but things went south fast. Locals weren’t just resistant—they were armed to the teeth with weapons we didn’t know they had. That scar—” He gestured to the jagged line. “That was from an ambush. Plasma round. It missed my heart by an inch.”


    The room was silent except for the steady sound of the equipment. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.


    “After that, they patched me up and sent me back out,” he continued, his tone bitter. “Because that’s what grunts do, right? Take the hit, get up, and keep going. No time to think about what could’ve happened, no time to process anything. Just follow orders.”


    Kerry’s hand tightened around his. “Syl…”


    He shook his head, cutting her off. “Second tour wasn’t much better. Urban warfare this time. Hostiles hiding in the shadows, snipers around every corner. You learned to move fast and stay low, or you didn’t move at all.” He traced another scar along his ribs. “Got this one dragging an injured mate to safety. He didn’t make it, but I did. Funny how that works.”


    “Survivor’s guilt,” Rob said softly.


    Sylvk’s lips quirked into a bitter smile. “You get used to it. Or you tell yourself you do.”


    “And you kept going,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.


    “What else was I supposed to do?” he asked, finally meeting my gaze. “That’s what they trained us for. Take the hits, protect the team, complete the mission. No questions, no complaints.”


    “Doesn’t sound like just a grunt to me,” Rob said, his tone sharp. “Sounds like a someone who doesn’t give himself enough credit.”


    Sylvk laughed, the sound hollow. “Credit? No one wants credit when people die—we just….we just keep going.”


    “You do,” Kerry said. “And that takes courage.”


    Sylvk stared at her for a long moment, his expression unreadable. “Courage, huh?”


    “It’s true,” I said, stepping closer. “Look at us. You’re the one we all count on, even now. You think that’s just luck? You think that’s being just a grunt?”


    “Like your just an engineer?”


    “Touche,” Rob said.


    Sylvk didn’t answer, but his jaw tightened.


    “Tell me about this one,” Kerry said gently touching the largest of all the scars, this one ran the whole width of his torso.


    Sylvk hesitated, his gaze dropping to the faint scar across his abdomen, barely visible against his tanned skin. “Third tour. Arctic outpost. Temperature so low, your breath froze in your helmet. We were escorting a VIP— a scientist working on something classified. Never learned what it was. Hostiles hit us on the way back to base. We were outnumbered five to one.”


    He paused, his fingers tracing the scar as if reliving the moment. “I took a blade to the gut during the fight. We managed to hold them off, but we lost the scientist. I held him while he bled out, listened to him apologize for screwing up. Like it was his fault.”


    The room felt impossibly still. I could see the weight of that moment etched into Sylvk’s face, the way it had shaped him.


    “And after all that?” Rob asked quietly.


    “They gave me a medal and sent me home under medical supervision,” Sylvk said flatly. “A nice little ribbon to remind me of everyone I couldn’t save.”


    Kerry reached out, resting her other hand over his. “And now you’re here. Still standing, still fighting. Sylvk, that doesn’t make you just a grunt. That makes you extraordinary.”


    For the first time, something shifted in Sylvk’s expression. It wasn’t quite acceptance, but the bitterness in his eyes softened. “Extraordinary,” he repeated, his voice barely above a whisper. “Doesn’t feel like it.”


    “Maybe not,” I said. “But to us, you are. You’re the reason we’re still standing.”


    “And you’re the reason they didn’t succeed,” Rob added. “Whoever did this, they wanted Andri and his team out, they’d all have eaten this poison. The fact they got you, instead of him, tells me one thing—you’re not done yet, and neither is the enemy.”


    <<You should tell them the truth.>>


    “No. I’m not done yet.” Sylvk let out a breath, leaning back against the headboard. “If we’re going to do this, then no more secrets. We need to trust each other.”


    “We trust you,” Rob and Kerry said. Rob glanced at me, and I saw the unspoken question in his eyes.


    I swallowed hard, feeling the weight of their expectation. “I… can’t yet,” I admitted. “But I will. I promise.”


    Sylvk’s lips quirked into the faintest smile. “Good. Because if we’re going to take on whoever’s behind this, we need every edge we can get.”


    <<They really like working with each other,>> Doli said.


    <<Looks that way,>> I replied to her.


    <<You’re jealous?>>


    I ignored her. There was an incoming ping.


    “Professor Zhan,” I mouthed, and listened. “She’s put the next test off till tomorrow afternoon. So we can have Sylvk back with us.”


    Rob pushed the food towards Sylvk. “Eat.”


    “Kinda hard with one hand,” he looked at Kerry.


    “Oh,” she flushed, and tried to pull away, but he held on.


    “Not a chance. Come here.” He pulled her sharply toward him, and scooped her into his arms, wrapped them around her instead and squeezed. “You outed yourself for me. Thank you.”


    Her hand traced down his face, and I motioned to the door. Rob nodded, and we slid out of their way.


    “They’re going to—get it on?” I asked.


    “I doubt it. They’re professional.” Rob said. “But that is their conversation to have.”


    “They have deep feelings for each other,” I said.


    “I know,” Rob agreed.


    “Is it fair that they can’t be together?”


    He paused, turned back to look just briefly. “I can’t answer that one, I don’t know what we’re doing, where we’re going next.”


    “You want to stay together, right?”


    He was nodding now though. “We do.”


    “Then fight for it, for them, always. Those two would do anything for you.”


    “I’d do anything for them too,” he said.


    He was nodding even more. I leaned on the wall outside, watched doctors and nurses move in and out of the main wards.


    “So you were here for what?” I asked. “To protect Andri?


    “His family, yes,” he said. “Though I had no idea the others were too, that means we’ve all been hired in from different sources.”


    “Who are his family?”


    Rob frowned.


    “Top Secret?”


    He nodded. “Sorry.”


    “We all have our secrets. If we can, let’s work together. No one needs sneaky assholes like that trying to take them out.”


    “They don’t, and despite Andri being—”


    “A dick?”


    “Mostly, he’s a good kid.”


    “Yeah,” I thought to the moments shared. He cared a lot for his brother, and clearly those in his team around him.


    “Go rest,” Rob said. “It’s been a long ass day.”


    “You too,” I threw my head back at the door and walked away.


    Rest was never on my cards. I went back to work, to Ashley’s. I needed to keep busy while things were like this. Busy to me, meant fixing things. That meant Doli-2 was the perfect stress relief for me.