Chapter 99. After the Mission
The lack of a bank notification was becoming impossible to ignore. I even opened the banking app to see if the Corps had quietly deducted the cost of the destroyed S-Armor as a penalty. My balance had not changed. Either the bureaucratic machine was still grinding through its endless approval process, or Danny's revisions to my report had actually given them something to think about.
To keep myself from spiraling into financial calculations, I turned my attention to something far worse. In less than an hour, I would see Selina and find out whether that dying alien warlord had been telling the truth.
The airliner finally touched down in the capital. After bypassing the main terminals and customs through the staff corridor, a privilege reserved for Corps operatives, Mary and I stepped into the cool arrivals hall.
A surprise was waiting for us just outside the entrance to the underground parking garage.
"You're finally home!" Megan appeared in front of us as if she had materialized out of thin air.
She immediately dropped to her knees on the polished granite floor, cupped her daughter's face in both hands, and anxiously, almost frantically, searched her for any sign of injury.
"You're not hurt, are you? Nothing's bothering you? Look at me. Are you okay?"
"Mom, stop!" Mary blushed to the tips of her ears as she tried to pull away. "People are staring!"
"Let them stare." Megan brushed it off and pulled her into a hug so tight it looked like she was welcoming home a soldier returning from a ten-year war. "There's nothing wrong with showing how you feel."
Mary was still burning with embarrassment, but she stopped struggling and reluctantly accepted the inevitable. Passengers walking by spared the scene a quick glance before returning to their luggage. There was nothing unusual about a mother hugging her daughter.
I watched the reunion with a faint sense of dissonance. The Megan I remembered from childhood had been completely different. She had been a fearless tomboy in a backwards baseball cap, climbing fences, scraping her knees, and dismissing any display of affection as mushy nonsense. Either she had changed beyond recognition in the twenty years since we last saw each other, or motherhood had transformed her that completely.
"Hi, Megan," I said out of simple courtesy, waiting until she finally let Mary go.
There was nothing left connecting us. Twenty years of silence had carved a canyon between us, and I genuinely could not understand why she always acted as though we were still close friends. Moments like this filled me with quiet discomfort, and all I wanted was for the conversation to end as quickly as possible. Basic politeness was the only reason I greeted her instead of walking past without a word.
Of course, Megan was not about to leave it at that.
"Oh, Tom... I'm so sorry." She stood, brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, and unexpectedly stepped forward to hug me. "You just made it back from that hell too. How are you doing?"
"I'm fine," I said, leaving my arms stiffly at my sides.
Her embrace brought none of the warmth or comfort people wrote about in novels. Quite the opposite. Every instinct in me immediately registered discomfort. Blood rushed to my face, and my body temperature seemed to climb a couple of degrees from sheer awkwardness. The last time I had felt anything remotely like this was back in school, when a teacher unexpectedly hugged me in front of the whole class. A few of her favorite students had glared at me afterward. Mary was giving me much the same look now.
"Please let go," I said evenly, without making the slightest move to hug her back.
"You're acting like a kid, Tom." Megan leaned back a little, but her hands stayed on my shoulders. She studied my face with gentle disappointment. "It's perfectly natural to show your emotions."
"So is telling people where your boundaries are," I replied calmly, meeting her eyes. "I'd rather get some fresh air than stand here."
Megan slowly lowered her hands, carefully, as though she were backing away from a wild animal that might lunge without warning. Mary's expression, on the other hand, briefly flickered with sharp, genuine curiosity.
The pause did not last long.
"You really haven't changed a bit." Megan's familiar, slightly tired smile returned. "You hated being hugged when we were kids too. Need a ride? My car's parked downstairs."
"No, thanks. Selina's picking me up." I pulled out my phone and glanced at the screen. "She just pulled into the garage and she's waiting."
"Oh... I see." Megan's smile faded just a little. "Then you'd better not keep her waiting. Remember how upset she got last time over the parking fees? You'd think paying a couple of extra bucks for another hour was the end of the world."
"It wasn't about the money," I said, cutting off the attempt to paint Selina as cheap. "Selina just doesn't like people wasting her time."
As far as I was concerned, the conversation had run its course. I gave a brief, polite nod and headed toward the glass doors leading to the parking structure.
"Oh, and... thank you, Tom." Megan took her daughter's hand and fell into step beside me. "Thank you for looking after my little girl over there."
"I didn't need anyone looking after me," Mary muttered. "I handled everything just fine."
"Oh, really?" Megan narrowed her eyes with the unmistakable look of a parent who could see straight through a flimsy lie. "And who tried to give up her air tank? I told you very clearly that as long as you're still a cadet, you're not expected to sacrifice your personal equipment, even if an officer orders you to. Especially since you still can't maintain a full-strength force field under pressure."
"I trusted my telekinetic shield," Mary mumbled, suddenly sounding more defensive than defiant. There was nothing left of the icy queen attitude she had worn before. "The tank's bulky, heavy, and it just gets in the way."
"It's your only real protection!" Megan snapped, steel ringing in her voice. "Your telekinesis won't stop a focused laser shot! What if a sniper had targeted you? What was I supposed to do then? Pick out a child's coffin and funeral flowers?"
With every word, Megan's anger flared hotter. Mary's shoulders sank lower and lower, and the tips of her ears turned bright red.
"That's exactly why I asked Tom to keep an eye on you!" Megan declared, leaving her daughter completely cornered. "He's a mature, levelheaded man, and he knows how to stop you from doing something reckless just because you're a stubborn teenager!"
Mary did not argue anymore. She lowered her eyes to the toes of her boots and walked beside us in silence. Honestly, I wanted to do the same and disappear. Being an unwilling spectator to someone else's family drama was miserable. Unfortunately, there was only one way to the parking garage, and speeding up just to get away from them would have looked ridiculously childish.
"Anyway... thanks again, Tom," Megan said after her anger finally subsided. "If you ever need anything, absolutely anything, just let me know."
"All right," I replied evenly, already running her offer through my internal analytical filter. "Actually, there is something you can help me with right now."
"Just name it!" she said without hesitation. "I'll do whatever I can."
The enthusiasm in her voice was genuine. I once read in a psychology book that when someone sincerely offers to help, you should accept it right away. Given enough time, the emotional impulse fades, and so does the willingness to lend a hand.
"I still haven't received my contract payout," I said. "Any idea what could be holding it up?"
"It's been more than a day, hasn't it?" Megan frowned thoughtfully, absently twirling a lock of dark hair around her finger. "Sweetie, did you get yours?"
"I got mine on the plane," Mary replied, clearly relieved to steer the conversation away from her own humiliation. "Drake got his before we even left Bogotá. I heard his phone chime while we were saying goodbye."
"So everyone else in the platoon got paid except you." Megan gave me a thoughtful once-over. "That's strange. Then again... you've never exactly been an ordinary cadet, Tom."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you're the... most mature cadet in the entire Corps," she said, choosing her words carefully. "Maybe the automated payment system is choking on your age and background. Here's what I'd do. Wait until tomorrow morning. If your balance still hasn't changed, give me a call, and I'll rattle a few cages at headquarters. I'll find out where your payment got hung up."
"Sounds good. I just don't have your number."
We exchanged contact information on our phones, and by the time we finished, we had stepped out onto the open-air parking deck. Selina was waiting for me beside a glossy red convertible, leaning casually against the front fender. She looked flawless as always: impossibly high stilettos, a perfectly fitted dress, and her signature glasses that somehow made her gaze even sharper.
The moment she saw me, Selina smiled. But the instant her eyes landed on Megan standing beside me, her posture shifted. Her back straightened, and her shoulders angled forward ever so slightly, like a sleek pedigree cat spotting another feline in its territory.
"Call me if you need anything," Megan said as she stopped beside her crossover. "And thanks again for looking after my little troublemaker."
As a farewell, she offered me her hand. I answered with a firm, businesslike handshake. Unlike her earlier attempts to hug me, this gesture felt perfectly natural.
Megan smiled warmly and gave Selina a little wave. Selina answered with an equally restrained one.
"What the hell, Ross?" Selina asked in a voice sharp enough to cut steel once I reached the convertible and Megan's SUV rolled quietly toward the exit. Folding her arms across her chest, she looked at me over the top of her glasses. "Did you decide to gather your entire fan club in one parking garage?"
"First, you're the only woman I need," I replied calmly, meeting her piercing stare. "Second, running into Megan was pure coincidence. She came to pick up her daughter."
"And you weren't happy to see her?" Selina asked, narrowing her eyes with unmistakable suspicion.
"Our conversations leave me drained more than anything else," I admitted. "I hadn't seen her in twenty years, and it's hard knowing how to respond when she keeps acting like we're still old friends."
My blunt, matter-of-fact answer softened the tight lines around Selina's mouth, and a rare, genuinely warm smile returned to her face.
"Then again, your surprise interrogations can be pretty exhausting too," I added.
"I'm not even offended," Selina replied with a soft, velvety purr as she slipped into the driver's seat. "Get in. I'll take you downtown."
The convertible pulled smoothly away, merging onto Washington's sunlit streets, where warm air and steady traffic flowed through the city.
"Oh, by the way, I've got great news," Selina said, still purring with satisfaction as she steered effortlessly with one hand. "I saw my doctor this morning. The pregnancy's officially confirmed."
"How is that news?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "We worked out the probabilities the day we conceived. We already knew it was a certainty."
"Don't be such an accountant, Tom." She gently rested a hand on her still perfectly flat stomach. "So what was it you wanted to talk about? You sounded way too serious on the phone."
I waited until the car came to a stop at a red light. Once my thoughts had settled into a single clear statement, stripped of everything unnecessary, I said it outright.
"I know this planet doesn't have much time left."
Selina went completely still. Her fingers tightened around the leather steering wheel until her knuckles turned white, and her smile vanished in an instant. She sat there for a long moment without turning her head. The heavy silence filling the car told me more than words ever could. I had hit the target dead center.
The seconds dragged by. Watching Selina's profile remain rigid and unreadable, I sincerely hoped the mother of my future children was not, at that very moment, calculating the most efficient way to eliminate me for knowing a classified secret.