Special Forces 01 by Honor Raconteur Page B

honest, sir.”
    “After that demonstration, I believe it.” Blake smiled and stood up. “Sorry for dragging you down here, Mrs. Bloch.”
    “It’s no trouble. That is what parents are for,” she assured him, shaking his hand. “Arystair, you better go get some lunch before you need to be to your next class,” she instructed over her shoulder.
    Valid point, mothers could always be counted on to remember nutrition. Rys nodded to the history teacher, then the principal. “Sir. Ma’am. See you later, Sara.” He flashed Sara a genuine smile of thanks, and quickly retreated from the room, heading for the cafeteria at best possible speed.
    ***
    “Hello…”
    Rys looked up at his bedroom doorway, his attention diverted from the laptop in front of him. Dylan hovered just inside, biting his bottom lip uncertainly and shifting from one foot to the other. “Hello, Dylan. Is there something I can do for you?”
    “Yeah, I was wondering…” he gave Rys a small hopeful smile, “if you would like to play a game with me?”
    Why does the kid look like I’m going to shoot him for suggesting that? I’m not that scary, am I? “What kind of game did you have in mind?” he asked in an encouraging tone.
    “Well, I have some neat video games, and since they’re war games, I thought you might like ‘em…”
    Rys had never played a video game in his life. His eyes darted back to the datasheet that Gremlin had just sent him laying out Novan citizen activities on Bijordan. None of it developed any sort of pattern that Rys could discern and frankly, staring at it for another hour wouldn’t help. Maybe he should put it away for a while and see if he couldn’t connect better with the family. “Dylan, I’m not sure if I’ll like them or not, but I would sure like to try them out.”
    The boy’s eyes just lit up, like a second sun rising in the morning. “Really?”
    “Really,” Rys assured him with a chuckle. “Where is this game of yours?”
    “It’s in my room.” Dylan was practically bouncing with the prospect of someone to play with now.
    Rys closed the lid to his laptop, and laid it aside on his desk, before following Dylan down the hall to his room. It was the first time he’d ever seen the inside, and he was surprised at how cluttered and unkempt it appeared. Were all little boy’s rooms like this one? There were toys and knickknacks on practically every horizontal surface in sight. You could barely make out the floor and the bed.
    A vid screen, with a game system and two controllers, occupied one corner of the room. Rys took a seat on the floor next to Dylan, picking up one controller and wondered what buttons did what.
    “So what do you want to play first?” Dylan asked eagerly.
    “Since I have absolutely no idea what these games are like, why don’t you pick one out for us?” Rys suggested.
    Dylan was pleased with this idea, and hovered over his stack of games for a few moments, deliberating. Finally, he selected one and stuck it into the game console. He charitably gave Rys a crash course on how to move, fire, and use the controller. Rys blessed the fact that he had a photographic memory; otherwise he’d be in real trouble trying to remember those brief complicated instructions.
    The game Dylan selected was indeed some sort of war game, but it just pitted the two of them against each other, instead of using battalions of troops. Since Rys was much more experienced with actual combat than Dylan, he figured this would be an easy win.
    Such was not the case; he had badly underestimated his opponent.
    “I see you now!”
    “No you don’t,” Rys disagreed. “I’m not even there.”
    “Oh.” Dylan gave the screen a perplexed look. “Then where are you?”
    “HA! Like I’m going to tell you.” Rys smiled. Oddly enough, he was genuinely enjoying himself.
    “Hey! That’s not fair.”
    “Who said I have to play fair?” Rys challenged, eyes glued to the screen. He wasn’t about to let Dylan