Chapter 3
“Joe, wait!”
The tall, muscular form kept moving down the street, although Kelly knew that he had heard her. She put on a burst of speed, rushing as fast as she could down the front steps of the Global Security Building and then sprinting down the sidewalk until she had caught up with him.
“I asked you to wait for me!” she said as she approached. She was puffing slightly from her exertion. “I’d like to talk to you, Joe.”
In acknowledgement of her presence, Joe slowed down slightly, but he didn’t look at Kelly.
“Go back, Kelly.” he said. “I appreciate that you tried to stand up for me, but if you don’t get back to stand by Hunter now, you’ll be digging yourself into one deep hole.”
“You mean, the same hole that you’re in?” she asked quietly. “I suspect that I’m right down there with you.”
“I’m not going back.”
“I know that.”
He stopped so suddenly that Kelly had taken two steps before she recognized that he was no longer with her. She turned around to see Joe Thax wiping an expression of surprise from his face.
“So why are you here?” he asked bluntly.
“What Hunter said… he was wrong, Joe.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“I know you’re not going to go back…”
“Not even if Hunter begged me on his hands and knees.”
“You know, I don’t think Hunter actually knows how to beg.”
“Sure he does.” Joe smirked, starting to walk again, only this time at a more leisurely pace. “Don’t you remember?”
Kelly shook her head, confused.
“Father!” Joe said, in a whiny, high-pitched tone. “Don’t leave me! Let me come with you!”
Kelly quickly stifled a giggle behind her hand. Joe looked sharply at her, and the Dove appeared embarrassed to have been caught.
“You’re right.” she admitted. “I guess, when the circumstances are right, Hunter can beg.”
“That’s not what I expected to hear you say.” Joe replied, his eyes searching Kelly’s face. When she didn’t respond further, he spoke again.
“You need to go back, Kelly. Now.”
“Since you’re no longer my ranking officer, I guess I don’t have to obey that order, now do I?” Kelly grinned.
“You don’t want to stay with me.” Joe insisted. “If you’re not careful, you’ll be off the Team as well.”
“Too late.”
“What?”
Joe’s eyes darted down to glance at Kelly’s left wrist, noting the pale band of skin there.
“You quit?”
“I didn’t want to stay, once you had gone.”
“Great idea.” Joe replied sarcastically. “What are you going to do now? Throw yourself into your Snack Bar?”
“Actually, I thought I could come with you.”
Joe snorted in amusement.
“I hardly think you’d want to come with me, Kelly. Do you have any idea what I’m going to do?”
“You’re going to fight the Vorak.”
“You make it sound so simple.”
“I know it’s not. I’ve done it before, and you know that. Whether or not I’m an Eagle Rider, I want to fight them. I’m not just going to lay down and let them take over our planet!”
“And what makes you think you can do that as a civilian?”
“You did it, didn’t you?”
Joe didn’t say a word in response, but the corners of his eyes tightened.
“I know you did, while you were gone. That’s why you were helping us, before you rejoined the team. Whatever it is you are going to do, I want to help you, Joe.”
“If you want to fight the Vorak so much, why don’t you just go back to Hunter and tell him that you made a mistake?”
“Because you’re better at it than he is.”
A tiny smirk crossed Joe’s face. It was gone so quickly that Kelly wasn’t entirely certain that she’d even seen it.
“What make you say that?”
“Face it, Joe, you’ve always got better information than we do. Or maybe it’s just better hunches. I don’t know. But invariably, whenever you and Hunter disagree on how to handle something, you just go off and do it anyway, and you’re always right.”
“You think so, huh?”
“Why do you think you get under Hunter’s skin so much?”
“Is that what you think?”
“It’s what I know.”
Joe continued walking, but he turned his head to look at Kelly as she kept pace alongside him. Her face was strong and determined, but completely without guile. Whatever she was saying, she was being completely honest.
“Okay, tell me what you know.” Joe smiled in an indulgent way.
“I can tell that you’re laughing at me, Joe Thax, but it’s the truth. Before you were lost on that mission, you and Hunter sometimes disagreed, but you didn’t challenge his authority so much. He would listen to what you had to say, but once he made a decision, you would abide by it.”
“Things were different, back then.” Joe sounded almost regretful.
“Exactly. Ever since you’ve returned, it’s like you’ve had this special insight into the Vorak. You always seem to know what we should do, to the point of disobeying Hunter if he doesn’t agree with you. Hunter resents it, and he’s starting to feel that his position as team leader is being compromised.”
“Well if I know I’m right, I’m not going to go do the wrong thing just to stroke his ego. If Hunter can’t deal with that…”
“It’s more than that.”
“Oh?”
“Even when you two agree, if there’s a dangerous task, you always want to be the one who does it. You don’t want anyone else to take any risks. For awhile, none of us understood it, but now that we know that you’re…”
Kelly stopped speaking as Joe glared furiously at her. She knew that Joe didn’t like to be reminded of his cybernetic components, so she took a deep breath and re-phrased what she had been about to say.
“Now that we understand why you can deal with these things better than the rest of us, it makes more sense.” she continued. “But Hunter still feels like you’re the hero. You always know what to do, you always take on the most dangerous assignments. Outside of his ego, I think he’s scared that you want to take control of the team.”
“That’s the last thing I want!” Joe snorted.
“But Hunter doesn’t know that.” Kelly pointed out. “I think you need to talk to him, get this out in the open.”
“That’s not going to happen now.”
“I guess not.” Kelly sighed. “But in any case, I’d like to…”
She stopped speaking as Joe held up a hand, motioning for her to be quiet. Kelly looked around, seeing what had caught Joe’s attention.
As they had continued walking, they had moved out of the government and financial sector of the city, and into an outlying industrial district. Joe’s attention was fixed on a warehouse across the street.
A warehouse next to which two men in green uniforms were standing.
The men were apparently taking a smoking break, and were talking to each other, their backs to the street. Even as Kelly and Joe watched, the men tossed their butts aside, walking back into the building.
“What are the Vorak doing here?” Joe hissed.
“That’s what we’re going to find out.” Kelly smirked.