Missing in Action

Chapter 013

He immediately plopped down onthe computer chair, flinching and holding back a loud groan when hisass hit the firm surface. How the hell had he not realized he was soreas all fuck earlier? He supposed his mind had been on other things toomuch to notice. And the observation didn't really help him much, so hepushed it to the back of his mind and glanced over at Brendon to makesure he was still asleep. And he was, like a baby. Ignoring theonslaught of guilt and focusing instead on the rising feeling ofsuccess, he focused his eyes back on the paper. The main message - thatthe king had let himself be swayed into starting a war - was clearenough, but everything else was incredibly vague, and Ryan might nothave understood anything at all if it weren't for the fact that he'dalways done exceedingly well at military strategies and movements atthe academy. He was a colonel's son after all. Everyone in his father'sfamily was military. If he hadn't understood these things familydinners would've been even more boring than they already were growingup.

And so, he put his militarilyraised glasses on and looked over the two-page document and its threepages of related papers over again. 'Surprise attack' meant movingslowly, just a few troops and planes and ships at the time, maybe plansome great big troop exercises up in Virginia, as close to the borderas they could get without becoming suspected. Although Beauregia was alot smaller than DURA, for them to move their troops was a lot harder.Beauregia were incredibly touchy about their capital's safety, and soabout half of their military, at all times, was in Mississippi, centredaround Jackson, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama. Most of the rest werestationed along the Mexican border. You'd think that two Catholicscoundrel states would get along very well, but Beauregia just didn'tget along very well with anyone it would seem, and during the lastsixty-something years of tentative peace between DURA, they had movedon to have countless, almost constant, border scuffles with theFederalis. Moving their army and navy to a point where it could attackDURA without detection - the airforce was always a lot easier andquicker, but from what Ryan could read, it would be an all out attack,so the airforce had to wait for the rest - was a whole lot harder thanit would be for DURA, who, in a bit of a paranoid move perhaps, hadalways had the greatest concentration of troops in California, Nevada,Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia and Maryland.Basically the most people possible were stationed as close to theborder as possible. New York had good enough defences, but if it fell,plans were already up for how San Fransisco could take over. It wasmore important to keep out a southern invasion.

All this basically meant thatso long as he got this information back as quickly as possible, hiscountry still stood a better chance. Their army was larger, theirweapons and machinery generally more well-kept and newer, and they hada lot more allies. Ryan did by no means want war, but even less did hewant DURA to lose one. He sucked in a deep breath, running a handthrough his hair before he picked up his cellphone again, turned on thecamera function and carefully took pictures of every page, cursing thefact that the bureau hadn't deemed it important to give his phone agood camera. Well, this would just have to do, wouldn't it? He thoughthe'd already be able to quote the whole thing anyway. Finally, castinganother cautious glance over his shoulder, he sent the photos in anencrypted message and put the papers back as he'd found them beforestanding carefully and walking silently back to return the phone to hispocket. And then he silently crept back into bed, feeling stranger thanever as he cuddled up next to the boy who lay there. He wasn't about toget any sleep that night, but at least Brendon wouldn't wake up towonder where he was.

***

Brendon woke naked, warm andpressed against something equally naked and warm. Humming sleepily, hestretched his lips into a smile and opened his eyes, blinking a fewtimes to get used to the light. There was Ryan beside him, his eyesopen, and Brendon couldn't help himself but smile even more at thesight. "Good morning," he mumbled, carefully stretching his arms abovehis head. "Were you watching me sleep?" he smirked, looking down atRyan once again, and reaching out to take one of his hands, lacingtheir fingers together. He'd never felt so relaxed and just-- happy ashe did now. It was a foreign feeling, but one he hoped he'd get verywell acquainted with. He sighed and pressed a kiss to Ryan's temple,bringing both of their hands up to stroke the side of his boyfriend'sface. "I'd kiss you properly, but I really need to brush my teeth," hemumbled, then laughed. Who would have thought he'd be saying thingslike that?