“She’ll take my coat,” Rath said as he pulled the vehicle to a stop beneath a small, arching bridge. “I’ll find something to wear once we get the plan moving. I don’t like being a sitting duck,” he paused, and looked at Lyons’ neatly folded uniform with distaste. “Leave that here.”
Lyons seemed frozen at first, but then she set the garment gently down by her feet. Rath nodded briskly, and opened the car door. A gust of snowy air entered the car as he disrobed, and handed Ryo his coat.
“But you’ll be cold!” She protested, taking the warmed jacket from him.
“But I’ll be laughing at how silly you look, so I won’t feel it.”
She scowled at him and stuck her arms in the long sleeves.
Outside, Lyons had slipped on the brown leather coat, and was having similar problems, though not to the same degree. Rath whistled at her.
“You look good in leather, commander.”
“And you look good in your purple t-shirt,” Lyons shot back at him. “Real men don’t wear purple, you know.”
“Oh, I make this look good,” Rath shot back, running his gloved hands down the tanned hide vest that rested upon his purple shit. “You wish you had my-”
“Let’s just get going,” Will mused from behind them. “If we get caught and deported to a Delphis prison because you two were arguing about fashion, I’ll never forgive myself."
Bursts of light and text flashed on the glass map. Above her head pulsed the contour of the northern continent. Macau shimmered upon most of it, the red diagonal lines moving dizzyingly across the landscape, with Delphis three fourths to the top. Connected by a small patch of land rested the southern most continent, angry blue-black lines marked the other large country, Premis. To the left, in pale yellow, were the Apelgos Island chains, and far to the south, below Premis, was an even fainter color and the small continent Rhomes.
Beyond that, all other land, a few islands and a large continent the size of Macau to the southeast, was colored a toxic green, and read “contaminated”.
Shaking her head to clear it, she touched the glowing dot within Premis that was marked Athiens, and immediately a dozen reports flooded the glass. Each was marked classified; but only those of high rank could even view the map. She wasn’t worried about anyone seeing anything overly sensitive. Everyone in the room was higher than her on the food chain.
Premis and Macau were at war. And they had been for longer than Lyons could remember.
“Tigon?” Lyons perked up. “Oh my Gods. General Tigon.”
“Commander Emprada,” he mimicked her in his smooth accent.
“I thought you were – dead,” she blurted. And regretted it; the man physically stiffened.
“Man,” Rath said close to her ear and she jumped, “Your dad is a right ass. At least my mug’s not all over the telly’.”
Lyons turned and bared her teeth at him. “Maybe he’s actually concerned for my well being,” she ground out through her clenched jaw.
“Oh bullshit,” Rath said, crossing his bare arms over his chest, snow sticking to the light dusting of dark hair on his forearms. “He’ll lock you up in ten seconds, daughter or not and then he’ll kill the three of us in the minute after. I’m not buying his pathetic ‘woe is me’ story-”
“Don’t talk about him that way,” she warned, the hair on the back of her neck rising.
“I have the right to not be afraid!” Rath shouted back at her. “I have the right to not play this damned game of control and fear-”
“And what do you know of my game, boy?” Lyons shouted back.
“Apparently more than you do!”
“Hey,” Will said, suddenly beside them. “We should really-”
“You’re a liar,” Lyons growled and advanced on the taller blond. “A smart man would know what he’s insulting- you assume to know the Party, you childish uneducated-”
“I am a Darecoun!” Rath yelled harshly, his breath pouring steam from his mouth like a dragon’s fiery breath. “I know exactly who and what you are! You are a puppet who’s tied to the party’s strings, and I won’t let your ignorance get us killed!”
“Rath?” Ryo asked softly, her fingerless gloves touching his balled fist. “Its not safe here. Can we go?”
But Rath and Lyons were staring at each other and no one else; Rath with desperate rage in his eyes, and Lyons’ with disbelief.
“That’s impossible. Unless - unless you bleached your hair, picked up a gun and gave up your rightful position in our court-”
“Enough,” he hissed turning away and huffed past Ryo and the doctor. “Lets get to the damned temple.” He stalked down the street in front of them with his arms hugging his middle in the snow fall. Ryo looked torn between the two of them. Will touched Lyons’ leather bound elbow and steered her after the fleeing blond man. Lyons cast one last angry glance at the telescreen before following the small dark haired girl down the quiet, empty, snowy street.