The Quarry

[Rage Menelas]

[font=Lucida Sans Unicode]Ryan did not sleep at all that night. The last conversation with Quang kept nagging at him. Ryan believed in God; he and Shell had even been attending church together back in Portland. Even then the blatant hypocrisy that was rampant amongst the church members had been a source of angst with him. He had swallowed it and kept his mouth shut; Shell liked the church, its pastor, most of the people that went there. After her death he had dropped going like a bad habit, supposed he had been quietly blaming the old man upstairs for taking her from him. But the mad ninja was right about one thing. It was important to be square with God, for him to be square with you. And being an active accomplice to murder would certainly put him out of alignment with the Almighty. Well, it wasn't going to happen, irregardless of the cost!

The next morning he went to the order-master to protest the direction in which Quang was taking them, was promptly told to shut up and put up—basically to be a good soldier and follow orders. And the Order comes before all else. He shook his head with disgust, felt like he was being asked to sell his soul. Well, he was sick of it, all of it! And he would not be a party to the murder of an innocent person. (Quang had admitted that his sources reported that the Federation Navy had not known that Charlie and Ryan were being held at the installation they had had destroyed. But he was still insistent on going ahead with the hit.) Well, not with Ryan's help he wasn't!

That night at the after hours party, Ryan made his move. It was not planned, in fact, he didn't really have one of those at all. He was flying by his gut now. He just knew he was not going to allow this murder to take place.

Ma'areol made the toast and then, as usual, made her way around the crowd, smiling and kissing cheeks, saying a kind word here and there. When it came Ryan's turn he leaned in close and whispered: “I know about Hei'a 12—you're in danger—I'm a friend.”

She pulled back quickly and searched his eyes, a parade of emotions marching across her face: shock, fear, confusion and then resolution. She winked ever so slightly, put her beautiful smile back on and then moved on to the next adoring fan.

Ryan downed his drink and got another as she left the room. He was working on his fourth, and a hangover in the morning, when one of her bodyguards came back in and made a beeline for him.

“Will you come with me please?” he asked pleasantly enough, but with something just behind the eyes that said it was not really a request at all. It didn't matter, Ryan was committed to this course of action. He nodded and left with the man.