Desperate Measures Chapter 35

Chapter Thirty-Three

Erik had just put his shears in a drawer and closed the lid of his penjing container when the door slid open and Jia stepped through. He couldn’t complain about Lanara’s work. It was nice to not to leave his hobby behind, but it was time to focus on Jia

She’d been in a hurry after breakfast, and he’d been curious about what she was up to. It wasn’t as if she could swing by a commerce tower to do errands aboard the ship.

He hadn’t bothered her about it, figuring if she wanted him to know, she would tell him. Partners, both romantic and professional, needed their space. Anything that threatened the ship or the mission would be brought up by Emma.

Jia slapped the access panel with a huge smile on her face as if she’d personally finished off a conspiracy leader. She grinned at Erik before sitting in a chair.

“Breakfast finally agreeing with you?” Erik asked with a chuckle.

“Agent Devereaux has apparently decided she begrudgingly accepts you, but she still has an issue with me,” Jia replied, her amused tone confusing Erik.

“I kind of sensed that after the darts.” Erik shrugged. “But I just thought she was taking her darts too seriously. I knew plenty of people like that in the Army.”

Jia snorted. “It’s less of a problem. I’ve…solved it.”

Erik nodded slowly, concern etching his face. “You didn’t solve this the same way you solved your problem with your old partner, did you?”

“No, I didn’t punch her.” Jia laughed. “But I won’t say I didn’t think about it.”

“Who am I to talk? I punch people all the time.” He waved a hand. “That and shoot them.”

Jia related her encounter with the agent the night before and their firing range showdown. Erik listened carefully, his amusement growing with the additional details.

“I don’t think it’s enough,” Jia finished. “But at least it’s something. She’s now seen proof that I carry my own weight. Being better at the range will help more in combat than throwing darts.”

“Depends on the dart.” Erik smiled. “But to be honest, things aren’t as bad as we were thinking.”

“They aren’t?” Jia’s brow furrowed.

“Yeah. I want you to think back to how the 1-2-2 treated both of us at the beginning, and how long it took to bring them onboard. Even after we got Captain Ragnar, we still had assholes doubting us.” He sat down on the edge of the bed, the trip down the hostile Memory Lane oddly nostalgic. “But in the end, we forced them to acknowledge us both, and hell, you can push it farther.”

“To what?” Jia frowned. “Before I was a cop? My parents?”

Erik gestured to her and himself. “To us. We didn’t get along right away, either. You thought I was a crazy out-of-control lunatic, and I thought you were too far up your own ass.”

Jia rolled her eyes. “It’s redundant for someone to be called both crazy and a lunatic.”

“There’s the old Jia.” Erik grinned. “But we came to an understanding, and we went from good partners to great ones even before we hooked up. That’s the way things work.” He shrugged. “Even in the military with a more unified culture, new soldiers had to get used to the way things were done and the other soldiers’ personalities.”

“This isn’t the first time we’ve had to work with others. And we’ve never had much trouble with Malcolm.”

“Because we separated support and ops.” Erik inclined his head in the general direction of the cockpit. “It’s not like we were worried about Malcolm having our backs in a firefight. These ghosts change everything.”

“I suppose I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

“And we’re a ragtag group of irregulars, making this harder. Things will gel, and from what you told me, Agent Prissy Pants isn’t all talk. It’s good to know she can shoot things and hit them.”

Jia snickered. “’Agent Prissy Pants?’ I’d love to see you say that to her face, but I doubt it would end well for team morale.”

Erik lay down on the bed and rested the back of his head in his hands. “She’s probably thinking the same thing about you. Some of this is just her busting your balls to make sure you can take it.”

“Do I need to remind you I don’t have any balls?” Jia joked.

“You’ve seen how Kant is, and if she can get along with him on a mission, she can get along with us. If this is about something else, I don’t think you should worry.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m glad you had your little showdown.” Erik smiled. “I was worried I’d have to beat all this fresh meat into line with force of will, but you went ahead and made her shut up with an example of skill. This goes beyond that. I think Anne’s more pissed with you than me because of what you represent.”

Jia frowned. “What exactly do I represent?”

“A prodigy.” Erik sat up, now looking serious. “It’s easy for her to accept me at the end of the day. I was in the Army for longer than she’s been alive. Everything I’ve accomplished since coming back to Earth is filtered through that background. But you’re closer to her age, and you went from being a detective to where we are now.”

“You think she’s jealous?” Jia’s slight smile didn’t speak to her disapproval of the idea.

“She whined about your family background,” Erik recalled. “I’m sure she’s had to fight hard to get her position and prove to people she’s worth it. In a couple of years, you’ve gone from a naïve detective no one regarded to Lady Justice, the famous former detective. Nobody blinks an eye at you stepping into a terrorist situation or capturing a flitter thief when you’re out shopping. And that’s before we get into your piloting.” He laughed. “I’m sleeping with you, and I might have a hard time believing everything you’ve done if I hadn’t been there.”

Jia rolled her eyes. “I hope I don’t have to sleep with her to get her to calm down.”

“She’ll be fine,” Erik replied. “That’s my point. I think she bugged you because she reminded you of all those assholes at the 1-2-2 who questioned you, but you weren’t living up to your potential there because of them.”

“True.” Jia folded her arms. “And you don’t think we have the opposite problem with Kant? That he might be too happy-go-lucky?”

Erik shook his head. “I knew tons of guys like him in the Army. He’ll be all jokes and smiles when we’re not getting shot at and a lethal warrior the second bullets start flying.”

“And what about Janessa and Wei?”

“Not our problem.”

Jia dropped her arms. “How are they not our problem?”

“Because they won’t be going out on missions with us,” Erik explained. “Lanara asked for them, and they are her responsibility. If she needs our help, she can ask for it, but we know Lanara.

“We could have stuck her in front of a Hunter, and she’d be ranting to the alien what a loser he was for not maximizing the efficiency in his engines. That’s before she screamed at one of his monsters to order it to help her.”

“You’ve got a point.” Jia chuckled. “Janessa doesn’t strike me as the type of woman who is going to spend much time challenging Lanara, and when I’ve talked to Wei at meals, he seems happy with her leadership. He told me he’s always needed a firm hand.”

“See?” Erik smiled. “Not our problem. Leadership’s not about micromanaging teams. It’s about having good people you trust who can manage others. There’s also another thing to keep in mind about us.”

“What’s that?” Jia asked.

“Alina isn’t our boss.” Erik’s expression turned stern. “I think we have a good relationship with her, and she’s obviously given us a lot of good gear, but if she screwed up and sent us people we can’t work with, we have a simple solution—we just refuse to work with them. If Anne’s head remains up her ass, I have no problem benching her and telling her to take it up with Alina.”

Jia nodded solemnly. “I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“So do I. So do I.”