******Jack******

“Now, Diego,” I said my smile becoming decidedly wicked, “you seem to know enough about me to be a touch more concerned about your welfare than the rest of these fellows,” I said motioning to the left at the people I had already passed and rejected. “Having a healthy amount of fear of me is always good, especially if you are trying to hide something. Our mutual friend here believes you are as oblivious to the purpose of this compound as she is, ” I said, ignoring the stab of annoyance that shot across the link at me, “but we know better, don’t we Diego?” I asked, watching him fidget.

“I don’t know anything for certain. I was never able to find any proof hombre! I couldn’t go around asking anyone about it, that’s how people disappear amigo. They were just theories, a way to occupy my mind with something out here,” he fired off nervously, his Latino accent getting heavier as he glanced back and forth between Sarah and me.

“Ah, but now your theories seem to be substantiated haven’t they?” I asked.

He nodded nervously, looking at me again, “Yes, Sir.”

“Relax kid, your thoughts are your own, I’m just very observant,” I said. The breath he let out at my words was immediately sucked back in suspicion, and I laughed again in real humor. “You can relax too, Sarah, I promise I won’t throw him out of the plane.” I shot her a grin over my shoulder letting her know I had caught her last thought as I pulled myself out of her memory. *So long as you promise not to experiment while we are linked like this without my guidance, you know, since I can’t be incapacitated like that at the wrong time.*

*Oh, you mean now that you know I can play your game too?* she shot back defiantly, forcing a chuckle out of me. This little puppy certainly has a bark. The confusion raised in her by the imagery of that thought increased my mirth. It gave me the idea to use unfamiliar imagery to keep her guessing.

*I will need that assurance, Sarah,* I thought back seriously, *I can’t be worrying about having to forcibly break the link if you make a mess of something when a distraction could be fatal.* I turned to look back at her to judge her reaction.

She narrowed her eyes and seemed to be studying me closely, so I held my thoughts close not letting anything slip through the link. *I won’t experiment at inopportune times,* she finally responded after a few seconds. That would have to do for now I thought, as her next thought whispered across the link. I could tell she was trying to hold it back from me, but she was still new to this kind of exercise of her abilities. I concentrated a moment and met the thought halfway across the link to catch it before she could hide it away. *But I will not stop doing what I already can.* The vehemence behind the thought startled a laugh out of me as another old memory resurfaced. Must be the day for old memories I guessed as I peeked in at a similar green gaze.

I quickly stepped out of the memory, smiling but not ready to get caught up in it. I was about to file it away for later perusal, when I thought better of it. Sarah could benefit from the lesson as well. I pushed the memory along the link to her mind, not a trap to pull her in and occupy her this time, but several lessons in one. I pulled back across the link leaving her to study it.

*What is it?* she asked, *Besides a memory,* she said, stating the obvious.

I chuckled again and winked at her *You’re learning. Call it a teaching aid, several lessons wrapped up in one.* A thought occurred to me, *You don’t happen to know French do you? No? Damn, that’s a tricky one. Give me a minute,* I told her and went back into the memory. It is tricky, I thought to myself as the memory began replaying. You had to know both translations of everything going on, then tie that knowledge into the memory so it overlay the original translation seamlessly. It took a few moments, but it came back to me quickly with the memory. Jehanne used to complain that she couldn’t understand my memories in English so I developed this to solve the problem. It was just a matter of reversing the process with Sarah.

I stepped out again as the green-eyed woman in the memory charged, sword raised, and a determined look on her face. I focused on the woman staring at me in the present, *You’ll be able to understand the words at least. What you learn from this is entirely up to you. Just… try not to dive right in. Study the structure of it so you can recreate something similar. Look for that little extra I had to put in there for you to understand.*

*You’re just trying to keep me occupied,* she glared at me, *Again.*

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

*You are correct, of course, but I had a job to do when I got here and it’s still not done. So if you will excuse me,* I sent, as I turned back around to Diego, *I have work to do.*

Diego was still a few meters away, a confused look on his face. He hadn’t been a party to our silent exchange and still had no idea what was happening. Time to give some direction, concentrating for a moment, I reached out with a thought and grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him lurching forward. He looked terrified when I stopped him in front of me. I pulled out my largest knife, almost a machete really, and gave it a little twirl in my hand as I walked around to his back.

I grabbed his bound wrists with my free hand, leaning in close so Sarah wouldn’t hear, she would only get a sense of menace from my thoughts. “I promised her I wouldn’t throw you out of the plane, and I won’t, but if she isn’t on that plane when I need her to be, decades from now when I finally let you die, you will wish I hadn’t made that promise.” I flicked my wrist and sliced through the hard plastic bindings with the knife. “Comprehende amigo?” I said louder, walking back around him.

“Ci, hombre, ci.” He said, cautiously rubbing his wrists in front of him.

“Good,” I told him, "I’m not an evil man, Diego. Harsh, maybe, but fair. Harm one of my people and you hurt us all. I cannot allow any offenses to go unpunished no matter how slight. Since you are a friend to my new *and old.* friend, I will give you a chance to make up your own mind about me." I gave him a nudge toward Sarah, "There should be some crates behind the plane that my men should have unloaded, you can work through that lesson there."

******Sarah******

Fuming I walked away towards the back of the cargo plane. Sure enough there were stacks of crates and boxes littering the floor behind the plane. Some were obviously set up like rudimentary benches and tables for the officers and soldiers to use. I looked back just as Jack approached a shaken group of shrinks followed by a team of heavily armed bruisers. As he settled to a stop he rolled his shoulders and a pair of midnight black wings erupted from his shoulder blades. A rolling wave of menace tore across the link towards me, stopping suddenly just short of my mental barrier.

An unconscious shiver rippled through me at the depth of his fury. Thankful I wasn’t the target, I took a seat at one of the crate-benches. Focusing my thoughts inward, I felt my way around the foreign bubble in my head. The first thing I noticed was a whisper thin strand that spiraled back down the link. As I pressed a little further, I saw a second layer that meshed with the first and melded with it as it twisted into the strand. Layer upon layer of midnight blue mystery wrapped around a puzzle. He did say it was several lessons in one, maybe this second layer is the something extra he had to put in so I could understand the language.

Still thinking about the way the two layers meshed, I plunged all the way into the memory. Once again it was as if I were seeing through his eyes and gripping the wooden shaft of some sort of polearm. Three feet of it was a wicked looking medieval blade. All of that detail was quickly brushed aside as a sword wielding woman burst out of the large pavilion in front of me, anger written across her face. The change was so subtle I barely noticed, but Jack shifted our stance slightly readjusting our center of gravity as an edge of wariness colored his thoughts.

The young woman shouted “You dare show your face to me after so long?” as she charged us. The words I heard were in English, but the movements her lips made did not match the sounds. Ah well, I guess nobody can be perfect. As she made her attack, Jack stepped to the side of the blade and knocked it to her offhand side with a jarring strike from the butt of his weapon, forcing her to turn with it or lose her hold on the sword. Before she could recover fully, he tapped her on the shoulder with the flat of the blade and took two steps back, settling back into that deceptively relaxed stance.

“If you’re going to try swinging a sword like a soldier, you better learn how to do it properly. That’s two lives you owe me now Jehanna.” Jack said.

“You show up on the eve of my army’s first great battle after seven years and make demands of me!?” she asked incredulously, shocked out of her blind fury.

“No Jehanna,” he said, “merely reminding you of a debt. Now attack me again.” He said in a calm but commanding tone.

The memory went on with Jack instructing her on how to really use the blade she held. I found the topic boring, I mean who uses a sword these days? So I started looking at the layers of the bubble again, fascinated by the way the two meshed together. There was no point in which the two layers were separate, they existed in equal amount throughout. If he could do that to change the whole structure of a memory like that, maybe I could do the same. I wonder if I could somehow create a third layer that muted the English and let the French come through. Just as the thought crossed my mind, the language Jack was speaking shifted mid-sentence as the English dropped out.

After a few phrases and remarks went back and forth in French, I refocused on the walls of the bubble. Exactly as I had subconsciously pictured it was a third, unmistakable layer with a scarlet hue. There was one small flaw in the third layer which seemed to correspond with where the strand that seemed to stretch outside my own mental barriers entered the bubble inside my mind. Upon closer inspection, the hole turned out to be a tiny spiral tube that stretched across the link.

Curious, I decided to see where the tube went. Pushing through the hole, I almost immediately felt the threshold of my personal barriers. Well, in for a penny, in for a dollar, I thought, and crossed the line.