Page 52 of Lethal Game

“Oh.” Her smile dimmed a little. “Not a surprise. My depth perception isn’t great.”

“Your depth perception, your spatial orientation... Have you considered glasses?” They left the range and headed across the base toward the lab.

“My vision is twenty-twenty. I don’t need glasses, I just don’t have ten-twenty vision. I’m not a pilot or a sniper, Con. I’m a doctor and when I need to look at little things I use a microscope.”

“Am I catching some attitude from my student?”

“No, I’m simply explaining why my eyesight is normal and not superhero abnormal.”

He shook his head and exaggerated his sigh. “Yep. I’m getting attitude.”

He liked it. Too much.

“Conman.” A shout from behind them caught Con’s attention.

Two men were walking toward them. Both in Army Special Forces uniforms. “Hey, if it isn’t the cavalry.” Con turned to Sophia. “Here’s your backup.”

“Our backup,” she said, frowning at him.

“Right, sure.” Con held his hand out to Smoke, who shook it once. River did the same. “You two wasted no time in getting here. What did they do, get you onto a transport as soon as Colonel Maximillian made the request?”

“Yeah,” said River. His voice was oddly high-pitched for a grown man. He had a slight build, about five ten and maybe one seventy-five, but he was all muscle and bone, with not an ounce of fat on him. He was also one deadly son of a bitch. When River and Smoke did advance recon, no one ever knew they were there. If they did, they were dead.

Smoke, on the other hand, was a big, broad-boned man, who stood over six feet and had a face that never seemed to show any emotion at all. He was Navajo, but had pale blue eyes. He also never talked unless he had to.

“Is this Dr. Perry?” River asked.

“Yes, I am.” She stepped forward to shake his hand, then nodded at Smoke. “It’s good to see you, Smoke.”

“Who’s trying to kill you, Ghost?” Smoke asked.

Got to like a man who got straight to the point.

“Come on,” Con said. “Let’s get you two settled and we’ll fill you in on all the fun we’ve been having.”

“How are you doing, Con?” River asked as they continued on to the lab. “Back to full strength?”

“Yeah. I have to keep physically fit, but that’s nothing new.”

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with his reflexes or his fighting skills,” Sophia added.

The silence following that was a little uncomfortable.

Both men stared at him.

“Who did you kill?” Smoke asked.

“No one,” Sophia said before Con could. “Why would you assume he killed someone?” She waved away any answer Smoke might have given, though he didn’t look like he was going to anyway. “He broke one guy’s collarbone and the other guy’s arm.” She sucked in a breath. “Then I broke the guy’s arm again.” She stopped and said in a whisper, “It took the orthopedic surgeon several hours to get it all put back together.”

Con had to rein in his irritation and their chatter in a public place. “Come on, you bunch of old ladies, let’s get inside and somewhere we can have a real conversation.”

“Why are you so grumpy?” Sophia asked, frowning at him.

“I don’t know, maybe because last night was a little busy?”

“Well, you would have gotten a better sleep on that plank you call a bed if you had put me in my cot.” She started walking away. “You’d have had room to turn over at least.”

As soon as she was out of earshot, Smoke punched Con on the shoulder. “You slept with her?”

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