Page 56 of Seamus: Unconventional
His hand hits his chest and I nod giving it back. “Come up. I’ll sing a song for you.”
I smile for real and stand, popping the rest of the grapes in my mouth. “Don’t make it too fast and I may not embarrass myself,” I say on the swallow.
Joshua laughs like I’m kidding, but I’m not kidding. He follows us up to see if it’s true.
I navigate back toward the pool area and smile seeing Wilson with Katie. He looks so much better without the waterspout on top of his head. I take her hand and bend for him. “Thanks, Wilson.”
He throws a page to me in the chip. This partner is geared for numbers but he’s awesome with intel too. “Is this fast?”
No comes my way so I scratch his head and stand straight. “Thanks for this too.” Turning, I share what she can’t see without the chip we have connecting us. Well, with server help. Wilson is one on the server. “Brian Adams, 2002,Here I Am. Wilson says it’s not too fast. It’s old so how fast can it be?”
She laughs at me but takes my hand and sings when Ranger starts. We move faster and she starts a dance I learned on the JASOC base. I’m in and love that she knows weird shit too.
The words hit me.A new dayandnew worldandright here where we belongfits us so well. Vinny and Shadow bump us. I laugh at the little hat matching mine and show Vinny our steps while Katie shows Mark and Shadow. The group dance fits us all and feels perfect when Light flips his hat off and joins in. Katie catches the hat and plops it on as he moves between her and Mark. I just laugh. Our family and then partners are wobbling around with Brothers and ol’ ladies dancing and clapping.
Another day that ends with smiles.
Love the fuckin’ Brotherhood.
Ben and Aylen laugh going by me, I hope it’s not at me but don’t spend much time on that.
***
We all turn at the commotion that is like a wave of activity coming our way from where the band is no longer playing. Cort steps up surprising me and the DeSevilles.
“When did he get here?” Joshua asks his brother.
“When I did. He’s been in the meeting room.”
Joshua shakes his head at his brother making me laugh. I didn’t know Cort was here either. We’ve been here for a while now. I thought he was at Honor but never looked or asked. We were busy and danced with almost everyone present until Katie called uncle.
Now we’re waiting on a late dinner. I do know why it’s late but don’t know why my partners are standing like sentinels flanking Cort.
My eyes find my girl’s watching me. I shrug which gets a smile. She said it’s a bad habit but I’ve been doing it for years. I guess it could be because my only interaction was with my furry partners.
Looking at them, I smile. They’re not really all that furry, Light is shaved and Shadow’s coat is a brown and rusty color that looks like it’s trying out for camouflaged. They are looking more powerful, my uncle would call their muscular build sinewy but I’ve never used that word. Every move shows what muscles made it. I guess that’s using the word without saying the weird one. Light throws the AI picture of me with clown makeup up in the chip.
I turn toward him smiling. He’s right so I send him a thumbs up emoji remembering the first time they sent it to me. I had just woken from a coma. It’s been an eventful few months. I walk, trained for everything Badass, became a President, ran Ops, inherited my new boys, lost our Brother Leon, then met Katie and found Judge. Now my partners in mind and soul are asking why they’re ordered to Cort’s side. I move toward them not knowing the answer but glad I’m not the only clueless Brother here tonight.
While Ben and Cort talk, I ask through the chip, ‘you get LL done?’
Light chuffs getting Ben’s attention. He smiles at Light then finds me. Their seer shit is amazing. “They’ll love it and I bet it helps. Cort loves seeing his dad and Crow teaching Caelan, Daniel and the Ross boys.”
I nod. “We took the idea from the front of Honor. Asa pulled the code and sent the video Natalia used for pictures and their story together.”
He’s surprised enough that Cort turns from whatever Banks is talking about toward us. “You coded a hologram?”
I point to Light and Shadow. “With help. It’s virtual like the chef but we put it on a watch for them. The watch has tracking and a jammer like the cuff someone made me.”
Ben laughs. “He’s IT like the rest.”
I shake my head. “No, I can’t do anything more than add what we want to the code that’s written. We learned how to read the parameters so putting what we want is fairly easy.”
Shadow barks softly. “He’s showing the Alpha-Bits and Zeus teaching them more,” Ben says, amused.
I smile too. “They did. You have way more programs than we’ve seen. The emoji and AI everything gets to be a bit much but they love the hologram boards and how the chip for other partners works off the server at ABSZ. Shadow is teaching the new rescues how to read with virtual lessons Akai had put on the K-9 server for us. All we have to do is send shit to Akai and he adds it right away.”
They’re both staring at me without the smiles. “What?”
