“Absolutely. Not a soul.”
“I had to hear it from Ord?
“Oh, none taken,” said Ord. “I’m right there with you. Who wants to hear something like that from me? Hell, I couldn’t believe it when Beast told me.”
“Color me shocked,” said Beast.
His closest friends and his astounded brother were grouped around Hopper at the far end of the deck. Hopper was glaring at Raikes, who was standing there shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other and trying to look at anyone except Hopper. She was eating a slice of cake with great concentration. “ ‘Absolutely not a soul,’ Raikes?” said Hopper. “Really?”
Her response was a shrug.
“I have no soul, if that helps, so technically she kept her word,” Beast said helpfully. “I’m actually a robot sent back in time to kill John Connor.”
“Shut up,” said Hopper.
“Roger, I copy that.”
Stone circled the group, but his attention never left his brother. Clearly he didn’t give a damn about Raikes breaking her word; he was more focused on other aspects of the news. “Why did you keep it from me? From your own brother?”
Hopper was inclined to spend some more time being pissed off with Raikes, but that pretty much seemed to be a dead-end path. So he said in frustration, “Because there’s only so much humiliation I want to handle, okay?”
“What are you talking about? Why would you think I’d humiliate you?” Stone was clearly astounded at Hopper’s attitude. “I want nothing but the best for you and Sam! You guys are a great couple. Right?” He addressed the question to the others.
“Yes, absolutely,” said Beast.
Raikes nodded, her mouth still full of cake, and she gave a thumbs-up.
“I’d totally do her,” said Ord. Then, when he saw that everyone was glaring at him, he said defensively, “Hey, I’m new here. Gimme a break.”
Raikes swallowed the piece of cake. “I’ll give you a broken nose is what I’ll give you.”
Hopper shifted his attention to Sam. She was standing next to her father, the admiral. She was holding a glass of champagne and laughing in that marvelous way she had. That laugh that, no matter what manner of gloom had settled on Hopper at any given moment, always made things right somehow. Officers from Japan, England, and South Korea were grouped around her, hanging on every word she said, every movement, every toss of her head. They adored her. Everyone adored her. Especially her father, who had an arm around her shoulders and was clearly bristling with pride over the splendid young woman he’d raised.
And he couldn’t stand Hopper.
“It doesn’t matter what a great couple we are,” Hopper said. “There’s no way the admiral’s gonna approve. And when that happens—or doesn’t, I should say—at least none of you would have had to know about it. There wouldn’t be a whole ‘So how’d it go?’ thing. I could keep my humiliation hidden and my guts would tear themselves apart in private instead of you guys knowing what was going on.”
The others exchanged looks. “Are you serious?” said Stone. “C’mon, Hopps. You’re selling yourself short.”
“You absolutely are,” said Beast. Raikes, having shoveled another forkful of cake into her mouth, nodded.
“I’d totally do you,” said Ord. The others stared at him. He looked defensive. “Boy, try to lighten things up around here…”
Hopper stared forlornly at Sam. She might as well have been standing on the other side of the Pacific for all that he could see of their life together. “Her father’s gonna smash me.”
“He’s not,” said Stone. His earlier irritation with his brother had subsided, replaced by sympathy for Hopper’s obvious turmoil.
“I really think he is.”
Stone shook his head. “He loves his daughter. She loves you. He’s gonna respect that. Stop worrying about what hasn’t happened and get it done.” He paused and then said, “You want me to come with? Would that help?”
“There’s no need I can absolutely do it myself yeah would’ja, please?”
Releasing a brotherly chuckle, Stone clapped Hopper on the shoulder and with an inclination of his head indicated Hopper should follow him.
“Want us to come, too?” said Ord cheerfully.
“Actually, I’d like you, Ord, to jump overboard,” said Stone. “Raikes, Beast—you two go fish him out once he’s splashed around for a while.”
As Stone and Hopper walked away, Ord looked nervously at Beast and Raikes. “He was kidding, right? That… wasn’t an actual order, was it?”
“Sounded pretty official to me,” Beast said sternly. Raikes, wiping cake from her mouth with the back of her hand, shrugged.
Stone and Hopper walked toward the admiral’s group. As they did so, Hopper was busy running through all the possible scenarios he could employ to casually get Shane away from the other officers. Perhaps Sam and Stone could somehow pitch in. Offer to take the others around the ship, leaving Hopper with the admiral for a few minutes.
“Nagata,” said Stone in a tone of formal greeting.
The name snapped Hopper from his musings and he looked dead ahead of them. Sure enough, there was Nagata—along with one of his men—having approached from the side and come up to them just before they arrived within range of Admiral Shane’s group.
Instantly Sam, her father and proposals were forgotten. His world was now filled with nothing but Nagata, standing there in his crisp uniform, oozing smug superiority. Nagata was regarding Hopper with his usual cool contempt even as he said to Hopper’s brother, “Stone. Good weather for our exercise.”
“Yes, it is, and good luck to you.”
“And to you,” said Nagata. He tilted his head toward Hopper. “Your brother could use a lesson in tactics from you.” He threw Hopper a cold smile.
Hopper shoved his hands into his pockets, trying to look casual even as he fought to resist the impulse of smashing in Nagata’s smug face. “We were doing fine last go around,” said Hopper, “till you tried to ram me in open water.”
“Ships never touched,” said Nagata. “Accident.”
“Says who?”
“The independent naval inquiry.”
Working quickly to avert catastrophe, Stone said, “Hopper, back out of this. Don’t you have something much more interesting to be doing
Hopper took a deep breath to steady himself, and then looked over to the admiral and Sam. “Roger that,” he said.
He quickly hurried away, as Stone turned back to Nagata and said, with as much charm as he could muster, “Beautiful day for sailing, isn’t it, gentlemen?”
From a short distance away, Hopper’s crewmates were watching with growing interest the altercation that appeared to be shaping up. “This is going to be sweet,” said Raikes, who had finished the cake and was stuffing the crumpled napkin into her pocket.
“He walked away, though,” Beast pointed out.
“Come on, Beast. You should know better than that. That was just round one. Round two’ll come up before
