Hands of Clay Ch. 03
I know, I know, I know,
This book has a lot of setups. But I had to tell the story as it should be told. If you are still with me... A big thank you. I appreciate all the readers, even the ones who hate my stuff! LOL
Well, back to my newest Ice Era Chronicle. I love it, so that counts for something, right?
Cheers,
M. From C.M. Moore
***
*Chapter 2*
(Brice)
The tea leaves in Brice's mug floated to the top of the water. As he went over the list of things he needed to get done today, he stared into the cup. A new group of recruits for the H.S.P.C. Basic Agent Training Course would be lined up before he knew it. He had a meeting about the trainees in twenty minutes. The floating leaves danced. He had plenty to do, but Brice dragged his feet this morning. It was because he was tired, but Brice didn't want to admit how exhausted he truly was.
Rubbing the puckered scar down his cheek, Brice stared blankly at the empty instructor's lounge. He considered his nightmare from last night. The shepherd made an appearance again. If he closed his eyes, Brice could still see the man left in chains while he was yanked away. Of their own accord, his hands rubbed the spot where the shackles had dug into his wrists. There were many nights he wondered what happened to the stranger. If he had the answer, then maybe the brunette wouldn't appear in his dreams any longer.
Hoping to his feet, Brice scoffed at that thought. As he headed toward the sink and the microwave at the other side of the room, he shook his head. Even if he knew how or when The Originals killed the man, it wasn't like Brice would feel any better about the murder. The chances were good that the stranger froze to death, or they did to him what they did to Brice and Carl and Toby. The shepherd was probably shot and left in a mass grave to die.
"There you are." Trainer Nancy appeared in the lounge's doorway, huffing and puffing as if she'd run there. "I've been looking everywhere for you."
Because Brice knew the older woman was a talker, he microwaved his cup and then returned to his seat at the round table under the LED lights. As he sipped on his steaming tea, Nancy marched past the fridge and the other tables.
"What can I do for you, Nancy?" Brice stared up at the curvy, fifty-something blonde. He shuffled the list of names for the trainees. He'd known Nancy for years, so he figured he should get comfortable. Rarely did Nancy get to the point.
"I went to your apartment first, and then I looked for you in the operations center." Nancy pulled off her camouflaged backpack and set the sack on the table. "Then I stopped up at medical, and you weren't there." After fluffing her short gray-blonde curls, she slapped her hands on her rounded hips. "Then, I walked to the supply room and the bio-hazard division. After that, I headed to the training room and the DEFAC—"
"You found me," Brice cut her off. "What's up?" Brice asked before she listed off every place in the headquarters building.
"It about training and you." Nancy's forehead creased as she rocked back on her heels. "We start soon, and I was thinking about how, once again, we will have a brand-new platoon of young confident men and women. They will be molded into strong and smart H.S.P.C. agents." When Brice didn't comment, Nancy plopped into the chair across from him. "These people will help re-build our world."
"I know, Nancy. I'm the head instructor." Brice chuckled. Nancy sounded like a promotional advertisement. "Where are you going with this?"
"We have to stay optimistic. Even with people dying of Snow Flu and killing each other for water on the equator, we can't get stressed out."
"True. We shouldn't get stressed out," Brice said slowly and then sipped from his cup. He was drinking tea. Brice wasn't exactly the picture of stress right now.
"Essie and Ponce were saying that you're stressed, and it's starting to show. The other three trainers agreed. Dean and Dean said you seem out of sorts."
"I have plenty of sorts," Brice said wryly. "Even some sorts to spare."
"I'm serious, Brice." Nancy huffed. "Zoey said you'd be a better trainer and a better leader if you blew off some steam." Nancy's blonde eyebrows dropped as a solemn expression blanketed her face. "You know." Her sculpted eyebrows wiggled up and down. "You know."
"Has it occurred to you that you're telling me how you and all the other trainers were gossiping about me?" Brice leaned back in his chair and held in his smile. "I can reprimand you for that."
"What occurred to me was that I'm your friend." Nancy fluffed her curls a second time. She didn't seem concerned about his empty threat of a lecture. Who was he kidding? He did have a soft spot for her. She was like a mother to him. Nancy and Keith had been with him longer than anyone else he knew.
"You want an apology because I'm a shitty friend?" Brice set his mug on the table. "I'm not stressed. I'm drinking tea. How much more relaxed do you want me to get?"
"Forget the tea." Nancy waved to his cup. "And you're not a shitty friend."
"What's this about, Nancy?"
"Before you were assigned as head instructor, you and I were friends. We go way back. We trained together under Keith when your brother was alive."
"And?" Brice shut down the clear recollection of the attack on the train tracks that took his older brother. He hoped they weren't going to head down memory lane. That road was an ugly path.
"And we worked together in the Seeyah before the failing US government took over the organization and turned it into the Human Survival and Population Care."
"Yes..."
"You know I was there for you during Latoya and Vihaan and Suze and—"
"Stop listing my past relationships." Brice didn't want to spend the morning going over his unsuccessful love life. "You keep telling me things I already know. And...? Can you speed this up?"
"And I think you should blow off some steam as well. Everyone is right. You're stressed. You need to have sex." Nancy said the words as she applied lip gloss. She missed the shocked expression on his face.
"Excuse me?" Brice coughed with the tea in his mouth. The hot drink dribbled down his chin, and he wiped at the spill. "What I need is to leave. I have a meeting."
"Don't worry about a thing. It's all set up." Nancy shoved her lip gloss in her bag and then plucked the mug out of his hand. She walked to the sink and washed the cup out while she talked. "It's an intervention." Smiling, she hung his mug and then folded her arms over her large breasts.
"What is?" He had no idea what they were discussing now.
"Your sex life."
"You can't have an intervention involving my sex life."
"I can too," Nancy chirped as she returned to the seat across from him. "After you lost your foot, you were struggling, and I'll admit it, I didn't know how to help. And on the mission to save Doctor Gears, you had that panic attack. Essie reminded me of that."
"Nancy." Brice sighed. "I'm fine. And I give Essie a B minus for having such a great memory. But I don't panic like that anymore."
"You don't panic because you don't take missions any longer. You haven't gone outside the wire for like, um, I don't know, forever. I can see that you're still struggling, and I don't have any suggestions for any of that." She paused. "But..." She wiggled her eyebrows, and Brice decided he would give all the trainers extra duty as soon as he saw them. "If you need a date." Nancy clapped happily. "I can do that."
"I don't need a date." Brice scooped up the list of names. Dating was the last thing he needed. "What I need is a nap."
"When was the last time you saw anyone or dated or even had sex?" Nancy grabbed his documents and then took his pen. Her expression turned to stone. "I mean it. When?"
Brice pressed his lips into a grim line. Part of him didn't want to answer her because that question was highly personal. Nancy didn't need to know about his sex life or lack thereof. And also, none of the instructors should be talking about what he was or wasn't doing in the bedroom. Brice was their leadership. He should remind them of that fact.
The other half of him didn't answer because he didn't know. If Brice thought back hard enough, he guessed that the most recent time he'd dated or had sex was before his last mission to save Gears.
After his embarrassing panic attack, Brice took the head instructor's job over the trainers that managed the H.S.P.C. Basic Agent Training Course. He hadn't taken the position exactly. Rea and Keith insisted that the duty would give him time to heal.
And then time passed.
The training was all he did now. Brice looked after every aspect of the Basic Agent Skills Course and the six instructors who worked under him. He was currently creating a specific program for the men and women to hone their individual gifted abilities. When it came down to it, Brice didn't have time for sex. There was a pandemic going on in old Canada, and it crept closer to them every day. Containment was going slow. Snow Flu had people dying in mass. They had water bases to protect and an infrastructure to rebuild. All of that took skilled agents and guards. So that's what Brice did. He created capable and proficient H.S.P.C. agents to protect the water bases in the Northern Earth Dens and HQ. Sex wasn't on his agenda.
"I'm going to take that really, really, really, long silence as a yes."
"A yes for what?"
"A yes for your blind date." Nancy did her happy clap again. "His name is Wykes, and he's a cook here for a short time. He is cooking exclusively for Keith. Normally, he lives on another water base. He's not one to stick around HQ. No long or messy or deep relationship. He is totally okay with a hook-up. I even checked out his paperwork. His blood work is clean, and this can be casual."
"Casual." Brice's mouth went dry. "Hook-up?"
"You can charm him and fuck him. And if you don't like him, I know women too. I can introduce you to Hanna from Custodial Services. She is kind of grumpy, but she knows what she's doing. You know." Nancy dropped her voice and winked. "You know."
"No."
"You don't know?" Nancy's expression switched to puzzled. "I didn't think I'd have to spell it out for you. Hanna is good at—"
"No," Brice snapped. "I know what you mean, but no."
"No to Hanna?" Nancy nodded sagely. "That's what I thought. My guy is much more your type. He's cute. He's clean, he's available, and he's ready to fuck. You'll meet him on the top floor of the building. Have a bottle of wine and see where the night takes you."
"I don't have wine." Brice wanted to rip out his hair. As he rose from his seat, like magic, Nancy produced a bottle from her bag. Brice's shoulders dropped. When did the word no lose all meaning?
"I told him you'd bring the wine, and he would bring his..." Nancy waved to her crotch. Using her hands, she spaced out ten inches.
"Nancy..." Brice tried again, but she kept talking.
"And you two will hit it off. I told him all about you."
"He wants to have sex with a scar-faced, washed-up, panic-stricken, former H.S.P.C. agent with one foot?" Brice was silently judging the man already. He wasn't going to meet him. Anyone who wanted Brice probably wasn't right in the head.
"He doesn't care about all that. He is getting over someone right now and needs to get under someone new. He's looking to screw. The two of you could get your rocks off and go your separate ways."
"Rocks off?" Brice would make a decree that Nancy was no longer allowed to hang out with Essie and Ponce and the Deans. If he repeated this story, he was sure that Rea and Karma would agree to the new rule.
"And then Essie said you'd be in a better mood once your balls were empty." Nancy nodded like was the authority on the subject of men's testicles.
"I appreciate the thought, but..." Brice started for the door hunting for a way to let her down without hurting her feelings. Brice understood that this idea came from a place of care and concern, but honestly, he was fine. The other trainers, the Deans, Nancy, and Essie, didn't need to worry about him.
"It'd be nice if you were happy for a change. We'd all like it if you were less cynical and jaded and bossy." Nancy took Brice's arm and steered him into the hall.
"I'm not bossy. I'm your leadership." Even though he said it, right now, he felt like if anyone was bossy, it was Nancy. She did seem to be able to take charge at the drop of a hat. Brice just got railroaded.
"Remember the top floor." She hugged him. "You have a meeting. I'll talk to you later."
Brice didn't need to go to a redundant meeting about training tomorrow. He'd done this work long enough to have the schedule burned into his brain, but he nodded. While he smiled politely, he tried to come up with a way to get Nancy to understand he wasn't going on a blind date with Wyatt or Wyman. He could see that she had her hopes up, but Brice wasn't in the right place for romance. He couldn't pretend to be normal or less cynical about life or love. Brice couldn't even fake it for a night. It didn't matter if his date was with a man or a woman.
Staring down at the bottle of wine, he took a deep breath. When he looked up again, Nancy was already at the end of the hall. How a woman that chubby could move that fast was beyond him.
"Top floor," she called as she hurried away. Her backpack bounced on her shoulders. At the corner, she waved before she disappeared.
Brice glared. He would have to leave the stranger dangling. There was no way he was heading to the top floor of HQ. His rocks would just have to stay where they were.
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