Tuesday. 06:00 Co-Ed Dorm

Alice kicked John in her sleep waking him up. John groaned, rolled over and swore under his breath. He slid out of bed and headed into their living room. He started the morning by stretching and doing about twenty minutes of yoga.

John liked living with Alice, in fact he loved it. But every now and then she had a tendency to be an awful night sleeper. She kicked him, hogged the sheets, took over his side of the bed. Mornings like this were not the way he wanted to start the day. But at least he was getting a good stretch to start things off right.

About the time he was finishing up John noticed a call coming in. John turned the TV on and transferred the call to it. He walked back to the yoga mat and began rolling it up.

“Morning Director. How can I help you?”

“Morning John, is your fiancé there with you?” LeCroix smiled as he said that.

“She’s asleep, I woke up before our alarm.”

“Please wake her up, this involves you both.”

John nodded and popped a head in their bedroom. Alice had already woken up. Kind of.

“Honey, the director wants to speak to us both.”

Alice had terrible bed head and looked half asleep. “Ok.”

She was moving slowly but was mostly awake by the time she got into their living room.

“Do either of you know Flavio Ricci?” LeCroix was looking at his terminal.

“Relative of the Ricci’s we had a run in with?” John asked, he looked over at Alice.

“He makes Luca and Marco look like choir boys. Bad doesn’t begin to describe him.” Alice did not look happy to hear this news. “He’s a ruthless bastard. The mafia wants nothing to do with him, and they don’t hesitate to do business with most people.”

“He was in Mobile last week. He is in Annapolis now.”

John cocked his head, he was thinking. “But he’s not done anything to us yet, or you haven’t intercepted anything to allow us to go after him. Right director?”

“Correct. If he moves against you then that changes the dynamic. John, you are not allowed to go after him at this time. I presume your aware of the rules of engagement.”

“Crystal clear sir. I’d prefer to avoid another tribunal.” John put his hand on Alice’s shoulder.

The director ended the call. Alice looked over at John and he was clearly angry. She was unhappy with this whole situation.

“John, I wasn’t lying about my description. Turielle Industries is a wholly owned subsidiary of Military Enterprises. Flavio is the CEO in waiting. His father is retiring soon. He’s probably here to scare you off.”

John was reading the dossier on Flavio, he looked at Alice and smiled. “You’ll be fine. His target is me. Since he’s already here he’ll either want to chat with me or pick a fight.”

Alice wasn’t so sure. “Look, he and his father have green lit some pretty awful things. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“I reckon I’ll be fine. If he picks a fight, I’ll just go for the jugular.”

Alice was not convinced. “How are you so confident he just wants to talk?”

“Call it a hunch, let’s get ready for the day. I’m getting hungry.”

“No, you stay put. Explain now.” Alice was tapping her foot with her arms crossed, John wasn’t winning this argument.

“He’s not beyond petty revenge, no man is. I did things to his family, which I’m sure he’s not happy with. He has to know my general capabilities. If he’s aware of what I’m capable of then he most likely wants to create a situation to make me an ally of sorts for him.”

“So, if your career goes tits up, he could be the fallback for you.”

“Bingo. Won’t work since I want fuck all to do with him and his family.” John shrugged his shoulders. “Obviously.”

“So do you want me to do anything?”

“I have to be all chauvinistic, but this will just be a conversation between men.”

Alice grunted and headed to the bathroom to get ready for the day. She was not impressed with John’s answer. This wouldn’t cause any fights between the two; she won’t admit to John, but she didn’t want to anything to do with that family ever again.

The new semester had already started. The cadets were hammered with classes this semester. Which may explain why they never saw any upper classman outside of the cafeteria. Everyone had four classes in the morning that centered around their focus. After lunch they had three elective classes and another focus class. Then two days a week they had PE after dinner.

Alice was on edge though. John’s calmness and attempts to assuage her fears weren’t successful. She noticed an increased number of MPs anywhere John or she walked. He pointed out a few Intelligence agents watching them as well. John wasn’t concerned about Flavio targeting her, he was the price not her.

12:15 Cafeteria

Andern looked totally broken as he sat down. He was poking at the chicken and cheese sandwich he had on his tray. His transition back into school mode was less than successful.

“Tough time there eh bud?” John laughed.

“Two things, please don’t do that Canadian accent again. And yes. Dude, we have eight hours of classes a day, five days a week.” Andern’s arms were flaying about. “For the whole damned semester.”

“And only three more years to go till we graduate. So, there’s that to look forward too.” Jessica said, holding back some laughter.

“I don’t get how you guys can handle this.” Andern took a bite of his sandwich.

“We deal with it?” Kevin said as he sat next to him.

“Study sessions in our lounge after dinner or PE. I’ll likely be detained today.” John was dipping his waffle fries into a sauce of some sort.

“Be careful. I mean it.” Alice looked at John.

“What is happening?” Kristin looked uncomfortable seeing that.

“Nothing much. Just got a heads up from a source that some dude wants a chat.” John was focusing on his lunch.

“You seem unnaturally calm about this.” Theresa stopped eating. “Like way too calm.”

“I don’t know how you do that.” Alice set her utensils down.

John just shrugged. “If he tries anything I can react accordingly to it. If all he wants to do is chat, then everything is good.”

They just agreed that John was a simple Martian when it came to threat determination. They swore that John thrived off being constantly targeted. He shook his head at that and had to argue the opposite. The bullshit tribunal he was roped into was not a pleasant experience and he highly recommend no one do anything to get in a similar position.

The group of friends changed the subject and started to chat about the football team. They weren’t playing North Dakota State this year, but they were playing South Dakota State this year. That weekend in fact. John and Andern both warned the group to not get cocky. They both shared the FCS title game the two teams played in January. NDSU edged them out but only just. Most of that SDSU team was coming back this year too.

It didn’t matter, plans were still made to go to the game. Cadets had to wear their dress uniforms to the game. John was insistent on getting to the stadium at 09:00 and walk the tailgating areas. That meant they’d get all the free food and drink the loyal fans would offer to the cadets.

17:45 Outside of the Practice fields

John was walking back to the coed dorm when he spotted a Mercedes car slowly roll up to the area. He reached out with his mind and saw there were three people in the car. He changed directions and walked toward it. He kept scanning the car with his mind to make sure he’d be ready if anyone tried anything aggressive. When he got next to the car, he knocked on the window, then motioned to roll it down. The driver complied.

“You came all this way to chat with me. May as well get this bullshit over and done with.”

There was a grunt in the car, then the opposite door opened. A well-dressed but slightly heavy-set man dressed in a bespoke suit stepped out of the car.

“You are the man of action they say you are. Flavio Ricci.”

“John Lief. And yes, I am. I presume your unhappy with my handling of your uncle and cousin.”

“I am but were I in your shoes I would likely react in a similar way. Let’s sit down over on that bench. We have other things to discuss.”

The two men walked over to the bench and sat down.

“Surprising, your guard didn’t frisk me. Most of my encounters with you lot require that.”

Flavio laughed. “I’m aware of your exploits prior to you enrolling in the academy. More so than my extended family. But your assumption and that of Naval Intelligence was incorrect. I am not here to fight you today.”

“Well hell, I had you read wrong then. So, what warning do you have for me?”

“You are a bit more flippant than I had expected.”

John laughed. “Flavio, you of all people know that the elite have a hell of a time discussing anything when someone of the lower-class insults and badgers them.”

“Too true, though your charms won’t work on me. I will say this to assuage your concerns, the Robertson girl is not my target, nor will she be targeted by anyone in my extended family ever again. I had to have a conversation with my cousin once again early today. He will look at other suitors to become his wife.” Flavio motioned for his guard to bring him something. “But as much as some members of my family would like to attack you, I actually have a present for you. Please take a look at this.”

John took the documents and looked through them. The documents were of business dealings a pair of admirals in the first and second fleets were conducting with rival corporations. The evidence on these two made them out to be as dirty as the recently executed admiral of the first fleet. There were some shady dealings with logistics and them taking massive kickbacks from several corporations on Mars.

“Contrary to popular belief John, I believe we can help each other out.” Flavio was wearing a malicious grin on his face.

“You want me to use this to expose these admirals, destroy them and their connections and effectively kill those contracts that were just recently signed.” John was waving one of the documents. “Then you swoop in and score the new contracts that are offered.”

“You are as intelligent as you are ruthless.” Flavio got up and turned toward him. “Members of my family look at you as peasant caste and not worthy of dealing with. You and I both know that to get ahead in life we sometimes need to make deals with people we’d rather kill with our bare hands. I doubt very much this will be the last time the two of us will work together over the years.”

John smiled. “What makes you think I’ll help you?” He leaned back on the bench.

“I don’t. But I know your ambition. You want to be an admiral of a fleet someday. You don’t have the connections to help you achieve that today. The Robertson’s will certainly be useful in that regard. So will your willingness to work with the Ricci family.” Flavio began moving to his car. “You won’t need to contact me again, I’ll be reading the news and watching for military orders to be filed.”

John sat there for a few minutes trying to comprehend what just happened. He scanned the documents with his tablet and sent them off to Director LeCroix. John put the files back in the manilla envelope and headed back to the lounge where his friends were studying. He sent a short message to Alice: ‘All clear, just wanted to talk and offer a deal.’ About halfway back LeCroix called him.

“Jesus man, do you ever not work?”

“Yes, we’re on 18-hour days here. Anyways, we’ll take care of this information. Both of these admirals have been on our list. Now we have something concrete to use on him.”

“He wasn’t what I was expecting. But it’s clear he wants me in high places to aid him in the future.”

“Obviously if you become an admiral and you used his help to get there, you’d be obligated to return the favor.”

“He wasn’t wrong though sir.”

“About what?”

“If I’m to rise to the rank of a fleet admiral I’ll need outside help. With respect sir, Intelligence can’t pull all those strings.”

“Nor would we. But I suppose your assumption isn’t entirely incorrect, irrespective of the ethical concerns with pursuing such a relationship. Though that ignores the elephant in the room, you need to advance through the ranks first of course.”

“Well, if you need anything let me know sir.” John disconnected the call and headed back to the lounge.

20:55 Lounge

He was bombarded with numerous questions most being homework related but Andern was overly insistent on what delayed him. No one was playing cornhole, which wasn’t surprising but still slightly annoying since he wanted to play the game. They kept at the homework until the curfew warning was made.

“Well, same time tomorrow, hopefully we have time to relax and unwind tomorrow.” Kevin said as he was packing his stuff.

“We’ll see y’all in the morning.” John took Alice’s hand and the couple headed toward the rear exit of the build to cross the quad.

“So, no fighting, that’s a plus.” Alice said. “I was positive something would happen.”

John gave Alice a funny look. “Better yet he was very clear that you were off limits to the Ricci family forevermore.”

“You believe him?” Alice was surprised by that.

“God’s honest truth is I don’t trust the pudgy bastard.” John paused. “But he was more interested in my career trajectory than starting anymore bullshit. But lean towards that statement being the truth more so than being false.”

“That seems fishy.” Alice was clearly not convinced.

They were at the door to their dorm. John held the door open for her. “Not necessarily. Think about it. He gives us information to kill a couple careers, he in turn gets a shot to win any of several military contracts. He makes bank.”

“But that doesn’t explain why he’d give a damn about your career?”

“Sure, it does. Everyone like him want their hooks in admirals. That’s how they get a head up here or there.”

“But you are clearly not an admiral and now you owe him.” Alice pressed their floor in the elevator.

“Obviously. But he was balancing the ledger. Buying the military off while he was doing it. The conversation he had with Luca and Marco was likely similar to the one I gave them.”

Alice smiled. She wasn’t convinced that this wouldn’t come back and bite them in the ass. John wasn’t really able to convince her otherwise. The couple dropped their book bags on the counter and sat down on the couch together. John turned the TV on, there was a replay of the Formula 1 race from the previous weekend. He just let that play in the background.

“So, this semester is going to be brutal, isn’t it?”

“Yup, going to be a grind and then some. Our class started out at five hundred cadets last year. Twenty-five had dropped out by the end of the summer semester. Up to another seventy-five or so will be gone by the end of this semester. By the time we graduate we’ll be down to three hundred or so cadets.”

“So, it’s all about eliminating those that can’t handle the stress and workload.”

“Only the best of the best can make it.” John kissed her cheek. “You’ll make it. You’ve got the drive and smarts.”

“John, I love you, but my god you are not a motivational speaker.” Alice started laughing. She kissed him on the cheek. “You are taking a shower before you go into our bed.”

John smelled an armpit, to the chagrin of Alice. “Yes, gonna do that now.”

John hopped into the shower to clean up. Alice responded to a message that her mom sent her. Kate had a few wedding gowns for Alice to look at before Thanksgiving break. Her mom was pressing her on a date, but she hadn’t talked to John yet. She told her mom that she’d get back to her by the end of the week on a tentative date.

“So, was he seriously not out for a fight?” Alice still needed convincing.

John walked out of their bedroom in gym shorts. “Oh, I think he was prepared if things went south. But it’s true that neither one of us really wanted to start a fight tonight.”

“There’s always going to be something.” Alice was stretching on the couch.

“If it’s not one thing it’ll be another thing.” John shook his head. “For what’s its worth I’m sorry for dragging you into all the messes.”

She smiled. “Well, just try to limit the amount of dumb stuff to a minimum.”

John started to yawn. “I’ll try.”

“Bedtime already honey?” Alice said from the other room.

“Mhmm, I’m tired.”

“I’ll join you.”

Alice turned the lights out and changed into her pajamas and crawled into bed next to John. “Love you, sleep tight.”

“Love you too…” John was already drifting off to sleep.

The new semester had started. It was going to be a test to see how the cadets could handle adversity. John was confident that all of them, even Andern and his god-awful planning skills, would not only be up to the challenge but be able to thrive. It likely wouldn’t be without problems and curveballs, but they would deal with what came their way. Similar to how John handled the situation today. There was an expectation of violence or murder just sixteen hours ago. Now he had a friend or ally in the long grind to being an admiral.