Saturday. 05:20 Key West, Sunset Cottages #7

John woke up suddenly. The combination of a nightmare and night sweats was an unpleasant mix to wake up to. Doubly so on vacation, especially in paradise since now was not the time to worry about anything. It was the time to relax and enjoy the time off.

If John were being honest with himself, which he’s known to not be, Friday was a most excellent day. The only work that was done was swimming out to the reefs and catching their fill of lobsters and lionfish to eat. Wednesday was a less than stellar day, not because he wanted to be with Jess, but because of how that chapter was ultimately closed.

Nevertheless, John was now up for the day. He slid his naked form out of the bed quietly. Alice was on her side of the bed snoring and hogging the covers per the norm. John smiled as he picked up his underwear and some gym shorts off the floor. He quickly clothed himself to the minimum, slid some shoes on without socks, then walked quietly out of the room.

He crept through the lifeless-appearing home, careful to not disturb any of his friends as they were sound asleep. It was still dark out which limited the activities he could do. There was a light breeze blowing in from the Atlantic which chilled him down slightly. Despite that, it was still a very comfortable out. John walked over to the garage and sat down at one of the resistance machines and began working out.

John lost track of time and himself as he was working out. It was an oddly mechanical affair switching from workout to workout. More than an hour had passed before he was consciously aware of his surroundings once more. His body ached and he was covered in sweat. He shook his head and walked back to the patio around the pool.

It would be sunrise in less than twenty minutes, presuming his new watch was correct. John stood there and smiled as he watched the sun cause part of the horizon to glow red-orange that blended into the blue and black sky. He was surprised by Alice handing him a cup of coffee.

“I know you don’t like this stuff, but I figured it couldn’t hurt,” Alice smiled as she pointed at the chairs nearest their private beach.

John smelled the coffee and grimaced, “Ugh, this smells like a monkey's ass sweat.”

“Really?” Alice was grinning as she took her seat, “Stop being a douche and learn some grace. Want to talk about it?”

John took a sip of the coffee and wore a confused look on his face, “What do you mean?”

“You woke up early again. That’s two times in the last three nights. You can speak to me.”

John laughed, “Aren’t their rules saying you can’t be your spouse’s therapist.”

Alice slapped his shoulder, “Yes, but I’m not being your therapist. I’m being your wife.”

“It’s my damned mind of mine. Just having vivid memories,” John took another sip of the coffee, “The kind that most people would prefer to forget forever.”

“With you, I suspect there are two kinds of memories.”

“They weren’t of her or what pornographic things we did together. Don’t worry about that. Been running through some of the more violent ways I’ve ended people in the past. Suppose what’s left of my conscience is screaming at me over ignoring it for so long.”

“You’re worried about that violent streak of yours ruining your ability to become a leader in the Navy. It was the robbers, wasn’t it?” Alice held her coffee mug with both hands and blew on the coffee.

“Well, one of them. The guy that got creamed by the bus.”

“It was an accident.”

John shook his head, “That’s the thing. I know it was an accident. I didn’t intend to cause the guy to get killed. I intended to beat him to within an inch of his life. But everyone knows that I didn’t need to do all of that to end the threat. I was showing off.”

“Excess and you are fast friends,” Alice winked at John.

John let out a deep breath, “I suppose I’ve been putting it off for too long. It’s time to start growing up and acting smarter.”

“I think you’re up for the challenge. We just have to get your moral center fixed so you can rest more easily. Plus, I am impressed with all the growth you’ve done in the past few years.”

“Thanks. I better be, otherwise, I’m going to flame out,” John smiled as he finished the coffee, “Suppose if that happens I’ll have to ask your old man for a job.”

Alice stifled laughter, “Ugh, anything but that dear.”

John pointed at the horizon as the sun began rising, “It’s going to be another beautiful day in paradise honey.”

“Yes, yes it will be.”

10:15 Patio

Breakfast was a fun affair. The boys were grilling the meat on the grill. Breakfast sausage, bacon, top sirloin, and Canadian bacon were spread across the grill. The girls were inside and made the scrambled eggs, pancakes, waffles, and toast. Theresa and Jessica thought that they had made too much food. The boys ensured that nothing went to waste.

After breakfast, the gang all spent time outside. The girls were lounging about around the pool. Thomas and Brian were taking turns guarding the soccer net that was on the beach. The rest were swimming about a hundred yards offshore, above the reef, dipping under the light waves to attempt to catch lunch.

“Jesus, there’s no end to them,” Andern said as he was transferring another lionfish to the communal floating storage net.

“Big bastards too. Take a look at this one,” Nathan said as he showed one that was nearly a foot and a half long.

John then popped up and smiled, “Got a collateral.”

“Show off,” Andern shouted with a grin.

He had managed to spear two lionfish at once. John swam over to the others and dumped his catch into the net. Then he dove underwater to get a quick estimate of how many they had caught.

When he surfaced again John asked, “How many did we catch yesterday for lunch?”

“Twenty. How many do we have now?” Kevin asked as he treads water.

“Looks like thirty or so.”

John didn’t think they needed that many more, but spearfishing was addictive. It also helped that there were no limits to this invasive species. Though the truth of the matter was it was highly unlikely that they’d do any last damage to the population of these fish, they weren’t simply going to stop this quickly.

“Fuck it, let’s keep going for another half hour,” John said.

The others gave a thumb up, grinned, then dove back underwater. True to form, they’d spend another thirty minutes. John was more focused on catching some lobsters. He found several but only found females, which they were not allowed to catch. And the males he did find weren’t large enough to be legal either.

John decided to concede victory that morning to the ocean. They made their way back onshore with the bounty that the sea did give up. Kevin and John climbed up on the dock and dumped their catch into several buckets of water.

The other boys all ran in and got a couple of coolers filled with ice. They would ferry the fresh filets into the house and help with disposing of the spikey bits of the fish. Both Kevin and John had gotten very proficient at maximizing the harvestable portions of the fish.

When they were done, they hosed off the area around the dock and their hands. Then they brought in all of their hardware back into the house. Nathan met them in the kitchen and took the knives and pans and began cleaning them.

Kevin grabbed a pair of beers, tossed one to John then walked outside and jumped into the pool. John followed suit. The two were now relaxing and enjoying a cold beer. Kevin hadn’t been all that observant of John that morning, but he finally got a good look at his watch.

“Dude, I forgot to take a look at that one.”

John smiled, “It’s waterproof to a hundred meters, super shock resistant, has a perpetual calendar, a world timer, and the cherry on top of this hot mess is a sunrise calculator.”

John put the beer bottle in his mouth and held it there with his teeth. He took the watch off and tossed it at Kevin. There was actual drool coming out of the right side of his mouth. He looked all around the red-hued sapphire crystal case. The movement looked like a Rube Goldberg machine but was actually useful.

“Dude, this is nuts. Can’t wait till I’m an O-6 or O-7, I might maybe be able to trade into an entry-level one of these,” Kevin threw the watch back at John.

“God, you two watch wankers aren’t helping out inside at all,” Andern shouted through the opened kitchen window.

“We already helped though,” John said as he finished his beer.

“Useless bastards,” Thomas said to the trio inside.

“Dunno what they are whinging on about, we fileted the damn fish,” Kevin said.

John then spun around and shouted, “What the hell are you doing?”

The girls had been keeping to themselves in the far corner of the patio, but this level of stupidity was too much for them to handle. The lusting over watches was to be expected for two of their order. The complaining without context or actually asking for help put Jessica over the edge.

“What the hell are you complaining about?”

Brian then walked outside, “We’re getting the fish cut into chunks for the ceviche.”

“You’re not doing all of it, right? We’re doing fish tacos too,” Alice said.

“Yeah, like a quarter of it is getting cut…” Brian stopped talking then turned inside and whispered something.

“They thought all of it needed to be diced up,” Kristin said shaking her head.

“What the fuck man, you said all of it,” Andern could be heard yelling at Brian.

“Do we have enough?” Thomas said.

John and Kevin had hopped out of the pool near the girls. All of them were shaking their heads and the hapless trio in the fridge. Their argument could still be heard.

“You know, the good news is the ceviche is arguable as good or better than the tacos,” John said as he shrugged.

“How much didn’t you idiots dice up?” Kevin shouted.

“Half of your mother!” Andern shouted back.

The daily mother insult had been thrown down. John walked over to the shower and turned it on to clean off the pool water. When he was done, he grabbed a towel and sat down on the chair next to Alice.

“So, dinner tonight someplace downtown Key West sound good?” John asked.

“Sounds good to me,” Theresa said.

“Same here, besides I don’t think I want the trio inside working on any more food today,” Kristin said.

“Agreed on both points,” Jessica said.

23:55 Mike’s Gulfside Bar

Kristin and Jessica were both passed out and sleeping on their table. They did in fact drink one more drink than either one could handle, despite assurances to the contrary. John frowned as he looked at them, he wasn’t looking forward to the boat ride back home to the island.

Andern and Thomas had roped in some other vacationers in an argument over cornhole. More specifically, whether it should be called cornhole or bags. The gentlemen from Georgia insisted that it was bags. Kevin and Brian were egging the pair on.

Theresa and Alice were staring at their wine glasses, seemingly attempting to determine whether or not they wanted more. Alice acted first and finished her glass, then began flagging down their waitress. Nathan grunted at seeing that as he got John’s attention.

“Bunch of drunkards they are,” Nathan slurred his words as he pointed to the two girls.

John laughed as he leaned back, “Yeah, like you are one to talk.”

“Honey, why aren’t you drinking as much as we are?”

“Because someone needs to be moderately responsible and drive a boat back to the house. Y’all are fucking wasted,” John smiled as he took a swig of his beer.

“Thank you!” Theresa shouted happily.

Their waitress came back with more wine and several tequila shots that Andern ordered, “Here is your wine and the shots are right here guys. Oh, which one of you is John?”

John finished his beer and handed his empty glass to her, “Right here, what I can I do for you?”

“I’ll take that glass, there’s a man at the bar that wants to speak to you.”

“Wonderful,” John said sarcastically as he walked over to the bar.

It wasn’t difficult to determine who wanted to speak to him. There were several animated conversations going on, but yet one person was waiting with an empty seat next to them. John got a glimpse of the side profile of the man, and he figured it was someone he had seen before. When he sat down next to the man, he knew who he was.

“Fancy seeing you here. Didn’t think you operated around Sol.”

The man smiled as he flagged the bartender down, “Two Triple Lagavulin 12s, please. Neat, if you will.”

“My man,” John leaned on the bar, “I never ran across you professionally Hasan.”

“Which is probably why we are both here now. Let's consider this a parlay of sorts. I took a job, but I’m not sure I believe what my employer is selling.”

The bartender came back from the far side of the bar with a bottle of scotch. He then began pouring it into a pair of glasses. Both John and Hasan watched the amber liquid settle in the glasses. The bartender took the glasses and set them on the bar in front of them.

“Put that on my tab. My treat to an old friend here,” John said as he slapped Hasan’s back, “Who’s the employer?”

“A doctor out of Merc territory. He claims you ran an op that hurt his projects and cost them a fair amount of money.”

John took a whiff of the delectable and potent scotch and then took a sip, “Ahhh, so damn good. I’ve never run an op directly against them.”

“Got wrapped up in their shenanigans then, eh?”

“Something like that. He’s got delusions of grandeur, not to mention a complete lack of a moral compass, and is generally just a straight up evil man.”

“Not like we have much of a moral compass,” Hasan smiled as he enjoyed a mouthful of the scotch.

“Look, between you me and the bar here, I actually don’t want to fight or kill you. I already bagged one jackass earlier in the week. I’m on vacation and sincerely want to avoid a fight,” John took another sip from his glass, “I’ll throw down if you insist though. Wouldn’t recommend it though.”

“Let’s say I was wondering from a purely hypothetical view, why would I want to avoid throwing gloves?”

John smirked, “I’ve aced two teams already. The first group was from the Alliance because of their stunt last year. The other was the first squad your employer sent over before hiring you. Vic and Alyssa are no more. Alyssa, from a literal standpoint, got turned into a pink mist twenty stories up.”

Hasan downed the glass, “Well, you confirmed that rumor for me. I suppose I ought to thank you for that one.”

“Ah hell, consider that on the house,” John pulled out a credit chit and scanned it quickly with his tablet then set it down on the bar in front of Hasan, “You still have contacts in the other two guilds?”

“I can speak directly to mine without issue. The other two are…”

John turned to him and smiled, “More difficult to speak to, but you or your masters have your lines.”

“What’s this?”

“A counteroffer for you specifically,” John said as he watched Hasan scan the chit and look very surprised at the amount, “That’s yours if you do me a favor.”

“I’m all ears.”

“I’ll give you instructions which you are to relay to your guild and the other two. It’ll be a standing kill contract on anyone that accepts Norman’s hit on my wife or me.”

“The guilds don’t like contracts like that. It’s bad for business.”

“Each guild has fifty billion reasons to do so. The price on anyone dumb enough to play with fire will be set at a hundred million credits. After two years, any money left in the escrow accounts becomes the guilds, to do with as they please.”

John slid over a data slate on the bar. Hasan looked down and skimmed the message for his assassin’s guild. He raised an eyebrow at a few of these terms.

“How the hell can you afford all this?”

“A combination of several things. Sticky fingers, an insufficient moral compass, and an obsessive reactionary complex. Do we have a deal?”

“Consider it done. Care for another drink?”

John smiled as he shook Hasan’s hand, “Wish I could. It appears that I have three or four passed-out friends that I need to get on a boat and head back to the house. I appreciate the offer though. Take care,” John flagged the bartender down, “What’s my table owe ya?”

“Uhm, let's look,” the bartender clicked through a couple of screens on his till, “Forty-five hundred on the spot.”

“Motherfuckers, they did nothing but drink the good stuff,” John said to Hasan’s and the bartender’s laughter, “Suppose that’s my fault for being so damned generous.”

He pulled out three credit chits. He quickly scanned them and found that two of them had a bit under six thousand credits remain on the. He handed them to the bartender.

“Keep the change, make sure the waitress gets eighty percent of that tip.”

“Consider it done.”

John waived at the men as he walked back to his table to gather his drunk or passed-out friends. Jessica and Kristin both woke up and were able to move on their own. Theresa was out cold, so Kevin was carrying her. Alice was not at all steady on her feet, so John was guiding her away from their table.

Somehow John was able to corral and guide everything to their boat on the dock. It was about a fifteen-minute ride back to their house. Just before 01:00, the boat slowed down next to the dock. John and Kevin pulled it against the dock’s bumpers and tied it down.

Through some miracle, no one fell into the water or got sick in the boat. John got Alice into the master bedroom. She ran off into the bathroom and sounded like she had wretched up everything she ate or drank in the last couple of hours. He stayed in the room until she had cleaned herself and the bathroom up. Alice then clumsily, but happily, crawled into bed.

01:45 Beach

After making sure everything from the boat was brought inside John walked outside once more. He stood on the beach, closed his eyes, and listened to the waves gently coming ashore. That peaceful moment was interrupted by a call.

“John here.”

“I just received a notice from the grand-master, the three guilds are in agreement,” Hasan said, “No more contracts will be accepted on you.”

“You have my thanks.”

John wasn’t yet ready for bed. Too much had gone on that evening, things that he had resolved to not speak of to his friends. He placed his tablet in his pocket and sat down on the sand. He got into a comfortable seating position to begin meditating.

His breathing slowed down, and he looked inward at himself. He was in the process of centering himself, something he had down thousands of times before. Though he hadn’t bothered trying in almost a year since his self-wounding.

When John did achieve centering himself, he felt a common sensation. It was as if he was looking at himself in a third-person view. It was from this position that he had often reached out and grabbed or held items with telekinesis. John held out an ethereal arm and tried to pick up the tiki torch that was shoved into the ground near the firepit.

Nothing happened initially, as John knew it would. But then John tapped into something. It had the same feeling as when he had the amplifier turned on. It was as if null energy washed over himself and was coalescing in his hand. John tried once more to grab the torch.

He opened his eyes. As he did so a hidden force slammed into the torch sending it ten feet down the beach, nearly landing in the water. John jumped to his feet and stood there in disbelief. A brief wave of nausea flowed across him, John completely ignored his body’s reaction to that, he was too focused on what had happened. The feeling and events were playing back time and time again.

“What in the fuck happened there?” John said as he spat on the sand.