“Ignorance really is bliss, isn't it?” Julia Grinder asked as she looked at me. Since she told me to be quiet, I didn't respond. “You don't understand what you've done, do you?” She asked and paced in front of me, and completely ignored my guard Alyssa. “You have no clue about the mess you've made, or about the trouble you've caused for both me and the government as a whole!”

“Why don't you enlighten me.” I said, just so she would stop pacing.

“That one little act... that one form being pushed through and getting approved... has undone all of my hard work.” Julia said. “I had you covered. You were completely covered in bureaucracy. In order to get to you, people would have been inundated with so much red tape that by the time they gained access to you officially, they would have been either diverted or dealt with.”

“That sounds kind of ominous.” I said.

“Ugh!” Julia grunted and sat down, then rested her head in her hands as she put her elbows on the table. “Now that you've been granted a medical discharge, all of that has disappeared, you idiot!” She said. “If anyone wants to contact you, they just have to call or show up at your door! There's nothing to stop them!”

“But...”

“Once your military restrictions have been lifted because you're not in the service anymore, you get put back on the public grid! Anyone, anyone at all, can find out who you are and where you live!”

“They would have to know about me first.” I said.

Julia sighed and sat back in her chair. “Do you really think that no one knows about you, after everything that's just happened? That there isn't a single person out there that knew this Greg character was your assigned watcher and that he's now dead? Really?”

“Hey, I didn't kill him.” I said to defend myself.

“It doesn't matter if the President himself killed him, using his bare hands and on a live video feed!”

“I think you're overreacting just a little.”

“That's how much you know.” Julia said. “I'm actually under-reacting.”

“Wait, what?”

“I was told that if you entered this building, you were to be arrested on sight and put in a cell. No outside contact was to be allowed at all.” Julia smiled. “Ever.”

I blinked my eyes at her for a moment, then shook my head. “The System would never allow that.”

“It's not the System's decision.”

I sat back in my chair and thought about what that meant. “So, why didn't you do it?”

“You are now a private citizen. Any action against a civilian is automatically recorded and submitted to the Humanitarian Council for review.”

“Even here inside the System Security headquarters?”

“Especially here.”

I took a shallow breath and let it out. “Now what?”

“If it were up to me, you would never see the outside of this building ever again.” Julia said.

“Then that means it's not up to you.” I said, and she shook her head.

“Since you are not active military anymore, I can't even order you to divulge what you know about the project we had wanted you to work on.” Julia said. “As it is now...” She held up several sheets of paper. “I have to wait for district approval before I can authorize allowing a civilian into the lab area.”

“Damn, I didn't think of that.” I said. “I just assumed since I still have my clearance that it would just sail through and I'd be hired right away as a civilian consultant.”

“Yes, ignorance really is bliss.” Julia repeated her sentiment. “You remember all that red tape I had in place to protect you?” She asked, and I nodded. “Now it's what's stopping you.”

“You can't just cut some of it away?”

Julia shook her head. “I did my job too well, it seems. Bypassing any of the hurdles is not possible.”

“So, what do we do now?”

“We?” Julia chuckled. “Thanks to your little shenanigan, there is no 'we'. It's just you now.” She looked at Alyssa. “I hope your squad is as good as Jack says it is.”

“Better.” Alyssa said immediately.

“I hope that's true, because he is really going to need you now.”

Alyssa didn't respond, because those had been my words to her less than ten minutes before.

“You are permanently assigned to Jack's security detail.” Julia said.

“Ma'am, what about combat?”

“You will have a standard kit issued to you and your squad mates; but, you are to keep the fighting to a minimum.” Julia said. “You are in a residential area, not a combat zone.”

“Ma'am, that's not...”

“If you think you're getting shoved back into a regular rotation, you're out of your mind.” Julia said and laughed. “Just the intelligence you've heard today in this room would disqualify you from that!”

Alyssa took in a breath through her nose and let it out through her mouth, and nodded.

“You stick to him like glue, and don't let the bastard out of your sight for one second.” Julia warned. “Not. One. Second.”

“I'll do my best, Ma'am.”

“Do better than that.” Julia said and looked at me. “I hope the game you're playing doesn't end up getting you sidelined by the other team.”

“I'm not playing a game.” I said and stood up. “I don't know why you think I am.”

“Because we are all playing the game, Jack.” Julia said. “In some form or another, we are all playing.”

Her words rang in my head for some reason, and it made me think back to the last time I had seen my father. It was at my mother's funeral, and he had said similar words to me.

“It's all just a game, Jack.” My father had said on that dreary day. “We are all players and have a role to fill. In some form or another, we are all playing the game.” He turned and walked away, then stopped and turned back. “With your mother gone, there's nothing holding either of us back.”

I had expected to see him smile or sneer, but he kept his face blank.

“I'm going to play to win.” He said. “What are you going to do?”

My father hadn't waited for an answer and had walked away, from me and his old life, and I haven't seen him since.

“What are you going to do now?” Julia asked, and brought me out of my thoughts.

“I'm going home to work for the System.” I said. “There's lots to be looked after.”

Julia looked at me with wide eyes. “Are you serious? With your knowledge, you could...”

“...be a valuable asset to the System.” I said. “That's all I've ever tried to be.”

“If that's what you want, then you can go.” Julia said. “Good luck with wasting your life.”

I chuckled. “If you think that doing things for the System is a waste, you obviously know nothing about how hard she works to keep humanity alive.” I said. “I'm not going to go into details, mainly because I know you get bored if we aren't talking about mutually assured destruction.”

Julia sighed. “Just go.” She looked at Alyssa. “Get him out of here.”

When Alyssa didn't move, Julia stood up and pointed to the door.

“Get him out of here, NOW!”

Alyssa touched my arm and I looked at her. “Permission to speak freely, sir?”

“Granted.” I said, and she looked at Julia.

“I don't take orders from you, you self-serving ignoramus.” Alyssa said. “You can sit here in your safe office with hundreds of guards to protect you, and you can keep the wool pulled over your eyes if you want; but, the rest of us live in the real world. We know what the world is really like because we have to live in it.” She said. “I'll lead Jack away from here; but, not because you ordered it. It's to get him away from you.”

Julia had a frown on her face by the time Alyssa was done speaking. “I don't care why.” She said through gritted teeth, and you could hear the anger in her voice. “Just get out.”

“Right this way, sir.” Alyssa said to me and motioned to the door, and I nodded to her and went where she told me. The guard opened the door and we stepped through into the hallway, and then we were in the elevator on our way back up to the lobby. We were through the security scanner and outside before either of us knew it, and I pushed the button to call another Tube car.

“Well, that went a lot weirder than I thought it was going to.” I commented. Alyssa didn't say anything in response and we waited in silence for the next available car. Rusty barked, so she handed me my robot dog and I opened his back panel.

There are two stealth surveillance micro-drones less than 10 meters away.

I showed Alyssa the message and cleared it, then closed Rusty's back panel. A Tube car arrived and three people got out, then Alyssa and I jumped in and closed the door. I typed in my old address by habit, and the car took off. Rusty barked again, and I opened the back panel again.

One drone in the back seat.

“Rusty.” I said, and my dog barked as I put him on the floor. “Fetch.”

Rusty slid under the seat I was on, jumped up onto the back seat and chomped on something in mid-air. He beeped, and I turned around to check because I had left his back panel open.

Drone disabled.

I hit the override on the Tube car destination pad, and typed in Alyssa's place and hit execute. The lights in the Tube car turned red, as did the lane, since we were in the wrong one for that destination, and a few moments later, we shifted over almost all the way across the Tube system lanes to the far side.

“You do realize that they know where I live.” Alyssa said.

“Yes, but they don't know that I'm living there, too.”

“There's nowhere to actually hide you if anyone shows up.”

“That's what the emergency exits are for.” I said and smiled, and she shook her head.

“You can't honestly think you can hide from...”

“It's just a test.” I said. “If I can delay my own government from keeping tabs on me, then delaying other people should be a lot easier, right?”

“I... don't think I can legally answer that.” Alyssa said, and I laughed.

We arrived at Alyssa's living section and exited the tube, and we made it back to her apartment without Rusty beeping at us.

I picked up the dog and gave it a hug. “Nice work, both of you.”

“Are you talking to me or your AI Amanda?” Alyssa asked.

“Both.” I said. “Rusty got the hug.”

Alyssa looked at the dog that was now running around on the floor excitedly, and I thought I saw a bit of jealousy on her face.

I reached over and touched her shoulder. “Hey, guess what?”

“What?”

“I'm not in the military anymore!” I said and grinned. “Medical discharge!”

“You sound really happy.”

“I am!” I said and walked over to the small couch and table to sit down. “Now that it's a part of the public record, I can't be forced to reactivate.” I leaned back and relaxed as I sprawled over the couch. “It was a fine line to make the distinction, but when I pointed out that I was useless as a soldier with only one cybernetic arm and leg that was out of sync with the rest of my body, they had to agree.”

Alyssa walked over to the couch and stood beside me. “Is that why your rehab teacher wanted you to replace your good leg?”

I nodded. “It would lessen the degree of dimorphism.” I said. “But, since my bias against having my own body parts exchanged for cybernetic parts is well documented, they couldn't force me to accept the not-quite-necessary second leg replacement.”

Alyssa looked at me with a contemplative look. “Is that why they always try to replace things in pairs?”

I nodded again. “Never just one eye, because it causes unbalance in your perception; and in some cases, severe headaches. Never just one leg, because it unbalances your ability to walk and run effectively. Never just one arm, because when you try to move or lift something...”

“Good lord.” Alyssa said. “All those people who...”

“It's still voluntary, thank god.” I said. “If in a fit of annoyance I had decided I wanted the leg replaced, they would have been overjoyed.” I chuckled. “Unfortunately for them, I was not that annoyed by walking crookedly.”

“If I remember correctly, you were hopping around a lot.”

“It was faster than trying to walk.” I said and looked at the small vidwall display. “Thanks to your help and Amanda's diligence with the settings, I've been able to reduce the lag and now my legs almost match in both sensitivity and in usage.”

You're welcome, Jack.

“I'm glad it worked.” Alyssa said. “Which reminds me, what kind of work are you going to do?”

“Actually, if Amanda is finished testing my little project...”

Everything checks out, Jack. No errors.

“...I've got quite a bit replacement work to get it up to the specifications I need.” I said and quickly stood up. Since Alyssa was standing right there, my movement put me right inside her personal space. Alyssa didn't move back because she had been startled by my sudden movement, and the fronts of our bodies touched from chest to thigh. We just stood there for several moments and looked at each other's surprised faces.

My nose caught her scent and I breathed it in, and I put my hands on her hips to hold her close. She didn't say anything at all as I let my hands slowly slide around her back. I felt her hands on my lower back, and they slid up to hold me just as closely. Neither of us spoke as we stood there and looked into each other's eyes. We didn't try to kiss, or even imply that was what we were trying to do.

All we were doing was sharing a moment. I was sure when I saw her cybernetic eyes flicker from side to side to look into each of my eyes, that she could see the desire I had for her and that it wasn't just one-sided on her part.

“J-Jack...”

“Alyssa...”

“I... I think you should...”

“I really want to...”

“...get to work.” Alyssa whispered.

“I'm trying to.” I whispered back and gave her a squeeze. “I seem to have hit a beautiful roadblock on my way to the closet.”

Alyssa's face flushed red. “I didn't mean to block your way.”

“I didn't say it was a bad thing.” I said softly and slid my hands down her back and rested them just above her backside. She had caught her breath when I stopped, then she sighed.

“Jack, I...”

“Only one more inch.” I whispered.

Alyssa's eyes went a little wide because she knew I was asking if I could. I was sure she liked that I let it be her decision, rather than just moving that last bit of distance on my own. She let the edge of a smile curl the corner of her lips, then gave me an almost imperceptible nod. I slid my hands down and gripped her cheeks firmly with both hands, which made her gasp in surprise.

Then I kissed her.