“Of course it doesn’t… it shouldn’t. You left a part of yourself in that godforsaken place… same as I did.”

He scrubbed his palm over a bristly scalp, leaving no noticeable trace. “That shit never goes away elltee… You already know that. The physical discomfort reminds you of the horror show in your mind…” he trailed off into silence, staring at the floor while he wrestled with his own demons.

“You question yourself every time you step on your stump… even if it doesn’t hurt right then you always ask yourself just how you managed to fuck up that badly…”

“It took me a long time to realize that I didn’t fuck up at all. I did what needed to be done. I got my squad out of that hellhole and I had to make a sacrifice to do it. My only real regret is that I can’t be there.” Theo’s voice was flat, almost expressionless and carefully controlled.

“I lost myself…I didn’t know how to be… how to live… I grew up in the service. NMMI and then the Navy were my mother and my father. Suddenly I was a civilian… I didn’t know how to do that. Then I found Angel and… I found a new way to live. I found a new reason to live…”

The silence didn’t’ seem as oppressive as it had moments before.

“I know what you’ve done son… I wish… I don’t even know what I wish really, I’m just tired and a little jealous of your freedom.”

“We have our own roles to play sir.”

“Jackass…”

“You betcha!” Theo’s grin was infectious.

Conversation continued for a moment but I zoned out a little bit, turning code over in my head, finding just the right spots to tweak. I didn’t even realize I’d gone as deep as I had until Theo gently shook me back to awareness of my surroundings. I looked around at smiling faces and flushed a little. I try not to go into trances like that around other people but sometimes what my mind wants to work on gets in the way.

“I’m betting on at least another day.”

“20 bucks she has it mostly licked already!” Dad looked unreasonably cheerful.

“What am I, a horse? Seriously…” I trailed off in mock indignation.

“Oh that tears it, I’m definitely not taking that bet now!” Ernie grinned down at me.

“So is he right, have you got the new displays stabilized already?”

“Um… well I finished up the light amplification before I went to sleep and I’m pretty sure I just figured out how to fix the magnification… Its sorta like gearing down, ya know?”

He looked doubtful.

“Okay, the problem with that feature was overcorrection but in a different way than the light amplification. In the first case the displays were trying to respond to pupil dilation and the two things wound up chasing each other… it was trying to be too precise and as a result oscillated wildly after just a second or so.”

“Ok, I can see that.”

“Okay, so that was actually pretty easy, just give it a little more lag time while providing for strobe damping. Modifying that old industrial code was a bit of a pain, this sort of thing would work much better with entirely new software but that will take a week or so.”

“The magnification was exactly the opposite issue but with much the same result. It needed to be more precise, function in much smaller increment slices to be able to work with how the human eye changes focus. Anyway, all it should take is a few new lines of code, a few tweaks, enough to slow zoom rates from microseconds to milliseconds for the final focus… Gearing it down in essence.”

“Can you do it now?” He looked eager, rubbing his hands together.

“Well no… it’ll take a few minutes.”

“Fine, I’ve got all day!”

Theo vanished and reappeared with my gear, including the new displays and lens solution. A minute later I was kitted and diving back in, literally running through the code and making the changes I’d plotted out before. I took a few minutes to run back over everything and tighten it up, grateful I’d done so as I discovered a cleverly hidden capability. I opened my eyes and ran through a quick test cycle on both enhancement modes, pleased at how smoothly they operated now.

“From that little smile I’d say she’s done!” Theo’s voice penetrated into my consciousness. “Pay up suckers!”

“8 minutes? Seriously? Nobody’s that good…” Ernie was reaching for his wallet as was my dad.

“Oh ye of little faith…” I intoned solemnly before cracking up at the expressions on their faces.

I looked up at Ernie again, drawing his attention. “So you wanna try it out?”

He looked like I’d poked him with a sharp stick. “How the… Fine, you obviously know I have a pair in so do your worst!”

It was the work of 20 seconds to blast through his anemic protections and install the new code. The expression on his face as he zoomed to full magnification was a thing to behold.

“I don’t recall a microscope function…”

I had to laugh at that one. “Its kind of inherent in the tech and no it wasn’t there before. Not sure why. Its limited to about the same factor you get on the distance end, 25x. Do you want me to unlock the weapons system interface?”

It was his turn to laugh. “No wonder you couldn’t get along with your parents. Were you ever a child?”

“Childhood requires the bliss of ignorance.”

“I want to hire you.”

“I’m not for sale… Sir.”

“Hear me out. I want you as an entirely off the books IT consultant. Only myself and one officer who serves as liaison will even know you exist. You don’t have to go anywhere if you don’t want to… in fact it would be preferable if you didn’t, at least immediately.”

He waited for a moment, taking my slight nod as a request to continue. “I have a fairly generous budget for this sort of thing but you have to understand that any work you do for me will be classified at the highest level and you will not receive credit or intellectual property rights in any way.”

“Why me?”

“Because you just did something in 8 minutes that an entire team couldn’t manage in 6 months and added a capability none of them had even considered. To top that you recognized a completely new type of weapons interface which had been deliberately gutted and rebuilt it, apparently as an afterthought. How could I not want you on my side?”

“I think you overestimate me.”

“I’m starting to wonder if that’s even possible.” He shook his head.

“Why is this stuff on the streets?” I already knew the answer but he had to admit it if I was going to do anything for him.

He shifted uncomfortably and stared at the back of his hand for a moment, rubbing a puckered scar with his other thumb.

“It isn’t… on the streets, I mean. It was bait. Specifically, bait for you because it was the only way Harlan could think of to get in touch with Dreamer.”

I must have shown my displeasure because he raised both hands in a placating gesture.

“Ok, I know enough of you hacker types to understand you’re thinking ‘How did I screw up?’. The short answer is you didn’t. There are 200 pairs of these scattered around 40 some-odd countries and the rest of them are about to get the kill code, or will when they come on line next. Honestly we still didn’t realize it was you until Theo told me about your fancy new displays. The whole thing clicked in my mind and I got it.”

“Got what?”

“Your name, the song, some of who you are... I don’t quite know how to put it but it just made perfect sense, like it couldn’t possibly be any other way.”

He leaned back, causing his chair to creak alarmingly.

“I’m not quite sure how to take that.” I zoomed in on his eyes, watching his pupils relax and noting the flare of his nostrils.

“Take it however you want. You and others like you I’ve met… you give me hope. You also scare the everlovin shit out of me. I used to think I wouldn’t mind not living to see another 50 years but I’ve begun to wonder just what sort of world all of you will build and now…”

“Now for the first time in a long time, I really do wish I were young again so I could be around to see it, maybe help a little, you know? When and where I grew up service was all about war and killing. Not like that isn’t still necessary sometimes but it is always about destruction, breaking things, breaking people. However good the reason, however much good has come of it the truth is still that I’ve spent my life being a destroyer and a very good one.”

“Its never too late.”

He didn’t respond. I waited for a few pregnant seconds.

“Ernie?” I reached out and took his hand, caressing the same puckered scar he’d rubbed earlier. He looked up at me, unshed tears shining in his eyes.

“You’re always welcome here.”

The tears spilled over now and he reached up with his free hand to wipe them from his cheeks, staring at them in wonder. I rose and pulled him into a hug, waiting while he cried, great jerking sobs that sounded like gasping for life. It was only a minute or so but the emotional gust front that swept through him left something cleaner behind it, like fresh air for the soul.

He pulled away from the hug and composed himself.

“Thank you. I haven’t cried for… God, I don’t even know how many years… I couldn’t even cry when I buried LaDonna… my wife. I think I really needed that.”

“We all need to let go sometimes.” I’d made my decision and there was no time like the present. I knew Theo would support me.

“I’ll do work for you but I won’t ‘Work for you’. Specific jobs only and I refuse anything I don’t like the smell of. If you’re going to read me in to projects like this one I’m going to need the relevant clearance… but it all has to remain hidden. I’m in the blackest of black boxes. I don’t know how exactly you’re going to manage it but that’s your problem, I just want to be legally covered.”

“Done.”

“Then hold off on sending the kill signal. I’d like to see if anyone actually makes progress… and in the meantime I’d like to add just a bit to the code. Insurance if you will.”

“Whatever you need. Now you said something about replacing the software entirely?” He leaned forward, rubbing his hands.

“I did. This code sucks and honestly its just too easy to break. I need the full specs for the weapons interface and I’ll likely have a little something to say about the other side of said interface as well.”

“When?”

“As soon as possible. I’d like to be able to get to work on it after the show but I can’t really do it right until I have that interface data. It has to be built outward from that to be properly useful.”

“After the show?”

“Yeah I’m always wired after. Everybody else crashes and I can’t, so why not work?” I wasn’t going to tell him I already had a pretty fair idea of what needed to be done and had sketched it out while patching the existing mess.

“I thought you were a street musician?”

“The only thing I can play is the radio. I’m a street singer.”

He scrubbed at his hair again. “Am I ever gonna get a straight answer out of you?”

“I didn’t hear a question.”

This time my reward was to watch him literally facepalm… well forehead palm anyway. I decided to take a bit of mercy.

“We do shows sometimes at a club called Toffee. Gives us a chance to play with our tech and its usually a blast.”

“Where? My sister asked to meet you and she needs something to get her mind off what happened.”

“I don’t know.”

“How can you not know?”

“I’m not yanking your chain, I really don’t know. The club never opens in the same place two nights in a row. Its not underground exactly but it does attract a lot of the rave crowd. Believe it or not, you’ll fit right in with a change of clothes. Just… don’t eat the candy.”

“I won’t ask.” He grinned. “Now just what is gonna make me fit in with a bunch of kids? I’m pretty sure they’ll peg me as a geezer and I know I can’t pull off any of the clothing choices I’ve seen around here!”

I had a quick flash of him in leather gear with piercings and chains and couldn’t help giggling back at him.

“You’d be surprised at the rave crowd. It used to be a young scene but so many vets came back messed up and they were the same age or not much older… They came and got respect and love and they brought their brothers and sisters. There’s even a crowd from one of the nursing homes that comes occasionally and one of em is a WW2 vet! Cool as hell, deaf as a post but he loves the lightshow and the women. He was a Marine fighter pilot in the Pacific, fought at Guadalcanal and a bunch of other places.”

“Figures Uncle Rex would find the wildest party in town…”

This time I just gaped at him for a minute before my brain managed to spew out words. “You know T-Rex? Why am I not surprised?”

“Its C-Rex actually, and yes I do. He isn’t my uncle but he and my dad were friends for many years and he was kind of like a second father to me. Gave me my first sip of beer…”

“Yep, that sounds like him. What’s the C stand for anyway?”

He snorted. “Cloyd. Its no wonder he went with Rex when he joined up.”

“Yeah it does sound a lot better…” I tried to wipe the smile off my face. “He should be there tonight. Heath always stocks a case of Ardbeg Kidalton for him.”

“He always did have good taste in a single malt. Now back to clothes…”

“Just… ditch the suit. Better yet, wear shorts. And I want to fix that compensator before you go please.”

“I’ve been waiting 3 weeks for a service appointment.”

“Its not their fault, they take as many as they can. They desperately need to hire more people but… it’s the VA, ya know?”

“Your mouth to God’s ears. Maybe he can do something, I sure haven’t been able to.” He looked like he’d swallowed something sour.

“I can’t fix the VA but I can fix your leg. Theo can you get my kit please? And plan to sit for a minute, I need to fix yours too.”

“I didn’t want to bother you…” Theo looked down.

“You are never a bother for me.” I pulled him over to me and pulled his head down for a kiss. “Now go!”

He was back in a moment and I spent the next half hour cleaning and lubricating prostheses. It was pleasant listening to the conversation without feeling like I had to take part and the work went quickly. Watching the two men stand and flex their legs was its own reward and gave me a bit of a warm fuzzy feeling but I wished I could do more. A couple of the kids had shown interest and proved to have a fair hand so maybe we could do a clinic or something?

Ernie took his leave with a promise to be back at 2100 and I turned my attention to altering the lightshow. The new displays could also project light and I was going to use that in the show. The effect should be pretty awesome… especially since I had 3 more pair I hadn’t told the Secretary about.