“I don’t want to let you all down, misplaced as your bloody loyalty is to begin with.”
“None of the others know, Max… except for Richard, I think. You internalise too well for anyone to see the cracks unless they’re either bloody good or know you bloody well!”
“Or both,” he pointed out with a kind smile, reaching out for a moment and running a hand gently downward along the back of her neck. “You’re a bloody legend, you know that?”
“In my own lunch time, sonny, and don’t you forget it!” She joked in return, turning her head a little to fully enjoy the touch of his hand and the short moment of intimacy it represented.
“So Kransky figured it out, did he?” Thorne shrugged. “Not much gets past that bugger, I’ll give him that much.” The expression on his face turned a little more serious. “I do believe that poor man is more than a little in love with you, young lady.”
“Aye, that’s possible,” she admitted, looking a little sad at the thought. “He’s a great guy, and to be honest there might well have been a chance there of something happening…”
“Circumstances being different, of course,” Thorne finished for her, knowing her well enough and seeing the direction of her sentence.
“Aye, ‘circumstances’ all right…”
“From what little he’s said, I believe he thinks there’s someone else in your mind, and in his way…” he hesitated a moment “…should I ask whether that’s true or not?” Thorne was very interested in the answer to that question considering the recent change in their relationship back to one of a much more physical nature. The understanding they’d reached was that neither was expected, or would expect any commitment from the other, and while he was mostly okay with that, Thorne was concerned that perhaps Eileen’s past feelings for him might interfere or cause problems. The last thing he wanted was to hurt her, although he was more than happy to have her company and provide her with his.
“Bit sure of ourselves there aren’t we, mister?” She grinned in return, seeing the concern in his eyes. Her expression and tone were of open kindness, with no malice in her humour. “Max, if there’s anything stopping me from being interested in someone permanent, then it’s the impermanence of the situation we’re in more than it would ever be any one person in my life.” She gave a light laugh. “Even if returning to the past has possibly made me the luckiest girl on the planet!”
“How so…?” Thorne inquired with interest, recognising there was an unspoken meaning in the sentence.
“You know that none of us age,” she began, and he nodded in agreement. “Well, I knew from what minor testing we were able to do before the jump that I’d be sterile for the period we were displaced,” she continued, her smile fading a little over an unpleasant idea she’d accustomed herself to long before they’d left the 21st Century. “However, it was only after we got here I found out exactly what that meant…”
“Is this gonna turn into ‘Secret Women’s Business’?” Thorne broke in, sounding just a little unsettled, and gripped by the characteristic apprehension of all males regarding the prospect of conversations surrounding the topic of female menstruation.
“Just in that it seems my cycle has actually stopped completely,” Eileen answered with a chuckle, noting his discomfort but not about to ‘let him off the hook’. They’d been too close as friends for too long for her to have any problem in discussing anything of a personal nature with him.
“And that’s definitely not because you’re pregnant?” Thorne shot back, instantly surprised at the revelation.
“Relax… I was late long before we got back together in this era, Max!” She almost laughed at that. “Fella, if I were pregnant, it’d be time to break out the ‘Good Book’ again, cause that would be one hell of an Immaculate Conception!”
“So your period’s stopped, has it?” He mused, hiding the relief he felt fairly well. “…Hmm…”
“The lucky part of course is that I get to spend the whole time with no PMS as a result… I can’t imagine how bad it would’ve been if I’d been unlucky enough to have come back during that part of my cycle and be stuck in it permanently.”
“How strange,” Thorne observed, thoughtfully rubbing his chin, but Eileen could see the glint in his eye. “There must be another explanation for the shitty mood you’re always in, then…” That remark got the intended reaction, and thoughts of the war and the world outside that room were forgotten for a few moments as feigned indignance gave way to laughter.
Thorne was still sitting alone in that same briefing room early the next morning, this time with a large notebook computer before him on the table. He wore a miked headset connected to the portable PC, as was a multi-function gaming joystick that carried numerous buttons and controls and clearly resembled a fighter’s control stick. He was running an advanced combat flight simulation program that had been pre-installed on the PC before they’d left the 21st Century — one that had been modified to use detailed 3D maps of 1940s Europe and that would allow the Hindsight team to practice flying all four of the aircraft they’d brought with them, although the ability to train on the F-22A was of course now somewhat academic. It was the same software they’d originally used weeks ago to prepare Trumbull for his first flights in the Lightning, gibing him some experience before moving him onto to the real thing.
As there was no likelihood of a ‘practice run’ for the mission he was planning, Thorne was using the simulator to do as many ‘walk-throughs’ as he could manage. He intended to use the program’s mission editing facilities to trial a number of different scenarios involving variations on directions of approach and egress after the drop… even different methods for delivery of the device itself.
He knew the target was 50km east-south-east of Abbeville and to the east of Amiens, and although he had no images of the structure’s actual appearance, intelligence reports from the fledgling French Resistance had given a good indication it was the only building of any size in the immediate area. What he’d been able to piece together was certainly enough to test the general viability of his mission plans, however finding the correct target on the night would be another problem entirely, and would no doubt be far more difficult in reality than on any simulation he might run on his computer.
He was also factoring in aerial opposition in the form of a pair of Su-30 Flankers, armed with cannon and a selection of IR and radar homing missiles. The missions he’d flown so far that evening had placed the enemy fighters under computer control, however there was also the option to network with other PCs and have the opposition flown by human hands, something he fully intended to organise later that morning. With Davies and Trumbull up against him, the unpredictability and superiority of human thinking and instinct would make the whole thing that much more difficult, and enable him to hone his reflexes to a far higher standard.
Thorne was ready to risk his life to deliver the weapon to target, but he fully intended to take every precaution in planning and execution possible to make sure he got back safe and sound afterward. He had a week to prepare and continue to gather information, and he had no doubt there’d be many late nights ahead during that time. His only real consolation was that to all intents and purposes they were finally safe from enemy attack now Reuters and the New Eagles believed Hindsight to be destroyed and no longer considered them a threat.