“It wasn’t your mission toexecute.”
“Is now,” Alexeiscoffed.
“Okay, let’s not argue about this. I’m ordering Sean to get some rest before we land,” Trevor said, giving Alexei apointedlook.
Sean honestly expected Alexei to keep arguing. Most field teams wouldn’t think twice about using their powers in a fight, but Sean’s job differed from theirs. Using his power in the field could ruin missions that took months to plan, with every last little detail relying on Sean to keep his power under wraps, to behuman.
Alexei disappeared and Sean spared a moment to recline his seat before closing his eyes. A minute later someone draped a soft blanketoverhim.
“Thanks,” he murmured to whoever had been sothoughtful.
“Pozhaluysta.”
Despite the pain in his skull, sleep wasn’t difficult to find, not after hours of staying awake, trying to keep the Wolcotts, and the mission, alive. Sean fell asleep quickly, the feel of gentle fingers brushing back his hair chasing him intounconsciousness.
4
No Luck But WhatWeMake
Dr. Gracie Goldheld the scanner up to Sean’s face, passing it over the orbital bone of his right eye. An exact image of his skeletal structure appeared on the holoscreen hovering above the biobed. Sean had no idea what all the numbers in the side bar represented, but to his own eyes, he couldn’t see the fractures that were there fivehoursago.
MDF agents and operatives always had a stint in Medical after a mission, whether they were wounded or not. Physical checkups happened dozens of times a year, if not more. Any health problems were caught early that way and addressed. Considering the advancement in medicine over the last few centuries, no one had to worry about contagious STDs or other easily contractible infections anymore. It allowed people a freedom with their bodies their ancestorsdidn’thave.
That didn’t mean Sean liked spending time inMedical.
“Looks good,” Gracie finally said, studying the results before setting the scanner aside. “The nanites did a great job resetting and fusingthebone.”
“I wanted to claw off my face,” Seanadmitted.
“Mostpeopledo.”
Regen regimes were standard emergency care in most hospitals these days. Microscopic nanites carrying a person’s own stem cells were programmed to heal a specific injury, freeing up doctors to handle more patients. Injected into a patient’s body, the nanites could fix even major wounds over time. Paired with Gracie’s ability to heal people, Sean’s broken bones were fixed in about four hours, though his face still felt sore. The concussion symptoms were beginning to fade as well, but the nanites could only do so much for that. The brain was a delicate area to work in and alwayswouldbe.
Nanites couldn’t fix his exhaustion though, and all he wanted to do was sleep. He knew that wasn’t an option the second Alexei slipped into his private medical room. The younger man had handed him off to Gracie’s competent care a couple of hours ago before disappearing with the rest of his team, probably to report in. Sean wasn’t used to people coming to look for him after a mission like this unless it was his coworker, Elena Flores. She wasn’t his handler, but she helped wrangle the analysts whose intel formed the basis of Sean’s missions. She had already stopped by to check up on him and apologized for not anticipating the AntonovichBrigadaangle.
Elena was a friend in the sense they were drinking buddies off the clock when things got really bad at work, but that was it. Sean didn’t have any real friends outside of the job. He kept up the persona of his bank auditor life on social media, keeping in distant touch with old high school and university acquaintances and watching his brothers live life to the fullest without him. Sean cultivated his own life the same way he cultivated the lies he lived, which usually left him alone in the aftermath ofmissions.
Alexei coming to see him was definitely out of theordinary.
“I hope you haven’t come to yell at my patient the same way you yell at your brother,” Gracie said mildly as she entered something into Sean’s file on hertablet.
“Not yell. Retrieve. Director want to see him,”Alexeisaid.
Gracie turned to look at Alexei, who gave her the bestdon’t shoot the messengerexpression Sean had seen in a while. The puppy dog eyes were a nice touch. Alexei, Sean absently noted, had reallyniceeyes.
He blamed that thought on the lingering painkillers in hissystem.
Gracie shook her finger at Alexei. “Nuh-uh. He’s still underobservation.”
“You said I was healed,”Seansaid.
Gracie let out a heavy sigh. “Mostlyhealed. You need some down time, Sean. More than the regulatory three days. A meeting with the director isn’t something the doctor recommends, because those meetings inevitably turn intomissions.”
“I’ll be fine, Dr. Gold. Thank you for patching me up.” Sean slid off the biobed, ignoring the way its sensors went dark once he was no longer within its scan field. “I promise I’ll take it easy for the rest oftheday.”
“You say that, but I’ve heard it all before.” Gracie dragged his scan results out of the biobed’s main display and flung it at the work tablet she carried, the holographic data a bright streak in the air. “Rest is what the doctororders,Sean.”
“You sound like mymother.”
