The Illusion of CTRL

Almost Home

The aging General stood by silently as N and the soldiers said their goodbyes. It was a tearful affair, with hardened killers openly weeping and embracing N like a brother they knew they would never see again. Which, Uzi supposed, might have been true.

Farm Boy was the last to leave, and paused next to the General.

"Whatever it is they want...don't let 'em do it, Sir. Not to him," he pleaded, not even trying to keep the emotion out of his voice.

"They won't touch him, son," the General replied with conviction and a solid clap on the man's shoulder.

Once they were alone, N snapped to attention with a crisp salute.

"At ease, soldier," the General chuckled.

"With all due respect, General Hale, Sir; you command too much respect for that, Sir!"

The man's chuckle became an open laugh at that, his dark skin crinkling around his eyes.

"All these years I've been annoyed by that. But now I think I'm going to miss it!"

It took a couple seconds for his words and their implications to fully register with N, at which point he hesitantly lowered his arm.

"...Sir?"

"Walk with me, Nathan. I've got a proposition for you."

That walk took them straight through the middle of the base, where N barely kept it together when he noticed that the salutes from every single soldier they passed weren't just for General Hale. Then to the General's personal vehicle, a beast of a thing that looked like the lovechild of a luxury sedan and a trophy truck. Then to the General's surprisingly mundane ranch house in the nearby town.

Mundane, aside from the dozen or so Combat Drones maintaining the property. Dressed in their butler suits and maid outfits, they would certainly fool the layman, but Uzi could see it in the way they moved.

Their walk ended in the General's den, where the man poured himself a glass of some amber alcohol. But as he lifted the glass to his mouth, he paused and turned to N with a strange look.

"Oh, how rude of me. Do you drink? I know you can, but do you?"

"I, uh, well," N stammered, clearly not expecting the question, "I do, Sir, but...not alcohol?"

"Yes, if it's purely on the merit of taste, I'd imagine not," General Hale chuckled as he swirled his own drink. "Is there anything you enjoy?"

"...Apple juice?" N all but squeaked, his screen brightening as small blush lines appeared under his eyelights.

General Hale burst out laughing, as N no doubt expected. But just when Uzi was about to put him on her shit list, he regarded N with a wide smile.

"Well, how about that?" the man chuckled to himself as he sat down behind his large, expensive-looking wooden desk. "My son was having some work done on his house across town, so his family stayed here for a week, including my grandchildren who love apple juice. Guess what they left behind?"

While N gaped at the fantastic coincidence, General Hale called for one of his servants/guards to bring the bottle of juice. Once they both had their glasses of remarkably similar-looking liquid, the General got down to business.

"Of course you know who I am, so I would imagine you know how long I've been doing this. What you wouldn't know is that I've been trying to retire for some fifteen years now."

"Then why...?" N left the question there, probably unsure how to say "why don't you" without sounding like a smartass.

"Because a dam can't just clock out and go home," the General answered, followed by a rather large sip of his drink.