TROUBLE DOWN UNDER
By Atonia
(Picture creations also by Atonia)
Part 1
Terry Thorne arrived in Sydney for the month-long training session with a new elite crew. There were nine members of the crew assembled from New Zealand, Tasmania and Australia. They were all former Special Forces soldiers, some of whom had already been working for SI, but there were a few new ones to get acquainted with.
He was checking into the hotel when he heard his name called and turned around.
"Terry Thorne…is it really you?"
Terry turned to see a tall dark-haired woman, near his age he thought, but he had no idea who she was.
"I’m afraid you’ve got me at a disadvantage," he smiled a little.
"I didn’t think you’d remember. It’s been a lifetime ago." She held out her hand. "I used to be Janet Conway."
"Who are you now?"
"Janet Conway-Richardson but I’m not really Richardson anymore. You really haven’t a clue? We used to play together until you got old enough to realize I was a girl. I lived across the street from you, had a brother named Charles. You were in the same classes at school with him."
Terry felt a flutter of excitement in his chest. He had a life in Australia…Charlie Conway. "Chaz…we called him Chaz." His memory beginning to work.
"That’s right. I was his little sister."
"You aren’t anymore?" He took his credit card back from the desk clerk.
"He was killed in an accident five years ago. I thought when I saw your name on the roster it must be someone else. I can’t believe it’s you."
"Roster…J. Richardson?"
"That’s me!" she smiled broadly.
He looked at her for a moment. A woman? Whose idea was this? He would find out. "You’re here for the training?"
"I am. I’m qualified. Don’t give me that look," she grinned.
"Sorry, I had no idea women were recruited."
"I’m the only one but I can hang, Terry. Just ask around. I guess I should be calling you Mr. Thorne since you’re the boss."
"Nobody who knows me calls me Mr. Thorne." He glanced around the lobby. "We have a meeting scheduled in the morning, 0800."
"I’ll be there. It was good seeing you, even if you don’t remember me."
"A lot of years have passed. It’ll come to me." He smiled and picked up his bag. She left him and headed for the hotel bar. Terry got on the elevator. He had something else to think about now. It might prove awkward for him when he began researching his past here but at least he knew he had one.
Once in his room he set up his laptop, first reading messages from Toni, which brought a smile to his face, and pictures she’d sent of Jacky sitting in his toy box. He connected with the London office and got down to business. In Paris he’d had a little help, but this training session he was conducting on his own. He’d put together a strenuous program, one week in Sydney in a classroom and three weeks in the field. SI had a nice office in Sydney, one he’d never been to. He was looking forward to getting to know his people personally.
After awhile he sat back in the chair, stretched his arms, checked his watch and decided to go down to the bar for a drink and see about getting a meal. He was thinking about Janet Richardson when he got off the elevator. If he was careful he might find out more about his time in Australia and discover what was real and what wasn’t. He didn’t quite understand where she fit into the picture and why she would show up in his life now.
He had memories of his childhood. His father had been retired from the military; he remembered his mother, his schools and his time in the Forces in Australia. He knew his parents died while he was in service and he hadn’t any brothers or sisters. Why would he run into a girl who lived across the street from him when he was a kid?
He ordered a drink and turned, looking around the bar, noticing a table full of trainees. Had to be. He could always pick them out. She was sitting with them, laughing and talking. He would have liked to join them but he knew from experience he wouldn’t be welcomed. He was their boss and had to set himself apart from them.
He hadn’t reckoned on this group, however. This wasn’t England. Janet spoke to one of the men beside her and soon two of the guys came over and invited him to sit with them. He was an Australian; he was one of them…a bloke. Janet introduced him around, a chair was brought up and soon he was among friends.
"We’ve been hearing things about you. Is it true you join forces and get in on the rescues?" one of the men asked.
"Yeah, on occasion." Terry took a drink from his beer bottle. He remembered the taste of Australian beer.
"That’s a first. You’d never catch old commodore out of his desk chair," they laughed.
"I don’t operate like that. I keep my hand in."
"We heard you nearly bought the ticket in Bolivia…"
Terry grinned, "I’m invincible. I learned something in Bolivia, though. Don’t step off a cliff. I’ve added that to the training manual."
They laughed again and the talk continued around the table about past missions, past military life. Janet was mostly quiet, watching him and listening to him. She was amazed he really had no recollection of her at all. He was older now but she remembered him, remembered him well. He’d gotten leave when his parents died from a flu epidemic, come home and she’d been there, just out of college herself. He was the reason she joined the military. He’d been the reason for a lot of things. She picked up her glass and looked over the rim at him. He was looking back. Had he remembered?
He hadn’t, not completely. He had suggestions of memories, vague possibilities that were probably written into his character. He knew this but still couldn’t fathom her knowledge of him.
Part 2
The first day went pretty much as he thought. It was more of a getting acquainted session and review of what he expected of them. Having a few beers with a group of them the night before had lessened the tension and obviously they had talked to the three who arrived that morning from New Zealand. Terry was a popular guy and already well liked. He hoped that feeling held over as he intended to be a tough disciplinarian. They had two more days of drinking and carousing around at night and then the bar would drop, confined to the hotel until they left for the field. He expected them to make use of their time in the hotel gym.
He packed up his laptop and briefcase and left the offices of Security International, deciding to walk to the hotel. Sydney was familiar to him. However places he thought he knew were not to be found. It was London all over again. Half way to the hotel Janet caught up with him.
"Hope you don’t mind the company since we’re going to the same place."
"Not at all. Sorry I don’t remember you."
"No problem, mate. Maybe it’s best you don’t remember." She fell in walking beside him.
"Why do you say that? Did something happen?"
"Nothing worth remembering, I guess."
It bothered him that she knew something about him that he didn’t. "Maybe you need to jog my memory."
"When you came home on compassionate leave after your parents died and I went over to see you…nothing, huh?"
"Sorry. I must have blocked it out."
"Let’s just say I wasn’t Charlie’s little sister anymore and leave it at that. I hear you’re married."
"Um, yeah, I am and I have a son two years old."
"Lucky woman. I was married, too, for awhile. After you left the service and moved to England I got married. It lasted a few years. We were both in the service and it didn’t work for us. I think you spoiled me for anyone else."
Terry stopped and looked at her. "There was something between us?"
"You could say that. Yeah, there was. Didn’t last long. I mean our time
together. You were shipped out. I joined up because of you, thinking I might get
sent to the same place but, no, that didn’t happen. It never does in the
service. That’s why my marriage was a mistake from the get go."
"Did I ever, um, contact you after I left for England?"
"No, you were moving on, Terry. I was the girl you left behind. It was always more on my side than yours anyway. Probably why you don’t remember. Probably left girls behind all over the world."
Terry smiled a little. "I don’t think so. I met an English General’s daughter and got married and divorced after I left the SAS."
"So you’re on your second marriage?"
"Ah, yes, second marriage."
"I don’t think I’ll do it again. Funny isn’t it, meeting you again after all these years…fate."
They’d reached the hotel and he stood back, letting her enter first. "Yeah, funny." Not ha, ha funny at all. He was wary of fate.
Terry was an acknowledged workaholic and after he reached his hotel room he connected with London and worked until time for bed. He spent the few non-working hours in the gym at the hotel. A few of the crew were already making use of it in the early hours of the morning before the day began.
Was it fate that left him to spot for Janet on the weight bench, getting a good look at what her little gym shorts almost covered? She was fit, not an ounce of fat, but plenty of muscle and no tan lines showed around her abbreviated bra top and skimpy gym shorts. Terry noticed. He noticed her short, dark curls, wet with perspiration clinging to her neck and forehead, the trickle of moisture that ran down between her breasts. After she finished on the weight bench he left the gym without speaking.
"You have the power. What you do with it is up to you." Toni’s words rang in his head as he headed for his shower. Janet had set him up for it, letting him know she knew him intimately. Although he had no memory of her at all, his imagination was vivid. He couldn’t help thinking what it would be like to have her beneath him.
He tried to avoid her for the next few days, not looking at her directly in class and making himself scarce out of it. However being confined to the hotel now made it a little difficult, especially at meal times. He found himself at dinner with her one evening.
"Where do the rest of the crew go for dinner?" he asked suspiciously.
"There’s a grill downstairs. I was ready for a meal, you know, meat and veggies. I don’t know what I did to piss you off, Terry, but whatever it was, I’m sorry."
"What? Oh, no…you haven’t done anything. I’ve, um, just got a lot on my mind right now."
She didn’t buy that but it was okay. "We get kitted out in the morning, is that right?"
"Um, you’ll get kitted out. I’m not saying when," Terry smiled. He had plans for a surprise exit tonight, their last in Sydney.
She picked at her food. "You’re a good teacher. Just wanted to say that."
"Ta."
"You said we have to buddy up tomorrow. You do know none of the guys will buddy up with me?"
"No, I don’t know that. Why is that, Janet?"
"Because I’m a woman. Oh, sure they treat me like a mate except when it comes down to getting physical. I know most of these blokes, some a long time. They won’t do it. There’s only a few I’ve met, Aussie’s that is, that want to work with a woman. They don’t trust me, think they’ve got to look after me instead of the other way around. I worked with a French Canadian on the last job. He’s long since gone but he had no problem with me. I’m not some little Sheila, Terry; I can take care of business."
"How long have you been with SI?"
"Two years. Before that I was with a security company working the docks."
"How many missions have you been on?"
"Well, just the one but I got my package out."
"You’re out-ranked, out-experienced, out-numbered in this group. Maybe that has something to do with the buddy problem. Don’t pull discrimination on me because you’re a woman."
"Fine. Wait until the morning and see who stands by me…"
"I don’t have to wait until morning. You’re teaming with me. Do you have a problem with that?"
She smiled broadly, "Absobloodylutely not."
At 2:00 in the morning the calls went out to report to the parking lot and they were told what to bring with them.
Part 3
Terry was in his element. He loved this kind of thing. It was something Toni would never understand about him. The only thing that would make this exercise better was if there were a real hostage and real bad guys. The hostage was actually a SI employee, an accountant waiting nervously in a hut. The bad guy guards were a mercenary unit hired by Wyatt. No live ammunition would be fired.
They were living rough, traveling on foot, pitching tents at night, eating MRI’s. At night they built a campfire and sat around discussing what went wrong during the day, what worked and how they could make it better. Terry was one of them. They sensed it and listened to him and learned. They had four major battles to complete, one this week , two the next, and one the last week of the field exercises.
Janet was buddied up with him and he caught a lot of good-natured flak over that, but his sense of humor and dedication to the project earned their respect. He already had Janet’s.
Getting ready to go to his tent one night, he stopped by hers. "You’re doing well. I just wanted you to know that."
"Coming from you…thank you. I’d heard you were best. Now I know it."
"G’Night, Janet."
He tried to treat her as one of the guys but, damn it, she wasn’t. He knew now why the other blokes wouldn’t pair up with her. Sure she could take care of herself, she could shoot, throw a knife, but she didn’t smell like a bloke, she didn’t feel like a bloke when he’d had to pull her out of the line of fire. There was nothing delicate about her, nothing particularly feminine except the pinky ring she wore and the studs in her ears. But she exuded a sexuality that had his senses on edge. She was distracting and as good as she was in the field, he knew he would never allow her to be part of the team he was training. That fact wasn’t going to make her happy and so he decided not to tell her until they returned to Sydney.
He wasn’t unaware of her. She could sense it. Lying beside him in the weeds waiting for something to move below them, their thighs had touched. He didn’t move away. There was a sexual tension between them. She could see it in his eyes. He wanted her. The time just hadn’t come yet. There hadn’t been an opportunity. She lay awake at night thinking about him. Would he be different now than he was as a very young man? His body was different. He wasn’t as lean as he used to be, but it was hard and firm. She’d seen him without a shirt, felt him next to her. There were no showers out here in the wilds but he had a subtle scent about him mixed with sweat that turned her insides to jelly. She turned on her side, trying to get comfortable. He would have to be married, especially now that she wasn’t, but just how married was he?
The last area they hiked to for the simulated rescue was bordered by a river, shallow in places, but a nice little pool had formed around some rocks. The crew stripped to their shorts and dove in. Terry sat back with a cup of tea at the campsite and Janet found her way to him.
"Why aren’t you frolicking in the water?" She sat down cross-legged on the ground next to him.
"I may later. What about you?"
"Later, after they’ve polluted the water. I can’t very well strip with that lot."
"Presents a problem, doesn’t it…privacy in the field."
"I don’t know. I could strip down to my undies and jump in. It wouldn’t really bother me. Might bother them."
"That’s what I mean."
"Would it bother you?"
Terry glanced at her. "I’m one of THEM."
She grinned and fished a tea bag out of his kit. "Do you mind if I have a cup of tea?"
"Help yourself."
"Two more days of this and a nice hot shower and decent meal. What will you do when we go back to Sydney?"
"I have a flight out on Sunday."
"Back to London? A whole different world. I almost went after you left but you hadn’t asked me to and I didn’t want you to think I was following you."
"Would you have been?"
"Yes…I had it bad for you." She looked up at him and then away.
"Since I don’t recall any of this, none of my relationship with you, how do I know what you tell me is true?"
"Why would I lie? Ah, jeez, Terry, I mooned after you for years. You were Charlie’s friend. You never knew I was alive." She sipped her tea with the tea bag still in the mug. "It was only when you came home and I went over to see you and offer my condolences. I hugged your neck and it turned into something else. I know you were hurting and I probably took advantage of the situation, but hey…"
He leaned back on the tree trunk and rubbed his eyes. "I wish I could remember. Some things are just blocked out."
"You were real sweet to me."
"For how long?"
"Three years. Oh, we didn’t spend all that time together. I joined up and you went this way and I went that, but when we could, when we were close enough to get together, we did. Charlie thought I was crazy, said I’d never land you. He was right. You were something special, Terry."
Terry looked at her and then turned up his tea mug.
"Thanks for the tea." She got up and left, going back to her tent.
He poured the rest of his tea out. It had gone cold. He remembered leaving the service in Australia. Bored with it he wanted more, something with an edge. The SAS provided that. Why didn’t it work out with Janet…not enough edge?
The rest of the crew finally made it to the campsite, dripping but somewhat cleaner. Terry walked down to the pool, looked at it a minute, stripped down to his boxers and dove in. The water was cold but it felt good. He swam around for awhile, diving to check out the depth. As he came up he heard another splash, somebody else in the water.
She swam underwater until she could see his legs and came up in front of him, splashing him. He splashed her back. Soon they had a fully fledged water fight going, wrestling, tossing, dunking each other. She gave as good as she got. He caught her, bringing her up against his body, and the fight was over. Breathing hard, looking into each other’s eyes, he kissed her.
The fire was in him and he looked around back toward the rocks at the far end of the pool. He pulled her along with him and finding a bit of footing, he pushed her against the rock and he took her. Afterward she ducked under water, not saying a word, and swam back to where she’d left her clothes. Terry leaned his arms on the rock, consciousness and reason coming back to him, realizing what he’d done.
The helicopters were bringing them back to the airstrip outside of Sydney. The field training had been a success and Terry felt good about the team. One more day in the classroom and he was done then he had to tell Janet she wasn’t going to be part of the team. He’d made that even more difficult by what had happened between them in the pool. He’d planned to take her aside once they landed and break the news to her. One of the New Zealanders had scored above the rest and Terry had tagged him to be the leader of the group. Terry looked over at him, feeling his eyes on him.
"What’s on your mind, mate?"
His name was Scott and he glanced out of the open door of the helicopter as it neared the airstrip. "I was ah thinking about the crew. I know you’ve got to have a lieutenant. Do you think she can handle it?"
"It’s not going to be Janet. I think you know who I want in that position."
"Well, no, I don’t know. Everybody kinda thinks Janet’s got you nailed."
"They think wrong."
"Good." Scott met Terry’s look and nodded his head.
Part 4
Three vans were waiting for them. One held their gear, which the crew was busy loading, and the other two were to take them back to the hotel. Janet had flown in the other helicopter and Terry waited until she’d tossed her gear in the van then motioned for her to come over. He walked a little away from the airstrip.
"I want you to know, Janet, that you’ve done an outstanding job but it’s not happening for you."
"What are you talking about?"
"I want a crew that can live together and function together no matter what circumstance they find themselves in. There can’t be any tension…of any kind. You stir it up. It’s not your fault but you do just because you’re female. It happened with me. It could have been somebody else and that can cause friction and discontent. I can’t have that."
"No, it couldn’t have been anybody else. It was because it was you."
"I don’t believe that. Despite the fact that we have a history together it never left my mind for a minute that you were anything but a woman. It’s not going to happen, Janet."
"I don’t believe this! I never wavered. I did my job. You can’t fault that."
"I don’t fault that. It’s your sex."
"My sex or the fact that we had sex?"
"That has nothing to do with the decision I’ve made. I’m sorry."
"I suppose I get the sack now. Is that it?"
"No, I have something else in mind for you, if you’re interested. I need an inside coordinator, someone to take care of logistics, make sure the crew has what they need and where they need it. Only someone who knows what they’re up against could possibly know these things."
"That’s Jameson’s job."
"Not anymore, unless you turn me down. I’m making some changes here."
She looked away. "How could I turn you down? I never have. It was you who turned me down."
Terry looked at her, tilting his head. "Now what are you talking about?"
"Before you left for England all those years ago I asked you if there would be room for me there. You said no. That’s why I didn’t follow you. It was over, whatever it was we had. You’re still the same man you were then, only harder. I’m harder, too. Life does that to you. So, yeah, I’ll take the job offer. It's better than nothing." She turned and walked away.
Sometimes you had to be hard, he thought. It didn’t come natural to him. It wasn’t inside him to be a hard ass. He looked down at the ground and picked up his gear and his gun. The van was waiting for him, waiting to drive him back to the hotel in Sydney where he would take a hot shower and call his wife, Toni. He needed to talk to her, hear her voice, and he had some thinking to do about what he’d done.