“Hey, Hoose! Got a package for you,” Greg said. 

It had been three weeks since the security detail arrived at the Legatum Institute, and so far, everything was going swimmingly. 

Their first priority, before the ink had dried on their contracts, was revamping security. 

The bored parking attendant was replaced by an armed guard, a guy Thomas had known in his past life. Without the GWOT lowering standards for retention, he’d been drummed out of the Army after his first 4-year stint thanks to a bad drug test. The poor kid had never done heroin, as near as Thomas could tell, but he had a thing for poppyseed bagels, and that was enough to pop hot. 

The first go-round, Thomas had been able to argue his case. Now that America wasn’t desperate for every fighting man who could sober up for long enough to put on a uniform, the poor kid hadn’t had a snowball’s chance in hell. And since an other-than-honorable discharge made it hard for him to get work, he was in a bad spot when Thomas called him up. 

The kid practically jumped at the chance to make $70k a year with benefits. His loyalty to the Project, or at least to Thomas, was instant and assured. The best part was, he could have as many poppyseed bagels as he wanted, and New York had some of the best in the world. 

Drummonds, the new security guard, was followed by ten more who were discharged under similar circumstances. None of them were serious hard cases, just good guys who caught a bad rap from the peacetime Army. They weren’t combat veterans, not in this life, but they were well-trained trained, and thanks to Archie, well equipped. 

The researchers who lived off-site and had to commute were a little miffed when they realized that their vehicles would be searched on a daily basis. The grumbling got so bad that Harriet had to put her foot down. No one who remembered the murders from the last loop was keen to repeat the process. She just had to remind them of what was at stake.

“If you don’t want to end up as human sushi, just shut up and let them do their damn jobs,” she ordered, and that was the end of that. 

From then on, there was always someone manning the security booth, even when the parking garage was closed for the day. There were always at least two people watching the cameras as well. The doors were wired up with alarms, and thanks to Thomas’s experience with rigging explosives, trying to circumvent the alarms would trigger yet more alarms. If anyone tried to break in, the monitoring room would light up like a Roman candle. 

Two more guards manned the front door of the building. No one came in off the street without walking through a metal detector, or having their bags X-rayed. That didn’t ruffle too many feathers, at least. The front entrance wasn’t meant for employees anyway, and the guests put up with the thorough and professional frisking on the grounds that they didn’t get a say in the matter. 

As for the five guards who weren’t on shift, three stood by in the ready room at all times, while the other two had the day off. Everyone rotated throughout the day to ensure that everyone got ample downtime, and that no one got too bored with their posts. It was a good system, and one that Thomas was confident would work. 

Archie, meanwhile, put his skills to use in the machine shop. No one had to worry about buying a gun, since he could make just about anything they could possibly need. Give him a lathe and a mill, and he could turn out an AR-15 in the span of a couple of hours. Pistols, his own custom design loosely based on the SIG P226, took even less. 

With the promise of an industrial CNC machine in the near future, his productivity could only go up. The only thing he couldn’t do himself was rifling, but he’d been promised the tooling, just as soon as the Project could hunt some down. 

In the meantime, with everyone sufficiently armed for the time being, he was able to turn his attention to more ambitious projects. 

“It seems our twink friend has outdone himself this time,” Greg said. 

He and Thomas both liked to pull security duty every few days, freeing up a third spot for time off. Today, though, they were both off themselves, and since they didn’t have anything better to do, that mostly meant lounging around the apartment. Greg always managed to disappear for a couple of hours around lunchtime, though. Thomas didn’t ask where he went. He just assumed the answer was Loretta. 

But, maybe that wasn’t the case. The large, unwieldy parcel certainly seemed to suggest otherwise. 

“No fucking way,” he exclaimed, as Greg opened the box. “Where the hell’d he get plans for an M240?”

The M240, specifically the B variant, was the Army’s go-to medium machinegun for most of Thomas’s service. Chambered in 7.62x51 NATO, it was a beast of a gun, coming in at a whopping 27.6 pounds, but as far as he was concerned, it was worth the effort to lug the big bitch around. Capable of firing between 650-950 rounds a minute, depending on the gas setting, the 240B could lay down a whole lot of heavy hate in a hurry. It was an infantryman’s best friend when the shooting started. 

“I might’ve had something to do with that,” Greg said proudly. His accent had faded over the last few weeks, to the point where Thomas hardly had to translate for him in mixed company. “You’d be amazed at what you can find in the patent office.”

“No fucking way,” Thomas repeated. “Does she run?”

“Like a scalded cat. I just put a few hundred through her myself. We’ll want to do a thorough break-in for her, but I reckon she’ll do just fine.”

“That explains what the hobbit’s been up to,” Thomas said. “Think he’ll turn out another? I’ve always wanted one to call my own.”

“Well, that one’s yours to start with,” Greg said. “Happy birthday, brother.”

Thomas’s jaw dropped. Was it really the 18th already? He glanced over at the calendar. Sure enough. He’d been so busy lately, he’d lost track. 

“Greg, I-I don’t know what to say.”

“You can start by saying ‘thank you’ to the hobbit when next you see him. It was his idea,” Greg explained. “I helped, of course, but mostly on the research.”

“This is the best birthday present ever,” Thomas said dreamily. “It’s uh, it’s legal, right?”

“Strictly speaking? Yes. Harriet holds our SOT, since none of us are legally old enough yet, and the gun’s registered to the Project. But yeah, she’s legal,” Greg said. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to have to explain her if you peppered up some bad guys, but she’s legal.”

“God, I could kiss you,” Thomas said. 

“Please tell me you’re talking about the gun,” Greg said. “I ain’t into dudes.”

“Oh? Not even Archie?” Thomas asked, arching an eyebrow.

“That’s a little different,” Greg said, the tips of his ears turning bright red. “And it ain’t like we’ve done nothing. He keeps teasing, is all.”

Once it was clear that Loretta wasn’t going to immediately move in and mark her territory, Archie made good on his promise to pursue Greg with all the resources at his disposal. And Greg, for his part, hadn’t explicitly told him not to, so Archie took that as a sign to go full steam ahead. Even a blind man could see that Greg’s self-control was wavering. His heart still belonged firmly to Loretta, but a stiff prick had no conscience, and Archie was merciless. 

Thomas couldn’t help but feel torn on the matter. On the one hand, Archie could be a little shit, especially when it came to trying to win over Greg. On the other hand, when he did go too far, and Greg did push back, Archie respected those boundaries. He wasn’t being malicious, and he wasn’t setting out to make Greg uncomfortable. He knew what he wanted, and he was giving his best effort to get it. 

“You know, if you asked him to stop, he probably would,” Thomas pointed out. 

“Yeah, I know. And I know I probably should, but…”

“Feeling conflicted?” 

“That ain’t the half of it, man. I like Archie, I really do. It’s just, I ain’t sure it’ll work out long-term. He’s a sweetheart, and no mistake, but I’m not sure I could think of him like that. Never thought of anyone like that, except for Loretta, and between you and me, I haven’t exactly been hurting for choice.”

“I highly doubt Archie’s worried about anything long-term,” Thomas said. “That’s not how guys like him work. I’d say his feelings are a little more than casual, sure, but for him, the pursuit is half the fun, you know?”

“Sure, and I’m happy to let him have his fun. We were never close before, but I know enough about his past. He never got to enjoy his teenage years. By the time he figured out who he was, he’d isolated himself to the point where he couldn’t hardly enjoy the experience. Loneliest son of a bitch I ever did meet. Letting him live a little is the least I can do. And hell, it’s not like I mind the flirting. I know he doesn’t see it as his body, but it’s hard to pretend it ain’t a pretty good one. Thing is, I don’t know how not to be serious about a relationship. Like I said before, Loretta was my one and only. I just don’t know how to be any other way.”

“You want some advice?” Thomas asked. 

“Sure, I guess. I reckon you got more experience than me in that department anyway,” Greg said. 

“Not as much as you might think, but sure, I’ve got a little more,” Thomas said. “That uncertainty you feel right now? That’s fear. You’re afraid if you give in to Archie, you’ll mess things up, both with him and Loretta. And you know what? That’s a perfectly reasonable fear. You very well could fuck up big time.”

“Well that’s a mighty comfort,” Greg replied dryly. 

“It’s also true that you could fuck up by doing nothing. Loretta seems pretty scared, too. You’ve got her feeling some type of way, and for the moment, she’d rather hold you at arm’s length than let you in. And Archie, he’s having fun now, but that won’t last forever. If you don’t give him some kind of sign, he’ll get frustrated eventually. Might even piss him off. Seems to me like the ball’s in your court, no matter how you slice it,” Thomas said. 

“I get that, but in that case, who do I pass it to?” Greg asked. 

“Stands to reason you should throw it to the guy who can make the shot,” Thomas said. “Sit down, talk with Archie, let him know how you feel, and see what he has to say. As for Loretta, hell, seeing you with Archie might just light a fire under her ass.”