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The sun was out full and shining on its eight minute journey to the small blue green planet of Earth. The golden rays filled the sky and let the people know how small they were compared to the vast giant of plasma. It wasn’t hard to believe that it once was considered a god. It gave warmth and produced life on the planet that long ago worshiped the sun. People still worshiped it, but now with the love of what the sun had to offer.

The day in late March when the sun was out and warming the ground the humans were out worshiping it. The temperature was warmer than it had been since November, and still too cold to go enjoy the light without a jacket, but humans enjoy something they have been deprived of for months. It would be freezing cold the next day, and the clouds would come across the sky in a few hours, but for that time people enjoyed the sun.

One of those people sitting in a lawn chair with his eyes closed and letting the sun warm he was the dark man. He breathed in the freshly cut grass, the first time that year the grass had been cut, and let his body feel free. It had been a long time since he had just enjoyed being alive. It was cold and under his white robe he had on thermal underwear, but to enjoy the sun it was worth the cold. The sounds of the hospital behind him were something he could ignore. He just wanted to enjoy the sun while it lasted. The darkness would come again, and he would enjoy that too.

“Ha, told you,” A voice said behind DM.

“Okay I owe you five bucks,” Said another voice.

Dark Mateus smiled and turned around to see Ben and Pierce walking towards him. Pierce was dressed has he normally was in his gray hooded sweatshirt, and had a paper bag in his hand. Ben had on a black jacket open so anyone could read the tee-shirt he had on asking, ‘Who’s your daddy?’ DM sighed. It was time to go to work.

“Why does Pierce owe you five bucks?” DM asked Ben.

Ben smiled when he spoke. “He swore you’d find some way to get a black robe so you’d wear black,” Ben said grinning wide at Pierce. “I am getting that book now.”

Pierce grunted and tossed the paper bag at the dark man. “Here get dressed you’re out of here,” Pierce said sounding like a baseball umpire. “Ethan’s inside right now signing the paper work.”

“Yes now you can eat normal food,” Ben said. He shuddered as he spoke again, “not that disgusting hospital food.”

DM smiled and stood up to go to his room and change. DM smiled to see that it was his black clothing from his apartment back in Chicago. Pierce was responsible. Ethan was waiting for him in the hallway when DM came out of his room. Ethan had on a dark blue suit and a loud yellow tie that didn’t match at all. “Good let’s go,” Ethan said.

“Wait one moment,” A nurse said coming up the hallway, “he is not leaving like that.”

“Why do I have something on my face?” DM asked surprised.

The nurse pulled a wheelchair from the side of the hall. “We can only discharge you if you leave by the wheelchair,” The nurse said strongly.

DM looked over at the three other men for help, there was none? “What do they think I’ll trip, fall, and crack my head open?” DM asked with sarcasm.

“Yes,” Ethan said sounding like a boss, “now sit in the God damn chair.”

DM sat and was wheeled out to an awaiting car. Pierce called out shotgun and got the front passenger seat. Ben got into the driver’s seat. Ethan and DM sat in the back. The drive from the secure Navy hospital to the Pentagon was short, and soon DM was seated across from Ethan signing the paperwork. With a script of ink the dark man was now a tool of the United States of America Office of Homeland Security.

“Good,” Ethan said looking at the sheet, “now you do realize that you’ll have to move here.”

“I know,” DM said. “I don’t have anything for me back in Chicago.”

Ethan nodded his head in agreement. “We have two possible places for you to live at.” Ethan pulled out two sheets of paper. “Would you like to live at a ranch style home, or something that looks like a Brownstone?”

DM looked down at the pictures. “I think I would like the ranch,” DM said. The house was white with a black roof. There was an attached garage that looked half the size of the house. “May I ask why I’m being given the house?”

Ethan laughed. “You’re not being given the house. There will be a certain amount of money taken out of every one of your paychecks to pay for the house, and all the utilities. As long as you are employed by the US you’ll have the house.”

DM smiled at that. “I guess I have to get moving.”

“You have one week,” Ethan said.

Chicago was wet and the mounds of snow were melting and draining away. DM was at one end of the new couch and Pierce was at the other end. DM was sorry to be leaving his apartment, but after the fire it just never felt the same. Thankfully he didn’t have much to move after the fire, so he only had to rent one u-hull truck.

“You are going to owe me much more than dinner for this,” Pierce whined dragging the couch into the metal bed of the truck.

“Like what?” DM asked pushing the stuffed frame into the side of the truck. There were only the two boxes of kitchen supplies left in the apartment, and then DM would be on the road. He promised Pierce dinner for his help, but Pierce waved it off and told him the next time he was in Chicago Pierce would collect.

“I want a favor,” Pierce said leaning on the truck.

“What kind of favor?” DM was curious.

“A yet to be determined favor,” Pierce grinned. “I do it all the time with people. At some time in the future I will call you up and collect on the favor.”

“I’m sure you have your reasons,” DM said.

“Of course I will,” Pierce said flashing a grin. “So how’s Lucy?”

Her lovely face filled DM’s mind. “She told me she has a surprise waiting for me when I get to Washington.”

“Any idea what kind of surprise that would be?” Pierce asked.

“No, but whatever kind of surprise it is I’ll be happy with. I love her,” DM said with a sparkle in his eyes. “So I never asked what happened to that werewolf you took on in France.”

Pierce broke out into a self satisfied grin. “He’s now sitting in a small little box of concrete somewhere in an Army prison. I have to say it was fun taking him on when I knew that he was a werewolf. I didn’t need to hold back.”

“You scare me sometimes,” DM said.

“I scare a lot of people,” Pierce said.

Neither spoke of Dave. When DM restarted time the bullet went right through Dave’s right eye and into his brain. He dropped dead before he even hit the ground. His body was secretly destroyed, and DM was transported in a private plane back to the US to recover. The recordings of DM’s phone conversations were turned over to Ethan and Nina to play with. Dave’s computer was purged of all information, and the hard drive was ripped out and Pierce put a knife through it so no one could possibly read what was on it.

The dark man signed the release papers on his apartment, and gave back the keys. DM got into the truck, and started it up. He sat for a moment letting go of the past. He drove off away from Rachel’s old apartment. He drove past the Last Stop convenience store, under new management. He took interstate ninety-four down to interstate eighty and went east. Just to avoid the tolls he went down rout thirty to interstate seventy-seven in Ohio to interstate seventy. From interstate seventy he went down seventy-nine to Morgantown in West Virginia and slept there. The next morning he took off on interstate sixty-eight to interstate eighty-one to interstate sixty-six and then to Washington D.C.

The house was just like the one in the picture, but unseen in the picture it went back farther than it looked from head on. DM parked on the driveway and went to the door. Ethan had given him a key and when DM opened the door he was in for a surprise all right. The living room was empty except for an object in the middle of the floor. It moved.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” Lucy said as she spread her naked Asian body out on the hardwood floor of the living room.

DM smiled and licked dry lips. “Two things, first I need to check the bathroom since I’ve been driving for the past four hours without a stop, and second would you rather do it on a couch?”

The next morning the pair collapsed on the reconstructed bed and DM was playing with Lucy’s hair just above her ear. “I love you,” DM whispered into her ear.

Lucy smiled with her eyes closed. “I never thought I could love someone as much as I love you,” She said. Then she turned serious. “I haven’t told you yet, but I’m staying in the US.”

DM stopped twirling Lucy’s hair and looked at her. “Are you sure?”

Lucy sighed. “My parents have all but disowned me after I told them I didn’t want to be a baby machine. My government said that having a relationship with someone from the US would jeopardize my job. I made a deal, that if I went to the US I would never return.” Lucy didn’t speak for a moment. “The freedom of this country is worth it. You’re worth it.”

DM rolled over and kissed her on the cheek. “I’m glad to hear I’m worth it. You do know I can’t father any children?”

“Why do you think I don’t have a problem having sex with you?” Lucy said giving DM a kiss on the lips.

The dark man gave her a kiss on the lips back. “So what are you going to do now?” DM asked.

“Become a housewife,” Lucy said. They both laughed. “No General Sanders and I had a long chat. He talked with the CIA and I am now going to be an analyst. So all I’m going to be doing is watching the news from China and writing down anything significant.”

“You’re going to become a couch potato,” DM said. Lucy slugged him.

“I will still exercise to keep my figure,” Lucy said.

DM ran his hand up her arm making her shiver. “And what a beautiful figure it is.”

The next morning DM had to force himself to wake up by a shrilling alarm clock, and in the dark took a shower, dressed in black clothing and drove to his new job. Debby showed him to his desk, and computer, and how to receive messages from his phone. Then Ethan called DM to come up to his office.

“Congratulations you’re going out into the field again,” Ethan said to Nina standing next to the dark man. “We have a possible UFO in Canada. I want you two to go up there and check it out.”

DM raised a hand to ask a question. “What happens if we find there was a UFO in Canada?”

Nina couldn’t stop her grin from showing teeth. Ethan also smiled as he stood up to hand over the file to Nina. “If it is some alien race tell them this arm of our galaxy is off limits to intervention, so tell them to leave. If they are people from before they year 2216 tell them to stop messing with history. If they are people from after the year 2216 tell them we have a treaty that they aren’t allowed to come back to this time. Now get out of my office and do your job.”

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