Free 18% Gray by Anne Tenino Page A

morning.”
    “You said you didn’t make me feel anything, right? You just knew what I, uh, wanted and nudged me a little. Right?”
    James nodded, looking down at the ground. For some reason, this whole day had made him feel like he was ten years old all over again.
    Matt shrugged, almost too nonchalantly. “So I wanted to suck you. You wanted me to suck you. We’re guys. Sex means shit emotionally. And for some ridiculous reason, I believe you when you say you won’t fuck with my head again.”
    “Fuck,” James said with a sigh. “Yeah.” He’d never felt more off balance in his life. It had to be whatever the fuck this implant was doing to his brain.
    Didn’t it?
    A perimeter alarm suddenly blared into the night. It had to be theirs. It sounded like the standard-issue Klaxon Industries wail.
    Matt leapt up and pulled a laser DEW pistol from the holster in the small of his back. James was on his feet too. He was sure he was nearly as deadly one-on-one as with the projectile shotgun he’d left strapped to his pack. It wasn’t ego that told him; it was experience.
    What his ego was currently telling him was that he was a dumbshit for leaving the twelve-gauge three meters away.
    Matt was facing northeast, James southwest. He could feel Matt drawing breath when someone started yelling.
    “Well Jesus Christ on a bicycle! What in all hell is that racket? What you boys got set up out here? Goddamn, ’s gettin’ so a man can’t ’sociate with another man without setting off some kinda goddamn alarms. Now turn it off! We ain’t gonna hurt ya none.” James could hear and feel someone come out of the brush facing Matt.
    “Who’s we?” Matt demanded. “Everybody where I can see ’em or I’ll just start shooting.” His voice was perfectly calm, clipped.
    “Jus’ me and my boy. Now stop pointin’ that goddamn thing at me and turn this damn alarm off.”
    James could hear the smile in Matt’s voice. “Once I see your son, I’ll stop pointing this goddamn thing at you.”
    The man grumbled under his breath, then called out, “Norris, come on out or this asshole’s liable to shoot me!” More rustling bushes came behind James. Matt had them covered.
    “No one else?” Matt asked. He turned the alarm off remotely.
    “Nope.” Norris answered this time.
    “Who’s in the tree back here?” James asked. He could feel the guy more than see him. There was a long silence.
    “Oh, that’s my other son, Nate. Forgot about him.” Forgetting your son. Could happen to anyone.
    James rolled his eyes. “C’mon down, Nate, or I’ll tell my cousin here to start slicing off limbs.” It was hard to do with that kind of pistol, but James was figuring these guys weren’t familiar with the weaponry. “Want me to check it out?” He subvocalized to Matt while waiting for Nate.
    “Perimeter alarms at about four meters.” When Nate joined the fam, James grabbed the shotgun and walked the perimeter, listening to the negotiations between Matt and the intruders.
    “Now what in the hell are you doin’ campin’ out here with some kind alarm on your site? People’ll think yer downright unfriendly. Or ya got something to hide. I could be the landowner, fer all you know, and I coulda shot first and asked questions later.”
    “You the landowner?” Matt’s tone was dry.
    There was a little hemming and hawing, some throat clearing. “Well, no, but I coulda been.”
    “How do you know I’m the not the landowner? Or my cousin?”
    Puzzled silence. “Well, why ’n hell would you be out here campin’?” His tone was incredulous.
    James could almost hear Matt’s shrug. “Like camping.”
    “Ya must,” one of the sons chimed in. “Ya got some damned expensive equipment to be the kinda guys that need to be campin’.” These guys clearly did need to camp, for economic reasons.
    “’S a hobby. How come you guys didn’t stay at that shelter outside Emmett tonight?”
    “Headin’ southeast, didn’t make it