And come home to Tansy.
Because he wanted to always come home to Tansy. And he wanted her to always come home to him.
They hadn’t been together all that long, but he wanted to tell her he loved her. Tell her he wanted to marry her and make a life with her here on her land.
After they got rid of the threat, he’d tell her.
He refused to think she didn’t feel the same. Tansy didn’t hide her feelings all that well. She cared about him; that much was obvious. She’d never have slept with him if it had been simple curiosity or a dry spell. Not with all the connections they had, connections that would be strained if they’d messed it up.
But, even with the surrounding mess, they were doing okay. Better than okay.
She had to feel the same.
Sam considered blurting it out as they neared the fort, but he’d rather do it when they could celebrate properly, not when they were worried about arms dealers chasing her down.
They did a quick check around the cabin, but it appeared secure. Still, Sam took out his gun before they entered the clearing. He went through the door first and cleared the space.
Tansy let out a soft breath of relief that he likely wasn’t supposed to hear.
She moved straight to the standalone computer and booted it up. He knew now she made multiple backups on encrypted flash drives and concealed them in various places. Once the project was out of her hands, she’d delete all the information.
Although an extremely reliable copy would still be in her head.
Which is why Sam wouldn’t relax his guard.
Tansy sank into her work, and Sam tried to do the same. He was worried about the delivery of the hologram. He hoped the DOD would send people and wondered if he could talk Tansy into insisting on it.
A soft beep from Tansy’s watch had her head popping up, and she looked outside. “The light should be good now. We can test the hologram. You want to take your own observations?”
He hadn’t done that yet, so he nodded.
Outside, they each chose a tree and climbed. With her light frame, Tansy easily out-climbed him. She grinned down at him and then switched her attention to her tablet.
Sam hadn’t seen the hologram from this high up before and it was wild.
One moment, the solar panels covered the roof.
The next moment, no solar panels could be seen. It was a plain shingled roof.
Tansy made notes on her tablet, then fired questions at Sam about what he saw. He answered as well as he could.
“Okay, time for the second mode.”
Before he could ask what that meant, the shingles disappeared, and the area in front of him was simply another part of the forest. He could see the tops of both deciduous trees and conifers.
He hadn’t even realized she was working on two different modes.
“How much of a gap can you see between the hologram and the real trees?”
Sam studied it. “I’m not high enough to be accurate, but it looks like there’s a bigger gap on the north than the other sides.”
“Estimate how big.”
And the questions went on.
More for the third mode, which was a rocky terrain. That version didn’t work as well in the middle of a forest, but he assumed it would be great elsewhere.
This woman was incredible.