Metamorphosis

Chapter One

Harry hated army bases. Ones like this, at any rate. There were always too many people running about. Too many names he did not know and would never know. That had been the worst part of rising in the ranks, actually. Harry never felt like he knew who anyone was. It was better to be stationed elsewhere, somewhere where he and his troops were the only ones of their kind in a foreign land, where he knew the name of every single person from the officers to the janitorial staff. Harry Pearce enjoyed being surrounded by people on his team. It was the best part about being in the army, actually. But then of course he couldn't always be abroad. It wasn't how things were done. He was always sent home eventually, stuck in an army office in the capital where he did not know anyone's name, even if they all knew his.

He walked down the hall to a meeting with the intelligence office, lamenting this feeling of being lost on his own home soil, when a young woman turned a corner and crashed straight into him. All the files she carried in her arms came spilling out of her arms and splaying down at her feet.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry," she said, getting down on her hands and knees to pick them up.

Harry immediately knelt down to assist her. "You'd best look where you're going," he teased. "This close to the intelligence office, you don't want to be dropping files. You never know who might pick something up."

The young woman lifted her head to look at him, and she immediately smiled, hearing the jest in his tone.

As soon as she looked at him, Harry felt as though he'd been hit by lightning. Her eyes. They were the palest stormy blue-green-gray he'd ever seen. There was a sparkle of magic in those eyes. Harry would never again look at any other eyes and feel anything remotely like this, not ever again.

She spoke again, and her voice was like music. "I am sorry. I'm actually running late to a meeting, and I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. Though thankfully, none of these files contains any state secrets," she teased back.

"I'm sorry to delay you, Miss…"

"Ruth. Just Ruth," she insisted.

He smiled. Her name was Ruth. It fit her. Simple and lovely. "I won't keep you from your meeting any further, Ruth," he said, handing the last file to her as they both stood up.

Ruth smiled back at him. "And I'm sorry I bumped into you, Major Pearce."

She had already turned and hurried in the other direction as Harry said, "I'm not." And he wasn't. He wasn't the least bit sorry she bumped into him. Quite the opposite.

It wasn't until he was halfway down the hall, smiling softly to himself over the warm feeling created by the encounter, before he realized that she, like everyone else, already knew his name.

Harry tried not to think too much about it, though he could not stop seeing those beautiful eyes imprinted on his mind. He had a meeting to get to. He was being briefed by the intelligence office for something about his next posting. They hadn't even told him what his next posting would be. He hoped it was far away. Some long assignment in some remote part of the world where he could develop a strategy and see it through. Maybe one of the colonies needed looking after. Those were always good postings. He didn't much like hot climates, but perhaps there was some temperate jungle that needed taming.

But his musings soon ended when he entered the office of the director of intelligence.

"Nice to see you, Sir Harry." The director of intelligence stood and shook his hand.

Christ, but he hated that title. He was a decorated soldier and a proud army officer, but the only title people of power liked to use was his knighthood. He'd been awarded it by the king for leading the defense of the capital during the war. It had been a long time since that was at all relevant, but it stuck nonetheless.

Harry shook the director's hand and greeted him politely, keeping his own grumbling to a minimum. "Shall we begin, then?"

"In just a moment. I have a new analyst who has a rather loose relationship with punctuality," the director explained.

"That doesn't sound like army material," Harry noted with a slight scoff.

The director chuckled slightly, as though laughing over some private joke. "Well, she's rather special, so we do our best to let it slide."

"She?" Harry asked in slight surprise. He didn't know that women were allowed to be analysts, not now that the war was over. He also didn't think that this director would ever allow a woman to rise enough in the ranks to work directly with him.

He gave that same annoying chuckle again. "Yes, strange, isn't it? I've never known a woman to quite so capable."

Harry gave a tight smile—more like a grimace—at that remark. He had known plenty of capable women in his time. His foreign bases tended to be quite full of men, but every so often a female desk soldier would come around and put her male colleagues to shame. Harry usually preferred to work closely with women. He found they were more straightforward than men, less likely to let ego get in the way. Be direct with a woman, and she'll be direct with you. Be direct with a man, and he might get his feelings hurt and lash out. Even the women who cried were at least honest about how they felt. Men, you never quite knew. Ego almost always got in the way.

The door to the office opened, and a man in a suit—not a uniform, but a suit—came inside. A woman followed, and the man in the suit turned and closed the door behind him. The woman sat down in the chair beside Harry. She put down a stack of files on the desk and smiled at him. "Hello again."

"Ruth!" Harry exclaimed.

"You know each other?" the director asked in surprise.

"I ran into Major Pearce in the hallway," Ruth explained.

Harry smiled to see her again. "I thought you said those files didn't have any state secrets?"

"They didn't," she replied. "These are different files. That's why I was late. I was detained in going to the registry to put away the others and pick up these."

He gave a small laugh slightly at that.

The director cleared his throat. "Right then, since you're acquainted, shall we get started?"

Harry sat quietly and listened as the director explained the new overall intelligence structure for foreign bases. Ruth interjected with page after page of research and analysis that she had collected in order to form all the components of the new plan. It was all extremely thorough and well-organized, but it left Harry with one rather glaring question.

"This is all well and good," he commended, "but isn't this all a bit high-level? I still haven't been told where I'm going to next."

The director gave a rather patronizing smile. "I'd have thought it was obvious, Sir Harry. You're not going anywhere."

"I'm not?"

"No. You're the new Head of Foreign Intelligence. This whole plan we've been explaining, you're going to be running it."

To save Harry from having to think too much about that, a sharp knock sounded at the door and the director allowed entry.

The man in the suit popped his head in. "Pardon the interruption, but I was asked to tell Major Pearce that it is three o'clock."

"Damn!" Harry swore.

The director looked at him in slight shock and Ruth stifled a giggle. "Thank you, Mark," she said to the man in the suit.

Harry stood up. "I'm sorry, Director, I have an appointment I cannot be late for."

"That's fine, Sir Harry." The director shook Harry's hand once again. "We can discuss the further details tomorrow. Shall we say ten o'clock? Ruth, that work for you?"

"I think so, yes," she replied. "I may have to check."

But that did not work at all for Harry. "I will be unavailable tomorrow," he said. "I can do Thursday at ten."

"Fine. We shall resume on Thursday at ten," the director agreed.

And with that, Harry gave a friendly nod to Ruth, ignoring the fluttering in his stomach when she smiled at him, and turned to hurry out the door.