The Pact by Ben Taylor

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The insignia on his stealth-suit identified him as Commander D.A. Wolfgang.
A clever grin spread across Wolfgang's square jaw, and he added, "Keep a sharp eye, Johnny. Remember what happened in the Eros Nebula. You wouldn't want to get us into that mess again, would you?"
The first speaker, an American named John Talen, was a taller but thinner man with a scraggly mass of hair on his head. He smiled at the jibe. "I hardly think I was to blame for that, Wolf. I was outnumbered fifteen to one," he said.
"You were both to blame," said the third leg of the triangle, in a scolding feminine voice. John cast a quick glance at the owner of the voice, Eteri Jasmine. Her skin was the rich bronze characteristic of the people of her native Armenia, and her glossy hair hung freely down her back, as black as the stealthsuit she wore.
The woman continued. "I was the only one who stuck to procedure during that mission. Wolf, you took fifteen minutes to break the lock, and John, you shouldn't have gone chasing after those sentries." All three of the commandos laughed at their playful bickering for an instant, then returned to silence, scanning the roof of the building and waiting for any sound of the coming ambassadors to rise above the wind.
John's eyes kept up their rigid march on the plateau before him, but he let his mind go back in time, to when he had first entered the military in his early youth. Commander Wolfgang had been his instructor. Wolf had taken him under his wing, trained him, one-on-one, for ours after the drills were over. He had spoken well of John and, when John was initiated, had him put in a covert ops squadron under his personal command.
Eteri had been there too. She was first just one of the crowd, but John soon became her friend, attracted by her witty intelligence and stunning beauty. Wolf had taken a liking to her as well*they had always had an unspoken understanding, like father and daughter* and when he chose Eteri to join covert ops, John was inwardly overjoyed.
Since then, almost ten years ago, Wolf had rescued John from dozens of tight spots, and Eteri and he had grown to love each other. The most accomplished covert operatives in the military had bonded like a family.
Eteri. The thought of her was a spring of joy in his soul. There are 23 billion women in this galaxy. What were the odds I would end up with the perfect one three feet away from me? he thought.
John started. A voice echoed inside John's head as if it were a cavern.
Daydreaming, are we? it said with a familiar softness.
He exhaled. He had forgotten that, for this mission, he and Eteri shared a Neurological Energy Transmitter, or NET, hookup.
Darn. That's embarrassing, he sent back. She had been listening to his thoughts.
His hand reached out to his side and caught her warm hand, which melted into his grasp. Was I daydreaming? he thought. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. No, this is real. Eteri closed her eyelids and smiled.
Suddenly, warning lights flashed across the visual display lenses on their eyes.