Ranger's Apprentice; The Final Pieces

AU - Halt & Trump pt.2

"As you say, you're my counselor. And I'm very grateful that you are. But that's not to say that we can't be friends as well. After all, it's quite daunting to be on my first assignment." She paused, and then said quietly, "I'm not altogether sure that I'm up to it, as a matter of fact."

"Of course you are!" Halt said immediately. "Pauline knows her business. If you weren't 'up to it', as you put it, she would never have entrusted the mission to you. She thinks very highly of you, you know," he added.

"She's an amazing woman," Alyss said, and the admiration in her voice was obvious. "I've looked up to her for years, you know. She's succeeded so well in what is still generally regarded as a man's world."

Halt nodded agreement. "Amazing is a good word for her. She's open, honest and enormously intelligent. Smarter than most men too. Prime Minister Arald saw those qualities in her years ago. She was the one who convinced him that women are more suited to the diplomatic role than men."

"I've heard people say that. Why does he think that way?"

Halt shrugged. "He feels women are more inclined to talk things through, whereas men tend to resort to physical methods more quickly."

"So, for example, Ms. Pauline would never resort to throwing someone into a swimming pool if they were being objectionable?" she said, and Halt glanced up at her sharply. Her face was totally deadpan. Pauline had trained her well, he thought.

"No," he agreed. "But I didn't say that she's always right. Some people deserve to be thrown into swimming pools."

He realized now that he had been chattering on with her for some minutes, in spite of his determination to maintain his usual grim, tight-lipped manner. She had drawn him out like an angler luring a fish to the hook, he realized, and he wasn't sure how she had done it. And now she was smiling at him again. He harrumphed noisily and turned away to examine the flight's progress on the display.

Sitting in an airplane of the Australian government, there was little danger to be expected. And the pilots would alert them if there were any problems. But scanning the display gave him an opportunity to break off the conversation.

Alyss watched him curiously. She had seen him around the House of Parliament for years, of course. But when Ms. Pauline had introduced them the day before, she had been surprised to realize that he was at least a head shorter than she was. But Halt had an amazing reputation – a seven-foot-tall reputation, she mused. He was famous throughout the country and one tended to think of him as a larger-than-life character. Seen close-up, he was surprisingly small in stature. Like Will, she thought, and that set her to wondering.

"What qualities does a Special Agent need, Halt?" she asked.

He glanced back at her. Once bitten, twice shy, he thought. She wasn't going to draw him out into an extended conversation again.

"A propensity for silence is a good one," he said, and she smiled, genuinely amused at something.

"Somehow I can't see Will managing that," she said. She and Will had grown up together as wards in the orphanage of Canberra. He was probably her oldest friend. In spite of himself, Halt's lips twitched in what was almost a smile.

"No. He does tend to chatter, doesn't he?" he agreed. Then, realizing that she might think he was criticizing the boy, he continued quickly: "But that's part of being a Special Agent as well. He's always asking questions. He's always curious, always ready to learn more. A good Special Agent needs that. Eventually, he'll learn to curb his tongue a little."

"Not entirely, I hope," said Alyss. "I can't imagine Will becoming grim and forbidding and taciturn, like" – she hesitated and amended what she was about to say – "some people."

Halt raised one eyebrow at her. "Some people?" he repeated, and she shrugged.

"Nobody particular in mind," she said. Then, changing tack, she said, "He's very brave, isn't he? I mean, you must be proud of what he's done."

Halt nodded. "He has true courage," he said. "He can feel fear, he can be afraid. But it doesn't stop him from doing what he has to do. Mindless courage isn't any sort of real courage at all."

"You've trained him well," Alyss said, but Halt shook his head.

"The training is important. But the qualities have to be there from the beginning. You can't teach courage and honesty. There's a basic openness and lack of malice in Will."

"You know," she said confidentially, "when I was a child, I always said I was going to marry him."

Inwardly, he smiled at her words. When I was a child. She was barely more than a child now, he though. Then he changed his mind. She was a NATO diplomat. An apprentice of Pauline. She wore the white uniform and that meant she was much more than a child.

"You could do a lot worse," he said finally, and she glanced across at him.

"Really?" she said. "Do you think diplomats and SA's make a good match, Halt?" Her tone was just too innocent, too casual. He knew exactly what she was getting at and this time he wasn't going to be drawn. He was not going to be drawn. He was not going to discuss any relationship that might or might not have existed between himself and the beautiful Ms. Pauline.

He met her gaze very evenly for some moments, then said, "I think we might need to try and sleep for a bit. We don't want to experience too much of a jetlag."

Alyss' mouth twitched with a smile again. But this times it was a slightly rueful one.

"You can't blame a girl for trying," she said.