171 The Colonel

Aldrich waited for the mysterious military man to respond, and after a few extra seconds of silence, he did.

"Do you understand the position you're in right now?" said the man gruffly.

"No. Why don't you tell me?" said Aldrich.

"Don't get smart with me," said the man as his brow scrunched up in displeasure.

"Smart with you? First, you have to convince me that you're even worth the effort," said Aldrich.

"You son of a-," The man caught himself and took in a deep breath, calming himself. When he spoke again, his words had a threatening edge to them. "You have no idea where you're going. You could be getting tossed deep into a prison pit with your key thrown out and forgotten.

You might think yourself strong, but you have no way out of this, not with the Null containment screwing you over.

You still want to put up an attitude?"

"I see, so we're starting off with a threat," said Aldrich. "Quite a harsh way to start off congratulating the man who saved an entire city, no?"