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Chapter 10

Flash Back

''Captain! Captain, red alert we've been spotted!'' I jerked to a stop and glanced over at the captain. Captain Roderick was an old man who usually sat stooped over silently watching his crew with an absent minded smile atop his captain's seat.

''Spotted? Who when?'' He asked lazily. I sighed

''Captain, may I take over the investigation on this matter for the time being?'' His laziness was evident when he was dealing with something he didn't care for or didn't seem all that important to him. It wasn't that he didn't do a great job... he just sometimes took a long time to do a great job when it wasn't an emergency and evidently being spotted by a possible civilian/spy wasn't viewed as an emergency by the kind captain.

''Go on right ahead, I'm gonna go... sleep.'' Despite the tense air everyone in the control room took a moment to sigh in exasperation before hurriedly going back to their duties.

'I'm gonna go... sleep' was code for I'm gonna go have a beer.

Smiling somewhat tensely I said

''Of course... captain.'' He smiled and stood up bringing him to his full height. Sitting in the chair hid the fact that he was actually on the short side about 5'3. He wasn't fat but he wasn't slim either with slight defining lines which indicated some muscle underneath his build, with silvering hair that used to be a mahogany brown and dark brown thoughtful eyes, the use to be Canadian was an interesting character to say the least.

''But Rosie please contact me when you know who this person is and do tell me what you think should be done.'' I twitched hiding a delighted smile and said

''Please refrain from calling me Rosie, Captain.'' He grinned.

''And please don't call me Captain, Rosie.'' I smiled and suppressed a giggle as did most of the crew. This little conversation was a reoccurring event. I may be rebellious and carefree but I did follow protocol and protocol demanded that I call him Captain.

I turned away and walked over to Derek. He is the head of communications.

''Alright what happened.'' He opened up a page on the computer with a grainy picture of a girl about my age meaning 14.

''Yes Co-Captain Hathaway. At hour thirteen a young girl by the name of Mia Rinaldi was found looking out to sea with binoculars. I did not think much of it at the time... sir. But afterwards I did a standard check online for any mention of a submarine in the area. Apparently sir, she started discussing submarines with a friend. When she was about to tell her friend of the sighting I cut off her internet connection and immediately reported it to Captain Roderick.''

Rinaldi... It struck a bell.

''Demand an electrical outage for the area then do a full search on her family, friends and anything else then report it to me as soon as your done.'' He nodded slowly a little unsure but then said

''Yes Co-Captain Hathaway.'' I with held my sigh and went back up to the Captains seat. With Roderick passed out somewhere on the ship I was in charge. The thing with that though is that the crew having only had to listen to my orders for the last couple weeks have difficulty accepting that a fourteen year old has a higher position then themselves who had been working and studying for almost the same length of time that I've been alive. I understood their discomfort wold I be happy with having a teenage girl who shouldn't even have any kind of responsibilities let alone a high ranking position in the VA I would hardly be the least of all things happy to have someone like that as my superior but they would have to deal with it as surely as I would have. Some of course accepted me right away. Those in the control room... well they knew the importance of what they had to do and if a single not well thought order was given we could be in deep shit. They still followed the orders, they just took a little more time in completing them.

''Position please keep depth within ten thousand feet and fifteen thousand feet but as close to shore as possible.''

''Yes Co-captain Hathaway.'' This CO-Captain Hathaway thing was getting on my nerves, but if I told them to call me Rose they would see me as an incompetent little girl. I weighed the chance of success over failure before saying,

''And please this is a request you don't have to but please don't be so formal with me, call me Rose, Rosemarie or even Hathaway.'' A pregnant pause followed before an uncertain

''Yes...sir.'' I sighed quietly with a mental 'that was a fail' ringing in my head before Derek said

''Co-Cap-ugh I mean Rosemarie. Mia Rinaldi is the heir to the Rinaldi Corporation, her family is a strong supporter of VA. Though officially she has been told nothing of us. Her friends are apart of the 'popular' group at the private school she attends. She receives excellent grades and is not known for causing trouble and capable of holding her tongue. Her parents are Vivica and Sebastian Rinaldi. They-''

''Vivica and Sebastian? Are you absolutely certain of that?'' I said cutting him off.

''Yes-'' He said and I cut him off again

''Look up if they used to have a guard by the name of Janine either Mazur or Hathaway.'' There was a silent pause that weighed down on everyone and people turned back to look at me i could feel the weight of their stares like a weight on my shoulders but I ignored them.
Derek was busily typing away on the computer he paused and I demanded

''Derek did they ever have a guard bu the name of Janine Mazur or Hathaway?'' He nodded

''Yes a Janine Hathaway died in action while taking care of Mrs, Mr and Miss Rinaldi four years ago.'' I gently closed my eyes. I had already known of her fate but hearing it like this made it more concrete.

''Thank you Derek.'' He turned and looked over at me

''No problem Hathaway.'' I smiled cheekily at him hiding my pain and said.

''I hope your calling me that because you want to.'' he smiled sadly

''Of course.'' It was well known through out the ship that I did not respond well to pity.

''Alright I want you to send a suggestion on my part to Titania saying I suggest we have Mia incorporated into the VA system.'' A nod and he began to type. Pulling out the pager Roderick gave me I told him of my suggestion he agreed and it was sent.

I closed my eyes sharply against the memory.

The next day we pulled into a VA station I'd learned of the massacre.

The crew never questioned my orders afterwards and returned to calling me Co-Captain Hathaway. I almost smiled at the thought. One step forward and four huge steps back.

Our first glimpse of the tortured Rose... Tell me what you think!

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