The Board of Directors had quickly assembled when Tobias called ahead to inform them he'd be giving his report in person. Even the head scientist of the Q-Bullet Program was present, standing off to one side near Dakota.
"He's in the building." Alice suddenly informed them, thanks to her sonar.
Minutes later, Tobias arrived, carrying the - much lighter - backpack on his back, his gun case in one hand, and a dossier in the other.
Stopping in the fairly large space between the door and the table, he waited until all eyes were on him before speaking. "I was greeted by one Director Ryan, who, along with his leading field agents, personally utilized the arsenal of firearms I'd provided to test fire the first installment of specialized Q-Bullets. One member, having admitted to not using a firearm in his field work, was provided with my personal Quinque Steel combat knife. I have here their personal evaluations of each of the four types of ammunition, which includes an evaluation of the knife's performance from the outlying agent. Finally, they've agreed to the terms detailed in the contract that was forwarded beforehand, and have officially signed on. The CCG will now be utilizing our Q-Bullet Program as an affiliate for their ammunition."
The entire Board started to applaud, and with a nod to Alice, he held up the dossier. She used her Telekinesis to collect it, then opened the cover, smirking at the officially signed business contract staring her right in the face.
"There is also an added clause they wished to convey." Tobias continued, which immediately silenced the clapping. "They were so pleased by the performance of my personal knife, they requested that Quinque Steel knives, just like mine, be the topic of the next potential contract between the CCG and Umbrella Corporation."
Wesker seemed keenly interested by the idea. "Alright, Captain Darkwood, have weapons development take a look at your knife, so that we can begin the design and manufacture of more. Excellent idea, letting them use the weapons themselves. We'd actually expected you to merely showcase the rounds, not let them actually fire them. How did they like your revolver, by the way?"
Now that his report was over - and it was a personal question - he smiled as he lowered his gun case to crack his knuckles very loudly. "The first man, a very tall and strong guy, looked like he'd crapped himself when he fired it for the first time, which also caused everyone else to stop shooting to stare at it. The next agent, a fairly small woman, nearly landed on her ass when she fired it. The last agent, a really young one - the knife user - was given a quick tutorial on how to fire it, after he'd requested to attempt firing after the woman fell over. He was blown back several paces, stumbling against a wall."
"Too much gun for them to handle, huh?" Wesker smiled, remembering the quite painful recoil of the massive magnum when he'd fired it himself. "You're dismissed, Captain."
Grabbing the gun case, he left the boardroom, quickly followed by the scientist for the Q-Bullet Program.
"Are there any issues reported with that batch of ammunition? I was unable to view the evaluations." He hurried to keep pace with Tobias' longer strides until they reached the elevator to the lobby.
"'It wasn't big enough.'" Tobias replied, pressing the down button to take them to the lobby. "They actually said it once they'd fired all the availible ammunition. I had to remind them that my vest's rifle and sidearm pouches are loaded with normal lead rounds, since they were staring at my gear when the last of the rounds were fired."
"Have they placed their first shipment order?" The scientist asked as the elevator opened and they stepped inside.
"I provided them with the Q-Bullet Program's proper contact information, but otherwise, I do not know that. It's possible they'd like to give us time to establish a stockpile before requesting a shipment." Tobias pressed the button for the lobby, reaching for his radio attached to his gear belt and turning it back on after his task that afternoon. He quickly inserted the earpiece into his ear, adjusting the volume. "Captain Darkwood, reporting in. I've returned from my assigned task with the Commission for Counter-Ghouls. I've just given my report to the Board of Directors."
"Copy that, Captain. You've been assigned to patrol route fifteen in Sector Six, head there now." the central security station's communications officer's voice spoke up in his ear.
"Copy that." Tobias replied, releasing the microphone button on his shoulder.
Later that evening, after clocking out with central security, Tobias knocked on Alice's office door, still in full kit and uniform.
"Yes?" Alice's voice came from within, so he opened the door to see her reading his report from the CCG demonstration. "Ah, hey there, Toby. How was your shift?"
"Patrol duty. I was just checking in to see if you were heading home early or not." Tobias stepped inside, shifting his G36 to let it hang by his side instead of across his chest.
"I've still got a quite bit left to do." Alice gestured to three more files stacked beside his own report. "If you've got a minute, I've got a few questions about your trip to the CCG HQ."
"Are you asking as my boss, or as my mother?" Tobias raised an eyebrow teasingly as he closed the door behind him and sat in the chair before her desk.
"As your boss, but I don't mind dropping the formalities." Alice counter-teased with a smile. "I'm just curious about how things went outside the demonstration and negotiations."
"Well, for one thing..." Tobias pulled the shoulder strap for his rifle off his body, placing the weapon between his knees. "They have a security system right in the main entrance that's designed to detect the RC cells in Ghouls."
"How'd you get past it?" Alice narrowed her eyes. "Our RC cells are both over 1700, Issacs has shown me all of our samples, including Kaneki... his is over 2500."
"The detectors resemble metal detectors, so Director Ryan noticed that I was removing my guns and gear, and explained what they were... then explained that - at the time - they were disabled for emergency maintenance."
"And when you were leaving?" Alice asked. "Where they still offline?"
"No, actually." Tobias shook his head. "I passed through, and it gave... how do I describe it..." He paused, stroking his lip with his thumb for several seconds. "It made a 'positive' sounding single beep. I asked Ryan what it meant, and he said that the system was back online, and said that it verified that I was not detected as a Ghoul. He then said 'If it buzzed, then we wouldn't be having this conversation, would we?'"
Alice laughed slightly. "So these detection gates don't seem to detect your RC cells... I wonder if it's because you, Kaneki and me were manufactured Ghouls? Tabitha and Rize were born Ghouls, so maybe that might have an effect?"
"I could head back to the CCG at some point, and request that one be provided to Umbrella for security purposes. I could reference that Ghoul fight earlier this summer when we first met Ryan." Tobias suggested. "We would only need one of the detectors, honestly."
"Only one?" Alice asked.
"Yeah, for the main entrance... After we've had our time to test it with us T-Ghouls." Tobias glanced at her for a moment. "Are there any other Ghouls that are working here?"
"Wolfpack, the five of us, Dakota, Malcolm, and about twenty five other employees from various departments." Alice listed them off quickly, then paused before adding as an afterthought. "Wait, Wolfpack's like you, me and Kaneki... they were all manufactured."
"We'll hang onto that theory until we get our hands on one of those detectors." Tobias reminded her. "My next guard shift is on Friday, so it'd be best that I go to the CCG in uniform again, so that they'd understand it's official business."
"Good idea." Alice nodded in agreement. "Anyway, you can head home now, I'll probably be back in an hour or so."
"Alright, anything you want done at home until you get back?" Tobias asked. Despite the mansion's domestic staff, he still had things that needed to be done or specifically required his attention in some way.
"If you could keep Kaneki and Tabitha under control, that'd be great. Rize called me earlier to let me know they weren't exactly... 'behaving.'"
"I see..." Tobias stood up, clicking his rifle's safety back on after it had accidentally gotten clicked to Semi-auto.
"Be gentle, alright, and for the love of god, don't shoot Kaneki again." Alice heard the click, and assumed he was implying he'd hurt Kaneki into submission.
"I wasn't planning on it." Tobias replied. "Besides, I know you heard the click. But don't get the wrong idea, I just set the safety on, I jostled the select fire to Semi-auto when I stood up."
"Oh..." Alice realized her mistake. "But doesn't hurt to remind you, does it?"
"No, it doesn't. See you when you get home, Alice." Tobias left the office with a smile tugging at his lips.
"What's this I heard about you two misbehaving?" Tobias asked the moment he'd pushed the doors to the living room open, still in uniform and his full kit. "I don't have the patience to babysit you, so get to the point."
Kaneki and Tabitha turned around from watching an anime on Netflix, both having been startled by his sudden arrival.
"They've been arguing non-stop for two hours about this movie they'd found on Netflix." Rize explained as she seemed to drop her book and shoot up from the nearest armchair to give him a happy kiss. "How was work, Captain?" She whispered teasingly as he gladly returned the kiss.
"I had to do a weapons demonstration, then I was on patrol duty for the rest of the afternoon." Tobias explained. "New ammo prototypes for the Q-Bullet Program."
"Aw, nothing entertaining, huh?" Rize asked, her arms still linked around the back of his head.
"It was for the CCG... In their HQ."
At his words, Rize, Tabitha and Kaneki showed varying degrees of shock. The first to recover was Kaneki, who asked in his usual soft-spoken voice. "How'd you bypass their RC detectors?"
"When I went inside, they were disabled for maintenance, when I left, the repairs were completed, and I just had the balls to go right through without realizing they were online. It seems like I can just walk right through them and be deemed 'human'." Tobias explained. "Did you seriously expect me to fight my way out? I'm in full uniform, you fool."
"So you're a manufactured Ghoul too, huh?" Kaneki - surprisingly - ignored the insult, instead asking the question curiously.
"So is Alice." Tobias replied. "Why, does that have an effect on their detectors?"
"I can walk through them too. And my RC cell count is over 2500." Kaneki explained before turning back to the anime on the screen. "Do you know what your count is?"
"1700's. Not that it really concerns you." Tobias replied, turning to Rize for a moment. "I'll be right back, just want to get out of my uniform."
"Alright, take your time, sweetie." Rize released him from her embrace and returned to her armchair and book.
Tobias spun on his boot heel, heading upstairs and was already working at the various clips and clasps for his gear. By the time he opened his bedroom doors, all he had to do was pull the bulletproof vest off his body and unbuckle the straps holding his leg holster and ammo pouches to his thighs. His G36 was held in one hand by the carrying handle.
First placing his rifle against the side of his desk and removing the magazine, he cleared the chamber before placing the bullet back in the transparent plastic magazine and storing it inside his ammo drawer. Next, he was sliding his VP9's out of the holsters, then placed them on center of his desk. He lifted the body armour over his head and stored it in the black metal crate sitting at the end of his bed on the floor. He quickly removed his leg holster, ammo pouches, and gear belt, unclipping his radio from the belt before placing everying inside the crate. He spun on his heel, then placed the radio into the charger that he'd decided to place on his desk.
Finally, he only had to remove his knee and elbow guards, plus his boots. Then he'd just have to change clothes, and that was it.
After he'd changed into a more comfortable black t-shirt and black pants, he shrugged on his holsters, slid his VP9's into their real holsters, sheathed his knife and mounted it in place where it belonged on his shoulder. Lastly, he slid his arm back into the familiar embrace of his armoured sleeve, clasping it closed as he returned downstairs, holding the book that Rize had given him for his birthday, finally deciding to read it.