Harrison's POV
It was like any other day for Harrison. He'd looked over the reports from each squad and made his own report of the on-goings within his department to send to Max. That took up most of the day. But now he was stood with Max in the Control Room watching the screens for any activity from the Factionless. Just recently there had been more ambushes on several of the squads. To anyone else they'd seem like random attacks but to Harrison, they were planned. Well thought out too. Max thought the same also when Harrison brought it up in the last Leaders meeting. All they had to do now was find the link between them, which was easier said than done.
The two Leaders stood on a raised platform in the centre of the room overlooking the screens around them. Blake sat at one of the screens to his right as he took notes on the Factionless' movements within the borders of Abnegation before he switched to the next camera. Along the sides of the room were several offices with sliding doors and the biggest was Four's as the head of the Control Room. Though Four now sat by the far back wall that had six large screens that flickered randomly through the cameras. Under these screens was one long row of smaller screens and Four sat in the middle, jotting now anything that seemed irregular.
Harrison's eyes looked over all of the screens. Activity was low, low enough that it set him on edge and he exchanged a glance with Max. One of the large screens switched to a camera where squadron 107 was visible as they stopped for a break somewhere in Candor. Suddenly, the radio crackled to life and gun shots could be heard in the background.
Four snatched it up immediately. "Squadron and name soldier?"
"Squadron 226, name: Rainbow." Max looks back to Harrison before striding over to Four. "We're in section Five of Factionless bordering Erudite and we have factionless throwing grenades and firing at us. Captain's down. He got shot in the leg and passed out from blood loss. Geek's conscious but unresponsive and has gone into shock. I'm unsure of the injuries of the rest, I think it's mostly cuts and bruises."
They can heard a muffled voice shouting in the background and Four looks to Max unsure of what to do. Max nods slowly. "Pull them back." Max says before pointing to another worker as he takes a step towards the door. "You. Call the infirmary and tell them I want at least a dozen staff in the garage ready for the truck. Now!" The worker hurries to the phone as Max strides out of the room and Harrison follows without a word.
The Leaders walk at a fast pace, almost jogging as they round a corner. Somewhere behind them Harrison hears incoming footsteps and soon they are joined by Eric.
"I heard everything over the radio." He panted lightly, probably from running from the Leaders' offices to the garage as it was quite a trek. Harrison's eyes narrowed at the younger Leader as they carried on, thinking he imagined the hint of fear in his grey eyes. Then it clicks. Squadron 226. Clark's squad. Issy. He should have known better after Eric switched places with Lloyds. Harrison doesn't think he's ever seen fear in Eric, the thought alone seems impossible.
A group of nurses and doctors stood waiting when they enter. Beside three of them is a stretcher and the others have small bags slung over their bodies. Harrison stands on one side of Eric with Max on the other. Now all they have to do is wait. Other squaddies stand around, curious as to what's going on. They wait ten, fifteen, twenty minutes before the truck pulls into the garage but Harrison finds himself looking anxiously around. There should be a bike following after. 'Where's Issy? Is she in the truck?' Harrison glances to his left to see the same questions in Eric's eyes as the truck reverses so the back doors are directly in front of them. The nurses by the stretcher launch forward, opening the door and carefully placing Clark onto the stretcher with the help from those in the back of the truck. As the stretcher is pushed away with three nurses on each side and a doctor following after, some of the squad pile out of the back. Two nurses guide Geek towards the while the rest check up on the others. Eric's eyes are still darting along each of the squad when he doesn't see Issy until Red helped Issy out of the passenger's side of the cab. As she stumbles Eric takes a step forward but stops when Max places a hand on his arm pulling him back slightly as he motions Eric to join him. They walk to where most of the squad is already clustered as Harrison calls out Issy's name. When Harrison gets no response he begins to walk over, calling her name again and again.
Harrison places a hand on her arm, gently, like she might bolt like a wild animal. His eyes soften when her head shoots up to look at him, eyes watery blue with lingering fear. "I've been calling you for ten minutes. Come on, we need reports of what happened on the patrol." He takes a few steps back, craning his head back to make sure she and Red are following him before he leads them down a few of the corridors before they come to a large room that has been dubbed as 'The War Room'. Generally, this is where their defences against any uprisings but due to the lack of activity it was mostly used to make plans that might not come into action. Only there was a smaller room leading off that is set aside for Leader-only plans. The rest of squadron 226 were spread around the room. Issy stops against one of the walls with Red close to her side as Harrison strides over to Max's side.
Max clears his throat. "Harrison and myself are going to interview each of you privately on your own view of what happened today. Afterwards you have all been put on leave until Clark recovers. Eric will stay in here if you have any questions." Max glances over the squad before he looks to Red and nods his head. "Red, if you'll follow us please?" Max leads the way to the smaller room as Red takes a glance at Issy before following after and Harrison bring up the rear. In the smaller room was a table with two chairs on either side. Max and Harrison took the two chairs that faced to door and Red sat down opposite Max. Harrison pulled out a pad of paper from one of the draws under the table as Max somehow acquires his own. Once Max was ready to start taking notes, he nodded to Harrison.
Harrison straighten his back, knowing that this was his department so it was his interrogation. The Leader looked at his notes to see what route the squad had been assigned before looking up. "So you were patrolling Sector 5 today of the Factionless area." He noted and Red nodded. "In the most detail you can, can you tell us what happened today Red?"
Red nodded his head again and swallowed. "It was some time before we usually took our break when we were walking through one of the less populated areas of the Factionless and it didn't feel right. I don't know how to explain it but it was just undisturbed. I think Issy felt the same and she turned to me saying that she didn't like, neither did I, and Bulldozer agreed with us. We walked for a while more and the atmosphere was the same throughout until suddenly a grenade appeared from nowhere and then there's explosions here, there and everywhere. Bulldozer stopped the truck and the rest of us on the outside took cover at the back of the truck." There was a slight shake to Red's hand as he ran it through his hair. "It felt just like that day when we lost Jem and Curley. It was so similar but thankfully the results weren't the same." Harrison frowned, stopping mid sentence as he remembered being told about the loss of the two squaddies that had so much potential. If he head called their retreat sooner they might still be alive. "Uh, we, um, we all started to panic. I'm not proud to admit it but we did. Those of the original squad two years ago, even more so. Captain got shot sometime in those moments. Honestly it was all kinda a blur so I don't actually know when he got shot and collapsed to the ground. We had no orders and quite frankly no idea what to do. There were Factionless with guns firing rapidly and closing in and we did nothing. And then –" Red barks out a bitter laugh, shaking his head. "And then I felt a cool circle touch my forehead before there was a small click." The Leaders exchanged a glance, obviously confused with where Red was going, but what he said next was far from what either of them expected. "Issy had placed her gun against my head and clicked a bullet into place."
Max's pen dropped from his hand and the Leaders' mouths dropped open. "She did not." The elder Leader screeched in surprise.
Harrison waved the other Leader off. "Carry on Red."
"After Issy did that, our whole squad just froze, ignoring everything around us, and then Issy started yelling. She said: GOD DAMMIT! I'VE ALREADY LOST ONE FAMILY MEMBER! I AM NOT PREPARED TO LOSE ANYMORE SO GET OFF OF YOUR FUCKING ARSES AND FOCUS!" From the corner of Harrison's eye, he saw Max's features soften. "And just like that we stopped panicking. Issy started firing out orders. She ordered me and Hector to get Captain and Geek in the back of the truck, Rainbow to radio into the compound and she and Billy started to shoot back. As soon as Hector and I was finished we helped Issy and Billy regain some ground and it wasn't long until Rainbow was shouting the order to pull back. We threw a couple of grenades back as we piled in the truck and Bulldozer raced us outta there."
As the Leaders wrote down the final notes Max started nodding. "Thank you Red." He glances up from the page as he finishes off and flips to a clean sheet of paper, jotting down a name. "You can go home and rest up now. Please can you send Billy in on your way out?"
"Sure."
"Thank you Red." As he leaves the room, the two Leaders exchange a surprised glance. That was not what either of them expected had happened. Harrison sighed, also flipping to a new page and writing down Billy's name at the top. He sighed and the door opened.
xXx
Billy had just left the room after describing his version. It had been slightly different from Red's due to where he stood around the truck. Before he could dwell on anything else the man had reported, the door opened again and Rainbow stepped in, closing the door behind her. She smiled slightly and sat in the chair when Max motioned her to do so.
They started the same way as they did with Red and Billy, though Rainbow's description was different from Red but very similar to Billy's as they had been stood together as they patrolled. Although when it came to her description of Issy, it was completely different once again.
"It was sudden." Rainbow had said after a pause, her eyes clouded over and the Leaders knew the scene was replaying behind her eyes. She let out a short laugh. "I mean, its Issy, most things are sudden and up-front. I remember that's something I disliked about her first. Being in a squad we don't need someone with an act-first-think-later attitude but as she opened up to us and trained with us, I realised its actually the other way round." Her features were pulled down in a frown. "But even now there's still a small part of me that gets a nagging feeling about her, and lets face it, she is a hazard." Both Leaders look at her in surprise, not expecting such Candor from the woman. "Don't get me wrong, I love her to bits and I wouldn't want anyone else watching my back in the field. Though I think that's why she worked so well during the chaos because she is chaos." Rainbow's frown deepens as a light blush darkens her pale cheeks. "Despite all that, when I saw Issy pull her gun on Red, for a second I honestly thought she was a traitor. And then she started shouting about losing family and not wanting to do it again and I hated myself for thinking such a thing. I still do. And then orders were flying from her and we complied 'cause what else could we do? Captain was on the ground and unconscious. Things seemed to work like clockwork then, everything was fluid and it felt just like we were back on the front lines in the old days. Four gave the order to fall back and we did." Rainbow shrugged simply as she finished.
"Thank you Rainbow." Harrison said as he shuffled his papers around just as Max finished writing. "If you could send in Hector on your way out." He dismissed her with a tight smile, though his eyes weren't on the squaddie in front of him but rather the word traitor on his page. As the door closed, he turned to Max. "Do you think we have a traitor in Dauntless?"
"It's not Issy." Was Max's immediate response.
"I know its not but where else would the Factionless get weapons from or even know how to learn how to fire a gun?"
Max gritted his teeth together, the Head Leader wasn't happy with the idea but that didn't mean it was entirely ruled out. It was still possible after all. "Later." He said, just as the door handle shifted down.
xXx
Harrison rubbed at his temples, hoping to rid the word traitor from his mind. After he had suggested it to Max, it had been all he could think of. 'Could there really be a traitor in Dauntless?' He thought, grumbling under his breath. After Rainbow, they had interviewed Hector and after him, the others in the squad before they finally had Issy remaining.
Harrison has never really known what to make of Issy. From everyone that's came into contact with her, they say different things and yet they're all along the same lines. But from how Issy holds herself and what she allows people to see can be very different to what others interpret. This makes her complicated and Harrison has never liked complicated people. There's just too many variables with them, too many things could happen. That's one reason why he's also slightly wary of her. Harrison never accepts the opinions of others about a person as this can lead to fault. But from the few months that she's been training within his department, Harrison is slowly building an opinion of her. Going by the reports from today, she seems okay but the Leader wants to spend more time personally overviewing the girl's progress before he has a solid opinion on her.
The door opens and Issy walks in, shaking slightly. Eric follows in after her and shuts the door. All three of the Leaders watch her as she stands in front of the table, even after Harrison had mentioned to sit down.
"You can sit down Issy." Harrison says, his head tilting as he watched her shake her head weakly.
"I don't think I'd be able to get back up again if I did so." She whispers, her light blue eyes lowered to the floor causing her to miss the worried looks that Max and Eric exchanged.
"Issy," Max sighed and Issy looked up. Harrison recognised that tone. If was one that was used frequently towards his younger daughter during dinner times. "Its been a long day. Sit down."
Eric walks forward and pulls out the chair for her as she slowly nods her head. Slumping into the chair, she let out a deep groan, letting her head fall back and closed her eyes. Eric pulled out a chair at the side of the table between the older Leaders and Issy. While Issy still had her eyes closed, Max rolled a pen to Eric across the table and passed a few sheets of clean paper to him. When Issy leaned forward and reopened her eyes, Harrison could see the golden flecks flickering clearly in her eyes; which was something she was missing a few moments beforehand.
"What happened Issy?" Max asked after a beat of silence. He looked down to the pile of paper with all of squadron 226's reports par Geek and Captain. Harrison looked through his own. "Your co-workers' descriptions are all different when it comes to the attack but when it comes to you they are all the same."
"With some questionable methods." Harrison added slowly as her scanned Red's report, ignoring the warning glance Max had fired his way. Eric, obviously having no clue of what happened, shot him a confused look. Harrison passed over the notes he had written as Issy sighed knowingly. He ignored the shake of her hand as she ran it through her hair.
"It was the only way I could snap him into focus. It was the only way I could get any of them to focus."
"Start from the beginning." The elder Leader said softly.
Issy nodded and looked down to the table top. The Leaders readied their pens in their hands, waiting for her to start. "It was just like a normal patrol. We had done this route before so Hec and I knew what to except. We stopped at the start of the sector and everyone got out of the back of the truck and got into their positions as I rolled my bike into the back and to the side, like always. Captain got out of the cab and gave us our orders." Issy frowned, her gaze not straying from the table as she spoke. "It wasn't until the halfway point, where we'd usually took a break, that it just felt off. There wasn't any factionless. At all. Last time we did that patrol if there wasn't any factionless on the streets then there was always factionless looking at us from the widows." Issy looked up and stared Max in the eye. "I voiced my thoughts to Red quietly and he agreed and told me to keep my guard up. I looked over to BD, who had overheard what I had said, and he nodded. It wasn't long before grenades were thrown our way and Captain was shot. Everything just seemed to slow down and everyone started to panic." Issy glanced back down as tears welled in her golden eyes. "It felt like my fear landscape all over again, the one where I lose my family to unknown reasons and I just froze." She sniffed once and then again, looking back up and her gaze flicked between the three as a solitary tear ran down her face and she choked out a laugh. "Instincts kicked in as I refused to see them die. I couldn't get anyone to focus, they just couldn't stop panicking and I did the only thing that popped into my mind. I placed my gun against Red's forehead but he didn't realise what was happening until I clicked the bullet into the chamber." Eric's head snaps in her direction, eyes wide in disbelief. Harrison, having heard this in five other point of views, was not as surprised but he did admire her quick thinking. That, and he understood what Rainbow meant when she said Issy is chaos. "He focused then, as did everyone else. Hec and Red carried Captain into the truck and then guided Geek in there too." She continued to describe what happened to the best of her abilities. The Leaders doted everything down as she talked and Eric flicked through the rest of Harrison's notes.
Max looks up at her tiredly. "Is there anything else? Anything else that might be note worthy?"
Issy stretched her arms above her head as she frowned. "It seemed all too personal. Out of all of us there Captain was the only on to get seriously injured. Like they were only aiming at him, not the rest of us."
Out of everything that had been said about the attack today, that was the only thing the that made he become alert. Max, thinking the same thing, looked towards him and they exchanged a meaningful look. "Thank you Issy and thank you for being able to take charge in a time of need." She nodded, her head lulling to the side a bit. "While Clark heals you and the rest of the squad are on leave. It shouldn't take him more than a week to heal." Issy nods her head again, leaning forward to rest her elbows on the table as she rubs her eyes. "You're dismissed Issy." She sighs, stretching again before she gets up slowly. Her legs shake to the point where Issy grabs onto the chair to steady herself before walking slowly to the door.
"Issy?" Eric calls out and she turns back with a hand on the door. Eric hesitates for a moment. "Have you been sleeping?"
Issy's lips twitch into a small smirk. "That's polite way of saying I look like shit Eric," She pauses as Max laughs quietly and Eric stares at her with a no-bullshit look. "But yes, I have been sleeping."
"Is my definition of sleeping different to yours?"
She looked nothing more than a mere slip of a girl then. Her eyes pale gold as she curls in on herself. "Do you actually need an answer for that?"
His eyes soften as he watches her, his chin lifting slightly is a clear way of saying the conversation is over. So with a small smile directed to the Leaders, Issy leaves the room.
Once the door shut behind her, all three of the Leaders exhale deeply. Max rubs at his temples and Eric is still staring at the door. "So I was thinking," The younger Leader started. "Do you think its possible that there's a traitor in Dauntless?"
Max sighed while Harrison nodded firmly. "That's what I said. How else would they get the weapons and the knowledge of how to use them from? You could argue that it's someone that failed Dauntless initiation but even then, where would they get the weapons?"
"Nothing has been registered as missing in the armoury." Max insisted as he pulled out his phone. "Although this seems like a perfect time do a routine check there." Max fires out an email to Ryan. Eric makes an odd noise and both Leaders turn to him. "What is it son?"
"Hugo had mentioned that often a few guns would go missing without being signed out but then would reappear within the next couple of days…" Eric stares at Max. "He told me that some new guy in the department hadn't got the hang of signing weapons in and out yet."
"When was this?"
"Just a day ago." Eric frowns. "I told him to take it up with Ryan."
"Did Hugo mention a name or anything about this guy?"
Eric looks up, his head tilted to the side in thought. "I think he said it was Zack or something?" Harrison inhales sharply as Max's head snaps up. "What?"
"Years ago, before you transferred," Harrison starts. "I was a captain of a squad, Squadron 226 to be exact. It was during Red and Bulldozer were training to be a part of the squad when there was a few small problems we had within the faction. Most of them were small riots against how the faction was being led. All of them though, were organised by a young lad, not long outta his initiation, called Zack. Clark's younger brother. It became too much and the boy became factionless by choice."
Realisation sets in and Eric looks to his notes. "'It seemed personal'" Eric quoted Issy. "Do you think he's out for his brother then?"
"We don't know if it really is Zach yet." Max shakes his head. "I'll email you my notes from the others about today and then if you get started after you've briefed your squad?"
Eric nods, deep in thought. "Maybe place a few of them around the WDS for now to watch it but subtly, we don't want this Zack to feel threatened and vanish. At the moment he's our only lead."
"Whatever you feel is best."