Chapter Seven: Under New Management
Torri stared in disbelief at the older woman standing so close to Lydecker, intimately close, or maybe it was the touch of jealousy she suddenly felt as she regarded the woman. Perhaps it was the fact that the woman felt instinctively like a threat to her… a threat to her personally, a threat to her working relationship with Lydecker, and a threat to her position as the second in command here at the base. She slowly let out the breath that she hadn't even realized she was holding. She nodded courteously, if slowly, "Ma'am," She said, subconsciously realizing that the woman was of much higher rank than she was.
Lydecker regarded Torri closely seeming to weigh her reaction to the new player in this little scene. After a few moments he seemed to get the answer he wanted from her, for he spoke again, "Bryn is here as a representative of the Committee."
Torri felt her insides twist at the word, the Committee was a volatile lot of individuals. Their "interests" changed seemingly on a whim often leaving those who worked under them in the dark about the new objective. Lydecker had suffered his share of the ill winds of change in the Committee's eyes, his stories had made even her shudder. And they had certainly not become more benign with the passage of time and the entrenchment of their organization. Even the recent events concerning the experimentation on the X-5 had been tampered with by that group of men and women turning a reclamation effort into a grotesque twist in their objective. If they had their hands in this mess then there was going to be hardships on the part of her team. Lydecker cleared his throat, seeing the look of concern glaze over Torri's features. She tried to suppress the startlement at the sound. She focused her eyes again turning her attention back to what Lydecker was relaying.
"Your news is rather fortuitous, actually," he informed her leaning back in his chair and setting down his pen. Torri immediately noticed that this "Bryn" sidled just a touch closer to him. She realized then that Bryn seemed to be feeling threatened by what she sensed existed between Torri and Lydecker, "This man… Logan Cale… he has piqued the Committee's interest. They want him… as I do, because of the singularly unique quandary his ability poses. Nowhere have they seen these kinds of results on a normal human being. To be honest the thought of experimenting on Norms with Manticore blood had not even occurred to them… or me," he said raising his eyebrows.
"They want to find out if his changes are a fluke, or whether it would work across the board on any human… before they invest time and money on any research in that area. Therefore… the committee has authorized a team to be formed for this man's retrieval. You and Kenai will be included in the team, use your judgment on the soldiers that you wish to accompany you, no more than six," Torri felt herself stand more erect with the pride that she had been chosen to lead and of being given the latitude to pick her own people for the operation. Lydecker dashed her pride a moment later, as he added, "Bryn will lead the team… the committee has given her broad authority in this matter, but," and He included Bryn in his warning look, "Mr. Cale is to be taken alive, in good shape and returned here for a full battery of tests."
All three of them nodded in eerie unison, "What of the others, Sir?" Kenai asked, and Torri glared back at him for speaking out of turn yet again.
"What about them? Do what you have to, to get a lead on Max, follow her and she will in turn lead you to her husband. After you get the information you need out of them dispatch them."
"Yes sir!" All of them said as one.
Torri would have liked to have spoken with Lydecker alone after that, but she was not given an opportunity to do so. Lydecker dismissed them and she found herself walking briskly next to the X-5 who was now her superior, like it or not. She glanced over at the taller woman, who did nothing but look straight ahead of her, hands clasped behind her back, and her thoughts seemed miles from this place.
Bryn stopped abruptly causing Torri and Kenai to stop awkwardly next to her. Bryn turned to face Torri and Kenai, "I will expect a roster of names for those accompanying us," She drew out the "us" as if she found the thought of having to work with others distasteful, "by 0500 tomorrow morning, briefing for the mission will be at 0800."
"Yes Ma'am," Torri replied automatically. Boy she was setting the timeline tight, "When are you planning to execute, if I may ask, Ma'am?"
She glanced back at Torri as if she had heard some far off sound, her eyes not even focused on Torri's face, "We will be on the road by no later than 1200."
Torri felt her jaw clench, realizing that Bryn had now set it so that she would be up all night getting preparations in order if she was going to meet that deadline. Torri resisted the urge to step back as Bryn closed the distance between them and looked down into Torri's face, "Is there a problem X-8-222?"
It was a challenge, though Torri couldn't tell why there was a need, she would follow her superiors' orders if it were Satan himself giving the commands. Part of her was for rising to that bait, but her senses warned her that it could prove deadly, "No problem Ma'am," Torri replied evenly despite her rising anger, "The team and supplies will be ready by the appointed time. You will have the names of the party on your desk by tonight."
She watched as Bryn's eyes narrowed as if assessing for some hidden resentment or insubordination, then relaxed when she could make no breach of propriety apparent, "Good" she said straightening and quickly resumed a professional demeanor, "Begin preparations immediately. You're dismissed."
Smartly she turned on her heel and strode away from the two younger soldiers.
She heard Kenai sigh in relief behind her, "Damn," he muttered, "What a cast iron bitch!"
"Normally I'd have your ass for a statement like that," She said as she looked down the hall that Bryn had gone, "But I'm afraid I have to agree with you on that one."
Torri was as good as her word, better even. She had gotten the list of names together, gathered those individuals she thought were best suited for this kind of operation, and gave them a general brief on what was expected of them and what time to be at the rendezvous point. With Kenai's help she managed to organize everything and get it staged for the next day's events. Thankfully, because of his help she was actually able to catch a couple of hours of sleep before that morning's brief.
That morning Bryn looked smug about running Torri ragged. Torri noticed however that Bryn was trying to suppress the look of surprise for the accomplishment of the near impossible task that she had set before Torri. Torri only smiled a small smile at her discomfiture and nodded. She had not done it for the older Manticore, oh of course it was a small part of it following her orders, but it was more than that for Torri, she was highly proud of her job. She would no more do a bad piece of work than stop breathing, it was not in her nature. She had yet to mess up any challenge presented her and she was not about to start now.
Bryn looked over the troops and then the lists seeming to find Torri's choices acceptable. From there she quickly briefed them all on the objective and the means by which those objectives would be achieved. The troops looked eager to be on their way, eager to test their mettle even more so because they were after Transgenics.
All of them were junior, picked for their outstanding performance during the recent unrest. Each had shown exceptional restraint, and had continued to perform their duties to the utmost of their ability even when all around them was chaos. Torri appreciated a person who could not only follow an order and respect their superiors, she also admired someone who had enough individuality to not follow the lemmings among them off of a cliff. It was with that foremost in her mind that she had chosen the norm soldiers to accompany them on this mission.
Bryn stepped up to Torri, "Everything seems to be in order," She said in a stern even voice, "Well done," she said almost as if she was going to choke on the words, "The troops are yours to command X-8-222. You will report directly to me," In the back of her mind she wondered momentarily if that wasn't so Bryn could keep and eye on her.
"Yes Ma'am, and Thank you," She said despite her suspicions, deciding it was better not to read too much into what the woman was telling her.
Kito unlocked the door to the apartment and stepped inside sighing heavily. The only thing on his mind at the moment was taking a long hot shower. It seemed that summer had finally come to the Great Northwest, making his already hot and sweaty job miserable. It must have been in the upper eighties by noon today. The day's events had done nothing to make Kito's life easier either. His muscles shook from strain and his whole body hurt. It had been a long time since he had done that much lifting, even when he had still been in Manticore.
The past several weeks, Kito had found that he had been starting to relax, he was no longer constantly plagued by the thoughts of how much he missed his old life at Manticore. He was finally… adjusting, making new friends with his coworkers, laughing at their jokes, even the dumb ones. He was starting to be accepted by the team and being included in their discussions and even invited out "with the boys".
Then something had happened today threatening to tear that trust he had finally built up down to square one yet again. Or at least it felt that way to Kito. What would they say about him now? He would be lucky if they would let him on the lot after today.
They had been attempting to get the last frame, for the house they were constructing, in place and braced until they could join the pieces at the corners. It had been hoisted about halfway to its final spot when the cable brake on the crane had failed. There had been five men and women steadily bracing the wall as it rose when the cable gave way. The frame twisted down opposite of where they had been working destabilizing the brace. The frame jumped free of the brace and then landed back upon it, spitting it out like a toothpick and the section had slammed heavily down onto the shoring team. Kito had been across the grounds on his usual job stacking cords of wood. He had heard the squeal as the cable slipped through the failed brake and the screams of people as they realized the precariousness of their position. Then the dreadful ground shaking thud as the frame landed. He had been in motion before the dust had fully risen.
Without thinking Kito had rushed in, arriving well before any of the others could arrive. And in his driving need to free the team he had given himself away to any onlookers when he had begun to raise the several thousand pounds of wood and steel by himself. He must have had it raised six inches when he had remembered himself and pretended to struggle with it in an attempt to cover the slip until sufficient numbers had gathered to lend their strength to the effort.
Several of his co-workers had seemed to notice though, for they had looked at him oddly and had given him enough space that two could have stood to either side of him as they lifted the bulk of the frame off of their friends. His gut had twisted at the sight of their faces, feeling suddenly very transparent to them, like they now knew his whole past just by that one slip in judgement.
They had quickly scrambled more to move the five of them free of the frame. Barney and Josephine had suffered two broken legs and a broken ankle respectively, Terry, who had ended up under Barney had suffered a concussion and some bruised ribs. Bill had suffered a broken arm in his attempt to throw himself free of the falling structure.
None of the other four had suffered as much as Arney had, he had been tripped in the confusion landing face first on the ground nearest the apex where the wall and the ground met. The frame had hit him square in the small of the back breaking his pelvic bone and shattering his spine irreparably. He had suffered massive internal injuries. Arney had been in surgery for nearly six hours as they worked to repair his broken body. They had said that there was no hope of him ever walking again. Kito shuddered at that thought, unable to imagine being paralyzed. Kito had accompanied them to the hospital, watching as they did what they could for Arney at the same time that they patched up the rest of the crew that had been hurt. He had stayed for hours by Arney's bedside, sitting by the window and just watching him, unable to speak though he had wanted to, unsure even if he could find his voice what he would say to the still unconscious man.
Arney's injury had hit him particularly hard. Arney was the one person who had taken Kito under his wing and had helped him learn the ropes. He was older probably in his forties, he had a stern weathered face with deep crows feet at the corners of his eyes, from squinting, or laughing…. Or perhaps both. White had started to cloud the blue color in his all-seeing eyes adding to the wizened air about him. He was tall and rugged looking with just a hint of a gut starting. His manner was gruff and straight to the point, and it had reminded him a lot of his former drill instructors. It must have been the reason Kito had come to like the man so much. And because of that he felt somehow guilty that Arney had gotten hurt.
Logic told Kito that it wasn't his fault that it was dumb luck that the cable brake decided to go when it had. Logic did not ease the terrible feeling in his gut for the results of that accident however. He shook his head laughing shortly, "That is what happens when you let sentiment seep in," He thought sardonically. But then again… he was no longer a soldier, no longer one with the whole that had been his life. It was high time for him to let go of that mentality and settle into this confusing, unfathomable, and sometimes wondrous co-existence with the outside world. The resentment for feeling suddenly evaporated then and he took a deep breath feeling as if someone had taken a weight off of his shoulders with that decision.
He smiled to himself as he took off his cap and set it on the table by the door. He was about to set down his keys when he heard it, the scuff of a boot on the hardwood floor in his dining room.
"Tima?" he said drifting the direction of the kitchen key ring suddenly clutched in his hand. There was a feeling of wrongness to the house suddenly, "Tima, is that you?" He asked stupidly, knowing deep down that whoever it was it was not Tima. She was the type that would meet him at the door at the end of a day, not skulk around in the dark trying to unsettle him.
He stepped in looking past the small dining table that took up the open space of the kitchen floor. He saw no one, which did nothing to ease his wariness. He felt the presence of someone behind him and spun quickly finding a taller oriental woman stepping out of the shadows of the hall into the doorway. She cocked her head to one side, as she looked him over. Kito did not recognize the woman, but he tensed as he recognized what she was wearing and therefor represented. She wore a black infiltration suit that was tailored to fit her like a glove and she moved with the easy grace of a predator. Her dark eyes were cold and measuring and her face held no expression. Then Kito knew her for what she was, she was Manticore, and she was a Transgenic. Kito unconsciously slid into a position of defense as he regarded her trying to keep his own anxiety from showing on his face.