Trojan
Chapter Nine: Dangerous Secrets
It's funny how people never seem to realize that most emergencies don't require a crew the size of an army to deal with them. Apparently the People weren't an exception to this. Laton sighed, rather melodramatically in his opinion, the stress must be getting to him, as a task force of at least fifteen fairies rushed to his aid, well, Captain Short's aid. It appeared that not everyone held her responsible for the recent disaster. While that was certainly something she would be glad to hear when she woke up, it really didn't help right then, when he was slightly worried about being knocked off his feet by the mob of frantic mediwizards. It certainly didn't help that he was already off balance due to carrying an unconscious Recon officer.
Reluctantly, Laton handed Holly off to the mediwizards, who promptly dumped her on a stretcher, and disappeared through a set of double door. He stared at the doors for a second, his mind drifting as he considered something. Unfortunately, he never go to act on his quickly formulate plan, as it was then that Commander Root decided that he wanted to have a word with the LEP's newest addition. The Commander tapped Laton on the shoulder, clearing his throat at the same time. It took a rather large amount of self-control on Laton's part not to snap at his superior officer. "Yes sir?" He asked, in what he considered to be a polite tone. Apparently it wasn't quite polite enough for the Commander's liking, or maybe it was something else bothering Root.
"I'd like to speak to you for a moment rookie. In my office." Root announced. "Actually, Foaly, the paranoid technician you met earlier, wants to speak to you for a minute. So we'd better go to the Ops booth." Root sighed, shaking his head, a clear sign of how much of a toll the past twenty-four hours had taken on him. "Sometimes I wonder just who is in control here." Nodding for Laton to follow him, he led the way to the Operations Booth, muttering incoherently to himself as they walked through the maze of corridors. Not for the first time, Laton considered drawing himself a map.
Root opened the door for the junior officer in an unusual display of cordiality. Letting Laton enter first, he shut the door softly behind himself. Laton glanced back at the Commander, wondering if he was sick. Never had he known the man to be quite so calm, and, well, nice, for lack of a better word. Waiting inside for them was the centaur, a disturbingly grave look on his face. Laton looked back at Root again, searching for an explanation, but the Commander didn't look any more enlightened than himself. Sighing, Laton turned his attention back to the technician. "Yes?" If he had been thinking, he might have taken a moment to glance at one of the smaller computer monitors behind Foaly. Unfortunately, this was not the case.
"How did you do it?" The centaur asked suddenly, staring at his intently. Commander Root narrowed his eyes at Foaly, wondering just where this was going. Laton stared at him for a second as well, taken aback.
"Excuse me?" He asked, a look of confusion, genuine or otherwise, on his face. Foaly scowled at him, clearly not appreciating his refusal to co-operate.
"Don't play with me. I'm not stupid. I have registered the most patents of any fairy, that doesn't just happen because of coincidence. I already know, so don't bother playing dumb. Just tell me how, I've been playing with the idea for years and haven't managed to figure it out, there are always either side affects, or some sort of drawback. And considering you actually made it this far, obviously you've gotten around that." Foaly's eyes were shining with the obvious excitement he always felt when confronted with a challenge. Laton considered the techie's words carefully, considering his options. Unfortunately, there didn't appear to be too many. "Oh come on, I know the bracelet's the catalyst, just give me a hint at least."
"If you know that much," Laton said slowly. "How did I get this far?"
Foaly smiled wryly. "It only slipped into place when I saw you in the surveillance cameras I have in front of the Police Plaza. Nice gloves by the way. I take it you haven't been able to sidestep the one obvious drawback quite yet?"
"No, no I haven't, it's a tricky one." Laton shrugged. "I'm not too concerned with that though, if you were able to detect it so quickly, there are other flaws that need work first." Foaly at least had the grace to look insulted. Sighing, Laton fiddled with the bracelet on his wrist, which, as Foaly had guessed, was the catalyst for the entire thing. There was no point in pretending anymore, if the centaur knew, he knew, and that was that. Glancing at Root again, he noticed the glazed look in the Commander's eyes and realized the man probably hadn't heard a word either of them had said since they entered the booth.
"I take it she doesn't know?" Foaly asked, glancing at a screen behind him quickly before turning back to Laton. A quick appraisal told Laton the screen displayed a section of the Police Plaza that had been sectioned off to heal any injured officers, more specifically, Holly.
He shook his head slightly. "No, no. What do you think I am, crazy?"
"It's been considered." Foaly admitted, before his curiosity got the better of him. "I just have to know though, why?" He paused for a second before adding, "And if you don't mind, take off the bracelet."
"That's for me to know and you to-" Laton told him.
"Yeah, yeah, for me to find out, I know the rhyme. Aren't you a little old for that?" Foaly asked. "And the bracelet if you please-?" He held out a hand, not expecting to be given it willingly. When it wasn't dropped into his hand, he sighed. It being expected didn't make it any less aggravating. "Fine," He muttered, "we'll do it the hard way. Commander? Time to wake up, I need you to shoot the rookie if he doesn't give me his bracelet in five, four…"
Root looked up from his corner, where he had quite nearly nodded off to sleep. "Huh? Oh, sure." He pulled his blaster from its holster with slight difficulty, but trained it on Laton with deadly accuracy. Laton sighed.
"If you insist." Undoing the clasp on his bracelet as slowly as possible without getting knocked out by a trigger happy Root, Laton's mind was working in overdrive. There didn't appear to be anyway out of the situation that he could see, and if he couldn't see it, it didn't exist. So, sighing again, he slipped it from his wrist and dropped it into Foaly's outstretched palm. "There, happy now?" He grumbled, rubbing his wrist lightly.
"Oh, very." Foaly said with a devious grin on his face. "But I don't think Holly will be."
AN: I'm sorry it's so short, and I'm sorry it's been so long but… Well… Uh. Okay, no excuses I know, sorry, sorry. But it's late. And I have a Latin test tomorrow. So, yes. I must go. But maybe I'll give you another chapter soon? Like by the end of the week? Who knows? I bet you can guess who it is now, can't you? Anyway, gotta go, so, uh, I hope you enjoyed it, and, uh, sorry it took so long cough. Right. Ta ta!