Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed Destiny or any of its characters.

A Spy to the Gods

Section Six

After Neil had picked me up from outside the Radford club, he took me to a small office within the same city where some staff from the SSC's Executive Branch was based. Although these guys were all paper pushers at heart, they didn't skip security for their one floor office. Heavies in suits waited outside the doors with their hands buried down the inside of their jackets, fingers brushing the butt of their pistols, ready to draw them from their shoulder holster at a moments notice. Whilst there I filled out the forms, signed this document, signed that document, fingerprint here, fingerprint there. At the end of it I had my own identification to say I was an officer of the SSC and servant to the Supreme Council, again. After three hours spent doing that Neil drove me back to his place where I stayed the night in a guest room at his apartment.

We talked for a little about what the Special Operations Section does. The difference between a special operations officer and a field officer, apparently 'Caretakers' are exclusively ex-military, no officer within the SSC, despite his or hers experience in intelligence, cannot be a 'Caretaker'. Currently the section has twelve members including Neil and myself, and they report to the Director of Operations. He explained that the number of 'Caretakers' change during the times, when the service was formed in CE68, the section comprised of three officers, he told me Kinnsman was one of these officers, at the start of the war in CE70 the numbers were boosted to a dozen or so, and throughout the war they kept recruiting replacements for those that had been killed or missing. By the end of the war, twenty-seven had been recruited in total since the services formation; Kinnsman is the only one that survived. He must be either very fortunate, or one hard bastard. During the interwar period they kept the numbers at a dozen, busying themselves with assassinations, escorting defectors, rescuing operatives in trouble, and combating Blue Cosmos terrorists away from home. I passed on any drinks he offered.

During the discussion something clicked in my head, something that should've clicked hours ago. Had we been tailed during our journey? I asked if he thought watchers followed us from Centre or ZAFT Intelligence, he said there was a Centre surveillance team following me since I had been sacked. They were probably there to track my movements till the ZAFT recruiters arrived, if I was going by the story I had been fed earlier. Once we had arrived on this colony they stopped, there was no way they could get away with a surveillance op on the SSC's home turf. I went to sleep that night on an empty stomach.

When I woke in the morning I found Neil in his kitchen cooking himself another full English breakfast. I settled for two slices of golden brown buttered toast, and a black coffee with two teaspoons of sugar. I asked what the plan was today, he said that I shouldn't worry about such things. He then went rambling on about this story, of how, when he was in Murmansk, he rescued an compromised agent before a CDI intelligence officer was able to get to him first, by getting the local informants to spread a rumour of some such of how intelligence officer was a mole for the Oceania Secret Intelligence Organisation (OSIO), just something to keep the officer off balance as well as having the CDI investigating one of their own. The rumour turned out to be true, and the officer was arrested, much to the outrage of the OSIO. The agent was able to escape from the safe house and get back to PLANT alive. The OSIO was compensated for their loss accordingly with some plans for a new weapon system of some sort. No matter how nice an ending the story had, it did little to answer my question in the first place. I asked again. He then gave me the answer I was looking; 'we're going to Thursgood House today, so you can meet the team. I think they also have a mission lined up for you as well.' 'That soon?' I asked. 'Yeah, well it was meant for someone else.' I showered, washed, shaved and cleaned my teeth to presentable standards. The clothes I wore we're some I neatly stuffed into a small backpack to take with me; Jeans, blue shirt, black shoes, and a dark polyester jacket. Neil was wearing something similar but with more formal looking trousers.

Thursgood House, headquarters of the SSC. Where as Centre was located within the busy urban environment of a bustling city, Thursgood was located in the back garden greenery a few miles outside of the city where I had met Kinnsman, well out of sight from the public eye. The buildings itself were very different to one would've expected from a high-class secret intelligence agency. Then again something that would look like a secret underground bunker from a James Bond film would look very ominous, even in this day of age. The buildings could be considered decadent, even 'ancient' to modern architects, fussy designers and home decorators. I had asked Neil about it to which he replied that it was a boy's only boarding school before it was converted in CE68. I questioned him further to why, even for a school, the designer chose such a design for a building. He said the previous owner, who paid for the costs of the school was an traditional upper class émigré from Great Britain, who based the building on the boarding school he went to when he was young. From the outside of the building I couldn't tell of anything that looked out of place from my imagination of what a boarding school would look like. However, there was the perimeter fence with the armed guards at the gate, unlike those at Centre who always had to wear their uniform, these were in civvies but even so were armed to the teeth, being donned in tactical vests with body armour, and toting a mixture of Heckler and Koch small arms ranging from the 4.46 personal defence weapon to the 5.56 assault rifle. From there, Neil drove on the grey tarmac road, which heavily contrasted with the green grass at either side of it.

The entrance to the building consisted of a large wooden door watched over my more armed guards on the outside as well as the inside of the buildings. I showed them my card to which they waved me in clear. Just beyond that door was the main lobby, a large room with a hard marble floor decorated with the large emblem of the SSC. Neil led through a number of corridors to which he said a hello to whoever he passed. I just stayed silent as I followed him. After a few minutes of walking through the maze of corridors within the heart of the building, we reached a metallic door sliding door with the lettering 'Operations Branch' written in black. Neil punches in a code in the keypad to the side of the door, and it slides open in one quick motion with a swish sound. We enter.

On the other side is a very large room with at least a two storey high ceiling. Desks are dotted around the area with slim grey computers sitting on the desks with matching colours. Suits and skirts sit at these desks talking on phones or typing something up on a computer. At the far end of this room, is a set of stairs leading up to a glass room, currently covered by grey blinds from the inside. We walk through further into the room. The air is quite cool and ventilated for a room that has no windows from what I can see. I follow two or three metres behind Neil as he strides into the room confidently.

'Morning Ricky.' Neil greets to someone, while I look at the large display. I divert my attention to the start of a conversation.

'Welcome back.' Replies a short middle-aged man in a striped shirt and loosened red tie. 'How was the trip to L4?' He asks.

'It went fine, no major problems to speak of. I tell you what though it was lucky that you booked me on the government flight.'

'Oh yes, all others were cancelled weren't they due to that EAF attack. Did you get the guy in the end? Is this him?' He asks Neil eagerly, gesturing towards me.

'Yeah, this is Jack Browning.' Neil introduces me.

'Hello, I'm Ricky Marsden.' He says as he steps forward offering his hand. 'Duty Ops Officer, I've heard a lot about you.' He finishes

'Nice to meet you.' I accept his outstretched hand and give it firm shake before letting it go.

'How's the planning coming along for the Minerva op?' Asks Neil.

'Well it was a bit rushed, but it's not too bad considering its not as high risk as the one we've got lined up for you.'

'Unless you're hit by friendly fire.' Neil says.

'It seems to be a lot of that going around.' I add.

'Yeah that's true.' Ricky laughs. 'By the way, Kinnsman is waiting for you in the briefing room.'

'Right, see you later Ricky.'

'Cheerio mate.' He says as he walks off to with a slight swagger, to whatever he's got to do. Neil continues moving towards the staircase, I follow close behind. As we get closer I notice a slightly ajar door underneath the staircase. Standing in the doorway is a petite brunette skirt. I notice that Neil is making a beeline straight for the door.

'Hello Alice.' Neil greets her with a smile.

'Don't "hello Alice" me!' She snaps with a razor sharp tongue. 'You're twenty minutes late and Mr Kinnsman is waiting for you in the briefing room.'

'Still not on a first name basis with Erik yet?' He asks with a sly grin.

'Well, you're not even that far with me, so I suggest you shut up by yourself or I'll be forced to put a cushion over your arse.' She pouts with her glossed red lips. I just watch and listen to the conversation, or sparring match rather, take place with a certain amount of intrigue.

'Is that a promise, love?' Neil grins at her, revealing is near perfect teeth.

'Piss off Neil!' She fumes with annoyance as she pushes past Neil and steps past myself. My eyes follow her arse, as it wiggles side to side as she walks back to her desk.

'Colourful lot.' I comment to Neil, my eyes still fixed on the girl. 'Certainly more fun the those zombies I met yesterday.' I finish.

'That was the Executive Branch, and before you ask, yes they are like that all the time.' He explains. What a dreary lot they were. Typical office clowns, except they don't make me laugh, but then again I don't find much humour in circus clowns either.

'Neil, Jack you're late!' I hear someone shout behind me. I turn my head to see Kinnsman now standing in the doorway with his arms folded. I'll let Neil explain it to him.

'Morning boss.' Neil greets. 'Traffic was atrocious this morning. We were stuck in a queue for twenty minutes.' He explains. Kinnsman leans forward.

'Then make sure you leave twenty minutes earlier next time. You can leave your excuses for when the war's over. Morning Jack, how are you? Better I hope?' He laughs.

'I'm feeling a little better thanks.'

'Good, because you're going to have to get stuck into your new job today.'

'What do you mean?' I ask with some confusion.

'We've got a job lined up for you already, brief is this morning.' He says. I raise my eyebrows in surprise. He registers my reaction. 'Don't look so worried; it isn't like we're going to be dropping you in the deep end.' He steps back into the room. Neil follows and so do I. The air in this room is a little stale and hot, more so then the larger Operations Room anyway. In the middle of the room is a rectangular shaped table with eight black leather chairs sitting around it. On the wall furthest from the door, is a video display of some sort. I notice a stocky looking man fiddling with some of the controls next to the monitor.

'Take a seat.' Kinnsman insists. He walks up to the stocky man to have a chat with him. I glance at Neil, who has already taken a seat on the left side of the table. I pull out the chair to the right of his, and sit myself down on it, shuffling a little to get comfortable. At the far end of the table are a number of papers and files. Other then that the grey table is bare.

'About bloody time they're here!' Exclaims the stocky man. My head snaps to his face. His lazy annoyance shows. He looks to be about in his late thirties, maybe a little older, he has dark skin and short black curly hair. And although he looks a little short, he looks like he could hold his own in a fight.

'Alright leave it at that George.' Kinnsman whispers loudly to the stocky man. I just sit back into the chair, checking to see how far it can lean back.

'Well I make the effort to get this mission sorted out within a very short timeframe, whilst I've got half a dozen more to look over, you think he could make the effort to at least turn up on time.' He complains to Kinnsman, flapping his arms around a little whilst doing so as well.

'Yes, and we're all very appreciative of your work, okay.' Kinnsman flatters the stocky man. Kinnsman turns to me. 'Jack, this is George Murdoch, head of mission planning. George this is our new boy in the Section.'

'Oh... Jose's replacement is it?' He puts his hands on his hips, instead of offering his hand. 'Just keep in mind to make your quickies quicker in future.' He motions his finger at me in very similar fashion to how a mother would usually do when scolding their child. A replacement? What happened to this Jose chap?

'I'll keep that in mind.' I inform him. I can see that George was about to speak.

'All right everyone, now that we've been properly introduced, and as colourful as it was, we've got a brief to get through. George.' Kinnsman takes a seat on the other side of the table, and turns himself in the chair so that he is facing the display. I do likewise as does Neil.

'Operation Gleck...' George begins, switching on the display to show a little presentation with the name of the operation and it's objectives listed. '… Is to have a SSC officer aboard the ZAFT ship, Minerva, to assist, advise, and liase with the Captain and crew on intelligence matters. I'm sure you're aware of the current situation that the SSC is in. As for an overall situation, a few days ago, the remains of Janius Seven had it's orbit changed deliberately to collide into the Earth by an unknown terrorist group believed to have nationalist and anti-natural ideals.' The display shows video footage of mobile suit battle taking place around the ruins. I take little interest. 'The majority of the remains was destroyed by the Minerva, however small fragments still crashed into the Earth. The Earth Alliance, claiming that PLANT was responsible for the incident, had declared war against us. Just yesterday morning ZAFT forces intercepted and eliminated a major EAF nuclear attack. At the moment ZAFT holds the areas of and around Carpentaria and Gibraltar bases. Nations that would usually consider themselves neutral are being pressured by the Alliance to join them. This also includes the Kingdom of Scandinavia and the ORB Union. The current objective of the SSC is to assist the war effort in conducting covert intelligence gathering and specialist operations on Earth. It is vital that we play the role very well to avert a takeover by ZAFT.'

'Excuse me, why the Minerva?' I interject. What's so special about the Minerva? I remember that I had boarded the Minerva at Armoury One and that it had fought the EAF ship, 'Bogey One'. I wonder if it

'If you keep your jaw shut, I'll tell you!' He points at me. I stay silent. It wasn't as if it was taking the piss. I can see that George and myself are going to get on just fine, providing we're not in the same room as each other.

'George, let it go. Continue.' Kinnsman warns George.

'In answer to your query.' George takes a breath. 'The Minerva is, in a sense, the most advanced ship in ZAFT. It has the new Impulse Gundam Mobile Suit onboard. As well as that, it has been tasked with recovering the three advanced mobile suits that were stolen from Armoury One about a week ago.' A diagram of the Minerva and, what I presume, is this Impulse Gundam appears on the screen.

'ZAFT are being a little too stubborn with what intelligence they share with us so you'll doing it for us.' Kinnsman takes his turn to speak. 'Also, if you can complete given tasks under the watchful eye of ZAFT and show them that you play an active part in the recovery of the stolen mobile suits, then it gives them something productive they can report to their superiors and the National Defence Council to show that we're not as impotent as they are led to believe.' He explains.

'So I'll be there as a show of force in a way, all one of me?' I ask with some disgust. I'm not keen on this idea.

'I don't like it either, but it's the service at stake. Besides it's not as if it's going to be difficult.' That's true, but still how is it really going to help in the war? Well… I suppose it keeps this service afloat which has its uses.

'If it's that important, why doesn't your top man do it then?' I motion my head to Neil.

'I've got my own Op in a couple of days, and believe me there's more at stake then simply the service with what I've got.' He informs me.

'As I was saying.' Says George. 'You'll be reporting and receiving orders, as well as missions, from our station commanders. Unless in the event of an emergency, by no means are you to make calls through ZAFT comms. Can't be too careful in case the lines are being monitored.'

'Understood.' I nod my head.

'Also, by no means are you to say that you're a Special Ops Officer to anyone in ZAFT, to do so would mean that they start asking questions that we don't want to answer. If they do ask, you're an SSC Liaison Officer, nothing else.' Says Kinnsman. I didn't need them to tell me that, I might as well sign my own death warrant if I were to do that.

'Okay, but I've already been on the Minerva and some of them know who I am.' A legend would be useless. There are at least half a dozen of the officers who know that I was with Centre. Who knows, I might've been forgotten, but I can't risk it.

'Was that when you was with DISC?' Neil asks.

'Yeah.' I reply.

'Well, just tell them that you were promoted.' He tells me. I guess that could work.

'I was just saying in case you had a legend set up for me.'

'The Carpentaria Station has one for you to use when out and about among the locals, but when inside ZAFT installations use your SSC card. Flash it at them, tell them to keep their mouth shut, you know the drill.' Says George. 'Any equipment you might need you'll have to scrounge around for, but always ask the local station first, they might be able to get you the stuff you need.'

'All right, one other thing regarding kit, will I need to be armed?' I ask. I had grown used to carrying when in DISC for as dangerous as my job was on home turf. But now I was going on foreign turf, during wartime, possibly into a battlefield, where almost everyone, including ZAFT, is potentially an enemy to myself. I'm going to need something to make me feel the least but safe and secure.

'Usually you wouldn't. Special Ops is not about going in guns blazing. However you will be issued a sidearm at the Carpentaria Station. But do realise that you must use it as a last resort.' Explains Kinnsman. That goes without saying.

'Of course, I understand I did some close target recces in Special Forces, I know it's better to get a job done with as little or, better yet, without any contact with the enemy.' I say, sounding like a wannabe telling a professional how to do his job. I shouldn't have said that.

'Special Forces, ay? Aren't you so special.' George mocks me. I just eye him with a look to say that I'm going to kick his face in later. He just gives off a fat man's laugh.

'How am I going to get to Earth?' I ask, getting back on the topic to take my attention off George the arsehole.

'You'll be hitching a ride on a ZAFT supply shuttle that's departing from this colony at seventeen forty this evening.'

'That soon?' I ask with confusion.

'We want to get you at Carpentaria base before the Minerva docks there, it's currently heading there after being run out of ORB.' Says George.

'Is there anything else?' Kinnsman asks to any of us. George shakes his head slowly.

'Yeah, what about the situation with ZAFT?' I ask. I want to know how much I can let ZAFT in on, whether I can trust the regulars and just watch out for the mob from Intelligence.

'Neil will talk with you about that later on. Everything else is down on paper in this file' He pats the thick brown coloured file. 'It also includes all information on SSC stations, specs on the Minerva, bios on the crew etc. I want you to look it over this afternoon.' He slides the file across the table towards me. I stop it sliding by placing my hand on top of it before it falls off the end of the table.

'Okay. I'll get onto it right now. ' I look down at the brown cover for the file, written across the top is 'Operation Gleck', also stamped on the cover at an angle in red is 'Confidential'.

'Am I done now boss?' I hear George's voice ask. I look up.

'Yes, thank you George.' Kinnsman frees the arsehole from his burden. He plays with the controls for the display for a moment, gathers some of his papers and then walks around the table to the exit.

'Thank fuck that's over.' I hear George whisper as he leaves. I wait a few seconds and then turn my head to make sure that he's left. I lean over to Neil.

'Is he always like that?'

'He's been a little strung out the pass week.' He explains. I wasn't really convinced though. I'm not really here to make friends anyway.

'I want you away for the ZAFT depot at about…' Kinnsman looks at his watch '…four in the afternoon, so you have several hours to look over the file.' He leaves the room. I look to Neil.

'I'll leave you to it then.' Neil gets up from his chair and heads to the door.

'Hold on. What about the brief you're supposed to give me?'

'That's later on, for now just look over what you've got there.' He leaves through the door, closing it behind him. I look at my watch; the time is twelve minutes past ten. I better takes a look at these documents. I didn't quite like the sound of this mission. For someone who is awarded the title of 'Special Operations Officer', this mission doesn't sound like something one with that title would do. I suppose they could be starting me off with an easy mission to break me into job. But still, I remember George mention that I was a replacement for Jose, whoever he was, and that this op was originally meant for him. It doesn't matter though. I open the file.

After many hours spent reading through the file between cups of coffee, I was finally free. At half three I was lead away out of the Operations Room by Neil, but not before Kinnsman shook my hand and bid me a farewell as well as good luck. I never saw George again before I left, which was better really. We went back to his car that we had arrived in this morning, and took off past the main gate and back into the city. We had to stop by at his apartment so I could gather some of my things I had left there. It wasn't much; just some items that I figured would be useful for daily living. Once that was done we pulled out into the busy streets again, the ZAFT depot being the destination.

'Am I finally going to get my brief now?' I ask. I had already asked him twice before today. I didn't like how he kept telling me that he'd tell me later, and so on. He did mention that the reason it was going to be given so later before my departure was due to that what I'm going to be told is officially off the record, hence why it wasn't in this mornings briefing or the file that I read over a dozen times.

'Yes we've got some time yet.' I see him glance quickly at the car clock. I looked at my watch as well. I noticed that his car clock was five minutes fast. I open my mouth to mention it to him, but I remember that my mother did a similar sort of thing with hers. Except hers was three minutes fast. She said it was to assure that she'd arrive at work on time. 'Hang on a sec, I'll just pull into this lay-by first.' He says as he slows the car down using the brakes, indicates left that he's pulling in and brings the car to a halt between the pavement and the lines. He puts the car in neutral and switches the engine off. 'Where to begin?' He asks himself.

'The start is usually the best place.' I answer it for him.

'Cut it out Jack, this is serious.' He says sternly.

'Okay, go on.'

'Now it goes without saying that you must be very cautious with those in ZAFT. Although we doubt that ZAFT as a whole know about the current standoff, but we are sure that ZAFT Intelligence are more then aware.'

'Alright, so I have to watch out for anyone from their Intelligence branch.'

'Even so, you are to treat everyone with suspicion; ZAFT, the locals, even our own. We can't be too careful of moles at the moment. From both EAF, and ZAFT. You are to avoid all contact from their intelligence officers if possible.' They could try any number of things; they could try to make me a double agent, a mole for them, they could feed me false information to report back to my superiors. But even so I can do the same to them, unfortunately it'll be very risky on their turf, if I'm discovered they could arrest me for espionage, and I remember that the penalty for that during wartime is death. I'll have to play the game as I see fit.

'What if things get a little hairy?' I ask. Will I be able to return their fire?

'That's up to your own judgement. But be careful, they may try to stitch you up with anything, maybe even try to kill you.' That will explain why they would want a Special Ops Officer doing this job.

'Remember to be prepared to carry out any given missions whilst on Earth. That includes anything from escorting agents, screwing over ZAFT a few times, to even assassination. Would you be able to cope with that?' He asks concernedly.

'I've done it plenty times before.'

'In Spectre Detachment?' He pries on my war record.

'Yeah…' I reply, remembering my experiences my time in the unit. 'Actually I'm surprised that you managed to get me on a ZAFT ship in the first place.' I say to take my mind off the memories.

'Well, we do have our friends in ZAFT that either don't support the planned take over or don't know about it. And I don't think there's really anything else to tell other then use common sense, be professional and you should get through it.' He assures me. I nod as I look past the car window to observe the activities of the real people. Some are clustered around an electronics shop watching the news on multiple televisions on display on the shop window. Some look frightened; others look to involve themselves in some heated debates. The people have faced the possibility of total annihilation many times before yesterdays nuclear attack, the only difference being is that they have never known about the several attempts there have been made to destroy the PLANTs by Blue Cosmos, that have been prevented by the DISC. 'Let's go, time's getting on.' He turns the engine back on looks around, indicates that he's pulling, puts the car in first gear and pulls out of the lay-by slowly whilst there isn't any traffic coming.

'There is one last thing I want to ask you.'

'What's that?'

'George mentioned that I was a replacement for Jose, what happened to him?' I inquire.

'You eh… you wouldn't be interested.' He lies as I notice some colour disappear from his face.

'Oh I am interested, after all I am doing his job, he's still not around to show me the ropes, something happened to him. I think I deserve to know.'

'It's not pretty.' He chokes out.

'I still want to know.' I have to know, what could I be getting into. I know he doesn't want to piss me about this time, I think that he just doesn't want me on low morale just before I begin my first mission.

'Ok, he was dispatched to Libya on a mission two weeks ago, to investigate reports of a Blue Cosmos training camp in the area. Last report we got from Jose was that he was on the run from them in the Sahara desert. A few days ago, our Gibraltar Station reported that he had been captured and tortured to death. There wasn't anything we could do.' He tries to not let the tears flow. My stomach churns as I hear it; the memories of my captivity come trickling back slowly. I try to suppress the emotions with any memory I can, my troubles at school, even thinking back to the clinical depression I had would do. 'Funny that.' He continues. 'The last time we lost a Caretaker was over two years ago in the previous war. Now we lose our first man in two years.'

'What was he like?' I dig a little deeper.

'He was a professional, a natural at the job. A quiet man, not very sociable, kept himself to himself mainly. Although a little soft-spoken, but he was a good person, reliable and trustworthy.' He describes to me. I can feel myself relating to this character. Although I've already survived a very similar encounter, I don't think I could a second time.

After a few minutes the fence of the ZAFT base comes into view, running parallel with the road. Beyond the fence are the typical green buildings used to store anything from sleeping bags to mobile suit weaponry. We near the gate, currently manned by half a dozen ZAFT guards, most likely from the Military Police. Neil pulls the car to the left side of the road, just a hundred metres or so before the gate itself. I notice that two of the guards' faces watch us intently.

'That's it then. Go over to them, show the MPs your card, they should be expecting you, so don't worry about it. Don't talk to anyone; get on the shuttle, once at Carpentaria you should be met by someone from the local station. Okay?' He says sounding like instructions a mother would give to their child on the first day of school.

'Got it.' I answer him as I open the car door, taking my rucksack in by the handle from the car floor.

'Good luck, I'll buy you a drink once it's over.' It's rare of him to do that. A sign that we're might lose this war, or that either one of us won't be coming back.

'Just be sure that when it's over, that we're the winning side.' I tell him.

'Of course mate, of course.' He laughs a little. 'See yer.' He says.

'Be seeing you mate.' I close the car door. I sling the rucksack over my right shoulder as I watch him pull out back onto the road and speed away to whatever he's got to do. I take a breath and start my walk towards the gate.

Endnote: Section Six completed. Sorry this took so long to get out. Section Seven should be coming out soon, hopefully by the end of the summer, but no promises to that.