Chapter 5.
RECRUITING THE TEAM
Matt had expected the selection of the team to be tough, but he didn't realize just how tough it would be. After relocating to his residence outside of New Orleans, Matt had driven to work on his first day of work in the World Unification Alliance, confident that he would be able to present H.H. with a team ready for training in a month time. But as the heap of dossiers grew on his desk, he began to realize just how difficult it would be. There were over five thousand dossiers to go through, and in the first week after he had accepted his new assignment, Matt attempted to go through file after file systematically, and pick out everyone who was suitable for the team. Very soon he became lost in his work and wondered how he would be able to get the team complete before H.H. lost his faith in him and fired him.
After some time, Helena begun to work with him alongside her other chores and helped him through the process. She reminded him that H.H. had specifically asked him to not just think in the terms of soldiers but instead about special qualities. As he begun to tackle that problem from that angle, he started to think about what people he knew. He remembered Gloria Baker and Paul Knight, both very gifted and they had also been immensely helpful during the riot in Miami.
"There you go." Helena said encouraging. "They could be valuable assets to the team if they were willing to sign up."
So instead of looking through service records, Matt instead begun to study aptitude tests and found a few interesting names.
"Still, some of them are quite old." He noted as he glanced through the dossiers.
"Pay it no mind." Helena replied. "Trust me, you don't want a bunch of unruly schoolboys in your force. Before you know it, one of those chaps might report for duty with a hangover. Besides, you will need some good experience and only the older candidates can present you with it."
"How about that guy you caught in your penthouse two years ago?" Andy reminded. "That was a character."
"Ah yes." Matt recalled. "The cat burglar who climbed all the way up to the thirties floor. Brad Turner was his name."
"A thief?" Helena asked with dubious voice. "I'm not that certain…"
"Oh, he never stole anything." Matt explained. "He just did it for the thrill of it."
"An aspiring rock musician." Andy continued. "Instead of stealing things he left a note with an invitation to his performances."
Matt looked him up on the computer.
"Says here that he has a LAPL(H)." He read.
"What does that stand for?"
"Light Aircraft Pilot License – helicopter. He has also received a few tickets for speeding on a motorcycle."
"That could be interesting." Andy said. "We have developed a motorcycle that is also a helicopter."
"Sounds like something that would suit him like a glow." Matt said. "If he fits the other requirements of course."
It wasn't just the abilities that qualified them with the team, there were also certain physical requirements that they were required to meet.
Matt felt a bit worried as well as guilty when he reported to Hugh Heyman's office with the dossiers. Among the suggested, there were several persons that he knew personally. Maybe it would be seen as favors. H.H. however, did not see it that way.
"I have faith in your judgement." He explained. "I also think it's essential that the agents selected are people that we can trust."
Hugh threw a quick look through them, but then put them down on the desk.
"Helena. You will be responsible for sending out the notices to the selected people. You have all the details of the location of the training facility and when we have it scheduled."
Helena took a list that she had prepared and left the office.
Hugh asked Matt to take a seat and called in another man into the room.
"This is Master Sergeant Neil Stillman, a drill instructor in our employment. From now on you will see a lot of him, because he will be working with you on conducting the tests and he will then be responsible for the physical training of the actual team."
Stillman shook Matt's hand. He was in his forties, with silver gray hair and sharp features, and like all drill instructors, he carried a swagger stick. To himself, Matt wondered if every drill instructor came complete with a swagger stick.
"It will be a pleasure to be working with you, Mr. Trakker." Stillman said. "And I'm also honored to having been selected to train this team."
"What kind of test will the chosen people be subjected to?"
"Mostly physical endurance tests." The instructor replied. "They must be able to run three thousand meters under twelve minutes – fifteen for the women, be able to climb up a three-meter vertical rope, perform twelve chin-ups and fifteen dips."
"It sounds like you will really give them a hard time."
"Well, we're going to weed them out the old-fashioned way," Stillman mused. "By seeing who's the best!"
Colonel Wolf had studied the dossiers in the meantime. He was not impressed.
"Had I been charged with selecting the team, none of these would have made it." He said with a dismissive tone. "This is supposed to be the country's most daring, highly trained special mission force, but hardly anyone of them is soldier material."
"You're continuously missing the point, Lyman." Hugh scolded. "We are not looking for the typical soldier, but people with exceptional skills."
"Pah!" 'Mayhem' spat. "This entire project is going down the drain as far as I'm concerned."
"I'm not interested in your opinion, to be honest", H.H. told. "You're here because the army is going to regulate the Special Missions Forces activities. What people the team consist of and how they are selected are up to this department. The only thing you need concerning yourself with is that we are not hiring any people regarded a threat to national security, although even that falls under my valuation."
Having no desire to take part of this discussion, Matt excused himself from the office and walked down to the engineering section to see how Andy was doing.
As always, his older brother was up to his sleeves in work. Constantly answering questions from the other engineers or shouting instructions. As Matt came down, they were busy testing the weapons system on an all-terrain vehicle.
A cannon appeared from a compartment behind the front door on the driver's side and fired of a burst of crackling electricity, directed at a target positioned in the middle of the room.
Andy sounded the all-clear signal and the technicians started to measure the power in the charge.
"It buried the needle!" a technician exulted.
Matt joined his brother.
"You seem to be enjoying yourself down here in Q branch." He noted.
"Hey, down here its Christmas seven days a week!" Andy replied. "How's it coming with the crew?"
"We're ready to run the first try-outs in a couple of days." Matt briefed.
"Great." Andy said, pausing briefly to sign a few papers. "Then perhaps we won't have to see the old walrus here for some time."
"Who?"
"Colonel Wolf. He's down here all day long. We have to pry him away from here so we can conduct some of our tests."
"I didn't know he were that interested." Matt said. "He certainly hasn't shown much interest in finding the crew for the team. Today was the first time I've seen him in two weeks. Not that I'm complaining of course, I don't really like the man to be honest."
"Well," Andy smirked. "Now you know where he has been."
Andy got busy with some other measurements while Matt went over to look at the skeleton of a fuselage for some kind of aircraft. Some crewmembers were carefully installing circuit boards in what he assumed would be the cockpit.
Andy was once again at his side.
"What you are seeing is the nerve centre of the ship." He explained.
"Nerve centre?" Matt echoed. "You make it sound almost like the machine is going to be alive."
"No, it won't, but actually one of the things we are working with is the symbiosis between man and machine." Andy told. "My partner Maurice Billington and I believe that this will be the next stage in human development. We like to attempt to link the mind of a man via a neural-net processor into the central processing core of a machine to make the machine respond immediately to thought patterns instead of being fed commands. Rather than the man operating a mere machine, they can complement and supplement each other with ease."
Andy's eyes had got a dreamy look into them. Matt shook his head.
"I think you need that head of yours examined." He believed.
"That's the problem with you, Matt. You lack vision. The possibilities are endless."
"Yes, but what's worrying me are how they are going to be used." Matt lectured. "You do realise that the predecessor of this neural-net processor you're talking about is fully automated and remote-controlled military vehicles and unmanned jetfighters used for tactical and strategical operations. You could be helping to create more modern war machinery. You know that this was the very thing dad was against. His life ambition was to make things that would benefit mankind, not destroy it."
"The sad truth is Matt, that even as we strive for peace, we must prepare for war. We fight out of necessity, to save lives. If I could choose, we would lock away all these weaponry in a secret warehouse until the day when they were really needed. But the way things are going, I fear that they have to be used."
"Do you really think it's that bad?"
"I do." Andy confessed. "I'm sure you remember your studies in International Relations. With the end of the Cold War, everyone thought that the time of the great wars was over and liberal democratic peace would prevail."
"Yes. Instead of fighting each other we strive for interdependency through international cooperation and mutual benefits."
Andy nodded.
"Well-established democracies do not go to war with one another. And so we believed. But as history has shown us, there are still violent conflicts around the world. What people tend to forget is that war is a lucrative market. Something that I learned as chairman of Young Enterprises is that some tycoons are willing to go to any length necessary to ensure their income."
"Including starting a war?"
"Starting a war, continuing a war by sabotaging peace treaties. They are earning millions of dollars with human lives in the stake."
Matt shuddered. He begun to realise that his look upon the world had been very narrow. It scared him that people could be so callous just to earn their money.
A week later it was time for the first tests. They were held at the US military training centres in Bogalusa, just over an hour's drive from New Orleans. Matt arrived at the training camp early and were greeted by Master Sergeant Neil Stillman
Present as well was several sport physiologists as well as training specialists and medics in case someone got injured doing the tests.
The men and women that had been called for try-outs were put through six very demanding stages of tests. The first stage was called The Golden Four and consisted of four tests in sequence. First, they had to hang by their arms and with straight legs raise up until the feet hit the wall above their heads. Chins followed that test - push ups with underhand grip, palms facing body, hanging on straight arms. They had to return to hanging with arms straight and hold for five seconds before repeating. Dips, where the recruits supported themselves by the arms on two poles. They lowered themselves as far down as they possibly could, before returning up to their original position, and last a practice where the contestants hang upside down by their knees and then pulled themselves up with their hands locked behind their heads.
After a short rest they were required to do the shuttle run, which consisted of a series of twenty metre sprints. Each level of the test was composed of several sprints or "shuttles". As the test progressed, the time allowed for each shuttle was reduced and had the effect of increasing the running speed necessary to complete the shuttle in the time allowed. This was followed by a similar test, this time with obstacles. Afterwards they were asked to traverse an overhead monkey ladder at twenty-five-meter. It had to be completed under a minute. They also had to swim five hundred yards in less than twelve and a half minute and run fifteen hundred miles in boots in less than eleven and a half minutes time.
There were not only physical tests; A strong mind was just as essential as physical condition, because the agents serving with the Special Missions Force was required to serve continuously and they had to be up to that task. During the tests, the recruit's ability to remain focused, their memory, their awareness, their ability to solve problems and their ability to work under press was tested. In interviews held by skilled psychologists, their abilities to express themselves properly in speech and writing was tested as well.
Matt also tried out the tests - he realised that even though he was elected as the leader, he could not be in any lesser form than any of the men and women working under him. He found the tests very demanding, and although he was in prime physical condition, he felt completely drained once he had completed all the tests, but to his relief he was informed that he had scored enough points to qualify for the team.
Once all the tests were completed, they were taken back to the World Consultation Building for examination. Although Matt had been part of selecting the people that were called for the try-outs, medical specialists handled the final examination. He was pleased to see that several of the people he had suggested scored exceedingly high, earning them the right to train for team.
"I don't know if I'll be able to cope with the fact that you stole Bruce away from me." Andy said as they walked through the World Consultation Building.
"I think it's good actually." Matt said. "I will feel very comfortable having him present since it means someone that actually understands your gadgets."
"Well, someway I'll even this." Andy promised. "Maybe I'll ask him to drive you crazy with his Satoisms or something."
Matt just laughed and reminded Andy that he found them amusing.