Hello! :D
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And thank you everyone that reads it even without leaving a review!
It took waaaay longer than I thought to get this chapter up, because it seems like my tablet won't cooperate with the editing here. (Or maybe it vise versa? IDK) So I had to wait a whole week for the family computer to arrive at our summer house. Not that a week does that much. Thinking about it I probably got worked up over nothing...
To the fic (￣▽￣)ゞ
Day 2
Warner woke up at half past five. He tried to roll over and sleep some more, but he was wide awake. He up, got dressed and went to his private gym, as every morning. He remembered the prior day's ordeal when he realized the elevator was still dispensed.
But he refused letting his pondering distract him from his routine. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to think of anything else for the rest of the day. And he couldn't let that happen. He had to be focused.
The good thing with waking early, he realized, was that he could train for some longer than usual.
When he was finished, at seven, he took a shower and got dressed again.
Suit, shirt, socks, shoes, tie, watch, gun holster. Dried his hair. Brushed his teeth. Flossed.
But even if he trained than usual he was still done earlier than he wanted to be. It would mess up his schedule.
But then an idea hit him. He went into his office and retrieved Les Miserables from on top of his desk. Then he walked to the dining room to wait for Delalieu to join the breakfast.
Warner was interrupted in his reading by steps coming towards the room.
He looked at the watch, 8:37. Delalieu was late and he hadn't even noticed. He hadn't even had the food sent in for him.
He set the book on the table. Trying to gather up some annoyance inside him so he'd at least be able to scold his Lieutenant a little.
The door opened.
"Do you know what time it is Lieutenant?", he asked out loud. Not even looking towards the door.
"Sir! I've been looking for you!", Delalieu said, a slight pant in his voice.
Warner's eyes darted the older man's way.
"About what? I always have breakfast at 8:15. It shouldn't have been hard finding me, Lieutenant", he said curtly. Was he surrounded by idiots?
"It's the girl from yesterday sir", Delalieu explained.
"S-she's back..!"
Warner was silent for a few seconds. Then he turned his head ever. So. Slowly.
"What?"
"Where is she?!", Warner demanded as the two walked down the corridor, him first and Delalieu second, even though Warner technically had no idea of where they were going.
"T-the guest facilities, sir. Just like yesterday", Delalieu stammered.
"And you tried sending her away before getting me?", Warner asked.
"Of course, sir!", Delalieu assured," But she was back bare minutes after the soldier came back reporting to me!"
Warner stopped so abruptly that Delalieu almost walked into him.
"How fast, did you say?", he asked. Turning around.
The look on his face alone made Delalieu forget what he had just asked of him.
"W-what?", He asked.
"How quickly did she return? They went in a tank didn't they? How could she return to base that quickly? Where did they drop her off?"
"In the compounds, sir. Just like yesterday. She came back after less than forty minutes", Delalieu said.
Warner blinked.
"That's impossible", was all he said.
"I know sir, that's why-"
Just then a chim interrupted them from across the hallway.
"Hello Mr Delalieu!"
"Huh?"
"How…!?"
There she stood, blonde springs as steady as yesterday. Her summer outfit replaced with a long sleeved knitted shirt and a pair of brown pants, which were more appropriate for the season. Her face had a new red tone from the cold, but other than that she looked as upbeat as before.
She was waving.
"I was looking for you, Mr Delalieu", she said, putting her hands behind her back and rolling on her toes.
Delalieu was too surprised to speak, but not Warner.
He looked left and right, since they were in a cross road of corridors, and seeing no guard to rant at he just focused his anger at the girl.
"You!", he snarled and walked up to her.
"Oh, it's you!", she said happily, recognising the chief commander,"Hi, Warner!", she said.
His hand found her wrist.
"Ow..", she muttered.
Warner ignored her.
"Delalieu, where's the closest room we can address this in private?", he asked the older.
Delalieu let his mind think for a few seconds.
"The dining room is the closest, sir", he decided.
"Then the dinning room it is", Warner declared, then with Alice in rough escort, retreated to the dining room.
"How did you get back here?!", Warner asked once more. He was staggering back and forth through the room. Alice was sitting by the table and Delalieu stood beside it, on the opposite side.
Alice had a bored look on her face. Her cheeks resting on her knuckles. Elbows prompted up on the table top.
"I walked. It wasn't too hard remembering the way back from the guest place", she answered.
"Excellent", Warner muttered.
"Now", he said,"how did you get back to this base?", he asked, underlining the exact position.
"I walked here", Alice said.
"Twice", she added.
Warner wanted to shot something.
"Yes, you keep saying that…", he muttered.
"How did you get out of the guest room?", Delalieu suddenly asked. He had been quiet for a while now.
Alice turned to him in the chair.
"Hm?"
Delalieu explained,"I positioned a soldier by the door. Did he just let you walk by him?", he asked.
"A guard…", she mumbled to herself. She looked up, staring at something in the air. Deep in thought.
"I…"
The lieutenant and leader shared a look of puzzlement.
"...I don't know", she shrugged,"Maybe I walked past him. I was looking for you", she shrugged again and looked at Delalieu.
Warner had stormed off to ask this guard his version of the story. Delalieu just hoped that it was something the guard wouldn't be blamed for. But if he knew his young superior well there would still be some kind of consequence.
He cringed at the thought of the poor soldier as the door slammed closed.
"Are you hungry, miss?", he suddenly asked, seeing the time.
Himself was ready for breakfast either way. He walked up to the awaiting food trolleys and lifted the first one. It had toasted bread and some kind of sausages. It smelled devined.
Alice blinked and looked to the food trolleys at the other wall.
"You're welcome to eat, miss. You can't have had any breakfast if your morning consisted of walking back and back to base."
Her stomach growled as the smell reached her, crushing any excuse she might have had.
Today's breakfast had the same properties as English breakfast, so Alice was rather confused why there were beans included.
Delalieu had her eat toast, sausage, eggs and even some beans after some recommendation. Because Warner always talked on about how fruit was an essential part of one's breakfast the two also split a banana in two for each of them.
Delalieu sat watching how the girl consumed her meal while himself took small gulps of his coffee.
He hadn't asked her if she wanted any tea or coffee when they had seated themselves, not expecting a young girl to enjoy caffeine breuvages. That's why he had been so surprised seeing her pour herself a cup of boiled breakfast tea in the other cup he always brought for Warner.
"You like tea, miss?", he had asked.
She had looked at him.
"Oh, yes, mister", she had nodded and looked quite serious. Then she took a sip to demonstrate.
He hadn't had a meal in this room without hearing how unnecessary caffeine and everything with similar effects were. Though he had only had one other as company during those meals..
"Mr Delalieu", snapped him from his thinking.
"Y-yes?", he asked. He realized his coffee was long gone empty and that Alice had already finished up.
"I'm done, so where do I put the dishes?", she asked, holding out the neatly stacked plate and utensils.
"Oh", he said and almost stood up in his chair,"Don't worry about that! We have maids and cleaners to take care of such things", he explained, then he took her plate and placed it underneath his own, just to make it easier for the cleaners.
"Is there a kitchen here?", she asked.
"Yes, somewhere underneath ground level. Though I've never been there myself."
"So it's somewhere in the basement?", she asked.
"Yes", Delalieu agreed,"I thinks it's the second floor down", he added after some thinking.
"Okay", she said.
"What do we do now, Mr Delalieu?", she then asked.
Because Warner hadn't returned Delalieu decided to simply stay within the dining room, just to be safe. He did not want to walk off somewhere to have Warner look for him later on.
All the while Alice asked, what seemed like, random questions about the base and sector. Though they seemed more like children's curious questions than a spy trying to pry at their data and numbers; so Delalieu answered the best he could.
"Do you choose the breakfast?"
"Why so long hallways?"
"Do you get coffee breaks?"
"Do you like them?"
"Do you only drink coffee, or do you eat biscuits or something to that?"
The cleaners came and went.
Delalieu had lost track of the time when Warner came in through the door. Slamming it closed.
It made Delalieu jump but didn't seem to bother Alice.
"You!", Warner said, clearly even more aggrevated than he had been earlier today, and pointed at the girl,"I want you off my base!"
"Sir…?"
Warner strode up to the table where the two were still sitting. He was frustrated, tired, humiliated and hungry from the lack of breakfast and nothing could pacify him.
"The guard had no idea what I was even talking about. He thought she was still in the room. I've checked all the surveillance, and all I can find is her", he pointed again,"walking with us here! I want her back in the compounds where she won't waste any more of my time. I'm sick of this."
Thus Alice was sent back to the compounds. Again.
This time Delalieu didn't follow as Warner thought that he had missed out on too much of his day already. The young Leader was also quite salty about that Delalieu hadn't found out anything else important about the girl, other than that she liked tea.
"Let's hope she stays in the compounds for good this time", Warner concluded to Delalieu as the report of the delivery dropped down on his desk.
"I've wasted so much time today just running around base trying to understand how she got here that I have missed out on almost a day's paperwork. That's time I will have to compensate for somehow", he chided.
Delalieu nodded.
"Certainly, sir. If you want me to take care of any ground work, I'm here to help", he said.
"I know that Delalieu. You're my Lieutenant."
Delalieu did not say anything more after that.
It took a week.
Cliffhanger ending is cliffhanger. Muhahahahaha
I swear to God, when I wrote pacify him all I could think of was a toddler Warner throwing a tantrum. I need a dictionary, haha.