Chapter 4
Elizabeth was having second thoughts. Granted most sane humans would have second thoughts in a military transport plane being tossed around by turbulence over the barren expanse of northern Alaska whilst severely sleep deprived. On the bright side, if they did crash, the twenty or so G.I. Joe look-alikes snoozing peacefully around her sure as hell seemed liked they'd be able to survive basically anywhere. That is if they would actually speak to her. Over the past several days of travel, since she'd been picked up from her apartment to the present, they'd hardly spoken a word to her. The agents would speak quietly to each other, sometimes laughing, and generally appeared to be friends; however, any time Elizabeth approached any of them they'd stop talking, and communication was reduced to single word responses. She couldn't decide if she prefered being frozen out by these jerks over being talked down to, like that Agent Darcy asshole had. Elizabeth had been pleasantly surprised to find he wasn't with the transport flying out of Anchorage to Borrow, but knew she wasn't going to be able to avoid him indefinitely.
Anyways, it wasn't like the agents didn't notice her. She'd caught a few looking at her curiously, and one or two lecherously. She was used to that, literally this was what most gun shows and shooting ranges were like, but somehow this was different. At shooting ranges all you had to do was prove your competence, run a couple Mozambique drills flawlessly and you were one of the guys (at least the ones who weren't total misogynists). She tried to prove herself with gun talk, that usually melted a few and the rest would follow, but they weren't even giving her that! Maybe it was because they worked for a secret government agency that hunted monsters, Perhaps initiation for these men involved facing down some Eldritch Horror before you were "one of the guys". Either way, she thought, there wasn't much she could currently do 35,000 ft in the air. Hopefully her fellow scientists would be more personable than the facility muscle seemed to be.
When they landed on the small tarmac in Barrow, Alaska, Elizabeth was relieve to be out of the skies. That is, until the cargo ramp lowered and the frigid air blustered through. Literally it was colder than it had been while they were flying. The agent who'd been assigned to babysit her during transport, and who'd literally buckled her into her seat, finally decided he had to use verbal communication and shouted loudly, to be heard over the wind, and pointed to the building directly in view, "We're going to that hanger." She nodded, pulled her beanie down lower over her ears, and adjusted her scarf to cover her face. After waiting for a few of the crates to be moved out of the way, the personnel descended down the ramp, Elizabeth taking care to make sure she was following the RIGHT black BDU clad individual. When they'd cleared the crowd, she looked back and saw that the other men were headed to a different hanger on the air strip.
The Agent held the door for her as she rushed into the shelter of the building. "Lucas, got a civilian for you!" He announced loudly, pulling the door shut, with effort. They were in a hangar, mostly a large empty area, with a small office tucked immediately in front of them.
"You know Denny, you wouldn't need to shout if you waited the five seconds it takes to look around and see me coming." A woman said, coming out of the office. She was also dressed in black BDUs, sidearm at her hip, her black dreadlocks pulled back into a bun on top of her head. She handed the other agent a clip board, then turned to Elizabeth, extending a hand, "Agent Charlotte Lucas, you must be Doctor Bennet."
"Nice to meet you!" Elizabeth replied enthusiastically, glad to actually be acknowledged, even if she was being signed over like a Fedex package.
"Same goes here." Charlotte nodded, "I'm civilian liaison, rather like HR, so we'll get the chance to know each other very well. If you've got questions, I'm your go to person."
"Will you be coming to the Nautilus?" Elizabeth asked, trying not to sound overly hopeful. Elizabeth could stand being surrounded by men, but there really was no replacement for a fellow female ear.
"Yes, I was up on the surface for leave, and timing worked out for me to collect you, but I'm stationed at the Nautilus." Agent Lucas nodded, "I can't wait to see what problems the idiots stationed down there have caused while I'm gone." She added, glaring pointedly at Agent Denny.
"Lucas, if we didn't occasionally harass the nerds, they wouldn't like you as much." He smirked, handing back her clipboard. "Besides, some of them are just weird."
"It's not the 'nerds' I'm concerned about. As far as I'm aware they consider your antics just as immature as I do. I'm talking about the MHI guys from Seattle that went down with the vamp specimen." She rolled her eyes, "What Darcy was thinking letting those guys into the Nautilus, I don't want to know what strings he pulled!"
"He let those SOBs in?" Denny looked surprisingly furious, "And the Director let him? Does he have naked pictures of Meyers?"
"Like that would do much good, you know Agent Franks would rip the arms off anyone who tried blackmailing the Director." Lucas shook her head, "However it happened, I have a feeling my desk will have an extra thick stack of Agent/Civilian incident reports."
"Can't promise I won't add to it." Agent Denny gruffed, "I'll see you on the sub down, Lucas." He nodded briefly to Elizabeth before leaving the hangar.
"Who are MHI, and why is it bad that they're at the Nautilus?" Elizabeth asked, following Agent Lucas into the office.
"Did you read your introductory packet?" the woman asked, sitting down at a computer and gesturing Elizabeth to sit in the seat facing her. Elizabeth nodded. "Then you read about PUFF. Well, there are some who take up professional monster hunting as private citizens, they collect bounties by killing monsters. It's legal, but the people who end up in that occupation tend to be rather militant, and particularly for MHI, Monster Hunter International, extremely anti-government. They're certainly capable, but they also tend to act outside of their jurisdiction. It's a complicated issue." Lucas shook her head, "The simplest way to put it is MCB agents and Hunters don't generally get along and sticking a few hunters underwater in a MCB facility is just asking for trouble."
"I see." Elizabeth nodded, watching the woman type, "And what he said about the agents and researchers not getting along? Because I'm going to be honest, if that's an issue I would blame the legion of antisocial G.I. Joes. They aren't exactly welcoming."
"No, they're not welcoming, but they also spend a good majority of their lives fighting the darkest evils in existence for the good of a world that will never know their sacrifices." Agent Lucas replied bluntly, looking up to look at Elizabeth right in the eyes, "You don't become a MCB agent without surviving an encounter with an unnatural, and then you're not allowed to tell anyone you care about. Think of it like the bond between soldiers, but even stronger, because the horrors they see aren't caused by humans, and usually they're worse."
"Gotcha." Elizabeth was embarrassed, and suitably chastened by the stern agent's explanation. "Sorry."
"Don't be sorry, just understand." Agent Lucas shrugged, "I won't say that your life doesn't have it own challenges; three weeks ago you were told that the world is scarier than you'd imagined, and that your life was being hijacked by a mystery agency for the foreseeable future. That's a rather stressful situation, but you can't play victim to it; the ones who do, they don't adjust and they stay miserable until they leave. Others choose to embrace it and move forward." Seeming to feel like she'd been too harsh, Agent Lucas smile, "And really, most of the agents warm up after a while. I've read your file Doctor; you've got extensive firearms training for a civilian, your psych eval indicates a very logical mindset, and you communicate clearly and effectively, you'll fit right in."
"Thanks." Elizabeth relaxed slightly, then paused, "Not to be punny, but I'm feeling completely out of depth here."
"Eh, it's what happened," Agent Lucas brushed glanced at her computer screen. "And we'll be leaving for the docks shortly, so freshen up if you need. Bathrooms are down there." she gestured.
"Thanks Agent Lucas." Elizabeth nodded, standing up.
"Not a problem Doctor," She nodded sharply, "We'll head out in five minutes."
Turns out submarines aren't particularly cool… well they might be, but if you're not actually driving the sub you get to sit in a windowless compartment. When they docked at the Nautilus, Agent Lucas lead Elizabeth past the station where all of the agents who'd come down in the sub were checking in, down several unremarkable hallways. The air felt sharp and sanitized, though Elizabeth was glad to see that the ambient temperature was not freezing or even chilly, despite the building be deep in freezing waters. "Your bags will be taken to your room. Meanwhile, I'll show you your office and introduce you to some of the research team. They'll talk to you about some of the laboratory specifics and safety protocol. We do have live specimens down here, so safety and security protocols are not optional. Failure to follow them could get someone killed, and that's if we're lucky. We do currently have an immobilized vampire down in Level 4 containment, which is the highest risk, along with many other living samples. You'll have to earn clearance into that level, but head of research will fill you in on that one. Any questions so far?" As they walked down a main hallway Elizabeth noticed they passed several branching hallways marked with labels such as "ADMINISTRATION", "LIVING QUARTERS", "CRYO-STORAGE", and most immediately interesting to her: "ARMOURY". They passed a few other individuals, but they all appeared to be MCB agents, possibly on patrol, carrying M4 carbines. A few nodded to Agent Lucas and welcomed her back, but none acknowledged Elizabeth.
"Can I carry here?" Elizabeth asked as they turned down the hallway labeled "RESEARCH OFFICES".
"A sidearm?" Agent Lucas clarified, "You'll have to take a qualification test, and a psych eval to assure you're not going to try and shoot the place up. Or at least try to; with the number of agents in this facility it's unlikely any human could do much damage before they get shot. I'd wait to get settled in before pursuing that, it's rather time consuming." All of the doors down this hallway were closed. "Seems everyone is in the lab today. All research teams have active projects going, so that's not a surprise. This one here is yours." Lucas opened a door halfway down the hallway. It was a nondescript room, cream walls, empty bookshelf, a desk wrapping around half the room, and an inset, framed picture of green rolling hills.
"Well no window, but it's bigger than my last office..." Elizabeth shrugged. New offices always felt sterile to her until they were fill with pictures from trips, maps, stacks of research papers, and jars of samples. She had a nephrologist friend who had an entire shelf of kidneys and kidney stones he'd removed throughout his career. His favorite had been a kidney with a malignant Wilms Tumor the size of an orange that had been removed from a newborn; it had been an extremely rare occurrence and the child had made a complete recovery, so he considered it a win-win scenario.
"No locks on the drawers." Elizabeth noted.
"No locks on the drawers or the door." The other woman nodded, "The idea is to foster trust and an open exchange of information and ideas with everyone."
"Don't forget to mention that the Monster Control Bureau considers nothing sacred." Can a light voice from the doorway. The speaker was not complaining, but teasing. The woman standing before them was pale, with a bright red pixie cut and sparkling green eyes. Nothing about her said 'secret government agency', but she exuded an aura of warmth and sweetness, particularly with the light blue, a-line skirt and white blouse with peterpan collar under her unbuttoned lab coat. "It's an adjustment from academia where you keep everything buttoned up tight until you publish, but on the bright side if a colleague doesn't return your stapler you can get it yourself!" She smiled sweetly.
"Doctor Bennet, this is Doctor Bingley, she'll be collaborating with you on the Luska project." Agent Lucas made the introduction, smiling.
"Please call me Jane." The pixie haired woman extended a hand. "Hopefully Charlotte hasn't completely freaked you out about being here, she's a bit too agent-y sometimes. It's really not all military precision in the research groups, drives the agents nuts, but keeps us normal people sane."
"Nice to meet you Jane," Elizabeth shook her hand, "And feel free to call me Elizabeth, or Liz, or Lizzie, I respond to most every iteration of my name there is. You must be the shark expert? Agent Darcy said they had that covered, though I've got to admit, I imagined you as more of a reckless middle aged swedish guy."
The two other women laughed before Jane spoke, "You know, I get that a lot. But I'm afraid it's just mild mannered me. Charlotte, would you like me to take Elizabeth here down the the lab to show he what we're working on right now?"
"Would you? That'd be great." Agent Lucas nodded, "I've got a feeling there's a stack of incident reports on my desk with those two MHI hunters down here."
"Oh they're nice!" Jane beamed, "I ate with them yesterday in the cafeteria, Nate and Gigi, they had some great stories!"
"You would make friends with the mercenaries." Charlotte shook her head, then looked to Elizabeth, "You are in very capable hands with our dear Jane here. And she's a good friend to have down here, her husband is buddies with the man in charge." Charlotte winked and Jane goodnaturedly rolled her eyes, "I'll meet up with you two at dinner in an hour, alright?"
"I'll make sure nothing eats her!" Jane waved, then turned her attention to Elizabeth, smiling cheerily. "Now Elizabeth, are you ready to meet your first monster?"