Control Freak
For the next few days Riza's life started in a more familiar pattern. Everyday she would go with Geoffrey to the fort. The longer she spent around the fort the more she learned about its. Recently Geoffrey's work had doubled with the wildfire, so whenever his assistant was gone Riza would help him with paperwork. Even though Riza didn't know much about wild forest fires, she thought it was odd that the fire almost doubled everyday. Also the fire was close to the boarder but it didn't even go and inch west and seemed to jump over all of the fire lines. One morning Riza came with coffee from the building's lobby and handed a cup to Geoffrey as he was getting off the phone. "Thanks Hawkeye, for all of your help." He said grabbing the coffee.
"No problem Sir. I'm used to helping with this type of stuff. Except back at Central I never had to deal with any forest fires." In the back her mind she remembered that in fact she had dealt with many regular fires, but didn't feel like mentioning it. "What will happen if this isn't resolved soon? At this rate the fire will destroy some homes soon."
"Well," he said after taking a large sip from his coffee "if we don't have it at around 50 controlled by tomorrow morning I will head down to make an assessment and send more firefighters in."
"Might I be allowed to go?" she asked.
"I don't know," he said lounging back in his chair. "It's an awfully dangerous zone and this in an unpredictable fire. But I probably can arrange it."
"Thank you Sir," she said before leaving his office. She walked down the stairs to the lobby and decided that she might as well go to the cafeteria and eat an early lunch and then go to the shooting range. As she walked into the early noon air a high pitch voice greeted her.
"Good morning First Lieutenant." Riza turned around to see Colette Degore sitting on a rock by the building doors.
"Private Degore." Riza said addressing the girl "I haven't seen you in a while."
"I've been on boarder patrol covering for someone who fell ill," her voice turned sour. "I can't imagine why I'm the one who had to cover for them. What have you been up to? You seem already settled in."
"I've been assisting Major Smith." Riza said starting to walk toward the mess hall gesturing for Colette to follow her. "As for being settled I only know where the gym, mess hall and the Majors building are."
"What happened to Marshall wasn't she your guide?"
"Well she didn't like the fact that I wanted to spend most of my time in the shooting range."
Colette chuckled "Yeah she is a bit famous for her hate of firearms."
"Geoffrey offered another guide, but I told him that I'll find the rest of the fort out by myself." They entered the mess hall and got in the line.
"Geoffrey?" she asked puzzled. "Oh you mean the Major. You know he's married." The private said in a rather accusing tone.
"Of course I know that." Riza said almost laughing.
"How could you know that if you've only been here for about a week? There are some odd rumors going on about you."
"You must be a typical gossiping hen I can see it already," Riza said sighing.
"No I'm curious!" Colette said excited, "Tell me about you. You come from Central right? How is it doing? Could you tell me what was bombed?"
"Whoa, Miss Degore. How about I tell you about me a little and you can explain yourself. Judging from your fight yesterday you didn't have a normal childhood." Degore nodded as they grabbed their lunch from the line.
Once they found a table away from other early eaters Colette took a bite out of an apple and said with her mouth full, "spill out your past then."
Riza quickly explained her situation in Eureka and about why she was at the fort, except for the Colonel part.
"I see now," Colette said after Riza finished "No wonder you come to work with Major Smith and act like chums."
"Now that I've told you about myself could you explain a little about yourself? How did you decide the military was the life for you?"
"I didn't choose to be in the military!" she yelled slamming her fist on the table. Riza stared in shock at little Colette's outburst. Colette saw Riza's look, blushed and quickly started her story in a quieter tone. "I grew up in the oriental islands out east. My father worked over there. We moved a lot. Technically my home country is here in Amestris but I haven't been here since I was five. I learned how to fight in Xing, there women were taught how to fight. I didn't have many friends except my father, but I never really even saw him that much. I began to withdraw from people and so he left me with… er" Colette said wincing as if to remember, "Yes, a lady who owned a dojo. They are like gyms for people to exercise." She said trying to explain to Riza. Riza was getting the impression that Colette didn't know much about her own childhood. She kept pauseing and then suddenly remembering.
Colette was in the middle of describing a type of glaive women used in Xing when Riza interrupted her. "So why did you enter the military?"
"Because… hey!" she said changing the subject. "You said that you never got shown around the fort. Have you met the other women yet?"
"What?" Riza said caught off guard. Colette grabbed her wrist and started pulling her along. "No I haven't met the other women and does it really matter," Riza said trying to brush Colette off of her.
"Of course it does!" Colette said dragging her out of the mess hall and down one of the ally's. "First we'll meet Angelina, she works in a building on the other side of the fort, so we should run." The small private dragged her down a few ally ways and took a few shortcuts through offices. Colette finally stopped in front of an older more worn down office building. "Here is where she works."
"Here?" Colette nodded excitedly and walked into the building, Riza followed timidly.
No lights were on and all of the offices were vacant. This building like others on the fort was totally empty except for that most vacant buildings were scheduled for demolishing. "Why is this building so vacant?"
"Well before the west headquarters was built most of the main buildings were spread around the boarder at the larger forts. This particular fort had about three main offices. This building was the intelligence office.
"Spies?" the Lieutenant said skeptical.
"Yup, we are so close to the boarder. This was one of the easiest locations for spies in Aurego to contact us. This is the only office that takes all of the reports raw from our intelligence. Then we report it to west headquarters who reports it to Central." Colette finished her explanation and then they came to a staircase. Riza assumed that they would go up them; instead Colette went around the side to a cubby door that was under them. Colette opened it to reveal a set of stairs going down into the earth and a door at the bottom of the staircase.
Colette started rushing down the stairs to the door as quickly as she could. Riza followed and could feel the temperature drop the further down the stairs she went.
"She works down here?" Riza said stuffing her hands in her pockets. "Doesn't she freeze?"
"Angelina lived in the Brigg Mountains; she's only been here for five years. I'm sure it reminds her of her home." When they reached the door Colette turned back to Riza. "A word of warning, don't mess anything up. Angelina's a perfectionist." Colette opened the door revealing a small room filled with wires and files. Everywhere Riza looked there were file cabinets. She heard sort clicks and low muttering among the filing cabinets. Colette led the way confidently through the maze, Riza started wondering if there was a person really working in this dump. They came to a clearing where a woman was bent over a typewriter.
She was muttering "I hate this job," over and over again.
Colette grinned maliciously at Riza and snuck up behind the unaware woman and yelled loudly in her ear, "Working hard I see Sir!"
The woman hopped out of her chair and turned to Colette, hand over her heart. "Colette!" she said with a raspy voice. "I hate it when your do that. And when did I give you permission to come down here?"
Riza could tell that this soldier had been inside for quite a while. Her pale skin and grey eyes were contrasted with her dark auburn hair.
"I came to introduce you to the newest member of the Fort I knew she might never meet you since you're always stuck in this hole."
"Yes I am," she said disdainfully. She turned to Riza and saluted, "It is an honor to meet you First lieutenant Hawkeye I'm Master Sergeant Angelina Berry."
"Odd for someone I've never met to know my name." Riza said shaking her typed writer callused hand.
"I know everything that goes on in this fort." She said simply.
"Angelina's the ultimate secretary." Colette said patting Angelina on the back earning a scowl.
"You are so informal Degore. If you weren't who you are I would've had you deported in an instant."
"Come on now don't be a meanie Angelina."
"She was a terrible assistant," Angelina said to Riza, "Worst than the last 17"
"17 assistants that's quite a lot to go through," Riza said.
"It's an important job and every time someone other than I does it the job isn't done correctly.
"She is the worst control freak."
"I am not," Angelina said crossing her arms. "I can't help the fact that I need perfection, besides its better to be a bit more obsessive than a slob."
"I agree with you," Riza said looking more closely at what she thought was a messy file room but now she saw everything was perfectly stacked and labeled "One must learn how to work together to be successful in life."
"Oh God," Angelina said looking annoyed. "Is she a new assistant or is she taking over this room? I told them there isn't enough room for two people."
"No she isn't," Colette said trying to calm down Angelina, "I was just showing her around. Now I think we will go back to the land of the living. You should take a nap you look tired. Chao!"
Colette rushed out the door and up the stairs. Riza simply waved and followed quietly. When Riza reached the outdoors she was wondering if Colette had abandoned her when she saw the little woman on the ground panting.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm just a tad claustrophobic. I hate that cave of a room." She said standing up slowly and wiping her brow. "Let's go to the gym" She said quickly changing the subject.
"Umm okay," Riza said smiling at her new energetic friend.
"Hey where is your puppy?"
"Oh Hayate I let him wander, don't worry he never gets in trouble."
On the ride back to the Smiths house Riza was nodding off asleep in the car.
Geoffrey cleared his throat and started talking, "Ten soldiers were killed today in the fire."
"All together?"
"No in several parts of the boarder. Five were mysteriously stuck in a barn helping a family evacuate and couldn't escape. The other five we have no idea about. But this seems like foul play and tomorrow I'm going down to inspect. You will come down also with a few more soldiers." He said with the same tone the whole time.
"Yes Sir."
A/N: Would've gotten in earlier if it weren't for the damn Fanfiction problems!
Oh and totally of the subject December 1st is Penguin Day!!!! IT'S PENGUINTASTIC!!!!