White Steel Serenity
Chapter Three: Anubis' Jackal
FIVE MONTHS AGO - THE PACK
They have shared quarters now, which is better by far than being in four separate cells. The only problem is that of course the door locks from the outside and Agent Smith walks in whenever he wants.
"We have a suitable baseline for your abilities," he says, "And now we're going to start improving on them."
"What does that mean? Can you people never just outright say things?" Ben asks.
Smith shoots him a mildly irritated look. "It means you're going to be trained."
"Like dogs?" Hi asks softly, lip curled up. He doesn't really mean for Smith to hear, but he does.
Smith smiles slightly. "If that's how you want to think of it."
"What for?" Tory asks. "Why do you want to make us even more dangerous?"
"You are not dangerous right now. You're out of control, true, but we've proved that we can contain you. Now you need to learn discipline and orders. You'll be doing good work for good people."
"I have yet to see any good people around here," Shelton speaks up dryly. "Are they hiding from us? Have we just been hanging around with the wrong sort?"
Agent Smith is still smiling. "We'll see how much of that attitude you have a month from now."
ONE MONTH AGO - THE PACK
He's running. They love it when the mark runs.
"Rin Tin Tin, the cars?" Tory asks into her ear piece.
"Distributor cap removed. They're all disabled." Shelton replies.
Tory grins with sharp teeth. "It'll be a chase."
The sound of soft laughter comes through her ear.
"I love it when they run," Ben says.
"Close in, pack," Tory says. "Watch the exits."
"Got him." Hi mutters minutes later. "He's trying the car."
"Start him, Pluto, we're coming."
"Copy, Alpha."
Tory hears the sound of a man screaming in fright, quickly cut off. Three footsteps on the pavement, successively farther apart as he picks up speed. Then he's into the grass. He hopes to escape into the woods around his safehouse.
Tory can feel her pack circle him, settle into position. Hi sends up the howl first, purely instinctive. It's a greeting, I am here! and a hunt, run the prey and also serves to make the man even more afraid. He makes a quiet whimpering sound and tries to run faster. Tory thinks she could track him by fear-scent alone.
Shelton howls back with his position, then Ben, and finally Tory. Their prey has to know it's surrounded now.
Tory growls, tired of matching the slow human's speed. She speeds up, circles in front of him, and crosses his path, snarling with malicious glee as he stumbles to a halt briefly, and takes a left turn. Ben is already there, boxing him in.
Tory knows this area. She's never run it before but it's her territory, she can feel the ground slope beneath her feet. There's a stream in the man's path, and the bank leading down to it is steep. If they can run him into it he might twist his leg, fall vulnerable.
They drive him forward in a panic, hunted by monsters he can't see in the dark. Ben appears once in full view, lashing out with one hand, fingers stiff and draw back like claws. He catches at the prey's arm, rips the long sleeve and draws blood. They howl again at the scent. Ben draws back into the chase, herding the prey.
The prey is getting tired; Tory can hear it in his breaths and smell it on him. There is a certain limit beyond which no amount of mind over matter can force the body to keep going, and the prey is about to reach it.
She lands on his back just as he is falling to his knees, driving him face-first into the ground. She doesn't think. It's the next logical step to lean forward, open her mouth, and crush the back of his neck in her teeth...
Tory pulls back just short of killing him, severing his spinal cord. It is the blood, the taste of it, the sight of it, that brings her back. Not of disgust - but because she feels a rush of euphoria and triumph at it, and those are not things she has come to associate with her life lately.
She tumbles back off of the man - how did she forget he was a man? She thinks back now and realizes that her eyes saw human and her brain interpreted prey - and spits the blood out of her mouth. As she does she feels the pain in her jaw, and she spits out teeth. Molars. She pushes her tongue into the sore holes and finds the tips of razor-sharp new ones.
The pack gathers around her, standing up uncertainly. At some point they all had started running on all fours.
Tory gets a flash of an image - Ben and Hi and Shelton all running together, loping on four legs, tongues rolling out with the joy of the chase, yellow eyes flashing.
Tory closes her eyes. "Target acquired," she says into her ear piece, calling the cleanup team. "Ready for pick up."
FIVE MONTHS AGO - THE PACK
"This is Professor Smith," Agent Smith says. "He'll be in charge of the more intellectual pursuits of your training. You all scored very well on the IQ tests. And this is Sergeant Smith. He'll be in charge of the physical training."
Tory looks over the both of them critically. The sergeant stands with his feet planted solidly, hands behind his back, chin level, eyes staring straight ahead with occasional flicks over the pack. The professor looks more relaxed; his gaze wanders freely over them, interested, and he steps forward with one hand outstretched to Ben.
Ben ignores him easily, because they are all looking at Tory for their next cue. It's Agent Smith who puts a hand on the professor's shoulder and pulls him back, saying, "I'd advise against touching them. They like breaking hands." He looks over at the pack again, who have pulled together presumably to talk in a semblance of privacy. He mutters into the professor's ear, "And the girl is the leader. Careful with her."
Professor Smith frowns but nods.
"When do we start?" Tory asks, apparently breaking up the pack meeting.
"Right now," Agent Smith says. "Ben, Hiram, you'll go with Sergeant Smith, and Tory and Shelton to Professor Smith."
Tory shakes her head. "No. All of us or none."
Agent Smith freezes. "Do not fall into the foolish trap of thinking that you have options, girl."
"Do not fall into the stupid trap of thinking I am just a girl, agent." Tory says, just as dark.
"If you press this, there will be consequences." Agent Smith warns. "We are not unwilling to make exceptions for you, but we expect something in return. And our good will only lasts as long as your own does."
"That explains why I haven't seen any of this so-called good will yet, then," Tory says.
"You'll start with Sergeant Smith, then." Agent Smith says abruptly. "And, Ms. Brennan... I expect extraordinary results."
FOUR MONTHS AGO - THE PACK
"What's first today?" Tory asks as she pulls on a black shirt. It's emblazoned with some sort of logo - a sort of stylized star in a circle.
"The obstacle course," Ben answers, checking the display screen next to their door. "Then lessons with the professor. Hand to hand practice, then guns, then the run."
"They schedule us for a meal?" Hi asks.
Ben checks again, absently tying his boots. "Nope. We ate two days ago."
Tory loops an arm through Hi's. "They'll let something loose on the run today, Hi. How hungry are you?"
"Not really. Just feels strange not eating three meals a day anymore."
"It's inefficient, especially when we can function on one feast every few days."
"I know."
The obstacle course has been specially designed for them, and goes through frequent upgrades as they conquer each version. There are shrill, distracting noises that play as they make it through the most difficult parts, and an area where they have to pick their way through a pressure-plate filled area using only a faint scent trail.
When they've done that, they are shipped off to Professor Smith, who teaches tactics, psychology, and general military knowledge as well as the basic school subjects that they're missing. All of this, however, is made more difficult to understand by the fact that he does it in another language. They're still on Spanish and only just starting to master it, and when he deems them proficient in that he says they're starting on Mandarin.
After lessons, which take about seven hours, they return to their room for sleep. After an hour's nap they're waking up refreshed, and go to the Sergeant again for training in hand-to-hand combat against each other. When he's done making them beat that into each other he unlocks the door to the firing range with a fingerprint scan and lets them inside. Ben and Tory have graduated up from small firearms already and are on to rifles and shotguns, but Hi and Shelton are still practicing smaller guns.
After they've destroyed the paper targets - to amuse herself, Tory draws a heart in one with bullet holes - they go to the run.
The run is their favorite part of the day.
It's enclosed but still outside. They're given electrified bracelets that send enough volts to knock them unconscious if they step outside the boundary, and set loose. The area is about two square miles of forest and plains. They spend most of their allotted four hours simply running, or hunting down the deer their keepers let loose inside.
Hi catches the scent a few minutes in, calls the others over with a howl to help him hunt it down. Buck, limping on its back foot, easy prey. It won't have a shock collar; if they want to eat, they'll have to catch it fast.
Tory howls, and the hunt is on.
THREE MONTHS AGO
"Report." Agent Smith says, looking first at Sergeant Smith.
"Coming along well. Couldn't ask for more talent, although their attitude... I don't know what you hope to accomplish with them but whatever it is they won't do it. To damn stubborn."
Smith waves a dismissive hand. "They're under control. How goes the training?"
"I'm not running out of things to teach them, but I will at this rate. Basically all I can do right now is show them ways to improve their strength and endurance."
"That'll be good enough, then. Professor?"
"Also progressing quickly. There are some subjects that they know more about than I do." Professor Smith says with a smile.
"Anything else to report? No? Good. Dismissed."
Professor Smith leaves the agent's office, but the sergeant hangs back a little.
"Yes? Do you need something else, Sergeant?" Agent Smith asks. His tone says that the sergeant had better not need anything else.
"I was just wondering... what you were training these kids for. Why I'm teaching them stuff that'll let them kill people."
"That's classified." Agent Smith says firmly.
"Okay." Sergeant Smith reaches for the door handle.
"Sergeant, are you having second thoughts? I can have you transferred to another position - if this is no longer what you want, you only have to say so." Smith says it kindly but the sergeant thinks that if he says 'yes' he'll never get to that next position. He'll disappear.
"No." Sergeant Smith says. "I'm good."
THREE MONTHS AGO - THE PACK
"Tomorrow you'll see something new on your schedule. We're going to cut down to the basic conditioning and start you on weekly practice maneuvers. That means more time with the professor, but once a week I get you for a day or two for practical application of what you've learned so far." Sergeant Smith says, looking over them seriously.
"It'll mostly be things like tracking down a target through various areas, gathering intelligence, breaking and entering, the works. Operations will be completed with supervision from myself, and bracelets with a radius around the area. Questions?"
"What are they training us for?" Tory asks.
Sergeant Smith frowns, and Tory can smell the truth on him when he murmurs, "I really don't know."
She can smell the guilt, too.