War placed its mark upon the Reapers.
Ten Hagen learned to watch. He observed his teammates closely, to know at once if any needed help or rescue. Gradually he noticed changes in body and behavior.
His partner grew knife-sharp, knife-thin, knife-cold. War reinforced all the worst experiences of Samuel Terry's early career, when he had been assigned to mentors who were increasingly insane. He protected his juniors from demons and senior reapers alike, and saw little difference between beings of any species who mistreated those to whom they owed instruction and defense. When the war was over, Sam would be a magnificent understudy for Eric Slingby, the Head of Personnel for London. No trainee or intern would have to stay with an incompetent or abusive mentor. Neither would those trainees or interns remain uncorrected if they repeated a stupidity. Ten Hagen encouraged his partner to grow and learn, suggesting occasionally that such and such a skill should be taught at the Academy. Any number of instructors welcomed visiting lecturers. This would enhance his standing and add weight to his words when he criticized a mentor's training methods. Oh, yes, Terry would be a force for improvement. Eventually he would be sent to another Branch known for recruiting problems. He would reform the place and move on to the next. It would take a century or two, but training would improve country-wide.
Iris Quirke burned like a torch, a beacon, a star. She wore white, not black, and souls flocked to her light. Other Reapers on her team formed a bodyguard as she Reaped her hundreds and thousands. The demons learned to stay well away; she was a deadly combatant in her own right, should an attacker manage to get past the black wall of her defenders. The other female reapers copied her dress and strategies, chose their own guards, became equally successful. Antonia Asaro, Constance Cortland, Chichima Onayemi, and many others became legend, especially among those Branches whose staff were entirely male. Slowly those Branches were learning that talent was invaluable no matter how it was packaged.
Randall Harmon became an unofficial spokesman. He began spending one or two of his daily rest hours in the Reaper bars along the battle fronts. London's Reapers and traditions were so different from the norm that hardly a day passed without some representative of a different Branch coming to ask questions or demand a return to the old ways. All the London folk waved them off to Randy, who explained how and why the new ways worked. Some protesters went away converted. Others continued indignant, furious, or resentful, but the seeds of change had been well planted and in time would take root.
Adam Roberts continued quiet and competent. From him flowed strength, courage and endurance; all those around him borrowed from his calmness and clear-eyed common sense. Any group he joined had fewer accidents, injuries and emotional breakdowns. Third-year Juniors fresh from their home Branches were sent to him for seasoning and profited mightily therefrom. He had become a fine squad leader and an exemplary Reaper. The souls of the dying recognized him as no enemy. Their life records did not attack him. He Reaped double shifts with Iris while others defended him as necessary. Angels and demons respected him.
Grell. Well now. There were stories about Grell. Ten Hagen dismissed half of them as malicious, another quarter as outdated; she had, after all, produced an exemplary trainee in Iris Quirke, an outstanding Reaper in her Branch and Division. The last quarter of the stories, the newest tales told by those not her enemies, indicated changes in her moods. That would require some study. Grell was always angry. What mattered was her degree of control.
It was a pity that Grell's apprenticeship of Amalia Reyes had been cut short by the war. Spears had sentenced Molly to a desk in Ops, where her whole duty seemed to be to keep Alan Humphries from doing his job. That didn't hold, of course. Eric Slingby came home from the wars and found his partner immobilized behind his desk. Within three days Humphries was back in action, Molly was back in training, and Grell was far less scary.
The best story, of course, was the way in which Slingby persuaded Spears to change Molly's orders. There were witnesses to a sparring session out back of Headquarters, endorsed by the Maintenance person who had mopped up the muddy footprints in the doorway.
The Higher Up was in the most unusual position of being lectured by a subordinate. His visitor was a tweedy, greying gentleman with leather elbow patches and a bushy beard which appeared to have migrated south from his shiny head. He was also absolutely fearless. Academy Provost Pollard was here to earn his pay today. This sort of thing was exactly what he was paid for.
"No, sir. Under no circumstances. This is our right and our duty. The records speak for themselves. We will send no further graduates to Bristol. If there has been no change and no intervention there for fifty years, then obviously no change or intervention can be expected in the future. Their staffing is their problem, not ours, and certainly will not be the problem of our students."
"And if the situation is corrected?"
"We shall review the situation, review it very carefully. Many promises of reform have been made before. All were broken within the year. We do track these things, you know. As long as Director Ambrose and his two Assistant Directors remain in control of the Branch, Bristol will receive no interns or trainees. Bristol's training Seniors are also under interdict. This will be part of their permanent records, shared with all Directors, all Seniors, anyone who might currently or in the future make decisions about training. No matter where they work, they will not be allowed to take apprentices. Nor will any partners they work with be allowed to train, and if any of these Reapers attempt to join in partnership with a teaching Senior, the Junior will be removed from their care."
"The war has necessitated…"
"The war be damned, sir! The war will not be won or lost due to the staffing of Bristol! How will their habit of bullying and mistreating their trainees win you a war? Will the apprentices killed in training accidents win you a war? Will their overworked, undertrained, browbeaten Juniors with their record number of botched Reaps win you a war? Balderdash, sir! Balderdash!
"Bristol will receive no graduates. They will continue in their vicious habits and dwindle until neighboring Branches take over their duties. Their unusually high mortality rate on the battlefield is proof of the general incompetence of the Branch. If you force Seniors to transfer in, your best hope is that they will join in rebellion against the culture there, forcing the Director into actions that even your remote and indifferent office cannot ignore!"
The Higher Up watched the professor sizzle with righteous indignation. He was correct, of course. The Academy was well within its rights. This had gone on far too long. It was time to add Bristol to the responsibilities of one whose duties he was already intending to expand. He picked up his telephone. "Mister Alister. Please connect me with Madame, the Administrator of London."
Will stood by the console as Second Shift filed in and Third Shift filed out. Grell was always among the last coming in, serving as rearguard to catch any stragglers. Injured Reapers tended to prefer their own infirmaries to the field hospitals. If they were able, they'd try to make their way to the portal. Not all managed. Grell came in supporting Mountjoy. Slingby had Kendall in a fireman's carry. Orderlies stepped forward with a stretcher and took charge of the injured, sweeping them off to the first-aid room. Will reassured himself that Grell was uninjured and suggested that she meet him for dinner as soon as she had turned in her Reaps to Admin.
The Admin on duty ticked off the arrivals and consulted the lists of injuries reported by the field hospitals. "All accounted for, Director Spears. Three are in the Paris field hospital, all scheduled to return home within the next twelve hours. Two of them will not be fit for duty for twenty-four hours. One has been sent to the Academy hospital and will be there for a week."
Spears nodded. "Please report the injured to Scheduling, Mister Bradshaw. Status of Second Shift?"
"Twenty on local duty, guarding Reaping Juniors. Eighty-four returning for a rest shift. Sixty-four on the battlefields, continuing through Third Shift. Injured in field hospitals, eighteen. Injured at the Academy, thirty-five. Recovering at home, six. Known injured in the clinic room, two. Missing and presumed lost since the beginning of the war, twenty-one."
"Thank you, Mister Bradshaw."
Tomkins set the portal on standby. Spears watched as she turned over the console to Merrick for third shift.
"Slingby, my office, please."
"Aye, Mr. Spears."
Spears proceeded to his office, Slingby following while checking his watch. They entered. Spears sat behind his desk. Slingby closed the door, pulled up one of the less uncomfortable chairs, sat, and leaned his chair back against the door.
"What's the bad news, Will?"
"Our losses," said Will, "are grievous but comparatively few. It was inevitable that we would be instructed to send some of our people to reinforce other Branches whose losses are far greater. I have avoided those requests as best I could, but circumstances have intervened. Now I must present my own plan before Madame Administrator issues orders I dare not reinterpret."
"I'll send no one to Bristol, Will."
"I agree; no reserves to Bristol. Instead we shall send them a new Director. It's now official. The Bristol Director has been set firmly aside, along with two of his cronies. Since the Academy will not permit their graduates to be assigned there, and because no senior Reaper will willingly transfer there, Madame Administrator has decreed that the entire branch is to be disassembled and rebuilt. D'Acres is willing, even eager, to tear down their oligarchy and replace it with a meritocracy. He starts on Monday."
"What about the five-year rule?"
"Suspended during the war. Besides, he trained at Windsor. That's five years if you ignore his junior status at the time. If Reaper losses continue to be high, that rule will be struck down. We'll be placing anyone with talent into any position that's empty."
"Fitzwilliam goes with D'Acres?"
"Of course. Bristol's Director may not go quietly. His seniors are not going to like the new régime. Fitzwilliam will be D'Acres' Enforcer, bodyguard and Chief of Operations as well as his partner. He will have a team of harmless-looking aides-de-camp who will listen for any hint of insurrection, and one fiendishly clever bookkeeper to take over the budget and accounts. They're all Admins, who won't affect your scheduling or headcount.
"All their seniors who are currently hiding behind unnecessary desk jobs will begin battlefield duty. All partnerships will be dissolved pending review. All Juniors will be divorced from their apprenticeships. All Bristol Juniors will be tested for proficiency. All will be assigned to new mentors not from Bristol. Each small-town Branch in Southern England will donate one war-worthy Senior to bring up the numbers.
"D'Acres wants to take Garraway as his Personnel and Recruitment Manager. Garraway wants to borrow Samuel Terry as his ombudsman, to make sure no future partnerships are abusive or incompetent, and to help reassign Juniors to new mentorships. Can you spare them?"
"Aye. I think we must. Birch can step up to Garraway's position. He's competent, just a bit lazy and not really interested. Terry, now – he'll still belong to London, then? H'm. Yes. Have you asked Terry about this?"
"He's willing to go if the position is temporary. He needs some creative scheduling. One battlefield shift with Ten Hagen, one Personnel shift with Bristol, or any other schedule that amounts to half-time on each job. He points out that he wants to keep an eye on the Bristol Seniors sent to the war. He doesn't want them importing abusive habits to inflict on those they consider junior to them."
"He'll need Ten Hagen at his back, then. But truly, Bristol's bullying ways will not survive war duty; their allies will beat it out of them on their first day. He should worry more about their abilities. Their death rate indicates that they're years out of training." Eric shrugged. "I'm willing to take some of them into me Academy classes. Getting their arses kicked by students will readjust their delusions of adequacy. But don't expect us to turn the Bristol Juniors into stars, Will. They wouldn't be there if they were good enough to work anywhere else."
"I don't want stars. I've got stars. They get into situations that make my head hurt. D'Acres needs steady, sturdy, competent Reapers who do their work and stay out of trouble."
"We can do that much for him. How's this? Offer Terry and Ten Hagen to Bristol full time for the first three months, to get the teams and apprenticeships settled. They can do combat training until D'Acres gets some drillmasters in there. Dutch will guard Sam until they feel comfortable with all his assigned partnerships and mentorships. They then return to us for battlefield duty and go part-time with Bristol. When Garraway gets their staff up to proper levels, let Terry nominate a replacement and return to us full-time."
Will nodded. "That should work nicely. D'Acres will have his own subordinates in place by then; I'm loaning him some of our talented Admins to set up a proper Operations department instead of whatever chaos Bristol has now. They'll draw on Admin's waiting list of people wanting to work London Operations."
Eric leaned forward, planting his chair on all four legs. "Bristol may connive to draft them. They'll want to add their names to their battlefield roster, to make their numbers look better. We have to keep them both here, Will. Ten Hagen's roommate is approaching the end of his training decade. Scythes won't want Smithfield distracted from his classes and his mastery project by having housing problems."
"You won't lose either of them. Administrative Adjunct DePoy will personally see most of Bristol Admin replaced by our Operations waiting list soon. They will be happy to let both Terry and Ten Hagen stay on our payroll. As long as there are portals to step through, their addresses are irrelevant. D'Acres, after all, will continue to live here with his wife."
Will smiled with malicious satisfaction and steepled his fingers. Eric raised an eyebrow and awaited the disclosure of a classic Spears strategic ambush leading to a hostile takeover. Madame had given Spears his own little war to fight. Clever lady.
"On Monday, London Operations Administrative Adjunct Dora DePoy will inform Bristol Admin that forcing Auditing Senior (Grade Four) Sarah Goodfellow and her husband Director Roland D'Acres to move into Bristol's notoriously substandard housing would guarantee a long-overdue audit of their Branch. That should panic Bristol into promising Miss DePoy anything we want, since Admin's obviously up to its elbows in their misappropriated funds. The audit will already have been started by the aforementioned fiendishly clever bookkeeper, but we'll have a signed agreement before they realize that. If they complain later, we shall point out that Collections has no influence whatsoever over Auditing's decisions. Which is, of course, exactly as it should be, as taught at the Academy, in Basic Ethics, by our own esteemed Assistant Director Alan Humphries.
"On Tuesday, we shall start sending our convalescents to Bristol for their final stages of recovery. All are competent mentors. They will help educate and train the juniors there. They will also take over all the office duties currently performed by able-bodied seniors. That should flush the last shirkers out of their dens and onto the battlefields. I shall suggest that Bristol supplement their half-pay with a generous stipend. They can afford it, since we're paying Terry and they're underpaying their juniors and younger seniors."
Eric grinned. "I— no, Garraway will interview the new Seniors being transferred in. He'll keep the best mentors home for training Juniors and overseeing local Reaping. Then he can talk to the Academy about getting the hiring ban lifted. But that will take time, Will. The Academy will start by sending a few interns. All of them will be covert academicians. They'll report on how they and the remaining Juniors are treated. It'll be at least another year before they allow Bristol to hire, and three or four more before graduates begin to consider Bristol a desirable posting."
"Indeed. That short-handedness will ensure that our invalids will be allowed to stay until fully recovered, rather than be returned to the wars half-healed. It is vital that D'Acres receives all the help we can give. The sooner Bristol becomes entirely his problem instead of mine, the better. I expected you to be less accommodating about Terry. Does this fit into your plans for him?"
"Yes, and it's to your advantage. Birch is adequate but not dedicated. I want Terry to get the experience Bristol will give him. When he returns, I am going to let him work with Birch for a bit. Then I'll offer Birch an escape; he's not truly happy in the job. He'll want to return to simple Reaping with a new partner. Terry, who will have been doing most of Birch's work, will be pleasantly surprised to be advanced to Garraway's title and pay grade. He'll step up to assist me in managing recruitment and mentoring. I'm confident that he can replace me if necessary. We'll surround him with competent Admins so he doesn't get deskbound by paperwork. I'll make sure he reaps regularly with his partner. I'll introduce him to all me contacts at the Academy. Then we'll start looking for Birch's replacement."
"Not Ten Hagen?"
"No. I've another plan for Ten Hagen. I think we are going to lose both Tomkins and Merrick to the London Lab team. They are entirely absorbed by portal technology. That leaves Alan with no successor. His Admins are good, but we need a Reaper in his chair, and Avram doesn't want to be that Reaper. If we let Avram replace Birch in Personnel, he will be much happier. Let me suggest that your bodyguard Sorenson be assigned to Alan, officially as Security and as a trainer for Reyes. If he begins to take an interest in Alan's various schemes, good. If not, let him be a bodyguard and a placeholder for Ten Hagen."
Will tilted his head. "Ten Hagen as Humphries' Number Two? Do you think that possible?"
"I do. The talent's there. We'll have to be patient, but Alan brings out the best in people. Consider the future, Will. If we go, Alan and I are likely to go together. The bond, ye ken. If so, Operations will continue without a hitch, still under the command of two Reaping partners. They'll work together well, they'll have ties to Scythes and Auditing, they will have shiny spotless records, and they probably won't give you half the grief that we do."
Will tapped a finger, thought a moment. "I like it. Avram will like it. Grell told me it was a mistake to move him out of Personnel when I needed an assistant. It makes the best possible use of Terry. I can see Avram as the grandfather of all the Branch, and Terry being his Enforcer. There is also an advantage in having Ten Hagen as an additional Enforcer type in Humphries' office. I suggest you negotiate to hire Tomkins' current interns upon graduation, send them to Cole for advanced training, and assign them to Marisa Solway. Tomkins and Merrick can transfer to Scientific once their replacements are capable."
"Aye. The interns are good kids, but Admin to the core. I'll talk to Mari about proper reclassification of their jobs, since they will be taking positions that are currently held by Reapers. You can dicker with Admin over who pays them."
"Excellent. Excellent, Slingby. I now have all I need to present Madame with a complete plan for the reconstruction of the Bristol Branch, plus an updated business succession plan for London. She will be pleased. When Madame is pleased—"
"—Everybody gets to live another day. Aye. But don't forget, Will, you still have to replace D'Acres. You need to designate a practicing Reaper as your own Number Two. Also, you're meeting Grell for dinner, and I'm meeting Alan, and we are both going to be late if we don't leave now. They'lI scold us. I haven't turned in me Reaps, yet, either, and Kendall's bled all down me collar."
"Take your time. I will tell them you are on your way," said Will, innocently. "I, of course, will be precisely on time. They can both scold you when you do arrive. It would be unkind of me to spoil their fun. Also, I will have to inform Humphries that he's back in my Number Two position, due to your personnel planning. I am sure he will wish to express his infinite gratitude for your efforts. You may wish to consider donning body armor and removing his knives before dinner."