Two days later
and the base was still abuzz with the news of the superhumans’ victory over
Chadwick’s team. All of the superhumans
were on a high, while Chadwick had been lying low, merely sticking to the job
in hand on any ocassions when he was called upon to interact with them. Andrea was more than happy with that, though
her recollections of the afternoon of the game tended to centre around things
other than the annoying Lieutenant.
In particular she
couldn’t help wondering at the brief, yet strange conversation with the Major
in the changing rooms afterwards.
Andrea had just finished her shower when she’d stepped out into the main
area to find the other woman there. Any
cooling effect of the shower was swiftly lost when she caught sight of the blue
eyes staring intently at her from across the room. Though she wore a towel, it had felt like she may as well be
standing there naked so intense was the study.
Andrea had amazed herself by not only managing to speak in a reasonably
calm voice but also by making it back to the bench where her clothes sat with
some dignity.
Only of course
when she got there she’d realised that it would look rather odd if she didn’t
dry herself and put her clothes on. Not
that Andrea was normally bashful, but something about the Major’s presence
unnerved her more than she would care to admit. In the end she’d just had to steel herself and turned away so
that at least she wouldn’t have to see the other woman as she changed and that
conversely the Major wouldn’t see the blush that was threatening Andrea’s
face. Andrea had assumed that the Major
would go on changing herself, but Andrea had sensed the lack of movement behind
her and swung round to see the Major still staring at her.
Andrea was
bemused by the Major’s behaviour, finding it odd that she had noticed the
tattoo in the small of Andrea’s back.
Not for the first time Andrea wondered why exactly the Major had been
staring at the base of her spine in the first place. And then there was the way the Major had dashed off so
suddenly. Though she supposedly had an
urgent call, Andrea had the feeling that the other woman couldn’t wait to get
out of the room.
Andrea was again
on her own in one of the underground rooms now, though this time it was Doc
that had left her to it, having to go and attend to an experiment in another of
the labs. Andrea was in a sectioned off
area of the lab, putting her t-shirt back on after have been doing some more
tests with Doc, when she heard the door go.
Her immediate reaction was to stand up and greet whoever it was, but
recalling the possible sabotage of some of Doc’s equipment the week before she
instead ducked down out of sight, just in case it was the same person returned
again and she could catch them at it.
Doc hadn’t found any signs of direct tampering with his equipment, but
Andrea still found the whole incident highly suspicious.
As the new
entrants spoke it was quickly apparent to Andrea that it wasn’t her potential
sabouteur, but rather than stand up at that point she found herself
eavesdropping on the interesting conversation.
“It looks like
Doc isn’t here,” came the Major’s voice, “He must have been called away. Shall I summon him back?”
“No, it’s fine,
we’ll catch up with him later.”
Andrea risked a
quick peek to verify who the male voice belonged to, catching sight of Colonel
Parsons before she hid from view again.
Andrea considered how the Colonel had only visited once in two months to
begin with, yet now here he was at the base twice in one week.
“Have his special
reports been satisfactory for you?” asked the Major. The question seemed innocent enough, but Andrea could detect a
slight caustic edge in the way it had been said.
It appeared the
Colonel had noticed it too. “You know
why we have to keep a close eye on that situation, or would you rather the
alternative?”
“I’m not sure,
sometimes I do wonder if that would be better.”
“You don’t mean
that.”
Andrea heard the
sound of a sigh from the Major. “I
suppose not. I just don’t like anything
that impinges on the way I run the base.”
“How is it coming
with investigations into these incidents of possible sabotage anyway?” asked
the Colonel, changing the subject completely.
Andrea was slightly annoyed at that, since this was the second time
she’d heard the Major discussing these ‘special reports’ with someone. Andrea was desperate to know what they were
about, thinking it was either something to do with her or what the intentions
behind the superhumans’ training was.
Secretly she hoped it wasn’t the former, since that would mean the Major
had been keeping things from Andrea, a thought that did not please the young
woman in the slightest.
“Not good,”
replied the Major, “We’ve not found out anything new since I last spoke to
you.”
“Which means we
basically know nothing?”
“Pretty much.”
“I have to say
the timing of this is not good,” the Colonel noted, “Especially not with all
the time and money that’s being invested in this project.”
“And it’s not all
about money and whatever it is you’re hoping to gain from this, there’s
actually the people here,” the Major reminded him, “What would happen to them
if anything should happen to the base?”
The Colonel
paused for a moment before he answered.
“I remind you that you’re meant to be guarding the army and government’s
interests in this project. I hope
you’re not getting too attached to these people.”
Andrea wasn’t
sure she liked the way the Colonel had said ‘these people’, and it seemed the
Major shared her reservations. When she
replied her voice carried a definate steely quality. “I am protecting the army’s interests, but that doesn’t mean I
can’t also look out for the superhumans.”
“Just as long as
you remember where your ultimate loyalties lie.”
“I’m well aware
of that,” the Major answered, almost snapping at him, “Why, are people starting
to question the way I’m running things here?”
“Not yet, or at
least not to me,” replied the Colonel, “Though that could possibly be because
they know of our close connection.
However, if this goes on they might start to make any comments openly.”
“Great, so
basically I have to watch my back?”
“You just need to
be extra careful right now. There are a
whole host of people who weren’t happy with this project getting off the ground
ten months ago, and then with what happened last November…well, you know as
well as I do how close we came to being shut down on that ocassion. Any more mistakes will be seized upon by our
opponents. In fact they want a full report
on progress on Tuesday.”
“Tuesday?” cried
the Major, “You could have given me a bit more notice, or is it deliberate on
their part to try and catch us unprepared?”
There was no
answer, Andrea assuming that meant the Colonel had merely nodded in some way.
“It looks like
I’ll have a busy weekend then,” noted the Major, “In which case we’d better get
on.”
Andrea listened
to the sounds of them leaving, giving it a couple of minutes before she got up
off the floor. The conversation had
certainly been interesting, though it raised more questions than it really
answered. It sounded as if the Major
was under quite a lot of pressure, though Andrea admired the way she had stood
up to the Colonel despite that, particularly when it came to defending the
superhumans. With the words playing
over in her mind again, Andrea followed the two officers out of the lab.
……….
Andrea cried out as the sharp needle pierced the soft
flesh of her arm, just in the crook of her elbow. She tried to pull away from the painful contact but her arm was
immobilised, bound, she now realised, to the table she was lying on. She tugged against the restraints but they
wouldn’t budge. Her super strength seemed
to have deserted her. Meanwhile there
was a dark figure looming over her, their face indistinguishable against the
bright light that shone from behind them.
“Stop, what are you doing?” she asked the person trying
to control her rising panic
They didn’t reply, too intent on their task and Andrea
could now feel the ebb of her blood out through the needle. It seemed to go on for an agonising
eternity, and she considered that surely she didn’t have that much blood in
her. Finally the person withdrew it,
retreating to a dark corner of the room.
Andrea fought desperately to break her bindings
again. This wasn’t right, she kept
telling herself - she should be able to break free. Why couldn’t she break free?
By now she was panting, gasping with the continued effort. Suddenly there was a wrenching noise and she
found herself lying face down on the floor.
Andrea heard her captor moving towards her, and she
didn’t hesitate, leaping to her feet and sprinting for the door. It was locked. Swinging round she could see the shadowy figure coming for her,
their hand raised, holding some sort of weapon. She squinted to try and see what it was – a gun? A knife? The rest of the room was too dark for her to
see any other means of escape, the only light being the bright pool cast on the
table she had been lying on. She
rattled the handle of the door again and it flew open this time. She was so surprised that she fell out into
the corridor beyond, hitting the stone floor with a jarring thump.
Scrabbling to her feet Andrea started to run, unsure
where she was going, just knowing she needed to run somewhere, anywhere to get
away.
Then they were there in front of her as they were every
time – MacKenzie, Humphreys, Madision, Walker.
Andrea felt the familiar twisting anxiety in her chest as she saw her
dead colleagues.
“Why can’t you leave me alone?” she exclaimed, coming to
an abrupt halt.
“You’ve forgotten about us,” moaned MacKenzie, “We knew
you would.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” pleaded Andrea, stepping away from
them as they pressed her back down the corridor.
“She’s too interested in her new life now,” remarked
Walker
“Wants to be the superhero,” added Madison
“No, I’m still trying to find out what happened, I am!”
insisted Andrea
It seemed they weren’t listening, continuing to talk
about her amongst themselves. “ I think she likes being the special mutie
freak, thinks she’s better than the rest of us,” noted Humphreys
“She always thought that anyway,” said MacKenzie
“Not that her powers are much use…”
Andrea whirled round to see her recently deceased friend
Maria behind her.
“Maria? No, not you too!”
“What’s the point in having powers if you can’t help
anyone,” continued Maria, her eyes boring into Andrea.
“I was miles away, how could I have known?”
As with the others, Maria seemed to ignore her
words. “Why weren’t you there?”
“No, just leave me alone!”
Andrea barged forcefully past them, not wanting to hear
any more of their disparaging words, but they chased after her, repeating them
again and again as she tried to flee.
Andrea stuck her hands up to cover her ears, but that didn’t help – it
was like the words were ringing inside her mind, a constant stream of
accusation and criticism.
And then she was falling, sailing down through the
air. Somewhere in her mind she had a
recollection that this seemed to happen every time too – one minute she was
running down the corridor, the next hurtling down into nothingness. Her fall was abruptly halted by the floor
rushing up to smack her in the face.
Andrea’s eyes
shot open at the point of impact in the dream, groaning to herself as she
realised that was what it had been. She
lay there for a moment on the cotton sheets, going over the images that had
been presented to her. Despite
continuing counselling with Dr Shah, nearly every night she had a
nightmare with similar elements to the one she’d just experienced, though the
addition of Maria was a first. It was
quite obvious her sense of guilt over Maria’s death had lead to her
subconsciously inserting her friend amongst all the other people pursuing her.
Andrea tossed and
turned under the duvet a few times, before giving up on getting back to sleep,
and pulling on some clothes to head off for a calming walk. As usual she made her way out onto the
rooftop of the base, finding it deserted that night. Disappointed she sat on the wall for a moment, watching the
clouds sweeping across the moon as the wind whipped through her clothes. It was too cold to sit there for long, yet
she didn’t feel like going back to bed yet.
Not really knowing her exact motivation, Andrea headed back inside, but
rather than turning for her quarters, she took the corridor that led past the
rooms of the officers. A quick check of
her watch revealed it was two in the morning and she wondered how wise it was
to continue on her intended course of action.
She was here now, she surmised, so she might as well see if the Major
was awake.
The press of the
chime yielded an immediate response, Andrea glad to know that the Major was
still keeping similarly late hours. As
she stepped into the room Andrea’s eyes had to adjust to the dim light for a
moment, eventually spotting the Major relaxing on a sofa near the window,
reading a hardback book which she now closed and placed down on a coffee table
in front of her. The only illumination
in the room was from the lamp that overlooked the Major’s seat, picking up the
redness of her hair in its glow.
“Having trouble
sleeping?” queried the Major, turning her face to her late-night visitor. She shuffled up the sofa as she spoke,
sending out a silent invite for Andrea to come and join her.
As Andrea crossed
the room she made a quick study of her surroundings. The Major’s quarters were quite different to any of the other
ones she had been in on the base already, though the basic layout was identical
to Andrea’s own. However, where
Andrea’s belongings just resided as an extension to their environment, the
Major’s room seemed like a proper home, as if everything had it’s proper place
and belonged exactly there. The best
words Andrea could think of to describe the decoration and furniture were
understated and tasteful, though neither of those really did justice to the
warm homey feel she had felt as soon as she’d stepped through the door.
Of the specific
furnishings, the first thing Andrea had noticed was the dark red sofa, since
the Major had been sprawled out across it when Andrea entered. It looked exceedingly soft and inviting, the
kind of sofa you could happily fall asleep upon. The next most prominent thing in the room was the antique desk by
the wall nearest the door. It was made
of dark wood and ornately constructed with smart curves and fine points. Andrea thought that it would have been more
fitting to have had an old style typewriter on top, rather than the laptop that
actually sat in the middle of the polished surface.
There were
various ornaments, plants and pictures dotted around the room, and Andrea only
had the chance to observe a few of them in detail. One eye-catching picture displayed a view of space, with the
myriad colours of a nebula or gas cloud of some kind fanning out across the
blackness.
Lowering herself
onto the sofa, Andrea found it was as confortable as it looked and she tried to
relax back into the cushions though she felt far from relaxed inside. She was on edge, not knowing if it was the
lasting effect of the earlier nightmare or the closeness of the Major causing
it. She had hoped a chance to talk
would calm her, but at present it was having the reverse effect.
“I wasn’t sure if
you’d still be up,” Andrea said by means of introduction.
“I was working
quite late,” said the Major, “And was just reading to unwind before I go to
bed.”
That explained
why the other woman was still in her uniform trousers and shirt at that late
hour, considered Andrea, though for the first time she noticed that the Major’s
feet were bare, her heavy boots along with her socks discarded at the side of
the sofa. Wondering why she had been
working so late, Andrea recalled the eavesdropped conversation of the day
before, deducing that the Major had been preparing for her impromptu
meeting. Of course, Andrea knew she
couldn’t reveal her own knowledge of the meeting unless she aslo wanted the
Major to know she had been snooping on her.
“Do you often
work so late on a Saturday night?” asked Andrea, wanting to see if the Major
would tell her about it anyway.
“I have been
accused of working rather long hours in the past, in this case I have to
prepare for a unexpected meeting on Tuesday.”
That hadn’t
been hard thought
Andrea. “Really?” she said out loud
trying to sound sufficiently surprised, “It’s lots of extra work is it?”
“It’s just a
report to the government on our progress, it’s nothing out of the ordinary.”
Andrea didn’t
think it had sounded quite so ordinary when the Major and the Colonel had been
discussing it. Maybe the Major didn’t
want to reveal the degree of pressure on her, wanting to seem like she could
handle anything. “Well, I’m sure you’ll
suitably impress them with how well we’re doing,” remarked Andrea.
“I hope so,”
agreed the Major.
“You don’t sound
convinced,” Andrea said, having noted the other woman’s tone, “Are we not doing
well?”
“No, of course
you are,” stated the Major quickly and emphatically, “You all are.”
“Then what is it
they’re worried about?” Andrea pressed, still keen to see how much the Major
would reveal to her. Andrea was
particularly interested in the incident six months ago that had called into
question the Major’s running of the base, but couldn’t think of anyway to bring
it up without showing her prior knowledge.
“Nothing specific
as far as I know,” the Major declared, “Though obviously the recent accidents
are a cause for concern. Not everyone
is quite as behind this project as the Colonel and I are, so they’re looking
for anything they can use against us.”
“Who exactly is
‘everyone’?”
“Other army
officers, members of the government.
Basically we have to make sure everything runs smoothly to ensure the
ongoing funding of this unit.”
“It all sounds a
bit political to me,” noted Andrea. The
Major was being pretty candid, though unfortunately for Andrea she still hadn’t
mentioned this other incident. Andrea
wondered if anyone else knew about it.
Perhaps she could ask Tom, she pondered, since he seemed to know
everything that went on round the base.
“It is very political,”
agreed the Major, “Which isn’t really my arena. I’m much more of an action woman, someone on the ground who likes
to get things done, rather than wading through reems of red-tape and
beauracracy.”
“Is that why you
like to get involved in football games between the staff?”
The Major
laughed. “Partly,” she conceeded with a
tip of the head. The small movement
caused the ends of her bob to flop across her cheek and she quickly pushed it
back again. “That and my insane
competitive streak!”
Andrea laughed
too, recalling the football game. “I
did notice that you were rather…zealous in your marking style.”
“While of course
you weren’t bothered at all if you won?”
the Major asked, eyeing Andrea with a look of amused suspicion.
“I didn’t say that,”
said Andrea, “It’s no secret that I wanted to wipe that smug expression off
Chadwick’s face.”
“Indeed,”
commented the Major, obviously not wanting to get into Andrea’s antagonistic
relationship with the Lieutenant. “So
what brought you to my door this evening?” she asked instead.
“The usual,” said
Andrea, knowing full well that the Major would know what that meant. They had already discussed it a few times
on their other nightime meetings on the roof.
“The nightmares?”
the Major deduced. “How are things going with Dr Shah? Have you made much progress yet?”
“Some, but it’s
not helping much with the nightmares yet,” Andrea admitted.
“I guess you have
to give it some time,” offered the Major, her face softening along with her
eyes. Andrea found herself staring
into them as the Major continued to speak.
“I know it took me a couple of months to start to resolve things when I
had counselling last year and even now I find it hard to look back on what
happened, even though it’s more than a year now since it happened.”
Andrea knew that
the Major was talking about father’s death, though the fact that she hadn’t
directly mentioned it proved how hard it was for the Major to talk about
it. Every now and then it would crop up
in their conversations, but always the Major avoided going into too much
detail.
Sensing the other
woman wasn’t going to change that habit now, Andrea’s eyes drifted over the
table in front of them, noticing the papers haphazdly scattered across one
corner of it for the first time.
“Writing
something?” asked Andrea, leaning forwards to try and make out the words. The Major’s handwriting was quite hard to
decipher though.
The Major quickly
gathered the papers up into a pile and inserted them in a folder that was also
on the table. “It’s nothing really.”
Andrea was
intrigued by the Major’s faintly embarassed reaction. “What is it, a book of some sort?”
The Major was
uncharacteristically blushing now.
“Yes,” she confessed. “You know
how it is – everyone likes to think they can write a novel.”
“What’s it
about?”
“Nothing much,”
the Major said evasively, “It’s probably a load of rubbish anyway, but it keeps
me amused.”
“I’m sure it’s
not rubbish,” insisted Andrea, “I’d like to see it sometime if I could?”
“Sometime maybe,
but definitely not yet,” the Major said, “It needs a lot of work!”
Andrea let it go,
sensing the Major was unsure of her writing skills, though she was intrigued
what would be produced by the Major’s imagination. Would it be a thriller?
Comedy? Romance?
“Would you like a
drink?”
Andrea had to
force herself to stop thinking about what romance the Major might write about
to answer the question. “Yes, thanks,
tea please, if you have it.”
“Of course,” the
Major replied, heading to the kitchen area to fix the drinks. Andrea watched as she padded across the
carpet in her bare feet, stepping tentatively onto the cool tiles of the
kitchen with an audible intake of breath.
Andrea couldn’t help the smile that twitched at the corners of her lips
at the reaction.
While the Major
was busy, Andrea started scouting the room again. The photographs displayed at various points were mostly too far
away for Andrea to be able to make out the people in them in the low light,
though she did catch sight of one on a closer bookcase of the Major with the
dark-haired woman Andrea had seen briefly in the corridor the week before
last. Andrea had gotten a definate vibe
off the woman at the time, besides the one that said Andrea didn’t like her.
The pair of them
looked much younger in the picture, maybe somewhere in their early twenties,
and they were grinning at the camera, both of them decked out in dress
uniforms, complete with peaked caps.
The other, taller woman had her arm around the Major’s shoulder in the
relaxed shot. Andrea felt a strange,
unpleasant prickling sensation in her stomach at the pose, and continued on her
sweep of the room, rather than continue to stare at the offending photograph.
Coming back to
the table, Andrea noticed something on the lower shelf, reaching down to pull
it out. “You like to play?” she asked
holding up the Scrabble box.
The Major was now
walking back across the room with the mugs.
“If I can find someone to play against,” she said, setting them down,
“I’ve managed to entice Dr Todd into a few games every once in a while, but I
think he was put off by my competitiveness.
Would you like a game?”
Andrea was taken
aback by the friendly offer.
“Er…yes…why not,” she replied eventually.
The Major smiled,
seemingly pleased she’d found someone else to join her in a game, and Andrea
was equally pleased at being that one.
She watched the Major eagerly setting the board out on the wooden table
before shaking the small green bag of letters in Andrea’s direction. “Pick one to see who goes first,” she
instructed.
Andrea delved
into the bag, her fingers brushing against the Major’s palm through the
material at its base. She fumbled
around for a bit until she could prolong the pretence that she was searching no
longer. She drew out an ‘a’, the Major
regarding her suspiciously when she showed it to the other woman.
“Looks like
you’re first,” she said grudgingly, displaying her own ‘s’.
Andrea fished out
her first seven letters and they settled into the game, neither of them seeming
to care that it was so early in the morning.
The scores were quite even until Andrea managed to place a seven letter
word on the board, glancing up to see the Major glowering at her afterwards.
Andrea couldn’t
help laughing at the disgruntled expression.
“You weren’t joking about that insane competitive streak were you?”
The Major’s face
immediately softened into an amused expression. “At least I did warn you.
What can I say, I like to win.”
“Just as long as
you don’t expect me to let you,” teased Andrea.
“I can’t imagine
you doing that anyway,” countered the Major.
Andrea merely
smiled in response, drinking some more from her mug of tea. The Major was studying her letters intently
now, her lips pursed in deep concentration as her fingers rearranged the small tiles
on the plastic slide before her. Every
now and then she would stop the swapping and bring her hand up to rub her
temple or her chin, oblivious to the scrutiny of the young woman next to her. Considering that this was a perfect friendly
moment to bring up pretty much anything, Andrea decided it was time to get an
update on something in particular.
“So, how are
things coming with your private investigation into the warehouse accident?” she
asked as nonchalantly as possible.
The Major’s eyes
flicked up. “I’m afraid I haven’t had
much time recently, though I did find out that the Colonel’s team are on the
trail of this Cowley guy?”
“Yes, he was the
one whose warehouse it was,” confirmed Andrea, “Have they found anything out
about him?”
“Not as far as I
could tell,” the Major said, “Though it seems to be quite hard finding
information out about him.”
Andrea
nodded. “Tell me about it. He was always the mystery man to us
too. Though we’d been investigating him
and his various criminal enterprises for months before the raid on the
warehouse we still didn’t even know what he looked like.”
The Major
appeared surprised at that.
“Really? You must have
questioned people that had met him though?”
“And they were
all very tight-lipped. I think they
were scared of him, of what might happen to them should they betray him.”
“But you did
manage to find out about the shipment at the warehouse,” the Major mentioned.
“True,” agreed
Andrea, “But even then we weren’t entirely sure what it was, only that it had just
arrived from Eastern Europe. It could
have been drugs, guns, even people – Cowley was involved in all of them. We had even heard that it was possible that
Cowley himself would be there, so as you can imagine we were quite keen to
catch him there if possible.”
“But you didn’t.”
Andrea thought
back to the day for a moment. “He could
have been there,” she admitted, the confused recollections trying to coalesce
in her mind, “I don’t know. It was all
a bit of a mess once we got inside.”
She paused again, but the break didn’t help to make things clearer. “And then there was the gas…and…well…” Now all she could see was the image of
Walker choking, gagging and begging her for help. She closed her eyes to try and push it away and compose herself.
It was then that
she felt the comforting fingers, gently stroking down her arm to her hand where
it rested on her thigh. She opened her
eyes again, fixing the Major with a pleading look.
“Why did I
survive? Why didn’t I die with everyone
else?”
“You know the
answer to that,” said the other woman softly, still holding Andrea’s hand.
“Ah yes, my much
vaunted powers,” said Andrea bitterly, shaking her head. “They didn’t really do me much good then did
they?”
“You’re not
exactly being fair on yourself,” the Major suggested, “You were hardly in a
position to do anything by all accounts, and I doubt that you would have been
able to even if you hadn’t been incapacitated.”
“But I don’t know
that,” Andrea said, the nasty feeling of guilt clawing at her once more. “I won’t know for sure until I find Cowley
and discover what happened in that warehouse.”
“And we
will do, I promise you,” stated the Major sincerely.
She gave Andrea’s
hand a small squeeze to emphasise her point, the combination of the touch and
the understanding words sending a surge of emotion through the young
woman. Looking into the major’s eyes,
it was all Andrea could do not to let the tears that were welling up inside
spill over and display her fragile state.
Andrea slowly
drew her hand away, glancing at her watch instead. “I think I’ve taken up enough of your time for one night,” she
said as calmly as she could manage.
Before the Major could object, Andrea had risen from the sofa. “Thanks for the game,” Andrea added.
“No problem,”
replied the Major, “Feel free to drop back in any time.”
Andrea got the
sense the offer was more related to what had just passed between them than an
invite to play more Scrabble. The Major
seemed to genuinely understand the difficulties Andrea was having and the young
woman had no doubt that she would be taking up the offer soon.
………
By the time
Tuesday came round Andrea hadn’t been round to the Major’s quarters again,
thinking it best to let her concentrate on her meeting for the time being. As she sat in the messhall munching on some
breakfast she was joined by the other three superhumans, Tom setting down a
heart-attack inducing plate brimming with bacon, sausages and fried bread. Harry meanwhile had some cereal like Andrea
and Bel was just cradling a cup of coffee.
“God how can you
eat that so early in the morning?” asked Andrea as Tom shovelled the bacon in
his mouth.
“That’s nothing,”
said Bel on his behalf since his mouth was full, “You should see some of the
other stuff that passes for breakfast round at Tom’s – cold pizzas and chinese
being most common.”
Andrea raised her
eyebrows at the other woman. “You’re
there a lot of mornings then are you?”
Bel flushed
slightly at being caught out, causing Andrea and Harry to laugh at her
discomfort.
“So what’s on the
agenda for today?” asked Bel to shift the focus from her.
“I think we’ve
got another exercise with Chadwick, out at the house,” Harry replied.
“Oh, great, not
Chadwick again,” sighed Bel, “Can’t we have some training with the Major?”
“She’s gone to
headquarters today,” interjected Andrea, “To give some sort of report to the
bosses.”
The other three’s
eyes all swung to her. “And how exactly
did you know that?” asked Bel.
Andrea shifted
uncomfortably in her seat as the other three continued to stare. “She told me,” admitted Andrea, omitting
that she’d actually first heard it while eavesdropping on the Major and the
Colonel.
“She..told…you?”
repeated Bel slowly, “And when might this have been, because I’m pretty sure I
missed that briefing?”
“Yeah, Andrea,”
joined in Tom now he’d finished scoffing his bacon, “When did you and the Major
have this personal chat?”
Andrea stared
back at them defiantly. “Is there
something wrong with talking to the Major out of office hours?”
“No, no, of
course not,” said Bel, pouting her lips to indicate she didn’t mean what she
was saying.
“Not at all,”
agreed Tom, “I go round the Major’s quarters all the time too.”
“You do?” asked
Andrea, surprised.
“Of course not!”
cried Tom. “But that’s where she told you then was it?”
Andrea realised
she had been cleverly manouvered into the position and tried to think of a way
out of it. However, her momentary pause
was more than enough to give the game away.
“It bloody was,
wasn’t it!” exclaimed Tom, “You were round her quarters!”
“All right, all
right, keep your voice down,” said Andrea, glancing round the room to see a few
other soldiers peering in their direction, “Yes I went round there, but only
because I had something I wanted to discuss with her.”
Tom shook his
head. “You’re on a hiding to nothing
you realise.”
“I don’t know
what you mean,” said Andrea, genuinely confused by his reference.
“Trying to get
close to the Major,” clarified Tom.
“I’m not trying
to get close to her,” stated Andrea firmly, “We’re just friends.”
“Either way she’s
not the sort to get too close to the people under her command,” outlined Tom,
“At least not any more.”
Andrea was quick
to pick up on his words. “What do you
mean ‘not any more’?”
Tom looked more
than surprised. “You’ve not heard the
story about Adam Dixon yet?”
“No.”
“Bloody hell, I
thought someone might have let that one slip by now,” he said with incredulity,
“Mind you people don’t like to mention it considering what happened.”
Andrea was
desperate to know who this Adam Dixon was now, especially if he had something to do with the Major. “For christ’s sake, will you stop beating
about the bush and tell me then!”
Given the way she
had snapped at him, Tom looked reluctant to continue. “I wasn’t actually here at the time, maybe you could tell the
story better Harry?”
“Oh, thanks, dump
it on me,” said the dark-haired young man, shooting a look at Tom.
Andrea meanwhile
fixed her eyes on Harry, staring at him until he gave in.
“Ok, I’ll do it
from the beginning shall I?” he said, not waiting for an answer before he
continued, “Well, the Superhuman Research Unit was set up back in July last
year, nearly ten months ago now, with Bel and I being the first recruits to
join. The Major was obviously new to
the base too and there were a few rumours about how exactly she’d got her
posting and what she’d been doing prior to that.”
“Which were?”
asked Andrea.
“Am I telling
this story or are you?” Harry shot back in response. Andrea nodded at him to carry on which he did. “There was some hint of an accident or
something earlier that same year, out in Iraq.
I’m not really sure what the Major’s involvement had been, but she’d
been off on leave immediately prior to coming to the base.”
Andrea knew what
that accident in Iraq was about, or at least some of it – it was when the
Major’s father had been killed. And the
leave Harry was referring to was the compassionate leave she’d had after that
to grieve and have counselling.
Obviously that wasn’t common knowledge and Andrea certainly wasn’t about
to break the Major’s confidence and tell the others about it.
Harry continued
on with his story. “As a result of this
prior incident there were a few people who were a bit uncertain of the Major’s
ability to command the base and I have to say there were times when she could
be a little…erratic. Anyway after a
couple of months we got another recruit – Adam Dixon. This guy was Mr Smooth, quickly winning everyone over, including
Chadwick which as you know is some feat.
He and the Major also seemed pretty friendly, though no one thought much
of it. Only in the end they got a
little too friendly…”
“Too friendly?”
queried Andrea.
“You know…” said
Harry, Andrea staring at him in bemusement not wanting to believe what she
thought it was he was trying to tell her.
“For fuck’s sake
Harry,” interupted Tom, before turning to Andrea. “What he’s trying to say is that the Major and this guy Dixon
were shagging.”
Andrea was
dumbstruck, amazed that what she had been thinking was true.
“Yeah, I know
pretty hard to believe, huh?” added Harry, now Tom had bluntly stated it, “The
thing is I think he actually preyed on the fact that she was still somewhat
insecure after whatever it was that happened in Iraq. He took advantage of the insecurity.”
Andrea wasn’t
liking the sound of this man at all, having a irrational urge to hurt him, even
though she’d never met him and knew next to nothing about him. “To what end would he do that though?”
“This is the
whole sorry part of the story,” noted Harry ruefully, “It turns out Adam had a
bit of an alterior motive for getting close to the Major – he was selling
information and secrets to outside parties.”
“Fuck!” exclaimed
Andrea.
“Precisely. Of course it all got discovered in the end,
at the start of November last year. As
you can imagine the Major was in deep shit for having a personal relationship
with someone of questionable character and the finger of suspicion fell on her
too in terms of the loss of secrets – loose pillow talk and all that sort of
thing.”
Andrea didn’t
like the mental image that generated one bit.
“She was in the
clear in the end,” said Harry, “But that didn’t stop her being mortally
embarassed that she’d let her judgement be compromised so, no matter what her
personal situation.”
“That bastard,”
seethed Andrea, “But what happened to him?”
“Obviously they
couldn’t just let him go at that point, knowing what he did, so they supposedly
shipped him off somewhere. No one knows
where, and he was never heard from again round here. People don’t even like to mention his name, especially not in the
Major’s presence. Not everyone thinks
he got sent away though.”
“What do you
mean?”
Tom leapt in to
the conversation again at that point.
“Harry, will you stop spreading those ridiculous rumours.”
Harry leaned low
to the table, speaking in a whsiper.
“I’m telling you, I still reckon they killed him!”
“Don’t listen to
him,” Tom said to Andrea, “He’s been reading his comic books again.”
Andrea found
herself perversely wishing this Dixon person was dead; he sounded like a
nasty piece of work. “And what about
the Major? Did she get reprimanded?”
“I’m not sure
what exactly happened,” confessed Harry, “But somehow she managed to keep her
job. I’ve heard that her and the
Colonel are pretty good friends, so I reckon he intervened in some way to save
her hide.”
“But now she
can’t afford anything else to go wrong or she’s had it,” added Bel, “Naturally
she’s pretty wary of getting too close to anyone again, or of taking anyone
into her confidence in case they betray it like Dixon did.”
Andrea could see
why the Major would be wary, sickened again when she thought of Dixon and what
he had done to the proud woman. If he
wasn’t dead she hoped he was languishing in some prison somewhere. Part of Andrea did wonder why the Major had
never mentioned this to her before, but considered she most likely didn’t want
to rake up something so embarassing. As
the four of them headed out for their training session Andrea continued to
think of ways she would hurt Dixon if she ever came across him.
………
They had almost
finished their exercise when Chadwick got an unexpected call from back at base
and they were all summoned to an emergency briefing. They didn’t even have time to change, entering the underground
lecture room still wearing their dirty combat gear. Sitting waiting at the desk at the front of the room was the
Major, Andrea surprised she was back from her meeting already. Seeing the steely look on the other woman’s
face and the way her hands were clasped firmly on the desk in front of her,
Andrea wondered at the success of that meeting. Was the Major about to tell them that it was all over, that
the base had been shut down?
Andrea sat at one
of the benches, the first stirrings of anxiety fluttering in her stomach. Once they were all settled the Major slowly
rose from the desk.coming round to stand in front of them.
“I’m not sure how
many of you were aware of this,” she began, her eyes flicking briefly to
Andrea, “But I’ve been at the corps headquarters today, attending a series of
meetings on the future of the base.”
“A number of
concerns were raised over our results in terms of what we’ve achieved and
discovered, concerns which I believe I managed to satisfy for now.”
Andrea found
herself sighing in relief at that revelation.
As the Major started pacing across the room in front of them while she
contemplated her next words, Andrea’s thoughts drifted back to what she’d found
out that morning. She tried to picture
the strong, confident woman before her being conned by someone like this Dixon
person. No matter how she tried she
couldn’t imagine it – somone who could face down a room of fellow officers and
win out having the wool pulled over their eyes so badly. Andrea considered that maybe Harry was right
and that the Major was still somehow vulnerable when she first arrived at the
base. The angry feelings towards Dixon
started to surface again and Andrea had to push them down to pay attention as the
Major continued.
“However, it was
made apparent to me that there will be some additional demands placed on us
from now on. As you know this is an
government funded facility and the government would like to start getting some
returns from its investment.”
The Major was
still pacing across in front of them, as if she really didn’t want to have to
say whatever it was. Andrea didn’t
think she was liking where the conversation was heading either, things usually
weren’t good when politicians got involved.
Andrea
interupted, unable to take the tension any longer. “We get the picture, you’re not happy about it. Now why don’t you tell us what it is they
want from us?”
The Major stopped
her pacing and fixed her eyes cooly on Andrea, the young woman unsure if she
was annoyed at the interuption or relieved that Andrea had forced her to cut to
the chase.
“The government
would like you to undertake certain…tasks for them, as special operatives.”
“I knew it,”
cried Andrea, “We’re going to be their little superhuman army!”
The Major’s
expression was definitely now verging on the edge of annoyance as she glared at
Andrea.
“I don’t know
what all these tasks will be as of yet,” she stated evenly, never taking her
eyes off the young woman, “But believe me I would not be a willing party to
anything of a questionable nature.”
“Really,” said
Andrea doubtfully, “And you expect us to believe you didn’t know anything about
this before now?” As she said it she
realised that possibility actually disturbed her more than what the Major had
said. She recalled the couple of times
she had heard the Major talking about special reports and wondered if this was
what it had all been about – some long term plan to turn the all into secret
government operatives.
“I didn’t know of
these plans, no,” declared the Major.
Andrea merely
snorted a laugh.
“I know you’re
upset about this,” the Major said, struggling to keep her voice calm, “I’m not
exactly thrilled myself but we don’t have much choice.”
“Why, what would
you do to us if we don’t agree?” asked Andrea challengingly.
The Major’s lips
pursed together in a thin line, her eyes perceptably narrowing. Andrea wasn’t entirely sure why she was
being so antagonistic, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t worked for the government
before – what they were suggesting probably wasn’t that different from a
glorified police officer. She just
didn’t like to be taken for granted.
Luckily one of
the other superhumans spoke at that point, breaking the tense silent exchange
between the two women. “Andrea, for
god’s sake, give her a break,” said Tom.
“Yeah, it sounds
pretty cool to me,” agreed Harry, “I want to use my powers to help people if I
can.”
“As long as
that’s what we will be doing,” allowed Andrea, “Serving the country and not
some politician’s private agenda.”
“I wouldn’t let
that happen,” insisted the Major.
“Fine then,” said
Andrea with a sigh, “I guess we’re all in, unless you have any objections,
Bel?”
“No, I’m willing
to go with the group,” replied the dark-haired woman.
“Looks like it’s
your lucky day then,” Andrea remarked to the Major with a obvious sarcastic
edge to her voice.
“I’m glad you’ve
all agreed, thank you,” said the Major, “Because there is another reason I had
to call you all in here so urgently – we have our first mission.”