| "Echoes" | |||
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Monday 21st April 2008 03.15hrs A bleep from her cell phone woke her, and for a moment she didn't know where she was, then the surroundings came into focus; Paige's place. She flipped the phone open and acknowledged her response softly to the caller, so as not to disturb the sleeping figure on the other couch. "Sage?" it was Gray; her heart sank on hearing his voice. Awake now, she swung her legs around onto the floor, "Gray," her voice was slow and cautious, expectant of trouble. "Cancel this morning's surveillance. I want you here in the office." He hung up, leaving her holding a now silent phone. Yawning, she stretched, and looked over at Paige, who was sleeping soundly; the cover, which she had placed over her last night, lay crumpled on the floor. She picked up her boots and tiptoed from the room, leaving Paige to her slumbers. She closed the door behind her but not before she noticed the number and strength of the bolts and security devices on the door. Was it to keep people out, or to keep something in? Outside, it was cold and dark, but dry. The roads were empty and she flipped over the CD's until she found something to suit the moment; Sarah McLachlan's voice echoing in the silence of the night; `Fumbling towards Ecstasy'. She sang along with her, softly, "It's my mouth that pushed out this breath and if I shed a tear, I won't cage it. I won't fear love and if I feel a rage, I won't deny it. Companion to our dreams, they will dance and we will play, with chairs, with candles and clothes making darkness in the day" the plaintive voice was tinged with sadness. 05.05hrs She pulled into the garage, and into a vacant parking bay. Locking the jeep, though she didn't need to, she walked to the elevators and pressed the button. Her fingerprint giving her access to the SIA offices, while the camera in the wall had already scanned and identified her; the doors slid open, silent and with the precision of surgical steel. Gray was pacing the floor; waiting � she stepped out of the elevator and walked towards him, "What's the problem?" her tone neutral. He looked at her, and she could see he was hesitating about telling her, she didn't feel inclined to make it easy on him, just stood and watched him calmly; she knew she hadn't done anything wrong to deserve hauling over the coals, so it had to be something else. He cleared his throat, ".. you've done tactical before haven't you?" his voice was low, but agitated, she nodded and he continued, "Can you take a look at the plans so far?" it was laughable, he had woken her up early in the morning, dragged her into town, for something as trivial as that, she sighed. "Lead the way MacDuff," Gray led her through to his office, the table was full of pieces of paper, plans and photographs of the main sites and targets. "I thought we should�" he threw pieces of paper across the desk, and briefly outlined the co-ordinated attack he had put together. She let him finish, without saying anything, but her mind was already drawn in to the scale of planning the tactical assault. "What do you think?" Gray asked, looking at her. She looked through the information, smiling when she read his provisional plans and let her brain start to compute what she needed to do. Finally she pointed to the plans, "I think you need to create a simulation of the possible positions, and let the computer give us a better POS." She didn't volunteer to do it, but she knew it was a done thing. Gray was hopelessly out of his depth, she would be surprised if he had handled a multi-agency exercise on this scale before, or that was how he was portraying it to her; whether it was the truth, she didn't care, this was her field of speciality and she was going to show the SIA just what they had got for their money. "Ok," she shrugged, "Give me a couple of hours," she opened her laptop and scanned the information in, and then producing a graphic of the site in 3D, rotated it round so she could see from all angles and where cover might be obtained. Putting in pointers to where teams could be inserted under cover, and where they would need to give covering fire. When she was satisfied, she uploaded the data file to the main servers, and walked down to the small office which she used occasionally and ran some initial simulations. Birkoff had spent ages teaching her how to analyse the information, garbage in = garbage out he would say, his eyes twinkling behind those little boy glasses; his enjoyment of the mental challenges toned down by the realism of his experiences under fire. Michael's tuition had been colder but he had been just as intent on passing on the skills needed to run tactical. She had enjoyed the challenge, but her one failing had been she was unable to bring herself to deploy abeyance operatives; which meant that she hadn't been used as often in a position of running tactical by herself. Madeline would be nearby or someone else to ensure she didn't allow emotions to compromise missions. Now she had free reign and there were no such things as abeyance operatives, that she was certain of. 10.05 hrs The coffee was hot, strong and black, and just what she needed. The simulations had finished processing and had been returned by the systems with a PSP (percentage success probability) score. She cast aside a number of alternatives that would lead to heavy personnel losses, and came down to two main solutions. Both of them would work, it would depend on the other agencies involved, how good their staff were and also what the latest intel provided them with, as to which solution would be best. She returned slowly upstairs, leaned on the door to Gray's office. She heard his voice, and listened "Is he compromised?", she stepped away from the door, not wanting to eavesdrop, but before she could do so, he spoke again "I don't care what you have to do to retrieve the situation, but Sean is a valuable Liaison Officer, we cannot afford to lose him."Sean, they were talking about Sean. Saf didn't know what to think, she couldn't stand there, listening. She wouldn't risk being seen, so she moved away from the door, and retreated back down the corridor. She reminded herself that Sean was a grown man, capable of looking after himself, and wasn't her problem anymore; except the inner voice that was saying with some conviction, `trying to convince him or you of that?'She walked slowly up to the water machine, poured some chilled water and tried to rationalise why his name had this effect on her. She sipped the water slowly, giving herself some time to think. She shrugged, she couldn't afford to let him get to her, he was simply someone that she knew, in the past, behind her; the voices echoed, `that's what you like to think,' but she ignored them. She slowly walked back to Gray's office, careful now to ensure that her footsteps were louder, but she needn't have bothered, he had finished his call and was reading some papers. She knocked on the door lightly and he sprung to his feet. She went through the two plans with him, giving him the chance to make the final decision, though she knew that only updated Intel would help make the final choice. The only additional comment she made on the plans were to say that Med staff should be available near the target zone, when Gray asked was it necessary, she responded coldly "Sure if you don't mind losing agents who otherwise could be saved by immediate treatment." He shivered, and she was reminded of Birkoff. When she had finished speaking and handed over the disks with the two simulation analyses on, she looked down at the desk while he read through them one more time. She shrugged away his thanks; she didn't need them, she was just doing what she was employed for. "Can you attend the pre-briefing meeting on Friday? The liaison officers from ATF and FBI will be there and it would be useful for them to meet you." His voice was calmer now, the stress disappearing under the reassurance of two possible workable plans. She nodded, "Sure, if you like," she was disinterested. She would have preferred to have been in the thick of the action, but it looked as though she would be assisting Gray throughout the operation, in co-ordinating agents. Gray's voice brought her back, "We could do with your knowledge," he smiled, "and I know Rebecca would want you there." She didn't have a tenable position to fight from, so she gave in gracefully. "Sure, just let me know when and where." Her smile was warm, but not genuine. Why they wanted to display her to other agencies she didn't know, but sure as she could be, she was being presented as an example of the skills that the SIA had acquired. "If you don't need me for anything else, I'll be on my way.." She didn't expect him to say anything else, so it was surprising to her when he coughed, "If you don't mind, I would rather you stayed, while I go through the plans with Rebecca." Once more she felt, that his way of asking was not so much of an order, but one she would be `forced' into accepting or arguing why she wouldn't do as he requested. It was confusing, complicated, Section had been easier, do as we want or you die. Simple, effective, no arguments, no ways around it. Here you were given choices; yet like sheep to the slaughter, you followed their wishes with what appeared to be free will, and knowing it was the decision they wanted you to make. She put down her bag, and turned to face him, "Why Gray?" challenging him to tell her why he wanted her around; he had all the details, all of her expertise in running sims and analysing the output. So why did he want her present when he reported to Rebecca? He looked a bit embarrassed, "You have a better grasp on it than I do, I would really appreciate your help. Please?" she felt sorry for him, either he was totally incompetent, or he was genuinely out of his depth. Despite her need to get away, she found herself agreeing to be there at his meeting with the boss lady. ~~~~~~~ 14.30hrs Rebecca's Office Gray stood motionless while Rebecca read through his report; eventually she looked up at him and asked, "Explain to me again, the reasons behind getting Sara to make some of the tactical decisions regarding this case?" He coughed, a little uneasy, "The Psych report made at the initial start of her transfer to the SIA stated that `While Sara does still have weaknesses I recommend that every effort is made to encourage her to participate fully in SIA activities rather than exploiting them, as this operative has proved that she is capable of fighting back'." He looked up, to see Rebecca staring at him, "I thought that with the current difficulties involved, that it would bond her to the agency. Was that wrong?" Rebecca smiled, flicked a pencil across her desk, "No, it wasn't wrong, and your report is interesting; she does seem to respond positively. However, do not allow one positive action to cloud your judgement, the instability may reoccur. Too much is at stake to permit one agent to ruin a good start to our work." He nodded, aware that she could have made his life unbearable. He felt that she was challenging him, but at the same time, setting limits to his independence. "I have scheduled a pre-briefing with the ATF and FBI on Friday afternoon. Let Sara take the lead, but you maintain control or I will be looking for a new assistant." Rebecca's voice was crisp and sharp; Gray knew she meant what she had said. Return |
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