Assignment: Oblivion! Part Deux

I'm not fired. Actually, Liza Jane said most agents mess up on their first assignment. Well, she said "fuck up" but yeah, I guess it wasn't as terrible as I thought. Still terrible, just not as terrible.

So on with the story: we went to this hospital to look for an Oathbreaker. Me and Aladdin Sane.

He didn't really talk much, but he did give me some advice. "Don't get rattled," he said. "Worse thing you can do is panic and start shooting. Oathbreakers are human anyway, so there's really no need to be worried. We're just here to find him and arrest him."

I was still nervous. "What if..." I paused. "What if they call the Plague Doctor here or something?"

"First of all," he said, "I don't think they can call PD any time they want. Second, if it does show up...get out of there and get out fast. That requires complete evacuation of the hospital. For those situations, we usually call in a bomb threat and then wait for it to go away."

A bomb threat? Holy crap, I thought. What the hell have I gotten myself into.

We met some agents from the local FBI branch when we got to the hospital. They didn't know why exactly we were arresting some doctor, but we had already told them it was due to "national security reasons." (Sometimes Big Brother really is looking out for you.)

Then we split up. I know, I know: stupid move, Scooby Doo. But it was a huge hospital and we all had guns and there was just supposed to be one Oathbreaker. So sue us.

Of course, I ended up being the one to find him. It was just plain luck, actually - I realized halfway through the search that I had to go to the bathroom and when I finished, I noticed that the door to the room next to the bathroom was ajar. I peeked through and saw him.

Per his file, his name was Dr. John Adams and he was forty-six, had graying brown hair and brown eyes. He was also holding a large syringe and preparing to inject what looked like a comatose patient.

"Freeze," I said and burst through the door with my gun out. My heart was beating faster than it had ever done before. "Drop the syringe."

"You don't want me to do that," Dr. Adams said calmly, raising both hands. "You don't know what you're dealing with here actually."

"You're an Oathbreaker."

"Ah," he said, "you're not the usual authorities. Let me guess: the SMSC, correct? I knew I would eventually attract your attention, but now is not really a good time, you know. This patient needs to be moved to a more secure location."

"You're not going anywhere," I said, trying to sound as much like Dirty Harry as I could. It didn't really work.

Dr. Adams raised one eyebrow and continued talking. "You see, this patient has been infected with something and, well, if I don't inject him and then move him, very soon it's going to hatch."

"I said...wait, hatch?"

"Yes," he said, "I believe the common term for this organism is the Manufactured Newborn. We've been experimenting with it, but it's quite dangerous, you see. In..." He looked at his watch. "...about two minutes, it will emerge from this man's body and continue to grow."

I swallowed. "How do I know you're not lying?" I asked. "That syringe could kill him."

"He's already dead, Miss," Dr. Adams said, "the Newborn has eaten all his internal organs. If you want, I can show you an X-ray, but we really don't have time. I suggest you let me take him back to the Crumbling Castle before you have a full-blown incident on your hands."

What the hell was I going to do? I could arrest him and potentially let out a monster that could kill dozens of people or I could let him go, knowing full well that he experimented with and killed a man (probably more than one). So I took a third option.

"I have to call this in," I said and took out my walkie-talkie. I asked for Aladdin Sane and said I had found Dr. Adams and mentioned that there might be a "Mike November" problem as well.

"Are you positive?" Sane asked.

"No," I said. "He could be lying, but...why?"

"Ma'am," Dr. Adams said as he waved one hand. I lowered the walkie-talkie. "I just wanted to point out that two minutes have passed."

"Nothing's happened," I said. "Was it a lie?"

"If you remember," Dr. Adams said, "I said about two minutes."

I looked from him down to the patient. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with him except for the fact he was comatose. And then I noticed it: his stomach. It was rippling.


"Shit," I said and spoke into the walkie, "He wasn't lying."

There was a squawk on the radio and then I heard Sane say, "Get out. Get out now."

And then the patient's stomach exploded.

I don't really remember much after that, but I do remember the thing that emerged looked like it was using his ribcage as a torso. Dr. Adams died pretty much instantly, I think. It...it ripped out his eyes.

I couldn't move at first. I just...I just stood there paralyzed. And then I felt a hand on my shoulder and someone pulling me and then I was able to turn around and run. I later realized it was Sane who did it. He pretty much saved my life.

We ended up evacuating the hospital and waiting for the Newborn to consume enough and grow enough until it could leave. Afterwards, the place looked like a warzone. But the only casualties were the patient (whose name, unfortunately, I still don't know) and Dr. Adams.

I really want to hate him. I mean, he experimented on people. He was responsible for the whole thing. But...but he wanted to move the patient. Perhaps he just wanted to minimize exposure or maybe he really didn't want anyone else hurt. I don't know.

When I got back, I was debriefed for about two days and then had to write my report and deliver it. Then, since I was in charge of filing, I went and filed copies of my report.

I found Lunete in the break room. She took one look at me and gave me a big hug.

It was the best hug I've ever had.

Updates

It's been, what, two months since I last updated? Wow, where has the time gone.

Well, mostly to filing. And more filing. And even more filing.

And training. Yeah, I've been to the shooting range before, but I after the academy, I sort of stopped going and haven't practiced in a while. Now that I'm in a...stranger department, I figured I needed to bump up on my accuracy and range. So it's gotten to be a tradition that Saturdays are Shooting Days - me and Lunete go to the shooting range and practice shooting paper targets.

Oh, yeah, I didn't mention Lunete yet. Well, ever since she joined as liaison to the Special Ministry, we've kind of gotten to be friends. She occasionally helps me file stuff and I let her talk about what it was like back in London. I guess I'm more of the ear for her to talk to, but hey, everyone needs someone to listen to them.

As for Aladdin Sane...well, he tends to leave me alone most days. Some days he will talk to me gruffly, but he stays in his office and...does stuff. Research, I think. Sometimes, he will go out on a trip, but he won't tell me where he's going. I have a feeling that they give him assignments that other agents don't want.

Of course, all that changed last Friday. That's when I got my first active assignment.

I had everything pretty much sorted by BUE. And then there was a knock and Liza Jane entered. "Grinning Soul," she said, "I know we had you occupied with this stuff-" She gestured around the room at the various files. "-but we need you on an assignment now." She handed me a manila folder. "Flight leaves Monday, make sure you've read everything by then. Agent Sane will meet you at the airport."

Reading everything wasn't the problem. It's making sure my teeth aren't chattering or my skin isn't shivering. It's making sure I am not scared out of my wits.

Because all those reports I've been sorting and filing? I've gotten good looks at them. Really good looks. I've read some things that gave me nightmares and still give my shivers whenever I think of them. I kept myself from being scared by saying that I'm just a glorified file clerk. I got out any excess fear by going to the shooting range. I didn't think that I would actually be going on an active assignment.

And Aladdin Sane's coming with me. I don't know how I going to handle this.

...probably with a lot of booze.

Morning Meeting

So apparently, we have a meeting every Tuesday morning so Liza Jane can dole out assignments and see what everyone's working on and what their progress is. It was slightly nerve wracking for me, since I hadn't met everyone -- or, really, anyone other than Liza Jane and the receptionist. I had been working in the files room for the last day and nobody had really come in there.

Anyway, I walked in and sat down on a chair. Most of the others that sat down were men, although I did see some female agents.

After everyone had sat down, Liza Jane walked up to the desk in the end of the room. "As you probably heard, we had an incursion by a Nest a few days ago." There was a tension in the room. "Nobody was hurt, but there was a warning. We need to keep better track of the Convocation's territory." She looked around the room and then said, "We also have a new agent to help organize and bring everything up to date. This is Lady Grinning Soul." She pointed at me and I looked down.

Then she pointed at two other male agents - "Joe" and "Red" - and asked them about the new Timberwolves territory in South Carolina. They said that they were mapping out encounters, but it could take a while. Liza Jane pointed at two other agents, male and female - "Pablo" and "Pallas" - and asked about a Smiling Man sighting in Maryland. They responded that they didn't know if it was the Smiling Man or a run of the mill serial killer, in which case it would be turfed over to the regular FBI. She told them to go down to the site and check it out.

She went around the room like that, calling on various agents - each codename sounding strange to my ears, like "Wild-Eyed Boy" and "V-2 Schneider" and "China Girl." She heard everyone's progress and then gave them new assignments if they hadn't been making any headway into old ones.

Finally, she came to me. "Grinning Soul," she said. "I know you're new, but you still need a partner. I'm going to pair you up with Aladdin Sane." She pointed to another male agent - this one tall, with dark hair. He didn't seem to notice me, instead intent on writing notes in his notebook. The other agents seem to whisper at my assignment - one of them even patted me on the shoulder and said "Good luck."

"Finally," Liza Jane said, "the liaison to the General Ministry is arriving today, so everybody better be on their best behavior." Everyone in the room - minus Liza and Aladdin Sane, I noticed - groaned at that.

After the meeting, I asked Liza Jane what the "General Ministry" was. "Our UK counterpart," she said as she gathered up all her papers. "Except much, much more efficient. We just made a deal with them to exchange information, so we're getting a liaison to help." And with that, she went back to her office.

I turned around and looked for Aladdin Sane. If he was my partner, I should get to know him, right?

Finally, I tried asking someone where his desk was. Their nameplate said their codename was "Wood Jackson." "He has his own office," Jackson told me. He was a redheaded agent, kind of chubby. "Only one of us that does. Because he's special." He said the word 'special' like it was the punchline to a joke. When he saw that I didn't get it, he said, "He was Liza Jane's partner before she became the head agent. He hasn't had a partner since." I asked if Liza Jane was showing favoritism, but he said, "Nah, he just gets moody. Nobody really wants to be his partner, because it's like partnering with Edgar Allen Poe. And he gets his own office because he's the longest lasting agent. But we still like to tease him, you know?"

Okay, so I had a partner who was moody, yet was the 'longest lasting' of the agents? What had happened to the others?

"You're a rookie," Jackson told me. "You met, what, one Nest? Yeah, that's no biggie. Nests used to be human, they got emotions and motivations and things. You can understand Nests. Now, you meet an actual Fear, well, that's when you know if you can handle things here. Most of the time, most of the agents, they can't." And then he went back to his assignment, going through recent reports of viral outbreaks and looking for "OB or PD" involvement.

And that was my morning.

More later.