‘I've told you already, when I came into the building the perimeter was clear. Paul had run a sweep and there were no anomalous cars or pedestrians in the vicinity.’
Paul scowled, as well he might. That was twice now that he had been the one who failed to spot a problem. At the very least, when we got home I was going to have to recommend him for a refresher course in surveillance. Which was going to be insulting.
‘I'm telling you Clio, the coast was clear. I honestly think we have a second team out there.’
‘Right,’ she scoffed, ‘or the more likely scenario is that you screwed up.’
Paul looked sick, and I was worried that morale was plummeting.
‘Enough. Let's not forget that this second team was good enough to get the drop on me at the church.’
‘Maybe you were too busy smiling at the shit fly?’ said Clio, her tone dangerously pointed. The boys went quiet. This was not a good time to fall out.
‘Clio, can you for once not refer to Betas as shit flies? His name is Julius. He is an asset, a civilian, and innocent. It is our duty to protect him, and I am quite capable of doing two things at once. Whoever this team is, they are pretty much our match, and I don't like it.’ My voice was rising and I turned so that I was now addressing all three of them. ‘So, do you think instead of blaming each other we can get it together and stop fucking up?’
Ramin leant across the kitchen table and squeezed my hand. ‘Sorry boss. What else do you need us to do?’
I took a deep breath. ‘First principles. I want you to go over each other's work. See if you can spot anything out of place. This is not a rebuke, but when you first looked you were not looking with the knowledge that someone may be running interference. This is simply a fresh pair of eyes. And yes, I'm including my work in this. We'll keep it within the teams, so Clio, you can evaluate my research and decisions, and vice versa. The same for you two,’ I said, looking at Paul and Ramin. ‘In addition, Ramin, I need you to set up the angel and I'll give you the message to send with them. I think we have to assume that the second team will also be at the egg’s final extraction point, and I don't want to get caught out a third time. Let’s try to grab the egg before then and get the hell home. Be vigilant!’
I gave Ramin our mission notes and hoped that when Sam received them, he agreed with my assessment. Mission Notes delivered via an angel weren’t a call for help. No help was coming, but if we failed to return the people back home would have some clues. Call it our Black Box flight recorder. Clio and Paul sat down in front of their laptops and started running through the data, whilst keeping an eye on Julius’ tracker. If he so much as hiccupped, we would know all about it.
I looked up as Ramin closed the front door behind him. I was having to stop myself from sending Clio or Paul with him, but I knew that was a waste of resources. Not to mention insulting to Ramin’s skills. It’s just that I had never felt so jumpy on a mission before. When you lead a team into the field, you feel bad if you fail to retrieve your objective. I don’t know how you’d feel if you failed to retrieve your team. It wasn’t a thought I was happy with, but it had been slowly building over the past few days. Being responsible for them, though, didn’t mean the same thing as getting in their way. I just had to trust in them to get us all out of here. Egg or no egg, it was the first time I had ever thought of abandoning a mission.
Shaking myself, I pulled on my running shoes. I needed a pump of exercise. I wasn’t up to sparring yet, but I felt edgy stuck in the house. Some fresh air and endorphins would get my brain firing and help me see this mission with a bit more clarity. As I got to the driveway, I heard the front door close behind me and saw Paul looking concerned.
‘About the angel. I was thinking. I think you should send me over instead. Let me catch up with Ramin, and I’ll go instead of the angel.’
I looked at him, amazed.
‘It’s not that bad! An angel will do fine. And I need all of you here.’
This was so defeatist. I didn’t know what to say. I knew he was unhappy because of the mistakes he had been making, but running away wasn’t going to fix it. This wasn’t like Paul.
‘I just think you’ll have more chance of success if I go over and warn Sam directly of what’s happening.’
‘I said no, Paul.’
‘But —’
‘No!’ What was wrong with him? Snapping, I told him to get back indoors and carry on with the tasks that did need to be done.
‘We need you here. Just follow your orders and everything will be fine.’
As last words, I could have done better.
#26 Sam – Alpha Earth
‘Sir, something bloody odd's just happened.’
Sam Nymens looked up. It had been a quiet week. “Bloody odd” should be interesting.
‘The Q Field just shut down. The portal map flashed red at every location and then reset itself as though nothing had happened.’
‘What?’
‘The Q Field Shut down.’
‘That's not bloody odd,’ he roared, and ran along the corridors to the Q Field area. As he entered the room, it was full of technicians, each person typing madly on keyboards, pulling holo screens up and swearing loudly. Sam yelled for quiet and demanded a report. Farnaz Beckett was station head for the second shift, and as one of the three shift heads, everything that
