But then Colonel Larsen relaxed back into his professional demeanour and continued.
The situation was still tense. Toscano was in two minds about Larsen’s protectiveness towards her. On the one hand she felt furious that he would waste time knowing that no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t protect her, but on the other hand she felt touched.
Either way, there was no point in her saying anything now. It wouldn’t change anything. Sometimes silence was easier, and better.
As the hours and days passed, Colonel Larsen seemed to have accepted the inevitable. She had to go. Her presence at the 4th, as a Leech, would be crucial in helping him establish his own cover. He would not need another officer and a member of the Elite with him. He would need the lowest of the low to mix with the other Leeches and hear the things that never reached the ears of the Elite police officers.
Deep down Larsen had known from the start it would be necessary for Toscano to become a Leech, but he did have his principles. It went against his deep-seated beliefs to put someone in his charge in a situation where the perversely sick System could harm them. And he had no choice but to do it over and over again in his line of work. His duty. Which… irritated him.
Toscano wondered if the situation was different in her case. Not only had he shepherded her career since he had been in a position to do so, but effectively he had saved her life from things worse than death on numerous occasions. He had invested so much in her training, honing her potential. No wonder he didn’t want to see it lost.
Starting on Thursday, not only would he not be in a position to help, but he would actively have to make her life miserable to do his job while she played her role of a Leech, meek and unable to defend herself. Logically, he had accepted the inevitable with the same resolve he had shown in the past, but making peace with it would take some doing. Toscano doubted he would ever reach that point, which was probably what made him so good at what he did. His deep-seated conscience guided his years-long fight to change the sick System. Unfortunately, it was also that fight that was steadily eating away at him, forcing him to do what he hated most about the fucked-up world they had inherited from their parents and grandparents.
In the early days of their preparations for the current mission, Colonel Larsen had spent a few frantic hours planning his own cover and making careful plans to exclude Major Aisha Toscano’s part in it as a Leech. Major Toscano, on the other hand, knew it would not only be helpful but in fact crucial that she was there. Not only was she the ace up Colonel Larsen’s sleeve, but also the most suitable candidate for the job. While the colonel made his plans to work around the huge gap her absence would present, she made her plans for what would happen when she was included. Which she inevitably was.
The walls in MIS HQ were thick, but came miserably short of providing the appropriate insulation to keep the noise confined when Colonel Larsen and Major Toscano had their not-so-private conversation. Or at least it did nothing to hide what he had to say. Major Toscano did her best to not gloat over the end results with her usual cavalier smugness. She just stood there, letting him vent his frustration, knowing that some things were better out that in. Knowing that the sooner he got it out, the sooner he could get his head around what he had always known he would have no choice but to accept.
At least, she mused with wry amusement, he chose to get it out in words, rather than during our long training sessions.
Of course, he is right too, she admitted to herself as an afterthought.
No amount of time could help anyone forget the horrors of being a Leech in a uniform, any uniform. Leeches not in a uniform weren’t necessarily any better off, come to think of it. Her participation would not only put her in great danger but would open her to all sorts of abuse. Again. Regardless of how careful they might be, it would take only a second to make her disappear.
Their preparations were as comprehensive as possible but rushed nonetheless. There was just never enough time. When the right intel fell onto one’s lap, one had to act on it as fast as possible to make the case, not as fast as was safe for everyone involved. In a way, Leeches and Elites were equally disposable. The difference was that the Elite got to make that choice… for themselves and for the Leeches.
Major Toscano lifted her eyes to look ahead at a wall far longer than the one that held the holo-screen. The Tac Wall, which she preferred to think of as the War Wall in some morbid honour to the Freedom Wars gone by, displayed its usual disorganised mess. The bits and pieces of information and evidence were added as and when they came, often pushing aside or half covering previous snippets of information. Of course, all that evidence was also stored electronically and a superb nano-tech-powered holo-projection could be accessed anytime, but Colonel Larsen enjoyed the physical touch of the old-fashioned era long gone. Major Toscano had found it deeply irritating at first, but discovered over the following months that it focused her attention and served as a never-ending source of determination. One could switch the holo-projection off when finished with work for the day, but the War Wall was always there.
Just a quick look at the photos of the latest victims, those lucky enough to have been discovered and reported, covering the top-right-hand
