Author: Douglas A. Taylor
Category: Suspense
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Chapter 11
"You all have minor injuries," Wizzit said upon our arrival at HQ. "Initiating healing comas for everybody in ninety seconds. Prime Black is due to arrive in twenty-three minutes, and I want everyone awake and healthy to greet him when he comes. If you have anything personal to take care of, better do it quick."
I didn't have to use the bathroom or anything, so I wandered into the lounge and flopped down into one of the comfortable chairs there. Wizzit can be something of a pain about healing comas, but I can understand why. And if you don't have a good excuse to put it off -- and I mean a really good excuse -- then there's no reason not to get yourself healed up as soon as possible. Personally, I don't like limping around all covered with bruises.
Ten minutes later we were all sitting in the kitchen staring at the map. The Shelley-dot still hadn't moved. "When can we go see her?" Toby growled.
"Currently waiting for her to be taken to an interrogation room," Wizzit replied. "We will install microsensor packages at that time; it's less likely anyone will be monitoring the cell then. Visits can begin once the microsensor packages are in place."
"How do you know she's not in interrogation right now?" I asked.
"Protocol," was Wizzit's one-word answer. "When she found herself in a room which she believed was to be her cell, she was to make three complete clockwise circuits of the area. Purpose of that was both to signal that she was in a cell and also to give me its dimensions."
Mike said, "And she's done that?"
"Yupperooni. Did that sometime during the night. She is still in that location, which tells me that she has not been moved to an interrogation room."
Trina frowned. "Are you assuming that she's in a cell by herself? What happens if we teleport in and it turns out she has a cellmate?"
"Protocol," Wizzit said again. "If she found herself in a cell where she is likely to be directly observed, then she would make the three circuits, but she would also cross the area diagonally both ways, effectively making an X across the cell."
Nicolai frowned. "But that would be impossible. She would have to --"
Padma nudged him into silence. "I don't think Wizzit cares if it's not an Eulerian path. She would be allowed to go over the same line more than once."
"Oh. Yes, you're right, of course," Nicolai said with a chuckle. He looked sheepishly at the rest of us. "Sorry, I have just been immersed in graph theory, and . . ." He shrugged. "Never mind."
We all watched the Shelley-dot until Bill arrived a few minutes later. He didn't have any luggage with him, so I assumed he and Wizzit had just finished 'porting all of that stuff directly to his room. Mike, Trina, Nicolai, and Toby all greeted him enthusiastically, and even Padma gave him a warm smile. Me? I shook his hand and nodded politely.
I have to confess that it sometimes takes me a while to warm up to people. I can't help it; it's just the way I am. Didn't have anything against the guy -- he seemed friendly enough, and I was perfectly willing to accept everyone else's endorsement of him at face value -- but I just didn't know him. As I said, that's just the way I am.
The seven of us wandered into the office for the debriefing. Bill looked around as the rest of us took our usual seats; he then rather self-consciously took the chair behind the desk. "I understand that my role here is something like a player/coach," he said with a grin. "I'm not Prime Red, and I'm definitely not Prime Commander, but for now I'll be running the debriefings. Fair enough?" After we had all nodded, he went on, "Things have changed a bit since I was here last, and I know I'm not up to speed on everything that's going on. We'll talk about all that later, but for now, is there any background I need in order to understand this particular mission?"
Mike, being the team leader, was the one who answered. "Not a thing, Bill. It went down in India; Padma was our spokesman. Wizzit, start the vid from my POV, if you please?"
It turned out to be a fairly routine debriefing for a fairly routine mission. Bill asked to see the vid of me pounding my way through fake-Ganesha's barrier, but other than that, he didn't ask very many questions. I got the impression that he was feeling his way along as much as we were. I liked that; it made him seem more like a real person to me. And it felt good to perform a debriefing for someone who hadn't been involved in the fight. It made it seem more like a normal session with Prime Commander than the ones we had been having recently with Shelley.
When Mike finished, Bill asked, "Have you ever seen these Harley twins before?"
Mike shook his head. "Not that I recall."
"With a name like that," Toby put in with a snort, "I'd expect them to be bikers."
Bill grinned, but I could tell he was thinking of something else. "It's more likely that 'Harley twin' is a pun on 'harlequin', a stock clown-character in old Italian and French comedic plays," he said absently. "I wonder if their comments towards the end mean that Enclave have found themselves a new monster-maker."
He looked around, and he must have noticed my look of confusion, because he explained, "Enclave monsters don't just appear fully-formed out of nothing. The enhancements that turn ordinary humans into these monsters have to be developed by someone, probably several someones; we know that much. Over the years, I've noticed that their monsters follow certain trends. We had a run of wolf-types a few years back, and then there were the super-speedsters before that . . ."
"That makes sense," Padma interrupted excitedly. "When Trevor and I were in the Enclave base, they thought they had to distract the rest of the Primes with a monster, so they told JB Swift to send one out. It sounded as though they thought he would have one all ready for them."
Bill's eyebrows shot up. "That's very interesting, Padma. And it raises all sorts of questions, such as, what were you and Trevor doing in an Enclave base?"
"Oh. I, um, . . " Padma's excitement faded to embarrassment, and she dropped her gaze to the floor. Her skin was so dark it was hard to tell, but she was probably blushing.
I decided to come to her rescue. "It happened during her first mission as Prime Violet," I explained. "She was new and dumb and didn't know anything about teleport traps. She ran into one, and I went in to get her back."
"Yeah, against orders," Toby put in. "You should have heard Shelley after you said you were going in, Trev. She doesn't swear often, but when she does . . . whew!"
Bill chuckled. "That sounds like a good story; you two will have to tell it to me sometime." He leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers behind his head. "So JB Swift is back, eh? And he's making monsters for them? I'd heard about Lily, of course, but monsters too? Interesting . . ." He appeared lost in thought for a moment, then he shook himself. "At any rate, we might be seeing these Harley twins again sometime soon. So, does anyone have any further comments about the mission?"
"I, for one, want a pair of sap gloves like Trevor's," Mike announced. "They seem to have worked out well for him, and I quite like the idea of having an extra weapon stashed away in my battle vest."
"Boots for me," Toby said tersely. "Or savate shoes, if you can make 'em."
Nicolai frowned. "I don't know whether we will have the time. We have a number of other projects that Wizzit asked us to work on."
"I'll pitch in," Bill assured him. "I'm a bit rusty, Nicolai, but if you show me what to do, I should be able to whip up some gloves and boots."
"Padma will show you," Nicolai said, nodding.
"Sounds good," Bill said. "Any other comments?"
Padma timidly raised her hand. "Trina," she said, "when you said that the rain would fill up the monster's tube and drown him, you knew that was incorrect, right? I mean, the monster was nearly three meters tall, and even during monsoon season we don't get three meters of rain in a single day."
Trina shrugged. "Of course. And if the monster had stopped to think, he would have realized that as well. What I wanted, though, was to make him fash
ion a roof over our heads so that I could bounce my blaster shot off of it. If I had to exaggerate to trick him into doing that, so what?"
"I see." Padma giggled. "That was very clever. Very devious."
Bill asked again for comments, but no one had anything else to add, so we adjourned. Bill touched my arm as we filed out, indicating that I should stay behind. When we were alone, he said, "Trevor, I'm afraid I'm a bit rusty in more than just making weapons. I haven't fought in an Enclave battle in at least four years, and I don't want to be a liability to the team out there. Shelley said you would be a good choice to help me tune up, to sharpen my skills a bit?"
I shrugged. "Sure. Do you just want some practice free-fighting or training or . . .?"
"Just free-fighting, I think. I hold black belts in judo and karate, and I have tried to keep up with those as time allows."
"All right, let's get together tomorrow morning, unless you want to have a go-round this afternoon."
He laughed. "Tomorrow will be fine. I haven't even unpacked yet."