The Cupel Recruits (25 page)

“Guy’s got a sheet of priors a mile long, and we’re in luck! There’s an outstanding warrant for him, so we can pick him up now. I told them to send some plainclothes local guys for backup ASAP. They’ll be here in fifteen minutes.”

“Okay, I’m going to go get line of sight on their door directly so there’s no way they can slip out a back stairwell while we’re down here. I’m putting my cell on vibrate. Text me when you’re on the way up.”

“Will do,” the young officer responded, excited at the potential of getting a collar this big and hoping to save the little girl. This is why he joined the force-to save lives. Brett hung out unobtrusively by the ice machine until he felt the cell phone alert in his pocket. In moments, the other officers arrived and together they stormed the room. The assailants were shocked to see them, and the leader managed to fire a shot off before he was tackled, but he missed. He’d been drinking for hours since making the ransom call, celebrating his impending fortune. Once in custody, the men would admit nothing, and there was no sign of the little girl anywhere. There was a bent picture of her on the table next to the phone, and that evidence would be plenty to hold them as long as they wanted while they searched for the girl. Brett looked at the beautiful little girl’s beaming smile in the picture, whose pigtails were framed with purple barrettes that matched her flowered dress. ‘Please be alive,’ he prayed silently with all his might.

Ruth knew, as everyone did, that George and his condition were some of the biggest question marks of the mission. The project team met briefly to greenlight the next phase. Though tight on time, the team had instituted these tollgates to be sure that no critical steps were missed and, thus, they would hold a quick meeting at each project tollgate before moving forward.

“And the last of our risks is George’s recovery time,” Elizabeth Hallowell completed her briefing. Stone and Wood were present, but no longer stuck against the back wall. Less people in the room and the level of their involvement since the recruits had arrived warranted them chairs at the main conference table.

“Mitigation ideas?” Ruth punted to the team, “We’re already doing everything medically possible to improve his medical condition. He should stay on light duty as long as possible until he has to climb. It’s his mental state that’s a concern. He hasn’t seemed himself, but he’s only been out of his coma a little more than a day.”

“When can he see Phoebe?” Elizabeth offered, “That should help.”

“Her acclimation steps are progressing well, but she won’t be physically acclimated enough to participate in the pretest today. We could bring her by for a short visit,” Stone reported.

“Okay, mark that as risk mitigation 1 on this sub issue,” Ruth ordered.

“He’s also very concerned about Jillian. I think that is affecting, very slightly, his concentration here,” Wood interjected. “Could we assign someone to her?”

“Every available person is battling the Dark Janae, either by monitoring their heavy and escalating activity, or as assigned Kajika. We don’t have anyone to even assign to monitor her, much less assigned for unnecessary guidance,” Saraceni responded. Stone shared Wood’s assessment that her situation needed more attention than it was receiving, but being a Circle 2 meant knowing when to listen instead of speak. He was thoughtful in his additions to the conversation.

“Perhaps we could just assign a promising Circle 1 to monitor.” Stone began, “Wood and I did some monitoring as Circle 1’s. The individual just needs to monitor-they don’t need to know how to adjust or intervene, just observe and report. This would make George feel more secure without pulling a more experienced person from a critical assignment.”

“Good,” Ruth agreed, “Hallowell, please assign someone.”

Shortly after the meeting broke, all parties broke up to tackle different tasks. Saraceni went to collect the recruits. Stone went to set up the next learning assignment for them. Wood went to collect the Circle 1, show him the post and teach him how to monitor and report properly. Ruth went to get Phoebe to take her to visit George. The rest of the team returned to decoherence analysis, dark Janae countermeasures or excursion prep for the mountain voyage. The entire training facility was energized with activity. Every so often, the decoherence alarm would go off for two seconds, but the assigned Circle 2 would immediately hit reset to stop the noise.

After they changed into athletic uniforms, Saraceni gathered the recruits into the common area. George was the only recruit out of athletic gear, but he sat on the sofa and listened attentively.

“All of you will be undergoing some mountain terrain and climbing training today in preparation for the climbing we will do next week,” Saraceni explained. “Fortunately, George is already an experienced climber, so his absence is of no concern to the mission. The others of you who have climbed before, please help those who haven’t. There are no points for excelling. If we don’t all make it up that mountain, then there’s no purpose in any of us going because the mission requires everyone.”

“What about Phoebe?” Gabriel asked.

“She can’t possibly climb, obviously. We’ll have to harness her to someone for most of the trip,” Saraceni responded.

“I still think we should do it without her. She’s supplemental, not a critical participant,” George protested.

“Let’s see how the trial run goes today,” Saraceni humored him, knowing Phoebe’s effects as an adjuvant, no matter how slight an advantage, were needed in a mission where the outcome was so questionable. Just then, Ruth walked into the room happily holding Phoebe’s hand. Seeing George, Phoebe broke away from Ruth and ran directly to him.

“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” she cried, flinging her arms around his neck and squeezing tightly. She giggled. “You look funny, Daddy!”

“How did you know it was me?” he asked curiously, playing with her pigtail braids, clearly brightened by the exchange.

“You look just the same on the
inside
silly!” the tiny voice responded, as if he were insane to ask such a question. George glanced at Ruth, already knowing this would mean advanced testing for Phoebe after they returned. ‘If we return’ he thought. The skills to view intrabody without monitors were usually not acquired until Circle 5 or 6. She wasn’t the first, of course, but the cases were rare and those candidates trained and assigned differently.

The group took a break, all enraptured by their small visitor. She clearly won the hearts of the team. Seeing her Dad talking to Chandra and Jane, Phoebe started to look around the room.

“Where’s Mommy?” she asked. George glanced around to the others and then crouched down to put his arm around his daughter.

“Mommy is still her old self, so she still lives in our old house in the old place, but she’ll come here to be with us probably around the time you’re getting as big as this guy here,” George said, pointing to Kyle. Registering that 16 was a relatively distant time away, Phoebe added,

“That’s a long time. I’ll miss her.” She looked sadly at her shoes.

“I know. Me, too, but we can play and you’ll have lots of friends and be going to school, so it’ll go by faster than you know.”

“Okay, let’s go play.” She began pulling on his arm.

“Lucky me, I get to go play with this little gem while you guys do climbing training.” George then added to Gabriel, quietly, “Don’t forget, this team really relies on your leadership more than you realize. They take their cues from you. They feel more secure if you seem at ease, so please capitalize on that.” Gabriel nodded, compliant in receiving the instruction.

“See you guys back here this afternoon for the trial run,” George said to the group before leaving.

“I’ll come get Phoebe in an hour,” Ruth said to him, wanting to make sure he could sleep before the trial run to be at peak performance for the test. Saraceni took Molior through parts of the building they’d never been to before. As they left their secured quadrant, they entered a vast room with 30-foot floor to ceiling picture windows framing a beautiful cliff view.

“I had no idea we were so close to mountains on this side. I thought there were just those we can see from the back patio view!” Jane exclaimed as they entered the room. Jack leaned to see the view sideways as far as he could from the building’s interior. There was a beautiful valley with a river and deer grazing nearby. As they exited the building, inhaling deeply the clear, fresh air, the view expanded and he could then see a whole herd of buffalo on the very far side of the river from the deer.

Making their way down narrow and winding dirt paths single file, the recruits arrived at the base of a cliff face where Wood already stood with some others and various ropes, hooks, pulleys and other assorted equipment.

Each team member climbed the cliff face twice, once with assistance and once by themselves. Everyone managed it, but some had more difficulty than others. Jack and David Running Wolf clearly were the top climbers within Molior, but Jane was surprisingly strong as well. The team focused on the last team member’s descent, Chandra’s, with cheers, and a side conversation began with Running Wolf, Saraceni, Wood and Jack.

“I’d really like to carry Phoebe,” Running Wolf offered to Wood and Saraceni.

“So would I,” Jack jumped in, then directly to Running Wolf, “and you’ve already helped with that genetics and science stuff. I’d really like a chance to help out more.”

“Okay,” Running Wolf responded, fully agreeable to relinquishing the task to him in the interests of teamwork.

“Not so fast,” Saraceni corrected, “I’m sorry, Jack, but we have to operate at maximum performance. That has to go to the one with the highest skill, not the one who wants it the most.”

“I did just as well as David,” Jack defended.

“You did, but that was without a pack,” Saraceni advised.

“How about a competition!” Wood suggested, recalling a similar event during training between himself and Stone. In no time, the two men were hooked up to parallel paths and battling it out in the ascent with a fully weighted pack equivalent to the harness plus Phoebe attached to them. Their teammates cheered them on from below, alternating between shouting Jack’s name and David’s. The two ran neck and neck for the better part of the journey, but about two thirds of the way up, Running Wolf pulled slightly ahead and stayed at the exact grueling pace as Jack fell behind and then became slower and slower. David Running Wolf reached the top and waited for Jack to arrive, impressed that he insisted on finishing the task.

David hung almost in mid-air near a shelf, but was able to rest his back into the supporting curve of the rock behind him. Jack finally got within a few feet of him.

“Welcome to my outdoor furniture set,” David said, extending his hand to Jack, who strained just to reach it. David helped him up, and Jack moved into position to also rest in a semi-reclined position next to David.

“Don’t feel bad,” David encouraged, ‘I grew up with cliffs for my back yard and my brother and I used to do climbs almost this difficult without any equipment. You’ve come closer than anyone else I’ve seen-you’re really good!”

“Now he tells me!” Jack laughed.

After a meal and one hour of rest, the team returned to the training room ready for their trial run of creating the gate and supporting the information transfer. Wood and Juliet were speaking quietly as Gabriel entered and he noticed they both took one giant step backward from each other, and Gabriel smiled subtly to himself. Next entered Kyle, looking less exuberant than he had as of late, followed quickly by Alexander and Enam, deep in discussion on quantum mechanics. Chandra and Jack entered with David Running Wolf, the three still finishing lunches as they walked. Only George and Jane were still missing when Saraceni and Ruth arrived.

“George is in the monitoring room,” Wood advised, and left to retrieve him.

“I’ll get Jane," Chandra offered, and jogged down the hallway with a bounce in her step to Jane’s room. She knocked lightly and then opened the door. Jane sat on the bed, elbows on knees, staring at the floor. Chandra could tell she had been crying. She rushed to her side, sitting next to her on the bed.

“Jane, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” Chandra asked, her deep southern drawl emphasizing her concern in a way that would have sounded sugarcoated to anyone that didn’t know her genuineness.

“So sorry,” Jane began, with her British accent punctuated by sniffles, “Yes, sorry-I must look a fright. I don’t know what came over me, really. I’m fine.” She tried to brush off Chandra’s concern with a wave of her hand.

“Darlin’, I know it’s hard. It’s okay to be upset. We’re all away from our families forever, or at least for a good long while, and there’s all this pressure and no real downtime. It’s no wonder. We’re all here for ya, though, girl,” Chandra continued.

“I’m just so silly. I just realized everyone here has someone, or misses someone, but I didn’t have anyone there, no husband, no kids, just my fieldwork, and I don’t have anyone here. It’s almost worse, I think,” Jane confided.

“Well, you have us! And I am serious as a heart attack-you need anything, you come to me!” Chandra said as Jane arose and started toward the door.

“Thanks, Chandra. Now, let’s just go get this test done.” The two walked down the hall like school girls. Saraceni could tell Jane had been crying, but she looked to have pulled herself together now. Still, he made a mental note to record it on the project status record later. Wood had already returned with George, who actually seemed to have more color in his face than the day prior, and was setting up the apparatus of the tenth platform. Seeing a platform, the team again viewed it with trepidation. Saraceni also made a mental note to reassess the future training curriculum since the first platform experience seemed to have soured them completely.

“So, is this one going to hurt?” David Running Wolf asked, deciding that he would rather be prepared than surprised.

“It shouldn’t,” Saraceni responded candidly, “but you might have less energy afterward.”

“Now, this test will approximate the effects around you when we open the gate, and this,” he said, pointing to an indicator on the side of the screen’s display, “will show you how high you are elevating the frequency. It won’t get to the top today. As we described yesterday, it’s not possible outside of the zero decoherence area around the mountain. So, let’s just see how high we can get it today.” Saraceni knew, as did Wood, that if the team could achieve level 8 out of 10 in this environment, they should be able to achieve the level necessary for mission success when it came time for the real thing.

“Maybe even 7.5, considering Phoebe’s not here to act as adjuvant today, so anything 7.5 and up we’ll count as success,” he instructed Wood on the side, who made a note of it in the project log on the flat tablet screen he carried with him.