| Subject: chapter 2 |
Author:
S.B.
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Date Posted: Wednesday, June 30, 05:41:54am
In reply to:
S.B.
's message, "The Progeny of Four" on Tuesday, June 29, 02:58:59am
If there was one thing Operations detested above all else it was when an operative broke profile. What was even more infuriating was when the guilty operative was Michael. Section One’s top operative, hand-picked by Operations himself to take on the Vachek mission due to his exemplary performance and record, and now he was showing all of the classic signs of an operative about to go rogue. It was absolutely disgusting.
Operations eased his anger by lighting up another cigarette, his second within the past twenty minutes, and took a long deep drag on it before releasing a thin stream of smoke into the air. It felt good to be disobeying orders, even if it was only that of his doctor’s, it just felt good to prove that he could do whatever he damn well pleased. He was the boss here and no one, not the doctors, not even Madeline could tell him what he could and couldn’t do. Besides it wasn’t the cigarettes that was going to kill him. If anything it was going to be the stress that these goddamn operatives was giving him who couldn’t follow their goddamn orders!
Reigning in his anger Operations took another long pull on the cigarette in his hand before snuffing it out and flicking it into the wastebasket. Sighing he stuck his hands into his pockets and stared moodily out at the main floor below.
He wasn’t a man given usually to swearing. At least not out loud and certainly not in recent years, especially with Madeline around. She always gave him one of her silent looks, the one with one brow arched up in disapproval, whenever he did forget and cursed aloud. It was a good thing she hadn't known him thirty-five years earlier when he first joined the military.
His mood lightened suddenly at the memory, a gleam appearing in his eyes as he thought of his old army buddies. Then just as quickly other memories flitted in, ones of a much darker time. Memories he’d never been able to forget over the years, filled with death and torture and the screaming of his men begging for mercy as the Viet Cong tried to get them to break.
His mood shifted once more, the light in his eyes fading and the mirth of a moment earlier ebbing quickly into silence. Operations turned away from the glass windows that overlooked Section and took several steps away.
Despite the years that had passed he still couldn’t forget those screams. Neither could he rid himself of that feeling of utter helplessness he'd felt back then to do anything to save them. All he'd been able to do back then was to tell the others to close their ears the best they could, to block the screams out… Just hold on for one more day and they’d be alright. But of course the next day the Viet Cong would choose new prisoners to torture and the screaming would begin all over again.
Operations reached into his pocket to the remote he kept there and quietly darkened the windows to his office, his back still toward the glass. He placed his hand over his forehead, shielding his eyes and pressed his fingers to his temple. He took several deep breaths. In and out, slowly reclaiming control of his emotions.
This was why he hated it when operatives lost sight of the endgame. In his mind he could still see every single one of his men who had given their life in that awful period. Their deaths haunted him, filled him with hate, but it also fueled his determination to win this war. It was why he had accepted the call to serve in Section. Eventually it had even been the reason he had plotted to overthrow Adrienne. She just didn’t understand how important it was that Section not only survive, but that it be allowed to flourish and become all powerful.
But Operations understood. He knew only too well the need for the type of power that Section wielded, where one could fight the enemy with the same tactics, the same ruthlessness that they employed. Never again would he allow himself to be helpless as he was in Nam. Now he had at his fingertips the capability to make a difference, and he would do it. To his dying day he would devote all Section’s resources and more to the protection of the greater good. He could do it, he vowed. It was all within his power.
The sound of the buzzer startled him out of his thoughts and Operations blinked, then reached over and hit the intercom. “Yes?” he snapped, irritation at being interrupted clearly evident in his tone.
Madeline’s calm voice answered. “Will you be joining us?”
She was about to reveal Michael’s new assignment to him and was offering Operations the courtesy of being present. Operations though wasn’t in the mood to deal with Michael at the moment. The way he was feeling right now he was afraid he might very well do something foolish like order his top operative to be put in abeyance.
“No,” he answered, then hit the intercom button again to shut it off before his second in command could comment further. He made his way back then to the glass windows and stood watch over his domain.
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