The Primal War : First Elements Saga Book 1

Chapter 7: A is for Anarchy

Marcus was still pondering the ramifications of the Soulless as a commodity being purchased by a major terror group when, with a screech of rubber on tarmac, the C-5 landed at the Briar Patch. Hearing that, he looked up with a frown and searched for the nearest window to see if it was daylight.

They had flown through the night on the return trip. And while his teammates had snatched sleep here and there, the young fire primal found himself too keyed up to do the same as the ramifications of the Prague fight began to truly sink in. Ramifications that he was fairly certain Rose and Barna would want to address in their debrief.

A quick disembark so they could clean up. Then, as Marcus had anticipated, they were immediately summoned to a debrief with the big man himself.

"Why are we going to this debrief?" Doug wanted to know as they approached the office that Rose used when he was in the Briar Patch.

"Marcus was the only one that actually saw combat!"

"I suspect there's going to be a roll into something else that'll involve the entire team," Marcus surmised, his fire-enhanced mind churning through possibilities and discarding the outliers as fast as he was walking.

"Copy that," Jay darkly agreed. "If Null Faction have their blood-covered hands all over this attack like we think they did, that puts those assholes squarely in our sights!"

"You really think we're going to face Null Faction directly, Jay?" Val asked, her eyes wide as she considered that possibility.

"Yup," the earth elemental said with a nod. "Because we need to find out where they're getting their Soulless assets from. Then hit the source."

"The damage these hypers are causing is significant, I agree," Doug said, his own expression thoughtful as they made their final approach to Rose’s office door. "But we're not an investigative service. We're reactionary, like an RRT."

"Pretty sure that's about to change!" Marcus grimly noted. Then Jay was tapping on the door with a knuckle.

"Enter," Rose called from inside and, with a quick look at his fellow Descendants, Jay gave the door handle a twist and pushed the door itself out of the way before leading the way inside.

As expected, Rose was behind the desk, flanked by Barna on his right. However, the other three people in the room, standing to Barna's left, those none of the Primals recognized.

"Ah, here's the team now!" Rose said in his politician voice, usually reserved for visiting dignitaries. "Agents Bamfield, Leboo, Alvarez, and Gray."

"The fabled Descendants," the woman standing closest to Barna said, her tone equal parts condescending and patronizing. "I didn't realize they were so young, Director Rose." "Regardless of their age, our team is perfectly suited to deal with any hyper human threats," Barna jumped in to quickly point out, his expression tightening defensively. "In fact, the Prague operation was carried out by our youngest member, Marcus Gray."

Marcus tried not to frown as five sets of eyes swung onto him, the three strangers now wearing thoughtfully evaluating expressions as they took measure of him. But it was Jay that spoke up. "Correct me if I'm wrong here, Mr. Rose, Mr. Barna, but I thought we were having a debrief. Not some dog and pony show for members of the intelligence community," the earth primal said in a flat voice, his expression borderline annoyed.

"No, you are quite right, Agent Bamfield," Rose indicated with a thin smile. "I've asked our guests to attend this briefing to give us the latest our American intelligence community has on the terror group known as 'Null Faction'." He looked to his right.

"Allow me to introduce Tabitha Jackson, Coordinator for the CIA's international terrorism task force, Jeremy Temple with the NSA, and Leslie Burnham with Homeland Security's Joint Task Force on Terror."