The Notes and Memoirs of Reynolds, E.D.A.

Reynolds, R&R

Dedicated to rogue0527. Stepping closer to your genre, eh?

A short update, and a bit of a change of tone. I'm currently working on the next tale, and want to hold off on publishing it until it's complete. I'll post another glossary update before then. Let me know what you want described in more details in the comments. Thanks for reading!

Two: R&R

By its secretive nature, the Agency is a fairly closed organization. Because of the difficulties in maintaining secrecy, new operatives are rarely brought into the organization. Further, it's common for agents to spend their entire career with one department, or within one geographical region. This can be a major cause of interpersonal problems. Despite our training, discipline, and the importance of our work, we are only human.

Previously, I had mentioned that my second in command, Yves Stewart, had joined my team partially to escape his ex-girlfriend. They had started dating when Stewart and I had been on Captain Blake Esserg's team. Esserg's command was very different from my own. Captains are given quite a lot of freedom in how they choose to assemble a response team, and Esserg had opted for complete control. When my team had first formed, it was composed of five tactical personnel, a support staff of ten, a few transport vehicles, and five mechanics to upkeep our transports. We worked out of a larger facility, and did not directly research our targets. In sharp contrast was Esserg's team of fifty tactical personnel, a research staff of thirty, a support and administrative staff of one hundred, eight transports, a fleet of vehicles covering role from transport to space superiority fighters, and dozens of mechanics working to keep the vehicles running. He chose to seek out and engage hostiles using only his own team, with no outside influence. Such a method was not uncommon, but the degree that he took it was. However, he got results. As such, his command covered most of northeastern Russia, which had long been a hot-seat of activity. Roughly two team members left, and two joined each month.

The base was built completely underground. The various facilities were constructed in chunks of excavated earth, with long, easily defensible passages connecting them, I had just sent my request for promotion and was walking along a corridor back to my quarters when I noticed a lost looking woman with an envelope in her hand. I approached her, and asked, “Can I help you, miss?”

She turned to face me, eyes looking over my face and then stopping at the golden cross pinned to the collar of my uniform. “Sir,” she said “Penelope Hudson reporting for duty.” she thrust the envelope at me.

I opened it, and pulled out a worn piece of paper. I scanned it, then replaced it and handed the envelope back to her. “Follow me, Ms. Hudson. I'll show you to the administration wing.” We took a moving walkway from the transport wing to the administration wing in silence. I had nothing to say to her; she was outside of my direct command. She, apparently, had no questions for me, or was too nervous to ask them. When we reached administration, we ran into Stewart.

“John!” he said warmly, “We need to catch up on the last Siberian mission. Oh, hey, who have we here?”

“Penelope Hudson, a new transfer to administration,” I replied.

“Oh, well, Ms. Hudson, let me help you get settled in. I'll meet with you after dinner, John.”

Stewart was in charge of coordinating between the tactical and support staffs, so it made a sort of sense for him to help Hudson out. But, it was an unusual degree of micromanaging for him. It snapped me out of my own worries about a promotion, and I looked at her, seeing past the uniform. She was young, mid-twenties, and quite beautiful. Dark hair framed her soft features, and her brown eyes glowed as they met Stewart's own. He smiled warmly at her, and led her away. As they walked away, I saw his tan hand twitch towards her pale one. I thought about getting involved, but decided that I had enough to worry about. So long as his performance was unaffected, neither I nor Esserg could care less about his business. It was a large staff, and little romances were bound to spring up.

Over the next couple weeks, I did get wrapped up in their affair. It was a large staff, but we were isolated, and rumors always circulated. I was never direct in talking to Stewart about it, but I did confirm some of the rumors. They had met while Stewart was on leave, recovering from the loss of his left hand several months ago. Due to the severity of the injury, and the length of the recovery, Stewart had been temporarily moved to the Warsaw headquarters of the Agency. Hudson had just been recruited, and was undergoing basic training there. They had flirted, but nothing had come of it. She had randomly been assigned to Esserg's staff after her probational period in Warsaw. When Stewart had seen her, he had jumped at the chance to pick up where they had left off. For about a month, things had gone smoothly between the two of them.

Unfortunately, Stewart was loyal and dependable in his work, but not nearly so in his personal life. We had returned from a particularly trying and hard-fought mission against Xigish poachers. There were ten casualties, including four fatalities, not to mention the civilian lives the Xigish had taken. He spent a late, alcohol-fueled night with one of the tactical team, passing out in her quarters afterward. He had no official duties, but had promised to meet Penelope for breakfast the next morning. He slept well past their date, and she found him creeping back to his room, nursing a hangover. Hudson had no proof of his actions, but certainly enough circumstantial evidence to bury him under. This was compounded by strong rumor that this was not the first time that Stewart had cheated on Hudson.

To make a long story short, she focused all her energies on making his life hell. And, I must admit, she was good at it. Any paperwork he submitted would be invariably lost, destroyed, or misfiled. But, mysteriously, the details and orders that it contained would be followed correctly. The team still worked smoothly, but attention was heaped onto Stewart. Enough so that Esserg was forced to discipline him. Stewart was an excellent field agent. His administrative and organization skills were incredible, and he was a master of effective delegation. Still, he found himself scrubbing toilets, mopping floors, cleaning grease-traps, and hauling garbage every day. This started three months before I left Esserg to form my own team. The next month, things improved for him. However, Hudson once again went to war against him a month before my leave, when I was finalizing my team roster. Stewart begged both myself and Captain Esserg for a spot on my roster, claiming that “the stresses of managing such a large group of people are clearly getting to me. While I believe myself to be an extremely valuable member of any team, I feel that the changes that a transfer would bring would be extremely beneficial to my performance, especially when the downtime inherit in starting a new operation is taken into consideration.” His tan face was fixed to the floor, and he ran a hand through his short dark hair. Esserg and myself shared a private smile, and granted his request.

I've chosen to tell you the tale of Yves Stewart's indiscretion for a number of reasons. Firstly, to give you a sense of the romantic options available to an Agent. Secondly, to show you that, so long as there is no coercion involved, relationships amongst team members are not inherently detrimental or punished. And finally, to show that a clever person is never without recourse. Stewart reformed his habits in a way; for quite some time after transferring to my team, his relationships with the fairer sex were, shall we say, casual at best.