Command was wearing a crisp white blouse under an equally crisp navy blue blazer and a pencil skirt of the same color. The blazer had the Vigilant Squad insignia on the right breast pocket and a hawk embroidered on each shoulder. Her stockings were black and so were her pumps. Her short brown hair were slicked back and she wore bright red lipstick and a slight touch of blush on her cheeks.
She was in the High House of Justice in the city of Kingsville–the government district–waiting in the corridor right outside the courtroom. The bronze plaque on the wall read: Service to the law is the service to humanity.
Her mind went over all the details of Luce's case, over what went down in Sector 22. The rain, the truck, the dead operatives, Lisa Neville, the Silver Lining. And now there was the Last Hand involved in it as well.
This thing had gotten too complicated by now. She scoffed. That was a joke. It had been complicated from the very beginning. Right from the point when they got the news that Richard Neville had gotten away with the information of Silver Lining. The fact that they had to go after his wife just meant that it had already snowballed into a bigger mess.
There was no point in questioning Luce's competence. He was one of the best agents in the Vigilant Squad. He had a simple job–stop the information about Silver Lining from spreading. The special grade truck getting stolen was a problem that arrived at the eleventh hour. It had not only distracted Luce from his main assignment but forced him to improvise with minimal resources.
No, there was no point in blaming it on him. That wasn't how the Firsts were going to see it though. They were always looking for someone to blame. Command would lose one of her most reliable men if Luce was to take the fall for everything. She wanted to save Luce in all this. But that meant she had to take the fall for it herself. Make it look like the entire chain of command was to blame.
In any other scenario, this wouldn't have daunted Command as much as it did now. Since there wasn't just the threat of some sensitive information leak but also a stolen special grade weapon and terrorist involvement that she had to answer for. Again, it was too complicated this time. So complicated that the Firsts could dissolve the entire Vigilant Squad department for all they cared. They could and they would if they felt like it. They'd done a lot worse for a lot less.
Command held back a groan. She had told Luce that he wasn't in as bad of a spot as he felt he was. She was starting to doubt it now.
A few minutes later, they called her into the courtroom. She walked in through the tall gilded doorway. Here goes nothing.
#
"You sure, you didn't hit your head too hard, Erik?" Gemma asked. They were inside the truck now. "You are talking about breaking out almost two hundred people from a high security prison? Are you sure your brain processed that sentence correctly before your mouth said it."
"I stole a special grade truck from right under their noses, remember?" Erik smirked.
"Erik, this is one truck." Gemma said. "We are talking about two hundred inmates. We are not even as big a group as we used to be three months ago!"
"I know. We are short in numbers."
Gemma scoffed. "We aren't 'short in numbers,' Erik. We are just two people left of the Last Hand. We can't do shit."
"Who said it was just gonna be the two of us who will do it?" Erik said. He was still smirking.
Gemma looked at him. She didn't like his expression one bit. "Y-You mean, there are gonna be other people involved too? But who?"
"You already know them." Erik said.
Gemma frowned. "None of the people I took into Mathesdale are the fighter types. I can't imagine any of them doing what you are proposing you would do."
"None of the people we recruited in Last Hand were fighters either." Erik said.
"Just tell me who are these people you are gonna drag into this madness now?"
"Make a guess." Erik still hadn't stopped smirking. "I'll give you a hint. They are all living in our manor right now."
Gemma's jaw went slack. She stared at him agape. She was sure of it now, he'd hit his head too hard.
#
It had been three hours since his call with Command. He hadn't stopped thinking about the hearing that Command said she was going to attend. I'm going to lose my job, he thought, they'd picked me out of one battle only to throw me in another, much worse battle with nothing but a pocket kife for a weapon and they wanted me to conquer a fort with it. Now they are going to blame me for the fact that I wasn't able to do it. And so they'll fire me.
It was the nightmare come to life for Luce. He was about to become a spook story in the squad. One of those agents who'd done all they could and then disappeared after that one mission that no one would ever talk about. And soon, he would be forgotten. As if he'd never even existed.
He kept staring at the telephone, waiting for it to ring. Every minute seemed to last as long as an hour. The steady beep of the heart monitor seemed to elongate each of that minute even more. But Luce's anxiety wasn't eased. If anything, it only got worse with each moment.
And that's when the phone rang. He answered it in a heartbeat. "Am I fired?" He asked.
Command started to laugh. The sound was as rare as an intact dinosaur fossil. "No, they're still keeping you." She said.
"Do I have to pay a hefty penalty?" He asked. "I won't be able to raise enough even if I sold both my kidneys."
"No, the problem at hand can't really be solved by money. Especially by the money you obviously don't have." She said. "But you are still working for the Vigilant Squad. Just not as an Agent."
Luce's heart stopped beating for a second. He gripped the phone receiver tightly. "Th-They demoted me?"
"Yes and no. You are gonna be put on probabtion. They are moving you in logistics and you won't be allowed to get back in the field for an indefinite period." Command said.
Luce couldn't believe what he was hearing. But this was still way better than what he had expected. He didn't know what Command had to do to convince the Firsts to let him stay after all that he had failed at in Sector 22, but he still felt grateful. She'd probably put too much on the line herself. "Command...thanks." He said.
There was silence on the other end. "I didn't do it out of kindness, Luce. There's something I want you to do. But I can't tell you on the phone. We'll have to meet soon."
#
"None of them is a soldier, Erik!" Gemma snapped. "And Lisa is pregnant for God's sake! You really plan on sending her of all people to fight?!"
"She can operate the truck." Erik said. "She is good at finding numerical combinations and applying them in a battle. She did that back in Sector 22 and she did that while we were under attack. Imagine what other amazing stuff she might pull off if we give her some time to familiarise herself with the truck?"
Gemma groaned. "Can you even hear yourself?! She has a child growing inside her! She is going to be a mother! Can't you get it?!"
"So far, the government doesn't have the right equipment to break through the truck's Fortress mode. It will keep her safe." Erik said.
Gemma just shook her head. She wasn't going to agree with any of his suggestions. Erik kept talking. "Then there's the girl, Cathy."
His sister was already getting apprehensive. "What about her now?"
"I'm going to train her in melee combat and teach her how to properly use a gun." He said. "During the prison break I'm gonna need someone who is not just good with a gun but also with bare fists. Also, since she has the EpiFreeze in her, she doesn't need to constantly rely on a gas mask. It would be useless to not use her properly."
Gemma was even more appalled. "What next? You have something planned out for Clint and Marie too? Are you gonna turn their son into a little assassin as well?"
Erik chuckled. "You are close but not quite. I indeed have something in mind for them. But it doesn't involve battle. At least not a battle with guns and grenades."
Gemma was puzzled.
"Now listen carefully cuz you are the one who is gonna convince them and get them on board with my plan." He said.
(to be continued...)