Corporal Susan Locke shifted her chestnut hair away from her eyes as she strode purposefully down to the office of Major Cobain. Two uniformed guards saluted the young woman at the door, and she looked them over warily. They weren't nearly on the strong side and no confidence showed on their faces; their knees trembled a little adressing her. They were the perfect example of the problem that Corporal Locke was about to take to the highest commanding officer in SWORD.
Counting the Captain and the Major who only rarely work on assignments themselves, there were only twelve people left in the entire organization. Eight of them were newly-instilled recruits, such as those two cowardly guards outside the Major's office. They know about a good deal of the Revenants and had the action protocol involving a good deal of them. The problem was either that the recruits either didn't believe a single word of what they were saying, or that they did believe what they were saying, but trembled in fear at the very sight. They were too timid to pick up a gun and were always looking behind them- an amiable thing to do when on a mission, but simply foolish in the highly-protected complex. Corporal Locke feared that the newbies would run instead of fight or be too shell shocked to do anything. Last week Private Hurst shot himself when he realised exactly what was going on in the world. He died in his dormitory and wasn't found until role call the next day.
While walking down the stairs to the complex she thought about all the people she has lost in tactical operations, Liutenant Adrian being the most recent. She knew Adrian from ten years back when they were both police officers. She was twenty-one and just entered Homicide then. Adrian showed promise so he moved up ahead to Vice along with her younger sister, Jessica. She still remembered the call, the sudden stop, and she remembered the feeling as every muscle in her body tensed at the sudden cut off. She remembered Jessica's limp body, hanging by thin wire from the catwalks. She remembered Adrian. She hated Adrian once upon a time. Even when she learned what was truly behind it, when she knew that Adrian couldn't have saved her even if he tried to, she still hated him. But she grew to tolerate and even sometimes appreciate the work he puts in. The reason he moved ahead in SWORD was the same reason he moved ahead to Vice in the police department- he showed initiative and he worked when others couldn't be asked to work any more. They had a kind of symbiotic tie to each other. Jack would save Susan when a Revenant used more of its power or when it was craftier, and she would save his ass after he did something stupid. It worked and that's how they coexisted. Sometimes, they even joked, ignored the scar of their past for a short time. Then they were placed in the same squad when all other teams were killed in the wake of a startling increase in the number of Doors and Revenant sightings. They were an unstoppable Door-preventing team. Until three days ago.
No, she thought, best not think about that.
Shrugging off the thought, she finally made her way to the windowed door that read, "Major Cobain, SWORD Operations Manager" in Italicized letters on a bronzed plaque. Beyond the door was a short hallway, with chairs on the left-hand side and a plexiglass station behind which an attendant used to sign people in to see Major Cobain. Both were empty, and haven't been in use for three years. She wasted no effort in crossing the short hallway, military boots clacking on the checkerboard pattened tiles. She knocked once, echoing on the birch wood door, then checked to see if it was unlocked; finding it so, she opened the door and stepped in.
"Major, we need to talk."
The Major was on the phone with someone who seemed to be making it a one-sided argument. "Uh-huh... yes... I underst- you don't have to yell... yes sir." Finally the person on the other end of the line seemed satisfied and apparently hung up on Major Cobain. "H-hey!" He slammed the phone back into the reciever with unnecessary forcefulness and then glowered at Corporal Locke. "What do you want Susan?"
"Who was that on the other end of the line?"
"A government run agency called the Supernatural Analysis Bureau or some boondoggle."
"They want to shut us down?"
"They're threatening it. No. They want our little group to be bought and taken under their control. They apparently have subgroups operating in anti-Revenant groups. However, they call them Phobic Representational Entities or some shit."
"They're trying to buy us out?!"
"Yes, exactly! And what's more, these bureaucrats are threatening to incarcerate all of us for interfering with government business... and... worse... if we don't comply."
Susan thought about this. Governments tended to be more strict and it would likely lead to a complete overhaul of regulation and protocol. But they had the experience, the training, the arsenal, the teachings, and most importantly the manpower to ensure it. But it means that their anti-Revenant activity grew. "Sir..."
"What is it?"
"Have you put any thought into rearming our soldiers or hiring new troops?"
"Excuse me?"
"Sir, we're down to only twelve men. Counting you and Captain Volodarskii, there are only four people here who have even encountered a single Revenant or their serfs-"
"And you want me to hire more newbies to get themselves killed?"
"Sir strength lies in numbers-!"
"And you think I don't know that!? You think I'm not aware that we need more men. You think I don't know that we're going to have to sometimes just let incidents happen so battle-weary survivors can be recruited? You think I don't know that sometimes we even have to pull members of the unknowing public out of their homes and lives and into battle uniforms? You think I'm not aware of that?!" She saw the corrotid artery bulging out of the left side of his neck. She saw his face reddening and his jaw setting. She knew when she pulled a raw nerve, and she also knew that there was no way to stop something like this once started. "You understand me? I know that we're going to have to do that but I don't want to! I have to sit down here every day to find someone with some kind of occult or combat experience that nobody will miss out of the phonebook, or look up possibly survivable attacks for people, and it eats me alive to realize what I'm sending them towards. It hurt when I recruited you and Jack, and it hurt every time before and it will hurt every time after. I know the Doors are acting up. The Revenants are becoming more active. They're preparing for- for something. I don't know what but it's going to be big. Incidents have risen 500%."
"Sir, I know, it's just..."
"I'm not finished," said her commanding officer, "Deaths from these incidents has risen 800%. You know how many people were killed this month alone? Three thousand people died over seven hundred isolated incidents, all covered up, all horrible and painful and you're expecting me to train people to send them out to end up like those three thousand-"
"Excuse me, sir. You were the one that said we were going to meet our horrible end if we signed up for this, and you know what? You said that's fine. We're saving other lives. We're making a difference, no matter how small or large, and we're putting the Revenants back, if only a little."
The Major was silent. He calmed a little, then he lowered his head. He looked at the stack of papers on his desk, then at the photo he always kept facing away from personnel. Corporal Locke never knew what the photograph was of. "...go. Look for people, but I don't want to be talked to right now."
"Sir?"
"I'll be fine. I just need to think." She left Major Cobain alone to his thoughts, and she quietly and worriedly went back to her own.
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