Chapter 55 - Simple Gifts
By Cille
After a week of helping out in the infirmary, Hikki had graduated from his wheelchair to hobbling around on a crutch. He wasn't as good a table as he'd been before, but at least he took up less space and was slightly less likely to run into things and knock stuff on the floor.
He was used to the routine in the medical quarters by now, and he felt a lot more confident about assisting Roxie and Kaia with their rounds and the occasional more intensive treatment. He'd even gotten to ride shotgun on a couple of surgeries.
Some days he felt tired and worn out, but all it took was an appreciative smile from Dr. Tenma to make him completely forget how hard he was working.
Of course he'd also noticed the girls coming into the infirmary to fawn over the doctor, and he sniffed derisively at them for pretending to be sick just to come see him. It did make him a little nervous to think that Tenma might actually succumb to their advances, but each time the doctor simply blushed and smiled awkwardly and explained that his patients kept him far too busy for socializing.
One day during a slow afternoon Kaia pulled Hikki aside. She seemed to be in a serious mood and was holding something behind her back.
"Hikki, I just wanted you to know that I appreciate all of the work you're doing down here," she began.
"Ah, don't mention eet. Just doing what I can to help," he answered.
"I know. There's... something I'd like to give you, though."
"For me? What ees eet?"
Kaia took a deep breath and then showed him what she'd been holding behind her back - a long black cane with silver tips.
"Zees ees... I have seen zees before," Hikki said, taking the cane.
"It's... Furion's," Kaia said.
"Oh... Pere Sadar?" Hikki asked, looking at her in surprise.
Kaia nodded.
"Are you sure you want me to have zees?" Hikki asked gently.
Kaia sighed. "I've been debating with myself for a few days. I know it'll make me think of him every time I see it or hear it. But he'd probably be disappointed with me if I saw someone who could use it and kept it to myself for selfish reasons."
Hikki nodded with understanding, and then held the cane to his chest with both hands. "I shall gratefully accept zees geeft een honor of our friend," he said resolutely.
Kaia smiled at his formalness. Somehow it made her feel better to know how seriously he was taking the gift, and she felt Sadar's keepsake would be in good hands.
**********
Cille sat alone in the control room, lost in thought. It was well after midnight, but she hadn't been able to sleep, so she figured she might as well come back up and do some more work. She gazed at the Actonia maps spread on the table, with potential escape routes marked out in different-colored markers. Beside them was a stack of notebooks, on top of which lay an updated list of the personnel in the base with status notes handwritten next to each name.
Despite her insomnia, her brain was really too fried to think very clearly. So she found herself mulling over the reading she'd been doing and the brainstormed ideas she'd been trying to come up with over the past several days.
Everybody else in the base seemed to be resigned to going about their business until someone found a way to escape. But Cille felt that it was her responsibility to do whatever she could to make that escape happen. She already felt the burden of all of the lives that had been lost under her direction, and now she had the chance to save - or lose - the lives of everyone still remaining in the base. It wasn't a chance she could take lightly.
Her musing was interrupted by a chiming sound from one of the control monitors. It was the sound it made when one of the doors opened.
That's strange, I wonder if it's glitching, Cille thought, leaning over to look at the monitor.
But it wasn't a glitch. The alert showed that the door at the end of the escape tunnel had opened and closed.
Cille was startled wide awake. The escape hatch... Someone's breaking in!
But then she realized that the terminal that had been used was the one on the inside of the door. Which meant that the person who opened the door was inside the base when they did it.
Cille's mind flashed through the possibilities. Was there a traitor inside the base opening the door to let in enemy troops? Was someone taking the opportunity to escape and leaving the rest of his comrades behind? Who would even have the new access code?
Cille brought up a full report on the activity for the escape hatch. Her eyes widened as a list of at least a dozen breaches appeared.
Holy crap... This has been going on for days...
She inspected the list more closely, and soon a pattern emerged. The door would open from the inside every night between midnight and 1am, and then open from the outside three or four hours later.
Someone's been leaving the base... and coming back in...
Cille wasn't aware of any disruptions over the past week that would indicate intruders in the base. But if there was any possibility that the bunker had been infiltrated, she needed to take action now.
Based on the pattern, if the person had just left, it meant they would be coming back in a few hours. And if that were the case, then someone could be waiting inside the tunnel to apprehend them.
But Cille certainly didn't want to have to face this person alone. Cougar... I'll get him.
She hurried to his room and knocked on the door. There was no response. She opened the door to find that his room was empty.
Geez, I guess I'm not the only one with insomnia tonight, she thought.
She checked the kitchen and the nearby common room, and even went back to her room to see if he'd come looking for her, and then waited outside his room until she couldn't take the uncertainty anymore. Even if Cougar wasn't available to help her, she needed someone to come investigate the escape tunnel before the mystery person came back.
She went to Eric's room and was relieved to find him there. She apologized for waking him and explained the situation. He agreed that it was something they needed to investigate, and the two of them headed into the tunnel to await the return of their fugitive.
"So you think it's one of our people leaving and coming back?" Eric whispered as they walked the two miles to the escape hatch.
Cille nodded. "It has to be. The first code was entered from inside the base. And then it alternates outside-inside-outside. My only question is who else they might be bringing back inside."
"You're thinking we might have outsiders sneaking in with them."
"It's certainly possible," Cille said. "We have no way of knowing how many people are going out versus coming in."
"Can you check the video footage?" Eric asked.
"We don't have a recording device back here," Cille answered regretfully. "All we could set up was a live feed so we can see what's out there at the moment."
They reached the end of the tunnel, and Cille checked the terminal to make sure it hadn't been tampered with. Everything looked normal, so the two of them hunkered down in the dim light of the tunnel to wait.
Eric could tell that Cille was nervous. "It's probably not anything serious," he tried to reassure her.
Cille nodded, but didn't look convinced.
"Just in case, I brought some backup," Eric said, patting a handgun holster on his hip.
Cille smiled wryly and held up her Mateba. "So did I."
They sat there in silence for over an hour. Eric started nodding off, but Cille was too anxious to think of napping. She tried to calm herself by picturing the person walking in and thinking about what she might say. If it was one of their own people, then really all they needed to do was find out why they were leaving every night.
The access terminal screen started flashing with a bright light, and Eric woke up as the door started to open. Cille held her breath, waiting to see who would come climbing down the ladder from the hatch. Instinctively she gripped her revolver.
A full duffel bag dropped from the hole, followed by two more. Then a tall man wearing a hoodie and a very full backpack squeezed down through the hatch and slid down the ladder. Eric and Cille both stood, guns at the ready.
With his back still toward them, the man pushed some buttons on the terminal to close the door. Then he leaned down, hoisted up the duffel bags, and turned around to begin his trek down the tunnel.
"All right, hold it," Cille called authoritatively. She and Eric stepped forward, pointing their guns at him.
He looked at them from under his hood, and then slowly put the duffel bags down and awkwardly held his hands up. "Don't shoot, officers, I give up."
Cille couldn't believe what she was hearing. "...Cougar?!"
He smiled sheepishly and put down his hood so they could get a better look at him.
Cille sort of deflated, feeling relieved but also exasperated. "What the hell are you doing?"
Cougar cleared his throat self-consciously. "Um..." He shrugged and gestured to the bags. "...Shopping?"
Cille rolled her eyes and holstered her gun with a sigh. She went over to the console and checked to make sure that the entrance was secured properly. Then, with one more weary look at Cougar, she picked up a bag and started walking down the tunnel. "All right, let's go."
Eric and Cougar exchanged glances, and then Cougar picked up the other two bags and they followed after Cille. She didn't seem inclined to talk, and the men had to hurry just to keep up with her brisk pace.
After the silent two-mile walk, Cille turned to Eric. "Thanks for coming along," she said. "Sorry to get you out of bed for something trivial."
"Not a problem," Eric said, glancing at Cougar. "I'm glad it turned out not to be something serious."
He left to go back to his room, and Cille turned to Cougar.
"So, where are these supposed to go?" she asked, holding up the duffel bag.
"Um... I generally drop them off at Foley's stock room," he answered.
"Fine," Cille said curtly, starting off in that direction.
Cougar sighed and once again hurried to catch up with her. Despite her forced businesslike manner, she was obviously annoyed.
"So at what point were you going to tell me that you were going out every night?" she asked abruptly.
He sighed with dismay. "I... wasn't, actually. I didn't want you to have to think about it."
"You didn't think it was important for the Syndicate's tactical coordinator to know that someone was leaving the base every night and potentially creating a security risk?"
"I've been very careful to make sure there was no security risk. There aren't any army patrols for at least a mile. Even if there were, they wouldn't see me."
"And... you didn't think it was important for the woman you love to know what you were doing?"
Cougar noticed the slight catch in her voice, and realized that this was the more important issue.
"I just didn't want to make you worry," he said quietly.
"Of course I'm going to worry. Every time you do something risky, I worry about you. But that doesn't mean I can't handle knowing that you have to do dangerous things sometimes. I know you can take care of yourself. I just wish you had the same confidence in me."
"It's not... That's not what this is about. I was just trying to make your life a little easier."
They reached the door to the stock room, and Cille dropped her duffel bag on the floor and turned to him.
"If you had told me what you were doing, I would have been fine with it. I probably would have even been happy that you came up with a plan for getting more supplies in here. But I..." Her eyes started welling up with tears.
He put his bags down and quickly went to put his arms around her.
"I'm sorry," he said earnestly. "I wasn't trying to be dishonest with you. I just thought that you had more than enough to think about already. You're working so hard, and I didn't want to add to your stress."
"Just tell me what you're doing, okay?" she said, leaning into his chest. "I don't need secrecy."
"All right. I'm sorry. I won't hide things from you anymore."
Cille nodded, suddenly feeling very tired.
She pulled away from his embrace. "I'm going to bed. I assume you can deal with this stuff."
"Yeah, I've got a key. I'll put everything away. Go get some sleep."
He watched her trudge down the hall, mentally chastising himself for letting his concern for her backfire. It'll be okay, though, he thought. She knows it's just because I care about her.
Chapter 55 author's notes:
Recurring characters:
Hikki Follet - Kohikki
Roxie Goldsmith - anime_goddess05
Kaia Namek - namek_kaia
*Father John Sadar - FurionTassadar
Lucille "Cille" Compton - Cille
Eric Ominae - OMNI-Enforcer
*Foley S. Goode - Foley_is_Good_149
Kenzou Tenma - Monster
Straight Cougar - s-CRY-ed
* Characters marked with an asterisk are mentioned but do not take an active part in the story.
After a week of helping out in the infirmary, Hikki had graduated from his wheelchair to hobbling around on a crutch. He wasn't as good a table as he'd been before, but at least he took up less space and was slightly less likely to run into things and knock stuff on the floor.
He was used to the routine in the medical quarters by now, and he felt a lot more confident about assisting Roxie and Kaia with their rounds and the occasional more intensive treatment. He'd even gotten to ride shotgun on a couple of surgeries.
Some days he felt tired and worn out, but all it took was an appreciative smile from Dr. Tenma to make him completely forget how hard he was working.
Of course he'd also noticed the girls coming into the infirmary to fawn over the doctor, and he sniffed derisively at them for pretending to be sick just to come see him. It did make him a little nervous to think that Tenma might actually succumb to their advances, but each time the doctor simply blushed and smiled awkwardly and explained that his patients kept him far too busy for socializing.
One day during a slow afternoon Kaia pulled Hikki aside. She seemed to be in a serious mood and was holding something behind her back.
"Hikki, I just wanted you to know that I appreciate all of the work you're doing down here," she began.
"Ah, don't mention eet. Just doing what I can to help," he answered.
"I know. There's... something I'd like to give you, though."
"For me? What ees eet?"
Kaia took a deep breath and then showed him what she'd been holding behind her back - a long black cane with silver tips.
"Zees ees... I have seen zees before," Hikki said, taking the cane.
"It's... Furion's," Kaia said.
"Oh... Pere Sadar?" Hikki asked, looking at her in surprise.
Kaia nodded.
"Are you sure you want me to have zees?" Hikki asked gently.
Kaia sighed. "I've been debating with myself for a few days. I know it'll make me think of him every time I see it or hear it. But he'd probably be disappointed with me if I saw someone who could use it and kept it to myself for selfish reasons."
Hikki nodded with understanding, and then held the cane to his chest with both hands. "I shall gratefully accept zees geeft een honor of our friend," he said resolutely.
Kaia smiled at his formalness. Somehow it made her feel better to know how seriously he was taking the gift, and she felt Sadar's keepsake would be in good hands.
**********
Cille sat alone in the control room, lost in thought. It was well after midnight, but she hadn't been able to sleep, so she figured she might as well come back up and do some more work. She gazed at the Actonia maps spread on the table, with potential escape routes marked out in different-colored markers. Beside them was a stack of notebooks, on top of which lay an updated list of the personnel in the base with status notes handwritten next to each name.
Despite her insomnia, her brain was really too fried to think very clearly. So she found herself mulling over the reading she'd been doing and the brainstormed ideas she'd been trying to come up with over the past several days.
Everybody else in the base seemed to be resigned to going about their business until someone found a way to escape. But Cille felt that it was her responsibility to do whatever she could to make that escape happen. She already felt the burden of all of the lives that had been lost under her direction, and now she had the chance to save - or lose - the lives of everyone still remaining in the base. It wasn't a chance she could take lightly.
Her musing was interrupted by a chiming sound from one of the control monitors. It was the sound it made when one of the doors opened.
That's strange, I wonder if it's glitching, Cille thought, leaning over to look at the monitor.
But it wasn't a glitch. The alert showed that the door at the end of the escape tunnel had opened and closed.
Cille was startled wide awake. The escape hatch... Someone's breaking in!
But then she realized that the terminal that had been used was the one on the inside of the door. Which meant that the person who opened the door was inside the base when they did it.
Cille's mind flashed through the possibilities. Was there a traitor inside the base opening the door to let in enemy troops? Was someone taking the opportunity to escape and leaving the rest of his comrades behind? Who would even have the new access code?
Cille brought up a full report on the activity for the escape hatch. Her eyes widened as a list of at least a dozen breaches appeared.
Holy crap... This has been going on for days...
She inspected the list more closely, and soon a pattern emerged. The door would open from the inside every night between midnight and 1am, and then open from the outside three or four hours later.
Someone's been leaving the base... and coming back in...
Cille wasn't aware of any disruptions over the past week that would indicate intruders in the base. But if there was any possibility that the bunker had been infiltrated, she needed to take action now.
Based on the pattern, if the person had just left, it meant they would be coming back in a few hours. And if that were the case, then someone could be waiting inside the tunnel to apprehend them.
But Cille certainly didn't want to have to face this person alone. Cougar... I'll get him.
She hurried to his room and knocked on the door. There was no response. She opened the door to find that his room was empty.
Geez, I guess I'm not the only one with insomnia tonight, she thought.
She checked the kitchen and the nearby common room, and even went back to her room to see if he'd come looking for her, and then waited outside his room until she couldn't take the uncertainty anymore. Even if Cougar wasn't available to help her, she needed someone to come investigate the escape tunnel before the mystery person came back.
She went to Eric's room and was relieved to find him there. She apologized for waking him and explained the situation. He agreed that it was something they needed to investigate, and the two of them headed into the tunnel to await the return of their fugitive.
"So you think it's one of our people leaving and coming back?" Eric whispered as they walked the two miles to the escape hatch.
Cille nodded. "It has to be. The first code was entered from inside the base. And then it alternates outside-inside-outside. My only question is who else they might be bringing back inside."
"You're thinking we might have outsiders sneaking in with them."
"It's certainly possible," Cille said. "We have no way of knowing how many people are going out versus coming in."
"Can you check the video footage?" Eric asked.
"We don't have a recording device back here," Cille answered regretfully. "All we could set up was a live feed so we can see what's out there at the moment."
They reached the end of the tunnel, and Cille checked the terminal to make sure it hadn't been tampered with. Everything looked normal, so the two of them hunkered down in the dim light of the tunnel to wait.
Eric could tell that Cille was nervous. "It's probably not anything serious," he tried to reassure her.
Cille nodded, but didn't look convinced.
"Just in case, I brought some backup," Eric said, patting a handgun holster on his hip.
Cille smiled wryly and held up her Mateba. "So did I."
They sat there in silence for over an hour. Eric started nodding off, but Cille was too anxious to think of napping. She tried to calm herself by picturing the person walking in and thinking about what she might say. If it was one of their own people, then really all they needed to do was find out why they were leaving every night.
The access terminal screen started flashing with a bright light, and Eric woke up as the door started to open. Cille held her breath, waiting to see who would come climbing down the ladder from the hatch. Instinctively she gripped her revolver.
A full duffel bag dropped from the hole, followed by two more. Then a tall man wearing a hoodie and a very full backpack squeezed down through the hatch and slid down the ladder. Eric and Cille both stood, guns at the ready.
With his back still toward them, the man pushed some buttons on the terminal to close the door. Then he leaned down, hoisted up the duffel bags, and turned around to begin his trek down the tunnel.
"All right, hold it," Cille called authoritatively. She and Eric stepped forward, pointing their guns at him.
He looked at them from under his hood, and then slowly put the duffel bags down and awkwardly held his hands up. "Don't shoot, officers, I give up."
Cille couldn't believe what she was hearing. "...Cougar?!"
He smiled sheepishly and put down his hood so they could get a better look at him.
Cille sort of deflated, feeling relieved but also exasperated. "What the hell are you doing?"
Cougar cleared his throat self-consciously. "Um..." He shrugged and gestured to the bags. "...Shopping?"
Cille rolled her eyes and holstered her gun with a sigh. She went over to the console and checked to make sure that the entrance was secured properly. Then, with one more weary look at Cougar, she picked up a bag and started walking down the tunnel. "All right, let's go."
Eric and Cougar exchanged glances, and then Cougar picked up the other two bags and they followed after Cille. She didn't seem inclined to talk, and the men had to hurry just to keep up with her brisk pace.
After the silent two-mile walk, Cille turned to Eric. "Thanks for coming along," she said. "Sorry to get you out of bed for something trivial."
"Not a problem," Eric said, glancing at Cougar. "I'm glad it turned out not to be something serious."
He left to go back to his room, and Cille turned to Cougar.
"So, where are these supposed to go?" she asked, holding up the duffel bag.
"Um... I generally drop them off at Foley's stock room," he answered.
"Fine," Cille said curtly, starting off in that direction.
Cougar sighed and once again hurried to catch up with her. Despite her forced businesslike manner, she was obviously annoyed.
"So at what point were you going to tell me that you were going out every night?" she asked abruptly.
He sighed with dismay. "I... wasn't, actually. I didn't want you to have to think about it."
"You didn't think it was important for the Syndicate's tactical coordinator to know that someone was leaving the base every night and potentially creating a security risk?"
"I've been very careful to make sure there was no security risk. There aren't any army patrols for at least a mile. Even if there were, they wouldn't see me."
"And... you didn't think it was important for the woman you love to know what you were doing?"
Cougar noticed the slight catch in her voice, and realized that this was the more important issue.
"I just didn't want to make you worry," he said quietly.
"Of course I'm going to worry. Every time you do something risky, I worry about you. But that doesn't mean I can't handle knowing that you have to do dangerous things sometimes. I know you can take care of yourself. I just wish you had the same confidence in me."
"It's not... That's not what this is about. I was just trying to make your life a little easier."
They reached the door to the stock room, and Cille dropped her duffel bag on the floor and turned to him.
"If you had told me what you were doing, I would have been fine with it. I probably would have even been happy that you came up with a plan for getting more supplies in here. But I..." Her eyes started welling up with tears.
He put his bags down and quickly went to put his arms around her.
"I'm sorry," he said earnestly. "I wasn't trying to be dishonest with you. I just thought that you had more than enough to think about already. You're working so hard, and I didn't want to add to your stress."
"Just tell me what you're doing, okay?" she said, leaning into his chest. "I don't need secrecy."
"All right. I'm sorry. I won't hide things from you anymore."
Cille nodded, suddenly feeling very tired.
She pulled away from his embrace. "I'm going to bed. I assume you can deal with this stuff."
"Yeah, I've got a key. I'll put everything away. Go get some sleep."
He watched her trudge down the hall, mentally chastising himself for letting his concern for her backfire. It'll be okay, though, he thought. She knows it's just because I care about her.
Chapter 55 author's notes:
Recurring characters:
Hikki Follet - Kohikki
Roxie Goldsmith - anime_goddess05
Kaia Namek - namek_kaia
*Father John Sadar - FurionTassadar
Lucille "Cille" Compton - Cille
Eric Ominae - OMNI-Enforcer
*Foley S. Goode - Foley_is_Good_149
Kenzou Tenma - Monster
Straight Cougar - s-CRY-ed
* Characters marked with an asterisk are mentioned but do not take an active part in the story.