Balance (64 page)

“Michael, do you realize how important you are to me?”

“The feeling
’
s mutual
,
beautiful.”

Lifting Rena from the wheelchair, he carries her
into
the
bedroom,
and
set
s
her
o
n
the
bed.  Climbing in, he pulls her close, kissing the top of her head
.

R
est
ing
her head on his shoulder,
Rena
star
es
out into space
.

“I have to get you out of here.” 
Michael states
calmly
.

“How do you plan to do that, Lancelot?
” She
petitions
,
playing on his chivalrous nature.

“I was thinking I would just blow the who
le
damn thing up, disappear with you in the flames.”

“No offense,
but
I’d like a little less excitement for a while.”
Rena offers softly
, exhausted from the whole ordeal
, just relieved to be alone with
the man she loves
,
s
afe for the moment
.

“
Understandable
, just
thought I’d
throw it out there.”

“Michael, can I ask you something about … the accident?”

“I had expected you would … He didn’t give a reason, in fact he said
pretty much
nothing.  I think I was just the focus of his frustration.  It was weird
, by the end
I got the feeling we had come
to an understanding.  He realized I would never give up and he would never get you because of it.”

“He rea
lized you were the better man.”

Rena
’s
rehabilitation takes several weeks.  She spends the first two
in a wheelchair, escorted
around the
Bunker
, splitting her time between the
Immersion Offices
and her quarters
.

E
xcited to see her
protégé
out,
Ms. Smith
was
worried
the Whitemire
o
peration and Michael
’s ‘accident’
might
have
push
ed
Rena
too far emotionally. 
Running
interference with Takada,
Ms. Smith
suggest
s
his reta
liation on Michael could
have damage
d the girl beyond repair
, e
xplaining
Rena is
a very smart girl
,
and will
have
understood
why the p
unishment was leveled
. 
Ms. Smith
recommends handling
Rena
with care
, pointing out
she’s
the
ir
most talented
operative
and has complete control over the most dangerous person any in the
Bunker
had ever seen
.

Takada relents, giving Rena
and Michael
a wide berth, leaving all
interactions
to
Ms. Smith
, Mr. Black and Waters to facilitate.

Rena and Michael manage their own development moving forward
.

F
ully healed
,
Rena recommits to her training,
focus
ing
on getting back to
p
eak physical condition, becom
ing
almost obsessed
.
 
Her focus, so intense,
Michael has to impede
her training for fear
she’ll
put herself back in the infirmary
.
 
He starts incorporating
alternative
outlets for her
to vent frustration
.  Alt
hough handling
a
firearm while emotional is not
normally a good idea,
Michael can instantly see the therapeutic effect it has on her psyche.  The firearm training forces
Rena
to calm herself, as much as it helps her release anger.
  They spend hours together on the firing range, Rena honing her skills and
Michael introducing new weapons and technique.

T
he
ir time together
on
the
range
provides
Rena
an opportunity to step into Michael’s world
, a
private
world
he so masterf
ully
commands
.

Beyond firearms,
Michael
expos
es
her
to
other
combat methods
,
introducing
different
weapons
and
tactics
.
 
Rena request
s
a
trai
ning regimen similar to Meg’s, intent on
further
developing
her own
hybrid
skills
of Infiltrator and Dispatch
.

When not physically training
,
Rena
works
with the
Immersion Team
s
on missions
or perform
s
her own research
,
from
the sanctity of
their private
Ready Room
.

Several weeks into
Rena’s return to active status
,
a meeting
convenes
in the Central
Ready Room
, including
Ms. Smith
, Mr. Black, Waters an
d Takada
.

E
veryone
seated
around the conferen
ce table, an image of a man appears
on the central monitor.
 
“
Leonidas Drakos
.
”
I
ntroduces
Mr. Black, “Until
recently;
he was an executive professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT. 
H
e
was
also
a contractor
for the C
entral Intelligence Agency
before
the government’s collapse, working
in the are
n
a of
predictive
analysis
.  He specialized
in identifying
potential geo-political threats and
emerging terrorist cells.”

“We’
ve been monitoring Mr.
Drakos for some time.” Takada elaborate
s
, “We’
re not sure what he
’s
up to
,
but
Mr. Drakos
seems to
be
generating
a
sig
nifican
t
amount
interest
from
our competitors
,
as well as other m
otivated entities.” 

Rena is confident
Takada is not
being
completely forthright
about
his
knowledge of Mr. Drakos
’
activities.  Just as she suspected he had some idea of the Whitemire program.

“Mr Drakos disappeared from
the
public eye about eight months a
go. 
W
ord
o
n
the street
,
he
’s
presenting
a new
discovery
to a select
audience
.  Considering his background
,
that discovery could be a new political power, technology or
socio-political altering event.”
 
Mr
.
Black explains
.

“We are sending several
Infiltration T
eams into immersion to
ascertain the location of th
at
engagement
.
When we
determine
the
date
and location,
you two
will be sent
into that meeting to
‘
effect
’
Mr.
Drakos.”
Ms. Smith explains, recognizing
Michael and Rena
.

“When you say ‘
e
ffect’
, you mean
‘terminate’, right?”  Michael asks
.

“Not necessarily.  As we do
not
know what he’
s
delivering
,
there may be benefit to abduct in order to gain
exclusive
access to the information.  The hope is
we locate Mr. Drakos
in advance of the
present
ation
.  As I mentioned, there
’
s significant interest from
many factions
.  If we are unable to secure him or the information in advance, then we
will
have to wait until he presents
his findings
and
then
effect
his termination to prevent him getting into our competit
ion’s
hands.”
Directing
his
explana
tion at
Michael,
Takada
intentionally
avoid
s
engag
ing
with
Rena.

This new communication
tactic
concerns Michael.  Normally,
during an operation debrief,
Takada would
involve
Rena specifically inviting her input.  He has not extended any overture
for her
participation
.

No sooner than Michael thinks it, Rena acts, “And if his information is crap?”

Not quite the engagement
he’
d hoped.

“Excuse me,
Rena
?
” Takada replies,
some
coldness
in his inflection
.

“What happens, if
the information proves useless
?  Whether
we abduct him and
or
wait until he presents it publicly?”  Rena asks,
her delivery equally chilly
.

The exchange
definitely not progressing in a positive direction
, Michael fears consequences
. 
Thankfully
,
Ms. Smith
recogniz
es
the deteriorat
ing
encounter
,
and
steps in.
“Rena dear, we will mak
e that assessment when the time c
omes.”

“He will be terminated
.”
Takada
interrupts
with blunt
condescension
.

Rena and Takada
glare
at each other for what Michael feels are eons.  No one says a word
,
too afraid to
trigger an altercation that would
be catastrophic
.

“Thank you for being honest
.”
Rena responds in her best saccharine tone
.

Ms. Smith
a
br
uptly end
s
the meeting, stating
her expecta
tion for assistance
,
by all
,
in
the detection of Drakos.

Mich
ael and Rena depart immediately
, headed
back to their quarters, n
either
uttering
a word until inside the relative privacy of the
dwelling
.

“God dammit, Rena … I just took a severe beating to keep Takada from exacting any retribution on you.  You can’t just walk up to him and kick him in the
balls
!”
Michael barks
.

“I’m sorry
.”
i
s all
she
can muster
.

T
he wall computer chimes, announcing a visitor.

“Oh,
shit
… seriously
,
already
!
” 
He
exclaims,
positive this is
the retribution
,
he
feared
.

“Come i
n.”  Rena announces to the door.

Takada walks in …
alone. 
He moves t
o the middle of the
common
room
, surveying the
residence
and it
’s
habitants, immediately discerning
he walked
into the middle of an argument. 
“Rena, I believe you have something
you want
to say to me.”

Michael stands
still
,
confident
Rena is
not going to apologize and fully aware that if an altercation does erupt
,
he’ll
die protecting her.