Thingamabob met with Oscar in the Squad’s common room. They were three for

  three. He knew that Oscar wasn’t giving them leave time by the look on his face.

  “Marty Morgan and his associate eluded their watchers,” Oscar sat at the table. “The

  boss wants you to find him and bring him in.”

  “Where were they last seen?,” Bob checked the parts of his various gadgets spread

  over the table top.

  He frequently did that so that the gadgets would work any time he wanted to use

  them.

  “On the reservation,” said Oscar. He handed over a map. A small section was circled.

  “The watchers reported that their vehicle seemed to be broken down, so they pulled

  off the road to wait to see what would happen. They report fifteen minutes later the

  van is gone. They don’t know what happened to it.”

  “Do you know anything about the other guy?,” said Bob. He started putting his

  gadgets back together.

  “Not yet,” said Oscar. “He looks like just another civilian in a suit and coat.”

  “Then why is he traveling with Morgan?,” asked Bob. “No. He has some kind of

  ability we don’t know enough about so we can counter it.”

  “The boss wants him brought in so he can be converted,” said Oscar. “If you think he

  can’t be, get rid of him and just bring in Morgan.”

  “No problem,” said Bob. “Let me get the Squad together, and we’ll start looking for

  them.”

  “Do you want help from Mercer’s people?,” asked Oscar.

  “We might need them as backup,” said Bob. “They made things easier for the

  transport of our prisoners.”

  “I’ll give them orders so you can get started as soon as you can,” said Oscar. He

  stood. “They seem to be heading here. They might know the facility is here

  somehow.”

  “We’ll figure it out when we have them under lock and key,” said Bob. “Maybe they

  were able to trace the utilities.”

  “Do whatever you have to do,” said Oscar. “I’ll talk to Mercer. We have to find these

  men and find out what they know before we try to change their minds.”

  “We’ll start by setting up along the perimeter,” said Bob. “Gaze should be able to

  spot them unless they are invisible.”

  “Thank you,” said Oscar. He stood. “I’ll let Mercer know to get ready.”

  The assistant walked from the room. He hoped the Squad could find the missing men.

  He had assured the boss they could do anything the company wanted. He had been

  proven true most of the time. He didn’t need himself or one of them turned into an

  object lesson for the rest.

  That would be something unsurvivable in his opinion.

  He stepped on the hangar bay. Mercer supervised hand to hand instruction for his

  men. He didn’t look happy with their performance.

  “Captain Mercer?,” Oscar said. “Could I talk to you for a moment?”

  “Yes,” said Captain Mercer. “Carry on, Sergeant. I don’t want another Becker.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Sergeant Morillo. “All right, let’s go over this again.”

  Mercer gestured for Oscar to take a seat in his office to one side of the training area.

  He took a seat behind his desk, waiting for his guest to sit down in the visitor’s chair.

  “Our observers have lost Morgan and his associate,” Oscar said as he sat down.

  “We’re mobilizing the Squad to find them. Your men have been requested as

  backup.”

  “I’ll get the men ready,” said Mercer. “Is there a plan of attack?”

  “Not yet,” said Oscar. “The Squad are going to try to search in the direction we think

  Morgan is approaching. They are going to need to use your men to form a search

  party to help search.”

  “I’ll talk with Thingamabob,” said Mercer. “He’ll have some kind of plan before he

  deploys.”

  “Thank you, Captain Mercer,” said Oscar. He stood. “Who’s Becker?”

  “One of my men tried to molest the third prisoner, Finch, while she was being

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  transported,” said Mercer. “She broke three of his facial bones, two arm bones and

  a hip.”

  “I thought she was sedated,” said Oscar.

  “She was,” said Mercer. “She did that in her sleep.”

  Oscar raised his eyebrows.

  “I know,” said Mercer. “Even asleep, she used force on an attacker that the crew in

  the transport never saw coming.”

  “Becker?,” asked Oscar. He would have to be severed from the force if he couldn’t

  control himself.

  “Dead,” said Mercer.

  “Excuse me,” said Oscar.

  “He disobeyed a direct order, so I shot him,” said Mercer. “We stripped his

  identification and burned his body. It’s in the report.”

  Oscar nodded. He hadn’t read the paperwork yet. Capturing the five targets had

  generated a lot of expenditures he would have to explain to the accountants. It

  couldn’t be helped. These five could be the core of a second Squad.

  They could also be a failure. He had no way of knowing until they were programmed

  to carry out orders from the head office.

  He rubbed his eyes. He wondered if he should have just authorized the first capture,

  and then worked to program her before going after the others. He decided that they

  had done the best they could. Morgan was looking for the dark site. Somehow he had

  figured out where they were. He had to be taken care of before he became a bigger

  problem than what he was.

  Oscar stood. He had one other place to visit before heading back up to his office. He

  still had time to get things done before he reported to his boss. He needed some good

  news before he did that.

  “Go ahead and get your men ready, Captain,” said Oscar. “Let me know if you need

  anything before you leave.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Mercer. “We’ll bag your two birds.”

  Oscar nodded. He hoped they could do that before he had to report Morgan knew

  where they were, and was coming to the facility to try to break in.

  He didn’t want to hear the problems that would cause if Morgan found enough

  evidence to expose Watson Security to the government. They were contracted to

  forces in the government. If their experiments came out, that might draw the attention

  of persons who wanted the research to be stopped by any means.

  Watson Security would turn into a global target overnight. He couldn’t be responsible

  for that. The Squad had to prevent that reality from happening.

  Oscar took the elevator down to the machinist level. He stepped out into a lab devoted

  to testing equipment for missions. The nullifier gun came out of this place. He waited

  for the chief technician to notice him. He didn’t want the brains of the place to focus

  on him.

  They hated him, had tried to kill him with several accidents over the years. He

  supposed he shouldn’t blame them. They were brains put on life support to work for

  Watson until they gave out.

  That might be years of work away.

  “Hello, sir,” said the chief technician. He gestured for the assistant to join him in the

  one safe place on the floor: his office. The two men retreated from the floor of

  labcoats and equipment being used. “What can I do for you?”

  “How are they doing?,” asked Oscar.

  “Still trying to sabotage whatever we can pry out of them,” said the technician. He

  adjusted his glasses.

  “They’re still stable?,” asked Oscar.

  “Yes,” said the technician. “They still try to violate our security and get messages off

  the floor. So far, we have intercepted all the messages they have tried to send.”

  “Make sure they can’t get to any of the security controls,” said Oscar. “We’re trying

  to get together some powers for a second Squad. I don’t want those two screwing

  things up.”

  “I’ll run checks on everything myself,” said the tech. “They won’t be able to touch

  anything off this floor.”

  “Thank you,” said Oscar. “We’re trying to get our last two recruits. Start on the

  checks while we are deploying our forces.”

  “I’ll get right on it,” said the technician. “The two of them will not interfere in any

  way.”

  “Thank you,” said Oscar. He stood. “If they do anything odd, report it. I can’t take the

  chance that it could be important and it was ignored.”

  “I’ll be glad to do that,” said the technician.

  Oscar left the office. He glanced at the globe at the top of the machinery. He almost

  felt malevolent eyes on him as he walked back to the elevator. Luckily the transport

  was on different circuits than the machinist floor. He had no doubt they would try to

  crash the elevator to kill him.

  He pushed the button for his office’s floor. He had some paperwork to get out of the

  way before he sat back to relax. Everything that could be handled was being handled

  by his nominal staff. There was nothing he could do to affect the outcome. Going out

  in the field with the Squad and Mercer would be just be adding a millstone to their

  operational ability.

  It was better that he remain behind and wait for a report. He didn’t like it, but that was

  all he could do.

  Oscar walked to his office. He settled behind his desk and picked up the first file in

  the IN tray. Work would take his mind off the waiting. He opened the file. He winced.

  It was the report of Becker’s unfortunate demise.

  He would have to check for next of kin. Becker had been insured. Someone would

  have to be paid for his death. Naturally it would be filed as a bear attack, or

  something of that caliber.

  He put that file aside and picked up the next one. He smiled. The paper was a

  requisition for more ammo for Mercer’s company. He signed the requisition form and

  sent the approval to the quartermaster to get the supplies flown to the base’s drop

  point.

  Oscar worked through his paperwork, sometimes calling the person generating the

  reports for clarifications. He didn’t have an unlimited budget. Some things would

  have to be traded for others they needed more.

  A note crossed his desk after a few hours. He sat back and read it. He put the note

  down. He pulled a bottle of Jack from his desk drawer. He uncapped it and took a sip.

  He put the cap back on and put the bottle back in its place.

  He felt like drinking the whole bottle, but one sip would have to do until he heard

  from Mercer, or the Squad. They were away and hunting Morgan and his friend. He

  wouldn’t know how they were doing until they got back to base and filed a report.

  Once the two were taken, he could have the company head doctors shipped in to start

  working on the five prisoners. Then he could put them through training as loyal

  soldiers for the company.

  A lot of his problems would be smoothed over if his second Squad did as well as the

  first.