Chapter Two Stolen Biological Sample

The heels of Natalia’s hard-soled military issue boots clicked over the immaculate white floor of InSec Central. A file was neatly tucked under her arm. Other soldiers and officers glanced at her then looked away with a shrug, even though her deep red hair was cut in the human fashion, long in the front and short in the back to show the her unscarred neck, her brick red uniform and physical beauty declared that she was not human.

She walked into the foyer of her commander’s office. His secretary glanced up then gave Natalia a look of mild distaste “Colonel Trencher will be with you in a moment.” She drawled.

Natalia was used to distaste. She was a Kitsune, Homo Vulpes, and even though she was respected for her position as a Major in the ISF, Intelligence and Special Forces, the fact that she wasn’t human would forever be held against her by some. Most days she didn’t let it bother her. She had a good life, a promising career, and a great team. Although, she could admit to herself, there were days she wanted to slap people.

Natalia sat in a plastic chair, setting the file neatly in her lap. She glanced up at the map on the wall it pictured the whole of the Australasia Federation, including InSec headquarters and training on New Guinea and the crèche and training grounds on Tasmania where she and her team had been raised.

Trencher’s door opened and another Major, a human male in this case, walked out. The man didn’t even look at her as he left the office. Natalia fought the urge to shake her head; Major Christopher Maprel was famous in the Kitsune corps for his dislike of the sub-human species, and his misogynistic view of women. Since she was both there was hatred between them that dated back to the academy.

“Major Natalia, come in!” The Colonel smiled, standing at the doorway and waving her into his office. Natalia stood and walked in with her head held high. She stood at attention and saluted. “At ease Major, have a seat.” The older man urged.

“Thank you, Sir.” Said Natalia, as she took a seat in front of his glass topped desk.

“How is your team?” He inquired, settling himself into a more deeply padded, comfortable looking chair.

“They are performing well sir, although we do miss Sergeant Cassidy. Specialist Aaron seems to be fitting in well though.”

“That’s good. I really hate changing people on intelligence teams, but we couldn’t leave you a man short.” He commented. “But you know how it is, the needs of the program, and all that.”

“If I may ask sir, how is Cassidy’s pregnancy progressing?” Cassidy Aiko, one of Natalia’s Sirens, had requested permission to breed. The request had been granted and Cassidy was soon flown out to the Osaka medical bay to be inseminated and have her baby. Sirens did not breed well, with complications in birth more often than not killing mother and child. But Cassidy had been desperate. She wanted her own children more than anything and had often volunteered for the crèche whenever she had a vacation. She had been willing to take the risks to have a child.

“I have not had a report yet about Sergeant Cassidy, but I will make a request to Osaka for that information.”

“Thank you, sir, it would mean a lot to the team.”

The Colonel nodded, smiling, before he turned more serious. “Now you have the report on your last mission?”

“Yes sir.” Natalia handed him the file. “The mission was a success; we were able to infiltrate and capture the crew cooking the Demon. No one escaped. The chemist was executed, as per the restricted substances law five-two-one, and his men are now on their way to the Eastern Swamp rehabilitation camp.” Natalia allowed little of her own scorn to flavor her voice, she had no use for drugs and Demon was a particularly nasty, addictive cocktail that increased the users, strength, agility and stamina at the cost of reason and good health. Most users died when their hearts exploded from the strain.

“Excellent work Natalia, as usual.” her commander said with a warm smile. “I will authorize a bonus for your team.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Now, I have a new assignment for you.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The only sign of the eagerness that swept through Natalia’s body was a slight smile that warmed her impassive face, she lived for the hunt.

The commander handed her his own file, “This is Marigold Sullivan, RN. Up until twenty-four hours ago she was a nurse in the Sydney Central hospital. Yesterday, Ms. Sullivan stole a dangerous biological sample from the hospital and murdered the three InSec agents sent to recover it. We now believe that she may have defected to an anarchist movement and is to be terminated under the anti-bio terror laws.”

She doesn’t look like an Anarchist…Heh, almost none of them do. Natalia mused to herself. “I understand sir, are we to recover the sample?”

“No, it’s destruction is being handled by another team. When you locate Ms. Sullivan, report in immediately so that the Bio-hazard team can respond.”

“Yes Sir.”

“The file in your hands holds all the information we have on Ms. Jacobs, good luck, and good hunting.”

Natalia stood and saluted once more. “Thank you, sir. We won’t let you down.”

“You never have before, so don’t think you’ll start now. Dismissed.”

Natalia walked back through the maze of halls, taking an elevator down to her team’s habitation level. She quickly reached the doors of their apartments and waved her ID chip in front of the security plate. The floor plan of their joint living quarters was set up with a large central great room, with twenty rooms for herself and her men exiting off it. Lounging on a couch was one of her Sirens, a male named Takada. “How’d it go Talia?” He asked

“Not bad, Colonel issued a bonus to us for the Demon case.”

Takada cracked one of his rare smiles. “Nice. What about Cassidy?”

“He said he’d contact Osaka and see if he could get an update.” She rested a hand on the man’s shoulder. Takada and Cassidy, had been close, and it was his genetic material that they were using for her pregnancy. Natalia knew he was worried sick about her.

A second Siren came in her skin as white as snow. She looked at the two and sighed. “No word yet…damn.”

“Sorry Regin.”

“Not your fault.” The Siren’s bright, blue eyes widened. “We have a new assignment!”

Natalia laughed. She was used to her Sirens picking up her surface thoughts. When you worked with the psychics you got used to it, or you got transferred. “Yes, and I will tell you about it when everyone gets here.”

Outside their floor all military formality was observed, but inside Natalia and her team were family. Like most of the military Kitsune and Sirens, they had been raised by the government; they had been marked at a young age for Intelligence and had been brought up with a group of other orphans and human sub-types like themselves, including almost every member of the team. As they got older the groups where divided again and those who didn’t have the aptitude for intelligence and security were re-assigned.

The five Sirens, two of the humans, and seven Kitsune in her team were her brothers and sisters. She was loyal to them, and they were loyal to her.

“Gather the others and meet me in the war room.” Natalia instructed Takada while striding to her office and the team’s central briefing area. “I’ll go over the details once everyone’s there.”

Fortunately, the entire team was in their quarters, so it was only a matter of minutes before they were gathered together, and not long after that Natalia had finished her brief summary of the mission. “Dang, shame this one fell to the grunts.” Said Shido, a male Kitsune. “The humans may like ‘em plain but I like some sparkle.”

The group chuckled. Like most military personnel Shido had been given long term birth control implants, and his team considered that a good thing since one of his life’s goals seemed to be to sleep with every woman in the tower. The sterilization was reversible, but it kept personnel from getting or causing pregnancies at inconvenient times.

Natalia sat up into her ‘Commander’ pose, immediately the giggling stopped like a switch had been thrown. “Down boy. This woman has already taken out three men.” Said Natalia. “Just ‘cause she looks like a daisy doesn’t mean she is one.”

“Our target was last seen entering the Sydney fourth district Undercity. It is quite likely that she will try to hide in the slums since she knows we are after her. Sirens you are going to partner off with the strike team, I am not taking any risks of you getting your heads punched in by some ass with a chip on his shoulder, and neither should you.” She took a moment to give her new Siren, Aaron, a long look. She had heard that he could be a bit of a hotshot.

“Scan the crowds, it is a long shot that we will find her or any allies by trolling, but it is a start. Any data that looks important, but not related to our goal should be forwarded to Frank.”

“Shido you and Meredith are on the computers. I want to know everything about this girl and check her finances. I don’t think she’s dumb enough to use her cred-chip, but people have surprised us before.” She held up her hand before Meredith could complain. “I know it’s “all in the file” but I am not going to fail a mission because some pencil pusher down in research clocked out early.”

Meredith was the new human on the team, a later recruit and not a creche born child like the rest. Their old human tech specialist Mark had been promoted and transferred. Natalia disliked the woman; she was lazy and thought she was better than the ‘sub-humans’ even though Natalia and Shido both outranked her. If she doesn’t shape up soon, I am going to request she be transferred. She’d do great under Christopher.

“Finally, for the strike personnel, those of you not pairing with Sirens immediately are off duty. You will rotate, every third day. Sirens, I know this is a heavy workload on you so I want a four day on one off rotation. Takada I want a schedule written up by nine hundred tomorrow. Does everyone understand their assignments?” Natalia looked around the table, watching her teammates nod. “Dismissed!”