Astraea had dismissed me but made it clear that I was on call for a team briefing as soon as Fox returned. He was just about finished with the MCPD and was expected to return shortly. Not really having any idea what to do with myself and not wanting to socialize I made my way to the roof.

For all the top secret stuff in the building, there was nothing special about the roof other than a small green space that one of the labs had established. It took up the center of the roof and consisted of a bunch of planters and trellis type installations. There were various gauges and some enterprising person had planted some herbs in one of the planters. I could smell mint, which I recognized because my mom liked to grow her own herbs on the kitchen window sill at home. It was a familiar smell that transported me back to my childhood.

While the green space wasn’t an official lounge there were still some benches that had been placed among the greenery, so I sat down on one that butted up against a trellis so I could lean my back against it. A quick glance told me I was alone and I double-checked that my phone was on before leaning back and closing my eyes. I still couldn’t believe everything that had happened. It felt like more than I could process but after meeting with Astraea and Captain Williams I was resolved to learn and get better.

I had fully planned to just chill for a bit and maybe reply to some texts but I must have dozed off at some point. When I woke the air was noticeably cooler although not enough to bother me as the last vestiges of dusk were just about to lose their battle against the night sky. Shaking off my drowsiness, I realized that my phone buzzing in my pocket was what had woken me up. Quickly digging the phone out of my pocket, I hit the answer button expecting to see Astraea on the caller ID. Instead, it read Captain Williams.

“Hello Captain, everything okay?” I greeted her.

“Everything’s fine but Astraea was pulled into a meeting with the brass. Since Fox is back I’m pulling the team together now. We’re meeting in the training room. The main room, not the conference room,” she informed me.

“Roger, I’ll be there shortly. Should I come in uniform or anything?” I asked. I really wasn’t sure what kind of introduction she had planned and didn’t want to get caught looking foolish. Especially, since I’d only met one of the team members who weren’t part of my training group.

“What you had on earlier should be fine, and I mean now Dani, no coffee detours,” came her no-nonsense reply.

“Understood. Besides, I’m pretty sure they're closed anyway. See you soon Captain,” ending the call but not before hearing the sigh on the other end.

Why am I like this? I thought and started making my way down to the Training Room. It was a short trip but still would take a few minutes since I was on the roof and the training room was on sublevel five.

When I entered the room I noticed a tired looking Fox was talking to Captain Williams by the ready room control panel. Fox noticed me walk in and nodded to Captain Willams who stopped what she was doing to address me.

“Thanks for getting here so quickly Dani. I just need a moment to finish syncing up my tablet with the room and we’ll be right out, so please head out to the main area. Sergeant Moshner beat you here so you can go introduce yourself,” she instructed me before turning back to the control panel.

I nodded my understanding before exiting into the main room of the training facility. With the lights on you could see all the movable objects and with the holoprojector being off it looked a lot like a half-finished video game level.

Standing toward the center of the room was a tall woman slender woman with dirty blonde hair tied back in a regulation ponytail. She was wearing the blue duty fatigues that the base had adopted and every detail of her uniform looked crisp and precise. She was at ease and yet at the same time, it very much felt like she was at attention with the way she stood with her hands clasped behind her back.

I took a breath to swallow my nerves and made my way over to Sergeant Moshner, trying not to look too awkward in the process .“Um, Hello. I’m Dani. It looks like we’ll be teammates,” I said introducing myself.

Sergeant Moshner turned to face me and she had the most intense ice blue eyes which felt like they were inspecting every inch of me. I felt like a computer had just scanned me and assessed all my flaws. She couldn’t be much older than me, but wow, was she intimidating.

“Hello, I’m Sergeant First Class Laurel Moshner. I’ll be serving as the Intelligence Officer for the team,” she introduced herself with a crisp nod. Her voice was a bit deeper than average and her tone managed to somehow be both friendly and standoffish at the same time. Overall she was quite the striking presence.

Before I could figure out what to say next, a new voice entered the room. “Dani! I see you’ve met Laurel. Don’t let her intimidate you. There’s actually a gooey center underneath that icy exterior!”

The voice belonged to none other than, Sergeant Heidi Sprinklemann, who I had met previously, and evidently, she already knew Sergeant Moshner. For her part, Sergeant Moshner was wearing a pained smile as she watched the other woman approach.

“Hello, Heidi. I hope you’ve been well,” Laurel greeted Heidi as she bounced to stop next to us.

It was pretty interesting having two other women at my height. It wasn’t uncommon to see women of taller than average height on the base, but on average at five-foot-nine, I was taller than most of my peers. This wasn’t the case at the moment though as both Laurel and Heidi were at eye level with me. Laurel might be just a touch shorter but not enough to be meaningful. If you added Captain Williams to the mix, she just upped the average as she was taller than me by a bit.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught someone else entering the room and groaned audibly when I realized it was Chief Warrant Officer Brunner. Laurel must not have met him yet as she didn’t have any reaction other than to give me a questioning look. Heidi for her part was on the same page as me as she rolled her eyes at the approaching Chief.

“Well, well, well, I wonder what I did to be so lucky to be assigned such lovely squadmates,” Brunner said while looking Laurel and Heidi up and down.

“The hell Brunner. Don’t you have any manners,” I snarked at him.

“First off Walker, I wasn’t talking to you. Second, it was a compliment. Something I'm sure you don’t have much experience with,” Brunner shot back.

I looked at Laurel and turned my back on the Chief knowing it would piss him off. “You see Sergeant, Brunner and I have a long history of not getting along. It started when he hit on me as soon as we were introduced, I turned him down of course, and continued when he was then assigned as my primary weapons instructor. He’s been butthurt about me turning him down ever since and unfortunately for both of us, his attitude hasn’t improved. I’m not being fair though, I should let you decide for yourself that he’s the walking embodiment of the ‘Sleazy Jock’ stereotype.”

“Walker, you’re a bitch,” he spit in response.

“Well gosh, that’s not very professional Chief Brunner,” I said looking back over my shoulder with a fake smile.

That caused Hiedi to break out a laugh which just further pissed off Brunner. The whole time Sergeant Moshner didn’t give much away but observed everything. Still, I was sure I caught an undercurrent of annoyance at the big man when he called me a bitch.

“Don’t worry, he’s actually very competent for a meathead”, I added just to further needle Brunner and very much enjoyed seeing him scowl.

Sergeant Moshner raised an eyebrow at that. “Isn’t he your superior officer?” Her training and respect for the chain of command were obviously at war with my flippant attitude.

“Yes he is, but good luck explaining that to this waste of taxpayer dollars. Don’t worry ladies I’ll do my best to watch your backs so that this little girl doesn’t get you killed,” Brunner interjected with plenty of venom.

His barb landed and I gave him a dirty look. His smirk told me that he knew it too.

Heidi jumped in at that moment recognizing that we weren’t getting off to the best start. “So Laurel, how much of the team have you met.”

Laurel took a second like she was mentally sifting through information before answering. “I’ve met Lieutenant Colonel Amin and Captain Williams who gave me a brief onboarding. I only arrived two days ago so I’m not even really settled yet. I did meet Captain Zaymon who is helping with the logistics of getting the rest of my things from DC. I was scheduled to start meeting with officers this week which included Chief Brunner.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Oh, that means you haven’t met Andre yet. He came in earlier this week from somewhere out east. Our last member just arrived today so hopefully we’ll get to meet her shortly,” Heidi added helpfully.

“Sounds like you know more than you’re saying,” I said to her with a raised eyebrow.

“I AM a Communications Officer. It’s our sworn duty to stay informed,” she replied with a shit eating grin and a faux serious hands on her hips pose.

Before we could continue to press Heidi for more information a tall and trim man with dark brown hair, and eyes entered the room. He was in the base casual fatigues and next to him was a very petite woman wearing army green casual wear who was looking around taking everything in. Her black hair was styled into a bob cut and her features spoke of some Asian heritage.

“Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Andre, get over here and introduce yourself and your new friend,” Heidi shouted to the man who was now identified as Andre.

The man came over with a huge smile on his face. “Bonjour! I’m Andre Ricard, but everyone calls me Dre, and I’ll be filling the Engineering Sergeant role on the team,” he said to the group before gesturing to the petite woman who walked in with him. “I’ll let this fine officer here introduce themselves.”

“Hello everyone, I’m Alessandra White but I go by Alessa. I’ll be acting as the team’s Medical Officer,” she said with a hint of a New York accent.

Hiedi who was already proving to be the social glue, jumped in to give introductions.

“I’m Heidi Spinklemann the Communications Officer. Next to me here is Laurel Moshner, Intelligence Officer. Across from me is Chief Warrant Officer Nicholas Brunner who is also the unit's Executive Officer, and lastly this lovely young lady is Dani Walker our PMC,” she finished with a wink at me.

The introductions kicked off a round of hellos from everyone except Brunner who just gave a sullen nod. Fortunately, they were saved from having to explain why he was sulking by Captain Williams entering the room.

“Listen up everyone, I know it's unorthodox to meet like this but we’re an unorthodox unit, and unfortunately we don’t have the time to do the usual team bonding,” she said getting everyone’s attention.

“For those of you that I haven’t met in person, I’m Captain Williams, the detachment commander for this unit and your Commanding Officer. Chief Warrant Officer Brunner, who it seems you’ve met, serves as Executive Officer, while Master Sergeant Takahashi, codename Fox, serves as our Operations Officer and rounds out unit leadership,” Captain Williams said gesturing to each man as she mentioned them.

“The long and short of it is that Dani and Fox stumbled into something bigger than a Supernormal kidnapping under the guise of a terrorist action today,” the Captain had activated the holographic projectors to display information as she was speaking showing the mall and the various data points.

“Our intelligence network has been working overtime since Fox and Dani confronted the white-haired woman who was present but hasn’t been able to tell us much. What we do know is that her presence spooked every alphabet agency in North America due to her alleged involvement in multiple terrorist actions across the globe. This woman’s presence on US soil has spurred interagency cooperation on a scale I can’t ever recall seeing and now we know why. Today’s mall incident was all a smokescreen for a political kidnapping,” she said making eye contact with everyone before displaying a picture of the little boy that was kidnapped.

“The boy who was kidnapped has been identified as Markus McGee age ten, and the son of Jeremy McGee, the Secretary of Supernormal Affairs. Secretary McGee is a Supernromal himself and has been a staunch ally of this very program. With Congress scheduled to vote on an appropriations bill that would continue to fund Supernormal programs including this very program, it’s being viewed as an attempt to derail a key piece of Supernormal legislation. Somebody, somewhere doesn’t want this bill passed and is willing to risk more than the usual bribes to make sure it fails.”

“Captain Williams, do we know who the white-haired woman is and what her motive may be? This all feels a bit extreme for a political play. It’s awfully risky to run an op on this scale inside the country. What exactly is the endgame?” Sergeant Moshner spoke up while staring intently at the displayed information.

Fox shared a look with Captain Williams who nodded and then keyed something into the tablet. “We don’t know exactly who this woman is just some vague intelligence referring to her as the Phantom Queen. From the bits and pieces we have been able to uncover she seems to work as a mercenary who specializes in destabilizing governments and her appearance is feared. Interestingly, while she has a very distinctive physical appearance, we only have eyewitness accounts of what she looks due to what we believe is a Supernormal ability that makes her invisible to technology,” as he spoke Fox continued to work the tablet.

The projectors shifted to a video feed that I recognized as showing the mall and our showdown with the woman from Fox’s point of view through his helmet. Where I knew there should be a woman, there was nothing but a slight distortion. You could see us reacting to her but you couldn’t see her just the space she should have been. It was kind of creepy because my memory said she was there but the screens said otherwise.

“Captain Williams, Chief Brunner, and I have encountered her once before with our former unit and can corroborate her physical description. This Phantom Queen looks to be in her late twenties or early thirties, with blue eyes, above average height, an athletic build, and white hair that seems to be natural. In addition to being able to cloak herself from being recorded, Dani and I witnessed her being able to control some kind of constructs telekinetically as shields. Intelligence before today was unaware of this ability and while it was assumed that she was Delta class, today confirms it.”

Captain Williams took over from Fox changing the display to show various images of a Hispanic man mostly dressed in expensive streetwear. “While we have very little on the Phantom Queen, we do have a positive ID on the teleporter. His name is Sandalo Diaz a first generation citizen of Mexican immigrants. Sandalo is a known small time crook who occasionally moonlights as a mercenary operating under the name Sly-D.”

“While he has a rap sheet a mile long, it’s mostly for minor felonies relating back to his teen years when his father was severely injured in a manufacturing accident causing the family to go into severe debt. When his teleportation ability manifested he began to use it to help his family by taking jobs from less than savory types. However, at some point, Sandalo became smarter about his activities and worked to create a reputation in his community as a Robin Hood type figure. By all accounts, he regularly gives back to his community and no longer aligns with any organization that would harm the community.”

“Considering his ability it will come as no surprise that he can be difficult to hold and do not be fooled he can be very dangerous. At some point, he has received some paramilitary training and knows how to fight. That said previous to the mall incident he has never operated on US soil as a mercenary, and while we do not have any confirmed records of him killing anyone, he is to be treated as a priority hostile,” Captain Williams punctuated the last part by looking each of us the eyes.

“To sum up, we have a priority hostage in the custody of a rogue supernormal. Any motive at this point is conjecture but we believe that Dani and Fox disrupted whatever their original plan was. Fortunately, Fox was able to get a tracker on the helicopter before it cloaked, and we’ve tracked it to an abandoned Air Force base in the upper peninsula. We believe this was a fallback position and that the original plan most likely was to teleport the hostage to an alternate extraction vehicle while using the original mercenary team as a distraction. Once Fox and PMC Walker’s presence was made known the Phantom Queen knew that her cover was blown and moved to terminate mercenary leadership and move to a contingency plan. Sergeant Moshner I would be interested in your assessment as an Intelligence Officer,”

After being put on the spot, Laurel's cheeks puffed up as she held her breath for a second as she organized her thoughts before blowing out the breath a few seconds later. “I’m not fully up to speed on all the data points but I would imagine the op was compartmentalized. The intel brief that I was able to read indicated that the mercenary group thought their primary objective was the Supernormal. Most likely they knew there was another operative in play but didn’t know any details about the other side of the op, which was the abduction of Secretary McGee’s son.”

“The mercenary group would have served as a distraction to hide the other op. If the Mercs pulled off their mission and extraction then whoever set this up gained a Supernormal asset in addition to a political hostage. The Phantom Queen would have exfilled during the confusion in the aftermath with the boy, but Fox’s presence derailed that plan. Fox could ID her and his presence meant that US agencies were now involved including the military. My guess is that they were hoping to keep it local if possible and exfil before any escalation to Agency or Military involvement. I would theorize that the backup plan was, as you stated, to terminate the Merc leadership and leave the rest to their fate as they wouldn’t know anything anyway. Get as much distance as possible, as quickly as possible to a backup exfill location. In this case a remote location with little agency or local resources. They will be moving with urgency, and we may already be too late even with Fox getting the tracker on Helo,” Laurel finished with a nod to the Captain.

“Very good Sergeant Moshner. That’s the general assessment of our intelligence unit as well, but we’ve had a stroke of good luck. A late spring snowstorm has swept into the area and is causing chaos with travel in the area, giving us our window to deploy on a rescue mission. Operational security is tight on this and we as a unit are officially on alert status.”

Captain Williams took a moment to look at everyone before continuing. “Again to be clear this is not the welcome we wanted for all of you, and I certainly wouldn’t want my first mission with a new unit to be under these circumstances. We are untested and untried, and will undoubtedly be going into a dangerous situation. Knowing this, if anyone wants to recuse themselves no judgments or remarks will be made. Your official record will not reflect your ever being asked or assigned to this mission.”

The soldiers around me just looked surprised for a moment before everyone stole glances at each other to see if anyone would opt out. A strange flutter of anxiety ran through me as I realized this was the point of no return and I did my best to clamp down on that anxiety.

“With all due respect Captain, shut the hell up and tell us what, where, and when,” Brunner answered in the silence.

There was a flash of something that flitted across Captain Williams's face before she looked right at me. “What about you PMC Walker? This is it. You can walk away from all this right now, no repercussions. Are you in?”

The way Captain Williams said the last part felt like a challenge and it irritated me. The anxiety that had settled into me was burnt away in a flare of anger at the challenge

“I’m in, let’s go get Markus,” I said with some heat.