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Hidden: Chapter 2

Responsibilities

"Hey, cap!" Sgt. Crane came running across the mess hall. He was still young, 26 and had the energy that came along with youth. He was 5' 10 and like any other Spec Enforcer, he was built heavily. The man was in his dress uniform like usual. He would always go about how he looked sexy in it and when he was off duty like he was now, he was wearing it. I found them ugly, there was too much grey. It consisted of a white button-up shirt, a grey tie, a grey jacket with grey medals and pins with grey pants and shoes. Can you guess what color the hat was? He stopped next to me and sat down, and like a child, simply watched me eat. I would have made anyone else do fifty pushups, but I had grown used to the sergeant's childlike behavior.

I had come to the cafeteria to find some time to relax after filling out paper work from the last mission for ten hours straight. A stray bullet kills some dignitary's cat and all of the sudden it's some kind of political incident. What do you suspect is going to happen when a cat jumps onto the wall I was using as cover? It was there for barely two second before it simple vanished in a puff of red mist. It was a bit comical to be truthful, in a demented way. When you're getting shot at and you're all stressed out because of it, an exploding cat can lighten the mood. Now, I had Sgt. Crane to deal with, who was eating my biscuit.

I quickly glanced around the mess hall to make sure there wasn't any one nearby, there wasn't, it was five in the morning, too early for anyone else to be up. Seeing that the coast was clear, I immediately smacked Sgt. Crane across the back of his head, causing him to drop the biscuit onto the grey metal table. I promptly picked it up, ignoring the whimpering man next to me and continued to eat. The food was okay, the chefs easily could have just boiled everything that they got, but instead they took the time to season the dry freezed beef stroganoff that sat on my plate. I continued to eat for a few more minutes until I realized the sergeant, who was still watching me as if he hadn't seen me in years, wouldn't go away until I satisfied his need for attention.

I set down my fork onto the tray and turned my head towards the sergeant. "What do you want sergeant?" Straight to the point, I was tired and simply wanted to get to bed after I finished eating.

"Umm... well." Sgt. Crane broke his gaze from me for instant to look at my food before returning it to me. "Col. Mathews wants to see you, he didn't say why, but is sounded urgent."

I looked at the man and moaned. "Why didn't you tell me before, instead of eating my food?"

"What can I say? I was hungry." Sgt. Crane shrugged his shoulders.

"Absolutely unbelievable." I got up and began heading towards to exit on the far side of the room. I looked back to see Sgt. Crane take my place and begin to finish my meal. 'Absolutely unbelievable.'

---

I approached a door with bronze lettering on it that read Colonel Robert Mathews and took a moment to compose myself. I looked down and saw that I was a mess. I may have been in uniform, but I was hardly presentable. My digital camo pants were wrinkled to hell and my shirt was no better. I hadn't looked in the mirror, but I could imagine that it wasn't pretty. With no time to clean up, I raised my hand and opened the door.

The colonel's secretary, Lt. Grace, looked up from her simple wooden desk. There was a basic military grade holographic display on her desk that was projecting various schedules for the colonel. She was wearing the green digital camo that every other member of NATO's Intelligence Department wore, a stark contrast to the grey that Spec Enforcers wore. "The colonel is expecting you. You can go in now." She had a look of disapproval on when she saw me. I knew that she believed in absolute perfection when it came to military etiquette.

I walked to the door that was a few feet behind Lt. Grace and walked through.

Col. Mathews was in charge of the Intelligence Department's anti-terrorism group and had the reputation of being ruthlessly efficient in all aspects of his job. You could tell just by looking at his office. Everything was in order, the papers on his rather large desk that looked like it belonged in some billionaire's office, were neatly stacked in various piles. His uniform was pressed and clean; he didn't even bother with hair, it had been buzzed off many years ago.

"Captain, take a seat." He frowned when he saw what a mess I was, but motioned towards a rather comfortable looking chair that sat opposed to him. "Something new has come up." As I sat down he pulled some papers out of one of the many stacks on his desk. "Take a look at this."

I took the paper and glanced over it quickly, absorbing in the important details. "An SOS from the HMS Eurasia. Engine Malfunction and a possible bio chemical attack. Jesus." I looked at the colonel who was waiting for me to finish. "The Eurasia is passenger cruiser. It could have up to 50,000 people on it."

"Yes, I don't know how I let something this big slip through my fingers." The colonel hated it when an attack occurred, it was natural to become mad. No one blamed him because the solar system was just too big to catch on to every single terrorist plot and he did manage to learn about quite a few. "Those bastards have managed to pull off a big one." His eyes became unfocused for a second and he clenched his hands into fists.

"You can't get everyone, sir." The last thing I needed was a superior officer in a foul mood, no one would be happy in the end.

"Sure, I understand that, but something that could kill tens of thousands of innocent civilians takes months of planning and preparation. Months, sometimes even years!" He had his eyes wide open, his hands splayed out to his side to emphasize the immensity of the situation. "How did a bio weapon get past customs? Do they have an inside agent? Did they bring the weapon onto the ship piece by piece and then put it on the ship? Where did they get the materials? Don't you understand? There are so many variables, so many chances for it to go balls up. So many opportunities that I missed. I am responsible for the safety of every human alive in the entire solar system and every unneeded death is a failure on my part."

I was speechless. Colonel Mathews was devoted to his job, I knew that, but I didn't know how emotionally attached he was to it all. I was utterly shocked to hear the man who was known to arrest people for simply cracking a joke about assassinations pour his heart and soul out.

"47,653 people. 47,653 people were on that ship. Many most likely dead because I got too comfortable in my job and let one thing slip and normal people who were going about their lives are paying for it." He sighed and lowered his face into his hands. He wasn't crying, but the way his back shuddered showed that he wasn't far from starting.

"Sir," I said with a low voice. I wasn't good with emotions. My line of duty forsake such open showing of what many in my field would call weakness. I didn't know if it was weakness, but I knew that I cared. This man was a legend and an icon to many because he was extremely good at his job and it wasn't at all comforting to see that image shatter like this.

"No, I'm fine." He raised one hand to stop me from saying anything else. He kept his head in his other hand and just looked down at the top of his desk. "The briefing for your next mission will be at 16:00 hours at the north conference room. Gather your squad and assemble there. Dismissed"

There was nothing else to do but leave the man to his 'failure' and follow my orders. I left the colonel where he was to relay the orders and then went to sleep.

---

I woke up, not to the alarm I had set up, but to a violent shaking. "Ugh... what?" I blinked my eyes a few times until they cleared. There was Sgt. Crane with all of his antics and of course his dress uniform, staring at me once again.

"Hey cap," he yelled into my ears. It wasn't loud, but to me it might as well have been a rocket launch.

"Sergeant, I swear." I glared at him and sternly pointed my index finger at him. That only made him laugh.

"Swear what? Are you going to write me up for something like... gross insubordination? HA." He said the last part in a deep voice and that made him laugh harder. "You would never try to get rid of me, you love me too much."

I did enjoy his company, it was something nice and full of life, something that didn't occur that often as a Spec Enforcer. I had no intentions of telling him this because he already knew it and abused it so I simply rolled my eyes and got out of my bed. I looked at my clock and it read 14:31. A minute after my alarm should have gone off. The sergeant must have turned it off so he would get the satisfaction of taking its place.

The sergeant wasn't supposed to be in the officers' quarters and yet here he was. "I need to get a new lock to keep you out." I yawned and stretched my arms over my head.

"You did that three times already, remember?" He was now rummaging through my room. There wasn't much to see here. I had a standard desk with my computer on it at the base of my bed. A truck with my clothes in it and a few knick-knacks that I had collected over the years sat opposite to my bed. I had a walk in closet with mirrored sliding doors which was where I kept my dress uniforms and a small safe that stored my passport and other important documentation.

The chest was now open and clothes were beginning to take to the air. "What's this?" He picked up an ancient looking cube that had 6 different colors on it which appeared to be arranged in a random fashion.

"That," I walked over and gently pried it out of his destructive fingers, "is a Rubik's Cube." My words did nothing but garner a confused expression from him. I sighed. "It's a puzzle game. The objective is to get each side to become a solid color." I slowly twisted a side a few times to show him how it worked. "It was extremely popular in the 20th and 21st century before it died out."

"That sounds interesting, you should let me try." He reached out to grab it, but I quickly maneuvered away from him.

"No, I need to get ready." I gave him a shove towards the door. "Now get out before I actually write up a report."

He put his hand up to his heart and faked a hurt expression. "You hurt me."

I glared at him, but my lips quivered as I held back a smile. "I mean it and plus I have less than an hour and a half to clean up the mess you made and then to clean up myself before the mission briefing."

"Oh, all right." He smiled and left.

I turned my attention to the scattered clothing that was now occupying random bits of my room. It was a simple task to clean it up since there was little variation to the clothes I wore and the room was small. I had everything put away in ten minutes.

I looked in the mirror and saw myself for the first time in over a day. I was still a mess, but nothing that a shower couldn't fix and clean uniform. I left my room and headed to the showers. Enlisted personnel all showered in a large room with nozzles even spaced at 5 foot intervals, but being an officer had its perks. The officers' shower room had individual stalls with a single nozzle in each one. It was nice because it was one place where I could think without the threat of any kind of interruptions.

As I stood there under the constant stream of hot water, I thought about Colonel Mathews' reaction earlier that day. I was trying to understand why he reacted the way he did. He genuinely cared about every life that he was responsible for. As a person who often found himself faced with death, whether it be the enemy or civilians, I didn't think about it much. I wouldn't be able to properly perform my job otherwise if I did. The only time I was ever in a state like that was whenever I lost a member of my squad....

'I'm responsible for the protection of my squad like how he's responsible for the protection of the public.' The thought came to me in a sudden epiphany. I acted the same way when I failed that responsibility. I always managed to get myself together to complete the mission and I was sure that the colonel would to. I was glad to understand the situation a bit more and instantly felt more rejuvenated.

Refreshed in both mind and body, I put on my horridly grey uniform and began to make my way to the north conference room.