Pathline (6 page)

Rune smiled and leaned into
his shoulder,
exhaustion
setting in
. 

Marcus chuckled as he
lay
back into the bed with
her
.
"
Y
ou know, sometime
s
I wonder if I'm little more than a sleeping aid to you" he said
,
as she settled in beside him. 

She laughed
.
"
Y
ou're also a pretty good space heater" she responded, adding
,
"I'll definitely keep you
through
the winter at least". 

He laughed at that and rolled over
pinning her ben
eath him.
"
S
pace heater am I?"

The next morning their sat-com devises chirped in unison, letting them know the location and time for them to report to API division.  They just had enough time to shower and dress, so after Marcus got out of the shower he headed downstairs to grab them a couple of coffees from the cafe.  Rune knew that she'd have to head out with Eri sometime today, so she prepped her bag.  She glanced into the mirror as she headed out after Marcus, and paused.  She was fully 'Rune' today, no time for Laura.
She
clipped
her id tags
to her jacket
as she walked out the door with her travel bag in her hand. 
Malik
was waiting for her near the elevator and handed her a cup of coffee as she stepped out, taking her bag from her and swinging it around his own shoulder. 
She noticed that a few of the others in the area turned to look at them, but paid them no attention. 

The API division took up a section of the north wing, and they found that most of the division seemed to already be working waiting for the team to arrive. 
Agent Donovan and an assistant greeted the team at the entrance past the security doors.  The assistant was a wiry looking young man who seemed to follow th
e senior
a
gent like a lap dog, keeping just a step behind her at all times. 
Agent Donovan showed them around the main open area of the division which seemed to be focused on research and mainly consisted of a few rows of desks and countless computers and file cabinets. 
There were numerous side offices and corridors, but they weren't shown into any of
those
.  Instead the agent led them down the main corridor which apparently connected to the training floors of the north wing. 

"Training rooms A
and B
have been reserved for this assignment, so you'll have full access to them at any time during the job" she said
,
turning to address the group behind her.  "And we've been able to attain some technology that creates electromagnetic fields similar to those a
C
harger can control, so that you can plan a defense accordingly.  Obviously, the machine won't have the type of control or focus that a high level
C
harger would, but it should give you an idea of what you'll be dealing with." 
She glanced up and met
Rune's eye, nodding to the side.
"As Rune and I will be departing soon on a related assignment, you'll be given further instructions by my assistant, Agent Roberts."  As the assistant walked on leading the rest of the team into the training
rooms, Rune walked up to Eri.

As soon as the rest of the team was out of sight the agent turned to look at Rune with a smirk on her face, gesturing towards one of the offices nearby. 
Rune followed her into the office and took a seat across from her. 

"When are we heading out?" Rune asked
,
as soon as they were settled. 

Eri shook her head, picking
up a file that sat on her desk.
"Oh no Rune, that's not why I brought you in here.  It might interest you to know that the Records Department aren't the only ones keeping tabs on the civilian names of supers, and API division is better at it.  So you can imagine my surprise when my assistant brought this to my attention first thing this morning."  She lifted the file she was holding towards Rune
.
"Apparently a marriage certificate for Marcus Irons and Laura De
smina was filed three days ago" she said
,
giving Rune an appraising look. 

Rune
sighed and sat back in her seat.
"
T
hat's why you brought me in here?  Did you pass it along to Records?" 

Eri shook her head again.
"Records
haven’t
gotten hold of this yet, I'l
l let them find it on their own;
I'm not in the h
abit of sharing non-urgent intelligence
with other departments. 
Keeping secrets becomes second nature in our lifestyle, doesn't it Rune?" she said
,
with raised eyebrows. 

Rune crossed her arms as she replied, "
M
ore a survival tactic I would say.  So what is this Eri?  Go on, get it out of your system, I'd rather deal with this now than on the trip." 

Eri laughed.
"
A
lways on the defensive Rune, you really should learn to take life a bit lighter, but honestly I still can't quite believe it.  You
married
him?  Why?  I mean I can understand the physical attraction, and taking him out for a few spins, but
marriage
?  Honestly, you've gone out of your mind. 
You must know that
this can't possibly end well." 

Rune gave a dry laugh.
"
A
nd later Malik will be getting this exact speech about me." 

Eri snorted.
"
O
f course he'll get this speech, ten times over I'm sure.  He's a
Defender
;
he can't possibly understand the full implications yet.  Defenders are media whores, they love the attention, the adulation, they can't handle rejection.  Once the media gets hold of this, and they will, the public will start to
turn on him and he will
start to resent you for it.  There are reasons we keep to the shadows Rune, you said it yourself keeping secrets is a survival tactic, how long do you think you'll last in the public eye?" 

Rune sighed
.
"I know all of this already
Eri;
did you
believe
I hadn't thought of it?" 

Eri tos
sed the file back onto her desk.
"
I
t merits saying out loud. 
You belong with one of us, hell
you belong with someone like Rook,
someone
who can truly understand you. 
But it's your life
Rune;
you can screw it up as much as you like, just make sure not to drag the rest of us down with you."  She spoke the last part with a laugh, as if joking, but Rune knew her well enough to rec
ognize the real threat behind the words
. 

Rune stood to leave, turning towards the door
.
"
I
f that's the only reason you brought me in here then we really should be getting back to the others, and we still have to track down Rook." 

Eri stood as well,
following Rune out of the room.
"
W
e should be leaving in a couple of hours,
I've arranged for an agency car to take us to the airport, the flights were booked by my team early this morning." 

Rune turned to look towards her, not eager to spend extra time listening to Eri
's condemnation of her marriage.
"
P
erhaps it would be best if I wondered there and tracked down Rook first, to explain the situation before you arrive." 

Eri raised an eyebrow at this, but shrugged
.
"
H
ave it your way, maybe the extra time alone with Rook will knock some sense into you.  As for me, I'll be enjoying the first class accommodations paid for by the agency.  My team got us rooms in a five star hotel upon our arrival, wrote it off as a necessary expense."  She laughed at this, leading the way down the corridor where the rest of the team had gone earlier. 

They arriv
ed at the row of training rooms
and could see the team gathered in the first
,
listening to
Agent Donovan's
assistant speak. 
The assistant seemed to be hesitant to allow the supers to use the API division equipment without API supervision, and they in turn seemed annoyed at the idea of being babysat.  These were the top supers of the agency after
all;
they weren't used to being
held back. 

When Serk noticed
Agent Donovan
and Rune's entrance he immediately rounded on the senior agent
.
"You said we were to have
full
access to the training rooms and relevant equipment for this job, why do we need to have an API agent here with us to do so?  We may not have fought
an
APS before, but we all have plenty of experience in the field, we don't need handholding
.
" 

The senior agent
gave him a wry smile as she answered, "
T
he last thing I would want is to hold your hand.  The API supervision will onl
y be part of the first day
training sessions, to make sure you all learn how to properly handle the equipment.  Rest assure
d
that you and Malik will have full tactical authority
over the assault aspects of this assignment.  Until then though, I would hope you can manage
some
control over your violent tendencies." 

Serk seemed likely to react to this, but Malik put a hand on his shoulder to hold him back.  The assistant agent took the momentary pause as an opportunity to return to his place beside
Agent Donovan
. 

"Our techs should be here within the hour to instruct you all on the proper use of our equipment, I'm sure you can find other physical pursuits to take up your time in the interval
.
" 

Rune noticed that
Donovan
seemed to be speaking at them rather that to them, a bad idea when you considered who the room consisted of. 
Rune
stepped
away from the agent and went to stand with Blythe again, she was distrusted enough as it was
,
she didn't need any further animosity. 
She noticed that Malik was watching
A
gent Do
novan with a
frown;
he must have felt her dislike of
D
efenders through her address of Serk. 

As she rejoined the team
she was greeted with a smile from Blythe and a nod from the
R
unners Suri and Helo.  Catha and the
S
ky
W
alker Felix on the other hand seemed to be distinctly bothered by her reappearance amongst them.   The
S
ky
W
alker Nave and
R
unner Delph on the other hand we doing their best not to make eye contact at all. 
She was at least relieved to note that the
D
efender Ash didn't seem to be taking part in either
response;
he seemed to be watching Serk ready to stop the latter from any impulsive action. 
She rubbed her fingers over her temples and took a deep breath, pretending not to
notice the hostile reactions to her presence. 
Agent Donovan proceeded to go over the
primary
descriptions of the equipment
and handed out basic assignments for the two days she would be gone.  For her part she did seem to be relegating all tactical planning to Malik and Serk, leaving them in charge of specific training schedu
les and maneuvers. 

The assistant agent handed
Donovan
a
pair of
folder
s
, she
took them
stepping towards Serk and Malik.  "Since I'll be gone for the next couple of days
I
decided that i
t was best that I make the team
assignments now so that you can start working on group tactics in my absence. 
Tactical
Team-I will be led by Malik
,
and Team-
II
by Serk.  Each team will consist of two
D
efenders, one
S
ky
W
alker, one
W
anderer and at least one
R
unner.  Since we're at an odd number currently, one team will get a second
R
unner while the other team will accommodate the
C
harger
we
will be recruiting. 
The team assignments were based on work records.  Of course, due to certain recent developments it seemed imprudent to have Malik and Rune on the same team, due to possible conflicts of interest
.  So, Malik, your team consists of: Catha, Blythe, Delph, Suri, and Felix.  Serk, you will have: Ash, Rune, Helo, Nave, and Rook.  Here are your
team
dossiers
" she said
,
as she handed Malik and Serk each a folder.