Silver Moon Stories

Chapter Eight Mina Interrupted

 Mina awoke hoping everything had being just a dream. When she saw the four white walls with a two way mirror on the wall opposite what passed for a bed, she knew it was unfortunately still her reality. She’d woken with the same hope for what felt like at least a month. She had lost all concept of time in this cell as the lights never dimmed or changed what so ever. The only way she was keeping track of time was the two ‘meals’  and the singular bathroom break she was given each day. That had put a strain on a great many things, not least of which was her heightened sense of smell. She almost retched as her personal stench reached her nose. She really, really wanted a shower. Hell, at this point she would one of those fire hoses that the movies always that the hero got doused with after a through de-lousing. But so far, no luck on getting cleaned up.

 Not that that would have assisted much with her cleaning in her current state. In order to prevent her from eating her way to freedom, she was a specially modified version of a straight jacket. Her arms were pinned to her sides and the binding ended just below her shoulders so she could neither touch nor bite the restraint. Mina could think of a half-dozen flaws that they’d missed as avenues for escape but, what they didn’t realize even though she had told them at every opportunity was that Mina wanted answers too. What had happened at the tech complex had never happened before. She was pretty sure that it had something to do with beam that the doctor had shot her with but how? As far as she knew, she should be particles. Mina couldn’t eat light and therefore the beam weapon, as light wave device much like a laser, should have vaporized her like anyone else. But it hadn’t and the explanation for the rest of the events the others had given made no sense either. How could she eat a person whole? Her mouth couldn’t open that wide, in fact she’d been told that her mouth was a bit on the smaller side. When she said that to the people that had questioned her for hours, their response had been baffling.

 All of the Supers that where their as witnesses had said that something like a black hole had opened and started sucking everything in. It had obscured Mina from their line of view but, to them it was obvious that somehow she had generated the mini vortex. Captain Cable, or as she knew him now Douglas Fairbanks, had said that it was all he could to avoid being sucked in himself, which Mina assumed was an exaggeration, but she wasn’t sure as she had blacked out. Now she was trying to be patient as the scientists poked and prodded at her for answers as to why she suddenly turned cannibal.

 Funny, she didn’t feel like a cannibal. Even though she blacked out she thought that she would have remembered the taste of human flesh. She could recall the taste of everything she’d ingested with an eidetic memory. Even things that had, strictly speaking, been placed in her mouth while she was asleep. Her friends when she was young thought it was a fun game to play, guess what you ate while you were asleep, with Mina. That was when she was introduced to a lot of weird flavors and kids could be cruel without even thinking about it. Paperclips, Plastic Building Bricks, Bugs, Stones of all varieties, Spiders, even a Mouse once. The end of her association with that group of friends came when someone put a live electrical wire in her mouth to see if she could eat electricity. Mina had ended up in a coma for a week, and second degree burns in her mouth that took months to heal. That was when she learned that her power had limits. No fire, electricity, light, or radiation. Everything else was fair game. So why didn’t she know the answer to the age old question, what do people taste like? Was it just like chicken or was the taste closer to our porcine friends? Mina hoped she never knew.

 Well that all this introspection was getting her nowhere fast. Time to see if the lab monkeys had started their day. Let’s see how to wake them up today, Mina thought. When she finally came up with a great idea, she began her plan.

 “I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts. There they are all standing in a row. Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head. Give ’em a twist, a flick of the wrist.  That’s what the showman said.

 As she ended the first verse, she heard shuffling in the outer rooms. Then the overhead speaker sparked into life. She heard a confused  and slightly slurred voice on the PA saying, “What?”

 Mina continued to sing, “I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts. Every ball you throw will make me rich. There stands me wife, the idol of me life. Singin’, Roll a bowl, a ball, a penny, a pitch.”

 The voice sparked into life again, “Dear God, The Maw! Please stop! It’s too damn early for this!” There was a groan as the died out again.

 “The name’s Mina, boy-o and I’ll keep singing until somebody comes into talk to me!” She took in a deep breath to start the next verse.

 “If you insist on continuing, will you at least sing on key? My head’s pounding as it is.”  The voice groaned again.

 Mina in fact had nearly perfect pitch when she wanted, which she didn’t right now. In fact it was because she was so in control of her voice that she could sing as badly as she wanted to.

 She responded by saying, “Key? What key? I’ll sing on key when someone brings the key to this damn cell! I need to use the ladies’ room in a bad way!”  With that she took in a long and deep exaggerated breath to start again.

  “All right. All right! Someone is here to see you anyway.” The voice said with a pleading tone.

  “Well then best to let a girl freshen up first. Oh and tell Nurse Ratchet that she’s welcome to come into the ladies with me but I will not pee with the stall door open. I’m beginning to think she’s some kind of pervert!” Mina was not thrilled that her daily visit to relief her herself came with a peep show.

  “How can we be sure that you won’t try to escape while your hands are free?” The sleep deprived nature in the voice was next to gone. Clearly they believed that she would try to escape as soon as they dropped their guard.

  “Ya’ll don’t know Mina like I do. If she’d wanted to escape, she’d already been gone. Just open the door and take that ridiculous contraption off of her.” This was a voice she’d known for a very long time.

 “Rob? Is that really you?” Mina almost lost control of her legs at the surprise.

 “Yes, Chér. It really is me. Now ya’ll need to do what I say. I’ve orders from the director to release her at once.  We’ll get those binding off you shortly, Mina.” Rob’s voice sounded both irritated at the staff and worried for Mina.

  “These? Don’t worry about these. I’ll take care of them.” Mina then sat on the ground curled her body around her chest. She was flexible enough that she was able to bend her head down and gently start eating at the bindings on her chest. She would have to be careful, or she might accidently eat the shirt beneath the straight jacket and then there be a few embarrassing moments with a shirtless Mina. Fortunately she was deft enough with teeth and tongue that she was able to discern where the jacket ended and the shirt began. She still accidently bit a very small hole in the shirt, but it was only about the size of a diamond on a standard playing card. It was close to her left clavicle so nothing to be embarrass about there. A gasp and collective groan arose from the outer room when Mina stood up again, now sans the straight jacket.

 “You could have escaped that at any time? Seriously? Why didn’t you just leave altogether?” The sleep deprived voice now sounded flabbergasted.

 “Yup. I keep telling you guys that I wanted answers too. But you just couldn’t believe that and why show you that I could escape now? Well to paraphrase Roger Rabbit, ‘I only could escape when it was funny.’ You guys really need to learn more about a Super’s ability before you just slap a straight jacket on them. Rob, I think they need to upgrade the lab monkeys this group seems a little on the dim side. Maybe we should give each a banana and let them climb back up their trees.” Mina was joking of course but the layer of irritation that lay just below the mocking tone peeked through.

 “Now play nice, Mina. They were just doing their jobs. It isn’t their fault that management underestimated your abilities.” The cell door opened and in walked Mina’s mentor and friend, Robert White.

 Out of his cloak now, Rob stood just a hair’s breadth under six feet tall. His hair and beard were being to gray just a bit. His skin rich tan skin still had no signs of aging even though Mina knew he just celebrated his sixtieth birthday. His eyes held a warm and friendly glint as he gazed down at Mina.

 “Mina, mon ti, you know how to get yourself further down shit creek than anyone else I know. Regardless, it’s good to see you petit. Catherine will be happy to see you too. But that will be later. For now, you need to do your daily ablutions. Not to offend but you are riper than a peach in the mid-august heat.”

 “I would hug you but, you are so right.” She looked at the scientists and lab techs that had crowded behind Rob, looking anywhere but at Mina. “Can one of you prodding, poking, and probing primates show where I can get a shower and maybe deodorant?”

 When they didn’t seem to be in a great rush to do so, she said, “Let’s not keep the irritated cannibal waiting, shall we? One never knows when I might get hungry again. Especially after than dumpster juice you’ve been trying to pass off as food is all I’ve had since I’ve been in this joint.”

 Many of the people standing around looked to Robert White, who in turn said, “Well? The lady asked for a shower and after everything you’ve put her through in the last month, I would think it was the least that you could do. How about some fresh clothes while we are at it? Better be quick we’ve a lot to do before this day is over.”

 The lab tech that Mina had dubbed Nurse Ratchet stepped forward and gestured down the hall. Mina looked at her and said, “Alright, Ratchet. I’ll follow you but you will be waiting outside and down the hall. Creeper.”

 With that, the two walked down the hall towards the promise of the rapture of a hot shower.

***

 Robert White was shown to a break room slash mess hall to wait for Mina. It had taken many of his favors and connections for him to be the one to release Mina from the secure Super laboratory that was secreted under the main SUAVE campus in Colorado in the remains of the Cheyenne Mountain complex once known as the NORAD alternate command center. There was something odd about the old base that had been dug into the side of a mountain that just gave him the creeps. Maybe it was something to do with the fact that he had been raised in Biloxi where you are right on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and much of the surrounding land is either farm land or bayous. He had grown up used to a wide open sky and an ability to see far, far into the distance. The mountainous terrain of much of his adopted home still has the wide open sky even though it was a paler blue than he remembered in Mississippi, but the closeness of the mountains made him feel claustrophobic. He always felt better in the city or on the eastern plains, but he would never go back in any permanent way to the south. He had met he wife here, raised his kids here and soon grandkids. Colorado had been home for more than four decades and it would be home to the rest, God willing.

 He closed his eyes and said a silent prayer. He hoped of the safety for his family, all of his family including Mina who had become almost an adopted daughter. Her father had die in her early teens from a very aggressive form of early on-set Parkinson’s. He had only just turned forty. Then her mom passed just after Mina turned eighteen, leaving a newly minted young adult orphaned but technically able to provide for herself. Or at least that was how the government saw it. She had no extended family to speak of her grandparents were long passed and both her parents had siblings, but her father’s family were in France, and her mother’s sister had died a few short months before her sister had, both in fatal car accidents. Young Mina had been exposed to a lot of pain and grief in a very short amount of time. It was amazing that she had had the wherewithal to enroll in college and into a Supers study program. He shuddered to think what would have become of her if she hadn’t run into the professor of Applied Physics at the Metropolitan College of Colorado, who also happened to be one of the adjunct professors in the Supers program as well an active Super himself. But he was probably giving himself way too much credit. A lot of the credit for Mina turning out like she did was Mina. Of course his wife Sara too.

 He began to think about all of the things that needed to be done for the day as Mina stepped into the room. It looks like someone had laundered that old Rolling Stones t-shirt that she had modified into part of her ‘The Maw’ outfit. He knew she loathed that name and to be honest, so did he. It made Mina seem like a non-person, a tool or thing to be used and put away and not the smart, funny, and beautiful young woman that she was. He regretted the day he had said it and wished to the lord above he could take it back and give her something better, something less objectifying but he had never come up with any worthy of her. May be one day.

 “Well know, you look refreshed, Mina. I hope it was worth the wait.” It was then that he noticed she was in sweatpants and flip-flops. “Where are the rest of your clothes? I know your boots, jeans, and jacket where are brought with you when you arrived her.” He started to glare at the staff around the room. His eyes locked on to the one Mina had called Nurse Ratchet. “You there. What’s your real name?”

 The short and slightly plump women made a high pitched squeak when he called out to her. She started to blush and looked at the floor, “Dr. Ryan” she mumbled.

  “Listen, chér. Don’t play games with me. First off, I can see that your badge reads, RN Reynolds. Second, even if I couldn’t read your badge, I can tell when someone is lyin’ to me. What is your first name, Nurse Reynolds.” He really had to fight the urge to call her Ratchet. But if he did. He would no longer be able to maintain a straight, menacing face.

 Nurse Reynolds, squeaked again and gulped nervously, “I swear, I didn’t know what he was going to do with them!” She nearly screamed.

 “Mrs. Reynolds, I’m going to ask you to calm down, relax, and tell me the whole story.” Robert said easing the menace in his face and trying to appear calm himself. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see the rage rising in Mina.

 “Now, Ratchet! Before I put a new hole in you!” Mina said seething and the rage spilled into her eyes.

 “Hush now, Mina. Calm down or we won’t go to your favorite Creole restaurant after this.” Robert said.

 Mina visibly calmed down but not before she threw Robert a questioning glance. He just continued to look at the nurse. It looked like she was beginning to calm down as well. Good, Robert thought, maybe we can finally get some real answers.

 “Nurse Reynolds do you know my Super nickname? It is Robed Justice. That it because I look at things from the most unbiased perspective I can before I decide what to do. Now if you please, your first name and what happened to Mina’s other clothes.” It was true that was why his mentor had given him the nickname along with the fact that his shadow powers and ability to travel within shadows made him seem like a dark robed figure. Not unlike Death himself. That was the part he hoped most of the younger Supers and staff didn’t know. That the Super known as Cain had said that Robert reminded him of Death himself, swift and deadly, the final judge to all alike, the great equalizer. That, he kept to himself as that made his soul shiver.

 The nurse took in a couple of deep breaths and began, “My name is Marie. As I am sure you are aware, Mr. Justice, we are required to take stock of all the items our ‘guests’ have on them at the time. I was a part of the intake team and as normal all of the items were tagged and bagged and taken to storage for final processing. When I got there, Harvey,” and with that she swung an accusatory point towards a small man on the opposite side of the room “Decided that he liked the jacket so much that he ‘borrowed’ it for himself and decided to incinerate the rest of the items. That way no one would know.”

 Harvey looked at her eyes blazing with anger, “You snitch! You’re just as responsible, you kept the boots!” He started to walked towards her.

 “Stop! Both of you!” Robert said with a firm and commanding tone, one that demanded obedience. He shot a brief glance at Mina but, she’d known Robert long enough to know now was not a time to cross him. Besides she really loved her creole food, especially étouffée and jambalaya. Much like Robert himself.

 “Let me get this straight you both took items from Mina? Do you know how unethical that is?” He left a pause for them to answer.

 “Well, it wasn’t like she was ever going to need them again. We were told that she was going to be a permanent guest.” Harvey shrugged his shoulder and refuse to look the least bit apologetic for his actions.

 There it was again, ’guest’. The most sanitized, unoffensive, and simply incorrect term that could ever be used for the poor souls who ended up in this place. That was a SUAVE thing, or at least a modern one where they wanted people to believe that all the villains and unfortunates that the Supers ended up capturing learn to get along with everyone else. Eventually they’d be even be able to be reintroduced into society as well-mannered and respectful member of the world. The truth was a distant country from that well-meaning but completely deceitful lie. Many of the villains never saw the light of day again, and even people and Supers like Mina, spent the rest of their lives under the ‘tender’ loving care of people like Harvey and Nurse Reynolds. He’d have to speak to the directors again. There must be a better way than treating people like prisoners or worse.

 “Stop using that word.. Stop calling the people held here your guests. They are your prisoners at best your laboratory rats at worst. If you insist on calling them anything in front of me and Mina be honest with us if you refuse to be honest with yourselves. They are prisoners. Now, you two to my friend’s clothes, stole the jacket and boots and incinerated the rest. That is exactly what happened?”

 “I bet one of them stole my underwear too.” Muttered Mina. Robert turned to her and gave her a very disapproving look. Before turning back to the rest of the room he said. “Normally, I would say that Mina was out of line but since I’ve already been lied too, please answer her question with honesty. Did anyone take anything else of Mina’s personal effects?”

 There was a bit of shuffling of feet and awkward glances at the floor. But no one answered Robert. He figured that he got all he was going to get out of them. A part of the favors he had called in was that each staff member was going to be completely interrogated and reassigned as needed. If someone had taken Mina’s unmentionables, no one here was going to fess up to it.

 “All right, he is what it gonna happen. Ya’ll are going to return every item stolen from Mina. I assume most of it is no longer here and that you’d rather be able to return it anonymously. Fine. I have colleagues that will be coming in as we leave, and you can hand it all over to them. For now, all of you git. Go on back to your jobs and leave us in peace so well can leave this hive of scum and villainy.” With that he turned away from them, releasing them from his gaze and them began to slink off into the shadows where they belonged.

 “It really is good to see you, mon petit.” He got up and gave her a warm hug, and he felt her give him a sincere hug back in return. “I never did get the answer to my first question. Was the shower worth the wait?”

 Mina released him and a slight frown appeared on her face. “Low water pressure, god awful hotel soap, and no shampoo. But at least I’m clean and I no longer stink which in itself was worth the wait. So what happens to me now?” The anxiety shone in her eyes.

 He could understand why she’d be worried. After all, she probably thought that there was no way that she could ever be released let alone continue her career as a Super. Well, he had a lot to go over and not as much time as he’d like.

 Well, I believe that I owe you a meal at the best creole restaurant in Denver and that is what I’m going to do.” Robert started to walk towards the door to the break room mess hall or whatever it was.

 “Rob I thought you said that the was no decent creole restaurant in a two state radius of us and that anything that here people called creole food was more like what northerners thought that creole should taste like by people who have never eaten creole food?” she gave him a puzzled look and said, “If I remember right it was along the lines of, the damn Yankees watch Justin Wilson and think that because the can follow the drunk Cajun that they can open a Cajun or Creole restaurant and call it something like ‘Mama’s Creole Kitchen” and all three words are lies.”

 He looked at her with appreciation and awe. She’d remembered exactly what he’d said. Of course she’d remembered the sarcasm, she’d been a master of the forked tongue long before they’d met. But truly, in that moment, he felt as if she was a child of his own, raised to understand exactly what it meant to be creole. It brought a tear to his eye.

 Robert wiped it away and said, “Chér, I’ve never been prouder of you than now. You’re right, there’s not. That’s why we are going to my house first. Sara’s been workin’ on a big pot of étouffée since yesterday morning. Should be just about ready when we get there.”

 Mina’s stomach growled audibly with that, and Robert smiled widely and laughed, “Well it appears that your stomach knows what it’s about to receive. Come on let’s see if we can fill that bottomless pit of yours.”

 Mina walked briskly after him, ”If anyone could, I would bet heavily on Sara. What are you waiting for, Nonc? Let’s go!” Mina started to run towards the elevator and with it up to freedom.

***

  Mina reached Robert’s car first and looked at with a lustful and covetous eye. Robert has restored and cared for this beautiful piece of chrome and steel and Mina more than a little jealous. A 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado V-8 in metallic blue fully restored to original mint condition with a few easily removable additions just to make sure it was up to modern superheroing standards. There was a state of the art mobile computer, GPS, and communications suite built into the trunk with a portable touch screen monitor mounted to the dash on the passenger’s side with the able to remove it or adjust it so it could be used by the driver. There was also a clear resin applied to the car to make it damage resistant but, that had been added against Robert’s protests as he thought it ruined the original color of the chassis. However, all senior and above Supers in the SUAVE had the resin applied to their vehicles regardless. The wanted to ensure that they were as protected as possible even though most Supers had secret identities in their private life. Some had chosen to reveal themselves but the ones who did were usually retired and or so difficult to get to anyway that they had little fear of retribution.

 Robert met her at the car and for the first time that day she realized that there were dark circles under his eyes. So he had been doing a lot on a small amount of sleep. She needed to thank him for all he did and insist that he take a vacation. Maybe take a trip back to Biloxi to see family or head to one of the rodent amusement parks that seemed to attract so many people, but Mina herself could have lived without ever going there. She’d been to one when she was young but didn’t remember a lot because shortly afterwards was when papa died. He had been a kind, gentle, very sweet man. He had loved her and Maman so much and it was hard to watch him lose the fight against Parkinson’s. In a few short years he’d gone from chasing after her in the parks, sharing his love of the outdoors and generally turning her into a tomboy, and teaching her all the ways to be a proper Parisian lady including French too a shadow of a man who could barely speak and barely move unless he took his medication and then he was moving constantly even when he was trying to stand still. Yet, he never complained, not once. He bemoaned his lot in life, not even when the medication gave him vivid hallucinations of spiders crawling everywhere.  When his brain stopped signaling his heart to beat one day, he was just gone in an instant. It broke her Maman. It almost broke Mina too and it would have if not for Robert and his wonderful family. They’d welcomed her in to their lives without a second thought.  She would never be able to repay all of the kindness that they’d showed her. They wouldn’t take it even if she could. She was their family and they were Mina’s in return.

 “Don’t you dare think about touching my Belle without gloves.” Robert said and opened the car and dug around in the glove box for something. A moment later he came out with a pair of gloves and handed them to her.

 “Original,” she said with a smirk pulling the gloves on one at a time. “Gloves in the glove box. Normally most glove boxes I’ve seen are just a car junk drawer.” She made sure the gloves were on nice and tight. “Oh and thanks for the gloves. It’s nice to be able to touch things without accidentally attuning to their makeup and making turn them into Mina chow.”

 “Chér, I’m just glad that your ability doesn’t work on already living things made out of skin and meat. It’s also a nice bonus that leather gloves create a natural barrier.” Robert said as got into the driver’s side of the car.

 “Thanks also for not telling the lab monkeys about the leather thing. Otherwise they would’ve had me bound in leather restraints like some S&M wet dream of that Nurse Ratchet. She gave me serious creeps, Rob. Every time she escorted me to the bathroom and stood there while I use the facilities, I would swear that she was getting off on it. I wouldn’t be surprised if she took my underwear.” Mina shivered when she thought back on the daily peepshow, “While I’m thinking about it, how long was I in there? By my count it should have been around thirty days.”

 “It was closer to forty-five days, petit and I think you are being just a bit judgmental about that nurse. Although, she stole your boots, I think she was just doing her job on the rest.” There wasn’t  much of chiding in his tone, but it was obvious he thought she was overreacting.

 “Nonc, I understand that sometimes I kind of go off the deep end when it comes to judging people’s motivations, but I swear that she was imagining doing much more than watching me pee. I’ve got no problem with a women for me attractive but while I’m using the toilet? Gross!” Mina shuddered again. Bathroom things need to remain private unless you can’t go by yourself. That’s a different story. She knew that she was hyper-critical of people, but she had good reason to be. In the time after Maman had died and she had met Robert, there were a lot of people who tried to take advantage of her. Fortunately, that usually ended when they realized that she was a Super, but she hated to think what would have happened to a her from a universe where she didn’t have powers. She shook her head gently to get rid of notion and decided to move on with the conversation, “I know we have things to talk about but, can I ask you about the mission? Why was Doug in charge of the mission? Also, no one would tell me what exactly happened in the building before… before..”

 “You don’t have to say it. I know it bothers you a great deal. I saw that on your face when we told you during the evacuation after you woke up. Douglas was placed in charge of the mission before I was ever assigned to it. I was told to not ask questions and keep him out of trouble. I’ve since learned that he has connections high up in the SUAVE chain of command. Possibly one of the directors. Might even have been one of the living legends like, Lifeline or the others.”

 Lifeline, Mina thought. She hadn’t hear that name in a long time and the other living legends? Well, she knew a few by name or reputation, but Captain Noob possibly had connections to a legend? That would explain a lot. “Well it doesn’t matter. He shouldn’t have been in charge. I’m not even sure he should have been on the mission.”

 “Just between you and me, I agree. He was way to green of a Super to have on such a mission and that mission was not a blue. It was at least a violet if not higher. No way he should have been and where near it and please take no offensive at this petit, you shouldn’t have been either.” He said with a glance at his passenger while turning to the on ramp to the highway.

 “Rob, I take absolutely no offensive to that. I agree. It should have been a veteran team of Alphas. Not two veteran Alphas, a green Alpha, a mid-level Omega. You weren’t warned about the disintegration guns?” Mina said finally beginning to relax in Belle’s luxurious bucket seats.

 “Hell no, chér. We were just told he had some sort of laser gun or disruptor pistol. We were mostly definitely not told about a class one illegal weapon of mass destruction. No regular human should have had anywhere near the level of advanced technology necessary to create one. The only one I am aware of is in a bunker three miles below the Mojave desert so secure, even I can’t get in. As you know, that is saying something.”

 “Rob, what happened inside the building? Was it just that you guys got surprised by the second gun?”

 “No, Mina.” Robert sighed, “That wasn’t all. Marbruja had done everything she said. She got the door unlocked and then she and I moved into to position behind the doctor. Marbruja moved the one gun out of the way all while this guy seemed asleep. He wasn’t. Once Marbruja gave the signal, and we tried to jump him, he activated some sort of device that was a sonic disruptor and a flash-bang all at the same time. We were all disoriented. The guy drew the second weapon and at least Doug had enough sense to leap out of the way when the device went off, or he would have been toast.  I think you know the rest.”

 “Yeah, I do. But I still don’t understand how I ate him Rob. I should have the flavor memory and I don’t, thank God for that. It has to have been something about that disintegration ray. I should be dead. Why did my hands absorb the power? I’ve never been able to eat energy before.”

 “I don’t know Mina. But we have bigger fish to fillet right now. Your freedom wasn’t really my doing. It was the directors.”

“What? I figured you’d have to promise your left arm and leg to get me loose?”

“Well I did have to call in some markers.”

“How many?’

“Less than you think and more than I would have liked too. It was mostly so that I could be the one to come and get you and be your ‘parole officer’.” He rolled his eyes at that, “Not my words, petit.”

“So why did the have you come and release me and parole officer?” Mina was so confused, “What am I on some kind of day pass from my jailers? Or it is a conjugal visit.”

“You conjugating with someone?” Robert said with one eyebrow cocked in a questioning manner.

“No.” Mina blushed reflexively. “It’s been a while. So what? Why am I free?”

“Well it is kind of twofold. One, you are being released become I convinced them that the circumstances that cause to, uh, eat someone, are extremely unlikely to happen again as it appears to have party been cause by the disintegration beam.” Robert began.

“Agreed. Very unlikely.” Mina said.

“Two, they’ve decided to try something new, and the timing is more than a bit suspect. ”Mina waved her hand in a gesture for Robert to keep going. “They’d decided to try a team of Omegas as a quick low level response team. Two of the Omegas on the team are green and one fully trained but has limited field time. They needed a leader. Someone with lots of field time and a good head on their shoulders.”

“Robert White, you didn’t.” Mina said, hoping that against all evidence that she was wrong.

“I did.” Robert smirked and then smiled as the groan escaped Mina’s mouth.

“You are a monster, Robert White.” The face-palm imminent.

“As you say, team leader.” The smile now reached his eyes.