Genesis: the Beginning and the End | Band of Brothers

【Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ６１ － Ｍｅｅｔｉｎｇ】

Chapter 61 - Meeting

The morning... afternoon was not fun.

She was called into Battalion CP. Which, if she wasn't so desperately hungover, would've been fine. Normal. Except, in Captain Winters office she found Colonel Sink, Colonel Strayer, Captain Nixon and of course Captain Winters.

So she stood to attention, and saluted, and waited to be told to stand at ease, which she then moved to once instructed.

This was going to be a long and intense "meeting".

Genesis would have to be on her best behaviour.

"You look like hell."

She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping to stop the pounding in her head brought on by Sink's booming voice and the light pouring in from the windows. Then she opened them again and grimaced at everyone.

"Thank you sir, but I'm fine, just a little hungover. I'd like to apologise for my actions last night," she paused, waiting for any kind of signal. She received none.

"Do you make a habit of last night?"

Turning minutely to face Colonel Strayer, Genesis made sure not to wince when she shook her head. After all, she was only meant to be "just a little hungover".

"Only when there's cause to celebrate. Which, if I may, I believe last night was. Pegasus was a success, I – by some miracle – was reunited with my brother after a decade of not knowing where he was or whether or not he was safe or even alive." Okay, maybe she didn't need to lay it on that thick but she was trying to make them understand, without pleading, that last night really was something special and important. "And I made it to 24, something I never thought I'd achieve since the life expectancy of my profession...isn't exactly high, let's say."

She could see Captain Nixon smirking behind the two Colonels, what she wouldn't give to smack it off his face. But she was in enough trouble as it was, so she opted to narrow her eyes at him just a tad. It didn't have the desired effect, his smirk got worse instead.

There was a long pause.

The tension, palpable.

"Okay, I think that brings us onto the next question. What're you doing here?"

"Right here or in Holland?" Now was not the time to get smart! "Well, I don't know how much I'm allowed to tell you, so I shan't say much until I can get in contact with London to clarify. I've been ordered into Germany. But they can't just drop me in, I'll be shot out the sky and if I'm alive on the ground the Gestapo will drag me off to their darkest dungeon and all that will be heard of me is screams of pain as they torture me. I also can't just appear in Germany as another distressed citizen because everyone's too f-bloody paranoid that I'll be turned over to the Gestapo the moment I step foot in the country. And there is no way I'm playing the part of Nazi. I'd take French country girl, virgin, naive child, or stable hand over that anyday." Too much information! Too much! "Ergo, I need a way into Germany to see what the state of affairs is without risk of capture and torture. The Service saw fit to send me back here, since your end goal is Germany. However, back in August I heard there weren't many agents left in Germany, and I've been awaiting new orders since July. When they come through I expect they'll be for me to find my own way to Germany, get what information I can and get out. Hopefully I won't have to use this."

Genesis quietly took a deep breath as she pulled out the tiny cyanide capsule. Nixon blanched at it.

"I thought you were gonna chuck that!"

"Can't. If the one in my tooth fails, I gotta have a back up – to be captured is to suffer a fate worse than death."

That was a complete lie. She didn't have one embedded in any of her teeth. But no one else knew that. The two Captains were very clearly panicking behind the Colonels. She'd be sure to tell them later.