Scribbles and Drabbles

Notebook Drabble 44 - The Council's Bane 1

Setting: During the aftermath of a war, a group of special soldiers get decommissioned. As part of the peace talks, they are allowed new identities - relatively easy when they wore masks as part of their armoured suits. Tad is struggling to cope as his ability is active despite the scientists "turning it off". Sasaki was his rival on the airwaves. Sasaki discovers him.

Tricking the scientist required skill and complete mastery of his mod. Tad could turn it off for short periods. Long enough that the sensors accepted that he no longer had access and was as normal as any unmodded civilian.

He had his three passes to confirm he was now unmodded. Unless something happened to pull suspicion, they wouldn't look again. Hiding the mod helped when it came to his job, too. He'd downgraded to a courier. There was lots of running, jumping and otherwise moving outside that limited his interactions with people and access to mainframes that might scan for such things. Most mainframes had some level of anti-spy software, but Eject couldn't be detected that easily.

Being a courier meant less pay, but the peace talks had agreed that soldiers from both sides retired on the same pay grades. He didn't need much more to survive comfortably. 

His main problems came when he took messages to Central Command or the Instance, and he got flashes of information. It resulted in a lot of hard drinking and messages on paper to various former mods.

They'd served their country. 

They'd been on the losing side. 

The people who had done this to them had terminated someone unable to turn off his mod. Tad didn't know who to tell. He wasn't supposed to know. If the Institute found out, they would terminate him, but if he didn't get the word out, his allies would die. Springer was now. 

And then there was one more little flaw, a little danger. Their conquerors were angry that their modded rival legion got culled and hidden away. They'd hidden in the treaty papers. It added a different layer of stress. The winning side did not disband their squadron nor require any retired to hurt off their mods. That had been a losing side requirement by the council, furious that they'd lost.

All of this led to Tad being stressed and then asked to head to the second most dangerous place in the city for him. General Sasaki's office to deliver a welfare report on the southern swamp. He accepted the job and took a few deep breaths before moving. 

He'd delivered messages for Sasaki several times. Sasaki didn't know who he was yet. 

"All I am saying is, we should try to find more information! Randall is good, but he hadn't even tracked his doctor yet," Rose said, voice scratchy and deep as it rumbled through the door. 

Tad knocked on the floor. The last thing he needed to be was accused of eavesdropping. Someone summoned him in while Rose's buddy hushed him. Again, he hated jobs that took him in the reach of people he wasn't supposed to know. His mod switched off when he came to Central Command to avoid his old enemy's suspicion, but that didn't stop the feeling of eyes following him.

"It's a courier; he doesn't care," Rose waved off, slumped on the sofa with one of his men next to him. The second flyboy moved to sit on the sofa arm after letting Tad in, slipping in next to the two by falling into place. "Or maybe he does. Which layer did you get born at, Courier?" Rose wriggled to let his comrade in place. Leo, maybe? Leo was the more playful of Rose's right-hand men. 

"Leave him alone," Sasaki shook his head, nursing a drink at his desk with a grim look. "He does good work for me; I don't need you scaring him off." 

"Asking his layer is not polite, General," Rose's companion pointed out.  Tad didn't know this flyboy's voice, but there were hints of Rose in his face. It looked like Rose but different, as if someone had transposed the image of Rose onto him. It was well known that Sunny was Rose's clone.