Arkangel || A Winter / Karina / WinRina Adventure

Soft Landing

[A/N. Contains a reference to child abuse.]

"Thanks for coming by, Parker - or would you prefer I use your real name?"

"Parker is fine, Control. I'm starting to forget what my actual name is," he chuckled.

"I want to talk about Arkangel."

"Yes, sir."

"She's done amazing work under the worst conditions imaginable. You did a great job finding and training her."

"Thank you, sir," Parker said.

"As remarkable as she is, did you see the reports about her last mission at the SuperMax? She cut off a woman's cheek and stuck it to a wall."

"If it makes any difference, the person she attacked had a swastika tattooed on her face, threatened her roommate's life, and used racist language because she's Asian. If I had her abilities, I'm not sure that I'd have done it any differently."

"My point is that she not only kills her targets, but she mutilates them. I'm worried that her skill and judgment are giving way to pure sadism. How much longer is it before she starts killing innocent people?"

"Sir, Arkangel would let herself die before she hurt the innocent. Respectfully, sir, you tasked me with finding and training an operative. I did that. She's been successful on every mission. I'm not sure either of us are even capable of judging her. You need to see what she looks like when she returns. One of the doctors said that fully half of her ribs had been broken, and on two he counted 11 fractures between them. She's broken both feet, crushed a vertebrae, broken both hands, been stabbed, and was once beaten so badly that the doctors thought she might not survive because of internal hemorrhaging. No one knows how many concussions she's had. She's also undergone plastic surgery to repair her face."

Parker continued. "I know she's not a conventional operator. But that's what makes her great. If you've read her file, sir, you know that she survived the worst things in the world by the age of ten. For god's sake, her parents put out cigarettes on her. Some survivors of that abuse might have locked themselves away and drank themselves to death. Not her, sir. She chose to serve our country in the riskiest way possible. I suggest we trust her judgment. There's a truly remarkable person inside of her."

"You've grown very fond of her, haven't you?"

"Yes. If I'm lucky, very lucky, when this is all done I'll call her and her wife my friends. When you support an operator, even emotionally, they get better. That's why I'd like to ask you to tell me where her adopted father is."

Control frowned. "I cut you a lot of slack, Parker. I respect your treatment of her not because I'm sentimental, but because she gets results. I'm not giving her that information yet. I need to keep her on a leash like a pit bull, and if exploiting her feelings for that man gets me what I want, that's what I'll do."

"Can you at least tell me if you actually know where he is?"

"Have a good afternoon, Parker."

"Sir, I'm going to speak freely. From her point of view, we know perfectly well where the man who saved her life is, or if he's dead, and we're keeping it from her to get her to do what she'd already do if we asked her."

"What's your point?"

"If you don't have that information, you're a dead man, sir. We all are."