Children's Games: A Story of Modern Punishment

Chapter 51 - Elliot

~Elliot~

Elliot sat on the edge of the tall desk chair, carefully typing away at David's computer. He would be searching for important information more on the political or governmental side of the mission, compared to what the other group was working on. Maverick and Bonnie were noisily banging around in the back storeroom connected to the office, looking for anything that Elliot wouldn't be able to find on the computer. He huffed, wanting to have searched the lab instead...

It had taken him a few minutes to log on and crack the easy codes David had left behind, but alas, he managed to find his way to reports on Australia's nuclear meltdown in Fimiston. It had obliterated everyone in a thirty-kilometre radius, which only included the people of Fimiston. Elliot wondered how long the appropriate amount of time was to stop giving Emilia space and find out the truth of what actually happened there. Her files only covered the moments up until the first people of Unit 352 arrived.

"Elliot, who-"

"It's Captain," Elliot informed them without turning around.

"Captain... who is David? He doesn't seem to have anything that relates to TB84. What are we looking for?" Bonnie asked in a quiet from the storeroom.

Elliot sighed. "Just look for anything with this symbol." Bonnie crept over and took the document he had slapped onto the table. The top corner was stamped with the modified symbol for biological weapons, or rather biological warfare. "Or anything with money."

So far, the official story was quite literally just a 'nuclear weapons mishap', casually introducing the idea that Australia had nukes all this time, buried beneath their once obsolete desert. Elliot didn't doubt that this was what they actually thought, a mishap; ignorant and arrogant, even when a threat became true on their very doorstep. Afterall, no evidence in David's computer suggested that they knew what Unit 352 was doing, or Emilia's involvement in it.

Jonny had said that it was not for him to confront her about it, and Gabi offered no comment as he shrugged. Because Fimiston's meltdown was more of an Australian problem. It didn't affect anyone else and therefore their work unless people realised that it was technically an attack from Russia.

Elliot slumped back into the tall chair, the worn leather comforting his body like a glove. The computer in front of him seemed useless, as everything it told him was things he already knew about the government and the type of people they were. Familiar.

The door to the office opened and Elliot stood up so forcefully that the tall desk chair was flown behind him. As he rose, he snatched his gun that had been chucked on the table upon his arrival. He aimed it, his stance steady, calm, and collected.

David stood in the doorway in the same stance, but it was slower, and he closed the door behind him before raising his handgun. His midnight idiocy made him sloppy and slow. Elliot's exposed arms strained under his emotional tension, veins popping out. His ears turned red, even though Elliot was doing everything in his power not to appear weak in front of that man. No one in the small room behind him had heard the small commotion and were ignorant to the intense standoff occurring on the other side of the thick wall.

"Hello David," he said simply. David acknowledged him by reaching back towards the door handle to alert the empty house. "Touch it, I dare ya."

David calmly put his hand back on his gun, using both hands to aim towards the intruder. He took slow steps towards the desk at the back of the long rectangular office. He had greying striped hair around a weathered face pink from a lifetime of sunburn. Behind the grey hair was auburn that matched his long eyebrows and complemented his chestnut eyes. He looked mean, but he had a good smile when he tried. Crow's feet at the corners of his eyes added a more humane look to his stoic facial structure. But he wasn't smiling now. His uniform looked like it had been slept in, but the extensive badges and his straight-backed gait made him look more like a soldier. He walked with purpose and duty.