Fractured

Chapter 8 - Code Red

"Phil, it's a code red..."

My words echoed through the now too silent apartment; even Phil was making no sound on the other end of the line. In fact, aside from my own heartbeat, the only sound I could hear were my footsteps as I continued to pace across the lounge room floor. Another 10 seconds of silence and Phil finally spoke.

"OK. We have planned for this. First things first, all active missions need to be sidelined. We need a full inventory of what has been compromised. I will initiate contact with all Ghosts and their team leads so they can begin the process of relocating and acquiring new identities, off book..."

He was running through the laundry list included in our code red protocol. He wasn't helping me any; I knew the list well. Heck, I was the one that wrote it! It was m protocol and one that we had hoped to never need to use – bet he is glad I insisted on having it now!

I could feel the eyes of the Toma team watching my every move, trying to work out what exactly was going on. A code red isn't something that everyone knows about – just the top level Academy members, the ones that essentially keep our organisation running as smoothly, and as silently as it does. I saw they eyes follow my free hand as it moved from beside my hip to across my stomach, to rubbing the back of my neck and even to holding a fistful of my hair close to my scalp, the longer Phil went on through the protocol list. It was a habit I had when
I was feeling extremely nervous or was freaking out about something, like the pain from almost pulling my hair out managed to keep me grounded somehow.

I eventually had to cut Phil off. Okay, it was probably more like minutes that he was talking for, but with the tangents my mind was taking, knowing the severity of the situation, it felt like hours. His incessant running through the list I knew like the back of my hand wasn't helping to calm me any. I needed the together, collected, 'this patient just tried to amputate their own arm, but don't worry I can restore it and ensure they maintain full use' Phil that I was used to!

"Doc!" He loathed being called Doc, so if he ever lost his cool, past the point of the simple formality reminder I could usually pull on him, Doc was my go to. It was the 'we are at panic stations' button that managed to calm him down long enough to listen to someone else for two minutes. "I already know exactly what files were accessed. Shouldn't you perhaps ask them if they want to run? Talk to their family about the possibility of standing and fighting instead of running and hiding? Shouldn't they get a say in what their immediate future will be, rather than just being told 'here's your ticket out of the country – run, hide, have a good life'. Did you ever think about that, Phil?" Fine, I was taking out my frustrations on Phil, but I already had the information he would want me to find anyway and he wouldn't give me a chance to tell him. It wasn't like either of us had been in this situation before, so we should have been working together, instead of him trying to steamroll the situation.

"Well, who is it? What asset needs to be protected? I need to know what security measures need to be put in place to ensure it doesn't disappear!"

"Wow, Dr Roberts, tell me how you really feel." I sounded defeated and I knew it, but he unknowingly just compared me to a possession. I was more than a possession, damn it! I was a person!

"You know that's not how I meant it! I need to know who is compromised, Alexandria! I already know it isn't you since we buried your information so deep that you are the only one that can find it. So who is at risk? A straight answer would be a wise decision, this time!" At least he was starting to sound more like the in control leader I needed him to be.

"Actually Phil, it's me."

"So they got the dummy file in place for this, that's not a problem at all! What was with all the dramatics? Only three of us know that there is more information buried and it was far too difficult for your Aunt Rose and I to understand how to access it. This really isn't a code red situation, are you trying to send me to an early grave? Who put you up to this?"