The Traitor and The Communist

Old Business

Song-My head hurts By: Wavves

"Goddamn it." Tord growled as he slammed down his lighter. He took a long drag of his fresh cigarette, the smoke coiled as it filled the air of his office. He sighed and rubbed his eyes with his free hand. Tord continued smoking as he flipped through some of the day's reports on his desk. A knock sounded off from the big oak door of the office, and Tord's secretary poked his head through the door,
"Sir, all of the commander's are ready."
"Send them in." Tord said without looking up, the secretary disappeared for a moment before coming back with three people.

Tord gestured for them to have a seat in front of him. The secretary scampered over to stand beside Tord's desk, a electronic notepad awaiting patiently in his hands.
"Thank you three for coming," Tord started after sitting up properly, "as you all know there's been a, rift lately between the factions. So did you all bring your reports as I requested?" The commanders placed their respective coloured reports down on the table. Tord looked down at the red, orange and yellow reports, then back up at their respective commanders. The red commander had her own cigarette and was starring out the window behind Tord. The orange commander was sitting straight, paying attention to Tord, her leg bouncing as she fiddled with the sleeve of her commander uniform. Finally the yellow commander was smiling uncomfortably, then stiffened as a few poker cards fell out of their sleeve as they were rubbing their arm.

The secretary leaned over the desk and used the end of his tablet pen to open a file. Then began writing in his tablet quickly about page after page of the reports. Tord watched with a mild interest before turning to his underlings.
"Have any of you managed to ease any tension throughout the sectors?" Tord questioned as he put out his cigarette bud and lit another one.
"Can I get a light?" The red commander asked holding her unlit cigarette towards Tord, he lit it for her without saying anything.
"No, Red leader, if anything our efforts are making it worse." The orange commander answered, putting emphasis on red leader, glaring at the red commander as she did so.

In response she scoffed and shook her head, turning away to puff on her cigarette and cross one leg over  the of top of her other one. Tord hummed skeptically. His secretary passed him his tablet showing Tord notes on the reports. He sighed,
"If we keep going like this the rift isn't going to be fixable." Something in the back of Tord's head told him it was already too late. "Do any of you have any idea's on how to undo some of the damage?"

All three commanders stayed silent.
"Very well. Let's move on then." The Yellow commader looked from orange to Tord and back again. They shifted in their seat,
"Uh, Sir? I thought we were only going to discuss one thing."
The Orange commander stiffened, and pursed her lips. She glared daggers at Yellow, in turn Yellow audibly gulped. Tord narrowed his eyes at his commanders, as he stifled his cigarette in his ash tray.
"Stop acting like children," Tord seethed as he rubbed his eyes in frustration, "this is a meeting, not your quarters."

They straightened in their seats. Both muttered a 'Sorry, Red Leader.' respectively and adverted their gaze.
"Lets move on shall we?" Tord opened a desk drawer, retrieving a plain looking folder with the red army insignia on it. He dropped it unceremoniously on the desk. Tord leaned back in his chair, kicking his legs out under the desk as he does so. The Red commander side eyes the folder, before reaching out to touch it. Tord's Secretary tapped the back of her hand with the end of his tablet pen, then pulled the folder closer to Tord.

A few coloured smaller files peaked out from the folder, Tord swept them back into place as he picked it up. He used his thumb and flicked it open. Holding it in such a way that only he could see it's contents. He thumbed through it for a minute, skimming the words as he went. Tord paused and lowered the file.
"As you all are aware, we're having trouble with our recruiting process. London is running out of recruit possibilities. So, I am assigning you three small teams and sending you out to try to grab new recruits." Tord pulled out some thinner files from the folder in his hand, then passed them to their assigned Commanders.
"Be warned however, I'm sending you outside of our territory. Lay low and be careful."