Chapter 16
New Assignments
I got up early to get things packed up, which didn’t take as long as I thought it would. So after finishing I went out to the grill by the pool to start breakfast. I put the pancakes on the large flat skillet section of the grill, along with some bacon and eggs off to the side. I had the coffee made and a pitcher of juice on the table as the crew started to get up and around. Tony, Steven and Marty were first up and at the table eating when I heard the girls in the house laughing and carrying on about something.
Meea was the first girl out the door still in her bikini she had on yesterday. She simply took my breath away. The tight triangle top and the low rider bottoms displayed every curve and muscle in her body was in world-class shape. As I stood there breathless, taking in the perfect vision, she looked at me like she was bursting to say something.
“What?” I managed to choke out.
Meea smiled in appreciation for the way I couldn’t take my eyes off of her, but wanted me to move my attention to something else. “Are you ready to meet Princess Melissa?”
“Oh… yes, where is she?” I asked now playing my part.
Meea stepped to the side to reveal Melissa, “TaDa,” she was in the cutest little yellow sundress. Her hair had been made up into a top ponytail with a flowing volcano of dark curly hair cascading down on all sides.
“Wison, me pretty?”
“Oh yes, Melissa, you are so pretty.” Three quick steps, a leap and Melissa was giving me a big morning hug. How did Mr. Conner ever get the strength to leave the house in the morning I wondered, and what could be so important to take him away from his little angel now.
“Thank you for fixing breakfast.” Steven said without looking up at me.
“You’re welcome, Steven, I hope you found something you liked.”
“Yes, I like it all, thank you.” He said guiding his fork to stab at the last few bites on his plate.
“I wanted everyone to have a good breakfast and be able to get to admissions by nine this morning, if possible. I knew the council usually held morning meetings, and it would be our best chance to catch and discuss our new living arrangements with them.”
“If we need to go soon I’ll start on the dishes.” Tony said gathering up the empty plates.
“We should leave in twelve minutes. If we obey all the traffic signals,” Steven glanced over to Marty with a nod. “We’ll get to the administration building of PBHU at 8:59 A.M.”
I wonder how Steven knew that Marty usually didn’t stick to close to the “suggested” speed limits as Marty refers to them.
“Thank you, Steven. Meea, Melissa and I will ride back with you and Tony. Marty can take Stacy, Rachel and Chels.” I wanted to spend some time with Steven and Tony so I could better understand their personalities. Also I wanted to mix up the groups so we would start to get the feeling that we were one big group now, and not two separate groups.
We got on our way a few minutes early, which was amazing for a group of our size. Usually there’s always that one straggler that holds up the whole show.
“So, Steven, do you drive?” I asked conversationally.
“I can drive, but I’m only supposed to drive in an emergency situation.”
“Have you driven before?”
“Yes, I learned how to drive at school with Dr. Ishmail.”
“Good to know. Can you tell if we’ll get to school by 9:00 AM?”
“We will arrive at approximately 8:52 AM… barring no major changes in course or speed. We have exceeded the posted limits on three roads so far.” Steven said nodding at Tony behind the wheel. Tony looked over and gave Steven a warm smile.
“It’s going to be fine Steven. I’ll try to stick to the limits more closely.” Tony said pleasantly.
“Steven, does it bother you answering questions for me like this?” I asked.
“Its fine, I like it.” He answered with no expression on his face.
“Can you say “I like it” pulling from a movie or real life experience rather than a book for me?”
“Yes, I like it!” This time his face had no expression on the word yes, and then he smiled widely saying the words “I like it!” I’d have to remember if we needed Steven to go completely unnoticed, we would have to direct where he drew his responses. I wanted to make sure Steven felt at home on our team so the more I understood him the easier that was going to be.
“How long have you and Tony known each other?”
“Three years and forty-six days.” He said as a matter of fact.
Tony smiled and winked at Steven. “I met Steven a few years ago when we were here for summer testing. We’ve been friends ever since, right Steve?” Tony reached over and slapped Steven on the shoulder.
“Yes…friends till the bitter end.”
I looked at Tony to gauge that bitter end remark. Tony looked at me, a wide grin on his face and winked again. Apparently this was the humorous side of Steven.
Melissa was keeping herself busy in the car, listening to Meea read to her from a storybook she had brought from the house. Some story about a princess, dragons and brave knights. Seeing the two girls together warmed my heart beyond compare. They were by far the most precious things in my life now.
It looked more like a Monday than a Sunday when we pulled into the parking lot. Every student in SA was outside the administration building. I recognized the guy that sat in front of me in Biology as he walked by our car.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“There is a sign posted that all group leaders have a meeting with the council in thirty minutes.”
“Thanks.”
Marty was pulling into the parking space right behind us as we all got out of the car.
“What’s going on, boss?” Marty asked looking as happy as ever. Stacy slid out of her seat into Marty’s arms, looking like she didn’t want to be set down anytime soon.
“I’ll find out in about a half hour at the council meeting. Let’s use the time to go get packed up so we can move to the Conner’s house. Everybody good with that?” My question was met with a round of bobble head nods.
Melissa went with the girls to help them pack. I could hear them down the hallway, giggling and having a ball. I’m not sure what they were into but those girls were always laughing about something.
After helping pack for a while I ran over to make the meeting with the council. I went into that familiar room were four chairs now sat in front of the long council table rather than just the one I had sat in while taking my black box poison snake test. I introduced myself to the three others that walked in with me. There was Tracy, a tall blond girl with a German accent. Tim, he was a short stocky very intense looking guy, and Matt. Matt was the largest guy at orientation. This guy looked like the actor that played in the Green Mile movie, but bigger. He had to duck and turned sideways a bit to get through the door. We each looked over at him when we saw that one of the four chairs set up for us was noticeably larger.
Getting ready to sit in the oversized chair he looked back at us and winked. “They’re always taking good care of me here. I love this university.” He said, motioning for us to join him.
“Thank you all for coming.” Dr. Ishmail said walking in, he had the same burdened look that Mr. Conner had on his face last night. I guessed this wouldn’t be good, I just hoped that the Conners weren’t in any danger.
“We’re very sorry to have interrupted your schedules like this but the President called and needs our help. He’s recalled some retired SA groups to help on a matter of national security. That’s all the detail we’re allowed to give you on the matter. What directly affects you all is that some of the recalled SA members were professors here so we’ve had to modify some of your course schedules. There are new schedules for each of your group members on the table. Please pick them up when you leave. Do any of you have any questions?”
“I do, sir,” I said.
“The rest of you
are dismissed, I need to speak with Mr. Wilson alone. Thank you and please forgive this interruption. We’ll do our best to ensure that no one misses any of the required training, of that you can be assured.”
Dr. Ishmail gave me a reassuring nod as the others picked up their packets and filed out.
“I know that the Conners have left you with their daughter Melissa, and that you will be staying off campus. We are also aware that you have been given double the people to oversee. Everything that has taken place so far has the council’s oversight and approval.”
“Yes sir,” was all I could manage to come up with as a reply.
“What I tell you now is only for you, Wilson. This is not to be shared with your group, at least not for now. Understand?”
I nodded.
“The President’s current SA team has discovered a terrorist plot that needs to be acted upon. Additional SA groups have already been activated to help in this action. By combining your group with group two we feel you have the strongest most versatile team ever assembled. You’re all young, untrained and untested, but you still have the largest group of raw talent we have ever put together. The President is kept up to speed on our program and on the progress of each group and its potential. He has requested we intensify some of your group’s training starting immediately. Your group will be on standby just incase we would want to bring you in on any part of what’s taking place.” The doctor sat back looking very unhappy to bring in such a young inexperienced group to this level of detail.
“So if I understand you correctly, my group will go into crash training knowing that we might be called upon at anytime to help in a situation that we have no details on. Is that about the extent of it?”
“No, that’s not the extent of it… don’t forget you’re babysitting one of the most unique little girls in the world. That about sums it up, I’d say.” We both laughed at the craziness, and because it felt good to relieve the tension that had built up.
My group was the only one left in the parking lot when I came out. Melissa ran to me and leaped up onto my hip.
“Hi, Melissa, I missed you, have you been a good girl?”
“Yes.” she answered as she hugged me tight.
“She’s been a perfect princess just like in the book were reading,” Meea added. And leaned around Melissa to kiss me.
“How deep are we in, boss?” Marty said, sitting on the hood of his truck with Stacy by his side.
“We’ve never been deeper.” I laughed to keep the mood light. No reason to get everyone worried with no more details than I had, or was allowed to share.
“Are we still headed back to the Conner’s place?” Tony asked.
“Yeah, that’s still the plan, and I also have new class assignments for everyone.”
“Good, I would have hated to pack all the equipment in the truck and have the plans changed on us.” Tony said looking at the piles of electronics strapped down on the truck.
It took us an hour just to unpack all the computer and communication equipment Tony had packed. Half the stuff I couldn’t even tell you what it was for. We could have started a Best Buy super store or something.
“You can’t really need all that stuff.” I said, lugging in the last electronic box.
“You never know, if I can pull signals, news, or communications of any kind in, we have the right group to decipher it. Maybe we can figure out what’s going on out there.” Tony replied as he hooked up the myriad of wires running all over the guesthouse.
Steven was just coming in to help Tony with his equipment set up as I was walking out. I hoped the Conner’s don’t mind the satellite dish Tony bolted to the roof…
Meea was watching Melissa out by the pool. She had called some ducks together that Melissa and she were tossing breadcrumbs to.
Marty and Stacy were off again somewhere, but before they left Marty said something about being back in time to cook dinner since I had made breakfast. The twins were on the beach fishing for “real men” as Chels put it.
I joined Meea and Melissa out at the pool where Meea was tossing the last of her bread to the ducks.
“So can you talk to me about what’s going on?” Meea asked.
“More friends of yours?” I said, ducking the question.
“I thought Melissa would enjoy feeding them, so… quite ducking my question… no pun intended.” She giggled then glared.
“I can tell you some things but other stuff I can’t right now. I think I’m going to have to go back and speak to Dr. Ishmail again though. I believe we could probably help if I was allowed to involve everyone.
“Hmmm… so what do we do Monday?”
“You, the twins, Tony and I go to the obstacle course for agility training on Monday. Marty starts five day a week twelve hour a day aeronautic training. Stacy is going to hate to hear Marty’s going to be tied up and away from her for so long, but she and Steven are going to be in foreign language classes all day, everyday, from now on.”
“You’re going to have to give us some more explanation you know.” Meea said looking unhappy at the change in all our schedules.
“Yeah, I know, give me a day first.”