Mid-November was when they called me to duty again. I was picked up a whisked off to zone command Gregson was still out with his injuries, so it was one of the base personnel who picked me up. I wasn’t surprised but still not too happy to get the call.

I was flown in a helicopter to command as normal. The weather had changed with the heatwave long gone and far more stormy weather had taken its place. It was much bumpier right than usual. There was no rush on this one, so I told my mother I would be away for a few days. When we got to command, I was directed to the administration building weather briefings take place. I was escorted to a non-descript briefing room that dominated the third floor.

We went through the usual pleasantries. I was directed to a seat. Here I found Major Hawk and his little group waiting for me. This was never a good sign for me.

“We will stop the briefing in a few minutes, John. We’re just waiting on a few others.”

“Okay.” I did not know who, so I decided to wait and find out.

Hills and Smith were both operatives. Hills I had helped train and I knew that Smith was part of the RCT. Within a few minutes, three other people arrived and I recognised two of them straight away. I did not know the third, but they are a zone operative.

Smith was a member of Henry’s team and had been on numerous missions with him, so I knew he was competent. Standing just under 6 feet and being quite broad, he spoke with a northern English accent, I think from Yorkshire. The other was very nervous and younger than I first thought. He was also about 6 feet but very slight in build. Brown hair and eyes with pasty white skin. This action, however, clearly indicated he was from Ireland. I had never seen him before.

His reaction to me was telling. He was very surprised to see me I was because he was giving me the side eye as they all sat down. Alana Smith will also give me odd looks. Usually, I wouldn’t have a clue why but now I could guess it was because of what happened in Rome.

Hawk did the introductions and I found out that the new guy’s name was Aidan Edwardson. I honestly felt sorry for him as he looked like a lifetime gamer dumped into real life. The poor sod was one of the first to be brought into zone command with the new conscription act which I passed through Parliament.

We sat on one side of the table and Hawks team sat on the other. They sat in order of rank from Walker to Falls. Walker is closer to Hawk with Falls at the back.

“Thank you for coming so promptly. Tomorrow the four of you will be going on a mission together into this zone.” He indicated to a large monitor behind him that flashed up with a map of southern England and a zone in the countryside flashing.

“This zone is expanded within the last few days. We have also been monitoring fringe activity along the perimeter. The four of you will enter the zone and identify, if possible, the source of these changes…”

I quickly drowned out the rest as I knew the drill almost by heart. I paid only a passing amount of attention. He indicated where we would enter the zone from where the base camp was located, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Stand sweep pattern of the zone fire off a green flare once the breach has been checked. Await the support team with the breach closer unless the situation was too dangerous and then fire off a blue flare if possible and withdraw. Fire red flare if the situation had become critical and support was required. The normal.

Okay, I was not expecting that. “There’s one amendment to this mission, however. Withdrawing from the zone should only happen if you encounter too much resistance to overcome. This is why there are four of you going in together.”

Edwardson quickly picked up on the unease from us in that statement. The typical mission parameters had us withdraw if we felt resistance was too high straightaway, as operatives were a limited and important resource.

“Since Rome zones around the world are acting out of “normal” patterns. We’ve selected this one as it’s one of the smallest that is demonstrating such abnormalities. We need solid intelligence on what’s happening and that’s when the four of you went together. As per standard operating procedures, the highest-ranking zone operative will have command, that will be Operative Harrington.”

Oh, fuck me! Not again!

Only Edwardson turns to look at me as the others I’ve had dealings with in the past nod at the order. Those who knew what they were getting into.

Hawk continued on finishing the briefing and telling us the mission launch time tomorrow at 8 AM. So it will be an early start for us.

## ## ## ## ##

After the briefing, we piled out of the room and the building. I stopped the others before we scattered because I knew we would have to speak.

“Hey, guy’s we need to talk before tomorrow.”

“What about John?” Smith asked me. Smith and I had never been on a mission before, but we were both professionals and we knew each other from various training events.

“We’ll be thrown into the meat grinder tomorrow, so we need to get ready.” I didn’t mince my words. And from the looks on their faces, Alana and Smith knew it too.

“What do you mean? Meat grinder?” Came the nervous exclamation from Edwardson.

“Aidan, you need to listen here because it’s gonna be important.” Hills turned to him and said in a soothing tone. “Harrington knows what he’s doing and will get us through it tomorrow, so pay attention.”

The way she was talking to him surprised me. I had to ask a question.

“Alana, are you his field trainer?”

“Yes. Aidan has just been assigned to me a few days ago and we’ve been on base running through training exercises.”

Now, this surprised me and from Smith’s reaction, he was surprised as well. No procedure was that you were assigned a trainee after you had a year under your belt at the very minimum and I mean very minimal. That was highly unusual for a new operative such as Hills to get a trainee so quickly. This little revelation did not bode well for the future at all.

“Right, will deal with that later. The fact that four of us are being sent into such a small zone clearly indicates that they’re worried about what’s going on in there.”

“I agree. But what can we do about it?” Smith asked.

“As I have field command a little, so if I say we bail, we bail, no questions.” The other two thought about what I had just said. Edwardson was still trying to figure out what was going on.

“Sounds good.” Came from Smith.

“No problem.” Hills agreed.

Edwardson just looked between us like a deer in headlights, completely out of his depth. I wondered how many missions he had been on. From his first impressions, I knew he was going to be an issue unless he pulled it together.

“All right then.” That was one concern I had dealt with. “Lou wants to see me about something, so I’m off to the armoury.” The others had other duties to attend to, so we split up as we knew we would see each other either later in the day or definitely tomorrow.

I crossed the base. It was not a small facility and it took me a good 10 minutes to reach the armoury. The converted aircraft hangars were a hub of activity, with people and materials flowing in and out constantly. Entering the hangar that I knew Lou would be in, I quickly followed the sound of his voice yelling orders to find him.

“Lou!” I shouted over to him as I approached. He turned around to identify who was calling his name.

“Johnny boy!” He called back, smiling to see me. “Good to see you!”

“You wanted to see me?” I knew he was busy, so I got straight down to business.

“Yes. Got some good news and bad news for you which is mixed.” He motioned me to follow him to an equipment crate I recognised as mine. They were loading up four which would be deployed with us tomorrow.

“This is what I need you to see.” From my crate, he pulls out a shield. It is not the standard steel and wood shield I have used for years. It is a similar-sized composite shield with a reinforced steel edge.

“What’s this shit?” I asked. He handed me the shield for me to get a feel for it.

“Sorry, John, no more wooden shield for you. This composite shield is the same size, weight and is stronger than your older shield.” Apologetic was his tone, knowing how important it is for anyone going into the field to trust their equipment. “The bureaucrats in London have decided it is cheaper for everyone to carry composites shields. I have altered this one to be as close to your original as possible.”

I grumbled loudly and extensively about the change. Lou accepted my grumblings knowing that I would get the job done with whatever they gave me. I strapped the shield onto my arm, and Lou was right. There was hardly any difference.

“You know about tomorrow?” I asked him.

“Orders came in this morning. Are four of you being deployed to a single zone? It must be a bad one. Where are you going?” He asked.

“We are being deployed to a small one in southern England. Which has been playing up and expanded a little.” He frowns at this information.

“That’s…odd.”

“I noticed that too.”

He didn’t say anything for a few minutes as he mulled over what I had told him.

“How is Gregson.” I asked, changing the subject.

“Physically, he’s healing well and should be back in good condition soon. Mentally that grave chill you have to deal with really did a number on him. They think it will be before he’s back on duty next year.”

I nod at this. This was my concern for him all along. He was not rated for either first or second-line operations, so exposure to grave chill was a serious thing. It was bad enough for us, but it was far worse for him.

As I was here, I decided to ask a question that had been bugging me since Henry had visited me.

“Lou. Since Rome, have they cut the number of operations?”

Lou tensed up with me asking this question. It was so evident that even I noticed it and that told me a great deal by itself. I wondered if you would actually answer this question. He drew me closer and quietly answered.

“Officially, no. Unofficially yes.” He was looking around when he said that to see if anyone’s close.

This is a significant revelation. It meant that something was going on, something that spooked zone command. I feared what we would be doing tomorrow would be somehow linked to this.