[TheFightingSpirit]

Just a little one this week. Enjoy.
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Incursion Six: The False Lives of True Heroes

Ken, Robert and Allison were permitted a final day to get their affairs in order. A day to perpetuate the ruse forced upon them by General Bryant.

Robert dropped his standard issue duffel in the hall with a whump. His mother and father came out of the lounge to see him off, hugging for support.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” Mr Lam asked. His eyes spoke of both pride and betrayal.

“Yes, dad.” Robert placed a hand on his mother’s shoulder. “It is. I’ve sat around the house for too long, it’s not fair on you guys, and every day more land is infected by the Black Water. I’ve feel I have to do… something you know?”

“… but couldn’t you just volunteer at the refugee shelters?” said Mrs Lam.

“I could, ma, but it’s just not the same.”

He felt a pang of guilt at lying to his parents. He didn’t want to join the army, he didn’t want to be their shill, but he couldn’t see another way around it. At least if they were in Fort Lowsdale they’d be off the base and living a life. A false life, but a life nonetheless.

“This way I can get my hands dirty. This way I can make a measurable difference. Me volunteering won’t give the homeless back their houses, it won’t drive the infection out of their homelands.”

Mr Lam nodded. “You know, son. I didn’t think I live to see you take this kind of initiative. I won’t lie, I’d hoped you go to college, find a nice girl to settle down with, give your ma and I some grandchildren.”

“Dad,” Robert whined.

“I know, I know, but this may be the last we see of you. Don’t you get that?”

“Of course, Dad, but once my training is complete they say I can file for leave.” He choked back the guilt, and pushed on. It has to be like this, he told himself. “I’ll visit as often as I can, I promise.”

Not wanting to drag it out any longer than he had to, Robert shrugged on his jacket and picked up his duffel bag.

He left the house, walked down the way to the Agency car waiting for him on the street, and didn’t look back for fear of breaking down.

“We’re proud of you,” his parent’s called out to him.

Their words stuck in his mind for a long time to come.

o0o

Across town, the Powel siblings had their own bags packed and were waiting curbside for an Agency car to pick them up.

They only had their uncle to tell, and he hadn’t taken the news well.

“This is how you repay my hospitality? By swanning off to some island courtesy of the damned military?”

“It’s for training,” Allison protested.

“You,” their uncle spat. “I’d never have expected you, of all people, to enlist. Miss flower-power-save-the-world…”

“That’s still who I am, only this way, I’ll actually get to see results!”

He balled his fists. “Take your bags and get out. If you ever get leave, don’t come back here. I promised your late parents you wouldn’t get in trouble, well I guess I failed.” He stormed off into the lounge and slumped into his favourite chair. “Don’t come crying to me when it blows up in your faces!”

Ken wrapped his arm around his sister. “That could have gone better, I know.”

“We have no family left.” She threw his arm off. “None. No one.”

“We have each other,” Ken stressed.

Allison jumped to her feet and screamed in frustration. “You know what I mean. We have a life here and we have to give it all up.”

“Yeah. To save the world.”

“You sure about that?” she said. “You sure we aren’t just playing into the General’s game? News flash: he doesn’t like us much. He’s trying to get us out of the picture.”

Ken took her by the shoulders and touched her on the back of the head. Since they were kids, whenever his big sister got worked up like this, he used to hug her and gently stroke her hair to calm her down. He grown too old for the hug aspect of it, but habits died hard.

“Then we’ll play his stupid games, and we’ll make ourselves indispensable.” He shook her. “Won’t we!”

Not long after the Agency car pulled up, and Robert leaped out of the back doors and grabbed their bags.

It didn’t take a genius to work out they’d had an argument. “I hope you two are ready.”

They looked at each other and smiled. Allison spoke: “We’ll never be ready, Rob, but we have to do something, don’t we. Let’s do this.”

o0o

In the helicarrier, on the way to Fort Lowsdale, 100 miles west of their home town and Agency HQ, Lt. Moses filled them in on the particulars of their mission.

“The flat you’ll be renting is owned by a front company of ours, officially your landlord will be a man by the name of Edward Sanders. Lieutenant Sanders that is… one of our own.”

Robert rolled his eyes. “Nifty way for General Bryant to keep an eye on us…”

“I know you don’t like it, but in order to use your powers to better effect we need to follow orders.”

“Do you believe that?” said Allison.

“Uh… I-”

“Do you?”

“I don’t need to believe.” She sat up straighter. “I’m a lieutenant in the military. I follow orders.”

“Great,” said Ken.

Lt. Moses cleared her throat. “In order to maintain the ruse, you will need to get jobs to pay for rent. The Agency has sorted this out for you already.”

She opened the mission folder and read: “Robert, you’ll be working in the kitchens of the Fort Lowsdale Bar and Grill. Allison, in light of your activism and to put you in a better position to observe, you’ll be a support worker at the Refugee Camps north of the town. And finally, Ken. Your new life is at UFL.”

“My cover is as a college student?”

“The University of Fort Lowsdale is one of the highest scoring in the country. As such the town has a high density of students, nearly out numbering regular citizens. If as a team you are to keep abreast of the situation, you’ll need to have the locals on side. Listen to them. I’m sure you’ll figure out all you need to know, whatever the mission throws at you.”

Robert raised his hand and smirked. “Let me get this straight. If Ken and Allison get these important fact finding jobs, then why am I stuck in a ruddy kitchen?”

“A chef, a student and a social worker. Doesn’t sound that suspicious, does it?” Allison said, siding with Lt. Moses.

He huffed. “I’m still not convinced.”

“Your cover has been tailored and administered by the best we have. It’s foolproof.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it…”

The remainder of the trip was uneventful, consisting of paper work and learning their cover stories, new backgrounds and new goals in life.

“One more thing: In the field you will be known by codenames to protect your cover. Red Cross, White Cross and Blue Cross.”

Ken chuckled. “How patriotic.”

o0o

The Agency car dropped them off at their new apartment building. At four stories tall, the red brick construction stood out amongst the comparatively low rise buildings. Their flat was on the top floor, and that couldn’t have been a coincidence.

They each shouldered their bags and trudged up to the door.

Robert pressed the supervisor call button on the door and a gruff voice sounded in return.

“Yes?”

He shrugged, unsure what to say. He went with gut instinct. “Hi, we just rented a top floor flat from you?”

“Are you Robert Lam, or Kenneth Powel?”

“Robert, sir.”

“Good, excellent. Come on up. I’ll meet you there with your keys.”

The door buzzed and unlocked. It opened out into a small reception hall with no more than a staircase, a laundry room and the resident’s individual post boxes.

The trio bypassed all that to head up the winding stairs to the top floor.

Standing at the far end of the square landing, next to the last of the floors three flats, was a man with dark buzz cut. He held out his hand in greeting, which they each shook in turn.

“I’m Mr Sanders. Your landlord.” Though he smiled, it took an obvious force of will. He handed Robert a ring of keys, six in total. One each for the door and one each for…

“The other is a key for your post box,” he added. “Don’t lose ‘em, cause I sure as anything won’t be paying to replace them.”

“Thanks, sir.”

Edward Sanders glared at Robert as if to say drop the sir business. “If you need anything, you already know who to call.”

Without further chat, the ‘landlord’ tramped back downstairs to his first floor flat.

Allison grabbed the keys and tried them at random until one slid into the lock.

The flat was ready furnished, no surprise there, in neutral browns with cheap magnolia wall paint. A few black-framed, stock photos of cities, famous bridges and waterfalls softened the Spartan interior.

The main room, into which the front door opened, was a catch all living, dining, food preparation space, easily big enough to accommodate three adults. Off the back of this room, a simple magnolia hallway led to the three equally-sized bedrooms and single bathroom.

“Could do with a little personalising,” said Ken, finding the fridge stocked with the kind of food your grandma brought you because you were ‘a growing young lad’.

They hadn’t been in the flat more than a minute, not even getting a chance to inspect their bedrooms, when there was a knock on the door.

Allison found herself closest. She opened it with a smile to find a young man about her brother’s age with short, scruffy red hair and thick hipster-like glasses.

“Hi.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m Brad. Brad Reiter. Just saw the new landlord show you in. How you liking it so far?”

She glanced back at Robert and her brother, who both shrugged, then took Brad’s hand to shake. “Nice to meet you.”

The red head peered passed her with curiosity and saw the guys.

“These two are Robert, and my little brother Ken.” As an afterthought, and knowing it would please Lt. Moses, she added, “He’s a transfer to UFL.”

She offered for Brad to come in, which he did so gladly after shaking both Robert and Ken’s hands.

“I’m a student there too,” he said to Ken. “What you studying?”

“Uh… I don’t really know yet. A place opened up at the last minute, so it’s been a bit of a whirlwind.”

“Ah, I hear you.” He nodded and shoved his glasses back up his nose.

They talked for an hour or so about this and that, and by the end of it Allison was sure Ken had founded a new friend. The mission must be daunting enough for him, without adding the stress of acting like a college student day-in-day-out.

Brad excused himself not long after, and Robert was almost glad to be rid of him.

“That boy can sure talk. You’d have thought he’d never seen another human being before.”

“Lay off it.” Ken shrugged. “I kinda like him.”