Chapter 7-9
Chapter 7
Kane reached headquarters by 2 in the afternoon and immediately went to Charlie’s office to let him know of his findings. “So still no idea why they are targeting splitters then” Charlie said disappointed. “Well I can’t keep our agents out of a work forever we have to get back to it” Charlie said handing the file on Dr. Stall to Kane. Kane looked it over and saw that he would be heading to a small French town just before World War I. Kane also noticed that the man had his soul split 5 other times prior. “You warned him that his soul may tear after this right?” Kane asked. Charlie nodded “Of course but he wants his female. I will laugh if his new mate turns out to be male too or a tree like Jasper’s.” Kane laughed but was still concerned about the inherent dangers he faced with this job. “What’s the cause of death?” Kane questioned. “Our technician said COD is bullet to the head, however the records don’t show a battle occurring at the location” Charlie replied. Kane thought on this, it was possible the target attempted suicide. Those were particularly hard and dangerous because the target would be unstable as is and talking someone out of suicide who truly plans to do it can be very difficult. Then again the target’s wife may have had enough of him and pulled the trigger himself. This posed a moral dilemma because if he stops the wife from murdering her husband the gun could be turned on her. Kane never liked to be the cause of death unless he was protecting himself of course. “We have all the documents you will need to get into France and have passage to reach the country after your wrap” Charlie told him. Kane appreciated when all the work was done for him ahead of time, the leg work to finding transportation particularly in a time when jets didn’t exist can be hard. “You will be wrapping one week before the incident so you will need to hurry once you cross the border into France” Charlie informed him. Kane didn’t mind the rush and thus far whenever he was in the past he didn’t dream. This would give him a chance to rest he thought. “When do I start?” Kane asked. “We have to call the doctor to set up a time for him to come back, could be till tomorrow. For the moment why don’t you join Valerie in the training area. She could use your help with some of the new members” Charlie said. Kane didn’t mind helping teach new members things as long as they were willing to learn. For some reason it calmed him to teach though he knew he would hate it if that were his only job.
Valerie was in the armory when Kane found her. She was an attractive woman in her mid-thirties. Dark hair and an athletic figure, Kane enjoyed working with her and often because of her looks she was asked to help train new recruits particularly if they were male. She didn’t mind this as she was a former prostitute and enjoyed being in control of the men for once. She also happened to be one of the best splitters Kane knew of and was typically assigned tasks that required more of a silver tongue than simple courage. Only two men stood with her both looked very young and were paying close attention to Valerie even if they weren’t necessarily looking straight at her.
“Hello Kane, Charlie said you may be coming to help me we were just going over choosing the appropriate weapon for a job” Valerie said. “So as I was saying you can’t just take any weapon you want to the past with you. The soldiers of revolutionary war America would likely try to kill you for a fully automatic weapon if you brought one to that time period. So it is best to take one that suits that time. There are however things you should bring that are out of place. You soul scanner is mandatory or you won’t know if the job is completed also you will need to bring a medical kit from this time. Getting wounded in a time without antibiotics can really ruin your day” Valerie paused to see if there were any questions. “I was wondering since we can simply travel back to save people why don’t we send people back to save one of us were we to die?” the younger of the two men asked. “That is a good question Sam. As you know if we are killed or die in the past our souls become trapped in that time period and must remain near the location of our death until it eventually reaches the present. If someone from the present attempts to go back and save us our soul will split like anyone else, the problem is the part that leaves us becomes a ghost that immediately recognizes its former body and attempts to invade it. This causes the person to lose their mind much in the way a torn soul would, after a little while the body simply collapse and dies. No soul is released from this body and it is theorized that the two souls destroy each other” Valerie answered. A little disconcerted from the answer Sam followed the group out of the armory.
Their next stop was the time wrapping area. “Here is where you will wrap back in time to begin your missions and where you will return as well. We have built safe houses throughout time that are in this exact location. This ensures that you don’t wrap back into a wall or tree, I witnessed this once trust me it isn’t pretty” Valerie told them. The older man spoke up “What about emergency wraps to the present if we need to get out of a situation quickly?” Valerie could tell this man had been to soul splitter school at one point as this was something they commonly would teach foolishly she thought. “Carl that is great in theory but think about where you may be on your assignment. There are only two continents that are currently inhabited by humans at this time. If your assignment brings you to North America or Asia wrapping back to the present would greet you with a nice dose of deadly radiation. If by chance you are in one of the habitable lands we do have safe houses with wrap locations but I wouldn’t recommend wrapping from just anywhere. The danger in my honest opinion is too great.” Carl seemed to ponder this for a moment and then nodded acceptingly.
Kane got a message on his phone and glanced to read it. It was from Charlie instructing him that his assignment wouldn’t begin until tomorrow as the doctor couldn’t make it back to headquarters until then. Kane decided to head home and get what rest he could hoping that the dreams wouldn’t interfere again. He waved to Valerie as he left and headed home. Once he got there he turned on the monitor to see what was on the news. Sebastian Fildore the head of the church was holding a press conference about the recent Joiner attacks. “We are quite aware of the threat that the Joiner’s pose to our economy and way of life. Rest assured we are doing everything in our power to find those responsible for the most recent attacks as well as the heads of this terrorist organization and bring them to justice. Now are there any questions?” Kane watched as Sebastian answered silly questions that the reports posed. Some were clearly planted as the answer allowed Sebastian to respond in a very authoritative and commanding manner almost as if he didn’t have to think about it. Politics haven’t changed Kane thought; he had seen similar conferences when he would be on assignment in the past. The head of the government would stand and assure the public that everything was being done and they are doing what they could to ensure it wouldn’t happen again. Odd thing he thought since no one could truly know if everything was being done to stop these things as often conflict gave a reason for the government a reason to seem as though they were protecting their people. Kane thought without some evil to rally behind he wondered if the people would be as content as they were. Irritated by the propaganda and wanting some real rest Kane shut off the monitor and laid down for some sleep.
Chapter 8
The hunter unit assembled in the briefing room. This unit was composed of the typical four members. As Colonel Kassandra walked in they stood at attention and awaited instruction. “At ease men, I’m assuming you have all read the briefing I’m here to go over the tactics” Kas said. “As you all know you will be going into France in the year 1912. You are to observe the splitter and allow him to split his targets soul. Do no engage until after this is accomplished understand?” The four men nodded. “The site of this split is the village of Bezonvaux, in northeastern France, you will be wrapping two weeks before the incident so you will have plenty of time to map out the area and form a plan of attack once your target arrives. You will adhere to firearm discipline so no bringing your favorite toy Troy. I don’t want a repeat of the last splitter you killed it left to obvious of a sign that we had been there, any questions?” Kas asked. “What type of clothing are we to be wearing? Military or civilian?” Troy asked. “You will be in civilian attire; this is a farming village I don’t want to raise suspicion.” Kas replied. “Good luck out there gentlemen dismissed.” The men got up saluted Kas and headed for the armory. Troy grabbed a Webley mk IV revolver. “That’s a British weapon Helen” Phil said to Troy. Troy disliked this nickname they had placed on him but he was the newest member of the unit and had little push to remove it. “I know boss but who can tell at a quick glance besides I like the feel of this one better than its French counterpart” Troy said. The rest of the unit claimed the Lebel revolver and then moved to acquire basic farming attire of the time period. Once dressed and ready they moved to the time wrapping area and all four wrapped in unison vanishing from their locations.
Kas watched as the unit wrapped back and then left the briefing area. She decided to head into the tracking department and see what else they may have come up with. “Any news on what time our splitter will be wrapping back into?” she asked one of the technicians. “No ma’am but often they wrap within a week of the incident. It seems they prefer to spend as little time in the past as possible likely to avoid being killed” he responded. They got lucky this time she thought. The man who wished to have his soul split was caught by agents at a bar where he had gotten drunk and let slip he was having it done tomorrow. After a quick soul scan from their scientists and a small interrogation they identified when and where this man’s soul would be split. This was an easier way then using their wrap detector which could identify the remnants of a wrap in the past. Often times they would identify one only to determine it was some researcher or even one of theirs and time spent would be a waste. Their last target was tracked this way however it had taken the hunters a week to identify the splitters target and location. The hunter unit barely managed to kill their target having walked into the theater only an hour before the split occurred. Tired and exhausted Kas made her way to her quarters to get some rest. She wouldn’t know the results of the mission till tomorrow when the unit would either wrap back or not.
Chapter 9
Grant woke up the next morning to make breakfast for his mother. Not seeing her awake he went to her room and knocked on her door. “Mom, are you awake?” Grant asked. After a minute to no response he cracked the door a bit to look in and see. Terra was half way off the bed and breathing very shallowly. Grant ran in set her on the bed checking her pulse that was very weak. Immediately he reached for his phone and called the hospital. “My mother has collapsed and is barely breathing” Grant told the operator on the other line. “Ok sir we have an ambulance on the way is there any more information I can relay to the paramedics before they get there?” the operator asked. “She has a very weak pulse, she is also ill from the mutated form of the JC virus” he told her. “Ok sir just wait patiently the paramedics should be there in a minute or so” she replied.
After a minute the paramedics showed up put Grant’s mother on a stretcher and placed her in their truck. “Is she going to be ok?” Grant asked nervously. “We have her hooked up to IV fluids and her pulse has stabilized, the respiratory has her breathing normally. However I noticed a swelling near her left kidney, she may need a transplant” the paramedic told him. “We need to get her to the hospital right away and I’m afraid there isn’t room for you back here. She will be in ICU at the hospital you can head there once you reach it” he said while closing the door. Grant raced for the train station hoping he would catch a train for the hospital before it left. As he got to the platform he watched as one departed, the next not arriving for another five minutes. Grant sat on the closest bench numb to his surroundings. People were walking by going about their lives as if nothing could go wrong. As soon as the train pulled up Grant was at the door before it even opened pushing a younger woman out of the way. Sitting anxiously waiting for the train to board Grant felt as if everyone else was deliberately moving slowly to stall the train’s departure. The train doors finally closed and the train left the station, the hospital was only a few minutes away.
After arriving at his stop Grant raced through the hordes of people and headed straight for the hospital. Reaching reception he gave the woman at the desk his name and she directed him to ICU. Inside he saw his mother still hooked to a respirator, a doctor stood by her bed. “Excuse me sir this is my mother how is she?” Grant asked. “Son I’m sorry to say she is going to need surgery her kidneys have both failed and we will need to transplant them” the doctor told him. “So what’s the problem I’m sure you deal with these kinds of things all the time” Grant responded a little distraught. “Yes we do, your mother will be going into surgery soon and our best resident surgeon will be working on her” the doctor replied. “Wait, wait, wait doctor why a resident why not an experienced surgeon?” Grant asked irately. “He has taken a day off today for personal matters but I assure you our resident can handle this operation” said the doctor. “The best thing you can do for her right now is sit with her until we bring her to surgery.” Grant sat in a stool brought from a nurse holding his mother’s hand. Fifteen minutes later the nurses took her from Grant and asked him to wait in the recovery waiting area.
As time went by Grant got increasingly uneasy. He knew the residents were more than capable but he wondered why today of all days the head surgeon had to take a personal day. He wondered what it was he was doing that was so important. Finally after some time a doctor came up to him anxious Grant stood up to hear the news. “The transplant was successful unfortunately the resident clipped an artery and your mother lost a lot of blood. Also she may have acquired an infection while we were repairing the artery. We have her in the recovery room but you can’t enter until she is more stable” the doctor told him. “How long will that be doctor?” Grant asked shaken. “It may be a few hours if you’d like we can bring you to her room but you can only view her through a glass. We can’t risk outside infections since her immune system may be slightly compromised” the doctor told him. “Yes please sir” Grant said.
Grant looked through the window at what to him was the image of his mother dying. She had an IV line running, was breathing through a respirator and had monitors attached to various points of her body. Those that entered her room were wearing full coverage to ensure that they didn’t spread any possible contagions to her. She was also hooked to a dialysis machine as her new kidneys hadn’t yet taken over the job of filtering her urine. Grant felt incredibly helpless and sat crying in the waiting area. He saw the doctor that had spoken with him earlier receive some paperwork from a nurse as he read it he approached Grant. “I’m afraid your mother did acquire an infection while in surgery. We have her on the proper antibiotics but it seems her immune system is more compromised then we feared. She should be fine but you won’t be able to go into her room for several days until the infection is under control and we have given her other necessary drugs to help boost her immunity” he told Grant. “But doctor I’m only on leave for another 24 hours is there nothing you can do?” Grant begged. “I’m afraid not the risk is to great, rest assured we will have the finest team taking care of her and with the proper medicine she will pull through without a problem” the doctor replied. Grant got angry at this comment because if they had had the finest team taking care of her to begin with she wouldn’t be in such a critical state. Grant now felt he needed to know what that surgeon was doing today that was so important. He saw a log of available surgeons and noticed that the only one with a day off was a Doctor Stall. With that logged in he sat looking into his mother’s room for a few more hours and then decided to go to the church and clear his mind on the range.