Niles sat at a corner table as one of the night bakers brought him a fresh cup of coffee. Niles thanked her and then contentedly looked around him. Five people, from the looks of them all engineers, were speaking in soft tones as they ate an early breakfast. These people looked over, and they nodded at the director. Niles noticed Master Chief Jenks at the head of that table acting like he was holding court. He stood and, with his white lab coat floating behind his ample bulk, made his way to the table where Niles sat.
“Mr. Director, mind if I have a seat?” the gruff lifetime navy man asked.
Niles eased a chair out with his foot and nodded.
Harold R. Jenks, master chief petty officer, and one of the more brilliant mechanical engineers Niles Compton had ever met, seemed to be settling into his duties well at the Group. He had completely reorganized the Group’s engineering departments into far more effective subgroups. He accomplished this by convincing Assistant Director Virginia Pollock to allow her Nuclear Sciences Division to accept men and women from his department and integrate his mechanical engineers into hers. The move was paying off nicely as the cooperation between the two competing sciences settled into a comfortable and affable routine.
“Master Chief, up late with your people, I see.”
Jenks looked at the four men and women as they stood with their breakfast trays and moved off. “Nah, busy moving quantum theory out of engineering and placing it where it belongs, with those eggheads in nuclear sciences. It makes Ginny happy, I guess.”
“I imagine Virginia is indeed happy. She’s getting thirty-two new bodies.” Niles smiled. “You seem to be accepting of your personnel losses with dignified grace.”
Jenks finally sat. “Dignified grace? Yeah, have you ever really sat down and tried to argue with that woman? Surrender was the better part of valor, I assure you. My people were acceptable casualties in an ongoing war Dr. Virginia Pollock always seems to be winning.”
“Surrender with honor is one of my favorite sayings around here when arguing with either Virginia or Alice. Welcome to the surrender club, Master Chief.” Niles smiled and sipped his coffee.
Jenks looked around. At three thirty in the morning, there was now no one in the cafeteria. Niles watched the stubborn man, frightening to all, squirm, adjust his lab coat, and then squirm again. Once more he looked behind the serving line at the front and the open kitchens beyond. Niles sat patiently waiting. He folded his fingers on the tabletop and smiled once more with a raised and scarred brow over the eye patch.
“Maybe just start at the beginning, Master Chief.”
“I guess surrender is what I want to talk about.”
Niles just sat and continued smiling, waiting patiently. Last year at this time, he would have grown frustrated and unhappy with someone wasting valuable time in sitting and stuttering in meaningless conversation. Now Compton relished these moments. After the loss of so many personnel the past few years, he had learned a valuable lesson — the job was never more important than his people.
“Oh, hell, Sparky.” He saw Niles didn’t even flinch at the nickname he had heard Jenks was using behind his back. But he remained silent. “Sorry, Niles. I didn’t mean that. In my short time here, I have learned one immutable fact of life; I have seen why you command so much respect around here. To lead with honor and by example is the quality more leaders need in today’s messed-up world.” He looked away guiltily. “Myself included.”
“Master Chief, this particular biscuit doesn’t need the buttering as much as you think.” Niles sipped his coffee and then fixed Jenks with his good left eye. “Is this about Virginia?”
The color in Jenks’s face dropped out so fast that it looked to Niles as if the lights had suddenly been turned off.
“You know?” Jenks asked, incredulous that the director knew the small details of life at the complex. “Ginny said she’s told no one.”
Niles laughed. “And she has told no one. Do you think anyone in this group can ever get anything past the security department? Since Will Mendenhall and Jason Ryan have been filling in for Jack and Carl, they have become rather good at dealing with secrets, even those involving relationships between active Group members.” Niles exhaled. “Pardon the pun here, but I tend to turn a blind eye toward these rules about fraternization. My people lead lives most in this country could never fathom. They are lonely people involved in work they cannot discuss even with their closest relatives. Sometimes I suspect they need each other. You and Virginia are no different.”
“Then you don’t have a problem with me and… Slim?”
“Go get some sleep, Master Chief.”
“Yes, sir.” Jenks started to stand and then stopped and faced Niles. “I don’t say this as often as I should, Mr. Director, but in the short time I have known you, well, hell, you’re a good man.”
“Thank you,” was all Compton said as Jenks huffed and then tossed a dead cigar into the side of his mouth, cleared his throat, and then abruptly left.
Niles watched him go and shook his head. Regardless of his lack of tact, he liked the master chief as much as he liked anyone. You would never get a hesitant answer from him, that was for sure.
Niles decided he had had enough and pushed his coffee cup away and was starting to leave for his quarters when he saw the new deputy director of Computer Sciences, Xavier Morales, wheel himself into the cafeteria. Niles pursed his lips and then slowly sank back into his seat. Xavier saw Niles and sped over in his old-fashioned wheelchair, which the boy clearly refused to part with even though Master Chief Jenks and Virginia offered him a model that would have shocked most of the known world in its sophistication. But then, that’s one of the reasons Xavier had become so likable so fast. He was truly grounded in computer sciences, and that was all he ever concentrated on. Without really knowing it, Niles had placed all his confidence in the young genius far faster than he had intended.
“Europa said you were here and not in your quarters,” Xavier said as he wheeled up, accidentally bumping the table and spilling what remained of Compton’s coffee. “Sorry.”
Niles only smiled as he used a napkin to clean up the spill. “Doesn’t anyone get any sleep around here anymore? I have Master Chief Jenks and Virginia acting like star-crossed lovers in a soap opera and a computer genius who has never been caught sleeping in his room.” Compton placed the cup farther away and tossed the wet napkin into the saucer. “Now, before I order you to your quarters for some sleep, what’s up?”
Xavier removed a large boxlike device from his lap and placed it on the table. “It’s finished.”
Niles’s eyebrows rose. “Ah, the Europa link laptop,” Niles said as he sat up to look at the stainless steel box. He opened it, and his lips made an O as he looked over the new system.
“Of course, junior here doesn’t have 99.99 percent of Europa’s computing power, but this link can outthink anything in commercial or private use as far as memory. A field team no longer has to link directly with Europa’s mainframe to get answers. Odds are this little baby can answer anything they need. The only thing the user cannot do is tie into the mainframe. It is secure and Group-member-voice activated. If anyone tries to use this closed-looped system by voice command or even keypad use, the system will blow up in their faces.” Xavier patted the laptop, which was about ten inches thicker than a normal system.
“Good job,” Niles said. “This will lessen the need for direct contact with Europa by field teams.”