Alice Hamilton stood next to her desk and watched the door to Niles’s office and the conference room. She had her arms crossed over her chest and she tapped her heeled shoe on the carpet. She felt the eyes of the three assistants on her back as the two men and one woman looked on nervously, as they had never seen Alice Hamilton so worked up about anything.
The pneumatic elevator chimed softly and the doors parted. Alice raised a brow when she saw it was one of the kitchen stewards. He had a tray with a covered dish and coffee cup and carafe. As the steward walked in Alice went to him and quickly relieved him of the tray. She nodded for him to open the director’s door and he did so after a warning look from the female assistant. Alice walked into the office and then instead of waiting for the steward to close the door she reached back with her shoe and closed it for him. With a frown and a worried look the steward left the outer office.
“Just sit the tray over there, Josh, thank you,” Niles said as he studied an Antarctic field summary. He had a frown on his face at the incompleteness of the report issued through Charlie Ellenshaw’s crypto department.
Alice turned and placed the tray on the credenza and then removed the cover from the plate containing the egg salad sandwich. She took it and placed it in front of Niles, who looked up when the dish landed a little hard.
“I know we’re shorthanded, even in food services, but having the director’s assistant delivering meals?” he asked as his smile stayed put, even though he had to swallow as he faced Alice.
“I’ve been delivering meals to directors around here for over sixty years, I imagine one more won’t kill me,” she said as she sat down in a chair facing his desk. “By the way, I believe your doctor’s prescribed diet doesn’t allow that sandwich. I believe there was a bowl of soup and a salad mysteriously canceled at the last minute.”
“Nothing has ever gotten by you, has it?” Niles asked as he closed with tired resignation the file Charlie had sent him.
“No, I pretty much hear and know most everything.”
Niles felt the twinge of his headache returning and he took a breath and waited for what he knew was once more coming his way.
“You just missed Mr. Ryan,” Niles said as he ignored the headache as best as he could and reached for his sandwich. He started to take a bite and thought better and placed it back on the plate and looked at Alice. “With the report that Charlie just delivered, if and when we send a team in they are more than likely going to be confronted with wildlife that has been extinct for a minimum of ten thousand years.”
Alice waited patiently as Niles had to think every comment out carefully before committing to an answer about anything. It would take the average man more than just a few minutes to coordinate this in his head, but for Niles it was milliseconds. She reached over and set the saucer that was covering Compton’s coffee off to the side and she slid the China cup closer to the director. All the while her eyes never left his.
“In other words, Alice, we just don’t know what will be waiting for them when, and if, they get there.”
“These two Group members deserve to go, not only for their personal connection to the mission, but because they are qualified to go. You see, Niles, I’ve been conducting my own research and it clearly indicates the need for Sarah’s expertise in geology. The world they will be traveling to is most likely on the verge of destroying itself due to what we know is an historical eruption of Mount Erebus. Sarah will be able to give a precise time frame of that event if she is there to witness the conditions. She is needed.”
Niles stirred sugar into his black coffee and patiently listened to his conscience as she spoke. “And Anya? I don’t know of any situation in Antarctica’s past that would justify sending in an intelligence agent with the mission team. Do you?” he asked as he eyed Alice over the cup of coffee he sipped from.
“Nothing, other than the fact that she’s good with a gun.” Alice finally committed fully to her guilt-driven attack. “And for the deal you had me make with General Shamni and his Mossad offices.”
Niles placed the cup of coffee down and shook his head, angry that this was going to be Alice’s arguing point. She was feeling guilty for the secret pact between him and the head of the Mossad.
“What I offered was a deal to assist us in getting a very valuable member of this Group home again. I would have signed away my own mother to get that done. After all of these years in this facility and the deals that you and Garrison brokered to protect your people, you now have the gall to question what it is I’m willing to do?”
Alice lowered her head. She knew that the remark was too much and was hard on Niles. After all, it was true, she had done far worse to protect their people in the past. Maybe she was finally too damn old for the intrigue of today’s “game.”
“So we send her off on a mission that has a very low rate of probable success, just so she can possibly die with Carl. That’s her reward? No, the mission roster is set.” He sipped his coffee but kept his good eye on Alice. “I would warn you about sentiment, but then again that would make me out to be a liar, something I’ve never done. Sentiment is exactly why we are attempting to do the impossible. But that same factor can get my people killed and thus I can’t allow it to interfere with Jack’s mission plans. Sorry.”
Alice nodded her head and stood.
“And tell Dr. Morales, nice try. But I’ve been doing this for years now, and I have learned a few things over those years and I learned from the best, Pete Golding.”
“You knew we would ask before he even decided to help us, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, Alice, because it’s exactly what both Pete and I would have done.”
Alice started to turn and leave, defeated for the first time since her arguments with Garrison Lee. Just as she closed on the double doors Niles stopped her. He was busy writing something and when finished held it out to Alice. She read it.
“I take it you heard from Jack?” she asked as her mind went into preparation mode immediately upon reading the action order.
“Yes, our one-hundred-hour window has been opened and we have to go through it very soon or we’ll get it slammed down on us.”
“I’ll call it.”
All thoughts of mission team members went out the window as Alice was now in full Event mode as she hurried from the office. Niles turned and watched the doors close and then he grimaced as if his coffee was bad. He shook his head and wondered if he was doing the right thing. He had traded Anya Korvesky for the mere chance of getting the file on this Traveler, and now he refused to even allow her a chance at seeing the man she loved one last time. He felt the guilt as it coursed like the bitter coffee down his throat.
He heard the tones that sounded loudly throughout the massive complex. His people were going to do what they did best — fight the impossible odds.
Alert tones sounded throughout the Event Group facility and sixteen departments, totaling 512 civilian men and women, with their military contingent of 212, went into action.
The Group had just declared an Event.
Jack stood over a map spread out on a desk in the upstairs office area that once fronted as a furniture repair warehouse after the Department of the Navy had started selling off the property in 1966.
“Okay, when our people get here, we secure the inside of the building and the FBI the exterior and surrounding grounds.” He looked at Mendenhall, who was taking notes on the electronic pad he had been issued for this particular op. “No one who isn’t Group gets inside for the duration of our time on station.”