Chapter 5

3rd Pov

Calla woke up from the cold floor of her cell. She opted to sleep on the floor rather than the bed. She has always slept in hard surfaces, so she knew she wouldn’t get any sleep if she went for the bed. It was 0600 in the morning. She woke up to the sound of the morning patrol's footsteps, that echoed through the corridor outside of her cell.

She thought she would have nightmares but she didn’t, in fact, she slept really well. Perhaps the prospects of good morning breakfast helped in that aspect. The morning guard sift must have noticed that she woke up, because only ten minutes passed before they brought her porridge, bread and milk in a plastic mug and a plastic spoon.

She ate her breakfast, slowly enjoying it. She wasn’t as hungry as she was yesterday, so she took it a little slow.

In a different room the soldiers guarding the holding area were talking.

“We should now inform the higher-ups that she has awoken and eaten.” A sergeant said to the staff sergeant next to him. Normally breakfast is delivered at 0730, but they had orders to bring hers in the moment she woke up and inform when that happened.

“Yes, they have something planned for her, so we shouldn’t delay that.” The other one answered, reaching for the landline phone they have on the monitor room’s desk.

“Subject Seven has woken up.” The staff sergeant says.

“Okay, move her to interrogation room five” A voice answers.

“Yes sir” The staff sergeant says, after which he instructs the sergeant with him to move her.

It was now late afternoon. There were five people sitting around an oval table in a conference room. The table is made from hardwood and the room is more elegant, than the rest of the military facilities. It was used usually for important meetings with the top brass of J.A.T.F.

The floors are wooden, and paintings of various artists are hanged on the walls. They portray different landscapes and all of them looked expensive. General Raven was sitting on the end of the table, behind him a large window. He is slightly overweight, his hair is dark and short. He is clean shaven and his face and brown eyes screams authority. He is wearing a military uniform with four stars on each side of his collar, which indicates his rank to be a general.

On his right side sits the young woman that brought food to Calla the day before. She has similarities with general Raven, like her dark hair and brown eyes. She too is wearing a military uniform with two stripes on her collar indicating she is a corporal. Her actual rank is that of a cadet, meaning that in the hierarchy tree she is equivalent to a 2nd lieutenant, but she is acting as a corporal for a while for her mandatory studies for the academy. Normally she wouldn’t have any business in a meeting like this, as she still studies and trains in the J.A.T.F. academy to become an officer, but she is Annie Raven, the general’s daughter. And she has had contact with the person this meeting is about: the young assassin in their custody.

Opposite of her sits Linda and next to her is Brian. Linda is wearing her uniform and Brian is wearing a not so formal suit. Opposite to general Raven, at the other end of the table sits a man in neat suit, wearing glasses. He has brown hair long enough to cover his ears and green eyes. In front of him is a folder with the word Seven written in the cover page. He is a psychologist of the J.A.T.F. medical staff, who had a sat down with Calla in the morning in order to do a psychological evaluation on her.

“So, doctor Lenz, what did you learn about her?” General Raven starts the meeting.

“Well, I do not think that the patient Seven…” He starts but is interrupted by Linda

“Calla”

“What?” the doctor asks.

“Her name is Calla” She continues.

General Raven looks questionably at major Linda but she remains silent, and only answers his look with a determined gaze, indicating she will not back down.

Brian too looks her sideways but remains silent. Only one who looks confused is Annie, as she knows very little about the girl.

As the general doesn’t interject the doctor continues:

“Okay then, I don’t think that Calla can ever lead a peaceful life. Her brain is wired for combat, and her reflexes support that. I do not mean that she is a violent person, actually she seem very reasonable. She is very curious about the world and her surroundings, almost childlike. She acts much like her age, albeit she doesn’t have the experiences to support that, which other people her age have.”

He turns the page in his folder and continues.

“And when I said she isn’t a violent person doesn’t mean she is incapable of violence. I do not think she would respond with physical force against verbal assaults but as an act of self-defense, she wouldn’t hesitate. She would be capable of violence without personal grudge, provided that she acts upon orders that makes sense to her, or orders given by people she respects.”

“So there is no chance for complete rehabilitation?” Brian asks, knowing the answer.

“Well there is a chance, but I do not see the point of that. If it goes well, and that is a big if, she would have to start her life with no useful skills for normal living. I think she is too old for that possibility. She carries scars all over her body and mind that would always remind her of her old life. But like I implied earlier, she has been trained for combat and survival situations for all her life and from what I gathered from our talk, the training was adapt or die most of the time. They broke her repeatedly and put her back together, over and over again.”

“Then how can she function as well as she does. She seemed a normal girl when I brought her food. A normal, very hungry girl. Though she did pick the handcuffs when I forgot to remove them…” Annie answers. She had no idea that the newest addition to the holding cells had a life like this behind her. Annie only spends little time in the J.A.T.F. base just like the other cadets training in the J.A.T.F. military academy which is located close to the base.

“Normally a person wouldn’t be able to, after all those negative experiences. My only answer is that she didn’t know any other life than that, so she didn’t have anything to compare. And that she is remarkably strong willed girl, all things considered. From what I gathered, she met people of her own age for the first time only recently. Her knowledge of the world aside from warfare or combat are only factoids with no real experiences supporting them. When I said I was a psychologist and asked her does she know what that means, she answered with a short textbook explanation about my profession.

For example she knows what a family means, but has no idea what a real family is like, or what any kind of affection feels like, even though she knows what it means.”

The general, who has stayed mostly silent, opens his mouth: “What is her morality? I already heard she doesn’t have a problem with taking a life, but how does she feel about that?”

Doctor Lenz ponders for a moment before answering: “I think she’s a bit immoral, but that is because she has been raised in isolation. She recognizes that the things she and Al-Aman did was wrong, but thought that that’s the way the world is supposed to work. More than morality, I think she is very rational person, coldly rational even. If she was presented with the dilemma of choosing the death of one baby or two men, she would kill the baby provided that the remaining years of the two men put together according to life expectancy is longer than the baby’s. That cold rationality doesn’t show much, but it is there.”

The room falls silent. Linda has nothing to say. She doesn’t know Calla well enough to disagree with anything the doctor said, and from what she does know her, the doctor’s diagnosis seems accurate.

“What do you recommend on how we should proceed with her?” The general asks. He won’t make the decision based only in the doctor’s opinion, but it still carries weight. And he has a feeling that he and the doctor are on the same page here.

“I recommend putting her to the academy. Not to the officer training, but for the operative training.” The doctor answers right away. He expected the question and decided on his answer before the meeting started.

Operatives are a form of modern warfare and vital to clandestine operations. They can work alone or in a group. They can be used as bodyguards or sent behind the enemy lines. They are basically spies, trained in combat, reconnaissance, interrogations, and assassinations amongst other things. All things Calla has some form of experience with.

“That’s what I thought.” The general answers.

“I too think that would be the best option for all.” Brian gives his opinion and looks at Linda.

Linda only nods, as she isn’t sure she wants that for her. But she knows that, that is the only option for now. They can’t just release her, or put her in a normal school. There are facilities for war orphans and children who have been used in the battlefields and these facilities are in dire need in these days as the conflicts are becoming more frequent, even against the best efforts of the welfare states. But she knows that they aren’t intended for cases like Calla and she wouldn’t magically grow to be a normal fifteen year old girl in there.

“It’s decided then.” The general says, and looks at his daughter: “That brings us to the reason you were in this meeting Annie. I want you to escort her there and get her settled in. I know that you won’t share many courses with her, but there may be some, depending how well she does there. I want you to keep an eye on her, and help her if there is a problem with the other students or trainers.”

Annie now realizes why she was in this meeting. So her father had already decided to put Calla in the academy, and only wanted to hear the doctor’s opinion in case it would change his mind.

“But sir, usually people get admitted in the academy at the age of seventeen? And that is after they have completed the compulsory six-month training period to become a private 1st class?” Annie asks her father. She calls him sir in front of other J.A.T.F. personnel, as her father has told her to.

“I don’t think her age is a problem. The age limit is there for the reason to ensure that the students are mature enough to endure the training and the six month private period is there to weed out the weak willed. She has gone through much more than the 1st class privates now starting there, and if she wasn’t mature enough for the academy’s training, her mind would already be broken beyond repair from her previous training.”

The general answered, thinking about that there isn’t time for her to go through the private period, as the one held this spring has already ended, and the new students who completed it started at the academy two weeks ago. She still can easily catch up with them, as she probably surpasses them in some areas already.

“Ye.. *BOOM*” As Annie is about to say something, an explosion is heard. It came from the building with the holding cells. The general looks through the window behind him and sees the broken windows and fractured outer walls of the building. The explosion took place near the holding cells from what he sees.