Alone in the briefing room, Steve pulled up a map of South Africa. Several markers were placed across the country. Some zones were crossed out, others annotated with notes and a handful left blank waiting to be explored. So far, three of the five known SEKT outposts were destroyed by John and his team. They were poorly guarded almost inviting an assault. Sigvald was sacrificing his pawns one-by-one. A risky but unpredictable strategy, his movements being so erratic it was difficult to see any pattern.

After requesting for recon drones to be dispatched from the relevant department, Steve closed the map and stared at his white ceiling. He found that thoughts flew more naturally to him when he was away from computers and holo-desks.

Five outposts. One stronghold. Three conquered and not a hint of concern on his side, Steve thought, running through the statistics in his head. What are you hiding?

Interrupting his chain of thought, a messenger knocked on his door.

“Come in,” Steve said in response.

The man entered the room. With his outstretched arm, he handed the envelope over to Steve. The bald man raised an eyebrow asking for further detail.

“The Council is on,” the messenger stated blandly.

Steve sighed and prepared himself for the nightmare he was about to face. With the stunt he pulled with Ethan, he could only expect to get ripped to shreds by six of his superiors.

Thanking the messenger silently, he gestured for him to leave the room. The man made a quick exit leaving him to the mercy of the Council. Mercy, however, was unheard of to the six members.

He opened the envelope and slid the tablet onto the holo-desk. The room turned dark and Steve looked up to six large frames with significant faces on them staring down as if he was placed on trial. Their size was intimidating enough, let alone the sheer power they had. The last of them to connect to the call was the most important. President Duncan. He appeared at the center of the six surrounding Steve, the top half of his suit visible and a cold, unyielding glare casting down onto Steve.

“Report, Mr. Starcson,” stated Duncan.

“Uh…Right,” mumbled Steve as he pulled out some notes. He narrated the outcomes of the meeting with Jim that occurred within the last hour and the actions he took in response to the intel. The council remained silent, glancing at one another from time to time and then nodding slightly with approval. Unsurprisingly, the council was pleased with the return of their supposedly loyal lapdog, Jim.

“This… Ethan Rider…” inquired one of the six. “Why is he here?”

“He has recently joined. A technical expert in the field of bio-warfare. The best we know of. Given the recent circumstances, we need the best.”

“We have plenty in the labs. Why him?”

“He came for an interview at our labs a while back. His record was far more impressive than those in the labs.”

Steve was struggling to give vague responses now that the council’s questions were getting more and more specific. They couldn’t know how Ethan arrived at the base nor could they know why he really joined. Either one of those two would be enough grounds for them to order his execution. But not before they leach every last bit of information from him.

“Very well,” one of them said finally, breaking the rising tension like an elastic band released.

“I suggest we address the larger issue at hand,” an old man with small glasses and now-white hair said.

What could possibly be bigger than a lethal bioweapon?

“The release of the bio weapon is disturbingly close to the attack on the teleporting station.”

“What are you implying?” asked Steve. “Sigvald wouldn’t be so reckless to expose himself out in the open.”

“We have doubled our efforts in seeking out the culprits. We believe we are exceptionally close to catching them,” added Duncan.

“Perhaps…Some Alliance resources could be diverted to speeding up this process,” the old man suggested.

“No. The Alliance has its own problems,” Steve butted in. He was not about to involve himself in a political squabble when a possible global pandemic could be on the loose. “The police force can handle this.”

“Clearly not,” muttered two of the men.

“I suggest you be more careful with your words,” Duncan said calmly. “The only reason I have tolerated you till this point is because I find your shortsightedness mildly amusing.”

The meeting fell into a deathly silence. Steve cleared his throat and was the first to break it. “We have a further problem.”

“And that is?” asked Duncan.

“The SEKT stronghold is somewhere in Durban. In the metropolitan area. Which means if we have any chance of stopping him, the Alliance and SEKT will have to go public,” Steve said.

“Then the Alliance will defect from my control and solely operate outside the law. I will not have the government’s reputation tarnished by a terrorist organization,” Duncan said firmly.

“I too will withdraw from the council,” added one of the remaining five. Soon, all the members of the council had decided to cut ties and resources from the Alliance if they ever went public. Steve thought their decisions to be so petty and cowardly. A hit to their reputation would be the only damage they take. The law can’t hold them accountable when they are the law. The others are simply upper-class influences who’ve made their fortune that would allow them to live two lives comfortably. They had nothing to lose other than fame.

“If it comes to that,” Duncan began. “I will allow one attack on SEKT’s stronghold.”

Steve breathed a sigh of relief. “But,” he added. “I will order the hunting and execution of the remaining Alliance and SEKT forces and you, Steven, will be the last to die from among them.”

Steve cursed under his breath. Despite all his efforts, he could not break free from the Duncan’s chains. The lengths he would go to to protect his reputation was disturbing, even for Steve. Even some of the council members exchanged glances but were too afraid to oppose him.

“Do not make me your enemy. Contrary to your opinion, everyone in this room is disposable to me.”

He disconnected from the call. The rest of the council realizing their silence spoke more than any words they could say in retaliation to that, also left leaving Steve in a dark room. With more stress added to his already full plate, he switched off the device and the room returned to the deserted briefing room. He walked over to the door and unlocked it, opening it and allowing the ambient noise of people’s chatter to fill the silent void.

You’re not giving me much of a choice, Duncan, Steve thought. Why does someone value their reputation so much? Regardless of the why, Steve needed to proceed and hope and pray it doesn’t come down to storming the stronghold.

Leaving the briefing room, Steve walked down the hallway and to his office. He shut the door and fell onto his chair making it spin.

Steve heard a knock on the door. After asking the knocker to come in, John stood in front of his desk. The unavoidable giant blocked off most of Steve’s view.

“How’d the meeting go?” he asked hesitantly.

“Ughhhh…” Steve moaned in frustration.

“The same as last time I assume.”

“Worse. One step forward and several more steps back,” Steve said softly. “If we’re going to catch him we have to take their stronghold. In public.”

“What did Duncan say?” John asked.

“Bastard just wants to save his own skin. He said if we go public he’ll be forced to execute the Alliance even if we succeed to eliminate SEKT.”

“Shit…” John whispered to himself.

The two sat in silence for a minute or two. Steve brainstormed ideas in his mind on how he could evade Duncan and persue Sigvald. Any way he looked at it they were bound to be executed the minute they fired a shot on the SEKT HQ.

“Well, that’s a tomorrow problem,” John stated, rising to his feet. “You should pack up for the day. It’s been a rough one for you.”

“I’m fine,” Steve insisted.

“You are far from fine. You’ve been in a gunfight, had the most tense and problematic mission brief and you’ve been threatened by the president in the same day.”

John felt around for the Steve’s laptop and closed it. “We’re going out for dinner. Just the infiltrators… without Jim. You should come along.”

“Is Ethan coming?” Steve asked.

“I invited him. Who knows if he’ll pitch,” John replied shrugging his shoulders. “He just left the base now. A bit shaken up when I told him his training would start on Friday.”

“What do you mean ‘shaken up’? Surely he knew he wasn’t going to go into the field untrained.”

John scratched his wrinkled forehead. “I don’t know why but he was a bit shocked.”

Steve closed his eyes in frustration. He felt like screaming into a pillow. It felt as if every problem conceivable just dropped on Steve’s plate the minute he stepped into the base. “Make sure he comes back. I just told the council we need him for the bio-weapon threat. Now if he goes AWOL I’m going to be in more shit than I already was.”

“He’ll be back. Don’t worry,” assured John. “He just needs some time to wrap his head around this.”

“He’d better do it fast. We’re punching a clock and we don’t even know how much time we have left.”

John nodded. He opened the door and gestured for Steve to exit before him. I’m not getting out of this, am I? Steve thought. With half a smile, he shut off the lights in his office and exited, John following him.

Waiting at the elevator was the spy himself, Jim. He leaned against a wall browsing his link, only shooting one or two glances to the two approaching him.

“Heard you met with the Council. How’d it go?” he asked nonchalantly.

Steve sighed. He wasn’t about to deliver the same bad news twice in one night. “That’s a story for tomorrow.”