Here meet Caroline Donovan before she became the avatar of her goddess, before she became Saitada. There are links here to ther stories I've written at the moment it's like an unfinished mosaic. I'm working to fill in the gaps, if you read some of the other stories you should be able to get see some sense of the overall arc. Read and hopefully enjoy.
Loaned Out
She walked slowly, across Westminster Bridge, amongst the mid-morning pedestrians, causing some to detour past her as they scurried along to wherever they were going. She could already see the imposing mass of Vauxhall Cross, which was where she was heading, she stopped for a moment the, rush flowing round as if she was a rock in a fast flowing river. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders and headed towards the meeting, a meeting she was not looking forward too. She was still, if you really looked, favouring her right leg slightly, the bullet that had hit her in her calf, had passed cleanly through and had healed well but it still ached when exercised.
For all that she had passed her fitness review, her last mission had turned into such a shambles that she was not looking forward to see her boss, the Director of Active Operations, properly for the first time. She had of course seen him briefly during her debriefing but given that had been when she was laid up in a hospital bed awaiting the operation to repair her leg, she felt it did not count. So she decided to get it over with as quickly as possible and as a distraction she thought about the fun they'd had last night.
It had been great seeing all the girls again, though it always amazed her how much they'd changed and yet were still the same. They had all met at Joanna's penthouse on the river, there was the first really big change, it was the first time she had seen the place. Joanna had gone from being a teacher to world famous model in what, just over two years and yet she was still the same Jo, though now she had the money and influence to do the things she had always talked about doing. Several hours last night had been spent working out strategies for her new charity to get started helping women and children in places like Darfur, Eritrea and Afghanistan. of course it helps when your friends have slightly different experience and skill sets to most charity boards. Though they still haven't heard what their masters in the Foreign Office and SIS would make of it all. That was another slight worry for the interview, though they had discussed their response last night and if necessary she would just take a leave of absence, hell she was due one after three years off and on in Northern Pakistan and Helmond Province.
It had been fantastic to see her sister and Maryam, as their schedules always seemed to have them in different places or even continents. Helena had apparently been in Darfur and southern Sudan the previous week and was showing a gorgeous golden tan, Maryam had been in Iraq under a chador and her normally slightly olive skin was looking on the pale side. There had been good wine, good food and good company, they had talked late into the night and so had not got up as early as they normally did, then of course while Helena was making breakfast, a journalist had turned up to interview Jo and they hadn't been able to make their proper goodbyes. Hopefully everyone would still be around that evening.
Thinking about these things brought her to the building and after what seemed an eternity of checks, miles of corridors and more lifts than was sensible, she was standing outside the DoAO's office. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, knocked and entered. The man behind the desk looked harried, his normally immaculate suit was crumpled, his top button undone and his tie pulled down. She felt uncomfortable enough in her new pale grey Betty Jackson trouser suit and the Christian Laboutin boots, that Joanna had insisted she have, so she could look "the Biz" for this important interview, without seeing her boss like this.
"Ah number 9, Caroline, come in sit down, well you certainly stirred up a real hornet's nest with the info you brought out on your last mission. We're still chasing down a load of leads...oh by the way I like the new look, bit of a change from your normal ripped t-shirts and combats." This was said with a wry grin and a raised eyebrow, with this Caroline knew she wasn't in the trouble she had thought she might be.
"Sergeant Hampson sends his thanks and says there's a few drinks waiting for you behind the bar in Hereford. And further to that my dear, I've heard they've put up a shrine to you in the Sergeant's Mess, you are something more than a minor hero to the SAS boys at the mo. Now personally I'd love to know how you managed to carry a what 15 stone man some 5 miles with a large hole in your thigh."
Unconsciously her hand dropped to rub her left thigh through the linen of her trousers and for a moment she was there, she could almost feel the strange combination of freezing wind of the mountain, the blazing sun, the weight of Hampson over her right shoulder. She remembered the mantra that Master Tan Xi had taught her to block out pain, the Xi Kung breathing cycles to force the thin air into her lungs and generate the chi needed to power her body through the punishment she was putting it through. She gently shook her head to free herself from the reverie, "I'm not exactly sure how I did it sir."
It is always better to dissemble, than truthfully tell people you can do things that seem almost like Magic, that was what she was told as a little girl, first by her goddess and then reinforced by Tan Xi when he saw what she could do in training her.
"To be honest sir I couldn't leave him, that would have alerted them to the fact we had penetrated their base, I had a suspicion that the info I pulled off those two laptops could be useful and I didn't want them changing codes or procedures as that might mean the info became worthless. If hadn't been for that attack by, I take it was the Yanks, a UAV lead strike...we would have been in and out without any problems at all."
"Well we are very glad you did do what you did, that information you downloaded contained their latest codes, locations of some of the top brass, some missions that we now working to track and stop and best of all the jackpot, banking details. You, well we, are severely loved by our cousins at the moment." the chuckling as he said it, " I have not passed on what you said about our cousins after you were extracted, it was rather colourful, to say the least."
"Well sir I was slightly under the weather by then, mind you I do stand by what I said, the Yanks really do need to get back to putting people on the ground, you can't do everything by satellite links, sitting on your [censored] in an office in Langley."
This brought a barking laugh and a large unforced smile from the DAO.
"Right then Caroline, just because the docs say you're ready doesn't mean I agree. Don't give me that look, I know you could so easily fool them it's unreal, however I've had a request for help from a department that your sister has worked with. They want someone with certain special skills," at which he looked up from the notes on his desk with a twinkle in his eye, " and more interestingly they want someone with some scientific or research training. Specifically psychology and anthropology, to be honest I actually think it was a roundabout way of asking for you without actually putting it on paper." He sat back down and leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers, "that is what your degree was in wasn't it?"
"You know it is sir, and as you know if it hadn't been for you keeping me so busy I'd have my PhD by now, Psycho-Social development in pre-modern contact aboriginal societies, the dissertation is pretty much complete and the viva has been put back three times, let's see that mission in Kabul in march, Helmond late April and then this last mission and hospital."
"Ahem as I was saying, the circular asking almost could have been describing you, he's a wily devil that Thadeus Smith. Seeing as I'm not keen on putting you back in the field.." She tried to interrupt him to protest but a raised finger and a stern glare stilled her before she could even start. " I feel that a change would be good you've been in the frontline too much recently, field officers tend to burnout I find, so I think a change would be as good as a rest. Go visit Mr Thadeus Smith, at the Department of Rural Planning see what he wants, then it's up to you but I'm minded to loan you out, to save you in the long run. Come back to me rested, full of vim and vigour, go on off with you, see what he wants...oh and let me know what that sly fox is up to hmm."
" Ok sir mind if I have a word with my sister first, seeing as you said she's had some experience of this man."
" I would expect no less of you, off with you, I've a meeting with our superiors, Box and a two ministers to prepare for."
She left his office, feeling slightly let down, but also relieved the past year had been a whirlwind of fear, violence and close brushes with death, maybe a change of pace would be a good thing, something less dangerous, just for a few months. As she left the building she took out her mobile phone and rang her sister.
Want to know what she looks like and what she's wearing...
Here meet Caroline Donovan before she became the avatar of her goddess, before she became Saitada. There are links here to ther stories I've written at the moment it's like an unfinished mosaic. I'm working to fill in the gaps, if you read some of the other stories you should be able to get see some sense of the overall arc. Read and hopefully enjoy.
Loaned Out
She walked slowly, across Westminster Bridge, amongst the mid-morning pedestrians, causing some to detour past her as they scurried along to wherever they were going. She could already see the imposing mass of Vauxhall Cross, which was where she was heading, she stopped for a moment the, rush flowing round as if she was a rock in a fast flowing river. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders and headed towards the meeting, a meeting she was not looking forward too. She was still, if you really looked, favouring her right leg slightly, the bullet that had hit her in her calf, had passed cleanly through and had healed well but it still ached when exercised.
For all that she had passed her fitness review, her last mission had turned into such a shambles that she was not looking forward to see her boss, the Director of Active Operations, properly for the first time. She had of course seen him briefly during her debriefing but given that had been when she was laid up in a hospital bed awaiting the operation to repair her leg, she felt it did not count. So she decided to get it over with as quickly as possible and as a distraction she thought about the fun they'd had last night.
It had been great seeing all the girls again, though it always amazed her how much they'd changed and yet were still the same. They had all met at Joanna's penthouse on the river, there was the first really big change, it was the first time she had seen the place. Joanna had gone from being a teacher to world famous model in what, just over two years and yet she was still the same Jo, though now she had the money and influence to do the things she had always talked about doing. Several hours last night had been spent working out strategies for her new charity to get started helping women and children in places like Darfur, Eritrea and Afghanistan. of course it helps when your friends have slightly different experience and skill sets to most charity boards. Though they still haven't heard what their masters in the Foreign Office and SIS would make of it all. That was another slight worry for the interview, though they had discussed their response last night and if necessary she would just take a leave of absence, hell she was due one after three years off and on in Northern Pakistan and Helmond Province.
It had been fantastic to see her sister and Maryam, as their schedules always seemed to have them in different places or even continents. Helena had apparently been in Darfur and southern Sudan the previous week and was showing a gorgeous golden tan, Maryam had been in Iraq under a chador and her normally slightly olive skin was looking on the pale side. There had been good wine, good food and good company, they had talked late into the night and so had not got up as early as they normally did, then of course while Helena was making breakfast, a journalist had turned up to interview Jo and they hadn't been able to make their proper goodbyes. Hopefully everyone would still be around that evening.
Thinking about these things brought her to the building and after what seemed an eternity of checks, miles of corridors and more lifts than was sensible, she was standing outside the DoAO's office. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, knocked and entered. The man behind the desk looked harried, his normally immaculate suit was crumpled, his top button undone and his tie pulled down. She felt uncomfortable enough in her new pale grey Betty Jackson trouser suit and the Christian Laboutin boots, that Joanna had insisted she have, so she could look "the Biz" for this important interview, without seeing her boss like this.
"Ah number 9, Caroline, come in sit down, well you certainly stirred up a real hornet's nest with the info you brought out on your last mission. We're still chasing down a load of leads...oh by the way I like the new look, bit of a change from your normal ripped t-shirts and combats." This was said with a wry grin and a raised eyebrow, with this Caroline knew she wasn't in the trouble she had thought she might be.
"Sergeant Hampson sends his thanks and says there's a few drinks waiting for you behind the bar in Hereford. And further to that my dear, I've heard they've put up a shrine to you in the Sergeant's Mess, you are something more than a minor hero to the SAS boys at the mo. Now personally I'd love to know how you managed to carry a what 15 stone man some 5 miles with a large hole in your thigh."
Unconsciously her hand dropped to rub her left thigh through the linen of her trousers and for a moment she was there, she could almost feel the strange combination of freezing wind of the mountain, the blazing sun, the weight of Hampson over her right shoulder. She remembered the mantra that Master Tan Xi had taught her to block out pain, the Xi Kung breathing cycles to force the thin air into her lungs and generate the chi needed to power her body through the punishment she was putting it through. She gently shook her head to free herself from the reverie, "I'm not exactly sure how I did it sir."
It is always better to dissemble, than truthfully tell people you can do things that seem almost like Magic, that was what she was told as a little girl, first by her goddess and then reinforced by Tan Xi when he saw what she could do in training her.
"To be honest sir I couldn't leave him, that would have alerted them to the fact we had penetrated their base, I had a suspicion that the info I pulled off those two laptops could be useful and I didn't want them changing codes or procedures as that might mean the info became worthless. If hadn't been for that attack by, I take it was the Yanks, a UAV lead strike...we would have been in and out without any problems at all."
"Well we are very glad you did do what you did, that information you downloaded contained their latest codes, locations of some of the top brass, some missions that we now working to track and stop and best of all the jackpot, banking details. You, well we, are severely loved by our cousins at the moment." the chuckling as he said it, " I have not passed on what you said about our cousins after you were extracted, it was rather colourful, to say the least."
"Well sir I was slightly under the weather by then, mind you I do stand by what I said, the Yanks really do need to get back to putting people on the ground, you can't do everything by satellite links, sitting on your [censored] in an office in Langley."
This brought a barking laugh and a large unforced smile from the DAO.
"Right then Caroline, just because the docs say you're ready doesn't mean I agree. Don't give me that look, I know you could so easily fool them it's unreal, however I've had a request for help from a department that your sister has worked with. They want someone with certain special skills," at which he looked up from the notes on his desk with a twinkle in his eye, " and more interestingly they want someone with some scientific or research training. Specifically psychology and anthropology, to be honest I actually think it was a roundabout way of asking for you without actually putting it on paper." He sat back down and leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers, "that is what your degree was in wasn't it?"
"You know it is sir, and as you know if it hadn't been for you keeping me so busy I'd have my PhD by now, Psycho-Social development in pre-modern contact aboriginal societies, the dissertation is pretty much complete and the viva has been put back three times, let's see that mission in Kabul in march, Helmond late April and then this last mission and hospital."
"Ahem as I was saying, the circular asking almost could have been describing you, he's a wily devil that Thadeus Smith. Seeing as I'm not keen on putting you back in the field.." She tried to interrupt him to protest but a raised finger and a stern glare stilled her before she could even start. " I feel that a change would be good you've been in the frontline too much recently, field officers tend to burnout I find, so I think a change would be as good as a rest. Go visit Mr Thadeus Smith, at the Department of Rural Planning see what he wants, then it's up to you but I'm minded to loan you out, to save you in the long run. Come back to me rested, full of vim and vigour, go on off with you, see what he wants...oh and let me know what that sly fox is up to hmm."
" Ok sir mind if I have a word with my sister first, seeing as you said she's had some experience of this man."
" I would expect no less of you, off with you, I've a meeting with our superiors, Box and a two ministers to prepare for."
She left his office, feeling slightly let down, but also relieved the past year had been a whirlwind of fear, violence and close brushes with death, maybe a change of pace would be a good thing, something less dangerous, just for a few months. As she left the building she took out her mobile phone and rang her sister.
Want to know what she looks like and what she's wearing...
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