Chapter 6, Part 4: Strategy and Tactics

        As Antoinette left the Mentalist section later that morning, Walter d’Armand came up and bowed over her hand. “May I have the pleasure of taking you out to lunch, Mademoiselle Duval?”
        She smiled at him. “I would have to be back by one o’clock for my afternoon session with the mentalists.”
        ”I will ensure that you are not tardy, my dear.”
        ”Then oui, I would will go out with you.”
        He took her to the hangar and opened the door of a small, sporty aircar. He flew her to Antonio’s, on top of the Chattanooga Hilton, landing on the aircar deck on top of the parking garage. The restaurant was quietly opulent, with soft music playing and candles on the tables. A reservation had already been made and they were whisked to a table near a window.
        After he had ordered for them, Walter asked, “So what have you been doing, Antoinette?”
        ”I have been learning how to handle my animal shape and what I can do as the tiger. Tracker has been of a great help in this.”
        ”I imagine that he would be, since he’s an animal himself. He’d be able to relate to you when you are in animal form. Of course, when you revert back to human form, he’d be less able to help.”
        ”Even a human is an animal, Walter.”
        ”Well, yes, but we do have a lot of advantages over a common animal. We think better, we appreciate the finer things in life, such as beauty. Such as yourself, the epitome of beauty.”
        She smiled at him. The waiter brought the appetizer. When he’d left, Walter continued, “I can help you understand your tiger shape.”
        ”Thank you, Walter,” she replied. “Perhaps later, after the mentalists have finished with me. I do not want to confuse myself with two sets of teachings.”
        Walter returned her to the hangar an hour later. As he helped her out of the car, she smiled at him. “Thank you, Walter, for a very nice lunch.”
        ”I am glad you enjoyed it, Antoinette. Perhaps we can do it again soon.”
        ”We will see,” she said with a smile. As she turned and left the hangar, she thought, that will depend on what happens with Tracker and myself.

        That evening, she was eating alone in the cafeteria and thinking about the events since her arrival, when she heard a voice. “Antoinette. Where’s your bodyguard?” Jay was grinning down at her, tray in hand.
        ”‘allo, Jay,” she said. “Tracker had to go to the Bonner Institute, to get his pistol. Do you wish to join me?”
        ”Sure.” He sat down across from her and started to eat. “So, how are you and Tracker getting along?”
        ”Very well. I like him very much.”
        Jay shook his head and laughed. “Who would have guessed it? Him so quiet and reserved, you so open and vibrant. I’d never, in a million years, have thought you’d settle on him.”
        ”There is much in Tracker that he keeps hidden from the world. I learn more about him every night,” she replied, a touch of sharpness in her voice.
        ”There must be, to keep the attention of a girl like you,” he agreed. As he ate, she sipped a glass of milk and stared off into nothingness. He drained the last of his tea and waved a hand in front of her eyes. “Hey, anyone home in there?”
        She started and looked at him. “Ah, Jay, I did not mean to be rude. I am sorry. I was thinking.”
        ”About what?” he asked as they bussed their trays.
        ”About how I might use my abilities.”
        He nodded, serious for once. “Starting to learn enough to realize just how little you really know about what’s going on, huh? We all go through it. How about we go to the lounge and do a little what-if-ing?”
        She frowned a moment as she puzzled out the expression, then nodded. “Thank you, Jay. I think that might be helpful.”
        On the way to the lounge, they met Scott, Jerry, Red and Marsha. “Hi, guys,” Jay called out. “Antoinette and I are going to do a little brainstorming. Want to join us?”
        ”What about?” Scott asked.
        ”She’s been wondering how to use her powers,” Jay said.
        Red nodded. “Count me in.” The others agreed.
        Jay led the way to one of the lounges nearby. It was already occupied by a young woman Antoinette had seen before but never met. “Antoinette?, this is Julie Allen,” he introduced. “She’s another of the combat staff and in many ways one of our most powerful members. Julie? Antoinette Duval, our newest recruit.”
        “Good to meet you, Julie.” A small woman of obvious Asian descent, Julie wore a skin-tight bodysuit underneath regular street clothing. The bodysuit seemed made of some kind of shimmery silk or nylon material that lay almost invisible against her skin, the color so closely matched that it disappeared if you didn’t know it was there. Short, black hair lay in a pageboy style, cut square at the back of her neck. “What do you do,” she asked.
        “To put is simply,” Julie answered, “I am fire. I have almost complete control of the fire around me and I fly with the aid of fire. I’m usually called on when a fire has lives at stake, but I can also shoot bursts of flame that can distract or even kill whatever I’m shooting at. My fire is usually so hot that no normal weapon can touch me.”
        “I see.”
        Antoinette sat down with Julie and the others arranged themselves around her. After they’d settled themselves, Marsha said, “So have they determined what you can do, Antoinette?”
        ”When I change into the tigresse, I can go through things, I can leap more than fifteen metres, my skin and my fur are, they used the word ‘dense,’ so I am not so easily hurt, and I can kill things. I also sense when danger is near and I heal quickly.”
        ”Well,” Scott said, “your most significant ability is your ability to go insubstantial. Let’s say a criminal is in a room with only one door. He has the door barricaded and is shooting it out with us. You could go around behind him and come in through the walls, surprising him and knocking him out.”
        ”Yeah,” Red added. “Or if we’d planned it ahead of time, all you’d need to do, after coming in behind him, is roar, then duck back through the wall. He’d turn around and, while he was distracted, we could rush him.”
        ”Or,” Jay said, “even if there were no convenient walls to go through, you could take a deep breath, then go underground and come up behind him and whack him up the side of his head.”
        ”As long as they don’t know who you are, you could let yourself be captured in human form and, when they lock you up in a cell or the basement or something, you could escape by going insubstantial and come tell us where their hideout was,” Marsha said.
        ”That fifteen meter leap is pretty impressive,” Red said. “You could jump from one rooftop to another, or into a second- or third-story window, and gain surprise from someone that thought he was safe from attack in that direction.”
        “You could also use a combination of that leap and going insubstantial to reach the second or even the third story of a burning house to rescue the occupants,” Julie added.
        The group spent the next half hour coming up with ways she could use her abilities. At last Antoinette asked, “What are the powers of the others at the Base?”
        ”I’m a telekinetic,” Marsha said. “I can move things without touching them. My outside job as News Anchor gives me an inside track on rumors and lets me influence public opinion.”
        ”I can increase or decrease the gravity on an object and fly by gravitic repulsion,” Jay said.
        ”Is that why you shot at me in the Yards? To make me too heavy to move?” Antoinette asked.
        ”No, I was going to make you so light you’d float off your feet, then catch you. But your dangersense warned you.”
        ”Jerry?” she prompted.
        He blushed scarlet. “Uh, well, I’m big and strong and, uh, kinetic damage just, uh, bounces off me,” he stammered.
        Antoinette looked puzzled. “What means the ‘kinetic damage’?”
        ”Physical damage, like bullets, or clubs,” Red replied.
        ”He can even jump out of the airbus a thousand feet up, climb out of the crater he just made, and walk off,” Jay added.
        ”Ah, I see. And the others? Can you tell me about them?” Antoinette asked.
        ”Sure,” Scott said. “There are about 18 on the combat staff now, counting us, with all different abilities. Let’s see…
        “Of course, you’ve already met Julie, here. She’s on the second duty team along with Alicia Winter, a very strong telekinetic but who can only affect metals. She’s a Canadian and took the name “Pole Star” to hide her real identity. The Mounties wanted her to work with them but she didn’t like their regimental lifestyle.” Scott continued, naming others and describing their abilities.
        ”We also have a FORCE agent on detached duty here,” Scott said. “His name is Walter d’Armand, but he goes by the code name of Animal. He shapechanges into a black panther, as well as several other animals. But his change seems to be magical, or alien technology, since his clothes change with him.”
        Antoinette nodded. “I know. I met him. He does not seem to like Tracker very much.”
        Scott shrugged. “I suppose that’s just his way. He’s with FORCE, so he shouldn’t be bigoted.”
        ”You should be happy that you won’t have to compete with him for Tracker,” Jay said with a laugh.
        Red grinned and shook his head.
        The talk continued for hours with stories of encounters they’d had. Antoinette and Jerry listened in silence.
        At last, she stood and stretched, then yawned. “Thank you, mes amis. I have enjoyed your experiences, and they have helped me to see how I might use my powers. I think I will go to bed now. Good night.”
        ”Me, too,” Scott said. “I’ve got to get up early tomorrow.”
        The group broke up. Jay and Jerry headed to the dining room for a snack while Red chatted with Antoinette as they walked across the darkened plaza toward her room. She detoured around the garden end of the pool and stopped on the bridge that enclosed the plunge basin. She leaned on the railing and gazed at the waterfall. After a moment, she spoke. “Red, why have you been avoiding me?”
        He shrugged. “Didn’t want to hang around underfoot and get in the way.”
        She shook her head and turned around to lean her back against the rail. “Non, Red. I do not want you to stay away. I do not want to lose your friendship. Please? Unless … unless it is better for you to stay away.” She looked at him soberly.
        He studied her for a moment, then laughed. “You’re a really sweet girl! No, I’m fine. I’ll admit, I’m a little jealous of the fox. But there are a lot of other women out there, some with my name on them. Friend, definitely. Who knows? I might even get another chance at you!”
        She laughed and shook her head. “You are a rascal. A charming rascal. Thank you, Red.” She hugged him, then turned and continued across the Plaza to her room, her hand in his.