Late that evening, Carfield walked into the conference room and dropped a heavy folder on the table, then pulled out a chair and sat down with a sigh. Magnum grinned. “What’s the matter, Henry? You sound tired. Getting old?”
Carfield gave a wry grin. “Of course not. Just putting on an act to keep you youngsters from getting disheartened.”
Magnum chuckled. “So, Doctor, how’s our favorite tiger coming along?”
DeAlvarez replied, “Very well, sir. She is in the process of developing a solid loyalty bond with Tracker and she has developed numerous friendships with other members of the Defenders, so the main concern I voiced last week is being taken care of. Further testing and training have turned up no new weaknesses of any note and more abilities. I foresee no problems with Miss Duval. She’s one impressive girl.”
”That is excellent, Doctor,” Magnum said.
He looked at Carfield and raised an eyebrow. “Henry?”
”I agree with the Doctor. She’s coming along very well. She works hard, she shows initiative, she’s learning to control Tigresse. She’s learning to respond to her teammates. She and Tracker do an especially good job of communicating.”
”Which leads me to another thing,” DeAlvarez interrupted. “Tracker is changing.”
Magnum glanced at her, instantly alert. “In what way?”
She looked at Carfield. “Colonel?”
”Well, Frank Austin, the Training Room operator, has been reporting to me that Tracker is acting differently. I monitored one of his sessions. As you know, Tracker has always remained in the background. He does his job, and does it well, but he never volunteers, never calls attention to himself.
”He still defers to Scott and the others, but with Tigresse he touches her to get her attention, he corrects her, he guides her, he’s almost always at her side. I immediately got in touch with Doctor DeAlvarez.” He leaned back in his chair.
She continued, slowly turning her stylus between her fingers. “I put Cathy Johnson to work. She’s been trailing Tracker via the monitors through the public areas and has compiled a detailed history of where he goes, what he does and says and to whom.
”First of all, Tracker is with Antoinette every minute of the day except when their duties take them apart. She is very obviously smitten with him. In the seven months I’ve been here, he has always avoided being touched and almost never touched anyone else. With her, he not only puts up with it, he reciprocates, albeit hesitantly. He defers to her, but he is very protective of her.
”He seems happier. It’s slight, but noticeable. He interacts with the others more. He socializes more. He doesn’t remain in the background as much.
”I called in Scott, Jay, and Red about the mission when they picked her up. In the bingo parlor, Miss Duval broke down and started to cry. Scott put a blanket around her shoulders, but he said Tracker actually knelt down in front of her and put his hand on her arm, which goes completely counter with his desire to remain unnoticed. Jay also noted that, in the hovervan on the way back to Base, Tracker allowed her to hold his tail, which is unheard-of.
”According to Red, Tracker recently gave Miss Duval a guitar. We checked with the Quartermaster who confirmed the purchase and the reasoning. Has he ever, in your knowledge, made a gift to anyone?”
Carfield shook his head. “Never.”
”No,” Magnum said. “What does that mean?”
”Tracker has never allowed himself to care about other people,” Doctor DeAlvarez said. “He sees himself as a tool, or a servant, not as a person. I was beginning to think he was unable to care, after all, he’s been here two years! But that is apparently not true. I think, now, that he is afraid of people, of what they might say or do, so he hides from them emotionally, making himself as invisible as possible.” She frowned, then added, “Castile did a damn good job of conditioning him, damn their hides.” She spoke with uncharacteristic emotion.
”Keep on top of it,” Magnum said. “Should we retest him?”
”Not yet,” DeAlvarez replied. “If he is starting to come out of his shell in response to Miss Duval, I don’t think we should let him know that we know. He might retreat back into himself.
”Doctor Carter has been trying for months to help him open up, with little success. Tracker has proven to be curious, but never adventurous. In the past he would use research to answer Carter’s questions rather than life experiences. I would be delighted if our new recruit could help him.”
Magnum nodded thoughtfully. “That would be very, very good for Tracker.”
”Yes, it would indeed,” Doctor DeAlvarez said.
“I have to say this is interesting, though,” Magnum said thoughtfully. I don’t remember if I put it in Tracker’s first mission report, but what he did for the tiger when they brought Antoinette in wasn’t too different from something he did in his very first mission with us.”
Doctor DeAlvarez looked up from her notes. “Oh? Is this something I don’t know about?”
“I thought it got recorded in the Airbus logs, but when he was assigned to me to locate and rescue Sasha, Tracker found a mountain lion that had been pretty shot up by an Army patrol. He brought the cat to the airbus and demanded we use the autodoc to heal it. It seems Tracker may have a special affinity to animals of any kind and that may be why he’s opened up to Antoinette the way he has.”
“You could be right, Magnum,” the Doctor said. “Since he met her first as an animal that needed rescuing, that would have fallen right into what you describe. It looks like they both got very lucky when they met. I’m going to do more checking up on this and see if I can find those old logs. It might well be just what we need to fully break him out of Castile’s conditioning.”
At last, Magnum closed his folder. “Anything else?” he asked. The others shook their heads. “Okay, then, let’s call it a day.”
