Chapter 16: Homeward Bound
Once he was certain everyone but the flight crew were asleep, Scott pulled his belt comm and plugged in the earphone. Hey keyed in a number and waited for an answer.
“Magnum, here. Who’s awake?”
“Captain Jones and the two gunners, sir. What do you have?”
“Remember that little conversation you didn’t sit in on?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, Animal has filed formal charges against both Tracker and Antoinette. That’s part of the reason you weren’t getting much support on your rescue mission. I’ve talked to FORCE, including Major-General Avery. He was very upset when I told him that FORCE was being obstructive and not forwarding messages to us. He didn’t go into detail but it appears that several officers in FORCE Security have a bias against genetic manipulation and other so-called ‘intentional’ alterations. So far, seven officers are under investigation and fifteen have been given lateral transfers into other branches of FORCE pending their own investigations.
“Meanwhile, the charges stand and Tracker needs to be made aware of the fact. How is he?”
“Questionable, sir,” Scott replied gravely.
“What’s wrong?”
“We both can guess who his kidnappers were, right?”
“Castile.”
“Yes, sir,” Scott replied. “They’ve had enough time to affect him somehow. He’s done several uncharacteristic things from the time we found him.”
“Such as…?”
“First off, Marsha tells me that they found him drunk in the Castile commander’s office. He’d ripped out the commander’s throat with his fangs.”
“What?”
“Yes, sir. Marsha took photographs of the scene on the way in, for evidence, and it’s quite obvious that Tracker did it, not Tigresse. The bite marks are too narrow for a tiger’s.”
“Go on.”
“I saw evidence of Tracker’s inebriation myself once we had him aboard. Marsha told me he’d taking a single large drink of alcohol. It smelled like whiskey, but no idea which, since all the liquor decanters had been shattered before we arrived. What’s more disturbing though is that when Jay patted him on the back to welcome him, Tracker nearly took him on right here in the airbus.”
“You mean he attacked Jay?”
“He started to, sir. Antoinette managed to prevent it, but he was obviously very touchy and sensitive as long as he was awake.”
“Anyone actually hurt?”
“No, sir.”
“Good. I’m going to leave the decision of when to tell Tracker about the charges up to you. Just make sure he’s told before you arrive so he can be prepared,” Magnum concluded. “Anything else?”
“Yes, sir. We’re carrying three extra passengers: An old man and two infants. According to Antoinette, they are Tracker’s father and siblings.”
“You just love loading me down with worry, don’t you, Scott? I’ll have Dr. deAlvarez contact you tomorrow concerning the infants. It would probably be a good idea if she talks to Tracker’s father so she can prepare for their arrival.
“Now, if you don’t have anything else to hit me with, I’m going to let you go so I can get things moving on this end.”
“Only my stun balls, sir. See you in the Training Room,” Scott replied.
“See you when you get back. Now take care of your team. Magnum out.”
