I got a message back from Conductor. There was grumbling about the amount of paperwork they were going to have to do but, the message finished with praise for a job well done. Also an official commendation. I can tell you it was hard to go and grumble that night but it’s a good job I did because I was approached by Tinker.
Tinker is more clearly of Honshu origin than the team I saw in Welkin, although she doesn’t say she’s recruiting for Honshu, just that her parents moved from Honshu to AWJ when she was a brat. She presents as femme. She’s friendly and sympathetic, which you’d expect from a recruiter, I suspect behind that she’s a leader-type, probably a senior NCO, and I wonder if she’s been sent specifically to appeal directly to my cover identity or if this bar is just her regular rotation. It would certainly make sense for her to be sent specifically to try and recruit me, “Mongoose” is presented as someone lost and who reacts well to authority figures. Physically Tinker is poised and has an augmented left arm. It’s hard to be sure but I suspect she’s got weapons fitted, and maybe something else in that arm. On a different level, if she wasn’t the enemy, I, as Bagpipes, could woo Tinker. Because sexuality is hard to fake I wonder if they’ve sent Tinker here to potentially seduce “Mongoose” as well?
The conversation goes like a dance. Neither of us want to come on too strong and tip our hands, she she wants to recruit me and I want to be recruited. As the conversation goes along it’s clear she’s attracted to me as well and so we have a sort of double flirtation going. I am a professional, I manage to get recruited, result, and keep the sexual flirting down to dull roar. I won’t say no, pillow talk still works to gather intelligence after all, but a part of me expects she’ll remember I’m cannon fodder for the insurrection and not take it any further.
At the end of the evening we agree to meet again, in the capacity of recruiter and recruit. We don’t use those words of course, it’s all very tentative at the moment, Tinker doesn’t know that I’m a sure thing, it’s my duty to be recruited, but we’re off to a good start.
I report my first contact and my next meet. The next three days are tricky. I need to maintain a basically similar routine for “Mongoose” but with enough of a change for that ‘I’ve got a secret’ that it’s not obvious I’m a spy. The very real attraction to Tinker makes that easier than it might have been. Young, unrequited, lust is just as real a secret as ‘I’m being recruited’ after all.
The weekend rolls around, and it’s recruitment meeting time. I was expecting a Friday chat in the back room of a pub and, indeed, I’m taken into the back room of a pub. I can tell, instantly something is up, there are about ten of us, eleven as I count more carefully, but the whole Honshu strike team. They’re mingling but their body language is off.
It takes me longer than it should to realise what’s up, while we’re all being offered drinks, and there are a mix of drinks, they’re all drinking what looks suspiciously like bottled water. Just as I wonder what the deal is, I slump to the floor, along with a couple of the other smaller people. Just as things start to go dark, I hear the thump, thump of the bigger bodies.
When I come round, I try to act like a civilian. I check I’m dressed, check I haven’t been raped, robbed and the like. While my hands are moving, doing that, I’m surreptitiously looking around, assessing the area. It’s not that I don’t care about what my hands find (I haven’t been robbed, I’m still dressed but some of my clothes have been at least undone and refastened, maybe removed and redressed - one fastener patch hasn’t been done up properly. No aches, so no rape, no groping) it’s more that I can panic about it later, knowing if I’m about to get shot is more urgent. I’m in a small room, sat in a comfy chair. I figure I was searched for listening devices. I refasten my top properly.
“Why did you take my clothes off?” I put a mix of indignation and panic into my voice. I’m sure they’re watching me and the door opens. In walks Tinker.
“I’m sorry, we had to be sure that you aren’t a cop cudd, a spy sent to infiltrate us. Our medic undressed you and she’s very professional about bodies. I stop and smile, putting some doubt and wavering into it but nod. Honestly it’s far, far gentler than a lot of what I went through in training, but I’d volunteered for that and while some of it was a surprise in detail broadly we knew what we were letting ourselves in for. This was more of a shock but equally understandable.
“We’re going to do basic fitness and aptitude tests over the next little while, see how you can best help us, if you’re still in?” Tinker continued, smiling back at me reassuringly and reaching out to stroke my cheek. I pressed myself into her touch. I won’t lie, I wasn’t entirely professional in that moment, I’m not a complete control freak, not yet anyway, but being knocked out in a room full of the enemy like that freaked me out. Taking comfort from the touch of a cute woman, even if she’s an enemy cute woman, helped steady me.
“Fitness? Aptitude tests?” I asked, looking up at her.
“You’ll be fine,” she reassured me with another smile and stroke of my cheek. “We’re not doing military tests or anything, it’s not like we want you to be a secret army, we just want to be sure you haven’t got any heart defects or bad legs, that kind of thing.”
I nodded, and tried not to let my thoughts “Liar, liar” show in my eyes.
“Come on then, lets get you into the first test,” Tinker drops her hand from my face and offers both hands to help me up. I take them, stand and smile as she gives me a gentle squeeze before letting go. I follow her out into the corridor, noting that the “rooms” were much rougher and readier on the outsider, pressed wood boards bolted into place, the insides looked much better. Maybe some kind of projector onto white painted walls? There are only eight other recruits who join us. I wonder what happened to the other two, did they refuse at the mention of fitness tests or were they carrying listening devices? I make a mental note of everything I can remember about them so I can pass their details on.
First up is the fitness test. Not military my left foot. I was always borderline on these in the Service, but here I realise I’m doing rather well. I keep it up, it would look more surprising to suddenly dip in form. The Service basically requires a level of fitness equivalent to a special forces soldier, not with the full pack, we’re not going into battle, but we are a military intelligence unit, se we have to pass basic combat fitness and several extended fitness tests with our normal “spywear” kit. But if they’ve had me under surveillance, they’ll have seen I’ve been running and the like to keep up those standards.
Next is a test of coordination. It’s not military, it’s those pesky buzzer bars. I could probably do better, but they haven’t seen me do anything that would suggest I do anything like this, so I deliberately come in the bottom half of the group. Not bad enough to look like I’ve got a tremor or anything, but nothing outstanding.
We’re then given a break for goffi and food. I carefully eat like my cover rather than like I’m a spy after a military fitness exercise. I’m still hungry, so an extra piece of fruit is all I allow myself.
I join the conversation as the people around chat, trying to work out what I can about them. I get names and bits of backstory, partial descriptions - quite a lot of these people don’t have much in the ways of distinguishing features - and I can’t help remembering the first few days of spy training when everyone was doing the same. Remembering that, I make sure I share enough of my cover that I don’t seem stand-offish. I’m sure someone is watching us, observing how we interact, still looking for signs that one of us is a spy or undercover cop.
After eating it’s an afternoon of aptitude tests. Numerical reasoning, computer skills, report writing, all very ordinary. I decide to let some of my data security skills show, it’s line with the jobs I’ve been looking for. I don’t think they’ll employ me to handle their data but they might look to train me as a hacker and put me into a data retrieval role. Last up is a mixed bag of other skills. I almost relaxed as I realised one was an infiltration and stealth skill, it was going to be a breeze but I caught myself and kept a tight rein on my ability to slide into the veil and breeze through that. I think I did better than they expected after my coordination tests earlier, but I could have let rip and really breezed through.
At the end of the day I copy everyone else and collapse, eating the next batch of food, sticking to the fruit juice though - most of them are on the beers.
The strike team come out and mingle. One by one our new handlers take us out and break the news, then let us out. I don’t know how anyone else has done, but I was accepted. I’m part of the revolution.
I would say part of their operational security sucks. I’m left to find my own way home. But that means I know where they’ve had us doing the training. I call for a cab and head straight home.
I very, very carefully go through all of my gear. If I was recruiting them, I’d be planting bugs, putting software traps into all my electronic devices and so on. Judging by the time I got out, they had long enough to bug my home as well.
I check my electronics during the drive home. The firewalls kept them out, it looks like they tried some very basic stuff like a thumb print but enough people use a voice print these days that the fact they couldn’t get in shouldn’t have unduly alarmed them. It’s not exactly what I use, but they’ll assume it what is. Electronics safe, I use them to check for bugs on me. All clear.
When I get in though, the flat I’m renting is so alive it’s unreal. Audio, visual, electronic sniffing. There are ways to defeat all of it - the simplest is just to create and drop off a report from somewhere else which is what my operational security requires - but I need to make sure I never break cover now. I’m not an exhibitionist but I catch myself hoping Tinker enjoys watching me in the shower.
I feel like I’m starting to make genuine progress. I hadn’t expected to like Tinker. I will take her down with the rest of the strike group if I have to, but I wonder if I can honey trap her and turn her. We’ll see how that develops. Technically I am now a recruit within the Honshu Insurrection. There are several more stages to go before that starts to pay off but I have my feet under the metaphorical table. I can’t relax yet, but at least I’ve started the process successfully.
Shower, sleep. Fail to get a job in the morning as usual. Head to get a goffi and check for close surveillance. Double check for electronic tampering. Compose and send a report to Conductor so they can look into the other recruits and those that disappeared after being knocked out. Then I settle down to wait for the next phase.
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