Story 10 – Part 2 – Seeing Shapes

Jordan had not bothered to turn down his music until he had parked on base. He had discovered that the only way to hear anything through the pounding rain was to blast the volume as loud as it could go. He should have grabbed an umbrella, but instead had to bolt from the car to the closest building as fast as he could. Jordan still ended up pretty wet. Even his hair was dripping after he pulled off his hat.

“Glad you could make it, Thompson,” someone said from behind.

“Reeds,” Jordan said as he turned around and seized his friend’s hand. “Did you honestly think I’d miss this?”

“Not really,” the general said. “I already learned that you can’t keep a good cadet away from explosives.”

“Especially after we had nearly blown up our commander’s jeep.”

“Now that was hilarious,” General Reeds laughed. “I remember he wouldn’t let us near any vehicles for the rest of our training. We had to walk everywhere or else beg a ride. Oh, and speaking of rides, has anyone out done the pony motif we stuck on it?”

“Well, it’s currently plaid,” Jordan told him.

“You’re driving a kilt? Now that is pretty good.”

The two continued to talk as they headed to the conference room. It was all jovial conversation until the door was in sight, then they quickly reverted to their military states as they marched into the room. Jordan was wondering who was going to be crazy enough to have such training in this weather, and he was not too surprised to see the government agents inside the room. Agent Michaels was obediently sitting at attention while Agent Driver was lounging.

“What do we have here, sir?” Jordan asked Reeds quietly.

“Two different groups, both government,” Reeds explained. “Their bosses want them to be prepared for any situation. Basically it’s a course refresher. They aren’t cadets, so we can’t be too mean to the little darlings. Oh, and make sure your phone is off. I don’t want whatever lame ringtone you have going off.”

Jordan grinned and stepped back out of the room to quickly look at his phone. He was pretty surprised to see the amount of missed calls he had from Vire. It looked like she had also left a few messages, so Jordan quickly accessed his voicemail and hoped that nothing was wrong. The first two messages had bad reception and Jordan could not make out a word. As a private pushed a cart of practice bombs into the room, Jordan listened to the last message as it cut in and out.

“Hey,” Vire’s voice said. “Look, just ignore the last few…..overreacting a bit. Carmine just…bad feeling……..okay? Really, just don’t blow yourself up.”

Even though he had not gotten the entire message, Jordan had gotten enough. He knew that any of Carmine’s premonitions were not to be taken lightly. If something was up, then he was going to have to be on his toes. He would have to warn Reeds and the agents as well. The private came out of the conference room and Jordan realized that he had missed something pretty obvious.

“Now, where are you going?” Jordan asked as he grabbed the back of the private’s jacket.

“Sir?” the private asked.

“You’re hat is on,” Jordan explained. “And you never saluted me on your way in. But, on the important note, since when did they use practice bombs in a conference room? Especially bombs that I didn’t make?”

After he had said those words, Jordan realized his mistake in standing there. With one good throw, Jordan sent the private imposter crashing into the wall as he ran into the conference room. There was hardly enough time to call out warning as someone started poking what looked like an innocent flour bomb. The powder that exploded was definitely not flour.

The room filled with a powdery mist and Jordan hit the ground as he held his breath. He could only see shapes of people in the room as those who had managed to hold their breath were trying to move to the door. There were no windows and the air vents were not being very helpful. A gun went off and was quickly followed by the activation of the sprinkler system. Jordan would have to remember to thank that sharpshooter, if the mist did not kill him first.