Assigning Reaper and Lee

Fred Barnes watched as the agent he was sent to meet with was acosted, and tossed into the back of a black van. What was it with agents headed for the Division these days. This was the second one in as many months who had been attacked. Fred had plenty of time to contemplate as he followed the van as it headed out into the suburbs. He travelled at a safe distance, and watched as the van pulled up outside a warehouse. He eased into a parking spot close by, and surveyed the area as Reaper was trundled inside, still unconscious. Fred slipped in through a side door, taking care of one of Reaper's assailants enroute, and crept to a vantage point where he could see Reaper, bound to a chair, and also see his captors in a control room directly beside, but hidden by bright lighting and a one way mirror.

Time passes

Reaper woke up, his vision still swimming from the blow to the > head. As he went to reach up to the wound, he felt his hands > restrained. Looking down, he saw he was tied to a chair. The room > he was in was all white, with no apparent door. The only object of > note in the room was the tell-tale one way mirror. He looked at the > mirror and simply stared, waiting for something to reveal itself.

After about 10 minutes, a voice opened up over an intercom...

"Mr. Reaper, we know that you had an altercation with a friend of ours earlier in the evening, and that you are a Bureau agent. We're willing to restrain our friend from killing you if you'd do the occassional favour for us from time to time."

Fred listened, and recognised the voice. Jimmy the Kid. Believed to be a big player in the local mafia, but never enough evidence to convict him. Time to provide a little assistance. He dropped a smoke grenade from his belt into his hand, then crept to the door to the control room. Grasping the handle, he inched it open, tossed the grenade in, then closed the door, breaking the lock in the course of his actions to impede the actions of Jimmy and his cronies. He then sped into the room housing Reaper, undid his binds and hoisted him onto his shoulder. He gathered Reaper's personal items, which had been left casually on the table beside him. As he swung out of the room, Reaper's boot collected an approaching mafia goon square in the job, sending him crashing to the ground.

Fred didn't hesitate, quickly following his entry route and getting away from the warehouse. Reaper slowly recovered on the journey to Station X, but not enough to identify the course they had taken. He was virtually fully recovered by the time of their arrival.

"The Boss will be glad to see you in one piece!", said Fred, directing him in and up to Josh's office on the first floor.

Vanessa parked her car in a corner of the carpark, and gave herself a final inspection before leaving it. She knew where Director's office was, and therefore did not ask the reception for directions. Increasing her pace, she walked towards the lift lobby, knowing that she was going to be late, and entered a lift that was already waiting for her.

As the two agents arrived at Station X, Josh Peters was venting more than a little steam into the phone.

"WHAT? When did this happen? Is he alright? Who perpetrated this?"

He received the full story on what had happened to Reaper and breathed a sigh of relief that he was saved and in one piece. These attacks on agents were becoming a little too frequent for his liking. But, he was fully composed as he watched the two new members of the Division enter the outer office on his security system. For someone who had been the guest of Jimmy the Kid, Reaper didn't appear to be in too bad condition. Josh glanced at his trainer's listing as the two were directed into his office, and frowned when he realised everyone was busy at the moment. He'd have to train the two of them himself, it looked like.

"Agent Reaper, Agent Lee, I'm Training Director Josh Peters. Welcome to the Division. I'm particularly glad that you made it, Agent Reaper. From what I understand, your trip was more eventful than most! At least you made it in one piece. Anyway, you're here, and that's all that matters!"

Josh glanced at both agents, and then at his trainer's list for a 10th time. No, no vacancies. Gladly, he'd left his laptop down in the classroom, just in case. Looked like he'd been psychic on this one.

"Well, at the moment, there aren't any trainers free so, if you don't have any complaints, I'm going to be your trainer! If you'd both like to follow me, we'll head down to the classroom."

Once they arrived, having wound their way through the catacombs of Station X, they both settled into the front row of desks, and Josh perched himself upon the desk edge. He looked at the two of them, thoughtfully.

"Well, first off, please feel free to call me Josh. Down here, I'm not the Training Director, I'm just another member of the Bureau. Actually, something that I like to find out from everybody who joins the Bureau is why they joined. Agent Reaper? Agent Lee?"

After listening thoughtfully to their answers, Josh nodded. "Interesting. We all seem to have our own reasons for joining. Me personally, I joined out of curiosity. I worked in Forensics for quite a while, and my work became more and more related to X-Files cases, so I made the changeover. That, and I got a promotion, which always helps."

"Now, I have a bit of a test for you. As you may or may not be aware, we have all manner of cases here in the Division. I'm going to describe one to you, and I'd like you both to describe how you'd go about solving it. I think you'll get the general jist of things once I've described the case!"

"This particular case is one that was recently done here in the Bureau. It's looking at the disappearance of scientists at a Marine Research Institute. The scientists are all members of the same research team, developing a special sonar system for the Navy. The scientists have vanished on three successive trips, always at the same spot, at the same time of night. There are a number of strange aspects to this case. Firstly, there are no apparent signs of a struggle. Only the members of the scientific team vanish, and occassionally some equipment. Crew members who have returned have reported a strange whalesong, a dark shadow in the water, bright lights in the sky and a strange whirring sound. But there have never been injuries in any of the disappearances. So, what do you make of it?"

Respectfully Submitted
Andrew Bell
Training Director Josh Peters
Classroom C, Station X
Email: [email protected]