[s] [long] Friends- Part Five: "Interval with Memos II"
Group Leader Shortear
[Friends- Part Five: "Interval with Memos II"]
Squad Leader Greypaw opened her eyes. For a moment she did not realize
where she was; then her mind cleared. She recognized one of the
sickbay burrows of High Park Warren.
She looked around. Nearby were beds containing four other rabbits. She
recognized the wounded Trooper from the Harbord Street ambush, then
two of the other Troopers, then- her heart leapt- the shape of the
Trooper she had given up for dead! He was breathing!
Then she noticed the equipment gathered around his bed. He was
evidently still in critical condition.
A motion at the entrance of the burrow drew Greypaw's eye. A pretty
white doe entered briskly. "Greypaw! You're awake!" She fluffed cutely
and bounced over. "I'm Maggie. I'll be your nurse for the day." She
giggled.
Greypaw made an effort to gesture/speak, but Maggie said, "Don't exert
yourself. You need another day's rest. The effects of breathing in
that cursed vanilla mist put more of a strain on you than we first
thought. But we placed you here with the Troopers so you'd see them
when you awoke. We know how concerned you were."
She paused and moved closer. "I'm afraid that Balac there is in
serious condition; we're watching him closely." Her ears drooped.
"Whatever happens, he'll never be a combat bun again. He'd be
roadkill, though, if it wasn't for that armour; it saved his life."
She brightened and fluffed in the general direction of the other
wounded Trooper. "But Sam there will be up and hopping in a week. I'm
glad. He's one of my favourites!" She bounced and then suddenly
stopped and blushed. "Well, I mean-"
Greypaw smiled. "It's okay..." she managed to get out.
Maggie seemed to relax a bit. She glanced around and found a large
remote, and placed it by Greypaw's side. "This is for the TV over
there. We've got cable and all kinds of cute stuff. Sailor Moon,
Project A-KO, you name it. Just push the channel buttons. The
large red button will call me or another nurse. Are you hungry or
thirsty?"
Greypaw nodded. "Thirsty..."
"I'll get an assortment." Maggie turned and bounced out, with a rather
nice wiggle. Greypaw's eyes followed her, to unexpectedly meet those
of another rabbit coming in. It was Group Leader Shortear, her
superior.
He smiled. "Glad to see you're awake. We've been worried about you."
Greypaw fluffed gratefully. "I've been asked to update you a bit. The
debriefing can be later."
Shortear continued. "Anyway, Steve Davidson had left the house not
long before you got there, although several of your troopers had seen
him arrive. You had followed him to the end of the alley, where you
encountered the Fudd." Greypaw shivered. "All this you know. What we
found out later, from analysing the output of the bug on that pay
phone, among other things, is that Burnett showed up just after you
and your squad left the front yard of the house. He may have talked to
Steve's landlord; in any rate he knew to head for Nathan Phillips
Square. We do not know why he chose to use the alley; he was heading
away from the square when he drove into you. It was just bad luck on
our part that he was able to surprise you. After the ambush, he drove
east along Harbord Street and then turned. We picked his car up again
at the pay phone as it went by."
"We've been watching both Steve's and Karol's houses and phone lines.
Neither has returned home since then. We don't know where they've
gone, but it wasn't far. Karol posted to the HumanNet
'alt.devilbunnies' newsgroup yesterday, just a banter post, but it had
garble in it that has all the signs of Fudd encryption. That post was
from his usual ISP account, so we suspect he's probably within the
local calling area of Toronto."
Suddenly Shortear noticed that Greypaw had fallen asleep. He muttered
to himself, "Frith, I do go on..." At this point Maggie returned with
a tray of assorted Snapple. Shortear said quietly, "She's asleep.
How're Sam and Balac?"
Maggie set the drinks down by Greypaw's bed and said, "Sam is sleeping
deeply and well. He'll be okay," Maggie bounced, then quieted. "But
Balac's isn't any better. He's not any worse either, but it's going to
take a long time for him to heal."
Shortear said, "I'd better look in on them." He went over to the other
beds and looked carefully at the sleeping Troopers, taking extra care
around Balac's bed. Maggie began to bustle around the room.
A little while later Shortear left, saying goodbye to Maggie. "Bye,
Shortear," she said, with a rather disatracting bounce and wiggle.
Outside, out of sight of the room, Shortear paused and gathered his
thoughts. That doe *did* have a way of derailing a bun's train of
thought. And it wasn't just the bucks she did it to...
He headed for his office. There was work to do: he was writing a
report for Algonquin Main. This whole Davidson-Morikawa thing was
getting deeper and deeper.
He'd been sent down from Algonquin Main to check up on the situation
in Toronto. An obscure warren in the Madawaska Highlands, which was
only partially connected to the Net, had scooped High Park
intelligence on a classic 'Help! What's going on?' War-discovery
scenario that was right under their noses. This had seriously worried
the high-rank buns of Algonquin.
No-one at High Park warren knew of this part of his duties however; to
them he was just another northern milbun rotated down for a shift in
the Big Smog. He had to be discreet.
He turned to his BUNIX terminal and composed a memo referencing the
events of the past few days: the ambush, the fact that none of the
troopers had died ("yet..." he thought, and <shudderfluff>ed at the
spin he was putting on things there), the state of the Toronto
warrens, and the Human political situation.
He engaged tightbeam and BUNIX encryption and sent it off to Feelings
leader Ruffles in far-off Algonquin Park. Then it was time for sleep.
Sleep did not come for a while though...
[end of Part Five. Next part: "Interval with Memos III"]
Scott Robert Dawson
>[Friends- Part Five: "Interval with Memos II"]
>
>Squad Leader Greypaw opened her eyes...
Oops... That story post was supposed to be from Scott Robert Dawson.
My newsreader is getting its identity seriously confused, what with
all the in-character and out-of-character posts. If it only had a
'select personality' function...
-Scott Robert Dawson
Hugh 'Shug' McBun
On 05-Feb-97 05:20:28, Scott Robert Dawson said about [OOC] Re: [s] [long] Friends- Part Five: "Interval with Memos II":
>>[Friends- Part Five: "Interval with Memos II"]
>>
>>Squad Leader Greypaw opened her eyes...
>
>Oops... That story post was supposed to be from Scott Robert Dawson.
>My newsreader is getting its identity seriously confused, what with
>all the in-character and out-of-character posts. If it only had a
>'select personality' function...
>
>-Scott Robert Dawson
I don't know why but someone says, get an Amiga with THOR.
Can't think why
ed McSquirrel
--
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Hugh 'Shug' McBun | COBOL, MVS and JCL a speciality
sau...@guinea-pig.org | IBM 3084 - A good wee machine
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