‘Congratulations on your promotion.’
‘Thank you, ma’am.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘Would I be correct in assuming I’m about to pay the price?’
She smiled. Only half her face moved. As a young officer, Commander Hay had fought in the Time Wars and there had been an accident. During an emergency extraction, their pod had lost its door in mid-jump. Commander Hay had survived but by the time they could get to her, one half of her face was older than the other. She was the lucky one. Everyone else had died. It had not been pretty.
‘Your promotion was on merit, Major, and well deserved. However, before you take up your new duties, I have an assignment for you. One which you may refuse if you wish. There is no obligation.’
‘You want me to take on Matthew Farrell and the others, don’t you?’
‘For the six months of their basic training, yes. I can’t waste three potential officers and they have to do their gruntwork like everyone else – but that’s all. After that, I’ll break up the team. They can all go their separate ways and you can return to normal duties.’
‘I was Matthew Farrell’s mentor for some years, ma’am, and I’d have no problem overseeing his gruntwork, but surely it would be better for him to have someone new.’
It was very obvious from the silence that no other officer would take on Matthew Farrell. Or any of his fellow trainees.
‘To be honest, Major, we should probably never have taken two of them in the first place, but we did. We’ve expended a great deal of money and effort on their basic training and now we need to see some return.’
Major Ellis frowned thoughtfully and for some reason, Commander Hay’s earlier comments on making sure the size of the bribe was commensurate with the inconvenience sprang to Captain Farenden’s mind.
Ellis said slowly, ‘Obviously, I’m always happy to oblige, ma’am, but it won’t be easy. As I’m sure you will have noticed, they’re not a strong team and will require a great deal of supervision. Furthermore, given the potential value of Farrell to this organisation . . .’
He paused to let the rest of the sentence hang in the air.
‘Gratifying to see you’ve acquired the Machiavellian skills of senior management already, Major. What do you want? What price must I pay?’
‘Officer North, ma’am, to assist me.’
‘And what compensation will she require for being pulled from her normal duties?’
‘Expedited route to the Hunter Division, ma’am.’
Commander Ellis didn’t even blink. ‘Agreed.’
He sighed. ‘I can’t say I’m looking forward to resuming the struggle to get Farrell to cut his hair, ma’am.’
She smiled. ‘I have every confidence, Major.’
Ellis stood up. ‘Then with your permission, ma’am, I’ll go and advise Officer North of her good fortune and assemble my new team.’
‘Thank you, Major.’
‘Just as a matter of interest, ma’am, who has the other team?’
‘I’ve given them to Lt Grint. His first assignment as a team leader.’
‘Interesting.’
The door closed behind him.
He met Officer North outside one of the briefing rooms and broke the glad tidings.
She remained quiet for some time.
‘It’s your choice,’ he said, sensing reluctance. ‘You don’t have to do it.’
‘But why me, sir?’
‘I felt this particular squad would respond well to a gentler touch.’
Celia North stared at him in complete incomprehension.
Ellis sighed. ‘So that will be up to me, then.’
2
Their official designation was Team 236. Parrish was disgusted.
‘How pathetic is that? What sort of a name is that for a team? We should be Team Terror. Or Team Timeshredder or something. What’s the point of wearing a really cool uniform,’ he glanced complacently at his black-clad self in the mirror, ‘if you don’t have a cool name to go with it?’
Typically, neither of his teammates made any response. One because silence was his habitual state – Parrish wasn’t even sure he could speak – and the other because in the unlikely event she was bright enough to have opinions of her own, he was pretty sure she would never express them in case they upset someone.
He rotated slowly in front of the mirror, apparently unable to drag his eyes away from his own image, saying absently, ‘How long before our first assignment, do you think?’
Again, no response. He sighed and turned around. ‘I knew being in the Time Police was going to be tough, but I never thought it would be this bad. Let me try again. Our fellow trainees – Team Two-Three-Five – went out yesterday. Everyone else is out. Surely it must be our turn soon.’
He pulled an imaginary gun from his hip and fired at his reflection.
‘Missed,’ said Farrell, sardonically.
Parrish ignored him. ‘What do you think we’ll get? Illegal assassination attempt? Treasure hunters? Someone building a dimension-warping device in their spare bedroom?’
He fired again. From the hip, this time. ‘And as soon as we’re qualified, we can go armed all the time. Pretty cool, eh?’
Farrell rolled his eyes. Parrish sighed. ‘Have you exceeded today’s word quota? Or is it me?’
Farrell shook his head. If addressed, he would respond briefly but he rarely initiated conversation or made small talk. His attitude was very clearly that talking just wasn’t something he did if he could help it. It wasn’t just Parrish who thought him odd. The consensus around the Time Police was that there was something seriously wrong with him. Well, his parents were from St Mary’s so there was certainly something seriously wrong with him.
Time Police officers are not noted for their sensitivity or tact and so the bulk of them usually stayed well clear of Matthew. Something which suited him well enough. Being small and wiry he had, on occasions, found himself pushed into a quiet corner and given some grief. The more intelligent of his tormentors found his lack of response worrying, and within a few minutes would pull their less enlightened colleagues away with the time-honoured phrase, ‘Leave it, mate – he’s not worth it,’ thus displaying an intelligence and acumen entirely wasted on the Time Police.
The door opened and while two members of Team 236 immediately rose to their feet, Trainee Parrish appeared to be experiencing his usual difficulty adjusting himself to the correct method of addressing senior officers.