Tabula Raza

Chapter 2 - Rebirth

Dan grimaced looking at the small stack of folders on his lap as he shoved and maneuvered his wheelchair along the narrow path that lead to the bottom of the estate; where the shooting range was hidden and carefully soundproofed by tall natural rock walls.

It had taken the crew with the help of Sorensen almost a month to take the recruits and draftee’s down to a manageable eighteen candidates. But those remaining didn’t have anything pushing them to be a team, even less with the stigma left behind by those they were replacing.

A hand took hold of the back of his chair, and Dan turned prepared to snap at the intruder only to stop and swallow hard at the beautiful, long legged Latina. “Jesse, thought you were in Prague.” He brought his hands to hold the papers as she easily guided them.

“Just got back, it was messy.” She answered his un-asked question. “Gave me an idea how to handle the greenhorns, I wanted to talk to you before taking it to Sorensen.”

Clearing his throat, Dan felt the slight flush at the base of his neck, before his injury this would have been such a light hearted conversation. “Shoot girly.”

“I think we should take them out into the field, see them in action, only one or two at a time. But its hard to get a feel for someone under controlled conditions.”

“They all have plenty of experience before getting this far.”

“But not experience with us, they don’t know what its like on the front lines.”

Blinking he thought on what she was saying… but-

“Also mijo,” her voice dropped an octave so he had to strain to hear. “I think we should ditch the Virtues, rename ourselves, this whole thing, feels like bad luck.”

“Jess-”

“Just listen to me. We weigh on the recruits, and they weigh us. Everyone knows that they’re playing a poor substitution to a star player in the final stretch of a big game. There is a lot of nerves and no trust.” Tossing her shoulder length hair back from her face she leveled eyes on him that were very dark, and very focused. “No trust.” She emphasized.

Nodding Dan closed his eyes as they came to a halt outside the range. “I get what your saying, on both counts it could make this a lot easier. If we give these kids the chance they should rise to occasion… Trust.”

“Trust.”

Mike rounded the corner and smiled coolly, “There you are Lorne,” appreciation sparkled in his grey eyes as he took in Jesse, “Welcome home Martinez, how was Prague?”

“About eleven centuries old,“ she shrugged “It was Prague.”

Stepping forward he handed Dan a clipboard, “they’re all crack marksmen. I have a meeting to get to, don’t let the babies scare you, I’m sure they can take care of themselves. Ciao.” Without further ado, Mike lit his clove and strolled back the direction they had come from.

Watching Sorensen wind his way along the path, Dan pitched his voice carefully as he angled towards the range, “have you spoken to Shiloh?”

“Just you.” Pulling her hair back into a sloppy ponytail “you have a plan Captain?”

Tossing Jesse a rakish grin worthy of a time before green eyes tilting up at the corners, Dan forgot for just a moment that anything was different now. The smell of gunpowder bringing him alert in ways nothing else could. “Lets pin him down before we pull everyone to the next set of tests.”

“That’s me right, the up close stuff?”

“Si mija, you and that little Chinese shit.” Handing her the folders he looked at the clipboard appearing contemplative. “Shiloh should be down range, come on.”

*****

The angry Irishman gnawed on the paper stick of his lollypop, frustrated brown eyes lingering on the double line of recruits, the thought of replacing his friends was eating a hole in his gut.

“Common man, the look on your face is going to give me an Ulcer.”

Blinking Shiloh dropped his gaze to meet Daniel’s steady and familiar green eyes. “Captain, you have the reports right-.”

A low laugh drifted from his captain, “I gave the reports to Jesse, she’s back from Prague and an absolute f***ing genius. You’re gonna call a break for this lot, tell them, hell I don’t know, tell them to go shower get something to eat, we’re meeting in conference room nine in two hours.”

Blinking Shiloh grimaced, “Danny man, what’s going on?”

Wheeling about to head back off the range Dan called over his shoulder, “The three of us can talk about it over coffee, see you in the SR, ten minutes.”

Knowing better than to gainsay his captain, Shiloh blew the whistle to call the crew into huddle.