Retraining was necessity in this line of work. She had to be a stone cold killer, no emotions, and no sentiments of love, fear or regret. In her latest mission, Operative Wolff failed to complete her task because she could not kill a lowly deckhand who discovered her plot. That brought about reprogramming, reassignment and more important, punishment. Burnwood did not accept failure or reward it.
Darlene stood on the roof of Burnwood headquarters, arms folded across her chest as she looked down on the city at work, everything moving to place to place, everyone having a place to call home. She used to be like that. Not anymore. It was envy that she felt looking down at them all, an emotion she should be having, should not be feeling.
“Are you ready?” A voice, manly and directly brought her out that emotional state with a question, a rhetorical one because there was no choice. She either participated or was removed from the program - permanently.
She nodded and unfolded her arms, turning on her heels and following the man back into the building. They walked through corridors, down stairs and it was a maze, everything looked the same but everything was different, top secret. Dar had only been in a handful of places in this building during her whole enrollment into Burnwood and she had to admit it was frightening.
The man opened a door and stepped aside, Darla looking him over, searching for an emotional expression that would show her what to expect inside, pain, fear, what? He was a blank canvas waiting for the artist to paint. No emotion, no indication of what lay inside. “Ms Wolff.” Her title was also gone, no longer Captain, no longer a person of authority. She was being stripped.
A blonde, her new handler was sitting behind a desk in the room, the lighting dimmed for atmosphere and on that desk, where the light shone brightest was a folder, closed. The blonde had been overseeing the reprogramming of Darlene Wolff over the past several days and now it was time for the final test.
“Captain Wolff, come in and join me. I have good news for you. Your training has progressed well and we are ready to put you to use in the field again but first...” She snapped her fingers to the man that had escorted Darlene from the roof down and he grabbed her arms and pulled them behind her. The blonde leaned forward against the desk, “I’ve been ordered to test you.”
Darlene struggled, her arms trapped behind her, useless but she was so frakking sick of tests, being probed, prodded and whatever else Burnwood throw at her. She looked at her handler, seeing that gloat in her eye and she just had enough. Dar paced backwards until they crashed into the wall, his grip loosening enough so that she could get free and then she whipped around and punched him one, twice, three times across the jaw before giving him a spin kick to knock him over and down onto the varnished floor. She placed her foot on his side and rolled him onto his back, reaching into his jacket and pulling out his weapon, taking the safety off and aiming it at him but looking directly at her. “Alright! No more tests, no more experiments, you want to know if I’m ready then I’ll start with porky over here.” Her finger started to squeeze back that trigger.
The blonde looked at the glassed window behind her for a long moment and then back again, clicking her fingers once more. “Enough! Give him back the weapon and sit down. I have your next assignment.” Darla hesitated for a moment, kept her foot on his chest and the gun aimed at his head but she didn’t go through with it. She put the safety back on and dropped the gun on his chest, moving back towards the seat a little out of breath.
“Your next assignment is no bombing of a colonial battlestar, that was child’s play and you failed that on your last mission. However, I have been told by the higher powers that you are still of use to us.” The blonde, reluctantly pushed the folder, the file across to her. “Open it.”
Darla looked at her handler and then at the file that was slipped across the desk. It was highly classified, she had not seen this much Burnwood red tape in any of her past assignments so she knew this was big without even opening the file.
“I said open it.” It was clear patience was not ranked high with this handler. Darla missed her old one; he could at least crack a smile when she told a joke.
Without wasting any more time, Darla unsealed the file and opened it up like a book.
“Your assignment is the Sagittaron Civilian Security Co-oridinator. You are also to act as liaison between Burnwood and the Vice-Admiral.” The handler crossed her legs and looked over at her operative and sighed. “This is an important mission and you have been charged with carrying it out, gods I do not know why but you have a second chance and I would not screw this up.”
As the words were spoken, Darlene was looking through the file, the pictures of people; some old and some new and then she looked back up, “What’s so special about this assignment?”
“That is for now on a need to know basis. You don’t need to know. For now, your job is to stay close to the Vice Admiral.” The blonde got to her feet and started walking, leaving the file to be used as necessary. “Oh and one more thing, we will be watching you.” The blonde stated before heading out the room.
Darlene wasn’t sure whether that was a threat or not, she just knew Burnwood were serious in such matters, enough to make her thorough go over this file; learn the faces, some she did not have to. She was back in the field, her rank restored nevertheless.
The door opened, “Captain Wolff, we have a car waiting to take you to the space port.”
She nodded and closed the file; she’d study it more in the car and then destroy it. One thing she didn’t need to learn from the file was where she was going, Sagittaron.