War Dog

Chapter 5

Dinner was a standard military affair, though heavy on the protein. I certainly wasn't complaining. We'd been ushered in towards the end of the recruits dining time so the messhall was almost empty. A few stragglers loitered behind along with some who had noticed our entry and decided to remain behind to glean any tid bit of information from us.

It still sat heavily on me that all these hybrids expected us to be able to assist their comrade in arms. How would they all react if we failed to make any head way with Ceri? After all, she had not formed any bonds with candidates in the last year and a half. Why would we make a difference? I sat there in silence eating the stew as thoughts swirled through my mind. Soap and Price on the other hand had taken up conversation with one Lieutenant Wagner who had finally managed to get away from whatever had been so important earlier. The man struck me as someone who was straight laced and did everything to a precise standard. He looked like a man with a stick up his arse. 

The last week had been spent preparing for our trip to the hot and humid Australian lands I hadn't spent much time thinking through our hastily made decision to attempt to become Ceri's handler. Now that I sat here without much else to do, all I could think about was this decision. Even on the plane ride over I'd been busy. Either re-reading through her file for the hundredth time looking for information I'd missed, or talking with Soap and Price about strategies and implementation of how best to use a Dog of War within our command structure. If we weren't talking about that, we were discussing how best to utilise our time here should all of us fail in getting Ceri to accept us as her handler. From the moment I'd heard about this whole bonding thing, it struck me as weird and bizarre. Seemed so unusual for a bunch of genetic scientists to be able to turn humans into an animal hybrid, but not be able to stop them turning animalistic without some fucked up bonding situation. It sat wrongly in my chest. 

My attention was drawn to someone making their way hurriedly into the messhall, making directly towards our table. I assessed him quickly, determining him as safe. He didn't wear army fatigues like the rest of the people on this base. Instead he wore plain business casual clothes.

"Dr. Cooper," Lieutenant Wagner greeted, his voice going cold at the Doctors presence. Interesting, the Lieutenant didn't like the doctor in the slightest. 

"Lieutenant Wagner." His gaze glanced over the rest of us. "Captain Price, Lieutenant Riley, Sergeant Mactavish, I presume. Pleasure to meet you all finally. I am Doctor Cooper. I am the lead scientist in the War Dog experiments, but also Cerianis Griffins lead doctor. I believe the three of you wish to attempt to push Ceri to initiate the bonding between war dog and handler, correct?" He didn't wait for any of us to respond. "Laswell has assured me of your competencies and capabilities out in the field, however we have several standard tests that we need to run on each of you before we can finalise your application for taking on Ceri." He did pause then, looking at each of us. I found myself feeling almost vulnerable despite the mask and layers of clothes underneath his practiced and discerning gaze. 

"What do you mean?" My gruff Manchester accent rolled through the room turning heads as the soldiers heard it. "We were under the impression that by being here, we'd been accepted to make the attempt." My tone was displeased, and my eyes blazed with annoyance at yet another obstacle in our way.

The doctor grimaced with a slight eyeroll. That alone almost had me out of my seat and lunging for him. The sheer disrespect. "I am sorry if that is how it was communicated to you. We've been playing chinese whispers with information. From Lieutenant Wagner, to me, to Laswell to you and back again. Sometimes even from Marcel too. We've had to approvals from everywhere to even allow you to visit this base, let alone take one of our most valuable resources with you, but we are desperate." He gestured at Lieutenant Wagner then. "Even the Lieutenant here is concerned, though he'd never tell you." In response to that, the Lieutenant frowned and growled out a soft, "Careful, Doctor."