The Sixth Line of Defense

by Shiva Winters

  * * *

  Lieutenant Hornton was almost surprised to leave behind the Principle's office and find Shiva still waiting around out in the unappealing landscape set to one side of the school. She must have known by that point that she was fast approaching that time when another black mark would be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. In many ways he almost felt as if it might be better for her if she was indeed removed from this existence like a package marked 'return to sender'. It might somehow be considered a blessing as much for him as it might be for her. He knew without question that she was repeatedly getting a raw deal even as his command shrank day by day as it was undermined and under funded right to the edge of extinction. It was not a new thought that occurred to him that day as he stepped outside with an angry voice barking in his ear. Ceasa almost stood at ease as he watched the silent angry figure as she sat close by staring out across the bleak sight of the open patio and the city scape beyond. There had in fact been many days when he had thought that he and his command were being set up for some sort of spectacular failure, and this day in particular this fact seemed all too glaringly obvious.

  On any other day he might have been convinced that the fault of this was resting squarely on Shiva's small shoulders, as if she had consciously been trying to sabotage him right from the start. On any other day he might have resented being summoned away from the base and sent across a few hundred miles to deal with yet another incident involving that contrary, angry, and mean-spirited young woman. Far too many times he had received calls to do that very thing disturbing what was supposed to be a quiet existence pushing papers across a desk. But on that day he had seen something that had made him question every other time that summons had come, made him wonder if he hadn't really been seeing what was happening.

  "No, sir." Hornton murmured back across the phone to a question he had barely heard. "I have it on good authority that four boys involved were members of a local gang." When he looked back at the formidable shadowy figure at his back, Gregor nodded reasserting his opinion once more. When Shiva had been placed at this school, he hadn't been aware that his second in command had lived in this area through his childhood, and the tattoos they had booth seen on the security tapes had provided enough evidence for his second in command to to recognize the symbols and problems of his youth.

  "Did the Principle confirm this?" The Colonel demanded in annoyed tones. In truth the Principle had vehemently denied this fact, but their had been fear in his eyes when he had done so as if he was trying to cover up those facts. It would not have been unprecedented in that day in age for the authority figures of some schools to court allies from the criminal elements inside their domains.

  "Not in so many words, sir." Hornton stated diplomatically, far more inclined to trust the large dark skinned male in his background that the recriminations of a scared little white man eager to side with four dangerous individuals over one small girl. "There were four of them sir, all of them twice her size. It seemed self-evident that she used only the force necessary to subdue them. She would have had plenty of time to kill all of them before the school's security forces arrived if that had been her intent."

  "And what about this report that she made threatening gestures towards you?" This time Hornton found himself glaring over at Ceasa who was the only one who would have had time to speak with anyone since their arrival. The much younger man had the good sense to look extremely guilty under that gaze.

  "That was a misunderstanding, sir. I forgot Shiva's rules and she was subtly reminding me of them." Hornton stated calmly while inside his mind he was already devising terrible punishments for a certain junior officer under his command.

  "And what was the school's decision." The Colonel demanded, clearly upset that Hornton choose not to back up the accusations.

  "She was expelled, and before you ask, I do not believe that it was by any means warranted, sir." Hornton had to work hard to keep that 'sir' polite and feeling almost ready to pull a page out of Shiva's book and making that word an insult. "I believe our best course would to be remove her from the city and find a better place for her to start over."

  "Oh.. really.." The man on the other end drawled back to him, clearly thinking that Hornton was somehow overstepping his authority in that statement. "Fine then.." This was growled across the distance, as if he couldn't quite bring himself to render the decision he truly wanted to make without Hornton to back him up. "I will leave her resettlement in your hands, but this time its' your head on the chopping block Lieutenant. Another incident like this one and we shove her back in Anslaw and you will be up in front of board of inquiry soon after."

  "Yes, sir, I understand, sir." This time he couldn't quite keep back the burning dislike from shifting those words into something less than respectful and ended the call before he could get called on the implied insult. With his temper nearing its' limit, Hornton practically slammed the phone closed and tossed it back to Gregor before he was tempted to slam it on the ground in front of him. Ceasa almost seemed to back up a step as Hornton turned his eyes on him, and he tried very hard to keep his tone even and light as he spoke the words that followed, lest Shiva see some kind of weakness and become even more uncontrollable than she already was at times. "You do not report an incident until I do, is that understood?"

  "Yes, sir." Ceasa muttered back to him. Gregor made a soft sound of annoyed agreement, a hint of a reprimand for his own junior officer. Hornton turned away and forced a calming breath through his lungs as he moved towards the small still angry figure in the distance.

  "Let's review, shall we?" Hornton murmured as he lowered himself down onto the bench. Shiva almost growled as she shoved herself away to the far end of the bench absolutely refusing to let him get close. If it had been anyone else he would have thought that this was a curious gesture of defiance, but for her it was just the sort of reaction he had come to expect.

  "Save it." She hissed back at him, her expression was angry, her small body was tense and she clearly thought that her very limited amount of freedom was coming to an end. Hornton wished deep down in that moment that he could return to the past and start over with her. A long silence stretched out between them as he again thought about all the other times when he had been summoned away to deal with this small figure. After some time that head turned away from the distance and those sharp silver eyes shifted to look at him as if wondering if she had finally managed to break his stone like exterior.

  "Let me show you something.." He murmured out of instinct deciding right then and there that anything that might break the repeating patterns of these reoccurring encounters was worth any price. As he slid closer she almost moved to draw further away until her eyes caught the movement that drew up the sleeve covering his right forearm revealing the bar coded tattoo that had marked his skin for a very long time. Her eyes crossed it almost out of instinct and that sharp gaze seemed almost to soften by an imperceptible amount in the seconds that followed.

  "Series 3.." She whispered across the short distance, almost as if she didn't quite believe what she was seeing.

  "Yes." Hornton agreed watching her closely as he drew the sleeve back down to hide that marking. "This time we are going to try things a little differently, all right?"

  "What do you mean?" She asked with deeply entrenched mistrust as she shifted to the extreme end of the bench to avoid sitting directly next to him.

  "I've been put in charge of finding your new school, this time.." He told her, no longer trying to decrease the distance between them. "I am as tired of giving you lectures as you are tired of hearing them. If I told them how you were really behaving, I don't think I would have to tell you what would happen to you." Her eyes narrowed knowing exactly what he meant by those words.

  "You'd have to take me down first." She whispered with the dark words of a very real threat. In truth, hearing that was easily enough to make him smile. He
r unrestrained honesty had become something of a hallmark to him since he had taken command over the rapidly shrinking group, and it served to remind him of just when things seemed to have made their turn for the worst.

  "I have always admired that brutal honesty Shiva." Her eyes again snapped up to his as if that was the last thing she had expected to hear from him was something even vaguely complimentary. "In truth, it is quite refreshing considering the others that I have to deal with on a daily basis. And I believe I have always known what would be the result if that day actually came." Her surprised expression was one he had never really seen from her before, and for a moment he almost let himself believe that he had managed to find a chink her thick emotional armor. "Tell me, did you encourage those bullies in any way?" Her expression quickly hardened once again.

  "If I was going to encourage them I would have done it out past the parking deck." She hissed back at him as her eyes snapped back to the distant scene.

  "Off.. of school grounds." He murmured back to her, there was a cold humorless smile at that.

  "I'm not stupid." She growled back at him as her bad mood seemed to return in that moment.

  "No, you're not." Her shoulders jerked with surprise and she almost turned to meet his gaze once again, and deciding to drive his point in a little deeper he continued. "Do you think I have been misjudging you all this time?" This time her true emotions rushed up to the surface as she snapped around with a look of unrestrained surprise, she corrected that expression within a heartbeat and looked away just as quickly.

  "I make a point of never correcting someone when they are right." She growled back at him not exactly answering his question, but not about to deny him either. He felt almost encouraged by her deeply ingrained adversarial attitude and nodded as his thoughts turned towards what exactly he needed to do next.

  "Let's go get your personal belongings, before they start locking up the doors." As if eager to get away from him and still more than a little angry, she thrust up to her feet and moved towards the doors that would take them inside. Almost like a child on the cusp of a temper tantrum, she stomped her way through the silent halls and past the great many lockers that surrounded her own. With an evil little smile and a glance that could almost be described as defiance as she reached the locker she had been assigned the door was ripped from its' hinges. Extracting the lock forcibly from the frame and sending that crumbled mass of steel flying across the hallway to dent the lockers on the far side. It would have taken very sharp eyes to note that as the framework of the locker door dented outwards and the door was thrown away her fingers never actually touched it. She sorted out her things in silence leaving behind her textbooks and gathering what little personal items and notepads that were contained in the interior. As she moved to leave a group of armed security guards came rushing down from a side hallway.

  "And that is what she could have done to those boys." Gregor rumbled across the distance as the three of them passed by the stunned looking men, and Hornton caught the tiny fringe of Shiva's backwards glance that could almost be seen as moment of gratitude as just a touch of the tension in her body seemed to leave her.

  "Ceasa, return to the base, I might need you there in a few hours." Hornton murmured as they left the scene behind and moved towards the front entrance of the school in Shiva's wake. Still more than a little annoyed with the Private's well intentioned betrayal, Hornton knew without question that his continued presence would only encourage Shiva's darker instincts if he stayed. Realizing that he was in no position to complain, the younger man ran off ahead giving Shiva a wide berth as he passed out ahead of her. "Shiva you will not break anything when we leave this school, is that understood?" Knowing this would perhaps only encourage her into further destruction, Hornton decided that he was just angry enough to offer her a more cathartic action if it would make the next hours easier on all of them.

  "Stop right there!!" Perhaps only too unwisely the Principle was there in the lobby of the school when they arrived. He came prepared for a confrontation as there were at least 20 armed men standing behind and to either side of him. As ill advised as it was to even think of confronting Shiva, it was even less intelligent to bring armed men into the conflict. Additionally, the Principle could not have picked a worse place in that building to choose to have his showdown. With dozens of bullet proof glass display cases packed full of generations worth of achievements and trophies he could not have picked a more 'target rich' environment for her if he had seriously tried to do the dumbest thing possible. "We aren't done with this matter and I am not going to let.."

  "I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY!!!" Shiva screamed twice as loud as him and with a force that nearly drove the frightened security guards back towards their hiding places. As her voice snapped across the room every cases inside the sizable space went from clear to opaque as the impact resistant glass shattered into crazed mosaics. The sound of that much breaking glass in one enclosed space was quite something to hear first hard as it echoed like the sudden crack of thunder throughout the halls of the school. "How dare you.." Shiva's low voice growled in that shocked silence that followed and instant before all that cracked glass literally exploded outward filling that large space with fast moving cloud of glass shards that obscured the view between their two parties. As that cloud fell away to cover the tiled floor with a wash of sparkling shimmering iridescent shards Shiva finished her rather bold 'statement' in an even more spectacular fashion as all the previously untouched trophies lunged up from the open cases and were fired with tremendous force out through the bullet proof wall of glass that made up the front entrance to the school, shattering all the windows and sending another cloud of shards out across the sidewalks and steps outside.

  "I understand, Lieutenant." Shiva growled back to him as more of her inner tension seemed to flow out of her as she began to walk with slow silent steps through the sea of broken glass now spread in every direction. One of the armed men jerked his weapon in her direction as she moved towards the shattered doorways and Shiva's head snapped around towards that half seen movement. With another sharp snap the mens' stun rifles exploded into a cloud of parts, disassembled all at once and in a heart bit before the now useless pieces fell harmlessly to the floor around them. Shiva almost seemed to giggle as she jumped through the broken frame of an empty window at the last second before reaching the nearest doorway.

  "Come along Shiva." Gregor rumbled in a low soft voice as he started moving while Shiva shifted about as if unaware of anything being wrong as she picked her way through the broken glass and scattered trophies. She stopped for just a heartbeat to scoop up one of the scattered statues, from the distance Hornton could just make out her name carved in the stone base while the metal plaque told of her accomplishment of achieving the highest honors in the freshman entrance exams. As Hornton moved to follow in Gregor's wake and leave the school under the stunned statue like gazes of Principle and his men. As Gregor stepped past her, Shiva crushed the stone base of the trophy into a sprinkling of dust leaving behind only the beautiful statue that had once been at it's peak before following along in his wake. Hornton was well aware that this incident was mild compared to the level of destruction Shiva could produce but was pleased enough that both of them had been given some measure of revenge as he followed a much calmer young woman down the stairs and towards their waiting car.

  "You'll hear from me when I start making my arrangements." Hornton called over to a stunned motionless Ceasa nearby as Shiva climbed into the back of the car without being told where to sit. He received an acknowledgment and a salute as Hornton moved towards the open rear door where Shiva had entered.

  "Feel better?" He asked her as he interposed himself in the open doorway while Shiva settled there with the golden statue almost posed in her lap, smiling with deeply satisfied amusement.

  "A little.." She mumbled, trying hard to not look pleased by the wake of her destruction.

  "Goo
d, because this is going to be a long trip." He stated back to her as he closed the door and was a bit surprised to look down and find her smiling up at him through the window. Gregor was already starting the car as Hornton slid into the front seat and with Shiva glaring out the window they pulled away. Behind them he was pleased to see a taxi arrive to take Ceasa away from any confrontation that might follow from the security forces of the school.