Secret, Secret - Greg - 39

I left the breakfast table and headed to the departure lounge. I had brought all my stuff to the lounge early that morning. But well, I was walking down the hallway, I heard a familiar voice behind me.
"Greg, buddy! Great to see ya! But didn't they tell ya casual Friday is tomorra?"
I turned to see the broad, moustached smile of Tony LaPorri. Tony had worked with me for about two months before it became entirely too clear that he was not cut out to work in recruitment. He was a larger than life guy with a larger than life moustache, and inconspicuous was not in his vocabulary. That's why they transferred him to NPTOB (The North Pole Triangle-Ops Base).
"What?" I asked.
"The sweater? Don't try to tell me that's regulation. You'll set a bad example for your recruits."
"No, I," I stopped. What Tony didn't know wouldn't hurt him, I figured. The whole gosh darn agency didn't really need to know my business. "I could have sworn it WAS Friday. Oh well, too late now."
Tony chuckled, "Greg. You crack me up. Well listen, give Ellen these papers for me."
"Sure thing," I replied, and headed down the hallway.
"And Greg?" he yelled as I moved further away.
"Yeah?"
"Be careful. You're perp this time is 231776pp#I. I don't think I have to tell you what happened to the last team that used that perp for a transfer."
I didn't answer. This was grim news and the classified docs I'd just been handed proved it. 231776pp#I was on the list of perpendicular universes that should only be used for transit to a parallel universe if no other, more acceptable perp will do.
Maybe I should back up. A parallel universe, as most folks know, is a place where the universe is basically the same, but somewhere along the way different things happened, so there are key differences. Those are the universes we patrol. A perpendicular universe, which you have to pass through to get to parallel universes, is basically completely different. Everything is different - geography, physiology, the laws of physics. They even have a different spectrum of colors. Now we only travel through apporoved perpendicular universes, but the catch is they have to contain a gate into the parallel we want to be in, so sometimes the options are limited. In this case the option seems to have been very limited. 231776pp#I was a death-trap. And if it weren't for my chance meeting with Tony and his blatant disregard for protocol (like maybe asking to see my security clearance), I wouldn't know about it. I went ahead and read the rest of the papers. THey were very informative, and I liked the idea of being one step ahead of Ellen all mission. I felt a tinge of guilt, but hey, they trained me to be a ruthless opportunist, so they were gonna have to deal with me as such.
Of course if I handed Ellen the papers she'd know I read them. So when I got down to the lounge (I was the first to arrive) I just left them on the table for her to find. But then I thought if she walked in and saw them on the table she'd guess that I'd looked through them. So I left the lounge again and headed to the office.
For all it's futuristic tech, a good chunk of the agency is beauracracy. So I slid into the office. To those who recognized me, I put on the "thought it was Friday" show. In front of those who didn't, I went with the lost new recruit act. Between the two I managed to get the papers to a confused intern with orders to deliver them to Ellen Leigh immediately.
As I knew I would, I arrived at the lounge before she did. Those interns were easy enough to predict. Of course I'd have to make sure my back was turned, lest she recognise me when she came in, but it seemed my secret was safe.
Everyone was now in the lounge except Virgil and Scarlett, and the atmosphere was, as one might expect, uncomfortable. Ellen had played the no-trust thing very skillfully this time around. Not only could we not feel safe anywhere, which was the point of the original ninja exercise, now we couldn't even trust each other. Of course, knowing what I now knew about our final destination, I didn't blame Ellen for swinging it that way; it would be important.
By and by, over the next ten minutes, Virgil showed up, looking cool as always but still betraying the sleepless nature of his night. The intern showed up and handed Ellen the papers and some coffee while apologizing profusely for being late. I watched as Ellen read with well-disguised (but not perfectly disguised) reservation. And finally Scarlett showed up all dolled up, looking- Well looking really good. I mean, I'm not about to go head over heels for a little brat like her, I mean she's a teenager for Chrissake, but my point is she cleans up nice. I saw Ian's jaw drop to the floor.
"A little overdressed don't you think?" asked Ellen.
"Well, you didn't say what the dress code was," said Scarlett, "And I always like to look extra nice on my first day at a new job."
Ellen cocked an eyebrow at her, shrugged, and moved on, addressing the group at large.
"In a moment that door will open and you'll see the vessel that we'll be taking through the Triangle to what's called a perpendicular universe. The perpendicular universe is weird. You're going to see and experience a lot of things you never thought possible. The important thing is to follow my lead and my and Marcus's instructions to the letter. Now I'm going to introduce you to a few pieces of equipment you'll need to know."
She pulled a small, scifi-esque ray gun out of her suitcase.
"This is a Extradimensional Creature Exterminator MiniCannon Mk6.7, or a perp gun. It's the weapon each of you will carry in the perpendicular part of our journey. It will not effect any of us, but it could potentially damage the ship. The button on the side arms it and the trigger fires it. Leave it holstered when you're not using it. This," she said, moving on to a small, circular device, "Is an interplanar scanner. I want two of you to be trained in it's use. Volunteers?"
Ian raised his hand. So did Gill.
"Alright. Marcus will instruct you when we get on board."
"This is a standard, intraplanar scanner. You should all know how to use it. However, it has a very user-friendly interface and you kids should have no trouble figuring it out. Next up is the headgear - it's got a long official sounding name but I'll be damned if I can remember it. It may look silly but wear it at all times. It protects you against most mind control, certain side effects of perpendicular travel, and it acts as - pardon my Star Trek references- a universal translator. Or babblefish if you prefer." She glanced at Scarlett's quizzical look. "It lets you understand other languages."
"Oh," said Scarlett, not a sci-fi fan. "Cool."
"Marcus, Greg, and I won't need one as we have the permanent internal version."
"As do I," said Virgil. Ellen just glared. She was obviously not too happy he was coming along. Well she wasn't alone.
At this point, Ellen pulled out a large green box.
"Inside this box is the most powerful, dangerous piece of equipment we have. It's called a Glimp, and it's what we use if everything goes wrong. A Glimp totally closes a universe off from the multiverse. A gate of any kind cannot be opened to a universe or from it once the glimp's been used inside it. It is centuries ahead of any other fuiture tech we've recieved. Any two of you can activate it, once we code it for your DNA and password. You'll input the password yourself. Tell it to no one, including me or your other team members. The only time in which you should use the glimp is if there is a clear and present danger to the survival of our universe or the multiverse and all other ways to avert disaster have been tried. THe only circumstance in which you use it without my clearance is if I am dead or captured. Virgil, you will not be recieving Glimp clearance at all."
Gillian raised her hand, and Ellen gestured to her. "Ellen," she asked, "How long do the effects of the glimp last?"
"Forever. And I can say that with certainty. Also, keep in mind that you have to be right next to the glimp to activate it, so if you do, you'll be trapped in whatever universe you're inside." There was a heavy silence, then Ellen relaxed her tone and went on.
"Well that's all for now. Get geared up, Marcus will get you coded into the Glimp, then I'll open this door and we'll board the Blob."
So it was ready to begin. The hardest mission I'd ever faced, perhaps the hardest anyone would ever face, and these recruits had no idea. Ellen hadn't let on at all. Well, I'd keep her secret. And I'd keep it secret that I had a secret to keep. Good old Tony had no idea what he'd done.