smelltheashes | (no subject)

(no subject)

Dr. Vance's funeral should be over soon, as far as Anne knows. Hopefully nothing's happened to make it run overtime, not that she can think why it should. If it weren't for- well, if it weren't for Floyd it wouldn't even be a question, but Floyd actually found something on his sentry duty and it wasn't a giant ship this time, and on top of that Floyd actually did something sensible about it. And Ms. Vance, naturally, had to be told.

But you don't interrupt funerals for anything short of a Combine invasion, so...

Anne's waiting. She can be patient.

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Floyd puts up his gun and does so, stepping back a pace. He's trying the Stoic Badass approach today. It seems to work for Dr. Freeman, after all.

As for the man himself, he simply nods to Alyx. "My name is Jan ten Boom," he says, in an accent Alyx probably won't recognize unless there's someone Dutch floating around White Forest somewhere. "I was with Tim Hutchence's cell when we destroyed the Scab. Mr. Hutchence sent me, because of the trains."

ten Boom? Is that even a real name? Alyx thinks. Aloud, she says, "You have some expertise with trains?"

"Some." ten Boom smiles. "The Overwatch took notice of me when I was sixteen- I had the growth spurt then, even with the stuff they were feeding us."

It's worth noting that Floyd is a respectable height for a man, at least 5'8" if not more, but ten Boom is at least a head taller than him.

"And they needed somebody who could work hard without being altered. Their other slaves die too fast, you know?" He holds up one calloused hand. "Eleven years of railroad labor. All over the world."

"--ohhh, you were the one tearing up the railroad tracks," says Alyx, understanding dawning.

ten Boom nods. "Me and my squads," he says modestly. "I train the younger ones in all the weak points and variations I know, and the best of them in how to spot others with the right talents and train them up. So they could spare me from the Rust Belt, because they had the other squads to fall back to. You, I think, may be needing it more from everything we've heard."

"That we do," says Alyx. "We're gearing up for an assault on the dead zone where the trains were headed. Any extra hands we can get are good ones."

ten Boom pulls his other hand out of his coat pocket and flexes all his fingers at Alyx. "Well," he says, "here are mine. What do you have in the way of railroad maps?"

"How do you think we figured out where the trains are going?" says Alyx with a hint of a wry smile. "C'mon, we'll get you set up."

"Of course. Thank you," says ten Boom. "I've been traveling quietly too long, I need to do something."

"You call blowing up every train junction between here and the Scab 'traveling quietly'?" queries Alyx as she leads him into the base proper.

"Bah. Most of that wasn't even me," says ten Boom. "I set the others their missions and left, to keep the Combine from seeing a trail. The message I sent you? I was already halfway here, not just starting out."

"Good planning."

They stop in front of one of the armored doors that fill the White Forest compound. Alyx keys in a combination on the pad next to the door, and it slides open to reveal what passes for the 'nerve center' of the coming attack.

"Hm," is all ten Boom says at the sight. His eyebrows are up, his hands in his pockets, but he's paying attention to everything around him. "More people than we had, that's for certain."

"So the main map is right here--" Alyx indicates the rail map that covers most of the table in the center of the room, pulling off a couple of loose sheets of paper that were covering Georgia and Florida. "We're planning on two coordinated attacks, here and here."

"Am I allowed to make some markings?" ten Boom says suddenly. "Suggestions? Pencil, pin, grease pencil, I don't care."

Alyx hands him a mechanical pencil. "Knock yourself out."

"Good, good-"

For the next few minutes, he's not going to much notice anyone around him. He scratches out several of the marked railway lines, and circles several others; the rest he stares at and either leaves alone or puts a check mark next to. In one or two places he adds a dashed, hesitant line or two. Eventually he puts the pencil down.

"These, here," he says, indicating the scratched-out ones, "they don't exist any more; they were torn out years ago. Some of the others, the track was converted. Cargo trains, civilian cargo, they run on the old gauge of rail. Razor trains can't run on civilian rail and vice versa." He rubs at his nose with the back of one hand; his accent is drifting more into foreign territory as he speaks. "Security measure, to keep anyone with a mind to stuff a cargo train with explosives from taking it into an installation. Only a razor train can go on the circled track. And there have been a few lines built since then, I think, but it's been years since they made me work here- I couldn't tell you for certain about the dashed ones, I think that's where they are..."

"Huh." Alyx peers at the altered map. "So we can't attack from that angle, but if we moved in from here..."

"I would suggest this one, actually," says ten Boom. "To get there is easier from here- unless some other cell's been destroying the rail further out, anyway. Not so many checkpoints, not so many interchanges. And you'll have an easier time falling back when you're done. But there is nothing wrong with the other route, it's just not as good."

"Transport to the dead zone isn't a problem, trust me," says Alyx. "But having a better fallback position will help a lot. Thanks."

"All right," says ten Boom. "Do you have any demo squads? I don't have a good eye for aim, but I can make a very good blast radius given a little time to work and some people to place the charges."

"Not specifically. One of our on-site scientists has developed a bomb for killing Striders, but it doesn't transport well."

"Mph. Beggars, choosers-" ten Boom shrugs. "We'll manage. How much time before you move?"

"We're convening at dawn and attacking just before sunrise," says Alyx. "We can't afford to waste time, but people need to sleep."

ten Boom nods. "Tired people make mistakes," he says seriously. "All right. I'll go where you send me, of course."

"Right. Well, unless you have any other questions, we'll see about finding you a bunk for the night."

"No, nothing, I don't think," says ten Boom. "If you have any, of course, I'll answer, too."

"Actually..."

She hesitates a moment.

"Is your name really 'ten Boom'?"

Jan doesn't quite roll his eyes, but he looks for a moment like he's going to. He's smiling, though. "Yes," he says, "yes it is. I get asked that question a lot. It means 'at the tree', or 'to the tree'. An old Dutch name, no explosions at all involved, I promise."

"You have to admit, it wouldn't make a half-bad pseudonym."

"No, it wouldn't," Ten Boom agrees. "Lucky for me, isn't it? No one would get the joke here if I was a lumberjack instead." He shakes his head. "I take the humor I can get."

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