Chapter 8 - GreenCore

“That idiot! That fool! What did the hell did he think he was doing?”

“Our men tried to find him in time, sir, but he slipped through. He thought it would make a difference. He was a believer, sir.”

It was 7 o’clock the next morning. Two men were in an executive looking office on the south side of Edmonton. One man, was furiously pacing behind his large desk, covered with papers and notes while the other man remained seated, slightly flushed from embarrassment, but keeping his composure.

“Is that so? Well, look what his unsanctioned personal grudge got him. Nothing but dead. They didn’t even flinch. All it did was piss them off. No wonder they had him killed. How many times did he think he could get away with it? He annoyed them to this point, you know? And the worst of it was he worked for us, so they obviously will assume it was on our behalf,” said Ken Talbert, the President of GreenCore, a motivated and secretive environmental group. He was speaking to Denny Fulk, the leader of the Green Men.

Although alien sounding, the Green Men belonged to the operations branch of the group. They were a unit of 12 men, a few military trained and all devout environmentalists. Zealous to say the least. They acted however, only upon instructions from Denny, their leader and most fanatical. He was also very bright and knew when to pick his battles with the enemy, in accordance with the groups overall mission and agenda. Missions had to be sanctioned by majority vote by the groups high committee. Bropen had sidestepped them and had carried out an independent mission – an unsanctioned one and the committee was not happy. The war with enemy, Order 6, was a tenuous one and some sort of balance had to be preserved in order to carry on the fight on all fronts – politically, in the media, through back channels and yes, even militantly. It was something both sides did and accepted. This latest action by Bropen however, might cause the other side to sense a weakening GreenCore’s power base though, that they were not able to control their own and thus make a more aggressive move to all out war, and GC could not afford it. Not right now anyway. Therefore, the back channels had been used to consult on the killings with Order 6 and stability had been restored quickly.

“Do you have a replacement for Bropen, yet? Someone controllable”, mused Talbert, a questioning look on his face to the man responsible.

“I am reviewing three candidates, sir. All well qualified and motivated, just needing guidance, sir.” Fulk knew Bropen had been his responsibility, but he wasn’t about to take the full brunt. Bropen had been pushed on him by the committee.

“Good. Let me know which one you decide on and submit a report. We need to keep our houses in order Denny. And your house is a valuable one. You have mine, and our complete confidence. You have done good work until this unfortunate incident.”

“Thank you. Everything will back in order. Shipshape, sir.” Fulk knew he had to take some shit from the committee to make themselves feel better. They were like politicians after all. Often childlike and they didn’t like self-accountability.