Second Chance War - 17 The Dossier Selection 1

Thomas thumbed through the dossiers, thirty-three is a lot of information to go through. When it boils down to it though, he just needs to pick people whose skills complement his own and have great team synergy. The major general had already left him in there and gone to check other things, said he’d be back in a half day to check on him. Thomas picked up the nearest one and thumbed through it. It was a pretty thick file, actually, all of them were pretty thick, to be honest. They didn’t have any computers, after all, Alan Turing wouldn’t develop the first one until the middle of the war. They might have one earlier than that though if Kincade’s journal actually listed one.

The file Thomas had picked was on a Russian ex-national, some guy named Anton Nikolov. He was a man of few words according to the dossier, but he got the job done. His specialties are demolitions, bomb-making, and infiltration. Those were some pretty good qualifications. His file says he took part in a covert action against Finnish forces recently, the file doesn’t specify the operation or what happened, but it does mention that he obtained the Order of the Red Star and the Medal for Courage. He was also injured as a result of the operation and became blinded in his left eye. Thomas took the file, he will have need of such a man, he was sure.

The next file Thomas picked up was on a woman named Francine Freau. She was well versed in infiltration and spying, but that’s about it. The only bonus that could be said is that she has many underground contacts among the criminal community as well as the black market. Other than that, she was practically useless, Thomas tossed away her file into some corner of the room that will doubtlessly be forgotten just like so many other files and papers. If it was just Contacts, Thomas could doubtless make some of those on his own, though he might very well come across this Francine later.

The next file was just as useless with no redeeming qualities. Were they testing his ability to find worthy people out of a pile of junk or something? He picked up the next file, oh, this looks promising. The file was on a man named Peter Longhouse, aside from the joke name, which even Thomas had to admit was in bad taste, this file was excellent. He had several commendations from actions in World War One, though he was getting on a bit in age at thirty-six years of age, he had multiple commendations. First, there was the standard World War One Victory Medal for participating. Second, he had the Distinguished Service Cross for acts of valor when charging enemy fortifications at Versailles. Lastly, two silver stars and a bronze heart for courageous actions in saving an entire platoon from a machine gun emplacement when he charged into the trenches, though he was wounded in the process. He made a full recovery in time for the end of the war.

Thomas also liked his specializations. He was specialized in the operation of heavy and mechanical weapons, most probably artillery Thomas assumed. He was a skilled coordinator, which meant that he could accurately call for artillery strikes with a hundredth of a percent error margin. He was also well versed in flanking tactics and facing against a numerically superior force, all of which would come in handy. Thomas set Peter’s dossier on top of Anton’s, he just imagined the sort of havoc the two could cause, side by side.

This process went on for about an hour. He tossed more files away than he had taken, at this point he was four for ten. Not a very good start to all this, but he had to admit, the people he selected were well suited for what he had in mind, and most likely what command had in mind as well.

With a quick sigh, he prepared himself for the next folder. Just randomly grabbing one within the pile he looked at it and realized he had struck dossier gold. If this wasn’t the Crème de la Crème, he didn’t know what was. The file was on a woman named Elaine Schubert. She was probably the best medical candidate by far and also already a part of Operation Kingmaker. She had surgical skills, medical skills, the whole nine yards. Her greatest feat was a two-hour heart transplant, fastest in the world by four hours. With skills like that, why wouldn’t he want her on his team? Thomas immediately set aside her dossier with Anton and the others. That makes five for eleven, this was going to be a long day. Thomas picked up the next folder and repeated the process.