Microstory 1121: Gérard Fortier

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Gérard Fortier never thought he would one day be working for a covert operations organization, but he also never thought he would join the military. His was a mundane and smooth childhood. He had decent parents, lived in a safe neighborhood, and received a good education. There was nothing in his life he could point to today and claim that it was the moment that led him to signing up for the French armée de terre. He could have gone to university, had he wanted, but he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life, so service seemed like the most logical next step. After the end of his five-year contract as an engagé volontaire, he was intending to return home to look for work when he was approached by someone from the DGSE. He wasn’t technically a recruiter, but had heard about Fortier’s excellent record, and thought he would be a perfect fit for the agency. Again, he mostly agreed because he didn’t have any better offers. Two years in, he was approached again, this time by a member of the service canadien du renseignement de sécurité, known in English as the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS. This was a major joint task force, composed of multiple competing intelligence agencies, for the purpose of exemplifying the spirit of allied cooperation. Branches were located in several key locations around the world, not only in participating nations, which included Canada, Portugal, Australia, United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as France. This was the perfect place for Gérard to work, for while he loved his country deeply, he always considered the whole world to be his home. He felt that, when allied organizations treated each other as competitors, it was the people who suffered. They wanted him to head up their main French office, but Fortier was disinterested in a leadership position. At the moment, the only other open positions were out-of-country, which he was fine with. He hadn’t grown up wanting to see the world, but it certainly wasn’t an opportunity he would pass up. He ended up flying overseas, and being stationed right in the middle of the U.S., in Kansas. It is here that he met the tight-knit team he would be working with, and would come to think of as his family. His partner was Yadira Cardoso, who came up through the Serviço de Informações Estratégicas de Defesa. It didn’t take him long to realize that she was not like the other agents. She possessed an uncanny ability to anticipate an opponent’s moves, making her a virtually unstoppable fighting machine. They were later transitioned into a three-person partnership, with a man named Camden Voss. Unlike Yadira’s, his abilities could not be explained away. He could jump through time, and there was no denying it. Gérard started to suspect that this entire task force organization was created by, or for, people with supernatural powers, but was surprised to learn it was not. They were recruited for their talents, but the organization itself was designed to foster the six-nation alliance that founded it. Powers were just a bonus, and Gérard’s skills and past experiences were just as valuable to his superiors as anything else.