Project: MI
Chapter 22

“This is an unmitigated disaster,” Gordon Avis growled from behind the computer screen, his jowls quivering. He was sweating profusely, and was promptly mopping his brow with a handkerchief. He looked greatly upset by the current turn of events. “Completely and utterly.”

“Gentlemen,” Steiner began in an attempt to placate the group. “Ladies…”

“Don’t you dare try to sugarcoat this, Steiner!” Gordon interrupted angrily, shifting in his seat and looking as though he were about to lurch out of it like a great lumbering beast, and assault Steiner through the computer screen. “This is all because of your ‘oversights’! Had you been more forthcoming with information none of this would have happened!”

Steiner closed his eyes and tapped his fingers, entwined around each other, against his lips.

“More accurately,” he said in a contemplative tone, “I should have had more information. I was woefully unaware of the connection Ran had with a heroi from out of the Bronze Age. This was an extreme oversight, and one that will continue to have consequences for our project.” Opening his eyes, he gazed at his colleagues. “Romana Pax is out of the loop. It falls to me to ensure that the project continues without further interruption. That is my penance for my recklessness.”

“Can we even be certain that you will accomplish that?” Gordon asked derisively.

“Avis…” warned Elizabeth from her corner of the screen. “I am sorry that we will have to cut support,” she said, fixing the man with a sympathetic look. “Have you taken steps to extradite Mr. Beck from the authorities?”

“I am currently doing my utmost in that regard,” Steiner replied. “But it doesn’t look good at the moment. They have seized all relevant technology and documentation that they can immediately access under law, but the situation is bad enough for them to utilize the Protection Act and go outside those boundaries. The heroi was accused of a class four act of terrorism. That is more than high enough once they realize that they aren’t getting what they need from us conventionally.”

Below Elizabeth, Alfred regarded him with cold, but quiet disdain.

“Have you taken steps to ensure that doesn’t happen?” he asked.

“I have,” Steiner nodded. “But nothing is certain. That is not an excuse. Just fair warning so that you can prepare yourselves. I’m afraid I have proven to be nothing more than the weak link in our chain.”

“Indeed,” Avery agreed. “In that case, if there is nothing else to be said here, then I’m leaving now. I have to take care of things on my end once this explodes on the net.”

“Capital idea,” Gordon said, and with that both of their screens turned dark, leaving Steiner alone with Elizabeth.

“I will inform the remainder of our party of today’s events,” she told him. “This will be the last time you hear from any of us.”

“Directly, I’m assured,” Steiner said. “If I am able to free my employees, they will need someplace to go. A new employer that is outside the bounds of my governments laws.”

“I will keep in touch at least that much,” Elizabeth nodded. “Is there anything else?”

“Nothing that I can think of, I’m afraid.”

“In that case, best of luck to you. We’ll do our part in ensuring that the project continues uninterrupted.” There was a brief pause on her part before she continued. “Goodbye Richard.”

With that, her screen went dark, leaving Steiner alone in his office. Tapping on his keyboard, he erased all logs on the conversation. He would need to do a more thorough cleaning to make sure that the conversation wouldn’t fall into the CHC’s hands. He prayed that his colleagues wouldn’t fall as he had.

As long as they don’t bring in any techno-wizards, things should be fine.

He grimaced. The CHC would undoubtedly do just that. Leaning forward in his chair, he considered his options before sighing heavily.

Queen takes pawn. Check.

Monique quietly slipped into the Grey household via the unlocked window at the top floor, carefully controlling her shape so as to not fall off the side and out into the alley. She licked her lips as she retracted spider-like hairs back into her body, trying desperately to not break her concentration until she was well enough inside. Her last limb slipped inside and she collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily as the glow of her Q-Field vanishing from around her pale body.

Hate… Hate shifting between three forms at once like that, she thought, wiping her brow. Bracing a hand against the wall she got to her feet and leaned against it. Once she caught her breath, she padded down the hallway to Jamie’s room, listening intently for the sounds of anyone inside. She didn’t really expect anyone to be home, not with the way the city’s traffic was turning out these past few hours. What exactly happened she wasn’t sure except that it involved a heroi attack of some kind on Romana Pax. The skies were so full of Guardians that she wouldn’t have been able to investigate properly if she wanted to.

Stopping in front of Jamie’s room she pushed the door open and took a look inside. Not here, she thought, closing the door and leaning her head against it. Her mouth set itself into a grim line as she tried to think of what to do next. Until Teruo was finished ‘taking care of a few things’ there wasn’t much to do. Pulling out her cell phone she dialed Beth’s number.

“We’re sorry,” came a prerecorded voice from the other end. “But the number you are trying to reach is disconnected or unavailable. Please try again later.”

Terrific, Monique sulked. It took me forever to get here thanks to the mess, and I can’t get a hold of his Companion either. Where…?

She ground her forehead against the door, clenching her eyes shut in frustration. After a moment she pulled away and took a deep, calming breath.

I hope that he’s okay, she thought, brushing her white hair out of her amber eyes while she panned around the room. I should get in touch with my handler; let him know that this whole thing is starting to look pear shaped. Her hands tightened around the doorknob in front of her. No. I can do this. I shouldn’t take any stupid risks. The CHC is going to be monitoring as many signals they can get a hold of right now.

Closing her eyes, she thought about what to do. Jamie wasn’t home. At a friend’s house? That seemed to be the most logical answer. She didn’t think it was likely that he would be at Romana Pax just in time for there to be an attack there. The boy’s profile suggested that he preferred to avoid trouble if he could help it.

She was snapped out of her thoughts as the sound of a door opening downstairs caught her attention. Getting into a crouch, she quietly hurried to the edge of the stairwell and peeked around the corner to see a pair of men wearing suits entering the household. Her first thought was instantly that of the CHC. The two men took a quick look around the house before one looked over his shoulder and beckoned a pair of paramedics to enter. Monique gasped. Strapped to a wheelchair they carted in front of them was a woman, Jamie’s mother. Her head rolled to one side as they struggled her over the front step and into the house.

Gods! What happened to her?! Monique exclaimed mentally as they came to a stop and began to unbind her. Lifting her up, the paramedics began to climb up the stairs. Nearly panicking, Monique ducked back behind the corner. A faint glow surrounded her body and she morphed her body down to the Cerberus she remembered as Jamie’s pet. As the paramedics cleared the landing, she coughed at the sudden sensation of two necks and heads on her shoulders. The feeling was almost insanely alien to her, and she wobbled on her feet to keep her balance.

“Is that mutt sick or something?” asked one of the paramedics, eyeing her as she regained her balance. Baring her newly formed fangs, Monique growled at them and backed away. Uncertain as to what else to do, she went with the most typical Cereberus behavior when dealing with complete strangers.

“Doesn’t seem like it,” the other grunted. One of the two agents emerged behind them and gave Monique a raised eyebrow.

“Just take her down the hall and go into the last room. The sooner we get this done the better.

Retreating down the same path, Monique wondered just what was going on. She contemplated morphing into Jamie’s father as soon as she disappeared into the room, but decided against it. She didn’t know the man well enough to properly mimic him, and should he show up at the wrong time her cover would be blown. Best to lay low for the time being.

She watched warily as the paramedics laid Libby Grey out onto her bed and took out a syringe and a small bottle. After injecting her with whatever was in the bottle, the paramedics stepped back, giving deference to the suited agent as he came to the forefront. Monique watched as Libby groaned and started to come around, her eyes fluttering open.

“Where…?” she whispered in a sleep-dulled voice, her eyes coming to rest on the agent.

“Mrs. Grey,” the man said, focusing on her. “I am Agent Stone from the CHC. I am to inform you about the matter regarding your son…”

Monique’s twin pairs of ears perked up at this and she leaned forward to listen closely.

She couldn’t wait to get out of there as quickly as possible. No sooner did the agents leave was Monique already racing down the hall and toward the half-open window, the issue of Jamie’s mother already far from her mind. Finally! Something she had to go on! Granted, it wasn’t much. She could only glean so much from a conversation between people who knew enough about a situation to not explain too many details, but as she shrunk her body down and grew wings she knew full well where she had to go. Clark City hospital, specifically the emergency care section where Jamie would be treated for his injuries. It seemed that there was a great deal more that went on than just a simple attack on Romana Pax, leaving her to wonder if the two were related. She brushed the thought aside for the moment, opting instead to just get to the hospital as quickly as she could and find Jamie. The sooner, the better.

Although her body was still exhausted from her earlier rapid transformations, she willed her body to hold to its new shape as she flapped her wings and took to the air. Speed was of the utmost necessity as she soared upward—up, up, up to the sky before diving down at a rapid pace. Flapping her wings, she pulled up again and checked her landmarks before going into yet another dive.

As she did so, she wondered why there was smoke rising from the direction of the hospital.

Monique nearly lost her avian form prematurely before collapsing in an alley outside of Clark City General Hospital. She rolled with the impact, groaning when she finally came to a stop. She lay there for a second to catch her breath before finally forcing herself to a sitting position. She took in her condition. She was back in her natural form, pale and this time shaking.

For the moment however, none of that mattered.

Devastation. There was no other word to describe what Monique saw. Smoke, fire, the cries of the wounded and people calling for assistance… Monique clenched her eyes shut and ducked back into the alleyway she arrived in, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill forth. This was too much like…like…

No. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it! Pulling out her cell phone she immediately dialed Teruo’s number—given to her before she left his residence—which he quickly picked up.

“This had better be important,” she heard him begin on the other end. “I’m kind of in the middle of…”

“Something big has happened,” she interrupted. “Clark City hospital… It’s… It’s like… Oh gods…”

“Um… Are you okay?” the boy asked, a worried tone in his voice. “What happened?” She could hear him typing on the other end, obviously attempting to locate news sources online through his pad. “Oh shit…” he breathed, having clearly found it.

“It looks bad over here. People are hurt! I think… I think Jamie self-destructed or something! Went Gamma! I don’t know! There’s a huge chunk missing from the hospital!” She ran a hand through her pale hair, refusing to believe it. He can’t be…! He’s supposed to be the M! M’s don’t die!

“Calm down,” Teruo tried to ease. “Let’s not jump to conclusions, all right? This could be something like a terrorist group like Noir or Golden Rings, or maybe another heroi…”

“That doesn’t make things better,” Monique replied in a throaty whisper, hugging herself with one arm. “Jamie was in that hospital…”

“I’m looking to see if I can find him. Gods, the hospital computers are a mess right now. Twenty dead for sure but a bunch of missing and injured people. Crispy gods this is bad. I… Huh?”

“Huh?” Monique blinked back a tear. “What do you mean huh?”

“Just…huh. There’s a bit here about someone arriving real soon. Someone called Life Maker.”

“Soon?” Monique asked, recognizing the name. “How soon?”

“Like now.”

Looking up, Monique saw a helicopter approaching the hospital, bearing the markings of the federal government on its side.

Bruce Kane stood atop the hospital roof, patiently waiting as the helicopter touched down. Almost immediately, the door to the copter opened and out stepped a tall, thin man wearing a silver-grey uniform and a pair of goggles over his eyes. On his chest was a circular patch with a serpent winding up a tree.

“Mr. Kane?” he asked, approaching the Sentinel with one hand outstretched. Kane took the offered hand and shook it.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice doctor,” he said. The man snorted.

“Don’t be so quick to thank me. Getting here so fast has its risks, so this better be worth it. What have you got?”

“You were given the mission briefing?”

“Briefing is right, or rather brief. Very short. I don’t like it.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way, but this is a matter of national security. Now that you are here, you have work ahead of you.”

“So I gathered from the briefing,” the doctor nodded. “Expensive business that. I take it you have a sample?”

Kane nodded and lifted a small cooler from the ground, passing it to the man. Unlocking it, the doctor lifted the lid and took a look.

“Only this amount?” he asked, taking out the small vial of blood for a better look. “I can work with this fortunately. What about its source?”

“The child is not your concern,” Kane replied. The doctor shook his head.

“I beg to differ, but since you outrank me I have no other choice but to obey.” Returning the vial to the container, he closed the lid and locked it. “Very well.”

Behind them, the entrance to the roof opened and out came a group of nurses carting a gurney approached them. The doctor glanced past Kane, eyebrow raised as he saw a body, fully wrapped from head to toe, obscuring its identity.

“And that is…?” the doctor asked tentatively.

“None of your concern,” Kane replied. “That is for a separate destination.”

“Very well,” the doctor said, shrugging his shoulders. “If this is all I have to take care of, then I’ll get started immediately.”

“How long will it take you?” Kane asked. The doctor smiled.

“We’ve improved our techniques. Once we get everything offloaded and set up in the lab, I expect it won’t take very long at all.”

In the women’s bathroom of the hospital, Monique finished gulping down the last of the burger she swiped from the cafeteria and ran a finger along the edge of her lips, scooping up the last juicy remnants of her meal and popping it in her mouth. Her stomach gurgled in utter satisfaction.

Shakes are almost gone, she thought, relaxing a little. She felt yards better now that she had food in her. Even now she could feel her energy returning in leaps and bounds. Very soon she would have very little trouble with making complex transformations and even maintaining them.

All I need to do now is change my look, she thought. She had picked out a ‘patsy’ earlier. One of the benefits of her mutation was her unconscious ability to remember people and faces down to the smallest detail in order to mimic them. There were things she couldn’t replicate, such as whether or not the person she mimicked was right-handed, their signature, or even a heroi’s powers unless their abilities were more of a physical nature than Q-Field related, but when it came down to looking like someone? That was no difficulty.

There was also another trick she had, the only one of her kind to exhibit it, and was the primary reason why she had been selected for this mission in the first place.

Entering the bathroom and bee lining into the nearest stall, she closed the door behind her and began to tear off strips of toilet paper. Once she was satisfied she had enough, she piled them up and she placed her hands around it. Her Q-Field snaked out and engulfed the toilet paper, causing them to merge and reform into an identity card. Wiping her hand across her forehead, she picked it up and inspected it.

Looks just like the nurse’s, she thought, grinning. It wouldn’t work like the nurse’s unfortunately when it came to security, but for the average layman it would suffice. This ability was something of an extension of the metamorph ability to create clothing to match their target, but at the same time different. While most metamorphs used their own body mass, she could utilize the mass around her to do the job. It was much more energy intensive than simply using the standard clothing mimicry, especially if it was more complicated, but in this situation she needed to be able to remove the card from her person to get into wherever she needed to be.

My handler will be proud to know that this works in the field, she smirked. Getting up, she closed her eyes, and a second later she was changed again, looking just like the nurse that she picked out earlier; a tall, muscular man with an easy-going smile and dark stubble on his chin.

In short order she picked her way through the hospital, aiming toward the heroi wing where Teruo said, according to the hospital records, was set aside for some kind of high tech rejuvenation surgery or some such. All he knew for certain was that the famed Life Maker was setting up shop there and that would be most likely where Jamie would be found, dead or alive.

Alive, she thought desperately. He has to be alive! He has to be!

While she poked her head down a hallway to get her bearings, she heard the sound of an elevator door ding open and from it came loud, anxious calls for everyone to get out of the way. Furrowing her brow curiously, she craned her head in the direction of the voices, only to jump back as a group of nurses rushed by, pushing what appeared to be a large tank or vat filled with a green liquid. She recognized it right away.

A Life Pod! Looking out the room’s entrance, she followed the path of the pod as it went down the hall and turned a corner. Briefly—very briefly—Monique swore that she caught sight of a familiar face inside that caused her heart to jump briefly in her chest.

Jamie?! she began, preparing to pursue, only to stop when a voice called out to her.

“Frank!” hailed a male nurse, approaching her…him…in wide, swaggering steps, one hand raised in an attempt to flag her down. “Frank! Get over here! We have a…Frank!”

Monique rushed after the Life Pod, pretending not to have heard the nurse while simultaneously hoping that he didn’t take offense to being brushed off like that. That was one downside to her powers that she hated; she always made trouble for someone else.

She chased after the Life Pod and its entourage. Quickly rounding the corner, she saw the group disappear behind a pair of doors that quickly locked behind them. Rushing after them she pulled out her metamorphed card and reflexively slid it through the card lock without thinking, peering through the window for a better angle.

The group turned again and this time, with the card reader refusing her card, she saw Jamie’s face clearly, floating in the pod. Monique felt a burst of emotion well up within her as she pressed one hand on the glass.

Thank the gods, she thought, a tear of relief falling down her face.

Sᴇarch the FindNovel.net website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.