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We’re in the elevator and I don’t even remember stepping in, which says a lot, considering my phobia about this steel box. “Where are the women with that mark on their neck?”
“The government has them on lockdown in some offsite facility.”
“How are we supposed to study them and help them if they aren’t here?”
“The thought was they needed to be separated from the GTECHs for safekeeping. There’s a research team with them, but it’s problematic.”
The elevator opens and we step into the facility with thankfully no one around. “How?”
“The men they were with when the mark appeared were uneasy without them. It seems to require space and time to disconnect them enough for them to function without distraction.”
“Uneasy how?”
“Protective. Angry they were kept from them. It’s like there is a bond between them that is unbreakable. Like I said, we can’t remove the mark from the women.”
“But I’d assume these same men were with other women and this didn’t happen, right?”
“Yes. We confirmed that exact fact.”
She glances at her watch. “I have a meeting in ten. I’ll come by later, and we can talk this out.” She hurries away and I grab coffee from the breakroom before heading to my office.
Once I’m behind my desk, I decide I’ll splurge on a coffee pot of my own before I pull up my email. My father holds the first spot in my inbox and I click on the message.
Now that you have clearance, I’m including your login credentials. You need to start by looking at the X2 studies. This is a rapid action item and a problem that must be contained.
It’s signed in his formal automatic signature, which is expected. This is work, and we both have jobs to do.
He has my attention, and I sip my coffee then quickly log onto a database loaded with information. Okay, not quickly. I go through what feels like an SAT exam to actually get onto the system. I scan and find the folder for X2, which requires another round of identification verification. Finally, I’m in and reading and find a concerning development.
Out of almost two hundred GTECHs, fifteen soldiers have tested positive for what they are calling an X2 gene mutation. Some of these soldiers, not all, have displayed out-of-character aggression, disobedience, and godlike complexes, and as a result, all fifteen men turned into pincushions. This mutation has not been reported to the higher ranks beyond our facility.
There are recommendations by more than half the scientists on site, which means dozens, to seclude these soldiers until we know if this mutation is contagious, and before they can no longer be contained. That recommendation was referred to my father for approval.
Are they serious?
This is insanity.
There are nearly two hundred GTECHs, all extraordinary and dangerous, and on our side. When you start locking even some of them up, they become our enemies. Surely, my father gets this even if the scientists do not.
My heart starts thundering in my chest and I click on the list, nervous to see the names and I know, I just know without looking, Creed’s name will be there. Sure enough, he’s number one.
And he’s gone now.
On a mission or to be tricked into confinement?
I shove to my feet and I’m around my desk in a heartbeat, charging through the lab, hellbent on confronting my father.
Unfortunately, my father’s office is so far on the other side of the facility my walk is not short. When I finally arrive at the entirely separate wing, I’m still fuming. His secretary, Lana, is behind her desk—a pretty blonde with big breasts, which irritates me a bit because you know, he’s my father and well—my mother—and all the emotional baggage that comes with me thinking he picked Lana for her looks.
His door is open, and I don’t bother to stop at her desk. I walk right in to find him gone. Whirling around, I step back into the lobby to find his assistant standing.
“Where is he?”
“He left for a mission this morning. “
“When is he back?”
“I don’t know. It’s top-secret, and I’m not given details.”
Oh my God, I think. He left. Creed left. This is not good.
I start walking and I don’t stop until I’m on the other side of the facility again, standing in front of Katie’s desk. “X2.”
“Yes. It’s scary, right?”
I open my mouth to ask if she thinks they’ve been locked up, but I realize I don’t know her security clearance. I don’t have any idea if anyone but me has seen the collective recommendation.
“It’s not scary. It’s inconclusive as to why the men show aggression and disobedience. They were injected with alien DNA. I’d be a little angry too.”
“True. That is true.”
“Are the men with the X2 mutation the ones connected to the markings on the women’s necks? Do you know?”
“I do not. Good question, though.”
