her messages. It was as if she had hung a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on herself. The soldiers fastened their own harnesses and remained silent, apparently heeding the commander’s unspoken command to leave her alone.
To onlookers, Commander Sturgis likely appeared calm and in control. But on the inside, her mind was uncharacteristically rattled and she seethed with anger. She would have liked to lay the blame for the failed attempt to retrieve 9 on her assistant Sewell or her crew. Her anger, though, was with herself. She had bungled the mission and she knew it. Even though 9 had been sedated most of his life, his full capabilities suppressed, she should have foreseen that he could not be taken down by a few ex-marines toting guns. It was a mistake she would not make again.
“Tell Sewell to get the containment crew out here straight away. They need to dispose of that dead scum and erase every trace of H.A.L.F. 9’s work out here. Not a single thread of DNA, do you understand me?”
The helicopter pilot nodded and passed her command along to Sewell on an encrypted channel. The containment crew would be on the scene within minutes. They’d collect the dead body and scour the desert floor to gather every bit of debris that may have been left behind. They’d irradiate the soil with machines designed to erase evidence of anything that once lived. When the morning sun came up on that patch of Arizona desert, there would be a sizeable swath of bare dirt and rock covered with dead plants and nothing more.
Anyone who dared to venture into the gunnery range may find the spot. She had no doubt the UFO nuts may have already put out the word. They seemed to have an uncanny way of spotting her special Black Hawk helicopters equipped with the same stealth technology as the B-2 stealth bomber. MUFON, those so-called UFO investigators, may find higher than normal levels of radiation and the dead plants. They’d make a show about it and claim it was the landing site of an alien ship. But Commander Sturgis was unconcerned about the babblings of the alien enthusiast fringe. All she cared about was that no one find a clue about what had actually gone down in that spot. They would not discover any evidence of the alien-human hybrid she had created or of the dead body of 9’s victim.
The cabin of the copter was quiet save for the sound of the blades chopping the air. The six soldiers looked straight ahead and remained silent. She was glad of it. She was in no mood for idle banter. Commander Sturgis kept her gaze on the bright white screen of her handheld. She had a message from General Bardsley, her commanding officer, asking for an update. Hell’s bells. He would go through the roof when he heard about the fiasco of 9’s escape. She did not respond to Bardsley’s message. I will have to consider how best to put this to him, but now I have more important things to think about.
Like how to get 9 back into her custody. Commander Sturgis and Dr. Randall had created 9 to be a killing machine, unfettered by human frailties of the mind such as guilt and mercy. H.A.L.F. 9 had shown no mercy to her soldiers, but he had displayed a weakness toward the teenagers. That concerned her far more than the fact that he’d killed a man. It was exactly what she’d been worried about and why she’d chided Dr. Randall for treating 9 more like a human child than the weapon he was supposed to be. Dr. Randall made 9 soft. But Commander Sturgis was confident that with Randall out of the way, she’d be able to train the softness out of 9. First I have to retrieve him.
The demonstration of the extent of 9’s powers surprised her. She’d had to keep him sedated for her own protection, as well as the staff’s. She had no way of knowing that he’d be so strong so quickly once beyond the artificially humid environment of A.H.D.N.A. No way of knowing that he could kill six men at once. His little excursion into the desert gave her proof of aptitudes that
To onlookers, Commander Sturgis likely appeared calm and in control. But on the inside, her mind was uncharacteristically rattled and she seethed with anger. She would have liked to lay the blame for the failed attempt to retrieve 9 on her assistant Sewell or her crew. Her anger, though, was with herself. She had bungled the mission and she knew it. Even though 9 had been sedated most of his life, his full capabilities suppressed, she should have foreseen that he could not be taken down by a few ex-marines toting guns. It was a mistake she would not make again.
“Tell Sewell to get the containment crew out here straight away. They need to dispose of that dead scum and erase every trace of H.A.L.F. 9’s work out here. Not a single thread of DNA, do you understand me?”
The helicopter pilot nodded and passed her command along to Sewell on an encrypted channel. The containment crew would be on the scene within minutes. They’d collect the dead body and scour the desert floor to gather every bit of debris that may have been left behind. They’d irradiate the soil with machines designed to erase evidence of anything that once lived. When the morning sun came up on that patch of Arizona desert, there would be a sizeable swath of bare dirt and rock covered with dead plants and nothing more.
Anyone who dared to venture into the gunnery range may find the spot. She had no doubt the UFO nuts may have already put out the word. They seemed to have an uncanny way of spotting her special Black Hawk helicopters equipped with the same stealth technology as the B-2 stealth bomber. MUFON, those so-called UFO investigators, may find higher than normal levels of radiation and the dead plants. They’d make a show about it and claim it was the landing site of an alien ship. But Commander Sturgis was unconcerned about the babblings of the alien enthusiast fringe. All she cared about was that no one find a clue about what had actually gone down in that spot. They would not discover any evidence of the alien-human hybrid she had created or of the dead body of 9’s victim.
The cabin of the copter was quiet save for the sound of the blades chopping the air. The six soldiers looked straight ahead and remained silent. She was glad of it. She was in no mood for idle banter. Commander Sturgis kept her gaze on the bright white screen of her handheld. She had a message from General Bardsley, her commanding officer, asking for an update. Hell’s bells. He would go through the roof when he heard about the fiasco of 9’s escape. She did not respond to Bardsley’s message. I will have to consider how best to put this to him, but now I have more important things to think about.
Like how to get 9 back into her custody. Commander Sturgis and Dr. Randall had created 9 to be a killing machine, unfettered by human frailties of the mind such as guilt and mercy. H.A.L.F. 9 had shown no mercy to her soldiers, but he had displayed a weakness toward the teenagers. That concerned her far more than the fact that he’d killed a man. It was exactly what she’d been worried about and why she’d chided Dr. Randall for treating 9 more like a human child than the weapon he was supposed to be. Dr. Randall made 9 soft. But Commander Sturgis was confident that with Randall out of the way, she’d be able to train the softness out of 9. First I have to retrieve him.
The demonstration of the extent of 9’s powers surprised her. She’d had to keep him sedated for her own protection, as well as the staff’s. She had no way of knowing that he’d be so strong so quickly once beyond the artificially humid environment of A.H.D.N.A. No way of knowing that he could kill six men at once. His little excursion into the desert gave her proof of aptitudes that
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