by Michael Todd
“You might want to set up there anyway,” her companion retorted. “I grew up in Florida, and spending this much time away from a beach has started to piss me the fuck off.”
The Russian looked at her, about to ask a question, but thought better of it and turned to her screen as she took the offered cup of coffee. “I didn’t get any sleep last night, but I’ve dealt with crazy hours my whole adult life, so it’s not really too much of a problem. I will crash in a couple of hours, though, so get used to me missing a couple more breakfasts.”
“Right,” Amanda said and squeezed the woman’s shoulder gently. “We do appreciate the work that you do here. In all honesty, I have no idea why Sal is so obsessed with this metal, but then again, I tend to let the poor geek figure out his own way in life. He seems to have at least some of it figured out, anyway.”
“Speaking of Jacobs,” Anja said and turning her chair to face the armorer, “are he and Kennedy…”
“Oh, yes. Like rabbits.”
“Are you and him…” the hacker ventured cautiously.
“No way,” Amanda laughed. “He’s really not my type if you know what I mean.” She winked at the girl, who simply stared back in confusion. “Never mind. I’ll let you get back to work.”
“Thanks for the coffee,” Anja said vaguely, already distracted as the other woman made her way out of the dark server room.
Chapter Three
“So how was the trip into the Zoo?” Amanda asked as Sal stepped into the kitchen and looked around in evident surprise.
“You know, I think the designers have actually listened to the users in this case,” he replied with a grin.
“Are you looking for something?” she asked, moved closer, and jumped up to sit on the counter.
“Which is a lot less common than you’d think if I’m honest,” Sal said as he blinked and continued his vague scrutiny. “Where’s the coffee machine?”
“Oh, on the other side.” She pointed him toward where she’d put the pot.
“Why is it over there?” He grabbed his favorite mug and filled it.
“Well, we need it for breakfast and stuff,” she replied, “but I need it a lot more often when I work in the shop. That’s also closer to where Anja is, so it makes it more efficient for her too. Since the two of us are the ones who spend the most time around the compound, I thought that it might be best to help us work better.”
Sal nodded, poured a second cup, and offered it to her. “That’s some good thinking. Keep it up.”
“Will do, boss.” She took the mug and raised it in a mock-toast. “By the way, I poked around that design you gave me.”
“Have you made any progress?” He looked instantly a little more alert.
“Not really.” The armorer shrugged. “There are actual mechs that they’ve designed for the Zoo, but as it turns out, those things end up way too heavy to be any kind of use to anyone. They simply sink into the ground if they stick around for too long and use too much power to be any kind of practical use. So far, they’ve only been used on top of the walls with the perimeter guards, where they are literally plugged into their own generators. They work great on defense and keep all the big monsters out, but when it comes to offense, they’re essentially useless.”
“Have you made the calculations with the metal that we recovered from the leg?” Sal asked, took a sip from his coffee, and scowled at it. It was way too sweet.
“Not yet, but I can’t imagine that some new-fangled metal will make much of a difference,” Amanda responded and shrugged. “It’s not like it’ll change the weight of the weapons, the fuel, or anything like that. With regular physics—not the kind that we find in the Zoo—there’s a limit to how big our suits can get.”
“How about more efficient?” he asked. “Because I think you’ve missed the fact that a suit with this metal could reduce the weight of the armor by two-thirds.”
“Yeah, the math all adds up,” she admitted begrudgingly. “The problem is—and always has been—getting it to work in a practical fashion. I’ve put everything I have into it, and it’s still going…really slowly. It’s uncharted territory out here.”
“How about you simply try and get a feel for the metalwork first?” Sal suggested. “Maybe implement it into the armor that we use now to make it lighter and with more protection.”
“And here I was afraid that your expectations would be too high on this project,” the armorer retorted although she grinned, her voice seeped sarcasm.
“No expectations.” He laughed disarmingly. “Like you said, we’re in uncharted territory out here, but there’s no harm in pressing into the unknown at this juncture, right? See what you can do and let me know about any results, good, bad, or…otherwise.”
Amanda chuckled and slid from her perch on the counter. “Will do, boss. I’ll try not to let you down.”
“That’s all I ask,” Sal replied as she made her way out of the kitchen.
Courtney looked up from her laptop and uttered a low curse for what might be the third time that day. Then again, it felt like it had been four or five times, although she couldn’t be sure considering that she had been at this for longer than she’d thought she would be. Days? Maybe, which meant that while the interruptions seemed nonstop, they might have actually simply checked in at whatever was considered to be an acceptable amount of time between calls.
Still, it was infuriating. She scowled at her phone for a long moment and sighed at the notification telling her that she had five missed calls, soon to be six. Determined to overcome the distraction, she turned to her laptop again and tried to focus on what she was working on for a moment, but it didn’t help much. They would definitely call again, she realized as the phone went dead and they left another voice message.
Taking full control of her father’s estate had proven to be a lot easier than she’d expected it to be. The people who were currently in charge seemed all too happy to hand the reins over to her. They didn’t particularly care for her negotiation tactics, but then again, she hadn’t cared for theirs either. At the end, the interaction had left them at the kind of impasse that had finally convinced them of the futility of further resistance.
And they’d blinked first. Or would that be clucked first? She wasn’t entirely sure which was the right metaphor.
Finally, she capitulated and picked her phone up as it buzzed again, although she did allow herself a growl of annoyance as she pressed the accept call button on her screen.
“That fucking bitch had better pi—oh, good morning, Dr. Monroe,” the man on the other end said quickly, clearly flustered by the fact that she had actually decided to answer the phone. “We were trying to contact you. There have been a couple of issues arising from your new position in the company. The board would like us to schedule a meeting with you. At your convenience, of course. Oh, and the scientists in charge of your father’s lab would also like a word whenever you’d like to come on down.”
Courtney tried to remember the last time someone had ordered her around that politely. She’d really only gotten herself involved to protect her father’s legacy from being torn apart by various agencies whose greed would strip it to the bare bones. As of right now, however, she honestly didn’t enjoy the consequences of her actions.
“I think I can clear my schedule today to get all that figured out,” she said with a smile in her voice, even if she didn’t mean it. “Would you please ask them to send a car around to pick me up…shall we say in half an hour?”
“Of course, Doctor,” the man replied and sounded relieved that she hadn’t reacted to him calling her a bitch. “Expect a car there in half an hour.”
“I appreciate it,” she said. “I’ll see you shortly.”
She could almost hear the man gulp as she cut the call short before he could answer. Always have the last word in these conversations. That was one of the things her father had taught her a while back in dealing with these people. It took some willpower not to lash out, but you
also had to show backbone. One of the simplest ways to make sure that they didn’t try to push you around was to make sure that you had the last word in every conversation.
Courtney glanced at her watch. She had half an hour and would make the most of it.
A quick, cold shower helped to wake her up enough to don an austere-looking pantsuit and indulge in some much-needed coffee. It was oddly satisfying that she was finished with time to spare. At what point in her life had she stopped caring so much about what people thought of her appearance? In the past, her morning routine had taken forever. Now, though, she had become comfortable with how she looked—with the makeup, clothes, and everything that she wanted, rather than what she thought others expected. It was empowering.
The car arrived exactly on time and drove her from the house that she’d started to call home, even after it had been invaded by four armed men who wanted to kill her. An old haunt. A place to call home.
The LA traffic was a little less horrible today, which allowed them to arrive at the building where her father’s company was situated before ten in the morning. The timing made sure that everyone would still be at work when she arrived.
“Dr. Monroe.” A man in a drab gray suit greeted her with a smile. “So nice of you to come on this short notice. We’ve called the people from the IRS who wanted to talk to you about the corporate changes in the company, but they won’t be here until this afternoon.”
“That’s quite all right…” Courtney said and deliberately trailed her words off to let the man—whom she had talked to on the phone earlier if his voice and flushed face were anything to go by—tell her his name as she extended her hand.
“Robinson,” he said, took her hand, and shook it firmly. “Allen Robinson. MBA out of Cornell.”
She wondered what his masters had to do with anything, but then remembered that he was actually the one who ran the company on a practical level while she was off doing her own thing. With that in mind, she supposed that it would be important to know that someone as young as him actually had the credentials to be where he was today. She could only assume that his silver-spoon upbringing had provided him the experience to go along with the qualification.
“That’s actually perfect, Robinson,” she continued with a smile. “I look forward to meeting the scientists my father worked with before he died—more than meeting with the IRS anyway.”
He smiled, nodded, and gestured for her to follow him to the elevators. Once again. the security staff was waved aside.
“So tell me, Robinson,” Courtney said as they entered the elevator that immediately started to move down into the sublevels, “you look like you’ve managed this place for quite some time now.”
“Three years, actually,” he replied with a nod.
“That doesn’t explain why they have someone with your credentials running around to babysit the eccentric woman who’s never at work,” she pointed out as the elevator came to a stop.
“Well, I was officially named as your assistant,” Robinson explained. “The board wanted someone they’d worked with before to speak with your authority in the running of this place. Considering that you haven’t been around here much—or at all, really, since you took the place over three weeks ago—I’d say that it was a damn good call on their part, wouldn’t you?”
Courtney smiled and turned to face him. “That is a good call. And there aren’t that many people out there who would be willing to talk like that to my face. I like your style, Robinson.” She exited the elevator before he had a chance to respond. Not that she had made any rapid movement when the doors slid open. He simply stood there for a few seconds to process what she’d said until he was snapped out of it by the ding of the elevator to inform him that the doors would close. He slipped out again barely in time.
They moved into the lab where, as she could see, most of the studies conducted had to do with what her father had discovered from the Zoo. She’d read in some of the financial files that he had been provided with government funding with the stipulation that time and energy were devoted to studying the various elements that were pulled out of the damned place. They hadn’t seen fit to give him any specimens of the actual goop, and it seemed that, for the most part, they were simply given technical aspects of the various items and asked to replicate them under regular circumstances.
She could only imagine the degree of success that they’d had. Of course, she didn’t doubt the abilities of her father and all those he trusted enough to be a part of this project, or their will to get something done despite the odds. She was simply completely aware of the impossible task they’d been given. She, more than most, she mused and ran her fingers through her hair. It had been a while since she’d been in a properly funded lab like this but all the protocols rushed back like she’d never been away. It’s like riding a bike.
All business now, she moved quickly through the cleaning procedures, although her assistant had a little more trouble. She had to wait a while and took her time to pull the gloves on as the man finally exited the cleaning room.
One of the scientists, an older gentleman who sported a clearly visible bow tie under his lab suit, approached them with a curious expression.
“I’m sorry, can I help you?” he asked, obviously confused by their sudden appearance there.
“Hi,” Courtney said with a smile. “You must be Dr. Belford. I’m Dr. Courtney Monroe. I thought you had been informed that I would drop by here today?”
“Oh, yes, of course,” he said with a nod, dragged his fingers through his beard, and cleared his throat. “Naturally. The phone call said that Dr. Monroe would pay us a visit. For some reason, my mind went blank for a moment and I somehow expected your…father. That’s crazy, I know. I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you,” Courtney said with a smile. “I appreciate it.”
“Of course, of course,” Belford said with a quick nod and a smile and shook his head enough to show that he wore a toupee. “If you’ll follow me?”
He led them down the hallways that showed more than two dozen people in lab coats and all other kinds of safety equipment at work. She recognized many of the details that they worked on too. Some of them had come from her own whitepapers from her time in the Zoo, before and during her time with Heavy Metal.
Belford noticed and smiled. “You father always insisted on being the first to acquire your whitepapers when they were released to the public. He trusted your powers of intuition in that hellish place more than almost anyone’s. He actually insisted that it be a part of his contract with the Pentagon that he be given the first crack at anything you published.”
Courtney didn’t bother to respond to that. While it was comforting to know that her father had trusted her work, she knew that it would sound suspiciously like an academic form of nepotism. She didn’t want those to be the rumors that followed her there.
“I was actually curious about what you were working on, Dr. Belford,” she said with a thin smile. “I’d like to have a grasp of what my father had you doing—it would go a long way to justify my position in the company, even if I am not quite the CEO that one might have hoped I was.”
The man chuckled, while Robinson looked away quickly. It seemed that the two of them had shared words on the topic before.
“Well, personally, I’ve assigned myself to the team that is studying the results of the animals from the Zoo,” Belford said and guided her into his own personal lab. “In particular, that of the larger creatures. Whitepapers have been written on the topic. Quite a few of yours, as well as those of your colleague, Salinger Jacobs. I remember the boy—annoyingly sharp, that one, and he knew it too. I interviewed him for a position here with us as an intern not two years ago. I’m glad to see him working there, putting his intellect to work far, far away from me.”
Courtney smirked and shook her head. “I like him. He is difficult until you get a feel for how his inner process works. Once you get past that, it’s rather fun to work with
someone that eager to push the borders of science.”
“Of course,” the man said with a quick nod, although she doubted that his opinion about Sal had changed at all. “Anyway, your speculations on the creatures that would normally be too large to survive out of water was rather inspired, I have to say. From the papers that we were given on the goop, there were some interactions that seemed like they would be able to alter the response of anyone or anything exposed to it—to, for example, the effects of gravity among other phenomena.”
“Actually,” Courtney interjected, “I’m reasonably certain that the papers you have on those animals are out of date. While yes, the speculation was correct, we weren’t quite sure how deeply that goop ran in the creatures’ blood until we actually captured a live specimen for testing. Oh, and the larger creatures have sacs of the goop itself attached to their spines. The number and mass of the sacs are different from animal to animal, but it seems to be collected in the spinal column.
“From there, it is distributed into the bone and muscular structure of the creatures and allows them to grow larger without seeing the effects of weight and fatigue that you would normally see in creatures that size. They seem to still be growing, although they are rare and that makes it difficult to actually obtain data on how large we can expect them to grow over time. So far, no real limits appear to have been imposed on these creatures by the laws of physics, but I’m sure that our people out there in the Zoo are keeping a close eye on that for us.”
“Ah,” Belford grunted, dropping down in his seat. “That is quite a lot of information to process all at once.”
“I’m actually working on a book of my experiences—in condensed form, of course—while in the Zoo,” Courtney said and he immediately looked interested. “I’ll dedicate it to my father, and I would really like to have your input on it. I hoped we could meet sometime later this week. A lunch or dinner, perhaps?”