by M. V. Kallai
“You thought that you would immediately impress me enough to make a phone call to my friend on your behalf?” He skeptically raised just one eyebrow at Bearden this time, who replied.
“It’s just that I heard Dr. Tripple does not generally...like people, and as you can see, I have a habit of putting my foot in my mouth.”
Ganesh laughed out loud.
“That’s true! I have known you long enough to know that,” he said and Bearden grinned.
“So may I show you some of my work here?” Bearden asked.
Ganesh glanced at his schedule for the day to see how many items he could blow off to spend more time with this kid. He hadn’t given him any advice yet and he wasn’t sure he would really take it anyway. Plus, he knew he would be making a call to Camden later, either on Sergeant Leitner’s behalf or to give him a red flag. One way or the other, he needed some more time to decide.
“Humph,” Ganesh said. “I do have a little more time free this morning. Why don’t you show me the lab up close and explain further what you have done here for us.” He was hoping to gain some further insight into this acquisitive young prodigy.
Damn! Ganesh thought. Why couldn’t this kid have introduced himself a week ago; like he had said? At the very least, Ganesh realized he must decide quickly where this young soldier’s loyalties might lie; to the science of the project, or to the government. As he stewed over it, he wondered exactly when his own loyalties had shifted. Such a good soldier, no one would expect him to become an anarchist. Not even him.
Ganesh stood up and prompted the young Sergeant Bearden Leitner to the door. They walked side by side to the elevator that would take them to the ninth subfloor basement labs. Bearden stuck his access card into the slot this time to call the elevator. They stepped inside, then just as the doors were closing, Major Mace Magner squeezed in between them.
Chapter Five
Failure
It was now 10:00 A.M. and Lee was frantically running in circles around his lab, trying to save the embryos in their test tube environments. He reset the temperatures of their chambers, rebalanced their nutrient levels, checked their gene functions on the monitors, injected electric stimulus….
No matter what he did, they were dying, one at a time. He put his hands on his head and grabbed onto handfuls of graying hair.
“Not again!” He yelled. “I need more adaptable donors…or a more habitable environment! Perhaps a different combination of nutrients, or maybe tweak the DNA a little more.” He continued yelling at no one, attempting to keep the last few embryos alive, but it was a hopeless effort.
By 10:30, they were gone. Lee picked up one of the test tubes and threw it against the wall behind him. It shattered into a million tiny pieces, which made him scowl. He stormed back to his office and pulled out his electronic notebook. He started writing feverishly, detailing the exact stage when the embryos ceased to live and all the surrounding data that accompanied this formidable phase of his project.
Fifteen minutes later, he laid his head on his desk and fell asleep, glasses askew on his face, and pen still in hand.
Chapter Six
Lunch
Camden looked at himself in the mirror, straightened his collar and smoothed his hair with his hand. He rested against the side of the lavatory and leaned in close to the mirror. He sighed deeply and took extra notice of the deep lines that had settled in his forehead.
“Time to change the world,” he said to his reflection. Camden walked out of the bathroom and downstairs to his lab. He collected his packed samples of the organic biomer metal and a stack of notebooks, full of data from the past couple of days, along with his data from eleven years ago in a rolling briefcase. He picked up the phone to call his driver, Ari.
“I’m ready. Pick me up in five minutes.”
“Of course, Mr. Riles,” Ari replied and hung up the phone. Camden grabbed his coat and hat and proceeded to his private rooftop-parking pad where his transport awaited.
Ari, who lived with his family in a much smaller apartment in the same building, arrived on the rooftop seconds after Camden. He rushed ahead to open the door for his employer. When Camden was seated inside, he walked around and started the engine to this luxury craft. It was a beautiful day, sun shining, light wind, and the kind of day when Ari particularly enjoyed his job of flying this magnificent machine. Inside the passenger cabin, Camden wrestled with last minute doubts of handing his important research data over to Lee.
The transport took to the sky and was soon at the same altitude as dozens of others. Camden pressed a button that activated a media player and his cozy cabin was filled with the soft melody of an uplifting piano concerto. The music was soothing to him as he looked out of his window to try to enjoy the beauty of the day.
About five minutes later, Camden noticed a government transport riding along outside of his window, recognizable by the tri arcs in a diamond government emblem etched on the door. He turned his head to look in all directions and saw that there were three others nearby. Camden’s heart dropped to his knees as he looked back into the cabin at his suitcase containing the biomer sample. Several thoughts began to race across his mind at once and a wave of panic swept over him. What has Ganesh done? was the first thought as he quickly put together the now obvious secret nature of their meeting. The biomer sample must have been stolen from the government labs.
They may know nothing. It may just be a coincidence that four official transports seem to be surrounding me. Unfortunately, Camden didn’t believe in coincidence and he knew he would have to act coolly and quickly.
First things first, he thought and called Ari on the intercom. In a forceful and snappish tone said,
“Drive me to the nearest rooftop coffeehouse.”
Ari was a little taken aback at Camden’s tone, but answered back in his usual friendly way.
“Of course, sir, an unexpected stop. I see we do have some extra time before your …”
“Oh, just shut up and do what you are paid to do…drive…and make sure you stay on your course today!” Camden abruptly cut him off mid sentence. Ari was shocked at Camden’s sudden rudeness. In the ten years he had worked for him, he had never found Camden to be unfriendly like this, a little moody sometimes, but never downright rude. And what an odd thing to say, he questioned, “Make sure you stay on your course today.” What did Camden even mean? Ari realized that something was definitely not right and looking around, he too noticed the government transports that were in obvious pursuit of them now. He gripped the steering unit tight and wondered what Camden could have done to warrant this much company.
Meanwhile, Camden was scrambling to open a safe unit under his seat. He had never used this hidden compartment before and he struggled to remember the combination. Damn! The first set of numbers he tried failed to unlock it. His transport was custom built, so no one, aside from him and Ari, knew this little hide-a-way even existed. He worked quietly and quickly, knowing that whoever was inside of the pursuing transports had probably been listening in for quite a few minutes. 4..7..2..9…2..3.. he thought as his fingers frantically pressed the numbers into the safe’s keypad. “Click!” It opened. “Yes!” Camden said under his breath and quickly forced his rolling bag into the compartment, pulling a small notebook out of the front pocket as he did so. He slid the notebook inside his jacket and then tried to close the compartment door. The case was a little too large and he had to push and push to force it in. Finally, after a short struggle…success. The safe door snapped into place and automatically re-locked. He replaced the upholstery over the keypad and sat back in his chair. He shut his eyes for a second and took a deep breath. He must look calm and unsuspecting when they stopped.
Being cool did not come as naturally to Ari as it did to Camden, and he began wiping beads of sweat off his forehead when he spotted below him a trendy looking coffee house and herbal supplement shop. Every surface of this small rooftop attachment, including the doorway and arches was painted a differ
ent bright color. The lighting inside was changing its shade in a rhythmic pattern, set to match the blaring music. Ari directed the transport to the parking lot without confirming the location with Camden; something he wouldn’t do under normal circumstances. Especially with a boisterous place like this, it wasn’t exactly Camden’s style. The parking lot was relatively empty even though the place itself looked like it was teeming with life. The offices in the building, no doubt, provided a steady stream of clientele for this local jumping hot spot. The four government transports patiently followed Ari and landed discreetly around the lot.
Camden opened the door to step out, rolling his eyes at Ari for the choice of location. He had a hard time believing anyone would buy that he would actually choose to be here. But he stood up straight, put on his best smile, and walked with purpose toward the colorful coffeehouse, pretending not to notice the government bodies emerging from their transports.
“Professor Riles,” a gruff voice called out from behind him.
Here we go, Camden thought as he turned to respond to the gentleman.
Chapter Seven
The Government Lab
Major Mace Magner stepped into the closing elevator where Colonel Ganesh and Sergeant Leitner stood. He gave a quick salute to Ganesh and acknowledged Bearden with only a glance in his direction. Ganesh’s face turned from optimistic to cold in an instant.
“Major,” he said.
“Good morning, sir,” Bearden said to him, not noticing the sudden shift in Ganesh’s posture.
“Level five B,” Mace commanded the elevator.
“Ahh, visiting the labs this morning, Major?” asked Ganesh.
“As are you, I presume,” He replied.
“This is your first time down there since you have come aboard this project, isn’t it Colonel?”
He knows something, thought Ganesh, and he is keeping track of my comings and goings here. He wondered how much of his conversation with young Sergeant Leitner he had overheard. He caught up to us too fast to have been just walking by. His office isn’t even on this floor. He could have been outside of my office for several minutes. Does he make a habit of listening to my private conversations? Is my office bugged? Does he know about my trip down here last week, when I acquired the biomer sample for Camden?
As these thoughts were racing through his head, Bearden, who was oblivious to the tension in the elevator, chimed in.
“I am giving him the grand tour, sir. I mean, who better to give him his first look at the labs than the man who discovered the catalyst, himself!”
He certainly likes to toot his own horn. Ganesh thought and let out a defeated sigh. It wasn’t Bearden’s fault. Scientists were often clueless to the political interactions around them.
“I see,” said Mace, looking questionably at Ganesh. “How lucky he is, to be in such good hands.” Bearden beamed at this compliment from a superior, still unaware of the tense eye contact between Mace and Ganesh.
Ganesh played innocent with Mace, knowing that he would not dare blatantly disrespect his superior, and especially in front of a sergeant. Mace was too good a soldier for that. He would have to keep up his subtle games to try and score the information he wanted from him. And Ganesh would play…for now.
When the elevator arrived on level five B, the lowest lab level in the building, Mace turned sideways and held his arm out of the door as if to say, ‘After you,’ to an eager Bearden and a hesitant Ganesh. Bearden practically bounded out of the elevator ready to lead the way around his natural habitat. He was obviously thrilled to be accompanied by two such important people but he was most eager to make a good impression on the illustrious Colonel Ganesh.
Ganesh looked around at the massive lab area and tried to look interested, as if seeing it all for the first time from this ground floor perspective. It was quite impressive. Out of the elevator was a large half circle atrium that opened up to the three floors above it. Around the perimeter of the atrium on each floor were marble corridors that held offices, supply rooms, and smaller, more private lab spaces. For being so far underground, it was lit as bright as day and the air smelled crisp and sanitary. The shape and depth of the atrium created a bit of an echo and the sounds of shoes walking on marble, low muffled voices, and metal lab instruments clicking together filled Ganesh’s ears. There was a straight wall on the opposite side of the elevators that spanned the height of the three levels. Its purpose was to separate the labs from the robotics and weaponry unit, which occupied the other half of the circular building. Locked doors on each level marked the entrance to the top secret experiment that was taking place simultaneously only a few feet away. The lower ranking scientists knew of the weaponry unit, but did not know the full scope or logistics of the project. Only the higher ups from the team passed back and forth between the two sides.
Right away, Bearden started leading them through the atrium, explaining the reproduction process in the world of fungi and nodding hello to his fellow scientists, who began talking amongst themselves as they took notice of the two superiors following Sergeant Leitner. Ganesh was certainly impressed at how alive this place was.
“There sure is a lot of energy in here,” he said out loud, and then thought, Not at all like this in the middle of the night.
Glass cases containing plants and fungi in different stages of growth on round tables occupied the outer edge of the atrium floor. Scientists attended to some while others recorded data in electronic notebooks. In the middle was a hexagonal glass room that stretched clear past the floor above. This was where the active biomer samples were being worked with and monitored. Inside, the scientists wore facemasks, gloves, and clean suits that covered their clothes so they would not risk contamination to either the samples or to themselves.
Ganesh’s sample had come from one of the storerooms on a floor above, however, where clean suits were not required. Those samples were all in airtight containers in climate-controlled rooms. They were ready to be put to use at any time, successfully activated by their growth catalyst. Every couple of days, upper level scientists would enter this store room, or one of the many others like it, and remove several samples to the robotics and weaponry side of the atrium, through the locked doors.
From there, the samples would be molded and grown into weapons or further bonded with the metal mixture that was used in the fighter robots. The indelible properties of the biomer and its powerful yet natural growth hormone, when combined with the fungi, created a flexible and nearly indestructible outer shell allowing the robots to heal spontaneously in battle. The greatest thing about the biomer, though, according to someone like Mace Magner, was that it would regenerate back into its original molded shape if traumatized or partially destroyed. This meant that the robots could re-arm themselves, bullets could be re-used, and a finite army could act in infinite battles. If this project proved successful, it would save the military incalculable amounts of time and money while creating an undefeatable, as well as un-fatigable army. It was pure genius.
Ganesh was imagining these single minded killing machines suddenly being set loose on an unsuspecting civilization and cringed. He hoped that his small act of thievery would ultimately end in good. Surely Camden Riles and Lee Tripple would discover certain other properties in the biomer that these government scientists would not. They would certainly learn its weaknesses, just in the course of their own research and experimentation. And if the time came, they could be called upon to stop the mess that was, in Ganesh’s mind, being made right here…right now. It was his secret back up plan.
The trio was more than halfway around the perimeter of the atrium and Bearden excused himself to speak with another scientist for a moment. Major Magner turned to Colonel Ganesh and said,
“You know, I just have a hard time imagining, sir, that you have not been down to the lab levels before today.”
“Well, I guess an old dog like me just takes his time at getting acclimated to his new environment,” Ganesh replied. “I have been
next door to the weapons unit. Was given the grand tour my first day here.”
“Yes. An impressive operation, don’t you agree?”
“Absolutely impressive, Major. I can see that you have put a great deal of effort into the weapons unit. But I wonder…how are the space travel and medical units advancing with their portion of the funding and biomer?”
A slow and nasty smile crept across Mace’s lips and he stared straight into Ganesh’s eyes. He hated that Ganesh outranked him. He was proving to be a thorn in Mace’s side, just as the two other colonels warned him he would. He spoke his answer to Ganesh’s question quickly and with finality.
“The space travel unit is our ‘back burner’ project and the medical unit gets what it needs for now. We have a war coming and our attention and rations are rightly focused.”
Humph, thought Ganesh, knowing he was here solely to try and redirect that focus.
“We keep a tight inventory on the biomer too,” Mace continued. “We have to. The samples don’t stay stored for long, especially with the medical unit constantly appealing to General Pike for more rations.” Mace paused and looked Ganesh right in the eyes. “Still, nothing gets moved around here without me knowing about it.”
Ganesh was certain now that Mace suspected him of the biomer theft. It was not yet public knowledge that someone had even robbed the storeroom, but that was how the government worked. They would try to discover their thief in secrecy for as long as they could. It would inevitably get out, but usually the culprit was placed in custody before that happened. Ganesh wasn’t worried about being caught. He was smarter and more experienced than Mace.
Bearden re-joined the two men and apologized for his brief absence.