“Officer Dames reporting from the Clone Facility, s-sir!” Dames nervously replied. The General was a large man; six feet-five inches tall with a wide frame. He was in his mid-fifties. His shoulders and arms were still broad and muscular from his days as an active soldier. He sported a grey military commanding officer uniform, with a slew of medals and military honors resting on his left breast plate. Over his uniform was a long black leather coat. He had a bit of a gut protruding from under his jacket.
“Spill it,” the general commanded impatiently.
“Yessir! HSD recorded footage of a potential intruder in the clone farm at approximately one thirty-seven a.m. System was unable to fully identify intruder. Footage only got a quarter of intruder’s face. Nothing more, s-sir” Dames replied. He was sweating.
“What the fuck do you mean, soldier?” Vladimir replied with an eerie calm in his voice. “Firstly, your only job is to maintain the safety, security, and secrecy of this facility! You took an oath to protect this facility upon assignment. We purposely made this place to further our goals to strengthen our military and police force. And you let an intruder in. And did you seize this intruder, Officer Dames? I think not! Do you realize that if this information leaks, it could compromise our entire government operation?”
“Yessir! I am so sorry,” Dames could barely hide his fear as he tried to respond.
“Send me the footage now,” Vladimir demanded.
“Yessir,” Dames timidly replied.
Vladimir received the feed, and examined it while Dames was still on the line. Vladimir appeared distraught. “I will deal with you later. I need to take care of this. Dismissed,” he said.
“Yessir,” Dames replied. The holo-call disconnected and Dames flopped into his chair, relieved and worried at the same time. “I gotta move outta this city man, I quit” Dames said to himself.
***
Meanwhile, General Cain was repeatedly tapping his finger on his desk in his office at HQ. It soon went from impatient tapping to consecutive fist pounding.
“Shit!” he yelled as he stood up. He was furious. He called out to the AI assistant. “System, connect me to Lieutenant Daav August, please. And forward Agent Bloodfall a still of the footage Officer Dames sent me.
“Right away,” the AI assistant responded. “Holo-call connected.”
“You rang, sir?” Lt. Daav August inquired.
“Yes. There’s a situation, I need you here ASAP.”
“Sure thing.” The holo-call cut short.
General Cain stood in front of the windows that overlooked the city skyline in Nova Central. As he looked out at the colorful scene before him, he heard a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Vladimir said.
The door slid open and in walked an athletic, chiseled man in his early forties. He was five feet and eleven inches, with dark brown hair in a combover. He also had a trim neck-length beard. He exhibited some cybernetic implants.
A small, flat, rectangular metal panel was embedded in the right side of his head. It was connected to a smaller metal piece that worked around the shape of his outer ear. There was a razor thin orange light that ran horizontally across the cybernetic piece. His eyes were also bright orange from the optical implant.
His right hand and both legs from the shins down were cybernetic augmentations. He wore rugged, army green Psi-Corp uniform that sported a large circular collar that covered the lower half of his face when fully zipped. His hair was undone and unkempt.
“Sir, I am here as you requested,” Daav stated.
“Thank you for getting here so swiftly. We have a situation,” Vladimir said as he jumped right into the discussion. “Earlier this morning, at approximately one twenty-seven a.m., an alleged intruder infiltrated the Secret Clone Farm in West Andro for unknown reasons,” he said.
“Sir? Are you serious!? How? No one is supposed to know about that place!” Daav replied.
“I haven’t the slightest idea. But they’ve clearly barked up the wrong tree. The officer on duty failed to apprehend the suspect and for all I know, that suspect could be long gone by now. I need you to assemble the TEAR unit immediately for sortie. Track down this person by whatever means necessary and bring him to me,” Vladimir ordered.
“Yessir! It’s about time we got to action” he said with a frightening smile.
The TEAR unit aka Tactical Espionage, Assassination & Reconnaissance, was a special unit personally created and overseen by General Vladimir Cain. It included nine members; Officers Kena, Romi, Tranes, Violet, Regos, Mox, Callum, Tona, and the squad leader was the General’s right-hand man, Lt. Daav August. Those nine had undergone a series of incredibly harsh training regimens and received an elevated dose of the ScioN serum, pushing their overall abilities to near superhuman more so than the standard but formidable Psi-Corp military police force. The special training and dosage received has made those in the TEAR unit especially dangerous.
“Sir, Agent Bloodfall, has contacted you. Will you answer transmission?” the AI system asked Vladimir.
“Yes, put him through,” he replied.
“General, sir, I understand you have a task for me?” Bloodfall quipped.
“Indeed. That image is from security footage of earlier this morning at the clone farm in West Andro. I need you and your team at the City-State Security Administration to find out who this person is and send whatever information you can find to me,” Vladimir instructed.
“Absolutely, sir. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can,” Bloodfall replied.
“I expect no less,” Vladimir said as he cut transmission. He let out a long sigh, took a deep breath, then sat back down in his office chair. A storm was brewing, and he was in the middle of it.
CHAPTER 19
---usr/systems/server-x/RANSOM---
It was around two a.m. when Vantz woke from his forcibly administered slumber, confused and disoriented. When he fully came to, he felt that his hands and feet were restrained by high-powered magnetic handcuffs that were developed by Quantum Corp. There was a dingy towel stuffed in his mouth, and tied tightly around the back of his head. He immediately began to panic, sounding off
