Colorado Centre for Genetics Research
Dr. McDermott sighed as he sat down in the leather chair. The room was dark, save for a large monitor on the desk before him, which currently projected nothing but a blue glow. "Alright, patch me through," he said to an unseen listener, adding to himself, "Let's get this over with..."
Upon the monitor screen came two images, each taking up half of the screen. On the left was a man in uniform, dark haired with greying temples, looking to be roughly in his fifties. The stars on his shoulder denoted his ranking of General. On the right, a was a woman, wearing a business suit, in her mid- to late-thirties, with dark shoulder-length hair and glasses. Both individuals looked somewhat upset.
"McDermott, what the hell's the meaning of this?" the uniformed man bluntly bellowed. "Am I to understand that all of the subjects from the Daedalus study have escaped? How is that possible?"
The doctor, looking somewhat shaken, replied, "General Lambert, I'm as surprised as you are at this situation, but..."
"But, what!?" the general interrupted. "You were put in charge of this initiative at the behest of BioGen, and look at the fiasco it’s become!"
The woman's face became stern. "I assure you, general, Dr. McDermott was indeed the best man for the job. It seems the problem arose from the hiring of Dr. Jaya Kalam. And while it was our company that took the initiative in hiring her, we believed the risk was far outweighed by what she brought to the program. We believe we shoulder much of the blame for this, but so do you, general."
The general's face began to turn red. "What!?! And how exactly do you figure that?"
"It was you and your government that was to provide the protection the centre needed. We've already received surveillance from the escape, and sentry bots, baseline soldiers and outdated Apache helicopters were all that your Colonel had at his disposal to stop 8 escaping elites. They may only be Bravo-class, but they certainly deserved more respect than that." The woman retorted, keeping calm, but speaking sharply. "In fact, I believe we said as much when the program was being set up, and..."
"And your response, general, was something along the lines of, 'I don't need any suits or whitecoats telling me my business.’” Dr. McDermott said.
General Tanner glared for a moment before huffing in acquiescence. "Laying blame is the least of our worries right now, wouldn't you both agree?"
"Of course," the woman said with a brief hint of a smile. "Recapture is of utmost importance. We have too much divested in this project to do otherwise. It appears all of the implants are still functional. It would be wise to make sure that they remain that way."
"Damn, Kalam helped install the implants, she knows their function, I'm sure she's going to try and remove them," the doctor said.
"In that case, we need to work with due haste, wouldn't you both agree?" the woman asked. Both men nodded.
"We're working on that right now, Nelson," General Lambert stated.
Ms. Nelson nodded. "Good. And not that we don't think the US government can't capture a small group of escapees themselves, but we at the BioGen Corporation will be sending our own people to assist."
"Harrumph," the general muttered, furling his brow. "Just make sure you don't get in our way. We can handle this. Doctor, I've already spoken to Colonel Borowski about increasing security in time for the subjects’ arrival. Expect some changes around there."
"Very good, general. I hope this turns out well," Dr. McDermott said.
"As do we all, doctor. We shall speak again soon. Good bye." Ms Nelson's image disappeared, as did General Lambert's, leaving Dr. McDermott alone with his thoughts in the darkened room.
