Page 4 of Benny

“Let’s reconvene tomorrow morning,” Devin said, rising. “After we’ve all had a chance to rest. I’ll ping everyone if anything changes, but for now? Get some shut-eye.”

The meeting dissolved, chairs scraping softly as everyone filed out.

~~~

The next morning, Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma, 0730 CST

“Why, exactly, are we meeting in person, and why at this base in the middle of nowhere?” Dr. (Colonel) Isaac Hayes complained as he walked into the SCIF. He’d been in the air since the wee hours so he could make this meeting, and so far, he was far from impressed.

The small conference room located in the basement of the wing’s headquarters was basic. Very, very basic. But it had been built for classified communications, and the EM shielding would keep anyone from listening to what they were there to discuss. He supposed the decades-old furniture and government contract conference chairs would have to do.

Dr. Katrina Overlander sat at the table, not bothering to get up, and that stuck in Hayes’ craw. He was a goddamned colonel who held multiple doctorates. She was a civilian, on contract no less, who worked for him. Not the other way around.

She looked up, her almost colorless blue eyes giving him the creeps just like they had the very first time they’d met, five years ago, when he’d begun his assignment to DARPA. When this fucked-up experiment had received funding and manpower from on high.

“Because,” she said, her barely accented voice dripping with condescension, “This base has one of the busiest flightlines in the country. Military aircraft of every kind roll through here for gas, graduations and recruiting efforts. No one even blinks when different aircraft show up, and no one asks questions. Especially when we need to use classified comms.”

Huh. He hadn’t really thought of it that way. Point to her for picking a logical location, then. He settled into a chair opposite her. “So why did I fly halfway across the damned country?”

“Alpha-01 is dead,” she said with absolutely no inflection.

Hayes sat back as if she’d slapped him with the words. He’d known -01’s demise was a probable outcome, but it still shocked him nonetheless. “How?”

“The last trial was…” she paused, searching for the right word. “Intense. While he did survive the removal and then replacement of his kidneys, the nanites only had the capacity to reintegrate the organs into his system, not to repair the damage done while we observed his body’s shutdown.”

Dammit. Alpha-01 had been a remarkable test subject. He’d been healthy when he’d been unintentionally exposed to the nanites and the tech had brought him back from the massive trauma of being hit by a car. Everyone had thought him dead, and because Overlander was closely monitoring all of them, she’d been on site almost immediately and had been able to convince everyone the man really had perished. She’d even gone so far as to put him into a medically induced coma without anyone being the wiser, especially the twin sister who’d shown up to identify the body.

With the success of that subterfuge, they’d been free to do with him as they pleased, since no one missed him.

Had some of Overlander’s work turned his stomach? Absolutely, but the research and medical gains to be made using a subject who should have been dead anyway, were too tantalizing for him to suddenly grow morals.

“Alpha-06 took care of the remains when -01 flatlined.” Overlander’s clinical, clipped tone brought him back to the present.

“At least we have the results of the last eight months to begin work on,” he said, suddenly so weary he felt it down in his bones. “The data we captured is extraordinary and has the potential to change healthcare and battle as we know it.” Or at least that was what he told himself every night. He stood. “Send me the autopsy report and your road ahead via our usual channels.”

“There won’t be an autopsy,” she replied, and now there was a different expression on her face. It wasn’t alarm, but more… discomfort.

Hayes stood to his full height of six feet three, looming over her as he pushed every bit of authority twenty-five years with the military had given him into his voice. Twenty-five years of deployments to war zones and horrors this woman had never even imagined, despite her warped, clinical curiosity. “Why is that, Dr. Overlander?”

“As I said, Alpha 0-6 disposed of the body.” She met his gaze, then her eyes skittered away.

Hayes braced his knuckles on the table and waited until she was looking at him again. Pulled the tension even tighter before he spoke. “He can damn well recover it. I want an autopsy, and I want it in the next twenty-four hours. That’s a direct order. Even as a contractor, you’re bound to follow my orders.” He stood to his full height again and turned toward the door. He’d closed his hand around the doorknob when she spoke again.

“There is still one viable subject who hasn’t been activated yet. Alpha-05.”

Hayes turned to face her, made his expression steely. “No. Even if we were to reassign her to DARPA, she would be missed. We had an opportunity with -01 and we took it. Do not, under any circumstances, do more than monitor the subjects. That’s another direct order.”

She nodded, but her agreement took longer than he liked. Even now, when she was almost cowed, she reminded him of what he’d read of Dr. Josef Mengele. He didn’t like being in league with her. At all. But needs must.

“I mean it, Dr. Overlander. This phase is complete. Now we study the data and give recommendations when, and if, there should be a formal rollout to selected special forces operators.”

He left without another word and only allowed himself to relax when he was aboard the C-21 heading back to Virginia.

Chapter Two

Benny thrashed against the restraint holding him down, bowing against the… seatbelt? Around him everything was dark, except for the eerie green glow of the dashboard.

“Calm yourself,” a cold, detached voice ordered. “I have a weapon trained on you.”