choose. But Omega operated just as he should’ve. The First Lady and her brother, not to mention Captain Black, owe their lives to him.”
Lieutenant General Hendricks said nothing for a moment. After taking a sip of water from a glass tumbler on his desk, he stood and turned to face a world map on the wall. Since the majority of the complex was subterranean, windows were virtually nonexistent. Some of the base’s residents had gone so far as installed video monitors on their walls that displayed random landscapes.
When the general finally turned to face her, he had calmed considerably. “I think… the best course of action would be to conduct regular maintenance for now, have a look over the programming, and take out, or insert, a code that would force our billion-dollar piece of machinery to obey orders. Do you think you might be able to handle that, Dr. North?”
“Yes, sir,” she said through gritted teeth. “If I may be excused, I have pressing matters to attend to.”
“Of course, doctor,” General Hendricks said in his newly calmed voice.
“I’ll be in the lab if you have any further need of me.”
“I don’t think it will come to that.”
Chapter 8
The lift deposited Sally at a wide, sterile hallway lit with bright fluorescent lighting. It was late, and the technicians and lab staff had retired to their quarters for the evening.
Sally moved to her favored workstation near the center of the lab. A long worktable sat situated next to the large, rectangular monitor that allowed them to observe Omega.
Through the thick, reinforced wall of the lab was a truly amazing display of underground engineering. A vertical tunnel ran up for twenty feet and down for one hundred. Thirty feet in diameter, the cube that held Omega was only 12’ x 18’, just double the space given an inmate in a correctional facility. Despite the size of Omega’s chamber, it was a state-of-the-art unit. Constructed of experimental steel alloys and wired with fiber optic strands connecting the advanced computer gadgetry, the cost of the small box was many times over what a mansion in the most posh suburb would run. Suspended on a hydraulic post running from the base of the tunnel, the chamber could instantly be lowered, and a strong steel plate extended to seal off the opening. There was no entrance from the lab to the cube. The only entrance was on the opposite side of the cube, heavily guarded at all times. Sally wasn’t sure such a precautionary action would ever be needed, but it was there nonetheless.
The small cell had no windows, no openings whatsoever except for the door, which was six inches of pure steel and the entry points for the circuitry, oxygen, and water and septic systems. If the United States of America apprehended Adolf Hitler himself in the present day, Sally often supposed they’d place him in such a place.
Omega was no Hitler. Not at all. She didn’t understand the need for such stringent security. She wasn’t so foolish as to think no measures were warranted, but the extreme processes seemed just that: extreme. In all her years on the project, she could not recall Omega so much as raising his voice in anger. Mild mannered and inquisitive, intelligent and humble, he was almost meek in his demeanor. To Sally, it was really quite sad. Then again, Omega had never known any different.
While this was the first true operation in which Omega had been deployed, training missions numbering in the hundreds had been run, and it was a mandatory practice to test him after every episode. In Sally’s opinion, the soldier was still years away from being a reliable combat tool; there were just too many unknowns. Nonetheless, while here in the lab, her word was gospel. She didn’t have anywhere close to the authority needed for her opinion to matter. Busy at her task, she didn’t even tell her assistant goodnight, as was her usual custom. Instead, she focused on the instrument reading displayed
Lieutenant General Hendricks said nothing for a moment. After taking a sip of water from a glass tumbler on his desk, he stood and turned to face a world map on the wall. Since the majority of the complex was subterranean, windows were virtually nonexistent. Some of the base’s residents had gone so far as installed video monitors on their walls that displayed random landscapes.
When the general finally turned to face her, he had calmed considerably. “I think… the best course of action would be to conduct regular maintenance for now, have a look over the programming, and take out, or insert, a code that would force our billion-dollar piece of machinery to obey orders. Do you think you might be able to handle that, Dr. North?”
“Yes, sir,” she said through gritted teeth. “If I may be excused, I have pressing matters to attend to.”
“Of course, doctor,” General Hendricks said in his newly calmed voice.
“I’ll be in the lab if you have any further need of me.”
“I don’t think it will come to that.”
Chapter 8
The lift deposited Sally at a wide, sterile hallway lit with bright fluorescent lighting. It was late, and the technicians and lab staff had retired to their quarters for the evening.
Sally moved to her favored workstation near the center of the lab. A long worktable sat situated next to the large, rectangular monitor that allowed them to observe Omega.
Through the thick, reinforced wall of the lab was a truly amazing display of underground engineering. A vertical tunnel ran up for twenty feet and down for one hundred. Thirty feet in diameter, the cube that held Omega was only 12’ x 18’, just double the space given an inmate in a correctional facility. Despite the size of Omega’s chamber, it was a state-of-the-art unit. Constructed of experimental steel alloys and wired with fiber optic strands connecting the advanced computer gadgetry, the cost of the small box was many times over what a mansion in the most posh suburb would run. Suspended on a hydraulic post running from the base of the tunnel, the chamber could instantly be lowered, and a strong steel plate extended to seal off the opening. There was no entrance from the lab to the cube. The only entrance was on the opposite side of the cube, heavily guarded at all times. Sally wasn’t sure such a precautionary action would ever be needed, but it was there nonetheless.
The small cell had no windows, no openings whatsoever except for the door, which was six inches of pure steel and the entry points for the circuitry, oxygen, and water and septic systems. If the United States of America apprehended Adolf Hitler himself in the present day, Sally often supposed they’d place him in such a place.
Omega was no Hitler. Not at all. She didn’t understand the need for such stringent security. She wasn’t so foolish as to think no measures were warranted, but the extreme processes seemed just that: extreme. In all her years on the project, she could not recall Omega so much as raising his voice in anger. Mild mannered and inquisitive, intelligent and humble, he was almost meek in his demeanor. To Sally, it was really quite sad. Then again, Omega had never known any different.
While this was the first true operation in which Omega had been deployed, training missions numbering in the hundreds had been run, and it was a mandatory practice to test him after every episode. In Sally’s opinion, the soldier was still years away from being a reliable combat tool; there were just too many unknowns. Nonetheless, while here in the lab, her word was gospel. She didn’t have anywhere close to the authority needed for her opinion to matter. Busy at her task, she didn’t even tell her assistant goodnight, as was her usual custom. Instead, she focused on the instrument reading displayed
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