The Restoration of Flaws (The Phantom of the Earth Book 5) by Raeden Zen Page A

dusty, phosphorescent particles.
    “What is this?” Ruiner said.
    “The Reassortment Strain is seeping ever deeper,” Heywood said, frowning, “ever closer to the Great Commonwealth.”
    Oriana felt her stomach turn. She’d heard about the horrors of Reassortment exposure during development.
    “Then this mission is of utmost importance,” Ruiner said. He looked at his strategist and aera, who nodded.
    “Yes!” Heywood said. “It will be the mission they remember us for.”
    The cause , Oriana thought, is worthy, even if it is an unworthy man I serve, but in the end, I will cut Antosha for what he did to my parents.
    A valley replaced the rendition of the Earth above and around the Granville sphere, with steam rising from the ground. In the distance lay a lake beneath the clouds, its surface flat, calm, reflective, the division between water and sky obscured.
    “Where is this?” Oriana said.
    “Iceland,” Ruiner said, “been there on many a surface excursion.”
    “Yes! Though you’ve never experienced the part of it I’m about to show you now.” The view moved underground, where a set of copper ramps materialized, connected by a matrix of tunnels. One of the ramps enlarged, and the view zoomed through a corridor to a hexagonal room labeled PRIMARY RESEARCH FACILITY.
    “This is the Hengill Laboratory, the most advanced research facility of its day, protected by the Western Hegemony Guard and supervised by an artificial intelligence they called Locust.” The hologram shifted to different rooms and tunnels. “The facility’s protection includes four points—”
    “Hold it,” Mintel said. He huffed. “You’re planning to send an inexperienced striker and strategist into a guarded subterranean synbio installation during the war? ”
    “Yes! That is what we’re going to do,” Heywood said, “because that’s what Supreme Scientist Antosha Zereoue ordered, and should you interrupt me again at this most critical juncture of the debriefing, I’ll submit to him a report on your insubordination.”
    Mintel folded his arms and mouthed to Ruiner, Don’t do this. Ruiner gave a stealthy nod and put up his hand.
    What the heck is this guy so afraid of? Oriana thought. What could this place have that the Harpoons didn’t?
    “The first layer of protection is the inspectors at the Hengill Power Plant’s primary entrance. We also believe this is the main mode of entry for the engineers and scientists who arrive each day. The second layer,” a husky man in camouflage with a slender gas mask rotated in front of the map, “is the Western Hegemony Guard. Though not as agile or powerful as Janzers, strikers, or aeras, don’t underestimate their military and martial arts capabilities, or their sheer numbers—could be thousands of them in there.
    “The third layer is the Metamorphosis Program, which you just witnessed. The ramps are suspended by a complex set of pulleys, lifts, and supports. The entire lab can alter itself. It was, in fact, the first and only alterable laboratory Before Reassortment.
    “The final layer is the Myst, a failsafe to guard against contamination. It is invisible and virtually undetectable. The synthetic organisms developed within the facility included a weakness to the Myst. For transhumans, we think the effect of the Myst would be hallucinations. Anyone inside the facility wore protective masks to filter the air.”
    “We can’t approach Hengill Power Plant’s primary entrance,” Oriana said, “and their radar would find us in the sky, so how do you propose we enter?”
    Ruiner stole a sideways glance at Oriana. Pasha held his head up and puffed out his chest.
    Heywood adjusted the holograms, and Dr. Shrader’s likeness appeared. “Our records from the chaotic transition at the end of the Quaternary are sparse, but we know that Dr. Shrader was of extreme importance to the development of the Reassortment Strain.”
    A woman’s and a man’s likenesses appeared, neither