Chapter 1
June 9th 2020- Genotech, 16:00
Captain Kara Piers walked the halls of Genotech briskly, heading to her destination. She had been here only a handful of times; once, when her team had first been hired out to the biotechnology firm, and the others to check in with the head of their Security Department. She hadn’t needed to make other trips in for the past two years, seeing as they were only to be called in under serious circumstances.
It was a comfortable job, she could admit. Nothing at all like storming a beach or suffering under scorching desert suns, waiting for the next in a stream of never ending battles. She would be the last to say that she actually preferred this though. Her team wasn’t particularly happy with the assignment either. They had assumed they would be seeing more action than this when she contracted them and most of them regularly took on solo jobs, just for a change from the monotony. In fact, John and Ibrahim had done just that, leaving her shorthanded when Lindquist had called her in.
She stirred herself from her thoughts and looked over at the shorter woman accompanying her on this trip into HQ. Cropped, dark hair, slim build and dark eyes hidden behind rectangular frames. Divya Kaur, her right hand woman, and resident techie, had been requested specifically by Lindquist.
“It can’t be good if they’re calling both of us in,” Divya said softly as she tapped away at something on her tablet. The Captain snorted in acknowledgement. She may have disliked the monotony of the job, but that didn’t mean she wished for an emergency. In emergencies, people got hurt. In emergencies, bad things could happen to her team. Yes, they were well trained, but accidents happened. Case and point being exactly why they had been called in.
“Ladies,” came a deep voice, as they entered the conference room.
“Ah, Mr. Lindquist, it’s been a while,” Captain Piers commented lightly as she took the seat nearest her. Divya sat down across from her, angled towards the Head of the Security Department. Lindquist barely acknowledged her cordiality as he put down the folder in his hands and looked up.
“The meeting will begin once the others arrive.”
“Others?” She had been told that this was a private meeting, “What others?”
Lindquist was saved from answering as a small gaggle of scientists entered the room, chattering loudly and occupying the various seats around the oval table. Lindquist gave them a moment to settle in before he cleared his throat, effectively silencing the room.
“We have a problem,” he said as he stood up at the head of the table, tenting his fingers and leaning on the table top, he continued, “I have been informed that, as of this morning, the New Candor facility is officially offline.” Murmurs broke out around the table as the gathered scientists began to speculate on the nature of the situation. Lindquist cleared his throat lightly again and began moving towards the projector screen behind him. A small flick of his fingers and a map of the New Candor division of Genotech appeared on the screen.
“Approximately 6 days ago there was a major gas leak at the facility,” He looked over at Kara, holding her eye for a moment before moving on to Divya, “We have attempted Evac procedures but we are not getting the response that we desire. We have called you all in here today for a briefing, before we send in our Emergency Response Team. Carla, if you would?” He stepped away from the screen as a petite woman picked up the dialogue.
“June 3rd, 2020 we received a distress signal from the New Candor facility. The signal was coded Red 22b. In this scenario, all associates are required to assemble in the Bunker of the sub-basement for Quarantine and Containment until the breach is resolved. Considering the size of the lab, the assessment usually takes 4 days,” she looked back at the room from the slide they were viewing, “on the 4th day, NCF is supposed to report back to the home lab to confirm the breach has been resolved. We have not heard from them as of yet.”
More muttering, worried now, from the gathered scientists as Lindquist took his position at the front of the room once again. Kara wondered to herself how important this group was if they couldn’t even keep quiet during a briefing.
“As I said, we have been authorized to send in our Emergency Response Team, I have brought you all together today to bring our ERT Leader up to date on what her team could possibly be dealing with in there,” he motioned towards Kara and she nodded at the assembled group, “Dr. Milas, can we start with the biotech department?”
A petite, dark skinned woman stood up and started speaking in a surprisingly rich voice. Kara settled herself in, prepared to listen intently.
The next hour was spent listening to theories and speculation of what they would face once they arrived in New Candor. To be perfectly fair, Kara tried her hardest to pay attention to the men and women reporting to her, she really did. A lot of the small details that they deemed important bogged her down though. She was just glad that Lindquist had thought to request Divya as well, the woman was simultaneously taking notes and inputting information into that tablet of hers. As the last woman sat down, Lindquist stood up, grabbing the attention of the room once again, “I don’t believe I need to let any of you know that the subject matter of this meeting is Classified, do I?”
No arguments.
“Captain,” he directed his gaze to Kara, “Lt. Kaur, could you please join me after the meeting for a few moments? The rest of you are dismissed.” Kara and Divya remained seated as the group filed out of the room, noticeably more reserved than when they had arrived.
“The facility has been running on backup generators since the 3rd, it’s part of the standard procedure, a failsafe if the leak is a terror strike. Once the alarm has been activated main power to each level is cut off. All elevators are currently on fire service mode; the operators key is in here.” He said as he approached them with the folder he had been viewing earlier, “in the event that these alarms are triggered, all powered locks are disengaged for quicker evacuation. All except two that is.”
He handed the file to Divya, “The only two that remain active are those in the sub-basement; ‘The Bunker’, and Lab 3. This is what you will require to deactivate those locks. President Anders has requested,” he looked over at Kara, she could read between the lines, “that you stay out of Lab 3 as you evacuate the building personnel.”
“Of course,” she replied coolly, as Divya began to inspect the contents of the file, “Anything else we should know?”
“Yes, the generators are only intended to keep powering the buildings for 7 days,” he took his seat at the head of the table once more, “this means that the power will cut while you are in the process of evaluating the situation. The sub-basement locks are continuously powered, along with the Bunker and Lab 3, it’s all outlined in that file. We will be providing your team with emergency generators for this mission. Everything will be prepped and waiting for you to leave tomorrow morning, 06:00.”
Hearing the dismissal in his voice, Kara and Divya stood up as one, gathered their possessions and headed towards the doors.
“Ladies,” Lindquist’s serious voice stopped them, “Be careful. Come home safe.”
Before Kara could respond, he swept by them and down the hall, Carla by his side.
“Well that was ominous,” Divya muttered as she balanced her notes, the folder and her tablet. Kara smiled distractedly as she took the folder from the shorter woman and headed back to the lobby of the building. She felt as if she didn’t have all of the pieces to this story, and that was never a good feeling before a mission.