2020-02-03 - And So It Begins

Tap. Tap. Tap. He sits at his desk in his mahogany-clad office, half reclined in the leather desk chair worth more than most people's monthly salaries. Manicured nails drum a staccato rhythm on the desktop as he watches the far wall...not the wall exactly, but the dozens of screens that comprise it. Each screen displays something different. Most are showing rooms under construction. Strange rooms with strange attributes. Others show building exteriors which all look to be abandoned sites: warehouses, office buildings, underground missile silos. Several show laboratory interiors, with white-coated scientists working diligently with high tech, cutting edge equipment.

The ones he is watching closely at the moment, however, show people. Five faces, with dossiers accompanying them on the sides. All residents of a small PNW town which seems to be overrun with "Gifted" individuals. His agents have identified several that seem ripe for the trials. Some will be lured with the promise of entertainment, others will be taken unawares, but all will wind up right where he wants them. Needs them, really. They have something he wants.

There is a buzzing sound and he moves his gaze to the office door. "Enter." He sits up from his reclined position, adjusting his expensive suit jacket, as the double doors swing open to admit the massive suit-clad form of his personal bodyguard. The man doesn't speak, simply stands aside to allow an attractive woman, in a lab coat, to enter.

The woman approaches the desk and hands over a bound report to the man. "We are on schedule, sir. Alpha Site will be greenlit in less than a month. Bravo and Charlie sites are moving along nicely. We are prepared to gather samples and work on isolating any genetic anomalies."

To his sight she doesn't shine. The bodyguard has a faint flicker to him, but not this scientist. Part of him wonders if people deeply rooted in science can't possibly access this magic he feels only a slight inkling of. He nods to her and sets the report on the desk, just laying a hand in it. "Very well. Keep me updated." It's a dismissal.

The woman nods and she departs, with the massive bodyguard closing the doors behind her. The man behind the desk taps some area of the glass top and the screens all shift to what seems to be labeled 'Alpha Site'. The rooms there look almost complete. The construction crews seem to be from various companies, all designed to make it harder to trace back to who is building the structures. A lab-coated man and several men in jumpsuits are keeping tabs on everything, the only company identification on them a logo that looks like a double helix.

"And so it begins..." the man murmurs under his breath.