Quaranteam Book Two Ch 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

April 28

th

, 2021

Valhalla Shores.

Even the

name

sounded pretentious as fuck, Andy thought to himself.

The location was on the south side of Pacifica, and the entire area had been walled off, and not in a discreet way, either. Highway 1, which had originally run down almost right against the coastline, had been diverted to run around the newly erected walled in city of Valhalla Shores, so it could run up to the waterfront.

It looked less like a modern city and more like a military base, with razor wire and gun towers atop the fencing.

"Jesus," Andy muttered beneath his breath. "It's Fortress California."

"That's some pretty intense external security they've got going on here, boss," Melody said, trying to scope out the perimeter while Lexi was attempting to find the place to drive into. It was almost as if they'd gone out of their way to hide the entrance on the north side, and he had to expect the entrance on the south side would've been just as difficult. "This isn't light local security. This is Fort Knox level shit here. I've been on forward operating bases with less intense borders."

"How the hell you expect we're going to get onto this base, boss?" Lexi asked him.

"I'm Civilian Oversight for everything Quaranteam related, Lexi," Andy said with a grin. "That means I'm

supposed

to be showing up around this stuff and poking my nose into everything. I'll bet you $20 we're on this base within twenty minutes." He grabbed his iPad and flipped the leather case to open it, taking out the Pencil to make it look more like a clipboard.

"You're on, boss," Lexi said.

"I'll take a piece of that action," Melody said. "If you don't have clearance, you don't have clearance, so they're just going to turn us away."

"Watch me Karen, Mel," Andy laughed, as the Model X finally found a gate to drive up towards, a couple of soldiers approaching the car, as Andy rolled down the window.

"You can't be here, sir," the woman whose nameplate read Martinez said. "This is a highly restricted area."

"Of course it's a highly restricted area," Andy said, putting on his best indignant face, as he pulled out his wallet, hanging it to the woman. "They're doing Quaranteam serum research in there, which is why I'm here. I'm Andy Rook, a member of the Civilian Oversight Group for all Quaranteam research, and I'm here to do a surprise inspection of your base and what you're working on in regards to the serum."

"We don't have any notice to expect you, Mister Rook," Airman Martinez said, looking a little nervous, looking at her partner, who offered a little shrug. "I'll have to call the C.O."

"You do that," Andy said, swiping on his tablet over to a stopwatch app. "Meanwhile, I'm just going to start a timer here, so that I can put in my report how long I was delayed at the gate, if there's an attempt to cover up whatever it is you're working on in there from the people who are

supposed to goddamn know about it

." He was actually relishing the opportunity to get into the role of a pompous asshole who assumed his presence was allowed anywhere. He swiped back from the stopwatch app to his notes app. "Let me get the names down. Martinez. Aaaaaand White. Got it."

"You don't need to write our names down, sir," Airman White said, as Airman Martinez had gone into the booth to call to the base's commanding officer. "We're just doing our jobs."

"Oh I'm sure you are, Airman," Andy said, continuing to scrawl notes on his iPad. "But you'll have to forgive me, I'm just doing

mine

. And when the President of the United States of America says she wants you to be part of the team keeping an eye on what's being done in terms of Quaranteam serum research, you can imagine that made me take it all very deadly seriously."

"Yes sir. Sorry, sir. I'm sure it won't be long, sir."

"What's been made worse is the fact that I'm also afraid you're keeping American citizens hostage here, and not letting them out, nor even letting them make phone calls," Andy said, not looking up, still focusing on his scribbling on the iPad. "My friend Phil Pak lives within these walls, and he didn't show up at my wedding, nor has he returned any of my phone calls for months now, so I'm starting to think that I should contact the President and have an entire platoon of Air Force Security Services come down and pry this place apart down to the studs."

"I'm certain that won't be necessary, sir," Airman White said nervously. "It'll just be a few more minutes. I'm sure the General is just explaining where to take you first."

"I hope for your sake that's true, Airman, because the longer this takes, the more I'm going to suspect you're all trying to conceal something from me, which I can't imagine the President is going to react well to."

"Sir, as far as I know, they don't have anything to hide from people here, but we're just gate guards, not scientists," Airman White sighed. "Look, here comes Martinez now."

"Alright, Mr. Rook," Airman Martinez said. "The first thing I'm going to do is temporarily confiscate your cellphones. They'll be returned to you when you leave the base. Then I'm going to hop into my Jeep and lead you over to the General's Office and take you in to see her. After you've met with her, I'm going to be your escort and I'll accompany you to any part of Valhalla Shores you want to see, including going to visit your friend Mister Pak. Is that acceptable to you?"

"It's a start," Andy sighed, as he, Melody and Lexi handed over their cellphones, which were put into a small bag by Airman Martinez that she handed over to Airman White for safe keeping. "Let's get going." He rolled up the window as Airman Martinez moved over to head to a Jeep parked next to the booth, as White started to open the gate for them to drive in. Once they were past the gate, Andy held out his hand, and Melody reached into her pocket, grabbing her wallet before pulling out a twenty, putting it in Andy's hand.

"I'll pay you when we're back home, boss," Lexi said. "Right now, I'm on high alert."

The inside of Valhalla Falls was not at all what Andy expected to see. In almost every direction, there were very new condominium complexes, stackable buildings three or four stories tall, with rows of garages on the ground floor, or small businesses on the ground floor instead. None of the structures could've been from before the lockdown, and everything felt almost uncomfortably new. While the places could show signs of individuality here and there, there was a strange conformity to the structures, as if most of them were built off of the same template, with the same amount of room. There were some variations here and there, but for the most part, the uniformity felt off-putting.

"Talk about a McCity," Andy muttered to himself. "Don't get me wrong - I like the first floor commerce, upper floors real estate, but, c'mon... a little variety ain't gonna kill ya."

"Looks like it's only part of the town, boss," Lexi said. "If you look out that way, looks like a lot of unique homes, well, more like mansions, like a more open-air version of New Eden."

"'Cause

that's

what we needed

more

of," Andy grumbled.

The car continued in through the city, although Andy could see a number of soldiers in camo, either training or patrolling, he couldn't be quite sure, as they approached the center of the city, where a series of five buildings eight or nine stories tall made a central spire, a helipad on top the tallest in the center. The five buildings were all sharp lines and no curves, wedge angles all over the place, with one-way mirrored glass on all the exterior surfaces, wedge like corners jutting out in the mid sections every other floor, like the building was some off-kilter rotation puzzle. The exteriors had been painted grey, or maybe had just been left as exposed concrete, but there were streaks of dark brown along them, the effects of the ocean air slowly attacking the building's facades.

There was a sign in front that said "Opprimo Research - an Air Force, National Security Agency, Invincible Strategic Investments, Mandible Technologies & Ingsoc Communications partnership" with each of the five organizations' logos beneath it.

"That's not ostentatious at

all

," Melody said.

"Designed to intimidate on sight," Andy replied. "A modern form of brutalist architecture. Or did you mean the list of the companies?"

"Well, you've got military, informational security, financial appropriations, a science-is-all thinktank and a media conglomerate with a very strange name," Lexi said.

"It's not strange at all if you know where it comes from," Melody said. "It's from Orwell's

1984

, and Ingsoc was Oceania's political system, one that venerated the ruler above all else. Cult of personality taken to the extreme, if you will."

"Sound familiar?" Andy asked, as Lexi parked the vehicle next to where Airman Martinez had parked her Jeep, in an area marked Visitor Parking that looked like it had never seen a single vehicle parked in it before. "You best not be trying to keep me from anything, Airman Martinez," Andy said as he got out of the car. "I've got to make a report about this mess to the President within a week, and so far, I'm starting to feel like I'm on rails."

"Just a little bit longer, Mister Rook," Airman Martinez said. "You need to meet with General Ibanez and she'll clear us to go wherever you want within the base and see whatever it is or whoever it is you want to see while you're here, so you can see we've got nothing to hide."

"How many in your Team, Martinez?" Lexi asked, walking on one side of Andy while Melody walked on the other. They'd relaxed a little bit, seeing as they were on a secure base, but still wanted to make sure they were doing their duty as his protectors.

"Eleven, ma'am."

"You happy?"

"As Larry, ma'am."

"Who's Larry?" Melody asked.

"Just an expression one of the other members of my Team taught us, ma'am," Martinez said. "She's former UK military. I just liked how it sounded. Ma'am."

"Carry on, Airman," Andy said as they made their way into the building. They were stopped at the entrance to the building, and needed to check in, being issued RFID visitor passes that they were told to keep on them at all times, so the base could keep track of where they were going.

Andy wasn't surprised that people were looking at them quite intently, but he

was

surprised at how little information about what this company was or what they were

doing

was visible

anywhere

. It was the most bland and nondescript building inside he'd ever seen. The walls, the floor, the lack of artwork - it was like looking at an empty movie set that hadn't been dressed yet, far too immaculate to be used or lived in, and yet, the place had clearly seen foot traffic. The floors seemed a little less new, less shiny than the rest of it.

People were

walking

these halls.

They walked down the hallway and past a second security gate, still being escorted by Martinez who didn't seem intent on leaving their sides the whole time, and up to an office that had no prestige, no pomp, no circumstance, nothing marking as a position of power, just a door that read "General Ibanez" on it.

Martinez knocked on the door before a voice inside said, "Come in."

The Airman opened the door and gestured for Andy, Melody and Lexi to head inside.

The office was a welcome change of pace from everything they'd seen so far. It was a well-decorated room, an American flag on one side, a desk in the center, with a single computer on top of it and a telephone. There were a couple of thick red cables running from the computer and the phone into the wall. Behind the desk sat a woman in her early forties, dressed in military uniform. She looked up at Andy like he was just another person passing through, not judgmental, nervous, or angry. "Mr. Rook, I presume?"

"That's me, General," Andy said to her. "I would apologize about being unannounced--"

She laughed softly. "Don't worry about it, Mr. Rook. If you told us in advance, it wouldn't be a

surprise

inspection now, would it?" She stood up from her desk as she looked over his two bodyguards. "I'm guessing this is your security detail?"

"Alexis Coleman, formerly of the CIA, General," Lexi said.

"Melody Park, former Army Ranger, ma'am," Melody added.

"Couple of very capable people you got there, Mister Rook," the General said. "How'd that happen?"

"One's a recommendation from a member of my staff, the other's a rescue," Andy joked. "Melody joined our family after wanting to leave her previous partner, who'd been one of the people that had been manipulating the Oracle system over at New Eden."

"Which one?" the General asked.

"Covington, ma'am," Melody answered.

"Ah," she said, bouncing her eyebrows. "The

utter

asshole. I remember reading about what he'd done and I do not blame Dr. DeMarco's taking off of his hand in retaliation for what he did to you ladies. We aren't doing anything like that over here at Valhalla Shores, despite all the secrecy."

"So let's start there," Andy said. "Why all the secrecy?"

"There have been elements of the kind of research we're doing in some of the elements of what Dr. Marcos and Dr. McCallister invented, and we're pushing the boundaries of things that the nanobots are capable of," the General said. "But it's mostly been theoretical because we haven't had a lot of luck getting the sort of results we'd like. You want to sit and talk here, or you want to walk and talk through the research facility?"

"I don't want to take up too much of your time, so let's walk and talk," Andy said.

The General stood up and started walking out of her office, expecting Andy and his team to keep up, Martinez following right behind, forming a little protective bubble around Andy reflexively. "You're a part of Oversight, Mister Rook, and I know you have a fairly large Team," the General said, "but how much reading have you been doing into what the nanobots are capable of?"

"I've been

experiencing

a lot of it," Andy said. "From the sort of weird transmissible orgasms my wives had on our wedding day, to the fact that a couple of my partners can basically track me short range by smell, but all of that's been in my reports to the Quaranteam research community, which I expect you're a part of and have access to."

"Have you experienced any sort of... I suppose you might call it empathic or telepathic communication between you and any of your partners, Mister Rook?" the General asked him as they made their way down a very non-descript hallway to an elevator.

"I... I can't say that I have," Andy said, as he watched the General insert her badge into a slot in front of an elevator door that opened for them. "Has that kind of thing happened?"

"Rarely, but we have enough reports into it that we're researching the matter," the General said with a smug smile. "You are, of course, familiar with what we're calling Team DNA, for lack of a better term currently, yes?"

"The idea that each individual team has its own identifiable makeup of nanobot development that could function as an identifying characteristic for that team, like a group fingerprint? Yes, we've been aware of that for a few months now."

"It goes a bit further than that, I'm afraid, Mister Rook, although we're just beginning to scratch the surface of it," Ibanez said, pushing a button that said 4, as the elevator began to slowly lift upwards into the building's heart. "We know the nanobots that are part of a Team are swapping information all the time, working to improve and synthesize better group function solutions for the Team as a whole, but what we've only just

recently

discovered is that they aren't

only

doing that when nanobots are being exchanged, but, in fact, when they're in near proximity to each other. Think of it like having an RFID chip and reader inside of your body that's constantly checking against nearby people, and then sending small databursts when it's a recognized and trusted source."

Andy looked at Melody, then Lexi, then back to the General. "You mean the nanobots in my system are talking to those in my two partners' here... right now? Without me knowing it?"

"That is, in fact, the working theory, Mister Rook," she said with a slight bristle of amusement. "The range is

extremely

limited, we're talking a matter of a couple of feet, tops, but it's a way for the nanobots to be updating software and hardware without having to wait for a sexual intercourse exchange. Little buggers are far more active than we expected them to be."

"What

kind

of information?"

"That's

part

of what we're still trying to determine here," the General said with another soft laugh. "We're still not entirely sure. We're referring to a cluster of nanobots unique to a Team as a Swarm, and we think each Swarm does its best to look after every member in the Team, so it's constantly relaying status updates. Have you noticed that some of your partners seemed to have unusual swings in their need cycles? Not so often that you get worried, but just often enough that you wonder why one them needs to be fucked a little bit sooner than you'd had scheduled?"

"I'd been chalking it up to 'shit happens,' but you're telling me that's not the case?"

"It

might

be 'shit happens,' but it

also

might be that particular partner was fighting off an infection and needed an injection of additional resources with which to fight that battle. Or that they have highly important information that they need you to distribute to all the other members of the Swarm as quickly as possible, since you function as the Hive.

"What kind of information?"

"Pregnancy has usually been the biggest cause we've seen in terms of information transfer," the General said as the elevator doors opened, revealing a large open-concept lab workspace with several workstations scattered around the floor. "But that's partially what we're researching - what

other

kinds of information could we get members of the same Swarm to communicate across short distances without saying a word? That's the military use, obviously, but there's also plenty of practical applications, especially if we can get the nanobots to be sending status reports, which we think we may be able to. That would mean a person could walk into their doctor's office, put their hand on a scanner, and we could pick up a full internal and accurate report on what's going on inside of that person in terms of problems or needs. We currently

think

that information is being kept by the nanobots, but we haven't yet determined how to get it to

give

that information to

us

."

"It's more complicated than we originally thought," a doctor in a labcoat said to Andy, offering her hand, "because as it turns out the nanobots communicate in their own actual language, and we haven't figured out how to translate that into anything we can use yet. I'm Doctor Abernathy, I'm one of the Head Researchers in the nanobot relay research team here at Opprimo. Would you like a demonstration of one of the things we

have

been able to get the nanobots to communicate across?"

"As long as it's not harmful," Lexi said.

"Come over here, ma'am, and hold onto this signal booster," Abernathy said as she lead Lexi over toward a small metal box with a couple of handles on it. "Hold onto this." Lexi did as instructed. "Now, I assume you're both paired with her. Tell me what you feel." The doctor reached up beneath the back of Lexi's shirt, and Andy and Melody both shivered.

"Are... are you drawing an A on her back?" Andy asked.