The Search Begins
"Tara was a fool to go in alone," Helen shouted at the screen as the council members argued as to what the next steps should be. She hated the politics of getting things done. That was the only thing that she figured she would miss about Tara.
"Helen, we need to discuss the best plan of action," One woman stated on the screen with a set expression of patience. "We can't just let you go retrieve the specimen without talking over alternative methods."
Helen sat back in her chair and stared furiously at the people on the screen. They were as useless as the UN, she often though. Usually, she didn't have to deal the bureaucracy of it all, but with Tara gone, that left her in charge of her entire region. What good was it to be in charge of the people in charge of you wouldn't allow you the right to do your own damned job?
"I take my assistant with me and we hunt Project Lucky down," she said matter of factly. She paused to make sure she wouldn't be interrupted this time before continuing. "I have placed more defenses in him during the operation than just allowing Tara to fuck him into control."
"We appreciate the hard work you've put into the project Helen," another woman said. "We know you have the capability of catching him, but we don't know how much Tara told him about the operation before she met her end. We must find out what he knows. If he knows too much then he might be prepared for an attack."
"Tara was a fool," Helen agreed with a snap. "But she wasn't stupid enough to tell him too much."
"What you've built is a masterpiece," the first woman spoke up once more. "Nobody here denies your capabilities. Unfortunately, we don't have the same faith in the previous head of your region. It was a terrible mistake on our part giving her the reigns. We just want to make sure that similar mistakes aren't made again."
That sounded like a compliment followed by an insult to Helen. She narrowed her eyes once again and huffed as she listened to them finish the meeting. In the end, nothing had been decided upon. The council would weigh out the pros and cons to what should be done about Project Lucky while Helen was supposed to just set on her thumbs.
Doing nothing wasn't her thing and therefore she decided to take action immediately and the council would just have to wait it out.
"They'll probably still be talking about what to do when I come back with him," she told her assistant, Ariel, as they packed the necessary gear into bags.
She was going to get Lucky and she wasn't coming back until she had him. Tara had made a mess of things by going on her own, but this was different. Helen knew what she was up against. She knew that he would have friends with him. He would have powerful friends with him, but she could fix it. She knew just what to do.
The first thing she needed to do was find him. That was going to be a bit harder than it sounded. The tracking device around his neck had been removed or damaged about the same time that Tara's vital signs flatlined. All Helen knew to do was to start with the adoption center that he had been sent to.
"Everything is ready," Ariel's sweet voice called from behind her. She turned to see Ariel standing in front of two large men. Two men with dead eyes. They might as well be zombies.
Men! Useless!
"Good, let's go," Helen ordered as she stepped into the large van and slid over to make room for Ariel.
She eyed her assistant as she slid into the seat next to her. She envied her appearance in many ways. Where Helen was tall, pale and had long straight red hair, Ariel was a more average height, sun-kissed skin with short black hair. Ariel's face was just round enough, with large doll-like eyes and permanent pouty lips that looked always ready for kissing. Where Helen felt like she herself was too skinny with small breasts, Ariel was all curves, with large and firm breasts.
Although she felt jealousy over the woman's looks, Helen needed Ariel as much as Ariel needed her. Ariel had a sense of logic that she followed at all times where Helen tended to let anger rule her decisions. She knew to trust in her assistant when she was thinking irrational.
"I contacted the adoption center," Ariel said in a dry voice as she held out a tablet to show her a map. "Lucky was adopted by a woman named Cheryl. The last records we have of her say that she lives in a small house just outside of the city where we're already heading. I suggest we begin our search there."
"I agree," Helen said as she looked away from the tablet and out the window. "What kind of struggles are we going to find when there you think?"
"I think it's likely to find a lot of opposition to our goal," Ariel said as she slid her fingers along the tablet, deep in some other research. "With the abilities that you've given him, he's going to have women from different lines of powerful positions working for him."
"Working for him?" Helen asked, drawing her eyes back to her assistant once more. "Women working for a man?"
"It's possible," Ariel said, not taking her eyes from the tablet. "What you have created is like nothing ever seen before Ma'am. He's not just a man remember."
"Yeah," Helen agreed with a sigh. If it was true that women would be working for him then their work would prove to be tougher than expected. She knew that he would have friends, but how deep would those relationships go when facing life or death?
"Don't worry," Ariel said, still not looking up from her work. "The precautionary measures you took will prove to be invaluable to our success. He can't win."
She was right, Helen thought. There was no way of Lucky getting out of his capture.
"The real question," Ariel continued. "Is what are we going to do when we get him back? Will he be executed or will he be reworked?"
Helen didn't answer. She had no answer. That would all depend on what they found when they reached him. Would he fight back? Would his women be able to keep them from accomplishing their goals without bloodshed? Too many unanswered questions and no way of answering them until they were there.
"I guess we'll have to wait and find out," she said with a finality in her tone. She didn't want to discuss it anymore. She just wanted to get it done and prove to the council that she could do what they could not.
After two days of long travels in planes and in cars, they finally arrived within the outer city suburbs where they would start their hunt for Lucky.
The car pulled to a stop outside of a small house. Ariel looked up from her research and smiled at Helen.
"This is it," she said in her sweet voice. "Shall we begin?"
Helen looked from her assistant to the small house. A for sale sign sticking in the yard told her that she would not find him there. She wouldn't find him there, but the evidence would still be lingering around. She nodded to Ariel and the two got out of the rental car.
They approached the front door and Ariel pulled two small picks from the sack that she carried around her waist at all times. A short moment of her fidgeting with the lock and the door was open. Helen stepped inside and looked around.
A door to the left led to a small kitchen and an empty living room sat to the right. Straight head led to a short hallway leading to three doors and a dining room sat just beyond the kitchen.
"Looks like Lucky's owner moved," Ariel said as she pulled the large backpack off and sat it on the floor before digging into it. She pulled out a large headset with a visor stretched across the front. She handed Helen the headset and began walking into various rooms as Helen strapped it to her own head.
A flip of the switch on the side created blurry visions of outlines all around her. She twisted the various nobs on the side until she found the setting that she was looking for. Everywhere she looked, she could see Lucky and other women. Mostly he was a black haired skinny woman in various acts of sex, but there were more.
