Masked (8 page)

“Yeah, you guys sure know how to
make a sales pitch,” I added.

“I appreciate your enthusiasm Alex,
but we are not quite done yet. I don’t think you will change your mind though. We
still have another demonstration for you and some more information to go over.”
Caldwell said.

“Brian, are you ready?” Mathew asked.

“I guess,” answered Brian
hesitantly. He looked a little nervous.

“I guess you drew the short
straw?” Caldwell asked.

“Yeah, I did,” Brian sighed as he
moved in front of our group.

He reached down with his right
arm and pulled a knife out of the sheath strapped to his right thigh. He brought
the long silver blade up and held it out in front of him. With a weary look, he
stretched his left arm out towards us.

As he slowly moved the knife into
position right above the extended arm I wondered if he really was going to cut
himself. He closed his eyes and moved the blade across the skin of his forearm
with a quick motion. The long gash in his forearm started to fill with scarlet.

I guess so.

“Ouch,” he shouted as he moved
his right hand over the wound. Blood started to seep from beneath his hand. “Damn
it, that hurts.”

The sight of the blood began to
make me feel dizzy. My stomach balled up into a knot and I wanted to vomit. I
realized then I don’t like blood much and took a mental note as I looked away
trying to compose myself.

Matthew went over to the boxing
ring to get a small white towel. He handed it to Brian and put it over the cut.

“Ok, let’s see it,” Caldwell said
a few seconds later. Brian batted the now blood soaked towel at the wound for a
few seconds more and then removed it.

The gash was much smaller than I expected.
I’d thought the knife had done more damage than that. Then I blinked my eyes in
surprise as it appeared the wound was actually shrinking. As we watched, the
superficial wound worked itself closed. Thirty seconds later, the wound was completely
gone. There didn’t even appear to be any evidence of a scar. Just an arm
spotted with the remaining blood.

“So are you telling me I’m going
to be effectively Superman?” James asked with a smile.

“Well, we can’t fly,” Brian answered.

“At least not yet,” Emily added,
joking.

James’ comment struck me as
interesting. I didn’t know much about amnesia or memory loss in general, but found
it fascinating there were certain things I did know about. For example, I knew
who Superman was when James referred to him and obviously James did as well. I
could also tell you things like what a Chicago style pizza was or that the
Statue of Liberty was in New York City. If you asked me however anything
specific about my life, there was nothing to tell. It was all completely blank.

“So there has to be a down side
to this. I mean we get this deadly disease, we’re treated with some
experimental anti-virus and now we have these ‘super powers’. What’s the catch,
I mean besides the whole loss of our identity thing,” I asked.

Surely there had to be more to
it.

“Well, there actually is another
down side.” Caldwell said. “With the changes your body has gone through, your
body’s response to the radiation put off by the sun has also been affected. Most
people, with the exception of certain conditions, can go out in the sun and be
fine. The suns radiation may give them a light burn if overexposed without any
protection, but that’s about it. If you and others like you go out in direct
sun light, your body will have an extreme allergic reaction. Once the direct exposure
hits, you will immediately feel your body start to weaken. If the exposure is
only for a few minutes, your body will be able to recover. If any longer than a
few minutes, the chance of recovery lessens. Total exposure is fatal.”

“So we can’t ever go out in the
sun?” asked Sara, with shakiness in her voice.

I could feel the energy in the
room instantly diminish at the news. To never be able to be in the sun again….

“It’s really not that bad,” Mathew
explained, trying to ease her. “We may not be able to go out in the direct
sunlight, but we can be out during the day; we just need to stay in the shade.
Also, if it’s a stormy or overcast day, there’s no problem. You get used to
it.”

Everyone seemed to quietly take
in the new bit of information.

“You have the facts and we’ve
shown you why we could use your help. Now you need to make your decision. Please,
let’s head back to the briefing room,” Caldwell said.

“You want us to make a decision
just like that?” Rachael protested. “You dump all of this information on us and
expect us to know what to do? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I thought we’d at least have a
couple of days to mull it over,” James added.

“I’m sorry. Time is of the
essence. We need to get your training started. We cannot give the enemy any
more time. The time to act is now,” Caldwell said.

“Now, please follow me,” Caldwell
repeated and walked out the door.

We followed Caldwell back to the
briefing room. As we passed through the corridors, I didn’t pay attention to
much. I was busy sorting through everything we were just bombarded with over
the previous couple of hours. There was so much information to take in all at
once. How could any of it have even been real?

Finding out I had a fatal illness
and was cured when I was at death’s door was shocking. The fact I had no memory
of my life before waking just a few days prior and I was now involved in some
conspiracy with a rogue government group was overwhelming. But add to that the
fact I would develop what essentially equated to super powers. Well, that was incredible.

“I must still be in a coma,” I muttered
to myself and pinched my arm, feeling stupid when I felt the pinch.

If what they told us was true and
there was this group out there, willing to put so many lives at risk and I
could do something to help, wasn’t I obligated to try and help? Did I even have
that in me? Was it too much to put on myself, a teenager? Somehow I knew the person
I once was would have helped. I could just feel it in myself. The decision of
whether helping was the right thing to do wasn’t the problem. The problem was I
would never know who I really was, what it was I left behind. I didn’t know if
I could blindly jump in, putting complete faith in strangers who had offered
nothing more than their fantastic tale.

I assumed I was in still in high
school when I contracted the virus. I doubt I was enrolled in principles of secret
agenting or super soldier fundamentals. If they were willing to give me a shot
though, I thought I may be willing to try. Besides, what else was I to do? I
had the feeling whatever life they forced me into, if I refused their offer,
would be a lonely one. I’d never be allowed to look into my past, to reconnect
with those I left behind. Even if I could though, if I really had left behind
family and friends who had been grieving over me for the last nine months, was
it right for me to come back with no memory of who they were, causing them even
more pain? I thought it probably wasn’t.

Instinct wanted me to be angry,
frustrated, that these people thought they knew what was best for my life was
one of the most irritating parts of the whole thing. Then again, maybe they did
know what was best. They knew more about me than I did about myself. In any
case, trying to go back to who I was before wasn’t an option, at least not at
that point. They wouldn’t let it happen. Whether I was doing it out of my
perceived duty to help or because I had very limited options, it seemed joining
was really the only thing to do.

I wondered how the others were internally
processing everything, if they were reaching the same conclusions as I was. I
caught my thoughts drifting to Sara, wondering who she was before, what her
decision would be. If I stayed, I hoped she would as well. Really I hoped they
all would.

Emily and Brian seemed to be
really comfortable and well acclimated to their new life after only a short
period of time. Their abilities were amazing. Caldwell was brilliant to let us
meet them so they could showcase their skills. It strengthened the sales pitch
for me. Also, laying everything out to us as a group was very smart. For me,
knowing I was not in it alone and having others with me who were all in the
same situation, definitely made the news a little easier to take. I had a sense
of camaraderie already with four complete strangers.

Caldwell and his group knew what
they were doing. But of course they did. How many others had woken before us?

“Whoa,” Sara said as she stumbled
and then regained her balance.

I’d just stepped on the back of
her shoe as we were walking, tripping her. “Sorry about that,” I apologized, a
little embarrassed. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“That’s ok,” she said. “I’m sure you
have a lot on your mind. I mean it’s not every day you find out you’re
superhero without a past and you’ll die if you try to get a tan,” she said with
a small smile and a wink.

“Yep definitely a big day,” I added.

Maybe she was handling everything
better than I gave her credit for.

When we made it back to the
briefing room, we took the same seats as before. Matthew, Brian and Emily took
seats in the row behind us. Caldwell and Batton both joined Masters, who had
rejoined us, back on the podium. Masters and Batton took their seats. Caldwell
remained standing.

“You have seen why we want you to
be a part of our organization. Now it is the time for me to ask if you will
join us or not. Before you answer, let me say a few more things.

“Our group has one mission, to
seek out this domestic terrorist organization and shut it down. If you can
pledge yourselves to help us work towards that cause, what we can offer you is
a chance for a new life after we succeed. And we will succeed. We have to.

“We have a top notch team of
researchers here at our facility. They have been working and will continue to
work on ways to help you recover you memory as well as ways to treat the
sunlight allergy you have. You are young and we will do all we can to give you
the lives you want at the end of this. We just ask you help us. Help us make
this country safe. Help us preserve democracy.” There was a brief pause before
he continued.

“If you accept our offer, you
will be briefed with the details of your commitment immediately and put into
the training program. If you choose not to accept this offer, we will take you
to another part of our facility and we will begin the preparations to place you
somewhere to live out your life. Now remember, if you choose this, you will be
monitored and not allowed to investigate your past. We can’t risk any
compromise to our operation. Please do not take that as a threat or as pressure
to join us. We don’t want you to accept our offer because the alternative
frightens you, but because you want to.”

 “So with all of that, who’s in?”
Caldwell asked.

The room was silent for several
seconds. Alex was the first to respond to the question. “I’m still in.”

He’d sure made a big turnaround
from grumpy skeptic to enthusiastic supporter. I guess I had too. I just hadn’t
been as openly hostile to start with.

“You can count me in,” I said.

“I’m in as well,” Rachael
answered. “It seems my options are somewhat limited.”

 “Me too,” said both James and
Sara at the same time. They looked at each other and laughed.

“I guess that’s all of us,” Sara added.

“Wonderful,” Caldwell said. “We’re
glad to have you aboard. Please, take a few minutes to talk amongst yourselves.
Lt. Masters will begin the briefing shortly. I have other appointments this
morning, but will try to stick my head in later. It was great meeting you all
and again thank you for coming aboard. We’ll do great work together.”

At that, Caldwell left the room
followed by Masters and Batton.

“Glad to have you aboard,” Emily
said cheerfully from the row behind once they were gone.

“Thanks,” I said.

“You know, we’ve all taken this
pretty well considering what we were bombarded with this morning,” Rachael commented.

“It was the same way when we
first were told,” said Brian. “I think, not remembering anything from before
helps to accept it. I would have had a harder time with it if I could remember
who it was I was leaving behind.”

“So do we live here? Where is
here?” asked James.

“They’ll go over all of that, but
yes there are living quarters in this facility. This is actually quite a large facility
and there is plenty of room to move around, once you make it through the
initial training that is,” Matthew said.

“Yeah, we’re ready to get started
so we can see more,” Emily interjected.

“This facility is underground,
beneath a mountain in Montana,” Matthew explained. “But like I said, you will
get more details during the briefing.”

“Caldwell seems pretty casual
with you all. I’d expect more formality since this is a military operation. Is
he always like that? Or just when he is trying to make his sales pitch,” I asked.

Matthew laughed. “He tries to
keep things somewhat lighter around here during down time, but once engaged in
the mission, he’s all business. Lt. Masters and Sgt. Batton however are usually
all business.”

“So he’s the good cop, the glad
hand, and the other two play the bad cops?” Sara asked.

“Basically yes,” answered Matthew.

“Yeah, we’ll all get to be best
buds with Batton here really soon,” Emily added with a laugh. “He’s in charge
of the training.”

The door to the room opened,
interrupting the conversation. Masters, followed by Batton walked in and back
up to the front again. Batton had a seat and Masters remained standing to
address the room.

She picked up the remote from the
podium and used it to turn the projector back on. The same blue screen as
before appeared on the wall behind her. After a few seconds the words ‘Project
Titan’ appeared in white on a solid black background.

“Titan is the code name for a
group of covert special operations teams which each consist of individuals with
enhanced abilities. The sole mission of Titan is to uncover and stop a domestic
terrorist group which is embedded deep within the U.S. government. You five,
along with Emily and Brian will be trained to form the sixth Titan team. Your
team will be led by Matthew,” she began.

Masters proceeded to brief us on
what we had just signed onto. We were told Caldwell was the commanding officer
responsible for Titan and Masters was his second in command. Batton was the training
NCO and would be providing all of the required training over the next few
months with the assistance of Matthew. Once Batton and Matthew determined our
team was ready, there would be a series of test missions to assess how we perform
in the field. Once ready, we would begin to go out on live missions.

The first five Titan teams were
already executing live missions. During our training, we would be kept in a
separate part of the facility, isolated from the other teams. Once placed into
live mission status, we would be able to move to the common living area where we
could then interact with the other teams.

The facility we were in was the
base of Titan operations. It was a multi-level state of the art subterranean
facility, housed in the Montana Rockies. She put a schematic on the screen. It
showed a round central structure with six other structures placed evenly around
the central structure. Each surrounding structure was connected to the center
with an access tunnel.

The center structure housed the central
operations of the facility, the communications hub and several common areas
including the large training area we were in earlier, briefing rooms and a
cafeteria. The center structure was larger than the structures on the perimeter
and had six levels.

The six smaller structures varied
in size and function. There were two designated as living areas with small,
fully furnished, one-bedroom apartments. One housed the Titan agents and the
other the officers and support staff of the facility.

Another one of the structures was
a biological and medical research laboratory and hospital. This was where we were
held while in our comas. It was the largest of the six smaller structures.

One of the structures housed a
research and development section for new weapons and technology as well as a
transportation holding area. It also housed the main access point to the
outside, only one of two access points in the entire facility. The other was a
restricted emergency exit point in the central structure.

The computer and data center
which ran the entire facility took up another one of the structures in its
entirety. The sixth structure was largely utilized for storage with two levels
dedicated as a small training area and some limited living space. This area was
reserved for the Titan basic training program and was where our group would be
for the next few months. Collectively the facility was known as the HUB.

I noticed during the presentation
the shape of the facility on the schematic resembled the patch on the shoulders
of the uniforms that Masters and Batton wore. The green patch had a small black
version of the schematic with a red inverted triangle on the center structure.

The training was to be intense,
structured with a regimented daily routine. We’d start with the basics, and
progress from there.

“You will be built from the
ground up,” Masters said.

The training phases would be
combat techniques, special weapons and equipment, stealth techniques, advanced
computer skills and espionage.

Like Matthew had said, for the
duration of the initial training, we’d be isolated in the training area. Food
and supplies would be brought daily from the central area of the HUB. This
isolation was to give us the focus we needed to make it through the training.
Once in active status, we’d be moved into the Titan living quarters and get
clearance to access other parts of the facility.

After the briefing, Masters took
us to another room where we were issued uniforms, the same black fatigues the
others were wearing and other supplies we needed initially. After that, we
boarded a small enclosed transport and took a short ride to the training
facility, our new home for the next several months.