The Infinite Evolution - Conversion (41 page)

Being the loyal followers they
were, Melissa and Karl did not question their orders, but were
finding this news hard to digest. Karl retrieved a few restraining
devices, as Melissa took possession of a small air shot. This
non-lethal device could easily place Serafina into a deep sleep if
she decided to become unmanageable. Oliver instructed them to
position themselves two seats behind Serafina and pretend to
sleep.

As Oliver stood over Serafina, he
noticed she wore a button down shirt with a purplish pullover
underneath that surpassed her neckline. There was no way he could
make contact with Serafina’s chest without actually putting his
hand down her shirt and he certainly was not going to do
that.

“
Serafina, wake up, we need to
speak with you. Serafina, come on, wake up!” yelled
Oliver.

Spencer was at least pleased to see Oliver treated
everyone the same when he wanted them awake.

“
What’s going on? Are we meeting for the
brief?” asked Serafina.

“
No, we have another matter to attend
to.”

“
Alright,” said Serafina as she pulled herself
up from her slouched position.

“
We have been asked by command to check for
any foreign objects, so I need you to remove your upper
garments.”

Spencer was thankful Oliver did not use his name as
the person who witnessed this and was surprised with Oliver’s
bluntness.

“
Excuse me?” asked Serafina.

“
Are you wearing a damn bra?” asked
Oliver.

“
Yes.”

“
Good, than please remove
your upper garment. We need to see if you’re wearing
The Jewel of a
Guardian
.”

“
Are you insane?” replied Serafina with a
confused look.

“
I’m giving you an order. I’m not
enjoying this, just do it.”

Serafina stood up and said, “Let me explain
please.”

At that moment Oliver’s gut
dropped. He knew from many years of field work what that meant. He
had a spy amongst his team.

“
Scott are you there? I’m about
twenty three miles from my destination!” Reece soon heard Scott’s
voice via his PIC, but did not see his hologram.

“
Don’t speak, just listen. I’m
calling you on an outside secure line and only have a few minutes
before this call is detected. I don’t know what you got us into but
it’s big. I have some government black ops team here and they’re
shutting us down for what they’re calling a security breach. They
made up some outlandish story about a possible hack into our
mainframe. Anyway, they’re wiping out all our data on your location
and debriefing everyone in my unit including me, which means you’re
on your own for now. I have downloaded coordinates to your PIC;
meet me there in exactly twenty-four hours. I also modified the
software I downloaded to upload any data you obtain to your
vehicle’s on-board computer. Once you arrive exactly five miles
from your location, hide your vehicle somewhere off road and walk
in on foot. If something happens to you, your vehicle will meet me
at our rendezvous point, unless of course something happens to your
vehicle, in which case we lose any information you upload.
Ok?”

“
Yes, I copy.”

“
Good luck, Reece. You’re
certainly walking into something huge. Scott out.”

“
Thanks, just wish I knew what it
was.”

As Reece arrived at his five-mile
mark, he hid the car under some brush, and ran down the roadway.
About eight minutes into his run he tripped a silent alarm without
knowing, which in turn fed back to the underground complex where
Jade was being held.

“
Sir, we have foot traffic above
ground and it appears to be Dr. Reece Fields.”

“
Where is he?” asked Izri.

“
Approximately four miles from
the stream entrance. He parked his vehicle five miles out and tried
to conceal it.”

“
Good, keep tracking him. We should be able to
go back online in about an hour. Do we have any field agents
currently above ground near his location?”

“
Yes, there are six and they have
already been assigned to track him covertly.”

“
When Dr. Fields reaches our mark
have a field agent stall him until we can stream him into the
facility.”

“
We’re bringing Dr. Fields in?”
asked one of the monitoring agents.

“
Yes, we have no choice. Jade
will not agree to getting uploaded unless Dr. Fields is
present.”

“
Dr. Fields is the one who drew
this unwanted attention on us in the first place, how can we trust
he won’t do it again?”

“
We better screen him closely,
now do what you are told.”

“
Yes, sir. What do you want us to do with his
vehicle?”

“
Destroy it and notify me
immediately when we can come back online. Also get launch station
Kilo and Sierra ready. I will be accompanying Jade back to Tureis.
I will be in my office.”

“
Yes, Izri.”

As Reece ran towards his unknown
objective he became less focused on the task and thought how out of
shape he really was. “I need to get out more, or at least design
some type of software which would assist me with my cardiovascular
system.” Reece regained focus on running when he started to realize
the roadway was no longer made of dirt, but of some type of hard
rubbery substance, similar to tires. He first thought this was
quite strange and wondered why someone would want to make a road
out of rubber. He concluded it was constructed because it would
make a great insulator when it came to electricity. After a short
period, he found the surface to be enjoyable due to its comfort and
bounciness. As Reece continued to move forward he also noticed all
the trees around him were perfectly trimmed white pines as straight
as flagpoles. In addition, Reece became curious after he noticed
there was very little forest litter; it was as if someone was going
around and grooming the area on a continuous basis.

“
You will be arriving at your destination in
300 yards,” informed Reece’s PIC.

“
About time,” Reece thought as he
slowed down to a fast walk, and noticed a woman walking briskly
towards him.

“
I hope this is someone friendly
because I certainly don’t have the energy if she wants to fight,”
said Reece as he proceeded towards her with a smile.

The woman was tall, with hair
pulled back into a ponytail, and wore black jeans with a gray and
silver coat. “Hello,” shouted the woman. “Are you Dr. Reece
Fields?” knowing quite well he was.

“
Yes and you are?”

“
Agent Clark, it is a pleasure to
meet you.”

“
Agent? Agent of what?” asked Reece as both
closed their distance with little discomfort.”

“
I work security in these parts,”
replied Agent Clark as she took out a small device about the size
of a playing card, placed her thumb in the middle, and activated a
small pulse, which projected outwards into a twenty-foot
radius.

Reece soon felt a little tingle and his PIC was
completely disabled. “Was that an EMP?” asked Reece.

“
If your definition of an EMP is an electric
magnetic pulse, then yes.”

“
What’s the purpose of that? Now all my
electronic components are fried.”

“
They have been disabled for safety purposes,
I would not say fried.”

“
Disabled, fried, either way,
they won’t be working anytime soon,” said Reece, who was clearly
showing signs of frustration.

“
Then you should have thought of
that before you came onto this compound. Are you going to make an
issue out of this?” asked Agent Clark.

“
I promise you, I’m not here to
cause any problems. I’m just looking for my adopted daughter,
Jade.”

“
We know why you are here and we
have Ms. Cade in our custody. A friend of yours named Serafina
dropped her off some time ago and she is safe.”

“
Thank you, you don’t know how
relieved I am to hear this. Can I see her?” asked Reece forgetting
all about his fried electronic equipment.

“
Yes, but unfortunately, we are going to have
to wait until the facility she is being held in comes back
online.”

“
I don’t understand.”

“
You see Dr. Fields, your actions
with Agent Noyes from the NSA made us invoke certain security
measures.”

Reece’s face dropped as he thought, “How in the
world did she know about Scott?”

“
We know a lot of things Dr.
Fields including your employment at Central Circuit and your
connection with the android called Adam.”

“
How did you know what I was thinking? Are you
the ones who hacked Adam?”

“
I am not at liberty to say who
or what accessed Adam. As far as knowing what you were thinking,
let us just say that is a small talent of ours.”

“
Well, could you please refrain
from using your talent. I find it highly invasive,” replied
Reece.

“
Most certainly. In the meantime
let us take a walk up the road so we can get to know each other a
little better,” replied Agent Clark with a tone that sounded
sincere.

“
Sir, we’re ready to come back
online,” called out a field monitor.

“
Excellent, were we able to seize all the data
which was collected on us from that off site NSA post?” asked
Izri.

“
Yes, all their data has been retrieved and
purged.”

“
Good, bring us back online and
make sure when we need to vent again there are no satellites over
us or you will end up like your predecessor scrubbing
conduits.”

“
Understood sir, the launch station and
preservation chambers are ready when you are.”

“
Good job, notify our field agent above ground
and inform her we are ready to stream them in,” ordered
Izri.

“
Yes, sir.”

The field monitor notified Agent
Clark, who acknowledged they were ready. As Reece stood on the
black rubbery surface, he started to notice his surroundings
turning bright blue, and the next thing he knew he was standing on
a silver platform with about half a dozen individuals standing
around him. Reece was only able to see ten feet out from where he
stood; everything else past this distance was a bright
blur.

“
I discharged an EMP on him,” reported Agent
Clark.

“
Acknowledged, please step off
the platform Agent Clark, Dr. Fields please stay where you
are, we will be screening you for any electronic
activity.”

Reece stood there utterly amazed
with what just happened and figured it would be in his best
interest to do what he was told.

“
Scan complete. Malicious
software was detected in a worm embedded in Dr. Field’s
PIC.”

“
What type of software?” asked
Izri.

“
Monitoring software. It transmits on an
infrared light frequency. It has been purged.”

Reece felt as if he was just
caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“
Please step off the platform, Dr. Fields,”
ordered Izri.

“
Yes, sir, absolutely. That is
some type of transport device you have there,” said Reece as he
tried not to stumble over his words.

Reece was now able to see the
rest of the facility once he stepped off the platform and was
literally at a loss for words. Due to the sensory overload, Reece
could not choose what to study first.

“
I see you tried once again to record our
location with your software. Interesting technology infrared light
transmission, we found it to be highly unreliable. We have taken
precautions to prevent this type of technology and others like it
from being used. The lining in these walls contains a substance
that absorbs any light, which does not fall into our
spectrums.

Reece realized he was way above
his head and simply replied, “Yes, absolutely.”

As Izri and Reece walked up the
stairs to the office, he saw the only thing that would break him
out of his hypnotic state - Jade. After Reece locked eyes on her,
he called out her name.

“
Lower your voice Dr. Fields, she
cannot hear you while she is in there. That room is sound
proof.”

Ignoring Izri, Reece ran up the
stairs but was unsuccessful when it came to finding the entrance.
So he did what any overzealous parent would do, he started pounding
on the glass.

Izri thought to himself,
“Determined little man,” as he sent a mental command to open up the
entrance to his office. Unfortunately for Reece, the entrance
opened upright where he was striking the glass, resulting in him
falling forward and onto the floor.

Jade noticed the commotion stood up and realized it
was Reece. Within seconds they were hugging each other and Reece
was reassuring her that everything was going to be ok.

“
Have they been treating you
alright, are you hurt?” asked Reece as he checked her for
injuries.”