Dr. Worthington met with his superiors at the secret location of the Consortium headquarters. He was always blindfolded when he was escorted for official business though he wasn’t all that curious about the secrets the organization guarded so carefully. He appreciated the seemingly unlimited funding that he received and he liked the autonomy they afforded him to pursue his theories, and he was content to be above the law. He felt no need to ask too many questions.
The facility is a huge four story mansion with extensive balconies on each floor and a large rooftop garden. It seems to be located in the middle of a jungle, but the landscaping around the house is neat and suburban in aesthetic, like it had somehow been transported to the middle of a rainforest.
Worthington enjoyed his time at the headquarters. It was always buzzing with activities; it was like a perpetual science fair where scientists of the Consortium’s affiliate organizations and Branches showed off their work or compared notes. Worthington was there to discuss the result that he had achieved with the blue gel and while he waited to speak with his superiors, he busied himself reviewing the technology of a scientist that used computer chip implantation as a means to achieve mind control. Worthington had thought about this before, but it was difficult to implant subjects with the proper technology that was still too big and clunky to be inserted discreetly. The scientist’s work demonstrated that the technology had evolved to be smaller and easier to implant since Worthington last explored the idea about half a decade before, but he wasn’t convinced that it was better than his methods, even though there was a lot of trial and error to produce the correct parasite to illicit the precise result that Consortium ultimately wanted.
After a while, security escorted him to the conference room where sit-down meetings were held around a long table. Worthington was meeting with the core leaders of the Consortium for the second time ever, the first was recognition of his achievements with his experiments and the gifting of the gel. Worthington had insisted on this meeting, he had to deliver his result in person and he had to know more about the substance.
When he entered the conference room, he was greeted with applause. Everyone was standing and Dr. Lynnette Jones stood before a large window that spilled light onto her position at the head of the table. It wasn’t coincidence, Worthington had decided when he witnessed it the first time, the room must have been designed to exalt her position and she was their leader.
“We’ve heard about your success!” Jones said excitedly. “The specimen is with Dr. Eakran and he will be yours to study once we have the doctor’s confidence. Have you reached out to him?”
Jones sat and everyone else did the same, including Worthington who sat in the middle of the table.
“I haven’t, but I will eventually I guess. I hadn’t confirmed that Dr. Eakran was with specimen. Have you?”
“Of course, we are always aware of recruits. Eakran is special. I would like to meet him. I have questions for him and I would like for you to introduce me.”
Worthington agreed easily. “I’m happy to introduce you, but are you sure that Dr. Eakran isn’t hostile? Maybe he will not be receptive to our collaborative efforts.”
“What makes you think that?”
“There is footage from my facility that some here have had the chance to review and it is suspect, Dr. Jones. And I was there when the specimen, the man known as Darker, left my facility. It was as though my mind was clouded and I was watching the view through my eyes from very far away. I wasn’t doing the things I saw myself doing in that video. And I believe that Darker manipulated the minds of everyone he came into contact with.”
The others who had seen the video offered their observations and Jones smiled.
“Then we should go now. Do you mind if the two of us travel alone? I could drive.”
“That’s alright with me,” Worthington said with a shrug.
After the meeting, Worthington went back to his lab to gather his things. Apparently he would take a road trip with Jones to the IBF in Georgia..he was getting ready when she arrived at the Southeast Branch and she helped him carry his things to her car. She smiled as they walked through his lab.
“This is where it happened,” she said. “You know, I was here that day? I was coming to see the results first hand, but I had a similar encounter to the one you experienced. And when I fought back to myself, I was standing inside the front door. I ran back out just as they drove away and I went back to headquarters. You’re wrong, by the way, about Darker.”
“I assure you that the man was resurrected, you must have seen him with your own eyes…”
“No,” Jones interrupted, “you misunderstand. I’m parked right here.”
They got into Jone’s SUV and when they were inside, she continued, “It was the girl. Maria Moreno. She’s the one that can control minds. Dr. Eakran has surrounded himself with very interesting people, to say the least.”
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