“There they are! Shoot them, shoot them!” one of the secret service men shouted over the radio. The President and everyone else in the room could hear the echoing sounds of gunshots being fired.
“Hostiles are approaching the situation room. I repeat hostiles are approaching the situation room!”
The President swallowed spit. Whoever was coming for him was closing in on his location quickly. It would be mere moments before the intruders got in.
“Target in sight,” the serviceman standing guard over the situation door shouted.
“Take the shot, take it now!” another serviceman shouted back.
A small tanned woman approaching the door to the situation room swiftly kicked the guard, knocking the gun out of his hand. The men and women inside the situation room watched as the locked door slowly became distorted. The door looked as if it became liquefied.
“What’s happening to the door?” a frightened cabinet member asked. The servicemen inside the room pointed their weapons at the door and stared at it without blinking. This was it; they were the last line of defense.
The small tanned woman and the man with her materialized inside the room. They looked around it, searching for the President. Several of the President’s cabinet members screamed for dear life. His servicemen eyes were locked on their target. The small woman and the man immediately put their hands in the air and asked not to be shot.
“Hold your fire!” the President shouted. With their fingers itching closer to the trigger, the servicemen kept their eyes locked on the two Post Humans but did not fire upon them. Cautiously the President stood up and approached the two intruders. Several of the servicemen outside the room busted in and took position. The President positioned himself between the servicemen and the intruders.
“Everyone relax, let's just take a moment and settle down!” The President said.
Both the servicemen coming from outside the room and the servicemen inside the room stared the intruders down with an intense glare.
14
We Come in Peace
There was so much tension in the air. The secret servicemen were sweating, the intruders were sweating. The cabinet members were sweating. There wasn't a single soul in that room that wasn't nervous. Not a single man or woman wanted to be known as being present the day the President was assassinated. The ramifications would be detrimental.
Would the country be able to bounce back if its beloved president was murdered? Would an all out war between Humans and Post Humans break out? This could not happen. The President’s life had to be protected at all cost! These questions and more swirled through the minds of everyone inside the situation room. The President continued walking towards the intruders. He refused to cower in the corner like a coward. If this was to be his end, he would meet it with dignity, the way a President should always be.
“Mr. President, stay back!” one of the servicemen shouted jamming his gun forward just a little bit more. The servicemen in the room got a little antsy with the President being so close. Something was going to go down.
“I’m fine Bruce; I highly doubt these fine people are here to hurt me. I’m sure whatever this is, can be handled in a civilized manner.” The President said with a smile on his face. He was doing his best to reassure everyone, including himself that everything would be okay.
The guard ignored the President’s reassurance and positioned himself in front of him. The other servicemen followed suit and formed a human wall to shield the President from harm. These men were prepared to lay their lives down for the President if need be.
The President thanked his men for their loyalty and heroic nature, but ordered them to holster their weapons. The servicemen didn’t budge. The President gave Bruce a stern look. He would not repeat himself again.
“Stand down men,” Bruce ordered hesitantly. The servicemen reluctantly put their weapons away.
“Thank you,” The President said. He walked calmly and confidently up to the two intruders and sized them up.
“Well now Mr. Connors, you certainly have a way of making an appearance. To what do we owe the pleasure of your unscheduled and might I add very disruptive visit?”
The President’s calming nature and subtle voice began to ease the nerves of his cabinet members. They were still uneasy about the presence of the two intruders, but his voice slightly reassured them that he would be okay.
Mr. Connors apologized tremendously for the intrusion. He realized the risk he was taking for his shenanigans but the situation was so dire he saw no other option.
The President’s eyes shifted from Mr. Connors to the young woman that was standing next to him. He recognized her face. She was a member of the League of Protectors. He had read in his files that one of the members had the ability to phase through any solid object, but until he saw it with his own eyes, he didn’t believe it. Hearing about it and seeing it were totally different. He was absolutely amazed by what he had just witnessed.
“Bianca Ramirez, correct? I don’t believe we’ve had the opportunity to meet.”
The President extended his hand. Bianca looked towards Mr. Connors with a pleasantly surprised look. She didn’t expect to be treated with such hospitality, especially after she had just broken inside the White House. Mr. Connors gave Bianca a stern look. He didn’t want Bianca to look rude in front of the President. Bianca turned back to face the President and shook his hand. She apologized for the intrusion and then took a step back so that Mr. Connors could explain the reasons for their actions.
The first thing the President noticed about Bianca was her very small stature. She couldn't have been any taller than five feet and looked as if she weighed less than one hundred pounds. She was healthy though; she didn't have the thin physique someone battling anorexia might have, or the physique of someone who was terminally ill. No, Bianca Ramirez was simply a fiery fit little woman with a very small frame.
“Mr. Connors, why are you here? I have a very busy day ahead of me and this whatever it is you call yourself doing has just made my day longer. My men could've killed you. Do you realize how foolish it was of you to come in here like this?”
Mr. Connors understood. To speed things along, he got right to it and reached inside his pocket. The next thing he heard was the clicking sound of several guns. He looked up and saw the servicemen aiming their weapons at his head.
“Sir, maybe you want to move a little slower,” Bianca suggested.
“Noted,” Mr. Connors replied.
Slowly Mr. Connors reached inside his pocket and pulled out a flash drive. He held the flash drive in front of him so the men could see it. He then extended his hand for the President to take the drive from him. One of the President’s men moved closer and pulled out a device. The device was able to detect if there was any sort of radiation or anything that could bring harm to the president upon touch.
There was a small light on the inside of the device. The light bounced around from side to side before stopping and holding green. The green light indicated that the flash drive Mr. Connors had in his possession was clean. Mr. Connors noticed there was a symbol on the right side of the device the servicemen had in his possession. On the side of device was the symbol of Shaw Enterprises. Mr. Connors couldn’t help but to find the humor in that. He adjusted the professional looking glasses sitting on the brim of his nose and held the flash drive out for the president to take. The president hesitantly took the drive.
“What is this?”
“This Mr. President is a file containing a much more accurate description of all the Post Humans you and G.U.A.R.D have on record. It also contains a list of thousands more Post Humans your agency have yet to discover.”
The president suspiciously looked Mr. Connors over. “Tell me Mr. Connors, why am I just now receiving this? I thought there was a level of cooperation between our two sides.”
Mr. Connors looked around the room. He could see the uneasy looks on everyone’s faces. Whatever little trust the government ha
d in Post Humans, it would be hard pressed to get it back now.
“Mr. Connors?”
“After Mr. Blake got the power back up at the facility he sent me G.U.A.R.D's database. It quickly became apparent that someone has been misleading you for months. Someone has been monitoring your systems. There has been plenty of occasions where new data from our systems have been erased from yours.” Mr. Connors said.
“That someone is you! You have been purposely sending us information and then having your tech freak erase it on our end before we can see it. Makes perfect sense!” Vice President Martin shouted pointing his finger at Mr. Connors.
The President gave the Vice President a stern look and instructed him to sit back down.
“Why should I believe you?” the President asked.
“I suspected you wouldn’t, I also suspected Bianca and I would be denied access here that is why we came to you in such a drastic manner. What I have to show you, you need to see.” Mr. Connors pointed to the flash drive in the President’s hand. “Please take a look.”
The President rubbed his face. He was clearly stressed. The unfolding events would have lasting effects regardless of who was to blame. The President looked over to one of his aides and instructed her to bring in a tech expert. He didn’t want to take any chances. Even though the flash drive was cleared of radiation or any other harmful substances that still didn’t mean the flash drive was safe. For all he knew, the flash drive could upload some virus that would cripple the entire network. Or perhaps the flash drives would stealthily copy secure data.
The way technology worked nowadays, anything was possible. The President wanted to make sure he had every aspect of the flash drive checked before uploading it to the system.
Chris Koft, the White House Chief Security manager returned minutes later after being summoned by the President. He had that stereotypical nerdy look about him. His hair was shaggy; he wore glasses, and had a signature awkward walk.
The technician set up his laptop on the desk and began running diagnostics of the program embedded on the disc. If there was a virus or something like that on the file, Chris would certainly catch it.
Vice President Martin continued looking at Mr. Connors suspiciously. As far as anyone knew, Mr. Connors could be a Post Human himself masquerading as a human to earn the humans' trust. The Vice President just couldn’t understand why a human had such trust in Post Humans. Several times the Vice President had background checks run on Mr. Connors. He was never able to find any evidence that indicated that Mr. Connors shared the Post Human gene. That wouldn’t stop the Vice President though. He was determined to find out all he could about Mr. Connors. He was determined to prove that Mr. Connors himself was a Post Human.
“How do we know that you aren’t a Post Human yourself?” The Vice President suddenly blurted out.
Chris Koft stopped what he was doing and looked up at the Vice President. All eyes shifted between the Vice President and Mr. Connors.
Mr. Connors understood that nothing he said was going to gain the Vice President's trust. He knew that fear and lack of understanding was driving the mistrust that the Vice President had. In fact, fear and lack of understanding was driving the mistrust that all the humans had.
“Well? What do you have to say for yourself?” the Vice President asked.
Mr. Connors didn’t respond right away as he assumed the President would shut Vice President Martin up, but that wasn’t the case. It seemed that the President didn’t mind the question at all. It was as if he wanted an answer himself.
“You see that? He won’t even answer me. He’s guilty!” the Vice President shouted. Mr. Connors was taken aback by the accusations.
“Guilty? Of what crime am I guilty of? I did not know it was a crime to be a Post Human. Is that the case Mr. President? Is that the next step here? Being a Post Human makes you guilty of some crime?”
The President gave Vice President Martin a stern look. He was ok with the questioning the Vice President had until the word “guilty” was thrown in the mix.
“Of course not Mr. Connors, Vice President Martin used a poor choice of words there. However he does have a valid question that you have neglected to answer. Are you indeed a Post Human?”
Mr. Connors looked around the room. All eyes were staring at him intensely. He wondered what their reaction would be if he said that he was.
“No Mr. President, I am not a Post Human. I’ve simply dedicated my life to understand them and the way in which their abilities work. My goal is to bring about a peace between the two sides. I have no favorites or ulterior motives. I simply want to play my part in ensuring peace.”
The President nodded, he seemed satisfied with Mr. Connors' answer. The Vice President, however, was not.
“The flash drive is clean Mr. President and ready to be viewed whenever you are ready.” Chris Koft said.
15
Our Files Are Better Than Yours
The President’s men remained standing keeping a close eye on the two intruders. Some of his men repositioned themselves so that they were closer to their targets. The President didn’t like how close they were but he understood they were just doing their job.
“I certainly hope you aren’t wasting my time Mr. Connors. This would be a very unfortunate situation if what's on this flash drive isn't of great importance,” the President said.
With everything that had transpired at the island prison, the last thing the President needed was any sort of distraction. Mr. Connors assured him that he wouldn’t be disappointed. “May I?” Mr. Connors asked pointing towards the laptop in front of him. The President nodded giving Mr. Connors the go ahead.
Mr. Connors began crunching numbers on the laptop bypassing several files in search of a specific title.
Chris Koft kept a close eye on Mr. Connors movements. Chris would throw up the red flag if Mr. Connors gave any indication he was doing something shady.
“Ah yes here we go,” Mr. Connors said flashing a bright smile. The middle age man adjusted his glasses and pressed enter on the laptop. He slid the laptop over to the President and waited for his reaction.
“Unbelievable!” the President was genuinely surprised. In front of him for his viewing pleasure were thousands of files of Post Humans. Those numbers far exceeded what G.U.A.R.D had in their database.
The President slid the laptop towards Chris Koft.
“How is it possible this many entries could've been deleted from our system without our knowledge?” The President asked.
Chris Koft did not have an answer. The Vice President wanted to take a look at the files but he knew better than to just walk over there and take a look. He knew he needed to wait until the President gave him permission.
“How accurate are these files Mr. Connors?” the President asked.
Mr. Connors had an amusing look on his face. His files were very accurate. Vice President Martin was on the edge of his seat chomping at the bits trying to get a view. He did not like being left out of the loop. He wanted to know what was going on, when it was going on, how it was going on, and he wanted to know right away.
“Let me take a look at those files!” Vice President Martin said as he was no longer able to resist the urge to stay put. The Vice President got out of his chair and walked towards the President to see what it was that the President was looking at.
“Sit down Hal!” the President ordered emphatically as Vice President Martin neared him. Begrudgingly, the Vice President did as he was told.
He sat there stone faced, extremely embarrassed to be put in his place in front of all those people. It was as if he was just scolded by his mother in front of all of his friends. That was how he felt.
“Mr. Koft, if you would be so kind as to check the transfer file dates.”
Chris Koft looked towards the President. President Mitchell nodded. He read the transfer dates out loud. All the transfers were sent to G.U.A.R.D's and the white house's database just as Mr. Connors said.
Chris then checked to see if the original documents had been edited or changed. There was no sign of any tampering done by anyone on the League's side.
“Mr. President, I believe this man is telling the truth. These files have constantly been updated and uploaded to our databases. If tampering occurred, it didn't occur from their end.
The President was glad to hear that The League was not responsible for the breakout or the tampered-with files.
Now his concern was about the breach on G.U.A.R.D’s end. They’re suppose to be the number one defense against Post Humans. If they were compromised there was no telling what intel their enemies had.
“Contact G.U.A.R.D headquarters and get me in contact with Commander Sullivan right away. Also, make sure Mr. Blake and Mr. Shaw remain at the facility until they find the source of the breach,” The President said.
Chris nodded, stood up and left the room.
Mr. Connors had more information to share. He looked towards the projector and asked if he could have it turned on. The President approved Mr. Connor’s request and had the screen turned on for everyone to see. Mr. Connors flipped through several files looking for a particular name.
“Here we go,” he said. The file came into view for everyone in the room to see.
“Who is that?” the President asked.
“Mr. President, this man here is named Kyle Stanton,” Mr. Connors replied respectfully. He spent the next several minutes giving the room a quick review as to who exactly Kyle Stanton was.
“Mr. Stanton here is a very dangerous man skilled in many forms of combat. He is a Post Human who seems to be operating as a mercenary these days. From the intel I've gathered on him, he'll pretty much do any job as long as the money is right. His ability allows him to take on the appearance of anyone he comes into contact with.”
New Age of Heroes 1: The League of Protectors - Dawn of a New Age Page 11
