her partner, Welsh takes a moment to shine her light around. The area would, at first glance, appear to be little more than a watery cenote. But that is little more than trickery of perception, just as above. Her flashlight highlights a long deep shadow just off to the left at the far end of the narrow ledge.
As Sylvia makes her own way down, Welsh indulges in her curiosity, stepping over to have a look at the opening gap of rock.
The redhead can hear Sylvia’s expert decent behind her. With several years of climbing experience under their collective belts, a descent down the wall is simplistic — far easier than their clandestine entrance into the necropolis of Umm el-Qa'ab in the Abydos’ ruins the year previous.
Sylvia is almost to the ripping surface of the dark underground pool. She has one more bounce, and then the swing — when the women’s entire world explodes with untethered violence.
The walls shake as debris is flung down on them in a shower of deadly shards.
THE ORGANIZERS
“A Beginning”
by Teeko
“It is done! The embryo is complete!”
The laboratory technician hunching over the microscope could not hide his excitement as he let the good news be known to the two persons standing next to him. To his left stood a woman in her mid-thirties, dressed in a fashionable pants suit with modest heeled pumps. Her brown hair was tied up into a knot at the back of her head. Her brown eyes beamed with excited as well.
Opposite the woman, on the lab technician’s left, stood a man looking to be about the same age as the woman, with a serious expression. His tanned skin, long raven black hair, put into a neat ponytail reaching halfway down his back, and an all black clothing ensemble with a style from a past century made his white teeth look almost blindingly shiny when he smiled.
“Excellent!” proclaimed the woman. “There’s no time to waste.”
Without any further ado the woman picked up a hand-held com-radio from the counter next to her.
“Lieutenant Johnson, bring the subject to the lab ASAP.”
After a few seconds a reply came crackling through the com unit.
“Yes Ma’am. Goin’n get ‘er now Ma’am.”
“He’s a good soldier, if only he could learn to speak properly” she sighed as she put the radio away. Next, she turned her attention to the lab technician.
“You keep an eye on that thing. I don’t want any surprises now that we’re so close.”
“Yes Ma’am.” he nodded and kept his focus on the microscope before him.
The other man was already preparing a gynecological examination chair. She studied him for a moment before she asked.
“Would you like the honours Doctor?”
The black haired man looked back at her and hesitated for a moment.
“It would certainly be an honour Sweety, but this isn’t exactly my field of expertise. Robby there would be far more qualified and you do want the best to do this, don’t you?”
The lab technician at the microscope gave a pleased smile at the praise from his colleague.
“Very well” she nodded. “Dr Roberts, are you ready for the task?”
“I most certainly am Ma’am” the lab technician Dr Roberts replied with confidence. “And it will be an honour to complete this final step of our project.”
“Final?” both the woman and the other man said in unison. The woman continued.
“Final for this stage of the project, perhaps. But yet it is just the beginning. The beginning of something glorious! I hope... But we do not know yet how it will turn out. Only time will tell.”
“Of course, Ma’am. You are correct.” Dr Roberts quickly added.
In an office on the floor above the lab, Lt. Johnson attached his hand-held radio to his belt and nodded to the two soldiers with him.
“A’right! Let’s go get’er!”
“Yes sir.” the two soldiers replied and followed their Lieutenant as he walked with determined steps through the corridors of the underground facility. After a few minutes march they stopped outside a door that looked just like all the other doors they had passed on the way. Though outside this door was a soldier standing guard, who quickly saluted the lieutenant as he approached.
“At ease soldier. It’s time. We’re ‘ere to get ’er.” the Lieutenant let the soldier know.
“Yes sir!” the soldier replied and after a few seconds of fiddling to get a key card out of his chest pocket, he unlocked the door and opened it to reveal the hospital room behind it. As the lieutenant stepped into the room he immediately noticed something was amiss and when he spotted the blood that had dripped from the bed onto the floor he rushed in to check the status of the woman lying in the bed. The woman was a beautiful red haired woman with delicate and pale skin. Young. No more than twenty years old, but most likely in her late teens. Her deep blue eyes stared lifeless into nothing.
“Oh Hell no!” the Lieutenant cried out loud as he checked for a pulse. As he didn’t find any he let out another “Oh Hell no!” before investigating what had happened. It quickly became obvious that the woman had both her wrists cut and apparently had bled to death. Her left hand was still holding on to a small razor blade.
“Someone’ll get Hell to pay fo’ ’is!” the Lieutenant screamed and the soldier that had guarded the door instinctively took a couple steps back out into the corridor, knowing he would most certainly get a share of that Hell.
Back at the lab, the spirit was high, but the trio started to get restless as the soldiers had not yet arrived with the asset they were to escort there. The woman had a look at her expensive wrist watch, a delicate thing beset with diamonds.
“It shouldn’t have to take them ten minutes to get here” she said impatiently.
“Maybe the elevator got stuck?” the dark haired man suggested.
If looks could kill, he would have been struck dead in an instant by the look the woman gave him for that comment. He offered her a friendly smile as consolation.
Suddenly the hand-held radio sparked to life and lieutenant Johnson’s voice could be heard.
“Ma’am?”
She rushed to the radio and picked it up.
“Lieutenant! What’s taking you so long?” her voice clearly telling how displeased she was with the delay.
“Ma’am. Yer not gonna like ’is Ma’am.”
“Of course I don’t like this! You’re late!” she snapped at him.
“Ma’am! She’s dead.”
There was a silence in the lab as the three people there looked at each other with surprised expressions.
“Dead, Ma’am.” the lieutenant continued when he didn’t get a response. “Seem’s to ’ave offed ‘erself. Found ‘er dead in bed. Wrists cut. Seem’s to dunnit ‘erself.”
After a few more seconds of silence, the woman finally managed a reply, obviously shaken by the unexpected news.
“Thank you, Lieutenant. Secure the area for now. There will be a thorough investigation on this. I’ll get back to you.”
“Yes Ma’am. Over and out.”
She put down the radio and had to hold on to the counter for a moment to keep herself standing.
“Why?” she asked with despair in her voice. Then her voice changed to contempt. “That ungrateful little bitch! We’re about to make history here and we let her be a part of it. And she does this to ME? And NOW, of all times!”
She was getting furious. The two men looked at each other, not knowing what to do. Dr. Roberts gave the other man a nod to go ahead and approach the woman, knowing his relation with her had a more… intimate nature than what he had. The black haired man nodded back and walked up to the woman and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Sweety.”
“Don’t ‘Sweety’ me!” she snapped at him and shook his hand off. But he didn’t give up and continued.
“This is a setback for all of us. And at the worst possible time imaginable. We’ve worked so hard for this. But we’re so close now. We cannot just lay down and giv
e up. Or let us be overcome by rage. We need to keep our heads clear and find a solution. And quickly.”
“Yes I’m afraid he’s right. If we don’t implant this embryo soon it’ll go to waste.” Dr Roberts filled in.
The woman looked at them both and a determined look came upon her face.
“Alright then. There’s only one thing to do. I’ll do it!”
And with that she walked over to the gynecological examination chair and started to remove her trousers.
“Sweety? Are you sure?”
Dr Roberts agreed with his colleague.
“Ma’am, are you sure about this? I wouldn’t recommend you putting yourself through this. Besides, no offence, but you are past the prime age for a woman going through pregnancy and giving bir…”
Dr Roberts was cut short by the woman, who by now had taken position in the chair.
“You don’t see any other women around here, do you? It was obviously a mistake to not keep a spare. But the plan was to keep the subjects as close as biologically possible and for that we only had one fit. Now that plan is ruined so we have to make do with what we have, and like it or not, that is me.”
Although her the naked lower half of her body did not seem to matter to her, the two men found it embarrassing and they had trouble looking straight at her when they agreed with her reasoning. She noticed this and scolded them for it.
“Come on now! You are both medical doctors. Be professionals for fuck’s sake!”
The two men glanced at each other and agreed. There was no time to waste so they immediately got to work. They all knew what had to be done so they continued in silence. The woman was given a couple injections
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