Page 4 of Black Bay Enforcer
When August Cleary had contacted her out of the blue and requested that she join him for dinner to discuss her future, the pathetic, needy little girl inside of her that was desperate for his approval, had jumped at the invitation. She was almost thirty years old, yet she still gobbled up the tiniest crumbs of his attention. She hadn’t known what to expect of the meeting, what he’d meant byher futureconsidering she was well established with a prominent Fortune 500 company, but a job offer hadn’tbeen it. She should have turned it down, but that little girl who wanted to impress her daddy had reared her head and she’d found herself agreeing without fully knowing what she was stepping into.
Aside from the benefits package she’d be receiving if she took the contract – which he’d laid out for her in great detail – he'd been vague, almost cryptic about the details of the job. She’d work on-site at a military base, he’d told her, and she’d require top-secret clearance. Once she had that clearance, she’d be given more information about her responsibilities. It was all very clandestine and mysterious, and she had to admit, he’d managed to pique her curiosity.
She had a master's degree in business, and was a damn good financial analyst – even if her father had never acknowledged those things – so she’d assumed her job responsibilities would align with her expertise. She’d been wrong. Anyone could have done what her father wanted her to do. A child could do her job. There were no numbers to crunch, no data to analyze, nothing to research. They didn’t even want her opinion. It was almost insulting. She was expected to send daily reports to her assigned contact about the day-to-day operations of a project called Resurrection located at Black Bay. That was it. Still, she’d wanted to do a good job. She wanted to finally impress her father.
When the promised information packet had arrived, she’d eagerly dived in, intending to study every little detail. They’d sent her files on Black Bay – a covert military base in Virginia masquerading as a maximum-security prison – where she’d be living and working until the contract was complete. Files onthe highly advanced government AI called ORION, and the Resurrection project that would be her primary focus. But even with her new clearance, the information had been so heavily redacted that she didn’t know why they’d even bothered. Her father had been no help. Every time she’d called, intending to ask for more information, his assistant always told her that he was in a meeting, but he never bothered to call her back. Typical of the man.
So she hadn’t been at all prepared for what she’d find at Black Bay. The lack of warning, paired with the fact that she was nervous and jumpy about meeting the new people she’d be working with, meant that she’d made an utter fool of herself. Upon her arrival, she’d been greeted by General Davies, who ran the base. He’d just finished introducing himself when a looming shadow had fallen over her, nearly blocking out the sun. Turning, she’d looked up. Way up at a colossal, massively muscled, giant of a man. He had to have been seven feet tall.
In hindsight, he’d probably smiled at her – it might even have been intended as a friendly smile – but all she’d seen was fangs. Big ones. Scary ones. Top and bottom. He’d said something to her but his words, whatever they were, hadn’t even registered.
She’d gasped in surprise, her knees had buckled, and she was ashamed to say that when the man had reached out a big hand to steady her, she’d screamed and fallen on her ass, even going so far as to crabwalk backward to put distance between them. The giant had let out a gruff rumbling sound, his nostrils had flared, and, most likely highly offended, he’d stomped off. Not her finest moment. Even thinking about it now made her neck hot andprickly with embarrassment. It was a horrible first impression and it had set a tone going forward. She was avoided.
General Davies may have helped her back to her feet, but he had not been at all happy with her. His face had turned an angry shade of red and a vein had throbbed so hard in his forehead she’d been afraid it would rupture. Already thrown off balance by the incident and knowing she’d epically screwed up when he’d marched her angrily to his office, she’d nearly burst into tears. He must have sensed how close she was to losing it because he’d looked at her for a moment and then his face had softened. “Didn’t anyone tell you what you’d find here?”
No. They hadn’t. A little warning would have been nice. Pulling the file from her bag, she’d extended it to him. “This is what they gave me.”
He’d perused it for a few seconds – honestly, that was all it took considering the majority was nothing but black bars – then, with a harshly bitten-off curse, General Davies sat her down and explained that Black Bay was home to soldiers who had been illegally experimented on. Some, those who called themselves the Beasts, had been genetically altered with predatory animal DNA, while the Resurrection soldiers had been involuntarily enhanced with biotech.
Her horror must have shown on her face.
“If you can’t handle that,” General Davies had gruffly told her. “Then you need to leave. I won’t have my people made uncomfortable. This is their home.”
With a hard swallow, she’d straightened her spine. “I can handle it, sir.”
He’d raised a brow, his expression rife with skepticism. “Are you sure? Because let me tell you, Kong is one of the friendlier ones. If he scared you, I don’t think you’re up for this.”
“I am, sir. Now that I’ve been fully briefed, I’ll handle it better.”
And she’d been determined to do so – she’d even been determined to find that man, Kong, she’d so gravely insulted and apologize – but by the time she’d left General Davies’ office, word must have already spread. No one would talk to her. Even the soldiers stationed at Black Bay that hadn’t been experimented on kept their distance from her.
She worked alone at a desk in the Resurrection hub with nothing but ORION’s brisk explanations for conversation whenever she had a question. She ate alone in the mess hall – the soldiers making it clear they had no wish for her company. The first evening she’d tried approaching a relatively full table, they’d gone so far as to get up and move as soon as she sat down. She’d been hurt and embarrassed, but not deterred. She could do this, she’d told herself – not that it had done any good. Black Bay seemed determined to keep her at a distance. She couldn’t evenaccidentallyrun into someone and start up a conversation at housing. She hadn’t been given a room in the residential area. Instead, she’d been given an unused office on the upper floor of one of the administration buildings where someone had moved a bed in for her.
She didn’t like feeling so isolated and alone. She couldn’t even call any of her friends back home to bitch and whine about her new circumstances. No one was supposed to know where she was or what she was doing and her calls – any outgoing communications – were strictly monitored.
Pulling out a mirrored compact, she checked her hair. The long, dark mass was still tightly constrained in a bun at the nape of her neck, not a hair out of place, and while her nose was a bit shiny – an easy fix with some powder – she otherwise looked presentable.
Standing, she asked, “Do you need me for anything before I go to lunch, ORION?”
“I do not need you here at all, Miss Knox,” was the cool response from the AI. “Today is no different.”
Katherine tried not to feel the sting of those words. ORION might sound incredibly human – she still sometimes caught herself looking for a body that went with that voice – but it was an intelligence. A highly sophisticated computer. Not a person. Its statement about her necessity was not meant to hurt or belittle. It was factual. She was unnecessary to the day-to-day operations of Resurrection. If ORION did need a set of hands for some task, it would contact one of the soldiers it oversaw. The AI was directly linked to each of them via a state-of-the-art neural chip.
“Okay. I’ll be back in an hour.”
ORION didn’t respond. Not surprising since she hadn’t asked a question and unlike humans, the AI didn’t volunteer commentary for the sake of being polite. But, starved for conversation of late, she would have liked an “Enjoy your lunch,” or something like that.
Pushing on the heavy door, it hissed as the seal was broken and gave way. Outside, the sun was shining and the air was crisp with the scent of the ocean that surrounded the island of Black Bay. Closing her eyes, she lifted her face to the warm rays and inhaled deeply with enjoyment, then, unable to help herself, she discreetly looked toward the central green area. On any given day, there would be a cluster of men, soldiers working out in that space – shirtless, skin gleaming with sweat – and if she said it wasn’t a treat for the eyes, she’d be lying. But today, that space was empty except for a few seagulls checking the grass for a possible snack. Disappointed at being denied her daily dose of man-chest, Katherine sighed and began walking to the mess hall.
It felt nice to stretch her legs.
It took her a few minutes but she finally clued in that something wasn’t right. It was too quiet. Katherine stopped and looked around. She may not have been here long, but she knew that Black Bay was usually teeming with life – Jeeps zipping by, people hustling from one place to another, groups buzzing with conversation and laughter. Today, there was no one around. The island almost felt abandoned. A chill passed through her despite the warmth of the sun shining down.
It was only once she got closer to the building that contained General Davies’ office that she began to see activity. Curious to know what was going on, she was tempted to approach, but the two guards posted at the door deterred her. That was new. She’d never seen guards posted outside.
Had something happened?
Forcing her feet to move on, she continued to the mess hall. Maybe someone would be there who’d be willing to fill her in. Katherine almost snorted. Not likely. She’d have better odds of getting ORION to joke around with her.
