Hybrid Affairs

Phantom Laboratories

From the outside, an old warehouse that kept grains and wheat did not look suspicious and shady. There was only an old caretaker and a few men who helps with the unloading when the truck with loads of sacks of grains came once a week.The truth was, it was all a front. A clever decoy for its true purpose. The warehouse is actually just a front. Inside it was a state of the art laboratory and facility-s***h- hideout-s***h- base of the group of people that have escaped the research facility in Tazmania some ten years ago. A meeting was currently taking place. A group of men, dressed impeccably, in three piece suits, were seated and listening intently to another man who was talking to the group.

“The forces that we have been trying to eradicate all these years have proved to be hard to wipe out.” He begun with.

“What are the updates for the past three months?” Another man said.

“My sources tell me that she had amassed great following and that some of her people have infiltrated the city.”

Another man spoke, his voice booming. “How can you let this happen?”

“Frederick, we all know what had happened in the army base was out of our control. There is n need to be mad abut something that had happened eleven years ago.”

“Speak for yourself! Soon enough, she will have your head!”

“That is not going to happen! I have everything under control.” Greg Phantom said with conviction. He was the leader.

“Hah.” Another man spat.” That was the exact words you told us ten years ago.”

“Exactly.”

"And here we are, fearing the project that was supposed to be ours.!"

The man called Frederick left the meeting and stormed out without saying another word. Leaving eight other people in that room baking in deadly silence. Each one buried deep in his own sea of thoughts. The man who was presiding the meeting pressed a buzzer on the table and a man emerged from the door where Frederick came out. That man was the same man who mistook Amy for Stacy.

“Gil, it is time to move to phase two of the plan. I am sure that Stacy Wright is looking after her sister.”

“What do you want me to do sir?”

“Befriend the sister, we will use her as bait for the Supreme Hybrid.”

Gil’s POV

It was not by accident that I mistook Amy Wright for her sister Stacy. I needed to see her reaction at the mere mention of her sister’s name.I was not surprised to see that look. She was astounded but was not scared.She even chased me down, that woman was fast.

I am Gil Lewis. Head of security for the Phantom Research Laboratories.

Whenever the bosses get into some dirty trouble, I was the one they send in. I am their ‘cleaner’. Normally, as head, I only oversee the men who were under my jurisdiction. We have a chain of command and in the security department, I am the top guy because of my training in the military. The guy who sent me in that conference room was the chief scientist and CEO of Phantom Laboratories and now that he want me to befriend the sister of Stacy Wright, I know that it is important because he would not send me in to do scut work unless it was necessary.

Greg Phantom was an a**hole. But he was the a**hole that pays me a lot to do most of his dirty stuff. I used to be in the Army, but just after three tours and not seeing any advancements in my life’s career and bank account, I was recruited to be one of the securities in the company. I have served Greg for five years now and did not disappoint. That was why, today, I am the guy he needs.

I like it here because the pay is ten fold bigger than what I earn in the army and the benefits are top notch. I also got a new car as part of the job incentive. It was no different with the army, you answer to your superiors and do their bidding. The only difference is---I am not bound by the rules with Greg.

“You want me to what, sir?”

“I believe your hearing is in top shape, Gil.”

“The girl is still in school.” I said disbelievingly.

“So?”

“You want me to go to school too?”

“Gil, you are the best man in the security department, that is why I made you it’s head, but sometimes, you are dense. You do not have to be in the same school to befriend her. Your head is placed to be on the top of your anatomy, use it.” The guy said dismissively.

Five years in the company and having served Greg Phantom 24/7 and I still do not like how the guy uses his power and position to belittle his employees. It was a norm in the army to be rude with each other but when we are in the battlefield, we know that we can rely on each other no matter how we roast each other during galley time. With Greg, the employees outside know nothing about him or the operations that he runs.The grain warehouse was a fraud and a front. I was the guy in charged with the security and the whole operations that were all superficial. The men who compose the security team were either lanky or short but were in truth very specialized people. They have impeccable killing skills. The moment Greg walks in into the vaulted establishment along with twenty more scientists and laboratory people, it was no longer my jurisdiction. The vault that encased the laboratory was indestructible and was locked from the inside. There was no way of knowing what was going on in there and what they were making in there. There was no definite way to tell it’s actual size too. The operation runs underground.

But I know.

For Greg, I am just the muscle man. I get orders to bring a man in and that is it. My job is done as long as I was making sure that the laboratory perimeters were free of kids that think that it was indeed an abandoned warehouse. Sometimes we had to remove a couple of homeless people who wanted to set up camp in the area. From a far, no one would think that an old warehouse with blotch paint and creaky roof was in fact worth a multi-million dollar company. It was designed to be normal and plain looking smack right in the center of New York. The perfect cover exists.

And now, Greg wants me to be friends with this Amy Wright.

Greg’s assistant handed me a manila envelope which contained photos, data and records of Amy Wright. What confuses me is why I have to be in such close proximity to her. After all that had happened to her sister. I was there too. I was on the same batch as Stacy. I do not want to be near anyone of them but Greg does not seem to mind because he does not know that I was there too. What they know was all a part of my decoy.

I went back to my desk confused and pissed.

Victor, my friend, who was also in the security team was waiting for me in my own office, his booted foot on top of my table and I disliked that whenever he does that but I had to smile for the sake of camaraderie and office decorum.

“Hey, I was not expecting visitors today.” I smiled, staring at his unpolished boots.

“You are on assignment, this is my office now.”

I think I misheard the bastard, I asked again. “ Sorry, what? I did not get that.”

“Greg appointed me as head temporarily while you are playing baby sitter.”

Damn you, Greg.

I did not say a word to a very much grinning Victor and went to the financing department. If Greg wanted to play like this, I am gonna make him bleed with his money. We were allowed to pull out any amount of money as long as we are on assignment and the finance will not question us no matter the amount we want to withdraw.

The financing department was in the tiny shack outside. Still a part of the front.

Donna, the finance woman, sneered at me. “I know you will drop by, Greg already informed me and told me to give you whatever you want, he actually went here in this shack and instructed me to get you anything you want, honey.”

I smile at Donna. She’s already in her fifties and was posed to be the wife of the caretaker of the warehouse. Their little house is just a front, inside the tiny shack is a state of the art computer that can do anything and print anything that is a total replica of any document you want falsified and vault that contains a lot of money. Donna is not a helpless old woman, she is highly trained with arms and self defense, I once saw her in a mock battle when I was still a recruit. This old woman can break necks with her old hands.

“I see, I’d be needing Identification cards, a new car and three hundred.”

“Okay, give me an hour to print those for you,aaand, any name you wanted in particular?” Donna started tapping in the super computer which was her baby.

“Just Gil Lewis.” I said. I was not planning to use any ID for verification, just to have something on my wallet when it will be handy.

“And three hundred dollars? Hmmm, you are trying to be frugal on this assignment?” Donna smiled at me for the first time in five years.

“Three hundred thousand dollars. I will be back in an hour to get them.”

I know Donna was astounded, judging by the look in her withered face but as per Greg’s order, they are to give me what I need. I have the perfect plot for this assignment.