After Holly was debriefed at HQ, she had been awarded an honorary medal, but they had ordered her to not pursue or speak of the case until further notice. It had been days since then and now Holly sat in the meeting in stunned silence.
Brown sat at the head of the table, but Special agent Malcom was heading the meeting. Even though Holly had personally worked the case, Malcom was in charge.
Malcom clicked to the next slide displaying a monkey crouching over Merin's dead body next to a dumpster. Holly recognized the monkey as Merrin. Malcom cleared his throat and spoke, “After the team’s first encounter with Merrin, they pivoted to surveillance under reasonable suspicion that she would reveal more information. She is caring for a stage one hypnosite that we have reason to believe is hosting the mind of Chuck. She is currently hiding in the Audubon zoo and under the impression she has escaped our team’s watch. Using her, we are documenting the live progression of a successful hypnosite integration and after the data becomes redundant we will detain Merrin and the hypnosite suspected to be Chuck.”
“And what of the hypnosite chimera that contacted her at the water plant?” Brown asked.
“We lost track of it. It entered the lab and never came out. We are watching now but believe it used an alternate escape route or is still inside the lab. It displayed intelligence while speaking with Merrin and even the capability to follow a map. If it was one of the Changed, it would be a high class variant,” Malcom said.
Holly thought that was probably Colin, but wasn’t sure why he’d be talking to Merrin. If it was him, he probably escaped as a bug without the FBI realizing.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Carry on,” Brown said with a wave to Malcom.
Malcom nodded and moved to the next slide, “Phase one has been successful. The president has been briefed and has granted us clearance to continue to manage the situation. The media channel owners have been incentivized to look the other way. They have reported it as a routine drill and are encouraging viewers attention elsewhere by raising hype for distracting topics. The afflicted towns have been fully contained and hotspots for the Changed are being monitored. They tend to attack one another indiscriminately until they establish an alpha and then form in packs similar to wolves.”
“Excellent, how are preparations for phase two?” Brown asked.
Malcom clicked the next slide, “Phase two is ready for execution in three days. We have several armored vehicles ready to extract preselected packs for laboratory observation. The remaining majority of the Changed will be left free to roam the towns and surveillance will be increased to learn what we can about the Changed remaining wild and how they adapt.”
The way Malcolm spoke so coldly about these human victims sent a chill down Holly’s spine. He spoke as if they were wild animals or lab rats. The manipulations and lies and cold blooded approach was too much. Holly understood that a certain level of intelligence needed to be kept secret to prevent mass panic. What Holly didn’t understand was the need to perpetuate the situation instead of help fix it. There were so many moments where she had the urge to interject, but she knew saying anything right now could cost her a spot on this case and in turn, her only real chance to make a difference.
And so when Malcom opened the floor to questions, Holly clenched her fists hard enough to draw blood and somehow kept her damn mouth shut.
