General Christian Armando sat in his swivel chair at his desk, looking out at the view of the pentagon and wondering just how he was still in this mess whose sole problem was Leo Jones.
“That little jerk. He can’t even remember who brought him into this world! Who raised him and gave him shelter! Who taught him everything he knows!” Christian was livid. It wasn’t enough that Lena had killed her own watchers, but Leo had done the exact same thing only two days later!
“How am I supposed to call him out on it as well when officially there aren’t any people that are assigned to him? That ungrateful asshole!”
His tirade would have continued if not for the timid knock on his office door. “E-excuse me, sir? This is Hayley, your secretary… um… there are some reports from the Zodiac regarding your request of them… sir.”
The image of Darius Page, also known as Alpha, and his cat-eared appearance flickered in Christian’s mind. The antics he caused after escorting Leo and Vanessa after their mission in Paris brought him mental anguish and caused him to sigh and mutter, “come in.”
A slim, red-haired woman cautiously opened the door before making her appearance in full. She wore a white blouse and black skirt that came up above her knees. However, if any man would wish to gawk at her legs they would need to do so through her navy blue tights.
“Here’s the report, sir.” Christian sighed, knowing full well that she had already read the damned thing and was just waiting for him to tell her to debrief him on it.
“Let me know what it is. Really, I should hire a new secretary who doesn’t read every file that’s placed in her hands.”
Contrary to his expectations, however, Hayley shook her head and showed a small smile. “I would, but Alpha made a special delivery this time. He said you’d know the password.”
A thick, black rectangle was placed in front of him, causing even Christian to raise an eyebrow. “Hayley, unless I’m seeing things there's a laptop on my desk. What is this? What happened to the written reports I ordered them to make?”
Hayley turned to hide her face before saying, “When we met up, Alpha asked me to tell you to take your head out of your ass and technologically advance your office. He said that if he ever came back and your office still looked the same, he would kick you out and change things himself.”
She couldn’t keep the smile off her face, and unfortunately for her Christian saw that in the glass of a display case directly behind his disrespectful secretary. He tiredly looked around at the rest of his office.
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He had filing cabinets that reached the ceiling of his small office along with a record player in the corner next to a fax machine from 2005. On his desk were no laptops or desktops, but only a telephone, a single ledger, and journal where he took notes on the various conversations he had over the course of the day.
Ok, so maybe he did need to take a step into the present, but… Christian glanced at his secretary who’s stifled laughter had turned into a giggle, and slammed down on his desk.
She turned around in time to see a furious General rise from his seat. “You should know that I take ridicule and a lack of respect very seriously. Tell me, Hayley, do you know why you still have a job here, despite your less than satisfactory performance? Do you know why I continue to tolerate you shopping on your phone and having texting conversations despite the lack of communication with or permission from me? Do you have any idea how I would be okay with you reading documents meant for my eyes only?”
He got up and grabbed her wrist roughly, causing her to shriek in pain. “It’s ok. Since you’ve been working here so long you should know that this floor is sound-proof. Feel free to express your displeasure all you’d like.”
He dragged the girl, who now had tears staining her face back out of his office and threw her onto her desk. “You’re here because I think you’re too cowardly to use the information you have, too stupid to find another job, and too much of a baby to adjust to a job where you’d have less freedom.”
His grip tightened on her wrist, creating a bruise and making her cry out once more. “You have no idea how annoyed I was at your comical and bubbly behavior. I’m not part of some romance comedy like those idiot experiments we let on the loose in New York. No, I’m a cold, calculated individual that’s seriously considering killing you at the moment… but alas, I am lazy when it comes to physical labor and I don’t feel like cleaning your blood out of my carpet.”
He tossed her onto the floor before throwing a coat and 20 dollars on the floor next to her. “Now go get me a black coffee and a plain bagel… you can keep the change.”
Hayley scrambled to get off the floor and got to the door before Christian mumbled, “Also come back when you’re done. You should know what would happen if you were to go to the police.”
She nodded and wiped the tears out of her eyes before leaving. After she slammed the door shut, a heavy sigh came out from Christian before he returned to his desk and opened the laptop.
“Let’s see here… Oh, the password is easy. It’s the password to everything I own after all.” Christian typed in the name of his beloved, and hit enter. The screen flickered and revealed a detailed report on one of Christian’s experiments: controlling the actions of clones produced from Project Gemini.
Grotesque images of disfigured and mutilated Vanessa clones popped up, but he didn’t bat an eye. In fact, he looked forward to the day when the person herself may share the same fate as her clones.
“Good, looks like everything is on track to take down Leo.” he smiled to himself, vowing to destroy everything important to the monster who had taken his wife from him.
“Come to think of it…” looking at the calendar to his left, he saw that tomorrow was special for those in New York. “They start infiltrating tomorrow, don’t they.”