Colonel Thorne watched with a smile as the elevator doors opened and the faces of his team fell in surprise at the monitor room. Like everything in their new base of operations, the room was circular, with an array of monitors lining the entire room and a long, rectangular table in the center with all the chairs facing the monitors.

“There is virtually no database we do not have access to through these systems,” said Zenith. “The Department of Defense has provided us with unprecedented clearance in order to conduct the kind of operations we are embarking on.”

“And all of this is underground?” asked Dominic, running his hand along the smooth surface of the metal table.

“Indeed it is,” said Zenith. “The entire base is automated.”

“How far down does this thing go?” asked Koji. “The doc said there’d be a little bit more to it than this.”

“Oh, there is,” said Thorne. “Follow me.”

He turned back to the elevator and next to it was another door. Once Thorne stepped in front of it, the door slid open and there was a small tunnel connected to a second door. Upon entrance, the team was shocked to discover another circular room, larger than the one before it. The room seemed like a recreation area of some kind, fully furnished with carpeted floors, papered walls, and couches and chairs. There was a large television set and Erin found herself drawn to this.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Whoa, this is so cool!” she said.

“Recreation level,” said Zenith. “There are thirteen levels total in this area of the base.”

The television set turned on and Erin jumped a bit in surprise. What appeared was a cutaway of the entire base, from the hangar and small security building on the ground to the base itself that extended far underground.

“Oh my god…” muttered Anita as she knelt in front of the screen, not believing what she was looking at. “How long have you been planning this operation? This must have taken years to construct.”

“That’s true,” said Thorne. “If we’d built it from scratch. Truth is though, we just renovated an existing place.”

“What sort of place?” asked Koji.

“A missile silo,” said Jim.

Erin looked away from the TV with a smile on her face. She had managed to maintain her appearance from before her powers manifested. “You’re kidding, right?”

“This was initially an Atlas F ICBM silo complex,” said Zenith. “Constructed in the 1960s, it was one of the strongest complexes ever built. The Launch Control Center, where we entered, has been split into a monitor room and an infirmary.”

“Isn’t this supposed to be off the record as far as the government is concerned?” asked Dominic.

“Many of these decommissioned sites are now available for sale,” said Jim. “People renovate them into underground homes.”

“We’ve got a training area, a laboratory, kitchen, living quarters, anything you’ll need,” said McCabe.

“Living quarters? Why would I trade my Park Avenue address for living in some sort of commune under the middle of nowhere?” asked Dominic.

“Naturally, not everyone will want to live on-site, and we can accommodate that, although there will be times when we’ll ask you to stay here for extended periods,” said Thorne. “But given your particular talents, I don’t think it’ll be too much of a problem for you.”

“So what now?” asked Erin.

“Now we start evaluating your abilities, see what exactly it is you can do,” said McCabe.