Replica (Original Work)

Chapter 13 - Contingency Red

By the time I drug my sorry ass back to HQ and made my way to the second floor, Cutter and Dunlap were both waiting near the elevator door with an anxiety that I couldn’t help but think was quite unlike Cutter but more or less expected from Dunlap.

“Jesus Luce’ you look like you got hit by a bus,” Cutter said, making his way toward me. I limped past him.

“I got the piss beaten out of me. Get everyone in the conference room for me, will you guys?”

“So you’ve got something?” Dunlap asked.

“If by something you mean horrible news, then yes, just… go get Peirce and Boones.” I opened the door to conference room and collapsed into a chair at the head of the table. Cutter and Dunlap retrieved the other two men, and within five minutes I had four pairs of eyes on me waiting for my announcement.

“Luce’?”

I took a deep, still somewhat painful breath. “We’re going to contingency red. As of now, SID is an isolated agency. It seems we stumbled upon somebody’s pet project, something off the books. My best bet is that they stole the parts from themselves to cover whatever it is that’s going on. In the meantime, we need to stay in the building. Nobody leaves alone after tonight. Peirce, you need to go get your wife and kid and bring them here. Cutter, I want you to go collect Eva. Whoever we’re dealing with, they are planning to make their move soon, probably in Texas, and we need to operate around the assumption we are all targets.”

A flurry of voices bombarded my ears. “What the hell?” “Are you serious?” Notably, Peirce asked a perfectly reasonable question. “Lucy, if we’re being targeted by somebody in the company, why would we want to stay in the building?”

I folded my hands under my chin. “Paradoxically, it’s the safest place for us right now. Whoever we’re dealing with, and whatever their position in the company may be, it’s clear they haven’t got the rest of the executives on board with whatever it is they’re doing. They won't dare make a move on us in the building, because it’ll bring attention to them.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I spoke to the son of a bitch. They said I should have just ‘played my part’, which I assume means dying. The fact that I’m still alive has thrown a wrench into whatever plans they may have. I can’t exactly tell you why or how I’m involved, but it seems killing me was key to whatever is going on.”

“Why don’t we just take this directly or IA, or hell, the board?”

“With nobody to accuse and only my testimony to go on, all that would do is create an environment of mutual distrust. Exactly the type of environment a puppetmaster like this would do well in. No. We handle this ourselves, it’s the only way out without tipping our hand or putting all our eggs in somebody else’s basket.”

“What about the chief?” Cutter asked.

“I’m going to go talk to him now. In the meantime, I plan to find out what this big secret is. Dunlap, I want you to go to your office and put as much strain on the company network as you have to. I don’t care about discretion anymore. From this point forward, assume we are dealing with rogue elements within the company. We have one saving grace, an organization like ours is really only vulnerable to overwhelming force, and our mystery player can’t bring that to bear yet. Cutter, go get Eva. Peirce, get your family. I don’t know what the endgame is here, but I sure as hell don’t plan on having any more of us die over it. Adjourned.” I stood up and left the room, leaving stunned silence in my wake.

I entered Wade’s office without knocking. He sat at his desk, hands folded in front of his face. He closed his eyes and lowered his head as I walked in.