Project HOOD [ON HOLD]

Prologue

 Undisclosed location in New York,

8:52 p.m.

 

He watched from the bottom right corner of the window. He made it a point to be unseen. Discretion was his priority. His phone was pressed to his ear as his eyes wandered. The words were low, as if he didn't want anyone to hear him. Nobody was within ear shot but he continued to speak. Occasionally, he would take a peak around to make sure he was alone.

The conversation ended after another minute. He knew that it wasn't safe. He pulled a match out of his pocket and lit it. The match touched the phone and it was soon on fire. He threw it to the ground and pulled a strange liquid out of his other pocket. The liquid was poured over the flaming device and the fire disappeared with the phone melting into a pile of mush. He grabbed a nearby crate and placed it over the pile and looked once more outside. After he decided the coast was clear, he tiptoed across the floor to a large, metal door. A lock was attached to it as well as crates that were half the man's size blocking the front.

He checked the area one more time to make sure it was secure. Once he was sure, he continued up the stairs to join the others. After a few minutes he entered a dark hall. At the very end of the hall was a door with a tiny stream of white light around the perimeter.

His body was still for a second. His eyes were glued to the door as he took in a deep breath. There was no turning back. This was a moment that had been planned for quite some time. He didn't know what to expect. He also didn't know if it was right.

One by one, his feet would step forward. He wasn't able to turn around. No matter how hard he tried, he knew he couldn't. He was already taking long enough as is. They would know. They would find him and that wouldn't be good. He knew too much.

He reached the door. Once he was there, he placed his ear against the door. Several voices could be heard among various other sounds. There were a few of them. Five, to be exact. One of the voices grew further away and soon faded. Now, there were four.

His hand was shaking as he placed it on the doorknob. One last breath passed through him and he turned the knob.

"How are the acid levels?" a woman asked.

"Stable," answered a dark-haired man next to her. "Have you added the HCl yet?"

"Yeah, the curium is helping it settle," she responded. She looked over to another woman. "How are things over there?"

"I just finished adding the helium to the CO2," she replied.

The door opened and the man emerged finally entering the room. The others all turned to see him. His eyes wandered around the room, giving everyone a tiny glance. They all looked like they were waiting for him to say something.

"All clear," he finally uttered.

Each of them eased up a bit and slowly threw themselves back into work. He walked forward to a man over on the side that was cleaning syringe needles.

"Get me to up speed," he asked the other man.

"We're getting close. We may be successful," the other man responded, continuing to clean the needles. The man stared at him a little longer. He stopped cleaning once he realized that there were still eyes on him. He looked over and met his gaze. "Listen, I know what you're going to say."

"Do you really?"

"You've had your reservations about this and we heard you out. Everybody was worried about something."

"I know, but it's just... Is this the right time? Do we have everything we need? What if something happens?"

"So many questions. Calm down, you have nothing to worry about. Everything will be alright."