Hidden

Chapter 11 - The Base

The agents quickly rushed forward to examine the scene. Des already knew the corpse to be General Small, the director of the base. Not bothering to check the body they already knew was dead, they split up to cover more ground, Smith looking over the open window and Carter looking at the rest of the desk. Des looked closer at the body and found that the thick blood had been seeping from a small wound in the back of the man's neck.

He looked closer at the wound. It was a clean cut, something that could only have been made with a very precise instrument. It had to have been someone who knew what they were doing. Or someTHING who knew what it was doing.

Des took a step back and looked around the room, searching for anything that might be out of order. As he did, he also took into account the room's inanimate inhabitants and how well it was all maintained.

Large bookshelves lined the walls, books of all sizes and colors adorning their inner spaces like written paintings waiting to be admired. A large ornate carpet lay across the floor, giving it the feeling of a home rather than a general's office. Aside from the body on top of it, the desk had an appearance that was at once professional yet welcoming. It's dark wood was carved intricately, and the papers and objects that sat on the surface were clearly kept very organized by their owner.

As his eyes swept the room, he noticed a small object lying on the ground a few feet from the desk. He strode quickly to the object and crouched down next to it.

It was a scalpel.

And the blood on it was still wet.

"Carter. Smith. I've got the murder weapon here," he said as he motioned for them to join him.

They both rushed to him. After a few moments of examining the blade, Carter picked up the scalpel with a tissue from the desk and wrapped it. Smith spoke up.

"What did the note say?"

A solemn moment passed as Des silently reached into his pocket and retrieved the note. Written across one side in neat handwriting, it read: I can't explain very well right now Des, but there's a reason for what I'm doing right now. I'll be seeing you soon. -Dad

Des flipped the paper over to reveal more writing on the back.

The general MUST die

Both agents straightened. Carter immediately began to move. "I'll take this down to forensics right now to check it for any trace evidence."

"And I'll get a clean-up crew in here," said Smith.

Carter left the room, but Smith stayed behind momentarily. "You need to report to both Security and the Debrief Director. They'll want to know that you're here now, and we need to make sure no one else was killed or attacked."

With that, he left the room as well, leaving Des alone in the room with the dead man. With a glance at the corpse, Des began to walk down the hallway.

The moment he left the office, he noticed a changed in his surroundings. Rather than the welcoming style of the room he had left, the halls and rooms outside emanated feelings of imprisonment mixed with safety. Dull metal walls and ceilings met with a white tile floor. Every door he passed had multiple reinforced locks and keypads, and some even had retinal scanners to further enforce the privacy of rooms holding more valuable secrets.

This station held some of the highest security standards in the world, primarily because this was the closest one to the source of the worldwide infection. Every 80 feet throughout the halls was a MPI station with three soldiers, one to complete the scan and two to stand guard. Furthermore, every 30 feet in the passages were large steel walls that locked down each area in case of emergencies so contamination could be confined to a single area. Each of these walls had 8-inch glass viewports so one could see what was on the other side, and a wall could only be removed by someone with Level 4 access or higher.

Levels, of which there were seven, were issued according to status. Level 1 was a civilian who only had access to public sleeping, eating, and recreational areas, while Level 6 was reserved only for Generals and Admirals. Level 7 was the highest access level and was exclusive to specific world leaders and special operations members.

Des was one of those members.

Every single inhabitant of the facility was registered, even animals that were used for provisions. When a person registered, there retinal pattern, muscle sample, identity, and any other useful information was put into the system. The system would then take their identity and other information to place them in the area of the facility where they could help the most, whether it be educating civilians, cooking food, or being trained as a soldier, among other things.

These precautions and protocols were the only reason the base still stood. They had withstood multiple attacks easily. The outside was surrounded by a concrete wall that stood 75 feet high and was 16 feet thick. At certain intervals around the wall, there were guard towers, and one main gate that was just large enough to allow vehicles through.

There were almost no windows in the entire base, the only ones being near the very top where the general's office was located and in one of the multiple security stations within the structures.

As Des thought about this, it all led up to one question that kept making its way into his mind.

How did they infiltrate the facility at all, let alone kill the one person in charge of the entire place?