Chapter 2

"Stafford here."

"Hey, Jason, it's Matt."

"Robb?! Where are you? What's going on?" his tone changed drastically.

"Relax, Stafford. I need you to come to 325 Ocean street. Come alone."

"325 Ocean, roger that. You okay?"

We were taught to use special code words if ever taken hostage to let whoever we were talking to know if they were walking into a trap or not.

"I'm fine. Everything's… peachy." I said.

I hung up.

"Is he coming?" Zero Eight asked.

I nodded.

Zero Eight started pacing back and forth in the room.

"So, what's the entire story. What do you need help with?" I asked.

"Well," Zero Eight began, "the NSA agent that was suppose to pick One Four up at the jail, he's been taking all of our brothers and sisters for the past year. It doesn't take a genius to figure out he's been taking them back to Project Heracles."

"So… you want me to shut this program down?" I asked.

"If it's not too much trouble. But, we'd also like to know-" Zero Eight sighed, "who our family is… was."

I nodded.

"I'll check it out. If we find something out of place, we'll take it down."

This Project Heracles definitely did not sound legal, but that didn't change the fact that I still didn't know who my enemy was. If Project Heracles was some type of secret government project, I wouldn't be able to do much about it.

The three of us sat in the room quietly for the next fifteen minutes, before there was a knock at the door.

Zero Eight and One Four got up, prepared to take on whoever might have been on the other side of the door.

I held up my hand, motioning them to stand down and relax.

I stood to the side of the door and yelled, "Yeah?!"

"Robb!" it was Stafford.

I opened the door and he walked in, weapon drawn.

"Get down!" he yelled at One Four and Zero Eight, "Hands up! Down on the ground now!"

The two super soldiers complied.

"Stafford! Stafford put the gun down, relax." I told him.

"Wha-" he began, he looked at me, "What? Robb, these are the two that escaped!"

I nodded. "I know. But we're gonna help them. Relax, Stafford."

I could see he was clearly confused.

For the next twenty minutes, Zero Eight, One Four, and I filled him in on the entire situation. Finally, I could see the grip on his 9 millimeter loosen, and he flicked the safety on.

Stafford started, "This is some bull-"

I cut him off, "Yeah, it sounds that way. But if all of this is true, we gotta do something about it."

"Robb, you know, this Heracles thing sounds like some type of government deal. We could lose our careers, or worse, if we try to shut this thing down. This sounds like it's way over even our heads."

I knew he was right. We were faced with one heck of a dilemma.

"Does," One Four looked at Zero Eight, then at us, "does this mean you won't help us?"

I sat there nervously. Not only did I not want to say no because they were both super soldiers that could easily snap us in two, but also because I felt empathy for them. It wasn't their choice to be experimented on. It wasn't their choice to be ripped away from their families. But was there really anything we could do?

I turned to Stafford, and he just shrugged.

"Well," I finally broke the silence, "There really isn't much harm in just checking the place out." I said.

Stafford nodded in agreement. "And I'll talk to that NSA agent, see what I can get from him."

I nodded in agreement and checked my watch. It was 0326.

"Alright, I'm going to head up to LA now, I'll keep in touch." I said.

I got up and started towards the door.

"Wait," Zero Eight called, I turned, "One Four will go with you."

"What? You don't trust me?" I asked with a hint of sarcasm.

He shook his head. "She could help you. And I'll go with Stafford. I could read the NSA agent. See if he's telling the truth or not."

Stafford shrugged indifferently.

"Come on." I said, as I turned and exited the room. That's when I realized I didn't have a car.

Stafford followed me out and handed me the keys to the car he used to come here. "Take it, I'll call the precinct, tell them to send me another car."

I nodded.

I took the car keys and One Four and I entered the car.

We started driving towards Los Angeles. I didn't say anything to her, and she didn't say anything to me for a good thirty minutes.

Finally, I asked, "Why don't you choose a name?"

"What?" she turned to me.

"Choose a name. Instead of One Four, something like, I don't know, Samantha, Jessica, something."

She looked at me kind of confused, "Like… an alias?"

I laughed in resignation, "Sure, like a permanent alias."

She sat back in her seat and watched as the street lights sped by.

"Samantha." she said.

I nodded. "Sam."

"Sam." she repeated.

I kept driving for a while, before I asked, "So, Sam, when's your birthday?"

She gave me an odd look, like I was an alien or something, "What?"

"When's your birthday?" I repeated.

She just shrugged.

"You don't know how old you are?"

She shook her head. "I don't know what my birthday is. I don't even know what year I was born. Why do you want to know, anyway?"

"I don't know, it's a long car ride, just making conversation."

She stared out the passenger side window.

"How old are you?" she asked.

"Twenty-seven." I replied.

She turned to me, "Sorry. That super soldier serum didn't exactly give me super human social skills."

I took a quick glance at her and she managed a small smile. I turned back to the road and laughed.

Finally, we reached LA. It was another twenty minutes before we arrived on the outskirts of where Project Heracles alleged to be. The sun was just starting to rise.

One Four, or, Sam, got up and out of the car.

"Where you going?" I asked.

She turned back to me. "I'm going to hide. They might recognize me."

She took out the green duffle bag from earlier and took out a small computer and an earpiece.

"Here." she said as she handed me the earpiece.

I put it in my right ear, "What's it for?" I asked.

"I'm going to attempt to hack into the facility's security system. If I see anything fishy, I'll let you know."

"Stay safe." I said.

She nodded, and ran into the distance.

I drove another half mile until I reached a gate. From the outside, the facility looked like a prison, or maybe an old hospital surrounded by armed guards and barbed wire. It was right in the middle of a forested area, providing the privacy that would be needed for an operation like this.

I looked at the armed guard's uniform. They were plainly black, with no identifying markings or patches. They each wore either a plain black ball cap or a Kevlar helmet, and they each were armed with G36Cs and sidearms.

I drove up to the gate, and the guard motioned me to stop. He walked up to the window and knocked on it. I rolled it down.

"Yeah? You lost?" he asked.

I reached into my pocket and took out my credentials. "Special Agent Matt Robb, NDA."

He didn't seem to care. "Whuddoya want?"

"I'm here to inspect this facility." I said.

He looked at me strangely, then walked away to talk into his radio privately. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he came back.

"Sorry, you ain't on the list. Can't let you in."

I figured something like this might happen. "No. You will let me in. Do you know why?"

He shrugged.

"Because I'm on a federal investigation. And there's no way that some nobody in a black uniform is going to stand in my way."

I could tell I was already starting to attract attention, three other guards showed up, their weapons pointed in my direction.

I felt the holster on my right, and placed my hand on my weapon.

He went away again and started talking on his radio. This time he came back after only a few seconds.

"Alright, you can go in, but we're gonna have to confiscate any weapons you got."

I scoffed. "No you won't. I'm an NDA agent. Look it up. I have the right to possess my weapon wherever and whenever I want.

He shook his head in resignation, then motioned the other guards to open the gate.

As much as I tried to keep a straight face on, a small smile still crept up on me as I drove through the gate.

I parked near the facility and could hear military-esque drills in the distance. I was met by a middle aged man in a dark suit. He gave the most fake smile I've ever seen in my life.

"Hello, Special Agent! What brings you here?" he asked. I could tell he sounded nervous.

"Just, checking the place out." I replied.

"My guard said you're here on an investigation, is something wrong?"

I shook my head no and walked towards the facility. He followed closely behind me.

"Open the door." I ordered.

He hesitantly complied.

"What do you do here?" I asked him, as I walked through the hallway, quickly glancing into all the rooms.

"Uh, mostly military research. We provide the military with better-" he hesitated with the next word, "technology."

I kept looking into all the rooms as I moved down the hall. Most were offices. Finally, I reached a bolted green door. It was made of some type of metal alloy and secured heavily.

"Open it." I ordered.

"Uh," the man sounded extremely nervous now, "I can't sir, I don't have the authorization to do that."

I turned to him and glared. "Then get somebody with authorization."

"I-uh, can't. That door leads to our labs and research area. You can't go back there. You aren't cleared for it, and you'd contaminate the area."

I shook my head, "You and I both know that that's total BS." I drew my weapon, chambered a round, and aimed at the door lock.

"No wait! Sir!" he cried.

I turned towards him expectantly.

"Um, wait a second, I'll get someone to open it." he ran off quickly.

I holstered my sidearm and waited.

"Special Agent Robb?" it was Sam in the earpiece.

"Yeah?" I asked, not completely sure if she could hear me or not.

"You might want to get out of there. Fast. I intercepted an outgoing phone call from the area. Somebody told them to dispose of you."

I silently cursed and took my weapon out. I ran back to the door I came from and cracked it open. I saw the man in the suit moving towards me, followed by three armed guards.

I shook my head. This was going to be very bad.

"It doesn't look like I'll be making it home for dinner. You better make a dash for it." I said.

Sam didn't answer for a while, making me believe that she in fact, couldn't hear me through the earpiece.

At this point, they were no more than twenty yards from the door.

I ran back to the end of the hallway by the green door and tried to act nonchalant.

The man in the suit opened the door and stared down in my direction. "Special Agent Matt Robb!" he called.

I flicked the safety off my weapon and turned my head towards him. "Yeah?!"

He had a large grin on his face. "We develop super soldiers here! We create test tube babies and build super soldiers!"

I waited for what he would do next.

Two of the guards flanking him moved forward and pointed their weapon down the hall.

"Son of a-" gunfire cut me off and I jumped into a nearby office.

"Kill him!" I heard the man in the suit yell.

I could hear the footsteps of the three soldiers moving in my direction.

I popped out of the office door, fired two shots, then went back behind cover. There was a flurry of bullets flying back in my direction.

I was about to give up hope when I heard the distinct clattering of empty magazines hit the floor. I seized the opportunity and fired a few more shots in their direction. I heard one of them yell in pain.

They started shooting again and forced me back into the office. I looked around for anything that could potentially save me, a vent I could climb into, a back door I could exit, but there was nothing. I was trapped.

I popped out again and took a quick glance at where the soldiers were. I could see them behind cover, looking at my direction.

I went back into the office, took a deep breath, and turned from behind the corner again, firing three well aimed shots in the direction of one of the soldiers. I saw him get hit in the neck and fall backwards.

"Shoot him, dammit!" I heard the suited man yell again.

I knew I was almost assuredly dead. At this point, I just wanted to shoot as many of them as I could before they managed to get me.

I stuck my weapon out from behind cover and blind fired until my magazine was empty. I reloaded and waited.

"Special Agent Robb, they're sending Delta Heracles to your position…" Sam said quietly.

I laughed, "Please, call me Matt." I said as if I had lost my mind.

"Get him!" I heard the suited man yell. I assume he was talking to whatever Delta Heracles super soldiers he had with him.

I turned the corner again and shot down the hallway. I advanced down the hallway, keeping them under cover while I fired, not completely sure if I hit any of them. When I reached an office a few doors down, I jumped back inside and reloaded.

I turned back around the corner, about to do the same maneuver, when I assume one of the Heracles ran up to me, grabbed my weapon from my hand, and pushed me backwards. I went sailing about six feet and hit the ground with a thud.

The Delta Heracles walked over and stood above me. He looked at me, emotionless.

I groaned in pain and looked up at my soon to be killer. He raised a pistol level with my head, I could see the rifling in the barrel.

Suddenly, he turned his head to his left, and just stood there, as if he was hearing something I couldn't.

I took advantage of the distraction and grabbed the weapon while kicking him backwards at the same time.

He stumbled back. Before he could recover, I shot at him until the magazine was completely empty, seven rounds.

He looked down at his lead-filled chest, then looked back up at me, before falling backwards.

I looked down the hallway and it was completely empty except for the bodies of the guards, the Heracles soldier, and surprisingly to me, the man in the suit.

I grabbed my weapon and checked the chamber to make sure I had a round in it.

Outside, it was general chaos, guards were running every which way, too busy to even notice me.

I looked at my car, parked only twenty yards away. I took a deep breath and ran for my car, pushing guards out of my way. I opened the door, jumped in, started the engine, and floored it for the gate. I smashed through and kept driving down the road. A round hit my rear window and shattered it. I ducked and kept driving down the road.

About three quarters of a mile down, I saw Sam run in front of me in the middle of the road. I slammed on the breaks and hit my head on the front window. I rubbed my head and put on my seatbelt.

Sam jumped into the passenger side seat and we drove off, headed back to San Diego.

"I think we lost them." she said, looking behind us. "I guess it worked."

"What?" I asked her, "What worked?"

She turned to me. "I set off an intruder alarm on the rear side of the base. I figured you could use a distraction, Special Agent Ro-I mean, Matt."

I looked at her surprised. I guess the earpiece did transmit both ways.

I took it out of my ear and handed it to her. "Thanks for the help." I said.

I wasn't too worried about people seeing us drive with a blown out rear window. It was actually more common too see damaged cars on the road than an undamaged one.

About half way through the drive, my cell phone started ringing. "Robb." I said.

"Matt, it's Stafford. What the hell happened up there? I just got a call from the NDA, they said you murdered government agents and took off!"

"What?!" I yelled into my phone, "They shot at me first, they tried to kill me!"

"Look, I'm taking a big risk even talking to you right now. Where are you?"

"I'm on my way back." I said, trying to keep all my anger bottled up, "Did you talk to the NSA agent?"

"Yeah, I'll meet you at 325 Ocean again, I'll fill you in on everything. Keep your head down."

"Yeah." I hung up and threw my phone to the back.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked.

I pounded the steering wheel. "I was set up."

It was silent for the rest of the car ride back.