Hi all, and welcome to the story! Just a quick introduction: this story takes place 25 years before the events of "Repo." It's a story of intrigue and deception about the early years of GeneCo, concerning Rotti and an investigative team that is beginning to learn the true horrors behind GeneCo. There is some language and suggestive themes, but I'm assuming that if you've seen the movie or the play you probably aren't bothered by that.

Thank you for reading, and please review!

It was 8:30 a.m., Monday, May 26. Just as Charlotte Beauvais collapsed at her desk, eager for a second of quiet after the hellish morning commute, her co-worker Mike O'Shaunessy peeked over the short cubicle wall that divided their work spaces and looked down at her. His eyes were bleary and his black hair matted and dull, reflecting Charlotte's Monday morning exhaustion, but beneath the sleepiness, his eyes glinted in a friendly way.

"Rough morning?" he asked.

Charlotte peered up at him through eyes that were, like Mike's, not completely pulled from the stupor of sleep. She pushed her blond hair back, stretched her arms out in front of her, then crossed them on her desk and leaned her face down.

"You could say that," Charlotte spoke sleepily, talking to her arms. "Was running late, so I thought I'd treat myself to a cab. Of course, we hit just about every light possible once we reached midtown. The kind of trip that makes you want to pay the driver to just turn around and take you back."

"Well, I hope your weekend was worth the Monday morning," Mike said, walking around from his space to perch on the edge of Charlotte's desk.

"Not really," she continued to speak from the nest of her arms. "We went out for drinks with a couple of old school friends, but that was it for the social calendar."

"So it was just really Sunday night that did you in," Mike teased.

Charlotte turned her head to shoot him a look. "Get your butt out of my face," she croaked, half-heartedly pushing at him to vacate her desk without lifting her head up. Mike laughed and scooted over.

"My powers of deduction, always flawless," he chuckled. Charlotte pushed herself up from her desk with a groan, and leaned back in her swivel chair.

"So how was your weekend?" she asked casually.

"Normal," Mike answered, mirroring her tone, but his twisted smile betrayed him.

"Come on, don't make me beg," Charlotte said exasperatedly. "How was your date? With Daisy what's-her-name?"

"Let's just say my weekend exploits are not fit to discuss with an esteemed lady such as yourself," Mike grinned.

"Yeah right," Charlotte snorted. "You did not."

"Oh," Mike laughed. "I did."

"Mike, really? Wasn't she a family friend of your-"

"Mike, Char," a voice interrupted them, and they both looked up to see their colleague Nadir Sukhdeo walking quickly toward their cubicles. He was composed as always, but his walk was brisk, and Mike and Charlotte both sat up straighter upon seeing him approach. "Meeting in the north conference room, five minutes," he continued.

"A job?" Charlotte inquired.

"Yeah, I think," Nadir responded. "Dimitri wants us there ASAP. But if you're wondering why I'm in a hurry this morning," he called over his shoulder with a smile as he passed their cubicles and moved on through the office, "it's because I've heard there was a top secret delivery to the conference room this morning, in prep for this meeting."

Charlotte and Mike turned to face each other as Nadir's back disappeared across the office, hurrying to alert the others to the message.

"Coffee?" Charlotte whispered excitedly.

"Donuts," Mike responded.

"Please, please bagels and cream cheese," Charlotte said, and she was off, hurrying toward the conference room on the north side of the building, Mike right behind her.

The office floor was not large, perhaps 70x100 yards, filled with chest-high cubicles. Surrounding the cubicles were conference rooms, window offices for superiors and various supply closets. The building itself was stark in its simplicity, but the government employees who inhabited it filled their offices and workspaces with bits of their personality: family pictures, a rock band poster here or there and knick knacks from cities visited. Of course, there was also the Wall of Morons. It had begun as a small bulletin board of emails, pictures and news clippings of various lawbreakers and criminals, many of whom were caught and charged by agents in the office, doing stupid things. The Wall had of course expanded in its years of existence, and the bulletin board was no longer even visible beneath the hundreds of clippings and papers. FBI agents, after all, had a sense of humor too.

Charlotte and Mike made good time on their journey across the office, but they were not the first to arrive in the conference room.

"Morning lads," Charlotte trilled as she hurried into the room. "Where's the secret delivery?"

"Never mind, I smell it," Mike sighed with satisfaction, gently pushing Charlotte out of the way in his haste to attack the small mound of donuts that sat in the middle of the long, narrow conference table in the middle of the room.

Charlotte took a bit more time, pouring herself a cup of coffee first – black – and savoring the first sip, before taking a seat and grabbing an especially large sesame seed bagel from the pile in front of her and beginning to hack it open with a plastic knife. After smothering the bagel in cream cheese, she sat back in her chair and looked around. Her greeting had been returned mostly by a series of grunts and nods, as the men around her dug into their breakfast. Funny, Charlotte thought as she bit into her bagel, how we all lose it at the thought of free food, especially breakfast food. And especially when it was on the dime of the government – the Manhattan offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to be precise.

Charlotte Beauvais was a member of an elite covert team within the FBI. Officially, on paper, she and her team were researchers. They didn't have a specific title, but if they did, it would be along the lines of "research." They looked into possible threats to the United States, international and homegrown. The team did preliminary research, and would sometimes work undercover, gathering information through reconnaissance. But they had gained a reputation within the Bureau of being exceptionally good at what they did, and in recent years they had been asked to do more – to prevent the threats they investigated. The team was close-knit, highly secretive and highly skilled, and they always worked as a unit. They behaved as a family, but were flawless in their work.

She glanced around the table to take stock of who had arrived already. Nadir must have abandoned his task of alerting all of the team members to the breakfast smorgasbord, because he was seated at the end of the table, hungrily devouring a jelly doughnut. Nadir had just turned 40, but the doughnut was not exactly normal for him: he took great care of his body, which was still lean and muscular. As far as Charlotte was concerned, Nadir was a veteran of the Bureau, who had traveled enough, seen enough, and most likely prevented enough international wars to last a lifetime. His dark skin and wavy dark hair betrayed his Arabic heritage and Indian nationality, but Nadir was secretive about his past. Charlotte didn't know much about what his life had been like before he became an FBI agent, but she never pressed him. He obviously liked where he was now.

Next to Nadir sat Alexander Finley, double-fisting his coffee and bagel. Alex was in his mid-thirties, muscular and tall. He had joined the Bureau around the same time that Mike and Charlotte had, and the three had been trained and tested together before they were formally invited to "switch departments;" that is, switch from the entry-level positions they had held to the team they now served. Alex had an infectious sense of humor, as well as a short-fused temper. It had cost them once or twice in the field, but Alex was so damn good at everything else required by their work: he was an expert marksman, fluent in several languages, smart as a whip, and enduring. Charlotte and Mike had chased after him in training, knowing they were both not naturals like Alex was, and hoping to gain a bit of insight by befriending him. Alex knew he was talented, but that was a non-issue – most of the time.

Next to Alex and across from Charlotte sat Ferdinand Kolacny, the technical mind of the group. Ferdie was picking at his bagel, looking distracted as usual. Thin, with his prematurely gray hair beginning to recede as well, Ferdie nonetheless had a youthful, happy face one couldn't help but like. A former hacker for hire, the Bureau had bought his loyalty long ago. Before he joined their team, Ferdie had been the primary builder of the FBI's current file database, as well as the firewall that surrounded it. He was undeniably brilliant, but he was the sort of kind person to understand that not everyone knew exactly what an OCR or UUCode was and what they did, and he worked well with the team in that way. He always had a solution, but had a knack for making it seem like the team had come up with it together.

Sam Fontaine entered, and took the empty seat next to Mike. Charlotte called Sam her "All-American," if not because of his cropped blond hair, blue eyes and quarterback physique, then certainly because of his slight drawl and impeccable manners. Sam had entered the FBI as a wide-eyed college graduate, but he had soon showed his intuitive nature in his research and observant deference. It made him an easy candidate to join their little team, and he had brought a fresh look to their most recent investigations.

Mike interrupted Charlotte's musing by swallowing loudly and grabbing another doughnut. Mike was her best friend in the entire world, except for her husband Will. Mike and Charlotte had clicked instantly when they met: they had subsequent preliminary interviews with the FBI, and had got to talking. Mike was the kind of guy everyone wanted to be friends with: endlessly charming, humorous, smart, good-looking – the list could go on and on. But to Charlotte, he was also annoying, kind, crude, and necessary to her work. She had been overwhelmed when she was first accepted into the Bureau, and he had been the friend who empathized and sat in the same sinking ship as she. Mike reminded her of the brothers she had left behind long ago. They learned together as they made their way through the departments of the Bureau, before they, along with Alex, were picked up and selected for the team they currently called family.

"Mmmm," Mike was almost moaning about his doughnut and coffee. Charlotte gave him a sharp look.

"Stop that," she scolded. "Just eat it for God's sake. Don't make a production."

Mike smiled wickedly back at her. "Funny, that's what Daisy what's-her-name said on Saturday night."

"Urghh," Charlotte groaned as Alex, Sam and Ferdie burst into laughter. Nadir worked to hold back a smile, but he was mostly unsuccessful.

"Oh damn," Alex gulped down a bit of coffee to clear his pipes of the dough that had probably lodged itself there in his laughing. "The temp receptionist? What happened there?"

Mike chuckled. "Man, it was a hell of a weekend."

Charlotte gave Mike a slap on the arm, and he flinched away, laughing, but as he was interrupted before he could delve into the details by Dimitri Cohen, the team's supervisor and leader, as he came into the conference room and shut the door behind him.

"Ok, let's settle down," he said. "Mike, glorious as your tales may be, I think they can wait until after work hours."

"Thank you, Dimitri!" Charlotte turned to face him, and the rest of the team, while attempting to quiet their laughter, following Charlotte's lead, turned to face their boss. Dimitri took his seat at the head of the table – officially, he was their director and leader, but that simply meant he was the one who called meetings to order. In the field, Dimitri went undercover just as often as the others, and was by their sides in any investigation. He was part of the brotherhood that the team had formed themselves into, but it was as if he was the oldest brother – the most responsible and the most watchful. Dimitri oversaw everything his team did. An older man nearing 55, his slightly graying hair and worn face were his only features that matched his age. He was still remarkably youthful and well-built – an imposing yet somehow calming presence to any meeting or interrogation. While the other members of the team usually were a little lax in the business casual they wore to the office every day, Dimitri would not be seen around the office unless he was in one of his perfectly fitted and pressed suits.

With Dimitri seated at the head of the table, the team, strange and rag-tag family that they were, all sat up a bit straighter and focused on him.

"Good morning everybody," Dimitri began. "I hope you all get your fill of bagels and doughnuts, and you can thank Senator Robert Hammond of Massachusetts for them. I met with him Friday and he had a lead on our newest assignment."

There was a knock at the door and an intern entered, carrying several folders. She passed them off to Dimitri and quietly left the room. He passed half of the pile to Charlotte and the other half to Ferdie. This was routine, they each took one and passed it on. Charlotte always felt a twinge of anticipation right before she opened a new case file. What would be inside? Would this be a true research assignment, in which they would be stuck in front of computers for days and weeks to come? Or would it be slightly more involved?

"Senator Hammond, as you may know," Dimitri continued, "heads the Senate's newest committee, which conducts investigations into the most powerful private companies in the country. This committee strives to investigate the country's largest corporations without… being ostentatious about it. They have a lot on their plate, which is why he brought this to me."

Charlotte opened the folder and scanned the cover page. GeneCo. The up-and-coming supplier for the medical industry. Her stomach flipped over itself with dread.

So the team will be investigating GeneCo! Read on to see what they'll need to do...

Please leave a review and thanks for joining me for this story!

Terra