3 – More Like an Underfunded Sinkhole

Kevin's security clearance gained him and Sonya access to another lab's hallway that intersected the central corridor. "Where we just were is Lab Two. That's where ninety-percent of the experiments are conducted. While tests and research are in progress, the lab becomes off limits to nonessential personnel.

"Where we're going next is Lab One. That's where a lot of breakthrough research is performed. There's a lot of equipment in there, so we tend to be rather paranoid of inexperienced people mingling about for whatever reason. Unfortunately, I can't allow you entry due to it being a controlled environment at this time. Should you come this way to clean, there will always be a guard posted outside. He or she will let you know if you will be allowed to proceed any further."

Kevin brought Sonya to the narrow hall that came to a dead end at a closed door. Just as the scientist stated, posted in front of the door was a soldier standing at parade rest. Strapped to his thigh was a pistol holster.

Kevin gave a single nod to the soldier and ushered Sonya back the way they came into the central hallway. "Next stop is Lab Three. It's hardly used so cleaning it at any point will be situational. The custodial staff will be informed when it's in use and when it needs to be cleaned."

They approached the third door, it opening and allowing the two people inside. Inside the room was a single medical bed and along the far wall a one-way viewing window used for patient observation. Sonya felt strangely disturbed by the fact the room either had been or could be used for human test subjects for whatever it was the scientists were doing at the base.

Kevin quickly took note of the woman's dreadful expression and felt it best they move on. "Shall we continue?"

Perhaps touring the labs was too much, too soon. There were already two other custodial staff members familiar with the lab operations. He'd just let it be known that Sonya wasn't allowed to access that part of the facility until better acquainted with the compound's purpose.

In a matter of an hour and a half, Sonya had been shown the primary parts of the base. Those places comprised of the science labs, the chow hall, recreation room, gym, commissary, and the residential building where the personal quarters were.

To say I wasn't impressed was an understatement. While veteran personnel called this place The Rut, it was more comparable to an underfunded sinkhole. The chow hall was barely big enough to fit four long tables parallel to each other, and the recreation room was a joke. It had a ping pong table, a billiard table that had seen better days, two small fold-out tables to play chess on, and an old TV with rabbit ears on top wrapped in aluminum foil. Then there's the gym with its two treadmills, one stationary bike, a pull-up bar and a selection of lifting weights where a quarter of them were missing. The commissary was just as disappointing. It made a dollar store look like a super shopping center. So much for that herbal shampoo and conditioner, I loved to use.

Kevin continued. "The last place I want to show you is where you'll be working." He brought the woman to a wooden door that looked like it could fall off its hinges at any moment. The door was opened and in he stepped. Sonya was hesitant to follow, but Kevin waved her inside, so he followed. He turned to face the two other occupants in the room and smiled. "Everyone, I want you to meet our newest resident." He rested an arm on her shoulders. "Her name is Sonya Baker, and she'll be joining the custodial staff." Kevin gestured a hand at a slim brunette young woman with short hair. "This young lady is Lily Wilkens and this gentleman, here," he then gestured to an older, bald man in his late fifties, "is Larry Hampton. He's the boss man in charge. He and Lily can help you get started on your in processing and tell you everything you need to know." Kevin smiled at Sonya and patted her on the shoulder. "Unfortunately, this is where we part. I need to get back to the labs to help Dr. De Thiel. I think you'll like it here once you get used to it." He looked back at the deadpan expressions of the two other people. "Have a good day, everyone!" and he left.

Sonya stood there a bit uncomfortably. "Hi." She gave a timid wave and pursed her lips.

Larry rolled a toothpick around in his mouth that poked out between his thin lips. "So, you're the new girl Dr. Fawkes told me to expect yesterday." He sat up in his chair and looked over the table at the woman's feet. "How are your shoes for prolonged standing? They got good support?"

Sonya gazed down at her shoes and nodded. "Yes, sir."

Larry scoffed. "We're going to put a stop to that sir crap right now. I'm not military, and I'm sure as hell not your daddy. It's Mr. Larry. Got it?"

Sonya nodded once. "Yep." Her hazel looked to Lily observing her.

Lily's eyes ventured up and down the other man's form. "You don't mind getting your hands dirty, do you?"

"No." Sonya shook her head. "Part of my job at the coffee shop was to keep the restroom and lounge area clean. I can't begin to count how many clogged toilets I plunged, spills I mopped up…"

"Good." Lily smirked. "Then, you shouldn't have a problem, here."

Larry stood up and worked out a stuff muscle in his lower back. "Let's get you started." He gestured with the wiggle of two fingers she follow him. He pulled a chair out from behind a single computer sitting on a fold out table. "Sit down. You'll be back here first thing tomorrow morning for your training. If it weren't so late in the afternoon, I'd have you do your training, too, but seeing how it's," he checked his wristwatch, "a little past six-thirty I'm just going to have you fill out your personal information. Full name, birthdate, social security number, crap like that. The chow hall stops serving dinner at seven, and I want to get there before it's over."

Sonya followed the man's direction to the electronic document in the Agency's personnel drive to begin her in processing.


Fifteen minutes later and Sonya found herself being rushed out the door and directed to the chow hall. While the smells of cooked food filling the air was appealing, what she saw being served didn't look appetizing. It was supposed to be Salisbury steaks and mashed potatoes. What it looked like more resembled Alpo dumped on an overcooked hamburger patty with gruel on the side.

Sonya frowned. There were times she had eaten things that looked mildly unpleasant but tasted like heaven. Hopefully, this was one such case. While she preferred to sit by herself, she decided to stick around with Lily and Larry. After all, she was going to be working with them. Might as well get to know them.

Off in the corner to themselves were three white lab coated men and a woman. One of the men was Kevin. Seated next to him was the foreign scientist she had met earlier in the day but couldn't recall the name of. She was always so horrible with names. Remembering faces was something else.

Sonya sat down and started picking at her somewhat questionable meal. It didn't seem to bother Larry or a couple of uniformed soldiers sitting several seats down. Their plates were almost cleaned. Lily took the time to cut her into bite sized chunks were Larry just stabbed his with a fork and ate it that way. He'd shake it off to get a bite of mashed potatoes only to stab the meat patty yet again. Sonya did the same as Lily as it seemed more ladylike and less barbaric as Larry's approach.

Across the chow hall, light green eyes took a brief moment to observe the timid newcomer. Arnaud watched how she cut her dinner up and debated on whether or not it was actually safe for human consumption. He knew that disgusted look in the eye and subtle wrinkle of the nose. He could relate. Before taking on the task of going undercover for Project Quicksilver's notes, he was used to much different cuisine consisting of steak, seafood, flavorful kinds of pasta, and marinated chicken cooked in varying styles.

Kevin leaned over and questioned, "See something you like?"

The question snapped Arnaud back into reality. He wasn't aware he was still watching the fair-skinned woman sitting with the rest of the custodial staff. "Excuse me?"

Kevin shot his colleague a sly smile. "I saw you looking at the new girl."

Arnaud became irritated with not only Kevin's nosing into his business but the fact he got busted looking at the newcomer. "Where did you say you met her?"

"At a coffee shop, I like to go to anytime I'm in the area either going to or coming from talking to the Official." Kevin took a bite of his Salisbury steak, still smiling. "You should go talk to her."

Arnaud bit his tongue before replying as himself. Keeping his real thoughts to himself was the hardest part of this damned façade. "No, monsieur, you have it all wrong. How do you know you can trust her? Was a thorough background check done on her before you offered her a job, here?"

Kevin laughed and shook his head. "She's fine, Arnaud, and yes an extensive background check was done her. She has no felonies, no legal actions. The only thing going against her is a bad credit report. Even then, I doubt she's the type to sell top-secret information to an outside source."

Arnaud couldn't help but smirk at the comment. Oh, such naivety of the ignorant.

Dr. Ramsey glanced back nonchalantly. "She's kind of cute. Twenty bucks say Staff Sergeant Holloway tries to make a move on her by the end of the night."

Kevin cocked a sideways smile. "I don't think Sonya is that dumb. I've seen two or three of her regular customers try to make a move on her, and she shot them down hard. She's not so easily bought over with smooth lines and from what I can tell, that's all Holloway is about."

Dr. Ramsey shifted in his seat. "Any idea what the new girl likes?"

Kevin furrowed his brows in surprise to the question, though a smile was still across his face. "She's not a long walks on the beach and a pina colada type if that's what you're asking." Dr. Ramsey shrugged.

Arnaud was back to visually studying the woman. "I suppose you know this from your own experience?"

Kevin laughed, again. "No, no. It's not like that between us. Yeah, she's okay looking, but …she's not my type." His mind was brought back to a beautiful blue-eyed Australian scientist he met at Caltech quite some time ago. To this day he was still smitten with her and thought of her often. Too bad, he had no way of locating her. He forced himself back on the conversation topic. "Sonya is a bit unique. Let's just say that."

Arnaud collected his silverware and sat them down in his mostly empty tray. "I need to get back to the lab to finish the reports on today's tests. Excuse me, gentlemen."

He stood up, gave another quick look over of the newcomer, and dropped his tray off in the dirty dishes bucket at the front of the chow hall. He didn't have time to spend chasing any of the women at the facility, never mind a very select few of them being reasonably attractive. The reward for this undercover gig was worth too much of a massive payday to chance losing because of a pretty face; not when he could have both his fair share of pretty faces and a massive payday after everything was done and over with.

Sonya saw the man leave the chow hall in her peripheral vision. When she looked over at Kevin, he had that kind of smile across his face that made her wonder if something was up.


The next morning came too early for Sonya as her six-fifteen alarm blared in her ears. She slammed a hand down on the snooze button and rolled over. Even if it was enjoying another five minutes in her not so comfortable bed, it was still bracing for what the day was going to bring. Three mashes on the snooze button later, Sonya was changing out of her pajamas and into one of the four sets of new light blue scrubs she had been given the night before to be her work uniform.

Sonya grabbed a quick breakfast consisting of an omelet and two pieces of sausage. From there, she was back in the custodian office and staring blankly at a computer screen.

I had never been so bored and fried off power points before in my life. The intolerance of sexual harassment. The importance of base security. What to do in case of a fire. What to do in case of a chemical spill. What to do in case of an intruder. What to do in case of a mild, moderate, and severe medical emergency. The different secured sectors of the base and their proper access points. Proper reporting procedures for reporting a suspicious person. All of them were just as mind-numbing as the previous 'briefing.' That was when the computer wasn't crashing, or its monitor was going out.

Larry got up out of his seat and smacked the side of the computer monitor. The black screen flickered back on, allowing Sonya to finish where she was forced to stop.

This place was severely underfunded. It was a question of how authentic and thorough the scientific research being done here was.

Sonya lightly tapped a finger on the keyboard. "Who is it that oversees this base?"

Lily blew a bubble with her gum and turned the page of her magazine. "The Agency."

"What is the Agency? FBI? CIA? NSA?"

"That's not for us to know," interjected Larry.

Sonya was thrown off by the answer. "Whoever it is, there's a lot of military people around."

Lily blew another bubble. "What gets me is why the Air Force is so damn interested in this place. What does scientific research on lab rats have to do with fly boys anyway? It's not like the Nerd Herd is finding a way for fighter pilots to counter the G forces they exert on themselves doing crazy ass maneuvers."

Sonya stopped mindlessly clicking through the current power point to look at the other woman. "What is it the…Nerd Herd…is doing here, exactly? What are they experimenting on?"

Larry interrupted again. "If Dr. Fawkes didn't tell you then you're probably not ready to know. You have to go through a trial period first to make sure you're not going to run your mouth to the wrong people."

Sonya arched her brows in hilarity. "How am I supposed to do that? Smoke signals? Courier pigeons?" Lily busted out laughing. "Because I sure don't see very many phones around here to make a call."

Lily stopped laughing long enough to explain. "There aren't very many phones, here, that can call outside the base. There's only three and no one, but Level A clearance know which ones those are. The rest of the phones link directly to the operator. No one knows where the operator is, only that they're military." She closed the magazine and tossed it onto the table top. "Hurry up and get your computer training finished. I'm waiting for you before I start my day. I'm supposed to show you the ropes to how we do things and in what order."

Because I was so looking forward to it.