Kathryn (pchrome@unm.edu): Thanks for the constructive criticism. So, as per your advice I'm redoing a few chapters. I'm dumping the mystery bit (kind of a flawed idea anyway. And thanks for the heroin info. I've only been to the U.S twice myself and both times it was via a lengthy car drive down from my house in Canada where I go for holidays (houses there are so much bigger and cheaper than in Hong Kong. Here a smallish 1,200 sq ft apartment would probably cost you slightly over a million US, anyway, getting off-track, seems to be a habit doesn't it. I don't really know that much about U.S customs laws. The information in my story about the tour bus, yes, it was the guy in the tour bus, was gleaned from a bus ride up to China. I noticed that although the driver made you take everything off the bus that you took on. But, everyone left the little bottles of water the bus provides behind, and no one ever notices them. So how easy it would be to stick a pill/drug in your mouth, then pretend to sip water though actually spitting the pill into the water. It would dissolve and you'll have a bottle of drugs that no-one bother about. Maybe I should have done more research on subjects first. Anyway I am curtailing the story short by about 3 chapters. The bits about the Professor are relevant though they may seem to be an inconsensual subplot, the Professor plays a big part in the ending.
Hairy Gregory: Thanks for the review, though, if you felt like Kathryn did, please speak up, I don't mind constructive criticism though your compliments are always nice to read.
The Professor slowly lifted the phone from its hook. Time to face his past, his sins. He had to warn his former colleagues. He fitted down the list of the former scientists. One by one he crossed out the dead ones. Every single scientist had been brutally murdered and had their labs ransacked. Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, zeta, eta, theta, iota. Wait. Epsilon had been missed out. Why had Professor Aurum been missed out? It was probably because he was leader of epsilon, nothing important. They hadn't even made a creature, just supplies. Sort of a high tech office supplies department. His specialty was nuclear and chemical weapons. He checked up more information then whistled in appreciation. He certainly had gone far. He was now head of the corporation, Epsilon, main supplier to the U.S Army. He even had his main office shielded with everything from Gold to Tungsten, to lead to protect it from everything except for a nuclear explosion within it. Which might be a possibility considering the fact that it dealt with many nuclear weapons but even then there was a function that stopped any Epsilon made deice from exploding at such close proximity. Perhaps that was why he had been spared. Too well guarded. He carried on looking through. His colleagues sure had gone far. One was the President's aide; others were Professors in top University's. Only a handful were castaways from society. Well, he had to warn every one of them.
As he delved deeper into the masses of data he grew increasingly worried. Aurum, he looked through plenty of dossiers on him. It seemed as if every single nuclear weapon in the U.S had gone by him and, most of the foreign ones too. He was surprised that he wasn't the one to have recreated the Imperator and their old army. He already managed the U.S missile arsenal, if he could seal his position in the army too, he'd have complete power over the world. And, looking at how far Aurum had gone, he would not have been averse to such an ambition. Or, the Professor thought shrewdly, puffing madly on his pipe, you have continued the research. You were the supplier to everything we need, nuclear material for experiments, Imperium. In fact, the only thing I made on my own was Chemical X. That means you were the only one with the information for Imperium and you have nuclear weapons. Everything needed except for Chemical X. And who has that, the Imperator. Do you have an alliance with the Imperator. Of course you do. The problem is to get evidence.
Imperium was a drug, pure and simple. It brought immense power with it but they lost all control. Perfect for an army. It would be spliced into cells which could constantly replicate it, making a constant supply in the host's body so the host would never have control. Unfortunately, this also made them useless, they accepted commands from anyone, so the Imperator was created. At first, she imbibed it, she had control over it and she used that to control the army. It also made her immensely powerful. Later on, in the final stages of production, self producing Imperium cells were added so that she didn't have this dependence, then disaster struck…
I hope this is a little better. This was the original version of my plot, the girls part was added in just because I didn't want too many chapter without them. I guess I was wrong.