Finally, the next thrilling chapter of NVN2 is up! Off to the reviewers!
To Crys Skywalker: Glad you are.
To moonjava: Thank you.
To LadyKayoss: I can't either. But Octavia's a clone, so normal biological processes don't apply.
To K9: Yup.
A new bad guy (or girl!) is introduced...Agent Carlyle gets Octavia out of a jam, again...the government's secret plans for Octavia and her, uh, biological genetic template are revealed. Read and review!
Chapter 2: Out of the Closet
"Well…"
"I repeat: take off your coat, please." The security guard demanded.
Octavia shrugged off her brown trench coat, revealing her four tentacles. A collective gasp rose from the crowd of students gathered at the doorway.
Dr. Jaclyn Hyde pushed her way through the front of the crowd. "What is the meaning of this, Octavia Jones?" she inquired. "This isn't Halloween. Take those things off right now."
"But Miss Hyde…I can't."
"What do you mean you can't?"
"They're permanently welded on there, ma'am."
"Okay, Miss Jones, you're risking a suspension for bringing weapons to school, insubordination, and lying to the principal!"
"She is not lying! I know the truth!" shouted Jordan.
"Miss Nicholas, stay out of this! Miss Jones, I think a week's suspension is in order, and possible expulsion. I can't let people with humongous tentacle things on their backs in this school."
A quiet voice spoke behind them. "I beg to differ, Dr. Jaclyn Hyde."
A slender, black-haired man in a black suit pushed his way through the mob to confront the principal. "Would you please be kind enough to send everyone but Miss Jones, Miss Nicholas, and Miss Gatsby away?"
"No need to sit and stare," Jaclyn barked. "Go to class! Not you, Jordan and Daisy. Get over here."
When the lawn was completely cleared, the black-suited man flashed a badge and identification card. "I am Agent Carlyle of the CIA, in the Subdivision of Scientific Intelligence. I can personally vouch that I know these three girls, and I have been studying Miss Jones for years. I can also personally vouch that those tentacles are, indeed, permanently welded on there."
And Jaclyn Hyde thought she'd seen it all. How could a card-carrying CIA agent know these three girls?
"I am ordering you to keep quiet about this, and let Octavia Jones return to class."
"But the safety of the other students—"
"I assure you that she can control them. Can't you, Octavia?"
"I'll try, sir."
"I can also tell you that if you try to expel her, that's discrimination under the Americans With Disabilities Act, and you will also have my personal displeasure to deal with. If you have any questions, you may call the number on this business card. Good day to you, ladies."
Jaclyn stared at Octavia. "Miss Jones, you have friends in very high places, it seems. Now get to class."
"Carlyle himself!" Jordan whispered. "I thought we'd seen the last of him! They said that Project Octopus was terminated!"
"Maybe they reopened it and they're trying to capture Octavia to study again."
"I don't know," Octavia said. "I get the feeling he's here for a different reason."
"Like what?" Jordan asked.
"I have new information on Project Octopus."
The new Director of the Subdivision of Scientific Intelligence fiddled his cigar about. He lit it, and put it in the corner of his mouth, savoring the flavor. So what if it was manufactured in a country where severe economic sanctions were still in place? So what if, twenty years ago, he had experimented with exploding cigars to kill the dictator of that same country? One of life's little ironies.
"Mr. Director…did you hear me?"
"Review the files on Project Octopus, Agent Cypher."
The agent known as Cypher, an agent at the SSI for only two months now, brushed her medium-length brown hair back with a slender, long-fingered hand. With the other, she made her way to a file cabinet.
Project Starlet, subject Marilyn Monroe. Project Dream, subject Martin Luther King, Jr. Project Psychedelic, subject John Lennon. Project Lothario, subjects John Fitzgerald and Robert Kennedy.
"Wait a minute…you're in the assassinations section. The scientific projects section is the drawer below that."
Project Moonrock, concerning the falsification of a moon landing. Project Roswell, concerning the cover-up of proof of extraterrestrial life. Project Acid, concerning the manufacture of a drug that could be used to control the teenage population, commonly known as LSD. Project Retrovirus, concerned with the manufacture of a virus that could easily and quickly send millions of enemy troops to a painful death, later known as HIV or AIDS. These secret files would be all the proof any conspiracy theorist would need, if only the stupid American masses would only pull their heads out of the sand and realize what their own government was pulling on them.
Project Octopus, concerning the reproductive cloning of a scientist and supervillain, also gifted with certain attributes to make said clone the forerunner of a "master race" of super-soldiers.
"Got the file. We convinced a psychologist and researcher, the late Doctor Grace Morrison, to do some research, ha ha, on the psychological theory of 'nature versus nurture.' We extracted DNA from the genetic template and followed a similar procedure to that of the cloned sheep Dolly. We were able to produce a fully functioning clone, except that the genetic template is male and the clone is female."
"Wasn't there something involving artificial robotic arms?"
"Yes. The genetic template was the famed physicist Dr. Otto Octavius, also known as the super criminal Doctor Octopus, hence the name of the project. He invented the arms—or at least the original prototype."
"Arms, eh?"
"A set of four tentacle-like metal arms, attached to the wearer by means of a harness worn around the back."
"Come to think of it, I've heard of the guy…seen him in a movie once."
"Spider-man 2 is the sugar-coated version, if you will. "
"But the human body isn't even wired for any extra limbs. How did you manage to turn this clone into a human octopus?"
"By use of stem cells the embryo was grafted onto a suitable computer interface capable of providing sensory feedback to the developing nerve cells. She was born—no, created—to be a human octopus. The clone was later given up for adoption to a carefully selected family."
"Did you put the arms on her, or what?"
"We did. However, she became angry and murdered Dr. Morrison."
"Well you know if the clone didn't kill her we would have suicided her anyway…can't have her going out and blabbing, can we? Did you monitor her? Bring her in for study?"
"Of course. Agent Carlyle's efforts to recapture the clone were complicated y the clone's childhood friends, two girls by the name of Jordan Nicholas and Daisy Gatsby."
"That's when the shit really hit the fan and Project Octopus was discontinued."
"Actually, it was just put on the back burner."
"Start the monitoring process again, Cypher."
"Agent Carlyle recommended the clone have a chance at a normal life. He said the Project should be totally terminated. He said we were playing God with humans and we'd finally crossed the line."
"Which is why Carlyle's pushing papers in the mail room and off the high-sensitivity projects. He turned a classified project into a tabloid scandal. Post 9-11, we are God. We—and our eternal vigilance—are all that's keeping that raghead bin Laden from flying a plane into the Golden Gate, got it? If that clone and the technology she has on her body gives us the chance to kill a thousand more insurgents for the war on terror, it's worth every damn penny."
"Not to be disrespectful, but I still don't see how cloning a supervillain is going to win the war on terror."
"Artificially intelligent tentacles that have night vision, crawl across sand at 50 mph, throw a military tank in the air, and alert a soldier to changes in his surroundings! As soon as we capture the genetic template, take his blueprints for the actuators, and kill him and his clone off, those amazing arms will be on the backs of every soldier in the US military! Life is like a chess game, Cypher! Sometimes you have to sacrifice a couple of lousy pawns to save the king!"