Part Eight
Michelle leaned back in the large comfortable chair and sighed. "A bath. A bath would be lovely right now." She thought out loud.
Not shower of course, a bath. A long . . . warm . . . relaxing bath.
She waited patiently in Dokusensha's district headquarters, after her escape she'd received a call on her cellular phone ordering her to report.
She'd been waiting in a large, comfortable lounge for about an hour now, and she probably reeked of combat . . . she just wanted a bath.
It was about the time she began to wonder why cats didn't like baths that she realized she'd been falling asleep, she heard the loud slamming of the door as agent Wong walked in. He was organized and collected and the first thing Michelle thought was, He's taken a bath.
The little attendant behind a desk noted agent Wong, and brightened at once, "Ah, Recycler!" He said, Michelle stiffened, he hadn't even given her the time of day! "Now that you're here as well please take your partner to the conference room."
Wong set off without even looking back at Michelle, and it was with a bit of strain that she forced herself out of the comfortable chair to follow him.
"So what's waiting for us in the conference room, do you know? I just got a call demanding I show up here." Michelle said.
Wong . . . perhaps predictably, said nothing.
He reached a pair of large doors and stood still, Michelle reached out to push them open but they swung wide on their own.
The conference room, she supposed. It was darkened and it smelled like cigar smoke.
The little director that had sent them on their quest was there too but everyone else was in shadow. He waved for them to come closer and they did, Michelle took a seat after agent Wong did so, not sure about procedure . . . she'd never attended a meeting of high ups. This wasn't the highest of course, but these were important people.
"Ah, agent Chan, special agent Wong, good to see you both in one piece. We understand you engaged your target?"
"Yes sir." Michelle said.
"Any comments?"
"More of a suspicion really. She was a Dokusensha agent, wasn't she?" Michelle asked. There was some uncomfortable shifting in the shadows, and Michelle felt she'd been dead on in her guess.
"Why brings about this curiosity?"
"You want her alive. She's obviously an Unusual, and a paper master as we all know, making her about a rank C or at the best a B. She's not nearly powerful enough to warrant forceful integration into Dokusensha's special units and unless she knows a dark secret-in which case simple assassination makes the most sense-she's not a threat to us. Bringing her in alive makes no sense unless she's a former agent. She must have betrayed us, the amount of Unusual support she received when we tried to apprehend her supports this, you want to know who she talked to and what she told them, correct?"
"Well . . . no. You're wrong, agent Chan."
Michelle stared blankly. He couldn't be serious.
"Agent Michelle Chan, what you are about to hear is classified, it does not leave this room. Special Agent Wong has already been briefed on the situation."
Michelle fought the urge to pout. So Sunny already knew? Well it made sense, he was a Special Agent and she was just a hit man . . . uh, hit woman.
"This," The director said, pressing a button and bringing to life a small three dimensional image of a room full of perhaps two dozen children, "is Project Paper. As Dokusensha struggles to find a way to replicate the powers of Unusuals we here in Hong Kong joined several other branches in an attempt to begin the creation of Paper Masters."
Michelle understood, just a single Unusual like Sunny Wong could do a lot of damage, if Dokusensha could use Unusuals as shock troops, mass train and mass produce them they could easily seize the advantage in the war against other agencies.
While the Japanese, the British, the Russians, the Americans and the Australians all fought to find Unusuals to field against each other Dokusensha would simply make its own super weapons.
It was brilliant, but then again it was Dokusensha.
"As experiments continue to inject Unusual abilities into agents genetically, we here began a cloning project. Taking DNA from historically great paper masters, and combining it with that of some of our top agents we were able to create several litters-if you'll excuse the expression-of paper masters."
Michelle stared at the picture, the children were all very young, between five and six.
"We bred exactly one thousand for the first generation, all yielding mixed results. Three hundred and twelve showed the potential to become Paper Masters, the others served no purpose for us and had to be liquidated. Of the three hundred survivors Mui, or Project Oh Tripple Sev, is the last."
"The last?" A man in the darkened part of the room asked, "I was under the impression that there remained forty or more projects, I was shown zero seven zero one just last week and found her to be quite satisfactory."
"It." A cold woman's voice said, "It. Oh Triple Sev and Oh Sev Oh One look like young girls but they are not, they are manufactured product, they're as human as blow up dolls and you used Oh Sev Oh One in the same manner. Not that it was good for anything else in the end since it failed utterly to manifest. It was liquidated two days ago."
"Even so it was a waste to kill her." The man said glumly. "She had such a cute smile," He said with a wistful sigh.
Michelle blinked, had she just heard that right? Was a Dokusensha director pining for a blow up doll's smile? What the heck were they talking about? She was completely lost! Weren't they talking about her target? Why were so many numbers being thrown around?
"It was a waste that it ever came into being," The cold woman's voice hissed back, "and I don't give a damn about its smile."
"Agent Sung please, we're not here to argue about whether or not these little creations are human, and the majority of us here would rather not hear about Director Hori's delinquent dalliance with Oh Sev Oh One." The little man that had assigned Michelle her mission said.
"Of course. My apologies, Director Zhu."
Zhu nodded, "Now we are here to discuss the progress of Oh Triple Sev. Agent Chan and Special Agent Wong engaged Oh Triple Sev in combat moments ago, as you know and Oh Tripple Sev has manifested. We believe she or it also manifested the three headed monster that ravaged downtown Hong Kong."
"Well it was to be expected, wasn't it?" Sung snapped, "It was always one of the most likely to manifest."
"Why so?" Michelle asked.
"Because Mui has the most complete set of Paper Master DNA. That of our own Sunny Wong."
Michelle gawked, "So she's like your daughter!" She cried.
The tall man scowled beneath his sunglasses but remained silent.
"How did you father such a child?" Michelle demanded.
"He did not father anything, Miss. Chan, special agent Wong's DNA was taken for the project. Because he had then yet to distinguish himself only five clones were made with his DNA information, and only one of them, oh triple sev, also had the genetic information of another of our special agents. However on a level I suppose one could say that genetically she is the daughter of Sunny Wong and Arisa Sung."
"That's not what I meant though," Michelle said, "The girl before me today I would guess she's about seventeen right now? Agent Wong does not look old enough to have fathered a seventeen year old daughter."
"Oh Tripple Sev is nobody's daughter!" Sung snapped, "We must not begin seeing these things, these constructs as people, it will cloud our judgement when the time comes to do what must be done. Now, Oh Tripple Sev is indeed far younger than it appears, but then isn't that the miracle of genetics? We were able to hatch it at a useful age, eight and begin testing. Its growth has been twice that of a human child until last year when we slowed it down and installed a new memories for it."
"New memories." Michelle repeated. Now she was lost.
"As part of the operation we planted our projects into society complete with identities and agents to pose as a family, their minds were wiped of their experiences before and new memories were given to them."
Michelle raised he hand, "Why? What about the five years of training?"
"The five years were nothing but study, the training was meant to come only for those who could manifest during the year that followed." Sung said, "Mui is the only one to do so."
"However Oh Tripple Sev has been showing us some anomalies as well." Zhu pointed out.
"Yes. I have been in contact with the agents posing as its family. Mui's memory programming may not have been properly handled, or may not have been complete. It remembers things that it shouldn't be able to remember."
"Explain." Zhu said.
"Yes, if she remembers Dokusensha why is she fighting us?"
"I never said it remembers Dokusensha. Anyway Mui remembers having a sister, or so it claims. It often inquires about her, its surrogate parents were forced to tell it that this sister had gone away to college, however Oh Triple Sev was planted in a home where it would be an only child, there is no evidence of error on our agents part, Mui somehow remembers at least one of its fellow projects from phase one.
"Intrigued I arranged for Mui to be shown pictures, a mixture of worthless photographs with a selection of staff and fellow projects from phase one thrown in to see what she could recognize. It was reported as having been overcome with fear upon looking at the pictures of doctor Maeda her creator, and myself, though it showed minimal recognition of anything else."
"Perhaps a deep seeded fear of you stems from your treatment of it during phase one?" Hori offered.
"Exactly what I think. I was responsible for the discipline of most of the projects, the fear of Maeda leaves me uncertain, though it is known that Mui severely injured doctor Maeda a week before it was given new memories."
"What exactly transpired? Was Maeda abusing Mui in any way?" Michelle demanded. "Maybe the girl was defending herself."
"Possible. It was during its liquidation that it brought the papers of Maeda's clipboard to life and slit his throat. He survived and Mui was taken from the list of failures to successes at the last minute. She'd displayed the necessary ability, now she only needed an altered memory."
"Wait, why, if she could display ability was her mind wiped?" Michelle demanded, "That's taking three steps forward and ten steps back!"
"Not at all, the paper control was pure instinct for them, they could only use it subconsciously, willfully controlling the paper was our goal for these children, but so was loyalty to Dokusensha, which was what phase two was all about. Finding the successes and making them loyal agents."
Michelle nodded. It sounded like a big fat failure to her. They'd brought one thouand human begins into life. Maybe they were clones, maybe they were just constructs but Mui looked to her like a real human girl. It was hard to think of her as anything else.
So a thousand little boys and girls had been born and one by one, maybe ten by ten they'd been discarded, murdered because they weren't what the agency wanted. Only one was still alive, only one had displayed any actual ability, producing an unusual in one out of one thousand projects over several years was definitely not effective.
But it was Dokusensha . . . Michelle felt a little uneasy with the idea that Dokusensha could be wrong.
'No.' She thought, 'Not wrong. Dokusensha is correct, however the agents carrying out the orders were sloppy.' Michelle thought.
She remembered the picture of all those little children . . .
So damn sloppy . . .
"Couldn't any of the projects have been salvaged for other work?" Michelle asked.
"Some were." Zhu said, "Some displayed extraordinary traits, or traits in common with their other genetic halves, rather than the paper masters. One of them is serving as my personal assistant, though it isn't going well."
"Why is that?" Michelle asked.
"His health seems to be deteriorating, it may be because he's cloned from incomplete materials, though Mui's health was reported as poor when she was last examined as well. That's why we need to get our hands on her, find out what we can just in case our time with her comes to an end." Zhu said.
Michelle nodded.
"Now agent Chan . . . if you were to capture Mui what would you need?"
Michelle thought on it. "Alive sir?"
"Yes." Zhu said.
"Have you asked Agent Wong this question?" Michelle asked.
"Yes." Zhu repeated, "We disagree with his assessment, we want yours."
"What did he say." Michelle asked.
"He wanted you removed and he wanted permission to bring her in without arms." Zhu said with a dry smile.
Michelle nodded. "So arm removal is out of the question unfortunately." She joked, "Very well. I will require four units of regular agents and at least one unit of special agents. I will need the agents that acted as her parents. Do we have any footage available of the Unusuals I encountered today? Good, I'll need it." She said, responding to Zhu's nod.
"This is quite a task force." Sung said. "I cant agree to this."
"We don't have four units available right now." Hori agreed.
"Then what can you give me?" Michelle demanded a bit too rudely.
"Continued use of Special Agent Wong and the aid of Special Agent Sung. A Special Agent named Ijori, and a Special Agent named Jin. Four well trained special agents are the best we can give you."
"How many are Unusuals?" Michelle asked.
"Wong and Ijori. Sung and Jin are very capable though." Zhu said.
"Sir are you seriously suggesting giving command to agent Chan?" Sung demanded, leaning over her table into the light. Michelle was amazed by how like an older version of Maggie that woman looked! "What makes Chan worthy of leadership?" Sung demanded.
"The fact that I have just promoted her to Special Agent," Zhu said crossly, "and the fact that of everyone available to deal with the issue she does not have any agenda or grudge. She will perform her duty clearheaded and calmly."
Michelle felt her chest swelling with pride. She was a Special Agent now!
"Sir, I think I have a plan. But I will need the agents who acted as Mui's parents." Michelle said.
"Done." Zhu said, "Her mother is yours. The man who acted as her father is dead however, a fact we've tried to hide from Mui until now."
"Just a minute!" Hori cried, "We havent agreed to this Zhu, you cant just assing another agent to this task force!"
"And why not?" Zhu asked, "Have you seen the footage? They'll be facing down against at least four Unusuals, likely more. I am taking no chances, a force that size suggests this is the work of the British or the blasted Russians, the deaths of four Unusuals would be a blow to any agency, I want to see it happen."
"Yes sir." Michelle nodded.
"One last thing," Zhu said, "Mui's apparent fear of Sung. It may cause her to attack Sung."
"Yes sir, I was already considering how best to use that when I heard you mention her name." Michelle said.
"Well don't. See to it that Mui does not injure Sung.." Zhu said.
"Yes sir." Michelle nodded.
"Then we're through here." Sung said, "Let's get going."
Michelle nodded. The whole meeting had just gone over her head but . . . she was a special agent now, and in charge of her own task force.
This was going to be wonderful!
To Be Continued . . .