The NIMH project had lost funding for years, and was now on the brink of shutdown. It was inevitable, and everyone knew it, especially Schultz. Her project, which once showed signs of being the most promising, had now become a novelty to everyone at the agency who knew about it, which was very few. It'd looked certain that her, her men and her unsuspecting employees were going to be out of a job, until now.
Now there was a lead, a sign of life. After eight long years she finally had a lead on her escaped experiment, and if she could get them back, Schultz was sure she could isolate the genes and reproduce the experiment again, only this time there would be no escape. And now, if she could show progress, real progress, the NIMH project would remain in the wealthy shadows of the agency, instead of being swept under the rug. She just had to find them, dead or alive.
Special Agent Schultz had convinced her superiors to fund the project over twelve years earlier. With her expertise in bioengineering, she'd set up NIMH, the National Institute of Mental Health. At least, that's what the public and her employees perceived it to be. Only a handful knew the truth about it, and its intentions. Of course, a lot of what was known about it was true. It was a government-funded research facility that developed experimental drugs for mental illnesses, as well as studied the human brain in order to better understand how the mind really worked. But Schultz wasn't interested in helping her fellow human become smarter. What she was interested in was making her fellow animal smarter for the benefit of mankind, specifically her agency's kind.
Animals were expendable, and they could go where humans couldn't, or wouldn't. The idea was to make the animals smarter to a degree in which they would follow specific instructions, whether they had to find out a name, cut off a power supply, or pull the pin of a hand grenade, it didn't matter. The animal would take the orders, understand them, and execute them. The problem was that the kind of training involved usually lasted longer than the lifespan of the animals chosen: rats. Rats were the ideal animals for the jobs needed. They were small, stealthy, and silent, also no one cared about them. No one would miss a rat if it died behind the lines. There were no family ties left behind and no mess.
At least, that was the idea. The first hurdle was to somehow increase the rat's lifespan in order to drum years of training into its head to make it useful, then they had to increase the rat's ability to absorb information. The first few years had seen exclusive focus on this task. After many test subjects had been used and the basic formulas were working, Schultz had begun her experiments. The first two had been disastrous. She'd severely misjudged how intelligent her subjects would become. The rate had increased at an exponential pace without her even knowing it, and her own creations had ended up outsmarting her. Still, she'd continued on, not allowing the chance for lightning to strike a third time. Security precautions had been taken to the point of absurdity in the laboratories when humans hadn't been around. Schultz had also learned her lesson with the hormone injections, and had dramatically decreased the potency. Unfortunately for her, the results of each successive test group also dropped dramatically. Group after group had been used, each getting a light variation of the original formula, in an effort to achieve the startling results of the first two groups without surprise. But it wasn't happening. It was impossible to replicate the formula without the rats; something inside them had changed, and she needed them to find out what it was.
In recent months, she'd grown desperate. Pressure from the agency forced her to run several experiments at one time, though by doing so, she was thinning herself out, making it nearly impossible to achieve even the most basic results, all while she searched for the escaped rats. They were the demons that haunted her every night. Without her, they would've been nothing, and without them, she was nothing. She needed them back, so badly that every moment they were gone, more of her sanity leaked away. And the rats had been gone for a long time.
But now I have a chance, she thought, walking to her office window. Outside, under the dreary skies, was NIMH's parking lot, only a quarter full due to low funding. Now there were few professionals working for her, the staff made up mostly of graduate students from the university nearby. They didn't care what they did, so long as they did it right and produced a record good enough to please real players in the biological/genetic field. She cast one more furious glance at the empty lot, cursing her lackluster employees.
Screw them, she thought. When she got those rats back, she'd show them. She'd fucking show them all. She peered down from her third story view, seeing two of her young employees leaving for the day. What were their names, George and Julie? They all look the same, she thought. They all act the same. Who cares? One of them looked up to see Schultz watching them, sending a friendly wave her way.
"Bye," she replied. "Bye, to you too…ungrateful little pricks." She gave a fake smile as she waved back. It was then she noticed something wrong. Her blood began boiling as soon as she noticed the NIMH RV parked in the lot.
"What the hell?" she cursed aloud.
Two minutes later, Valentine burst through the office door. Schultz whirled to face him, the younger man panting from running up three flights of stairs.
"Valentine, what the fuck are you doing here?" she demanded.
"Ma'am," started Valentine, catching his breath. "It's the farmers, they…" he paused under the piercing glare of his boss. He nervously cleared his throat. "They kicked off their property; they threatened to call the police."
"So you just picked up and left?" Schultz yelled.
"Ma'am, I know you're upset, but-"
"You haven't seen me upset," she seethed. "'But' what?"
"Ma'am, I analyzed the stool samples we discovered at the site today, on the way back," he gulped again. "And we have positive identification of the Beta Group."
"I knew it," Schultz swung back to the window, slamming her fist on the sill. "I fucking knew it!"
"But, what about the farmers, ma'am?" Valentine questioned.
"Yes," Schultz spoke at length. "What about the Goddamn farmers…" she paused long before turning, a look on her face that could peel paint. "The farmers are a liability," she continued. "They can be removed from the equation. Tomorrow will see the rebirth of NIMH, Valentine, mark my words. I want you to call back everyone on emergency assignment, all inactive agents, and have them all reconvene on the farm site tomorrow at seven A.M." an all-too-chilling grin lit up her face, a look Valentine couldn't help but imitate. "We're gonna take this project back to the top, Valentine."
"We've got the Beta Group, ma'am," the scientist began. "But what about the Alpha Group? They were the ones that really-"
"Fuck the Alpha Group," Schultz was almost shouting. "Whatever that was, whatever they became, it couldn't be controlled. No, the Beta Group is the real deal. If we get them back, we'll have the key to making a thousand Beta Groups, then we can eventually go and track down Alpha, but for now, let's stick with what we have right in front of us." She stopped a minute. "Now quit standing in my office and assemble everyone!"
"Everyone?" her man asked, unsure.
Schultz rolled her eyes. "Everyone!" she screamed.
Valentine scrambled out the door, nearly letting it slam behind him. Schultz was fuming. "And when I say everyone, I mean every-fucking-one!" she cried aloud, falling in her desk chair. She pulled the top right drawer open to its full length, removing the contents and placing them on the computer keyboard. When it was empty, she ran blood-red fingernails along the bottom edge, lightly tapping down and causing the other end to pop up. She grabbed the exposed end and pulled up, revealing documents that were highly confidential, enough to get her arrested if found in her possession. But she didn't care, as half the experiments she conducted would land her in jail just as quickly. She leafed through the pages that had been collected over the years, using the highest forms of trickery, or bribery if need be, and soon pulled out the one she was looking for. She'd forged many documents in her life at the agency, it was pretty much company policy, though in all her years, she'd never drafted one as illegal, as powerful, as she was about to. It was a document destined for drastic changes, especially the lives of all those involved with her plans.
Okay, I know Schultz is supposed to be a man, but I just couldn't help myself! The men are almost always the crazy ones, and I wanted to see how it would go with a woman. But, if it really does start to bother people, tell me and I'll switch her back. Deal?