Chapter 17: The CMP

Surprisingly, Casey woke up early. There seemed to be electricity flowing through her body, energising her. Arriving at the lab before Martin, she was eager to have it ready so he would find it easier to jump straight into work. It was important to her for the day-to-day water generation and purification work to stay caught up; if it didn't, it might distract her from Percy's files and the Taskforce.

Martin arrived with a swing in his step, and both seemed keen to make their morning as productive as possible. Their conversations were limited, but the looks they exchanged during the morning conveyed a lot. Martin's presence calmed Casey, who appeared to be working when, in fact, she was continuing to review Percy's CMP file.

By the time Kalan arrived, Casey had absorbed enough of Percy's journals to know that the Chemical Manufacturing Plant was created to produce not only the chemical pouches for the seawater membranes but also pouches for the anti-aging drug, Gnia-itra, for the Wellness Program.

Kalan walked into the lab without knocking and introduced herself to Casey and Martin within minutes.

Kalan Murdoch, a striking figure, carried herself with unmistakable confidence. Her sharp features, high cheekbones, and strong jawline gave her an air of understated authority. Her dark brown hair was tied back, and her eyes were deep green, alert, and calculating. It appeared to Casey that Kalan was taking in every tiny detail within the lab.

Casey hesitated to even look at Martin in case she gave something away. It didn't surprise her that Kalan turned out to be the head of the Taskforce.

After leaving the lab, Kalan seemed to relax. Her voice softened, and she sounded friendly when she said to Casey, "Welcome to the Taskforce. We haven't had a new member for many years, so it will be good to have fresh blood."

Casey tried to respond with a similar tone, "Thank you. I'm really looking forward to helping out."

Kalan responded, "Helping out. I'm looking forward to you doing the majority of the work. I'm sick of having to run around all over the place.”

This response surprised Casey; it sounded like it was coming from a spoilt child instead of someone who appeared to be a sophisticated professional on the outside. But Casey didn't question it. She said, "Oh, I'm really looking forward to working hard."

"I'm glad, and the others will be too, as we're all over this Taskforce," said Kalan.

Kalan described the five other members of the Taskforce: another two Murdochs and three Trumps.

Kalan explained they were meeting in what she called the War Room, which, when Casey entered, just appeared to be a large meeting space. Apparently, the Taskforce wouldn't usually meet in person, but the President had demanded they meet face-to-face, and he would brief them.

The other members, all formally dressed, stood around and didn't even look at Casey when Kalan said flippantly, " This is Casey, our new member." They only stopped chatting amongst themselves once the President arrived. It all changed very quickly. Walls came down to surround them, and data appeared in a hologram in the centre of the room. It was as if we had gone from the playpen to the battlefield.

Everyone was on edge, not taking their eyes off the President.

President Trump Junior, with Harold by his side, introduced Casey. They all looked at her and then back at the President, who explained how critical the Taskforce was to ensuring the longevity of our society. "Every member needed to step up and be engaged in finding a solution to the Lysoid issue." He went into great detail to explain how vital confidentiality was and how if any of the work they were doing leaked, it could disrupt everything.

Casey wasn't sure what everything meant, but they all seemed clear, nodding. The President then looked directly at Casey and said, "I'm relying on you, Casey, to be a key team member. You have been selected because I trusted your grandfather and father, so you must uphold their legacy with integrity and never talk about the work of the Taskforce." He ended with, "Can I rely on you Casey?"

She could feel her face flush bright red. Hopefully, this was taken as a sign of nervousness rather than betrayal. A bit too loudly, she replied, "Of course, Mr. President, you can rely on me." There was a lot of mumbling among the members, and then the President and Harold were gone as quickly as they had arrived.

Saying Casey was nervous was an understatement. Now that she knew all the other Taskforce members were Calberras, she only hoped she wouldn't give herself away.

Tristan, who looked like he was in his mid-twenties, had an undeniable air of privilege and confidence, similar to Kalan. Standing tall, at around 6 feet, he scanned the room with piercing blue eyes and said, "Okay, let's meet at Lysoid Stool. Kalan, give Casey the coordinates, and we'll all meet there in 10 minutes."

Casey was the first to arrive. It was a place she had never seen before and based on the coordinates about 1200 kilometres from her lab. She was in what appeared to be a large log cabin, furnished with so many luxury items that it took her a minute to realise it was someone's home.

One by one, the members began appearing. She couldn't help but sit in one of the luxurious chairs near an open fireplace. Nobody spoke to her until Kalan arrived; once she did, Casey felt more confident and started to glance at each of them. She suddenly realised everything was different; they had all changed into more casual clothes and were laughing.

They suddenly remembered Casey was there, and they all turned to look at her at the same time.

"Can we trust her?" Tristan asked Kalan. "how would I know? You know as much as me." she responded.

Casey felt it was time to speak up, "I will do everything I can to support the Taskforce and will not disappoint the President."

They all looked at each other, and Casey was concerned that she had already done something wrong. But then they burst out laughing.

All she could do was look at them, but then Kalan spoke up, "It's okay, Casey. This is a safe space; we are protected here; neither the President nor Harold can hear or see us."

Casey wasn't sure what this meant. Were they members of the Alliance? She asked, "What do you mean?"

Aldon stepped forward and said, "The older generation is out of touch. None of us want to be on this Taskforce, but we're pressured into it because of our stupid last names."

Casey was taken aback and glad she hadn't mentioned anything about the Alliance, as all of them started to bitch about how they didn't want to be on this stupid Taskforce; even Kalan said we're only here because we have to be. Casey said, "Why didn't you tell the President."

They all looked a little horrified. " What are you kidding? We would never disobey him or our parents; we have to be on this Taskforce."

They were all now looking at Casey with concern. She could see they thought she might expose them, so she quickly said, "Hey, I'm not going to tell. I just want to find a solution for the lysoid issue."

They didn't appear at first to trust her; there was chatter that they had exposed themselves to her too soon and that there would be trouble. But after some convincing and Casey making up a story about how she really didn't like the President but was committed to her work, they seemed to settle down."

It appeared that as they were so reliant on Casey to do work to show that the Taskforce was making progress, and they were obviously very naive, they decided to trust her.

Although relieved, Casey was still trying to process what had happened, and putting into the context of everything over the past several months, it seemed that everything in her world wasn't as it seemed, and everyone had secrets.