Infiltrating the Bureau

“I’m in position. Can you hear me?” the Captain’s voice chirped with static in the command room. All the operators huddled around the main screen to see his feed. No one said anything; there was a palpable tension in the air. Finally, a blonde officer grabbed the mic.

“Yes, loud and clear… Captain, this is the last chance to cancel the mission and back off from the hornets’ nest. We could tell the Gener-”

“Tell me what?”

“Ah!”

The operator almost fell out of her seat as the rest of the dingy command room stepped back and saluted the grey-haired woman joining them.

“At ease, soldiers.”

“G-general, what are you doi-“

“This operation is too important to leave it unsupervised. Besides, I always wanted to see what those slimy bastards were hiding.”

“You really think they captured him, ma’am?”

“After the mess they did, I would expect them to at least have a clue of his location. Or his body.”

“If everyone is done chatting,” the Captain’s voice came out of the speakers. “I’m ready to begin the mission.”

“Go ahead, Captain. I’ll be watching.”

“Roger.” The Captain crouched and removed the cover from the ventilation duct in front of him. Before crawling inside, he released a small swarm of spider-like drones into the duct.

As the Captain crawled into the vent, the spiders were busy at work. Not only did they act as moving cameras for the Military command center, but they also emitted a sonic pulse that, when it bounced back, served as a radar to guide their infiltrator.

The Bureau Headquarters was surprisingly sparse on workers. The Captain had an easy time moving unseen across the empty offices. He was beginning to doubt he even needed his cloaking suit at all.

“I still say we could have just used drones without risking the Captai-”

“Lost contact with drones 24 & 14,” a tall soldier yelled from the back of the room.

The General raised an eyebrow at the blonde operator. “Well, I stand corrected.”

“Like we suspected, the lower floors have some jamming equipment that prevents us from communicating with our drones. We don’t know if the comms will work down there. Be careful.”

“Always am, General.”

The Captain reached the lowest floor undetected, but a metal door barred his path downward. “General, can you still hear me? See what I see?”

“Yes, although you come off a bit choppy”

“Any ideas on how to get past this door? I think C4 might be a bit too loud for this operation.”

“Hold on… Ok, I think I got it. You’ll need a level 5 keycard to open that door, which can be found in the second-floor secu-"

“Can’t believe that freak got us!”

Someone was coming. The Captain jumped to the wall, making himself as plain as possible. If he stayed still, his active camo could render him practically invisible.

The three Councilors themselves were walking in. What were they doing there?

“No more holding back. Get to the tanks and wake all the reserves if you have to. I want at least a battalion's worth of inspectors. We need to nip this in the bud ASAP.”

The black-haired councilor swiped his card, motioning his bald friend to go deeper into the facility.

“Very well. We’ll mobilize in two hours.”

“Make it one.”

Before the door closed, the Captain sneaked into the forbidden section behind the imposing Councilor.

“Well, I guess that’s one way to do it.”

“Tail the Councilor, Captain,” The General’s voice chirred in the man’s headpiece, half her syllables lost to static. “I have a feeling he’ll lead us where we need to go.”

The Captain shadowed the imposing man as he entered an empty control room filled with computers and monitors. He sat on the main terminal and typed something on the keyboard.

The other side of the wall opened up, revealing a window. The Councilor looked at the other side and nodded to himself. “It is done.”

As the Councilor left, the Captain walked towards the window and couldn’t contain a gasp. The other room had neverending rows of crystal pods, each filled with a person floating in some sort of blue liquid.

“Is that what I think it is?”

“Captain, the image is choppy. Get in there and take a closer look at those…things.”

The Captain went in. The people in the pods looked very familiar, but they couldn’t be, could they? He wiped a bit of the condensation from the crystal to get a good look at the floating man’s face.

The Captain took a step back. He was. They were-!

“What the hell?” the operator cried out. “Are you seeing this General? They have a whole army of… of…”

“Clones… No wonder they never have manpower issues.”

“But, I thought cloning humans was illegal. Hell, tampering with human DNA is illegal!”

“Yes, but it was made illegal by the Security Council. So that their precious Bureau can hoard the technology for themselves.”

“Look at them General,” the Captain said, moving to stare at the next pod, and then the next. “They aren’t cloning regular Joes and Janes. These are all -“

“Ha! Yes, they are clones of the Councilors. It seems those snakes can trust no one but themselves.”

The Captain sneered. “They wouldn’t survive a day in a foxhole.”

The machine whirred, and the liquid began to drain from the pods. The Captain moved to a corner of the room to watch from a concealed location. Before each vat was opened, the machine encased each clone with the Bureau’s signature armor.

“No wonder the inspectors are always wearing that suit. They have them since birth.”

“But why?”

“Well, it’s not like they can show their faces around.”

“Maybe it’s also to ensure compliance? You know, if a clone gets out of line the suit goes pop?”

“Those snakes can’t even trust themselves.”

“Warning, a breach in the suit detected,” a computer voice said. The Captain directed his gaze to a clone three rows back. Due to an error, the helmet wasn’t fixed in place. He could the face of the black-haired councilor plain as day. “Clone 143 has been exposed to the Pathogen. Please proceed to liquidate.”

“Ah, man.” His clone brother didn’t even hesitate. The inspector next to the defective clone plunged their sword into the man’s heart and left him dying on the ground.

Despite the execution, none of the other inspectors seemed bothered. “Ok, everyone. Move out! We have to teach that scrawny doctor a lesson once and for all,” one of the clones said. In unison, the rest of the battalion began to march out.

“Did you record all that, Captain?”

“Yes General, every single detail. Should I keep digging for more dirt?”

“Good, we didn’t find our fugitive, but this is much better. The mission is done. Try to-”

“Err, don’t you want to use this chance to… cull their numbers a bit?” The Captain pulled out a C4 brick and held it in front of the camera. “This might be the only chance we get.”

“Negative.”

“Yes, we need the place intact to show it to the press later.”

“That’s also a negative, operator.”

“B-but then, we aren’t going to do anything about this?”

“We will. This information is a valuable bargaining chip. Just having it in our hands could be enough to make the Bureau learn to share.”

“What? We are just going to let them keep playing god with their clones hoping they let us create our own freaks?” The Captain yelled.

“I don’t want to be cloned…” the operator mumbled.

“Relax everyone. We aren’t going off the deep end like them. But, we are going to use this to let them leave our projects in peace. Besides, as much as I hate those three-faced snakes, if the Bureau goes down, the ensuing chaos might make things harder for us. It’s sadly all for the greater good.”

Greater good his ass. The Captain stopped himself before uttering something that might get him a demotion. That genetically engineered freak was bad enough, but now the General was going to let the Bureau keep their basement of monsters? The man shook his head and placed a brick of C4 on the warehouse’s weight-bearing column.

“Captain, I told you not-“

“Relax general, I’m not going to blow it up. But, if we are going to play poker with the Devil, we better have more than one ace up our sleeve.”

“Yes… that’s… smart. Now, It sounds like our Bureau friends are going to kill our other ace. Your next mission is to infiltrate their transport and go spoil their plans.”

“Roger General.”

Speaking of poker, the Captain had one more card to play in his sleeve. He sent the video to the one person who might be in a position to do something about this madness. “Well Governor, let’s see if you earned my vote…”