The Syndicate: Darkest Before the Dawn - Part Seventeen (Conclusion) by: Enemyoffun Rick Grant has always been in control of his life, whether its living on the streets or stealing to survive. But when things get out of control he finds himself facing off against a very dangerous organization with vicious tactics, persuasive agents and a deadly agenda.

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Author's Note: Cue Evil Sith music. Becca and her friends do not appear in this part at all. But they will be back very soon. Here's a bit of insight into the world of Syndicate through the eyes of those who run it.

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Epilogue:

He walked down the hall, his gait slow and labored. The cane was bothersome and his leg still hurt. The pain meds could only do so much. But he wanted to get out of the hospital, he hated being holed up in a bland room, where others were coughing and spreading diseases all around him. There were a lot of things he didn’t care for in life but germs were at the top of his list. They were followed closely by teenagers with attitudes.

But he tried to keep his mind off of that. There would be time to discuss teenagers and attitudes. Right now he was meeting the Boss. He needed to explain his actions and make sure his name wasn’t all other the news too. He hoped the thick folder he clutched under his arm was enough to save his ass.

At the end of the bright and airy hall was a thick oak door, a security guard standing next to it. The guard was big and thick, built like a line backer. He was wearing a black suit and tie. The Boss believed that formal attire exuded confidence or some crap like that. So no one was allowed to dress casual in any of his multiple buildings he owned. Except maybe the cleaning staff but they were never seen by the public. The Boss was all about the public image and making the people see what he wanted them to see. That’s how he built his empire: on lies and misdirection. It wasn’t a bad way to go unless it came back to bite you in the ass.

He wondered how sore the man’s ass was now.

The guard stopped him, speaking into an earpiece.

“I’m expected”

The guard ignored him and after a few seconds of confirmation, the behemoth nodded.

The door was opened and he was allowed to proceed into the outer office.

It was drastically different to that of his former employer. This office had a futuristic feel. Three of the four walls were glass; the only one that wasn’t was actually some kind of marble. The floors were marble too. The furniture was steel with black cushions. There was a glass coffee with a vase of flowers and a great big C emblem on the floor. There were a lot of those all around because his boss had the biggest ego on the face of the planet.

The secretary was young and hot. She was one of those girls that you only see in movies. She was a brunette, was wearing a blouse that her boobs were threatening to pop and a tight skirt. She was wearing glasses too but they looked cheap and fake, probably to make her look more studious. Normally he would have flirted with her like crazy but his appearance was making him standoffish.

He wasn’t exactly in the greatest of shape since the “accident”.

The girl flashed him a fake smile. But her eyes were repulsed by him.

She pushed a buzzer. “Sir, Mr. Decker is here to see you”

“Send him in, Diane”

A pair of doors opened from the wall behind her. They blended in with the rest of the wall, not apparent until they opened. That was Carson’s style. He liked to make things that looked simple and make them complicated. It was funny considering his company motto: “We make the complicated, simple”.
The inner office was very similar to the outer one. It had the same glass walls, the same marble floors. Even the furniture was different. But there were some differences. For starters, Carson didn’t have a desk. He said he didn’t believe in them. So where a desk should have been was a large holographic projector, it was the centerpiece of the whole room. Carson took all his meetings at a small seated area in the corner, where several comfortable chairs sat. If he wasn’t there it was over at the bar in the other corner.

Today he was standing at the projector; the current image revolving around it was a 3D representation of the planet.

They called Jason Carson the Man of the Future and he looked the part. His suit was crisp and very expensive. His honey blonde hair was turning gray at the corners but that was the only sign of age. He had a pleasant smile and a warm demeanor. This hid his ruthless and cutthroat nature. On the surface, he and his company were the world’s biggest manufacturer of computer software for the “Everyday Man”. Underneath it all he was a ruthless criminal. He had several small organizations all over the world dealing from with drugs and smuggling and all the way to terrorist financing and gun running. His biggest project of late was the Syndicate.

He created it three years ago after his only child, Francesca, became “Infected”. She had been his world and when she Emerged, everything came crashing down. His princess was replaced by a prince. The Syndicate wasn’t created for her sake though, it was created for his. If there was anything that Jason Carson didn’t like was not being in control. Yes he had dreamed for a son but he loved his daughter. HE would have welcomed a son but the scandal of his daughter transforming into one was far too much. He feared the press would think she was a transsexual and that would have ruined him.

The Syndicate was supposed to change all that.

He spent millions of dollars setting up several facilities around the world. He labeled them R&D projects for his Board. Only a few of his closest associates really knew what they were. Then he announced to the world that Carson Co. was going into the pharmaceutical business. The press ate it up and he became even more of a saint. The people loved Carson because he was could at making cheap affordable things and selling them at cheap prices.
But nothing works out as planned.

Carson stepped from around the hologram and gave him a once over.

He put on a fake smile too. “I see the surgery was successful, Quentin”

Quentin Decker aka Mr. Green, groaned.

“It’s an improvement sir”

Carson laughed and pointed them over to the chairs. Quentin hobbled over, the pain in his leg persisted even after everything had been done to save it. In the end it was still reinforced with metals pins and would take hundreds of dollars to get him to walk properly. The doctor told him he’d probably have a limp for the rest of his life. That hadn’t pleased him one bit.

That fucking little bitch was going to pay.

When the bullet ricocheted off the ground, it slammed into his femur. It shattered the bone into several pieces and caused immense pain. But he had still remained conscious long enough to see the wolves as they ran into the VB. His men got the blunt of them. One of them came at him and grabbed his arm but he managed to get his gun up and shoot it. After that he pulled himself painfully to his feet and secured himself in the SUV he had been using as a shield during the initial firefight. The VB was relatively unscathed by the fires that destroyed the rest of the facility. He was found by a couple of firemen. They rushed him to the local hospital where he was treated.

His recovery took a week. When it was over, Section Four was gone. Anything of great importance was ceased when Homeland Security stormed the place.

‘How are you holding up?” asked Carson as both of them sat down.

“I’m feeling much better, sir. Thank you”

Carson smiled and then it slowly disappeared. “You’re all rested?”

Quentin nodded.

“Good” Carson’s voice took on a cold edge. “Now please explain to me what the fuck happened to two of the most secure and secluded facilities in the whole country. Isn’t that what you called them, Mr. Green?”

He gulped and started to sweat. Carson was a dangerous man to cross.

He cleared his throat and set the folder on the glass table in front of them. He opened it up and started taking out the information inside, spreading it about for Carson to see. The billionaire glanced at but ignored it.

“They had a spy sir” he said, producing a picture of a woman he knew only as Patricia Daniels and who they called Dr. White.

Carson took it from him. “She’s very pretty. Tell me she’s in custody?”

Quentin shook his head. “She’s dead sir. I killed her myself”

Carson threw the picture in his face. “Did you at least recover the data she stole from us?’

When he didn’t respond, Carson sneered.

“We think she had it on her. It’s more than likely with her corpse”

“Do you at least know where that is?”

He shook his head. “A Jane Doe popped up a few days after the destruction of Section Four. She fit Daniels description but when my men went to recover her it was already too late. They got to her before we did”

“So you’re telling me they have it now”

Quentin didn’t want to say anything. He knew what happened to people that crossed Mr. Carson.

Carson closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. He was silent for some time, which scared the hell out of Quentin. It was never good when Carson was quiet. It was several minutes before he spoke again: “Tell me about the Break out?”

Quentin cleared his throat. Here we go; this is where I can save face. “We think it was orchestrated by this girl”

He pulled a picture of the little bitch from his folder. She was staring up at him with her smug face and glowing purple eyes. He handed it over; Carson studied it for a few seconds then tossed it on the table.

“Who is she?”

“Ummm…Rebecca Howe sir. She was our newest pick up. They were calling her a Level Three, something to do with Enhanced Senses. Dr. Stromberg didn’t have a classification for her”

He tapped the photo on the table. “When she showed up, everything changed. She was subordinate and aggressive. When Captain Rivers and Dr. Owens tried to do a primary physical on her she became violent and assaulted them. They tried to subdue but due to her rare gift she was unable to feel pain”

The mention of this raised Carson’s eyebrows. ‘She’s completely impervious to it?”

“We don’t know the whole specifics; Dr. Daniels wasn’t very forth coming and became very defensive about her. We do know that she could take a lot of it and still stand. During her initial testing three of Henderson’ men attacked her repeatedly and she was able to withstand a barrage of heavy attacks. They gave her a beating that would have put most in the hospital but she took it all and felt nothing”

“And you let this one get away?”

“She wasn’t working alone. She convinced the others to help here. WE think she might have also swayed some of the staff too”

Quentin passed over photos of Black and Red.

Carson looked at them but didn’t take them.

“Major Gideon Michaels and Lieutenant Gregory Dwyer” Quentin cleared his throat. “Both Ex-military. Michaels was a Marine during the Gulf. Dwyer was in the Army’s Special Forces. He was that court marshaled soldier we recruited from Leavenworth”

“She swayed them? Is that another one of her abilities?”

“No but she was very persuasive. She was resourceful too. We set up a few tests for her and she passed with flying colors. After the mall test, I offered her a position as a Field Leader but she turned it down. That’s when we had her chipped”

“You put one of things in her? How the hell did she beat it?”

“We’re not sure but it’s possible that the boy who created it might have helped her”

“I thought your pet Eraser took care of that?”

“She did but someone sent him the schematics of the BMC. He was able to use them to engineer some of device to deactivate them”

“I told you keeping him around was a bad idea”

Quentin sighed and nodded. “It was a bad call sir. I take full responsibility for all of Zarkov’s failures”

Carson groaned. “Zarkov was my fault just as much as yours”

“Have they found him yet?”

Carson nodded. “What was left of him was in the woods, decayed beyond all recognition”

“Decayed? But that’s not possible; I talked to him a few hours before the Break Out. We were trying g to come up with a plan to stem Howe’s aggressive tendencies and make her a team player”

‘According to the coroner, Zarkov had been dead for months, stabbed repeatedly”

“How is that possible?”

“We’ve identified the unknown female our Clean up team found in Zarkov’s office”

He pulled a remote from his pocket and pointed it at the projector. The image of the Earth disappeared to be replaced by the face of a red headed girl. She looked grim and uncompromising. Quentin always marveled at the feat of technology before him. Carson was going to unveil it in a couple of months and then try to mass produce it within a year. It was going to revolutionize home PCs the world over.

“Who is she?”

“Scarlet Harris, Subject 0F03, or at least she would have been. According to our records, she died during the Change. It was a bit shocking to see her very lively looking, save from the bullet in her head, lying on the floor in one of my facilities”

“I had no idea”

“I know” Carson grinned, taking great pride at making Quentin sweat. “Her autopsy revealed an abnormal amount of brain activity. We think she might have been some kind of Dominator”

“Who was the one that was on her Initial retrieval?”

Carson groaned. “My son”

He said the word “son” like it was something invested and needed to be cut off.

“Have they been able to locate him yet?”

Carson shook his head. ‘I don’t think they’re going to either. If there’s one thing I taught “her”, it was how to be resourceful. Francesca was a little bitch but she knew how to get things done. We found some of her blood on the wall in Zarkov’s office but not enough to be serious. There was also some evidence of her being kept in one of the lower rooms in the tower. But she escaped. We’re not sure of her exact whereabouts but her mustang was missing from the Vehicle Bay”

“You think he’s gone rouge?”

Carson sighed. “I think she’s being the spoiled rotten little brat that I raised her to be. But she’ll resurface, she always does. She can’t go anywhere without spending my money. She may be my son now but she’s my little princess at heart and if I know her well enough, she won’t stay away for long”

Quentin nodded. “What do we do about Howe and the others?”

Carson clicked the remote again. The projected image changed, showing video footage from a police interrogation room. Quentin smiled when he saw Howe, in hand cuffs being interrogated by a black woman. Got you know bitch. But as he continued to watch, he saw something that he didn’t like. The door opened and that horrid woman entered. Fine was the bane of his existence. A few seconds later, Keys was there, Harris’ lapdog. They talked to Howe; she got up and left with them. Then Keys turned to the camera and everything went to static.

‘They have her?’

“It appears so” said Carson casually.

“She’s going to tell them everything”

“More than likely”

“This doesn’t bother you”

Carson sighed. “Section Four is gone”

“What about Arizona?”

Carson nodded. “Clearly our enemy has finally stepped up”

‘This doesn’t concern you?”

Carson clicked the remote and the projection became a giant C. He got up, slipping the remote back into his pocket. He put his hand on Quentin’s shoulder and led him over to a section of the floor that looked out of place. He pushed a button on his watch and the area rose up out of the floor, revealing a safe. He put in the combination, opened the safe and took out a file. It was real thin. HE handed it to Quentin who skimmed it briefly before handing it back.

“What is this?”

“The state side facilities were bound to be compromised eventually. I’m over the Cure anyways, it’s hard to cure someone who doesn’t want it” He tapped the folder. “I need you at Facility X by tomorrow morning”

“Why me?”

“Because you’re the perfect man to head Project Heracles”

Photo Credit: MeetMeByTheLake2Nite