Minder: Secrets of Mind

Chapter 25

Melissa's fingernails clink across the armrest of her chair in the Spiders Room. The center of the web of her network of spies, operatives, rumor gatherers, aides, and Seeker operations always runs back to this room and ends there. Those who worked in this room within the Spire were brought in from relatively unknown families or cities to ensure they had no connections to anyone they may spy on or have to ensure is killed by someone in the field. They owed their every breath to Melissa, literally and figuratively. Ten soldiers, in dark painted armor with prototype stealth panels just waiting to be tested, stood ready in the dim shadows of the dark metal walls. Surrounding the observation consoles at the center of the room and the twenty-five to thirty-five staff depending on the time of day, waited for any signal she gave.

The consoles extend out from her elevated chair at the back center of the room, giving her a full view of everything. But all critical matters were displayed on three large displays against the opposite wall. At the moment, all three displays showed a matter of failure she hadn't seen coming, not with what they had thrown at it so far. Seekers, fifty-three of them...dead. They were killed or whelmed in one trip into the girl's mind. Adam Hammond killed most, with two other mind signature's detected garnering kills as well, with Aja not too far off. And most peculiar was the unidentified kills, she knew they belonged to the girl, but until her signature could be verified, they would not claim them as hers. But they were quick and lethal kills.

The girl was as deadly as the rest of her family! Such lethality was something that was stewing in Melissa's mind. Adam had at least three hundred Seekers to his name and killed at least seven of her spies in Crescent City. Despite her background being the once darling of the Okeke line and a genius beyond measure, Aja has several Seekers to her name and nearly 40 spies to her name so far! A third addition to that wheel was going to essentially buckle her entire network and prevent her plans from finding fruition.

But that was the least of her problems.

"I don't understand it...the girl is an abomination. No one has ever been able to get past even detailed research stages regarding hybridization. How is she possible?" Mitchells worries.

"Do yourself a favor, Mitchells, and shut the hell up. Because the more you talk and do, the more I realize how incompetent you are beyond convincing some foolish horned up boy to acquiesce to my demands." Melissa gripes as her head struggles to run the cost of all this in her head.

She was furious with Gregory but knew there was nothing she could do about it right now, the same way she felt he wasn't going to do anything to her. But as for the people in this room that weren't her, some of them were living their final moments and didn't even know it.

"Ma'am...if I may, I had no idea Stevens was there. He got through without me being tipped off by threatening that the First Human had sent him without warning and wished it to stay that way till he had seen the entire station."

"Listen to me. And do so with the widest ears you have ever had in your entire life because if you don't, then it will be the last time you use those damn flopped ears of yours. He is coming, and he will demand blood for this failure. We aren't done dealing with the costs of this matter; half this room will barely even quench his anger. Even if he doesn't appear angry, remain silent unless he or I speak to you and request a response. Do not react to anything until he is out of the room, or he could snap, and above all else, do not try to justify or counter any instructions."

"But what do you mean? Oh, Humanity."

A few feet away, the elevator creaks as it slows, and the doors slide open swiftly. Ten of the First Guard come rushing out to line the walkway to the center of the room and the central console. They turn themselves away from the walkway to face the entire room, elevating their rifles as if they were preparing a bayonet charge. The action causes Mitchells to gasp, but Melissa stands up and pulls her back, allowing the closest guardsmen to ease his masked and emotionless look at her. Several footsteps tap onto the metal flooring of the elevator. Each step causes tension for everyone in the room except for Melissa, still in her gown from the opera and shining against the black and gray clothing of the others. Even the guards tense up as they answer to Melissa, and even they know by the way the mood of the room shifted with the death of the last Seeker that trouble was ahead.