The Forever Watch

Chapter 4

The CEO never enjoyed being summoned from a meeting, especially one as important as the one he was in. Nobody could imagine his frustration, especially since the interrupt did not come from a cute, short-skirted secretary, but blaring alarms and flashing lights.

"Is there a problem?" asked one of the shareholders.

"We're running a few tests at the moment within the facility, all of this simply ensures that our simulation data is as real as possible," justified the CEO in an emotionless tone. "Please remain calm, and I'll investigate. In the meantime please help yourself to beverages."

Outside the meeting room, the alarms were deafening. With great irritation he hunted for those responsible around the facility, which was thrown into utter chaos.

"Sergeant!" called out the CEO. "What the hell is this?"

"The intruder has infiltrated the facility, Sir," replied the soldier.

The CEO shot him a powerfully hard stare. "You cannot be serious, right?"

The sergeant shuffled uncomfortably in front of the suited man. "Err... no, Sir."

"Sergeant... your team have served in global hotspots such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Yugoslavia, et cetera. You have been recommended with outstanding achievement. Your unit, in particular, were famous for suffering absolutely no casualties, is this correct?"

"Yes, Sir," coughed the sergeant.

"And you are telling me that you have been bested by one man?" snarled the CEO.

"I know it sounds impossible, but our bullets... they're just not connecting, Sir. We escalated the weaponry to mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, machine-guns, as well as snipers... nothing."

"Allow me to explain, Sergeant. I've needed to rudely leave a very important meeting, populated with all of our financers and shareholders. What should I tell them when I inevitably return?"

The sergeant rubbed his forehead, embarrassed.

"Look... I don't profess to tell you how to do your job, Sergeant. I would just be incredibly indebted if you could apprehend this assailant with absolute prejudice. Just make sure you give me a plan of all areas affected by combat when you're done. I don't want our financers walking accidentally into a warzone."

"Shall be done, Sir, I apologise," murmured the sergeant.

The CEO saw the sergeant run off to his squad, barking orders, berating them with humiliation, passing his embarrassment from the CEO onto his men.

The suited man adjusted his tie, feeling it constrict his breathing. He couldn't relax now. He marched straight down to the lower tier, meeting with the chief scientist.

"Sir... I was about to come and find you..." stuttered the white-coated man, jittering with his glasses.

"What the hell is going on?" asked the CEO as calmly as possible. "Is this something to do with the intruder?"

"Well... requesting all of the resources has had... an effect."

"What you call 'an effect' I call devious plotting and corporate sabotage."

"No, no, Sir, you have to understand, this was one of the risks."

The CEO scorned at the scientist. "I was not made aware of such risks."

"Using all of the resources allowed us to hack through the previous employee's computer, however it seems we've inadvertently encountered an unexpected... security system."

"Security system? We didn't authorise the development of any security system."

"Exactly... this must've been the previous engineer's 'insurance policy', if you will. A means to protect his intellectual property."

"Just... level with me... what kind of 'security system' are we talking about?" asked the CEO.

The scientist suddenly found his throat incredibly dry, he tried to swallow. Opening his mouth, he was speechless.

"Doctor, what does it do?" repeated the CEO firmly.

"Well... I guess he anticipated that we'd require all of the computing power to overcome his system, and all of that brute force has been hijacked and used against us. It's basically chaotically activating our projects within the last six months."

Suddenly the CEO's eyes widened. "Even the Magnetic Defences?"

"That was the first system to behave erratically."

Suddenly the puzzle made complete sense to him.

"What kind of potential damage are we looking at?" asked the CEO.

"I'll find out how many projects this guy was involved in to analyse the full potential damage, but I recommend shutting off all network access. It has already infected the quarantine protocols. In fact, that was what I was trying to do right now. I did not want to interrupt your important meeting if I could resolve the issue independently."

"Well, it's too late for that now. Just leave the stakeholders to me. In the meantime disconnect the back-up server," ordered the CEO, grabbing his cell phone, speed-dialling a number.

The sergeant picked up, directly connected to his headset.

"Sergeant, we have a problem, there's a magnetic defence system malfunctioning, that's why your bullets were missing, I apologise for my earlier accusation of your team acting inefficiently."

"Don't you have an arsenal of plastic weaponry?" asked the sergeant.

"We have ordered some from a subsidiary, obviously they haven't arrived yet," said the CEO, cold and calculated. "It was designed to deflect incoming enemy fire, where we'd be able to respond with plastic weaponry. Having said that, I am not quite sure why the truck toppled if the settings were set to deal with high-velocity bodies."

"That was because the driver had a pacemaker, the magnetism must've interfered with it," revealed the sergeant.

The CEO rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. "This guy is just extremely lucky... or this is a very well-thought out plan. Just ensure that the intruder is apprehended."

"Yes, Sir."

The CEO cut the conversation, flipping his cell phone shut.

"What about the project, Sir?" asked the scientist.

"That's going ahead as planned. We simply have no other time."

"Sir... we're not soldiers."

"A security detail are on their way. Just make sure you meet the deadline at any costs."

"Yes, Sir," obeyed the scientist, reluctantly.

The CEO could not afford the project to beinterrupted, this was the main reason the financiers expressed an interest inArmsTech, he couldn't allow this madman inside. He was so close and anidealistic lunatic would not get in his way.