The Dark Edge Chronicles - Hardwire

Chapter 44: December 31, 2019

Settling back into her chair, Katherine Hollingcott looked at the massive studio camera currently focused on her with a broad smile.

"Thanks, Kerri. Kerri Taylor, reporting from the Seventh Precinct of the Calgary Police Service on the recent downswing of John Doe murders throughout the city." Katherine paused to shuffle her papers slightly.

"And our final story of this Sunday evening centers on the international conference of world finance ministers currently preparing to meet in what many analysts have predicted to be the most momentous gathering of world leaders in a decade. And so it would seem appropriate that this meeting would take place on the first day of the first month of what many historians have called the true millennium, the year 2020. For more on this story, we go to our reporter down at the Calgary Conference Center, Leslie Cummins. Leslie?"

As the cameras cut away from the two news anchors to the remote location, the segment producer frowned from his place behind the row of technicians in the control booth as he gazed at the wall of monitors from the various cameras scattered throughout the studio.

"Nice work, Katherine," he muttered under his breath. "Smooth as silk." Then, a little louder: "Give me a bit of a close up on the remote camera."

A number of the monitors flickered as the asked for close up was made. Nodding in satisfaction, the producer took a step back and pulled off a phone receiver from its cradle on the wall. Dialing a number from memory, the short, balding producer placed the receiver against his ear while keeping his eyes on the bank of monitors.

Hearing the other end pick up, he spoke a single terse line and hung up without waiting for a confirmation by the other party.

"The door is open," he rasped then stepped away from the phone and back to his position behind the technicians.

With a frown, the lean, hatchet-faced man swiped off the late model cell phone he held in a bony hand before replacing it into an inside pocket of the dark and expensive Italian suit he wore. He ran his other hand over slicked back hair before he turned hard eyes to the tight knot of people that stood waiting just inside the door to the room.

For a moment he silently studied them, knowing each by name and reputation. They were the elite, the best the Brotherhood could gather from the thousands the Inner Council had culled from the subsumed nations they had conquered. And they were the ultimate in disposable, expendable warriors.

Each had been trained exhaustively in every subversive technique and every method of assassination and penetration available. More importantly, however, was the fact that each had their mind broken and rebuilt from the ground up by the fresh faced young hardwire standing at the back, the last surviving member of Mindfire, Agony.

For a moment the lean man's eyes locked with Agony's bright blue ones, the man noting her frown as she leaned against a nearby wall, arms folded beneath her breasts. Despite the fact that she had found herself looking into the dark gray eyes of one of the most powerful men in the Brotherhood, the whole world even, Agony didn't even blink. Instead she stared back, a slight smile touching her lips.

With powerful coercion and mind destroying and altering techniques, Agony was solely responsible for the creation of the disposable weapons the lean man found standing in front of him. She had broken them, rebuilt them and filled their minds completely with the need to serve the Brotherhood without question or fear. And, by the look on her face, the young American hardwire knew exactly how important she was in making sure the final stage of the Armageddon Project took place without a hitch.

A frown twisting his thin lips, the lean man abruptly jerked his eyes away from the young hardwire, brutally pushing his irritation aside to concentrate on the matter at hand. With the way clear to final placement of the living weapons the Brotherhood would use to launch their devastating plan, it was time to move them into position.