Hybrid (BOOK 1)

Chapter 9: The Meltdown

Shiloh, Ben and Chelsea were already there as well as several other agents. Skyler roughly calculated the number of agents in the room to about fifty. There were many seats to spare so Skyler sat down on the nearest chair. The room reminded her of her college days in a way, the only difference was that the chairs were made out of leather and there was a huge metal like table in the middle of all the chairs. She breathed in slowly and exhaled even slower so that she could release some of the stress that she was feeling.

"Okay people," the General started off as she entered the room. "Let's get down to business. For those of you who don't know her, this is Skyler Ortega, the newest member of our team. You will know more about her later. So talk to me people, what have you found out?" Skyler looked around her; everybody had tablets and other gadgets. Everything was very well organized.

"We know that mostly all the dancers were abducted. What we don't know is how, the agents on the field didn't give much information," one agent said.

"Chelsea?" the General asked. Chelsea cleared her throat before speaking.

"After the explosion, we tried to scan the area to see if there was any invisible energy that could cause harm to the public while Ben and Shiloh tried to help Skyler. However, we found nothing, no traces of radiation, nothing harmful to the environment..."

"So what I'm hearing is, we got nothing," General Williams said in an irritated tone. "There were twenty dance crews present at that show, each crew had a minimum of fifteen people others had a maximum of twenty five. Now if you do the math, that makes enough people to create an army! So how did they disappear without anybody noticing?" Complete silence reigned in the room, no one had an answer for General Williams.

"Oh so none of you have anything to say? When we received the tip that something was going to happen at the park, we took all precautions necessary. Our invisible drones were monitoring the park, the mind wipers were ready AND I sent my best agents to handle everything undercover. So we were ready, so how come none of you can show me footage of what happened after the explosion?"

"The only footage we have is the one where Skyler intervened and got blasted away. Somehow we don't have any more footage that shows the events that happened after the blast," an agent replied.

"So what I'm hearing is that there was some sort of malfunction," Chelsea analyzed.

"That's what we thought but after we scanned the drones for any potential malfunctions or errors, we found nothing," the same agent said.

"Well that's sounds awfully convenient and not suspicious at all," Ben remarked.

"Well I blame Skyler," Chelsea declared, "if she hadn't done what she did, maybe just maybe things would've been different."

"Chelsea, you can't just blame Skyler for everything," Melanie said in Skyler's defense.

"As a matter of fact I can..."

"Yeah just blame me for everything Chelsea!" Skyler burst out.

"Keep quiet Skyler," Shiloh warned.

"No Shiloh let her continue, you were saying Skyler?" Chelsea taunted.

"You people keep telling me that your mission changed because of me, because of what I did! But you aren't answering the more important questions!  Why didn't you warn anyone? Why didn't you have the show cancelled? If your agents were there, it meant that you knew something would go down, but instead of warning people, you just let them go to the show. Where is your steaming hot platter of justice huh?"