The Modification Accord was a promise made by governments all around the world. In the late 21st century, when humankind finally came across gene healing, the opportunities to do more than just that became tempting. Gene healing was a scientific and medical marvel that involved speeding up the healing capability of cells for a certain duration. This allowed injuries from getting a hand cut off, to actually speed up the process of healing to the point wherein less than 10 minutes the injury would close and stop the bleeding.
With this discovery, it led to others wondering if it was possible to do more than just heal a life-endangering wound. "What if we can use this to make people stronger or better, live longer?" Was the question that came across scientists' minds, and inevitably, governments across the world wondered the same thing. The research was practiced without leading to any results until the early 22nd century when the lives of those lost became too unbearable to keep proceeding with the research. By the time the Accord was made, close to a million lives were lost. The saddest part was that there wasn't even a war. Each death was caused by the faults of those who conducted the experiments.
"Yes, I know what we are saying seems out there bu-," Amaya starts to say but Zack interrupts, "No, it's a little more than just out there." Zack further says, "You are literally saying that a major WORLD corporation is conducting human modification."
Kai cuts in to say, "If what you say is even remotely true then the implications are way worse than just that." Hana nods and says, "I think it would be best if we leave now. It's about to start."
"What's about to start?" David asks. "The speech." Reynaldo says as he stands up and continues, "If we want to find out anything then we would have to do this now." He says as he looks at Hana and Amaya. Amaya gives a quick nod, looks toward Hana, and says, "Let's get this started."
"Where are you guys going?" Zack asks while the three starts to walk out. The three don't answer as they are already walking, with haste, towards the door that the guests had entered. Silence permeates through the table. A couple of moments of silence pass until a small little metallic ball comes and refills the drinks that were on the table.
"What do you think they are doing?" David asks while looking at the door. "Not sure, but I don't think what they said earlier was a lie," Kai says. "You serious?" Zack questions. "Reynaldo is a geneticist. A good one too. When I looked at the patient with the cybernetic problem, I saw that he would've died the first day he got that limb," David says. Kai nods and adds, "The lead-poisoning would've killed him if his cellular structure wasn't treated the way it was."
"That shows that Reynaldo is not only skilled in his field but can actually back up the claim they are giving if they saw this happen," David replies. "So, what should we do?" Zack asks. A moment of silence passes for only the moment when Kai says, "I don't know." Zack then adds, "Wait, didn't they say that if they wanted to find out, they would have to do it now?"
"Yeah, but I don't see how. We are in the convention center, not the Gene Corp. headquarters." Kai says. "Well yeah, but the group that organized this was Gene Corp," Zack says. "What are you getting at?" Kai asks. "Well, part of the agreement that Gene Corp made to fund the Convention Center in remodeling was for the Convention Center to become Gene Corp property. They would allow public access to the whole state, but the convention center would be bought and owned by Gene Corp." Zack adds quickly, "They were talking about it over the news last week. I don't see why Gene Corp wouldn't use some part of this place to be exclusively Gene Corp territory."
Hearing this new bit of information, Kai and David look at each other worriedly. David has a lot of issues not paying attention when he doesn't have weed. "They are probably prepared right?" Kai asks. After he asks this, there's a different male attendant that shows up on the stage in front of them. "May we please ask the guests to have their seats? Our sponsor is going to give their announcement momentarily." When he finishes his sentence the metallic whirring of little floating bots starts to go to their assigned guests and lead them towards the table. "Please, make your way to your seats," says the bots as they usher people to their tables.
David hears the bots and says, "I honestly do not think we should have to worry much ab-." "Hey, David? Where's our little waiter bot going?" Zack asks while tapping on David's shoulders. After Zack asks that, David and Kai look at the little metallic bot floating towards the door.
"Guests, please make your way to your seats," says the bot as it heads out the door. Kai, David, and Zack look at each other for a second before standing up.
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Heading out the door, Reynaldo looks at the two ladies behind him. "You think they would say anything?" He asks. "If they wanted to say something, they would've stopped us," Amaya says as the three of them head out into the lobby. "We'll have to worry about that later. We have to change now." Hana says.
Amaya then goes up to the lobby desk that was put right in the middle of the lobby with holo-screens all around the desk. Sitting at the desk is a blonde-haired attendant that looks like he would want to be anywhere but at the lobby desk. Amaya goes up and asks, "Excuse me? May you point me in the direction of the bathrooms please?"
The attendant who seemed bored seemed to be energized the moment he laid eyes on Amaya. He says, "Sure, the bathrooms are down the left hallway." Amaya pauses, then replies, "Thank you, but can you show me the way? I'm not sure if I would know it when I see it." The conversation goes on like this while Reynaldo grabs a small flat box from the back of his pocket. He bends over like he is tying his shoes next to the desk and places the box right under the small opening of the desk.
After he gets up, he says, "Actually, I think I know the way sis, I'll just show you before we leave." Seeing that her part was finished Amaya looks at the attendant who seems discouraged now and says, "Well never mind then, but thank you though." Amaya says with a flirtatious smile as she turns and saunters off with the group.
After finding the bathrooms to change, Reynaldo finishes changing first and brings up his wrist communicator. A small holo-screen pops up. "Scraps's scrambler is in place and connected," he says on subvocal. "Scraps said that the scrambler will fritz the camera footage for 45 min. Which gives enough time for us to see what's happening down there." As he finishes changing, he heads out of the bathroom.
He comes out wearing casual wear. Blue jeans, black t-shirt, and black shoes. "When we're done, we can get out and blend in with the others." A couple of minutes later, Amaya and Hana come out of the bathroom too.
Amaya comes out wearing black leggings and a crop top with the words "Fitting in isn't my thing" across the back of the shirt. She has her wrist com on still, but she wiped off the makeup and put her curly hair into a ponytail. Hana also wears something of a similar nature. She changed into black leggings and a black long sleeve shirt that she pulled up to her elbows. She has glasses on this time, with her wrist communicator on her arm, and her hair is tied up into a bun.
Seeing his companions ready, "45 minutes start," Reynaldo says as he clicks something on his holo-screen, "now." With that, the three of them run down the hallway they were in. Along the way, they pass by holograms of old scientists giving their own little monologue of what they have contributed to science. 5 minutes passed when they stop at the place they were looking for. "Wow, guess they really didn't want anyone to come here," Amaya says.
In front of the three of them is a wall that had no door. From what it looked like at least. As they came over to the wall, a key pad had protruded from the wall. Placing another small object on it, the keypad was silent for a couple seconds before a green light appeared. Yet next, something unexpected happened and when the door revealed itself, as it should according to the blueprints, a small ovel like machine slid out over the top of the door. A red light had appeared and was about to scan them from what it looked like before they all avoided it.
"That wasn't on the blueprint Regal had?" Hana asks Reynaldo. Reynaldo looks at both Hana and Amaya, "Honestly, I do not know Hana. This was supposed to be a straight in and out. We had it on good authority that Regal provided all that was available on the Convention Center. This must've just been added, but we don't have enough time before the others come either." As if on cue they all then hear, "Guests, please make your way to your seats." The little bot says.
"Damn it! What's that doing here?" Reynaldo hisses as the bot stops a few feet away from them and the "eye" starts to turn red. The voice changes from sounding welcoming to sounding louder and angrier. "YOUUU HAVE TRESPASSED INTOOOooo-." The robot stops mid-sentence as it drops from the air. Before it could fall on the ground, a black sleeved arm reaches out to catch it on the way down.
"You guys are lucky." The owner of the arm says. Hana, Reynaldo, and Amaya look up to see Kai holding the bot in his right arm. Behind him is a calm semi well-dressed young man in a dark navy-blue suit with shaggy blonde hair. "I hacked in just in time too. It almost sent out an alert." David says as he is messing with his wrist com. A bit further in the back is a chubby young man in a fashionable suit, with sweat on his brow.
"Move…Too...Fast." Zack says as he tries to catch his breath. "What are you guys doing here?" Hana says as she looks at Kai.
"Saw the little guy come out chasing after you guys. Figured the three of you were going to do something interesting so we came after," Kai replies as he passes the little bot to Zack.
Amaya scrunches her brows, "And you guys are just fine with that? No qualms about doing something illegal. We have a reason, but you guys are just doing this because this is interesting?" This didn't make sense at all. She looks at her older brother who seemed to be thinking about the same thing.
"And we are curious about what's happening also," David says while looking at the door ahead of them. "You shouldn't be here," Hana says while she looks at Kai. "She's right. This can actually get you in more trouble than you believe," Reynaldo says to the group.
"Right, which is even more interesting since it seems that you are also ignoring that large possibility of you getting in the same amount of trouble. If it wasn't for us, you would've been caught by the bot. Not only that but that little scrambler you guys used was basically useless after 9 minutes." David states. "What do you mean, that was good for 45 minutes," Reynaldo states confusedly. "In normal cases, yes but the convention center was armed with magnetic field enhancers that limit weaker tech like that scrambler you used," Kai says while looking past Hana who seems to be a little mad that Kai wasn't listening to her.
"To make it short, if it wasn't for my two bosses who basically covered the three of your backs, y'all would've been caught. Plus, if y'all wanna pass through that door then you guys are going to need their help." Zack says to the group. Amaya looks at Zack and asks, "What are you going to be doing then?"
"I'm the open-minded guy that thinks outside the box when these two, focus too much on the details," Zack says as he points at Kai and David who are just staring ahead at the door. David walks a bit further forward with his right hand on his wrist com. As he walks forward, he touches his communicator to bring out a blue holo-screen with code and data streaming across it. With his right hand, he pinches the holo-screen with his thumb and forefinger. He moves his hand right in front of him and brings up the holo-screen to be floating in front of him. "Horus, run a scan on the wall and the door. Make sure to pull up the security model of the door and if you run into a wall, you can just forget about it; we don't want to be noticed."
"Yes, David." A male voice sounds out in response as David starts to type on the screen that is floating in front of him. On the screen, if one were looking at it from his point of view, one would see the screen have a virtual computer pad that he is typing across. At the same time, in the top left corner of the screen, is a symbol of Horus scanning the wall and door. While it scans it brings up codes that can be used to break into the place without tripping any alarms.
As the options pop up, not even a millisecond later, they go away as it is determined by the computer to be a complete failure if one were to try that option. All this happens in 10 seconds when the male robotic voice of Horus pops in and says, "The door is unlocked, and security measures have been deactivated." As Horus says that David was walking towards the door in a leisurely manner. By the time Horus says "deactivated," David has already reached and opened the door in a casual manner.
Stunned, Hana asks, "How did you do that?"
Kai counters with, "How did y'all get a scrambler and cypher tech? Not exactly something California Medical is dabbling in I believe?" He teased.
Kai and Zack start moving forward as though this was only normal. Hana, Reynaldo, and Amaya stare for a moment longer before walking forward also.
Walking forward towards David, David turns around to look inside. "Even though I got through the door easily, that was still a little weird," David states. Kai comes up to the door and asks, "What do you mean?"
"Horus got through alright, but if it was anyone else then there would have been no possibility of getting through the security without sounding alarms," says David. "Meaning?" Amaya asks as the group heads through the door.
After everyone got in the door, Kai says, "It means that Gene Corp went through a lot of trouble to hide whatever they have here."