In the ant hierarchy, the soldier ants were the backbone of the masses, and main workforce. They ventured out of the safety of the colony in search of food. More often than not they are prey to bigger carnivorous insects and many others. They, therefore, were entirely expendable so long as food was delivered to the Queen. Any one individual had no true purpose other than to find and bring back sustenance.
The same could not be said for humans, for obvious reasons. However, that is not to say that there are not many viable examples in that regard. There is one in particular that sticks out in this tapestry of events. Take the former relationship of Dr. Fuyomi and Dr. Warne for example. So long as there was someone working underneath the older researcher, he felt no reason not to do simply as he pleased and allow his subordinate to clean up and tend to whatever he did not.
However, it seems that this dynamic has been broken..
...or has it?
-- London, in a temporary laboratory.
Slaving away at his research for hours and hours was no hard task for the seasoned scientist, but just two hours of searching satellite imagery and managing ground teams had him feeling as if he'd crawled out of a trench. Mentally, at least.
There was still no sign of either of his search targets. Dr. Fuyomi had gone to ground and did good work in hiding his tracks, to anyone who actually bothered to look for them that is. Without his most loyal subordinate, he was robbed of an avenue for extra support. Though they both were indeed scientists of similar calibre, the younger man had a mindset of practicality that he applied to his work, something the older doctor lacked. It meant that more humanitarian sensitive issues would be handled by the junior, and research-based problems by the senior scientist.
Though there was little in the way of progress in that regard, he had stumbled on a promising lead. A week prior one of his search teams were dispatched into Kathmandu, which happened to be one of the closest cities to the site of the incident. It was no unwise move to do so in this case, as the city in question was a practical labyrinth. It was relatively simple to imagine someone "disappearing" randomly in a place like this.
But now, all the aforementioned facts were more obstacles- more delays. The old man was beginning to grow increasingly impatient for any some sort of result. But now that the thought had passed through his mind,
Just what exactly was Kanrou planning?
-- Kathmandu, downtown district.
What was even the point of trying the cities when they were all so massive? Mind you also the maze-like roads and streets sprawling about with no apparent pattern to follow. Such was the state of affairs concerning Fuyomi Kanrou.
While usually one would think it a simple endeavour, sweep the city for any signs of the search target and move on if nothing was found. However, things had turned out to be rather complicated. With no connections, no prior knowledge and dwindling amounts of equipment that was going missing left and right at random times in the three odd weeks they had been holed up in a motel in the outskirts of Kathmandu. It had only been made worse when he discovered that there have indeed been sightings of Subject 000 in and about the metropolitan areas of the city, as well as the shadier and secluded downtown areas.
Although the only ones the information had been collected from had been crackheads and general drug-abusing scum of the earth, so that lead was readily discarded. How exactly could they trust the intelligence when it was given from those who were high and practically incoherent anyway? It was hardly a difficult decision to discard that lead due to its unreliable source.
There had not been many more leads after that, much to his dismay. They had been in Kathmandu almost a month now and still had nothing reliable to draw any conclusions from. His initial enthusiasm had wavered in the first weeks, but this had reignited his resolve. And so, he will have his people double their efforts, expand their search radius, and take account of any smidgeon of intelligence they could gather. If quality had failed them, then quantity was sure to provide a different result. It was beyond him to picture just what exactly Subject 000 would or could be up to in this moment, so he spared no time on the errant thought. If his objective was her whereabouts, then nothing else would matter.
With this sharpened resolve and edited means of action, he and his associates set off with a new set of objectives. This was the new plan- get moving about the city and root in operatives to join the ones running the underground show, earn their trust and use their connections to find anything on their target. Going about a strenuous task like this would take time, however. Preparation was always warranted in situations where it was needed, this was no different. While his people were out preparing, he remained in his motel as he reviewed and updated any information he had of Subject 000. He imagined that her genetic sequence had gone through some drastic changes in the time that had elapsed so far and thus labelled it under "Unstable".
He had seen many examples of rampant mutations and no small amount of grotesque and frightening abilities manifesting from those very mutations. One could only shudder at the thought of exactly how her mutation could have turned out, seeing as she had the most erratic yet stable genetic profile. There was much to be considered, and the meagre collection of sample data he'd managed to reclaim from his damaged hard drive had only been a fraction of what was compiled over the years of Warne's possession of the subject. Though at times worrying, her genome had shifted and morphed to suit and assimilate every new strand of DNA that his former mentor had thought of in order to achieve a specific mutation, but in the time before her escape, nothing evident had come of it. There was an oddity, however. He remembered one of the security agents carrying her out to the helipad and leaving with her, which, by usual logic, should not have happened. All available security had orders to apprehend her, so it made very little sense as to why that agent acted against his orders.
There was no justification or apparent reason that he could think of as to why that specific guard did what he did, nor was there one for the doctor who suddenly lashed out at his coworker at the very start of this mess. That was one of the small pieces of evidence he'd found, even though he could pin no real theories to the sudden betrayal. So far, they had more information than any other interested party, yet could not fit anything into a coherent sequence that could explain anything. It rankled him that at every point, twist and turn the elusive subject appeared seemingly several steps ahead and was just leading all those on the search by the end of their noses.
That was under the assumption that she even orchestrated the whole ordeal, which may or may not have been true. It was also very likely that it was an inside betrayal that someone in the employ of the Anthill had planned and executed. No place was fully airtight so long as there was something precious to be lost, and extremely precious the subject was indeed. He could easily imagine some military power or other clawing at the chance to get a leg up on any competitors, and a genetically augmented human specimen of unknown ability was too tempting a prospect, despite any possible risks. That was one of the true issues, people being too greedy or too naive to look past their nose to see the carrot leading them about.
Dr. Warne had been correct about certain things, however. Prior to the incident Project H.I.V.E had indeed been nearing completion, and distracted as they both were with analysis, they had the entire operation halted and swiftly terminated in the span of a single night by and unknown perpetrator. Subject 000 was also due to manifest her mutation at the time, but neither he nor his former mentor had seen it come to light due to the aforementioned termination. A shame, to be sure. He was highly interested to see what would become of his mentor's prized subject. While he wished no serious harm on the already unfortunate girl, his more resentful side had hoped that Warne's methods would expeditiously fail in spite of all his efforts. A man could hope, after all.
"...I wonder what she's up to," He sighed out and leaned back in the comfortable desk chair he was sat in, laptop sitting open on his lap.
He'd said those same words several times during the past weeks at differing intervals, not being able to take his thoughts off his elusive target. Remembering those sharp, intelligent eyes when she looked at him that night plagued his dreams and nightmares. They were both truly fools for not noticing sooner.
It was a moot point now though; all he could do was continue looking for results. Even those had been few and far in between, but it was better than no results at all. It was a slow step, but in the right direction.
He had to account for other things now as well, one being the fact that his people on the ground were attempting to move into dangerous territory. Scoping out the city for her manually would have worked far too slowly, this expidited the endeavour massively but came with risk to match the increase in the probability of their success. Having had no experience in this field, he was putting the entire operaton in the hands of the agents he'd hired, as they were trained to handle situations undercover. More than that, criminal elements were tricky to work around, but they were to be working with them directly in order for anything to progress.
Another variable to look out for was Dr. Warne. He was a smart man, and therefore would not sit idly for long before he made the same move he did, and come to Kathmandu in search of the subject. He wanted to be firmly rooted into the underbelly of the city by the time he did, he and his agents would be much more difficult to find if he succeeded. Subject 000 was very sheltered from regular human life, so many aspects would be almost alien to her, but he suspected that she had done the very thing that he intends to do. It would have explained why she was so elusive; it was very nearly the perfect cover in a place like this.
An epiphany slammed into him with the grace of a sledge, and he immediately began making calls to his agents. Of course! If they wanted to find her, they needed connections with criminal elements, not just for gathering information, but as possible avenues to their target. The thought being that if she had placed herself into the underground, she had to be involved in some kind of unsavoury or illegal business. It was in actuality the same idea he had initially thought to use in order to burrow them into the underground sector of the city.
He felt a newfound respect for the subject blossom in his mind; to have been alone in an unfamiliar place that was all but alien and to respond with a plan like this took a sharp intellect. He only had an advantage due to how vastly different their lifestyles had been. He was certain of something, if that girl had been blessed with a normal life she would have much further ahead than many her age due to her natural cunning and ability.
It was a shame, really. But one that was now out of his control, so there was no longer any use in thinking about it. Though, with the way things had begun to change, he figured that he would be doing a lot more thinking on the matter in due time. Though, unbeknownst to him, all the major players in this little game were preparing their next moves as well. And now only time will tell who will have the upper hand.