FICTION: Cyborg Sleeps part 8

The rest of the story

This is pretty much another infodump segment. I really wanted to have a part in between "Asira goes on assignment" and "Asira returns from assignment", and this is all I could find to fill it with. There is also a proper plot-development reason for having it here instead of later, because I didn't want to have Gattell's musings to come at a time in the story where logically he would not be sitting at his desk pondering things but rather being active and making decisions quickly (for instance, when the existence of his project was discovered!)

The storyline of the racism of Gattell's peers in the military and intelligence communities is adapted and enhanced from the storyline of one of the earliest directors to be given a Doctor Who episode. Doctor Who was expected to be a failure, so they gave the production job to a woman (Verity Lambert) and the director job to an Asian guy (I forget his name, but this was published in an interview with him in the Doctor Who Magazine). It seemed reasonable that a bigger version of the same thing could happen here.

It also gives me a reason why a supposedly secret operation would be called upon by many different agencies, including ordinary law enforcement.

Part 8

Director Samuel Gattell considered the latest reports. With Asira's deployment, there were now four cyborgs on active duty at present. Another two had recently returned and were undergoing debriefing and training before being returned to the suspended animation sleep, while another five were currently in that curious state. A twelfth member of the cyborg corps had recently been given his last enhancements and was involved in intensive training to reacquaint himself with his body and its new functions. Once he had done that, he would start training in earnest, even more intensively than a Special Forces soldier had to. He would one day become as adept in the many skills and fighting techniques as Asira or any of the other cyborgs.

Gattell traced in his mind the history of the cyborg project. Initially, it had been designed to be only a two or three cyborg agents, maybe four at the most. And it had been widely expected, Gattell knew, to be a failure. That was why he had been given the job of Director in the first place. He had clawed his way up the ranks in his own Agency despite every effort to keep him frustrated and junior – his performance had always demanded attention. At last, his superiors had thought, here was a chance to disgrace him. The project was expensive, huge amounts of funds required to set up the base and the resources needed. And when it all went bust, they would be able to blame it on the Black guy in charge. Prejudices would be see as being justified, and the natural order would be restored.

But it hadn't worked out that way. He had saved his budget carefully, making sure that the doctors and magicians were absolutely sure of what they were doing, until finally he had proceeded – just in time for the project review – to the first candidate for conversion.

Asira was that candidate, and she had exceeded expectations. She was probably unaware that her early success had probably saved Gattell's career from the dust. Gattell considered it only "probably," because he had learned never to underestimate the capacity of his cyborg candidates to piece together the facts and draw accurate conclusions.

Now, though, the programme's success was itself threatening to undermine him. The cyborg project was still supposed to be secret, and the amounts of Occlusion magic used to hide the facility (and its location) were testament to that. Originally, it was going to be intended only for missions deep into enemy territory or against terrorist cells whose plans were too far advanced to be stopped any other way. Somehow, though, in the past few years it had become much wider and he was being called upon to supply agents to all and sundry, it seemed. Secrecy could not survive such reckless exposure of his units much longer, and he was sure that he would be the one to take the blame when the shit finally hit the fan.

Gattell suspected his counterparts in other agencies of engineering this situation, because how else could permission have been obtained from the Commander-in-Chief for the base's mission to be extended so far? How else could knowledge of the capabilities that the cyborg corps possessed have reached the relatively junior ranks who were now being presented as the hiring agents? How on Earth else could the police and NCS have heard about, let alone gained permission to hire, cyborg units? As far as Gattell was concerned, there must have been deliberate policy of leaking the information slowly down through the upper ranks in all the main agencies, covering intelligence, Special Forces, counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence, and law enforcement. Gattell doubted there was any actual conspiracy against him, and he knew there were one or two people who were loyal enough to the forces even if not to him personally, not to betray a secret facility. But someone had done this, maybe more than one acting together or independently with the same idea and motive.

It was, in Gattell's mind, just a matter of time now before the reality of his nation's cyborg experiments and programme became known to the public at large – when even cops were aware of the programme, a leak could not be that far behind, and Gattell was only surprised that it hadn't happened yet. When it did, he would fight tooth and nail to protect the team and project that he had spent the last 7 years building. And, of course, to protect his own hide.