The Cure, стр. 22

the head of table, his brow furrowed, and his bottom lip pinched between his finger and thumb. He lifted his hand and without saying anything he signaled for everyone to sit. Goldsmith took his seat around the table whilst a soldier brought a chair for Wanikiy. The President coughed and took a long drink from the water in front of him. ‘We have some bad news I am afraid. During the night and early morning, a number of young adults on the base used tranquilizers to get passed our exit guards and have left the base.’ Everyone around the room looked at each other in shock. ‘Both my sons are amongst those who have left.’

‘Mr President,’ Pitkin stuttered. ‘Do we know why they have escaped the base?’

‘Escaped?’ Goldsmith interrupted ‘a strange choice of words.’ Pitkin visibly withdrew into himself.

‘At this time, we do not know why they left the base, but I can assure you that we are doing everything within our power using our surveillance and satellite imaging to find out where they are and if they are safe. I have already spoken with the parents of the other children missing and as you can see there are some noticeable absences from the room.’ Until now no-one had noticed the empty seats at the table but now each one of them was working out whose children had gone AWOL. ‘For now, I would ask that you give myself and the rest of the military search team some space to work out what has happened and how we can get them back. Please give them your utmost support. I will be addressing the rest of the base shortly and providing updates when I can. Please, for now, go back to your living areas until further notice.’

The room stood and started to disperse, each one of them still in shock and whispering to the closest person to them for any kind of information that might shed more light on what the president had just told them.

When the last person had left the room and just The President, Goldsmith and Wanikiy remained. Goldsmith closed the door firmly behind them and stood silently with his back to the other two men.

‘Now, tell me, what the Hell is going on?’ The President spitted through his teeth to Goldsmith.

Goldsmith turned with both palms down in a motion for The President to calm down, which was not going to happened until he started to get answers.

‘Truthfully,’ he said, ‘We don’t know.’

‘Are you seriously telling me that nine children, left the comfort of a base with food and drink to experience living in a world of famine and violence. Let’s get this straight, we are not talking about any children either. These kids are clever, my boys included, not to mention your Tallulah. Did she say anything?’

Wanikiy shook his head and Goldsmith held up his hand before the scientist could speak.

‘Look, at this moment in time we know as much as you do Sir and are working on getting them back as soon as we can. We can’t assume to know what is going on in a teenager’s head or why they have chosen to leave the base. I’ve got my best men on it. Trust me, I care about those kids as much as anyone on this base,’ Goldsmith feigned genuine sincerity.

The President raised his eyebrows at this comment. ‘Make sure you have. I want regular updates every hour and I want a search party out as soon as you have pinpointed their whereabouts.’ With that he stormed past Goldsmith and out of the room.

Goldsmith made a noise of disdain once the door closed and then beckoned through the window for the two soldiers standing outside the room to come in.

‘Are our men in place and do they have eyes on the target?’ Goldsmith snorted.

‘Sir yes sir. I believe Soldier M has eyes on target two and should make contact within a day, if required,’ said one of the soldiers.

Goldsmith thought about this. ‘No. No contact until I say so. How’s the kid in the infirmary?’

‘Still out Sir,’ the soldier barked.

Goldsmith nodded towards the door and both soldiers marched out.

‘So, still think everyone is onboard?’ Wanikiy spoke up.

‘We knew someone would oppose it. We just didn’t know it’d be the President’s own son. Oh, and did I mention your daughter?’

‘Maybe if you didn’t have me working 18-hour days in that laboratory I could have convinced her it was the only option available to us,’ said Wanikiy.

‘It’s fine, we have it covered. We know where Logan’s little group is and how close the younger Mathers is to Operation Nebraska. Everything is under control. McGregor has his end covered and this little prison scenario is a non-starter. For all we know your ex-partner Brittle was killed a long time ago in that place, as per the original plan,’ he tutted. ‘As soon as we knew their plan, we put the safety net in place. The operation to release the toxin into the water supply goes ahead as planned and nothing will get in our way.’

‘And the safety of those kids out there?’

Goldsmith gritted his teeth ‘The second they decided to go against the board of the United States Government,’ he said waving his hand around the room at the empty seats ‘they put themselves at risk. That wasn’t a decision we made, but it’s one we now have to deal with.’

Wanikiy looked now his glasses at Goldsmith ‘Have you even once consider that these kids know what they are doing and maybe, just maybe they could succeed.’

‘You’re delusional man. Brittle couldn’t have survived in there. Besides, as I told you, we have precautions in place to take care of anything unexpected,’ a smirk stretched across his face.

‘Like the boy in the infirmary?’ Wanikiy countered.

‘Collateral damage. McGregor can sometimes go overboard but