Chapter 295: Marcus Lenhert Awakens

Marcus Lenhert woke to a white ceiling and the feeling that he had slept far longer than he meant to.

The cradle had already raised him into a sitting position. The lines on his arms were gone, and the last monitoring contacts withdrew into the frame while he was still working out where he was.

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[ Recovery Cycle Complete ]

[ Patient Status: Stable ]

[ Release Condition: Approved ]

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He stared at the panel for a moment. There was no screen in front of him. It sat in the air wherever he looked, and it stayed there when he turned his head.

Another one followed.

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[ Integrated Personnel Profile ]

[ Name ]

Marcus Lenhert

[ Personnel Type ]

Integrated Non-System Personnel

[ Combat Class ]

None

[ Tier ]

Tier 0 (95% Synchronization Rate)

[ Axis ]

Cognitive

[ Professional Specialization ]

Communications Systems

Signal Analysis

Technical Evidence Reconstruction

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Marcus read it once.

Ninety-five percent. Whatever the number was measuring, he was close to the end of it.

He filed that away for later. The interface was more interesting.

He found the status page, the communications list and the medical readings without having to look for them, the same way he would find the switches on a receiver he had used for years.

That bothered him slightly, since he had never used anything like it before.

Then a third panel opened on its own.

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[ Access Granted ]

[ Regional Tactical Map — Read-Only ]

[ Authorized by: Highest Commander — Hans Flemmens ]

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The small map in the corner of his vision expanded.

Marcus sat very still.

It started with the Tech Center, then the rest of Main Base, then Grefort. The map kept going after that.

The southern road ran out of the city past the settlements and the junction, and farther still, with markers scattered along its length, mostly blue, then gray, then green.

Terrain filled in under them in layers, with ridges, riverbeds, collapsed overpasses and the outlines of buildings.

He had worked with SAS surveillance networks. He had seen what the Directorate could put together when every relay was working and someone important was asking.

None of that looked like this.

He pulled the view toward its edge. The coverage did not end in a clean circle. One side reached much farther than the rest, and the other sectors stopped short, as if they were still waiting for something.

Marcus looked at it for a while.

One source had been upgraded, and the others hadn't caught up yet. It looked like a slow rollout.

Before he could think about it further, the door opened.

"Agent Lenhert." Reechard stepped inside with a small smile. "I presume you have... returned to us."

"How long was I out?"

"A little longer than the Director. Your neurological readings wanted more time to settle."

Marcus didn't ask what that meant. He had a good guess.

"The map," he said. "Is this... is this how it works?"

"Yes," Reechard answered. "You can pan around the map and check things out. The blue ones refer to people like us, green ones are... allies at the very least. Red marks our enemies, and gray... are people we have not yet encountered or made contact with."

Marcus took a while to take it all in. "Is that so? Strange. Why are some areas larger than the others?"

"Our Radars are currently being slowly upgraded. The coverage will improve over the next few days."

"But these... ones? They look mobile."

"Oh, those would be our BACVs."

"BACVs." Marcus focused on the label. A second later, the interface supplied a basic description of what a BACV was.

"I didn't know that a second ago."

"Useful, isn't it?" Reechard gave him a smile. "There is more the System offers, Agent. For now, you can spend most of your time getting familiar with all of its... functionalities."

Marcus looked toward his hand, then his arms, then the rest of his body. He looked pretty much the same. What changed was the interface sitting at the edge of his thoughts and the information it could feed him.

"I seem to understand more than I should. Is it all right if I spend some time getting used to this?"

"Are you afraid that the Commander will be displeased?" Reechard understood his worries. "Do not worry, Agent. The Commander is very patient, but you must know, patience has its limits."

"I understand." Marcus nodded. "Give me a day or two."

"Not a problem. I will have one of my assistants give you a tour around the facility, the main base, the workstation you'll be working at, and your own private quarters."

"Your recruitment package is top notch. How come you haven't recruited the rest of the people yet?"

"Quality takes time, Agent."

Marcus didn't probe more for that. "Very well. I—"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a few Tech Center personnel stop beside the recovery cradle next to his.

"Who's over there?"

"Overseer Kordula Weissenberg. The Commander brought her in two days ago."

"Kordula?" Marcus knew the name from a few reports and not much else.

Kordula had barely left the nuclear power plant, and Cell Twelve had rarely crossed paths with her.

Marcus looked at the cradle a moment longer. Whoever she was, she was about to wake up to the same thing he just did.

"I'll send the assistant in shortly," Reechard said. "Take your time, Agent."

The door closed behind him.

Marcus pulled the map back up and went looking for the edge again.

...

The Research Core was quieter than it had been in days.

The Radar simulations were gone from the large displays, and most of the assistants were closing out their last reports. Tyrus stood at his workstation with the finished project still open in front of him.

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[ Advanced Radar Network ]

[ Research Status ]

Complete

[ Core Research Slot ]

Available

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He had told Hans that improving what he already had was worth more than chasing something new. Now, every Radar Facility the man owned was lining up for a refit, and nobody was calling it a waste of Gold.

According to Dianne, Hans had sold most of the Radar structures that overlapped with one another and kept only a few. Tyrus took it as Hans's way of keeping some redundancy.

The research slot wouldn't stay empty for long.

Tyrus opened the research list and went straight to the one he had been waiting on since the day he woke up.

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[ Research Path: Barracks Personnel Induction Wing ]

[ Research ID ]

SYS-INT-BARRACKS

[ Base Research Cost ]

300,000 Gold

[ Base Research Time ]

3,000 minutes

[ Requirements ]

Operational Tech Center

Appointed Research Director

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More than a thousand people had applied to join Hans's army. The pods could integrate them, but integration didn't teach anyone how to hold a rifle, drive a Guardian or survive a firefight. Until the Barracks knew how to train people who already existed, most of those applications would stay paperwork.

Aside from that, he still needed more time to fully understand the Tech Center's capabilities, and see if he could unravel more.

Although one of the biological research options tempted him, the "Incomplete" tag beside its name made him hesitate.

Tyrus sent the request. The reply came from the Command Center a few minutes later.

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[ Research Request Approved ]

[ Barracks Personnel Induction Wing ]

[ Research Status ]

Active

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The announcement went out across the Research Core, and the assistants started moving again.

Tyrus glanced at the integration readings on the side of his screen. One recovery cycle had just closed while the other was still running.

He looked at the second one a little longer than he needed to, then went back to work.