said, he knew he couldn’t kill that boy.
There really were a lot of advantages to having incredible wealth. He was able to buy the best researchers and technologies possible. Eventually he assembled the most effective research lab in the world. Acquiring key companies at the optimum time enabled him to assemble a business empire that was one of the most essential defense contractors. As a top contractor he had influence and access to the highest levels of the US government. The technology advances he provided to them made him indispensable and gave him access to all kinds of top secret classified programs. Not being constrained by financial concerns as other companies were, allowed him to use these resources and information for his own personal projects.
Startled out of his memories, he focused in to watch Armstrong sign off and prematurely end Chase’s orientation session. After that, he wondered if they were having second thoughts about the boy now too.
Chapter 12
Armstrong turned toward Tedford, sighed and said, “I think it may be more effective if I take a more direct tactic with this young man.”
“What are you planning to do?”
“I am going to sit with him in person now to prepare him for his new life.”
“Do you think that’s wise or safe, we still don’t know much about this boy.” Tedford stated.
Chortling he answered “There’s no risk involved, he can’t harm us in anyway and he can’t escape. There is nowhere for him to go. A hands-on approach should yield us better results.”
“Are you really sure that we are doing the right thing using this boy? I know what our calculations say but what if Rex is correct and we ruin that? I have my doubts this boy will be able to play the part we need him to,” Tedford wondered out loud.
“Remember we are doing this for Rex not to him and I am sure this boy is exactly what we needed, in many ways he is our only hope,” Armstrong answered. “I am heading back to finish his session but I’m still not sure how he’s going to react to seeing the island when we let him out of his room.” Armstrong turned and walked out to go and face Chase in person.
In his room, Chase saw the lights flash and heard the bong sound before a door seemed to almost magically appear in the wall. Walking in through the opening was the same old guy from the video wall. He was surprisingly shorter than Chase. He had expected him to be bigger after seeing him on the wall video. It had not been that long since he had ended their call and Chase had not had much chance to sit and reflect on their conversation but he had a vague suspicion that he had somehow failed a test of some kind.
Dressed in his standard formal black suit, Armstrong gestured with his right hand and asked Chase to sit on the same couch he had sat on during their call. “It is my pleasure to meet you in person. We have much to discuss, and I hope you are ready now?”
“Yes, BLI I am ready and glad to meet you in person as well,” he answered.
“Just so you are aware, my name is Armstrong, BLI is more of a title, something like Mister” he explained.
“Okay Armstrong, when am I getting out of here and going home to see my family?” Chase asked. “My parents are going to be freaking out by now and I need to let them know I’m alright. My father is going to kill me over all of this.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll get to all of that. I believe I told you that we needed to cover some background information if you were ever going to be able to understand the situation we have here,” he explained while deliberately not looking him in the eyes.
Chase was worried though, he was observant enough to notice that the older man had not actually answered his question. He would need to keep his wits about him and see if maybe there was some way to escape from here. Probably made sense to wait for now, he didn’t really have enough information yet to even know where to begin. He was strong
Learning to Kill: Stories