She straightened her lab coat and fixed her skirt before entering the room. The staff inside scurried over to her and greeted her with fake smiles.
"Good morning, Director." They all spoke in unison, as they were trained to do.
"Good morning. Have you completed the evaluation on the special individuals?" The director asked.
One man came forward. He nodded his head and handed her two stacks of papers. "Yes. Here are the complete evaluations. The summaries are on top, and the details of each test underneath."
She read through the files, then glared at the man. "You have listed Mr. Thomas as being recommended as a test subject."
"Yes, Director. Regardless of his skills, his being the younger brother of the lab's best test subject makes him far more useful as..." The man started to say.
"No. We are not going with that route. I made that clear to you before. I intend on using him for a different kind of experiment than that, and I need him interacting with people for that." She pushed the papers back in his face. "Fix what you wrote. Assign him to the same facility as Mr. Linwood over there. That is another reason we need him on this side of things. Linwood refused to use him as a test subject before and refused to leave his side after all this time. Until we can properly and deeply reprogram him, we also need that man nearby to keep Linwood here."
"Director, about Linwood...I understand that he is very intelligent...almost frighteningly so, and he is very capable as a leader, but...given our core values, shouldn't someone else be chosen as your successor?" The man fumbled through his words.
She pulled a gun out from under her lab coat and shot him point blank in the face. Red splashed across the wall behind him and stained her perfectly white coat. She looked to the young woman who was standing nearby. The young woman's entire body shook as blood dripped down her face. The director said, "You're next in line, right? Congratulations. You've been promoted. I expect you will not be questioning me."
The woman shook her head. "No, ma'am. I am a good girl. Good girls don't question the orders of the director."
"Very good. Rewrite that evaluation for me. Put him in the animal lab. They're both good with animals, from what I've read." She handed the papers to the woman.
"Yes, ma'am. Should I reprint Mr. Linwood's papers as well? They're contaminated now."
"Yes, do that after you rewrite Mr. Thomas's evaluation. I will send someone down here to dispose of this trash later." The director threw her lab coat on the ground. She opened up a drawer and took out a fresh one from it.
"Given that these two are so special, how should we go about getting samples for research from these two if they will not be used in the tank?" The young woman downed three pills of the medicine provided by the higher-ups to calm herself down.
"Collect several blood, saliva, and semen samples. Their genetic information may be useful for future experiments in more controlled settings. I'm somewhat curious to see how Mr. Thomas's DNA could be used for the children's project. He's a very perfect specimen in many ways." She walked over to the other side of the room. Two young men lay on separate beds, both unconscious and with a metal band, connected to the same machine, placed around their heads. "I knew you two would survive that little test. You'd be useless if you didn't."
The young woman joined her. She was much calmer now. "Dr. Summerfield, will the former director not be part of our project anymore? He would be good for advising new leaders."
"Unfortunately, my younger brother has decided to be a complete idiot like those other fools. He's probably dead by now, or will die soon enough. We don't need him for anything. We have Delilah. That's the only thing of value he created. Everything else is only a natural extension of plans started before our generation." The director said.
"Miss Delilah will continue to be part of our plans then?" The woman unconsciously smiled.
"Oh, were you recruited because of her?" Dr. Summerfield grinned. "She's very pretty, isn't she?"
The young woman blushed. "She's perfect. There is no person more perfect than her, in all ways."
"I will tell her you think so highly of her." The director's grin widened.
"Really? Do you think I could meet Miss Delilah one day?" The young woman asked. She was so overjoyed she didn't care that they were a few feet away from a dead body.
"If you're good enough, perhaps you'll get to meet her. I have high expectations of my people, as does she. Do not disappoint Delilah." Dr. Summerfield said.
"I won't. I live for Miss Delilah." The young woman said.
"That's good to hear. Please, complete that evaluation for me immediately. I will be back in an hour and I expect it to be done."
"Yes, ma'am." The young woman hurried over to the computer. She went straight to work on editing the evaluation.
The director, Dr. Summerfield, laughed under her breath at how quickly the young woman moved at hearing the name "Delilah". Her attention turned back to the two unconscious men before her. She touched the face of the young man with black hair. "Well, Mr. Linwood, I must say I'm excited to see how we can morph you. You'll be perfect too, when we're done with you. And this one over here, that one you won't let go of, we'll make you do it willingly. When the time comes, you'll be the one giving orders on what research to do to that perfect test subject."
The young man stirred in his sleep, lost in some nightmare, but he did not wake.