Read Gamma Nine (Book One) for Free Online Page B

and experimenting with new systems. Beta
Facility looked different than Echo Facility, sanitary green and
white walls were replaced with bare metal and concrete.
    It is in one of
these small rooms that Christian found himself. He had entered the
room through a keypad locked door, the code and instructions given
to him when he was released from Echo Facility. On the opposite
wall from the door was a giant mirror, or what was made to look
like one, staring back at him. He noticed the gaunt features of his
reflection, but he knew the weakness was only temporary as his body
healed from the surgeries. The Nano machines had done their job, he
was able to move and sit up only hours after Sam had left. His
strength returning to levels he never thought possible, he could
feel new power and vitality coursing through his veins. The pain
from the last few months only a feint shadow in the back of his
mind. The walls on either side of the room were bare metal, with
thin vertical and horizontal gaps everywhere, criss-crossing each
other. The walls looked like a complicated puzzle, pieces
overlapping without a clear discernable pattern.
    Christian
reached out to run his hand over the wall and one of the closest
gaps.
    “Don’t touch
that,” a male voice said from a hidden source. “We need to
calibrate it before we can begin.”
    “Calibrate
what?” Christian asked, walking back to the centre of the room to
face the mirror.
    “Operator,
please be silent.” Light sources were turned on behind the walls as
light spilled out through the gaps. Beneath Christian’s feet a
round bright light spot lit up. “Step onto the light,
Operator.”
    Without
hesitation he stepped onto the light. As soon as he did a
bright-blue radiance swept over him from a hidden recess above the
mirror. He was now sure there were people behind the mirror. The
light scanned him from head to toe a few times before shutting off
and vanishing back into the wall.
    “Please do not
move Operator. The system will calibrate now, move and you might
get torn apart by it.” The voice clicked off, more voices could be
heard in the background before the voice was cut off.
    A drone started
building in the room, slowly rising to an approaching crescendo.
The gaps in the walls parted and shifted all around him, revealing
more light and unmoving mechanical arms behind the wall panels.
Panels started to fold away, parting in places to allow the
mechanical arms to extend and rotate outward. He counted at least
ten mechanical arms he could see in the mirror. He was so focused
on the arms whirring and clicking that he almost didn’t notice the
floor fall away, only the platform of light he was standing on was
still there. Beneath him more mechanical arms freed themselves;
these looked different. The ones from the walls were all equipped
with articulating mechanical hands, flexing fingers as they
rotated. The arms from the floor had what seemed to be various
implements instead of hands, ranging from welders to rotating
blades.
    “Calibration
complete,” the voice confirmed as every mechanical arm froze in
place and took up positions surrounding Christian.
    “Ready,
Operator?”
    “Ready,” he
said with conviction.
    “Do we have to
watch this?”
    “If we want to
see our new squad member in action, then yes, we do have to.” Locke
leaned forward to manipulate the display on the wall.
    All of the Grim
Wolves had gathered in one of the many observation rooms located
within Beta Facility. It looked more like an interrogation room
than anything else. Furnished by a wobbly table and a few prison
chairs. A large monitor was mounted on one of the walls, cycling
through different views of an Operator being manhandled by an army
of robotic arms. Individually clad in their remarkable and
freshly-painted suits, watching the monitor with detached interest.
They had come directly from training drills run in the upper
levels, ordered by Locke to report to the observation room to
evaluate