ENNEA- DISCOVERY PARK WILDERNESS<br/><br/>The helicopter focused its cameras on the swamp, directional microphones pointing outwards to try and pick up some unusual activity.  Dr. Ying sighed, knowing it was just like Dr. Tarington to attempt something so idiotic as to mount microphones on a helicopter.  At least she had let him take his rifle up, and just maybe he'd have something to shoot at.<br/><br/>Dr. Tarington stared out the window like a child on the tram to Disney Land, licking her rather wicked fangs.  She was a pale woman with a slim build, pale skin, black hair, and dull blue eyes, which always seemed to glitter when she was doing something she was interested in.  Which was always, for Dr. Tarington was the kind of person who didn't pay attention to petty concerns like "ethics" or "hygiene" when she wanted to accomplish her goals.  "What do you see?"  She asked Ennea, clutching her stomach through a mostly correctly buttoned blouse, shifting uncomfortably in her two day old pair of slacks.<br/><br/>The interior lights of the helicopter gave a pale yellow glow, just enough for Dr. Tarington's stringy clumps of straight hair to eclipse the clipboard she frantically filled out data on, eyes burning with obsession.  Dr. Ran Ying gave another, louder sigh, knowing that she didn't care.  Some people wanted to cure cancer, some people wanted to make a lot of money.  Dr. Tarington just wanted to make monsters, to be around monsters.  Ran's hands shook as he clicked through data on his laptop, wishing desperately that he could have a cigarette.  Their timetable had been pushed forwards by a strange sighting in the swamp, and before Ran could even light up, he was floating up off the tarmac in Ben's gentle hands.<br/><br/>Ben was a mystery to Ran.  He was a hulking man, bald, and terribly friendly, the kind of gentle giant people find they have a hard time not liking.  And yet, nobody knew why the hell he even worked for the syndicate.  Tarington was obsessed, Ennea was a slave, and Ran knew deep inside his heart that he was doing all of this for the money.  Yet Ben simply came in every day, not asking for a promotion, keeping them from experimenting on him.  Ran had looked at the books.  As far as he could tell, some months Ben was actually<em>paying</em>for the privilege of flying their helicopter.  The big lunk had a Master's in History from Harvard.  Of course, given how much he seemed to know, Ran sometimes wondered if Ben had been there.  He was pretty damned handy with a crowbar too.  Far more handy than you would expect...<br/><br/>Down in the swamp, Ennea whispered into her headset.  "Haven't found anything, continuing search..."  Dr. Tarington cut in, grinning and setting down her clipboard.<tt class="bbc_tt">"Forget it.  I want to test out the Octarine scope.  Escalating to status Chiron-Gamma-IV, authorization Mina Blutengeist Harker."</tt>Mina called into the radio, twirling a pen between her fingers.  Ran's mood sank as the tiny chip inside of him recognized Mina's voice command or more precisely, the signal her voice command had triggered.  Something horrible inside Ran awakened, simply sitting there, waiting to fill him with frustration and negative emotions.  Most teams operated with all of their equipment active.  Most teams didn't even know there were different levels of Chiron-Gamma alert.  A lot of teams didn't even know about the damned Chiron readiness system.<br/><br/>Ennea nodded and pulled her gas mask from a pouch in her armor.  It was an old mask of the first world war type, a constricting thing which had the advantage that it could not be easily broken.  Ennea flicked off her helmet and fitted the mesh of her suit against her hair, throwing on the mask next, carefully sealing herself with several leather straps before replacing the helm.  Nothing could get into her suit.  More importantly, nothing could get out of her suit.  Ennea's delicate fingers grasped her pistol as she pulled it from its proper place, ready to do what needed to be done.