It was early June, eighteen months before Gabriella became animated. Major General Brian Cunningham summoned Lance to his Pentagon office.
Lance had spoken to Major General Cunningham at various military functions. It never failed to strike him that Cunningham looked so little like a stereotypical square-jawed Army General figure. His rounded face and mild wrinkles conveyed the image of a gentle, elderly uncle. His short white hair fenced in a broad expanse of skin on the top of his head. Every article of clothing was razor creased. But it was his eyes that revealed his true determination and strength. General Cunningham was not a person to trifle with.
I’m intrigued, Lance thought as he made his way down the halls to the General’s office. Why would General Cunningham call me in? He should go through my boss, General Moorhouse. The Army always follows the chain of command. Interesting.
An attractive blonde major in her mid-forties greeted Lance as he entered the office. “You must be Colonel Coopers,” Major Kim Allen said with a friendly smile and a firm handshake. “You’re a couple of minutes early. Very good. Please have a seat. I’ll let him know you are here.”
He declined the seat. After a moment, Major Kim’s phone gave three soft beeps. She ushered Lance into the Major General’s office.
“Glad you could come, Colonel Coopers,” Cunningham said. He remained seated. “Have a seat,” he said, gesturing to the red leather-covered chair on the other side of his desk.
“Yes, Sir,” Lance said as he took the seat.
“Colonel, I’d like to make you an offer you may find interesting.”
“Yes, Sir. I’m listening,” Lance replied, knowing there was little difference between an offer and an order in the Major General’s office.
“I’ll come right to the point, Colonel. I’ve been watching your career and evaluations for quite some time. I like what I see. I like what you’ve done with your intelligence group.”
“Thank you, Sir,” said Lance with a nod.
“You understand our country has enemies. Some are overseas. Some are within our borders. Their top leaders have protective layers of terrorists around them. It’s dangerous to risk sending in our best undercover people to infiltrate their organizations. A captured and agent could divulge far too many secrets under torture; secrets which could impact national security.” The general then continued in a hushed tone and leaned forward on his desk as if to take the Colonel into his confidence. “Follow me so far, Colonel?”
Lance thought for a half-second. To be presumptuous in what the General was thinking could be reckless. Answering a question with a question is a safer course of action. “Yes, Sir. I hear what you are saying; however, what does it have to do with what I do for the Army?”
“Good, Colonel. Right to the point. I’ll be direct too. We are financing a top domestic artificial intelligence engineering firm to design and develop an android that will be indistinguishable from a human being.”
Lance stared intently at General Cunningham.
“In effect, they are building us a machine to infiltrate the most dangerous circles without the risk of sacrificing our top operatives. If it’s exposed, they could not force it to talk. The enemy might disassemble it, but there is no way to make it disclose any classified information.”
“Couldn’t they remove and read its drives?”
“No, Colonel. If they captured it, we could obliterate all its memory from the States with the push of a button.”
Lance nodded his understanding.
“I would like to assign you, and a team hand-picked by yourself, to perform remote surveillance on the construction of this android to ensure it meets military specifications. The engineering team has been working on it for several years and is getting close to putting a prototype model together.”
“Yes, Sir. I understand,” said Lance, steepling his index fingers to his lips, considering the implications.
“The only caveat, Colonel, is the development team can’t know the Army is involved. They can never suspect they are developing a national defense weapon straight out of science fiction. Only the Corporate Research Director knows about us. You will monitor their every action and send encrypted reports only to me every week. You will also oversee their functional experiments and ensure they include every aspect of human interaction.” The General put heavy emphasis on the word ‘every.’
“Do you understand me, Colonel?”
“I believe I do, Sir,” replied Lance, more sure of the correct answer this time. “You are also referring to both physical and sexual contact.”
“That is correct. It must be capable of sleeping its way into enemy leadership circles. When you take the assignment, you will move to Manhattan. If all goes well in your execution of this project, I can see you make Brigadier General.”
Lance sucked in his breath. The general continued to explain additional details of the assignment. Lance lost most of what the Major General said after he heard “… make Brigadier General.”
Who do I have to kill to make that happen?
“Are you in, Colonel?” asked Cunningham.
“Yes, Sir, I’m in!” Lance said with snap and determination in his voice. “I am most certainly in, and will execute the mission completely, Sir.”
The Major General smiled. Although Lance had his character flaws, everyone knew Colonel Coopers was always faithful to his word. If he said he would do it, it would happen.
“Very good. I was hoping you would take it. I’ll have a more detailed meeting with you to discuss the details. Thank you for coming in.”
Lance left the office feeling taller. He took inventory of his best people to bring to New York with him. “Yes, I will definitely make it go well.” he said aloud as he walked back to his car, “Nothing will stand in my way!”