Chapter 4: Meeting

Neal made his way down the hallways, towards the Director's office. The morning sun well risen now casting a warmer light on the at times darker hallway. In any circumstance it was a beautiful day, one that shouldn't be wasted inside. He made it to the very end, but hesitated to pull the handle. He hadn't quite composed his thoughts or what he was going to say. He had been brief but panicked over the phone. Now his boss wanted him to front up in person, and he wasn't sure how he could put the word together. Gritting his teeth he pulled the handle and strolled inside the room.

“Neal, Thank you for coming” The director stood up and gestured for him to take a seat. Neal glanced around the room, asides from him and the director it was empty asides from the bland office furniture. “As you're probably wondering, I haven't called the board. I ask that this conversation be kept between you, me and your team. Understood?”

“Yes Mr Rhineheart” Neal responded

“From what I could gather from over the phone, We seem to have a situation on our hands here.”

“Yes Sir” The director frowned at this response.

“Perhaps you'd like to enlighten me? Give me a full briefing? How does a man and thousands of dollars of equipment go missing?”

“uh... There was a supposed mix up with courier. The tube we received wasn't the correct one”

“So, then where is it?”

“Well Sir we managed to find the courier and trace his other deliveries. The thing is, we know where he could have ended up. But we don't have the rights to go and retrieve him. And every institution we called has not let us access their records or inventory”

“So what you're saying is we have a complete write off on this experiment”

“That may not be the whole truth sir, i'm afraid I was brief during our call”

“Oh, is there something else I need to know?”

“This ship was manned...” The director's face quickly vanished of all colour. He didn't speak for a moment as if processing it all. After a long awkward silence he finally spoke again.

“So? You're telling me... That out there somewhere in the world is one of our employees?”

“Correct...”

“This is a huge disaster you've involved me in. This little experiment will cost us everything. While you were busy chasing off glory, you've put as all at risk! If this gets out our lives will be destroyed! I want this man found, Not next week or the week after as soon as possible. You will deploy every resource in your power to find him and bring him home!”

“Believe me Sir we are doing every...”

“I wasn't finished!” Neal quickly hushed up “Who else knows about this?”

“Just me, You and the man himself”

“So only we know”

“Yes”

“I still want this man found. But if he isn't, I am not prepared to take the fall”

“What are you saying?”

“What I am saying is that if we don't find him, we write him off with the rest of the experiment and put it behind us”

“You can't be serious!?”

“Use your brain for a moment Neal, can you imagine the storm if this gets out? A man goes missing it's big news, but not as big as losing someone in an experiment. If no one has no leads or knowledge we can simply just let the trail go cold, rather than put it out there.

“But this is a life at steak”

“Think of your own for a moment. You, me and this whole institute will go down the toilet. You'll never be able to work in this community game. Publicly shunned and outcast. Then the legal side of things falls on your head. You failed your duty of care, you'll be trialled and convicted. But if you say nothing, The missing persons register just gets updated.”

“I suppose you're right” Neal slumped in his chair, he felt dirty but he was right. If he couldn't be located his career and life would irrecoverably destroyed. He himself had a family to feed.

“Keep your mouth shut and i'll see you're looked after” spoke up the director as if reading his mind. He placed out his hand.

Neal stretched forward and met his hand with his shaking it, Silently agreeing.

“It won't come to that though, because i'm going to find him”

“Then go”

Neal quickly exited the room, heading back down from the hallway in which he had come from. He hadn't wished to had waste time with the director in the first place. But he had to be notified. Now he could go back to manning the radio, and only hope that Russell came up on the correct frequency. That was his only plan and hope for finding him. Otherwise he might have to come to terms with the Director's dark proposal.

Meantime while Neal was scurrying down the hallway the director pondered his thoughts in the office alone. After a while his hand reached for the intercom. Pressing for his secretary.

“I'm going out. Cancel all my morning and afternoon appointments”

“Where are you going?” a female voice replied from the speaker.

“That isn't of your concern, I just need to go take care of something...”