The System

01 Garden of Eden

         The room seemed cold and uninviting, even to Matthew who was used to cold and impersonal military meeting rooms. There was no logo on the walls, no high-tech equipment – just a number of chairs with a large ashtray in the middle of the table. Over all, the room – supposedly the command center of the whole operation that encompasses the entirety of the world and its stability, looked like nothing more than an abandoned corporate meeting room.

He momentarily wondered what he had stumbled into. Then he recalled that it had to be done. If he had not stepped in and took over the way he did, the world would slither all the way back to the middle ages.

Matthew took a deep breath, thankful that he had such a support like Jason. In spite the fact that he would still need to find a way to man the place, at the very least; he had Jason. Actually, if they had not approved Jason to be his second-in-command, he would have walked out of it right away.

He tenderly patted the chair where the leader was supposed to sit on. This will go, he thought. He knew what kind of command center he prefers, and he would make it happen.

***

Jason grumbled to himself as he tinkered with his tablet PC. The WiFi signal was so bad in this area he nearly had to literally lifted the tablet above his head to get a signal. He made a mental note to fix the WiFi first and foremost, before doing anything else.

He watched as Matthew stepped out of the abandoned command center with a blank look on his face. Jason knew, by experience, that although his face remained impassive, Matthew's brain would have been spinning in the speed of light. And usually, Jason would catch up pretty quickly.

"Any idea on where we're going to get our first recruits from?" he queried idly, wondered if he would catch Matthew's brain wave on first try.

"Don't you think we'll need to have our system at the ready first before hiring people?" he asked back. Jason hid a grin, he caught it, alright. Only Matthew had gone a little further than he expected.

"Yeah, I get that. I suggest we take our first recruits from the Navy - at the very least we won't need to worry about the personnel being a blabbermouth." he said.

"Uh, no. I prefer we have our own contract on top of the Navy's. I've sent you a draft of what I want in the non-disclosure agreement like, last week..." Matthew glared menacingly. "Have you typed it?"

Jason rolled his eyes. "Yes I have, dude. I've actually sent it back to you for review a couple of days ago..." he quipped.

"Right, I haven't checked my e-mails... I'll print it out, later. In the mean time, you need to start drafting people..." he said.

"Before that, I'm going to fix the damn WiFi. I swear the infrastructure is a leftover from the cold war era..." Jason grumbled. Then he stopped on his track to look around. "this place is mad big.." he commented.

"It is." Matthew stopped beside him and looked around, too. "It serves a big purpose..." he sighed. Jason turned to look at him.

"We'll fix it, right?" he queried.

"We have to."

"We'll fix it." Jason decided. "There's no way we will screw it up. No way."