The Test In the Forest Part 4

Kitamoto, Saitama Prefecture, Japan

The tall man presented his identification so that the guards would let him pass, not that he really needed it because if he had wanted it he could have done it easily, but if he wanted to keep his job he had to get along with his colleagues, even if he didn't know them at all. Ahead of them, there were several offices with staff, he ignored all of them and went to the last one of the place, the biggest one, where the man in charge of the whole investigation and his assistant were waiting for him. When he saw his guest approaching Brandon stopped what he was doing and invited him to sit down.

"Mr. Gomez"
"It's a pleasure to see you back so quickly despite what happened in Russia"
"Have you been all right over there?"

"Negotiations are tough, but I'm tougher"
"It will probably all work out later on"
"...."
"From what I've heard again they've gone back to sounding like nailed down people again"
"That's why I'm here again I guess"

"Well, it is true that this mode of operation has been reintroduced"
"But its nature this time is completely different"
"Although the first attacks affected us I thought I would use it to our advantage on this occasion"
"According to the police, a gang fight led the serial killer to kill people in this cruel way"
"So I thought it would be an excellent way to get the attention of the police again"

"If not for a serious problem then I'm afraid my services are quite limited"
"I don't know what you are planning but I am sure you will find capable people without having to call me personally"

"Oh, but it wasn't me who asked for your help"
"It was Mr. Damien who contacted you to help us again"
"He believes that your experience and skills are outstanding, so he thinks you are the best person to make this go smoothly, just as our boss wants it to"

"Okay, then let's stop dragging it out."
"Can you give me the details in the short form please?"

"Yes, of course"
"We recently had a visit from Senator Yoshida, he is still in favor of the project, but he wants to greatly increase our funding, which is good news"
"But one of the conditions is to present a working model to the Japanese Minister of Defense"
"If successful, the completion of the project is almost guaranteed, so Damien is anxious for good news"

"Then there are serious problems if I am listening to this conversation, right?"

"It was Senator Yoshida himself who advised us to make something that works on the surface"
"It doesn't have to be a fully functional model"
"My main problem is that the monsters do not obey complex commands"
"Their lifespan is quite limited outside of laboratory care"
"And depending on the endowed abilities their aggressiveness varies greatly"
"I have created some temporary countermeasures against these problems while I try to solve them in the long term"
"I have managed to put an exoskeleton on one and managed to hide it by growing hair to cover it, so it can be remotely controlled to some extent"
"The short life thing I can solve by selecting someone new with a specific date so that on the day of the demo it is at full strength"
"But I'm afraid the wildness is the hardest part, at the moment there's nothing I can do"

"I think the answer to that last one is much easier and more economical"
"Simply train the test subject prior to its transformation"
"This way he will behave in a predictable way for the test day"
"Wasn't this subject, Jirou Iwasaki, able to show human rationing even after his transformation?"
"...."
"As for the demonstration itself, is there anything you have planned?"

"Mr. Damien himself has proposed a plan that is quite risky but with great rewards, if we can pull it off"
"What the Ministry of Defense wants is to have their own version of super soldiers, one capable of rivaling the DOLLs or the Arksuits"
"We plan to prove to them that our product range is capable of delivering just the next generation of super soldiers to them first through their sponsorship of the project"
"...."
"Coincidentally, the President of the United States will soon visit the country for a diplomatic visit"

"I hope he is not your target, because there is no benefit if you can't spend the money in the first place"

"Of course not"
"But the security team will"
"A visit of such an important leader will have only the strictest security measures available"
"...."
"Although we don't know what armed forces they will bring, there is one in particular that I know will make an appearance without fail"
"The white girl, Project Valkyria"
"I'm sure Adelis kept her after the war as her personal guard"
"Several attempts to get rid of her failed due to the unexpected interference of the white girl"
"We also know that she also interfered in New York where Adelis and the president were meeting"
"They will undoubtedly meet again during this visit, so I am absolutely certain that she will also be part of their defense forces that day"
"If I can show her that my supersoldier is capable of engaging in combat on the same level as her, I should be able to secure her cooperation"
"After all, it is only an early prototype"
"I don't even need her to win, just to resist and be able to show it"
"I will erase the evidence with the self-destruct system, so they won't be able to link us to the attack they suffered either"

"Okay, I'm starting to see why I'm needed here"
"I'm starting to see why I'm needed here"

"I need you to set up the details for this plan, I will send you the chronogram as soon as I receive it from the Senator"
"Find a suitable place and time to attack."
"I'll be in charge of getting the creature ready to use"
"Also take care of any loose ends if they appear, after all, that's your expertise isn't it?"

"One of them, yes"
"But there are still things I want to see first"
"I need to gauge the reaction of the local police, how they will handle the case before the white girl shows up"
"I don't think it will do us any good if the monster is killed before reaches its actual rival"
"I would also like to find out how they would investigate a similar case in order to establish countermeasures to prevent us from being identified as the perpetrators of the attack"

"If so, then I have very good news for you, as the same doubt had arisen before"
"So I organized a small test to be able to observe and qualify local police"
"I used a local gang, it was pretty bad, it was almost at the end, but I gave them money in exchange for distributing packs among our raw material"
"With this data, we can see where to farm more test subjects"
"Then I made a couple of flashy attacks with the metal stakes to attract the attention of the police"
"This morning I released one of the monsters that were reaching the end of its useful life, the same one with the exo-armor, and sent it to kill one of the homeless"
"A problem arose when a hunter looked into the matter, for some reason that I don't understand I tried to hunt it, but the animal managed to kill it too"
"There was one more witness, but that one was useful for me to warn the police so I let him go"
"It seems that the police took the bait, as I was able to confirm that Inspector Yamamoto was also checking the crime scene"
"Right now Akane is closely investigating their progress to see if they will be able to get anything important"

"Sir, we have a situation"
"The detectives are arriving at the Toyashi Clan house" said the girl near Brandon looking at a tablet.

"Wow, so they did manage to find them"
"Can you put the drone video on the screen please"

Akane nodded her head and a large screen came on, showing live as the detectives were talking to the guards at the entrance to let them in.

"Was this among what you expected?" asked Mr. Gomez.

"I didn't really expect them to get that far"
"Surely they were able to see that the packages were distributed by those crooks"
"It doesn't matter anyway"
"I can use this opportunity to get more data from the investigation"
"Akane, order the beast to start attacking the facility"
"Let's see how the police will respond"

Once again the girl used the tablet to do what she had been ordered to do. From the monitor, they could see how the creature came out of the back of a delivery truck and entered the private property. Several guards saw it and immediately opened fire, but could do nothing to stop him. Both men watched closely as the situation unfolded: Brandon to find flaws in his design, while Gomez watched the cops' actions to plan the real test. The real threat that Agent Gomez, Damien's right-hand man noticed was the old man, Inspector Yamamoto, as he demonstrated calmness and a cool head to face something as unfamiliar as a monster, so much so that he seriously harmed it all by himself despite his age.

"The integrity of the exoskeleton is compromised."
"The logic unit is offline"
"I have lost control of the test subject" said Akane.

"It appears that the Inspector used a large caliber revolver"
"From the sound, it could be a .44 Magnum or similar"
"5 powerful shots, characteristic of the Smith and Wesson 460XVR model"
"Probably got through the armor easily" It was Gomez's quick analysis of what happened.

"The armor of the logic unit was only kevlar so it would make sense"
"I'll use something better for the next one."
"Akane, you can use the self-destruct now"
"I don't want them to know what happened"

The girl obeyed again, and just by pressing the tablet, the life of the evidence subject had disappeared without a trace for the policemen who saw it live.