Artemis

The laboratory is quiet tonight. It's been three hours since the construction workers left. The military's laboratory, which was built years ago, has finally finished renovation for its grand reopening. Swarmer takes the peaceful night as an opportunity to move his belongings into a brand new office. At the back of his mind, he has three clear goals to accomplish; finish unpacking his items, get a good night's rest and officiate the reopening of the laboratory tomorrow morning.

He carries a box into the office and places it on his office desk. Without wasting time, Swarmer opens the box and starts to look for a specific item. It takes a minute before he finally sets his eyes on a name plate buried deep within the contents of the box. He takes it out and examines it for any damage.

The name plate wasn't a special one, it was simply a mahogany plate with golden words etched on it. The sign reads: SWARMER; HEAD SCIENTIST.

He isn't one to take pride in his achievements, but that name plate is a special case.

Swarmer carefully places the name plate onto the desk, turning his attention back to the box after doing so. Besides the plate, the box contained picture frames, plaques, framed certificates and gifts he's received throughout his career.

Just as he starts to sort the items, a buzzing noise is heard from his satchel. Who's calling this late at night?

He opens the satchel and retrieves a walkie-talkie, the military's latest invention. It allowed long-distance communication, as long as you had signal. Swarmer answers the call, "Hello? Who is this?"

A deep voice can be heard on the other end. "I need your help."

Oh, it's Ranger.

"I'm busy." Swarmer replies as he continues taking out the items from the box.

"Unpacking five boxes isn't what I'd call 'busy'."

Those words brought Swarmer's unpacking to a halt. Five? That's an oddly specific number. He turns around and sees a few bigger boxes, stacked on top of each other. Swarmer had place them on the floor before unpacking the smallest box, since they were heavier. He moves closer to the stack and starts counting.

One..two..three..four..

Swarmer remembers the smaller box on the desk and includes it in the count.

...five. Five boxes.

How does Ranger know he brought five boxes?

Swarmer immediately rushes to each corner in the room, searching every nook and cranny for a peephole or a hidden camera. Unfortunately, the effort proves fruitless as he finds nothing that would allow Ranger to survey him from far.

Just as he almost gives up, Swarmer notices a large window at the left side of the room. He swiftly makes his way to the window, opens it wide, and frantically looks outside for any signs of life. The view before him was beautiful; a forest dense with trees and foliage alongside bioluminescent mushrooms. It was quiet outside. A little too quiet.

"You're trying to find me. How funny." The voice on the walkie-talkie breaks the silence. Swarmer shuts the window tight, taking a few steps away from it; all while holding the walkie-talkie closely. "Leave me alone." There a hint of irritation in his voice.

"You're aware no one's allowed to move in their offices yet, right? You of all people should know better." A memory replays in Swarmer's head; a few days prior, he told all his scientists that entering the laboratory before the reopening is strictly forbidden, and anyone caught breaking the rules would be punished. "We both know you're not above the law, Swarmer. The rules apply to you too."

The scientist takes a deep breath to restrain the anger building up inside him. "I can report you to the boss for misconduct. How does that sound?" Is Ranger trying to blackmail him this late at night? Then again, what defense would he have if he's found guilty 'trespassing' the laboratory? Swarmer despises lying; he's sworn it off for all his life. He could never lie, no matter how bitter or detrimental the truth would be.

Swarmer doesn't want to fight Ranger; not in the exhaustive state he's in right now. Playing along with the latter was the only option. "Where are you?"

"Go outside."

---

On any other day, Swarmer will not tolerate mind games. He finds it annoying to deal with, especially when it's coming from his employees trying to squeeze an extra day off from him.

For this incident, he'll make an exception.

Reluctantly, Swarmer leaves the comfort of his office and starts rushing down the long flight of stairs in front of him, producing heavy footsteps every time he walked. Normally, he prefers to take his time going down stairs due to the worry of slipping and sustaining an injury. This time, however, he had no time to waste.

As he reaches the ground floor, Ranger starts talking again. "Go to the entrance. I left something for you." Swarmer walks with haste outside the glass doors of the laboratory, careful not to damage them as they opened. It doesn't take long before he reaches the grand entrance of the laboratory; a metal gate with a large sign.

Swarmer spots a small white box right under the arch on the gate. Upon closer inspection, it showed no signs of damage; as if brand new. He holds the box tightly to his chest. "There's a box at the gate..."

"That's great. Now, take the box and go back to your office."

Tucking the box in his satchel, Swarmer starts to make his way back to the office. The distance between the entrance gate wasn't near, but it was close enough to not keep Ranger waiting.

Once he arrives at the office, Swarmer places the box on the desk, right next to the other box he was unpacking before being dragged into this situation.

"Open the box. Tell me what you see."

Following Ranger's orders is starting to get on his nerves.

---

When Swarmer lifts the lid off the box, he notices a stack of folders inside. He picks up the folder on top of the stack and opens it. Within, a few papers are bound together by a paper clip.

The papers were a compilation of information on an individual he's never seen before in the compound. Physical appearance, height and weight, and capabilities were just some of the features noted down.

The folder also included a mugshot of a person he's never seen before. In the picture, there is a tan person with black hair. His eyes were lifeless, merely giving the camera a blank stare. At the back of the picture, there are black words written on the bottom right / left corner. Swarmer reads the words in his mind.



Was that when the mugshot was taken?

There were more folders underneath the first one. As he sets the first one aside, Swarmer takes his time to check each of it thoroughly. He looks..and looks...and looks....

This is going to be a long night.

An hour passes when Ranger makes a remark out of the blue. "You take this long to read documents?"

"Thorough investigation is important."

"It's been an hour."

Swarmer let's our a frustrated sigh. Has Ranger never had to sit through stacks of paper at one time?"It's just information on..." He's unsure on what to call the man in the documents, so he went with the first thought that came to mind.

"...a prisoner."

"His name is Minigunner. I wouldn't call him that if I were you."

"There's a mugshot of this guy in the files. You can't tell me he's not some sort of prisoner."

The voice on the walkie-talkie falls silent. Swarmer continues examining the files while waiting for a response. A few minutes pass when he finally gets an answer. "He's joining the army."

They hired a prisoner to serve the army?

Ranger continues explaining. "He's really important."

"Important to who?"

"That's none of your business."

Swarmer frowns. He hopes Ranger can see it. "You can't leave me in the dark. Not after you dragged me into your mess."

It was Ranger's turn to sigh. "He's an enemy soldier."

--x--

When Swarmer lifts the lid off the box, he notices a stack of folders inside. He places the lid aside and takes out the whole stack from the box.