Guardians of Eden Read Online Free Page B

now, more than two years since first setting up on Altaris, they remained a very modest force.
    There were no records of the station’s location outside of its own databases and no way of detecting it by conventional means. With technology in such an advanced state, ISO had to do everything possible to remain a secret. HQ was the embodiment of that mentality.
    Keeping his head down, Owyn swiftly made his way to the uppermost floor of the station where Operations was located. Operations was a large, open room with dozens of computer consoles lining the walls – although, again, it seemed ISO were severely undermanned to ever make use of them all. In the centre was the IC, the Intelligence Centre ; a tall round table with a glass top and a holographic image of Altaris projected a few inches above it. Despite its unassuming looks, it was the most important piece of technology that belonged to ISO, as within its circuits resided their collected intelligence, their identities and their mission data. Sully had designed the system to be impossible to hack – such was the delicacy of its contents. In doing so he’d needed to devise a way to make it entirely separate from every other computer system in existence, something that was almost unimaginable in the modern age.
    From Operations led a flight of metal steps up to Ambrose’ quarters. Owyn climbed them as quietly as he could, but thanks to the emptiness of the room even the softest step generated an almighty clang. As he neared the door it slid aside and he was prompted to enter. He stepped through and it closed behind him. He was alone.
    This was the first time he had ever found himself in here without being under Ambrose’ strict supervision, so he took his chance to look around. On one wall of the room was the station’s control hub – currently locked behind a whole sequence of passwords and other security measures – where Ambrose had access to cameras, communication and every other individual system, all of which could be displayed on a holographic screen which covered almost the entire wall.
    As well as the leader of Alpha team, Lieutenant Ambrose was the Commanding Officer of ISO. He was the most experienced soldier of any of them, having fought on Earth – both in and outside the US – for more than a decade before leaving for Altaris. He wasn’t one to boast about his former glories, although imagining the things he might have seen and done in all those years, Owyn doubted there was an awful lot to brag about. Still, it meant that the rest of ISO knew even less about their leader than they did about each other. That applied even to Owyn, who shared the closest relationship with the Lieutenant of all of them – if, in those circumstances, it could be described as a relationship at all.
    When Ambrose had first set about building ISO from the ground up he’d handpicked Owyn to be his first Operative, and ever since then he’d acted like a mentor, paying closer attention to his development on the field than any of the other personnel. Now, five years down the line from when Owyn was first selected, Ambrose was giving him a shot at a promotion to First Officer. Owyn wasn’t sure what he’d done to deserve any of it but, given all of that, he couldn’t help but wonder why he hadn’t been given even a peek behind the veil – not even a first name. Of course, secrecy was something the organisation was built on, but it did seem strange – not that he’d say so out loud.
    On the opposite side of the room was a full wall window which gave a breath-taking view of the planet below. Owyn stepped over and put his hands to the glass, gazing down onto the surface. Darkness shrouded much of it, but gleaming specks of light pockmarked the land where Altaris’ cities lay. As of yet the planet had nothing outside of its fifteen cities scattered about the globe, and so the lights were well separated and identical – all except for one.
    The brightest of the lights was