Operation Baby Blue



Prologue

She arrived at the boxcar and heard the hiss of air, a telltale sign that her ride was about to leave. She climbed aboard as the train began to lurch forward. The environment was foreign; the walls were decorated with symbols she could not decipher. Tessa May had never left her home before. She had always felt safe with her family, until the truth began to unravel, exposing the tangled web of lies surrounding her existence. Who could she trust? She hoped that Chris was wrong, that she would be able to stand up to whoever or whatever came after her, but for now, running was the only option.

She clutched the heart shaped locket to her chest as the train rocked her to sleep, while visions of her most recent adventure occupied her restless mind. She'd survived the first close call of what would become many.

...

Her grandfather, a decorated veteran who retired as an officer in the US Armed Forces, had recently passed. His belongings were being dealt with, and Tessa, on break from her studies, stopped by to see her mother and help her sort the items. There were trinkets galore; he'd served in three major wars which lead him all over the world. Of all the items, fine jewelry, ornate crystal goblets, and porcelain dolls from the Orient, it was the plain manilla envelope that sent chills down her spine.

"Oh crap!" Mom said. "I forgot this stupid dog has an appointment with the vet today. I need to leave. I'm going to be late."

"Okay, mom. I'll clean up and lock the door before I leave. I'll meet you with the key this evening." Tessa opened the envelope. Initially, the content appeared inocuous enough. Pictures of rockets, what she recognized as the V-2, seemed to be the focal point of the material. She thumbed through the pages a bit and was about to file the envelope into the miscellaneous box when she saw a title that caught her attention. A picture of her mother as a young adult, laying unconscious n what looked like an operating table, was paper-clipped to a page titled Operation Baby Blue. Her brow furrowed as she continued down the page. "What did they do to her?" She whispered.

Medical jargon made the document hard to understand, but towards the bottom of the page, she read "while under anesthesia, the compound in research was injected into the subjects ovaries." The color drained from her face as she stuffed the documents back into the envelope.

Chris was a long time friend of her family; she left with the envelope and called him to meet up immediately.

"Look at this!" She exclaimed, excited but also terrified. "This all seems to be pretty ordinary, until page forty-seven, the military was conducting experiments here! My grandfather was involved and my mother is pictured in this experiement! I've always thought I was different but I never understood why! It details what markers changed in later egg samples, but I'm no genetiscist, I don't know what this means!

Her phone lit up unexpectedly. Chris's face wore his trademark scowl as he grabbed it and removed the battery. "You've got to leave" He said in a patronizing tone. "You weren't a huge threat in the dark about this, but they can't just have their test subjects walking around with documents that prove all this unethical testing. You'll never be safe here, again, your existence is too dangerous to the existing leadership, they will find you and kill you!"

"So you think I'm right?"

There was a knock at the door.

"Dead right." He responded.

"What's happening?" She asked, her voice trembling in fear.

"They're here to collect you, apparently they've been studying you closely your entire life, now that you have found this, you know too much!" He said. "I'll handle them." He looked out the back window, "there's a train stopped right now, it's been there about ten minutes, you've got about five minutes to go and get into that open box car. Put a big stick in the door track so it doesn't shut on you, you would likely die if that happens. Leave your phone here and take my bag... and this." He handed her a heart shaped locket. "I had planned on giving this to you today."

She opened the locket, it contained a picture of her and a picture of him from what looked like the year they met, as children. She closed it and looked at him.

"Go." He said as he started towards the door. "I'm coming!" He shouted.

"Give this to my mom." She handed Chris the key and then she jumped out the open window and started running towards the train. She had no idea where it would take her, but she knew she could not stay in her home any longer. She knew she would eventually face them, but today was not the day.