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The entrance to OPS was twenty feet from the main bay of elevators. Midway between the two was an open space that had been a reception area for the company that formerly occupied the floor. The doors to one of the elevator cars opened and out stepped the black-clad Mike Heaberlin. Dark glasses covered his eyes while a full-length black overcoat covered his black shirt and jeans. The rotund William Keast followed Heaberlin out of the elevator. Keast stood five feet eleven inches and weighed in at three hundred twenty-five pounds. A lot of the weight was spread around the middle. Everyone affectionately called him Big Bill and he did not mind at all. Big Bill was one of the few people who still had a sense of humor amid the death and chaos. He was a big teddy bear and everybody liked him. He was the person on the project best suited to give Heaberlin his orientation.

Big Bill stood beside Heaberlin and put his hands in his gray lab coat. He watched the new kid marvel through the observation window at the activity and the equipment inside of OPS.

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