Heiser-The-Facade - Sparkling Eyes

"Here comes Dee," Malcolm noted dutifully. "She's sharp, but watch out for hertemper. She and the Colonel got into it last night and it wasn't pretty."No sooner had Malcolm's comment ended than the woman Brian had noted at thetable appeared at his side. She was tall for a woman, a few inches under six feet, and wason the chubby side."1 see you've met Malcolm," she grinned."Yes, he's been very entertaining.""Now you know what Jar-Jar Binks evolved into," she quipped, glancing over atthe butt of her joke. Brian laughed heartily. "Deidre Harper," she said, extending herhand."Brian Scott," he answered, shaking her hand."The trays go over there," she informed him, looking at her watch."Right I've heard about Colonel . . . what was his name?" "Ferguson," shereplied. "Ah, yes—charming man," she added with transparent disdain."So, do either of you know what's going on here?" Brian asked as he stood up andpushed in his chair."I don't, and other than the fact that we're somewhere in the southwestern UnitedStates," Deidre butted in, "Malcolm doesn't know squat either.""To the contrary; I know everything," Malcolm said confidently as they startedtoward the open doorway of the cafeteria."You do?" Brian stopped, startled. He was eager to learn if his suspicion wascorrect."Well, they haven't officially told me anything beyond what they've probably toldyou, but I've been here ten months, and I've got it figured out.""Oh," Brian said, trying to hide his disappointment. The three of them walkeddown the corridor toward the conference room."I see you don't believe me, but I won't hold it against you. It's exciting to haveyou and the other non-scientists here, Dr. Scott. According to my theory, your presenceindicates either resignation or desperation. You do know that the plans for the originalmakeup of this team included only scientists, don't you?""No, I didn't," answered Brian, a little curious as to why Neil had omitted thisdetail. He also wondered how much his colleague knew about his background."It's true," Malcolm chirped. "They thought we'd solve the problem.""And you couldn't, huh?""Actually, we did better than that—or worse, depending on one's perspective. Wesucceeded in isolating the real cause of the immediate problem at least that's what theenigmatic `Group' congratulated us for. Unfortunately, we've hit the wall on our attemptsto uncover the source of this catalyst. It's my opinion that a solution is unattainable, atleast in terms of our current scientific knowledge—or to the extent of the informationthey've given us. What we did was bring this fact to light and, it seems, force some kindof decision. So, in a way, we did provide an answer.""That answer being that you're basically out of ideas —at least to this point?""Precisely," Malcolm grinned as he carded the door and opened it for Brian.The conference area was quite a contrast to the austere atmosphere of the rest of"the Facility," as it had been so dubbed by Neil. The walls were undecorated, butpleasantly pasteled in aptly coordinated colors. There were eleven high-backed, burgundy29