Chapter #5Kestrel Overwhill, Genetic Engineer by: Unknown Kestrel Overwhill walked down the hallway of his facility. His assistant, Katri, quickly walked up to him, carrying a hand-held messaging device. "Dr. Overhill..." Katri began.
Kestrel stopped and turn to look at her. He smiled, and gave a soft chuckle. "Please, Katri," he said. "You know we're on first-name terms."
"True," she said, "but I want to call you 'doctor' in front of the Gamemakers. It'll look more official."
"Whatever you like, Katri, whatever you like," said Kestrel. He was to meet the Gamemakers today, in order to discuss the next Hunger Games. He had heard that it would take place in an abandoned city, and already had a few ideas. However, he'd wait to propose them at the end of the meeting, after the Gamemakers had given him their suggestions. They were an egotistical bunch, and each one of them seemed to think that they could do Kestrel's job better than him. Kestrel was a Genetic Engineer (or mutt-maker, as some people called it) who designed the creatures used in the Hunger Games. He'd only done it for a few years, but he had already established himself as one of the best. He usually made his creatures reflect the design of the arena, a detail that made them very visually appealing. Kestrel was also willing to go to more extremes than previous Engineers, which lead to much more entertaining games.
"The Gamemakers are in the conference room, Dr. Overwhill," said Katri.
"Wonderful. You are dismissed," replied Kestrel. Katri nodded and went back down the hallway. She'd get the chance to call him 'doctor' when the Gamemakers were leaving.
Kestrel entered the conference room. There, about twelve Gamemakers sat in his custom-designed rotating chairs, sent from District 1. Each chair had the face of a particularly vicious animal sculpted on the back. The head Gamemaker, Seneca Crane, sat in the furthermost chair.
'The Badger,' thought Kestrel. 'How fitting.' He did not have much love for Crane or any of the other Gamemakers, but he had to deal with them if he wanted to maintain his position.
"So, Dr. Overwhill, I assume you know the location of the next game?" began Crane. Kestrel nodded his head. "Wonderful. We've been discussing the creatures that will appear during the game, and we have come up with some preliminary designs. If you would, Trajan..." Crane gestured to a Gamemaker sitting next to a mobile holographic advice. Trajan activated the device, and three-dimensional models of several animals popped up. "These," said Crane, "are the proposed creatures. As always, we'll let you modify them in minor ways as you see fit. You can keep your own suggestions to yourself until the meeting ends."
'He acts like he owns my facility,' thought Kestrel. 'Oh, how I'd love to feed him to something.' Kestrel quickly shook these thoughts from his head, and tried to focus on Crane's presentation. He was going over the different animals they wanted to include in the arena. Overall, Kestrel thought it was a good list: a few primates, a couple bird species derived from vultures, and a multitude of larger-than-average insects. But one creature caught his eye. It was an eight-foot long pig, a semi-aggressive food source for Tributes. It struck Kestrel as incredibly boring, especially when compared to the unique creatures intended for the arena. 'I could probably make it more interesting,' thought Kestrel, as he began to consider different ideas.
"So, that concludes our presentation," said Crane. "Do you have any suggestions, Dr. Overwhill?"
"Why, yes. I do."   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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