Inner Turmoil

After that first step into the room Richard's gut twisted into a pretzel. Sitting at the long rectangular table were several men dressed almost identical to him.
Dress shirts, but theirs were white, with the top few buttons undone, dress pants that were a deep uniform black. They each wore a suit jacket as well, except for the man at the head of the table who had his resting across the back of his chair. All fashioned with brush cuts or shaved heads except for the man at the head of the table. His short black hair was well groomed and although clean cut, he had a ruggedness to his appearance. His face was slightly weathered with signs of fatigue and his eyes had a severe look which seemed to gaze beyond its subject. It was noticeable, even in his seated position , that he was a big man with massive broad shoulders ,bulging biceps, and a thick muscular neck that emphasized two shiny silver medallion like tags hanging from a chain ; military dog tags. Ceress was ready to turn and walk out at that moment, but the sound of the doors closing behind him compelled him to stay, if only out of fear. Besides, hearing them out wouldn't hurt.
He focused on the advice he had been given earlier. If they were willing to spend this much money on an interview room, think of the labs and equipment they could afford.

"Please, have a seat Mr. Ceress," the man at the head table motioned to the chair at the other end of the table. His deep and stern voice was one that did not allow for any argument, even though it was said in an inviting way. There was something very intimidating about this man, and it was something more than his appearance or his job that created this aura. "I'm glad to see you here so early. I'm Agent Candora of the North American Special Forces."
"Never heard of you," Richard said with a slightly scornful tone.
"That's because we are damn good at keeping secrets."
"I see," Richard decided to bite his tongue on the issue that this so called secret was so openly mentioned in his introduction.
"I'll get to the point Mr. Ceress, and I will forego personal introductions to the panel here today as their name cards clearly identify them. All you need to know is that each one has a vested interest in this project .We are here because..."
"I'm not interested," the quick and less than tactful rejection from Richard took even the agent by surprise, stopping him mid-sentence. He took himself by surprise as well, what was he doing? He was clearly more unsettled and uncomfortable than he had thought himself.
"You haven't even heard what I have to say."
"I don't need to. I know what you represent, and I know what people like you would want someone with my talents in the Gene-Aug Technology field," Richard was making it very clear with each word of his disinterest in whatever he had to say, dismissing every word the agent said with a simple facial expression.
"I understand your feelings regarding this subject, which is the main reason we are speaking right now. If you turn down my offer that's fine, but I have come a long way to speak with you personally. So please, at least do me the courtesy of hearing me out first." The agent’s tone was controlled and without emotion, but still had an underlying intimidating factor that Richard did not want to uncover. So he instead nodded and awaited the agent to continue. "As you know the recession has now been declared as a national state of emergency in the United States. A large reason for this is because of all of the resources abroad in enemy territories which has them spread so thin. Several of the scientists in the Bio-Technology division under the Joint Chiefs of Staff have proposed a plan that while costly to develop, would eliminate the need for large occupation forces. They have proposed that it could be possible to increase the potential of an American soldier that would as I've had it explained to me in simple terms be the equal of ten normal soldiers. With training and proper development, they estimate that this ratio could increase to a near unlimited advantage. This process would likely be in the form of a serum to be injected into the soldier to increase all physical and mental faculties. A super soldier if you will. Bio-Technology alone isn't enough, we need Canadian Gene-Augmentation technology in order to perfect this serum and ensure that it's safe."