“How old are you?”
“29”
Silence.
“Are the lights on, in this room?”
“Yes.”
“How old are you?”
“29”
“Are you a spy?”
“No.”
“Are the lights on, in this room?”
“Yes.”
“Are you a member of the secret organization?”
“I, don’t know what that is.”
“Yes or no answers, please.”
“How old are you?”
“29”
“Are the lights on, in this room?”
“Yes.”
“Are you a member of the secret organization?”
“No.”
“Have you ever experienced anything paranormal?”
“No.”
---
Four hours later and the Polygraph examination was complete. Two weeks later, and his 40-page security clearance paperwork was complete. Four months and two grueling interviews later, and he was done. He was granted his security clearance.
Training lasted 8 months. Practical exercises like firing a multitude of weapons like M-4s, Glocks, and weapons he didn’t know existed--energy weapons. Stuff straight out of sci-fi. Training also consisted of offensive and defensive driving. Classroom instruction. He passed it all with flying colors.
With only 2 weeks left until graduation, it was time for Zane Canberra to choose a job. All that training, and he still wasn’t sure if he was going to get the assignment he so desperately sought.
---
“Have you given enough thought to where you want to go?”
“My dad, once told me he worked for the Department of Homeland Security. He said he worked for a deep, undercover unit. The unclassified name of the unit was the X-Files. I feel weird saying this now. But he said that all he could tell me, is that he was keeping world safe from threats no one knew about. Men In Black type stuff. Before he died, he pointed me at this building. Told me to apply. To keep my mouth shut about X-Files until this day. When I interview for a job after training.”
The old man, with white hair and mustache, simply nodded. He took out a cigarette from under his desk and lit it. His office was cozy, dark, only lit from the outside overcast light. He had bookshelves filled with modern and centuries old text. His desk was void of any computers and only had a few files on it, neatly arranged.
“I hope you don’t mind.” His voice was raspy and melodic. The man looked like he was filled with decades of wisdom. “I worked with your father, God rest his soul. And, I knew this day was coming. I’ve been watching you Zane. Not surprised to see you passing every class and exercise we threw at you. I’m impressed but I was expecting nothing less from you.”
“Thank you, sir.” Zane was seated on a comfy seat opposite of the old man.
“You will move to the X-Files. Not because you want to. But it’s what your father would have wanted. I will honor that.”
---
“Haha, X-Files, huh? I guess that shits not too far from the truth.” A man his thirties laughed. He was huge. Packing as much muscle as an Olympian. “We are Detachment 20. We don’t fall under the Department of Homeland Security. That’s just a cover. We actually fall under a joint office between the DoD and FBI. Office of Exceptional Affairs. Like, no one knows we exist. Only a few military guys in the Pentagon and a few leaders in the FBI. And of course, the people in it.”
They were chatting an underground bunker located in [DATA MASKED], New Mexico. Only a few people working at the “[DATA MASKED] Facility” knew about Detachment 20. There was an elevator in the facility that was strictly off-limits except for the secretive unit. The facility only housed cleared workers who were working for the military. Seeing a door you can’t pass within a SCIF wasn’t abnormal. The other workers simply shrugged it off. Just another secret compartmented government office that was off limits to everyone except those that worked there.
“Our logo is a dice?” Zane asked as they toured the working area.
“D20 dice. Some nerd said it was from Dungeons and Dragons. Detachment 20 - D20. Since it has nothing to do with our mission, we can use it as our logo.”
Zane greeted everyone they passed in the hall. Everyone seemed polite, professional, and buff as hell. They entered a small conference room and shut the door behind them.
“Alright, let’s get to the fun stuff.” Agent Wolfe said. “Everything I’m briefing is top secret. Like, insanely top secret. Everything you see here, stays here.”
Agent Wolfe turned on the projector and started going through slides. He presented everything he needed to know about the facility they were in. They moved onto some admin slides before reaching the mission slides.
“There are dangerous people out there, Zane.” The black Agent looked at him square in the eyes. “They are the Pirends. They have magical powers. I’m talking shit you see in the fucking movies. Like Carrie from Stephen King; that terrible movie, Looper; uhm, shit I don’t know, pick one of the million superheroes from the comics. These people are really dangerous.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Uh-uh, I’m dead serious. We’ve managed to break it down to a few sets of powers. But it feels like when we thought we figured it all out, we learn they can do more shit. I’m talking mind control, telekinesis, matter manipulation, size change, telepathy, etcetera.” Agent Wolfe went on to explain each power in detail.
“Uhm, okay. This is a lot to take in. I thought I was going to be fighting aliens.”
Agent Wolfe, “that shit would be easy. Alright, there’s some good news. We estimate that there’s only like 20 Pirends in the whole world. There may be more, but the number is really low. Another good news, Pirends come in different strengths.”
“Wait, where does the name Pirend come from?”
“People blessed by an Ancient God named Pirend. Greek in origin.”
“There’s no Ancient God named Pirend. I’m sorry, but I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to Greek mythology.”
“Up until 5 minutes ago, you didn’t know there were people out there with paranormal powers.”
“Right.” Zane said in defeat.
“This God’s history has been wiped out by a secretive organization called the Collective. Think Illuminati, but fo’ reals.”
“I know what you’re saying is true. But it’s really hard not to roll my eyes.”
Agent Wolfe laughed. “You’ll see. You’ll see when we get you out there in the field.”
“You were saying not all Pirends are the same?”
“They have different powers and different strength levels of their powers. We’ve seen a Pirend who could lift a tank with his mind and another who could do the same, but with only a pencil. That goes for all other powers. Mind control: I’ve seen a Pirend make someone kill himself, and another who could only control enough of your mind to make you shit your pants--like literally shit your pants. They think it’s funny as hell.”
Agent Wolfe continued, “we don’t give a shit about the no-threats like that. There are probably 100 of those in this State alone. Shit, they probably don’t even know they have those powers or how to use them. No, we care about the dangerous ones. We had a girl, 10-15 years ago, that went around shrinking people from her school and town. She killed like 50 people, and no one knew about it. Want to know why? Because she wiped everyone’s memory of the people she shrunk. Why are you going to report your kid missing, if you didn’t even know you had a kid to begin with? This chick was crazy.”
“Did you guys get her?”
“Almost. Your dad was on that mission. Uhm, I’ll have to tell you that story some other time.”
“So, she’s still out there?”
“Yes.”
“Do we know where she’s at?”
“No. She got help. She learned how to go silent enough that our detectors can’t pick her up anymore.”
“Can I know her name?”
“Hah, why? You want to catch her?”
Zane shrugged and grinned.
“Luna Lansbury.”
---
The door burst open by a young agent that looked like he didn’t get enough sun. He also didn’t seem as buff as the others.
“Sorry to interrupt, we just got a hit. This one’s big.”
“That’s Agent Wilker. He’s not a field agent, just a computer nerd.”
“I’m okay with that.” Wilker said.
The men relocated to the computer lab. Some of the machines looked familiar to Agent Zane Canberra, but there were plenty that seemed like they belonged on the set of Star Trek. They headed over to a terminal that looked like a futuristic sonar system. There were satellite images propped up on the screen with a pink circle over a suburb.
“What do you got?”
“This one is new.” Wilker said.
“New Pirend?”
“New Pirend and new powers. The signature doesn’t match anything we got, but it’s similar to the size change ability.”
“Fuck. I hate that one.”
Zane stood back and looked over the shoulder of the computer tech. He tried to learn and comprehend what he was seeing.
“This one looks dangerous, Wolfe. We haven’t received a reading with this power level since Luna.”
“If that’s true, that means the Collective is already aware of her.” Agent Wolfe said. “We need to move fast. I’m taking the rookie with me. We move out tonight.” He turned to Zane, “got that?”
“Roger.”
---
Wolfe and Zane took a military flight to their destination. They were in the cargo hold of C17 with white Ford E-350. There were no windows on the van. In the back of the vehicle, there were loads of equipment that they were going to use to track and protect themselves from the Pirend.
With the noise inside the cargo hold, Wolfe felt it safe to talk with no one hearing them. Not like there was anyone else in the cargo hold.
“We are going to land on an Air Force base about 2 hours away from where we received the signal. We can’t afford to arouse suspicion.”
“Got it.”
“Once we figure out what this person is capable of, we’ll call for backup. Unless we can take them down ourselves.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
---
The van was Tempest certified. That meant no unwanted signal could come in or out of the van as it drove down the busy highways. From the outside, the van and two men seated in the front looked ordinary. As if they were mechanics, plumbers, or worked construction. The men wore blue-collar uniforms with their names printed on their chest in white: Zed and Wilbur.
“The Collective. What’s up with them? Why are they trying to find the Pirend?”
“We know little about them, kid. We do know they are fucked up and are responsible for some heinous shit. Their little club consists of Pirends and normal fuckers who somehow control them. In turn, they control the country. The Collective wants the most powerful Pirends in order to accomplish their twisted goals. We got to get to the Pirend and neutralize them before they recruit them.”
“We’re going to kill the Pirend?”
“If they don’t cooperate. If they do, we’ll take ‘em back to our lab. Learn more about them.”
“Does that happen often?”
“No.”
---
The men parked at a hotel that was near the center of the town. Wolfe turned on some equipment in the van, and the duo went inside to check-in at the hotel.
“We’ll take shifts in the van. Drive around with the locator on. When the Pirend uses his or her power, drive where the GPS is telling you to drive. It’ll try to steer you to where the signal is hottest. Like playing a game of Marco Polo. Since we’ll be split, just drive until the signal is hottest or when it disappears. Then come get me. We’ll mark on the map where we think the Pirend is most active.”
“Got it.”
---
Zane had the night shift. Although it was Saturday night, Zane was more than happy to be working. His mind was reeling with everything he learned in the past week. He never, in his wildest dream, would’ve thought he would be here today. He was tracking a threat that no one in the country knew about. He was going to keep his fellow citizens safe without them realizing it.
The equipment in the back beeped every 30 seconds to let Zane know it was operating properly. He coasted up and down the town and even got on the highway here and there, to give the appearance he was going somewhere.
He double-backed and went to McDonalds for food and parked in the parking lot while he ate. He was enjoying his Quarter Pounder when the equipment in the back gave off an alarm; a series of beeps that lasted 10 seconds.
Zane turned on the vehicle and looked at the onboard GPS for direction. It told him to head South of the town.
And that’s what he did.
It was quiet for a moment. He was on the outskirts of the town and heading through a residential neighborhood when the beeps went off again. It was the Pirend. They used their power again. The GPS came up with instructions to head further South. He passed a school, a few more houses, and then found himself driving into the woods.
“This can’t be right.”
There was less civilization out where the GPS kept telling him to drive. Regardless, he had faith in the equipment and drove deeper into the woods. The woods would’ve been pitch-black if it weren’t for the full moon. It provided enough ambient light for him to see around his immediate area.
The signal was gone. The locator worked like a shitty sonar device. It only worked when the Pirend used magic or when they were really close by. Probably because of the ambient powers within them.
Zane drove over a railroad crossing and kept venturing deeper in the woods. Still nothing. He pulled the van to a slip road and turned off the engine and lights. He waited in the darkness. For something, anything. The last beep was probably the last one for the night. He would have to report to Wolfe what happened. The Pirend was active in the forest or something. They could probably set up some equipment or a camera to keep track of anyone coming and going. They would just have to zero-in like a predator stalking unsuspecting prey.
It was getting hot in the van, coupled with the fact that it was warm outside, and the equipment in the back running. He rolled down his window and listened for anything.
The van rocked slightly. Was it the wind? No, the air was still outside. Boom. It sounded deep and far away. The van rocked again but it was hardly noticeable. If Zane was driving, he would surely have missed it. Was it an earthquake? An explosion?
Another boom was felt. He heard something. Not the boom, something else. It sounded like someone talking through a loudspeaker, far far away. Was it a rock concert? Zane got out of the van and tried to turn towards the source of the sound.
He saw movement above the tree line. It was just a shadow, but it lasted only a fraction of second. More voices. More booms. Zane felt his heart race. There was something moving above the tree line. Something taller than the 50-foot trees. Zane swallowed a lump. Back at the computer lab, they did mention something about a size change signature. Something big.
Zane got back in the van and raced to the hotel.