The Meeting: Mission Creep

  "Now, I know Rex is all excited about his space dust, but something more urgent has come up at the University," said Drachir. "Dr. Reimer has locked himself in his laboratory and won't come out."
  "So?" said Rex. "Get somebody to bust the door down."
  "They tried. It won't budge. They tried a sledgehammer on the door and on the wall -- didn't even dent it. They even got some demolitions experts from Military Science..."
  "Oh. Heck. Maybe he got that stasis field thing to work," said Rex.
  "That's what we're thinking. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to be able to turn it off. It's attracting attention. We don't want anyone paying attention to it just yet. I'd like Rex to accompany me to the University later this morning. Mal, I'd like you there too -- maybe you could help us with damage control."
  Mal agreed. Rex seemed to chafe a little but he said "Okay."
  "Now, before we get into what is likely to be a long and detailed discussion...," said Drachir, glancing at Rex. Rex returned his glace with a glower. "...does anyone else have anything requiring our near-term attention?"
  Mal shifted uneasily. He glanced at Rex, then turned his eyes to the floor.
  "Yes, Mal?" said Drachir.
  "One of my street contacts mentioned the possibility of a large shipment of 'heavy metal' coming into Baltimore within the next week or so," said Mal to the floor. "I nosed around a bit and got some confirming noises."
  "Thanks, Mal. I'll make sure hints are dropped into the appropriate ears," said Drachir.
  "Excuse me, but how is that our problem?" exclaimed Rex.
  Drachir smiled a small, rueful smile. "Mission creep," he said.
  "I can't help what I hear on the street," said Mal. "You wanna just hand a bunch of assault rifles over to the Vast Right Wing or whoever?"
  "What are you supposed to be accomplishing on the street, anyway? I've never been clear on that," said Rex.
  "Primarily, I'm looking for evidence that They might be manipulating human affairs through clandestine activity. Secondly, a lot of contraband is produced in out-of-the-way wilderness areas. That's also the sort of place where the most anomalous sightings occur. Sometimes people in the business see things of interest to us. And sometimes I turn up things that our buddies in Homeland Security are interested in."
  "I'd guess that's most of what you turn up."
  "Well, yeah. There's a lot more of that kind of thing than what we're interested in."
  "Why don't we let Homeland Security take care of the Earth? We've got the rest of the universe to worry about."
  "Homeland Security is aware that there's a fair-sized off-the-books operation going on," said Drachir. "They even know some of the people and organizations involved." He looked around the room. "They know that a lot of the people who hang out here at the Engineering Technology building have jobs that don't have much to do with engineering. If we keep feeding them nibbles, they'll remain convinced that we're on their side, and they'll keep looking the other way."
  Rex sighed. "Okay," he said. He looked at Drachir with raised eyebrows.
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Author's note:
The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy: http://www.vastrightwingconspiracy.com/. There seem to be a number of competing versions -- try googling "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy." The Vast Right Wing in the story is a militant splinter group that is ticked off about War-on-Terror-related gun control measures that have been enacted ten years into the future.
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The Meeting: Culture Glob

  Mal was the last one to reach the meeting room. There wasn't any table, just a collection of comfortable chairs. Laptops were actually perched on laps; books and papers stood in handy piles near people's feet. Mal missed having a table. He liked having something to prop his feet up on. He made do with the arm of Harmony's chair instead. She smiled shyly at him. The other operatives on Jerry's team -- Benny, Charles, Ginger, and Jerry himself -- were already there, along with the rest of Mal's team -- Justin, Rex, and Ronnie. Drachir, their sort of not-supervisor, was there too.
  Drachir waved what appeared to be a cell phone around the meeting room. "Okay. This room appears to be secure. We don't have to speak plainly for the duration of this meeting."
  "Good!" said Rex. "I hate that not-absolutely-not-total-not-fucking-not-shit."
  "Your opinion of standard Company procedure has been noted. Since about ten minutes after you were recruited, actually."
  "The plain-talk translator is active," said Ginger. "Rex will really hate any recording of this meeting made on Company equipment."
  "Thank you, Ginger," said Drachir. "As you should already know, the hottest topic this morning is the so-called anomaly supposedly sighted in the Library of Congress last night. Well, it appears that it was actually recorded by one of their security cameras."
  "Yeah," said Mal. "The video has already been uploaded to the Internet."
  "I trust you will apply your skills to making sure the Internet version is accurate."
  "Already on it," said Mal, tapping away at his notebook.
  "I thought we didn't have to talk like that," said Rex.
  "Old habit," said Drachir. "I haven't been talking like this for less than twenty years."
  "I haven't seen the video yet," said Benny.
  "Maybe you should spend less time investigating the .xxx sites," said Drachir. "Here, I'll put it on the big screen."
  The twelve-foot, high-definition, digital screen just made the crummy security-camera footage look even worse than it was. It showed a dimly-lit hallway, with crates of books and papers stacked sloppily against one wall, all the way down the hall. A small, round, floating, glowing thing came around the boxes and advanced toward the camera at a walking pace. No detail could be seen, just a glow.
  "Swamp gas," said Rex sourly. "That could be just a defect in the recording system."
  "No…" said Mal, tapping. The video on the screen changed, with some kind of light-amplification effect applied. "See, it's lighting up the wall next to it."
  "It could be friggin' Tinkerbell after you get done with it, Mal," said Rex.
  "This version's good," said Mal. As the glowing whatever approached, it appeared to rise toward the camera. Then it passed out of the bottom of the frame. The picture began to jump and distort. Washes of color, like oil on water, played across the image.
  "Mal, do you think that's some form of electronic intrusion?" asked Drachir.
  "Yeah, that's pretty classic. We've seen that kind of interference in other cases where They appeared to be involved."
  "The security camera's recording was tampered with," said Drachir. "The recording of the bogey was replaced by several minutes of empty hallway. We're looking at a backup recording that was relayed to a remote location. There appears to have been an effort to tamper with that, too, but the remote backup didn't have an erase function. This isn't the first time they've had trouble with the security cameras -- that's why they installed the backup system."
  "There seems to be a pattern," said Ginger. "In the past month we've had anomalous sightings at the university, too -- the library, the bookstore, and the museum."
  "Sounds like They've joined the culture club," said Benny.
  "The recent sightings have been in or near records of rare languages," said Harmony. "That may be significant."
  "Well, we can't be having an unknown entity loose in the Library of Congress where everyone can see it," said Drachir. "Jerry, I need your team to go to Washington and get the situation under control."
  "Okay," said Jerry. "Should I round up the usual suspects to go with me?"
  "Take Benny, Charles, and Ginger. Harmony, I'd like you to stay here and research cases prior to the last month -- see if They've shown an interest in rare languages before then," said Drachir.
  The named parties murmured their assent.
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Jerry Hawker

Jerry Hawker. Brown hair, brown eyes. Dresses in a stereotypical press overcoat and hat. Intel Op. Day job: tabloid reporter, responsible for making sure the general public gets the 'true' story about things the Company is interested in. Favorite weapon: the pen, but he keeps a pistol handy, just in case. Quote: "Bigfoot Scare in Eastern Montana." One of the two team leaders, Jerry's team includes Harm, Benny, Charles, and Ginger. Based on the player character created by Mitch Murry Lee. Used with permission.
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Benny Honto

Benny Honto. Black hair, brown eyes. A skirt-chaser, he'd probably have better luck if he just did something about his hair. And his teeth. And his skin, and clothes, and manners.... Science Op. Day job: professor at Bavarian State University. Favorite weapon: other operatives -- they make good shields. Quote: "Your place or OUCH!" Based on the player character created by Amber Biliouris. Used with permission.
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Rex Strang

Rex Strang. Blond hair, light blue eyes, pale skin, tall, lean, athletic. Wears dataglasses with light-red-tinted lenses to hide the data from bystanders. Science Op, physicist. Day job: professor of astronomy at Bavarian State University, selected to be on the first manned mission to Mars if it ever gets off the ground. Favorite weapon: bare hands -- he's a karate master and expert ground fighter. Quote: "Stupidity is malicious."
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Author's Note: Wikipedia article on ground fighting.
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