Spliced

Present day...

Alex eyed the next entry, the apothecary Werewolf with the weird name. He was shorter than the other men at approximately 5’6, which was about the same height as Indi. He was plain looking with brown hair and brown eyes.

“Your name is Wolf?” the old man asked as he entered.

Wolf nodded.

The old man studied him for a second before turning him over to Mark.

Wolf handed over one gun and one knife. Mark searched him and found nothing more than what Wolf had given him.

The old man followed up with a few more questions although there were less than there had been for the others. He seemed to be getting tired of asking them, and Wolf just didn’t seem to interest him as much. Before the door had shut behind him, Wolf had already been forgotten.

After Wolf had gone, the old man paused and frowned at the other door. “Let’s do the woman next; I don’t like the look of her so I’d rather not leave her for last.”

Alex understood what the old man had meant when Cat entered. The expression she gave was downright hostile. She had long dark hair, sharp features, and narrow green eyes. She was also tall and muscular. She looked like she could give the marine a fair fight. She stared the old man down like it was a challenge. Alex couldn’t remember anything from this woman’s file. She should have saved her nap for later instead of dozing off this morning. Then she might have been more prepared.

Cat placed a gun on the table then fixed Alex with the same challenging look. It was a little intimidating but it didn’t deter Alex from conducting a thorough search. She managed to find a total of 3 knives and 2 guns on Cat. She had to admit, she was a little impressed. From the look of Cat’s clothing she wouldn’t have expected she could hide so much. Her jacket was leather but short and well-fitted. Someone had tailored it to fit Cat’s form while also leaving just enough room at the back to sew holsters into the jacket so they weren’t obvious from the outside. Initially Alex had though Cat was wearing high-waisted skinny jeans but once she started her pat down Alex recognised the material for something different, Kevlar, the type a lot of motorcyclists wore. A knife had been lightly sewn into the material at each hip and could have been easily mistaken for part of the pattern of the pants. As flat as those knifes were however, Cat was never getting them past a proper pat down.

“Are we done?” Cat asked impatiently.

“Just a few questions.” the old man told her. “What’s your name?”

“Cat.”

“That short for Cathryn?”

Cat didn’t reply. The old man moved on. “What’s your last name?”

“James.”

“Your Power?”

“Dreamwalker.”

“Are you married?”

Cat held up both hands and wiggled her fingers. “Do I look like I’m married?”

“Do you have children?”

“No.”

“Siblings?”

“No.”

The old man sighed “Didn’t we just process your brother?”

“Did you?” Cat replied, eyebrow rising in mock surprise.

The old man’s eyebrows knotted together. He looked quite tense. “Please don’t make my job harder than it has to be Ms James.”

Cat just stared at him with an almost satisfied look on her face like this was all just some kind of test.

“Are your Parents alive?”

She didn’t seem to like that question as much. Alex noted that her face darkened ever so slightly, and her features tightened even more so.

“No. Are we done?” Cat started to walk towards the exit.

The old man sighed and waved Cat through. He then walked to the other door and motioned for Zephyr to step into the inspection room.

“Lucky last” Zephyr quipped. If anyone heard him they didn’t show it. Zephyr shrugged and handed over two handguns. He flashed Alex a friendly smile. It could have been a subtle attempt at flirting, especially since Zephyr didn’t give Mark one, but Alex couldn’t be quite sure. Zephyr was skinnier than the others and he seemed more energetic, maybe even nervous. His eyes jumped around a lot as if he wasn’t sure what he should be looking at. Alex’s memories were fuzzy on this guy’s file too. Maybe there just hadn’t been much in the files of these last two?

Mark turned up not one, not two, but three knives.

“Can’t I even just keep one of them?” Zephyr inquired.

The old man’s face darkened. His patience was growing thin. “You know the answer to that.”

“I’m sorry, I have a bad memor...” Zephyr’s light-hearted tone trailed off as he caught the look the old man was giving him. He really didn’t seem to have meant any harm. Alex almost felt sorry for him.

“What’s your first and last name?” The old man asked with as much enthusiasm as a clam.

“Zephyr Kelly” he replied.

“Power?”

“Quickfoot.”

“Occupation?”

“Psychologist.”

The old man continued on with a few more questions, then shuffled Zephyr through to the next room where the rest of the group waited.