Spliced

Present day...

The door at the back of the room opened and the old man rolled in.

“If you could please follow me.”

They followed the old man into a short hallway that initially looked to have no exits. A screen had been mounted into the wall at the far end. He placed his hand on it and a few moments later a portion of the hallway slid away to reveal a large elevator. Once they were all piled inside he pushed a button and nothing happened. But in the background they eventually began to make out the soft whir of a motor. The elevator moved so smoothly that none of them had felt it shift.

Just as the quiet was starting to encroach a little too much, Cat butted in, redirecting their focus away from the uncanny subtle reduction in gravity. “Hey old guy, I got a question for you, why’d we have to bring one car?”

The old man chuckled. “We very much value our privacy out here, as you can imagine given the nature of your task. One vehicle is simply less noticeable”

“Especially given the type of car Cat would bring,” Falco quipped.

“Just because I have quality taste in cars doesn’t mean I don’t know how to be stealthy. Besides an unmarked white van, not exactly stealth mode. A pair of range rovers, on the other hand, and people just think you’re out exploring the dessert, maybe doing some caving.”

Before Falco or anyone could respond the elevator stopped and the doors opened.

A short hospital style white corridor lay in front of them. At the end was a pair of frosted swing glass doors. A couple of wooden benches, also painted white, lined either side of the corridor. Despite the matching colour scheme their rough texture looked out of place next to the cleanliness of the rest of the corridor. The old man once again told them to wait there until he came back. As the door swung shut behind him, the lights above flickered.

Indi found she suddenly felt dizzy. The flickering lights were making her head spin. She sat down on one of the benches and put her head in her hands in an attempt to quell the sick feeling rising in her stomach. After a few seconds the feeling went away almost as suddenly as it had come on. When she lifted her head up Falco was crouched down in front of her. He was looking at her with concerned eyes.

“You alright?”

“Yeah I’m fine.” she quickly straightened up. “Just feeling a little tired.” She gave him a smile. “I hate early starts.”

Falco eyed her carefully for a moment before sitting down beside her. Indi felt the eyes of everyone else watching but she didn’t look at them, instead she fiddled with the sleeves of her purple jersey. After what felt like ages to Indi, but was probably only a second or two, people stopped paying attention to her. They sat on benches or leaned against the wall to wait. All except Wolf who paced up and down the corridor.

Alex awoke to the sound of folders being thrown on her desk right next to her face. She sat up quickly to find her co-soldier Mark standing in front of her.

“Sleeping on the job?” he chided. “You’re lucky it’s not the boss walking in.”

“I was just resting my eyes.”

“Uh huh. Well enough resting, they’re here.”

Alex sighed. “I don’t think I can do this anymore. It’s been almost 2 months. I think I’ve forgotten what the sun looks like.”

“Cheer up, one more then we’re done. Besides you’re not supposed to look directly at the sun.”

“Ha ha,” Alex replied dryly as she reached for the folders she'd fallen asleep on. The ones that contained the information on their new guests.

A few minutes later, Alex stood next to Mark as they waited for their boss to bring the guests through. She leaned closer to Mark and whispered “Is there really any point disarming these people? The files said one of them is a firestarter, and not just the lighting candles sort.”

Mark shrugged. “They probably just want to minimise the risk. One’s a dreamwalker too, but not a paticularly powerful one. As for the firestarter, well...” he shrugged, “hey, at least there’s no mindwalkers.”

“Well that would make our job hard wouldn’t it.”

“Look, I know you don’t like what we’re doing here but it’s for a good reason. You did read their files?”

“I scanned their files, and I doubt ours would look any different.”

“Well maybe one day we’ll get ours, in the meantime let’s just do our job.”

“You’re gonna take our weapons off us?” Cat asked after the old man had explained the entry process. She didn’t look happy about it.

“Yes, you’ll get them back when you leave” the old man replied.

“Why can’t we keep them?” Cat inquired.

“Security reasons.”

“That’s ridiculous, we...” Cat started to argue.

“Cat,” Amanda interrupted. “If they want our weapons they can have them. It makes no difference.”

“Maybe not to you.” Cat bristled. Witches were born with only one innate power and while Cat would never outright say it, no one would argue that Amanda far exceeded her in magical ability. It was for this reason that Cat placed much more reliance on weaponry and physical prowess. Amanda’s powers would be sufficient protection for the group but Cat hated to rely on others, least of all her short stubborn sister-in-law. For a moment the two women were locked in a staring competition.

“Fine!” Cat stepped back, arms crossed, conceding the argument but also indicating that she wasn’t going to be the first to hand over her weapons, nor was she going to make it a particularly pleasant process for them.

“Okay good." The old man acted like there had been no altercation at all. "Who’s first?”

Amanda stepped forward.