In a high-security, very secretive facility in a remote region of northern Maine…
“THANK YOU for taking time for this meeting, and on such short notice.” The speaker, a man, addressed two other men and a woman.
They were seated around a conference table. A holographic image consisting of dark red letters floated just above the table’s surface.
“As you know,” he began and pointed a remote at the projector. The dark red, rotating letters were replaced by photographs of two men. “We’ve been watching these two vampires—Declan, also known as Henri de Fleur, and Jonas Forge—for more than a century and have always felt they’d be excellent additions to our organization, once they met the criteria.”
He glanced around, smiling when he was met with nods of agreement.
“Since shortly after World War II, they’ve lived in a house known to the locals as Boggs’s Castle. It’s located in an American Midwestern town on Lake Erie.” He motioned to the images. “Candidates one and two are an art thief/con man and a police detective, respectively.”
“A cop and a thief—I like it,” one of the men said in a Middle Eastern accent.
“Both useful skill sets,” the woman added. “Have they become soul mates and bonded?”
“Bonded they have,” the presenter said.
“How very Yoda of you,” the other man quipped. His speech had a distinctive Germanic inflection.
The presenter arched an eyebrow and shook his head, continuing, “However, their bond is one of friendship. They are soul mated to others.” He clicked his remote, and another image appeared. “The thief’s soul mate is a werewolf, Lucas Coate, who is employed by the same police force as the detective. He’s a medical examiner and has lived in Boggs’s Castle for about a decade with the detective and this third vampire.”
A shot of a distinguished-looking man now hovered over the table.
“Has he also come under our scrutiny?” the Middle Eastern man asked. He leaned forward and rubbed his chin dramatically.
“Only because of his relationship with the others,” the presenter explained. “He’s a university professor named Simon Hawthorne, and he is bonded to a human, Ben Leyton. Hawthorne is not a candidate, obviously, but because of his long friendship with the others and the proximity of their living arrangements, I think it best he and his human soul mate be approved to be read in as well. They, all of them as a group, have done considerable work thwarting supernatural attacks in that part of the world.” Again he was met with a round of nods.
“How connected is the werewolf to his pack after bonding with a vampire?” The woman asked.
“He is the oldest son of the pack alpha, but he refuses to bow to tradition and has been vocal in his refusal to follow his father’s path. Available intel indicates he’s cut most of his ties with his pack.” The presenter picked up a glass of water and took a drink so the others could digest this bit of information.
The Germanic man spoke up. “And the fourth man, the police officer’s soul mate? What about him?”
“And how well trained is the werewolf? Working for a police department isn’t the same as having investigative training,” the woman added.
“I’ll go over the fourth man; then we’ll discuss training.” The presenter switched the image to that of a young man. “This is our wild card. Also a vampire and recently bonded to the detective, Blair Turner spent some years previous to that as a recluse. That coincided with his being changed. It seems he acquired much of his knowledge of vampires from pop culture.”
The presenter paused for a few minutes to let the chuckles and groans subside. “That is a sad situation,” the woman said and shook her head.
The presenter nodded in agreement. “This young man is a very skilled hacker. At one point in his life, it seemed inevitable he was headed for jail because of those skills. It’s undetermined what happened to turn his life around, but he now holds several advanced degrees, in the computer sciences and in archeology and electrical engineering. He could easily become one of our top cyber specialists.”
“That’s something we need more of,” the Middle Easterner said. “It seems more and more of our work takes place in the virtual world in addition to the real one.”
The presenter took another sip of water. “The detective and thief have been together for years. It has not actually been determined how long, but their relationship seems to predate the American Civil War. They’ve worked for a number of organizations, causes, and countries and have a reputation for getting in, completing a job, and getting out before anyone discovers the havoc they’ve caused. As I’m sure you’ll all recall, their presence in Europe during the forties coincided with one of our major cases.”
“When I was a girl and this nation was the wild frontier,” the woman commented, “jack rabbits caused a lot of that sort of damage.”
“Jack rabbits are actually aggressive, destructive, and incredibly difficult to catch,” the Germanic man added.
“Sounds like our kind of animal,” the Middle Eastern man said and snickered. “But back to the other two.”
“The young vampire and the werewolf are smart and have a number of useful skills. Their soul mates are experienced in spycraft and surviving difficult situations. It’s my belief that, as a team, they could be a significant asset to this organization.” He turned to the Middle Easterner. “And on a side note, the werewolf is quite a… character, shall we say. You two should get along famously.”
The man addressed sat back in his chair and laughed. It was a warm, mellow sound he was known for among his coworkers. The Germanic man shook his head and rolled his eyes.
“If we’re all in agreement—” The presenter’s gaze swept over the others, who signified their approval. “—we’ll begin the recruitment process.”