The Halfbreed Threat

Part 2

"Don't we all know it?" Karl said making a pretend-upset face.

"Oh stop pouting like a little girl, dude! You started it, now take it like a man! Or do you need a hug and kiss to feel better?" And Vincent took one step closer towards him.

"Jeesh! God no!" Karl replied, making a "yuck" face.

"Johnathan, stop teasing your brother!" the receptionist said as they stepped out of the elevator and into the lobby.

"Yes, Miss Coooollins!" He answered like he would to a school teacher. Miss Collins was a sweet 52 year old lady, who had been with the company for almost 20 years. She was the company's guard dog. If you need to talk to someone at E.C.S. in person, you had better convince her you had something important to say.

"So what was it you were going to say?" Vincent said switching to a serious tone.

"Some guy came over while you were gone, demanding to speak to Sam. Miss Collins wouldn't let him so he started to make threats and I had to politely escort him out." Karl recalled the event.

"Karl?"

"Yes?"

"Is he alive? I know you have a different definition of politely escorting someone out."

"Well I barely touched him when he lost his balance and fell on his ass!" Karl added looking a little smug.

"Tell me at least you used the back entrance for that!"

"Of course! I know what you said last time. Besides, he was rude!" He explained.

"Don't remind me. We almost lost that contract because of it! You just don't do that to an international corporate CEO, when you have a bunch of reporters waiting at the entrance. Is Sam ok?" Vincent asked.

"Yeah, she doesn't even know it. What do you want to do about it?"

"Look into it. Discreetly. And recheck Sam's file. Get a report ready by tomorrow night. Anything else?"

"Got it and no, that's it."

"Cya Karl!"

"Bye John!"

Sometimes I hate all this secrecy, having to dance around between two sets of names just for the sake of safety. Like when I talked to Cynthia on the phone and asked for Peter when his name is Robert Murner? Peter is a chosen name, the name behind the facade you could say. Robert Murner is the name he uses during this res. The last name usually follows a pattern: starts with the same letter and ends with the same two, so "M" and "er". He could have chosen Mortimer just as well. Same with Johnathan Gray and Vincent.

At least we have some advantages too. Like the res. He though to himself.

A 'res', was short for resurrection, though in their case it was more like reincarnation - well and accelerated one. When a Keeper 'died' of old age or unatural causes, his or her body went into an intense coma, shutting down all detectable signs of life. Then, whenever the body was left unattended, a complete transformation process begun, enveloping the body in a cocoon, rewriting all DNA, from appearance to skin color and even gender to what the brain had stored as the most recent, common and successful example of humanoid present in the geographical area of death. Die in Africa, while on a visit – 'res' as a black individual; get killed as an Indian woman in the early Americas by the cavalry, 'res' as a white male colonist with a slight German accent and so on. The thing that always prevailed was the personality, memories and character of the 'deceased'. Basically the cocoon brought forward a new person, better fitted to survive their environment.

*Author's Note

Many thanks for the reads, comments and votes (hopefully :D ).