The door opened, and a middle-aged man dressed in a long-sleeved blue shirt and a pair of black khaki pants walked in. He took the last vacant seat and looked at the man standing at the front of the room.
"That would be the last one. Dr. Nikolai, unlike you some of us know what on time means," John sneered.
"Sorry, I overslept. In my defense, I've been traveling for the last 16 hours and only had three hours of sleep. The human body—"
"That's enough. Be on time next time. Or I'll find someone else who will."
It was an empty threat, and John knew The Doctor knew too. There was no one like him in the entire world. His knowledge and experience on Supernaturals were unparalleled by anyone who was perhaps not a Supernatural.
This was the small task force he was able to gather within the last two weeks. They may be few but to him and his line of work it was more people than he was comfortable with. Not to mention he was still undecided about bringing in the Detective into the task force.
Other than himself, there was Dr. Nikolai, their Geneticist, Philip their IT expert fresh out of MIT. Cassandra, top of her class majoring in both Linguistic and Cultural Anthropology; she also had a thirst for ancient cultures. Finally, you had Jason, a former Marine and would be their tactical team leader.
That left him John St. Augustine, Special Agent at Homeland Security, Office of Intelligence & Supernatural Intervention (ISI). He was the lead field agent; technically he was the only field agent as their Agency was the youngest and other than him, only the Secretary of Intelligence & Supernatural Intervention, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of Defense knew about it.
He was tasked with capturing supernaturals and studying them before his superiors presented the potential threat their national security and ultimately global security was facing for a very long time to the President and The Pentagon. To be honest, when he was approached about a position for the job he turned it down without a second thought.
The Agency's Secretary then took him to an unmarked location where he saw his first Supernatural. It was a female birdlike being, and if it wasn't for the shape it was in and the Secretary disarming him earlier, he was sure the creature would have had an entire body full of lead.
She was spread-eagle on a large wooden board, eyes closed, her breathing shallow but rapid. Her entire body was initially covered with feathers. It had no hands but actual wings that ended with three four-inch razor sharp talons on each wing. Her chest plucked bare of any feathers, and he was treated to a pair of lovely B-cup tits; first bird to ever turn him on.
She had a slim waist that branched into two legs. Her mound was also plucked to the skin; he couldn't help but stare at her exposed crotch. It was all human starting from the hooded small nub at the top to two sets of lips ending just an inch away from her rosebud. Whoever was examining her was one perverted human being.
Finally, her legs were also covered in feathers and ended with another three four-inch talons. A slight shiver ran up his spine as he imagined the kind of terror the creature could unleash if set free.
"She's quite a sight, isn't she?"
John was alerted by a raspy voice with a thick Russian accent. Looking at the direction of the sound, he saw a short late forties man in a cliché white coat and a pair of glasses. The only thing missing was some scruffy white hair.
"You must be the new Agent, I'm Dr. Albert Nikolai. It's good to finally meet you." He offered his hand in the process.
"John. New Agent?" John replied as he accepted the handshake.
"Yeah, your predecessor was killed about a week ago. Good man and very professional."
There was a short silence which was broken by the Secretary as he cleared his throat. "Now that that is out of the way come with me, John. There are a few things we need to discuss."
He began walking towards one of the doors and John followed him behind.
"So, you believe me now?"
"I trust my eyes."
"Good enough for me. Mr. St. Augustine..."
"Just use John, that one is a mouthful."
"John it is. What you saw is a new species we've managed to capture alive ever since this Agency was founded, but it came at a price. As Nikolai may have already clued you in, the Agent that worked for me before you, gave his life to make sure the capture was successful."
"Just how many undocumented species are out there?"
"Good question. Truthfully, I don't know; it's also partly the reason why this Agency exists. So far, we've managed to document three different species; the one you saw is a Harpy, then there are Centaurs and...Gods."
"Gods?"
"Yeah, in a world where Centaurs and Harpies exist, there's bound to be Gods. It's a logical deduction rather than evidence-based. We were hoping to get some proof through interrogation, but like I said earlier we've never been able to capture a live specimen; until now."
"Did the Bird confirm?"
"No, not yet. Dr. Nikolai is yet to break her. He also seems more interested in what makes her tick than what information she could be holding that is crucial to my Agency."
"What about the Centaur, you still have the body?"
"I'm afraid that isn't open for discussion. You have to accept the job to have clearance for unrestricted information and access to our database."
"Can I at least think about it?"
"You have 12 hours, after that, we'll be looking for another candidate. That goes without saying, everything you've heard so far is not to leave this room. Any breach of confidentiality is tantamount to treason and you'll get the needle."
"I understand, sir."
"Good, I'll escort you out."