An old gentleman in an elegant, two-piece black and white suit walks the wide corridors of Eden's 90th floor – the executive floor where Eden and Circle bosses are found.
The man is stopped by his assistant who is conveniently stationed right outside his office to inform him that he has an unscheduled and urgent visitor. The man assures his assistant that it was alright, he had a hunch on who it might be.
He opens the door to his office. Large, spacious, probably double the size of his Deputy Director, but much less luxurious and more classy, old school, vintage. It seemed more like a large, grand hall rather than a corporate office.
In the middle of the room is a long couch and some armchairs on both sides sitting adjacent with each other, an expensive, wooden table right in front.
Sitting comfortably on the long couch, one arm extended, resting on top of the backrest, is a large, blonde man. The same person he expected.
"Hey, Pops," the man greets him as he walks inside the room.
"I let myself in, hope you don't mind."
"I don't," the old man answers, taking one of the single chairs by the couch.
"But my assistant probably does. I think you scared her," he chuckles.
"Probably thinks you're some hired, muscle-bound goon."
"What? I'm not scary at all, do I look scary?" the large man asks, concerned about his apparent intimidating appearance.
"You're massive and don't take 'no' for an answer, anyone in their right mind would be intimidated by you," the old man explains.
"But enough of that," the man has very little time for niceties.
"How is our scavenger hunt?"
"We've done a complete scan of the entire globe. Found two — one in the Sahara, the other in possession of another uncontacted tribe. This time in the Amazon," Joe explains.
"We're still gonna do a second run, just to be sure," he adds.
"The Amazon still holds too many secrets even until now," Paul comments.
"'Cause entire place is shitty to explore," Joe adds.
"Have we retrieved it from those people?"
"Not yet. We have a situation," this catches Paul's attention.
"Crowe?"
"No. But a monster, nonetheless. A LITERAL monster."
"In the forest?"
Joe nods "no".
"In the tribe," he reveals.
"We don't know which came first, but that tribe is somehow sheltering both a meteorite and a monster."
"How are we just now finding out about this monster?" Paul is completely baffled.
"It doesn't have a signature. Our eyes and brains at HQ thinks it's probably in some sort of suspended animation and is still able to stay alive despite not having essence coarsing through its system."
"And according to surveillance, the tribe may be worshipping this thing as some sort of god. They have a shrine built around it and all and gather around it at certain times for 'worship'," he shows images of the monster in his phone.
The images, taken from air surveillance, display different angles of the slumbering monster — propped up on what looked like a small, makeshift throne made of tree wood and a collection of dry leaves.
The monster had no discernable features other than its entire body looked like a massive pile of withering, webbed tree branches. Its "torso" is a massive pile of pale gray branches stacked on top of each other creating a mass resembling a normal human's torso. It seemed to have several body parts resembling limbs — six, with three on each side that were long. Not a single one has a hand or fingers, each limb was just like one, long and thick branch. The creature doesn't have feet but has something that probably serves the same purpose. Its "feet" were just long, intertwined branches that were webbed with its torso. In addition, the creature was large. So large, in fact, that it couldn't even fit properly inside its makeshift shrine. Only its "torso" fit in its shrine, the rest of its body parts were limping on the leafy and muddy ground.
Right in front of the slumbering creature is the meteorite, also placed in a smaller and more subtle makeshift shrine.
"Our theory is that they're planning to use the meteorite as some sort of tribute for this deity of them. Whatever that means," Joe adds.
"Do we have people on this already?" Paul returns the phone.
"I've informed the kid at Circle HQ already. They're probably handling it right now."
"Good," Paul gets up and walks towards the floor to ceiling window, peeking into the busy city.
"I heard Crowe made an attempt at the Ice Sheet," Joe continues the conversation, albeit a different topic.
"He did."
"Think he's going for it?"
"What else could it be?" Paul retorts.
"Him, Adam, their ignorance and stubbornness will be the death of us all," he adds.
"So the two criminals have the same motive after all," Joe comments.
"But still," he continues.
"Everything he's done so far doesn't line up with what we're thinking. But what we're thinking makes a ton of sense."
"Or maybe it does," Paul interjects.
"We don't know what the full story is. All we have are piece. Tiny little pieces."
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
The person doesn't wait for an invitation and probably thought that letting their presence known was enough, immediately opening the door as soon as the final knock ends.
"Goooood morning, Di—" the visitor is Laurence in his usual, cheerful self, surprised by the other visitor.
"If it isn't our beloved General," he says, acknowledging Joe's presence.
"What brings you here?" he asks, but doesn't even let the person answer.
"Don't you and the US Military have some poor, Middle Eastern village to ransack?" he bursts out in a mocking laughter.
"My day is already ruined," Joe gets up, not acknowledging Laurence's presence at all.
"See ya, Pops," he bids farewell to the Director and heads for the exit, not even giving the cheerful visitor a single glance.
"What? Not even a 'hi'?" he tells the leaving Joe.
"I was kidding, Sir!" he says, in a tone mocking the usual military salute. Joe responds by slamming the door on him.
"I think he's starting to like me," he says to Paul, referring to the agent who just left.
"What is it, Laurence?" Paul sits behind his desk.
"Oh, nothing. I was just leaving for our beloved agents' secret base."