Colin's posts

Sam raised his eyebrow at his daughter, but Hal cleared his throat to get the attention of all three of them.

"Now." he said.

"If you're going to work here, then you're going to need to be paid, of course." he told Peyton.

"Tell me, do you have ANY form of ID, at all?" he asked.

"And I mean anything. Any sort of identification of ANY sort?"

"Excellent." Hal replied.

"Now... one second..." he muttered, digging through a drawer, and pulling out some papers.

"The first one is your standard employment form to fill out." he told Peyton. "The others are a rental agreement, with you agreeing to have the rent deducted from your pay on a monthly basis." he said.

"And under the 'unit desired' field, just put 'LC', if you don't care about where, exactly you'll be living on site." he went on.

"LC?" Sam asked.

"Landlord's Choice." Hal clarified.

"The trick is knowing when to dig, and when NOT to." Hal told her.

"Regardless, yes, if you'll accept, then you have a job here." he said further.

"Oh, yes." he then muttered.

"Also, if you're going to work here, then being essentially homeless will simply not do." he reasoned.

"You'll help her find a place to live?" Samson asked.

"In a manner of speaking." Hal replied.

"We have college-like dorms for those that need temporary lodgings, but we ALSO have dorms that are essentially one-bedroom apartments for employees that need a more permanent solution." he said further.

"With, of course, full access to our cafeteria, even thought they have a kitchen area in them." he added.

"I never thought I'd hear such words." Samson laughed.

"But what sort of job and career path are you talking about?" he then asked Hal.

Hal was silent for a moment, and then sighed.

"Well... to make a long story incredibly short, information gathering and collecting is an invaluable skill, especially when you're an organization that hunts down things that aren't considered to be real." he told them.

"We're technically a branch of the government, but the government disavows any knowledge of our existence... what few members of it even know of us, that is." he continued.

"To sum it up... you might have stopped believing in the boogeyman, but the problem is... HE still believes in YOU. And we're here to make sure you're safe from him." he summarized.

"Well..." Hal said, trailing off a little.

"Seems that your little girl here was able to track me down and locate me in a VERY short amount of time." he told them.

"I do my damnedest to keep my tracks hidden, and for all intents and purposes, if I am somewhere, it'll be like I was never there, if you catch my drift." he continued.

"However, Peyton was able to locate me in an alarmingly short amount of time. Her ability to piece together seemingly irrelevant pieces of information rendered my attempts borderline futile." he went on.

"We do apologize if she has inconvenienced you, or compromised anything of yours." Samson said.

"Inconvenienced?" Hal asked. "To be blunt, she's impressed me. I wish to offer her a job, a career path." he told them.

'....hm.' Hal thought, noting Peyton's physique.

'Right.' he thought further, as Sam turned his attention to him.

"And you are Sharp?" he asked.

"I am, indeed." Hal responded.

"Agent Hal Sharp, at your service." he said extending his hand to Sam. Sam responded by grasping it, and they shared a firm handshake.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr and Mrs Carter." he added, extending the hand to Rebecca.

Ryker just shrugged.

"Spend most of my life in them." he said.

"Well... my non-slave life." he clarified.

"You can find shelter in them, find food, they provide it all for you. Plus... I never really managed to gel with society..." he then admitted. "Because of the adjustment from slavery to freedom being a jarring one, as well as... other... reasons..." he said further with a light cough, gently thumping his chest with a fist.

"Next town's about a day away, give or take." he then told him, before looking at Eke's stomach.

"And whaddya want?" he asked.

"That depends entirely on the colour of your soul." Zeke responded cryptically.

Sam looked like he was about to ask something, but stopped himself from doing so.

"...right." he said.

With that, the three of them quickly made their way through the Unit, before making their way to the reception area of Sharp's office. Zeke excused himself, left, and after about 10 seconds, the secretary told them they could enter.

They nodded, thanked her, and did just that, seeing Sharp sitting behind the desk, and Peyton sitting in one of the chairs in front of it.

Sam was the first one to speak, looking at Peyton.

"Pey..." he said with a quiet smile, before stepping forward and giving her a large hug.

"Good question." Ryker replied.

"I suppose we can just keep heading in the direction we were initially going." he said.

"I've heard there's some good towns we'll come across." he told him.

"I've also heard that there's apparently a small forest seen as a very safe and serene place." he then said further.

"Like a haven or a preserve or however you want to call it."

"Indeed." Jake responded, before he was about to press a button on the phone at his desk... before he paused.

His forked tongue then darted out a few times, before he looked over towards the doors to the inside of the Unit.

"Zeke! That you!?" he called in.

"Yeah!" a male voice responded.

"Care to escort some people to see Sharp!?" Jake asked him.

"Sure thing!" was the response.

"Well, in ya go." Jake then told the Carters, before they were buzzed in.

When they stepped through the doors, they were greeted by a man with shoulder-length blonde hair, dressed in a white shirt and blue jeans that looked to be no more than 25, but he was noticeably taller than Sam, who wasn't exactly short at 6'3'', and his build was much more muscular.

And he seemed to have an extreme aura of judgement to him.

"Mmhmm." Jake responded, as he continued to search them. It only took a few minutes, before he returned to his desk.

"You're all clear." he said.

"Question." Sam then interjected. "Is any of what those theorists say correct?" he asked. "That you rule the world, and control every single thing from behind the scenes and can control the weather, and everything else?" he asked further.

"We're just convenient 'imaginary' scapegoats for when humanity's history of piss-poor decisions comes back to haunt them." Jake replied.

"The most influence we have in the world is being able to convince the majority of the world populace that we don't exist." he added with a smug smirk.

"Give me a second, and I'll have someone show up to escort you to Agent Sharp's office, and then I'll let you folks in." he finished.

'Well, they've passed the acid test.' Jake thought to himself.

"The first one." he said, getting out from behind the desk.

"I'm a Reptilian. A Lizard-Folk. However you want to put it." he told them.

"...as in, the ones that everyone talks about on those internet forums about conspiracies and such...?" Sam then asked.

"Well, more or less." Jake responded.

"The pictures they paint of us are... a little flawed at times." he laughed.

"Samson." the man introduced himself.

"And we're here about our daughter." he said.

"I know." the guard replied, before raising his head, allowing the two of them to see his clearly reptilian eyes.

"....woah." Sam muttered.

"Heh." Jake chuckled.

"Sorry, but I gotta do a routine check of your persons." he told them.

"Security here is of the utmost." he reasoned.

"I guess so..." the man responded, before getting out of the car, himself.

The two of them then made their way into the security landing, where they saw a figure leaning back in his chair, his feet on the desk, legs crossed, a newspaper in front of him.

"Ah-" the man started to say, before they swore they heard slight 'sst' sounds.

"....you the Carters?" the guard then asked, taking his feet off the desk and putting the paper down, though he was making sure his eyes were shadowed by his hair.