“Yes.”
Nero didn’t like the idea of forcing the paranormal onto someone who hadn’t chosen it, but he understood the need for researchers and scientists. Neither the religious nor the magical folk were keen on helping them, and he was the first to admit they needed more than brute force.
“It’s a big risk,” Captain M continued, “but we’re not the only ones dying from the threats. Normals die every time there’s a problem we can’t anticipate or defuse. Better we get the support we need now, before the situation gets more out of hand and wholesale disaster happens.”
An ominous silence fell at the wordswholesale disaster. That was the werewolf term for it. The Religious Crew called it the apocalypse, and the ghosts referred to it as the post afterlife. Bears growled instead of using words, and no one knew what the cats called anything, but the meaning was all the same. At some point there would be so much weird shit happening that they would reach a tipping point. Normals would finally open their eyes and see what was around them. Then there would be mass hysteria, targeted genocide, and/or a big party, if a person was part of the winning belief structure. It was the Big Bad of the paranormal world, and everyone worked very hard to prevent its onset.
In this case, that meant forcibly converting brainiacs in the hopes that they could keep up with what was going on. Because right now everyone was in the dark. And in the paranormal game, ignorance was deadly.
“Can’t we just talk to them?” Nero asked. “See if they’ll come on board like normal hires without making them furry?” He knew it was a stupid thing to ask. He even knew the answer before the DIRECTOR said it, but he still had to voice the question.
“We will not violate the Paranormal Accords. That’s like fixing a house fire with a nuclear bomb. We will not do it.”
The Paranormal Accords stated that vanilla humans did not get purposely drawn into their world. Period. Only someone already paranormal could be asked to work on the weird and violating the accord was punishable by more than death. Unfortunately, they were already stretching the law to activate latent werewolf genes. A frank discussion—like a job offer—with a vanilla human would plunge Wulf, Inc. into legal disaster, and no one was willing to risk that. When a demigod judge said, “More than death,” everyone grew very, very afraid. “Okay,” he said, though the word felt like ashes in his mouth. “I’ll look at the files.”
“I will help,” said Gelpack.
Everyone turned to stare at the gelatinous alien, but it was Captain M who found her voice first. “Great. Um… how?”
“I will read the files.”
Silence. Apparently no one was willing to point out that reading the files in and of itself was not helpful.
“Okay, sure,” Captain M finally said. “Nero, let him… um… help.”
“No.” The word was out before he could think better of it. It wasn’t exactly politic to refuse a direct order in front of the Director, but he couldn’t keep quiet. “Personnel files are private. This task is dicey enough. I’m not going to let just anyone read through the dossiers without good reason.”
“Gelpack isn’t just anyone,” Captain M said, but he could tell she was nervous. “He’s…. He’s….” Her stammer ground to a halt as she obviously had no idea what Gelpack was here to do.
“He’s here to explain magic to us,” the Director whispered. “And for us to explain emotions to him.”
Everyone gaped at their director. Finally, Nero said what everyone was thinking. “Come again?”
“Gelpack is from a different… um… dimension. He’s studying us—our emotions—and in return, he’ll help us use magic.”
Everyone in the room suddenly sat up straighter, and their eyes focused tightly on the gelatinous being. It wasn’t surprising that Wizard was the first to ask questions.
“Explain which kind of magic? Who is he explaining it to? Why wasn’t I informed—?”
The Director held up his hand, and Wizard immediately snapped his jaw shut. “It’s a one-on-one exchange. You tell him about how you feel—honestly—and he’ll help you….” The director frowned at Gelpack. “Can you help turn on a latent werewolf?”
“Perhaps.”
Captain M grabbed a file folder off the top and pushed it toward Gelpack. “What about him? Can you activate him?”
Nero winced as he watched Gelpack open the folder. Nothing about him was fully solid, so he seemed to sink into the paper as if he was going to slice off his thumb, then gently pulled it open. When he removed his hand, Nero couldn’t see any residue, but it still gave him the willies.
“No,” Gelpack said.
“Then—”
“But Wizard can.”
“What?” said Wizard.
“Excellent,” responded Captain M as she pulled the folder away from Gelpack and slid it to Nero. “Look at him first.”
Nero frowned at the name.Joshua Collier.The name was as unimpressive as the picture, but then again, the image showed a too-pale guy in shorts and flip-flops as he bought no-name corn chips at a corner market. No one looked cool buying generic chips.
