The French visitors soon became a footnote in the lives of Aditya and his allies. They all refocused on the drive left by Jae's late father in a small envelope that Jae refused to show the contents of until the visitors had departed.
"Inside was the drive, along with the encryption key needed to open it." Jae explained.
"No note?" Kamaljit asked.
"Nothing of importance." Jae droned.
"What a lively discussion, sorry to interrupt, but would you mind handing me the drive and key?" Eric butted in.
They all sat together in Kamaljit's hotel room, Eric had been lying on the ground before sitting up, hand outstretched waiting for Jae. The laconic Korean handed over the drive and key, which Eric took and returned to his room.
Aditya looked over at Mary who shrugged, prompting the two to follow after the young doctor.
"Wait, so like, what are you going to do with the info on the drive?" Mary asked as they walked over to Eric's room.
"Well, I hope to find information on who ordered my father's death so I can bring them to justice. But, who knows what's on this drive?" Aditya answered as he turned the knob to Eric's room, stepping inside.
The door on the far side of the room next to the hospital bed was open, the first time Aditya had seen it this way. He and Mary walked in, Heinrich on their heels, only to find stacks of medical equipment and a three-monitored computer set up on the floor. The tower stood almost as tall as Aditya, maybe four and a half feet, with various wires, inputs, and what Aditya recognized as a water cooling system attached to it.
"Bloody hell, how'd you get this in here?!" Aditya gasped.
"One piece at a time." Eric explained, his voice vacant as Aditya saw him transfixed on the monitors, the young doctor's gaze shooting back and forth between the three screens, his fingers swam across the curved keyboard like a dolphin at sea. "What the hell?" Eric breathed.
"What is it?" Aditya asked.
"See for yourself. I pulled up a relevant document on all three screens. I recommend reading from left to right." Eric stepped away from the monitors and Aditya sat in his place.
Document 1(Excerpt):
Dear Mr. Kageyama, Xiao, Patel, Mustafa, and Ahn,
As the handler of all Correspondents in Asia, it is my duty to inform you that the Majestic 12 is considering the execution of Protocol Changeling Dawn.
I know this may come as a shock to many of you as, of their last meeting, the 12 had decided to forgo this course of action. However, the situation in Japan is deteriorating, and it may be some time until Mr. Kageyama can find suitable leverage over the Chief of Police. The efforts of local law enforcement are interfering with Mr. Kageyama's assignment as, though testing of the serum is complete, he is encountering a high rejection rate and may not be able to meet his quota.
It is up to you to orchestrate suitable incidents to complete Protocol Changeling Dawn, failure to comply by the fifth of January will result in an MJ-12 enacted incident wherein the primary neutralization officer will be deployed. Again, I deeply and sincerely apologize for this course of action, but I'm sure you all understand the grave danger that premature exposure poses to our organization.
All the best, Lee Zhuang, Primary Information Officer of Asia.
Document 2(Excerpt):
NOTICE:
The next meeting is to be conducted at Rossi Tower in New York. All nine voting members and the three non-voting members are to attend, in addition to the correspondents from Asia. The meeting is to be held in conference room A-5 on the 76th floor—on September 27th, 3:00 pm EDT.
Document 3(Excerpt):
PROTOCOL: CHANGELING DAWN
DRAFTED: 3rd March 1960
RATIFIED: 25th March 1960
VOTES IN FAVOR: GENERAL WILLIAM V. ERICKSON, DANIEL M. PORTER, KATHLEEN GIANFRANCO, DR. CHARLES WILLARD, DR. JEROME Q. VAHLT, AND ALBERT FRESENDI
VOTES AGAINST: PRESIDENT DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, DR. FRANCESCA HOWLETT, AND CNO ALEXANDER BLUCYZK
CONTENTS: This document, if ratified, would institutionalize Protocol Changeling Dawn. Under this protocol, if deemed necessary by the president and voting members of the council, all correspondents with children or spouses who have been confirmed to be Superhumans will have said Superhuman relatives neutralized and replaced by inert clones created at The Starkling Inn. This is to distance members and associates of MJ-12 from any Superhuman relation.
Dear god...what? Aditya couldn't believe his eyes.
Cloning, secret societies, and a concerted effort to suppress knowledge of the existence of Superhumans had just been confirmed to him. Everything he read on the message board links that Makoto sent him had been true, the world he lived in was a façade.
But why? What is it all for? And 'Vahlt'? Like the weapons manufacturer? I have no idea what in God's name is happening here, I'm sure Makoto would, though...
"Dude, what the fuck..." Mary gasped. "Is this shit for real?" She and Aditya looked over to Eric.
"I'm afraid so. I always figured the world had some Illuminati-type, New World Order deal goin' on in the background, but this? This is...beyond me." Eric didn't look shocked to Aditya, more depressed and disappointed.
But who am I to question? This is so crazy, I'm sure everyone will react differently.
"Master, I'm not so sure—"
"Agnes! Shut the fuck up!" Eric shouted, shoving the maid to the ground.
"What—" Aditya popped up
"Doc! What the fuck?!" Mary shouted.
"What the hell do you kids know?! I'm outta here." Eric was fuming, his disposition had changed so rapidly that it swept the rug from under Aditya's feet.
What just happened?
Aditya went over to Agnes and helped her to her feet, taking the maid's cold hand in his own and pulling her up.
"I'm sorry, a man should never put his hands on a woman." Aditya blushed, looking at the ground and feeling childish in his chivalry. Heinrich came up and licked Agnes' free hand.
"You're right. But this was my fault. I'll go after him." The maid said, her voice like a machine's impression of a flute. She was gone before Aditya could say anything.
"What?" Aditya asked the room.
"Beats the hell outta me. Doc always treats her like shit, but I've never seen him put hands on her, and whenever I asked she always told me she was fine." Mary explained.
"Something isn't right about him. What do you really know about 'Doctor' Eric?" Aditya asked.
"I dunno," Mary shrugged, "he's cool to everyone except Agnes and dumb people, he likes cool music, and doesn't like police or cameras. Honestly, he's my kinda guy, as far as friends are concerned."
"Hey, have you ever been in his hotel room alone?"
"Nah, just whenever I need a check-up, Doc has Agnes do 'em free." Mary stooped down to play with Heinrich.
"Well, you are now. How about we learn something about our physician friend?"
"What, like snooping around?"
"Exactly!" Aditya grinned.
He could see Mary thinking it over, her mouth moving to one side of her face and her eyes pointing upward.
"Hmmm," she hummed "what the hell, not like we got shit else to do around here!" She smiled.
With that, they were off.
Aditya stayed in the supply room and, after looking through the various boxes and the closet, only finding medical supplies, he turned to the still unlocked computer. To his dismay, the only thing that wasn't password protected was a file containing patient visits.
He moved over to the room next door, similar to the first, except this one had only a bed and a dresser, Mary was already looking through the closet full of various T-shirts emblazoned with logos to bands Aditya had never heard of. The young man saw nothing else of note, there was only a single bed, neatly made with its gray covers all tucked in.
"Jeez, I guess Doc is a minimalist, he doesn't really have a damn thing." Mary sighed.
"He only has one bed."
"Yeah, so?"
"Where does Agnes sleep? With him?"
"Oh shit, you're right!" Mary giggled. "I dunno. She's always been here whenever I came by, four AM or four PM, she'd be sitting in the living room, wearing the same damn maid uniform. I guess I've never seen Doc with a girl or boyfriend, but he definitely doesn't like Agnes like that..." the young girl pondered. Aditya looked under the bed and found nothing. "Check under the mattress. People hide all types of shit under there. My Grandma uses it like a bank." Mary suggested.
Aditya grabbed one corner of the mattress and Mary grabbed the other, they lifted it to find the smooth, cream-colored box spring underneath. Aditya was about to lower the mattress when he saw a faint outline on the smoothness of the box spring. He felt at it with his foot and found something moving, so he kicked it off the box spring.
A Manila envelope!
The envelope had blended in nearly perfectly with the box spring, but now it was plain as day against the contrasting carpet. Aditya went over to pick it up and Mary rushed after him.
"What is it?" She asked in hushed excitement.
Aditya opened it and found a stack of paper and four ID cards. Each of the cards had Eric's face in the picture, but they also had different names and dates of birth. Then Aditya looked at the pieces of paper, the diplomas. A master's in chemical engineering from Berkeley for a man named Valentine Barr. A PhD in mathematics from Oxford for Victor Pedley. Someone called Johnathon Gustafson had master's degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering from MIT. There was also a PHD for one Eric Toffoli in theoretical physics from CalTech. Aditya looked at the IDs again. The names all matched the ones on the degrees.
"He's a fraud..." Aditya realized.
"What?" Mary asked.
"He's a quack. A grifter! He's no doctor at all, look at these. I'd bet my family fortune that these are forgeries, and the IDs are as fake as they come!" Aditya proclaimed.
"What...no, doc, he's...I don't think he's ever had a patient die so...how?" Mary looked shaken, and Aditya didn't like that.
"Doesn't matter, I'm getting Kamljit over here right away." Aditya decided, wanting this matter out of his hands as soon as possible.
And he did, Kamlajit was in the Doctor's hotel room not a moment later, accompanied by Priya, Ahn Jae Yoon, and Ms. Soo, of course. But Aditya didn't care, he knew something was off about Eric, he knew that he didn't like him for a reason, and now he had proof. The young man explained the whole situation to the party, with Jae translating for Ms. Soo, from the 'Majestic 12' to Eric's outburst, to the forged documents. When Aditya finished. Kamaljit contemplated in silence, grabbing at his beard.
"But he fixed you, didn't he? When you were shot, I mean." Priya offered.
"No," Kamaljit spoke up, "the maid did." Kamaljit said grimly.
"Clever little bugger, but then, where did the maid learn it?" Priya said.
"He's rich and said his father sent her, rich people can afford servants who know how to fix bullet wounds." Kamaljit explained.
"아마도 우리는 그의 이야기를 들어야 할 것입니다. 그가 모든 것을 설명 할 수 있다고 확신합니다." Ms. Soo said, in her small voice after Jae had translated everything to her.
At that moment, Aditya heard the front door open, and by everyone's reaction, so did they. Mary and Kamaljit pulled guns while Priya took Ms. Soo's hand, dragging the waifish woman and herself out of range of any possible bullets. Jae took a runner's stance. Aditya just stood there, while even Heinrich growled.
No amount of pen floating from me is going to help. What should I do?
That was when Eric walked in, Agnes following close behind.
"Well, good afternoon to all of you, too." The young man said, setting bags on the small coffee table in the corner of the hotel room.
"No jokes. No bullshit, sit down." Kamaljit commanded.
Eric shrugged and put up his hands, shuffling to the seat next to the coffee table.
"Mary, get his gun." Kamljit ordered.
Mary didn't even waste time replying, she walked over to Eric and pulled out the cartoonishly large revolver from inside the doctor's lab coat.
"Soooooo, what's up?" Eric asked, looking bemused with all the guns in his face.
"What's your name?" Kamaljit demanded.
"Eric Scarborough." Eric replied with ease.
Kamaljit pistol-whipped him.
"Ow! Go to hell, what's the point of an interrogation if you're just going to hit me even if I tell the truth?!" Eric cried, holding his head in his hands.
Heinrich barked at the doctor.
"Master, should—"
"Agnes, I swear to god, if you talk again today, I will cut you into so many pieces that even I wouldn't be able to put you back together again!" Eric raged at the slender maid, rising from his seat, fists balled.
He's collapsing under pressure, he knows we know he isn't who he says he is, but he's still going to pretend.
"Sit down and shut up!" Kamaljit roared, before kicking Eric back into his seat. "We found these under your bed." Kamaljit threw the folder at Eric.
The doctor opened it and frowned at the contents.
"Wow, and here I thought we were friends. You went snooping around my room? I'm hurt." Eric sighed, in a bored, sarcastic tone.
"Shut the fuck up, doc! You don't get to say shit like that!" Mary's voice was broken, Aditya could see the fun shaking in her grip.
"Oh....Mary. Dear Mary, it's not like that, I'm still—" Eric jumped as though he'd sat in a fire, but Mary silenced him.
"Who. The hell. Are you?!" Mary insisted.
Eric slumped back into his chair, losing all posture and pretense.
"Alright, we can do this one of two ways. One, I swear to tell the truth and you all swear to believe me. Or two, things get real messy, real fast."
"Tough talk coming from the guy with no gun." Kamaljit said.
"I'd counter that with a badass line of my own, but it's part of the truth, so you wouldn't believe me." Eric said.
It was then that Aditya remembered the maid, the slender, silent companion of the young doctor. Skin flat and pale. Eyes like brown marbles, lifeless and...
Why is her skin cold? Mother always said I had an overactive imagination. And even with all the madness around me, I have to say she was right because this woman, she couldn't possibly be....could she?
"Talk." Kamaljit commanded, voice measured as if he was having Sunday tea with a friend.
"No point. You wouldn't believe me."
"Try me."
"Swear you'll believe me."
"No."
"Fine. You picked the hard way." Eric sneered. "Agnes, show and tell."
In the split second it had taken Aditya to look back over at the maid, she was upon them. Kamaljit's tree trunk-like arms were forced into the air by a swift kick, he was then doubled over on the ground a half second later after the maid buried her dainty fist into his stomach.
Mary didn't have time to fire either of the guns she was holding before her wrists were twisted outward, forcing her to drop them in a cry of pain. Aditya could do nothing but watch in transfixed horror. Heinrich jumped in but was quickly kicked across the room by the maid.
Do something! Fight her!
Aditya's body didn't respond, except for a new warmth in his head.
Yes!
He felt the appendages of his mind emerge from his head, and for the first time, it came out on purpose. Aditya reached out and grabbed the maid by the throat, arms, and legs. He locked her arms, head, and legs in place as she floated two feet above the floor. He did all of this with five feet of distance between him and his victim, never touching her.
"Enough!" Shouted a familiar voice in an unfamiliar tone. "Eric, call off your gigye." Aditya looked behind him and saw the normally placid face of Ahn Jae Yoon mildly out of place, with his eyes narrowed and his upper lip curled ever so slightly in anger. But, the slightly frazzled Ms. Soo was in her normal place, at his side, whispering softly, insistently, in his ear.
He may as well be screaming in fury...why didn't he act sooner?
"No fun. Agnes, end demonstration. Adi, drop her." Eric gave two commands and both were followed.
Aditya instantly regretted it.
I shouldn't have listened to him...
But to his surprise, the maid simply turned and walked back to her master, standing behind him. Heinrich limped over to Aditya and licked his face, he petted the beast.
"Good boy, you tried..."
"Your ears are open now, so I guess I should tell you." Eric spoke to the air, hands behind his back as Mary and Kamaljit struggled to their feet. Aditya hurried to help them. "My name is not Eric Scarborough, it's just the pseudonym I used to earn my medical degree. Same goes with all the other names on the diplomas: the degrees are very real, the names aren't. The IDs are bullshit too, I made them in Photoshop." Eric explained.
"Bull....shit...." Kamaljit managed, with the newly re-emerged Priya helping him to his feet.
"Told ya you wouldn't believe me, guy." Eric smirked.
"What's your real name then?" Mary demanded, her voice as hurt as her wrists.
"I am Dr. Eric Quintius Vahlt, pleasure to meet you." Eric held out his hand for Mary to shake, but she just retrieved her gun instead. Eric lowered his hand and hung his head.
'Eric' is common enough, but KIN-tus BAh'alt isn't. Doesn't sound like any language I'm familiar with....
"Big deal. Why should we care?" Kamaljit said.
"Oh, my name is 'Vahlt' but it's more commonly, and incorrectly, pronounced 'Vault'. As in 'Vahlt Arms and Aeronautics'." Eric explained.
Oh....oh dear god...
The room was shocked in silence. Aditya saw Kamaljit fighting to break it.
"You expect us to believe that? How do we know—"
"He's telling the truth." Ahn Jae Yoon stopped the bodyguard. "I met him when he and his father came to do business in Korea. I'd never forget such an obnoxious boy."
"Holy shit! You're that Ahn Jae Yoon? Dad did business with a lot of guys, guess I must've forgot ya. I remember you bein' uglier, though..." And Eric puzzled at the man's face.
"Be silent, babo, the only reason I didn't destroy your Gigye and kill you is because Park begged me not to."
"Well I guess I gotta thank you and her for not outing me, I–"
"Whatever! I don't give a damn if you're the president's son! Why'd you lie to me? And what the hell is she?" Mary shouted, pointing to the now inert maid.
"Well, my dad and I got into it, so I kinda ran away from home. Dad showed how much he cared about me by sending an android to make sure I didn't get in trouble instead of coming to get me back himself." Eric explained.
"Your father is a busy man. His work is—"
"Oh my god shut the hell up!" Eric shouted at Agnes.
"A-an Android...?" Aditya wondered. He didn't notice until he was almost less than a foot away from her, but Aditya was being pulled in towards Agnes, like a moth to a flame.
"I am a virtual consciousness existing inside a mechanical vessel, yes." She politely explained.
"Agnes, deglove." Eric commanded.
The woman held up her hand and her fingers separated into the segments, her thumb separating in two. This revealed charcoal grey mechanical structures just beneath her skin, a light flowing blue from inside her.
"By god....!" Aditya gasped in amazement.
"What the shit...." Mary was stunned in amazement.
"How is that technology even possible? I managed Mr. Patel's holding and accompanied him on many meetings with his business associates, the best AI available still can't pass the Turing test, and Android bodies and synthetic skin are years away from being this good." Priya said.
"Yeah, human technology isn't so advanced. Villipaian tech is another story." Eric smirked.
"Bili-payin?" Aditya asked, his mind still focused on the inhuman hand of the maid.
"Oh, yeah, that's the craziest bit. You ever seen someone with a skin color like mine? The answer is 'no', unless you've met my dad. My skin is a funky color cuz I'm one-sixteenth Villipaian."
"Why are you saying that like we know what it means!?" Mary fumed between gritted teeth.
"Oh, sorry. I'm an alien. My ancestors came to earth three thousand years ago and decided to stick around."
"You're full of shit." Kamaljit announced. The big man finally moved for the first time since the maid took him down, marching on the young doctor who was about a head shorter than him. "You better start making some goddamn sense, before I get angry."
"Fine," Eric said, before retrieving an apple from a bag on the table, with his tail. "don't believe me."