The two men exited the vehicle. Joining Kai's side, they walked at a deliberate pace. Every so often someone would walk by, hand something for Kai to sign, then scuttle away hurriedly.

"This is the headquarters for Ward 12 of a group called The Order," Kai began. "We are what you'd call an underground organization, not beholden to any one government. We are like them in the sense that we investigate certain heinous crimes. We assist them when asked, but by and large we run on our own agendas. The Order's leadership hands down our assignments. We lead our own teams. We report the information we get back through the chain of command, and from there, they determine what punishments, if any, should be handed down.

Trading more files from a few more people, Kai reached an elevator door and pressed the call button for it. A bell rung, the doors opened, and he and Hunter stepped inside.

The car jerked as it started. Hunter could feel from the car's motions that rather than just going down, it was also moving left... then forward, then left again.

"You may ask why we have the authority to levy punishments," Kai continued. "It's simply because the world's governments always seem to have their hands too full to even deal with the things you hear about on the news. World leaders perpetrating war crimes is already enough without more people on the brink of causing international incidents.”

The elevator came to a complete stop. Bells rung again and the doors opened onto a vast, warehouse-sized room with two floors. Certain offices were closed off in walls of glass. A large bank of computer monitors spitting out data and video information covered the wall of the second floor. It actually looked to Hunter like he imagined a large city TV newsroom might look. Kai stepped out, followed closely by Hunter, as he continued to speak.

"I'm about to officially ask my supervisor to add you to my team," Kai said. "You will help me on this and any other investigations that come around... if you want.

"But I have to warn you," Kai added. "If you don't -- and if so, I totally understand -- but you would have to expect to be followed and monitored for a great deal of the rest of your life." He stopped in his tracks, and he put both his hands on Hunter's shoulders, causing the human to shiver. "The public can't know about The Order,"Kai said, "and your knowledge just of what you've seen getting to this spot here is valuable to far too many of our enemies."

"Interrogator!" boomed a voice from the far end of the vast office. Kai snapped to attention immediately as a man, portly and balding, but sharply dressed in a black pinstripe suit, made large strides from his rear office towards the pair. "Is this your potential recruit?"

"It is, sir." 

As the man reached them, Hunter had to remind himself to breathe. It wasn't that the man himself seemed intimidating, but the severity of the situation warranted extreme silence, so he had been holding his breath.

"Hunter Reeves," Kai began. "This is Chief Winston Calhoun."

With Calhoun about five inches taller than Hunter, the chief did appear to look downward toward him. Calhoun held out his hand, without breaking a smile. Hunter hesitated, which caused a small chuckle from the imposing figure.

"If Interrogator Taylor had instructed you not to speak, you can consider that order relieved," Calhoun said with the smallest of smiles. Hunter just nodded, and offered his hand in greeting.

Kai Taylor, he said, realizing he had never asked for Kai's last name.

"Come," Calhoun said after shaking Hunter's hand. "Get me up to speed."

The chief spun on his heels and headed back to what was clearly his office. Kai followed one pace behind, with Hunter lagging as he gathered more of his wits.

"We recovered the computer belonging to our hacker," Kai reported. "We also have more thumb drives; they're all on their way to the tech team now. We also have reason to believe there was an additional device required to open the thumb drive safely."

"I see," Calhoun said, opening his office door for the two men. "When will we see results?"

"Likely within the hour," said Kai. "And we might not be saying that if it weren't for Hunter here." He offered Hunter a reassuring smile that Hunter appeared to take comfort with.

"I see," Calhoun said again. There was a pause. Eyes darted from person to person. "And this is why you recommend him for agency status?"

"It is," Kai said. His eyes rested on Hunter's once more. "Beyond a sharp, insightful knowledge, he has shown me to be rather capable of handing rapid changes of situational awareness."

"I see."

Man of few words, Hunter guessed. Either that or Calhoun was simply weighing the pros and cons of this new person standing, and starting to sweat, in front of his desk. Calhoun's voice was weathered, somewhat reflective of the man's age, Hunter noticed. It prompted him to ask a question.

"Are you a vampire, too?"

Calhoun seemed surprised, if not by the question itself, then by finally hearing Hunter's voice. "Ah, no," he answered, his expression softening. "The Order only recently, say in the last 70 years or so, began associating itself openly with vampires. Please, sit," he added, gesturing to the chairs before them. The three men sat down.

"The V-Division was created by Calhoun's great-grandfather," Kai explained. "I helped organize it and recruit their first vampire agents."

"Sidwell Calhoun," the chief said, almost wistfully. "I never got to meet him, but his exploits with Taylor here are legendary. I don't know how much you know about Texas legends, but the so-called Railroad Ripper from the early 1900s was captured by the pair of them."

Hunter shook his head.

"Ah," Kai sighed. "It's a story you'll have to hear when you get the chance."

"To get back to the matter at hand," said Calhoun, "how it works is I oversee this ward's operations, which usually involves recruiting new agents. Kai watches over the V, or Vampire, division, and is normally the recruiter for them."

"Since they're all vampires," Kai added. "But you're not, so I felt it was obligatory to have Calhoun sign off on your hiring."

"You would technically be working for Kai, but under my jurisprudence," Calhoun said.

It made no sense to Hunter; he was beginning to fill overwhelmed again. But after such glowing praise from Kai, he felt he had to agree just to keep the pace of the meeting going.

"You'll need to understand," Calhoun said. "Now is your 'don't turn back' moment. I'm sure Kai explained, if you choose not to join us, you will be under surveillance for many years. I want to be upfront about this. You will lose some semblance of privacy for quite a long time. And Kai will have to disavow all knowledge of you from here on out."

Hunter froze. He had honestly been considering refusing the offer when it came down to it -- how could he possibly be working for an underground investigation agency with its own rules of law and order? But the thought of not being with Kai, not learning more about him...

"If you do choose to remain with us," Calhoun continued, "it is not an 'at-will' arrangement. You are with us for the long haul. Until we decide to retire you, or until your death separates you from us, you are dedicated to working for this agency."

This time, it was Kai who froze. He'd heard the warnings before, but suddenly connecting the concept of death with Hunter made him feel particularly sad.

"Your life will be making a permanent set of changes," Calhoun said. "Changes to your social life, your current living situation -- you will essentially stop living like you currently are."

There was a thick silence that hung in the air after Calhoun finished. Hunter thought carefully about his next set of words.

"I believe I understand what's at stake here," Hunter said. "And I think I know the risks involved with my choice. And while you say there will be changes to my life, I would argue there are no changes that could make that life worse than how it's been as of late." The words surprised Kai. He suddenly remembered how sad Hunter had looked at that club just one night ago. He also realized he didn't really know Hunter at all. He just had this sense, a general estimation, of who he was.

"But I was never going to change my life without some provocation," Hunter mused. "This seems like as good a chance as ever. If I'm being offered a position here, I would like to take it."

"Very well." Calhoun planted a palm on his desk, which made Kai and Hunter jump in their seats. "Interrogator, let's get the paperwork started.

"Hunter Reeves - welcome to the secret world of The Order."