Hunter hadn’t been able to sleep since volunteering to go back to his former workplace, where the investigation had led them to believe some sort of illegal testing on humans was happening. Kai and Calhoun were still planning a course of action for the operation, but the thought was still keeping Hunter up. Since moving in with Kai, he had been able to sleep at the same hours the vampire took - dawn to dusk. But it was midday and he was wide awake. He turned the bedroom lights on to get dressed. Kai had moved some clothes out of his sleek onyx chest of drawers for Hunter. Half of everything, in fact - the dresser, the closets. All of Kai’s space had been split in half for their shared quarters.

Hunter put on another T-shirt depicting one of his favorite bands, a Finnish group called Poets of the Fall. Their symbol, a giant moth, a pin stuck through its body, wrapped from the middle of the shirt’s front to the center of the back. It was meant to encourage people to “seize the day,” since you never know when that life may change or end.

He glanced over at the bed, where Kai lay in deep sleep. Hunter crept closer and examined his lover’s body. In daylight, with Kai literally dead to the world, his skin looked pale and ashen. The skin around his cheekbones and eyes had sunken down slightly. Hunter could see purple shadows of veins streaking down Kai’s arms and face, spread out like tree limbs. It wasn’t necessarily a pleasant look compared to the lively, spry, slightly tanned look Kai sported when he was active.

For one terrible moment, Hunter felt a twinge of disgust, followed instantly by regret. This isn’t him, he reminded himself. It’s just his body, recharging. One in a series of adjustments Hunter was having to learn to understand.

One day, he reasoned, he may decide he would want to spend eternity by Kai’s side. He wouldn’t see this side of him - the daylight version - again if that were the case. He’d also never see sunlight again, he thought. Or see animals who thrived in daylight. 

Maybe today would be a good day to take those sights in again, and to cherish them. To seize the day.

He wondered if it would be possible to wake Kai up to see if he could walk around his property. He knelt by the bedside and gently nudged Kai’s arm.

It felt leathery and wrinkled. It jarred Hunter. He moved his hand to push at Kai’s shoulder, which was covered by a T-shirt.

“Kai,” Hunter whispered. “Kai. Wake up for a moment.”

Kai stirred. He groaned, an almost pained creaking noise. “Hunter? Issssomething wr-r-rong?”

“No. I just wanted to know if it’s okay for me to take a walk outside for a bit?”

“Uhhhh, ssssure,” Kai said, his eyes so heavy he couldn’t lift them. “Just enter-r-r-r the code when you go in and out. And stayyyy on the property. Th….the guards won’t… bother you…” And he fell back into a dead sleep.

Hunter reached for his travel bag that still had odds and ends. He found a small tube of sunscreen still there. He slathered some on his arms, face, and neck. With it nearing the height of summer in Texas, the sun was notoriously brutal. If there was a plus side to never seeing the sun again, it would be the risk of sunburn and heatstroke.

He entered the security code on the panel by the front door and stepped outside and looked out onto the property.

The home, while modern and technologically advanced in every way inside, looked like an old-style Texas ranch house on the outside. Limestone columns, a poured concrete porch, and treated wood features enveloped the outer walls. The steps opened to a beige gravel path that led the quarter-mile or so to the gate, where Hunter could see two guards wearing white cowboy hats, lightweight shirts and blue denim jeans stationed. To the few who might pass by the otherwise secluded road, it would seem this was an everyday farm.

There was a large cane leaning by the front door. He figured he could use it as he strolled, passing it in front of him in case there were any snakes in the grass he couldn’t see. Hunter walked a few paces down the gravel road. To his left, he admired a large oak tree, its large, heavy branches arching over a small duck pond. He took the cane and passed it in front of him, left and right, as he neared the pond. 

Grasshoppers leapt as the cane struck the ground, and Hunter had to recoil and swat a few out of his face. Normally he would have fled back into the house rather than face any insect, but this time he just waved them by.

He took a seat against the trunk of the giant tree. He examined the lush green grass leading up to the bank of the pond, and saw where it gradually turned yellow and brown in the open sun.

It was the sun baking the ground that Hunter noticed he could smell. He took several deep breaths. It was a mixture of the fresh grass and the crisped, parched earth just a few paces beyond, swirling together into this extraordinary scent.

Grasshoppers again - the sound! Thousands of them, across the property’s many acres, sounding off, rattling, chirping as they moved about. He’d never truly appreciated their symphony.

Hunter took out his phone and pulled up the camera app. He turned the phone on its side and pointed it towards the house. He let it record video, so it would pick up the sounds of this moment, and the sights of the sun bathing everything in this warm glow, sparkling off the water of the pond, and being absorbed by the solar panels checkerboarded across the roof of Kai’s house.

Their house.

The more Hunter thought of the house as theirs, his life as theirs, the more he realized that sacrificing daylight would be a small price to trade for his companion, his partner, and his true love.

An hour later, he was able to walk back into the house, have a quick shower, and crawl back into bed, falling fast asleep with his arm around Kai’s waist.

They met in Calhoun’s office that night to discuss the final plan for infiltrating InnerCore.

“We figure the easiest course of action would be for you to reapply for work,” Calhoun said.

“Makes sense,” Hunter agreed. “I left on good terms; I just said that my financial situation had changed and I didn’t need the work. I lied, but it left me with a way back in if I needed it.”

“Good,” said Calhoun.

“We’re going to list your address as Alex’s apartment,” Kai said cautiously. “Are you going to be alright staying there, if necessary? We figure that’s going to ring some alarm bells with Kahn.”

Hunter nodded. “I guess. We’ve decided Kahn is running the show then?”

“InnerCore essentially went out of business when the FDA nixed the radiosynthesis plan,” Calhoun said, looking through a dossier filled with documents. “They sold the name and the deed to the property to Kahn for pennies on the dollar.”

“Wait,” Hunter interrupted. “If they’re not really operating anymore, why am I going in as a job applicant?”

Calhoun cleared his throat in slight annoyance at being interrupted. “As I was going to say, we figure that with you essentially offering yourself up to him, he would ‘make’ a position open and bring you inside immediately.” Hunter bit his lower lip and nodded, very aware of his superior’s irritation.

“Messinger was his number two,” Calhoun continued. “We finally pieced together that he was orchestrating the abductions of those selected to continue with the DRS program. We now know that the offer to buy the document from Alex was just a ruse and Alex was indeed going to be abducted that night in the alley. ”

“Now Kahn has to shoulder the load himself, and we assume he’ll want you to be his ‘medical assistant,’ so to speak… until he needs you for his own purposes later,” Kai said, taking a printout from Calhoun and handing it to Hunter to see. 

It was a grainy security photo of Kahn. Hunter recognized the face. What looked different from the Kahn of his recollection was how much bigger he seemed. He looked like a bodybuilder. He was at least four inches taller than Hunter remembered. Intimidating, if Hunter were to summarize it in one word.

“We need to assume you’re going to come into contact with him right away,” Calhoun said. “And at that point, you’re likely to be brought to wherever the others are being held. It’s important that you do not fight it. Be agreeable, but don’t be a pushover either.”

“Maybe… hesitate a bit, ask ‘why’ a few times, then go where I’m told, do what I’m told,” Hunter said.

“Exactly. I don’t think he’ll ask you to harm anyone yourself. Our profilers are quite certain Kahn is savoring all the grotesque pleasure he gets in doing… whatever he’s doing… for himself. Now, this is where things get a bit hairy,” Kai said. “Kahn might let you go that first day. But expect that he will make it clear you’re not leaving the building at some point. As long as you’re agreeable and not combative, he may let his guard down and you must use any opportunity to get evidence. SD cards, USB’s, paper, anything.”

“What do I do with it when I find it?”

“Stash it,” Calhoun replied. “Anywhere you’ll be able to find it later. If it’s in your sock or clothes, great - but be prepared to hide it somewhere else in the facility. If you can’t get to it again, we might be able to find it later.”

“‘We?’ ‘Later?’”

Kai took a labored look at Hunter. “While you’re gone, I’m going to work with my team to figure out a way to infiltrate. Hopefully by the first day; no later by the second. They would give you a signal, some sign that we’re there. And you could potentially hand off evidence to them. But we also need to discuss ‘Plan X.’

“Which already sounds nice and cheery…”

“A worst-case scenario,” said Calhoun. He produced a thin tube of paper, bound in red ribbon. “The Order protocol dictates that you read this document in full and sign your name to it, right now, before you start this mission.”

A twinge of despair coursed through Hunter’s body. He looked at Kai, who nodded back, solemn faced. Hunter took the paper from Calhoun, untied the ribbon, and uncurled the document.

The paper was brown, almost like aged parchment. In heavy, blue calligraphy, was a block of text, which Hunter read aloud:

“The following, by special decree of The Order, is a conditional authorization for Agent Hunter Reeves to locate, gather evidence against, question, and, if necessary… terminate… one Dr. Lawrence Kahn, aged 48.

“Objective - admission of guilt for crimes against humanity including false imprisonment, medical testing without express consent, and egregious bodily harm.  Conditions in which termination will be authorized include, and are solely limited to, imminent danger or threat of death against said Agent… Or imminent danger or threat of death against any informant or subject confiding critical information to Agent in the course of his investigation.”

Hunter held the scroll to his side and looked at Kai and Calhoun. “So what does this mean, exactly?”

“It means, for starters, that you need to try and speak with any of the other test subjects and get them to talk about what they’re experiencing. The language of the scroll is written loosely enough that if you can get any first-hand account, it will count as evidence.”

“It also means that you can’t just go in and kill him,” Kai explained. “And there will be a certain .. threshold .. that he must cross before you even think about trying to.”

“Such as?”

Calhoun set the dossier down and walked behind his desk. “You may have to let him inject you again.”

Hunter bristled.

“We have to assume it to be an eventuality,” Kai explained. “He’s not got you marked for some test to not inject you with something.’

As Hunter tensed further, Kai rushed to his side, holding him gently by one arm. “Think of it this way,” Kai said. “I know the stress the thought of injections gives you. That should be enough for me to pinpoint exactly where you are, and I can come and get you, and end him, so you don’t have to.”

“But he has to clearly, verbally indicate he intends to harm you,” Calhoun advised, “or any of his other subjects, before you even think of eliminating him.”

“I don’t want to think about eliminating him!” Hunter shouted. “How can I? Look at him - he’s a Hulk! I’d never be able to pull it off!”

“Then think about how to fend him off,” Kai said. “Go on the defensive. Run. Throw things, pull things down to create obstacles to block him. Then hide.”

“We’re not saying these things are going to happen,” Calhoun added. “But we have to prepare you for any circumstance. The conditional authorization to kill is a last resort. In case Kai can’t get to him first.”

“That’s right, Hun,” Kai said. “If all goes right, that’ll be my responsibility. You’ll have gathered all the proof, and that’s all I need to do my job.” He held up his own scroll, tied with red ribbon, just like Hunter’s had been.

“I guess this is what I signed up for,” Hunter said. There was a pit in the depths of his gut as he held out his right hand. “Somebody give me a pen.”