S.I.ER.A. S1E01 - Pilot

The sun rises, slowly illuminating the world. In an open field, on a small outcropping, standing in wait is a flaming bear. The bear’s skin appears to be made of magma, continuously moving but remaining in the form of the bear. Intense heat emanates from the bear and flames lick at the cool morning air around him.
A cell phone rings and the flaming bear fades, leaving in its wake an Iraqi man, steam drifting off of him. The man stood facing the sun, and slowly removed the phone from his pocket. He slid it open and answered it.
  “Yes. My team is ready. We will have the Humans,” he said and smiled widely, teeth glistening in the sun, “we strike at once, Chieftain.”
The man closed the phone, replaces it in his pocket, and transforms back into the flaming bear. The sun has now risen a good deal and showered the entire area in the light of day. The bear released a mighty roar, turned tail and started running to the city lying on the horizon behind him.


How often has man looked to the stars wondering, hoping, even praying to find life out there? How often has there been a theory that Aliens are among us? We have made films depicting first contact, most of which have us as the Human race running for our lives from these vicious invaders.
We exposed ourselves to them, sending probes and containers. Revealing our history to them, our technology, our weaknesses. We should have kept ourselves hidden. We should have hoped for peace but prepared for war…
My name is Alexander Page, I worked for a secret governmental organization known as S.I.ER.A., who is responsible for the policing of Aliens on Earth. This is our story

8 January
19:30
Arthur’s House, Reinfield, Benoni
Gauteng, South Africa

         Laughter could be heard from the house as Maximus stood by the gate. He got out his iPhone and called one of his friends. The soft light, from the only lamp near the gate, illuminated Max. He moved his thick, brown hair out of his eyes and adjusted his glasses a bit as he waited for his friend to pick up.
  “Yes, Max”
  “Hey, Kial. Tell Arthur I’m standing outside his gate,”
  “Sure thing,”
         Seconds later, Arthur came out of the garage with the remote in hand. Following behind him was Anthony. Anthony greeted Max first, then moved on to greet his father in the car. Although it had been some time since Arthur was forced to dye his hair pitch black because of school rules, Max was still not used to the colour on Arthur. Not to mention Anthony’s straightened brown hair. Though it wasn’t long, it looked strange because it used to be curled.
  “Why haven’t you fixed your hair again?” asked Max.
  “Didn’t feel like it, I figured with all the stress of wondering if we failed or not, it would go white on its own,”
  “At least we made it. Where’s Kial?”
  “He is inside with Zac and Troy busy doing who knows what with the alcohol.”
  “Even he won’t be able to stop those two this time. We passed Matric, that doesn’t happen every day,”
  “You lot passed, I still have two years!”
         Zachary walked up to the two of them and greeted Max. Max had to do a double take when he noticed Zac’s short hair.
  “You coloured your hair?” asked Max.
  “Well, yeah”
  “But, black? You coloured your red hair, black?”
  “Your point?”
  “It looks strange, even stranger than Arthur’s hair,”
  “Hey! Leave my hair out of this,”
  “Would you three fish wives stop yapping, we have partying to do. Max come say goodbye to your dad,”
         After Max greeted his dad and they all waved him goodbye, they headed inside to the small patio. Here they found Kial, Troy and Arthur’s father talking. On the patio stood a glass dining table, a number of comfortable chairs, and a small wooden table upon which stood two computer speakers. On the table stood a collection of alcohol, glasses and snacks.
         Next to the door across from the garage entrance was a built in braai, the fire already burning happily. Kial leaned over the table and greeted Max, then he started to get the Champaign glasses together. Troy greeted Max, then continued to talk to Arthur’s dad.
         Of all of them, Troy was the tallest. Anthony was only slightly shorter, but bulkier. Zac was the same height as Anthony, but leaner than most of the others.
  “So, I’m going to leave you young men in peace now,” Arthur’s dad said and he entered the house through the door next to the braai.
  “Well,” said Kial and he passed the bottle of Champaign to Anthony, who aimed it at the residential complex behind Arthur’s house.
         Kial picked up the other bottle and did the same. Zac counted them down and they popped the corks, sending them flying through the air and into the complex. They heard a thud as one of the corks hit a window.
  “Oops,” said Kial, running his free hand through his blond hair, “at least nothing broke,”
  “Damn, I love the sound of breaking glass,” said Anthony with a smile on his face.
  “Arthur, put some music on,” said Troy.
  “What do you want to hear?”
  “Anything but Kurt Daren,” said Anthony.
  “He has some nice songs,” said Troy.
  “True,”
  “I’ll just put my entire playlist on,”
         Arthur headed inside the house then appeared in the room in front of the patio, towards the gate. He walked over to his PC, loaded WinAmp and started his playlist. By the time he got outside again, the Champaign was poured and Kial handed him a glass.
  “To us. Twelve years of school, and we are finally done with it,” said Kial and they all raised their glasses “Well, most of us, anyway” he added as he remembered Zac still had a few to go.
  “Well, now for a real drink. Klipies and Coke anyone?” Anthony said after downing half his glass.
         As the night progressed, it became more eventful. At some point during the night, Arthur, Anthony and Troy walked over to the pool while Zac and Max were dancing. Kial was keeping an eye on the fire.
         A sudden splash made everyone stand still, then.
  “My drink! Quickly Arthur, we can still save it!” said Troy.
  “Where is it?” he asked with the pool brush in hand.
  “There!”
         They continued to celebrate well into the early hours of the morning. At which point, Troy and Arthur had started throwing up, and Zac and Max were already asleep. Together, Kial and Anthony guided everyone inside the house, and onto the couches in the living room. This, unfortunately, had some drawbacks as both Troy and Arthur continued to vomit at irregular intervals. So for the next half an hour, Kial and Anthony cleaned up the house before crashing on the matrass in the room where Arthur’s PC was.
  “Next time, we clean the floor with their heads,” said Anthony.
  “I’m just glad they didn’t eat a lot,”
  “Yeah. This clear liquid vomit was bad enough, if it had to be chunky and shit -”
  “Just stop there, I get the point. Well, let’s try and get some shut eye before the sun comes up.”
  “Yeah, they’re gonna feel like shit tomorrow”
  “Later today” corrected Kial.
  “Whatever”

22 January
01:20
Moscow Ruins, Russia

  “Over here!” shouted an American voice.
         Alexander was coming to. His vision was blurry and his limbs felt heavy. Ahead of him stood a blurred shape of a person holding an assault rifle. Suddenly another blurred shaped entered his vision and bent over him.
  “Commander, get up, we need to move,”
         There was a loud crack and a red cloud exploded around the man’s head standing in front of Alexander. The man fell to the ground, dead. There was more gunfire. Soldiers started appearing all around them, firing at more soldiers that Alexander could not see.
         The medic that was bent over him, pressed a injector against his chest and pulled the trigger, injecting adrenaline into his bloodstream. Then she turned around, drew her pistol and started to shoot at the soldiers. She killed one, wounded another before another loud crack filled the air and she fell to the ground next to Alexander. There was a hole in her head large enough for him to see through.
         The gunfire stopped. He could hear people moving towards him, but before he could move, he passed out.
 

23 January
20:13
Liberty LAN Venue, Kempton

         A few hundred open seats now mar the otherwise full hall. Six rows of tables fill the hall, packed side by side length-wise and back to back. Each row terminated by a table put width-wise against the others.
         The noise was starting to die down as people started packing up their PC’s and leaving. Kial, Anthony and Arthur were sitting at the second last row on the far side of the hall, chatting away. Joining Kial and the others, was Donatello. He was tall and unfit. Max and Zac had gone out for a toilet break.
         A few people were sitting on the stage and a very scarce minority were dancing to the music. There was a scream from outside and numerous people started running into the hall, then a group of about ten heavily armed men entered the hall and started closing the doors.
  “What the hell?” asked Anthony.
  “Don’t they know that they are heavily outnumbered?” asked Arthur.
         Two of the men walked onto the stage. One of the gamers decided to rush them but was shot twice in the chest. The whole hall had gotten to the ground, trying to gain as much cover as possible. One of the two men walked closer to the edge of the stage and looked over the crowd.
         The man was slender yet masculine and was armed with a steel cable that had a frayed end. He raised up his hands and removed his helmet, exposing his Iraqi nationality, short hair and menacing face.
  “Anyone else want to stop us?” the man asked, almost challenging someone to try something.
         There was silence. Near the man was a small group of young women, probably most of the female gamers at Liberty LAN for the weekend. One of them, a blond, tried to see if the man that was shot, was still alive.
  “What are you looking at!” the Iraqi shouted and swung the cable at the group.
         They scattered like ants and the cable hit the PC’s on the table close to where they stood, sending them flying to the ground. The young women started to run down the aisles, the blond headed in Anthony’s direction.
         The Iraqi man jumped from the stage and started to follow her, swinging randomly and smashing random tables. The blond ran past Anthony, Arthur and Kial before stopping and turning around. The man was only a few feet from her. He prepared to swing the cable at her. Kial quickly rose to his feet and stepped in between the cable and the girl.
         The frayed end dug deep into Kial’s left arm. He wrapped the cable around his arm and pulled on it, throwing the man slightly off balance. The man then retaliated pulling hard on the cable. Pain shot through Kial’s arm as the cable dug deep into his arm and blood started to drip to the ground. The man pulled harder and Kial was forced to move closer.
  “That was a bad idea, kid” he said and head budded Kial.
         Kial fell to the ground, his vision blurring as he was about to pass out. The last thing he saw before darkness engulfed his vision, was Anthony trying to attack the man but getting pistol-whipped instead.

Sometime later
22:23

         Kial started to regain consciousness and opened his eyes. He looked around and took in his surroundings. He was inside the restrooms. He felt a pain in his arm and looked to his left. His arm was suspended in the air, the steel cable had been looped around a hook on the wall.
         He slowly tried to extend his arm and unhook it, which he managed. Then he dropped his arm to his side and discovered immediately afterwards that it was a bad idea. Pain shot through his arm and his green eyes started to water.
         Once the pain subsided slightly, he slowly got to his feet and set out to investigate. He walked out of the restrooms into the small enclosed area around it, noticing the blond girl from before sitting near the wall. Her brightly coloured tank top made him slightly nauseous.
  “I’m glad to see you’re alive, I didn’t need anyone sacrificing themselves for me,”
  “Why are you here?”
  “They left me here to take care of you. I’m surprised you survived, ten minutes ago you had one hell of a fever. I had to beg them to give you an aspirin, and once I forced that down your throat, it dissipated within seconds,”
  “Well, then I guess I owe you one,”
  “Damn, one of them is coming to check on us again,”
  “Don’t tell him I’m awake, I have an idea,”
  “Oh, great, another idea like your last one. That ended so well,”
  “Just, trust me”
  “Trust you, I don’t even know your name,”
  “Kial”
  “Rebecca”
  “Pleased to meet you,”
         Kial headed back into the restrooms while Rebecca waited outside. Kial heard the heavy footfalls of the man approaching, then of keys entering a lock and a gate opening.
  “He is still out cold,”
  “Good, I wouldn’t want anyone to hear us” said the rough voice of a German man.
         Kial saw Rebecca backing away, and then the man moving slowly towards her. Kial moved closer, and as the man was about to force himself on Rebecca, he struck.
         Kial jumped at the man, kicking him in the side of the head. He howled in pain and Rebecca kicked him under the chin. The man toppled over backwards, out cold.
  “Nice kick,” said Kial.
  “Thanks, your kick wasn’t bad either,”
  “Thanks, we need to tie him up,”
  “Wait here, I have something,”
         Rebecca rushed into the restrooms and returned a few seconds later with a roll of duct tape in her hands.
  “Where the hell did you get this?”
  “They wanted to use it to tie me up, before I mentioned that it would be a bad idea as I couldn’t be able to help you,”
  “Oh, help me carry him over to the wall there,”
         They carried the terrorist over to the wall, where Kial started to tape him to the wall, enclosing him in an almost full body cocoon.
  “How’s your arm?”
  “Stings a little but I’ll survive,”
  “I’m really surprised by this, it should have killed you by now. You’ve lost a lot of blood,”
  “Would you rather be stuck here alone?”
  “No, I just mean, it’s not normal,”
  “Story of my life,”
  “What?”
  “It’s a long and boring story. Trust me, you don’t want to hear it,”
  “Maybe next time we are held hostage together,” she said playfully.
  “Yeah, maybe,”
         Kial finished with taping the man to the wall, then took a few steps back and looked at the man. As he stood there, the intro of Ain’t no Rest For the Wicked by Cage The Elephant started to play.
  “That should hold him,” he said as he reached for his cell phone and answered it.
  “Yeah,”
  “Kial, thank the stars you’re alive,” said Max on the other side of the line.
  “Where are you and Zac?”
  “Over here at the church building. They’re not gonna let us use the hall again after this,”
  “We’ll see. Look, we have one of the terrorists here with us but he is wrapped up at the moment,”
  “Don’t worry, one of them is hanging around here with us,”
  “Hanging? Do I want to know?”
  “Nope. Wait, you said we?”
  “Yeah, me and Rebecca. The blond,”
  “Oh, I see”
  “It’s not like that. Listen, we need to get out of here. Rebecca and I will head over to you two, then we can all go to the gate,”
  “Straight to the police,”
  “The police? When did they get here?”
  “Dude, you’ve been out for hours,”
  “Oh, yeah that could explain it. See you in a few,”
  “See ya,”
         Kial ended the call and placed the phone back in his pocket, then motioned to Rebecca to follow him.
  “Nice tattoos. A strange place though, and how do they glow in the dark?” asked Rebecca.
  “Tattoos? I don’t have any tattoos,” she said as they walked to the church building on the same lot and only a few meters away from the restrooms.
  “Yes you do, on the back of your left had,”
  “What?” Kial said and lifted up his left hand. Sure enough there were glowing soft white markings on the back of all his fingers on his left hand. “How the hell did that get there?”
  “I don’t know, it’s your body,”
  “That’s what scares me,”
         They reached the back of the church building where Max and Zac were waiting for them. The two of them had taken the liberty to remove the terrorist’s weapons.
  “You might as well leave those here” said Rebecca.
  “And why the hell would we do that?” asked Zac.
  “Well, what do you think the police are going to do if they see guns?”
  “She has a point, Zac,” said Max.
  “Damn,”
  “Throw those weapons to the ground and let’s get out of here before they come looking for us,” said Kial and started walking to the front gates where a large crowd had gathered.
         Once there they were lead aside by some police to the paramedics. Everyone was making a particularly big fuss about the cable in Kial’s arm.
         As they were led away, Shaun was making his way over to the policeman in charge of the scene. Shaun was in his mid-thirties, but fit and looked healthy.
  “Officer,”
  “Oh great, if it isn’t Agent Cayman,”
  “Good, you remember me, that saves me having to explain everything. I am taking over this scene,”
  “Like hell, I have a hostage situation in there. And last time I let you take control, twenty people died,”
  “Ten of them were some of my agents, you need not remind me. But this is not open for debate. I am in charge and I am sending my team in now,”
  “Before you do that, you might want to talk to the four escaped hostages, especially the one with the steel cable in his arm,”
  “What? Where is he?”
  “Over by the ambulance,”
  “Thanks. Agent Rhampasad,”
  “Yes,” said an Indian man behind Shaun.
  “You take point, there is something very important I need to attend to,” said Shaun and headed off through the parked vehicles to the ambulances.
         Kial was sitting in the back of an ambulance where a paramedic was wrapping his arm in a bandage. The other three were near another ambulance a few meters away. Kial noticed Shaun walking towards him but had no idea what to make of it.
  “He needs to come with me,” said Shaun to the paramedic, who nodded and left towards the other ambulance.
  “Why should I go with you, you’re not police”
  “No, but there are powers at work here that you have no idea of. Come”
  “I’m warning you, you try anything and it will be the last thing you do,”
  “Of course, come,”
         Kial followed Shaun through the collection of vehicles and people to a black Honda Civic Type-R. Shaun unlocked the car and the two of them got in. Shaun started it, reversed out into the street and started to drive.
  “How’s your arm?”
  “Fine, thanks, it doesn’t even hurt anymore”
  “And you don’t find that the least bit strange”
  “Now that you mention it”
  “Good. Tonight you were the victim of Mohammed, the Iraqi man that carried the steel cable that is now in your arm. The cable must have been laced with something, some extra-terrestrial substance that was able to eat through your flesh but seems to be healing you now,”
  “Wait, I must have heard you incorrectly, I thought you said extra-terrestrial,”
  “I did. They walk among us, and not just them, superhumans too. I work for a secret governmental organisation responsible for the monitoring and policing of extra-terrestrials and superhumans. We are known as Special Intelligence on Extra-terrestrial Activities, or S.I.ER.A. for short,”
  “Okay, what does this have to do with Liberty LAN?”
  “Mohammed must have run into some trouble and decided to charge the place to buy himself time. He will be dealt with by the team I sent in,”
  “So he is an alien?”
  “No, he is superhuman. An Impure Flame, think of them like massive creatures made purely of fire, capable of choosing a shape and staying with it for their lifespan. Mohammed can change into a-”
  “Bear,”
  “How did you know?”
  “A dream,”
  “When did you have this dream?”
  “While I was out, I suppose”
  “Interesting”
  “I take it Mohammed is part of some larger picture,”
  “Yes, he is part of a cult calling themselves the Brotherhood of Ascension. They have been trying to destroy S.I.ER.A. for years now, and a few weeks ago they killed ten agents,”
  “What’s their problem with you guys?”
  “While we strive to keep extra-terrestrial and superhuman existences secret, they strive to reveal their presence and give them free reign over Earth, to bring them closer to ascension. This is not entirely a bad thing, but some species are dangerous and destructive,”
  “So, they think the aliens are their key to God?”
  “No, they are not religious at all, they just believe that the extra-terrestrials are their way to ascend,”
  “Great, nut jobs”
  “Yeah,”
         They drove through a pothole and there was a loud bang. The car sank deep into the hole, and came out the other side. A few seconds later the car went down again and the front wheel on the driver’s side came loose. The car grinded to a halt.
  “Shit, bloody potholes. Stay here, let me see what the damage is,”
         Shaun got out and headed to the front of the car. From nowhere, two men jumped him and started beating him. Kial reacted, getting out of the car and headed to the front of the car. The men turned towards him and one of them moved to flank him.
         Kial waited as the men circled him, then the one in front of him charged. He tried to punch Kial, but Kial caught his hand and forced his elbow upwards, breaking the man’s arm. He then landed a blow in the man’s stomach.
         The man behind Kial tried to kick him, but Kial ducked. As the man’s leg passed over Kial, he hit the man under the leg with his body, throwing him off balance. As the man started to fall, Kial elbowed him in the chest, then turned around and took a step backwards. As he passed by the first man, he removed the man’s gun, pistol-whipped him, cocked the gun and aimed it at the second man, who was groaning on the ground.
  “Where did you learn to move like that?” asked Shaun, walking over to Kial.
  “I took a self-defence class this holiday,”
  “Good class. Come, the headquarters are only a few hundred meters from here,”
  “What about them?”
  “They won’t get far even if they can get up, agents will come to get them within seconds,”
  “You guy’s seem well organized,”
  “At first glance, yes, but you’ll eat those words later. Now come,"
         Shaun started to jog up the street. Kial looked at the two men, then dismantled the gun, dropped the pieces on the ground and jogged after Shaun.

23 January
23:02
Moscow Ruins, Russia

         Alexander came to again and looked about. He was in some sort of clearing in between ruined vehicles. Ahead of him was a group of five people, at least one of them female. They were gathered around a small fire and were all heavily armed.
  “The American is awake, I say we gut him now,” said a Russian man, pressing a sharp blade against Alexander’s neck.
  “No,” said a female voice, also Russian.
         The woman walked closer to him, the light dancing across her tight fitting leather uniform. She bent down on her knees and looked Alexander in the eyes.
  “Who do you work for?” she asked, Alexander continued to stare. “Okay, let’s try something easier, what is your name?” still, Alexander remained silent.
  “See, I told you, he will tell us nothing”
  “We can’t kill him, Ivan. He is clearly part of some black ops team, and since we found him near the epicentre, we know that he had intelligence that could help us,”
  “Exactly, we found him and the other Americans near the epicentre. They are behind this attack on Mother Russia,”
  “We cannot be sure of that, besides there were others among them that wore the same suits. Look at his equipment, does this look like military issue?”
  “No, but-”
  “No buts. He is not wearing any military markings, so screw the Geneva Convention. As soon as we get to the safe house, you can extract the information from him”
  “Thank you, Nakita”
         Nakita straightened up and walked back to the fire. Ivan removed the knife from Alexander’s throat and smiled deviously.
  This was not how it should have happened, Alexander thought to himself.

23 January
11:10
S.I.ER.A. 10 Headquarters

  “Welcome to the headquarters,” said Shaun as they exited the elevator that led from the cover mansion above ground.
         The mansion was impressive enough, being a four story building and of great size, but this was much better. They were in a large, circular room. In the centre of the room was a cut away with pillars at regular intervals that housed elevators to access the lower floors. This room was only a walkway with doors and hallways leading off to the actual rooms in the facility.
         Kial walked to the railing around the cut away and looked down, counting more than thirty floors. At the bottom of the facility, in the cut away, there grew strange alien plans. The whole facility was tiled with white marble and lit with a strange florescent light that Kial had never seen before. It gave off a soft white light, with a slight purple pulse.
  “This place is amazing,”
  “This is only the general spiral,”
  “What?”
  “There are two more spirals. Medical, and Research,”
  “Hell, this place is massive,”
  “Yeah, follow me,”
         They walked round to the other side of the walkway and passed through an archway leading to the Medical spiral, from here they went down a level and entered a hallway that lead to a doctor’s office.
  “Kial, meet doctor Xal,”
         Kial entered the office that looked like a regular GP’s office but one thing was irregular, the doctor. Kial tried his best not to seem frightened or react in a way that could offend him, for the doctor was an alien.
         He was humanoid, and for the most part he possessed human features but the main and obvious differences were in his skin and face. The doctor’s skin was deep red and scaly. His eyes, nose and ears were reptilian.
  “A pleasure to meet you, doctor”
  “I like this one,” he said in a slithering voice to Shaun.
  “Yeah, now can you maybe check what the hell was on that cable?”
  “Of course,”
         He motioned to Kial to get onto the bed, then he started removing the bandages. Once they were removed, Xal inspected the wound and the cable, then took a blood sample and placed it into an analyser. While the blood sample was being analysed, Xal started to remove the cable, which was already being pushed out by Kial’s immune system as the damaged tissue healed. After a few painful moments, the cable was removed from his arm and Xal started to check the results from the analyser.
  “Yes, as I suspected,”
  “What?” asked Shaun.
  “The weapon was laced with some form of extra-terrestrial bio-mechanoid nanites. Some rather advanced ones at that. What I find most intriguing is your genetic structure, Kial. You possess markers that are uncommon but not unheard of. I have one question, before I explain my suspicion. Have you noticed any strange markings on your body?”
  “Only the marks on my fingers,” Kial said and showed them the marks.
  “As I thought. The nanites are extremely compatible with your genetics, and as such have become a second set of DNA. I do not know what exactly will happen to you as the nanites continue to acclimatize, but it should be interesting,”
  “But I will live?”
  “Yes, in fact you will be better off now than before,”
  “Thank you, doctor,”
  “Yes well, it’s what I do. Now leave me, please, I have more work to complete,”
  “Come,” said Shaun.
         Shaun lead them back to the General spiral, and then to his office on the second level. In the lobby before his office was a desk and a red head. She was Shaun’s secretary.
  “General, General Page is on the line, he would like to talk to you,”
  “Thanks, Hillary. And how many times do I have to tell you to call me Shaun?”
  “At least once more, General”
         Shaun smiled and motioned to Kial to enter the office. It was a small yet spacious office, containing only a desk, three chairs and a large wall-mounted LED screen that covered most of the wall behind Shaun’s desk. On the screen was the face of a man in his mid-thirties. His bold head reflecting a bit of light.
  “Clearly I called at a bad time,” said the man in an American accent.
  “Not at all. Phil meet Kial Newman. Kial, meet Phillip Page, General of S.I.ER.A. 7”
  “You never were good at following rules, were you Shaun?”
  “Nope. Why are you calling?”
  “Something went wrong. S.I.ER.A. 7 is incapacitated,”
  “Field unit?”
  “Lost all vitals except one, Agent Alexander Page’s”
  “Damn, what the hell happened. It was a routine supress and defuse,”
  “So we thought, but until we can re-establish communication with the field unit, we are out for a loss. I can tell you one thing though, the Brotherhood is behind this,”
  “Possibly, did the containment hold?”
  “Yes, thankfully. I don’t know how long we are going to be able to keep this quiet,”
  “As long as it can,”
  “Yeah. Anyway, while we are out, all other areas are to deal with any global threats in their jurisdiction,”
  “Understood,”
  “Stay safe,” said Phil and the screen went black for a few seconds, then the S.I.ER.A. emblem appeared on screen.
         The emblem consisted of a silver skull with a bullet hole in its head and planet earth in its jaws. Shaun moved behind his desk and gestured for Kial to take a seat, which he did.
  “So, a few weeks ago I lost ten good agents. I need to replace them, and to do that, I need great agents,”
  “You want me to find people for you?”
  “Not only that, I want you to lead a team. Do you think you could handle that?”
  “Possibly, any recruitment requirements for said team?”
  “People that you trust with your life, is that going to be a problem?”
  “No, I have a few people in mind,”
  “Good. One last thing,” said Shaun and took a watch from inside a desk drawer.
         The watch was made from a light weight metal and painted metallic black. It was a digital-analogue hybrid and had a number of buttons.
  “I already have a watch,”
  “Not like this one,” he said and pressed a button on his own watch. A holographic blue screen appeared on his arm next to it, and on the screen was a face that appeared to consist of glowing interwoven code segments.
  “What is that?”
  “I am Cybernetic Network,” said the face on the screen, then the wall-mounted screen changed and the face populated it. “I am an electronic digital assistant. I am in control of all S.I.ER.A. facilities and knowledge,”
  “Still want to keep your watch?”
  “Hell no,” said Kial and took the watch from the table.

24 January
02:30
Kial’s residence, Farrarmere, Benoni

         Silence filled the house, only the faint scratching of Kial’s leopard gecko could be hear from the terrarium next to his bed. Kial’s phone started to ring, the intro waking him up.
         He reached for his phone in the wall rack next to his bed. He got hold of it and answered it.
  “Look, if you’re not calling to tell me someone is jacking my pc, drop the line,”
         He sat up quickly, shock across his face.
  “What!”