CHAPTER 2:  The One-Sided Offer

“We are representatives of a...group known as The Agency…”, the figure said high and proudly, “...we are always on the look out for potential recruits so as yourself...” However I really wasn’t interested, “Sorry but not interested…”, but as I tried to close he stopped the door with his foot, “...and your child.”  Hearing that really shook me to my core, I tried to lie, “I...I don’t know what you’re talking about…I don’t...”, but I knew that wasn’t going to work as suddenly, “Daddy daddy look wh-...huh?  Who these two?”, Sherbet said looked confused.  The rep smiled evilly and said, “We are potential employers for both you and your...daddy here.”  I was really tempted to reach for my weapon and put a hole in the both of them, but then I hear.  “Now now Mr. Zolandroth, don’t think about doing anything rash...it will not end well for the both of you.”, it was like they were reading me like a book.  I sighed, I didn’t want any harm coming to Sherbet, “Fine, what the hell do you do what from us?”  The rep’s glowing blue eyes gave me that sinister glare, “We are just here on official business, we’ll be willing to exchange some questions and then offer you a deal...of a lifetime.”

I reluctantly pull up a chair and decided to listen to this guy’s soliciting bullshit, “Why us of all things?”  The rep adjusted his tie, “You are living in a shelter that was long since decommissioned by the Terran authorities, it was scheduled to be scraped and be sent back to whomever contracted it.  Well your sudden presence has made things a bit...complicated.  Though nothing was really stopping them from just simply “cleaning up” the problem, especially for an invasive seed such yourself, but then it was found out there...was a little Mire here...something very out of the ordinary indeed.”  They were of course referring to Sherbet, “So what I’m getting at is, this place was meant to be demolished until...I came along?”  The figure shook his head, “Close, but more like your little Slademire child here that kinda stopped the deconstruction of this place.  They of course hired our services to get some information from her…”

“They wanted you to...interrogate Sherbet?  But she’s a child…”, I exclaimed, I really didn’t want them around Sherbet.  The figure smirked, “Ah, Sherbet, that’s a lovely name you have given her.  And yes she is just a child, but she is also a Slademire, and we are fully aware of their...capabilities.  We’re not going to do anything rash to her, we just want to ask some questions, especially if she knows anything about her...origins.”  Sherbet glared at the two men, her eyes then glowed brightly, bringing one of her hands up, then suddenly there was a cold frightened look in her eyes.  One of the men grinned, “I’m sorry child, but your powers have no effect on us.  But we’re not here to hurt you young one, we just want some answers from you.”  Sherbet growled but also was shaking in fear and tearing up a bit, “I-I don’t...wanna…”  Safe to say, I wasn’t too thrilled seeing this, and yelled at them, “You’re scaring her!  Please she knows nothing, she was just an egg when I found her, she knows nothing of her...”  Then I covered my mouth, just realizing I told them too much.  The rep looked rather satisfied hearing that info, “Well...looks like you are more useful than we thought Mr. Zolandroth.  Very well, we’ve heard enough that we needed to hear, we were aware of a wreck that happened not too far from here, and I’m guessing she must’ve came from that did she?”

I really didn’t want to give them anymore information, but if it will just get them to leave us alone, “Yes, she was an egg, I brought her here, hatched her, and rose her as my own.”, I hoped that would show some sort of mercy upon us.  However the figure didn’t show any emotion, “Oh how charming, I’m sure you’re raising your child quite well huh?”, then there was a chilling glare, “...you think that your rather...perverted ways with her wouldn’t go unnoticed?”  I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised here, we were a little bit too open about it.  Then there was growl, “Grr, leave daddy Strawbry alone!”, Sherbet barked.  The figure shrugged, “Well...it’s none of our business to interfere with what happens between you two.  Since that would go against our interests, speaking of...now it’s time for what we are offering…”  This send a chill down both our spines, we had a bad feeling about this.

The rep pulls out a papered contract and a pen.  “We know that how much that you care about a future with you and your child.  All you both have to do is sign on this contract below, and we’ll accept your employment in the foreseeable future, whenever your child is grown enough.”  Then I glared at the paper, it was a whole bunch of text I couldn’t bother reading, “And if we refuse?”  The rep cleared his throat, “Well...there is a gang in that Slumtown that seems rather interested in a place like this.  Signing this contract would guarantee that you and your child safety from any sort of confrontation.”  The blood on my warm face went cold, they really were giving me an offer I couldn’t refuse, I can hear Sherbet growling at the man, I guess she wasn’t as happy hearing that either.  The rep stood there, “I am a rather patient man, but it’d be wise for you to decide as soon as you can.  As we can’t guarantee your safety if we delay another day further.”

I couldn’t believe I was about to do this, just sign my life away in hopes that Sherbet and I would feel more safer in this hellscape.  So with a sigh, I signed my name, the figure grinned “Alright, now your turn little one.” As he turns the paper to Sherbet, her backing away, glaring at them, being rather hesitant.  “She doesn’t really know how to write her whole name yet…”, I told them.  The figure chuckled in amusement, “Oh don’t worry about it, she can write anything she wants and that’ll count as a signature.  Now go ahead and write little one, be creative…”  Sherbet paused, thinking for a moment, then quickly jotted something down.  The rep took a look, and seeing ‘fuk yu’ where she wrote, then with a smirk, “My my, what a feisty temper you have little one, but very well we’ll take that...as a yes.”, then he turns his attention back to me, adjusts his tie and putting his glasses back on.

“Wise choice, Mr. Zolandroth, we’ll be looking forward to seeing you and your child again in the foreseeable future.”, said the rep, looking rather pleased at me signing this contract.  “...and when we do, we sure hope you’ll be packed and ready, as we’ll skip our formalities and send you both straight to our...processing center.”  Then suddenly they looked at their wrists, then pressed some buttons on a device attached to them, “But for now, this is where we take our leave, farewell.”, and with a flash both reps vanish.  While it was relieving that they were gone, I couldn’t help shake this feeling that I just signed a deal with the devil, in exchange for us to continue living relatively safe here.  Sherbet was shivering, tearing up a bit, “D-daddy Strawbry, are we...gong to be okay?”  I didn’t know myself but I hated to see my child scared like this, I held back tears trying to reassure Sherbet, “It’ll be okay my child...I’ll will always be here for you.”  It was a rather quiet day for the rest of it, night time rolled around, and we both said our good nights before going to sleep, at least only Sherbet did, as I couldn’t sleep at all, as the many worries were overtaking me, fearing greatly what would happened to my child once we’re recruited, and the thought that she could end up...I ended up crying myself to sleep that night, feeling so helpless.

The next day before checking the orchards, there was a letter attached to my door with a knife.  On it mentioned in an odd language that I could very oddly read, ‘Type 0000Anti0000Agent on terminal to set yourself free’, I assumed that meant the learning terminal in the study, but do I really want to do that, I was tired of having my life being bothered by these outsiders, but the mention of being set free intrigued me, could this really be a way out of the mess I got into?  So I went to the study and typed that onto the terminal, and immediately a screen shows up with a message saying:

“Greetings.  If you are reading this, chances are, you have been forcefully been offered recruitment by The Agency.  We are the Anti-Agent Initiative, a counter-initiative group that go to great lengths to put an end to the The Agency’s cruel hiring and business practices, and to set those given these unfair ‘offers’ to be free from them.  If you are interested on how to be set free from whatever contract you signed with The Agency, type ‘1111Anti1111Agent’ on the console that this is played from.  You have a week to decide, this will be your only given opportunity to join our ranks.”

Ah great, more contractual bullshit.  But it’s not like that I had anything else to lose, besides I already have a great resentment over my forced employment anyway.  So I typed in it.  Then another message popped up:

“You have typed in the message in less than 5 minutes, we are thrilled of your enthusiasm of being set free.  Now type in your full name, as well as any others that you know that were recently forced into this contract, and we’ll get back to you in the foreseeable future.  You have a day to respond.”

I sighed, “Well no turning back now…”  I first I typed in my name, then I typed in Sherbet...but then I realized, what would her last name be?  I knew that Slademire had a unique naming convention according to what I learned about them.  Maybe I should just ask her, “Oh Sherbet sweetie, could you come here?”  Sherbet arrives immediately after, “Yes daddy, need something?”  I then asked her, “What’s your full name?”  Sherbet was rather puzzled about me asking this question, but then she responded.  “My name is...Sherbet ‘Zolandroth’ Sla…”  Then she stopped herself, as if there was a word that tried to roll off her tongue out of instinct, as she had never stated her full name before, and she didn’t even know much about her species or their customs.  “It’s okay sweetie, say it all out, don’t be afraid.”  Sherbet sighed, “Name is...Sherbet ‘Zolandroth’...Slademire…”  I gave her a pet on the head, “Very good honey, thanks for reminding me.”  Sherbet still looked rather confused, as if a part of her wasn’t sure why she ended her name like that.  I then typed out Sherbet’s full name.  Then I receive this message:

“Congratulations Strawbry Zolandroth and Sherbet ‘Zolandroth’ Slademire for signing up for the Anti-Agent Initiative freedom service.  All species are welcomed among our ranks.  We will see to it that you both will be free from The Agency in the foreseeable future.  We will be in touch, take care.”

“Daddy?  What was that?  Why did it say our names?”, Sherbet said even more puzzled.  “Daddy is trying to get us out of this mess from yesterday…”, I told her, but given how vague this automated response was, I was unsure if it would actually help us or not.

However within a week, there was an odd package in the living area that wasn’t there before with a letter attached to it.  The letter read:

“Congratulations again Strawbry and Sherbet, upon further inspection, we have concluded that you would indeed qualify to fight among our ranks.  But there is one more task we will require you to do.  In this package contains two fully charged signature blasters, you are to use them upon the reps whenever they do decide to return to claim you.  Only afterwards, you will be officially part of the AAI and we’ll send our rapid response squad to retrieve and bring you both to a much safer place to live and carry out your duties, if you so choose.”

Even though I hated the idea that we might have to kill someone, it seems to be harder to avoid by the day and I guess either way at this point, but if they do promise freedom...I guess it’s worth a shot.  “Um daddy, what’s in the box?”, Sherbet would tell me.  Then I told her, “A very hard decision we’ll have to make, whenever that time comes…”  I decided to hide the box for when we require it, and we went about our normal day to day living, hoping that we have plenty of time together before we ever have to make any sort of move.

TO BE CONTINUED?