In A Small North American Town, Part 3

She had gotten the scene cleaned up as best she could before leaving for town. Collected some samples, picked up the casings, and did her best to get the fence back into a state that wouldn't be too obvious to anyone walking by. The viscous black residue that was left behind burned up in the sun, sizzling and dissipating into smoke in a dramatic fashion. Hyde was grateful for that; less work on her part. She had to make sure that the samples she took stayed out of direct sunlight. It was a consideration for the science team, since they would be ones that would come back to her with some hard facts about whatever the hell this thing was.

Now came the hard part.

The drive into town was short, and parking was plentiful this early in the morning. The townsfolk were starting to trickle out into the streets, shops opening and getting ready for the day. Produces stands were being set up, the general store sign was flipped to 'OPEN', and Hyde was coming up on the Hammer Hill Police Department. It was an old brick building, built when the town was first established in the 1800s by pioneers on their way west. It had character, but not much in the way of modern policing conveniences, seemingly still running on paper records and having exactly two holding cells for the entire town. Any serious offenses were taken care of by the county, so Hammer Hill PD found themselves with very little actual police work.

Their Chief of Police was also appropriately outdated. Chief Wilson was older, stuffed into his beige uniform with the badge on his chest proudly proclaiming his title. He wore a gun belt that was far too ornate for Hyde to take seriously, the brown leather showing a depiction of a bald eagle, wings spread in majestic flight. The weapon it held finished the old-school look that the town's law enforcement seemed to be aiming for, a blued steel Smith & Wesson revolver that rarely left its holster.

Chief Wilson offered Hyde the level of attention that she had come to expect from this town, which was a tired disinterest with an increasingly flippant attitude. He had made her wait for an inappropriately long time before agreeing to see her, and she was sure that it wasn't because he had any pressing professional matters to attend to. By the time Hyde was walking into his office she was already in a bad mood, and they hadn't even officially met one another yet.

"What agency did you say you were from, again?" he asked from behind his desk, not having bothered getting up to greet Agent Hyde.

"We answer to the Department of Defense," she said, holding her badge out for inspection in case he wanted to confirm it with his own eyes. "You can call our office in D.C. if you'd like, but they're just going to confirm what I'm telling you."

"And you need my officers for...?"

"A search operation." Hyde reached for her phone, to pull up a picture of Strahl for the Chief's edification. "It's urgent, life-or-death. We're looking for-"

"Why wasn't I informed that you were conducting an investigation in my town?" he interrupted.

"We alerted your department of our arrival and, until very recently, that was all the informing that you and your officers needed." she replied in a restrained voice. "Before we proceed, Chief Wilson, I want to make something clear. I'm asking for your cooperation, but I don't need it. I'm not playing this 'jurisdiction' game, I'm not going to kowtow to you because this is 'your town', and I'm not going to let you interrupt me again." Hyde checked her watch. "Two of my colleagues will be here in less than three hours. That's how long you have to get your officers ready. I want them here and I want them ready to work. If you or any of your officers show me or my colleagues even a hint of insubordination, I'll have them detained for obstruction of justice."

Chief Wilson had a hard set to his jaw. Agent Hyde knew it must have been eating him up, and part of her wanted him to go off on her. Explode, throw a tantrum, scream until his face turned red. She'd humiliate him in front of his entire department if she had to. She wasn't going to put up with his ego for a second.

Not while Strahl's life was on the line.

In A Small North American Town, Part 2

Agent Hyde and Agent Strahl had met a year ago, during a training seminar in Little Rock. Things between them had started off on the wrong foot, and the two didn't mesh well for a number of reasons. Hyde had always considered herself a professional; being in this line of work for the better part of a decade meant that she was committed both to her job and to their agency's core values. Strahl was young, and had been recruited from Homeland Security after barely serving with their Intelligence office for more than six months. He was enthusiastic but generally inexperienced, and it showed. He was fast-tracked to be a field agent because of an excellent "on-the-spot interview". Hyde had managed to get her hands on the report filed regarding the incident, and if it went down like the supervising agent had said then, yeah, maybe Strahl had a place in the field after another year or so of training and logistical work. Instead, she found herself partnered up with him which, sure, made sense. Pair him up with a veteran agent to help him keep his head above water, show him the ropes, and make sure he stayed alive. Hyde didn't think that the last part would be so difficult.

It was time for one of her least favorite parts of the job, besides having her partner get snatched up by a winged night-creature. She had to make the dreaded phone call to her handler, to give him the bad news. She hadn't moved from his last location, this was too urgent. There was no telling where that thing had flown off to, and there wasn't much she could do when she was down a partner. Calling it in was the best bet for his survival.

"This is Control speaking," said the cool, calm voice on the other end of her cellphone.

"This is Agent Hyde, identification 26-077-153. I have an agent missing outside the town of Hammer Hill. Agent Thomas Strahl." Her voice was shaky due to the adrenaline and the cold. She still had her pistol clutched in her other hand.

There was a pause before the response came.

"We have you, Agent Hyde. Confirm your last; Agent Strahl is missing?"

"Correct. We made contact with the, uh... our target on a farm near Hammer Hill. Humanoid body, wingspan of about... twelve feet? I didn't manage to get an accurate measurement. It was airborne, spotted Strahl on the ground, and made a move for him. I lost sight of both them for a moment, heard Strahl open fire, and couldn't reacquire the target. I found Strahl's weapon, some of the target's blood, but no sign of either of them."

Another pause, longer this time. Hyde was shifting back and forth to try and keep warm.

"We're shifting priority for this case, Agent Hyde. This is now search and rescue. You're on a tight timetable if what information we have about the target is true. We've dispatched backup, they should be in your area in approximately four hours. Until then, continue searching for the target. Tap local law enforcement if you have to, but don't share any details. Confirm?"

"Confirmed." Hyde hated worked with the locals, but this was an emergency. She supposed she could stand talking to the local PD if it meant saving Strahl.

"Be careful out there, Hyde. Good luck."

The call ended, her phone beeping shortly after with a text alert regarding her backup. Agents Hurowitz and Stuart were on their way. They were probably the two closest that weren't currently tied up with a case. Hyde was grateful for the help; she didn't trust the locals to be of much use.

In A Small North American Town, Part 1

Agent Hyde stared into her cup of coffee, watching the steam rise from the dark liquid, feeling the heat on her hands through the styrofoam. Her job had her awake at all different hours. It was so hard to maintain a consistent schedule that she mostly relied on caffeine to stay functioning when she was on-duty. Traveling didn't help. Sometimes she forgot what it was like not being jet-lagged and running on a few hours of sleep. Still, she managed. She had to, right? It wasn't like anyone else was going to do her job for her. It was thankless but important work, and it had to be. Agent Hyde wouldn't put up with these conditions if it wasn't.

The one upside to her job was that she got to see all sorts of interesting places. At least that's what she told herself in an effort to keep from getting too jaded. The town of Hammer Hill was a familiar sight, not that she had ever visited it before. But Agent Hyde had been to enough towns similar to it that it felt familiar enough. The population was in the four-digit range, she was pretty sure that were more livestock than people, and what few people there were certainly didn't trust her being there. It wasn't like she put too much effort into blending in. Jeans and flannel weren't really her style, and she knew that she stuck out in her grey business attire. The locals reacted even worse when she showed them the badge. They probably thought she was with some kind of shadowy government agency and had a license to kill, that if they saw something that they shouldn't she would swoop in and make them disappear.

Instead, she was standing in the middle of a field, watching the sun just begin to creep over the horizon with not a soul in sight. Well, there were cows. Maybe they counted.

"See anything, Hyde?"

The voice was coming from her earpiece, a subtle wire that ran behind her ear. Her hair was too short to obscure it entirely, but it wasn't obvious to anyone unless they were looking for it.

"Nothing yet. Just cattle. How is it on your end? Over." She took a sip from her coffee. Hopefully things would start warming up soon.

"All quiet. The window is closing, if we don't see anything soon then we should pack it up and try again tonight."

Hyde sighed. This was starting to turn into a wild goose chase. What had started out as a solid lead with some very compelling evidence was quickly revealing itself to be, well, this. Standing in the cold, waiting for something interesting to happen. There was a lot of that in this job. Sunlight was beginning to glint off of the morning frost. Tonight was a bust, but there was always-

"Hyde! Eyes up, I've got movement. In the air, your ten o'clock."

Her eyes snapped up, scanning the morning sky. There it was, she spotted it gliding away from their position.

"I see it. Pretty big wingspan, humanoid body."

"Think it made us?"

"It's not going for the cows, but it might have found a meal somewhere else. I'm moving to follow. Keep with it, Strahl."

Agent Hyde dropped her coffee, the cup emptying all over the grass. She moved towards the herd of cows, which seemed nonplussed by her presence, using them as cover. This was supposed to be a surveillance gig, and nothing ruined a good surveillance gig like getting spotted. She could see it, light shining through its membranous wings, veins spider-webbing across them, its skin a mottled grey. It flapped its bat-like appendages, hovering in place.

"I think it saw me." Strahl sounded scared. His voice wavered like he was out of breath. "I think... I think it knows I'm following it."

"Are you sure? Strahl, just stay low and-"

It opened its mouth, far wider than Hyde would have expected. A piercing screech filled the air, sharp and painful to her ears, enough to make her wince and to make the cows stir and shuffle. It brought its wings close to its grotesque body and swooped low. Hyde tried to move through the panicking cattle, her pistol already out of its holster and in her hand. She heard a burst of gunshots, a rapid 'pop pop pop pop!' of frantic fire. By the time she cleared the cows it was gone. Hyde was breathing hard, cold air filling her lungs. No sign of it. No sign of Strahl.

"Strahl! Are you okay?" No response came from her earpiece. She sprinted in the direction she saw it last. "Strahl! Strahl, come on, if you're there, say something!"

Agent Hyde stood at the edge of field, near a messy tear in the barbed wire fence. She could see that the frost was disturbed, that bits of fur and cloth were snagged on the fence, thick black blood splattered about the ground. Empty casings were nearby, and her partner's pistol lay discarded in the grass. But no Strahl.