Flux

4

"I know what you're thinking, kid, and it's not like that." The man decked out in some kind of strange shiny black tactical gear ran his hand through his buzzed grey peppered hair.

"We only recruit the best. My employer is extremely picky and doesn't tolerate wannabes or backyard junk refurbishers. He's had the privilege of seeing your designs and blueprints first hand." The man gave a nod in Derek's direction, who was lining up a shot at the worn pool table.

Fuccckkk thought Marvin.

He was torn but did his best to keep his face neutral. Marvin had heard recruitment pitches before. Different fractions of the remains of the US government had wanted him to design and create weapons for them. Organizations had pitched him when he was still a pimply teenager, seeing dollar signs when they looked at him.

Granted, since the world economy had collapsed a few years ago, the offers had lessened. Marvin had originally chalked it up to the challenges of the lack of satellite connections made for communication. Then air travel seemed to be an option exclusively for the military, or those who owned private planes, so people didn't travel as much as they used to, and that could have been another reason. Or maybe people were giving up.

Whatever the reason, this was the first recruitment pitch he had heard in a long time. He had to admit it was also the first one worth considering.

The man must have seen that Marvin was on the fence, regardless of his effort to hide his emotions because he pushed his offer a little harder.

"Let me guess, kid, you and your team kill maybe what 15, maybe 20 monsters in a year? Combining all the teams here and we decide to go with 20 per team, that's 800 monsters a year, which is excellent for the people around here. But you're not fixing anything, are you? Monsters keep coming, and all that is being accomplished resembles containment of a growing problem.

"Did you know when they first started coming eight years ago, the world saw maybe two to three monsters a day? By the third year, that had turned to almost 50 monsters daily worldwide. Still manageable. Today kid, we see hundreds of those nasty beasts daily popping up fucking everywhere!

"This is your chance, kid, to be part of the solution, not just a grunt fighting to contain the bullshit. My employer is close to finding the source of these assholes, and when we do, we need the best minds of the world on hand to figure out how to stop them!"

He's nuts. Do they think there is a single source for these things? How is that bloody possible? They show up all around the world. That would mean they would have to be coming from a central location...

Marvin couldn't control his eyes going wide. He'd never thought much of it before. However, when that blue rift in the sky had cracked the Mediterranean Sea in two, draining it in a day, and then had seemed to fall into the never-ending crevice like a falling star, no one had understood what had happened, or what it had meant.

He had been only a kid and had understood some kind of a horrible natural disaster had taken place, but everyone had blamed the Earth's shifting climate. Or so he had thought.

"Fuck." Marvin breathed the word like a silent prayer. "They are coming from the centre of the Earth somehow, aren't they?"

The man's eyebrows shot up. "You are quick, kid. Derek wasn't exaggerating when he said you are smart. It took some of the smartest people in the world years to consider that idea and decide it held to credit."

Shaking his head, he looked Marvin in the eyes so intently Marvin was sure the man was reading his every thought.

"Marvin, help us eradicate this infestation so our planet can start to rebuild. You know this is what you were made for. This is your calling, son."