Back To The Wall

Officer Faber has been the head of the City Security Department in Gosi for over ten years. It was a prestigious position that not only gained him significant power in Gosi but also across the entire country. Whoever controlled the military in such a large economic center will naturally control the heartbeat of the city as well. Faber decides who is allowed in and who is not. He can also control which merchant organization can trade with Gosi and which cannot. But most importantly, the City Security Department also acts as an intelligence organization, which is engaging in espionage, data analysis, and active manipulation of political and economic systems, both domestic and foreign. From a legal perspective, his only restriction was that his department's actions must be to the benefit of Gosi but must not harm any of the other cities in the country or the country itself. Such rules were designed to give the department leaders free hand but also to create guardrails to keep them in check. Since humanity was engaged in a world war that involved several of its large superpowers as well as being dragged into a fight for survival against the creatures, such powers were necessary.

Officer Faber had a long career in the military and has proven himself throughout eight years of active duty, which gained him many medals and rewards only few were able to achieve. Since he had honed his ability of using telekinetic force starting at only eight years old, he was an invaluable asset in direct combat and assassination missions. His ability allowed him to use extreme force against his enemies but also enabled him to reach targets that are hiding behind walls or even reinforced vehicles. He was part of a special unit that was utilized to solve particularly difficult strategic problems where conventional weapons were expected to fail or lead to unwanted consequences due to their destructive powers and noise.

He came from a family of ability users, which was wealthy and had developed a high level of expertise in the area of telekinesis, sensing, and propulsion. Especially telekinesis abilities had a high level of prestige within the family due to their military potential as well as their history since the first family head was born as a telekinesis user as well. Like most families in this country, they had been carefully selecting the partners of their offspring, and in its 900-year history, there was not a single marriage of an ability user that has not been arranged by the family council. Officer Faber himself has been married at the age of 19 to a woman selected for her ability, which was deemed worthy of integrating her into the main family. The family had strong ties to the country's military, and his upbringing was everything but easy. He was homeschooled, which meant that he was trained in the areas of science, military strategy, and combat from the age of 5. The Faber family does not tolerate weakness, fear, or hesitation. Power and decisiveness are the most important guiding principles that are even reiterated during the prayer when the family has a grand annual meeting.

Officer Faber had rarely been scared. Even during his most difficult assassination missions where he was deployed, by himself, in enemy territory and with a minimum amount of information, he always had a strong belief in his success. He was known to be calm at all times even if the odds were stacked against him. There were only a few occasions when he felt fear. He once nearly died during a mission in the neighboring country because he was caught off guard by an explosives trap that nearly blew him apart if he hadn't activated his telekinetic shield the second he felt the trigger mechanism. Another time, he was deployed in a high-density Sym area region to gather information on enemy activities that were conducted in this place. A militia tried to control creatures and use them as weapons, which could have threatened the security of the entire nation, but, luckily, their attempts ended up in failure. Unfortunately, Officer Faber still ended up in a compromised position and was hiding near a group of ten creatures that were fighting each other to the death. This was the most terrifying moment of his life since any sound he would have made could have attracted their attention, and if a creature were to be thrown against the trees he was hiding behind, he would have been crushed to death. But outside of these occurrences, he rarely showed any emotions.

At midnight, Officer Faber was sitting in his office and was reviewing the footage on the visual crystal device from the creature's assault that had shaken up Gosi City. Such attacks are rare, and any city that is located close to the border with the high-density area usually experiences ten to twenty attacks a year, usually from individual creatures that were attracted by the humans outside the walls. Creatures do not coordinate, and they do not have intelligence, which renders them a minor threat. Each city has a protocol on how to handle creatures, which usually involves closing the walls and distracting the creature for long enough so that the people outside the walls can flee to safety. The large weapons that are placed on the walls themselves are usually enough to deter creatures even if they do not kill them. But this last attack was different. Not only were there multiple creatures, they were also coordinating and were systematically attacking key targets and were trying to break the wall. This behavior is unusual and could be the greatest threat humanity has ever seen.

Gosi was able to fend it off, but not all cities are as well equipped as Gosi. On the contrary, most cities in this country could be wiped out by such an assault. Officer Faber did not like the feeling of lacking power. He felt something he had not felt in a long time. Nervousness. Jalk was the first city that had fallen to creatures in over 800 years. Gosi could be next.

He had been reviewing the footage for over five hours now and has been replaying two clips in particular over a hundred times. The first clip shows a dark rock formation that, for a short moment, shows the shadow of a human seemingly levitating in the air. The country's Central Intelligence Department had discovered humanoid creatures not long ago, and Officer Faber had led the investigation after a humanoid creature had infiltrated Gosi just a few weeks ago. Under his leadership, his department was able to make high-quality recordings, which, for the first time, showed a clear visual representation of how these humanoids looked close-up. They looked terrifying with no human emotions or any features that could be recognized as human. Officer Faber did not know if these things were a type of experiment created by their foreign enemies or if they were a new type of creature that has evolved naturally. He also did not know which one would be worse since one would doom his country while the other would doom humanity.

The shadow he was looking at could be that of a humanoid. Even though it was only a silhouette, he could sense its lack of humanity since it lacked any movement whatsoever. Like a scarecrow, the shadow stayed still for over ten minutes until it suddenly disappeared.

Little was known about these humanoids. They were presumed to be intelligent since they were able to infiltrate Gosi and steal valuable materials from a seemingly high-security warehouse and even escape without being detected if it wasn't for the visual crystal devices that Officer Faber had set up on the city walls. It is also assumed that these humanoids are responsible for the fall of Jalk City and the increased attacks on many cities at the border.

The second clip Officer Faber had been studying meticulously was a video of an individual with a black hoodie who singlehandedly took out creatures as if it was nothing. It was not clear if the figure was human or creature, but its clothing suggested that it was a human since creatures are not assumed to have civilized habits. In addition, Officer Faber had a strange suspicion after meeting a young man earlier that day who had suddenly appeared and traded three large energy crystals as if he had dozens lying around. Not only that, he even managed to trick a unit of trained soldiers that were supposed to follow him by just pulling the crystals out of a small rock pocket that was clearly empty right before he stuck his arm in. This man gave Officer Faber a very ominous feeling, and he had never felt such a physical shock from meeting another ability user. He knew that the man called Jack was dangerous. But Officer Faber also knew that such a blade can be pointed either at him or at his enemies and that his ability to persuade will be able to make a difference.

As he was watching the footage, he could not identify if this individual was Jack or another person who had unknown powers and abilities. The clothing the person was wearing was different from what Jack wore just moments before, but it was possible that he had changed them. Unfortunately, Officer Faber was not close enough to the fight to identify if he got the same internal shock sensation from this individual as he got from Jack.

To Officer Faber, these were the two most important variables in this fight. The first was that one humanoid had been involved in coordinating creatures to attack a human city, likely with the goal of turning it into a wasteland just like Jalk City. The other was that a human has fought to defend the city but has kept their identity hidden. For what reason, Officer Faber was not sure. It was unlikely that this individual was a foreign adversary since it would not have helped an important military city such as Gosi to survive. It is also not likely that a citizen of Gosi had been hiding such superhuman powers in any way since the wealth and prestige they would have received was more than anyone could ever wish for.

Officer Faber was tired. The humanoid creatures can bring about the downfall of his city. He had been developing new defense strategies all night and will have to do even more tomorrow. If the city falls, then his life would be over, even if he survived. His family would ostracize him for his failure, and he would have nowhere left to go. Suicide would be his only option. There is no recovery from shame. Power and decisiveness. If he lacked one of them, he was a failure.

If that individual really was Jack, then he must do everything in his power to bring him over to his side. He had given him the trading license not only to build a favorable relationship with him but also to be able to track him. If he has a business registered in Gosi, then all of his economic activity across the globe will be known to him through the international bank. When Officer Faber was younger, his strength was his greatest asset. Now that he was middle-aged, it was his intelligence that helped him succeed.

"Why are you hiding your identity?" Officer Faber mumbled as he placed his fingers on the figure displayed on the screen. Then he slowly picked up the communication device to contact his Head of Intelligence, "Find out the identities of the people who tried to enter the city with the target and bring them in for questioning. Conduct a category 3 interrogation. Do not escalate to category 4 or higher if they have a personal connection to the target even if the subjects are uncooperative. Come up with an excuse for the reason for the questioning. Use the interrogation rooms on the first floor, not the basements, and be accommodating." Then he put down the device and leaned back in his chair. His eyes wandered to the window and fixated on the bright full moon while his fingers continued tapping on his desk.