It always started with a series of knocks on the door at precisely 5:00 AM. Hunter would be sitting on the couch, enjoying a cup of black coffee and toast while reading the latest novel he had picked up. Whenever he heard that specific pattern of knocks: two knocks, followed by a pause then another 3, he would put down his book and walk to the door.

Hunter opened the door on that particular Monday morning to find a brown envelope sitting on his doorstep, the same kind of envelope he always found after those knocks.

For months, he had been on the job and had never seen who or what delivered the envelopes, until that day. He looked down the hallway, towards the elevator and staircase, and saw a cloaked shape that stood over two meters tall.

The Shape at the end of hallway stood still for a moment, studying Hunter with a pair of red, reptilian eyes. It gave a respectful nod, then went down the stairs dragging behind it a long, thin tail which it quickly hid under it's cloak.

Hunter wasn't surprised by the Thing's appearance. He suspected it was a reptile all along from the inconsistent nature of his courier's foot ware. On some days, it was a pair of boots that jingled. On others, high heels that made click clack!

Reptiles were shape shifters, they let people see their true form only when they wanted to, which made Hunter wonder why his courier revealed his true form to him. It could have been a sign of trust, thought Hunter. Maybe They were getting comfortable with him. Or maybe it was just what they wanted him to think.

Hunter opened the brown envelope and emptied it's contents on the table. It contained what every other envelope contained: a photograph printed on high quality paper and an audio cassette tape. He picked up the tape, inserted it into his portable cassette player and pressed play. A few seconds of static played, followed by the sound of that cool, collected male voice Hunter was used to hearing every week.

Good morning Mr. Black,

Your target this week is Jack Philips, a 23 year old college student. Mr. Philips, along with his girlfriend, went camping on the July 4th holiday weekend in a secluded area in the Mojave desert. On the night of July 5th, he and his girlfriend were abducted by a Compadian research team and experimented on.

Mr. Philips was returned on the morning of July 6th. His girlfriend, however, was not. Ever since this incident, Mr.Philips has been spreading word of extra terrestrial activity in the area he was abducted in, leading to increased visits from conspiracy theorists and ufologists.

As you know, the Compadians are very sloppy when it comes to masking their presence on Earth. Their craft is easy to spot and they are in constant violation of human abduction protocols. Should knowledge of their existence come out, it would cause great international panic.

Eliminate Jack Philips along with any others responsible for spreading information of the Mojave incident. You have been a very reliable agent so far Mr. Black, but I must remind you that failure to complete this task will result in your immediate elimination.

Best of luck to you.

Hunter chuckled at the end of the tape and realized what the reptile's appearance had meant. They were trying to scare him.

Hunter was the kind of agent known as a Debtor: someone who was forced to work for The Agency to pay off a debt. Debtors were known to start off strong in their duties out of fear and desperation, and then approaching the end of their tenures, succumb to guilt and fail. Hunter was approaching the end of his duties as an agent, and he knew that The Agency wouldn't allowed him to fail just as the others did. Hence the end of the tape and the Reptile's appearance.

Hunter set aside the tape and turned his attention to the photograph. It was a head shot of Jack, most likely for a college album.

Jack looked like a shy guy. He had a tentative smile, hazel eyes and thick brown hair that was due for cutting. His shoulders were slacked forward, a good indication of low self esteem. Hunter hoped this meant a smaller social circle, and therefore an easier time taking him out.

Printed on the back of the photo was Jack's full name and social security number. It was more than enough information for Hunter to find out everything he needed to know about him.

Once Hunter had memorized Jack's information, he burned the photograph with a lighter and lit up a cigarette with the flames. He tossed the burning picture into the kitchen sink and placed the cassette tape into the microwave for 30 seconds, more than enough time to destroy the data on it. When it was done, Hunter dumped the melted plastic and tape into the trash, along the ashes of the photograph. The

contents of the brown envelope now only existed in his memory.

The next step in Hunter's work routine was to pour himself a little bit of white rum, which he kept chilled in the fridge. He set the rum next to his computer, lit another cigarette, and got to work on learning about Jack's life.

Jack turned out to be a Mr. Goody Two Shoes. He had gotten good grades his whole life, getting praise from just about every single teacher he studied with. Hunter read everything that was available to him, including a third grade teacher's praise suggesting that Jack would be one of the next big great minds.

"Yeah, sure buddy." Hunter said as he sipped his rum.

Jack's high school performance wasn't amazing, although it was admiral. He took just about every nerdy class the school curriculum offered: journalism, chess, photography and even chemistry. While Jack did okay with things involving numbers, he shone the brightest in social sciences, like history and geography, which was why Hunter wasn't surprised to learn Jack chose to major in archaeology.

Jack studied archaeology in San Gerado State, a decent community in the San Gerado valley, which was about a two hour drive away from Los Angeles, sans traffic. It was in college that Jack started to show signs of his third grade teacher's prophecy coming true: he was top of the class in every single subject. He also wrote frequently for the college paper about lost civilizations, ancient missing artifacts and what archaeology meant to the modern world. He was adamant in proving that uncovering the secrets of the past was the key to building the future.

Whatever that means, Hunter thought as he skimmed through Jack's articles. He was impressed by the writing, noting the careful construction of arguments, elegant vocabulary and Jack's overall ability to hook readers in with a welcoming but intellectual prose.

After the articles, Hunter set aside Jack's academic life to focus on the social. He hacked into Jack's social media accounts and was happy to see he almost had no friends and no posts to speak of. There was the obligatory mother, father and sibling friendships, as well as a handful of friends that Hunter guessed Jack had made over the years through careful selection.

Then there was Lilian, Jack's girlfriend, a beautiful girl with a bright blonde hair and pretty blue eyes. She seemed more outward than Jack, demonstrated by the amounts of pictures she had posted. Some were selfies, others were of her family, but most were of her and Jack doing all kinds of activities. They looked happy in the pictures, and for a second, Hunter felt bad for the fact that she was missing. They seemed like a good couple.

Hunter also made sure to check Jack's credit card info. He wasn't a big spender, and seemed to enjoy buying books, video games and also gifts for Lilian. He paid his bills every month on time and was apparently fond of eating at Mcdonald's.

From Hunter's analysis of Jack's life, he concluded that his first impression from the photograph was correct. Jack was a shy, nerdy guy that didn't go out much with anyone except his girlfriend. He called his parents once a week and usually visited them in the holiday season. He lived a quiet life, and therefore was the perfect kind of target.

For Hunter, the perfect target was someone that didn't have many social connections. The less friends and family someone had, the easier it was for them to disappear. There were less chances of someone to go looking for them or to keep bringing the matter to the authorities. Jack was that kind of guy, but there was a catch.

The tape had mentioned that Jack had been spreading word of his abduction to other people. There was no mention of aliens or flying saucers in any of Jack's social media or his writing, which meant he was using good old fashioned word of mouth to spread the information around. Before Hunter could take Jack out he would have find out just who he had talked to, and that meant infiltrating Jack's social circle.

Hunter sent an email to one of the agency's correspondents requesting the necessary documents for enrolling in San Gerado State. A few minutes later, he received a reply containing everything he needed: an Id with a new name, a high school curriculum with a good GPA, a transfer request from the university of Phoenix, Airzona and a recommendation letter written by a made up professor Jones. In just a few days, Hunter would be majoring in Archaeology alongside his target. He poured himself more rum to celebrate.