technology prove insufficient to get an accurate reconstruction of your face due to trauma, an angel will be hired to provide guidance. To make it fair for you, if your treatments are cheaper than expected, you will be paid the difference in cash. If it’s more expensive than expected, the CDC will pay out the full amount.”
The CDC would go as far as to hire an angel to make sure I had my real face back? “What’s the catch?”
“There’s no catch. It’s a dangerous job, you’re possibly a target due to your appearance, and that warrants a high hazard rating. More importantly, there are at least ten women dead, all murdered the same way. As such, you’ll be compensated appropriately. We’ve found bounty hunters with personal reason to feel indebted to the CDC or other law enforcement agencies remain loyal until retirement, and someone with your skillset would be considered a threat should your loyalty be questioned.”
Right. I could perform disappearing acts with some makeup and time, so that made sense. “If an angel is needed, won’t that bring the bill closer to ten million? I was going to go the discount route,” I confessed. “I’ve already seen a consultant about it, and while there’s damage to the underlying bone, it wouldn’t be too bad after the scars were gone. The bone specialists are expensive.”
“Yes, we have a copy of the consultation file. Warrants for information are useful things, and I enjoyed poking my nose in your personal business to figure out what makes you tick. The government requires an evaluation of all elite hunters. I got to handle the investigation, as there was a rather high interest among handlers to have you, including a relative.”
“My uncle is going to be so mad when he finds out he’s not getting my contract. I drove all the way from home to here hoping I’d be getting a raise. That you have to swallow your utter loathing for me to do business just makes this day so much better. This morning? I had nothing but future debt and shit work ahead of me. Now? Now I get to participate in my favorite hobby, and when I’m done with that, I’ll have a real face again.”
“You have a real face. It just happens to be scarred. My office is this way.” Rather than stop at the receptionist’s desk to check me in, Sebastian waved and got an answering nod from the woman, who didn’t seem concerned about my presence. “The lower tier bounty hunters operate with a lot fewer restrictions than you’ll have to deal with, in that you’ll be expected to be on call whenever you’re needed. I’m aware of your current employment situation, and as that makes an excellent front for your evening work, I would like to have you maintain that for a while unless you’d like to retire from that line of work. As such, I’ll be relocating my office closer to your residence if you can’t arrange to move here.”
“My entire family would flip if I moved here, and there is nothing worse than my family when they’re all flipping. There is a lot of them, and all of them having a fit at the same time is annoying.”
“More annoying than you?”
Damn. The lion was out for my blood, and my virus and I liked it. “Worse. I’m significantly outnumbered. I have forty-seven brothers.”
“As a general rule, we don’t…” The lion blinked. “Did you just say you have forty-seven brothers?”
“I have a little journal that keeps track of their names, which litter they’re from, and how I can tell them apart from my other brothers. I’m the youngest of the eighth litter, and technically, I’m not supposed to exist. I showed up several weeks late to the party, so I was born prematurely, as my asshole brothers forced me out when they were ready rather than when I was ready. I still hold this against them from time to time. I spent some time in the hospital, but because I’m a girl, the CDC footed the bill in exchange for monitoring my development rate as a premature birth with the lycanthropy virus. Apparently, I gave them really good data, and I love my parents a lot, but the hospital bill keeping me alive until I could survive without the help of a machine would have ruined them. So the CDC bailed me out quite a lot, really. And I’m grateful for that, which is why I do try