Kindred Spirit - Noah Harris

Jacob

From the outside, the stone colored edifice presented itself as no different than the other buildings on the block. There was the customary shrubbery around the base of the building and a bland fountain sitting before it. The entryway glass was tinted, and what few windows there were around the building’s exterior were the same.

Standing on the sidewalk, Jacob noticed that very few of the well-dressed men and women passing by looked at the building. The few that did paid it little attention, their eyes seeming to slide over the exterior and onto the next building, or down to their phones. It could easily be explained in that it looked exactly the same as the rest of the federal buildings. Still, Jacob noticed a slight tug at the back of his mind, as though he had other more important business to attend to rather than look at that one building among dozens of others.

That wasn’t true, though, and adjusting his suit jacket, he stepped off the sidewalk and made his way toward the building. The urge to go about his business somewhere else grew as he drew closer to the door. He even hesitated as he reached to take hold of the handle, having to focus on curling his fingers around the handle and pulling it. Stepping into the entryway took another thrust of willpower, and he didn’t let go of his breath until he was standing in the quiet lobby.

Shaking his head, he felt the foreign urge melt from his thoughts as soon as the second set of doors closed behind him. He realized there was a line of sweat on his forehead, and he wished he’d brought something to wipe it with.

“First time?” a knowing voice asked.

Jacob looked up, noticing the lobby for the first time. It was a sprawling affair, the stone floor covered with a long runner from the door all the way to a large reception desk in the center of the room. Stairs on each side of the solid marble desk ran up to a hallway, and a large elevator sat behind the reception area. There was no call button on the elevator, only a small panel that Jacob took to be a card reader.

A middle-aged woman in a somber colored pantsuit sat behind the desk. Her hair fell around her shoulders, a sheet of black broken up only by streaks of what looked like pure white shot through it. A pair of small glasses sat on her nose, and she looked over the top of them at Jacob with an expression of understanding and what he thought might be amusement.

He cleared his throat as he approached the desk. “Ah, first time at headquarters, yeah.”

She nodded, reaching under her desk to hold out a box of tissues. “You can always tell. Here you are.”

He murmured his thanks and took a few tissues to wipe his brow, and for good measure, his neck as well. Jacob had only been working for the Department of Domestic Intelligence for a few years, but there always seemed to be something new to contend with. He was beginning to think there was always going to be something he didn’t know. Things that would throw him off and shake him down to his core if he let them.

The Department of Domestic Intelligence sounded as bland and mundane as the headquarter’s building appeared from the outside. In reality, they dealt with the supernatural and preternatural incidences that cropped up all over the country. People were skeptical of anything involving ghosts and psychic powers, and the government preferred it that way. The DDI was responsible for monitoring and, if needed, controlling any forms of the supernatural. Both to preserve the secret and to keep people safe.

Jacob smiled, hoping it was steadier than a minute ago. “Dare I ask what that was?”

The woman smiled, offering a small wastebasket. “A preventative measure. Director Harrison believes that the best defense against intrusion is to not draw attention in the first place.”

Jacob tossed the used tissues into the basket and gave her a nod of understanding. He’d once thought that the military had been big on its ‘need to know basis’ attitude, but he’d come to learn quickly that it could be even worse. The DDI kept secrets as easily as someone breathed and was as protective of them as a grizzly bear was of its cubs. The woman’s explanation was the best he was going to get, and Jacob caught the insinuated ‘and I can’t or