CONIUCTIS VIRIBUS: With United Powers
That’s what the chiseled stone above the colossal gold-framed doors proudly stated.
Dex could count on one hand the number of times he’d been in front of this building and actually gone in. Its façade was as imposing as the organization it housed. Flanked by East Thirty-Eighth Street and East Forty-Second Street, The THIRDS Manhattan Headquarters on First Avenue was a monument to the realities of their ever-evolving world. It was amazing how the course of Human history could change in the blink of an eye, or rather the plunge of a needle.
Dex wasn’t old enough to have been there when Eppione.8 threw the world into chaos, but he remembered being a little boy with his parents telling him stories, trying to make him understand why everything seemed to be burning and crumbling around them, why people were so angry all the time, breaking things, and being so scary. It was all so frightening to a five-year-old, and he didn’t want to sleep in his bed alone. When his dad would leave for work, Dex
would cry, afraid the bad men would get his dad. In the end, they did. His mom, too.
No expense had been spared in creating the THIRDS’ Manhattan Headquarters. It was grandiose in gray stone with gold accents enclosed in a huge expanse of well-manicured lawns and greenery, fortified by an impenetrable border of stone with gold-plated iron bars. A giant gold statue of some Greek goddess on a marble plinth stood in the center of a circular courtyard inside the expansive front gate, with an array of fancy marble benches painstakingly arranged. It had been designed in an old Art Deco style to compete with the rest of New York City’s classic structures. In truth, the building resembled the Waldorf Astoria more than it did any government building.
Dex didn’t know a whole lot about how the THIRDS operated. He did know they were the guys you called when shit got real. After the May Day Massacre and the riots in the early eighties when violence erupted between Humans and Therians, citizens demanded a law enforcement agency that could not only handle Therian threats, but that could do so fairly.
The THIRDS was created and set up so every team had both a Human and Therian element, whether they were agents, secretaries, or bureaucrats. High ranking officers were paired with other high ranking officers, but not necessarily of their own rank, like Tony who was a sergeant was paired up with a Therian lieutenant. The THIRDS was also the first multicultural government organization promoting equality for all races, religions, genders, and sexualities. The intention was to show that despite varied cultures and beliefs, both Humans and Therians could come together under one common goal—justice for all. Of course, it wasn’t as black and white as all that, but at least it was a step in the right direction considering the last forty-odd years.
Like any other military funded government outfit, the THIRDS operated on a “need to know” and “what you don’t know won’t hurt you” basis. When you were a THIRDS agent, people got the hell out of your way. His dad and brother never discussed their jobs, not even with Dex. Now he wished he’d pushed them to know more. The THIRDS didn’t trust anyone outside the family, their family.
“You gonna stare at it all day? Or you comin’ in?”
The familiar baritone voice brought a big grin to his face, and Dex turned in time to receive a bone-crushing bear hug.
“Dad,” Dex wheezed out the greeting as he was all but lifted off his feet.
Tony’s chest rumbled with deep laughter and he gave Dex one final squeeze before releasing him. “You don’t know how happy I am.” He held Dex at arm’s length, a deep frown coming onto his stern face. “I was worried sick. What’s the matter with you? You don’t know how to pick up a damn phone to let me know you’re alive?”
“I’m sorry. I meant to call, I did, but it’s been a pretty shitty couple of weeks. I got home to Lou moving out, and then I had to return the rental but had to get the auto club to come out—”
“Slashed tire?”
Dex nodded. “And then—” He was cut off as his cheeks were caught between Tony’s large hands and squeezed. Jesus, it was like he was thirteen all over again, grounded for fighting at school—he hadn’t been the one to start it of course—and Dex had the genius idea of climbing out of his bedroom window to go to the park. Only his shoelace got caught on a nail in the windowsill, and he ended up falling head first into Mrs. Jones’s rose bushes below.
“What happened to your face?”
“Um….” Dex tried to talk through his squeezed cheeks, mumbling until Tony finally released him. “I got jumped in the parking garage after the trial.” Dex didn’t bother trying to hide the truth, mostly because he’d never get away with it. “And then my first morning back, in the evidence locker.”
“I see.” Tony put his hands on his hips and rolled his big shoulders. With pursed lips, he ran a hand over his shaved head and down to his jaw where his salt-and-pepper stubble was growing in. Shit. “Tell me something, son.”
Double shit.
“Dad….”
“Oh you don’t get to Dad me. Not while you’re standing in front of me telling me you let a bunch of no-good sons of bitches beat the shit out of you.”
“I didn’t—”
Tony put a finger up to stop him. “We’re not going to talk about this now because there is way too much shit to do, but you can bet your skinny ass we’re going to sit down and talk about this. You work for me now, so if you think for one minute I’m not gonna take my frustrations out on you, you best think again. You hear me?”
“But—”
“Nope.”
There was no point in even attempting to argue. “Yes, sir.”
“Let’s go.” Tony motioned behind him and Dex straightened his shoulders, walking in tall like the agent he was, not the thirteen-year-old he felt like. Behind him, his dad cursed and mumbled under his breath. Maybe Dex had been a little too quick in his excitement to be working with his family. The minute he stepped foot inside, he heard his name being called.
“Dex!” Cael sprinted over and threw his arms around him, squeezing him tight. “I’m so glad you’re one of us now.”
“Well, not exactly. I don’t purr and get the urge to play with giant balls of twine.”