isaysimplewords | (Eventually) OOM: bird song

"Is the tech that advanced, though? I hadn't noticed huge differences when I've been visiting."

She turns the feather over, looking at the underside.

"I'd say there's something that's not what it seems. If your instincts are kicking in, then there's something to it. That's been my experience, at least."

"Ianto's told me a lot about aliens blending in on our Earth," Cal explains. "Sometimes they're good guys and sometimes . . . they're not."

He nods toward the feather.

"If it's alien, I don't see why it couldn't be that advanced. I mean, it's the same world that had those nanogenes."

He looks slightly relieved at her confirmation. He has been having plenty of doubts. He trusts Bela's instincts in the random weird shit category more than he does his own.

"An alien. Right. Hadn't thought about that."

Her lips twist into a grin. Not demons. Not robots. Aliens.

"That would explain it. This Elaine, she doesn't ring any warning bells for you, yeah?"

Cal shakes his head.

"Nope," he says. "She's always struck me as being one of the good guys."

"Then whatever this bird is, it's probably nothing sinister. She cares about the animals, so she wouldn't let something dangerous in."

"Yeah."

He's still frowning a little, though.

"But she could always be a bad guy without knowing it. That's happened before. They just dealt with it a little while ago over in Cardiff. A sleeper cell. A bunch of people who had no idea they weren't human until they were activated."

"Like they were possessed."

She shakes her head.

"Then finding out more about the bird sounds like your next step. Are there, I don't know. Things that make them reveal themselves? Words or substances thrown at them?"

Holy water is super handy for things like this on her world.

"Not that I've heard of," Cal says.

"That makes it more difficult. You want me to check this bird out with you?"

"Would you?"

Cal may have been hoping for this outcome. Bela is just a tad more experienced with the sneaking around than he is.

"Why not? I bet it would be ridiculously easy to break in, should we need to."

Doing a job with Cal - this is new and exciting!

Cal grins.

"Sorry to deny you the chance to show off," he says, "but I came in from there. I was just shutting down for the night - everyone else has left."

"You deprive me of all manner of fun, Cal Chandler."

She does not seem upset in the slightest.

"I'm ready if you are. Let's go be sneaky."

"It's what I'm here for," Cal tells her.

He puts his mug down and gets up, leading Bela over to the Door, which he opens. On the other side is an unassuming lobby-type space, clean and partially-lit in the way businesses shut down for the evening often are.

"After you."

"All right."

She walks in, her senses aware, looking for tell tale signs of things not being what they seem.

Nothing seems amiss from her view of the lobby.

"Elaine's office is down this way."

Cal heads toward the corridor at the back of the room, to one side of the front desk.

"She left about an hour ago. We're lucky, she doesn't leave early very often."

"I'm good with distractions even if she hadn't," Bela laughs. "I like sneaking around with you."

Maybe if she's lucky the office door will be locked. She can at least show off that much.

Guess what, Bela? You're lucky.

It's your basic office building lock, without any special surprises that anyone from planet Earth is likely to be familiar with, but hey, you take what you can get, right?

Bela opens the door feeling extremely unchallenged.

"There are no special security measures that I can see. So unless some alien measures are in place... this is a normal set up."

"Okay."

Cal is unsure of whether that's strange or not. On the one hand, this is just an office in an ordinary animal shelter, so why have extra security? On the other hand, if the bird is unusual, why not have extra security?

Either way, he lets Bela go through the door first. It kind of flies in the face of his protective instincts, but she is the professional here. It's kind of why he brought her.

Bela is not alone in the office.

Bela expects even run of the mill offices to be locked. If they aren't, then it's more suspicious. She steps through the door and-

Demon.

There's a demon.

No, it's not her world.

Bela's eyes widen as she takes in the creature - alien? - and she steps back, pulling the door shut. She's never been the type to scream in the face of surprise monsters.

She turns to Cal, to tell him to run, but the thoughts fade away like-

Wait... what just happened? Puzzlement crosses her face.

Was there something in there?

. . . Cal blinks at her.

"Is something wrong?" he asks. "Is Elaine in there?"

That would be a little awkward.

She blinks back.

"I don't-"

There's nothing she can hold onto but the instinctual feeling of something not being right. She unholsters the gun she keeps concealed at the small of her back.

"I don't know whether I saw anything or not. I can't remember. I'm going to open the door again. You stay behind me, but try to look in."

She can't remember something that happened ten seconds ago?

That - is very worrying.

"All right."

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