"I have visuals on the subject," Ileana said as she clicked away at her keyboard. "All personnel on standby. He is entering through A1."

An unusual quiet held the Command Room as the subject, an unremarkable twenty-seven year old male, entered the bustling Solca City View Mall.

"Confirmed," Field Agent Oana crackled from her receiver.

"Confirmed," Burl Agent Aurel.

"I'm blocked," Field Agent Doru.

"Confirmed," Field Agent Fane.

Ileana nodded, and then remembered the four were nine floors below her. She wiped a few beads of sweat from her brow.

"Understood," she said into her microphone. "Agent Doru. Standby for diversion."

She was not alone in the Command Room, but she might as well have been for the quiet that surrounded her. The day's work would be the subject's death, an innocent whose name they all tried their best to forget. If it was just death, however, Ileana and the others might not have felt such a cold dread tighten their chests as the subject made his way to the elevators.

But Special Entity Zero-One ate slowly, and those in the Command Room had to watch, had to make sure that the sacrifice had been enough. Because if Zero-One ever lost interest in their... unspoken arrangement, it would mean far more than one death a week.

"Moving in," Burl Agent Aurel crackled from his receiver.

"Following," Field Agent Oana.

"Damn it," Field Agent Fane cussed under his breath as a family of four, full of smiles and misplaced cheer, cut across him in the mall lobby. Ileana watched it all on the seven enormous monitors that filled the front wall of the Command Room, not daring to blink.

The subject always took the elevator to the fourth floor food market on Sundays between the hours of 13:00 and 13:30. It had been that punctuality, as well as his lack of friend and family, that had marked the twenty-seven year old Petre Predav as an SEC, Special Entity Candidate. Most in the Command Room just called them lunch.

Ileana's shoulders relaxed and a ragged breath escaped her as the subject, Burl Agent Aurel, and Field Agent Oana entered an elevator alone. Both of the agents wore fat suits of prodigious girth to deter other civilians from entering the carriage.

And as the elevator doors closed, the subject's fate was sealed. Even if he tried to leave the elevator, the two agents would play the bumbling fools. Petre Predav would not be allowed out until he reached the hidden floor between three and four: Special Entity Zero-One's home and feeding grounds for the past five years.

The seven monitors flipped back to the Special Entity Containment Zone. Even after two years of monitoring Zero-One, Ileana could not help but cringe away from the screens. Some primal fear compelled her to look away even though there was nothing remarkable to see.

Zero-One did not eat indiscriminately. Personnel were able to clean the floor and establish replacement cameras twice a week. While there existed no formal communication between the Command Room and the Special Entity, it was clear that Zero-One did not like messes nor did Zero-One like to clean up its own messes.

"Monitors one through four. Empty," Agent Wadim said from the station behind her.

"Four through six. Empty," Special Class Dr. Gavril.

"One through seven. Empty." Field Commander Ileana. Nobody was surprised. Zero-One was camera shy at the best of times.

The monitors flicked through each of the seventy-two cameras still online. Their Prior Confirmation was interrupted only by the crackle of Field Agent Oana's receiver as she wobbled off the elevator, preventing four unruly teenagers with dyed hair from entering the carriage themselves.

"Prior Confirmation complete. No anomalies discovered," Ileana said, her mouth dry. In two minutes the subject would reach the Special Entity Containment Zone. And then they would watch. Some would cry. Some would faint. But Ileana would not blink. It was the least she could do for this week's Special Entity Candidate.

"I'm out," Burl Agent Aurel said as he left the elevator carriage and the doors closed behind him. "God Bless his soul."

Ileana snarled at his pious words. She had been a believer once. Then she had spent two years watching some ungodly horror mutilate and devour. She had never asked Burl Agent Aurel about his habit, but she just did not understand how anyone she worked with could still believe in God. At least not the kind of God a human would ask for favors.

"The elevator has arrived," Agent Wadim said, his voice oddly distant. "Enabling short-range blast."

"Blast confirmed," Ileana said as the elevator, and any other electronics in the carriage, short-circuited. Even the cameras failed, but another view captured the subject's muted surprise as the elevator lights died.

"Subject h-has left the carriage," Ileana said as her breath briefly failed her. "Begin cycle. Cameras one through seven."

It would not be long before Special Entity Zero-One made their dreaded weekly appearance.

"And what the druek is this then?" Agent Wadim shouted.

The Command Room had been still and breathless as they awaited Zero-One's descent on the subject in a snarl of horror and violence. Then twenty minutes had passed. A few started to giggle, but not in a healthy way. Agent Ilie had to be restrained and escorted out of the Command Room when she started to bang on her keyboard and begged for Zero-One to just do it.

After an hour, unease had boiled into frustration and hate.

The subject was unharmed and Special Entity Zero-One was nowhere to be seen.

"I... I don't know," Ileana said, numb with cold. Zero-One never took more than five minutes to sniff out their prey.

"And I wasn't asking you," Agent Wadim snapped. "Doctor. Special Doctor. What is going on then?"

"Something... extraordinary," Special Class Dr. Gavril said as though he had been waiting for the question. "Do we recover the subject?"

"We'll recover what is left of him when the monster "

"Agent Wadim," Ileana said. She stood up from her desk, and almost fell back down as her head filled with electric fuzz.

"This is not going to plan, is it?" Agent Wadim said. He punctuated his words with a hysterical laugh.

Ileana cleared her throat as her dizziness faded, and said, "No. No, it is not. We need to call off today's operation."

Agent Wadim stared at her for a moment, nonplussed, before her words seemed to reach him, and he recoiled.

"C-calling off? You... we..." He shook his head, and a bubble of laughter escaped his lips. "That is not... an option?"

"Dr. Gavril?" Ileana did not have the strength to argue, and it was not even her choice to make.

A delirious energy had slowly filled the Command Room as minute after minute had ticked away. But a muted apprehension returned as Special Class Dr. Gavril hummed.

"Hmm. Cancel the operation. Hmm. Yes. Recover the subject."

Ileana collapsed into her chair. She opened her mouth to speak, but it was as if an unconscionable weight had been lifted from her weary shoulders. Ileana's entire body, from frazzled head to toe, turned as loose and wobbly as gelatin, and she could scarcely remain upright in her chair.

"That might elicit a new response from the Special Entity," Special Class Dr. Gavril said as he tapped away at his keyboard. "Agent Aurel. Agent Fane. The operation is a failure. You are to recover the subject for interrogation."

All of the tension in the room collapsed with Special Class Dr. Gavril's words. It made no sense, but it almost felt like some small victory over Zero-One. As the matter turned to extracting the subject from the Special Entity Containment Zone, and what to do with him once he was out, few eyes remained on the seventy-one cameras that cycled in and out of focus on the Command Room monitors.

In their excitement and confusion, none in the Command Room noticed the blur of black shadow that seemed to suddenly appear and then, just as suddenly, disappear into Petre Predav's bag.