Doppelgangers
Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 10:03 pm
I doubt I'll ever write a book. Not with my current schedule. So I'm passing along another case to my fellow researchers out there. What follows consists of extracts from several case file reports, parts of which are still confidential. Of course, names have been changed to protect the identities of all involved.
It began with a casual comment from a fellow agent. "So. How was Seattle?"
"You're talking about last year?"
"No. Frank down in Analysis said he had lunch with you in Seattle last weekend. Don't you remem..."
We both looked at each other. I called Frank.
Of course, the agent who asked the question had just returned from vacation himself and didn't know what I had been doing for the past two weeks. Frank got pretty shook up when I called him. He told me that whoever it was looked like me, had the same mannerisms, but a few things were different. Frank: "Yeah, he talked kind of slow, like something was bothering him. He didn't want to talk about the Lazlo Agency at all. Whenever I brought it up, he changed the subject."
So there was either someone disguised as me or a doppelganger. For those of you not familiar, "doppelganger" is a German word for a person's double. It's a myth, but I've heard it said that everyone on earth has a double somewhere. But whoever it was, my first thoughts were "Why is this happening? What is this person's or thing's purpose?"
My mind kept jumping back and forth between the idea that some supernatural shape changer was going to commit a crime disguised as me or an agent of the Conspiracy was going to do the same. Either way, the last thing I needed was a criminal record. Next, I found myself issuing a nationwide alert for sightings of me.
It got weirder. The first sighting came in from Boston. I was about to send in a team, but another report came in from a small town near Seattle. Next was Ann Arbor, Michigan, followed by Lubbock, Texas. There were at least four of me. I had to force myself to keep answering calls. Fortunately, the next two were from people who called the Agency concerned that I was missing. I personally told them I was fine but could not explain why the alert to find me was out. I could only manage: "It's classified. I'll call you back and explain it when it's all over." I didn't alow myself to think too far ahead.
Teams did go out to the reported locations. Three groups could not find my double. The fourth, in Boston, spotted something. [R 1897] "...located an individual fitting agent's description. He did not respond when approached, standing motionless. And then he disappeared. This was immediately followed by a full-size van leaving the location. It is this agent's opinion that a sophisticated hologram was observed."
The Conspiracy! But a hologram? I didn't see that one coming. It took me a few minutes to figure it out. This was a decoy operation. At least one of the doubles was real, but that didn't rule out the other three also being real. The other significant fact was that our agents were not attacked while approaching this hologram. Did they think were weren't smart enough to figure out the hologram trick?
Then I got another call. It was me.
"I understand you've been looking for me."
"Yeah. That's right. Tell me. What's the goal?"
"Why should I tell you that?"
I was at a loss about a reply. This was a bit too unreal, even for me.
"There is no need to talk any further. I just want to let you know that I'll be at 354 Alpine at 6:00 pm tomorrow."
That was the address to an Agency safe house near Seattle. A few minutes later I got a report from Analysis who had recorded the call and ran it through voice match. "Well, either it's you or they've got some very expensive synthetic voice equipment." It was time for me to call a conference to get some advice and to bring everyone up to speed.
An hour later I was on a private plane to Seattle. Our plan was simple: locate the double, prevent it from doing whatever it was going to do and cover our tracks on the way out. I had a feeling that its plan involved something public and violent. If that was the case, we'd have to take it out. It also crossed my mind that this might be an old supernatural enemy trying to get revenge for something I did to it. But I doubted that. So far, this had all the signs of being an operation run by the Conspiracy. And after this was over, we could deal with the other three doubles. That is, if they actually existed.
The safe house was located at the end of a dead-end street and the house closest to it had burned over a year ago. No one had torn it down, it being the only other house on the street. Fifteen agents, including myself, were decked out in full camo and face paint. We were carrying paintball guns along with our handguns, which we could conceal if the police showed up. Fortunately, the area around the house was lightly wooded.
At a few minutes befor six, two Agency Contacts were going to fly over in a helicopter and give us a code word as to the presence of anyone else on the ground in our vicinity. I was waiting for the word over my earpiece when I spotted a little movement in the distance. Turned out to be a cat.
The chopper came over and we got the all clear. I glanced at my watch at six and looked up. A flash of light came from the house and blinded all of us. A while later, when I could see again, I saw all of my people lying face down with darts in their backs. My heart started pounding. They could be all around me, I thought, blended into the terrain. But I reminded myself that agents of the Conspiracy had a kind of code of conduct that meant I could not be killed by stealth. I would have to face one of their own one on one in fair combat.
There was a sound behind me. I turned to see the same stupid cat. When I turned back, they were there. Four of them. All me.
"Four against one. Isn't that against your own rules?"
Only one of them moved and spoke. "Don't you remember, Agent, one of our sayings? 'Things are never what they seem?'"
I pointed my gun at him. "Alright, it's time to tell me why I'm here."
He spoke calmly, deliberately. "We are tired of your interference. We are here to tell you that we will leave you alone if you leave our operations alone."
"Your operations? Is that what you call it? How many people have been killed? What kind of supernatural terrors are you consorting with?"
"Agent, what are you talking about? Technology is our driving force."
With that, the other three doubles disappeared.
He continued. "You see Agent. The science that everyone has grown to admire will be their undoing." A muffled shot came from nowhere and my gun was out of my hands. "You will not need that Agent."
He rushed me and we grappled. All of my strength and all of my training came to the fore. He may have looked and sounded like me, but he didn't know everything I knew. He may not have even been human, but one of the Encoded. An artificial being that was somehow grown, perhaps using nanotechnology. Or alien technology. Or possibly, magic.
I don't like killing things. Even those supernatural things. But I'm good with small knives. As he lay there, dead, he didn't look real to me. More like a mannequin. I didn't take the time to check if he was, in fact, one of the Encoded. I had to take care of my people. And true to their twisted code, I knew the Conspiracy would let me win this round. I'd gotten my fair warning.
Contact_21
Lazlo Agent
Addendum: I was able to rouse the rest of my team. But in their drug induced stupor, I could only lead them to cover and call in a pick up. As I waited, I watched mounds of grass in the distance crouch, and move away into thick underbrush. One of our specially equipped semi's took us to one of the larger safe houses in the area.
It began with a casual comment from a fellow agent. "So. How was Seattle?"
"You're talking about last year?"
"No. Frank down in Analysis said he had lunch with you in Seattle last weekend. Don't you remem..."
We both looked at each other. I called Frank.
Of course, the agent who asked the question had just returned from vacation himself and didn't know what I had been doing for the past two weeks. Frank got pretty shook up when I called him. He told me that whoever it was looked like me, had the same mannerisms, but a few things were different. Frank: "Yeah, he talked kind of slow, like something was bothering him. He didn't want to talk about the Lazlo Agency at all. Whenever I brought it up, he changed the subject."
So there was either someone disguised as me or a doppelganger. For those of you not familiar, "doppelganger" is a German word for a person's double. It's a myth, but I've heard it said that everyone on earth has a double somewhere. But whoever it was, my first thoughts were "Why is this happening? What is this person's or thing's purpose?"
My mind kept jumping back and forth between the idea that some supernatural shape changer was going to commit a crime disguised as me or an agent of the Conspiracy was going to do the same. Either way, the last thing I needed was a criminal record. Next, I found myself issuing a nationwide alert for sightings of me.
It got weirder. The first sighting came in from Boston. I was about to send in a team, but another report came in from a small town near Seattle. Next was Ann Arbor, Michigan, followed by Lubbock, Texas. There were at least four of me. I had to force myself to keep answering calls. Fortunately, the next two were from people who called the Agency concerned that I was missing. I personally told them I was fine but could not explain why the alert to find me was out. I could only manage: "It's classified. I'll call you back and explain it when it's all over." I didn't alow myself to think too far ahead.
Teams did go out to the reported locations. Three groups could not find my double. The fourth, in Boston, spotted something. [R 1897] "...located an individual fitting agent's description. He did not respond when approached, standing motionless. And then he disappeared. This was immediately followed by a full-size van leaving the location. It is this agent's opinion that a sophisticated hologram was observed."
The Conspiracy! But a hologram? I didn't see that one coming. It took me a few minutes to figure it out. This was a decoy operation. At least one of the doubles was real, but that didn't rule out the other three also being real. The other significant fact was that our agents were not attacked while approaching this hologram. Did they think were weren't smart enough to figure out the hologram trick?
Then I got another call. It was me.
"I understand you've been looking for me."
"Yeah. That's right. Tell me. What's the goal?"
"Why should I tell you that?"
I was at a loss about a reply. This was a bit too unreal, even for me.
"There is no need to talk any further. I just want to let you know that I'll be at 354 Alpine at 6:00 pm tomorrow."
That was the address to an Agency safe house near Seattle. A few minutes later I got a report from Analysis who had recorded the call and ran it through voice match. "Well, either it's you or they've got some very expensive synthetic voice equipment." It was time for me to call a conference to get some advice and to bring everyone up to speed.
An hour later I was on a private plane to Seattle. Our plan was simple: locate the double, prevent it from doing whatever it was going to do and cover our tracks on the way out. I had a feeling that its plan involved something public and violent. If that was the case, we'd have to take it out. It also crossed my mind that this might be an old supernatural enemy trying to get revenge for something I did to it. But I doubted that. So far, this had all the signs of being an operation run by the Conspiracy. And after this was over, we could deal with the other three doubles. That is, if they actually existed.
The safe house was located at the end of a dead-end street and the house closest to it had burned over a year ago. No one had torn it down, it being the only other house on the street. Fifteen agents, including myself, were decked out in full camo and face paint. We were carrying paintball guns along with our handguns, which we could conceal if the police showed up. Fortunately, the area around the house was lightly wooded.
At a few minutes befor six, two Agency Contacts were going to fly over in a helicopter and give us a code word as to the presence of anyone else on the ground in our vicinity. I was waiting for the word over my earpiece when I spotted a little movement in the distance. Turned out to be a cat.
The chopper came over and we got the all clear. I glanced at my watch at six and looked up. A flash of light came from the house and blinded all of us. A while later, when I could see again, I saw all of my people lying face down with darts in their backs. My heart started pounding. They could be all around me, I thought, blended into the terrain. But I reminded myself that agents of the Conspiracy had a kind of code of conduct that meant I could not be killed by stealth. I would have to face one of their own one on one in fair combat.
There was a sound behind me. I turned to see the same stupid cat. When I turned back, they were there. Four of them. All me.
"Four against one. Isn't that against your own rules?"
Only one of them moved and spoke. "Don't you remember, Agent, one of our sayings? 'Things are never what they seem?'"
I pointed my gun at him. "Alright, it's time to tell me why I'm here."
He spoke calmly, deliberately. "We are tired of your interference. We are here to tell you that we will leave you alone if you leave our operations alone."
"Your operations? Is that what you call it? How many people have been killed? What kind of supernatural terrors are you consorting with?"
"Agent, what are you talking about? Technology is our driving force."
With that, the other three doubles disappeared.
He continued. "You see Agent. The science that everyone has grown to admire will be their undoing." A muffled shot came from nowhere and my gun was out of my hands. "You will not need that Agent."
He rushed me and we grappled. All of my strength and all of my training came to the fore. He may have looked and sounded like me, but he didn't know everything I knew. He may not have even been human, but one of the Encoded. An artificial being that was somehow grown, perhaps using nanotechnology. Or alien technology. Or possibly, magic.
I don't like killing things. Even those supernatural things. But I'm good with small knives. As he lay there, dead, he didn't look real to me. More like a mannequin. I didn't take the time to check if he was, in fact, one of the Encoded. I had to take care of my people. And true to their twisted code, I knew the Conspiracy would let me win this round. I'd gotten my fair warning.
Contact_21
Lazlo Agent
Addendum: I was able to rouse the rest of my team. But in their drug induced stupor, I could only lead them to cover and call in a pick up. As I waited, I watched mounds of grass in the distance crouch, and move away into thick underbrush. One of our specially equipped semi's took us to one of the larger safe houses in the area.