Professional.

Sarah sat in the living room in front of the fire when a pair of small hands started tugging on her sleeve.

"Mommy! Mommy!"

Sarah smiled and pulled her daughter up onto her lap.

"You want me to tell you a story?" she asked. The five-year-old nodded. "Alright. There once was a beautiful princess who ruled over all that she could see. She would spend her mornings making sure everything was perfect in her castle... but at night... she would hunt vampires!"

Ellie laughed at that. Sarah knew that she loved stories like that ever since she saw that movie a few months ago. She continued the story, talking about the brave knight that the princess met but was cut off by the phone ringing. Lifting her daughter off of her lap, Sarah made her way to the phone. Ellie looked on curiously, as her mother stopped laughing. But only for a second, then the smile came back as she hung up.

"Mommy has to go now, be a good girl and go to bed, okay?" Ellie nodded sadly and picked up her favorite blanket as her mother helped her back into her room. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep.

Sarah didn't have to drive far. She knew the route, and had been there countless times before. But this wasn't a scheduled meeting, and that worried her. She saw the other cars parked in the lot as she drove up. She switched off her car and locked the doors. Didn't turn on the alarm though. Didn't want to make more noise. She walked down into the park toward a bench. The only light she saw was from a cigarette. She approached the two other people sitting there. The one smoking the cigarette spoke first.

"Glad you could make it, Sarah. Things have been bad."

Sarah looked at the other figure briefly before turning back to the smoking man.

"Mark, what's going on here? I had to leave Ellie alone. This better be damn important for me to -"

"We've found it," was the smoking man's response. Sarah shivered as he said that. Not out of fear. The man took another drag of the cigarette before putting it out. He pulled out another one from his jacket pocket. He quickly lit it and then turned to the shadowed figure. Sarah saw a movement, possibly a nod. Mark turned back to her.

"It's deep down there, but we can still get it. It'll take some work, but if we work together, we can get it." Sarah wasn't looking at him anymore, she was looking at the shadowed figure.

"Mark, who is that?" Sarah's words were tinged with fear and mistrust. Yes, she would do anything to get what she wanted, but just who was Mark dealing with? She began to wonder if this third party could be trusted at all.

"Don't worry. He's a friend. He's been looking for the same thing for a while and he thi-"

"Why?" Sarah asked the shadow directly. "Why could you possibly want to look for it? Spending your time trying to find something that isn't even real?"

The shadow didn't respond. Sarah turned back to Mark. "Look, Sarah, he's gotten a team together. A team like you couldn't even imagine. They are very good, very professional. But they are doing it for other reasons. What we are after is a byproduct of their work. They don't care about what we are after. We'll need to work fast though." He took a deep breath of the night air. A look of pain crossed his eyes. Even he wasn't very sure about this, Sarah realized. He spoke again, but this time it was more a plea. "Sarah, people are going to get hurt." Sarah didn't say anything. Mark crushed his cigarette. Quickly looking at the shadowed figure before turning back to her, "We knew it would come to this. We always knew. Now tell me, are you going to help us, Sarah?"

"Not like this. I won't do it like this. I can wait longer. But people are not going to die for me. If I'm even beginning to guess what you are up to, I'm not going to let that amount of chaos be freed just so we can -"

"Dr. Meissner," the shadow spoke. "You do not understand what Mr. Tene here is telling you. This is what you've been waiting for, and I would greatly appreciate if you would work with us so we can help each other toward a common goal." The shadow leaned closer to the light. The man was wearing a suit but the man didn't even seem cold.

"Now, Doctor, I was very much hoping we could do this the easy way, and I was hoping it wouldn't take much for you to comply." Sarah looked back at Mark, who had begun to sweat visibly. He only looked down. "You will work with us, because you care about your daughter." Sarah twitched. "Ellie, was it? Yes. Don't make me have to threaten you, Doctor. I was truly hoping we could do this in a civilized manner, but we don't have to if you don't want us to." The man leaned closer and caught her stare with dark brown eyes. "Yours and your colleague's work has caught my eye, and I'm interested to try some of your theories out. I believe that it might lead me to what we seek. Well, we will talk all about that later. Now, do we have a deal?"

Sarah had tears in her eyes. She always knew this might happen, but she had not planned well enough for it. It was understandable to be very paranoid about what she was doing, and she thought she hid herself and her project well. She thought she had kept Ellie safe by keeping her far from this. It was too late now, this man had her cornered, and she had nothing she could do.

"Just tell me," she spat at him. "Just tell me why you want to do this!"

"My dear," the shadow replied, "I'm just keeping us better."

The shadow was the last person still at the park, and he stood there looking up at the sky, the dark moonless sky. Another figure in a coat approached.

"Rockwell."

The shadow turned back at the sky after seeing who it was. "Yes, Derrick?"

"Everything is ready. I'll be a test run, but if the test subject can manage to widen the hole as we planned, we should be able to figure out how to get the entire device operational."

"And the child?" the shadow asked. The man in the coat paused for a second before proceeding. He was still not okay with this, but it was necessary, he told himself. Everything was necessary for the big picture.

"Eager. Ready, too. I still don't know how he's okay with you doing that to his -"

"He doesn't have a choice. Luck has intervened and the child has become perfect for what we need."

"Goddammit, Rockwell, what happened? This wasn't how this was supposed to happen! This isn't what I want!"

The shadowed figure didn't even meet the man's gaze. "I disagree."

The shadow turned and left, leaving Derrick Todd alone in the cold park.