Getting through the gate to reach the portal was significantly more difficult than Serenity expected.

It was guarded, and the guard wanted to see their ID. Serenity actually still had his driver’s license from before everything started; he wouldn’t have used it, but Rissa’s repeated insistence that he looked like his old self made him give it a shot.

It wasn’t enough to get him in the gate. Strangely, it wasn’t his eye color or hair color that was the problem; instead, the problem was the name. His driver’s license stated his name as “Thomas Rothmer”.

The name on the admittance list was Serenity Rothmer, and the gate guard refused to accept that he was the same person. Serenity ended up having to call Dr. Mattingly to get the situation straightened out.

It made Serenity wonder if he should change his legal name.

Agent Price wasn’t certain why he’d been assigned to the Portal Project originally, but he’d been grateful ever since he heard that the alien infiltrator was involved. Perhaps that was why he’d been assigned?

This was the agent’s first good look at the alien other than the two news clips they’d obtained. He had to admit that the alien did look a lot like the Secretary of Defense’s son, but that only made sense; it’s easier to pretend to be someone if you look like them. He hoped Thomas Rothmer was still alive somewhere, but didn’t hold out much hope for it.

It was telling that the impostor hadn’t stayed with the people he was pretending were his parents for long. There must be a reason for that; probably some way he wasn’t much like their son. Otherwise, he’d obviously have stayed where he could gather information more easily.

Agent Price stood near one of the other tents and watched the lead scientist, Dr. Mattingly, lead the alien and his driver towards her tent. The alien was surprisingly convincing as a human, but it only made him more dangerous. Some hair dye and sunglasses and he’d probably completely pass; Agent Price wondered why he hadn’t done that. Perhaps he’d deliberately left some differences as a distraction?

The alien had gotten rid of the fake wings; perhaps they’d been damaged? Agent Price wondered what his explanation for no longer having wings was.

Dr. Mattingly was clearly completely fooled. “Why didn’t you correct me when I asked if you were Serenity Rothmer?”

The alien chuckled. “Because I am? My legal name’s still Thomas, but I’ve been going by Serenity since the Tutorial started. Thomas seems a bit odd to me now.”

Dr. Mattingly seemed surprised. “Already? I only heard about the Tutorials a few weeks ago, right before the London incident.”

The impostor paused. “Right. You probably haven’t realized. I’ve been through the Tutorial fifty-one times. There’s a reason so many people have seen me there. Tutorials are on a different time scale; they usually take only a few seconds realtime but each Tutorial takes a month for the instructors, more or less. Well, other than the one that took almost a year. That one was long.”

Agent Price knew he’d been in several, but who actually kept track of a number as specific as fifty-one? It was another piece of evidence against him; no humans were instructors, whatever they looked like. They were all aliens - except for “Serenity”, who was pretending he was the son of two important people.

Agent Price wasn’t certain why neither Rothmer had been let go from Federal service yet, even though they’d been fooled. Perhaps they were cooperating with the investigation and he simply didn’t know about it?

Dr. Mattingly stopped walking for a moment before she spoke. “You spent almost five years in Tutorials teaching? In the past month?”

The alien shrugged. “Yeah, it’s been a bit. Fortunately, I don’t have to do all of the Tutorials, unlike the other instructors. I have a minimum of-” He paused for a moment before continuing. “One hundred twenty-nine more, so probably a bit over ten more years. I have to get them in before Earth’s Tutorials are over, so realtime that’s about another five months. I expect to beat that time easily, then keep teaching; it’s far more interesting than I expected when I started.”

Dr. Mattingly looked pensive. “Fifteen years is a long time. How long are the other instructors committed for?”

“I did the math once.” The impostor shook his head. “It was something like four hundred million years, maybe five, depends on how long they actually are and how many people are in each. But they’re under a very different contract than I am. Most of that time won’t be real to them afterwards; it’s blurred together except for things that really affected them and they’ll age no more than six months. I’m not sure how the Voice does it; I want to look into it someday, but the Voice doesn’t put me through the same process they have.”

A contract? Maybe he really was a demon or devil. That was a rumor the agent had seen a number of places. Agent Price could almost believe it, except that demons weren’t real. Even if the visual comparison of “Serenity” to the legends of demons was surprisingly close. The agent couldn’t quite get rid of the enhanced images where his horns showed; even though they, like everything else, was the wrong color, it was hard to explain otherwise.

Agent Price preferred to believe that “Serenity” belonged to a species that had visited the planet before. They must all be conniving bastards.

“So you’re the only one that loses fifteen years of your life? That sounds like a pretty bad deal; what do you get out of it?”

Agent Price subconsciously leaned forward at Dr. Mattingly’s question as he checked to be certain his wire was recording. This was a question he really wanted the answer to, and he knew his superiors would as well.

“A bad deal? It’s a great deal. It gives me fifteen years - or more! - where I can help us get ahead! I have some time to practice for myself, but mostly I’m going to spend the time teaching. We need to deal with the invasions as quickly as we can, so we can build ourselves up. If we can do that, we can keep more alive.” The alien’s expression was unreadable. If he were human, Agent Price would have said he was thinking of a haunting memory, but that didn’t make sense so he must be misreading the impostor.

“I know fifteen years may not seem like a long time at your age, but when you’re older you’ll see the cost. What about your family? They’ll see you aging before their eyes.” Dr Mattingly looked concerned.

Agent Price rocked back on his heels. Her concern for his family would be better placed in wondering where the real Thomas Rothmer was.

The alien huffed like he was amused. “How old do you think I am?”

Dr. Mattingly looked him over carefully. “Early to mid-twenties? You’re in great shape.”

“You’re about twenty years low. Well, fifteen if you don’t count the time in the Tutorial.” The impostor shook his head slowly. “I hadn’t realized I looked that much younger. It’s crept up on me. I just hope I don’t keep looking younger. Probably won’t; I think my appearance is drifting towards how I think of myself, and that’s probably about the right age.”

The group had reached Dr. Mattingly’s tent. Agent Price quietly drifted over to the side so that he could continue listening to the enlightening conversation. The fabric wall didn’t do much to stop sound.

“What does that have to do with your age? How can -”

The impostor interrupted her questions. “I don’t know how long I’ll live. I’m unique. Which is not particularly a good thing for guessing how things work. Still, increasing in Tier usually helps, as do a high Phys and Mind. If I were human, I’d easily live two or three centuries even if I don’t push higher. Fifteen years simply isn’t a problem.”

“If you were human.” Dr. Mattingly picked out one of the two parts Agent Price wanted to ask about himself. “I thought you were just progressing down a Path that did something to your body?”

The alien snorted. “True enough, but what happened was a complete species change. It’s rare; you have to do something really spectacular for that to even be offered.” He paused; Agent Price wished he could see, but it wasn’t worth the chance of being noticed. “I did something spectacularly stupid. It worked, but it almost killed me. Should have, really; I was trying to limit the damage to just myself, and I’m not sure I’d have managed that without the Voice’s help. Human wasn’t even an option after that.”

“Is that what happened in the undead city you mentioned? I don’t think you ever gave details.” Agent Price hadn’t yet heard the driver’s voice, but that had to be him.

“Rissa was trapped by some vampires. One of them didn’t respond when I commanded them. We never should have been so deep without established safe points; we were reckless and it was my fault. I wasn’t about to let them kill her, so I did something even more reckless.” The impostor’s voice sounded harsh. “That’s not why we’re here. What have you found out so far?”

Agent Price moved away from the tent. He already knew where the portal investigation stood: nowhere. They could see the portal visually and there seemed to be a temperature change near it, but that was all they’d found so far. It was time to report in.

“That was something else. Especially that admission at the end. It’s too bad he didn’t say who he really works for. If you can get that level of admission out of him, send me the recording immediately.”

Agent Price nodded to himself at his superior’s instructions. They were essentially what he’d expected. “Even during that conversation, all he talked about was keeping people alive. I don’t think I’m going to be able to get him to admit to his real goals. Is it really worth my time to stay here?”

“Yes. That one recording is worth all the time you’ve spent on this so far and then some. Played before the right ears, that admission will make a big difference. This dependence on being led by an alien has to stop, and this will help. If I could assign someone to stay with him, I would, but someone has blocked every attempt I’ve made to do that. I don’t know how a military man gets connections good enough to do that, but it has to be his supposed father’s doing somehow.” His supervisor seemed annoyed.

Agent Price decided it was time to get off the phone before that annoyance became directed at him. “Understood, sir; I’ll stay near him. Anything else?”

“Keep an eye out for a chance at capture; it has to be clean. Much as I’d love to arrest him, he’s too famous to do it openly.”

“Understood, sir.”

Agent Price half-hoped there wouldn’t be a good clean chance. As much as he wanted to get the impostor dealt with properly, he had to admit that the video from the Wasp Dungeon was terrifying. He didn’t want to even try to fight someone like that; it would have to be a complete surprise and take him out immediately.