V

The next morning Helmholtz got up and dressed with the clothes that had come that night and been left outside his door. He went straight to the Department of Relocation and got there only 7 minutes after opening. Again he walked up to the door, this time the sign was missing and the light was on inside the office. Helmholtz walked into the office.

Behind the desk was a woman, a quite stunning woman with brown hair and green eyes. She was wearing a dark Mulberry sport jacket (the trademark color of a beta) and shuffling papers around on her desk. Again Helmholtz was a little surprised, but not much, she was obviously the secretary.

"Knock next time would you?" She said without looking up.

"Excuse me," said Helmholtz, rather charismatically, "But where is the director of the Department of Relocation?"

"You're looking at her," said the woman, again without looking up."

Helmholtz laughed a little before he said, "Ha ha ha, that was quite a good joke, but seriously I really need to see the-" For the second time, Helmholtz was cut off.

"You must be Helmholtz." She said with a smile, finally looking up.

"And you must be the director's secretary. I need to know where the director is."

"Like I said the first time, I am the director," said the woman calmly. "Sit down and let me explain." Helmholtz sat in the seat that was offered to him with a wave of her hand. "You cam here from England correct?"

Helmholtz nodded.

"Well then, we have some fixing to do … you will never be exactly normal or free mind you, but it will be a lot better then how you are living now."

"Better then how I'm living now?" asked Helmholtz confused, "But I'm an alpha."

The woman looked as if she were laughing on the inside. It hurt Helmholtz and intrigued him at the same time. He hated it because it seemed to be making fun of him, teasing him, pitying him. On the other hand, this was the most genuine emotion Helmholtz had ever seen from anyone that wasn't John.

There was a pause. "Follow me."

"Where are we going?" inquired Helmholtz.

"We are going to a corner café that I know of, I haven't had breakfast yet and it appears that you haven't either. Come on, it's my treat."

"Oh come on now really, I should be paying! I will not be treated to breakfast by a beta."

Halfway out over seat, the woman paused and smiled again. "As you wish." She finished getting up and crossed to the door.

"I'm no Beta," she said opening the door, "And you're an alpha only as long as you think you are."

Helmholtz thought this was all extremely queer. Why would he want to be anything but an alpha? Alphas are top notch. But Helmholtz was hungry, so he followed her out the door and to the elevators. Helmholtz was about to press the up button when the director stopped him and pressed down.

"You mean we are going to walk there?" asked Helmholtz rather disgusted.

"Trust me." Said the woman flatly.

"Trust you? How can I trust you when I don't even know your name?"

"It's Washington," she said as they got in the elevator, "Ahska Washington."

As they walked to the café, Helmholtz couldn't shake the feeling of being extremely small and ignorant. The buildings were at the most twice as high as any regular buildings he had seen, and the people seemed to be bustling about to some sort of rhythm that they knew, but Helmholtz couldn't pick up. Everyone was moving on their own accord and there were almost no queues, and if there was one, it was extremely unkempt, winding this way and that. Helmholtz didn't like this at all.

The café had good food, but more choices than usual, and the people there were too abnormal. There was a little boy sitting behind Helmholtz that kept calling the woman across from him "Mama" and that made him just a little uneasy. When they had both finished Helmholtz asked Ahska why this was.

"Well," started Ahska, "This would probably be easier to explain if we were above it all. Lets go back to the offices and get my helicopter."

"Your helicopter?" Asked Helmholtz a bit startled, but with all of the new and different things he had seen and experienced, he was starting to get less flustered with each new development.