Chapter 4

March 22, 12:30am Central

It wasn't until around midnight that we had finally arrived in Central, and I honestly felt like crap. I'm a professional soldier, a defender of America, not a hit man for a high ranking officer. I really needed to talk to Ed and Al, they sounded like they might know how to deal with this.

When the train finally screeched a halt, I was escorted by Mustang and Lt. Schwartz, to another vehicle and we drove through the cobblestone streets of what might have been a large German town. I hadn't really spoken to Mustang much after he had largely forced me into the situation after about 10 minutes of driving the car stopped at a mansion like building not far from what appeared to be government buildings. I was escorted out, and Mustang personally led me to my quarters where I would be staying. After getting myself unpacked, Mustang let me know that I was expected to be downstairs in his office at 0800 hours. With that said, Mustang left, and I fell asleep in my room.

My alarm started ringing at 7am that morning, and I felt hung over with sleepiness after only getting around 5 or so hours of sleep. I got up and walked over to my bathroom and got myself cleaned up. I heard a knock at the door, and I cracked it open to see who it was. It was Mustang.

"Here's your new uniform. I will take your camouflaged one, and have it cleaned and maintained, as you will likely need it for some of your future duties. Be down in my office in 20 minutes and don't be late, and make sure to bring all of your equipment with you.." Mustang said, and with that he left.

The uniform he gave me was in the similar fashion to the rest of the uniforms with blue overcoat, and the like. Surprisingly the uniform fit pretty well, considering that Mustang hadn't really had a chance to measure me up. I guess that man really does have an eye for detail. After getting dressed I made my way down the hallway and to his office. The building was remarkably ornate. Fancy woodworking and chandeliers were everywhere. As I headed down the stairs into the main atrium by the entrance way, I saw two familiar, albeit bedraggled looking faces.

"Hey Ed, Al how was your trip?" I said to them as I reached the lobby at the bottom of the stairs.

"Not that bad, we just got to Central about an hour ago." said Al.

"So what's with the new outfit?" asked Ed in a snide voice.

"What do you think. I'm in the State Military now. Not that I really had a choice, but it seemed like the only real option I had." I answered.

"Yep, that's what I thought. The same thing happened to Al and I a long time ago when we were both state alchemists. All I can really say to help you out though is to just try to do the right thing. You can usually trust General Mustang to have the correct goal in his actions, but he's pretty much driven by the "ends justify the means" philosophy. So you be careful. He's out for himself as much he's out for the good of everyone else." Ed warned.

"I'll take that advice in stride. I've got to meet the General in about 5 minutes. So I'll talk to you guys as soon as my business with him is done." I answered.

I left the two young men behind and proceeded to the General's office with all of my equipment in tow. I got to the General's office and he had Lt. Schwartz close the door behind me.

"Now we can talk about your future, more or less. I know why Ed and Al are here, and I understand why you are uncomfortable. But don't be too concerned, Ed and Al will be helping you in what I will be asking you to do. " Mustang said.

"First off, I will be holding on to some of your equipment. It is easy for me to ensure that they are safely stored away. If what you've said to me is true about your capabilities, then we need to ensure that they are kept far from prying eyes. Secondly, I want to know more about you. What kind of education you posses, everything in short. I want to know you like your mother knows you. Lastly, I want you to learn all there is about Amestrian society. You are not familiar with alchemy, and you are not familiar with cultural differences here, as well as our history. You will need to be or you will not be able to blend in and perform your mission." He continued.

At this, I explained to him in length most of my history, from my child hood all the way to my decision to join the military. I also explained how I held a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and how it was funded by my decision to go into the Marines. I then went on for about another 2 hours about my training history, and what that involved. Jumping out of aircraft, survival training, covert operations, and everything else I could think of. After I got to the point where I couldn't really think of anything else, Mustang cut me off.

"Excellent. You really do have a breadth of knowledge that is beyond what any soldier in my military has short of sanctioned state alchemists. I want you to learn everything you can about Amestris, and I mean everything. If you are capable of alchemy, I want to know it as soon as possible, because the gate usually imparts knowledge to those who enter it, so I'm going to have Ed and Al test you just in case it is possible. However, you will need to learn a lot about the culture and history of Amestris if you are to be able to serve at your fullest." Mustang said.

"Now, Schwartz, can you please invite Ed and Al inside." Mustang ordered.

About 5 minutes later, Ed and Al came in. Al looked his usual mellow and happy self, but I could tell Ed didn't like Mustang a whole lot.

"Ed and Al, I want you to perform some basic alchemy, something that is simple but a demonstration of what you guys can do." Mustang said.

With that Ed reluctantly reshaped his metal arm into a blade, and I nearly dropped over. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. His steel arm, just turned into a blade. Al proceeded to break a glass and reconstruct it, which I found to be mind boggling. All the while, they were doing this, it felt like bugs were crawling on me.

"What's the matter Dom you seem distracted?" Al asked.

"I don't know. It's like I can feel when you guys perform alchemy. Like I can sense the presence of it." I explained.

"Are you serious?" Ed asked.

"Yeah I am." I answered.

Mustang was listening intently, and his face broke out into a smile. He looked as giddy as a school girl.

"Dominic, are you really telling me you can feel the presence of alchemy?" He asked excitedly.

"Yeah I'm saying that, and it's damn irritating too. It feels like a bug is crawling on me in the direction of the alchemist, it's that ticklish feeling, and it only gets stronger the closer I am to the source." I answered.

"We need to test this. I'll have Schwartz observe and judge. Ed go out of my office and do a decent sized transmutation, nothing complex but something that takes a bit of effort." Mustang asked.

"Ok I'll do it…" Ed grumbled, I could tell he didn't like having to do tricks for the General.

Lt. Schwartz followed him out the door, and Ed made his way outside, and proceeded to walk around the building, before stopping and transmuting a large rock in the garden into small statue. As soon as Ed did this, I could sense it, and I pointed in the direction of the feeling, and proceeded to walk in the direction of the source. Al and General Mustang followed, and were flabbergasted when I was able to find Ed outside.

"Amazing, Dominic. I had no expectation that you'd actually be capable of this." Mustang said.

"Well, the feeling wasn't very strong, probably only as strong as when Al reconstructed the broken glass." I replied.

"That makes some sense, perhaps your sense is directly related to the intensity of the alchemic reaction. If the transmutation is large perhaps you can feel it from farther away. Sort of like how a loud noise can carry a greater distance." Al quipped in.

"Hmm… interesting. So I guess the gate did give you something of a souvenir from your passage through." Mustang said.

"I guess so." I answered.

"Well, let's head back in, now that I know you can sense the presence of alchemists, I think that makes you even more valuable to the pressing task at hand." Mustang continued.

So we all walked back into the building and settled into Mustang's office. Mustang drew his curtains shut, closed his door, and told us to come close as to minimize the chance of us being overheard.

"Here is the situation. The fuehrer at the time of his demise had quite a few pet projects of his running in complete secrecy at labs all over Amestris. A significant number of these my people, including the Elric brother have managed to deal with, but we suspect that a few of these roaches have managed to scurry back under cover. One of these roaches was involved with Shou Tucker at laboratory five. As you are unaware, Shou Tucker specialized in chimeras which in alchemic terms, refers to the merging of animals and human beings. Anyway, this other alchemist was a specialist in a related field, but one with much more practical military application. Rather than try to merge humans with animals, he was attempting to use alchemy to physically alter the human body with the goal of creating assassins. This researcher we suspect succeeded, but the exact details of what he managed to accomplish are only vaguely known, as we did manage to capture this sick bastard, and interrogate him. Unfortunately before we could get more out him, he hanged himself in his cell using his sheets from his bed." Mustang Explained.

"From what know these assassins are functionally similar to the Ishbalan named Scar. In other words they have the capability to deconstruct anything and anyone through the transmutation circles imprinted on their hands. Now this wouldn't be such a big deal in normal circumstances if all we were dealing with were a half dozen or so men that could deconstruct things, hell there are a few alchemists that can do that almost as well as Scar could, but the real problem is that these assassins were also modified mentally. That researcher's real focus was on using alchemy to alter the mental states of people, such as changing memories, erasing memories, and other vile things of that nature. Thus using these techniques the "Thought Alchemist" was able to program his assassins to do some sort of mission. What we suspect is that given the capabilities of the "Thought Alchemist" that these assassins likely have been given a limited form of his thought alteration alchemy." Mustang shuddered.

"Imagine the danger these killers could pose to this nation. Should one of them manage to get in close enough to someone in a high area of authority, they might be able to direct that person to do whatever the bidding was of their programmer. I want you Dominic to stop them and to kill anyone who might be compromised by them. I was initially going to involve the Elrics in actually sniffing them out, but given your particular gift, you should be able to hunt them down. However, I cannot allow you to directly contact me anymore, and I'm going to have the Elric brothers act as go-betweens so that you can communicate with me on the status of the mission. Everything you might require will be provided you, food, money, what equipment we have, anything. However let it be known that if you are captured, or if you are ever positively identified, that I will offer you no protection, in all likelihood you will probably end up in front of a firing squad, or at the least in a dank cell somewhere. Do you accept this mission?" Asked Mustang.

"I guess I don't have a choice, but when I'm done doing this dirty work, am I still going to be under your thumb? Also, why not use the Elric brothers?" I replied

"As for the first question, you will be under my thumb. However, you will be allowed more freedoms as well as being financially taken care of. Remember on the train I told you that you were my scalpel. You are my tool, thus you belong to me, however I do take very good care of my tools, and if you do as asked then perhaps you might have a choice next time. As for why you are tasked with this, it's simply because the Elrics are well known. This is a cloak and dagger game, and the Elric brothers simply stick out too much." Mustang said smugly.

"Anyway, back to business, I have these reports in that several strange murders and disappearances in the past few weeks. Some of these bear the hallmark of perhaps one of these assassins. I want you to look into this. I suspect that your sense of "alchemy smell" will probably get stronger as you use it, and who knows what else the gate may have endowed you with. In the mean time, I am going to assign you a codename that any of my contacts will know you as. This way should I need to contact you; you will know that it is really me. You will be henceforth known as "Hunter" by them. As for the Elric brothers, you will be tasked by me as Mr. Moreau's handlers. You two will instruct him on every thing from banking, to riding the trolley, as well as test him to see if he has any other relevant skills that the gate may have granted him." Continued Mustang.

Mustang then took out a key and removed a painting from the wall. He inserted the key and opened the hidden door. Inside he removed a small briefcase that had a combination lock on the outside.

"Inside this briefcase is a moderate sum of money, your deed to your safe house, identification papers, as well as information pertaining to the mission at hand. Memorize the information, and master your false identity. Also be sure to understand the banking information, as that will be your method of acquiring funding." Mustang glanced at his watch. "Schwartz is already at your safe house with all of your equipment. As we speak right now, the proper modifications are being made to the house so that it can be made more secure. It should be prepared by the time of your arrival. Should you need any other assistance be sure to contact the Elrics, who will be living in an apartment on the other side of Central. Here is the combination to the briefcase and your home address. I expect to hear from you in a few weeks, to know what kind of progress has been made." Mustang finished.

With that Mustang saluted me, and sent me on my way with the Elric brothers. We made our way across town, until I got to a rather ordinary appearing townhouse. I made my up the stairs, and when I approached the landing Lt. Schwartz opened the door and let me in.

The townhouse was actually fairly nice, it was already furnished, and while a bit dated it did have all the amenities.

"Please come this way." Schwartz directed, as we followed him downstairs into the basement.

In the basement, at the bottom of the staircase it appeared to just be a standard storage room with a few shelves, the furnace and whatnot; however Schwartz led us over to one of the walls, and removed a brick. Revealed behind the brick was a combination lock, and Schwartz quickly turned out the combination, and I heard a click. A three foot wide by six foot tall section of the wall came backwards into what would have previously been though solid earth revealing a small ten by ten foot chamber where all of my equipment was located as well as an assortment of weapons.

"This is your secure storage room. On this sheet of paper is the combination for the lock. Memorize it, and then burn it. Also on my orders you are to never remove that briefcase from that room. Place it in the room now please." He said sternly.

"Some personal advice Mr. Moreau. Do not trust anyone other than those whom you see here in this room. Not only does your life depend upon it, but also the lives of everyone else in here as well. I will be making weekly trips here on Saturday mornings, to drop off orders. Do not attempt to talk to me, as I will be disguised as a courier. I will knock on your door, and say "Is Mrs. Hunter available?" you in turn will answer "Not at the moment, but I can hold the package." If you do not here the password, you will not open the door. Keep your blinds closed at all hours, which will be believable, as you are known to the outside world as you work the night shift at the local police office. Your captain there is a contact of ours and can be trusted. He will arrange for you to tour the crime scenes as he is the chief investigator of the recent murders, however he does not know what your real mission is. He simply thinks you are a member of the military investigating the murders. Do not blow your cover. With that, I wish you good luck on your mission." Schwartz then saluted me and walked back upstairs and left through the front door.

"This is some serious business Dom." Ed said to me. "Al and I will do everything we can to assist you, but we can understand why Mustang had gone through these lengths to ensure secrecy. Here is our address here in Central." He handed me a slip of paper. "Tomorrow we'll meet you at the restaurant up the street at 12pm. We'll then head out on the town so you can learn to blend in, and then afterward we're going to test your alchemic ability to see exactly what sort of tricks the gate might have given you. Lastly, I want you to know how dangerous these assassins you are hunting really are. We don't know that much about them, so I want you to stay on your guard constantly. I have a feeling that you are really being used for bait, because perhaps these assassins tend to only pursue and kill those who are a direct threat to their mission. I think that is where you should check first when you have the opportunity to look at the backgrounds of the victims when you head out to your new job. With that said, I want you to look after yourself. These next few weeks could get pretty dangerous. Well, we've got to go, so we'll see you tomorrow." With that Ed and Al left.

I closed up my secret chamber replaced the brick hiding the combination lock and door handle, and made my upstairs and got settled in for the night. The only thought running through my head the whole while was that this seemed like it could have made a good plot of a James Bond movie. With that in mind I fell asleep.