Paranormal Group Conference Room, Australian Federal Police National Headquarters, Canberra

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Mary and Joey stood as Commissioner Anna Roberts, the head of the AFP, and Deputy Chief Roger Roswald entered the room.

Anna was 1.7 metres tall and had the classic green eyes and red hair of her Scottish roots. Roger was 1.9 metres tall, black hair and dark-brown eyes. His skin and facial structure hinted at a mixture of British and Chinese heritage.

“Roger, this is Superintendent Mary Antonopoulos, head of the Paranormal Group here at the AFP. Mary, this is Deputy Chief Roger Roswald, head of ACT Operations.”

“Paranormal Group?”

Mary gave an internal sigh and said, “Yes, Paranormal Group. We’re a ‘black’ group. I think we’re hidden under the counter-intelligence division.”

“We just moved you to under Cyber Command. It was on my to-do list to let you know this week. From an administration viewpoint you will now report to the Assistant Commissioner of Cyber, but you’ll still report to the Deputy Commissioner of Investigations for all operational issues.”

“Better fit?”

“Nah, just a better budget to hide you in. So, Roger, Mary’s group here has been responsible for debunking most of the myths around the paranormal.”

“Most?”

Mary said, “Most. There are a whole bunch of things that you cannot prove or disprove. Say you tell me that yesterday you were abducted by aliens as you left home, replaced with an android facsimile for the day and then were returned to outside your home that night. If you are convinced it happened, we cannot prove to you that it didn’t. We can show you it was unlikely, point to things that could not be done with either our current technology or understanding of the universe, but we cannot prove it. If we did think it was possible or likely, we also could not prove to you that you were. Sure, if we’d recorded the switch we’d have evidence, but most would assume we’d rigged it somehow. There are things you can ‘prove’ and things that you cannot. We can say that things aren’t likely, but again, can’t prove anything. If you want me to prove that you can use telekinesis, this we can probably do – to a point. Prove there is or is not a god? No.”

“But lots of scientists have proven there is no God.”

Mary laughed. “All they proved is that they are not good scientists.”

Mary saw Roger’s expression become closed.

“Look, think of it like this. Say I pronounce that room 6-19 is empty. If I didn’t even check, I’m a bad observer. If I checked first thing this morning, I’m still a bad observer. If I use the on-line room booking program, I’m a better observer. Use a monitoring camera, I’m better again, and if I place someone there to watch, I’m better again. But none of those steps will prove that the room won’t be occupied when I go up there in 20 minutes. If I had some way of securing the room, I start getting close.

“When a scientist says, ‘there is no god’, it doesn’t really mean anything. If god really did create the universe, for example, that means that he/she/it is more powerful than the scientist. There is nothing that the scientist could do to force god to submit. Therefore, the scientist cannot control the experiment, therefore they can’t prove anything. Even if this god submitted to the scientist, again, all they could prove is that there is a god, not that this god created the universe.

“They are probably outside of time, since they would have had to create time. Therefore, they can never be surprised, so nothing we do would work if they did not want it to work. Even if they weren’t, they would be smart enough to predict what we would do. So again, no way to win there.

“See? The question is meaningless, because it is outside of our capacity to answer.

“Let’s take miracles. We can prove or disprove an individual reported miracle did or didn’t occur, but we cannot prove or disprove whether god performed it.”

By now, Roger had some frustration in his voice, this was all coming too fast, “Have you ever proven a miracle was performed?”

“Oh, yes. Quite a few, actually. And to answer your next question, no, you haven’t heard of them because we do not report on these things to the public, only to our chain of command.”

Anna had an open smile on her face as she interrupted. “Roger, if you want to debate Philosophy with Mary, book in a meeting. You also can now understand why this group gives me more headaches than nearly every other group. So, Mary, what’s so important? I think this is the first time that your team has ever requested a meeting with this high a threat level.”

“Here is the AFP-BDD with the initial rating based on the back-of-an-envelope security risk assessment we did.” She took a deep breath and continued, “We have pretty good evidence that there are a group of people in Australia who are ‘shifters’, that is, they are able to transform themselves into animals.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Anna’s expression changed to serious, while Roger’s changed to open scepticism. He laughed.

“Roger, quiet. You know nothing yet of this group or their work. For them to make this pronouncement, the evidence must be pretty good. Notice that the threat level is still under moderate, so they are doing what they are supposed to and informing me of the possibility of a situation. Not that the world is about to end.” Looking back to Mary, she continued, “What can you show me of the evidence?”

Roger winced at the implied rebuke. The last time he’d dealt with something like this he had not done ‘what he was supposed to’, even if it had worked out OK in the end.

Mary pulled out two completed forms, just missing the signatures, and put one in front of Roger and one in front of Anna. “There is nothing in the current evidence that cannot be shared as part of a codeword briefing. So long as you are both comfortable in signing these special project access forms.”

Anna looked at Roger and said, “Can I trust that you will put your personal feelings aside and treat this information with the seriousness required of codeword information? You are not allowed to talk about this to anyone that you are not positive is on the special access list for this segmented project. Nor can this be discussed except in person. Can I trust you on this?”

“Yes, Commissioner.”

“Good. I’m going to assign you to this special project, but under Mary for the next little while. This is an invaluable opportunity to be part of the risk assessment process. What she has done is exactly what she is supposed to, which is excellent, considering that these situations come up so rarely. This is going to give you invaluable experience. Now, this next phase will be her trying to prove she is wrong and coming up with a set of recommendations in case she is right. I want you, Roger, in charge of the ‘yes’ team. I judge you need this experience. Let’s see what your critical thinking is like. It’s easy to prove something you agree with, and a lot harder to give the case for something you don’t.”

A shiver ran down Roger’s spine. He realised that she was giving him a slap on the wrist. Last time he had been in this sort of situation, it had got him his last promotion, but caused a lot of problems because he didn’t let his supervisory line know of his concerns. “Yes, Ma’am.”

Anna noticed the pile of red folders still in the centre of the desk. Pointing at them, she said, “Mary, out of interest, how long did it take you to find the procedures to follow?”

Looking embarrassed, Mary said, “About two hours.”

“Well done, please take us through your AFP-BDD and then the evidence.”

---***---

“Because of the video quality, we’ve identified the vehicles, so we should be able to identify the people quickly. What we need to determine is the decision trees from this point on.”

A knock on the door, interrupted them.

Mary nodded to Joey, and he went to check who was there.

“Yes, Fancy?”

Some low murmurs were heard, then Joey said, “OK, I’ll tell her.”

Returning to the table, Joey said, “They’ve finished the initial look at the people concerned and have identified all but two. The information has been loaded up onto the server. One of those identified works for the AFP.”

Roger exclaimed, “Finally. Let’s get them in custody and then we can get some answers.”

Mary looked at Roger and said, “Under what charge?”

“You’re so sure that this evidence is right, so they are not even human. They will have no rights!”

Mary rested her elbows on the table, closed her eyes and rested her forehead in her palms. A classic double-handed face palm. “So, what is your definition of an ‘Australian Citizen’ and what right do you claim to be able to decide who is human and who is not?

“What about if this skill is found to be linked to say, Australian First Nation heritage, are you going to declare all people of Aboriginal heritage non-human? Non-citizens? I’m sure that would go over like a rat sandwich. What if it is tied to those from Austria? Declare all Arians as non-citizens? Are you going to make everyone in Australia do a blood test to determine if they are human? The Australian Constitution doesn’t even define what a citizen is, except in terms of allegiance to Australia and its values, never alone defining what a person is, and certainly doesn’t cover ‘human’. When we finally get our first, real AI, I’m just glad I won’t be on that scientific panel trying to decide if it’s human or a person or a slave. Were you able to develop a way to communicate with a…a…dolphin for example, they probably could swear allegiance and legally become an Australian Citizen under the current constitution, so long as they accepted their responsibilities. Until such time as we are able to say their allegiance is suspect, we must treat them as law-abiding citizens. You do know that there are serious movements around the world to get all domesticated animals to be classed as citizens, don’t you?”

Roger looked angry and embarrassed.

Joey took pity on Roger and said, “Look, Assistant Commissioner Roswald, you are at a disadvantage here. This is the kind of thing we have debated and brain-stormed for years. After all of that, we still don’t have any answers, but we’ve at least figured out some guidelines and maybe some questions to ask? Basically, we must continue to treat all people as, well, people, until such time as the law is changed or the High Court makes some ruling. Especially remember that by law, someone with only an Australian Citizenship, cannot have that removed, that is, cannot ever be made ‘stateless’ by international law. They are entitled to our protection, and we cannot abdicate that responsibility under any circumstances.”

Mary took up the narration again, “Say we discovered… vampires were real tomorrow and that all of them went around killing people for their blood. The best we could do is to arrest them when they attacked someone. We couldn’t arrest them for being a vampire, only for acting on their nature. Even if they turned out to be ‘dead’, the constitution simply doesn’t allow them to be classed as anything other than a citizen once they become a citizen. The constitution doesn’t define death, just a person’s inability to accept and agree to duty.”

Roger took a deep breath and then said with some vehemence, “So what do we do? Nothing?”

Mary said, “Not at all. Let’s look at who we are dealing with.”

---***---

Fifteen minutes later, a calmed down Roger summarised what they had discovered. “So, Constable Alexa Smirn is a third generation Australian, has worked in my division for three years. All her performance reviews have been satisfactory, all drug tests negative and currently works in admin, within the AFP ACT division, but keeps applying for operational roles. No convictions, no scandals, has ‘bush-walking’ as her only listed hobby, her co-workers find her ‘pleasant’, has never had a sickie and she can somehow change into a wedge-tailed eagle. What do we do now?”

Joey looked around. He’d never felt more like a very small fish surrounded by sharks as he did now. Seeing no one was offering an opinion, he cleared his throat and said, “More than anything else, we need a way to judge the risk here and then determine our contingencies. Why don’t we just ask her? Even if she runs, that at least will give us a framework to work from.”

Roger’s eyes widened while Anna looked at Mary and shrugged.

Mary said, “Not the worse plan I’ve ever heard.”

Anna nodded and said, “So, who interviews her?”

Mary said, “Fancy is probably my best person, what do you think Joey, you as well?”

Joey immediately said, “No, Ma’am. I’m far too likely to act as a fan-boy. This is a real-life shifter! I think having a sceptic like Assistant Commissioner Roswald would be best. My recommendation is that Fancy leads, as she knows our framework and the questions we need to get initially answered, while Assistant Commissioner Roswald would be explained because Constable Smirn is in his line of command.”

Everyone agreed that while it may not be a great plan, it at least was a plan.