On the strip of wall between the two windows, there was an award plaque for Special Agent Ramu Hornwell of the Otherworlder Intelligence Agency. It had pride of place above Hornwell’s seat, so that no visitor to the office could fail to notice it. The Director had won it back when he was just an SA, before the agency had been renamed to Extra-Dimensional Intelligence.

The name “Outworlder,” though still in common casual use, had fallen out of fashion as the movement for integration had progressed. Eosoreans and their descendents objected to the title—not unreasonably, in Amanda’s opinion—for the simple reason that most Eosoreans today were second or third generation descendents of those who had come through the portal 120 years back. They had been born and raised on Earth. The term “Outworlder” had an out-dated and isolating feel to it, and so petitioning on the part of the various Eosorean races within the agency had led to the name change.

Hornwell cleared his throat, recalling Amanda’s attention.

“So,” Director Hornwell said. “How is your team progressing with the assignment?”

“Well, sir, since I last had contact from them, the laboratories have confirmed that their mark, Jeremy Parker, is nearly a full-blooded Keeper, as we thought. That should give him a much better chance of successfully merging with the dungeon than the… previous candidates.”

Director Hornwell raised a thick eyebrow and placed both hands on his desk. He seemed surprised that Amanda’s team had made it this far. “Do we know what category of Keeper this man Parker is?”

“Not yet, sir. My agents are in the process of introducing him to the dungeon. I’m expecting an update from them any time now.”

Hornwell put his glasses on again and reached to a stack of folders on one side of his desk. He drew out a bulging one and flipped it open, glancing over a couple of pages before speaking again. “Kyrine, that’s the dungeon’s name, correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And you’ve tried five other potential Keepers on her in the last six months. They’ve all been killed and consumed by the dungeon. That’s a lot of collateral, Agent Fallon. What makes you think this Jeremy Parker person will be any different?”

“To be completely honest, sir, I can’t ensure that he will be. Kyrine is difficult to say the least. But the information about his bloodlines is solid. We knew that sending Keepers with weak bloodlines against Kyrine was likely to fail, but we were limited in our range of candidates.”

The Director shook his head, slowly, then fixed Amanda with a gaze that made her feel acutely uncomfortable.

“The agents who’ve been assigned to the other dungeons have met with success, “ the Director said, “and they have used Keeper candidates with verifiably mixed bloodlines, sometimes severely mixed. There have been no problems, and only two casualties over five dungeons. Why is this so different?”