A lead in my personal vendetta had to wait. I still had a job to go to. And as I sat in the unmarked hover car, I stared across the street to a rundown house, its blue paint faded and chipped.

'Shouldn't we have backup for this?' my partner said from the passenger's seat, checking the side mirror.

'Jeff, this was just a tip from an anonymous person,' I replied. 'There are millions of tips that come into the station every single week. We can't bring backup to all of them.'

'Well I can see why we didn't get any. No alien spy would live there.' Jeff had gestured to the house.

I frowned at his comment, glancing at the overgrown front yard, the grass and weeds waist-high. 'In our business, it's never good to assume. Remember that. The aliens know how to cloak themselves as humans, blend well into our society. And not to mention have travelled here from across the universe to gather top secret information about us. Don't put anything passed them.'

'So what was the tip?'

'Someone walking passed the house a couple days ago thought he had heard someone inside yelling in Wardorian.'

'You know it was probably just a smackhead on a trip hearing things. This neighborhood is pretty rough. Also, the person could have heard Malucian. They are very similar sounding languages.'

I looked all around. The street was as rundown as the suspect's home. 'Both of those are a possibility but we still have to check it out. All right, let's go say hello, shall we? Set phasers to stun.'

Crossing his brows in bewilderment, Jeff replied, 'Phasers?'

I crossed my own brows, slightly annoyed he didn't get the joke. 'Our guns. Have you never seen Star Trek before?'

'Star Trek? What's that?'

'You're kidding right?'

Jeff shook his head.

'Just set your gun to stun,' I pouted, insulted by his uncultured self. 'If we're dealing with a spy, we want to bring them in alive.'

Jeff rubbed his hands with vigor, a sparkle in his eye. 'So we can get that bonus -- I heard it's gone up this month.'

'You mean so the powers that be can interrogate them, hopefully leading to information that can help us win the war.'

Somewhat embarrassed at what he had said, Jeff went red in the face. 'Exactly. That's what I meant.'

I shook my head before taking my gun from the glove box. I set the dial to stun on the double barrel weapon. 'Do you have your dark matter proof vest on?' I then asked.

Tapping his chest, the sound of his fingers hitting hard material underneath his god-awful tie-dyed shirt, he replied, 'First thing I put on this morning.'

'Good. Let's go.'

Before getting out I grabbed the Uncloaker from the backseat, still over the moon at the new handheld size. An image of the older version flashed in my mind. That thing was as big as a vintage desktop computer. What a pain in the ass that was to carry around, not to mention trying to uncloak a potential alien spy.

Outside, and after tucking my gun away in my waistband, we slowly made our way across the street. And while Jeff took in our surroundings, I stared at the windows of the house, making sure we weren't being watched. A bit of surprise is always good.

Once we hacked our way through the yard, we made it to the front door. I knocked. And delicately, too, as if we were just here to sell something.

Shortly, the door opened, revealing a disheveled man wearing ratty clothes and unkempt hair. Jeff gave me a look as if to say, 'No way is this an alien spy.' But he wasn't looking properly.

A smile graced the man, pearly whites shining brightly. They were too white. I then glanced behind him and saw that inside was immaculate, clean.

Even though the Wardorians were good at human cloaking, they did make mistakes.

'How can I help you?' the man said, looking between Jeff and I.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my leather badge wallet, quickly flipping it open to reveal a hologram of my credentials. 'We're from the Alien Investigative Agency. We'd like to ask you some questions.'

The man kept on smiling, but its luster had vanished. I didn't notice any change of breathing, though, but as Wardorians breathed through their asses this could have been the reason.

Putting my badge back in my pocket, I continued, 'We're in' -- I slyly grabbed hold of my gun -- 'the neighborhood investigating a possible --'

BAM! The man had suddenly bolted back into his house, slamming the door behind him.

Jeff and I swiftly drew our weapons before I kicked the door back open, immediately seeing the suspect running towards the back of the house, to the kitchen.

'Stop. In the name of the law.' I shouted, bounding inside.

The suspect took no heed so I pulled the trigger of my gun, sending stunning pulses zipping after him. However, as the beams of energy were closing in, about ready to take him down, the suspect rounded a corner. The pulses carried on straight, hitting a table and sending it collapsing in on itself.

I slowed down my pursuit, worried the suspect might pop back out from the corner with a Wardorian weapon.

Hugging the wall of the hallway, I shuffled to the corner and carefully peeked round. There was a back door. It was open. Then through the kitchen window I saw the suspect running across the backyard. He was headed toward a shed.

I gave chase, Jeff close behind.

Thankfully Wardorians hadn't mastered the art of running cloaked as humans and we gained on him rather quickly. It was roughly five seconds after he had barged into the shed that we had entered.

'Holy shit,' Jeff said, as my eyes darted all around, searching for the suspect. Jeff was staring in awe at the Wardorian space pod taking up much of the room, it's black skin shimmering despite it being dark inside.

Suddenly out from behind the pod jumped the suspect. He had uncloaked himself, revealing his true Wardorian identity. With a slimy red humanoid body and several limbs poking out, one of which was holding a dark matter gun, this was the biggest sucker I had ever encountered. 

'Dirty earthlings,' it growled loudly in Wardorian before taking a shot.

'Get down,' I shouted to Jeff, dropping down to the ground.

Jeff, however, wasn't quick enough and he took a ray of dark matter right to the chest. It sent him crashing through the shed.

With rage, I jumped back onto my feet. Then blasting my weapon, I yelled a Wardorian obscenity. 'Glashdo!'

The pulse whipped over the space pod and hit the Warlorian square in its ugly face.