Incarnation Two.
Our hero, Taylor, and a couple of colleagues find themselves caught up in an unexpected firefight. Within moments, Taylor is the only one left alive, hiding behind a chair from an unknown — but lethal — enemy. After bracing himself for an attack, Taylor hears a window breaking, and figures his enemy’s probably made a break for it. He cautiously investigates, and gets to the kitchen to discover the back window smashed out, a corpse on the table, and the power unit in the fridge ready to blow. He’s still trying to get the corpse out of the blast area when the unit explodes.
Taylor wakes up plastered in goo, to his colleague’s amusement. He gets cleaned up, and heads into the office to make a full report. Once that’s done, he decides to start investigating the dead man’s movements. The corpse has been dead for twelve days, but the man was seen earlier that same day. To his surprise, Taylor discovers that the dead man seems to have been seen near-simultaneously in a whole load of different cities. No other agencies appear to be tracking the dead man, so he logs a note on the man’s file. He’s still pondering his next move when his boss calls, and sends him out to get some information on a crime scene in the city.
When he gets there, it turns out to be really strange pair of corpses, melted together. One has the dead man’s face. Taylor tries to report, but his office is off-line. He organises the local officers to prepare for possible attack, and gets a sample of the melted body. Then a call comes in, ordering him back to his HQ. There’s been an explosion.
Taylor heads back to the office, but pulls up on the far side of the park, to scout the place out first. He’s horrified to discover that the building has been totally obliterated somehow. As he watches, aghast, a woman makes a run for it from the scene, only to be gunned down by figures in peculiar environment suits.
Rather than return to his car, Taylor slopes off into the park and does his best to make a few basic changes to his appearance. Then he heads across town on foot, looking for a fence that he knows of. When he gets there, he manages to sell his ID and a few other items in return for a small amount of cash. Then he goes to a cheap nearby motel, and goes to sleep.
His room is raided in the night, and he’s knocked out. He comes to strapped down in a hospital bed. The people who grabbed him from the motel reveal that he has stumbled onto something big. The dead man’s lookalikes can impersonate other people, and their aims are worryingly uncertain. Taylor agrees to work with his abductors to try to find out what is going on.
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The Great Game is listed at OnlineComics.net.