Finally, many months after I said it would be finished, can I present the fourth chapter from this story. I hope you enjoy this first draft:
Read from the start here: Chapter One
The number of meetings in the central boardroom Susan had ever attended could be counted on the fingers of one hand. While she no doubt realised her position was one of incredible prestige, the room she was about to enter was meant for meetings of the utmost importance, and the less of them the better, she figured.
The elevator doors opened smoothly, presenting to her a white, conspicuous hallway which she very casually stepped out into. Along the walls in front and to the side of her were various holes, all lined up neatly, and she knew that behind each one was a different scanning device. They would check for weapons, unknown substances, even a chemical presence that could cause minor changes in the atmosphere. No chances were being taken when it came to gatherings of the greatest minds alive today.
This brought her to speculate about what the current emergency was. She hadn’t noticed anything particularly unusual so far today. During the last big meeting, there had been many unusual reports handed on her desk which at least clued her in to something bigger, but with this it had almost been business as usual. At least to her own eyes.
At the end of the hallway, a dead end awaited. Except this dead end happened to be a concealed doorway, and after a series of pleased sounding beeps, the way onward was revealed and beyond the white door there existed a reception area.
“Hi Finn,” Susan greeted the receptionist, a dark haired miserable looking woman. “Could you buzz me through please?”
Finn looked up, barely acknowledging Susan’s smiling face, before pushing a button behind the desk and opening the door to the meeting room. Susan quickly escaped.
Inside was truly a marvellous sight. The room reached far back into the underground building and she imagined it could house a full sized athletics circuit inside it. The table was enormous and oval shaped, with at least a hundred seats around it. It was also highly polished to within an inch of its life, which reflected the image of a giant hovering lighting rig above it made up of a thousand tiny twinkling lights. Susan gave the whole space a nickname; the twilight room.
As she rushed to a spare seat, of which there weren’t many left, she scanned the room for familiar faces. Most of the people here she had met before in an official capacity, but some she had only shaken hands with once when she began her job here before never speaking to again. The departments tended to keep to their own, which bode well for keeping the company a secret. The less you knew, the less likely to accidentally spill the beans, at least that’s how she thought of it.
The room was filled with lively chatter, and sitting next to her were two unfamiliar people. As she settled down, she listened in to one of their conversations.
“Nothing, not one thing. I’m as clueless as the rest of us.”
“Well I think by the fact that almost everybody of any level of security is in here, it’s got to be big news.”
“Good or bad though?”
“Oh definitely bad. I’m thinking life changingly bad. I’m just glad I’m working here if anything does kick off today.”
After the less than reassuring eavesdropping, Susan began to simmer the various possibilities in her head. Terrorists? A meteor collision? What could possibly need all of our attention so badly?
As if to answer these questions, the room suddenly fell silent and from the far end of the room, the set of double doors opened and in walked two shadowy figures. The first she recognised, due to its lumpy figure, it was unmistakably Lionel Crutch, the head of the organisation. He had seen this company from its birth around seven years ago to where it stood today, and was responsible for avoiding every major potential disaster that threatened Natalos since. In the back of her mind, seeing him here reassured her. Whatever was coming, she knew he’d have a handle on it.
The other figure slowly came to light, and it was somebody Susan recognised vaguely but couldn’t place. It seemed this was the same situation with her neighbours too, as they began to quietly express their confusion between themselves. The man was tall, built like a machine and wore a green suit, exuding a raw authority which encroached on Crutch’s own natural aura of dominance.
Lionel finally made it to his seat, and he gestured to the man beside him to sit down. As for himself, he remained standing as was always the case.
“Good morning.” He cleared his throat, while panning the room as if ticking off an imaginary register, noting each person his eyes passed over. There was definitely a lingering look when his eyes reached her own though, or did she imagine that? “This has been a very stressful morning and I don’t believe the situation allows for me, or rather us, to waste much time so I’ll keep it as brief as possible.
“First, I’d like to introduce you to a man you might not know but you should recognise. This is Dougal Smith, the General of Natalo’s Army.”
Dougal stood up for a few seconds and nodded, while Susan instantly worked out where she had seen him before. During his reign as the General, he had taken it upon himself to be the public face of the Army. She remembered him making a massive public appearance after the Rogan led crisis that sparked the creation of this very organisation. Every news program managed to interview him in the aftermath of the disaster, as he used his appearance to calm the nation and tell us everything was under control once more. It was surprising that she had completely forgotten his face until just now and here he was standing several metres in front of her. The reason for why this was intrigued her more than ever now.
“As many of you will know, Dougal here led the army through what was our system’s biggest tragedy eight years ago. It was he who managed to maintain public order for the most part during the aftermath, and thus he will be a very important asset today and for however long it takes us to work on the upcoming crisis.”
All of a sudden, Susan felt the instant pang of unease in the pit of her stomach. Not coincidentally, the atmosphere in the room changed too. The entire seated audience was on edge.
“What I am about to reveal to you is top secret, but due to current circumstances it is inevitable that you all should know. I warn you all that if any of the following details are leaked, the perpetrator of the leak will be punished to the highest extent allowed by law. I trust you will all maintain secrecy.
“Eight years ago, I gathered together a team of genetic scientists from across the various government agencies. Once I selected them, they began research on whether it is possible to track an individual by the unique DNA given off through his magi or wari abilities. This time and resource heavy process took five years to develop into a usable form, and using our already well-established surveillance system, we integrated the former into the latter on a trial basis. We tested it on myself and it works. It’s revolutionary, but a complete invasion of privacy and so we put this technology aside. Suffice to say, we never used it on anyone who wasn’t specifically involved and informed, with one major exception.
“This individual, who’s DNA we had plenty of samples of after analysing their corpse, we decided to keep an eye on for completely ludicrous reasons. This individual was the Rogan himself. We all know he perished in an unexplained manner, but we felt we wanted to keep an eye out for anything with his trace on, even though we knew it would be impossible for that to ever happen.”
The whole room was deathly silent. Everybody seemed to have already deduced the real reason they were here, and Susan was now terrified.
“Which brings us to a very intriguing and yet vastly worrying situation. This morning, only hours ago, we received data that confirmed the presence of that DNA once again on the surface of Gaia, the planet which we stand on right now.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I don’t quite know how to phrase this, but it seems our most feared enemy of all, Rogan, is back from the dead.”
Next Chapter: CHAPTER FIVE
Monday 30 March 2009
Saturday 24 January 2009
Update
I'm trying to refocus my priorities for this year and achieving some progress with this book is on my to do list. I have uploaded the three complete chapters to both my Facebook and this blog and both are now up to date. I have proceeded with starting Chapter 4 and I hope to get it finished within a couple of weeks. Please stick with me for now.
Chapter 3
Read from the start here: Chapter One
It was approaching the end of the millennium, and the people were rejoicing. The streets were filled with raucous singing and cheering, the citizens of Natalo’s major cities were all celebrating and not a single shop save for an Inn or two were open for business. Nothing seemed to fall astray of the friendly atmosphere, it was remaining controlled and enjoyable even with all the alcohol flowing.
Away from the large crowds, in a quieter side road, a couple of young siblings, who were standing away from their distracted parents, were playing with a makeshift paper ball. They took it in turns throwing it to each other. This went on, back and forth, with the two of them being completely oblivious to the grandness of tonight’s occasion, both of them having a great time regardless.
After a particularly jaunty turn in their conversation, the boy then gave the ball a rather reckless lob, which sailed over the girls head and into the alleyway behind her. With the parents taking little notice of their kids, feeling they would be safe in their home street, the girl who showed no signs of fear quickly checked they were busy looking the other way before sneaking into the dimly lit passage.
Feeling unbothered by the location, she caught sight of something that was partially hidden behind a pile of rubbish, blowing around gently, and immediately ran towards it with glee. Her innocence of the world around her caused her to miss the moving shadows further down the street. The object she had now found was indeed her missing ball, and ignoring her surroundings, she scooped it up delightedly.
The way back was clear enough, but a few steps ahead of her now, at the entrance to the alley, was her brother, gaping at her with a face so frightened that it stopped her in her tracks. It took a short while for her to notice that he wasn’t staring at her, but something behind her.
Quickly, but carefully, she turned around, and what she saw took her by surprise; an intense turquoise ring of an ethereal substance shone from the end of the alleyway, with streaks of purple rippling inside it like veins of pure magical energy. At the centre of it, a darkness that seemed to absorb all of the light around it stood bold, the height of two tall people and the width of four.
In front of the bright portal, three cumbersome creatures emerged. At first hunched over, they soon all stood tall, showing off their enormous frames and revealing through their silhouetted body shapes that they were neither habitants of this planet nor the whole universe. The creatures were clad in armour that seemed grafted on to the their skin, and while they stood there, the girl couldn’t move. She was too petrified. She couldn’t even open her mouth to scream.
Something grabbed her around the neck, and she panicked. It felt quite strong and was beginning to drag her away, but not towards the creatures as she suspected, but away from them. It was her brother, who had come to rescue her.
Within seconds they reached the street again, and nobody had seemed to notice anything weird or unusual, even with the glow of the portal now casting a suspicious and obvious light into the celebrations. People had simply assumed it was another firework show or extra set of decorative lights.
The boy made a straight line for his parents, holding his sisters hand and pulling her quite forcefully behind him. As they made it through the revellers, the girl began to cry.
The mother and father were sat drinking mulled wine out on the steps of their home, looking up at the sky which was now flush with coloured explosions and shapes. It was the father who first saw his children rushing towards them with tears in their eyes, and he instantly stood up to comfort them. The youngster was pointing frantically behind him, at the alleyway, distraught and trying to pull his mum and dad with him away from the source of the glow.
It had already begun. The creatures were now in the street, and had started striking down people in the most brutal ways. They had no wands or magical weapons, instead they held large clubs and hammers, and brought them crashing down onto their victims. Screams now replaced cheers, and the whole family stood agape at the horror now taking place.
Some citizens had now started fighting back, bringing out their own weapons and casting spells in a constant stream. They seemed to have little effect, only slowing them down instead of hurting them, and the creatures continued to attack. They spread out, one of them coming right down the street towards the family, with more of the monsters emerging out of the alleyway.
The father opened the front door of the house and tried to usher everybody in, but the boy refused. He wanted to run away, knowing that a mere wall wouldn’t stop such creatures. The father grabbed the boy’s hand, but his grip was too loose, as the boy wriggled free and stood back and out of reach. Taking one look at the approaching monsters, and then back at his father who stood in the doorway looking extremely distraught, he knew he would have to make the ultimate choice.
A stream of tears now ran down both of his cheeks, his throat was swollen with regret and his mind drowned in sadness as he waved one final goodbye to his family and started running, without turning back. The father hung out of the doorway, shouting to his son once more, before retreating back into his home and shutting the door.
The boy ran and ran, not daring to think about anything in particular except where he was going, and taking one last look back down the street, he saw one of the creatures bringing down his hammer into the doorway of his own house.
Though nobody knew it at the time, the world had just seen the start of the biggest war it had ever encountered thus far, and it would certainly be the bloodiest too.
*****
Moving ahead many centuries, the tragedies that beset the world that day had become simply guesses and imaginative recollections, with the true brutality having been softened over time to what now remained; a story from the past.
Dane had taken only two minutes to repack the weapon and wipe all evidence of his presence. He was now making his way back down the stairs that had led him to the rooftop, knowing full well that right now the Owsla would be setting up a lockdown in the vicinity of the murder. Due to the abundance of magical energy, it was easy enough for them to set up a sophisticated barrier that prevented people from getting too far from the crime scene.
Under normal circumstances, they would eventually find Dane, and that would be extremely risky to his and Cam’s group except for one special circumstance; he had a way out that the Owsla knew nothing about.
His swiftness came in handy as he leapt down flights of stairs in only a couple of strides. He was deft too, not having to think too much about where his next step was going to be, and this also improved his ability in certain situations to escape and outrun most others. If an incident was to occur and he was faced with an Owsla, it would be his biggest advantage against them.
The cold, dense marble of the lavishly decorated building connected with both his feet on the ground floor, and from here it was only a matter of seconds until he would be able to retreat to safety. He turned left and headed through a defunct fire escape door, into another corridor that led straight to another one, which unlike the last was alarmed and led outside. That, however, was not where Dane was headed. Instead, he stopped next to one of the walls and placed the case down.
Having no time to waste, he used his claws on the wall, carefully dragging them in a circular motion on a specific part. Repeating this several times, eventually he found what he was looking for, a very tiny and very shallow outline. He traced it so that his arms were stretching outwards, and he found the top two corners of a doorway.
Very carefully, he pulled on both sides, and out popped a door. It was narrower than most, but Dane still fit through with no worries, so he picked up the gun and walked straight through, while the door simply shut itself after him and returned to its stealthy form.
Dane now stood at the top of a flight of stairs in a dingy room. A light bulb stood naked atop a wooden crate below, struggling to bathe the room in its glow. The steps he treaded carefully down, led around the tall space, circling it, clinging to all four walls before reaching the bottom.
Naturally, this room didn’t appear on any plans of the building, which happened to be owned very indirectly by Dane’s group, so only a thorough inspection or knocking the whole thing down would uncover it. Of course, showing it to somebody would achieve the same result, and the penalty of death awaited anyone in the group who shared the secret. Thirty years into its existence, and it still remained undiscovered.
Approaching the bottom, a part of the room that was obscured from the high entrance was now visible. A very unkempt and flimsy looking tunnel, through earth and dirt and only a few feet long, led to a rather large circular metal doorway. It held a strong resemblance to a vault door, and seemed to sit inside the wall rather than be attached to it. It was secure from the outside, meaning that if it was closed, it was nigh impossible to break into. Dane strolled towards it, still gripping the gun tightly in his paw.
In an instant, he recognised that something was wrong. A large panel on the immaculate, steel surface of the door had been tampered with, and was beyond recognisable with charred, twisted remains. It was a malicious act that had removed the only method of opening the door.
“Cam!” He roared, knowing full well that the scrawny mutt was the one responsible. Before he had time to figure out his next move, the familiar hissing sound that represented the doorway being opened came from the other side. Someone was coming through.
“You were quicker than I thought.” The voice, undeniably that of the culprit, seeped through the narrow crack in the doorway that had been created.
“This is it Cam, you’ve crossed the line! Even I thought you…” He started the last few metres toward the narrow gap in which he could see the toothy grin of his enemy, but was rudely interrupted before he’d made any distance at all.
“You take one more step and I will push this button!” Cam shouted, his eyes looking off to the side for a brief moment. Dane knew exactly what button he meant. It was an emergency procedure that would forcefully shut the door so that if one of the group was being followed, a quick press of the button would slam the door shut behind them. It had enough power in its engineering to crush anybody who got caught between the two metal surfaces, and as quick as Dane could be, even he was no match for something his own group had built.
“Whatever you’re doing, just stop it right now.” His manner was calm, trying to appeal to a more reasonable side of Cam that he hoped he still had. “You’re part of a group who has everything to lose by leaving behind the one piece of evidence that ties you to all the recent murders.”
“Please, you wouldn’t confess, you have too much ‘honour’ for that.” The way in which he mocked his loyalty aggravated Dane immensely. “I’ve thought about this carefully.”
“What?”
“I’m taking over. I’m going to be in charge of this group from now on, and all you’re doing is standing in my way.”
“All this for a power play? You’re pathetic.”
“Not at all, there’s more to it. I could stand here all day and explain it all to you but why waste time? You’ll be caught any minute now!”
Cam laughed to himself, his eye line never breaking from Dane’s. Dane’s very limits were being tested, he now sensed a torrent of rage bearing down on him. He could hear himself growling.
“Do you seriously believe the others will bow down to you and accept you? Everyone in there hates you! The only reason they tolerate you is because I trust the word of the Teacher over my own feelings!”
“You still think this is all about you don’t you?” He sighed. “As much as I have wanted you out of there since the day you arrived, you are now only an obstacle in getting what I’ve wanted for so long. So please get over your ego trip and accept that for all you thought you were, you didn’t manage to best me. It makes me so blissful to think I’ll never have to see you again. My life truly is about to change for the better!”
Whilst he listened, Dane thought of using his gun case to stop the door closing, but he was too far away to aim well and even if successful, it would crush under the pressure of the door being closed. There was nothing he could do now to stop Cam getting away with it.
“Tell me one thing then Cam,” He began, in a last ditch attempt to gain some time. “Why didn’t you just kill me on the roof?”
Cam paused, which gave Dane all the answer he needed.
“You couldn’t. You put across this image of a man who isn’t afraid to do anything and yet you couldn’t overcome your fears of executing me. And that’s exactly why the second you set foot into the Den and they hear what happened, they’ll tear you apart. Give it up, you’ll never be their leader.”
For a few moments, the two of them stood still, staring at the other in silence. Only when the alarm sounded in the distance, an indication that the Owsla had begun to lock down the area, did one of them speak up.
“This is such a bittersweet way to end this little confrontation of ours.” Cam grinned. “You don’t know me at all. I could have killed you up there, but I needed you alive.”
The mood in the air changed. While Dane was sure that what he had just said was absolute fact, it seems he had indeed misjudged his adversary somewhat. It was as if a furtive, confident side to Cam had just been revealed, and Dane felt a wave of unease crash around him
“You’ve simply underestimated me, as you’ve always done. Can you honestly fool yourself into thinking I would have let that opportunity slide if it would have solved everything?
“I’ve wondered what would be the best way to get rid of you for a long time now and all I came up with was a bunch of unsatisfying ideas. You made my life so needlessly difficult, there had to be some way to make you feel what I’ve been suffering all these years, but a whole lot worse.
“To kill you with the gun, that would be too tacky. Pushing you off the building; not satisfying enough. Hell, I even considered having you framed for something that would result in your demise. Well, I couldn’t resist that last one as you’ll soon find out,”
He cupped his paw to his ear with a contented expression and let the screeching alarms fill the gap in the conversation for a little bit.
“But eventually it dawned on me, killing you wasn’t the answer, for the pain it created would be over after a few days, weeks, months depending on what I chose. Only something that would haunt you until the day you died would be good enough. So, to do that, I decided to destroy you in a place where the wound would never heal, your heart. “
All of a sudden things started to slot into place for Dane, and he now had a horrible idea of what was coming.
“That’s right, and I really wish I could stay here and wait for your inevitable outburst but you know, things to do and people to piss off. However, I just can't leave without making sure you've understood this properly, so let's not leave any misconceptions about just what happened here today. Are you ready? That girl you just murdered," He took one last deep breath and bared his teeth a final time. "She was your daughter."
Cam hit the emergency button almost straight away and the door snapped shut leaving Dane alone once more, with only his thoughts and an impending lock down for company.
NEXT CHAPTER: Chapter Four
It was approaching the end of the millennium, and the people were rejoicing. The streets were filled with raucous singing and cheering, the citizens of Natalo’s major cities were all celebrating and not a single shop save for an Inn or two were open for business. Nothing seemed to fall astray of the friendly atmosphere, it was remaining controlled and enjoyable even with all the alcohol flowing.
Away from the large crowds, in a quieter side road, a couple of young siblings, who were standing away from their distracted parents, were playing with a makeshift paper ball. They took it in turns throwing it to each other. This went on, back and forth, with the two of them being completely oblivious to the grandness of tonight’s occasion, both of them having a great time regardless.
After a particularly jaunty turn in their conversation, the boy then gave the ball a rather reckless lob, which sailed over the girls head and into the alleyway behind her. With the parents taking little notice of their kids, feeling they would be safe in their home street, the girl who showed no signs of fear quickly checked they were busy looking the other way before sneaking into the dimly lit passage.
Feeling unbothered by the location, she caught sight of something that was partially hidden behind a pile of rubbish, blowing around gently, and immediately ran towards it with glee. Her innocence of the world around her caused her to miss the moving shadows further down the street. The object she had now found was indeed her missing ball, and ignoring her surroundings, she scooped it up delightedly.
The way back was clear enough, but a few steps ahead of her now, at the entrance to the alley, was her brother, gaping at her with a face so frightened that it stopped her in her tracks. It took a short while for her to notice that he wasn’t staring at her, but something behind her.
Quickly, but carefully, she turned around, and what she saw took her by surprise; an intense turquoise ring of an ethereal substance shone from the end of the alleyway, with streaks of purple rippling inside it like veins of pure magical energy. At the centre of it, a darkness that seemed to absorb all of the light around it stood bold, the height of two tall people and the width of four.
In front of the bright portal, three cumbersome creatures emerged. At first hunched over, they soon all stood tall, showing off their enormous frames and revealing through their silhouetted body shapes that they were neither habitants of this planet nor the whole universe. The creatures were clad in armour that seemed grafted on to the their skin, and while they stood there, the girl couldn’t move. She was too petrified. She couldn’t even open her mouth to scream.
Something grabbed her around the neck, and she panicked. It felt quite strong and was beginning to drag her away, but not towards the creatures as she suspected, but away from them. It was her brother, who had come to rescue her.
Within seconds they reached the street again, and nobody had seemed to notice anything weird or unusual, even with the glow of the portal now casting a suspicious and obvious light into the celebrations. People had simply assumed it was another firework show or extra set of decorative lights.
The boy made a straight line for his parents, holding his sisters hand and pulling her quite forcefully behind him. As they made it through the revellers, the girl began to cry.
The mother and father were sat drinking mulled wine out on the steps of their home, looking up at the sky which was now flush with coloured explosions and shapes. It was the father who first saw his children rushing towards them with tears in their eyes, and he instantly stood up to comfort them. The youngster was pointing frantically behind him, at the alleyway, distraught and trying to pull his mum and dad with him away from the source of the glow.
It had already begun. The creatures were now in the street, and had started striking down people in the most brutal ways. They had no wands or magical weapons, instead they held large clubs and hammers, and brought them crashing down onto their victims. Screams now replaced cheers, and the whole family stood agape at the horror now taking place.
Some citizens had now started fighting back, bringing out their own weapons and casting spells in a constant stream. They seemed to have little effect, only slowing them down instead of hurting them, and the creatures continued to attack. They spread out, one of them coming right down the street towards the family, with more of the monsters emerging out of the alleyway.
The father opened the front door of the house and tried to usher everybody in, but the boy refused. He wanted to run away, knowing that a mere wall wouldn’t stop such creatures. The father grabbed the boy’s hand, but his grip was too loose, as the boy wriggled free and stood back and out of reach. Taking one look at the approaching monsters, and then back at his father who stood in the doorway looking extremely distraught, he knew he would have to make the ultimate choice.
A stream of tears now ran down both of his cheeks, his throat was swollen with regret and his mind drowned in sadness as he waved one final goodbye to his family and started running, without turning back. The father hung out of the doorway, shouting to his son once more, before retreating back into his home and shutting the door.
The boy ran and ran, not daring to think about anything in particular except where he was going, and taking one last look back down the street, he saw one of the creatures bringing down his hammer into the doorway of his own house.
Though nobody knew it at the time, the world had just seen the start of the biggest war it had ever encountered thus far, and it would certainly be the bloodiest too.
*****
Moving ahead many centuries, the tragedies that beset the world that day had become simply guesses and imaginative recollections, with the true brutality having been softened over time to what now remained; a story from the past.
Dane had taken only two minutes to repack the weapon and wipe all evidence of his presence. He was now making his way back down the stairs that had led him to the rooftop, knowing full well that right now the Owsla would be setting up a lockdown in the vicinity of the murder. Due to the abundance of magical energy, it was easy enough for them to set up a sophisticated barrier that prevented people from getting too far from the crime scene.
Under normal circumstances, they would eventually find Dane, and that would be extremely risky to his and Cam’s group except for one special circumstance; he had a way out that the Owsla knew nothing about.
His swiftness came in handy as he leapt down flights of stairs in only a couple of strides. He was deft too, not having to think too much about where his next step was going to be, and this also improved his ability in certain situations to escape and outrun most others. If an incident was to occur and he was faced with an Owsla, it would be his biggest advantage against them.
The cold, dense marble of the lavishly decorated building connected with both his feet on the ground floor, and from here it was only a matter of seconds until he would be able to retreat to safety. He turned left and headed through a defunct fire escape door, into another corridor that led straight to another one, which unlike the last was alarmed and led outside. That, however, was not where Dane was headed. Instead, he stopped next to one of the walls and placed the case down.
Having no time to waste, he used his claws on the wall, carefully dragging them in a circular motion on a specific part. Repeating this several times, eventually he found what he was looking for, a very tiny and very shallow outline. He traced it so that his arms were stretching outwards, and he found the top two corners of a doorway.
Very carefully, he pulled on both sides, and out popped a door. It was narrower than most, but Dane still fit through with no worries, so he picked up the gun and walked straight through, while the door simply shut itself after him and returned to its stealthy form.
Dane now stood at the top of a flight of stairs in a dingy room. A light bulb stood naked atop a wooden crate below, struggling to bathe the room in its glow. The steps he treaded carefully down, led around the tall space, circling it, clinging to all four walls before reaching the bottom.
Naturally, this room didn’t appear on any plans of the building, which happened to be owned very indirectly by Dane’s group, so only a thorough inspection or knocking the whole thing down would uncover it. Of course, showing it to somebody would achieve the same result, and the penalty of death awaited anyone in the group who shared the secret. Thirty years into its existence, and it still remained undiscovered.
Approaching the bottom, a part of the room that was obscured from the high entrance was now visible. A very unkempt and flimsy looking tunnel, through earth and dirt and only a few feet long, led to a rather large circular metal doorway. It held a strong resemblance to a vault door, and seemed to sit inside the wall rather than be attached to it. It was secure from the outside, meaning that if it was closed, it was nigh impossible to break into. Dane strolled towards it, still gripping the gun tightly in his paw.
In an instant, he recognised that something was wrong. A large panel on the immaculate, steel surface of the door had been tampered with, and was beyond recognisable with charred, twisted remains. It was a malicious act that had removed the only method of opening the door.
“Cam!” He roared, knowing full well that the scrawny mutt was the one responsible. Before he had time to figure out his next move, the familiar hissing sound that represented the doorway being opened came from the other side. Someone was coming through.
“You were quicker than I thought.” The voice, undeniably that of the culprit, seeped through the narrow crack in the doorway that had been created.
“This is it Cam, you’ve crossed the line! Even I thought you…” He started the last few metres toward the narrow gap in which he could see the toothy grin of his enemy, but was rudely interrupted before he’d made any distance at all.
“You take one more step and I will push this button!” Cam shouted, his eyes looking off to the side for a brief moment. Dane knew exactly what button he meant. It was an emergency procedure that would forcefully shut the door so that if one of the group was being followed, a quick press of the button would slam the door shut behind them. It had enough power in its engineering to crush anybody who got caught between the two metal surfaces, and as quick as Dane could be, even he was no match for something his own group had built.
“Whatever you’re doing, just stop it right now.” His manner was calm, trying to appeal to a more reasonable side of Cam that he hoped he still had. “You’re part of a group who has everything to lose by leaving behind the one piece of evidence that ties you to all the recent murders.”
“Please, you wouldn’t confess, you have too much ‘honour’ for that.” The way in which he mocked his loyalty aggravated Dane immensely. “I’ve thought about this carefully.”
“What?”
“I’m taking over. I’m going to be in charge of this group from now on, and all you’re doing is standing in my way.”
“All this for a power play? You’re pathetic.”
“Not at all, there’s more to it. I could stand here all day and explain it all to you but why waste time? You’ll be caught any minute now!”
Cam laughed to himself, his eye line never breaking from Dane’s. Dane’s very limits were being tested, he now sensed a torrent of rage bearing down on him. He could hear himself growling.
“Do you seriously believe the others will bow down to you and accept you? Everyone in there hates you! The only reason they tolerate you is because I trust the word of the Teacher over my own feelings!”
“You still think this is all about you don’t you?” He sighed. “As much as I have wanted you out of there since the day you arrived, you are now only an obstacle in getting what I’ve wanted for so long. So please get over your ego trip and accept that for all you thought you were, you didn’t manage to best me. It makes me so blissful to think I’ll never have to see you again. My life truly is about to change for the better!”
Whilst he listened, Dane thought of using his gun case to stop the door closing, but he was too far away to aim well and even if successful, it would crush under the pressure of the door being closed. There was nothing he could do now to stop Cam getting away with it.
“Tell me one thing then Cam,” He began, in a last ditch attempt to gain some time. “Why didn’t you just kill me on the roof?”
Cam paused, which gave Dane all the answer he needed.
“You couldn’t. You put across this image of a man who isn’t afraid to do anything and yet you couldn’t overcome your fears of executing me. And that’s exactly why the second you set foot into the Den and they hear what happened, they’ll tear you apart. Give it up, you’ll never be their leader.”
For a few moments, the two of them stood still, staring at the other in silence. Only when the alarm sounded in the distance, an indication that the Owsla had begun to lock down the area, did one of them speak up.
“This is such a bittersweet way to end this little confrontation of ours.” Cam grinned. “You don’t know me at all. I could have killed you up there, but I needed you alive.”
The mood in the air changed. While Dane was sure that what he had just said was absolute fact, it seems he had indeed misjudged his adversary somewhat. It was as if a furtive, confident side to Cam had just been revealed, and Dane felt a wave of unease crash around him
“You’ve simply underestimated me, as you’ve always done. Can you honestly fool yourself into thinking I would have let that opportunity slide if it would have solved everything?
“I’ve wondered what would be the best way to get rid of you for a long time now and all I came up with was a bunch of unsatisfying ideas. You made my life so needlessly difficult, there had to be some way to make you feel what I’ve been suffering all these years, but a whole lot worse.
“To kill you with the gun, that would be too tacky. Pushing you off the building; not satisfying enough. Hell, I even considered having you framed for something that would result in your demise. Well, I couldn’t resist that last one as you’ll soon find out,”
He cupped his paw to his ear with a contented expression and let the screeching alarms fill the gap in the conversation for a little bit.
“But eventually it dawned on me, killing you wasn’t the answer, for the pain it created would be over after a few days, weeks, months depending on what I chose. Only something that would haunt you until the day you died would be good enough. So, to do that, I decided to destroy you in a place where the wound would never heal, your heart. “
All of a sudden things started to slot into place for Dane, and he now had a horrible idea of what was coming.
“That’s right, and I really wish I could stay here and wait for your inevitable outburst but you know, things to do and people to piss off. However, I just can't leave without making sure you've understood this properly, so let's not leave any misconceptions about just what happened here today. Are you ready? That girl you just murdered," He took one last deep breath and bared his teeth a final time. "She was your daughter."
Cam hit the emergency button almost straight away and the door snapped shut leaving Dane alone once more, with only his thoughts and an impending lock down for company.
NEXT CHAPTER: Chapter Four
Chapter 2
Read from the start here: Chapter One
It felt like she was living through the next few moments in slow motion. She could feel something had happened, a deep, cracking explosion ripped through her ears leaving an echo so hideous, her reaction was to clamp them both shut. There was no time for that though, whatever happened had already begun and there was no stopping it. As she felt the object approaching, nearer and nearer, she tried to turn her head, to hit the deck or to shield herself from it, but it was no use. It got closer with every nanosecond and despite the minimal time, she had gone through the motions and even accepted it, like it was part of her journey; her destiny. Then it all disappeared.
The shock of waking up so suddenly caused Susan to jump in her chair and the subsequent shift in balance sent her to the floor, with the chair on top of her.
“What happened?” A voice originated from the other side of her desk, seeming moderately calm. “Did you fall asleep?”
Picking herself up from the floor while rubbing her sore back, she rose to see her fellow worker Fredo staring across at her with a smile on his face. He was enjoying the situation.
“Think it’s funny do you? I could have really hurt myself.” Susan replied looking agitated, while replacing her seat.
“Relax, you probably suffered a minor bruising that’s all. I saw it from my desk, what happened? That was quite a jump you did!”
“I had this…” She paused trying to think of the right word. “Bizarre dream.”
“What was it about?”
“That’s the thing, it was about ten seconds ago and I’ve already forgotten. Something quite vivid and unreal though, a bit scary too. Oh well, it’s just one of those things, isn’t it?”
Fredo nodded quietly, and as he did he began to lean against her desk and peruse the papers stacked neatly on it. The room was quite small, but for an office it sufficed, and the minimal décor made it feel quite stagnant. It really didn’t feel like the occupant had been there for a couple of years. As he browsed, Susan kept talking.
“I’ve been up since 4am this morning for the meeting which doesn’t seem to be happening and I had so little sleep last night that I can’t stay awake. It’s a little embarrassing.”
“Lighten up, it could be worse.”
“Please take it upon yourself to explain how it could while remaining in the bounds of plausibility.” She smirked.
“Well,” He began, carefully avoiding her gaze. “You could be sitting at home without a job, and then you wouldn’t even have known me!” He exclaimed with a sarcastic tone.
“When you say it like that it makes me realise how bad I have it here.” As she grinned cheekily, she sat back down in her chair and yawned loudly. “I don’t even know what the meetings about. Should I be relaxed because he hasn’t called for me yet, or should I be even more worried?”
“You got to stop torturing yourself over what is essentially nothing. If it’s important enough he’ll tell you, just give him time, you know Crutch trusts you.”
He was right. Lionel Crutch was the Director for the agency both Susan and Fredo worked for, and it was called The Trust. Its purpose was surveillance but on a wholly intrusive degree, which is why nobody outside of a select few people knew of its existence. Founded clandestinely over seven years ago, it was one of the Governments secret success stories. The levels of crime had decreased dramatically during its lifetime and it was to their own bane that they couldn’t even accredit the right people for it, instead giving the law enforcement who had been feeding off them that pleasure.
Lionel was a grumpy individual who was born to do his job. He was authoritative, well spoken, organised to the point of obsession and surprisingly personable. He had been chosen to lead this new group from its conception and rightly so. Everything that had gone right with it had been due to his leadership. His frequent professional involvement with Susan and his pride in her work had cemented in him a great deal of respect for her. Accordingly, to him she could do little wrong.
“I think I’ll work through the rest of these reports.” Susan carefully picked up a few sheets and placed them in front of her. “It’ll pass the time.”
“Let me help you with some of these.”
“No, don’t, I’ll be fine.”
“It’s a busy day Susan, you’re always taking on too much than is good for you.” He hastily took one of the several heaps of paper while Susan quickly stood up to protest.
“Don’t be stupid, this is my job and I couldn’t ask you to do any of this stuff. You’ve got your own work to do…”
“…Of which I am already ahead so this really is nothing.”
Fredo headed back to his desk with his hands full.
“I don’t owe you anything for this!” She shouted as he left the office grinning, letting the door close gently behind him.
She sat back down and gave a hefty sigh, and checked the intercom machine next to the computer screen. The hovering glass plate showed no sign of change as she waved her paw over it. Still tired, she then turned her attention to the computer, and started sifting through the files placed upon it. She selected her inbox and scrolled down to find the email she received this morning from Crutch.
‘Susan, letting you know through official correspondence that you are required to come in early tomorrow as we are expecting to hold an urgent meeting sometime after 4am. Please come early, regards Lionel.’
She had always been in the loop for classified issues, her position in charge of the Department or Research and Investigation allowed her that sort of access, but this feeling of exclusion was new. Instead of feeling aggravated about this, she felt nervous. If there was something not even she was to know about, it must be something big and her imagination was snowballing about what it could be.
In the absence of more important business for now, she turned her attention to the files in front of her. There were over a hundred cases of crime and disturbances over the past 24 hours, and it was her job to search for anything suspicious or dangerous that could be solved using the surveillance. In most cases, finding out the time and cross referencing it to the files in the database would produce enough evidence to conclude it, for example a drunken fight turning violent in an alleyway or someone who still thought they could get away with mugging an innocent citizen. These would often be passed on to her subordinates, such as Fredo, who would do the donkey work. Occasionally, there would be a head scratching case where something didn’t quite fit and the surveillance didn’t help. This was where Susan came in.
Looking through the files today, she was faced with an abundance of the latter. Without even thinking about it, she had already suspected it had something to do with what Crutch had called her in for. Amongst the puzzling bits, errors were plastered on the front of some of the files telling her there was no image for the supplied data, or a corrupt image in its place. In addition, there were even reports of mutated life forms appearing on the outskirts of the city and not even surveillance was capable of explaining why, just that they had first been sighted emerging from heavily forested area and couldn’t be traced before that at all. They were all aggressive and very large creatures. She’d had to command an NA (Natalo Army) Unit to guard the entrance where they had been seen heading towards.
Alarm bells were ringing in her head, and she quickly turned on the intercom type device and dialled. A couple of seconds later, a voice came through.
“Fredo.”
“Yes Susan?”
“I need you to go down to the database level and find out what’s going on down there. Something big or terrible or both is happening and I want to know what.”
“I just spoke to Ben and he told me there’s nobody down there on that floor, the whole department is out until nine. I think you’re the only one around with access.”
“Damn,” She rubbed her forehead. “I can’t go because I’ve got this meeting at any moment.”
She pondered over the possibility of popping down quickly, but knew without anyone there it would be at least a twenty minute job assuming everything went smoothly. It’d have to wait until later.
“Ok abort that little plan for now, but keep on them and go down there the moment they return. This is serious stuff.”
“Will do. Anything else I can help with?”
“No, you’re set for now. Thank you.”
As she hung up, a knock came at the door, a delicate tapping which had it not been for the complete silence at the time, would probably have been missed.
“Come in.”
Inside walked a stunningly pretty feline, white from head to toe and dressed in a light coloured suit that impressed Susan and put her own to shame. Her name was Delilah, and she was very popular around the office despite being rather shy. She had worked hard for her spot in The Trust and despite being smarter than most people there she never once mentioned it. A truly modest individual.
“Hello.”
“Hey Dee, what do you have for me?” She asked, referencing the bundle in her hand.
“I apologise, but I have the most recent report and you’re not going to like it.”
“You mean that killer has struck again?”
“Yes” She replied timidly.
“Who’s the victim?”
“It was just recorded so I only have minimal details, but the victim was female, mid to late twenties. Dead from the moment she was struck, seems to be the same method as before which indicates the serial killer.”
Standing up, Susan took it from Delilah and opened it. The victim was indeed a female, who had been killed from a lodged piece of metal in her brain sent flying at a high velocity, causing instantaneous death. Everything here suggested it was the Nomag killer, named after the very rare group of people who were unable to harness the magical energy into a usable form. This murderer either chose not to or couldn’t use ‘magic’ and this made it harder to identify them.
“Have you had a look at the surveillance for this area?”
“Partially obscured, just like the rest. Nothing to identify who or what did it.”
“Perfect, just what I needed.” She moaned with a fleeting sarcasm. “Why can’t we get this guy? He can’t keep getting away with killing as and when he pleases!”
“I’ll see what the tech guys can get from it.”
“Even if it is just a formality.” She sighed. “Anything else?”
“No, except… no, I’m sorry.”
“What is it?”
“It’s nothing, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have even started that sentence.”
“Dee, what’s wrong?”
The feline hesitated. “I wanted to ask you if you knew why they have called us all in? We’re certain that it’s something important and you’re always kept in the know but we understand you’re not allowed to tell us either so that’s why I didn’t want to ask.”
Susan looked at Delilah, who was clearly a little upset about something, and if she had to guess what it was, it would be that she probably feared for her loved ones. Everybody always knew that when there was an ‘urgent meeting’ it was always bad news. They’d been through it before.
“I’m sorry…”
“No, it’s ok. I figured as much, but wanted to ask anyway. I was really rude, putting you into that situation.”
“No, I’m sorry, even if I did know more than I was letting on, I still couldn’t tell you no matter how much I wanted to.”
Delilah forced a cheerful smile and bowed her head slightly.
“If there’s anything else you need Miss…”
“Nothing for the moment, Dee. I’ll um, I’ll call you if I do though, thank you.”
“No problem.”
Delilah left the room, leaving Susan once more alone in her office. She breathed in deeply to try and reinvigorate her as the tiredness once again came back. Yawning again rather loudly, she sat back down and flicked her computer back into action again. Still nothing to report.
“Back to work then.” She grumbled, slamming down the file she had just received about the Nomag killer. As she set her eyes upon the first word, all of a sudden a loud beeping filled the room. Almost immediately, Susan reached for the intercom and pushed the glowing red button.
“Susan?” The voice was soft, direct and also female.
“Yes, speaking.”
“Mr Crutch expects to see you in the meeting room in five minutes.”
“Yes, certainly. I’m on my way.”
Something clicked and the line went dead. Susan stood up and walked across to the mirror next to the door, and straightened herself up a bit, making herself look that extra bit presentable. Satisfied with her adjusted look, she opened the door and strode out.
Fredo looked up from his paperwork to see her stride by, and gave her a wink. Next she passed Dee’s desk, and received what can only be described as the meekest smile she had ever noticed. Nodding, she continued forward towards the exit. The few workers who were in this early were all really busy, but as she walked past they all took a second or two to look up and acknowledge her, if only to wish her luck in their own ways. She would probably need it.
The corridor she had reached now was rather barren and sterile, with nothing decorative or pleasant about it. Susan briefly mulled over in her mind that she only ever noticed this on the way to these meetings. At the end of the corridor stood the elevators, two thick panels of polished steel awaiting her and a glowing panel to the side, which she quickly touched with her thumb. As the doors opened and a cold and empty room beckoned her in, all she could hope for was that whatever was coming wouldn’t be that bad, but deep down she knew it would be.
Next Chapter: CHAPTER THREE
It felt like she was living through the next few moments in slow motion. She could feel something had happened, a deep, cracking explosion ripped through her ears leaving an echo so hideous, her reaction was to clamp them both shut. There was no time for that though, whatever happened had already begun and there was no stopping it. As she felt the object approaching, nearer and nearer, she tried to turn her head, to hit the deck or to shield herself from it, but it was no use. It got closer with every nanosecond and despite the minimal time, she had gone through the motions and even accepted it, like it was part of her journey; her destiny. Then it all disappeared.
The shock of waking up so suddenly caused Susan to jump in her chair and the subsequent shift in balance sent her to the floor, with the chair on top of her.
“What happened?” A voice originated from the other side of her desk, seeming moderately calm. “Did you fall asleep?”
Picking herself up from the floor while rubbing her sore back, she rose to see her fellow worker Fredo staring across at her with a smile on his face. He was enjoying the situation.
“Think it’s funny do you? I could have really hurt myself.” Susan replied looking agitated, while replacing her seat.
“Relax, you probably suffered a minor bruising that’s all. I saw it from my desk, what happened? That was quite a jump you did!”
“I had this…” She paused trying to think of the right word. “Bizarre dream.”
“What was it about?”
“That’s the thing, it was about ten seconds ago and I’ve already forgotten. Something quite vivid and unreal though, a bit scary too. Oh well, it’s just one of those things, isn’t it?”
Fredo nodded quietly, and as he did he began to lean against her desk and peruse the papers stacked neatly on it. The room was quite small, but for an office it sufficed, and the minimal décor made it feel quite stagnant. It really didn’t feel like the occupant had been there for a couple of years. As he browsed, Susan kept talking.
“I’ve been up since 4am this morning for the meeting which doesn’t seem to be happening and I had so little sleep last night that I can’t stay awake. It’s a little embarrassing.”
“Lighten up, it could be worse.”
“Please take it upon yourself to explain how it could while remaining in the bounds of plausibility.” She smirked.
“Well,” He began, carefully avoiding her gaze. “You could be sitting at home without a job, and then you wouldn’t even have known me!” He exclaimed with a sarcastic tone.
“When you say it like that it makes me realise how bad I have it here.” As she grinned cheekily, she sat back down in her chair and yawned loudly. “I don’t even know what the meetings about. Should I be relaxed because he hasn’t called for me yet, or should I be even more worried?”
“You got to stop torturing yourself over what is essentially nothing. If it’s important enough he’ll tell you, just give him time, you know Crutch trusts you.”
He was right. Lionel Crutch was the Director for the agency both Susan and Fredo worked for, and it was called The Trust. Its purpose was surveillance but on a wholly intrusive degree, which is why nobody outside of a select few people knew of its existence. Founded clandestinely over seven years ago, it was one of the Governments secret success stories. The levels of crime had decreased dramatically during its lifetime and it was to their own bane that they couldn’t even accredit the right people for it, instead giving the law enforcement who had been feeding off them that pleasure.
Lionel was a grumpy individual who was born to do his job. He was authoritative, well spoken, organised to the point of obsession and surprisingly personable. He had been chosen to lead this new group from its conception and rightly so. Everything that had gone right with it had been due to his leadership. His frequent professional involvement with Susan and his pride in her work had cemented in him a great deal of respect for her. Accordingly, to him she could do little wrong.
“I think I’ll work through the rest of these reports.” Susan carefully picked up a few sheets and placed them in front of her. “It’ll pass the time.”
“Let me help you with some of these.”
“No, don’t, I’ll be fine.”
“It’s a busy day Susan, you’re always taking on too much than is good for you.” He hastily took one of the several heaps of paper while Susan quickly stood up to protest.
“Don’t be stupid, this is my job and I couldn’t ask you to do any of this stuff. You’ve got your own work to do…”
“…Of which I am already ahead so this really is nothing.”
Fredo headed back to his desk with his hands full.
“I don’t owe you anything for this!” She shouted as he left the office grinning, letting the door close gently behind him.
She sat back down and gave a hefty sigh, and checked the intercom machine next to the computer screen. The hovering glass plate showed no sign of change as she waved her paw over it. Still tired, she then turned her attention to the computer, and started sifting through the files placed upon it. She selected her inbox and scrolled down to find the email she received this morning from Crutch.
‘Susan, letting you know through official correspondence that you are required to come in early tomorrow as we are expecting to hold an urgent meeting sometime after 4am. Please come early, regards Lionel.’
She had always been in the loop for classified issues, her position in charge of the Department or Research and Investigation allowed her that sort of access, but this feeling of exclusion was new. Instead of feeling aggravated about this, she felt nervous. If there was something not even she was to know about, it must be something big and her imagination was snowballing about what it could be.
In the absence of more important business for now, she turned her attention to the files in front of her. There were over a hundred cases of crime and disturbances over the past 24 hours, and it was her job to search for anything suspicious or dangerous that could be solved using the surveillance. In most cases, finding out the time and cross referencing it to the files in the database would produce enough evidence to conclude it, for example a drunken fight turning violent in an alleyway or someone who still thought they could get away with mugging an innocent citizen. These would often be passed on to her subordinates, such as Fredo, who would do the donkey work. Occasionally, there would be a head scratching case where something didn’t quite fit and the surveillance didn’t help. This was where Susan came in.
Looking through the files today, she was faced with an abundance of the latter. Without even thinking about it, she had already suspected it had something to do with what Crutch had called her in for. Amongst the puzzling bits, errors were plastered on the front of some of the files telling her there was no image for the supplied data, or a corrupt image in its place. In addition, there were even reports of mutated life forms appearing on the outskirts of the city and not even surveillance was capable of explaining why, just that they had first been sighted emerging from heavily forested area and couldn’t be traced before that at all. They were all aggressive and very large creatures. She’d had to command an NA (Natalo Army) Unit to guard the entrance where they had been seen heading towards.
Alarm bells were ringing in her head, and she quickly turned on the intercom type device and dialled. A couple of seconds later, a voice came through.
“Fredo.”
“Yes Susan?”
“I need you to go down to the database level and find out what’s going on down there. Something big or terrible or both is happening and I want to know what.”
“I just spoke to Ben and he told me there’s nobody down there on that floor, the whole department is out until nine. I think you’re the only one around with access.”
“Damn,” She rubbed her forehead. “I can’t go because I’ve got this meeting at any moment.”
She pondered over the possibility of popping down quickly, but knew without anyone there it would be at least a twenty minute job assuming everything went smoothly. It’d have to wait until later.
“Ok abort that little plan for now, but keep on them and go down there the moment they return. This is serious stuff.”
“Will do. Anything else I can help with?”
“No, you’re set for now. Thank you.”
As she hung up, a knock came at the door, a delicate tapping which had it not been for the complete silence at the time, would probably have been missed.
“Come in.”
Inside walked a stunningly pretty feline, white from head to toe and dressed in a light coloured suit that impressed Susan and put her own to shame. Her name was Delilah, and she was very popular around the office despite being rather shy. She had worked hard for her spot in The Trust and despite being smarter than most people there she never once mentioned it. A truly modest individual.
“Hello.”
“Hey Dee, what do you have for me?” She asked, referencing the bundle in her hand.
“I apologise, but I have the most recent report and you’re not going to like it.”
“You mean that killer has struck again?”
“Yes” She replied timidly.
“Who’s the victim?”
“It was just recorded so I only have minimal details, but the victim was female, mid to late twenties. Dead from the moment she was struck, seems to be the same method as before which indicates the serial killer.”
Standing up, Susan took it from Delilah and opened it. The victim was indeed a female, who had been killed from a lodged piece of metal in her brain sent flying at a high velocity, causing instantaneous death. Everything here suggested it was the Nomag killer, named after the very rare group of people who were unable to harness the magical energy into a usable form. This murderer either chose not to or couldn’t use ‘magic’ and this made it harder to identify them.
“Have you had a look at the surveillance for this area?”
“Partially obscured, just like the rest. Nothing to identify who or what did it.”
“Perfect, just what I needed.” She moaned with a fleeting sarcasm. “Why can’t we get this guy? He can’t keep getting away with killing as and when he pleases!”
“I’ll see what the tech guys can get from it.”
“Even if it is just a formality.” She sighed. “Anything else?”
“No, except… no, I’m sorry.”
“What is it?”
“It’s nothing, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have even started that sentence.”
“Dee, what’s wrong?”
The feline hesitated. “I wanted to ask you if you knew why they have called us all in? We’re certain that it’s something important and you’re always kept in the know but we understand you’re not allowed to tell us either so that’s why I didn’t want to ask.”
Susan looked at Delilah, who was clearly a little upset about something, and if she had to guess what it was, it would be that she probably feared for her loved ones. Everybody always knew that when there was an ‘urgent meeting’ it was always bad news. They’d been through it before.
“I’m sorry…”
“No, it’s ok. I figured as much, but wanted to ask anyway. I was really rude, putting you into that situation.”
“No, I’m sorry, even if I did know more than I was letting on, I still couldn’t tell you no matter how much I wanted to.”
Delilah forced a cheerful smile and bowed her head slightly.
“If there’s anything else you need Miss…”
“Nothing for the moment, Dee. I’ll um, I’ll call you if I do though, thank you.”
“No problem.”
Delilah left the room, leaving Susan once more alone in her office. She breathed in deeply to try and reinvigorate her as the tiredness once again came back. Yawning again rather loudly, she sat back down and flicked her computer back into action again. Still nothing to report.
“Back to work then.” She grumbled, slamming down the file she had just received about the Nomag killer. As she set her eyes upon the first word, all of a sudden a loud beeping filled the room. Almost immediately, Susan reached for the intercom and pushed the glowing red button.
“Susan?” The voice was soft, direct and also female.
“Yes, speaking.”
“Mr Crutch expects to see you in the meeting room in five minutes.”
“Yes, certainly. I’m on my way.”
Something clicked and the line went dead. Susan stood up and walked across to the mirror next to the door, and straightened herself up a bit, making herself look that extra bit presentable. Satisfied with her adjusted look, she opened the door and strode out.
Fredo looked up from his paperwork to see her stride by, and gave her a wink. Next she passed Dee’s desk, and received what can only be described as the meekest smile she had ever noticed. Nodding, she continued forward towards the exit. The few workers who were in this early were all really busy, but as she walked past they all took a second or two to look up and acknowledge her, if only to wish her luck in their own ways. She would probably need it.
The corridor she had reached now was rather barren and sterile, with nothing decorative or pleasant about it. Susan briefly mulled over in her mind that she only ever noticed this on the way to these meetings. At the end of the corridor stood the elevators, two thick panels of polished steel awaiting her and a glowing panel to the side, which she quickly touched with her thumb. As the doors opened and a cold and empty room beckoned her in, all she could hope for was that whatever was coming wouldn’t be that bad, but deep down she knew it would be.
Next Chapter: CHAPTER THREE
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