The man continued to ask Charlie questions though she had stopped answering them. Eventually he gave up. She figured someone else would be in charge of deciding what to do with her. She felt only a small amount of hope. After all he hadn't killed her yet. He could have. The man could have dragged her out into the middle of the exchange and she was sure both sides would have insisted on killing her. She didn't know what to make of the fact that she was still alive but she didn't want to beg. There were just some things that she refused to do.
He also hadn't restrained her, not that she could run anyway. The hall was dark, she had no light sources, it was long and straight, and he had an automatic weapon. If she ran, she wouldn't get far.
Again time stretched. Charlie wished she had a watch but she hadn't thought to bring one with her. She had no idea what time it was and how long she had been down in the underground. She felt exhausted but there was too much adrenaline in her system, to much fear, otherwise she would have fallen asleep waiting for the "exterminators" to be done.
"Cody," anther worker poked his head into the corridor, "We're all clear."
Charlie slowly climbed to her feet suddenly feeling far less tired as another wave of adrenaline flooded her system. Apparently that was the cue for the "workers" to take Charlie to their leader. Normally making nerdy jokes in her head was one of Charlie's most effective coping methods, but today she couldn't even derive any humor from her own lame joke she was so nervous.
As expected Charlie's babysitter Cody and the other guy took her to the man wearing the charcoal suit. Charlie and the man exchanged long assessing glances. He reminded her a bit of a businessman but unlike the CEOs and CFOs and board members that Charlie had met he seemed more real. He was not trying to hide his nature behind a constructed facade. Instead he openly displayed his cunning and cold hearted nature. His face was clean, there was no real 5 o'clock shadow. His hair, streaked with gray was perfectly cut and styled. There was not a single strand out of place. Lines ringed deep brown eyes that held not a fleck of compassion. Perhaps to some this might have been frightening but Charlie felt that this clear and honest approach was rather refreshing. She had too much experience with pretenders that she actually felt this obvious criminal was more trustworthy simply because he didn't hide his darker nature.
The man's eyes lingered on her face, form, and the straggly hair that had managed to escape the hat she wore. Seeing his intense focus, Charlie was almost certain the man had recognized her.
"So?" The man asked simply.
"She claims to have run away sir," the man called Cody replied, "She didn't say much else."
The silence stretched until it became awkward.
"She didn't try to run or nothing." He continued after some fidgeting.
"What did you see?" The man in the charcoal suit asked Charlie.
Charlie replied to him in much the same way as she had answered his subordinate. Unlike his subordinate, the man in the charcoal suit laughed.
"Rats." There was real mirth in his eyes beneath the cold calculation, "Clever. You're the Callahan kid."
"Charlie," she said with a nod.
"According to the Amber Alert on the news you are currently missing and probably endangered. There have also been insinuations that you have possibly been kidnapped."
This time it was Charlie's turn to laugh, "Well, they must have cleared the surveillance footage before they called the cops." Charlie thought back to her escape avoiding any and all people. How the heck could she have been kidnapped? Also, she was fleeing the danger rather than being endangered because she was missing.
The man looked at her for a few moments before ordering someone to recover the film. Charlie tried to prevent herself from grimacing. She really didn't want to be privy to any more illegal activities no matter how helpful the hacking might be. Then she couldn't help but wonder how they were going to manage that. Could they access footage that the cops couldn't? Were the cops paid off? That wouldn't surprise her actually.
"So, Miss Charlie," the man lit a cigaret and took a drag before continuing, "What will my people find on those cameras?"
She shrugged, "Me pretending to be drugged and ditching my escort to run out the employee exit."
She didn't tell him all the sordid details. She didn't know what the man's intentions were.
The man looked a question at her but she kept her mouth shut. He smiled. It takes a certain mindset to be able not to over share in stressful situations. Charlie was keeping most of her secrets close and not sharing any more than she had to to be considered cooperative.
Minutes later a man came up with a weird looking laptop. Most laptops look sleek and somewhat flimsy. This thing was built more along the lines of a tank. Charlie wondered if it would show any damage if it was driven over with a car. She didn't think it would. Wait... do they get wifi down here? She wondered. She stopped that line of thought as it was too complicated for how exhausted she felt.
The man with the indestructible laptop and the man in the charcoal suit whispered back and forth a couple times. Then they silently focused on the screen for a time. The laptop guy rolled his eyes and glanced at Charlie for a bit before looking back.
Charlie kept her eyes on the man in the charcoal suit. She had learned a long time ago to pay attention to the most dangerous person in the room. For her, this was usually her stepmother, Tiffany. Charlie knew every micro expression and what it might mean for her. As the two men watched the recording, Charlie couldn't help but catch a momentary sneer on the face of the man in the charcoal suit but she didn't know what that meant for her.
"What do you know of Ross Silva?" The man asked.
The smile on Charlie's face wasn't a very nice one, "Was he upset when I wasn't delivered as promised?" She asked.
"Silva has certain proclivities.... ones he shares with your father." The man continued.
Charlie wasn't surprised to hear that. She knew her father slept with whomever he pleased with the full knowledge and permission of her stepmother. The only rules they had were to protect him from getting sick or getting a woman pregnant. Charlie regularly wish he would end up with some nasty STD but somehow he managed to stay clean. But now she had to wonder if it was more than that.
"Do you mean my father likes underage girls, or that he drugs and rapes them, or both?" She asked.
"If I said he did, would you believe it?"
Charlie snorted, "There is very little I wouldn't believe of my family, well except for selfless acts of kindness, those I would find difficult to believe."
For a while there was silence. Eventually Charlie couldn't help but look at the other man, the one who had brought the computer. Apparently he thought she was asking a question.
"You look more drunk than drugged and at the end you ran way to well for either. Especially when it comes to running in heels."
Charlie looked at him blankly for a moment. Then she felt a strange and powerful swell of rage at the criticism. Later she would blame her response on the adrenaline and the lack of sleep.
"Seriously!?" she demanded, "I have never been drugged before! How the hell am I supposed to have any idea how a drugged person behaves? Furthermore, it's not like I had the drug analyzed to discover what effects it might have. My biological father and his power obsessed, narcissistic wife were literally trying to pimp me out in order to close a business deal! You have no right to comment on any choices I have made today!" Her words were clipped and her enunciation clear. She was shaking from all the stress she had gone through and tears were starting to threaten to fall. She was so done with this whole fiasco but damn it she would NOT cry.
The man she had just scolded looked terrified, like a man who opened a door to find a room filled with his own personal phobia be it spiders, snakes, or clowns. He seemed to be frozen in place though his eyes screamed that he wanted to run.
The man in the charcoal suit looked from Charlie to the man with thee laptop and then roared with loud, unrestrained laughter.
His response made Charlie blush as she realized she had lost her temper. She normally had near perfect control. She had to. If she showed anything, absolutely any emotion it would be used against her. Things she enjoyed would be taken away as punishment and never returned, things she hated would be handed out like candy on Halloween, things that frightened her would be used like blades hanging over her throat. The shame turned her anger against herself. She wanted to vomit.
The man in the charcoal suit seemed to realize what was going on and tried to hide his amusement. "Jacob is socially awkward. He deals well with computers and poorly with everything else."
Charlie didn't respond, she was lost momentarily in her own world of self-condemnation.
"Well, that Silva has some unpaid debts." The charcoal man said finally. "And I know someone who has long been waiting for an opportunity to get even with your father. No guarantees he will help, but I will arrange an introduction."
Charlie's attention snapped to his face. She couldn't comprehend. What? This man was going to help her? Of all the things she hand thought might happen, that one she hadn't considered.
"Of course that is as long as certain things are never revealed." The intensity of the implied threat in the man's voice was more along the lines of what Charlie had been expecting.
"I don't know what you are talking about." Charlie claimed with wide eyes.
The man chuckled. "That expression is too contrived to be believable."
"And I'm too tired to be able to think, clearly all this was only ever a dream and will vanish the moment I wake up." Charlie responded. Perhaps she should have been more concerned with doing her civic duty and reporting what she had seen but those same people that she would be reporting to were the people who were working to return her the her father and stepmother. She had always known the world existed in a swamp of corruption. She wasn't trying to change the world, just trying to exist in it. Charlie truly had no intention at all to report them.
The man in the charcoal suit seemed to understand what she was implying and he nodded. The whispered something to Jacob, the man if the laptop, and he ran off seemingly very glad to have an excuse to leave.
"Well, come on then." The man in the charcoal suit began to lead Charlie into an unknown portion of the tunnels.