Tuesday 27th April 2010
08:37
David's face creased up with worry and he slammed the receiver down onto its cradle. He turned to Robert.
"That was Christopher…"
"Christopher?" Robert asked, not making any connections with the name.
"Alice's boyfriend. She's just been kidnapped."
Robert, who had chosen the wrong moment to take a swig of coffee, spat out the contents of his mouth onto the floor. David looked at it with mild distaste for a second before remembering that there were more important things to contend with.
"What?" Robert asked.
David turned and strode towards his office. "Get Belinda on the phone. I want her in here as soon as possible. And Robert…"
"Yeah?"
"Mop the floor up when you get off the phone…"
Robert nodded. "Was it the Brethren?"
David turned at his door and shook his head. "No. I know exactly who did this."
With that, David went inside his office, closing the door behind him. As soon as he was out of sight of Robert his demeanour changed and he slumped ever so slightly.
"You just can't show weakness in front of others, can you?"
The man in the black suit stood in front of him, trying to look a little amused by this but failing miserably. David stared at him with mild annoyance.
"What is it that you want now?"
"I was just in the neighbourhood…"
David slammed a fist against the door, not realising that he gave Robert a nasty fright in doing so, just as he was checking his mobile phone for Belinda's number.
"You're never just in the neighbourhood. Has this got something to do with what you mentioned to me last night?"
The man in the black suit gave a quick nod.
"Is it Alice?"
The only reply that David received was a shrug. After a few moments of tense silence it was added with, "you know that I can't tell you that."
"I know who it's going to be if I get my hands on him."
"David, you're letting your feelings stop you from seeing the bigger picture here…"
"He's kidnapped Alice. I take it that I'm just supposed to sit back and let him get away with that."
The man in the black suit shook his head. "You know that I'm not saying that. I just think that you have to understand why he's… chosen that particular course of action."
"Oh I know why he's done it. I've had enough. I'm going to make sure it's the last thing he ever does…"
This answer worried the man in the black suit. "Do you know, David, I don't think I've ever seen you this angry…"
David's smile was humourless. "Oh yes you have. And you of all people know that it doesn't end well…"
2.
Tuesday 27th April 2010
08:47
Belinda had been writing something obscene in the dust that had accumulated on her coffee table when the phone call had come and it took her less than ten minutes to get to the office after she put the phone down. As soon as she stepped in, David walked out and gave her a quick appraising look before getting down to business.
"We're all that's left of the group at the moment. The Brethren managed to take two of us out of the equation yesterday. I get the feeling that their plan worked even better than they thought it was going to."
"Where is Gary?" Belinda had to enquire.
David shook his head. "I had to send him home. He's too close to this. His emotions may get in the way of what has to be done with Isabelle."
Belinda did not like the wording of his answer one little bit. "And what exactly has to be done with Isabelle?"
"I'm not one hundred percent sure at the moment but I promise I'm working on it."
Robert had another question. "Who were you talking to in there?"
David replied curtly, "I had to make a phone call!"
"Speaking of phone calls, I really think that we should call Gary!" Belinda said.
"No!" David said with calmness that he did not feel.
"But if what you're saying is true and the Brethren have kidnapped Alice too then he would want to know."
David shook his head. "You don't get it. It's not the Brethren. It's something else."
This angered Belinda no end. "Is it Orson Industries?"
"You don't know the people who have done this."
"Who did it?"
"They're called Nemesis…"
"Nemesis?" Robert asked.
"Yes and it's a difficult situation for me because most of them used to be friends of mine."
Belinda felt quite a few questions jumping to her throat at that moment, and would have asked all of them, were it not for the fact that Christopher Harris chose that moment to walk through the front door with a gun pointed right at her boss.
"What the fuck is going on?" He asked David, which, strangely enough was one of the first questions Belinda had wanted to ask.
David ignored the fact that the newcomer had sworn at him, probably based on the gun he was carrying. "It's good of you to join us Christopher."
"Don't give me any of your bullshit. I came by here last night to check up on Alice and she wasn't here. I thought that she might have been lying to me and was having an affair. But that that's not it at all, is it? Those bastards were wearing suits that are identical to yours…"
Robert and Belinda, although a little tense about the situation, looked to David for an answer.
David looked down at his suit and then to Christopher. "Identical?"
"Identical!" Confirmed the crazed boyfriend.
"The suits are most certainly not identical. Their suits are grey. Mine is more of a charcoal colour…"
"I'm going to blow you're fucking head off!"
David shook his head. "I know you really don't want to do that Christopher."
"And how the fuck do you know what I want? I'll tell you what I want. I want my girlfriend back and I want her back right the fuck now…"
With that, he tightened his finger on the trigger. Suddenly, David had moved and was no longer in front of the gun. Christopher had not even seen any movement, but felt his gun arm being grabbed from behind. David applied his finger to a pressure point that caused Christopher to drop the gun.
"How the fuck did you do that?" Robert had to ask.
David looked at him. "You know what I think about swearing, Robert…"
He spun the surprised Christopher round, seeing the look of shock on the man's face and feeling a little bit amused by it. "Now you listen to me. There is a good chance that I'm the only person who can get Alice back alive and well. So what I think you should do is walk out of here and go home and wait and we'll forget that this ever happened. Do you understand me?"
Christopher muttered something under his breath in way of reply. David shook him a little bit, by the lapels of his jacket, which he was clutching firmly.
"I asked you if you understand me?"
Christopher nodded this time. "Yes, I understand you."
With that he managed to shrug David off and walked towards the door, pausing only to pick up his gun. In one fluid movement he spun round and aimed it at David, who had turned away from him.
Belinda was about to scream something out when David said, "Go home, Christopher!" The bullets from the now empty barrel spilled from his hands and loudly landed on the floor.
Christopher checked the barrel and saw that these were definitely the bullets to his gun. He turned and walked towards the exit, cursing under his breath as he went on his way.
David focused his attention on Belinda and Robert once again. "I really think that we should leave now. The three of us are going to the Nemesis headquarters to get Alice back."
Robert was more interested in another topic. "How the hell did you do that?"
"Which bit? The disarming or the removal of the bullets?"
"The disarming!" Robert and Belinda said in unison.
David's face fell slightly at that. "I thought the removal of the bullets was far more impressive."
He picked up his abandoned glass of water and took a long sip from it. He walked towards the front door and stopped when he realised that Belinda and Robert were not following him.
"Are you coming or not?"
"So we're just going to walk up to the front door and ask for Alice back?" Belinda felt the need to ask.
David nodded.
"Okay, as long as we have a plan", she said and the three of them headed for the reception and the exit.
Edward Davis, who had not missed a day of work in his entire life to date and was damned if he was going to start now, was just walking through reception and into the office when he banged into his three colleagues.
Robert looked at the sling that was supporting his wounded arm. "Does it hurt much?"
"God yeah!" Edward replied. It hurt like hell.
"May I ask why you're here, Edward?" David asked him, innocently.
"I was going absolutely nuts in the house doing nothing."
"It's only ten in the morning. You didn't even get a full night's rest!" David exclaimed.
"And you guys did? Give me a break."
"We weren't the ones who were stabbed!" Belinda pointed out before anyone else could beat her to it.
"I wasn't stabbed!" He retorted. "It was more of a slash!
"Honestly, Edward. I would prefer if you just went home." David answered, diplomatically.
"And where are you guys going? Have you got a lead on the case? Do you know where Isabelle is?"
"Not yet. Alice got kidnapped this morning", Robert told him.
David shot a venomous glare at his colleague
"You're kidding?"
Robert, who was completely unaware of the angry look on his boss's face, shook his head.
"The Brethren kidnapped Alice too?"
Belinda figured that the cat was out of the bag so she should put her money's worth in. "Of course not silly. It was Nemesis."
This confused Edward. David put a hand on his unwounded shoulder.
"Edward, if you really insist on coming in to work then please go into the office and await my instructions…"
"But I want to do something. I want to help find Alice…"
David gave him a look. "You know that you're in no fit state to do that right now. I would prefer it if you… went into the office and… programmed or something."
Edwards nodded enthusiastically to this idea and went inside, while David and the others headed towards the car.
3.
Tuesday 27th April 2010
08:51
Gary had taken to pacing up and down the living room in an effort to take his mind off how impotent he was feeling, when the doorbell rang. He rushed to the door, hoping for good news and, instead, saw his dad standing there.
Suddenly he remembered that he had not apologised about last night and was about to, had even got as far as saying, "Hi dad, look about last night…" when Walter Ingalls pushed into the house and turned round to look at his son, with a stern look that had instilled fear in Gary throughout his whole life. No need for a beating from dad when he was younger – the look was worse.
"Just what do you do for a living, son?"
Gary took a couple of seconds to close the front door, composing himself while he did so before turning round to face the glower his father had on his face. "Dad, I'm a programmer."
"Don't lie to me."
Not – "Son I don't believe you're being one hundred percent honest with the truth", or "are you sure?" But – "Don't lie to me."
And there was more – "What do you do?"
"I promise you dad – I'm a programmer. You paid for me to go to University for all that time, remember? I walked away with…""
Walter's face softened a little. "Okay, son, you're right."
And then.
"So why don't you explain to me how I found a dead body across the road from your house in the early hours of this morning?"
Gary felt himself flush at this, although, ironically, his father noticed his complexion pale somewhat at the sound of this news. "What?"
His father looked a lot calmer now, almost laid back. "Hey son, don't worry about it. Two guys came in a van and picked it up after I found it. No probs. It's all dealt with. I'm sure you'll sleep better tonight knowing that. They also mentioned the Progression stakeout. Gee, isn't that the company you work for? I can understand how I might jump to the wrong conclusions here, what with you phoning me in the middle of the night about some sort of trouble you were having and…"
Gary did not appreciate the humour his father found in the situation. "Why did you come to my house in the night, dad? It could have been dangerous."
"And since when did it become dangerous to be a programmer? I can understand sitting in front of a fucking computer screen could affect your posture or strain your eyes but this?"
"Dad…" Gary had rarely heard his father swear. In that respect he reminded him of David Oswald, but the likeness ended there.
"Are these guys from some sort of rival company?"
"I suppose you could say that?"
"Gary, I want you to tell me what's going on!"
Gary felt tears spring up in his eyes but tried to fight them back. "To be honest, dad, I don't think you would believe me."
Walter's face was impassive, his mood unreadable. "Try me!"
4.
Tuesday 27th April 2010
08:53
Karen Anderson was reading the report that had been lodged about the man who had been killed by Ingrid Sanderson outside Gary's house, trying to ignore one she had just received telling her that a gateway had been found that showed all signs of opening sometime soon. She was not in the best of moods when she finished it and picked up the phone, punching in an internal phone number.
It was a man who answered the phone.
"Put Ingrid Sanderson on right now!"
"She's not on the premises at the moment, sir."
"What do you mean, she's not on the premises? Where the fuck is she?"
"She got called into the Boardroom this morning and…"
"What do you mean?"
"On of the Directors wanted to see her this morning. She left shortly afterwards…"
Karen paled slightly at this, but hoped her sudden change in demeanour did not show in her voice. "Which Director?"
"I honestly have no idea, sir. Will I leave her a message to come see you when she returns?"
Karen shook her head and when she received no reply, she remembered that the person on the other side could not see this action. "No", she quickly said. "It's okay. I can catch up with her later."
And with that she put the phone down and picked the report up once again. But her hands were shaking and she eventually had to drop it back down onto the table, right beside the other report that needed her immediate review.
5.
Tuesday 27th April 2010
08:54
Isabelle even managed to snap her cell phone shut with a god like arrogance before looking at the other Brethren Members that she had congregated around her, all of whom were waiting to see what she would do next.
"One of our contacts has just informed me that Alice Cuthbert is in the custody of Nemesis."
The Brethren Member, who had been leader up until the creature that occupied Isabelle had been raised, stepped forward. "This can only be a good thing. It keeps Oswald occupied while we plan our next move."
Isabelle smashed her hand through the wall she was standing beside. It captured everyone's attention immediately.
"And what if Miss Cuthbert were to die?"
"That is of little consequence to us," the ex leader replied.
"Oh isn't it?" Isabelle's lip turned up in a sneer. "I think that you might need to have a long, hard think about that. Alice Cuthbert is a vital part of our future plans."
She stormed over to a large chart on the far wall. She pointed at a map of the area that was positioned on it. "I need to know right now where the Nemesis base of operations is."
"Why would you need to know that?" The ex leader blustered, before realising. "You can't be thinking of going there? They'll destroy you."
He knew it was a mistake to say that as soon as it came out of his mouth. Isabelle turned round, the fury showing in here eyes. "I think that you underestimate me!" She almost screamed at the now powerless Brethren Member who had dared to question her. "I think it would be in your best interest to be careful not to do it again." She managed the last part in a much more controlled voice.
The ex leader moved forward and pointed out the Nemesis Headquarters to her. He did not say a word to her, from fear that she lashed out and his time on this world was ended.
A smile formed on her lips and there was a collective sigh of relief in the room, so subdued that she was not aware of it. "I think that it would be best if I went there alone."
And with that, Isabelle was gone from the room.