General Brian Greyson woke up to his phone ringing off the hook at 3:00 in the morning. Groaning, he tried to ignore the incessant vibrating of the device against his nightstand. There was a brief pause, a wonderful moment of silence and then the vibrating started all over again. The fourth time this cycle repeated itself, he had had enough.
"What?" he growled, not bothering to check the caller ID or even open his eyes. He had been tossing and turning most of the night, only getting to sleep around 1:30 am, and now this. Rolling over onto his back, he let his sheet drape low on his body.
"Senator Dominic Banducci is dead," came the voice on the other end of the phone. Greyson slowly opened his eyes to look at who the caller could be and squinted as the bright light from his cell phone lit up his room.
"Richards," he said as he sat up in bed. With the death of such a high-profile senator, crap would be raining down on everyone for the next little while. The biggest question he had to answer was if he should try to go back to sleep or if he was needed at the office.
"Did you not hear what I said?" demanded Richards, his tone rising in volume until Greyson had to take the phone away from his ear. There was no point in going deaf on top of having to wake up after only an hour and a half of sleep.
"I heard, I just don't understand," said Greyson as he leaned against his headboard.
"What? Did you think that you were the only proxy sent to that meeting?" sneered Richards, his voice almost coming out as a hiss.
That caused Greyson to bolt upright in his bed, all the sleep from his eyes clearing out in an instant. "What do you mean?" he demanded, in no way cowering to his superior at that moment.
"I mean, Banducci was working quite closely with Jenny before her death, in fact, he was the one that introduced the rest of us to her," said Richards seemingly pleased that Greyson was finally taking this matter seriously.
"But he wasn't at the meeting yesterday, plus he lives all the way in California. How would anyone from the meeting be able to get to his place so fast, let alone kill him," pointed out Greyson, wanting Richards to spell everything out just so there were no misunderstandings on his part.
"He never left California, he sent one of the senators that had been trying to get into our circle for a while. As I said, we all sent proxies."
"Then why do you think his death had anything to do with the meeting?" asked Greyson, raising his eyebrow.
"Because he died not even 24 hours after the meeting was called with the new Head of House," said Richards, revealing a bit more than he was supposed to, but too upset to even notice it.
"What do you think killed him?" asked Greyson, once again leaning back against his cushioned headboard of the king-sized bed. He might as well make himself comfortable because it didn't look like he was going back to sleep any time soon.
"I don't know," growled Richards. "He was alone in his house surrounded by all of his guards and every inch of his property, both inside and out, is heavily monitored. Nothing is showing any type of disturbance. In fact, it looks like he just died in his sleep. The only problem is that he sat upright, opened his eyes in panic, and clutched his heart before he slumped over."
"The man has a video camera facing his bed?" asked Greyson more shocked that he had a camera in his bedroom than the fact that he died in his bed. A camera facing the bed didn't seem normal.
"I think you are missing the point," snapped Richards.
"And what is the point, Sir?" asked Greyson, a smile starting to form on his face. That woman fulfilled her promise, she said that one of the people there today would die, and she was right.
Oh sure, Banducci might not have physically been there, but instead of taking out his proxy, she went to the source instead. He just wondered how she was able to kill him when he was so well protected.
"The point is, he died under mysterious circumstances and now, any one of us could be next." And there it was, what really concerned Duncan Richards the most. He couldn't have cared less if every senator had died, but this one had some type of connection with him and he was worried that he would be the next one to die.
"What do you want me to do?" asked Greyson leisurely stretching out his neck and upper back. This day might turn out to be better than he originally thought.
"Find out what you can about this new Gypsy, I don't care what it is, but she has to have something we can use for leverage," said Richards, the calm, calculative tone that he was known for coming back out.
"And once we get that leverage?" asked Greyson, secretly snorting to himself. If she managed to kill that senator from so far away, there was no way that she would be worried about any type of leverage they might find. If there was even any in the first place.
"Then we will put that bitch in our pocket like Banducci had Jenny in his," replied Richards, his satisfaction over that idea was clear.
"Of course, Sir," replied Greyson as he finally got out of bed. "I'll get started right away."
"See that you do, and Greyson?"
"Yes, Sir?"
"Don't screw this up or you will be next. Have I made myself clear?"
"Crystal," replied Greyson with a slight smirk on his face.
"But if you succeed, there will be something in it for you," promised Richards before he cut off the call. Greyson only smirked. The carrot and the stick method only worked if the person on the other hand was scared or tempted. Unfortunately for Richards, he was neither.
What he was, was interested in the little Gypsy with so many secrets.