The Sound Of Silence
"You doing okay there?" Marsha asked, as Milly poured out a ladle of soup to an old guy in the queue.
Milly turned, smiling and nodding, offering one of the two default answers she gave to nearly all questions. Then she tipped the stock pot and showed its contents to the older woman.
"Ah, nearly empty are you," Marsha said. "I'll get you a refill." Marsha started to walk away, then turned back to Milly. "I tell you what, you were going to leave early tonight weren't you? Why don't I get Andrea to take over and you get off. We don't want you being late for that handsome young man of yours, now do we?" She gave Milly a knowing wink.
Milly smiled and nodded again, and then signed, thank you.
Jake was due to pick her up at about nine. They were going out for a late meal. He had promised to treat her after being caught up last night in a meeting with his boss and those clients from LA. She knew he loved his job, but there were the odd occasions when the life of a corporate lawyer seemed to take up all of his time. How many other people sometimes had to work through the night? Still he loved the job as much as she loved helping out at the soup kitchen, so she wasn't about to complain to him.
Back at her apartment she glanced at the clock – seven fifteen. Plenty of time to get over to that office and be back before Jake was due. Hopefully this would wrap up her current investigation. It probably wouldn't stop the Family's bomb making operation, but it would slow things down and if she could capture the lieutenants tonight, and find out what they were planning to blow up, that part of their scheme would be finished for good.
As she was leaving the apartment she felt the vibration of her phone.
Just going in to the meeting, the text message read. Looking forward to seeing you later. Jake. He had ended it with a couple of kisses.
Pausing briefly to reply to him Milly felt the slight giddiness that always came over her when she knew Jake was thinking about her. You're like a teenager, she told herself as she left the back of the apartment block, but she was unable to get rid of the grin that had spread across her face. It only died away some ten minutes later as her final teleport landed her outside the small office building.
A tiny wail was enough to shatter the lock on the side door and she slipped inside, entering in to a quiet, dark corridor. Off in the distance she could just make out the sound of men talking. There didn't seem to be any guards around.
The last of the Family goons slumped to the floor, the gun he had held making a harsh rattle as it slipped from his hand. Milly looked around at the papers that were now spread across the room, her sonic blast having whipped them up off the desk. After checking the other two men to make sure they were unconscious she started to rifle through the documents looking for any clues as to where the bomb had been planted. Just sometimes, she thought, I wish I could question people. Still, she'd get an email to the police and they would take care of it.
As she was finishing collecting the sheets from the floor her phone vibrated again. A call this time. She pulled it out of her trouser pocket and looked at the name. Jake. She unhooked one of her ear guards and accepted the call, one hand still sifting through the papers.
"Hi, hon. I thought I'd call rather than text as I need to apologise – I'm not going to make tonight. I'm really sorry, but the deal is being completed now and we need to go over to LA to finish things. The good news is I'm taking all of next week off so I'll definitely make it up to you."
Milly's hands stopped moving aside the papers and her eyes rested on a list with one line highlighted.
"That's my call for the gate. I've gotta turn this off and go. I'll call you when I land. I'm really sorry. I know I don't say it enough, but I do love you."
The clock on the wall showed it was just before 20:20. Milly looked back at the list of flights and the 20:30 Paragon to LA plane that was highlighted.
She screamed his name before he could hang up and watched her mobile phone disintegrate in her hand. As her wail died away the dark office building was left in silence.