Chapter 3
"I'm here to see a Jason Munroe?"
The Secretary looked blankly at the hooded stranger in front of her before responding. Acting slightly flustered at being bothered even though she had in actual fact been doing nothing at all. She replied.
"Sorry ... I didn't get your name? Who are you?"
The hooded figure before her removed their hood to reveal a full mane of black / brown shoulder length wavy hair. The stranger was female, she had a very attractive face; with full lips and almond shaped brown eyes, her skin was golden brown with a slight glow to it.
"I'm Riley ... Riley Sinclair"
She said as she reached out her fingerless black-leather gloved hand to the Secretary.
"Sorry about that ... I always forget how strange I look with my hood on"
She smiled briefly. The Secretary simply looked blankly at her and took back her hand, which Riley had shaken to her dismay. She wiped her hand on her skirt in disgust. Directing Ms. Sinclair to take a seat she informed her that someone would be along to see her shortly.
Riley stepped back and walked over to take a seat. She hated corporate types who turned their nose up at ordinary people. Not that she herself was ordinary; being apart of the Elite Special Galactic Forces afforded her with some powerful credentials. She could go just about anywhere she needed to. But she wasn't on official business here today. Her best friend needed her help and it was as good a time as any for her to get away. She was after all thinking of packing the whole job in anyway.
The waiting area was quiet way too quiet for Riley's liking. It was an extremely sterile room with no natural scents what so ever. The only scent Riley was picking up was that of the Secretary all perfume and cinnamon fresh. She had observed that there were security cameras located around the room one above the secretary and another at the main entrance. There was also a scanner at the door, they did both fingerprint and retina scans here as well she noted. All in all a pretty damn secure place. She started to wonder what they could possibly have to hide behind all this secure set up. The fact that Jason hadn't really talked about his work in all their recent com chats started to bug her. He was always asking her to tell him about her latest investigation and never really telling her anything about himself.
Gabriel Chambers was relaxing with his feet up on his desk. It had been a long busy day and torturing Jason Munroe had proved to be more arduous than normal. This was due in part to the fact that the young man had tried to outsmart him by doing some programming of his own. He was indeed far more intelligent than he had originally let on. But now he just wanted to shut his eyes for a moment, as he rarely had any moments of peace these days. His mind started to drift to potential plans he had for new business, just then his com link went off and he ignored it at first he thought he was imagining it. The link rang out two more times before he dared to pick it up.
"What the Fuck is it? This had better be important! I told you not to Fucking disturb me!" he barked in response.
"I'm sorry Sir . . . . . But umm you have a visitor . . . . . Some woman to see Jason Munroe, she is on the main monitor in the waiting room"
Gabriel jumped up like he had been struck by lightening. Could this be who Jason was passing the information too? They wouldn't be so foolish as to come directly here? Would they? He wondered. He looked at the monitors and saw the woman. She was very attractive; and didn't look like much of a threat to him, but maybe he could have some fun finding out. He smiled wickedly to himself as his imagination began to run wild. He called Drake to alert him to this so called new development that he was going to investigate . . . . . thoroughly.
The main building doors opened and Riley snapped herself back to the here and now, she had a feeling that she needed to keep her wits about her right now. It wasn't Jason at the door but some guy dressed all in black as though he were a priest. His black slightly greying hair was tied back in a ponytail and he wasn't clean-shaven. Riley figured he was about 6"2" or 6"3" at the most and very lean if only slightly muscular.
"Welcome Ms. Sinclair, I'm Gabriel Chambers, the Owner of Chambers Enterprises"
He reached out his hand to shake hers and smiled.
"If you would come this way with me please"
Riley was still preoccupied with where Jason was and why he wasn't here to see her instead of this guy Gabriel who gave her a strange vibe. They went through to an office. It had a desk, a few chairs and black full-length sofa. There was a huge window that gave a beautiful view of the Sororian skyline as the sun was setting now. She had forgotten how beautiful things could be on Sororian as she realised it had been a while since she had been home and a lot of things had indeed changed.
Gabriel ushered her to take a seat as he sat himself down directly opposite her and kept eye contact with her for a few moments. His eyes were a very striking deep ice blue but they didn't intimidate Riley she had faced a lot worse in her time.
"I'm sorry Ms. Sinclair . . . I don't know how to tell you this, as I'm not sure how close you were to Jason but he seems to have disappeared. He hasn't been at work for over a week and we were all starting to worry about him; we even tried to contact him at home but we have had no reply."
Riley looked away from his gaze she was puzzled by what he had just said. Where would he have gone? Or worse still was he even alive? She contained her emotions as she cursed herself for not getting there sooner.
"I'm a close friend of Jason's . . . . . He is like a brother to me, and please ... Call me Riley she looked quite serious now "Do you happen to know when he was last seen? And where?"
Gabriel looked at her curiously as he studied her closely. She hadn't responded in a way that he had expected at all her emotional responses were extremely controlled. For a woman who had just been told that a friend who was indeed like a brother might have disappeared? This woman appeared to be a lot tougher than he had at first thought. Most of all she did not seem at all surprised by Jason's so called disappearance.
"Unfortunately we have no idea. There has been a growth in the number of people who are disappearing on Sororian due to drugs and murder. Crime rates have been on the rise lately and I don't want to think that the worst could have happened to Jason... He was one of my most prized employees after all"
Riley felt that there was something wrong with this Jason wouldn't lie to her something was wrong she just wasn't sure what it was yet. Then she remembered what Jason had said "our favourite place" that was where he said she would find all she needed to know.
"Is there something wrong Riley? Would you like a drink?"
She looked up at Gabriel thinking to her self I have to get out of here and I don't trust this guy.
"No I'm fine it's just been a long day that's all I really should be getting on, I'm sorry to have taken up your time"
She smiled as she stood up and walked to leave. Gabriel quickly got up and walked over to open the door; he took Riley's hand and kissed it.
"If I can offer any further help with your search for Jason please don't hesitate to contact me. Maybe we will meet again? Perhaps under better circumstances. ... I hope? "
Riley thought yuck, she hated when men got overly friendly like that. She had given him no reason to believe that she was interested. But then most guys didn't care about that they just wanted to have fun and boy had she given them all something quite painful to remember.
"Perhaps ... Thank you for your time Mr. ... Chambers"
She quickly left and didn't look back if she had she would have seen Gabriel staring after her with a great lust in his eyes. He quickly called Drake and told him to follow her he wanted to know her every move there was something different about this woman and he wanted to know what it was.
Riley walked swiftly as she pulled her hood back up over her head. I should have gone to ZATLAND from the beginning. How could I have been so fucking stupid? No not stupid I was just concerned about Jay. She walked through the back streets of Sororian city. This whole area she knew like the back of her hand it hadn't changed as much as she had at first thought. Climbing up and over fences, walls and running through some alleyways she finally felt at home. She smiled to herself as she climbed the last wall as there across the street was ZATLAND and it had not changed a bit.
