Chapter 10

Time: 10:23

Location: House

I slept in today. That was the plan at least until I got a phone call from Liz who remembered that I found something in the apartment. She tells me to go to Chal's place. Dr Steve's apartment, the name itself gives me a bad taste in my mouth. I pull out my phone and study the images of the notes I took. What is Sheffield Enterprises? What is the play? And whatever the play is, it's at five some day this week or month. I lug myself out of bed; the bed's so comfortable. I get dressed and get ready to go. I check on Zach who fell asleep on the couch. He's been there since last night. Kissing him on the forehead, he wakes but that wasn't my intention. "Where're you going?"

"Out,"

"Have a good day." He says, holding my hand.

"Thanks, I'll see you tonight." I say.

I waltz out the door feeling giddy. No reason to it, just a silly feeling.

Time: 10:38

Location: The Cape Grace Hotel

"What'd you find?" Bex jumped as soon she let me in the suite. The hotel suite is far fancier than I expected.

"Notes,"

"What kind of notes?" Liz wants to know.

"The kind that said one of our leads is dead and there is something going on at five p.m. But I don't know when." I say tossing the phone to Grant at the end of the room. I propped on the mini couch next to Chal. "None of them were meaningless, even if they are old."

"Benz is dead. How did that happen?" Grant smiled self-sufficiently. I shook my head disapprovingly. "Reunite the others. That's what we're here to stop."

"Exactly," Bex agrees.

"Enough agreeing, we need to think." Chal snaps. "We need to know when they are going to tell everyone the Circle of Cavan is getting together. I mean, that's obviously the 'play'. It's at five, but knowing 'when' won't help us if we don't know where it's all going down?"

I am thinking about that bad review I promised him. It's going to be hard to do that after that A-plus reasoning.

"At least we've seen where Dr Steve lives." I tell them. "Do you think you can bug his phone? Hear what he hears and says."

"I can do that. But I don't want to go inside that apartment alone, with that dog."

"We'll go later to." Hence how we know that was Dr Steve's apartment in the first place. Meanwhile Akil Rafiq is aware that we are on to him. Luckily he didn't see all of us. I look at Bex; she has a determined expression washed over her face. I turn to Grant; he doesn't seem as jittery as yesterday, which is alleviating. The silence was too long to keep track of. Yet we all know it was long enough when Bex begins to speak. "What's Rafiq's role in this process?"

"Probably Dr Psycho's b***h" wondered Chal.

"They are most likely confidants." Liz chimes in.

"I don't about you but I'm going to find out."

Bex left with full on lethal feline mode. Grant stand from his chair and ushers Liz. "Come on, Liz. Let's see what we can do."

She wiggles her fingers playfully at me. Chal and I are the only ones in the room.

"I'm gonna catch up with Bex." He takes two steps. "You coming?"

"Nah, I'm heading back. I need to think. Maybe their information is my file and I never read it." I say waving my hands and head towards the door slowly like molasses. Delaying whatever I might find. "I'm gonna put two and two together."

"Make four. Good luck."

Time: 5:57

Location: House

I can't think anymore. I have read and reread the pages over and over again. Papers littered the coffee table. I got in comfortable clothes, a sweatshirt and shorts (a bit contradictory) and spent countless hours waiting for a breakthrough. Yeah, it's not here yet. I have faith the outbreak will come. Akil Rafiq graduated from MIT the same year as Dr Steve. That could be where they met or from Harvard. But what would make them trust each other. Worst yet, are friends? I felt eerie chill down my back.

"Can you unglue your eyes from my back?"

"What are you working on?" Zach lowers himself next to me. He takes one of the littering pages and reads. "Interesting."

"It frustrating. I can't make any connections with him and Dr Steve or the Circle of Cavan."

I sighed exasperatedly slamming my forehead with the innocent table. Zach stands up and brings another folder. He shuffled around. I wondered what he's doing. Tapping at a picture he says, "Take a look, same guy."

"How can you tell which one's real?"

"Look at the face. Gallagher Girl."

I stared intently at the pictures making comparisons. They were basically the same guy except one was Akil Rafiq and the other man was Michael Stirling. The man in the page could get lost in a white wall. He doesn't look like someone whose real name would be Akil Rafiq. Therefore his real name is Michael Stirling. He joined the military at the age of eighteen and came back with PTSD. His psychologist was no coincidentally, Dr Steve. At the age of thirty two, he spent five years in Federal prison with who you may ask; Aloisio Benz. No wonder Michael is in the Circle of Cavan, again, symmetry is so fairly obvious. Now that I have my facts straight I make a totally important note: CIA need better sources. I mentally thank Zach for helping achieve my breakthrough.

"You're a lifesaver." Then I noticed what was wrong. I place two fingers under his chin. "Stop staring at my legs. My eyes are up here."

He smirks and laughs when he got caught, softly saying "Okay."

After that I tucked my legs.

I noticed Zach's absence ten to twenty minutes later. Then a door from one of the rooms clicked shut. I got to check up on the noise. Zach's standing in front of me wearing a black suit which (if you pardon the pun) suited him very well, clean shaven. I lean against the wall. "Who are you supposed to be?"

"What do you mean?" He asks fixing his black tie.

"Unless you like playing dress up," I joked, he laughs genuinely.

"I'm Nicholas Sheffield, from Sheffield Enterprises."

This sparked up my full attention. Truly intrigued, I crossed my arms and questioned him mostly for my profit, "So, Mr Sheffield, what is Sheffield Enterprises?"

"An entire business based on weaponry and they're desperate need of financial help and retribution, so I need to go." He saw I had a confused look on my face. I tried to make a connection between the enterprise and the Circle of Cavan that resulted in him explaining indirectly. "Where do you think the Circle gets their weapons?"

Well then, now I know what to think. A business going bankrupt, it is no wonder how this is happening. Everyone from the Circle of Cavan is hiding. They have no one to supply.

"I have to get going or I'm going to be late." He gave a quick peck on the lips. His eye's glanced at me meaningfully. "Don't wait up."

Zach opens the door and who's on the side. "Bex,"

"Zachary," He slides past her, smirking. Meanwhile she squints at me funnily. I move aside and let her in. I wait for her to pounce with an avalanche of questions but I don't get that. I get a smile of acknowledgement and she says cocking her head. "I thought we could hang out and have a good time, but I think you're having a Goode time."

Time: 6:01 p.m.

Location: House

"So, how long has he been around? 'Cause I remember Liz telling me he'd been gone for a while."

Bex's brief encounter with Zach left her with her arms crossed in front of me staring at me. I clasped my hands together. The words darted out; then winced.

"One day,"

"Hm, that's great, were you dressed like that?" She smirks taking in my shorts and sweatshirt but mostly my shorts.

"Not entirely on purpose." I defended.

"I'm done for today, are you done thinking?"

"Yeah actually," I scoffed laughter. She makes it sound like a life or death situation. We went to the living room, my favourite room in the house. It's a dead ringer for an antique doll house. One thing I can tell about Niles, the house's owner, he is a collector. That explains all the antiquities cluttering around the house. Bex propped herself confidently on the couch, beaming.

"Liz is on her way over. At least Chal came with me. Why isn't he up here yet?"

As if on cue there was a knock on the door. I call out that he could come in. I don't lock the door; I should, I could, I would, but I don't. Chal strolls inside balancing a laptop in his right hand. Using his free hand he waved at me. He handed Bex the laptop. "You left this in the car."

"Ha-ha, thank you."

"What're you watching?" I scooted over and peered at the bright screen. "Why are you watching a dance competition from Florida?"

"Because it's Monday night and I don't feel like working… and the dancers intrigue me."

I agree; it is the first free night I've had in months. I pull up my knees and watch the next pair of dancer come up on stage. An addicting hip-hop beat played. The guy and the girl were definitely talented. Even though the girl was the flashiest, the guy was brought more to my attention. He moved with suave confidence and fierce attitude. There was also a serious mysteriousness to him but that could be the hat that he wore covering his face speaking for itself.

"See this guy. This guy has sex appeal." Bex shamelessly point out. Yes, he has that too. "Why won't he take the hat off? I want to see his face. Take it off!"

After barely a minute, Bex is getting overly passionate over these people, kind of awkward to say. Chal butts into the conversation, "I would appreciate it if you didn't talk about me or to me that way. All I ask is for respect."

"I'm not talking to you or about you."

He's slips his phone in his jean pocket watching over our shoulders. In a disbelieving tone he says, "No, of course not."

"Shut up." Chal knows he's annoying Bex and enjoying it too. I dismissed it and turned my attention to the dancers again. Then song ended and the guy tossed his hat onto the cheering crowd. Our jaws plummeted. As much as I'd like to say his face looked alike the guy's behind me. Except it didn't look alike it was exactly the same. Oh my gosh. Chal was the sexy dancer. "Who are you?"

I asked for both me and Bex. Chal amber eyes crinkled saying 'I told you so'.

"I told you not to talk about me."

"Answer our bloody question." Bex demanded. She is still in shock. She climbs the couch and grabs Chal arm in an iron grip.

"I'm a guy of many talent, none of which I've chosen to pursue." He replies. We stared at him dumbfounded. He sighed and tells us the story. "During the summer I went to Florida to spend the summer with my family. And a friend of mine moved, so she lives in Miami. She had the competition going on and she needed a partner because I wanted to get the situation with Mairi out of my head so I helped her out."

"You. Are. A. Doll."

"Knockity, Knockity knock!" Liz was skipping over to us. A very important aforementioned fact: I don't lock the door. "Hi everybody!"

"Liz, isn't Chal a doll?" Bex wanted Liz to agree with her. Of course she had no problem with that. "Of course he is."

Bex only heard that Chal helped out a friend in need, not in a dramatic way. I tuned that out and heard 'I wanted to get the situation with Mairi out of my head', a.k.a. Mairi's recent death, a girl who died under the most unfortunate events, with the best intentions for others and pureness of the heart. The death must have been devastatingly hard on him, even more so since he loved her. And they kissed before she was killed. (Macey told me) The situation fills me up with sadness. But that couldn't weigh me down, not here, not now. It is not the opportune moment. In a contradiction, I shrug half-heartedly and blurted out "I don't see it."

"Good," he beamed maliciously. "Don't see it."

Time: 9:00

Two hours ticked by watching movies and sharing work/school related stories. We ended up having fun all of us together. Oh, and Bex teasingly called Chal 'twinkle toes' twice on occasion. The sun had already set and Zach would not be around anytime soon. Grant wasn't nearby which made me wonder where he was. I wondered aloud where he was. Expecting an answer, everyone muttered. She sat next to me at the coffee table. When they finished talking at once Liz started shaking as she spoke again worriedly, terrified.

"He started getting jittery again. Later, after we bugged Dr Steve's apartment, Grant received another phone call probably from the same person. Then, out of the blue, he freaked out. And he tells me to leave. Something's going on with him. He is not okay!"

So, um.. eh.. it's Thursday! R&R! I want constructive criticism from as many you as possible.

I am utterly convinced with what Liz said. Grant isn't fine. I looked at Bex and then at Chal. My eyes locked on him. Somebody has to talk to him.