Ashildr settled herself in the seat, shifting up to get comfortable. She fought against the handcuffs again, clipping it loudly against the metal frame as she pretended to struggle.
She watched as Delta returned to her place around the table, all the members of the group now deep in conversation, still frustratingly out of earshot. The Russian Man stole a glance to Ashildr as they talked.
She sat there for a while, staring at each one of them individually, trying to figure out the group dynamics.
Delta was clearly the talker of the group, leaning over the table, intermittently pointing between the other member and items on the top surface. She snapped her fierce green eyes towards the person she was talking at, using her hand to make a point. She looked impatient, an almost permanent scowl etched on her face.
The grey haired man in the trench coat was stood up listening, very rarely speaking. He stood upright, pensive in thought, arms crossed as he held the knuckle of his right index finger to his mouth. He occasionally rubbed the stubble on his chin under the pads of his fingertips. The man had the air of absorbing information rather than contributing anything.
Ashildr watched the Russian Man, much more animated in his gestures. He paced around heavily with his hands in the pockets of the green and silver striped padded jacket, occasionally pointing at Delta with a large meaty finger, hand in a fist. He had a tendency to run his left hand over the surface of his head, turning around frequently. It was as if he could not stand still for more than a few seconds. If he disagreed he folded his arms around his hefty frame and took a few steps away, before returning and shouting. Ashildr could hear his voice when the volume increased, catching the occasional word, but nowhere near able to distinguish any sentences.
The teenage boy sat atop a high stool, legs open wide, tapping on various devices, moving his hands around in the air, pinching and pulling at some kind of holographic image. It appeared to be a map of the centre, which he orientated to match a point made by Delta. The group looked towards the images intermittently. He stood up to inspect various computer consoles around the perimeter of the raised space before returning to sit down. He barely spoke, distracting himself tapping on a screen or zooming in on a blueprint.
She was trying to identify who the leader was in the group based on their body language. She made a secret bet with herself that it was the boy, as he seemed to control the majority of the information.
Ashildr noticed the monitor with the figures. The time read 05.41am, the donation level had jumped up to 18%, and the infections registered at 10879. She was still curious how they were gauging the number of people infected, standing by her earlier assessment that it was some sort of elaborate hoax.
The boy stood up suddenly, pushing his seat back with a loud resonating scrape which echoed around the space. He went up a metal spiral staircase to pace around the people sat within the central cylinder. There were a few sideways glances between the workers, Ashildr was unsure why until she saw a gun barrel poking out past one of the column supports, noticing there was a solider watching them.
An alarm sounded and the lighting turned a sinister blood red colour, causing her eyes to readjust and focus differently. The Russian Man moved down towards where Ashildr was sitting, away from the main table to look up at the video screens on the outside.
"What's happening?" he shouted, barely audible over the alarm. She wanted to cover her ears but couldn't.
A video screen to Ashildr's left was flashing intermittently, the boy ran up a couple of flights to examine the feed. Delta and the man in the trench coat had emerged from around the table to look up, they were stood on the other side of the room. She couldn't make out what was on the screen due to the angle she was sat at, no matter how much she shifted in the chair.
The boy had taken over the desk controlling that section of video feed, roughly pushing aside a woman with white hair. The woman tried to stop him, but was restrained above her shoulders by a large framed guard. The alarm was swiftly turned off, leaving a silence that rung in Ashildr's ears. All lighting in the room was still red and beginning to give Ashildr a headache.
She could see Delta shouting something but couldn't hear due to the distance. The grey haired man stood gazing up with his arms folded.
"What's happening?" boomed the Russian Man again, pacing around to join Delta and the grey haired man.
The lights returned to their normal colouring, leaving Ashildr's vision with a yellow hue for thirty seconds until her eyes readjusted. The boy furiously tapped away on the computer screen on an upper level, getting up and walking quickly down the spiral staircase, jumping the last three steps to the ground holding onto the handrail. The white haired woman was pushed back into her seat a few seconds later. The guard returned out of Ashildr's view.
The others moved back to join him around the table. The boy was pinpointing an area of the shopping centre and explaining something to the others by moving around it.
Ashildr still couldn't make out anything they were saying, but saw them all nodding in agreement.
The boy picked up a small grey cube off the table and made his way down a couple of stairs in Ashildr's direction, stepping in oddly springy steps as if he were lighter than he had been expecting. He clicked his fingers once and one of the guards at the door came swiftly over to where he was standing, six feet in front of her. Delta was following the boy, leaving the two men to engage in harsh words.
"Take this," he said in the harsh voice, throwing the small cube towards the tall guard. He just about caught it in his right hand, almost dropping it onto the floor. The boy rolled his eyes and glared at him through the square frames of his glasses. "When I tell you, point the blue side towards us and, press the red button... just like last time. Do you think you can manage that?" he said, threateningly.
"Yes," the man grunted back.
"Good," he said, turning his back on him, fixing his stare towards Ashildr. He pushed his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose, half sneering as he paced over. He was wearing a grey hooded jumper, skinny black trousers and some dirty black and white shoes. He carried a small rucksack, so tight to his back that there could easily have been nothing inside it.
"Can I help you?" said Ashildr, narrowing her eyes as he got within a couple of feet.
"Yes, yes you can," he began laughing loudly at her. "Who are you?" he sneered.
"Who are you?" said Ashildr, not rising to his challenge.
"I'm... Mike," he said. "I'd shake your hand, but..." he looked down, indicating her handcuffs, "oh."
"Enjoying your school trip?" Ashildr said, sarcastically.
"Who do you think you are?" he snapped back at her.
"The person that is going to stop you, stop all of this," she smiled at him.
"Really?" he said, standing back, eyeing her up and down. "You're barely older than me, what are you going to do? So what if you can't get tattooed, who cares? Big woop di do!" he laughed manically, spinning around slowly.
"Stop!" chided Delta approaching from behind from the table, she pulled him away by the shoulder, practically throwing him backwards. "Mike, what have I told you?" she turned to him and pointed angrily.
The Russian Man came over, he quickly picked Mike up by the scruff of his neck. "Do you think this is funny little man?" His large fists were either side of Mike's chin, their combined size bigger than his head.
Mike shook his head as much as he could within the restrictions of the hold. "Put me down," he demanded. His glasses were almost on his forehead, he stood on tiptoes off the floor.
"Do you think what we are doing here today is funny?" the Russian growled, still holding Mike up.
Mike grimaced and shook his head. "No I don't."
"Remember who is in charge here," he pulled Mike's face towards him, "understand?"
Mike nodded quickly, his face beginning to go red. The Russian Man retightened the grip, heaving him upwards.
Ashildr sighed to herself, realising she had lost the bet with herself about who was in charge.
"Put him down," said Delta, blankly, waving her hand. "You can choke him to death after we've finished. Believe me, we all want to do it, Victor."
Victor pulled Mike's face close to his and sneered at him, letting go of his hold. Mike fell to the floor in a crumpled heap, holding onto his neck, breathing heavily. "Not so tough, are you, little man?" Victor laughed heartily at him.
The grey haired man moved from the table towards the rest of the group. "When all of you have quite finished..." he said in the pronounced English accent, "we have work to do." He nodded towards Ashildr, a blank expression on his face.