Justin
We came around the edge of the trailer, but there wasn't a soul or the disks around. Jhondie looked around quickly, her night vision making the shadows clear to her. "There!" she called out, pointing to the scaffolding. I couldn't see anything, but I trusted her vision more than my own. We started running again, Jhondie remembering not to run full out. Denise was not the person to be showing off in front of. Mitchell was dumb enough not to remember in the morning. He was lucky to remember to put on pants every morning.
The construction was for a twenty-story building. They had demolished several old ones, and it was supposed to be this economic recovery thing, rebuilding the city even better than before. All I knew is right at that moment, it was being polluted by a hell-beast, and I wasn't talking about the guy EO was trying to nail. Denise's uncle had been a foreman for a construction company, and she had spent time at construction sites. She wasn't afraid of the equipment or anything, and from the way she was sprinting to the elevator, she hadn't forgotten how to use it either.
We hit the edge of the building, and heard the elevator rumbling on it's way up. Damn! I wasn't sure what she was trying to accomplish, but time was running short, and the last thing we needed was for her to get caught at the top of the building by the police. I wasn't going to risk having her questioned, and I wasn't going to let the boss down and leave without the disks. Only one way to do that, and that way was up.
"There another elevator?" I asked Jhondie, looking around. I couldn't see one, but that didn't mean she couldn't.
"Don't see one," she muttered, and then looked up. "Bet I can meet her up there." The floors were laid out at about ten foot intervals with enough stuff for climbing and jumping onto, if you could jump ten feet straight up that is. Jhondie could. I grabbed her arm quickly.
"No," I whispered quickly, knowing exactly what she was planning on doing. "There isn't anything on those disks worth exposing yourself like that."
"But…" she protested.
"But, nothing," I interrupted. "He'll just be disappointed. You're worth more."
I wasn't sure exactly why, but a brilliant smile slipped across her face. "Distraction," she murmured. I could only hope it made sense to her. Whatever. Genetically engineered or not, there were certainly similarities to all females. They were incomprehensible to us poor males. "Okay," she said a little more clearly, "we'll do this your way, but I am going to kick her ass." I could live with that.
It took several minutes, but we got the elevator back and went up, Jhondie looking for what floor Denise might be on. I had an idea what her plans were. She wanted us to get up there, and then she would go back down, lock the elevator, and run like hell. At least that's what someone with a foot in the land of sanity would do. What Denise was actually planning could be anything.
About fifteen stories up, Jhondie hit the stop button, and was out in a flash, moving quickly to the right. The moon had come out from behind some clouds, so I could see a little better than before. Denise couldn't see much better than I, and Jhondie was moving with absolute silence. In a few seconds Denise was going to be getting a very nasty surprise.
I followed Jhondie, moving much more carefully to stay on the beams. Jhondie might be able to survive a fall at this distance, but I knew my chances were nil. I caught the shadow Jhondie was moving towards and headed for it as well as quickly as I could. The shadow was moving towards the edge of the building where some beams were sticking out from the side.
I was almost there when I heard the first shout. Denise. "Get away from me!" she screamed.
"Those are mine!" Jhondie snarled back. "You give them to me right now and I'll let you keep the nails on your other hand." For the barest moment I was tempted to just go back to the car and wait this one out. I was pissed as hell at Denise, and if I weren't there to restrain Jhondie, Denise would really get what she deserved. Psycho had managed to screw up a chunk of my life, and now she was going for my career. Telling Jhondie to have some fun and clean the blood off of her before she got into the car was looking like a pretty good idea.
My misbegotten sense of responsibility kicked in, and I got to Jhondie anyways. They were on two parallel beams about fifteen feet apart. There were a couple of ropes connecting them, and I noticed Jhondie glancing at them a couple of times. They were tied to Denise's end, and since Jhondie wasn't going to jump it, she was thinking about doing some tightrope walking.
Denise saw me, and then held out her hand, letting the disks dangle over the side. There was some machinery below, and a fifteen-story fall would destroy the disks the minute they hit below. "Tell her the truth!" she demanded. What truth? The girl didn't know what the word meant. "Tell her right now that you invited me over last night! When we were alone in the kitchen, you begged me to come back. Tell her the truth!" she cried. If I didn't know better, I'd swear she was telling the truth.
Jhondie jerked, and I knew if I didn't have my hands on her shoulders, she was going to jump over there and there wouldn't be a problem with witnesses. Denise wouldn't survive the encounter. "You are insane," I said calmly. "And those don't belong to you."
"Your little girlfriend was stealing them," she said in almost a teasing voice. "They belong to whoever has them in hand." She twirled them. "My hands now, and I don't want to give them to a liar," she continued, screaming the last word. She knew damn well what it was doing to me to watch her toy with those disks like they were nothing.
"Let's go," I said to Jhondie, assuming a don't-give-a-damn attitude. "Not like those are all that important anyways." I went to turn, but Denise's laughter stopped me cold.
"I saw your notes, baby," she said with a little sigh. "My darling brother Taylor got right into those disks on your desk, and I know you need these to write some silly little article." I could see from the way her body relaxed that she was trying to be seductive. It's hard to describe, but she had this little way of liquefying her body, with her hand on her hip, and it used to drive me wild with lust. She was right there, doing it, and for once, the only thing I felt was revulsion. She didn't compare in the slightest to what I already had. "I've always wanted you to let me in, my love. Let me help you. See, I can be a help to your work. I'm everything you want, everything you need. I have what you want most right here. She threw them away, but I have them. All's forgiven sweetheart."
Thank you God, that there were just notes on my disks and nothing to do with who I was getting them for. EO didn't broadcast in Boston. If I could get what I needed from Denise, she would never know whom I worked for. Bloody hell, that would be a disaster if she found out. My mouth opened to say the words that she wanted to hear, whatever was required to get what I needed, but I couldn't say them. Eye's Only was not worth hurting Jhondie over, and no matter what she might say later, hearing my say anything close to what Denise wanted to hear would hurt her.
"The person that is everything I want and need is on this side," I said slowly to Denise. Jhondie looked up at me in surprise. She was expecting to hear lies. "You need to go home and stalk someone new for a change. I want those disks, and I want you gone."
"You bastard!" she screamed. She held the disks up, her entire body trembling with fury. "You want them so bad, you can have them." Her fingers opened, the disks tumbling towards the ground.
I didn't even have a second to reconsider my words. Jhondie was beside me, and then she was gone, one of the ropes snaking behind her. I leaned over and saw her free falling after the disks, and then the rope went taunt, and her cry of triumph all I needed to hear. I looked up at Denise to gloat, but she hadn't noticed how she was standing. The rope had been tied to her beam, and a small curve of it was lying on the metal. It went taunt behind her ankle, knocking her forward. She screamed in terror this time, her hands grabbing at the metal support beams beside her, but the bandages on her injured hand wouldn't let her grab hold.
I made a grab for her, but there was no way. I looked down in horror, expecting to see her fall to the ground below. The rope had a swing to it, and suddenly Jhondie was there, doing an odd flip on the rope, entangling her leg, and at the last possible second, catching Denise's wrist. They swung in a lazy pendulum, and I knew I had better work fast. The last thing we needed was Jhondie's cat DNA coming out and her deciding to play with something before she ate it alive.
There were some pulleys over near the elevator and some more ropes. Work for Eye's Only. Meet amazing people, and do amazing things. Save the world. As I headed for the elevator, I wondered if it was too late to think about an exciting career as a dental hygienist.
Jhondie
I didn't want to do it. I swear I didn't. I have no idea why I did, really. The look on Denise's face was almost worth it though when my hand clamped around her wrist. Little old me was the only thing keeping her from being spread all over the construction yard below. My leg was twisted up in the rope, leaving me free to hold on to her with one hand and hold the disks with the other. She glanced at my other hand, eyes bulging with terror when she realized what I would let go of first.
"Hi!" I said brightly, smiling down at her.
"Please don't drop me," she whimpered.
I didn't lose my smile. "Why would I drop you just yet?" I asked with so much saccharine that her lower lip started trembling. She was sure she was dead. "I was hoping you and I would get a chance to have a little girl-talk."
"You're crazy!" she cried. That was the pot calling the kettle black. Her next words were suddenly changed into a gasp of terror as she felt my fingers open. She slid for a fraction of a second before they tightened around her wrist against.
"You really don't want to talk unless you're answering a direct question," I informed her. "It makes me lose my concentration, and you don't want me to do that do you?"
She looked down desperately, and then back up, shaking her head. I glanced up. Justin was doing something, hopefully to get us either back down or back up. My arm was pulling a little, and the rope was cutting into my leg. I wasn't even close to falling, but it was becoming uncomfortable. Time to deal with her though.
"Now, I want to ask you to think about something, and make a firm decision about future decisions, okay?" I said to Denise. Her eyes were huge. This was actually just a little bit fun.
"Oh my God, you're going to kill me," she sobbed out.
"That depends on your answer," I replied calmly. "Now, the next time you have an ex tell you he's not interested, and he's got a new girlfriend, what are you going to say to him?"
"Nothing?" she gasped, trying to come up with the right answer. I let my hand open for a second, getting a tiny scream out of her before catching her again.
"Wrong!" I declared. "You are going to say 'I'm so happy for you' before walking away. You do know how to walk away, don't you?"
She nodded wildly, tears of terror streaming down her face. "Now," I continued in a tone I would use with a small child. "This boy Bradley, is he real or a product of your demented imagination?"
"Real," she sniffed.
"Good! And you've got him completely fooled like you were claiming at dinner?"
"He's not…" she protested, her words choking off as she felt my fingers relax slightly. "Our families think us staying together would be advantageous." I liked the thought of that even better.
"Well that's just wonderful for both of you," I said. "As a matter of fact, when he does ask you to marry him, *I* think that you saying yes would be advantageous. You know, I think I want an invitation, just so I will know for sure that such an advantageous union is going to take place, you got that?" She nodded, her hair flying about.
"I'll send one," she babbled. "I'll say yes and never talk to Justin again I swear just please don't drop me I'll send you an invitation!"
"You have yourself a deal," I said coldly. There was a jerk on my leg, and we started to go up. I wasn't sure what Justin was doing, but I was glad for it all to be over once and for all.
