Hi everyone! I know that I haven't written notes in front of my chapters for a long time, but I'd like to ask you two things, first do you think that the font is too small? And secondly do you feel as if this story is dragging out with no direction whatsoever? I'm beginning to think I made a major mistake in ways I wrote part of this and would most definitely appreciate some input. Thank you.

Chap. 28 Photos

Dovidi sat in front of his computer watching the disturbing image on his screen. He had planned to use the implications of this photograph to his advantage but he stood wavering. It was an advantage that he desperately needed, but the past two days had greatly weakened his resolve. In the silence of his study, he could hear the clock ticking, it's precise pendulum taunting him. The choice had to be made, but could he make it? After long moments, he did make his decision, reaching for the phone and dialing in the number he had forced himself to memorize, but when it came time to hit the 'send' key he hesitated. Finally he put the phone down and headed for his safe instead, his decision could wait, in the mean time he had something else he needed to do, something important.

***

Callie drove at breakneck speed, wanting to get away from Luka as fast as she could. Ian could tell that she was still tapped into the Witchblade, but he also knew that she didn't. When she finally parked they were within sight of the ocean and as she stared at it she seemed to let go of the power and slip back into herself. "I need your help Ian." Callie spoke softly, but still despair and disbelief colored her voice. She was wavering, he could tell, unsure of whether or not she could keep herself from running to him now that she knew where he was. But it wasn't this that worried her, it something far different, something more immediate and almost equally important.

***

From a few yards away, a woman sat in the upper branches of a tree, wondering what to do. She couldn't take photo's through the tinted windows of the car it wasn't possible. The same tinting prevented her from lip reading. This was a predicament, technically it gave her nothing to report. Yet on the other hand, this was important. She sat there for a few moments, then decided to record the event, she would record it, but unless the need arose she would keep it to herself, this was her job after all, it was her decision how to do it.

***

When Luka finally got off the telephone, Sarah was again herself. When he sat down, she immediately began satisfying her own curiosity. "Did you finish the Lab analyses" Luka was surprised by her choice of conversation but oddly found it reassuring; it was exactly how Callie would react.

"I've completed three of the five vials. One contains one version of my fathers creation, the second another. Both of which I know was given to Dovidi's father, the third contains small pox. What I'm worried about right now is the one we didn't get, by tomorrow morning, I'll know what's in the other two. The problems gonna be guessing at that final one." Luka didn't have to say what he was afraid of, that was obvious. The whole point of this was to see if Dovidi had the antidote. If the other two turned out negative then it held off the dread of knowing Dovidi had the antidote, but it also left the sixth vial as a wild card, putting them right back where they started.

"It that's the case we'll deal with that when the time comes. What we need now is a plan for tomorrow." Sarah spoke with certainty, and Luka realized that they needed to plan for the worst. Taking out the list of people who had been at Dovidi's gala the evening before he began to go down the list, one name at a time, focusing on each and every person as if their lives depended on it, and in more then one way, it did.

***

Irons stared hard at the photos in his hand. "Where did you get these?" his voice was cold, nonchalant, and had Dovidi been a better study of character he would've seen the well-concealed fury.

"From an associate." Dovidi would've left it at that, but Irons glared at him long and hard, forcing him to give a more complete answer. "From a mutual enemy – or so I thought." Dovidi wasn't normally stupid, if he were he wouldn't have come this far. But something about Kenneth Irons manor unsettled him enough so that all his careful self-control evaporated.

"Or so you thought? Mr. D'angitino, you've yet to give me a name. WHO took these photographs?" Kenneth was loosing his patience, since the beginning Dovidi hadn't mentioned who it was that he dubbed their 'common enemy'. Until now he had been willing to use the boy's stupidity and arrogance to his control, but these photographs said something else entirely, they told him that the worst was true. This 'enemy' was far more resourceful then Dovidi had cared to tell him – and far more intelligent they he had first assumed.

"Luka Giamano." Irons eyes snapped up sharply, his body gone tense. Was it possible? So he had underestimated the boy, or at least mistaken his daughter's taste in men. Luka Giamano… this certainly made things more interesting. The question now, was what he was after, revenge? Or a profit? From what Irons could tell, it was likely not the latter.

"It seems that more to discuss then I thought." And for the first time ever, Irons invited Dovidi to be seated, this would most definitely take a while.

***

As Onica stepped onto the beach she breathed in deeply. It was odd, but she had been much disconcerted by the breaking of this ritual the last two nights. She also missed being able to talk to Erik every night, for a moment she was sad because even that had changed, when she had not even known his name, he had been a confidante and a comfort, but now that she did know he was, she felt almost disconcerted. When she reached the place where they usually met, he was already awaiting her. For a moment they just watched the waters movement, till she decided on a focus for their conversation.

"Ah – you have lived so soft, what should you know of the night,

The blast and the burning shame and the bitter frost and the fright?"

She could tell he was surprised by her words, unsure of what she meant, so he only looked at her, telling her to go on.

"--- he was always so wild -----

and idle – and couldn't be idle – he never could rest.

The king should have made him a solider, he would have been one of his best."

Erik again looked at her, this time with comprehension "You think you can save him," She nodded. "But who?"

Onica stared off at the ocean, leaning her head on her knees. "Do you remember what I told you about my brother?" Erik nodded, he knew about her brother the two of them were close, despite long and distant separation. "Then there's something else you need to know – or more accurately, something more, I need to say."