CHAPTER 5
John walked from the caravan with long strides, trying to get a good distance away without appearing to be in too much of a hurry, drawing the two guards along in his wake. As he entered the side door, into the mansion, they both caught up with him, and one of them stepped into his path, effectively blocking his way.
"You are Dale Scott?" said the one facing him. John looked around casually; the normally crowded room with the blue screen was uncharacteristically empty.
"Yes," he said finally, "What's the problem? I have a meeting in…" and he glanced at his watch, "less than five minutes."
"Mr. Novak would like to meet with you," said one of them. "Come this way."
"I'm late…" began John, but the other guard, losing patience shoved from behind, and pushed John up against the wall.
"Listen pretty boy," he said, with scorn in his voice, "when Mr. Novak says he wants to see you, you'd better listen. Now, unless you want me to rearrange those features on your face, so they aren't quite so photogenic, you'd better come with us, now!"
John stared back into the eyes of the guard who had stiff-armed him into the wall, trying not to let the flare of temper show in his face. He had no desire to meet with the owner of the mansion, Novak, or his head honcho, Hardinger – but knew reinforcements were still probably about half an hour away. He took a deep breath, and pushed the guard's arm away from his body.
"All right," he said innocently. "No need to get nasty. I'll come with you, though I have no idea why he wants to speak to me. Lead on."
The guards arranged themselves, one in front and one behind him, and they walked out into the spacious corridor of the mansion, and headed up into the private quarters. John took about eight steps, before bending down suddenly to pretend to play with one shoe. The guard behind him couldn't stop in time and ran straight into him. Before the leading man could even turn around, John had grabbed the other by the legs, and flipped him over his back and into the first man. He then took off back down the corridor in a quick sprint, and ran around the nearest corner, before the two surprised guards could even pick themselves up off the floor.
John couldn't believe that the bloody mansion was so empty, for the last three days you couldn't move in it without bumping into someone from the modeling company, but now when he would have appreciated lots of people, there was nobody around. He realized they must all be in the 'meeting' where he was supposed to be, and headed for that room, diving through an open doorway, seconds before the two men chasing him came around the corner. He sped through the empty lounge room, and through another door on the far side, erupting into the room being used by the modeling company.
John found himself being stared at by about twenty people who were sitting around in the larger room, being spoken to by the manager of the company, who stopped in mid sentence, as he burst in. He smiled apologetically, and shut the door behind him, choosing an empty chair and sliding into it self-consciously, scrunching down a little, and trying to blend in.
The Manager however, looked closely at him; then down at the notes she was holding.
"Ah, glad you could join us Dale," she said, "I thought you were bringing some people with you to the meeting?"
At that moment the guards opened the door and rushed into the room, stopping short as they realized the room was full of people.
Once again, everyone turned to stare at the newcomers, who also shut the door, and leaned back on it, but waved the manager to continue, and stood back, both of them blocking the exit and glowering at John.
The manager sighed in exasperation, and turned back to John.
"The people I was expecting just didn't turn up," he said. "I don't know where they are."
He studiously avoided looking in the direction of the two security men, but he could feel their eyes watching him, and he smiled a little at their obvious frustration at not being able to do anything in front of so many witnesses.
"Well then, as everyone else is here, let's get on with this, shall we?" she asked, and proceeded to talk a little about the modeling company, and their gratitude to Mr. Novak, for his continued patronage, and the use of his lovely house. John wasn't really listening to what she was saying, but folded his arms across his chest, and gazed at her, as if she were the most interesting person in the world, pretending total absorption in her words, and wondering whether the guards had thought to radio anyone at the gate to stop people leaving, or if another of them had decided to search the caravan.
Eventually people started clapping a little, and John brought his attention back to what was happening in the room, and found everyone was staring at him. He looked from one person to another blankly, until the man sitting next to him nudged him and indicated that he go and stand over to one side of the room with another two of the men who had been modeling.
"Yes," said the woman who had been talking, "Dale, if you would join Jason and Aaron over here, the rest of you, thank you for coming, but these three men are the ones who we would like to sign up at this time."
Feeling a little like a schoolboy called out the front of an assembly; John stood a little behind the other two men, who were obviously delighted, high fiving each other and grinning at their support people. The two guards at the door were forced to stand aside and allow the other people to leave, but stayed in the back of the room, still glaring at John, who smiled blandly back at them.
The woman, whose name he finally remembered was Carole Roberts, began talking again, to the three of them about needing another contract signature from each of them, and what the contract entailed, once again John wasn't paying attention, he was beginning to get worried and as he watched one of the guards finally pulled his two-way radio out of his top pocket, and began speaking into it, in urgent tones, his eyes never leaving John's face.
After a moment or two, he stopped talking and listened, and a smile slowly crept over his face, making John wonder what had happened, thinking it probably wouldn't be good news for him. He was beginning to wonder what had happened to the police reinforcements, knowing that Bailey would have alerted the local cops immediately, and they should have been here before now.
"And the conditions are the normal ones as I've just discussed, if you could just sign here, and initial where I've left the mark," said Ms Roberts thrusting a sheaf of papers at him. It took a moment or two to remember what she was talking about, he took the papers, and glanced through them trying to bring his mind back to the whole modeling thing, it appeared to be a contract of some sort, and obviously the other two men had signed; he grabbed a pen and signed with a flourish. He had no idea if a contract signed with a false name was binding or not, but at the moment, he didn't really care, Bailey would take care of it, and he had more important things to think about now.
"Well that's it then," said Carole Roberts handing the papers to her next in charge to co-sign, "Mr. Novak is on his way down to congratulate you, his patronage is very important to our company, and he can be a big help with contacts, etc. for someone just starting out."
John knew that he would be unable to wiggle out of this confrontation; he stayed where he was, wondering where Rachel and Phil were and how long he could delay the millionaire and his henchmen, before help arrived.
As he was considering his options, the door opened, and the millionaire himself walked in, followed by several other men, one of whom immediately spoke to the guards by the door, and then looked directly over at John. John decided there was nothing he could do, and stared deliberately back noting the man's size and the discreet bulge under his jacket, which spoke of a hidden weapon.
He could see that the manager of the agency, Carole Roberts, was squirming with pleasure at the attention of the millionaire, and totally expected the three models chosen to be likewise smitten. The other two men both smiled enthusiastically and reached out eagerly to shake the man's hand, when he came to John he stared him in the face, and reached out to shake his hand, but there was a coldness in his eyes, and his hand clamped around John's like a vice.
"Scott," he said, in a falsely hearty voice. "I'd like to talk to you – will you come to my office?" and he tugged at John's hand, while at the same time the hard eyed man who was standing with the guards made a soft movement, as if to pull out a gun, so John nodded, and while Carole Roberts smiled with pleasure that one of her new 'models' was being shown such favor, he followed Novak and the three other men out of the room, and into the depths of the mansion.
