Chapter Nine - Just Another Day at the Office
Days had passed since their meeting and he was still jittery. He had made contact with him and was still in one piece. May the light continue protecting him for what he knew he must do would require all the skill and luck he could muster if he was to emerge from it in one piece. But damn that Riot fellow was quick... Just thinking about the ex-Riskbreaker made him shiver... whether through fear or anticipation he couldn't decide but it didn't really matter. Kill Callo Merlose. That's all he had to do. Quite why he was supposed to he didn't know but again, it didn't really matter. Nothing else matters - her impending death was the sole item on his agenda.
Movement caught his attention and he reflexively snatched his crossbow from where it rested in his lap and aimed it at the source. Only a pigeon, but this one had something attached to its left leg. He gracefully stalked across the room, his free arm darting out and grabbing the pigeon by its neck. Placing the crossbow in the crook of his arm, he removed the message and read it carefully, whispering it silently to himself over and over.
The Day of Thunder will be your last chance...
With a grim smile, Regnak snapped the pigeon's neck, idly tossing its corpse back through the window from whence it came. So his mysterious benefactor had contacted him again, the very same person who had sent him down this path in the first place...
She sat at her desk again, her eyes surreptitiously looking at everything and everyone around her, especially him. Whenever she saw him, she visibly shrank in her chair, trying to evade him completely. Callo Merlose was a nervous wreck for she knew her time was growing shorter by each and every second. She was to be next and she knew he couldn't be stopped. Then there was the Dejamir problem to deal with as well: was he a Pretender sent to get information from her? Could he be trusted at all? And finally there was Sondra... why had she chosen this moment to waltz back into her life? And why try and turn her against Dejamir? Was she the true Pretender? Non-stop questions buzzed around inside her head, questions that could not be answered until too late...
Maybe she's regretting telling me about herself, he thought as he noticed Callo's reaction to him each time he passed her by. Entering his office, he sank into his chair, holding his head in his hands. What have I done? Oh Lord, what have I done? Is this all I can expect from her now? Fear? Distress? That's not what I wanted at all...
Watching as always, Sondra Felsham saw Callo's abject misery and smiled to herself. This was exactly what she wanted, Callo to be uneasy and on her guard. Protecting herself from everyone, including Sondra as well. No-one could be trusted, no-one at all. They were all threats to her safety but Sondra knew she could still get in and that was all. Nothing else matters, just that I can still get in while others fail...
Shuffling papers was all he ever seemed to do these days and he swore blind it was driving him crazy. Shuffling, signing and stamping, that was it apart from the occasional bouts of shouting and swearing. He was too isolated in his office, he needed, nay, craved attention and he knew just who from. Hastily scrawling a note, he sealed it in its canister and slid it into the pipe. If he had had Ashley's heightened sense of hearing, he would have heard a dark chuckle from below him, but as it was, Le Sait didn't hear a thing nor suspect it. As usual, Margaret, his secretary, came in a few seconds later. Things proceeded as they usually did but on this particular day, the Grand Stewart derived no pleasure from it. As she straddled him, her moans of 'ecstasy' getting louder and louder, he felt himself become more and more distant from it all. None of it seemed to involve him anymore. He had all the power yet he was powerless, even in this most primitive of acts. Instead, he just lay back and thought about the next batch of paperwork he had to do while awaiting reports from the Pretenders...
Tap, tap, tap went his fingers upon the bar. He sat on the stool nursing a pint as he solemnly tapped away. Despite the fact it was annoying the hell out of several people and also that this particular pub was known for some vicious brawls, no-one approached the solitary figure in the black trenchcoat. The gigantic five-bladed sword strapped across his back said all that needed to be said: Don't fuck with me.
Plenty of time to kill, why not have a few beers? was the thought Ashley Riot had had earlier in the day. He grimaced as he took another sip though to be honest, he was starting to grow accustomed to the flavour. He was much more of a wine drinker really, but he was picking up a taste for ale, probably due to his immense boredom and the constant threat of danger in seedy pubs. All he really wanted was some action, something to take his mind away from the tedium of waiting, waiting for the time to kill again...
"He received the message?" As the nod came in response, the baritone voice continued, "Good, then we can expect him to continue his efforts in killing Inquisitor Merlose. This shall indeed be interesting to watch, though I wouldn't want to be caught up in the middle of it... Alright, you may go my child."
"Thanks and God bless you Cardinal, God bless you..."
He smiled as the hunchbacked man loped from the room, those last words still echoing in the Cardinals head. "When this is done, maybe I shall bless God instead..."
