Chapter 11

"So you're saying they took Caiden?" Amya asked.

"Yes, yes they did." Emerson confirmed quietly.

Emerson hadn't gone straight home after the incident; in fact he'd stayed at the pub for a while. He'd gone straight up to the bartender and got a drink. He'd stayed staring into space for an hour or so and then left without bothering to pay; the bartender didn't try to ask for any money, he'd seen what he could do.

When he had got back, he called up Amya with the home phone, and they'd gone straight back after 'acquiring' a new mobile from the store for Emerson. When they got back, they'd found Emerson lying on the sofa in the living room eating ice cream from the tub while watching episodes of SpongeBob Squarepants. He didn't even look up when they walked in.

"What happened?" Amya had asked.

At first, Emerson hadn't answered, but then he started from the beginning, after they'd left for the pub.

"So you're saying they took Caiden?" Amya asked.

"Yes, yes they did." Emerson confirmed quietly.

"Did they say where, or why?"

"Not where, but they said Villainous wanted him." Emerson said sorrowfully.

"They won't kill him; I mean they could've done that at the pub if they'd wanted to, right?" Amya said encouragingly. "They could've killed you too."

"Yes, I know." Emerson muttered.

"You say they want revenge, no offence, but why not just kill you?" Alasdair asked and Emerson smiled.

"The Bloody Murderers aren't like that, they don't just want us to suffer, they want everyone to suffer for the 'injustices' that have been done to them." Emerson explained.

"How are you suddenly such an expert on the Bloody Murderers, from what I gathered you only knew they existed a few days ago?" Alasdair asked suspiciously.

"I've met loads of people like them before. They don't care about anything else; their only goal is to make people suffer. It's a bit of a pain really."

"What are we gonna do now?" Amya asked. "I mean, we don't even know where they are."

"No, we don't but I think I know someone who might." Emerson said. "Amya, do you have Jeremy's number on your phone?"

"Yes, why?"

"We need to call him."

"Wait a second." Alasdair stopped them. "You're going to ask a teenage boy, who has no knowledge of the magical community at all, where a gang that not even the biggest Magicians Guild in the world can find is?"

"No, we're not going to ask Jeremy about that, we're going to finally get him a new job." Emerson replied.

Jeremy wasn't too chuffed, sure he'd found out that there were secret magical communities around the world protecting it from crazy maniacs who wanted to destroy it. Yeah he'd exploded a car to knock out and possibly kill a significant amount of people to save some magical friends. He'd also seen one of those friends stabbed in the chest by a very impressive piece of rubble and so after being interrogated by the police, he rushed to the hospital to see if he was ok and found out it was only a flesh wound. Despite all of those things, he was bored, he wanted more excitement.

Caiden and Emerson were really great, Amya too, but they'd just left him to do other more important things like saving the world, meh, no biggy. Of course Jeremy would be cool and pretend he didn't mind, but he really did. He didn't mind at all about a new job, sure it would be good, it'd get his parents off his back, but he just didn't care. He just wanted to hang around Caiden and Emerson, see some more action.

The most exciting thing that happened while he was at home was finding out SpongeBob Squarepants was on, so he'd watched a few episodes of that, well a few was probably an understatement. Thrilling stuff though. After that however, he just lay in his room being bored, so when his mobile rang he literally leapt off his bed, knocking over his lamp to reach his phone.

"Hello?" he said casually into the receiver.

"Ah, hi Jeremy, it's James." Jeremy's face dropped as he realised it wasn't Caiden or Emerson.

"Oh, hi James." He said drearily into the phone.

"Well don't you sound happy to see me?" The phone replied sarcastically.

"Yeah, sorry mate, I thought it was going to be someone else." Jeremy said apologetically.

"Oh well that's friendly." His friend said, really heaping on the sarcasm. "I was just going to ask if you wanted to go down to the cinema, but obviously if you don't want to, we don't have to."

"No, man, of course I do it's just stuffs happened recently and I was kind of hoping it was someone else."

"Oh, well that's nice that is, you know what, I take it back, I have plans today, I can't go to the cinema."

"No, mate, I didn't…" Jeremy tried but his friend had already been hung up.

He was just about to put his phone back down when it started ringing again.

"Hi, James, I'm sorry…" Jeremy started, but it wasn't James.

"Hi Jeremy, it's me Amya." The voice the other side of the phone said.

"Amya." Jeremy said startled. "Hi."

"Yeah, hi. I was wondering if we could meet you somewhere, we've have a possible job for you if you want it?"

"Yes." Jeremy answered perhaps a little too quickly.

"Are you sure you don't want to think about it?"

"No. I mean, no thank you, I think I'll be ok." Jeremy replied excitedly. "Where do you want to meet?"

Two hours later, Jeremy arrived at the restaurant that they had agreed to meet at. It was quite a posh Italian restaurant. When he got there, Jeremy noticed Emerson, Amya, and two other guys discussing what seemed like a very important and serious subject. When he noticed Jeremy, Emerson stood up and introduced him to the two other guys, Ryker Crow and Alasdair Blake.

"It was really great of you to come buddy." Emerson said gratefully.

"Yeah, well I've got nothing else to do; anyway, you still owe me a job." Jeremy replied jokingly.

"A job which we have finally got ready for you. However, we also have something else that we kind of need to do."

"And this has something to do with my job?"

"Yes, quite a lot… ok, a lot… ok, pretty much everything." Emerson admitted.

"May I ask how?" Jeremy asked curiously.

"Well, we're going to trade you for information." Emerson replied and Jeremy frowned. "Ok, that came out wrong. We put you up for a potential job and he tells us what we want to know, if he knows it anyway."

"And if he doesn't?" Jeremy asked suspiciously.

"If he doesn't, then you get put forward for the job, but we don't get the information. Either way, you get a new job." Emerson said reassuringly.

"Or at least get recommended for one." Alasdair said helpfully.

"Yeah, at least that." Emerson agreed.

"Sounds good." Jeremy agreed. "The only problem is, what job do you think he'll offer me, I don't exactly have much experience?"

"I don't have a clue; I guess we'll have to find out."

The five of them sat awkwardly round the table and then a waitress came with a tray of drinks. They took their drinks and the waitress left with the tray, the awkward silence resumed.

"Just a question," Jeremy started and Emerson inwardly sighed in relief. "Where's Caiden?"

Emerson coughed awkwardly, the sigh of relief completely vanished. Luckily it was Amya who answered.

"Well, that's part of the information we need…"

"Oh…" Jeremy said awkwardly, feeling terrible. "Was he…"

"Yes, taken by the… others, the people who for some reason aren't out friends." Emerson said. "Couldn't imagine why…" Emerson frowned and looked very confused.

"Anyway…" Amya coughed. "Back to the matter at hand." She turned to Jeremy, "The person that'll be your boss… isn't really a person, it's an it."

"What? Is it like, an alien?" Jeremy asked confused.

"An alien? No, wow, you watch way too much Sci-fi. No, it's just a spiderlike creature kind of thing with long spindly legs." Amya replied.

"Don't forget ugly." Emerson prompted.

"Oh yeah, it's really ugly." Amya agreed.

"Right, well that's much better." Jeremy sighed sarcastically.

"I know right." Emerson agreed wholeheartedly, completely missing the sarcasm. "An alien, pffffft they don't exist… probably." Amya just shook her head.

"Just before we go and get my job, I was just wondering who exactly this thing is and what it does?" Jeremy asked.

"Well, its name is Navaryous Rysk, and it's a…" Emerson started, then frowned and turned to the others. "What is it exactly that Rysk does?"

"Not a clue." Amya answered.

"I think it's a businessman of some sort." Ryker replied thoughtfully.

"Never heard of this chap before this conversation." Alasdair answered simply.

"Wait, did you say Rysk?" Jeremy asked. "As in Rysk Industries?"

"Why, do you know him?" Emerson asked curiously.

"Not personally, but I do know that he owns one of the biggest multinational companies in the world."

"Oh." Emerson answered awkwardly. "Well I didn't know that. Old Rysky's done pretty well for himself. Well that could be why they were so insistent for me and Caiden not to go straight up to Rysk's office…" Again Amya shook her head.

"How am I meant to get a job at Rysk Industries?" Jeremy asked in despair.

"With your natural charm and formidable intelligence?" Emerson asked hopefully.

"You think I have natural wit and formidable intelligence?" Jeremy asked hopefully.

"Well no, but they don't have to know that." Emerson replied and Jeremy's shoulders slumped again.

"We might as well give it a try; I mean what do we have to lose?" Amya said optimistically.

"Our dignity, our humility, our pride…" Emerson replied.

"They're pretty much the same thing." Alasdair interrupted.

"Our lives…" Emerson continued.

"Well that's just a bit drastic." Alasdair muttered.

"Our left pinky finger…" Emerson continued and Alasdair face-palmed.

"Ok, ok." Amya interrupted. "I get the picture; we have a lot to lose. Still though we might as well try, it isn't like we have any other plan."

"As if." Emerson corrected.

"I'm sorry?" Amya asked confused.

"It's as if we have any other plan, not like." Emerson explained.

"Right, sorry, it isn't as if we have any other plan." Amya repeated.

"I agree." Ryker agreed. "We don't have any other ideas, so why not?" Amya nodded her thanks.

"Alasdair, do you have an opinion?" Amya asked the jumper.

"Ummmm… sure, let's do that." Alasdair replied.

"Jeremy?" Amya asked.

"It isn't like…" he started but saw Emerson about to correct him and corrected himself. "It isn't as if I'm going to get the job, but I might as well give it a try."

All eyes turned to Emerson. "I guess we don't have much of a choice… meh, let's go say hi to Rysky."

"Great." Amya exclaimed and there was silence, the atmosphere was extremely awkward, however Alasdair seemed completely unaffected, he just continued to sip his tea.

"Will you stop drinking tea!" Emerson shouted angrily.

"But I'm English." He protested and Emerson stood up abruptly knocking his chair over violently, still Alasdair just sat unaffected. Amya shook her head again in mock despair.

A/N: Here it is, Chapter 11! Jeremy's back! Is Rysk gonna give him a job, of course he should, Jeremy's awesome! I'm not sure about you, but I think they're coping quite well without Caiden. Please review! I really want to know how much people like it. Thank you so much if you've read this, congrintulations for making it this far, Derek would be proud of you for sticking with a story that isn't Skulduggery Pleasant for so long. Thanks so much!

Mangobean.