Chapter 12
It took about twenty minutes for Amya to persuade the manager of the restaurant that there was no need to call the police and that Alasdair would not press assault charges against Emerson for the persistent choking that followed their argument. It then took another fifteen minutes to actually prise Emerson hands away from around Alasdair's neck, by which time; the jumper had gone bright red and was beginning to lose consciousness.
When Emerson had finally settled down and Alasdair had recovered from their spat, they all sat back down again and Alasdair quickly finished off his tea. They paid for the drinks and gave a large tip because of all the commotion. Before they had met up, they had taken Alasdair over to Rysk Industries to 'store' the place in his memory, because of this, instead of going by vehicle; Alasdair 'jumped' them there.
Jeremy had not been sure what to expect when the prospect of teleporting over there had been suggested, however he had welcomed the opportunity. He had been expecting it to be dramatic and exciting, he had not however been expecting the sudden change in scenery that he experienced. The others, who were used to this sort of thing, seemed unaffected, and when they arrived, they all started forward towards the building. Jeremy however stood, locked in place.
"Jeremy?" Amya asked worriedly, but the youth made no response.
"Excuse me." Emerson said and prodded Jeremy in the chest.
"Are you ok?" Amya asked.
"Ummmmmm... where am I?" Jeremy asked dreamily.
"We're here." Emerson replied as if it was obvious, which it was.
"But we weren't here." Jeremy said confused.
"Yes, but remember we said we were going to teleport?" Emerson asked as if he were talking to a child. "Well we did and…" he never finished the sentence because Jeremy lurched forward and made a horrible vomiting sound, the stuff itself erupting from his mouth as if from a volcano, straight at Emerson's feet.
"Bollocks." Emerson cursed. "I just got these shoes a few weeks ago, they cost me a fortune." He looked down at his ruined footwear solemnly. "Oh well, I guess I know what I'm going to do with the money I get from this job."
At that, he led the way towards the revolving doors of the building. Jeremy stood there hopelessly until Amya put an arm around his neck and led him towards the doors after Emerson, with Ryker and Alasdair following. They entered into the lobby and headed straight up to the reception desk where luckily a different receptionist from earlier was sitting. She looked up and smiled welcomingly at Emerson who smiled back and walked straight past and up the stairs.
"Excuse me." The receptionist said, annoyed at the sudden intrusion. "You aren't allowed up there."
"I don't have authorisation and I need authorisation, I know, I went through this with the last receptionist." Emerson replied angrily.
"I'm sorry; he just recently lost his brother." Amya said apologetically to the receptionist and then strode right past the desk with the others right behind.
"Excuse me! Stop, you can't go up there!" the receptionist said more forcefully but they just continued climbing the stairs.
"Security!" she called.
"What are we going to do now?" Jeremy whispered to Amya.
"Just keep walking." She said back.
Six huge men in suits stormed into the lobby towards the stairs. Emerson and the others continued up the stairs as if nothing was happening. The guards reached the bottom of the stairs and began to climb them three at a time. Ryker was at the back of the group so they reached him first.
One of the guards roughly put his huge hand on Ryker's shoulder to pull him around. As soon as the guard's hand touched Ryker's shoulder, Ryker grabbed the huge man's wrist with his opposite hand. He turned himself round and twisted the guard so that he had his back to him. He yanked his arm behind his back and smashed his boot into the guard's back so that he flew forward down the stairs into one of the other guards.
All of this happened in a matter of seconds; the other guards all stopped and stepped backwards in shock. Ryker turned around again and continued up the stairs with the others. The guards quickly recovered and one pulled out a gun.
"Stop right where you are, put your hands on your head and slowly turn around!" The guard demanded.
Suddenly, Alasdair was behind him, he'd wrapped his arm around the guard's throat and they were gone. Alasdair was back and he grabbed another guard the same way before they could react. Now they seemed realised what was happening and they tried to prepare themselves for what was bound to happen next.
Alasdair was back and he grabbed another, there were two left and the one who had been knocked unconscious by Ryker. Alasdair grabbed one of the two, so there was only one guy left. He looked terrified; his huge frame was shivering with fear.
"Come on then." He shouted. "Come out and face me!"
Alasdair appeared back again but this time he had something with him. Being hit with a shark was not what the guard expected to happen and he was so startled that it was not only the shark that made the floor wet. The shark crashed into the guard and he flew backwards, his head crashing against the wall with a sickening thud, the shark right behind. He lay there unmoving with the now dead shark lying on top of him. The receptionist stared in horror at the scene in front of her.
"You seem to have a shark in your lobby." Alasdair stated. "Don't you think you need a water tank?"
"So you aren't only for transport." Emerson marvelled and Alasdair started up the stairs again as if nothing had happened with Ryker in tow. He seemed to be completely unaffected by the whole thing. Emerson followed, shaking his head in amazement and Amya led Jeremy up after them assuring him that there would be no more sharks.
When they had finally reached the top of the stairs, they went through a door, past some people who had come to see what all the commotion was about. They were in a corridor which seemed to go on for ages; all of the rooms leading from it were offices for Rysk's staff. For some reason, which Emerson would later question, on one of the signs it said Rysk's office was on the top floor, only a few floors above them.
They found a lift and entered it. Already in the lift was an attractive young woman in her mid-twenties and an older man in his fifties. They were obviously trying to avoid any awkward small talk so when Emerson entered, it was most definitely not their best case scenario.
"So, working for Navaryous Rysk, what's it like?" he asked them curiously, the man just looked at him as if he were crazy, the woman however just ignored him.
"Have you ever even seen the guy?" Emerson asked as if his first question had been answered. "He's a great guy, he really is. He reminds me of myself sometimes, and indeed of whoever he wants." Emerson chuckled at his little joke but the others ignored it, Amya just rolled her eyes. This didn't seem to deter Emerson however as he continued his attempt at conversation.
"Of course, it isn't really a him is it? However, you wouldn't know that if you hadn't seen it yet. If you do though, you'll notice the difference between him and a normal guy reasonably quickly." Emerson chuckled at his understatement and decided to continue the conversation even more. "What do you do then? Sit at a computer all day, and every so often pick up the phone?"
At this point, the lift reached the third to top floor and both the man and the young woman got out and went in different directions.
"Bye then." Emerson called after them. "Lovely couple." He muttered.
"I don't think they were a couple…" Amya suggested.
"What do you mean? Of course they were." Emerson insisted. "Why wouldn't they be?"
"Well for one they were standing as far away from each other as they could in the lift…" Amya started.
"They could be fighting." Emerson reasoned.
"Two." Amya continued, ignoring Emerson's comment. "They went in completely different directions when they left the lift."
"They could be having a really big fight." Emerson suggested hopefully.
"Or they could just work on different sides of the building." Alasdair muttered.
"Exactly." Emerson agreed.
"Oh, no, I wasn't agreeing with you." Alasdair corrected himself. "Of course they weren't a couple. I was merely offering you an argument that wasn't quite so pitiful."
"Hey! My argument wasn't pitiful." Emerson insisted. "They might have been having a fight."
"They weren't having a fight." Alasdair said firmly.
"How do you know?" Emerson asked.
"Because they weren't together!" Alasdair snapped back.
"How do you know?" Emerson repeated.
"Because he's going to need a Zimmer-frame in a few years and she's only just got her driving license!"
"He was only fifty." Emerson muttered quietly and Amya smiled.
No-one spoke and they all stood awkwardly as the lift continued to rise.
"Wow, this lift is really slow." Jeremy said breaking the silence.
"I know right, it feels as if we've been in here for ages." Emerson agreed and as soon as he said that, they stopped rising, there was a ding and the lift door opened. "Well that was convenient." Emerson said.
They walked out into a corridor; on the wall on their left was a sign, which said Rysk's office was down the corridor. They started down, Amya in at the lead with Jeremy right behind, Ryker and Alasdair after them and Emerson bringing up the rear. Emerson noticed people working in the offices off to his sides, but not many people were actually walking up or down the corridor.
They reached some impressive looking wooden double doors which seemed completely out of place in the modern building. This was obviously the entrance to Rysk's office. Amya grabbed the wooden knob and twisted it. She pushed the door open and entered with Jeremy immediately after her. Emerson entered last and what he saw was not what he expected. The office was completely empty. Things were scattered across the floor; the desk was a mess. Obviously Rysk had left in a hurry.
"The bastard's scarpered." Emerson cursed.
"Why would it have done that?" Jeremy asked confused.
"Obviously, it knew we were coming and didn't want to see us for some reason." Emerson answered.
"It's obviously already involved with this somehow." Amya decided "It must know something that it doesn't want us knowing."
"We've gotta find it." Alasdair said.
"Yes we do." Emerson agreed. "And when we do, I'm going to wring it's neck."
A/N: So Rysk's done a runner. What does it have to hide? How is he involved with everything? Are they going to find it? If they do, will Emerson wring its neck? Why am I asking so many questions? Maybe because it's supposed to build tension? Why did I put a question mark at the end of the last statement? I'm going to stop now, probably for the best. Anyway though, thank you so much Anastasia for that properly heart-warming review, it's literally the reason I'm releasing the story onto this site. Please everyone reading this follow her example, I really want to know what people think. Also, you can ask her if she received the invisible brick I promised her, there will be more coming your way if you review. Thanks so much for reading.
Mangobean.
