Chapter 2 of Skeleton Duet

Well, I hope you read and liked the first chapter. I now have two beta readers and I feel chuffed to have them. Only one of them has given me the feedback so far, which means I may update this later, but I thought I'd put it up anyway because I do love feedback :)

There isn't really any plot development in this chapter but I guess it's one of those necessary ones that would leave a massive plot-hole if they were left out. It gets much more exciting in the next chapter - or at least I think it does.

If you're reading these please do comment, I really wanna know what people think.

Click link for ready-ready.


A Skeleton Duet

Chapter 2

Somewhere, in the back of Hades’ mind, he felt very guilty. He felt very guilty because he’d rushed through his report on Cain’s case and considering that the elf’s future depended on whether or not he decided to show Cain in a good light, he hadn’t done much to help. But as Dirk had said, he’d more or less sealed his own fate by attacking them and Hades didn’t have enough power to sway the higher-up’s decision. Not yet, anyway.

Instead, he’d spent the last half hour staring at his screen, tucked in the corner of two office dividers, where no one could see him in the vast sea of computers that HQ was notorious for amongst agents.

On his screen was the profile of the wielder he was aiming to detain, and he was doing his best to absorb the wealth of information it provided. The wielder’s name was Talon Blackburn, but there were also a number of pseudonyms he operated under. His identification number was 001. That said something – 001; he was the first wielder ever recorded, the oldest wielder in the world. And not only that, he was suspected of being the most powerful. Hades realized he risked everything by approaching Blackburn, but he couldn’t help but weigh up the reward of immediate promotion of an undeterminable scale.

When he’d first stumbled across Blackburn’s profile, Hades had almost completely disregarded it as too dangerous, but then he’d noticed a report of a successful detaining. The agent had used one of the Authorities’ teleport devices to appear right behind Blackburn and had shot him in the head before he’d had the chance to defend himself.

Talon Blackburn was immortal and so a shot to the back of the head would only be temporary, but it left agents with roughly six hours to move and restrain him before he regained consciousness.

In the Academy, Hades had been one of the fastest and most accurate gunmen and so the possibility of taking Blackburn out using the exact same method seemed plausible. The biggest hiccup was getting hold of a teleport device. They could only be signed out of the armoury with proper clearance, depending on whether the higher-ups approved of their usage, the reason being that when teleport devices were created, their technology harnessed the teleporting ability of a manifold demon and they were a valuable tactical advantage. Should one ever fall into the hands of a wielder, there would be a terrible arms race as both sides fought to achieve the upper hand.

Nonetheless, Hades was convinced that his mission required this element of surprise and wouldn’t succeed without it. So first of all, he had to work out how to steal the device from the armoury.

So far, all he could think of was to wait until everyone had finished their reports and offer to take their equipment back to the armoury. Once there, he would have to improvise, but he was confident he’d succeed.

It was coming up to ten o’clock and regardless of whether they’d finished their reports or not, Hades knew his teammates wouldn’t want to stay much later. So he just had to play the waiting game and read Blackburn’s profile over and over again.

Almost exactly on the stroke of ten, Laura’s head appeared above the divider in front of Hades. He hastily changed the screen to display his report and looked up at her with a cool, bored expression.

“You done yet?” she asked.

“Yeah, just finished.” Hades lied.

“Me too. Can I read yours?” Laura asked quietly, casting a sideways look to Dirk’s cell, across the aisle from theirs. She hadn’t been quiet enough.

“Agents aren’t supposed to cross-reference reports, it biases their recollection. That’s protocol.” Dirk’s voice droned loudly from his cell. He hadn’t even bothered to stand up and glare at them, like he so normally did.

Laura sighed and shrugged, sitting back down in her seat and disappearing from Hades’ view.

“Well, are you done yet?” he heard her call to Dirk.

“Just finishing,” Dirk replied, irritably.

“How about everyone else?”

“I’ve been done for ages,” Dom’s voice sounded from the cell next to Hades’. “I was passed out for most of it,” there was an embittered barb to his voice, which Hades didn’t blame him for; as a new recruit there was incredible pressure to prove yourself. The life of an agent was very competitive; everyone wanted a bit of the glory.

“I’m done,” Clancy said.

“Me too,” Melissa echoed.

“Then we’re all done,” Dirk snapped, standing to his feet. “I don’t know about you but I’m going home.”

“What about the gear?” Melissa said.

“I’ll take it,” Hades responded immediately.

He almost cringed at his readiness, but his response was mostly received with gratitude and Dom, Clancy and Melissa quickly disappeared to go home. As he was shutting his computer down, Laura appeared in the entrance to Hades’ cubicle.

“I can help if you like,” she said.

“It’s ok, there’s not much,” Hades replied. “You go home and have dinner, you’ve gotta be starving.”

“Well…” Laura said uncertainly.

Hades rose to his feet and put his jacket on. Walking out the cubicle he was stopped by Dirk’s harsh expression. For a second, Hades felt a fleeting shimmer of fear, as he suspected Dirk knew exactly what he planned to do tonight, but all that his team leader did was hold out the keys for the transit van.

Passively, maintaining his guard, Hades reached out to take them, but Dirk closed his hand.

“You do it following protocol, no cutting corners,” he said sternly.

“Of course,” Hades replied tersely, resisting the urge to hit the annoying bastard in the face. A whole evening of suffering this man was taking its toll and he was close to snapping.

“Thank you,” Dirk said, as though the very words pained him. He dropped the keys into Hades’ hand, and walked away. “See you tomorrow, and don’t be late!” he called behind him and mercifully disappeared from sight.

Hades and Laura were left alone in the empty office, Laura standing quite awkwardly in the presence of Hades silently seething. All he could do to calm down was focus on the fact that by tomorrow morning, he could be ranks above Dirk and the idiot man wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

Composing himself, he turned to Laura, “Go on, you too,” he said kindly, although not entirely sincerely.

“Are you sure?” she asked uncertainly.

“Positive.”

“Well then… thanks,” she beamed. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See ya.” Hades echoed, and they parted directions. Hades went immediately to the end of the cubicle rows, to the lift that led down to the basement car park where they’d left the van. Standing in the lift, he steeled himself, and wondered just how he was going to pull this off. His actions ran on autopilot, as his mind raced through plans and strategies. He found the van, now empty except for the equipment, sat in the driver’s seat and turned the ignition. He drove to a metal doorway at the end of the car park and swiped his ID card on the machine next to it. The metal doors split in the middle and opened wide enough to let the van through.

He drove up the ramp on the other side, which was dimly lit with a few halogen bulbs. At the top was a brighter space, divided by a long desk, behind which a wall of glass separated the loading bay from the armoury. He pulled up close to the desk and turned off the engine. He took a long, cleansing breath and looked around for the attendant.

In the middle of the desk was a woman in her late twenties with blonde highlights. Hades didn’t recognize her, but then again he’d never been to the armoury at this time before. Still, he could guarantee if she worked this shift regularly then a little social interaction would not be unwelcome. Perhaps he could use that to distract her.

Squashing his nerves, Hades stepped out of the van and slammed the door shut behind him. His eyes met the attendant’s and he pulled a grin.

“Working late?” he called.

The woman gave a wry smile back, “Like every night,” she said.

“Heh, you and me both,” Hades said. It was incredibly out of character for him to be making small talk and to act so friendly with a stranger. In fact, he was relieved he’d never seen this attendant before, otherwise she might have suspected something was up. “Just got some Level 1 detaining gear to return,” he continued, pulling open the van’s side door. He proceeded to carry the cases for the dart guns and surveillance tech over to the desk.

Putting the last one down with a heavy bang, Hades gave her an exhausted smile.

“Will you really be putting all this back by yourself? No one here to help you?” he asked.

“Nope, it’s all me. Normally there’s someone at the back and someone at the front but my colleague just called in sick, it’s too late to get a replacement now,” she replied dejectedly.

“Well, I could help you with this stuff,” Hades said off-handedly. If he could get into the armoury then he was closer than he could hope to acquiring a teleport device.

“That would be great, but only people with proper clearance can go into the armoury. You’re just a rookie aren’t you?” she said.

“Ah, you can tell?” Hades said, acting as though he was faking disappointment, when really the emotion was much more genuine.

“Well, you look about eighteen,” she replied with a little laugh.

“How dare you!” he exclaimed with mock anger. “I’m twenty-three.”

“Haha, sorry. Tell you what would be a great help, and it would be good for you too. Could you keep an eye on this stuff, whilst I put your gear back?” she said, gesturing to a pile of guns and tech beside her. “They’ve just been repaired and I need to register them before putting them back, but I can’t leave them unattended and this way you get your deposit form quicker.”

Hades looked at the heap of technology. It was probably the closest he was ever going to get to finding something useful and the only other plan he could think of was to knock out the attendant and force his way into the armoury, which wasn’t exactly the most inconspicuous approach.

“I’d be glad to,” he grinned at her, not forgetting his friendly façade.

“Thanks,” she grinned back, and heaved one of the large cases onto her hip, before swiping her card to enter the armoury beyond.

Hades shifted over towards the tech in the vague hope that he could find something that would help with his mission. Casually, he scanned the pile and felt his heart stop. Buried under a couple of handguns was what looked like a watch with a wide black fabric strap. It had a digital display that was tinted green, and currently deactivated, but he recognized it right away; it was a teleport device.

Hades checked the attendant was still out of sight, then, without a second’s hesitation he seized the teleport device, and shoved it into his jacket pocket.

It was incredible, unbelievable in fact, that he was so lucky to have a teleport device just land into his lap like that. If he still believed in God, then he’d say it was a sign that he was meant to carry out his plan and that he was meant to succeed. If the device hadn’t even been registered yet then it would take a while for anyone to realize it had gone missing. Now things were set in motion, and he just had to hope he could get out of the Authorities HQ with his theft undetected.

The wait was agonizing as the woman came back for the other two boxes and it was like pulling teeth when he had to fill out the deposit form. In the end, he practically sprinted down to his motorbike in the underground car park.

Now all he had to do was go home to pick up his handguns, locate Wielder 001 and his promotion was in sight. Gone were the anxieties that he could end up ruining his career, or that he could end up getting himself killed. Hades was full of bravado, and a little thing like doubt wasn’t going to get in his way.

After all, he thought as he sped out onto the main road, if this wasn’t meant to happen, someone would have stopped me by now.