Something Missing

            Ian waved as Ed drove off and headed inside the building’s lobby. Here he waited a few minutes to make sure Ed was gone before he left the building and made his way over to the car dealership.

            He had asked Ed to drop him off under the premise of having to finish up reports, in truth these had been taken care of long ago but Ian needed to get into the city. The night before Ian had done some more cyber snooping and came across a meeting scheduled for later the day in the CBD.

            Ian got to the dealership and started filling out the required forms. He was buying a replacement WRX STi as he felt it was the best car for him and could see no point in buying a Ferrari or Lamborghini. Where would he drive it? After the forms where finalized and processed, Ian took his new car and headed deeper into the city to where the meeting would be held. He chose a building nearby from which to observe.

            He waited for a good long while before he saw Elizabeth enter the park and walk over to the pond. At first he thought the person that was meeting her didn’t show, then when he saw her lips moving he thought the person was phoning her. It was only when he saw the man under the nearby tree speak that he knew the meeting was still on. And he knew who the man was.

            After the meeting, Ian set out to follow Elizabeth. He would worry about the old man later. She visited a jewellery store, a gun store and a boutique before getting in her car and driving towards the edge of the city. When they got to the highway, Ian lost track of her. He was making his way back towards the Cage when Ed phoned him.

  “What’s up?”

  “JR’s lost it, big time. He’s going on about some murders, something to do with crystals coming from the ground and impaling people,”

  “Rings no bells,”

  “I know, but he insists it was on the news, and that we saw it. He’s also got a fever and…JR, no! Put that down!”

            The next thing Ian heard was three gunshots, two in short succession and the third followed a short pause. After that the connection was cut.

  “Damnit!” Ian swore, pulled up the hand break and made a U-Turn in the middle of the highway.

  “Ed!” Ian shouted as he burst through the front door. “Ed!”

  “Up here,” came Ed’s voice from the second floor.

            Ian found him in his room selecting some gear from the hidden compartment in his car. When they had arrived at the Cage, they had not thought to take any weapons with them and Elizabeth had told them they would be armed for any assignments though she allowed no weapons in her house.

            After the cypher message Ed had given him that morning, he wasn’t so sure if it was her house. He didn’t really trust Elizabeth, even if Ed vouched for her, and sleeping with one eye open never hurt anyone.

  “I heard gunshots?” said Ian enquiringly.

  “Yeah, but he never hit me. For all the times he 'pawnd' my ass in CoD, he really is a poor shot in real life,” remarked Ed.

  “Yeah, thankfully. Where is he now?”

  “No idea, he bolted after he tried shooting at me, but he’s really lost it…how did you get here?”

  “New car,” said Ian.

  “Oh?”

  “A Subi,”

  “Oh,”

  “You sound disappointed,”

  “No, just thought you might buy something else,”

  “No, not until I’ve got that large mansion with the whole underground garage like Bruce Wayne has,” said Ian with his devilish smile.

  “Well, with two cars we might be able to find him faster,”

  “Or even faster with four, I’ll get Dev on the line and tell him to phone Melisa, though I’m sure she’s within his reach at the moment,”

            JR was stumbling along a crowded sidewalk. He had no idea where he was, or where he was going. His vision was foggy, as was his mind which was now filled with whispers. His own or other peoples, he wasn’t sure.

  They will betray you, a voice whispered as he turned a corner and nearly collided with a businessman in a hurry. They tried to kill you.

  “No,” JR mumbled.

            He crossed the street without looking and a car came to a screeching halt no more than half a foot from him. He just stared at the driver who was cursing him so badly that not even the sea could clean him. Before he knew it, he was walking again and the light of day was fading.

  She doesn’t love you

  “No,”

  Not like I love you

  “No,”

            He was staring at his reflection in the window of a banking building. He looked pale and people were staring at him but he paid them very little attention. It was the woman that bothered him, the beauty from his waking nightmares with her supple skin veined in green crystallite.

  She is mine!

            His own voice yelled at him and from the depths of his reflection came the crystal JR. The spectre broke through the glass window, shattering it to a million pieces and dove at JR.

            He backed away and the spectre vanished. Passers-by were mumbling and pointing, some took photos and other videos but JR barely saw them, he did see the woman though, she was walking through the crowd and JR needed to follow.

            Hours passed, though to him it felt like days and finally he came to the ruins of a great mansion. He followed the beauty up the stairs and as he followed the mansion seemed to repair itself. She led him to the master bedroom, a huge room with a king size bed. Scented candles were the only lights and the beauty lay on the bed provocatively, and smiling seductively.

  “Come here, my love, come and lay with me,” she said sweetly.

            JR walked forwards slowly and joined her.

            They searched for hours but even between the four of them, JR still eluded them. Ian was very worried by the time they got back to the Cage. JR normally did strange things, and trouble had a way of finding him with ease but this was way beyond anything that had happened in the past.

            They got back to the Cage just after eleven and warmed up some of the leftovers for dinner, which they ate mostly in silence before heading to their separate rooms. Dev had brought Melisa with him, which Ian thought was a very idiotic thing to do, but he didn’t voice his objections. After all, he wanted nothing more than to bring Danny over but his honour stood in his way.

            Ian continued with his cyber snooping, he had no hope of finding anything new so he flipped though the video feeds, ignoring Devon’s room. He was only half focusing when he noticed the one feed was not of this mansion. He flipped back to it and hunted down more of the cameras.

            He saw mountains, lush green fields and…

  Aaliyah, he thought to himself. He knew better than to give himself away to whomever was watching them. Where are they keeping you?

            He tried everything he could think of to try and find the location but they were good and they knew how to cover their tracks. Eventually he gave it up as a bad job and closed his laptop.

  So I know she’s alive, Ian thought as he lay awake staring at the ceiling. Now I just need to know where. Until then, Ed doesn’t need to know, worrying about JR is bad enough without having to worry about one of my genius plans going to shit.

            The moonlight played on his wedding ring as he looked down towards his feet. He took it off and examined it for a while, looking longingly at the inscription inside.

  Free Aaliyah, find JR and then I can spend the rest of my days with Danny. And there’s nothing I’d rather do, he though as he put the ring back on his finger and waited for the ever elusive embrace of sleep.