Something Unannounced

The hallway was dark, as always, with only a few necessary lantern-like wall lights lit in regular intervals. Ed walked through the double-window turned glass doors and met with Elizabeth a few meters on. C-Net had done an amazing job by adapting Prime from quite an ancient and clunky stronghold to a decent and well-executed headquarter and central building for whatever it is that they was. He kissed her on her forehead before he hugged her, and began walking down the hall with her, hand-in-hand.

      "I put off asking C-Net why I wasn't aloud to enter your old room due to most of what you do being a need-to-know basis, but I really do need to get some things from there," she explained why she called him away from his talk with Ian. She looked at Ed apologetically, and he couldn't bear to look at her longer than needed. "Are you alright?" She then asked.

      "Yeah, I'm alright," Ed answered then shot another glance at her. They stopped in front of his old room, which would still be destroyed after what had happened earlier that night, and Ed turned to her. He held her on her upper arm and sighed, then looked back at the door.

      "What's going on?"

      "When have you last seen your brother, Liz?"

      "I haven't yet. Last we spoke, he told me that he had some business to take care of. Naturally I didn't want him to elaborate. Why, what does he have to do with anything?"

      Ed looked away as soon as their eyes met. He knew he had to tell her sooner -- it would not be as hard this way, then. She should also have told her about her father...

      "Connor and I had some business to take care of too, earlier," Ed said and winced the moment the words repeated in his head. He made no sense at all. "No, uh... Okay, Liz, I haven't been completely honest with you."

      "What are you saying?" She asked, and backed away a little.

      "You know that shadow thing that's been harassing us these past couple of weeks now? I had a strong hunch that it was your brother."

      She looked down then back at Ed, pondering the thought. "Is it?"

      Ed looked down too.

      "Is it my brother?"

      "Yes. Your brother attacked me a few days ago for the first time here at Prime. He attacked again tonight... It all happened so fast, the way he moved, I couldn't defend myself..."

      Elizabeth rushed past Ed and into the room which Ed had unlocked right after talking. She stood next to the small coffee table and looked at the mess, surveying the entire room, her eyes stopped and focused on a dried pool of blood a few centimeters from her feet. She then slowly turned around and looked at Ed, tears forming in her eyes.

      "There was nothing else that we could have done," Ed began while stepping closer. "He had me by my throat, and I would have died had Ian not arrived when he did."

      "You killed my brother," Elizabeth said and stepped back from Ed. "You killed him in cold blood."

      "There was no other way, a few more seconds and I would have been dead."

      "You killed my brother!" She rushed up to him and slapped him through his face, then continued to glare at Ed. Her eyes was bloodshot, and her tears ran fast but she looked like she had a thousand years’ worth of hatred in her.

      "I," Ed began and closed his mouth. He wanted to defend himself by saying again that they had no choice, but knew that it was futile. He knew of loss, and he knew that the best way to go by it now was to let it be. "I'm sorry," he concluded, stepping closer and holding out his hands.

      She stepped back once more, into the blood. It still seeped a bit from below her shoes as it was sucked into the carpet earlier. Her eyes shot wide open as she heard the noise and jumped forward into Ed's arms. She started sobbing the moment he closed his arms around her. Se pounded him on his chest a couple of times as she cried. He only held onto her, saying nothing.

Ed had no idea how long she had cried, but all he knew is that the moment she stopped, she pushed him out of the way and hurried out the door. She ran by Ian and came to an abrupt halt. She slapped him once, and ran off again, through the main doors. Ed hurried after but was called back by Ian as he got to the bottom of the set of stairs.

      "Let her go, man."

      "I can't!"

      "Let her go. She needs time to sift through her thoughts and feelings. We did kill her brother, after all."

      Ed turned back and walked up to Ian. "You did! You killed her brother!" He then turned back. Breathing heavily, he brushed both his hands through his hair and looked up at the ceiling, then turned back to Ian. The two men looked at each other -- if anyone didn't know better, one would think that they were staring each other down. In essence, they were, but truth be told neither of them needed to; in the few seconds their eyes had locked, they had exchanged more information than they could in a couple of sentences out loud. Ed nodded and marched off to his room.

      Ian saw him wipe at his eyes as he turned into a room down the hall and slammed the door. He then turned his attention back down the stairs where JR was staring at him, his backpack packed and ready, slung over his back. He expected that JR had seen the entire ordeal but could not care less. He merely stared at JR, almost the same way he and Ed had stared at each other, but the less experienced agent merely ducked his head and skulked off toward the kitchen. Ian then turned and marched to his own room.

Connor was sitting in his office which shared the same building as his bar. He was looking through the documents which their as of yet (hopefully not Abigail if he could help it) unknown shadow assailant had been going through before. The papers had been stacked in two categories: those he had read, and those he hadn't. After the fiasco back at Stronghold Prime, he had wanted to check the lead Ed said he had gotten from C-Net out by himself, but that idea was refused. He came back to his pub in the hopes that he would find some clues and leads of his own. So far nothing had come up.

      There was a knock on the pub door that echoed through the short hallway outside his office. It caught him slightly off guard, but he took a few seconds to recollect himself and make sure that he had indeed heard a knock and if it wasn't just his brain messing around with him.

      Another, more rapid knock resounded through the hallway and Connor got up slowly. Except for his desk-light, the entire building was dark. No one from outside would know that he was there at all, except for his Porsche that was parked at the back of the building.

      More rapid knocks came from the door. Connor unholstered one of his handguns and checked the magazine before descending the couple of steps which lead directly into the pub. He made his way slowly toward the doors. I was clear that someone was outside -- the streetlight outside managed to cast a dark blot against the small painted glass windows in the door. The person sounded agitated, either nervous or anxious, and they did not do a good job at hiding that fact.

      Connor stood as close to the doors as possible without giving himself away and listened. A hoarse, unnatural cough that could only have come from a particular chain-smoker Connor used to know resounded through the door, except this cough sounded like the person had serious issues. With wide eyes, he began to unlock the door as quick as possible. Another alarming cough, and heavier knocks. The person hadn't noticed Connor at all, even with the sound of the bolts he was sliding open, and the key he had turned.

      With one last bolt, Connor slid it open, and stood ready as the person on the other side fell through the now-open door and fell onto him like a weighted rag doll. His clothes was soaked with what Connor only figured could be rain, although as the man coughed once more Connor set him down on the closest chair and noticed he had a whole the size of his index finger in the back of his neck.

JR had just gotten off the phone with Laura, ecstatic about finally given the go-ahead on flying over to Rome and be with her again. The past few days had made him think a lot about the way he went about his business, and he now knew that in this line of work (whatever the hell it was that they did), his business, was everyone's business, whether directly involved or no. He was also scared though -- he and Laura had not yet really talked about what he did at all since she left, and he was sure that the conversation would come up sooner or later after he would arrive there.

      She sounded worried about Elizabeth, but told him that he shouldn't meddle in affairs better suited for the people directly involved. He took one last bite of the sandwich that he had prepared for himself when Jacks walked into the room kitchen and opened the fridge.

      "Hey,"

      "What's up."

      "Ian finally gave me the clearance to go to Romulus, anything I should get for you?" JR only tried to get some smalltalk going, already feeling a bit on-edge about the scenarios that now played through his head about going over.

      Jacks looked at him with a smile as he opened a bottle of Heineken and took a couple of gulps. "I'm fine, thanks. Just tell Laura and Safu hi for me."

      "Sure thing."

      Jacks headed out but came back moments later. "Hey, JR."

      "Yeah?"

      "Thanks for not, like, giving me orders and shit. I know you're even less experienced than I am, but we are essentially the seedlings around here, but with everything going on lately I appreciate it." He then walked out of the kitchen, leaving JR to his thoughts.