Insanity Chapter Twenty-Six

Insanity

Chapter Twenty-Six

~Shifty Business~

Day Twenty-Two

“What do you mean you failed?” the figure stood, “I gave you one thing to do and you failed miserably!”

Edonya hung her head low. Thae stood a little behind her, his arms crossed as he stared ahead.

“Four, Edonya,” the man yelled, “Four Others that died because you were too stupid to realize that this team isn’t like any other kidnapping like you usually do!”

“Sorry, Sir,” Edonya muttered.

“Sorry doesn’t bring them back! Now get out!”

Edonya and Thae walked out of the room. The office door closed.

“Tough chat, y’all ‘ad in there,” Zorah said as she stood in the hallway.

Thae glared at her, “I’m not in the mood. I’ve had a pretty bad twenty-four hours with the explosions, the yelling and most annoyingly, her constant talking all the way here. You’re just lucky that I haven’t killed you yet.”

“Is ‘at so!” Zorah placed her hands on her hips.

“You think I’m annoying?” Edonya asked, tears were forming in her eyes.

Thae glared at her, “You’re fortunate that I even saved you. I could have done the whole world a favor by sparing then the pains of listening to you.”

Edonya was speechless. Her mouth was opened as if looking for something to say but nothing came. Tears fell down her face. She turned around quickly and ran in the opposite direction.

“Well, ‘at was a little harsh,” Zorah said, “You really are in a bad mood.”

“Get out of my way,” Thae said as he walked opposite of Edonya.

Zorah was left in the hallway.

“Sorry, it won’t happen again,” the figure said on the phone.

“It better not,” a deep voice said on the phone, “I don’t like failure, Thomas.”

“I know,” Thomas said, “Give me one more chance, please!

There was silence on the phone, then, “I guess I could afford you one more chance. Don’t fail me.”

“I won’t.”

“You know what will happen if you do, don’t you?”

Thomas gulped nervously, “I know.”

“Good,” the voice said, “Now be a good pawn and get me what I want.”

***

The Mansion

“Blue.”

What?

Blue’s eyes were slightly narrowed in annoyance. The sound of Arisa crying seemed to be distracting him. His usual soft appearance had a darkened tone. It could have been the shadows of Fang’s room but it seemed like something darker.

So this is Blue when he’s ticked, Fang thought, not quite angry but not happy either.

“Blue, we need to talk,” Fang said.

So talk.

Fang paused, “What did you do today?”

Blue looked at him.

Look, I got a little angry and trashed the boat. It won’t happen again.

“You nearly killed some of us, did you know that?” Fang asked, “What if you had killed us Blue?”

Blue’s features returned to their softness. He turned his face away from Fang. Blue hadn’t realized that he had put his own friends in danger.

“Why were you there?” Fang asked, “I though Shadow told you to stay with Arisa.”

I was angry. I just wasn’t thinking straight. I’m sorry.

Blue looked up at Fang. The look in his eyes said that he was truly sorry. It was a look that even Fang couldn’t resist for too long. Blue could barely hold a grudge against anyone because he’d eventually forget why he was angry. He also could live with people being angry with him. His eyes seemed to beg Fang to forgive him.

Fang nodded, “It’s fine Blue. Just be more in control of your actions next time.”

Fang recognized Blue’s return and nodded. He knew what he did wrong and there was no longer any point in addressing it. Now there were just some questions that he wanted answered.

“I thought I told Arisa to go home,” Fang said.

She did. I walked her there after you got on the boat and we all had to improvise. We started talking and she told me how scared she was. I lost it and went after the boat.

“With Arisa?” Fang said.

She wanted to come.

Fang sighed, “I hope you realize that what you did wasn’t exactly well thought through.”

I do.

“Good,” Fang said, “We’re done here.”

Blue stood up and nodded. He left the room. Arisa ran into his arms and cried some more, complaining about why she was grounded. Fang walked back down into the living room. Shadow sat on a chair as Undertaker held two fingers in front of his face.

“Now, how many fingers am I holding?” he asked with a wide grin.

“Two,” when he caught site of Fang he said, “Will, you get him out of my face now? He’s creeping me out.”

“That will do Undertaker,” Fang said, “Shadow seems to have regained his senses.”

Penelope was typing away at her laptop.

“Would you mind getting the floor plans of the Tower?” Fang asked as he passed her.

“W-w-why?” she asked, her eyes were large behind her glasses.

“I need you to,” Fang answered.

“A-a-all of them?” Penelope asked again, T-t-there’s like a gazillion of them!”

“No, I want mostly the lower and basement floors,” Fang said, he paused and looked at her, “I doubt they have a gazillion floors.”

“They might,” she muttered, her eyes focusing on her screen.

“Thank you,” Fang walked off.

Shadow’s curiosity took the better of him and he walked after Fang. Fang stopped by the dining room where Raven was setting up with Alister.

“Raven? What can you fly other than a helicopter?” he asked.

“Airplanes, fighter jets, motor boats, cruise ships, convertibles, Toyotas if it moves I can drive it,” she said as she placed the knives on the placemats.

“Dang, what kind of soldier were you raised to be?” Alister said.

“Assassin of war,” she said casually.

“Oh,” Alister wasn’t quite sure what to say to that.

“What about a Shadowcraft?” Fang asked.

Raven looked up, “A Shadowcraft? Like what the Tower uses? I haven’t tried. If I had the manual—”

“Alister will get it for you by tonight,” Fang said.

“I will?” Alister said.

“I’m sure your sources will help you out,” Fang said

“You can’t let your brain go blank, can you? Do you ever just not think for a while?” Alister asked.

“If I did stop thinking for a while, this whole house would probably collapse from one of you doing something. I try to stay multiple steps ahead,” Fang answered.

“What do you have planned, Fang?” Shadow asked.

“Just wanted to pay whoever hired them to kidnap Arisa a visit,” Fang said before walking away, “Shadow, cook lunch.”

Shadow rolled his eyes as the doorbell rang. Fang went to get it. As he neared the living room he saw the undertaker at the door talking to whoever was there.

“They just keep getting younger and younger don’t they,” he said as he smiled.

“I guess you can say that,” the person said.

The man came in. He looked Asian with his short black hair and brown eyes. His eyes were almond shaped. He looked at Fang and smiled. Fang sighed.

“Another disguise, Shifter?” he asked.

Shifter shrugged, “Played an American Chinese trying to do business with a known mafia. The agents stepped in and took care of the rest. I have my paycheck and a few unhappy mafia members are in the Tower holding cell where we can detain them far beyond the legal limit.”

Fang wasn’t sure how to interpret the smile on his face. Was he smiling at the fact he did a good job or that they could deny water and food to their ‘detainees’?

“I have a few questions to ask you,” Fang said.

“So I’ve heard,” Shifter said.

“What’s the easiest way to break into the Tower?” Undertaker asked out right.

Fang glared at him in shock. He didn’t recall telling Undertaker plan.

“Oh Fang, you aren’t that hard to read,” Undertaker smiled, “I know you have a good memory so that means you probably saw something on the boat that told you where their base is. Like a map maybe? And the only way to get to any mainland is to fly. And unless you have the patience to sit in a commercial jet, which I highly doubt, you will want to get there as fast as you can. The fastest thing on earth is the Tower’s Shadowcraft. To get the Shadowcraft, you need to break into the Tower. To break into the Tower, you need information. To get information, you need to get an informant that doesn’t know he’s being used and an informant.”

For a moment, Fang though that Undertaker was actually smarter than he was. But then the goofy smile came back dispelling the thought.

“You? Breaking in to the Tower? Gutsy!” Shifter seemed interested.

Fang, by all means and calculations, wasn’t expecting that.

“But you realize that when they find out, you and your team will be waking up with angels and clouds, right?”

“Not if they know it’s us,” Fang said.

“How do you plan to do that?” Shifter almost laughed.

“I’ve always wondered what happened to packages that go to the Tower,” Fang said aloofly.

“By mail?” Shifter smiled, “How about the delivery truck? I doubt they would say ‘Oh, sure! We’ll be glad to help you break into the Tower! Climb on in!’.”

“You seem attracted to disguises,” Fang noted.

“He seems to pull them off very well,” Undertaker noted.

“Yeaps,” Reighn nodded.

“Well, as a respected employee, it’s my duty to inform its heads of any possible threat that might come upon my business building. Besides,” Shifter shrugged, “If I were to help out I’d be putting myself at risk. I got this job for a reason. I don’t take risks unless the reward is worth it. Why should I risk myself getting involved in this?”

Fang thought about it. Shifter did have a point. He could very well be placed in the same boat as the others if they got caught. Fang looked at him again.

“Let’s say that there will be fifty-thousand slips of green paper in one of the packages,” Fang concluded.

“Fifty-thousand?” Shifter frowned, “Make it ninety-thousand.”

“Sixty.”

“Eighty.”

“Seventy.”

“Hmmm,” Shifter thought, “and all I have to do is get you inside?”

“That’s right,” Fang nodded, “My team and I will deal with the rest on the inside.”

“Fine,” Shifter smiled, “I’ll do it for seventy-thousand. It’s a pleasure doing business.”

Shifter turned away. Fang was about to do the same when he saw Undertaker snickering and Reighn solemnly shaking his head. He looked back at Shifter.

Shifter was about to close the door, “You know, I would have done it for free, right? But seventy-thousand little green papers is a good amount to have in the bank.”

Undertaker burst out laughing. He had seen that coming from a mile and a half.