(13.3) History Lessons

Chapter 13, Part 3

“Don’t look at me with that tone of voice young lady,” I said to her.

“Benji.” She said, her voice dripping with what could only be acid. “Could I talk to you in my office?”

“Sure thing Angel. Just let me put these-” I started.

“No, I’ll take care of these,” She said, snatching them from my hand. “We need to talk now.“

 ”That’s an excellent idea,” I said, stepping to the side. “Lead the way.”

 We navigated the maze of plain grey walls and identical looking doors until we finally came across a door labeled with her name. The inside was extremely tidy, bookshelves lined all four walls, a quick glance told me they were alphabetized while a solid oak desk sat opposite the door with nothing more on it than an inbox/outbox and a computer monitor. Behind it, mounted on the wall was what looked like a loaded machine gun and a rapier.

“I like the weaponry,” I said, sitting at her desk. “They really bring the decor together.”

She glanced at them before sitting on the desk and dropping my file in her outbox. “That MP5 is the weapon that I used when I worked for the London Police Service. I got the rapier when they ‘retired’ me.”

“Plus,” I added, dropping my glamour, “They give you the added benefit of having two ways of killing uppity creatures of the night that manage to get into your office.”

She sighed at me, our long walk having apparently drained her of her fury. “Look James, I don’t know why or even how you’re here, but I could get in a lot of troub-”

The clatter of her badge hitting the desk cut her off. “How did you get this?” She asked, checking her pockets and coming up empty.

“It must have fallen out of your pocket when you passed out on my bed. Surprised the shit out of me when I tried to get some shut-eye. I mean really, a silver badge? That’s just cruel and unusual for people like us.”

“Yeah, I know. I had to requisition a steel one thanks to you. It’s supposed to be here tomorrow.”

“That badge, by the way, is actually the reason I came here. I had to find out what you were doing carrying around a symbol that I used to kill for.”

She stared at me for a moment, then glanced between me and her badge for a couple of seconds. “I’m sorry, what? You used to kill for Department 7?”

“No. I used to kill for God.” I replied, standing up and heading over to a cleverly disguised door that I hadn’t noticed when I first came in. “But between visions, most of my orders came from The Brotherhood of Seven, and that was their symbol.”

“So they changed their name, big deal.”

“They also changed how they operate. There was a time when someone like you or me, or half the other things that I saw perusing your library would have been slaughtered on sight for being ‘an abomination against the Almighty.’ And now they’re recruiting them. I wanted to know why.”

“That can’t be your only reason for being here, you wouldn’t have even known about our Ombra agents.”

I chuckled at that, “Still call us Shadow Creatures do they? I guess some things never change.” I chuckled a bit more as I pushed on the hidden door, nudging it open slightly. “What’s this?”

Panic set into her eyes and she bolted around her desk. “James! No! Don’t go in there.” I, of course, took this to mean that she didn’t want me to see what was on the other side, so I pushed harder and entered the room.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.