Nine Swords

When Katja hears the sound of footsteps coming loser she turn her face towards the sound. She is even paler than she use to be. When she see Thanasi she seems to relax a little bit, she lowers her tense shoulders a little bit and her relief are discernible.

Thanasi closed the final distance to the other three, giving Katja a quick hug and kiss before turning to Jenn and Tom. Looking at Tom, he decided it would be better to start with Jenn. "Explain."

Pat hung up the phone on the Prime Minister's secretary. He'd had some faint hope that they would know how to reach one of their primary defense contractors when the man's own staff couldn't find him. How desperate was he to call politicians to try to speed -up- a process?

He glanced out the front windows of the building at the official vehicles on the street, and nearly fell over the desk. "Jennison?" There she was, standing out front... was he seeing ghosts? Another glance and he dropped his eyes back to the desk. Just some girl who looked a great deal like her. She was getting a hug and a peck from some well-dressed bloke.

Pat looked down at the personnel files of the deceased security guards that he'd called up on the terminal. His head ached.

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Jenn nodded to Wes as the ambulance with the small but recognizable red cross on the doors pulled away. She turned and walked back down the street toward the front of the building, pausing a moment when she saw Thanasi there, giving Kat a hug and a kiss. Well, maybe that'd calm him down at least.

His one word, "Explain," was at least not accompanied by "at gunpoint" or "from a cell."

It hit Jenn then, because she had to collect her thoughts. Those thoughts had been lingering at the fringes of her mind while she and Kat ran all those blocks. They'd been pushed back by the need to get back to Edwards, to see what damage had been done, to just keep moving. Now, they flooded back over her.

Jenn saw the floor, the way the light flickered and the edges of things lost focus and then came sharply into focus, then faded again, as her body convulsed with the sedative overdose and the spinal damage. She saw the men inside the room, shoving the artifact casket into her duffel bag. She felt the burning and the loss of control and the horrible sinking, sucking feeling as her lungs shut down.

She took a few, uncertain steps toward Tom, ready to lean on him if she made it that far. At the same time, she blinked hard and braced herself. You're a fecking Templar, Jenn. You've been one for over five years, and a student at Oxford for a good part of that. If there's one thing you know how to do, it's give a report. Now report, you idjit. Stop reliving your own bloody death.

Her voice was soft, but level... maybe a little too level. "I regained consciousness facing the door of my father's lab on Sub-level 3 of Edwards. I believe the impact of pistol rounds broke the spell's hold." She shivered... almost a jerking motion, remembering the slap of the bullet's impact and the slow burn... "I was able to count two rounds. I attempted to block the damage after the first round, as soon as I was consciously able, but they used some sort of sedative, and I didn't have a focus." She continued, eyes not seeing Thanasi, though she was looking at him. "I saw two men as I fell. It was difficult to get a good visual on them, because of the convulsions." Another shiver. "They were in the lab. The door was open. They were putting the artifact case into a bag... my duffel. There may have been a third, but it was just motion at the edge of my vision. One of the two was wearing a mask. The other was wearing a suit." She blinked again and focused on the present. "Then I died. I need to go explain that to Pat, my father's Security Chief, in a way he'll be able to understand. This is something I need to handle personally. If you'll excuse me a moment?"

She was a contradiction at the moment. She seemed verbally to be contained and effective. Physically, she looked as if she might fall down at any minute.

Thanasi nodded, and did not press her given her emotional state. When she turned, he gestured with his head to Katja, indicating she should follow Jenn and give her some support. With a deep breath, he turned to Tom and gave him a similar head gesture indicating they needed to talk. The situation had clearly gone to hell--ironic given its roots--and they needed to get their bearings.

They were Templars after all, dammit.

Katja nods to Thanasi and walks up to Jen. She smiles to her.

"Shall we?"

Tom walked over to Thanasi, inwardly seething. He managed to keep his tone level and professional, though it was easy enough to see through the cracks and tell by his body language that he was still raging inside. "Can't tell you much, I didn't get here until after everything was over. The security guy called me and I came in as fast as I can. Scene was clean, nothing damaged except for people. Murders were committed with precision and efficiency, definitely a professional job. This wasn't some artifact thief trying to make a quick buck on the black market. Rest of the damage is, ah, my fault. I went a bit overboard I guess."

Tom shuffled his feet a bit as he looked at some of the property damage, "Wes said he found a couple of bodies that match the assailants over there." Tom pointed towards where the bodies had bee discovered. "Meaning we still need to account for one. Security guys inside have video footage, it's got some corruption issues, but it's probably worth a look."

Thanasi looked over the damage for the first time and smiled grimly at Tom. "I'll leave the property damage to Edwards to complain about. We've got more to think about. Are the apparent assailants still here or did they leave with the ambulance?" He looked up at the sky and considered the situation. "Seems we've got a Joker."

Jenn whispered to Kat just before they entered the glass doors to the Edwards lobby, "I'm about to lie like a politician to a man I've known since I was little, respect, and care for. I didn't think I could feel any lower today. The faster I talk, I'm afraid, the easier this will be... so please forgive the brief introductions. Hopefully he won't go into cardiac arrest and you can meet him more formally later." Her own lighthearted humor didn't reach her eyes this time.

The moment the doors opened into the lobby, Pat's eyes fixed on the two women walking through. He let them get a whole five feet inside before bellowing, in a voice that echoed through the hallways, "You're fecking dead, Jenn." From the look on his face, for a brief moment, he'd really wished she'd stayed that way because this was just a bit more complicated than his mind was ready for.

"It's alright, Pat." Jenn closed the distance to the front desk, her voice had shifted to the soothing croon she used with frightened horses, disdainful cats, cornered dogs, and Tom when he was upset.

"It is not alright. You are fecking dead. The last thing on that fecking video shows the bastard stepping over your body, Jenn." Pat was... not in a reasonable frame of mind. In his defense, he'd had a rather trying time of it thus far. He did, however, give Jenn everything she needed in that short burst to craft a story on the fly.

"Pat, I was wearing a vest. The light body armor. Hells, you bought me the vest, Pat." She was close to the desk now and keeping her voice low and soothing, hoping he'd stop shouting. She was going to have enough fires to put out without the Security Chief informing the building at the top of his lungs that the boss' daughter had no business being alive.

"But the bastard..."

"They must've realized I was just unconscious. Taken me with for ransom. You know Daddy'd pay a fortune."

"If he ever bloody noticed." Pat's voice was cutting and angry, but it was quieter. He was listening to her.

Jenn winced but continued, letting the words rush out and adding just enough panicked girl to the tone to sell it. That wasn't hard. Jenn had been a panicked girl since her eyes had opened on Sub-level 3, hours ago.

"Pat, they drugged me. I don't remember anything. I don't know if they hypnotized me too. Fecking freaks!" She took a half-breath and barreled on, "I remember snapping out of it as the door opened downstairs...it must have worn off. Then everything went black. I woke up in the carpark across the street. Plans must've changed. Not worth ransoming? They left me for dead, but I had that vest. Katja found me. It's alright now."

Wes had been right. Pat wanted to believe something that fit into his world view. Jenn felt like acid was running in her veins as she watched this man who she respected, who had cared for her since he'd come on board with the company as a guard years ago, accept the lies she was spewing... because it was her spewing them. Because he trusted her, and because he wanted her to not be dead so badly.

"Pat, this is my friend Katja." Jenn gestured back to Kat before the Security Chief could get his wits about him. "She's the one who found me, in the carpark, when I didnt show up for our Girls' Night. I'm going to go to Tom's now. I need to rest, and I need to let the medics take another look at the damage, alright?" She barely even needed to tap her blood magic to make herself look paler by the moment.

Pat nodded. "Do you need a car, do you want the ambulance? Jenn..." He started to think, and Jenn had to head it off.

"No, no, all I need is those surveilance videos you mentioned, so I can try to put faces on these freaks. My work...they'll take care of the rest. Do you need me to put you on one of the accounts right now, for the cleanup expenses? The families? Oh cor, Pat, we lost people didn't we?" The tears starting to leak from her eyes weren't subterfuge at all. The bodies on stretches she'd seen leaving the building as she entered were starting to sink in.

It was Pat's turn to soothe Jenn. He shook his head as he keyed up the video controller and dumped a copy of the tapes to a thumb drive. The automatic motions helped him focus. "No, Jenn, don't think about it. Just get yourself on your feet. Here." He handed the drive over to her. "I've got plenty of discretionary funds. You -will- have Mr. Jackson call me in the morning to let me know how you're doing."

"Yes, Pat. Thank you. Cor, I'm so sorry about all this." Jenn trailed toward the door, shoving the thumb drive in her jeans pocket. "Kat?" She looked around for Katja. "Kat, I'm going to get Tom and get home. Are you alright with Thanasi here?"

In a lower voice, only Kat could hear, she said, "Thank you... just thank you for everything tonight."

Katja smiles at the introduction with Pat.

When Jenn is about to leave she nods. "I am." She squeezed Jenn´s shoulder and nods a little to her comment. Before she leave the building she turns to Pat. "Are you all right sir? It must have been shocking for you, do you have someone you can talk to?" She looks concerned for reals.

"I'm not sure. It looks like Wes is already gone, he's the one who found them. I think the only bodies that have been removed are the friendlies from inside." He pointed to the alley Wes had emerged from earlier. "Wes said he found more bodies over there." Tom's mind clearly wasn't on the situation, he was trying though. "From the footage I saw and what Wes said about the bodies, I expect you'll turn up nothing but a couple of street thugs with a rap sheet looking for some quick cash."