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Post by Ylanne on Sept 5, 2019 18:50:04 GMT -6
Ahmad nodded, his expression darkening. "Yeah... I guess I can't say I want to be alone too much either."
He looked directly at Aerilyn. "I want your help. We need to find Director Drulović. And we need to get her home, safely."
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Post by demikara on Sept 5, 2019 18:59:07 GMT -6
Aerilyn hesitated. then something in her expression hardened and she nodded. "I'll do what I can to help. You be the brains and I'll be the brawn." She had said that before. She could play her role well. A wind circled her body and she held out a hand as if petting it. "It's funny how deadly air can be. We're getting her home safely." Aerilyn foresaw plenty of killing and nightmares in her future.
There was no end to what was demanded of her. But this was a price she was willing to pay, for her friend. "Just point me where I need to go, love. I'll handle it."
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Post by Ylanne on Sept 5, 2019 19:23:51 GMT -6
That's when they got the call from Natalija. As if by unspoken agreement, Ahmad put it on speakerphone for the room to hear, mouthing, "the director's daughter." The younger one.
"Ahmad?"
He hadn't spoken to her in years by this point, though it was probably still more recently than the last time the old woman had. "Uh... Yes?" Ahmad didn't want to have to be the one to tell her, even if he knew they were estranged. But something nagged at him. And his thoroughly unimpressive answer certainly didn't help conceal anything for any length of time.
"I got a box on my doorstep. I opened it. Fucking stupid. But I did. There are.. There are some fucking... some bloody teeth inside."
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Post by demikara on Sept 6, 2019 7:54:41 GMT -6
Aerilyn swore vividly and creatively. Teeth as well. Did they have any guarantee she was even alive now. A wind picked up in the apartment and knocked over the kitchen chairs before she got herself under control again. Teeth for one place and an ear for another. This didn't bode well for the director's survival.
Great.
She could handle this. Whoever hurt the director would suffocate to death though, as far as she was concerned.
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Post by Ylanne on Sept 6, 2019 8:01:48 GMT -6
Ahmad yelped, jumping backward as the chair crashed into the floor.
"What? What the fuck is going on over there?"
Until Natalija's tinny voice came over the phone, Ahmad had momentarily forgotten she was still there, listening and participating, by some definition of the word anyway.
"Ms. Drulović, this is Johannes Leimgrüber. We met a few years ago." Leimgrüber channeled calm for the younger woman's sake. "I know it's hard, but you need to just stay where you are. I'll alert the NPA. Everything will be fine."
"It doesn't fucking sound fine," Natalija shot back, and she wasn't wrong.
Ahmad still dreaded the thought of telling her. Worse, he dreaded the thought that this time, Aerilyn's protective rage and all the Bureau's agents be damned, this time, the old woman was not coming home.
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Post by demikara on Sept 6, 2019 8:22:30 GMT -6
"Natalija? It's Aerilyn. We're going to deal with this." The promise came easily. She gave her husband an apologetic look given she had knocked over the furniture. This entire situation was insane. At best, Arianne would need extensive medical help when they found her. At worst, she'd be dead.
If it was the second, heads would roll. Aerilyn wasn't known for being sweet to her enemies.
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Post by Ylanne on Sept 6, 2019 8:28:03 GMT -6
"Deal with what?" Natalija sounded angrier more than afraid or shocked. "I have someone's fucking teeth on my table and you're just saying you're going to fucking deal with it? How? Do you even know whose fucking teeth they are?! Because I don't know about you, but I'm not fucking used to sudden deliveries of fucking biohazards! This is not a fucking joke!"
Ahmad swallowed, subconsciously backing away from where he'd set the phone down, as if he could somehow extricate himself from this conversation even though he'd been the one to answer the phone. "You... You don't know, I guess." He sounded foolish and realized it the moment the words left his mouth.
"I don't know what?!" Natalija was yelling into the phone now.
Leimgrüber shook his head. Ahmad pressed his lips together in a forced and entirely joyless smile, looking to the side. Nope. He wouldn't be the one.
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Post by demikara on Sept 6, 2019 8:33:32 GMT -6
Aerilyn fell silent then took a deep breath and let it out. "Arianne has gone missing. You aren't the only one who received body parts in the mail. We got an ear." The others wouldn't say it but she would. "We're already looking for her."
They had probably been looking for her since she disappeared. But Aerilyn at least knew it was happening now. She wasn't about to let it go unpunished either. Her friend would be rescued and if she could not be rescued she'd be avenged.
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Post by Ylanne on Sept 6, 2019 8:50:31 GMT -6
The shift from Natalija's yelling to her silence was sudden and discomfiting. No one heard anything but barely discernible breathing coming from the other end of the line for several long moments. Ahmad resisted the urge to check the time.
When finally Natalija spoke, her response came back frigid. "Oh. Well that's a problem that doesn't involve me, after all." Ahmad could practically hear her shrug. "The police can take the teeth. I'll leave the key under the mat. I have things to do."
She disconnected, and Ahmad just stared at the phone.
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Post by demikara on Sept 6, 2019 11:12:18 GMT -6
Aerilyn glared at the phone. "Seriously Natalija." Whatever. The other had problems with her mom, but not caring about her mom being mutilated was a bit much, as far as the aeromancer was concerned. she pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. "Tell me you have something Leimgrüber? Anything at all?" And he better not say she wasn't involved in this. She had literally had an ear dropped at her door. She was incredibly involved now whether they wanted her to be or not.
If he didn't have anything, what would she do?
She didn't know. She didn't know at all.
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Post by Ylanne on Sept 6, 2019 11:56:16 GMT -6
Leimgrüber grimaced. His hesitation was obvious until Ahmad, in an uncharacteristically authoritative and curt tone, said, "I'm in charge now, so... Read her in."
"We had two agents in the clandestine service go missing. Our guess is that the disappearances are all connected." Leimgrüber exhaled forcefully. "So we've been tracing the two missing agents, and so far, indications point to either Hafirjan or Ebouma as likely locations. As for the Director, the best guess is that she had left Terra itself, though I'm seriously reconsidering that now. Afraid I can't share how we know that."
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Post by demikara on Sept 6, 2019 13:11:40 GMT -6
Aerilyn nodded. "So it's a possibility between two continents." That was...well it was better than nothing, but not by much. It was something though, and she could work with that. "Knowing the director, she may have made it look like she left Terra on purpose." When she wanted to leave, she did so and did so thoroughly. She was good at that, which made no small amount of sense, given her background.
Still, she glanced at her husband, then to Leimgrüber. She should at least try and smooth things over with Johannes. "I'd like to be on a retrieval team if possible. And if there's anything else I can help with, I will." They just had to pinpoint where the director was first. "Could something be gotten off our cameras? The box was hand delivered. No postal stamp."
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Post by Ylanne on Sept 6, 2019 13:38:51 GMT -6
Ahmad shifted his weight from foot to foot, rubbing his jaw and trying to quell the nausea that had by now become a constant companion. "I can't figure out why she would do that though. Besides, didn't you say her suitcase and all were still at the house? Weren't they?" Ahmad pulled out his phone, began flipping through notifications from some game, accumulating power packs like a nervous tic. Maybe it was. "No signs of a struggle. Like she just disappeared."
Leimgrüber leaned against the countertop, though his posture suggested a sense of unease. "There's no security footage from the house. It was probably doctored. Titon is reviewing it now."
"I just don't... " Ahmad made a face. "How can the director's own child be so cruel? I don't understand."
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Post by demikara on Sept 6, 2019 13:58:38 GMT -6
"They were still there." She agreed and considered things. "But someone must have made it look like she went off planet." Aerilyn pulled her beret off and fiddled with the broach that stayed on it, an magical form of hearing aid. Right now, she didn't much want to hear anything. She put it back on her head, forcing herself to stay in the moment. She had to keep participating and that meant being able to hear as well as possible.
"And they...they're estranged. It's bad. There's a lot of history there, but I'm pretty certain...I'm pretty certain we're the closest to family she still has." Which was sad, but probably true. They definitely saw her regularly.
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Post by Ylanne on Sept 6, 2019 14:17:40 GMT -6
"I'll check, and see if the NPA hasn't gotten to the cameras on your street first," Leimgrüber said, responding to Aerilyn's earlier question. His expression suggested that he was already quite certain the request would not be particularly fruitful, though whether that would be due to lack of leads altogether, or merely lack of cooperation from the TIB's "sister" agency, Ahmad couldn't be sure. "I'm going to go ask their team about that now. And aas for you joining an extraction team - We'll just have to see. Honestly, it could be a military op kind of deal, depending on what we figure we've got on our hands." He inclined his head and stepped out of the kitchen, leaving Aerilyn and Ahmad alone with only the disconnected phone hanging between them, and hardly a smudge on the counter to suggest the horror that had been left for Aerilyn to find.
Ahmad waited until he was sure his security division assistant director was gone, and then he shook his head ruefully. "I know... I've seen them before. Years ago. It's really strange and fucked up in its own way, you know... I think the director talks to her ex-husband more than to either of her kids. And they're exes." He swallowed, then chose his words carefully. "There's someone else, too. I'm not sure if you've ever met her. Someone else from the director's past, or maybe... maybe her present. A woman."
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