"Rigor Mortis"-The life after death RP(Started/PM for participation)-Arc 4: Closing Loose Ends

[NinjaDeathSlap]

As they made their way towards Rafik's location something clicked in Marcus' head. He chastised himself inwardly for not thinking of this detail before. He supposed that his mind had been on other things.

"Adrian," he glanced through the rear view mirror at him, "I forgot to say thanks for getting us both back to the apartment last night. How did you do it, we must have both been dead weight?"

 

[Link_to_Future]

Adrian was coolly looking out the window in the backseat and zoning out when Marcus asked his question. A slight twinge of guilt came over the man for forgetting to mention such a large development from the day before. He sat forward in his seat and folded his hands together, resting his wrists on his knees.

"Right, I guess I haven't told anyone about this yet. It's kind of a long and tedious story; the short version is that I had my gift surface yesterday."

He paused, trying to figure out how best to put what he had experienced into words. It felt like trying to explain what the color blue was to a blind man. Everything about the experience had seemed so base, so primal, that Adrian had no idea how to describe it.

"I don't know how I did it but I was able to...to make you move like a puppet dangling from a string. But it wasn't...really a string so much as it was the very life in your body...Oh, dammit."

Adrian had become quite flustered. For a brief window of time yesterday, he had seen the weave in the fabric of the living world and been able to tug at the threads. Now, after trying to put this idea into words, Adrian only wanted to do it again.

"I will show you when the time is right."

 

[TheIronRuler]

The Russian man turned around and loudly said another phrase in Russian, and this time someone answered. "Come in", the man said, letting the trio enter the warehouse. The room was small and empty, its walls covered in benches. On the far left sat two gentlemen in their underwear, smoking together a shared pipe containing crack.

The Russian man closed the door from behind the three and signaled them to follow him as he went through another door. In the next room was a packaging plant, where young women and a few large and burly Russian men would repackaged incoming shipments of cocaine for distribution. The three were startled as three other Russians came and surrounded them.

"We no work for Frank-", the man from earlier said, "The Englishmen ran. This belongs to Nikolai now", another man said. The three were held by the men and dragged to a nearby room that seemed to have been used by the workers as a break room.

The man from earlier asked another man to find him some rope as the three were thrown to the side of the wall. "There is no more inventory", another man said, this time with a much more pleasant tone and control of the English language, "But we can't let you go. Give us Frank's number and we will inform him he just lost three soldiers". The man turned his haze to Evey and smiled at her. Whispering about her age continued to be heard around the three in Russian.

"Spin the roulette", the man instructed two others behind him, "Pick a number. Twelve Black"

 

[Berenzen]

Ben's mind raced through scenarios as they were, none of them seemed even slightly feasible. They were three against many, in a corner no less. Ben put on his coldest face. If he faced death again, he would face it without fear this time. He saw it coming this time, he would be ready for it.

Ben fixed his cold emotionless eyes on the better-spoken man. If Ben made it out of this alive, he would make sure that the man suffered painfully for a prolonged period of time before he handed him over to Frank.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

"So, you mean to say... that you can control people, without touching them?"

Marcus drank in Adrian's words attentively. He remembered How Ben had described him and Mira last night, like they were zombies. Adrian had just walked them home, as if he had them both on a lead. Suddenly Marcus was feeling a lot more optimistic about their mission.

"Adrian, this could be perfect! Whatever it was Rafik stole, he's going to be terrified about having people sent after him, like the ones from the other day were. I was thinking we were going to have to hurt him to stop him running, or fighting back. But this time with you around, we could immobilize him without having to risk anyone getting hurt. That way it will be better for everyone!"

Marcus paused, reigning in his enthusiastic tone a little,

"That is, if you want to, of course..."

 

[Generic_Username]

Never a dull moment.

Spencer was far from surprised. Compared to all that they've seen in the last couple of days, a warehouse used for drug trafficking was a pretty ordinary sight. He wondered how long Frank's people have been gone from the warehouse, and whether he purposely sent them there as a test or some sort of sick game. With all the inventory gone, the main objective now was to get the hell out, preferably alive. However, they were vastly outnumbered, about to be tied up and there was no way out anywhere in sight. If any of them had a dormant ability, now would be the time for it to manifest.

Some of the men in the room seemed to be gambling for something, exchanging comments in Russian and glancing at Evey every now and then. Finally getting an idea of what was going on, Spencer hoped he was wrong. He tried to think of something to buy them some time.

"You said this place belonged to Nikolai now, right? We'd like to speak to him."

He had no idea what he would say if the men actually decided to let them talk to this Nikolai, but what he did know from his own experience was that Ben was pretty good at talking his way out of arguments. At any rate, it was worth a shot.

 

[TheIronRuler]

The man who seemed to be in charge turned to two of his subordinates and called them by name, "Vova, Pyoter!". He then ordered them to do something and immediately afterwards they left the room. The man reached for his pocket and opened his cell phone. He dialed a number and waited for an answer. "Dwatzat Tva Chorne!", a man shouted in the background. They began clapping and congratulating someone for winning the raffle.

The man began to speak to someone on the phone. He said a sentence and then turned off the cell phone. "I am Alexei. We need to contact this... Frank. Give us information. Who you work for. Where he is. What does he do. What is his number. All of it". Vova and Pytor entered the room with two long lengths of rope. "I suggest you don't resist", Alexai said as two of his subordinates began to tie Ben and Spencer's hands and wrap the rope around their torso and the chair they were sitting on. A man came from the other room, holding both of his hands in the air. Alexai reached for his other pocket and gave him a small piece of plastic and padded his back. He reached out his hand to Evey and gestured her to follow him. All of the work in the plant had been halted as all of the workers stare at the unexpected newcomers.

The two men in the first room stood up and threw their pipes to the ground. They both looked at each other and tried to asses one another. "I look good", they both said at the same time. "Wait", one of them said, "I need to stop-", the other one continued, "-talking like this", the first one finished the sentence.

 

[Berenzen]

Ben strained against his bonds, it was futile, the knots were tied too tight. He was helpless. He looked at the Alexei as he prepared his answer.

"We're nobody. Mercenaries, he contacted us to perform a series of jobs. We don't ask questions, we just do it. He gives us our orders, and our paycheck, at a predesignated dead drop, and we act them out, and somehow he knows that it happens. I think he has a spy network with at least one spy at the locations that we're given orders to. Considering that he left out some important details, I'd consider our contract over. If you want, bring Nikolai, and maybe we can cut a deal. But let the girl go, I'd rather her not be damaged."

Hopefully the spy comment would make them paranoid of each other, and maybe the half-truths and lies would be enough to cut it. They'd still probably get beaten, but they might not get killed. It was a gamble, and although as much as Ben hated it, sometimes you just had to roll the dice.

 

[TheIronRuler]

Alexei looked at the tied man pleading for his life. He stared at him for a few moments, slowly moving his hand in the direction of the lucky man, gesturing him to leave. He grabs Evey by her left arm and begins pulling her away. Although she begs for help from the two other men and asks the Russians to not hurt her, the man beats her into submission. She follows him through a door. The door closes and so does the bolt, and the only thing coming outside are the muffled screams of Evey.

Alexei smiled at the two tied up men. "Bullshit. You're going to tell me the truth. But you like telling stories, right?", Alexei continued. He walked to the right and stood on Ben's left. He punched his cheek hard and caught the chair before it toppled over onto Spencer. He said a few sentences in Russian and ordered some of the others to take Spencer away. They dragged Spencer to a separate office room that seemed to belong to Alexei. One of the men started beating him while the other asked him the same questions Alexei did.

"Don't worry", Alexei told Ben with a smile, "He has a condom".

 

[Berenzen]

Ben moved his tongue around in his mouth, he had knocked a tooth loose with that punch. He felt blood and saliva mixing around in his mouth. He was out of ideas, he couldn't really move, and Alexei had called his bluff. He was out of options. He couldn't save himself, let alone the others.

"Come here and I'll tell you," Ben whispered, he waited for Alexei to lean in.

"Dead men tell no tales."

Ben spat the mixture of blood and saliva in the man's eyes.

 

[Link_to_Future]

Adrian smiled as Marcus spoke excitedly. He was glad that the others seemed to be taking to the idea of his ability. Still, there was a concern...

"Oh, don't worry. If I need to try and stop him, I won't hesitate. But...well, the thing is that I've only tried using it on you two while you were out. It was easy, but I could feel the natural weight of your body tugging against my commands. It wasn't a mind thing I was controlling, it was a physical one."

Ardian's voice began to trial as he rambled. As he continued to puzzle about the nature of the power he possessed, he realized that there were so many unknown entities about how it worked. This made the natural scientist within him both slightly uncomfortable and infinitely curious.

"What I mean is that I don't even know if I'll be able to control someone who is consciously struggling against my influence. I mean, Alice was able to immobilize me yesterday by using something similar, but her power was quite obviously attacking my mind."

He shook his head, still shaken up about the events of the day before. His memories had not repaired themselves in the intermediate hours. The image that Alice had branded upon his mind remained.

No time to think about it now...

"Anyway, I will try and stop him. But you both need to be ready if I'm unable to hold him down yet."

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

As they entered the part of the city where Rafik lived the transition was jarring. The streets were nearly empty, and the pedestrians Marcus did notice moved with so little sense of life or purpose they became just as much part of the background scenery as the buildings that crammed together on either side of the streets. They past several boarded up shop fronts, and the place was teeming with thin alleyways that weaved in and out of the main arteries of the district. Marcus thought that this would be the perfect place for a thief to hide. Why on earth would anyone look for you here? Even then, if they found you, there were a hundred different avenues of escape. It was not often that Marcus felt vulnerable, but here he became increasingly edgy. This was a rat's den, and any number of unpleasant surprises could befall them at any moment.

Marcus pulled over at the front of the address to be met with the facade of a butchers shop. Considering how devoid the area was of potential customers this surprised Marcus. He stepped out onto the sidewalk, making sure to look calm and authoritative. He wasn't going to let this place intimidate him. Looking up he saw that the building had floors above the shop front. Presumably Rafik lived in an apartment up there. Curtains were drawn on all the windows facing the street. Good, he didn't know they were coming. Marcus glanced to either side of him to Mira and Adrian, who both seemed suitably cold. Before pushing open the door.

The bell that sounded as the door opened was cheap and tinny, almost pathetic. Firstly, Marcus spotted a passage leading to a set of stairs at the back of the shop, presumably leading to the living ares above. Dead flies littered the windowsill, presumably in summer the shop would be plagued by the things, and these ones had fallen victim to the electrical trap that buzzed menacingly above them, their bodies still on display. Apathy perhaps, or to send a message?

Marcus had not noted that the butcher was there at first, as he had not made any move to acknowledge their entrance. He was standing behind a glass counter that displayed some fairly sorry cuts of meat, staring into the middle distance as if he had been frozen there. A door behind him led to the Freezer room, where Marcus could feel a bitter cold stemming from. He strode with purpose up to the butcher, leaning across the counter and looking at him square in the eye. The man was old and tired looking, at least three inches shorter than Marcus. Marcus reckoned that if he acted tough enough he might pass for a thug, and the butcher would make no trouble. He noted that he still had the knife if necessary, but hoped that front alone would let him get away with this.

"We're here to see Rafik." Marcus said, leaning in even closer "He's got something of ours that we want back."

 

[TheIronRuler]

"Up", the man said as he turned to see Marcus, "Knock on the brown door". He grabbed the butchers knife from the counter and turned to the rest of the group, "You want to buy some steaks?", he said as he moved the knife over the various pieces of meat on display.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

"No thanks." Marcus replied curtly, before turning to Mira and Adrian and gesturing them to follow him up the stairs. They creaked with almost every step, and Marcus privately thought that knocking wouldn't be necessary. If he was Rafik, he'd probably have heard them coming and be half way though making his escape by now. There was something about this that was just all too easy for Marcus' liking. He was expecting things to go sour at any moment, like it had with Mr. Mark, and so he moved his hand inside his jacket pocket, keeping a grip on the concealed knife, just in case.

The brown door was the first on the right at the top of the stairs. As they approached it, Marcus turned to Adrian.

"If we can, let's do this quick." he whispered, "We don't want to give him a chance to surprise us."

Marcus steeled himself, and standing just a little to the side of the doorway, he knocked three times.

 

[Link_to_Future]

"We don't want to give him a chance to surprise us."

Adrian nodded in agreement. This entire area had been very off putting to the man and his senses had been working in overdrive as they walked. The building seemed like a prime place for an ambush of some sort if they were being expected.

And why wouldn't they be expected? Every other thing they had attempted to do in the past couple of days had ended in what could only be described as an unmitigated disaster. If trying to go shopping had almost ended so badly, how could a situation that was this foreboding possibly play out?

The professor had no plans on being caught off guard. If Rafik tried anything stupid, Adrian was prepared to cut him off before could come of it. He steeled his nerves as Marcus rapped on the door.

 

[TheIronRuler]

The three knocks on the door surprised Rafik. Could it be the landlord? He thought to himself as he looked away from his monitor. He looked at his watch on his left wrist and realized he had been working for over four hours straight. Standing up and straightening his back, he looked to his left and wondered who might be visiting him. His crummy one room apartment was all he could afford, with the mattress on the floor and a short cupboard. Investing all of his spare cash in his machine seemed silly at first be it proved to be much more profitable as he began working for companies overseas and using his expertise with information security.

But something was bothering him. The last job was just wrong. When he had extracted the notes and left, he began reading them just to pass the time. Those notes were insane... So much information about every single person in the United States. Blueprints of FBI headquarters in Langley, the White House, The National First Bank... money laundering, information about the Dominican Republic, China, Israel and Romania. It had nothing to do with each other, and yet it somehow seemed to be linked into one big plot. Rafik shook his head and returned to his apartment. He went to the door and looked through the glass eye to see whoever is on the other side.

No recognizing the three, "What do you want?" he shouted from behind the door.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Marcus wasn't going to just stand on the other side of the door while this guy screwed around with them. Having backed of when he heard Rafik answer, he now lunged forward and put all his weight behind one perfectly placed kick. Luckily for Marcus, the door was thin and the lock was old, meaning that he could break through.

Rafik had been knocked back by the force of the door swinging inwards right into him, which gave Marcus a valuable second to catch him while he was off guard. Punching him in the stomach to make him double-up, Marcus then pulled his head back by his hair, drew the knife and held it against his throat.

"You've got something of ours." Marcus growled "Information, and we're here to take it back!"

 

[Link_to_Future]

Adrian was stunned as the change in Marcus surfaced almost immediately. Even though Marcus had warned the group about the possible change in personalities, Adrian had not accounted for how drastic it would be. As the actor burst through the door, an audible gasp escaped from the professor.

Although Marcus proved his fighting prowess quickly, Adrian didn't think that it was necessary. Rafik had not showed yet showed any ill will. Although he was an advocate of being safe rather than sorry, Adrian did not approve of jumping straight to violence like this. As Marcus pinned the terrified student against the desk, Adrian hesitated. Half of him was content to let Marcus just handle the situation without challenge. He was obviously in control and would have everything sorted out in a moment.

But there was a nagging doubt in the back of Adrian's mind as he watched the blade of the knife being held steadily against Rafik's throat.

No...there has to be a better way.

"This isn't necessary...just let the boy go. We can talk this out like adults."

 

[Generic_Username]

Spencer coughed up some blood as the men kicked him again. The men weren't playing around, and if he wasn't already dead, he'd be seriously concerned for his life. They'd taken him to another room, and beat him until he was too weak to stand, and even if he could, what could he do? He couldn't fight. He couldn't heal. He had no super strength to help him.

As he felt the blood filling his mouth, his vision began to tunnel. Their voices began to echo. They kept asking about Frank. About everything. He knew the others were going through the same thing, and tried to keep his mouth shut for as long as it took.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Although he felt like he was about to faint, Spencer managed to barely hold on to consciousness. While he could still speak, he was of some use to the men, but who knew what they'd do to him if he collapsed.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Marcus felt a twinge of annoyance at Adrian's attempt to intervene. He had this under control, and he had thought Adrian was on board. To Marcus, it was clear that the best way to get what they wanted out of Rafik was to scare him into submission. He was a kid, and he was on his own. Who wouldn't cave after being outnumbered and threatened by a group of armed intruders? Adrian risked blowing the whole thing by trying to ask nicely.

On the other hand...

Marcus looked into Rafik's eyes. Wide with fear, his breathing short and sharp, with sweat already starting to bead his forehead. His nose was bleeding from where the door had hit him, and a few drops of blood were appearing on the knife edge. If scaring him was what Marcus had set out to achieve, he had already done so more than effectively; and if Marcus continued he might end up doing more damage than he meant to. He didn't want to hurt Rafik, not unless it was necessary, he just wanted to make him believe that he would. Besides, if Marcus intended on playing bad cop, it would be useful to have someone else take a more reasonable stance. He also didn't want to completely destroy the new group dynamic.

He relinquished his grip on Rafik after a few seconds, who collapsed, panting, against the swivel chair by the desk. Marcus made sure to keep the knife out though, to show Rafik he still meant business. Turning to Adrian, he hoped he could express his intentions just through a look.

'We'll do it your way for now. But if this guy needs persuading, let me handle it.'

"I guess it's your lucky day." Marcus said to Rafik, squatting down so they were face to face "But I'm in no mood to have my time wasted. Is that clear?"