6.15 a.m, The Castles, Evening PartyMark picked the invitation card from the table.“The Starlings”“You familiar with them?”, His boss asked, twirling on his executive chair towards him.Mark took a while to reply. Fiona hadn't told him about the evening party.“Nah”“You sure?”,His boss stood up from his seat,a slim file in his hand.“Here's their bio data anyway”He dropped the file in front of Mark.“I could have gotten this yesterday you know”“Yeah … but you are the favorite agent”“And the best too”, the lady in black across the room said, turning slightly to them. Priscy. She was the CIA's best computer programmer and of course hacker.And she wore her badge proudly.Mark smiled at her statement, taking the bio data file over to her. His free hand slipped the invitation card into his back pocket.“Come on, Priscy. How about you soft copy this for me?”“Hmm… I take transfers Mark”Mark let out a groggy laughter. He shook her shoulders from behind playfully.“Priscy!!”“You kno
7.00 p.m, Evening Party , The CastlesGuests trooped into the hall, the organizers and their workers going out as they did. The wows never stopped. The guests were totally taken aback by the absolute magnificence of the hall,a true representation of what luxury and royalty could offer. Crystals, almost uncountable, hung down from the top of the building, the ceiling covered in glitter and minute crystals. Some parts of the ceiling shimmered with gold and the mood setting lights did justice to that. Curtains draped down throughout the walls, the room got just enough lighting from its decorative features. A section of the hall was left for - what was suspected to be - ball dancing.Heck. It was “a Lord and Lady” themed party.The hall looked even more colourful from the gallery where Fiona stood. She watched them from above - the hall was rainbowed with beautiful evening gowns of so many colours in so many different shades. Some were more extravagant and others kept it a simple, straigh
Alistair was late for the party.Not that he'd planned to be early.It just seemed like Starling was bent on making him come.Buru finished polishing his shoes. He knocked on his walk in wardrobe room door.“Come in”Buru did so, holding the pair with two of his fingers on his left hand.“Thank you sir”“Thank you for these nicely polished shoes”, Alistair responded with a smile. Alistair shifted back a little from the mirror and Buru got down on one knee and placed them in front of him.“Thank you Buru”Alistair placed his legs into the well polished maroon red shoes. They matched his Italian suit, a slightly lighter shade, which had two slightly lengthy ends instead of buttons. They'd been tied into a perfect bow and it gave the outfit a rather grand than child - like look.Looked like he'd found a new favourite pattern of suits.His breast pocket handkerchief had the same maroon red colour too. Alistair slipped down his hair, holding himself against the urge to take up the comb and
“Any extra arms on them?”“Nah”Mark hadn't seen anything with the X-ray glasses, he'd put on when he entered the hall. The glasses were in his pocket now as he straightened his suit in front of the mirror.“Any other useful piece of information?”Mark prepared to open the door. He could hear the voices of impatient men outside.“Someone seems to be trailing Charlie. Someone that seems to be working with Capuedo's men as well”His boss rolled his eyes. “Give up this Charlie story Mark”“Apologies folks. Door got jammed”, he said as he opened the door. He let some of them come in, making his way out of there.“It's not a story if it's obvious. The men communicate with one another and one of them is obviously out of Charlie.”“Well, maybe Wilde's hired them”“Hired them?”“It could be. There is an unspoken animosity between the two men and it just happens that Wilde looses his shares at Voxx and Charlie seems a million bucks richer the next week. He'd need to bully Charlie into getting
Mark could see the Capuedo boys.He could see Wilde leaving for the bathroom angrily.But where the hell was Charlie?“Charlie”, Wilde called out as he shut the bathroom back door.“Gerald. I'm surprised you're here”Wilde smirked. “Didn’t think I'll show face after the scandal did you?”“I presumed you'd be occupied.”“With what?”“For one, perhaps sealing your tracks more properly. One leads to all leads Wilde. And you know we won't let that happen”“Your ego never really dims, does it? Your fatal belief in your failed securities”“What do you want Wilde?”“But that's by the way. Something more important is before us. Back room please”Wilde led the way to the backroom of the Castles building and Charlie hesitated before he followed.“Any update yet?”“None, only I'm trying to find Charlie and I'm not seeing him yet”“Where’s Wilde? Took a bathroom break since. He's been there for a while now. He's been doing that often since the start of the party”“Any reason why?”“Nothing suspic
“Mark? Mark couldn't be here”It had been the same guy she'd spotted from above, the same guy that had been so strikingly familiar.“It couldn't be”The lady she'd been conversing with, noticed how distracted she was.“Fiona?”“Yes ma'am, you were saying?”“As I was saying dear, the dojad eggs taste quite different from well, most I've tasted. A little tingy in taste…I presume it's not a basic recipe and it could a little bit of improv…”Whatever the woman was saying Fiona wasn't listening. What conversation could her father possibly be having with the young man? Her father wasn't the type to take too well with people, especially people of her generation. His oversight of them, a general stereotype he was almost bigoted about, was that they were mostly irresponsible with unproductive mindsets. A self obsessed personality, she found he hardly had friends, talk less of attempting to make new friends.“Argh! A roach!”Fiona's attention snapped away from them as the woman jumped in panic.
She placed her hands behind her, zipping the whole thing back up. She looked around, trying to find if she'll still see the mysterious guy she'd been following. She looked down at her knife. It was filled with a little blood. She stared at it as she walked, her legs constantly bending because of her broken heel. She grabbed the napkin from the closest table, destroying the cock pattern design it had been folded into as she cleaned the pocket knife she was holding. There was a welling of emotions in her and tears gathered in her eyes for reasons she could not exactly explain. She was getting a trigger of post-traumatic stress and Fiona did her best to breathe.In sight was the exit. She needed some air.Just as she was getting to the exit door, her father caught sight of her and called her.“Fiona”Fiona freezed. What the hell did he want?******** Her father, not being too far, walked up to her.“Fiona”, he called again.“Come, I wanted you to meet the newest president of the Voxx Gr
“Like I was saying, there's an unspoken animosity between us.”Wilde turned yet again to Charlie. “I know you are the one who let all that information out. You’ve always wanted me out so bad, Charlie. You can't deny that. And immediately I had my shares withdrawn,..”Wilde snapped his fingers. “You went for it”Wilde paused to smile. “You've always been a greedy fool. That's why you couldn't even pay off your own debt”“That wasn't me.”“Then who was it Charlie?”, Wilde responded in question, his tone no longer chilly and calm.“You can't tell me you didn't buy those shares because how do you explain this?”, Wilde smashed the printed white sheet of paper on the table in front of Charlie. He bent over, the level of his face matching up to Charlie's.“Tell me Charlie. Even if we were to assume you didn't buy the shares and you have so much more money but you're indebted to Capuedo, how did you afford two hundred and fifty thousand hectares of land just a week after the scandal?”Charlie