Chapter 13: Pray For Me

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

I left Malak and Lucio at Tuesdays apartment and went on to work. I have done nothing but work since then. My days are long and I don't get days off. However, there is a bit of hope in all of this. I have saved enough money to use a teleportation booth to Ireland so I can visit Genetech's office there and learn about the egg donor program. This could help me with my troublesome financial situation. It may help me get the Creditors to leave me alone. Better yet, it might buy me the freedom to live a better life.

I tell no one of my plan, then, when the weekend finally comes, I pack a bag and head to Ireland via teleportation booth. My destination is Genetech's lab there.

[Li Violette]

The meeting in Switzerland was a waste of time, but, at least the Invisible Hand will remain out of the hands of Annette Rosenthal. I feel some relief over that. When I return to my own office, I wonder if the Hand ever found John Duddy. It seems people have forgotten about the incident now. It seems like weeks ago already. His actions were foolish, but, if he escapes, good for him.

As for me, I am resigned to do this work. I read my mail and check my messages. I see that Scrag has sent me a message. It seems he would like to meet with me to discuss some future speeches that he would like me to give.

I shudder at the thought of meeting him again. He is strange...a hard person to relate to.

Never the less, I want to do a good job, so I start to make my travel arrangements.

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

While Hilja is on her way to Ireland, her imaginary alter ego appears at Tuesday's apartment. He walks out of her kitchen and sits down next to Malak and Lucio, acting as though he had been there all along. He has a way of just showing up randomly. Not being a real, living person, it tends to happen.

He has a red mug of tea in one hand and looks over a paper.

"It is probably only a matter of time before the Hand shows up here to question us." He states to the others.

[Bambi Engel]

A smile touched Bambi's lips at Aubrey's statements before the android decided to go off on a rage. She sat calmly while she screamed, sighing softly as Aubrey slammed a dent into her desk. She liked this desk.

"I'm sorry, Aubrey, but you really shouldn't-" Another creditor opened her office door as she was getting ready to attempt to scold and soothe Aubrey at the same time. "Annette just arrived back, Ms. Engel. She sent me to retrieve you, but I decided not to tell her anything. That will be your job."

The corner of her mouth twitched. Standing with a nod, she flicked her gaze back to Aubrey. "I'll return shortly, I suppose you could return to your usual activities. We'll go shopping as soon as this is wrapped up." She added the last bit knowing it would smother the flames that were practically radiating off of Aubrey.

She left her office with that, making her way to Annette's much larger office a few floors up. It was a bit surprising, she heard not one whisper that she thought to be a slick comment about her as she made the trip. She paused once on the way to pick up the documents that had been written up about the London bank.

All the money had been pulled and relocated, so there was no risk with the Mafia getting all their money out of the bank before they could track all the funds together. Satisfied that everything was in order, she knocked at Annette's office door lightly.

[Jack Kruschev]

To: Anyone

I sit in my desk and ramble through various bits of paperwork and design plans. Work had piled up since my absence and I strictly didn't like it. The leave had been nice, but the work simply wasn't. I had taken only a few weeks off, but came back to what seemed like a hundred week's work of hard work to do. Whether it was create a new species or a new cure, the work never seemed to end. I can't stand this much work.

I'm somewhat of a work-a-holic seeing how I'm behind the desk, or in the lab, almost 4 A.M. to 9 P.M. each and every day, including weekends. But no matter, my work is good for my mind. My vacation has made me lazy, I can barely take 12 hours or striaght work. Time for change, time for something new.

I continue to work and take a glance over the streets of Dublin and the nearby campus where I am to teach a class of no less than 750 spoiled, little rich boys. Like the work, this has built up on me and I strictly dislike the idea of doing so much work. Sighing, I look back down and sit back in my comfy chair. As I try to dose off, I hear my phone ring.

[Tuesday DeCastro]

Tuesday says good bye to Hilja, though isn't sure if the woman heard it or not. She runs a hand through her hair, and looks at the other two occupants of her apartment.

Besides roundly deciding the party needs more protection, and finding out the name of an American weapons dealer, this meeting hasn't been very productive. She sighs, but is pleased that at least her phone hasn't rung in a while. The prospect of the bill was worrying her a little.

Tuesday takes a cookie from the plate that Hilja made, and nibbles on the edge thoughtfully, before pushing it aside, just as someone else came out of her kitchen. She jumps a little. Where had he come from? He did look vaguely familiar though...perhaps they'd met once? If only for a few moments.

He's right though, and she nods solemnly. If thats the case, then Malak definitely needs to hide, really she didn't want to have to deal with any of the hand at all. Unless, of course, it's Eva, who had confided in her earlier that she'd been forced to join them.

"Eva, a friend of mine, was forced to join the hand a while ago." She pauses, unsure of exactly what she's trying to say. "She's different though, she feels remorse. Perhaps we'll get lucky, and she'll be one of the people, if not the only person sent. Or maybe she'll direct them away from us or something." She shakes her head a little. "Still, maybe we should make a few precautions." She suggests.

[Taylor Jones]

Taylor hadn't strayed away from routine for a while. Wake up, shower, dress, go to work, come home, eat, catch some television, sleep, repeat. It was starting to get rather boring.

Now, she sat behind her desk at Crest Mining, editing a paper that needed to find its way to Calithin's desk later for review. A little while later, she pushed the finished paper aside, and made a few calls, confirming appointments, and double checking the times on meetings. Once she was done, she drums her fingers on her desk, and feels bored.

She wonders if anyone would be interested in organizing a chair race. She chuckles a little at the thought, before pushing herself back and forth a bit in her swivel-y office chair. She gradually pushes herself further in both directions, and before she knows it, shes turning herself around and around a full 360 degrees, only stopping with a slight blush when a janitor asks if shes an escaped loon. She grins sheepishly and shrugs her shoulders lightly.

Taylor sighs, once her moment of fun is over, and goes back to some paper work on her desk. Really, some people needed to learn how to lighten up. The secretary needed some fun.

[Annette Rosenthal]

"Well hello Bambi. Take a seat." Annette says once Bambi enters her office. Annette sits up tall and pulls an ivory cigarette case out of her desk. She runs her fingers over the case before pulling out a cigarette and lighting up. She leans back now and looks over Bambi.

"So, what did you learn in London, dearie?" She says after a quick puff. She coughs a little, but smiles her aligator smile at Bambi while she eagerly awaits news from London.

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

"I was thinking that maybe...I would join that contest in Japan. If I could win some money for us, then some of our problems would be solved. We could buy guns or maybe even a cheap place to hide out." Sasha states to Tuesday. He looks at the others and down at a newspaper on the table. "The Hand has left us alone so far...so maybe having that friend helps. Do you think she could be won over to our side?" He asks.

[Jack Kruschev]

My phone continues to ring and I continue to ignore it. It's probably some random caller asking for a cure, or a disease. Either way, I'm already overloaded with my work I've let pile up over the weeks of my absence. Getting up, I toss on my labcoat and head over to my lab.

[Antonio Martinez]

"Another slow day.........." Antonio mutter to himself as he began closing up his shop.

He manage to sell couple pair of jeans, 3 boxers, and 1 jacket. He believes that some of his customers are kinda afraid of him, but Antonio doesn't blames. As long as they look around the shop, buy the stuff they want to get, or just leave the store. If he is not busy with work, Antonio try to go back to Cuba and visit his parents' graves. Now Antonio couldn't visit their graves since the incident few months.

Anyway, once he lock up his store, Antonio began walking to the nearest convience store. He brought couple bottles of water, gallon of milk and bananas. He refuse to buy any fruit punch drinks or other red coloring stuff in certian items because it reminds him his fear of blood. So, he quickly brought his stuff and left the store. It took him 8 blocks to walk to his apartment, but once he got in, he lock the door behind him.

"I wish Finland get warmer like Cuba, but not oo hot....." Antonio mutter to himself once more before he went to the kitchen and began eating his bananas and drink his water.

[Tuesday DeCastro]

Tuesday nods. "Thats a great idea, if you're up for it." She says. "We could really use the money." She wonders what kind of tasks Momo is going to make her potential dates do to compete to take her to the banquet, and win all that money. "You'll have to send your application in soon, though."

She thinks about Eva a moment, and shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe." She pauses a moment. "...Probably." Eva had said she was forced to join the hand. The choice had been either them or death, at least thats what she said.

If Tuesday was a more paranoid woman, she would be suspicious of Eva. Parts of her story were hard to swallow, and it had seemed to be missing gaps. But she hadn't given Tuesday a reason to be worrisome, in fact she'd been almost too eager to please. Almost.

But still...what if the whole saving Malak thing was just a ploy to get Tuesday to trust her? What if Eva was just pretending to befriend her? Tuesday shook her head, riding herself of the thought. The Invisible Hand wasn't on her doorstep yet, were they? If Eva'd been lying Tuesday was positive that she would've led them here by now.

[Alexei Nacharade]

Alexei paced in a holding cell, growing more and more agitated. It was to small, and the quiet as well as boredom was getting to him. Allmart had confiscated his balisong and given him new clothes. He was shirtless at the moment, and stood in nothing but a pair of orange sweat pants.

Worse still, it had been a long time since he'd had a smoke, or used cocaine, and that was getting to him. Sweat trickled down the side of his face as he waited more and more impatiently.

[Jack Kruschev]

I continue down the hall until I reach the large, steel doors protecting my lab from the rest of the world. With a quick knock, I make sure that no one is in the water closet and slip in for a leek.

[Sy Lecy]

((OOC-sorry it took so long to post. my medical condition made it impossible for me to type anything hardly. Its not so bad now still not so good but I can manage so here goes, again I apologize for my absence. If we have decided to abandon this let me know otherwise her is my post and we move on...))

Duddy wrote:

Duddy grinned, "I should have known this was all bullshit, from the time I took you to lunch! You were scouting me out, you new the whole time who I was and to think I trusted you and actually told you who I really ws and what I really did." He saw something move out of the corner of his eye, then he heard Lena speak. "See adn you wonder why I felt threatened, you must be the mastermind behind the whole operation. As for me, I came here alone, to face you like a man. The sad part is, you think that if I see you crying its ok, well thats a fucking farce if I ever saw one." He removed the dirk from the sheath and fashioned it upside-down with the blade facing out, Swaggert had taught him this position, he said it was a defense position.

He moved closer to Sy and said, "Fine just fucking kill me. I loved you and all you want to do is stick me like a pig, you make me sick!" He spat in her face. then turned around making all of his movements very deliberate and went back towards his orignal position.

She spun wiping her face growling like a feral cat and with lightning speed unsheathed her claws that had been uncased in velvet high up between her shoulderblades. She began to circle him her eyes fixated on him like an animal watching prey as it began its hunt. She felt hungry but not for food. It had been so long since she had seen blood covering her hands and smelled the metallic acidity of it wafting up into her nostrils. This being was nothing more to her than her kill now. Duddy no longer existed all she saw were vulnerable spots places where if she cut with her claws blood would gush forth and spill across her face and body. She knew where arteries were and would cause the most damage. She knew where nerves would if severed would cause him to fall and he would fail.

She continued to circle him taking great pains to keep her distance but keep her eyes on him never letting them leave him looking for an opening, looking for him to give her a chance to strike and him to make his fatal mistake.