Nightrise's Chairman

Meanwhile the girls, Alicia and Jamie were talking.

The boardroom was on the sixty-sixth floor of The Nail, which was the name of the newest and most spectacular addition to the Hong Kong skyline.

The Nail had been constructed at an angle so that it slanted towards Orchard Hill and away from the waterfront. It seemed to be made of solid steel, an illusion caused by the one-way glass in all of its windows.

The top three floors, sixty-four to sixty-six, were circular, and wider than the rest of the building. Viewed from Kowloon, on the other side of Victoria Harbor, it really did look like a giant nail that had been hammered into the heart of the city.

There were just three men in the boardroom, although fifty could have fitted in easily. A conference table made of black, gleaming wood stretched the full length of the room with black leather chairs placed at exact intervals. Two of the men were already seated, going through papers, preparing themselves for the conference that was about to begin.

The third was standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows that curved round in a great arc, enjoying the view. The Nail was the worldwide headquarters of the Nightrise Corporation. The man standing on his own was its chairman.

Standing behind the chairman was a secretary who took a step forward, he whispered: "They're coming on-line now, Mr Chairman."

The chairman nodded as he took his seat at the head seat among the ocean of available seats, suddenly holograms activated and figures of people appeared "sitting" on each of the chairs surrounding the chairman who stood up with a smile.

"My greetings to you, ladies and gentlemen." The chairman spoke, it was a basic rule that he had to open the conference by starting to speak first. He had no obvious accent. This was an international businessman and he had managed to develop an international voice.

"I don't think I need to remind you that this is a critical time for us all, it is a world-changing time. Everything we've been working for all these years is about to come to fruition. The business has never been better but right now there is so much more at stake than simple profit and loss. We have the Psi project. We have news from South America. And, of course, we have the upcoming election … the race to become the most powerful man in the world."

He paused and it was almost as if a thin mist had passed across his eyes, he felt emotional that they had gotten this far quietly without alerting the supernaturals of their plans. "I hardly need to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that this is one time we cannot afford to make mistakes."

He stopped. Nobody moved. The hologram images were so still that they could have been accidentally frozen. Two thousand miles away, the private Nightrise Corporation satellite that was making this conference possible continued its orbit around the world, picking up the signals and beaming them into the different countries.

"Let's start in New York. The election. What can you report?" The chairman asked,

The man responsible for this field, was Simms. After considering what to say, he started "This is a hard nut to crack, sir,"

He reported. "And whatever happens, it's going to be close. Maybe as close as one or two states. Our guy is doing better than expected, but so far we haven't been able to do serious damage to Trelawny."

"Advertising?" The chairman asked,

"Sir, we've taken out advertisements that suggest that Trelawny is soft on crime and soft on immigration. We've said he's a coward and a liar. We've even managed to plant newspaper stories that hint he might be gay. But nothing seems to hurt him. For some reason people like him, and right now all the indications are that the two of them will be neck and neck by November." Simms said with a gloomy face, he even cursed that secretary that once resigned who managed to counter these tricks of his.

"Baker must win. There can be no other result. Trelawny must not become president." The chairman said nonchalantly

"Well, short of assassinating John Trelawny, I'm not sure what we can do." Simms said uncertain of what he could do to ensure a win for them,

"I think, Mr Simms, you should be considering every possibility." The chairman said nodding, he too considered assassination as a option to ensure their plans move forward.

"Yes, sir." Simms said before taking his seat once more.

Next, the chairman turned his attention to a holographic woman who was sitting next to him, on his right-hand side. "Could you please make your report," he said.

"Certainly, Mr Chairman." The woman stood up as she gazed directly into the room. She looked more like a school teacher than a business-woman, with glasses that were too big for her face, very cropped grey hair and a long, thin neck. Her name was Susan Mortlake.

"I have good news to report and also bad news," she began. "It has now been almost a year and a half since we began the Psi project but we may have had a breakthrough. It seems that we have finally managed to track down two of the Gatekeepers."

This caused a stir around the room.

"It's still too early to be absolutely sure that they are who we think they are," the woman went on. "The fact of the matter is that we've looked at hundreds of children who have demonstrated any measure of psychic power. Telepaths, fire starters, clairvoyants... anything out of the ordinary. Half of them, of course, have turned out to be a waste of time. A few of them have moved away before we were able to track them down. But as for the rest... we've managed to take possession of seventeen of the most promising subjects and we've been experimenting with them in our facility at Silent Creek.

"However, it now looks as if all our efforts may have been a waste of time. We have one of the Gatekeepers in our power, I'm sure of it. So far, we've only been able to begin a brief examination, but it's already obvious that his powers are far greater than anything we've yet encountered."

"Why do you only have one of them?" the chairman asked feeling curious why she mentioned there was two yet only had one in her hands.

"That's the bad news, Mr Chairman." Susan Mortlake paused. "The two boys, Scott and Jamie Tyler were performing a telepathy act at a theatre in Reno. It was their guardian, who was also the producer of the show, who first brought them to our attention. He was quite happy for us to take them in return for a sum of cash although, of course, it was always our intention to kill him.

"This we have completed perfectly. I arranged a fairly simple operation to pick the boys up but unfortunately something went wrong. It may be that their power is even greater than we had imagined. At any event, they knew we were coming and one of them, Jamie, managed to get away." She explained,

"Where is he now?" The chairman asked with a trace of irritation surfacing within the tone of his voice, he felt disappointed despite her being able to achieve something so grand.

"We have no idea. My agents tell me that he was helped in his escape by a woman, but they were unable to get her registration number. It all happened too quickly and it was dark. However, I believe the situation is now under control." Susan said with certainty,

"Go on." Chairman glance at her with interest wondering if she could amend her mistakes for letting one escape,

"We shot the producer, a man called Don White. He was living with a woman, Marcie Kelsey. We shot her with the same gun and then used our contacts within the Nevada police to set up a false trail. Jamie Tyler is now wanted for both murders and it can only be a matter of time before he's tracked down. At which point, we will have him." Susan muttered,

Susan Mortlake sounded confident, but the chairman was unimpressed. "Your agents allowed one of these boys to slip through their fingers. They also failed to track down the car. Have you taken any disciplinary procedures, Mrs Mortlake?"

"No, sir." The woman looked up defiantly. "It did occur to me that you might be asking for my own resignation."

The chairman considered that possibility, but then shook his head. "If you have one of the Gatekeepers, that will be enough," he said.

"We only have to break the circle and we will have won. However, you still need to make redundancies, Mrs Mortlake. We cannot have people letting us down." Chairman added this while stressing on the part she had to correct her mistakes.

"Of course, Mr Chairman. I thought as much myself." Susan said nodding,

"And I want you to deal with Scott Tyler personally. You understand that, generally speaking, it would be better if he were not allowed to die." The chairman said vaguely, he knew of the secrets that the five children posessed. The same secret that allowed them to win the war many thousands of years ago.

"I understand. But as a matter of fact, we may be able to use him. I'm hoping to bring him round to our point of view." Susan explained,

"Good." Chairman nodded with a satisfied smile, he agreed with this idea since it would make it impossible for the five to use their power to win this war if they could tempt one of them over to their side.

The single word was praise indeed. The chairman never complimented his staff on anything. At the Nightrise Corporation, excellence was taken for granted. He spoke again, this time addressing all the executives.

"As I began by saying, this is a critical time. It's also a very positive time and before we part company, I want to introduce you to an associate whose name will be familiar to you. We have worked together on many occasions and he has very kindly agreed to say a few words to you today."

There was a screen at the far end of the table, opposite the chairman. Until now it had been blank, but it suddenly flickered into life. At first it seemed that there was something wrong with the picture.

The head that had appeared simply looked too big for the screen, too heavy for the neck that supported it. Its eyes were very high up, above a nose that seemed to travel a long way to the small and rather babyish mouth below. It was as if the image had been stretched but in fact there was nothing wrong with the transmission.

The man was Diego Salamanda, head of Salamanda News International. He was beaming the signal from his research centre in the town of Ica in Peru. And this was how he really looked. Yet he had another identity which Angelica would have named him by, Apostle.

The leader of the Cannibal group which Angelica and the girls were sent to find, they never knew that he was living in the southern america using a false identity to investigate something in Peru.

"Good evening," he began. The local time was just after seven o'clock. "It is a great pleasure to be able to speak with you. I would like to thank your chairman for inviting me. And I have some excellent news to share with you.

"I have now had a chance to decipher the diary of the mad monk of Cordoba which was unearthed very recently in Spain and passed into my hands. I don't need to remind you that this is the only written history of the Old Ones and their fight against the five children who came to be known as the Gatekeepers. The Old Ones ruled the Earth about ten thousand years ago. They were all-powerful but they were defeated" Diego said,

"According to the diary, they won by using a trick. Sadly, we have no more details. There was a great battle, which the Old Ones lost, and they were banished. Two gates were built to keep them out of our world. Many of us have been working for their return ever since.

"Further examination of the diary has provided me with the answers that I have been looking for and I can tell you that, without a shadow of a doubt, very soon we will have achieved our aims and a new millennium will have begun. Yes, my friends, the Old Ones are about to return to take control of a world that should, in truth, have been theirs all along." Diego said with confidence.

>\/<

"Since we know that the Nightrise is related to this incident, our best bet would be to investigate their offices" Sakura said,

"But if we leave Reno..." Jamie said reluctantly,

"Your brother is already gone" Angelica said emotionlessly before adding, "Our best bet on finding him, we need to infiltrate that organisation"

Everest nodded, crossing her arms "I suggest we lead two teams, since Nightrise has two offices we can infiltrate both at the same time. Otherwise if we infiltrate only one and do not get what we seek, they would bolster the security of the other office"

"That's possible," Alicia said, she too considered investigating those offices after realizing that they could have taken Daniel.

"Well let's finish our meal before we head off then," Stephani said and everyone finished their meal, only Jamie wondered why these peculiar four girls would do so much for him. It was only ignorant of him, that he would only realize later the girls only needed him to find their target.

After finishing their meals, Angelica left the group to contact Ulrika.

]What's the status?[ Ulrika asked,

"We found one of the five children," Angelica said straight to the point,

]This!? Isn't this matter Masaru's jurisdiction? Or could it be something else?[ Ulrika asked,

"I found traces of the Cannibal Apostle's aura around the policemen who were searching for this boy" Angelica explained,

]It still is something that Masaru should handle but he is still working on preparing for the Ritual with Wang Long in China... I will send some subordinates in the area to support you[ Ulrika said,

"Just have them investigate Nightrise, this is the company we believe is in contact with the Apostle" Angelica said

]Very well, although I have already investigated them before though[ Ulrika said with an uncertain tone,

"And?" Angelica asked,

]Humans, pure humans. No supernatural nor any of Masaru's enemies. We investigated and even infiltrated their headquarters yet found nothing[ Ulrika explained,

"I see, I will continue to investigate here and retreat if things get dangerous with the boy" Angelica said,

]Good, then I will make contact with Nexus to see what they intend to do when they know we have another one of the five under our surveilance[ Ulrika said while giggling.

With the communication over, Angelica came back to see Alicia and Jamie were shouting at each other. When she glanced at Sakura, Sakura simply shrugged her shoulders not understanding why this boy was so adamant on not using his powers.

"I will not use it! YOu don't know what it feels like when Scott used it by accident!" Jamie shouted,

Stephani tapped her chin for a moment, her eyes became somber "He must have caused someone to kill himself right?"

Jamie flinched when he heard her words, yet since it was out he could only nod. Hearing this Alicia kept her mouth shut since this was a traumatic experience for a child, it would not be right for her to continue forcing him.

"Well to me, whether you use it or not will determine whether you will live or die. It's the same for your brother, the two of you are in that kind of situation" Everest said brutally honest, her eyes were serious with no hint of arrogance or disdain towards Jamie. Just brutally honest.

"Urk..." Jamie flinched once more, he knew what this girl said was the truth. However, he did not want to break the promise he made with Scott.

"Well, I suppose there is no need to get him to use his powers if he is such a coward" Stephani muttered causing Jamie to shiver in rage, she glanced at Angelica who nodded.

"Let's go, we will first head to the offices of Nightrise in Los Angeles. It will be me, Stephani and Jamie. Everest, Sakura and Alicia will stay close as reinforcement" Angelica said, no one said a thing and accepted this arrangement for the mission.

>\/<

It was an hour using magic to enhance the car, that they managed to arrive right in front of the office. Looking through the windscreen at the office building across the road. It seemed very ordinary in the morning to afternoon light with the sunshine bouncing off the windows.

There weren't so many people around now. The traffic had died down and the pavements were virtually empty. Angelica who studied tourism had learned before that in Los Angeles, nobody ever walked anywhere and those that did were rare.

And yet there were at least a thousand people inside, Everest looks at the building trying to imagine what it would feel like to become a Chef-owner with a building as tall as this twentieth-floor Building of a skyscraper with her own office and a personal assistant at the top floor.

"We're here," Angelica said glancing at Jamie who made himself determined, although she did not say a thing but their success would depend on him since his ability to forcibly control people's mind and make them confess.

Using Torture?

Using Hypnosis?

Angelica shook her head, she heard from Masaru that those affiliated with strange groups tend to have suicide determination meaning that they would kill themselves than give out information.

"You ready?" Angelica asked,

"Yes" Jamie nodded