Chapter Sixteen: Going in Circles

"Director Ronin, I've been researching the circle you said you saw the other day," Delta said, beckoning Ronin over as she did.

Walking to her desk in the corner of the group lab, he was surprised to see that she'd managed to fit what seemed like ten different monitors in her area, with each one monitoring different projects and data streams.

"What do you have?"

Looking at him over her glasses, her face mousy and cute, she said, "That's the thing, I haven't been able to find ANYTHING."

Running his hand through his hair he said, "Well, the symbols DID disappear when I looked away...I may have just been seeing things."

Shaking her head so hard her hair bounced around her cheeks, she said, "I don't think so...I just think that someone is somehow blocking information pertaining to organizations using the symbol as a whole. I'm not just not finding information about our deceased bandits, I'm not finding information on ANY company that could use a white circle as a company symbol."

Ronin walked behind her desk and said, "That seems like it should be impossible. There's gotta be SOME company that's using a white circle for something."

Tapping rapidly, she pulled a list of companies that used different colored circles up and moved it to a larger monitor and said, "Any other color and it shows up, but."

She did the same search and pulled up a list of white circle companies for it to only show a blank search field.

"Try it with a white circle and you get nothing."

Ronin rubbed his eyes and said, "I was worried we'd get too many results to search through with such a simple symbol, but here we have absolutely nothing. Well at least we know we're on the right path...though I'm not sure where it's going."

Looking at him curiously, Delta said, "What do you mean?"

"The woman who showed me the symbol only said that they 'weren't just bandits'. She didn't tell me anything else."

Looking at the screen for a moment, she said, "Do you think it's related to the rebels?"

Ronin thought for a few seconds and said, "I doubt it...the rebels HAVE been active lately, but they're MUCH more organized and responsible than this. They'd NEVER have allowed what happened in those caves to occur."

Delta nodded in agreement and said, "I can't argue with you on that...they're extremely careful about how people get treated."

Sighing, Ronin said, "So we're up a creek then."

Delta started tapping at her keyboard and said, "For now, it looks that way. I'll keep an eye out for any new information, though."

He patted her shoulder and thanked her before he moved back to his desk and opened up a new project he'd been working on.

He began typing out calculations and pulled his initial prototype out, starting to make adjustments to various parts of the weapon.

Silas walked in as he was working and said, "You're going to have to teach me how to scale three stories of sheer metal someday."

Shaking his head, he said, "Not a chance."

Laughing at him, she asked, "You hard at work, or do you have a minute?"

Putting the weapon down caused it to shoot out a burst of bright purple sparks, catching him off guard and he said, "Well...that's going nowhere right now, I guess I could spare a minute or two for you."

As she pulled him to the hallway, Delta watched them leave and said, "I hope we get a new mission soon, I can only research invisible circles for so long."

In the hallway, Silas walked next to Ronin and said, "Marcus said he wants to talk to us about something."

Reaching his office in a few minutes, they went in and he immediately said, "Turn off the light."

Looking at each other, Ronin turned the light off and closed the door and Marcus asked, "Are you afraid to die?"

Ronin shook his head and Silas said, "Not all that much, to be honest."

Marcus turned away from them and looked at his wall where a picture of a man with odd hair was glowing softly.

He seemed...off...like something about him just didn't seem human. His bangs seemed to be white and the rest of his hair was pitch black, almost too dark to seem natural. Around his left eye and cheek was a black patch that seemed to be the same shade as the black in his hair.

Marcus motioned to the image and said, "My brother used to ask me that before he disappeared."

Silas stepped closer and said, "I'm sorry to hear that…"

Turning back to them, the image disappeared and he said, "Why? I'm not. He didn't so much disappear as he...left. Said he had things he HAD to take care of, and left to do it. That's actually why I called you here today, you two."

Ronin asked, "What do you mean?

Marcus smiled and said, "I have some things to take care of, myself. I'd have liked a chance to work with the two of you longer, but you know how it goes when duty calls. An old responsibility popped up, so I'm off to deal with it."

Silas raised an eyebrow and said, "So, what, you need us to take care of your cat or something?"

Laughing, Marcus replied, "No, no, nothing like that. I'm just going to be gone and I didn't want the two of you to worry about me. You'll be on your own for a while, but I want you to know that I have the deepest faith in you Silas. Ronin, you're a director, so I don't think you NEED my faith, but you've got it either way."

Walking to him, Ronin punched his shoulder and said, "You've got mine too! Take care of your business and get back when you can. Do you have any projects you need the team to pick up?"

Shaking his head, Marcus started walking to Silas and said, "Nope, nothing. I got everything sorted a couple of days ago."

Offering his hand to Silas he said, "I'll make you a deal, I'll come back as soon as I can, and you take care of Ronin. You know he can be kinda forgetful about stuff like eating and sleeping."

She smirked and shook his hand hard and said, "No problem. You get back here when you can."

Smiling wide, Marcus said "It's a deal."

He walked past Silas and picked up a bag that had been sitting next to the door and waved at them.

They waved back and he opened the door and left, the door slamming shut as though heavy wind had thrown it closed.

Looking at each other confused, they ran to the door and opened it to see that the hall was empty, as if Marcus hadn't just left. They both knew the hallway was way too long for him to have turned somewhere already.

Ronin said, "Do you think we'll ever have a week where something odd doesn't happen?"

Silas shook her head and said "We didn't join the Bureau for normal."

Nodding his agreement, Ronin walked back to Marcus's desk and turned on the projector again and looked at the picture of his brother.

"Think he'll ever find him again," Silas asked.

Shrugging, Ronin said, "Who knows. I get the feeling that family is probably pretty used to weird stuff happening."