Chapter 20 - Dead End

Amber returned to the limousine, her spirits dampened. She had been unceremoniously escorted out and had failed to uncover any fresh leads on the case. The silver lining, however, was that she had the chance to reunite with Imogen, a person she deeply missed. Since her banishment from all Upper City Illuminati establishments, her access to the world above the clouds had been severely restricted. Although she understood why they had imposed this ban and had come to terms with it, a lingering bitterness still remained, particularly in the face of the organisation's steadfast commitment to it after all these years.

At the age of fourteen, children with parents in the UCI were typically initiated into its ranks. Amber's exclusion stemmed from her firm refusal to comply with their customs and undergo initiation. In response, her parents had sent her off to military school as a form of punishment, but she considered anything preferable to becoming part of such a corrupt and malevolent organisation. Consequently, she had been disowned by her family and stripped of her status as an Upper City lady. Her aspiration, although ambitious and perhaps unattainable, was to dismantle the UCI. With Jason now as her formidable ally, she began to entertain the notion that this lofty goal might just be within reach.

Jason, ever the optimist, inquired, "Did you manage to make any progress before being escorted out?"

"Not as much as I would have liked. The person who contacted me was a man, but I couldn't ascertain his identity," Amber sighed, lamenting her lack of success.

Danika chimed in with a rational perspective, "Well, this does provide us with two crucial pieces of information. First, the person threatening us wasn't Mr. Bass's wife, and second, the individual is affluent enough to be on that exclusive list, significantly narrowing down the pool of potential suspects."

She had a point, although there were likely multiple people involved, and are backed by the UCI, this did narrow down the possibilities. 

As the limousine began its ascent, carrying them back to the cloud elevator, Amber's phone rang once more. She hesitated briefly as she glanced at the caller ID, her expression fraught with anguish and confusion. She answered the call with a heavy sigh, placing the phone on speaker mode so everyone could hear. The holographic screen enlarged displaying a woman's face—a face remarkably similar to Amber's.

"Hello, mother. What do you want?" Amber asked. 

"Is that how you greet your mother?" her mother replied, brushing off Amber's initial tone.

Amber retorted, "Well, you only call me when you need something, don't you?"

Mrs. White disregarded the slight and continued, "No matter. I hear you're playing detective now," 

"I am not playing anything, mother," Amber replied, her voice layered with anger.

Jason began to understand why Amber had rebelled against her mother; her demeanour was reminiscent of his own mother, always condescending and belittling, which naturally bred contempt.

"Either way, I need you to stop looking into this Laquita Bass case. It is none of your business," Mrs White insisted. 

Amber shifted in her chair and leaned in on the phone. It looked as if she was going to unleash. 

"To the contrary, mother, it's definitely my business, and of all people, you can't stop me looking into it," responded Amber, spite in her voice.

"Why do you always have to be so repugnant–" began Mrs White before Amber ended the call. 

"Sorry you had to witness that," Amber apologised. "My parents are part of the UCI, and they likely just got wind of what's happening."

This revelation hit Jason like a ton of bricks. It meant Amber's parents were extremely wealthy, and it shed light on some of her previous comments.

Danika nodded, acknowledging the significance. "That explains a lot."

Amber's phone rang again, she pulled it out ready to decline the repeat call from her mother, but was pleasantly surprised, it was Derek the Englishman. After a quick conversation, Derek agreed to meet them at their office in half an hour, only giving them enough time to just get back to the office. Derek arrived a minute after they did, holding a golden sheet. He entered the office without knocking and wasted no time.

"Ey here's the sheet, now leave my forklift alone," he commented, whilst closing the door before even looking around. "Uh, going to a snob ball?" 

"A deal is a deal. It's a long story." replied Amber, politely taking the sheet from Derek. 

Malcolm suddenly appeared behind Derek, playfully grabbing his hips once more, causing Derek to jump in surprise. Malcolm fell over laughing again, much to Derek's disgust. 

"Once a pussy, always a pussy," laughed Malcolm in hysterics. 

"Shut up short man, where were you hiding this time!" replied Derek, who was being unfortunately tricked by Malcolm. 

Malcolm winked at Derek, which enraged Derek further. Derek stormed off and sat in the corner, making sure no one could sneak up on him again. 

"Did you want me to project what you see?" asked Malcolm, turning to face Amber. 

Amber nodded at Malcolm, who approached and took her hand. She concentrated on the golden sheet, attempting to isolate the events from six months ago. As she focused, she witnessed the past half-year unfold, eventually finding what she sought—the prelude to the night when Laquita was returned. In her vision, she found herself in a box, waiting to be removed. As time passed, the sheet was lifted from the box. The sheet was in a grey stone building's basement, resembling a mediaeval dungeon. Buildings like this were rare these days, especially in cloud city. 

The reason for this was that Cloud city wasn't like any normal city, it didn't have an exact location. This was possible because it was actually a pontoon that floated up and down the Pacific ocean chasing the summer. Depending on the time of year it travelled from Hawaii to Fiji. So naturally a place that was created in the modern age was devoid of classic stone architecture. Therefore there were limited choices within cloud city that the events unfolding could have taken place. 

The sheet was taken out of the box and placed upon Laquita, who lay on a bed in the centre of the room.  Laquita was then lifted by the same person they had observed in the warehouse, who was already fully dressed with their mask. They walked out of the room and ascended a stone staircase to a dark wooden door, which opened automatically, revealing a fancy but not excessive lounge area. Through the window you could see the Bass mansion, this must be one of the staff houses. The individual led Laquita to a private garage, and the driver entered the car, but strangely, they didn't raise the garage door before accelerating toward it. Instead of crashing, the car effortlessly passed through the door, and began hovering above the clouds. Shocked at her findings Amber shared her visions with the others via Malcolm's projection. Whoever this was was very bold to perform such a brazen act right underneath the families noses.