"He's gone." Phil said.
"How do you know?" Montag questioned, pouring a steaming cup of coffee.
"I felt his mind....briefly...." Smith explained in a somber tone. "....the fact that I couldn't read it simply meant I would be the first to notice when it was gone...."
"That...umm...doesn't make alot of sense to me..." Brianna frowned, buttering her croissante'.
"I know. And it's nothing monopaths would comprehend." he nodded a bit. "But, let me put it this way.....just because you cannot see through a darkened window does not neccessarily mean that you wouldn't notice it if it disappeared completely."
"And, he's disappeared....completely?" Griss asked again, taking a seat at the elegant dining table.
"Utterly. No trace on the planet."
"You can't scan the entire planet....stop putting me on..." Montag winced.
Smith folded his arms with a smug grin.
"...it's a guestimation...fuck off...."
"So Ed's gone....just like that?" Bri pursed her lips. "No goodbye?"
"We should have seen this one coming." Montag replied matter-of-factly, stirring the cool cream into his coffee with slow revolutions. "....Ed has a family, now. He's got completely new responsibilities. It's Rama that surprises me."
Phil nodded, leaning in to slide the letter from across the table.
"What time did he leave this?" Smith asked.
"The bellboy said it was dropped off at the front desk around three-AM. Small asian man was the couriere."
"Mmm." Phil nodded, sucking in on his lower lip as he studied the note. He finally tossed it back onto the table, leaning fully back in his chair.
"Well, three down..." Smith commented solemnly, sipping his coffee.
"Three?" Bri asked.
"Didn't you guys hear about Quantos?" Smith frowned.
"No. What?" Montag shook his head.
"Cardiac arrest. Instant."
"What?!" Bri gasped.
"You're fucking with me!" Montag exclaimed, leaning forward in shock.
"I wish." Smith nodded, dead serious. "They said it was fast. He didn't feel a thing."
"...bloody hell..." Montag sighed, leaning back again. Brianna said nothing, just taking a moment to assimilate the news.
The three Vanguardians sat there quietly for a few minutes, Smith the only one still sipping his drink.
The doorbell sounded, shaking the trio from their revelry. Montag crossed the posh living room of the penthouse suite, opening the door to....
"Morning!" Ben Phillips nodded with a smile, walking in with a bag of breakfast treats. RoboSquirrel whizzed in, as well, following.
"Morning." Smith nodded, as they rejoined the table.
"Did you get the strawberry?" Brianna asked the muscled man taking the seat across the table.
Phillips reached into his sack, quickly sliding a jar of strawberry jam to her.
"Who loves you?" Ben smiled with a wink.
"That guy." she grinned, nudging towards Grissom.
"Okay, then...who thinks you're just damn hot?" he asked, his smile broadening.
"...everyone at this table..." she joked.
"And I'm watching every-bloody-one-of-ya'..." Montag commented, looking around with a faux-intensity and a pointing finger.
"Heh." Ben chuckled, unwrapping a loaf of wheat bread.
Phil just smiled in that subdued manner that he had, simply sipping his coffee. He looked up to his right...
"And where's my strawberry?"
RoboSquirrel, hovering near his head, made a few funny noises, a small computer disc finally ejecting from a slot just under his needled tail.
"Information as requested."
"What's that?" Montag asked, Phil pulling his laptop out of his satchel and injecting the disc.
"Something I asked our new little metallic rodent friend here to download from what we had saved on the archived mainframe..."
"You told him how to get into our hard drives?!" Montag exclaimed. "Are you out of your damn mind? You gave protocol and security access to a completely unknown technological....THING?!"
"Relax." Smith moaned, still uploading the info to his laptop. "I didn't give him anything. I simply asked him to see if he could retrieve the information for me. I figured, if he couldn't, then, he wasn't supposed to.....and if he could...well, couldn't very well have stopped him, eh?"
Griss just huffed, sitting back in irritation and crossed arms. Phil recognized the sound, glancing up at him.
"...Griss...." he stated. "...it's not like we've got alot left to protect..."
Montag and Phil just stared at each other knowingly, Griss finally conceding the point.
"...what'cha got?" he asked, nodding towards the laptop.
Phil punched a few buttons, turning the computer for all to see. On the screen was a Vanguardian employee profile, a few security cam shots of a tall, bald man in gray robes...
"Turkish Stringfellow." Phil commented.
"What about him?" Griss said, leaning in to rest his chin against propped fists.
"Who?" Brianna asked, looking back and forth between them.
"Old employee." Grissom answered, looking at the screen.
"That guy was in Vanguard?" Ben asked between chomps of a extremely large sandwich of some bizarre fashion.
"Awhile back, yeah." Montag nodded. "Never worked with him, outright. He was gone before I got here."
"Me, too." Phil said. "But, we both encountered him, didn't we?"
"...that crazy shit last year..." Griss nodded, rubbing his eyes, as if the memory was confusing in and unto itself.
"Something happened?" Bri asked.
"It's waaay too long of a story." Smith sighed. "Suffice it to say, we learned a few thing about him. About a group called The Order. About his reasons for being here."
"What's all this about, Phil?" Grissom asked.
"This...new guy..." Phil replied.
"That homeless looking bum that helped us out yesterday?" BF asked, taking a chug of his Powerade.
"The very same." Smith answered.
"I know..." Griss replied to Phil, skipping down the logical path Phil was heading. "...it's the eyes."
"Yeah." Phil nodded. "The purple eyes."
Bri and BF frowned to each other, both staring at the picture on the screen.
"So what?" Montag finally offered. "So they have same eye color...."
"Come on." Smith grunted. "The memory problems....the fighting styles..."
"Memory problems?" Bri asked.
"Hey, that guy has purple eyes, too....just like the new guy..." Ben added, still looking at the screen.
"According to the file, Stringfellow was employeed under the pretense of having amnesia, and, nowhere to go." Montag explained, even as Phil turned the laptop back around to punch in a few keys. He slid it back to the others. Now on the screen, was the closest cam-shot they had of Turkish's face, and, an obviously fresh shot of this new stranger's profile.
"Where'd you get the photo?" Montag noticed.
"Had our little squirrel here dump a few visual shots he still had in his memory board from yesterday."
"Oh, now you're giving it access to your laptop, eh?" Montag chuckled, shaking his head. "Get ready for some wonderful viruses...."
"Impossible." RoboSquirrel chimed in. "This unit scans for extraneous system commands every tenth-of-a-secon---"
"Oh, be quiet..." Grissom interrupted. "...Phil, give it to me. You think this guy is Turkish?"
"No, no." Phil shook his head. "It's not Turkish. I mean, the similarities are there, but, the physical traits are pretty off."
"How can you tell with all of that hair?" Bri grinned, studying the perfectly smooth-skinned man on the left, and the bushy-haired man on the right.
"Point." BF nodded.
"He's got to be connected....or something." Phil sighed, leaning back again. "It's far too coincedental. Far too similiar."
"Yeah...agreed..." the thief mumbled in thought.
"So, what do we do? Ask him?" BF asked.
"If it were that simple." Smith commented. "Amnesia, and all of that."
"Have you tried dipping into his mind?" Montag questioned.
"No, of course not." Smith replied. "I'd never do that without his permission, and you know it..."
"Oh, don't give me that load of bollocks..." Grissom rolled his eyes. "...since when do you follow such a bloody strict code?"
"Are you questioning my honor, Griss?" Phil slightly grinned.
"For telepathy, yes!" Montag shot back.
Smith studied him for a moment, finally shrugging.
"Well, I haven't exactly had the time..." he admitted.
"Well, he's upstairs...in the library..." Brianna shrugged. "...why not go up there now?"
"He's....here?" Phil asked with a frown. "You let him stay here last night?"
"So?" Montag asked.
"He's a fucking stranger!" Smith exclaimed. "How can you sleep in the same building with someone you hardly kn--"
Phil caught himself, realizing who he was asking this question to. Montag cocked an amused eyebrow at him.
Phil turned to Brianna.
"Okay, how can you sleep in the same building with someone you hardly know?"
"I don't know..." Brianna smiled, spreading jam another croissante'. "...about as easy as giving security access for company mainframes to someone I hardly know..."
Montag broke out into a loud chuckle, Phil cocking a dry eye at her evil grin, shaking a lone finger her way...
"...he's corrupting you, you know..."
(To Be Continued)
