Authors: Philip Mcclennan
She remembered the confrontation that took place in the Miyamoto building two days earlier. During that fight, James had been shot in the stomach. Yet now, James bore no cuts where the bullet had struck him, nor anywhere else for that matter.
Whilst dressing, James picked up on Sophie staring at him after a few moments. “Alright, no need to stare,” he said, not even glancing at her as he spoke.
“I wasn’t staring!” claimed Sophie.
James turned to face her. “It didn’t look like that to me.”
The Irish girl became slightly flustered and quickly changed the subject. She pointed to the left side of his stomach. “I thought you got shot there?”
James froze for a second, quickly trying to think. He had indeed been shot a few days ago. However the genetics of his unearthly body had healed the wound completely in only two nights. James knew nothing about the reasons for it; he only knew that his body possessed extraordinary healing ability, far beyond that of a normal man. He didn’t wish to tell Sophie this as to not raise suspicion of his and Chad’s secret. Still, he knew that the Irish girl was smart and he had to think of an excuse, and quickly! “Oh yeah, that…” James attempted to stall the girl whilst trying to think of a suitable reason why a bullet wound had healed in just two days.
Sophie raised her eyebrows, awaiting a response.
James began to speak, unsure of his words even as they came out of his mouth. “Well, it was…erm.”
Sophie folded her arms, becoming increasingly suspicious by the second.
“The bullet just grazed me, lucky huh?”
She seemed unconvinced.
James pointed to a small scar that remained from the bullet. “You see that’s where it skimmed me.” The loud horn of a car beeping could be heard down below. James walked to the window and looked outside. It seemed their car had arrived. “Shit!” James rushed to put on his remaining clothes, nearly falling over in the process.
Sophie chuckled at the near fall. “I’ll see you down there.” The Irish girl exited the apartment.
James stopped for a moment, taking a quick glance down at the scar that remained from the bullet that had pierced his body. He rubbed the scar softly for a few moments, wondering just how he had managed to avoid a mortal wound. Another loud beep from the vehicle made him resume dressing.
Around thirty minutes later James, Sophie and Boris arrived at the Sydney Harbour Marriot Hotel. The three of them walked up towards the entrance, all of them in awe at the glamorous building. The hotel was large, mostly consisting of huge glass windows and white marble bricks that shone brightly in the moonlight. Through the windows, James could see the party guests dining only a few floors up from where they stood. The three of them stood in the queue at the hotels entrance. Despite the fact it was Halloween, none of the people in attendance were dressed in costume. All the men dressed in expensive tuxedos and many of them wore dickie bows, whilst the women wore designer label dresses.
Seems more like a group of people queuing up for a movie premier, rather than a party at a posh hotel
, thought James as he waited patiently in line.
An elderly gentleman standing at the front of the queue was ticking off names on a large pad of paper as people entered the building. Two large doorman wearing black jackets and large shades stood behind the man, presumably to attend to uninvited guests. Cody had used his connections in Sydney to have James, Sophie and Boris put onto the list using false names for each. With Cody already inside, the agents whispered to each other whilst they waited for the queue to shorten. They went over strategy one last time. It was a simple plan really. The agents were to locate their targets inside the party, discreetly separate them from the regular guests, and make an exit with their captives using the cover of darkness to aid their escape.
This was possible due to the small devices that each agent possessed. The World Order had connections with people that maintained the power grids in each city an agent operated in. The agent had authority in the city; they were the unseen protector of the city, with absolute power over the police and other authority figures. The local governments would be littered with people from the World Order and they controlled the politician’s with an iron fist. If an agent needed the power cutting without delay, they would use this device, which acted as a pager to their contact on the main power sites within the city. Their contact would cut the entire cities power supply for a very short length of time in order of an agent to escape into the night from whatever spot of bother they may have found themselves in. The organisation only sanctioned a power cut for a maximum of ten minutes due to safety reasons; therefore an agent would need to be quick in their escape.
Ascending up the large staircase, which had a red carpet laid on top of it, the group entered the main ballroom of the hotel. Memories of James’ graduation party came flooding back to him. This certainly had a similar feel to it. At least double the number of people were in attendance of this event. James and Sophie linked arms as they entered. They were posing as a couple and each wore a wedding ring. Boris quickly disappeared into the crowd and began to mingle with a wealthy looking group. He was doing a great job of passing off as a normal guest of the party. James and Sophie were a little surprised at Boris’ ability to suddenly become very sociable.
“He’s spoken more words to them in two minutes than he’s spoken to me in two days,” said James under his breath.
“He’s an odd one no doubt,” agreed Sophie.
The pair walked on into the room, nodding and smiling at the other couples they encountered. A middle-aged woman approached the pair and stopped to talk to them. She wore large, thick glasses and looked like a photographer due to the large camera around her neck. She glanced down at the couple’s wedding rings and put two and two together.
“What a lovely couple you two make!” she said.
James and Sophie each gave a nervous smile. Not only was this due to the fact they were trying to look convincing as a couple, but also they were a little embarrassed by the fact they were posing as a couple with each other.
The woman took out a small pad and pencil, “I’m from the Sydney Times Newspaper. I’m covering tonight’s event. Would you like to say a few words about the Pennyworth foundations amazing contributions to out great city?”
James was very confused. “Foundations?”
Sophie quickly interrupted him. “Oh yes, myself and my husband are deeply passionate about the foundation’s contributions, aren’t we darling?” Sophie gave him a discreet elbow to his side.
“Oh right, yeah, inspirational stuff,” he said, not really entirely sure what he was talking about.
“It’s wonderful to know that all proceedings from tonight’s auction will go directly to the foundations charity. Wayne Pennyworth truly is a remarkable man.” A bell rang three times from behind the woman. “Oh look, it seems the auction is about to start. Quickly let me get a picture of you before it begins.”
James was a little reluctant to have a picture, however, another subtle elbow from Sophie quickly brought him around to the idea.
A huge crowd had formed at the end of the room. They gathered around a small stage, which contained a table, and a stand with a microphone on it. A middle-aged man walked onto the stage and began to address the audience. “Good evening ladies and gentleman and welcome to the seventh annual Pennyworth foundation event. Mr Pennyworth regrets to inform you that he won’t be in attendance in person tonight, but he hopes that you’ll all have a wonderful evening.”
I know that voice!
James thought.
The pair walked closer toward the crowd, getting as close to the stage as they could manage. It was just as James thought; the announcer on the stage was Cody! He was dressed in a bright white suit and had a thick moustache. He had tried to adopt an Australian accent whilst in Sydney in order to fit in with the locals, but he hadn’t been able to hide his strong Texan accent completely. James and Sophie shared a quick glance at each other in recognition that they both knew the true identity of the man on stage.
Cody carried on with his speech to the audience. After several minutes, he noticed James and Sophie in the crowd. Cody decided to have a little fun. “Ladies and gentlemen, at this time I’d like to give a special mention to two dear friends of mine.” Cody gestured in the couple’s direction. “Celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary today, Jimmy and Sally Robertson!” Several of the crowd began to applaud. James and Sophie smiled awkwardly as they acknowledged the applause.
This isn’t appropriate Cody, we’re meant to be under cover,
thought James slightly annoyed.
Sophie wasn’t best pleased either, narrowing her eyes at Cody in a clear indication that she wasn’t amused by his actions.
Cody struggled to contain his laughter, barely managing to keep his composure. He began to introduce several exhibits that were placed onto the table for the auction. The exhibits were from Wayne Pennyworth’s personal collection. He was an Australian millionaire with an affinity for modern art and ancient artefacts. As each object was introduced, James and Sophie began to look around, trying to see if any of the three targets were in sight. A strange feeling suddenly began to flow through James’ body as the next object to be auctioned was placed on the table. A black cloth hid the item from view. James somehow felt a connection to the object, even though he had no idea what it was. It was the same feeling he had felt when drawn to the documents located within the vault of the Miyamoto building.
Cody removed the cloth, revealing a stone gem. It looked old, really old in fact, and had strange carvings on it. James had seen the carvings somewhere before, but he couldn’t quite remember where. All he knew was that this object, whatever it was, seemed familiar to him…and he wanted it.
The crowd began bidding on the strange object. No doubt, there were those in the audience that thought such an ancient looking artefact had great historical value. The bidding was up to two thousand Australian dollars.
“Six thousand!” shouted James.
Sophie and even Cody, who was doing his best not to break character up on the stage looked a little puzzled.
“What are your doing?” whispered Sophie.
“I don’t know,” answered James. The truth was, he didn’t know. He just knew he was drawn to the item and he needed to obtain it.
The bidding continued for a while longer, James continued to better the offer from any audience member that attempted to buy the artefact. “One million dollars!” spoke a posh and proper sounding voice from the back of the crowd. A few of the audience gasped by the size of the offer, some talking amongst themselves in surprise. Other people turned around to see who was crazy enough to bid such a huge amount of money.
At the rear of the crowd stood a tall man with long white hair. This man was Lucius, of Underworld, though none present knew that. He was also the leader of the Order of Lux and the World Order’s number one target. James and Sophie shared a quick glance of recognition of this fact. James could not match the man’s offer. He didn’t have the clearance to spend that much without prior warning and despite his agent’s salary, he couldn’t afford money like that.
I’ll take the artefact from him when we reprimand him
, he thought, convincing himself he would still gain possession of the item.
The white-haired man sent one of his henchmen who had just arrived to go onto the stage and collect the item for him. The man brought the object back to the white haired man and handed it over. The man held the gem close to his face. He gazed at the stone, looking at it so closely that you would not be mistaken to think he could see something beyond the hazel stone itself.
Cody brought the auction proceedings to a halt and made his way off the stage to James and Sophie. Although trying to keep a close eye on the white-haired man at the far end of the room, Cody lost focus on the mission slightly as this was the first time he had seen his friends in a long time. “Hey guys, you look great,” he said, patting James on the back as he spoke. He now focused his full attention on Sophie. “And look who it is, my favourite Irish girl in the world. You know, I didn’t think it was possible, but you’ve actually become more beautiful.”
James was pleasantly surprised with Cody. The last time he had seen him, he had trouble even looking Sophie in the eye, never mind talking to her.
He seems to have built up his confidence over the years.
Sophie seemed very underwhelmed with Cody’s attempts at flattery. After all she had been through with her last relationship in Tokyo, she really didn’t appreciate Cody too much at the moment. Realising they were becoming distracted, James quickly refocused the agents on the job at hand.
“Come on guys, we’ve got an important job to do. Cody, you’ve been tracking these guys since they got here right? What’s the story?”
Cody dropped the goofy act and suddenly became all business. “Ok, you see that one, with the white hair,” Cody said referring to Lucius. “I’m not sure of his name, but our intelligence here tells us that he’s the ring leader of this merry little band. They’ve always been one step ahead of us, that is until you broke in and got those files that told us of their business here in Sydney.”
“Right, so why are they here?” asked James.
Cody huddled the agents closer together, but not in too much of a way to raise suspicion. “They’ve come to collect something, an artefact.”
“Why?” Sophie asked. The Irish girl really didn’t understand why a group that the World Order thought of as such a great threat, would go around collecting artefacts, rather than weapons or even political power.
“I’m not sure, but they’ve been amassing different types of artefacts all over the world.”
“What types of artefacts?” asked James.
Cody gave a shrug of the shoulders. “They all tend to be very rare and unique in design. They have these strange markings on, cult-like or something…”
“Markings? You mean like the markings on that stone you just sold to them?” said James, not sounding too thrilled.