STEEL PARIAH

Declaration

The police was all over the scene, they had their best detectives on the case and one especially persistent one, Sarah Lancaster, she has been on cases like these before, ever since she lost her partner. She had been chasing a particular criminal terrorist cell who have been terrorizing Manchester and they just left another dead body with an explosive on the it; she was sure it was them, she knew their M.O. but aparently they were a much bigger organisation than she thought and now they were in London. Her phone rang

"Hello, Lancaster speaking" she said in a very formal, very strong british accent

"Ah, detective Lancaster, thank God! We have a case here" answered a rather frantic Irish man

"But, sir, I'm working on another case, I just got a new lead on the RED SKULL case and..."

"I know all about that...but, trust me, you'd want to see this" the man assured her

She sighed "Okay, where?" she asked as she got into her black Honda accord "The Westminster bridge, be there in ten" the irish man replied as he hung up the phone "Great!" she exclaimed "I wonder what could be so important" with that, she zoomed off.

Sarah reached the Westminster bridge and saw the cluster of cars, civilians having a row with the police and the beaming red and blue lights of the police cars-which she thought was a little redundant at this time of day-Upon her arrival, she saw her boss who made the call to her: detective inspector Hoyt Simmons. He had brownish black hair and wore a brown french coat over his black suit, he was of average height and had smile marks running down from his nose side to his chin, his furrowed eye brows grew steeper as she approached him. Simmons looked at her with his deep blue eyes "I'm sorry lass, we couldn't find him" she glanced at him and down at the bodies of the two well-built men, bodyguards she supposed but, why would Simmons apologise she knew neither of these men. She examined their head wounds and started jotting down on a notepad her analysis and it ran:

*Two- centimetre deep bullet wound

Possible weapons:

•Sniper {most likely weapon but, wound too shallow}

•Sub-machine gun {probable but, inaccurate aim}

•Hand gun {impossible, except...}

After the analysis she had put down, she gasped because she knew the only one person who has the means and the steady hand to use a handgun from such an impossible distance...Damian, her lost partner. This was the sixth of this type of death they had encountered in the last three years and it had Damian's unmistakable style given his military background which he never liked to share with anybody

"Damian...what happened to you? Where are you? Why would you do this?" detective Lancaster mumbled to herself. Sarah stood up, her short brown hair covering her face, her glowing skin seemed a little flush, she pulled her Ulster coat up and walked to the young lady sitting down at the back of the ambulance with a blanket and a cup of coffee and she thought: for a person who just lost her bodyguards, she doesn't seem fazed, in fact, she seemed to be smiling a little...this day could not get any weirder

"Excuse me ma'am" Sarah talked to Liz "I'd like to ask you a few questions...if you don't mind"

Liz looked up at the detective "Sure. Ask away!"

"Okay" she began "Do you have any reason why anyone would want to hurt you or your bodyguards?" Liz looked up at Sarah and smiled then looked back down at her cup of coffee "It's nice to see you again too Sarah" Detective Lancaster sighed and glanced back at Liz, they both burst into laughter; Sarah sat beside Liz "It's been a while Liz!" "Four years..." "Okay, you've been smiling; tell me did you find Damian?" Sarah asked anxiously "What do you think?!" replied Liz with a smirk "Where is he?" Sarah asked again, this time, Liz said nothing but, then she fixed her gaze on the Elizabeth tower just when the Big Ben sounded with a loud DING! on the hour of 1pm, ominous it was, but, Sarah got the message "Of course he'd be up there!" she said with a level of admiration "He smart enough to know that no security agent checks the tower, and he knows how the police force works, I mean he was practically the best consultant we had!" "I remember" Liz added "He was weird that way wasn't he?! So smart and adorable...and handsome at the same time, now that's hard to pull off" she let a little smile across her face but, it died out quickly as a thought seemed to cross her mind.

Detective Lancaster arose to meet her boss "Liz, will you be okay?" "I'll be fine, you go on ahead" Sarah took out a business card from her breast pocket and handed it to Liz "Come by the office later...if you can, we have a lot of catching up to do" Elizabeth took the card and smiled wryly "Sure, be expecting me" she paused "Hey, Lancaster, if you do take him into custody, question him, because for him to show himself now...something big must be about to happen" Sarah looked shocked "How did...you know...I was going to do that?" Liz smirked "I guess you can say Damian taught me a few things"

"Ah! I see...okay then, see you when I see you, Miss Wales"

"Yeah, you too, and be careful"

"I will." Sarah replied quite unsure of herself or what would happen next. She got to her boss and whispered something into his ear which made his skin jump "All units to the tower now!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, for some reason Damian Chase's name seemed to have that effect on the people who have seen him in action...or heard about his exploits.

The team moved cautiously, working their way through the tower, inspector Simmons taking the lead, three uniformed officers, and then detective Lancaster at the rear. Finally, they reached the top of the tower where the daylight penetrated through the translucent clock screen and through the arched openings on the veranda where a figure sat with a newspaper in hand. The inspector got to the top first and saw him, in amazement and disbelief, he lowered his gun. Damian Chase sat on cushioned armrest chair wearing a slim fit three piece black suit with high boots and black gloves...his skin had a pale white glow, his crimson lips and deep blue eyes gave the room an eerie atmosphere. Sarah looked at him in surprise, his black hair was gelled back with a lock falling to his face "Simmons, Lancaster...did your mothers not teach you that it's bad to keep your guests waiting?" his voice was not so deep, but it had a freezing-fear effect "Honestly" he continued without taking his eyes from his paper "I'm a little disappointed, I thought you'd be here faster...I've been expecting you"

he glanced at the awe-struck officers and stood up, dropped his paper, took off his suit jacket leaving the lower vest on and hung it on his chair then folded up his arms of his shirt to the elbow "Well, shall we get on with it?". Sarah kept looking at his face, into his eyes, there were no emotions there...none whatsoever...not fear, or contempt, disgust, happiness, pride...nothing, they were...dead!

Damian walked to the officer nearest to inspector Simmons and showed him his hands, palms upwards, Simmons gulped and regained composure, he nodded to the officer who then started to pull out his handcuffs "Damian Chase..." Simmons started "...you are under arrest for the death of two men, you are required to remain silent..." he trailed off, he never imagined he would have take such an action against someone he held in high regard. He then found his way to Sarah "Been a while, my young protégée" he stood at an impressive 6'2 and well built. The group walked out of the tower with a cuffed Damian Chase and the expected scenario was for the press to swarm them but, as they approached, one look from Damian made them shuffle back slowly and instinctively; he was led into a police vehicle and taken away. Not a single person among the journalists uttered a word but looked at the vehicle speechless and for some reason...terrified, minutes after the car was gone from their sights.