The Deadly (Part 3 of the Syndicate Series)

Chapter 5- Grilled Cheese

Aldrich:

"Uncle Al!"

I turned around just in time to see Nova barrelling down the hall with the perseverance of a tank heading towards enemy lines. Christopher wasn't behind her, so I could only assume that she had managed to sneak away from whoever was supposed to be watching her. For a little kid, she was already a force of nature. She was also one of the few people who could call me by my name, but when she was a toddler she couldn't pronounce it correctly, so she called me Al... even then she couldn't grasp that it was a long 'L' sound, like the word 'all'. It sort of just stuck, even now that she was old enough to know that my full name was Aldrich.

Nova was at that odd age, when half the time she was a spitfire that wanted to be left alone, and the other half of the time she wanted to be carried around and play dress up. To be fair, her rendition of dress up usually included pirates and swashbuckling, often a death or two when she would 'sword fight' in the back yard with someone. If she wanted to be in this line of business, she would be a formidable threat someday, but I knew that wasn't what Christopher wanted for her.

"Uncle Al," She repeated, running up to me and stopping just a foot short. "Do you want to play zombies with me? Mason said he's working, and papa is busy too. Plus, they won't let me use their guns."

"There's a good reason for that," I muttered to myself. Nova had a pitiful puppy dog eye look on her face, and that she knew I was helpless against it. I knelt down so that I was at her level, "What's the most important rule?"

She frowned, "Don't go to the basement?"

I tried not to laugh. Nova wasn't scared of anything- there was no fear of monsters that deterred her or made her hesitate, it was something that was repeated to her a million times. It was locked up anyways, only a few people had a key since it was our interrogation room. When it was in use, Christopher knew to keep Nova tucked in her room for movie night, usually glued to the screen while she watched a princess movie, singing along so loud that she wouldn't hear us.

"The other rule, sweetie."

Nova paused and then her frown deepened to a pout. "I can't play with the guns that don't have orange on the front. No real ones."

"That's right," I ruffled her hair, but I noticed something bright red in her usually dark locks. "Nova, what is this?"

"Paint. I was doing planets and that was from the astroy that hit the earth. But it got in my hair and I couldn't get it out."

I stared at her for a moment, "Are you talking about an asteroid?"

"Papa gave me a book about dinosaurs. It said that it hit the earth and killed them all," She said with a look on her face as if I was uneducated for not understanding what she was talking about. Nova loved learning, but she seemed especially proud of her knowledge of dinosaurs.

"How about this- we can go get lunch from the kitchen, and you can tell me all about the dinos?"

She got a light in her eye and nodded, repeating the word 'dinos' as if nothing could be more exciting than learning this new abbreviated term. Nova reached her arms out to be picked up, so I reached out a hand which she grabbed onto with a death grip, allowing me to sling her upwards as I turned around. She locked her legs around my waist as far as they would allow, then gripped her arms around my neck so that she clung to my back.

Halfway along our trek to the kitchen, she leaned forward to whisper in my ear, "Will you play with me after?"

"I'm sorry sweetheart, I've got a lot of work to do this afternoon." I hated to disappoint her, but there was a lot of paperwork to get through. I could feel her posture slump against my back slightly in rejection, and then I felt worse. She didn't really have anyone her age around to play with, and while most of the men here took turns watching her or keeping her entertained, I knew it had to get lonely.