The Nexus

Chapter 6

Thomas looked at the picture he held in his hand. He was sitting in a rented car just outside of the main train station in Denver. His associates would be arriving soon and knew how to find him, so he just studied the woman's face.

In this picture, she was strikingly beautiful, so much so that he couldn't believe that she was trying to hide out there in the world. Her long dark hair and pale eyes were a perfect complement to her slender face and coral lips.

Her eyes confused him because her skin was dark enough to assume that they would naturally be brown, but, instead, they were almost a clear lavender. There was something else about them that sent shivers down his spine; no matter how many pictures he had seen of her, the eyes always had the same dead look to them. In some pictures she would be smiling, or in others, very serious, but the eyes gave away the fact that there was something cold underneath it all.

He knew she could make herself seem plain and blend in. There were many pictures of her in different stages of disguise, but this particular picture held him in hypnosis.

This was the person The Alliance had sent him to find and he was a little worried that the people they were sending to help him might not be capable of handling her. Thomas knew for sure that he would never be able to personally capture her, not just because of his short stature, but because he could never be as cold and calculating as those eyes. Therefore, he supposed, she would always be able to out maneuver him if he didn't get help from someone more like her.

That someone was exiting the train station and walking towards his car right now.

It was Michael Stenson, who led a group of suited men towards him now. The Alliance sometimes outsourced work that they needed done. They would give this work to people who were not always aligned with the code of morality that they held themselves to.

Stenson and his thugs, as Thomas thought of them, came up to his car and he stepped out of the driver's seat. One of the men in the gray suits let out a little chuckle when he saw that Thomas was a little person.

Usually it didn't bother Thomas when people judged him, but right now it did a little. It made his face feel hot and his neck and shoulders tense up. These men were trained killers and he wanted them to understand that they worked for him, not the other way around.

"Gentlemen," he started, "welcome to Denver." He smiled and walked around the car as the men allowed him to open their doors. Thomas was handsome and people usually noticed that quality about him second, later, it would be his wits that impressed others.

When they were all in the car Stenson asked, "Do you know where the woman is?" His voice sounded like a chain smoker, and the pockmarks on his face added to his intensity.

"At this very second I do not," replied Thomas, "but I have a plan to lure her to us in the morning.

I was hoping that I would be able to get to her today, but the circumstances have altered a little."

Stenson just grunted and Thomas started to drive the men to their hotel.