Capturing Ella

Chapter 24 - Joe

9:03pm

I sat at my allocated spot in the boardroom on the large table, sipping what felt like my thousandth coffee of the day. I love coffee. After I dropped Ella off at the train station I waited for at least fifteen minutes, praying she missed her train and would come back out and start talking to me again. She's very odd in the way she acts, but it was like she was happy for once and she able to speak without blocking herself off. That was the issue; we never had a proper conversation and we had so much being forced upon us with the entirety of Maui wanting us to work together, despite us never really talking. I had sent a text to Ella about a month after the party, but she never replied to me. I felt incredibly bad that we couldn't get to know each other before the interview, and Ella was definitely holding back from something. She could lie. Hell, she could lie fluently but she was starting to lose the ability to look like she was made from stone in front of me. I could tell she was holding back something big but what I didn't know. But it was putting a lot of pressure on her, causing her to act in the way she did at the train station – even though I did feel like I was being led on a bit. I wonder what she was hiding from me, but it was to do with that secret that she couldn't tell me.

Oh God, no wonder why the Benedict's were known as a tricky family to understand.

'How are you still drinking coffee?' Quinn asked to me, as he was sitting on the left of me. I looked over and he was just frowning at me in part amazement and part confusion.

'You can never have enough coffee.'

'You really can, Joe, and you hit that point about three or half three this afternoon... when you came back with Starbucks.' Jake quipped on the right side of me, writing stuff down on a pad of paper.

'Well, it's the thirteenth hour since I've come at work. I'm used to maybe five or six hours, maybe. Coffee good.' I said as both of my brothers tut.

'You're worse than Randy,' Quinn said before tilting his head. 'Apart from his weakness isn't coffee, likes yours is, its alcohol.'

'Southern Comforts, and then Gin and Tonic.' Jake said.

'How precise.' I joked. 'So why are we here?'

'Code black threat, we've been called in to see if it's worth the investigation.'

'Couldn't it wait until morning?' I mumbled, almost sulking.

'Well you wouldn't be able to sleep with the amount of bloody coffee you've had?' Quinn laughed and I nodded. Probably not. 'No, if you made an allegation like she just has to her brother, and her brother believed it, I'd definitely say it's worth the late night investigation potential.' I rethought through what he said, and the female pronouns and "her brother" gave away the game.

'Ella?' I asked, and he nodded.

'Is that why the helicopter was deployed about twenty minutes ago?'

'Yeah, it was. She telepathically contacted Michael and he deployed it straight away. He's gone with the helicopter so we have no idea what she's said, he just said get it ready for when they're back. Which will be any second now. It's been a long day for Ella, bless her.' Jake said, as we heard the faint sound of a helicopter overhead.

Only Maui aircrafts can enter the airspace around the base, so it had to be Ella. God, I feel so sorry for her – nine hour flight, an hour helicopter ride, a two mile obstacle run, an hour train back, before getting a helicopter back in all which throwing up. She was something special that was for sure. The board room was in the hall left to the main headquarters, under the main helipad. The ceiling was at least three floors high and had enough tables to hold about twenty eight people. More chairs were brought in and about fifty of us sat in this small room. It was a black – on – burgundy and white theme – with the walls painted black as the monitors were turned off. Normally the longest wall doubled as a massive monitor during the missions. A large whiteboard, similar to ones found in schools, was on the right left open.