Ruby Redfort Fanfiction: Look Into His Eyes And Take Your Last Breath

Ruby Redfort -Clinical Research Extraordinaire

Ruby Redfort locked herself in her room. She needed space to think. She had to start this by laying the facts of the problem out. She didn't have many and as it stood she hardly even knew the objective of the case set for her. Dan was carefully reading through the file, trying to salvage something of importance, but Ruby knew that there was nothing of interest to be found in it. She didn't even have to read them. After all, she had filed them herself with some help from Hitch. LB must be implying that there was no hope. But what she didn't know was that Ruby had left a good deal of important stuff out. Like how Clancy knew everything. Anyhow, they had nothing at all. So Ruby had to assume and suspect a lot of the stuff she included while building up a theory. She took a deep breath and wrote down some things she thought were true.

'The problem is something that has come about from each of the things and episodes I have gone through. Something is linking these cases together and I don't know what it is. Hitch and LB are holding some information from me which could be crucial.'

Ruby frowned. That was pretty much it. Everything was so vague and blurry. Ruby decided to make a list of questions she had.

'What is the thing Hitch and LB are hiding from me? Why are they hiding it from me? Is the Count involved? Why do Spectrum seem so reluctant to solve this?   What in damnation is this about anyway?'

Ruby read and re-read what she had written down. There had to be something. Hitch. Hitch. Hitch. The though revolved around her head like an annoying fly. Then she got it. He had indicated the case was more personal. And he had told her to check the files. Not these files like she thought. LB's files. Of course. Throwing open the door, Ruby shot down the stairs. Grabbing her jacket, she threw open the door... and came face to face with Clancy Crew. He gaped at her, like he couldn't believe he was seeing her. "Ruby, we need..." Ruby pushed him out the way. "To talk, yes I know." She garbled all the while running away from him towards her new bike. She gripped the handlebars.

"Not now." She called as she shot off. Clancy shook his head, not in disapproval, but to shake away the tears forming in his eyes. "Please Ruby." He whispered to no one in particular.

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Ruby shot down the slide that started in the little playground for kids. There wasn't much choice. Landing neatly on her feet at the end, she brushed the specks of dirt off her t-shirt. Walking through Spectrum's long entrance hallway, she quietly crept round Buzz, who was, as usual, too busy to notice. She ran down to the lift, and got out at the second floor down. She knocked on the door, but the person she least expected to answer it opened the door. "Froghorn!" Ruby gasped. "What are you doing in Blacker's office? Where is he?" The Silent G's voice came back as smoothly as ever. "On holiday. I am helping him sort out his things while he is away." Ruby raised an eyebrow.
"On holiday? Despite your incredibly small brain Froghorn, even you can't know that I wasn't born yesterday." Froghorn scowled. "It's true. He personally left a letter of leave a few days ago. Go and ask LB if you like." And he slammed the door shut. Ruby was puzzled. While she was sure Froghorn was snooping, he had seemed sure of Blacker's leave notice. Otherwise he wouldn't have dared enter the office if he wasn't so sure. Anyhow, Blacker wasn't around. She would have to search the files by herself. She entered the elevator. She had gone down to the Archives once before, to put her file in a little section (Hitch promised it would get bigger). She pressed the alarm button and a scanner next to the buttons pulsed red. Hitch had used his fingerprint, but she didn't have it. So with a deep breath, Ruby pressed her hand to the scanner. After what seemed hours, the machine beeped thoughtfully and the elevator dropped.

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Ruby breathed in the musty smell of old paper, the smell you only find in libraries and walked into a massive space. All that was in here was paper, books, evidence dating back to the beginnings of Spectrum. the only thing to narrow down Ruby's search was alphabetically ordered files, stacked neatly on the shelves. Ruby quickly found L and began her huge search.

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It took Ruby two hours before she stumbled across a big fat file, the biggest she had seen thus far. Ruby pulled it down from the shelf and attempted to blow dust off the front cover, as she had seen so many times at the pictures. After that didn't work, she simply wiped it away with her sleeve. In faded words at the top, it read. Spectrum's Ninth President - Miss Leonor Baker. "Oh, LB." Ruby breathed. Bradley Baker wasn't her sweetheart at all. He was her husband.

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Hmmmmm. A bit dramatic, even for me. In case you are wondering, this story is set in 1976, making Ruby now... 53. Wow. Some famous music from this era included Bohemian Rhapsody, Don't Go Breaking my Heart etc. and was prime time for Elton John, Queen, Cliff Richards, Bee Gees, The Beatles... I did do my research, and found computers in libraries were becoming more common, and Spectrum would have certainly got one, but it would theoretically take them ages to file everything (probably) so that is Ruby is using the archive instead of a computer. If look back to last chapter, the American President and British Prime Minister both are the ones from 1976 too. Laser scanners were also invented by that time, but to the level of recognizing thumb prints I don't know. If you want to listen to song while reading I recommend Feel by Robbie Williams.

Also there will be a cameo for a few of my favourite book characters in the next chapter. If you like them they might return, but I am only including them because I have dreamed a crossover since forever, despite these characters being set in the early 1930's.