𝔽𝕀ℕℂℍ. ～ 𝘓𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴

04 - The Devil's Advocate

After collecting the data we need, we drive back to the office. After reaching up to the CJC floor, I watch as Brian walks towards two men, the same ones I had seen when I came into the office today morning. Then, he leads me to his, and exactly how he said it, 'office' with hand quotations.

He walks inside the room and as I do, I'm immediately hit by a bunch of hanging threads of different thickness, colour and length.

"Oh, sorry. I'm just... Working," he nervously laughs and clears the way for me to pass, "Welcome to part of my Headquarters, with an exclamation point!"

I look around with fascination. It is a normal file room but Brian... It literally looks like it is him. If he was a file room, he'd look like this.

There are posters all around, I spot a Goard Whore one. Models and craft-created objects crowd the room. I can see that he loves modelling clay and yarn. Maybe he knits... He sure looks like the type.

His table... well, I can't tell if it is a table. There are so many things on it. The hanging, colouful lights are my favourite thing. It makes the room enchanting.

"If I had an office, it would definitely look like this," I smirk, "I like how you call it 'Headquarters', with an exclamation point. Boring stuff happens in an office, cool stuff happens in a headquarters."

"Ha, yes! Somebody finally gets me!" Brian exclaims, which makes me smile. The two men enter the room. The dark complexion agent places a cup on Brian's table and the other guy gives a cup to me. "Thank you," I smile.

"Mike, Ike, see?" Brian says and raises his brows.

"Wait, who's who?" I ask, taking a sip of my coffee. "That's Mike and that's Ike," He explains, pointing to the guy who gave the cup to Brian, then to the one who gave me a cup.

Just then, Rebecca enters the room. "Umm Brian, Boyle needs you for something," She informs.

"Okay. Sorry, I'll be back," Brian replies looking at me. I nod and watch him walk off.

Ike is going to say something, but Mike drags him off, leaving me all alone.

*****

Brian's POV

"The guy didn't die there, he was placed by the culprits," Boyle tells me. "Okay... but I already know that," I say.

"Yeah well... We found DNA, blood, on the floor near the body. We assumed it was from the victim but it's not," Boyle narrates, "It tested positive for a Mr. Richard Benson. I was wondering if you run a search and question him."

"Wow, Boyle! Yeah, this is awesome! I'll get right to it," I say excitedly. Boyle nods and goes back to work.

I march back to 'Headquarters!' to find Skylar looking around. She panics when she sees me. It was really minor; I wouldn't have noticed it if I wasn't on NZT.

Shrugging the observation off, I tell her that, "Hey, so Boyle found out that the blood was not from the victim but a guy called Richard Benson."

I walk towards my laptop and Skylar follows, watching what I typed away on it. "Wait so the victim was placed there?" She asks for clarification and I nod my head.

"Okay so that means murder and I guess a lousy killer, with body-dumping of such a low level," She comments on the case and I nod my head, impressed by her point of view.

"Great, I'll be back after a bathroom break," Skylar informs, "I'd suggest looking at CCTV to find anything between the hours of the body dump and the FBI arriving to the scene for the first time."

I watch her exit the room, the thought of her snooping around made me feel conscious about myself-

"You know, she's pretty damn smart."

I look to my right to find my mental Brian observing my actions with his arms crossed.

"She'll probably figure out that this whole act," He gestures to me and looks unimpressed, "It's just that... An act, with the help of a drug. Do you really think she'll stay friend with a guy like you?"

I clench my jaw, what's his problem?!

"Maybe they've told her about NZT," I reason and he rolls his eyes.

"Knowing Naz and everyone else working here, no I don't think they've told her anything about your little drug helper," He responds.

"So what's your point? What are you trying to say?" I question and he takes a deep breath.

"Look, she's as smart as you when you're on NZT. What do you think that means? They won't need you anymore for solving cases. They might as well ship you down to D.C.," He explains and walks closer to me, "You'll go back to being regular old Brian who isn't that great at anything. You'll lose me too."

I look at him blankly and sigh, wanting to say something but he intervenes.

"Get rid of her before they get rid of you," He states as if it's a task that can be done with a snap of my fingers.

"N-No, I'm not... No way man! She's a good person and she deserves to be here," I argue, "I'm not getting rid of her and how do you know that they'll kick me out? I've earned a place here."

He sighs with frustration and gets up, "Fine, keep telling yourself that but I'm just thinking about every angle."

After blocking him out for a few minutes, he vanished, leaving me in silence to carry on work.

Even though I'm working, I keep thinking about what he said... That the FBI could now have the reason to not need the consultancy services of Brian Finch.