The Edge of Honour

Chapter 36

Gorran's POV:

We were immediately taken into a room, where we each underwent a frisk search from a young man who had a tendency to spit as he spoke.

"Got anything on yous? he breathed, as he patted up and down my arm.

"No sir," I replied. The situation reminded me of when I had previously been frisked on a family holiday. However, that was done by people who cared for the law and wanted to uphold, this man had likely broken more laws that I could recite and I had been studying them since I began working for MI5.

"That's good kid, cause around here we don't like no snitches. Do you know what happens those type of people?" He snickered as he withdrew his knife from its scabbard and grinned broadly at me. "They get gutted like a fish."

Once, he was certain that we were free from any weapons or monitors we were load down a steel staircase and told to wait.

"My new recruits have I arrived I see." I could hear his voice before I saw him in the dimly lit stone room. The only furniture in the room was a leather backed seat which the voice promptly sat on.

Remembering not to speak unless asked to, we both stood in silence as the man's eyes searched us up and down. Every bone in my body wanted to make a run for it, to bolt back up the staircase, but in the end I knew that my efforts would be futile. Our best chance of surviving this crime world was to stick together and do exactly as told until help arrived in whatever form, April and Jet could organise.

I looked back at the face before me as his piercing emerald green eyes stared into mine, before shifting their gaze to study Morgan.

A grey mess of hair sat untidily above his large forehead. A large nose jutted out from the crevasse between his cheekbones and his thin lips spread into a broad smile once he finished his visual examination of us.

"Welcome to the team!" he announced as he stood straight and began pacing in front of us. "I know that both of you have worked on similar operations before, but you have seen nothing like this. We run a tight operation around here. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," I retorted, wondering if a salute was in order or not. I decided against knowing that these were people who choose to rebel against the forces which helped to insure civility in the world.

"Good. I will not stand for any deviations from the plan. Now, Jamie..." he began, getting closer to her. His face was mere centimetres away from her as he continued, "tell me a little about yourself, I have not spoken to you before."

I watched her as she swallowed hard, she had to remember her fictitious life exactly as it had been laid out for her.

"My name is Jamie Frier and I grew up in a small house near New York city," she began, reciting it exactly as she had been thought.

"Seriously, I could not less about that crap, you know the reasons why you are here, now tell me about that." His hands flailed dramatically as he shouted at her. I could see Morgan tense at his reaction, though she had always appeared confident, the tension and his backlash had shaken her slightly.

"She began training as a fighter when she was eight years..." I stopped as soon as I saw his reaction. His stare seemed to have protruded through me, like he was seeing something behind me. He squinted his eyes.

"Do you know this girl?" he breathed, he had stopped pacing and now stood in front of me. Choosing not to look him directly in the eye, I looked at the light, thin grey stubble which had grown on his chin.

"No, I just met her on the boat, after you told me to find her," I said, trying my hardest to sound truthful.

"Is he lying to me Jamie?" he questioned. This was the first interrogation I had had and I hated every second of it as I waited for Morgan to respond to him.

"No sir, he asked me about why I had been hired when we were on the boat so I told him." I breathed a sigh of relief at her answer.

"Did you tell him anything else?"

"No sir," she repeated. Her head was bowed slightly when she spoke.

"You gave information about your requirement to a complete stranger," he yelled. His face had become a dark red shade as he returned to his chair. "You revealed your skills to a potential enemy for no reason. Did you make a gain from it? No! Did I gain from it, certainly not. If this boy had been an imposter, you could have just revealed our whole operation. Was that what you were trying to do?"

"No, he said that you had been talking to him. I thought it would be okay if he was working for you also. I didn't think..." she answered, her voice growing quieter and I could see that her eyes had begun to water slightly. I wanted to take the blame, to stand up for her. After all she was the reason that we had saved my sister, but I knew it would be like a log to the fire. It would be consumed by it and in the end only serve to ignite it further.

"Well that was your first mistake, wasn't it?" he retorted. "Francois, come here."

Immediately a short but very muscular man entered through a door that I had not previously noticed. It was camouflaged into the stonework of the wall. I could only wonder where it led to.

"Yes sir." Francois stood beside the chair, and I was happy to see that he did not make eye contact with the boss. I had managed to do one thing correctly.

"Jamie here has broken a rule already. I want you to take her down below and teach her a lesson. Do you understand?"

I could not believe my eyes as Francois grabbed Morgan's arms and quickly put them behind her back as he led her back out the door. She walked silently beside him, but I could see that her hands were shaking and the back of her shirt had become transparent due to excessive sweat.

"Where are you taking her?" I asked. I was too worried to care that he had not directly addressed me.

"Why should you care?" he countered. "You don't know her. If you begin to care about people, you will get nowhere in this world. Anyway, unless you really want to see where she is going I suggest you do not speak out of turn again. Understood?"

"Yes sir." With my acclamation and Morgan's exit, our meeting was ended. The man who had led me to the search room returned upon command to show me to my dorm.

There was two beds in the small, dark room, but my roommate was not there yet. Work did not finish for another three hours for everyone else. I still did not know the boss's name, but I had been informed that he thought it would be a good idea to leave me settle in before we got down to business.

As I stretched back in the bed, I wondered where Morgan was. I should have done something to stop her being taken, but I couldn't. I had no idea of what was happening to her at that very moment and I honestly did not want to. There was no chance for me to prevent it. As I closed my eyes, I prayed that no harm would come to her and that I would see her in the morning.

We had been told that this world was more dangerous than anything we had ever known, but I never realised how true those were. The warnings we had heard promised death for lying. Giving out information to unknowns would certainly hold a sizable punishment. I could only hope that it was not the ultimate.