Drakes: Heroes and Villains

Prologue

Prologue

The room is cold and empty.

That isn't to say that there were not things in the room, it was more a comment on the culture of the room itself.

It wasn't a room designed to intimidate, or even to produce the melancholy she felt as she was bathed in its presence. This room was simply clinical, a reflection of its master.

The auditor took the glasses from his nose and rubbed them gently with a folded cloth that appeared from a pocket, before being refolded and placed away as efficiently as they had come.

"I shall ask you again, Miss Drakes. In the time that you spent with John O'Connor, would you have ever expected him to act the way he did in Canada?"

She glared at the man, feeling her patience reach cracking point, "It's been three damn years. Three years since I saved what could be saved, and returned home. Three years since I had my last interview. I am not part of this organisation, and I have nothing to do with it anymore. I am not an agent, and I do not care about politics."

The man frowned, "That was not what I asked."

She laughed, and glared at him, "I don't give a shit what you think. In no way do I care. I've paid the price for my loyalty."

He grimaced and adjusted his glasses, "Miss Drakes, I must ask you to cooperate. We are just trying to ascertain the facts. Investigations are being run, around the world, to prevent this from ever happening again."

She glared at him, "Let it. I do not care. I was a teenager when ASIO employed me. I'd fixed my arm with an exoskeleton, something quicker and smarter than anyone else had made. So you employed me. Made me a bodyguard for a senator, right on the eve of a dozen assassination attempts. I was kidnapped by Josiah McIntyre, arguably the only man who could ever match my intellect. Then I was deployed to Canada, and attacked by my trainer and mentor, and damn nearly killed. I was forced to kill. So... You know what, I think I've done enough."

The man sighed, "I am simply asking questions."

Her blue eyes blazed with anger as she leaned forward in the seat, her mechanical arm hissing from inside, "I am simply refusing to answer."

The man stood slowly, "Answering the questions would be easier."

She glared, "Easier than what?"

"I would be forced to arrest you, and continue this pleasant conversation as an interrogation. One that will not end til we have the answers we seek."

She laughed at him.

***

Ted rubbed his brown mess of hair, sitting up with a groan. What woke him?