rr (ON HOLD)

Chapter 2

Luke Philips was with Ruby in her bedroom.
"Why do you need to go to Spectrum HQ now?"
"I can't explain, but it's urgent."
"You need a valid reason."
Ruby crossed her arms. This guy was seriously beginning to remind her of Froghorn. "It's to do with the Australian woman, OK? Good enough reason for you?"
Agent Philips sighed. "It'll do, I suppose. Come on, then. We'll have to sneak you out of the house."

"What's the problem, Redfort?"
"It's about Marnie Novak."
A peculiar look passed across the head of Spectrum 8's face, but in a second it was gone. "Explain," she ordered.
"OK so, I'm in this diner place and this guy approaches me. He introduces himself as Terrador and asks me if I know Kaina, saying that he heard from a friend that she's in danger. He goes on to tell me that his brother, Cyril, was a close friend of Kaina, but unfortunately he was killed a few days ago."
LB was beginning to look surprisingly interested.
"Who were these killers?" she asked.
"Assassins," replied Ruby. "Terrador told me that they had been hired by someone who fitted the description of Victor von Leyden perfectly." She continued to tell her boss everything which had taken place in the dreary, not so sunny, Sunny Diner.
"And you say this has something to do with the Australian woman?" asked LB, at the end of the explanation.
"Yeah, at least I think so. Once the guy left, I realised his accent was Australian; plus, he was wearing a red beanie. I knew I recognised him, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Now I know where I've seen him before - he's that loony Marnie Novak hired to hire some hardnuts to kill Marshall."
Now Ruby definitely saw the perturbed grimace on LB's face.
"Redfort, why do you think this man was here?"
"I dunno, maybe the Australian or the Count sent him to kill me?"
"Then why'd he ask about Kaina?"
"Coulda wanted to make sure it was actually me?" suggested Ruby. She was stumped. "Look, I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but do we have to make this all about Kaina?"
LB raised an eyebrow. "You don't think what happened to the girl is serious?"
"I - of course I do, I'm not saying that I don't. It's just that recently everything seems to be about Kaina and it's kinda bugging me-"
"Maybe it's time you realised, Redfort," cut in LB, her tone as hard as stone, "that not everything is about you. I think you're upset that you're no longer in the limelight. Let us face facts here: everything is about Kaina at this point, because she is the line between life and death, mortality and immortality. If you're incapable of accepting that, perhaps you might need to rethink your job here at Spectrum."
Maybe for only the third or fourth time in her life, Ruby Redfort had nothing to say. She felt mad, really mad. Why was LB being so unfair? Couldn't her boss see that she had every right to be annoyed about Kaina? Kaina had screwed up a lot for Ruby, and yet all anyone ever went on about was "Oh, look it's so sad, the poor girl is a victim of the Count and emotional abuse blah blah blah."
Ruby thought it was funny in a stupid, ridiculous sort of way that they all ignored the fact Kaina was a crazy psycho and was just as bad as Lorelei von Leyden or any other psychopath Spectrum had encountered.
"Redfort, you know you can leave my office now. Frankly, please do," cut in LB's gravelly voice, disturbing Ruby from her thoughts. Startled, still in shock, she got up and slowly left the white room. Just when she thought things couldn't get any worse, Froghorn appeared, a smirk on his face.
"What's wrong, Redfort?" he asked, his tone condescending. "You look a little grumpy; I reckon it's past your bedtime, that's probably why."
"Oh, whatever Froghorn," snapped Ruby, pushing past him. She didn't feel in the mood to get in another argument with this potato-head.

Ruby was cycling past Cedar Street when she heard someone yell,
"Hey!"
She skidded to a halt and turned around. There was the Australian guy, Terrador.
"Look, I'm sorry but I really gotta go, let's talk another time OK? Alright, bye," rushed Ruby, and she pedalled as fast she could to her house, ignoring the guy's indignant shouts from behind her.
When she finally got home, she rushed upstairs, entered her room and slammed the door behind her. Ruby hadn't the faintest idea why the red beanie guy was here, in Twinford, but clearly she had something to do with it, and knowing from past experience, Kaina probably had something to do with it too.

As Ruby was trying to get to sleep that night, a thought crossed her mind. Unexpectedly, she hadn't actually realised what LB had been saying earlier.
Now she did.
LB was telling Ruby that she needed to be careful, very careful, if she wanted to keep her job.
Losing her job was one risk the girl really wasn't willing to take.