Sweet Dreams (25 page)

The traffic brought them to a crawl as they hit FortyFourth Street. He looked around him, trying to implant everything he saw in his brain. The car was spotless, without anything out of place. He could smell the faint scent of a soft perfume, she seemed so confident as she drove. She didn't say a word, but every now and then, he saw her looking at him out of the corner of his eye.

Mark saw a big building off to the left that stood about forty stories tall with a parking garage attached to the back of the building. They pulled into the garage and turned to the right, going up one floor. After she had parked, they got out. Mark looked at Isis, who was walking toward an elevator at the end of the aisle.

"You coming?" Isis asked as she held the door for him. Mark looked up, and then walked to the elevator without a word. The door closed, and he could see the buttons marking all the floors. Isis reached for them and pushed floors nine, five and two; then the elevator began to go down.

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Mark could not tell, but it seemed like they had gone at least six stories down. He could have sworn that they had parked on the first floor. When the doors opened, it led to an open room that looked like a large foyer. The floors were made of glass that led up to a front desk. Mark could see a shark swim right under his feet, and a starfish was attached to the bottom looking up at him with tiny almost invisible eyes. They had an aquarium underneath the floor and after taking a second look he would say that it was huge, two maybe three hundred feet deep.

The receptionist was an older man who looked up at them from his reading glasses. He smiled when he saw Isis and stood up to greet her.

"Hello, my dear. It is so good to see you this fine day."

His voice shook a little as he took her hand and held it inbetween his withered fingers. He turned to greet Mark and smiled up at him. "And who is this young man?" Mark felt like he was on a first date and was about to meet her father. Isis smiled and introduced Mark to the old man. "This is Mark Appleton. Mark, this is Mr. Able, he has been with us since the beginning."

Mr. Able looked shocked as he stared at Mark's face, as if trying to remember. "Mark, it has been a long time--great to see you again!" He grabbed Mark's hand and shook it as he grinned.

"Uh...good to meet you, too." Mark looked up at Isis a little confused.
Again? What did that mean?
Mr. Able ushered them to a nearby couch where they sat down and waited. The white leather couch was so smooth that for a minute Mark did not want to sit in it. He guessed it was imported and after 226 AARON

he sat down, he knew from the feel of it that it was from Italy.

"So now what?" Mark asked.

"We wait for the boss. He is in a meeting, but he will be finished shortly," She smiled at him and leaned back, losing herself in the soft cushions. "Don't worry,"

Mark tried to relax, but it was hard when his mind was racing with questions. Sitting back, he looked at the exotic sea life that lived under the floor. The room had to be at least twenty-five feet round, and the floor was made completely of glass. The front desk was made of some sort of metal that had a soft shine to it but did not look like anything he had ever seen. Right behind the desk on the wall were big letters in silver and black, WJA, and in small print below that,
World Jus-
tice Agency
. Mark thought it must be some sort of government agency or something, but not like anything he had ever seen. The corner where they sat had a big couch with a huge plasma screen up on the wall and a beautiful Persian rug on the floor. It was a waiting area with a weird-looking coffee table made of metal and wood.

To the left of the front desk was a large door that had no handle on it. At the moment he was looking at it, he saw it slide down into the floor and a tall, dark black man came through. He had on a black suit; there was a cigar in the corner of his lips, and he was huge compared to Mark. He smiled as he entered the room. He had a baldhead that picked up the light as he walked. He looked at Mark, and a big smile crossed his face. "Mark, my man, how'd 'ya doing?"

Holding out his giant hand, he grabbed Mark's hand and pulled him to his feet. "I'm Brian, or as I'm called around here, Big B."

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"Hey, good to meet you, I suppose you know me, too, huh?"

"No, man, but you have been the topic of many conversations," He laughed with a thunderous noise that sounded from the bottom of his soul. "Come with me, I'll lead you to...well, you'll just have to wait and see. Come on, Isis, my little lady, you're invited, too."

Isis got up and followed as they walked through the sliding door. The door led to a long hallway that had nothing on the walls, they were pure white with a door at the end and a keypad next to it. When they got to the door, Big B punched in a code, then looked into a retinal scanner that came out of the wall like a flip down car stereo Mark once had when he was a teenager. The door slid up into the ceiling, and the three of them walked through.

The next room had an X-ray machine and fingerprint center. The people working each station carried sidearms and full police belts loaded with batons and walkie-talkies. Each of them went through the X-ray machine and Mark entered on a conveyor belt, and it ran for about five feet. He imagined what it must look like to watch a full live scan of the human body, to see bones move without skin.

Then Mark had to put his thumb on an electronic pad that a tall guard held, it made a beep as he did, and the guard motioned him on. Mark saw that Big B and Isis had made it through faster and were waiting on the other side, standing in front of a set of three elevators.

"You ready?" Isis asked.

"Sure, not like I have much choice." Mark shoved his hands into his pockets and looked at Big B, who could not stop 228 AARON

smiling. "What?" Mark asked, just a bit annoyed.

"Nothing man, don't worry, you'll be okay as long as you just do everything we say." He laughed and slapped Mark on the back, it hurt and just about knocked the breath out of him, but he acted as if a girl administered it.

Mark conceded that this was happening and he might as well enjoy it. The place so far was cool, and it seemed to be safe with the security and all. The place was better fortified then the White House.

Isis hit the arrow button on the elevator, there was only one arrow, and it pointed down. After the doors closed, Mark noticed that this elevator was made all of glass, even the floor. He could see all the way down the very deep elevator shaft. They must have a thing for glass because it seemed they used it a lot in the construction of this building. As they descended, the wall behind them opened up to a huge room with people sitting at desks and standing around. It looked like a command center of some kind, with the far wall covered with screens that ran from floor to ceiling. The room had to be two stories tall and there were people sitting at desks and typing on keyboards. Mark tried to get a closer look, but they went lower and the room disappeared from view. Looking down, he saw that they were almost to the bottom of the elevator shaft. When they came to a stop, Mark almost fell over when the elevator began to travel sideways. Going underground, it made a right hand turn and he could see a light ahead of them. As they came closer, he felt the machine slowing down.

"This is our stop." Isis straightened her hair and waited for the doors to open. This floor was different from what he

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had seen so far and the walls were made of brick and had lights implanted into the side of the walls. The entry ceiling was amazingly high for how far underground they were. Hanging from the top of the rounded sphere was a beautiful crystal chandelier.

There was a desk with a short dark-haired man sitting behind it. He looked up from his computer as they walked in. The room had two exits, the elevator, and a set of great double doors made of thick wood.

This must be the boss's office
, Mark thought.

"Welcome to the WJA, Mr. Appleton." The man behind the desk stood up, pointed to the double doors, and said, "He's expecting you."

Big B walked over to the heavy door, turned the handle, and opened it for Mark. He looked at Isis, who nodded for him to go in. He thought for a minute, and then walked through the open door into a large office.

The dimly lit room had bookshelves on all the walls; it looked like an eighteenth century library. The smell of oak and paper made Mark want to grab a book and curl up and read with a good cup of coffee.

Down at the end was an old oak desk filled with papers and a computer sitting off to one side. A large black chair was turned away from Mark, but he could see that someone was sitting in it. Whoever was sitting in it was looking intently at a leather-bound book that looked to be over a hundred years old.

"Mark Appleton, it's been a long time!"

________________________________________

THE ELEVATOR DOORS OPENED as Geoff and Kirk

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walked into the main lobby. The Merc building was everything you would expect from a billion dollar company. The floors were covered with marble, interwoven with a globe of the world, the elevators they had come out of ran along the east wall with six different stations, and they were lined with intricate engraving, which Kirk couldn't read. Kirk looked up to see the huge glass dome that covered the whole lobby area, sunrays streaming in, making the place glow with natural sunlight. He looked over at Geoff, who was examining a group of palm trees that shot out of the ground some twenty feet tall in the middle of the entryway.

"Wow, some place, huh?" Geoff said as he looked up to admire the palms.

"Yeah, real fancy. Let's see if anyone remembers our lady friend from a year ago."

A large front desk curved in a half-moon shape and had three receptionists working at it. The one in the middle was talking on the phone, trying to give driving directions to someone, and was butchering it royally. Kirk made eye contact with a shorthaired blond girl that couldn't be older than twenty and she smiled and asked if she could help them.

"Yeah, I'm Detective Weston, and this is my partner. We're trying to track down this woman." He held up the photo of Isis and showed it to her. "You ever seen her here before?"

The young college student looked at the photograph and shook her head. "No, can't say that I have," She turned to the receptionist next to her who had just hung up the phone. "Hey, Barb, have you ever seen this woman before?"

Barb stood up, took the photo from Kirk, and looked intently at it. "This picture is a year old, so it would have been

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at least a year ago that she was here." Kirk said.

"Hmmm, she looks familiar; does she work in the building?"

"We were hoping you could tell us that."

Barb sat down at her computer and began typing. "Do you have her name?"

"Yeah, but she would be under a different name. Do you keep surveillance tapes of the parking garage that far back?"

"A year ago? No, sorry, we only keep them for around six months. Hold on, I think I have something. I looked up employees that are female and ethnic and came up with Katrina Meskhenet. She sure looks like the same person."

Kirk leaned over the counter to look at the computer screen. "Bingo, that's her, what floor does she work on?"

"She is on the fourteenth floor in Suite 102. She is the supervising field officer for the Middle East division."

Geoff smiled and thanked them for their help as Kirk walked over to the nearest elevator. Kirk could feel his heart start to race.
Middle East.
He wondered if she had anything to do with his kidnapping.

"Easy, man. Let's just question her and not fly off the handle." Geoff could tell Kirk was thinking too much and patted him on the shoulder as they came to a stop on the fourteenth floor. Kirk sucked in a deep breath and walked out of the elevator. The floor had a long hallway with suite doors about every ten feet on each side of the hallway. They walked down until they came to the corner office that had a brass 102 marker on the door.

They were greeted by a young dark-haired man who sat 232 AARON

behind a desk off to the right of the room. "How can I help you?" he asked in a friendly tone.

"We are looking for Katrina Meskhenet." Kirk said as he looked around. The room was filled with Egyptian decor, from the pictures of pyramids to the tall half-dog; half-man statue that sat guarding the office door that Kirk assumed was Katrina's.

"I'm so sorry, but she is out to lunch. If you like, you can wait, she should be returning shortly."

"Thanks. I'll wait."

"Do you two have an appointment?"

Kirk held up his badge and said, "Yeah, she has an appointment with me."

"Very good, sir, I'll show you to the waiting room." The short dark man stood up and ushered them back to a small waiting area with a couch and a TV in the corner. Kirk plopped down and tuned the TV to ESPN to see what was going on with the Lions--not much, as usual. ________________________________________

ISIS FELT HER PHONE in her pocket vibrate as she waited outside of the office where Mark was meeting with... "Bah!"

she muttered when she saw the text message. "Cops, that's all I need." Then she saw who it was, she looked up at Big B.

"Detective Weston is waiting in my office."

Big B looked at her without expression and said, "You know what to do."

Chapter Seventeen

"HELLO, DETECTIVE. MY NAME IS KATRINA, YOU

may come in if you like." Isis greeted Detective Weston and Geoff after she talked with Biba, her intern in a hushed tone not wanting the two men to hear what she was saying. Isis was calm as she opened the door to her office and let Kirk Weston and his friend in. After they had sat down in the two chairs across from her desk, she went around and sat in a sleek leather chair with a high back. She knew Kirk Weston from pictures and surveillance videos from the MAG Chamber where they held him in order to get him out of the way of a case she was working on. It seemed that this man was not one to give up easily and proved resourceful.