Initium

PTF ~ Entering Headquarters

'I want some answers.'

The pair had arrived in America a few hours ago then were taken to a building they were staying in. Drake didn't know where it was; they didn't put a bag over his head like some corny movie but he didn't exactly know his way around and they refused to let him in on the secret. Technically, they weren't anywhere. They were somewhere in between Tenantsvilleand Harrisburg in the state of New York. It's not marked on the map as anything which made it the perfect place to hide a building. It was three stories high with at least five rooms fitting on each side of it a floor. With red brick and old, wooden doors, anyone would think it was deserted. They were in a small room with wooden walls and flooring. There were a few chairs dotted around. On two of the opposite sides of the room were large double decor doors; one led outside, one into a larger hall. Drake could hear the talking of a large group of people.

When they arrived they were greeted by a group of people dressed in green and black tops. They consisted of Eugene Gareth in green, Irene Boeding in green, Machelle Kingen in black and Domenic Sano in black. The girl from the hotel's real name was Ancelina Way. Drake later learned that the outfits were a colour code system; if you wore black you were superior and in charge of lower ranks, otherwise known as people wearing green. He also discovered that none of the surnames and even some first names he would be told are fake names for 'secrecy reasons.'

He had been told nothing else.

'You're aware of the attack of 2013?' Miss Kingen started. The attack of 2013 was tragic. Terrorists planted bombs and blew up over 60 hospitals in the UK at the same time. Many doctors, nurses and patients died.

'Yes, it was my birthday.'

'Correction, it started exactly 15 years and 15 minutes after you were born.'

'So? Coincidence. It was bound to be someones somewhe-'

'In the hospital you were born in and the one you narrowly escaped visiting with a broken leg, probably rendering you immobile.' Miss Boeding had taken over, 'That attack was not coincidence, it was planned t-'

'To kill me.' He was silent for a few seconds, mulling it over. 'But, how would I have broken my leg?'

'You were tripped on the road that day. A car was meant to be sent to injure you. The car, however, was delayed by a certain handsome gentleman.'

'Get over yourself, Eugene.' Anceline snapped round and glared at Irene. She was way out of line. Miss Way spoke now on.

'Wait, you're actually suggesting that someone would've gone out of their way to get a 15 year old kid into hospital and blow it up for no apparent reason?'

'They had a reason.'

'Then what?'

'I don't think that we should discuss that he-'

'What!'

She sighed, 'Drake, you have a gift, don't you?'

'A... gift?' Surely they don't know...

'You can stop people's hearts, can't you?' Of coarse they do. Wait... gift?

'You consider that a gift? It's a curse!'

'Trust me, it's a gift to be able to-'

'No, trust me when I say that not being able to hold you're baby sister in your arms, or push someone back from you or even hug your girlfriend from pure fear that if you touch any of them even near their chest that they'll DIE IN YOUR ARMS IS A BLOODY CURSE!' Everything fell silent. Drake was red with anger. He had stood so he could tower over Ancelina. Now, he slumped into his chair with his head in his hands. She lay a hand on his shoulder and nodded at the others. They exited into the hall and left the two alone.

'Listen. It won't be like that anymore.'

He shrugged her hand away and looked into her chestnut eyes. 'Of course it will. You have no idea how hard it is to control this.'

'No. And neither do you.' He had calmed down a bit so at this she stood and walked to the door on the far side, knocked on the door twice then thrice to get the approval and turned to face Drake. 'Someone wants to see you.' He stood and they both walked through into the hall.

It was gigantic; seventy thousand times size of the smaller room, Drake guessed. Cream walls, wooden flooring and more seats stacked against a wall. On each side of the room was a different coloured staircase. Great, more colour-coading. There were people everywhere, some sitting but mostly standing and most of them were in green. All of them were having conversations with each other. Drake listened to some of them as Miss Way led him through the crowds and discovered they were talking of different jobs they were doing; some on watching certain people, others on isolating areas and one group were on selling fridges. What?

'Ancel-'

'Miss Way to you,' She's clearly of higher rank(!)

' ''Miss Way'', did those people just say they were selling fridges?'

'We make money from selling large items we find. In this case, they will have found an abandoned fridge, so yes, they are ''selling fridges''.' Uh, this boy is so insolent, he's like a baby she thought to herself. I just wish I wasn't stuck with him. Drake kept quiet after that. He would mug people for money rather than come up with a fair solution like these people had. They were definatly orginised.

They neared another wooden door, single this time, and walked through a narrower hallway down to a red, wooden door. Written on it was the word 'INITIUM'. They stopped and Drake looked up from the door to find that Miss Way's long, brown hair was up in a tight bun that she had secured on her way there. Actually, now he thought about it, all of the women he had seen had short hair, some of them with it up. Her top was low at her back, revealing a scar going down underneath the rim. Drake flashed back to the hotel where they met and recalled her walking away. Her top was just as low and the scar was there. He went to mention it when she stopped him, 'While you are in there, you must not speak unless spoken to. Understand?' He nodded. 'He will tell you more about us.' She knocked now and the door swung open. A tall man with dark brown hair and eyes stood in the door way. He looked from her to Drake, disappeared then opened the door.

'Mr Sano.' she nodded.

'Anceline.' What happened to miss? Even she has her superiors.

They walked in. This room was different from the rest of the building. The floor was covered in grey tiles and the walls with blue wallpaper with white specks on it, although most of it wasn't visible for there were newspaper clippings spread right throughout the room. Articles on missing people, strange incidents, ghost sightings where, strangely, the ghosts appeared to be small balls of light.

Most of the space was taken up by a desk, centred and rear the back of the room. On it were more paper clippings that seemed to be more relevant to his past. Behind the desk sat a man in a black suit and tie, his thinning grey-brown hair combed back to hide a more obvious bare patch than made out to be. Drake guessed he was about 55, when in fact the man was around 60. Next to him was a woman with a notepad and pen. She was there to take important notes. In the left corner of the room, nearest to the door, stood a group of people, all in black and red, which Anceline joined now.

Drakes attention went back to the desk and one, more recently added clipping. It was a picture of a girl. She had shoulder length, wavy blond hair, bright green eyes and freckles. He looked at the date, '14th August, 2013'. Ironically, she was smiling, when the caption wrote, 'Jessica Farrell, 16, was murdered on Sunday, 7th August.' Murdered! A tear welled in Drake's eye. 'Oh, Jess...'

'Whoever she was, you have my greatest sympathy, you really do,' the old man said, breaking him out of his trance. He put the picture in a drawer 'but I feel there are more pressing matters to discuss. My name is Joshua Proctor and I am the head of Consilium Futuri Corperation, or the PTF.'

Drake wiped his eyes. 'Why the PTF?'

'Consilium Futuri is Latin, it means ''plan the future''.' The girl with the notebook replied.

'Why plan the future?'

'Because that's what we do here, we plan the fu-'

'The future of what?'

There was nothing else he could say. Josh had been head of the PTF for thirty three years, this question asked thousands of times, and his answer was always the same. 'Earth.'