THE OUTCASTS

Chapter 15

Cole was tired. He could barely keep his eyes open as he drove to the ambassador's gala to meet with a new chairman of Aphmore Electronics, one of many companies who had their main headquarters in New York. This morning he got a call from his boss to stop the company from building a new factory down at the Reapper territory saying that it was a disaster waiting to happen and Cole agreed with him. Despite the company's best intentions to help the people there by offering them jobs and insurance, the Reapper territory was plunging into the great ocean of narcotics and crime. No one wanted outside help there, not even from people who were born there.

The embassy was swarming with elite who dressed far to sparkly and fashionably to be really inflicted with the economy of the state right now. It didn't really get to them. They all just chose to forget and pretend that they were in another century. Before another world war struck that lasted far too long and then when the world needed decades to recover from it.

The cameras were here for the show. All of them in black to not stand out. Their small cameras waiting for to take the newest shot at the elite and their dinner gowns.

Honestly, even the men wore sequins these days and even to him it was too much.

For a moment Cole wondered if J.J. watched the show.

Cole parked right across the old building, checking his pocket to see if the invitation was still there. Even with all the technology, some things were still old fashioned.

He straigtened his navy-blue suit and walked towards the entrance.

The cameras clicked at him and then he noticed a splash of color among the black of the hateful paparazzi.

Her long hair was in thick braids, her eyes watching him. She wore a long orange dress and a thick violet coat that was two sizes too big for her. Her camera clicked again and then she focused on someone else.

Her face was familiar though, but for the life of him he couldn't remember why.

The inside was just as bad as the outside, although it was a lot chillier here. And it had nothing to do with the temperature. The fake smiles, the fake faces, the dazzling clothes and hundreds of assistances that made it all work.

These people here were cold. Pretending to care for one another. For the problems that the world still faced. The city they lived in was working on a thin line and they hadn't even noticed.

They never will. Spoke a voice in his head. The one he never let out into the light. Always locked away at the back of thoughts, at the very edge of his sanity.

Never again would he let it out. He promised himself again, even if he was agitated by people here who practically begged for the sinister and the dark.

Never again.

Tonight, Cole was his charming and manipulative self. He hanged with the rich CEO's and drank champagne with a couple of senators and even an acrobat he found half drunk in the men's room.

An hour and a half later, Cole was introduced to the very man who was his mission for tonight.

Shiv Chheda wasn't a tall man, but was handsome enough that quite a few women looked his way. His short cropped dark hair was carefully styled and his coffee brown hair gleamed bronze. He was probably one of the men who took his cosmetics seriously like women. Which was apparently modern these days.

His grandpa would have turned in his grave if he saw knew about it. Which was quite funny to him. He obliviously still had a smile on his face because the new CEO of Aphmore Electronics smiled back at him, showing his perfect white teeth. His suit was silver and Cole recalled what he knew about him.

Chheda was newly married to a young wife, he finished the right collages, hewas in deep to the local mafia and the prime minister of Britain owned him a favour.

"Mr Chheda, it's nice to finally meet you." Cole had said with his polite, but knowing voice. As if he hadn't expected to meet him and his new wife who was at home, heavily pregnant.

"Heard a lot about you Mr Evans." Chheda spoke with a tiny trace of accent.

"Only the worst, I'm sure."

"Perhaps. I wonder if they are true." Chheda said.

"Probably."

"Good." He responded with a small smile.

They were still being watched by a couple of women who decided to come over and introduce themselves.

Cole just steered Chheda away to the bar. The best way to introduce an idea to a man was to offer him a drink.

Keep him talking about personal life and then offer him another one.

But Chheda was used to the tone Cole was playing and led him to the buffet table.

To politely decline.

Smart guy. Cole thought.

Cole checked the beautiful blond woman in the corner, checking that the camera is where it's supposed to be.

Then he checked the bar tender, checking the private guard Amphore had hired for Chheda.

And lastly he had checked his watch. It was all about the timing.

While everybody else were too busy watching the ambassador of India giving a speech, Cole was being watched as well. And he took full advantage of it.

Chheda finished telling him about his new project to fund a children's hospital as they started to eat.

The food was far too spicy was Cole's liking. Yet there was another flavor which one wouldn't find in any good Indian cooking.

A flavor he knew far too well.

He was getting dizzy and considering the amount of glasses of champagne he had everyone would naturally assume that he had one too many.

But Cole didn't get drunk.

And Chheda was beginning to look fuzzy.

Cole was being drugged.

Just enough doze to slowly knock him out.

He could hear Chheda's worried voice asking him if he was alright.

Genuine, innocent concern of a man who didn't know that he was being used.

Cole remained seated as he brought him a glass of water. Which wouldn't help.

Someone tall helped him up. And he could hear distinctive murmurs of people who criticized him for openly getting himself drunk.

A bunch of two-faced jackasses.

Cole was sitting again, only this time the place smelled of hot wires and metal.

The last thing Cole heard before he passed out was a man's voice. "Don't worry Mr Evans, we will see you in a couple of hours."