Jolt, Thunder Sprites!

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Tyler picked up his phone, deliberating whether or not he should call the number Praise had given him.
He didn’t know her after all, and she had been particularly skittish during the few seconds he had spoken to her. But then again, she knew Mikel, and she seemed like she knew what had happened to Mikel and why he went missing. He tapped his knee thoughtfully.

She could have been nervous because she wasn’t supposed to say what or afraid that somebody was watching her.

Making up his mind, he decided to get the call over with. Who knew, maybe he would get something out of this, at least a clue to Mikel’s location.

He typed the number in and tapped ‘call’. Praise was his only lead so far; although he had filed the missing persons report, the police had yet to get back to him and he wasn’t going to wait for them before he did something.

She picked up on the first ring,

“Hello?”

“Praise, it's Tyler.”

“Mr. Ark! I wasn’t expecting you to get back to me so soon,” she said, surprise colouring her voice

“Well, you did say we could work something out. Any suggestions for where we should meet?” Tyler offered politely. “Anywhere is fine as long as we can talk.”

“Well, there’s a quaint ice cream place on 5th avenue, Fan Ice.” Praise remembered quickly. “Are you okay with sweets and snacks?”

“Yes,” Tyler replied, not feeling particularly picky. “Is two o’clock fine? I know it’s a work day but I was hoping you would be free?”

“Let me check with my boss, a minute please.”

There was static for several seconds before Praise came back.

“Good news, he won’t need me after his meeting at one but I might be a little late,” Praise said, the line cracking a bit at the end of the sentence.

“I can wait. See you there.”

“Goodbye Mr. Ark,” Praise replied before cutting the call.

Tyler dropped the phone as the line went dead, breathing out deeply, before getting up.

He was one more step closer to finding Mikel, he just hoped this wouldn’t be a dead end.

*

Praise placed her phone inside her bag, greatly relieved Tyler had not mentioned anything about her weird attitude that day or why she had said they couldn’t talk there.

The call had come in while she was in the car with both Koenig and Sean as they were being driven to a charity event they had been invited to by a host, a famous N.G.O in the country. The entire call she had been aware of Sean’s hawk like eyes on her person, waiting for either one of them to make a Freudian slip over the phone.

“So after the charity event, you’re going to meet with Mr. Ark at this Fan Ice?” Koenig clarified, looking away from his phone to face her.

Praise nodded, and gesture to Sean, “I’ll need the recording device now sir. I doubt you’ll be able to give it to me after the event when you’re being besieged by reporters.”

Sean turned away from the window to face her.

“There isn’t any need for that anymore” he said quietly, and looked her all over. “I’m sure you’ll do fine on your own.”

Praise stared, taken aback and even Koenig had to hide his surprise.

“All right. Thank you for trusting me Mr. Bishop,” she managed to say, staring at him quizzically.

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