Afterlife

21

A few short hours after Connie had left him alone once more to the quiet of his cell in the holding area of the IP headquarters, Santino had waited in utter silence as he considered all that had been discussed and what they had planned to do. Connie was to go and search the Jones' home to discover if they had the dagger in their possession, and to assess whether it was really true that they would be willing to do such a thing as frame him for this crime, even though it seemed obvious that they didn't think that of him during the mission. After pondering over these things in his head for those few hours, wondering how they would play out, and how they should respond depending on how they did turn out, he believed he'd assembled at least some sort of plan that could work in their favor for any of the results that came of the search, but of course that would all depend on whether he understood the situations as well as he thought. There could always be some small variable that he was missing that would throw a wrench into the whole thing.

Almost as soon as he finished coming up with all the solutions he believed necessary to bring into consideration at this given time, the two guards, who I will now introduce as Angus and Stephan, entered the room. Both men were tall in stature and very strong. They were also extreme meatheads, but as long as you stayed on their good side then they were always kind to those they liked or respected. Santino being the only person currently under their guard, made it safe for them to leave their post at the gate of the holding area to attend to the rest of his processing.

"Time to get ya processed," Angus said as he approached the bars, keys in hand, "Please don't give us any trouble... we'd hate to have to hurt ya," he added in a pleasant manner, not intending it to sound threatening, for he meant it only as a request.

Santino offered a slight chuckle as he stood up from his seated position on the edge of his bed saying, "I think we both know who'd win that one, Angus," in a joking manner.

"Yeah, but you're all beat up and stuff," He replied gesturing to Santino's various injuries, "Plus ya being a smaller feller wouldn't make it too hard for Steph and I to lift ya right up like a child."

"Well I suppose you got a point there, but I'm also more agile than the two of you... might make it easier for me to slip past," Santino pointed out.

"I doubt it," Angus replied with a deep chuckle as he inserted the key in the lock, "Steph's got a pretty quick step. I think he'd catch up pretty quick. Best to just keep it simple, no funny business."

Santino then raised his hands briefly as he replied, "You got it," with one last smile before allowing it to fade back to a more neutral look as Angus opened the gate. Truth be told, there was nothing about this scenario that was even in the slightest bit funny, he only acted as if it was to put Angus and Stephan at ease. He knew this probably wasn't the easiest thing for them to do, both of them were good friends of Dunland's group, and would practically bend over backwards to do any one of them a favor, but they also had a surprisingly high sense of duty, and would carry it out to the letter, no matter who was in their charge. So he figured to show them he felt no ill towards them for any of this unfortunate turn of events, he allowed himself to joke around a bit to take their nerves off the edge that they'd probably been sitting on for most of the day, ever since this whole thing started.

The key made a clicking sound as it unlocked, and Angus pulled the door open gesturing for Santino to step out as he said, "Right this way," before adding with a playful yet also serious smile and warning finger saying, "and remember, no funny business."

Santino then nodded reassuringly as he stepped out and waited for his next instructions. Normally the next thing they would do is cuff the prisoner before taking them on to the next step, but they didn't seem to think it would be necessary in this case, because they simply proceeded to escort him towards the door. He didn't wish to cause them any trouble, or put himself in any more trouble than he already was, so he complied with all of their orders without much of a fuss.