The Curious Case of the Two Dirk Gentlys

18: Breaking Point

Priest very rarely got the opportunity to take a coffee break. For someone who had only one charge, and one that was perfectly capable for herself at that, he found himself to be one surprisingly busy man. So he was less than pleased when Ken interrupted a brief moment of peace by slamming a piece of paper down in front of him.

"What's this?" Ken demanded to know.

"Good evening, Supervisor Adams." Priest grumbled.

"Answer my question." Said Ken. Priest took the page, read the header, and stopped caring on the spot.

"Rejection of jurisdiction extension request." Said Priest. Apparently just telling him hadn't been enough. They had to make a show of it and waste paper.

"Did you go to that meeting?" Asked Ken.

"Of course I did. I wasn't going to let your emotions trip this organisation up." Priest explained.

"All I asked, specifically asked you, was not to pull this shit. I needed you to let this slide." Said Ken.

"Well then, Sir, you're in luck. Like the letter says, they don't care about Athos or her child. Not unless you do." Priest sighed.

"Another thing." Ken shuffled through the piles upon piles of paper and picked out a distinctive pink form. He knew something was wrong from the moment it arrived by the colour. Wilson liked to make sure bad news stuck out like a sore thumb. Nobody in Blackwing was going to forget their mistakes under her watch. "Do you want to read it or should I?"

"Oh you. You know how I love the sound of your voice." Priest sneered.

"Dear Supervisor Adams, scans of your latest outgoing phone calls and have found that you made a call to the British emergency services, leading to the deployment of police in several areas of London. Would you care to explain the purpose behind this action?" Ken read.

"Ah." Priest nodded.

"Go on then, Mr Priest. Explain." Said Ken.

"I was going for a sort of...two for one deal." Replied Priest.

"Two for one deal? What do you mean? Asked Ken.

"Well if we know exactly where Icarus is, and where he is just happens to be safely behind bars, we could get him and Athos together with that jurisdiction that we don't have." Priest explained.

"And you thought you'd just not tell me about this?" Asked Ken.

"That was the general plan yes." Priest nodded.

"Do you have like a problem or something?" Ken grumbled.

"Well-"

"Don't answer that." Ken snapped. He already had a folder on Osmond Priest's many, many problems.

"It's not my fault Wilson can't see gold right before her eyes. I'm trying to move this project forward. What are you trying to do?" Priest challenged.

"I'm trying to keep as all safe for five minutes." Shouted Ken.

"Well, Sir, progress isn't safe. I do these things to help you. I will keep doing these things to help you until you can come up with a better solution by yourself." Priest asserted.

"Oh, I have solution. You're fired."

                              ......
It didn't take long for Bart to become utterly bored. She wasn't lonely per se, having spent much of her life alone she was good at being by herself, but Ken had never skipped a dinner since she arrived. Two days missed in a row was suspicious. Worse, the little voice in her head that wanted to her to run, the voice that wanted her to burn Blackwing to the ground and kill anyone who stood in her way, had burst into a scream. She tried to silence it, distracting herself with everything she had. It didn't work for long. She was running out of paper. So when unfamiliar footsteps came close to her room she let her surpressed instincts guide her out.

She took the wire headphones out of her mp3 player and stood back first against the wall next to the door. A man arrived with a tray and scanned the seemingly empty space. Bart wrapped the headphones around his neck and pressed down against his throat. He quickly dropped to the ground.

"Sorry, Mr." She grumbled as she stepped over his unconscious body. She ignored the universes call to kill him. She wasn't its puppet and she made sure to remind it of that. Instead she walked calmly through the empty corridors towards the main office, the sound of her shoes echoed against the walls as alarms began to blare.