12. Welcome

Ian and Emily meet Jonathon.

When they reached the empty furniture store, Ian followed Stefanie's instructions and pulled around to the back entrance. She politely ordered them out of the car and over to the door. She knocked and within a few seconds Ian saw a young woman with black hair open it. Stefanie motioned them inside. As he entered, the black haired woman held out her hand to him, palm up. It took him a few seconds to realize she wanted him to give her the car key. He handed it to her and she left without a word.

They proceeded into a medium sized office. A man about Ian's age stood up from the desk and walked over to greet them.

“Hello, Ian... Emily,” he smiled at them both, “My name is Jonathon.” He held out his hand to Ian. Before Ian realized what he was doing, he shook it. “Please have a seat.” He gestured to two chairs against the wall next to the desk. Ian noticed he was wearing a holster on his belt that contained a revolver. A revolver? Does anyone still carry those?

Jonathon must have seen Ian's look because he said, “Semi-automatics with their fifteen round clips are for idiots that don't know how to aim. They just keep squeezing off rounds hoping that an errant bullet hits the target. This baby -” he patted the gun at his hip, “only holds six shots. But I never need more than four.” He said it conversationally, but Ian caught the implied threat.

Ian and Emily sat down in the chairs Jonathon indicated. Emily stayed very close to Ian with a worried look on her face. She was obviously frightened. Jonathon leaned down in front of her and smiled. “Emily, I am capable of many things, but I am also a man of principles, and one of them is... I never, ever harm children! So you have nothing to fear.” Emily did not look reassured. “But,” he looked at Ian, “I'm afraid the same can't be said for grown-ups.” Again with the implied threat.

“I'm sorry we had to inconvenience you like this, Ian,” Jonathon continued, “But I'm afraid you have something that we want very badly.”

“The memory card,” Ian responded uneasily.

“Yes! You figured it out. I don't suppose you have it on you?”

Ian shook his head.

“Too bad,” replied Jonathon, “that would have made things so much easier. Now we'll have to contact your lovely wife and arrange an exchange. I'm assuming she has it?”

“No, but she has access to it,” Ian answered, “What the hell is on that thing, anyway?”

“Sorry, Ian. That's confidential. The less you know about it, the better off you are.”

“Who do you work for?”

“Myself,” replied Jonathon, “I'm an independent contractor. I have a long client list, though. The Americans, the French, the Russians, Chinese, Israelis, even the Iranians. I've also done some work for major corporations.”

“So, you don't care if you work for the good guys or the bad guys,” Ian said with some cynicism.

Jonathon laughed. “There are no good guys, Ian,” he said with a grin, “They're all just as evil and corrupt as their counterparts, believe me!” He turned to Stefanie. “You have his phone?” She handed it to him. He turned back to Ian, held the phone out to him, and said, “I need you to call Chrissy, and here's what I want you to tell her...”

Author's Note

Not an exciting chapter I'm afraid. The next one will be much better.

Reviews

[C. Rose]

"She left without a word" made me think she walked out of the building and they did not follow.
Remember to start new paragraphs when there's new dialogue.
I didn't fully buy Jonathan listing clients (but I really like the "there are no good guys" line)

[C. Rose]

Also, I'm happy I was right about the independent contractor bit :)

[Craig2591]

Yes, Becka did leave the building after Ian gave her the key. She's going somewhere. I should make that more clear.

[C. Rose]

Oh! The black haired woman is Becka. I read that paragraph wrong. I assumed all the "she"s were Stefanie.

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

Jonathan, you have a very interesting view of the world. You do a fantastic job with the dialogue offering insight into how warped his mind gets and his ideas on how all humans are inherently evil

[Craig2591]

Yes, Jonathon has become quite cynical during his lifetime. I really enjoyed creating his character. I'm hoping that it's still not quite clear whether he is a good guy or a bad guy at this point. I realize he had Ian and Emily kidnapped, but what is his motive? National security? Greed?

[John Lauterbach]

When Jonathon is talking to Emily, I would have liked to see his body language there. Other than that, it feels solid. I have a feeling Jonathon's revolver is going to be his undoing!

[Craig2591]

Thank you for the review.

[K.]

Write another! I'm officially addicted. Sorry for nothing really about this chapter but I guess that means it was just THAT good!

[Craig2591]

Thanks. There's not really not much to comment on in this chapter, so that's okay. It's just setting things up for the next chapter which will be much more exciting.