the letter I was sent.”
She smiled and took the letter.
“Hi. I’m Faith. I was told you’d be starting today. Hold on while I check a few things out,” she smiled again and began typing on her keyboard. She quickly found what she was looking for. ,
Her brown eyes (yes, he did notice) darted across her screen as she scanned all the information. He wondered what they’d written about him; he’d find out later once he had access to the systems.
“Yes, here we are. Apparently you’re to be fast-tracked through the induction process. Lucky you.”
She smiled again. Wow, she was beautiful. Something about this woman intrigued and captivated him… he couldn’t put his finger on it, much as he’d like to. She called over one of the uniformed men who, after a short discussion, directed Michael to a large door at the right of the reception desk area.
The door had a sophisticated card-key entry system. He had no card-key, so he waited for it to be opened from the inside. He heard a heavy metallic whirring sound as solid, electronically-operated bolts slid to unlock the door. He was ushered in and, once the door had clunked shut behind him, the guard led him to a secure room where they photographed him, processed his forms and printed out his new identity pass and card-key. He was half expecting a full strip search, but that was just his over-imaginative brain working over-time.
After about forty-five minutes, they felt they’d done their job. However he knew they'd merely helped him with his first step to steal mega-millions from this immoral organisation.
Of course, Michael didn’t think of it as stealing, he was just getting the public’s money back… albeit he planned to keep most of it for himself.
Chapter 9 - Best of Three?
Tung stood frozen on the spot. Why was it up to him to sort out the mess? He stared at Madrick. How could the old man not have spotted the problem? This guy was meant to be the smart one. A wizard was supposed to be wiser than a barn full of owls so how did he miss something so bleeding obvious?
“Your plan has a great big hole in it. You really haven’t thought it through at all, have you? The escape bit is fine, but we were supposed to use the Scroll to get rich, be deliriously happy and attract hosts of girls.”
He wondered whether that should be ‘hostesses of girls’. He was losing focus. That happened a lot. He began to think about other times when he’d drifted away from the important topic. Luckily, before he’d drifted too far, his common sense gave him a mental slap and snapped his mind back to the matter in hand.
“We were even going to change the world at one point in our imaginings. Your plan may well get us out of here, but what about the Scroll? If it’s only our bodies which become invisible, then we’ll have to leave all our stuff behind; our clothes, our shoes and the Scroll. We’ll have to leave everything in this god forsaken dungeon.”
He paced the cell, fists clenched.
“We’ll be free, but we’ll be miserable paupers. We won’t even have the clothes we stand up in. We’ll be a pair of destitute, alms people who’ll never be free of the shackles of poverty and we’ll always be on the run from Mifal’s henchmen. That sounds like a nightmare, what happened to the dream?”
Okay, he was being a bit melodramatic so he stopped talking. When he thought about it, he’d be happy just to escape the torture and execution, but he’d bought into the picture which Madrick had painted. He’d been handed a wondrous gift only for it to be snatched from his grasp before he’d even had the chance to unwrap it. He was distraught and he sunk his face into to his hands to emphasise the fact.
He was right. Madrick had completely forgotten about the Scroll. They couldn’t carry the thing out in their invisible hands. That would be ridiculous. A flying scroll would undoubtedly attract attention. Was that it then, dream over? Surely they could think of