Agent Rogue: Renegade

Chapter 7

Work that day was agonisingly boring. No-one on the top floor could escape the whispers and the chatter mentioning Kane, Derek or the agents that had been lost the night before. They spoke as if they blamed Derek for what happened, their tones filled with resentment as though he was working with the bounty hunter responsible for the deaths of their friends or coworkers. Every hour dragged like nails across a chalkboard. It was draining.

Gabby sat at her desk nearby. For an hour she had remained in silence, neglecting her usual tendencies to gossip or ask questions about anyone's day, even ignoring her habit of positioning her pencils perfectly beside her keyboard like a preppy twelve-year-old school girl. I looked to Derek, whose desk was opposite Scotty's. He had been just as quiet, occasionally sighing every so often. It was Scotty who filled up most of the awkward silence with mindless chatter every ten minutes or so, making conversation about anything from the cloudy skies to the lack of chocolate chips in his cookie from the canteen.

"This is the most depressing corner of the office," said Scotty.

"Mm," muttered Gabby. Scotty sighed and leaned back in his chair, checking the clock behind us: seven-forty, almost time for us to leave.

"We finish in twenty minutes," he said. "Why don't we go to that pub not far from our flats? It'll cheer us all up."

"That would help," said Gabby. She enjoyed wine, maybe a little too much. Derek didn't reply. Instead he remained staring at his computer, clicking on something.

"Derek," I said quietly. His hand on the mouse remained still. "Do you want to go?"

He bit his lip before replying, hand hovering over the mouse, eyes flitting across the screen. "Sure."

Gabby straightened up some files on her desk. "I'll ask Collins, Rose and Tyler."

As I exhaled through my nose, almost hissing, Scotty sent me a warning look. "Don't kill her...please."

"I'll do my best."

"I thought you were getting along with Rose at Collins' party," he replied.

"I was asking her questions."

"About what?"

I glanced over to Derek. He ignored everything around him as he worked on something on his computer, likely a personal account on the attack at Collins' manor. Gabby had left, heading for Rose's desk further down the corridor.

I held onto the edge of my desk and leaned towards Scotty, positioning my legs carefully around the chair so I could balance myself while reaching over. "She was sent to investigate Marcus' lab in November."

Scotty's eyes widened. "No way!" He whispered. "What did she find?"

"Nothing whatsoever...apparently. Then Collins told her to set the lab alight."

"He didn't think of sending you there to double check?"

"That's what I thought."

"And now the lab is destroyed. Perfect."

"But..." I said.

Scotty raised his eyebrows. "But?"

"Collins found footage of Marcus having a meeting with Sienna Li. It's old-ish footage -- around three weeks old -- but in the same week a large sum of money was taken out of Sienna's account."

"Could she be funding Marcus?"

"Potentially. I've been unofficially given the mission of finding out."

"Unofficially?"

"Rodriguez doesn't know," I said. "If we dig up Marcus' file then he'll make the connection between me and him. You saw what happened with Derek this morning. That will only intensify if he knows."