Episode 19

Charles gently closed the door behind him as he approached the desk to face all three of them once more. Once reaching the back of the desk, he picked up the broken statue that Jennifer had placed back on top of it.

“I’m sorry, I tried to fix—“

He cut her off mid-sentence.

“It is of no concern. There are bigger matters at stake,” Charles said.

This prompted John to step out from behind the both of them, confronting Charles to his face from across the table.

“You’ve been telling us about our kind and this mission and all of this nonsense, but you never really get to the meat of it, do you?”

Cyrus and Jennifer nodded in approval. Charles stepped back to take in the attack in before defending himself. John continued on as Charles eventually turned his back to him.

“Do you guys wanna know what he said to me out there?”

“Enough!” Charles shouted and turned back around, smashing his fist on the table, causing the entire room to shake. “I am not the one who can tell you these things. They must be explained in a very delicate, intricate manner.”

Cyrus rolled his one eye at Charles, causing John to snicker back at him.

Jennifer stepped forward, standing a few inches ahead of John, “so who can?”

A knock at the door interrupted Charles’ potential answer. He shifted over to the door and welcomed Mrs. Margot accompanied by two Asian clones.

“We’ve been expecting you, and it seems that you are right on time,” Charles said to her, as he grabbed her by the forearm to escort her to the seat behind his desk. The trio cleared a path as Charles shoed off the twin Asian men, pulling the chair out for her and then scooting her up the desk.

All three of them were in awe at her presence, staring at the woman who held all of the answers at the tip of her tongue. Charles stepped away from her and faced an adjacent window to look out of as she addressed the crew.

“I know you have a lot of questions. Let me preface this by saying that all of you have exceeded our expectations to the utmost degree,” she said, as she began picking at her fingers, which had scabs all over them, “In my old age, you have to understand that I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about a lot of things that I shouldn’t know about. But I do know about them. I know about them all too well,” still picking at her fingers but focused on Jennifer, right in the eyes.

John looked on in disgust, while Cyrus was eyeing Charles.

“John, step forward at once.”

John did as she asked, approaching the desk as closely as when he had ranted at Charles.

“Did Charles tell you about your connection? For those of you who don’t know,” she remarked, gesturing towards Cyrus and Jennifer, “John had an encounter with Charles almost thirty years ago. John bit him on the forearm and Charles still has the scar.”

“Bullshit,” Cyrus shot back, causing John to look at him with a sense of pride. He couldn’t bring himself to tell him that she was in fact telling the truth.

John interjected before she could call Charles over to prove her claims as true.

“Look lady, that isn’t important right now. Tell us what we’re fighting for. All this asshole over here says is we’re fighting for our kind. He says you have the answers we need.”

Charles turned around and lit a cigarette, now leaning against the small space of the wall between the window and bookcase.

Mrs. Margot slid the chair out from under her and pulled out a drawer from the lower right end of the desk. She grabbed a manila envelope and slammed it on the desk, pulling her chair forward once more after slamming the drawer shut.

“Well?”

Cyrus stepped forward, but was met with Johns hand on his chest, blocking the way. John felt that he needed to be the one to read the contents first.  As he reached for them, he noticed that Mrs. Margot shook her head in disappointment.

“What’s that for?”

She shook her head some more before placing her head in her hands for a moment, eventually looking back up at him. “You’re going to get us all killed.”

John chuckled at her assertion.

“You’re just like him,” he said, pointing at Charles as he puffed away on his cigarette, “you speak in riddles. I’m tired of it and I think they are too,” referring to Jennifer and Cyrus.

“There are no riddles inside of that envelope. Everything you need to know is inside. It’s time.”

She rose up from her chair and kicked the seat back. Showing more strength than usual, she walked over to a stunned Charles and kissed him on the cheek before approaching the window.

“It is time,” she said, stretching out in front of the window.

John and company looked on with a confused state of mind. John ripped open the envelope, and held the front page to his face before hearing a gunshot ring out. Mrs. Margot collapsed backwards as blood splatted over the documents and over the four of them respectively.

Charles shrieked out and rushed to her aid while John hesitantly approached the window. He saw Merlin hop back into a helicopter that disappeared before his very eyes, in the same way that Charles had arrived to them.