Hard-working (Rhona Jameson)

[Jacob Mayson]

beep….beep…. beep

The sound of the alarm clock spread throughout the bedroom. Jacob opened his eyes and looked at the clock five am Why do I have to get up at five am, again? It enlightened for him, work! Jacob quickly got out of his bed and got dressed. He lot Jenny sleep, there were no need to awake her. He quickly went into the bathroom to brush his teeth, take on some deodorant and of course make his hair look great. Then when that had been done and he thought he looked well enough to go for work he left the house. On his way out of the house he went through the kitchen to grab an apple he could eat on the way. He quickly ran over to the car, got in and started the engine. The radio automatically began to play a song and with that playing he began to drive towards his destination.

[3 hours later: eight am]

“This is your job; unfortunately we got a lot of jobs with short deadlines, so you have to work on this one yourself.” James said seriously to Jacob as he handed the file over to Jacob. Jacob opened the file and read through it, it was a missing person job, pretty easy all he had to do was to find the person. Unfortunately a short deadline was an underestimation one week to find the person after that, the job would be cancelled. “I understand.” And with that Jacob left the meeting room. He walked down the many stairs out of the entrance door and out on the parking lot. And from there he drove towards his destination.

[5 hours and 25 minutes later: 1.25 PM]

Four hours of questioning people who claimed to last have seen the missing person but obviously had no idea what the heck he was talking about, or did not take it seriously, pissed him off. Jacob knew that in this second the missing person could be dead, tortured or abused in all kind of horrible ways. Jacob decided that he was not going to get anywhere right now, so he chose to get some strengthening. Ah. A good cup of coffee should do the trick Jacob instantly thought when he smelled the coffee being made in the little cafe. He went up to the counter ordered a strong coffee, and after getting the coffee he went down to a small table where he began to read the file again while drinking his coffee.

[Rhona Jameson]

Rhona Jameson has a busy woman, but somehow had made time while she was on Phoenix to get coffee. She had a bit of a thing for coffee. Especially the fancy ones that came with whipped cream on top that her doctor said she shouldn't drink. But she'd been good these last couple days, and she had to look convincing since she was following a mark.

It had been forever since she'd done field work, but she'd decided to take this one herself since she'd been in the area to inspect a potantial new aquisition for Aura Fiz, and it seemed pointless to assign an agent to do a job she'd trained them to do. Besides, this was a cakewalk, and it was probable that the mark hadn't even manifested yet and the mission was to touch base and make sure that he hadn't.

Her info had told her that he was in a small coffee shop, and she'd seen him almost immediately upon entering. Buying herself a cup of coffee, she walked over and sat at a seat directly behind him, "accidentally" jostling his elbow so that his coffee spilled on his pant leg.

"Oh sugah, I'm so sorry," she aplogized, quickly snatching some napkins out of one of the napkin dispensers on the table she'd been moving to sit at and dabbing them to his lap. "I can be so clumsy sometimes."

It was all carefully planned, make him spill, get him a new drink, slip a chemical in the new drink that, if he had manifested, would cause a reaction in his system that one of her boys who accompanied her on the trip could sense. Simple. Easy. Get the job done and look like a sweet but bumbling business woman while doing it.

[Jacob Mayson]

Something hit his elbow, and seconds later he felt something hot and wet on his pants. Goddamn it! Jacob thought, as he looked down on his now coffee covered pants. This was just great, first he gets a case which doesn’t seem to have any serious leads in it, and now someone hits him and makes him spill his coffee on him.

"Oh sugah, I'm so sorry, I can be so clumsy sometimes."

Seconds later after spilling his coffee, he hears a voice it were female as far as he could hear, and of course it was confirmed to be a woman a few seconds later when he moved his eyes up towards the woman. She looked normal just like and everyday businessperson with a little too much work to do. She was most likely telling the truth, so Jacob did not mind the accident. “It’s okay; it is not like a cup of coffee will kill me.” Jacob said, he might just as well be polite since the woman seemed to regret being the culprit behind the accident. Jacob reached out and took some napkins from his own table, the coffee was the least of his concerns, the file was more important. He used the napkin to sweep up all the coffee that had been spilled on the table. The file had not been damaged that were good.

“Besides it was an accident, no one could have seen it coming.” Jacob smiled reassuring to the woman, he did not want her feeling badly for him or anything it was not like he had been shot or wounded in anyway. Sure the warmth of the coffee had hurt a little, but by now that had long since vanished and the only thing he was feeling from it right now, were the wetness.

[Rhona Jameson]

---RHONA jameson---
---phoenix, ARIZONA---
---CHAPTER 1: ciphers---

As expected, he was playing the nice guy and telling her it was okay, but it was best to overplay situations like this, make a scene, so that she could talk him into anything to get her to go away. Luckily, his files were a perfect excuse to throw this into full, overblown scene.

"Oh dear, honey, did I get any of that on your papers? Oh my, sugah, I'm so sorry."

Her voice was full of concern, and her face reflected that.

"Is it all okay?"

His face and her observation reassured her that the files were fine, setting her firmly into phase two of her plan. Standing, she feigned taking notice of the whole scene and getting her bearings back.

"I'm so sorry, honey. Lemme buy you another coffee. What were you drinking?"

[Jacob Mayson]

"Oh dear, honey, did I get any of that on your papers? Oh my, sugah, I'm so sorry. Is it all okay”

“Yeah it is all right, nothing hit it.” Jacob tried to reassure the woman that she had nothing to worry about, the last he needed was some worrying woman to take his time. Time he could have spent working on this job. He closed the file, there were no need for her to read it, she might as well have been a journalist out to get a new story, and knowing the clients of the bureau it should be kept as secret as they could.

"I'm so sorry, honey. Lemme buy you another coffee. What were you drinking?"

“If that will makes you feel better, then sure.” Jacob mumbled as he nodded slightly, he might as well get a new coffee without paying for it. Jacob looked at Rhona, he did not like inspected people or making conspiracy theories but something was not right here, it was just a hunch but Rhona seemed way too sweet. “I was just drinking a strong coffee, nothing special.” He kept an eye on Rhona he certainly hoped this would not take too long since he had a job to do, but then again he did not have any leads on the job so he had no idea to how to actually find the missing person he were looking for.

Jacob heard something, what could it be? It sounded like a whisper but where did it come from. As far as Jacob could hear the woman was not whispering anything to him, her lips was not moving, or where they? Maybe I am more stressed than I thought Jacob thought, he had been working really hard lately. Jacob decided that of course the woman was not saying anything, at least not something like the whispers.

[Rhona Jameson]

---RHONA jameson---
---phoenix, ARIZONA---
---CHAPTER 1: ciphers---

She repressed a smile with her look of consternation. Starting over towards the counter and looking back at him, holding up a finger as if telling him to stay put in a motherly way.

”Just stay right there, shugah, I'll be right back. Just strong coffee, right?”

Without really waiting for his reply, she headed over to the counter, opening her purse and pulling out her wallet, surreptitiously sliding out a small eye dropper with it. A barista stepped up from where she had been chatting with one of her coworkers.

”I'd like a strong coffee,” she told the girl before she could say anything, handing over the money. The girl hadn't looked like she wanted to be there anyways, and Rhona figured that she'd cut the small talk.

A few seconds later, she had the cup of coffee, and slid it down the counter away from the register, presumably to put the lid on. Making sure that her body was blocking Jacob's view, she slipped the eyedropper from her palm to her fingertips and dripped a single drop into his coffee, then dropped the eye dropper back into her purse, turned and headed back over to him.

”Here you go, sugah, and again, I'm so sorry about that.” She said, handing it to him, then turning, picked up her cup from where she had left it on the table next to him. All she'd have to do now was wait until he took a drink, then she'd know the chemical was in his system and he was traceable before moving on. She knew from experience that he shouldn't taste it, so the rest of this operation should go smoothly.

”I hope that's what you wanted.”

[Jacob Mayson]

”Just stay right there, shugah, I'll be right back. Just strong coffee, right?”

The woman was off before he could even say something, not that he was intending to say something she was just way to more filled with energy than he were at that moment. When the woman was ordering his new coffee something weird began to happen, the whispers came back.

Oh no I am never going to make it

Why is he looking at me?

Oh god why does time have to move so slowly?!

The whispers was irritating, they came from everywhere. Jacob rubbed his forehead slightly as if trying to rub the whispers out of his head, of course it did not work. Jacob felt a headache building up in his head, it got stronger and stronger. God why is it taking so long? Jacob looked towards Rhona, he could not see what she was doing. She had her back turned towards him. But he heard something, a plan something with a drug or a substance of some sort that had to be put in his coffee. Finally she came back to him with his coffee.

”Here you go, sugah, and again, I'm so sorry about that.”

“Really, do not think about it, it’s not your fault.” Jacob said, smiling slightly as he took the cup and was about to take a sip from it. But he did not because in the same second he felt something coming from Rhona, thoughts. This time stronger than the whispers he had heard before. She wanted him to drink because of some work; she had put something in his drink. It could not be good, even though Jacob did not really believe in all this hocus-pocus stuffs like mind reading, but this was certainly getting a little suspiciously.

”I hope that's what you wanted.”

That woman is way too sweet. He had to come up with something fast; since he had no idea what kind of drugs she had placed in his coffee. He made a drinking motion; of course nothing got into him it was only a trick to trick her into believing he had drunken some of the coffee. After taking the fake sip, he placed the cup on the table and said. “So, Miss. I do not believe I got you name, am I right? Well people call me Jacob.” He introduced politely, he could check her later, but now he had to play her little game.

[Rhona Jameson]

---RHONA jameson---
---phoenix, Arizona---
---CHAPTER 1: ciphers---

Jacob was not drinking...stalling even maybe. The cup was hovering tantalizingly near his lips. Once he drank, she could leave, and he wasn't drinking. Even worse, he was making small talk now, meaning that she had to play along with him and pretend even more that she was actually concerned about him on more than just a professional level.

When he asked her name, she took a quick, imperceptible double take that could have been explained away as her still being a little flustered.

”You can call me Lana,” she replied half a beat later, then seemed to think something over real fast, then extended her hand to him. ”Sorry to have to meet you under these circumstances.” She gave a small, rueful chuckle.

A stray thought wandered through her mind—just a little worry...what if he had manifested? What if he could tell what she was doing. There were almost as many different abilities as people who had them, and many of them could let him know what she was doing, from remote viewing to plain old telepathy. Her sources hadn't been able to track down what power Jacob was going to manifest.

Still, she was confident in her own abilities—not just the ones her mutations allowed her, but her skills of persuasion and acting. She'd talked her way out of shittier situations than this before.

[Jacob Mayson]

”You can call me Lana,” Jacob listened to what she said, it seemed the whispers he had heard before subsided a little, like if they really was not strong enough to be heard. Jacob was relief because of that, the whispers was getting very annoying, especially because they not only came from one direction, no they came from everywhere around him, but they were just stronger when it sounded like they came from in front of him. ”Sorry to have to meet you under these circumstances.” Jacob did not understand why she kept apologizing, one time should be enough, but well everyone had their habits, maybe this one just one of hers. “Don’t think about it, people have to meet one way or the other.” Jacob said, obviously meaning that Lana (Rhona) did not need to say she was sorry anymore.

Jacobs’s relief over being free from those weird whispers was as soon as he had become relieved over the whispers disappearance, they returned. Though this time it was only one word he heard MANIFESTED it took a few seconds before Jacob remembered where he had heard that before. Jacob thought back to one out of the many conversation he had had with his wife Jenny, he knew she was special, and he had been asking about her past “So when did you begin to take drugs?” Jacob remembered asking. “After my powers began to manifest, I found out that drugs can stop my powers.” Jenny had answered. Now Jacob got even more suspicious, of course he still did not know if he heard this woman’s thoughts, or if he was beginning to become schizophrenic both seemed very likely possibilities.

“So, Lana, what do you do for a living?” Jacob continued the small talk, he would try to turn the conversation towards what Lana had done, and if Jacob did this right, then maybe he could make her unintentionally tell him what he had done, or what she was intending, maybe even what she knew about evolved humans.

[Rhona Jameson]

---RHONA jameson---
---phoenix, ARIZONA---
---CHAPTER 1: ciphers---

Jacob was acting strangely still and seemed to be trying to draw her into conversation, doing so well, whether by skill or simple chance. He was getting under her skin, trying to find out who she was. She guessed his current position as a private investigator gave him good reason to be good at this, but how would he know to not drink the coffee.

Rhona sat in the seat that she had professedly been heading for before “accidentally” bumping into Jacob, taking a sip of her, now cooling, coffee as he asked her what she did. If he wanted to play that way, she could play just as easily. Being the head of public relations for a burgeoning soft drink company required a gift for gab and obfuscation, and Rhona had both in spades

”I'm in PR...public relations,” she replied, sticking the kernel of truth into her white lie, making it infinitely believable. ”So what do you do, shugah?”

He'd had his turn to control the ball, and now she was going to be asking the questions. If he was lucking into this, then she'd be able to get him uninterested and gain some incidental reconnaissance, and if he was actually trying to do this, well...this would be a challenge.

[Jacob Mayson]

”I'm in PR...public relations,” Jacob made sure to watch all her signals, like if the eyes was away from him while she spoke, or the tone of her voice, all those things could tell if she was lying he could not rely on the whispers since he did not know what or where they came from, and relying on something like that was dangerous. It seemed that she was speaking the truth, she really did work in public relations, of course she could still have some shady business besides that, but well mostly everyone did that, they had to make money or else they could not live, that is just life. “I never really understood public relation workers, how do you do it? I mean how does you know exactly what to say to people to gain the good reputation that some of those big corporations have, even though they sell things that aren’t very good.” Jacob asked wondering how she would react, since she worked in PB, she might work for one of those corporations. “Do you read their minds?” Jacob said jokingly, of course that was not meant very seriously, but it could be fun to see how she reacted to it.

”So what do you do, shugah?” The question did not come as a surprise, since he had asked the very same thing, a normal person would ask the question right back at him. “Well I work as a PI…. Private investigator, if the police seems ineffective or you do not trust them; you contact us that are pretty much how it works.” Jacob said, casually trying to make the woman believes he was just having small talk.

Jacob laughed slightly. “I am making it sound like we are some kind of gods of investigations… Of course there are cases we cannot solve, like when people just vanish into the thin air… But we will still do our best to even solve those cases.” Jacob said, assuring Lana that PI’s was not gods of investigation, well actually far from it, they were about just as good as the police, they just got paid a lot more for doing their job and therefore did it more throughout than the police would have done, at least as far as he knew. Jacob had never been in the police and would not want to be either, the uniforms did not look too good, and you had more freedom as a PI, than if you had to be a cop.

[Rhona Jameson]

---RHONA jameson---
---phoenix, ARIZONA---
---CHAPTER 1: ciphers---

Damn, he was stalling for time and digging a bit deep too. She'd passed him the ball to see if he could play, and he'd thrown it right back into her court, asking about what her job entailed. Of course, if she told him the truth, she'd have to recruit him or kill him. Not too many people had PR jobs with that kind of secrecy. Of course, her PR job was a little more than just a normal office position. She oversaw some pretty dark shit, and knew some stuff that she warranted the government didn't even have a clue about. All from her well appointed offices in the Aura Fiz complex. But Jacob was still not drinking, so she had to step up her game a notch.

”Is that not what you wanted, hun?” she asked Jacob, taking a sip of her coffee and indicating his. ”And PR work is pretty much just reassuring people that what the package says is what they're getting. People like hearing stuff more than once.”

She settled back in her chair, lightly tapping her well manicured fingers on the table. She smile slightly at his reference to people vanishing into thin air.

”In my experience, shugah, people don't just vanish into thin air. They always go somewhere. I'm pretty sure that with the right amount of digging, anything can show up.”

And, she thought, that's where she came in. To shovel the dirt back on the secrets just as fast as it got dug up.

[Jacob Mayson]

”Is that not what you wanted, hun?” Jacob was slightly surprised by this statement; did she really want him to drink that badly? Jacob knew from years of experience, that when people wanted you to drink so badly, then it could never be good, especially considered his job, for all he knew she could be a hired assassin trying to kill him with poison. But the thought of her being an assassin could of course not be true at least not if what he heard and still could hear were her thoughts. ”And PR work is pretty much just reassuring people that what the package says is what they're getting. People like hearing stuff more than once.” And a little more. He could not help but think that, it was very obvious, that what she did was not just normal PR, but more some kind of covering up. Maybe she works for the mob Now Jacob was going through the list of possible suspects that could be involved with this woman, while also trying to come up with a reason to why he was not drinking. Trying to multitask was not made easier by the brain radio that kept being played in his head; he was actually beginning to get a headache.

”In my experience, shugah, people do not just vanish into thin air. They always go somewhere. I'm pretty sure that with the right amount of digging, anything can show up.” “Yeah, of course they do not just vanish, but sometimes some people just keep shoveling the dirt hiding them back, so we have to dig it up again.” Jacob said referring to what the brain radio had just said, it was not exactly pleasant listening to this woman’s thoughts, if that was what he was doing, but still he had to use every help he could get, to get control over this situation and find out what this woman’s true intentions were.

The headache grew stronger and stronger by the second. His view became blurry sometimes when a thought came from behind. Jacob moved his hand up to his forehead, since it was there it hurt, his somewhat cold hands eased it slightly, but only just a little bit. "Oh sorry I seem to be getting a headache, it happens often." Jacob lied, of course he did have frequent headaches, but normally that was after a very long day of work, and not a conversation with a woman that had spilled coffee on him. "Excuse me, I think I need to get a glass of water, it always helps on my headaches." Jacob excuses himself, and got up from the table. As he walked towards the counter to ask for a glass of water, he began to sweat, the drops formed quickly on his forehead. Thoughts from everywhere was streaming into his head causing a migraine. He began to become dizzy and had to hold onto the counter to avoid falling. "Are you alright?" The woman at the counter asked. "Ye...yeah... Can I have a bottle or glass of water, whatever kind you have." Jacob said dizzily trying to ignore the drumming pain in his skull.