Chapter 37Nathan woke feeling rested, but he also felt tired in a weird way. It had been a couple months since he had returned from the Sacred Abyss. Every night before going to bed he would cultivate like Gorampa had taught him, but it wasn"t the same. He could feel wisps every now of then of the spiritual energy in the air, and whenever he did he would immediately stop and cultivate to absorb it. But it was like a tiny miniscule drop of water of water to a dried-out sponge. What he craved to do was to go back to the abyss and cultivate there. He was hoping his request for leave would be approved so he could head back.
After showering and getting ready Nathan commuted to work as usual, but as soon as he got there he knew something wasn"t right. There were many government vehicles parked out front of the office he worked out of the office he worked at. Men in tight black suits with earpieces were guarding the front of the building not letting anyone in. When Nathan approached the front doors a muscular black agent taller then he was held up his hand to prevent him from entering.
"My name is Nathan Daniels, I"m head of Security from the President and Vice President of World COMM. Can you please tell me why your preventing me and the rest of the workers from getting to our jobs?" Nathan asked feeling quite perturbed.
"No one is allowed…. Wait did you say your name is Nathan Daniels? Please follow you, your wanted for questioning concerning your finding of the Flight 719," the muscular black agent said.
Nathan followed the agent into the building and they went straight to George Miller"s office. He is the president of World COMM. On the way up Nathan tried to get any information he could out of the stoic agent, but he just stood there and ignored Nathan the entire time. As soon as they exited the elevator in the 30th floor, George Miller who had been pacing restlessly back and forth heaved a huge sigh of relief when he saw Nathan.
"Nathan where have you been? We have been trying to reach you all morning. I left at least twenty messages on your phone, but you never responded," George said in one breath, Nathan could tell by his rapid speech that he was highly stressed.
Before Nathan could respond to George the agent stepped in-between them and led Nathan by the arm to the crowded conference room. Nathan Looked back apologetically at George, but then glared daggers at the agent. Nathan s.n.a.t.c.hed his arm free and dared the agent to try that again with the look he gave him.
When they entered the conference room Janet Miller, George"s sister and the real head of World COMM was seated at the head of the conference table being berated on both sides by a male and female agent. Even though they were yelling at her she just sat there with a calm collected expression on her face. Never ever play poker with Janet Miller. You will lose everything, including the shirt on your back. Nathan knew this from personal experience the first time he join a company camping retreat.
As Janet saw Nathan entering the conference room she stood up pretending she didn"t see the two agents next to her and walked up to Nathan. The agents were both yelling at her to sit back down, but Janet didn"t care one whit what they had to say. She walked up to Nathan and gave him a hug. Their relationship was….. complicated. There was a definite attraction from both sides, but neither of them tried to pursue anything with the other. There were no romantic rendezvous or anything like that, but there were a few shared lunches and some only time during company retreats.
"I was worried when we couldn"t get ahold of you this morning. Are you alright?" Janet asked as she left Nathan"s embrace.
"Yes I"m fine. I usually take the train in in the morning, so I don"t get signal, that"s all. What"s going on here? Who are these people?"
"We will be the ones asking the questions around here," the female agent said as she came around Janet"s desk.
Janet and Nathan both rolled their eyes at the same time.
"Who are you people which department are you from?" Nathan asked.
"We are from O.G.A.," the male agent said with a smug att.i.tude.
"Don"t give me that Other Government Agency bulls.h.i.t. If you don"t show me any solid credentials, as head of security I will just have to treat you all as trespa.s.sers on World COMM property and have you all escorted of the building," Nathan said thru clenched teeth.
Ever since he had been cultivating his strength and speed had been increasing by leaps and bounds. The only thing he hated was that there was so little spiritual energy that it was also increasing at a snails pace. But that didn"t mean he could personally handle every agent on this floor in ten seconds flat. The male agent didn"t like the look ion Nathan"s eyes, so got in Nathan"s face prepared to use force to subdue him.
The female agent pulled her partner away from Nathan while saying, "There is no need for a p.i.s.sing contest. We have a copy of your itinerary that shows you were the first person to arrive at the crash site. Satellite imaging shows you approaching the crash site at speeds no human being should be able to achieve, let alone sustain for as long as you did. And then mysteriously the satellite feed was interrupted by an unknown energy source. The interruption was for alone about twenty minutes, but when the feed is restored you are seen leaving the crash site with the black box. Do you mind explaining this series of events Mr. Daniels?"
Nathan was shocked. He didn"t know that the government was actively monitoring the crash site. He just a.s.sumed they were waiting for someone else to do the work, and then swoop in to take all the credit like they did when he returned with the black box. He didn"t know that the feed was interrupted, he could only a.s.sume that was the work of Gorampa. He decided not to mention Gorampa in any of his reports, because basically he didn"t want to sound crazy. And secondly he didn"t know who to explain everything that Gorampa had told him.
Nathan"s silence mad the agents think that they had rattled him. Nathan looked at the both of them then looked at the other ten or twelve agents that rummaging thru the files and cubicles in the office. The office was trashed, they didn"t care about what they were doing they were just trying to seem intimidating.
Nathan looked back at the two agents in front of him with an evil grin on his face, "Get you flunkies and get the h.e.l.l out of our office. Go back to you precious O.G.A. and tell them that unless they have warrants and actually subpoena me to testify before a grand jury I have absolutely nothing to say to you."
The two agents looked at each other feeling that they had just run into a brick wall. They knew that they had nothing concrete on Nathan, nor on World COMM. This was just a scare tactic to try and flush out some new information.
"Ok Mr. Daniels, since you want to play hardball, lets see how squeaky clean you really are. You had better not have so much as an overdue library book. I know you are hiding something Mr. Daniels and when I find out what it is I"m going to nail your a.s.s to the wall!" the female agent said before calling to her underlings and heading to the elevator.
When they were all gone, Janet finally let go of her tough exterior and collapsed into the nearest seat. She suddenly looked ten years older.
"What"s going on Nate? What didn"t you tell us about the crash?" Janet asked in almost a whisper.
"I can"t talk about it right now. Plus you not knowing anything gives you plausible deniability. But right now I need you to approve of my request for vacation time and make the company jet, and some overseas a.s.sets available to me right away. I have to revisit the crash site now more then ever," Nathan said while kneeling down in front of Janet.
Janet looked Nathan in the eye. She had learned that Nathan was a very intelligent and capable man. She learned to trust his instincts.
"Ok I will do you this favor, but I swear Nathan as soon as you return to explain everything to me. No more secrets. You still have my trust for now, but if still try to hide things from me that trust will be completely gone, and you will be on your own. Do I make myself clear?"
Nathan could tell by the way she was speaking that she meant business. He knew no words were needed between them, so he just stood up and saluted Janet. Turning on his heal Nathan walked out of the office and headed to the elevators. He need to contact Gorampa now more then ever. The only problem was he had no Idea how.