The phone only rang twice before it was answered by a young female voice. “Cabot, Cunningham & Crowley; how may I help you?” Akira cleared his throat, slightly nervously and spoke; “My name is Akira Steadman. I received a message from a Mr Lucius Cabot in relation to the Steadman estate?”
“Ah yes, Mr Steadman, Mr Cabot is out of the office at present but he left a message for when you returned his call to ask if you could come in to our Wessex office at some point, preferably sooner than later. He needs you to provide a blood sample to confirm whether or not you might be related to Michael Steadman and Gwendoline Trevaine. Can you tell me when would be convenient for you and I’ll arrange for a nurse to be present to take the necessary DNA sample..?”
Even if Akira hadn’t immediately smelt a rat he’d have had very mixed emotions about this. His vow of poverty meant that any inheritance had to be passed onto the Order at Skomer Vale… Did that still apply if this was less an asset and more of a death duty debt though?
The thought of giving blood or any other bodily fluid for that matter, even saliva, filled him with trepidation. Someone had already stolen a lock of his hair and somehow used that to set the plasma miasma that was Abyss on his trail. His recent encounter with EMP had somehow broken the link, though probably only temporarily, but he didn’t want to take any chances.
He asked the woman if she could hold on for a few minutes whilst he consulted his calendar; put her call on hold and immediately sent out a base-wide alert for Adam and Annie. Within seconds both were linked to his comms channel in a conference capacity.
“I’ve a call on the line. Adam is there any way to discover who they contact next after this call is ended?” Adam muttered “only if I could get access to their telephone physically first, what about you Annie?” She laughed “They’re using a VOIP telephone exchange; Voice signals sent over the internet. Firewall’s pretty basic. Hacking their server now… Go ahead I’ll set up a widget to monitor. Ah, you do know this is totally illegal right?”
He knew he would need to investigate further, possibly even break in so an illegal wiretap was the least of his issues.
Thanking them both, Akira switched the call back from hold; “I’m sorry, I’ll have to get back to you on that. I don’t have my diary with me and my personal assistant is out of the office right now. When might I catch Mr Cabot himself at the office? I would like to discuss with him a not unrelated matter.”
Akira hoped the use of a double negative would back foot her and, sure enough she didn’t press him the nature of his enquiry. “Mr Cabot is back in tonight after his appearance at the Old Bailey. I’ll leave a message for him if you’d like? Is there anything else I can do for you today?”
As Akira put the phone down he checked with Annie as to the receptionist or secretary’s immediate response. She replied that she was entering a message into her boss’s online calendar and sent a text message asking her boss to contact you back when he’s got time and signed off with a very intimate postscript. Sexual office politics in action apparently…
Annie chimed in “I’ve got… Lucius Cabot’s calendar – lots of high court appearances, he must be a very high priced lawyer..? I’ll send the details to your computer ok?” and signed off, Adam did the same.
He went back to his room and focused himself then began a series of internet searches. As well as the standard direct searches – he also searched for rumours, complaints and known clients cross-referencing that with suspected criminals. It made for interesting reading.
Cabot, Cunningham & Crowley were a well-known legal firm founded in 1766. Apparently one of the oldest law-firms in more ways than one, they were based out of chambers at Inner Temple, London as well as having offices in Wessex Bath and Edinburgh they appeared to specialise in representing various “special” and criminal clients.
Lucius Cabot (despite his relatively young age) was currently the senior partner and had a reputation as a very successful and utterly merciless legal mind.
What he learnt from his unorthodox search pattern was that CC&C had a reputation as a high class legal firm, apparently specialising in defending any criminals able to afford its rates and possibly involved in all manner of shady legal dealings.
Lawyers were drawn to the firm’s ruthless reputation and its top salary rates. Social media searches on individual staff showed that those who succeeded there were quickly seduced by lives of wealth, power, and influence and cared more about winning than justice. The terms ruthless bastards was used fairly often.
He finished his search. So why would a firm of criminal lawyers be involved in an inheritance case?
Checking the time he did a local map search – he considered teleporting inside the offices but not only would it require multiple jumps to get there, but without having visited it before and knowing the layout, he risked teleporting into the office walls itself. No he had to do this a different way.
Checking Cabot’s Calendar he decided to pay a visit to the Wessex office in astral form and see what he could discover.
Given the offices were almost 4 miles away, it would be risky – that was at the very limit of his abilities but he had to try but thankfully his body should be safe here and in his astral form he was almost undetectable. Just in case though…
“Jeeves? Sorry to ask but I’m about to go into a trance and it would be helpful if someone was able to keep an eye on my body in case anything happens. Monitor it so to speak..?”
“That’s fine sir; will you be using your own room or the White Room?” He paused and looked a little sheepish. “On the advice of Annie as security adviser, we took the precaution of setting up multiple cameras in all of the rooms except your bedrooms. That way if you used the White Room both Annie and I can monitor your body and she can maintain a full spectrum sensor sweep of the room as well..?”
He really needed to get an update on all of the staff’s security upgrades. It was bad enough coming back after Dalton to find that Adam’s young female friend had built a spider-like statue above the junkyard gates because she’d been a bit ‘bored’.
Thanking Jeeves for his suggestion, he made his way to the White Room and settled down cross legged on the floor cushions and started his astral projection techniques. It would take time to ‘walk’ to the offices he’d identified on his online map but he had the time.
Arriving just as it started to get dark he found the offices closed for the evening – he ‘pushed’ through the impressive and locked oaken doors and ‘walked’ around the offices. He found Cabot’s office on the top floor of the impressive Georgian property. The lights were on as he drifted through. In front of him stood a small Indian gentleman in a smart three-piece suit. Not Cabot then? But, as he watched, the face and shape changed, flowed like psychic toffee into a taller, younger man in his mid-twenties with blonde hair and an arrogant, smug look on his face in a smart Savile Row handmade suit.
The occupant looked around the room, waved his fingers in an intricate pattern and Akira found a web of dark light forcing him out of the building. Had the psychically morphing figure sensed him somehow or was this just part of his normal precautions?
As he found himself being pushed faster and faster he realised he had no way of knowing if this had been the real Lucius Cabot or someone or something else in his guise? He could feel the mystical overlay of multiple persona’s linked to that particular individual. As he was pushed through the walls into the street, he ‘saw’ him reach towards the computer with its office calendar and smile – it was a predatory smile that any shark would have been proud of…
And with that he found himself outside in the street staring up at the lit window. He realised that he’d just looked his nemesis in the eyes – now if he only knew why he wanted to kill him..?
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 