Agent Edwards remained seated and completely silent, as he observed and watched the other Agents discussing their last case or cases as it were. When he had first learned that Unit Tango was to become a new, changed one he had to admit he was quite excited about the fact, but now he wasn't so sure...maybe it was just the prospect of having to get to know everyone again, new people to learn of and trust was something Vynce Edwards took time to get used to. This was no different. Still unsure of most people around him, Vynce lit up a smoke from the back of the room and carefully layed out a battered copy of the local newspaper in front of him. He often found American newspapers amusing compared to the English ones he was used to, almost found it hard to believe that there was another country that had such bad ways of printing articles. He smiled to himself as he read a certain section, fingering the page so he didn't lose his place as he often tends to do when reading so fast. Agent Toussaint noticed the male English Agent sitting away from the rest of the group, but curiosity won her over in the end and she decided to see what he found so amusing.
"Ok Agent Edwards, is there a joke you can share with us...could do with something to smile at" She said in an almost sullen tone of voice, perching herself up on the desk next to the male Agent.
"You gotta laugh at the way your country prints the local rag. Never thought anyone could be as bad as our own...geez! I mean, it's almost as if the press gets a kick out of slagging your own country off. A big power like the USA being in such disarray...you gotta laugh." Vynce replied, changing his expression as Agent Toussaint didn't react at all to his opinions. Then he pointed out to her an article that he had just finished reading, one that interested him somewhat.
"This one I do like though. Listen...The headline reads 'Missing Colonel Found As 150yr old Mummy'. In downtown New York yesterday, reports of a mummified corspe were found cut into several pieces along a stretch of riverbank. When the reports were chased up by local police and the corpse finally bagged, forensics discovered the body was that of missing American Army colonel, Steve Martini. The strange and spooky thing to have come from this was the fact that Steve Martini was age 34, but forensics suggested he seemed to have aged to well over a hundred years old. Steve Martini was last seen six days ago at his home in New York, but never returned home that night. Three teenagers, two boys and a girl found the body at 5:30pm yesterday as they made their way home from playing nearby. Further investigations are expected" Vynce Edwards concluded, eyeing the female opposite him.
"Not bad for a short caption story...I'm certainly intrigued by that one I must admit" Vynce spoke, puffing on his smoke as though his life depended on it. He handed the paper over to Anne, who refused flatly so Vynce left it on his desk, but not before tearing the story of the corpse out from the paper.
"You into all this sort of stuff then? You know, mummies, corpses and all...It's nice to always have one eccentric person amongst a working unit" Anne mocked Agent Edwards, grinning after she spoke. Vynce looked her up and down before replying, starting to smile himself.
"Nope, not really...Just happy I now know we have at least one friendly female Agent amongst the group...with a sense of humour!" Vynce returned the mocking almost, twisiting it back into his favour. He started to kill his cigarette when Anne continued the conversation, leaning away to avoid the cigarette smoke as though it were a plague of somekind.
"So, from sunny old England are you? Hows life back there? Peachy?" She spoke, brushing the hair away from her face as it threatened to spoil her sight almost.
"Yep...Hardly sunny...Has life ever been peachy?" Edwards replied to all Anne's questions as vague as he could, still thinking about the report of the army colonel and why it hadn't been handed over as a cse for the
X-Files. ~I know it's only yesterday's new, but the division usually gets onto these sorto f things pronto~ Vynce thought to himself, gazing into a trance for an instant.
Agent Toussaint nudged Vynce's arm hard, almost sending him falling off his chair and crashing to the floor as he was putting most of his body weight onto the arm, propped up on the desk. "Hey! You almost gave me a heart attack...Sorry, I was miles away" Edwards apologized, glancing back up at Anne, who again grinned slyly.
"I'm just going to..." Vynce was cut short in mid sentence as his cell phone rang like a wild alarm going out of control. Grabbing it from inside his suit jacket, he fumbled to recieve the caller, then replied.
"Edwards?...Mother, this is a surprise!...How are you?......You know I was just reading about that, most odd but you know it's my kind of thing" Vynce covered up the speaking section of the phone as he whispered over to Toussaint, now accompanied by Agent Hanson. Emily was cut short of her words as Anne motioned for silence, fascinated by the news Vynce was recieving from his mother.
"It seems my brother Stephen has told of eleven other cases of military personnel going missing, then being found as mere aged corpses decapitated back in Colchester, England. A link maybe?" Vynce finished, listening as Meg Edwards brought him up-to-date on certain events like she often did when she made time to make a phone call. She hardly ever wrote to Vynce, seemed like only the phone ever existed in her world. Mind you, she was assistant manageress for England's second largest newspaper. Anne and Emily spoke
quietly to each other while Vynce finished the phone call with his mother. A look of disbelief spread across his face like wildfire as he severed the link between himself and his mother, you could have thought he had just seen a ghost.
"Momma's boy eh? So come on, you going to fill us in or what?" Anne asked sarcastically, liking the fact she could tease the English Agent quite easily sometimes, but more curious as she got to no more about the caption Vynce had read out earlier.
"Well, according to my mother who is in fact one of my top contacts...these bodies are all military related and have all been found cut into exactly twenty seven pieces. Weird or what?...Wonder if the report of the first corpse found in New York is the start of things to come?" Vynce thought out loud, eyeing Emily quickly as he stared at the news cutting he tore out once more......
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