Plot - Sing Me a Prayer: Chapter I

[x-farouk.livejournal.com]

In Which A Professor Goes Missing And Our Heroes Are Assembled



Farouk tarried another minute, watching the street from within the dubious anonymity of the dead-ended alley. One would have thought that the failed operation would send his already quite healthy paranoia into complete overload. Yet there is always a limit to a human endurance. It can consistently process only so much intensity, before even the most crippling terror either becomes a dulled by habit or breaks the person entirely.

Amahl Farouk had lived in the state of carefully shackled fear for most of his adult life. Fear of failure, of arrests, of tortures. Fear that his critics were correct and he was, in fact, insane. Fear of losing control of the Shadow King.

But mostly in fear of Ozymandias. Always.

It was a familiar sensation, worn into a comfortable shape by years of practice. Allocated a clear place in his pantheon of worries.

But Baghdad changed everything, of course. The world stepped forward to slap him in the face, the universe suddenly answering so many questions, only to pose a myriad of new ones. And, most of all, to give his old terror a new face and form and lease on life.

It had been months since he slept. And within the world of Amahl Farouk, defined by fear and premonition, there was simply no room for any other worry.

The mission went bad. They did that sometimes. He was insulated. If anyone was going to face the blowback it'd be Ramsey. A thought that Amahl countenanced with considerable equanimity.
He had other problems. For weeks now he had been sure that he was being followed. More than sure, in fact. The instincts honed by a lifetime of training screamed their warnings. Yet the skills polished through the same lifetime proved them wrong again and again.

Countersurveillance produced nothing. neither did feverish changes of habits and safe-houses. Yet, the itch between his shoulder blades persisted. Someone was watching. Waiting. He chewed dully on the unlit cigar and stared out into the street again.

Empty. Safe.

Fuck.

Farouk sighed and shrugged, stepping out of the alley. Fucking nerves. Maybe it was time to sleep after all. He was clearly losing it.

"End of the road, Professor."

Blackness.

***

Kane yawned hugely as the elevator doors opened. It was entirely too AM for him right now, following an evening in the med bay coughing up soot flecked with blood. His healing factor and his endurance made recovery from a lungful of chemical smoke rapid, but as unpleasent as anyone could imagine. Doctor Grey had done her best to keep him in bed (well, not her best, but she was married), but finally gave up when he threatened to walk back to his room nude past all the morning classes if she didn't surrender his clothes to him. The X-Men report had been clear - they'd pulled him and his team out of a burning building, after a call from Adrienne Frost. After over a year of silence, he had no idea what to make of it, and instead, lept on the first pointless errand he could find to distract himself. Fortunately, pointless and Farouk went together like chocolate and peanut butter, and he could have kissed the FedEx delivery man who had come by with a package and a tailor made excuse to head into the city.

However, he had a quick errand to run on the way, which gave him the excuse to load up on coffee. Marie-Ange wasn't in her office as he passed, but he left her cup on her desk. Following that, his path took him into the self-named 'Weird Shit' section of the building, and he set the tray down on one side of Wanda's desk.

"Morning delivery."

"I do love that you bring goodies whenever you come by," Wanda replied, blowing Garrison a kiss as she reached for one. She'd been elbows deep in esoteric information - taking a break, really, from combing through the backlog of information that had amassed during Remy's absence. Treats and a friendly, non-Snow Valley face were a welcome sight.

Leaning back in her chair, she curved her hands around the drink and sighed as the heat absorbed into her fingers, cold from too many hours already logged on the computer. "Is this is personal visit or are these officially bribes?" she asked with a smile.

"Neither. Apparently Professor Farouk decided to use me as his mail drop between him and the utterly mad Red Rook of the London Hellfire Club." Garrison dug into his pocket and tossed a small FedEx package on the table. "I tried his cellphone but he's not answering. With you guys, I figure he's in the middle of something. Can you see that he gets that? Hampshire might be insane, but she generally doesn't pass along things that are useless."

"Garrison ... Farouk is not in the field," Wanda said slowly, reaching out a hand to poke at the FedEx package. "Or, to be precise, he is not in the field for us." She frowned sharply. "Amahl has never been the most stable person around but the lack of his personable wit has been noticed over the last day or so. Well. I noticed because I still had his drugs and he did not seem to be around to want them back."

She was also ridiculously, stupidly fond of the irritating man. Wanda would never forget his support during those dark days that had led her to Africa. "Let me buzz Amanda. I had dropped her a line about him but she was out of the office for most of the morning." Following up on her words, Wanda did so, dialing Amanda's extension and asking her to come over.

The blonde witch appeared about five minutes later, looking as tired as Wanda and Garrison both felt. The Brit had taken Remy's disappearance hard and had addressed it in her usual manner of working all hours to try and distract herself. She did manage a smile at the sight of the Canadian in Wanda's office.

"Hey, Boss Lady, hey Gar," she said, coming in and perching herself on a corner of Wanda's desk. "What brings you to Spies R Us?" She seemed to remember something. "Oh, and I have something for you in my desk. Birthday present. I completely forgot to give it to you in all the chaos and the getting shot and all."

"It happens. Hey, you know where Farouk is?" Kane said, suddenly getting a touch concerned. "I've got a package for him and now no one seems to have a clue. I don't know if it's urgent, but Hampshire doesn't usually send things without a good reason, so I doubt it's banana bread recipes and a pair of her old panties, you know?"

Wanda stopped touching the package and leaned back in her seat, frowning at Amanda. "I told him that we had noticed that he was not around only recently - has he said anything to you that was out of the ordinary? For Farouk, I mean."

Amanda considered the question, then shook her head. "He sent me some stuff on Egyptian resurrection cults, but that was weeks ago," she replied, frowning. "Other than that, not a peep. I mean, Farouk's balmy, but he's not stupid. Even at his most crazy, he knows to check in now and then so we know he's okay."

"Let me get this straight. You guys lost Farouk? Like a set of misplaced car keys?"

"What - we most certainly - !" Wanda spluttered for a moment and then scowled at Garrison. "Well, perhaps more like the office's drugged mascot has run away. The problem with Farouk is that he has never been the most stable person here and he tends to appear or disappear at a moment's notice. On top of the fact that most of the other staff develop the sudden desire to set him on fire whenever he spends enough time around them."

Despite her flippant words, she was obviously suddenly growing more concerned as she shared a look with Amanda. They had lost too much already - Farouk's whereabouts had to be determined and soon.

"If he's gotten himself eaten by an Elder demon again, I'm not going to let him hear the end of it," Amanda grumbled, although she was as concerned as Wanda. As nutty as the Professor was, she had to admit to a certain degree of... well, not fondness, but she did feel something that wasn't loathing for Farouk, rude old bastard that he was. "Doesn't matter now who lost who - obviously he's gone astray and we probably should find him. I can get Doug to track down where his last email came from, but that trail will be pretty cold by now."

"Why am I getting that feeling that this is going to lead to trouble and people shooting at me? It's Farouk. Farouk always leads to people shooting at me." Kane sighed and took a slug of his coffee.

"Where's your sense of adventure?" Amanda teased him, mostly tongue in cheek. The last time Farouk had gone missing, she'd been knocked through a wall into a train tunnel by a giant Warwolf. "Well, we're short on leads, except for the mystery box here. Seems to me like we should open it."

On that note, Wanda scooped up the package and quirked an eyebrow at Garrison. "If this contains something weird, I am not the one to blame," she said dryly. Even though it was years since the Christmas Incident, they all were still careful around unusual packages; she reached over and grabbed a letter opener and carefully slit open the top of the envelope before emptying it out on her desk.

A single photograph wafted down from the envelope to the table. Kane took a look at it and passed it over. "Is Farouk religious?" He said, revealing the photo of a cathedral.

The look on Wanda's face said it all as she moved the photograph to where she could view it at a better angle.

"Only in the sense he's religious about avoiding anything looking like a house of faith," Amanda replied wryly as she took the photograph from Wanda. She studied the picture, turning it over to see if anything was written on the back and holding it up to the light to see if there were any indents. Nothing but the picture. "Where is that, anyway? Looks European."

Wanda frowned at the picture as she stared down at it, trying to place it. Amanda was right in that it was European but churches were almost as prevalent as a pub; she studied the architecture first before switching over to what surrounded it.

"I think - hold on." She held up a finger as she swiveled her chair back to her computer and quickly brought up Google. Now that she knew what she was looking for, it was not hard to bring up some information. "The church is in Milan," she confirmed after a moment, turning the screen towards the other two so that they could see. "I have been in that square at least three or four times in my life."

"So, he gets sent a shot of a church in Milan from the Red Rook of the London Hellfire Club, and disappears before he can see it? I wonder if it's got anything to do with the Templars that had us before, in Israel." He shook off the stares. "Long story. I'll explain later. Does the church have anything to do with anything you guys are currently working on?"

Amanda shook her head slowly. "Not that I can think of, no," she replied, thoughtfully. "So it's likely to be one of his private projects." She paused. "Or Templars. I can't believe I just said that. Our lives are so completely fucked up."

"Right," Wanda sighed, "I have a sneaky feeling we should not tarry more than we can. Amanda, can you book some flights? I will pull up any information I can find regarding this church and if it has any ties to - anything less than savory. And also paw through Farouk's personal belonging's like the thief he often accuses me of being."

She tilted her head at Garrison and smiled, thinly. "I do not suppose you have any super sexy dates lined up, do you? Ever want to visit Milan?"

"Why does everyone feel the need to mock my love life? Oh hey, Garrison, how's your extremely single life today? Kane, you obviously don't have anything to do on Friday night but eat cheetos and watch 'Most Dangerous Catch'. Want to help us go look for a lost, old man who smells like a bus station ashtray? Yeah, sure, I'm free."

Amanda raised her eyebrow at the outburst. "Oooo-kay," she said slowly, before a grin appearing. "Looks like we're going on a road trip to save Farouk's arse." She paused. "Again."