The phone rang.
Rang again.
And again.
Derek stepped into a room covered with phones, clothes, wires and parts of old motorcycles. He was huge, and filled the room with an angry presence. Despite the mess, he knew exactly where to head – throwing a pile of oily, and bloody, rags from the phone.
The Red Phone.
It hadn’t rung for years. It had never rung, in fact. They had better ways to get in touch with each other. His hand hovered over the receiver before he yanked it up.
“Who is this?” He snarled.
A woman’s voice answered, light, friendly. “Hi, I need you and your boys to do a job with me.”
Derek was confused. “I asked who is cal-”
“It’s a simple interference run – something that I’m sure you’re very familiar with.”
“Lady – I have no idea what you are talking about. How did you get this number?” There was silence for a while. “Are you there?”
“Yes, yes. I just had to check I had the right number. I never misdial but there’s a first time for everything.” She went silent again. When she spoke her voice sounded quieter, as if talking to someone else. “Ok….uh huh, yah – that’s what I thought. Ok, thanks.” She spoke to Derek once more. “Right, where were we. Oh yes, you’re going to run interference for me on a job.”
There was a knock at the door.
“Lady – I don’t know what you’re talking about, I don’t know how you got this number, but I’m going to put this phone down now, and I suggest you don’t call it again.”
“That knock at the door,” she continued. “Will be your mission briefing. It will tell you everything you need to know. It takes 20 minutes to watch – I should know, I made it. I’ll call you in 40.”
She hung up.
Derek looked at the receiver in his hand, horrified. Someone knew the number to the phone, and his address.
He was sweating. He hung up the phone and went to his front door. None of his alarms had gone off. Nor any of his mines. He pulled the door open.
Sitting on his doorstep was a small, black cube.
He picked it up and turned it over in his hands. There was a screen on once side, on either side of the screen one side was taken up with a speaker. His fingers hit a switch as he turned the cube over and the screen burst into life.
“Hello, Derek. I’m the Dread Pirate Roberts and I would like to hire you and the Veterans of Disorder. I trust this won’t be a problem.”
Derek looked at the shadowing figure on the screen and realised he was grinning.
