| A game of chess |
[26 Nov 2004|02:24pm] |
William Carruthers woke up late, and looked around his bedroom. He had eaten well the past couple nights, now that Destiny was back home, and he had read into the wee small hours before drifting off into contented sleep. Des would be out now, and so Will would make his own lunch then settle in to send his next report to the Council.
Jason Toren smiled, looking at Carruthers’s house. He had been in Vegas and Searchlight for the past few weeks, and had been waiting for just the right moment to pay a visit to this particular resident. Swinging his briefcase gently, Toren walked to the door, and rang the bell.
Will heard the bell ring and put his sandwich down. Hm. Not expecting anyone. Maybe Em has wandered by. Maybe Matthew to check up on this vampire he’s looking into. Or Jordan. It would be nice to see her. But the person on the other side of the door was not one of these people. It was someone vaguely familiar, although Will couldn’t place the face. “Hello. Can I help you?”
‘You don’t remember me? Oh, Will, I’m hurt.” Jason flicked out his right hand and slid a business card out, handing it to William.
“Toren. Of course. Wolfram & Hart’s little whipping boy from Colombia. What do you want?”
“Oh, nothing much. A little talk, that’s all. Maybe a game. Can I come in?”
“A game? What are you talking about?” William looked him over, and then shook his head. “You can come in. But, just make sure you know, I could probably take you in little time.”
“We’d have to see, but I won’t argue with a man in his own house.” As Will stepped aside, Jason walked in, and headed over to the couch. He sat opposite the chair and placed his briefcase on the coffee table. “As for a game…” Jason opened the case, and pulled out a chess set. “You play, I assume.”
“I do. I’ve never actually played chess with an evil lawyer before, but there’s a first time for everything.” Will sat down in his chair, and watched as Toren set up the board. “So, as if I have to ask, what brings you to Searchlight?”
“A little gossip and all that. The same thing that brought you, I assume. The fact that there’s a higher concentration of occult power and personage here then just about anywhere in the world right now.” Jason looked up at William, and gestured at the board. “You’re playing white, of course, so you go first.”
William looked at the board and brought the queen’s knight out. “And Wolfram & Hart have an interest in such things, of course.”
“Of course.” Jason moved a pawn out.
“And they sent you because… why? Our previous dealings?”
“Do you know what the Senior Partners think of failure, Carruthers? They don’t like it.”
The two began moving pieces, slowly, carefully, feeling each other out. Testing knowledge, strategy, and the like.
Will looked up at Jason after moving his bishop out and taking one of Toren’s pawns. “I’ve heard something like that.”
“Well, when I returned from Colombia without the girl, the Senior Partners were not pleased. I was on my up, Carruthers, believe me. And because of you getting…” Jason’s knight swept out, and snapped up one of William’s pawns, “clever, I lost face. And that can nearly cost you your face in my line of work.”
“Then maybe you’re working for the wrong people.” William looked over the board and smiled to himself. Mate in fifteen moves.
“A little late for that. But, anyway, I went back to my nice comfy New York offices, and I got a nasty surprise. Seems that, as punishment for failing, I was getting sent to this flyspeck on the map.” Jason moved his queen out, taking William’s with it, but William quickly swept in and took Jason’s queen with his rook. It was an unorthodox move, switching all the board positions. Jason smiled widely. ‘Mate in thirteen.”
“We’ll see.” William looked at the board, his mind thrown by Toren’s demeanor. “And why are you telling me this? Is this some plea for help?”
Jason actually laughed at that comment, and at William’s move, repositioning his rook to protect his king. “I think you don’t understand me, and a lot of people, Carruthers. You don’t have to be a vampire or a demon to be evil. Some of us just like making people suffer.” Jason positioned his bishop. “Check.”
William moved his king over a space positioning it behind a guard of pawns and his own bishop. “So, why are you here?”
“I’m here to tell you there’s nothing you can do.” Jason moved is knight. “Check. You hurt my chances, Carruthers, and I’m going to hurt you. You can do your best to stop me, but you won’t.”
William felt lost. He didn’t know what Toren’s next move would be anymore, placing him entirely on the defensive, a position that was not good to be in. “You don’t scare me. I have friends in this town. Allies.”
“So do I. And you lost a lot of good will during that whole Azazel thing. I’ve done my research. You can go tell everyone about the big bad boogie man from Wolfram & Hart, and they’ll believe you. But they’ll have too much on their minds soon enough to really care.”
Will sat up straighter, and narrowed his eyes. ‘What does that mean?”
“Oh, nothing, nothing. You’ll see. I’m telling you all this because I want you to see it coming. You’re going to watch (that’s what you Watcher’s do, isn’t it?) everything all you and your wimpy good little friends built crumble. And you’ll know who’s behind it, but you won’t be able to touch me. And when things are at their lowest, their worst, I’ll be back, and I’ll just laugh at you as you fall apart. Oh, and,” Jason reached out with his right hand and flicked over William’s king with his index finger, “Checkmate.”
William looked at the board, and then at Toren, who was sitting and smiling like the cat who ate the canary. “Congratulations. And you can believe what you want, but you won’t win in the long run.”
Jason stood up and gathered the chess set, putting it back in his briefcase. “Oh, we’ll see, we’ll see. Good game by the way. I’ll show myself out. Have a great day.” Jason whistled quietly as he headed out, shutting William’s door as he left.
William sat and thought about what Toren had said. He wanted to just write it all off as a lie, as a game that the lawyer was playing. But somehow, he couldn’t. And that sent a chill up his spine that did not go away for some hours.
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devious
restless