Arden meets some of the powers that reign in Deadrock.
- 📖 A boisterous laughter filled the room.
"An old friend, eh. If you were so close, he would have advised you not to come. It all begins to make sense now." Merrick pulled the data-slate back closer to him.
"Three is company, I guess. Guards!" - 📖 Within seconds he was surrounded by guards, still sitting in his chair. Arden instinctively raised his hands. Best not to escalate the situation even more. He stood up and they put handcuffs onto him and shoved him to the exit.
"Pleasure, having done business with you Mr. Quinn."
He was taken to the same place he visited the first time he was on Deadrock. Only this time not as a visitor. - 📖 Arden was stripped first of his possessions and then his clothes. They all got put into a small crate, that was labelled and then disappeared into a storage. At least that is what Arden hoped. He got presented new clothes. Itching, heavy clothes in a light greyish color. Then they walked him to his cell and shoved him inside.
"You didn't get very far, did you?", a familiar voice asked from the shadows. - 📖 Cole Hammond emerged from the bottom bunk.
"I take it you have met the Arbitrator?", he asked as he began to stand up. Arden just nodded. He rembered Cole being tall, but most of his past interaction was sitting down. Shortly he was intimidated before he composed himself again.
"It either means something good or bad. My money, if I had any, is currently on bad." - 📖 In one regard Cole was right. It was bad. The food was bad. The other company was bad. The outlook was bad. If and how this had to do with the Arbitrator, Arden didn't know. He didn't even know why he was here exactly.
'Wrong place at the wrong time.'' The words Cole said the first time they had met, lingered in his mind. - 📖 There was not much to do. They were kept in their cells like animals in cages. Food was delivered on small plastic trays, the only constant Arden could use as some measurement of time. Conversation ran dry after some days. Then there was only silence to contemplate and wait.
Heavy footsteps announced the arrival of a guard. There was some commotion from the other cells down the hall to find out where they were headed.
"Arden Quinn, you have a visitor!" - 📖 Two more guards arrived and put Arden into shackles. Then he was escorted to a small room, that contained a metal table and two chairs. A similar room, maybe even the same, when he first arrived here. A sense of déjà -vu overcame Arden, but this time he saw the situation from the other side.
Karthik sat in one of the chairs, feet up on the table.
"15 minutes!", the guard shouted and then left the room.