The Burning Fire Rises - Chapter 2
The Man In White
Mathers eyed this new individual with scrutiny. He had never encountered him in the past. Yet, the others in the room seemed as if they knew of him. The three people in charge stayed quiet as the man in white folded his arms and reclined against the glass. A certain regard was given to him as if he was the President, although he was not even close to that. It was fascinating to witness the three of them completely silent once he began to speak.
“Darkk was, and still is, our primary target.” The black gentleman in white stated calmly. “And while I don’t doubt the other case, which was the reason for your initial investigation, was just as, if not critical to resolve, the report was also mainly to include your assessment of the mysterious and elusive man known only as Professor Darkk.”
John Mathers motioned to a chair nearby as if seeking permission to sit. The man in white merely nodded in response. The agent dragged the chair to the front of the table and sat down cautiously. He thought carefully about how to explain his behavior and the report. As he ruminated on the thought, the man in white moved away from the window and rested on the front part of the desk. The two men were now near enough for a one on one, with the others paying close attention from behind.
Mathers wiped his lips as he attempted to remember the details they all wanted so badly.
“Where to even begin?” He murmured to himself under his breath.
As detailed as the report was, from his own account, there were, of course, some slight redactions he felt were unnecessary. They were rather fantastical, and probably something many in this room would find beyond absurd. But the question in his mind on how best to explain those certain events or witnessed moments just didn’t seem possible to articulate. Words alone just didn’t do it any justice. The man in white grew impatient, and pursed his lips in frustration.
“Just tell us what happened.” The man in white spoke with a fatherly inflection. “Start at the beginning if you have to. But don’t bog it down in the usual FBI protocol mumbo-jumbo nonsense. I’m much too old to keep up with all that extra fluffy embellishing.”
“Look, I’m sorry, but…” John finally managed to ask. “Who the hell are you? I mean, I know the Director and these two, but I don’t even know what branch you're with. Are you part of another the Government? Or the Secret Service? I mean, who are you to me?” He gestured lightly, giving a thumb to the others. “Or them…”
“Who I am and what I do is not important for right now.” The man stated coldly.
“Really…” Mathers cocked a brow mockingly. “Cause it’s important to me.”
“Watch yourself, Mathers…” The Director warned him.
The man in white gave the Director a quick glance, showing a disapproving gaze. It caused him to slowly concede and offered a brief apology. Mathers watched that moment with interest and allowed the man in white to continue.
“Let’s just say that I am an authority figure of the highest level,” he said, turning his gaze back on Mathers with a pleasant smile. “More than anyone else should ever know. Including, I might add, the President. Understand? To everyone here, in this room and the other branches of the government, I do not exist. By the end of this meeting, you too are under oath, that you neither saw nor heard of me. For all intended purposes—I was never here. Is that understood?”
John looked over to the Director and the others. One by one they nodded as his eyes met theirs. Was it fear or something else? Each of them seemed rather assertive that he obey without question. But why? Who is he to them? Mathers had once delved deep into the FBI files a few times in the archives and discovered a few ‘secrets’ that made him question a few things.
As the head of the department of special cases, he was the lone investigator for dealing with strange and rather unusual mysteries; bizarre abductions, monstrous mutilations, alien sightings, and whatever the agency deemed to be more in-line with his area of expertise. Other agents teased him constantly about it, referring his department to a certain tv show of the nineties. One that dealt with similar, if not rather far-fetched, unbelievable theories of Hollywood creation. Of course, that never really bothered him much. He could take a joke just as much as they dished it out.
However, there were some restricted files he managed to find, ones that required a higher ranking to clear. That piqued his interest. Those files led to deeper unsolved matters, conspiracies, and a string of theories that intertwined with other cases of the past. It started to make sense now, especially with this man in white before him. He once told a colleague, the links of a central overseer beyond all other systems of government in America was a possibility; a single purveyor of the multi-agency hub that had full control and answered to no one. John loved conspiracies. So much so that most of his time was devoted to trying to uncovering their sources and truths.
It was a challenge for the people close to him to comprehend this kind of job, which seemed more like a hobby than a serious profession. All those strange cases and wild theories it made them question his sanity, causing them to worry if he was doing some type of mind-altering drug experiment. Yet here was someone, right now in front of him, that cemented all those outlandish theories of his. Someone that commanded all the agencies and beyond. Was he surprised by it? Not anymore it seemed.
“Continue, if you please.” The white suited man gestured to him.
“Um, ok.” John quipped lightly, “But for the record, I want you to know that I did my best to pry into–Professor Darkk, if that is indeed his real name.” He rolled his eyes slightly. “Believe me, I was as skeptical as all of you, until—of course, I was introduced into their rather odd and mysterious world.”
“They?” The man in white quizzically glared.
“Professor Darkk, and his student…”
“Student?” The Director inquired. “What student? Wait… you mean the woman you mentioned in the report? The one he’s with?”
“Yes…” John hesitantly replied. He noted the group whispering to each other and nodding in response. Something stirred them up when he mentioned the student. The man in white held out his hand to them to quiet the chatter.
“She was there with him?” He asked. “You were with her and witnessed their actions together?”
“Well… yeah.” He shrugged. “Wherever he goes, she’s there with him. Why?”
For a bunch of top-level spies steeped in knowing everything and everyone, he seemed a bit taken back they all were surprised by the woman’s involvement. The Director quickly took lead, moving over to John’s chair and confronting him inches away from his face.
“Why? Why is that important?” The Director yelled. “Come on, what did I just say about all the facts a minute ago? You didn’t even give us any intel on her in that useless report you gave us!”
“I thought I did.” He nervously replied. “I mentioned her name at the end.”
“Are you hindering this investigation, Agent Mathers?” The CIA official spoke, “That’s a serious offence, in my book, son. Maybe suspension and some god damn time in a secluded cell on a far destination is in order for ya.”
“Wonderful…. looks like another fine recruitment job at the FBI, eh Bill?” The NSA man mocked at the Director.
“Shove it Bob!” The Director snarled back. “I’ve seen some of your screw ups and they’re just as bad if not worse.”
“Enough!” The man in white shouted.
He stood up in anger and pointed at them all to be quiet. Like a parent over some unruly children, his authority made them all retreat to their seats in silence. He took a minute to recover and pointed at Mathers.
“From now on, Agent Mathers, you will include all the details, especially about this woman. Understand?” The white suited man continued to point at him. “No more holding back. Give us the truth, all of it—right now.”
“All this for her?” Thought Mathers.
He would have assumed the Professor was of more importance, or even the other individual he’d been investigating. He could see for the first time he had a leg up on them all. And he was more than willing to spill the beans about Professor Darkk’s accomplice. But another thought occurred to him.
“Maybe there’s a way I can turn the table as well?”
Mathers figured the man in white was hiding something too, maybe a lot of something. It would be the perfect leverage to press him about what he knew in return. Why not give it a try? It never hurts to try. At least that’s what he always believed.
“Ok sure, yeah… I’ll give you what I know about the student.” He stated to them. “But before we proceed with this interrogation, I have to know something myself.”
“You’re making demands? To us?!” Donovan growled. “That’s ballsy, son. Titanic sized!”
“That’s right, Bob!” He glared back. “You want answers? That’s what I’m asking.”
“All right, so then, what is it you’d like to know, John?” The man in white asked with a raised brow.
“Why me?”
“What do you mean?” The man in white shrugged with a slight confusion.
“I did some digging of my own before I came here. And I discovered that this is not the first time you’ve tried to hook up an agent to his side. There have been dozens if not hundreds of ones sent to question him. But always nothing came of it. For years after that you didn’t try to approach him. Then suddenly, you give me the ok as if you knew. You knew he’d be fine with me. Why?”
The man in white smiled slightly, he liked John Mathers and it showed. The approving grin seemed to give the man reason enough to calm down. There was a small pause in thought and then he nodded to the other men sitting behind. With a slight gesture of dismissal of his hand, they quickly responded by getting up to leave. This surprised John a great deal and seemed stunned by their sudden departure.
It was far too quick a judgement for them. One minute screaming at him for answers, the next, out the door and saying nothing. Once the door shut behind them, the man in white looked back at him and sighed.
“You want answers, I understand, John. Why don’t you tell me – only me - what happened. And maybe I can shed some light onto why it had to be you and not some other carbon copy agent within this bureau. Deal?”
“You’re not going to ask me to sign it in blood or anything are you?“
The man in white laughed at his response. Mathers still managed to keep his sense of humour despite the tense moment between them. And perhaps that was a good thing for both of them. The mood in the room had been so serious it needed a moment to deflate from all that tension. A hearty chuckle was exactly what was needed to relax the nerves and give Mathers a chance to breathe. The man in white followed in his example and finished the punchline.
“No, no, I’m good… besides, forensics would have a field day trying to occupy the Director’s office that long without him going ballistic.”
“True dat!” The agent responded with a giggle. But then he paused in thought, “But kidding aside, about Professor Darkk, can you just give me some idea of what you know of him already? I mean, everybody’s anus keeps puckering up every time I mention either him or that woman.”
“But you know why of course.”
“I know I do.” He smirked. “So fill me in and maybe I can help smooth out the other detail gaps all of you seem to be missing.”
The black man gave it a thought, stood up and walked over to the window with a blank expression. He took a long gaze out of it for a few seconds, as if to think carefully about what to divulge to this quirky special agent. Mathers could almost feel the hesitancy to share anything about it or of what they knew. Understandable, of course. You don’t keep secrets this long by telling everyone who simply asks. John waited patiently for the response.
“Who is Professor Darkk? Who is Miss Shadow?” The man in white finally uttered, “And what are they protecting us from? Questions many have been trying to solve for sometime. They have been everywhere and in every place of the world you could possibly think of. Governments of every nation have tried to recruit the Professor for their needs. But he is a man that cannot be told what to do. Yet, there was a time he chose to work for us…” He glanced back to see John’s reaction. He could see the special agent was listening with interest, yet his blank expression showed he wasn’t surprised by the fact. “ Yes, he’s worked with us before – as I’m sure he no doubt told you – but then there was a bit of a misunderstanding and well… he soon refused to work with us after that. Since then he’s been under the radar or managed to avoid our agencies when they’ve shown up. We’ve never really crossed paths with him for a very long time.”
“Until now, with me…” John replied.
“Yes,” He answered back with a slight nod. “He’s found you to be ‘his’ person of interest. And for that reason, we chose you—or rather, I chose you to be the official liaison for us. I had a feeling he’d be interested in this case. Once I got wind of your interaction with him about it. And no doubt maybe even you. For some rather obvious reasons.”
“Obvious?” John snorted. “How so?”
“You’re very good at your job. A little too good perhaps.”
“I’m flattered.” Mathers smirked. “But come on…”
“I’ve seen your file, John.” He said in a serious tone. “The cases you’ve done, the many odd jobs they gave you to investigate, and other assignments many others would have written off as dead ends. It’s impressive. The accuracy is amazing. Which I’m sure Professor Darkk noticed almost as quick as well.”
He had nothing to say about that. He managed to solve nearly every one of those cases given to him, looked into many mysterious disappearances, and it was like he had one hell of an instinct for figuring things out. Nobody took notice of that in the bureau, not even the Director, who just admitted a few moments ago that it was pretty much ‘basic’ work in the agency. The man in white saw past all that. He knew there was more to Special Agent John Mathers. It peaked his interest and this so-called Professor’s as well. He wanted answers and pressed Mathers for more.
“Just explain to me what happened when you were with them, how you met and all the things you didn’t give to these guys in your ‘so called’ report. You want answers…I need your complete report unaltered.”
“That’s a lot of typing to do right now.” Mathers quipped. “I doubt you have that kind of time to wait.”
“Ok then…” The man coyly smirked. “Give it to me verbally, it seems your mouth doesn’t get tired shooting out the details at least.”
“Ouch,“ John retorted. “That phaser was set on stun. Guess my shields should have been up.”
“Enough,” The man held up his hand. “Stop with the snappy jabs and spill it all ready.”
The smile soon left his face and the mood once again became intense. It was John’s turn to act all stoic. He stood up and circled the room casually. He rubbed the back of his neck in frustration and gazed back at the white dressed man with a careful eye. Could he trust him? Who was he anyhow? He never answered that, not really, not that would satisfy that damn ‘conspiracy type’ mind of his. He wandered over to the opposite side of the desk, sat casually down upon it and continued to keep his glare fixed onto him.
“I don’t even know where to start.” John breathed out.
“Then – “ The man in white focused on him. “Let’s begin when you met him at the site. The case you were assigned just outside of Michigan, correct? I believe that is as good as a place to start as any.”
Mathers nodded in agreement and returned to the chair. “Might as well get comfortable.” He thought. “This could take awhile.” He gave a long reserved sigh and leaned back. The man in white sat in the Director’s chair, folded his hands together and placed them on top of the table - he waited with anticipation.
“I didn’t want the assignment. Not at first…” John said laughingly. “I got tired of these calls about weird shit the others couldn’t figure out. I just wanted a break from it, you know? But once I heard what it was about, it triggered my interest for sure. I figured - what the hell, right? One more and I’ve filled my quota for the year. Besides, it sounded like something that might be easy for me to sign off on.”
“But it was more than that.” The man in white stated back.
Mathers nodded in response. He continued to laugh slightly about it, trying to compose his thoughts and explain fully. But then a sense of seriousness washed over his face as the memory started to return. He was now ready to begin as the black man watched him with a careful eye.
“It was so bizarre.” Mathers scoffed. “I get why they called me on it. But you know, the funny thing of it is, the one thing I most remember about it, was the smell when I first arrived…”