Iris Loganna
Chapter Six

Iris sat on the roof beside the park, peering down at the grounds below. Then she held up her wrist, looked at the time, and then looked at the sky. High noon. Looking back down, she saw a man come out from the side. He stood there and seemed to be looking around, and Iris knew that it was her man.

“Hello, Arthur,” she murmured to herself before spreading her wings to full span and leaping off the edge.

Dominick turned quickly as he saw something moving in his peripheral vision. Iris landed, looking as demonic as she did before, but then put her wings down as she realized who it was.

“Dominick?”

“Iris?”

“What are you doing here? I was expecting,”

“The man you were expecting is dead.”

Iris was stunned silent for a second. “What? How do you know this?”

“I saw it. As I entered the room, I noticed that Genievo was hunched over something hidden beside his file cabinet. Or what he thought was hidden. I saw two scorched shoes, and as I stepped closer, I saw that it was a man that had been burnt to death. He didn’t notice me seeing him because he was pulling out these files as I stepped back.”

“He must still have his flame-throwing powers then.”

“He told me to give you these before I took a tour of the place.”

“A tour?”

“I told him that I was on the board of directors, and was there to see him about his distribution process.”

“Oh, no. Why did you tell him that? He’s the head of the board, and knows an imposter when he sees one.”

“Oh.”

“Let me see the files.” She told him, holding out her hand. Dominick handed them to her, and she flipped through them quickly. “These aren’t from his computer history. These are junk files, and paid bill paperwork.”

“Well, I can’t go back now.”

“Why not?”

“If he’s the kind of crook you make him out to be, then he’ll want to see me die from his window there.” He motioned up with his eyes, and Iris followed his glance. “You know what? I think you may be right. He has a tendency to do that sort of thing anyway. Alright, play dead.” “What?”

“When I pounce on you, I want you to go limp and not move a muscle or say a single word. You have your other clothes?”

“In the briefcase.”

“Okay. I’m going to slit your upper chest so that when we fly by his window, it’ll look like I killed you, and it will confirm my existence.”

“You better hurry and do it then, because he expects it to be done quickly.” Iris didn’t say another word and went right to it.

Genievo watched from his window, just as they said, and flinched as he thought that “Donavan” hit the ground hard. “Ooo. That must have been unpleasant,” he said to himself. Then Iris picked Dominick up and flew up towards his window. He backed up a couple steps, thinking she was going to bust through the glass and start the war early, but she just flew on by, showing him the blood. Genievo smirked, and went back to his work, but then remembered something. “Didn’t I rip those off her?” He looked back at the window in question. “I don’t remember anyone’s growing back. Even after a thousand years,” he thought.

“You can move now,” Iris said kind of struggling to keep his weight up. Hearing the strain in her voice, Dominick stiffened, allowing her to wrap her tail around him, and hold him properly. “Thank you.” She said, relieved. “So what now?” he asked after flying for a few minutes. “Well we’re gonna have to fix up that cut, and then plan our way from there. But there is one thing I need you to do.” “What’s that?” “Would you mind closing your eyes until we land?”

“Alright.”

“Can I trust you?”

“Yes, you can trust me. I’m not peeking.”

“Okay.” She responded and flew her way back to her cave.

They flew for 15 minutes before they landed. “Here we are,” Iris said, hinting that Dominick could open his eyes again. He did so as he felt her tail slide off of him. “Now this is a very top-secret hideout, and no one must know of it.” “Understood,” he said playfully. Iris smiled and then turned so she could see where she was placing her hand, and he watched as she opened the door. She turned back, still smiling, and held out her hand. “Come on.” Dominick took her hand and was led inside. “Wow. This is quite the hideout. You live here?” “Yup. Have ever since I was little. Come on; this way.” Iris pulled him along down the hall, and to the hospital room. “Sit here.” She pointed to a medical bed, and then called for Charles. “Charles.” The television screen went fuzzy as he entered the room. “Mistress. How may I assist you?” “Can you pull out the peroxide and iodine?”

“Indeed, I can.” Dominick sat in aw, but also thought that that was pretty cool. “You said you just found technology. You didn’t say it was anything like that.”

“I said that I found technology nobody else has found. That’s what I said.” Dominick smiled as Iris turned to get some cotton balls. “Now um…I need you to change, but keep your shirt off so I can get to the wound.” She hesitated before she then said, “There’s a little changing area right there.” Iris pointed to a little door in the wall. Dominick stood, grabbing the briefcase she brought along and went into the room. “So that’s Dominick?” Charles asked after pulling the medicine shelf out from the low set of cabinets. Iris sighed. “Yes. That’s him.”

“I see why you like him so much now.”

“Charles.”

“I do. He’s tall, broad in the shoulders, and very good looking, from a woman’s perspective. However, I do have to question his baldness.”

“Charles. Behave, he might hear you.”

“I’m sorry, mistress, but it’s true.”

“Well I don’t mind, and you can’t say anything about it.” The two of them were silent for a moment before Charles then asked, “Is he old?” Iris would have slapped his shoulder if he was a real person. “Charles,” but before she could finish, Dominick came out of the little room, and she unintentionally began to stare. Then Charles made the shelf hit her side, and she came back. “Take, take a seat. I’ll be there in a moment.” He did so, and she lowered her voice to a whisper as she spoke to Charles. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He whispered back.

She placed her hands apart on the counter, and breathed out of her mouth, trying to keep it together.

“It’s okay, Iris. Just think of it as you fixing your uncle.”

“Ewe, no. I’ll just face it for what it is, and not lose it.” Charles then made his voice back in the regular indoor voice. “Well, will there be anything else, mistress?” She just slyly looked up at the screen, giving him the look. “I’ll say no more. Good to finally meet you, Dominick.” He said just before he disappeared. Iris went to say something, but he had already gone. “Shall we continue?” Dominick asked kindly. Iris brought it together, and then grabbed what she needed, and turned around. “Quite.” Bringing over the cotton pads, and the peroxide, she then told him, “I’m going to spray this on you, and it’s going to be cold and maybe sting a little.” “Go right ahead.” Then she set the sprayer to her desired spray stream, and then squirted the wound she had made before. He shivered as the cold set on his warm skin but did nothing more as she dabbed the extra off and continued to work.

Not a word was spoken between the two of them for the next ten minutes, and she just continued to work, grateful that he hadn’t said anything. “Oh.” She said, seeing the small cut on his shoulder. “Where’d that come from?” “Genievo gave it to me. It was to, quote-unquote, influence me to do as he asked before we did anything.”

“With his nail?”

“Knife.”

“Oh, well that little thing will be taken care of in a jiffy.” As she dabbed it with peroxide and Neosporin, Dominick spoke up. “Thank you.” She looked at him. “What for?” “Well, you just patched me up and sewed me back together. I think that deserves some thanks.” She looked back as she stuck on the sheer bandage. “Oh. Well, you’re welcome.” She pressed the last of the bandage down and then faced him again. “There you go. All better.” Dominick brought his shoulder forward to see what she did. “Nice work doc.” Iris giggled, and he chuckled a little bit.

Then as Iris went to put the medical supplies away, Dominick stood and stood close behind her; grabbing her shoulders and smelling her sweet aroma of rose and eucalyptus. She turned her head and closed her eyes in pleasure as he bent his neck and kissed her neck. It wasn’t long before she held up her hand, and held the side of his head. Then she turned around at her own will and gazed into his eyes. Dominick pushed back her hair like he did when they first met but held his hand behind her ear for a while before she came forward.

“Everything alright in here?” Charles interrupted, causing her to pull back, and him to look over at the screen. Dominick sighed and then answered for her. “Yes, everything’s fine.” Charles smiled and then left again. “We should get back to work,” Iris said embarrassed and quiet. As she walked out, Dominick went back into the small room to get his shirt. Putting it on, he looked at himself in the mirror, and said, “Good breaks. Good breaks,” and walked out again. However, not seeing which way Iris went after exiting the Hospital room, he stood there and looked in both directions. Then a hand grabbed his wrist and pulled him to the right. Iris laughed as he just about tripped on her, but continued walking to her planning room with him in hand.

“So what’s the plan of action?” Dominick asked as he leaned on the table he’d only seen in things like Avatar or Star Wars. Iris played with some buttons that made the table holograms change so they looked like Genievo’s newspaper building, and 6 blocks from either side of it. “Well his house, here,” she zoomed in on a house that looked to be 3 blocks from the main building, “is pretty well protected, so we can’t get him here.” “Just how protected?” Dominick asked. Iris made the image larger and pointed out all the security cameras and laser beams that detected motion when crossed; all were both inside and out. “I see.” “So there’s no breaking into his house. However,” she made the image go back to the main building. “His office space and the building, in general, has a rather poor security system. Only because he figures that no one would want to steal paper, pens, and ink cartridges.”

“Right.”

“So…instead of bringing the fight to his doorstep,” she highlighted a way into the building that wouldn’t be detected from any outside system, “we bring it to his office when he’s least expecting it.”

“Very good mistress. An ingenious theory, I might add.” Charles said. “Thank you, Charles. The only thing is that we have to do it when he’s just arrived without people on the outside spotting us going into the side air shaft.” Dominick thought for a moment and then had an idea. “I think I’d be able to handle that.” Iris cocked her head at him with question. “How so?” “I have more friends than you think with talents for directing everyone’s attention.”

“Okay. We just need to replace out the earliest he clocks in so that we can be there either just before or just after he gets in his office.” At that very moment, the both of them looked at Charles at the same time, at the same speed. Charles knew that he was needed, but not for anything he liked to do. “No. No, no, no. I won’t do it.” Iris gave him a look he knew only too well, so he did what he was wished to do.

Thankfully for him, Genievo had just locked up and left the building. Charles turned on Genievo’s computer, and quickly looked through the logging times, and then quickly turned it off and went back to the planning room. “It seems the earliest he logs in is 6:45 am.” “Thank you, Charles. You’re so helpful.”

“Hmm,” Charles muttered as if he was saying, “Yah right.” Then Iris looked back at the hologram and scanned the terrain. “We might be able to slip in unnoticed if we take this path here.” She held an electronic pointer and highlighted a back road that slimly led to the side of the building where they could get in. “But there’s still no guarantee that we’ll not be seen.” “I’ll just give my buddies a call. They’ll settle it to where we won’t get caught.”

“At 6:40?”

“They tell me to call them and they’ll be where I ask at any time and any place.”

“Huh.”

“They’re all-nighters, so they’re ready for anything whenever.”

“Oh. Well, I don’t think they’ll need to do anything out of the ordinary because not that many people are up at that hour.”

“You’d actually be surprised, Iris. Sometimes that street is pretty full of people and cars because so many office buildings run along that road. Not enough to have early morning traffic, but there’d be enough people to notice things.”

“I see. Well, you might as well give them a call, and have them set an appointment for 6:35, 6:40 on Monday. This way we get three days of extra planning.”

“I’ll give them a call right now.”