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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Old Drew Id" data-source="post: 1386341" data-attributes="member: 12175">Episode II – Session I - EvasionEpisode II – Session I - EvasionBrother Guyzell Cooper watched Joe pull his hat down hard over his ears, and put on his black trench coat,  before turning to let Guyzell inspect the results. The poor boy looked ridiculous with that weird shapeless hat pulled down over his head like that, but there was nothing to do about that at this point, so he responded kindly, “Joseph…um, yes…you look fine.”Joe grinned and grabbed the bag of comic books from trunk of the car while Guyzell grabbed his trusty King James. They headed across the parking lot to the entrance. The building was one of several older brick warehouses that had been converted for office or light-industrial use in the early nineties. There were no windows on the first three floors, and the only visible entrance was a non-descript metal door guarded by a camera and an intercom. A small stainless steel sign near the door bore the initials R.G.I.Joe hit the intercom button and yelled into the microphone, “Hello! Special delivery!”Guyzell rolled his eyes and looked up at the camera. He could hear the high-pitched whirring sound as it focused in on them. After a moment it whirred again, and then it must have gotten messed up, because it just kept whirring and trying to focus without stopping. Guyzell turned back to Joe to point it out to him, but Joe was already watching the camera and grinning. He caught Guyzell’s eye and winked, then pointed at his ‘magic hat’. Guyzell sighed.The intercom hissed and then spoke, “Yes?”Joe yelled into the microphone, “Open up! Special delivery!”There was a good five-second pause before the voice answered. “We don’t accept deliveries after the close of business.”Joe looked to Guyzell for guidance. Guyzell whispered, “Tell him who it’s for.”Joe yelled into the microphone again, “It’s for a Mr. Sanders!”The voice paused again, and then returned, “You’ll have to wait until the morning.”Joe yelled again, “This is important! It’s of a personal nature for Mr. Sanders!”Another pause. This one went on for almost ten seconds. Finally, “Fine. I can page him. Please wait there.”Another minute passed. With a loud clanking sound, the door swung open. A tired-looking redheaded man in a lab coat stood there. He reached for the bag that Joe was holding and spoke in a low monotone, “I’ll take that.”Joe snatched the bag back behind his back and narrowed his eyes, asking “And you are…?”The man paused, apparently more than a little confused by the whole affair. He turned to look over at Guyzell for some type of guidance in dealing with Joe. Guyzell wondered silently to himself how anyone accomplished anything without him around to help out; then grinned amiably and extended his hand to the man, “Sir, my name’s Brother Guyzell Cooper. Pleased to meet you!” The man pulled back from Guyzell’s hand like he might pull back from a snake. He raised his hands defensively and apologized, “Sorry, have to maintain clean room conditions, you understand?” He turned back to Joe and sighed lightly, “May I ask what you have in the bag there?”Joe nodded and grinned openly. He proffered the bag again, but kept it just out of reach. “Special delivery for Mr. Sanders.”The red-headed man seemed less than amused, “May I ask what it is?”Joe’s eyebrow furrowed again. “Are you Mr. Sanders?”The man paused again and seemed to consider the question. He tried a different tack, “Did he request this delivery? Mr. Sanders is unavailable. I can take it for him.”Joe responded by imitating a game-show buzzer sound for an annoying four full seconds. “I’m sorry. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”Guyzell judged that the man’s annoyance level was rising to a dangerous level. He decided it was time to step in. He offered in his friendliest tone, “We have to get a signature and such, sir. That kind of thing. I’m sure you understand. Say, can you tell me when he might be coming back around?”The good-courier-bad-courier tactic seemed to work. The man ignored Joe again and seemed to loosen up a little to Guyzell. However his response was still less than forthcoming: “I expect that he'll be delayed for an indeterminate amount of time.”Guyzell probed, “I see…well is he out of town? Is he here?”The questions hit a wall: “I’m sorry, I really can't share that information.”The response was unexpected, but Cooper recovered quickly and beamed his friendliest good-ole-boy smile, “Now, come on there, you can share that with me - we really need to know where he might be at. From what we know, this is a very important delivery.  We just want to make sure it gets to him in a most expeditious manner. Just trying to do the best thing here, you know?”The red-headed man considered for a moment. His voice was flat when he responded, “Why don’t you gentlemen step inside?”. . .The lobby was a small and uninviting white room with no chairs and two unlabelled metal doors leading off to the left and right. In front of them, two armed security guards were bending over a bank of security monitors fiddling with the TV cables. A moment after he and Joe entered the room, Guyzell heard one of the guards curse, “…wait, now that one’s okay and the lobby camera is doing it! Must be a short in the circuit…”The redheaded man disappeared for a moment through the door on their right, while Guyzell and Joe stood sheepishly in the small white room. One of the security guards brushed past them carrying a stool. While they waited for their contact to return, the guard stood up on the stool and fiddled with the camera mounted on the ceiling. Joe snickered and pulled his hat down tighter on his head. A moment later, the red-headed man appeared again and invited them into the next hallway. They followed him down a long hallway through a maze of doors and corridors into a windowless conference room. He left them there again and closed the door behind him. A small security camera in the corner of the room began to whirr noisily.Joe eyed the chairs and table in the room with a great deal of suspicion before unceremoniously dumping himself into the chair at the end of the table. Guyzell sat down lightly in the chair next to him and began to wonder if this had been such a good idea after all. It suddenly occurred to him to wonder if they were locked in. He got up to check the door handle, but as he reached for the handle, the door opened. A tall smiling brunette with beautiful eyes was standing in the doorway, her hair pulled back in a tight bun. She wore a lab-coat similar to the one the red-headed man had been wearing. Guyzell’s hand was already extended towards the door, so he left it out there for her to shake, “Howdy miss! How are you doing?”The woman shook his hand firmly, and held on for perhaps a second longer than he would have expected. She smiled and looked him right in the eye, “I’m doing fine, thank you! I understand you have a delivery for Mr. Sanders? He’s unavailable but I am authorized to take any deliveries that you might have for him.”Guyzell smiled broadly. She was good, he had to admit. If he were not now one-hundred-percent convinced that there was something treacherous going on in this place, he probably would have handed the package over to her in a heartbeat just for that smile. But as it was, he had no choice but to disappoint her. He shook his head sadly, “I’m really sorry, but it’s a personal delivery, Mrs. …?”She countered, “That’s alright. I’m his personal assistant, and it’s Miss White.”Guyzell caught himself even as he was thinking it. Ah, a single girl. Well, in that case…no, no, wait, that’s not why I’m here. He mentally made a note to stop spending so much time listening to Willie, and he was now glad that he had come here with Joe instead of leaving Joe to come here alone. He apologized, “I’m sorry, the package really does have to be given only to Mr. Sanders.”Miss White pouted adorably, but seemed to accept that Guyzell would not budge. She tried one last question, “Well, can you tell me what this is in reference to?”Guyzell nodded. “I believe it is a gift---” He was interrupted by Joe snorting loudly. “Um, that is to say, I believe it is a gift, if I’m not mistaken.”The woman shrugged and left the room without another word. Barely thirty seconds passed before the door opened again. A blonde man in a lab coat walked into the room confidently, “I’m Jack Sanders. Is that my package?Joe perked up at the sound of his name. His eyes narrowed suspiciously as he eyed the man. “Maybe…who are you?”The man seemed ruffled and he blinked twice, “Um…as I said, I’m Jack Sanders.”Joe shook his head. “I need ID please.”The man seemed genuinely annoyed, but Guyzell detected something else in his manner. Guyzell knew as surely as he was standing there that the man was lying. Joe continued, “Look, dude, I got three other people that came in here trying to take your package here. I need proof you are who you say you are. This is a special delivery. I need to see your ID.”The man stammered for a minute, “Um…it must be in my pants with my gym bag. I can get it…But can I at least see what’s in my bag? To, um…see if its what I ordered?”Joe considered for a moment, before Guyzell interrupted, “Sure, Mr. Sanders, but can you go ahead and tell us what you ordered first?”Joe smiled, “Ooh! Yeah! Good one, Preacher!”The impersonator paused and seemed embarrassed. He lied sheepishly, “I’ll just go get my ID. I’ll be right back.” He slinked out of the room quietly, and Guyzell sat back down to wait for their next visitor.</blockquote>

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