[Kath]

Sai watched as first Alli was led away and then Mardil disappeared soon after. The lawyer she had not threatened, who was flipping through sheet after sheet of paper, was holding her in place so she couldn’t follow. Peering over his arm she could see nothing that made any sense, save the words Britney, Sai Onara and singer. She suddenly recalled that Mardil’s plan did actually require her to sing, and wondered whether she ought to have pointed out the fatal flaw of her inability to do so. Well, no, if you took the definition that singing was simply speaking words to music then yes she could sing, it was just the lack of pitch, tune and general talent that had anyone who heard her pressing their hands over their ears in consternation. Still, she needed to get inside and find her companions, so decided not to mention it for the moment.

Finally her captor seemed to find whatever it was he had been looking for, though Sai strongly suspected that he had in fact just wanted to show her that he was in charge here. The macho man impersonation was more amusing than effective though, and she was having a hard time keeping a straight face when he glared at her. He began to walk towards the obscenely large RCA building, throwing back an order to follow him. Scowling Sai complied, not wanting to be left alone in the middle of the street with all these orc drivers suffering from road rage. As she followed him though, she could have sworn she saw an orc that looked just like that Wilhelmina woman. Turning to get a second look she was nearly mown down by a group of incompetent nurses, who had been sent out to fetch the slightly dented lawyer.

Unfortunately he could not tell them how much he was hurting due to the unconscious state he had ended up in, while Sai was hopping up and down on one foot, holding the other and cursing under her breath at idiots who don’t look where they’re going. One of the nurses caught wind of her words and, apparently deciding that the stretcher they had with them needed to be put to good use, cried out in what felt to Sai like glee and wrestled her down onto the white board. Before she could move even a finger she was strapped down, a thermometer was stuck in her mouth and she was on her way into the building.

She was carried up what felt like hundreds of floors. The building either had no lifts or the nurses had a phobia of them, and Sai could feel the bump of every stair she was taken up. She was just beginning to think that by the time they were finished with her she would need a nurse when she was deposited in a very ungainly manner on a narrow bed. She tried to sit up but was pushed back down while the nurses searched for the injuries they had been told their casualty would have. Unable to find any they decided that it must be some kind of optical illusion, and that they would try to guess where the fragments of glass were likely to be embedded, and pull them out. Now thoroughly terrified, Sai distracted them with a quick “Oh my God, what’s that over there!?” and a point in the vague direction of the nearest window, thanking whoever created these awful creatures for blessing them with a gullibility and stupidity rivalled only by that of the contestants of shows such as Big Brother. While their backs were turned she leapt out of the bed and out the door with a display of agility that would have amazed her old physical education master and ran directly into a large man who let out an “oomph”, and in so doing, allowed Sai to discover the pleasure of being breathed on by a person with halitosis. She clamped a hand over her nose and mouth and didn’t dare remove it to speak as he led her down various corridors for fear of the stench emanating from his mouth.

He dragged her down the numerous flights of stairs she had just been carried up, and stopped in front of a door that seemed to have burn marks around the ages. Not noticing, her smelly breath’d friend pushed it open, shoved her inside and wandered off. Sai caught hold of the handle just before she fell into the chasm that stepping into the room had taken her to the edge of. Staring down in amazement her eye fell upon a familiar looking item. Tightening her hold on the door handle, Sai leaned forward a little more, and saw that it was one of Alli’s gloves – she must have gone down the hole! Yanking herself back through the door she set off running, little caring which direction she went in just so long as she could find someone to tell her where Mardil was.

Bursting through a door a little later she saw him just up ahead, coming out of a room. Slowing enough so that she wouldn’t knock him over in the same way she had done to countless people on her journey through the building, she took hold of his sleeve and tugged his head down so she could inform him of her suspicions without anyone else hearing. From what she had seen of the characters here so far, they were more likely to try and make some money out of it rather than try to help them find Alli.

Finishing her story she let go of Mardil and tried to get her breath back as he quickly weighed up their options and turned to talk to the contract personnel behind him.