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Chapter Twenty-Two

Janice grimaced at the sun as she was finally pulled out of the back of the large black van. It felt as if she had been stuck in there for years, the hostile sun pounding the top of the van relentlessly.

She was being held by two large Canids with bulging muscles, the canine eyes concealed through thick black sunglasses. Her throat was so parched that she felt that she would have died from thirst if she had been kept in there any longer, her fur only compounding the insulation and making her feel even more clammy and uncomfortable.

She tried to put one foot in front of the other and resist the firm grip of the two men, fearing her fate at the hands of this merciless conglomerate. Trying to reach out to restore her balance as she was persistently dragged across the dusty road.

Mustering, only enough energy to lift her muzzle, her eyes began to focus on where she was, something telling her that she was a long way from the temperate climate of Crystal Lake.

The van had pulled up a small dusty road in the middle of a dry and parched land. There was a large grey building in front of her that resembled just a plain rectangle slightly ahead of her and this part of the complex was fenced off from the surrounding world, with tall barbed wire fences, although she did wonder why they would need fences out here in the middle of nowhere.

She thought she had seen a mirage as she glanced up, being led towards a patio set which was just in the middle of the dusty nothingness, a large umbrella covering it to shield it from the merciless and unrelenting sun.

The two Canids moved her to one of the chairs, her eyes fixed on the pitcher of ice cold lemonade that was standing on the table under the canopy. She glared at the ice cubes inside the pitcher with almost lovingly affection, she had never been this thirsty.

"Let me get that for you..." remarked a familiar voice. "I imagine your trip here must have been rather tiresome."

Janice looked up to see her sister, Cassandra, pouring a glass of lemonade for her, her vulpine eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Mother used to make lemonade?" smiled Cassandra, looking at her with a rather ruminating expression. "Do you remember Jan?"

Janice could not even summon the energy to reply, she eagerly grabbed the glass of lemonade that Cassandra offered her, guzzling it down, getting a lot of it already down her already dirty and somewhat dusty top. She did not care at the moment, the only thing that mattered to her was the life preserving nature of the lemonade she was drinking, it tasted as if heaven itself had sent it. She finished the glass, putting it back on the table and leaning back in the chair, finally able to think clearly again without thirst clouding her thoughts.

"Where am I?" she asked, looking over at her sister, who was casually dressed in a rather large sunhat and dark sunglasses, her summer dress with a distinctively gaudy floral motif on it.

"Fesalis" replied her sister, much to Janice's surprise. No wonder her trip had taken so long, they had been driving for almost a thousand miles. She was pretty sure that she had passed out on the trip and it had actually been a lot longer than just hours.

"We haven't seen you for years..." whispered Janice, her throat still a bit dry. "Not since dad..."

Cassandra slammed her hand down on the small table with such force that it made Janice jump. "We are not going to have a repeat of ten years ago!" she said, terminating that line of conversation.

Janice was not sure what she was even doing here or why her sister was involved so closely with Phoenix Grace. The last time she had seen her sister was when her argument with their father, on the eve of her enrollment at Crystal Lake University. Cassandra had always hate her father for an unknown reason and their quarrels had driven a wedge between her and her entire family, who viewed her as a contemptuous teenager.

Cassandra took a deep breath, it was clear that the conversation still filled her with vitriol and considering her position, Janice decided that it was in her best interest not to pursue it any further.

"Where's Obsidian?" she asked.

"The horse..?" replied Cassandra. "Oh, he is back in Crystal City, being turned over to the police for Janus's murder and the subsequent murder of Janus's wife, Cassata." she said, sitting back down in the chair, shooing the two canid guards away.

There was nowhere that Janice could run to anyway.

"But you know that Obsidian didn't commit those crimes..." replied Janice smartly and cooly. She reached out to pour herself another glass of lemonade.

"Of course he did..." chuckled Cassandra. "He was the only person on that mountain with Janus and pushed him to his death."

Janice stopped pouring and looked at Cassandra, her large brown eyes giving the indication that she was slightly confused.

"What did you think... Janus just slipped and fell to his death?" remarked Cassandra. "Wow... you really are just as dense at the rest of the police in Crystal Lake. What did he tell you?"

"He told me that he rescued him from a Phoenix facility in Everonth and that he died from some experiment that the company was running."

"You mean the dig site!?" laughed Cassandra, letting out a howl that echoed across the desert. "We don't have any other facility in Everonth! Hell, you think the Vulnira Government would let us have one? The taxes alone on our central HQ are bad enough, that's why we brought you out here to our underground facility at Fesalis."

Janice just sat there and listened in amazement, she had always been unable to read to sister and after not seeing her for almost ten years made her even more illusive to her.

"Jan, I thought you would know better then to buy into some disgruntled employees conspiracy theory."

"But I saw the manufacturing files for Yiff! You've been producing the drug for distribution."

Cassandra pressed her lips together before speaking. "That was the Former head of Research and Development for the company. "Yiff" as you call it, was just a new cheaper alternative painkiller that we were designing and he discovered he could make more money selling it out on the street as a high."

There was an awkward silence as Janice considered this. Maybe she had allowed her obsession with solving Janus's murder cloud her judgement? A hot wind stung her like a wasp as she looked at her sister with a stare that could have iced over the desert around her.

"Then why the news report claiming Janus's death was an accident?"

"That's because they thought it was!" exclaimed Cassandra, putting her small glass on the table. "They only just discovered that there was another person with him on the mountain. Obsidian disposed of the body but there has been an eyewitness that has come forward and said that he saw Obsidian push him. Apparently, he had become obsessed with Cassata, Janus's husband and murdered her when she rejected his advances, that is how they knew each other in the emails you read although I'm sure he didn't show you them."

Janice nodded. Her mind was racing. Maybe Cassandra was telling the truth and Obsidian had told her this story in order to cover up what he had done.

"I apologise for the manner that the men brought you here, but you have to understand, I wanted a chance to clear this up with you first, before you reported Phoenix Grace for any misdemeanors that would tarnish the company's image. I'm sure you understand."

At that moment, Janice was not sure what she believed. She had seen dirty money flowing through her office at the Police Department but nothing more then that. Phoenix Grace had been responsible for massive social projects to benefit the poor and had a very good reputation as a company so she had already found it hard to believe that they were capable of committing murder. Maybe she had just wanted to believe them guilty and all this was the wild machinations of some crazed psychopath. She had encountered them plenty of times before in her work.

Janice scratched her muzzle, unable to think of anything else to say, other then "I see..."

"But still..." continued Cassandra, her paw outstretched and placing it on top of her bewildered sister. "It is good to see you again."

Janice could not help but smile. This was not the family reunion she had been hoping for but it was still undeniably good to see her sister after so many years out of touch. "It's good to see you as well, Cassie"

Cassandra smiled back, a genuine and seemingly happy smile at being reunited with her sister after so many years. "Come on... " she said. "I wanna show you some of what we do here so you will have absolutely no doubt that Phoenix Grace has only people's best interests at heart."