Thomas Gelding had not been stupid enough to send his assassin onto Robert Lupin's home turf without a backup. The woman was supposed to simply attack, not kill. The real work would come later. He had sent what he called a Quality Assurance Agent to make sure the job did not get bungled.
But it had. The cleanup man had watched the cloaked assassin mess the job up with really crappy timing and end up having to take a hostage. Personally, the cleanup man did not understand why the assassin had tied the young healer up with ropes and made off with her. Why not just kill her and be done with the whole messy business? It's not like they had Robert's daughter to contend with . She had been slammed into the fireplace and knocked cold when her head slammed against stone.
And now there was another freaking problem. A third healer. This one apparently had stinky timing too. Caffeine at the start of her shift. Couldn't she get her coffee fix some other time than right now? Bloody hell! Did people never ever leave Lupins alone? Ever? Something so easy had turned out to be so hard. He followed her silently into the lounge where Lupin still laid motionless like she was dead on the floor. Well, at least she had had the sense to not wake up. That helped. The otherwise perky woman went bouncing into the lounge, spotted her boss on the floor, and flew to her aid.
"Leave her," the cleanup agent said. The woman turned, and spotting the cloaked cleanup agent, she drew her wand. He did not even hesistate for a nanosecond. He struck her with an Avada Kedavra before she even knew what hit her. He saw the light leave her eyes before she hit the floor beside her director's limp form. He smiled satisfactorily. This would get Robert Lupin's full attention.
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Robert had felt something drastically amiss w/ Khaat even from the distance between them. He never could explain how that worked, but ever since Remus's death, he knew the instant something was wrong with his daughter. And all of a sudden, he felt a sharp drop in his own energies. That always was a huge red flag that Khaat was in trouble. He didn't know how. He just knew something was terribly wrong.
He apparated to St. Mungos, to her office. Most likely that was where she was. Brian's place was too well protected. She would, most likely, not be in trouble there, and even if she were, Brian was there. He checked her office. Lights burning like daylight in there. Paperwork askew across the desk. Yeah. She was here somewhere. He scanned across her desk looking for a clue. Ah ha! No coffee cup. So--she had gone to the lounge for a refill.
He walked quickly down the hall, his wand drawn, but he was not prepared for what he saw. Phaedra on the floor and Khaat beside her and a third wand laying several feet away. The window broken out, furniture utterly destroyed. Damn! What the hell had happened while he was gone?
He flew to both women on the floor. He saw instantly the moment he looked into Phae's eyes that she was gone. He sighed heavily. He hated to lose anyone, but certainly not a young healer and fighter like Phae. He checked on Khaat and breathed a sigh of deep relief. Unconscious. A sound knock to her head. She'd have a massive headache no doubt. He laid his hand on her shoulder and apparated her to the emergency room and left her there in the care of assistants for one brief moment. He immediately then sent an urgent owl to Matt Lestrange. The third wand bothered Robert. Someone was missing now too, and he didn't know who. Not yet. He was considering bringing Katherine in to see if her seer's abilities allowed them to determine who the missing person was. He apparated back upstairs and magically sealed the lounge to keep from evidence being contaminated, leaving poor Phaedra where she was for the moment. He had no choice. And he was hoping Matt would come quickly. Time, he felt, was of the essence.
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