Chapter 114 - The Unknown Variable (3)

"Wait you mean... THE TROY INDUSTRIES?" The way Arnold screamed the company's name, startled his summons a little bit.

"So you know him?" Alice asked with a perplexed look on her face.

"I was employed at their office in Florida before all this dungeon crap happened!"

"You used to work with his company? Well, that's something new..." Alice mumbled.

"But why would he try to kidnap Nicole and do all of this crap? It doesn't make any sense-"

"Arnold, I've got General Nathan's contact details as you asked." Amanda came running into the interrogation room.

"That was quick. Are you related to Usain Bolt or something?" Arnold smirked as she sent him the details and then proceeded to call a few men to clean up the interrogation room as it had started to smell a little bit.

But for Arnold had gotten used to being around Bad-Breath, who smelt worse than a skunk. The smell was nothing special thus he paid no heed to it and proceeded to call Nathan.

'I should have taken his contact details when we first met after I came back. The number how, however different. I guess technology does moves ahead whether you walk along with it or not. Well, at least it's ringing.'

Soon someone on the other side picked the phone up, "You've reached Nathan black's office, how can I help you?"

"Hey, Nathan... wait who's this again? Amanda, I think the number is wrong." Arnold felt like he heard a familiar voice, he tried and tried but couldn't place a face on it.

"Arnold!? Is that you?" The feminine voice asked.

Arnold was sure now that he had reached the right place, after all, who else could've guessed him just by listening to his voice. It was a shame though that he couldn't remember the face of the person he was talking to.

"It is me alright... but could you get Nathan please,? It's something urgent that I wanted to talk to him about."

In the end, Arnold didn't want to offend someone by not guessing their name so he tried to quickly change the topic and got right to the point. He expected a response from the other side but all he could hear was... silence?

"I guess you don't remember my voice? It's alright, after all, it has been seven years since you last saw me. It's Nina, you creationist weirdo!" Nina's voice came through the other side, "But on a serious note, what's the emergency? It would take a few minutes for Nathan to get here, meanwhile, if you want to you can talk to me about it."

"Yup, that's you alright. No one else would call me something like that, it's good to see that you're doing good! I thought you'd... nevermind that, now's not the time to talk about all that." Arnold's hesitated a bit before speaking again as he was internally debating whether he should tell Nina about Allen or not.

A few seconds passed, but Arnold decided to tell her about the incident, as she belonged to the same family had the right to know about the matters that concerned the family. Not to mention, she potentially was the next head of the branch family after her dad, if she wasn't already, either way, she should know about these matters. Thus Arnold began telling her everything that he had got to know. Everything apart from what Alice had told him about the masked leader, who was the mastermind behind it all as he was planning on letting Nathan know about it first. By the time he was done, Nathan was already there and thus he repeated the entire thing for Nathan.

"The balls on that kid!" Nathan lost it, "I know father was harsh on him but honestly, I never thought he would go to this extent! Where is he now?"

"Imprisoned. I thought you should deal with it without involving Nathaniel. The old man has already seen too much." Arnold replied.

"You're right... Father must never know about this, it would be too much for him to bear alone. You made the right decision. When you said Allen was working with the church that had been bothering us for so long, I honestly thought you already killed him and were calling to inform me about it, but I'm glad you didn't. I'm not saying that he doesn't deserve to but even with his flaws he's still... family."

"I understand. But still, he has to be punished..." Arnold reminded Nathan as he thought Nathan might get soft on Allen's mistake and forgive him. Arnold had to push the matter.

"I know... I'll be heading there shortly. We'll talk about it when I get there. Till then keep an eye on him. And Arnold... thank you for helping us."

"No need to thank me, I'm just helping the family that's all."

With that, they ended the call and Arnold turned towards Amanda, "I'm sorry but I'll have to leave the rest of the things to you... I think I should take some rest before Nathan gets here."

"I understand. Don't worry about anything Arnold, thank you for your hard work. We owe you a lot." Amanda saluted Arnold and left without waiting for Arnold's reply.

"That woman is way too focused on her job. Not that I can do anything to help Her." Arnold shrugged his shoulders and opened up a portal to his domain. All of his summons including Alice stepped one after another into the portal, right when Talos was about to step in Arnold pulled him aside.

"Talos, I have an important task for you." Arnold whispered, "I can't fully trust Alice. Not yet anyway, so would you keep an eye on Alice and make sure that she doesn't get into touch with Natasha?"

"Consider it done master. I'll make sure she stays away from Natasha. I'll inform the others about it as well." Talos replied.

"I'd appreciate it." Arnold nodded and closed the portal as Talos went inside, "It was a long day! I better go and sleep now, after all, tomorrow's going to be a tough day as well."

He stretched a bit before heading out to the workshop where his sleeping arrangement had been set up, thinking his day was over. Little did he know, it was going to be a very, very long night for him.