Urgent Meeting - (Dan, Nathan and Liam)

[♔ Liam J. Brentwood]

Angrily, Captain Brentwood’s hand trembled ever so mildly as he gripped tightly onto his Webley Revolver, the barrel pointing an affirmative aim at the young private’s torso from a straight aim towards the young man sitting in the officer’s guest-chair. He was fuming! The topic of Sergeant Major McMillan was a sensitive one, but playing with the Captain’s authority by barging in and then proclaiming treason by having a rendezvous with the enemy, was utter madness! The young soldier could be trialled on accounts of trespassing, insubordination, encounters with the enemy, that could inevitably lead to being trialled as a spy or mere treason of King and Country, but most of all, the young soldier confronted these facts in front of the worst officer possible and happened to drag two supposedly innocent men into the scenario with him… It was a mutiny!

The young soldier stammered and stuttered with shattered nerves, producing a piece of paper after a moment’s tussle through a pocket or two, but before the officer could even snatch the piece of paper from the young soldier’s grip, the American Sergeant approached and obliged to look at the piece of evidence before himself!? Liam’s eyes drearily sunk and the revolver slowly lowered to aim at from the Captain’s hip, this time pointing at the American Sergeant silently as he looked over the piece of paper. Liam almost bawled and shot the man for intruding into such matters, but knew damn well, the deeper all three men got themselves into the moat - he’ll have their heads running errands for him in finding the truth, finding Edward once and for all.

As the Flight Sergeant approached to look at the piece of paper himself, Captain Brentwood gladly allowed the man to do so, standing awfully silent as he allowed all three men to concur verdicts amongst themselves, completely insulting Captain Brentwood who was to be last to look at the evidence, but knew the more strings he tied to their heads, the easier it would be to have them immersed within the hunt for Edward alongside himself. He could tell the Flight Sergeant had quite some experience and having a pilot running black-mailed errands on scouting the local district of where Edward had been seen, wouldn’t be too cocky to ask and the American Sergeant seemed awfully familiar, but even so, the man looked tough enough to partake within a hunt - respectable rank with the head.

Then you had the pathetic Private, someone he’d probably use a cannon fodder during this wild goose chase. Crazy thoughts just ran through the Officer’s mind as he stood there, rigid and silent, the calm before the storm again; Before he eventually began to move and look more awake. “Give me that” he snarled, yanking the piece of paper away from all three of the men, looking at the simple message that didn’t prove anything. Edward would not have done this!? Grinding his teeth, Captain Brentwood set the revolver down upon his desk, which probably would have put a lot of minds at rest, as the Captain marched around his desk quickly, tugging open a drawer upon his stained oak worktop to fumble out a journal or diary? Undoing the elastic that held the book closed, Captain Brentwood flicked through the pages and eventually found what he was searching for; A picture of the two men standing in front of a Churchill tank.

Captain Brentwood felt his stomach churn as he looked at the photo, but turned it over to look at the back, where Edward had written the date and a small message, simply; “Sergeant Major, Edward McMillan and Captain Brentwood” but it was enough of the man’s handwriting to go on, for now. Placing the two side-by-side on the desk, the Captain looked quietly between the two pieces of handwriting and pulled a questionable look. They looked awfully similar, but it just wasn’t enough evidence to go on, or was it? Captain Brentwood was in major denial and didn’t believe Edward would betray him, which caused the Officer to snap once again.

“Is this all fucking joke!?” Captain Brentwood shouted out from leaning over his desk, staring at the young private, but the word of ‘Wolfram’ mentioned couldn’t have made it a joke. The name was only written in files accessible by senior ranks members of the 7th Armoured division and more so, Edward’s last assignment was to engage the damned officer’s unit at a local town. Could he have really joined them!? The fucking Nazis!? Angrily, the Officer thumped his fist on the desk and turned to kick his leather chair over in a sudden outburst of rage, running his hands through his short, but long enough hair to grip at. “This is impossible” he grumbled to himself, before looking at the three men afterwards.

Staring at the young soldier, Captain Brentwood completely lost it and quite literally climbed over his desk, knocking the lamp and a pile of paperwork off in the process; Angrily grabbing at the young soldier’s shirt, Captain Brentwood pulled the young man from out of his seat and threw him down against his desk in the process to lay face down against the worktop, Liam’s hand knotting into the young boy’s hair as he held his head down against the worktop. “NOW, You tell me EVERYTHING!” the Officer bawled, quickly grabbing for his revolver that was thankfully still lying on the desk, ready to be to the judge and jury again. His hand wavering the revolver about slightly, as he waited for an answer, but before the young boy could answer, he stared over to the two other men still in the room…

“You two - I need to know right now if you’re with me or if you’re against me” he blurted out, “If you’re with me, I need the two of you to either shut-up and help me… If you’re not with me, then lads, I dare you to try and leave this room” he dared them, giving them both a choice as he glared at them, glancing to the young private slightly in the process, having given everyone in the room a question to answer. Now it was decision time.

OOC: Sorry massive post and I slightly god-modded with your character Stephen, so forgive me, but I just threw you against the desk. Haven’t controlled you in any other way.

[Stephen Colly]

Couldn’t Stephen just leave now? The look on Liam Brentwood’s face was like thunder. Stephen’s eyes dated over to Daniel as he stepped forward to look at the piece of paper that Stephen was waving about. Nathan then backed Stephen up…that was nice.

Brentwood’s gun was pointing at his torso; Stephen did not move a muscle from where he was. Inside he was shaking like a life, but he kept his nerve and watched the emotions and the information flow through the man in front of him. Silence filled the room as the two other men looked at the paper; Stephen’s eyes stared on Brentwood who seemed to have gone into a long think.

Finally, he awoke his senses and grabbed the piece of paper, marching over to some drawers and taking out what looked like a photo from where Stephen was sitting, but he couldn’t be sure.

Brentwood shouted out, asking if it was a joke…Stephen was tempted to say “No, not really.” but he knew he would get into a shit load of more trouble if he did that. He had already calculated that he may be court marshalled in the next few days so, for now; he was going to keep quiet until he was asked to speak.

The man seemed to be fuming, knocking a chair over, saying it was impossible, banging his fists on his desk…Stephen wasn’t expecting what came next. He felt a hand on his desk, the crash of a light landing on the floor and next minute he was lying on the desk, check leaning hard against it, a firm hand in his hair that hurt. He felt the air whiz slightly as the revolver waved up above him. He laid completely still, his hands and arms useless, the hand on his hair was starting to pain him and he gave a little yelp. Tell Liam Brentwood everything? Everything?

The Captain was now speaking to the other two, so Stephen had a few mini-seconds to think about what he should say.

”H-He’s alive, Sergeant Major Edward McMillan is alive and h-he is part of the Nazis, it was in a barn sir, a French b-barn, a-a-an-n-d….” he trailed off, his throat going dry, ”H-He told me to tell you, h-he d-did s-sir.” he was now stuttering and rambling, what else should he say? He didn’t want to go into every tiny little detail….

[Daniel Brennan]

Daniel nervously noticed Brentwood’s revolver twisting to point at him as he stepped a bit closer. Please don’t let him shoot me. He peered over Stephens shoulder at the note and frowned. It sounded like something McMillan would say, but... there was no proof. Colly could have made it up for all he knew. Well, he believed Colly, but he was thinking from Brentwood’s point of view. Daniel didn’t think he had ever seen McMillan’s writing, so he really couldn’t say anything on this point. Whyte seemed to be more knowledgeable on this, though. He boldly spoke out saying that the writing was similar to McMillan’s. Daniel noticed that Brentwood hadn’t even glanced at the letter. What’s he going to do now, shoot us for not letting him look at it first?

Brentwood suddenly shot out “Give me that” and snatched the piece of paper off Colly. Looking at his face, Daniel took a guess that he didn’t believe it. Well, it was hard to read his expression properly... there was so much anger in it. Daniel just about stopped himself from grinning in relief as Brentwood put the Webley down on the table. Instead, he tried to keep the grave expression on his face. Daniel watched silently as Brentwood moved around the desk and seemed to rummage in one for a few seconds. He then took out a small book. What was it? A diary or journal? A list of operations? He didn’t think it was a journal... or if it was, it cost a lot more than his had!

Brentwood flipped through the pages quickly before finding what he was looking for. What was it, a photo? Brentwood stared the front for a moment; like he was living the scene again, before he turned it over to look at the back. Daniel was given a look at the photo itself. It showed McMillan and Brentwood standing in front of one of the Churchill tanks that the 7th armoured were renowned for. Daniel guessed Brentwood hadn’t been as mad back then, judging by the confident smile on his face. It seemed that he had replaced smiles with piercing leers, now a days. Brentwood placed the photo on the desk; putting it beside poor Stephens note. McMillan had probably written something on the back and Brentwood was comparing the handwriting. He was clever, for a loony.

Brentwood suddenly exploded, asking if it was all a (“fucking”) joke. Doesn’t he know how terrifying he is? Nobody would dare play a joke on him. Daniel thought to himself sceptically. Brentwood had leaned across the desk towards Colly – like a lion about to pounce on his prey. It was now that Daniel took a wild guess that the handwriting had matched. He slammed down on the desk with his fists and turned and kicked his chair in rage. Poor desk, being left alone with him. Brentwood then said how it was impossible – luckily for Daniel’s ears, he said it with less volume.

Daniel practically jumped into the air in shock as Brentwood leaped clumsily over his desk, sending a few neat piles of paperwork and a lamp flying through the air. He shoved Stephen down onto the desk, grabbed his Webley again – We should have tried to overpower him the minute he put it down... - and waved it around in the air manically. He turned his attention to the two shocked American soldiers and shot out a few questions like a machine-gun. He asked if they were with him or against him about five times and then threatened to kill them if they weren’t with them. What’s new?

Before Daniel had a chance to answer, Stephen stammered out an answer to the previous question. Daniel didn’t think Brentwood would leave him alone with the amount of information he had given, so he tried to distract Brentwood – a brave thing to do, in his opinion. ”I’m... with you.” he said somewhat uncertainly. ”I knew Mc-... the Company Sergeant Major, and I’m just as curious as anyone else to find out what happened to him. I want to know why he... went... changed.” he said, his words strengthening towards the end. Daniel anxiously awaited Brentwood’s reaction.

[Nathan Whyte]

Nathan wasn't at all surprised as Brentwood yanked the piece of paper away from Colly's hand, almost tearing it. This man seemed to thrive on violence. The revolver sat on the death and Nathan looked at it half contemplating a dive for it before deciding there was no point. If he tried that there would be a certain court-martial, at least this way he would get out alive.

The Officer pulled out a black and white photograph, and a sneeky glance by the Kiwi was enough for him to see McMillan and the outline of a tank. The scrap of handwriting seemed close enough to the untrained eye of the pilot, though, and he just swallowed in a "holy shit" manner. He just stood his ground as Brentwood started shouting the odds, trying not to look too cocky or disrespectful.

"Sir, I'm staying, I want to see the bottom of this mess," was all he said as he stepped backwards slightly, if only to avoid the shower of spittle from the man. Brennan gave a similar message a few moments later. There wasn't much he could do, really. The ball was well and truly out of his control, and he just had to agree to the pyschopath's demands and hope to get out of here alive. Nathan lowered his head respectfully and in thought. He just wanted to know why. Why did Edward do this? It just still didn't make sense.

[♔ Liam J. Brentwood]

OOC: Sorry if my post isn’t fantastic, got a headache and a car-alarm outside has been going off for hours, so it’s rather distracting.

Knotting his fingers into the private’s hair, Captain Brentwood squeezed the young boy’s cheek against the hardened grain of the desk and snarled to himself as he wildly darted his eyes between all three men within the room silently; It almost looked as if the officer was wild for a moment, completely off his rocker and out of the tree. How could such a man be the divisional leader of the Desert Rats - Seventh Armoured Division!? He was highly unstable and his manner in treating the situation at hand seemed quite explosive, but then the ordeal of Sergeant Major McMillan was a tender subject to the Captain.

Hearing the young soldier murmur and speak against the desk, Captain Brentwood barely gave a glimpse of notice to the young man’s plea in telling the truth, before his attention was soon diverted to the American Sergeant who picked his side wisely and treaded carefully with his choice of words. “Good… Good…” Liam responded softly, his eyes soon slithering onto the American Pilot who soon confirmed his wandering loyalty, perhaps the Captain didn’t really give them much of choice, but he knew they would want to get to the bottom of this ordeal as much as himself and they’d all need one another’s expertise or knowledge to get there in one piece. Should that fail, Captain Brentwood grinned at the inadequate thought of having to put two in their chest for treason or insubordination, so no, none of them had a choice in the matter.

Narrowing his eyes, Captain Brentwood structured the next move of plan within his mind and stared into space for a very brief moment, sucking a wisp of stale air through the fine gaps in his teeth to slowly unlatch the jack-hammer to his revolver; The piece of metal clinking against the bullet within the chamber softly, the weapon now back to it’s neutral state. Silently, the Captain’s eyes trailed across the two side-arms on the floor and continued thinking, forming a plan within the hardened confines of his skull, what was the next move? What was it!? “Pick up your weapons” the Captain ordered, his eyes glancing to the two Sergeants carefully, before he turned to look at the young boy pressed against his worktop still. Leaning downwards to the young soldier’s ear, Captain Brentwood pushed in real close, so only himself and Stephen would hear what he had to say; “You’re going to do everything I say, alright lad? Because if you don’t, I’ll be your worst nightmare boy - Understand me?”[/I] he questioned silently, waiting for a nod or shake of the head, whilst he licked Stephen’s ear, laughing into it afterwards to lean away from the young boy’s head afterwards.

Letting go of Stephen’s head altogether, Captain Brentwood turned to look at the two Sergeants, holstering his Webley Revolver to stand straight and quirk a smile. “Alright boys, we’ve got ourselves a hunt…” he said quirkily with his wide grin for a smile, glancing to the young soldier he just threatened in between. “As of now, all three of you are apart of the re-opened case of Sergeant Major McMillan’s disappearance” he stated, turning to pace off to the side of his desk were a bunch of documents were scattered during his frazzled jump over the work-desk. Leaning down, he grabbed at his journal and leant back up, placing the booklet into his inside pocket, turning to face the two Sergeants again, before turning to look at the young boy slowly, before saying something else. “Whatever happens in this office today, will not be spoken outside of these four walls. Understand?” he asked, wanting to make sure everyone was clear on the matter at hand.

Laying his eyes upon the American Sergeant, Liam stared. “Get your map out Sergeant and question our brave hero of the whereabouts in France he spoke with Sergeant Major McMillan…” he ordered boldly, glancing to the young boy momentarily, not really wanting to waste anymore of his time on the pathetic youngster. Looking to the Flight Sergeant, Captain Brentwood stepped forwards and grinned; “Think you can reacquisition an aircraft lad?” he asked, forming a small grin as he awaited a full hardy response, the Captain’s plan quite obviously shaping out to be a manhunt? A wild one at that…

[Stephen Colly]

OOC – Your posts are always fantastic Danny…ewww…car alarm not nice!

The other two men in the room quickly stated that they were on the Captain’s side, thank the lord for that. If they had wanted to die then they would have said that they weren’t on the Captain’s side but they had said they were which was extremely sensible of them.

Liam Brentwood knotted his fingers into Stephen’s hair, his cheek now right close up to the desk as he felt the snarls from the mad-man above him. He half closed his eyes, hearing the sucking of air between the Captain’s teeth as he stayed silent for a few minutes after responding softly to the two’s choices.

Stephen couldn’t quiet see but he could hear that the weapon had been put back to its natural state…he wasn’t going to die! It was as if Liam’s brain was being to click into action, the cogs turning and whirling inside the skull. The weapons were ordered to be picked up by Nathan and Daniel, Stephen thought he would be out of the mess but he suddenly felt the mouth of the Captain near his ear and a whisper from the man...”You’re going to do everything I say, alright lad? Because if you don’t, I’ll be your worst nightmare boy – Understand me?”[/b] To be honest, he wasn’t going to say no now was he?

He felt his ear being licked and he shuddered, a shiver running up his spine. He nodded quickly, muffling a quick, ”Y-Yes, sir.” and then was free to push his head off the desk. His hair and become all ruffled so he began to run a shaky hand through it, watching Liam Brentwood from where he sat.

The case was being re-opened! Stephen didn’t meet Liam’s eyes as he looked over at him. ”Yes, sir.” he immediately said as Liam spoke about what had happened not going out of these four walls…no, don’t he worry, Stephen wouldn’t tell a soul.

Stephen looked down at his hands. Our brave hero… he doubted very much that Liam meant that as he only glanced at Stephen briefly, was it just Stephen or did Liam Brentwood seem to hate him? Maybe it was because he had met McMillan not Liam, or maybe he was just odd like that…

He glanced over at Daniel, a small smile on his face as he watched the Sergeant’s face…what ever Liam was planning, Stephen had two guesses what it was…a man hunt for his best friend would either resolve in a failure that would cause Stephen’s death most likely or a victory in that Edward would be found…but surely, then if Edward was found then he would be shot….so, in a way…come to think of it…Stephen felt like a right prick having just sold away a man’s life in a sense…

[Daniel Brennan]

OOC: Aww… Poor master PuNk.

Whyte spoke out with his choice – living with a loony or dieing. It actually was a hard question to answer. If you got on Brentwood’s bad side, he would do things to you much worse than death, surely! But, of course Nathan choose to live; same as Daniel. Brentwood’s response was just a quiet “Good, good”. Daniel wondered if he actually thought that they were going to reply in the negative. No… he couldn’t have thought they were going to say no… he probably was just hoping they would say no.

Brentwood frowned a little bit and then stared into space for a couple of seconds. Daniel vaguely wondered if he was about to shoot them. He breathed out loudly, sending a shiver down Daniel’s spine. Then, he clicked back the hammer of his revolver back into place. Daniel was by no means familiar with the gun, but he was pretty certain that it meant the gun couldn’t be fired – at least until Brentwood cocked it again. The next words were a relief to Daniel. Brentwood just ordered the kiwi and himself to pick up their side-arms. That was good. Or was it? Daniel had stepped over to his Colt and paused just above it. What if the Lieutenant was suddenly going to shoot him the minute he picked it up? He could pretend that he had shot Daniel in self defence – that he had shot him because he had raised his weapon. Then his intelligence kicked in. Brentwood was mad. If he wanted to shoot him, he would shoot him. There would be no fancy conspiracy. Daniel bent down and picked up the pistol, sliding it into its holster again.

Brentwood had leaned in close to Stephen, now and appeared to be whispering something into his ear. The thought briefly crossed Daniels mind to shoot the Captain now that his back was turned. Brentwood then turned around towards Brennan and Whyte, holstering his Webley. Well, isn’t that great! Daniel thought dryly. Daniel didn’t like the look in the Captains eye as he spoke the sentence. He didn’t mean that they were going to… hunt… McMillan, did he?! He then spoke about how the case into the disappearance of McMillan was being reopened. I always wanted to be a detective!.

Brentwood seemed very perky all of a sudden. He practically skipped over to the mess around his desk and picked up the operations book; pocketing it. Daniel gulped at his next serious comment. Wait… am I a spy, or a detective again? Daniel simply nodded in reply. He didn’t want to interrupt the Captain, did he? His attention turned to Daniel and he ordered him to take out his map and find out where Stephen had seen McMillan, complete with mild sarcasm.

Daniel happily walked over to the desk where Stephen was. He barely repressed a shudder at the words directed at Whyte. Oh, dear. He reached into a pocket of his jacked and pulled out a pile of small, folded squares of material. Being a senior (-ish) NCO, he had a lot of maps. He needed to know where he was if he was to lead his men. He dropped a few maps onto the table and opened the first one out. It was a map of France in its entirety, listing all the big cities. It was also divided up into a grid, so you could zoom in closer using a different map. ”So, Stephen. Do you know the general area that you met him? North, South, East, West… or if you know any large city that was nearby, it would be helpful too.

[Nathan Whyte]

Brentwood seemed to be calming slightly, uncocking his weapon and allowing the two Sergeants to go for their weapons

Nathan quite happily retrieved his weapon, taking one step to reach the magazine and another to reach the Colt 1911. He reloaded it quickly before slipping it back in to the burgundy holster. Brentwood leaned in close to Colly, and Nathan raised an eyebrow as he appeared to lick the boy's ear. Odd. McMillan's case was re-opened. Could the Captain make this sound any more like a movie? Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he moved towards the table where Brennan was spreading out a map.

But he was worried. The Captain seemed unstable, and he wanted this to stay super hushedy-hush. Who knew what he had planned, and where it might take them, how far behind lines they would go, who would be able to help them if things messed up. It was a scary prospect, but he just had to go along with it. It was the best chance.

"A plane? Probably, I can always file a fake order, or you could write me a real one. I can get fighters of transports, Sir, whatever you want me to do." He found a space around the edge of the map and began thinking of the air fields they had access to. Hopefully, McMillan would be in range of one so he didn't have to worry about landing in some French field in the middle of nowhere which, as they always do, would have an SS Panzer Division camping down for their teabreak. A fun, happy day out for everybody.