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Post by skybright on Oct 24, 2007 22:15:02 GMT -5
"Maybe." Cole replied wryly. "The fact is, Major, I've been protecting her for all our lives. Her safety means more to me than my career, more than this city, more than my own safety and more than yours. It's not something I'm accustomed to trusting to anyone else. Particularly not when Miss Dawson brought her to Tiernan's attention to begin with."
Daws scowled. "Now wait just one . . ."
Cole held up a hand and cut her off. "You've already explained your motivations, Miss Dawson. They don't alter the facts." He shrugged. "In both cases, what's done is done."
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Post by Jordanna on Oct 24, 2007 22:39:04 GMT -5
Vance glowered at Cole for a moment. Then he huffed slightly and relaxed a little.
"It's possible that if Tiernan thinks he's got you under his thumb, he'll be more careless on what he lets you know about--thinking you're in no position to fight back." He shook his head. "That's the only up angle I can see here. And it's the only reason I can think of not to indulge my desire to punch you around the block a couple of times."
He leaned forward, his gaze simmering. "You think you're the only one who's got loved ones at risk, Cole?" The Major nodded toward Nate. "This is my son Nathan. I'd die ten times over to keep him from harm... but not even for his sake would I risk the hundreds and thousands of people I'm trying to protect. I couldn't. I'd have no right to."
With a smile of rueful pride, Nate leaned over and squeezed his father's shoulder.
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Post by skybright on Oct 24, 2007 22:53:18 GMT -5
Cole gave a faint, crooked smile and shook his head. "Part of me wishes I could feel that way. Perhaps you've just got more nobility than I have, Major." Daws snorted faintly, and Cole raised an eyebrow at her. "Something to add, Miss Dawson?"
Daws shook her head, still scowling. "I think you know perfectly well everything I want to add, Cole. And most of it I wouldn't like to say out loud in polite company."
She leaned forward. "Now here's what concerns me. You honestly think Nick Tiernan's going to let a telepath -- even one he's supposed to have tame -- stay alive to rummage through his head? 'Cause that doesn't sound much like the bat I know."
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Post by Jordanna on Oct 24, 2007 23:04:24 GMT -5
"She's hit on the most dangerous point," Vance agreed. "The only reason Tiernan doesn't have any telepaths in his army already is because no one who wasn't as sick as he was would be willing to go along with his plans." The eyebrow over his blind eye dropped. "And even if you are a politician, I'm not sure you can convince him you're that twisted--or even if you should. Because if he thought you were as purely evil as he is, there'd be no limit to what he might want you to do."
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Post by skybright on Oct 24, 2007 23:11:52 GMT -5
Cole shuddered slightly. "That had occurred to me. But you're right, Major -- I couldn't keep up that charade. Not convincingly enough for Tiernan, at any rate."
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Post by Jordanna on Oct 24, 2007 23:22:40 GMT -5
"You've really put yourself on the spot with everyone." Vance sighed in frustration. "Our only hope is in keeping Tiernan from finding out for sure that you are a mutant--or at least that you're a telepath."
He glanced at Daws. "He might be able to dig up the same medical trail your hacker friend did. If we're not already too late, you think there's anything Jai can do to obliterate that?"
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Post by skybright on Oct 24, 2007 23:28:06 GMT -5
Daws nodded. "He can corrupt the records at the source -- the clinic where he dug 'em up. I've had him do that with information before."
She frowned. "I can have him try and make sure any other online copies get wiped, too, but there's no guarantees -- and there's nothing we can do about the hard copies. They're in Belgium, but if Tiernan wants 'em bad enough . . . " She trailed off with a shrug.
"Even if he does, there's no record there of what I can do." Cole pointed out quietly.
"Maybe not." Daws shook her head. "But if Tiernan finds out you're a mutant, Cole, he's not gonna stop until he finds out what kind."
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Post by Jordanna on Oct 25, 2007 19:28:46 GMT -5
"And you can forget our trusting you with any more information," Vance growled. "I'd cut you out of our little association completely if Tiernan didn't have you in his palm now. As it is, it's going to be all we can do to keep you from becoming a liability, much less a help."
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Post by skybright on Oct 25, 2007 22:07:41 GMT -5
"I understand." Cole said stonily. "You can still count on information from me. No matter what you might think of me, Major, I still am committed to fighting Tiernan."
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Post by Jordanna on Oct 25, 2007 22:20:33 GMT -5
Vance snorted cynically. "Don't strain yourself, Mister Mayor. I don't have high expectations of you. About the most I think you're going to be good for at this point is sponging off some of Tiernan's money that would go to his little genocidal projects otherwise."
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Post by skybright on Oct 25, 2007 22:27:26 GMT -5
"All right." Cole replied coldly. "I didn't expect to be making any friends with what I did. Now you've got your answer and we've made it quite clear how you feel -- verbally and mentally," he shot a glance at Daws. "If there's nothing else, Miss Dawson's constant shouting is beginning to give me a headache."
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Post by Jordanna on Oct 25, 2007 22:33:54 GMT -5
In spite of himself, Vance had to stifle a somewhat vindictively satisfied chortle.
"No, I guess there's nothing more worth saying right now," he murmured, rising from the armchair. "You just watch what you're doing, Cole--because we will be too. Anything to add that you haven't already telegraphed to him, Regina?"
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Post by skybright on Oct 25, 2007 22:40:46 GMT -5
"Just one thing." Daws rose as well, taking a deceptively leisurely step towards Cole. "You did what you did to protect what you love." She said quietly. "I suppose you've got that right."
Her voice took on a dangerous edge. "Well, I'll protect what's mine, too, Cole. You just keep that in mind the next time you decide that what you love is more important than what I love."
Cole chuckled hollowly and stood up. "You have a very vivid imagination, Miss Dawson. Your . . . er . . . point," he spared a quick glance at her claws, "Is taken."
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Post by Jordanna on Oct 25, 2007 22:52:26 GMT -5
Vance chuckled roughly. "Well, then... Nate, pick up that shadow of yours, and let's go."
With a slight frown, Nate glanced toward the corner where his specter had been lurking, and it ambled back to him to fade into the harmless translucency of an ordinary shadow.
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Post by skybright on Oct 25, 2007 22:59:53 GMT -5
"Quite a talent." Cole murmured. "I see you were prepared for this little talk to be even less pleasant than it turned out."
Daws raised an eyebrow at him. "Count yourself lucky it wasn't." She pointedly turned her attention away from the politician, stepping around him and cracking open the door. She glanced into the hallway and then nodded at Vance. "Nobody around."
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Post by Jordanna on Oct 26, 2007 23:03:46 GMT -5
"Okay." Vance spared a last condescending glance at Cole. "All things considered, I think the only advice I've got for you is this: don't do anything. So long, genius."
With that, he ushered Nate and Handy out of the apartment.
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Post by skybright on Oct 26, 2007 23:12:43 GMT -5
Daws led the way to the service elevator, and -- once they were safely descending -- slouched against the back wall of the car with a frustrated sigh. "I guess I'm about due for an I-told-you-so," she told Vance, shaking her head. "I can't believe I was ever crazy enough to even partway trust that guy."
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Post by Jordanna on Oct 26, 2007 23:25:19 GMT -5
"We all got a little taken in by that Hollywood slickness," Vance muttered. "And considering Tiernan was putting out feelers in Cole's direction anyway, I'm not sure we could have done anything else at the time. It was that bigshot's big mouth that's fouled things up."
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Post by skybright on Oct 26, 2007 23:30:56 GMT -5
"And how." Daws buried her hands in her pockets, frowning moodily. "If I didn't know it'd just make things worse I'd turn this elevator around and knock a little common sense into that cracked telepath's skull of his."
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Post by Jordanna on Oct 26, 2007 23:38:47 GMT -5
Vance shook his head. "All we can do for now is watch him like a hawk. For what it's worth, I don't think he's interested in selling us out--yet. At least not unless it becomes more advantageous to him."
He frowned. "The door swings both ways. Cole apparently can't read me, but my own sense of people doesn't pick up on him either."
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