Poison: Part Five
Mar. 14th, 2012 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
antivanrufflesSo, I worked on this. Yeah.
Big THANK YOU to Sandy for helping me <3<3<3 (and thus it actually getting done and posted woo)!
The induction ceremony was long and tedious, and Mina loathed affairs like this--she had attended more than her fair share during her time at the Royal Academy. There were several long winded people speaking out about the importance of Silver Alliance, and the history of the organization.
She supposed that part wasn’t so bad, she could happily zone out while they rambled on; it was the uniforms she hated the most. Crisp white jacket trimmed in silver and gold, with a matching skirt for her and Rei, and pressed pants for Zane.
Jace sat up at the main table with the other higher ups, looking quite handsome in his uniform, she had to admit. Next to him sat the ever annoying Nash, and on his other side was Lita. Mina couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that Nash had landed such a beauty--one who seemed intelligent and sweet to boot.
There was a man with premature white hair talking now and he eventually mentioned her name, along with Rei and Zane’s. That was their cue to join the others on stage, and the three of them were given an oath to repeat. At the conclusion they were all forced to stand around and shake hands with the higher ups.
“Ain’t diplomacy grand?” Mina muttered in Rei’s ear.
“Hush, you’ll get us in trouble!”
“Since when do you worry about things like that?”
Rei stopped and thought a moment, “Good point.”
After lots of mingling, and meeting too many people whose names she wouldn’t remember, Mina and the others were finally freed from their torture and whisked away from the main headquarters of Silver Alliance to a private compound outside of Toyko--the trip took next to nothing thanks to Harley’s mad driving, but they all arrived in one piece.
Jace allowed them all time to change before taking them downstairs to the basement that served as the central hub for the Pax Team.
One wall was all LCD screens showing the feed of various surveillance cameras--some located on the compound and others from places Mina could only guess at. There was a control board with buttons and keyboards and all sorts of things that made her dizzy, however Zane looked quite excited.
“Can I?” he asked Jace.
“Have at it; you’re our tech now.” Jace shrugged.
“Fantastic!” Zane dove forward and immediately started bringing up the schematics of the system and other readouts.
“Don’t wet your pants, Zane.” Rei snorted at his enthusiasm.
“This is amazing!” Zane said, awed. “Who made this? Can I meet them?”
“Unfortunately, she’s no longer with the team.” Jace spoke through tight lips.
“She?” Zane whirled around in his chair and gaped at Jace. “Forget pissing myself, I think I just creamed my pants.”
“Down, tiger. She’s not part of the team. Actually she will be addressed in the briefing. If you’ll all come along?” Jace nodded toward the large conference table on the other side of the room.
“I’ll be back in a little while, baby,” Zane whispered, caressing the control panel gently.
“If only he cared that much about people, he might actually have a girlfriend.” Rei rolled her eyes.
“Ladies love me!” Zane said, affronted.
“If you have enough money in your wallet, they do.” Rei patted his cheek and moved to a take seat at the table.
“No mincing words, hm? Just in for the kill... like a true ninja!”
The muscle under Rei’s eye visibly twitched at the comment, and she turned in her seat ready to yell at Zane when Harley, Lita, and Nash entered the room, seating themselves around the table.
“All right everyone!” Jace clapped his hands and took his position at the head of the table, in front of another large LCD screen.
“You all know each other, so no introductions are needed. We do have one other on our team, but she’s our intel and isn’t often around. So you three will have to excuse--well, looks like I was wrong! Here she is now!”
They all turned to find a polished woman making her way down to the table. She wore a crisp, charcoal grey suit and teal heels. Her wavy hair was shoulder length and perfectly in place. And while she was extremely beautiful, she appeared quite stern.
“Hello, Jason,” she greeted with a small smile as she sat down. “I heard through the grapevine about the new recruites, I figured it would be rude for me not to attend.”
“Very good,” Jace smiled. “We have Mina Aeryn, Rei Hino, and Zane Król. Kids, this is Madison Fiedler.”
“A pleasure.” She nodded at them. Her voice was smooth and clear, the words colored by a German accent. Without a word of greeting Harley scooted her chair closer to Madison’s and grinned widely.
“You look more beautiful every time I see you, Maddie!”
Madison did not turn to look at the other woman, instead she sat all the straighter in her chair. “I have told you before, my name is Madison, not Maddie.”
“But I like Maddie, it’s much more personal.” Harley leaned in closer still.
“I do not care for personal, Charlene.”
“Oh, now why d’ya have to call me that?” Harley wrinkled her nose. “It’s not my name now.”
“It is the name your mother gave you; it is what I will call you.” Madison continued to sit primly, staring straight ahead at the monitor behind Jace, but her eyes softened just a bit, the more she spoke with Harley. When the other woman started to pout at being called by her given name, one might’ve said Madison’s eyes had taken on a slightly teasing light.
However, Harley took no notice, sulking in her chair at being rebuffed and called the obviously dreaded name.
“All right, if you both are quite done flirting now…” Jace started.
“I was not flirting, Jason.” Madison frowned.
“Harley was, though,” Nash snickered.
“Be quiet, Nicholas.”
“God, you really a stickler for the name thing, aren’t you? You sound like my mother,” Nash grumbled and crossed his arms.
“It is a special talent. Besides, everyone was named what they were for a reason.“ Madison smiled softly, amused, and then turned her attention back to an exasperated Jace. “Please, continue on, Jason.”
“I don’t even know what I was doing anymore…” Jace sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“You were giving us a briefing and telling the noobs what we do.” Nash grinned and leaned back in his chair, propped his feet on the table and laced his fingers over his stomach.
“Right,” Jace breathed, rolling his eyes. He picked up the controller for the screen and started pulling up information.
“The Pax Team was started a few years ago as a covert operation to infiltrate and eradicate Casus Belli. We have been working on gathering information and finding ways to bring down the infrastructure. We know at the head of the operations is a man known only as Wise Man; we have been unsuccessful in gathering much more than that. We don’t even know what he looks like.” Jace started pacing as he spoke, and everyone save Mina, Rei and Zane settled in the for long haul--having heard it all multiple times before.
“We do, however, have information on Wise Man’s most trusted--his generals, if you will. There is Desmond Altari.” Jace brought up a picture of a man with a shock of white hair and cold, distant eyes.
“Desmond has been with Casus Belli since they were an arms dealer during the war. He worked his way up from a simple driver to one of the most powerful men in the organization. He’s currently in charge of their press, their spin.”
“Their what?” Rei arched an eyebrow.
“He’s their PR, he makes sure they appear as some great and kind company rather than an evil syndicate.”
“I’m still not following… I thought they were some underground thugs?”
“Have you heard of Diamond Incorporated?”
“Everyone’s heard of Diam--no.” Rei’s eyes went wide as she stared at Jace. “They’re the same thing?”
“They are. On the surface they run as the multimedia conglomerate, helping poor orphaned children and donating countless dollars to help mankind. Under that, though, they are a violent, volatile, and malicious group. They want power, lots and lots of it. And they will buy, cheat, lie, and steal to get it.”
“Don’t forget murder,” Mina mumbled under her breath.
“Anyway, after Desmond is his brother, Stephen, who acts as the face of the company.” Here Jace brought up a picture of a handsome young man with deep blue eyes and a deceptively kind smile.
“I met him once, at some something for Interpol.” Mina scrunched her nose in distaste.
“Oh, yes. He’s very active in all the circles. I know him very well, actually,” Madison said. “I also know a lot of information about him.”
“That’s why we keep you around,” Jace laughed.
“There are others in various factions of Casus Belli, all bad and all dangerous. However, there are two in particular that hold great importance to us.” Jace finally stopped his pacing and sat down on the edge of the table, bringing up two pictures on the screen as he did so.
On the left was a pretty young woman with a heart shaped face, milky smooth skin and wide blue eyes hidden behind a pair of large, wire framed glasses. Her short hair was a bright shade of blue. She appeared quite young, and the downward turn of her eyes gave her a sad, fragile air.
“This is Anjelika Mizirova. To put it simply, she is a computer genius. I have no other term for it. Zane, I believe you were extremely interested in the system we have here?”
“Hell yes, it’s like art.”
“Well, Anjelika built it from scratch.” Jace smiled sadly.
“She disappeared about a year ago, we searched and searched but found no clues to where she’d gone. Eventually we figured she had been taken or killed. It was about six months ago that she left us a little calling card--she had hacked our system, stolen every ounce of information we had despite all the precautions we had taken. It was then that we learned she hadn’t been taken, but had defected. She is now working behind the scenes at Casus Belli.”
Jace sighed before continuing, “Her direct superior, from what we can tell, is this man here.”
Now he brought up the second picture for closer inspection. The man was all hard lines and cool eyes. His hair was cropped short in a military fashion, his square jaw was hard as stone and his eyes were no less forgiving--dark and stormy, they seemed to pierce you even through a picture.
“Kade is not a man to be trifled with. He is extremely intelligent and just as ruthless. He’s a military man through and through; calculating and precise. He lives his life like a chess game, no move is made without weighing every possible option beforehand.”
“What’s he do for CB?”
“He’s their problem solver, the one who makes things disappear, by whatever means necessary. I also believe that he is privy to a lot of information.” Jace stood up and started pacing again, moving around the room now and causing everyone to swivel in their chairs to keep their attention on him.
“From what we’ve managed to uncover, everyone at Casus Belli has their job and gets only the information they need for that job. Kade, I’m sure, knows the whys and hows of everything. Probably a right hand to Wise Man himself.”
“You said he was military? Where was he trained?” Mina asked, her eyes still glued on the picture on the screen.
“He was a general in the Foreign Legions before he was drafted by Interpol--your dear friends, Mina. He rose through the ranks there, and then he worked a few years for Silver Alliance before defecting to Casus Belli.”
“When was that?”
“Just a few months before we started up the Pax Team.”
“Have a grudge then?” Mina quirked an eyebrow.
“Something like that,” Jace bared his teeth in a disparaging smile.
“All right, I get that you want to take out CB. Completely makes sense!” Zane nodded soundly. “What I don’t get is how you actually want to go about that, and how the three of us figure into it.”
“Kade and Anjelika are our link. If we can get to them we’ll have access to everything relating to Casus Belli. Learn who Wise Man is exactly, what their detailed plans are, and how they’re going about it.”
“Right, so what does that mean?”
“Our plan now is to get information so that we can get close to Kade…and kill him.”
Mina tilted her head, brows furrowed. “Don’t we want to know what he knows?”
“It is in our best interest if he is dead. Once he’s out of the way it will be more than easy to get Angelika, and she, I know, will have all the information we want.” Jace stopped at Mina’s elbow and smiled down at her.
“That’s where you all will come in.”
“How’s that now?”
“They don’t know who you are, they haven’t seen you--don’t know you’ve been recruited. We have a computer tech who is a brilliant hacker, probably better than Angelika.”
“Oh, you flatterer!” Zane pressed a hand to his cheek and batted his eyes.
“Right,” Jace cleared his throat, ignoring Zane’s antics and Nash’s snickers. “We have a stealthy ninja.”
“For the love of all that is holy! I am not a ninja!” Rei moaned, burying her face in her hands. “This is your fault, Zane!”
“And we have Interpol’s prized cadet--trained in black-ops, weaponry, and explosives. First class fighter and, from what a few little birdies told me, quite the actress when she needs to be.”
“Okay, so we kill this Kade and kidnap Anjelika.” Mina nodded slowly as she thought it over. After a moment she glanced up at Jace with narrowed eyes, “why do I get the feeling it’s not going to be as easy as it sounds?”
Jace sat at the edge of the conference table, simply staring at the picture on the screen. Everyone had long since gone, Nash and Harley giving a tour of the grounds while Lita set about readying dinner for the group with Madison’s help.
Mina thought perhaps she should just leave him be and instead try to remember where her room was located, but the dejected slump of his shoulders put that thought aside. She moved forward quietly and pulled out the chair near the head of the table.
“How do you know him?” she asked, nodding toward Kade’s picture on the screen. “It’s obviously more than just work.”
“He’s my brother.”
“Shit,” she breathed.
“I know, right?” Jace turned slightly, bringing up his knee and resting it on the table. “I haven’t seen him in person for about four years. I can still remember the day when Artie came and told me what had happened.”
Jace stopped for a moment, his normally light and jovial eyes were dark and faraway, his mouth a grim line.
“I couldn’t believe it; I thought it was a joke. Or at the very least a mistake. There’s no way my brother, the man I looked up to most in the world, would defect. Kade is--was--the most honorable man I knew. I still can’t think why he did it, how he could.”
“Maybe there’s more to it than you know?”
“I doubt it. The last time I saw him, it was after he’d joined Casus Belli, he tried to kill me.” Jace gave a mocking laugh. “I’d imagined that if I ran into him, he would show some sign, just something to prove he had a good reason or a plan. But it was like he didn’t know me, he sure as hell didn’t care about me. If not for Artie I would be dead right now at my own brother’s hand.”
Jace glanced back toward Kade’s picture, eyes narrowed, and she could see his Adam’s Apple bob as he swallowed thickly.
“So now you mean to kill him before he kills you?” Mina arched an eyebrow, she wasn’t quite sure why she wanted to challenge him, but it was too late to take it back. Jace turned his gaze on her, his eyes still darker than usual and full of determination.
“I’m not the bad guy here, Mina. I’m doing what I have to. Kade and Casus Belli are trying to destroy the world for their own gain; they’re slowly poisoning it, and I intend to stop them. By whatever means necessary.”
“And that includes murdering your brother?”
“It’s not murder if he deserve it.”
“So you’re dealing justice now? Is that part of the deal when you sign up with the Alliance? You get to play God?”
“You don’t understand, Mina. This isn’t about something petty between me and my brother! This is about insuring the safety of Earth and the Alliance. This is about things that are far bigger than you or me or Kade.”
“Maybe it is, but right now it seems pretty personal.”
“Get off it! Casus Belli took something important from both of us, and I know you hate them as much as I do.”
Mina narrowed her eyes at Jace. “How do you about that?”
“I told you, I know everything. I know they killed your father, and, by all intents and purposes, put your mother in an institution.”
“You will not bring up my mother. You don’t have that right!”
“And you don’t have the right to tell me what I should or shouldn’t do with my brother! Now get out of here!” Jace yelled, pointing toward the door.
Mina glared at him once more before shoving back her chair and stalking toward the door. Once she was outside in the hall, she leaned back against the wall, realizing what a mistake she had made ever listening to the stupid blond general.
Big THANK YOU to Sandy for helping me <3<3<3 (and thus it actually getting done and posted woo)!
Title: Poison
Who: Pretty much everyone
Where: Future AU
Rating: R
Warnings: swearing, non-canon pairings. Will contain violence and possible smut.
( Part 1 ) ( Part 2 ) ( Part 3 ) ( Part 4 )
( Part 1 ) ( Part 2 ) ( Part 3 ) ( Part 4 )
The induction ceremony was long and tedious, and Mina loathed affairs like this--she had attended more than her fair share during her time at the Royal Academy. There were several long winded people speaking out about the importance of Silver Alliance, and the history of the organization.
She supposed that part wasn’t so bad, she could happily zone out while they rambled on; it was the uniforms she hated the most. Crisp white jacket trimmed in silver and gold, with a matching skirt for her and Rei, and pressed pants for Zane.
Jace sat up at the main table with the other higher ups, looking quite handsome in his uniform, she had to admit. Next to him sat the ever annoying Nash, and on his other side was Lita. Mina couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that Nash had landed such a beauty--one who seemed intelligent and sweet to boot.
There was a man with premature white hair talking now and he eventually mentioned her name, along with Rei and Zane’s. That was their cue to join the others on stage, and the three of them were given an oath to repeat. At the conclusion they were all forced to stand around and shake hands with the higher ups.
“Ain’t diplomacy grand?” Mina muttered in Rei’s ear.
“Hush, you’ll get us in trouble!”
“Since when do you worry about things like that?”
Rei stopped and thought a moment, “Good point.”
After lots of mingling, and meeting too many people whose names she wouldn’t remember, Mina and the others were finally freed from their torture and whisked away from the main headquarters of Silver Alliance to a private compound outside of Toyko--the trip took next to nothing thanks to Harley’s mad driving, but they all arrived in one piece.
Jace allowed them all time to change before taking them downstairs to the basement that served as the central hub for the Pax Team.
One wall was all LCD screens showing the feed of various surveillance cameras--some located on the compound and others from places Mina could only guess at. There was a control board with buttons and keyboards and all sorts of things that made her dizzy, however Zane looked quite excited.
“Can I?” he asked Jace.
“Have at it; you’re our tech now.” Jace shrugged.
“Fantastic!” Zane dove forward and immediately started bringing up the schematics of the system and other readouts.
“Don’t wet your pants, Zane.” Rei snorted at his enthusiasm.
“This is amazing!” Zane said, awed. “Who made this? Can I meet them?”
“Unfortunately, she’s no longer with the team.” Jace spoke through tight lips.
“She?” Zane whirled around in his chair and gaped at Jace. “Forget pissing myself, I think I just creamed my pants.”
“Down, tiger. She’s not part of the team. Actually she will be addressed in the briefing. If you’ll all come along?” Jace nodded toward the large conference table on the other side of the room.
“I’ll be back in a little while, baby,” Zane whispered, caressing the control panel gently.
“If only he cared that much about people, he might actually have a girlfriend.” Rei rolled her eyes.
“Ladies love me!” Zane said, affronted.
“If you have enough money in your wallet, they do.” Rei patted his cheek and moved to a take seat at the table.
“No mincing words, hm? Just in for the kill... like a true ninja!”
The muscle under Rei’s eye visibly twitched at the comment, and she turned in her seat ready to yell at Zane when Harley, Lita, and Nash entered the room, seating themselves around the table.
“All right everyone!” Jace clapped his hands and took his position at the head of the table, in front of another large LCD screen.
“You all know each other, so no introductions are needed. We do have one other on our team, but she’s our intel and isn’t often around. So you three will have to excuse--well, looks like I was wrong! Here she is now!”
They all turned to find a polished woman making her way down to the table. She wore a crisp, charcoal grey suit and teal heels. Her wavy hair was shoulder length and perfectly in place. And while she was extremely beautiful, she appeared quite stern.
“Hello, Jason,” she greeted with a small smile as she sat down. “I heard through the grapevine about the new recruites, I figured it would be rude for me not to attend.”
“Very good,” Jace smiled. “We have Mina Aeryn, Rei Hino, and Zane Król. Kids, this is Madison Fiedler.”
“A pleasure.” She nodded at them. Her voice was smooth and clear, the words colored by a German accent. Without a word of greeting Harley scooted her chair closer to Madison’s and grinned widely.
“You look more beautiful every time I see you, Maddie!”
Madison did not turn to look at the other woman, instead she sat all the straighter in her chair. “I have told you before, my name is Madison, not Maddie.”
“But I like Maddie, it’s much more personal.” Harley leaned in closer still.
“I do not care for personal, Charlene.”
“Oh, now why d’ya have to call me that?” Harley wrinkled her nose. “It’s not my name now.”
“It is the name your mother gave you; it is what I will call you.” Madison continued to sit primly, staring straight ahead at the monitor behind Jace, but her eyes softened just a bit, the more she spoke with Harley. When the other woman started to pout at being called by her given name, one might’ve said Madison’s eyes had taken on a slightly teasing light.
However, Harley took no notice, sulking in her chair at being rebuffed and called the obviously dreaded name.
“All right, if you both are quite done flirting now…” Jace started.
“I was not flirting, Jason.” Madison frowned.
“Harley was, though,” Nash snickered.
“Be quiet, Nicholas.”
“God, you really a stickler for the name thing, aren’t you? You sound like my mother,” Nash grumbled and crossed his arms.
“It is a special talent. Besides, everyone was named what they were for a reason.“ Madison smiled softly, amused, and then turned her attention back to an exasperated Jace. “Please, continue on, Jason.”
“I don’t even know what I was doing anymore…” Jace sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“You were giving us a briefing and telling the noobs what we do.” Nash grinned and leaned back in his chair, propped his feet on the table and laced his fingers over his stomach.
“Right,” Jace breathed, rolling his eyes. He picked up the controller for the screen and started pulling up information.
“The Pax Team was started a few years ago as a covert operation to infiltrate and eradicate Casus Belli. We have been working on gathering information and finding ways to bring down the infrastructure. We know at the head of the operations is a man known only as Wise Man; we have been unsuccessful in gathering much more than that. We don’t even know what he looks like.” Jace started pacing as he spoke, and everyone save Mina, Rei and Zane settled in the for long haul--having heard it all multiple times before.
“We do, however, have information on Wise Man’s most trusted--his generals, if you will. There is Desmond Altari.” Jace brought up a picture of a man with a shock of white hair and cold, distant eyes.
“Desmond has been with Casus Belli since they were an arms dealer during the war. He worked his way up from a simple driver to one of the most powerful men in the organization. He’s currently in charge of their press, their spin.”
“Their what?” Rei arched an eyebrow.
“He’s their PR, he makes sure they appear as some great and kind company rather than an evil syndicate.”
“I’m still not following… I thought they were some underground thugs?”
“Have you heard of Diamond Incorporated?”
“Everyone’s heard of Diam--no.” Rei’s eyes went wide as she stared at Jace. “They’re the same thing?”
“They are. On the surface they run as the multimedia conglomerate, helping poor orphaned children and donating countless dollars to help mankind. Under that, though, they are a violent, volatile, and malicious group. They want power, lots and lots of it. And they will buy, cheat, lie, and steal to get it.”
“Don’t forget murder,” Mina mumbled under her breath.
“Anyway, after Desmond is his brother, Stephen, who acts as the face of the company.” Here Jace brought up a picture of a handsome young man with deep blue eyes and a deceptively kind smile.
“I met him once, at some something for Interpol.” Mina scrunched her nose in distaste.
“Oh, yes. He’s very active in all the circles. I know him very well, actually,” Madison said. “I also know a lot of information about him.”
“That’s why we keep you around,” Jace laughed.
“There are others in various factions of Casus Belli, all bad and all dangerous. However, there are two in particular that hold great importance to us.” Jace finally stopped his pacing and sat down on the edge of the table, bringing up two pictures on the screen as he did so.
On the left was a pretty young woman with a heart shaped face, milky smooth skin and wide blue eyes hidden behind a pair of large, wire framed glasses. Her short hair was a bright shade of blue. She appeared quite young, and the downward turn of her eyes gave her a sad, fragile air.
“This is Anjelika Mizirova. To put it simply, she is a computer genius. I have no other term for it. Zane, I believe you were extremely interested in the system we have here?”
“Hell yes, it’s like art.”
“Well, Anjelika built it from scratch.” Jace smiled sadly.
“She disappeared about a year ago, we searched and searched but found no clues to where she’d gone. Eventually we figured she had been taken or killed. It was about six months ago that she left us a little calling card--she had hacked our system, stolen every ounce of information we had despite all the precautions we had taken. It was then that we learned she hadn’t been taken, but had defected. She is now working behind the scenes at Casus Belli.”
Jace sighed before continuing, “Her direct superior, from what we can tell, is this man here.”
Now he brought up the second picture for closer inspection. The man was all hard lines and cool eyes. His hair was cropped short in a military fashion, his square jaw was hard as stone and his eyes were no less forgiving--dark and stormy, they seemed to pierce you even through a picture.
“Kade is not a man to be trifled with. He is extremely intelligent and just as ruthless. He’s a military man through and through; calculating and precise. He lives his life like a chess game, no move is made without weighing every possible option beforehand.”
“What’s he do for CB?”
“He’s their problem solver, the one who makes things disappear, by whatever means necessary. I also believe that he is privy to a lot of information.” Jace stood up and started pacing again, moving around the room now and causing everyone to swivel in their chairs to keep their attention on him.
“From what we’ve managed to uncover, everyone at Casus Belli has their job and gets only the information they need for that job. Kade, I’m sure, knows the whys and hows of everything. Probably a right hand to Wise Man himself.”
“You said he was military? Where was he trained?” Mina asked, her eyes still glued on the picture on the screen.
“He was a general in the Foreign Legions before he was drafted by Interpol--your dear friends, Mina. He rose through the ranks there, and then he worked a few years for Silver Alliance before defecting to Casus Belli.”
“When was that?”
“Just a few months before we started up the Pax Team.”
“Have a grudge then?” Mina quirked an eyebrow.
“Something like that,” Jace bared his teeth in a disparaging smile.
“All right, I get that you want to take out CB. Completely makes sense!” Zane nodded soundly. “What I don’t get is how you actually want to go about that, and how the three of us figure into it.”
“Kade and Anjelika are our link. If we can get to them we’ll have access to everything relating to Casus Belli. Learn who Wise Man is exactly, what their detailed plans are, and how they’re going about it.”
“Right, so what does that mean?”
“Our plan now is to get information so that we can get close to Kade…and kill him.”
Mina tilted her head, brows furrowed. “Don’t we want to know what he knows?”
“It is in our best interest if he is dead. Once he’s out of the way it will be more than easy to get Angelika, and she, I know, will have all the information we want.” Jace stopped at Mina’s elbow and smiled down at her.
“That’s where you all will come in.”
“How’s that now?”
“They don’t know who you are, they haven’t seen you--don’t know you’ve been recruited. We have a computer tech who is a brilliant hacker, probably better than Angelika.”
“Oh, you flatterer!” Zane pressed a hand to his cheek and batted his eyes.
“Right,” Jace cleared his throat, ignoring Zane’s antics and Nash’s snickers. “We have a stealthy ninja.”
“For the love of all that is holy! I am not a ninja!” Rei moaned, burying her face in her hands. “This is your fault, Zane!”
“And we have Interpol’s prized cadet--trained in black-ops, weaponry, and explosives. First class fighter and, from what a few little birdies told me, quite the actress when she needs to be.”
“Okay, so we kill this Kade and kidnap Anjelika.” Mina nodded slowly as she thought it over. After a moment she glanced up at Jace with narrowed eyes, “why do I get the feeling it’s not going to be as easy as it sounds?”
******
Jace sat at the edge of the conference table, simply staring at the picture on the screen. Everyone had long since gone, Nash and Harley giving a tour of the grounds while Lita set about readying dinner for the group with Madison’s help.
Mina thought perhaps she should just leave him be and instead try to remember where her room was located, but the dejected slump of his shoulders put that thought aside. She moved forward quietly and pulled out the chair near the head of the table.
“How do you know him?” she asked, nodding toward Kade’s picture on the screen. “It’s obviously more than just work.”
“He’s my brother.”
“Shit,” she breathed.
“I know, right?” Jace turned slightly, bringing up his knee and resting it on the table. “I haven’t seen him in person for about four years. I can still remember the day when Artie came and told me what had happened.”
Jace stopped for a moment, his normally light and jovial eyes were dark and faraway, his mouth a grim line.
“I couldn’t believe it; I thought it was a joke. Or at the very least a mistake. There’s no way my brother, the man I looked up to most in the world, would defect. Kade is--was--the most honorable man I knew. I still can’t think why he did it, how he could.”
“Maybe there’s more to it than you know?”
“I doubt it. The last time I saw him, it was after he’d joined Casus Belli, he tried to kill me.” Jace gave a mocking laugh. “I’d imagined that if I ran into him, he would show some sign, just something to prove he had a good reason or a plan. But it was like he didn’t know me, he sure as hell didn’t care about me. If not for Artie I would be dead right now at my own brother’s hand.”
Jace glanced back toward Kade’s picture, eyes narrowed, and she could see his Adam’s Apple bob as he swallowed thickly.
“So now you mean to kill him before he kills you?” Mina arched an eyebrow, she wasn’t quite sure why she wanted to challenge him, but it was too late to take it back. Jace turned his gaze on her, his eyes still darker than usual and full of determination.
“I’m not the bad guy here, Mina. I’m doing what I have to. Kade and Casus Belli are trying to destroy the world for their own gain; they’re slowly poisoning it, and I intend to stop them. By whatever means necessary.”
“And that includes murdering your brother?”
“It’s not murder if he deserve it.”
“So you’re dealing justice now? Is that part of the deal when you sign up with the Alliance? You get to play God?”
“You don’t understand, Mina. This isn’t about something petty between me and my brother! This is about insuring the safety of Earth and the Alliance. This is about things that are far bigger than you or me or Kade.”
“Maybe it is, but right now it seems pretty personal.”
“Get off it! Casus Belli took something important from both of us, and I know you hate them as much as I do.”
Mina narrowed her eyes at Jace. “How do you about that?”
“I told you, I know everything. I know they killed your father, and, by all intents and purposes, put your mother in an institution.”
“You will not bring up my mother. You don’t have that right!”
“And you don’t have the right to tell me what I should or shouldn’t do with my brother! Now get out of here!” Jace yelled, pointing toward the door.
Mina glared at him once more before shoving back her chair and stalking toward the door. Once she was outside in the hall, she leaned back against the wall, realizing what a mistake she had made ever listening to the stupid blond general.
