They Found Me

[Ayden]

Ayden was working her shift at the diner when a man in a black suit and sunglasses walked in. She'd never seen him before and he was too clean to be a resident or even a visitor. That should have been her first clue.  He sat down at one of her tables and put his sunglasses down on the table.

She grabbed her pad from  her pocket and approached him.  His eyes looked up and she could have sworn he recognized her as someone who he knew. But she didn't know this man.  She would remember him.  He smiled at her. "I'll have a coffee, cream, no sugar." He paused then his smile turned dark. "Anne."

Ayden's face went white. That was not her name -- it hadn't been her name for many years. It wasn't even close.  "I'm sorry, we are out of coffee." she said without letting him know she was panicking on the inside.  Someone found me.  Holy fuck!  We have to leave.

"That's alright. I'll take the #1 special and a chocolate milk shake. And then you'll come sit down and have a little chant with me. Chastity."

Fuck! He knew more than he should! 

"Right.  I'll get that right in." She said with a waiver in her voice.  This was going to go badly.  What the fuck!

Ayden put the order in and then went into the back room to call her husband... While still officially it still felt weird.  Her name was Nikki and she was married to Josh.   

Connor picked up and Ayden didn't even wait for him to say hello.  "Someone found me. Start packing, we need to go." She hung up quickly and made her way out to the front "I'm going to take a break." She told the girl up front and then went to sit down with the man who knew too much.

[Ayden]

Ayden sat down as Nikki. "I got ten minutes, so be quick."

The man just laughed. "Such a rush darling. We got so much to talk about."

Ayden glared at him, she waited for him to continue and when he didn't she slide out of the booth. "Ah come on Anne." His hand placed on top of hers and Ayden's fear was present the power only a thought away but she didn't reveal herself. That was even more dangerous -- she'd only just gotten free of the Atharim. She was angry and slammed her hand on the table. "Touch me again and you won't have a hand."

He held up his hands in surrender. "Fine, fine. Touchy aren't we." He smirked at his words and nodded for her to sit back down as he pulled out an envelope. "We have a non-negotialbe job for you to do. It gets done, or we release a whole lot of information about who Nikki Haydensen really is." He didn't wait around for her response, or even his food as he slipped out of the booth.

Fuck! Ayden snatched the envelope from the table and rushed it to her locker in the back. She had a shift to finish. And running wasn't likely to do any good. She'd look at the so-called orders later.

[Connor Kent]

Coming back to the United States had felt odd. It was still home, of course. And he was an American, with all that meant to him. Of course, the country had changed a lot since he was a kid.

Truth was, after living in Moscow, the richest and most powerful city on earth ruled by the largest empire that had ever existed on earth...well, coming back made him....wistful. Sad. Not for himself. Not really. He'd made peace with his loss, made peace with life.

But he remembered when America had still been the greatest nation on earth. Russia had been grumbling, trying to find its footing after the collapse of the Soviet Union, bumbling from one tin pot dictator with delusions of grandeur to another.

The America of his teens and early 20s had still been vibrant and virile, he remembered. But then, somehow, little by little- disasters here and there, terrible presidents and isolationist policies, along with a paralyzing polarization, it lost its way. Sure, The Ascendancy was a force to be reckoned with. an undeniable one. Only now did people really fimd out the full extent of his power.

But maybe America could have been more. Maybe it coild have done more. He loved this country. Above all, he loved the ideals it had been founded upon. Always aspirational, always theoretical, but over time those ideals had became more and more real as they were applied to more and more people- emancipation, womens's suffrage, civil rights, indigenous people's rights, women's rights, LGBTQIA+ rights. The recognition that those principles applied to everyone was what he had loved about this land, that it had kept evolving and aspired to be always better than it was.

But along with that came the backlash, the polarization, the hatred and resentment of people who felt like they were losing power, people who felt like they weren't in charge anymore. And then there were those frustrated over the shifting of the economy or the switch to other forms of energy or technology that had caused great  hardship and struggle for so many. The nuclear disaster in Ohio or the environmental tragedies on the west coast only made things worse for people.

Those  bitter feelings- some legitimate and some not- were fanned ever hotter by demagogues who cynically and callously rode them to power, deepening the divide along the way. Even without The Ascendency and the ASU and then the Dominion, America had lost its way and position.

So being home again, well, he couldn"t help but wish things had been different. He couldn't help but miss what he remembered.

Careful, he then told himself. Entropy in information theory applies to memory too, pal. Information degradation was a given unless correcting steps were taken. Everytime you processed a memory you inadvertantly change it in some way. Nostalgia is always better than the reality because you invariably fixate on the good and edit out the bad.

Life is what it is. Good and bad. Pain and pleasure. Loss and gain. He'd had suffered loss that nearly killed him. Hayden left a gaping hole in his heart. And yet, now, with peace had come a change. Itwas like he could feel his son watching over him. 

Sometimes when he dreamed, dreams so vivid, so tangible that he almost swore it was reality, he caught glimpses of Hayden- a shadow or mist, for just a moment. It wasn"t always the same brown hair and smiling goateed face he remembered so well that it twisted him up inside. Sometimes, in the way dreams were, he knew it was Hayden even when he looked like a dark man his age or older, with gray at his temples, recognized his son even with the Red hair and uncharacteristic height.

Dreams were funny that way. But it was enough. Hayden existed somewhere. He knew it. He watched over him. And so he lived his life, content with his lot, sometimes even talking to his dead son when no one was around.

Loss and gain. His wife, Ayden. Nikki, now. Anne at one time. Just names. But his wife and his heart. His best friend. And now, at 46 he would be a father again. They would be parents. Part of him was terrified. He knew what it meant to lose a child. But he also knew the joy of one, watching it grow, helping them become what the were meant to be, whatever it was.

And so the anticipation and joy outweighed the fear. His wife, his sweet, sharp, beautiful deadly dangerous wife. He wasn't afraid of her. He knew she'd never hurt him, despite her power. More than anything, he liked her. Genuinely liked her. And liked being with her.

So there they were in southen Colorado, living not far from South Fork off the 160. It was as close to Farmington as Connor was ever going to go. Acceptance was one thing. Seeing where he had raised his son, with all those memories, was another.

Ayden worked as a waitress and he did remote devlopment as a contractor. They had a small place and together they worked on their house. He'd remodelled the kitchen- her vision of course- and was now working on the bedroom for the baby- doing the trim after replacing the wood flooring, at the moment. He'd always liked carpentry. In some ways, it was so different from his work as a developer. And yet in others, it required the same type of thinking through a problem, of planning ahead. 

Except that he didn't risk cutting a finger on the skillsaw when up to his armpits in code.

The saw spun to a stop as he finished his next cut, the ringing of his wallet replacing its noise. Seeing it was Nikki, he picked up, holding it with his shoulder as he compared the  now two angled pieces to make sure they met at 90s degrees. 

The pieces of trim clattered to the ground as the floor seem to open up and swallow him. Anger- no, rage, filled him. Fuck! They were happy here!! 

She was gone without another word. He stood there, thinking, a feeling of stubborness taking hold. He didn't want to move. Not again. He needed to talk to Nikki. He needed to know what was going on.

Except....he trusted her. She would have said more if she could. They were a team. Shaking his head with frustration, he headed to bedroom and pulled out a suitcase.

This fucking sucked!!

[Ayden]

Ayden finished her shift and didn't linger to speak with any of the other girls like usual. Nikki made the excuse that she wasn't feeling well and patted her belly. No one would blame her as she slipped out the door with the envelope in hand.

The short trip home was quick as she drove without thinking. The envelope was burning a hole in her seat. She wanted to make it home before opening it with Connor. They were a family and they would deal with this together.

Ayden closed the door behind her. "Josh..." She said to enforce the habit. She didn't yell, but she made her way to the bedroom and found Connor packing. She wrapped her arms around his waist from behind. "Thank you for trusting me. But take a break." She pressed a kissed to the back of his neck and then sat down on the bed and held out the envelope. "This is a mission. I do it, or they blow my cover and all my identities. We can run or we can see what they want me to do. Whoever who "they" are."

[Connor Kent]

Connor- it was how he thought of himself. He didn't think he'd ever get used to Josh- buried himself in packing. He started with the essentials- clothes for both of them for various types of environs along with toiletries and other necessary things. They had a go bag with ids and cash along with gold and silver coins- all Ayden's doing. He wasn't the one with the hook ups when it came to fake identification and such.

Into another bag when his memory. Things that he could not leave behind. Pictures, letters, a blanket, a soft Bluey doll, things that belonged to his mom, his dad. Yeah, a lot was backed up in the cloud. And he had drives as well with copies for the stuff that had been digitized like videos. But the smell on the blanket or doll...you couldn't back that stuff up. It was all he had left of his son. At least physically.

He purposefully lost himself in the packing because worry and fear kept gnawing at him, attention whores, desperate to get him to feed them. He refused to engage, though it was a struggle. Ayden could take care of herself. She'd tell him if she was in danger.

That was what he told himself. Two cases packed and their go bag ready, he stopped, staring at their room. Their home. It felt like something was tearing from him. After coming back to the US, after setting up their home, with a new baby on the way....well, it had felt like they were home. He'd made a few friends at the gym. Nothing deep, but it was a start. Ayden coming home from work, him with dinner on the stove or grill. They'd finish together and then relax- a glass of wine maybe and sit on the porch and talk, or read or watch TV. Sometimes they'd go for a walk.

A routine had settled in and he had allowed himself to relax, to feel safe and at peace. And now, someone had fucked it up. Someone had come along and was going to blow up their world.

The rage- that burning anger that he'd unleashed once before, the one and only time he'd ever killed a man, had been tightly reined- now rumbled and grumbled and he felt his arms and hands itching to do something. Hungering for violence.

He faught it down slowly, but it wasn't easy. Deep breathes. Focus. Meditation. Listening to his heart beat, to his breathing. 

And he was still just standing there when he heard her behind him, felt her arms around him, her lips on his neck. Whatever had been of his rage melted away. She was home and safe. That's all that mattered. All the rest....it was nothing. They could make a life anywhere. Home was her and the baby. That was all.

He turned and nfolded her in his arms, felt the warmth and strength of her body against his. She was solid. This. This was life. The house, the routine, those didn't matter. He kissed her and then sat down, listening. He took the letter, but didn't read it.

He didn't like the idea of her killing people. It was a morally questionable thing to do. Amd yet he did trust her. If it was a bad thing, she'd say no. 

Except that this time, it wasnt a typical contract. It was blackmail. Which meant that the target could be someone inmocent. He looked at the letter and then at her. Quietly, he said "So what is the job?" It sounded easier than "who is the person you have to kill?"

He had questions. Lots of them. But he was emotional and the only way to be controlled was to let her tell him what was going on. To proceed this in small pieces. Well, he did need to know. "Is this going to be dangerous?" The knot had formed again, but he tried to just let her talk.

[Ayden]

Connor sat down with her with the envelope in his hand. He asked about it. It was always going to be dangerous, but she didn't have the answer. "I haven't looked yet. I figured we'd look together and decide together if this is something we can live with."

She took the envelope from his hands and opened the flap. "Together we will decide."

There was a set of papers paper-clipped together. So far a typical assignment. The top was a black and white picture, grainy from the looks of what she could see as she pulled it out. It looked like a still capture from a security camera if she could guess blown up to get a better visual which is why it was grainy -- blown up beyond recognition probably. But as she pulled it out her jaw dropped. The face presented before her she knew. Her stomach twisted at the recognition. She didn't look to Connor. This was far more dangerous than anything she could ever have hoped to do. She yanked the pictures from the rest of the paper and tossed the pictures at Connor while she looked at official US government papers. Orders directly from those who ran this government. Or at least really great fakes. Ayden wasn't sure which.

She read through the paperwork and her blood began to boil. The fucking kid was Atharim and an assassin. He claimed to be different yet this proved he was not. Ayden growled. "Apparently he's killing people like me who side with the Free America movement. Or rather anti-CCD supporters." She tossed the papers on the bed and got up. "He's killing people."

The papers slide revealing much more than the letter Ayden had read -- the orders. She hadn't cared much beyond knowing who it was she was tasked to kill. The why didn't matter. But there was more to the paperwork that slide across the bed. Autopsy reports of three men all with ties to the Free America movement. All dead with heart issues despite not having a history of them. The grainy picture was of Nox Durante fighting on a train car with a man. Not of one of the three, but this man was dead now on the same train as one of the dead three. He was their number one suspect, but they had no proof. The man died of natural causes. All of them did, yet the autopsy reports were inconclusive.

At the bottom of the envelope there was a thumb drive. The contents would reveal viral videos of Nox fighting in the Almaz, in particular one new one of him slicing the head off of a rabid gorilla. A sticker on the thumb drive read "Armed and Dangerous."

Other pictures of Nox were beneath the other one. Images really that could be of anyone. Notes on the backs of the photos gave the locations of near where all three men had died, but the images were unclear, like there was some sort of interference in the cameras.

[Connor Kent]

Connor felt sick in the pit of his stomach, enough that he tasted bile. And just like that, the universe had decieed to fuck them over. Things had been good. Life had been good. The future held promise.

And now....now in a single moment, everthing had changed. He was numb as he looked at the pictures, listened to her explanation. It wasn't fair. 

It wasn't fucking fair. Part of him- the part that had freed those kids, that had killed that man- that part wanted to go after them- whoever "them" was- and kill them all. For daring to do this, for upending their life.

He stared at the picture of the target. It took a moment. Nox. He remembered the kid. Seemed a good guy. Just a few years older than Hayden. His wife was being threatened with....whatever. Death. Jail. Disappearing. And the only way out was to kill some kid. 

He was angry at the whole situation. Duh. Talk about understatement. Their whole life just blown up. He stood and went to the door, wanted to go sit in the room that was going to be for the baby.

But he stopped. Ayden. It wasn't her fault. He couldn't let her feel alone, like he was leaving her. He turned, looked at her. She hadn't started to show yet. But she carried their child. 

It wasn't like she was happy with this. Running away doesn't solve anything. He went back to the bed and moved the papers aside. "Who wants...." No. Wrong question. For now anyway. There had to ve a way out of this. 

The cold rage he felt was alive and well. Somehow, someway, they would pay for this. The bastards would pay. He liked Nox well enough. But this wasn't about saving him, however much it might be deserved. No, his concern was Ayden and their family. This was about his family, his circle. There were two people in it. 

But what to do? For now, "What do we need to do? Who are these people? What are our options?" Enemy of my enemy. These people were his enemy.

There had to be a way. Some way to get them free once and for all. Even if he countenanced killing Nox, he wasn't stupid. There'd be another mission. People like this didn't just go away after you did the job.

[Ayden]

Ayden shrugged. "I say we kill him, and then run. Give us time to make plans to disappear again."

She sighed as she pulled the pictures towards her and put the thumbdrive into the laptop sitting on the desk in their bedroom. The video was gruesome, she knew he was dangerous. He was Atharim and a channeler. And not from the look of the video he wasn't inept like most of them.

"We'll just have to be more careful. Change our names again, find someplace else."

She sat down on the bed frustrated. "He's killing people. Someone needs to take him down. He's a traitor."

[Connor Kent]

Connor didn't say anything for a while. Her words, the situation, everything, tumbled over in his mind. Chaos. His wife was a hard woman. She had to be to be good.at what at she did. Anf she was used to taking orders. He had long ago come to terms with that. Soldiers- especially those in special forces- did not have the luxury of a conscience or of questioning orders.

But Connor had never been military. He knew that just because someone was in a position of authority, they didn't suddenly made good decisions. Or even right ones. He'd seen far too many morons get into power in his lifetime.

He watched the video. It was clear Nox was behind it. And it was bad. Still..."Traitor....to what? To whom? You aren't Atharim." He shoved away the flash of anger came up everytime he thought of them. That Hayden had been spared being murdered did not lessen their evil. Aria had been a friend, of sorts. She had been there for him when he was at his lowest. 

But Atharim like her seemed few and far between. He paid attention to the news enough to know they had been exposed. Good, he'd thought. "The Atharim are not our friends. If Nox has betrayed them, so be it."

He looked at the papers again. They were in their home. And obviously their cover had been blown. He took her hand, turned to look at her. "Honestly, Ayden. The people that concern me are the ones who are forcing you to do this. They won't let you go when this is done- if you even can kill him. They will ask for more."

And he couldn't help the pain that washed over his face. His wife and unborn child were at risk. The fear of loss threatened to overwhelm him, but he choked it down. "Maybe...we see what happens. Go along with it for now. Find out who is behind it and why." Maybe Nox helps us, he didn't say. It was a stupid hope.

But he couldn't shake it.

[Ayden]

"You are right. I'm not Atharim, but this has nothing to do with them. He's killing those who support a free America. He's killing our hope to be free of the CCD." Ayden was angry. Not at Connor, but at Nox. How could he do this? He was an American.

But Ayden tried to cool her anger and listen to Connor. He had a soft spot for the boy. And when he was done she started pacing taking in the words. "They won't stop, that's why we have to run again. Hide again. If it's our government then they can make our life difficult. if it's a foreign body who purposefully cares about the Free America movement then the same thing. We can't do anything about them. "

Ayden looked through the papers again. In the documents there was a memo, much of it was redacted. It could be forged, but it looked like a transcript of a text conversation. The words kill, vice president and president were only a few of the words that were not redacted. Odd things to be left to read. Clearly a manipulation. She hands Connor the paper. "Ominous words. But if he's going to kill the president and vice president we have to stop him." She sighed. "But because he's your friend, we can talk to him, but if..." Ayden let it linger, she'd kill him in a heartbeat, or die trying.