<Episode 20>

Jack stood there as the old guy claimed he was there only friend they had in the world. He glanced back at Rachel who was just as confused as he was. Still keeping his left arm part of the way up he asked, “Why should we believe you?”

The other man just gave him a ragged grin, “Do you think y’all have another option?”

Wiggling the fingers on his left hand slightly he answered, “I’m pretty sure I can make one if I have too.”

Dusty coughed out a laugh, “Bet you could too, and in record time I’d bet. But like I said I didn’t come to fight I just come to help you guys out.”

“How did you know where to find us?”, Rachel demanded.

“It wasn’t easy I’ll tell you what.” Dusty waved an arm wide, “Do you have any idea how many places there are to hide in this city? Well… I guess you two would have a good idea. The guy who asked me to find the two of you owes me a ton of gas money though.”

Jack lowered his arm, but not by much, “Somebody asked you to find us? So you’re not our only friend in the world.” That was one lie he caught him in

“If you want to get technical, but I’m here and he ain’t. That got to count for something.”

“Who asked you to find us?”, Rachel asked him.

Dusty looked hesitant to answer. “Let’s just say he’s a mutual acquaintance and leave it at that. Be trouble for him if the wrong people found out about this huge favor he asked me to do.”

“I don’t trust him,” Jack mumbled.

“I agree,” she replied, “but right now any port in the storm is a good one.”

He looked at her in disbelief, “You can’t be serious.”

“Like he said we don’t have a whole lot of options right now.” To Dusty she said, “What do you want us to do?”

He pointed to the light behind him, “Y’all can hop in the truck and I’ll take you two were you can be safe.”

“I think,” Rachel countered, “we’ll follow you on our motorcycle.” He mouthed the word ‘our’ but she ignored him. “Jack isn’t in the mood to give it up just yet.”

The older guy scratched the side of his head, “You do realize Anderson has his boys on the look out for that ride of yours?”

“We’ll chance it,” Rachel told him.

“Suit yourself,” Dusty walked to the driver side door and opened it. “How do I know you two won’t ditch me when I ain’t looking?”

“How do we know you’re not leading us into a trap?”, he shot back.

“A bit paranoid ain’t ya. Then again who could blame ya.” He got behind the wheel of the truck and waited while Jack pulled his bike out of the tunnel and they got on. Dusty backed his truck up a bit and they got a good look at the rust bucket of a truck he was driving. He shouted out the passenger window, “Now don’t out run ol’ Bessie with that fancy cycle of yours.”

Jack looked back at her, “You got us following a guy who named his Sansford and Son truck ‘Bessie’.”

“Would you feel better if he named it Mertle?,” she told him. “Besides if he can find us so can World Inc. . If he’s offering us a safe harbor we can at least listen to him. It not like you can’t handle it if things go wrong.”

He strapped on the helmet saying, “Why do I keep listening to you? You’re not even my boss anymore.” He started the engine and followed ‘Bessie’ down the road.

***
Dusty lead them to what looked liked a old car junkyard. Maybe not exactly old, there were a few newer models among the old. She could tell some of them were missing things like doors or a hood as they passed them. Jack tensed up as the truck they were following stopped in front of a beat up old shack. Dusty got out saying, “Home sweet home. Come on in, can I fix you guys some coffee? Maybe grab you a beer if you want?”

“I ain’t thirsty,” Jack said plainly.

“I never drink coffee this late,” Rachel added. Dusty snorted in response. She didn’t know if he was insulted or not. They followed him into the shack. Both of them looked around in surprised, things were way different on the inside. While the outside looked old and almost abandoned the interior was well kept and pristine. Outside from the various boxes and clothes on the floor that is. “Interesting,” she ended up saying.

“I get that a lot,” Dusty replied while sitting in an old easy chair. “Keep telling myself I’m going to fix up the outside.” He chuckled,” Of course I’ve been telling myself that for the last twenty years. Relax and make yourself at home.” They both sat on a couch that was close to the door. “Take that coat of your off boy and stay awhile.”

“I’m fine,” he said.

“Friedman already told me about that thing in your head. I took the proper precautions so don’t worry.”

“Friedman?!”, they both exclaimed. Rachel asked, “How do you know Dr. Friedman?”

“And why you telling us now?”,” Jack added.

“We went to the same medical school.” He reached over and poured himself a cup of coffee. “That’s when he found out what a Drakan was actually. We both got a bit drunk and I got a little too relaxed. I’ll tell you, explaining that sobered us up real quick.” He smiled from the memory. “As for why now, this is the only place I was sure we won’t be overheard.”

“You said you took precaution?”, Rachel was curious. “What are you talking about?”

“I got a signal jammer set up in the house,” he said casually as he took a sip. “Got some more around here that I need to get in place so you can walk around without worrying about that stuff around your head.” He motioned for Jack to remove the hood. Reluctantly he did so, then he started scratching the back of his head for a couple of moments. Dusty chuckled again, “Bet that felt pretty good.”

“You have no idea.” Jack looked like he had a thought, “Are these jammers portable?”

The older man looked thoughtful, “Well I guess, if I could hook up the right kind of battery. I imagine so.”

“Then hook me up man.”

“You might want to rethink that after you see it.” He pulled a shirt off of something near him. It was the size of an old portable TV. It had what looked like a small TV antenna on the top of it. Over all it was about a foot and a half tall.

Jack looked at it saying, “That’s gonna be a little noticeable. You got anything smaller?”

“This is the small one.” Jack looked a little dismayed. “This has got a range of about twenty five, thirty feet so you should be all right in the house.”

“We’re did you get this?” Rachel asked.

“I built it,” Dusty said with a little pride. “I may be a doctor by trade but I need something to do between patients. Besides I always had a bit of a knack with this stuff so it wasn’t much of a problem.”

“How many more of these do you have?” Rachel said while finding herself looking out the window. She wasn’t sure about Jack but she was expecting World Inc. task force to bust in. Rachel felt a little better when she caught Jack doing the same thing.

“About four or five, “he answered, ” I still got to test a couple of them to make sure they work. I already have some spots marked out on the grounds. That should give you some room to stretch your legs. I know about being cooped up all to well. In the morning you can give me a hand if you want.”

“Dude why is that thing so big? I seen people talk on cell phone that about the size of credit cards.”

“I got to work with what I got,” he replied. “If I had the right parts I could make these things the size of a remote if I wanted too. Besides this one’s a special build.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask…,”Jack started. Dusty picked up remote and turned on the television.

“Don’t want anything to mess with my shows,” he said with a smirk.

“Hey, cool Gunsmoke.”

“A man with taste.”

“You two are going to get along great,” she remarked to Jack. “So your a doctor and you can make things like that signal jammer?” Dusty nodded, “Can you take things apart, or maybe deactivate somethings?” Jack looked at her tapping the back of his head, getting the idea.

“I suppose.” Dusty rubbed his chin, “What did you have in mind?”

“The tracking chip in Jack’s head.”

“Don’t ask for anything small do ya. Huh, gonna have to see if Friedman can get me the plans. Don’t want to go poking around in there with out a road map, so to speak. Also gonna have to see if I can get the right equipment for the job. I can do a lot of things here, that ain’t one of them.”

Jack eye narrowed, “How exactly?”

“I got my connections.”

“World Inc. ….”

Dusty leaned foreword, looking serious for the first time, “Boy, I don’t deal with that particular devil.”

“So your with the rebels then,” Rachel said.

“Not exactly,” he told her. “When they have someone too sick or injured that can’t take care of they come to me. And sometimes to return the favor they let me have or borrow somethings I need. That’s about a involved in this mess that I get. But to do what you ask, it’s gonna take me a few days to get everything set up.”

“We’re not going anywhere.”

“There she goes talking for me again,” Jack mumbled. She elbowed him in the side.

“I’ll start making the calls in the morning. Right now I’m betting you two want to get some rest.” He pointed down a hallway, “The bedrooms are that way. Bathroom that door at the end of the hall. Room on the right is mine. You two can figure out you’re gonna share the one on the left.”

“I got dibs,” Jack said quickly. She elbowed his side even harder this time, “What was that for?” She just looked at him, eyebrow slightly raised. “Don’t you give that look.” After a few moment he looked away, “All right, I got dibs on the coach.” Dusty chuckled as he finished his coffee and went to bed.

“I’m going to bed too,” she said. Rachel got to the door than got in, “Enjoy the couch.”

***
Anderson walked along the walls of the Command Center watching the others inside. Williams was going over some kind of read out in her hands. She was trying to things ready for the other Fusion operative. Maybe more, but there was no need to think that far ahead. Unlike with Davidson, however, they had to a shorter amount of time to prepare. “Mr. Anderson,” she called out.

“Yes Miss. Williams,” he said as he walked toward her.

“Are you sure about this?”, he was expecting this to come up sooner or later. Perhaps it was better to get this out of the way know. “Having another person you know virtually nothing about I mean.”

“And you think I should know better after Mr. Davidson?”

“More or less,” he had to admire her, she wasn’t backing down. “This person could turn out worse then Jack in any case you could come up with.”

“A valid concern Miss. Williams. We have taken the proper measures in case something similar with Davidson happens this time around, just in case. I prefer to think of this one as a practice until Mitchell becomes active, maybe that will help you too.” Williams nodded and took another read out from an assistant. Anderson excused himself and left the Center to let her work. Granted he was trying to placate her concerns, but even he had to admit that Dr. Parker came up with a rather ingenious solution to the potential problem. Armstrong, of course, wasn’t all that enamored with the idea. Parker was more than happy to rub in the fact he thought of something the other man didn’t. Strange how he never saw the, let’s call it, competition between the two. Then again he was never down in R&D unless he had to be.

Anderson reached inside his jacket, pulled out a cell phone and stopped by a row of windows. There were two rings on the other end before he heard , “This is Taylor.” He sent Taylor out to talk to several candidates for mission operator. Not for Mitchell, but for the recently discovered Fusion subject. This time he wouldn’t make the mistake of hiring somebody so… human this time around.

“How are the interviews going?”

“As well as can be expected,” his VP sounded tired. “But I’m pleased to say it looks like we have at least two potential candidates.”

“Excellent. What were their reaction to the nature of the assignment?”

“Some what cautious sir. The Drakan Killer legend isn’t exactly a well liked tale among our circle.” That was one way of putting it. Some Drakan he had overheard went into graphic detail on how they would handle the Killer

“I expected as much. How many did you tell this to?”

“Chen and Douglas, the two I was talking about. If I had to be honest, I ‘d say Chen was our best option out of the two.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Douglas’s brother has rumored ties to the rebels, too much of a security risk. I almost didn’t interview him because of it.”

“That doesn’t mean Chen is clean,” he stated. “He could just be better at hiding his affiliation. Arrange meetings for both of them next week. Separately of course. I want to talk to them personally to feel them out. In the mean time we should tell Perez to have some of his people watch them just in case.”

“I believe Perez already has a couple of men watching them as we speak.”

The past few weeks have been full of surprises. “How did he manage that?”

“He tagged along sir. Perez wanted to personally check out these men himself. Something about making sure we didn’t have another Haily to go along with potentially another Davidson.”

“That seems to be a common fear going around,” he quipped.

“Sir?”

“Nothing important Mr. Taylor. Have Perez report to me when you get back.” Anderson ended the call and returned the phone back inside his jacket. He admired Perez initiative for joining in on the interviews and assigned men to monitor a potential leak. But part of him thought it was best to remind him that he was only temporarily in charge. Anderson knew he was more than qualified for the position, but he trusted Mitchell like no other. He chuckled to himself as he realized he trusted that human more then most Drakan he knew. Very high praise from him for someone he considered a lower species.

***
On her second official day on the “job” she finally understood why Chris spent so much of his limited free time in the gym. It was after hours and most of the others were asleep, except for a few guards roaming the halls. So no one saw her pound away at the beat up punching bag hanging from the ceiling. Melissa wasn’t really worried about her technique. At the moment she was picturing the faces of those who were annoying her to no end. It didn’t really matter who she was picturing in her mind’s eye. Those two jackasses on the council. Anderson and his circle. Those under her who can’t seem to go to the bathroom without her say so. She pounded the bag even harder when she pictured the face of the Drakan Killer.

Melissa stopped and leaned on the bag. Thanks to the Lance and council she learned the Killer’s real name, Jack Davidson. That was good news to her. That meant it was human, it wasn’t some kind of demon from Hell. If the Killer was just human then how did it apparently kill her brother, his guards and the ones she sent to protect him. What kind of human could do that? She mentally kicked herself, that was legend about the Killer talking. She seen him in action and Jack Davidson was definitely no demon. But he was more than human, that much was certain. Melissa muttered, “What did you do to him Anderson?”

“Talking to your cousin again?”, Emily voice surprised her. “Christopher did the same thing down here from time to time. Although he was usually hitting that thing using words I won’t repeat.”

“I’ve had a hard time still thinking of him as family lately.” Emily just nodded as she took a seat on a near by bench. “So what have you been trying to tell me for the past two days?” The older woman was surprisingly quiet. “I don’t need a special gift to see something eating at you.” She sat next to her, “So what’s up?”

“I had a vision,” was all she said.

Melissa wasn’t sure if she should be worried or not. She never had to drag what the vision was out of her before. “And…?”

“It was about the Drakan Killer,” she said softly. “He was here in my vision.”

“The Killer finds out where we are?” She found herself going over they various escape routes and plans in her head. “How did he…?”

“He wasn’t attacking us,” she said. “I was talking to him.”

“Are you sure you where talking to him here?”, she pointed at the ground to empathize her point.

“You know I can’t leave the habitat, not without the proper precaution. No, I was talking to the Killer in my room. It looked like I was guiding him in something.” That was a lot to take in all at once. Then Emily hit Melissa with her next statement. “I can only think of one answer as to way he was, or will be here.”

She had to stop this line of thinking right now, “Emily please don’t ask me to do that.”

“I can’t think of another way to explain it,” she said calmly.

Melissa got off the bench and walked away. “Do you have any idea what kind of trouble that’s going to cause? The cells have been splintering since Chris’s death. That would pull them apart even further.”

“And I wouldn’t have told you of this if it wasn’t important child. My vision are rarely wrong, you know this.”

“And they’re also open to interpretation,” she snapped back. Emily was taken aback.

“You never doubted me before,” she said, hurt evident in her voice. Melissa forced her self to ignore it.

“And I never had this many people relaying on me before. I can’t make a decision like that on blind faith, not any more.”

Emily looked very stoic as she stood. “The decision, as always, is yours. But I do ask you to think about it a little longer. As leader you have to weigh every option presented to you equally.” She left her alone. Melissa screamed and pounded the bag in frustration before she left the room.

***
It took a few minutes for Rachel to remember where she was. As often as she woke up somewhere different lately she should be used to it by now. Apparently, judging by the clock, Jack and Dusty decided to let her sleep in that morning. Grabbing a fresh set of clothes from her bag she headed for the bathroom and took a shower that felt way too good. After she got dressed she found breakfast was already on the table. Apparently they decided to not wait for her. So she ate quickly and went to find them. It didn’t take that long actually. They were a few yards away from the house placing another one of those jammers Dusty put together. She quickened her pace so she could lend a hand.

Dusty knelt down and flipped a few switches. After a few moments he said, “It’s working.” At those words Jacked pulled the hood back and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “You ain’t getting tired on me already are you son?”

“I have foil wrapped around my head. Do you have any idea how hot it gets under here?” He looked over to her, “Looked who finally decided to get up.”

She ignored him and talked to Dusty, “Thanks for breakfast.”

Dusty checked out a few more things on the jammer, “Don’t thank me thank Jack over here. Best flapjacks I ever had.”

“You can cook?”, she said in disbelief. “You never told me that.”

“You never asked.”

“Son, that joke older than I am,” Dusty commented while he arranged some junk to hide the jammer.

“Wait, I know your Uncle taught you, right?”

Jack snorted, “My Uncle can burn water.” Dusty whistled as he got up.

“Now that’s a bad cook. Come on we got a few more of these to set up.”

“Anything I can do to help?”, she asked.

“You wanna lift these things for a change?”, Jack said while pointing at the remaining jammers.

“Sorry, but I already had things figured out before I found you guys. Even put up a couple of warning markers so he wouldn’t go out of bounds on accident.”

“He just needed a mule,” Jack said dryly as he put the hood back over his head. “Say, you don’t turn into a…”

“Son,” he cut him off, “I’m only gonna tell you this once. Never ask a Drakan what his true form is. Height of rudeness don’t ya know.”

“Don’t you know any better,” she put in. Jack just shot her a look. Oh there was no way she could let that pass. “So, how was the couch?”

“Lumpy,” he sounded irritated, “very lumpy.”

“You know,” Dusty said suddenly, “if you two want to share that bed in the guest room go right ahead, it ain’t gonna bother me none. All I ask is that y’all keep it kinda quiet so this old man can get some sleep.”

Rachel and Jack both froze in place. They looked at each other briefly than looked away just as quick. Jack took a jammer saying, “The couch is kinda comfy actually.”

“I think I’ll double check those markers,” she said at the same time while leaving rather quickly.

Dusty looked at both of them, “Was it something I said?”

***
Jack sat on the hood of an old Chevy just inside the jammer range. But he still had the hood on just case. He wanted to be alone with his demons for the moment. Mainly he wanted to be alone, he was also trying to avoid Rachel. It was easy enough to do the lot Dusty owned was pretty big. Outside of Dusty’s Drakan medical practice he also ran this auto part yard to pay the bills. So he could lose himself for awhile if he wanted to, and forget that the red bull walked with him for awhile. Of course it helped that Rachel was trying to avoid him too. Or at least he thought she was until she came into view, “Hi.”

“Hey.” They were quiet for a few moments. “Look Rachel…”

“Jack we…,”she started. They both laughed that they spoke at the same time. He patted the hood next to him and she hopped on. “About what Dusty said.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Look, I wanted you to know that I care about you as a friend.” She stopped and looked at him, “We are still friend right.”

“Yeah, we are,” he didn’t even have to think twice in answering that one. “I care about you too, as a friend. That’s way I’m staying on the couch.” He wasn’t sure but she looked relieved. “I don’t know what some of these old people are thinking, two people our age can’t just be friends. Something has to be going between them.”

“Exactly,” she agreed readily. “I wouldn’t be surprised if your mom thought the same thing.”

“But she was smart enough not to say anything. Although that would explain a couple of the looks she gave you.” She shoved him than smiled, he had to smile back. For a brief moment things felt like they were before everything went south. He didn’t realized how much he missed that. Then a scream of pain filled the air. Jack and Rachel ran to try to find the source and quickly discovered it. A red kangaroo was fighting a blue bobcat. The bobcat slashed it claws at the other one who used it’s thick legs to jump out of the way. Jack raised his left arm across his chest to bring out the belt. He swung his arm to the left and raised his right arm, “Henshin!”, and brought down his right hand.

After the armor formed he ran toward the fight but he slowed to a stop watching them. “Get in there!”, Rachel yelled at him. “One of them might be Dusty. You got to help him.”

“Which one?”, he shot back. About then the kangaroo fell to its back and kicked the bobcat with both feet. The blue Drakan crashed into an old van and reverted back to Dusty. Rachel called out his name as she went to him. Jack got between them and the kangaroo, “Friend of yours?”

“No,” he grunted as Rachel helped him out. “That’s one of Anderson spies. I caught him checking you two out.”

“How do you know…,” Jack started before charged him, “later.” The Drakan threw a right cross he ducked easily. Jack countered with a uppercut but the Drakan jumped out of the way. He rushed in but grabbed nothing but air as the Drakan jumped again. As he stumbled and tried to keep his balance the kangaroo landed, jumped again and planted both feet right in the middle of his back knocking him to the ground. Jack pounded a fist into the ground as he got up and blocked a knee aimed at his head. He pushed it back and nailed a solid fist to it’s head. It covered up as he tried to get in another shot. Then it spun around sharply, Jack got ready for a backhand. He wasn’t expecting it to go down and sweep his legs out from under him.

The kangaroo jumped up again. Jack got his feet up catching it in the stomach. He heard the breath quickly leave it’s body as it backed up. Jack kicked it under the chin. He quickly got up, threw it into a stack of cars and started pounding away. He backed up and let it fall to the ground. “Who do you work for?”, he demand. Jack didn’t know if Dusty was telling the truth or not, but he had to be sure. The kangaroo held up a hand to back off, maybe it was going to talk. Then it jumped to it’s feet and flew right at him. Jack crashed to his back from the impact, stunned. When the stars cleared he raised up saw that the kangaroo had disappeared. “Son of a …,” he grunted as he searched the area. Rachel and Dusty looked around too. “Did you see where it went?”

“He was jumping around all over the place,” Dusty said. “It was hard to keep track.”

“I think It landed that way,” Rachel pointed near the house.

Jack perked up as an engine started, one he knew all to well. “Ah hell no.” He ran and leaped on top of a trailer. Some guy with blond hair wearing black leather was revving up his bike. All right now he was pissed. He leaped from stack to stack to gain ground. The long haired biker didn’t see him until he was right in his path. He skidded the bike to a stop. Jack grabbed him and threw him off of it. The biker turned back into the red kangaroo as it landed. Jack didn’t give it a chance to react as he ran in. It feel to the ground and he picked him back up. An elbow to the face caught him by surprised. The Drakan tried to kick him but he caught it by the foot and flung it into a post. The Drakan got up and Jack tackled it but he was flung off. The meter flashed as it tried to jump away. Jack went after it on foot, he twisted the pod down on the fly. The two mini turbines in the belt started spin as he saw his chance. He jumped up at the same time it did. Jack stuck out his right foot and caught it in mid air in the side. The Kangaroo jerked to the side as it direction was forcibly changed. It exploded before it reached the ground.

Jack landed and powered down the system as Rachel and Dusty ran up. “Is it me,” she started, “or were you more worried about that Drakan taking your motorcycle than it telling World Inc. where we are.”

“Rules of the road little lady,” Dusty said, holding his side. “Never touch another man ride.”

“Something like that.” Jack walked up to Dusty and looked him right in the eye. “Do you mind telling me how you knew that was a spy?”