After rechecking the location Rayner texted him, Mason sent her another message amending the time he’d arrive. It was outside the city and in an area scarce of buildings, so he could afford to fly some of the distance.
More of it if he kept himself out of sight, which he did with the clouds.
Fifteen minutes after leaving Lexi’s apartment, he arrived at the meetup point. The place was near a ranch, abandoned from the looks of it and with no tall buildings apart from the barn in sight.
Silently landing on it, he spread his heat sense far and wide.
He had a few ideas as to what to expect, but nothing was good. Well, nothing save for the two heat signatures hidden in a nest of trees near the ranch’s entrance. Those must be his contacts.
With a leap, he soared across the fields. That alone wouldn’t have been enough, however a single blast of fire from both hands gave him the necessary push to cross the entire distance and land a few paces behind the parked SUV.
His attempt to sneak up on the agents failed. They alighted the moment he got close. It was a pair of men, dressed in office wear and armed, though the C.I.A. jackets they wore completed the story.
“Mason Von Sloan?” asked one of them, and he received just a nod.
“I’m agent Packard. This is my partner agent Brennan. We’re here to escort you to the safehouse.”
“Call Rayner.”
Packard looked over at his partner and the man shrugged. He took out his phone, dialed a number and held it toward Mason, who shook his head and said, “Speaker.”
The agent strangely went ahead with it and soon they all heard a familiar voice.
“Packard. Do you have him?”
“Affirmative. He asked for you, just like you said.” Packard made sure to give Mason a pointed look when he said that.
“Is this good enough for you Mason?”
He ignored that line of questioning entirely and fired back one of his own. “Will you be there when we arrive?”
“Maybe.”
“See you then.” He looked up from the phone and moved his eyes from Packard to Brennan. “Let’s go.”
Things were a silent affair after that. He got in the car with his chaperones and they drove off, heading farther away from Manhattan. To take advantage of the free time, he decided to clear up the mountain of notifications on his phone.
However, one look from the agents and it struck him why even keeping the phone was a bad idea.
Such a slip up from him shouldn’t have happened in the first place. He knew better. The only recent thing that could’ve led to him making such a mistake were those eyes and that kiss.
He refused to blame Lexi however, since their spontaneous thing, for lack of a better word, was a two person affair. Besides, he enjoyed it a lot. Doing all this sneaking around didn’t.
Still, he crushed the phone, tossed it and retrieved another from storage. The inventory was pretty handy for living this kind of life.
On this new phone, he neither installed nor accessed any of his social media accounts, just a free online cloud storage where he’d pushed the mails he’d received to.
In the short time he’d taken to fly and meet up with the agents, Vought had thrown their own hat in the ring, bumping the significant parties eager for some sort of collaboration or meetup with him from two to three.
His finger hovered over the Vought mail for quite a while, his curiosity for what they had to say considerably higher than the others. In the end, he went with the NNC mail first, just to confirm that they indeed wanted him to come on for a discussion.
Since his hunch turned out to be right, he barely spent any time on it.
On the one from Neuman, he skipped over the essay expressing sympathy for his situation and all that fake stuff and dove right into the meat of it.
‘Well, I certainly didn’t expect that.’
Turns out the Compound V conspiracy being exposed had far more weight to it than he expected. Apparently, there’d be a congressional hearing in the coming week against Vought and she wanted him as a witness.
She wanted to meet beforehand and get as much detail as possible on what “he went through” before the hearing—that is if he agreed to go on the stand.
‘Does Rayner know of this?’ He threw his gaze to the front, looking at his escorts. ‘There’s no way she doesn’t.’
Back to the matter of testifying against Vought though… did he want to go through all that? The way Neuman worded things made it sound like there was a real chance of the behemoth corporation going down for good.
They had indeed hurt him and were lying pieces of crap, no doubt about that, but his goal from the beginning had been to simply clear the Sloan name. This… this seemed like a bit much.
When he defaulted to asking himself ‘What would Maya or grandad do?’ He found himself at a loss. He knew the compensation and rewards would be enough for both of them.
The congress thing… that’s where things got blurry.
Since he couldn’t rely on his memory of his family, he needed to talk to someone more knowledgeable on the topic. Neuman had offered to do so, but he’d rather speak to her after he’d educated himself. That way he’d be able to tell if he was being manipulated.
With this decision in mind, he moved on to the last mail and opened it. He read through the lines speedily and got the gist of what Vought wanted.
They had dropped bits and pieces about how they’d already gone through the first few hoops to get him the promised compensation. All that remained was parts only he could verify, like the university form application, his high school certificate… that sort of stuff.
As for the money, they’d worked to make it tax free, so he’d be getting exactly five million dollars. However, they needed him to be present for that too.
The mention of a personal sit down and apology from Stan Edgar and a possible meetup with his future teammates finally put every puzzle in its right place.
They were going to make a media spectacle of this.
For Vought to survive the disaster heading their way, they needed to latch on to every possible lifeline, and a wronged person getting an apology from the head honcho in addition to media evidence of the promised compensation being handed over would buy them a few brownie points.
‘These guys are truly something else…’ Mason leaned further back into the car seat and regarded the message. There was little doubt that he’d accept the compensation if it turned out to be legit.
Maya would kill him if he didn’t. Plus, he himself didn’t have the luxury to be high and mighty. That was reserved for those who grew up with money or were actually noble. He was none of those.
The question now was when should he go to Vought Tower? Because he sure as hell wouldn’t announce his presence to them so they could prepare. They were the enemy, and catching them off guard was the smart play.
First though, he needed more information. Again.
IF he agreed to testify at the hearing, did he go before or after he screwed the company? Logic dictated before, so they wouldn’t use that as an excuse to go back on their word.
‘It is five million dollars…’
The dilemma threatened to put his mind in a stranglehold until it resolved itself. But he saw that fruitless endeavor from a mile away so he put it aside for later and did the same with the mails.
He sent Lexi a text and got one back at the speed of light. He smiled uncontrollably and shifted in his seat as blood rushed into pants.
Suddenly, his mind dredged up how adults described boys in their teenage years, and his excitement at her reply and his recent behaviour made a little more sense.
Instead of trying to make the distinction between himself and a perpetually horny 16 year old boy, he focused on the texts and let himself bask in the stimulating feelings.
“Where are you now?”
“Way outside of MH. Why? What’s up?”
“I’m thinking of how we’re gonna meet up later if you're that far away. You know, for the…”
Mason chuckled at the peach, eggplant and sprinkle emojis and replied with multiple smirking face emojis. He quickly followed it with “I can ‘insert rocket emoji’ remember?”
She replied with a facepalm emoji and followed with: “Look at me being stupid. I wonder who’s to blame? ‘Insert smirking emoji’”
“I take full responsibility for your confusion.”
“Mm… there’s more you can take responsibility for.”
Mason shifted uncomfortably in the backseat and typed in earnest, he and Lexi going back and forth for the entire drive. Unfortunately for the horny duo, circumstances forced them to take little break.
The car slowed to a stop and broke Mason out of the little world he’d conjured for himself.
While he readjusted his jeans and forced the tightness at his groin away with unpleasant memories, the sound of car doors being slammed reached him as the agents got down.
He looked out the window, looking around with both senses before joining them on the ground. They seemed to be inside an estate, a secluded one judging from the house in front and the green surrounding them on sides.
A full 360 spin put things into proper focus, though a higher altitude would be preferred. He refrained from doing that though and followed the agents into the expensive looking house, sending Lexi a message that he’d be going offline for a few minutes.
.
.
.
.
Rayner knew things were too good to be true when the elusive young man with a chip on his shoulder suddenly decided to let the C.I.A. help him.
The universe saw her small win as an affront and took steps to correct it.
How?
Billy fucking Butcher.
She should’ve known when he broke into her home this morning that it wouldn’t be the last time she’d interact with him. God, that asshole was like a stubborn , drugged, up C.I. that saw you as their soulmate.
“How’d you get this number?”
“Don’t you worry ‘bout that love—”
“Butcher—”
“It’s about Lamplighter.”
Their conversation earlier this morning came rushing back, along with the disgust she tried to suppress at the fact that she asked if he had any info on Lamplighter and the more repulsive one where she nearly fell back into bad habits.
Despite being married with two kids, her toxic side that looked forward to shacking up with him in gas station bathrooms hadn’t died the ignoble death it deserved.
“You’re still going after them. You just don’t listen,” she almost yelled.
“This one’s different. You know why. This is chance to get him that got—”
“Don’t. Don’t make this about her. We both know what it’s really about.”
“You wanna hear what I got or not.”
“Have you told her?”
“...Not yet.”
“You’re full of shit.”.
“I’ve got a solid lead, I just need to work it. You want me to go to her with me hands empty like a praying nun?”
“Then why’d you call me?”
“To make a deal.” There was a pause and Rayner could hear the bullshit from a mile away.
“I want The Boys back together an—”
“And for me to bankroll you. I’d call you suicidal but what would be point. You are confident you can find Lamplighter?”
“When have I ever disappointed you love?”
Ugh. “Find him then we’ll talk.”
“As long as we got an understanding.”
Rayner ended the call and motioned to her agent with a hand. He obeyed and opened the door for her. She stepped down from the car, threw a nod his way and took the path that led to the door of the safehouse.
“How is he?” She asked Brennan, who came to meet her at the door.
“Quiet, but he won’t get rid of his phone.”
The string of curses she was about to launch stayed put when she remembered this was a supe they were dealing with. A smart one too, so he had to know the risks associated with keeping something that could be used to trace his location.
She followed Brennan to the living room where Mason sat relaxed on the couch, legs stretched, crossed together and resting on top of the other on the center table. He looked over his shoulder the closer she got and made eye contact.
He regarded her from top to bottom and shifted his attention to the agents flanking her. He was sizing them up and coming to his own conclusions about her identity.
Not that she expected it to be hard. What would make her surprised is if he somehow missed all the signs. Still, she couldn’t let the kid lead the conversation.
“Hello Mason.”
“Director Rayner.” He stood up to meet her properly.
“Deputy director.”
“Ah, my bad.”
“I hear you don’t want to get rid of your phone.”
“It’s not mine, or anybody’s. There’s nothing on it linking it to me.”
“Still, you have to know the risk. I’m tempted to move you to a new safehouse.”
“Not necessary. Like I said, this phone’s disposable. The only way Vought can track it is if I call them.”
Rayner wasn’t buying it. That wasn’t good enough for her, and Mason could see it. He had no plans to budge though, not when it was his only means to remain in contact with Lexi.
A change of topic would help everyone.
“You still haven’t told me why I need to be here.” He asked.
Rayner answered with a question. “Victoria Neuman. Has her office contacted you?”
“They have. They want me to testify at a hearing.”
“That’s why you’re here. You think Vought will let you live so you can do that?”
“Forget that. I wanna know more about the hearing.”
Rayner waved for him to sit, and he did. She however, remained on her feet.
“What do you want to know?”“Say I go to the hearing and spill my guts out. Vought is found guilty on all fronts. What happens?”
She half laughed and half chuckled, for a good while too as if he’d just told a world class joke. His seriousness prompted her to answer his question though.
“If… that happens, let’s just say that it happens… well then Vought will be investigated. They’ll be dismantled, and there’ll be lawsuits, charges and arrests. A lot of top executives will go down hard and new laws will be proposed.”
“...Let me guess, my testimony alone will not be enough for this.”
“Not even if there were ten of you.”
Oh… Mason realised she was talking about the other Sage Grove victims. Thinking of them…“Was I the only one who made it out?”
“...No. We’ve gotten reports of rogue supes in the same area as the center. But anytime they come up, the supe ends up dead, or missing.”
“...Vought.”
Rayner said nothing in response to that and Mason thought back to the people he freed. Sure, there’d been a misunderstanding that led to him fleeing, but Cindy’s display was the main reason behind that decision.
Staying in that enclosed space with dozens of superpowered, unfortunate kids suffering from various mental impairments spoke of too much that could go wrong at the drop of a hat. That’s why he ran.
He didn’t think that decision would save him. Nor lead to all those deaths. Could he have stopped Lamplighter? A supe who had had his powers since he was a boy and had been a member of The Seven?
The convoluted nature of this line of thought stood out to him just as quick as it sprang up, so the self blame and taking responsibility for someone else’s actions taking root in him died immediately.
He didn’t like to admit it, but he was a victim like the rest of those kids. It wouldn’t sit right if he did nothing and let Vought get away with their crimes. For destroying and taking those kids' lives.
“Mason?” Rayner asked after he hadn’t spoken in a while.
“I’ll do it.” He exhaled. “I’ll testify.”
For reasons he wouldn’t understand till after the hearing, Rayner did not seem happy at all about his decision.