BLOOD AND BONE | rewritten

39

Kane stared down at the untouched muffin on his plate. Every clatter of plates knocking together, each conversation was grating in his ears.

"So," Arlo said when he'd finished his pastry in an inhuman amount of time, "how much did you miss us?"

Rainey's tone was scathing. "Guess."

"Too much for words, I knew it. Poor thing, you must have been lost without me," Arlo crooned, barely dodging Rainey's fist. "Why else would you have so honorably come back for us?"

Finn's brows knit, trying to decide whether Arlo was mocking him. "Now that we're all together, I do have a plan."

Jake glanced up from his empty coffee mug; he'd chugged several refills almost as fast as Arlo had eaten. "No, not a plan," Finn backtracked under his attention. "More of a vague idea, really. I was going to suggest we contact Mr. Hunt to help us travel back home."

"Running back into the arms of our jailer? That's the shittiest idea I've ever heard," Rainey said. Kane was unsure whether he agreed. With the cravings at the forefront of his brain, nothing else seemed real enough to seriously consider.

"There's no assurance he'll aid us. We've already caused him heaps of trouble, and he's just been using us for our power anyway," Jaxon said with his mouth full. "Now that he has substantial information on this case, who knows if he needs us enough anymore?"

"He did use us," Jake spoke for the first time, eerie gaze pinned on Jaxon. "But he can be useful himself."

"Yes, but..." Finn gave him a sudden warning look. "Wait. What are you insinuating?"

"Use your brains: he has weapons, soldiers and more pull than we could ever want."

"So...?" Rainey dragged out the word as she gestured a hand aimlessly in the air. "You want us to call Hunt's old ass here to do what exactly? Make him kill the entirety of the Needles for us?"

"The Needles will be much more difficult to subdue than you foolishly assume. Corinthian's dealings are unpredictable to begin with, even more so to someone on the outside like Hunt. No. We will use the Director to get what we need, beginning with passage to Droghal."

Gigi was soft to say, "He will still be using us for what we are."

"I am not looking to make friends. As long as this remains a symbiotic relationship, I'll allow it to continue."

It did make sense. Perhaps Kane should have felt more uneasy about working with someone who could throw them away at his convenience. After all, Hunt did seem like the type to do only what he thought was best for himself and his people. But Kane couldn't bring himself to be concerned. Even the idea of being little more than a working prisoner didn't elicit a reaction in him.

"Say we did," Finn drew out. "How would we contact him? We have nothing."

"Would this do?" Rainey asked, reaching over to grab an unsupervised personal computer from the table beside them. Kane nodded.

Finn dropped his head in his hands. "Why."

Arlo laughed as if it had been a joke. "Good one."

Getting to her feet, Rainey shoved her chair back with a sound that worsened Kane's headache. "We'd better get the hell out of here. That cashier is staring and I don't want to spend another night in jail."

▬ι═══════ﺤ

"Any word from Hunt?" Arlo asked as he dangled his legs out the open back of the vehicle.

"It's only been seven minutes." The blue glow of the screen was too bright in Kane's eyes.

"Check anyway," ordered Jaxon, who shared the same lack of patience.

Kane obeyed. Sending Hunt a digital message had been made simple with his knowledge of electronics. He supposed wasting his time juggling a job at a low-end electronics store at fifteen hadn't been completely useless. Back then, it certainly hadn't done more than fuel his drug habit.

"There's-oh." Out of instinct, Kane blinked to be sure he was seeing correctly. Visage used to make him see things that didn't exist. But Hunt's response was really on the screen. Kane was starting to think there was a possibility of being too good at one's job.

"Always the businessman," Finn said. "Read it aloud."

Kane's most hated demand. It would be too big a deal if he asked someone else to do it. Despite his utter lack of schooling, he began to read, conscious of every stuttering pronunciation. "I will be in Corpond for two days. Be at the Maniport Ferry at precisely three in the afternoon." Though it was done, Kane kept his eyes on the screen.

"You're kidding," Rainey deadpanned. "Not even a 'Hey, good to hear you're alive'? Or even 'I'm sorry for putting you in a position where you would be drugged and sold like cattle'?"

"Not to mention that we do not know the location of the ferry, much less how to get there with the Needles and this-" Jake toyed with the little picture of the masked figure he'd taken from the rescue-"on our backs. You're all weak. They will continue to pinpoint your flaws."

"I will never say this again, but...he's right," Finn said, glancing around at them. "We're all suspicious of each other. It's understandable given your criminal pasts and the people who want to use us. But it continues to divide us when it should make us a formidable enemy. If we don't fix ourselves first, it will be our downfall."

Kane hated to interrupt with an interjection of his own, but the transaction was complete. "The ferry problem is solved."

Finn blinked. "What-how?"

"I broke into the station's database so it appears as if we bought electronic tickets. I did the same with the Eloch National Locomotive."

Arlo twisted to look at Kane, the uneven lines of his hair casting odd shadows over his face. "You didn't. I don't even know what that means, but I like the sound of it."

"Database?"

"No, locomotive." It came across oddly serious.

Rainey clucked her tongue. "God, you're weird."

"How'd you get to the data infrastructure? I can't imagine it was easy with the new security measures Kybeshi's added in their products," Jaxon remarked. It was odd to see his interest.

"Once I got past the mainframe and security system utilizing-"

Fanning her face as if the air held some unpleasant smell, Rainey asked, "Is it just me or did it suddenly get boring in here?" Jaxon uttered a few rude words.

"If we take the train, it should leave us with more than enough time to meet Mr. Hunt's window." A slow smile split Finn's face. "We're going home."

"And bringing the fight to Corinthian," Delphinium remarked.

The others were visibly pleased at the idea of violence. When Kane accidentally caught Jaxon's eye, he saw a glimpse of an approving smile on the other boy's face. Kane couldn't remember the last time he'd earned one of those.