Oil is thicker than blood

2.3 Secrets are to relationships what fire is to oil.

"What the hell are you thinking, Lucy? You are just leaving people here to die?" 

She is wearing a blue dress that seems tailor-made and nicely fits her. In addition, she is wearing fancy black heels. Even tho she looks excellent, she looks out of place on the industrial, grey, dirty oil rig. It is something Jack would expect to wear someone in a fancy restaurant or at the Olympus Plateau, not on an oil rig. Her dress already has two stains on it from climbing out of the airship, and her heels do not seem to grab well on the concrete surface. The awful tilt it has doesn't make it better. She shivers in the cold sea air. 

Lucy doesn't look at him but keeps her head down. 

"You have to understand, Jack. The foreman spoke to me. He thought having the paramedics and firefighters risk their lives was reckless and negligent. So I decided what, according to the experts, would lead to the best outcome." 

Jack stamps on the ground, making two of the police officers grab their guns. Lucy gestures to them to stand down. Edwin flinches and takes two steps back. 

"Who are you to decide over life and death, Lucy? There are people out there who need our help." 

Lucy looks up, and first the first time in months, Jack looks into Lucy's pale blue eyes. She looks a strange combination of scared and determined. 

"Fuck you, Jack. You are the last person to judge me for that." 

Jack is speechless. 

"You!" She points at Edwin. "And you!" she points at one of the agents. "Carry the injured person into the airship. Bring the patient to the hospital and come back here. By then, we will be done, and you can pick us up. The rest of you are staying." 

Edwin and the officer immediately comply and carry Stuart into the airship. 

The moment the airship closes, Jack spots someone. In the airship is sitting another person. They are dressed in black and wearing a black hood and mask, so Jack can only spot the eyes. 

After a split second, the doors close, and Jack's line of sight is broken. The airship's smoke puffs, taking off into the blue skies. 

Lucy looks at the agents. "Let's finish the job." 

"And what about me?" Jack asks. "Should I come with you?" 

"I don't care what you do, Jack. I stopped caring about you a while ago. You can tag along. You can also wait here. I don't really care." 

Lucy walks to the stairs, and the agents follow. Jack shrugs and followers them a few meters behind. 

They walk down the stairs in silence. Lucy struggles to walk forward in her high heels, as the metal-grated steps don't provide a good surface. Yet, it doesn't seem to slow her down. She walks down the stairs with steadfast determination. 

At the bottom of the stairs, there is a small walkway leading to a small platform. Only a few below lies the nuclear missile. There are the slight remains of a ladder that probably once led to the water, but now is a bunch of scraps that definitely would slice anyone open that tried to climb down. 

Jack arrives at the platform and steps at Lucy. 

"So you are here for the nuke?" 

Lucy smiles. "Yes, we are." 

Jack sighs. "Nukes are weapons of mass destruction. Some of the larger causes of death in the old world. Don't you think we should just leave it where it is?" 

Lucy smiles. 

"No, Jack. A nuke is not a tool of war. It is a tool of peace. As Nobel said: 'The day when two army corps can annihilate each other in one second, all civilized nations will recoil from war and discharge their troops.'" 

Jack rolls his eyes. 

"I am pretty sure you butchered that quote. And history has proven Nobel wrong anyways. People from the old world did not abstain from war at all. Have you ever opened a history book?" 

Meanwhile, one of the agents drops their backpack and takes out a thick black rope, and ties it to the railing. Another one takes out a large camera and tripod and starts setting it up, aiming at the nuke. 

Lucy decides to ignore Jack's world and takes off her dress. Under her dress, she is wearing a shiny red bathing suit. She also takes off her heels. 

"Wait, what exactly are you planning, Lucy?" 

"The plan was just to drag this huge nuclear missile to the coast. But then we thought that is hard and expensive. And besides, the point of a nuclear missile is not to fire it. And nuclear missiles can be stolen are deactivated. They are just a mess to store and maintain and keep safe." 

"So?" Jack asks. "If you aren't here to salvage the Nuke, why are you here?" 

Lucy smiles, although it looks more like a grin. "I just want others to think I have a Nuke. So I will take a photo-op with it, and then we will sink it. Then the rest of the world leaders will have to be at my mercy." 

"The rest of the world leaders? Do you fancy yourself one? You don't even lead city twenty-two, Lucy. The council does." 

Lucy smiles. "Not how I see it." 

"Do I have to stick around for it?" Jack asks. 

"Why? Does seeing me in a bathing suit bring back some memories?" Lucy smiles. "You are not my prisoner. You can do whatever. Just make sure you are back in time for the airship. Otherwise, we leave you behind." 

Jack walks back to the stairs. He needs to think. He needs to find a way to thwart Lucy's plan. But there is another thing he can't put out of his mind. 

The other person on the airship. They were completely dressed in black and masked, so the only thing Jack could see was the eyes. And he could only see them for a few seconds. But still, he would recognise those bright green eyes everywhere. And some part of him doesn't want to believe it, but he is pretty sure he saw what he saw. 

The person under the mask is Katlyn.