ColorBlind (Book #2 of S.H.A.D.E.) ✔

Bargaining Chip

14.

"What the hell?" Copper grunts, shoving the pistol into his waistband.

I relax my grip on the knife, completely dumbfounded. "Why?"

Benson makes a garbled noise, his eyes pleading. Copper and I share a look before he reaches in and removes the gag from his lips. The man makes a show of breathing, "Oh thank you! I was kidnapped by a group of teenagers! They shoved me into the trunk of my car and--"

"Cut the shit, Benson," Copper interrupts, "we know who you are, and not because your mug is always plastered in the headlines."

The man's face loses all traces of the fright that was there a second before, becoming steely. "Well, more Demons I presume?" he droles.

"You wish," Copper responds.

Benson nods to himself. "S.H.A.D.E. then? You people are relentless."

Copper lets out a humorless laugh. "Not quite."

Benson's face grows puzzled, fear creeping back up again into his eyes. His voice remains composed. "Oh? Then who are you?"

"People who are unrestrained. Which means you better give me a reason why I shouldn't put a bullet in your head right now," Copper growls down at him.

"Well," Benson begins, resting his head on the floor of the trunk, realizing he's probably not going anywhere, "I have millions of dollars? How would you like to be rich?"

Copper only skewers him with his glare, and Benson shrinks away from him. "I don't want your blood money. I want information.  Like why have the Demons turned on you? You work for the Necro Proxy, you help them harvest souls by giving them warehouses to store the people they abduct."

Though his face was flushed from heat, it pales now. Benson's always been able to pay people off, I bet. Copper's a whole new animal to him, and he realizes he has no leverage now. "My wife and child are both Psychic. Wouldn't you do whatever you could to keep your family safe? If I didn't help the Necro Proxy, they'd come for them, and you know it."

"You are a murderer," Copper says in reply. "You can't justify that to me. You've sent children, more than anyone, to their death."

"You think I want to?!" Benson demands. "It's what they expect, they want pure souls. What am I supposed to do?"

"Why did they turn on you?" I ask, tired of his excuses.

He looks at me and sighs. "Who can predict the whims of beasts? I refused to fund a project they proposed. It was far too expensive, but apparently necessary for an upcoming battle. I would be flat broke if I signed the cheque! Can you imagine?"

"Perish the thought," mutters Copper, and then he slams the trunk shut. He turns to me. "The hell do we do with him?"

"I want to take him to Scarlet," I say, "get her to interrogate him. Copper, he's a bargaining chip."

He frowns at me. "A bargaining chip?"

"Yes, for our freedom. If we take Benson to S.H.A.D.E. along with the technology he stole, we can negotiate our freedom. We just walk away."

"That will never work, Ebony."

"Why?" I ask, "Silver killed my whole Swatch over this guy's escape. And they want their technology kept out of the N.P.'s hands. We bring them that and the truth about Gray, and they'll have to pardon us. Gold will have to pardon us."

Jade comes up beside Copper, taking his hand and smiling up at him. "We can start new?" she says softly.

"I don't know." Copper looks away from us both, back at the trunk, conflicted. "I just can't see them letting us walk away. Not after killing Viridian."

"It's worth a shot," I say. "I'll do it without you if I have to."

He looks at me. "You want to run off on your own that badly that you'll walk right into Gold's office, completely vulnerable?"

I raise my chin. "What do I have to lose?"

The twitch goes off in his lip, but he tries to hide it by running a hand down his face, the one Jade isn't clinging to.

"Look Copper, this is the luckiest thing that's happened to me so far. I'm going to take the opportunity while it's here. Are you with me?"

He takes a few beats to answer, but he eventually nods. "Fine. But only because you'll get yourself killed without me."

I am excited now. There is hope for my family and I. I can't allow myself to get too excited though, because who knows what will happen.

"Then we need to find the others and bring Benson to Scarlet, get her to find out where he's hidden the technology, and then we have to somehow go speak with Gold to get our pardon."

"All of which seems impossible," Copper sighs, looking stressed to the max.

"Well we're gonna have to do it. For our families."

He nods. "Alright. We find Scarlet and the others, we talk to Gold. Piece of cake."