[MAX]
I don't like coincidences.
A few can potentially be excused. But there is such a thing as too many, and the number of coincidences in my life had begun to stack up. I've been told that surely not everything in this world can be a conspiracy. I suppose that's not entirely wrong, but it's certainly not entirely right either.
I've been called paranoid. My response?
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. I can thank my father for that one. That was one of the phrases I distinctly remembered him saying when I was younger — I just didn't piece together why he said it until I got older.
At first, when Reznor had told me what was happening with Phoenix in Beijing, I didn't think much of it. Nobody's perfect, not even me, and mistakes happen. Going to help her was something I didn't have to think twice about.
But by the time Danny got the call from Logan, my guard was up.
I didn't particularly love being in the spotlight, firstly because I like not being imprisoned, secondly because it makes it easier for me to do everything I do, and finally because I'm ... me. Off-grid is arguably a more comfortable mode of operation for me, which is saying something because it's far from routine, or even easy.
Off-grid protects me. It also protects the people I care about.
Danny's former team just so happening to get attacked while I'm with his family? Shortly after the debacle with Phoenix? There is such a thing as too many coincidences, and the more I thought about what had happened with Team Grimm, the more I was inclined to believe that this was not so coincidental after all.
My relationship with intelligence agencies can be described as "complicated" at best. They don't know as much as they'd like to know about me, and every time they get close to arresting me, things go sideways for them. They've even started their own little database of shared information about me, but I happen to know that parts of that can only be considered speculation at best. I do my best to keep it that way.
My connections to the Carmichael twins and Phoenix are the only ties they've stumbled upon that can hold up to scrutiny in any fashion. Even then, the agencies struggled to draw any solid lines between myself and them, so it's all marked as "suspected." All they have is theories, coincidental locational occurrences, and third-hand information.
Still, both the twins and Phoenix are cautious as a result. And I'm cautious for them. After all, both my safety and theirs would be at risk if anything were confirmed, so we do what we can to keep that from happening.
But the intelligence agencies still have that information. It may be marked "suspected," but it's out there, and if someone else got their hands on it ...
If all of these events weren't coincidence, I knew there was no way that any intelligence agency was orchestrating this. This was too grand-scheme, too ... close. They'd never been this close. They'd also never been daring enough to actually go after anyone that was suspected to be connected to me.
I'd gone to great lengths to ensure they wouldn't get too close. Besides that, it was easy to recognize their work.
No, this wasn't them.
But whatever it was, whoever it was, it seemed my goal of disappearing had, unlike me, gone flying out the window.
—
Dylan has almost as many connections as I do thanks to the Fugazis. As mercenaries, they've worked for more people than I even care to count, and a good number of those people are ridiculously wealthy. It was thanks to those connections that Dylan secured us a private jet to Bucharest, Romania less than an hour after Danny received the call.
