Iron Soul [2]

Chapter 13

Ada sat in the basement, a snarl stuck on her face. She had just woken up from another round of sedative, as she had just tried to go after Killian again. She turned to see Maya typing, and Tony tied up with zip ties. Wait...Tony?

"Dad?" she called out.

He began to stir and turned to look at her.

"Ada?"

He looked around him and say he was tied up.

"Ah..." he sighed as he struggled to break free, "okay."

"It's just like old times, huh?" Maya turned to face him.

"Oh, yeah. With zip ties. It's a ball," Tony spoke unenthusiastically.

"It wasn't my idea."

"Okay. So you took Killian's card."

"I took his money."

"And here you are 13 years later, in a dungeon."

"No."

"Yeah."

"No, you two are in a dungeon. I'm free to go."

"Yeah?" Tony heaved.

She sighed as she stood and made her way down to the two. She paused and smirked at Ada.

"A lot has happened, Tony. But I'm close. EXTREMIS is practically stabilised," she gloated.

"I'm telling you it isn't. I'm on the street. People are going bang. They're painting the walls. Maya, you're kidding yourself," Tony shook his head.

"Then help me fix it," she held up an old card. She flipped it over to reveal more writing.

"Did I do that?" Tony asked.

"Yes."

"I remember the night, not the morning. Is this what you've been chasing around?"

"You don't remember?" she teared up.

"I can't help you," he shut off. "You used to have a moral psychology. You used to have ideals. You wanted to help people. Now look at you. I get to wake up every morning with someone who still has their soul. Get me out of here. Come on."

Maya turned and left Tony.

"You know what my old man used to say to me?" Killian walked down the steps. "One of his favourite of many sayings... 'The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.'"

"You're not still pissed off about the Switzerland thing, are you?" Tony asked.

"How can I be pissed at you, Tony? I'm here to thank you. You gave me the greatest gift that anybody's ever given me. Desperation. If you think back to Switzerland, you said you'd meet me on the rooftop, right? Well, for the first 20 minutes, I actually thought you'd show up. And the next hour... I considered taking that one-step shortcut to the lobby. If you know what I mean."

"Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the first mouse."

"But as I looked out over that city, nobody knew I was there, nobody could see me, no one was even looking. I had a thought that would guide me for years to come. Anonymity, Tony. Thanks to you, it's been my mantra ever since. Right?"

Maya nodded at this. Killian sat down and opened his laptop.

"You simply rule from behind the scenes. Because the second you give evil a face, a bin Laden, a Gaddafi, a Mandarin, you hand the people a target. You're something else. You have met him, I assume?"