"You're being unclear, Cade." Jack replied, "Theres no way we are going to accept this if you don't say what you want, or how we will get it."
"Easy. I tell you her schedule for the next three weeks at maximum, and you'll get her yourself." Cade said, "Don't expect me to help you. I should be burning in hell if I betray against my own kind, right?"
"And?" Jack said, "You haven't finished. What do you want?"
"I want you to forget about me and here. Get out of here in peace, and bug Rinne instead. Simple." Cade said, cheerily. "Tea?"
Jack nodded, and Cade simply poured more into his cup, "and what if we don't catch her?"
"In fact, thats a risk that you have to take, pal. That's none of my business, really. And even if I would provide you with real information, I would always hope that you get lost with her. You've failed to catch me for handfuls of times, really. I must mention that the chance of you actually catching her is pretty low, really."
"In fact, the major reason for why everything- anything won't work is because of you, Cade." Jack replied, "And we are really going to suffer if you ran out of nowhere and stopped us from getting her."
"You are going to suffer anyways, for trying to get me." Cade said sarcastically, "so thats why I didn't say the lot of you have to forget about me and this location permanently. I'm only asking you to piss off for today, I am in a really good mood today."
"Wow." Jack said, "so we will leave you for today, and you will give us the routine of Rinne for the next three weeks?"
"Yes. Three weeks starting from today." Cade said, "You will know thats its true."
"Then you must be in a really good mood today." Jack said, in a tone that somehow sounded guilty, "We will take the deal, then."
"Great." Cade said, "Now if you allow me to fetch some paper and write it down for you."
Aerie did not want to believe what she had heard. Cade was offering a deal that the other side gains such an advantage— not only did he betrayed his friend, Rinne, who was obviously another immortal that The Association was interested, he did not insist on them to forget about him forever. The could be here. Anytime. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe the day after tomorrow.
Theres no way Cade would do this just to keep things peaceful. And its not like aftermaths could not be cleaned up.
"So here it is." Cade said, continuing to smile, "have a nice day and get out of here. I would vomit if I see the all of you for a moment longer."
Jack laughed. Hard. "I have never- never! guessed that Cade, Cade Canning, who the all of us struggle so hard to search for, having his schedule and plans so advanced that we have a 50 people team back in our headquarters dedicated entirely to you, could be so gullible. What had gotten into your funny mind? Of course we won't leave so easily? Its been endless caffeine before we had a single idea of where you are."
"What?" Cade said, "I did as I said."
"You know that we never keep promises," Jack replied, "Its what we do. Take every single last bit of the advantage being offered. You are coming with us today, and we will catch Rinne too."
Oh no. Aerie thought. She wanted to scream, but her lungs had no air. Her blood pumped inside her veins vigorously, as if they would escape and pour from her skin any time. This is bad. This is very bad.
Cade had made a wrong decision. A very wrong decision.
"Oh?" Cade said, groggily. But it was beyond too late. The people had already pulled their guns out of their bags, and aimed every single last one towards Cade's cranium.
"Do you want peace, no war?" Jack teased, "Then come with us obediently and we promise you that not even one single hair of yours would be hurt."
"God, you people are so boring." Cade said, and flicked his fingers. When the soft sound of fingers clicking stopped echoing inside the room, the guns that used to be on the people's hands flew across the room, and directly onto the ground, to the area behind Cade, "I really hated when people point guns to my head."
"You're breaking the deal!" Jack yelled. There was no longer time for talking, the men— assassins , immediately went after Cade. Cade darted forwards, before anyone could get hold of him, he grabbed Jack by his neck and pulled him aside.
"Stop moving!" Cade said, picking a gun up from the floor, "He's my hostage now."
The room of people stopped moving the instant when Cade checked to see if the gun was loaded and pointed it to jack's head. Though they ere about height, Cade still seemed to have a tight grip of him no matter how hard he tried to struggle.
"Get out." Cade said, "the all of you. I hate being outnumbered. This just make both you and me look like idiots. That you need a massive army of people just to get a teenage looking guy like me."
The people stayed still, watching Cade backing off to the corner. "Didn't you hear?!" Jack yelled, "Get out! Or do you want me to die here?"
"Yes, sir." The people mumbled quietly and quickly left the room, closing the door behind them. When there were really two people left in the room, Cade and Jack, Cade released Jack. And to Aerie's surprise, on Jack's neck, there was a visible red circle around it. And his chin also swelled a little.
"Please." Cade said, pushing the door open, "apparently you're the only one left here now."
"You promise that you won't interference with our plan to catch Rinne next?" Jack asked, softly. He knew that he have to go along with the plan now.
"Certainly not." Cade said, smiling as cheerful as ever. "I would be trying to stop you when you strike, no matter if you like it or not. And even if I wasn't there, you still can't catch her anyways. So have fun, or I would be really throwing up and ruining your shirt this time."
Aerie could hear him mumble something that sounded similar to 'lets hope its not him.' But was unable to understand what he meant by that. Is it had not been Cade, who else could it be? And why would it not be Cade, anyways? Jack didn't bother to have Cade open the door for him, he opened it himself and slammed it shut when he left, leaving Cade alone with all the weapons lying free on the floor.
Cade laid against the door, and she knew that he was looking right into her when he stared into her direction. She jumped back, back into the dark storage room when she noticed he was looking. She bumped onto the shelf right behind her, and it made the cleaning buckets on the top of the shelf fall and made some loud and clear noice.
"Didn't I say not to peek and just wait?" Cade said before Aerie could actually pick herself up from the ground. The lights immediately came back on, and the buckets arranged itself nicely again back on the shelves with another flick of his fingers.
"What are— what are those guns for?" Aerie tried to ask, pretending that she knew nothing about what happened the just now. She had been a bad actress, and it was obvious.
"Don't be silly." Cade said, "you know."
Aerie sighed, "You're making a bad deal. You would be losing so much. You're losing yourself a friend."
"Oh really?" Cade said, "The chance of actually getting Rinne caught is around 1%, even with my information. You think its bad?"
"Of course!" Aerie said, "If your sacrifice your information so simply, so easily, then anyone you trust would sell you off easily too, Cade! She must have trusted you enough to have told you about her routine!"
"I know." Cade said, "but if I don't, then there will be more problems coming."
"You have to know that they wold be coming for you sooner or later, if they caught her." Aerie yelled, "You're still in danger, Cade! and hey, they look so horrible— they could kill you!"
"I know, Aerie." Cade replied, "I know."
"What do you know?" Aerie screamed again, "You're getting yourself a bad deal!"
"The thing about this—-" Cade said, now louder, and made Aerie stop her screaming. "Had never been about me. It has always been about you. You, Aerie. You know when I allowed anytime to happen, what would most probably happen would be the door slammed open by accident by anyone, with you being exposed."
"And of course, you cannot defend yourself against them, at least not when unarmed. And whats gonna happen? They would most probably catch you. In a good case, they may make you a hostage against me, and the worst case? They would not hesitate to kill you. They don't want anyone to know about immortals too." Cade said, "It has always been you. Think about yourself."
"I—" Aerie said, "I am sorry. Really."
"If there was anything that I could have done for you, I would have already done it." Cade said, "I don't ask for you forgiveness, but at least I hope you understand that whatever I did, it was for you."
"And also, this could be a test for their abilities, what they could do." Cade said. "After all, the only reason why I am here, being a living bait, is to get as much information as I can."
"After all, I have been here to destroy The Association from its core."