Step 9.75: Explain To The "Team"

For a short time the three rode in silence.

"So... Jack you still haven't given me an explanation as to what the hell is going on," Kai prompted from the backseat.

"Why does she keep calling you Jack, Blake?"

"What do you mean? That's his name."

"What? I've know the guy for years. His name is Blake."

"His name is Jack. Well- Karson but, Jack."

"No it's Blake."

"No. I'm right."

"I am."

"Me, asshole."

"I am, bitch."

"Oh you did not just-"

"You're both right!" Jack shouts interrupting. "I was born with the name Karson but, everyone called me Jack because I'm like my grandfather. But at the Institute, Tristan decided my name is Blake. Now, shut the fuck up!

Silence doesn't last long.

"You still haven't given me an explanation," Kai states.

"I want one too," Derek adds. "I'm 99.876% sure you're not Jesus, so I wanna know how you came back from the dead."

Jack rolled his eyes. "The Institute is a place where children are taken, then trained," he begins looking at Kai in the rear view. "This training puts them in top conditions for missions. These missions are most likely assassinations."

"We often partner with weapons or drug dealers and as private hitmen... like Blake here," Derek adds.

"It's Jack," Jack corrects. "You can't go around calling me Blake. But yes that is our main purpose. No one is going to think much of that group of kids that walking out a mall laughing loudly they had seen an hour before a body was discovered. It works quite well."

Kai goes silent for a moment. "So you've both... K-... K..."

"Killed someone?" Jack finishes. "Yes. I was an Elite in fact-"

"We were Elites," Derek corrects.

"Shut it. But the Elite are the top three. So with us was a girl named. Summer." He spat her name with disgust.

"What's with that?" Derek asked confused.

"How old were you when you first killed someone," Kai asked in a small voice.

"11," Derek answered.

"I was 9," Jack stated. "I still remember it..."

Derek nods. "Not surprised. You know the saying."

Jack nodded and he and Derek together recited the infamous Institute saying. "They all run together. All but the first. The first will be the face to haunt you until you join them in hell."

"I see his face every night," Jack admits.

Derek nods, knowing the feeling. "Christian Hawthe."

"Arthur Dunn."

Blake tried to calm his nerves as he walked down he hallway following the man. Arthur Dunn.

Blake didn't know much about the man personally but he did know that this Dunn guy was his first assignment. Dunn was a math teacher at an elementary school. So as a kid only 9 1/2, Blake had to be the one to do the job. He certainly didn't feel that young though. Those three and half years with Tristan had changed him.

Once again running away crossed in his mind but he always thought back to the locator chip on his body. He didn't even know where it is. Blake couldn't decide if it was a bluff or not so he didn't take any chances.

He took a deep breath as he slowed his walk as Dunn stopped to talk to another teacher. He wasn't even sure why it had to be Dunn. He did know that it would be a death wish to ask why.

Other kids looked at him weirdly as he walked but he ignored him. School was letting out and he was the only one not rushing to leave.

He slipped in a classroom knowing it was Dunn's and he quickly hid in a corner as the teacher entered sitting at his desk. He swiveled the chair around not noticing the small boy behind his filing cabinet.

As the teacher faced the other direction, Blake silently slipped off his backpack and with shaky hand pulled out the gun with the silencer already attached. He held it behind his back as he stepped into the Dunn's sight line.

"Hello, who are you?" Dunn asked him.

"I'm Chris Martins," Blake lied easily. "I'm going to be starting next week so I'm coming to meet my teachers."

"Oh. Well, nice to meet you Chris." He reached out a hand for Blake to shake. "I'm Mr. Dunn. I teach math."

Blake ignored the outstretched hand. "I can tell," he said looking at the math themed items across the room.

Dunn chuckled slightly. "Let me see which class you'll be in he said bending down to pull a file out of a drawer. When he sat back up a gun was pointed in his face. "Whoa, Chris... Just put that-"

"I'm sorry," Blake said a tears already filling down his face. With that said he pulled the trigger. The image of the man now forever branded to his skull.

Blake slipped the gun in his backpack and pulled out his sweatshirt slipping it on to cover the small trace of blood on him and wiping tears from his face. He zipped up the backpack before slipping out the room. He joined the other children in the hall. He walked out the building and over to where Tristan stood. He walked over and Tristan lead the way across the parking lot to the silver car. Blake climbed in the back and Tristan got in pulling out of the parking lot.

"Maybe you're not completely hopeless," Tristan said as they drove down the street. Ten minutes later the body was found, but silver car was already on the highway.

"Who was this Summer?" Kai asked changing the subject for which Jack was thankful.

"She was my girlfriend," Jack said with distaste. "But for who knows why she took me out to a cliff for a 'date' and then stabbed me and tried to push me off a cliff. Some random people found me apparently. And then they found my family and I live with them."

"Whoa back up," Derek said. "You found your family."

"Yup."

"But didn't they ask a ton of questions?"

"I'm currently faking amnesia."

"So why break in there in the first place?" Kai asked. "You escaped from there to go back?"

"I needed some stuff... for uh... something I'm uh... gonna do."

Derek's eyes light up, and a wicked smile splits his face. "You're gonna kill Summer aren't you?"

"Not just her."

"Tristan too?"

"All of them. I wanna watch the whole thing burn to the ground."

"I'm in," Derek says instantly. "This is probably a suicide mission but I'm in regardless."

"Me too," Kai says.

"No," both boys say in unison.

"Why not?"

"This isn't your fight," Jack tells her. "Plus we will most likely end up dead. You-"

"I could always let slip to Ms. Miranda that, her son has guns."

"I guess we're a trio then."

~~~~

"Wait a moment," Kai says as they are now less than ten minutes from her home. "Where the hell is he gonna stay? You can't just go home with some random guy and tell them he's living there."

"I already got an idea," Jack assures her.

"What is it?"

"You'll see," Jack replied.

~~~~

"An old motel?" Kai asked in disbelief.

Jack nodded. "Wait here. Derek come."

Kai huffs and Derek shrugs following Jack out the car. Jack heads up the steps and down the hall until he stops in front of room 247.

He knocked on the door a couple times before it is opened. A girl stood there looking annoyed to be stopped from whatever it is she was doing.

"I need to talk to CeeCee. Tell her it's Jack. I have a solution to her problem."

The girl nodded slowly before closing the door.

"Who's CeeCee?" Derek asked.

Jack smiled. "Your new employer."

Derek doesn't ask another question as the girl returned and let them in. Jack nods at her and heads for the adjoining room. He opens the door without knocking and strolls his hands in his pockets.

"So you're finally coming to work for me?" The blue bobbed woman asks before taking a drag from her cigarette.

Jack shakes his head. "No. But-"

"Hey Cee- Jack? What are you doing here?"

Jack turns as Johnson walks in the room. "Hey," Jack greets. "I'm doing business."

"No. You're not. You need to get back to Elias's house. Wait you didn't bring him here did you?"

"Course not. I wouldn't torture myself."

"You need to leave. Now," Johnson says grabbing Jacks arm. Jack doesn't do anything but that's when Derek steps in. He quickly grabs Johnson in a choke hold from behind.

"This is Derek. He's coming to work for you," Jack tells CeeCee. "Same training as me. And he needs a place to stay anyway."

CeeCee watched her cousin tap out against Derek's grip. Derek lessened the pressure but didn't let go. "Okay, we'll see how he does."

"I'll tell your parents," Johnson threatened.

"They'd ask you how you had known in the first place. Then this whole thing would plummet," Jack told him before he motioned for Derek to release Johnson.

CeeCee nodded. "Alright. Let's talk about your pay Derek."

~~~~

"Did you lose him? Please tell me you did!?" Kai pleads as Jack climbs in the car.

Jack rolls his eyes. As he pulls away from the motel. "Next stop your house."

~~~~

Jack waved goodnight to Kai and slipped in the bathroom changing back into his pajamas. By the time he finally crashed on his sleeping bag the sun was just beginning to rise.