Adrenaline

⌊Chapter 21⌉

“Rich, please listen-”

“Listen?” Rich cried. “Listen to what? More lies?! You have been the only one here for me for years, Andy. You went through everything with me, and now you’re going to tell me to listen to you make up some sort of excuse?? How am I supposed to trust you anymore? You- you raised me like I wasn’t your son. I spent years wondering who the hell my parents were. Where I came from. And you knew. The whole time.”

Andy inhaled sharply, his calm voice attempting to rid the room of all the negativity. “I understand, okay? I understand why you’re upset and I understand why you’re questioning your trust with me, but you have to understand that I did this for the better. To keep us alive. That information wasn’t supposed to be given to you. It’s not because I don’t trust you, but-”

Andy paused, looking toward the ground.

“-but I can’t lose someone else. I already saw your mother die. I’m not ready to see you die too. I tried for so many years to protect you, but you are a lot like your mother. You’re determined, strong-willed, and stubborn as I’ll get out. There was no way for me to protect you from the world, so I had to protect you from the POL. You’re my son. It’s my job to protect you and watch out for you. You’re all I have left. The way you feel about Alex - it’s terrible. And I know it is because you’re not the only one here who got their best friend taken away from them.”

For a moment, the silence was deafening. The two stood idle, at a loss for words that would resolve anything. Rich sighed and collapsed onto the couch, staring at the ceiling, the familiar feeling of tears welling up in his eyes. “How much of my life has been a lie, then, Andy? Is there more I don’t know?”

“The only thing I deem important is the fact that two members of the POL are in Adelmir,” Andy said. “They bailed out Matt. Now they’re trying to find us. You talked to Matt. If I had known you were going to do that, I would have stopped you, because he’s not a friend anymore. He hasn’t been for a long time. Thank god he hasn’t found this place yet. He’s too dangerous for either of us. He might as well be sovereign with the power he has over Adelmir.”

After a minute or so, Rich sat upward, tears no longer flooding his green eyes. “Then we have to do something. We have to. To avenge… my mom. Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever said those words before.”

“Rich, I appreciate your concern, I do, but there’s a reason why I never told you about the POL. You’re anything but dumb, but attacking the POL is a terrible idea. The only reason I’m not keeping you from Blake is because you know him well - you’ve known him since you were little. You know how his mind works. It’s different with the POL,” Andy explained. “There are millions of them. If you do anything to the two in Adelmir, you’ll never be safe a day in your life. At least now you have a safe haven to run to if things get bad. But the POL would be more likely to find us than anyone in this city.”

Rich paused and then shrugged. “Then I guess we better hope that we leave Adelmir before they find us. Maybe they’ll get caught in the crossfire.”

“Right, leaving Adelmir,” Andy thought out loud. “Do we know our method of travel? Taking the trains wouldn’t be a good idea.”

Bouncing back to his regular self, Rich jumped up and planted his fist into his open hand. “AWM!” he exclaimed. “Adelmir Weaponry and Machinery. They have tons of armoured vehicles if we can get in and take one for ourselves. Maybe something that can fly… like a helicopter.”

“Okay, okay, slow your roll,” Andy interjected. “That’s a whole other mission. We can’t just break into AWM and steal a tactical vehicle.”

“Who said we’re stealing it? With the money you make from inventions, we can buy it off of them or something. And I know that’s allowed because I’ve heard of it happening. Like during a protest by the bank a few months ago they bought a whole fuckin’ tank.”