Chapter 4

"I told you not to kill him!" Scott exclaimed when he saw Isaac leaning against his car with blood on his hands.

"I didn't." Isaac replied.

"Then what did you do?" Scott asked suspiciously.

"I gave him a few interesting scars. I got my questions answered though." Isaac said. "And I'll pay for the dry cleaning to get the blood stains out of the back of the car."

"What the hell were you even wanting to know so badly?" Scott asked, curious despite himself.

"How he knew that I killed Mark."

"Isaac, word spreads amongst criminals faster than it does between teenage girls who promise not to tell." Scott said with exasperation.

"Yes, but for word to spread, someone has to have seen." Isaac told him, and Scott hated him a little for thinking of that first.

"So what, you asked him who was there with us?" Scott asked.

"No one was there."

"Well then don't leave me hanging, dude, how did he know?"

"How easy is it to access our files?" Isaac asked.

"Not that hard. You did it yesterday to put in the report." Scott replied, not quite sure how that was supposed to answer his question.

Isaac shook his head. "Not what I mean. For someone who didn't work for us. Keeping in mind that all files are digital, so they should only be able to hack the system to get into the files."

"Um, I'm not in security, but I'd imagine that it's rather difficult, considering we get a new password every day." Scott told him. "But if you think for a moment that I don't believe you've already hacked us, you're wrong." He added.

"You're learning then. Yes, I did. It is actually rather well guarded." Isaac informed him.

"Right. So, why are you asking then?"

"Not learning enough though. Scott, either someone hacked into our files or someone on the inside got them. Knowing that it took me effort, and I'm trained to hack into things, which seems more likely?"

"He told you that someone working for us is smuggling files? Who?" Scott asked, staring at Isaac with wide eyes.

"If I knew who it was, I wouldn't be standing here explaining what's going on to you. He didn't know, so he couldn't tell me."

"Are you sure he just didn't tell you?" Scott asked, raising an eyebrow.

Instead of answering him, like a normal person would, Isaac walked over to the back and opened up the back door.

Rick was slumped against the back seat, somehow managing to look in pain even while unconscious. And Scott could understand why. He had something that vaguely resembled the most horrifying happy face he had ever seen carved into his arm, and a few random puncture wounds in his arms, hands, legs, shoulders, and a few on his face.

"What the hell did you even do that with? And why the unhappy happy face?" Scott asked, not quite horrified –he had seen worse with his job, though it was usually done by the criminals- so much as stunned.

Isaac picked up a bloody pen from the floor. "He asked if I was going to draw a smiley face on him. So, I did." He explained, dropping the pen. "After he got done with the death threats it wasn't hard to get him talking."

"Why didn't you just do that analyze and find the right personality thing?"

"I did." Isaac said simply before taking a seat on the driver's side this time.

"Are we not going to the base?" Scott asked, raising an eyebrow. He didn't see any other reason Isaac would suddenly show an interest in driving.

"No."

"Then where are we going? I'm not giving you the keys without knowing where we are going." Scott replied, reaching into his back pocket for his keys, only to find them missing. He glared at Isaac, who held up the keys. "Dude. Not cool. Where are we going?"

"My apartment."

Whatever answer Scott had been expecting, it wasn't that one. "You gonna tell me why?"

"No one will be watching us at my apartment, and we're about to try and out hack your mystery hacker."

"You work for spies, and you think they didn't put surveillance equipment in your apartment?" Scott asked, raising his eyebrows at Isaac.

"I know they did, but I removed it. It's kind of a test, to make sure we aren't out of practice. They put surveillance in, you get it out."

Scott gave a resigned sigh and got into the passenger seat. "What are we doing about Rick?"

"I can stab his foot and he won't be able to leave." Isaac said with a shrug, not even sparing Rick's unconscious form a glance.

"We aren't doing that."

"I said 'I' not 'we'. You don't have to stab him if it makes you uncomfortable." Isaac replied, pulling out of the parking lot. For someone completely content to let other people drive for him, Isaac was a rather good driver.

"You aren't stabbing him either!" Scott exclaimed.

"Why not? I'm comfortable with it."

"You seem like the type who would be comfortable with pressing the button that blows up the world." Scott told him, rolling his eyes.

"If it had to, yes. I'd do it." Isaac replied with his usually lack of interest.

"Of course you would. You're still not stabbing his foot."

"Then what do you suggest we do to keep him here if he wakes up. It's not that hard to get out of a car hand cuffed."

"Damn it. Fine. You can stab his foot. If he still gets out, I blame you."

"If he still gets out we can track him by the blood leaking from his foot." Isaac retorted, pulling into the parking lot of an apartment complex.

Scott waited outside the car while Isaac stabbed the guy with a pen Scott would never be able to use again.

Isaac got out of the car a few moments later, and lead the way to his apartment.

It was pretty much what Scott thought it would be. Neat and impersonal. There were no pictures of family or friends, no decorations, just the standard furniture. Isaac could probably pack up and vanish in five minutes with no evidence that he had ever lived here. Which, Scott supposed was the point. "Nice place."

"Yes, I suppose it is." Isaac said opening up his laptop and taking a seat on his couch after washing the blood off of his hands.

"You're allowed to sit, Scott. In fact, I'd prefer if you did. You know your coworkers, I don't. You could be useful." Isaac said, typing a mile a minute on his computer.

"Just now realizing that I'm useful?" Scott teased, taking a seat on the couch next to Isaac.

"If I didn't think you were useful you would be at the base, not my apartment."

"Didn't know you cared." Scott replied sarcastically.

"That's because I don't." Isaac replied coldly, and yeah, okay, it kind of stung, but it wasn't unexpected information. He would be surprised if Isaac had said that he did actually.

"Is there anything, or anyone, you do care about?" Scott asked curiously.

"I care about getting the job done. That's all."

"How do you even motivate yourself to do that?"

"How do you? Your job is far more dangerous than mine." Isaac countered. Was that defensiveness or just usual Isaac snark?

"I motivate myself with the knowledge that I am protecting people. With every criminal I bring in I know I'm making the world a safer place for the people I care about. That's why I go into danger everyday. So the people I love don't have to. Your turn. Why do you do it?"

"What else am I supposed to do?"

"That's a question, not a reason." Scott told him, frowning a little.

"No. It's a reason." Isaac said, not taking his eyes off the screen. "Not a noble reason like yours, but just as much a reason. I have been trained to be a spy. It's what I know how to do. I do not have anyone I care about to protect, so I simply do the work I'm trained to do. What else am I supposed to do? Spying is what I know, and it's one of the few jobs where not caring is an advantage. Where not caring is looked at like the strength that it is. I have watched people fall apart because of caring for others. People die because they care for other people. It is a weakness, but a weakness that gives you motivation. I don't have that. So, my reason is, what else am I supposed to do?" He said all of that in the same board tone he always used, as if he didn't realize how depressing living like that would be to other people.

"Well, I think that's sad." Scott told him.

"Is it? Oh." Isaac replied, confirming what Scott thought about him not knowing.

"I'm in." Isaac said when he got into the bases system. He felt the couch shift when Scott moved closer to look at the computer.

They spent hours looking through people's files. Isaac analyzed and read their information, and then had Scott tell him everything he knew about that person.

It was dark outside when Isaac's phone rang. Stiles was calling him according to the caller ID.

"Isaac, why do you have Stiles number?" Scott asked him.

"For the same reason I'm assuming that he has mine. To keep track of you." Isaac replied before answering.

"Why isn't Scott answering his phone?"

"He left it in the car." Isaac told him, noticing Scott patting his pockets. Apparently that hadn't been done intentionally then.

"Where are you guys? You were supposed to be back hours ago." Stiles asked, sounding less worried now that he had been told why Scott wasn't answering.

"We went to my apartment to look a few things up online. It was closer than going to the base. We'll come back to fill out the mission report." Isaac said, hanging up before Stiles could reply.

"So, any idea on who it is?" Scott asked as Isaac closed the computer and got to his feet.

"Quite a few. That's the problem." He replied.

"Alright. Well, who do you think it most likely is?"

"Objectively, that would have to be you." Isaac said, leading the way out of the apartment.

"Me?" Scott said, sounding offended. "You think I did it?"

"Not what I said." Isaac told him with a shake of his head. "I told you that, objectively, you would be the most likely person to do it. You were there. So, you wouldn't have to get copies of the file. You could just tell someone what happened. You don't kill criminals, which could indicate that you work with them, and when the gun was brought out today it was aimed at your partner instead of you. However, knowing you, and your personality, I don't think it was you." He explained, taking his usual place in the passenger seat.

Rick was awake again, and muttering plans to kill Isaac. "None of those are going to work if you say them while I can hear them." Isaac commented, and then continued pointing out the flaws in the different plans as they drove back to the base.