Chapter 4

St. Louis November 4th 2016

8:16 AM

Aiden got dressed putting on nice clothes as he walked to the door and found a piece of mail. He picked it up inspecting it and saw it was addressed to Nicole Pearson.

"Nicky! Mail!"

Nicky ran from her bedroom and snatched the mail from him opening the letter, "Oh my! It's him!"

"Who?"

She smiles, "My penpal!"

"Oh.." Aiden rolled his eyes, "Your secret Admirer?"

Nicky shot a look at him angrily, "Well if we didn't have to run from the police in Chicago I could still be looking on the internet for the perfect Father for Jackson."

Aiden sighed, "Alright fine...just as long you're not telling him who we are...hey how did you meet this guy again?"

"He's fine...he tells me he saw me at the school where I teach Jackson and was too shy to say hi, so he wrote me a poem about my beauty so to speak...I'm trying to meet with him in some mall or something...just to make sure he isn't some spy or something. His name is Nicholas Quil, some Australian writer trying to get a book published."

Aiden looked at Nicky, "He famous?"

"In Australia at least. Published some poems and they sound good...for example...he made a free form poem about how One must not be manipulated. One must stand strong, like a giant tree in a flood, you must root yourself in the ground properly. You must not back down."

Aiden nodded, "Neat...well I gotta go to work."

Aiden opened the door and waved goodbye to Nicky. As he got in his car and drove to the computer store Aiden worked at.

As Aiden entered the store he walked in to see a large amount of customers waiting with problems.

His manager ran up to him, "Where the hell have you been Alex?! These people's Blume phones are on the fritz and you are five minutes late!"

Aiden raised his hands, "I got caught in traffic calm down."

The manager pointed a finger at him, "Look...you're lucky I hired you for you're tech skills. Since you have no documents or Digital footprint suggesting you have a history from this i'm forced to assume you learned most of this by yourself so good job. Other than that I wouldn't even think about hiring you."

Aiden nodded, "Understood." He then turned towards the line, "Alright who needs help?"

50 miles away.

In a black limo Niall sat quietly across from his personal hitman, "Derick...its almost time."

Derick cracked his knuckles, "Yes boss...so...I can get him?"

Niall smiled, "Maybe...I haven't decided..."

Derick gripped the edges of his seat, nails digging into the leather, "Boss...I've carried out every hit and run that you've ordered me to do, every single one. I deserve revenge for what he did to me."

"And trust me you will have revenge...just as soon as my friend is able to pinpoint his location we'll say hi."

"What about his family?"

"Let me worry about that...you will get Pearce for me..."

Later at 6:30 Pm

"Hey James! I'm leaving!"

The manager nodded, "Alright Alex! Drive safely!"

Aiden walked outside to his car pulling out his keys but then multiple black vans pulled up in the parking lot. The people who stepped out of them looked extremely shady. Aiden stopped flipping through his keys to see these men staring at him with their hands together patiently. Aiden blinked and turned back to the car trying to act normal. But then a black limo pulled up into the parking lot and out of the car came two people. One of the was a man with an eyepatch covering his right eye, and a man with a black trench coat on with cane of a wolfs head with black oval sunglasses.

"You Alex Pearson?"

Aiden tensed up.

"Why?"

Niall smirked, "Because we know its you Pearce..."

Aiden's eyes widened as he backed up. The man with the eye patch then pulled out a machining gun and fired. Aiden took cover behind his car waiting for the moment he ran out of bullets.

After the gun fire stopped Pearce bolted into the alleyway and cried out as a single bullet went through his leg.

A bullet fired from a M8-M which was held in the hands of Niall Quinn, it was silver and it was engraved with a picture of a wolf.

Aiden cried out as he turned around bolting down the alleyway, the yells of men behind him as he ran.

"Run all you want Pearce!" Niall yelled as his men ran past him, "But if we found you...we'll find your family next!"

Aiden panted as he limped on to the sidewalk on the other side of the building, the people there were confused from the gunfire.

"Run!" Pearce yelled, "Get out of here go!"

They were still confused but when the man with the eyepatch saw Pearce he fired his SMG again. Pearce gasped as two bullets flew through his hips as Aiden tried to dodge.

The people began to run causing a riot of confusion allowing Pearce to run away in the middle.

The eyepatch man tried to find his way through the crowd but found he and his crew were loosing him.

Aiden hurried through the crowed to the other alleyway across the street knocking over a trashcan as he ran. He was breathing heavily, he remembered how he used to do this in Chicago, get shot and had no one but himself to stitch him up.

But he had grown rusty, his reflexives had dulled, he felt heavy carrying the pain in his side.

As he made a left hand turn he found himself running into another alleyway and ran all the way through the back of it into a small alleyway intersection where he had to stop.

He leaned on a brick wall and slide to the ground clutching his wound as he heard their voices, close but far.

"Where the fuck is he?!"

"Did you see where he went?"

"Fuck it I should've shot through the crowd!"

"You check down that way, I'll check this way...Niall managed to shoot him."

Pearce waited there panting until the voices were gone. He then turned his head around the corner and sighed in relief seeing no one there.

"Got you!"

Pearce turned around to as someone's boot connected to his face knocking him to the ground.

He couldn't get up in time, he was too hurt.

He turned to see the eyepatch man standing there grinning cracking his knuckles, "Found you..."

Aiden panted as he placed his hands on the ground trying to get up. The eye-patch men then kicked Aiden in his stomach.

He cried out as the eyepatch man spoke, "Look at me..."

Aiden spat out blood coughing.

"LOOK AT ME BASTARD!"

Aiden squinted and looked upward to see the mans face, "Recognize me?"

Aiden coughed and shook his head.

"Really...about...oh 3 years ago...me and my friends were a hit squad and you killed them. You shot me in the eye and knocked me into the Chicago River...thought you killed me huh?"

The man grinned as Aiden's sight grew blurry, the lights looked incredibly bright as he was he saw the man remove a D90 pistol.

"Well...who's dead now?"

Then a bright light shone in the alley way, the man turned and fired his gun at the car but the car hit him knocking him into the air and he fell back on to the ground.

Aiden exhaled air as his vision was still blurry.

He heard voices and saw people moving but he couldn't tell who they were. He lost so much blood at this point it was hard to think period.

He then felt his arms grabbed firmly and drag his body into the backseat of the car that was in front of him. He looked up hearing voices and the car turning on and pull out of the alleyway, the bright lights of the city became so bright Aiden passed out.

About 30 minutes later The club members were in the very same alleyway treating the man with the eye-patch. Niall has just heard the news and was walking over to his location himself to meet p with him. His cane hitting the ground as he walked to the man. He was lying in the street coughing up blood with his fellow Club members looking over him.

As they saw Niall approaching they backed away and the man turned to Niall and looked downward.

Niall looked at him through his oval sunglasses, his stare would feel akin to the judgmental eyes of God.

"What happened?"

The man grunted, "I found Aiden...was about to kill him-"

Niall then kicked the eye-patch man in the stomach making his pain even worse.

Niall then yelled, "We need him alive you fool!"

The man grunted and spat up some more blood and then nodded, "I'm sorry sir...I was weak...I let my emotions about my history with the Fox."

"Good...because my Father used to say,"

Niall then crouched down looking at the eye-patch man, his black gloved hand grabbed his chin and redirected his face so they made eye contact.

"'This is how the world turns, not much room for fuck-ups.'"

The eye-patch man knew the phrase Lucky Quinn used most, it was a sort of signal for his body guard to prepare for an execution of someone who failed a job.

"Yes sir...I understand sir..."

Niall smiled letting go, "Good..."

Niall then stood up, "Span out across the city, search high and low. I want Pearce found now!"

They nodded and began to walk off.

Niall turned to the man on the ground, "Do you need a hospital?"

The man shook his head, "It's a few cracked rips I'll be fine."

Niall smiled, "Good...because if you can't pull your weight it'll be because you're inside a coffin."

Four hours later...

Pearce remembered that Night...the Night he stormed the Merlaut.

The guards he shot and killed.

The helicopter shinning a light on him as he tried to get away.

Lucky Quinn on the floor offering deals to him to make spare his life.

The police sirens trying to prevent his escape.

Then empty darkness.

"Did you forget? We're not partners anymore. All bets are off."

"CLARA!"

Aiden awoke shouting her name and immediately was blinded by the lamp light from above shinning on him. He looked down to see he was in his boxers, bandages around his leg and his hip, covered in blood. His clothes lay washed on the table next to him. His phone sat beside it as well.

He tried to get up but he saw he was hand cuffed to the side of the gurney he was on. He even saw an IV pack full of blood leading into his arm.

"Hello?" Aiden asked, since he had a giant plastic shower curtain in front of him he could see nothing.

But then he saw a shadow move on the curtain, it approached becoming bigger and then as it's hand reached out it pulled the curtain away.

There stood a man wearing a backpack with a gigantic wrench hanging out of it, he had a baseball cap on with two welding goggles on the top as well as dark gray dreadlocks hanging from his head.

The man was T-bone Grady...or better known as the infamous hacker called Raymond Kenney, the man who caused the 2003 blackout and built the ctOS system.

"Hey brother...how you feeling?"

Aiden blinked, "T-Bone?...Is that you?"

T-Bone nodded, "Yeah...thought you would've bolted if I didn't chain you up...I know how you are...let me get those off..."

T-bone removed the IV from his arm putting a band-aid over the inserted area.

"You sure are lucky Pearce," T-bone removed the right strap, "You lost a lot of blood," T-bone removed the left strap, "We thought you wouldn't mak-"

Aiden leaped from his hospital bed and grabbed T-bone by the throat and held him into the wall, "You lead them here!"

T-bone gagged unable to speak, Aiden looked furious, the pain in his sides didn't matter anymore, "You put us all in danger! Now they know who I am!"

As T-Bone gagged some more Aiden heard some movement behind him, he then turned to see a fire extinguisher hit him in his head knocking him off T-bone.

Aiden groaned clutching his head and he heard T-bone speak.

"Jesus man you didn't need to do that."

"W-W-What should I have done?"

Aiden recognized the voice, he turned to see Tobias Frewer, standing there holding the extinguisher, he looked different, his once dirty and poor outfit replaced a brown jacket, a white shirt, and wall cut jeans with brown boots, he was clean shaven and has a clean cut head.

He also looked different, he didn't appear to look like he had sleep deprivation as he once had and he acted less paranoid.

Well...he still acted like it a little.

"I-I thought he was gonna choke ya out Ray."

"I could've handled him, we're trying to help him, not put him in a coma."

Aiden then got on his feet groaning as he leaned on the bed.

"You...you..."

T-bone approached him by rubbing his neck.

"You better thank us...we saved your ass...and despite that claim you made we didn't lure them to you. They were coming here on their own."

Aiden then stood up fully rubbing his head, "Then how did they find me? I thought you cleared my trail."

"I DID." T-bone responded defensively, "I even took the damn time to save your kids shrink."

"Then how did they find me? Before ctOS 2.0 even went live I made sure to change my alias and everything! I even destroyed the computer I did it on!"

"I don't know then!" T-bone shouted.

They were all silent for a second.

"...Are they Blume?"

"No...The Club..."

Aiden looked surprised, "The Club came up here to get me?"

"They know at this point you were the one who killed Lucky. His son Niall assumed you caused him to have a heart attack."

Aiden now understood, "He wants revenge for what I've done."

T-bone nodded, "Yeah...I was spying on them...apparently he has some hacker for hire who offered to do the job for free."

Aiden looked confused, "For free? Doesn't sound like a Fixer...has to be someone who knows us...someone who met me."

Tobias spoke, "From what w-we picked up they don't know where your family is."

Aiden nodded, "Thats good...but that also means I can't just go back to the apartment and help leave together."

"Unless we plant a false trail," T-bone said, "We can lure them away from where she is and then you can leave town.

Aiden looked at T-bone, "What about you?"

T-bone pointed to himself, "I'll take care of the Club Pearce, it's about time someone took them down. I'm here just to get you out of this man."

Aiden smiled, "Thanks...but before we go anywhere...I'll need my guns and phone."

T-bone pointed at the table, "Isn't that your phone?"

"I need my jail broken one..it's the one that can hack the ctOS."

Tobias nodded, "Ahhh ok!...W-Where is it?"

"Storage facility...North side of town."

"Then let's not waste time then." T-bone said, "Time to get rolling...also Pearce you are letting me pick the fucking songs this time. You have horrible taste!"