October 21st, 2011

Raymond sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he dropped the files he'd been reading on his desk. Two more people from the WhiteLight project team had been killed; Jared Cooper and Shane Ivey, the recently appointed head of the project. The quickened pace of the killings and the fact that the last three were working on cure made it clear to Raymond that a certain someone wanted to know about WhiteLight. He sat back in his seat, debating over something in his mind, then made a decision. He picked up the phone on his desk a dialed a number he hated to call.

The other line picked up, though there was no answer; there never was.

"We need to talk…now," Raymond stated.

"I'm a little busy at the moment," came a harsh whisper.

"I'm sure you can stop whatever you're pretending to do."

"…The same place as usually…?" the other voice sighed.

"Twenty minutes," Raymond confirmed.

Without another word, the other line hung up. Raymond did the same and left his office, letting a few people know he was going to lunch early.

xXxXx

"Where are you going?"

"A certain someone wants to talk again."

"I told you you're getting too aggressive."

"Forgive me if I don't want someone creating a virus to kill me."

The young woman scowled and rolled her eyes. He knew she wanted to point out the slight irony in his statement, but she held her tongue. He removed the stained the white lab coat, tossing it onto a chair to be washed later, and pulled on his usually sweater and heavy jacket, tugging the hood up over his head. The fewer people who could see his face, the better.

As he walked for the door, the young woman asked, "Will you be alright long enough?"

"I'll be fine," he growled.

His 'episodes' were starting to get worse and more frequent; becoming more of a risk. He just told himself it was because of his hunger. He thought that if he consumed more, the episodes would subside. Neither this woman nor the one who shared his appetite believed this. Still, he would not acknowledge it as a problem.

"By the way," he said, pausing at the door, "I think someone's snooping around GenTek's files. Find out for me, will you?"

"Sure," she sighed.

xXxXx

"Kadar, quit running off," Malik snapped.

"Maybe you should keep up," his brother teased.

Malik had been showing Kadar around the city with Altair. Or at least, he was trying to show him around. Kadar had a habit of running ahead and going into every store he saw, which made it difficult for Malik to keep track of him. Altair made it no easier; either he wasn't paying attention to where Kadar went or he was intentionally not telling him. Both reasons seemed likely.

Malik was relieved that Kadar wouldn't be going to the university; he was still in high school. At least he wouldn't have to keep an eye on him at all times, but that was also what worried him. If Kadar's curiosity continued to get the better of him, he would probably end up half way across the city instead one of his classes.

One of the stores that Kadar went into was playing the news on a television in the corner of the ceiling. Unsurprisingly, the news anchors were talking about the two latest victims of a certain psychopath. Kadar stopped and watched long enough for Malik and Altair to catch up to him, and when they did, he asked if they knew anything about it. Malik tried to dismiss the topic and drag him out, but Altair saw it as a chance to frighten him.

"There's a cannibal running around New—," Altair started.

"What does 'cannibal' mean?"

Kadar spoke English very well, but he didn't know every word.

"Cannibal is a person who eats other people," Altair replied in a low voice, "And no one can catch him. He kidnaps people in the middle of the night, cuts them up, eats them and leaves their bodies lying around the city."

"Knock it off," Malik barked, "If he has any nightmares, he's sleeping in your bed."

xXxXx

It didn't take Raymond long to get to the small lake in Central Park. But no matter how quickly he got there or how early he was, the other was always there first. Raymond grimaced and sat down beside him on the bench.

"Well?" the other man demanded.

"You tell me, you're the one acting up," Raymond replied.

"…"

"If you wanted to know about WhiteLight, you could've asked."

"You know me better than that."

"Of course, you'd rather take than ask. But let me remind you, I'm not covering up your tracks so you can turn around and bite me."

The man grinned faintly at the remark. Raymond rolled his eyes upon realizing what he'd said.

"I might just have to if WhiteLight keeps up," the man said, "Why are you so worried that you need to make a 'cure'…for the only two people in the world who are infected?"

"Surely you can't enjoy what you do."

"After two and half years, it doesn't really bother me anymore. As for the other—"

"Please, don't remind me about her."

"If you really want me to take it easy, I suggest you shut down WhiteLight as soon as you get back to GenTek."

The man stood up and walked away, leaving Raymond with no choice. He'd already tried to have him killed, but he had a strange if not downright horrifying way of coming back to life a few days later. Raymond had no idea how he could do it, he had very little knowledge of BlackLight because that team's leader reported only the bare minimum to him. And unfortunately, the rest of the BlackLight team was dead on his orders. That was a decision he regretted since he made it, not to mention it had been poorly executed.

The hired assassins had done a poor job cleaning up after themselves and Raymond also had only pathetic and suspicious answers as to why the team was disintegrating. That was how the team leader found out and decided to make a run for it. At the time, Raymond wasn't too worried about it; he was dead either way. Or at least that's what he thought. Maybe if he'd gone about things differently, he wouldn't be at this man's mercy.

But everyone has their breaking point.

At that moment, Raymond had his. Their agreement had been for Raymond to cover him so long as he kept his activities low and stayed out of any kind of attention. But this man had begun to take advantage of him and was terrorizing the city now. As far as Raymond was concerned, the man had broken that agreement. He considered outing the man to authorities, but thought that would result in his own arrest as well. Not mention his doubts about anyone's ability to subdue the man.

No, it would be better if he took care of this personally. He would make it look as though WhiteLight was shut down, but would continue it in the tightest of secrecy. Raymond knew the man had some sort of hacker working with him, but if only hard copies of papers were kept, there would be nothing to hack. It was old-fashion, but the best way to fool a hacker. That would allow the research to continue and then he would get a final version of WhiteLight.

And inject it into the man himself.

o0o0o0o

Author: all that waiting for this tiny chapter, sorry. I was planning to have Connor in here, but decided to wait until the next chapter because I wanna try to keep his OOC-ness minimal now that his game is out.