A/N: Slowly and steadily, I am going to finish this story! I promise!


In the Name of the Father

Chapter X


She was getting nowhere with her questions, and it was starting to wear on her.

Eleanor had her head down, feeling lost as she walked steadily along one of several side roads that connected to the market plaza. A few passersby gave her a quick glance, their eyes flashing curiosity and pity - the young girl seemed down on her luck given her demeanor.

She was oblivious to her surroundings as she meandered through the streets, her legs moving on their own accord.

No matter who she asked or how many different ways she could describe him, and there were not that many to begin with, nobody could give her the answer she was looking for. It was as if Jack did not exist. Surely, if Nauja had seen him at the market, at least one of the shopkeepers would have too.

She of course was not doubting that he was real, but she was starting to give in to doubts that he had ever stepped through the streets of this place. Ata's description of him was definitive though, particularly the part about the little girls, and he at the very least had been at the village.

Nauja therefore should have also seen him, if not met him, and quite possibly he had even given Jack and the girls a ride to this city much like he had given her one. So when he said that he saw Jack in the market at some point, she knew that to be true. Why then could nobody seem to recall him?

So engrossed was she in her thoughts that she failed to notice the man standing directly in her path. She therefore bumped into him, letting out a slight squeal of shock as her eyes widened and she stumbled back a step from the impact, nimble enough to stay on her feet.

"I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention! Please forgive me!" she blurted out, bowing her head down in her embarrassment, unable to meet the man's eyes.

A steady hand found purchase on her shoulder.

"It's okay, girl. No need to apologize. I was standing in your way after all," came the reply in a rather amused tone.

She nodded, cheeks burning, and didn't dare to look up at the man's face as she moved around to walk past him and hurry along.

"Please wait a moment."

She stopped a few steps past the man she had run into.

"You know, there was a reason I was in your way," he paused for effect, "Word on the street is that you're looking for me."

Her eyes went wide and she swore that she stopped breathing as she spun around on her heel ever so slowly.

Standing right there in the middle of the street was Jack Ryan, who began to laugh.

-oooo-

Nauja wiped some sweat off of his forehead. He hated meeting with these people and he hated what they had him do, but he had no choice. His family and the entire village was at stake. Either he did what he was told, or. . . These guys did not mess around, and as quickly as he could get this business over and done with the better. Checking to make sure nobody was paying any particular attention to him, he slipped into a narrow alleyway.

Two men in suits and shades stood guard in front of a door farther down the alley, partially obscured by the shadows cast by the buildings that loomed over the alley. He approached them with nervous steps.

"I am N-" he began to identify himself, but was cut off.

"You are expected," said one of the men. He stepped forward and began to pat Nauja down, not even bothering to be gentle about it. Satisfied that the trader was unarmed, he stepped back and nodded to his associate, who opened the door and ushered him inside.

The room beyond was rather bare save for a few chairs and a table. There was another door across from the one he had entered in from, and for a moment he wondered what was behind it, but squashed that thought immediately.

Get in, get out. Get this over with. No need to get involved, he thought to himself.

Sitting in one of the chairs was another man in a suit, wearing the usual dark shades that many of the other associates that Nauja had seen wore. The man's expression was mostly blank, though there was a certain seriousness in it, and Nauja noticed the tightness in the man's jaw.

"Sit," the man said. The tone was firm, neither commanding nor requesting. It was simply a statement. As if he were going to sit anyway and he was merely saying it out loud as a comment.

Nauja sat.

"I've done everything that you asked!" he blurted out after a brief bout of silence unsettled him, making him think that somehow he had done wrong.

"Indeed you have, and for that you have our thanks. Your village and your family are safe, and funds have been transferred into this account to compensate you for your trouble," said the man in the suit, placing a slip of paper on the table and slowly pushing it over to the sweaty trader.

Nauja nodded, "Oh. O-Okay, well then I'll be g-going now." He stood, grabbing the paper, and turned, heading for the door.

"One last thing," said the man in the suit, causing the trader to stop and half-turn back to the man.

"W-What is it, sir?"

"I know I needn't remind you, however I was told to repeat it before you left," the man sighed, "Speak of this incident to no one. Because if you do..." he trailed off and gave the slightest of grins.

Nauja could feel more sweat forming almost instantly as the fear that had been gripping him tightened around him further. "O-of course! N-n-not a w-word! Not a s-single word! I s-swear!"

"Good bye."

As soon as he was out the door and into the alleyway, he ran, ignoring the startled guards. He ran as fast as his short legs could move.

-oooo-

Delta let out a low growl of pain and anger as the two brothers worked on repairing his suit, the whole process taking longer than he expected.

"Oreo" and "Milk" they called themselves, an interesting choice of names. Nobody actually knew their real names, nor did anyone care to. As long as the two engineers did their jobs well, no questions were asked, not that they would have answered such questions in the first place. Then again, nobody had tried so nobody would know what would happen if someone did ask. In any case, they continued to work on his suit.

Grace had been right, the process was even more uncomfortable than he was used to back when he was getting regular maintenance while the city was still functioning as it should and he was a part of the Big Daddy system. Some of the discomfort was brought about by the slight pain caused by what they were doing. Still, it was for the best.

August sat on a stool in the corner, out of the way, w watched the brothers, twins in fact, work in earnest on Delta. Every now and again he would speak, asking a question to either the twins or Delta, often followed up by more questions.

Delta, of course, could not exactly respond appropriately. And the twins were so focused on their work they scarcely responded. In the end, most of the questions he asked were barely answered, if even acknowledged, though the young boy did not seem to mind. Delta figured the kid was simply feeling a bit lonely.

"So why exactly are you guys called 'Oreo' and 'Milk' again?" August finally asked, apparently unable to prevent himself from blurting it out any longer.

The twins actually stopped for a moment and shared a look before simultaneously turning towards August.

"It's a long story, kid," said Oreo.

Milk nodded in agreement, "A long story. But part of the reason is because while each one is good on its own, having the two together is even better!"

They shared a short laugh before proceeding to work again.

Delta snorted at that and August smiled, confused but delighted that they had actually answered. A rare thing in the last couple of hours.

It took several more hours for the twins to finish working on the suit. Halfway through the process, August eventually left, citing a hungry belly and something about having to do some chores. The brothers worked tirelessly on the task with barely any breaks to catch their breath, engrossed as they were with their work. And once they were done, they gave Delta a once over and then smiled to each other as they high-fived.

"A fine job, brother!"

"And good work to you too!"

Another shared laugh and Delta snorted again, amused.

They unstrapped him from the makeshift 'operating' table that they had placed him on, allowing him to swing his legs over the edge and get to his feet. The effects of their hours of work were immediate, and he could swear that he had never felt better. In fact, his suit seemed lighter, faster, and somehow sturdier. He looked at them and gave what he thought was a groan that sounded questioning, pointing to his suit to add to the message.

Oreo and Milk nodded in understanding.

"Well, Mister Delta, we figured that since we're already repairing your suit and all that, uh, we might as well add a few modifications that we've been thinking of putting in place. Just a few ideas, you know, that we've been tinkering with in our heads," Milk explained, giving him a wink.

"Right. We've added improved joint-stabilizers and replaced some of the main components of your hydraulics system completely, making it smaller and more efficient. You should be moving much smoother now. We've also welded on some stronger armor plates on your main body points and taken out some redundant plating that was added more for styling than actual function," Oreo continued.

"And we've woven in some kevlar in some of the gaps and secondary areas to add a little more protection, the weave specially made by us. They should hold up better to gunfire and sharp, pointy objects," said Milk.

"Like knives! Or arrows!"Oreo added.

"Or hooks, bolts, swords. . ." Milk turned to his brother as he spoke, but was eventually interrupted by Oreo, who looked away from his twin and directly at Delta.

"Basically, anything with a nasty edge or menacing point to it will have a harder time punching through your armor, particularly if someone is, uh, crazy enough to get too close to you."

Delta let out a delighted roar and patted each of them on the back as softly as he could, which was not at all as soft as he imagined as the brothers still were knocked a few paces forward and started coughing. They simply smiled and laughed it off.

Once the laughter had died down, he let out one last questioning groan, wondering if they would understand this one and cursing for the billionth time his inability to speak.

They looked to each other, a bit confused at first, but then nodded as if they had spoken telepathically.

It was Oreo who answered, "Ah, you must be wondering how we even got around to being able to do such things. Am I right?"

Delta grunted in reply, impressed they had comprehended.

Milk grinned, "Well, we used to work at Ryan Industries, Delta. In the, uh, rather infamous engineering division. Specifically, we worked on you Alpha series models before we, uh, decided the whole plan on how to use them wasn't exactly... our cup of tea. So we fled and went into hiding for a while, emerging only once everything was, uh, well once everything was pretty much in shambles."

"And that's all you really need to know right now," Oreo finished. "Will that be all?"

Delta nodded his head and let out a thankful grunt before stomping off.

"Our pleasure, Mister Delta," they said in somewhat eerie unison. "Come again soon!"

-oooo-

"You're J-J-Jack Ryan?!" Eleanor could hardly contain her bewilderment.

She studied his face. His eyes. His demeanor. His build. Everything. They seemed to match perfectly from the images that she could recall seeing, though he did of course look a little older and more worn than when the photos were first taken.

He gave her a short, amused nod, "I am." Then his eyes darted around to somewhere behind Eleanor and then narrowed before he grabbed her arm.

"Quickly. It's not safe here. Follow me."

She had no time to respond as she was taken further down the side street they were on, then through several alleyways, and then more side streets. She could hear voices suddenly yelling from back where they had come from and she wondered what in the world was going on, still too much in shock at having found Jack and confused to the current situation to say anything as he led her through what seemed like a continuous maze of streets and alleys.

-oooo-

"You WHAT?" yelled the voice into his earpiece, making him cringe as he ran after his target.

"I'm sorry sir," he responded, inwardly cursing, "He spotted us and ran off with the girl immediately. We had not expected him to appear so suddenly, and the girl was rather oblivious to our presence so we thought we-"

The voice on the other end of the line interrupted him. "Reestablish visual contact, Rover Two. That's an order."

"Understood, sir. I am in pursuit." He was breathing hard from all the running.

They were fast, but he was not about to give up. There was too much at stake for him, and it was not like there were many places they could go to after all. They had eyes and ears throughout the city now.

-oooo-

The room was dimly lit, most of the light coming from the glows of multiple monitors and display screens. There was the low humming of machinery in the background as well as the chatter of hushed voices as the dozen or so people in the room spoke to each other every now and again. A majority of them speaking into microphones as they worked in their respective computer stations.

In the very middle of the room was a table upon which was displayed a digital map of the city. Multiple dots, squares, and other shapes were scattered throughout the buildings and even surrounding the city.

Three people stood by the table, all of them studying the display closely.

"Sir, all available local ground assets are in position. No one can get in or out of the city without us knowing about it. Rover units are currently trying to reestablish visual contact," said one of the three people standing. A young, middle-aged woman with short black hair and a mean demeanor. A scar ran from the left end of her mouth up halfway across her cheek towards her left ear.

"And local law enforcement?" asked the man that she was addressing. A tall, older gentleman with a short graying beard and a full mustache a shade darker than the beard. Thick, dark gray eyebrows hung like storm clouds over his crystal blue eyes that looked at nowhere else but the display table.

"They've been. . . convinced not to interfere." The last of the three spoke this time. A middle-aged man slightly shorter than the taller gentleman and with a still youthful look. He had a black eye patch over his right eye.

All of them stood around the table with perfect posture, silence settling amongst them.

"Good," said the tall, blue-eyed man at last. "What is the status report on Titan Team 2?"

"En route to location as we speak. ETA to insertion is," the woman paused to check her slender silver watch, "Eight minutes."

"Very good," came the reply as the tall man folded his hands behind him, deep blue eyes watching the dots and figures on the screen with great interest.

-oooo-

Finally, they came to a halt and Jack let go of her arm.

Eleanor took it back breathlessly and rubbed it where he had held her. He had quite a strong grip. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she finally looked about to see where he had taken her, the past few minutes having been a blur.

Light streamed in through tall, beautifully crafted stained glass, illuminating the rows of equally beautifully made wooden pews. A nice red carpet ran down the middle of the church from the great oaken main doors they had entered, and it ran on towards the base of the raised dais upon which sat the thick slab of stone that served as an altar.

Jack moved to lock the heavy front doors of the church, then starting walking towards the altar. He made it halfway down the center aisle before he realized that the young girl was not following. He turned and looked pointedly at Eleanor, who was still busy admiring the church.

"Can we hurry it along, Eleanor? We don't have much time," he urged.

She walked towards him, still breathing a little heavily. "What was that back there? I mean, what's happening? Why were we running? From whom?" she accosted him, raising a pointed finger towards Jack.

"You were being followed, which I suspected, given all the noise you were making about looking for me. Though, I also have a reliable source who. . . well, right now it doesn't really matter. What's important is we get the hell out of dodge before they show up and make things more difficult."

"Me? Being followed?" she could hardly understand why anyone would follow her. Sure she was not exactly doing her best to blend in, but neither was she doing anything too out of the ordinary to warrant such suspicion. There was something else at play here, and she intended to find out what. "Why was I being followed? And who is even following me?"

"This is seriously not the time to explain this," Jack told her, exasperated.

Eleanor crossed her arms, "Look, Mister Ryan-"

"Jack," he quickly said. "It's just Jack, please."

"Okay. Jack," she conceded, "I'm not entirely sure I can trust you. I mean, sure you look like the Jack Ryan I know from the pictures, but honestly what happened in the last few minutes is making me rather suspicious of your behavior."

Jack sighed in frustration, "Really? You're going to do this now? Even after I said we really don't have much time for this?"

Eleanor said nothing, her arms still crossed as she looked at him expectantly.

Jack sighed in frustration, raising his hands to signal his defeat. "Okay, fine. I guess I can give you the short version for now, but a more detailed explanation will have to wait until later because we seriously do. Not. Have. Time."

He inhaled deeply. "My emergence from Rapture was not quite as. . . covert as yours. Anyway, my not-so-secret existence has sparked the interest of a very... well-connected and resourceful organization as well as several major countries. They all contacted me originally offering support, power, wealth, blah blah blah. . . all in exchange for my joining them. I of course had an idea of what they were really after with my involvement and politely declined. Long story short, some of them in particular did not like my failure to cooperate and ever since then they've been trying to get me."

"You mean they're trying to kill you?" she asked, alarmed.

He hesitated. "Not exactly. More like, subdue me and then use me for experiments and. . . well, you get the idea."

"If they're so resourceful and well connected, how have they not captured you already? And I totally don't mean any offense by that, I'm genuinely just curious," she said, raising a hand up apologetically.

"Well. . . So far I happen to have always been several steps ahead of them, partly thanks to some luck as well as some incompetence on their part. And it definitely helps that I'm very good at fighting. They actually did manage to capture me a couple of times, but each time only for several minutes really. Though the second time in captivity took me longer than the first time to break free, and I don't think it's wise to be caught ever again. Thankfully, since the last time they've tried, it's been years since they've dared show themselves around Greenland. Heck, it's been a while since I've even shown up in the city again."

"And why did you and them appear only now then?" she asked, her arms still crossed.

"Well, I can't speak for them since I thought they had already given up on getting at me, but I showed up here because of you. Like I said, I was told by some friends of mine that you were looking for me. When I heard that a pretty young girl was trying to find me, I decided to see who you were in case you happened to be someone I knew. I've been watching you since you left the market area and I could tell immediately that you were from Rapture."

Eleanor blushed uncomfortably at his mention of her being pretty, but continued to press him with questions. "H-How could you tell?"

"Look, kid. We're not playing twenty questions here. Every second we waste brings them closer to us, and trust me when I say these guys don't mess around," he growled, eyes hardening.

Eleanor uncrossed her arms, satisfied for now. She would still have a lot to talk to him about later on once they were somewhere safe. "Fine. Where were we going to go?" She looked around the church, "Is there a reason we-"

She was unable to finish what she was going to say because every single stained glass window in the church exploded inwards.