November 3, 6:15 a.m.
Nathan Petrelli lay on his side next to his sleeping wife and stared at his
alarm clock. He had been staring at the clock for the last forty five
minutes, unable to fall back asleep and unwilling to get up and begin his
day. As he watched, the glowing red digits blinked ever so slowly from 6:15
to 6:16. Tick tock and another minute had passed. Weak sunlight was
attempting to penetrate through the curtains. They day was beginning and
Nathan really wished it wouldn't.
Taking great care not to wake Heidi, Nathan slipped from his bed and
shivered slightly as his feet touched the cold floor. He grabbed his cell
phone from the bedside table where it was charging and took it with him into
his bathroom. He hesitated only briefly before punching in the number that
would auto-dial Peter's cell.
At his apartment, Peter Petrelli was sleeping soundly for once, without any
nightmares or precognitive dreams. When his cell phone rang he tried very
hard to ignore it and buried his head under his pillow. After the phone rang
several times Peter sighed wearily and blindly searched for the cursed
thing. He answered mid-ring.
'Hello?' he said, his voice rough with sleep. 'Mohinder?'
'No, Pete, its me,' Nathan said, annoyed at the way Peter had answered the
phone. He began rummaging through the medicine cabinet, searching for the
items he needed in order to shave. 'Sorry I woke you. I just...I'm sorry.
About yesterday.'
'Yesterday?' Peter sat up, trying to clear his sleep addled mind, then
remembered the argument he'd had with his brother the day before. 'Oh yeah.
I still think you're wrong about sending Claire away, but Nathan, listen. I
took your advice. I went to see Suresh yesterday and I think I was wrong
about things. Its not me who's the bomb. Its Sylar.'
'Sylar,' Nathan repeated then cursed as he dropped his razor in the sink.
'The guy who almost killed you back in Texas?'
'And then again a few days ago? Yeah, that's the guy.' Peter turned on his
light and began to speak more quickly, eager to tell Nathan all that he'd
learned in the last twenty four hours. 'Remember the guy I met on the
subway, the one I told you about? Well he was there, at Suresh's.'
'Guy from the future?' Nathan said, trying to sound nonchalant but swearing
like a sailor in his mind.
'Yeah. Well, sort of,' Peter amended. 'Its kind of complicated.'
'Give me the short version, Peter; I've got a long day ahead of me,' Nathan
grumbled and began to shave as Peter laid out an abridged version of what
Hiro and Ando had told him the previous day.
Nathan listened intently, cut himself twice, and decided to wait until
he got off the phone to finish shaving as Peter spoke. Nathan was
silent through the whole telling, and he gradually felt more and more
uneasy. He had accepted what his mother had told him regarding Hiro,
Peter, Sylar, and the bomb but some part of him had remained
skeptical. The idea that his mother had prophetic dreams had, on some
level, seemed absurd. Now that Peter was essentially repeating what
his mother had told him, however...
'...so they've been here with me while we wait to hear from Mohinder,'
Peter finished.
'They're with you now, then? At your apartment?'
'Yeah, sleeping I think. Look, Nathan, if we can find Sylar and stop
him then the dreams I've been having, the future that Hiro went
to...none of it will come true,' Peter said excitedly.
'None of it will come to pass,' Nathan said quietly and thought of the
painting of the oval office. 'The explosion, you're sure its Sylar?
Its not you?'
'According to Isaac's comic, yeah, its Sylar,' Peter said. 'Its vague
on a lot of stuff, but not that.'
'Great,' Nathan said, trying to sound optimistic and failing
miserably. 'Tell you what, Peter, this is important, what you're
telling me. I need to meet with you; we need to discuss it. Can you
meet me at the Gotham City Cafe in thirty minutes?'
'Thirty minutes?' Peter glanced at his clock and frowned at the early
hour, but agreed anyway. 'Yeah, sure, I'll be there. I'll bring Hiro
and Ando, too; they can explain things better than I can.'
'No, no,' Nathan said quickly. 'From what you've said they've been
through a lot; they're probably exhausted. Let them sleep; they'll be
fine at your place.'
'Yeah. Yeah, you're right.' Peter shifted the phone to his other ear
and walked over to his closet to get dressed. 'I'll see you at the
Gotham City Cafe in half an hour, then.'
'Right. See you then, Peter,' Nathan said then hung up.
He picked up his razor and finished shaving, then rinsed his face and
brushed his teeth. Once he had finished, he picked up his phone once
again and stared at it. For one wavering moment he thought about
calling Kimiko and telling her what he'd just learned; they had
exchanged numbers without the knowledge of their parents and Kimiko
had begged Nathan to call her if he had a change of heart. She could
help him, she'd said.
Nathan dismissed the notion. He had a responsibility to take care of
his family, his home, and his country. By getting elected to Congress,
by becoming President he could do all of that. He liked Kimiko, but
she was from a foreign country on the other side of the world and
couldn't possibly understand Nathan's responsibilities.
Frowning to himself Nathan punched in a phone number and listened to it ring.
'Mr. Linderman,' he said when the other end was picked up, 'we have a
problem.'
November 3, 6:58 a.m.
Ando woke to somebody annoyingly shaking him by the shoulder.
Grumbling to himself he opened his eyes and forced them to focus on
Peter Petrelli, who was just zipping up his jacket. Ando blinked at
him, then looked at Hiro who was still sleeping and doing his very
best to invade Ando's side of the bed. Ando touched Hiro's shoulder,
ready to wake him, but Peter spoke up.
'Don't wake him. I just wanted to let you know I'm going out.'
'Mohinder call?' Ando asked with a yawn and raised himself up on his
elbows so he could see the empath better.
'Nah, my brother. He's like us...well,' Peter said after a brief
pause, 'like Hiro and me.'
Ando nodded. 'He has power.'
'Yeah, though he'd deny it if you asked him. Nathan isn't real big on
the hero thing,' Peter said with a wry smile.
'Anyway, he wants to meet with me. We need to talk about some things.
You guys stay here; if Mohinder calls, call my cell and let me know,'
Peter said as he went for the door. 'I'll lock it behind me,' he added
and slipped out, shutting the door firmly behind him.
Ando watched the closed door and laid back when he heard the lock
click into place.
'Nathan Petrelli...' he murmured to himself. The name sounded familiar
but for the life of him Ando couldn't place it. He was tired and Hiro
had twined himself even more tightly around Ando's body. Yawning
again, Ando tucked his arm around Hiro's shoulders and closed his
eyes. He was back asleep within moments.
November 3, 7:10 a.m.
Claude Raines inhaled deeply and tried very hard not to drool as a
young waiter set his breakfast down on the table. Across from him,
Kimiko noticed his expression and giggled silently to herself. Kaito
simply watched, his face an unreadable mask as usual.
The hotel dining room was fairly crowded, especially for a weekday
morning. Although Kaito hadn't said a word about it, Claude was fairly
certain that a good number of the patrons were employees of Yamagato,
watching out for their CEO and Vice President. Still, if Kaito wanted
to give off the impression that he was being unthreatening and
generous Claude was inclined to let him, especially since it got him a
free well cooked meal.
'Have you given thought to my proposal?' Kaito said mildly just as
Claude dug into his breakfast.
Claude took his sweet time replying, chewing his foot slowly and
savoring each and every flavor. Finally he swallowed and looked Kaito
in the eyes.
'I did,' Claude said simply and took a long swing of orange juice.
When he didn't elaborate further, Kaito frowned at him.
'And?' he prompted.
'And I still don't trust you,' Claude continued. 'But for whatever
reason you've kept Carrie safe and whole. The company I worked for
would have had her torn apart and slowly put back together again, not
at a good private school happy as a clam. So obviously you've split
from Primatech and that lot. The question is why.'
'I have my own reasons,' Kaito said as Claude took another bite.
'Oh, I'm sure you do,' Claude answered as he chewed. 'I'm also sure
that you aren't going to tell me what they are; nobody gives straight
answers in this godforsaken age...'
'I'm glad you understand,' Kaito said with a small smile.
Claude took another sip of his orange juice. 'I want you to know that
I vowed to never hunt one of my own again and I intend to keep that
vow. I'm not saying I'll work for you, but I will help you out with a
few things. I'll leave it to you to prove how trustworthy you are.'
Kaito bowed his head slightly in Claude's direction, accepting the
invisible man's challenge.
'Please, Mr. Raines, tell us what you know,' Kimiko said in her soft voice.
Claude raised an eyebrow at her. 'Darlin', none of this "Mr." crap; it
makes me feel like a bloody creepy uncle. Its Claude or nothing. And I
know quite a bit that I'm not ready to divulge at the moment.' He
smiled. 'But I can and will tell you where your kid brother is hiding
out at the moment.'
'Can you tell us how to get there?' Kimiko asked.
'Oh, I'll do better than that,' Claude said. 'I'll take you there myself.'