Chapter 28

The next morning, Bennet awoke with a little bit of dread. Elle and Sylar had revised the plan for what she claimed was the last time. She was sure that they could manipulate the situation to make this day the perfect day to move. Nathan had a tentative meeting scheduled with the President for that afternoon, and they needed Danko out of the way before that meeting occurred. Bennet felt that while their plan might look good on paper, there were far too many things that could go wrong.

He also felt that this plan put far too much faith in Sylar. Before it had only been Bennet who was put in danger, and Bennet could handle it. But with this new addition of Harper's ability, other people, evolved humans, were being compromised. Looking at the big picture, Bennet could see how it was necessary to the plan for Danko to witness a little technopathy, and he could see why for timing reasons, it would be better if the technopath was actually there. And in order to do that, Rebel had to be there to keep the kid of being detected. It all was justified by the plan, but it also meant that there would be two people there with incredibly useful abilities that Sylar did not yet have. It was just interesting to Bennet how Sylar had worked that out.

When Bennet got to work, he saw Harper and "Donner" conversing in a corner of the command center. He did not know what Sylar was saying to the other man, but somehow he had gotten Harper to take out his phone and look intently at it. Trying to look at the situation from Danko's perspective, it could easily look like Harper was showing off a technopathic ability.

It was difficult for Sylar to concentrate on work when he knew that there was a very good chance this entire program would be shut down by this time tomorrow. Once he had talked to Harper that morning, there was nothing for him to do but to wait for Rebel and the technopath. Elle had made him promise that he would leave the technopath alone because, according to her, he was just a kid and his ability did not afford him any real defenses in a fight. Sylar had agreed, but he felt that eventually this whole promising not to kill people thing was going to become a problem for them.

A couple hours after Sylar talked to Harper, he got a text message from Bennet, signaling that Rebel and the technopath had been let into the building. He got up from his desk and went to Danko.

Danko did not look particularly happy to see him. He seemed to be just a little nervous, but it was hard to tell with Danko. Sylar realized that this was the first time they had talked since Sylar went home to see Elle. He supposed that explained it. He crossed his arms and pretended not to notice. "So Harper's a technopath. I'm guessing you already suspected that. It was good guess. Working with Rebel, probably has an ability."

Danko nodded absently. He did not show any visible relief, but Sylar could imagine it was there. "You're sure? You saw him do this?"

"Yeah, but I mean I could get him to do it again if you want to be sure." He pretended to think about that for a moment. "I'll ask him to delete someone from the server, say it's an old friend of Elle's. Watch us, watch the network, and you'll see that uh..." He paused to pull a name out of thin air. "...Penkala Burton has disappeared."

Danko got up from his desk and looked over the main room. It was obvious that he wanted to see it. If that was an option, why would he want to take Sylar's admittedly unreliable word for it? He turned around, taking a deep breath. "What ability did you tell him you have?"

"Telekinesis."

Danko did not like that. "Why would you chose one that is so strongly linked to you?"

When Sylar stopped to realize that he was not actually going to tell Harper anything like that, he told Elle she could stop thinking about it. But she insisted that they needed to have every detail clear in their minds. She wrote out a list of his abilities and went through each one to determine which was the best for Donner to have. Now Sylar was glad she had done that. "He's seen Donner get hurt before, so healing's out. If Donner had alchemy, why would he live like that?" He borrowed Elle's exact words with that. "I initially rejected it for the exact reason you just said, but I'm not the only person out there with telekinesis, and he has no reason to suspect that I'm Sylar."

He seemed satisfied by that answer. He nodded. "You can get him to do it right now? Use his ability?"

"I believe so." Sylar feigned concern. "You're not going to do anything, are you? This is about Rebel."

Danko got annoyed by this. "I'm aware of that. Just make him do it."

Sylar gave a sarcastic salute and went out of Danko's office. He headed directly to Harper's desk and leaned over the other man's shoulder. He did not say anything; he just sighed, and this caused Harper to turn around, alarmed. "What's going on?" Harper asked.

Sylar sighed again and closed his eyes briefly. "He's lost it. He... he's convinced that you're one of them."

Harper looked at Danko's office. Sylar followed his eyes to see Danko at the window looking down at them in a creepy way. Sylar almost smirked at how well that was working out, but instead he shook his head slowly. "No, don't look at him. Look at the computer screen or something."

Harper quickly obeyed, and Sylar pushed a little more. "Put your hands over the keyboard," he whispered. "Pretend like you're working. I'm risking a lot by talking to you with him watching. Can we at least pretend that this is not about him?"

Harper nodded. "What are we going to do?"

"Okay, first, Kent, I need you to assure me that you're not one of them. I don't know where this is coming from, but if there is any chance that it's true..."

"No, it's not true!" Harper hissed.

Sylar was trying to stall to give the technopath time to do his thing. It did not really matter what he said. "Sorry. I had to ask. I'm going to talk him down, I'm sure that he's not going to do any--" The door to Danko's office opened and Sylar turned his head to look in that direction. Bennet was going into the office, which meant that the technopathy was done. Sylar watched them for a little while longer, and then he looked back at Harper. "He's distracted. Maybe you should... get yourself put on a mission. Just get away from him while he's busy with Bennet."

"Are you sure you're not overreacting?"

Sylar gave a half chuckle. "Overreacting? He thinks you're one of them. He just had me up in his office coming up with these crazy ideas about how I could draw it out of you by telling you that I'm one too. He's been ranting, and half the time he does not even make sense. I don't want to think that you're in danger, that any of us are in danger, but I don't know what to think anymore."

Bennet left the office, with Danko following behind him. It was showtime. Sylar and Elle had discussed how this next part would work, and Sylar swore that he could do it, but he had actually never pulled anything like what he was about to do. They knew that there was nothing they could do to get Danko to pull a gun on Harper of his own volition, so they were going to need to simulate it.

Bennet walked past Harper and Sylar, but Danko slowly came to a stop, His last step was abrupt, but Sylar was pretty sure it worked. He held Danko's lips shut together so that the other man could not speak and give away that he was out of control. Sylar could see the panic in his eyes, but to anyone else they could just as easily be crazed. Bennet kept walking as though he did not notice that Danko was no longer behind him.

The next part was a little tricky; Sylar had to hold Danko's feet and mouth, while simultaneously forcing Danko's arm to fluidly reach into his holster and pull out his gun, and he had to do all of that without looking like he was concentrating. As soon as he had the gun pointing at Harper, Sylar came around the desk and pushed Danko's arm down. "Don't do this, man." He put an arm around Danko's shoulder, and releasing his feet but not his mouth, guided Danko out into the hall. When they were out of earshot, Sylar allowed Danko to speak again.

"What was that?" Danko asked. "Did you do that to me?"

"No," Sylar continued to guide him into a room where Bennet was waiting. "It was like you were in a trance. I've never seen anything like that." With a little force he wrested the gun away from Danko and handed it to Bennet.

Danko seemed to realize just how wrong things were a moment too late. Bennet popped Sylar twice in the chest with Danko's gun. Sylar fell backward, holding the bullets inside him and forcing himself not to heal.

"What the--"

Bennet did not let Danko finish. He punched his colleague in the face, probably enjoying it a little too much. When Danko when down, Bennet crouched to the floor and dropped the gun, so that it would look like he was picking it up just as the other agents were responding to the sound of shots fired. He looked up into the face of the first agent to enter the room, Taub. "He shot Donner. I think he's dead."

Taub went over to check Donner for a pulse, and Bennet held his breath because he was not sure if Sylar would be able to literally stop his heart from beating. Danko got up to his feet. "I didn't shoot Donner. He did."

Bennet pushed himself up to a standing position as well. "Why would I shoot Donner?"

"He's dead," Taub said thickly.

"What? No, he can't be dead." Danko looked down at Donner's apparently dead body. He kicked it gently. "Get up." When Donner did not move, he kicked it harder. "Get up!" There was still no movement from the body, and Danko ran his hands over the top of his head. "They set me up. The two of them were in on it together."

Another agent, one whose name Bennet did not even know, spoke up. "You think Donner had Bennet kill him, just to set you up?"

Taub pulled Danko's arms behind his back. "We all saw you pull a gun on Harper. Or maybe it was really Donner you were threatening."

As they dragged him out of the room, Bennet could hear Danko saying that wasn't Donner in there, and Harper, he's one of them. He got into the computer; Danko saw him. He sounded completely insane. Alone in the room with Sylar, Bennet crouched down. "I have to admit, that was a better plan than I thought." Taking a switchblade out of his pocket, he turned Sylar's head and plunged the knife in.

Nathan understood that the President was a very busy man, and he knew that he was fortunate to get this meeting on less than twenty-four hours notice. The President had scheduled Nathan in during his travel time from one place to the next. Nathan got into the limousine and shook the President's hand.

The President did not waste any time on small talk. "What is going on with your people down there, Petrelli? I just heard that Danko shot one of his men after threatening another with a gun."

Nathan was aware that there was a broad plan in place to make Danko look unstable, but that sounded really extreme. He wondered who had been shot. "Well, no offense, Mr. President, but Danko was not one of my people. You're the one who brought him in for this project, and I have never agreed with his methods."

The President raised his eyebrows. "And so you just abandoned the project? Where have you been for the last week?"

"I was forced out by Danko. He accused me of being compromised. He even claimed to have proof that I am one of those people. He pulled a gun on me and threatened my children." Nathan was purposefully vague about his illegitimate daughter. That was not the kind of information that should be volunteered too casually, especially to politicians, be they allies or opponents, and especially when his political capital was running a little low. "I've been making sure they were safe. What you're saying about Danko now... I haven't been to the building yet, and I haven't heard about the shooting, but it does not surprise me. I scheduled this meeting to tell you that Danko is out of control and to suggest that the whole project was broken. I guess now you can see that firsthand."

The President nodded thoughtfully. "And what do you suggest we do to fix it?"

Author's Note: I think there is only one more chapter.