Marc maneuvered the pick-up onto the highway and settled into the fast lane. Once there, he stole another glance at Jake, who continued staring out the window without moving or making a sound. Twice Marc made a move to turn on the radio, and stopped himself. Finally, he worked up the nerve to ask Jake, "You mind if I turn this on?" Jake glanced over, shrugged slightly, and turned back to his window. Taking that as tacit approval, Marc turned on the radio, switching stations 'til he found one he liked. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel in time to the song, but soon grew uneasy with Jake sitting silently beside him. When "Love Me Always" came on, Marc made a less-than-polite noise with his mouth and switched the radio off.
After a few seconds in silence, Marc glanced over at Jake again. "Did you want to...talk?"
Jake glanced back at Marc, then shook his head once. "No."
"You sure?"
After a pause, Jake said, "Look, it's a long story."
Marc pointed at a sign as they passed it. "Selinda - 94 miles", it read. "Looks like we've got time," noted Marc.
"Marc, no," said Jake, a bit too sharply. Realizing what that must have sounded like, Jake said, "Sorry. I...look. For the last few years, Chance and I haven't told anybody anything about anything. For survival."
"Understood."
"So I have a hard time just saying, OK, this guy's cool, I can tell him everything. Even if you are."
Shrugging, Marc said, "That's cool."
"I mean, heck, I don't know anything about you."
"I don't have any secrets," said Marc, a bit defensively. "What do you want to know?"
Jake sighed. "Nothing. I guess. Never mind." He resumed looking out the window, but soon spoke again. "I guess I should at least give you the overview. In all your...research, did you find out why we're at the salvage yard?"
"Yeah. Something about damage to Enforcers HQ."
"Yeah, I'm sure the official report said we hot-dogged our planes into it."
"You didn't?"
Jake turned to face Marc, arms crossed. "If we were such hot dogs, would we still have a TurboKat to fly?"
"Hm. Point taken."
"Chance an' me had DarkKat in our sights, and Feral tried to call us off. He wanted the glory for himself, as usual. We ended up bumping wings, and down we came." Jake grinned, slightly. "So now we're mechanics, paying off the world's largest debt."
"Bummer."
"You bet, bummer. But, y'know, at least they unwittingly gave us access to the materials and everything to build the TurboKat. Anyway, my father...Retired Lt Col Clawson..."
"Ouch."
"Yeah, ouch. Let's just say he wasn't too pleased with our reassignment. He sort of..."
"Disowned you?" offered Marc.
"Nnnooo," said Jake, uncertainly. "Not really. But we don't talk anymore. I talk to my mother and my sister, but all sort of behind my father's back."
"They're cool with you being a Swat Kat?"
Jake snorted. "You kidding? They don't know."
Marc glanced over at Jake. "What?"
"They'd be worried sick."
"You mean, you haven't even told your mother about this?" asked Marc incredulously.
"Look. When Chance and me started this, we had no idea who we could trust, so we decided we weren't going to trust anybody. We figured if our family didn't know, there was no way they'd be put in jeopardy for knowing. The last thing we wanted was to have Dark Kat or someone take my mom hostage. So nobody knows."
Marc stared at the road for a while and thought. "So the only one who does know..." he said quietly.
"Is you," finished Jake. "Congratulations. Feel special?"
After a short pause, Marc shrugged. "A bit too special," he mumbled.
"What was that?"
"It's...see, I never thought of it like...ah, skip it."
"No, what?"
Marc tapped his fingers on the steering wheel for a minute, trying to organize his thoughts. "When I saw you guys on TV, kicking monster tail from here to next Sunday, I thought, you know, cool. I understood what you were doing - flying under the radar, so to speak, to get something done that really needed to be done. Curiosity eventually got the best of me, so I did some digging to find out who you were. But it was just for me, you know? I sort of laughed in my sleeve, but that's it."
"Never even told your mother?" said Jake, with a small smirk.
Marc knew a slam when he heard one, but he was happy Jake was at least talking again. Glancing over at Jake and smiling, Marc said, "Mom's not a fan of yours. But I guess that's the way with secrets. For some reason, I feel like I should be...y'know, like the last person in line for them. I desperately want to know, but then I feel nobody else should know."
"That's probably true of lots of kats."
"Yeah, I guess. So, no, I didn't tell anyone. Anyway, when I saw your want ad, I thought, hey, here's a way I can help out. I thought about it, and figured whoever you hired had to be in on it..."
"Exactly."
"And so I brought that little bit to the table, and now...I dunno. I guessed I thought you'd be grateful at what I could do."
"We are," said Jake, a bit miffed.
"Yeah, I know, but I never really thought about how...I was intruding into your lives. Sort of forcing your confidence. Sorry about that."
Jake sighed. "Well, like you said, we were going to have to let someone in - may as well be someone who already knew, right?"
"It's kinda surprising no one else has found out."
"Yeah, that's what I told Chance."
"Maybe everyone likes what you do, and they're scared of messing up a good thing."
"Not everyone's a Swat Kat fan," Jake pointed out. "You think Dark Kat would have access to the same information you do, and it's not like he's slow on the uptake."
"Hm." Marc considered this information for a minute. "Well, I'd like to think this makes me smarter than him. But I guess all you can do is hope he doesn't come a-knockin'."
"Well, just so you know why it looks like we're not getting a lot of sleep."
They sat in silence for a minute, then Marc hazarded starting the conversation again. "So, just your parents and your sister. She younger than you?"
Jake shook his head. "Older. Got an older brother, too - Leon. We...never got along."
"Oh?"
"He sort of...well, it's hard to explain. My father never exactly told us that he expected both his sons to become Enforcers, but the idea was still sort of...there. Unspoken, y'know? But Leon wasn't really cut out to be an Enforcer. He went into advertising. My father never said much, but I knew he was kind of..."
Jake paused, and Marc hazarded, "Disappointed?"
"Well, I guess. He didn't exactly say, 'You should have been an Enforcer', but he was never really all that impressed with what Leon did. And Leon's done real good for himself - he's got his own agency, he's married, house in the suburbs, whole deal. No kits yet, but I'm sure they're coming. I used to feel bad for him, though, 'cause my father never really seemed to appreciate how well he's done. I sort of ended up the default favorite son, just because I actually went through with the Enforcers training."
"You mean, you joined the Enforcers just because your father wanted you to?"
"Oh, heck, no. I always wanted to be an Enforcer. Chance and me...heck, we were playing Enforcers in our backyards ever since I can remember." Jake paused, thinking of the wooden "guns" he and Chance had made way back when. "But once we got kicked out, my father sort of transferred his allegiance over toward Leon. I guess he figures Leon might not be an Enforcer, but at least he's not a failure." Sighing, Jake added, "Actually, that was sort of the silver lining of the whole thing. Leon's done really well, and at least my father appreciates that now. But now Leon acts...superior. Like he's laughing at me for not doing as well as he has."
"It's not a race," pointed out Marc.
"It is to him."
"Is your sister married?"
"Kate? Nah. She should be, though - she'll make someone a kick-ass wife." Jake smiled a bit for the first time since that afternoon. "You seeing anyone?"
Marc looked uncomfortable. "Um, kinda."
Jake glanced over at him. He really doubted that last statement was true, but he decided to let him have his little fantasy.