He hadn't remembered sticking the blue rose in this pocket but when he took it in his hand, he immediately smiled and wondered how his angel was making out so far. On his end, the hour in the cab had passed by in a slow numb. The steady blurring flow of tree trunks, overgrown grass, and white lines on the tarmac hypnotized him into a quiet existence in the backseat of the vehicle. His transfixion only broke when the silence was interrupted in the casual crackling outbursts from the transceiver radio near his driver.

"So, business trip?"

Hal peered up into the rear view mirror and saw the man's eyes wide and green with the anticipation of an answer to his question. His voice was warm but touched with the brash volume of a seasoned fisherman. Hal guessed that had developed over his years as a cab driver.

"I guess you could say that."

"Not a very good one I gather. You don't look like a man who's about to close a big deal with a client."

"No, it's nothing like that."

The man raised an eye brow and nodded to himself.

"Ahh. I know that look now. You're wearing the expression of a man with a broken heart. You leaving someone you love behind?"

Hal looked amused and slightly impressed.

"Yeah. I am, actually. I didn't think it was that obvious."

"Beautiful, I bet she is. Wife or girlfriend," he smiled, "or mistress?"

"None of the above, actually. A little girl. My little girl."

"Of course. That certainly does explain a lot, Mr..."

"Emmerich," he said reaching across to shake the man's awkwardly offered hand that he had extended over the headrest of his seat to him, "But, you can call me Hal."

"Jonas McCready, Hal. I have a little girl myself. About eight."

"Well, she's not exactly my daughter. It's actually a very long story but that's about how old Sunny is. In a few weeks, anyway. I don't even know what I'm going to get her for her birthday."

"You carry the pride of a dad if I've ever saw it. Could have fooled me."

Hal smile and touched the petals of the rose in his hand again. "Well, I don't have any children of my own but she's my little, tiny everything."

"I can believe it. I haven't known you very long, Hal, but I'd say she's a gem to her generation if she's anything like you."

"I sure hope she's not. The world doesn't need another gullible, over sensitive fool in it."

Jonas took off his cap and ran his hand over his brown locks once before reattaching it to his head and easing the cab into a right turn.

"I almost feel like you're holding up a mirror, Hal! I don't know what I'd do if my little Ani ended up anything like me."

"I think you should give yourself a little credit, Jonas. You don't seem like such a bad guy."

"Boy, I sure do appreciate you saying that, Hal." Jonas' eyes narrowed slightly in a smile that Hal couldn't see but knew was forming. "Say, you don't mind if we take a short cut, do you?"

"I'm going after him! It's just been a little over an hour. I can catch up with them."

Sunny watched Snake pace a path of wear and frustration into the carpet as Mei Ling's eyes followed him via the video feed on the computer screen.

"Snake, I know you're upset but you have to be rational. Hal could be on a plane going anywhere in the world right now."

"But what if he's not? What if they have him on the ground still? I'm wasting time by not doing nothing, Mei Ling!"

"The possible directions they could have taken him in—even on the ground—are endless. His nanos have been knocked offline, you'd be crazy to go into this completely blind. You're too sick, Snake. If you run out there without any kind of direction or clue as to where you're going, you'll kill yourself. If this was five years ago, I wouldn't be worried but these guys clearly have more power than we thought so we're going to have to know every step we take and consider all the possibilities."

"Like the possibility that he could already be dead?"

Mei Ling shared a short glance with Sunny to check her reaction and looked back at Snake. "Yes, Snake. Even that one. But, I don't think these guys want to kill him. From what I could gather from their files, most of them specialized in some sort of torture techniques in their branches of the military—physical, psychological. People like that see killing as a way to end one's suffering. Maybe it's not the most comforting thing in the world right now but it gives us some kind of hope."

Sunny jumped when Snake drove his fist into a wall. "Damnit! I should have tried harder to stop him. I knew something was strange about this. But he's so damn naïve..."

"Snake, you can't blame yourself." Mei Ling said. "That's when things start to unravel and we can't afford that right now."

"I should have protected him."

Mei Ling sighed and shook her head. "I'm afraid I can't do anything more right now from where I am. I'll catch a flight out first thing tomorrow and join you and Sunny. Snake," she called and he looked back at the screen, "we're going to bring him back alive. There is no other option for me."

The screen went black when the feed ended and almost immediately, Snake left the room. Sunny barely waited for the silence to settle before she felt the need to follow in the direction she had seen him go in.

"Snake...what are you doing?"

He holstered a hefty handgun into his belt in the front and pulled his shirt back down over it.

"I'm going after Hal myself. I can't wait around like this."

"But, Mei Ling said--"

"I don't give a damn what Mei Ling said! Hal is out there and he's in trouble."

Snake twisted the blade of a knife around the light of the room and quickly re-cased it into the holder on his side. He moved past Sunny on his way to the front door and she ran to jump in his path. She extended her arms outwards and grounded herself with the stance of barricade.

"Sunny..."

"You're still sick, Snake."

"I feel fine!"

"I think you should wait until Mei Ling gets here. She said it would be really dangerous by yourself."

"By the time Mei Ling gets here, it could be too late for Hal."

Sunny's arms fell slack as the weight of the thought fell on her but when Snake tried to work his way around her, she moved quickly and blocked him again.

"Sunny, move!"

She flinched slightly at the growl in his voice but continued to stand her ground. "I'm not letting you go."

"This is ridiculous--"

"I don't want anything to happen to you, too."

"I don't have a future...but Hal does. You both do. I need to bring him back alive. After that, it doesn't matter what happens to me."

"It matters to me, Snake." Sunny held her gaze with Snake until he silently retreated like a lion calling off a hunt. She didn't drop her guard until he was out of the room all together. She fell back into the chair in the living room, finally feeling the full weight of the situation pin her down in a teary crystallization. "I'm sorry, Uncle Hal."