Sophia was just lowering her gun and letting the satisfying jerk from the recoil even it's way out through her limbs when the first sign of a stir happened from the body in front of her.
"Got a little brave there in the end eh, McCulloch?"
Trevor used the sound of her voice to assure himself that the pain in his chest at least wasn't coming from a lodged Desert Eagle bullet. The gun was now laying in his lap.
"You had me scared there for a moment." He picked up the gun between his index and thumb and placed it on the ground like an exploding dirty diaper next to the bloodied body of the owner. "I don't think I would have been quite as bold if I would have know you were going to take your time pulling the trigger."
"Would you've rather I hit you?"
"No." Trevor felt the same looking at his father dead that he did looking at him alive: Nothing. A little of what he thought might have been pity dissolved as he stepped across his body like a fresh roadkill victim and lean down to observe it much like one as well. "I don't think I've seen my father for nearly 5 years but even before then, he was a tyrant. His rule was just limited to me and my mother. We always knew he would snap one day—the SOPS just sped up the process."
"Sounds like a nut case."
"A nut case would have been a joy to live with," Trevor said, "My father was an abomination, crafted and cultivated by the military."
"Were you going to kill him? Is that why you went along with all of this?"
"No, but I knew that if he made enough noise that the government would quiet him. I went along with it to help Hal."
"That's a pretty big risk for someone you'd never met before."
Trevor looked at Sophia and smiled, "You sound surprised."
"Well, I can't say I exactly pegged for you as the 'selfless hero' type."
"I'm not a hero. I'm just someone who didn't want to see a little girl lose the closest thing to a father she's got. I know what it's like to lose someone you love." Trevor stood up. "Don't expect me to thank you or anything."
"Oh, I wasn't," she admitted, "especially not after I tell you you have to find your own way off the mountain."
"That's the least of my problems. I'm just happy I get a chance to leave."
"They only wanted Rhino and his band of brainwashed misfits. I think their idea was to kill the head so that the tail would die."
"Was it their idea to to have you spend nearly half a year pretending to be one of those brainwashed misfits?"
Sophia genuinely smiled for the first time since he had known her and shook her head. Trevor caught a glimmer of newfound intrigue in himself at the way her face effortlessly softened and glowed between the black framing of her hair. "Well, it certainly wasn't mine. When the higher ups at the camp saw your father putting together his own little army, they slipped me in as a SOPS victim and gave me a resume that made sure Rhino would want me to join the party."
"You're not a torture specialist, then."
"I'm afraid not." Suddenly, she frowned. "I'm not proud of what I did to Dr. Emmerich but I had to make him fear me as much as he did the other guys and I didn't want to hurt him. I got a friend of mine at the Pentagon to dig up up something on Hal I could use and..." She sighed, "It was the best I felt I could do without doing physical harm."
"Did the boys in Washington tell you to do that as well?"
She crossed her arms in front of her. "You know, I didn't get a handbook on how Washington wanted me to handle this. I could have blown the whole place months ago if I wanted to and had people covering my ass so fast I would have wondered myself if it all had been a dream. They wouldn't have cared about you or Dr. Emmerich...just as long as Rhino's dead body was in the ruble after the smoke cleared. You're not the only one who knew about Sunny Gurlukovich, Trevor. Despite what I'm sure you believe, I'm not heartless."
"So, you thought I was worth saving, then?"
She rolled her eyes at the charm she knew he felt he possessed over her. "No, Trevor. You just weren't worth killing either."
They both paused to look out the window up at the chopper rising off the ground halting in a brief, decisive hover in the air. Trevor got a warm rush that he couldn't help but let take the form of a smile.
"So, what are you going to do now, Trevor? Everyone is dead. Snake took care of Jonas and company on his way to rescue Hal. It's looks like you're free."
"First, I'm going to find a good therapist back in the States." He looked back to the window. The chopper was now steadily becoming a speck, traveling further away cross the sky toward what Trevor hoped could be a new start for Hal. "And then...I'm just going to live and hope it's not too late for Hal to do the same."
Be on the look out for "Where Does the Good Go?" the third and final installment in the "Sorry, Angel" trilogy!