Chapter 24: Building Blocks
Noah Bennett killed the engine barely from a mile from the company's secure facility, but far enough not to be picked out by the cameras. No matter what abilities did Claire have or use, she did not belong behind bars. Unfortunately that meant that his current goal was identical to that of the killer's and that was to get her out of there as soon as possible. He glanced over to the passenger seat. Sylar, weirdly, looked a little more blench than he would have wanted him to be at this moment. When at his best, Noah would have been perfectly confident Sylar could take on the whole establishment and come out victorious, but today wasn't one of those days. "Are you set? Do you need any help?"
"That lift at the ready for us to escape in. Remain parking here. There's no need for them to know you were involved, just like you want it," Sylar clicked his door open and paused leaning on the frame for several seconds before straightening up.
Noah rolled his eyes. The way he was stopping and starting, it was doubtful the killer would be able to walk a mile, not to mention rescue Claire. But then he seemed to have picked up speed, was running and became concealed by the bushes.
The apprehensive father has set himself the time frame of half an hour. He shouldn't really start worrying before that. But it was a mere ten minutes before the explosions started, lighting up the sky in an unnatural, but very familiar blue light. He pulled off the curb and onto the green, trying to remain inconspicuous as emergency services rushed past him. Noah was too nervous to stay in his car though. Thankfully he had spotted them soon, two clumsy figures supporting each other as they ran, one recently doped so that she could be contained, the other barely out from under their self induced influence. He jumped to offer his arms to his daughter, relieving the weight on Sylar's shoulders, but otherwise majorly disregarding his existence or his need for a rest. In mad, forced animation, it was only after the fugitives were sitting in the back of the car and they were back on the highway without being chased that either of them said a word.
"Sylar, I've got it," Claire showed up some bits of paper with drawings of chemical elements blithely, "the composition of the inhibiting formula in pure form. I was right!! It was Mohinder's little twisted game to add elements that would make people ill."
"It was Angela's actually," Noah intercepted. The cat was out the bag anyway.
Claire gave him a miffed look, but didn't comment, "anyway, there's no reason we could not manufacture it ourselves without the side effects. I mean you do understand what those letters and lines all mean, don't you?"
"Well, I do have a mental image how the atoms should look like," Sylar granted, "it should be easy from there."
"Noah all right?" Claire asked, looking from one to the other.
"He wasn't too upset when I left," Sylar supplied, "cause I told him I'm going to get mommy."
"Thank you for doing this for us, dad," Claire squeezed Noah's shoulder from the back.
He pursed his lips. He had chosen her again and there will be some people who might not be all too happy about it. "What now, Claire bear?"
"We get Noah and go to the airport."
tbc