Co-operating with the proper authorities wasn't really Tony's style. His main experience of such, in both the pre- and post-Iron-Man portions of his life, was of people trying to force him to do things he did not want to do, or to stop doing something he did want. Whenever possible, he tried to let other people deal with whatever authorities were intruding into his world – but now that was no longer an option. It was just him, Windham, Huang, and Agent Wheeler.
Tony had to admit that Wheeler seemed to have her priorities straight, but for all she insisted they were hurrying it still seemed to take an awfully long time to finish preparations. She wanted all three men to wear listening devices, in order that the FBI could overhear and record anything the kidnappers might say to them. Then she had to coach them on what they were allowed to say, as well as vetting their clothes and Tony's Land Rover. He could understand why all this might be important, but time was passing, with Jarvis' life in the balance.
Jarvis' life. Maybe it was just because he was nervous, but that phrase made Tony want to laugh out loud at the same time as his insides felt like the world had turned inside-out. He still hadn't quite come to terms with the implications of the argument earlier, but he had a good idea that once he got Jarvis back, the two of them were going to be walking on eggshells around each other for weeks while they sorted this out. That wouldn't be any fun, but it would help that they'd have his tactile hologram project to work on. At least they'd be busy.
He smiled to himself, remembering Pepper's face at the moment she'd understood what he was hoping to do. If Tony knew her, she'd probably gone through the notes he'd given her and then sat right down to start ordering the materials he would need. It would be nice, he thought, if he and Jarvis could finish the projector before Dr. Strange came back. The idea of the two of them physically building something together was surprisingly appealing. For the first time, Tony actually hoped that Dr. Strange wouldn't show, at least for a few more days.
Knowing that Pepper was off somewhere taking care of things the way she always did – and that Steve and however many 'friends' he managed to gather would be looking out for him during the ransom drop – went a long way towards making Tony feel as if this emergency would work out all right. Certainly it was a lot more encouraging than the presence of Huang.
Wheeler had told Huang to talk to the kidnappers as little as possible, and he'd been sitting at the other end of the room reading a magazine while Tony and Windham got their instructions. Tony was still sure he'd met Huang before, in a considerably more personal way than just a conference or trade show, but he just couldn't put a finger on where. It couldn't have been a good meeting, because Tony found himself unwilling to trust the man. There was just something off about him.
It was getting on for seven o'clock – inexcusably late, when they only had until midnight – when Agent Wheeler finally gave them the okay to go. The weather had soured around six, and the three men climbed into the Land Rover under darkening skies, with a chilly wind blowing in from the Pacific. Tony had insisted that if Windham got to choose the witness, he would provide the vehicle, and Windham had finally agreed, on the condition that he was allowed to drive it. He got in the front seat, and Tony tossed him the keys before climbing in the back next to Huang.
"Don't scratch the paint," Tony said. Windham did not reply.
The first rain began to speckle the windshield as they pulled out of the police station parking lot. Tony spotted Steve standing on a corner about a block away, as if waiting for a bus – he waved as they passed, just a pal wishing a pal good luck, and Tony waved back. On the way out of town, Tony kept his eyes open, looking for more familiar faces, but didn't see any. It didn't worry him: some of them were quite good at blending into crowds. That was a skill Tony had never mastered, although quite honestly, he'd never tried.
Soon they were on the Angeles Crest Highway, on their way up into the hills to the drop point. Tony watched the rainy world pass by the window, and thought that if he'd gotten nothing else out of this mess, he'd at least learned his lesson about keeping backups. He wondered what Dr. Strange was doing right now – and whether Strange knew what Tony was doing. Was the sorcerer sitting on a cloud somewhere, watching the whole thing and having a good laugh?
That reminded Tony of something. "Hey, Windham," he said.
"Stark," grunted Windham.
Tony licked his lips. "What the hell made you think Jarvis slept with your daughter? I mean, did she say he did?"
"No," said Windham, eyes on the wet road. "A father can tell these things, Stark."
"Uh-huh," said Tony. "It's just that I have a hard time imagining that Jarvis would..." he paused a moment, and decided not to finish that statement. He hoped that hadn't been what Dr. Strange had in mind when he'd said Jarvis needed a learning experience – although it would definitely qualify as one.
Now Windham glanced back. "Is he gay?"
"You know," Tony said, "I actually have no idea."
It was about eight thirty when they reached the rendezvous point – a bend in the hillside road with a sign proclaiming it to be a scenic lookout. The weather made it hard to tell how accurate this statement might be. It was raining in earnest now, and lightning was flickering over the mountains to the east. Tony decided to consider that a good thing: it might mean that help was indeed nearby if he ended up needing it. Windham pulled over, and the three men settled down under the sound of rain beating on metal to wait.
They waited. Ten minutes went by, then twenty. Windham leaned on the steering wheel, watching drops run down the windshield. Huang sat fidgeting and checking his watch repeatedly. Tony slouched in his seat, resisting the urge to do the same. The arc reactor glowed softly through his shirt in the darkness. They waited some more.
Eventually, Tony couldn't take the quiet any longer. "Huang?" he said.
"Yes, Mr. Stark?" Huang checked his watch again.
"As long as we're here," Tony said, "haven't you and I met somewhere before?"
Huang raised his head, surprised. "Yes, as a matter of fact, we have. It was in Taiwan. I hadn't thought you'd taken any notice of me."
"I probably didn't," Tony admitted, "otherwise I wouldn't have had to ask." He thought for a moment. "When was I in Taiwan?" He knew he'd been there more than once, but the only occasion he had clear memories of was when he'd dropped by as Iron Man to destroy a weapons cache that belonged to an anti-communist group calling themselves the Tian Ming.
"Somebody's coming," said Windham.
Tony sat up straight and turned in his seat to look. Somewhere behind them, a light source was growing brighter and brighter, until it finally became headlights on a low, dark vehicle. This came to a stop directly behind the Land Rover, but the lights stayed on. In the glare, it was impossible to tell what kind of car it was, or how many people were in it.
"Well." Tony unbuckled his seat belt. "This is it."
"That it is," Windham agreed.
"On three," Tony decided. "One... two... three!"
The three men opened the doors of the Land Rover and stepped out into the rainy twilight.
Huang stayed next to the Land Rover as Agent Wheeler had instructed him, while Tony and Windham slowly approached the other car, squinting in the bright light. They were halfway there when the headlights abruptly went out.
The sudden darkness left Tony nearly blind. His first reaction was to widen his stance and get ready to defend himself, but he was not attacked. Instead, he realized that the listening device threaded inside his clothing was warm, and getting warmer. As it became hot, he was forced to actually open his shirt and yank it out before it burned him – and when he looked back, he found Windham and Huang with their jackets open, having had to do the same. A moment later, the lights on the Land Rover flickered and died, leaving them now in near-complete darkness.
"What the hell was that?" Windham demanded.
"EMP," said Tony. "Probably to overload the bugs." The other vehicle had shut off so that its own electrical systems wouldn't take the same damage. That was clever...
"You are correct, Mr. Stark," said Huang.
The headlights of the other car came back on. Tony's eyes had begun to adjust to the dark, so this just blinded him all over again. After a moment of blinking, he was able to make out that two men had gotten out of the other vehicle – and that they were carrying guns. As they approached Tony and Windham from the front, Huang stepped up from behind. One of the goons tossed him a pair of handcuffs, which he proceeded to put on Windham.
"Huang!" Windham said. "What are you doing?"
"You said it yourself, Mr. Windham," Huang replied. "I am taking revenge." He clicked the cuffs closed, then was given another and came to put them on Tony. Tony decided not to resist, not yet. One thing he'd learned about bad guys was that they loved talking about themselves. Let Huang monologue, and they might just learn something.
Sure enough, he continued: "I'm well aware that you didn't send your daughter to reconcile with me, Mr. Windham. You sent her to find more evidence of your accusations."
"Actually..." Windham began, but Huang interrupted him again.
"And I can't risk you finding that evidence," he said. "Your technology has been very valuable to the Tian Ming. At least, those parts of your technology that Mr. Stark did not destroy when he paid me a visit in Taiwan."
Then Tony remembered: a man who'd run up to him at the Taiwanese weapons cache, screaming threats in half a dozen languages. There'd been a lot of machinery at the camp, some of it covered in tents or tarps and some just sitting out. At the time, Tony hadn't cared what was what, because he was pretty sure that a group dedicated to bringing down the government of the world's third biggest economy shouldn't have any of it. He hadn't looked twice at the man who'd approached him, either, other than to notice that he was extremely tall. He'd just pushed him over and gone about his business.
That had been months ago. Now Huang was clean, shaved, and dressed in a suit and tie instead of hiking gear. It was probably no wonder that Tony hadn't recognized him – but he kicked himself all the same.
"Where are you taking us?" demanded Windham, as the two goons blindfolded their captives and pushed them into the black car. "What's with all the cloak and dagger nonsense? If it's revenge you want, why not just shoot us right here?"
"Don't give him ideas, Balthazar," said Tony.
"Because I didn't come here to kill you," Huang replied. "I came here to finalize a weapons demonstration for my friends in Taiwan. You two are merely going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mr. Windham, Mr. Stark, it's been a pleasure."
The door thumped shut. The engine started. The car backed up, turned around, and began heading back down the Angeles Crest towards the city.
A lot of people would have considered this an appropriate time to start panicking, but not Tony. If he hadn't panicked over finding Jarvis naked in the driveway, he certainly wasn't going to panic over a little thing like being kidnapped by terrorists. He'd been there and done that, and had a very flashy chest-mounted souvenir. If they were going back to Los Angeles, it would take them at least half an hour to get there, so that was time in which Tony could think.
So Huang was planning to demonstrate a weapon for the Tian Ming... on US soil? How was he planning to get away with that? And he was putting Tony and Windham in the way of that test, because apparently that wouldn't look suspicious. Two powerful and wealthy businessmen dying in somebody's weapons demonstration wouldn't look suspicious. Right.
What had Huang and his buddies done with Jarvis and Miss Windham? The thought that they might have already killed them made Tony clench his fists and jaw and anger, not only at Huang but at Dr. Strange, too. Was that supposed to be Jarvis' learning experience? Sunburn, argument, and death? Then again, if Huang had some sort of magical plan to keep anyone from realizing that he'd murdered Tony and Windham, he'd hardly want to leave other bodies that could be traced to him. More likely he had Jarvis and Dido stashed away someplace where they, too, could be in the way of this demonstration.
Hopefully it would be the same place he was taking Tony and Windham. That would simplify matters.
"Well, Stark?" growled Windham.
"Huh?" asked Tony, turning towards the voice despite the fact that both men were blindfolded. "Well, what?"
"You're the superhero. Don't you have something in your bat utility belt to get us out of this?" Windham's voice was thick with sarcasm.
Tony could play, too. "Sorry," he said. "Agent Wheeler specifically forbid the bat utility belt. Anyway, you gotta earn the bat utility belt. This guy had a crummy monologue."
"A crummy what?" asked Windham.
"Monologue. The 'No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You To Die' speech. Huang's gets a three, and that's being generous. No detail. He's supposed to tell us what his evil plan is so we can escape and thwart it." If only these things were so simple.
Windham didn't sound impressed. "This is all a joke to you, isn't it, Stark?"
"You're the one who brought up bat utility belts," Tony reminded him.
"You're the one who claims to have taken personal responsibility for world peace!" Windham shot back, "and yet all you do is crack wise about it!"
"What's your blood pressure like, Windham?" asked Tony.
"Both of you," said a voice from the front seat, "be quiet." There was an ominous clicking sound.
Tony rolled his eyes, although there wasn't much point to doing so behind the blindfold. "Is that an actual gun?" he asked, "or do you have a foley guy under the seat?"
"Be quiet," the voice repeated.
They drove on in silence, and Tony got back to his thinking – but try as he might, he couldn't come up with anything that made sense of what Huang had said. What kind of weapon was he demonstrating that he thought he could get away with this? Tony was confident that he'd be able to do something about the weapon, whatever it was – just as long as he didn't have to find out the hard way. He was going to have to keep alert.
And if it did turn out that Jarvis was already dead? Tony felt something harden inside him: if that were the case, then he was going to find Huang and he would take the bastard apart piece by piece. Jarvis was supposed to be learning something about being human – getting ignored for two days and then being summarily executed because he'd gotten in some psychopath's way was not a learning experience. Tony had spent the first half of this week treating Jarvis like an embarrassing inconvenience when he should have been taking the time to help him learn. The thought that he might not even get a chance to make up for it made him furious.
Where the hell was Steve? Hadn't he promised he would have Tony's back?
The car wound its way back down the road out of the hills, and eventually Tony could hear traffic again – they must be back in the city. He tried to keep an ear out for anything that might tell him exactly where they were, but that was a faint hope at best. All he could make out were generic sounds of cars and people moving around, and the occasional siren. When they finally arrived somewhere and shut off the car engine, there were people talking in Chinese and vehicle doors opening and closing. The two goons helped Tony and Windham out of the car and escorted them into a building, amidst more noise. It sounded as if people were moving furniture or equipment.
They were taken down some stairs, surrounded by more clatter and much repetition of a phrase that Tony guessed was Mandarin for "excuse me!" Then they were on a level floor again and Dido's voice exclaimed, "Dad!"
"Sweetie!" Windham said.
"Sir!" called Jarvis.
"Doctor Scott!" said Tony promptly.
There wasn't really a silence – there were still too many people moving around and talking for that – but there was definitely a pause.
"Fuck you, Stark," said Windham.
"Good to see you, too, Sir," said Jarvis.
The handcuffs were unlocked and used to fix Tony's right hand to something, leaving his left free. That allowed him to pull off the blindfold and look around. They were in what looked like an old men's room or locker room in the basement of some building. He, Windham, Dido, and Jarvis were all handcuffed to an exposed pipe. In the rest of the room, men and women were cleaning up the last of their equipment and getting out.
"Right," said Tony, "who wants to bring me up to speed?"
"We're all going to die, thanks for asking," Dido said.
Tony nodded. "That's a start. Can you fill in the details?"
It was Jarvis who explained what they knew of Huang's plan: "Sir, I believe Mr. Huang has been developing a weaponized tsunami, under the cover of an undersea mining operation."
That was all Tony needed to hear. His eyes widened as the picture abruptly snapped into focus. "A tsunami! That's why he thinks he can get away with it!" Most people would simply assume it was a natural phenomenon. It would require some sort of underwater explosion to set it off, but explosives were necessary for mining, and... "even if somebody connects it with his mine, he can claim it was an accident." That was actually pretty impressive.
"I overheard two of his men discussing it in the car," said Jarvis. "The test will take place at four AM Pacific time, and the resulting wave will reach the California coastline at about noon."
"While we're chained up in this basement," Dido put in. "So we're either going to drown or else have the building fall down on top of us."
"Right," said Tony, "so it'll look like the kidnappers cleared out and left us here to die. What time is it?" He checked his watch. "Looks like ten-thirty. That doesn't give us a lot of time to work with. Let me think." This was a problem Tony could work with. He'd been in much worse messes: there wasn't even anybody guarding them here, and Steve and the gang were probably on their way. When they arrived, he was going to have some words for them about the delay.
"Sir," said Jarvis tentatively.
"Yeah?" asked Tony.
Jarvis swallowed. "Sir, I think I owe you an apology..."
"No, you don't," said Tony firmly. "It wasn't your fault."
"Sir," Jarvis sat again, but cut himself off with a yelp of pain as Dido suddenly kicked him.
"Stop calling him Sir!" she said. "What are you, his butler? I meant that much, you know. Quit your grovelling. Tony Stark doesn't deserve it!"
Jarvis clearly didn't know how to react to that, so Tony took over. "I mean it, too, Jarvis," he said. "You don't have to apologize. I deserved that. Having you around like this is kind of freaking me out, but that's not an excuse, and I'm gonna make it up to you," he promised. "I've got a project for us. It's a new hologram projector. I think I've worked out how to superimpose a shaped electric field. That'll make it seem solid, and it'll be fully interactive!" He saw Jarvis' expression change as he realized what Tony was planning to use it for, and couldn't help but smile. "Hopefully that'll keep me from mistaking you for lab equipment. What do you say, buddy?" He offered his free hand. "Friends again?"
"This is a good idea," said Dido. "We should all apologize."
Tony frowned at her. "All?"
"Yes!" She nodded emphatically. "I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to spend the last few hours of my life with people I'm mad at. I'll go first."
She took a deep breath. "Tony, I'm sorry about the way I acted when we were going out. I was manipulative and passive-aggressive. I should have done less whining and more thinking about whether the relationship was going anywhere, and maybe we wouldn't have hated each other so much at the end of it. And Dad," she turned to Balthazar, "I'm sorry I called you crazy. I really don't think you're well, and I want you to see a doctor, but I probably could be nicer about it. And Neddy... I already apologized to you, but i meant it, okay? I'm sorry you ended up here."
"Time out," said Tony. "Who's Neddy?" He looked at Jarvis for an explanation, but was unable to catch his eye, because at that moment Balthazar leaned into his way to put an arm around Dido's shoulders.
"It's all right, Sweetie," Windham said. "If we're apologizing, then I apologize for having you followed. I just don't want anything to happen to you. You're all I've got, you know!" This was actually surprisingly soft and heartfelt for Windham, and Tony was a little relieved when he ruined it a moment later by growling, "it's not as if it did a lick of good, anyway. Trust me, Dido, I'll make sure that detective never works again, not even flipping burgers! I'll see him begging in a cardboard box on..."
"Dad," said Dido.
"Right, sorry." Windham cleared his throat and looked awkwardly at Tony. "I guess I should apologize to you, too, Stark. I'm sorry I blamed you for this. I was jumping to conclusions. You too, uh, Ned." He nodded towards Jarvis. "I'm sorry for thinking you were a robot."
"That's quite all right, Mr. W... Balthazar," said Jarvis. "It's an understandable conclusion."
"Tony," Dido prompted. "Your turn."
"Me?" asked Tony. Not that he'd been a perfect angel to the Windham family, but this was ridiculous – they were wasting valuable time they could have been using to escape. "Right now?"
The look Dido gave him could have curdled milk.
"Oh, fine," she said. "Apology. Apology." What did he have to apologize for? Well, there was the obvious. "Okay, Dido, I'm sorry for ignoring you. I guess you were right, I do treat people like lab equipment sometimes. I've been worse about that this week than usual, actually. I'm working on it. Jarvis, again, I'm going to try to get better. And Balthazar..." he paused, then shook his head. "You know what? No. I'm not sorry. About anything. We're just gonna have to work with that."
Windham scowled, but then shrugged. "Fair enough."
"What about thanksgiving?" asked Jarvis.
Tony shut his eyes and conceded. "All right, yeah, except thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was all me. I'm sorry about thanksgiving."
That seemed to satisfy Dido, at least. She nodded and looked at Jarvis. "Neddy?"
"Why do you keep calling him Neddy?" Tony asked, before Jarvis could say anything.
"Miss... Dido said if we're going to die, we should do so on a first-name basis," Jarvis explained. "And you're the one who decided my given name was Edward."
Dido was confused. "Wait, it's not?"
"Yeah, but you're not a 'Neddy'," said Tony.
"Sir," said Jarvis, "I..." Then he stopped, bit his lip, and said, "Tony."
As far as Tony could remember, Jarvis had never used his first name before, and it sounded weird to hear it in that voice. But it was also a bit of a relief. If Jarvis were willing to call him Tony, then maybe their fight really was over. "Yeah?" he said.
"I think I do need to apologize," said Jarvis. "Both for our argument today, and for this." He twitched his right arm so that the handcuff jingled against the pipe. "It's my fault we're in this situation."
"How is this your fault?" Tony asked.
"Dr. Strange told me I would have to be where I was needed, and that would be where you were," said Jarvis. "But I wasn't with you this afternoon. I was with Dido."
"Uh-huh." Tony cocked his head. "If you don't mind my asking, uh, why were you with Dido? Did you two, uh..." He couldn't. He just couldn't say it. "Fondue?" he tried, for lack of a better euphemism.
"Oh, for crying out loud," muttered Dido.
"I met her by accident," said Jarvis. "But if I hadn't argued with you and then walked away, I wouldn't have been there, and you and I wouldn't be here now. So I apologize for that."
"If it helps," Dido put in, "I don't think it makes a hell of a lot of difference. If you two hadn't ended up here, you'd just be going about your business tomorrow not knowing what was coming. You'd probably end up dead anyway."
"But we do know what's coming," said Tony. "That means we still have a chance to do something about it – so Jarvis, don't apologize." He looked at his fellow prisoners. "Are we done with the love-in? Okay, great. Now, let's work on getting out of here so I can save the day. I'm a superhero. That's what I do."