[Nathan Havelock]

Testing My Patients

Nate rolled back in his chair, indulging himself in a quick spin back and forth before turning his attention to the patient information on his screen. These shifts were his favourite – finally being able to interact with human beings rather than spending his time analysing neurological data alongside his fellow, sleep-deprived zombies that were the other members of his neuro team. Nate’s time at the San Francisco MNRU had taught him that his true passions really did lie in psychiatry, so it was with a spring in his step that he’d first entered the clinic room this morning.

This client had just been referred (very recently in fact, and had somehow shot to the top of the list) by a doctor in the city who was concerned about their ability to control their pyrokinesis. Nate had a fire extinguisher hidden round the side of his desk as a precaution.

With a pretty constantly heavy caseload at the unit, Nate didn’t really have the time to go through the files as much as he would have liked. He managed to gather the basics – young person, no recorded gender, not much in the way of medical history beyond vaccine records - and then he scanned through the referral, which was a lengthy, borderline-impenetrable wall of text, yet surprisingly vague. That was okay; he was going to have to gather his own data from the patient anyway.

The minute hand ticked over on his desk clock and Nate gave himself another gentle spin on his chair (they didn’t have such comfy chairs over in neuro) before heading to the door and popping his head out.

“Jack Outis?” he called cheerily, casting his eyes around the waiting room for somebody who fit the teenage meta-delinquent bill.

A pair of eyes met his own – their gaze sharp and steady – and Nate instantly knew that this was who he was looking for. They were decidedly ambiguous in gender presentation, with a skinny frame that was almost alarming in nature, and had exactly the kind of look that Nate frequently found in kids who’d developed impressive powers alongside a natural disregard for authority. Their jaw was set in an oddly defiant, smug kind of way, but it was their eyes that really gave away the game.

Confident, bright with intelligence, looking up at Nate with a light mix of disdain and boredom; this kid clearly thought they were superior to everyone in every room.

Nate continued to hold his breezy grin, unfazed. He’d always had a bias towards the cocky young rebels who came through these doors. They were just more fun.

Plus, Nate liked to think they reminded him a little of himself.

Jack Fontaine

452 words

ψ

[Jack Fontaine]

Nobody Don't you know who I think I am? + Nathan Havelock

Jack had not been waiting for long. Creating a false referral had been pathetically easy, and they'd sent it through at the top of the list. That might have raised some eyebrows, but it had been easy enough to simply reference an ability that would demand a quick response. Pyrokinesis had been an easy enough choice. Who didn't want to get a delinquent teenager under control before they caused property to spontaneously combust? The waiting room was busy, packed with a variety of people with an even greater variety of powers. Jack had already deduced the powers of most of the people in the room, most of them were easy enough as people struggled to control sudden fits of telekinesis or listened to music at way above the recommended volume in an attempt to drown out the voices in their head. Jack had little sympathy, they had grown up in a family of metahumans and received none of it themselves. Their power hadn't been as obvious as these, they'd seemed merely smart. Now it was clear that they were way beyond that. They hadn't made any great effort to be assigned to a particular doctor, beyond making sure they were with someone who was at least a little less experienced. Nathan Aloysius Havelock had been the perfect choice. From old money, he'd only just started seeing actual patients recently. In truth Jack hadn't even made all that much effort in the report, it had been vague, with just enough references to uncontrollable flames that they wouldn't be surprised if Nathan had moved a fire extinguisher within reach. They sat down in the chair, slouching immediately. "Soooo… gonna pick my brains? Do some Sherlock shit?"

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[Nathan Havelock]

Testing My Patients

It came as no shock to Nate that he had read the teen perfectly. Straight away they had made themselves at home in the chair Nate hadn’t quite gotten round to offering yet, and offered their first of presumably many sarcastic digs. Nate took his time settling into his own chair, making an extra effort not to spin in it. He offered Jack a relaxed grin before laughing softly and shaking his head.

“Nah come on, you really think I’m that guy?”

Nate leaned in conspiratorially.

“You and I both know Sherlock couldn’t deduce the first thing about either of us, Jack. He’d make up something elaborate about the coffee stain on my shirt which, by the way,” Nate scrubbed at the offending mark, “Is actually juice. My blender threw a hissy fit.”

He took a moment to retrieve Jack’s file once more, making no attempts to hide it. He imagined they were pretty familiar with the circumstances of the referral anyway.

“Anyway…” Nate pulled out his notebook and balanced it carefully on his knee while he searched for a pen. “Pyro, huh? That must be fun.”

There was no way Nate was going to convince this person that he was a Cool, Relatable Adult, but it was kind of worth trying just to watch the expression on Jack’s face.

He wished the notes that Dr. ...who was the woman who referred him again? Nate wasn’t sure that it had been one he recognised. In any case, he wished the notes had been just a little more informative so that Nate felt like he had something to go off. He was going to have to let Jack lead the way for now before he could move onto any kind of assessment. Hey - the ideal model of healthcare was patient-led, right?

As if your average teenager would have it any other way. Nate had pretty much mastered the art of convincing unruly kids that his treatment plans had been entirely their idea - a necessary skill in his field - and from the looks of Jack, they weren’t your average teenager at all… Their cockiness gave the impression of being entirely justified.

Good. Nate enjoyed a challenge.

Jack Fontaine

376 words

ψ

[Jack Fontaine]

Nobody Don't you know who I think I am? + Nathan Havelock

Jack dearly hoped that this doctor was aware they were not cool and down with the kids, because if they were not then this situation would be even more embarrassing than it already was. After all, they hadn't noticed the blatantly fake name of the doctor. It should have been a stupid risk, but apparently they had fallen for 'Sue Denim'. They despaired at the apparent incompetence of the staff that were manning the premier metahuman research unit on the West Coast. If they managed to truly help anyone Jack would be amazed, but then there was no one truly as complicated as Jack, simple tasks for simple minds perhaps. They sighed at the doctor's comment. "No, I really do not think you are that guy…" If only he had been Sherlock Holmes. Perhaps the eccentric detective might have been able to offer some diversion for a few hours, although after that no doubt it would be time to move on to something more challenging. Jack leaned back as the doctor leaned forwards, not entirely eager to have someone else enter their personal space. They examined them from close up, the vaguely unshaven face that spoke of an intentionally maintained stubble, the too long hair. They wondered idly for a moment if Nathan's relationship with his parents was really as poor as his job suggested, then decided that it probably was. No man would grow his hair like that unless he was trying to royally piss someone off. They paused for a moment, waiting for the doctor to lean back before responding. "Let's go with fun… That seems an adequate understatement of the situation." Jack wasn't just here to 'shoot the shit'. They were here to access the computer sat on Nathan's desk. It was unlikely that the young doctor had access to the files Jack was interested in, but no doubt they could be accessed from that computer. They hoped anyway. Whoever had set up the MNRU's security had been uncharacteristically intelligent when they decided to operate the system on a closed loop, inaccessible without being present in the building. Plus it was a little more fun to take this risk, however minor. They were interrupted by some commotion outside the door, shouting and complaints. There was the sound of rapid footsteps, and then a knock. The head that was poked around the door was young, stressed, and female. "Ummm… Dr Havelock, could I speak to you for a moment please?"

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[Nathan Havelock]

Testing My Patients

It must be an emergency if the receptionist felt it appropriate to open the door on a confidential appointment with his patient. Especially a temperamental minor with a documented history of causing small infernos. Nate tried his best to look calm and composed in front of Jack as he got to his feet. A little alarm was natural, of course, but he didn’t want the sarcastic young man to think he was easily flustered. It would ruin his totally cool young Doctor-dude vibe.

“Are you sure it can’t w-”

Nate was cut off by some very sudden, very loud, very incomprehensible shouting from immediately behind the poor woman and he laughed awkwardly, his unfinished question answered for him.

“He says he has an appointment with you now, I told him that we can sometimes run late but…” The receptionist, Bethan, shrugged her shoulders helplessly. “I can’t say anything without him screaming, will you please tell him that he needs to wait?”

She was lowering her voice but it wasn’t really necessary. Even Nate’s thoughts felt like they were being drowned out in the cacophony. It really wasn’t easy to think straight. He looked over Bethan’s shoulder to catch a glimpse of the old man starting to push papers off the reception desk and, without even really considering it, pushed past her and ran to his side.

Bethan quietly pulled the door to, leaving Jack to his own devices while Nate tried to reason with the indignant patient.

It seemed like they’d been double-booked; Nate hadn’t even realised the man was on his list of patients for the day. It took a couple of minutes to rearrange the appointment - all but obliterating Nate’s lunch break in the process - and the man calmed down. He was surprisingly compliant, in fact.

Nate rushed back into the room, hoping that it hadn’t been set ablaze in the short time he’d been gone. No smoke, no ashes… thankfully.

It was about this moment that his tired mind caught up with itself, and the case notes he had been reviewing earlier swam to the forefront of his mind. Not the content itself, but the author. Sue Denim? Really?

His expression was a curious mix of relief and suspicion as he regarded the young person before him.

“They should really be paying her more,” he said eventually, trying to joke his way back into a more relaxed state (his natural mood when not surrounded by volatile meta-humans, and even then it was hardly fair to describe Nate as tense).

Nate grinned and pulled the door shut. Hopefully they weren’t due any more surprise visitors.

Jack Fontaine

453 words

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[Jack Fontaine]

Nobody Don't you know who I think I am? + Nathan Havelock

Jack had not moved in the Doctor's absence, or at least they didn't appear to have done so. In fact the room had been a brief hive of activity. The first thing they had done was to jump up and slide behind the desk, tapping away rapidly on the keyboard. They reached beneath the desk, plugging in a tiny USB drive. It really was a marvel of engineering, and probably would have made Jack a few million from blueprints alone. It included a pass through and would only reduce the depth of the port by a few millimetres. Virtually undetectable. The downside was that it couldn't start up and access the system all by itself, and it had been a tense two minutes while Jack started it up and connected it directly to the computers access point. Satisfied that the device was now running silently in the background they stood, crossing to the side of the room and removing a small black device about the same size as a pack of cards. They peeled back the side, revealing an adhesive pad, then, reaching behind the cupboard they secured it in place. They were back in their seat a full minute before Doctor Nathan Havelock poked his head back into the room. Jack didn't even look up from the screen of their phone. They might have been playing a part. But it wasn't exactly extra effort to appear disinterested in the doctor. Jack was rarely interested in people anyway. "It's a common misconception that paying people more will cost more money. Most economic theorists believe that the opposite is in fact true." They didn't even look up, but swore at themselves inwardly. Seventeen year olds were rarely interested in economic theorists. That said, people of that age were becoming more politically active thanks to the internet and the sorry state their parents had left the economy in. Maybe they could play it off as a healthy interest in politics, not that many teenage delinquents were particularly well informed on that front.

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[Nathan Havelock]

Testing My Patients

“Tell me about it, I’ve had the same argument with my father many times over the years he’s bothered to join us at the dinner table. Probably why-”

Nate stopped mid-sentence, looking Jack up and down. First the extremely questionable referral, and now the kid was happily discussing economics? They had definitely come across as intelligent, and Nate wasn’t exactly surprised by the subject matter – it was the way they were saying it. They seemed to have let their guard down for a second. Their eyes were glued to their phone but not in the usual lazily engaged way that most people stared at screens.

Something was up. If the kid was really as volatile as suggested, this room should have at least been partly scorched upon Nate’s return. Nate had a sneaking suspicion that the entire appointment had been orchestrated for some other purpose. Some kind of MNRU internal inspection, maybe?

“Hey, this doctor of yours, the one who referred you. Does she know you well?”

It was an odd line of questioning, one that Jack probably may have anticipated if they really were some kind of spy-patient, but it wasn’t exactly inappropriate.

Sue Denim. C’mon, that had to be a fake name. Either that, or her parents had a really dry sense of humour. Nate didn’t want to rule out that option entirely, but only because it tickled him that somebody would really name their child “Pseudonym.”

“Just trying to gather a full case history, I’m sure you know how it is,” he said, pandering to Jack’s apparent belief that they were an expert of all trades. “Establish the facts.”

And there it was. A subtle threat.

The ball was in Jack’s court now. If they were sent by the MNRU as some kind of test, then Nate was in a win-win situation. Either he’d identify a non-patient, as it were, thereby ensuring the security of the facility, or they’d play it off well and Nate would just continue the appointment as normal – probably not scoring well on account of leaving the room, but maybe redeeming himself with the rest of the procedure.

The interruption itself was suspicious, now that he thought about it.

Maybe not a generic MNRU inspection then; they wouldn’t be so needlessly dramatic. Probably an outsider looking to get into the research unit. Nate couldn’t lie to himself – if that was the case, he was pretty impressed. Maybe this seventeen-year-old was so smug and self-assured because they had every right to be.

Jack Fontaine

418 words

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[Jack Fontaine]

Nobody Don't you know who I think I am? + Nathan Havelock

Ah. Jack would not have called them self an actor, or even a particularly proficient liar. This had just been made abundantly clear by the doctor's needlessly dramatic pause in the middle of a sentence. Fortunately they were able enough to not immediately give them game away once they thought they had been caught out. "About as well as you'd think I guess. She's a doctor. It's not like I see her every day. Stupid name though. Clearly her parents wanted to make her suffer for something." They returned the phone to their pocket, doing their best to maintain a look of bored indifference. The question was fair, but odd. Clearly he had picked up on the deliberate vagaries of the patient history. Jack had wondered if anyone would spot it, the fact that it had got this far at all didn't say wonders for the people that were supposed to be screening the referrals to the MNRU. Evidently the distraction, while it had served its purpose, had also piqued the man's suspicions. "Doesn't sound like it. Other than asking if it's fun you haven't asked anything about my habit of setting things on fire. Not fun, by the way. Do you have powers?" Hopefully that would give him a bit of a start. It was unlikely that they had jumped to the conclusion that Jack was attempting to steal files, and more likely that they thought they were a secret patient, with a list of questions and a tickbox form to fill out later. The thought was faintly amusing, and certainly offered the possibility of further amusement.

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[Nathan Havelock]

Testing My Patients

Nate nodded as Jack mocked the almost-definitely-fake doctor’s name, grabbing a nearby notepad and resting it on his knee. He held the pen poised, eyes firmly on Jack as they finished speaking and returned to their phone screen.

“Yes… I’ve never even heard the surname before, let alone combined with that unfortunate first name.” Nate grinned to himself, still slightly amused at how long it had taken him to register the joke. Maybe it really was her name, but it seemed all too coincidental in context. The fact that Jack had openly drawn attention to the name was another strike against it. Could this seventeen-year-old really have orchestrated this fake appointment? For what?

Jack seemed to have conveniently forgotten the fact that Nate hadn’t had much opportunity to ask any questions yet. They definitely enjoyed feeling superior, which was fine. Nate could work with that – clearly he wasn’t relatable as a young rebellious soul, and that would make sense if Jack really was here with some ulterior motive and not actually a pyrokinetic delinquent at all.

“I don’t,” Nate responded simply. He liked to keep his vocal opinions regarding powers neutral (he thought they were really cool and he was secretly jealous, but that wasn’t something you admitted to somebody who’s life was being destroyed by their own power). “Metahumans are quite the rare phenomena. So tell me Jack, when do you find yourself using your power?”

There was a hidden element there – was the use deliberate, or accidental?

Nate still needed to figure out how he could establish Jack as a fake patient. His gut was telling him, practically screaming at this point, that this kid was a liar. And a cocky one at that when it came to their pseudonyms. Maybe he needed to request a demonstration.

He eyed the fire extinguisher, but said nothing for now.

Jack Fontaine

309 words

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[Jack Fontaine]

Nobody Don't you know who I think I am? + Nathan Havelock

"Well then you couldn't possibly understand what it's like. Your whole world just…" They held up their hands, one palm up, the other down, facing towards each other, then they switched them. "Flips. Like that, over night." They sat back into the chair, slouching a little, "I doubt someone like you could understand something like that anyway, so why do you even try?" They shrugged at the doctor's question. "It's just like… a part of me now, like I don't know where I end and where the power begins." Jack blinked in surprise; they hadn't expected to be that candid with this doctor. They knew the value of therapy; there were too many studies in support of it to dismiss it out of hand, but they hadn't expected to ever see any benefits themselves. Jack knew they were a metahuman, there was nothing to explain their brilliance, but they had spent so long being told that they were nothing special that the thought of actually having an ability had long since faded. Anxious to brush over that slip up, the moved swiftly on with a question of their own. "Why don't they employ metas here? There must be a few doctors who developed abilities, surely it'd be easier for them to empathise and understand if they've been through the same experiences? People like you well… no offense, but it's just like the next run of comics for nerds. It's not like you could really understand."

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[Nathan Havelock]

Testing My Patients

Nate took a few notes at that point – no comments, no remarks that Jack might read from across the room – but enough to maintain appearances.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen somebody explain it like that,” he said with a smile, mirroring Jack’s gesture.

He made a few more notes as Jack slouched and shrugged their way through the rest of their responses, just barely holding back a raised eyebrow at the remarks around Nate’s ability to understand his clients. In his experience, his clients hardly understood themselves at all, and it was Nate who helped piece them together and provide solutions for adapting to a flipped world. Sure he didn’t know what it was like to have a power himself, but he was a trained medical professional and he liked to believe he had a certain degree of empathy at his disposal.

They blinked suddenly, and Nate watched as the vulnerabilities that had surfaced on Jack’s face were suppressed once more.

“That’s an unusual comment about pyrokinesis,” Nate pointed out. Definite alarm bells over Jack’s legitimacy as a patient now. “It’s usually pretty obvious when a fire gets going. But yes, I think you’re right. Of course the power is part of you – it’s in your genes.”

The child in Nate was always amused by talk of genes. His thoughts inevitably traced it back to jeans instead, and in this case he was imagining somebody’s jeans getting caught on fire, just to add to the amusement.

Nate put the notebook back on the table and fixed Jack with a gentle, but firm, gaze. “I have meta-human colleagues.” He thought of Claire, who blurred the line between patient and colleague. “I’m sure there are meta-human psychiatrists, although probably not many if we consider the odds. My job, Jack, is to diagnose, treat and rehabilitate. I’ve worked with many different populations – schizophrenia, mood disorders, you know. Helped a lot of good people to regain control in the face of their illness. I’ve never suffered from any psychiatric disorder but I did it. A combination of competence, experience, knowledge and good old-fashioned empathy got me through. I believe the same applies here at the MNRU.”

He grinned at Jack. “So that’s why I’m here. Tell me Jack… unless that’s another Sue-Denim – what about you? Why are you really here?”

Jack Fontaine

390 words

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[Jack Fontaine]

Nobody Don't you know who I think I am? + Nathan Havelock

They gave the doctor a deadpan look. "No really? You can tell when a fire starts? No wonder you're a doctor!" Jack shrugged, "Nope, Jack is real. Last one's fake though. It's actually worryingly easy to order a new ID from the DMV with the name you want. Changing the first name just seems excessive though." They inspected their fingernails idly, though clearly more as a sign of boredom, to make a point, than because they were really interested in them. What the doctor said about the case of doctors and metahumans was true. Those who had developed powers were related, albeit distantly to the Families, every single one of them. They could be from all walks of life, and were all over the world. Jack was also fairly sure that the Doctor's solution would lie dormant in many, or simply may not have reached those who were further away from more concentrated population centres. That part of the plan had clearly been flawed, Jack could easily have built the Doctor a device that would have spread her solution over 97% of the planet, if deployed in the correct places. By the time Jack had been born however, the Doctor had been underground for over a decade. It was impressive that she had managed to survive the combined efforts of the Council's formidable resources for more than a quarter of a century. It was a pity that she was gone. Metahumans like the Doctor didn't come along very often. Either those with the force of will effect change, or those with the power to. There were whispers amongst the general population that metahumans were like gods walking amongst humans, and some metahumans even shared the opinion. The Doctor had been a being of godlike power. But gods didn't die. "Me? I thought it would be fun. Plus I wanted to know what you really got up to in here. You haven't carted me off to a top-secret lab to poke and prod at me yet though, so I guess that's a point in the good books for you guys." They didn't disclose that they would later be examining exactly what they were doing in greater detail thanks to the small device fitted to the computer under the desk. That would just make it too easy for the young doctor.

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[Nathan Havelock]

Testing My Patients

Nate chuckled. “Hey, you were the one who said they weren’t sure where they ended and the pyrokinesis began.” There was no malice in his tone, but he was sure Jack wouldn’t appreciate the words regardless. No matter – they deserved it for being so sarcastic and mistaking Nate for a complete idiot. Sure, maybe he wasn’t on this kid’s level – but he was far from dumb.

He hadn’t expected Jack to just straight up admit that they were using a fake name, although it spoke volumes of their confidence in whatever scheme they were conducting. Clearly they had an agenda that extended further than just having a look in one of the MNRU’s consulting rooms, and clearly they didn’t feel threatened about the idea of Nate exposing their fraud.

Which was interesting.

“I’m sure I could report you for the false self-referral. I have a hunch that you aren’t here to ruin lives –” not after Jack had let their guard down and shown that they were all too understanding of the complex issues of being a metahuman “–but I need a more solid reason not to flag this appointment for the higher-ups to investigate.”

He wanted Jack to give him a reason not to flag it. Nothing shady, like “They’ll never be able to find me anyway” – something honest and believable. He also wanted to be able to keep in touch with Jack, partly to keep tabs on them regarding the MNRU and partly to keep tabs in general. The average seventeen-year-old didn’t really even have the motivation to sneak into a government facility, let alone the means. They were obviously loosely supervised at best and obviously in need of diversion.

“I can’t guarantee there isn’t a top-secret lab for poking metahumans,” Nate laughed. In fact, he was sure there were several. “But that’s not what I do. Why are you so interested? Do you want to work here?”

Nate himself didn’t believe for a second that Jack was looking for employment at the MNRU, but it felt like a polite question, on the off-chance that he’d read Jack incorrectly and they weren’t in fact solely content when working under their own direction and nobody else’s. Still, it would be interesting to hear further details of Jack’s interest in the MNRU – maybe they would have some titbits to share for Nate himself.

Jack Fontaine

394 words

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[Jack Fontaine]

Nobody Don't you know who I think I am? + Nathan Havelock

”Ha!” The laughter was short, sharp, and clearly sarcastic. Jack gave the young doctor a scathing look. ”No I do not want to work here. Far too many… people involved.” They blew the air out of their nose dramatically as they pondered the previous question. Jack liked to be informed. They were intelligent, certainly more intelligent than this doctor and probably the most intelligent person in the city. There was a meta-genius on the Hero Program’s payroll that might have rivalled them, but Jack was not one to consider others their equals.One way to maintain that intelligence, and the appearance of it, was to be better informed than everyone else. Rumour already abounded of the MNRU, and although most people who claimed they were experimenting on people were dismissed as cranks Jack was not one to dismiss such an obvious challenge. Admittedly it had been less challenging than they had hoped, which was probably why they were now talking if not honestly, at least not entirely deceptively to this doctor. ”Honestly? I really did want to find out what you guys were up to in here, if you were actually having any success in treating metahumans.” They stood and wandered around the office, examining the artwork on the walls, not that it was particularly interesting, they had seen San Francisco before. Jack wandered over to the door, cracking it open to look out into the hallway, before shutting it with a gentle click and coming back to the the desk. ”Really honestly? I find everything regarding the metahuman condition fascinating, and it can’t hurt to have some information on the metas in San Francisco without having to collate it myself.” They collapsed back into the chair, perhaps a little over dramatically. ”Really honestly? I was bored…”

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[Nathan Havelock]

Testing My Patients

Nate pursed his lips in amusement. “Right, yeah, we do have an unfortunate lack of robots in the facility.”

The rebellious teen definitely did not seem eager to be a team player – Nate imagined they probably isolated themselves quite happily from their peers at school. If they even attended, that is. The fact that they were here at the MNRU on a school day certainly suggested a habit of casual truanting, at least. More significant, however, was their obvious intelligence and sense of superiority. It was highly unlikely that they were still bothering with the standard high school experience.

Jack’s first statement was believable, but not convincing. It also didn’t do much to ease Nate’s conscience about reporting, or not reporting, the incident as a security breach.

“Discharge letters would have given you that much,” he said. Unspoken was Nate’s total belief in Jack’s ability to access such information. They’d already managed the false referral and double-booking, after all.

Of course they had success in treating metahumans. A lot of the treatment was just a short course of counselling and the formations of advisory care plans if they were needed. It was actually borderline rare to see a more complex case that required more long-term care. The patients existed, of course, but they often had pre-existing conditions that required treatment with or without the additional complication of powers. In many of those cases, it wasn’t so much about curing the condition as it was about managing it.

Jack got up from their seat and began lazily inspecting the room – peeking out into the hallway before returning to where Nate was sat – before continuing to speak.

That one was surprisingly less believable to Nate; he wasn’t entirely convinced of Jack’s interest in other people, but maybe fellow metahumans were an exception.

“Okay…”

Then, Jack crumpled back into their seat. And their last statement, Nate whole-heartedly believed.

Still. “I can believe that, Jack, but I’m still considering making a report. You can’t claim to be seeking confidential information and expect me to be okay with that. Who knows who you could be working for? What you’d do with that information?”

Jack Fontaine

358 words

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