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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]Urk. Names. If there was any chance of this man escaping identification, that went right out the window.[break][break]

Of course, Isaac didn't realize that there was never any chance. Zev had already heard about this man. Zev had already been directly compared to this man. And each word of Isaac's vague description was another connection slamming right into place. He was trying to tiptoe around the spider's web, and he didn't even realize he'd walked right into quicksand.[break][break]

After all, giving his last name was fine, right? Isaac was a Concerned Citizen. There was no way a ranger wouldn't have given their name. They may have been a bunch of pie-slinging rent-a-cops, but when they weren't picking a fight with someone their bedside manner was impeccable. It would've been way more suspicious to say the guy kept his mouth shut.[break][break]

"I got his last name, at least," Isaac said, creeping through the spiderwebs with another half-truth. He wouldn't say Caleb. He couldn't say Caleb. At best, he'd be signing a man's death warrant. At once, he'd start something there was no coming back from. But he had to say something, because Zev had all the cards and for once Isaac didn't have a piece on the board.[break][break]

"Sharpe."[break][break]

For all that apprehension, for all that build-up, for all of those nerves, the word left Isaac's mouth surprisingly easily. Maybe he was overthinking it. Maybe he was building things up way bigger than they needed to be. There were plenty of Sharpes out there. Shit, there were plenty of Calebs. And Zev may have been an unrepentant killer, but he also knew the time and place to strike. He wouldn't be so bold and so foolish as to make a Ranger disappear, even if they had info on his brother's whereabouts. Right?[break][break]

Surely, everything was going to be okay.

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]His slow speech, savoring the word in his mouth as if it was today's real meal. The grin that distorted Zev's facial features, the carefully-groomed facade lost to what Isaac could only describe as hunger. The way he laughed as if Isaac had just told him the funniest joke in the world, his entire body practically convulsing.[break][break]

Isaac finally connected the dots, a good three steps behind Zev as always. The mystery that had plagued Zev for years had just been resolved, and the terrifying spectacle that Isaac was witnessing was called victory. It was funny. A part of Isaac had always wondered what a genuine smile from Zev would have been like. Now he wished that he had never asked.[break][break]

It went further than that. For the first time since this apprenticeship began, the man actually praised them. His voice was calm, orderly, fatherly in a way he hadn't been regarded since he was a toddler. Isaac didn't realize how badly he wanted to hear it until the words left Zev's lips. He'd been complimented before, but never praised by this. Not by one of his betters. Not to this extent.[break][break]

Yet that praise was coming from a man grinning like a Sharpedo in a river of corpses. Hearing such warmth coming from such a twisted expression left a shiver down Isaac's spine. Was it the uncanny valley at work? No. The uncanny valley was seeing something off, a failed attempt at playing human. This wasn't a failed attempt, because Zev wasn't even attempting anymore. No, this was Zev at his most human. And Isaac wasn't even going to begin unpacking those implications.[break][break]

Instead, Isaac did what Zev had taught him. He zeroed in on the warmth in Zev's tone, something he could hold onto and genuinely appreciate. He smiled, as anyone would do when they were being praised by someone they respected. And he spoke as if nothing was wrong. "I'm glad I could help," he said. No more words. No fewer words. Exactly as many words as he had needed.[break][break]

He could figure out how to untangle this net of barbed wire later. For now, it was better to lie there and suck up the pain. Were he to thrash, he'd only slice open an artery. And then Zev would smell the blood in the water.

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]Of course he would. This was a problem in Zev's way. And now he would dissect it as systematically as he did anything else in his way. The League's public records would become his next victim, the strokes of a keyboard his instruments of torture. He would have the answers he wanted. The answers he needed. And if this search didn't bear fruit, he'd resort to either, less necessary, more fun means.[break][break]

Because nothing, not even reality itself, told Zev Harcourt no.[break][break]

Zev told Isaac not to go looking for Caleb, and frankly, Isaac didn't need to be told twice. The more Isaac meddled in a situation, the more trouble he ended up inadvertently causing. It'd be best for Caleb, for Zev, for everyone involved that he just stands back and lets go. There was nothing more he could do here.[break][break]

"I'll be on standby," Isaac said, silently hoping that he wouldn't end up being called upon. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe Caleb really was kidnapped, and there'd be some big, happy brotherly reunion. But he couldn't hope if the reality of the situation reasserted itself. Ignorance was bliss, and that was in rather short supply nowadays. "But if I find anything else, I'll tell you."[break][break]

"Best of luck, Zev."

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