On My Skin - Part Two
Title: On My Skin
Author: escapes
Artist: mizumichan
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: Not mine, sadly. If I owned them things would have ended a lot differently.
Characters/Pairings: Luke/Noah, Casey, Maddie, The Colonel
Word Count: 25,000 so far. WIP but will be completed shortly.
Warnings: Some violence, some smut, drama, a minimum of political goings-on
Spoilers: Show's over. So if you're being spoiled, Im sorry for your luck, son
Summary: AU set in the near future. Luke is the public face of the Amorial Vine implant, a nano-skin technology that reacts to the chemicals your body produces when you meet your soulmate. Billions have found the love of their life, but Luke's arm has remained stubbornly blank. Noah Mayer is the son of Colonel Winston Mayer and quietly fund the campaign in his the Colonel's shadow. When he starts to learn things about the way the campaign is being run behind his back, Noah leaves and takes a position about Northwestern teaching Film Studies. He's taking his life back and the first thing he does to celebrate his freedom is get the implant, something the Colonel had forbidden. With the move and the implant, Noah sets off chain of events that change change five lives and the fate of a nation.
Go see the amazing art here: http://mizumichan.livejournal.com/251114.html
Author’s Notes: I'm sorry for the delay in posting and the fact that it's still a WIP. There ware times during this that my life seemed like it was actively conspiring against me to get it done, up to the death of a family member in the days before my original posting date. I apologize that it's being posted as a WIP, but I will keep going until it's done and post it asap. Very big thank you's to crownroyal_51 noelleleithe and freakykat for the cheerleading and betas.
Part 1
Part 2
Luke sat at the cafe table and tapped his foot as he successfully glared off another interloper that tried to close in on the empty chair across from him. It was insanely busy with all of the offices having released their employees into the wild for their lunch break. He glanced down at his watch again, wondering why Maddie was so late. He was still behind from spending the previous week in media hell and then the weekend in Oakdale celebrating his birthday with his family and catching up with Casey and Maddie, who had come with him.
Giving up on sitting there like a dork, staring at the door like it was going to materialize into his friend, Luke reached to his temple and activated the display on his glasses, gesturing to unlock his personal data stream. stilling himself for the scanning procedure that read his biometric signature. Once the scan finished, the personal assistant program launched, and Luke flicked his eyes to the left and blinked, opening his email. He sipped his coffee as he glanced at the inbox for his foundation emails, blinking to open it and gesturing with his hands to start with the oldest email.
Now that the busiest time for the Amorial Project was over, Luke could turn his attention to foundation business along with starting work on his next novel, finally. The Luke Snyder Foundation had been going strong since he’d converted the money he’d inherited as his Grimaldi birthright on his 21st birthday to the seed fund that had launched his foundation. It was his goal to have the foundation expanded by his 30th birthday into every state, working with the people at the grassroots level to counteract all the damage the religious right, the Whitehall Church in particular, had done to the community support systems for the immigrant and gay population. With satellite offices in 35 states, Luke knew they’d made good progress, but there was a lot to do in 2 years if he wanted to meet his goal.
Scrolling through more emails with a gesture of his hand, Luke found the one he’d been waiting for. Senator Drake Stratford was the vice-presidential candidate for the Democrats, and they’d connected at a launch party for Luke’s last book. They both had the same agent, Drake in the midst of writing a memoir of his life as on openly gay politician. Luke had heard of Drake before that meeting, and Drake and his partner were avid readers of Luke’s books. Over the course of the evening, they’d become fast friends, and they'd kept in touch. Luke bounced ideas he had in mind for his next book off of Drake, and Drake supported the work the foundation was doing whenever he could with time and contributions.
Several political action organizations and foundations were holding a voter rally for equality in Chicago, and Drake had pulled a minor miracle and was bringing not only himself but also presidential candidate Gideon Carver. It was a huge step for the work they were doing that Carver and his people were willing to be counted among the communities that just wanted equal status for people of all ethnicities and all orientations.
Luke read through the email, his mind racing at all the changes to everything, from venue to security, that would have to be made to accommodate the new plans. This was going to be huge.
“Luke!”
Blinking his eyes as a finger flicked the tip of his nose, Luke glared upwards and saw Maddie’s brown eyes looking back down at him in exasperated amusement. “Display off. Real-life time.”
Luke tapped the touchpad at his temple and gestured for the display to lock and turn off. “I got bored waiting for your late behind to get here.”
Sliding into the chair across from Luke, Maddie tucked an errant curl behind her ear and shrugged a shoulder. “This segment I’m working on for the morning program is killing me. You know how they say never work with children or animals? This segment has both. I’m about to lose what’s left of my mind.”
Luke opened his mouth to respond, but before he could even get the first word of his comeback out, Maddie fixed him with the look that made her associate producers at the network blanch and run for cover. “Not a word, Snyder. Don’t think that I won’t take you down if you get snarky with me.”
Luke snorts. “Snarky? Golly gee, Maddie, I wouldn’t dream of it,” he says with an exaggerated aw shucks type of voice. “Haven’t we already had this discussion about dialogue from classic movies staying in classic movies?”
Rolling her eyes, Maddie caught the eye of one of the servers and waved him over. Blushing prettily when the man practically tripped over himself to get over to their table, Maddie waved the offer of a menu away, and Luke almost felt bad for the way their server’s face fell when the poor man noticed the Amorial Vine snaking up Maddie’s arm.
Once they’d placed their orders, Luke watched their server make his way to the kitchen, narrowly missing getting clocked by loaded trays of other servers twice. He was pretty much the most awkward thing alive. With one exception. “How’s Hunter, Mads?”
Maddie blushed again at her fiancé’s name. “He’s good. He’ll be happy to get the cast off his wrist next week.”
Luke bit his bottom lip to keep from smiling “Hopefully he’s learned his lesson about using his stream and the stairs at the same time.”
Maddie huffed an exasperated breath. “That man is clumsy enough without adding technology to enable him.”
Laughing, Luke nodded emphatically. They fell silent for a minute as their server placed salads in front of them, and Luke dug in while he watched Maddie arrange all the components of the garden salad she’d ordered just so.
When she caught Luke watching her, Maddie stuck out her tongue as she speared her first bite. “Pre-emptive shut up.”
Luke raised his hand and pasted an innocent look on his face. “Didn’t say a word.”
“You were going to.”
Not being able to argue with that, Luke changed the subject. “Do you know if the network is planning to cover the rally at all?”
Maddie shook her head a little. “Not sure. I know it’s on their radar of stories to cover, but so far no one has been assigned to it.”
“If you can get it assigned to you, I’d do that.”
Maddie lowered her fork and leaned forward. “Why? Is something going on I should know about?”
Luke smiled a little. “I don’t want to jinx it. Early days and all. Just trust me that you’ll want this assignment.”
Maddie raised her eyebrows and gave him the doe-eyed look that usually got her anything she wanted from any heterosexual male. Maddie knew it had no power over Luke, hadn’t since they were both in diapers, but it didn’t stop her from trying.
Rolling his eyes, Luke forked another bit of salad. “Doesn’t work on me, Mads. And that’s all you’re getting until it’s close to being announced.”
Discretely scratching her nose with her middle finger, Maddie used her other hand to point the tines of her empty fork at Luke. “Fine, be all secretive. I’ll get it out of you eventually.”
“You can try.”
Maddie stared him down as their salads were cleared and replaced by the sandwiches they’d ordered. Automatically, they each swapped half of their own sandwich with the other, and Maddie bit into a fry. “What are you up to this weekend?”
“Going with Casey for my belated birthday night out and hoping I’m not too wrecked on Sunday to work on catching up at the office and the foundation.”
Maddie huffed out a breath. “Knowing Casey, you’ll be lucky to make it to the office on Monday if he has anything to say about it.”
Laughing, Luke nodded. “True. I can hope he’s getting more mature on our advanced age.”
Maddie’s snort spoke volumes. “Is his arm still…” She trailed off, motioning to the implant and tattoo on her arm.
“Growing his Amorial Vine? Yes. It’s getting more and more complex every day.”
“And he still has no idea who it is?”
Shaking his head, Luke rubbed a hand on his forehead. “No. I had them run a battery of tests on his implant to see if something was off, but it tested fine. He’s met his soulmate. He just has no idea who it is.”
Maddie contemplated the situation. “He isn’t taking it well, that’s for sure.”
“Can you blame him? He knows he’s met his soulmate and yet the other person has not made themselves known. It’s a pretty harsh rejection of him. I used to think the worst thing that could happen was being like me, eternally waiting for something to happen, but I think Casey’s situation wins.”
Maddie nodded seriously, the situation with Casey casting a pall over the rest of their lunch date.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Noah glanced down at his watch, hearing the words in the Colonel’s speech that were his cue to get things in motion. He turned to Intern 57-Sarah, Noah reminded himself-and nodded at her. “Two minutes to motorcade. Call the driver.”
She nodded and turned away, raising the radio to her mouth and giving the command. Noah watched her run the exit strategy they’d mapped from the Capitol Hill speech to the media interviews at the Folger Shakespeare Library. She was coming into her own, and Noah was happy to see it. It would give her some great skills to list on her resume when she invariably left, as she certainly would when she realized that the Colonel would never let a woman run any part of his campaign beyond the clerical duties of keeping the schedule updated.
Noah kept his eyes on the Colonel as he finished up his speech and observed which of the politicians on the Hill would be the ones to watch for going forward in the campaign. His thoughts were interrupted when the sound of fingers typing on keys filled his ears. The stream on his glasses blinked to a familiar black screen.
IF YOU CAN HEAR ME TYPING SCRATCH YOUR TEMPLE & THEN LOOK IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION OF WHERE THE COL. IS GOING.
Noah lifted his hand to scratch at his temple and then casually turned his head in the direction he’d been told.
SYS CHECK IN 5
Noah knew what was coming and pulled the earpiece out just as a high tone came out of it. He knew it was Kai’s way of making sure he’d only patched into Noah’s earpiece and no one else’s. Noah watched to see if anyone reacted to the tone in their ear. Seeing no one ripping their earpiece out in pain, Noah scratched his earlobe until he heard the tone stop and then placed it back in his ear.
The typing stopped just as he did and Kai’s familiar voice flooded into his earpiece. “Hey Roomie. This technology is ridiculously easy to break into. ‘Least Colonel Clusterfuck could do is give me a little bit of a challenge. Cheap bastard.”
Noah cleared his throat and kept his face neutral as he tried to stop Kai from going off on another one of his tangents.
Kai got the hint and got down to why he’d hacked into Noah’s earpiece, “I found some shit on the files you sent. You need to come home tonight. You’ll find transport waiting for you in the coffee can. Thirty minutes.”
In the next second, his display and earpiece both went to static and then back to normal. Noah raised the radio to his mouth just as the Colonel walked past, glad-handing his way down the Republican aisle, and alerted 57… Sarah to be on the ready. Noah fell into step behind the Colonel’s usual group of hangers-on and followed them out to the waiting cars.
The trip to the next venue was uneventful, Noah in the lead car, the Colonel in the following one. Once they were at the venue, Noah met Sarah at the door and they both visually inspected the set up of the room. Noah adjusted the microphone at the podium and made sure the water carafe would be exactly where the Colonel demanded it. Moving towards the side room where the one on one press interviews would be held, Noah made sure the chair the Colonel would be in had a commanding background that would befit the man’s ego.
He cleared the room as ready just as the sounds of the Colonel and his entourage preceded them down the hall. Noah waited just long enough for the room to fill and the press to begin asking questions before he slipped out the door at the back of the room and looked down at his watch. He had just enough time to get where he needed to be.
Noah smirked at Kai’s word play as he walked into the nearest bathroom to where he was. Folger Library’s bathroom, a.k.a. the coffee can. The minute he went through the door, his stream display blinked to life again and displayed a blueprint of the room with a moving dot leading towards the door of the janitor’s closet. Noah washed his hands at the sink, casually making sure that no one else was in the room and then pulled a hand towel out of the dispenser, dried his hands, and dropped it on the floor. He scanned the floor of the stalls for feet and when he saw they were all clear, he picked up the hand towel and walked towards the door, his display flashing the word ‘open’ a second before he reached it, slipped through, and closed the door with a soft click behind him.
There was a small storage area in front of him, and when Noah turned to his left, he saw a service hallway that you wouldn’t know was there until you stepped through the doorway.
He walked down the narrow space, bare lightbulbs casting a yellow/orange halo from the ceiling every 5 feet, until he could see the chipped matte paint of a metal doorway in front of him. A second later he was blinking in the daylight as the door closed behind him with the thud of metal meeting the wood of the doorjamb.
“Hey Roomie.”
Rolling his eyes, Noah raised an eyebrow. Kai had always been a maverick, absolutely delighting in fucking with people’s expectations of him. He looked like a Hawaiian surfer dude, tall and lean, skin the color of the half hot chocolate, half coffee blend that Noah usually started his day with. Kai was the smartest and geekiest person Noah had ever met. And considering how much of a geek Noah considered himself to be, that was saying something.
“New wheels?” Noah asked, gesturing to the robin’s egg blue, vaguely European scooter that his friend was sitting astride. Noah held out his hand automatically and Kai dropped a small device into it. Noah clipped it on the temple of his glasses, taking his earpiece out as both that and the display blinked to static and then started streaming audio and video of a taxi ride he’d taken back to the hotel from this building over a week ago when he’d done his preliminary visit. This must be serious if Kai had done this much planning to cover his tracks.
Noah knew that if anyone was monitoring his whereabouts through his glasses, they’d be reporting back like they were in the taxi that Noah was seeing in his display.
Kai handed over a back helmet with a tinted visor. “Get on.”
Rolling his eyes, Noah put on the helmet and climbed on the bike behind Kai. He felt a little vibration in his midsection, but hardly an external sound as Kai started the scooter. Suddenly the appeal of this slightly dorky scooter made sense to Noah. “Electric?”
When he saw Kai’s helmet nod sharply, Noah knew the helmets were wired for communication. Kai’s voice filled his ears as his hand moved to shift the scooter into gear. “Hang on.”
Noah lifted his feet off the ground and placed them on the pegs behind the place for Kai’s feet. “No offense, man, but this doesn’t seem like the type of ride you’d…. FWAH!” Noah thought calling that thing a scooter may have been an underestimation as he clamped his lips down on the surprised sound, knowing he’d already played right into Kai’s hands.
Kai’s cackle barked in Noah’s ears as he tightened his grip on Kai’s hips to a shade looser than white-knuckled. “I may have made some mods to it.”
The sly tone in Kai’s voice confirmed for Noah that Kai had modded the shit out of it. Probably the only original part left was the outer shell. “You don’t say,” he deadpanned.
Kai just cackled again as they sped through the streets of Washington, only slowing down to normal speeds at the main intersections they passed along the way. By the time they hit their destination, Noah’s fingers were nearly permanently clenched in their position spanning Kai’s hips, and he had to swallow down the urge to drop to his knees and kiss the blessedly stationary sidewalk.
Kai pulled the scooter into his parking spot and locked both his helmet and Noah’s away, grinning the whole time, like he knew exactly what was going through Noah’s mind about kissing the ground. “C’mon, Roomie. You and I have a date with a shitstorm of stuff from Colonel Clusterfuck’s computer.
Noah huffed an amused breath at Kai’s persistent nickname for his father. It was undoubtedly an insult, but surprisingly accurate. “Lead on, Kaihiola.”
The look that Kai leveled at Noah for using his full first name would have left a spray of blisters on his skin, if he hadn’t already been the target of many of those looks in the years they’d known each other. “Shut up, Benji.”
Noah snorted at the intentional mauling of his middle name and pushed Kai forward with a hand to the shoulder blade.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Luke was glad that he’d cleared the whole day with no meetings, no lunch with friends, nothing to distract him from the mountain of planning he had to go through now that the voter rally had two very high-profile people attending. It was enough of a logistics nightmare with the actors and other celebrities that were attending, but the front-running candidates for the White House? Whole new level of nightmare.
The rumors were already circulating in anticipation of the official announcement that was coming later in the day. Luke glanced at the suit bag that was hanging on the back of his closed office door and sighed, knowing he’d be putting himself back in the media spotlight until this was over. Looking down at his favorite worn-in jeans and a striped polo shirt that was older than his little brother Ethan, Luke vowed to work from home a little more until this was over.
Blinking out of his thoughts when a knock sounded, Luke automatically pushed the sleeves of his shirt down. “Come in.”
“You better be working on your next book.”
Luke grinned as a familiar face peeked around the door. “Drake! I wasn’t expecting you until later today.” He stood and walked around his desk to shake the older man’s hand in greeting. “I thought you had a full day planned?”
Drake nodded to the office windows. “The weather foiled the outdoor events. I guess Mother Nature is not a fan of politics.”
Luke looked to the windows himself. The last time he’d looked outside it had been when he’d walked to his desk at the foundation as he’d started his day. It had been a little overcast then, but it looked like the heavens had opened up in the hours since. “Huh. Apparently I need to raise my head up from my paperwork more often.”
Drake laughed and gestured to the papers spread out over the desk. “You look like you’re planning to invade a small country.”
Luke scoffed and shook his head. “I’m re-planning the security for the rally now that these two big-wigs are coming. A small-scale invasion would probably be easier and involve a lot less planning.”
“I think I might just be your savior then. I brought the head of our security with me today. I figured you could use his expertise.”
Luke nodded his head gratefully. “I’ve held off on consulting anyone until the announcement is made, but I’ve got zero experience in what it takes to keep your skinny butt in one piece.”
Drake shot him an amused look as he walked to the door and gestured for someone else to come in. Luke found himself inadvertently stepping back when a man just as tall as Drake’s 6’4” frame, but twice as wide in solid muscle, walked through the door. While Drake was greying at the temples and approaching fifty, the other man seemed about the same age as Luke. Luke suddenly felt very underdressed in his jeans and polo facing the two of them in their tailored suits.
Straightening his shoulders, Luke stepped forward to the wall of muscle and shook his hand with a handshake that Holden would be proud of. “Luke Snyder.”
The man’s face remained impassive behind his tinted glasses. “Jack Samuels.”
Nodding in acknowledgement, Luke gestured towards the desk. “Have a seat. You can see the plans that we laid out before everything changed.” Pausing, he looked at the bag on the back of his door. “I’ll just take a minute and get changed into something more appropriate. “
Drake held up his hand. “Don’t bother. I don’t know about Jack, but a few hours without a tie and jacket sounds really good right about now,” he said as he started taking off his suit jacket.
Luke pulled open the door to the closet in the corner of his office and carefully hung the jackets and ties so they’d still be presentable when it came time for the press announcement.
Once everyone was settled, Luke watched Jack quickly go through the information about the venue, Millennium Park, and the security measures planned so far, which Luke knew were not nearly enough now. When he was done, Jack sat back in his chair, and the holstered gun at his hip drew Luke’s eyes, even though he tried to tear them away.
Jack noticed, of course. “Problem?”
Luke shook his head, his hand unconsciously straying to his lower back. “Just was on the wrong end of one. My childhood best friend’s father took exception with his son being friends with the faggot. Kevin’s dad dropped us off in the woods; we’d told him we were going camping, but it was a cover for a big party happening there. He threw me out of the car, pulled a gun and told me I had five seconds to run before he shot me.”
Luke could see both Drake and Jack’s surprised faces. It wasn’t something that Luke talked about often, but his discomfort with guns was too obvious when one was in the same room as him. “I lost a kidney and my spleen. Bone fragments from my rib ended up close enough to my spine that I spent the better part of a year not knowing if I’d walk again.”
Drake sat down heavily in his chair. “Shit, Luke. That… Tell me he’s rotting in a jail somewhere.”
Luke nodded a little. “Twenty-five years for attempted murder.”
Jack shifted his holster back enough that it was hidden behind his tree trunk like torso. “I researched you. How come this doesn’t come up?”
Luke leaned back in his chair. “Oakdale is a small town that my family has lived in for generations, so it didn’t take much convincing to have the court records sealed and any media coverage had my name removed from it by court order. It’s enough being the first person with the implant and dealing with the media on that. I don’t need the worst day of my life being dragged up every time I have to do press.”
Drake nodded in understanding. “Well then, let’s get to work on the security for this event, so that when anyone talks about this event, it’s to say how great it was.”
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Noah sat back and contemplated all the information in front of him. From what he’d initially found on the Colonel’s computer, he’d suspected the man was up to no good, but Noah hadn’t even considered that he’d go this far, that he’d be willing to hurt this many people just to further his own ambitions.
Looking up, he shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
Kai leaned forward, a confused expression on his face. “What for, man?”
Noah waved at the papers spread out in front of him with an agitated gesture. “I should have seen this. I should have known that he was up to something way before that creepy asshole Whitehall showed up. The whole reason for me working on the campaign was to make sure he didn’t do something like this. I failed. Completely.”
“You didn’t. We know now, before something has happened. We can use this information to find out the target and stop this from happening.”
“It’s obvious I’m not going to be the one that he’s going to trust with that information. Without the information off of his computer, I wouldn’t have known something was up. Whitehall’s family is so politically connected that, my personal feelings about the Whitehalls aside, it wasn’t that surprising that they’d be visiting the Republican candidate.”
Kai’s laptop made a noise and he held up a hand to pause the conversation. “I set up an alert on Carver and Stratton’s campaign, and an announcement just went out that they’re going to be the major attraction at a rally in Chicago for voter equality. Looks like it’s being put together by all the groups that the Colonel and Whitehall would love to take down. National Organization for Women, voter leagues for several cultural and racial groups, GLAAD, Lambda-you name a group the Colonel hates and they’re probably a part of this…”
Kai trailed off and looked at more information on the press release. “Looks like the main face they’re presenting to the media is Luke Snyder. He’s the one that made the announcement with Carver and Stratton just now,” he said as he continued to scan the article. “Makes sense, he’s got a lot of experience dealing with the media and politics. Heard him and Stratton were pretty good friends too.”
Noah leaned over to look at the article as well, his eyes skimming over the text, mind whirring, for once not about what this news would do to the Colonel’s campaign. Instead, it was working on the plans that Kai had found and if this rally would work into those plans. More and more, he was realizing it would.
“This complicates things.”
Both Noah and Kai looked up from the screen. Noah swallowed, hating that he’d not been vigilant enough. “I’m sorry. I should have…”
“Noah, I already told you, this was not your doing. Without the targeted search you did on the information you found after Whitehall entered the picture, we would still be in the dark. Right now, go back to the hotel. We will figure something out.”
Nodding, Noah stood up and reached for his suit jacket. Kai stood as well, “I’ll give you a ride.”
Noah shook his head vehemently. “No! I’ll take a taxi, I’ll walk, hell, I’ll roll back to the hotel if I have to, but I’m not going anywhere near that… thing again.”
Kai’s demented-sounding cackle followed him out of the room and all the way to elevator. It would have made Noah smile, if the circumstances had been different, but with what they'd found on the Colonel’s computer, basically right under his own nose, he felt the weight of everything weighing down on him.
He thought over the announcement about the rally and the more he thought about it and thought about the Colonel and Whitehall’s plan, the more he knew that it fit. There wasn’t anything he could prove that this rally would be the target, just a gut feeling he’d had when he’d looked at the picture of Snyder, Sutton, and Carver. He’d learned to trust those feelings over the years. They’d never led him wrong, and he hoped this time wouldn’t be the first.
PART 3
Author: escapes
Artist: mizumichan
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: Not mine, sadly. If I owned them things would have ended a lot differently.
Characters/Pairings: Luke/Noah, Casey, Maddie, The Colonel
Word Count: 25,000 so far. WIP but will be completed shortly.
Warnings: Some violence, some smut, drama, a minimum of political goings-on
Spoilers: Show's over. So if you're being spoiled, Im sorry for your luck, son
Summary: AU set in the near future. Luke is the public face of the Amorial Vine implant, a nano-skin technology that reacts to the chemicals your body produces when you meet your soulmate. Billions have found the love of their life, but Luke's arm has remained stubbornly blank. Noah Mayer is the son of Colonel Winston Mayer and quietly fund the campaign in his the Colonel's shadow. When he starts to learn things about the way the campaign is being run behind his back, Noah leaves and takes a position about Northwestern teaching Film Studies. He's taking his life back and the first thing he does to celebrate his freedom is get the implant, something the Colonel had forbidden. With the move and the implant, Noah sets off chain of events that change change five lives and the fate of a nation.
Go see the amazing art here: http://mizumichan.livejournal.com/251114.html
Author’s Notes: I'm sorry for the delay in posting and the fact that it's still a WIP. There ware times during this that my life seemed like it was actively conspiring against me to get it done, up to the death of a family member in the days before my original posting date. I apologize that it's being posted as a WIP, but I will keep going until it's done and post it asap. Very big thank you's to crownroyal_51 noelleleithe and freakykat for the cheerleading and betas.
Part 1
Part 2
Luke sat at the cafe table and tapped his foot as he successfully glared off another interloper that tried to close in on the empty chair across from him. It was insanely busy with all of the offices having released their employees into the wild for their lunch break. He glanced down at his watch again, wondering why Maddie was so late. He was still behind from spending the previous week in media hell and then the weekend in Oakdale celebrating his birthday with his family and catching up with Casey and Maddie, who had come with him.
Giving up on sitting there like a dork, staring at the door like it was going to materialize into his friend, Luke reached to his temple and activated the display on his glasses, gesturing to unlock his personal data stream. stilling himself for the scanning procedure that read his biometric signature. Once the scan finished, the personal assistant program launched, and Luke flicked his eyes to the left and blinked, opening his email. He sipped his coffee as he glanced at the inbox for his foundation emails, blinking to open it and gesturing with his hands to start with the oldest email.
Now that the busiest time for the Amorial Project was over, Luke could turn his attention to foundation business along with starting work on his next novel, finally. The Luke Snyder Foundation had been going strong since he’d converted the money he’d inherited as his Grimaldi birthright on his 21st birthday to the seed fund that had launched his foundation. It was his goal to have the foundation expanded by his 30th birthday into every state, working with the people at the grassroots level to counteract all the damage the religious right, the Whitehall Church in particular, had done to the community support systems for the immigrant and gay population. With satellite offices in 35 states, Luke knew they’d made good progress, but there was a lot to do in 2 years if he wanted to meet his goal.
Scrolling through more emails with a gesture of his hand, Luke found the one he’d been waiting for. Senator Drake Stratford was the vice-presidential candidate for the Democrats, and they’d connected at a launch party for Luke’s last book. They both had the same agent, Drake in the midst of writing a memoir of his life as on openly gay politician. Luke had heard of Drake before that meeting, and Drake and his partner were avid readers of Luke’s books. Over the course of the evening, they’d become fast friends, and they'd kept in touch. Luke bounced ideas he had in mind for his next book off of Drake, and Drake supported the work the foundation was doing whenever he could with time and contributions.
Several political action organizations and foundations were holding a voter rally for equality in Chicago, and Drake had pulled a minor miracle and was bringing not only himself but also presidential candidate Gideon Carver. It was a huge step for the work they were doing that Carver and his people were willing to be counted among the communities that just wanted equal status for people of all ethnicities and all orientations.
Luke read through the email, his mind racing at all the changes to everything, from venue to security, that would have to be made to accommodate the new plans. This was going to be huge.
“Luke!”
Blinking his eyes as a finger flicked the tip of his nose, Luke glared upwards and saw Maddie’s brown eyes looking back down at him in exasperated amusement. “Display off. Real-life time.”
Luke tapped the touchpad at his temple and gestured for the display to lock and turn off. “I got bored waiting for your late behind to get here.”
Sliding into the chair across from Luke, Maddie tucked an errant curl behind her ear and shrugged a shoulder. “This segment I’m working on for the morning program is killing me. You know how they say never work with children or animals? This segment has both. I’m about to lose what’s left of my mind.”
Luke opened his mouth to respond, but before he could even get the first word of his comeback out, Maddie fixed him with the look that made her associate producers at the network blanch and run for cover. “Not a word, Snyder. Don’t think that I won’t take you down if you get snarky with me.”
Luke snorts. “Snarky? Golly gee, Maddie, I wouldn’t dream of it,” he says with an exaggerated aw shucks type of voice. “Haven’t we already had this discussion about dialogue from classic movies staying in classic movies?”
Rolling her eyes, Maddie caught the eye of one of the servers and waved him over. Blushing prettily when the man practically tripped over himself to get over to their table, Maddie waved the offer of a menu away, and Luke almost felt bad for the way their server’s face fell when the poor man noticed the Amorial Vine snaking up Maddie’s arm.
Once they’d placed their orders, Luke watched their server make his way to the kitchen, narrowly missing getting clocked by loaded trays of other servers twice. He was pretty much the most awkward thing alive. With one exception. “How’s Hunter, Mads?”
Maddie blushed again at her fiancé’s name. “He’s good. He’ll be happy to get the cast off his wrist next week.”
Luke bit his bottom lip to keep from smiling “Hopefully he’s learned his lesson about using his stream and the stairs at the same time.”
Maddie huffed an exasperated breath. “That man is clumsy enough without adding technology to enable him.”
Laughing, Luke nodded emphatically. They fell silent for a minute as their server placed salads in front of them, and Luke dug in while he watched Maddie arrange all the components of the garden salad she’d ordered just so.
When she caught Luke watching her, Maddie stuck out her tongue as she speared her first bite. “Pre-emptive shut up.”
Luke raised his hand and pasted an innocent look on his face. “Didn’t say a word.”
“You were going to.”
Not being able to argue with that, Luke changed the subject. “Do you know if the network is planning to cover the rally at all?”
Maddie shook her head a little. “Not sure. I know it’s on their radar of stories to cover, but so far no one has been assigned to it.”
“If you can get it assigned to you, I’d do that.”
Maddie lowered her fork and leaned forward. “Why? Is something going on I should know about?”
Luke smiled a little. “I don’t want to jinx it. Early days and all. Just trust me that you’ll want this assignment.”
Maddie raised her eyebrows and gave him the doe-eyed look that usually got her anything she wanted from any heterosexual male. Maddie knew it had no power over Luke, hadn’t since they were both in diapers, but it didn’t stop her from trying.
Rolling his eyes, Luke forked another bit of salad. “Doesn’t work on me, Mads. And that’s all you’re getting until it’s close to being announced.”
Discretely scratching her nose with her middle finger, Maddie used her other hand to point the tines of her empty fork at Luke. “Fine, be all secretive. I’ll get it out of you eventually.”
“You can try.”
Maddie stared him down as their salads were cleared and replaced by the sandwiches they’d ordered. Automatically, they each swapped half of their own sandwich with the other, and Maddie bit into a fry. “What are you up to this weekend?”
“Going with Casey for my belated birthday night out and hoping I’m not too wrecked on Sunday to work on catching up at the office and the foundation.”
Maddie huffed out a breath. “Knowing Casey, you’ll be lucky to make it to the office on Monday if he has anything to say about it.”
Laughing, Luke nodded. “True. I can hope he’s getting more mature on our advanced age.”
Maddie’s snort spoke volumes. “Is his arm still…” She trailed off, motioning to the implant and tattoo on her arm.
“Growing his Amorial Vine? Yes. It’s getting more and more complex every day.”
“And he still has no idea who it is?”
Shaking his head, Luke rubbed a hand on his forehead. “No. I had them run a battery of tests on his implant to see if something was off, but it tested fine. He’s met his soulmate. He just has no idea who it is.”
Maddie contemplated the situation. “He isn’t taking it well, that’s for sure.”
“Can you blame him? He knows he’s met his soulmate and yet the other person has not made themselves known. It’s a pretty harsh rejection of him. I used to think the worst thing that could happen was being like me, eternally waiting for something to happen, but I think Casey’s situation wins.”
Maddie nodded seriously, the situation with Casey casting a pall over the rest of their lunch date.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Noah glanced down at his watch, hearing the words in the Colonel’s speech that were his cue to get things in motion. He turned to Intern 57-Sarah, Noah reminded himself-and nodded at her. “Two minutes to motorcade. Call the driver.”
She nodded and turned away, raising the radio to her mouth and giving the command. Noah watched her run the exit strategy they’d mapped from the Capitol Hill speech to the media interviews at the Folger Shakespeare Library. She was coming into her own, and Noah was happy to see it. It would give her some great skills to list on her resume when she invariably left, as she certainly would when she realized that the Colonel would never let a woman run any part of his campaign beyond the clerical duties of keeping the schedule updated.
Noah kept his eyes on the Colonel as he finished up his speech and observed which of the politicians on the Hill would be the ones to watch for going forward in the campaign. His thoughts were interrupted when the sound of fingers typing on keys filled his ears. The stream on his glasses blinked to a familiar black screen.
IF YOU CAN HEAR ME TYPING SCRATCH YOUR TEMPLE & THEN LOOK IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION OF WHERE THE COL. IS GOING.
Noah lifted his hand to scratch at his temple and then casually turned his head in the direction he’d been told.
SYS CHECK IN 5
Noah knew what was coming and pulled the earpiece out just as a high tone came out of it. He knew it was Kai’s way of making sure he’d only patched into Noah’s earpiece and no one else’s. Noah watched to see if anyone reacted to the tone in their ear. Seeing no one ripping their earpiece out in pain, Noah scratched his earlobe until he heard the tone stop and then placed it back in his ear.
The typing stopped just as he did and Kai’s familiar voice flooded into his earpiece. “Hey Roomie. This technology is ridiculously easy to break into. ‘Least Colonel Clusterfuck could do is give me a little bit of a challenge. Cheap bastard.”
Noah cleared his throat and kept his face neutral as he tried to stop Kai from going off on another one of his tangents.
Kai got the hint and got down to why he’d hacked into Noah’s earpiece, “I found some shit on the files you sent. You need to come home tonight. You’ll find transport waiting for you in the coffee can. Thirty minutes.”
In the next second, his display and earpiece both went to static and then back to normal. Noah raised the radio to his mouth just as the Colonel walked past, glad-handing his way down the Republican aisle, and alerted 57… Sarah to be on the ready. Noah fell into step behind the Colonel’s usual group of hangers-on and followed them out to the waiting cars.
The trip to the next venue was uneventful, Noah in the lead car, the Colonel in the following one. Once they were at the venue, Noah met Sarah at the door and they both visually inspected the set up of the room. Noah adjusted the microphone at the podium and made sure the water carafe would be exactly where the Colonel demanded it. Moving towards the side room where the one on one press interviews would be held, Noah made sure the chair the Colonel would be in had a commanding background that would befit the man’s ego.
He cleared the room as ready just as the sounds of the Colonel and his entourage preceded them down the hall. Noah waited just long enough for the room to fill and the press to begin asking questions before he slipped out the door at the back of the room and looked down at his watch. He had just enough time to get where he needed to be.
Noah smirked at Kai’s word play as he walked into the nearest bathroom to where he was. Folger Library’s bathroom, a.k.a. the coffee can. The minute he went through the door, his stream display blinked to life again and displayed a blueprint of the room with a moving dot leading towards the door of the janitor’s closet. Noah washed his hands at the sink, casually making sure that no one else was in the room and then pulled a hand towel out of the dispenser, dried his hands, and dropped it on the floor. He scanned the floor of the stalls for feet and when he saw they were all clear, he picked up the hand towel and walked towards the door, his display flashing the word ‘open’ a second before he reached it, slipped through, and closed the door with a soft click behind him.
There was a small storage area in front of him, and when Noah turned to his left, he saw a service hallway that you wouldn’t know was there until you stepped through the doorway.
He walked down the narrow space, bare lightbulbs casting a yellow/orange halo from the ceiling every 5 feet, until he could see the chipped matte paint of a metal doorway in front of him. A second later he was blinking in the daylight as the door closed behind him with the thud of metal meeting the wood of the doorjamb.
“Hey Roomie.”
Rolling his eyes, Noah raised an eyebrow. Kai had always been a maverick, absolutely delighting in fucking with people’s expectations of him. He looked like a Hawaiian surfer dude, tall and lean, skin the color of the half hot chocolate, half coffee blend that Noah usually started his day with. Kai was the smartest and geekiest person Noah had ever met. And considering how much of a geek Noah considered himself to be, that was saying something.
“New wheels?” Noah asked, gesturing to the robin’s egg blue, vaguely European scooter that his friend was sitting astride. Noah held out his hand automatically and Kai dropped a small device into it. Noah clipped it on the temple of his glasses, taking his earpiece out as both that and the display blinked to static and then started streaming audio and video of a taxi ride he’d taken back to the hotel from this building over a week ago when he’d done his preliminary visit. This must be serious if Kai had done this much planning to cover his tracks.
Noah knew that if anyone was monitoring his whereabouts through his glasses, they’d be reporting back like they were in the taxi that Noah was seeing in his display.
Kai handed over a back helmet with a tinted visor. “Get on.”
Rolling his eyes, Noah put on the helmet and climbed on the bike behind Kai. He felt a little vibration in his midsection, but hardly an external sound as Kai started the scooter. Suddenly the appeal of this slightly dorky scooter made sense to Noah. “Electric?”
When he saw Kai’s helmet nod sharply, Noah knew the helmets were wired for communication. Kai’s voice filled his ears as his hand moved to shift the scooter into gear. “Hang on.”
Noah lifted his feet off the ground and placed them on the pegs behind the place for Kai’s feet. “No offense, man, but this doesn’t seem like the type of ride you’d…. FWAH!” Noah thought calling that thing a scooter may have been an underestimation as he clamped his lips down on the surprised sound, knowing he’d already played right into Kai’s hands.
Kai’s cackle barked in Noah’s ears as he tightened his grip on Kai’s hips to a shade looser than white-knuckled. “I may have made some mods to it.”
The sly tone in Kai’s voice confirmed for Noah that Kai had modded the shit out of it. Probably the only original part left was the outer shell. “You don’t say,” he deadpanned.
Kai just cackled again as they sped through the streets of Washington, only slowing down to normal speeds at the main intersections they passed along the way. By the time they hit their destination, Noah’s fingers were nearly permanently clenched in their position spanning Kai’s hips, and he had to swallow down the urge to drop to his knees and kiss the blessedly stationary sidewalk.
Kai pulled the scooter into his parking spot and locked both his helmet and Noah’s away, grinning the whole time, like he knew exactly what was going through Noah’s mind about kissing the ground. “C’mon, Roomie. You and I have a date with a shitstorm of stuff from Colonel Clusterfuck’s computer.
Noah huffed an amused breath at Kai’s persistent nickname for his father. It was undoubtedly an insult, but surprisingly accurate. “Lead on, Kaihiola.”
The look that Kai leveled at Noah for using his full first name would have left a spray of blisters on his skin, if he hadn’t already been the target of many of those looks in the years they’d known each other. “Shut up, Benji.”
Noah snorted at the intentional mauling of his middle name and pushed Kai forward with a hand to the shoulder blade.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Luke was glad that he’d cleared the whole day with no meetings, no lunch with friends, nothing to distract him from the mountain of planning he had to go through now that the voter rally had two very high-profile people attending. It was enough of a logistics nightmare with the actors and other celebrities that were attending, but the front-running candidates for the White House? Whole new level of nightmare.
The rumors were already circulating in anticipation of the official announcement that was coming later in the day. Luke glanced at the suit bag that was hanging on the back of his closed office door and sighed, knowing he’d be putting himself back in the media spotlight until this was over. Looking down at his favorite worn-in jeans and a striped polo shirt that was older than his little brother Ethan, Luke vowed to work from home a little more until this was over.
Blinking out of his thoughts when a knock sounded, Luke automatically pushed the sleeves of his shirt down. “Come in.”
“You better be working on your next book.”
Luke grinned as a familiar face peeked around the door. “Drake! I wasn’t expecting you until later today.” He stood and walked around his desk to shake the older man’s hand in greeting. “I thought you had a full day planned?”
Drake nodded to the office windows. “The weather foiled the outdoor events. I guess Mother Nature is not a fan of politics.”
Luke looked to the windows himself. The last time he’d looked outside it had been when he’d walked to his desk at the foundation as he’d started his day. It had been a little overcast then, but it looked like the heavens had opened up in the hours since. “Huh. Apparently I need to raise my head up from my paperwork more often.”
Drake laughed and gestured to the papers spread out over the desk. “You look like you’re planning to invade a small country.”
Luke scoffed and shook his head. “I’m re-planning the security for the rally now that these two big-wigs are coming. A small-scale invasion would probably be easier and involve a lot less planning.”
“I think I might just be your savior then. I brought the head of our security with me today. I figured you could use his expertise.”
Luke nodded his head gratefully. “I’ve held off on consulting anyone until the announcement is made, but I’ve got zero experience in what it takes to keep your skinny butt in one piece.”
Drake shot him an amused look as he walked to the door and gestured for someone else to come in. Luke found himself inadvertently stepping back when a man just as tall as Drake’s 6’4” frame, but twice as wide in solid muscle, walked through the door. While Drake was greying at the temples and approaching fifty, the other man seemed about the same age as Luke. Luke suddenly felt very underdressed in his jeans and polo facing the two of them in their tailored suits.
Straightening his shoulders, Luke stepped forward to the wall of muscle and shook his hand with a handshake that Holden would be proud of. “Luke Snyder.”
The man’s face remained impassive behind his tinted glasses. “Jack Samuels.”
Nodding in acknowledgement, Luke gestured towards the desk. “Have a seat. You can see the plans that we laid out before everything changed.” Pausing, he looked at the bag on the back of his door. “I’ll just take a minute and get changed into something more appropriate. “
Drake held up his hand. “Don’t bother. I don’t know about Jack, but a few hours without a tie and jacket sounds really good right about now,” he said as he started taking off his suit jacket.
Luke pulled open the door to the closet in the corner of his office and carefully hung the jackets and ties so they’d still be presentable when it came time for the press announcement.
Once everyone was settled, Luke watched Jack quickly go through the information about the venue, Millennium Park, and the security measures planned so far, which Luke knew were not nearly enough now. When he was done, Jack sat back in his chair, and the holstered gun at his hip drew Luke’s eyes, even though he tried to tear them away.
Jack noticed, of course. “Problem?”
Luke shook his head, his hand unconsciously straying to his lower back. “Just was on the wrong end of one. My childhood best friend’s father took exception with his son being friends with the faggot. Kevin’s dad dropped us off in the woods; we’d told him we were going camping, but it was a cover for a big party happening there. He threw me out of the car, pulled a gun and told me I had five seconds to run before he shot me.”
Luke could see both Drake and Jack’s surprised faces. It wasn’t something that Luke talked about often, but his discomfort with guns was too obvious when one was in the same room as him. “I lost a kidney and my spleen. Bone fragments from my rib ended up close enough to my spine that I spent the better part of a year not knowing if I’d walk again.”
Drake sat down heavily in his chair. “Shit, Luke. That… Tell me he’s rotting in a jail somewhere.”
Luke nodded a little. “Twenty-five years for attempted murder.”
Jack shifted his holster back enough that it was hidden behind his tree trunk like torso. “I researched you. How come this doesn’t come up?”
Luke leaned back in his chair. “Oakdale is a small town that my family has lived in for generations, so it didn’t take much convincing to have the court records sealed and any media coverage had my name removed from it by court order. It’s enough being the first person with the implant and dealing with the media on that. I don’t need the worst day of my life being dragged up every time I have to do press.”
Drake nodded in understanding. “Well then, let’s get to work on the security for this event, so that when anyone talks about this event, it’s to say how great it was.”
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Noah sat back and contemplated all the information in front of him. From what he’d initially found on the Colonel’s computer, he’d suspected the man was up to no good, but Noah hadn’t even considered that he’d go this far, that he’d be willing to hurt this many people just to further his own ambitions.
Looking up, he shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
Kai leaned forward, a confused expression on his face. “What for, man?”
Noah waved at the papers spread out in front of him with an agitated gesture. “I should have seen this. I should have known that he was up to something way before that creepy asshole Whitehall showed up. The whole reason for me working on the campaign was to make sure he didn’t do something like this. I failed. Completely.”
“You didn’t. We know now, before something has happened. We can use this information to find out the target and stop this from happening.”
“It’s obvious I’m not going to be the one that he’s going to trust with that information. Without the information off of his computer, I wouldn’t have known something was up. Whitehall’s family is so politically connected that, my personal feelings about the Whitehalls aside, it wasn’t that surprising that they’d be visiting the Republican candidate.”
Kai’s laptop made a noise and he held up a hand to pause the conversation. “I set up an alert on Carver and Stratton’s campaign, and an announcement just went out that they’re going to be the major attraction at a rally in Chicago for voter equality. Looks like it’s being put together by all the groups that the Colonel and Whitehall would love to take down. National Organization for Women, voter leagues for several cultural and racial groups, GLAAD, Lambda-you name a group the Colonel hates and they’re probably a part of this…”
Kai trailed off and looked at more information on the press release. “Looks like the main face they’re presenting to the media is Luke Snyder. He’s the one that made the announcement with Carver and Stratton just now,” he said as he continued to scan the article. “Makes sense, he’s got a lot of experience dealing with the media and politics. Heard him and Stratton were pretty good friends too.”
Noah leaned over to look at the article as well, his eyes skimming over the text, mind whirring, for once not about what this news would do to the Colonel’s campaign. Instead, it was working on the plans that Kai had found and if this rally would work into those plans. More and more, he was realizing it would.
“This complicates things.”
Both Noah and Kai looked up from the screen. Noah swallowed, hating that he’d not been vigilant enough. “I’m sorry. I should have…”
“Noah, I already told you, this was not your doing. Without the targeted search you did on the information you found after Whitehall entered the picture, we would still be in the dark. Right now, go back to the hotel. We will figure something out.”
Nodding, Noah stood up and reached for his suit jacket. Kai stood as well, “I’ll give you a ride.”
Noah shook his head vehemently. “No! I’ll take a taxi, I’ll walk, hell, I’ll roll back to the hotel if I have to, but I’m not going anywhere near that… thing again.”
Kai’s demented-sounding cackle followed him out of the room and all the way to elevator. It would have made Noah smile, if the circumstances had been different, but with what they'd found on the Colonel’s computer, basically right under his own nose, he felt the weight of everything weighing down on him.
He thought over the announcement about the rally and the more he thought about it and thought about the Colonel and Whitehall’s plan, the more he knew that it fit. There wasn’t anything he could prove that this rally would be the target, just a gut feeling he’d had when he’d looked at the picture of Snyder, Sutton, and Carver. He’d learned to trust those feelings over the years. They’d never led him wrong, and he hoped this time wouldn’t be the first.
PART 3