Am I Still Nathan Petrelli?, Chapter 4: Bennet Gets His Orders
Noah Bennet had a polite, plastic expression on his face as he helped Angela into her seat. He scooted the chair in smoothly and circled to the other side of the table. She hardly glanced at the menu, but she moved it repeatedly, fidgeting with it.
“So. How are things?”, he asked. “It’s always nice to have lunch with the boss.” He smiled a little wider.
She folded her hands in her lap to get them away from the menu and smiled at him. “I’m not your boss, Noah. This is just a friendly chat between friends.”
Noah’s smile became a grin, showing teeth and becoming more genuine. “Of course, of course. What else could it be?”
Angela gave him a long, measuring look, considering how long he’d been apart from his wife. “How are things doing with your family? I know you saw them recently.”
Noah’s smile faded sharply. “Yeah, we had dinner the other night. The whole gang.” He swallowed his bile and was pleased to be interrupted by the waiter. He ordered quickly, as did Angela.
After the waiter left, Noah changed the subject. “I had this idea, about putting together an organization or a network, a self-policing one, among the specials.” She looked receptive, so he went on. “Run by them… and much more transparent than the Company. We’d need to recruit leadership, and get them together.”
“That’s a good idea.” She nodded. “Yes, it has some merit. The leadership can’t stay together though. You know the Rules. That’s why we had redundant facilities and spread out geographically as much as possible.”
He nodded tiredly and frowned. “Yes, I know the Rules. I know they get winked at a lot though.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Still annoyed about the barb directed towards his family’s situation, he said, “The Petrelli family has always been an exception.”
“We don’t live together! My boys didn’t have their powers until they were adults and they both keep separate apartments.” She sniffed, affronted.
He continued blandly, “I wasn’t suggesting the leadership live together. With modern communication technology, we should be able to set something up. Rebel, if we could recruit him, would be invaluable.”
“Hm… yes, that’s true. Put together a plan for me, Noah. A list of potential leaders and we can discuss it after my current situation is taken care of.”
He nodded, warily pleased that she’d given the green light for his idea. Now to get to the current situation, the reason for the friendly chat between friends: “What do you need done?”
Angela tugged at the edge of the tablecloth, as if it might not be even enough to suit her. “There’s been a development with Sylar. He knows. He and Peter went to Matt Parkman. Parkman talked.”
Noah tilted his head. “Parkman talked? Now why would Parkman do that?”
She pursed her lips. “I don’t know. Maybe someone got to him. But Sylar knows now and it’s coming back to him - quickly, very quickly. We have to get to Parkman. He has to fix this. The experiment did not work.”
The experiment. So that’s what she had decided to call it, he mused. “You say Peter went with him.”
“Yes.”
Noah narrowed his eyes at her when she didn’t go on. “So… what’s Peter doing about the man who killed his brother?”
Forcefully, Angela said, “Peter doesn’t have anything to do with this. This is about Sylar.”
Noah nodded. He was beginning to see why Rene didn’t want to touch this situation with a 10’ pole. “Alright, but there are things I’ll need to know. Who else knows? Have they told anyone?”
“Not that I know of. I think they both know that they’re far better off with this secret kept than loosed. I don’t know who else Parkman might have told, but I suspect no one.”
“You know, we talked a couple of weeks ago about having Parkman visit Nathan…”
“As I told you, he refused. This time, I’m sending you, and I trust you to make sure he doesn’t refuse again.”
Just like the Haitian had refused her. Rene had cleared out of the country altogether, going off the grid. Hell hath no fury like a Petrelli scorned. Especially Angela. “You mean… I need to get to him.” Noah kept his expression carefully blank.
“Yes. Whatever you need to do. He has a family - a wife, a child, a life. All he has to do is come back and repeat what he did with Nathan. If it doesn’t work, then we’ll remove Sylar from the equation.”
Food was served. Noah ate quietly, reflecting on Angela’s casual order for him to ruin someone’s life, marriage and family so that she could change a man’s personality to better suit her. Not that he cared about Sylar’s personality. Sylar was a thing to Noah - a thing he’d rather wasn’t in the world and he’d tried several times to get rid of. But Sylar was a dangerous and persistent thing. Noah would prefer not to be killed by him.
But none of this had been Matt Parkman’s idea. Bennet had put together a lot of the recent information in Parkman’s file and done the research personally. Maybe that was what was bothering him. Parkman was integrating. He was becoming a normal member of society - just what the Company wanted specials to do. If he threatened Parkman’s family, Matt would know he’d never be able to mainstream safely.
He watched as Angela picked at her food fussily. “How much of a hurry are you in? Is Sylar killing people?”
“No. I don’t think so. But he will. It always goes back to that.” She sighed.
“Hm.” Noah considered who Sylar’s obvious first targets were: Angela and Peter would be easiest. They were already associating. He cocked his head at Angela. “You say he knows… he really knows… everything?” She nodded. “He hasn’t done anything to you?”
She gave him the strangest glare and said sharply, “I believe he is rather enjoying his life as my son.”
Noah blinked at that.
“And I am, in the interests of preserving my own life, encouraging him to do so.”
“Oh.” Noah nodded. He guessed that made sense. But really… he would have pegged Sylar as the type to kill her slowly for what she did, instead of celebrate and live it up. What kind of bribe could she possibly offer him that would make him continue to be Nathan, even after he knew? If he wanted the senatorial seat, he could just kill her and Peter, make it look like an accident and none would be the wiser. Peter didn’t even have much in the way of abilities these days. Sylar could walk all over them if he wanted to. The more he thought about it, the less sense it made.
“Okay.” He smiled and nodded decisively, even though that had nothing to do with how he felt. “I’m on it, Mrs. Petrelli. But I have to tell you, it might take a while to find Parkman and make sure he’s on the team. How long do you think you can keep Sylar… encouraged?”
“Not very long, Noah. Some of the time he’s Nathan and the rest he’s not - he still looks like Nathan, but you can tell, if you know him really well. And I know… that no matter how well he’s pretending to be Nathan, it’s an act. It’s all just another ploy to get what he wants.” She sighed, spreading her napkin over her barely-touched food.
Bennet nodded and pushed back his plate. “Okay. I’ll keep you updated.”
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Noah clicked through the numbers he had in his cell phone’s memory. He kept the normal sort of numbers a man of his public standing would have: Sandra, Claire, Lyle, a few friends, most of whom would be surprised to know their numbers were on his cell phone, but he needed the appearance of normalcy. That was important: the appearance of a normal life. What Claire had been talking about for so long. He paused on her number and considered it. She’d stopped talking about wanting to be normal recently. Now she had a new cause - wanting to help, wanting to be involved.
One of us, one of them. He hit the button to dial her number.
“Hi, Dad.”
“Hey Claire, how are you doing?”
“Oh… the usual. I went to the university counselor today and I think I’m going to switch all my classes to audit. He said that would be the best instead of just dropping out or taking incompletes. That way if I change my mind later I can always come back.”
“I think that’s a great idea. Do you have plans for the next day or two?”
“No.” He could hear her smile through the line. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, I was talking to Mrs. Petrelli today and she mentioned how long it had been since you’d come to visit. She said Nathan had been out of sorts lately and she thought if you dropped by it might cheer him up, back to his old self. He’s always so glad to see you.”
“Oh? She said that?”
“Almost exactly.” He smiled.
“Well… okay. That’s nice… but New York isn’t exactly next door to Virginia.”
“That’s alright. She offered to pay your ticket. Now I’m not supposed to have told you that, and you know if you ask her about it, she’ll pretend she doesn’t have a clue what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, okay. She’s like that. I’ve noticed.” Claire shifted the phone to her other side. It was nice to have relatives that were filthy rich.
“Claire… family is really important. I think you know how important it is to me. It’s pretty important to the Petrellis too. I think… it’s important for you to keep up contact with them. I’m not always going to be in a position to help you - not like they can.”
“Dad, you don’t-“
“No, listen to me Claire. This is very important. I trust your judgment and you should trust your instincts. If anything’s… changed… I want you to come back and tell me immediately. If Nathan and everything that comes with him isn’t something you want in your life anymore, I’ll respect your decision on that.”
“Dad, what are you talking about?”
“Things might have changed, Claire. Just be careful, okay?”
“O...kay…?”
“Good. I’ll email you the information for your flight. If I’m still in the area, I’ll pick you up from the airport when you get back. Good-bye now. Take care.”
“Bye.”
He hung up and leaned back, resettling his glasses. He hoped she’d be safe. Sylar had hurt her before, but… she was tough. He couldn’t hurt her physically. He looked at his phone again, having second thoughts. He could still cancel it. It wasn’t too late. Instead, he set the phone aside, opened his laptop and started booking a flight.