Broken Connections, Chapter Seven: Hanson
Peter smacked his hand down on his father's desk, his mouth a thin line at hearing about yet another delay. Harvey Cross, one of his father's old law partners, jumped at the noise. He still wasn't comfortable with the idea that Peter had an ability, even if it was as harmless as regeneration. "Harvey, there are people whose lives are on hold, who have no future, while we're in here discussing this. They don't have time for us to take months making sure the government's case files are thorough enough, that they have all their i's dotted and t's crossed." Peter exhaled heavily. "In the end, it's going to come down to two people making an agreement. Find out who the government thinks that person is and get me in a room with them."
Going to court in the United States might have once been the opportunity for a case to be judged on its merits in front of a judge and possibly a jury, but for the last several decades, a court trial was nothing but a ridiculous show that made for good television. The vast majority (more than 98%) of legal arguments were handled by negotiation and agreement. 'Plea bargains' they might be called when the government was prosecuting you. 'Out of court settlements' for civil disputes, when you were bringing suit against someone else. In Peter's case, they hadn't even reached the point of deciding who was prosecuting who or for what. All he knew was that the government had made no charges against himself or Claire in relation to their dramatic jailbreak. And more importantly, they still had Sylar.
For the first few days after the escape, Peter had been a mess of anxiety waiting for Sylar to come back. He kept hoping Sylar's powers had returned in time and he'd fought his way out, but just hadn't known where to look for them. It was part of why Peter's first priority after throwing off pursuit was to go right back to his apartment, even though it was the perfect place for the authorities to pick him up. And for the following days, he told himself that might be why Sylar wasn't there - it was too obvious, too dangerous. Maybe he was waiting for Peter to join him somewhere else. Peter racked his brain, but he couldn't think of where, so he spent a lot of time moving around the city, visiting Isaac's loft and Deveaux's roof and Nathan's house, all for nothing. Finding Sylar was much more important than avoiding the law, so it was a lucky thing for him that the law wasn't making any active attempt to find him.
He did retain the presence of mind to clear up his financial issues and contact several of his father's former law partners. After meeting each, he settled on one as being the most skilled and available to handle such a case. Peter was contemplating a class action suit against the government. That's what they were framing it as, though the PATRIOT Act and various other anti-terrorist bits of legislation were going to make it difficult to win in the legal arena. And while that was where the ultimate victory would be, the main battles were probably going to be personal. The more he reviewed the information Cross had presented to him, the more he studied on his own, the more he talked with Nathan's former associates in the DA's office, the more certain Peter was that the suit was a formality - a necessary one, but just the icing on the cake.
'Play to your strengths' - it was an adage Peter had heard many years ago. His strength was not in the fine points of the law. That was why he had a staff of lawyers working on the case. His strength lay in his people skills. What he needed to do was get some face time, find out what the other side wanted, and work on getting it for them.
XXX
Peter waited in an unnecessarily opulent room at the Cross' firm. Harvey had shoe-horned Peter into a suit. He supposed appearances mattered a lot with some people, but he didn't think they pulled much weight with Audrey. Regardless, here he was in the same outfit he'd last worn to his brother's funeral, legs crossed ankle-on-knee, restlessly tapping his thumb against one knee.
He sat up when Audrey Hanson entered only a few minutes later, promptly on time. She was dressed in a light grey suit. Aside from being clean, neat, and expensive, it proved out Peter's opinion that appearances weren't her thing. She took her seat across the table from him, an expanse of smooth, polished cherrywood between them. "So," she started. "The meeting you asked for?"
"Are you holding Sylar prisoner?" It was something he already knew, but wanted to make clear from the outset. Their ground rules were fairly simple - no witnesses, no recording devices, no abilities, and nothing said was binding or incriminating. Not that Peter planned to admit to anything anyway. Basically, they were just talking.
"Yes," she answered.
"On what charge?"
"Attempted assassination of the president of the United States."
"How do you know it was him?"
"Peter, you were standing next to your brother when the accusation was made. Later, you were the one who told the president's staff so you could assume his shape."
"Then you admit it's hearsay?" Peter raised his brows questioningly for a moment before continuing, "I got my ability from a shape-shifter who looked exactly like Sylar when I took it. How do you know it was the same person you're holding in a cell now?" Audrey frowned at him. "We burned a body. Even we thought it was Sylar's."
"I have a file on Sylar's murders that goes back half a decade, Peter."
Insistently, he repeated, "How do you know the person you're holding in a cell right now is the same person who did any of those things?"
"What are you suggesting?"
"What if it's just someone who gets off on having a bad reputation and the easiest way to get it was to assume Sylar's identity?"
"That's kind of stupid, don't you think?"
Peter shrugged. "Some people will do anything to be special."
She eyed him, weighing the different meanings of the words. "A special kind of stupid, perhaps. Be that as it may, I have something that makes all of your sophistry irrelevant."
Peter's brows drew together. She looked way too serious. "What? What do you have?"
"A confession."
Peter's eyes widened. "What did he confess to?"
"Everything - president, murders, even several we hadn't known about. He confirmed it all and then some. So we meet all of that 'burden of proof' stuff you're shoveling."
"What did you do to him?" Did they torture him? Mind control? Drugs?
"Nothing."
Peter shook his head. "Sylar wouldn't tell that for no reason. He isn't that dumb. What did you threaten to do to him?"
"Hm," she considered, then answered, "Nothing."
"Why would he tell you that?!" His emotions were rising, frustrated at how Sylar had sunk himself and frightened about how this complicated Peter's efforts to free him.
"You aren't the first one, Peter," she said drily, "to sit across a table from me and try to work a deal."
"What- what could you offer that would be worth telling you all of that?" His voice rose. "That's a life sentence, at best!"
"At best? I don't think they'd give someone like that life even in a best case scenario."
"Then what did you offer?" Peter snarled, coming up out of his seat. Tears were forming in his eyes as he sensed he was going to lose Sylar, possibly forever.
She sat impassive for a long moment, savoring his agony. She tilted her head insouciantly to the side and said, "You."
"What?" Peter faltered, falling back into his chair as he realized, but pretended not to, what she meant. Maybe if he pretended hard enough, it wouldn't be true.
"Full immunity for you. And Claire Bennet. But mostly for you." Her expression strayed briefly into sadness for him, like she had some empathy for how he must be feeling right now.
"But I haven't done anything!" Again, he felt like Sylar had sacrificed for nothing. "Nothing to deserve ..." He shook his head.
She reached into her briefcase and produced two sheets of paper. They were black and white copies on slick, photo-quality paper, of two men. "So you're telling me these people don't count to you?"
He looked at them, not recognizing either but he had the feeling he'd seen them somewhere. "Who are they?"
"They're the two men who were killed at the airport."
He blinked once, remembering and placing them. But this wasn't about what he felt responsible for - it was about whether he'd done anything that warranted Sylar sacrificing himself for Peter. "I didn't kill either of them."
"You intentionally created the circumstances in which they were killed. You took a safe situation and made it unsafe, for your own benefit." He pressed his lips into a thin line as Audrey went on. "You were a knowing accomplice to murder."
"I tried to stop it!"
She tilted her head. "I saw the security footage." She paused for a moment, but Peter didn't say anything. "I saw how Pearl shot a chunk out of your shoulder bigger than my fist. She nearly took your arm off."
"If I hadn't tried to block her, someone else would have died and you'd have three pictures instead of two."
"And I saw how you took a couple fireballs from your other teammate. You look fine, now." She raised her brows, mocking, "Must be nice to have superpowers." She pointed at the pictures. "They didn't; they're dead. And they're dead because of things you did. You took one of Pearl's shots and a couple of Amanda's, but you didn't stop either of them. You helped them escape. Haven't you wondered why no warrants were issued for your arrest?"
"I thought I was on that special list for saving the president," he said bitterly.
She shook her head. "Even that list doesn't protect you for what you did. But now you're on an even shorter, more special list - the list of people Sylar will sell his soul to protect."
Peter glared up at her, teeth set against each other. "Was it worth it?"
Her eyes were cool as she faced him down. "Definitely." After a long pause, she said, "I understand so much more now."
Peter's hands curled into fists. He bared his teeth, shaking his head slowly. "How do I get him back? There has to be a way - give me another way, aside from another jailbreak." He gestured at the pictures in frustration. He didn't want to be forced into the situation of trading the lives of others for Sylar's freedom, and he knew there was no way he could break him out without risking it.
In a voice gone oddly soft, she said, "Peter, he's a serial killer - a murderer. If I value the law, then why would I let him out?"
"He's changed."
She frowned at him and leaned back in her chair. "Okay. I'll play that game. What if he has?"
"Then he doesn't need to be locked up anymore. You're not keeping anyone safer by it. You're just abridging his rights."
"The point of our penal code isn't rehabilitation. Maybe it is for some countries, but not the US. Try again, Peter."
"You hold him now only by his permission."
"Now that one … with some conditions, I agree with you. But all conditions aside, I have that permission and I'm going to keep on having it as long as you live."
Peter looked at the ceiling. If I could talk to Sylar … it wouldn't do any good. He'd refuse to leave if he thought staying was keeping me safe. "He's not the only special who has killed people in the course of his abilities or of being hunted and harassed by the government. Where does it stop? Where are you drawing the line?"
"I'm drawing the line at breaking the law." She said it like it was so simple. For her, maybe, it was.
But not for Peter. He shook his head. "Specials break the law just by existing."
She pursed her lips. "Okay. Then I'm drawing the line at equality - what I would prosecute anyone for, with an ability or without."
"That's the thing - we're not in the same circumstances as anyone else. We are hunted, harassed, persecuted. We are abducted and experimented on without recourse!" Peter stabbed his finger at the table, years of anger boiling inside of him.
Audrey shook her head. "That's … not always the government, Peter. We're not responsible for-"
"The hell you aren't!" He stood, voice raised. One fist was on the table while the other hand pointed at her. "You intentionally created the circumstances in which they were killed," he snarled, mocking her with her own words. "You have benefitted from it. You have perpetuated it!" He exhaled heavily. "I've been to Coyote Sands. That was a government installation! GOVERNMENT! Our government. Your government. And not just as an accomplice, but they pulled the trigger. They herded people like me together for experimentation and when it went wrong, they killed them - ALL of them! Including children! My mother was there! I've seen the bodies!" He breathed hard, glaring and daring her to deny it.
Audrey was silent, eyes locked with his. Finally, Peter sat down. When she continued to say nothing, Peter looked away, flicking at non-existent dust on the gleaming table top. "The reason the Company was created, and Pinehearst, was to avoid or overcome government persecution." He glanced over at her briefly before looking away again. "Just a few months ago, my brother and Danko spear-headed another government crackdown. You think that hasn't been noticed by specials everywhere? What do you think was spurring on someone like Samuel Sullivan? It was desperation. He would have never had that many people backing him up if they'd had anywhere else they could turn to." He faced her. "Now - now we have another attempt to go public by Claire and what has the government done? Arrested everyone involved, impounded their every possession, and silenced the media." He bared his teeth. "But you can't silence everyone and if you lock up me or Claire, then you lose Sylar. So what are you going to do? Try what happened at Coyote Sands again and murder everyone?"
"They broke the law, Peter." But although Audrey's voice was level, it was softer and less certain than before.
"They broke the law because they're trying to survive." He pursed his lips. "I'm not a lawyer, but I know there are laws out there that allow exceptions. I know when I'm working as an EMT, I'm allowed to do a lot of things - break down doors, move and remove unconscious people without their consent, inject them without a medical release form - things that if I did them without the context of a medical emergency, I'd be put in jail. Now maybe it's illegal to defend yourself against the government, but it shouldn't be. You and I both know that. When the government is acting in a manner contrary to the good of the people, it must be opposed."
She grimaced. "You're not going to go all second amendment gun rights on me, are you?"
"My point is that exceptions can be made."
"For Sylar?" She looked unimpressed.
"Fuck Sylar. For everyone!"
She blinked repeatedly - hard for Peter to tell if it was from the profanity, the disregard it sounded like he had for Sylar, or the concept he was putting forward. "You want me to prosecute … no one?"
"I want a blanket pardon. I want an amnesty. I want a cease fire. I want the government to show us they aren't the enemy. I want it to quit being 'us vs them'!"
"An amnesty," she said dubiously. "Like for illegal immigrants?"
"Yes."
"That doesn't apply if they've broken the law, you know."
"If you don't have our help, how do you think you're going to catch the ones who do break the law? How well did Danko's operation work out for him? Or for any of his team? I've heard they're all dead."
"So's your brother. I heard Sylar killed him," she snapped back vindictively.
That stopped Peter cold for a moment. Sylar really had told her everything. Peter's eyes stung and he rubbed at the tabletop. "You know what? There will never be any investigation of that - no one will ever know the truth. And that's probably how Nathan would have wanted it. Do you really want the sort of conditions where US senators are murdered and no one even notices? Where attacks on the president happen and you can't even tell if it's staged or real? Is that what you want? Because that's what you have right now. I'm offering you a way to change that."
"How will an amnesty change that?"
"It doesn't have to be an amnesty. I also suggested a pardon, like how the president in the Civil War pardoned the troops of the other side. In the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton said that in cases of insurrection or rebellion, a well-timed offer of pardon to the insurgents may restore the peace. That's what I'm talking about."
Her brows rose. "I thought you said you weren't a lawyer."
"I've been studying." Sometimes, it felt like that was all he was doing, his nose buried in articles and legal opinions, coming up for air just to talk to Claire or Cross about the meaning of what he'd absorbed. But sometimes, some of it stuck with him - particularly the parts he thought might be useful.
"Are you saying we have an insurrection on our hands?"
"What do you think?" Peter leaned forward. "I think the world is holding its breath. You just had someone almost - almost - open a sinkhole in New York City that could have devoured the entire metropolitan area. I have held the power to kill millions in a second and in one possible future, billions."
"You?"
"Me. Maybe all I can do today is regenerate, but remember - I can replicate the abilities of others. And that means not only that I could have that power, but that I'm not the only one. I haven't been the only one for any of my powers. Every one of them came from someone else. Don't you realize what that means? It means there are people out there right now who have the ability to kill …" he paused, "so many people that there wouldn't be a government left." Peter searched her eyes. "What I'm saying is that the world is a tinderbox and you keep striking sparks into it. One of these times, it's going to catch."
She lifted her brows again. "I'm going to imprison the wrong man's boyfriend?"
Peter tilted his head and then smiled wryly. "Sylar killed a man for trying to hold him prisoner. I crashed an entire airplane full of people."
She frowned in disapproval. "That's something else you've never been prosecuted for."
"And that I've never sued the government for."
"We had the right at the time." But she didn't look happy about it.
"No. You never had the right. It might have been legal, but you didn't have the right."
She frowned more, but didn't argue. "So what do you want me to do, Peter? Tell the president that you're holding the world hostage in exchange for lover boy?"
"I'm asking for a lot more than him."
"And what do we get in return?"
"If the government dismantles the organizations that are persecuting specials and replaces them with programs to protect and help them, then we might have a chance to survive what's coming." Peter leaned forward. "You've already seen where this is going - specials infiltrating the government, suborned members, assassination attempts - and that's just what you know of. You need us on your side. We need to be included. We need a seat at the table."
"You?"
"No. Not me personally. Claire."
Audrey's brows rose. "She's a kid!"
"She's an adult. Check her records. Her ability keeps her from aging noticeably. She wants to help people. This is her cause more than it's mine. I didn't realize that at first, but it is. You're right that I want Sylar, but it won't be safe for us until it's safe for all of us and that's what Claire wants."
"So let me get this straight - you want a presidential pardon for everyone with an ability, plus some kind of consultancy for your niece?"
Peter frowned. His relationship to Claire was not publicly known. Sylar really had told her everything. "Yes."
Audrey rubbed the bridge of her nose. "You don't think small, do you, Peter?"
"I've been to a future where the world was torn apart by abilities run rampant, uncontrolled. And to another one where I saw tens of thousands of corpses from a few days of collection efforts by what was left of the population of Toronto. You can't think small anymore. This isn't a problem you're going to beat by imprisoning a few bad actors. If you do that, you'll convince people who could have been your allies to be your enemies instead. You need as many allies as you can get right now, because this isn't limited to the US."
Audrey pulled back fractionally, like she hadn't thought of that.
"I've been to Haiti, where we ran into a warlord with an ability who had an army. I've met a man from Japan who could stop time and change the future. In fact, the world we're living in right now is due to things he did and changes he made to the timeline. If it weren't for him, New York City would have been blown up years ago. When I found out about my abilities, I went looking for an Indian scientist who was studying extraordinary powers. If you're just thinking about US citizens, then you're thinking too small. This is a bigger issue and not every government around the world is going to react with oppression. Do you really want some other place to be known as the mecca for people with abilities?"