Relief was palpable in Rainieâ€™s stance at Nathanâ€™s reaction. He wasnâ€™t with them, obviously. A laugh escaped her, but it was sort of breathless. She was still shaken about learning Aareagow was still alive. And still rather angry about it.<br/><br/>At Nathanâ€™s proclaimed dislike of everything violent, her brow creased and her mouth tilted up at a corner in an incredulous grin. â€œHow the heck did you survive this long...â€ It wasnâ€™t so much a question, but an aloud thought. He must have been extremely lucky to avoid the Virus and all the Infected for so long. She hadnâ€™t realized sheâ€™d actually said it aloud and realized that it would probably offend him. However, before she could correct it, the radios crackled again.<br/><br/>It was Aareagow again. The signal was worse this time. "â€¦Rainie my dear. Howâ€™s thatâ€¦wound doing? â€¦shot inâ€¦chest canâ€™tâ€¦â€¦â€¦recovered especially from my sniperâ€¦.Soâ€¦â€¦â€¦my men were right inâ€¦â€¦.me you survived that.... Such a shame.â€<br/><br/>Rainieâ€™s hand drifted to her chest, recalling the night Aareagow spoke of. She and her partners were planning to apprehend Aareagow, and infiltrated his hideout at midnight. They had downed three of his men â€“ well, she had, she had been the quietest out of the five â€“ with silenced shots. Then a sniper had gotten a lucky shot. With an armor-piercing round. Her partners had stupidly aborted the mission to rush her to a hospital.<br/><br/>Her eyes tightened as she touched the scar through her shirt. In the valley of her breasts and slightly to the right, there was a small white circular scar with lines stretching from it like some grotesque star. She hated that man.<br/><br/>The rest of the transmission was nothing but static and random sounds that could have resembled words. Gunshots, static, a snap, more static, a crack, some curse words, and more static.<br/><br/>Rainie dropped her hand and looked at her brother, and noticed with a start that he looked livid. She tried to recall anything that could have angered him, and narrowed it down quite easily. Rainie had been in the hospital after that night for three weeks. Her parents had received a call that their daughter had been shot in the chest and in was critical condition. They didnâ€™t think to mention that the bullet had missed her heart and she had been conscious and cursing up a storm at her stupid partners for aborting the mission.<br/><br/>Of course they all had come down to the city. Of course they had brought Adrian. And of course he and her father had been livid with bloodthirsty rage. She hadnâ€™t told them who had done it, only allowed a few details that would roughly explain what happened. She didnâ€™t tell them who sheâ€™d been chasing, or the kind of weaponry they had.<br/><br/>It was after Rainie had gotten shot that Adrian decided he wanted to be a police officer.<br/><br/>And now he knew who had done it, their location, and that they were likely injured. His jaw was tight and his eyes looked menacing. Unlike Rainieâ€™s eyes that sparked and blazed with anger, Adrianâ€™s seemed to just freeze over. Like a thick sheet of ice over magma.<br/><br/>He spoke through grinding teeth. â€œSo it was him.â€ He placed the radio heâ€™d taken from Rainie next to the larger unit with a gentleness that contradicted his anger. â€œAnd he knows your name.â€ Adrian was purposefully not looking directly at her.<br/><br/>Rainie took a step back. â€œHis men heard one of my partners say it.â€ She explained.<br/><br/>Adrian nodded once calmly. â€œWhat does he look like?â€<br/><br/>Rainie shook her head. â€œYou are<span style="font-style: italic">not</span>going after him. Not because itâ€™s too dangerous, I just donâ€™t want to deal with it. Letâ€™s just go.â€ Rainie had decided roughly five minutes ago that she and Adrian werenâ€™t going anywhere near these guys on the radios.<br/><br/>Adrian was about to disagree, but the radios interrupted him once again. A transmission from the first one, Sierra-India-something-something-Alpha. Sierra-India apparently intended to assist Aareagow, and told Rainie to pretty much sit tight. Adrian watched Rainie massage her temples. She had a headache. She walked over to wear he stood and looked over Nathanâ€™s radio. She pulled the mike to her and tapped it twice, noting that there wasnâ€™t any sound. She quickly realized it wasnâ€™t plugged in, so she corrected that swiftly. It was already on the correct frequency, so she didnâ€™t touch the dial. She tapped the mike again and got the resounding echo that meant it was on.<br/><br/>â€œI do not recommend assisting Aareagow, Sierra-India.â€ She said into it curtly. â€œFour-Two-Four-One-Seven, signing off.â€ With that, she shut off the unit, as well as the handheld.<br/><br/>â€œWe are officially ignoring them.â€ She announced to the room. Adrian still looked on edge, and the overall atmosphere of this whole thing had been severely screwed up. How could something get this confusing in a manner of hours. Yesterday it was just her and Adrian and Kai, slumming it in a borrowed apartment, wondering why they were still doing this. Now here they were, with no Kai, a charming guy who probably had the most sublime luck in the world, a soldier saving the man who nearly had her killed years before, and still they asked themselves what the hell was the point of all of it.