And now I’ve been gone for so long
I can’t remember who was wrong
All innocence is long gone
I pledge allegiance to a world of disbelief
Where I belong
On a mission nowhere bound
Inhibitions underground
A shallow grave I
Have dug all by myself
– Walking Disaster, Sum 41

---

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Maslak Lab: Rear Entrance

Luke waited by the door, his eye trained on the pair of white vans parked in the alley. The shift change lasted ten minutes. All they needed was the security system to blink out and they’d be on their way—

“Any time now, Cowboy,” Luke murmured.

“Patience is a virtue,” came the tense reply through the ear piece. “Thirty seconds.”

Luke clenched his teeth, then looked at the security alarm just inside the door, barely visible through the clear pane of glass. The light still blinked red.

“That’s thirty and counting—”

“That’s not very encouraging. Shut up and let me work.”

And then the light blipped green. Luke snagged the door handle and tugged.

Game on.

Istanbul Airport: Departures

With the flight time and time difference, they would land in New York only two hours after they’d left. But that still meant ten hours in the air without any idea what was going on the ground beneath them. Jason hated being out of touch. But if Valentin was going to do something, wouldn’t he have already done it?

“A few minutes,” Drew said, returning from the desk. “We’ll be able to board then.” He focused on the view of the city outside the large, plate-glass window overlooking the runaways. “I know there’s not really a reason to stay, but it feels like we’re leaving something unfinished.”

“I know.” Jason hesitated. “There’s something that’s been bothering me. Something I’ve thought of a few times, but I didn’t want to bring it up. I knew Elizabeth and Laura wouldn’t   agree.”

“What?”

“Cassadines. Elizabeth said once that for them, death was only the beginning.” Jason paused. “What’s the one thing that Luke and Lucky might want to keep quiet? Even from Laura?”

Drew stilled. “You’re talking about Nikolas.”

“You were there in Greece, weren’t you? They never found his body. They never found mine. Here I am. You disappeared in a desert without a body.”

“Yeah. Yeah.” His brother grimaced. “I just—I don’t know. It’s…do you think they’d keep this from Laura?”

“Do I think Luke would lie to her if he thought he was doing the right thing? Yeah. Without question. But it might explain Lucky turning on him. Maybe he doesn’t like it.”

“I don’t—” Drew waited a moment. “It was crazy back then, you know? We found out about Nikolas’s role in Hayden’s shooting, and I was so furious about what he’d done. The lies he’d told. Dragging Elizabeth into it. And then he was suing ELQ and freezing the assets. I went to confront him on Spoon Island, and he faked his death. Pretended to have thrown himself out the window. I think he was going to frame me for his death.”

“I didn’t—” Jason blinked. “No one told me any of this.”

“It was a long five years.” Drew dragged a hand down his face. “It was around this time I think Maddox screwed with my head again. I was in the hospital after an accident, and I woke up with my memories restored, or at least I thought so. Then the thing on the island happened. Sam and I tracked Nikolas and Ava—not sure how she got involved—to Greece. We were going to force him back to clear my name. Then Laura and Kevin showed up. Lulu, too. And Valentin shows up to take us hostage. He was using a different name back then — Theo. Theo Hart.”

Drew sat back against the chair. “He put me and Sam in another room with a guard. By the time we got out and back to where the others were, Nikolas was gone. Supposedly dead. Ava said he’d signed papers turning the Cassadine fortune over Valentin, and when Valentin was going to kill them anyway, Nikolas jumped him, and he ended up going over the side.”

“But Ava’s the only one who was in the room? Where were the rest of them?”

“I don’t remember now. Uh, we looked for his body. But the drop—the ocean was below—we just—it didn’t make sense, I guess. And Laura believed—and we agreed—that Valentin was a threat to Spencer, too. Nikolas wouldn’t have left Spencer in harm’s way. He was the only Cassadine left standing, the real heir. Until that will showed up. If Nikolas faked his death again, I don’t—” He pressed his lips together. “I don’t know.”

He looked at Jason. “You’re right. Laura and Elizabeth wouldn’t buy it. They’d argue that he’d never stay gone for this long. And I have to wonder if they have a point. Why let Valentin go for so long? Why leave Spencer unprotected? What’s the point? We’re going on two years since Greece.”

“If Nikolas came back, wouldn’t there be charges in that shooting you talked about?”

“Not worth pursuing,” Drew said. “Not unless you want Elizabeth charged as an accomplice.” He paused. “I was so angry with her back then, but now I think—I wonder if she was scared. If some part of her wondered what he’d do to her if she turned him in and told the truth. He nearly killed Hayden to keep the lie going.”

“I didn’t realize how bad things were with Nikolas by the time he disappeared.”

“No, Elizabeth wouldn’t have told you any of that. She’s still convinced that there was something else at work there. Some secret war he was waging against Helena. You know how she is. Believe the best about everyone until there’s no choice. I mean, hell, she dated Franco.”

Jason grimaced, looked away. “Yeah, I know. That’s why I didn’t bring it up with her. Not seriously. Elizabeth told me the same thing about Spencer. But I can’t think of another reason Luke and Lucky would be so secretive.”

“Me either. And we’ve been asking ourselves why Faison would want you awake, and Obrecht would want to stop him. But doesn’t Britt’s story work a little better if Nikolas is involved?”

Jason considered that, exhaled in a low breath. “You’re saying Nikolas is the one that sent Britt to Russia. And Obrecht stopped her.”

“Because you coming home unravels everything, including Obrecht’s role in any of it. Britt is what connects the Spencers to any of this. Everything makes sense if it’s Nikolas behind it.”

“We’re going to need more a gut feeling,” Jason told him. “Elizabeth might be ready to consider it, but I doubt Laura will.”

Drew glanced over as the flight attendant motioned towards them. “We can talk strategy on the flight home. Let’s get out of here.”

Maslak Lab: Rear Entrance

Lucky tapped his fingers against the steering wheel, watching the back door like a hawk. In five minutes, the security system would reset, and they’d be screwed. In seven minutes, the shift change would be complete, and if his father wasn’t—

Then the back door flew open, and a stretcher was wheeled out, Luke at one end and the orderly he’d paid off at the other. And on the stretcher—

Well, holy hell. Stefan Cassadine was actually alive.

Lucky barely had time to take in the older man’s features before he was being loaded into the white van. “Come on, come on,” Lucky murmured. Tie the stretcher down, close the doors. Get in. Drive away. Lucky couldn’t do any damn thing until his father was gone.

The orderly took off down the alley way — smart man, fleeing the scene of the crime.

Luke whipped around the side and slid into the driver’s seat. Then peeled away, tires squealing as the van raced towards the main street.

“Ten, nine—” Lucky watched the rear door carefully. “Eight. Seven. Six—”

When he’d reached one, he took off, following his father’s wake. Just as he turned out of the alley way — he saw a car pull out of a garage next to the building.

“And here I was thinking we’d made a clean get away.” He pressed his foot on the gas pedal and kicked it into gear, following the first white van until Luke pulled into the first of their warehouse stops. Lucky pulled behind him — then kept driving right through while Luke’s van waited in the shadows—

“Well, Cowboy?” Luke’s voice came through the ear piece. “They just passed me—”

Lucky flicked his eyes to the rear view mirror, saw headlights behind him. “Yeah, yeah. They’re on me. Go!”

“See you at the airport.”

Lucky yanked the ear piece out — it was bothering his damn ear, and turned the van abruptly, starting his twisting and winding journey to the second warehouse where he’d exchange this jalopy for the sports car.

And finish the escape.

Atatürk Airport: Terminal 230A

It had consumed nearly every resource and contact Nikolas had in the area, but he’d managed to book a private terminal at the much smaller airport located near the Sea of Marmara. Though international and domestic flights still used the area, the larger airports had taken much of the traffic.

At this time of night, just before seven in the evening, the gate area had been largely deserted. Nikolas had purposely requested a gate at the end of the long departure terminal. He paced the small waiting area, avoiding the curious eyes of the flight attendant behind the desk.

He checked his phone, as he had obsessively since the operation had commended an hour earlier, watching as the dots representing Lucky in one car and Luke in the other drew closer to the clinic, then sat there, idling — meaning that they’d begun the extraction process.

Then the dots pulled away, one after another. With his chest tight, the dots continued to travel together until they stopped — one dot kept going, twisting and turning, and another made the turn south.

Nikolas exhaled slowly. Phase one complete.

Now he just had to hope his brother was able to escape whatever tail he’d picked up and get to the airport.

← Chapter 72 | Chapter 74 →