Nick Fury is my Uncle -COMPLETED-

Chapter Fourteen: Bad TV and the Only Option

Chapter Fourteen: Bad TV and the Only Option

***

Thor: [smiles] I wish I could trust you.

Loki: [whispers] Trust my rage.

-Thor: The Dark World

***

The following days were strange for me. I was alone in the house for most of Thursday and Friday. Rhodes went to work as she usually did. I understood.

I was just a blip in the plan. None of this was about me, I was just a potential problem to be shuttled aside. It almost made me wish that there was some secretive hacker organization out for my blood.

At least then, I might be where Ryder was now and he would be safe. I also was not fond of sitting around by myself with nothing but homework and bad soap operas.

I glanced at the phone several times, severely tempted to call my parents. My real parents. The thing that stopped me was the fact that I could put them in danger. It was the last thing I wanted.

I pondered Ryder’s fate and the information we had found while sitting on the couch with Rhodes cat. Half the time I watched a terrible show called The Dead and the Gone which featured zombie vampires, the other half of the time I sort of did my homework.

Eventually I acknowledged the fact that solving for square roots wasn’t doing much for me. Rhodes came home late and found me still parked in front of the TV, most of the way through Season 2.

She turned it off.

“Hey,” I said half-heartedly, “We were just about to figure out if Rosalind had been turned or not.”

“This is more interesting,” Rhodes promised, sinking into the beanbag chair across from me. Huey hopped into her lap and started purring.

“What is it?” I asked eagerly.

“This is about Ryder’s extraction plan,” confided Rhodes, “I can’t tell you much, but I can tell you that it’s going to happen three weeks from now. We need to move fast.”

“Of course we do,” I said. “In three weeks Ryder could be dead.”

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” said Rhodes, shaking her head with a smile. “I am collaborating with a sixteen year old on a plan to save a superhuman boy along with two world-renowned heroes. This is crazy.”

“Welcome to my life,” I mumbled.

Rhodes stood and moved toward the kitchen. I followed her. “We’ll meet Captain America tomorrow, and then we’ve got to start planning. This has got to be foolproof, or we are all going to get killed. Remember, this is Loki we’re up against.”

The thought made me sick. I was aware that what I was doing was insane, but I was tired of feeling helpless. I was going to do something. Deep down, I knew there was something up with Fury.

It was only a feeling, but I was getting vibes that Fury didn’t want Ryder back at all. He wanted Ryder gone, yes, but he did not want Ryder back.

Suddenly, I had a burst of inspiration.

“So do you want Thai or Chinese?” asked Rhodes rifling through her drawer of take-out menus.

“Neither,” I said breathlessly. “We’ve got to get our hands on the files for Project Delphi. We need to figure out what is so special about Ryder.”

****

Ryder was not sure how much time had passed from within his prison. His normal sleeping and eating patterns had been disrupted. In fact, if he hadn’t had Loki’s blood in him, he probably would’ve been dead from dehydration by now.