Carter's War - 36. Chapter 36

Will felt like shit, he sat at his computer in the basement staring blankly at a spreadsheet that no longer held any meaning. Six thousand employees across Canada, six thousand lives. Family men that supported their children. Single mothers dependant on their pay cheques to keep going from day to day. Kids fresh out of college. Old men literally days from their retirement who had given most of their lives to Avery-Woods. Each one had a face, had a name, and had a life.

And Will sat there watching their lives come to an end.

He had been sitting there all night staring at that spreadsheet, the coffee was stale and burnt after hours of being reheated, but Will drank it anyway. He needed to think, to rationalize what would possess a man to drive so hard for something that he didn't care what he did to achieve it. He had never had that passion, never faced it, he did his job and tried to stay ahead of the game, but the game was driving him into the ground.

Robert Avery was more than a boss, he was a mentor. Everything about him inspired trust, confidence and loyalty. He had seen something in Will and had guided him. But now when Avery needed help, there was nothing Will could do.

He sat there watching everything Robert had striven for come to an end.

He should be yawning, blinking back sleep. Instead he sat there paralysed, locked inside his own thoughts, looking at a list of names and feeling responsible for each of them. Just like he was responsible for the young man upstairs.

Marc had been dragged into the middle of the mess by happenstance. He was nothing more than collateral damage in Weippert's war against Avery. Marc's life splintering under the pressure of everything that was bearing down upon him. He had gone from being a happy, carefree young man, to one with dark circles under his eyes staring at a bag of cocaine for the answers.

And still Will sat there, watching one young man's existence come to an end.

Will's eyes flicked to the bag of cocaine sitting on the edge of the desk next to Lucas's automatic. Drugs and guns.

He was sitting there watching his own life come to an end.

What could he do about it though? He wasn't a media mogul and he wasn't a police officer. He was just a Director of Human Resource at a communications firm. He hired and fired people. He did as he was told, he processed papers, and he added and removed names from a list. He wasn't anyone.

But at the end of the day, there was no one else. Robert was helpless, struggling to protect his family but giving up his dreams. Marc was self-destructing. And the names on that list in front of him had no idea what was happening.

That left him.

He kneaded his temples with his fingers. So much for saving the day, he wasn't a hero. Weippert had lied, cheated, and stolen to manipulate them into his trap. He had them; there was no proof against him, nothing that would convict him in any court of law.

There were no rules to the game, what ever you could get away with you did. Will had learned that lesson the hard way. Being a player meant you did what you had to do.

He set his coffee cup down; they had been playing Weippert's game, by Weippert's rules. In his arrogance he had just assumed no one would play dirty. Like any bully, they were so confident that they could intimidate people in submission.

He murmured what he had told Robert before everything had begun, "knock 'em down once and if they get back up, put them down again."

He stood up and walked back to the coffee pot, adding coffee grounds and water as a plan began to form in his mind. He would need help, that much he knew, but who could he rely on?

"That fresh coffee?" Brody asked as he walked into the kitchen, readying himself for one of his meetings.

Will hadn't even noticed the dawn; the sun shining as spring finally took hold. He looked out of the window a moment at the street, and nodded. "Yeah it should be ready soon..." he stopped and looked at the man that would always be there to help him. "Brody, I am going to need your help."

Brody paused his pouring of milk onto a bowl of cereal, "Yeah?" he asked, a note of caution in his voice.

Will took a tight breath, "I am going to need you to help me do something..."

"Is it sketchy?" Brody asked finishing pouring his milk and setting it back into the fridge.

"Yeah." Will replied simply.

"Are we going to get caught?" Brody sat down at the table and looked at his friend.

Will shrugged, "I don't know."

"Okay." Jared said, "Should I be worried?"

Will explained his plan. Brody sat for a moment digesting it, before nodding, "Cool, alright dude when?"

Will shook his head, "tomorrow night, I have a few other people to see first."

Brody nodded again, "sure, hey what's the worst that can happen, we all go to jail and I get to be someone's prison bitch." He rolled his eyes, "How do I get involved in these nefarious schemes?"

Will smiled, that was one.

* * *

The Jeep rattled its way along the road, bouncing through the potholes that were forming as the ground beneath the road thawed after winter. The last time Will had been down in the bluff's he had been shot at. It wasn't a pleasant memory, he sat tight lipped and tense as he drove, occasionally looking over at Marc in the passenger seat.

The young man was unusually quiet, contemplative and Will left him alone. It had been a rough few days on all of them, and after last night Will couldn't blame Marc for being silent. But Will missed the cocky young man that had walked up to him on a street corner and boldly asked him for weed. Will hoped that letting the kid help in the plan would go a long way to restoring the confidence that had been lost.

Will pulled the Jeep over to the side of the road and turned in his seat to face Marc. "You sure you want to be a part of this?" he asked softly.

Marc sighed tiredly as he slumped back into the seat, looking over at Will, who's hair had fallen from it's usual swept back style, it made him look so much younger, more his own age... "Bastard tried to kill Libbet."

Will studied him a moment, "But are you up to it?"

Marc turned knowing what Will was asking, "You want to know if you can count on me after last night..."

"Can I?"

Marc turned back to look over the lake, "I... don't know what I was doing last night, I just...needed to escape."

"I know."

"But you stopped me," he shook his head, "Knight in shining armour and shit. And here you are doing the same thing for other people, you can count on me." His green eyes flicked back to meet Will's, "What ever you need."

Will sat quietly as he watched Marc's body language, "I'm not going anywhere." He said after a pause.

"What?" Marc asked in some confusion.

Will shrugged, "You need my help just as much as anyone else, I'm telling you I'm not going anywhere if you want to talk about it."

Marc shivered noticeably, "Yeah I know, I don't know why though. What did I do to..." he shrugged, "why?"

Will shrugged, "It's my thing, that and sarcasm." He smiled, "and you just need someone you can depend on."

Marc, on impulse leaned across the Jeep and kissed Will, "You love me." He said realizing it for the first time.

"Something like that." Will said with a smile as he started the Jeep again, "Lets get this over with."

* * *

The Jeep pulled up outside the general store and Will got out, shifting his coat as he looked about him. It was still early, and he was relieved to see the store was open, ready to catch people on their way to work. He looked at Marc who stood on the other side of the Jeep looking uneasy. He remembered all to well the last time they were there.

Tyrone was working the cash register and didn't seem to notice Will as he walked through the aisles, and crossed to the counter. He helped himself to a mug of coffee and reached into his pocket for some change.

Tyrone's eyes widened when he looked up to see who was handing him the money. A moment of flashed tension between them as he recognized Will, and he looked nervously around him.

"What do you want?" he demanded as he rang up the coffee.

Will took a deep breath. "Your dad needs your help."

"He can go to hell." Tyrone replied as he slammed Will's' change back onto the counter top, "Now get out of my store."

Will shook his head as he methodically drew out Lucas's automatic and laid it on the counter alongside the change, "Some one tried to kill your little sister the other night."

Tyrone stared down at the pistol recognizing it, and he looked up at Will, "Lucas?"

Will shook his head, "His father."

"What? Why?" Tyrone glanced about him again as he reached out for a magazine and covered the pistol before anyone walked in from the street and saw it.

Will sighed, "He's trying to get your Father to sign control of his company over to him."

Tyrone's hands tightened into balls, "That fucking company again!" he swore loudly, "It killed Mom, drove me out of the house, and now its going to kill Libbet." He uttered a string of profanity, "And what, this son of a bitch is threatening Libbet if he doesn't do it?"

Will nodded.

"Then my father should just give it to him." Tyrone exclaimed angrily, "Or is his damn company more important than Libbet's life?"

Will squared his shoulders, "Your father wants to do it."

Tyrone paused studying Will's face, "Your serious aren't you?" he shook his head incredulously, "He was going to give up everything just to make sure she's ok."

Will stood impassively and inclined his head in assent, "Yes."

Tyrone shook his head in utter disbelief, thinking the situation over, "just like that, he's letting someone win." He sighed, "and he wants my help... why didn't he ask me himself?"

"Because I'm asking you, he doesn't even know I'm here." Will set his mug of coffee down, "you can stop this, and make sure this son of a bitch never touches any of your family ever again."

Tyrone nodded, "How?"

Will explained. Tyrone listened intently, glancing over at Marc who nodded along.

"Alright, I'll help." He said after Will had finished, "but I have a condition."

Will nodded, "alright."

Tyrone lifted the magazine to show the automatic, "No guns. If he pulls a gun I will put him down and put him down hard, but no guns, got it?"

Will nodded, "No guns."

Tyrone rolled his shoulders, "Good."