Targeted

[Ashi]

Claire's dark brows furrowed at the computers in front of her. Of course the computers themselves couldn't hurt them, it was the people on the other end of the net that she was worried about. There were lots of sick people out there who made their livings off of ruining lives through hacking others' information, not withstanding the Trust. They certainly weren't dumb; although, it was really Kilmont who was the brains of the operation. Without her, the Trust was just a band of thugs with no sense of direction. Silently, Claire thought there was always the possibility of a bomb or something being planted in the computer if there was one small enough, as remote (and far-fetched) as it was.

"This is all... math." Claire observed, her statement sounding more like a question. She followed Clark's directions closely, glancing between their screens to make sure she was on the right track. "It's not that I doubt my own intelligence; it's more like, will I be able to remember all of this in a stressful situation? Fighting comes down to muscle memory, computers are different. Throwing a punch will become automatic, codes won't." She sighed and combed her fingers through her hair. "Right, the language.." Claire stood from the table as Clark made for the recliner. She smirked, amused, and crossed her arms.

"Well, we could still go out and do something, but only on the property." Inwardly she thought to herself that they needed to take Randy's body out and burn and bury it, but that wasn't the type of thing Clark was talking about. "Why, Mr. Walton, you make it sound like you're a lightweight." Claire teased. Of course, he was probably right. As soon as they took a moment to truly relax, the Trust would come along and ruin their little peace of mind. Perhaps it was best not to get wasted, though. There were other things that could happen, other exigent circumstances that might demand immediately sobriety.

"We have an internet connection. We could bootleg a movie?" Claire suggested. Even she, for all her speech of the law and justice, was not beyond downloading a movie off of the internet. There was a line between doing so for one's own entertainment and doing so in order to sell the movie and make money. She was not the latter sort. "A glass of wine and a movie sounds.. pretty damn good. Hell, let's check the TV cabinet for DVD's. Surely, Randy had something to watch besides shitty local cable all the time he was out here." She crossed the room to the cabinet and flung it open, kneeling down to rummage through it. "Knowing him, it's probably all porn." She muttered though not inaudibly as she pulled a disc to look at it. It was a diminutive-looking DVD-R with Randy's chicken-scratch handwriting on it.

"'Pizzaman?' Definitely porn." Claire tossed the disc over her shoulder onto the floor. "Hey, maybe we can use these as targets to shoot at or set them on fire?" She threw another disc titled "Sleepover Fun." "Damn, I was mostly joking. I didn't think he actually watched this kind of stuff. What kind of janky shit is this, anyway? 'Roadtrip?' It sounds so cheesy and generic." She sneered in disgust, but something niggled at her that just didn't feel right. "It's almost... too generic, don't you think?" Claire glanced at Clark, wondering if there was something more to these DVD's.

 

[MST3K 4ever]

The idea of going out was still very tempting to Clark, but much like getting sauced he could just imagine that they go out start having a good time and then suddenly several red dots appear all over Claire, and Clark ends up either pulling her to the ground to avoid gunfire or he ends up knocked out. Not to mention if they were in the local papers with a bounty on their heads all it would take is one observant bystander somewhere, and then all Hell would be breaking loose. Clark was starting to despise the "living in a fishbowl" existence that he and Claire would probably be involved with for the foreseeable future.

Clark said, "A bootleg movie? Why Miss Bennett, are you suggesting we violate Copyright Law? Look, I'm willing to go in on killing Vice President Kilmont, but illegal movies…" Clark shook his head and said, "I am sorry that is where I draw the line." Clark smirked as he watched Claire walk across the room to the DVD collection. Randy's choices of DVD left something to be desired and Clark was feeling a bit uncomfortable with the title selections. He was willing to do a lot of things with Claire watching porn was nowhere on that list. Clark rolled his eyes and shook his head as he said, "Suddenly a bootleg movie is starting to sound better and better."

Then Claire gave Clark that "look" of "I think there's a clue here." Clark was not about to disregard Claire's suggestion, because not only was she brilliant when it came to things like this but also it seemed like something Randy would do. Clark barely knew him but hiding information like this just seemed so him. Clark walked over to Claire and said, "Not exactly the kind of thing that they would do on 'Scooby-Doo' but…." He raised his eyebrows and said, "It's plausible to say the least." Clark looked at Claire and said, "Only one way to find out." He grabbed the first DVD Claire tossed out and put it in the DVD player. Clark said, "What we watch right now we watch strictly for the sake of trying to find out information." Clark thought for a moment and said, "About The Trust and Kilmont and all that. Not about…ummm…well…." He rolled his eyes and said, "Whatever, we're both adults let's get this over with."

Clark cut on the TV and started the movie. The words "New York City" appeared in big white letters on the screen. It started out in a Pizza Shop and then things progressed quickly to an apartment scene that included a woman who had other ideas on how to pay for her pizza. This made Clark bow his head and try not to look at the screen. He said, "Okay I'm starting to think a shoot-out with The Trust right now seems like a lot of fun." Clark raised up the remote to turn off the DVD player, but his finger hit the audio button. The next sound they heard was Randy's voice coming out of the TV as the apartment scene was going on. Randy said, "Kilmont is the first woman within The Trust to…" Clark paused the DVD at a rather awkward moment as the freeze frame of two people continuing the "compensation" for their pizza filled the screen. Clark cut off the TV and said, "Claire, Randy recorded information on a separate audio channel." Clark thought for a moment and then it hit him. He said, "Earlier when Randy stated that he had stuff stashed all over the U.S. he didn't mean literally he meant..."

Clark sprang from the sofa to the laptop Randy had been using and brought up the map he showed them. Clark said, "Okay he's got 12 DVDs in there that are hand written and there are 12 spots on this map. How much you want to bet the next DVD in this link is set in Philadelphia?" Clark smiled and started to head back over, but then cut back over to Claire and kissed her. He said, "You're not only gorgeous and a kickass agent, but you're brilliant Claire." Clark grabbed the DVD called "Sleepover fun" and put it in the player. The DVD started and the words "Philadelphia, PA." came across the screen and Clark switched it to the separate audio channel and Randy's voice once again came out. He said, "As I explained in the first DVD The Trust is a solid entity, but it does have weaknesses. It's number one weakness is that there are human beings involved and they can have their own agenda. You find the right people they can be exploited." Clark cut off the DVD and went over to the desk. He pulled out several pieces of paper and a pen. Clark put them on the coffee table and said, "Here's the plan we watch…." Clark rolled his eyes and said, "I feel like I'm one of those guys who always said, 'Really honey I'm reading it just for the articles.' Anyway, we take down the information that might be important and go from there." Clark looked at the TV and then back to Claire and said, "We can turn the brightness and contrast down so that we just have to listen." Clark finally settled down and said, "I know this isn't your idea of fun, and it's not mine either Claire, but frankly I'm ready to go to war with these mothers and get on with our lives post Trust."

With that Clark got up and reloaded the DVD player with the first DVD. He turned down the picture to where it was a black screen, and then cut on the audio channel. Clark sat back down and Randy's voice filled the room once again. Randy said, "You two picked up on my clue about the map and how it relates to my dvd collection. Good work, I knew you two would make a great pairing my only regret is that I won't be there to see you two take 'em out. All right enough of the pep-talk its time to get to work…" Clark looked over at Claire and gave her quick wink as Randy went into great detail about the history of The Trust on the first DVD.

 

[Ashi]

Claire watched as Clark put in the first disc. "New York" appeared on the screen over a bird's-eye-view of the city and moved into the pizza shop. It progressed quickly to the woman offering sex as payment for the pizza; the characters really didn't waste any time. Claire wrinkled her nose at the picture, repulsed and uncomfortable. Clark must have felt the same way as he raised the remote to turn off the TV. Instead of the screen going black, Randy's voice started to come from the speakers. "A separate audio channel?" Claire repeated. The picture on screen was still the sex scene, but the sound was Randy explaining about the Trust.

"Well, damn.." She breathed in disbelief. The thing about the DVD's was just a hunch, but to think that it would actually amount to something! Claire blushed when Clark kissed her though she didn't understand why. Perhaps it was due to the lavish compliment? Whatever the reason, she smiled. The next DVD was indeed set in Philadelphia as Clark guessed. On the screen, a group of girls were having a slumber party; and one thought it would be a good idea to call over some guy friends since no one else was home. This too progressed almost instantaneously. Claire averted her eyes, listening to Randy continuing his explanation from the first DVD.

"Randy had some strange tastes." Claire joked, finally able to look again once Clark stopped the film. "No, it's certainly not, but I'm with you. I want to wipe the Trust off the map." She affirmed. The idea of adjusting the lighting of the screen was a good one and it proved sufficient in getting rid of the awkwardness. Claire went to the kitchen as Randy's audio started from the beginning, returning a moment later with two glasses of wine. "A little drink won't hurt." She smiled and handed Clark a glass as she sat back down on the sofa.

Randy went into great detail about the Trust in his lengthy explanation. He spoke of the history of the Trust, Kilmont, and more importantly, how to defeat them. It wasn't going to be easy - far from it, in fact. There was at least one upside though, they wouldn't need a plane to fly all over the country now. Each DVD they went through only added to Claire's motivation to defeat the Trust and Kilmont. The difference between now and the beginning of all of this was that, now, they had a means of doing so. Claire stood as the last DVD ended and looked at Clark.

"There's a lot of work to do to get ready. Start planning; I have something to take care of." Claire said and headed for the basement. Randy's body was a great deal decomposed, the sight made Claire's stomach lurch. She swallowed hard, steeling herself, and moved to open the cellar doors leading outside. After acquiring the yellow rubber gloves from under the kitchen sink, Claire dragged Randy outside. It was dark and very hard to see with only the light of the stars to illuminate the grounds, but she took Randy out to where the expanse of dirt between where the gravel road ended and the grassy lot began. It was here that Claire started to dig with the shovel conveniently found in the cellar.

Once the hole was deep enough, Claire rolled Randy's body in and tossed in his emptied gun. With a splash of lighter fluid, Claire lit the lighter and dropped it into the hole. It was instantly lit up, black smoke billowing almost invisibly against the dark sky. She sat and watched the flames a while before she was forced to put them out at the approach of dawn. She filled the hole in and smoothed it over as best she could.

 

[MST3K 4ever]

As the night went on Clark was writing furiously and hardly even thinking about what was going on behind the darkened screen, His mind did wander occasionally after all he was only human, but for the most part it was all business for him. Clark sipped the glass of wine upon occasion as well, but he did want to do anything that might dull his senses. Clark knew that once the last DVD was done that they would have to destroy the information on the DVDs, the computer, and they would eventually have to destroy the notes as well. In some cases he and Claire could suffer information overload, but not in this case. Each bit of information was putting them a step closer to taking The Trust down once and for all. This would be information that neither one of them would forget. Their lives were depending upon every word that Randy said through the night. The preverbal "Morning After" or life without the trust was not of their concern right now. Clark wanted The Trust to suffer in ways that no ordinary human being could understand, and he knew Claire well enough that she wanted this as well.

After the last DVD and Claire left the room Clark gathered up the DVDs and went into the kitchen. He would break each one into three pieces, cut on the garbage disposal, and start feeding the garbage disposal. The grating sound was less than pleasant on the ears, but it was the only way to be sure that if The Trust ever found this place that the information on the DVDs was destroyed. Clark looked out the window as he saw Claire burying Randy. He chose not to say anything or do anything that would interfere with Claire at this time. This was a private matter for her and this was starting to bring closure to her former life. Clark's closure started the minute Kilmot published the story about Gary's death and the implications that he and Claire were responsible for his death. There was no going back for him now. Clark had accepted that but it didn't mean he liked it. Sure, he and his family weren't always the closest group but they had each other's back and they did care for one another for the most part. That was now over for Clark and he looked away from the window as he continued feeding the disposal.

Once the disposal had finished Clark walked over to the laptop with the information on it. He took off the cover, pulled out the Hard Drive, walked over to the sink, got out a bottle of vinegar and got the bottle of wine from earlier in the evening, and poured a good portion of the bottles over it. They were acids and they began to destroy the Hard Drive within minutes. The discs began to turn white, the metal turned bronze, and once it was done. Clark took a meat tenderizer and hit it twice. He then took the broken pieces and once again the garbage disposal did its work.

When the disposal was done Clark walked to the front porch and saw that Claire had just finished burying Randy. He walked over to her and said, "I'm pretty sure I just voided the warranty on the garbage disposal, but on the bright side the information on the computer and DVDs are now destroyed. When we get ready to make our move against The Trust we'll take care of the paperwork." Clark looked over at Claire and said, "I think I have a first step in terms of how to get things moving. If you recall Senator Adam Kramer is a part of The Trust, not a big part mind you, but a part nonetheless. Anyway, he wants to be a big part of it we can use that to our advantage. Gary was counting on Kramer in making him a part of it, so maybe we can use that to our advantage. Like Randy noted, human beings have agendas and desires we can use his desire for power against him." Clark took a bit of deep breath, closed his eyes, and exhaled as he said, "I have other ideas, but right now I am so wiped out my mind is kind of fuzzy." He looked back to Claire, took the shovel from her hands, and took it back into the house. Clark came back out, put his arm around Claire and said, "Come on, it's been a long night. Some sleep, not just rest, but some sleep will do us some good right now." As he said this Clark was realizing that they were taking in a beautiful sunrise. It had been a long time since he just watched the sunrise, and to Clark this sunrise represented a new day for he and Claire. They had what they needed to make life difficult for The Trust, and they were now putting it altogether.

 

[Ashi]

Claire stood watching the last puffs of smoke wafting away from the newly-covered grave, shovel in hand. There was a strange feeling in her chest, like a weight had been placed on it that was slowly and steadily growing heavier. This was more than burying a friend, a partner; it was the final good-bye to life as she knew it. While the chance to turn back had long since passed, it was finally settling in that it was all over. At the beginning, she thought that she would at least still have Randy when all was said and done, that there would be some semblance of normalcy. That couldn't be further from the truth. Even if he wasn't dead, there would have been no Randy because he would be in the same boat, hiding and fighting to survive against an insane secret society hellbent on ruling the world.

"Doesn't matter. The place is gonna go up in flames once we're gone." Claire turned to Clark as he approached, speaking about the garbage disposal. She had been planning too, while digging; she was planning to burn the cabin. That way, any evidence of her and Clark's presence would be destroyed. It would take years for the authorities to make a case. She visually perked up in interest at the mention of Kramer as the first step to taking down the trust and immediately began contemplating different courses of action. Torture didn't work so well on Greg, so what could they possibly do to get this guy to talk? Would manipulating his desire for power truly be enough?

"I surely hope so, because I don't have any more drugs to spike drinks with." There was an air of grim humor to Claire's words as she recalled the shenanigans at the Tic-Tac-Toe Hut. She was taken aback when Clark took the shovel from her but said nothing response. It's not like she wasn't done with it. "Sleep, heh.. what is that?" Claire joked again. There was no way she was going to sleep after all of this; at least, not much and not soundly. Sufficient sleep was reduced to nothing more than a dream that would never be realized. With a sigh, she leaned against Clark, letting her head rest on his shoulder. The sun was peeking over the horizon, painting the sky blue and pink and orange. It was the beginning of a new day, the start of the next stage. There would be no true new beginning until the Trust was gone.

Claire followed Clark back inside and flopped onto the couch. Despite her racing thoughts, worries, and concerns, she did manage to fall asleep. The physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion finally caught up with her. It was a deep sleep, restful and blissfully dreamless. When Claire finally woke, it was late into the afternoon, almost dusk. She always did sleep better on a couch than in a bed. She sat up, running her fingers through her tangled mess of hair. The papers left on the coffee table caught her attention. She picked them up and thumbed through them, reading all of the notes Clark took while listening to Randy's DVD's. They were thorough with a few names of people they could start off with, one being Kramer's. The question of how exactly they could take advantage of him remained. Claire had one idea and it wasn't one she liked at all.

 

[MST3K 4ever]

Clark fell asleep next to Claire. In the beginning being the same room with Claire intimidated Clark to a large degree, and made him feel very uncomfortable. Now, if she wasn't next to him Clark on a lot of levels felt like a part of him was missing. He had feelings for her, but now wasn't the time to dwell on those thing. This crusade, that's what it was starting to feel like, was the focus now. They were embarking on a new aspect of it as well. For so long they had reacted to what was going around them this was their chance to strike at them. In order for that to happen not only would they need a lot of planning, but an insane amount of luck to go with it. More importantly than satisfying a need to vindicate everything that Clark and Claire had been through was now a drive for Clark. A feeling that he wasn't expecting but as the night had gone on, and seeing what Claire did, was that Clark didn't want Randy's death to be in vain. Randy did a lot of the legwork on The Trust and Kilmont it was now up to them to finish what he started. Randy's methods for getting Clark and Claire involved were not something that either of them wanted, but there was denying Randy was doing this for the sake of others. Not to mention Randy knew full well that he wasn't going to live long enough to see this through to endgame.

Clark's sleep was much more peaceful than he realized. He thought for sure that he would be waking up off and on, but in reality once he closed his eyes Clark was out like a light. When he woke up Clark was surprised that he was in the exact same position as when he fell asleep. Dusk was settling in and Clark was starting to wonder if day was night, and night was day was going to be the new normal for he and Claire for the foreseeable future. As much as Clark wanted to think about what life could be like for he and Claire post-Trust he knew that he couldn't allow himself to do that right now, because they hadn't even begun to launch their first strike and it was going to have to be a good one otherwise life post-Trust would probably involve bullets in the head and left for dead.

Stretching and trying to get his eyes to focus Clark grabbed his glasses and saw Claire looking over his notes. He said, "Sorry about the writing towards the end my ability to keep up with Randy and trying to keep in mind how everything fit together were starting to play havoc with my mind." Clark stood up and stretched out a bit more. He began to pace slowly and gather his thoughts. Clark said, "Okay what we need for all of this to work is a miracle." He looked back at Claire and said, "Besides that we also need, keeping things in a Theological vein, a Judas someone who will sell out others for their own purpose at the drop of a dime. Now, as much as I would like for that to be Kramer, face it, Greg was right though in that he is an errand boy. He's not going to be the one to do a lot of damage although he is a start." Clark stopped pacing and looked at Claire and said, "I was told that the CEO of Haddon Defense Industries Ronald Haddon, where I worked, was in The Trust. Kilmont herself told me that now if we can get to him through Kramer we have a start possibly. Haddon contributes millions to Kramer and Kramer makes sure Haddon Industries gets the really good contracts. Amazing how that works out." Clark nodded and said, "There my dear Claire lays our connection that we can exploit potentially. We can also assume two things safely. One, going after Kilmont directly is suicide so we have to chip away. Two, with her doing so much for her candidacy she doesn't know everything all the time so we can exploit that as well" Clark realized that while he had a solid theory Claire more than likely had her share of ideas as well. Claire was a lot of things but someone who just went blindly along on something. Not to mention this was a partnership all the way Claire without a doubt had a few ideas of her own, and she would say them and the two ideas would become one. Clark loved that aspect of their partnership in that no one part was more important than the other. Each one brought something useful to the table.

Clark asked, "Do you have anything you want to add Claire, because I'm willing to bet you have an idea or two as well. Don't you?" The last part he smiled at because he knew full well that she did. Suddenly Clark felt a bit lightheaded and figured that was due to him still being fully awake, but then he looked over at the clock and realized it had been hours since he ate. His blood sugar was very low, and Clark could feel the sweat begin to form and drop as the room around him was slowly becoming shades of white. Clark looked away from Claire and said in a voice that was starting to become very slurred, "Excuse…me…for…a…" Clark turned towards the kitchen and was now using the counters and table to help steady him. Clark managed to get a glass out of the cabinet and opened the fridge. His hands were shaking but Clark was able to pour himself a glass of orange juice. Clark started to take a drink, but dropped to his knees dropping the glass into the sink. He said, "Orange juice…chocolate…anything to get…my blood sugar up….." Clark then dropped the rest of the way to the floor as he felt his breathing become rapid and shallow. Clark knew he was going into insulin shock and that is life was now in Claire's hands.