Sandoval waited till the still less than steady Beckett made her way out of his office before approaching his new subordinate and placing his fist directly at the other's throat, skrill glowing softly. In a deadly whisper, he said, "Okay, Major. You're not Liam Kincaid, so who are you?"
Tensing slightly, Liam stared down into his father's eyes. He'd known it was a long shot when he and Augur had picked the identity he had. He'd persuaded the hacker that it was worth the risk. He'd managed to convince him that something was bound to happen at Boone's funeral, and that somebody had to be there to stop it. Kincaid's identity had been good enough. Neither of them had expected that he'd come into quite such close contact with the Taelons or his biological parents.
Taking a leap of faith that would compound his naiveté - at least as far as the Liberation movement was concerned - Liam said, "That information is not something that you want divulged here, Agent Sandoval. If you believe nothing else, believe that."
Seeing the resolute green-grey eyes staring at him, Sandoval accepted that the other man was probably being honest - in that matter at least. "What do you suggest, then?"
"How long has it been since you walked in the park?" Seeing the doubting expression on the Implant's face, Liam said, "I won't run from you. I give you my word. I won't run."
Sandoval stared at the surprisingly calm man in front of him for a long moment. Eventually, he made an 'after you' gesture with his hand and the two men left his office.
Walking round the park and breathing in the crisp, fresh air, Sandoval said, "All right, Major, talk."
"First, Beckett cannot be told any of this, Sandoval. For her, the price of this knowledge would be her death."
"Why?" demanded Sandoval.
"Because the Liberation re-programmed her CVI and wiped all memory of Ha'gel, the Liberation hideout she was taken to and me from her memories. The second she starts to remember, her CVI is programmed to overload and kill her."
Inwardly fuming at being reduced to one word responses to this man's announcements, Sandoval nevertheless responded with "What?!" He watched as the increasingly intriguing man walking with him ran a nervous hand through his hair and looked around the park, dropping onto an empty park bench. Watching as Liam betrayed his first sign of nervousness by staring down at the clenched fists resting on his knees, Sandoval prompted him for a response.
Softly, Liam began his tale. "I knew the Kincaid identity wouldn't fool you. You had to have run a full background check on Boone and his past associates before the Taelons offered him his job - which means that you've seen the original and undoctored file for Kincaid.
"I needed an identity that could get me access to the funeral. It was the most likely place for something to be attempted. As to who I really am, that you're not going to want to believe. It all started when Ha'gel assumed your form, Agent Sandoval. Something happened in the blank period in your memory. Something unique."
Face betraying the first hint of unease at the reference to Ha'gel, Sandoval said, "What happened?"
"The three of you made me."
"I don't understand."
Liam looked up into his father's eyes and said, "Oh, I think you've got an idea... you just don't want to believe it. You and Boone knew what forces were driving Ha'gel... what he was trying to do.
"What I'm saying is; he succeeded. When the Liberation personnel took Beckett out of the vicinity of Boone's battle with Ha'gel they had no idea exactly how much of a surprise they were going to end up with.
"The only thing more impressive than the rate at which I gestated in my mother's womb is the rate at which my metamorphosis into full adult took place... father."
Sandoval locked gazes with the man addressing him ready to refute the insanity he was spouting, but the words died on his lips unsaid. The pain, fear and terror in the other man's eyes was not being feigned. The next words out of his mouth astonished them both - heralding exactly how much the motivational imperative in his CVI had ceased to function.
"You can't let yourself fall into the hands of the Taelons! Liam... is that really your name... you have to get out. Get away. Go back to the Liberation and have them move you. Have them move you away from me!"
"I don't understand, Sandoval. I'm a coup! Zo'or would be ecstatic to get his hands on me!"
"Which is one reason why I'm not going to let anything like that happen, Liam."
A faint light of hope in his eyes, Liam addressed Sandoval and said, "And the other reasons are?"
Smiling awkwardly - he was out of practice - Sandoval said, "The main reason is simple. I'm not about to let anything else bad happen to my family. I already lost my wife to the perversions of a CVI; I want you out of arms reach to prevent me having any opportunity to do the same to you."
"You don't mind about me?" said Liam in a hesitant tone, flinching at the scowl the question produced.
Seeing that flinch, Sandoval instinctively put a reassuring hand on his son's arm. "Of course, I mind. I had no voice in what Ha'gel did to me, nor did Beckett. That she has the child she longs for and can never know about it is also something that angers me.
"For the first time in a long time, I can honestly say this. None of this is your fault. It's probably the first and last time in my life that I'll ever meet a true innocent, but that is what you are. You are not like any child I could ever have imagined. To be blunt, a child is the last thing I want right now. I live in the edges between light and dark... it's entirely possible that I'll never break free of this mess of my own making.
"I don't want you anywhere near it. Planned or not, you are probably the only good thing that my life will ever produce... and I'm being presumptuous enough a 'father' to want you safe."
Sensing that the nervous child that lived with the man beside him needed to walk, Sandoval got to his feet and waited for the young man to get to his feet. Walking down the path, he said, "Okay, does anyone else know?" His heart skipped a beat at the response of, "Da'an." That complicated things immensely.
"Will he let you go?" queried Sandoval worriedly. Was he going to lose this child before he had the chance to save him?
"I think so..." was the hesitant reply. "We might have to stage an accident... get me out of the way that way, so that Zo'or doesn't become even more suspicious."
Sandoval frowned slightly. It wasn't an ideal suggestion but it would have to do. That he hadn't betrayed Liam's heritage already was a faint silver lining in an otherwise dark cloud.
"Well then, it would seem that you're going to be here for a week or two before we can get everything arranged... which means I'm going to have to brief you on your new duties. Would you care to have some dinner with your father?" queried Sandoval.
A shy smile and a "Yes, sir," was his reply.
Walking side by side, the most unlikely parent and child on the parent left the park and headed off to a nearby restaurant, secretly marveling that the other seemed to be willing to accept them as family.
Sitting in the chair to the right of his father's hospital bed, Liam nervously picked at the edge of the blanket before muttering, "I'm sorry."
"For what?" asked a genuinely bewildered Sandoval.
"What do you mean? I disobeyed orders from both you and Zo'or, I inadvertently placed Mo-... Lieutenant Beckett in danger--"
"And you managed to do something that we all thought was impossible - you saved Da'an. Zo'or may hate him, but even he knows that humanity needs Da'an as a visible figure of the connection between our two species. There are seventy-nine Companions, yes; there is only one Da'an."
At the calm tone in his fellow Protector's voice, Liam finally raised his eyes and saw the acceptance in the other's gaze. Work matters out of the way, Liam allowed more personal feelings to come to the fore and said simply, "I was worried about you."
"Liam--"
"The doctors had no idea how long the effects of the Atavus blast was going to last, or if you'd be the same when - if - you woke up. Beckett at least had the luxury of being able to sit vigil with you for a while, I couldn't even do that much.
"I've only had the chance to get to know you for a couple of weeks and you almost got taken away from me forever."
Reaching out with a gentle hand, Sandoval stilled the nervously twisting fingers of his son and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze before letting his own drop back to the blanket. "I was aware, Liam. It was like I was in a deep, dark cavern and I was stumbling about in the dark looking for a way out. Siobhan's voice gave me a sense of direction... and then I felt something... a fleeting caress full of concern. It was when you touched my hand, Liam. That was the impetus I needed. Things grew brighter and brighter and I opened my eyes to see you and Beckett together.
"You brought me back. Thank you."
Sandoval watched patiently to see if his message got through the younger man's guilt, and, when he saw his son's trademark shy grin, he knew he'd succeeded. Deciding it was time to chase Liam out of his hospital room before anyone got overly curious as to why the newest of the Companion Protectors seemed to be getting on so well with the most disagreeable member of their exclusive fraternity, Sandoval said, "Time to go, Liam. You were due to be meeting your unnamed acquaintance about setting you up with a new identity. I can handle the 'accident' that kills Liam Kincaid; I don't want to know your new identity. What I don't know, I can't betray."
Liam felt his own expression grow flat and emotionless at that statement. His father wanted him to break all contact - which he couldn't do. There had to be a way that he could lose the Kincaid persona and be able to touch base with his father as and when the fates demanded; Augur would find a way. He didn't trust Doors and Lili was too enamoured of his Kimera heritage to be trusted to help; she had been completely blown away at how effortlessly he had learned to fly a shuttle, much as he loved her as a friend and surrogate sister, he would not allow her the chance to interfere in his relationship with Sandoval.
"Yes, sir," said Liam softly, standing to exit the room. He'd gone about two steps before he stopped, turned and headed back to his father, digging in his jacket pocket as he did so. Gently taking his father's hand, he turned it over and dropped Beckett's rune into his palm, saying, "Give this back to Lieutenant Beckett, Agent Sandoval. Tell her I didn't want to break up her set."
Closing his hand tight around the rune, Sandoval gave a nod and said, "I'll tell her what you said, Major Kincaid."
Face betraying none of the anxiety he was feeling, Agent Ronald Sandoval strode on to the bridge of the Taelon mothership. He'd been sitting in his now seldom-used office in the Taelon Embassy in Washington DC, mulling over how best to get Liam 'Kincaid' out of Taelon service. Things were getting just too dangerous for his son - recent events proved that.
He had no idea what he would have done if the attempt to manipulate Liam's brainwaves had succeeded. It had been hard to betray no emotion at Zo'or's orders, only the fact that he knew that it wasn't Liam's brainwaves on file - Liam had told him that much when he explained his adoption of the Major Liam Kincaid persona - had kept him from doing something rash. Now Zo'or wanted to discuss the newest Companion Protector with him, again.
"You wished to see me, Zo'or?" queried Sandoval.
Looking up from the readings on his command chair, Zo'or said, "Yes, Agent Sandoval. I have decided that I wish to carry out a tour of several of the major Taelon embassies on Earth, meeting the heads of state for each country for 'talks'. It will give them the notion that I actually care about their petty problems. That should silence the growing criticism of my leadership, at least for now.
"I wish you to arrange this immediately, Major Kincaid will act as my pilot as he is still currently the only Companion Protector to be a qualified shuttle pilot. Brief him."
The abrupt tone of that last order was a clear dismissal. Sandoval bowed his head in acknowledgement and said, "As you wish, Zo'or." Inwardly, his heart began to beat a little faster. This could be the opportunity that he and Liam had been waiting for.
Two days later, everything was arranged. Liam flew to the mothership from the Washington DC embassy and, en route, his shuttle experienced engine difficulty - a malfunction arranged by a Volunteer technician loyal to Sandoval personally, rather than the Taelons. Liam's last contact with the mothership was to state that he had an imbalance in his engines and that he would not risk a landing on the ship at this time. He sent the latest readings from the engines to the mothership's main computer and then rocketed his shuttle into ID space looking for a safe region of space to attempt a controlled shut down.
The mothership monitored his flight path and an emergency rescue was about to be implemented to recover Major Kincaid's escape capsule when an unexpected spike in energy readings in his shuttle engines occurred. The resultant explosion destroyed the shuttle and no trace of the capsule could be found - the much smaller readings from the portable ID portal that had been smuggled on to the shuttle had been masked by the huge energy spike from the shuttle's engines, besides nobody had been looking for any other readings.
Major Liam Kincaid was listed as lost in the line of duty, his courageous actions in preventing an explosion on the mothership by refusing to land when his shuttle was in trouble, were acknowledged by Zo'or in a press conference broadcast worldwide. A clearly sorrowful Da'an stated that, in his brief tenure as a Protector, Major Kincaid had earned the respect of the entire Taelon Synod and that he would be much missed.
The Resistance searched for signs of a conspiracy or tampering with Liam's shuttle but Lili Marquette could find no information to indicate either Taelon involvement or any involvement by Sandoval. No trace of sabotage was detected in the records transmitted by Liam to the mothership - then again, with Augur being the one doing the analysis there wasn't likely to be. He'd quickly become very fond of the young alien hybrid and looked on him like a kid brother; Sandoval was not the only one to want Liam out of harms way.
The day after his funeral - one not marred by a replicant attack - Liam and Sandoval met in a small cottage just outside of Lyons. Sandoval could clearly see the anguish in the green eyes of the younger man but there was nothing that could be done about that. Not now. Everything that had been done had been done with one goal in mind - to keep his son safe from harm.
They had a last dinner together, Sandoval kept the conversation light and Liam did his best to meet him half way. Eventually though, it was time to go. Glancing at his pocket watch, Sandoval said, "It's time, Liam."
Sighing, Liam accompanied him to the door. Before opening the door, Sandoval turned and looked deep into his son's eyes and smiled. He couldn't take any of the credit for the astonishing man in front of him but he could be proud and honoured that Liam considered him his father. "Take care of yourself, Liam. Be safe."
He saw his son's hands reach out hesitantly and then fall back to his side. Stepping forward, Sandoval did what Liam wanted... what he wanted too... and for the first, and probably only time, Sandoval hugged his son.
He felt the minute tremors running through his son's body and tightened his embrace, murmuring, "I am so proud of you. I always will be." While doing so, he deftly slipped something into his son's hand. Sandoval then turned and escaped through the door before any more could be said - on either side.
Liam looked into the palm of his hand and his breath caught in his throat at the pocket watch it held, Sandoval's grandfather's pocket watch. It hadn't left Sandoval's possession since he'd inherited it on his eighteenth birthday... and now he'd given it to him.
"This isn't goodbye, father. I can't let it be. I'm sorry. Dangerous or not, we will be together again," whispered Liam, his free hand brushing away the solitary tear that was wending its way down his cheek.