xp_logs | Angelo and Saul, Thursday (Reply)

Angelo goes to talk to Saul in hopes of clarifying some of his notes on Nathan's visions. It's... not as productive as he might have hoped.

They'd put Saul in one of the lesser-used sitting rooms while the team planned how best to go after Nathan. Kurt was standing guard at the door, but he just nodded and stood aside when Angelo approached. No one would keep him, of all people, out... especially since talking to Saul might help him make more sense of his notes on Nathan's visions.

Saul, who had been staring pensively out the window at the grounds, looked up as the door opened. "Mr. Espinosa," he said in that deep rumble.

It was no surprise that Saul knew who he was. Gideon had, after all. He nodded a greeting, not smiling. "Mr. Morrow."

Saul straightened in the armchair, his broad shoulders squaring. Gray eyes the same color as Nathan's studied Angelo for a long moment, expressionless. "I know, perhaps, more about you than you would find entirely comfortable. I suspect, however, that you're here in hopes of finding out something from me."

"...I am, yes. Anythin' you know about where Gideon might've taken Nathan." He paused. "But after that, we're gonna talk about what you know about me, an' why you wanted to know it."

"As I have told your Professor Xavier, Ms. Blaire and Ms. Munroe, I have... no idea where Gideon may have taken my son." It was a grudging-sounding admission, as if his lack of knowledge pained him. "Coming here was not my first course of action today, but my brother is capable of covering his tracks exceedingly well when he chooses."

"You don't know any places he might be in? Nathan mentioned Rio, once...?"

"Young man, my brother has holdings and properties in many countries. I know many places where he could be." Saul's eyes narrowed. "Rio de Janeiro - was this part of Nathan's precognitive vision?" he asked, in a tone that suggested he expected an answer right now.

"Yes", Angelo answered simply. "More than one of them. He said he saw Corcovado. An' then somethin' about the end of the world, but I think he meant.... a place."

"Corcovado is clear enough," Saul said gruffly, one hand rubbing his jaw in a gesture eerily reminiscent of his son. "The statue of Christ the Redeemer in the hills above the city. Eris... has no office there, but that certainly does not mean that Gideon has no interests in the area." He shook his head. "As for the end of the world... that sounds figurative, to me."

"Well, precog... comes in symbols, a lot of the time. I'll be goin' out there with them, maybe somethin'll get clearer in the notes when I see it..."

"Notes?"

"I've been takin' notes on his visions when I'm there to see them for months", Angelo informed him coolly. "An' I've been there to see a lot of them."

"So, you've been chronicling the madness that led him to this. Unfortunate that you failed to talk him out of walking into this situation if he knew this was what was going to happen." If there was any guilt in Saul for having been the one to propose the summit in the first place, there was no trace of it in his voice or in his expression.

"If I'd known what he was goin' to do when, you can bet I'd have stopped him or been there with him", he said with steel determination. "He knew he was goin' to do somethin' stupid, though. In his words. An' he said he'd have to do it."

"Have to do it. What utter nonsense. His mother was the same way." Saul's jaw tightened. "Relinquishing your freedom of choices... I'll never understand that."

"Maybe it's a precog thing", Angelo said quietly. "Though I'm not much of a believer in fate anyway. But I think he thought this was the only way he could stop... everythin' that's been happenin' because of Gideon."

"Gideon will kill him." Still no emotion in that deep voice, but the tightness in Saul's jaw was still there. "Or Nathan will kill him, or they'll kill each other. This was not the way it was supposed to be..."

Angelo's eyes hardened. "Not the way it was supposed to be? Startin' from which point?"

"I do not choose to explain myself to you, Mr. Espinosa. This is not the time or place for a discussion of the choices I made in regards to my son," Saul said, not quite coldly, but almost. "Despite your... colorful past, you have simply not had the life experience to even begin to attempt to understand."

"...maybe not. But someday soon, the time an' place will come. An' we are goin' to talk. I'm not a child, Mr. Morrow. Please don't treat me like one."

Saul raised an eyebrow. "You plan to hold me to account, then?" he said, and there was a hint of bleak amusement in his voice. "Easy to see that you spend a great deal of time around my son. Justice is a philosophical construct, Angelo. Along with right and wrong. I prefer 'the ends justify the means.'" His gaze shifted to the window.

"Then I hope you feel justified." His voice was flat. "And I hope you still feel that if Nathan or Gideon doesn't make it out of this."

"I was seeking a better end to that conversation today. My son and my brother clearly had other ideas."

"...probably. But I think, one way or another, this is goin' to end because of what happened today." He tapped the notebook in his hand. "Nathan told me so."

Saul stared at the notebook for a moment. "Then you know more than I," he said simply.