En route to Short Hill Mountain, Virginia
Kane stared out the window at the terrain whipping past them below, a chopper having arrived within minutes for them. He turned his head to see Katz staring at him. “What?”
“I was just trying to understand you.”
His eyes widened slightly. “Excuse me?”
“We are about to try and infiltrate, just the two of us, what could be a heavily guarded bunker. We will most likely die. I do this for a purpose. If I don’t eliminate the Assembly, I will die eventually. You, however, could live a long life. Is love really worth dying for?”
Kane grunted and shook his head. “You know, in some ways I envy you. You probably never get scared or nervous, which could be extremely useful in my business. You’ll never experience sadness at the loss of a loved one or comrade, which again, could be extremely useful. But I don’t think the tradeoff is worth it. You’ll never experience friendship, you’ll never experience love.
“The very fact you have to ask if love is worth dying for, tells me you’ll never understand what motivates normal people. Love is everything. It’s the best part of living. Whether that’s loving someone as a friend, as family, or intimately, it’s always the best part of life. Perhaps if you loved someone, were capable of loving someone, you might understand why I’m willing to walk into that bunker, with just you at my side, in the hopes of saving the woman I love, and a woman I consider a friend. And maybe, just maybe, if you understood love and friendship, you wouldn’t be doing what you’re doing to those two innocent women.”
“Love is a weakness. It makes you do stupid things, or things you wouldn’t normally do.” She waved her hand at him. “Like you. Normally, you wouldn’t partner with me, wouldn’t kidnap the Vice President, wouldn’t stand by as he was killed, and wouldn’t attack a bunker with just one other person. I understand love perfectly, and it allows me to use it against those who don’t understand it, who only feel it.”
Kane shook his head. “Then you don’t understand it at all.” He leaned forward. “I’m willing to die to save Fang because I love her. I’m willing to die to save Sherrie, because my best friend loves her.”
Katz stared at him, unmoved. “You say these things, yet they are meaningless. You’re also willing to die for your country. Your willingness to die has nothing to do with love, and everything to do with duty, something that I can appreciate.”
Kane shook his head. “Wrong again. A soldier is willing to die for his country because he loves his country, loves what it stands for, and more importantly, wants to protect and preserve it so that those he loves, who live in that country, are protected. He’s not dying for his duty to his country, he’s dying for his loved ones that rely on that country being safe. He doesn’t sacrifice himself because it’s his duty to protect a line drawn on a map, he does it because if that line wavers, the people he loves on his side of it might be harmed.” He sat back. “If you understood love, you’d understand that.”
“Sir, ma’am, we’re coming up on the target now.”
Kane stared out at the trees below, Katz joining him at the window. “How does it feel knowing you’re about to die?”
Kane looked at her. “I think my words would be wasted on you.”
She nodded. “Probably.”
“How do you feel?”
She sat back in her seat. “I wonder if I die, and there is some sort of afterlife that people like you believe in, will I be fixed.”
He stared at her. “Do you see yourself as broken?”
She looked away, a flash of emotion behind the eyes surprising Kane. “Don’t you?”