"So how did you find me?" Aldrich asked MM as they sat together. Butcher was out to get pizza. Frenchie was with Kimiko, the caged mute Supe.
Aldrich couldn't help but look at her differently since he learned she was a Supe. He had been waiting for the moment to make his move, waiting for the group to lose interest in her and for some reason. She didn't like him.
"Well," MM started, "Me and Butcher were on our way to Hartford to track you down. We were on our way to ask that lady you widowed about you.""
"Sarah."
"Yes, Sarah. So you at least know the name of the poor woman you widowed." MM said, searching Aldrich's face for any hint of malice or mockery. He found nothing. Just the same flat, honest stare.
"Of course I do. I went there to apologize to her. I brought her gifts even."
"Gifts?" MM asked.
"Yes. A large bag filled with wallets and phones. I thought she would need for nothing now. It was a fair trade for her companion."
"Fair trade?" MM said softly. He was genuinely amazed. To any other person, this would sound terrifying and he might have gone insane, but he couldn't see any hint of mockery, joy, or satisfaction in the kid's face. He truly believed he'd done her a service.
He leaned forward.
"Aldrich a husband isn't a 'companion' you can replace especially not with a bag of phones and wallets. You can't trade money for a person's heart. To her, Michael was everything. All the money in the world won't make that right."
"I don't believe you," Aldrich said, his voice flat and sharp. "You're saying if I gave her all the money in the world, even that wouldn't make it right? That doesn't make any sense.
Aldrich leaned in, his blue eyes searching MM's face for the logic he was missing.
"Michael is gone. He has no more use. The money has use. If she has the money, her situation is objectively better than before I arrived. Why would she still be unhappy?"
MM let out a slow sigh. "Because humans don't work on 'use,' kid. We work on love. And you don't even know what that word means, do you?"
"And money can't buy love?" Aldrich asked.
"Well... no. That's not what I mean, kid. That's not real love." MM could only sigh. He was realizing that he was trying to explain the color red to a blind man.
The door kicked open. Butcher stood there with four pizza boxes in one hand and a six-pack in the other. He didn't look like he'd been eavesdropping, but the ugly grin on his face said otherwise.
"You're really fucked up in the head, aren't ya, runt?" Butcher barked, tossing a box onto the table in front of Aldrich. "I like that, son. Truly do. Put that on a T-shirt and you'd be the smartest, most fucked-up cunt in the world."
"Language, Butcher. He's still a kid," Marvin muttered.
"Give it a rest, Marvin. You're trying to teach a shark how to bark. The runt's right. A dead man's a zero. A bag of phones and wallets is... well, it's a start."
Butcher leaned over Aldrich, his eyes bright with a dangerous kind of approval.
"Don't listen to him, pup. 'Love' is just a word people use so they don't have to admit they're being used. You stick to the math. It's cleaner. And mentioning love... do you know how much I'd want to kiss you right now if it weren't considered diddling? Vought is this close to tipping. You just need to eat up, have a cold one, and then fly out and attack that fucking tower."
Butcher punctuated the sentence by sliding a sweating, cold beer toward Aldrich. He flipped the pizza box open, revealing the circular, greasy thing inside.
"Sure. I'll attack the tower," Aldrich said, his voice flat as he stared at Butcher.
"Yes! Atta boy!" Butcher roared, his eyes already picturing the tower in flames. "That's the spirit, son! We'll have those Vought cunts screaming for mercy before the night's out."
"After I kill Rufus."
"Fuck! You stubborn little cunt. Well, it was a long shot," Butcher muttered, shaking his head as he reached into his coat. He pulled out a crumpled yellow folder and tossed it onto the table.
Aldrich caught it. Inside were photographs, maps, and pages of dense, scribbled text. To a human, it was intel and a plan. To Aldrich, it was a wall of meaningless black shapes. He couldn't read a single word of it.
But he couldn't let them know. If they knew he was illiterate, he was no longer a powerful supe; he was just a powerful idiot they could trick with a piece of paper.
Aldrich leaned in, his blue eyes narrowing as he stared intensely at the pages. He traced a line of text with his finger, nodding slowly as if he were absorbing every detail of the tactical layout.
"I see," Aldrich said, He tapped a photo of a man with a smug, punchable face. Rufus. "This is of use."
"Well, why don't you take your time reading that carefully, pup? MM, Frenchie, with me," Butcher said, jerking his thumb toward the exit. He stopped at the door, pointing between Aldrich and the caged Kimiko. "You two stay put. Try not to kill each other."
They left, leaving Aldrich and Kimiko alone in the dim light, staring at each other.
Once the Boys were a safe distance away from the hideout, they all stopped. MM and Frenchie stood there, confused and annoyed, waiting for an explanation. Butcher was just standing there with a huge, jagged grin on his face.
"WHAT?" MM snapped, unable to stand the stupid look on Butcher's face. "What are we doing out here?"
"The little pillock is bloody illiterate," Butcher said, his grin widening into something nasty. "Staring at those pages like they're written in ancient Greek and the best part? He was holding the whole thing upside down. Dead serious. It was absolutely diabolical. The runt can't read a single word."