Prologue

"Dad, where are we going?" A father and son walked down an empty sidewalk side by side, barely passing a glance at one another. The eerie blackness made only their outlines faintly visible. The air was perfect. It was the most beautiful night in a long while. The father turned his head towards his young son.

"We're going to visit somebody I haven't seen in a long time." They walked along in silence for a few more moments, the son dying to ask the question, but unsure of whether or not he should. He focused his attention on the lights adorning the apartment buildings in the distance. He loved being in the city. His thoughts wandered back to what was going on at the moment. Who were they going to see? Finally, he broke down and asked.

"Who is it?" He looked at his feet. "The person we're going to see, I mean." He wondered if the question would make his father mad, but it felt like his curiosity would kill him if he didn't get an answer. He looked up at his dad and waited for an answer. His father's face remained emotionless like it had the entire night. The boy brushed his brown hair away from his eye for what seemed like the thousandth time that night. There was just enough of a breeze that night to turn his hair into the unruly mess his father had spent months picking on him for.

His father looked down at him and sported a slight smile, knowing he would have asked the same question were he in his son's position. "My brother," he paused for a moment, deciding whether or not to speak the name, "Reno." He said the name coldly, as if it physically pained him to push it out of his mouth.

Reno? Reno Tenno. Yeah, the name does ring a bell. The boy's father hadn't spoken that name since before the child was born, and the boy made note of that. It made him wonder even more why he knew the name. He'd never met the man, he was quite sure of that. But the name was oddly familiar. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind as his father led him through a narrow alleyway up to a run-down apartment complex. His father rang the doorbell and stood in silence, waiting for the door to be answered. The brief pause between the bell ringing and the door opening seemed to last a lifetime. When the door cracked open, a cold face appeared in front of them, just slightly startling the child. Yeah, the boy had seen the man before. He could confirm that much now. But he was almost one-hundred percent positive he'd never actually met him in person.

"Nate, come in. Quickly," Reno looked down at the boy. He looked so much like his father in person. "Nate, were you followed?" His question was answered with a swift shake of the head, prompting him to sport a worried look on his face. "Good, good. How have things been, brother?" He glanced over at the boy once again.

"You already know what I've been up to, Reno. I've seen you a few times over the years… You've been watching me for quite some time." He glanced around the apartment looking for anything suspicious that may have been lying around. "That makes me wonder," Reno already knew what his brother was about to ask him. "Why was it that it took you over twelve years to actually make contact with me?" The look on Reno's face clearly expressed his discomfort.

"They're asking questions that I don't have answers to…"

"What kind of questions?" Nate had suspected that this meeting had something to do with his family. But why they were still asking questions about him was more than a little perplexing. After all, Reno had assured him that the family believed him to be dead. An elaborate plot he had thought up to save his children from the life his family would surely subject them to.

"Things that just seem a little odd for them to be asking. They've been asking about how you died… Why you were cremated…"

"And you told them?"

"You had been shot in the face and it seemed appropriate. They think I killed you, Nathan. Your own brother. Dad hasn't so much as spoken a word to me since then."

"I figured this had something to do with him." Nathan shifted uncomfortably and walked across the room to the couch. He sat down and put his head in his hands. "They ruined everything Eva and I ever had." This caught the boy's attention. He hadn't heard his father speak of his mother in years. He'd always been told that she and Nate split up shortly before he was born. When he was born, she left the baby with Nathan and took off.

"I know, Nate. But I can't keep lying to them. They know. It's so obvious. They know that I helped you." Reno sat down on the coffee table. "You know what they'll do to me if they find out I've been covering your tracks for all these years."

"Reno, I appreciate everything you've done for us, but…" He stopped talking for a moment, trying to collect his thoughts. He didn't trust Reno. He knew something wasn't right about this meeting. "If you've been covering my tracks like you say you have been, then why would they still be asking about me? They couldn't possibly know anything unless you let something slip."

"What is it that you're implying, brother?" The tone of Reno's voice confirmed Nathan's suspicions. Reno had sold him out. This whole rendezvous was a set up to get Nathan where they wanted him.

"You told them everything, didn't you?"

"Not everything…" Reno stood up and backed away from his brother. He knew Nathan too well and didn't want to be around him when he got mad. "I'm sorry… They figured it out a few months ago. I fucked up. One of the lies I told them contradicted a previous one." The look on his face was not one of remorse. "They did their usual: pried the truth out of me. Well, they got enough of the truth, I suppose." He walked across the room and picked up a bottle of what smelled like strong liquor from the counter. He put the brim to his lips and drank the liquor swiftly. Reno was scared. The constant fidgeting behind the counter seemed to stem from that. "Nate, I'm sorry." He pulled a small device out of his pocket and motioned towards Nathan to stay silent.

"You fucking traitor!" Nathan knew what the device was. Reno was holding a microphone that had recorded every word said since his brother had knocked on the door. There were likely several more microphones planted around the room. Reno had set up the perfect trap. But Nathan couldn't seem to figure out why his brother had betrayed him after so many years.

"It is what it is, brother." Reno sounded terrified now. "I'm sorry…" Nathan knew he had to think fast now. Knowing his family - and Reno in particular - his father's men were probably stationed no more than a few blocks away, waiting to take him down.

"Indeed. It is what it is. You did what you had to do." Nathan looked out the window and saw the headlights of cars coming to a stop in front of the apartment. Now was the time for him to end this. "And now I have to do what I have to do." He pulled a gun from his jacket and pointed it towards his brother. "Are they around back too?"

"No, the back is fenced in. It's a ten foot stone fence. You can't out of this one. Please don't do this. They'll kill you if you try to run." It pained him to have to say that, because it was quite possible that it was the truth. The last thing he wanted was to be the cause of his brother's death.

"I'm sorry, brother." Before Reno could respond, Nathan lowered his gun and fired a round into Reno's chest. Reno stumbled backwards and crashed onto the sofa behind him. Nathan grabbed his son's hand and ran out the back door. He looked down at the boy, thinking about what he was about to do. "Adam, when I tell you to, you need to run. Get away from here and don't come back."

"But Dad," the boy started to speak, but stopped when the front door was smashed open."

"I love you, Adam. But you need to get out of here or else this will all be for nothing." By now they were at the edge of the property and Nathan lifted his son just high enough to let him climb over the wall. "Just find your brother. Now go!" The boy did as he was told and let go of the wall, falling ten feet into an alleyway and hurting his ankle upon landing. Those final words had caught him off guard more than anything that night… Brother?

Nathan stood in the middle of the kitchen he had just re-entered, looking at the men who had barged in on the meeting between himself and his brother. There was no way out of this now. As he suspected, his brother was wearing a bullet-proof vest and the bullet he'd fired at him had merely knocked the wind out of him, just as he'd hoped.

"Nate, where is your son?" Reno looked slightly angry now. His plan had not gone as it was supposed to. No shots were supposed to be fired. He was unsure about his brother's intentions now, and didn't know whose side to take. Nathan remained silent. "Fuck. I should have known you'd try to save him." Nathan grinned.

"It is what it is, Reno." He was not entirely sure that his brother was going along with this charade anymore and started to feel uncomfortable. Reno was scared of what they'd do to him if they knew he was helping Nathan… And Nathan knew this. Reno could turn on him at any second in an attempt to redeem himself in his higher-ups' minds. "You did your job, Reno. You betrayed your own brother for them, just like they wanted. You don't have anything to worry about anymore." Nathan turned away and started walking towards the back door. "Now, if you don't mind, I'll be leaving now." Reno lifted his gun and aimed at his brother. Nathan stopped at the door and looked back at the three men who were all pointing guns at him. "So this is what you've turned into, Reno?"

Reno turned his head away from his brother. "It's how it has to be." He fired his gun, hitting Nathan in the chest and sending him towards the wall where he collapsed on the floor. Nathan looked up at his brother… or the man he once called his brother.

"To the end, Reno." He lifted his gun and fired at his brother's head, seemingly hitting him in the right eye and sending him crashing to the floor. Reno lay flat on his chest, staring at his brother as blood gathered under his head in a puddle. The two men who had, until this point, merely been observing the encounter, walked over to Nathan's body. One of them reached his finger out to Nathan's neck, confirming that the man, indeed, no longer had a pulse. They picked Reno up and carried out him the front door. He was still alive, but there wasn't much hope for him. Still, their bosses would like it if at least his body made it back to them. The boy couldn't get far. They'd send out another team to intercept him immediately.

Adam stood in silence in the alleyway after hearing the gunshots he knew had just killed his father. He couldn't think. He couldn't concentrate on anything. His father's words played through his head over and over again. Adam, Run. He didn't know where to run to. Get away from here and don't come back. He had no family to go to… All he'd ever had was his dad. You need to get out of here. There was a town a few miles out of the city that nobody would ever look for him in… Now run. He ran in the direction of the city's skyscrapers. It was the most populated area of the city. Surely he could blend in there.

He stood among the crowds in the city, thinking about where he could possibly go. He walked to a street corner and stood, staring at the streets. People were moving in and out of taxis regularly. He fumbled in his pocket, trying to find a few dollars. Indeed, he had a ten dollar bill left over from his birthday just a few weeks ago. He signaled a taxi over to him and got in the back seat like he had done with his father so many times in the past. You need to get out of here. He couldn't go back home… "Just get me as far out of the city as ten dollars will take me," he said to the driver.

The car started moving and for several minutes Adam sat in the back seat, watching the people walking the streets, watching the city's bright lights shine. He was on his own. But he wasn't going to let them catch him. He couldn't… The car came to a stop midway into a town a few miles out of the city. He looked at the gauge on the dashboard, which said he owed fifteen dollars to the driver. "Sir, I…" The driver interrupted him.

"It's on me, kid. Don't worry about it." He smiled at the boy. "Ten dollars would have left you in the middle of nowhere."

"Thank you." The boy handed the driver his ten dollar bill and exited the car. The sun was starting to rise now. It had been a few hours since his father's death already. He walked through the town for a bit and eventually found himself passing out on a bench at the town's playground. He hadn't slept in nearly 24 hours now. He couldn't stay awake any longer. He was far enough out of the city now. They wouldn't look for him here. He didn't need to run anymore… But that one thought kept playing in his head. Find your brother…