"Baxter!" Mr. Cantelli said with a growl as he leveled his gun at Baxter's head.
"Baxter?!" Salvatore said with surprise as he looked at Baxter shocked.
The group that came to rescue Adam had their weapons all primed and ready, but when Adam looked to Baxter's Brigade again they too were all ready for a fight as well. A bloodbath was surely to occur if a fight were to break out.
"Well, Well! Edgar! How nice to see you again!" Baxter said with a wide smile as he spoke to Mr. Cantelli. He then turned his attention to Salvatore. "Tori!" He laughed a bit. "It's like a whole family reunion in here! If only Calloway was here it'd be like old times."
"Don't you dare fucking talk about Calloway. You were the one who killed him, you bastard!" Salvatore yelled, surprisingly more worked up than Adam had ever seen him.
"You still hung up about that?" Baxter chuckled and shook his head. "He was planning to kill me, Tori. What? You expect me to let him just do it?"
"He was innocent! He would have never-"
"I found him plotting!" Baxter yelled at the top of his lungs, cutting off Salvatore mid-sentence and looking heated. "He was going behind my back and-" He started before he stopped himself. "No, no. We are not going to rehash our old arguments again." Baxter calmed himself down.
"Well, before this goes any further let me tell all you uninvited guests that you should think twice before you start a firefight here." He then pulled out a remote trigger that he had hidden inside his left pocket, where his hand had been from the moment the group breached into the room. Adam had not noticed since it was an incredibly small detail in the sea of new information. "You see, this entire building is rigged with enough explosives that they will feel it all the way to Midway." He grinned, a twinkle of madness in his eyes. "Try something and… boom."
"You are fucking crazy." Salvatore said with an accusatory tone.
"You know me, I am the man with the plan. I never pick fights I lose. And I got a bigger death wish than anyone else here, I assure you so…" He then gently rubbed his thumb on the trigger of the detonator. "Try me." He said with a wide grin.
"The fuck you doing here, Baxter!?" Mr. Cantelli said now, cutting in, since the stalemate seemed at an impasse. "I thought I made it clear to never show your face in Midway again?"
"Well I was never in Midway, was I?" He chuckled, daringly. "Besides, I helped found that little city of yours, its only fair I poke my head in every once in a while~"
"You fucking rat." Mr. Cantelli said with venom.
"Temper temper, Edgar. You will pop a blood vessel acting like that." Baxter tisked as he wagged his finger. "Anyway, you wanted to know why I am here? It's for one reason." Baxter then walked over and put a hand on Adam's head. "This guy here."
"What? The kid?" Salvatore asked back aggressively.
"Yes. Imagine my surprise, passing by this shithole called Chicago with my brigade when I suddenly hear a radio broadcast about the hero of Chicago Adam Baxter~" He rubbed Adam's head and messed with his hair for a moment before he backed away from Adam, leaving him be. "So naturally my interest was piqued."
"And?" Mr. Cantelli asked, cynically. "So you thought it was a good idea to just kidnap him right under my nose? Did you think you would get away with it?"
"I thought… I would collect what's mine." He grinned a bit. "You see this boy is my clone, as it turns out. So that makes him my property."
"I'm no one's property!" Adam yelled at Baxter finally. Baxter just looked at Adam and put a single finger over his own lips to shush him.
"Wait… Adam is… a clone… of you?!" Mr. Cantelli said with shock. While Mr. Cantelli was shocked, and the men with him looked at least a little bit surprised themselves, no one else in the group flinched. Everyone else here knew. Rae didn't, but it didn't seem to matter to Rae. However, Mr. Cantelli knowing that Adam was a clone was among worst case scenarios. So much for it being a secret.
"Yup~" Baxter said with a soft laugh. "As it turns out, my old work place had made a copy of me without my knowing. So this child here rolled out a vault thinking he was me, and here we are. The more handsome me, and the younger and far more brittle clone." Baxter said, gesturing with his hand to Adam. The room remained silent for a few moments as the tension was nearly palpable. If someone so much as twitched wrong everyone might end up meeting god before they even knew what happened.
"But, you are here for the boy, right?" Baxter said as he then walked over to Adam again and then pulled out his knife. For a moment it looked like he might start cutting into Adam but then he quickly cut through the ropes binding Adam to the chair and stood back up with an almost warm smile to Adam, though his eyes looked sad. However the expression quickly faded as he then looked at Adam's rescue team again.
"I suppose this satisfies you?" He asks, arms outstretched. "I'm no longer holding him against his will, so there's no need for us all to die in a fiery blaze of glory."
The rescue team look at each other and then some of them slowly slightly lower their weapons. In return the Baxter Brigade did the same, lowering their weapons slightly.
"Wonderful!" Baxter said with a light applause. "Well take him and get out, my curiosity is sated. Nothing more to be gained from kicking up a fuss." Adam stared at Baxter for a few moments and then slowly began to walk to the hole the rescue team had made. Baxter seemed to, indeed, have no intentions of stopping Adam from leaving, which did seem to diffuse the still high tensions even more.
However as Adam got to his group, now more or less safely among their number, Baxter called out to him.
"Hey, boy, catch!" Baxter said as he underhand tossed the remote detonator to Adam. Adam fumbled to catch the detonator for a few moments, surprised and frightened by the sudden action, but was able to get a firm grip on it after a moment.
"Keep it, as a souvenir." Baxter grinned. Adam paused, staring at it for a moment before looking at Baxter again.
"What if I just push the trigger once we are a safe distance away? Killing all of you?" Adam asked, slowly.
"You'd find that the bombs are a bluff." Baxter laughed. Adam looked at him shocked. "You think I'd have the time to rig an entire warehouse full of explosives just in case some random people come to recollect you? I'm crazy, I'm not that crazy~" He chuckled. "But bombs or no bombs. Take it as a lesson. The greatest tool you can ever have…" He tapped on his head with his finger thrice. "Is your mind. Bluffs and all."
Adam stood there, dumbfounded, unsure what to do with all of this new information. However he was having a new idea forming in his head. A gamble, if you would. One possibly even more dangerous than trying to work with War.
"Adam…" Adam began as he slowly looked up at Baxter.
"Baxter." Baxter corrected.
"What would you say to… working together… to save Chicago?" Adam asked slowly.