Just because it was a known eventuality, it did not give her the right to be an asshole about it. Now it was definitely time for us to go. Liam and I went upstairs and it was clear we were no longer welcome. We were escorted out of the building. Once we were outside, we went to my car. This was going to suck. I still had to drive defensively and through all sorts of side roads. I was going straight into the military blockade zone for him. When we got close enough to the patrol check point, Liam stopped me. I looked at him. "This is close enough. I can get past them on my own." he said. "Are you really sure about that? I took responsibility for your safety. We can look for ways passed them together." I asked. While it would no doubt be annoying, I was willing to go the full distance with Liam. That would be the right thing to do. He shook his head. Liam said "No. I used an animal form to get passed them last time." The brute did say something about slipping through as a cat. I nodded and got out of the car. It was the end of the road. Liam did the same. "Remember to be careful. Good luck, Li."
Keeping it real, I thought adding a cute nickname at the end would not hurt. He just looked at me. "I'll keep it in mind." he said with a small smile. It looked like I had won him over at the end. He crouched down and his nanites shifted until he was no longer a human. He had turned into a leopard. Liam then began heading his way along a side street. I probably did not need to follow him. Even if he did get caught, none of these goons were going to be able to kill him in that form. Being that fast and agile was one thing. It was another thing entirely to have full body armor plating and spew fire at enemies. Liam was a boss encounter at level 65. It would take a high leveled commando to take him down. By the time one could respond, he would already be long gone. I made sure to call up Heat Clan and explain the situation to him. That was my due diligence. Now that they knew what to expect, it would only make things easier for Liam to return to them. I wanted to visit the beach. With all the shit I had gone through, I wanted some pay off. Driving like that was stressful. That did not need Liam.
Liam had to return to his clan. There was no point in holding him back from helping his comrades. I left my cab where it was and locked it. Marking its place on my map, I moved on. I took a left where I saw Liam go right. We did not need to meet up somewhere. That would just be awkward. Stealthily, I made my way down towards the big military blockade. It really was just my bad luck. There was a checkpoint right in front of me. I would need to go back. Then again, Liam had escaped their notice before. I watched him make the turn. He probably knew that they would be here. My embarrassment was seen by no one. Now, my best bet was to make a non conspicuous turn to go the way I came. Returning to the car, I decided to wait a little bit before going the way that I saw Liam go. He was long gone. That was good. There was indeed a gap in the patrol. No soldiers were stationed there on a watch. One would come by every 15 minutes on a patrol, but that was it. I made sure to sit and watch it from the shadows to make sure of it. All that separated me from the beach was a 12 foot fence.
