[b]The South Beach Yacht Club, Kennedy Room private lounge. 
Miami, Floria, United States.[/b]

Bennett Collins was a tall, athletic, blonde haired rich boy who was smuggling Scotch into a party-within-a-party the last time she saw him. Now? He was still tall, athletic, and his hair was dirty blonde instead of simply blonde. But it worked for him. He was still gorgeous, still had the charisma to light up a room at the drop of a hat. Even with the Kennedy Room empty save for Bennett and herself, it seemed like a good place to be the second he stood up, and smiled that megawatt smile at her. 

"Jean Grey, I almost don't believe my eyes."

His blue eyes held onto her image a beat too long, with a look of desire most wealthy men only had when they saw a deal that needed closing. Ben Collins had always been a deal maker, a boy who could talk his way in, and out, of nearly anything. He'd set his sights on her at the Adams Prep Academy, the good girl that was beyond the temptation of vice and sex and corruption. 

"Thank you, Ben, I know the risk you're putting yourself in by talking to me."

He knew what she meant, but his response was that of a man who'd just been told the absurd. "[i]Please[/i], I'm meeting an old friend who simply wants legal counsel."

"You're meeting with a woman high on the American kill list."

Her tone was blunt enough to cause brusing, but Ben Collins somehow dodged it with a tiny grin that could've meant half a hundred things. "You're a telepath. Read my mind, go ahead: See if I'm afraid of 'G-Men' coming to get me in the middle of the night."

"What makes you think I already haven't read your mind?" Jean smiled the kind of smile that, itself, could've meant anything. 

It only made the man's grin grow. "Because Jean Grey would never invade someone's privacy like that unless she had no other choice. Sit down, come on, relax. Do you want something to drink?"

"No thanks. You seem so certain I'm the same girl from Boston."

Ben dismissed the thought with a wave of his hand as he turned to the silver drink cart and began to pour himself a scotch with ice. "Nobody's the same, Jean, I just choose to believe in the purity of your heart over the cyncism and paranoia of basic human nature." With his drink now in hand, he turned back to the antique, round, poker table Jean had seated herself at and smiled at her as he sat himself in the seat to her. "You were always a better person than me. You don't need to rub it in."

"I didn't mean--"

He laughed at her, touching her shoulder with a gentle, friendly, pat. "I'm [i]teasing[/i], Jeanie. Relax. You sure you don't want a drink?"

She felt on edge, and taking deep breaths and telling herself to take Ben's advice and relax just wasn't helping too much. A quick peak into his thoughts...and she knew he was just here to help, however he could. And maybe get to know her again. That surprised her, but it was a train of thought that was put away as she forced her focus from his thoughts to the conversation at hand, smiling back at him. "Thank you, no. I'm just looking to wrap my head around what we're facing, and I couldn't think of anyone better to explain it to me."

"You could have gone into the President's mind. You could have gone into the mind of--"

"--Ben--"

She tried to stop him there, but he ignored her and continued: "--the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Of the Director of the NSA. Of--"

This time, she was more forceful, leaning forward in her seat and putting a hand on his arm. "[i]Ben[/i], I don't work that way."

The way he looked at her, eyes smiling, she knew she just played right into his hands. His voice was softer than before, genuine in a raw sort of way. "Yeah, Jean. I know. That's my point. You're a good girl. You've [i]always[/i] been a good girl. I'm happy to help."

"Thank you." Just like they were back in prep school, he seemed to make her blush when it pleased him. "Can you confirm I'm on the kill list?"

"Well they don't call it a kill list, but the last time I saw it? No, you're not on it." Jean felt herself relaxing into her chair as she watched Ben Collins go into business mode. "From people I've spoken to the list has gotten smaller, not larger, over the last few years. Intelligence and Military boys are freaked out by the power you showed on Genosha, and I guess you can't blame them. But, no, you are no longer on that list the last I knew."

"Would you know if I was back on?"

His smile never waivered. "No."

"But you believe I'm not on it?"

"I was in the room when the President ordered you off it, Jean. It's been a good year since I was senior staff for the West Wing, but yeah, I feel pretty confident you weren't put back on it. The list changes month by month, and I'm told it's at about two dozen names right now. But it's not as simple as names on a kill list anymore. Controllers fire on people whose identities they do not know based on evidence of suspicious behavior or other 'signatures', patterns of behavior, that the US feels is dangerous to national interests. So no you're not on the list. Could you still end up the target of a drone strike? If you're in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong people...sure."

It was true. She didn't need to use telepathy to see it. [i]Maybe that's why I feel so ill right now.[/i] Jean allowed a soft sigh as she sunk back into her own chair, nodding, bemusement touching her lips in a twisted little smile. "Last week a US drone strike took out thirty people in Pakistan during a 'signature strike' against people US intelligence believed were AQAP," al-Qaeda Afghanistan-Pakistan, an acronym she was certain needed no explaining to Collins, "Ben...the US killed thirty members of a wedding party last week over one of these strikes."

"We're still waiting on the UN assessment report--"

"Ben! Get serious."

He didn't look flustered, but he didn't look happy, either. "I am."

"You don't find it chilling, to say the least, when the US President that won a Nobel Peace Price and is by training a Constitutional Lawyer is creating a legal framework for assassinating people, even US Citizens, with drone strikes?"

"Jean...why do you think I'm no longer Senior Staff at the West Wing anymore? It's a dangerous precedent to set, to put it mildly. But on the other hand, you have the Senate Intelligence Committee Chair, Republican Robert Kelly, blasting the White House for reigning in the drone strikes. Claiming 'while we're busy pondering morality and more transparency, self imposed red tape has paralyzed counter-terrorist intelligence operatives in the field.' He essentially called taking mutants with no history of crime or terrorism off the kill list, people like you, 'an unmitigated disaster resulting in Broken Arrow, Kansas.'"

"Is it?"

"No," Bennett quickly shook his head, and took a long savoring sip of his scotch. "He's an idiot. But it cannot be understated the current problem Washington finds itself in. One of my NSA friends explained it like this: 'it's as if they've jump on the back of a tiger, and they don't know how to get off.'"

On face value, it confused her. "They don't know how to stop killing people they're not certain are guilty, including US Citizens?"

"That answer is far more complicated than I can easily convey. But I'll start by saying no one wants to be blamed for the next 9/11. Whether it comes from al-Qaeda or the Brotherhood of Mutants. People are terrified, Jean, and it's understandable." 

"So the answer is McCarthyism?"

"No, but the trend lines are going down. In 2012 they killed an estimated three hundred or so. In 2013 it's down to around a hundred."

"And most watch groups estimate every one in nine deaths is a civilian with no attachment to terror or crime. I have a feeling they're low balling the number."

There was a hint of shame in Ben Collins' eyes, but it was gone as soon as (she thought) it appeared. "The bureaucratic inertia in trying to reign the drone programs back is hindered by the different considerations, both bureaucratic and policy wise, for keeping the country safe. Well who do you keep it safe from? That 'kill list' as you call it is the best answer many of them have right now."

"Best, or most convenient? I'm a US Citizen, Ben. I've got rights that aren't supposed to be taken away from me without due process of law."

"Anwar al-Awlaki was an American citizen before he was assassinated using drones. US officials called him a 'Senior Operational Planner' when everyone else called him a Propogandist for al-Qaeda. al-Awlaki's father, a US citizen, when it was disclosed his son had been targetted by US operatives, tried to sue to get the legal justification for the killing from the US Government. He was defeated in court because the US Justice Department killed it by using the official State Secrets policy. It's [i]very[/i] difficult to get actual transparency on what factors made killing this man, let alone doing it with drones, a matter of last resort instead of a matter of first resort."

"So you'd be unable to find out, legally, whether the drone strike was a policy of first or last resort?"

"It'd be impossible given the legal actions of the Justice Department, yes. In fact since the identities of targets are, obviously, not disclosed before being taken out make it just as impossible to challenge, legally, the basis for even making these people a target. The Justice Department justifications for the criteria of killing someone includes the concept of an 'Imminent Threat'; that this person represents such a time sensitive threat to the US and it's interests that killing them isn't first or last resort, it's the only resort. Problem is,"

"I need a drink." Jean almost couldn't believe what she was hearing. But what she did believe was that a stiff glass of Scotch couldn't hurt her at this point, with the growing headache that was spreading through her brain. She kept listening even as she rose from the table and moved to the drink cart.

"I totally understand, it's disheartening. But it gets worse. Like I was saying, problem is according to a document that was sent to Capital Hill last year by the Justice Department the term 'imminent threat' is a rather interchangable thing. So while you and I might think 'imminent threat' means take them out or they'll blow up New York City in a day, the Justice Department feels they can't know something like that with great confidence, being able to prove it beyond the shadow of a doubt, even within a secret court. So it becomes a rather legally significant point."

After a long, deep, drink Jean found herself wondering one thing...and needed to refill the top third of her Scotch. "So why don't they lay out the evidence in front of a court if they have the evidence, and if they don't aren't they just executing people without a trial, and that's unconstitutional?"

"They would say once a citizen is actively plotting to take lives, to use whatever means of destruction available to them, be it an IED or a mutant power, that citizenship should not be a 'shield' for them to carry out their criminal plots. So one of the important distinctions from a legal point of view is...what constitutes someone 'actively plotting' an attack on the US or it's interests? According to the US Government, that determination is made by affiliation. That is to say once the US determines a person has an affilitation with a group known by the government to wish harm upon the US, that is enough to, legally, claim they are 'actively plotting' against the US."

As she sat back down, only one question stung at her mind: "Are the X-Men considered an organization actively plotting against the US government?"

"Are the 'X-Men' even an organization? It's a debate going on at the moment in various levels of the government. Most say they are, much as the Avengers have morphed into more than a the super powered arm of SHIELD; are they their own organization?"

It made even her blink. "You can't tell me the US Justice Department views the Avengers as an organization active plotting against the US government and it's interests?"

For the first time in a while, she saw hints of that charismatic smile return to Bennett Collins. "No. But are they an organization? And if they are, like the X-Men, it's not hard to imagine circumstances where they could at least be 'actively plotting' against US interests."

The question [i]What happens when the interests of the United States are less than just?[/i] kept coming back to her again, and again. But for whatever reason, Jean was unable to give voice to it. "Because the X-Men and Avengers represent organizations of individuals with extra...or super...or...whatever means of complicating US interests?"

He smiled at her like she was cute for trying. It was a little bit condescending. But Jean ignored it, and told herself she was being paranoid. "Individuals with metahuman means of destruction. Sure. Go back to al-Awlaki; Once the US Government determined he was a member of an organization with the intent to do harm to the US and/or it's interests, it didn't [i]matter[/i] if he was actively plotting to kill a sand snake. It was enough, legally, for the basis of an assassination order. All they had to do was determine his affilitation, and his level of involvement, because that's a clear 'indicator' of intent."

"It sounds circular. Adam Gadahn--"

"--is a US citizen turned propogandist for al-Qaeda. You have clear affilitation. So under the criteria, the "disposition matrix", the burcreatic euphemism for what check marks get you onto a kill list, yeah. He should be on it. Some illegally collected NSA electronic intelligence, or some hard intell picked up in the field by some CIA agent or some SEAL team pointed them to actuallly pulling the trigger on al-Awlak and not Gadahn. Why? I don't know that information. But legally could they kill Gadahn? Sure. Absolutely."

"...so..."

"It's absolutely circular logic, yes. And if that's not scary enough new SHIELD Director General Stryker wants the Sentinel Operations Command transferred to the Department of Defense. The US Intelligence community has to report what they do to the various Intelligence Oversight Committees. But for the US military, especially under it's Special Operations division, they don't have to report everything they do to the various Armed Forces committees. They have what's called the Authorization of Military Force, a law from 2001 that says the US military can go after those responsible for 9/11 'unbounded by space and time.' Now after Manchester and Broken Arrow, it's been rumored the afore mentioned Senator Kelly is trying to gain support for a similar law with metahuman threats in mind."

"So Stryker wants the drone program, the umbrella of which this 'Sentinel Initative' is under, moved to the Department of Defense from the CIA/NSA. And Kelly wants a new AoMF for metahumans signed into law which would allow the US Department of Defense, of which SHIELD can direct lethal force to, to kill metahumans without ever having to explain it so long as it holds up under the circular and enabling logic of the US Justice Department?"

"...yes."

"That's terrifying."

"Once again, I agree, it's one of the big reasons I'm here. The normative legal precendent being set for American security, intelligence, military policy that America will rain down drone attacks wherever in the world, whenever in the world, is just as terrifying to me. We're not the only nation with drone technology: Israel, Iran, China are aggressively developing this technology. Nothing like the quantum leap in technology being reported by what little information that has been made avaiable to the public about the Sentinels. Is that Stark tech? Maybe, it's impossible to know for sure."

"Stark sounded pretty convinced on TV the other day."

Ben nodded, as if submitting to that fact. "I was part of the legal team that conducted the argument to forcefully take his suits a few years ago. I can tell you more than the actual suits and how they were powered, the black ops and military boys were more interested in the programming [i]behind[/i] it. It's one thing to construct a suit like that, it's quite another, they said, to program it so it all works. But Stark has, seemingly, done it. So when they got the Rhodes suit, the 'War Machine' suit, it presented a giant leap forward on that front. But now they're afraid Stark has beaten the world to a Quantum Computer. A sort of super computer that can do endless amounts of things at once. Not sharing that technology, keeping it, through force of subterfuge, from the government--"

Her blood went cold when it hit her what Ben Collins was telling her: "Equates to conspiring against the interests of the US Government."

"Yes."

"Ben...are you telling me I'm not on the US Kill List, but Tony Stark is?"

"He wasn't the last time I saw it."

"And the last time you asked people who still have access to it?"

"...Jean, I think our meeting is done. It was nice seeing you. If I can do anything else for you...let me know." 

Jean felt the man lean down and kiss her cheek. There was sadness in his voice, and in his thoughts. She could taste it in the air, just as much as she could hear it in his voice. Instead of taking a car down to the Florida Keys and hiring a boat from there, Jean Grey decided then and there to bust out of the windows of the Kennedy Lounge at the South Beach Yacht Club, and just fly to Cuba and Stark's meeting place.

As quickly as she could.