Milestone: Nearly kills Freddy on Daisy's orders
In the field with Mack to move Freddy and his cargo, Deke finds himself the unlikely voice of restraint, the one urging that they make only ripples and not waves when Mack presses too hard for answers. He has spent enough time at the young man's side to like him, to see not a future monster but an ordinary kid who has never harmed a soul.
That fondness becomes a torment when the order comes to kill him. With Freddy in his sights and Daisy's voice in his ear insisting that a single death now would spare thousands later, Deke wrestles with the arithmetic of it, the weight of the future against the boy in front of him, and finds he cannot pull the trigger. Mack's command to stand down settles the matter, and the choice is overtaken by gunfire as the hunters fall upon them, leaving Deke to trade shots until his ammunition runs dry.