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"It's counting down from an hour," Max said tersely. She looked up into Alec's worried green eyes, flipping her long dark hair out of the way. "We've got less than forty minutes left. You should have gotten me up.You should have let me know what was going on right away. With more help maybe we could have stopped them in time."

"Max, I'm sorry," was all he could say. "I thought I could handle it."

"Would you two save your domestic squabble for sometime after the danger of us being reduced to nuclear waste is past," Mole interrupted. "What the fuck are we gonna do about this?"

"From the size I'd say this bad boy's designed to take out about five square miles including the radiation and all," Dix said, studying the bomb through his monocle. Luke had brought Max and Dix to the site on Alec's orders while Alec had tried to get up the courage to open the bomb's casing. He had training in explosives, but no one had ever gone so far as to teach Manticore's progeny how to disarm a thermonuclear warhead. Now, Dix glanced up at his friends. "Just about the size of the island isn't it? Made to fit."

"Tell me this is one of those snip the red wire, no snip the green wire deals?" Alec asked hopefully. "A standard M class detonator maybe?"

Dix shook his head. "No such luck. This thing was activated with a code, and the code's the only thing that's going to disarm it now." He peered more closely into the mess of wires revealed when Alec had taken off the cover. "But the good news is you took them out before they could activate the mercury motion switch. We can move it."

"Move it where?" Max asked.

"Into a boat," Alec said quietly. "Take it offshore before it blows."

Dix did the math. "In that phallic symbol of a speedboat of yours, with say, thirty-five minutes, you could take it just far enough out to get the island clear of the radioactive fallout. That is if you leave in the next few minutes."

Max's eyes widened. "But whoever takes it out, won't be coming back," she said in a strangled voice, looking around at the little group. "It's a suicide mission."

"One life in exchange for almost two hundred," Mole said. "Seems like a fair enough deal."

"But who's life?" Luke asked quietly. "Which one of us five will go?"

Alec gave no warning. His hand blurred, his fist connecting with Max's jaw, knocking her cold before she could so much as open her mouth. He caught her in his arms as she fell, holding her tightly, lovingly to his chest. "You mean which one of us four will go?" Alec corrected, lowering his face to nuzzle Max's soft hair, inhaling her scent for what he knew was going to be the last time. Then he raised his head and looked at the others. "And we all know the answer to that, don't we?"

The other three couldn't quite meet his eyes ... but none of them argued. Alec didn't take it personally. He was, afterall, an X5, their leader. A mission like this should be his. And it was his fault they were in this predicament anyway. Justice was justice.

He leaned down and kissed Max's lips one last time. "I love you," he whispered, hoping that on some level she would hear his words. "Forgive me for leaving you. Don't let Brac forget about me, and tell her--" He touched Max's still flat stomach lightly with his fingers tips. "--tell her about her father. Tell her that even though I never got to know her I loved her too."

Luke was starting to cry, and even the usually pragmatic Dix was misting up. Only Mole stood watching stoically. "Better get moving," he growled. "It'll take you ten minutes to bring the speedboat around and that's gonna be cuttin' it close."

"Right," Alec said with a huge sigh, climbing to his feet even as his eyes remained on his beautiful mate lying where he'd gently lain her on the sand. It took everything in him to finally turn away. "Carry her back to the cliff top," he said, his voice now that of an automaton. "You guys go too. Don't wait down here for me. I can get it loaded myself." Then, without another word, he squared his shoulders and took off at a run down the beach, heading for Chimera's main boat dock half a mile away.

*****

Alec wondered what it would feel like to be vaporized in a nuclear blast. He doubted there'd be any pain. It would be too fast, too thorough, his body turned in a fraction of a second to ash, its molecular components instantly scattered.

She won't even have a grave to visit.

Once he passed the thirty mile mark he felt a little bit better although he was beginning to shake, and at forty miles he was fairly certain his family and friends would be safe. The wind was from the south. Any radioactivity would be blown out to the open sea. Hopefully there wouldn't be any boat or air traffic caught in the devastation.

He glanced down at the timer. Five minutes of life left. Of course they'd see the mushroom cloud from the island ... witness his death. She'd see ... maybe feel it when his soul left this Earth as well, if he had a soul that is. Afterall, he always imagined he'd know if anything ever happened to Max. His eyes fell on the boat's radio, but he resolutely kept the switch turned off.

Words would be meaningless now.

*****

Max stood on the cliff top facing the ocean, her hair whipping in the wind, looking out as far and as hard as she could over the waves. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. He was gone. There was nothing she could do. She'd been unconscious for more than 15 minutes. By the time she'd come around and Dix had told her what Alec was doing it was way too late to stop him, even if they'd had another fast boat to give chase. And really, what could she have done if she'd caught up to him? Make the sacrifice herself? Kill her baby too ... Alec's daughter? Make Brac an orphan. "Alec," she called uselessly into the hand held radio set to the speedboat's frequency. "Alec, please answer me."

Silence.

Max glanced down at her watch. The nuclear flash would come at any moment now, Alec's funeral pyre. Breaking into a sob, burying her face in her hands, she turned her back on the ocean, protecting her eyes ... turned her back on him.

*****

Three minutes. Three minutes to live. A sound made Alec look up, a noise beyond the boat's racing engine, and his eyes widened in astonishment. A Chinook helicopter was pacing his speedboat, silhouetted in black against the moon and stars, flying dark. And even more bizarre was the all too recognizable figure hanging out the open chopper door and signaling with a flashlight in Morse code for him to stop the boat.

He's dead too now the idiot, Alec thought as he throttled the engine down, the idea strangely satisfying in an odd way. He was far enough out now that another minute of speed would make little difference anyway.

A ladder dropped and Alec held it steady while Donald Lydecker climbed down into the boat. "How much time left?" the colonel screamed above the chopper's roar.

Alec squinted against the wind being whipped up by the helicopter's huge blades. "Thirty seconds!"

Lydecker shoved him out of the way and dropped to his knee beside the nuclear device. With dexterous fingers he began tapping in a series of numbers. When the flashing digital numbers stopped at 14 seconds Alec felt as if his heart stopped with them. He was utterly numb, in shock even. He'd been so prepared to die that now he felt rather foolish, as if he somehow ought to apologize for being alive.

Lydecker helped him get over that feeling quickly. "You dumb piece of shit," he snarled as he motioned the chopper away. "If you were one of my trained kids I'd blow your brains out for your stupidity." His hand dropped to his sidearm and Alec instinctively raised a fist. Lydecker saw, grinned, and left the gun in its holster. "But you were raised by that asshole Sandoval, you and your fellow twins. So I guess that gives you some leeway in the common sense department."

"What the hell was I supposed to do?" Alec hollered as he turned the boat around and pointed the bow back toward Chimera. "I didn't have the codes to disarm the damn thing!"

"You shouldn't have let it become armed in the first place, soldier!"

"We weren't expecting visitors bearing nuclear gifts."

"You should be prepared for anything," Lydecker pointed out. "It's what you were trained to do."

Alec knew the former Manticore CO was right. They'd been caught unawares ... he'd been caught unawares. They'd grown too complacent on their little island, and he was ashamed. "How'd you know the code?" he asked, wanting to change the subject. His hands were shaking so badly now someone looking at him might think he'd forgotten to take his tryptophan. He didn't want Lydecker to see that ... how scared he'd been.

Lydecker face split into a smile again. "Where the hell do you think those cultists got the device in the first place?"

"From the U.S. stockpiles?" Alec guessed.

Lydecker touched a forefinger to the tip of his nose.

"And so of course your people had the disarm codes," Alec said. "But how'd you know we were in trouble?"

"The U.S. government may be in a shambles and Familiars in power, but there are still loyal soldiers in the military willing to take great risks in order to protect humanity. Chimera is under surveillance at all times. We saw the enemy approaching and we took action. Gave you a hand, so to speak."

"Well, thanks for keeping me from being torched," Alec said lamely.

"I didn't do it to save you or your people," Lydecker replied. "I did it to keep a nuclear cloud from contaminating Australia and New Zealand. The world's in enough trouble as it is without adding radiation poisoning into the mix."

"Oh," was all Alec could think to say.

Lydecker pointed to the horizon where a large military vessel sat. "Steer for the destroyer. We'll take care of the nuke. Then you can head home, but I want to talk to you soon."

However, now it was Alec's turn to smile grimly as he kept the speedboat heading at full throttle back to Chimera. "Don't try it," he said as Lydecker realized he was more or less being hijacked and reached once more for his weapon. "You know I'm a lot faster than you," Alec drawled, "not to mention the fact that breaking your neck and dumping you overboard wouldn't exactly weigh much on my conscience."

"Gee, save a guy's life and you'd expect a little gratitude," Lydecker said, easing back into the seat and once more leaving the gun alone. "What do you want with a nuke anyway?"

"My business," Alec said levelly. "Now just sit tight and we'll be home in a few minutes."

*****

Time was up ... long up ... and there hadn't been an explosion. Max honestly didn't know what to think. Had Alec figured out a way to disarm the bomb after all? She wouldn't put it past him. Her mate might quibble and prevaricate a lot of the time, act like a jack ass even, but under the right kind of pressure he'd been know to perform miracles.

And then she squinted against the rising sun at the sound of a boat's motor and saw the love of her life coming home. Gingerly Max felt the large bruise on her jaw, her lips tightening into a grim line. "You big jerk," she muttered as she ran toward the path leading to the beach, tears streaming down her face once again as she tried not to sob with joy. "Just wait until I get my hands on you!"

*****

She got her hands on him all right -- all morning long she got her hands on him. With their unexpected guest safely housed, the quiet congratulations all said, and the disaster most of the island never would know about averted, Max threw her leg across his naked body, mounted, and rode her man for all she was worth, wanting to savor every precious second she could have with this unique creature she'd named "Alec."

And Alec, X5-494, let her have her way with him ... whatever Max wanted for as long as she wanted it. Lying with his head thrown back on the pillow, eyes closed, breaths coming in short gasps, the pleasure between his legs soon made him forget all about that new, Max-inflicted bruise on his left cheekbone -- his mate's little retaliatory gift to him for knocking her out on the beach.

Yeah, he thought as he unsuccessfully tried to stifle a whimper, his hips thrusting faster, his seed starting to rise. Payback's a bitch. But oh what an incredible sexy bitch she is ...

And then Alec's world really did explode -- in the orgasmic way.