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"You probably never even knew about the twins, at Manticore, did you?" Alec said to Lydecker. Stretching in his airplane seat like a big cat, he casually planted a booted foot on the headrest in front of him, not caring in the least that he was annoying the hell out of the massive sergeant sitting in the next aisle up. There were few things in life the vibrant X5 hated more than long, boring plane flights, and the silence on this slow military cargo transport to France was driving him nuts, not to mention that worrisome ache he'd denied to Dr. Makari that still lingered in his bruised side.

Lydecker, seated next to Alec, scowled at the transgenic over the top rims of his reading glasses. He'd been absorbed in perusing mission specs, and the annoyance at the interruption was evident in cool blue eyes.

"Hey, I was just sayin' ..." Alec whined. "I mean, you would've had a lot easier time catchin' Max and her little runaway Rugrat friends if you knew what they looked like all grown up. But the big brass didn't want you to trip to the alternate X5 program they had revved up back in Seattle." Alec's eyes slid slyly sideways, a knowing smirk on his face. "You must have been in deep shit with the Committee right from the beginning. They never trusted you, even back then. Sandoval was probably spyin' on you the whole time." He glanced out into the aisle. "By the way, is there any food service on this flight? I'm starving."

Lydecker took off the glasses and carefully tucked them into his shirt pocket before answering. "I knew about the twins," he said, pointedly ignoring Alec's plea for food. "But my group ... Max's group ... were supposed to be special in their training, hence their isolation in Wyoming. The test tube siblings of my kids did, of course, give me a blueprint to work from during the search after the '09 escape. However, Manticore didn't want your faces splashed all over the place on 'wanted' posters -- would have really put a damper on your special ops potential." He raked Alec with his eyes, paused, then added, "Ben was superb you know. That is before--."

"Hey," Alec snapped. "Just consider me the new and improved version. They got it right with me. No psychosis. Now quit comparin' me to my bro. I'm not him. I never will be. We've talked this to death before, you and me."

"I know you're stable -- for now."

"Then why do you always look at me like I'm suddenly gonna jump in your lap and start yankin' our your teeth?"

"Did you know we had an entire class of X's go insane?" Lydecker said way too casually. "The Committee ordered 26 soldiers put down because three of them showed signs of mental instability. The four we kept for observation ended up raving lunatics, muzzled in the basement of one of our facilities."

Alec understood what the CO was saying. "And so you can't afford to ever let down your guard around me, right?" he said. "Or around any of the X's for that matter. Any one of us could snap at any moment, but me ... I'm at special risk because my genetic twin is already a loon."

"Have you ever been in contact with him again?" Lydecker asked. "With Ben?"

"No," Alec said honestly. "I always kind of thought he might show up on the island, but not a word."

"Hmm," Lydecker commented. "A bit troubling isn't it?"

"Yeah," Alec admitted. He nodded at the mission specs spread in Lydecker's lap. "But I've got more pressing worries than my schitzo brother at the moment. You gonna fill me in? Or is this another one of your precious 'need to know' assignments where Alec gets beaten to a bloody pulp because he didn't have a clue."

"Your part of the plan is simple," Lydecker said. He pointed to a spot on the map of Rouen, France. "The training facility is here, on the grounds of this chateau. My men will take care of eliminating the X5 clones. Your mission is to take out Madam Jarrell, Elizabeth Renfro's sister." His cold eyes flicked to his soldier. "It's a simple assassination."

Alec clenched his jaw. "I'm not killin' someone in cold blood."

"You have your orders, soldier," Lydecker snapped. "This is what you were created for, trained for all your life. It's an easy assignment. And considering your history with Jarrell's twin, I wouldn't think you'd have any problem with it."

"This lady is a total stranger," Alec countered. "She never did anything to me or mine." He shifted in his seat, trying to find a position that would ease the nagging ache in his side.

Truth was, if Jarrell were to fall in a hail of bullets during a military assault on the training facility, Alec wouldn't have batted an eye. But finding out he was going to have to sneak and creep his way into a woman's home and personally kill her was more than a little unsettling.

"She's creating a race of abominations," Lydecker said. "Her zeal to battle the Familiars and carry on Sandeman's work has resulted in a house of horrors. You have no idea the things that were being done in the old man's castle on Calvi. Her attempts to create X5's artificially and accelerate their growth was resulting in deformed babies, retarded children, and grown men with mental issues that make your brother Ben's psychosis look like a common cold. I need this so-called army out of the way so my own people can fight the war cleanly."

"Why not just form an allegiance," Alec asked, truly curious. "I mean, your two groups have a common enemy -- McKinley ... the breeding cult ... the Familiars."

"Because Jarrell is as insane as her sister was," Lydecker spat. "Her ultimate goal is world domination. And frankly, I'd prefer a world run by the Familiars to one under the thumb of Lady Frankenstein and her creatures."

Alec understood now, and he had to admit the colonel was probably right. Better to nip this danger in the bud now, before it spread, before it had a chance to sneak up and bite them in the ass sometime in the future. But he also knew it was a bit personal with Lydecker. Hell, it was a bit personal with him too. The creatures Jarrell was growing were rooted in the DNA of the original X5's, Lydecker's pride and joy ... in his own DNA. In a way, that made the real X5's responsible. And it also made him very, very mad.

But Lydecker was looking at him strangely now, in an assessing manner. "Are you all right, soldier? You look a bit pale all of a sudden. Not air sick are you?"

"I'm all right," Alec replied quietly. "I'm always all right."

*****

"Max, we've spotted something."

Max stood up from her chair in the command center, rubbing her aching back. "What do we have, Dix?" she asked, leaning over the little grey mutant's shoulder and looking at the monitor screen. After the nuclear bomb incident, they'd beefed up security by positioning remote cameras along the island's shoreline as well as assigning more sentries. Now, one of those cameras showed a large grey boat on the horizon.

"That's a military destroyer," Dix said, whistling low under his breath. He turned to look up at Max. "A really, really big one."

"Is it just passing by?" she asked, swallowing hard ... hoping.

"No," Dix replied, looking at data on the computer screen. "She's stopped." He pointed to the monitor. "They're dropping anchor."

The hair on the back of Max's neck suddenly stood on end. "Is it American?"

Dix zoomed in the camera lens to magnify the markings on the side of the huge warship. USS McKinley was emblazoned on the hull.

Max felt as if she couldn't breathe. "They're here," she said. "Damn it, they're finally here and we had no idea ... we're not ready."

Luke, who'd been watching from behind Max, pointed to the screen. "I thought the U.S. government was too cash poor to bother coming all the way out here for us? Why send someone now?"

"It's not the U.S. government," Max said, her mind flying off in a thousand directions at once even as she spoke. "It's the breeding cult. They've decided to get rid of their rogue brothers and sisters once and for all." She whirled around, seeing who else was in the command hut. "Get the pregnant women, the children, and anyone who's sick or injured into the caves! Have all the rest meet me at the armory!"

She turned back to Dix. "Are there any more ships out there?"

"You need any more?" the mutant replied. "That one carrier could easily have over a thousand Familiar soldiers on board, not to mention air power and the big guns."

"Fuel is in really short supply," Max said, hoping against hope that meant those Harrier jets on the deck would stay put. "But the guns ..."

Even as she spoke the words there was a thunder clap in the air. Everyone in the hut froze, eyes wide, waiting.

And then with a deafening roar a supply storage building across the compound exploded in flames as the ground beneath their feet rocked and threw them all to the floor.