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Chapter 16
Right and Wrong

Photo courtesy of Jensen Ackles World

Donald Lydecker didn't trust X5-494. He knew exactly what the kid was capable of and, more importantly, what he probably wasn't capable of. In spite of more than 20 years of Manticore training, the young transgenic was reluctant to kill unless his own life or the life of a loved one was in danger. He was flawed, perhaps fatally so. He had a conscience ... a soul ... a trait that had been nurtured by his intimate association with 452. Lydecker spat on the ground. Love made men (and X5's) weak.

494 might not be able to complete this mission.

Not for the first time wondering if he shouldn't have chosen a different X5 unit from Chimera for the job, even though his influence over this one was strong, Lydecker watched through binoculars as 494 gracefully climbed the side of the chateau and disappeared through a fourth floor window. Around him his own mercenary army was winning the battle, their far superior firepower and the stealth of the attack catching the few pseudo X5 sentries by surprise. Most of the clones were housed in underground barracks below the main house. The doors there had already been secured, their quarry trapped. As soon as 494 exited the chateau with a report that Jarrell was indeed dead they would blow the entire place to smithereens and the job would be done.

The colonel waited five minutes -- and when 494 still didn't come out, he stood and moved toward the building. Something was wrong.

*****

They had the advantage ... the high ground ... and they'd held steady all night long. But the shelling from the McKinley was hurting them badly, and slowly but surely the Familiars were making their way up the mountainside to where the mutants had made their stand.

Max saw the inevitable. This battle couldn't be won. They were finished. The only question was how quickly the enemy would overrun their position.

She looked at her watch. It would be dawn soon. Alec could be back by noon, hopefully with re-enforcements. But he would be too late.

She turned to Dix. "Are the caves still secure?"

"Our people are holding them off," Dix replied, listening to someone on the other end of the communications link. "But eventually they'll run out of food and water. All those bastards have to do is wait us out down there, even if it takes weeks. Or they could speed things up and use poison gas."

Max knew what she had to do. It was their one last chance ... the one thing that just might turn the tide of battle. "Ryan," she said, looking to the big X5 combat trainer. "You're in command."

"What?" Ryan said. "Max, where are you going?"

Joshua was staring at her too. "Max," the dogman said. "What are you doing?"

"I've got an idea," she said. "Just wait to hear from me. Give me at least an hour." She moved to the rock outcropping that sheltered them from incoming enemy fire.

"Max!" Joshua said loudly, moving toward her.

"Can't let you come this time, Big Fella," she said, holding out her hand. "I have to do this alone."

Reluctantly Joshua returned to his place beside Luke.

Which is when Max felt the first twinge in her abdomen.

Oh God, no!

Ignore it, she told herself. You don't have time for this now. It will go away.

"Wait for my signal," Max told her men. Then she vanished down the hillside, her exit covered by the bombardment of yet another shell from the Familiar's battleship.

*****

Lydecker met no resistance inside the apparently deserted house. Making his way swiftly up the stairs to the fourth floor he came out into a large hallway. Looking left and right he heard nothing but eerie silence punctuated by the occasional distant gunshot from outside -- and then he saw the two unconscious guards. Gun drawn, Lydecker cautiously entered what appeared to be the master bedroom.

He was sprawled on his back on the floor, eyes closed, his perfect body at her mercy.

The anger that rose inside of Lydecker at the sight of Alec lying there probably dead caught the battle hardened colonel by surprise. The emotion cut through him like a knife. It had been a long time since he'd felt such passion ... such sorrow ... such a sense of loss.

Flawed or not, this kid had meant something to him.

Jarrell was on her knees beside 494's body. In her hand was a hypodermic needle -- one she was about to plunge into the vulnerable X5's bare throat. She looked up, startled at the intrusion.

Lydecker's pale blue eyes crinkled with anger, the crow's feet at their corners deepening with his wrath. She wasn't going to hurt his kid any more. Coldly, calmly, he raised his gun.

"He's priceless!" Jarrell cried out as she saw her own death reflected in cold eyes. "Join me and together was can use him to overcome the defects in my men! We'll combine our armies to defeat the Familiars, prevent the Apocalypse itself!"

Lydecker hesitated, looking down at Alec. "What did you do to him?"

"Nothing," Jarrell swore. "He was apparently injured already when he came after me. He just passed out."

"What's in that?" Lydecker asked, gesturing at the hypo she still held in her hand.

Jarrell smiled nastily. "A chemical compound my people concocted that makes X5's compliant."

"What do you mean 'compliant'?"

Her smile broadened. "One dose of this and X5-494 will do anything we say without question. It destroys all capacities in the higher brain for independent thought or action. He'll be an obedient little boy ... our boy ... and my genetic experiments can be perfected."

For a brief second Lydecker's mind flashed back to almost two years ago ... to X5-494 strapped screaming in a chair with a laser beam penetrating his eye while he, himself, had tried to tear apart his brain, destroy the boy's ability to love ... destroy his feelings for Max.

He'd thought he was doing the right thing ... recovering an X5 unit ... returning 494 to what he was supposed to be ... fixing him.

He'd been wrong. He saw that now more clearly than ever before. A grand mal seizure had ended that long ago torture session, that and an unforeseen interruption. As a result, 494 ... Alec ... had been left intact, his mind his own.

Truth be told, Lydecker was glad. And, Apocalypse or not, he'd be damned if he'd let the boy be a sacrifice to this bitch now, not after surviving so much already ... not after surviving Renfro ... not after surviving him.

The single gunshot was lost in the sound of the battle raging outside.

*****

It took Max far longer than she'd thought it would to reach her destination, dodging groups of Familiars and taking cover from the shelling slowing her down. Repeated calls to Ryan were the only thing that had kept her people from sending a rescue squad after her. Now, at last, still ignoring the cramps in her womb, she stood breathing hard in front of the entrance to the cave -- the one where Alec had hidden the thermonuclear bomb.

*****

"What's wrong with him?" Lydecker asked, looking worriedly down at Alec where he lay unconscious on a cot in the back of the big military transport plane. They were returning to New Zealand, mission accomplished, but it would be at least 12 hours before they touched down in Wellington.

His team's medic pulled Alec's black t-shirt up exposing a large, ugly purple bruise low on his left side. "That's an old injury, sir," he said. "Been there a couple of days." He looked up at his CO. "X5 stamina or not, this soldier should never have been deployed on a mission. He's bleeding internally, a spleen laceration I'd say. Looks like someone kicked the hell out of him."

"Fuck it," Lydecker swore softly under his breath as his eyes took in the extent of Alec's injury. "Why the fuck didn't the ass hole say something?"

"Excuse me again, sir. I'm not a Manticore trained officer, but weren't these X5 units encouraged to ignore injuries, told that to admit pain was a sign of unacceptable weakness, punished for it even?"

Lydecker had the decency to look away. "Can you help him?" he asked, speaking to the aircraft's window.

"I may not have to," the medic said, shaking his head in amazement as he checked Alec's latest monitored readings. "His blood pressure is stable, his heartbeat strong. I'd say his body's own coagulation abilities and stem cells are doing the trick, clotting and repairing the internal wound. If he hadn't come on this mission he'd probably be well on his way to healed by now. He just re-opened the initial laceration somehow, caused the bleeding to start again, which is why he passed out." He glanced at a portable heart monitor.

"Does he need a blood transfusion?" Lydecker asked, looking down at his kid again.

"Wouldn't hurt," the medic said. His eyes roamed around the plane, noting their squad of mercenary humans. "But I don't see any X5 donors on board, sir. Not to worry though. I think he'll pull through on his own."

Another soldier was making his way down the plane's aisle, a piece of paper in his hand. "Sir. I think you'll want to see this."

"What is it, soldier?" Lydecker asked tiredly, running fingers through his rapidly greying blonde hair.

"It's Chimera, sir. Our surveillance team just radioed in that the island's under attack. They tried to reach us sooner, but we were running silent."

"Attack? By whom?" the colonel snapped.

"Familiars, sir. The USS McKinley has dropped anchor off their coast and is shelling the island. They've also reportedly landed assault troops."

"Shit," Lydecker said quietly. Involuntarily his eyes went to the unconscious X5. "Will we get there in time to be of any assistance?"

"Difficult to tell, sir. The only intel we have on the situation is from satellite photos. Right now the mutants seem to be holding their own, but the odds against them are pretty overwhelming. And sir, there's something else."

"Spit it out, soldier!" Although Lydecker wasn't sure he needed to hear any more bad news.

"There's a major storm front bearing down on the island. It's going to arrive in approximately twelve hours."

"The same time we'll be landing in Wellington," Lydecker said grimly. "That's just great."

Once more his eyes went to Alec. "Hold on, Max," he said so softly no one but an X5 could have heard the words. "Hold on for him."