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Chapter 21
In With the New?

Photo courtesy of JRA Unlimited

Alec thought about Max ... his children. If he stood and fought now, he was going to die ... and so were a lot of his friends. He'd never see his family again. And for what? To prove a point? What point? True, Chimera had been his home for two years, his place of refuge, his creation. But one look at those dozens of hostile eyes peering out from scaly, furred, and deformed faces told him it wasn't his home any longer.

A good soldier knew when to stand and fight. But a smart soldier also knew when to retreat.

Alec squared his shoulders, his eyes never leaving Mole's. "We're taking our things with us," he said levelly. "And we'll need to make more than one trip."

Mole took the cigar stub out of his mouth and spat tobacco laced saliva on the ground at Alec's feet, narrowly missing his boots. "You take what we say you can take," Mole said. "And you can ferry your people to the mainland but I want you all off this island for good within twenty-four hours."

Alec finally turned around and looked at the X5's and 6's standing behind him, looked into their eyes. They'd fight to the death if he gave the word.

But there had been too much death already.

"Ryan!" he commanded the big X5. "Take a team and see if the supply boat's seaworthy. The rest of you, collect your things. We're movin' out!"

"Movin' out to where?" asked Dalton, the young X6 who'd always worshipped the ground Alec walked on. The kid nodded toward the ocean and the mainland. "They don't want us ... the ordinaries. Where will we live?"

"We'll find someplace," Alec said in a voice more assured than he felt. "We'll be okay. I think I know where we can get some help."

But the thought of what price he was going to have to pay for that help made his heart hurt.

*****

"Her name's Nyx," Max said, cradling her tiny daughter in her arms as she lay in the Wellington hospital maternity ward bed. How Lydecker had managed to get Max admitted without a lot of security and questions was beyond Alec, but at the moment he was just grateful that at least his mate and newborn daughter were safe.

"It means 'night' in Greek," Max added.

"Night," Alec said with a small smile. The name suited the olive-skinned child who, even though over eight weeks premature, had a head of thick black hair just like her mother's. He pulled Brac into his lap so they were both seated in the chair at Max's bedside. With his blonde hair and light hazel eyes Brac's looks were almost the exact opposite of Nyx's -- day and night ... night and day. Alec wondered if there wasn't some kind of message there ... some kind of omen.

"What are we going to do now?" Max asked quietly. There was no fear in her voice, not even much worry. She trusted him. And that gave Alec the strength he'd been seeking.

"What we always do," he said. "Survive."

"Well, that sounds very noble, but I'd feel better with a few specifics."

Alec closed his eyes and took a deep breath. This was extremely difficult for him to say. "I'm going to ask him for help."

"No."

"Max, he saved your life, and the baby's too. Hell, he's saved us a bunch of times."

"He's also put us in danger," she shot back. "Coldly. Deliberately. Without thought as to whether we'd make it out alive or not."

"He's a practical man, Max. He's always wanted us back. He also knows how to help us with the medical stuff, probably even better than we know ourselves, especially now with Makari dead." He looked down at Nyx. "Who knows what kind of problems she'll have? She's pure X5, just like Brac here." He kissed the top of his son's golden haired head.

"Daddy?" the child chortled happily, his chubby little fingers grabbing hold of the collar of Alec's brown leather jacket.

"Daddy's here," Alec said huskily. "And so's Mommy and your new baby sister. We're all here together. And that's what really counts."

"What do the others say?" Max asked. "There are more than forty of us."

Alec shrugged. "A few are gonna take off on their own, take their chances. But most of 'em are waitin' to hear what the deal will be ... what Lydecker will offer."

"We're not in any position to bargain," Max pointed out. "He's got us by the balls, Alec."

"Not completely," Alec pointed out. "He's building an army to fight the Familiars but it's an army of ordinaries. What he really wants are his kids back, his super soldiers. He wants us so bad he can taste it. I think we can arrange a pretty sweet deal if we play our cards right."

But Max was shaking her head. "I don't know, Alec. Remember what you always told me, what you always said?"

"What?"

"Never play a player?"

Alec raised an eyebrow.

"Well, Lydecker's a really big player, Alec. You don't know him like I do. He'll make a deal with you then stab you in the back."

Alec glanced down at where his hand was holding Brac's much tinier one. His fingers were trembling. He hadn't had any tryptophan in almost a week, and worse, he didn't know where to get any since all of their medical supplies had been lost in the storm. He imagined his fellow X's, the one's who'd come with him off the island, were having the same problem. Tremors ... Seizures ... Ultimately coma ... Death.

"We don't have any other choice, Max," he whispered. "We're runnin' out of time."

*****

Donald Lydecker stared at him, then slowly began to shake his grey-blonde head in disgust. "Calling you an idiot somehow isn't sufficient, is it, soldier?"

"No, sir."

Alec's response was automatic, without thought, his subconscious mind back at Manticore now. He'd screwed up the biggest mission of his career -- his own life -- and now was at the mercy of a man who'd tried to destroy him more than once. Alec grimaced slightly with pain as the Wellington ER doctor pressed on his ribcage, checking out the internal injuries that had never had a chance to heal. Sitting on the edge of a hospital bed, clad only in a gown, shivering, Alec hung his head. He couldn't even look Lydecker in the eye. He was that ashamed.

"You had it all, and you lost it."

"Yes, sir."

"Do you know why, soldier?"

"Because I trusted the wrong people ... didn't watch my back."

"And your so-called friends betrayed you."

"Yes, sir."

"What are you going to do about it?"

Alec raised his head at that. "I'm not gonna go back and kill them, if that's what you mean." He winced as a nurse jabbed his biceps with a needle -- antibiotics he'd heard her say. They wanted to admit him, put him in ICU even -- but that wasn't going to happen.

"Why not?"

He shrugged. "What would be the point? I'd lose most of my people in the fight. Better to start over somewhere else. There are so few of us left ..."

"What about the nuclear weapon?" Lydecker asked, his blue eyes narrowing. "Please don't tell me you left a bunch of mutant freaks with a thermonuclear device at their disposal along with the activation codes."

"No, sir," Alec said, relieved to be able to deliver some good news at last. "Ryan ... X5-723 ... retrieved the device from the cave while I engaged Mole and the others in conversation. We were able to smuggle it off the island."

"What did you do with it?"

"Dropped it in the ocean about half way across to the mainland."

Lydecker's face went livid, and for a moment Alec honestly thought the man was going to hit him. But the colonel did indeed know his X5's ... knew better than to physically provoke one. "Idiot," he muttered under his breath again. "Fuckin' idiot. If you were one of my original kids ..." He left the sentence unfinished. "Why?" he finally asked, the word a growl.

Another shrug. "Didn't want it fallin' into the wrong hands," Alec replied. He couldn't quite suppress the faint smile. Lydecker might be about to own his ass, but he would never own his soul. And one thing Alec knew damn well the former Manticore operative shouldn't have was another nuclear bomb at his disposal -- not when (traitor issues aside) he just might use it against his transgenic kin on Chimera. He waited for the inevitable outburst ... the scolding from the CO.

But Lydecker just shook his head again, tiredly this time, and turned away. "You're on your own," he said, throwing up his hands. "I'm through with you ... with all of you."

"Sir!" Alec spoke up quickly, not expecting this turn of events. He'd thought Lydecker would jump at the chance to command an elite unit of X soldiers again -- forgive him anything. "Sir! Wait! We need your help."

Lydecker hesitated in the doorway.

Alec held his breath.

Then the older man looked back at him, a sly smile on his face. "Say 'please'."

Alec's teeth ground together, his mind flashing back several years to Ames White ordering him to say "thank you." He'd hated groveling then. He hated it now. But he also knew he had to pick his battles.

"Please," he said, his face utterly devoid of emotion, his eyes dead.

"Please what?"

"Please will you help me ... help my people. We're not 'freak' enough to live on Chimera but we're not human enough to live in your world. We don't have any place to go. And we need tryptophan or we'll all die. But you know how useful we can be to you. You need us too."

"I don't need you," Lydecker said softly, although his smile had broadened until his white teeth shone. "You'd be useful, yes. But I'm building my own army just fine."

"You once said that a single X5 soldier was worth ten ordinary men," Alec tried. "Well, I'm offering you 400 men then. Officers ... leaders ... trained martial artists ... weapons experts. You know what we are."

"Say it one more time," Lydecker whispered.

Alec swallowed hard. "Please."

And the colonel's eyes gleamed triumphant. X5-494 at long last belonged to him.