ARCHIVE: No

"Do you really know how to fly this thing?" Max breathed, jumping into the co-pilot's place beside him.

Alec was rummaging beneath the seat at the same time his eyes were scanning the controls. He pulled out a sheaf of papers -- maps. Glancing at some readings, he said quietly, "We ought to be coming up on Madagascar according to the time and the compass readings. Find ..." He checked some numbers. "The Shechelles islands and look for the nearest airport. I really don't wanna hafta land in South Africa."

"Can't we just fly this thing home?"

"Not enough fuel," Alec said tersely, nodding at a gauge. "I imagine they were gonna refuel in Angola, but we don't wanna land there either."

Max read off some numbers and Alec adjusted the controls, taking the Lear off of autopilot. Then he reached beneath the seat again, pulled out the flight manual, and began rapidly scanning the pages.

"How long since you flew one of these?" Max asked.

"Three years, give or take a couple of months," Alec said. "And it wasn't a Lear. It was a bigger cargo jet. But the basics ought to be about the same."

"What's that?" Max asked, pointing to a series of red flashing lights on the control panel that had suddenly come on.

Alec scowled, his brows drawing together. "Trouble," he said under his breath. "Big trouble."

*****

Max reached down and released the catch on Lydecker's handcuffs. Responding to his astonished look she snapped, "We've lost part of our controls. Alec thinks a stray bullet hit a panel in the wall." She broke the plastic tie off his wrists as well, then turned and looked toward the front of the plane where the worst of the carnage had occurred. Pointing, she said, "Try to find the short and fix it. If not--" She glanced once more toward the cockpit and Alec who could be seen through the open door. "He says we won't have a chance."

"What systems are out?" Lydecker asked as he removed the cuff, not questioning the X5.

"Landing gear!" Alec shouted back down the aisle, his transgenic hearing having picked up the colonel's question.

Lydecker nodded, and headed toward the front of the plane. However, along the way, he stopped briefly by Lane who lay slumped over in his seat. Putting a finger on the big X5's throat, he looked at Max. "He's still alive."

Not unsympathetic, Max gestured toward a first aide kit hanging on the wall. "Do what you can for him, but then get to work on the systems. We've got less than an hour before we reach an airport. Alec's already radioed ahead with an S.O.S. and we've got landing clearance in Mozambique."

"Where are we coming down?" Lydecker asked.

"Some little town we're not sure how to pronounce," Max said tersely. Then she shrugged. "It's the best we can do. Alec doesn't want to keep a damaged jet in the air any longer than necessary.

Lydecker nodded, then picked up the emergency kit and went to work on his X5.

*****

"Try it now!" Lydecker shouted forward as he connected two wires in the wall.

Alec glanced at his board, flipped two switches, and scowled again. "No go!" he called back. "The gear doors are opening, but the wheels aren't deploying!"

"We can crank them down manually!" Lydecker yelled.

"And pray they lock into place properly," Alec muttered. Off Max's worried expression, he added, "It's not a pretty sight when a plane's landing gear collapses on the runway. I'd almost rather belly land." He took a deep breath and gestured to the back of the jet with his head. "Go help 'Deck get the gear down. For ordinaries it's at least a two-man job."

Max nodded and maneuvered out of the copilot's seat, leaving her maps behind for Alec to check if he needed to.

"Can he do it?" Lydecker asked her as they prepared to crank down the first set of wheels. Air from the already open bay door was hissing around them as the jet made its descent, blowing Max's long dark hair wildly about her face and head, making her look like a transgenic Medusa.

"Land the plane?" Max shouted to be heard above the wind. She shrugged. "Hotshot thinks he can! But you're the one who taught him everything he knows! You tell me!"

"X5-494 has an exceptional procedural memory!" Lydecker yelled.

"Meaning?" Max asked, her tone a touch sarcastic.

"He's a fast learner -- a really fast learner! He qualified in four different aircraft, including a Blackhawk chopper! But a lot of his air time was in a simulator!"

"He landed the DC9!" Max reminded the colonel.

"That he did!" Lydecker replied.

"How's Lane?" Max asked more quietly as they finished cranking down the first set of gears and the roar of air around them lessened.

Lydecker shook his head. "It'll be touch and go as to whether he can be salvaged." He nodded toward the cockpit. "You know, it really would be in 494's best interest to join me, be with his own kind.

"Alec is with his own kind," Max said coldly.

Lydecker grinned at her. "I'm starting to see a pattern here," he said.

"What are you talking about?" She moved to the second set of landing gear, raising her voice again to be heard.

"I'm beginning to understand why you just can't let go of that boy! 494's a little bit more than family to you, isn't he?"

"Alec's my friend!" Max shouted. "A good friend! And I care about him!"

Lydecker chuckled. "I'm sure you do!" He seemed to think a moment then, "Does Cale know? About you and him?" Once more he nodded in Alec's direction.

"There's nothing to know!" Max yelled, her voice now dripping icicles.

Lydecker was shaking his head again. "I thought I taught you better than that, Max -- to not deny what you know to be true! You're in love with that soldier!"

Max turned her back on the man and began working on the other set of landing gear. "Shut up and do your job!" she said harshly as the sound of rushing air became deafening and made further conversation impossible.

*****

It was one of the longest 30 seconds of Alec's life, the time it took for the Lear's landing gear to touch, bounce twice on the tarmac, then begin rolling down the runway, safely locked into place.

His hands shaking as he gripped the steering column (and not from a lack of Tryptophan), Alec guided the sleek aircraft around, bringing it to a stop on the runway berm as emergency vehicles raced in from two sides.

He then looked over at Max. She was smiling -- at him.

"Good job," she said quietly as she unbuckled her belt. She nodded at their greeting party outside. "Now what? I hope you've got a plan."

Alec watched as the flashing red, blue and white lights pierced the darkness, and his green-gold eyes narrowed.

*****

Donald Lydecker unbuckled his seat belt, and moved quickly to a hidden panel in the plane's wall where he retrieved a small automatic pistol and a dart gun. The two transgenics had been careful to collect all the other weapons from around the cabin and had tossed them into the cockpit. But they hadn't known about these. He knew he'd have only one shot, literally, at retrieving his property. Getting the drop on one X5 was almost impossible, and tackling two (and especially these two) was probably a pipe dream. Still, he had to try.

He glanced at Lane as he passed by his seat. It was with more than a little relief that he saw the boy was breathing easily, the bleeding apparently slowed or stopped. At least this mission hadn't been a total disaster, although just how much damage control he could do remained to be seen. (He assumed there would be questions from her about half a dozen bodies, not to mention Lane's condition.)

Frowning, Lydecker weighed the pistol and the dart gun, one in each hand, thinking hard. Then, he made his choice.

Taking a very deep breath, the colonel took up a position to one side of the cockpit door, lashed out with a heavy foot, and kicked the panel inward. Then he sprang into the opening, and immediately pulled the trigger -- sending the hypodermic dart full of sedative whining across the small cockpit, passing through the space where the pilot should have been sitting, to embed itself deeply into the instrument panel.

"Shit!" Lydecker screamed, his eyes going to the empty copilot's chair as well. Which is when he realized there was rain striking his face, coming through the cockpit's broken out side window. Moving to the opening, he looked down onto the brightly lit wet runway, hoping ...

But of course the pair were gone.

*****

"Zimbabwe! What do you mean you're in Zimbabwe? How the hell did you guys end up there?" Logan didn't mean to shout into the receiver of the telephone, but he really couldn't help himself.

"Where are they?" Joshua asked anxiously as he practically bounced up and down next to Eyes Only's computer desk. "Are they okay?"

"They're okay," Logan reassured him, covering the phone receiver with his hand. Then back to Max, "Lydecker? He showed up? He must really want Alec bad to track him all the way to Bangkok. But you're sure you guys are okay? No crash landing?"

"We're fine, Logan," Max reassured him from where she stood talking into the pay phone. Alec tapped her shoulder and she turned to him with a scowl. "What?" she said. Then again to Logan, "Not you. Wait a minute. Alec wants something."

"Ask him to send cash," Alec said in a low voice. "Lots of it. We're gonna hafta buy our own passports this time."

Max just shook her head. "Can you wire us some money, Logan? We're stuck."

"Max, I'm not made out of the stuff," Logan complained. "Can't you guys hitch a ride back to the states some way?"

"From Zimbabwe?" Alec shouted into the receiver, having heard every word of the conversation on both ends. "Aw, come on Logan. Don't ya wanna see your girl sooner than a month from now, which is probably how long it would take to hitch our way halfway around the world. We already had to thumb ourselves across the Mozambique border to get away from Lydecker. I never realized how damn hot and dusty it is in Africa. I've got a sunburn!"

"Give me that!" Max said, yanking the receiver away from Alec. However, her voice was also pleading. "Logan, I know how much money it's costing. But I don't see any other way. Of course, you could just make it enough for one. At this point I'm ready to abandon a certain someone because it's all his fault we're stranded here."

"Hey!" Alec said, mock hurt in his voice and eyes. "Now you don't really mean that, do you? What would you do without your old bud Alec?"

"Live and long and peaceful life."

"I doubt that."

But she was listening to Logan again. "All right," she said. "Western Union it to the Hilton Hotel front desk in Harare. We'll pick it up in an hour."

After she hung up, Alec just stood there.

"What are you looking at?" Max said nastily.

"I'm not sure," Alec said. "But I think it might be my guardian angel."

"Oh please!"

"I mean it, Max. If it weren't for you I'd be dead a whole bunch of times over by now."

"Don't remind me."

Alec smiled at that. "Okay," he said quietly. "I won't. But I will buy you dinner while we wait for Logan's wire."

"With what?" Max shot at him. "Your good looks?"

"With this," Alec said, holding up a wallet.

"Where'd you get that?"

"Off of a certain someone when he was handcuffing me to an airplane seat."

"Lydecker's?" Max said, obviously impressed.

Alec thumbed through the wallet. It was bulging with bills -- not enough to buy them I.D. and a plane ticket home, but plenty enough for a night on the town in Harare.

She was still eying him appraisingly. "Not bad," she murmured. "Snatching the big bad's wallet."

"Do I get a kiss for a job well done?" Alec joked, his hazel-green eyes laughing, belying the seriousness of his request.

But Max simply turned away.