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It was nearly midnight. Alec sat perched on a crumbling cement bannister outside what had once been one of the premiere buildings of the 20 block area that was now the Terminal City compound. The Mercer Corporation still had a worldwide reputation as a supplier of cutting edge genetic research, having moved its headquarters overseas after The Pulse. The remnants of the business here, what they'd left behind, consisted of a ten-story office complex that had long ago been picked clean of anything valuable. However, the vast stone staircase that led up to the building's front door was still an eye-catching architectural point, not to mention a good lookout location.

Sitting with one leg propped up and the other dangling over the side of the cement handrail, Alec chewed on a fingernail. He was good at this game, inhumanly patient when he wanted to be -- catlike in his ability to remain calm and silent while waiting for prey -- so long as he didn't get bored that is. He only hoped he and Zack had guessed right -- that the X7s would quickly ascertain his location and his vulnerable position. Of course they'd sense it was a trap. They were far too intelligent not to. But there really were only himself and Zack present, odds Alec figured the little critters wouldn't be able to resist. It was why he hadn't told Max, or anyone else except Zack, the real details of his plan.

The early fall Seattle night was overcast with more than a hint of rain in the air, and the wind that ruffled strands of Alec's dark blonde hair sent a faint chill through his limbs. He wasn't cold or scared. Still, there was something in that wind that bothered him. A faint scent perhaps? A premonition?

Alec shook himself slightly, getting hold of his imagination. Next thing he knew, he'd be having visions like Max. The X7s were coming for him, certainly, but unsavory dining habits aside, they were still just mortal creatures -- part human -- in all likelihood containing some of the same DNA that held together his own physical body.

The feel of the Glock 9mm pressing smooth and cool against the bare skin of his belly was reassuring to the young X5. Tucked in the waistband of his jeans, beneath his black t-shirt, the gun was his first line of defense. His second, in his jacket pocket, was something a bit more creative. Alec swallowed and decided he didn't need to think about that just yet. Bad enough he'd gotten the idea from an old television show about vampires. Besides, chances were good that, between himself and Zack, they'd be able to take out the X7s with conventional means.

Ouch. Alec looked down at his thumb and ruefully realized he'd just bitten through the skin on one side of his finger. Blood trickled around the nail bed, the self-inflicted wound stinging. It was a bad habit he'd never been able to break -- chewing on his fingers when he was nervous. Oh well, he thought as he sucked on the side of his injured thumb. The bleeding would stop in a minute. It always did, what with his Manticore-designed super clotting agents.

"They're here," a voice whispered.

Alec pressed two fingers against the discreet mic stuck to the mastoid bone behind his right ear. Then he glanced up to the second floor of the building across the street, zooming his vision in on the third window from the left. Zack was barely visible, keeping himself well back in the shadows, but the dark outline of 599's P90 submachine gun resting on the window sill was a reassuring sight. "Where?" Alec mouthed the word silently, knowing Zack would see.

"One just came out of the sewer behind the south garage," Zack's voice crackled. "I think at least one of the others is in the building behind you already."

Alec resisted the urge to turn around and look. He wanted the X7s to think they were taking him by surprise. Hopefully, they'd already cased the area and ascertained he was alone. Zack was pretty far away.

"Alec!" Zack suddenly said, his voice rising. "I see the third and fourth, and one of them's carrying the baby. Eve's alive!"

"They want to trade," Alec said, breaking his silence. "They want to trade the baby for me. Either that, or use her as a shield."

Even as he spoke, Alec was hopping off of the railing and heading into the middle of the square down below. "Zack," he said into the mic. "Come down here and get the kid."

"I'm not breaking position!" the other X5's voice argued in Alec's ear. "I'm your only backup!"

"Get the fuck down here! Now!" And with those final words, Alec yanked the mic off of his ear and tucked it into his jacket pocket. That baby had to be gotten out of the line of fire or none of this would work.

Alec reached the square and stood freely in the open, his hands in the clear, waiting. A minute later Zack came out of the other building, the P90 cradled in his arms and a look of fierce disapproval on his face.

"I'm here!" Alec shouted into the darkness. "Come and get me! Dinner bell's a chimin'."

One of the X7s emerged from the shadows, carrying the baby in its arms. Eve was quiet, but her blue eyes were open and she was looking around. Alec wondered how the baby could be so calm. But then ignorance was bliss ...

"Put her down," Alec said to the X7. "Let the kid go and you can do what you want with me." His arms were still held out to his sides. The click of guns being cocked made the X5 look to his right where the other three X7s had Zack in their sites.

And then suddenly, all four of the creatures smiled, and Alec knew that once again he'd been fucked. No X5 was getting out of this tonight. He, Zack, and the baby were dead. The X7s had known they'd be safe so long as they had Eve ... known no one would start shooting -- except them. He'd given them too many points for humanity, figuring they'd negotiate and let the baby (and Zack) go ... be satisfied with just him. But they were far more inhuman than he.

Four guns rose into the air.

"Zack!" Alec screamed, his hand on the Glock but his eyes on Gem's daughter. Three shots slammed into the night air and X5-599 grunted with pain. Alec didn't dare look around for his partner. He knew he had to get to Eve and that every second counted. Blurring -- he leaped for the X7 that was holding the child, but then he felt hands on his back and shoulders.

"No!" Alec shrieked, jerking in the grip of the little fiends, determined to reach the baby. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Zack lying on the ground in a pool of blood, his eyes closed, and he knew he had no choice. Drawing his own gun, Alec leveled it at the head of the X7 holding the child in its arms. He had to chance the shot. But before he could squeeze the trigger his feet were yanked out from under him, the pistol went flying, and he was lying on his back with an X7 perched on his chest grinning down at him.

"Fuck!" Using a move similar to the one he'd pulled in the sewer, Alec grabbed the X7's ankles and pulled hard, throwing the creature backwards. Springing to his feet, Alec saw that the one that had been holding the little girl had put her down and now all four were circling him. His gun was on the ground, out of reach.

Time for Plan B.

One of the X7s aimed a handgun at him, and Alec's heart turned over in his chest. Maybe they were tired of the chase. Maybe they weren't hungry any more. Maybe they just wanted to complete their mission.

Maybe they were going to shoot him after all -- which hadn't been part of the plan.

Alec held up one hand in surrender. "Whoa, boys. Can't we talk about this?" But his other hand was in his pocket. He felt the syringe, thumbed off the protective cover, and knowing it was his only choice, bit down on his lower lip and jabbed the large gauge needle through the material of his coat, through his jeans, and into his thigh hitting the femoral artery. Alec then pictured Max's beautiful face in his mind -- and pressed the plunger, forcing the powerful narcotic into his body, enough heroin to kill three ordinary men.

The drug hit him almost immediately. Staggering, Alec felt his knees buckling even as three of the X7s leaped on top of him. It hurt when they bit him, and he cried out in spite of himself. Somewhere off to one side he heard the surreal sound of Eve wailing for her mommy, oddly appropriate background music for his demise Alec thought as dizziness overcame him and the asphalt hit his cheek.

Then they were drinking his blood, licking the sticky liquid from bite wounds in his neck and chest. The X5's head lolled back onto the pavement, his eyes fluttering closed as he drifted somewhere safe and warm, the heroin overdose taking hold, reminding him of that Heaven he'd been so brutally yanked from all those months ago. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad afterall ...

It began to rain.

*****

They found X5-494 lying in the street with three unconscious X7s draped across his still body. Zack was down a few feet away, wounded but alive. Eve was crying, calling for her mommy as she looked with huge fear-filled brown eyes at the violent bloody scene that had just played out before her.

*****

One hour later ...

Zack, groggy but coming around at last, was resting in a bed in TC's infirmary, his shoulder and ribcage swathed in bandages. Alec was lying on a nearby examining table. At first they'd thought the young X5 was dead, but when Max had fallen to her knees on the wet pavement and cradled Alec in her arms, her fingers had found a faint pulse at the base of his still warm, crimson streaked throat.

Doc, the X4 surgeon who'd treated Alec's bullet wound the previous spring was shaking his head now, perplexed. "I don't know what's wrong with him," he said, running a hand back through his own thinning brown hair. He then pressed a forefinger against the side of his hawkish nose, rubbing the skin, and looked over at Max who was hovering just inside the door. "He's not wounded, except for those bites. And he hasn't lost enough blood to account for his condition. But he's deeply unconscious, maybe in a coma. His pupils are completely dilated, and his breathing way too irregular for my liking." The X4 sighed deeply and turned back to glare at his patient, as if this puzzling lack of diagnosis was all the young transgenic's fault. "It's almost as if he's been poisoned or drugged."

"He is drugged," Zack said groggily, propping himself on his good elbow in the bed and looking over at Alec.

"What are you talking about?" Max said, her voice forced. She'd been keeping herself in tight control ever since the two men had gone off together earlier that evening. She'd known in her gut that something really bad was going to happen -- that Alec was doing something stupidly insane. And she'd been right. The video monitors had recorded the whole show, and alerted the main base as to what was happening. But she hadn't been in time to help or intervene. Everything had gone down too quick.

Arriving in the square and seeing Alec and Zack on the ground like that had turned her inside out. Now, she was once again trying to regain some semblance of emotional balance.

"It's heroin," Zack said, massaging his forehead with his fingers and not looking at Max. "Alec figured if he had a big dose of heroin in his blood, and the X7s drank from him, they'd pass out and I could kill them."

"You mean you poisoned our boy and fed him to those blood suckers?" Mole growled from where he was standing just inside the door behind Max.

The big X5 pursed his lips ruefully. "Alec told me he saw it on some dumb ass TV show awhile ago," he said quietly. "I warned him it was a stupid idea, but he insisted it was the only way to bring down the X7s with no one else gettin' caught in the crossfire."

"Well it worked," Mole had to admit. "At least partway. Three of those bat kids were down when we got there and we finished 'em off. Pow! Pow!" He touched a forefinger to his temple, demonstrating how his team had shot the creatures in the head.

"There's still one out there," Max said quietly.

"And we've got teams searchin' for it," Mole assured her. "You stay here with your sweetie," he nodded at Alec, "and leave the rest to us."

Doc was searching through one of the medicine cabinets. "If we only had some naloxone," he lamented. "It would at least help with the depressed breathing." He turned to Zack. "Do you even know how much of that junk he shot into himself?"

"Triple hit," Zack said. "Cost a fortune down on the docks." He raised his head as if remembering something, a look of vague confusion in his eyes that made Max wonder about the processor in his brain. "Check Alec's pockets," he said, bushy brows drawing together. "We swung by Harbor Lights on the way back. There should be a bottle of Narcan. I was supposed to give Alec a dose as soon as the X7s went down." He looked apologetically at Max. "I don't know why I didn't remember before."

"Because you were shot three times," Max said quietly, forgiving Zack in a way she never seemed able to with Alec.

"It may be too late," Doc groused as he pulled a vial out of Alec's right front jeans pocket and checked the label. "Naloxone all right," he said with a grunt of approval. "The kid ain't quite as stupid as we thought." He grabbed a hypo. "Okay, boys and girls. Say your prayers and we'll give it a try."