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This story follows the events of Max Allen Collins official DARK ANGEL novel "After the Dark." I freely admit that the plot for Part III was inspired, in part, by two episodes of the 1996 television series "La Femme Nikita" ("Mercy" and "Hard Landing") that my imagination too easily pictured as a M/A story. (What can I say? I was watching summer reruns.) -- Author's note

The instructions Lydecker had given to Max led to a cemetery high in the Austrian Alps, a beautiful meadow dotted with esoterically carved white marble grave stones. The one in front of her -- dated 1982-2019 -- had the name "Maria Sandeman" inscribed in elegant script.

Maria Sandeman -- Rene Sandeman's daughter according to cemetery records, and Ames White's sister.

My birth mother, dead for the past three years. Oh God, would that make White my uncle?

Max stood with her head bowed and tears welling in her eyes. Only Alec's big warm hand on her shoulder kept her from breaking down completely.

"I'm sorry, Max," he said in a low voice. "But we knew it was a long shot. You can't be surprised that Lydecker jerked you around like this."

"Well," Max sniffed, wiping her nose on the back of her jacket sleeve, "he did keep his promise. He told me where my mother was."

"So," Alec said, eying the marker with one eyebrow raised. "Old Sandeman, wherever he may be, is your grandpa. No wonder he gave you the magic DNA."

Max unfolded the creased piece of paper she'd kept in her pocket for the past three days, the letter from her mother, and handed it to Alec. "You can read it now," she said.

'You sure you want me to?" he asked.

Max turned and looked up at him, her liquid brown eyes full of despair. "I don't want there to be secrets between us," she said softly.

"That bad, huh?" Alec said dryly as he rather gingerly accepted the letter and began to read.

"That bad," Max agreed.

My son ... my daughter,

I hope with all my heart this letter will one day reach you, although in reality I don't hold out much hope for such a miracle. Still, I find I must put down in words what I somehow have a feeling you're longing to hear me say.

I love you, wherever you are ... whoever you are ... whatever you are. I love you with all of my heart and soul. Even though your flesh isn't mine, I carried you in my body for nine precious months. You became a part of me, and I a part of you. To this day, I can sometimes sense your presence in the world.

I would have given anything to keep you, my child, but they wouldn't let me. My father tried to explain when the embryo was implanted how I was helping science ... helping the world. He said you were very special, and that he wanted you to be carried by someone he could trust absolutely. Who better than his own daughter?

I knew from the start you were to be taken from me. But as my due date approached, I began having second thoughts about the bargain I'd struck. I tried to run, a futile escape attempt that led to my incarceration until your birth was induced. Afterwards, I could find no solace. Father, attempting to help, had me placed in a private asylum which is where I lived for many years.

At last, however, I was released, but only after I promised to never try and seek you out. They told me I wouldn't like what if I found if I did -- but I knew they were lying. I knew I'd love you no matter what you'd become.

And now, my child, I'm dying, a tragic side effect of the immunity ceremony my people make their children undergo. My blood is rejecting the antibodies that were supposed to protect me. Soon ... a day or two ... I won't be coherent any more, and I want to say these things to you while I can.

Once again, my darling, I love you, whether you are boy or girl ... man or woman ... soldier or civilian ... human or something beyond.

Until our next life, your mother forever,

Maria Sandeman

Alec finished reading and his eyes went to Max. "In other words," he said. "They killed her too."

"After a fashion," Max agreed. She turned to her mate. "Alec," she said. "I want to spend a little time here for awhile, at her grave." She cast her eyes down, her face shadowed by the hood of her jacket. "Alone."

He nodded in understanding as the alpine wind tossed locks of dark blond hair over his eyes. "I'll meet you back at the hotel," he said, rubbing his cold hands briskly together. "In the lobby since we're due to check out in an hour. Maybe we can grab a bite to eat on the way to the airport."

Max's smile thanked him for his understanding, and with a little reassuring wink Alec hunched shoulders against the wind, stuffed hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, and began the trek back down the mountainside to their lodgings in the valley hostelry below.

*****

"She never knew the fate of her child."

Not startled in the least (she'd been expecting him), Max sighed heavily and closed her eyes for a second. Then, she opened them and stared intently at her mother's grave stone. "Sandeman never told her?" she said quietly.

"Sandeman never knew what happened to you," Lydecker replied. He came forward a few steps to stand beside Max, his head bowed reverently as he regarded the grave with her. "You were only four years old when he was run out of Manticore by the military takeover."

"She didn't even know she'd had a daughter," Max said bitterly.

"Sandeman probably thought it would be kinder for her that way," the colonel said.

"Why are you here?" Max asked. She turned to look at him at last. "You didn't have to bring me half way around the world if all you wanted to do was capture me."

"I don't want to capture you, Max," the older man said. "I want your cooperation ... your help."

Tossing her long dark hair back in the wind Max laughed out loud at that notion. "I'll never help you again," she snapped. "Not after what you tried to do to Alec."

"494's here, isn't he," Lydecker said -- a statement not a question.

"I brought him," Max said nonchalantly, as if she was referring to a suitcase instead of her handsome X5 lover. Her eyes met Lydecker's. "You can't have him. I'll kill you if you try."

"Max," Lydecker said gently. "I have to have him. And you too. There's no other way now."

"What are you talking about?" Her voice remained calm, but her eyes widened a fraction.

"Several foreign governments are in a race to acquire bio-synth technology," Lydecker said. "Up until now, we've been lucky. Terminal City has been too hot a political issue and too much in the media spotlight to make it a feasible target. But now that the transgenics are settling into Seattle and things are calming down, our enemies will be making their move."

"They want X5s, don't they?" Max said dully, wondering why she'd ever even hoped this nightmare of her life might end.

"That's their primary target," Lydecker agreed. "The X5 group are the best."

Max shrugged. "Not many left in TC really, a dozen maybe."

"They'll take whoever they can get," the colonel said. "But you and 494 are on the top of their shopping list -- and you're also the most vulnerable. Attending to TC business takes you outside the compound's perimeter on a regular basis."

"So, now you're going to offer to take Alec and me into protective custody, right?" Max said sarcastically. She knelt on her mother's grave and tenderly placed a hand at the base of the headstone. "It's all over at last," she whispered, speaking more to her mother than to the flesh and blood man beside her.

"If I have to," Lydecker said quietly.

Max glanced up at him over her shoulder. "I'll die rather than go back to Manticore. So would Alec. But then I guess that at least would keep us out of enemy hands."

Lydecker said nothing, and suddenly Max felt the old fear creeping into her heart. "What do you want from me?" she asked, a touch of desperation in her voice.

"Like I said," Lydecker replied, straightening shoulders in his leather bomber jacket. "I want your cooperation."

"Cooperation how?"

"The transgenics in Terminal City will do what you tell them to," Lydecker said, not beating around the bush any longer. "If you ask them to support New Manticore -- to go on missions for us -- they will."

"My people are doing just fine on their own!" Max declared hotly. "I'd never ask them to be slaves again!"

"They can remain in TC," Lydecker said quickly. "And they can keep their current jobs ... occupations. All I'm asking for is an occasional commando squad or specialized team. I'd put you in charge of mission control, every time if you want. You'd be completely in the loop on any assignment."

Max started to speak but Lydecker barged ahead. "In return for your aide, we'll give you medical help, security upgrades, advanced weaponry and computer technology, rations and clothing if you need it. Life for your people would be a whole lot easier, and you'd also be doing your country a service. In the meantime, the X5s in TC would be protected from the enemy as well as utilized."

"No," Max said flatly. "I'll not sell my people into slavery again."

Lydecker smiled wolfishly. "I thought you might say that," he said softly. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a PDA computer. There was a picture on the screen -- Alec, sitting on a couch in the hotel lobby near the fireplace. Their backpacks were at his feet and a glass of Scotch in his hand. While Max watched, his eyes speculatively followed a beautiful buxom blonde as she walked to the check-in desk. Typical, she thought with a touch of cynicism. Now he'll approach her with a pick-up line, just like old times. However, to his credit, Max watched as the new Alec ... her Alec, merely sighed a bit wistfully, propped feet firmly on a footstool, and took another sip of his drink. Good boy.

"X5-600 has him in his sites at this very moment," Lydecker said. "If my man doesn't hear from me in--" He glanced at his watch. "--ninety seconds, a bullet's going to spatter your lover's brains all over that lobby."

"Please," Max breathed. "No. Don't make me do this. Don't make me choose."

"I'm sorry, Max," the colonel said sadly. "I can't have 494 running around loose in the world. He'll be picked up by the Chinese or South Africans for sure ... maybe even by the Syrians. He's either with Manticore, or he's dead." He looked at Max knowingly. "And you're the one who's got to decide his fate. If you accept my proposition, Alec will be under your direct orders along with the rest of the transgenics in TC. You'll be in control to some degree." His blue eyes were almost pleading. "It's better than the alternative, Max."

Max still hesitated. If she agreed, she'd be caging Alec like an animal, herself and the others as well. Maybe he was better off dead at that ...

"Thirty seconds, Max," Lydecker said, his voice rising. "Lane's the one who assassinated the Pope, you know."

"I thought the Pope's killer self destructed," Max said. "Said so in the newspaper articles."

A ghost of a smile crossed the colonel's weathered face. "A decoy was deployed for destruction so as to take the spotlight off the real killer, then we removed all DNA evidence. No, Lane is very much alive, and in--" He looked at his watch again. "--ten seconds 494's going to be very much dead."

"All right!" Max shouted, her hand clutching at her mother's tombstone although whether for physical support of emotional comfort she didn't know. "All right. I'll put Terminal City under the protection of New Manticore."

"Abort," Lydecker said quickly into a small com unit he'd pulled from another pocket. "Repeat. Abort." He waited a second, listened to something on an earphone jack, then smiled with grim satisfaction. "Roger," he said. "Return to the rendezvous point X5-600 and await further instructions." The colonel then turned to Max. "Don't worry," he said with an unpleasant smile. "Lane's not far. If I need him to, he can still take 494 down."

"That won't be necessary," Max said as she climbed to her feet and brushed dirt off her pants, ignoring Lydecker's extended helping hand.

"He's not going to like this," Lydecker said.

"I can handle Alec," Max said without looking at her former CO. "He'll do what I tell him to."

"You better hope he does," Lydecker said. "Because there are more powerful people than me who'd actually prefer the boy dead. They think he's caused too much trouble already. But as for myself ... I'm willing to let bygones be bygones, for now at least."

"So that's it?" Max said, her brown eyes full of hopelessness. "My people and I do what you say from now on or you kill Alec?"

"That's it," Lydecker said almost gently, as if the bastard was sorry for the situation. "That's the price you're going to pay for his love."

A price that was too high perhaps?

Max watched Lydecker leave, walking down the cemetery path to a waiting car, and it was only when the vehicle was out of sight that she let herself collapse on top of her mother's grave once more, sobbing because her just found happiness was over.