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Just as before, Max was team leader for the mission. Alec took point, with half a dozen ordinary soldiers backing him up. Lydecker, wanting to oversee this important rescue operation personally, had accompanied them in the personnel van and was now sitting next to Max at the control station.

Savannah was being held at an abandoned military base in South Africa. Intel was sketchy, although they had a fairly good layout of the underground labrynth of rooms where she most likely was located. Her retrieval would be difficult, Lydecker deduced, but hardly impossible for a mission that included a pair of X5s.

Cat cautious, Alec crept through a hole in the chain link fence and scooted across open ground to take up a position with his back against the wall of the nearest outbuilding. A crescent moon overhead gave him enough light to see by, although the rest of his team had to wear night vision goggles. Using hand signals, he gave the "all clear" and motioned for his men to split into two groups to secure the perimeter, three going left, three going right while he scouted forward more deeply into the enemy compound.

"There's a guard at the door on building three," Max's voice chirped in his ear.

Lydecker's people had provided them with com gear Dix would have drooled over -- the transceiver patch on the mastoid bone behind Alec's jaw no larger than a dime but capable of sending and receiving for a range of more than 5 miles. Also, the infrared military satellite intel Max was using was in real time, definitely giving them an edge, thermal pinpointing the enemy.

"I see him," Alec said quietly. The X5 had a Glock 75 tucked in the holster on his right thigh, but that would make too much noise. Instead, he pulled a thin strand of concertina wire out of his pocket, took a deep calming breath to banish bad memories, remembered Savannah's face, then blurred forward, lassoing the guard around the neck and silently choking the life out of him. Manticore really had taught him well ...

"Team one," he then said into the transceiver, ignoring the lifeless body at his feet. "Watch my back. I'm goin' in."

Lydecker turned to Max in the van. "He's tackling this alone?"

"He's X5," Max said evenly. "What else would you expect?" She looked worriedly at her commander. "But see to it that your men give him good cover."

The colonel's eyes narrowed slightly with doubt, but then he nodded. "I trained him," he said. "He should know what he's doing."

"Just keep telling yourself that," Max said under her breath.

Alec was just inside the building's main door when he heard gunfire from his right. Cursing, he knew that meant part of his team had been detected. He'd have to hurry now.

There was a flight of steps leading down into the bowels of the compound and its labrynth of passages. The satellite intel indicated most of the area was empty, but there were several warm bodies located in a room about a hundred yards to the southeasat.

An alarm suddenly went off over his head.

"Alec?" Max chirped in his ear.

"I'm on my way," he said, shouting to be heard above the klaxon.

Stealth forgotten, he pounded down the stairs and sprinted up the corridor toward the room where Savannah was most likely being held. Not so much as breaking stride his shoulder hit the wooden door, splintering it open, and then he whirled, gun drawn, firing like an automoton, each shot expertly hitting its target. When the sound of the chaos died down there were five dead bodies on the floor, and a very much alive and frightened Savannah Stevenson sitting wide-eyed, gagged, and chained in a chair.

He yanked the cloth out of the girl's mouth.

"Alec?" she gasped.

"To the rescue," Alec said with a reassuring smile as he examined her shackles.

"I knew you'd come for me. I just knew it."

He winked at her. "Hey, I couldn't abandon the fairy tale princess, could I?"

"Alec," Max said in his ear. "There's a squad of soldiers coming through the main gate. You don't have much time. Get out of there."

"Can our guys hold them back?" Alec asked. "I need more time." The chains holding Savannah were more of a problem than he'd originally thought. They were welded to the floor with no lock to pick. His eyes traveled the room, looking for something to break them with.

Upstairs he heard gunfire.

"Alec," Max said again. "Get her out of there. We're outnumbered."

"I'm tryin'," Alec said, for the first time beginning to feel flustered.

"What's wrong, soldier?" Lydecker's voice this time. "Why aren't you in egress?"

"I can't break the fuckin' chains!" Alec snapped.

"Alec?" Savannah pleaded, her blue eyes wide with fear as she tried to slip her wrists out of the hopelessly tight cuffs.

The sound of booted feet overhead made the X5 look up. "Don't worry, sweetheart," he said soothingly. "You're gonna be fine. We'll get you outta this."

"Retreat, soldier!" Lydecker barked. "Now!"

Using all his considerable strength, the muscles of his back and arms cording tightly, Alecd gritted his teeth and pulled on the thick chain where it was bolted to the cement floor. However, it was no use.

"Alec?" Savannah said his name again, her voice quivering now.

"Cover your eyes," Alec ordered her. Then he took a step back, aimed the Glock, and fired several rounds at the metal links. Bullets ricocheted off the floor, striking and chipping the stone walls, but the chain still held.

"I can't get her free!" Alec shouted. Desperately, he glanced back over his shoulder at the door. Any second now an army was going to be pouring through, and then the South Africans would not only have a genius geneticist in their hands, but also one of the X5 prototypes they'd been salivating after for so long.

"Kill her," Lydecker ordered.

"What?"

Max, in the van, turned to the colonel in horror.

"I said kill her, soldier!" Lydecker shouted. "We can't let her remain in enemy hands."

Alec stared at Savannah. Her curly red locks were a fiery halo around her head, and the freckles on her nose stood out like paint spatters on a face pale with fear. She looked extremely young ... vulnerable ... trusting ...

"No," Alec whispered into the mic.

"Put a bullet in her head and get out of there, 494!" Lydecker screamed. "That's a direct order!"

Alec, standing behind Savannah where she couldn't see, raised the Glock in a shaking hand and aimed at her head.

"Alec?" she implored. "What's happening?"

His finger tightened on the trigger. But then he lowered the gun. "Nothing," he reassured her. "I can't get you out right now, but I'll be back. I promise." And with a blur of speed Alec was out of the room and into the hall. On ground level he heard gunfire -- his team doing their best to provide cover for his retreat. The South African squad had primarily fanned out over the exterior of the compound, but several soldiers were clattering down the stairs, headed his way.

No way out but through.

Alec plastered himself against a wall, took a deep calming breath, then stepped out into the hallway and opened fire. Five of the enemy went down under his onslaught and the remaining dove for cover in doorways. Charging forward, the X5 blurred up the stairs, knocking aside four more soldiers before they could get him in their sites. Bursting through the door into the night, he looked right and left, spotting his own team as they gave him cover fire. Racing to the fence, Alec looked up at the 12-foot barrier. There was no time to reach the entry point he'd slipped through before. Behind him he heard a man screaming orders, and suddenly the staccato of gunfire ceased.

"Halt!" a heavily accented voice shouted into the night. "Halt or we fire!"

Of course the South Africans would want him alive if possible, Alec figured. He was worth a fortune to them. That's the only reason he didn't have a bullet in his back right now.

Twelve feet was a pretty big leap. He glanced worriedly behind and saw figures in black scurrying forward toward him, closing in. He had no choice. Coiling the muscles of his legs, he crouched low and sprang upwards. X5s weren't supposed to be able to jump higher than 10 feet -- and that information was correct. Alec grabbed the fence a foot from the top, clinging like a cat while the shouts behind him increased. Glancing back, he saw guns being raised. The South Africans might want a live X5, but, if they had to, they'd settle for a dead one. He braced himself for the impact of a bullet.

But the gunfire that came wasn't aimed at him. Six shots took down six soldiers as Colonel Donald Lydecker opened fire on the enemy from the other side of the fence. "Come on!" he yelled, gesturing to the X5. "Get out of there!"

Using the spectacular strength of his arms, Alec did a hand stand on top of the fence, flipped over in a somersault, and landed in a catlike crouch on the ground on the other side. Then both he and the colonel made a beeline for the van.

"The others?" Alec asked breathlessly as he fell into the back.

"All dead," Lydecker said grimly as he scrambled in beside him. "Go!" he shouted at the driver.

Max, her face pinched with worry, put her hand on Alec's arm. "Are you all right?" she asked in a low voice.

"Just peachy," Alec said. Then, to Lydecker, "Well, that went well, didn't it? Where'd that platoon come from?"

"We knew they were in the area," Lydecker said grimly. "We just didn't expect them to mobilize so quickly." He pinned his man with steely eyes. "You killed the girl?"

"No," Alec said. "So we'll need to go back for her."

Lydecker's mouth creased into a cruel line. "You were ordered to kill her, 494," he said.

"I couldn't," was Alec's only reply.

Max's hand on her lover's arm tightened.

"I'm not who you think I am," Alec said in his own defense. "I'm not a cold blooded killer."

Lydecker stared at him, icy grey eyes challenging ... judging.

"I'm not," Alec whispered.

"Just shut up," the colonel finally said. "You disgust me."

Alec hung his head. Even though he knew he'd done right, for some twisted reason he was ashamed.

Max put her arms around him and whispered in his ear, "You tried, Alec. You tried hard to get her out. We'll win another day."

But Alec wasn't certain there was going to be "another day," either for Savannah ... or for himself.