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"If the status quo was like Old Manticore, you know where you'd be right now don't you soldier?"

"Yes, sir," Alec said, squaring his shoulders and holding his chin high. He didn't like calling Lydecker "sir." However, he'd agreed to this mission as a Manticore soldier which meant, like it or not, adhering at least somewhat to military protocol. His breeding, background, and training allowed no less.

"You'd be sent to psy-ops for discipline and reindoctrination," Lydecker said ruthlessly. "A road you've been down before. Am I correct 494?"

"Yes, sir."

Completely exasperated, the colonel rounded on Max. "Why can't he obey orders?" he asked, flinging his hands in the air and speaking as if Alec wasn't even present. "He's always been flawed this way, thinking too much for himself, skirting the rules, looking for ways to get around what needs to be done."

Max, who'd been listening from her seat on the other side of the office they were using as temporary headquarters while in South Africa, shrugged. "Beats me," she said with a little smile. "I've been bustin' his butt about that attitude ever since I first met him."

"Usually the compassion ... the sympathy ... the caring is the first thing one of our Units gives up," Lydecker continued, sounding as if he was truly puzzled. "Those expendable emotions should be overridden by their sense of self preservation. My kids know that if they fail, they die." He stopped in front of Alec and looked him square in the eye. "You were there, soldier -- back at Manticore. You went on missions. You killed on command. What happened?" He shot a suspicious look at Max.

"Guess he got in touch with his softer side," Max remarked snidely. "Or else he resurrected that pesky soul you tried so hard to beat out of him."

"What happened is Rachel," Alec suddenly said in a low voice.

Both Max and the colonel looked at him.

"You made me kill someone I loved," Alec continued, his eyes riveted on Lydecker. "And then you tried to make me forget. But it didn't work. I always remembered, at least on some level. And then I remembered everything and I knew how much I hated what you'd twisted me into ... what I'd become." He pinned Max with his eyes. "And then I saw how she was livin' her life, doin' what she believed in, what was right ... I decided that was how I was gonna live too. Never anyone's slave again. Never used again. No way was I gonna kill Savannah Stevenson."

"Well, we could have a pity party for an X5's new found emotions," Lydecker mocked, "but this has nothing to do with disobeying a direct order while under military command!"

"I'm not under your goddamned command!" Alec shouted.

"Then I have no use for you," Lydecker said bluntly, but with a strange little smile. He turned to Max. "Where are we on the girl's status?"

"She's been moved to a new location," Max said, her eyes darting from the colonel to her lover and back again. "It's not that far from here. We could make another try tomorrow."

"Fine," Lydecker said. "But he doesn't go."

"I need him," Max said. "Unless you've got another X5 up your sleeve."

"Not within reach," Lydecker admitted reluctantly. He planted both hands on top of the desk where Max was studying the data and leaned forward. "But know this," he said, his voice low and menacing. "If he messes up again, he's dead. I'll put a bullet between his eyes myself."

"You always did take personal responsibily for your kids, didn't you?" Alec said quietly.

"Always," Lydecker concurred, glancing up at the X5. "You're going in there tonight, and you're going to kill that girl. If you don't complete the mission, don't even bother coming back."

"Hey!" Max said loudly. "Back off! There's a limit to what you can order us to do. This isn't like old times, 'Deck."

"Oh, but it is," the colonel said, his eyes glittering strangely.

"What are you talkin' about?" Alec asked.

Lydecker pulled a document out of his jacket pocket, playing the trump card he'd been keeping hidden. "You've been conscripted into my service -- officially. The orders just came down today. You two, and all the other transgenics recognized as citizens are to report to New Manticore for training and deployment."

"Conscripted?" Alec said, not understanding.

"He means drafted," Max replied coldly with a bitter smile. "It's the government's way around us supposedly being free citizens. The state of Washington is under military control, and that military has the perfect right to 'conscript' whomever they want to. Why wouldn't they want a batch of highly trained, genetically enhanced killing machines under their command?"

"Drafted or not," Alec said with a shake of his head, "I'm not killin' that girl."

"Just follow your orders, soldier!" Lydecker barked. "Either that, or say goodbye to Max because one way or another you'll be out of her life."

*****

"I'm gettin' tired of bein' Lydecker's pawn," Alec said that night as he lay in Max's arms.

She looked down into his eyes. "I know," she said. "As long as he can threaten one of us with harm to the other we're pretty much hung out to dry."

"He'll never really hurt you," Alec pointed out. "You're the 'special one,' the world's salvation from the Comet Plague."

"But he'll hurt you," Max said. She caressed his bare forearm, then leaned down and placed a small kiss on top of his freshly showered hair. "Make love to me," she whispered. "Make love to me all night long."

And Alec did -- taking his mate the way she loved to be taken -- hard and fast, dominating her the way no other male had ever been able to, until the sun began to brighten the window of their hotel room and Max finally let him sleep.

*****

"I want you to have this," Max said later that morning as they were donning gear for the mission.

"What is it?" Alec asked, turning the small electronic device over in his hand.

"It's a long range PDA," Max said. "Dix had it back at Terminal City, and Mole brought it with him for me."

Mole and Joshua, at Max's insistence, had been flown in to act as Alec's back-up. She wasn't going to trust Lydecker's men this time, not when so much was at stake.

"Keep it with you, and keep it on," she said in a low voice as Alec tucked the hand-held computer into the pocket of his leather jacket. "I can reach you anywhere in the world on it through the military satellite channels."

"Gee," Alec quipped. "Just don't ask me to pay your long distance phone bill, or are you on a discount plan?"

"Just hang onto it," Max said tersely. "It's ... important."

Alec was about to ask why when Lydecker arrived at the van. The mission was a go. Savannah's location had been confirmed.

As Alec climbed into the vehicle, the colonel grabbed his arm. "Just remember," Lydecker said in a low voice. "If you can't get the girl back, terminate her. If you don't ... then you'll never see Max again."

"Why 'Deck," Alec said, looking directly into those cold eyes. "Is that a threat?"

"More than a threat," the older man said. "As the cliche says, it's a promise."

*****

The South Africans were keeping their valuable prisoner in a warehouse this time, part of which had been converted into a genetics lab. With Max's help from the command post in the van, Alec, Mole, and Joshua made short work of the outside guards. Apparently Savannah's captors didn't think they'd be traced so soon because there wasn't a lot of resistance inside either. Mole's marksmanship took care of three, Joshua downed two, and Alec swung out of the rafters to take out the final pair stationed by the main lab door.

Bursting into the room, Alec's eyes swept past an array of scientific equipment and frightened scurrying technicians to spot the familiar head of flaming red hair.

"Alec!" Savannah shrieked joyfully. "I knew you'd come back for me!"

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," Alec said, smirking as, with his bare hands, he yanked the shackles that held her out of the plaster wall. "Let's get you home," he added as she hopped off the stool where she'd been sitting by a computer terminal and microscope.

Savannah smiled broadly, her blue eyes full of life and excitement that her handsome hero was rescuing her -- a look that was frozen forever on her features when the bullet ripped into her brain.

"No" Alec screamed as her blood splattered his jacket . She slumped forward into his arms. "No! No!" he cried out again, hugging her lifeless body to him as he instinctively dropped to the floor and tried to spot the shooter.

"What's happening?" Lydecker's voice rasped in his ear.

"They killed her," Alec choked. "Damn it, they killed her!"

"Then your mission's over, 494," the colonel said. "Plant the charges and retreat."

All three transgenics had brought along plastic explosives and detonators, the plan being to destroy the South African lab after Savannah's rescue.

Alec, shaking, was still lying on the floor cradling the girl's body. He didn't see the soldier taking aim on him from across the room -- the same one who'd killed Savannah -- but Mole did. One shot, and the sniper was down.

The lizard man trotted over. "Time to go," Mole said, his voice not unkind as he stood looking down at the tragic scene. "Too bad about the kid, but we gotta get outta here, Alec. Me and Joshua have already planted two of the charges. Put yours in place, I've got one more, and we're done."

Getting hold of himself and his tattered emotions, Alec lay Savannah's body down on the floor, tenderly, carefully ... as if she were just sleeping and he was afraid he might awaken her. Gently closing her staring eyes, he hesitated a moment then touched his lips to her forehead in a chaste kiss. "Sweet dreams, little girl," the X5 whispered. Then he looked up at Mole. "I've got this place," he said, the soldier in him returning, pouring into his veins along with the adrenalin. "You set your charge in the lab down the corridor and we'll meet outside."

"Roger," Mole said and scampered off.

With a heavy sigh and a last glance at Savannah's still form, Alec fixed the chunk of plastic explosive to a nearby wall and set the timer for one minute, then he pressed the transceiver behind his ear. "Charges set, Max. I'm comin' in."

"Hold your position, Alec," Max said.

"What?"

"I said hold your position. We think there are valuable documents in the safe in that room. We need you to extract them."

"Are you nuts, Max? The timer's already set and I can't turn it off. I've only got forty-five seconds."

"Just find the safe and do it, Alec," she said coldly.

"Where?" he asked helplessly, not seeing any safe in the room.

Suddenly, the PDA in his pocket chirpled. Pulling it out, Alec read the message: They'll think you're dead. Run. Don't come back. It's the only way we can both be free.

Alec whirled, looking at the timer, and his eyes widened with horror -- 25 seconds.

There was a sound in the transceiver in his ear ... people arguing. "Get him outta there!" he heard Mole shout.

Frozen like a deer caught in headlights, X5-494 didn't know what to do.

*****

"Get him outta there!" Mole screamed at Max. He and Joshua had returned to the van just in time to listen with utter disbelief as she told Alec to hold his position.

"Alec's not finished," Max said levelly. Beside her Lydecker was watching closely, but he didn't contradict her command.

"That plastique is gonna go off in seconds!" Mole yelled. He grabbed Max by the front of her jacket. "That's ... Alec ... in ... there."

"I know," she whispered.

The sound of the explosion drowned out Mole's reply, the shockwave rocking the van and nearly knocking them off their feet as the South African genetics laboratory -- and one of their own -- was destroyed in a huge ball of smoke and flames.

*****

The handsome exhausted looking young man stared blankly out the bus window watching the dark landscape speed by. "Arizona/90 miles" a sign said as it whizzed past. Scratching the three-day's growth of blond beard stubble on his chin, he sank lower in his seat, as if trying to sleep, but keen hazel eyes remained watchful.

After escaping the explosion (barely), Alec had mugged a South African man who bore a resemblance to him for his passport and sneaked aboard a flight taking him back to the states. Another day had then been lost in traveling west from Los Angeles. He knew where he wanted to go -- a place where she'd never find him. Max had been right. As long as they were together, Lydecker had control. But with her lover "dead" and no longer in the line of fire, the colonel was going to find X5-452 quite a bit harder to handle. Max would be free now to make her own decisions ... the right decisions ... for both herself and her people.

The bus was unheated, the autumn air frigid. Sliding even further down in the torn upholstery of the seat, the young transgenic huddled against the cold in his jacket and pulled the hood of his sweatshirt more closely around his face, his breath forming vapors as hot tears pricked the back of his throat. Damn it. Why does my life have to be so fucked up?

Suddenly, the PDA in his pocket chirped. Pulling the tiny computer out, the X5 saw a short, desperate message blinking (the same one that had been sent to him a dozen times before already): Alec, are you there?

Clenching his jaw, fighting the pain in his soul, Alec caressed the tiny device with trembling fingers, then bit down hard on his lower lip--

--and turned it off.

I'm sorry, Max. There's no other way.