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They gave him a pair of khaki military cargo pants (a size too large) and a canvas Army jacket to wear then placed him in a metal cage that had obviously been constructed for the specific purpose of containing an X5. Sitting in the middle of a dilapidated old barn, the cell seemed an incongruous object amidst the hay and various farm implements strewn about. But there was nothing "incongruous" about the heavy-duty shock prod the Red soldier named Jake was holding as he stood at silent attention just beyond arm's reach guarding his people's prize.

Not in the mood to chat, Alec threw himself down on the sparsely padded bed that was in the cell, drew the single blanket up for warmth, and rolled over so his back was to the guard.

And then he waited for the chance he was pretty sure was going to come.

The sun set and purple dusk enveloped the interior of the barn as dust motes sparkled in the last fading rays of light shining through the loft window. The air smelled musty to Alec, like old straw with a hint of manure and decay. The scent and atmosphere of the place reminded him of the barn back in Washington where he'd hidden out with a pack of X6s and Max right after Manticore burned -- the place where he and Max had then gone back to play ...

Max, God, I miss you so much.

Lying in the half darkness, his mind filled with memories that he'd held at bay too long, Alec was just starting to doze off when his acute hearing picked up the soft sound of a conversation.

"I have good news," he heard Bremmer say from somewhere outside, apparently speaking into a cell phone. "There's a strong possibility our X5 specimen will soon be joined by more of his own kind."

There was a pause.

"In a day or two," Bremmer continued. "Awhile ago we baited a trap just outside of Seattle --a dockside warehouse full of computer equipment and weapons that would be a tempting target for New Manticore. I've been told that there was a reconnaissance mission by Lydecker to the location last night with a full attack expected tomorrow evening. Manticore's way is to send in one ... perhaps two ... of its precious transgenics for such a mission along with half a dozen ordinary soldiers. When they arrive, they'll find themselves completely outgunned and outnumbered. With any luck, we'll be able to capture another X5. I'll get back to you with details later."

Alec swallowed hard after Bremmer ended the call -- and then he looked up and saw Jake staring at him through the bars.

The big guard waited until he was certain his boss had left the vicinity before unlocking the cage. He probably figured that darkness would hide his deed, Alec thought, and that the prisoner would be too scared or ashamed to complain about being raped. Shock wand in hand, the Red soldier loomed over the X5 lying on the bed, his eyes hungry. "Make a sound," he rumbled in a deep voice, "you're fried." He held up the shock wand. "And then I'll do whatever I want to you anyway."

"Down boy," Alec quipped. "Your masters wouldn't like it if their dog damaged the package."

"They'll never know," Jake said as his large calloused hand slid beneath Alec's jacket, then traveled lower to the waist band of his pants.

"Wait," Alec said. Gabbing hold of the guard's wrist, he held those cold lustful eyes with his. "I can make it easy for you," he said with a sly little smile as he shifted his hips. Jake grinned in lascivious anticipation and moved still closer.

Alec's hand blurred -- and the expression on the big ugly man's face went blank. Jaw slack, his scream of surprised anger nothing but a gurgle of gushing blood, the Red soldier collapsed backwards onto the floor, grasping futilely at his throat which had just been slit ear-to-ear by a piece of wire spring Alec had snapped from the bottom of the bunk and kept concealed.

The X5 didn't give the dying man so much as a glance as he hopped off the bed (except to remove the guard's boots and tie them on his own bare feet). Then he was out of the still unlocked cell and stealthily making his way to the barn door. He'd been right. Bremmer and his men were alone here. There wouldn't be much of a pursuit, at least not right away.

Moving cat quiet, Alec slipped outside and vanished into the woods knowing he didn't have much time to accomplish what he had to do.

*****

"If you go through the pass and across the lower side of White Mountain you can make it off the reservation without using one of the main roads," Sky Cloud said, drawing a map in the dirt with a stick. "But you'll have to ride horseback. Your enemy is watching all of the regular ways out. I've brought your pony. Good thing we finally convinced you to learn how to ride, Gi´di´." The sheriff's weathered brown face creased in a grin as he remembered the difficult time he'd had convincing his young friend of the necessity of learning the ancient, but imminently practical art of horseback riding.

Alec had made his way back to his trailer from the Red's camp, taking a huge chance at being caught again. However, he couldn't leave without the one piece of his past that still connected him, in a way, to his family. The PDA Max had given him a year ago was hidden behind a false panel in a cabinet of the trailer's tiny kitchen along with an emergency bottle of Tryptophan. It had taken only a couple of minutes to retrieve the device and medication (and down half a dozen pills just for good measure) change into jeans, hooded sweatshirt, a warm leather jacket, and his own boots, then call his friend for help. Sky Cloud had been there within 15 minutes, for once no questions asked, and now the two men stood together in the woods in back of the trailer.

"Thanks, Sky Cloud," Alec said, glancing over at the sorrel mare the Apache had led behind his own mount. "I'm sorry I can't explain, but believe me, it's for the best. Let's just say I've got some really loco enemies." He meant it. The chief was the best kind of friend -- one you could count on in a real pinch -- and Alec wasn't about to reward that friendship by getting the guy killed. The less Sky Cloud knew, and the quicker he got out of here permanently, the safer for everyone.

"Wait," Sky Cloud said as Alec put a foot in the stirrup preparing to mount.

The X5 looked at the Apache. "What?"

His friend turned and rummaged in the saddlebag of his own horse, then held up a small flat can that looked like shoe polish. "The journey you face is dangerous," the sheriff said. "There is a way that the Spirits might help you."

"Spirits?" Alec said, one eyebrow raised skeptically. He certainly didn't mean to mock the man's religion, but personally, he'd never been all that certain such a thing as Divine intervention existed.

"You can use all the help you can get, Gi´di´," Sky Cloud said with a wink.

Alec was eying the black paste in the can. "I'm not gonna paint my face," he said. "No matter what the 'spirits' expect."

"Give me your hand," Sky Cloud said.

Alec reluctantly held out his hand, and grimaced when the older man dabbed a big glob of the greasy black goo on his palm. Then Sky Cloud took hold of the X5's arm and guided that same hand to Red Bird where he slapped it against the mare's neck making a palm print on her sorrel fur.

Alec was looking skeptical again.

"You must make one hand print for each man you've killed," Sky Cloud, his voice now deadly serious. "Confessing your deeds, both good and bad, to the Spirits this way will insure your own survival."

Alec thought about that for a long moment -- then rolled his eyes and dipped his hand into the black goo again. There was room for five of his hand prints beneath Red Bird's mane. Then he turned to Sky Cloud. "Can I use the other side?" he asked.

Now it was the Native American's turn to raise his black eyebrows. "How many?" he asked softly.

"Seven -- at least that I know of for sure," Alec replied, his voice devoid of emotion.

Sky Cloud nodded, and the X5 slapped two more palm prints on the horse's right side. Then he wiped his hand clean on the grass.

With the small matter of Spirits taken care of, it really was time for Alec to get moving.

"Red Bird is the only pony who would accept you as a rider," the sheriff said as he held the mare's bridal while Alec mounted, even though the horse was calm. The older man scratched his head, obviously still puzzled by that. All of the other horses Alec had tried to ride had been afraid of him, spooking wildly when he approached. But Red Bird, a 9-year-old quarter horse mare, had done nothing more than flare her nostrils at the X5's cat scent, and then she'd allowed Alec to pet her neck, rub behind her ears, and eventually climb into the saddle. She'd been his mount ever since.

Alec shrugged. "Maybe she likes the smell of my aftershave," he joked.

"Ride all the way to Show Low," Sky Cloud said. "Pinetop is too close and the men who want to do you harm will be watching. From there you should be able to get a bus to Phoenix. Leave Red Bird in the station's corral with the other ponies. I'll pick her up tomorrow."

"Sky Cloud," Alec said as he sat on the mare and was about to ride off. "I know you have a lot of questions about me, but I think you also know why I can't give you the answers. Just believe me when I say that I'm one of the good guys -- or at least I'm tryin' to be -- even though it might not always have been that way."

Sky Cloud smiled again. "I know what you are, Gi´di´," he said softly. "I've known ever since the first night Chloe gave you a bed to sleep in and you were so dead tired you didn't hear me come into the room. You were lying on the cot, on top of the blankets. You'd taken your shirt off to clean up, then fallen into a deep sleep." His dark eyes glittering strangely, the Apache leaned forward. "I saw the brand on your neck, Alec -- the mark that told me everything."

Alec's hand involuntarily went to the back of his neck ... to his barcode. Usually his dark blond hair covered the damning tattoo. However, Sky Cloud's eyes were sharp and his wisdom verging on the uncanny. "You know I'm a transgenic?" Alec said. "But you still helped me?"

"They say you're part animal," Sky Cloud replied, his hand still holding Red Bird's bridle. "It's why all the other pony's were afraid of you, isn't it?"

"Probably," Alec admitted. "I've got a little feline DNA in me, or so I've been told."

"Cat," Sky Cloud said, nodding in a way that reminded Alec of Joshua for some reason. "Gi´di´."

"Gi´di´," Alec repeated the apt name these people had given him, something he'd come to oddly treasure.

"It's also why you fight so well," the sheriff continued. "Why you're so fast and strong, and can do things no other man can do. And why your eyes glow green in the dark. It's because you're not just a man, but more."

"Or less," Alec said wryly. "At least that's what a lot of people think about my kind."

"I know the story of Manticore," Sky Cloud said. "When I suspected who you were ... what you were ... I did research. And then I waited, and watched to see what you would do."

"You kept an eye on me," Alec said with a little grin. He tipped his head at the Indian. "Got me a job even. Smart." He waited a beat. "But you never ratted me out to the others, or blew my cover. All that talk about runnin' my I.D. through the computer and askin' about the NSA and military was just to bait me a little -- see if you could get me to jump."

"I figured you probably had good reason to hide from the world," Sky Cloud said. "But now, my friend, I can see it's time for you to return to your own tribe."

"You're right," Alec said quietly, looking off into the night. He started to turn the mare into the trees, but his friend's hand on his denim clad leg held him back.

"You have a mate waiting for you," the Apache said in a low voice. "I've seen her in your eyes and in your heart and in the way you can love no other woman. She must be mourning the loss of such a good man. Go back to her if you can, Gi´di´. I have a feeling she's waiting for you."

"I will," Alec said quietly, for some reason imminently thankful for that admonition, as if it was the permission he'd been seeking. "If I can. Goodbye, my friend."

And then he turned the mare's head toward the mountain.