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Alec knew exactly what he had to do. The problem was finding the courage to go through with it, not to mention the fact that Max might very well hate him in the end anyway.

"Get dressed," he said to Max, hopping off the bed himself and reaching for his jeans ... taking command.

"What are you going to do?" Max asked.

Sitting there on the mattress in the dawn light all naked and glistening with breasts taut, nipples pert, and her legs slightly spread Max looked like a sexual goddess to Alec ... his goddess (the fact that he, too, had the body of a young deity not even occurring to him). All he knew was that he couldn't lose her again ... that he wouldn't survive without her.

"You're coming with me," Alec said in a low voice. "I think I may know a way out for us."

Max was shaking her head. "I already told you, Alec. I can't leave Terminal City. Not ever."

"Trust me," X5-494 said, his breathtaking eyes as sincere as they could possibly be, pleading. "I know a way."

Max was hesitating, watching him closely with a trace of fear on her face. He held out his hand to her.

"Max, please," Alec said softly ... begged. "Trust me. For once in your life trust me. Haven't I earned that with you yet?"

Yes, he had earned it.

"All right," she whispered -- and took hold of his hand.

*****

Max sat astride her Ninja with Alec beside her on the motorcycle he'd "acquired" when he'd arrived in Seattle the day before.

"Why are we here?" she asked, looking up at the imposing brick building before them with its gated/guarded entry. "Alec, this is the French embassy."

After The Pulse had devastated the east coast of the U.S., foreign countries had relocated their New York and Washington D.C. embassies to the west side of the continent. Seattle hosted a number of nations' representatives including the French, Spanish, German, and Russian, their elaborate embassy compounds mostly situated in the wealthy high rise district of Sector 9.

"I know what it is," Alec said. He dismounted from the bike and once more held out his hand to the woman he loved. "Come with me, Max."

"I want to know what's going on," Max complained. "Quit being so mysterious. You're scaring me."

He rounded on her. "Look, Max. I'm not sure this will work. But if it does, everything's gonna be different from now on, not just for us, but for everyone in TC. It's a way we can all be free. But you're just gonna hafta let me do it my way for now. I'll explain later."

The truth of the matter was, Alec wasn't at all certain he could pull this off. If he was wrong, at the best it meant he was about to make a huge fool of himself ... and at the worst it meant he and Max might very well be dead within the next few minutes. Still, in his mind, it was worth a shot.

Skeptical, but no longer fighting him, Max followed him up to the entry of Seattle's French Embassy.

"Nous sommes venus demander l'asile," Alec said to the guard in impeccable French ("We're seeking asylum".), the three magic words he knew would admit them without further question.

They were shown into the building's main rotunda where a petite female clerk wearing a short black dress, her hair in a bun, and a pair of dark-rimmed glasses came up to them with clipboard in hand.

"Oui?" she said (Yes?), pencil poised. Et vous êtes? (And you are?)

"J'ai besoin de parler à l'ambassadeur auxiliaire," Alec said. (I need to speak to the assistant ambassador.)

"Monsieur Sandeman ne voit personne sans rendez-vous," the clerk replied arrogantly. (Mr. Sandeman sees no one without an appointment.)

"Dites-lui qu'il a un 'walk in'," Alec said. (Tell him he has a "walk in.") "Walk in," the X5 knew, was universal code for an undercover agent who wanted to change allegiances.

The clerk's face visibly paled as she stared at the two transgenics. "Un moment," she said (One moment.), and scurried back behind the desk where she had a hushed conversation with a co-worker. A phone call was made, and then she came back to them and gestured to the stairs that led up to the building's upper offices.

"Alec, what the hell's going on?" Max hissed as they mounted the heavily carpeted staircase behind the clerk. "You said Sandeman. I heard you."

"In due time, Maxie," Alec said softly, his eyes darting everywhere as he watched for the trap he half expected to shut on them.

Max hit his arm, hard. "Don't give me that mysterious crap, Alec! I demand to know what--" The sight of the wizened old man standing in the middle of the hallway at the top of the stairs cut off Max's words.

Bushy white hair, a face as wrinkled as parchment, and his posture slightly bent, the "assistant ambassador" rested one hand on an ornate cane that's head was an all too familiar symbol to 452 -- a "manticore" -- the part lion, part bird, part man creature that was the talisman of the transgenics. She'd seen a cane just like that before, in Joshua's old house. It had belonged to "Father" ... to this stooped old man. However, eyes that glittered like dark diamonds belied the apparent great age of Monsieur Sandeman's body.

"Well done, 494," the old man said in a clear firm voice that held a trace of humor as well as a French accent. "Although a bit tardy, you've completed your mission at last and brought her to us."

Max wasn't a fool. "You fucking traitor!" she screamed at Alec rounding on him like a she-cat right there in the hallway. The blow she threw was meant to kill. If the karate chop had landed it would have crushed his trachea. But Alec had trained too long in the martial arts, and sparred too often with his mate. He knew the way she moved. Instinctively he blocked Max's arm as it swung, then he was behind her with his hand beneath her chin and his leg bending her knee. Using her own momentum against her, he threw Max to the floor where she lay on her back, stunned and staring up at him.

"Let me explain," Alec said, breathing heavily, his voice choked with tears. He turned to the old man. "Tell her!" he shouted. "Tell her the truth so she won't think I've betrayed her! You owe me that much at least!"

"Indeed I do," Sandeman said. He held out his hand to Max, offering to help her up -- an offer she ignored. "Come with me, 452," he said, his hand still extended in the air. "And let me tell you just how brave, loyal, and stubborn your X5 lover really is."

*****

"You've got one minute," Max said icily, tapping her foot on the floor as she stood with her back against the wall in Sandeman's office. "And then both of you are gonna be sorry you were ever born."

Alec had no doubt she meant it. Keeping a safe distance between himself and Max, he'd retreated to a spot beside the ceiling high bookcase that adorned the east wall of Sandeman's office where he now could do nothing but nervously clench his fists and helplessly watch the events he'd just set in motion.

Sandeman himself was regarding both of them from behind a large mahogany desk, looking quite small actually in the oversized leather chair. "Would you care to explain it to her, 494?" he asked amiably.

Not really, Alec thought. But the ball was back in his court. The X5 took a deep breath and began. "I didn't know this at the time, Max," he said, "but back when you and me were still at the Old Manticore base that bitch Renfro was workin' with Sandeman's faction of the snake-cult. She was like C.J., one of the kids who was supposed to be too weak to survive the initiation ceremony, and instead was hidden away by her parents. Sandeman helped her, C.J., and others like them rebel against the original program -- you know, that 'killin' the first two children then fillin' the third with poison to see if it survived' shit?" He glanced at the old man. "Renfro was Sandeman's eyes and ears at Manticore. She'd been looking for you, the 'special one,' for over a year."

"Why didn't Daddy just tell Renfro it was 452 who carried the magic blood?" Max interrupted.

"Because I was in hiding, child," Sandeman said. "Even my own people didn't know how to contact me. I'd left a message before I retreated into isolation telling them exactly who you were and how to find you, but it was destroyed by Ames before anyone saw it when my home were bombed. All my loyal followers had to go on was my word that you existed at Manticore, and that you would be their salvation. So Madam Renfro began methodically tearing X5 soldiers apart looking for you."

"We knew Sandeman founded Manticore," Alec said. "And we knew the military took it away from him. That part of his story checks out, Max."

"And this means I shouldn't kill both of you why?" Max said, still tapping her foot only now her arms were crossed defiantly in front of her chest.

"He didn't betray you to me, child," Sandeman said, nodding at Alec. "I asked him to, but he didn't."

"What do you mean you asked him to?" Max snapped, glaring at Alec like he was the enemy rather than the man who'd pleasured her so thoroughly the night before.

"After you took Manticore down," Alec explained, "right after I got into Seattle, a guy with a French accent cornered me in the alley one night in back of the place where I was crashin'. He said he was from Manticore. He'd seen me cage fightin' and recognized the bar code -- the same way White got onto me later. He said he had an assignment for X5-494. Then he dialed a number on a cell phone and gave it to me." Alec looked at Sandeman. "He was on the other end. I recognize the voice now, although he didn't give me his name at the time. He said that X5-452 was in danger -- that people wanted to kill her -- and that I was being ordered to protect you. They didn't know where you were, Max, but they suspected I did. I had no idea who the guy was. In fact, it never even occurred to me it might be Sandeman until you and Joshua started talkin' about him when we were organizing Terminal City months later. At the time, I figured it was just some lackey of Lydecker's tryin' to hang onto his job, although why he was so interested in 452 kind of puzzled me."

"We knew you existed," Sandeman said to Max. "But I had no way of finding you other than through your designated breeding partner. I was relatively certain that if I asked 494 directly for your location he'd undoubtedly lie and then go into hiding himself. You were in extreme danger, child. The best I could think of to do was to try and position another X5 as your protector in a way that wouldn't scare either of you off."

"What did you say?" Max asked Alec. "Let me guess. You accepted the assignment like the true blue little soldier you really were."

"No, I turned it down," Alec corrected her. "I had no intention of bein' a Manticore errand boy ever again, and they didn't have anything to hold over me that I knew of. I had plans back then Max, and they sure as hell didn't include Manticore or you." He turned away and looked out the window. "In fact, I was gonna skip town and never look back."

"But then she saved your life," Sandeman said softly.

The old bastard's done his homework. Alec nodded and shifted his stance against the bookcase, easing the tension in his back. He was sweating, and his hands were shaking, but he knew he had to see this through. "I was contacted a second time, by phone, about a month later," he continued. "When the same guy -- you." His eyes went to Sandeman. "--asked me again to protect 452, I agreed. I wanted to find out what was goin' on, Max, to discover if you really were in danger. But it also gave me an excuse to stick close to the girl of my dreams." The X5's lips quirked up in a faint ironic smile. "Although I wouldn't admit it to myself back then."

"But you were supposed to report in on a regular basis," Sandeman chided as he leaned back in his big chair making the springs squeak. "You broke contact, 494 -- more or less disappeared -- and we never heard from you again, not even once."

Alec shrugged. "Hey, I was doin' my duty. I stayed in Seattle ... with her ... but after awhile that became my business, not yours. And I sure as hell wasn't gonna spy on her for you."

"If Alec was your boy, why'd you let him get away with not reporting in?" Max asked. Although still furious, she was also finding the story of her lover's illicit wanderings rather intriguing.

"Because we were keeping an eye on both of you," Sandeman said. "And we were satisfied with what we saw. Orders or not, 494 was doing the job we wanted him to. And then, of course, after the Terminal City siege, both of you were on the news quite frequently and it became even easier to keep track of your well being. We didn't bring you in ourselves because we suspected the cult had spies planted in our midst. You were actually safer on the outside for the time being -- safer with him."

"And then the comet came," Alec said. "And at first we thought it was a dud, but then people started dying." He shrugged. "The rest, as they say, is history."

"You did your duty, Max," Sandeman said, using her name for the first time. "And so did Alec." Your blood became the basis for a vaccine that is saving people's lives all over the world, and Alec has stood by your side as your protector, fighting with you to take down the worst of my people. But now it's time for you and your brothers and sisters to fulfill the rest of their destiny."

"Which is?" Max asked snidely.

"Breeding an army that will ultimately defeat the Familiars once and for all, and save humanity," Sandeman said. "The battle won't happen anytime soon ... not in your lifetime even ... but someday your descendants will be the only hope for man ... the only ones who can defeat my people and their diabolical plan to take over the world."

"Sounds like somethin' straight out of sci-fi, don't it?" Alec said, smirking just a little. He bit down on his lower lip then, watching Max, wondering what she was thinking about all of this ... about him. "But what can you do?" he added with a sigh. "The guy is askin' us to save the world -- again."

"And all of this helps us how, you ass hole?" Max sneered.

Alec scratched his head. "I'm not real sure about that part yet," he confessed. "But I'm bettin' 'Daddy' here can at least get that pop gun off your brain stem."

"Alec," Max said. "I already told you. I have to go back."

"Yeah, yeah," Alec said, waving his hand in the air. "I know. Loyalty and duty and all. But Sandeman here has a vested interest in seein' his mutant kids stay healthy and happy and that doesn't include riskin' our skins for Lydecker and the military. Does it?" He turned his eyes to the old man once more.

"No," Sandeman said. "It doesn't. I want my creations to be free and happy so they can have many children and live long productive lives. The Terminal City colony gave me great hope that it could happen -- until Donald Lydecker moved in and for the second time in my life took away my precious ones."

"We can't just rebel," Max said. "Too many of us would die."

"No," Sandeman conceded. "You can't. However, I'm not without resources of my own. If you let me, I can modify the device on your spine, making it so it's under your control. When the time comes, you can turn it off completely, and then Manticore won't be able to find you any more."

Max was beginning to see the big picture. "That means that one day," she said, "after everyone's had their tracker re-tuned, we could all slip out of Terminal City and vanish to start over again somewhere else."

"Somewhere else that will include the help of myself and my people," Sandeman assured her. "You see, Max, there is still hope left in the world."

But Max had one burning question she had to ask. Alec saw it coming in her eyes. "My mother," she said. "Why did you do that to my mother? It was so cruel -- taking me away from her than locking her up and never letting her know what had happened to her baby."

Sandeman had the decency to look ashamed. "We live in cruel times," he said. "And cruel times often call for cruel measures." He raised those glittering dark eyes to her. "Your mother was a casualty of the war between the Familiars and the Transgenics. Perhaps the first one. But she knew it was her duty to carry you in her womb. I never told her you were the special one, but I think she guessed that much. Why else would I have asked my only daughter to do something so heartbreaking and dangerous?"

"You're insane," Max whispered. She looked at Alec.

"I agree," the X5 said. He shrugged. "But it's not like Lydecker and his Committee are exactly poster children for good mental health."

"The two of you need to have children," Sandeman said. "Renfro was right to pair you off. 494 is an excellent genetic match for you, Max. With him you should be able to have healthy babies."

"I know," Max said almost absently.

Alec looked at her sharply, remembering her miscarriage. But he didn't say anything -- not to her. "What do you want us to do now?" he asked the old man.

"You both need to return to Terminal City," Sandeman said. "And there you'll live your lives, at least for awhile, obeying their orders, biding your time. When the rebellion comes, my people will find you a safe haven -- all of you. In the meantime, we need to begin deactivating the cessium tags Lydecker has burdened you with, beginning with yours today, Max." He reached into a drawer and brought out a tool pack that contained instruments used for delicate work.

"Not yet," Max said, shaking her head. "I can't risk them finding out the device has been tampered with." She looked at Alec. "There's too much to lose right now. Let me go back first, and I'll think about what you've offered."

Sandeman sighed heavily, obviously disappointed, but he nodded. "As you wish, my child." And then he was looking at Alec.

"And I'll go with her," Alec said. He winked at Max. "Part of that bravery and loyalty of mine I suppose, but then I always have been a 'live for today' kinda guy." Taking hold of Max's hand -- and infinitely relieved that she let him -- he turned to go.

"Wait," Sandeman said. "I have one last question."

"What?" Alec asked.

"How did you find me here? At the embassy? You were never given a location during our telephone contacts."

Alec tapped his ear. "Super transgenic hearing, remember?" he said. "When you called me the second time I could hear someone speakin' French in the background. I could tell from the carrier signal on the line that it wasn't an overseas or satellite link, but originating from an American phone plan. I guessed you were somewhere local, in Seattle, 'cause you seemed to be keepin' pretty good tabs on me. It didn't take a genius to narrow it down to the French Embassy -- not many Frogs around this part of the neighborhood. Much later, I got a name to check for, and sure enough, there was good old Rene Sandeman right there on the personnel roster. You know, if you were in hiding, you really should have changed the name."

Max looked impressed.

"Clever boy," Sandeman said with a chuckle, dismissing them at last.