DISCLAIMER: All DARK ANGEL characters belong to James Cameron and Charles Eglee (Cameron Eglee Productions) and DARK ANGEL itself belongs to FOX.

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Photo courtesy of StillFrame

He knew now why the merman had waited two hours before taking him out of the cave -- low tide.

Alec eyed the receding pool of water at his feet warily, only now realizing how he'd gotten here in the first place, apparently through some kind of underground tunnel. "I'm gonna get wet again, aren't I?" he snarked, saying goodbye to his warm, newly dried clothes.

The merman and mermaid looked at him with apology in their eyes, whistled something in Dolphin, then both shrugged in unison in a way that reminded the X5 of a school of fish moving together.

"Oh well," Alec said with forced cheerfulness as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Let's get this over with. Lead the way, Flipper." However, as he took a tentative deep breath he felt pain stabbing deep in his lungs and ended up bent over in a fit of coughing.

The merman's hand on his shoulder finally helped the X5 straighten, and concerned brown eyes met Alec's. "How far is it?" he asked in a rather less cocky tone of voice than before.

One hundred, his fellow Manticorian signed.

"One hundred meters?" Alec clarified.

His host nodded.

That was a long way. Alec looked up at the ceiling overhead, wondering if there wasn't an easier exit. After all, the light was coming from somewhere. But the merman shook his head no and once more pointed to the pool.

"Lead the way," Alec said quietly, realizing he had no choice. Then the soldier took a deep breath as best he could, braced himself for the cold, and -- throwing a silent curse at whatever deity was having so much fun with his life -- waded into the water.

*****

Max couldn't concentrate. There were decisions that had to be made now that Alec was gone, but for the life of her she couldn't bring herself to make them. The entrepreneurial X5 had been the one who kept the books at the Art Mall for example. No one else really knew how to balance them, let alone keep track of inventory, profit cuts, and overhead expenses. There weren't even adequate records. Just like his money, Alec carried most of his data on his person ... in his head ...

Then there were the numerous deals 494 had working. Seated at the desk Alec used in the Mall office, already this morning Max had taken phone calls from two art dealers in Seattle, one in San Francisco, and a fourth from -- of all places -- Appleton. Apparently the little town had its own gallery that wanted to exhibit a "Joshua."

And Alec's acquaintances weren't all so high brow either. She'd also fielded a call from an arms dealer in Little Koreatown, a medical supply house in Sector 9 that had black market ties (she guessed Alec was looking for tryptophan), and a tobacco broker in Vancouver who was apparently Mole's source of Cuban cigars.

Then there had been the breathy, female, blonde-sounding voice on that last call who'd left a simple message for "the stud who showed me such a good time last Friday night."

"Any time, anywhere, any way you like it, baby," Barbie had cooed as Max held the receiver away from her ear in disgust.

Alec and his conquests, Max thought, telling herself she should be annoyed. But instead she found herself blinking back tears once again. The smart ass had been a lot of things, and one of them was a Casanova. However, to his credit, Max knew that Alec wasn't an emotional predator. He liked a good time with a female in bed, but he was always up-and-up about the fact he'd never commit to an Ordinary -- or so she'd heard. Not because of prejudice, or because he thought he was too good for the regular human race, but rather because he was honestly concerned for their safety. Max knew her brother held ... or had held ... a deep seated belief that humans and transgenics shouldn't mix other than in the brief, physical, one-night-stand kind of way. He wasn't about to let himself fall in love with a woman (again) only to get her killed because of what he was.

It was one of the reasons Alec had never totally approved of her own relationship with Logan. He truly thought she was putting the man she loved in danger simply by being with him -- an act, oddly enough, that he saw as more selfish than any of his own egotistical ways. They'd argued about it often.

Truth? Sometimes Max thought Alec was right ... that she shouldn't be with Logan ... that there was something "off" about her relationship with the man.

But right now, Logan was all she had left.

Turning her attention back to the paperwork on the desk, she sighed heavily and once more tried to make sense of a dead man's notes ... notes that with every scrawled word made her miss her Smart Alec more than ever. However, a commotion outside drew her once again from her job.

"Max!"

Kade, a pretty X5 female who occasionally manned a station in the control room poked her head around the door. "You're not gonna believe who the security camera just picked up waltzing bold as you please up to the front gate!"