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

ARCHIVE: No

Artwork courtesy of Valjean & JensenAckles.org

"I'll give you five million dollars for him."

Alec sat quietly, with his back against the corrugated metal wall of his cell, listening ... watching ... but for once not talking. Things had just got interesting.

"He dies," the bitch who'd caught him said simply. "No deal to be made. He's only alive right now because we need him to lure the female."

"How badly is he hurt?" Colonel Donald Lydecker inquired, sounding as if he didn't really care that much at all. Dressed in a business suit, the ex-Manticore commander could have been a Wall Street broker or an attorney of some kind instead of the cold-hearted son of a bitch Alec knew him to be. Why the hell did we ever let this bastard walk away? he wondered. Why did Max let our greatest enemy go?

The woman looked up at the Colonel. "His wounds are superficial," she shrugged. "A knife cut or two. He's lost some blood but nothing serious. We were just getting started when you arrived and interrupted."

Alec shifted his weight on the stool he was sitting on, trying to ease the ache in his side where his captors had sliced open the skin. He'd thought he was a goner ... helpless in chains and bracing himself to die for Max if he had to, but then suddenly he'd been taken out of the torture suite and brought here ... given clean clothes even. He hadn't understood -- until Lydecker showed up on the other side of the bars.

Now, X5-494 understood all too well.

"What do you want from him?" Lydecker asked. "Other than his use as a hostage."

"Information," the woman replied succinctly.

"He'll never turn over on the girl," the Colonel said quietly. "He's been conditioned from birth to resist interrogation. You might as well just kill him now."

"Maybe we will," the woman replied with a chilly smile. "However, my spies tell me that a group has just left Terminal City and are headed for Pioneer Square with X5-452 in the lead. The animal may yet be of use to us."

Max was on her way, and Lydecker and the Breeding Cult were in bed together. Alec shivered in the white long-sleeved shirt he'd been given, and wondered just what the hell Max thought she was doing.

"Why do you want him anyway?" the woman asked the Colonel.

Good question, Alec thought. He'd been wondering that himself.

But the wicked grin of his former C.O. made the X5 swallow hard. No one had bothered talking to him yet. The two evil doers had been standing outside his cell for nearly 10 minutes now, discussing him as if he didn't exist.

"Let's just say I'm collecting," Lydecker said easily.

"Transgenics?" the woman said. "Keeping them safe from us?"

"I'm a connosieur," Lydecker replied. "X5s only, and a select few X6s."

"Don't tell me Manticore is rebuilding," the cult member said. "It's an exercise in futility. We'll just destroy you like we did before. All of Sandeman's children have to die."

"We'll see about that," Lydecker replied. "For now, it's not your people we need transgenics for, but for our country's military. The big brass upstairs want to recoup some of the money that was spent on the Supersoldier program. Free citizens of the U.S. or not, the X5s are still military property, which makes this one mine." He glanced at her, eyebrows rising, "If, that is, you'll sell him to me instead of sticking a ceremonial dagger in his heart."

"Why should we help our enemy?" the woman asked.

"Money," the Colonel said simply. "I'm well funded. Like I said ... five million. Besides, it's 452 you really want to destroy, her and her special DNA. The rest aren't of any real serious danger to you. They're too few in number."

"Ah, but they're propagating," the cultist replied. "And he's a breeder. Six million."

Alec realized he was a slave being auctioned.

"Done," Lydecker said quickly. "After you have the girl, I take possession of this one, and he's not to be harmed in the meantime."

The woman left, leaving Lydecker alone, staring at his new acquisition through the bars. Alec's only response to the perusal was to tighten his jaw, his keen hazel-green eyes meeting his former master's unflinchingly.

"You heard that, soldier?" Lydecker said softly. Then he grinned. "Of course you did. I just saved your damned life, so you should be grateful. But you're mine now. Oh, and don't worry about Max. I've got plans for her, too, and they definitely don't involve our Snake Cult friends."

"Go to hell," Alec said softly.

"Not yet," Lydecker replied, smiling. "Not just yet. First, I've got work to do, and you, my boy, are a very important part of the plan."