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Chapter 14
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Dr. Carr left with the blood sample, promising to return within a few hours. Perhaps then, he said, they would have some answers as to how to help Alec.
In the meantime, Alec felt the insidious effects of the poison slowly creeping through his system. It had been 65 hours now ... still time to get the temporary antidote before things got really bad, but he shuddered to think what was coming.
"Hurry, Doc," he'd said as Carr packed his bag.
Sam Carr nodded, then he'd turned to Max holding out a bottle of pills. "If he gets too bad before I return, give him two of these."
"What is it?" Max asked, reading the label.
"A high powered narcotic pain killer," Carr said.
Alec shook his head. "My metabolism will eat that stuff up so quick it won't even have time to take effect." He glanced at Berrisford who was hovering in the doorway. "A good bottle of Scotch would do the trick better," he added with a small smile.
"I think I can arrange that, Simon," Berrisford said, turning to go. "One bottle of my best Scotch coming up -- provided Sanchez left the bar stocked like I told him to."
"My name's Alec!" the X5 called after him.
*****
"So tell me about him," Alec said when he and Max were alone in the bedroom, him reclining on the mattress, hands behind his head, with her seated beside him. "Tell me about you and Logan."
"What about us?" Max said lightly.
"Are you two kids back together again?"
"Not exactly," she said in a low voice, not meeting his eyes.
Alec straightened against the pillows that were behind his back. "And what does that mean?" he said quietly. "You know, don't you, that I came back for you ... hell, I'm gonna die for you. Doesn't that deserve a straight answer."
"If you wanted me so badly, then why did you leave?" Max countered.
"I thought it was best at the time," Alec replied easily. "But I was wrong. I should have stayed and fought for the woman I love."
"You really love me?" she said, making it sound almost like an accusation.
"Yeah, Max," Alec sighed. "I do. God help me, I do. But the thing is, I don't know who you love. Me or Logan."
"Both," she whispered. "I love both of you."
Alec took a deep breath and was about to say more when Berrisford appeared in the doorway with a bottle of Scotch and three glasses. "Someone order a drink?" he said.
"Make that about six," Alec commented, grabbing the bottle from the man, uncorking it, and taking a long swig. The liquor stung on the way down, making his eyes water, but the fire in his belly felt good. It would take most of the contents of the bottle, but he knew the numbing effects could be achieved if he drank enough, temporarily alleviating the pain that was rapidly mounting along his spine and limbs.
"Max," he said when the numbness had worn off his tongue, returning to a former sore subject. "You will do what you have to do, won't you?"
"What do you mean?" she said, playing dumb and holding out her own glass and letting him pour a small amount of the liquor into it.
"What you did for Ben? You'll help me, too, right?"
She looked at the wall behind his head. "I didn't come here to kill you," she said.
Alec glanced up at Berrisford and smirked. "Then let Robert here do the honors if you want. You could even call it poetic justice. Hell, he's wanted me dead for years, and now he'll have an excuse that won't hurt his conscience."
"I don't want you dead any more," the older man said, as appalled as Max by what Alec was asking.
"Damn it!" Alec said, taking another long swig from the bottle and relaxing into the feel of the alcohol as it coursed through his veins. "Then call Logan and let him have the privilege. Or maybe you could get a Breeding Cult member out here. White's gone, but I'm sure there are a lot of others who'd enjoy seein' old X5-494 out of the game for good." He smirked at Max, his eyes watering slightly again as the third long gulp of Scotch finally began to make his speech slur. "If you really do love me, Maxie ... as much as you loved Brother Ben ... then you won't make me live through Hell even before I officially get there."
"Dr. Carr will help you," she said, her own voice trembling as she watched him with now fearful eyes.
Which is when Alec reached over to where his jacket was hanging on the bedpost and pulled out the automatic pistol. Checking the chamber, he made sure bullets were in place, then looked up into Max's eyes. "Don't worry," he said softly. "I know you can't do it ... Berrisford either ... When it comes time, I know how to let myself out."
Max's hand blurred, and before Alec and his impaired reflexes could react, she had the pistol. Jumping back off the bed, she held it out gingerly, distaste evident on her face as it always was when firearms were involved. "Get rid of this," she told Berrisford, handing him the gun as if it were a nasty living thing. "We won't be needing it."
"And if Lydecker shows up?" Alec said, as usual pointing out the practical.
"We worry about that if and when it happens," Max said. "But you're not going to kill yourself on my watch, Alec."
"Just wait," the X5 said, taking another drink of Scotch and settling back on the pillows, waiting for the pain to increase. "You'll see. In the end, Max, you won't be able to watch, and then ... you'll do what you hafta do."
*****
Dr. Carr returned three hours later -- with news.
"Do you want to hear the good or the bad first?" he asked as he bustled through the bedroom doorway, medical bag in hand along with a carton full of supplies.
"The good," Max and Alec both said at the same time.
"He's got a chance," the doctor said with a grim smile. "Albeit a slim one. If he were human," he looked hard at Alec, "I'd say you were pretty much doomed, but your X5 physiology just might be able to see you through and out the other side."
"What are you talkin' about?" Alec asked, grimacing as a dagger of pain shot through his body and the beginnings of the cramps in his gut began. It would get worse soon ... a whole lot worse. There'd be diarrhea, and vomiting, and then he'd start to bleed ...
"What Lydecker's done to you is ingenious, in a way," Carr said as he unloaded several bags of I.V. fluids that he then proceeded to hang on one of the solution racks that still remained in Rachel's room. "Ingenious in its simplicity and cruelty I might add."
"Get to the point," Max snapped. "What's Alec shot up with and what do we have to do to get it out of his system without killing him?"
"The blood analysis I had done in my private lab showed up plain as day what the Colonel put into you, Alec," Carr continued.
"And that would be?" the X5 prompted, getting impatient with the medical man's mysterious pauses for dramatic effect.
Carr beamed at them broadly, almost as if proud of what he was about to say. "Oxycontin," he said. "Or rather an asteroidal version of the same narcotic."
"Oxycontin?" Max said. "That's a pain killer. How could that be doing this to Alec?"
"It's not," Carr said. "At least the drug isn't what's causing his symptoms. Rather, it's his body's sudden lack of the narcotic that brings on the bleeding, seizures, cramps, and neurological melee. Apparently Lydecker has a super addictive version of oxycodone hydrochloride that he initially injected Alec with, quickly making his body dependent on the drug. Every three days, or thereabouts, the Colonel then gives his soldier a 'booster shot' of the narcotic, staving off the withdrawal symptoms."
"Great," Alec moaned, turning on his side in the bed and burying his face in one arm. "I'm a junkie."
"Yes," Carr said. "You are. But not through any fault of your own.
"What do we do about it then?" Max said, her hopes soaring as she remembered the girl who'd been addicted to Marrow's blood and how most of her dangerous withdrawal symptoms were psychological in nature as opposed to actually physical. She eyed Alec. "Do we just wait it out and when his body's done detoxing he'll be fine?"
Dr. Carr sighed, pausing with a bag of saline solution in one hand. "It's not that easy I'm afraid," he said. "Remember I told you there was bad news to go along with the good?"
"Spit it out," Alec said, his words muffled against his arm.
"There's a very good chance that Alec will die during the withdrawal ... that his body won't be able to handle the physical abuse. At the very least, he could suffer a heart attack or stroke due to the extreme pain he'll be in."
"But you said there's a chance?" Max asked, her voice pleading. Alec was watching, too, with a wary eye, waiting for the medics next words.
"A slim one," Carr said. "At least theoretically."
"Theoretically's good," Alec said dryly. "At least it beats dyin'."
"But you're not going to like what I'm going to have to do in order to give you that chance, Alec. You're not going to like it at all."