DISCLAIMER: All DARK ANGEL characters belong to James Cameron and Charles Eglee (Cameron Eglee Productions) and DARK ANGEL itself belongs to FOX.
ARCHIVE: No
The following story is based on characters created for the television series DARK ANGEL
(Episode 18)
Warriors
By Valjean
This is a stand-alone story in my DARK ALEC series. These stories are my version of Season 4, and incorporate elements not only of the television show DARK ANGEL, but of the novels SKIN GAME and AFTER THE DARK, the book THE EYES ONLY DOSSIER, and information revealed in various cast/writer/producer interviews, chats, and commentaries. -- author's note
*************************************
When the muscular arm snaked around her neck and the large sweaty palm clamped down over her mouth Max did what she'd been trained to do. Reaching back with both hands, she grabbed her assailant's ears, and as he yowled out with pain, yanked forward and bent low, throwing him bodily over her shoulder to land on the ground at her feet. Still in soldier-mode, she bounced back into a sparring stance, at the same time focusing her eyes on the masked man in front of her as he gracefully sprang back to his feet. But suddenly a twinge raked her abdomen, and she knew she was in trouble.
Taking a late night walk because she couldn't sleep, Max was mentally kicking herself for being caught by surprise ... for giving in to a false sense of security and complacency just because the Gillette Base was supposedly impregnable. Stumbling now with the pain, her seven-months pregnant belly an impossible handicap, 452 backed up until she felt the base fence pressing into her spine. "Please," she panted, holding out both hands as if to ward off her attacker, but in reality wanting to fool him into thinking she'd given up. "Please ..."
The intruder in his black ski mask stopped and regarded her curiously, a pair of pale green eyes scrutinizing Max in a way she found hauntingly familiar. "I won't hurt you," he said, his voice -- at odds with that vicious body -- a plaintive little boy's. "I could never hurt you."
Max's eyes widened. "Zack," she whispered, her knees turning to jelly. "Zack, is that you?"
Reaching up, her attacker pulled off the ski mask revealing a shock of shaggy blond hair and a face pinched and lined with emotional pain. "It's me, baby sister," X5-599 said. "It's really me. I'm here to rescue you."
*****
A day late and a dollar short as the saying went, Alec -- barefoot and wearing nothing but a hastily donned pair of jeans -- careened around the corner into the control room. "Max!" he yelled, his eyes wild with worry.
"Right here," Max said calmly from where she was seated at the big conference table.
"Mole said you were attacked and that--" 494 suddenly spotted the newcomer, and for a second he lost his words. Then-- "Shit! What's he doin' here?" He searched Max's face. "And what the hell happened? Are you all right?"
"494," Zack said, his tone as placid as Max's had been. The bigger X5 nodded at his brother. "I read about you in the papers. You've been helping Max. Thank you."
"Thank you?" Alec said, running fingers back through his hair and shaking his head in confusion. "You're welcome?" he said, looking wide-eyed at Max again. "Max, what's goin' on? Did he hurt you?"
"What's going on is that Zack has come to join his family," Max said rather primly as she shifted in her seat to ease the ache in her back. "And no, he didn't hurt me. I just caught him by surprise, but now everything is fine."
Alec felt like Alice who'd just fallen down the rabbit hole. Mole, meanwhile, was masticating his cigar in a manner that signaled trouble. "How the fuck did you get inside the perimeter?" the lizard man snarled, pointing a scaly finger at the newly arrived X5.
For the first time, an expression other than weariness graced Zack's weathered face. He smiled smugly. "The motion sensors in Grid B have a gap," he said. "Always did ... even back when I was a kid here." He cocked an eyebrow at Max. "I'm surprised you didn't remember that, baby sister."
Alec shot Mole a dirty look. "Get it fixed -- now."
"On it," Luke said from where he'd been listening to the fascinating conversation. With one last withering glance at Zack, Mole and the little albino nomalie headed out.
"Why the need to sneak and creep your way in?" Alec asked, slapping at a mosquito that had landed on his bare shoulder. "Why not just knock on the front door?"
"I wasn't certain of the situation here," Zack said. "I needed to find out for myself the lay of the land and how things stood. Whether this was where I wanted to be." His voice softened. "I needed to find Max."
"Well," she said. "You found me out on my little midnight stroll. And now everything's going to be fine."
Zack was looking with interest around the control room. "First, we need to beef up security at least three fold," he declared, walking slowly around the room and eying the bank of monitors. "And we need to get experienced X5s into critical stations ... do away with inferior personnel."
"Who you callin' inferior?" Dix said, his voice low and dangerous in a way Alec had rarely heard. About to protest, 494 thought better of it, and instead closed his mouth, waiting to see how this would play out.
"Wait a minute!" Max protested. "What are you talking about? My personnel are fine, Zack."
"Are they?" 599 snapped, shooting a withering look in Alec's direction. "Max, your second in command is a lying con artist who couldn't make the grade with the rest of his Unit ... one of Renfro's flunkies, not to mention the fact that his twin brother was a psychotic killer. Also, you've got nomalies at critical controls. What were you thinking? Or is the fact you got knocked up by Logan Cale affecting your judgment?"
Alec's eyes narrowed. Enough was enough ... Jaw tightening, 494 spoke up. "Speakin' of psycho-killers, seems to me that last time we saw you, robo-boy, you were one sandwich shy of a picnic yourself. Or should I make that 'farm-boy'?"
"Alec!" Max said sharply. "Stop it. He doesn't know. He can't know ... not how things really are."
Zack hung his head, his blond hair falling in his eyes, for the first time looking less like a soldier and more like the brother Alec knew Max wanted him to be.
"I started remembering things," 599 said in a low voice. "They tried to keep me from seeing the news about what was going on in Seattle with the transgenics. Bud and Myra ... whenever I'd come in the room they'd turn off the TV, and we didn't get a newspaper. But--" He glanced up at Max. "One day when they weren't home I flipped on the TV in the living room to check the weather and there was this documentary on about genetically engineered soldiers ... freaks ... who had formed a conclave in Seattle and were a threat to the human race. They talked a lot about the bar codes." Zack touched the back of his neck. "After that, the memories started coming back fast. Within a few days I'd remembered almost everything ... Manticore ... running away ..." He raised his eyes. "You, Max ..."
"So you left the farm?" she said softly.
"To find the others not in Terminal City and help them," Zack said firmly. "Which I did. I led them to Canada where we've been keeping an eye on things here in the U.S. ever since."
His voice suspicious, Alec asked, "Why come back now?"
"Because it was time," Zack said. "I could tell from what I was reading that you guys were in trouble here ... that you lacked a leader."
"Hey!" Max protested, as Alec's chin tilted a fraction higher.
"Max, you're hated the world over!" Zack shouted. "The government's got you surrounded out here ... bottled up. And sooner or later they're gonna come in and annihilate you, not to mention the fact you're letting the nomalies act in roles they weren't designed for. You're letting mistakes have positions of responsibility and power."
"We're not X5s versus nomalies here, Zack," Max said, awkwardly rising from her chair. "We're all brothers and sisters ... equal ... whether X1, X5, nomalie, or anything in between."
"As I said," Zack replied. "I came back because you're fucking everything up." He looked meaningfully at Alec. "And trusting the wrong people."
"You're welcome to stay, brother," Max said, her voice turning icy in a way Alec knew could take men to their knees -- himself included. "But not if you're going to act like an ass."
"Oh, I'm staying," Zack said as his left eye began to blink rapidly. "I wouldn't leave you again, Max ... not for anything."
Alec was shaking his head, realizing he needed to stop this before it escalated any further. "Dude," he said easily. "We hafta talk."
"About what?"
"About Max." Alec then reached out and grabbed hold of Zack's arm -- a mistake. The next thing 494 knew, he was flying through the air. Hitting the back wall of the control room hard, he almost lost his footing but at the last second kept his balance. Straightening slowly, he rubbed his aching jaw and told himself that retaliating would only get him in hot water with Max, but all the while never taking his eyes off of robo-boy.
"Zack!" 452 shouted, grabbing hold of 599's other arm. "Stop it!"
"He shouldn't be here!" Zack yelled, pointing a shaking finger at Alec. "He can't be trusted! His brother was a killer ... I know all about Ben and what he did. I should have destroyed him myself ..." He turned to Max. "But you beat me to it, little sister. You saved the day."
"I'm not Ben," Alec said. "I'm nothin' like him. And you don't know one fuckin' thing about me, robo-boy, so shut the hell up." With that last, 494 looked hard at his mate.
"We need to get something clear," Max said, grabbing Zack by the wrist and yanking him toward the door. Over her shoulder she tossed at Alec, "You comin'?"
"Why do you want him?" Zack protested.
"Shut up!" Max snapped -- the two magic words that seemed to work on all of her "brothers," 599 included.
*****
"Alec's the father of my baby," Max said without preamble after they'd walked a distance from the control center.
Zack stopped in his tracks, and stared daggers at 494. "I thought you had better sense than that, baby sister."
"Hey!" Alec objected, hands balling into fists at his sides, the ache in his bruised jaw not helping his temper. He'd grabbed a leather jacket he'd left in the control room, and the worn lining felt sticky on his sweat-slick skin. "We're gonna have a problem here, aren't we brother Zack?"
"Looks like it," the other X5 replied.
"She never loved you like that, you know," Alec felt compelled to add and ignoring Max's furious glare. "That was all a fantasy in your messed up mind -- thinkin' she'd fallen for you."
"Alec, stop!" Max shouted.
"He has to be told the truth, Max!" Alec yelled right back. "His head's all fucked up and he doesn't know what's real! If it was me, I'd sure as hell want someone to set me straight. Back then ... in Seattle ... it was you and Logan, then it was you and me. End of story with robo-boy never in the equation at all."
Zack's jaw compressed tightly as he regarded the other two. Then he gave a slight nod. "Who Max is sleeping with doesn't really matter," he said in a soldier's monotone. "Although," he added, "I'm glad the baby's a pure blood. It will help. What matters is the survival of our people as a race, and that's why I'm really here."
Realizing he was dealing with more than a guy who thought he'd been jilted by the girl he loved, Alec cocked his head to one side and regarded 599 quizzically. "You're here to take over," he said with a wicked smile -- a statement, not a question.
"Yes."
"What?" Max exclaimed, the word exploding out of her as disbelief lit up her dark eyes.
"Zack wants to save us from ourselves," Alec said, as usual seeing through all the nuances and getting straight to the heart of the matter -- his gift. "Robo-boy wants a pure X5 conclave. He wants rid of the Mole's and the Joshua's and the Dix's and Luke's. He's as much a purist as old Ames and his cohorts." The smile widened to a grin. "Am I right?"
"You're right, 494," Zack conceded with a nod of his head. The blond X5 then looked around the Gillette base in a proprietary way that raised Alec's hackles. "I'm here to clean things up."
Which is when Alec realized with horror -- even as gunfire erupted on the west side of the compound -- that his concerns about Zack's motives were way too little and far too late.
Max whirled. "What's going on?" she exclaimed, looking to her newly arrived brother.
But Zack was staring down Alec, pale green eyes locked with hazel-green. "I told you those motion sensors in Grid B were inadequate," he said quietly.
"You brought men with you," Alec said. "You're makin' a play for the base."
"I'm taking over the base," Zack corrected.
The sound of the gunfire was increasing, growing louder and picking up in tempo.
"You're killing our own people?" Max shouted. "Zack? How could you? That's our family out there!" She pointed toward the perimeter fence.
Alec was torn between staying and protecting Max, and helping his men. If things worked the way they were supposed to, Mole would already know they were under attack and be mustering the defenses. But he also knew he had a chance right now to perhaps nip this entire take-over in the bud.
"Alec, no!" Max's cry came as he launched himself bodily at 599.
494's first blow was effective, catching the other X5 off guard and landing square on that lantern jaw. With a grunt of pain, Zack staggered back, and then -- rubbing his bruised cheek -- he smiled, accepting the challenge.
"Alec!" Max tried again, this time grabbing hold of her mate's arm and trying to drag him away. "No!"
"Yes," Alec snarled, shaking her off and circling his opponent, green eyes locked with a different green once more. And then the two combatants blurred.
In a motion too fast for the human eye to follow, Alec spun into a high heel kick that was blocked by an arm with bones nearly as strong as steel. Pain lanced through his ankle and shin as 494 bounced back, his own arm barely coming up in time to counter a right hook that -- if it had landed -- would have crushed his skull. Leaning slightly back, Alec then let loose with a side kick that hit dead center in 599's midriff, sending the other man backwards with a whoosh of air expelled from his lungs.
Zack staggered briefly, then regained his balance and assumed a sparring stance. As the gunfire became more sporadic ... lessening ... the two males circled each other gracefully, like big jungle cats at war. They were almost evenly matched ... almost ...
But not quite.
Alec attacked first again, letting loose with a crescent kick aimed at Zack's head. But before his foot hit skull, the other X5's hand shot out, catching hold of his leg and hurling Alec backwards to land hard on his back in the dirt. Springing to his feet instantly in a martial arts "kip" move that only those with advanced training could achieve, Alec had hands at ready just in time to meet Zack's charge.
And what a charge it was. X5-599 was physically similar to 494, but the Manticore geneticists hadn't made all of their progeny identical. Special "gifts" had been meted out here and there. Zack had more muscle fiber density than Alec ... which meant that, ounce for ounce, he was stronger.
It was like being hit by a bull. The impact of that heavy body blew through all of Alec's defenses and took him to the ground. 599 outweighed his younger brother by at least 20 pounds, and he used that to his full advantage. Pinning his opponent down, he shoved Alec over onto his face and quickly had him in a choke hold.
Alec knew he was in deep trouble the moment he fell. Ground fighting had never been his favorite sport, and to be face down in the dirt with a genetically engineered killer sitting on top of his back was definitely not a good place to be. Disgusted at his own ineptitude, the more slightly built X5 twisted in that vicious grip, trying to gain some wriggle room so he could flip back over. But then suddenly Zack's arm tightened even more, cutting off his air.
Reaching up, Alec clawed at the enemy's hair, grabbing a handful and pulling as hard as he could, but Zack seemed to be immune to the pain. In desperation, 494 gouged with his fingers, finding an eye ... ripping at flesh, only to feel smooth steel beneath the oozing blood.
And then the arm tightened, the pressure on the base of his spine increasing. 599 wasn't going to choke him to death. He was going to snap his neck.
Vertebrae started to give way -- and someone screamed.
"Zack!" Max cried as she struck out at the far larger X5, trying to tear him off of the man she loved. "No! Don't kill him! Don't!!!"
With a snarl of rage, Zack swung an arm backwards, striking the enraged 452 who was reigning blows down on him with both hands, sending her flying backwards through the air -- which was all the opportunity Alec needed. Wriggling beneath the other X5, 494 managed to turn partially over loosening himself from that death grip. He'd almost regained his feet ... almost broken free ... when the sound of a gun cocking in his ear brought all of his struggles to a complete halt.
Cold metal pressed against the back of his head.
"Do you want me to kill him, sir?" a new voice asked.
Panting hard, Zack got to his feet while Alec remained frozen with the barrel of a Glock touching his brain stem.
"Zack!" Max pleaded from where she was lying on the ground clutching her belly. "Please! I love him!"
For a long second, Alec's life hung in the balance. Then--
"Lock him up with the others," Zack disgustedly ordered his man -- an X5 Alec had never seen before. "We'll decide his fate before we leave."
*****
"Zack, what the hell are you doing?"
X5-599 turned around and looked hard at Max, his red eye glowing from the damaged side of his face. Like the robot he halfway was, he replied in a monotone, "I'm saving us."
"Us?" Alec spat from the other side of the bars.
Zack's grip on Max's arm tightened possessively. "Her."
"By killing our brothers and sisters?" Max practically wailed, even as she tugged futilely against that impossibly strong hand.
They were inside the mountain, in the hallway outside the cells -- "D Block" -- and 599's men were bringing in more of the Gillette Base's population eve as they spoke, shoving several X2's, an X3, and a cat-woman nomalie named Zeta down the long sloping tunnel at gunpoint.
At Max's outcry, Zack threw her against the wall -- hard.
"Hey!" Alec roared, grabbing the bars in both hands and glaring at the other X5. "If you hurt her, I swear ... one way or another, bro, I'm gonna kill you."
"You won't be alive long enough to do anything, 494," Zack replied coldly. "None of you will ... except the ones who are worthy."
An alarm went off in Alec's head. Up until now he'd been thinking of Zack as an enemy soldier. But those had been the words of a fanatic ... a zealot ... A brief thought of his brother Ben flashed through the X5's mind. Maybe psychosis did run in the family ...
"I'm taking over this base," Zack said. "I'm conscripting the X5s and the X6s. The rest ... the anomalies ... will be destroyed like they should have been long ago back at Manticore."
"McKinley's gonna love this," Alec remarked. "And he thought Max was hard to deal with ..."
"Silence!" Zack shouted, whacking the bars with the butt of his semi-automatic rifle. "The prisoner doesn't have permission to speak."
"Am I a prisoner too?" Max flared, coming off the wall only to be shoved rudely back against it by Zack's big hand.
"You don't have to be, Maxie," 599 said, his tone suddenly gentle, almost plaintive, as if a switch of some kind had been thrown. "Join me willingly and together we'll create an empire."
"Whoo, boy," Alec breathed out. "Am I the only one around her who doesn't wanna be king?"
Zack raised his rifle.
"You can't kill my family," Max said quickly, before her older brother could retaliate against his captive. "I won't let you."
"They're not your family, Max," Zack said. "I am."
"Yes," she agreed. "You are. But so are the others. We're all related, Zack. Can't you understand that?"
The X5 cocked his head, the look in his real eye suddenly clouding as he seemed to be trying to process something. Then his vision cleared. "We're not related, Max. All of the others were mistakes. Only the X5s are perfect."
"Not really," Alec again said under his breath even as he realized his right hand was trembling slightly. Max, too, didn't look very good, and he wondered how long it had been since she'd taken any tryptophan.
"What exactly are you going to do?" Max asked as she looked around at the rapidly filling cells, her people being escorted into the mountain at gunpoint by Zack's small but very efficient and well-trained army. They'd been caught so off guard it was pathetic, Alec thought. In that respect, robo-boy was right.
Zack glanced around the tunnel. Then he looked straight into Max's eyes. "I'm going round up all of the X5s and X6s and take them back to my Canadian base. Then I'm going to arm one of the nuclear devices and seal up the mountain. When it blows it will take this horror of a facility out of reality once and for all, along with all the monstrosities Manticore created that have no right to exist." He looked away. "Maybe then I'll be able to forget."
Alec's jaw dropped open. This was beyond his wildest fears. "You're gonna blow up the base?" he said, forgetting he was supposed to remain silent. Leaning into the bars, he repeated, "You're gonna blow up the whole fucking base?" Then he shook his head. "Why, for God's sake? This place is a gold mine of weapons, food, and information."
"It's a Devil's playground," Zack said, once again sounding an awful lot like a preacher. "It's the place where they did this to me." He looked down at himself. "Where they took away my--" He stopped, leaving Alec to queasily wonder just what other organs the scientists had stolen from his brother besides his heart.
"I'm not a man any more, Max," Zack cried out. "They--"
With her eyes on Alec, Max reached up and put her arms around her older brother, patting him on the back. "Zack," she said softly. "It's all right. I know they hurt you. But please, don't take this out on my friends and on--" She caught herself -- but not in time.
"On your lover?" Zack said, his voice sliding back into automaton mode. A cold green eye riveted on Alec standing behind the bars. "He's not worthy of you, Max. Not by a long shot." Then he lightly touched Max's swollen belly, and 494's back stiffened. "This should have been our child, Maxie ... mine ... But now it can never be and--"
With a swiftness that caught Alec completely by surprise, Zack swung the barrel of the rifle up, aiming dead center on his rival's bare chest.
"Zack, no!" Max cried out, flinging herself onto the gun and pushing it out of the way. "I love him, Zack! If you love me then you have to respect that! Killing him will only make me hate you! Please ... If you want me to beg, I will. Please, don't shoot him!"
But brother Zack wasn't being swayed -- and Alec saw his own death reflected in that single cold emerald eye.
Which is when Max dropped to her knees on the cement. "You want me to beg, Zack? Well I'm begging. Don't kill him. And don't kill my family. Leave. Go back to Canada and your own people." Clasping hands together, she looked up at him defiantly, yet with supplication. Then, she made the final sacrifice. "If you want me to go with you, I will. I know that's why you're really here -- for me. If you want me to love you, I will--"
"Max, no!" Alec shouted.
"I'll love you, Zack. I promise. But if you do this ... if you kill Alec and the others, I'll hate you forever. Take me with you, but let the others go, and leave the base intact."
For a long moment, brother Zack seemed to actually be considering Max's proposal. Slowly, he lowered the gun, and Alec's heart began to resume its normal rhythm. Maybe she'd gotten to him ... maybe he'd let them go ... He could always go up to Canada and rescue Max so maybe--
But then suddenly the rifle barrel swung up with horrible swiftness and spat fire.
"No," Zack said even as pain lanced through Alec's side and all the strength left his limbs.
On his knees on the floor, the X5 touched his ribs, and his hand came away smeared with blood.
"He dies. They all die. And you're still coming with me. I'll save you, Max -- whether you want me to or not."
And then Alec heard Max screaming his name, and everything simply went away as blackness enveloped his mind and the floor rushed up to meet him.
*****
"Take out the leader ... the one man the others will follow ... and you've already pretty much won your battle."
Alec didn't want to open his eyes, but the sound of Mole's grating voice wouldn't let him retreat back into the darkness.
"Brother Zack was smart. He didn't want a blood bath here. Even a robotic bastard like he is doesn't have the stomach for that kind of slaughter. Instead, he locks all of us up tight in the mountain, kidnaps one of our leaders and takes down the other, then simply sets a timer and walks away with his hands clean."
Alec could smell cigar smoke.
"Lydecker would be so proud ..." the lizard man half chuckled.
"Why didn't Zack kill Alec?" Joshua's voice asked.
Yeah, why didn't the bastard finish me off?
"Why do you think?" Mole scoffed. "'Cause of Max. She was on her knees beggin' for his life. Zack says he loves her. So, how could he do that to her? 'Sides ..."
Alec heard a match being struck. Apparently Mole's stogie had gone out. There was the sound of lips drawing in smoke ... puffing ...
"Zack accomplished what he needed to. Alec's outta the game."
Alec felt the softness of flannel against his cheek and the warmth of a living body cradling his. He also felt as if someone had taken a baseball bat to his rib cage, and he could taste blood ...
"Hey guys," Luke's voice piped in. "I think he's comin' around."
"Alec?" Joshua said his name softly as rough fingers touched his cheek.
The X5 inhaled deeply, smelling doggy scent -- and then he finally ... reluctantly ... opened his eyes.
He was in a cell, but a different one from where he'd been shot. The ceiling overhead was natural rock and there was a dampness to the air that told him he was even deeper in the bowels of the mountain. "What happened," he mumbled, his mouth so dry he could barely talk.
Luke held a cup of water to his lips, and he drank. "That's better," he said gratefully, blinking to clear his vision as he looked up into extremely concerned dark mutant eyes. He tilted his head and saw Joshua's face peering down at him too.
"Alec will be all right now," the dog man said with conviction.
"If he don't bleed to death," the ever-practical Mole added.
"Max," Alec said, rapidly remembering now. "Did he take her?"
"Hours ago," Luke said, glancing toward the cell bars. "Zack and his whole pack of X5s herded us down here like cattle, then locked the doors and threw away the keys."
"And so the mighty have finally fallen," a woman's voice chortled.
Alec struggled up, ignoring the pain, and twisted around to peer into the back corner of the cell, irises widening to compensate for the darkness. There was a single light bulb on overhead, but that was hardly adequate to dispel the shadows.
"I always knew you and I would end up together somehow, 494, Elizabeth Renfro said, her half-ruined face twisting in a delighted grimace. The stub of her cigarette glowed as she took a deep drag. "And now it will be me -- your worst enemy -- you die with instead of her. How poetic."
"You're not my worst enemy," Alec said automatically, once more looking around the cell. He, Joshua, Mole, Dix, and Luke were the only ones incarcerated with Renfro, but his senses told him there were many others close by, probably locked in the other dungeons on this -- the base's most secure -- level.
"Casualties?" he asked, looking to Mole.
The lizard man shrugged. "Lots of wounded, a few dead, a couple missing ... They took all of the X5s and X6s with 'em 'cept for you."
Alec did the math in his head. There had been a total of 278 transgenics living on the Gillette base. Of those, 15 were X5 and 21 were X6, the rest nomalies, transhumans, or earlier X series. "How the hell did they get the jump on us so bad?" he had to ask his security officer.
Mole looked away, cigar stub drooping. "Back perimeter had a hole in the defenses just like he said. We should'a installed an additional motion detector. They sneaked right down the middle and caught us off guard. I tried to get the men to the armory, but Zack boy knows this base too well. He already had it secured ..." The lizard man's apologetic voice trailed off. "Alec ... man ... I'm sorry. I let you down."
Alec didn't correct the observation, but he didn't come down on Mole either. What was done, was done ... Instead, he looked at Dix. "He took Max with him? With the others?"
Dix nodded. "She tried to scratch his remaining eye out when he shot you. He was gonna put another slug in your head, but she told him she'd go with him and not cause any more trouble if he backed off. Then she yelled at us to take care of you. That's the last we saw of her."
"They had to have had transportation," Alec said, stretching against the bandages encircling his abused torso.
"Stolen helicopters -- three of 'em -- hidden behind the east mountain range 'bout four kilometers away," Dix enlightened him. "We saw too late on our radar. They must have flown in at treetop level -- probably why the real Army missed 'em too."
Alec smiled wanly. "Hey, it's what I would'a done," he admitted. He touched the bandages swaddling his bare midriff. "What's the damage?" he asked Luke.
"Bullet went clear through," the pale skinned mutant said. "You lost a good bit of blood, but one of Zack's guys tossed us a med kit and I got it stopped. I think it nicked your lung, though. You spittin' red?"
Alec nodded, making a wry face at the metallic taste of blood in his mouth.
"Which means you've gotta stay real quiet, bro," Mole admonished him. "If your lung collapses there's not a whole lot we can do 'bout it in here."
"So, Zack just locked us up and left?" Alec said, leaning back against Joshua's body again and taking surprising comfort in the warmth.
"Looks like," Mole groused, at the same time shooting an evil look in Renfro's direction.
"So we what?" Alec wondered. "Starve to death? We've got water."
"We won't live long enough to starve," Renfro said knowingly from where she was curled up on the cell's single bunk, her emaciated form draped with a blanket.
"What do you know about it, bitch?" Mole snarled.
"I know I saw 599 go into the third door on the right down the corridor," Renfro replied. "I know what he probably did in there."
Alec knew what she was talking about, and got to his feet in spite of Joshua trying to hold him down. Walking on shaky legs to the bars, he craned his neck to see down the dimly lit passageway that was cut in the natural stone. Third door on the right? He tried to recall the layout of this part of the mountain. There were a lot of storage rooms down here including--"
"Oh, God," he whispered. "He wasn't bluffing."
Mole took the cigar out of his mouth as realization hit home.
"What?" Luke asked as Joshua looked up at them with wide confused eyes. "What is it guys? What's in that room?"
"The nuclear arsenal," Dix said quietly from the other side of the cell where he was sitting with his back against the wall.
"Damn," Mole whispered. "He really is gonna blow us all to Hell."
*****
"Zack, you've got to let me go. If you really love me, you won't do this." Max was pleading again -- the only way she could think of to reach the seemingly emotionless X5. "I love those people back there, Zack. I love them more than my own life."
"You mean you love him," 599 said coldly from where he was seated next to her in the helicopter. They'd already covered over a hundred miles and were well within the borders of Canada, the terrain passing below desolate and deeply wooded. "First it was Cale, and now it's the twin brother of a psychotic killer." He regarded her balefully with his good eye. "Max, did anyone ever tell you that you have really bad taste in men?"
"I'm having his baby, Zack," Max said gently, taking hold of that cold hand and giving his fingers a squeeze, trying to find her "brother." She placed the hand on her swollen abdomen just as the baby kicked. "This is Alec's son inside of me."
"It should have been mine," 599 whined. "It should have been you and me, Max." He looked at her, his lower lip quivering even as his bionic eye glowed inhumanly red. "If only we could go back a few years I'd have done everything differently. I'd rearrange things so you and me would have ended up together. I should have let you know how I felt about you ... I should have stayed in Seattle with you ... protected you ..."
"You did protect me, Zack," Max said, trying to reach the humanity inside the cyborg. "You saved my life. You gave me your heart." She touched her breasts. "You're part of me in a way even Alec can never be, and I do love you. And if you really do love me like you say, then you'll want me to be happy with the man I've chosen."
She was getting to him. She could tell.
"This isn't about the Gillette base versus your base in Canada. It isn't about X5s and X6s being better than nomalies and transhumans. It's about you and me, Zack. Please don't punish our other brothers and sisters just because you want to hurt me." She glanced down at herself. "And please don't take away my son's father."
Zack's green eye hardened as he gazed, not at her, but out the window at the darkening sky. "He's probably already dead," he said in a monotone. "I shot him, remember?"
"You don't know that," Max quickly said. "You don't know that Alec's dead." Just saying the words made 452's heart pinch, but she had to hold out hope that when Alec had gone down it hadn't been forever. He was just wounded ... He had to be ...
Zack didn't respond.
"There's still time to go back," Max said, taking hold of his arm. "We can make everything all right. Our two groups can join together and become a powerful army. We'll share the technology of the mountain with you and you can provide us with more X5 leaders." She turned around to look toward the back of the Blackhawk where a shackled Gem sat holding Eve on her lap. "We'll have more babies," she said. "We'll survive as a race."
"I can't have babies," Zack suddenly said, his face screwing into a bitter mask. "They took that away from me ... surgery ..."
Max's heart began to race. "I'm sorry," she whispered, touching the back of his hand. "I didn't know. Why did they--?"
"They said artificial hormones would support my biosynthetic systems better," Zack said. "Plus, the nanocytes in my bloodstream would have destroyed my sperm anyway."
Max closed her eyes, the full horror of what Zack had been put through by Manticore hitting home in a way it never had before. And this was also what Stendahl wanted to do to Alec ... this and far worse.
"You can still have a life," she tried. "You're a good man, Zack. A strong man."
"I'm not a man any more!" 599 shrieked. The blow across her face caught Max totally by surprise. Her head rocked backwards, striking the helicopter's steel bulkhead, and she saw stars.
And then a second blow brought blackness.
*****
"Umm," Alec mumbled. "Guys ... ya know, when ya think about it, bein' at ground zero of a nuclear blast ain't a bad way to go. I mean, there are a lot fuckin' worse ways to die."
"Be quiet," Luke chided his patient as he fussed over the makeshift bandage he'd fashioned around Alec's wounded belly. "Or you're gonna have more of that pleuropotent rich blood of yours on the outside than on the in where it can do you some good. You've already passed out once -- swooned like a damn girl."
"Nobody's gonna die," Mole rumbled.
Renfro laughed -- a decidedly unpleasant sound. "We're all going to die," she warned.
Alec shoved Luke's hand away and tried to sit up straighter, only to be pushed back down by Joshua's strong arms. "Stay still, Alec," his friend chastised.
"Why'd he fuckin' hafta shoot me?" Alec whined.
"You mean why didn't he friggin' finish you off," Mole replied, chewing on his now cold cigar stub as lizard eyes flicked over the empty corridor outside their cell. He glanced back at the others. "For that matter, why didn't he friggin' finish us all off?"
"Because of Max," Joshua said. "Zack didn't want to upset Max."
His voice cynical, Alec said, "And kidnappin' her and turnin' her home into a nuclear pile of slag -- along with the man she ostensibly loves and father of her child I might add -- won't upset the lady?"
"Point taken," Luke replied. "But this way Max won't see. He's got her back in Canada by now."
"At least she's safe there," Alec sighed, refusing to think about Max's slowly advancing progeria symptoms. He looked at the bars. "But we've gotta get outta here."
"No foolin'," Mole agreed, taking hold of the cell door and rattling it.
"No one's left free on the outside?" Alec asked, craning his neck to see up and down the corridor.
"We've been shoutin' ourselves hoarse for the past two hours while you took a nap," Dix replied. "Everyone's locked up down here. Zack might be a psycho, but he's a thorough psycho."
A thought suddenly occurred to Alec. "What about Lydecker?" he said, looking toward the monocled mutant. "Wasn't he due back from France today or tomorrow?"
Dix shrugged. "It's a possibility. But if he's on the trail of his wife's murderer, who knows how long he might be delayed. It's not like he reports in to us on a regular basis or anything."
"Joshua," Alec said. "You're the strongest. Have you tried the door?"
In reply, the dog man carefully slid out from behind Alec, stood up, moved to the cell door, gripped the bars, and gave it a heave. Although the veins stood out on his mottled forehead, nothing gave.
"Sorry, Medium Fella," he said with an apologetic shrug.
"That's okay, Josh," Alec sighed. "These cells were designed to hold transgenics, so it figures they're built extra strong." Getting shakily to his feet in spite of Luke's noises of protect, Alec looked around at the others. And then he remembered something. Hazel-green eyes lighting up, he reached into his jacket pocket, then grinned triumphantly when a moment of delving produced the metal pick.
"Lemme do that," Mole declared, reaching for the implement.
"I can do it," Alec said.
"You're gonna pass out again," Luke pointed out.
"The bleeding's stopped," Alec replied, even as he moved to the cell door. "Manticore didn't give us super clotting abilities for nothin'."
"But your lung--"
"Hurts like hell, but I can breathe," Alec said, his temper growing short. 'Lemme work."
With a resigned shrug, Luke stepped aside while Mole, on the other hand, came closer, ready to catch his buddy if he keeled over again.
Renfro's good eye watched with beady brightness from the shadows in the back of the cell.
Reaching through the opening between the bars, the X5 inserted the lock pick into the key hole, closed his eyes in concentration, and began to slowly manipulate the mechanism with talented fingers. This wasn't a simple door, but the internal workings were the same as all locks. Sweat beaded on his stubbled upper lip as he tried repeatedly to maneuver the tip of the pick into the proper position (even as a dirty little corner of his mind compared this to something else).
"Come on ... come on ..." he said under his breath, briefly smiling at what could be construed as a double entendre.
Suddenly, there was a loud click, and the door swung open on its steel hinges. Alec dropped his head to his chest as relief washed over his trembling body. Now, they had a chance.
*****
The nuclear device was alive and flashing a series of red lights as the timer counted down from what had originally been 72 hours. Now ... they had 53 hours and 47 minutes until their little piece of Wyoming fried.
"Why set the time for so long?" Mole wondered, flicking a cigar ash onto the rock floor as he stood beside Alec regarding the armed bomb.
Alec, holding his aching side with one hand, took a sip from the cup of water Joshua had insisted he drink. Then he licked his lips and looked back over his shoulder toward the prison block. "That's a good question," he said. "Why the long countdown?"
"It's the default setting," Renfro said when Alec confronted the former Manticore director in her corner of the cell they'd just vacated (and left her imprisoned in). "599 must have messed something up when he was setting the initial countdown and it flipped into a pre-set time -- the maximum if I recall the details correctly."
"Why didn't he just do a do-over?" Alec wondered. "Fix it so we were toast in a few hours instead of a few days?"
Renfro shrugged. "Like I said, he probably didn't know what he was really doing and didn't want to risk setting things off too soon. 599 did need time to get his prisoners and people completely out of the area."
Alec conceded this logic.
Renfro eyed him slyly. "Aren't you going to ask me for the disarm code?"
"And what would that cost me?"
Mole looked sharply at his leader.
"You know what it would cost, 494," the woman said quietly.
Alec nodded. "I'm wounded, in case you didn't notice." He looked down at the bloody bandage wrapped around his bare rib cage.
"I bet that wouldn't even slow you down," she said with a lascivious grin.
"I bet it wouldn't either," Alec said with a nasty little smile of his own. He looked over at the lizard man. "Mole. Beat it."
"But Alec--" the flabbergasted transhuman sputtered. "You aren't seriously gonna--"
"I said beat it," Alec repeated more harshly, nodding toward the corridor outside the cell. "And close the block door behind you when you leave."
Renfro's smile was both wicked and longing.
Alec waited until he heard the door click closed, then he slowly turned and faced his female nemesis.
"You don't like an audience when you breed?" she said, slowly unbuttoning her prison-issue blouse and lying back on the bed. She patted the blanket beside her. "Take off your pants and show it to me," she ordered, her tone suddenly that of the old Renfro he'd always known and hated. "Now."
Alec smirked, the look in his eyes feral. "Lack of privacy doesn't really bother me when I fuck," he said slowly, his voice deep and low as he advanced toward the bed. "It's killing that I do alone."
Renfro's face blanched, bringing out the livid red scar tissue of her burned skin. "You won't kill me. You need the codes."
"You don't have the codes," Alec said. It was a calculated guess on his part, but he immediately saw in those beady dark eyes that it was true.
"You still won't kill me," Renfro declared, inching up against the wall, her naked breasts heaving.
"Tell me how to deactivate that bomb and maybe I won't. But you better start talkin' right now, bitch. And know that -- if you don't -- I'll still find out some other way."
"You're just a piece of meat!" she spat, her temper getting the better of her. "You're not a man! You're a freak! A thing!"
"Sticks and stones, sweetie," Alec said, pursing his lips in a mock kiss.
"You're nothing more than a vicious wild animal ... a jungle cat who thinks he's human ... no conscience ... no soul ... no real ability to love!"
She was trying to hurt him, but she wasn't someone who could.
"You know, Ma'am," Alec drawled. "There's something you never did understand about us X5s ... somethin' no one at Manticore ever did except maybe Lydecker."
"And what might that be?" she said, glowering.
His eyes raked her nakedness with a disinterest that was beyond insulting. "That it never was the cat in us that made us so dangerous," he said softly. "The killer in us is the part you left human."
And with those words he pounced, grabbing her neck in his big hand.
"How do I deactivate the bomb?" he roared in her face as he exerted pressure and she clawed uselessly at his fingers.
"You ..." she gasped. "Can't ..."
"There's gotta be a way!" Alec snarled, choking her down further.
Her eyes were beginning to pop even as the livid red of her skin took on a bluish tinge. It would be so very, very easy to snap the bone ...
Alec wanted to do just that -- badly. The teenager inside of him who'd been a slave to this woman ... who'd been tortured and humiliated by her so many times ... wanted very much to crush the life from her, the fact she'd rape him if she could making his anger all the more sharp.
But he also knew that if he murdered Elizabeth Renfro in cold blood, she'd win. She'd be right about him.
Uttering a filthy word under his breath, Alec let her go.
"How do I deactivate the bomb?" he repeated with his back to her.
"Like I said," she wheezed, barely able to talk through her bruised windpipe. "You can't. Only 599 has the proper code -- the one who primed it. The numbers flashed briefly right after he activated the device so he could memorize them, then they erased from the system with no way to retrieve them."
"Great," Alec muttered, the fiery light dying from his eyes. "Just ... great."
*****
"You and the lady have a nice chat?" Mole asked suspiciously when Alec emerged from the cell block. The lizard man had found a chair somewhere, and was sitting with it tilted back against the wall while lighting up yet another cigar.
"We can't deactivate the nuke," the X5 said, for once with no smart aleck comeback. Alec tiredly dropped his face into his hands, than ran fingers back through dirty tangled hair. Looking up at his friend with bloodshot eyes, he sniffed and added, "Might as well start the evacuation. We need to get everybody at least a hundred miles away."
"What about Gillette?" Mole asked, rising from the chair.
The X5 shrugged. "Give 'em fair warning and let them leave too."
"And the military at the perimeter?" the lizard man persisted as he paced beside his leader, heading back toward the arsenal cave.
"Inform the man in charge," Alec said simply. "Then it's their worry 'cause I've got enough of my own right now."
"And just who's gonna do all this informing?" Mole pressed. "You're the only human lookin' transgenic left on the base. It's not likely McKinley's men are gonna take the word of a monster that they need to run for their lives."
Mole had a point.
"I'll get 'em on the phone," Alec said wearily. "They know me. If they don't wanna listen then it's on their heads, not mine. We'll have done all we can."
"Where do you wanna rally the troops?"
But Alec had already thought of that. "Back to Terminal City," he said simply.
"Not Canada?"
"Only if some of 'em wanna go that way. Max would want us to stick together, and at least in Seattle we know the lay of the land and we have friends. But we'll have to make it subtle -- small groups infiltrating our old stomping ground over a period of days."
Mole nodded. "I'll get the ball rolling."
Just then Dix came running down the corridor. "Guess who's come home?" the little mutant crowed.
For a second, Alec's heart speeded up, thinking that maybe Max had gotten free from the deranged 599 and managed to make it back.
"Gee, Alec," the monocled mutant said with a grin. "I never realized Lydecker could put that kind of look on your face."
Alec bit his tongue, forcing away the momentary joy. "So, the Devil returns?" he said, looking behind Dix and up the stone hallway where he could see Donald Lydecker, dressed in flight jacket and khakis, striding down the slope.
"Fresh in from France and mad as a wet hen," Dix replied. Lowering his voice, he added, "The Colonel thinks we're all a bunch of incompetents."
"Maybe we are," Alec had to agree as he realized the magnitude of the mess they were in. Not only had the base been captured and compromised by a small ground force in a way that should never have been allowed to happen -- but they were in eminent danger of blowing a sizable chunk out of the North American continent, an act that would include quite a bit of "collateral damage." Preparing himself for the wrath of his former CO, the X5 waited, shoulders back but standing at ease.
Lydecker stopped in front of his soldier, and simply stared into 494's eyes, the disappointment and anger he was feeling evident by the way he was working his jaw. For one silly moment, Alec actually thought the Colonel might quote the "Three Stooges" and say "this is another fine mess you've got us into" -- either that or spit in his face.
But he didn't say a word.
The backhanded blow caught Alec totally by surprise, striking his jaw hard enough to rattle teeth and make him momentarily see stars. Instinctively drawing a fist back, his body coiling, the X5 came up in a sparring stance ready for battle only to be stopped dead in his tracks by an icy blue glare.
"You worthless piece of DNA damaged shit," Lydecker said, his soft voice belying the ruthlessness of the words. "I always said it should have been Devon ... I tried to make it Devon ... but no. She had to fall in love with a fucked up incompetent slacker who was never worthy of being born an X5 ... an embarrassment to his Unit ... to his so-called family ..."
That hurt ... really, really hurt ... And it showed in Alec's eyes as he backed down. Old habits died hard ...
"Sir--" he started to say.
And Lydecker swung at him again -- only this time the supersoldier in him ducked, blurring in a motion too fast for the human eye to follow, so that Alec came up practically on top of the Colonel. Hazel-green eyes blazing, jaw clenched, his own anger overcoming the shame, the Unit smiled slightly and -- in a voice as chilling as his attacker's -- said, "Once I deserve. But not twice. If you ever hit me again I'll kill ya."
For a very long tense moment, the two men held each other's eyes, neither backing down. And then it was the Colonel's turn to give a chilly smile and nod in appreciation. "Well done, soldier," he said quietly. "Guess our Maxie picked the X5 with bigger balls after all."
Alec relaxed -- but only slightly, still suspiciously watching the older man out of the corner of his eye -- half expecting a sucker punch -- as Lydecker moved past him into the room where the nuclear bomb sat quietly ticking away their future.
"And now that we're done with our version of foreplay," the Colonel said, his demeanor changing from brutal to businesslike in the blink of an eye, "tell me what the hell happened here, 494, and then tell me what you intend to do about it." He eyed the X5's bandaged side. "And also tell me why the hell you're bleeding like a stuck pig."
"Bullets will do that to you," Alec replied offhandedly as he knelt in front of the silver cylinder where it lay supported on a stanchion with its digital display counting down.
"599 shot you?"
"Yeah."
"Why didn't he finish the job?"
Alec shrugged. "'Cause of Max I guess."
"She begged?"
"So they tell me. I was sort of unconscious at the time. But the bleeding's under control and I'm healing fast ... all those good genetics."
Lydecker took a deep breath. "Maybe there's some humanity left in that boy after all."
"No thanks to Manticore," Alec muttered.
Wisely, the Colonel didn't comment, but instead nodded at the bomb and said, "We could move it."
"To where?" Alec snorted. "At least out here we're not in a very populated area. Speaking of which--" He pulled his cell phone out of his jacket and offered it to the Colonel. "I imagine McKinley's people will listen to you better'n they'll listen to a Freak. You wanna tell 'em to get the hell outta Dodge 'fore this bad boy goes off? And that -- if they wanna be good samaritans -- they'll notify the erstwhile citizens of Gillette to evacuate on their way down the road?"
Mole puffed into the room. "We're loadin' up."
"Do we have enough vehicles to ferry everyone out?" Alec asked.
"If we pack 'em in tight," the lizard man replied. "You sure about Seattle?"
"At least we know the territory there," Alec said. "But no, I'm not sure at all. I hate to think of us bottled up with no resources."
Lydecker, phone in hand and about to head topside with it, was watching the two transgenics with wily eyes. "You're evacuating to Seattle? Might I make an alternate suggestion?"
Alec was listening.
"There's an old abandoned Manticore secondary base in the mountains near Denver. The place is disguised as a played-out mine. It's not supplied, but there would at least be shelter ... a roof over your heads and a good place to lay low for awhile until you can make other plans." He eyed Mole. "How many did Zack leave behind here?"
"He took all the X5s but me," Alec answered. "And the X6s, too. We've got around two hundred lower X series and transhumans here, some of 'em wounded. Robo-boy wasn't too concerned about the nomalies and ones he considered inferior," he added with a derisive sneer.
"Don't be too hard on Zack, 494," the Colonel said. "Not that long ago you'd have had the same attitude -- willing to leave behind, or even kill, Manticore creations you'd been taught all your life to consider failures."
With an apologetic glance in Mole's direction, Alec conceded the point, nodding once. Max had changed his attitude about that ... Max and Joshua. Funny how he was now the one championing the very thing he once professed to loathe.
"Okay," Alec said, wincing slightly as a stab of pain lanced through his side. Putting out a hand, he steadied himself on the nuke as he got to his feet. Was it cold in here? He was cold ...
"Okay what?" Mole said.
The X5 shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, which is when Lydecker reached out and touched his bare arm. "You all right, soldier?"
"I'm always all right," Alec smiled, hoping his eyes weren't belying the words. "Why? You wanna take another swing at me?"
"You said you'd kill me if I did."
"True."
The Colonel's lips twitched. Then he said something that made Alec's world reel again. "I know where Zack's taken Max and the others. I have access to the location and plans of their base in Canada." He looked at the timer on the bomb which now read T-minus 39 hours, 23 minutes. "We have a little over a day and a half to stop this thing. I can reach him, and hopefully convince him that the Gillette base and his lower quality relatives don't have to be destroyed." His eyes went to Alec. "Hopefully, I can also convince him to let your girl go."
"Don't you mean hopefully I can convince him?" Alec said.
Lydecker shook his head. "He'd kill you on sight now, son."
"And he won't kill you?"
"Maybe he will. But I'm betting he'll at least hear me out first. I'm not really a threat to him any more, but you are."
"A threat how?" Alec laughed.
"A threat regarding Max's love."
"Oh, that."
"Yes, that. Let me go to Zack and try to reason with him. He's the only one who can deactivate the countdown. If I can get the code from him you can be here to punch in the numbers."
"Why Alec?" Mole asked, suddenly jumping into the conversation. "He's in no shape to be campin' out on top of a nuke. I'll stay 'n do the deed."
"You can't," Lydecker said. "In fact, no one but 494 can enter that code ... not even me."
"Huh?" Alec said, blinking in confusion and trying to focus on this new bit of information. "Why the fuck does it have to be me?"
"Because you're X5." Lydecker nodded at the keyboard beside the bomb. "There's a DNA imprint on the activation panel, just like there was on the base's main gate. The way the software works, whomever armed the bomb has to be the one who disarms it."
"Then we're fucked already," Alec pointed out. "I'm not Zack. My DNA won't match."
"No, but it's damn close," Lydecker said. "Real damn close. All of you kids are essentially first cousins if not outright brothers and sisters genetic-wise. The system isn't completely precise. There's a better than fifty-fifty chance it will think you're 599 so long as you're keying in the right number sequence. But if someone other than an X5 enters the counter command all hell's gonna break loose."
A wicked headache was beginning to build behind Alec's eyes, and his thoughts went to the bottle of tryptophan he always kept in the quarters he shared with Max. Stress -- not to mention physical abuse to his person -- had a way of depleting his serotonin levels really fast.
"Regardless of who's DNA is most precious, I'm stayin' too," Mole said.
"No," Alec countered. "You need to lead the others to the Denver base."
"Is that an order?" the lizard man barked.
"Yes."
"Refused. Damn it, Princess, you look like shit. Someone's gotta be here to prop you up when you keel over."
Alec was too exhausted and in too much pain to argue that point. Instead, he said to Lydecker, "You think you can convince Zack to give Max up?"
"Probably not" the Colonel replied bluntly. "But 452 isn't the priority here." Then, more gently, "He won't hurt her, son. He loves her too. We can worry about getting her and the others back later."
"Trouble is, "Alec said quietly, "Max might not have a later."
Lydecker's brows drew down --and then light dawned. "The progeria -- if it even is progeria -- wasn't progressing very fast," he said. "Chances are she'll be fine for quite awhile yet. We're talking a few days here, 494. A week or two at the most. Because of the baby we weren't even going to attempt treatment unless absolutely necessary."
The man wasn't telling Alec anything he didn't already know. Still, it terrified him to have Max so far away, not to mention in the clutches of an insane X5 while in her condition.
"I'll take one of your helicopters," the Colonel said. "I know you have DACs who can pilot. I can be at Zack's camp in less than two hours." He eyed the countdown on the bomb. "Wait here for my call. Sleep if you can."
"Wait how long?" Mole asked. "We might not have enough fuel for another bird to use for our own exit."
"We can take the bikes," Alec replied. He rubbed his aching temples. "We'll need at least an hour and a half to clear the blast radius."
"Take two," Lydecker said. "When the countdown reaches that point and if you haven't heard from me -- run. But whatever you do, don't play hero and cut it too close." He touched Alec's leather clad shoulder and the X5 turned to look into that weathered face. "You're too valuable to lose, 494."
"What about me?" Mole whined.
"You're too valuable to lose, too," Alec said, holding onto the Colonel's blue-eyed gaze. "To me at least." He glanced up at his friend and grinned. "Hell, if it weren't for Max, you and me would probably be a couple."
"Couple my scaly ass," Mole grumped, taking a cigar from a pocket of his Army jacket and lighting up.
Lydecker moved to the door. "I'll warn the troops on the perimeter on my way out. See your people are evacuated to the coordinates I give you, then sit tight and wait for my call."
"Yes, sir," Alec said quietly, suddenly a good little soldier again because he needed the stability of that.
Then, to Mole, the older man said, "Take care of him. He's about to drop on his feet. Get food, water, and tryptophan in him, then make him sleep -- hell, knock him out if you have to."
"Yes, sir," the lizard man growled as he gave a mock salute.
But they had all forgotten something ... or rather someone.
"Joshua will stay too," the dog man said adamantly when Alec, Mole, and Lydecker emerged from the mountain's interior to check on the rest of the personnel's evacuation.
"No," Alec said, shaking his head. "You're goin' with the others, Josh." He held up one finger in warning when the tall transhuman started to argue. "You're Max's body guard, remember, Big Fella? Remember what we talked about in Egypt? If somethin' happens to me, you've got to protect her and my son." The X5 caught hold of the dog man's sleeve, pulling him to one side. Then, in a lower voice, he continued, "Josh ... I'm serious. I don't plan on gettin' my ass killed -- again -- but if somethin' happens to me Max'll need you like crazy. Promise me you'll be there for her, no matter what."
"But Alec--"
"Eh!" the X5 cautioned, holding up his finger again.
Joshua hung his head. "I promise, Alec. I promise I'll look after Max and the baby."
Satisfied, Alec looked toward the last vehicle that was getting ready to leave. "Good. Now, get your big hairy ass on that get-away van. At least this way I won't be worryin' about my girl." He then managed a wan smile, even though the pain in his head was increasing by the minute.
"Don't worry," Mole added, stepping forward. "I won't let the tom cat get his ass blown sky high."
With tears in his eyes, the shaggy-haired dog man nodded once more, then turned and leaped into the departing van. Joshua didn't look back at them through the window, but rather buried his face in his arms while Luke gently rubbed his back, trying to comfort the big guy.
Rarely in his life had Alec felt to alone.
*****
Max raised her head in the darkness of her cell. She heard voices, and one of them sounded like--
But that couldn't be.
Still, she got up off the straw where she'd been resting, and moved to the door, putting an ear against the metal panel in an attempt to hear more. There was a slot at the top where they passed through food and water, but other than a brief glimpse of the guard's hand she hadn't seen a living soul for what had to be going on two days now.
She still didn't know where she was, or really why she was even here. Zack's blow in the helicopter had knocked her unconscious for hours, and when she'd awakened she'd been in this windowless rock room that would have been pitch black if it weren't for the faint sliver of light creeping in around the food slot.
A hole in the corner served as a toilet. And there were rats ...
Still, she'd seen worse. If Zack thought being locked up in filth would persuade her to give up Alec he had another thing coming.
"I want to see 452!" the voice she was now sure she recognized demanded.
"You don't have a right to demand anything, Colonel! (That was Zack) It's a miracle I haven't already ended your miserable life! Why are you even here?"
"I'm here because I don't want to see a big chunk of the North American continent turned into a nuclear wasteland! What were you thinking, 599? Setting the timer running on a nuke in Gillette."
Max had heard enough. Putting her mouth close to the food slot she yelled loudly, "I'm here! Lydecker, I'm here!"
A moment later the door rattled as someone unlocked it from the outside, then swung open. Max, shielding her eyes from the sudden onslaught of light, squinted, trying to see who was there. "'Deck?"
"You wanted to see Max?" Zack's cold voice came from the brilliance. "Well be my guest."
Max barely had time to catch the Colonel as he came flying into the cell, propelled by a vicious shove. Falling together to the floor, Lydecker instinctively managed to roll to one side and not impact on her pregnant belly.
"We've gotta quit meeting like this," Max quipped as she sat sprawled inelegantly on the floor. But then she remembered what she'd heard -- and the implication of the Colonel's presence. Alec had been shot ...
"What's happening?" she asked as Lydecker stiffly got to his feet then held out a hand to help her up as well. "Is--?"
"He's alive," the Colonel said, putting to rest her biggest fear. "And waiting for me to deliver the code needed to disarm a nuclear bomb."
Max rocked back on her heels, the news a bit hard to take in all at one time. "He's alive?" she repeated lamely. "But Zack shot him."
"He'll heal," 'Deck assured her. "If he doesn't get blown to smithereens that is." He grabbed her by the shoulders. "I need you to talk some sense into 599, Max. You're the only one who can do it. He'll listen to you."
Her voice ironic, she said, "Not yet he hasn't. I don't even know where I am."
"You're in Manitoba -- near a town called Brandon. I came here to get the disarm codes from Zack. We have only a little over a day left before that bomb wipes out everything."
He took hold of Max's hand -- an intimate gesture she usually would have rebuffed -- but the look in Lydecker's eyes that her night vision could clearly see held her paralyzed.
"Call him, Max. Call Zack and tell him anything he wants to hear to get him to give up that code. Do anything he wants. Give him anything he wants. He's the only one who can keep hundreds ... maybe thousands of people from dying."
"Did the others get away?" Max asked. "Or did Zack kill a lot of them before he left?"
"There were casualties," Lydecker said truthfully. "But not many. He forced your X5s and X6s to come here to Brandon with him, and the rest he locked in the mountain." He chuckled. "Of course they didn't stay caged for long. But the important thing is that we have allies close at hand -- loyal followers who'll help you -- if only we can get you out of this cell."
Once again his fingers tightened on hers. "Ask to speak with Zack, Max. Lie. Tell him you love him. Tell him you'll leave Alec for him. Tell him anything he wants to hear. His mind is still partially that of a learning child's. He'll believe you because he wants to -- and then he'll allow the bomb to be deactivated. Think of it as your mission."
Max slowly nodded. Then she moved to the door.
"Guard!" she called out. "Tell 599 I'm ready to be with him."
*****
"You wanna raid the fridge?" Mole growled from around his cigar stub.
"Not hungry," Alec said offhandedly as he still looked toward the horizon.
"Hey, man," his friend said as he rested a hand on the X5's shoulder. "She's okay. Zack loves Max. I mean, he actually gave his life for her once. He won't hurt her."
"I know he won't," Alec said as he took a deep breath and looked back toward the huge double steel doors that led into the mountain. "That's not it."
"Then what are you broodin' about?"
"I have a headache."
"You need to eat."
"I'd probably throw up."
"Then you need your meds."
With a wry smile Alec reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small medicine bottle. He then shook it, showing it was empty, and shrugged.
"So, get some more tryptophan from the infirmary," Mole scolded.
"Maybe later."
"What the hell does that mean?" Mole exclaimed. "Later and you'll be twitchin' on the ground like a beached fish. Now isn't the time for you to be off your game, Alec. Go get the meds or, better yet, go sit and rest in the control room and I'll get 'em for you."
"Don't bother."
Mole's jaw dropped open, the cigar dangling precariously on his lower lip.
Alec glanced around, then limped to the nearest wall and slid down it to sit cross-legged on the ground. He then pulled the cell phone out of his pocket and set it down beside him.
"Bro, if you don't eat, drink, take your meds, and get some sleep, you're gonna be worthless when it counts," Mole warned.
Another shrug. "Tell me somethin' I don't already know."
"What the fuck is goin' on?" the lizard man yelled. "What's wrong with you?"
Alec tilted his head back and looked up at his companion. "What's wrong is I'm done, Mole. Finished. Kaput. I'm tired, not just 'cause I was shot and need my meds and haven't eaten or slept in God knows when, but 'cause of everything in my life."
Mole reached out a scaled hand and lightly touched the side of Alec's face. Twisting away, the X5 scowled.
"Just checkin' to see if you've got a fever, Princess, 'cause you sound delirious to me."
"I'm not delirious," Alec groused. "I'm just sick of worryin' every day if my genetics are gonna go south. I'm sick of havin' migraines and seizures and dependin' on pills to stay alive. I'm sick of gettin' shot, stabbed, drowned, blown up, burned, sacrificed, and bein' tossed outta airplanes. I'm sick of the whole world hatin' me 'cause I'm not really human." His eyes locked with Mole's. "But most of all I'm sick of pretendin' that someone really gives a shit about me when they probably don't. Max always loved Zack more'n me ... Logan too ..."
"Alec," Mole began, squatting on his haunches in front of the X5. "She didn't go with him willingly. You were out cold. You didn't see how she fought him when he dragged her away. Max doesn't want to be with Zack. She wants to be with you. I may not be an expert on affairs of the heart, but I do know that lady loves you, and only you. Hell, she's havin' your kid. Don't that count for somethin'?"
"Maybe," Alec conceded. Then he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the cement wall.
"I'm gonna go to the infirmary and get your meds," Mole said. "Then I'm gonna rustle both of us up some chow, and afterwards you're bunkin' down. You lost a lot of blood. No wonder your mind's wanderin'."
Alec smiled tiredly at that, but he didn't argue.
A few minutes later the exhausted X5 heard the crunch of returning feet and opened one eye. "He took it all with him, didn't he?" he said.
"You knew?" Mole replied. "You knew Zack would clean out the tryptophan supplies before he left?"
"It's what I would've done."
The lizard man glanced at his watch. "Can you last another fourteen hours?"
"No. You'll have to put in the code when 'Deck comes through with it. I won't be in any shape to." He held up a visibly shaking hand.
Mole had a thought. "We've still got milk ... and I think there's some turkey. Won't that help?"
"It might take the edge off," Alec conceded. "But it won't make any real difference in the end."
"You've gotta hang on, Alec. Remember, an X5 has to input that code or it won't work."
Shit, he'd forgotten that, but then his mind was, indeed, starting to wander. With effort he got to his feet, waving off Mole's hand. "Let's go find the damn milk," he said.
*****
His eye glowed red in the darkened office, the skin around it still not healed. But Max didn't care how he looked. This was Zack, her brother ... someone she loved. Somehow, she had to make him understand.
"You didn't kill him," she said quietly from the doorway. "You could have finished him off before you left, but you didn't."
"I should have," Zack said in a monotone. "It's protocol when you need to render a large group powerless without resorting to mass slaughter. You take the one man capable of leading the others, and you execute him."
Max advanced into the room until she was standing only a couple of feet away from the ruined soldier. "Alec can be a real jerk," she said with a wan smile. "And he's unpredictable as hell not to mention an idiot, but he's also pretty brave and -- more importantly -- he's got a big heart, Zack."
"Don't suppose you'd have fallen in love with the guy if he didn't," her brother said with a little shrug. He glanced up at her. "He's really not like Ben? Not even a little?"
"Actually, Alec's a lot like Ben," Max said. "But I'd never tell him that or it would freak him out. Not," she quickly added, "in the psychotic way. It's just that, underneath that cocky, self-centered, egotistical bullshit of his he's a sweet guy ... like Ben used to be. Remember how Ben was always telling us those fantastic stories at night, making up things about the outside? Remember how he used to make us laugh and feel so warm and good, like we were somehow loved?" Alec's got that same way about him, Zack. He makes me laugh and he makes me feel warm and loved."
"Is he good in bed?" 599 said, his voice still a monotone.
Max caught herself, stopping the nasty reply on her tongue, reminding herself she had to be careful here.
"He gets me there."
"And he's fertile."
"He was designated a breeder back at Manticore after they cleared him in psy-ops." She grimaced. "Renfro and Lydecker wanted to make sure Ben's psychosis wasn't genetic."
Zack gave her a meaningful look.
"Alec's fine," Max said quickly. "It's not hereditary."
"To the best of their knowledge," Zack added on, putting into words something Max had always known but didn't want to hear. "And so he knocked you up like a good little Manticore breeding partner, following his orders to the letter."
"That's not how it was!" Max said hotly. "Alec and I fell in love first ... after me and Logan broke up. After Gem had Eve--"
Zack shook his head, not understanding the reference.
"The female X5 you brought in who has the little girl," Max explained. "After Eve was born and was just fine, we knew that X5 pairings could produce healthy children. I always wanted a baby, Zack. But until then I didn't think it was physically possible. I asked Alec to be the father of my child, and he agreed. We already knew we were a good match. Manticore had already researched our DNA and paired us off. We figured it was worth a shot." She looked down at her bulging belly. "I'm due in about seven weeks," she said. "It's a boy, and he kicks a lot. He'll probably be as ornery as his father ..." Her voice trailed off.
"I'll be a good father to your baby," Zack said stiffly.
"I know you will," Max forced herself to reply.
"But you know he'll come after you," 599 added. "And you know I'll have to kill him."
"I know."
"And that's all right with you?"
"I know Alec's really good at savin' his own skin," Max said truthfully. "I know he can take care of himself. Zack -- don't blow up the Gillette base. Lots of innocent people will die if you do."
"They all have time to evacuate," he said. "I made sure of that. I knew your people would get out of the cells and warn the population."
"Why destroy the base then?"
"Because your encampment can't be allowed to continue to exist," Zack said. "The only Manticore soldiers worthy of continuing our line are the X5s and some of the X6s. We have to stay pure. The nomalies can't be allowed to establish themselves."
"McKinley will hunt my family down if they don't have the shelter of that base," Max said.
"Your family is here now, Max. You're going to have to forget them."
"If I promise to stay here with you ... to love you," Max tried, "will you let us deactivate that bomb?"
"You'd trade your love for 494?" Zack wondered. "You'd sell him out for those codes?"
"Yes," Max said without hesitation.
"Would you kill him?"
"I don't have to. Alec's not here, Zack. He's back in Gillette waiting to put in the numbers to stop the countdown."
"But afterwards, he'll be coming for you."
"Yes."
"And you'll tell him you now love another man?"
"Yes."
Zack cocked his head to one side, processing her words -- literally -- the red light in his ruined eye dimming slightly as circuitry hummed.
"You're lying," he said quietly.
Max's breath caught in her throat and she started to turn around ... started to flee.
"But I'll give you the codes anyway."
*****
"You make the call," Lydecker told Max, holding out his cell phone. "He needs to hear from you anyway."
She dialed ... waited ... heard one ring ... two ...
Yeah.
"Listen up, Alec. Lydecker's with me. I've got the code."
Max!
"There's not time to explain! The code is 14-22-45-88-56 BRAVO, as in spell it out -- BRAVO. 'Deck says there are a couple more fail-safes, but your DNA and maybe a retina-scan will get you past."
Max, are you all right?
"I've been better, but yeah, I'll be all right ... and so will your son. But what about you, are you--?"
Zack snatched the phone away from her. Neither she, nor Lydecker had realized he'd entered the room.
"Turn off the bomb, 494," he said into the receiver. "I'm giving you that much as a gift. But don't come looking for Max -- ever. She's made her choice. She's mine now and there's no place in her life for you any more."
What the--?
Zack hung up the phone and pinned Lydecker with his one good eye. "Ball's in pretty boy's court now," he said. Then he looked at Max. "Are you coming with me?"
"Give me a minute," Max said. "I'm ... I'm not feeling very well."
Zack's demeanor softened. "I'm sorry," he said. "Take your time. We've got our whole lives to be together after this.
"Do you think the code will work?" Max asked the Colonel after Zack had left.
"I honestly don't know," Lydecker said. Then he turned to her and coldly added, "There's something else you and I have to do, Max -- to insure 494's success. And I'm afraid it's going to be hard for you, but we don't have a choice. Thousands of lives depend on it."
"What are you talking about?"
"You're going to have to betray Zack in the worst way," he said. "You're going to have to help me kill him."
*****
Alec stared at the dead phone in his hand, then slowly raised his eyes to Mole's. "Oh, she's in trouble," he said, shaking his head. He started for the control center door, but Mole grabbed hold of the waistband of his jeans, jerking him to a halt.
"Where the hell do you think you're goin'?" the lizard man demanded.
"One chopper's still in the hangar," he said. "I'm goin' after Max."
"In your condition? And what about the bomb?"
"Max gave me the code. I'll deactivate it, then head for Canada."
"And find her how?" Mole snorted. "With your X5 bloodhound sense of smell? That's more Joshua's department, ain't it?"
Alec was brought up short by that. What Mole said was true. He didn't have a location on Max -- not yet.
"She'll call again, bro," Mole assured him. "You know Max. Maybe then you can find out where she is. But right now we've got to concentrate on stoppin' that friggin' bad boy down in the mountain before we all go boom."
It took them almost 5 minutes to traverse the length of the long hallway that led down to the base's nuclear arsenal room. By the time he reached the doorway of the inner sanctum, Alec's wound was throbbing, and he was seeing spots before his eyes. Holding his side with one hand and the door frame with the other, he bent over, trying to catch his breath as he fought nausea. Mole's grip on his shoulder was reassuring, but did little to take away the pain -- or the shaking -- or the urge to vomit.
"You gonna make it, bro?"
"I have to." Alec raised his eyes, peering out through long locks of dark blond hair, and focused on the racing LED numbers in the gloom ahead that were counting down the time until the bomb went off. They had a little under 11 hours left.
Pulling himself upright, the X5 staggered to the timer, took one last deep breath, then carefully punched in the sequence Max had given him. The moment he entered "BRAVO" the timer stopped flashing, only to have another prompt appear on the right of the device that flashed "DNA confirmation."
Alec glanced at Mole. "'Deck said I was probably genetically close enough to Zack to fool this thing. Let's hope the bastard's right." He placed his palm against the flat panel and waited while sensors hummed. Seconds passed ... a minute ... his skin growing warm as numerals raced across the display panel in seemingly random order.
"I think I'm confusin' it," Alec said, beginning to sweat. He blinked moisture out of his eyes and bit down on his lip, with effort keeping his hand still ... fighting the tremors.
"It hasn't said 'no' yet," Mole added hopefully.
But then suddenly a light beside the LED display blinked red -- and the countdown resumed -- at a vastly accelerated pace.
"Oh, shit," Alec whispered, looking back at his friend with wide eyes.
"What the fuck do we do now?" Mole breathed.
Alec knew the answer to that, even as he lowered his head and leaned heavily against the nuke, wishing his brain would stop throbbing. "We run."
*****
Easier said than done.
They had a problem fueling the helicopter, in that there wasn't any ... fuel that is.
"Fuck!" Mole spat, throwing the hose down on the ground. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"
"Zack must have re-fueled his own birds before they left," Alec said. "We were low anyway, and Lydecker took the last." He looked toward the only two remaining vehicles -- his lime green Duke motorcycle and Max's black Ninja. "Tell me we've got gas."
"Don't worry," Mole assured him. "They should half full tanks. Luke runs the motorpool pretty tightly." Alec snatched the keys to the two bikes from the rack, then glanced back at the mountain. "How much time do you think we have?"
"That counter was racin'," Mole said, chewing on his cigar stub. He shrugged. "Couple of hours maybe? But whatever the time, we shouldn't be standin' here jawin' about it."
"Agreed," Alec said tightly, tossing Mole the keys to the Ninja, then hopping on his Duke and putting his own key into the ignition. Or rather, he tried to put the key into the ignition. He dropped it on the ground, reached for it, then bumped his head on the handlebars as he came up.
"Ow! Damn!" he complained, rubbing his bruised noggin.
"Gimme those, shit-for-brains," Mole snarled, grabbing the keys. You're about to pass out. We'll ride double."
"I'm fine," Alec protested, but he let the DAC take over. "Max is gonna kill us for failing," he said into the back of the lizard man's Army jacket as he wrapped arms around a thick waist and gratefully leaned into his friend. "She was countin' on me."
"You can't help it if your DNA didn't do the trick," Mole said as he revved the bike and Alec gripped more tightly. "She'll really just be glad your ass didn't get fried, and don't worry. We will find her. Hey, you're not gonna puke on me, are you?"
"Damn right we'll find her," Alec growled as the Duke started to roll. "And no, I'm not gonna puke, or at least I don't think so." Which is when his cell phone rang.
"494," he said automatically, not surprised when Lydecker's voice responded.
It didn't work, did it?
"No, it did not."
Stay where you are.
"What? Are you nuts? We've got less than two hours to clear the blast zone as it is. My screw up accelerated the countdown."
I'm on my way with what you need.
"You're bringin' robo-boy back here? 'Cause he's the only one who can do that now."
Something like that. Just -- stay put, 494. That's an order. An X5 has to be on site to perform the final deactivation protocol.
"Wait!" Alec shouted into the phone. "Let me talk to Max!"
She's not here.
"What do you mean she's not there? Where the hell is she?
Not far. Don't worry about her. Worry about yourself.
Suddenly Mole snatched the phone out of Alec's hand. "Listen up, 'Deck. In case you didn't know it, your X5 super-boy is in bad shape. He's lost 'bout half the blood in his body and he's shakin' like a leaf. We both need to get the fuck outta here, not hang around to be toasted."
What do you mean he's shaking? Alec heard the Colonel ask, his keen hearing picking up the conversation even though the phone was pressed against Mole's ear.
"You know damn well why," the lizard man spat. "'Cause of your fuckin' lab's mistake back when they mixed up his kitty-cat cocktail."
Tryptophan. Damn ... I'm assuming you don't have any?
"599 took it all with him."
Listen carefully. Go into my office there on the base. There's a loose floor board in the back right corner. Pry it up and you'll find a bottle with four pills in it. Have 494 take two of them -- but only two. Whatever you do, don't let him take all of them.
Alec grabbed the phone back. "What's in the pills?"
It's a compound called 5HTP -- a serotonin boosting set of amino acids the Manticore lab geeks used to keep the X5 seizures under control back when we had a real base of operations -- ten times more effective than tryptophan alone. It's why you went years with no problems. You took one capsule every night before you bunked down. Remember?
"I remember the good old days," Alec said, meaning it.
After you take two of them, you should be back to normal within fifteen or twenty minutes, and the effects will last at least a week. But whatever you do, don't take all of them.
"Why not?" Alec had to wonder.
Because those are the only samples left in existence of the 5HTP compound. I've been trying to find a lab willing to manufacture more of it for you, but so far haven't had any luck. It's a complicated, expensive process. If you lose those samples, we'll never be able to duplicate the dosage. The formula was destroyed along with most of the other Manticore records.
"I'll take good care of the pills," Alec said, meaning it. "But let me get this straight. You want me to wait here, at ground zero, until what? The nuke goes off? I know you consider me expendable, 'Deck, but I've got a problem with that."
Hold your position, soldier. I'll be there within an hour with what you need to disarm the bomb. In the meantime, take your meds and rest. You're not good to me seizing or dead.
"And Max will be safe?" Alec asked quickly.
Max is fine. And with that, the line disconnected.
Alec started to climb off the bike. "I'll be all right. Just drive as far as you can get. You'll know in a couple of hours if you can come back or not."
"I ain't goin' anywhere, Princess," the lizard man replied, planting feet firmly on the ground on either side of their ride and lighting up another smoke.
"That's an order, Mole."
"Order refused, sir," Mole shot back sarcastically. "Come on, Alec. You're in no shape to do this alone."
"You wanna die with me that bad?"
"Hey, like you said, there are a lot worse ways to go than bein' at ground zero of a nuclear blast."
"You're crazy."
"Yeah, but I'm also kind of a loyal bastard -- to my friends that is. You can't do this alone, Alec. And you know it. I'm stayin'. Now quit arguin', pretty boy, and let's go get your meds."
*****
"Call Zack in here," Lydecker quietly said to Max.
"What are you going to do?"
"What I have to."
She eyed the knife the Colonel was holding in his hand.
"You'll never be able to take him down -- not with just that."
"Watch me," 'Deck said with a ruthless grin. "Don't forget, 452, that I know everything there is to know about X5s -- even more than you know yourself. I know what makes them live ... and I know what makes them die."
Max was surprised at herself for not arguing ... for not protecting her brother ... someone she supposedly loved. But Zack had tried to kill Alec ... No -- not Zack. This X5 who'd kidnapped her and was determined to force himself on her ... half of his brain had been replaced by circuitry. This thing walking around in the remains of 599's body and using the dregs of his mind was a danger to them all.
"He's a cyborg, Max," Lydecker said, apparently knowing what she was thinking. "One of Stendahl's creatures gone out of control. He's not Zack any more. You know that. You've seen what he's become ... what he's doing ..."
"But Zack is still inside him," she said, trying to make herself believe that. "Somewhere ..."
"No," the Colonel said harshly. "Zack died over two years ago when he put a bullet in his own brain. He died back at Manticore, Max -- for you. This resurrected flesh may have elements of Zack in him, but he's not your brother."
For just a second, Max wondered how she'd be feeling if this was Alec, mutilated and sewn back together with the light of a damaged soul shining out of those beautiful hazel-green eyes.
"I'm gonna throw up," she said, moving to the corner and the bucket.
His blue eyes showing rare sympathy, Lydecker watched while she retched. When she was done, he repeated. "Call 599. Get him in here."
Wiping her mouth on the back of her hand and swallowing the bitter taste of bile, Max nodded and moved to the door.
"Hey!" she called out. "I need to talk to 599. I don't feel very well. Will you get him for me? Please?" She glanced over at Lydecker. "I'm bleeding. I think something's wrong with the baby."
If Zack hadn't come alone, it never would have worked. But X5-599 never truly considered his old commander a threat -- not on his own turf. And of course he trusted his baby sister completely ...
A few minutes later the cell door swung open. "Max, what's wrong with--"
The knife blade plunged down, straight into the back of 599's neck, severing his spinal cord and dropping him silently to the ground like an unstrung puppet.
It was over that quick ...
Even as she put a hand over her mouth to keep from crying out, Max was closing the cell door so the guards wouldn't see.
Then she knelt on the floor beside him -- the brother she'd once loved so very much, took his head into her lap, and murmured gentle comforting words as the red light of that android eye dimmed, flickered, then finally went out while the green human one remained open and sightlessly staring at nothing.
"I told you I knew how to take down an X5," Lydecker said as he looked at the bloody knife still clenched in his fist. Then he bent down, took hold of Zack's limp right hand, pushed back the sleeve of his jacket, and -- like the butcher many thought him to be -- began to saw through bone.
*****
Mole found the pills right where Lydecker said they'd be, and personally supervised while Alec swallowed two of them, along with a full glass of milk. The X5 was trembling so badly now he couldn't stay on his feet, so the lizard man sank to the floor with his back against the wall and held his friend tightly in his arms, trying to help ease the painful seizures.
"Damn them for doin' this to you," Mole rasped, for once not worrying about keeping a cigar in his mouth. "Damn those lab geeks for cursin' you with this kind of crap."
Alec managed to smile, even as he bit his lip because the next spasm was mounting. "Not always so bad, bein' an X5," he said through clenched teeth. "They gave us lots of the good stuff, too. My wound's half healed, thanks to the magic of my good DNA. This ... it was an accident. But hey, nobody's perfect, right? How long before these damn things work?"
"'Deck said half an hour ... forty minutes tops. Maybe by then we'll have a clue as to how we're not gonna be barbecued."
But Alec had just remembered something -- or rather someone. "Renfro," he said. "She's still down there in the cell."
"What?" Mole snarked. "You wanna give her the keys to Max's bike and send her on her merry way?"
"I don't know if we have the right to keep her here to die," Alec returned.
The two transgenics looked at one another. Then-- "Give her the keys to my Duke," Alec said.
"But--"
"I said let her loose and give her the keys. Just ... see that she leaves the compound and doesn't try'n double back to slit our throats when we're not lookin'."
"You're makin' a mistake, bro," Mole said boldly, one of the few on the base who dared argue with his X5 leader. "You're wrong. Guess what Max says about you is true."
"What's that?"
"Contrary to popular belief -- your biggest organ ain't your dick, it's your heart."
Giving Mole a funny look, Alec started to get to his feet. "I'll go do it."
The lizard man pushed him back down on the floor way too easily. "That she-Devil would eat you alive if you went down there in the shape you're in," he said more gently. "I'll let her out and give her the keys to the bike. You stay here, rest, and wait for Lydecker's little magic pills to kick in."
Grateful for his friend's support, Alec nodded. The tremors in his limbs were, indeed, lessening, replaced by a lethargy that could just as easily have sprung from his lack of sleep as from the medication.
"Sleep if you can," Mole added from the doorway. "I'll wake you up when Lydecker gets here ... if he gets here. Otherwise--"
"I probably won't wake up at all," Alec said with a grim smile. "Boom. Instant incineration."
Mole could only nod in agreement, and then he headed for the mountain to release Renfro.
*****
"What do you think Alec will do if we don't make it in time?" Max asked as she and Lydecker quietly made their way toward the helicopter pad of Zack's Canadian compound.
Dryly the Colonel replied, "You've read the operating manual on X5-494. What do you think he'll do?"
"I wanna say the ass hole will wait until the last possible moment, then get the hell out of there. But ... Alec trusts me, and God help it he also trusts you. He'll have faith that we'll get there in time, so he'll sit tight until that nuke goes off in his handsome face." She was trying not to cry. There was no way she could go with the Colonel. She couldn't endanger the baby that way. But to think of Alec having to do this on his own just about killed her. He was scared. Of that she was sure. But she also knew that didn't mean he couldn't or wouldn't do what had to be done, even if it meant his own death.
"The DAC's with him," Lydecker said more gently. "Mole's taking care of his boy." He looked down at the plastic grocery bag he was carrying, then ahead to the chopper that was being watched over by an X5 and an X6.
"Now comes the tricky part," the Colonel breathed. "And it's where you come in." He looked at Max. "I need a pilot for that bird. Which means you'll have to spring one of your own people for the job. Hampton would be a good choice. Nick, X5-257, is certified as well." He nodded toward the barracks where the X5s and X6s from Gillette were being held prisoner.
"I'll be back in a few minutes," Max said with more assurance than she felt.
Creeping (well, not exactly creeping since it was hard to creep when one was going on 8 months pregnant) as silently as she could, Max made her way along the wall of the windowless cement block building to where two guards stood by the entrance. The place wasn't particularly high-tech in its design, but thick walls, no windows, and a barred iron door served the purpose, keeping her men imprisoned. Glancing up at the sun overhead she winced with sympathy. It must be hot as hell inside. What had Zack been thinking?
And then she wished she hadn't thought about that -- about Zack. Telling herself the boy she'd grown up with had really died that night almost three years ago back at Manticore didn't really help much. Whatever her brother had become ... however much of him had changed ... bits of the old Zack had still lived inside that rebuilt anamatronic body. Seeing Lydecker extinguish all life in 599 had been almost unbearable.
The only thing that had gotten her through those horrible moments while she sat on the floor of the cell cradling Zack's bloody blond head in her lap had been the realization that this was the only way to save not just Alec, but thousands of other people as well. Would she have sacrificed Zack so completely if 494's life had been the only one at stake?
Max shook her head, not wanting to answer that question.
Knowing she couldn't physically take down he two guards -- one of whom bore an uncanny resemblance to a younger Biggs, and the other a handsome dark-skinned Unit -- Max took a page out of Alec's book and boldly walked up to the door. "Boss wants you," she said to the one with Egyptn in his cocktail, thumbing toward the main compound building. "He sent me to tell you."
"Why didn't he just call on the radio?" the X5 asked, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.
"Why does Zack do anything?" Max returned with a shrug. "He's mad though, and I get the feeling he doesn't want to be kept waiting."
"Hey," the Biggs-look-alike X6 suddenly said. "Aren't you supposed to be one of the prisoners."
Max smiled prettily. "What I am, is your commander's mate. Now, do you want me to go back and tell him you guys refused a direct order?"
"Stay here," the X5 said to his X6 companion. "I'll be back in a few minutes."
Max waited until the soldier had vanished behind a building before turning her pretty smile once more on the younger guard. "So," she said. "You like being under 599's command?"
"Wouldn't have it any other way, ma'am," the boy replied, straightening his back with pride. "599 is one hell of a leader, and he's got it right. The best of Manticore needs to survive."
Max nodded in seeming agreement, then turned as if to leave, only to whirl in a blurring motion, her fist shooting out too fast for the eye to follow and connecting with a peach-fuzzed chin.
The X6 dropped like a rock to the ground. Stepping over the body, 452 then quickly unbolted the door, throwing it open to the fresh air and sunlight. For a long moment, nothing stirred in the inner darkness. "Hampton," Max said in a low voice that still carried. "You in there? It's Max."
A white face appeared in the gloom, and a moment later the tall second generation X5 stepped forward.
"Get everyone moving out," Max commanded. "But I need you to come with me. Pilot duty."
Hampton looked back over his shoulder, gestured, and a very tired and hot looking Gem came forward. "I'll handle things here, Max," she assured. "We've been making plans anyway. We know where we are, and we know where to go to lay low. But should we head back to Gillette?"
"Not yet," Max said. "But hopefully I'll have good news in a few hours. In the meantime, scatter and go to ground, but pick a rendezvous point for tomorrow at dawn. Get hold of a cell phone and leave a message at the Gillette base. If it's still standing, someone will have orders for you then."
"And if we don't hear from base?" Gem asked, swiping a lock of scraggly hair out of her eyes and glancing around to make certain the female X6 accompanying her still had hold of Eve's hand.
"Then you're on your own," Max said tightly. She looked back at the crowd of X5s and X6s. "All of you are."
"That bad, huh?"
"That bad. Although, there's still a chance Alec can pull it out of the fire for us. But not unless Hampton can get Lydecker back to Gillette in the next two hours."
"What about you, Max?" Gem asked.
Max did a doubletake at that. Truth was, she hadn't given her own safety a thought.
Gem saw the confusion in her eyes. "I'm thinking you need to come with me, girl," she said, holding out her hand. "Come on."
With one last look back in the direction Hampton had headed, Max bit her lower lip and nodded. There wasn't anything more she could do except protect her child. Now -- everything was up to Lydecker and Alec.
*****
Alec and Mole heard the chopper approaching long before it even came into sight, and were waiting at the landing pad. The Colonel, ducking low beneath the whirling blades, jumped out as soon as the Blackhawk touched down, ran to the waiting two transgenics, then turned and signaled for Hampton to take off again -- but Alec's hand on his arm stayed him.
"Mole," the X5 said. "You go with Hampton."
"No," the lizard man said. "I'm not trustin' this bastard alone with you. You need someone to watch your back."
"I'll be fine," Alec insisted. "Get outta here while you have the chance. The others need you."
"No."
"We don't have time to argue!" Lydecker shouted to be heard above the roar of the chopper's engine.
"Fine, get your ass cooked," Alec said, throwing his hands up in disgust.
The Colonel signaled Hampton to take off.
Mole, cigar drooping in his mouth, watched the bird ascend into the clouds with a wistful look in his eyes. "Oh well," he said. "Who wants to live forever anyway. 'Sides, if this doesn't work we can always call the chopper back, right?"
He was looking at Alec.
But Alec was watching Lydecker. "You might as well spit out the rest of the bad news, Colonel," the X5 said. "We aren't gettin' outta here, are we? No matter what -- not if we fail."
"No," Lydecker said grimly. "We aren't."
"Why the hell not?" Mole yelped. "If that counter gets down to half an hour or so, we'd still have time to get the hell away in a chopper."
"Half an hour, maybe," Lydecker conceded. "But not five minutes."
Alec swallowed hard. He'd suspected as much. "I won't have another crack at disarming that nuke until it reaches the five minutes mark, right? That's when there'll be an automatic pause in the sequencing -- the only chance I'll have now that I mucked up the regular disarm programming by feeding it the wrong DNA." He glanced at Mole. "You should have got while the gettin' was good."
The lizard man muttered something unintelligible.
"Bright boy," Lydecker said quietly. He eyes the X5 critically from head to toe. "You still look like shit, but I see you're at least semi-operational. I gather the 5HTP worked?"
"Like a charm," Alec said as the trio started walking toward the mountain doors. "Wouldn't mind gettin' more in fact."
"I'm working on that," the Colonel said. "Have been for awhile in fact. But it's a tricky compound to manufacture and the X5s are a bit of a niche market -- not many people would be willing to put money into such an expensive designer drug that has such a small user base."
Alec looked down at the plastic grocery bag Lydecker was carrying. It appeared to be leaking some kind of viscous dark fluid that his nose told him was blood.
"Shopping?" the X5 inquired, one eyebrow rising.
"At 'Ghouls are Us'?" Mole snarked.
"I brought what we need to stop the bomb from going off," the Colonel replied heavily.
Alec stopped in his tracks and, hands balling into fists in his pockets, placed himself directly in front of Lydecker. "Max," he said. "I wanna know if she's all right, and I want it to be the truth."
"And if she's not all right?" the Colonel challenged. "What then? You'll kill me?"
"No, but I'll kill Zack."
"You don't have to," Lydecker said, meeting the X5's gaze in a way few human's could. "I already did."
Alec stared even as a chill raced down his spine. Sometimes he forgot just how deadly Donald Lydecker really was ... how the man knew better than anyone else alive how to not only help his kind, but how to destroy them. "And Max?" he pressed.
"Was fine when I left. She released your other people and they were temporarily scattering with a contingency plan in place. If we're successful, they can be back on the base in a few days. Now, forget about 452, soldier. You've got a mission to concentrate on."
"Yes, sir," Alec muttered, realizing that 'Deck was one hundred percent right.
They moved swiftly down the passage into the belly of the mountain and the waiting bad boy bomb. When they got there, the time had reached T-minus 22 minutes.
"What happens if I enter the code now?" Alec asked.
"Immediate detonation," Lydecker said. "Wait until it pauses at the five minute mark."
Alec's eyes were on the still-dripping bag. "I know I'm gonna be sorry for askin', but what the hell is that?"
"DNA," Lydecker said simply.
"Oh." Alec shivered again.
The timer had reached T-minus 17 minutes. While the trio stood in a semi-circle around the bomb, Mole lit up a fresh cigar.
"That's one of your Cubans," Alec remarked. "Thought you were savin' those for a special occasion."
"And my death ain't special?"
"Point taken."
"You want one?" the lizard man asked Alec, the invitation also including Lydecker.
"No thanks," Alec said, holding up his hand. "Not good for my health."
"What?" Mole said nastily. "Afraid of cuttin' short your misspent youth?"
Alec smiled and shook his head, but the Colonel accepted the cigar. Lighting up the stogie, he took several big puffs, and blew a smoke ring toward the rock ceiling.
"You know," Alec remarked as he watched the grey haze dissipate in the room's ventilation system, "the fate of our asses aside -- if this nuke goes off down here, won't it be pretty much contained? At least so far as radiation?"
Lydecker nodded toward the long row of bombs that filled one wall of the facility. There were at least 20, maybe more. "Whether by chance or design, Zack picked a doozie when he armed this one," the Colonel said. "This is a high yield model, designed for maximum destructive capacity. It'll blow the top right off this mountain and expel radiation outward for at least a hundred mile radius. Could trigger an earthquake too. There's a big fault line running directly beneath this part of Wyoming."
"Zack could have done his homework better and picked a smaller yield bomb," Alec said. "He could have taken out the base without endangering all those innocent people."
"I know," was all Lydecker said.
At that moment, any lasting feelings of guilt he had over Zack's death vanished from Alec's mind.
T-minus 7 minutes.
"Get ready," Lydecker said, nodding at Alec. "You remember the code?"
"Of course. It'll be the same one, right?"
"Yes."
Mole backed up until he was standing by the door, poised as if to flee, although there wouldn't be anywhere to flee to if the disarm didn't work.
Alec wished he could hear Max's voice one more time ...
T-minus 5 minutes 15 seconds ... T-minus 5 minutes 4 seconds.
Suddenly, the timer buzzed loudly and the numbers vanished.
"Now! 494. Enter the code now!" Lydecker ordered.
His hands shaking, but this time not from a lack of serotonin, Alec punched in the same code sequence that he had tried earlier. Just like before, the mechanism hummed, then the hand print DNA panel lit up. He looked back at Lydecker who reached into the grocery bag and pulled out his grisly trophy. Stepping up next to the X5, the Colonel carefully placed Zack's amputated hand on the panel. For a long moment, the bomb sequenced the DNA information, and Alec held his breath. But then finally a green light came on above the timer followed by a yellow flashing one.
"We're done?" Alec asked.
"Not quite," the Colonel said quietly. "Your turn again. If it had been this easy I would have let you leave." He pointed to a retina scan device that had activated beside the DNA panel. "These nukes were programmed to respond to X5Rs," he added. "Including you. It was a fail-safe measure. We never dreamed the reprogrammed twins would ever be capable of rebelling. Theoretically you were to be the most loyal soldiers on the planet -- utterly uncorruptable."
Alec blinked at that, and Mole snorted.
"I'm hoping Renfro never got around to wiping the codes out," the Colonel continued. "Go on. It's looking for your retina scan. It's why you had to be here until the finish."
Stepping up, Alec leaned over, opened his hazel-green eyes wide, and looked directly into the beam of light pouring down the tube. Seconds later there was the sound of a small "chirp," and then the timer flashed "deactivated."
"All right, man!" Mole crowed, clapping Alec's bar back with his scaly hand. "Way to go!"
"Congratulations, 494," the Colonel said as Alec told himself he was allowed to breathe again. "You're not dead."
*****
He met her as she disembarked from the helicopter, sweeping her into his arms, never wanting to let go.
"Easy, lover," Max said when his squeeze got a little bit too tight on her bulging belly.
"I was afraid they wouldn't let you go, after what Lydecker did to Zack," Alec said, closing his eyes and burying his face in her sweet smelling hair. "Oh, God, Max. I was so scared it was all gonna be over and I'd never have a chance to be with you again."
Max smiled up at him. "Ah, I knew all along things would turn out all right. I mean, look at how many times you've been shot, stabbed, or poisoned? Hell, you've even died and come back to me pretty boy. Why would a little thing like a nuclear bomb knock you out of existence when Fate has tried so many other ways and always failed."
Alec took her by the hand and led her toward the main compound building while behind them more of their X5s and X6s climbed out of choppers. The lower X series, nomalies, and transhumans had returned several hours earlier, and already the base was getting back to normal with Dix and Luke feverishly working on upgrades to the security system. Twice now they'd almost been destroyed by invaders. It damn well wasn't going to happen a third time. So far as the transgenics were concerned, from now on the Gillette base was Fort Knox.
One other bit of good news was that Alec's Duke motorcycle had been found abandoned just outside of Gillette, tagged with a note that simply read "See you soon, 494.&qu
