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This is a stand-alone story, a scene following the events of Max Allan Collins' DARK ANGEL novel SKIN GAME. -- author's note
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Photo courtesy of Jensen Ackles World |
*****
"What's up?" she asked Clemente through the mesh fence.
The detective, as usual, looked dogged tired, his red-rimmed eyes bleary, his brief smile strained. "Nothing good I'm afraid," he replied.
Max's own smile vanished. "Give me the bad news then," she said levelly, wanting this over with.
Clemente looked down at a set of papers he was holding in his hand. "I've got a warrant for the arrest of one of your people," he said.
"Just one?" Max joked. "We've got to have at least a hundred law breakers in here, taking into account all the so-called crimes us 'freaks' have committed in the past. Why's this one get special attention?"
"Because this one's being charged with first degree murder."
Max's gut clenched. What now? "None of my people have been outside the fence in the past two weeks," she lied, not willing to count the trips she and Alec had been making to Father's house to bring back supplies left by O.C., or the hit on a drug dealer they'd made two nights ago in Korea Town to get some much needed cash for the Cause.
Clemente shook his head. "This murder occurred over a year ago."
Max's stomach was now in a knot. "Who was the victim?" she asked, although she had an awful feeling she knew where this was going.
"Timothy Ryan," Clemente said, consulting some notes. "We made an arrest four months ago, had his alleged murderer in custody with an eye-witness I.D. and a perfect DNA match." He glanced up at Max. "Unfortunately, our collar had outside help, a pretty girl with long dark brown hair." His eyebrows rose slightly. "She broke him out of the Precinct 7 police station, in a rather spectacular fashion I might add. Does any of this ring a bell, Max?"
"Don't know what you're talking about," Max replied evenly, hating to not be straight with Clemente but a lie her only recourse.
"I think you do," the detective challenged, his voice icy in a way Max had never heard him speak to her before. He held out the warrant. "I need you to turn your friend over to me, Max. Right now. I'm sure you know him -- white male, six feet tall, 175 pounds maybe, brown hair, hazel eyes, killer looks, no pun intended? Oh, and he has a barcode tattoo on the back of his neck with the last three digits reading '494.' Do you need to see the mug shot? His name's 'Alec McDowell,' or at least that's what the warrant says.
Max just stared at him.
"Cooperate," Clemente said, trying a different tact, "and I can keep this from escalating. He's just one transgenic out of hundreds. If the public knows you'll abide by the law it will go a long way toward keeping the lid on things out here. But if you insist on protecting a proven murderer, then it will just paint all of you with the same brush -- brand you all as criminals who think 'ordinary' laws don't apply to them."
"He didn't do it," Max said quietly. "He's innocent. You've got the wrong man's name on that warrant. I bet if you check your files you'll find documentation that proves his innocence."
Clemente smiled grimly. "You mean that forged birth certificate and passport someone 'anonymously' left at Precinct 7 shortly after that daring jail break?"
"The documents might have been fake," Max said, trying to quell the desperation in her voice. "But he really did have a twin brother who killed that man. Alec's innocent."
"Alec?" Clemente said. "That really his name? You say it like he means something to you."
"Yes, that's his name. And he does mean something to me. He's a good friend."
"We figured the name was phony -- only knew his barcode number for certain. Got that when he was in custody during your Bobby Kawasaki incident. It wasn't until later that his DNA info triggered a match in the system and we realized who we'd really had both times." Another grim smile. "Your 'Alec' seems to have a habit of leaving public buildings in a rather unorthodox manner. Ordinary people use doors, you know."
"Alec's not 'ordinary'," Max said, her voice dangerously calm. "And he also didn't kill Timothy Ryan."
"Give him up, Max," Clemente said, his tone taking on an urgency that frightened her. "One man's life isn't worth risking hundreds for. If he's truly innocent, that will come out during the trial."
"He'd get a trial?" Max said, one dark eyebrow arching. "Alec's transgenic, remember, which means he doesn't have the right to a trial, or any other so-called 'human' rights either. Come on, detective. You and I both know that if Alec goes with you now, he's as good as dead. If Ames White and his people don't get to him, then the NSA or the CDC or some other secret government anti-transgenic agency will. He'll be executed within a day ... two at the most. Some medic will inject him with a hypo full of poison ... or maybe the guards will chain him up, drag him into the alley back of the station, and beat him to death, or put a bullet in his head. No matter what happens, the whole incident will be written off as 'natural causes' or a thwarted jail break. Alec will be dead and no one out there will give a shit because he's just a fucking transgenic."
"I'll see to it that he's protected," Clemente said tightly. "You have my word."
"Like you protected him and Joshua before," Max challenged, her brown eyes flashing fire. "White got to Alec in County General, in case you don't remember. Alec had been badly hurt. What did your people do? They chained him to a bed and let White torture him ... cut him up with a razor. I saw his wounds, Ramon ... watched him get stitched up in fact. I hardly call that protection."
"You really like this guy, don't you?" Clemente said softly.
"I already told you, Alec's a friend ... family," Max said, sticking with the simple answer. "We protect our own."
"Even when they're murderers?" Clemente said. "Look, Max, I know he's one of your main men, maybe even your second in command. I realize he's important to you on a personal level as well. That's pretty obvious. Boyfriend? Lover even? But if you don't turn 494 over to me right now, then there's going to be hell to pay. The police are getting ready to come in and get him, with Army protection of course. You know what that means -- the beginning of the end. Your people will fight back, and ours will retaliate with even greater force. You can't win. Final outcome -- genocide."
A sound behind her made Max turn and Clemente's eyes widen. Alec stepped out of the deep shadows of a nearby building. Max wondered how long he'd been standing there in the growing dusk. Of course with his preternatural hearing he'd probably heard everything, even without a remote receiver.
"My ears were burnin'," Alec said calmly, explaining his presence with a shrug. Dressed in black jeans, t-shirt, and black leather jacket, he looked every inch the Manticore assassin he'd once been. Lean. Muscular. Powerful. Dangerous. Alpha. His hands were hanging casually at his sides, but the flicker of anger in slightly narrowed hazel eyes was chilling, and belied the easy tone of his voice.
Without meaning to, Clemente took a step backwards.
"Alec," Max said firmly. "Go back inside. Let me handle this."
"I didn't do it," Alec said to Clemente, ignoring Max's order.
"And why should I believe you?" the detective asked. "The DNA was a perfect match and we have an extremely credible eye witness. You claim your twin brother committed the murder? Then where is he? Show me this so-called twin and maybe I'll reconsider."
"Ben's dead," Alec said quietly.
"Ben?" Clemente questioned.
"X5-493," Max said. "Alec and Ben were twinned as embryos in a test tube by Manticore."
"How convenient," Clemente drawled, his raised eyebrows showing his skepticism.
"Manticore cloned all of its best soldiers," Max said. "Myself included."
"You mean there's an X5-453 running around out there somewhere?" Clemente laughed.
"Yes."
He sobered. "How do you know this 'Ben' killed Timothy Ryan?"
"That murder happened over a year ago," Max said. She pointed to Alec. "He was locked up at Manticore then. Ben wasn't. Ben was here, in Seattle. I know because I saw him ... saw evidence of his crimes."
"You know for a fact Ben killed Ryan?"
"Yes."
"And, conveniently, this so-called twin of Alec's is now dead?"
"Yes."
"And you know this how?"
Max looked at Alec. "Because I killed him myself," she said, her voice barely audible to a non-transgenic. "I had to. It was the only way."
Clemente blinked at that, his face growing longer with new weariness. "You killed Alec's twin brother because he murdered Timothy Ryan?"
"No," Max said, for some reason needing to confess the truth to this man. "I killed him so he didn't have to go back to Manticore."
Clemente studied Alec who was standing in silence. "Must have been a real rough place, this Manticore."
"You have no idea," Alec said, meaning that wholeheartedly. He glanced at Max, a small smile tugging the corners of his lips. "Max did my brother a big favor. One I hope she'd do for me if it ever came down to that." The smile vanished as he turned back to the detective. "Because, just like him, I'd rather die than spend the rest of my life living like an animal in a cage."
"This isn't going to end the easy way, is it?" Clemente said with a sigh, looking from one transgenic to the other.
"No," Max said, her voice equaling the tiredness of his. "It isn't. You can't have Alec." She glanced at the other X5. "We'll fight to the death to protect him if we have to. If this is the catalyst that brings everything to a head, then so be it. It would have happened sooner or later anyway."
"I was hoping it would be later, Max," Clemente said softly.
"Me too." She reached out and took hold of Alec's hand. "Come on," she said to him. "We're done here."
And with that, the two X5's turned their backs on the police detective and melted into the darkness of Terminal City.
*****
"Logan," Max said, speaking from the basement doorway that led to Eyes Only's apartment. "I need a really big favor."
"Just one?" Logan said, swiveling his desk chair around and facing her. Removing his glasses, he rubbed weary eyes. It was late ... after midnight ... but he wasn't surprised to see Max. Night was when she liked to prowl.
"You heard about Clemente's visit this evening?"
"Every word," Logan said, indicating the digital recording that had been made of the conversation.
"I need you to help Alec, because that's the only way to help all of us."
"Alec could turn himself in, you know," Logan said. "For the greater good and all that."
"They'd kill him," Max said flatly. "He'd die for something he didn't do."
"The lives of the many outweigh the lives of the few ... or the one, Max."
"Don't quote Star Trek on me," she snapped.
"Sorry."
"I need Alec, Logan. In spite of his occasional lapses of ethics, you know how valuable he is to me ... how much he's helped ... what he's capable of. His training is far beyond that of any of the other X5's in here ... beyond mine even. If anything ever happens to me, it's Alec who's going to be their leader. I can't lose him."
"Did Alec offer to turn himself in?" Logan asked, sensing something in Max's tone of voice.
"Yes," Max said defensively. "As a matter of fact he did." She noted Logan's expression of disbelief. "It surprised me, too," she admitted. "Self-centered Alec willing to sacrifice himself for someone else." She shook her head. "Made me wonder if he was running a fever, or smoking some of Sketchy's weed."
"But you wouldn't let him -- turn himself in to the police?"
Max smiled a little at the memory of the conversation she'd had with Alec a short time before. "I told the asshole that if he tried any of that self sacrifice shit I'd just end up having to break him out of jail -- again. And then we both might very well end up dead. I think he saw the irony in that." She pinned Logan with her eyes. "I also told him I'd get you to help -- to fix things."
"How, Max?" Logan said. "What can I do?"
Max took a deep breath. "You know how to contact Lydecker. I know you do. Get word to the colonel. Tell him we need proof that Ben existed, and that Alec was at Manticore when Timothy Ryan was murdered. There's got to be a paper trail somewhere ... computer records of the twinning, the investigation into the serial murders ..."
"And you think Lydecker would help because ...?"
"Because, 'hopelessly ruined' or not, Alec's still one of Lydecker's kids, just like I am, and I'm betting he won't sit back and let 494 be destroyed by ordinaries, especially for a crime he didn't commit."
Logan still looked skeptical. But he was willing to give it a try. "I'll do what I can," he assured her.You want to stay awhile?" He gestured toward the kitchen. "I could make coffee. You look like you could use a break."
"No thanks," Max said. "Not tonight." She glanced back at the basement door.
"Got a prior appointment?"
"Alec's waiting for me in the tunnel," Max admitted. "I think he needs someone to talk to. Whenever Ben's ghost pops up in his life it sort of freaks him out. Can't say as I blame him."
"Of course," Logan said tightly. "Alec needs you right now. I understand."
"Logan," Max said, hesitating at the door. "You know there's really nothing between me and Alec, that we're just friends."
"I know." He smiled. "Go. He's waiting."
*****
Three days later a blue file folder with the Manticore symbol and the words "top secret" officially stamped on its front appeared on Detective Ramon Clemente's desk. No one had seen who'd left it. No one had been near his work station that morning before he came in. It was as if the file had simply materialized out of thin air.
The plain typed label read "X5-493."
THE END