Dragging Alec
into it
Chapter Seven:
As Alec and Max put
their bikes in high gear, Alec was calling base on his cell phone.
“DIX!” he shouted,
“This is Alec again, Max and I are on our way back to
my place to help Biggs. We might need help, I’m not sure, so if you can
send us a couple Xs with motorcycles, do it.”
Alec slipped his phone back into his jacket pocket and focused hard on the
road.
Turning onto his
street, the commotion was obvious. There was a large black man in the
middle of it, landing what seemed like a final blow to Biggs, whose knees hit
the ground and others moved in to hit and kick him. Two Xs pulled up
behind Max and Alec.
Alec glared at the
crowd and lowered his sunglasses to fight the glare of the setting sun.
Then, drawing his gun, he fired into a gas can in front of the mission and
revved his engine as the can blew up, sending people running in the opposite
direction. The four members of the X-Series kicked it hard into gear and
drove towards the crowd, which was fast becoming a chaotic mass attempting to
escape. People were running everywhere and the large black man in the
middle turned to see what was coming. It was a mistake on his part, for
the delay in running cost him the seconds he would
have needed to avoid Max’s tire colliding with his face as she swung her back
tire up over the questionably alive body of Biggs and knocked his attacker to
ground. Alec was right behind her, jumping off his bike to check Biggs’
pulse. Nodding to Max with relief, he pulled Biggs’ unconscious form onto
his bike and all four of them turned around immediately, going back the way
they came.
When Biggs woke up, he
was in
“Hey Guys.” He
coughed.
They turned
immediately. “Hey, pal, thought we’d lost you.” Alec smiled. “How
do you feel?”
“Like hell.” He
put his hand to his head.
Alec laughed, “Yeah,
you don’t look so pretty.”
Biggs looked at him
through an eye only opened a crack. “Give me an hour or two, I’d be pleased to kick your ass.”
Max stepped over to them,
“That’s exactly the attitude I like to hear…I’m glad you’re still with us.”
“What’s the attitude
you like to hear?” Alec asked suddenly. “Talk of kicking ass in
general or kicking my ass in
particular?”
Max just smiled.
“Get better soon, Biggs, we need you.”
“Typical.” Alec
muttered.
“Hey guys!” Dix
yelled, drawing their attention to the news.
“This is a special
news bulletin. Earlier tonight, a group of what witnesses claim was at
least ten transgenics,” Alec raised his eyebrows and
started counting on his fingers at this point, getting a smile from Max, “…set
off explosives in a group of civilians.” The reporter brought a large,
but bloodied black man into the screen with her and Biggs narrowed his eyes.
“Sir, I understand
that you were attacked by these transgenics?”
“That’s right,
ma’am. None of you are safe! They could do this to any one of
you! Your daughter could be dating one! If they attacked me, they
could attack your children.” Max’s fists were clenching at her sides and
she met Alec’s eyes. Then there was a commotion behind the interview and
the black man turned his head. “We found another one!” he shouted,
turning around to rush into the fray as the camera zoomed in on a teenage girl,
her legs handcuffed behind her, being led by three sector cops. The crowd
was crushing in toward them and the cops looked around them, obviously afraid
of what the crowd would do.
“Cece.” Max whispered, recognizing the girl
that had just started at Jam Pony. “Don’t let them have her,” Max
whispered softly. Beside her, Alec nodded imperceptibly but kept his eyes
glued to the screen.
“What’s that?” he asked suddenly, pointing to an electronic device in one
of policeman’s hands.
Max just looked at him
for a second, who the hell cared about electronics at a time like this?
Alec dropped his hand
away and they kept watching as one by one, every cop that had been surrounding
the young transgenic moved away, into the crowd.
“Let’s go,” Max
shouted, cursing herself for not knowing what the cops
would do.
Max and Alec were out
the door as, even without arms, the young transgenic was
using her legs to take attackers out left and right. Halfway to their
destination, Alec got a call.
“Alec.”
“This is Dix, they cut
the broadcast, but it doesn’t look good. Someone caught her on the side
of the head with a pipe. It doesn’t look good.” Alec nodded.
“Thanks, we’ll see
what happened.”
They ditched their
motorcycles, not wanting to draw attention if it was too late to help Cece.
“What’s going on over
there?” Max asked a passerby, indicating the crowd and the noise around
the corner.
“They caught some trannie whore, gave her what she had coming.”
Max and Alec turned
the corner and stopped dead. There was a large X, burning on the
street. Maybe an attempt to burn the entire X-Series?
Who knows. Above that, hung
the body. Max’s hand reached out and Alec grabbed it, squeezing
tightly as they took in the ripped clothes, hanging off brutalized body.
It seemed they had left no skin undamaged.
“She was just a
kid.” Max whispered so softly that only Alec could hear her. “Let’s
go, I can’t watch this.”
“I’ll be right
back.” Alec whispered back to her, disappearing into the crowd. He
was at her side again in moments, handing her a Jam Pony ID.
Max nodded wearily,
“Good idea.”
They walked back to
their bikes slowly, the wind knocked out of them.
“We should talk about
this, just the two of us.” Max said slowly as they got back on their
bikes.
Alec nodded, “Then
tell the others?”
“Yeah.”
They drove away.
In Terminal City, they
silenced all the people that were trying to tell them what happened and walked
into a side room by themselves.
Max kicked the
wall. Hard.
“They just killed
her…the cops just LET THEM KILL HER.”
“How did they know she
was transgenic?” Alec asked, his eyes narrowing. Max looked up at
him, she hadn’t thought of that. How did
they know? Her barcode had been lazered off
a couple days before.
“How did they know
about Biggs?” Max added.
“We can ask him in a
second, what are we going to tell them out there?”
They discussed some
ideas and nodded finally.
“I guess that is all
we can do right now.” Alec shrugged and looked at her. “It’s going
to be all right.”
“I know…” she
whispered, not sounding like she meant it.
“I promise.” He
said softly, pulling to him in a crushing embrace and kissing her hard, with a
dark passion that leapt between them after all they had witnessed. He
pulled away and looked into her eyes.
“You can do this, we can do it.”
She nodded and they
left the room.
Max went up to the
front of the room as silence reigned inside the normally bustling headquarters.
“We lost Cece,” she started, “And now
we have to make sure that doesn’t happen again. From NOW ON, everyone is
on the buddy system. No one goes anywhere alone. You need help, you
call in. Everyone has someone and you have to always know their
location. You want to find me? Call Alec. I want a list of
every buddy ASAP. We’ll start organizing teams from there. We’re
going on the offensive, people, they aren’t just going
to leave us alone. Now, we need to find out how they are tracking
us. Biggs, how did they find you?”
Biggs shrugged, “I
have no idea, I just a whole bunch of guys watching me, they closed in and then
suddenly it was a chase.”
“OK, guys, do what you
can, I have some people I want to talk to. Who here is in contact with
X6-785? I know someone is, I want to talk to
him.”
She turned to Alec,
indicating an end to her speech as people flew to enforce the rules she had
just set. “Can I borrow your phone?”
He handed it to
her. “Who are you calling?” he asked.
“