Chapter 1: Resurrection
"Good morning." Agent Renfro smiled politely at the assembled group of X5�s in the briefing room. They sat straight in their chairs, palms carefully placed on the desks in front of them as they had been trained to do since birth. She was greeted with perfunctory good mornings and expectant faces, but no one moved a muscle. "Today is an important day. Today heralds the first time Manticore products will be used in conjunction with the public sector. Officially, anyway. Notes."
The X5�s simultaneously blinked once, indicating that their brains had gone into information-gathering mode. Taking physical notes was archaic when they could remember any piece of verbal information given, no matter how long or complex. Renfro clasped her hands behind her back and continued, pacing the floor in her crisp navy suit.
"The military state of Seattle is unable to control the uprising of the residents of Sectors three and two. The residents have blocked off these two sectors with barricades and any attempt to breach the barricades has resulted in civilian as well as police casualties. The United States government, of which Manticore is a subsidiary, has requested our involvement in this highly difficult matter of state."
Renfro paused to see if there was any emotion on the faces of the soldiers before her, but no one revealed any personal feelings. She felt a momentary surge of pride towards Donald Lydecker, God rest his traitorous soul. He had trained his kids with impeccable skills and honing those skills had been the joy of her life the past year and a half as Manticore slowly rebuilt itself from the ashes. The Committee was calling the X5�s "the phoenix division" due to their unparalleled successes in the private sector. Where the X7�s failed due to lack of imagination, the X5�s soared and triumphed over every obstacle. They were making her look very, very good.
"Though Manticore has seen a reduction in resources and funding, I�m sure you are all well aware of the reputation of your division. That is why, despite the failure of Manticore to redevelop a full genetics lab, you have been given this assignment. Agent Hunter will brief you on the specifics of the mission. Your main objective is to permanently quell the uprising and obliterate the existing barricades to allow the military presence to regain control of the area and provide food and medical assistance to the refugees who are currently starving under siege. Agent Hunter."
"Thank you, Director. As you are aware�."
Beyond her mask of complacency, Max panicked. Return to Seattle? she thought. Wyoming seemed a long, safe way from her former home. The Space Needle loomed in her memory, a dark, crumbling tower of forgotten hopes and dissipated dreams. She remembered the faint smell of burning rubber and the wetness of permanent rain on her face. She could almost hear the wind and nearly closed her eyes to go back in her memory, but didn�t dare to do so under Renfro�s watchful eye. Only in the dormitory, after lights out, would she let former memories out of their locked cages to dance across her brain in a parade that made her heart ache with longing. Oh, Logan.
"�X5890 will be the commanding officer for this mission. All soldiers who fail to report to X5890 at the rendezvous point will of course be traced by the homing beacons in your dog tags and returned to Manticore by military escort. Please do not remove your dogs tags as this will be the only way to reach you should you fall prey to the enemy or are injured in any way that prevents your mobility. We expect perfection on this mission, which includes no casualties of any kind. Be aware, however, that sectors two and three are tantamount to an entire army and they have fierce motives to protect what they believe to be their freedom. You will be challenged."
X5890 allowed himself a small smile and raised his hand for permission to speak, which was immediately granted.
"Sir. I speak for the division when I say that we shall all return victorious. Sir."
"Your confidence is inspiring," Renfro said with only the slightest hint of patronizing tone in her voice. "Dismissed."
"Fall out," Agent Hunter commanded, and the X5�s stood up as one, turned on their heel as one, and marched out of the room back to the barracks.
The barracks hadn�t changed much in twenty years. The windows were high and fitted with steel bars and bulletproof glass. Ten beds lined one side of the room and ten mirror-imaged it, with green-flecked linoleum lending a sickly feel to the cheerless room. Each bed was made up with white sheets and a green wool blanket, standard army issue. Each X5 kept a trunk at the end of the bed for personal effects and clothing and had one locker at the foot of the room for extra gear and special ops outfits. Males and females still bunked in together, but there was never even the slightest hint of romantic attachments forming between them. They still referred to each other by number, but were well aware that they were a team of siblings, of friends, of soldiers and any normal sexual urges were confined to discreet dalliances with the staff or guards.
Max checked her watch. She had ten minutes before she had to report to the new, still-under-construction DNA lab for genetics practice. She sensed Brin�X5736, now�watching her intently out of the corner of her eye and purposefully went to the blue mat on the floor and began a fast set of push-ups on her knuckles.
"Now we�ll see where your true loyalty lies," Brin said quietly as she passed. Max jumped to her feet, swept Brin�s legs out from under her and had her pinned to the mat in half a second, her hand closed over the other girl�s throat. She jammed her combat boots over Brin�s ankles and held her in place, threatening to break her ankles if she moved.
"Do you challenge me, X5736?!" Max nearly shouted, allowing anger to seep into her dark eyes. The other X5�s warily approached the mat, sensing the tension and not knowing whether to join in or dissolve a potential conflict within the ranks.
"What�s going on?" X5890 demanded. Perry, Max�s mind corrected her. He�s Perry, not a barcode, and he never escaped this hellhole we call home.
"X5736 questions my loyalty to Manticore and to this mission," Max said bitterly. "She insinuates that my reprogramming is not complete and that I will abandon my division. Permission to beat X5736 to a bloody pulp?"
"Not. Given." Perry swatted Max on the ass, which surprised her and when she speared him with a dirty look, Brin claimed the advantage and flipped her over on the mat, effectively switching their positions. Max grunted and winced at the pressure on her ankles. Brin only kept the hold for a moment, just to prove she could, then jumped to her feet and stepped off the mat, signifying she was no longer challenging Max to a fight.
"X5452 is under no suspicion from anyone in this division nor anyone at Manticore. She has proved herself worthy and a true member of this team countless times and any further insinuations like the one just made will be severely punished, do I make myself clear?" Perry told Brin in a cold voice.
"Yes."
"Good." Perry backed off and ran a hand through his dark hair, causing it to spike up in the back. Max was instantly reminded of Logan and swallowed another lump in her throat. She couldn�t go back to Seattle. Not now, not after everything she�d done. "Now, let�s go over the details Agent Hunter obviously left out. Is anyone currently experiencing bouts of seizures? About to enter a mating cycle? Still suffering from that nasty flu the X7�s were spreading around last week?"
The nineteen member division of X5�s was mostly intact, except for two members on the tail end of the flu. Max hid a small stab of guilt, as she was the one who engineered the flu for the X7�s as part of her secret experiment in the lab.
"Don�t overextend yourselves during afternoon assignments," Perry warned. "We leave at 0400 hours and I want us all at our best."
Max forced herself to approach Brin and shake hands, assuring the other girl that she was truly back in the fold, for good, forever. Brin relaxed and they shared a quiet but peaceful walk to the lab, where Max entered for genetics practice and Brin hurried along the corridor for archery practice.
"You look tense," Victor noted when Max yanked on a white coat and jammed her fingers into the pockets. She gave her friend a withering look and plunked down at her desk with a defeated sigh.
"We finally got assigned to Seattle," Max said, and sighed again.
"You�ve been ready for months," Victor placated her. "Everything is all set to go. I�m surprised you haven�t pulled strings to get back to Washington yourself." He pushed his glasses further up on his nose and jerked his head towards the steel operating table in the center of the room. "Does Renfro know about your progress?"
"She knows exactly what I show her during the weekly briefing, which is simply the first prototype. She�s actually pleased with what I�ve "accomplished," which means that I think I�m back in the witch�s good graces. She has no idea what�s really going on and I don�t think she really wants to see anything she doesn�t want to see. If that makes any sense at all."
"They really clipped her wings, eh?" Victor said smugly. He pulled a chair up next to Max and waved a hand in front of her dejected face. "Max. Max, you in there?"
"Somewhere, deep down," she answered flatly. "I think."
Victor scoffed and swiveled the seat of her chair to face the computer.
"If I can go from guard to lab tech, you can go from soldier to traitor easy. I got your back."
"But who has yours?" Max murmured. "They�ll find out, Vic, I know it. And then you�ll be dead and I don�t think I can have any more blood on my hands."
"Yeah, like I�m gonna stick around and wait for the inquisition? After this mission is over I�ll be in Mexico with Jace and my baby girl and you�ll be in the arms of what�s-his-face. So chin up. What could possibly go wrong?"
"Besides everything?"
"I�m not even trying to hear that," Victor said indignantly. He sounded so much like Original Cindy that Max felt tears spring to her eyes for the first time in over a year. She blinked them back with considerable effort and brought her fingers to the keyboard, carefully bypassing Manticore�s server to get onto the open web. Victor moved away to work on the volumes of data her experiments produced and Max cautiously found her way to the tiny loophole in the system that allowed her a no-holds-barred, secure-for-sure connection to the internet. She�d stumbled across the hole early on but had never dared to use it. It was just as well, since they tracked her every move 24-7 for the first six months of reprogramming, until she passed all the tests with flying colors and was no longer considered a threat to the system. Now here she was, sneaking around cyberspace like a professional hacker, about to send out the first lifeline back to the old world. The world with friends and color and laughter. The world with music and candlelight and fast motorcycles. A world with Logan Cale in it.
*****
Logan Cale perfunctorily checked the informant net before going to bed. Eyes Only�s cable hacks were few and far between these days, but he still kept a hand in. With tired eyes he surfed through the obvious hoaxes, filed interesting leads and checked the secure email account for new messages. One message caught his eye and made every hair on his body stand straight up. The subject line read "Sibelius" and the content nearly made his heart stop.
"Logan. Sector wars. Wear Kevlar to work this week. Love, Max."
