by Jonty
“Am I interrupting?” Karen
knocked on the wall as she entered Alec’s bedroom. Alec was lying on the bed,
staring at the ceiling, his mind on Max. He could remember every second of that
kiss, how it had felt, how hard it had been to finally pull away. If he was
going to be honest, he had loved her since the second time he had seen her. The
first time, he had thought she was annoying, unclean. But then, that second
visit, something had changed. She had given him a name, suggested to him that
he could be different, that he was important.
“Alec?”
“Sorry, what?”
“I need to check your leg,
okay?”
He shrugged. Karen moved
over to the bed and ran her hand up his leg.
“This hurt?”
“Nah.” He replied. Her
fingers increased the pressure and he grinned, jerking his leg away before she
could really hurt him. “Okay, okay. Yes. It hurts”
“Good. See? They can be
trained.” Karen seemed to be speaking to someone else.
“Yeah, but it’s just way too
much effort.” Max. He closed his eyes, refusing to react.
“Well, this is healing fine.
We ran blood tests, trying to figure out what they could have injected you
with, but so far nothing. Can you remember anything? Even colour? What it did
to you?”
Yeah. It made me blind, he
thought to himself. “Not really. It was kind of dark” he turned his head away
from her.
“Hey, I haven’t finished.”
She put her hand under his neck and turned him back towards her.
“Guess he’s not that well
trained.” Max commented.
“God, what am I, a dog? I am
here, you know. I can hear you.” I just can’t see you, and that’s the fucking
problem.
“Painkillers wearing off?”
Karen asked softly wondering if that was why he was biting back instead of
joking.
“Can you just leave me
alone?” he asked angrily. He felt the bed move as Karen stood up.
“Okay. No problem. I’ll come
back later.”
Shit. Now he had pissed her
off, too. Great. He heard them both leave, and stood up. He was not going to be
a blind cripple. He may be blind, but damned if he was going to be stuck in a
wheel chair like…
No. He forced himself to
stand, and move over to the window. The sunlight that was streaming in made his
vision slightly less grey, slightly more orange. That had to be good, right? He
watched it for a while, turning his head slowly from side to side to see if the
orange moved with him.
>>>>>
“Do you know what’s wrong
with him?” Karen asked Max in the other room
“No. He’s just a bit…” Max shrugged.
“It’s fine, really.
Something’s bothering him and he doesn’t want to talk to me about it. No
problem. I’m just the medic.”
“He appreciates what you’ve
done.”
“I know. Look, I’ll be back
tomorrow”
Max shook her head as Karen
left. What the hell was Alec’s problem now? She had thought after the night
before that he’d be different. That he’d actually stay as the guy she had seen
last night. But today? Who knew. But she thought Karen was right. There was
something he wasn’t talking about. She headed into the bedroom to talk to him
about it.
Alec was standing by the
window, most of his weight unconsciously on his uninjured leg. She crossed the
room and tapped him on the shoulder.
She stepped back as she saw
Alec’s reaction. He jumped, and spun around to face her, his hands clenching
into fists.
“Alec, chill.” She told him.
He moved his head in her direction, but Max got the impression he wasn’t
looking at her. He was slightly off, and his eyes seemed unfocussed.
“Alec?”
“I thought you left” he said
softly, moving his head slightly so that he was looking straight at her.
“Why’d you yell at Karen?”
He turned away from her,
back to the window. He’d taken his frustrations out on Karen, he knew that. And
he would apologise. He just didn’t need Max getting in his face about it.
“Look at me!” Max was
getting angry. She asked a simple question and he turned away from her. She had
hoped that after last night things would be different.
“I CAN’T!” he turned back to
her. “I can’t see, Max. Alright? That’s what that shit White gave me did to me.
I can’t see you.” He shoved past her, needing to get away. At least he couldn’t
see the look of pity on her face. There was something good about being blind.
“No.” she grabbed him, and
pulled him back to face her. “Finish what you start, Alec. Isn’t that what you
told me?”
“What do you want me to
finish, Max? I can’t see. That’s it. Let me go.” He pulled away again and tried
to go towards the door. But Max had spun him off balance, and he collided with
the end of the bed, falling to the ground. “Damnit.”
“Alec!” Max moved over to
him.
“Don’t. Don’t help me. I
don’t need your pity. Just leave me alone.”
“Alec, I just…”
“No” he yelled at her. He
felt the edge of the bed behind him, and pulled himself up against it. Now he
knew where he was. He headed for the door.
“Damn you, Alec.” Max moved
after him, grabbing his arm and turning him towards her before shoving him back
against the wall. She moved up against him, resting her forearm against his
neck, preventing him from moving away. “Stop walking away from me. Stop
shutting me out. Start talking.”
He shook his head. She
pushed against his neck harder, then eased off.
“White captured me. I
wouldn’t answer his questions so he tried force. Then he got this needle. I
don’t know what it was. I passed out, when I woke up, I couldn’t see. I still
can’t.”
“Why didn’t you say
anything?” Max looked up at him, noticing again the lack of focus in his eyes.
“Because you’d look at me
like you are now. I don’t have to see it, I can sense it.” He shook his head.
“Well then your senses suck.
You don’t know how I’m looking at you.” She reached up and ran a finger down
the side of his face, and over his neck. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked
softly, unable to keep the hurt from her voice.
“Would you have kissed me if
you had known I was blind?” he whispered.
She stared at him, not
knowing what to say. He took her silence as a confirmation that she wouldn’t
have, and tried to move away from her, unable to allow her to see his face.
“Alec.” She shoved him back
against the wall. “You really haven’t been trained well.” She moved closer to
him, and reached her hand around to the back of his neck. Pulling him down, she
kissed him softly. He didn’t react at first and she ran her other hand down his
side to take his hand. She pulled back slightly. “Alec?” he looked at the
ground, biting his lip. He shook his head slightly.
“Okay.” She nodded. She
stepped back slightly and dropped her hand from his neck. As she went to pull
her hand away from his, he tightened his grip.
“I just wanted to see you.”
He whispered. Max moved back towards him.
She lifted their hands and
traced the back of his over her face. He released her hand and ran his fingers
lightly over her face, and under her chin. He lifted her face towards him and
kissed her hungrily, pulling her against him.
Max responded pressing
against him, running her hand through his hair. She could feel how much he
needed her, how much he needed to be close to someone, and she wanted it to be
him. Alec slipped his hand around her waist and pulled at her shirt, running
his hand up her back. Max groaned, pressing closer to him. He kissed her
harder, moving his legs so he could move her in between them, trying to get her
as close to him as he could.
Alec groaned in frustration
and pulled back. “What?” Max asked him, not wanting to move away from him.
“I can’t do this. Not now.
Not because I’m scared, or whatever.” He moved his hand slowly away from her
back.
Max nodded, frustrated, but
understanding. Whatever happened, it couldn’t be because he was scared, or she
was pissed at Logan, or whatever.
“Feel like talking?” she
asked him
“In sentences?” he asked
her, and she laughed, hugging him for a second.
“I’ll talk, you listen. We
need to talk about the journal.”
Alec nodded. “Can we stay
like this?”
>>>>>
Alec would be relegated to
the sociopath status that he deserved.
About four that morning he
had hooked up with a contact who might have a contact who could find a cure for
them. The only problem was, the contact was on the outside, and
So, he ventured out onto the
streets to Max’s apartment. As he went, he found himself constantly looking
around for Mole or any of his sociopathic friends. For a while, there was
nothing. But then he had caught sight of the young boy that trailed Alec
everywhere. Shane, or something. The kid looked straight at him, and laughed,
shaking his head with amusement. Another kid joined him, and they spoke
briefly. The other kid started laughing too. What was that about?
If she knew.
>>>>>
Alec’s head hurt. It felt
like it was about to explode, and every time he moved sharp pains rammed into
him. He lay on the bed, trying not to move, scarcely breathing, just waiting
for the pain to go away.
He could hear Max talking to
him, reading from the journal probably, but he couldn’t make out any words. His
head spun, but he managed to pick out a few words- Zack, Renfro, something
about Ben.
“What?” he muttered turning
his head slightly in her direction.
“Are you listening?” Max
asked in a slightly louder voice. He groaned. “Alec?”
“I’m fine. I just missed
that. What about Ben?”
“Maybe I should get Karen.”
She touched his shoulder lightly.
“No, I… I just need a
minute.” He told her weakly. “What were you saying?”
Max sighed. She didn’t want
to do this now. She needed him to be alert when she talked about this.
“You need to rest. I have to
talk to some people. We’ll do this later, when you’re awake.”
“I’m awake.”
“Just ignoring me then?
We’ll do this later.” She rested her hand on his for a second then left.
“Is
>>>>>
He was waiting by her door
when she got home. “You could have let yourself in.” she told him.
“That would be rude.”
“So, what’s up?” Max opened
the door and gestured for him to go inside.
“Well, I have some good
news. Maybe.” He took a seat.
Max looked over at him. Get
to the point, she thought.
“A cure?”
“You don’t sound too
excited.” He raised an eyebrow at her questioningly.
“It’s just…”
“Alec.”
“I’m worried about him. He’s
hurt.” she told him defensively, an image of Alec with his arms around her
flashed into her mind. She shook her head.
“Right”
“Where’s the meeting?” she
asked.
“On Fifth and Sutton.
Tonight at 9. So, you’ll go?”
“Of course. I want this as
much as you do.” And it was true. She wanted the cure, she wanted to be able to
touch
“It’ll work this time, Max.
I know it.” They both grinned.
“What’s his name?”
“Brent. 6 foot, blond hair,
cross shaped tattoo on the back of his right hand.”
“No problem. Consider it
ours.”
>>>>>
Alec spun around as he heard
her enter.
“About time” he told her.
“I thought you were going to
get some sleep.” Max told him, glaring at him before she remembered that it was
pointless.
“I never said that. Tell me
about Ben.”
“Alec.”
“Oh for…” he moved slowly
towards the bed and sat on the edge of it. “good enough?”
“Lie down. You need to keep
the weight off your leg.”
He shook his head, staring
in her direction. If Max hadn’t known he couldn’t see her, she would have
thought he was glaring at her.
She moved over to him and
sat beside him, pushing his shoulder slightly to force him to lie back.
Alec laughed. He let his
body fall back slightly, and as he felt Max’s body move closer to his to push
him further, he rolled over her, forcing her body down onto the bed with the
weight of his.
“Better?” he asked her, a
cocky grin on his face.
She shifted her right hip
slightly, causing him to groan, then used the additional leverage to flip him
over.
“See, is that so hard?”
Alec laughed and looked up
at her innocently. She swatted him on the shoulder and moved off him, slowly.
Very slowly.
“Umm, if I move, will you do
that again?” he grinned.
“Do you want to mess around,
or discuss the journal?” she asked him, not even bothering to hide the smile on
her face.
He heard it in her voice,
however. “Seriously?” no reaction.
“Okay, can I do both?” she
laughed, mimicking him.
“Fine.” He sighed, lacing
his fingers together and putting his hands behind his head. “Tell me.”
Max shook her head. It was
so easy, being with him, talking to him. But then there was
“Okay. You read up to the escape,
right?”
“Yeah. He called us clones.
Those of us that stayed behind.”
“Alec” she heard the pain in
his voice, and had no idea how to comfort him.
“Go on” he told her.
“Okay… here. Listening?” he
glared. There was no other way to describe it. Even blind, his eyes held
expression.
“The thing that destroyed
us, was that we thought our X5 was among the escapees. That was the problem. We
weren’t sure. Not 100%. You see, when they were young, the 5 series were
shuffled around a lot. There were two squads, and the twinned pairs were mixed
back and forth according to what would be best for the squad. By the time the
5s were old enough to recognise personalities in the others, we stopped
shifting them. They never even knew. They were drugged, and when they woke up
they were in identical barracks, with identical looking soldiers around them.
They had no idea. But in all this swapping, we lost track of our X5. We had to
keep distance, and somehow they grew up fast. We lost it.
By ’07 their personalities
were strong, and we thought we had figured out our X. it was meant to be a
leader, had all the genetic characteristics of a leader. We became more and
more sure as time went on, and by February ’09 we were sure we were right. But
then our X escaped.”
Max paused when she heard
Alec laugh. “Morons. Someone so important and they lost track? Christ. How did
they ever achieve anything?”
“Are you listening?”
“Fine, go ahead. I’m just
saying… they’re idiots.”
“When Renfro told us the
news, it was like a miracle had occurred. They had recaptured it. Four years
and they had tracked it down, drugged it, and brought it back to the lab. We
watched it for hours, frantically waiting for the blood tests to come back to
confirm what we were sure of, that we had our 5 back.”
“Max” Alec whispered. She
stopped reading and looked over at him, waiting expectantly. “I never knew they
captured you.”
“They never did. Will you
listen?”
“What?” he was confused,
couldn’t figure it out.
“Listen.” She continued
reading. “And again we were wrong. It wasn’t that X. We had been so sure. It
had been everything we had thought our chosen one would be. Yet it wasn’t him.”
>>>>>
What? Of course Max was the
chosen one. It was obvious. Who had they captured if not her? How the hell
could they lose track of her? How stupid were they?
Alec realised that Max had
stopped talking. Had she asked him something?
“Give me that again” he
muttered.
Max sighed and repeated her
last few sentences. Then she watched him, waiting for a reaction. Alec was
staring at the ceiling, calmly. Then he reacted, turning quickly on his side to
face her.
“Say that again”
“You heard me.”
“Yeah, but are you sure you
read it right?”
“Want to read it yourself?”
she tossed the book at his face. He saw something, a darker blur, and grabbed
at it, not catching it but preventing it from hitting him.
“Nice, Max” he told her. And
thank you so much for that reminder. “But I don’t understand. Your DNA. No junk
DNA. How could they get a male and female X mixed up?”
“They didn’t. It’s not me.”
She told him calmly.
“What?! Of course it’s you.
The prophecy, the rune markings” Alec’s tone was incredulous. He reached his
hand out to Max. She took it. “It has to be you. We all know it. You’re going
to save the world.” His tone was so serious that Max had to look twice at his
face to see if he was mocking her. He wasn’t.
“I can’t save the world.”
She told him.
“Of course you can. OUR
world, anyway.”
“You believe that?” she
asked him, hesitantly. She didn’t believe it, why should anyone else.
“Of course.”
Max was stunned. She had no
idea what to say to him. The fact that Alec believed in her meant more than she
could ever say. Such unhesitating belief that she was going to save them all.
She shook her head.
“Alec, I need you to listen
to this. okay?”
“Yeah.”
She continued reading.
“the X5 was confined to psy
ops for days. The first of the x5s to be recaptured, and they wanted to know if
it was in contact with the rest of the escapees. It never talked. We had been
so sure, everything about it suggested that it was the one we were looking for.
But there was no way.
After a week the orders came
through to let it escape, see if we could track it, get it to lead us to the
others. We never saw it again.”
Max stopped talking and
waited.
Alec was frustrated. What
the hell was going on? “Ben?” he asked.
“Huh?”
“Ben. You mentioned my twin
before. Was he the one they captured?”
“It doesn’t say. I think No.
I think that it was Zack. It makes sense, right? He was our leader, they’d
never break him.”
“Tell me about Ben. You
mentioned him. I know that I heard his name.”
Max sighed. She was torn
between wanting to tell Alec the rest of what she had read, and not wanting to.
Once she finished telling him, she would have to do something about what she
had read.
Alec took her hesitation for
something else. “Fuck.” He swore, standing up and pushing past Max.
“What?” she asked him,
confused.
“Don’t treat me like him.
Don’t ever treat me like him.” his tone was angry, cutting, as he deliberately
turned his back on her.
“Who?” Max was confused.
What was going on?
“Don’t shut me out. You do
that to him when you’re planning something you think he’s too crippled to be a
part of. Even blind I’m a hell of a lot more useful to you than he is.”
Max laughed out loud.
“What?” he spat out.
“I’m trying to think if we
ever had a conversation where we didn’t end up screaming at each other, or
fighting. I can’t remember one.”
“Please don’t treat me like
him.” Alec’s voice was soft, sad.
“Alec. It’s you.” She spoke
quietly.
“What’s me?” What the hell
had he done now?
“The one that Sandeman’s
been talking about. It’s you.”
Alec shook his head, then
laughed. “Yeah, whatever, Max. If you don’t want me involved, just say so.”
“Listen to me. He said he
realised when they got back the body of an escapee. There was something in the
DNA.”
“Then it was Ben. And he’s
dead, so we’re screwed.” Alec shrugged. “Oh well.”
“No. I don’t think so. He
spoke about recognising the gene sequence he had inserted the DNA into. But he
found no trace of his sequence. He had the wrong twin. All that time you were
there in front of him, and he was looking in the wrong place. It’s you.
Whatever he has planned, you’re involved.”
“No.”
“Yes” she took a step
towards him, making noise so he would know where she was.
Alec laughed. “Remember what
I said before, that they must be idiots? Shit, they’re worse than that. They’re
certifiable. They expect me to do something? Fucking idiots.”
“Why not you?”
“Because I’m a screw-up. You
spend half your time getting me out of trouble, and you haven’t figured that
out yet?” Alec shook his head. Sandeman was nuts. That was all there was to it.
Or, Max was wrong. No. Max was the chosen one, that was all there was to it.
Put him in charge? God, whose side was Sandeman on, anyway?
“I don’t think that. Neither
does anyone else. You should hear Shay talk about you.”
“Shay? I almost got him
captured by White’s men. Twice. I risked that kid on stupid missions, getting
that bike and the petrol, just to piss
“Just to piss
“I risked him for a non
necessary mission. What difference does it make what the motivation was?” it
really made no difference. Hell, he had planned the missions, and he still
didn’t know why he had done it.
“Tell me something. Why did
you go to that building?”
“Because of the journal. It
made no sense. It talked of an 8 series, and to my knowledge, there isn’t one.
I wanted more info.” What the hell did that have to do with anything?
“The first time, Alec. Why
go to the building the first time? Why take the journal?”
Alec lowered his head biting
his lip. The answer was too stupid to say out loud.
“Now who’s shutting who out?
Why go to the building, Alec? Say it out loud.”
He sighed. “I kind of had
this dream.” Yep, that sounded pretty damned stupid.
“A dream.”
“Memory, maybe. A room, a
man with a cane, manticore symbol on it. Writing in a book. He was the target.
We went in and…”
“Yeah?” Max watched a number
of emotions flash over Alec’s face. Finally, he looked up in her direction.
“He told me that it was
okay. That I wasn’t ready yet. It’s true. Isn’t it.” It wasn’t a question, more
of a statement, an acceptance. “I still think they’re idiots.”
>>>>>
Mole walked casually into
headquarters, a rifle slung over one shoulder. As usual there were at least a
dozen transgenics of all kinds hanging out there, fixing equipment, cleaning
rifles, or just talking.
In the corner,
A greenish skinned
transgenic looked over at him. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“Stick around.” Mole smiled,
lighting a cigar and continuing to stare at
It was as he brushed past
Mole that he realised his mistake. He hadn’t seen the rifle that Mole had
concealed behind his back. But Mole stepped back to let him pass. Maybe he
would get away with leaving after all. Then he noticed Mole and about five
others following him outside. Maybe not.
“Got a problem, Mole?” he
turned to face them.
“Yeah, actually.” Mole
unslung the rifle. “Seems we have some business to finish.”
“And what would that be?”
“Well, Alec isn’t okay after
all. That means you aren’t either. Sorry about that.” Mole smiled, not sorry at
all.
Not Good. Not good at all,
Mole raised the rifle, and
took another step forward. He stared into
Mole shook his head in
disgust. Stupid human. “You get a week’s grace. If Alec doesn’t have his sight
back by then, I take yours.” He turned and walked away, leaving the rifle on
the floor beside
>>>>>
Shay lay on the rooftop of
one of the tallest buildings in
A mob was gathering outside
the boundary fence. Humans, it looked like. Not cops, they looked rough, and
angry. Several of them held signs that Shay, with his transgenic eyesight could
read, if he wanted to. He didn’t. He was focussed on the ones with weapons. His
eyes scanned the crowd, taking inventory on the weapons. Clubs, knives, two
shotguns. Nothing major. 18 men. He moved slowly away from the edge and down
through the skylight. Two X5s stood waiting for him, and he told them what he
had seen. They nodded.
“We need to assemble. Gather
the troops, headquarters in 10 minutes. Shay, get Max, and Alec if he can. Go.”
The three of them moved,
hurrying to sound the alarm in case something was about to happen.
>>>>>
Alec shook his head. He
still didn’t want to believe it. Him? he was supposed to save everyone?
“Alec?” Max wasn’t used to
this. With Alec, he was either angry, or laughing. There really wasn’t a lot in
between. Anything that didn’t truly make him want to kill something was reacted
to with sarcasm. This quiet Alec was worrying her. It had been about ten
minutes, and he had said nothing. He had hardly moved.
“Okay, whatever.” Alec
nodded. “So, here’s the thing I keep getting stuck with. I’m one of the four,
but then why do you get the tattoos? Why were you Sandeman’s favourite?”
Max shrugged. “I have no
idea.”
“I can’t do this”
“MAX! ALEC!” Shay’s voice
came from the doorway as he ran into the room. “There’s people gathering.
Outside the fence.”
“Familiars? White?” Alec
asked immediately.
“No, they look like
civilians. Light arms, two rifles I could see.”
“Think they’re trying
something?” Max turned to Alec, trusting his judgement.
“How many?” he asked Shay
“Twenty, more or less. We’re
meeting at HQ, gotta decide what to do.”
“Nothing.” Alec said
quietly, turning in the direction of the window. He was starting to be able to
see brighter colours, particularly when he faced the setting sun. That had to
be good. “Twenty guys? Against us? They know we have numbers, yeah? They know
we’re engineered. They aren’t looking to start something. They’re looking for
us to start something. Shay. Bottle of whiskey says you find at least three
hidden camera’s down there.”
“ ’Kay.” Shay left.
“And you don’t think you can
do this?” Max asked him. “So you think we just wait it out?”
“I think so. Maybe.”
“Damn.” Max spoke quietly.
“What?” he turned to face
her, noting with some surprise that he could just about make out her shape.
“Nothing. I was meant to do
something tonight. Doesn’t matter.” Damnit. The meeting at 9 with the
scientist. She wouldn’t be able to get out. They might see her leave, and
discover one of the hidden entrances.
Alec listened to her go.
What did she have planned? She was going outside for some reason. Maybe Shay
could find out for him.
>>>>>
Max stared at
“He’s a psychopath, Max. How
many times do I have to say that I didn’t turn Alec in. Would I still be here
if I did? If Alec is blind, then I’m sorry. I feel for him, but it’s not my
fault.”
“But Mole…” she was stunned.
Mole was one of the good guys. A friend. Granted he was closer to Alec than
her, but she still thought that he would have had enough respect for her not to
do this.
“Yeah, well, he was acting
on orders.”
“Alec? No way.” Not a
chance. Alec would not have told Mole to do that. He would have done it
himself, maybe, but not tell someone else to do it. It wasn’t his style.
“Max. He sees me as a
threat. You know that.”
“No.” Max shook her head. “
“I know.”
She nodded and left. She
tried to imagine Mole decking
>>>>>
Ray stood in a doorway,
watching the action. Three guys near the fence had started yelling insults, at
least he thought they were insults, they were pretty vague. One of the guys was
interesting, he looked kind of like a familiar. Not in appearance, but in the
way he stood, the way he moved. There was something there.
Without taking his eyes off
the scene in front of him, he took a sip from his bottle of coke. The
transgenics seemed to be ignoring the crowd. He hadn’t seen a single one of
them in about an hour.
Maybe they were finally
getting smart.
>>>>>
“Alec?”
He groaned, waking instantly
but faking sleep. He buried his head further into his pillow. It was, what,
“Alec, wake up.”
“Go ‘way”
He felt the bed move as she
kicked it, and a cold hand on his back.
“Christ, Max, what are you,
part polar bear?”
“Did you have
Alec rolled over to face
her. “Did I what?”
“Did you tell Mole to take
“Take
“Have him hurt. Payback for
you…”
“What?!” Alec asked
incredulously, sitting up, the covers falling off him. “Did I tell Mole to hurt
Max almost smiled. That was
her immediate reaction too.
“He thinks you did.”
“I don’t care what he
thinks. I didn’t. What happened with the mob?”
“Cops made them leave.
Eventually. You were right, they didn’t do anything.”
“And that other thing you
were going to do?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Uh huh” Alec rolled back
over onto his stomach. He may not have told Mole to do something, but he did
have other transgenics running missions for him. He knew about the cure, knew
that Max hadn’t been able to get out. Hell, he even knew the scientists full
name, courtesy of
>>>>>
Max shook her head. Two
could play at this game. She reached her hand out and traced a finger down his
bare back. Alec jumped, and she heard him laugh slightly. He didn’t move. Her
hand moved up to his neck, moving his hair aside and tracing his barcode.
“Your hair’s getting long.”
She told him.
Alec turned slowly. “I’m not
going to get any sleep, am I?”
“You can sleep” she told
him, pulling back slightly.
He laughed, reaching for her
hand and pulling it towards him. “Nah, I’m good.”
Alec sat up, pulling her
closer towards him. He looked at her, smiling slightly.
“What?” she asked, her face
only inches from his.
“What are you doing?” he
asked her.
“I thought that was clear.”
She told him, tracing a line down his bare chest.
Alec gasped, and his mouth
sought hers, his hand moving behind her neck, and pulling her harder against
him. She responded hungrily, pushing him back onto the bed and moving on top of
him. Alec shifted his weight, slipping his hands around her waist and moving
her so that she was completely on top of him. She groaned, kissing him harder,
her mouth bruising his, forcing him harder into the bed as she pushed her hips
down on his. He smiled as he lifted his head up off the pillow, deepening the
kiss even further, his arms locking around her so that he could turn them over.
Alec leaned over her,
supporting himself on his arms as he bent down to kiss her lightly.
Max stared up at him, her
heart racing at his closeness. She ran her hands up his arms, trying to pull
him down closer to her. Her hips moved up off the bed and into his, and she was
rewarded with a groan as Alec dropped his head to kiss her neck, biting lightly
at the skin there.
She ran her hand around to
his neck, and pulled him harder against her. “Alec” she groaned.
He pulled back slightly.
“What are you doing?” he asked her, again.
“Having fun” she told him,
pushing up off the bed to get closer to him.
“Seriously.” He pulled back
further.
“What?”
He reached down and stroked
a lock of hair from her face. “Alec?” she took his hand. “You’re shaking”
“Yeah.” He pulled away from
her. “I don’t think we should…” he took a deep breath, trying to steady his
thoughts. “Umm, are you sure?” he asked
“Alec, I know what I’m
doing.” She told him.
“I don’t think you do.” He
shook his head. “So where’s
Max shoved him aside, and
stood up. “What the hell is your problem?”
“You’re right.” He told her.
“We can’t have a conversation without fighting.” He turned his head away from
her. God, all he wanted to do was grab her, pull her back on top of him. He
clenched his fists.
“Forget it.” She told him,
walking out.
“Damnit” Alec muttered,
banging his fist against the bed. His hands were still shaking. He wanted her
so badly that he could hardly stand it. He hated losing control, but when he
was lying there, with her on top of him, he was powerless, and that was fine
with him. He would willingly give up control for her.
But there was
Shit. He should just kill
>>>>>
Max was frustrated, and
annoyed. Not long ago she had a guy, kind of, and she had a best friend,
although she hadn’t admitted to herself that that was what Alec was. Now, both
of them were pissed at her. Maybe.
Men sucked. That was the
only explanation for it. For all of Alec’s constant talking about seizing the
moment, about just going for it if it felt like the right time, he had pulled
away from her.
She couldn’t even burn off
her frustration on her bike, because that mob was still outside.
She needed something to stop
thinking. About Alec, the journal,
Maybe a drink. Maybe there
was somewhere in TC that served something stronger than beer. She had heard
rumours about an underground bar. Neil had said it was around the corner from
HQ.
>>>>>
Alec moved to the living
room, noting with a grin that his eyesight was finally improving. He could just
make out a shape on a table that he recognised as his phone. He picked it up,
and dialled a number. It rang 5 times, then 10.
“Pick up, Shay.” He
muttered, running a hand through his hair impatiently.
“This better be good” a
voice thick with sleep slurred.
“It’s Alec. I need your
help. You and Mole.”
“Yeah.” Shay’s voice sounded
alert. “Now?”
“Yep.” Alec hung up and
blinked his eyes several times, trying to get his eyes to focus. The shit that
they had given him seemed to be wearing off. About damned time. Good. Whatever
was going to happen, he needed to be able to see. A blind transgenic just
didn’t cut it. Alec threw on some jeans and a shirt while he waited for Shay
and Mole. He didn’t have to wait long.
“Hey Boss” Mole greeted him.
“Good to see you up, man.”
“What the hell did you do?”
Alec glared at him, his voice cold. Mole took a step back.
“What, man? What’d’ya mean?”
“You went after
Mole was confused. “Yeah. He
betrayed you. You wouldn’t be hurt if it wasn’t for..”
“That’s my problem” Alec
yelled, cutting him off. “It was stupid, Mole. Shit, don’t you get it? If he
leaves, Max might go too. If you hurt him any more, she definitely will.”
“I didn’t think… I thought
you and her…” Mole shook his head.
“You think I can’t take care
of myself? You think I can’t punish
“God, I’m sorry! I just
didn’t think.” Mole was worried. He thought he was doing the right thing. They
were going to look out for each other, right? If one was hurt, they were going
to help him out. Wasn’t that the deal they had made?
“I need you to do
something.” Alec said slowly.
“Name it.” Mole was eager to
make up for his mistake.
“There’s this guy. Brent
Carlin. He’s a scientist. I want to see him, talk to him. I need you to
convince him to come here, get him in through a hidden passage. Can you handle
that?”
“No problem. There’s a new
passage out by the east fence.”
“No-one knows, understand?
Tell no-one. That includes Max,
“Done.”
>>>>>
The man stood nervously in
the dimly lit room. He had been in bed when two figures had burst into his
room, grabbed him, and shoved him into the back of a van. Now he was here,
wherever the hell here was. His two captors stood watching him. A young kid and
a freak.
“Good morning.” A voice came
from the door, and he turned.
“Uhh” he replied, scared of
what was going to happen.
Alec walked slowly into the
room. His eyesight was slowly returning, he could make out shapes now, it was
just his focus that was off.
“Thanks for coming.” Alec’s
voice was not quite sarcastic. “You have something for me?”
“What?” the man was
confused.
“We were supposed to meet
earlier.” Alec explained slowly. “Eyes Only sent me. The cure you designed?”
“You were supposed to meet
me at 9” Brent stammered.
“Yeah. I got held up. I want
the cure.”
“Well, why not just ask me
for it? Why drag me out of bed at
Mole took a step forward.
Alec noticed, and shook his head. Mole stopped moving.
“I want that cure. My
friends will take you home now. Give it to them, okay?”
“Yeah.”
>>>>>
Max collapsed onto her bed.
Two hours of drinking and she still wasn’t drunk. Some nights, alcohol was just
useless. She grabbed Sandeman’s journal from the floor next to her bed, and
skimmed through it. She had to know what was happening. To Alec, and to her.
Doctor Christopher Sandeman,
Project Manticore
I had gotten used to lying
to my bosses at Manticore. Yes, my experiments were all related to the project,
no, I couldn’t yet develop a delayed gene sequence, or the ability to add genes
at a later date.
It was so easy to lie to my
‘friends’ as well. Renfro, the other three, they had no idea that I was keeping
things from them as well. I never told them that I had figured out who our 5
was. I was the only one who knew. It was safer that way, for me, and for It.
But that wasn’t the only
thing I didn’t tell them. they thought that I had only inserted DNA into four
Xs. That wasn’t entirely true. The DNA that we as a team had created, yes, that
had been separated into four. But I had been doing some work on my own. Plus, I
knew more about what was going to happen than they did. Four soldiers wouldn’t
be enough. To beat the familiars, to prevent what they were going to do, they
had to have the same abilities.
There’s really no difference
in adding one DNA strand to a transgenic than there is in adding more than one.
The average human, or transgenic even, has a lot of room for improvement. Junk
DNA they call it. Empty DNA strands just waiting to be coded to do extra
things.
And there’s really no
difference in when you insert the DNA, whether at fertilisation, or when the
subject is, say, a five year old girl
>>>>>
3 days later…
“Just take it slow, okay”
Alec told Neil
“You sure you want to do
this?” Neil asked him. Alec’s eyesight was finally almost back to normal, and
Neil understood his need to do something, but he was worried about sparring
with him. Well, he could take it slow.
“Yeah, come on, I promise
I’ll go easy on you.” Alec told him. He threw a kick at Neil, who blocked it
easily.
“It’s okay for you, I’m
fighting some ‘chosen one’” Neil laughed. “What if I hurt you, the whole world
dies? That’s some pressure.”
“You couldn’t get close
enough.” Alec told him, dropping into a spinning sweep kick. Neil just dodged
it, and laughed. “Not bad”
He came at Alec with a jump
side kick, and Alec dodged with a backflip.
From the sideline, Shay
laughed. “Nice, man.”
“Show off” Neil commented,
shaking his head and moving forward.
Alec put his hand out to
warn Neil off, then bent over, his hands on his knees. That flip had left him
really dizzy. He tried to control his breathing, tried to concentrate on
staying on his feet.
“Alec? You good?” Neil moved
over to him in concern, and put his hand on his shoulder.
“Yeah.” He looked up at
Neil, grinning slightly.
“Yeah, right. Sit down.”
Neil was worried when Alec actually did what he was told. Shay came over to
join them.
“Alec?”
“Fine.” He told him. “Just
give me a minute.”
The three of them sprawled
on the ground, staring out over the expanse that was once a parking lot in TC.
“So, tell us about this
chosen one thing” Shay asked quietly.
Alec laughed. “Best I can
tell, Sandeman knew something was coming. So, to prevent it, he inserted DNA
into four Xs, one from each year group, to help us fight them, or something.
I’m the X5 representative.”
“But, there isn’t an 8
series.” Neil commented
“No kidding. We’re trying to
figure that out. But there’s more. See, Sandeman is not really into being
forthcoming. Theres something else he’s done, something he hasn’t revealed yet.
He’s the one that added the DNA into Max. To help us, or something. But we
don’t know what her role in this whole mess is, yet.”
“You love her don’t you?”
Shay commented, casually on purpose looking somewhere else.
“Huh?” Alec stare at the
ground.
“You love her, Max.”
“Yeah, so what.” Alec saw a
really interesting rock on the ground and picked it up.
“So what?” Neil almost
yelled. “Man you gotta tell her”
“And then what? She turns to
“Could happen” Shay told
him, loyally
“It won’t.”
“How do you know?” Neil.
“Cause now she has the cure,
she’ll go back to
Both Shay and Neil looked up
in shock. “Hang on, what? We have the cure, not her” Neil reminded him
“Nah, she has it. I gave it
to her”
“What the hell for?”
Alec shrugged. “Because
having Max and knowing she is thinking about him, wanting to be with him, is
ten times worse than never having her. I want her to want me, not see me as a
substitute.”
Neil stared at him. “Did you
at least sleep with her first?”
>>>>>
Soft music played through
the room as Max lit a candle in the centre of the room. The room was bathed in
candle light, and she smiled, thinking that the room looked almost normal in
the light.
A knock came from the door
and she smoothed her hair down as she went to open it.
“Max” he greeted, fighting
to keep his voice neutral.
“
“What’s going on?”
“I thought we could
celebrate” she told him, reaching for a bottle of wine that was sitting on the
table and holding it out to him. “Can you open this? I’ll get some glasses.”
“What are we celebrating?”
he asked her, reaching for the glasses.
“This.” Max moved the
glasses into her right hand and touched his hand with her left.
“What?”
“You got the cure.” She
nodded, taking his hand in his. “But how?”
“I tracked the scientist
down. The cure works. We can touch.” She told him, smiling nervously.
“We can do more than that.”
She sighed as she slid her
arms around his back. This was what she needed, what she had wanted for so
long.
>>>>>
It was easy to say things
like that in the daytime, when you were outside, away from the bed that they
had lain in just a few days before. It was easy to laugh off his feelings
towards her when he wasn’t lying in that bed, his head against the pillow that
leant against.
He had done some pretty
stupid things in his life, before and after he left Manticore, but right then,
this felt like the dumbest. It had felt right at the time to get the cure to
her, kind of making up for all the crap he had put her through. After all, it
had been his fault that she had lost the first opportunity to get the cure, a
fact that she never stopped reminding him of. He had thought that maybe giving
her the cure now would make up for that.
But Christ, if he had the
thing back right now, he would probably toss it out the nearest window.
He sighed, lifting his
bottle of scotch, and skulling about half of it down. After gasping for breath
for a few seconds, he tilted the bottle back again, taking another long
swallow.
Tomorrow was going to suck.
>>>>>
Alec walked slowly into HQ,
not looking forward to seeing Logan, or Max. He nodded to Mole and headed over
to join Neil and two others who were watching a very fuzzy looking tv.
“Hey man” Neil nodded at
him. The other two just stared. Okay, so he looked rough, he knew that. He had
slept for about twenty minutes, and the 40 minute shower he had taken had done
nothing to wake him up.
“Feel like doing some
training?” he asked Neil, nodding towards the door.
“Chance to kick your ass
twice in two days?” Neil grinned at him. “Let’s go.”
Alec shrugged and walked
outside, trusting that Neil would follow him. When he reached the empty lot, he
pulled off his shirt and threw it to the ground. “Ready?” he asked as he did a
few quick stretches.
“Let’s do it.” Neil faked a
punch, following it up by an attempted roundhouse to the head. Alec moved his
head slightly, just enough to prevent the kick from connecting, and threw a
hook into Neil’s ribs. A grunt from his opponent proved that he had connected.
“So, what happened with Max and
the cure thing?” Neil asked, stepping backwards, trying to draw Alec forward.
“I said I wanted to fight,
not talk.” Alec told him, using a jump side kick to close the distance between
the two and send Neil staggering back again.
“Easy, man.” Neil gasped,
struggling to keep his feet.
“You not good enough to keep
up?” Alec taunted him, aiming a roundhouse at Neil’s ribs.
“Yeah, I’m good enough. But
your head’s not in this.”
“Sure it is.” He deflected
Neil’s punch with a double handed block and grabbed the collar of his shirt.
Alec let himself fall backwards onto the ground, planting one of his legs
against Neil’s hip, and flipping him over his head and onto the ground. Alec
flipped himself to his feet, and turned to look at Neil.
“Your head isn’t in this.
Want to talk?” Neil offered again.
“Nah, I just really want to
hit something.”
“Okay” Neil shrugged, and
moved back into an attack stance.
>>>>>
I knew what the familiars
would do, but I also knew that the chances were not good that I would be around
to tell my four exactly what was going to happen. Manticore had a very good
retirement plan. Once you ceased to become of use to them, you were retired
permanently. No pension, but you really didn’t need it. Can’t spend money in
hell, right? What was that phrase, in hell all men ride? Yeah. I had to find a
way to get a message to them, to tell them what they were going to face. The
question was, how to do this?
It was on the D series that
the idea came to me. D for Desert, a series of transgenics designed to fight
in, and blend into, desert locations. One of the adaptations we were trying to
incorporate was the chameleons ability to change skin colour. I watched one of
our creations change his entire body from white to black and back again. The
idea hit me, and I asked it to change only part of his body. It turned one hand
jet black.
This was interesting. What I
could do, was make the body automatically do this. Subconsciously as opposed to
consciously. And I could make only certain cells go through this change. What
was the point of this? if I could program a particular series of cells to turn
black on command, then I could create a black line on a transgenics arm. With a
bit of messing around, I could actually make a letter appear on the arm. Or a
word.
Or the instructions as to
what was going to happen.
The problem was, this kind
of genetic coding would take up a lot of room. think of a human body as a
computer. There is a certain amount of space available to code stuff into.
Giving a human the power of sight takes up X amount of space. One of the
reasons why humans lost their ability of telekinesis was that the space that
ability occupied was needed by something else. Encoding sequences that would
make words appear, at a particular point in time, would take up a hell of a lot
of room. Fortunately, there was a lot of junk DNA in a humanoid. More than
enough.
Max shoved the diary into
her back pocket. Although Alec had given the journal to her, she didn’t feel
right reading it without him. Technically, it was his story, his life that she
was reading about. He should get to see it first.
She hadn’t spoken to him in
several days, although she had seen him earlier, training with Neil. She had
watched him for a while, amazed at how beautiful he was. Not in looks,
entirely, it was more than that. It was the way he moved, the grace he had when
fighting that drew her to him. The sight of the sun on his bare torso was just
a bonus.
For once, she felt nervous
about seeing him. Although it hadn’t been explicitly said, she knew that the
cure had come from him. He had tried to hide this, getting it to her via people
that she would not normally connect with him, but she had known.
He lay on his bed, his eyes
closed. “Alec?” she spoke softly, slightly worried. She had thought that he was
pretty much recovered, particularly since she had watched him fight earlier in
the day. Maybe this wasn’t the case after all.
Alec had heard her come in,
and had kept his eyes closed, even when she spoke his name. He didn’t know what
to say to her, and he didn’t want to watch her face light up with the thought
of being with
He heard her sigh.
“Max.” he spoke quietly,
sensing she was going to leave, and wanting to stop that.
“Were you asleep?” she asked
quietly, not moving. “I can come back.”
“Nah, just a bit tired.
What’s going on?” Don’t mention
“I just wanted to talk,
about the journal.”
He finally opened his eyes
and looked at her. Max noticed a strange look in his eyes, but couldn’t tell
what it was.
“Grab a seat, if you can
find one” he invited, his tone expressionless. He did, however, move over
slightly on the bed. It was the only place in the room to sit, unless you wanted
to try the floor.
Max didn’t. She sat on the
edge of the bed, careful not to touch Alec.
Alec sighed, and rolled onto
his side, giving her more room to sit on his bed without touching him. He
looked at her.
“Well?” he asked, propping
his head up on his hand.
“Thanks.” Max told him, not
looking at him.
Alec laughed shortly. “For
rolling over? Not that complicated, you know.”
Max hit his leg lightly. “I
meant, for the cure.” She didn’t look at him.
“Don’t mention it.” Please.
In fact, change the subject right now. Don’t talk about how well it worked, or
anything like that.
Max stood up quickly, and
strode across his room to stare out his window. Alec watched her, not saying
anything.
“The first time I met
Alec shook his head, then
realised she wasn’t looking at him. “No” he spoke out loud.
“He was this amazing guy, so
committed to his cause, so sure that he could change the world.”
“But I like the world how it
is.” Alec told her. Finally she turned to look at him.
“You like it corrupt? People
dying of starvation, disease, while others live in ivory towers?”
“That’s not my world. My
world is hanging out at Crash, after work. It’s being here, in
Max stared at him. Alec stood
up slowly and crossed the room to her. He took her hand and ran a finger up her
arm to where one of the black tattooed runes showed.
“See this? This is broken.
We are broken. We weren’t supposed to exist, everyone knows that, even us. But
for whatever reason, we do. What’s so bad about that?”
Max turned her arm over and
moved it so that Alec’s hand lay in hers.
“Max, we can’t be ashamed of
what we are. We’re different, so what? The world will accept us, or it won’t.
Don’t be ashamed to be different.”
“I’m not” she told him,
certain of the truth in her words.
“But
Max shook her head,
confused. She leaned against Alec, resting her head against his chest. Alec
hesitated, then put his arms around her, lightly. “I don’t know anything
anymore.” She told him.
“Sure you do. If you don’t
have answers, you just aren’t asking the right questions.” Unable to help
himself, Alec ran a hand through her hair.
Max pulled back and looked
at him. “Okay then, here’s my question. Why didn’t I sleep with
Alec looked at her, and
smiled. Instead of answering, he lowered his mouth to hers.
>>>>>
Alec kissed her softly,
drawing her into his arms. His hands ran lightly up her back, asking her to
move closer to him. He felt Max respond to him, move closer, and deepen the
kiss. He smiled, tightening his arms around her.
Max broke the kiss first,
leaning her head back, but keeping her body pressed against him.
“What question was that the
answer to?” she whispered.
“Right now? Anything you
want.” He told her, moving one finger lightly down her back until he got a
smile out of her.
“Alec…” she stared at him
for a long moment, then shook her head. She pulled away from him.
Alec released her, watching
her cross the room and sit on his bed. His Bed. He groaned inaudibly and went
over to join her, sitting on the floor and leaning against the bed, close to
her legs.
“We have to figure this
out.” Max told him, tapping the journal on Alec’s head. He quickly reached his
hand up and grabbed Max’s wrist.
“Thanks” he told her, taking
the book from her, but not releasing her hand. He lowered their hands until
hers rested on his shoulder. Max smiled and stroked some of his hair away from
his neck.
“Okay, so where are we on
Sandeman’s life story?” Alec cracked, flipping through the pages.
“Ah, here we go, he was
inscribing the Kama Sutra on various parts of your body.” Alec shifted his head
quickly to one side to avoid the inevitable punch. “Okay, okay. Here.”
Alec started to read aloud.
“May of ’09. That’s when
everything started to go wrong. Half of an X5 squad jumped the fence and
escaped. Everything changed. Those in charge clamped down on everything. And
that’s how the problems really began. They cancelled the X8 series. All the
gene splicing work that had gone into creating this new series was put on hold.
Those in charge wanted to know exactly what had gone wrong, and those that
invested in the project weren’t prepared to provide any more capital until they
had answers. We waited with baited breath for the results of the various tests
they ran all of the other 3 X series through, scared that they would find our
3, or 2, as we still thought our 5 was on the outside. They found nothing, and
we hoped that that meant that they would give the project the green light to
continue. Instead they went the other way. They terminated the project,
destroyed the gene splices that had been created for the new series.
All of my plans crashed down
around me. I had relied on the fact that there would be four separate Xs to
insert the DNA into. And now there wasn’t going to be an 8. I couldn’t even
take the DNA and insert it into another 7, or even a 6. It just wouldn’t take.
The coding that I needed to insert had to be done at the embryo stage, or at
the latest, just after birth.”
“I’m starting to understand
why they killed him off. Can this guy ever get to the point?”
“Not everyone’s as fast as
you” Max told him.
“I can go slow” he looked at
her, smiling slightly.
Max hit him. “Just read the
book, or give it to me.”
Alec handed it up to her.
“Be my guest. And do me a favour, edit out all the crap?”
Max rolled her eyes and took
the book from him, skimming down the page to find where he had stopped.
“Okay, there’s a lot of
technical stuff here about how he tried to adapt the sequence he had so he
could insert it into an older X series. Interested?”
“Really not.” Alec moved up to sit on the bed beside her,
and lay back. ‘Wake me up when you get to something different.”
Max kicked him and continued
to read out loud. Alec groaned.
“So what am I interrupting?”
Mole wandered into the room. He looked at Alec, lying back on the bed with Max
sitting beside him, their legs pressed together. “Uh, want me to come back
later?”
“Doesn’t anyone knock before
coming into your place?” Max looked over at Alec, who was lying beside her with
his eyes closed.
“I have an open door policy.
Anyone can come into my living room. And since my bedroom now is pretty much
part of my living room…”
“Get over it, already” she
told him, turning to look at Mole. “What’s up?”
“Not much, just need your
boy here to go through some stuff. Any time you’re free, Alec. It can wait an
hour or two.” Mole grinned.
“I’ll meet you at HQ in a
couple of minutes” Alec told him, raising himself slightly off the bed.
“Okay, no problem. But if I
run into
Max felt her face go red,
and looked down, feigning fascination with the journal.
“You wish, Mole” Alec
cracked, trying to hide his grin.
“Alec, for Gods sake, If you
don’t kiss her before you leave, you’re letting all of us transgenic males
down. You know that, right? Now
Alec lay back down on the
bed. “See? Even Mole thinks I’ll let us all down.” He told her, waiting, hoping
for a reaction.
She laughed. “That’s not
what he said”
“Close enough” Alec replied,
shifting on the bed slightly and putting his hand on her shoulder to draw her
closer to him.
Max looked down at him. This
was Alec, the arrogant and cocky guy she had grown to like and respect, whom
she could always count on to make some sarcastic crack, who never stopped
smiling that slow easy smile of his. Who never showed his true feelings. Who
right now was staring up at her, letting all of his emotions show on his face.
Fear, hope, desire, all of them directed at her.
“Max?” he whispered.
She felt her heart stop as
she stared at him. Slowly, she leaned down and kissed him lightly on the lips.
“See, you haven’t let anyone
down. All of the transgenic male population can be at peace now.” She
whispered, smiling as she kissed him lightly again.
Alec felt her lips on his
and felt his self-control vanish. He moved his hands to her hips and gently
indicated where he wanted her to move. Max moved to sit on top of him, her
hands resting on top of his to keep them in place.
She leant down to kiss him
again, deeper this time, her whole upper body pressed hard against his.
“You have a meeting” she
told him, her lips millimetres from his.
He lifted his head slightly
and kissed her again. “Nah, Mole was joking.”
“Alec.”
“Fine.” Alec sat up, pulling
her hard against him and kissing her again, his hand at the back of her neck,
asking her to deepen the kiss. “I’m going. Feel free to read the journal while
I’m gone and give me the cliff’s notes version later.”
He grabbed his jacket and
threw it on.
“Alec? Who do you think the
X6 and 7 are? Do you think we know them?”
He looked over at her and
shrugged. “Don’t know. But we’re meant to work together right? There must be
some way of identifying them.”
Max nodded and turned back
to the journal. Her first problem was to work out what Sandeman had done after
the X8 series was cancelled. Everything else could come later. Including trying
to figure out what was going on with
>>>>>
“Better be good, man” Alec
punched Mole on the shoulder and hopped up to sit on the desk beside him.
“Not as good as anything you
may have to tell us.” Mole looked at him, grinning around his cigar.
“Spill.”
“Sandeman cancelled the 8
series” Alec shrugged innocently.
“Yeah, okay. You two were
lying on the bed, discussing a journal.”
“Pretty much. So, what’s
going on?”
>>>>>
Alec wandered out of HQ a
few hours later, his mind lost in thought. Mole had highlighted a few major
shortages that they were facing, mostly medical and food supplies. They had
organised three teams to go out and recon some warehouses, see what they could
find. He was becoming more and more impressed by Mole, the transgenic was a
really good organiser, preferring to stay in the background, but completely
competent.
“Watch it” A voice came from
nowhere, and Alec jerked his head up in time to see himself walking into
“Sorry, man.” He apologised,
offering him a hand to help him stand up again.
“I’m fine”
“I said sorry” Alec heard
his voice turn sarcastic and shut up quickly. He didn’t need any trouble. Neither
did Max.
“Yeah, whatever.” Now that
was sarcasm. Fine. Alec turned to walk away.
“Where are you going?”
Alec felt himself hit the
wall, and stared at
“If you go near Max again,
I’ll kill you.”
Make me, Alec thought, his
fist clenching. He forced himself to relax. “I think that is up to Max, don’t
you?” he asked, keeping his voice and his face blank. This conversation was not
going to end well, whatever way it went.
“No. I’m telling you. Leave
her alone. I hear the rumours, you know, about you taking advantage of her.”
Well, actually, she just
kissed me, twice. Okay, shut up. “
Because I’m a complete
fucking idiot, that’s why.
“You touch her again, and
I’ll kill you.”
“Strike two” Alec told him,
grinning.
“What???”
“That’s twice you’ve
threatened to kill me. That’s strike two. One more, and I may just take it
personally.”
“Take it as personally as
you want. Just take it seriously. I will hurt you.”
Alec shook his head. “Close
enough.” He blurred over to
Mole, Neil and about 15
others stood there, watching. Damn. Alec took a step back, releasing Logan.
“Don’t threaten me.” He told
“Hey,
Alec spun back. He glared at
Mole. “No” he said simply.
Mole stared at him, then nodded,
seeing he was serious. “ ‘kay” he replied, pushing past
Alec walked off, knowing
that Mole would follow him. “I don’t want him touched, okay? Spread the word.”
“Yeah, alright, but it would
be so much easier to…”
“No. Anyone touches him,
they deal with me, okay?”
“Got it, boss. But you are
sleeping with her, right?” Mole grinned at him, punching him on the shoulder.
Alec looked over at him and
grinned. “Not yet, but soon” he told him.
>>>>>
Alec headed up the stairs to
his apartment. He had to play this safe. He knocked on his door as he walked
in, to signal to Max that he was coming. “Cliffs notes?” he asked, throwing
himself onto the floor.
“What’s wrong?” Max asked,
looking down at him.
“What? Nothing. Everything’s
fine.”
Max stared at him. “With
Mole.”
Oh.
“Umm, we need supplies,
medical mostly. Nothing major.”
“And?”
Alec sat up. “Go talk to
Logan.”
“And what am I supposed to
be talking to him about?” Max’s voice turned accusing.
He thinks we’re sleeping
together. “Just go talk to him, okay?”
Max looked at him, trying to
read his expression. Alec closed his eyes and lay back on the ground.
She sighed, and left the
room. Maybe Logan would make more sense.
>>>>>
Logan was staring at a
computer screen when Max walked into the room. She took a seat and waited for
him to look up. It was starting to piss her off the way he always did that. At
least Alec noticed when she walked into the room. Wait. She was comparing the
two of them? Not good.
“Max”
“What the hell happened?”
she asked, glaring at him.
“What did he tell you?”
Logan shot back. “Obviously he went running to you to complain.”
“Actually, no. He went back
to his apartment. I was there. And he said nothing, just to ask you.”
“Typical” Logan said nothing, stunned by Max’s comment.
“So tell me.”
“Nothing much to tell. We
had a conversation. No big deal. Listen, I was thinking, tonight, we should
sneak out of TC, go get dinner in a nice restaurant?”
“I have stuff to do” she
told him. She was so sick of people not telling her stuff. First Alec, then
Logan. This sucked. “Later.” She walked out the door, letting it slam shut
behind her.
>>>>>
“Hey Max” a young x7 greeted
her as they passed on the street. She stopped and looked at him. she knew that
kid from somewhere. Then it hit her. That was the kid from HQ, the one who had
told Logan that he didn’t want his help, that he had a family.
“Hey.” She greeted him, then
reached out and touched his shoulder. He turned to look at her.
“Were you at HQ earlier?”
“When Logan and Alec went at
it?” the kid grinned. “Nah, but I heard about it, everyone did.”
Logan and Alec went at it?
“Tell me what happened”
“Logan went after Alec,
accused him of…” the kid looked at the ground, embarrassed.
“Okay” Max could imagine for
herself. “Then what?”
“Well, Alec told him there
was nothing going on, and tried to leave, but Logan kept at him, threatening
him. In the end, Alec shoved him away and left.”
“Alec shoved Logan?” Great.
Just great.
“Well, yeah, but after Logan
had shoved him, twice. And threatened to kill him. If I was Alec, I would have
taught him a lesson.”
Max felt a headache coming.
“Thanks” she told him and headed back to her apartment.
>>>>>
Alec walked into
headquarters the next morning, exhausted. He forced himself to focus on the
recon plans that Mole was showing him, but it wasn’t easy.
“Alec, that’s a river.” Neil
commented.
“Huh?” he shook his head to
clear it, and looked down. Shit. “Sorry.” He rubbed his eyes, and blinked a
couple of times.
“Alec, look at me” Neil
moved to stand in front of him. “Look at me.”
“I’m fine. Just tired.”
“Humour me.” Neil told him,
grabbing an army issue mag-lite and shining it in Alec’s eye.
“Now, I’m blind” Alec told
him, turning his head away.
“Hey”
“Fine, Mom” Alec turned back
and stared at Neil, a sarcastic grin on his face. “Do I pass?”
“Pass what?”
Alec spun around,
recognising Max’s voice.
“Hey Max” he muttered,
blinking hard to try to clear his eyes.
“You okay?” she asked him.
“Fine. Can we talk?
Outside?” he hopped off the desk and walked towards the entrance.
>>>>>
“What’s wrong, why was Neil
checking your eyes? Alec?” she reached towards him, touching his arm.
“Nothing. I’m just tired. I
waited for you last night. I hoped you’d come back to talk to me.”
“I went back to my place. I
needed to think.”
“Then you didn’t sleep with
him?” Alec’s voice was quiet.
“Did he threaten to kill
you?”
Alec laughed. “Not much
of a threat.”
“I’m serious.”
“Max, it was nothing. He was
blowing off steam. He was scared that he was losing you. I can relate.”
Max stared at him. Alec took
her hand in his.
“Am I wasting my time?”
>>>>>
“Alec, please don’t do this
right now.” She told him, looking at the ground. “I can’t handle it, okay? Not
now.”
“Okay” Alec said, squeezing
her hand then releasing it. “But listen, if you ever want a shoulder to cry on,
or someone to hit, I’m available.”
Max smiled, and looked up at
him.
“I might just take you up on
that” she warned him.
“I’ll stand with my arms
behind my back” he offered, grinning.
Max punched him, and he
grabbed her wrist, pulling her forward into a quick hug. “Don’t ever stop
smiling, okay? We’re all on your side here” he whispered as he released her.
“Good, because you know we
have to save the world together.” She told him, reacting to Alec’s light mood.
“Nothing’s simple with you,
is it, Max? We can’t just go out, see a movie, have some dinner? You want the
world.”
“Girl’s gotta have dreams.”
She laughed out loud.
And I’ll give them to you,
Alec thought
>>>>>
In an abandoned building,
about 200 yards from the TC perimeter fence, Ray sat, his face pressed to the
window. Below, on the ground, he could see a bunch of official looking men
having a conversation. One of them was his Dad. He hadn’t seen him in a long
time, he was supposed to come up to the school for the trials, to be with him
afterwards, but the transgenic female had interfered. Before that, he had
talked to him on the phone several times, but the last time he had actually
seen him was just after he had killed his Mom.
Ray watched him with
interest. He was in charge down there, ordering people around. Ray wanted to be
like that, telling people what to do, having them jump to do anything he asked.
He was tempted to just go
down to the fence and see his Dad.
He didn’t know what to do.
Life used to be easy, but now, he was being asked to choose between his father
and his father’s father. It was too hard. He was just a kid, he shouldn’t have
to think about whether to betray his father. He should be doing other stuff.
>>>>>
Alec flicked through the
journal, trying to find something that could help them. He sort of understood
what Sandeman was writing about, genetic manipulation and cloning principles,
but it really wasn’t that important. If, on the other hand, he felt the urge
one day to create his own race of Manticore rejects, then he would know where
to get the background research. He made a mental note to himself to pass the
journal on to Neil at some stage. There was no telling how important, if at
all, this information would be if any of them got sick.
“Damnit.” He groaned,
resisting the urge to throw the journal out the window, or skylight. Sandeman
was telling him everything but what he needed to know- the identities of the X6
and 7, and what the hell had happened to the fourth DNA strand.
He sighed, rubbing his eyes
as he returned his attention to the book.
Dr Christopher Sandeman,
project manticore.
It’s late, almost midnight.
This will be my final entry. They’re coming, I know it. I saw them last night,
checking out the place, preparing to come in and take me. I thought I would
have more time, there is so much more I want to say, want to explain to those
who will come after me, my chosen 4, and the one I have selected to follow
them. There is no time. The final thing I …
[gap in the text, a strange
illegible line]
He is here. It is kind of
interesting, ironic that they sent him. The one that I needed to talk to.
Everything is falling into place. He knows where the journal is now. And from
the look on your face, I know that you will act when the time comes. Don’t be
afraid to act on your feelings. Remember the stars.”
Alec turned the page, hoping
that there would be more, but knowing that there wasn’t. Don’t be afraid to act
on your feelings? That was Sandeman’s last message to him? What the hell was
that supposed to mean?
He remembered standing in
the room, doing nothing as Sandeman scribbled the last few words of the journal
and put it away.
Why hadn’t he written more?
Why hadn’t he given some kind of clue? Shit.
“Bad time?”
Alec spun around. Neil
lounged casually in the doorway.
“What’s going on?” Alec
asked him, throwing the book onto his bed.
“Just wanted to check out
your eyes. Don’t get mad at me, I’m just the messenger. Max asked me to do it.”
“Fine” Alec sighed.
“Good boy” Neil laughed. He
nodded towards the bed. “Sit?”
Alec sat down. Neil stood in
front of him, and started running some basic eye tests. “You been ordered to
report to Max?” he asked.
“Not as such.”
“Neil.” Alec spoke quietly.
Neil stopped shining a light in his eyes and looked at him questioningly.
“It’s not my eyes.”
“What then?”
Alec’s phone rang and he
grabbed it. “Yeah?”
“Shay. You better get down
here, to HQ. There’s trouble. Logan.”
“On my way.” Alec stood up.
“Let’s go”
>>>>>
Alec shoved his way through
several transgenics. Logan and an X6 he didn’t recognise were fighting. Well,
not really. The X6 had Logan up against the wall, his arm against Logan’s neck.
Just great.
“Stand down.” Alec snapped
as he moved closer to the two of them. The X6 didn’t move, but Logan glared at
him.
“Do it now.” No response.
Alec stepped forward and
grabbed the X6, putting him in a choke hold. He pulled him away from Logan, and
turned the kid towards him. Grabbing him by the collar, Alec shoved him up
against a wall, the kid’s feet several feet off the ground.
“Insubordination, soldier?”
Alec asked, dropping him to the ground. The 6 pulled himself to his feet.
“Do not move. Disobey
another one of my orders. I’m asking you.” The kid looked at the ground,
assuming an attention position.
Alec turned from him,
walking the two paces over to Logan.
“Don’t help me again” Logan
told him, glaring at Alec.
“Fuck you.” Alec replied.
“Don’t start shit with my men to get a reaction out of me. What’d you think was
going to happen? You don’t belong here. This is my world. You have 24 hours to get out of here.
Starting now.” Alec turned away.
Logan laughed. “You think
Max won’t come with me? Especially after I tell her that you set this kid on
me?”
Out of the corner of his
eye, Alec saw the X6 bristle, angry about being called a kid. He clicked his
fingers and pointed at the kid. The message was clear. Stay, or else. The kid
stayed.
“I think I stopped you
getting beaten up, by a kid.” Alec replied. He heard laughter from a
transgenic. Mole, no doubt. He turned and glared in the direction the sound
came from.
“You can’t beat me, Alec.
Don’t even try.” Logan spat at him.
“But I already have.” Alec
smiled back, laughing.
“What’s that supposed to
mean?” Logan’s voice sounded dangerous.
“What do you think it
means.” Alec continued to grin. He heard the laughter again, and this time did
nothing to stop it.
“You bastard, Max would
never touch…”
Alec stepped forward and
slammed his fist into Logan’s stomach. Logan gasped, and collapsed to the
ground, gasping for breath.
“At least now, some of what
you go running to Max, crying about, will be true. She’s probably at my place,
by the way.”
Logan dove for Alec, who
moved aside, leaving his foot out to trip Logan. Logan couldn’t react in time,
and hit the ground again.
“Get up” Alec told him
coldly, taking a step forward.
“Max would never touch you.
She has taste.” Logan spat out.
“Apparently. She never
touched you either, remember” Alec sneered.
Logan raised his hand,
clenched into a fist.
“Don’t.” Alec told him.
“Just leave. I said 24 hours, and I meant it. But don’t come near me again,
unless you want to finish this. And believe me when I tell you, you will not
win.”
Alec looked to Mole and
nodded at him. Mole stepped forward and put his hand on Logan’s shoulder. Logan
spun around, throwing a punch that went about a mile wide.
“Come on, let’s go pack.”
Mole told him, leading him off.
Alec watched them go, and
when they were out of earshot, he turned to face the gathered transgenics.
“Listen to me. No-one
touches him. He has 24 hours, well, just under that now. Anyone touches him
before then, they deal with me. After that, open season. Questions?”
The transgenics looked back
at him. Some nodded.
“Good” Alec nodded his head
in the direction Mole and Logan had just gone. “Get out of here” they all left
quickly, following orders as they were trained to do.
Alec turned to the X6, who
was still standing at attention. “Report”
“Sir, Cale was talking,
saying that he thought you were trying something with Max, and that he was
going to make sure you knew your place.”
“And you didn’t think I
could take care of it myself?” Alec asked, glaring at the kid.
“Sir, I…” the boy shook his
head.
“At ease, kid.” Alec
gestured to the ground, and took a seat against a wall. The boy did the same.
“So?”
“It’s just…” the boy shook
his head, then shrugged. After a few seconds, he looked up, his face resolved,
military. “The other 6s, they talk about you, sir. I’m just new, only been in
TC a few days, but I’ve heard the stories. How you’re setting it up again,
Manticore, but in a good way. How you’re training some of them, taking them on
missions, making them feel like they’re truly part of something. The way they
talk about you, Shay in particular, they’d do anything for you, Sir. I want to
be a part of that. And when I heard Him talking about you like that… I just
wanted to scare him, make him stop, but he kept going.”
Alec stared at him, not sure
what to say. He took a deep breath. “Logan, he always talks too much. It’s best
to just ignore him. Look, kid. You can’t…” he stopped, unsure what to say.
“Okay. There’s a lot of stuff you don’t know. Right now, just laugh at him, and
walk away. I don’t want you to fight my battles for me. And you can’t always
respond with violence. Do you know how many people in TC hate me? Are you going
to beat up all of them?”
The kid smiled.
Alec nodded, and signalled
that the kid could leave. He stood to attention, and saluted Alec.
“Kid, you don’t need to do
that”
“I want to.”
“Got a name yet?”
“Storm. I have kind of a bad
temper.” Alec laughed. “Sir? No-one dislikes you here, no-one. They talk about
you like you’re going to do something special.”
“Don’t believe everything
you hear.”
Storm left, and Alec leaned
his head back against the wall. Just great. Well, right now, Logan would be at
Max’s, telling his version of the story. Max would probably be packing to leave
with him. Life pretty much sucked.
He closed his eyes. Now
what?
>>>>>
Max stared at Logan. Had Alec
really hit Logan? It sounded possible, they had had an argument the day before,
and there had always been friction between them, for one reason or another.
“Max” Logan spoke quietly,
moving towards her and pulling her into his arms. “I know that you care about
Alec. He’s Ben’s twin, of course you would feel something for him. But, if you
could have seen the look on his face today… Max, it made me wonder if maybe he
isn’t all there.”
“But the tests Manticore did
after Ben was… after they took Ben’s body back, found out what he did. They
would have found anything that was wrong with him.”
“Okay, but we still don’t
know what happened when White captured him. They injected him with something
that made him blind, what if it had some side effects we don’t know about? Has
he been acting differently since the rescue?”
Max pulled away from him.
Could it be true? Alec had been acting differently, it was pretty much after
the rescue that he started acting so sweet. “No. I don’t believe it.” She
shrugged.
“Max, he’s dangerous. He has
all these kids believing in him, ready to attack on his command, do anything he
asks.”
>>>>>
“Hey, Alec?” Mole caught
sight of him sitting against the wall, his eyes closed. Had he taken a hit from
Logan? He hadn’t seen one, but you could never trust humans. “Get Neil” he told
a young X7, who ran off. “Alec?” Mole knelt beside him, and touched his
shoulder.
“Go away” Alec muttered, not
opening his eyes.
“You okay?”
“Mmm.”
“Alec, open your eyes.”
Neil. He must have been right inside HQ to get there that fast.
“I’m fine. Leave me alone.”
Alec blocked them out. He concentrated on his breathing, trying to calm his
mind. Somewhere in his mind were the memories he wanted. The rest of the scene
with Sandeman, for one. What had happened after he had put the journal away?
He couldn’t remember. Okay.
Focus on one thing at a time. The stick. Sandeman’s walking stick. Try that.
No, that was what Sandeman had told him to focus on, to forget everything else.
The journal then. A small book, leather, with a slightly rough cover. When you
opened the book, it made a cracking sound, remember? Like it hadn’t been opened
too many times. The paper was indented where the pen had…
He saw the room. Sandeman
standing there. He saw himself gesture towards the door, Sandeman leaving the
room, having a quick glance back, out the window. They walked down the hall,
flanked by the other three. Then they were going out the door, and there was a
van there. Grey panel, the type Manticore always used on undercover missions.
The back of the van opened.
>>>>>
Neil looked at Mole, a
worried expression on his face. Mole had said that he had just found Alec
sitting there, and that Alec had spoken to Mole briefly, as he had spoken to
him when he had arrived. But Alec hadn’t said anything in ten minutes. Neil
couldn’t get him to respond. He turned back to Alec, lifting his eyelids to
check for a reaction. His eyes were unfocussed, darting backwards and forwards.
“What is that, REM sleep?”
he spoke to himself. “Alec!” he yelled in the other man’s face, slapping him on
the face.
Alec moaned in response, his
head moving slightly, but apart from that, not reacting.
“I don’t like this” he told
Mole.
“Me neither. Wake him up.”
“Any ideas?”
“Just one.” He leant forward
and belted Alec in the stomach. Alec gasped, breathing hard. His eye movement
slowed and he looked over at Neil.
“What the fuck?” he groaned,
clutching his stomach. “I only told you to go away. I’ve said worse than that
to both of you before.”
“What happened after you
told me to go away?”
“You hit me.”
“Alec, you spaced out. There
was like a ten minute gap when we couldn’t get a response out of you. What was
going on?”
Alec stared at him. “Uh, I
was just thinking, lost in thought.” He stood up, slowly.
“I want to do a full
physical, okay? Just to be safe.”
“Neil, leave me alone, okay.
I’m fine. There’s just a lot going on right now.”
“I just want…”
“Leave it.” Alec turned away
from them and left.
>>>>>
Neil knocked on Max’s door.
He hated the idea of going to her, it felt like he was betraying Alec, but if
something was wrong, he needed to tell someone. If Alec was sick, he needed
help.
Max opened the door. “Not a
good time” she told him. “Can it wait?”
“Not really. It’s about
Alec.”
Max sighed. “Isn’t
everything these days?”
“Huh?”
“Nothing. What now?”
Neil told her what had
happened, borrowing information from Mole about the fight, giving his own
observations as to afterwards.
Max sank down onto a chair.
“Logan thinks Alec may be
sick. Mentally.” She watched Neil for any kind of reaction, scared that he
might confirm it.
“I don’t think so. We were
taught the signs pretty thoroughly during med training. Stressed, definitely.
In need of someone to talk to, yeah. Not insane though. Logan, on the other
hand…”
“I don’t want to hear it.”
“I’m just saying. He sees
things differently to what they are, sometimes.”
Yeah. Alec had said pretty
much the same thing.
>>>>>
“Alec.”
“Go away”
“You said your place had an
open door policy, remember?” Max told him, coming in and sitting beside him on
the bed.
“Do you remember everything
I say?” he asked her, finally looking at her.
“Some things. Were you
asleep? It’s afternoon.” She reached out and touched his leg. “You okay?”
“Just had a headache. No big
deal.” Alec went to sit up, and Max shoved him back down onto the bed.
“I want Neil to check you
out.”
“God! I’m fine.” Alec
groaned in frustration. “I had a headache. It’s kind of stressful not beating
Logan up on a daily basis. Why does everyone keep making such a big deal about
it?”
“Because we care about you.”
She told him, resting her hand on his.
“Yeah, whatever. Max, feel
free to keep talking, but my head really hurts, so could you do it quietly?”
“Yeah, okay.” Max sat in
silence for a few minutes, watching Alec breathing steadily, his eyes closed.
He smiled slightly, and moved his leg to press against her.
She put her hand on his
knee, moving it up his leg slightly.
He laughed. “I said, talk,
not do that.”
“You don’t want me to touch
you?”
“Hell yes, I want you to
touch me, but teasing me isn’t fair.” He reached up and pulled her down to lie
beside him. “This is better.”
Max laughed, adjusting her
body to lie completely against him, she laid her head on his chest, and ran a
finger over his stomach. “Hold me” she whispered, and smiled as she felt his
arm tighten against her.
“I changed my mind” he told her, running his hand up her back to her neck.
“Hmm?” she responded, moving
her hand under his shirt and tracing his abs.
“Tease me. Please.”
Max laughed, moving closer
to him. “Can we just stay like this?”
“No problem. But… Logan?”
“I don’t want to think about
him tonight, okay?”
“No problem.” Alec laughed,
pulling her closer to him, almost on top of him. “No problem at all.”
>>>>>
Max sighed and moved closer
to him, if that was possible. Her head moved against his neck, and she felt
Alec move, shifting slightly on the bed.
“How’s the headache?” she
asked him, her lips brushing against his neck as she spoke.
“What headache?” Alec
whispered, tangling his fingers in her hair to hold her head where it was.
“Alec” she pulled back to
stare at him.
“I’m fine.” He told her,
pulling her head down towards his, lifting his head off the pillow to meet her
half-way. Their lips met and Max returned the kiss, her mouth forcing itself
against his, pushing Alec back onto the bed. She moved on top of him, and Alec
ran his hands down her body to her hips, helping her, making sure she was in
the position he wanted her to be in. Max laughed, biting Alec’s neck lightly,
and he moved his hips off the bed against hers in response.
She pushed her hips down
against his, and he groaned, locking his hands tighter around her back, and
forcing her harder against him.
“Alec” she whispered,
pulling back from him slightly, and he let her, loosening his grip only as much
as she asked, no more. Max moved down his body, trailing a finger down the thin
material of his shirt. Alec gasped as she reached his waist.
“Max” he choked out, trying
to pull her back up against him. He wanted to feel her mouth against his,
needed it so badly that he could hardly think. She laughed softly, pulling his
shirt up and kissing his stomach. Alec arched up against her as her tongue
caressed the muscles there.
Max heard Alec’s breath go
ragged, and she smiled. She was enjoying herself more than she wanted to admit,
and she still couldn’t figure out why. Why every time they were alone, she
started thinking about stuff that she had never thought about doing to anyone
else. She lifted her head enough to see his face. Alec lay back, his eyes
closed, and a faint smile on his face. There was something in his face,
something that she hadn’t seen before. He looked peaceful. The guys she had
been with before, the very few, were all so impatient, so dominant. She had
expected Alec to be the same, it was clear that was the way he was with other
women. But he seemed to be letting her take charge here, not initiating anything,
just reacting to what she was doing.
He opened his eyes and
smiled at her, and Max felt her heart melt.
“What?” he asked her,
running a hand up her arm. “What is it?” he asked again, his eyes locking
against hers.
She shook her head.
“Nothing” she told him, moving her legs so she was straddling him, and sitting
up. Alec bit his lip, and she saw one of his hands clench as he tried to force
himself not to move. She felt a sudden desire to force him to lose control,
just to see what he would do. She let one of her fingers trace a line down his
chest, to his stomach. She reached the waist of his jeans and ran her hand over
him, her fingers rubbing the denim, feeling the hardness beneath.
Max smiled at Alec’s sharp
intake of breath. She looked at him.
“Having fun?” he asked her,
his voice ragged.
“Oh yeah” she told him,
pressing her hips down harder against him, and leaning back.
Alec sat up quickly, his
arms pulling her hard towards him as he locked his mouth against hers. The kiss
was harsh, brutal, and he felt Max return it with equal force. The taste of
blood filled his mouth, but whether it was his, or hers, he didn’t know. He
didn’t care, either. His hands wrapped around her waist, pulling her higher
against him, and he turned them with a flip of his hips.
Max felt herself fall, and
Alec’s weight press against her. She pulled him harder against her, wrapping
her legs around his waist and squeezing.
Alec moaned into her mouth,
his hand frantically pushing her shirt up and moving up her side until he felt
her breast. He grabbed her, hard, and even then Max still pushed up against
him, wanting more. His thumb brushed her nipple and she cried out, her mouth
still locked hard against his. She jerked her hips against him, and he forced
her down against the bed, using all of his weight to hold her there.
Alec found himself losing
control and pulled back slightly. He had to calm down or he was going to lose
it completely. He looked down at Max, her bruised mouth outlined in red, a too
deep red to be anything but blood. He traced a finger around the outline of her
lips, and she bit his finger lightly, her tongue caressing his finger tip.
He leaned down to kiss her
again and she moved her head slightly. He stopped. “What?” he whispered, his
voice sounding strange, even to him.
“If we do this now, we won’t
stop.” She told him
“Sounds good to me” Alec
laughed, kissing her neck lightly.
“Logan.” She said and he
jerked back. “It’s not right” she told him. “Me and Logan, he thinks we’re
still, you know…”
“His problem” Alec told her,
moving his hips against hers again.
“Alec, it’s not fair. Not to
him, or to you.”
Alec sighed, resting his
head against her neck. Fine, so she was traditional. It’s not like he hadn’t
known that already. “I feel like I can’t breathe.” He told her. Max nodded,
knowing what he meant. She wanted him, wanted to be close to him, but she just
couldn’t take that final step. She owed it to Logan to at least tell him what
was happening.
And she would. Just as soon as she figured it out herself.
>>>>>
Mole’s watch beeped and he
looked down. “Nineteen hours” he commented.
Neil laughed. “What are you,
keeping count?” he asked
“Hell yes. In fact, what I
was thinking of doing was rigging up one of those huge digital timers, the ones
that count down in milliseconds. And then, when it hits zero, I’m gonna
programme it to play something. The Hallelujah chorus, perhaps.”
“What about, ‘Who let the
dogs out’?” Shay offered, grinning. “Kind of appropriate, really.”
Mole looked over at the boy
and grinned. “See, there you go. Want to help?”
Shay slapped his
outstretched hand. “Do you think Alec was serious?”
“He usually is” Neil joined
the conversation. “About what in particular?”
“About not hurting Logan. I
mean, him and Logan, they both want Max, right? So why help your opponent? Why
stop him from getting his ass kicked?”
“Don’t know. Hey, pass that
sanding block?” Shay threw it over. Neil took out a wicked looking blade and
began sharpening it.
“What’s left, 18 hours and
50 minutes?”
>>>>>
Storm was dreaming. He lay
on a couch, covered only by a thin blanket, his head moving from side to side
with the force of the dream. He was running through a maze, with walls so high
that he couldn’t see above them. The night was so dark that the walls appeared black too. He couldn’t se
where he was going, and only when he crashed into a wall, did he know that one
was there. Yet he was running, faster and faster, almost blurring, trying to
stay ahead of what was coming. He crashed into another wall, hitting his head
on it, and the shock sent him staggering back. He fell to the ground. Above
him, the night seemed so quiet, stars everywhere, so bright that it hurt his
eyes to look at them. When he closed them, he could still see the shapes, small
points of light.
Storm opened his eyes,
gasping for breath. What the hell? Even now, staring, wide awake, he could see
the image of those stars. And he felt afraid. He staggered into his bathroom
and flicked on the light. He turned the tap on, and started splashing his face
with cold water. The water swirled down the plughole, a reddish pink colour.
He didn’t want to look in
the mirror, was scared of what he might see. But his eyes lifted without his
consent. Storm saw his reflection, wide eyed with fear, his cheeks coloured,
and a cut on his forehead, not too deep, but deep enough to draw some blood. It
hadn’t been there before he had gone to bed.
>>>>>
<dream sequence>
Alec rested the gun on his
lap, not needing, or wanting to point it at the man. Sandeman was following
their orders easily enough, it was like he had accepted that they were going to
take him, and was just going along with it.
He saw Sandeman looking at
him, and as he turned towards him, the old man looked towards the window. Alec
shook his head slightly, he didn’t understand. The man moved his hand to his
lap and moved his middle finger over his first finger.
What the Hell? That was a
manticore signal. Recall. Recall what? It made no sense. He glanced back at
Sandeman, who was staring out the window again.
>>>
He watched as they dragged
Sandeman away. They took him inside the PsyOps wing, And Alec just watched.
Correction, 494 watched. He wasn’t Alec yet, didn’t feel like Alec.
He felt sick. 494 stood in
the centre of the parade ground, breathing deeply, trying to calm down. It was
dark, must have been close to midnight. He turned around slowly.
“What are you doing, 494?”
He jerked to attention.
“Nothing, Sir.”
“Director wants to see you,
now.”
“Sir.” 494 followed the
guard into the same door that Sandeman had been taken through.
“What happened when you went
into the room?” a medtech asked him.
Focus on the Manticore cane,
494 thought to himself. Just like Sandeman had told him.
“The target was standing by
the window. He had a cane in his hand, I told him to come with me. He
followed.” 494 reported.
The tech moved closer to
him, and 494 felt a prick in his neck.
“Again, tell me what
happened.”
“He was by a window, had a
cane” 494 heard his words begin to slur, found it harder to form words.
A light shone into his eyes.
“What happened?” the voice
sounded strange, distant.
494 tried to answer but
could only let out a moan. He felt a sharp blast of electricity shoot through
his side.
<reality>
Max felt Alec move, and woke
slowly. She reached for him, moving closer to him. She had loved sleeping with
him, just sleeping, feeling him hold her as she went to sleep, knowing that he
would be there when she woke up. She heard him moan lightly, and laughed to
herself as she started to drift back off to sleep.
Alec moaned again, jerking
his body, and Max’s eyes flew open. He sounded in pain that time.
“Hey” She whispered, shaking
his shoulder lightly, trying to wake him up. “Alec? Wake up.”
He moaned again, moving his
head from side to side.
“Hey. Wake up.” She spoke
louder. Her conversation with Neil the other day flashed through her mind. Neil
and Mole not being able to wake Alec up, Mole having to punch him to make him
come around. She didn’t want to do that, but she also didn’t like the idea of
him staying asleep, or whatever he was.
“Alec!” she yelled, shoving
him.
He jerked awake, sitting up
in bed and gasping.
“Alec?” Max touched him
gently on the shoulder. He spun around, staring at her. Max got the impression
that he didn’t recognise her. “Hey, it’s me” she told him quietly, starting to
get worried. His eyes were wide, scared, and his whole face was grey.
“Max?” he asked softly,
reaching out his hand to touch her face. His hand stopped in mid air, and he
gasped.
“What is it?” she asked him.
Alec’s breath quickened as
he remembered his dream. The med tech with the taser. He lifted his shirt up.
“What the hell?” Max gasped,
pushing him back on the bed, and sitting on top of him. Any other time, Alec
would have loved this, but right now, he just felt scared.
Max ran her hand over the
red mark on his side.
“You didn’t have this last
night.” She told him. “I would have seen it.”
Alec smiled, then.
“I had this dream, a med
tech hit me with a taser.”
Max stared at him.
“This is so fucking weird.”
Alec commented, moving off the bed. “I’m sorry, Max, but I need some fresh air.
I’ll be back soon, okay?”
>>>>>
<the following day…>
Neil walked into HQ and
burst out laughing. Mole had actually made good on his statement, and had built
a digital clock. It was counting down, with about 15 minutes to go. He watched
it for about a minute, admiring the brilliance of his friend, then headed over
to join him.
“Nice, man.” He told him.
Mole looked up, grinned, and offered him a cigar.
“So, what does it play when
it reaches zero?”
“Nothing.” Mole frowned.
“Ran out of time.” He held up a knife
that he had been sharpening. The thing looked sharp, beyond sharp.
“You’re not going to really
hurt him, though, right?”
“Ruin all my fun” Mole
looked at his clock. Ten minutes till deadline. He grabbed the knife, and went
hunting for Logan.
>>>>>
Alec leant against a wall
outside the building Logan had been staying in. Max was up there talking to him
now. They had better hurry up. He hadn’t really been paying much attention to
the time, but he knew the 24 hour limit he had given Logan had to be up. Which
meant that any transgenic could go after Logan. He had basically given them
permission.
>>>>>
“You have to leave, now” Max
told him, getting more and more frustrated.
“Why, because Alec said so?
Newsflash, Max. I don’t do everything Alec tells me to do. Time was, you didn’t
either.”
“It’s not about doing it
because Alec said to. Look, there are a lot of transgenics here that are angry
with humans. You’re the only human here, that makes you a target. Besides, you
can’t stay here for much longer, Logan. You’ll get sick.”
“Joshua’s blood is doing
fine so far. I’ll feel it when it wears off.”
Max groaned in frustration.
WHY wouldn’t he listen? Just for once, why couldn’t he do what she asked?
“Max, Alec is sucking you
into his game. You used to be able to pick up on his bullshit. What’s changed?”
Max glanced at her watch.
She had synchronised it with Mole’s timer. Two minutes left. “Logan, I’m asking
you. Leave.”
“I have work to do.” Logan
told her, turning back to his computer.
“Fine, whatever.” She
stormed out of the room and onto the street. Across the road, she caught sight
of Alec, watching the house, and crossed over to join him.
“Where’s Logan?” he asked.
She shoved him up against
the wall, and kissed him harshly, pouring all of her frustrations into the
kiss. Alec was stunned. He didn’t react at first, then kissed her back, very
softly, in direct contrast to hers.
“Are you trying to be
annoying?” Max asked him, frustrated.
“Hey, it’s not me you’re mad
at” Alec reminded her. “Kiss me any time you want, tell me to do anything you
want, but remember that.”
“Would you do it?” she
pulled back completely, staring at him.
“What? Kiss you?” Alec
grinned.
“No. Do what I tell you. If
I asked you to do something, would you do it?”
“Are we talking sexually
here?” She punched him lightly. “Yes,” he told her simply. “Look, Max, how many
stinking sewers have I followed you into? How many times have I put myself at
risk because you asked me to? You need me to do something, fine. I’ll do it.”
She looked at him. And there
it was. All of the questions that had been running through her mind for days,
answered in one simple statement. Logan would help her, when it was convenient.
He would follow her advice, or orders, only when he had nothing better to do.
Alec would do those things merely because she asked him to. And he would expect
nothing in return.
Alec turned from her, and
she looked up. Mole, Neil and some others were walking casually down the
street. Shit.
Alec saw them coming, and
went to meet them. He stood in front of Mole, and waited.
“Come on, man.” Mole whined.
“Just leave it, alright?”
“We just want him gone,
that’s all” Neil told him. “He isn’t one of us. He doesn’t understand, yet he
thinks he can tell us what to do.”
Alec shrugged. How could he
argue with that? “He’s going, okay? You have my word on that.”
“Good enough” Mole told him.
“But, can you make him leave without talking anymore? I am SO sick of his
voice.”
“I’ll gag him myself.” He
turned back to Max, trusting that Mole and the others wouldn’t cause any
trouble.
“Hey, Alec?” Neil spoke up.
He stopped. Neil kept
talking.
“Look, this is kind of
weird, it’s probably nothing, but you know that kid, Storm? From the alley the
other day? Well, he has this cut on his forehead, it’s kind of bad, but he told
me this bullshit story when I asked him how it happened. It doesn’t look like a
sparring injury.”
“He’s a kid, accidents
happen. I wouldn’t worry.” Alec told him, turning back to Max, his lips still
tingling from her kiss, wanting to go somewhere alone with her, really fast.
“What did he say happened?”
Max asked, coming up to join them, standing close to Alec, her arm brushing up
against him.
“That he had this dream,
where he fell down. When he woke up, he was bleeding.”
Alec stopped breathing. He
touched his side. He turned to look at Max, and found her already staring at
him.
“We should…”
“Yeah”
“Uh Guys? Want to let us in
on the deal?” Mole asked impatiently, his gaze darting from Alec to Max and
back again.
“Later. Listen. You hear
about anything else like this, I want to know about it, okay? Night or day,
find me. Particularly if it is an X series. Understand?”
“Yeah, no problem.”
>>>>>
“Tell me.” Alec jumped up to
sit on a crate in the alley. Storm looked at him nervously.
“I just, I don’t really
remember.” He didn’t know what to say. Was Alec questioning him to see if he
was insane? A nomaly? Would he be kicked out of TC for having a stupid dream?
“I had this dream, a while
back. I was on a mission, punched out a glass window. When I woke, my hand was
bleeding. Then, last night, it was like the dream continued, and I was in
PsyOps. A medtech hit me with a taser, and now I have this.” Alec pulled his
shirt over his head, and touched the mark on his ribs.
“I was running through a
maze, hit my head on something. What’s going on?” Storm looked up at Alec,
asking him for an answer.
“I want to give you
something to read.” Alec pulled the journal out of his back pocket and tossed
it to Storm. “Keep it confidential, but tell me and Max what you think, okay?”
>>>>>
“Can I show you something?”
Max asked.
“Anything.”
Max reached down and pulled
her shirt over her head.
Alec felt his mouth go dry,
and he took a step forward. Max rolled her eyes, and pointed to her stomach.
There was another black tattoo by her ribcage.
“Another one?” Alec knelt
before her, running his hand over it. He looked up at her. “But I thought that
it was like a message from Sandeman. I thought we did all that. When the cop
followed us back to TC, and you stopped the bloodshed? Wasn’t that what the
message meant?”
“Apparently not. This is the
second one in two days. Maybe there’s something else I need to do.”
“Two? Where’s the other one?”
“My hip.” She pulled the
waistband on her jeans down slightly. Alec moved his hand to pull it down
further, give himself a better view.
“Weird.”
“Alec, top ten things you
shouldn’t say when taking a girl’s jeans off…” they both spun around. Neil
stood in the doorway, enjoying the view of Alec kneeling in front of Max.
“Come have a look at this.”
Alec told him, and Neil stepped forward.
“Weird pretty much covers
it.” Neil commented.
“So there’s more appearing?
We need to figure out what this means.”
“What we need to do, is
figure out what everything means” Max told him, pulling her shirt back on and
looking at Alec. He nodded.
“We need to organise a
meeting. Us, Mole, Shay, Storm” she suggested.
Neil nodded. He had had a
feeling for a while now that something was going on between them, something
more than just sexual tension.
“Dix as well.” Alec added.
“He helped translate the runes the first time, may have some insight.”
>>>>>
“So, what you’re saying,”
Mole spoke up, “is that we’re looking for 4 Xs, one of whom doesn’t exist. Alec
and Storm, maybe, and one or two others?”
“And we need to figure out
what the tattoos mean.” Dix put in, thrilled to be part of this group. He had
been a drone at Manticore, someone who did scut work. It was nice to think that
he was being included in this.
“So, what was in the second
package we stole?” Shay asked.
“Nothing.” Alec replied. “It
was the cancellation order for the 8 series. There was a date scrawled in pen
in the margin, but that was all.”
“What date?” Dix grabbed a
pen.
“Can’t remember, I’ll check,
get back to you.”
>>>>>
<midnight, same day>
“My turn to show you
something?” Alec stood in Max’s doorway.
“What’s that?”
“Come on” he grinned,
reaching out his hand for hers.
“Where are we going?” she
asked again, taking his hand, and smiling. It was the simple things she missed,
just being able to touch someone without worrying about them dying. The best
thing was, Alec seemed to understand this, offering to touch her often, but not
forcing the issue. “Hey” she said, stopping.
Alec turned to her “Hmm?”
She pulled him into a quick
hug, and kissed his cheek. “Thanks” she told him, smiling.
“No problem” he told her.
“C’mon.”
She asked him again when
they reached the fence. This time he laughed.
“Think you can keep up?” he
jumped the fence, and blurred into the forest.
Max followed him, and caught
up to him after a few minutes.
“What?” she asked him,
starting to laugh. Alec leant against her bike.
“Come on, let’s get out of
here for a while” he told her. “I take it you’re driving?”
Max climbed on the bike,
smiling as she ran her hands over the handlebars, and starting the engine. It
purred to life. “Coming?” she asked Alec, her face lit up with anticipation.
He grinned, and slid onto
the seat behind her, wrapping his hands loosely around her waist.
“Always.”
>>>>>
Dix stared at a piece of
paper in front of him. The top half of it listed the symbols that had appeared
on Max’s skin the first time, and the translation that Logan had worked out.
The bottom half was blank, except for the two new symbols. They made no sense.
The Minoan language was very strange, the meaning of many words depended on the
context they were in. Logan had translated them based on the order that they
had appeared on Max’s skin. That was the obvious approach, but Dix had a feeling
that this was too obvious.
The advantage that Dix, or
any transgenic had over Logan was that they had been trained as soldiers. Even
ditch diggers like him had elementary training, including code breaking
techniques. If you want to really conceal a message, you put in a red herring,
and then put the real message somewhere else.
So, Logan’s translation,
“when the shroud of death covers the face of the earth, the one who’s power is
hidden will deliver the helpless” may not have been that at all. Or it may just
be one of several messages.
“What ya working on?” Mole
leant over his shoulder.
“The translation. It feels
wrong, but I don’t know why.”
“What gets me,” Mole lit a
cigar, “if you want to give a message, why not write it in one place? If I want
to write you a note telling you to do something, I write a sentence, yeah? I
don’t split it up all over the paper. What if you needed it in a hurry? Takes
too long to figure it out.” He shrugged.
“So, there may be something
in the location of the runes?” Dix asked, interested.
“Don’t know.” Mole
commented. “You’re our translation guy. And here’s another thing. We’re relying
on Logan’s translation? We’re trusting that ordinary?”
“Good point. I’ll have
another look at the translation. And where’s Max? I’d like to get a visual on
where all the tattoos appeared.”
“With Alec. I really think
that one can wait until morning.”
“Yeah.” Dix grinned.
“Transgenics really are superior to humans in every way, huh? Logan never stood
a chance.”
“You know it.”
>>>>>
Max gunned the engine,
pushing the bike harder and harder, hurtling down the dark road without the
benefit of any lights.
“Uh, Max, could you slow it
down? Just a little?” Alec yelled in her ear, increasing the force of his grip
around her waist.
“Scared?” she yelled back.
Alec laughed. “Fine. Kill
yourself, and me.”
Max reduced the speed
imperceptibly. “Better?” she yelled over the wind.
“Much” Alec sighed. At least
he was a transgenic, he could heal a lot faster than humans. It wasn’t the
speed so much, but the fact that there were no lights anywhere, only the stars.
He rested his head on Max’s shoulder, closing his eyes. If he was going to die,
he might as well enjoy himself first.
>>>>>
Alec opened his eyes as he
felt the bike slow. Max pulled to the side of the road and stopped the
bike.
“What’re we doing?” he
asked.
“Come on” Max got off the
bike.
“It’s a field.” Alec
commented.
“Yep. Coming?” she jumped a
fence and looked at him. He shrugged. It was going to be a weird night,
obviously.
“What are we doing?” he
asked.
“Looking at the stars” she
shrugged.
“Okay.”
“I just want to be away from
everything, just for a while.”
“Sounds good.” Alec caught
up to her and slipped his arm around her shoulder.
“I miss the space needle.”
She told him, taking a seat on the grass and pulling Alec down beside her.
“Just staring out over the city, looking at the stars, and the lights below.”
“It’s beautiful” he
commented, and Max turned to stare at him. “What, I can’t appreciate stars?”
She laughed, and moved
closer to him. “Why not, I mean, you play the piano, why not stare at stars
too?” she grinned at him.
“Hey” he pushed her
shoulder. “Real funny.”
“Don’t be afraid to be who
you are, Alec” she laughed at him.
He pushed her again, and Max
let herself move back onto the ground. Alec leant over her.
“Stop hassling me.” He
commented, staring down at her.
Max reached up and touched
his cheek. “Sorry” she grinned, clearly not sorry at all.
Alec shrugged, leant down
and kissed her lightly. “Sorry” he whispered, mimicking her.
Max laughed. “Idiot” she
told him.
“So, Logan.” Alec commented,
still leaning over Max, his hand running through her hair. “He’s not leaving,
is he?”
“I don’t think so.” She told
him, sighing.
Alec bit his lip. “Does he
know about us? That we’re… whatever?”
“No. I just don’t know how
to tell him.” She looked up at him, willing him to understand.
Alec nodded, tracing the
outline of her mouth with his finger. “Well, we could have sex in front of him.
That would probably give him a clue. Although it’s Logan, so probably not” he
quickly added, to let her know he was only joking.
Max nodded. “I will tell
him. Somehow.” She lifted her head off the ground. “I’m sorry, Alec. I know I’m
not being fair to you.” She moved closer to him.
“Hey, I’m fine with this
arrangement.” Alec grinned at her. “I still get to kiss you, right?”
“Be serious for a minute.”
“Fine.” Alec sat up, staring
at the stars. “I want you to tell him. Tell him to get out of TC, tell him to
get away from you. Mole and the others, they weren’t joking, you know. They
really don’t want him around. I’m sick of having to protect him when I want to
beat him to a pulp and toss his ass over the perimeter fence myself. Serious
enough for you?”
Max moved closer to him,
resting her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t turn away from me.” She asked him
softly. “If you’re pissed at me, hit me, yell at me, whatever, just don’t turn
away.” She was so sick of that from Logan. He never fought with her, just
turned from her.
“I’m not pissed at you” he
told her, turning back to face her. “I’m frustrated, okay? That’s it.”
“Me too.” She told him. She
pulled him towards her and kissed him, falling back onto the ground and taking
him with her.
>>>>>
Storm closed the journal and
shook his head. It was weird. Could Sandeman really have been talking about
him? Was he one of the four? Alec seemed to think so, so okay. The thing that
stuck with him, was the last sentence. Sandeman’s last message to Alec.
Remember the stars. In his dream, the only thing he could see was the stars
above the maze. As he hit his head, he fell to the ground, and that was all he
could see. Even now, when he closed his eyes, he could see the pattern they made
burning through his eyelids.
He needed to talk to Alec.
It was, what? 2am? he’d be asleep. Maybe he should wait for a while. Or go see
who else was around. It wasn’t like he would get any sleep anyway.
>>>>>
Max pulled Alec harder down
on top of her, biting at his lip in an attempt to force him to deepen the kiss.
He gave in to her, bruising her mouth with his, forcing his tongue against
hers. Max groaned, moving her leg to one side, to allow him to move closer to
her. It still wasn’t enough, she wanted to be closer to him, and she grabbed at
his shirt, pulling it up his body. Alec stopped kissing her long enough to pull
the shirt over his head. He moved his mouth to her neck, biting her lightly,
causing her to groan aloud.
Max’s pager vibrated, causing
both of them to jerk back.
“If it’s Logan, I’m gonna
scream.” Alec commented.
“Mole. He’s got something
for us.”
“Good timing as always” Alec
punched the ground in frustration. Next time, the pager was the first thing to
go, not his shirt.
>>>>>
“Make it good, make it
fast.” Alec told Mole, grabbing a seat.
“Well, sorry to interrupt,
but we thought you should look at this.”
“Thrill me.”
Max punched him, and took a
seat on the floor beside him, resting her arm on his leg.
Mole looked over at Storm,
who was sitting there nervously. “You first.”
“Well, I was reading the
journal, like you said” he started, and Alec turned to look at him, smiling
encouragingly. “The thing that got me was the last sentence, about the stars?
In the maze, it was all I could see.”
“And then I realised.” Dix
jumped in. “Max’s tattoo’s from last time. What if the message in the runes
wasn’t important. What if it was the position of the runes that was important.”
“You lost me” Alec
commented.
“Look, you were in the room
when Sandeman finished writing the journal, right? The last few sentences were
a direct message to you. The last one is weird. It makes no sense.”
“So why include it” Alec
nodded. “Okay, but what the hell is it? A way of identifying us to each other?
We both had strange dreams, they both involved stars. He was telling me how to
find the others?”
“Maybe. But what if it’s
more. Stars. What if the positioning of the tattoos is a map? A star map?”
>>>>>
<following night>
Max walked into the room. It
was almost completely dark, the only light coming from the hole in the roof,
letting in moonlight. She moved quietly over to the bed, and looked down.
Alec lay there, asleep, the
sheet kicked down the bed to reveal his muscled torso. He muttered something,
and moved slightly on the bed. Max bit her lip.
“Alec” she whispered,
touching his shoulder lightly. His eyes snapped open.
“Huh?” he muttered, rubbing
his eye with his hand. “Max? what’s going on?” more awake now, he sat up
slightly, leaning towards her.
Her hand moved from his
shoulder, slipping down his arm, feeling the tight muscles.
“Can we talk?” she
whispered, running a finger back up his arm.
“Yeah, sure” He moved over
on the bed to give her room to sit down.
Max sat, leaning back
against his leg slightly. “I talked to Logan tonight.”
“Yeah? Convince him to leave
yet?”
“Hmm, and I told him about
us.”
“What?” Alec sat up further.
“Give me that again?”
“I told him there was
something between us, and that I needed to find out what that was.”
“Are you okay?” he asked
her, moving his hand around her waist to rest on her hip.
Max smiled. It had been
hard, really hard to say that to Logan. She still thought of him as her best
friend. She just didn’t think of him romantically anymore.
“Yeah, I guess.” She said
quietly, moving her hand to rest on Alec’s.
“What can I do?” he asked
“I don’t want to be alone”
she told him, leaning further back into him.
“I’m not going anywhere.” He
told her. “Come here.”
Max moved into his arms, and
laid down beside him.
Alec shifted to lie on his
back, pulling Max down so she was resting almost on top of him. “This okay?” he
whispered.
“Hmm” Max replied, running
her hand down his chest. Alec laughed slightly. He tightened his arm around
her, putting a slight amount of pressure on her side, hinting at her to move
closer to him.
She moved on top of him, and
Alec put both his arms around her, shifting under her so that her body aligned
perfectly with his.
Max looked down at him,
running her hand through his hair, and kissing him lightly. He groaned, lifting
his head off the bed to kiss her again. Max gasped as she felt his tongue enter
her mouth, and she kissed him back harder, forcing him back down onto the bed.
Alec gave in without a struggle. He had absolutely no problem with this. His
hands moved down to her waist, and he pulled at her shirt, trying to pull it
up, wanting to feel her skin bare against his.
Max sat up and he moaned,
not wanting her to move away from him. She laughed and straddled his waist,
pulling her shirt over her head. She heard a sharp intake of breath and saw
Alec staring at her.
“God” he whispered, sitting
up slowly, and pulling her tighter against him. His hand moved slowly up her
stomach, until he cupped her breast with his hand.
Max’s breath quickened and
she moved forward, pushing against his hand.
Alec grinned, and rubbed his
thumb across her nipple.
Max cried out at the
sensation, moving her hand to the back of his neck and pulling his head forward.
He followed her cue, taking her nipple in his mouth, and rolling his tongue
lightly across the tip.
She writhed against him,
against his lap, and she felt him grow hard beneath her. He bit her lightly,
and she retaliated, grinding her hips against his. Alec’s breath went ragged,
and his mouth sought hers, kissing her harder, pushing her backwards onto the
bed. He moved on top of her, pressing his hips against hers moving his mouth to
her neck, feeling, rather than hearing her cry out as he bit her neck softly.
“Alec” Max groaned, and he
pulled back to look at her. Her eyes were bright, and she fought for breath,
pulling him down against her. He kissed her again, and she felt her control
slipping. She forced her hips off the bed against him, slipping her hands
inside his boxers and pulling his body harder against hers.
“Max” Alec gasped, trying to
pull away slightly. He felt like he was going to lose control at any second,
and he wanted to retain some control, at least for a little while longer.
“No” she whispered. “No more
pulling away” she flipped them over and moved her hands around between their
bodies, pulling his boxers down and taking him in her hand.
Alec stopped breathing.
Her finger lightly ran down
the length of him, and he gasped, suddenly fighting for breath, his hand
clenching at his side, grasping the sheet, trying his hardest not to move.
Max looked at him as she ran
a finger over his tip. He whimpered, opening his eyes slowly, forcing his head
back against the bed.
“God, slow down.” He
pleaded, fighting for control. He was not going to lose it already. “Max” he
begged as she refused to stop, tightening her grip on him.
Finally she eased up,
enjoying watching Alec fight for breath.
“Fine” he gasped when he
could breathe again. He flipped them over, and pressed all of his weight down
against her, his hand kneeding her breast.
It was Max’s turn to cry
out, and she moved up against him.
Alec grinned as he sat up,
undoing her jeans slowly.
“Alec” Max begged, reaching for him.
His eyes locked against hers
as he pushed her jeans and panties down. She cried out, lifting her hips off
the bed, trying to move against his hand. He slipped his hand between her legs
as he stroked her, never breaking eye contact. His thumb touched her clit, and
she cried out, jerking harder against him.
“Easy” he whispered, moving
down on top of her, his hand still between her legs. He kissed her softly as
his fingers entered her. She was so wet that he gasped.
“Alec, please” she begged.
“Don’t you want to take this
slow?” he asked her, even as he felt the last of his control leaving him.
“No” she gasped, arching
against him, forcing his fingers further into her.
Alec slid his fingers out of
her, moving his body so that his tip lay just against her. He moved slightly,
teasing her as he kissed her, feeling her bite his lip in frustration. He
leaned back far enough to see into her eyes, and entered her slowly, a bit at a
time, not wanting to hurt her, and resisting an urge to take her roughly. When
he was fully inside of her, he kissed her lightly.
“Okay?” he asked her softly.
She jerked up against him in
response, forcing him deeper inside of her.
“Alec, I need you” she
whispered, and he groaned, having waited so long to hear those words. He pulled
out of her, nearly all the way, before moving inside of her again, slightly
harder and quicker this time. His breath quickened.
“Harder” she whispered,
kissing him roughly and pulling him even closer to him.
Alec’s self control fell
away, and he pulled out of her, slamming into her, over and over. He felt her
walls tighten against him, and pulled her closer against him, his arms moving
behind her back.
“Max” he gasped, his breath
quickening as he moved harder and harder against her.
She cried out his name as
she climaxed, jerking up against him and sending him over the edge too.
>>>>>
“Here’s something
interesting” Dix commented. Mole looked up
“Huh?” they had been working
on the thing for about twenty four hours now. Twenty four hours straight.
“You know how you told me to
recheck Logan’s translation? Well, it’s not quite right.”
“That figures. What did he
screw up?” Mole took a seat at the table.
“Not screwed up, so much,
just that he… well, words have more than one meaning, right? Logan didn’t
consider that there are several ways to translate sentences, particularly when
it comes from a foreign language. Also, words don’t always mean the same thing
as they did back then.”
“Summarise. Please.” Mole
shook his head in confusion.
“Okay, it’s this bit here,
‘the one with the power.’ The word can be translated as power, but power doesn’t always mean physical
strength.”
“Dix, I have a gun.”
“Okay, okay. If you consider
other languages around at more or less the same time- Mycenean, Latin, Greek,
they all talk about power as the same thing. Knowledge. It’s not that Max has
power, it’s that she has knowledge.”
“Great. So what? What
difference does it make?”
“Not a lot, but it kind of
supports my theory about the tattoos being a map.”
“I’ll buy it.” Mole
commented. “So Max does have knowledge that we need.”
“Yeah, but how the hell are
we supposed to get it? We have the photos taken from when the tattoos appeared,
but there aren’t that many of them. There aren’t enough to use it as a map.”
Dix shrugged.
“You’ll figure it out.” Mole
told him. “Come on, it’s morning, again, let’s go find something to eat. Or
drink. I need a beer. We’ll put it on Alec’s tab. He owes us for this, working
our asses off while he has fun.”
>>>>>
Alec woke slowly, fighting
the return to consciousness, wanting to stay asleep, stay where he was for a
bit longer. He moved his leg slightly, and felt Max’s brush up against him. He
smiled, and opened his eyes slightly.
“Hey.” He whispered, seeing
her already awake.
“Hey” she replied
“You
okay?” Alec asked, moving slightly closer to her. “Last night, are you okay
with that?”
“Hmm” she replied, kissing
his shoulder lightly. “Mole rang”
“Huh? I didn’t hear the
phone”
“You’re a heavy sleeper” she
told him, pushing him slightly. “Come on. He wants to meet for breakfast.”
>>>>>
Mole leaned against the wall
outside Logan’s place. It was from here that he had called Alec, having caught
sight of Logan hanging around outside Alec’s apartment. Logan had stood there
for a long time, then he stormed back to his apartment. It was way too good not
to follow.
And it got better.
Mole rang Alec to tell him,
and got Max.
He arranged a meeting for
later that morning, then hung up, leaned against the wall and lit a cigar.
An hour, and three cigars
later, Logan emerged from the building, carrying a small bag. Mole ducked into
the alley, gave Logan a head start, then followed him. He wasn’t really trying
to conceal his presence, but Logan never noticed him.
They reached one of the
unguarded entrances to Terminal City, and Logan stopped walking and turned
back, looking around. Mole stayed where he was and lit another cigar, flicking
the butt of the first one in Logan’s direction.
Logan shook his head and
slipped through the fence, leaving TC.
Mole wiped an imaginary tear
from his eye and waved goodbye to Logan. Then he grinned and turned away. Life
was getting so much better.
>>>>>
Dix had moved a table into
the centre of the room he had taken over in HQ. He sat on it and stared at one
of the walls, on which he had hung an over head projector screen. Displayed on
it was a star chart, a black background with several star formations on it. He
messed around with a laptop, altering the stars slightly, moving them apart,
then closer together.
“New hobby?” Alec asked, as
he and Max wandered into the room and grabbed seats.
“Pretty cool huh?” Dix
responded.
“Dix, you’re an artist,
seriously, man. That’s amazing.” Mole walked into the room, a huge grin on his
face. They all turned to stare at him.
“Mole, what the hell?” Alec
asked, smiling slightly.
“What? I’m in a good mood,
that’s all. Some days, I just love being a transgenic.” He moved past Alec to
grab a chair, and punched him on the shoulder. “Know what I mean?” his grin
grew wider.
Alec shook his head lightly,
trying his hardest not to laugh out loud.
“So, what’s the deal?” Mole
asked, gesturing towards the image.
“Well, I used the photos and
scans we did of Max’s tattoos, and kind of flattened them out. This is what I
came up with.”
“Flattened them out?” Shay
asked, moving closer to the screen, wanting to figure out the puzzle, needing
to find some way to impress the group, well, Alec, to cement his place there.
The only reason he was included in all this was because Alec had taken him on
the missions. But now, there was Storm, who had been selected, like Alec. It
kind of made his position in the group redundant.
“Yeah, kind of like… well,
okay. Say I skinned Max, and laid her skin flat on the floor. This is the
result.”
“Nice imagery.” Max
commented, frowning lightly.
“It does kind of look like a
star chart” Alec said, his attention fixed on the screen. There was something
there, something behind the stars, he just couldn’t see what it was.
“It just looks like random
dots to me” Max told him, turning to look at him.
Alec ignored her, his eyes
locked on the screen. “Move them closer.” He told Dix.
“There, stop” Dix did what
he was told. The stars were slightly closer together, but it really didn’t look
that different.
“What is it?” Max touched
his arm, trying to get his attention. He looked like he was spacing out again.
“Hmm?” Alec turned to look
at her, finally, and smiled slowly. “Ah, it looks like something I know, that’s
all. Or something I should know.”
“Alec” Shay spoke up,
suddenly. He had an idea. It might not work, but it was worth a try.
“Yeah?”
“Here.” Shay passed a pen
and piece of paper to him. “Your dream. You saw stars, right? Draw them.”
“They weren’t in any
pattern.” Alec told him, shaking his head. Shay’s heart sank.
“Yeah, they were.” Storm
spoke, reaching for the paper. If he closed his eyes, he could still see the
pattern. He did, drawing on the paper without opening his eyes. 6 dots, in a
random pattern. He opened his eyes and looked at it.
“This is what I saw.” He
passed the paper to Alec. “Look familiar?”
“No. there were only four.
But I can’t remember what they looked like.” He shook his head, passing the
paper to Shay.
“We need to find the X7.” He
told them. “Any clues so far?”
“Well, if we’re assuming
that he’s here, in TC, there are only about a dozen to choose from. I’ve spoken
to two or three” Mole spoke up. “No luck so far.”
“Keep trying.” Alec told
him, shaking his head in frustration.
“Hey, check this out.” They
all turned to face Shay, as he moved over to talk to Dix, pointing something
out. Dix nodded, and hit some keys on the laptop.
“Care to fill us in?” Mole
asked
“Okay. Here’s Storm’s
pattern” a group of stars flashed onto the screen. “And here’s the tattoo
pattern.” The group was replaced by the original image. “And if you overlay the
two,” Dix brought them both up on the screen.
Alec stood up, moving closer
to the screen. Four of the six stars that Storm had joined lined up perfectly
with the original screen. The other two were alone, but there were no other
stars nearby to match them to.
“Nice call, Shay.” Mole
commented, the only one of them able to speak.
>>>>>
Alec slammed his fist into
the wall in frustration. Why couldn’t he picture the stars? If Shay was right,
there was a pattern in what he saw in his dream. But he just couldn’t remember
it.
“You’re going to bring the
whole ceiling down, you know that, don’t you?” Max commented, watching him.
“I was top of my class in
Manticore.” Alec told her. “No matter what they told us, I could always
remember it. Never got less than a perfect score in exams. That’s why I got
pushed through to deep cover missions so fast, because I could never be shaken
from my cover story. I knew it that well.” Max nodded. “And this, probably the
most important thing I need to remember, and I can’t.” he hit the wall again,
and stepped to one side as a chunk of stone fell from the ceiling and hit the
floor right where Alec had just been standing. He looked at it. “Hmm” he
commented.
“If the whole thing caves in
on you, I’m not going to rescue you.” She told him.
“You’re in here too, you
know. It comes down, it hits you too.” He considered what he had said for a
minute. “Can you go sit in the other room?”
Max laughed. “Why don’t you
come sit over here?” she patted the bed beside her.
Alec looked at the bed, then
the wall, then the bed again. He shrugged, and went to join her.
“Don’t force it. You’ll
never remember if you try too hard. And this is from someone who could never
remember the lessons at Manticore.”
“Yeah, okay.” He told her.
“It’s just… we’re nowhere. We haven’t found the X7, don’t know what the hell is
going on with the 8, don’t know what the stars mean…”
“We’ll know. Look, Sandeman
wouldn’t have sent these messages if he didn’t think we could figure it out.”
“Yeah, maybe the 8 was to be
the brains of the operation.”
>>>>>
“Just ask around, okay? Talk
to the others, see if they’ve had any experiences like that.” Storm told a
group of gathered X6s and 7s. They nodded, looking really curious. Dreams
causing injuries? That was beyond weird. Beyond Manticore-weird, which was
really saying something.
Storm walked away, letting
them think about what he had told them. He wanted to talk to a couple of other
7s he knew were around. Someone had to know, surely the story would sound
familiar to someone.
>>>>>
Dix was flicking through a
thick book on astronomy, skimming the text, but looking closely at the pictures.
If it was a star chart, then it had to relate to something, right? But what?
He turned the page and
caught sight of something that grabbed his attention. A constellation, with 6
bright stars. He compared it to the drawing that Storm had made. It matched
exactly.
>>>>>
“Can I talk to you?”
Storm turned. A young kid
stood there, his hands in his pockets. “Tim, right?” Storm asked.
“Uh yeah.”
“So what’s up?”
“Well, I was thinking about
what you were talking about, the dreams and stuff?”
“You had a dream?” Storm
asked quickly, suddenly interested. This kid was about the right age, a 7.
“Not exactly, not like what
you said. I didn’t wake up bleeding or anything, but it was what you were
saying about the stars? I keep having this dream, I’m back at Manticore,
sneaking out of the barracks and onto the roof, and the stars are so bright…”
“Describe them.”
“There were three, really
bright. There were others, but the three, they burned my eyes. Even when I
turned away, I could still see them”
Storm’s breath caught in his
throat. “And when you woke up, and closed your eyes again, you could still see
them?” Storm asked, relating his own memories.
“Yeah.” Tim grinned.
“Draw them.” Storm told him,
pulling a notebook from his pocket. Tim took it and without hesitation traced
three shapes on the paper, like a lopsided ‘V’.
“Come on” Storm told him. “I
want to show you something.” He led Tim back to their room in HQ, wanting to
compare the drawing with Dix’s chart.
>>>
“Hey guys” Storm greeted
them as he entered their room. Dix was there, still reading his book, and Mole
and Shay sat in the corner, talking softly.
“Storm, hey check this out”
Dix waved him over to show him a drawing in his book.
“That’s it. That’s my
dream.”
“Yeah. It’s actually a
constellation. We may have a point of reference.”
“Wild. Want another?” That
grabbed the attention of the others, who moved over to join them at the table.
Storm passed the paper over to Dix.
“Three stars? Okay… here!
Look at this” Three of the tattoos, that had been on Max’s lower back, lined up
perfectly with Tim’s lopsided drawing.
“Where did you get this?”
Mole asked
Storm gestured Tim to come
forward. Tim moved slowly, nervously. He wasn’t sure about these guys. He
hadn’t seen a lot of non human transgenics at Manticore.
“He dreamed about them”
Mole stared at the kid, who
looked down, gazing intently at the ground. “I know you.” Mole told him. “How
do I know you?”
Tim shook his head, then
something changed in him and he looked up, meeting Mole’s gaze fully. If what
Storm had said was true, then they needed him. They weren’t going to kill him.
Probably.
“Got it.” Mole snapped his
fingers. “You stood up to
“Yeah” Tim confirmed,
stepping back slightly as Mole rose out of his chair and came across to him.
“You’re like my hero, kid.
You totally destroyed Logan. The man of many words and little action had
nothing to say. It was classic! Here, have a seat.” He kicked a chair over to
him and offered him a cigar. Tim smiled slightly and sat down.
“Oh, man” Mole turned to
Dix. “Ya should have seen it, Mr Eyes Only, the only free voice blah blah blah,
rendered speechless by a little kid.” He shook his head, smiling at the memory.
“Wish I’d been there.
Welcome, kid.”
>>>>>
“So now we have two
patterns, both corresponding loosely to constellations.” Dix told Alec.
He nodded, and moved closer
to the screen as if to examine the shapes more closely. The real reason was, he
was hoping that the remaining stars would trigger some memory in him. Of the
three of Sandeman’s chosen ones they had found, he was the only one that
couldn’t identify the star pattern he had seen in his dreams. It kind of
annoyed him.
“Now, if only we had three
to work from, we may be able to figure it out.” Mole commented, as if reading
his thoughts. “What about it, Alec? Care to contribute?”
“Shut up” Alec told him,
looking closer. The four in the middle, they looked kind of familiar…
“Hey, I’m just saying, we’re
on a time limit here”
“We? How are you even
involved?” Alec spat out.
The two glared at each
other, and Mole looked away first, seeing a look of anger in Alec’s eyes, and
not wanting to push it.
Alec shook his head and
stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
“What was that about?” Dix
asked slowly.
“Who knows. It’s just Alec
being Alec” Mole commented.
>>>>>
Alec strode through HQ,
angry, but not really knowing why. He wasn’t mad at Mole, more at himself, for
not being able to provide the answers. Mole just voiced aloud what he had been
thinking.
“Uh, Alec, you should see
this.” A female X5 called out to him. He ignored her. “Alec?” she called again.
“What.” He growled, spinning
to look at her. “What is it?”
She stared back at him, not
sure what to say. She didn’t know Alec, but from what she had been told of him,
he was a great guy, nothing like this.
“Sorry” Alec shook his head
and walked over to her, smiling slightly. “My mind was somewhere else. What’s
up?”
“We have a group of
transgenics coming in, but there’s trouble, a whole bunch of Ordinaries outside
the entrance. I think they’ve identified them.”
“Where?”
“South entrance. They’ll be
there in about five minutes”
“Okay. Tell everyone we have
guarding that area to stay alert. I’ll go over there, check it out.” Alec
turned to leave, then looked back at her. “Tell them, if they need to, use
force.” He said it quietly, not wanting to say it, but knowing that the time
was coming when they would have to defend their own, with force. He would just
have to trust in his guards not to shoot recklessly.
Alec left for the entrance
at a run, stopping to grab a pistol off a nearby desk. As he left, he slid the chamber
open. Loaded. Excellent.
>>>
“Have you seen Alec?” Max
asked a female X5 as she came out of the room. She needed to talk to him,
figure out what was going on. She knew that he was frustrated, as she was, but
she seemed to understand one thing that he didn’t. Sandeman meant for them to
figure out the clues, but in their own time.
“There’s trouble by the
south entrance. He went there to check it out.”
“Thanks” Max told her.
>>>>>
The first thing he saw was
five transgenics, three human looking Xs, two not so human. The second, was the
three humans who had guns on them.
“You’re freaks” commented
one of the men. “You don’t deserve to live, not among normal people.”
“We’re not asking to live
among you. We want to live in there.” A transgenic replied, pointing to TC. “We
just want to be left alone.”
“You’re an abomination, God
never intended you to exist.” The man replied.
“And yet we do.”
Alec saw the crowd begin to
mutter. This was not going to end well. Three of the transgenic guards moved
closer, keeping their weapons pointed down, but clearly in sight.
He moved closer too, using a
building to shield himself from the view of the humans, but getting close
enough to react if he had to.
One of the new transgenics,
a young girl, an X7 with long blonde hair and blue eyes stepped towards the
man.
“Am I a freak too? I look
like you.” She bit her lip, looking like any young girl anywhere.
The man hesitated, then
raised his gun to her.
Alec reacted, blurring over
to the scene. A reptilian transgenic, one of the new ones, pulled the girl
behind him.
“Freak!” the man screamed
and fired. The reptile hit the ground, blood pouring from a wound in his
stomach.
Alec reached the scene an
instant later, reaching for the girl, who by this time had started to cry. She
grabbed at him, locking her arms around his neck, refusing to let him go.
“Who’s the freak?” Alec
glared at the man. “You’d shoot a young girl? You think God would approve of
that?”
“He approves of my actions
more than he does of yours”
“You don’t know me. You
don’t know what I’ve done. You know nothing about me. Who gave you the right to
judge?” Alec asked, trying to keep his voice calm. He waved the transgenics
back, towards the entrance to TC. He turned towards TC, taking two steps back
himself, his arms tightly around the young girl.
“It’s okay.” He told her.
“You’re almost home.”
She looked up at him, her
eyes wide. She nodded slowly, before burying her face in his neck again.
“We’re not finished.”
Alec heard the snap of a gun
being cocked. He froze. “When I put you down, run.” He told the girl.
“I don’t want any trouble.”
Alec replied, walking away slowly.
“I do” he pulled the
trigger. Alec felt something hit him in the back of the leg, and he fell forward,
twisting onto his shoulder to try to absorb the impact so the girl didn’t get
hurt.
“Go” he whispered, and the
girl sprinted off, following the rest of her travelling companions. Alec pulled
himself to his feet.
“Stay down freak, or the
next one goes through your head.”
Alec stopped moving. He
glanced over at the transgenics, and shook his head. Noone was to start
anything.
He heard the gun fire again,
and threw himself to one side, avoiding the bullet, but landing heavily on his
shoulder. He groaned. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Max, pushing her way
to the front of the transgenics standing just inside TC.
Max had arrived in time to
see him grab the girl. She had heard the first shot, saw him go down, and she
had felt it as if the bullet had gone through her as well. She had to help him.
At the second shot, she pushed her way through the crowd.
The man saw movement and
spun in that direction. Max kept moving forward.
“Don’t move, or I’ll shoot
you too.”
“Seems to be the day for shooting
unarmed people.” Max commented. As the man pulled the trigger, two things
happened. Max blurred forward to disarm him, and Alec threw himself off the
ground at the man. Alec, being closer, got there first, his foot slamming into
the man’s stomach, sending him flying back several paces.
“Go” he yelled at Max,
sprinting back for the entrance. As they both reached the gate, the guards
slammed it shut behind them.
>>>>>
“Christ, Alec. Next time,
can you hurt the other leg? I’m sick of treating that one.” Neil commented, as
he cleaned the wound.
“Sorry to inconvenience
you.”
“Yeah. This might hurt. The
bullet didn’t come out, I need to remove it.”
Oh that was going to be fun.
“Can I have a painkiller or something?” Alec asked sarcastically. He knew it
was going to hurt. It hurt now.
“Nah, you metabolise it too
fast. It won’t work for long enough to do any good. Ready?”
“Real reason is, you’re a
sadist. Fine. Do it.”
“Alec, who’d you piss off
now?” Mole entered the room. “You trying to alienate the whole world, in one
day?”
“Saves time.” Alec shrugged.
“You okay?” Mole asked him.
Alec nodded.
Mole watched as Neil cut
into Alec’s leg, widening the wound slightly so that he could remove the
bullet. Alec never flinched, just stared straight ahead, as if he didn’t
realise that Neil was hurting him.
“I want to talk to that new
kid, Tim. I want to know why his dreams were different to ours.”
“Yeah, okay. I’ll get him.”
Mole didn’t move, just kept watching Alec closely.
“So, go, already”
Neil cut a little deeper,
and Alec glanced at him, the only sign he gave that it was hurting him.
“Sorry.” Neil told him.
“Mole, I need to talk to
Tim.”
“Later. I’ll talk to him,
get the info you need. Take it easy.”
>>>>>
“How is he?” Max stood in
the doorway, looking in.
“Come in. He’s asleep. I got
the bullet out, so he should be fine.”
“Good” Max moved over to
stand beside the bed.
“Max, have you noticed that
Alec has a really high tolerance to pain? Unusually high, even for us?”
She looked at Neil. “I have
seen him punch through a wall, several times, without flinching. I couldn’t do
that. Have you seen his bedroom?”
“Yeah, the skylight? He says
you did that.”
“It’s not really a skylight
anymore. More like an open air room”
“Oh.”
Neil looked down at Alec,
checking his leg. “This looks fine.” He pressed down on Alec’s skin lightly,
watching the skin go red, then change colour back to its normal shade. “It’s
not infected, that’s good.” He looked up at Max. “Does he always sleep this
soundly?”
Max glanced at him. Did
everyone think that they had been sleeping together for a while now?
“I don’t know.” She told
him, touching Alec’s shoulder lightly.
“What I meant” Neil’s face
coloured slightly “Was that there have been two times recently, when it took a
lot to wake him up. Is that standard?”
“Not that I know of. Why?”
“We’ve been talking over him
for a few minutes now, we’ve both touched him, me on his injured leg, you on
the shoulder he fell on” Max gasped, moving her hand quickly. She hadn’t
realised. “He’s Manticore trained” Neil continued “Why hasn’t he moved?”
>>>>>
Alec opened his eyes as they
both left the room. He hadn’t moved because he had chosen not to. It was that
simple. He moved now, sitting up and rotating his shoulder slightly. Good. He
stood up, putting only the slightest amount of weight on that leg, then adding
more. It felt fine.
He grabbed his jeans and
pulled them on, swearing at the hole in the leg from the bullet. He’d have to
grab another pair from his apartment. His shirt too was torn, and it ripped
further as he pulled it on.
>>
Alec entered his bedroom and
moved to the closet, searching through it for something to wear. He grabbed a
pair of loose black trousers and put them on. The bandage on his leg was just
bulky enough to make jeans a problem. He also found a long white shirt. Alec
looked around the room one more time, and walked out.
He reached the perimeter
fence and jumped it, moving to the place in the woods where they had concealed
Max’s bike. He gunned the engine. Max wouldn’t mind. Not too much, anyway.
>>>>>
“Hey, Alec?” Max walked into
the hospital room and stopped. Where the hell was he? Surely, Neil hadn’t
released him just yet? But Alec wasn’t there. She turned and left the room to
find Neil.
“Where’s Alec?” she asked
him, walking up behind Neil.
“What?” he asked, confused.
“Alec’s gone. Don’t tell me
you released him already?”
“He’s gone?” Neil looked
confused. He crossed the room quickly to peer into the room Alec had been in.
“Shit” he commented. “Where the hell
could he have gone?”
“I just asked you the same
thing.” Max reminded him.
“Look, Max. You gotta find
him. That leg, it can’t be good. It’s been badly damaged twice recently. That
bullet, it tore through some muscle, I was going to operate on it when Alec had
rested a bit more, remove some of the damage.
Where would he go?”
Max thought for a minute. “I
don’t know. In TC? Either his apartment, or the bar. But the fact is, I don’t
believe that he’s still here. He must know that I’ll kill him for leaving here
without your approval.”
>>>>>
From the time Ray had woken
up he knew that that day was going to be special. It was almost time, he could
sense it. His heart was racing, for no apparent reason, and when he looked in
the mirror, his eyes looked brighter than usual. He ran his hands through his
hair. He had finally cut it, it still hung in his eyes, but at least now he
could see. From his pocket, he pulled out a picture of his father and mother
and him. They all looked so happy.
He had spent the last three
days watching his father working, trying to make a decision on what to do.
And he had spent the last
three nights, staring at the stars, watching for the messages he knew lay in
them. All he knew was that the time was coming.
And he was only seven. He
didn’t know what to do.
He heard a change in the tv
programme he had been watching, and he turned to focus on it. A news bulletin
flashed across the screen.
“Late yesterday, some
developments occurred in the transgenic situation in
Ray watched the screen with
interest. He hadn’t seen any of this occurring. On the screen, the cameraman
had perfectly captured the man pointing his weapon at the little girl, her eyes
widened in shock. It panned to the side to show Alec running to help. He looked
incredible in the light, his face so beautiful, so clearly human, that between
him and the little girl, the transgenic approval rating had to have been going
through the roof.
Ray moved closer to the
screen.
The camera shot continued,
showing Alec holding the little girl, then being shot when he had his back
turned.
It was transgenic propaganda
at its finest, even more so because it was not an Eyes Only broadcast, but a
regular news programme.
Ray didn’t blink as the
camera froze on Alec.
“It’s him.”
>>>>>
Mole’s phone rang, and he
grabbed it. “Yeah?”
“It’s Alec. I need a
favour.”
“Where the hell are you? Max
is going ballistic!”
“Wait till she hears I stole
her bike” Alec grinned.
“Oh, God.”
“I need you to do something
for me. Right now, if you can. And I need you to do it without Max knowing.”
“She’s gonna fucking kill
me, man.”
“I know. But I need this.”
“Okay” Mole told him,
sighing. “Tell me.”
“
“Define info”
“Everything. Where he is
now, but particularly the personal stuff. I need photos, or at least a physical
description. Date of birth, all of it.”
“When by?”
“I’ll be back tomorrow. So,
after Max kills me, I’ll need to see you.”
Alec hung up and lay back on
the ground. He had needed to escape so badly, from Max, from everyone who
looked at him like he was going to deliver them from evil, or some such shit.
He closed his eyes and fell
asleep immediately.
>>>>>
“Dix”
“Hey
Max, what’s new?” he looked up.
“Interesting
that you should say that. I have two new tattoo’s since last night. If Sandeman
is trying to send us a message, he’s doing it in a real hurry now.”
“Two
more? Where?”
Max
pulled her shirt up to reveal two new tattoos, side by side on her stomach.
“Interesting.”
Dix
pulled up his computer programme and entered in the location of the two new
ones.
“Hmm”
he commented.
“What?”
“Well,
check it out.” Dix turned the screen to her.
“Why
the two colours?” some of the stars were in red, others in white.
“The
ones in red are from Storm, and Tim. They’re identified, if you like. The
others, we don’t know. I’m guessing Alec knows what they are, or the other one,
the X8, if it exists.”
“But
Alec doesn’t know. Or, he says he doesn’t. Could the reason have something to
do with the fact that the tattoo’s are still appearing?”
“Give
me that again?”
“Okay.
Storm and Tim, they had dreams, could identify star patterns, which were able
to match up exactly with your chart, right? But from what we can tell, Alec was
having dreams before any of the others. If he had been able to remember his
star pattern from the start, we wouldn’t have had the information we have now.”
“I
get it.” Mole leaned in the doorway.
“What
you’re saying, is that the stars Alec sees in his dream, they’re from a pattern
that we don’t have yet. Maybe a pattern involving those two new tattoos of
yours. So if he could remember it from the start, we wouldn’t have clicked on
that the patterns actually referred to patterns on the star chart. We would
have written Storm’s off as coincidence, and we never would have asked the
right questions to identify Tim.”
Dix
nodded. “Sounds good to me. So when Alec does remember, we’re close to
something?”
“I
think so.” Max commented. “So all we need is Alec”
>>>>>
Alec
was dreaming. Images flashed through his mind, faster and faster, unclear, but
they seemed important. A hill, and he could see the stars. No pattern, though,
they were all so bright, and they were moving. Shooting across the sky. The
hill was important for some reason. He looked down, needing to look away from
the stars, they were making him so dizzy. The ground below him was red. Red
grass. He looked closer, it was such a strange sight. He picked a handful of
grass to examine it closer, to see if it was a trick of the light. It wasn’t.
The grass was red.
He
felt a sharp pain in his leg, and looked down. Blood was running down his leg.
He collapsed onto the ground.
Alec
woke with a start and looked down. His black pants looked wet, and when he
touched his leg, his hand came back stained with blood. Shit.
His
left hand that was. His right was clenched in a fist. He slowly opened it. He
held several bits of grass, a strange reddish colour.
Alec
shook his head. “Sandeman, you are really starting to piss me off. Get to the
point already.”
>>>>>
Alec
staggered into the make-shift hospital. His leg hurt, badly. It had taken him
several hours to drive home, at a much slower pace than normal, because the
jarring of the bike hurt him, caused the wound on his leg to open. By the time
he got back to TC, the whole leg of his trousers was drenched, and blood was
filling his shoe. He fell to the ground, and the noise made Neil look up.
“Jesus
Christ, Alec” Neil sprinted over to him, falling to the ground beside him.
“Get
Max” he called to a nurse. “In HQ, go now!” He turned to Alec. “Stay awake, okay?” he told
him, tearing the material open, coating his hands with blood in the process. He
pressed down on the wound, causing Alec to jerk with pain. “So you do feel pain.
That’s nice to know. Shit Alec, what the hell was so important that you had to
leave?”
“I
don’t know” Alec choked out.
“Alec”
Max ran into the room. “Will he be okay?” she asked Neil.
“He’s
lost a lot of blood. I don’t want to move him. Can you hold him down?”
“Yeah.”
Max turned to Alec, putting her hands lightly on his shoulders, then moving one
quickly away from his injured shoulder, and placing it on his chest instead. “I’m going to yell at you
later.” She told him softly.
Alec
laughed, then started to cough.
“Easy”
she told him, pushing him down so he couldn’t move too much.
“Mole
told me that” he choked out.
Max
grinned. “Mole is very intuitive.”
Alec
groaned in response to something Neil did.
“Alec?”
she whispered.
“I
need to see Mole”
“Later.”
“No.
Now. Right now.” Alec struggled to sit up.
“Alec,
for God’s sake” Neil commented
“Max,
please” he asked, struggling for breath.
“Okay”
she responded, unable to deny him anything when he asked her like that.
“Get
Mole” she told the nurse. “Will you relax now?” Max turned her attention back
to Alec.
He
nodded, closing his eyes.
“Okay”
Neil commented. “I’ve stopped the bleeding. He’s lost a lot of blood, we’ll
probably need a transfusion but right now, he seems okay.”
“I
can donate some” Max told him. “I’ve done it before.”
Neil
nodded. “We’ll see. One thing I’ve learnt with Alec, you don’t do anything
without asking him first. He tends to get… frustrated. And I like the fact that
my hospital has a ceiling.”
Max
laughed, and the sound woke Alec. He groaned.
“Sorry”
she told him, stroking his hair.
“S’Okay.
Where’s Mole?” he slurred his words slightly.
“Here.”
Mole stepped forward. “I did warn you she’d kill you for taking her bike”
“You
took my bike?” Max asked him, and Alec started laughing again.
“Don’t”
he told them, fighting for breath.
“Mole,
come back later, okay?” Neil suggested, or ordered.
“No”
Alec whispered, reaching his hand up to gesture him closer. Max grabbed his
hand and held on to it.
“Mole,
did you get that information?” he whispered.
“Yeah.”
Mole knelt beside them.
“Raymond
Christopher White, son of our favourite transgenic hunter Ames, born on the 14th
of April 2014…”
“Stop”
Alec commented. They all turned to look at him.
“That
fucking bastard” he commented, shaking his head, grinning broadly.
“What?
Alec, what?” Max asked. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“In
my pocket” he told her. Max reached into his pocket and took out a thin piece
of paper. She looked at him, and opened it.
“The
cancellation order for the X8 series.”
“The
dates.” Alec prompted her.
Max
looked, opened her mouth, and shut it again.
“Max,
I could kill you. And I know that I’d have to go through Alec, but I have this
feeling that I could take him right now. What dates?” Mole asked in
frustration.
“The
cancellation of the 8 series,
Mole
shook his head. “And I care because…”
“Mole”
Alec forced himself to sit up. Max moved quickly to help him, so that he could
lean against her. He looked at her gratefully, then turned back to Mole. “Ray’s Birthday. Don’t you
see? They cancelled the 8 series, so what Sandeman did, was inject the DNA
strand into his own grandson. Ray White is the fourth chosen one.”