- Infie
Alec leaned against the railing on the roof of what was once the transgenic headquarters in Terminal City, staring out at the lights of Seattle gleaming around him. He smiled.
Seven and a half years. A long time since he'd given the order and they'd gone to ground. A long, long time.
But a good time.
He took a deep, cleansing breath of the damp air. It was raining, a chilling sleety drizzle appropriate for March. Trickles ran through his hair and ran down the back of his neck, tracing icy trails down his spine. He shivered. The black leather of his jacket creaked a little in that way that only well worn leather can. He shifted a little, settled it better over his shoulders. The trickle stopped. He heaved a breath, tilted his head back and let the rain fall against his face. The sky was a dull slate grey.
Yep. It had been a long time. He came to this rooftop every six months, ostensibly to check the hidden satellite unit for messages and for mechanical difficulty. In reality, he came for the memories. Like those from all wars, they were bittersweet.
His cell phone shrilled. He flipped it open, took a look at the picture showing the incoming caller. He grinned, tilted his face back into the rain. He brought the phone to his ear.
"Logan! What's up, buddy?"
"You know, it still freaks me out when you do that." Logan sounded disgruntled. "You could at least have stolen one for me too, you know."
Alec tsked. "Stolen is such a negative term. I prefer 'set free'."
"Of course you do. Perhaps next time you could 'set free' its mate too."
Alec raised an eyebrow, looking askance at the sky. "Do phones mate?"
There was an aggrieved mutter. Alec laughed. "Telephone existentialism aside, I need you to come in." Logan's voice turned uncharacteristically grave. "I, uh... I have some information for you."
"Is the information at all related to anything that needs to be set free to wander on its own?" Alec licked the rain from his upper lip.
"No."
Alec straightened at the flat reply. "Ok," he said slowly. "I'm heading over."
"Good." Logan's tone relaxed minutely. "I'll get out the scotch."
"You do that. The good stuff, not that three year old crap you tried to get me to drink last time."
"You got it." There was a pause. "Alec?"
"Yeah."
"Don't be too long, okay?"
"On my way." He closed the phone with an irritable click. There was nothing like mysterious forbiddingly solemn phone calls to ruin a good mood. At least he and Logan had worked through their more personal difficulties after Max left. He smirked. The continuing transgenic blood transfusions had certainly helped that along. The transgenics needed Eyes Only's information and Logan's contacts in the police department. Logan had needed transgenic support to slowly regenerate his damaged spinal column. Once they'd gotten past Logan's hostility and Alec's boredom, they'd come to something neither had expected, ever. Friendship. Joshua was still laughing over that one.
Justifications aside, Logan was useful in finding items requiring some tender, loving freedom from their owners. Alec provided just the kind of freedom the items needed.
Lucrative freedom.
Hey, a guy had to make a living! After all, it wasn't like they could send Joshua out on job interviews.
Alec took a last long look around the rooftop. His jacket gaped a little at the back of his neck, allowing that icy trickle to trail down his spine again. He sighed.
"Is there some good reason we're pickling ourselves in this downpour?" The laconic comment came from behind him. Alec whirled, a grin splitting his face. "Too slow, too slow!" Rhys chided him from his position, leaning against the doorjamb. "What if I'd been a bad guy?" He brushed non-existant dust off the sleeve of his black leather biker jacket. He'd shaved off the goatee. Fine silver traced through the black hair at his temples, but his eyes were as merry as ever.
"I knew you were there," Alec said archly.
Rhys made a rude noise.
"I did!"
"You did not." Rhys shook his head sadly. "To think, our fearless leader reduced to standing on rooftops in the rain, talking to the sky, blissfully ignorant of the potential dangers around him."
"I was checking the satellite." Alec laughed. "And if you'd been here on schedule I could have just delegated."
Rhys shrugged. "Blame Canada," he said. "They held us up for days in Toronto."
It was Alec's turn to scoff. "That's called the playoffs, Rhys. They have them here, too."
Rhys grinned at him unrepentantly. "But I don't have season tickets here." He pushed upright. "Besides, the nuns didn't want to let me leave."
Alec rolled his eyes, walking over to the doorway and through. Rhys fell into step beside him with the ease of long familiarity. They trotted down the steps side by side. "Everything ok there?"
"Yeah." Rhys nodded. His stride quickened ever so slightly. Alec matched him automatically. "Johan'll be back in a few days. Joshua's at the apartment, making sure the dogs survived your care."
"Geeze." Alec groaned. "One little time. He's never going to let it go, is he."
"Uh, no." Rhys looked like he was fighting back a smile. "He's really not."
"How was I supposed to know that chocolate is bad for dogs?" He replied mournfully.
"I don't think it was the chocolate so much as you throwing it out the window." Rhys laughed.
"Hey!" Alec defended himself. "No one could have predicted that yappy little demon would have thrown herself after it."
"Just be glad it was only one floor. If TeaCup had actually been hurt, Joshua would never have forgiven you."
"It's enough that he refuses to let me live it down." Alec shook his head as they reached street level. "Have you ever tried to stop a Great Dane who knows what she wants?" He narrowed his eyes at Rhys' snicker. "Well, get back to me when you have."
Rhys snorted. "So what's up?"
"Logan's," he answered succinctly. "Then we have some work to do."
"Cool." Rhys grinned. "I do love my job."
Was it that Logan had come down in the world or up in the world? There had been so many peaks and valleys in the last years that Alec decided he couldn't really determine which it was. In any case, Logan's townhouse wasn't nearly as nice as his old apartment, but was a significant step up from Sandeman's ruins. The humble surroundings hid a communications network as complex as any short of the department of defense, though.
"Hey!" Logan opened the door, confident on his own two unassisted legs. His need for transfusions was diminishing over time. His doctor expected another two or three would complete his treatment permanently. His smile was unguarded and genuine. "Rhys is back, too. Great... I made enough for an army." He laughed.
Rhys and Alec exchanged a look at the lame joke. Logan's sense of humour tended to deteriorate in direct proportion with his nervousness, while his volume of cooking increased. This was a bad sign. They followed him inside.
"What's up?" They wandered into the small but well stocked kitchen. Alec took a seat on one of the handy barstools. He took in the mountain of pasta with alarm. "I have the feeling that there's something you want to tell us."
"Yeah." Logan looked around at the disaster of his kitchen and nodded. He sighed. "Yeah." His shoulders straightened. "Forget this. Come on into the office."
Rhys raised an eyebrow, but refrained from comment as they trooped through the house to the basement office. Logan seated himself in front of the bank of monitors with the ease of long practice. He spun the chair to face his visitors. "Ok... you guys already know I provide new identities for transgenics as they surface or if they figure they're about to be outted. Well; I keep an eye out for mentions of those names." He flashed a self-deprecating smile. "I like to know how well the work is going over. About every four months I run a search to check."
"Uh huh." Alec's brow furrowed. "It's not going over any more?" He ventured.
"Hmmm? No! No; no problem there." Logan turned to the keyboard, hit a couple of keys. A set of photographs popped up on the bank of screens. "But I did get a disproportionate number of hits lately."
Alec scanned the faces briefly. There was no one out of the six that he knew personally. He glanced at Rhys, who shook his head minutely. No recognition there either. "I don't know these people," he said.
"These are all from the East Coast," Logan informed him. "Johan acted as the contact for all but one of these when he headed east. One came in on his own." He punched another key, and the photos were replaced by new ones. Rhys sucked in his breath, and Alec kept his face blank with an effort. Logan glanced at them, then spoke grimly. "That's right," he said. "The hits I got on these transgenics were from the morgue files. They're all dead, going back as far as six months." His lips compressed, and he hit another button. The photos disappeared. "All of these showed up on a cursory scan of the east coast newspapers. I'm running a deeper scan now."
Alec nodded. "Anything yet?" He asked.
"No. I don't even have a cause of death, other than 'not homocide'." Logan turned to look at him levelly. "But this has me worried."
"We can tell." Rhys clapped him on the shoulder, swaying him in his chair. "Let's wait til after the scan though, ok, before we start freaking out?" Logan flushed a little. Alec's frown deepened.
"I don't like this either." He rose and began to pace. "How long until you get some answers?"
Logan shrugged. "A few hours at least." Rhys raised an eyebrow. "There's a lot of data to go through," he said defensively.
"I didn't say anything!" Rhys grinned.
"With that look you don't have to." Logan glared. He shifted his attention to Alec. "Feel like having that scotch now?"
"No, but thanks." Alec shrugged his jacket back on. "I have a job tonight." He flashed a wicked grin.
Rhys followed him eagerly. "So... What are we after?"
"Well, hello ladies." Alec grinned broadly. Rhys peered over his shoulder with wide eyes.
"Damn," he breathed. "I was sure it was a metaphor."
"Nope." Alec replied happily. "I found it, and now it will be mine." He gave a mock-evil chuckle.
"Don't you mean 'ours'?" Rhys shifted a little to ease tight muscles. He was, after all, holding up the granite and glass display case lid. A tremble started in his left bicep. "Geeze... How much does this thing weigh, anyway?"
"I'm not sure. Say... two fifty?" Alec's brow furrowed as he concentrated fiercely on the fine tracery of wires linking the sacred object to its pedestal.
"Two fifty? There is no way this is only two fifty!" A bead of sweat popped out on Rhys's forehead. He glared at the side of his partner's head.
"Kilos."
"Kilos!" He re-adjusted his grip.
"Without the glass." Alec snipped delicately.
"Withou... That's it! Next time, I am the wireman." He declared. "As an aside, you have about 30 seconds before this drops on your head."
"Plenty of time." Alec clipped off the last few wires and gingerly lifted his prize from the case. Rhys started to lower the lid. "Wait!" Alec blurted. Rhys froze awkwardly, shaking with effort.
"What?" He demanded.
"Nothing." Alec smirked.
"ARGH" Rhys settled the lid back into place just a little bit harder than he had to, then turned his best grim look on his friend. "You know, one of these days, someone is going to get you back for this."
"That may be, but it won't be you." Alec grinned at him cockily, placing his take in the black duffel he'd brought along for that purpose. He turned on his heel and stepped back towards the black nylon rope dangling from the ceiling. His foot lifted high to miss the infrared beams crossing the room, pointed to miss the sensor plate in the floor. At the apex of the step, his balance wavered by the tiniest amount. He missed the right tile by a fraction of an inch.
The room exploded with flashing lights and an earsplitting shriek of outraged alarm systems identifying an intruder. Both transgenics ducked instinctively, falling flat to the tile floor. Resounding clangs of heavy duty metal doors slamming into place over the doors and windows added to the cacaphony.
Rhys lifted his head and fixed Alec with a stare that spoke volumes despite the pandemonium around them. "Why is it," he asked conversationally, "that when the gods decide to teach you a lesson, I have to attend the class?"
"Obviously you are to blame for all my faults," Alec retorted. Abruptly the sirens and flashing lights stopped. He looked around tentatively. "What do you think?" He asked. "Maybe no one noticed?"
"Well, say what you will about our boy... When he fucks up, he fucks up big."
Looking around at the score of police cars, flashing lights, and shouting cops, Logan had to agree. "Yeah," he said and shook his head. "How are we going to get him out of this one?"
O.C. looked at him like he'd lost his mind. "I don't think there's going to be much of us getting him out of anything this time. I don't think they're going to fall for 'The Feds coming in and and taking over' scam again." She flipped her hair back. "Not after the last time."
Logan shrugged. The building was completely surrounded. It was only a two story affair, with an old stone front complete with grinning gargoyles. At least every second car had a roof-mounted spotlight, and every damned one of them was trained on the windows. "We could cut the power..." He sighed. "Each car has its own power source. Damn." He flipped open his cell phone. "Maybe Joshua knows someone in the area who can help."
Rhys glanced out the window, wincing as the glare from one of the spotlights struck his eyes. "Oh, I think they noticed."
"Would you please stop saying that?" Alec asked irritably. "I know that they noticed. It was immediately evident that they noticed. And every new car that shows up is just another bit of proof that they in fact noticed."
"Yep," Rhys agreed gleefully. "They sure did notice."
Alec ignored him manfully. "It's only a matter of time before they clue in and bring someone with the key to these doors. We need to get out of here before they show up."
Rhys jumped down from his perch in the arch of the second story window. He landed gracefully in front of his partner. "Well, the upper deck is out," he said. "They actually have it pretty much covered this time. Double deep, too." He laughed. "I think they've gained respect for us."
Alec's cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out, groaned at the sight of Logan's face. He clicked it on. "Yeah?"
"Now this is a pretty mess," Logan told him drily.
"Yeah, yeah. How about we just talk about how you'll get us out of here?"
"Sorry, Alec. No can do." He sounded suspiciously cheerful. "You should see the mess out here... looks like someone on the force got a clue."
"Great. Do you have any good news for me at all?"
"Not really." He could hear the shrug in Logan's voice. "But we're here for you... I've already called Gem to have her ready to act as your lawyer."
Alec shut the phone over Rhys' snort of laughter. He glared. "You're taking this awfully well," he growled.
"I have faith that something will come up," came the equitable reply. "Soon." Rhys paused. "Or even now." He stepped aside.
The floor where he had been standing imploded in a puff of dust and debris. A muted thunder rolled through the room, amplified by the excellent acoustics.
Alec looked up from his newly prone position on the floor, head covered by his arms. Rhys was still standing, waving his hand in front of his face and coughing at the cloud of dust. Slowly Alec regained his feet, staring at the still smoking hole. "What the..." He breathed. A distinctive smell reached his nose just as a sleek dark head popped up out of the hole. "The sewers. Naturally." Alec extended his hand and gave an exaggerated groan. "Welcome home, Max."
Prologue
