Chapter 3
"Ready?" the repulsive man sneered at Alec as he continued to push him towards the cage. "What makes you think I will." Alec replied defensively. There was no-way he would be forced into a cock fight for the amusement of normals. He would talk to 645, he was a reasonable guy. Neither of them would fight. If they both turned on them, they might even have a slim chance of getting out of here in one piece. "Well here are the rules freak, you fight or you both get a bullet to the brain and we burn down everyone in that nice little street you lived in. The man got close enough to Alec's face that he could smell his rancid breath, "We'll kill every girl you even had a wet dream over." Alec took a moment to pause and contemplate the high reward and low inconvenience of good oral hygiene. He then to a little longer to think about the consequences of refusing to fight. If they really did follow out that threat, these monsters might start sniffing about Max. Not that he had dreams about her… well hardly ever.
Alec was pushed roughly into the cage and the door was closed and locked. The lasso round his neck was now held by the man on the outside of the cage and he pulled Alec against the bars tight enough that he was struggling for breath. Alec looked at 465, 465 looked back, hot rage in his eyes. His eyes frantically searched round the room for any kind of escape or help. Maybe Max was there, still hiding behind the crowd. Or Joshua? But all he could see were hungry, jeering, bloated normals. The air lay heavy with stench of their excited sweat. And it reeked of blood.
As his captors unchained his legs carefully from outside the cage and unloosed his neck, Alec realised that for the first time in a long time he could taste the metallic tinge of fear.
As 645 was released of his restraints his eyes turned almost human as the realization of what he was about to do settled in to his brain. Alec saw him mouth the words "sorry" with grief filled eyes, but he didn't have a chance to apologies back before the X5 flashed across the cage and released a blow straight to Alec's stomach.
A feeling of sickness swept over her as she sat in her apartment. Carefully she lifted the phone and dialed the number. They had left things so badly at the dinner date, that she doubted he would even answer the phone when he saw it was her number. But it was better this way than in person. She had recently began to feel uncomfortable in his presence. Maybe it was the current state of society. As much as Logan had been an ally over the last two years, the fact remained that they really weren't singing from the same hymn book. Logan was not a transgenic. He simply couldn't understand what they had been through, and what they were fighting for.
Shockingly an answer came quickly. "Hi Max." he chirped. Maybe he was expecting an apology. He always sounded cheerful when he had one up on someone. "Hi" Max replied, "Listen, I've got a favor to ask." It was better to get to business as quickly as possible. He would know that she wasn't here to talk about 'them'. As far as Max was concerned, there was no them to talk about. "Oh," came a disappointed Logan, "Of course, anything I can do."
"There's a website. I was wondering if you could decrypt it," Max tapped the keyboard on her laptop, "I'm sending you the details. We think that the site might be selling transgenics" Max moved the mouse and pushed the send button.
There was a pause from both ends of the phone as the electronic message was passed. Max could hear tapping from Logan's end of the phone. "Got it" Logan said. Again there was a pause as Logan accessed the information. Max could hear some more furious tapping from the Logan's keyboard "You know Max," he said eventually, his tone seemed to have changed "You can't cut me up like this."
"What are you talking about Logan"
"You cant have some bits off me, but not others. You're more than happy to accept my help, but other than that, you want nothing to do with me. I have other projects you know."
Max couldn't believe that Logan had decided to play this hand after all. She didn't want to encourage the debate.
"Can you do it or not." she asked bluntly.
"It's not a two minute job Max. I'll work on it for you, but it might take a while. Anyway.." he continued, "if there was transgenic trafficking, I would know about it. I don't think you should worry about this."
"That's for me to decide" she said blankly and hung up the phone. She hoped that she hadn't annoyed him enough that he wouldn't take up the task. .
Max jumped as the phone began to ring. He was probably phoning back to give her grief. She let it ring out. She really wasn't in the mood for an argument.
It rang out again. And again. On the fourth attempt Max picked up the phone. Suddenly ready for that fight. "Listen Logan!!" she yelled.
"Max it's me," came the familiar young voice of Shart. He sounded frantic. "I've managed to decrypt that site." He rushed, "you need to check this out!"
Silently relieved that she no longer needed the help of Logan, Max received the details and punched them into her computer.
Slowly, pixel by pixel a video appeared on her screen. At that moment time stopped and the moving video became a moment. A photograph of a wrestling cage, silhouettes of a crowd in waving and shouting behind. And in the cage were two X5's,weapons in hand, faces and bodies dripping with so much blood they were almost unrecognizable. If it hadn't been for the familiar stance and movement, Max would never have known that it was Alec!
Max watched in disbelief as a knife was plunged into Alec's right leg. He fell to the ground on impact. The other transgenic twisted the knife cruelly. The commentator on the video laughed hysterically at the act. "Brilliant!" He hollered, "He was the favorite to win, but he's not so agile now is he?" The second male voice was slow and cocky, "You might even say," he said, "that there has been a sudden twist in the match." The two voices guffawed as the camera focused a close up on Alec. It replayed the hit in slow motion.
"Max?…..Max?….you there?" Shart was still on the phone, "Max?"
"Assemble a troop and get me as much detail on this as you can." Max replied, her voice was professionally steady and quiet. Her eyes never left the computer screen. "We move out tonight." Max jumped up from her seat and grabbed her coat. Her solder had kicked in. Her base, human part had to be locked up inside.
Hesitantly she pushed the power button on the computer screen. The bloodied face of Alec blurred and faded into black.
