Title: Project R (4)
Author: Yih
Written: March 18, 2001
Dedication: To the following Reviewers- TinkMax, Snow, Girle*cherry, The Inimitable Pooh_Bah, kat woman, Courtney, Melissa, Frek, hotaru_anne, margaret, Laura B., Nyles, Callao, Lynn, a reader, silversilence, Angie, Sam, Adam Safran, and felicia. Thanks!
Keep reviewing if you want more!
Disclaimer: All rights are Eglee and Cameron, except for ACC- mommy, dada, annie, soldier, and the scientist.
What if Max didn't
know she was a genetically enhanced human?
What if she had a
happy life?
She had a loving
mommy. She had a caring dada.
She had a
boyfriend.
What if it all
that were real?
This is that story…
Part 4
Max took a deep breath as she stared out of the urban apartment, breathing in the familiar salty air. She was so happy, she thought. It had been three long years since they had stopped moving from town to city to country. She couldn't have been happier. She had hated the continuous moving. She had never had the chance to make real friends, friends like Sketchy and Cindy. She smiled as she thought of what the latest idiotic thing that Sketchy had tried to pull to impress his newest love interest. And Cindy--Cindy was simply the best friend she had never had before.
"Maxzene?" murmured a familiar and masculing voice.
Max immediately knew who it was. She greeted him with the beautiful smile still on her face, "hey! Trying to skip class again?"
He shook his head with a grin on his amused lips. "Of course not. That's your unbelievable talent. Besides, you know that I'm in graduate school; I don't need to get to class until the afternoon, unlike you! Come on, let's get you to school. Come on," he urged her.
"Logan!" she exclaimed. "I don't feel like going to school today… I feel ill."
He gave her a second look. He knew exactly what was on her mind. And he knew the perfect way to get her to school. "I'll let you drive," he responded, dangling the car keys in front of her.
Before he knew it, the keys were gone, taken from him like a flash of lightening. She was almost out the door when he finally managed to get over the awe of her speed. He had never figured out how she moved so quickly.
"Logan! Earth to Logan! Race you!" cried out Max as she popped her head in the doorway.
He groaned and muttered something that sounded like: "I'll never beat you!"
The fact was he was right. Everything single time he had tried to race against her, he had always lost. He had never beaten her, even when she was younger and smaller.
He ran to his apartment door with a supernatural speed. A speed that he tried not to display when it wasn't needed, but he was edgy. He knew that something was up. He felt the urgent need to hurry to his apartment, and he never went against his instinct. His intuition about certain things was probably the only reason he hadn't been close to being captured by Lydecker.
He stopped the second before he surely would have slammed into the shabby wooden door of his apartment building. He didn't know exactly what he was expecting but he certainly wasn't expecting a flyer stating a bunch of abstract codes and commands.
Codes and commands a civilian never would understand.
He crumpled the note he had just received from Lydecker. He knew that it was from Lydecker, there was no doubt. It had simply stated: We have capture X-5b and are closing in on X-5t and X-5zn. We also know you are in this vicinity, Zach.
He wanted to know how Lydecker had known this would reach him. He wanted to know what sort of game Lydecker was playing? Why was Lydecker giving him a warning? Did he want him to escape? Because that was what he was going to do. What he wanted to know was how they had known he was in this area.
He personally knew that the other X-5's would never betray him. They were fiercely loyal to him, so how had they found him? He knew that he had to get off of here as fast he could. There was no telling how much time he had to escape. He had to start now.
Right this instance.
But first, he needed a mode of transportation...
"Sir?" asked the soldier. "You requested my presence?"
"Yes, I did. Tell me the latest news, soldier," commanded Lydecker.
"We have found the coordinates of X-5t. We are closing in on X-5zn. And I have personally delivered the note to the apartment building that you believe that X-5z would be staying. May I ask why you are doing this, sir?" inquired the soldier.
Lydecker almost chuckled. This soldier definitely had a future in front of him, he decided. This one was much more competent than the other one he had killed a year ago. This man had made great progress to the mission of retrieving the lost "data" back to Manticore. And he did it with skill and precision.
"Because…" Lydecker answered indulgently, "the only way to make the prey more agitated is knowing that it will be caught on the hunter's terms--my terms. I want Zach to know that I'll be able to catch him when I want to catch, when I'm there to savor the victory and his defeat. He has too much arrogance, and I need to break it if he will ever bring Manticore to greatness. For a great C.O. can not only give commands, but follow them as well."
The soldier nodded. He personally didn't like Lydecker's reasoning, but he kept that opinion to himself. He didn't know when he might be terminated, but the job paid well enough for him to risk it. He had his own family to take care of in these hard times. And the money was more important than anything right now even at the cost of the kids' lives.
"Sir?" the soldier said softly.
"Yes, soldier?"
"We have some information on X-5m."
Lydecker raised his eyebrow in interest. "Go on," he encouraged the man.
"We believe she may be residing with her parents in the Northwestern area above California. There is evidence that the traces of trails that her parents have left may be false. They want us to believe they still keep moving from place to place when they are actually staying one local area. Of course the area would have to be urban which eliminates a lot of groundwork."
"Yes," murmured Lydecker with
pleased, gleaming eyes. "There is
really only a need to search in Portland, Vancouver, and Seattle."
The soldier nodded. "Those cities have the necessary population to hide in and most of all it is in an area we have not searched in."
Lydecker also nodded. He had never thought to search any of those three metropolitan cities simply because the traces they had gotten seemed to point that the parents of X-5m had continued moving. They had had a difficult time of tracing them, which had made the idea of them actually leaving the area even more believable. This time, he promised himself he would make sure that they fell right into his hands.
Just like he knew Zach would.
Author's Note: This is out one day earlier in my thanks for the wonderful response I've been getting for this fic. Now I thought AU's were generally not well liked… OH well maybe I'm wrong, keep the reviews coming ^_^.
Remember: Reviewing is Doing the Giving to Caring authors Slaving over Working on Writing fanfics!