I sat on my Yamaha and waited. Max had disappeared into the shadows and Zack was on the other side of the street hidden in shadows on his bike. Lydecker would be done in there soon and we could track him all the way to Brin. To our sister. What I didn't count on was Max attacking Lydecker and shoving him in his own car. Zack and I both raced out and to the car.
"Max?" I asked looking in at Lydecker.
"What the hell are you doing?" Zack snapped, I understood his anger this was dangerous territory we were in right now.
"Follow me." Was all Max said and took off in the car.
We ended up in a warehouse. Lydecker tied and blind folded to a chair. As we stood a way off. Zack was pissed.
"Max, that wasn't the plan. That wasn't the plan!" Zack hissed out.
"I saw an opportunity. I took it."
"Well we have to be real careful about this." I said pointedly as Max hands Zack a gun. I grab a canteen of water as we head to Lydecker and splash him with it.
"A group of men in black SUVs kidnapped a girl yesterday on Waverly Avenue. Your men. We want to know where they took her." Max barked out, quickly just like we were taught. Interrogation 101.
"You must have me confused with some," Before he can finish Zack punched him in the face.
"Tell us where she is, Lydecker, or you're gonna have a very long day." I growled.
"I'm just a businessman." This time I punched him in the stomach.
"Where is Brin?" Zack snaps.
"Brin? You're one of them. One of mine. X5. Nobody else would know the names you kids called each other." His, like hell we were his, but we should have known he'd realise it was us.
"Where is she?" Max asks.
"I don't have her." Zack hits him again in the face and Lydecker starts laughing.
"You're still so angry. You haven't changed much, have you, Zack?"
"We'll play pin-the-name-on-the-barcode later. Answer the question." Max snapped.
"And who might you be? Jondy, maybe? Tinga? Max? Listen up. I don't want to see Brin fall into enemy hands any more than you do."
"You are the enemy." Zack shoots back.
"I told you, Zack. I don't have her." In response Zack hits him again.
"Stop lying."
"You put your prisoner in a threatening environment...and then you use threats and verbal abuse to try and weaken him psychologically." Max tensed angrily.
"Shut up!" She screamed at him.
"And eventually you'll employ nonverbal techniques, including torture."
"I said shut up!"
"Why don't we just cut to the chase, and," He breaks one of his fingers. "One down, nine to go. What do I have to do to have you accept that I'm telling you the truth? I don't have her."
"I think he's telling the truth." I said as I looked at him.
"Well now I know who female number two is, Luna. You always did have a knack for sniffing out the truth in interrogations." The three of us ignore him and plough on with questioning.
"Then who does?" Max demanded.
"Any number of foreign governments would love to get their hands on Manticore technology."
"You're saying someone kidnapped her so they can sell her to the highest bidder?" I asked.
"Is that so surprising? Each one of you is worth millions." Lydecker replied.
"Why should we believe you?" Zack asked.
"A weapon system like Brin doesn't come up for sale every day. Let me contact my people. We can find out who's brokering the deal. Think about it." The three of us stepped away.
"What do you think?" Max asks.
"We should kill him right now and take the win." Zack got straight to it.
"I think he's telling the truth. He doesn't have her." Max stated her thoughts.
"You're not seriously buying into that crap? What do you say?" He asked looking to me."
"I'd love nothing more than to kill him right now. But we need to get Brin back. I don't think he's lying either." I looked to Max.
"It's plausible. We should check it out. Logan has contacts with the military. Maybe he can shake something loose." Zack nodded slowly.
"Go. I'll stay here and work on Lydecker."
"I think something tragic might happen while we're gone. You should take point with Logan."
I'd gone to get some things, including some of my meds for the seizures the last thing I need was a seizure in the middle of a fight. I walked back in as Max and Lydecker were talking.
", well, you don't have to, you know. You can always come home." I heard Lydecker saying.
"Get it through your head-I'd rather die than go back there."
"Max is right, you can sugar coat it anyway you want, but what you did to us, to Eva was unforgivable, I'd rather eat a bullet than go back to you and that torture house." Before he can reply Zack walks back in.
"Catching up on old times?" Then he looks to us. "He's right. She's being held at Fort Xavier."
"That's Jake Sanders' command. I can't believe it. We served together." Lydecker stated, like it mattered.
"Well, we'll be sure to send him your regards." Zack shows us a map of the base and we start going over it. "Here's a map of the base."
"We'll move out when it gets dark." I said looking at it for the best entry points.
"You'll never get out of there alive. Listen to me. I know Sanders. I can get us on the base. I can call in a TAC team," Lydecker began.
"And then what? Take her back to Manticore?" Zack snapped.
"I would give my life, rather than to see Manticore technology end up in the hands of the enemy."
"Oh how touching." I smarted off.
"You may have a chance. You're coming with us."
"What?!" Zack and I both exclaimed.
"With him along, we can waltz right through the front doors." Max reasoned
"He'll double-cross us in a heartbeat."
"Zack's right there is no way in hell we can trust him. Think about what he's done to us!" I pleaded.
"He may want to, but he can't. We're the only hope he has to get Brin away from Sanders. Isn't that right, Donald?" She said as she moved to take off Lydecker's blindfold. Zack goes to stop before she does.
"He'll know what we look like."
"We'll worry about that when we get Brin back." Max said.
"For the record, I don't like this."
"Seconded." I said, I had feeling things were going to get real bad for us real quick.
"Noted." Max said as she removed the blindfold. "One wrong move," Max starts as Zack points a gun a Lydecker. "You're an organ donor."
We pulled up after dark outside Fort Xavier, Zack and I in back with Max and Lydecker up front.
"Keep it simple." Max said looking to Lydecker as we approached the guard at the gate.
"Base perimeter has been sealed until further notice."
"I'm here to see Major Sanders." Lydecker smiles at the guard.
"I'm going to have to ask you to turn your vehicle around, please." The guard insists. I was ready to get out and just knock him out, quick if not easier. But Lydecker flashes his badge.
"Get on the horn, Corporal, and tell him Don Lydecker is here to see him."
"I'll be right back...sir." A few minutes later and the guard is back. "Major's in the mess hall. Sir, he's asked that you join him there."
"Good job, Corporal." The gates open and we drive up and head quickly to the mess hall.
"Holy crap on Tuesday's toast-Don Lydecker. How the hell are you?" the man who can only be Sanders asks.
"It's good to see you, Jake. It's been too long."
"How's the spook business?" Lydecker must have sensed our irritation and want to speed this along.
"Listen; is there someplace we can go to talk?"
"Something wrong with right here?" Sanders asked loudly.
"You might think so, when I tell you what I have to say."
"Shoot."
"You've got one of my kids, Jake."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You're planning on selling her to the PRC, and it kind of worries me." At his words Sanders snaps his fingers and every soldier in the mess hall is on their feet weapons drawn. There was no way we could fight through these without getting shot or killed. Sanders looked to some of his soldiers.
"Pat 'em down." Then he moved to Lydecker. "I thought you might have a problem with this. I know how touchy you are about your kids."
"You've got it all wrong, Jake. I'm not here to make trouble. I want in." And their he goes, double crossing us.
"You never fail to surprise me, Deck."
"Times are tough. We all have to plan for our retirement."
"The problem is, I already got the merchandise. I just cannot see your leverage here, Deck."
"These kids wouldn't exist without me...like the three I brought with me to sweeten the pot."
"Really?" The next we find ourselves barefoot and our hands bound with rope as we are lead to three separate cells. Max spots her first, Brin laid on the floor weak and the worst part she looks aged as if decades have been added to her.
"Brin? Brin, it's me, Max." She looks up and can barely make us out.
"Max? Is it really you?"
"We're here, baby sister." Zack smiles sadly.
"Zack. You came for me."
"We all came Brin."
"Luna?"
"Yeah it's me, sister." I felt a spread of warmth that was squashed with the fear at not knowing what was happening to her.
"What's wrong with her?" Max demanded looking at Lydecker.
"It's a form of progeria, similar to Werner's Syndrome. It's a spontaneous, rapid mutation of the genome; expresses in the form of highly accelerated aging. Three of the X5 group developed it. She's the fourth...as far as I know." Then he looks to Sanders. "We're going to need to ice her down to bring down her core temperature, slow down her metabolic rate."
"She going to last long enough for me to lay her off to my clients?" I gritted my teeth anger welling inside me at how uncaring they were.
"Two or three days, maybe." Lydecker responded. Oh god she was going to die.
"All I really need is to have her breathing when the taillights disappear in the morning. But, Deck, they're not going to want to pay much for damaged goods."
"Dead or alive, her genetic code is worth millions. And, besides, we have the other three to sell. They're the top of the X5 group." I looked at Lydecker with all the hatred I had for him and spat in his face. He simply ignored it and wiped it off.
"Do you know something, Don? I've always wondered what drove you to hunt us down all these years. I thought maybe you were afraid for your dumbass fed job. Or was it a whacked sense of patriotism? Or professional pride because you felt like such a chump for losing us in the first place? But now I know. You're just a bottom-feeding pimp, peddling flesh for the Benjamins."
"It's a little more complicated than that. Permission to address your men?" He asked Sanders.
"Go right ahead." He replied taking a step back.
"All right, listen up. Under no circumstances is anyone to interact with the prisoners. Handling them requires special training, which you don't have. Do not open their cell. And under no circumstances allow yourself within arm's length of them. Understood?" Damn I was hoping to wring one of their necks and get the keys.
"Same old Deck." Sanders replied with a smile.
"Next time we do this, we're going to have to have more men in here." Then they left us leaving us guarded by four soldiers.
"Told you he'd double-cross us." Zack stated.
"Should have killed him when we he had the chance." I added angrily.
"Never fails to disappoint, does he?" then Max looked to the soldiers. "I got an itch. Any of you fellas want to scratch my back?"
"Yeah, right." One replied as Max starts gnawing at the rope around her wrists.
"Hey, cut it out." One says raising his gun.
"Oh...you gonna shoot me? 'Cause I don't think your boss would be too happy about that." Then she continues.
"I said cut it out!" He shouts as Max removes the rope.
"Or what chump? You gonna cry?" I laughed.
"Relax. Or do you want me to gnaw through your bars?" Then Max scratches her back. "Oh, much better." I shook my head and sat on the floor. This was certainly a fine mess we got ourselves into. I caught sight Max fashioning what looked to be a noose and moved to the bars.
"Hey handsome, how about a kiss before I get sent away. Or maybe you over there would?" All four look towards me, but Max needed a little longer. "Or maybe you'd like a little show?" I smiled coyly as I slowly pulled my shirt from my jeans and slid it up.
"Max! Max, no! No!" Zack shots and I drop my shirt before showing the soldiers anything. "Get her down! Hurry!"
"Open the door." One of the soldiers shouts.
"I'm not opening it." another shouts.
"She's not worth anything dead. Open it."
"What the hell are you waiting for?! Get her down!" Zack shouted.
"That's my sister her get her down now!" I screamed.
"Major Sanders, we have a situation." One of the soldiers says getting on the radio.
"This is Lydecker. Over." I had a feeling Lydecker had just screwed Sanders over to.
"Where's the major?"
"He's in the can. What's the sitrep?"
"One of the female prisoners hung herself."
"Do something, for God's sake!" Zack pleaded.
"Please! Please help her!" I cried.
"Open the damn door. Do it now." One of the soldiers shouted.
"Watch the others." Another commands.
"You two...face the wall." Both Zack and I turn, preparing to fight.
"Do not-I repeat, do not-open those cells!" Lydecker's voice comes over the radio/
"On your knees. Hands behind your head. Hands behind your head!" The soldier shouts to Zack and me
The soldiers open Max's cell and cut her down. She immediately starts fighting them. The soldier on Zack's cell turns away to take aim at Max, and Zack attacks him from behind, through the bars. Brin does the same to another soldier as I grab the one from mine. When all the soldiers are out, Max uses their keys to release all three of us. Zack takes several guns from the soldiers; and passes some to me as Max takes a radio. Zack opens a nearby locker and grabs our jackets and shoes. Max supports Brin as we run from the cell block Zack on point, me guarding our rear.
"We're going to get you out of here, okay?" Max assures Brin.
"Yeah, you're safe Brin, we have you now."
"I know you're monitoring comms; I trained you to. There's no sense running. You'll never make it" Lydecker says over the radio.
"Why, because you brought in your men? You think I didn't know you'd betray us, then turn around and betray Sanders?" Max had a point; we should have seen it from the start.
"If you take Brin, she'll die. You can't do anything for her. Let my people take care of her. They've done it before...with other X5s." I didn't want to leave Brin with him, but what if he was right?
"Oh, the sweet sound of gunfire. You guys go ahead and duke it out. We've got to split." Max smiles as she watches Sanders men go at it with Manticore. Zack and I provide cover fire as we run to Lydecker's SUV. Max jumps in the back with Brin as I drive with Zack up front with me.
"Hey, girl." Max smiles brushing hair from Brin's face.
"I know you can still hear me. That's pretty impressive, how you got away. I'm very proud of you." Lydecker said on the radio.
"Gee, thanks, Dad." Max replied as I rolled my eyes.
"Turn it off." Zack ordered.
"Please, listen to me. Brin doesn't have much time. Help me get her to Manticore before it's too late. I taught you always to have a plan. What's yours? To get her to a hospital? They won't understand what they're seeing. They won't be able to help her. I can have her to Manticore in four hours. There's still time." Again I had that feeling of what if he was right? Over the radio I couldn't tell for sure if he was lying, but was it worth risking Brin?
"Max, turn it off!" Zack ordered again and Max obliged.
"She's getting weaker." Max stated.
"We're together. Right now, that's all that matters."
"But Zack what if he's right?" I asked briefly looking at him.
"We can't just let her die."
"Anything's better than going back. You said so yourself." He was right, but what did Brin want? Just because we'd rather die than go back didn't mean Brin did too.
"I don't want to die. Please...don't let me die." Brin whispered. We all share a look making our decision as a group. Max turns back on the radio.
"Lydecker, you still there?" We made arrangements. Told him were to find her. We headed to a nearby park and laid Brin down, she was oh so weak.
"Brin, you're going to be all right. And someday, no matter what happens, I'm going to come for you. That's a promise."
"We'll all come for you again."
"Max...Luna." We all kissed Brin on the forehead, a goodbye but not for good. As the helicopter approached we get back in the SUV and drive off. Standing by Crash none of us had much to say. We just got our sister back only to hand her back to the man who caused all of this.
"I'm going; don't know if I'll be back. Goodbye." Zack grunted and headed for his bike if possible even more sullen than normal.
"Max, did we do the right thing?" I asked looking off down the street.
"I don't know Luna, maybe, but we'll get her back, we promised."
"Yeah we did. I'm going into Crash, you coming?"
"Nah, I'm going to see Logan. Tell him what happened tonight." She gave me a brief hug and took off.
Walking into Crash I had never felt quite as alone as I did right then. But the worst thing was that flicker of doubt I suddenly had, was leaving Manticore the right choice or had we made the single biggest mistake of our lives?