RATING: PG-13
SPOILERS: Designate This

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I've been working on the Dark Angel Virtual Season 3, which will be available for your reading pleasure on September 10 at www.darkangelvirtuality.com. Thanks to Phoenix Virtual Television for hosting it. This explains why it's taken me a while to write this chapter, but I've reached a break in episodes, so chapter nine shouldn't take nearly as long. While you wait, check out the VS3 website. Our team has been hard at work and there are some goodies there to tide you over until the season starts.

Enjoy!

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Lydecker eased his SUV into the alley and parked it, glancing at his watch. He had been delayed when a bus had had its tires shot out and its occupants robbed in the middle of an intersection, causing a traffic jam and general chaos. Now he had to hurry, because McGinnis was going to call within minutes, and for once he wanted to be reached.

That didn't mean he wanted his car to be identified, though. That was why he was parking in an alley two blocks away. He wouldn't put it past her to have spies or even sharpshooters awaiting him on the street.

As he walked toward the payphone he was going to use, Lydecker reviewed Renfro's possible reasons for calling him now. He knew the call wasn't McGinnis' idea; Renfro was using the same strategy he himself would use. Very few people would willingly talk to their enemy, especially if their lives were in danger; more would talk to a friend. If you can call McGinnis a friend.

Was Renfro planning to find out via their conversation just how much he knew about Manticore's location? Was she hoping to exploit his contact knowledge of Eyes Only, now that she was feeling the heat from that broadcast? She probably knew that Lydecker had set up a videoconference with Eyes Only months ago; as he had found out later, his trusted second-in-command Sandoval hadn't kept secrets very well. Was she calling him solely to locate him for extermination? There was always the possibility, which is why Lydecker had gone to great lengths to secure the phone. At any rate, if he made it through the phone call alive, Renfro would no doubt try to set up a meeting.

Lydecker reached the phone and glanced around to check for an ambush. No sign of one, though he knew better than anybody that that didn't mean anything. The phone rang moments later. "Lydecker."

"Deck. This is McGinnis," said the voice on the other end. "You're a hard man to track down."

"I try to avoid people who are looking to kill me."

"Have a proposition from the Committee."

That wasn't surprising. Renfro had the Committee members fooled and they were eating out of her hand. Whatever the proposition was, she had most likely engineered it as a means of getting to him. "Go ahead."

"They want Eyes Only. I need you to set the meet."

There it was--a press for Eyes Only information and a means of flushing Lydecker out into the open, all in one neat package. Let it never be said the woman wasted any time. He decided to agree to the meeting, seeing in it a good chance to get some information of his own, as well as advance his plan. Not willing to give it to her that easily, he said, "Look, we both know what that means."

"You do this, and they'll bring you in from the cold."

Had he been a less controlled man, Lydecker would have snorted. Did they really think he was that gullible? Might as well go on letting them think so. Deception is a weapon. "Since you put it that way..."

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Logan ambled into the bar, preoccupied with his thoughts as always. Matt Sung had to say his name a couple of times before Logan noticed and joined him at a corner table.

"You with me today, man?" Matt asked him.

"Sure, Matt," Logan answered, but Matt wasn't so sure. Rare as it was for Logan to meet with him for an Eyes Only mission these days, it was even harder to get Logan's brain to show up as well.

Matt sighed as he removed a disc from his jacket pocket and handed it to Logan. "Here's what I got on Sullivan. It's pretty clear that Beltran hasn't been twiddling his thumbs in prison."

"Thanks." Logan took the disc and started to leave. "I'd better get going."

"You didn't even ask what's on the disc," Matt protested, and Logan stopped short. "These files directly connect a corrupt former mayor and a county administrator who's overseen some pretty questionable elections."

In the old days, Logan's eyes would have lit with indignation at such corruption in the city and he would have pressed Matt for even more information. Not so tonight. "I'm glad you got this, Matt. I've just got some other things to take care of."

"I thought this was a high priority for Eyes Only," Matt said, confused. "Has he given you another assignment or something?"

Logan flapped the disc absentmindedly against his fingers. "Actually, I'm working on something of my own. But I'll make sure Eyes Only gets this. He'll know what to do with it."

"I hope he can move on it. It's pretty serious stuff."

It is serious, Logan thought, and suddenly it hit him how much he was neglecting in his pursuit of Manticore. While he searched for the facility--or Max--politicians kept taking payoffs, elections kept getting fixed, cops kept arresting innocent people, and Seattle's citizens kept getting a raw deal. He'd set out to save the world, but here he was too busy to even worry about his own city.

He had to find Manticore soon. Seattle wasn't going to wait for him.

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Renfro was debriefing the X5s on the results of their breedings the night before, and Max wasn't sure what she would say when it was her turn to report. Telling Renfro that she'd refused to cooperate would definitely bring her more pain, whether physical or psychological...probably both. Lying about it, though, wasn't much more attractive as an option. It would give Renfro the satisfaction of knowing Max had given in to her.

In the end, X5-494 made the decision for her. "Successful copulation between myself and X5-452, ma'am." Max kept herself from grimacing at the thought.

"Twice."

She was going to have to kick him again for that one.

Renfro's face reflected surprise, then smugness, and for the millionth time Max was tempted to hit it. "Excellent, 452. What would your boyfriend say?"

For a brief moment, Max's eyes showed the pain she imagined such a revelation would cause Logan. Moments later, though, the acceptance he had shown her on their anniversary gave her the confidence to regard Renfro's comment with disdain rather than guilt. No matter what the bitch thought, Max hadn't done anything wrong. Her face became stony again.

Renfro changed topics. "Tell me something. Did you receive any medical treatment while you were on the outside?"

"No, ma'am." That much, at least, was the truth. One advantage of being a revved-up girl: she didn't really get sick, and she healed quickly from whatever small injuries she received in the occasional fight. The tryptophan didn't count as "medical treatment" in her book.

"Then how do you explain this?"

Max found herself looking down at what could have been. Her X7 clone, the girl who was responsible for Max being here right now, lay under bags of ice and hooked up to oxygen. Her skin was shriveled and Max could see the slightest bit of fear in the girl's otherwise blank gaze. Images of Brin in the same condition jumped to Max's mind, followed--as they always were--by a shudder, because she knew that that Brin no longer existed.

"She's a younger version of you, but she's suffering from late-stage progeria. Except for her X7-specific code sequences, her DNA is identical to yours." Tell me something I don't know. "So I'm gonna ask you again: Did you receive any medical care that we should know about?"

"No, ma'am."

"Then I guess we're just gonna have to do spinals on you both so we can run a DNA analysis. Or maybe you've just been lucky," Renfro added, that old smugness creeping into her otherwise matter-of-fact tone. "For all we know, that could still happen to you."

There's no such thing as luck. Zack's voice echoed in Max's head. He had learned the maxim from Lydecker, which means Max had heard and uttered the same words many times herself in childhood, but Zack still believed them. What would he say if he saw her now? Was she fighting hard enough?

Success depends on having a well-thought-out plan that's executed with precision. The old words now served to comfort her, and strengthened her resolve. She couldn't wait to get back to her cell and pull out that loose brick.