Approximately two days later found me trapped back in my mundane cell, fed by Alec, the only person with whom I had had contact since the attempts at brainwashing earlier in the week. Since James had interrupted the process, Lydecker had basically said 'screw it', and I was shoved back into my cell, while he went off to examine Case. James, although he hadn't said anything to me-except a wistful glance in my direction-had at least been nice enough to save me from torture. Perhaps, I wondered, he had interrupted Lydecker on purpose, knowing what his father was doing. Perhaps. I had to remember that this was the same James who I had thrown in the snow and nearly killed.
I was starting to grow a thin layer of fuzz again, which caused both itching and aggravation on my part. Alec noticed my fervent annoyance and said that he would have to do something about that before I turned into a full-fledged feline anomaly. He obviously considered the hair humorous-I didn't. It was bad enough that I couldn't even shave, let alone that Alec gave orders for me to be shaved. My freedom as a human being was dwindling rapidly, and was leaving me behind in its dusty bones.
It was late in the evening when Alec came to me with dinner after those many days of complete loneliness. I was sitting on the floor at the time, drawing pictures in the sparse dirt that had accumulated on the floor, and didn't even bother to look up as he entered, the door closing tightly behind him. By this point in my Manticore stay, the guards had given up trying to control me; they left everything to Alec and went off to busy themselves with other pitiful X-series. So, it was just Alec, me, and dinner.
"You hungry?" he asked, setting a flimsy white styrofoam container on my cot that adjoined the wall.
"Not particularly."
"You haven't eaten much all day. Or for the past few days, to be honest."
"So?"
"So, you'd better eat something before the trip."
"Trip?" I echoed apathetically, drawing an arch to form the swooping wheel of my motorcycle in the dirt. "Where to?"
"Eat your dinner, and I'll tell you."
"You seem awfully concerned about my nutritional habits."
"If you happen to faint from hunger, I just don't feel like carrying you again, like when you got attacked by the X7s."
"You enjoyed it, and you know it."
"The urge to see how far you'd bounce if I dropped you was tempting, I will admit."
"That's not what I meant," I replied, looking up at him with his hands shoved into his camouflage pants. "Anyhow," I continued, "I'm not hungry."
"You want to go back to high solitary confinement? I.V.? Straps? Bright lights?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. "You don't eat, that's what's gonna happen."
Sighing heavily, I rose to my feet, brushing off the seat of my pants. "What is there?"
He turned towards my bed and bent over to open up the container. "Looks like a roll, some type of pasta, and an apple," he replied, giving it a sniff.
"The pasta here tastes like paper," I complained. "I've had it before."
"Had what before? Pasta? Or paper?"
"Did I ask you?"
"Of course not," he smirked as he watched me sit down, cross-legged on the cot, and begin to poke at the meal with a flimsy plastic fork. The pasta wasn't nearly as horrendous as I had assumed it to be, but still, it was worse than high school cafeteria food. Yet, under Alec's stare, I swallowed it down nonetheless. He stood against the wall, saying nothing, while I finished off the meal and began to start in on the apple.
"You heard anything about James?" I finally asked, wiping my mouth off with the back of hand because I hadn't been given any napkins.
"I didn't know he was part of my problem."
"I just thought that you soldiers might exchange in some 'lunchroom gossip'," I replied, swallowing a chunk of the sweet apple.
Alec barked a hoarse laugh and plopped down next to me, definitely sticking to his duty of making sure I ate a good meal. "Gossip? Come on, Alanza, you said it yourself: None of us can think for ourselves."
"Then how did you happen to turn out so damn cocky?"
"They put me out in the 'real world' a lot. Solo missions-and before you say it, yes, they were assassinations, but that was my job-you see? I was out doing that for a couple years, living among ordinary people, and I also had to take common verbal usage."
"Which is what?"
"How to talk the talk."
"I see."
"Still, there's others around here with…personality, if that's what you want to call it. Not all of us are stupid robots."
"Mm-hmm," I mumbled through my chewing. Then, after swallowing, I asked, "What about the trip that you mentioned?"
"What trip?"
"The one that you said you wouldn't tell me about until I ate. And I have eaten, so tell me."
"Demanding, aren't we?"
"Yes we are," I responded with an arced eyebrow.
"All right, I probably should wait until you receive orders from Lydecker or one of the other directors, but I'm going to tell you myself, since I am involved with this also: Since your little 'incident' in the digging procedure down at the base, the head honchos have decided that you're too 'dangerous' here. They don't want you running around, ruining new construction. Besides, with James here, over-seeing it all, they realized that having you two in a place where you can see each other is another bad idea."
"So what?" I asked.
"They've decided to ship you back to Wyoming. I guess they figured that since that's a bigger base, you'll be able to be contained easier. Besides, there's better technology there, so-I shouldn't be telling you this either-your friend, 657, or whatever his name is-"
"Case."
"Yeah, whatever. He'll probably be shipped back too-also with the issues pertaining to James. Apparently, the administration didn't think this one too well when they placed you guys with him around," Alec laughed, amused more at himself for some odd reason, than what he was actually talking about.
"And how are you involved in this?" I questioned, examining the remainder of my apple.
"I get shipped back too."
"What?"
"You heard me." He sighed in exasperation, wiping his hand through his bristled hair. "Believe me, I've been briefed on this a hundred times over, so I'm not making a mistake here. As your commanding officer, they want me to go with you-"
"What about the rest of the squad?"
"They'll easily adapt to a new leader. Directors feel that if they give you a new leader, you'll begin the heavy rebellion stage again. They've got you to a point where you aren't quite so vicious."
I paused, absorbing the information as I cradled the core of the apple in between my fingers. Wyoming was where Mom and Dad where, possibly even the rest of my family. My heart flopped and twisted as I realized, that in a sick-twisted-sense, I was going home.
Turning to Alec, I smiled, focusing in on his twinkling blue eyes. "Thanks," I replied.
"For what?"
"For telling me about this. It's made me happier than you could imagine."
"You're too sentimental," he laughed, but even as he said it, I could hear the squeak in his usually so perfected voice. Then, he looked at me, and said without any trace of joking that I had come to associate with him, "You got roll crumbs on your face."
"Where?" I asked, trying to feel for something on my skin.
"Right here," he replied as he pointed on his own face, mimicking where the pieces should be.
"I'm not feeling anything…"
"That's because it's right here," he responded, and with one gentle flick of his callused finger, he brushed the specks off my face. Looking up, I met his eyes, which caused him to look away and clear his throat. Then just as I had glanced towards the floor, slightly embarrassed, I felt warm air on my cheek. Looking up, Alec took me by surprise with a hot kiss that caused me to stiffen in both stunned silence and objection. Just as I was ready to push him away in protest, an impish voice in the back of my mind whispered, "Use him, Alanza, make him think that you like him. He is your captain after all, and military favors are definitely something that you need now.."
So, I, ignoring the fact that my apple had dropped to the floor, allowed myself to be pressed gently against the wall as Alec ran his fingers through my hair, completely oblivious, it seemed as to what he was really doing. Lifting my shaking hand, I wrapped it around the back of his head, tracing the muscles in his neck, causing him to smile through the kiss, as he prodded my mouth with his tongue. Hesitantly, I greeted him with my open lips, and I was almost sure I heard him groan in the back of his throat, acting in a very unnatural Alec way.
I had him.
And, it seemed, for the first time since I had entered Manticore, I had actually accomplished something that was beneficial to my future.
