Stupid mayor causing all kinds of problems... Now, on we go!

Chapter Ten

"The idiots didn't move the mayor!" Max cried in disbelief.

"Either that or they didn't move him far enough," Alec countered. He should have known the mayor's security people would be too proud or too stupid to believe the threat was more than they could handle.

Max ran toward the stairwell that led up to the proper part of City Hall. Alec didn't really want her in the lead since he was the one who was armed, but telling that to Max was about as useful as telling Max pretty much anything. She was going to do what she wanted anyway.

There were gasps as they burst out onto the central rotunda of the main floor. Max was well known now thanks to the Jam Pony incident and the fact that she was with someone who was carrying a gun wasn't lost on the people either. They immediately started screaming and rushing around like chickens with their heads cut off. Max and Alec ignored them and bolted for the wide staircase that led upwards.

As they reached the second floor landing, they were met with office workers fleeing down the stairs from the third floor. They could hear the sound of fighting and hurried up the final flight of stairs, hoping they weren't too late, either for the mayor or for their fellow Transgenics. They had yet to meet any normal security people and to Alec that didn't bode well.

Once they reached the landing, they stopped briefly to listen. At the same moment, they pinpointed the direction the noises were coming from and headed that way. The floor was honeycombed with offices, resulting in a maze as they worked their way through. In several offices, they found workers hiding behind desks or other bits of furniture and in each case, Max jerked them to their feet and pushed them in the direction of the exit. The pair of security guards weren't so lucky. They found them a few offices apart, unconscious and bleeding. They would live, thankfully, but they wouldn't be any help at the moment.

Finally, they reached what appeared to be the mayor's inner sanctum. There was a set of glass doors that led to an imposing looking desk that probably belonged to the secretary who hadn't done her job well enough, although she seemed to have gotten herself out of the line of fire. Beyond that desk was another oversized wooden door that led into the mayor's office. That door was open and one of the black ops team members was standing in the doorway with his back to them. He had his gun trained on something, although Alec couldn't tell who or what.

"Put the gun down," the man ordered as Max and Alec eased through the glass doors into the secretary's office area.

"You put the gun down or I'll put a bullet in his brain," came a voice from inside the room. Alec immediately recognized Ming's voice and was both annoyed and impressed at the other Transgenic's abilities, not to mention tenacity.

Alec snuck up behind the gunman in the doorway and brought his gun down sharply on the man's neck. He crumpled toward the ground, but Alec grabbed him and swung him to one side so his body wouldn't be blocking the doorway. Alec then edged toward the door, his gun at the ready.

As soon as he could see inside the room, he wanted to turn right around and head the other way. There were three Transgenics on the ground, blood pooled around them. Ming was badly injured, but he was still standing. He had one of the gunmen in the same type of hold he'd used on Max earlier, only instead of a knife, he had a gun pointed at the man's head. There were two more members of the military unit inside, one had his gun trained on Ming, while the other turned at Alec's appearance and aimed at him. The last person in the room was the mayor, a typical suited, hair-wouldn't-move-in-a-stiff-breeze politician who was currently standing in front of his desk trying to make himself as small a target as possible.

As soon as one of the gunmen turned toward Alec, Ming didn't even pause. He took the gun away from his hostage's head and shot the gunman who was aiming at him. The shot brought the second man's attention back toward him, but before the gunman could aim, Ming had already fired again, dropping both of his opponents in less than a second.

Alec thought his heart was going to explode when Max, realizing where the next shot was going to land, took the opportunity to burst into the room and plant herself promptly right in between the mayor and Ming. "Don't you dare," she ordered.

"Me?" Ming's eyes widened in disbelief. "Why are protecting him?" he shouted. "He brought these people here to murder us! More than half of us are in the morgue and you're standing there like he deserves to be saved!"

Alec didn't bother to look at Max. Instead he kept his gun aimed at Ming. If the guy so much as twitched, Alec had every intention of putting a bullet between his eyes. Their task has been to save Ming and his team, but far more important than that, Alec wasn't willing to let anyone, Transgenic or otherwise, hurt Max and Ming was already in his bad books for the day.

"You're right. He doesn't deserve to be saved," Max said calmly. The mayor who was currently cowering behind Max made a sound close to a whimper, but Alec's focus was all on Ming and making sure he was ready to shoot if need be.

"The mayor doesn't deserve anything," Max continued, "but that doesn't change the fact that I can't let you hurt him. If one of us kills the mayor, we will never, ever, be anything but the killers they say we are. No one will ever trust us, or help us, or harbor us. Like you said, there are only a few of us left and we need every advantage we can get."

To Alec's way of thinking, that was a lost cause now anyway. Whether the mayor died or not, Ming had made an attempt on his life. It was a done deal that they were going to be ripped to pieces in the press for this. Their only hope had been to stop Ming before it got this far, and now it was just too late.

"You don't get it," Ming said through gritted teeth. "We're already dead. All of us. It's just a matter of time."

"That's not true," Max immediately countered. "We were trained well. We can make it if we don't make it harder on ourselves than we have to. Killing this guy will make it next to impossible. They will hunt us to extinction. Don't do this."

Ming's grip on the last remaining gunman tightened and Alec could tell that he was torn. He wasn't torn about whether or not to kill the mayor. He was obviously still A-ok with that. He was torn about who to kill first. If he shot the gunman, he'd lose his human shield. If he shot Max, Alec would put him down like a dog, and at the moment, the only way to shoot the mayor was to go through Max.

"You're living in some sort of fairy tale," Ming said coldly. "It doesn't matter. None of this does. The only thing left is justice. He's a murderer and no one will hold him to account for what he's done. No one but me."

"We'll make sure he pays," Max said. "Just not like this."

"This is the only way."

"But-"

"He killed my wife!" Ming spat. "He brought these people in and tried to kill us all! My team is dead. My friends are dead. We're all dead and you want me to what? Leave him alive out of self-preservation?"

Alec weighed his options. In his opinion, they were both being idiots. Ming had got his team killed, while Max, however misguided, was at least trying to save someone. The two were definitely at an impasse which meant Alec was going to have to be the deciding factor.

Alec lowered his aim and put a bullet in the black ops guy's knee. The man became a dead weight and slid out of Ming's surprised hold. Alec's second shot took Ming in the hand and his gun went flying. Ming screamed in pain and frustration, but he wasn't about to be stopped.

Ming pulled the knife he'd used earlier out of the sheath on his belt. In a blur, he ran around Max toward the mayor. Ming was fast, but so was Max. She backhanded him, forcing him back from the mayor. In that second, Alec knew he was out of options if he wanted to keep Max safe, so he did what he had to do. He fired. Ming dropped to the floor and didn't move again.

Alec stared at the body, the beginnings of regret already forming, despite the necessity. So much for their hopes of saving Ming and his crew. Yet another disaster he'd failed to avert. They were all gone. Ming had led them to their deaths and for what? Still, Alec didn't know what he would have done if Max had been killed in the first attacks. Would he have been able to walk away or would he have tracked down the mayor himself? He knew that part of the reindoctrination after Rachel's supposed death had been to keep him from ripping the hearts out of the men who'd set off the car bomb.

"Alec?"

He turned at the sound of Max's voice, surprised to hear the waver in it. Max was standing in front of the mayor, who was leaning back against his desk pale as a ghost and looking like he was going to throw up. Alec couldn't be bothered to worry about him though. Everything he had was focused on Max as she stumbled backward into the mayor and began to list to one side, staring down in disbelief.

Ming's knife was buried to the hilt in her belly.

More soon…