Trip hit the emergency stop button and the car jerked to a stop. A light buzz filled the air and the indicator light lit up at the fifth floor. Trip turned to Max. "You're hot," he said.
Max laughed and looked to Alec as if to suggest Trip had learned this behavior from his superior. Alec lifted his hands in defense.
Max looked back to Trip. "Yeah, well that's how they made me."
Trip's eyes widened again as he put the information together in his head. His eyes showed a spark of recognition as he blurted out, "You're 452!"
Her smile faded as she checked with Alec and returned to Trip again. "What, you've heard of me?"
Alec tried to shake his head 'no' at Trip, but it was no use. Trip wasn't looking.
"Sure, we've all heard of you. You're Manticore's Most Wanted. You're legendary."
Alec knew Trip meant it in a you've-defied-all-odds-and-you're-pretty-so-you're-a-hero kind of way, but he also knew that's not how Max would take it. One look in her direction confirmed it, hurt spreading across her face.
She hadn't expected Trip's answer. She had hoped to be known as one of the X5s who'd broken out, bested White and the Familiars, saved at least one transgenic life, or burned down Manticore and set everyone free – but she never thought she would be on a most wanted list like some common criminal. And she really never thought the younger X5s would be in on it.
"Bad move," Biggs said into their comms. "Sorry, Max."
Trip noticed the look on her face. "You didn't know?"
"Stop talking," Alec said, hopeful that Trip not make this any worse than it already was.
"Yes, sir," Trip said. He returned his gaze to Max and continued anyway. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I thought you knew."
"I said stop talking," Alec reminded. "That's an order."
"What is this about?" Max asked Alec.
He didn't want to tell this story, but he couldn't deny Max the truth. She deserved that much. "Before your recapture, Renfro had everyone looking for you. There was one lieutenant who instructed his command to shoot-to-kill."
He really hated admitting all this. He had hoped she would never find out, particularly because of the look he knew she'd get (and she did get it).
"I'm sorry, Max, I just figured-"
"No big deal," she interrupted, seeming to steel herself with pointed resolve. She didn't have time to think about it anyway.
Alec rolled his eyes in disappointment and pleaded that she not hold him accountable for Renfro's decision.
Max pushed the button to resume their upward mobility.
"Wait a second," Alec said. He lunged forward and pushed the emergency stop again.
Trip and Max both regarded him with incredulous looks. The car came to a stop again.
"Really, Alec, I'm fine," Max said.
"What are we going to do with the guard?" he asked, motioning to the unconscious muscle at their feet.
Neither transgenic had an answer for him.
Biggs cut back in. "Hey guys, why not drop him off on twelve? You'll have to hurry, but at least while you're at a stop, they won't be able to get to you as quickly."
"Not bad," Alec said. He then remembered Trip couldn't hear Biggs. "He said we should drop him on twelve."
"Yeah, we'll double back and get everyone else without them being close enough to nab us." Trip, feeling strong after getting a plan, pushed the button to resume.
For the few floors' time it took to get up to twelve, the three genetically-created soldiers assumed fighting stances, ready to meet a hallway full of resistance, but when the doors slid open, the only thing waiting for them was emptiness: boring burgundy carpet with swirly wall sconces and cream-colored '90s wallpaper.
Alec and Trip made quick work of dragging the guard into the hallway and returned to the car. Trip pushed the button to descend to six.
"Okay, so where are these other kids?" Max asked.
"I'll take you there," Trip answered. "It's a secret spot I found after I got here."
The air in the cab hung thick, and in what seemed to Max like seconds, but to Alec like minutes, they rode down a few floors. Just before the sixth floor, Trip hit the emergency stop one more time. He dropped the satchel containing the hour's winnings and, with just his fingertips, pried open the elevator doors to reveal a metal passageway between floors, approximately six feet high.
Trip turned back to Alec. "This way." He sat at the elevator floor with his feet dangling into the opening. He'd have to swing through the opening and land in the passageway, which would be no problem for him at nearly five foot eight, and Max would probably be fine walking around down there; Alec, though, would need to duck a little just to walk through the corridor.
Trip swung down into the empty corridor and turned to face Max and Alec. "Toss me the money," he said.
Alec dropped the satchel into Trip's waiting, freckled hands and sat with his legs dangling over the elevator floor. He swung down into the corridor, landed, and stood up, only to bang his head on the ceiling. He hunched and raised a hand to rub the now sore spot.
Max laughed at his misfortune and prepared to swing down into the corridor herself.
Alec, now wary of the ceiling height, turned to offer Max some help down. Help she denied.
Of course she was pissed at him for not telling her about all this shoot-to-kill business. They'd been out of Manticore for over a year and she was fairly certain he already knew her biggest secrets – Logan, Ben, everything. Hell, Renfro had seen fit to send Alec to finish them both off after she had inadvertently infected Logan with the virus. She had, against her better judgment, trusted him again and again, and was continually let down. First it was the virus money, and then the scientist's papers with all of her work. Not to mention he'd tried to kill her once or twice. The whole thing just seemed so messed up. She set it aside in her mind – nothing she could do about it now. Besides, they had a mission to complete.
Max sat at the elevator floor and swung down into the corridor just as the guys had done, except her heels slammed into the metal, which created a loud noise and shot some seriously painful vibrations up through her legs.
It had felt similar to when her unit was training with firearms in the forest and Zack had shot her gun. The vibrations from the bullet seemed to burrow into her bones, and she had to drop the weapon. It had left her with an intense need to try to rub the vibrations out of her hand.
Immediately, she doubled over and tried not to cry out in pain or give any indication that she had done something so stupid.
"You alright?" Alec asked.
Trip turned to see what all the commotion was about.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said through gritted teeth.
"Come on, this way," Trip urged.
"So who else is down here?" Alec asked, following behind Trip. "Anyone else from our unit?"
Trip looked straight ahead. "Yeah, Leo is here, and Scar." At the end of the corridor, Trip turned right. "I've been sneaking food to Scar for a couple of weeks now."
"What about the Roses? They don't know about this place?" Max asked, doing her best to walk quietly on her tiptoes.
Trip shrugged. "I guess not. They only care that the power works and the guests are kept happy."
"And they don't notice when most of their child slave force goes missing?"
"They're not always missing," Trip said with a twinge of sadness. "Sometimes they run away. Sometimes they get traded or killed. It's kind of a high turnover."
Max thought about all the kids out there, feeling helpless to the world, being taken advantage of by the more powerful or more knowledgeable. It made her sick.
"Wait, why've you been bringing food to Scar for weeks?" Alec interrupted.
"Haven't been bringing it myself," Trip said, making a left turn into another hallway. "I'm watched a little more closely. I'm on probation."
"What happened?" Alec grabbed Trip's arm and stopped them all for a minute.
Trip sighed. "They had this client," he said, using finger quotes, "who liked to smack Scar around a little. Well, I just happened to be outside this guy's room and I heard her crying, so I used my keycard to break in and stop him."
Alec was surprised. "And you got caught."
"Yeah, the douche tattled that I broke his fingers, so they broke mine." Trip held up his hand. It carried some fading scars, scars which suggested they had done more than just broken his fingers. Maybe cut them up first or pulled at the nails or something.
Kind of drastic, thought Max. Being a Manticore experiment made them less surprised and more prepared when it came to torture and punishment, and looking at his hands now proved one of the benefits of being test-tube born, as it was almost completely healed.
Max looked over to Alec. He seemed proud of his red-headed protégé.
"So what did they do to Scar?" Max asked, dreading the answer. She figured it had to be something if she'd been hiding for weeks in this metal maze of a passageway.
"Nothing she couldn't heal from," Trip answered vaguely, refusing to look into her eyes as he said it.
The corridor ended abruptly, and before them stood a crowd of children ranging from about eight years to Trip's age. One red-headed girl about a year younger than Trip stepped through the crowd and threw her arms around him. He seemed surprised that she would do this before discovering the identities of the two people who stood with him.
Once she saw Alec, she backed off of Trip and stood at attention. "Sir," she said, her face quickly flushing with the red of embarrassment.
"Hey, Scarlet," he said. "It's Alec now." He motioned to Max. "This is Max."
Max stepped forward and extended her hand almost emotionlessly, a hand which Scarlet shook hesitantly. She seemed to be realizing what Trip had realized minutes ago in the elevator.
"You're-" she started.
This time, Trip shook his head, trying to catch her attention, and this time, Scarlet saw him and stopped short.
"I know, I'm a monster or a criminal or whatever," Max finished, releasing Scarlet's hand.
"You're making this a habit?" Scarlet asked with a slight air of disappointment.
Max wasn't sure how to take this question. Was she being chastised for the way she was feeling? Or perhaps she was being chastised for saving lives despite the price on her head? She felt that walking around with a bounty targeted on her body warranted a little time to get used to the knowledge before she dropped the partial cold-front.
"I mean saving us," Scarlet added. "Thanks."
It was quiet in the corridor for a moment. The corners of Max's mouth curved up in the smallest suggestion of a smile. Scarlet knew who Max was, and knew Max as a savior and not a murderer. Her 'Thanks' had filled Max with the smallest seedling of hope.
"Okay guys, get a move on," Biggs ordered from within Max's and Alec's earpieces.
"Time to go," Alec said.
Trip turned to the others. "All right, fall in!" he shouted, and the children formed two straight lines. "This is our only shot out of here. We have to be as stealth as possible – because what do you think they'll do to us if they catch us?" He let the question hang for a moment to give them time to process the answer. "So pair up. Right now."
The kids all looked around and some switched positions to stand next to their partner.
Scarlet paired up with a smaller kid and gave him a reassuring look. She held his hand gently but firmly.
"Until we're out of here, you are now each responsible for your partner."
Alec watched Max's face as she witnessed Scarlet's gesture. He knew this is exactly what Max would have done if she had been in charge of a group of minors. It was what she had already done with Bullet and Bugler and hat group of misfit soldiers after Manticore had burned down. She reminded them that though they might not be related, they could still be a family, and there were things out there in the world that they would fight to keep. He smiled to himself just as Max caught him staring.
She had spent the better part of a year feeling responsible for all of them – all of the units and creatures and soldiers she had freed, which meant she had spent the better part of the year not realizing the pull she seemed to have over them. They naturally gravitated toward her. She had been out in the world for half their lives, and she had a pretty good idea of how to reconcile their childhoods with this outside world. She was an example. Alec looked down at the metal flooring and caught a blur of her face in some of the reflected light. The blur looked like it was watching his face.
Maybe Max knew deep down why Alec didn't tell her about Refro's orders. The virus paper incident with Joshua occurred right around the time that they had really started to become friends. And he hadn't let her down since. Not with anything that really mattered.
"And you know how pissed I'll be if someone goes missing on your watch," Trip continued, sparing no seriousness. He finally turned back to Alec and said, "We're ready."
"Uh, guys?" Biggs asked, his voice filled with some urgency. Alec and Max could hear him typing on the other end. "Might want to get the hell out of there! Your guard's awake."
"Biggsy says our little catnapper is awake," said Alec. He addressed the group. "We're going back to the elevators, hitting up another floor, and all of you will climb down the east wing's fire escape. Biggsy's got a bus waiting down there."
"Where are we going?" asked the small child paired with Scarlet.
"Not sure, but we gotta go now," Max answered.
They moved quickly and silently to the elevator, where Max pulled herself up into the car and turned to help the kids up, one by one.
Alec and Trip lifted kid after kid until it was only the two of them left. Alec boosted Trip up, even though he didn't need the help, and began to pull himself up as well. Max knelt down and grabbed his forearm to help him up.
Once everyone was in, Alec hit the button to resume and the car jerked back into motion. It was only a few seconds' ride down.
"What floor?" Alec asked Trip.
"We're at six," Max said as the doors opened to a couple of patrons who seemed to be checking out, judging by the leopard-print luggage, which was strewn about their feet haphazardly. There wouldn't be enough room for them and their luggage.
"Sorry, we're full," Alec said, pushing the 'Close Doors' command. The couple looked miffed.
Trip hit the number seven. "My lucky number." He grabbed Scarlet's hand and gave it a squeeze.
The group filed into the hall as soon as the elevator doors opened, and moved toward the east wing. Max hit the emergency stop on her way out and jogged to catch up to the group.
They reached the fire escape without incident. Alec jerked the window open. "Biggs is just at the bottom of these stairs waiting for you."
"Hurry," Max said, looking behind them to see if anyone had followed or found them.
Some of the bigger kids climbed out first, just to show the younger ones the path down.
"They're on the move," Alec said.
"Yeah, I see them," Biggs answered. "Flown the coop."
Max observed, as the kids climbed out, that some of them had barcodes, and some didn't. It really sucked that some of them weren't Manticore – because at least the ones with barcodes were sort of prepared to be hunted and had some form of training. The thought of it all made her angry – for how much she hated Lydecker for everything he put them through as children, he kind of had a point about preparing them for this life. And that made her mad.
They continued helping the kids through the jamb until fifteen of them had climbed out and only Trip, Scarlet, Alec and Max were left on the floor.
Trip held his hand out for Scarlet and she stepped one leg out onto the fire escape. Just as she swung her other leg out, Biggs asked, "How many more are there?"
"Two," Alec said. "Trip and Scarlet. She's on her way down."
Scarlet smiled sweetly at Trip. "See you in a sec," she said.
Biggs was quiet for a second. Then, in a hurried and panicked transmission, said, "You need to get out of there now!"
Alec turned to Trip. "You gotta go now!"
"No, there's no time. Take Trip with you," Biggs said.
Max yelled to Scarlet. "We'll see you at the rendezvous point!"
Backing up out of the window, she pushed it shut and turned back to Alec and Trip.
"What's going on?" Trip asked, not having heard any of Biggs' communications.
"The Morinos are heading up to the roof," Biggs informed.
"You got a new exit strategy?" Max asked.
"I can stick around and find an extraction point," Biggs said.
"No," Alec and Max said simultaneously.
Max continued. "You gotta get those kids as far away as possible. We'll figure it out. I got an idea."
"We'll see you at the rendezvous point," Alec added, not knowing Max's idea, but completely confident in her.
"Come on!" Max said, leading them back through the corridor and past the elevators. She was heading toward the west wing's fire escape.
"FYI, Max, they're stopping on your floor," Biggs added in.
"Why?"
"I'm not sure."
Alec and Max heard some typing.
"Biggs, you can't risk those kids' lives for us. You gotta go!"
"But you guys –"
"She's right," Alec said, "and you know it. We'll bring Trip back."
There was a silence for a moment before Biggs cut back in. "Clear."
Alec and Max looked to one another as they came to the west wing fire escape.
"We'll climb down from here instead," she said to Trip while Alec muscled the window open.
Max had one leg over the jamb when they were interrupted by the two members of the Morino family. "I don't think so," said the elder Morino.
Both Morinos pointed guns at them and kept a strict eye on Trip, who still held the satchel full of money.
Shit, thought Alec and Max simultaneously.