Chapter 11

Max and Alec approached White's compound in the late afternoon, and as they stood on a tree covered slope overlooking the facility they both remained silent, taking in the sight. They retreated back into the trees so they could tie up the horses where they would be unseen from the facility. As Max tied them to a tree she gave them a reassuring pat, communicating that they were to stay there. She then turned and gave Alec a look that indicated that they were ready.

They both moved off back towards the facility, all the while being careful to remain close to the ground in order not to be seen. They got as close as possible whilst still remaining under the cover of the trees, and lay on their stomachs side-by-side for minutes on end, surveying the facility below.

"What do you think?" Max asked, wanting a second opinion.

"Well, the tree cover works in our favour, and it appears as though Lydecker's Intel on the number of guards is solid. Not that we'll know for sure until we get in there."

They waited like that, watching, until the sun had disappeared and shrouded the valley in darkness. Max suddenly signalled to Alec that it was time.

They got up and stealthily moved through the undergrowth towards the security fence. As they reached the fence Alec removed a pair of wire cutters from his pocket and went to work, while Max kept an eye out for guards. Once finished Alec bent back the wire to allow Max to pass through. He followed and released the wire, letting it spring back to its original position, disguising the fact that it had been cut. They then both ran the short distance to the side of the darkened building, and pressed themselves to it. The building had been a private hospital before the pulse, but had been abandoned for many years.

Max led the way as they crept along the buildings side until they came to a drain pipe and she began to climb, closely followed by Alec. They continued to climb until they came to a barred third floor window. Max reached up and gave the bars a sharp yank,and luckily most of the screws were so old and rusty that they snapped off in he concrete, allowing her to make fast work of it. She carefully threaded the bars back through the now open window and deposited them on the floor silently.

The room they entered was an old operating room, still full of dusty old beds and curtains which appeared as though they hadn't been disturbed since the pulse.

They both moved to the doorway and listened for sounds of movement out in the hall. Max looked at Alec to determine that he hadn't heard any sounds either, and then carefully peeked around the doorway before slipping down the hallway. As they both reached the end of the passageway they came to an exposed flight of stairs that offered very little cover.

Max looked Alec in the eye, not only to make sure he was ready, but to seek some reassurance. They both stepped out into the stairwell together and began to descend to the second floor.

Alec felt their exposure acutely. They both knew that if someone suddenly entered the stairwell they would have to try and fight their way out, and risk the mission being compromised, and themselves being captured.

As they reached the second floor door Max pressed herself against one side of it and Alec the other. Luckily the door had a glass partition that allowed Max to carefully glance through it and down the hallway on the otherside.

"Shit", she said, ducking her head and indicating to Alec that there were two soldiers in the hall. They both knew that there was nothing they could do except wait them out and hope they didn't come their way.

Max and Alec suddenly glanced at each other in shock as they both heard the doorway into the stairwell below them open, and voices echo around them. They looked around hurriedly for some place to hide, but were not surprised when they could find none. Alec cocked his head to the side, looking over his shoulder to see if the guards had disappeared from the hallway.

"Damn" he cursed silently. They both looked each other in the eye and braced themselves. There was nothing left for them to do but wait to be discovered and try to fight their way out.

As the voices got closer and closer Max and Alec both took up their fighting stances, but just as the guards were about to reach the point where their position would be revealed, someone from bellow called out. Both men turned around and descended back down the stairs, disappearing back through the door they had entered from. Both Max and Alec released a collective sigh of relief, before turning to look through the doorway again, and watched as the guards finally walked down the hallway and disappear around the far corner.

"Come on, the guards are changing," she whispered as she quietly opened the door and slipped inside. Both stalked down the hallway, heads moving from side-to-side, constantly listening and scanning for sounds of movement in the rooms they passed. They slowed as they reached the room Syl and Krit were supposedly being held in – if Lydecker's information was in fact correct. Discerning no movement in the room, Max nodded to Alec, and they quickly blurred into the room, ready to take down any resistance. But once Max's eyes fell on the cage in the middle of the room, all she could think about was the body on the cage floor.

"Syl!" Max gasped as she rushed over to her sister.

"Max, how did you find us?"

"I had a little help," she said distractedly, as she concentrated on the cage door and inspected the lock.

Syl glanced behind Max and gave a gasp of astonishment.

"Pliers," Max commanded with her palm outstretched toward Alec.

"It's okay, I get that reaction from women all the time," he replied cockily, as he leaned forward and handed Max the pliers he had used earlier to cut the fence.

"It's a long story," Max said quickly, as she threw Alec an unimpressed look. "This is Alec".

Syl threw a confused look at Max, and was about to question her further when Max broke the lock and opened the door.

"Where's Krit?" Max asked, concerned that he wasn't in the cage with Syl where he should have been.

"They took him a little while ago," Syl replied, concern evident in her voice and on her face.

"Do you know where?" Max asked hopefully; knowing that if she didn't they were in a whole world of trouble. They couldn't very well start knocking on doors and asking for directions.

"They took him downstairs… to torture him," she said quietly.

"Let's go," Max said, starting for the doorway and praying that White hadn't got very far.

All three of them managed to move down the hall and descended the stairs without being discovered, but as they stood outside the first floor stairwell doorway and peeked down the hall, they could see guards in the hallway again.

"What's the plan?" Syl whispered as she looked from Max to Alec.

"Not getting caught," Max replied as she peered through the window, searching for a way to get rid of the guards quickly and quietly.

Alec leaned in closely behind Max to peer through the window, his chest brushing her arm. "If we could draw them out here we could easily take them out quietly."

"And how do you propose we do that? Post them an invitation?" Max retorted, her tone dripping with sarcasm. Alec just looked from one woman to the other with a mischievous grin on his handsome face, and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Neither of us is exactly dressed to seduce," Syl pointed out, looking from her black combat outfit to Max's black catsuit. "Besides, it's a sealed base. Our cover would be blown before we could even make them an offer."

"You could always just take it off and provide a distraction. Trust me, nothing short circuits the male brain faster than a naked woman," Alec said seriously, "except maybe two naked women." Alec raised his eyebrows and gave Syl his most adorable, wide-eyed look. The one he always reserved for getting his way with women. Max suddenly leant over and clipped him hard behind the ear, without taking her eyes off the guards.

"Ouch! Watch it Max," Alec grumbled.

Suddenly Max reached out to him again, and before he could dodge her, she grabbed a fistful of his shirt and Syl's, before hauling them both to the ground.

"We just got our wish. They're headed straight for us," she said, looking from one to the other.

They all knew that they would have to take the guards quickly and silently because there wasn't much cover and the stairwell would echo. Alec looked at Max and signalled through hand gestures that he and Syl would hide on the floor above, whilst Max should take the floor below. Max gave a sharp nod of agreement and jumped over the stairwell railing, disappearing silently below. Syl and Alec then launched themselves upward in one giant leap, and disappeared out of sight just as the door opened.

Alec and Syl waited silently listening as the sounds of the men grew closer and closer and just as the stairwell door banged noisily shut behind them and the men began to ascend the stairs, Alec gave the signal, and they deftly sprang from their place of ambush above, and onto the guards. Almost simultaneously Max launched herself from below, but even before her feet had touched the ground, the guards were out cold.

"Nice work," Max praised as she looked from Alec to Syl.

"It was nothing," Alec returned in a fashion that was far from modest.

Max returned to the door to make sure that they hadn't been heard and that no one was going to come looking for the guards. Syl and Alec bent down and removed the guns and radios from their bodies.

"Have we got a plan?" Syl asked again hopefully, as she and Alec moved over towards the door next to Max.

"Max doesn't like plans," Alec said dryly. "She likes to be spontaneous."

"Ready?" Max said, ignoring Alec's quip and opening the door.

"Let's go," Alec affirmed.

As they crept down the hall to where they thought Krit was being held, Max heard voices and breathing coming from one of the rooms. She listened carefully and could pick up uneven and slightly laboured breathing coming from the middle of the room, and assumed it was Krit under the circumstances. There was much quieter regular breathing coming from closer to the wall, possibly a guard or spectator. And there were two persons also standing near the middle of the room near Krit, one with a slightly accelerated breathing rate that sounded nervous, and the other, was unmistakably White.

Max gestured to Syl to take out the one against the wall, and told Alec to take the other unknown person in the middle of the room, whom she supposed must be a guard or torturer. She was going to take down White.

As the three of them launched themselves through the door, Otto didn't even have time to draw his weapon before Syl landed a kick to the middle of his chest that sent him flying backwards and into an old operating table at the back of the room. He fell back winded, not sure what had happened, but when he looked around the room White and the doctor were battling 452 and 494; and he knew he was in trouble. He attempted to grab his gun, but in his panic fumbled, and was unable to defend himself against the powerful blow to his head that Syl delivered with pinpoint accuracy, sending him sliding to the floor and into a world of darkness.

After dispatching Otto so quickly, Syl turned her attention to the man who had tortured her brother, and jumped into the fight with Max.

Alec was meanwhile doing a dance with the "nice" doctor who was brandishing a large knife, and attempting to stab him with it. The doctor launched himself forward, trying to stab Alec in the left shoulder, but Alec saw it coming and ducked to the right. He immediately stabbed to the left, trying to catch Alec off guard. Alec deftly avoided the swing, but not by as much as he would have liked.

"Hey Doc, I know you're supposed to be an expert with a knife, but I'm pretty much perfect the way I am, just ask all my adoring fans. So I suggest you drop the knife and don't charge me for the consult," Alec quipped, his voice dropping menacingly, as cold and the knife being thrust at him.

For some reason - call it a feeling, or an involuntary action - Alec glanced to his left, and out of the corner of his eye saw Max doing battle with White, and she looked as though she was starting to tire. Somehow he just knew she needed his help. She threw a left punch at White's face, which he blocked and returned with a powerful kick to her abdomen that made her bend over in pain and gasp for breath. White took advantage of her momentary weakness and threw her against the "operating" table in the middle of the room that Krit was tied to, still unconscious, White's eye catching a large knife lying beside him. Max had fallen, face bent over Krit's thighs, winded from White's heavy blow. White lunged for the knife, picking it up and slashing Max's back with it in one long powerful stroke. Max gave a small cry of pain.

"I thought you might make an appearance 452, but instead of saving a useless transgenic, you're going to end up dead." As he said this he approached to stand directly behind Max and roughly grabbed a handful of her hair and reefed her head back, preparing to slash her throat.

Alec knew Max was in serious trouble. He deftly kicked the knife out of the doctor's hand, and delivered a vicious kick to his chest, sending him flying through the air and onto the hard ground, his head cracking against the concrete floor, sending him into unconsciousness.

In less than a second Alec had blurred around behind White and landed a kick to his arm that sent the knife skittering across the cold floor and out of reach.

"494. I should have known that where 452 went, you were sure to follow," White said with a malicious twinkle in his eye as he turned to face Alec. "What I'm interested in is why you continue to follow her around like a lost puppy? Is it out of a misplaced sense of belonging, or is it because you're desperately in love with her?" White challenged staring intently at Alec, daring him to deny it.

Alec was momentarily thrown by a question he had never dared ask himself, too scared of what the answer might be and its implications. Alec had always been one to avoid difficult questions and situations, preferring to bury his head in the sand in an act of self preservation, rather than torture himself thinking about things he had no control over, like murder, freedom, Manticore and love.

The next second there was a sickeningly loud crack that echoed around the room. White gave a startled cry and collapsed to the floor, his right leg giving out from beneath him as it bent at an unhealthy angle. Alec watched White crumple to the ground with a surprised look on his face. As White sank to the floor Max was revealed standing directly behind him with a pissed-off look on her face. Her appearance revealed the beating she had taken at the hands of White. She looked worn out, her cheek bladly bruised and her lip bloody.

"You're never going to be safe! I'm going to exterminate every filthy transgenic, and next time we meet 452, it will be the end! I'm not going to let your kind live happily ever after and populate the world with your little mutant bastards. I will take everything from you 452, just like you took my son from me, and your lover 494 will be first!" White said with a sadistic grin on his face as he spat his words at them.

"For Gods sake, shut-up!" Max said testily as she landed a blow to the back of his head, knocking him out.

"Thanks for the diversion," she said, not holding Alec's gaze, a little embarrassed that she had needed his help so badly.

"Where's Syl?" Alec asked looking around, eager to have an excuse not to dwell on what White had just proclaimed.

"I'm here," came a slightly unsteady voice from behind a table, as Syl stood unsteadily.

"Are you okay?" Max asked concerned.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she said as she gingerly touched her jaw where White had hit her. "That bastard has one hell of a right hook."

"Tell me about it," Max replied dryly as she moved toward Krit who was still restrained in the middle of the room, but who was beginning to return to consciousness.

"Come on baby brother, you have to wake up now so we can get out of here before the welcoming committee arrives," Max said kindly as she undid the shackles on his hands and feet.

"Maxie is that you?" Krit asked groggily, finally opening his eyes and squinting against the light.

"Yeah, it's me. Do you think you can walk?"

"Yep, just give me a minute," he said as he sat up unsteadily, Max by his side, her hand on his arm to steady him.

"Max, we don't have a minute," Alec said from the doorway; he could see a guard coming down the hallway, headed for them.

Max nodded at him as she and Syl helped Krit down from the table silently and over towards the door. As the guard entered the room Alec sprang like a cat out from behind the doorway and brought the guard down before he'd even realised he'd been attacked. Alec turned and nodded back at Max, letting her know that the danger had passed.

Alec crept into the hallway first, and motioned for Max and Syl to follow with Krit. He led them back to the stairwell and safely back up to the third floor and the abandoned room they had broken into. He securely tied the length of rope he had brought with him to a basin on a nearby wall, and threw the end out the window after checking there were no soldiers below. He then lowered himself out of the window and onto the ground, followed by Max and then Syl. As Krit was cautiously lowering himself down, still slightly affected by the drugs White had given him, Alec and Max both turned to their left as they heard a soldier approaching. Alec reacted first, blurring behind the soldier, and with a single strike delivered him unconscious. Alec's eyes sought Max's and held her gaze; he was eager for her to know that he was not the complete screw up she thought him to be.

All of a sudden there was a resounding crack that echoed in the air; the sound of a single gun shot. Alec's eyebrows pinched together in pain and his legs gave out from underneath him as he slumped to the ground.

"Alec!" Max shrieked in horror. She looked behind Alec, searching the darkness for his attacker. Her eyes found a single soldier standing in the distance, and who was now aiming directly at her.

She ran as fast as she could, weaving so he wouldn't be able to take a shot at her. As she reached him she delivered a powerful blow to his gut, and as he bent over in pain, she manoeuvred herself behind him and snapped his neck in one swift, powerful twisting motion.

Usually the last one to resort to murder even when directly under attack, Max was unable to quell the murderous rage that had bubbled up within her at witnessing Alec shot.

As she ran to his side, all she could think was, "This is all my fault. What have I done to him?" As she cradled his head she looked frantically at the gunshot wound in his thigh to try to see how serious it was.

"How bad is it, can you walk?" she said in a strangled voice. Her heart almost stopped beating when she saw the pain etched across Alec's beautiful face, and knew it was all her fault.

"Yeah I'm fine. I don't think it's that bad," he said through gritted teeth. All of a sudden Max started to frantically pat him down, sticking her hands in his pockets.

"Hey Max, not that I'm complainin' or anything, but do you really think this is the right time to start getting friendly?"

Suddenly she found what she was looking for, pulling the wire cutters out of his pocket and tossing them to Syl, who cut a length from the end of the rope they had just descended from, and handed it to Max. Max then began tying it around Alec's thigh above the wound, which was bleeding steadily, and created a tourniquet. As she tightened it he grimaced in pain.

"Easy there Max," he gasped. "I know you're a bit of a sadist who gets off on causing me pain, but go easy would ya."

"Shut-up, I'm trying to save your leg dumb-ass," she spat, but without her usual venom, her voice full of worry as she looked into his deep green eyes.

"Come on, we've gotta get put of here, the cavalry are coming," Krit warned, turning his head in the direction of the running footsteps that could be heard even without their sonic hearing.

Max helped drag Alec to his feet, and put her arm around his waist to help support his weight.

"Let's go," Max commanded.

Alec hobbled along with Max half dragging him as they made it back to the perimeter fence. Syl bent down and crawled through the fence first, followed by Krit who was much recovered, and then Alec and Max.

As all four of them clambered back up the slope toward the horses, they could hear an alarm blaring and soldiers in pursuit. They were almost to the horses, only a couple of hundred yards to go.

Max looked over to Alec and could see that he was in pain and tiring quickly.

"Are you going to make it?" concern and worry written all over her face.

"You don't think you can get rid of me that easily, do you Maxie?" Alec said, trying to hide the pain from his voice; touched that she cared so much and determined not to worry her further.

As they approached the horses Max gave a soft nicker so as not to spook them, to which the gelding replied in kind.

"You really are a horse whisperer aren't you, Maxie," Alec said teasingly.

Max untied the horse's reigns and gave the grey to Krit.

"Here, you two take the mare."

She then jumped onto the gelding's back and reached down to grab Alec's arm. "Give me a hand to get him on."

As Max pulled, Krit lifted Alec onto the geldings back behind Max. He then jumped onto the grey, and Syl jumped on behind him.

"Just give her her head and hold on, she'll get you home," Max directed to Krit, not waiting for a reply.

Max leaned over the black geldings neck and whispered, "Come on boy, we're trusting you to get us home," and with a nudge to his sides with her heels, the gelding launched himself into the forest.

Max gave the gelding a loose reign so that he could canter on unhindered, knowing he would pick the best path for himself through the dense forest, and that he would make a B-line straight back to his paddock; but she still had to concentrate hard in the dark to see any obstacles that the he might not see until it was too late.

Every now and again she could hear a moan of pain in her ear from Alec, and each time his leg was jostled a little too violently he would react by clutching her waist tighter, and it made her heart ache for him.

As promised a longer chapter.