Author's Note: Thanks so much to everyone who's been reading and reviewing. You guys rock.
Chapter Fourteen
Tony sat in the booth at the café, sipping his coffee, slowly, and trying not to burn his tongue on the hot liquid. He hadn't actually expected the barista to be able to give him a decent black coffee, but he'd been pleasantly surprised. No cream, no sugar, and enough caffeine to send a wave of simulated adrenaline screaming through his veins.
'And, to think, I used to tease Logan for drinking roofing tar,' he thought, fondly, as he stared down at the cup. 'Now, I can't live without the stuff.'
He looked up at the sound of footsteps, watching as Kade slid into the seat across the table from him. Max followed her, blocking the other transgenic's access to the aisle, although Tony doubted that it would really prove to be that much of an obstacle if Kade really wanted out of there.
"So," he said, quietly, before either woman could speak, "why'd you try to kill my brother?"
"I was following orders," Kade said, a mulish tone in her voice, but Tony wasn't about to let her off the hook.
"I've arrested people who've spouted off that same excuse," he told her, with a tight smile. "I didn't buy it, then, and I don't buy it, now."
"Didn't buy it?" Kade repeated, a skeptical tone in her voice.
"You're a soldier," Tony said, leaning on his good arm on the table, pinning the woman with his gaze. "But, you're not some blind, unthinking automaton. Just following orders doesn't cut it."
"You're right," Kade said, after a moment, much to his surprise, and clearly Max's, if the raised eyebrow was any indication. "I knew exactly what I was doing. I was eliminating a potential threat to the safety of my unit – my family."
She broke off, suddenly, staring down at the table with her hands clenched into tight fists. Even as her hair fell off her shoulders, hiding her face, Tony thought he saw a glint of tears in her eyes. Her shoulders were shaking minutely, and her breath was coming out in quiet, sharp gasps. It took her nearly a full minute to get herself under control, and when she finally looked up, again, her eyes were puffy, like she'd been holding back tears.
"My family," she repeated, softly, a bitter tone in her voice, one hand drifting down from the table to rest unconsciously on her abdomen.
When he saw it, Tony exchanged a look with Max. She looked upset, her lips pressed in a tight line, and she reached a hand hesitantly out toward Kade, resting it on the back of the other woman's shoulder.
"How far along?" she prompted, gently, when Kade remained silent.
"Two months," Kade answered, after a long second.
"Does Lydecker know?" Max asked, and Tony thought he saw something like fear flash across Kade's face.
"He knows," she confirmed, in a low whisper. "Found out a week ago – I thought I'd been so careful, hiding it from the docs, the rest of my unit-" She shook her head, ruefully, a regretful tone in her voice. "I still don't know how I slipped up," she went on. "And Lydecker certainly hasn't been very accommodating in letting me know how he found out."
"If Lydecker knows," Max asked, a careful note in her voice, "then, why did he send you out here?"
"Damage control," came the answer, as Kade fixed them with a tight, humorless smile. "Lydecker is … disappointed in me, to say the very least, and I went straight to the top of his shitlist when he found out about the baby. He gave me this assignment, told me that I would need to prove myself, my loyalty to Manticore."
"So, he gave you a target, said, go, and you went?" Max asked, skeptically. "That doesn't sound like you, Kade."
"You don't know me, Max," Kade said, disgust lacing her tone. "Not for over a decade. You left, remember? And the rest of us were left in that hellhole."
"Kade," Max started, a distressed tone in her voice, but the other woman was on a roll, and not about to back down, now.
"After you bailed on us," she went on, bitterly, "the rest of us went through re-education. And we learned to keep our mouths shut, and our heads down; we learned to follow orders if we wanted to survive. And you don't question Lydecker when he gives you an order, not when it comes down to a choice between your family and a complete stranger."
"Is that what Lydecker told you it was?" Max asked, and Kade nodded, a short, jerky motion.
"He presented the target-" she started, and Tony cut her off.
"My brother," he interjected, a testy tone in his voice. "If you're so big on family, the least you could do is acknowledge mine."
"Lydecker presented your brother-" Kade corrected herself, quietly, "as a threat to Manticore. He told me that if Logan Cale was allowed to keep going after us, he would expose all of us, and my siblings, my baby, would be in danger. They would die."
"You were protecting your family," Max said, quietly.
"Same as you would have done," Kade countered. "Am I right?"
A haunted look flashed across Max's face as she stared down at the table, pensively.
"About a year after we escaped," she said, softly, "Mom and Kelly were in the wrong place at the wrong time, saw someone get murdered. The killer came after them – but he never touched them. Me, Zane, Jondy, even Joshua, we took him down. Four on one, it wasn't even hard." She shook her head, ruefully. "I arrest people like him, every day," she went on. "But, who's to say that he didn't have a family waiting for him, too?"
"All right, so we've all got big, messy family issues," Tony spoke up, when an awkward silence fell over the table. "What do we do now?"
"Lydecker's got eyes on me," Kade told them. "To make sure that I finish the job. Once they know for sure that I'm not going to go through with it, they're going to be coming after me. After us," she corrected, looking at Tony and Max. "You two are in danger; you need to get out of here."
"I'm not leaving you, or that baby, in the line of fire," Max said, immediately, staring down the other woman.
"Ditto," Tony replied, just as quickly.
"Even though I tried to kill your brother?" Kade asked, looking at him in surprise.
"I'm certainly not happy about that," Tony responded, evenly, "but, it seems pretty clear that Manticore was the one to put the hit out on my brother. You were just their weapon for the job."
Kade nodded, wordlessly, and then she swallowed, hard, looking suddenly green. Max scooted out of the booth, grabbing Kade by the back of the shirt and pulling her out behind her. She shoved the other woman in the direction of the bathrooms in the far corner, following closely behind her.
They were barely gone for a minute when someone dropped into the seat across from Tony.
"That seat is taken," Tony said, quietly, barely glancing up from his coffee at the young man sitting across from him.
"Oh, I know," the young man said, "Mr. Cale."
Tony glanced up sharply, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the young man for the first time. Tall, shaggy blond hair, piercing green eyes that practically bored a hole through him – Tony had the feeling that he'd just met one of Kade's watchers.
"What do you want?" he asked, softly.
"You know," the young man remarked, casually, as he leaned back against the back of the booth, "you look remarkably well for a man who's supposed to have been hit by a car."
'Can't be watching you that closely, Kade,' Tony thought, 'if they don't know about Logan.'
But, that was only a good thing, and something that he could use to his advantage. For not the first time in his life, he found himself immensely grateful that he and Logan were identical twins.
"I'm a resilient guy," he said, locking eyes with the young man, briefly. "Car just bumped me; nothing but scratches, really."
"You should be dead," the young man commented, flatly, and a chill ran up Tony's spine at the emotionless tone.
"He's got people watching over him," a new voice spoke up, and Tony glanced over to see Max and Kade standing beside the table, both staring at the young man with identical blank expressions on their faces.
The young man looked silently from Max to Kade, an eyebrow cocking in surprise. He gave Kade a small, tight smile.
"So, that's how it is, little sister?" he drawled, pinning her with his intense gaze.
"That's how it is," Kade repeated, her tone calm and even.
"You're going to choose a complete stranger over your own family?" the young man pressed, insistently.
"Freedom for me and my baby, over a life under Lydecker's thumb," Kade corrected him, her voice going low and angry. "Lane, I will not let that monster take my child."
Lane stared at Kade for several long seconds, his eyes narrowing as he studied the other transgenic. Beside Kade, Max had tensed up, ready to move on a moment's notice, and Tony had already eased his gun out of the holster, clicking the safety off and pointing it at the young man under the table. If he made a move on Kade (and Tony could hardly believe that he was protecting her), he and Max were going to be ready.
"All right," Lane said, after nearly a minute of complete silence, and Kade and Max both blinked at him in surprise.
"All right?" Kade echoed, incredulously, staring at Lane in disbelief.
"All right," Lane repeated, nodding at her. "We'll need to make this convincing, of course-"
"Didn't Lydecker send you to watch me?" Kade demanded, even as Tony kicked her to try and get her to shut up. "To take over my mission if I couldn't complete it?"
"My loyalty is to my family, first, my unit, second, and my commander, third," Lane told her. "You are family. That baby," he added, nodding pointedly at her abdomen, as Kade blushed, "is family. Lydecker isn't."
"You're going to defect?" Max asked, a suspicious tone in her voice, and Lane leveled an even stare at her.
"The safety of my unit is paramount above all other concerns," the young man replied, sounding like he was quoting verbatim. "Even a direct order will not be allowed to interfere with the safety of my unit."
"I don't think Lydecker meant for you to interpret that in quite this way," Max said, and Lane shrugged.
"Isn't that what your unit did?" he asked, in what was clearly a rhetorical question.
"Lane," Kade interjected, suddenly, "come with me."
"Not this time, little sister," Lane said, sounding almost regretful. "Got to run damage control back at Manticore, after all."
"What do you need?" Kade asked, quietly, and Tony thought that he could hear a quaver of fear in her voice.
Lane gave the young woman a tight smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I need your barcode," he said, softly.
Fifteen minutes later, in the alleyway out behind the café, Tony watched in disgusted fascination as Lane carefully finished carving Kade's barcode off the back of her neck. The young woman didn't flinch during the impromptu surgery, even though she had to be in absolute agony.
When Lane was finished, he secured a wide bandage to the back of Kade's neck, covering the exposed skin underneath. The bandage was barely visible when she let her dark hair fall back down around her shoulders.
Lane folded the piece of bloody skin into a scrap of paper, tucking the disgusting bundle into his pocket.
"I'll tell them that there was an explosion," he said, his eyes already distant as he stared out at the street. "This was all I could salvage from the ruins before the civilian cops swarmed the scene."
"Lydecker will never buy that," Kade said, but Lane just grinned at her.
"You forget how good I am at this," he reminded her. "Be safe, little sister."
"You, too," Kade said, giving the other transgenic a hard hug, and then they watched as the young man disappeared into the street, gone in just a few seconds.
The three of them stood in silence for a few minutes, and then Max turned to Kade with a serious expression on her face.
"You and I," she said, gravely, "need to have a long talk."