Break
Chapter Fourteen
Family
Max and Zane ran onto the street where the getaway motorcycles were waiting. Alec couldn't miss the stricken appearance on their faces, but before Alec could mention it, Max straddled his motorcycle and yelled, "Go!" Alec saw the glance that passed between Zane and Max before the motorcycles took off, a look that bonded them as siblings and left everyone else out. That always seemed to be the case, though, so Alec didn't dwell on it. All he wanted to know was what had caused the two to look so shocked and helpless.
Zack. Working for McKinley. The concept was difficult to even process. How could he get involved with this man? Zack was supposed to be safely tucked away on a farm in Texas. Obviously he wasn't. Logan had failed her yet again on as small a task as making sure her amnesiac brother was safe. He was supposed to be monitoring Zack periodically, but apparently that was too hard of a task for him. If Logan had been doing what he said he was, Zack wouldn't have moved across the country to work for a man who's goal in life was to kill them and their kind. How could Logan have missed such a big event in Zack's life? Zack still didn't remember who he was. That was the only way he would be able to work for McKinley. The only way Zack could hunt their kind. The breeding cult had obviously planned this. They probably expected the Created to drop their whole mission because Zack was there and in danger. They had assumed they could use Zack as a bargaining chip. They hadn't realized that the Created hated the '09ers as much as the breeding cult hated transgenics in general. And they hadn't counted on Max feeling responsible for Zack being there. They had underestimated her reaction to the whole situation; their fatal mistake.
Max was the first one into Joshua's house when the motorcycles had pulled into the drive. She made an entrance that wouldn't easily be forgotten.
"We're taking that man down and he's going to feel pain. I will find a way to overcome their no feeling barrier and I am going to torture him until he begs for me to stop. I probably won't even stop there."
Zane skulked in after Max's dramatic entrance, the entire feeling of defeat coming off of him in waves. The Created turned their attention on those who had returned from the mission and waited for more explanation of Max's outburst and Zane's stony silence. Alec walked in after him, with the other getaway driver; those two seeming no more informed on what had happened than those that had been life behind. Alec moved forward, touching Max surprisingly gently. Max didn't jerk away from his touch despite the anger that was boiling inside of her, another shock. She stood completely still, breathing heavily, trying to clear her mind and prepare herself for telling everyone else what had happened.
Xandy was the first one to actually ask what happened. She didn't like that they had come back empty handed, and the way they looked, something big had happened. And it better be a good excuse for coming back with nothing.
"What went on at McKinley's office, Zane? This was supposed to be a simple B and E. Nothing more. You two are experts at that!"
Zane shuffled his feet, not willing to look at Xandy. She wouldn't understand what was happening. None of them would. None of the transgenics had ever felt like they were a part of a family except the 09ers and trying to explain such a bond would be fairly futile. She would find that as no excuse for not coming back with what they had asked for, and she wouldn't understand the depth of the emotions he and Max were feeling. But he had to explain it anyway.
"Our brother Zack was already at McKinley's office." Zane said it simply but most didn't understand the implications. Alec did, however. Alec knew exactly why Zack shouldn't have been at McKinley's office. He likely wasn't there on his own reconnaissance.
Alec decided to clarify the situation. "Zack. Like, shot himself in the head to give Max a heart, memory loss Zack? The one that was supposed to be living happily ever after in Texas?"
Max nodded in a defeat that Alec had rarely seen in her form. Alec suddenly knew why they had been so upset when they had run out of the office. It wasn't just because they had been caught. It was because they had been caught by Zack.
"Zack was working at the office, wasn't he, Max?"
Max nodded again, eerily quiet and perfectly still except for the head motion. She seemed to be thinking, probably considering the millions of different way she was going to kill White and McKinley, how to utterly destroy these men who tried so desperately to ruin her life and everyone around her. She turned, finally, looking at Zane with intensity. They were communicating in their own way again. Max spoke, calmer than she had before, but the edge was still obviously in her voice.
"They think that I will try to take him, extract him, and that will be what traps me. They didn't expect our reaction or my plan. They thinking hiring Zack will be the end of us, but really it will be the end of them. They won't capture me or anyone else." Max paused for dramatic effect, "Xandy, you wanted someone to infiltrate the campaign, someone on the inside we could trust. As soon as Zane and I explain the situation to Zack, we will have one. Zack will be our inside man. We just need proof that will convince him to help us."
Gage staked out McKinley's office building, per Xandy's order. He followed Zack home as soon as the transgenic exited the building, and called in the address to the apartment Zack had unlocked. He noticed the Familiars that were hanging around the building, easy to spot with their stiff stances and conspicuous dress. He gave that information to headquarters as well, then sat back and waited for Zane and Max to arrive. He would distract the Familiars and Max and Zane would get into the building safely. The plan was basic, but good. This was a step forward for the Created. This could really help them stop the breeding cult.
Gage heard the motorcycles nearing the corner. He had told them to park out of sight and that he would keep an eye out for them. He stepped into the street, walking quickly towards Zack's building with all the subtlety of a gorilla lumbering towards a banana. Two Familiars huddled near the entry, boredom written on their faces. Despite the orders White had given them to stay alert, they didn't really expect anyone to come on their shift at twilight. Gage had been counting on that. He started towards the doors, trying to make sure that his drawn on barcode was visible. If these Familiars thought he was a transgenic going for Zack, they would think they were chasing someone White wanted them to capture. He would run until he met up with Riley on another motorcycle and speed away while Max and Zane made it into Zack's apartment without being noticed. They could escape easily enough, hopefully with Zack on their side and not on McKinley's any longer. As if on cue, the Familiars approached him slyly, surrounding him almost unnoticeably. Gage waited a few more moments in fake oblivion before he took off in a superhuman run. The Familiars followed dumbly, and Gage turned to see Max and Zane enter the building successfully. For a moment, he had never been prouder to be a member of the Created. And never more ashamed to have even been brought into existence by the breeding cult. This plan was ridiculously simple. They had fallen for it.
Max slid through the hallway smoothly, looking for the number Gage had provided them with. This place was only slightly nicer than her place, which surprised her since Zack was supposed to have this big important job with McKinley. They must not be paying him very much to betray his own kind. She glanced behind her and saw Zane with a similar look on his face. They had both expected more from McKinley than this. She found the apartment first, pausing before they broke in. How were they going to make Zack trust them? They were breaking into his apartment. He would be likely to call the police before they even got their story out. But they had to try. She and Zane could handle a couple of bent cops if they had too. This was their most likely way to infiltrate the campaign.
She was almost afraid to be face to face with her big brother again. Memories of their last encounter, having to shock him to save Logan's life, Zack's mind twisted around in a way that she couldn't fix, brought Max a lot of pain. It was almost as bad as looking at Alec and remembering what she did to Ben. This had to be done, despite her personal feelings. She couldn't stand the thought of White and the Familiars using her brother against their own kind when Zack's whole mission in life had been to keep them safe. She snapped the door handle, twisting it against her lock pick, and opened the door quietly. She motioned for Zane to follow, both remaining silent while they entered the apartment. The room was sparse, barely any furniture or personality in the room. Zack obviously didn't have much.
He wasn't in the living room, so that left the room to their right, a door shut blocking them out from reconnecting with their brother. Zane barged in while Max stared at the once closed door to find Zack lying on a makeshift bed. He jumped to his feet, worry etched on his face.
"Who are you? What do you want? I don't have anything for you to steal…you were at the office. What, are you planning on making me a political prisoner, because I'm barely higher than an intern? It won't work."
"We're not here to kidnap you, Zack." Zane said it firmly, but Max could see it in Zane's eyes that this situation pained him. Zack had always kept them all connected and to see that connection broken made him feel even more lost that he had when they had escaped from Manticore in the first place.
"How did you know my name?" Zack stood in a natural defensive stance that he didn't even realize he had encoded in him. He scanned the room, memorizing Zane's features before turning to Max. A puzzled look appeared on his face, familiarity between the two seemed obvious. He knew her. He had seen her before he went back to Texas. She had told him they didn't know each other then, and he was sure she would say the same now.
But before he could mention his recognition, the man was answering his first question.
"We're your family, Zack. You are our big brother."
Zack almost laughed at the simple statements the man had made. He didn't have any family. They had died a long time ago. This person was trying to use him to get close to McKinley, information about McKinley.
"I don't have family. They're all dead."
"You just don't remember us, Zack." Max spoke this time, her voice soft and almost gentle, gentle enough to make Zack look at her in a similar appearance of belief. His memories had always been fuzzy, when his memory was incredibly sharp. He never knew why his past was so dim in his mind. He wanted to believe this girl, but how could he? They continually tried to break into the place that he was at.
"We look nothing alike, not like we're related in the least. You expect me to believe you when you break into my house off the street, and take you at your word just because my past has faded?"
Max and Zane exchanged looks and the Max delved into the story of their life. She tried to make it sound a little less science fiction-y, though with a life like theirs, it was hard. She knew that everything she said sounded completely unbelievable and that as Zack listened to them, he would decide they belonged in a mental institution. She plowed through it, though, ending with the Created and their battle against the breeding cult run by McKinley, White, and several other powerful people in the country.
Zack wanted to laugh. These two people who had broken into his house were obviously escapees from a psychiatric ward. He stared at them, wonder in his eyes; shock that someone would go to these lengths to sabotage McKinley's campaign. Yet something in the girl's eyes, the familiar brown eyes that he knew he'd seen before, told him that despite every intuition he had about this situation, she was telling the truth. He didn't want to believe it. Transgenics being chased by breeding cult members that worshipped snakes seemed like a pre-Pulse movie.
"I know you don't believe us, Zack. But it's true. You know you had a barcode on the back of your neck. You know that I'm telling you the truth. You know it deep down. You're my big brother."
Zack fought that concept. Everything he felt towards this brown haired girl told him that he didn't have any kind of familial relationship, or he didn't want to. He guessed they weren't technically related, after all that she had told him, they were only in the same unit. She obviously saw him as a brother, though. But these feelings towards her would explain why he was starting to believe everything she said. He knew about transgenics. Mr. White and Governor McKinley had spoken out against them on several occasions. He was helping a man who was hunting his own kind, a man that wanted them all dead. He felt betrayed, by the man he had admired, and by this makeshift little family that he had had that allowed him to run away and forget every responsibility he had towards them. If they had just helped him remember earlier, told him who he was, Zack would never have come to work for McKinley. Sudden self-loathing filled his mind, disgust at himself for admiring the governor. He was a fool.
Max could see the wheels turning in Zack's head. She knew that he believed their story, and if he was still the Zack she knew inside, he would be offering to help any minute. Hope surged through her that her big brother was going to be able to help them. She tried to keep her emotions in check, but she knew Zane could tell what she was feeling. He was probably feeling it too, minus the guilt over having put Zack in this position in the first place.
"How can I help you? The Created? If I'm one of you, I should be able to help."
Max grinned at him and Zane grabbed a hold of Zack's shoulder.
"We were hoping you'd offer. We can use your position in McKinley's organization to find out how much they know and what they're planning to do to our organization. They don't know we've gotten to you. Would you do that? Report back to us? It could be dangerous. White could snap at any minute."
"I'll try. I don't know how good I'll be at it, but I'll try."
Max threw herself at Zack, giving him a huge hug that was completely uncharacteristic of her. But she had another one of her brothers back. Two in one room. And this was Zack. She had ruined his life several times. Hopefully she wouldn't do it again by asking him to do this.
Zack seemed taken aback by Max's sudden show of affection. He finally returned the embrace tentatively, but she didn't' seem to notice his uncertainty. This whole situation was overwhelming to Zack. He would have to process everything he'd been told. And he needed to do it away from his family. He would be with them soon enough.
"I need some time to think about all this, you guys. I know this is supposed to be some sort of great family reunion, but I don't really remember anything that you've told me. I need some time. But I will help."
Zane nodded, understandingly, and stepped away from his siblings. "We'll get out of your hair. Come on, Maxie; let's go tell the others the good news."
Max pulled away from Zack, trying to hold back her desire to keep attached to him for a considerably long time. Zack needed his space and she had to respect that. The two headed to the window, to scale up the building and disappear into the night. She tossed Zack one last longing look. "We'll be in touch." Zane and Max faded away in a way transgenics could.