McCoy wasn't sure about the way to the surface and Suzanne wasn't helping. Probably giving Khan time to get away. When Marla stumbled, he picked her up and prayed it wasn't too much farther. Glancing back at Suzanne, he couldn't help but notice that she had gone all preternaturally calm and silent. Who did that remind him of?

"Were you ever going to tell me?" he asked bitterly.

"Tell you what?" she asked quietly.

"That you fucked me because you wanted to…." He stopped unable to carry it through.

"I wanted to fuck you," she replied with that odd tilt of her head. "No ulterior motives."

"I find that hard to believe," he snorted and saw an opening ahead. "I see the surface."

Suzanne moved ahead of them and came out on a side street, the hour just before dawn. It was cool and foggy and somewhere off a night bird finished the last cords of its symphony. She turned and helped McCoy get Marla, who was exhausted with fear and grief, out of the tunnel. McCoy popped his head and actually looked around to see if anyone was laying an ambush for them. Climbing out of the hole, he looked around and saw that they were at the foot of a hill with the bay open before them.

"Do you see him?"

"Who?" Suzanne asked.

"Khan! Do you see him?"

Suzanne looked around but saw no one. "He's not here."

"We need to call Starfleet and let them know where we are," McCoy reasoned aloud. "I can go look if you'll stay here with her, unless you are going to run off too."

"I am here to help you," she answered quietly. "It is why Khan did not take me."

McCoy hesitated, his eyes held by hers. A question popped into his head, but he filed it away for later use. "I'll be back," he promised and trotted back towards some promising lights. He got back just as the security vehicles arrived screaming on the scene.

Jim and Spock jumped out of the second one with Carol Marcus following. "Bones! Bones are you all right?"

"Fine, all things considered," he answered as an ambulance showed up. Meeting their eyes he said, "Khan let me go to help her."

Suzanne ignored their reunion and turned to Carol Marcus. This was the woman who murdered most of her friends in their sleep, who tried to kill her and almost killed Khan. "Dr. McCoy saved him," she spoke deliberately but without passion in her voice.

Carol almost asked why but snapped her mouth shut.

Suzanne turned back to Marla as they were putting her on the gurney for transportation. That was when she noticed the dark figure up high watching. Leaning over Marla who was still distraught, she whispered, "Follow my eyes and do nothing to give him away."

And with Marla watching her face, Suzanne cut her eyes to the left and then raised them.

Marla did as she was told and spotted his dark shape on a ledge high atop a building. He was crouched with his hands folded together in front of him. He was watching them, his men nowhere visible. Only her fear that they would attack him kept her tongue in check. She watched him as long as she could, until McCoy came to see about her, then he noticed what she was staring at. For a second he wanted to say something, alert the others to his presence, but instead he watched Khan stand up and slip away in the dying shadows of early morning. Twice that he knew of, he had saved Khan's life.

"What are you looking at?" Mr. Spock asked curiously.

McCoy worked his mouth a moment and then said, "Khan."

"Why didn't you say something?" Jim asked in an accusatory voice.

"Why? You'd have never caught him. Besides, for the time being I prefer him being alive than dead. Call it the devil you know."

"What do you mean?" Spock asked suspiciously.

"One of Khan's men makes him seem sane," McCoy answered as they readied Marla for transporting.

"When we get back, you need to tell us who they are," Jim said. "We need to know what we're up against."

"He won't do anything to risk her," McCoy explained. "He's counting on me to save her."

…

Kirk was pretty sure that Khan was no longer on planet. No one could just melt into the night and disappear that completely not with the kind of hatred Khan kept inside of him.

The all points were still up and Starfleet had not given up the search, not with the skeleton of the Vengeance still resting in San Francisco Bay.

Tried in absentia, Khan was found guilty of war crimes against the people of Starfleet and San Francisco. Deputized snipers were readied to kill him on sight should he ever appear anywhere on planet. Kirk was pretty sure Khan was hiding in the unstable humanity of Mars where in the lawless chaos there was still room to move about unnoticed.

So certain he was that Khan had to be on Mars, he and Spock took leave to go have a look. Arriving at Star Port 182, dressed in civilian attire with long coats for the cool damp weather and cowls, they moved on foot into the filthy streets of Harmonia, the largest civilian town on the planet. It spread out like a scab for a hundred miles in each direction, where a man like Khan could walk through it like an angel of death and no one would notice.

A number of times Kirk thought he saw the man watching him but realized it was just his imagination. Khan did not come out in the sunlight, he was a creature of the night when nightmares prowled the imagination. What he needed was a way to draw Khan out without risking their lives. Khan had nothing to lose, and taking out an enemy would mean nothing to him.

Finding a tavern with rooms to rent, he and Spock picked up a pair of adjoining rooms and headed down to the dining hall to get a bite to eat. Nothing fancy here, dark beer a roasted meat and starches in the form of potatoes and whatever else was cheap to import or easy to go on Mars.

After dark with the lessening of the rain, Kirk and Spock went for a stroll where the lights were brightest in ethnic neighborhoods, if you could call them that. Buying two mugs of warm beer at an outdoor vendor, Kirk gave one to Spock and the two of them continued their walk. He was certain Khan would be using an alias, although he seriously doubted it would be John Harrison.

"The possibilities are endlessly," Spock surmised.

"It'll be something that has meaning to him," Kirk replied comfortably.

"And that would be?"

"McGiver. He'll use her name."

"It would be a name that has meaning to him," Spock concurred. "But how do we find him?"

"We don't. He'll come to us." Tossing the cup into an overflowing trashcan, Kirk approached a large heavyset man in a gypsy cart with the side window open and a bright light burning inside. He looked at the trinkets that the big man was hawking and noticed a few things were military scrap. "How much is this?" he asked curiously.

"Five credits?" Kirk asked in amazement and held up the scrap casing for a starship torpedo's explosive housing.

"Take it or leave it, I don't care," the big man replied, his eyes on a monitor rebroadcasting an Australian football game.

Kirk grinned and reached into his coat and withdrew the money. Laying it on the counter, he added, "I'm looking for an old friend of mine who might be around here. His name is McGiver. Black hair, pale eyes. Creepy." The man ignored him. It wasn't wise to get involved in other peoples' business. Kirk smiled and pocketed the junk.

As he and Spock continued on their way, Spock glanced back at the man and said, "He did not acknowledge you."

"Oh yeah he did," Kirk disagreed. "If Khan is around, he will appear eventually."

"And what are you going to do when he appears," Spock asked curiously.

"I honestly don't know," Kirk answered. "But shoot on sight makes me uncomfortable."

"The sentence has been given," Spock replied.

"Yeah, I know. Everyone has been trying to kill Khan since Admiral Marcus woke him up. I just don't know."

Returning to their rooms late, Kirk opened the door to his room and stopped. "Captain," the smooth masculine voice greeted him.