Venenum International …
Four Weeks Later …
For a shipping and waste disposal company Venenum employed surprisingly cheap security. Most of their surveillance cameras were dummies and the guards too young or too old.
"Like taking candy from babies," Alec murmured as he jumped onto the tin roof of the dock-side office. Max followed a moment later, landing silently on her little cat-DNA'd feet.
"C' mon, put on your stocking cap. The lights are shining on your lighter hair like a spotlight." She tugged the navy blue article from his BDU's cargo pocket and slapped it into his hand. He pulled a face behind her back as he tugged the cap over his head.
Alec and Max let themselves in through a window they'd rappelled down to. They kept their small flashlights pocketed, using the glow from a security light outside and their enhanced vision. A dusty desktop sat on the metal desk behind which sat a safe and filing cabinets. Alec idly flipped through a classic car calendar on the wall as Max rifled through the files in the bottom desk drawer.
"Damn, the bad guys never leave incriminating files out in the open," Max quipped.
"How inconvenient; how thoughtless," Alec played along. He saw her smile out of the corner of his eye.
Man, she should do that more often. She's so pretty, Alec thought to himself as he began working to open the safe. Max had moved on to the computer. She plugged in a USB programmed to copy the whole hard drive in seconds, regardless of the level of encryption.
"How's the safe crackin' goin'?" Max asked, peering over Alec's shoulder.
"It'd go a lot faster if you weren't distracting me," he huffed, mostly out of habit. Before she could retort Alec pulled the door open. He removed a stack of files, kept half and then handed Max the rest. They blurred through the files in seconds, eidetic memories coming in handy.
"What do you mean you saw Mothman jump the fence?" A man's angry voice and two sets of footfalls announced the arrival of company. Alec and Max blurred, putting everything back as they'd found it, grabbing the USB and collecting their rappelling gear.
"I swear, Mr. Addams, it was Mothman. He was seven feet tall, had red glowing eyes, an' he just FLEW over the fence." The security guard's voice shook as he spoke.
"This is the second time this week you've called me at home. So help me, if this is a false alarm you're out on the street; nephe or not. Understand?" Through the window Max and Alec watched the one called Addams put a finger in the young man's chest to punctuate his threat.
Two blocks back toward T.C. the Transgenics stopped to drop into the sewers. Alec led the way, eager to get back to fresh air.
"What the hell is 'Mothman'?" he asked out of the blue.
"Some kind of supernatural creature, like vampires and werewolves." Max explained as she sidestepped a rat longer than her foot. "It was supposed to have terrorized a small town in West Virginia like sixty years ago."
"No wonder the Nomalies scare the Ordinaries so much." They talked about various cryptids and movie monsters all the way back to H.Q.
The Next Morning …
T.C.
BANG … BANG … BANG …
Max opened the door just as Joshua went to knock the fourth time. While she hadn't been asleep, she didn't want his loud knocking to wake the whole floor.
"Hey, big fella, what's the 9-1-1?" She led him into the small apartment's living area.
"Dix wants Max. Computer files." He sniffed a few times, something he did at almost every new place he went.
"Okay, let me get my boots on and we can walk to H.Q together." Max flopped down on the unbroken end of the couch she'd recently scrounged.
"Where Alec?" Joshua made his way around the room until he came to the jacket Max had worn on the previous night's B&E.
"I dunno. Out tom-cattin' I guess." Max shrugged. She made sure to grab her keys and pager.
Why does everyone ask me where he's at? He's my S-I-C, not my shadow, she mentally complained.
"Alec not tom-cat like before. Not since you and Logan splitsville."
"I guess the dating pool is kinda small in T.C." Max slid into her other jacket, (not the one that smelled ever so faintly of gun oil and Alec.)
"What ya got for me, Dix?" Max pulled a folding chair closer to the Transhuman's workbench.
"Hey! Wait for me," Alec called from down the hall. Droplets of water in his hair caught the light like crystals. Max smelled his soap from across the room; and the coffee in his thermos. She caught herself taking a deep breath to draw the pleasant mix into her lungs.
"Get a grip girl," She heard Original Cindy's voice in her head, pulling her back to reality, away from Alec's scent and the way his eyes sparkled as the morning sun caught them.
Remind me to go to Sick Bay, have my hormones checked for signs of Heat, she told herself.
"The gang's all here," Alec patted Joshua's shoulder as they took up spots behind Max and Dix. The dogman let out a chuffing laugh.
"The info on the USB had minimal encryption but it still took me most of the night to go through it all. I don't think they'd ever defragmented the hard drive. Not to mention all the viruses, spam and porn on there." The Transhuman shuddered.
"Hey, buddy, do me a favor and save me a copy of the porn? Alec bent down to ask quietly. A hard smack to the back of his head a split second later had him dancing away from Max.
"What the hell, Max!" he protested. "You're not my mother!"
"Thank god for that," she threw back at him.
"What are they bickering about now?" Mole asked as he walked up to the group.
"Porn," Dix and Joshua answered simultaneously.
"Huh," the lizardman grunted. The pair had argued over less.
"What did you find on the hard drive, Dix?" Max ignored Alec's boyish pout, and the way it made her pulse quicken.
"I found records for payoffs of inspectors, boat captains, Coast Guard officials, everything."
"Any kind of schedule? We need to catch them red-handed." Max needed to put these guys away for all Transhumans already gone. Manticore had already screwed them over enough for one lifetime.
"Yeah, there's a pay-off scheduled for tomorrow to a Captain Rollins of the Maggie MacKenzie." He rattled off her location.
"That means they'll try to kidnap at least a couple of us tonight." Alec chimed in for the first time. He had shed the boyish pout in favor of a seriously pissed soldier.
"Undercover operative?" Max stood up as her mind began to calculate and plan.
"Who? The Transhumans are closing ranks." Alec bit his bottom lip as he thought.
"Joshua go." The dogman thumped himself in the chest. Mole chuckled while Max and Alec traded horrified looks.
"I know you want to help, big fella, but we need someone they haven't seen. Your picture was in the tabloids." Max hated to bring up anything to do with Annie or Isaac's deaths.
"Mole, my man, how do you feel about undercover work?" Alec clamped a hand on the smaller Transhuman's shoulder and smiled to make a used car salesman proud.
"Who, me? You think any puny Ordinary could kidnap me? Ha!" He puffed up under everyone's scrutiny.
"They couldn't but we won't tell them that. You're a perfect example of cunning and skill. We'll have a recon team watching. You'll be in constant, two-way contact with base. It'll be a walk in the park." It didn't take Manticore-trained observational skills to see the lizardman's nervousness.
"What, are you X-5's too pretty to die?" he shot back.
"I don't know about Max, but I am." She gave him a not unexpected shot in the ribs.
"Ass," she hissed.