After Lex's confrontation with Farrell, he never dared to insult Isaac in her presence though she often suspected he would have liked to. She tried to question the boy gently, make sure the minder wasn't mistreating him behind her back. As far as she could tell things seemed to have improved a little, although he never said anything pleasant to Isaac at least he wasn't actively vindictive.

Farrell wasn't the only member of Weyland's staff who was always hanging around. The Suit – Rathbone, he'd told her his name was – kept materialising at odd moments. She'd be busy talking to the two children, then she'd turn and he'd be there watching. Or she'd get up to leave Selim's room at night after he'd fallen asleep and find him waiting along with the other two guards, ready to take her back to her cell. And of course it was he who came to collect her whenever she was summoned to Weyland's office, but she assumed this at least was part of his job. She knew now that he was Weyland's head of security.

He was always trying to engage her in conversation and she was pretty sure he was hitting on her. Though she always tried to answer him enigmatically enough to keep from either encouraging or discouraging him, she found it rather distasteful. It wasn't just that she was a prisoner and couldn't really avoid seeing him; it was the way he even flirted with her in front of Selim.

Luckily her son was still too young and too inexperienced in the ways of human interaction to really understand what was being said but even so, it made her intensely uncomfortable whenever Rathbone started circling and Selim was there. On her own she could handle him but her son was a clever boy and was almost certainly picking up on something. It was in his demeanour, the way he always became sullen and withdrawn whenever the security chief was present.

"Why is that human male always here Mei'Varsi?"He asked her one day in yautja when Rathbone turned up unexpectedly right in the middle of a game they'd been playing "Why do you let him come?"

"Selim, what do you mean?"She looked up in surprise and saw his expression, uncharacteristically belligerent

"How can you be so friendly to him?" He said accusingly.

"Selim!"

"I do not like the way he looks at you!" He snarled.

She noticed Isaac watching them closely and guessed because he was trying to follow what they were saying. She knew that Selim had taught him some yautja words but she wasn't sure how much he understood. Rathbone was also observing them with interest.

"Do not speak to me like that!" She snapped.

"I know my Father would not like the way you speak to him! How can you be so friendly when we do not even know where he is?"

"You really think I do not care about your father?!"

He glared at her angrily, sharp incisors bared "You look as if you have forgotten him already!"

She was shocked, Selim had never spoken to her this way before. It was unbearable! Her jaw set hard "Maybe you have inherited your father's temper after all," She said icily "But I do not tolerate it from him and I certainly will not tolerate it from you!"

He hung his head, immediately contrite and she put a hand on his shoulder, feeling a little guilty about the reprimand. "I am 'sorry' Selim," She said, having to use English as there was no such word in yautja "I spoke… harshly."

"I just … I wish he would leave us alone."He said miserably.


"Kid doesn't like me, does he?" The security chief said later that evening, when the two boys had finally gone to sleep and they were walking the short distance to her cell.

"Are you surprised?" She sounded faintly amused "He doesn't even know you and he's wary of strangers. Besides, you're technically our jailer."

"Oh is that what that is?" Now it was his turn to sound sarcastic "And here I thought he might just be a little bit jealous."

"Of what?" She turned to look at him, a slight smile on her lips, one eyebrow an ironical black arch.

"Maybe it's cos he thinks I'm competition for Mommy's attention?" He looked at her wolfishly "And you know, I kinda get the feeling he might be right!"

In her head she could hear Scar's mocking laughter as clearly as if he'd been standing beside her.

"This skinny creature is the competition? Then demon, I hope you have something sharp with which to pick the shreds of his flesh out of your teeth – after you devour him alive!"

As one of the other guards went through the whole long-winded process of opening the door, Rathbone stood watching her under hooded eyelids, as if she couldn't tell he was looking at her.

"You know," He said quietly "The boy is sleeping."

"So?"

"So," He stepped a little closer "I don't have to go."

She smiled a fraction wider, not because she was flattered or attracted to him, but because he'd given himself away. For a moment she hesitated, just long enough for him to think she might decide to play his game – then quickly she slipped out of arms reach between the other two guards, disappearing into the dark.

He was left standing in the corridor, with nothing to do but go back to his post.


Isaac might have resembled Selim in looks but Lex was coming to realise his personality was quite different.

Where Selim was relaxed and sunny, Isaac was reticent and wary. He was outwardly confident but it only took a small upset to bring out his insecurities, usually manifesting as flashes of childish temper. He wouldn't throw himself into her arms with complete trust like Selim would, but if he was feeling upset he would now cautiously approach her to be comforted. She thought that he was beginning to accept her.

Selim occasionally resented this new rival for her affection and there were times when he and Isaac's rivalry erupted into minor fights or quarrels, but mostly he was just happy to have found a friend. Now that his bandages had come off, he and Isaac looked even more alike than ever – a fact that both they seemed to be pleased about.

Sometimes Lex found she had forgotten that he was a clone and had started to think of the two boys as real brothers.

"I suppose it's not far from the truth," She thought as she sat trying to teach the pair of them to play card games, desperate to find more activities to keep them from trying to fight and run around the place.

"If they had been two embryos fertilised in utero at the same time instead of one, we'd have called them twins. As it is, he carries my genes and Scar's too – just exactly the same as Selim does. Genetically, I'm his mother, not Iversson. That means Scar is his father too." She paused, struck by an unwelcome thought "I wonder if he'd ever see it that way…"

"SNAP!" Isaac suddenly slammed his cards down on the pile in the middle of their little circle "I win! I beat you! Hahaha!"

"That is not fair!" Selim cried, leaping to his feet "You looked at my cards!"

"I did not!"

"You did!"

"Hey!" She said to Selim, who was trembling with indignation "Haven't you ever heard of being gracious in defeat?"

Her son folded his arms angrily "It is totally unacceptable to live with defeat!"

She stifled a laugh "Isaac won fair and square so just stop being a baby and we'll play again!"

"Yeah c'mon Selim," Isaac grinned "I promise I won't beat you too badly this time!"

Selim gave a little trill of noise and would have leapt on him but Lex held him back "You still have to be careful," She told him "Remember what Iversson said. You have to give your head time to heal properly." In truth the wound on his head had healed so fast it had surprised her.

"My head is fine," He said irritably "Stop fussing around me, Mei'Varsi!"

Lex was about to respond when she suddenly became aware of Diana Weyland watching them from the doorway. She'd obviously come in whilst the three of them had been absorbed in the game. As usual she barely acknowledged either Selim or Isaac, but was friendly where Lex was concerned.

"How sweet you're all getting along so well," She said flatly "I swear you'd never know they didn't both belong to you."

Out of the corner of her eye, Lex noticed Isaac flinch and scowl at this. "The poor kid's got no real idea where he belongs!" She thought.

Either Weyland really had no idea of the pain that her barbed comment would cause him, or she didn't care. Lex hated her for it.

"Hello Ms Weyland," She said in as friendly tone as she could muster "How nice of you to come and see us."

"Well it was you I was hoping to see actually Lex," Weyland said quickly "I want to speak to you. I trust you're not busy."

"Just let me finish this game." Lex knew Weyland could compel her to go if she wanted, she held the purse strings to Selim's medical care. She also knew she was going to have to play hard to get if her plan was going to work.

Weyland looked disbelieving that she would ever choose such an occupation willingly "Can't they finish it on their own? I was hoping to talk to you right now, alone."

The two boys were both looking up at her with pleading expressions "Just one more game before you go Mei'Varsi?" Selim said "I promise I won't be a bad loser!"

"I promise I won't be a bad winner!" Isaac said this with all the dramatic emphasis of a gambler making his last desperate throw.

She looked into the matching yellow eyes and smiled, relieved that at least they wouldn't be alone after she'd gone.

"Lex?" Weyland said behind her and she turned to see the hired muscle had appeared in the doorway behind her. They didn't come into the room but the implication was clear.

"I'm going to have to insist." Diana said

Lex sighed and pushed herself to her feet.


The sea seemed to be especially rough this evening. As Lex padded unhurriedly after Diana Weyland's petite figure into her office, it was so dark outside that she could see of the ocean was the constantly moving shimmer of artificial lights reflecting off the heaving swell.

The complex was suspended on legs way above the surface of the ocean and Diana's office was up still higher, but the wind was so wild that every so often a huge wave would rear up and shatter across the deck below, hurling a burst of crystalline spray across the glass wall behind Diana's desk. The effect was made rather surreal by the total absence of sound – the glass so thick that no noise of wind or water could reach them. It was a testament to the immense wealth and power of Weyland Corp, Lex thought. They had managed to build a facility that felt like a luxurious office environment on what was basically a huge oil rig.

The lights in the room were down low. Lex noticed that for the first time ever, Diana's guards were totally absent. Professor Iversson was not present either as she usually was. Even Rathbone was waiting outside in the corridor. She wondered what Weyland could possibly have to say to her that had to be kept so secret and felt and sudden twinge of dread. What if she'd done something terrible to Scar and wanted to gloat about it? She smothered the fear.

As the waves crashed soundlessly outside she was slightly surprised to note that, instead of seating herself at the imposing desk, Diana Weyland moved to one of the large leather armchairs, motioning her to sit opposite.

"So," She said, when Lex was seated, gazing across at her "I suppose you're wondering what I want to talk about at this time of night?"

Lex nodded slightly.

"I won't beat about the bush Lex," Diana steepled her fingers together "I've tried the indirect way and it hasn't yielded any results so I'm going to be very direct. My technicians have the camouflage device we took from the exotic. I know it is operational because he used them to wipe out my extraction team in San Francisco."

"I've already told you," Lex said carefully "I don't know anything about how they work."

"So you said but I'm afraid I'm still not entirely convinced. I must warn you that in your position, refusing to give me what I want is not very smart."

"I told you everything I know."

"Lex, you're much too intelligent to give up all your information until you have to. I think you are keeping something back from me."

"And what reason would I have to do that?"

"Well there could be any number of reasons," Diana inspected her long polished nails "But I suppose if I were to have to pick one I'd guess you were trying to guard his secrets."

"Whose secrets?"

Cupids-bow lips stretched into a smirk "Oh come now, we both know the answer to that. The alien's secrets; you have some sort of pact of silence with the father of your child and whilst that's very loyal - "

"You think I'm protecting him!?"

Weyland broke off mid-sentence and looked at her, puzzled "What?" She said.

"I wouldn't lift a finger to protect him!" Lex spat out the words disgustedly "You don't understand …"

Lex tailed off, waiting. She was faintly satisfied to see Diana Weyland's features freeze momentarily. This clearly was not the reaction she had been expecting.

It was only a split second lapse in Weyland's impressive control. Almost immediately her face rearranged itself into a mask of attentive sympathy as she changed gears.

"What do you mean Lex?" She said softly "What is it I don't understand?"

"What the last six years have been like for me." Lex looked away and put a hand over her mouth, letting her eyes fill with tears.

"And what were they like?"

"Like being in hell." She whispered "Because he's the devil."