"What happened?" Cole asked the minute Alicia walked through the door. He had been sitting in front of the computer, doing some ground school training for flying jet fighters when she flung the door open and stormed into the house. Her stockings were ripped; there were leaves in her hair, and mud on her dress.
She looked at her "big brother" for a moment. He had blue-gray eyes, and his hair was a dark brown. Still, enough of their features were similar to ensure that people thought they really were siblings. Although right now he had a rather spectacular black eye as a result of a mission he had just returned from earlier that day, he still had rather impressive looks and build. Enough to keep him busy with the mandated number of social events at any rate.
"Lee decided that we were to engage in sexual relations tonight," she said flatly. A tiny ghost of a smile curved the outside of her mouth. "I let him know in no uncertain terms that I did not appreciate such demands, and then I believe that I terminated the relationship."
Cole winced. Alicia probably could tear him apart if she really wanted to, and he pitied the norm solider who thought he could treat her like a norm girl. He hoped she left him capable of getting to a hospital on his own. She knew better than to kill without orders, unless it was her life at stake, but the guy she'd been seeing was no match for a genetically engineered super-solider who was in the mood to slap him around.
"Anyways, is Dad in his office here, or did he go back to the block?" she asked, hoping he was here. She couldn't wait to find out what the special mission was.
The doorbell rang. Alicia slipped around the wall into the kitchen. She didn't want anyone to see her right now. Norms tended to ask too many questions, even the military ones. They thought that since she looked like a kid, someone over the age of 21 could interrogate her at any time.
Cole opened a window on the computer to make it look like he'd been playing a game, and then answered the door. A PFC stood there with a package. "I have to deliver this directly to Donald Lydecker," he stated self-importantly. "Is he home?"
"I'll get him," Cole replied, letting the young solider in. He left for the office, and Alicia decided this would be a good time to change out of her dirty clothes. She ran up the back stairs into her bedroom. When the sixers were 13, it was decided that they would start interacting socially. They had been taken to a new base, and told to let their hair grow. Alicia and Cole moved in with Lydecker to give a family appearance. Now everyone not associated with Manticore believed them to be Lydecker's blood children by his deceased wife. When she had moved in, her room was decorated appropriately, and changed according to what a norm girl's room should look like. Not that Alicia cared, but appearances had to be maintained for guests.
She stripped, and threw on fresh underwear, jeans, and a sweater. She crouched at the top of the stairs to see if she could hear anything of importance between Lydecker and the PFC. Not much was said; the solider wasn't of importance then obviously. Lydecker looked at the package carefully.
"You can stop the surveillance, and come down now," he called without turning around. The footsteps he immediately heard on the steps pleased him. He knew his kids, and this group knew to always put the mission first.
"My office, please" he said using a pocketknife to slit the seal on the package. He looked inside and smiled coldly. If everything worked…well, with a second X-5, Level 3 could commence sooner than anyone could have hoped.
Alicia knew not to ask questions until fully briefed. She sat quietly while he studied her for a long moment. Her eyes met his and held. He was so pleased with what he saw in her. She was the epitome of the solider he had spent twenty years trying to create. If only she had the X-5 body, she would be perfect. But, she was still strong, and fast, and not prone to the genetic breakdown's as the X-5's.
"How much do you know about the X-5's?" he asked.
Shit, she thought. She and Cole had done plenty of file hacking whenever Lydecker was on trips. They knew much more than they should, but that was the only way to learn how to become better than them. One fiver could hold her breath for four minutes. Alicia had struggled to break that record, and would never forget the look of pride on her father's face when she'd surfaced from the pool 4 minutes and 18 seconds after going under.
"I know the basics," she stated. Never give more information than was required. It was a technique drilled into them.
Lydecker understood her evasiveness. She had done some poking around. It was a sign of high spiritedness. Such things were to be controlled but not destroyed. He trusted in her loyalty to him and Manticore. Her actions had proven that more than mere words could ever do.
"You know that the X-5's ran away ten years ago?" She nodded. He wondered which reports she had read. Some of them used the term "escaped" but he had changed as many as he could find. "Good. We know that they scattered, and believe that several stayed on the West Coast. We've been close to them, and even brought one home recently."
It took every bit of training and discipline to keep from breaking in. She was going after the X-5's! He had searched for them for so long, and now felt that she was mature enough to look for them with her. Lydecker could see the gleam in her eyes and understood her excitement. Planting bombs, assassinations, spying on foreign ambassadors, that was merely using their superior training and abilities. But chasing an X-5? Their training wasn't as complete, but their abilities were more. That would be a real challenge to any sixer.
"I am going to have you assist me on a two-fold mission," he continued. "We had substantiated reports that an X-5 is in the LA area. Jointly, we are going to try and find him or her." The slight amusement at her eagerness faded, and was replaced by a serious concern. "But, we're racing the clock on this one." He handed her a manila folder from the package that he had received. It was amazing how explaining such a serious problem only took a few minutes to explain.
"I want you to memorize that folder. A group of South Africans known as the Red Disposables are also looking for the X-5. They know that they can't get to an X-6, but the 5's are on the loose. Once we find the X-5, I am going to bring him home, and you are going to make sure the South Africans do not get their hands on him. Any questions?"
She thought for a moment. "By any means necessary?" she asked quietly.
"Manticore technology must never fall into their hands."
"I understand." She closed the folder. "I'll be ready in the morning as ordered."
He rose to indicate she was dismissed. As she turned another thought came into his mind, something he'd thought about before, but didn't want to express. Still, she needed to be reminded.
"Alicia," he called. She stopped and looked back, waiting for further instructions. "The South Africans are looking for Manticore technology, not an X-5. They'll be just as happy with your genetics. They have the element of surprise with the X-5. Make sure they don't have it with you."
She nodded, and took the folder to her room. Unfortunately she needed more sleep than some of the others, but she could have the folder in her head and be ready to go by 0600 hours, no problem. She sat at her desk and started to read.
The South Africans were interesting at least, Alicia thought that morning as they flew to LA. They had engineered super soldiers using implants, but the human body would break down after mere months. They wanted a genetic blueprint, and Manticore had made the DNA that worked. They couldn't get their hands on an X-6, and the X-3's remaining weren't updated enough, even if they could get one.
But the fivers were on their own. They had no idea that someone besides Lydecker and her were looking for them. Hell, they had no idea SHE was looking for them. They could take on any norm in the world, and would dismiss her. It was a simple matter of strategy, and she had more years of training than they did.
She leaned back in her seat, trying not to let the smugness show. Once they got this one, Lydecker would let her hunt the others. She knew he had just missed one in Seattle, and another got killed there in a helicopter crash, but that still left plenty of hunting to do. This was the challenge she'd been waiting for, ever since her first real mission at 12.
The helicopter crash. Cole had helped her get that report. Zack. The X-5 leader had died to save another. It was useless really, he merely traded his life for another's, and it didn't help the mission at all. Such a sacrifice went against every bit of training, but then again, that was Zack. Dad still doesn't know, she thought. She supposed she should have told him, but it was…well, she didn't know, but it was something for her to keep.
A few months before they ran, she had met Zack. There was a wall in the obstacle course that you had to climb, grab a rope at the top, swing across, and go down another wall. She just couldn't get it. The first wall was almost 12 feet high. She knew that brute strength wouldn't get her up; there was a technique somehow. At the time, she was smaller than most of the others; she shot up nearly seven inches after puberty when most of the others had stopped growing. But that was years in the future and for a seven year old, the wall was insurmountable.
She had snuck over to the wall at recreation time. For an hour she kept flinging herself up, and kept hitting the ground. The last time, she stood there quietly for a moment contemplating it. How to get up? A shadow had fallen over her, and she'd turned to see another cadet, but in camouflage staring at her. He was bigger, but then again, so was everyone. An X-5 maybe? He'd hesitated, as if debating on what to say, and then shrugged, more to himself than her.
"You're not climbing right," he finally said. "I can show you."
"Won't your drill sergeant object?" she'd asked. His face hardened immediately. "I mean, aren't you on maneuvers?"
Another shrug. "We're doing escape and evasion," he replied. "None of them ever find me when I escape."
He'd helped her master the wall that day. She learned that his name was Zack, and he was an X-5. They had met up several more times before the disappearance, and she recognized a born leader. It wasn't until she was older, that she realized that the qualities she liked in him were ones that he was seeing in her. They were both leaders, strong and independent. His sense of humor only came in flashes, but it was there. Just like hers.
But Zack thought they were being tortured. He'd mentioned other fivers being taken away, and bad things happening to them. She didn't believe it though. Sure, a couple of the sixers had left, but it was all for the greater good, and they were just going to help so that her seizures would be gone forever. And yes, they had done some testing, but that was just part of life. They were different from the others on base, so it stood to reason that they would be treated differently.
But all that was ten years in the past. She would never have the chance to hunt Zack now. She wished she could have brought him home, but there was no use in wishing for a different past. It was time to create a new future.