It wasn't easy to get Zack to just let the doctor take over. They had to make sure that Dr. Lee got him into the hospital, and that Justin was going to be OK. Alicia wanted to scream at him a thousand times that they needed to get to Seattle, but he refused to budge. He'd made a promise to Jhondie, and he knew Max could take care of herself until he arrived.
Zack had wanted to cut and run with Justin when Alicia had told him what the doctor had announced. It had taken some fast-talking, and a near fistfight, but she had made him agree to let the doctor help. Apparently, he had been bandaging up Jhondie for the last few years, and making sure that she had Tryptophan. Zack was enraged at her for never telling him this part of her relationship with Dr. Lee, but he would deal with it later.
But now, a few hours later, it was growing dark, and they finally could get started. Justin was going to live, but he had a lot of recovery to do. Luckily nothing important was permanently damaged, although the broken leg and arms had to be re-broken and re-set, and his nose was never going to be the same without plastic surgery. His brain and other internal organs were bruised, but Dr. Lee thought he would make a full recovery.
The doctor had questioned Zack about Jhondie several times, but each time had been ignored. There wasn't much Alicia could do about it; she just wanted to get moving. Good soldiers don't stay still, she thought. They keep moving while in enemy territory. Didn't you learn anything at Manticore?
"What's the fastest way to Seattle?" she asked when they left the hospital.
"You can't charter a plane?" he sneered at her. "I'm sure you could get an Army transport."
She stopped walking, grabbing his arm. He was caught off guard, his momentum making him spin to face her. "You don't get it at all, do you?" she asked calmly. "I can't go back until the traitor is flushed out. Do you understand that? Any contact will get the enemy on me before backup can arrive."
Cut off. Even the sound of that was chilling to her. She was completely alone for the first time. No resources. No other sixers. Her only connection was someone who hated her for not running away like he did. She knew full well that neither of them could take on the Reds again alone. She knew that he understood that much, but his hatred for something she couldn't help was clouding his objectivity.
He pulled away, but less violently than she thought he would have. "You'll go back to Lydecker in a second."
She nodded, wanting to be honest. "I'll find out who the traitor is, and then I'll go home. Whatever you think about it, it's where I belong." She took a deep breath. If her father ever found out what she was going to do next, he'd be furious.
"Zack, I swear to you that whatever I find out about the fivers, whatever I see or am told by you, I will never repeat. It will never be on a report. I will never say anything about how I completed my mission to anyone. I just want to make sure that the Reds don't get any of you. We're on the same side right now, you have to trust me on that."
Zack was an extraordinary judge of character. He had always seemed to have a built-in polygraph, and trusted his instincts. Despite what his rational mind was telling him, he believed her. She hadn't lied to him about wanting to go back to Lydecker. If she were setting him up, that would be the first thing she'd lie about. Tell him horror stories to gain sympathy and camaraderie, and then wrap him up. Standard tactics.
"Lydecker will want to know everything. Are you going to lie to him?"
"I have authority to do whatever is required to complete my mission," she replied. The phrase 'by any means necessary' echoed in her mind. "I can make whatever treaties are needed, any promises that I think would help, and there can be no repercussions against me."
They stared at each other for a long moment in the twilight. Finally Zack spoke. "If we drove we would have to go through checkpoints all over the place. Reds could be waiting at any of them. If we took a passenger train, it's the same deal."
"But, you have a better idea."
"There's a cargo train that goes straight to Seattle. The only problem is that there are two delays, one at the California border and one at the Washington border. There isn't that many lines that run now, so it causes a logjam. They use the time to check the trains. The California one isn't bad most of the time; they open the door, and close it again. The Washington one, they'll catch you if you're on it. They'll want to see ID, and then it takes a bribe to get them to let you go."
She smiled. "Sounds like you've done this before. How much bribe money is needed?"
"Standard is a grand per person. Plus we have to get ID."
She started to move quickly, ducking into an alley. She unzipped her bag, and rummaged for a moment. She handed Zack a small instant camera, and pulled out two cards. She held one up to him.
"How about becoming Robert Kerr and Lisa Davis for the day?"
"What about the bribe?"
She reached into her bag and pulled out a wad of bills just enough so that he could see it. "There's more than enough here, trust me on that."
Zack snapped Alicia's picture, and it produced a picture small enough for the ID card. She had a machine that stamped the identifying features onto the card, and then took his picture, repeating the process for Zack's ID. It really didn't matter anymore if she had his picture since Lydecker had seen them.
"Now what?" she asked.
"Now we see if you can outrun a train too."
She glared at him for a moment. She could run just as fast as he could. Then she caught a small glint in his eyes. Was he teasing her? Maybe it was only a tiny chip in the ice, but anything was a start.
"Race you!"
He didn't reply, he just started running.