Alicia sat at the café staring at the computer screen. She was furious. Cole wasn't there. He was supposed to be waiting for her, but he wasn't there. Hadn't been there for almost an hour. Where was he? Maybe he was with Shawna, she thought. It calmed her. That would be accurate. His orders were to keep her safe, and maybe there was a threat to her.
The coffee was awful. You would think for seven bucks you could get some milk or even that powdered imitation cream stuff. She took another sip. Any stronger and it would jump up and slap her around. Still, she could feel the caffeine buzz. She still had no idea where Hepburn was staying. Cole would be able to find out. Actually, she could, but these computers were far too insecure to even think about hacking into sensitive sites with them. All it would take was one password to be captured and all hell would break loose.
Out of sheer curiosity she scanned the Gwendolyn messages. A little support from the sibs would help tremendously right now. There wasn't anything from them, and was about to flip off the computer when she caught the words "Red Menace" in a Gwendolyn message. She read it. Re-read it. It was so childishly done, Cale had to be responsible. Zack would have done a better job. Even Max could have.
My two charges, she thought. The X-5's. Zack and Max. Did the Reds have them? No, Max knew their weakness. They could have gotten away. Maybe. She groaned and put her head in her hands. She was so busy thinking about personal considerations, she forgot the mission was to prevent any Manticore technology from falling into enemy hands. That meant the fivers as well as the sixers.
Cale could be lying. There was a dangerous hope in that thought. Maybe he was lying. Maybe they were going to set her up to come back. They couldn't find her. Even with all of Cale's toys, they couldn't find her when she didn't want to be found. Even if he wasn't, who cares? You're under orders to care, solider, she thought morosely. And there's Zack. If he got hurt, and you didn't stop it, you'd hate yourself. You would forever.
She turned off the computer and grabbed her gear. She could always do a little recon before going in. If Max or Zack were in the apartment, she would just take off, and never be seen again. You could see Zack again, a little voice whispered in her head. Maybe get him alone so you can say a real goodbye. You don't care if Cale is lying, but you're going to go anyways for one more goodbye. She hated that little voice. It was right way too often.
She walked out the door, and headed for the penthouse.
The cameras were pitifully easy to spot and avoid. She knew Cale would be looking for her. She still had a wad of cash, and had picked up a new t-shirt, jacket, and baseball cap earlier that day. The rule of surveillance was to look for anything out of the ordinary. Of course when you practically wrote the manual, you know how to get around it.
She boldly walked right into the lobby, and randomly picked a floor when she went into the elevator. She looked like any other teenager. Anyone looking at her would guess she was a friend of someone in the building. Cale would be looking in the shadows, not the windows. She loved being underestimated. It made jobs so much simpler.
She got off of the elevator and went to an apartment. She listened carefully. Someone was home. The hall was still empty. She went down to another. Quiet. She rang the bell. No answer. No security alarms. It took less than ten seconds to break in. She waited for a moment for the static feeling of a silent alarm going off. It was something she'd been trained to feel for. Still quiet. She went out onto the balcony, three floors below the penthouse.
It was an easy climb. She simply used the ledge to get around the side, and then hopped up until she was crouched outside a window. She could hear people inside, but not who. She knew there was a camera near the broken window so she couldn't go to that one. People came closer to the window. The voices became distinct. Bling. Logan.
"Where is she?" Logan snapped. "It's been almost an hour and a half!"
Bling didn't know what to say. Logan had tried to leave twice to go find Max, but Bling had made him wait for Alicia. Logan would just get himself killed going against the Reds. He knew that when the three hours were closer to being up, Logan would go after her no matter what. He'd rather be dead than without her, he thought. Big change from 'we don't have that kind of relationship'.
"Anything happens to Max and I'll expose Manticore," Logan threatened. "I'll broadcast 24 / 7 until everyone in the country knows. I swear it'll be a household word."
Alicia perked up. He didn't know she was here. Max really was in trouble, and that meant Zack was too. He'd said three hours. There was a tight time frame, and she'd blown half of it already. She could kick herself, but there wasn't enough time. She easily moved to the balcony, and climbed over.
The door opened immediately. Bling was standing there like he was expecting her. She fought the urge to get out of there as fast as possible. You got a mission solider. Complete it. Bling didn't say anything, he just gestured towards the computer room.
Cale had his back to her when she walked in. "You jerking me around, and I'm skipping the wall and giving you a fast trip to the pavement," she greeted.
He spun around. Was that relief she saw for a second? He glared back at her as hard as she was to him. "They have Max and Zack," he said coldly. "Excellent protection job."
"So you decided I'm a good guy after all when you realized that you are hopelessly outclassed and need my help. I'm so touched." Her voice dripped with saccharine sarcasm.
"I didn't ask for you. They want the upgraded version on Manticore." He relished seeing the sarcastic look fall, and a concerned confusion take its place. "Of course the seller doesn't mind a small cut in his fee to give them the lower version, but he gave me a few hours so he could get top dollar."
Logan was waiting for a sarcastic reply. He wasn't expecting for her to plop down in a chair, her chin resting on her intertwined fingers, with a thoughtful expression on her face. "The upgraded version," she said very softly.
Logan was confused, but it was Bling that caught what she was thinking. "You're not the upgrade are you?"
Her eyes flicked up to his face. "The X-5 body type is superior to the X-6," she replied. "He knows that," she continued, more to herself. "But he wants me specifically."
Logan was realizing what was wrong with this picture. For some reason Max's body was superior to Alicia's. In more ways than one, he thought eyeing the girl. Alicia had said before there was a traitor. She really wasn't lying about that. There really was someone at Manticore that wanted Alicia sold to the Reds.
"You know who the traitor is now? What would he get from having you out of the way?" Logan asked, his investigative skills showing themselves.
She nodded, still thinking. Why would Hepburn want her out of the way? Unless he didn't want Manticore to continue. That made sense. Because of the X-5's, Manticore wasn't allowed to progress, and was on permanent probation. "Dad loses his star, the whole thing comes crashing down," she said, not noticing that she'd spoken aloud.
"Zack and Max are bait," she declared firmly. "The Reds aren't going to let them go, even if I show up."
She ignored Logan's look of outrage. He thought she wasn't going to go at all. She couldn't take them by herself. Somehow Max and Zack had been disabled. How? At the checkpoint the leader was talking to others in the city. How many Reds were there? More than four, and even two Manticore soldiers would have a hard time, even knowing their weakness. There was only one way to save them.
"You said the leader told the Reds that I was the upgrade, right?" she asked Logan.
Logan nodded and replied, "he told someone that they weren't what was wanted but they would be a prototype."
"So if the Reds believe it, all I have to do is prove it." Logan couldn't reply. She sounded, well, sad. Whatever she was thinking, she wasn't happy about what she was going to do. "I prove I'm better than the fivers, offer the exchange, they let Zack and Max go."
She didn't want to think about it anymore. If she thought, she wouldn't do it. She rose and went to Logan's desk, picking up the med case that was still sitting there. Don't think, she ordered herself. Do it. Complete your mission. Preserve the Manticore technology. You know you can do it.
She opened the case and pulled out the layer that held the syringes. Behind them in a hidden compartment was one more syringe, larger than the others.
"What is that?" Logan asked. She ignored him. If she even thought for a second, she wouldn't be able to do it. She slipped the needle into her arm, and depressed it one-third of the way, paused, and then sent the rest of the dark green liquid into her body.
For a moment she was totally still. Logan suddenly jumped back as her body convulsed sharply, bringing her to her knees. Her breathing became harsh, and she doubled over. Bling was on his knees trying to help. He jerked back when she suddenly calmed and looked at him in the face. Logan had come over and saw what made Bling jump.
Her eyes were completely bloodshot, the skin pale. A single drop of blood ran down from her nose. It was her smile that scared the two men. There was no sanity in it at all.
"What a rush," she purred, floating back to her feet. She picked up the three syringes left, and put them back in the case. She was going to need them later.
"What did you do?" Logan whispered.
"They want the greatest show on earth, they're going to get it," she said mockingly. Bling and Logan followed her as she walked to the door. She stopped. "Here's the plan. You drop me off maybe a mile from the warehouse. I'll take a cell. Max will use it to call you when they're out. You pick them up, and get the hell out of there."
"What about you?" Logan asked.
She shrugged. "I'm just an soulless whoring genetically engineered killing machine. What do you care?" She walked out before he could answer.
Logan and Bling looked at each other. They weren't sure what she was talking about, or how she was going to get Max and Zack out for real, but one thing was for sure. She had no intention of letting the Reds keep Max and Zack. For Logan, that was all that mattered. They got into Logan's van and drove towards the docks and warehouse J.