They were still several miles from the base when they all met up. Zack was very glad to be introduced as a contact and not an X-5. His barcode was burned off on a regular basis so there was no way they could tell he was Manticore. Max, Logan and Bling were outside the van waiting when the two SUVs drove up.
Zack got out quickly. Max seemed to relax a bit to see him.
"Alicia's peeps?" she asked him gesturing towards the five people getting out of the other vehicles. Zack nodded. "This is insane," she whispered to him.
"So is going back to Seattle when half the world is looking for you," Zack whispered back. "Only Cole knows we're X-5. Keep your hair down."
Cole came over to them. "Do you know the layout of the installation?" he asked. He looked at the three new people carefully. The two men were norms. Probably just there to drive. The girl was Manticore though. She was looking at him like he was spawn of Satan.
Ironically, Max knew the layout very well. She had been here once before for an Eye's
Only investigation. Gerhardt Bronck had been flying young girls
from here and she'd had to stop him. Funny how bad guys like this place, she thought as she explained the
layout. Maybe they get double
frequent-flyer miles.
There was one main
building, and a hanger. It was very
small and supposed to be unused at all. But, it was a great place to get out of the city fast and to a place
where you could catch another plane. Cole thought about it. They
would hold her in the building if they were smart. You don't let something like Alicia take a look at your ride for
too long. She might just figure out a
way to take it apart.
Cole motioned Shawna
over to them. "How bad do you think it
is?" he asked her.
"There's no
telling," she replied. "It could be too
late already. Every second is going to
count if it isn't." It was her way of
saying stop talking and start shooting.
"We get in, get her
and get out," Zack said firmly. His
eyes zeroed on Shawna. "You stick with
whoever has her. Everything in the way
is eliminated."
He noticed Shawna's
look of disdain. Who was a norm to give
her orders? She looked at Cole. He nodded slightly to confirm the order. She went back to the others to give the
order to move out.
Cole looked hard at
Max and Zack. "If it's too late, go,"
he said evenly. "Get out of there and
do not look back. Until we get Hepburn
this city is going to crawl with sixers and you two will then be fair
game." He turned and went back to his
troops.
"You want to trust
these people?" Logan asked hesitantly.
"Considering you're
the reason she was running around alone, I'd keep my mouth shut if I were you,"
Zack said. They got into the van and
drove to the perimeter of the airfield. There was a mostly deserted dirt road that led to the back fence. There was no gate there, and thankfully no
Reds guarding the area.
All of the Manticore
people got out and one began unloading some equipment from the back of an
SUV. The others approached the fence
cautiously. There was some movement at
the building, and they all hit the ground. Half a dozen pairs of eyes used their enhanced vision to see the same
sight.
Two Reds were
escorting Alicia to the hanger. Each
one had a hand on her arm, but it was looking like more for support than to
restrain her. She was stumbling along
more than walking. But she was
obviously alive. For how much longer,
nobody could tell.
"Change of plans,"
Cole whispered to his team. "We go
through the windows at the top of the hanger, all of us together. Everything with metal in its neck gets a
bullet in the head." He looked at Zack and Max. "We'll cover you. Get her
out of there." They broke to the back
of the SUV.
There were half a
dozen automatic assault rifles with laser sights. Hand grenades. Pistols
with silencers. Plastic
explosives. It looked like a smorgasbord
for any genetically engineered killing machine. Cole picked up a rifle.
"Nobody can see us
until I give the signal to attack," he ordered. The others nodded. "Move
out."
*********
The Reds were
worried. She wasn't right. She had not said a word to any of them while
they transported her. She had sat so
calmly that someone would have thought she didn't know what was going to
happen. She had kept her word and sat
in the office until they were ready for her to be put on a plane.
When it was time to
go to the hanger, she had stood, and then almost fell. Two of the Reds had grabbed her, thinking
she was going to make a move to escape. They could feel her trembling and misunderstood. They thought she was afraid. As they escorted her to the hanger, they
didn't notice they were supporting her weight somewhat as she stumbled along.
Hepburn was waiting
in the hanger. He was going to receive
his money when she was put on the plane. There was a helicopter at the back ready to take him away. When she came in, he turned to the Red
leader. "One Manticore prototype," he
announced. "Signed, sealed, and
delivered as promised."
Incredibly Alicia
started to laugh. Her head was down,
and the shaking was getting harder to hide by the minute. The Reds realized that something was
terribly wrong. They were the only
things keeping her standing. "You're a
fool traitor," she said firmly. "You
thought you knew our training. When
acting as a decoy, get the enemy as far as possible from the protected
zone. You thought I'd wait till we got
to South Africa."
She looked up, still
laughing. Her eyes were bloodshot, and
there was blood running from her left nostril. "You were just hoping to get your cash and run. How much are you going to get for a
corpse?" She chuckled. His stunned expression was priceless. In reality, he didn't understand them at
all. He didn't realize she would
destroy herself for the others.
"What's wrong with
her?" the leader asked harshly.
"It's a trick!"
Hepburn half-shouted.
"No games today,"
she said mockingly. "You just didn't
think I would do it so fast.
"They have to have a
live female, did you know that? Dead is
no use to them at all. Max is
safe. I'm going to be useless
soon. And all of these men know they're
going to die because of your greed."
It was getting
harder for Alicia to breathe. What else
was she to expect? She was so
tired. She could see red spots on the
walls. They almost looked like laser
sights. Still she forced out the
words. "I proved to you with Senator
Martin that I would die for the others. You wanted us to lose then. Martin would have won. You
played Dad because you knew we were going to lose. You just weren't counting on me kneeling in front of the council
and making him put that gun to my head."
"You knew then," she
jeered. "You counted on it now. But it's too late for me."
Whatever she would have said next died in an explosion of breaking glass and gunfire. She could feel one of the Reds get jerked away, and the other let go of her arm. Vaguely she could see Hepburn running away with the briefcase of money, but she was too tired to stop him. She sank to the floor. So tired. Her eyes slid shut.