"The director wants me imprisoned and the baby taken, but they're only hoping I'll get a hold of Zack, and they're all wondering why I haven't done it yet and the director is getting very impatient," Alicia said to Cole in one breath. They were walking outside together. Nobody was following them. They sat down on a bench checking out the people around them. All was clear.
"There's something more going on," she continued. "The communiqué mentioned stage three. Twice. What if the product of two altered parents is stage three? Dad said me training him is good, but I don't know if I can trust that. I know I don't trust the director."
Cole didn't say anything for a long minute. "Do you remember that favor you asked me to do?" he said. She nodded. She'd asked him to find the name of Max's mother. "I found some weird stuff. I've been looking into it, and I think you might be right. I think they tried to do stage three before, but it blew out. There's a bunch of maternity records from about six years ago. And there's a bunch of death records. I think they tried to put boosted kids into norms, and it killed them."
Alicia was a lovely shade of white. What was so important about stage three? OK, having a doubly jumped up kid would be neat, but this was something that she knew Dad had lusted over for years. "X-5's are required for stage three though," she said, thinking. "For some reason, they want an X-5 and an X-6 for the parents."
"X-5's have better bodies," Cole ventured.
"So what do we have to offer that's better than an X-5? They have the body…" her words trailed off as it started to dawn on her, "we have the mind?" She paused thinking hard about why this would be a big deal. An image of their DNA came into her mind. Lights suddenly switched on. "Junk DNA," she murmured.
"What?"
"Everyone has parts of their DNA that isn't being used. It's supposed to be stuff we don't need anymore. It's there, but useless. Junk."
"So?"
"Some people theorize that junk DNA is where ESP abilities are kept."
"And this relates to us how?"
"Even though we're engineered the same, we still have some slight variations. Different hair color, eye color, racial mixes, that kind of thing, right?" He nodded. "But all of our junk DNA is exactly the same. Everything is in the same place, same set-up, same everything. What if…"
"What if it just needs to be reactivated?" He was starting to pick up speed on this. "The X-1 group had too much done, and the embryos couldn't survive. We know that. What if they tried to do both at once, and that causes the problem."
"But if they already have the physical, all they have to do is activate the mental."
"Christ," he muttered. "Can you imagine your abilities, with trained telepathy thrown in there?"
She settled back on the bench. Stage three. She was carrying stage three. No wonder the director wanted her locked up. Talk about the ultimate solider. Nothing would be able to stop him. They were going to take him regardless of what Dad said. There was no way they would let her keep him.
"Dad said mine was going to be the control. Maybe the abilities are latent in us, and they want to see if it'll come out in progeny," she said softly. If hers was the control that meant there were more to follow. How were they going to do that? The only females were she and Shawna, and if she was down, they weren't going to take Shawna down too. There weren't enough sixers and besides, Shawna was an excellent medic, and the guys needed her when they went out. She sat straight up as the realization hit her.
"They have a female X-5," she whispered. It dawned on Cole too. They looked at each other, shock and horror intermingled.
"The first child has to be the control," he said.
"They couldn't waste time on her having it, then waiting almost two years for another crop to be made," Alicia continued.
"Because there's funding issues after the first attempt at stage three got a bunch of norm women killed," Cole went on. They had often worked out problems like this, continuing each other's statements in rapid fire.
"But then I announce I'm having the control," she said.
"So they get the go ahead to make the X-5 have a multiple pregnancy."
"I can't let that happen Cole," she whispered. "That's why I was supposed to get a hold of Zack. He's the gateway to the other X-5's. There's several females left there. Enough to get a huge crop of X-7."
Cole stood, and helped her up. "Let me do some more research. The X-5…"
"Bryn," Alicia interrupted. "Her name is Bryn." Zack had told her that.
"Bryn," he clarified, "is probably on this base. When Gillette shut down, everything was brought here. If she's anywhere, it's here." He paused, thinking of the next step. "I'm taking you to your room. Lie down. If anyone asks, you're just tired and not feeling well, blah blah blah. Let me have some time to run around." She tried to protest, but he stopped her. "They're watching you, not me. Let me handle this part Leecee."
She'd gone back to her room and waited.
She didn't get a chance to see Cole again. Lydecker popped in later and said there was a minor emergency back home, but he'd be back within a couple of days. Cole was staying if she needed anything. She said she'd be fine. He seemed genuinely worried about her, but she couldn't help but think it was stage three he was worried about. This was worse then when she knew there was a traitor loose. Now she didn't know whom she could trust.
A couple hours after Lydecker left, a guard came in and said that he was supposed to escort her to an interview. Another psychologist, she thought with a groan. They all thought that getting pregnant was going to make her crazy. They were going to drive her crazy, not the baby.
Still she went with him. When she stepped outside, there was another guard waiting, but she knew him. "Hey John," she said with a smile. "Whose daughter you get caught with to pull guard duty in Utah?"
John Kellman laughed. "Lydecker hauled me here to make sure you stayed safe." He blushed slightly. "I…uh…got some of the details on why 'Deck's so stressed about you right now."
"It's OK," she replied as they walked down the hall. "Another few months and everyone's going to know anyways. Not something even I can hide."
"Well, while you're here, I'm pulling personal guard duty."
She had to laugh at that. "John, I know you're good, but even now you're no match for me. There's not much you could protect me from that I couldn't stop long before you."
She didn't flinch at the other guard being behind her. Kellman was guarding the front; the other guy was guarding the rear. When the sharp pain struck her neck, it came as a total surprise. She wheeled around hard, grabbing at her neck. The dart came out easily. She went to beat the guy into a pulp, but the drugs were too strong. She dropped to the floor and everything went black.
She awoke once into a semi-conscious state. Her body stayed still as she heard voices in the room. One was a strange woman, but the other was somewhat familiar. He spoke again, and Alicia placed it. He was the right-hand man to the director, and would give Dad orders for the sixers. She'd seen him and Dad together a few times, but she always ducked low. The guy got the creeps when he saw a sixer acting normal. He'd said something like "it's like seeing a Pit Bull lying on the ground. When it's snarling, you know it's going to bite. When it's looking nice and quiet, you don't know what's going to happen until you get teeth marks all over you."
"Are you sure you want to do this?" he was saying.
"We've no more time to waste," she replied. "She's not going to lure the others back to Manticore. We're only getting one shot at this, we have to make it count."
"What about Lydecker?"
"If he protests, he's gone," was the cold reply.
Alicia wanted to get up and tear them apart, but her body refused to respond to her commands. She blacked out again, and when she came to, she was in a padded cell in a mental institution.