The Message
By Jondy 15.7.01
Rating: G
Summary: At Manticore, Brin helps Max send a message to Logan
Disclaimer: I own so little worldly possessions, it isn't even funny. I should become a communist or something. Needless to say, I don't own these characters, or Dark Angel, or the word 'Manticore' or anything.
A/N: Thanks soooooo much to the people who reviewed, especially Zack's Angel for being so kiwi-ish (he he he) like me, and Zanna for being so smart. After all that I felt like I had to go write another story, so here it is. And it took me my last afternoon of school holidays (yuck, skool 2-morrow) so pleeeeeeeease review. Reviewers are the best peeps ever. If enough people review, I'll stop writing boring, un-inspired Harry Potter stories…… ( a huge cheer goes up from the HP section of ff.net)……okay, now that I've thrown away all my ethics and resorted to bribery, I'll stop yakking.
*******
Brin stood outside the Director's office, waiting for Renfro to summon her inside. Next to her, Max slumped against the metal wall, holding one arm at an odd angle. Her face looked tired and drawn, and her eyes were sad, the way Brin remembered them being before the escape.
"What are you going to tell her?" asked Max, her voice quiet enough so that the listening devices planted all through Manticore wouldn't pick it up. She turned her back to the security camera so no-one would be able to read her lips.
"I am going to give her a report on your progress."
When Max's eyes looked at her imploringly, wide and innocent, Brin elaborated. "I am going to tell her that you have turned."
Max looked relieved for a minute, but seemed to recover herself, and stood tall and proud, the perfect soldier. "Yes. I've turned."
They waited in silence for a few more minutes, till Renfro gave the signal, and Brin entered.
"X-5734" Renfro greeted her.
"Ma'am," Brin replied, standing at attention.
Renfro gave her one of her patented insincere smiles. "How is X-5452?" she asked, with faux concern. Brin was surprised at the surge of anger she felt when she thought of what Renfro had done to her sister. She immediately quelled the feeling.
"She is once again loyal to Manticore," said Brin. She knew she sounded pleased with herself and couldn't help it. Part of her felt happiness that her sister had finally come around to seeing that Manticore was her life (even if Brin did have serious doubts about whether Max was being truthful) but another part of her was disgusted. At Renfro, and at herself.
Renfro smiled slowly, like a cat playing with its prey before killing it. "Good." It was a long, drawn out, self-satisfied smirk of a word. Brin almost shuddered, and thought of whether this woman really was better than Lydecker. Perhaps she'd just been handed from one serpent-like commander to another.
"I want to see her," demanded Renfro, and Brin leaned out the door and signalled to Max to enter. Max did, not looking at all like the wounded and battered little sister Brin had just seen crumpled against the wall. She walked tall and proud, silently, like a panther getting ready to pounce.
"So," purred Renfro, circling Max, looking her up and down. Max didn't look at her, just stood at attention and stared straight ahead. "I hear you have realised your mistake in leaving us."
"I am once again loyal to Manticore, if that is what you mean," said Max, seemingly unfeeling. Brin panicked slightly in the back of her mind at what Renfro would say to this, if she would be fooled. It seemed as if everyone who didn't know Max, and hadn't grown up with her would be fooled by the act, but Renfro had surprised Brin on several occasions.
Renfro looked to Brin inquiringly. "Have you got any new information out of her?" Inclining her head to Max, as if she was deaf or not even present in the room. Brin opened her mouth to answer, but Max interrupted.
"Zack was the only one who had any information about the X-5s, so now he's dead, none of the others know the location of the other X-5s." Don't contradict me, Max's eyes said, boring into Brin's. Go along with the story.
Brin nodded at Renfro, in seeming agreement.
"Ah. Yes, well," Renfro sighed, seating herself behind her desk once again. Brin noticed Max's shoulders slumping slightly. Her little sister was starting to look tired again.
Renfro's gaze swept over Max's bruises, the blood coming from one ear, and the funny angle of one arm. Her lips quirked upwards slightly.
"You better go to the medical bay," said Renfro, her small smile turning into a grin. Max inclined her head stifly in the affirmative.
"Dismissed, both of you. X-5734, accompany her."
The minute they were out of the Director's office, Max's facial expression changed. Brin didn't need a crystal ball to read her thoughts- 'Gee, thanks, Renfro'.
"How can you work for her?" Max asked Brin, looking up at her, dark eyes wide.
"She is my superior," replied Brin coldly.
"She killed Tinga!" Max's voice rose to a plaintive wail. Brin stopped abruptly, and grabbed Max's only undamaged arm.
"Lydecker fed you those lies," snapped Brin, in a voice that could shatter ice to splinters.
"Brin, I'm not stupid," snapped Max back, the old fire reappearing in her eyes. "I was there. I saw Lydecker when he arrived. He was shocked." Max looked at the floor sadly, biting her bottom lip.
"He could've killed her, then come back and pretended to look surprised." Brin said, but she wasn't so sure.
"No," said Max. "Tinga had been dead for a long time. She was all blue…" Max broke off, swallowing. "Lydecker would never kill one of his precious 'children' now. They invested millions in us," Max looked away. "When he isn't drunk, that is," said Max under her breath, and Brin wondered what that was about.
There was something about the contrast between Max, earnest, wide-eyed and sad, and Renfro, smirking and self-satisfied, that made Brin reconsider. Perhaps Renfro had killed Tinga, as Max said. She was, after all, the woman who had given orders to kidnap a 6 year old child.
"I'm the last person who would defend Lydecker, but he didn't kill Tinga," Max gazed at her imploringly. "Renfro killed her, and she could kill other X-5s. She could kill Jondy or Krit or Syl. Or you." Brin's grip on Max's arm loosened, and the faraway look in her eyes told Max she was starting to believe her. "Brin, please believe me. We have to get rid of her."
Duty. Obedience. Squadron. No emotions. No feelings. Objective. Commander. The reprogramming broadcasts ran through Brin's mind. She was betraying her duty by listening to Max.
She's your sister. She's telling the truth, part of her said.
"Brin," Max's voice broke through the two parts of her warring inside her head. "Don't you want to keep our family safe?"
The carefully schooled unemotional look on Brin's face fell a little.
"Don't you?" Max prodded.
Brin made up her mind, and shook her head to clear it of all the Manticore slogans that her mind kept telling her.
"Maxie, shhh." Max's heart leapt. "We need to get you to the sickbay," was all Brin said, and set off, Max following her.
*********
Max's training was going well. She was back to top physical condition, and, after three weeks, Renfro was convinced enough to let Brin show Max around some of the more classified areas of Manticore.
"This is the communications area," said Brin, motioning to a huge darkened room. All the technicians had gone home for the night, apparently remembering to turn off all the lights.
"It's where messages are sent to places outside Manticore," said Brin, meeting Max's eyes in earnest, as if trying to convey a message. Max's eyes lit up as the possibilites ran through her head.
Max moved into the room silently, her genetically engineered night vision kicking in. Brin followed silently.
"Do they check all outgoing messages?" Max whispered. Brin shook her head.
"No. there's too many each day to do that." Brin could see Max looked pleased, even in the pitch-black darkness.
"How would a person get clearance to send a message?" Max asked carefully. Brin knew she was still unsure whether her sister was loyal to Manticore or not. To be perfectly honest, Brin didn't know if this growing distrust of Renfro was disloyalty to Manticore or not. She didn't really have a justification for helping Max, other than that she didn't want Renfro getting at any of her other brothers or sisters. She knew Max would think this was a perfectly sound justification, but Brin wasn't so sure.
"5800213455721," Brin muttered out of the corner of her mouth. Max typed it in quickly, recognising it as an access code.
"Hurry," muttered Brin, and Max set about sending a message to Logan, her fingers running over the keyboard quicker than the normal eye could see.
Logan
Zack dead. Contact syl & others. Must take down renfro. Get lydecker 2 help. Brin ally.
Max
Max sent it quickly, and nodded to Brin. She checked that the coast was clear, and motioned to Max to follow.
*******
"What was your life like on the outside, Brin?" Max asked later that night, when all the others were asleep.
Brin hesitated to answer, knowing that thinking about her life on the outside made her yearn for it, no matter what she said or did about being happy to be back at Manticore.
"Why have you started asking so many questions, little sister?" The smile on her lips was evident in her voice.
"Were you happy?" Max asked. That was all that really mattered to her. She didn't like to think of her siblings being unhappy, as she was right now.
Brin paused, thinking. She had been happy on the outside, though she didn't like to admit it. 'Phoney sentimentality'. But Zack was dead, and that had drove home the point to Brin that life was meant for living, not blindly following the orders of some woman who had murdered her sister.
"Yes. I was." This seemed good enough of an answer for Max, and she lay on her back, looking up at the drab grey ceiling.
Probably thinking about her own life on the outside, thought Brin. Suddenly Max moved to look at her.
"I'm gonna get out," she said, in a barely audible whisper. Even Brin had to strain to hear.
"Don't say that," Brin hissed back, knowing that this could very well blow her cover as a loyal soldier of Manticore. But Max didn't seem to care. After all, her little sister was the one who had nearly escaped Manticore once and for all, before Tinga's death. She was the one who didn't consider herself a soldier. All of Brin's other brothers and sisters still thought the same way they had at Manticore, except Max. Brin was slightly jealous of that fact, and also ashamed that even after all the attempts Manticore had made to reprogramme Max, she still hadn't turned, but had manage to fool them all, except Brin.
"I want to take you with me," said Max. And part of Brin wanted to go. After all, what future was there for her here at Manticore? After the DNA lab had been destroyed, the investors had started to pull out. There were no funds, and no possibility of any more soldiers being created here, since all the years of research, culminating in that specially developed DNA, had been destroyed. Soon, X-5s, X-6s or perhaps even the X-7s (even though they were very young) could be sold off to foreign companies or governments, to earn Manticore some desperately needed cash. The government had stopped funding Manticore years ago. There was no future in staying.
"I'll come," said Brin, softly, so only Max could hear. Max smiled, the first time Brin had seen her smile while she was at Manticore.
Continued in 'Dark Winged Night', now uploaded! Find out, will Logan and Lydecker and Syl and the others come? Will someone knock off Renfro? Stay tuned……