---transcend---
chapter5: crossing lines
The others walked away but Avery could not bring herself to tear away from Lydecker. He had begun to shake slightly, and a cold sweat was developing on his brow. She wished he would just die.
She would have pulled her gun out and shot him right there, but she knew her siblings would not approve. So instead she stood and watched him, praying that his blood loss would be so severe he would go into shock and die.
Lydecker opened his eyes once more and turned his head to stare back at her. For the first time she saw emotions staring back at her from Lydecker's cold eyes. She saw a sorrow that must come when he realized all the years that were lost with his XI5. And she also saw a mixture of hope that he might once again see what he had first created.
But there was also something else. He was looking at her in a strange way. With a sort of joy edging his sorrow. A barely perceptible smile could be seen on his lips, and Avery clenched her jaw at the sight. 'What was this fuck smiling about?'
Avery couldn't stand it anymore. If she couldn't kill him then she didn't want to be anywhere near him. Slowly, as though turning her back on a venomous snake, she began to walk away.
Lydecker made the mistake of thinking she could not hear. "You're everything I could have hoped for," he gently whispered.
Avery heard every syllable. To hear him say those words shook her to the core. She didn't want to believe that she could be anything like what Manticore wanted. But deep down she knew how cold and heartless she was. It was all she ever knew, the only way she knew how to live, she didn't know how to, or even if she could change that. But to hear Lydecker say that… Her hands trembled with fear. What she did next was reflexive.
"No!" she screamed as she turned around and pulled her gun out in one smooth motion. The look of surprise and fear on his face remained as the bullet pierced his forehead, killing him instantly.
Tears brimmed her eyes as she stood in shock of what she had just done. Her arm was still straight, though wracked with small tremors, the smoking gun still pointed at Lydecker's head. What had she done? In her fear of becoming something she did not want to be, she had just sealed her fate.
Confirming his words with a bullet.
Coming out of her daze she finally heard the others running back toward her. Blinking her eyes she pulled back the tears and returned her expression to that of bloodless stone.
"Avery!" Zane was the first to reach her side.
She pulled the gun down and back into its holster beneath her jacket so that they would not see her shaking.
"He said he knew nothing more. He was useless anyways…" She looked at each of them, daring them to question her. None showed fear, none showed hatred, but their faces showed something much worse. Disappointment.
Yet none spoke out against her and she herself didn't want to show weakness. They were all different and strong in their own way. Confident in themselves and the new lives they had formed for themselves, becoming individuals. They wouldn't understand.
"I'll hotwire a car tonight and dump his body in the sewer." Avery said coldly as she untucked the sheets underneath the body and flipped them over creating a makeshift body bag.
One by one they began to walk away, trying to return to their normal conversations.
Avery looked at the bloody pile of sheets, then turned to the kitchen for some food. She was hungry.
*****
The next morning Refro had called Evan into her office and handed him another quick assignment. Assassination in Washington. By the time the first rays of darkness crawled into the sky, Evan was sitting in a car up the hill from the large estate which was the residence of his target. He didn't look suspicious as he had a map all unfolded like a seemingly confused tourist. Beneath the map, on his legs, lay his sniper rifle. There was no need to be sneaky with binoculars, as he dilated his pupils and looked into the house.
He could see straight into the kitchen. For such a large front lawn with a winding road, it was a cozy sized home. There didn't seem to be maids or butlers as both the target and her husband, and their two children helped set the table for a late dinner. As they sat down it was a clear shot to the target's head… but Evan couldn't bring himself to lift his rifle. The family was talking. One was a teenager about the age that the X7s were now, and she looked thoroughly unimpressed at her parents as they tried to ask her about her day no doubt. The younger looked to be in kindergarten and was cheerily adding to the conversation.
Evan watched them as they ate. Watching them interact with each other. A family. It seemed too soon as they all parted ways, all heading in their own directions for the evening. Only the target remained, as she sat down at the cleared table and rested her head in her hands.
She had no warning except for the shattering glass, that her life was about to end.
As Evan disassembled his gun and stored it under the passenger seat, he watched as the family came together once again.
His mission complete he drove back to the rendezvous point to be taken back to Manticore. Behind him he could hear the screams of the children as they found their mother dead on the dining room table.
*****
"Why did I kill her?"
"Who?" Renfro played ignorant.
"The woman I was sent to kill no more then four hours ago."
"Why would you ask?"
"Because I saw her family find her dead. I heard their screams…"
"And why would you care? You have killed countless humans with everything from a bullet to a bomb. They all more then likely had families." She paused and let that fact soak in. "XI5-603. Do I have to remind you that your curiosity isn't an asset."
"No ma'am." He straightened and stared at a point on the wall in front of him. He had been called XI5-603 all his life, but it never sounded so evil as when Renfro spoke it.
All day he quietly spoke his new name. Evan. Before last night, he never heard how harsh XI5-603 sounded, but compared to Evan, he liked his new name better.
"This wouldn't have anything to do with the prisoner you met the other day would it?"
Evan stood even straighter, "No ma'am."
Renfro's eyes became slits as she studied him, then she turned her back on him to stare out the window into the night. She had never done that to him before, and he stood behind confused. "I want you to report to intense training for the next two weeks."
She paused, letting him just listen to the silence before her voice broke it once more. "And I don't want you to see any of our prisoners. You are dismissed."
*****
Refro stood there for a long time, staring out onto the extensive compounds that were Manticore. A long time later she pulled a small cell phone out of her pocket.
"Janis, sorry to wake you. But tomorrow I want you to step up the process on prisoner H-16."
"We are already working her pretty hard. are you sure that would be safe."
"She is strong, she can take it and survive."
"But you must know, moving any faster may completely fry her brain so to speak."
"Will we still be able to reprogram her?"
"Well yes, but-"
"I don't care if she becomes a vegetable, I want her up and operational yesterday."
*****
In less then a minute, Zane got them into the "I Bar". He bypassed the alarm and picked the lock with ease.
Logan looked at him, "A little to good at that?"
"I can't feed myself and my dog with the salary I get at the garage…" He shrugged his shoulders as he held the door open for them. "Jaxx," he made eye contact with his German Sheppard, "Keep watch." As he gave the command he put two fingers out infront of each of his eyes and pulled them away again. The dog understood immediately and sat down, turning its back to the door and focusing it's ears down both sides of the alley.
They were all decked out in black, and aside from the slight whirring sounds coming from the servo motors in Logan's exoskeletan, they did not make a sound. Not that it really mattered. Upon a quick inspection, Syl and Zane found that there were no other security devices like cameras or motion detectors and their slow creep became a confidently lazy stride to the back corner of the café.
Zane pushed the power button, and the computer came to life, the screen flickering on. He stood tall and raised his arms, the blue light from the screen shined on him in the night, bathing him in a eerie light, "It's alive! It's alive!"
Syl laughed and hit him in the gut with the back of her hand, "Watching too much late night Space Channel are we?"
"Well how do you fill our genetic insomiac nights?" he asked, turning on another computer beside the one Logan was already typing away at.
Syl, too, bent down and turned on another computer, partially to hide her blush, "Discovery channel and Life network."
"Yeah, but Life just teaches you how to make your house all pretty and cook a gourmet meal—"
Zane stopped short, Logan was glaring glaciers at them. It was obvious he needed to concentrate and their talking wasn't helping. "Sorry," they both said in unison and sat down, waiting, in silence, for their computers to finish booting up.
Fifteen minutes later Logan had hacked into the computer database and was already downloading stuff to send back to Krit at the warehouse.
At the same time Syl accessed her e-mail and quietly flagged Zane over to read a particularly funny one.
Zane could not help but laugh out loud, breaking the vow of silence, "That has to be Lydecker! He is probably the only person in the world who could bend over and stick his head up his own—"
"How can you do it?" Logan turned his chair and was staring incredulously at them. He had startled them both.
"Do what?" Syl asked confused with his rage.
"Be so light hearted at a time like this. Zack is dead; Max has been in there for over a week and who knows if she's reverted back to a soldier; and there is a Zack doppelganger that is probably going to use her to get to the rest of you. How can you joke around like nothing is happening?"
"Woah, ease up guy…" Zane put his hands up in submission.
Syl shook her head, her voice somber, "Logan. You may not understand, but this is all we have known. Living our whole childhoods at Manticore, we have seen brothers and sisters dragged away and killed because of an imperfection the doctors hadn't anticipated, something fully beyond our control. We have been experimented on, our bones broken our bodies mutilated, and all the while we couldn't scream because it was considered weak."
Syl made a brief eye contact with Zane before lowering her eyes again and continuing her explanation. "And even being free we actually aren't. Continuously on the run at a moment's notice because Manticore might knock on our door, or the doors of the ones we have grown close to," she raised her eyes to meet Logan's. "How else are we supposed to live with it all?"
That said, the mood in the room came crashing down. Logan understood her point and turned back to his computer, continuing to pull up files to download and send to Krit.
No one dared laugh again that night.
*****
Cam finally joined Krit and Jondy at the warehouse. They were thankful for his presence. Like Avery, he was one of the older of the group who had learned about planning missions, rather then just how to execute them.
"Looks like I'm late. M'bad," an apology was the first thing that came out of his mouth as they came down to greet him. "Damn police stopped me at the check point because they picked out that my id was fake…I need a new guy."
After all the pleasantries, Jondy gave him the low down as krit went back to trying to decrypt all the files Logan was sending him. Cam didn't seem at all surprised. All he did was rest his chin in his fist and nod his head. Even when he heard that Zack was dead, and that there was a clone, he took it all in a calm, thoughtful look on his face. It was obvious he was planning something behind those almost black eyes.
Cam stood up again and paced the floor, with a soldier like gait. "So who is here? We have you two, me, Syl, Zane and Jaxx—"
"You would list me after a German Sheppard, brother?" Avery had returned from dumping Lydecker's body and was just walking in the door.
"There she is." Cam leaned over the railing. "I heard about some things you did before I got here. I'm hurt … you didn't wait for me."
There was a flicker of sadness in her eyes, but no one noticed. "Would you have been able to wait?"
"Touché" he nodded his head.
Krit and Jondy, both younger then these two by just under three years, looked at each other. Both had dreamed of Lydecker dead, but talking as casually about it as they were, was bordering on sick.
*****
It was all the same as the night before as Evan snuck into Max's cell. He brought extra rations this time so she could eat while he wasn't there. He knew intense training meant that the instructors would trade off, and they would work him for both day and night. There was a good chance that he wouldn't see her for a few days and he wanted her to stay strong.
They talked for as long as they dared about anything and everything they could think of. Mostly he asked her questions about the others, about life outside of Manticore's rules. He would watch her as she laughed, reminiscing about things her friends had done.
Both were blissfully unaware of what horrors awaited Max, all under Refro's order.
chapter5: crossing lines
The others walked away but Avery could not bring herself to tear away from Lydecker. He had begun to shake slightly, and a cold sweat was developing on his brow. She wished he would just die.
She would have pulled her gun out and shot him right there, but she knew her siblings would not approve. So instead she stood and watched him, praying that his blood loss would be so severe he would go into shock and die.
Lydecker opened his eyes once more and turned his head to stare back at her. For the first time she saw emotions staring back at her from Lydecker's cold eyes. She saw a sorrow that must come when he realized all the years that were lost with his XI5. And she also saw a mixture of hope that he might once again see what he had first created.
But there was also something else. He was looking at her in a strange way. With a sort of joy edging his sorrow. A barely perceptible smile could be seen on his lips, and Avery clenched her jaw at the sight. 'What was this fuck smiling about?'
Avery couldn't stand it anymore. If she couldn't kill him then she didn't want to be anywhere near him. Slowly, as though turning her back on a venomous snake, she began to walk away.
Lydecker made the mistake of thinking she could not hear. "You're everything I could have hoped for," he gently whispered.
Avery heard every syllable. To hear him say those words shook her to the core. She didn't want to believe that she could be anything like what Manticore wanted. But deep down she knew how cold and heartless she was. It was all she ever knew, the only way she knew how to live, she didn't know how to, or even if she could change that. But to hear Lydecker say that… Her hands trembled with fear. What she did next was reflexive.
"No!" she screamed as she turned around and pulled her gun out in one smooth motion. The look of surprise and fear on his face remained as the bullet pierced his forehead, killing him instantly.
Tears brimmed her eyes as she stood in shock of what she had just done. Her arm was still straight, though wracked with small tremors, the smoking gun still pointed at Lydecker's head. What had she done? In her fear of becoming something she did not want to be, she had just sealed her fate.
Confirming his words with a bullet.
Coming out of her daze she finally heard the others running back toward her. Blinking her eyes she pulled back the tears and returned her expression to that of bloodless stone.
"Avery!" Zane was the first to reach her side.
She pulled the gun down and back into its holster beneath her jacket so that they would not see her shaking.
"He said he knew nothing more. He was useless anyways…" She looked at each of them, daring them to question her. None showed fear, none showed hatred, but their faces showed something much worse. Disappointment.
Yet none spoke out against her and she herself didn't want to show weakness. They were all different and strong in their own way. Confident in themselves and the new lives they had formed for themselves, becoming individuals. They wouldn't understand.
"I'll hotwire a car tonight and dump his body in the sewer." Avery said coldly as she untucked the sheets underneath the body and flipped them over creating a makeshift body bag.
One by one they began to walk away, trying to return to their normal conversations.
Avery looked at the bloody pile of sheets, then turned to the kitchen for some food. She was hungry.
*****
The next morning Refro had called Evan into her office and handed him another quick assignment. Assassination in Washington. By the time the first rays of darkness crawled into the sky, Evan was sitting in a car up the hill from the large estate which was the residence of his target. He didn't look suspicious as he had a map all unfolded like a seemingly confused tourist. Beneath the map, on his legs, lay his sniper rifle. There was no need to be sneaky with binoculars, as he dilated his pupils and looked into the house.
He could see straight into the kitchen. For such a large front lawn with a winding road, it was a cozy sized home. There didn't seem to be maids or butlers as both the target and her husband, and their two children helped set the table for a late dinner. As they sat down it was a clear shot to the target's head… but Evan couldn't bring himself to lift his rifle. The family was talking. One was a teenager about the age that the X7s were now, and she looked thoroughly unimpressed at her parents as they tried to ask her about her day no doubt. The younger looked to be in kindergarten and was cheerily adding to the conversation.
Evan watched them as they ate. Watching them interact with each other. A family. It seemed too soon as they all parted ways, all heading in their own directions for the evening. Only the target remained, as she sat down at the cleared table and rested her head in her hands.
She had no warning except for the shattering glass, that her life was about to end.
As Evan disassembled his gun and stored it under the passenger seat, he watched as the family came together once again.
His mission complete he drove back to the rendezvous point to be taken back to Manticore. Behind him he could hear the screams of the children as they found their mother dead on the dining room table.
*****
"Why did I kill her?"
"Who?" Renfro played ignorant.
"The woman I was sent to kill no more then four hours ago."
"Why would you ask?"
"Because I saw her family find her dead. I heard their screams…"
"And why would you care? You have killed countless humans with everything from a bullet to a bomb. They all more then likely had families." She paused and let that fact soak in. "XI5-603. Do I have to remind you that your curiosity isn't an asset."
"No ma'am." He straightened and stared at a point on the wall in front of him. He had been called XI5-603 all his life, but it never sounded so evil as when Renfro spoke it.
All day he quietly spoke his new name. Evan. Before last night, he never heard how harsh XI5-603 sounded, but compared to Evan, he liked his new name better.
"This wouldn't have anything to do with the prisoner you met the other day would it?"
Evan stood even straighter, "No ma'am."
Renfro's eyes became slits as she studied him, then she turned her back on him to stare out the window into the night. She had never done that to him before, and he stood behind confused. "I want you to report to intense training for the next two weeks."
She paused, letting him just listen to the silence before her voice broke it once more. "And I don't want you to see any of our prisoners. You are dismissed."
*****
Refro stood there for a long time, staring out onto the extensive compounds that were Manticore. A long time later she pulled a small cell phone out of her pocket.
"Janis, sorry to wake you. But tomorrow I want you to step up the process on prisoner H-16."
"We are already working her pretty hard. are you sure that would be safe."
"She is strong, she can take it and survive."
"But you must know, moving any faster may completely fry her brain so to speak."
"Will we still be able to reprogram her?"
"Well yes, but-"
"I don't care if she becomes a vegetable, I want her up and operational yesterday."
*****
In less then a minute, Zane got them into the "I Bar". He bypassed the alarm and picked the lock with ease.
Logan looked at him, "A little to good at that?"
"I can't feed myself and my dog with the salary I get at the garage…" He shrugged his shoulders as he held the door open for them. "Jaxx," he made eye contact with his German Sheppard, "Keep watch." As he gave the command he put two fingers out infront of each of his eyes and pulled them away again. The dog understood immediately and sat down, turning its back to the door and focusing it's ears down both sides of the alley.
They were all decked out in black, and aside from the slight whirring sounds coming from the servo motors in Logan's exoskeletan, they did not make a sound. Not that it really mattered. Upon a quick inspection, Syl and Zane found that there were no other security devices like cameras or motion detectors and their slow creep became a confidently lazy stride to the back corner of the café.
Zane pushed the power button, and the computer came to life, the screen flickering on. He stood tall and raised his arms, the blue light from the screen shined on him in the night, bathing him in a eerie light, "It's alive! It's alive!"
Syl laughed and hit him in the gut with the back of her hand, "Watching too much late night Space Channel are we?"
"Well how do you fill our genetic insomiac nights?" he asked, turning on another computer beside the one Logan was already typing away at.
Syl, too, bent down and turned on another computer, partially to hide her blush, "Discovery channel and Life network."
"Yeah, but Life just teaches you how to make your house all pretty and cook a gourmet meal—"
Zane stopped short, Logan was glaring glaciers at them. It was obvious he needed to concentrate and their talking wasn't helping. "Sorry," they both said in unison and sat down, waiting, in silence, for their computers to finish booting up.
Fifteen minutes later Logan had hacked into the computer database and was already downloading stuff to send back to Krit at the warehouse.
At the same time Syl accessed her e-mail and quietly flagged Zane over to read a particularly funny one.
Zane could not help but laugh out loud, breaking the vow of silence, "That has to be Lydecker! He is probably the only person in the world who could bend over and stick his head up his own—"
"How can you do it?" Logan turned his chair and was staring incredulously at them. He had startled them both.
"Do what?" Syl asked confused with his rage.
"Be so light hearted at a time like this. Zack is dead; Max has been in there for over a week and who knows if she's reverted back to a soldier; and there is a Zack doppelganger that is probably going to use her to get to the rest of you. How can you joke around like nothing is happening?"
"Woah, ease up guy…" Zane put his hands up in submission.
Syl shook her head, her voice somber, "Logan. You may not understand, but this is all we have known. Living our whole childhoods at Manticore, we have seen brothers and sisters dragged away and killed because of an imperfection the doctors hadn't anticipated, something fully beyond our control. We have been experimented on, our bones broken our bodies mutilated, and all the while we couldn't scream because it was considered weak."
Syl made a brief eye contact with Zane before lowering her eyes again and continuing her explanation. "And even being free we actually aren't. Continuously on the run at a moment's notice because Manticore might knock on our door, or the doors of the ones we have grown close to," she raised her eyes to meet Logan's. "How else are we supposed to live with it all?"
That said, the mood in the room came crashing down. Logan understood her point and turned back to his computer, continuing to pull up files to download and send to Krit.
No one dared laugh again that night.
*****
Cam finally joined Krit and Jondy at the warehouse. They were thankful for his presence. Like Avery, he was one of the older of the group who had learned about planning missions, rather then just how to execute them.
"Looks like I'm late. M'bad," an apology was the first thing that came out of his mouth as they came down to greet him. "Damn police stopped me at the check point because they picked out that my id was fake…I need a new guy."
After all the pleasantries, Jondy gave him the low down as krit went back to trying to decrypt all the files Logan was sending him. Cam didn't seem at all surprised. All he did was rest his chin in his fist and nod his head. Even when he heard that Zack was dead, and that there was a clone, he took it all in a calm, thoughtful look on his face. It was obvious he was planning something behind those almost black eyes.
Cam stood up again and paced the floor, with a soldier like gait. "So who is here? We have you two, me, Syl, Zane and Jaxx—"
"You would list me after a German Sheppard, brother?" Avery had returned from dumping Lydecker's body and was just walking in the door.
"There she is." Cam leaned over the railing. "I heard about some things you did before I got here. I'm hurt … you didn't wait for me."
There was a flicker of sadness in her eyes, but no one noticed. "Would you have been able to wait?"
"Touché" he nodded his head.
Krit and Jondy, both younger then these two by just under three years, looked at each other. Both had dreamed of Lydecker dead, but talking as casually about it as they were, was bordering on sick.
*****
It was all the same as the night before as Evan snuck into Max's cell. He brought extra rations this time so she could eat while he wasn't there. He knew intense training meant that the instructors would trade off, and they would work him for both day and night. There was a good chance that he wouldn't see her for a few days and he wanted her to stay strong.
They talked for as long as they dared about anything and everything they could think of. Mostly he asked her questions about the others, about life outside of Manticore's rules. He would watch her as she laughed, reminiscing about things her friends had done.
Both were blissfully unaware of what horrors awaited Max, all under Refro's order.