Tears cried
Max lay in the darkness, listening to her heart beat.
Tomorrow it would start. The training. The brainwashing. She didn't
think she was strong enough to fight it, to fight them. Not
physically strong -- she could snap the leather cords binding her to
the bed if she wished. Mentally strong. If she tried to escape,
they'd kill her. And if they killed her, everything Zack
died for would be a lie.
But if she stayed and let them turn her into a soldier again, it would
also be a lie. That was the easy choice, though. If she gave in to
it, she'd forget what freedom was. She'd forget Logan, and Cindy, and
all the other people she loved. She'd forget her other life. Where
now her Manticore past seemed a dream she'd had once, a long time
ago, soon her free life would seem that sort of dream. It
would hurt less if she didn't struggle. And Max didn't think she could
take any more pain.
1.
Someone was following him. Logan glanced behind him as he made his way
through the marketplace, running the sort of mundane errands that
always needed to be run. But the person following was quicker than he
was, and all he glimpsed was a shadow.
It made his heart race a little. He was used to being followed, to
getting into trouble. His articles and reports stirred things up.
That was the point. He'd had a story printed in the Seattle Free
Press a week ago. Maybe that was enough to set goons on his trail.
Since Max died, he'd become reckless. Logan told himself it was
because he had his mobility back, so he had more power to live the
sort of life he'd once had. He wasn't as vulnerable as he was before,
which meant he could take more risks. Deep down somewhere, he knew it
was because he didn't care. He didn't think about it because it was
shocking. Logan had never loved anyone so much that their loss
rendered his life worthless, except for his parents, and they'd been
his whole world before they died. But he'd been a child then. This was
both different and the same.
Logan headed up the alley behind his building, moving away from the
crowds into sunless silence. He heard the sound of his feet pounding
against the pavement as he strained to walk slowly, calmly. Like a
tourist consulting his map in the worst part of town -- easy,
attractive bait.
Wouldn't it be ironic if he was merely setting himself up to be
robbed, Logan thought. But robbers weren't this stealthy. Neither
were hit men, in his experience. Only one person he knew had been so
good at sliding into shadows, and she was gone.
He didn't look back now, didn't want to telegraph he was on to his new
friend. The element of surprise was about all he had going for him,
especially if he was the target of a genetically engineered soldier
sent to kill him. He was unarmed. He'd given up his guns after Max's
death. They'd lost their appeal to him. He knew it was stupid -- if
Max had been armed going into Manticore, she probably would have been
able to fight back and defend herself. But he'd given them up
anyway.
When are they going to make their move? He wondered. He didn't have
all day to play this cat and mouse game. Anyone worth their price
would know this was his building, and they'd be suspicious if he
didn't go inside. Plus he had a meeting at eleven he didn't want to
miss with a skittish informant. If he canceled, he'd lose the
opportunity for good.
Logan pulled out his passcard and rounded the corner to the front door
of the apartment building where he lived. He went inside, waited for
the express elevator, and went into his apartment. The door slipped
closed, the door locking neatly behind him.
There was someone waiting for him inside. A woman, not very tall,
slender, with delicate wrists. She was dressed from head to toe in
black, with a thick blond ponytail spilling over one shoulder. She
had a tattoo of a black flower on one hand, and she carried no
weapon. Logan met her eyes and was shocked by the intensity of them,
and by the sea-like quality of their blue-green shade. She'd
been sizing him up just as he'd been assessing her.
"Max isn't dead," she said.
"I held her as the last breath went out of her body," Logan said, and
felt shame as his voice broke. It had been six months. He ought to be
able to keep his emotions in check by now. "She's dead." He brushed
past the woman and went into the kitchen to put away his groceries.
He could feel her fury radiating.
"Manticore's going down," she said.
"Are you going to do it all yourself, Jondy?" Logan turned again to
face her. She flinched when he said her name. It hadn't been
difficult for him to figure out. She was obviously one of the '09
escapees, and she wasn't Tinga, Syl, Brin or Max. Jondy was the only
other female who'd made it out.
"I'm not going to do it at all," she said. "Terrorists are planning a
siege on the compound."
"If they get in alive, they won't be coming back out," Logan said.
"You and I both know how tight their security was, and I'm sure
they've stepped it up after the raid six months ago."
"It's a suicide mission, and they know it. It's more profitable at
this point to destroy the remaining Manticore prototypes than to try
to acquire them. Especially when the heads of several governments --
including our own -- is paying them a couple of billion dollars."
"So let them," Logan said as callously as he could. "You don't want to
see Manticore continue after what they did to you, and the others."
"They have nuclear weapons," Jondy said, serious.
Logan's heart skipped. Anyone who'd lived through the pulse and its
aftermath would have the same reaction. "I need proof."
"I've got it," Jondy offered, slipping him a sneak peek of a DVD
tucked into the inside pocket of her jacket.
"When's this going down?"
"Soon."
He looked at her, wondering if she knew a more specific date. "That
doesn't give us a lot of time."
_ _ _
"Hey, Victor."
"Hi, Max." The lab technician smiled shyly as he handed Max the small
paper cup containing her meds, as he did every morning.
"What's the 411?" Max started swallowing down pills.
"The way you talk..." Victor shook his head, but there was a smile in
his dark eyes. "There's talk of X-8s again."
"How can they?"
"The genetic sequence was computer-coded. They think they can get
their hands on synthetic proteins. From there, it's a small step to
grow DNA chains in the lab," Victor said. Max frowned. "I don't like
it any more than you do."
"Anything you can do about it?" Max asked.
Victor gave a quick shake of his head, and the door to the small room
opened. The rest of the X-5s filed in and Victor moved to distribute
their medicines. Max always made a point of being early.
No one spoke. Max glanced at Victor, and he was watching the young men
and women swallow their medication. The X-5s were the only ones who
required daily meds. They weren't supposed to know what the small
white pills were for, and all of them were identical, which made it
easy for Manticore to change the drugs in their experiments.
It also made it impossible to detect the changes Victor himself made
in the protocol.
The X-5s filtered back out into the hallway. "You're not going to end
up like Jace, are you?" Eva whispered to Max, falling into step with
her. At Max's look, Eva continued. "Victor doesn't look at you. He
was like that with Jace, too. Before..."
Max looked at her friend. She wanted to tell her everything. Eva was
the only friend she had inside Manticore. Neither of them were
supposed to be alive; that was their bond. Eva's shooting had touched
off the '09 escape. None of them had ever suspected she was still
alive and inside Manticore.
Zack must have known, Max thought, and not for the first time. He'd
been recaptured, not once but twice. But Max remember how mixed up
he'd been after his last escape. He'd barely remembered where Tinga
and Jondy and the others were. She couldn't blame him for not
mentioning Eva. Besides, they'd put so much work into brainwashing
him, it was possible he'd never been released into the
general population of X-5. Maybe he hadn't seen her.
"You're thinking about him," Eva said softly as they took their
customary places inside the gym.
Max blinked and it brought Eva's face into focus. She was supposed to
be paying attention. She was the other girl's spotter -- even
genetically engineered killing machines needed spotters when they
lifted weights, especially since Eva could bench press 650. Max
forced a smile, but didn't say anything. She didn't want to talk
about Zack. She didn't want to think about him, either, but she
couldn't keep him out of her thoughts.
From across the room, Max could feel Brin watching them.
_ _ _
"So how did you know who I was?" Jondy inquired as she leaned over
Logan's shoulder, watching him bang away at his computer keyboard,
seeking information. He was too involved in trying to keep the
Department of Defense from discovering the location from which he was
hacking, so it took several moments of silent concentration before he
could begin to form an answer. But Jondy was impatient
and continued, "Did Max talk about me?"
"She mentioned you, yes," Logan admitted.
"What did she say?" Jondy pushed.
"I don't want to talk about her," Logan said.
"That still doesn't explain how you recognized me," Jondy pressed.
"Something about you just screams 'Manticore' I guess," Logan said.
Jondy's eyes narrowed, cat-like. "You know where the others are."
"Some of them," Logan admitted. He continued to type at his usual
rate, executing commands almost as quickly as the computer could
process them. If they could find out who in the US government was
involved in the plot, they'd have a place to start.
The screen went blank.
"What the hell?" Logan pulled his fingers from the keyboard, as though
something could come through its wires to obliterate him as it had
the data on his screen. Then he saw the loose plug swinging from
Jondy's hand.
"I want you to pay attention when I'm talking to you," Jondy said.
"Give me that." Logan reached for the cord.
"Where are they." It wasn't a question. It was an order.
Logan didn't take orders from skinny little girls who purposely ruined
several hours worth of information pursuits. "Get out of here," he
said, reaching again for the cord. He put his hand on it and started
to jerk it away. Faster than he could blink, his hand was being bent
backward and Jondy's hands were painfully placed on his arm.
"I'll break it in three places if you don't let go," Jondy
threatened.
"I wouldn't be much good to you with a broken arm," Logan said evenly.
"Then again, you don't seem to care much about how the information
gets found. You just want what you want, when you want it."
"You calling me a spoiled brat?" Jondy challenged. She pushed the heel
of his hand a fraction of an inch and it was all he could do not to
yelp in pain. "You're the one with the posh digs." Logan said
nothing. "Where are they?"
"Brin was captured. Tinga's dead. Zack's dead. Max is dead. Ben is
dead."
"Ben's dead?"
"Max killed him." Logan realized an instant later it wasn't good to
give unsolicited details to someone set on breaking your arm.
"You're lying," Jondy snarled.
"And you're hurting me," he informed her. She shoved him loose with
such force, he couldn't get his balance and fell. It was made worse
by the fact his arm was completely numb. But it wasn't broken.
"Max wouldn't," Jondy said.
"There were extenuating circumstances," Logan told her.
"You're a pompous asshole," Jondy continued.
"Maybe," Logan concurred sarcastically. He wouldn't win a war of
strength, but a war of hurtful words would be no problem. But that
wasn't the way to go. Jondy was like a wild bird that had flown into
a building. Suddenly caged, dependent on someone other than herself
for help, she found no choice but to become vicious. Logan understood
that feeling. He'd lived with it for more than a year before he got
the exoskeleton. "When was the last time you ate?"
"Random much?" Jondy demanded.
"I just thought perhaps we could talk more civilly over dinner," Logan
suggested, finally recovered enough to pick himself up from the floor.
He plugged the computer back in, and went into the kitchen.
"How can you be hungry at a time like this?" Jondy scoffed.
Logan ignored her, beginning to gather the various dishes he'd need to
prepare the meal he'd been planning when he went to the market
earlier. He'd planned for leftovers, so it wouldn't be too much of a
stretch to make it serve two. "Start washing the vegetables," he told
her.
"I don't take orders from you."
"You don't eat if you don't help, either," Logan said. Scowling, Jondy
picked up the scrub brush and turned on the tap. "You always this
personable?"
"Sometimes I'm less," Jondy offered. Logan looked at her interestedly,
because he suspected that had been a joke. "Want me to chop them?"
"I don't trust you with a knife," Logan said as pleasantly as he
could.
A strange sound erupted from Jondy's mouth. She looked as surprised as
Logan felt. It took them both a moment to realize she was laughing.
Logan smiled at her and instantly she was sober and scowling again.
"What have you been up to?" he asked her.
"What?"
"Since the escape."
"Why do you want to know?" she demanded suspiciously.
"It's called 'conversation.'"
"When was the last time you had this place checked for bugs?" Jondy
demanded, shoving past him out of the kitchen. He heard something
slam in the next room and decided to leave her to it. She was just as
useless in the kitchen as Max had been.
_ _ _
Eva saw Max looking at Brin, and Brin staring right back in challenge.
"Max," Eva said.
"What?" Max called to her sister from across the room.
"Max," Eva said again, more urgently, because she knew where this was
headed.
"Don't worry, little sister," Max said, her voice tough, as she
crossed the room to where Brin was spotting for Ash. Eva hated it
when Max called her "little sister." Almost as much as she hated it
when Max and Brin fought, which was nearly every day. "You really
wanna do this again?" Max challenged.
"You really think you're going to beat me?" Brin asked, her tone
bored.
"No," Max replied. Brin smirked. "One of these days, I'm going to kill
you." Max threw the first punch. Brin's head whipped to one side,
then snapped back. She'd been too fast and avoided the blow. Within
moments, the two girls were engaged in all-out war. Some of the other
X-5s didn't stop their workouts. If they did, they would be
disciplined. Besides, it was nothing they hadn't seen before.
The door flew open. A whistle blew. A team of six guards entered, but
they didn't move into the fray. They remained near the doors, as
though sealing them off as possibility of escape.
"Enough." The shrill female voice sent a shiver through Max. It was
enough to distract her for a split second, which was all Brin needed
to bust open her lip. Max shoved Brin's head against the wall, dazing
the girl. Max did it again, and felt Brin struggle, not against her,
but against unconsciousness. "I said stop!"
Before Max could bash Brin's head again, she felt the sting of the
guards' tazers. The electrical shock burned against her spine,
setting off painful spasms all the way to the nerve endings in her
hands and feet. It was the only weapon the guards had, carefully
calibrated to be as painful as possible. Max couldn't make her
muscles work, so she slid to the floor in a quivering heap.
"You will listen when I give you orders." It was Renfro, the blond
bitch who ran this circus. Max gathered enough motor control to spit
in her face. "Put her in the hole. Again." The last word was added
with a sigh as the guards dragged Max away.
_ _ _
Six months of meals eaten at this table in solitude were coming to an
end. Logan couldn't help but think of Max as he set the table. He
wanted to be able to go back in time, to stop it all from happening,
so he could be lighting candles and pouring out some wine. But it
wasn't to be. His houseguest was sullen and ungracious.
"Eat it," he told her.
"How do I know you didn't put anything in it?" Jondy asked, eyeing the
vegetable plate carefully.
"If you'd helped, then you'd know that, wouldn't you?" Logan's tone
fell easily into the range of condescending. "Instead of searching my
apartment. I bet you didn't find what you were looking for."
"I still want to know where they are," Jondy demanded, her eyes
blazing.
"Keep it up and I'll start to think there are no terrorists," Logan
said.
"They're real," Jondy said. She considered the food again.
Logan could see the hunger in her eyes. He got up just as her hand
curled around the fork. "If you don't want it..." He swooped down and
took away the plate before she managed to get a bite. Jondy jumped to
her feet. Logan wondered if this was going to turn into another
wrestling match, like earlier. "You haven't told me why you think Max
is alive."
"Give me back the food and I'll tell you," Jondy said, weighing each
word carefully.
Slowly, Logan put the plate back on the table. She ate quickly, like a
starving animal. Logan watched her, and when she'd cleaned her plate,
he gave his a little push toward her. Jondy looked at him sharply.
"Take it," he said, and without a moment's hesitation, she did. Logan
got up.
"Where are you going?" she demanded.
"There's chocolate cake in the kitchen. Unless you don't like cake."
"I've never had it," Jondy said casually. Logan looked at her for a
second, slightly surprised. Then he wondered if Max had ever had
cake. It shocked him how quickly the tears could fill his eyes, even
after all this time. He went into the kitchen and took several deep
breaths before taking the dessert into the dining room.
Logan watched as Jondy ate piece after piece. "So, what's the
verdict?" he asked.
Jondy nodded. "It's not bad."
No one had ever called Logan's chocolate cake "not bad" before. It
generally brought rave reviews, and had almost single-handedly
seduced more than one woman in his wilder days. "Tell me about Max,"
he said.
"I can do better than that," Jondy grinned, slipping the DVD disk from
her coat again. "I can show you."
_ _ _
The Hole was much what you'd expect from the name. In a deep
subbasement of the complex, it was dark and damp. The idea of it
corresponded to that of solitary confinement in most prisons. As
punishment for an X-5 went, it was the about the best they could
manage. And it wasn't all that punishing.
Once the door was locked behind her, Max relaxed. She wasn't overly
fond of dark, small spaces, but she'd spent enough time in this one
it had become like a second home to her. She curled up on the floor,
listening to the screams coming from beyond the locked door. She
could think of much more frightening punishments. They could lock her
in a cell with one of the nomalies. They could take her to the labs
and use their saws to break apart her bones to see how
quickly they'd grow back together.
The Hole was easy. It was a toddlers' time-out from Manticore life.
There was no running, no hunting, no killing. They didn't feed you in
the hole, so there was none of the cafeteria protein-enhanced glop
that tried to pass for food and failed. No one bothered you. And when
Renfro decided you'd had enough, they let you out.
There were only two bad things about it. The first was that the guards
controlled the meds, not Victor. Which meant Max had to take them all,
full strength. The effects never lasted long, and there was no one
down there to try to brainwash her, but the feeling of losing control
was disturbing to her. The other bad thing was that with no one to
talk to, and no structured time, she was alone with her thoughts.
Max tried to use this time to plan. She went over maps of the building
in her mind, drilled herself on the best methods of escape. Because
she was going to escape again, and soon. But after a while, and
especially after the first dose of meds, her mind began to drift back
into the days between her escape and her capture. She couldn't help
remembering the snap of Ben's neck beneath her fingers. Of the way
Logan's lips felt against hers. And the beating of Zack's
heart, which she was never going to be able to escape.
_ _ _