Remained
Max remained where she stood long enough for Renfro to look back up at
her. "I said you were dismissed," she said.
"What about the others?" Max asked.
"Are you ready to give up their locations now?"
Max shook her head. "I don't know where they are," she said, again.
She'd said it so many times it was beginning to sound like a lie to
her own ears. "I mean the X-3s."
"How do you know about that?" Renfro demanded. Her face had gone a
deep shade of white before turning bright pink with fury.
Max smiled. "Wouldn't they have an edge, too?" she suggested. She'd
been right.
Renfro recovered herself, modulating her voice and her posture. She
couldn't make her face unflush from the jolt of anger, though. "I
want to know where you got your information," she said calmly.
"I don't know much," Max bluffed. "There were how many...two,
three?...that got away." She was walking on thin ice here.
"Three."
"And you still weren't prepared in '09, when we escaped."
"There had been no trouble with the X-4s," Renfro replied. "We saw no
reason to be cautious. We've learned from our mistakes." Renfro
contemplated her carefully. "Sit down."
Max reached for the chair, and did as she was told.
"I've always wondered how you got away that night."
"Why not ask Brin?"
"I have," Renfro asked. "Now I'm asking you."
Did that mean Brin hadn't answered her? "It started when Lydecker shot
Eva," Max began. It had actually started earlier than that. When the
guards came for her during a seizure. The others had acted so Max
wouldn't be taken away as Jack had been.
Renfro waved her hand. "I don't want to hear that again." She leaned
in closer. "I want the real story."
As far as Max was concerned, that was the real story.
"You don't know," Renfro said, a smile overtaking her.
"Know what?" Max asked.
"Lydecker let you kids escape," Renfro told her. "And what do you
know? Good old Deck turned out to be right. It did make you
stronger."
Max's mind struggled to process that information. To figure out what
it meant. Lydecker let them escape? It didn't make any sense.
"Where he failed was in getting too attached," Renfro continued. "He
resisted bringing you back in when the experiment was over."
"It was just another experiment?" Max asked.
"Did you really think you could just escape right from under our
noses?" Renfro asked. "That a bunch of stupid kids who knew nothing
about the world would succeed in hiding from *us* for ten years?" She
chuckled. "That's the one thing we've got to work on in the X-8
series. Those egos really get in the way of clear thinking. You'd
better get to roll call."
Woodenly, Max got out of her chair and walked into the hall. Her feet
carried her back to the dorm, held her at attention as she checked in
for the beginning of the day. But her mind was reeling with the
things she'd been told.
_ _ _
"He's one of us?" Jondy asked. She sat down on the couch and pulled
her knees up, looking more lost than confused.
"In a way," Logan said. "He wasn't X-5. He was older than that."
"What would he be doing out here?" Jondy asked. "Could they have --"
"They didn't send him," Logan said. "He's hellbent on destroying
Manticore. Taking down the rest of the world is just to ensure they
never have the opportunity to do it again."
"So that means...another escape?" Jondy asked, her voice rising.
"Must have been," Logan reasoned.
"But there wasn't --"
"Jondy," Logan said gently, and she jumped at the sound of her name.
Or maybe it was the way he said it. "You were only nine when you
escaped. There had to have been a lot of things you didn't know."
"It's impossible," Jondy said, but he could see her mind was working
on it, that it wasn't so impossible after all. "X-3," she said, then
looked at him. "X-1 was a total wash, the X-2s who lived were the
'nomalies. X-4 was a complete squadron at the time of the escape, we
trained with them. So it must be X-3."
"It's a start," Logan said.
"Logan, what happened to you?" Jondy asked.
"I got shot." He intended for that to be the end of the discussion.
"But -- you were --"
Logan reached down and pulled up his pantleg, far enough to reveal the
brace around his lower leg. "It was a DOD prototype. It runs on
microchip servo- motors." Then he corrected himself. "Ran. It's pretty
much ruined now, after being nuked by the localized EMP your brother
put on me."
"So you're --"
He held her gaze. "My spinal cord's severed."
"I'm sorry," Jondy said.
"Don't be." He looked way, completely shutting down his emotions.
"We've got bigger problems. Namely, the loss of my equipment." It was
going to be impossible to replace. Especially the stuff he used for
his cable hacks. Most of that stuff had completely disappeared from
the black market. Too much risk to anyone using it if the authorities
thought they'd found Eyes Only.
"You said you knew where the other X-5s are," Jondy said.
"I was tracking them. It was all on my computer."
"You didn't have back-ups."
"Not off-site. Too risky." It was ironic, really. Now it appeared it
had been too risky not to store them off-site. But who had ever
expected a room-sized EMP?
"What are we going to do?" Jondy asked.
"We'll figure something out," Logan said. "Are you hungry? I think
there's leftovers in the fridge." He'd never known an X-5 not to be
hungry. While she went to retrieve the food, he lit the candles on
the table so they wouldn't be sitting in the darkness. She returned
with various plastic containers and shoved a couple in his direction.
They ate silently.
_ _ _
They were going hunting this morning, as though the drill hadn't been
bad enough. Max wondered who the man had been that she'd killed that
morning. She had no way of knowing anything more than he'd been an
intruder, and that was more than enough reason for his death.
She glanced over at the eager X-7s, who hung on every word of the
commanding officer explaining procedures. She remembered that
feeling, barely. Of being pumped up, excited. Then tracking a man
through the woods and ripping him to shreds.
Being here with them was probably some sort of punishment, Max
thought, since she was the only one of her age group present. Then
again, she was considered to be on the same training level as the
younger kids, since that's where her training had ended when she
escaped. The signal was given, and they started out in a pack,
hunting their prey.
Max separated from the group, heading up through the trees on her own.
She felt the hard stare of one of the X-7s on her back, but she
didn't turn. She didn't want anything to do with the ones who'd shot
her, shot Zack. They'd only been doing as they were ordered, and she
knew it, but she still hated them for it. If not for them, she would
still be free.
She could smell the man they were hunting. The scent of his fear
overpowered the clean woodland air. Who was he, she wondered? Some
poor sap who thought he'd been given a reprieve from prison, only to
find himself here in the closest approximation to hell she could
imagine. Behind her, she heard the imperceptible steps of two, maybe
three, of the younger kids. She wasn't sure whether they
were following her or following the trail.
Max zigzagged, then grabbed one of the branches overhead without
breaking her stride. She pulled herself up over their heads and
watched them stop directly below her, regrouping. It was as though
she'd been transported back in time as an observer. Maybe it was all
a dream I had once, she thought. None of this is real.
When they'd gone, she dropped down, turning to go deeper into the
woods. Max stopped short as she found herself face to face with the
man they were hunting. His posture was permanently bent, maybe from
being in the cell for so long, or maybe from what they'd done to him,
breaking his bones to see if they'd heal.
"I don't want to die," he said. It wasn't just the intelligence in his
eyes that frightened her. He was one of the monsters of her
childhood.
"Do you really think you can escape?" Max asked. The wrinkles in his
forehead deepened as he seemed to consider this. She couldn't help
him escape, couldn't unleash such madness on the unsuspecting world.
She knew what the nomalies were, even if this ones was acting
civilized now. But if he couldn't escape, she had to kill him. Or let
the X-7s do it.
That was Manticore in a nutshell: no matter how many choices you had,
every single one of them was wrong.
"You think you're better off than me," he said. "But one day it'll be
you."
"It already has," she said, flashing back to her shock as X7-452
pulled the trigger. "Why now?"
"They're cleaning house, Maxie."
"How do you know my name?"
He grinned. "I know lots of things."
"What about the escape? The X-3s."
He started to laugh, and it frustrated her. He turned it off an
instant, his gaze once again ice-cold. "No one ever escapes," he
said. "Get out your weapon."
"What?" Max asked, placing her hand on the small knife she carried
just as the others arrived and surrounded them silently. Their little
faces were so serious. The X-2 stood calmly, raising his face to the
sun. He closed his eyes. He had to know what was coming.
The leader of the X-7s raised his hand in signal, and the kids moved
forward. One of them shot a curious glance at Max. "This is your
victory," Max said, bitterness bleeding into her voice. There were
chills across her shoulders, down her spine. They could just as
easily kill her out here as their intended target.
She took a step out of the circle and the attack began. It was carried
out in silence from the X-7s. The only sound was one long, thin
scream from the nomaly, the one who looked so much like Zack. It
sounded more like a cry of victory than one of pain. It ended with a
wet crunch and Max flinched.
And then there was one less of them. That was how the story always
ended.
_ _ _
"I want to see it," Jondy declared.
They'd shoved the plastic food storage containers to one side of the
table and Logan had been scratching on a piece of paper, trying to
set down the knowledge that had been lost in the destruction of his
equipment, before he forgot it all. He'd started out telling Jondy as
he went, then realized she wasn't listening to him. The focus of her
eyes had dulled and she stared out the window as she drank
one glass of wine after another. Logan wondered how much it took to
get a genetically engineered soldier wasted. Looking at her now, he'd
venture to guess it didn't take much.
"I want to see it," she repeated.
"What?"
"Your..." She wrinkled her nose at not finding the word she wanted.
"Prototype servomotor whatever thing."
"Why?"
"I just want to see it." Jondy turned to him. "I bet it wouldn't be
too hard to fix."
And those were the magic words, weren't they? Logan thought as Jondy
approached him. He'd let her do anything if it meant the exoskeleton
would work again. He'd been able to keep the thoughts relegated to
the back of his mind for the moment, but he knew once the shock had
time to wear off, the cloud of despair he'd managed to stay a step
ahead of would catch him.
He looked down at her hands, watching as she unfastened his trousers
and began to ease them down, as though it was someone else she was
touching. Logan lifted his eyes and studied her face as she
contemplated his lower body.
"You really can't feel it," she whispered, as though it amazed her. He
glanced down and saw she was pinching some skin at the side of his
thigh, digging her nails in deep enough to leave red welts.
"If you're done playing --" he sneered, pushing her hands away and
reaching for his pants, which were turned wrong-side out and bunched
around his shoes.
"Wait." Jondy leaned in closer, eyeing the construction of the plastic
joints.
"Well?" Logan demanded, his voice low. As long as he could cling to
the anger, he'd be all right It was safer than the thought he'd been
dangerously close to, about how her features were assembled with
delicate perception.
"Zane could fix it," Jondy said. "Zane can fix anything. Always
could."
"Maybe we should go get him, then," Logan suggested.
Jondy's eyes brightened hopefully. "I thought -- You liar!" The hope
only lasted a second before turning to rage. "You know where they
are. But you wanted me to believe the information was only on your
computer. That you didn't know."
"It's dangerous."
"I don't care about dangerous!" Jondy screamed at him. "I've been
looking my whole life for them! I can handle it."
"That's what Zack said," Logan pointed out.
"Shut up," Jondy snapped. "Zack's not dead. Neither is Max. Just tell
me where they are."
Logan ground his teeth together, determinedly not saying a word.
"Tell me," Jondy ordered, her eyes wild.
"Or what?" Logan challenged. "You'll kill me? Wouldn't that defeat
your purpose?"
"You're infuriating," she snarled.
"And you're reckless," Logan informed her calmly.
"You sound just like *him.*"
"Who? Lydecker? Zack? This is something you've heard before?" He
pushed.
"Pull up your pants," Jondy ordered. "We're leaving. Now." Logan
didn't move. "That's an order!"
Logan glared at her long enough that he felt he made his point that
she couldn't order him about and couldn't tell him what to do. Then
he bent down and she stalked off into the other room. "What are you
doing?" he called to her.
"None of your business," she said, coming back into the room with a
small knapsack in her hands.
"That looks familiar," Logan said, his eyes on the bag.
"Your supplies are pitiful," Jondy informed him.
"Well, I don't get out much," he said sarcastically. "We'll need
sector passes."
"I'll take care of it," Jondy said. "Let's go."
In the elevator, she punched the button for the lobby. Logan pressed
the button for the parking level a second later. "I have a car," he
said.
"Motorcycle's more mobile."
"Too bad I can't ride one," Logan pointed out. The doors opened on the
lobby and he pressed the button to close them again before anyone
could join them. The parking garage under the building was quiet as
they made their way to his car.
Jondy snorted when she saw it. "You call this a car? It looks like a
station wagon with its ass stuck in the air."
"It's an SUV," Logan told her.
"If you say so," Jondy snickered. He pulled the keys from the pocket
of his jacket and she snatched them from him. "I'll drive."
"Ever driven using hand controls before?"
Her pause was only seconds long. "I'll figure it out."
"You just can't quit fighting, can you?" he asked.
"It's like sharks," she said. He raised his eyebrows, wondering if
that remark was supposed to make sense. "I stop fighting, I'll die."
But she put the keys back into his hand and went around to the
passenger side.
_ _ _
Someone must have forgotten to assign her something to occupy the rest
of the morning, Max thought. Or else physical training expected her
to be at Brainwashing 101, and vice versa. In any case, she was glad.
She was getting tired of pretending to be the good soldier.
Especially when her instincts were beginning to take over and it
wasn't all pretending any more.
She found herself wandering around the complex, not sure what she was
looking for until she found it. They'd left the door ajar. Bad habits
die hard, she thought, remembering the last time she'd peered through
a door left open and seen them cutting up Jack.
Now they were working on the X-2, probably matching up the teeth marks
with the X-7s' dental records so they'd know who to congratulate.
They were focused on their work, so she leaned against the wall near
the door, watching. The doctors worked together with precision. They
were used to autopsying their creations, she thought. Anger flared up
in her and she wished she could take them all out. That they could be
released into the woods and hunted for sport.
"Don't just stand there, X5-452." The voice from inside the autopsy
room was Renfro's. Of course she'd be there to see this. "Come
inside."
Max walked into the room boldly, to cover the annoyance she felt at
being caught listening at the door. A moment later, when someone
moved to close the door behind her, she realized it had been a
set-up, that they'd intended for her to join them all along.
He looked so much like Zack, she thought. She flinched as one of the
doctors turned on the bone saw. Its noisy whirring reminded her of
other experiments, ones that had been conducted on her. The grinding
grew louder as it connected. They'd done this to Zack, she thought,
and it wasn't hard for her to imagine him lying on this table. They'd
taken his heart and put it inside of her.
The corpse's eyes opened. Max thought it was some belated reflex until
they focused, directly on her. "Wait --" she said, but the word
trailed. She knew the other doctors could see the reaction as clearly
as she could. What's more, they were expecting it.
Even as the saw ground through his skull, he was still alive.
Max remained where she stood long enough for Renfro to look back up at
her. "I said you were dismissed," she said.
"What about the others?" Max asked.
"Are you ready to give up their locations now?"
Max shook her head. "I don't know where they are," she said, again.
She'd said it so many times it was beginning to sound like a lie to
her own ears. "I mean the X-3s."
"How do you know about that?" Renfro demanded. Her face had gone a
deep shade of white before turning bright pink with fury.
Max smiled. "Wouldn't they have an edge, too?" she suggested. She'd
been right.
Renfro recovered herself, modulating her voice and her posture. She
couldn't make her face unflush from the jolt of anger, though. "I
want to know where you got your information," she said calmly.
"I don't know much," Max bluffed. "There were how many...two,
three?...that got away." She was walking on thin ice here.
"Three."
"And you still weren't prepared in '09, when we escaped."
"There had been no trouble with the X-4s," Renfro replied. "We saw no
reason to be cautious. We've learned from our mistakes." Renfro
contemplated her carefully. "Sit down."
Max reached for the chair, and did as she was told.
"I've always wondered how you got away that night."
"Why not ask Brin?"
"I have," Renfro asked. "Now I'm asking you."
Did that mean Brin hadn't answered her? "It started when Lydecker shot
Eva," Max began. It had actually started earlier than that. When the
guards came for her during a seizure. The others had acted so Max
wouldn't be taken away as Jack had been.
Renfro waved her hand. "I don't want to hear that again." She leaned
in closer. "I want the real story."
As far as Max was concerned, that was the real story.
"You don't know," Renfro said, a smile overtaking her.
"Know what?" Max asked.
"Lydecker let you kids escape," Renfro told her. "And what do you
know? Good old Deck turned out to be right. It did make you
stronger."
Max's mind struggled to process that information. To figure out what
it meant. Lydecker let them escape? It didn't make any sense.
"Where he failed was in getting too attached," Renfro continued. "He
resisted bringing you back in when the experiment was over."
"It was just another experiment?" Max asked.
"Did you really think you could just escape right from under our
noses?" Renfro asked. "That a bunch of stupid kids who knew nothing
about the world would succeed in hiding from *us* for ten years?" She
chuckled. "That's the one thing we've got to work on in the X-8
series. Those egos really get in the way of clear thinking. You'd
better get to roll call."
Woodenly, Max got out of her chair and walked into the hall. Her feet
carried her back to the dorm, held her at attention as she checked in
for the beginning of the day. But her mind was reeling with the
things she'd been told.
_ _ _
"He's one of us?" Jondy asked. She sat down on the couch and pulled
her knees up, looking more lost than confused.
"In a way," Logan said. "He wasn't X-5. He was older than that."
"What would he be doing out here?" Jondy asked. "Could they have --"
"They didn't send him," Logan said. "He's hellbent on destroying
Manticore. Taking down the rest of the world is just to ensure they
never have the opportunity to do it again."
"So that means...another escape?" Jondy asked, her voice rising.
"Must have been," Logan reasoned.
"But there wasn't --"
"Jondy," Logan said gently, and she jumped at the sound of her name.
Or maybe it was the way he said it. "You were only nine when you
escaped. There had to have been a lot of things you didn't know."
"It's impossible," Jondy said, but he could see her mind was working
on it, that it wasn't so impossible after all. "X-3," she said, then
looked at him. "X-1 was a total wash, the X-2s who lived were the
'nomalies. X-4 was a complete squadron at the time of the escape, we
trained with them. So it must be X-3."
"It's a start," Logan said.
"Logan, what happened to you?" Jondy asked.
"I got shot." He intended for that to be the end of the discussion.
"But -- you were --"
Logan reached down and pulled up his pantleg, far enough to reveal the
brace around his lower leg. "It was a DOD prototype. It runs on
microchip servo- motors." Then he corrected himself. "Ran. It's pretty
much ruined now, after being nuked by the localized EMP your brother
put on me."
"So you're --"
He held her gaze. "My spinal cord's severed."
"I'm sorry," Jondy said.
"Don't be." He looked way, completely shutting down his emotions.
"We've got bigger problems. Namely, the loss of my equipment." It was
going to be impossible to replace. Especially the stuff he used for
his cable hacks. Most of that stuff had completely disappeared from
the black market. Too much risk to anyone using it if the authorities
thought they'd found Eyes Only.
"You said you knew where the other X-5s are," Jondy said.
"I was tracking them. It was all on my computer."
"You didn't have back-ups."
"Not off-site. Too risky." It was ironic, really. Now it appeared it
had been too risky not to store them off-site. But who had ever
expected a room-sized EMP?
"What are we going to do?" Jondy asked.
"We'll figure something out," Logan said. "Are you hungry? I think
there's leftovers in the fridge." He'd never known an X-5 not to be
hungry. While she went to retrieve the food, he lit the candles on
the table so they wouldn't be sitting in the darkness. She returned
with various plastic containers and shoved a couple in his direction.
They ate silently.
_ _ _
They were going hunting this morning, as though the drill hadn't been
bad enough. Max wondered who the man had been that she'd killed that
morning. She had no way of knowing anything more than he'd been an
intruder, and that was more than enough reason for his death.
She glanced over at the eager X-7s, who hung on every word of the
commanding officer explaining procedures. She remembered that
feeling, barely. Of being pumped up, excited. Then tracking a man
through the woods and ripping him to shreds.
Being here with them was probably some sort of punishment, Max
thought, since she was the only one of her age group present. Then
again, she was considered to be on the same training level as the
younger kids, since that's where her training had ended when she
escaped. The signal was given, and they started out in a pack,
hunting their prey.
Max separated from the group, heading up through the trees on her own.
She felt the hard stare of one of the X-7s on her back, but she
didn't turn. She didn't want anything to do with the ones who'd shot
her, shot Zack. They'd only been doing as they were ordered, and she
knew it, but she still hated them for it. If not for them, she would
still be free.
She could smell the man they were hunting. The scent of his fear
overpowered the clean woodland air. Who was he, she wondered? Some
poor sap who thought he'd been given a reprieve from prison, only to
find himself here in the closest approximation to hell she could
imagine. Behind her, she heard the imperceptible steps of two, maybe
three, of the younger kids. She wasn't sure whether they
were following her or following the trail.
Max zigzagged, then grabbed one of the branches overhead without
breaking her stride. She pulled herself up over their heads and
watched them stop directly below her, regrouping. It was as though
she'd been transported back in time as an observer. Maybe it was all
a dream I had once, she thought. None of this is real.
When they'd gone, she dropped down, turning to go deeper into the
woods. Max stopped short as she found herself face to face with the
man they were hunting. His posture was permanently bent, maybe from
being in the cell for so long, or maybe from what they'd done to him,
breaking his bones to see if they'd heal.
"I don't want to die," he said. It wasn't just the intelligence in his
eyes that frightened her. He was one of the monsters of her
childhood.
"Do you really think you can escape?" Max asked. The wrinkles in his
forehead deepened as he seemed to consider this. She couldn't help
him escape, couldn't unleash such madness on the unsuspecting world.
She knew what the nomalies were, even if this ones was acting
civilized now. But if he couldn't escape, she had to kill him. Or let
the X-7s do it.
That was Manticore in a nutshell: no matter how many choices you had,
every single one of them was wrong.
"You think you're better off than me," he said. "But one day it'll be
you."
"It already has," she said, flashing back to her shock as X7-452
pulled the trigger. "Why now?"
"They're cleaning house, Maxie."
"How do you know my name?"
He grinned. "I know lots of things."
"What about the escape? The X-3s."
He started to laugh, and it frustrated her. He turned it off an
instant, his gaze once again ice-cold. "No one ever escapes," he
said. "Get out your weapon."
"What?" Max asked, placing her hand on the small knife she carried
just as the others arrived and surrounded them silently. Their little
faces were so serious. The X-2 stood calmly, raising his face to the
sun. He closed his eyes. He had to know what was coming.
The leader of the X-7s raised his hand in signal, and the kids moved
forward. One of them shot a curious glance at Max. "This is your
victory," Max said, bitterness bleeding into her voice. There were
chills across her shoulders, down her spine. They could just as
easily kill her out here as their intended target.
She took a step out of the circle and the attack began. It was carried
out in silence from the X-7s. The only sound was one long, thin
scream from the nomaly, the one who looked so much like Zack. It
sounded more like a cry of victory than one of pain. It ended with a
wet crunch and Max flinched.
And then there was one less of them. That was how the story always
ended.
_ _ _
"I want to see it," Jondy declared.
They'd shoved the plastic food storage containers to one side of the
table and Logan had been scratching on a piece of paper, trying to
set down the knowledge that had been lost in the destruction of his
equipment, before he forgot it all. He'd started out telling Jondy as
he went, then realized she wasn't listening to him. The focus of her
eyes had dulled and she stared out the window as she drank
one glass of wine after another. Logan wondered how much it took to
get a genetically engineered soldier wasted. Looking at her now, he'd
venture to guess it didn't take much.
"I want to see it," she repeated.
"What?"
"Your..." She wrinkled her nose at not finding the word she wanted.
"Prototype servomotor whatever thing."
"Why?"
"I just want to see it." Jondy turned to him. "I bet it wouldn't be
too hard to fix."
And those were the magic words, weren't they? Logan thought as Jondy
approached him. He'd let her do anything if it meant the exoskeleton
would work again. He'd been able to keep the thoughts relegated to
the back of his mind for the moment, but he knew once the shock had
time to wear off, the cloud of despair he'd managed to stay a step
ahead of would catch him.
He looked down at her hands, watching as she unfastened his trousers
and began to ease them down, as though it was someone else she was
touching. Logan lifted his eyes and studied her face as she
contemplated his lower body.
"You really can't feel it," she whispered, as though it amazed her. He
glanced down and saw she was pinching some skin at the side of his
thigh, digging her nails in deep enough to leave red welts.
"If you're done playing --" he sneered, pushing her hands away and
reaching for his pants, which were turned wrong-side out and bunched
around his shoes.
"Wait." Jondy leaned in closer, eyeing the construction of the plastic
joints.
"Well?" Logan demanded, his voice low. As long as he could cling to
the anger, he'd be all right It was safer than the thought he'd been
dangerously close to, about how her features were assembled with
delicate perception.
"Zane could fix it," Jondy said. "Zane can fix anything. Always
could."
"Maybe we should go get him, then," Logan suggested.
Jondy's eyes brightened hopefully. "I thought -- You liar!" The hope
only lasted a second before turning to rage. "You know where they
are. But you wanted me to believe the information was only on your
computer. That you didn't know."
"It's dangerous."
"I don't care about dangerous!" Jondy screamed at him. "I've been
looking my whole life for them! I can handle it."
"That's what Zack said," Logan pointed out.
"Shut up," Jondy snapped. "Zack's not dead. Neither is Max. Just tell
me where they are."
Logan ground his teeth together, determinedly not saying a word.
"Tell me," Jondy ordered, her eyes wild.
"Or what?" Logan challenged. "You'll kill me? Wouldn't that defeat
your purpose?"
"You're infuriating," she snarled.
"And you're reckless," Logan informed her calmly.
"You sound just like *him.*"
"Who? Lydecker? Zack? This is something you've heard before?" He
pushed.
"Pull up your pants," Jondy ordered. "We're leaving. Now." Logan
didn't move. "That's an order!"
Logan glared at her long enough that he felt he made his point that
she couldn't order him about and couldn't tell him what to do. Then
he bent down and she stalked off into the other room. "What are you
doing?" he called to her.
"None of your business," she said, coming back into the room with a
small knapsack in her hands.
"That looks familiar," Logan said, his eyes on the bag.
"Your supplies are pitiful," Jondy informed him.
"Well, I don't get out much," he said sarcastically. "We'll need
sector passes."
"I'll take care of it," Jondy said. "Let's go."
In the elevator, she punched the button for the lobby. Logan pressed
the button for the parking level a second later. "I have a car," he
said.
"Motorcycle's more mobile."
"Too bad I can't ride one," Logan pointed out. The doors opened on the
lobby and he pressed the button to close them again before anyone
could join them. The parking garage under the building was quiet as
they made their way to his car.
Jondy snorted when she saw it. "You call this a car? It looks like a
station wagon with its ass stuck in the air."
"It's an SUV," Logan told her.
"If you say so," Jondy snickered. He pulled the keys from the pocket
of his jacket and she snatched them from him. "I'll drive."
"Ever driven using hand controls before?"
Her pause was only seconds long. "I'll figure it out."
"You just can't quit fighting, can you?" he asked.
"It's like sharks," she said. He raised his eyebrows, wondering if
that remark was supposed to make sense. "I stop fighting, I'll die."
But she put the keys back into his hand and went around to the
passenger side.
_ _ _
Someone must have forgotten to assign her something to occupy the rest
of the morning, Max thought. Or else physical training expected her
to be at Brainwashing 101, and vice versa. In any case, she was glad.
She was getting tired of pretending to be the good soldier.
Especially when her instincts were beginning to take over and it
wasn't all pretending any more.
She found herself wandering around the complex, not sure what she was
looking for until she found it. They'd left the door ajar. Bad habits
die hard, she thought, remembering the last time she'd peered through
a door left open and seen them cutting up Jack.
Now they were working on the X-2, probably matching up the teeth marks
with the X-7s' dental records so they'd know who to congratulate.
They were focused on their work, so she leaned against the wall near
the door, watching. The doctors worked together with precision. They
were used to autopsying their creations, she thought. Anger flared up
in her and she wished she could take them all out. That they could be
released into the woods and hunted for sport.
"Don't just stand there, X5-452." The voice from inside the autopsy
room was Renfro's. Of course she'd be there to see this. "Come
inside."
Max walked into the room boldly, to cover the annoyance she felt at
being caught listening at the door. A moment later, when someone
moved to close the door behind her, she realized it had been a
set-up, that they'd intended for her to join them all along.
He looked so much like Zack, she thought. She flinched as one of the
doctors turned on the bone saw. Its noisy whirring reminded her of
other experiments, ones that had been conducted on her. The grinding
grew louder as it connected. They'd done this to Zack, she thought,
and it wasn't hard for her to imagine him lying on this table. They'd
taken his heart and put it inside of her.
The corpse's eyes opened. Max thought it was some belated reflex until
they focused, directly on her. "Wait --" she said, but the word
trailed. She knew the other doctors could see the reaction as clearly
as she could. What's more, they were expecting it.
Even as the saw ground through his skull, he was still alive.