Prototype
"It's hard to kill a Manticore prototype," Renfro murmured, as though
she was proud of them for it.
Max watched his hand spasm, opening and closing. Reaching out for
help. There was desperation in his eyes as he looked at her. He was
suffering. He could feel it. He was aware of everything they did to
him.
Just as he was aware of everything she didn't do to help him.
Max was frozen where she stood, feeling sick with absolute horror. She
couldn't say anything to make them stop, and she couldn't make
herself look away.
"That's enough." At Renfro's order, one of the doctors produced a
syringe filled with clear liquid. A moment after it was injected into
the nomaly's arm, his eyes turned cold and dead.
He didn't even have a name.
"Why?" Max turned on Renfro. Two of the doctors closed rank between
the women, protecting their leader.
"It was an experiment that had run its course."
Did she think Max was questioning her finally putting him out of his
misery, which she'd delayed too long for it to be considered mercy?
That was the only thing Max couldn't question.
"I wanted you to see it," Renfro continued. "To see what happens to
experiments that fail."
The message was loud and clear. If Max couldn't be fully retrained,
brought back as one of their best and brightest soldiers, she would
end up on this table again, praying for death as they vivisected
her.
"Now get back to your training."
Max turned and walked out of the autopsy room. Once in the hallway,
she broke into a run. She couldn't get away from them fast enough,
sprinting down the halls until she reached the X-5 barracks. She
wanted to cry, but she couldn't. The response of tears had been
programmed out of her. Max kicked the first bed in the row, and it
crashed into the second.
"Did Kath's bed do something to you?" Brin asked. Max stopped and
looked at her. She hadn't even seen the other soldier there. Brin got
up from where she'd been resting and Max saw both her arms were
splinted. She frowned at Brin's injuries, but said nothing as Brin
moved to help her set the beds back where they belonged. "They made
you watch," Brin said as they worked together. "Who was
it?"
"One of the nomalies," Max answered.
"Mine was an X-7," Brin said. They stood on opposite sides of the bed
closest to the door. "Did they make their point?"
Max didn't reply. They had made their point, but it hadn't had the
desired effect on her. She wanted them all dead. It hadn't motivated
her to be a better soldier. The more they did, the more determined
she was to escape. "What happened to you?"
Brin shrugged off her question. "It'll heal fast enough."
"We're not animals, we're not things they can play with," Max said.
"You don't want to be here any more than I do."
"This is the only life there is for us, Max."
"I don't --"
Brin met her eyes sharply. "Don't tell me what you're planning. I'm
obliged to report it." Max frowned, and they stood there for several
more seconds, each watching the other. "We have class in five
minutes." She turned away. Max couldn't still couldn't believe it.
Even standing there with both arms broken, Brin was loyal to the
enemy.
But Max hadn't fought. She hadn't protested. Hell, she'd killed an
intruder to impress them during the drill the previous evening. How
could she think herself any different from Brin? They'd accomplished
it in a different way, but they had a hold on her all the same. She
had to escape before they owned her completely.
_ _ _
"Where does Zane live?" Jondy asked, breaking the silence in the car.
They'd passed out of the city without a hint of trouble, leaving them
free to travel the open road. They hadn't passed another car for
miles. Living in a police state had done wonders for solving traffic
problems.
"In a small town just across the Oregon border," Logan replied.
Sensing her next question, he continued, "He's a mechanic. Fixes
everything from cars to toasters."
"Sounds like him," she said. "Do you know where all of them are?"
"Jondy --"
"We're going to need their help if we're going to take down
Manticore."
"Who said anything about taking down Manticore?" Logan pointed out.
"Our priority has to be putting May 22 and their new EMP out of
business."
"What's so great about this world that you want to save it?" Jondy
asked.
"It's the only one we've got."
"Maybe it'd be better if projects like Manticore weren't able to
exist," she mused.
"You were nine when the Pulse hit. How much do you remember about the
chaos that followed? About the panic people were in? Millions of
people died in riots and other violence. Those that didn't, starved
to death," Logan said.
"You didn't. I didn't. Lots of other people didn't. The strong made it
through."
"You can't be pro-evolution and anti-technology," he told her. "It's
not fair to want to wipe the slate clean and start over."
"Who said anything about fair?" Jondy asked. "Nothing in this stupid
life is fair."
"Don't you think I know that?"
"Oh, that's right, I forgot." Her tone grew strident and sarcastic.
"You know better than anyone what unfair is. No one else can possibly
have suffered more than you. No wonder you don't care about getting
Max back. Not only can you not imagine what they must be putting her
through, you don't care about anyone but yourself."
Logan looked at her and she shot back a stubborn, unapologetic look.
He bit his tongue on a remark about how having a bad childhood was
supposed to excuse everything. No need to sink to her level. He
returned his gaze to the road in front of them, and he could see her
squirm. "What exactly is it you want?" he asked her.
"All I want is my family back," she said softly.
"Me too," he agreed, in a voice equally soft. He glanced at her and
she was looking out the window.
_ _ _
After having the rules of war battered into her head for a few hours
in Manticore's version of elementary school -- "And I was hoping for
a refresher course in algebra," Max sighed -- she had to go out and
patrol the grounds.
The task seemed unnecessary to her. The compound had security cameras,
electrified razor-wire fences and watchtowers. Then again, she'd been
able to break in, hadn't she? Max thought it was more likely, though,
that it was another way of testing her in the face of temptation. Put
her outside where she could smell the fresh air and knew escape was
only a bounce up over the fence and a jog through dense forest away.
She wondered again at the logic of trying to escape. The fence and the
run wasn't the obstacle. The problem was, she didn't just want to
save herself. She wanted to stage another large-scale escape like the
one in '09. She wanted to set all of them free and then make sure the
project couldn't be rebuilt. Renfro's remark about a series X-8
troubled her. That meant Victor was right, blowing up the lab hadn't
been enough. Zack's death and her recapture had been worthless in the
scheme of things.
On days like this, it all seemed hopeless. The other soldiers didn't
want to be free. And maybe Max was right, that never having known
freedom, it wasn't really their choice to make. But she couldn't help
thinking back on her life after the escape. How frightened she'd
been, and how she knew nothing of the way the world worked. She
thought about the foster homes she'd been put into, and what she
knew of the others who'd escaped, too. Like Zack being arrested for
armed robbery when he was eleven. Would it really be fair for her to
choose that for her brothers and sisters?
They had to choose for themselves. So her real job was to open the
door for them. So that they could choose.
_ _ _
Logan pulled to a stop outside the small, rundown repair shop. It was
on the outskirts of a miniscule town that was just the perfect sort
of place to get lost in. The man who stepped outside was unmistakably
Zane: tall, with the wiry grace all the Manticore kids had.
Jondy shoved open her door and jumped out of the car. Zane stopped
dead in his tracks as soon as he saw her. Logan lingered in the car,
watching them. A grin broke across Zane's face and he opened his
arms. Jondy reached him in two or three giant steps and he wrapped
his arms around her.
"It's been too long, little sister," Zane murmured, hugging her tight.
Jondy didn't say anything, just squeezed back as hard as she could.
She'd been isolated for such a long time.
She reached up and tugged at a lock of his hair as he released her
reluctantly. "Who'd have guessed it would be so curly?"
"Who'd have guessed you'd be such a shrimp?" He teased back. "Didn't
you grow at all?" His expression grew serious as he looked toward the
car. "Who's your friend?"
Jondy looked over her shoulder and saw Logan approaching them. "This
is Logan. He --"
"Helped get Max killed," Zane finished.
Jondy touched Zane's arm. "Max isn't dead," she said. Zane continued
to regard Logan suspiciously. "He knows where the others are. He can
help us."
"We don't need anyone's help," Zane declared, turning his back on
Logan and heading back into the repair shop.
Jondy hung back. "He's not good with strangers," she explained.
"I noticed," Logan replied.
Jondy nodded, wondering why she was worried that Zane had hurt Logan's
feelings when she'd worked to hurt them herself on many occasions.
Did he get that same look when she verbally wounded him? Not wanting
to dwell on it, she followed Zane into the shop.
It was like a cluttered, disorganized museum of household technology.
Shelves went up the ceiling, littered with parts and tools, not to
mention the broken appliances in shades like avocado and harvest gold
scattered about like so many knickknacks. "How'd you end up here?"
Jondy asked.
Zane barely glanced up from the circuit board he was playing with on
the counter, much more sophisticated technology than the rest of the
shop represented. "I was in LA till a few months ago. Had to run."
Jondy nodded at his words; that was when they'd recaptured Zack and
he'd compromised all their positions. That might have been the end of
line for all the escapees if it hadn't been for Zack's affiliation
with Eyes Only. "This place was vacant, so I moved in. Townspeople
were so desperate for someone who could fix things, they
chose not to ask a lot of questions. Same story, different day." Zane
looked at her. "Where've you been keeping yourself?"
"San Francisco, till lately," Jondy answered.
"You miss it?"
Jondy shook her head. "You miss LA?"
"It was home," Zane shrugged. Jondy could see straight through him,
trying to pretend like it didn't hurt, that it didn't matter. In that
way, being a soldier had been good training. "What makes you think
Max isn't dead?"
"Got some surveillance video."
"That can be faked," Zane pointed out.
"She was seen in Seattle a couple days ago."
Zane shook his head, and pushed aside the circuit board, apparently
ready for a conversation. "Then it's no good," he said.
"Why not?"
"You didn't hear? Somebody plugged Lydecker in Seattle a couple days
ago. Said it was suicide, but it was obviously a military hit," Zane
said, and watched surprise flicker through Jondy's eyes. "You should
check the contact number more often. Anyway, if Max was in Seattle,
it was her. And if she took out Lydecker, it means they've got her,
just like they've got Brin." For the first time since they'd all gone
inside, Zane looked at Logan. "You can't trust him."
"I'm a pretty good judge of character," Jondy said.
"I'm sure that's what Max thought, too," Zane replied. He picked up a
blender from the counter and turned it over, going for its motor.
"I told you he couldn't help us," Logan said to Jondy.
"I never said I couldn't," Zane said, without looking up. "I said I
wouldn't."
"Not up to the challenge?" Logan pressed.
"Not interested," Zane shot back.
Sometimes, Logan really hated the kids from Manticore. They were
stubborn, even more stubborn than he was, and he found that
incredibly irritating. He turned back toward the door, ready to go,
having accomplished nothing. "Jondy?"
She looked at him, then back at Zane, who was watching with interest.
"I'm not ready to go," she declared.
"Now or never," said Logan.
Those ocean-colored eyes narrowed with a glare that seemed powerful
enough to kill. "Then I guess it's never."
Logan nodded and gave his wheels a rough push and left.
"He's a bully," Zane said.
"You're any better?" Jondy inquired lightly. "He needs our help."
"He needs somebody's help," Zane said cruelly. "If not for him, Max
would still be alive."
"But Max is alive," Jondy pointed out.
"Back at Manticore? She might as well be dead," Zane said, trying to
end the subject. "It's good to see you again, Jondy. You can crash in
the back if you want."
"I didn't come here to crash."
"Figures you'd only visit because you want something," Zane said, and
his tone was childish. "Just like Zack."
"Grow up," Jondy snapped. "Sorry. I would have dropped by if I'd had
any idea where the hell you were. It's not like we had the family
reunion without you. It's how Zack wanted it, and you didn't cross
him for the same reason I didn't. But now they've got him. And Max.
And the only way we're going to see them again is if we work
together. All of us."
"You know where the others are." Zane tried so hard to pretend the
thought didn't excite him. He must have spent a lot of time around
normal people in LA, Jondy thought. He always had been one of the
social ones.
"Logan does."
"He's still sitting out there in his car," Zane remarked.
"I know." She'd been listening to hear the engine start and pull away,
too, and it hadn't.
"We don't need him. He's a civilian, which makes him a liability."
Zane had put down his tools, which meant he was more interested than
he liked to let on.
"Max trusted him."
"And look where it got her."
"Stop trying to say Max is stupid!" Jondy's voice rose. "It could have
happened to any one of us. They could have gotten Krit and Syl just
as easily. They already got Brin. And Tinga."
"They got Tinga, too?" Zane flinched.
Jondy swallowed hard. "She's dead, Zane. So is Ben."
"That doesn't leave many of us." He was honestly considering giving
in. Helping them out.
"There's more," Jondy said.
He snickered. "Isn't there always."
"Terrorists are planning another pulse."
Zane yawned exaggeratedly.
"Logan says their leader is one of us," Jondy continued.
"'Logan says...'" Zane mimicked. Jondy smacked him, a little harder
than she needed to, and he straightened up. "You trying to pick a
fight with me?" His irises were black, which made his eyes appear to
be solid, threateningly dark.
"Would it do any good?" Jondy sighed.
"Show me what you got," Zane invited. Jondy only had to wait a few
seconds before he got tired of standing there and threw the first
punch. She countered with her foot, smacking his fist hard against
the counter. She tried to pin it there, but he jerked away, socking
her square on the jaw. She tasted blood in her mouth. She whirled and
hit him hard in the stomach. He grabbed her ponytail, and that made
her decide she'd had it, so she kicked him in the groin.
"What'd you do that for?" Zane moaned.
Jondy pulled her hair down and just as quickly re-wound the rubber
band around it. "That hurt," she informed him, rubbing her scalp.
Then she offered him a hand up from where he'd found a comfortable
place on the floor. "We good?"
"You fight dirty," he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her down
onto the floor with him. "I like that."
He was staring at her, so she shoved him. "Don't look at me like
that."
"I wasn't."
"Mmm-hmm," Jondy murmured, then turned serious. "I need your help,
Zane."
"I'll put it on the contact number."
"You're a real pal," she said sarcastically, getting to her feet.
"You're really leaving with that guy?" Zane hadn't moved from his spot
on the floor.
Jondy bit her lip, but only for a second. She was through begging Zane
to come with them, and help them. He'd refused enough times. "Yeah,"
she said, jamming her hands into the pockets of her pants. Much as
she wanted to look back as she walked out of the repair shop, she
didn't.
Logan started the car as soon as he saw her. She threw herself into
the passenger seat and slammed the door. "He's not coming," Logan
guessed.
"Bad timing. He had plans to attend the policeman's ball," Jondy
replied sharply.
"You're going to have a bruise," Logan said, lightly touching her jaw
where Zane had punched her. Her stomach curled up and she moved her
head away from his fingers. She didn't want him touching her. It felt
good.
"If I were Zack, he would have done it," Jondy said, staring out the
window at the trees along the side of the road.
"It's okay," Logan told her, the words bland and meaningless.
"We can't do this without help," Jondy said.
"There are others."
"What makes you think they'll listen?" Jondy demanded. His calm
answers made her angry. He seemed to get the message, because he
didn't say anything else.
_ _ _
Rounding the corner, Max saw movement on the roof. Maybe I ought to be
checking the fence for holes, she thought. Or a revolving door. She
got her rifle ready, focusing her gaze. Not intruders after all.
"You forgot to shut the door to the clubhouse, kids," she remarked,
taking the X-7s by surprise. She'd scaled the building silently.
"What are you doing up here?"
They didn't say anything, just met her with a wall of silence. Max
watched them look at each other, and she sensed there were thoughts
flowing back and forth. Which was impossible, a bunch of science
fiction nonsense, but then again, so was this whole project.
Moments ticked by. "Thirty seconds and the spotlight from the
watchtower's going to be on us," Max pointed out.
"You're the one who'd be in trouble," their leader pointed out.
"So you _can_ talk," Max snarked. "Twenty seconds, by the way."
The leader didn't look away as he raised one hand to signal.
"Go down the drainpipe and they'll see you," Max said instantly. It
stopped the already-mobilized X-7s in their tracks. "Get down!" They
all dropped, on her order. She had to pull the stubborn leader down
with her. The building had a very thin ledge, enough to disguise them
from the spotlight as it washed over them.
"You need to wait until 0300," Max said. "That's right before the
shift change, when they start getting tired." Once again in darkness,
the soldiers began to get up. "But you need a better plan than this."
She reached over to the thin, invisible wire they'd strung between
the rooftops and gave it a twang.
"We're preparing for a mission," one of the smaller ones said.
Max raised an eyebrow. "Since when do soldiers train past midnight,
out of uniform?" She looked down at all the bare toes, the legs
exposed underneath their nightgowns.
"How'd you do it?" the leader asked.
Max hesitated. It was the same question Renfro had asked. Maybe this
was all a setup, so see if she'd trust the X-7s, try to corrupt them
with tales of her escape. "They let us do it," she said, to see what
their reaction would be.
"What's it like out there?" their leader asked seriously.
"What is this, storytime?" Max demanded. "Get to bed."
None of them moved.
After a second, Max pulled out her knife and sliced through the wire.
It slid down the side of the building to the ground. Wasn't this
exactly what she'd been waiting for? "Okay," she said.
_ _ _
"Stay here. I'll be back as soon as I can," Logan instructed when he
dropped Jondy off at his apartment building. She nodded and watched
the car pull away. Once it had rounded the corner, she started off in
the opposite direction.
There was a pay phone a block or so away. Jondy lifted the receiver
and listened for the weak dial tone, then started punching in
numbers.
"Leave your name and the time you called." Jondy didn't say anything.
There would be a record of the messages being accessed, but no one
would know by who or from where. For the moment she wanted to remain
anonymous. She hadn't called the contact number since the information
went out that Zack had been captured and Max was dead. The contact
number had been Zack's thing; she hadn't seen any reason to keep up
the charade. But Zane had mentioned it, which meant the others
were using it still.
She pressed the pound key. It was a simple voice-mail system. She'd
never tried to hack it before, and now she wondered why. Instead of
keying in her number, she put in Zack's. "Password?" it inquired.
Jondy's heart speeded up a little. What the hell would Zack use for a
password? It would be just like him to set it to lock if the wrong
password was entered. Feeling her time was running out, she punched
in the date of the escape.
"Access granted," the computerized voice said. "You have...three...new
messages."
Jondy held her breath. "This is Zane. Jondy's looking for volunteers.
Leave a message." He had put it on the line, like he'd said he would.
He was an immature jerk, and he didn't want to help, but she could
trust him. "Jondy, contact Krit and Syl." Krit had left the message.
"I'll help. This is Jace, by the way."
*Jace?* Jondy thought. Jace hadn't escaped with them. Just how easy
was it to escape from Manticore these days? She wondered. The message
system went through its "end of mailbox" routine while she stood
there with the phone in her hand. Her elation had quickly turned to
panic. That was only three. Could she really break into Manticore,
rescue Max and shut the place down with only three of her
siblings for backup?
Six months ago, four had gone in and only two had come back.
It was something to think about.
"It's hard to kill a Manticore prototype," Renfro murmured, as though
she was proud of them for it.
Max watched his hand spasm, opening and closing. Reaching out for
help. There was desperation in his eyes as he looked at her. He was
suffering. He could feel it. He was aware of everything they did to
him.
Just as he was aware of everything she didn't do to help him.
Max was frozen where she stood, feeling sick with absolute horror. She
couldn't say anything to make them stop, and she couldn't make
herself look away.
"That's enough." At Renfro's order, one of the doctors produced a
syringe filled with clear liquid. A moment after it was injected into
the nomaly's arm, his eyes turned cold and dead.
He didn't even have a name.
"Why?" Max turned on Renfro. Two of the doctors closed rank between
the women, protecting their leader.
"It was an experiment that had run its course."
Did she think Max was questioning her finally putting him out of his
misery, which she'd delayed too long for it to be considered mercy?
That was the only thing Max couldn't question.
"I wanted you to see it," Renfro continued. "To see what happens to
experiments that fail."
The message was loud and clear. If Max couldn't be fully retrained,
brought back as one of their best and brightest soldiers, she would
end up on this table again, praying for death as they vivisected
her.
"Now get back to your training."
Max turned and walked out of the autopsy room. Once in the hallway,
she broke into a run. She couldn't get away from them fast enough,
sprinting down the halls until she reached the X-5 barracks. She
wanted to cry, but she couldn't. The response of tears had been
programmed out of her. Max kicked the first bed in the row, and it
crashed into the second.
"Did Kath's bed do something to you?" Brin asked. Max stopped and
looked at her. She hadn't even seen the other soldier there. Brin got
up from where she'd been resting and Max saw both her arms were
splinted. She frowned at Brin's injuries, but said nothing as Brin
moved to help her set the beds back where they belonged. "They made
you watch," Brin said as they worked together. "Who was
it?"
"One of the nomalies," Max answered.
"Mine was an X-7," Brin said. They stood on opposite sides of the bed
closest to the door. "Did they make their point?"
Max didn't reply. They had made their point, but it hadn't had the
desired effect on her. She wanted them all dead. It hadn't motivated
her to be a better soldier. The more they did, the more determined
she was to escape. "What happened to you?"
Brin shrugged off her question. "It'll heal fast enough."
"We're not animals, we're not things they can play with," Max said.
"You don't want to be here any more than I do."
"This is the only life there is for us, Max."
"I don't --"
Brin met her eyes sharply. "Don't tell me what you're planning. I'm
obliged to report it." Max frowned, and they stood there for several
more seconds, each watching the other. "We have class in five
minutes." She turned away. Max couldn't still couldn't believe it.
Even standing there with both arms broken, Brin was loyal to the
enemy.
But Max hadn't fought. She hadn't protested. Hell, she'd killed an
intruder to impress them during the drill the previous evening. How
could she think herself any different from Brin? They'd accomplished
it in a different way, but they had a hold on her all the same. She
had to escape before they owned her completely.
_ _ _
"Where does Zane live?" Jondy asked, breaking the silence in the car.
They'd passed out of the city without a hint of trouble, leaving them
free to travel the open road. They hadn't passed another car for
miles. Living in a police state had done wonders for solving traffic
problems.
"In a small town just across the Oregon border," Logan replied.
Sensing her next question, he continued, "He's a mechanic. Fixes
everything from cars to toasters."
"Sounds like him," she said. "Do you know where all of them are?"
"Jondy --"
"We're going to need their help if we're going to take down
Manticore."
"Who said anything about taking down Manticore?" Logan pointed out.
"Our priority has to be putting May 22 and their new EMP out of
business."
"What's so great about this world that you want to save it?" Jondy
asked.
"It's the only one we've got."
"Maybe it'd be better if projects like Manticore weren't able to
exist," she mused.
"You were nine when the Pulse hit. How much do you remember about the
chaos that followed? About the panic people were in? Millions of
people died in riots and other violence. Those that didn't, starved
to death," Logan said.
"You didn't. I didn't. Lots of other people didn't. The strong made it
through."
"You can't be pro-evolution and anti-technology," he told her. "It's
not fair to want to wipe the slate clean and start over."
"Who said anything about fair?" Jondy asked. "Nothing in this stupid
life is fair."
"Don't you think I know that?"
"Oh, that's right, I forgot." Her tone grew strident and sarcastic.
"You know better than anyone what unfair is. No one else can possibly
have suffered more than you. No wonder you don't care about getting
Max back. Not only can you not imagine what they must be putting her
through, you don't care about anyone but yourself."
Logan looked at her and she shot back a stubborn, unapologetic look.
He bit his tongue on a remark about how having a bad childhood was
supposed to excuse everything. No need to sink to her level. He
returned his gaze to the road in front of them, and he could see her
squirm. "What exactly is it you want?" he asked her.
"All I want is my family back," she said softly.
"Me too," he agreed, in a voice equally soft. He glanced at her and
she was looking out the window.
_ _ _
After having the rules of war battered into her head for a few hours
in Manticore's version of elementary school -- "And I was hoping for
a refresher course in algebra," Max sighed -- she had to go out and
patrol the grounds.
The task seemed unnecessary to her. The compound had security cameras,
electrified razor-wire fences and watchtowers. Then again, she'd been
able to break in, hadn't she? Max thought it was more likely, though,
that it was another way of testing her in the face of temptation. Put
her outside where she could smell the fresh air and knew escape was
only a bounce up over the fence and a jog through dense forest away.
She wondered again at the logic of trying to escape. The fence and the
run wasn't the obstacle. The problem was, she didn't just want to
save herself. She wanted to stage another large-scale escape like the
one in '09. She wanted to set all of them free and then make sure the
project couldn't be rebuilt. Renfro's remark about a series X-8
troubled her. That meant Victor was right, blowing up the lab hadn't
been enough. Zack's death and her recapture had been worthless in the
scheme of things.
On days like this, it all seemed hopeless. The other soldiers didn't
want to be free. And maybe Max was right, that never having known
freedom, it wasn't really their choice to make. But she couldn't help
thinking back on her life after the escape. How frightened she'd
been, and how she knew nothing of the way the world worked. She
thought about the foster homes she'd been put into, and what she
knew of the others who'd escaped, too. Like Zack being arrested for
armed robbery when he was eleven. Would it really be fair for her to
choose that for her brothers and sisters?
They had to choose for themselves. So her real job was to open the
door for them. So that they could choose.
_ _ _
Logan pulled to a stop outside the small, rundown repair shop. It was
on the outskirts of a miniscule town that was just the perfect sort
of place to get lost in. The man who stepped outside was unmistakably
Zane: tall, with the wiry grace all the Manticore kids had.
Jondy shoved open her door and jumped out of the car. Zane stopped
dead in his tracks as soon as he saw her. Logan lingered in the car,
watching them. A grin broke across Zane's face and he opened his
arms. Jondy reached him in two or three giant steps and he wrapped
his arms around her.
"It's been too long, little sister," Zane murmured, hugging her tight.
Jondy didn't say anything, just squeezed back as hard as she could.
She'd been isolated for such a long time.
She reached up and tugged at a lock of his hair as he released her
reluctantly. "Who'd have guessed it would be so curly?"
"Who'd have guessed you'd be such a shrimp?" He teased back. "Didn't
you grow at all?" His expression grew serious as he looked toward the
car. "Who's your friend?"
Jondy looked over her shoulder and saw Logan approaching them. "This
is Logan. He --"
"Helped get Max killed," Zane finished.
Jondy touched Zane's arm. "Max isn't dead," she said. Zane continued
to regard Logan suspiciously. "He knows where the others are. He can
help us."
"We don't need anyone's help," Zane declared, turning his back on
Logan and heading back into the repair shop.
Jondy hung back. "He's not good with strangers," she explained.
"I noticed," Logan replied.
Jondy nodded, wondering why she was worried that Zane had hurt Logan's
feelings when she'd worked to hurt them herself on many occasions.
Did he get that same look when she verbally wounded him? Not wanting
to dwell on it, she followed Zane into the shop.
It was like a cluttered, disorganized museum of household technology.
Shelves went up the ceiling, littered with parts and tools, not to
mention the broken appliances in shades like avocado and harvest gold
scattered about like so many knickknacks. "How'd you end up here?"
Jondy asked.
Zane barely glanced up from the circuit board he was playing with on
the counter, much more sophisticated technology than the rest of the
shop represented. "I was in LA till a few months ago. Had to run."
Jondy nodded at his words; that was when they'd recaptured Zack and
he'd compromised all their positions. That might have been the end of
line for all the escapees if it hadn't been for Zack's affiliation
with Eyes Only. "This place was vacant, so I moved in. Townspeople
were so desperate for someone who could fix things, they
chose not to ask a lot of questions. Same story, different day." Zane
looked at her. "Where've you been keeping yourself?"
"San Francisco, till lately," Jondy answered.
"You miss it?"
Jondy shook her head. "You miss LA?"
"It was home," Zane shrugged. Jondy could see straight through him,
trying to pretend like it didn't hurt, that it didn't matter. In that
way, being a soldier had been good training. "What makes you think
Max isn't dead?"
"Got some surveillance video."
"That can be faked," Zane pointed out.
"She was seen in Seattle a couple days ago."
Zane shook his head, and pushed aside the circuit board, apparently
ready for a conversation. "Then it's no good," he said.
"Why not?"
"You didn't hear? Somebody plugged Lydecker in Seattle a couple days
ago. Said it was suicide, but it was obviously a military hit," Zane
said, and watched surprise flicker through Jondy's eyes. "You should
check the contact number more often. Anyway, if Max was in Seattle,
it was her. And if she took out Lydecker, it means they've got her,
just like they've got Brin." For the first time since they'd all gone
inside, Zane looked at Logan. "You can't trust him."
"I'm a pretty good judge of character," Jondy said.
"I'm sure that's what Max thought, too," Zane replied. He picked up a
blender from the counter and turned it over, going for its motor.
"I told you he couldn't help us," Logan said to Jondy.
"I never said I couldn't," Zane said, without looking up. "I said I
wouldn't."
"Not up to the challenge?" Logan pressed.
"Not interested," Zane shot back.
Sometimes, Logan really hated the kids from Manticore. They were
stubborn, even more stubborn than he was, and he found that
incredibly irritating. He turned back toward the door, ready to go,
having accomplished nothing. "Jondy?"
She looked at him, then back at Zane, who was watching with interest.
"I'm not ready to go," she declared.
"Now or never," said Logan.
Those ocean-colored eyes narrowed with a glare that seemed powerful
enough to kill. "Then I guess it's never."
Logan nodded and gave his wheels a rough push and left.
"He's a bully," Zane said.
"You're any better?" Jondy inquired lightly. "He needs our help."
"He needs somebody's help," Zane said cruelly. "If not for him, Max
would still be alive."
"But Max is alive," Jondy pointed out.
"Back at Manticore? She might as well be dead," Zane said, trying to
end the subject. "It's good to see you again, Jondy. You can crash in
the back if you want."
"I didn't come here to crash."
"Figures you'd only visit because you want something," Zane said, and
his tone was childish. "Just like Zack."
"Grow up," Jondy snapped. "Sorry. I would have dropped by if I'd had
any idea where the hell you were. It's not like we had the family
reunion without you. It's how Zack wanted it, and you didn't cross
him for the same reason I didn't. But now they've got him. And Max.
And the only way we're going to see them again is if we work
together. All of us."
"You know where the others are." Zane tried so hard to pretend the
thought didn't excite him. He must have spent a lot of time around
normal people in LA, Jondy thought. He always had been one of the
social ones.
"Logan does."
"He's still sitting out there in his car," Zane remarked.
"I know." She'd been listening to hear the engine start and pull away,
too, and it hadn't.
"We don't need him. He's a civilian, which makes him a liability."
Zane had put down his tools, which meant he was more interested than
he liked to let on.
"Max trusted him."
"And look where it got her."
"Stop trying to say Max is stupid!" Jondy's voice rose. "It could have
happened to any one of us. They could have gotten Krit and Syl just
as easily. They already got Brin. And Tinga."
"They got Tinga, too?" Zane flinched.
Jondy swallowed hard. "She's dead, Zane. So is Ben."
"That doesn't leave many of us." He was honestly considering giving
in. Helping them out.
"There's more," Jondy said.
He snickered. "Isn't there always."
"Terrorists are planning another pulse."
Zane yawned exaggeratedly.
"Logan says their leader is one of us," Jondy continued.
"'Logan says...'" Zane mimicked. Jondy smacked him, a little harder
than she needed to, and he straightened up. "You trying to pick a
fight with me?" His irises were black, which made his eyes appear to
be solid, threateningly dark.
"Would it do any good?" Jondy sighed.
"Show me what you got," Zane invited. Jondy only had to wait a few
seconds before he got tired of standing there and threw the first
punch. She countered with her foot, smacking his fist hard against
the counter. She tried to pin it there, but he jerked away, socking
her square on the jaw. She tasted blood in her mouth. She whirled and
hit him hard in the stomach. He grabbed her ponytail, and that made
her decide she'd had it, so she kicked him in the groin.
"What'd you do that for?" Zane moaned.
Jondy pulled her hair down and just as quickly re-wound the rubber
band around it. "That hurt," she informed him, rubbing her scalp.
Then she offered him a hand up from where he'd found a comfortable
place on the floor. "We good?"
"You fight dirty," he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her down
onto the floor with him. "I like that."
He was staring at her, so she shoved him. "Don't look at me like
that."
"I wasn't."
"Mmm-hmm," Jondy murmured, then turned serious. "I need your help,
Zane."
"I'll put it on the contact number."
"You're a real pal," she said sarcastically, getting to her feet.
"You're really leaving with that guy?" Zane hadn't moved from his spot
on the floor.
Jondy bit her lip, but only for a second. She was through begging Zane
to come with them, and help them. He'd refused enough times. "Yeah,"
she said, jamming her hands into the pockets of her pants. Much as
she wanted to look back as she walked out of the repair shop, she
didn't.
Logan started the car as soon as he saw her. She threw herself into
the passenger seat and slammed the door. "He's not coming," Logan
guessed.
"Bad timing. He had plans to attend the policeman's ball," Jondy
replied sharply.
"You're going to have a bruise," Logan said, lightly touching her jaw
where Zane had punched her. Her stomach curled up and she moved her
head away from his fingers. She didn't want him touching her. It felt
good.
"If I were Zack, he would have done it," Jondy said, staring out the
window at the trees along the side of the road.
"It's okay," Logan told her, the words bland and meaningless.
"We can't do this without help," Jondy said.
"There are others."
"What makes you think they'll listen?" Jondy demanded. His calm
answers made her angry. He seemed to get the message, because he
didn't say anything else.
_ _ _
Rounding the corner, Max saw movement on the roof. Maybe I ought to be
checking the fence for holes, she thought. Or a revolving door. She
got her rifle ready, focusing her gaze. Not intruders after all.
"You forgot to shut the door to the clubhouse, kids," she remarked,
taking the X-7s by surprise. She'd scaled the building silently.
"What are you doing up here?"
They didn't say anything, just met her with a wall of silence. Max
watched them look at each other, and she sensed there were thoughts
flowing back and forth. Which was impossible, a bunch of science
fiction nonsense, but then again, so was this whole project.
Moments ticked by. "Thirty seconds and the spotlight from the
watchtower's going to be on us," Max pointed out.
"You're the one who'd be in trouble," their leader pointed out.
"So you _can_ talk," Max snarked. "Twenty seconds, by the way."
The leader didn't look away as he raised one hand to signal.
"Go down the drainpipe and they'll see you," Max said instantly. It
stopped the already-mobilized X-7s in their tracks. "Get down!" They
all dropped, on her order. She had to pull the stubborn leader down
with her. The building had a very thin ledge, enough to disguise them
from the spotlight as it washed over them.
"You need to wait until 0300," Max said. "That's right before the
shift change, when they start getting tired." Once again in darkness,
the soldiers began to get up. "But you need a better plan than this."
She reached over to the thin, invisible wire they'd strung between
the rooftops and gave it a twang.
"We're preparing for a mission," one of the smaller ones said.
Max raised an eyebrow. "Since when do soldiers train past midnight,
out of uniform?" She looked down at all the bare toes, the legs
exposed underneath their nightgowns.
"How'd you do it?" the leader asked.
Max hesitated. It was the same question Renfro had asked. Maybe this
was all a setup, so see if she'd trust the X-7s, try to corrupt them
with tales of her escape. "They let us do it," she said, to see what
their reaction would be.
"What's it like out there?" their leader asked seriously.
"What is this, storytime?" Max demanded. "Get to bed."
None of them moved.
After a second, Max pulled out her knife and sliced through the wire.
It slid down the side of the building to the ground. Wasn't this
exactly what she'd been waiting for? "Okay," she said.
_ _ _
"Stay here. I'll be back as soon as I can," Logan instructed when he
dropped Jondy off at his apartment building. She nodded and watched
the car pull away. Once it had rounded the corner, she started off in
the opposite direction.
There was a pay phone a block or so away. Jondy lifted the receiver
and listened for the weak dial tone, then started punching in
numbers.
"Leave your name and the time you called." Jondy didn't say anything.
There would be a record of the messages being accessed, but no one
would know by who or from where. For the moment she wanted to remain
anonymous. She hadn't called the contact number since the information
went out that Zack had been captured and Max was dead. The contact
number had been Zack's thing; she hadn't seen any reason to keep up
the charade. But Zane had mentioned it, which meant the others
were using it still.
She pressed the pound key. It was a simple voice-mail system. She'd
never tried to hack it before, and now she wondered why. Instead of
keying in her number, she put in Zack's. "Password?" it inquired.
Jondy's heart speeded up a little. What the hell would Zack use for a
password? It would be just like him to set it to lock if the wrong
password was entered. Feeling her time was running out, she punched
in the date of the escape.
"Access granted," the computerized voice said. "You have...three...new
messages."
Jondy held her breath. "This is Zane. Jondy's looking for volunteers.
Leave a message." He had put it on the line, like he'd said he would.
He was an immature jerk, and he didn't want to help, but she could
trust him. "Jondy, contact Krit and Syl." Krit had left the message.
"I'll help. This is Jace, by the way."
*Jace?* Jondy thought. Jace hadn't escaped with them. Just how easy
was it to escape from Manticore these days? She wondered. The message
system went through its "end of mailbox" routine while she stood
there with the phone in her hand. Her elation had quickly turned to
panic. That was only three. Could she really break into Manticore,
rescue Max and shut the place down with only three of her
siblings for backup?
Six months ago, four had gone in and only two had come back.
It was something to think about.