For a moment, all was quiet as the four sets of eyes sized each other up. "It's ok," the woman finally said, holstering her gun. "We're here to help." She glanced over at Brickman. "Can you believe her?" she asked with a little smile. He returned it.
"No kidding," he said softly. "If she was a blonde…"
"If anyone could pull off a Peter Pan number, it would be Alicia," she finished.
X-6, Heather thought somewhere between elation and terror as her and Jon got to their feet. The stiff wasn't the one behind us, they were. She glanced down at Hawk's bare neck, exposed when the hood of his parka fell back as he was being removed from equation. Not Manticore. Our niece they'd said. They knew mom. Had to be X-6. Good sense warred with curiosity, and finally won out. Dad had said mom's other sibs were a threat, and until otherwise proven, they were a threat.
"Don't be scared about us having to shoot him," Brickman said to them, noting their wary expressions. He was trying to sound soothing, but to Heather and Jon, it sounded like he was next going to ask if they needed fresh Pampers. "He was a bad man out to hurt you, and we had to keep him from doing that."
Heather's eyes narrowed. "So you could be the ones to get your hands on the X-7?" she snapped. She was sick of being a prize. Their expressions weren't acknowledging her as a real threat. She could change that attitude quickly. She was just as good as them, better even. "Stay away from me," she warned when Brickman went to take a step forward. The still unnamed woman grabbed his shoulder.
"Don't spook her anymore than she already is Xander," she snapped. "She could be X-5 fast. You want your ass kicked again by an X-5?" She smirked and he glared at her for a moment. While their attention was turned, Jon felt Heather press something against his back. The gun Hawk had dropped. If they had to make a fast break, she wanted him to have it. She had other means of offensive capabilities.
"There were two of them in New York," Brickman reminded the woman.
"From what I remember, it was you and Lon up against one X-5 and she kicked your butts collectively and made off with the objective," came the crisp reply. She was hoping their little side talk would get the girl to relax a little. Poor kid must be half out of her mind after the day's events. Xander knew what they were doing. If the kid thought she could out move them both, she might calm down.
"She didn't take us down," Xander corrected her, "she merely held us at bay until the other one showed up. And it took both of them to keep us busy so that the two norms could remove the objective." Or something close to that at any rate. He wanted the kid to relax, but not at certain costs to pride. She wasn't looking convinced though.
"Listen," the woman said evenly to Heather, "all we're going to do is get you off this mountain and safe again. There might be more men out there still trying to kidnap you, and we're just here to help get you home."
"Yeah, right," Heather said, not believing a word of it. Were they stalling for time? Maybe there was a TAC team or something coming. She was going to have to get rid of these two quickly, and do it without getting Jon hurt. Well…if they didn't notice…
"How do I know you're really here to help?" she said quickly, trying to sound a little uncertain. They'd think she was just a scared kid. "I mean, I don't even know who you are except you attack X-5's and you killed him." She indicated the body lying in the snow.
The woman smiled. "I'm Shawna," she introduced. "He's Xander, and we grew up with your mother. She's our sister, and we want to keep an eye out on her kid."
"You've been following me," Heather accused. They weren't noticing. Jon had, but he wasn't staring, making them notice. He was getting smarter by the minute.
"Part of my job is to make sure that if anyone starts wanting biosynth technology, they don't get anything that used to belong to Manticore," Xander said quickly. "We knew there was someone looking to make a sale, and that you were here, and I was watching out for you. You didn't notice me at the airport, and you didn't notice one of the people who were looking to sell you either." He smiled warmly. God, she was so much like Alicia. "We're not trying to reinstate Manticore. You got away from us last night, and we couldn't help you, but you seemed to manage getting away quite well on your own up until a minute ago. We saw you two walking, and then landed so that we could follow you to make sure nothing happened. All we're going to do is make sure you get back to your parents safely."
It sounded convincing. Maybe it was true. But did they not know that Uncle Cole was there? If they were really working to make sure she was safe, why hadn't they mentioned him, unless they didn't know he was there? No, they had to have known. Why else would he have been in Colorado except to protect her, and they knew she was going to be there too. If they were really there to help her, they would have been with Cole.
Heather took a step back, Jon moving with her. He knew what she was about to do, and he was ready to start running like hell. "I'm not going anywhere with you," she snarled. "I know how much you all want to get hold of one of us," she said, still backing away. "You're not getting your hands on me and that's final!" she shouted.
Xander rolled his eyes. He was cold, tired, and not in the mood to deal with a teenager's hysterics. Well, at least they proved the kid wasn't her mother's clone. "Kid," he snapped, "there's no way you're getting away from two of us, especially not with a norm to look out for. Lay off the whining and let's get moving." Heather didn't reply. A small smile turned up the corners of her mouth, and her eyes sparkled with malevolence.
"You got to catch me first," she taunted. Xander's eyes narrowed in anger.
"Xan?" Shawna said softly. "Look down." She had gone to take a step and get them when she had noticed it. Xander looked down, paling at the sight. They were easily six inches off of the ground. Xander's eyes met Shawna's.
"No wonder they wanted the X-7's so much," Xander muttered. This was unreal. They both looked back at Heather. Lifting was nothing to her. Not even a pulse of a headache.
"I can keep you dangling for hours, maybe even days," she lied. Maybe another five minutes was more like it. She paused for a moment. The wind had started to change direction, and a sound that had been getting carried away was now being brought to them. Heather knew that sound. A helicopter. She had been right! They were bringing in reinforcements!
With a sudden vicious thrust, she shoved Xander and Shawna to the edge of the gorge. "Tell them to go away!" she screamed as the helicopter came around a corner, approaching fast.
"They're not ours," Shawna yelled, trying to do something, anything, to get back onto the ground.
"Don't make me do it," she cried out, focused on them. Oh God, they weren't calling them to back off.
Jon could see the side of the approaching helicopter was open, and there was someone standing, ready to come out. Maybe Heather could see them better, but the sun glinted off of the rifle in hand, and for a moment, it looked like it was aiming at them. He grabbed Heather, hauling her down.
"They're armed!" he heard himself shouting. Heather didn't reply. Her eyes still closed, she simply let her mind release the weight it had been fighting to keep airborne.
