Chapter 18

AN: Snow sux, it is wrecking havoc with our phone lines and not letting me connect to the internet.  I just want to check my mail. (Can't you hear the sick girl coughing, sneezing, sniffling and whining in the background) I just want to post my chapters.  Why me? Ok I'll stop whinning and get on with the story EVEN THOUGH NO ONE WILL READ IT TILL NEXT YEAR!!!! Lkdajfkljdsakfljsaifouhiughihd;igoaehsifoß sorry I do that when I get frustrated.

Maybe I'll write a story about it.  My week without the internet…pathetic, yes I know.  Its just I want feedback before I continue.  Suggestions are invaluable and here I have none cept my own.  But at this rate I'll have concluded this long saga by the time I'll be allowed to connect.  Or with my luck when I finally do get to connect this site will be down again. Wouldn't that be funny.  I think I'd probably go psycho on my family.  Then hop over to a friends house and upload from there.  Good idea.  Maybe tomorrow I'll just head on over.  This has been an author's note that has nothing to do with this story whatsoever…thank you come again. Oh oh oh. I got something story related…Thank you goes to the writers for the Eyes Only cable hack located in Designate This.  I just love it when those cable hacks can be reused.  I'm not a very good cable hack writer therefore don't expect any cable hacks from me in the future.  So if your sitting at home and suddenly someone's eyes flash across your tv screen just know it wasn't me.

"This is a streaming freedom video bulletin. The cable hack will last exactly 60 seconds. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped and it is the only free voice left in the city. Since the early 1990s, billions of your tax dollars have been diverted from legitimate government programs to fund secret experiments in genetic engineering. This covert operation is known as Project Manticore. Its goal: to create the perfect soldier, genetically enhanced for superior strength and speed. These children are subjected to relentless training and propaganda. Since these cable hacks began, Manticore has consolidated its operations to a secret location. Eyes Only will find it, and the people responsible for these crimes will be brought to justice. This has been a streaming freedom video bulletin…"

Zack jumped as Lydecker's fist hit his desk.

"I thought you said that Eyes Only had be eliminated." Lydecker demanded.  Zack had never said that, only that Logan Cale had been eliminated.  Because in all fairness, Logan Cale shouldn't have survived that gunshot.  But Zack didn't try to clarify this.

"Never mind. It's obvious this Logan Cale is not dead but very much alive." Lydecker smiled inwardly.  They never would have had Eyes Only's identity save Max.  She'd told them everything about him, right down to the easiest way in to his apartment.  Maybe his luck was changing after all.  He could eliminate Eyes Only and prove that his soldiers weren't a waste of council funding.  He would love to see Renfro's face when she got the news.  But petty matters aside; he had to first rid the world of Eyes Only.

" Send me X-5452.  I think I have the perfect test of loyalty." Lydecker said to one of his foot soldiers then turning to Zack.  "You will have a chance to redeem yourself 599."

"Max! Hey girl it's been forever since I've seen you." Tinga stopped her sister as she headed toward the line in the cafeteria.  Max had been let out of confinement a week ago but Tinga had been on a mission at the time, and this being Tinga's first day back, it was also her first time talking to Max since before she left eleven months ago.

"X-5452." Max answered bluntly.  She didn't do much thinking about the person she used to be and the name Max only reminded her of the awful nightmare that person lived through.  452 didn't understand how she and this Max person could have ever been the same person.

Tinga had heard the rumors about Max but couldn't believe them to be true.  With all the torment they'd her through, she had never faltered but now this, it scared Tinga to think that Lydecker had actually won.  Especially with Max.

"Max, its okay I won't tell." Pausing for a moment Tinga felt the need to push on, maybe Max was only pretending for appearances like Zack had. "…Sister." She added.

"X-5656 I'll pretend I didn't hear that this time.  I suggest you spend a little more time in training however and less time trying to become my friend.  Treacherous words like yours could get you into a lot of trouble.  And I have no intention of returning your sentimental lies."  Tinga held back slightly hurt at Max's obvious insult. 

"She's gone." Alec said from behind her causing Tinga to turn around.

"I can't really believe it." Tinga answered awed as Max walked off to a table on the other side of the room to sit alone.

"Lydecker really did a number on her.  I couldn't believe it either, not until she turned me in for sneaking cigarettes to some X-5's who had grown attached to them while outside.  She used to be so sweet, you know, like it didn't really matter what she did, you could always forgive her." Alec offered.

"Yeah.  She used to have feeling behind those eyes…now…" Tinga drifted off and gestured to where Max sat.

"Nothing.  She's cold.  Which is why we've got to get her out of here, why we've got to get out of here." Neither soldier had noticed Zack sneak up behind them but his words shocked them.  It was what both had wanted but feared to voice.

"And how do you propose we do that Einstein?" Alec asked.  Zack pushed his siblings the rest of the way out of the line and steered them toward a table before he answered Alec's question.

"Well, as of this afternoon, Max and I have an assignment that will give us an unusual opportunity."

"Oh now I'm intrigued do tell." Alec mocked.  Tinga silenced her unruly sibling with a look that threatened his life.

"Max has been assigned to remove Eyes Only…"

"Again." Alec interrupted.  "Gee cause it worked so well the last time. And the time before that.  I always gave Lydecker more credit than that."

"Are you finished?" Tinga asked Alec.

"I'm not sure.  Give me a minute." Alec offered back.  Zack shot him a death glare and Alec became quiet after commenting. "Ok I'm finished."

"Max has been assigned to remove Eyes Only as a test of loyalty. I, on the other hand, am supposed to make sure she actually does it this time." Zack paused waiting for Alec's annoying interruption.

"Alright do you want me to tell you how stupid that sounds?" Alec asked when both pairs of eyes turned on him expectantly.

"Anyway, I'm going to make sure Max doesn't kill Eyes Only.  It might be helpful to have a friend on the outside." Zack continued.

"That's it.  That's the great plan.  Tell me again how that gets us out of here cause I must have missed it." Alec laughed out.

"That's only the first step.  Eyes Only is going to them stop broadcasts until I inform him otherwise.  Making Lydecker believe that he is in fact gone.  I will contact him to start broadcasts again when I am deployed in the field."

"Yeah and what is he gonna say. Ha ha Manticore you didn't kill me.  Come on Zack how bout the rest of us." Alec asked.

"I agree with Alec, never thought I'd say that but I am.  How is this going to get us out of here?" Tinga offered impatiently.

"Once Eyes Only makes his broadcast I will defect, promptly causing Lydecker to send someone out to get me.  Most likely it will be Alec because Alec has worked with me the most and knows how I think.  Alec of course will feel the need to join me."

"And what if I like it here." Alec offered

"I thought you said you were going to be quiet." Tinga asked.

"I lied."

"Lydecker will have two options: give us up, or send someone else.  Which ever he chooses it won't matter because eventually he will stop sending x-5's when this happens we will feel the need to get in contact with Eyes Only for a little computer hack job involving the security cameras.  This part becomes a little complicated however.  Someone on the inside will need to occupy the guard dogs." Zack said gesturing toward a table of X-7's.  "One of us will turn ourself in, thus distracting Lydecker while the other goes to get the others.  I haven't gotten all the details worked out but I'm working on it.  One things for sure though, the first step can be set in motion as soon as tomorrow afternoon."

"Zack you little schemer, welcome home brother." Tinga said with a smile pleased to hear that soon they could be on the outside for a very long time.

"I must admit though it has some holes, namely the fact that it relies on an awful lot of conjuncture, but I think it could work." Alec said with a nod.

"I can count on you then?"

"I'm ready to blow this joint." Alec answered Zack's question.

"I've been ready for quite some time." Tinga smiled standing up to empty her tray and return it.  Zack and Alec joined her and the three cast a glance over to their lost sister, Max, who was still sitting alone.  She seemed to be in some other place.  The drugs did that sometimes.  Max's actions only confirmed the three soldier's plans.

"What about her?" Alec asked the question none of them had wanted to ask. "She isn't going to go willingly." He added.

"Then I guess we will just have to drag her out.  I am more worried about how things will go tomorrow though." Zack answered.

"I know the feelings she had for him." Tinga offered almost inaudibly.

"What was his name?" Zack asked after a long silence.

"Charlie."

"Why didn't you stay with him?" Alec asked.

"Not brave enough, I don't know.  I wanted to.  I guess it scared me.  Those kind of feelings overwhelm you.  They swallow you whole and you feel like you can't breath. I guess I didn't want to see his face when he found out who I really was."

"X-5656 isn't who you are you know." Alec offered.  "If it was you wouldn't be here right now.  You'd be telling Lydecker our plans.  And you wouldn't have let yourself care for anyone."

"Thanks Alec." Tinga smiled then, wishing it really was that simple.

452 watched the other soldiers she had been trained with leave: 599, 656, and 494.  They shared something.  452 couldn't quite grasp what it was, this Max knew what it was but she was too far gone to help 452 figure it out.

So instead of pondering the great mystery of her comrades' connection her mind went to work at her new assignment.  Eliminate Eyes Only.  Seemed simple enough, a trained monkey could do it.  It was only that she kept getting flashes of this man's face every time she thought about it, black and white images that must have come from Max because 452 didn't recognize any of it.

452 had heard the rumors that Max had been intimately involved with this Eyes Only but she chose not to believe it.  Wouldn't she remember his face at least?  Wouldn't she remember something about him?

But 452 remembered nothing from her past life as Max and she didn't know if it was from the drugs or because she had blocked it out.

She hoped it was because she'd blocked it out.

Max had been a disgrace, a failure.

X-5452 was not about to repeat this Max's mistakes