"Ma'am?" There was a low groan as the person being spoken to looked up slowly at the second in command of the Delta squad.

"Ma'am?" he repeated.

Finally, Renfro sighed and responded to his pestering questions. "Yes?"

"Are you feeling well enough to get out of bed and walk around, ma'am?"

"I'm sure I can manage. But, why?"

"X5-656 is soon arriving on the premises, ma'am."

Immediately, Renfro snapped fully awake upon hearing his words. X5-656! What the hell did they think they were doing by bringing her in with Lydecker in the area? Was that doctor insane? "Under whose authority was this movement directed?" she asked the soldier, rubbing at the temple on her forehead where three stitches had been required to sew her torn scalp back up.

The commander shifted uneasily from his right foot to his left, completely unsure as to what to answer the lady who had been dubbed as "mentally unstable" by his boss, Lydecker. Perhaps she really was, or perhaps she was just another lunatic after those damned kids.

But, either way, he didn't know the answer to her question. Lydecker hadn't told him to bring the X5. In fact, Lydecker didn't even know where she was being kept beforehand. Obviously, he certainly was going to find out very soon that an X5 had been kept hidden from him. And, the commander didn't want to be talking about his captain before Lydecker went into a raging fury over the newly discovered X5.

So, the commander said nothing to Renfro and waited for her to speak.

She glared coldly at this man who dared not to answer her. Why wouldn't he answer her? Certainly he knew something that would upset her, and therefore would not respond to her question. His silence led Renfro to believe that it was 'Deck who had ordered the replacement movement, but she had to be completely sure before drawing such harsh assumptions.

"Under whose authority was this movement directed?" she repeated, her voice as sharp and as harsh as the glass that had pierced her flesh.

"Your question, ma'am, is unanswerable."

"Unanswerable?!" she snapped, flying forward into a full sitting position. "Like hell it's unanswerable. You and I both know who gave the damn order-don't we?"

The soldier said nothing more, but gave a curt little salute. He wasn't afraid of Renfro because he definitely had no reason to be. But at the same point, he wasn't about to go arguing with someone in higher authority than he. "X5-656 will be waiting in room C23, if you would like to see her, ma'am."

"Fine," she bit savagely. "Now get out."

The commander, happy to be rid of the psychotic lady, nearly ran right out of her A-level room and made sure to close the door tightly behind him. After all, if she were decide to attack him from behind, going through an oak door surely would be a hindrance.

Once the door was closed, Renfro sighed and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Her head burned and eyes seemed ready to fall out of their sockets from the pain caused by the accident. She briefly thought of X5-734, but let that thought die because that soldier had abandoned her in Renfro's time of need. A solider like that shouldn't be kept anyhow.

Renfro pulled on a pair of loose-fitting boots and a black jacket that fell to her ankles and stood up. The entire room spun for a moment, but she refused to give up when victory was so close at that. So utterly close.

She walked carefully down the lavish hallway, so as to not to make any noise that 'Deck might hear. Although, she did overhear him talking with someone, she decided not to dwell on it because she had to get to X5-656 before he did.

She took the elevators because she knew that she surely would've fallen down the stairs and that would have been an absolute nightmare. The elevator hummed smoothly as the flashing lights went from A floor to C. Finally, it stopped and Renfro stepped out.

C floor was where most of the commissioned X5s were kept or any other X5s for that matter. The X5 floor. What a charming name.

She arrived at C23 and opened the door almost hesitantly, unsure as to what could be behind the heavy iron door.

There, in a chair, sat a girl whose eyes were sharp and dark and face sculpted into harsh lines instead of motherly curves. She rose when Renfro entered and saluted sharply. Tinga now was a predator that woke up in the night with the sound of her heat pounding in her ears, the taste of blood inside of her mouth because she was a like a wolf in sheep's clothing that had hid her instincts every minute of every day, and now those instincts were unleashed. She was a soldier…a hunter…a killer.

But, Renfro, the lady with a blackened heart, could only smile a witch's smile and whisper to herself, "She's beautiful."