"No!" I screeched so loudly that even the hospital receptionists jumped. "We cannot let her!"
"'Lanza," Dad answered placidly. In a mere matter of seconds, all three adults around me had become lifeless blobs. Their faces were long, but hardened into what they had been trained to do during the very beginning of their lives. They were, once again, soldiers dealing with the awful and horrific truth, accepting it as it came at them.
I, though, was not a soldier. I was just a girl who had just seen her boyfriend beat up and learned that not only was her mom on the edge of death, but was wanted by a psycho from the past. Needless to say, I was not quite so calm about the news Dad had just told us.
I flew to my feet, screaming. "We cannot let Mom die! We've come too far! Let me talk with this woman! Now!"
Dad grabbed me firmly by the arm and pulled me back down to a seating position. "Listen to me, 'Lanza. You don't know who this lady is, or what she's capable of-"
"She wants to kill my mom."
Dad, ignoring my interjection continued, "I really don't even know who she is. I recognize the name from a long time ago back at Manticore, but that's about it. And, I know what people from Manticore are capable of doing." Krit and Syl nodded in agreement. "They'll kill others if it damn well fits into their itinerary."
"But…Mom?"
"I'm sure we can bargain with Doctor Evil here," Krit offered. "There has to be something else that she'll take besides Max."
"Or someone else," Dad muttered.
"We need to talk to her then," I argued.
"People from Manticore don't understand talking," Syl told me. "All they care about is how something helps them. I'm surprised this doctor even told you, Zack."
"So am I. Obviously, she meant to scare us into panic, or into revealing ourselves. Maybe she knows who we are. Maybe she doesn't."
"That still doesn't give us any excuse to back down," I bit. "My mom, your sister, and," I said, making strong eye-contact with Dad, "your love. Now, I, for one, am not going to sit here and wait around until Lady Manticore decides to pull the plug on Mom."
"Alanza-" Syl began.
"Now, I'm not going to pretend that I know what went on back at Manticore nearly twenty, thirty years ago because I don't, and I don't need to know. But, what I do remember having been taught by both of my parents is that you can't give up. No matter how damn hopeless things seem, you can't give up. And, if this lady is really as evil as you all claim her to be, then we don't have much time-do we?"
My words must have struck a chord inside all three adults because Dad nodded and they rose to their feet. We walked to the front desk where he asked about the doctor that had confronted him earlier.
The receptionist, assuming that we were inquiring about Mom's state of health, pointed us down the west wing and gave us directions. Syl and Krit both gave a curt nod and hurried to catch up with Dad and I.
We found the office easily enough and entered without knocking. Dad was first, then I, and finally Krit and Syl.
A lady sat behind the desk, rearranging papers and talking on the phone about "getting proper military transportation for her". It wasn't until Dad literally pulled the cord right out of the phone that she looked up with a shocked expression on her face.
My first thought was that this was what Lydecker would've looked like if he had been female. She had short silver hair and large eyes that gaped at Dad's assertiveness. And all over her face was written a single word: bitch.
"May I help you?" she asked in a harsh undertone.
"More than you realize," Dad growled back. "Max Guevara. Don't you dare touch her. She's not your problem."
The lady paused for a moment, examining Dad before glancing back at the files and flipping through them. I saw Dad's knuckles go white against the edge of her oak desk. He would've killed her if she didn't contain such curiosity for him.
She glanced at a picture of a boy, back to Dad, then to the picture again. Her finger scanned down words that I could only catch blips of. "I should've seen it before when I had talked to you…You must be Zack," she whispered. "And, although, I'm not sure who these people are, I'm assuming they're part of the X-series as well. After all, you, Zack, depended on others more than you realized."
Dad snapped the edge of her wooden desk and curled his upper lip. "Who the hell are you?" he sneered as blood dribbled out from his split palms.
She smiled back and I felt, for the first time, true fear. Even Krit and Syl gasped instinctively from behind me. "You, X5-599, may call me Elizabeth Renfro."
