"Now, Daddy, don't do anything rash," I said.

"Maxine…you know who this is?" Daddy kept his eyes on Lydecker. Daddy's fifty-seven years immediately changed to sixty-seven. Deep lines etched within his forehead.

"Yes…I do," I glared at Daddy. "I know who he is and then some."

Daddy and Lydecker stared at each other coolly.

"Well," Lydecker coughed. "I can see I'm not wanted here, Maxine. I can catch a bus home."

"No," I grabbed his arm as he turned to leave. "Daddy…Colonel…I know I'm acting childish and I feel embarrassed about this moment but I just assumed…"

"Well, you know what they say," Daddy interrupted. "'Assume' makes an ass out of you and me."

I winced. That hurt.

"Either way, we have a guest. Gina?"

Gina, who had been studying her shoes, looked up. "Hmm?"

"Go get Colonel Lydecker some coffee."

"No, that's okay," Lydecker insisted. "I just want to see what Maxine had in mind for us men."

"I was wondering that, too."

All eyes were on me now, even Gina's. My heart fluttered like a caged butterfly.

"First," I said shakily. "I want to know how the two of you know each other."

"I know this has to do with your mother in one way or another," Daddy muttered. He turned around in his wheelchair and went into the living room. Gina, Lydecker and I followed.

Once we were all seated—Gina and I on a love seat and Lydecker on the couch and Daddy across from Lydecker in his wheelchair—Daddy cleared his throat and threw another hard glance at Lydecker.

"If you must know, Maxine, Lydecker and I both knew your mother very well in one way or another."

"Of course you knew the girl very well, you married her even after that damn virus," Lydecker blurted. "It's obvious you were smitten with each other the last time we met."

"Virus?" Gina and I exclaimed simultaneously.

"After that was cleared up we were married," Daddy said. "I never forgave Manticore after that. It made Max miserable."

"It wasn't my fault. Blame that witch Renfro. Lucky she's dead or I would a killed her myself."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I stood up. "I'm here, too…someone want to fill me in? Daddy?"

"What?" Daddy didn't take his steel blue eyes off of Lydecker.

"Can you do me a teeny favor and tell me what the hell you are talking about? Did you happen to skip a tiny detail and forget to tell me about a virus?" I crossed my arms and glared at my father. Gina grabbed one of my belt loops on my jeans and tugged me back down onto the love seat on which we were sitting. I flopped down ungracefully but my cold stare didn't break.

Daddy exhaled a big puff of air and wheeled back and forth like a rocking chair. "Damn it all to hell," he muttered. He ran his fingers though his hair, a poor combing job. "I really didn't want to tell you this."

"You were gonna have to sooner or later," I pointed out. "What if this virus catches up to me or something?"

"That's not possible," Lydecker assured. "It's been terminated and that's all there is to it."

I was taken aback. "I want to know everything," I emphasized harshly. "Last time you left this part out."

"I didn't think it was important at the time," Daddy snapped. "It was a painful memory, Maxine."

"Every thing you told me was a so-called 'painful memory'," I fired back. "What's so different about now? For the love of God, I'm 16 and I have no mother and I sure as hell want to know why."

"Maxine," hissed Gina softly in my ear. "Chill or you won't get anything."

I put the back of my hand to my lip and bit down on the second joint of my index finger just soft enough not to draw blood and stayed quiet. Lydecker cleared his throat and began. Daddy didn't object.

"I was run out of Manticore by this…bleached blond bitch, Renfro. She murdered one of my kids, an X5 named Tinga. Needless to say I was out for revenge."

So far it sounded like the beginning of a bad horror flick but I nodded.

"Your mother, Max, made a few careless mistakes and was taken back to Manticore by Renfro after her heart transplant. I trust you know about that?"

"Yes," I said softly. "Zack committed suicide."

"Yes, well…Max was believed to be dead by everyone including your dad. Really, she was just taken back without a word."

"I watched her die," Daddy said softly. He had dropped his chin to his chest and was sitting back in his wheelchair. He looked as if he was sleeping but he was wide awake. "I thought I'd lost her forever." Daddy's sorrow from remembering my mother this way shook him terribly.

"Your dad had this…newscast called Eyes Only—"

"Television hack," Daddy corrected. "It informed the state about what they knew little about. Eyes Only revealed Manticore for what it really is. They disguised it as a VA hospital. No one knew what it really was until I blew the cover."

"Anyway," Lydecker picked up again. "People were after me…trying to kill me. Several people."

Daddy muttered something under his breath.

"You want to adlib here, Cale?" Lydecker sneered.

"No, go ahead," Daddy growled.

"You just to be a bigger man, Cale. Last time I saw ya you had regal snide. Stood taller. What's the matter, huh?"

"You gonna tell the damn story or play witty banter, Lydecker?"

"Ain't my story to tell."

"Tell it or not, I don't really care," Daddy waved his hand non-chalantly.

"When was the last time you saw each other?" Gina asked. I nudged her. If I had to stay quiet so did she.

"Back in '20, I think," Daddy said. "You said you had something for me and then you shot me."

"I told you to duck, didn't I?" Lydecker practically chuckled. "Those legs you had on weren't as swift as you thought, eh?"

"I threw those out years ago. Piece-of-crap scrap metal."

"You…had on other legs?" I was confused.

"Robotic braces," explained Daddy. "An exoskeleton. I tossed them in a dump while you were still an accident waiting to happen." He tugged my curls and laughed lightly.

"You were an Eyes Only informant?" Gina asked Lydecker.

"Something along the lines of that."

"What ever happened to Manticore?" I wondered out loud.

"It burned to the ground, thanks to Renfro."

"Where is Renfro now?" My mind was all ready planning to track her down.

"Dead. She took a bullet for your mom."

My hope deflated. "Any special reason?"

"Who knows. She was a crazy ol' fossil. Better off dead anyway. I hope she's giving Satan orders down in hell and he's wishing she was good enough for Heaven, thinkin' maybe she was another punishment for him," Lydecker reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He didn't open them, just held them in his hand.

"About the virus…what was it?"

"It was a genetically targeted retrovirus" Daddy said. "They implanted it in Max to get to me. Renfro knew I was gonna blow the lid off of Manticore and I was on the hit-list along with Lydecker. We weren't allowed to touch—we couldn't touch. Renfro knew Max was…involved with me. They were trying to destroy me—kill me—through her."

"And it was cured?"

"Of course. They did find the cure. Your mom and I were married in '29 and…here you are."

"Here I am," I repeated. "Anything else I should know? My mother wasn't from another planet or anything? No mental illnesses? Anything that should worry me?"

"Nope," Daddy assured me. "I believe we've told you everything. No more lies."

That night, after Lydecker had caught a bus home on his insistence, Daddy, Gina and I sat outside, listening to the crickets and the water lapping on the dock. We were set to leave the next day and we were enjoying the sereneness of it all before our return to the noisy Seattle streets. After about two hours, Gina got cold and went inside, leaving me alone with Daddy.

"I'm sorry if I upset you today," I said to him.

"Don't worry," Daddy said. "You had a right to know. You were acting out. Only natural." He motioned for me to come closer and I did, hugging him. He wrapped his finger around one of my corkscrew curls and tugged gently, his common show of affection. "I'm sure your mother is looking down from Heaven and smiling."

I looked up at the stars…and one of them winked at me.