Chapter Two: Kenai's Search

Kenai sat in a small street-side restaurant trying to choke down a meal of what the owner had said was Yakisoba, something that the portly woman had recommended he try. What the woman had brought to the table looked like a plate of worms such as they had been made to eat when they were going through survival training. It had brought back unpleasant memories, but he had paid for it and now sat staring at it trying to convince himself that it would be good. For the third time he brought a fork full of it up to his mouth.

He had been handed two thin pieces of wood with it originally, he had stared at the woman and she smiled politely seeming to read his lost look and handed him the fork instead.

Taking a deep breath he plugged his nose and put the bite in. He chewed mechanically for the first thirty seconds or so, then his eyes widened as the taste finally seeped through. It was good. He was more eager to move through the next bites until looking down he discovered that the plate was empty. He smiled broadly at the lady as she returned to the counter to take his plate thanking her for the meal, tipping her, and then standing.

Kenai took another deep breath and sighing heavily he looked around at the desolate surroundings he now found himself in. The place was filthy, this whole stinking city was filthy. Trash lined the streets, most of the surrounding buildings were in some state of decay. The windows were boarded behind broken panes of glass. Most were barred from entrance in some way or another, some with iron bars some with chain link and barb wire, and almost all of it had been broken into at some point once the owners had given up on the thought of home security. Vehicles drove by covered in rust and sounding as if they were about to give up on trying to work. Propane tanks of all sizes were strapped to the roofs of most, those that could afford it still used gas-powered cars, there were not too many that could afford it though.

Kenai looked out at the people, they were in about as desperate a shape, with tattered clothes and vacant eyes, infirmities of all kinds. It all made Kenai glad that he would be back at Manticore sooner or later. Someplace clean and people free of medical problems. That was if… no, when he found Kito. He pulled a small device out of his inner jacket pocket and looked at it yet again. It was a tracer, tuned to Kito's implant. It was supposed to expedite the search for their wayward team member. Fat lot of good it was doing him. It hadn't so much as blipped the whole three months he had been in the city.

Either Lydecker's hunch was wrong, Kito hadn't come to Seattle, or Kito had found some way to disable it or remove his implant. Removal was probably out of the question the last person who had removed it had died from a brain hemorrhage. The devices were based on a technology that had originated with the South Africans, a property of a metal they had used that allowed for it to be tracked. It was an implant that they had created that had given Lydecker the idea, only theirs had been created for a completely different purpose.

"Little 'bro," he whispered, "When I find you you're in for a beat down for making me do this!"

Not really knowing which way he wanted to go he struck out into the street heading generally west toward the water. He kept his green eyes on the device, hoping that today would be the day that he would he would get a lead. He wore a ball-cap turned backwards and the effect was such that it hid his barcode from casual onlookers. The last thing he wanted was to give himself away to his quarry. It also hid his definitively military cut bright red hair. He was wearing a Jeans jacket over a simple button down shirt, and a pair of pants that was just slightly a darker shade than his jacket.

He moved steadily through the street ignoring those around him practically willing the device to go off. The urge to throw it to the ground and stomp the living crap out of it was becoming overwhelming. Instead he turned it off and stuffed it back into his inner jacket pocket and just as he returned his attention to the street he bumped heavily into someone. He stopped as the woman in front of him landed heavily on her butt with an indignant grunt.

Quickly she glared up at him, "Watch where you're going!" She growled.

"Sorry ma'am, I was preoccupied," He said leaning over to lend her a hand to her feet. She was a slip of a thing with dark hair and dark brooding eyes. Her face was round and soft featured. She stood out in this neighborhood, she was wearing skintight pants, a shirt that was as tight and cut off about midriff. Over that she was wearing a black jacket and a set of gloves that were cut off at the second knuckle. Either she was a rich chick down here to but some cheap goods or she was passing through on a working assignment. He was having a hard time guessing which.

"That's no excuse," She barked back at him ignoring his proffered hand and pushing to her feet wiping futilely at the greasy mud she now had on her pants from her landing.

About that time a taller man of medium build came over. The man looked at Kenai and then back at the woman, "You OK?" The man asked of her. He was older than she was, by quite a bit, with peppered brown hair, a scruffy beard and mustache and blue eyes. His dress was also out of place, with slacks and a turtleneck sweater over which he was wearing a real leather jacket.

"Be better if I wasn't walking into moving walls," The girl said acidly, "Now I got mud on me… you know how much I hate mud," She grumbled looking at the man pointedly.

"I know," The man smiled at her, "You're alright, c'mon we gotta get going," He started to usher her away from Kenai then turned back, "Sorry about that."

"No problem," Kenai said evenly even managing a smile, "My fault."

The man nodded at Kenai and then turned away following the fiery female he was with. Kenai watched them go for some reason unable to take his eyes off the two of them. He followed them at a distance more than mildly curious and with no other immediate pressing concerns.

"Hold on a minute," Kenai heard the woman say, stopping as she came to a fruit stand. The man had taken a couple of steps beyond her and stopped looking back with a sigh, he then turned back and rejoined the dark haired woman.

"Apples!" she said in excitement.

The man scrutinized the fruits and then the prices, "That is way too expensive, even for these troubled times," The man replied beginning to walk on.

The girl sighed in frustration and then moved to join him, "Do you realize how long it's been since I had one of those?" she protested, "I mean… a long time."

"I know how long it's been," He answered her, "But we can get them for less elsewhere," The man reasoned with her. Leaning in he kissed her neck.

Kenai watched a moment more already losing interest in the two of them. Norm's were boring and frivolous entities moving through the world setting their sights only a little above their grasp and no higher. He would be more than happy when he was done with this assignment and could go back to his barracks room and his brothers and sisters.

He watched with glazing eyes as the woman leaned over to smell a bouquet of flowers. Kenai's breath caught in his throat as the woman's hair slipped off of her shoulder exposing her thin neck. His eyes immediately zoomed in bringing into sharp focus what he couldn't believe he was seeing. Her barcode stood out like a beacon on her neck. He only could read a portion of her barcode, only enough to know that she was an X-5. That was a given though, the only successful escapes had been made by 12 of the X-5's and only a very few after that, she was much too old to be any one of the more recent escapes. Kenai quickly scanned her face setting her details to memory, then his eyes darted to the man he had hardly taken notice of just a few moments prior, scanning his neck as well looking for a barcode on him as well. There was none and Kenai scowled. What would a Transgenic like that find attractive about a Norm?

"Wait a second!" Kenai whispered to himself. He recognized the man… and there was only one place that it could have been from.

FLASHBACK:

"Reinduction doesn't work, Tima. No matter how much you want to come back, you can't. You're too tainted by the world to be of any use to Me,"

Lydecker stood with his gun at the ready, ready to follow the orders he had himself given. That was when the man had jumped into the fray, knocking Lydecker's gun from his hand and mulekicking him before he scooped Tima up and leapt, just like a Transgenic for the roof.

Kenai and three of the others had followed the two of them as they had attempted to make their escape. He had gotten a pretty good look at the guy as the four of them had faced off just outside the perimeter fence. Somehow the two of them, Tima, who had been gone for 11 years and an unknown man with their style of abilities had been able to get the upper hand on Kenai and Tempest that night. It had been humiliating.

PRESENT:

It was definitely the same man, and curiosity pricked at him to find out just what the origin of his abilities was. But another dilemma drew his mind from that train of thought.

He struggled inwardly a moment, two directives warring inside him. One was the order to terminate any Transgenics outside the program, and the other was his specific instruction to track Kito down. He wished silently that he could call in and report on this unexpected development. Unfortunately he was also under deep cover assignment which meant that he could make no contact with base, except in person and after the assignment he was sent to do was complete. He decided that he would go ahead with the immediate objective, while she was here. He looked up again finding that the two of them were gone.

"Damn it!" Kenai muttered