Chapter Eight: Full Circle

"Who are you?" Kito asked gruffly, his fist tensed around the keys still in his hands, carefully moving them to a position that they could be used as a weapon.

She silently stepped into the room still assessing him, smirking now as if she had a secret. Kito stood his ground as he watched her approach. She was older than he was, probably as old as Max, which meant that she was probably X-5. That stood to reason, her barcode was not on her forehead.

This woman was thicker than Max, and he wondered… it was not that she looked out of shape, it looked as if she had been bred. She had a slight bit of paunch, which belied a possible pregnancy and birth. He had been told that selected Manticore Transgenics had been bred to further their research into genetically passing the genomes that caused their preternatural abilities to their offspring. Most were unable to pass those traits to their children though the kids usually carried some small part of the DNA pattern. Usually they ended up being like any other Norm, with maybe a physical marker to show their lineage; usually in the form of unusual eyes or more animalistic features. Small percentages were able to pass the whole package down to their progeny, strength, agility, speed, and heightened sight and hearing. That is what Lydecker and Manticore were looking for, because eventually the DNA bank they had was going to run out, and it would be easier and less expensive to breed new soldiers than to pay scientist to keep mixing up potions. The last he had been informed the results were less than spectacular. Only about one percent of the Manticore group were able to do that and even cloning the DNA patterns of those Transgenics that could pass it on had met with limited success. He wondered on the off hand if this woman before him was one of those few that could pass on her traits? Despite the thought that she may have dammed a child he held no delusions that this woman would be weaker or slower than he was. She looked every bit as deadly as any Transgenic he had ever faced.

He was distracted from her momentarily as movement caught his eye. To either side of him he found that his brother Kenai and his former leader Torri were now bracing him in. They had been in hiding on the balcony and the guest bath off of the kitchen. He wondered just how long they had been set up on him and Tima. He remembered the low level shocks that he had been feeling off and on over the past few months. Like a signal had been trying to get through his suddenly malfunctioning implant, serving only to shock him instead. Had they managed to trace him by the implant? Or was it something more mundane like he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time? He swallowed hard looking back at the woman in front of him. Whatever the reason there was no use mulling over it, they had found him, and now he was either going to have to fight or surrender. Surrender was out of the question, he might just as well put the gun to his own head and pull the trigger, for he would be just as dead.

The woman was now about two feet from where he stood frozen waiting for an opportunity to present itself, as she stopped with one hand on her hip still smirking at him, "Where is X-5-452?" The woman demanded.

"Who?" Kito asked defiantly, even as his mind did a loop at the mention of her number. They weren't after him, well as a first objective anyway. But what would they want with Max… unless they intended to take her back to Manticore? Somehow he didn't think that was the answer, they wanted her to get to someone else, but who?

"X-5-452… you may know her as Max?" Kito sported a look of confusion, "Max Guevera? Or should I say Max Guevera-Cale?"

His breath caught in his throat as she said that. The answer he had been searching for hit him almost as a physical thing. Guevera-Cale… It had to be Logan, both of them had expressed their concern to him about a future attempt to retrieve Logan because of what he had become. The thought steeled his resolve to keep that information away from his former brothers in arms. They must not get Logan, Kito owed him a lot, him and Max both. He could not betray them. Kito's face must have cracked a bit for the woman's face transformed into something ugly, "Where is she?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kito lied.

The woman lost patience stepping into Kito reaching for the neck of his shirt, exactly as he had wanted her to do. He lashed out with his right fist, a key upright between each knuckle jamming them hard at her left cheek, unfortunately she had already been ducking away from it, confirming her as another Manticore. The intent of tearing her face open from jaw to lip and possibly putting her out of the action was dashed by that move. The keys still left four glaring and profusely bleeding cuts along her cheek. Her hand went to her cheek and there was astonishment clear to read on her face. She had not expected him to get the upper hand on her.

Kito didn't allow the woman time to recover as he followed the action by leaning back using the small table as a brace and kicking out hard catching the her square in the chest. Her momentum drove her back through the doorframe and into the opposite wall of the hall. He heard her grunt as the air was knocked out of her.

He saw from the corner of his eyes the other two reacting finally to the attack on their leader, even as the woman recovered rushing in to rejoin their just begun battle. Kito did not hesitate as he somersaulted backwards landing squarely on the table and out of the way of the older Manticore's swing. He dropped to his back as the other two swung at where he had been and immediately rolled off one side, just as Kenai landed on the table. Kito landed on the linoleum where Kenai had just been standing. Without hesitation he grabbed the leg of the nearest chair and was back on his feet before Kenai had realized that his quarry was no longer where he had been. Kito round house using all of his strength and momentum in a swing aimed at Kenai's leg. He connected just above the knees grinning viciously as he heard the loud pop of the leg collapsing where a knee shouldn't bend. Kenai went down heavily on the tabletop unbalancing it and spilled onto the floor in a fetal ball. To Kenai's credit he did not scream. Kito dodged the upended table and did not pay Kenai any further attention as he moved away now facing two adversaries, one which he knew the measure of and the other one he knew nothing about.

Kito vaulted over the table landing momentarily in front of the older Transgenic then springing up and over her head landing lightly the other side of her. She had already turned to face him, and he threw several punches her way, watching as if in slow motion as she blocked each. He jumped back as a quick leg lashed out his direction. He landed several feet back noticing that Torri was starting to move back into the fray. The distraction was almost the end of him as the woman moved in again, lashing out simultaneously with her right leg and left arm. He blocked the blow aimed at his neck but didn't coordinate it properly to also block her leg that hooked around his ankle and he felt himself falling heavily. He changed the momentum of it turning his fall into a backward somersault kicking out hard as his feet came up. He felt the sharp impact with her chin even as he heard her grunt and go down.

Kito jumped to his feet and began to retreat just as Torri reached him grabbing his shoulder and spinning him back around. Kito froze as did Torri each just staring at the other. Kito tried to make himself move but knew that it would put him at a tactical disadvantage. Instead he just stood watching her in stalemated silence wondering how long he could delay, before the other woman revived enough to make it an unfair fight. They circled slowly opposite each other measuring and assessing for the opportunity to strike.

"Just give us the information, Kito, let us have her and I'll talk to Lydecker about bringing you back in," Torri said, not relaxing her stance one iota.

Kito froze for a moment looking into Torri's eyes for sincerity. That was the one thing that he had wanted most was to go back to his ordered little world in Manticore. To be back in with his brothers and sisters, to do what he was made and trained to do. He allowed himself to seriously think about giving them the information for such a prize. He was suddenly appalled at himself at such a thought. He thought back to the past couple of weeks how everything had stopped being so foreign to him, how the routine on the outside world was more freedom than he had ever been given his whole life. How now that he was being given the choice, going back didn't seem like the right one anymore. He had forsaken everything that he had known, for what he understood now was a higher goal.

He realized something else as he stood there, Torri knew that he must be feeling homesick for Manticore, she knew that offering up that choice would make him stop and think. He nodded toward Torri, "You and I both know the rules, Torri," Kito said in a low voice, "There is no going back," His stance stiffened again, "I won't let you have her, I'll die before I give her up to you," He growled.

"You may get your wish, X-10-352," The older woman responded suddenly next to him, one table leg in motion in her hand. Kito was caught off guard, Torri doing her job all too well in distracting him as she had. The chair leg connected solidly with Kito's nose and he heard and felt it pop. Suddenly there was a rush of warm blood running from his pulped nose. Kito rocked back stunned by the blow, both hands going to his fractured sinus. He barely made out the makeshift bludgeon coming at him, in just enough time to raise an arm to block the blow. Kito heard it snap and cried out as the force of the blow drove the bone up through his skin. Before he could recover she hit him again flat across the ear. His sight flashed white, he never got the chance to recover as the older woman hit him again and again knocking him senseless to the floor. He barely felt the impact.

"Ma'am!" Torri yelled for the third time, losing more respect for the woman each time she hit Kito about the head and face, even though it was clear even to her that Kito was no longer conscious or a threat. She reached out and physically restrained the arm holding the bloodied table leg, "He will not be able to give us any information at all if you continue with this course of action."

Bryn glared at the insolent woman and Torri worried for just a moment that Bryn was going to turn that aggression on her. Then as suddenly as Bryn had lost her control she regained it. She straightened slowly, touching the transmit button on her headset, "Tach team three, building is secure. We have a consolation prize. Any signs of X-10-321?"

"No Ma'am," Torri heard through her own implant.

"Now what Ma'am?" Torri asked, driving home the point that Kito was no longer in any shape to be giving them the information that they had come here for.

Bryn cast a withering glance at her second in command, "Look around… he shares the apartment with the other X-10, perhaps she has it recorded somewhere."

"Do you really think that they would be that careless?"

"Do as your told!" Bryn snapped.

Torri could only nod, moving off to conduct a search for any clues as to the whereabouts of their objective. Just about that time one of the soldiers on perimeter rushed into the apartment.

"Ma'am?" He said stopping in front of Torri saluting smartly and handing her a piece of crumpled paper.

"I found it stuck to the fence on the perimeter Ma'am," He said smartly, "It looks like directions to a penthouse in the tower district." The paper was weathered, the writing faded, but still readable, the white color had yellowed almost to the point that it was brown.

Torri might have thrown the paper back in the young man's face, knowing that the slip of paper could have come from anywhere, and could have been directions to anywhere. She almost did, but for one detail, "Good work," she muttered to the man absently dismissing him.

She rushed it to Bryn just as fast as the soldier had given it to her. Bryn's eyes widened and a wicked smile curled up one corner of her mouth. In the upper left-hand corner followed by detailed instructions on how to get to the place were two words that made the paper invaluable. Written in neat cursive were directions that said, "Logan's Place."

Torri looked at her supervisor, then back at the broken form of Kito, "What about him?" she was almost afraid to ask.

"Bring him, he can watch his friends die," She said acidly.

"Yes Ma'am," Torri replied quietly.