Justin

I felt a hell of a lot better when I woke up late that afternoon. My arm was tolerable and I was feeling much more clear-headed. There was a note from Dad that he was out with Steiner and that he would be back that night. He was probably cleaning up some of the messes that I had made in the last day or so. In any case, it gave me some time alone to call Jhondie and check on her. I was rather shocked when Zack answered the phone, but I was glad he was there to make sure she wasn't getting into any trouble. I told him that I wanted to get Jhondie out of Seattle as soon as possible, and he told me when and where to meet them. It didn't need to be said, but we both knew that she wasn't going to leave until she knew for sure that I was fine.

There was some stuff from Steiner waiting for me in the hotel before I left. He had an advance copy of a press release from BioTech and some information that the police had dug up. Apparently Wendy Riddle was actually Tara Brinks. As in little sister to Robert Brinks, founder and CEO of BioTech. Brinks had issued a statement of apology and denial of the whole affair. Apparently, little sister had been in and out of some mental institutions when she was younger. She must have snapped again, and he often talked to her of things that were going on in the business. She disappeared about a year ago, but that wasn't uncommon for her. In her unfortunate mental state, she must have gone after the people that were upsetting her beloved brother. He never expected such a family tragedy to occur.

I felt for him. I really did. Well, what I felt was nausea at the thought he was being the innocent little lamb that lost his sister in this mess. Of course I had the proof otherwise. I could put him in prison. There was just one little catch. To do so would be to expose Manticore. And that was not something that I could do. It was hard to swallow. I was going to have to let Brinks go in order to protect Jhondie from exposure. All it would take was one person to ask how I knew what Manticore was, and her life as she knew it would be over. I could console myself with knowing that the person that killed my uncle had paid the price, but still, it rankled on me.

I left Dad a note that I was out for a little while and promised to call if anyone decided to start shooting at me this time. I thought it was amusing. Later, Dad didn't appreciate it as much as I did, but then again, I wasn't a parent who almost lost a child. It was still funny despite his statements to the contrary. Then I headed over to where Zack had told me to meet them. The plan was to get Jhondie out of the city. I knew Zack meant that night, but if she stayed until morning and I took her to the airport first thing in the morning, then that was just as good to me. I didn't think Jhondie would complain either considering that she was going to be with me the whole time.

I saw them coming up the sidewalk as casual as could be. I never really thought of myself as the jealous type, but I had to admit that I stood there for a long moment, reminding myself that he was nothing more than a brother to her despite the possessive way that he had his arm around her and was smiling and seemed to be having a good time. Her arm was around his waist and they just looked like the cutest little pair. I was across the street from them, and when he swung her around so that he could, well, it really did look like, he swung her around to kiss her, I headed across the street. She could call him her brother all she wanted. I knew they weren't really related in any way. He obviously was thinking on other lines there.

I got across the street to them and my whole attitude changed. Zack took a step back from Jhondie, his eyes blazing into hers. The smiles and laughter were gone, and her commanding officer was standing there. And Jhondie.something was incredibly wrong with her. I had seen her scared before. I had seen her worried and upset and angry and a whole host of other emotions. I had never once seen her like this. Her face was paper white, green eyes huge, staring back at Zack.

"What's wrong?" I asked, confused at what was going on. If I didn't know better, from the way Jhondie's breathing was jerking, I would have sworn that she was barely holding back a scream.

"Go now," she whispered in a high, strangled whisper. "I have to go now." I wasn't sure, but it seemed like Zack was pleased with whatever he had done to cause this reaction on her.

"Stick with the program and this won't happen again," he growled. "I know where the bases of operation are."

She nodded quickly. "I won't come back," she promised. Without wasting a glance my way, he was suddenly gone. Jhondie damn near collapsed in my arms. She was shaking violently. Whatever had just happened, I knew without a doubt that Zack had set this up, and he knew this would be her reaction.

"Baby, what's wrong?" I asked again. Me getting hurt didn't cause this kind of reaction in her.

"I have to leave the city now," she said, still sounding like she was forcing the words out of a constricted throat. "Tonight. No delays. First flight to anywhere, but I have to go now."

I nodded, trying to reassure her. "Okay. There's a bar close by. We'll go there for a minute and I'll make a couple of calls and get everything set up for you to leave tonight. Okay?" She nodded, but she wasn't relieved. "What did he say to you?"

"He didn't have to say anything," she said softly, her eyes slightly unfocused. I had a feeling she was staring off into old memories that she preferred to remain buried forever. Then she sharpened again, her eyes meeting mine. "He's here. In Seattle. He just walked by and didn't notice us. But it was him, no doubt." I had no idea what she was talking about, and it must have shown. "Lydecker," she whispered. "He's here in Seattle and I have to go now."

When I was little, I was terrified of this clown doll that my mother had. After seeing the movie Poltergeist at age seven (my babysitter was making out with her boyfriend so they didn't notice me watching the movies mom and dad said I couldn't) the clown doll and me were mortal enemies from then on. But I eventually outgrew my personal boogeyman. Jhondie had a little problem with the thing that terrified her the most as a child. He was real. And he was really hunting for her. If it weren't for the fact that Zack had left her, I would have thought that he knew she was here. But he would have gotten her out himself. No. This was just an object lesson in why she better obey him every step of the way. Cold-hearted bastard.

I held her for a few minutes until she calmed down enough that she didn't look like she was about to throw up or pass out. Then we started making our way to the bar that I had seen a little ways back. There seemed to be plenty of people there and we wouldn't be out of the ordinary. Lots of people our age were hanging around there. Jhondie wasn't saying anything. As much as I would have liked her to stay that night, there was no way I was going to let her stay in this city a minute longer than required. As angry as I was about the way he did it, I had to admit that Zack knew how to make a point to both of us. And he certainly made one that day.

Jhondie

I didn't even catch the name of the place we went to. I sat down at the bar and Justin went to the pay phones in the back. Better to use wired than cellular at this point. He was here. He was here and hunting and there was no place he was going to have wired for sound better than a base of operation. No wonder Zack had been so against me coming here with Justin. God help us all. If he had just told me.whom was I kidding, I would have come anyways when I heard the gunshots over the phone. Still, it would have been good to know what I was walking into.

I ordered a beer and sipped at it for a few minutes. Luckily, I wasn't the only person sitting there all by myself. It seemed that the tables were reserved for gangs of friends that wanted to hang out, and the bar was for the ones that wanted to be left alone. And I certainly was in the "go away" group right then. Lydecker. Oh my God. Not ten feet from me. Which begged a single question in my mind. Why didn't I kill him? Follow him a bit. Get him alone. Snap. Bye-bye Lydecker. What kind of power did that man still have over me that the sight of him was abjectly terrifying, making me want to run rather than attack. He would be so disappointed.

I didn't exactly have time to ponder the question. Some idiot decided to ignore the "leave me alone" signals that I was sending out to everyone within a mile radius. He had just come in with a black girl and smiled at me widely as he ordered a pitcher of beer. He ignored the fact that I was studiously ignoring him while I hoped Justin would get done quickly and get me the hell out of here.

"Hi," he said with a grin. "So I haven't seen you around here before. New?"

"Just waiting for my boyfriend," I replied coldly.

He didn't get the hint. "There's room for one more at our table," he said with that salacious leer. "If you don't want to sit here all alone."

The girl he had walked in with had come up behind him and promptly whacked him on the back of the head. "Boy, get your skank white ass back to the table," she commanded in the most imperious ghetto I had ever heard. "The girl ain't interested in your worthless self. Say one word and we can always talk about this with Natalie." He looked hurt, but skittered off immediately at the girl's name.

She sighed and then looked at me apologetically. "Boy's got a fine young thing waiting for him at home and he's still trying to be the player."

"He needs a lot more practice with the lines," I replied dryly.

She smiled, picking up the pitcher of beer the bartender put in front of her. "If you going to be a while, come on over and hang with Original Cindy's crew," she offered, and then sauntered off to a table where another man had come in and sat down with them. I smiled and turned back to my beer.

Oddly enough, that was exactly what I needed to feel better. I had caught the way she looked at me. She was thinking that if I wasn't interested in the guy, maybe it was because I would be more interested in her. Whatever. The point was, she saw me as an attractive regular girl and treated me as such. So had he. As different as I was, there wasn't a way to tell as long as I was careful. I still wanted to get out of the city quickly, but it wasn't that desperate panic I had been filled with a few minutes before.

It didn't take long and Justin returned for me. "Everything's set," he said with a smile. "We'll head on over to the airport and get you out of here ASAP."

I stood up and hugged him. His arm slid around me as we made our exit. I glanced back to where Original Cindy was sitting. I felt a little uncomfortable for a second at the way she was staring at where we were, but then some dark-haired girl came through the door and brushed past us. Cindy broke into a smile and yelled "Hey Boo!" to the girl. I couldn't hold back a smile then.

"You look like you're feeling better," Justin commented. A dark eyebrow rose as he questioned, "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything," I replied. "I just got hit on by a guy and checked out by a girl."

Justin blinked and I laughed, feeling a thousand times better. "They.neither of them saw anything different in me," I said. It wasn't the right words to explain, but he understood anyways.

"You know, you could probably walk right up to him and ask for directions and he wouldn't know," Justin said. "I'm not suggesting it, and you are leaving the city right now, but you do have a little security blanket there."

I thought about that a lot on the way home. I had always been afraid to be someone. I knew I wanted to be a doctor, but there was a reason I hadn't even started looking at what med school I wanted to go to. There were so many what-ifs involved. But I had a background that could be checked, didn't I? I still had to be careful and that was always going to be there, but constant terror of what could happen didn't need to be there. Lydecker had walked right passed two X-5's and didn't falter a step. There were some things in life I knew I wanted, but had always been afraid to go after. I could have a career. A family of my own. A life. All I had to do was just start living.

I think Justin could tell that there was something different when I left Seattle. I almost felt euphoric in a way. He told me that he was leaving the next night and I promised to pick him up at the airport. Then they were boarding my flight and with a kiss I left him there. My good feelings lasted throughout the layover in San Francisco and all the way until I landed and met my mother at the gate.

She was glaring. Bad sign. Kayla wasn't there. Worse sign. She didn't say anything to me until we got into the car. I was screwed.

"Mom," I started, wanting to explain. Actually, it was more to get something said so I could stop squirming in my seat.

"I am not speaking to you at the moment," she snapped coldly. Half a breath passed. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING OUT THERE!"

"I had." Did I think I was going to be able to explain anything to her? Silly me.

"Young lady, you know damn well why you shouldn't have went running off like that! TO SEATTLE OF ALL PLACES! My God, what if someone had seen that thing on your neck? Did you stop to THINK for a second?"

"Actually, it was all well thought out," I said calmly. That made her sputter for a second. "I knew what I had to and I carried out the plan."

"You lied to me," she snarled. "Tom came over and told me what was going on and all I could think was that there was no way that my daughter would have lied to me like that and put herself in danger. Especially since she knew that there are police there whose job is to protect people. Especially considering how much danger she would be in for other reasons. You know that I don't like bringing up your background, but you of all people should know why you have to be more careful than others."

"Mom," I snapped back, wanting to give her a serious dose of reality, "if someone was trying to kill you, whom would you rather have with you? A doughnut disposal unit or a genetically engineered super-soldier that was trained for this? Face it Mom, I *am* the most advanced weapons system that has ever been created, and that's what was needed to even up the odds. I heard gunshots and the phone went dead. I'm not going to let it happen." my words trailed off and I had to fight back tears for a moment. "I couldn't save Eva. I couldn't save Dad. I'll be dammed if anything is going to happen to Justin."

Mom swallowed hard. "Who killed that woman?" she asked carefully. "For some reason, I don't see Justin doing it." Her and Mr. Carter must have talked for a while. When we were at the airport, Justin told me that his father had sworn that he wasn't going to tell my mother about Eye's Only, but I still was a little worried about what she knew. What the hell. I should go with a little honesty here.

"Zack," I replied. She jumped and I thought for a second we were about to go into the other lane of traffic. "He was there and when she turned the gun on Justin.I.there's signals that we learned as kids and."

"You told him to shoot her and he did," Mom finished. I nodded. She took a deep breath. "That's not something I ever expected from you."

"That's what we were trained to do, you know," I replied. That sounded so bad. I hurried to try and clarify what I meant. "Knowing how to kill people, practicing those techniques, I mean, that is the summary of the first decade of my life, and I haven't forgotten a single thing that I learned there. But now, if I choose to use that training, it won't be for destruction and it won't be because I am blindly following orders, so please don't think I flipped out and went psycho on that chick. She probably would have lived if she didn't draw down on Justin." Actually, she knew about Manticore and me. Chances are I would have had to kill her to keep her quiet, but that was a lot I didn't want to explain to Mom. I wasn't going to kill her in a moment of rash anger and that was the difference. If I had to, it was going to be because there were no alternatives. Or her name was Denise. But that was a given.

"I'm sorry I worried you," I said in a small voice. "I was just in such a panic to get out there that I was saying anything to keep from having someone try and slow me down. I had to get out there."

"And how exactly did you manage to get to Seattle?" That was so not a question I wanted to answer.

"Broke into airline security," I replied. Inspiration. "They're connected to the sector police there. That way they know if the people on the flight are authorized." That wasn't a lie actually. "So if you get into one, it's not hard to get into the other. I hacked a reservation and the paperwork was taken care of."

Mom blinked. It was rare to get her speechless. Wasn't worth it, but still a rare event. "And when did you learn to do that?" she gasped, the shock evident.

I thought for a moment. "I got into advanced hacking when I was about seven. Maybe eight. Everyone else was still doing light security breaking and entering, but I seemed to have a gift for it. Such things were rather encouraged back then. Now can we please drop the Manticore thing because I really don't want to talk about what I did and what I learned from them?"

I was very glad that she let the subject drop. It was far from her favorite one as well, and we both agreed that there were some things not worth mentioning. I couldn't afford to pretend it didn't happen, but I didn't need it in my face either. Mom was still not over being mad, but she was a lot calmer by the time we got home. Mom didn't get over being that pissed very easily no matter how much rational was behind the actions. It would take a few days.

"Your sister doesn't know what happened," she said curtly when we pulled up to the house. "I think it would be best to keep it that way." Chances were she hadn't noticed that I was gone, but I didn't say that to Mom. She was touchy enough as it was.

Kay was, shockingly enough, on the phone when I went in. I actually got a wave from her before she went back to trashing Lacey McGrath and that "Little House on the Prairie" outfit she wore to school. I smiled. Nice to see that some things didn't change. I went to my room, and crawled out the window.

Cody meowed and crawled into my lap, purring loudly as I petted him. Nice to see that someone still loved me. Actually I had a lot of people that loved me despite being away or annoyed at the moment with me. There was only one other that I wanted in my lap besides Cody, but still, this was a good place to be. A good place. I could sleep. Didn't go hungry. My hair wouldn't hold a curl without half a can of hairspray in it, but at least I had it. The only nomilies were the creatures that Kayla brought home and referred to as her friends. I could deal with that. I bit my lip slightly, not able to hold back a few tears. I didn't need Zack to tell me about the Good Place. I was there.