A/N: It rhymes with breeze. Rhys. *hugs Rhys*
Cold War Chapter 3 - Divisions-by Infie
Recap
"I gotta go out for a bit." Alec said, looking straight ahead. "I'll be back later."
End Recap
Even as Alec moved for the door, Rhys was at his shoulder. Alec gave him a cold glare, but Rhys just raised his eyebrows and looked disinterested. "So, where we going?"
Alec shook his head and preceeded him out the door.
"So. You were in a hurry to get here?"
"No." Alec's voice was chilly. "I was in a hurry to get out." He sighed. "I figured I might as well do something useful while I was busy escaping my...er...thoughts." He shot Rhys a sideways look. "Why are you here, pretty boy?"
Rhys winced dramatically, slapping a hand over his heart. "I'm wounded that you see only my surface, 4...Alec." He smirked as Alec growled. "I was bored." He shrugged. "Or I just don't want to tell you. Take your pick."
Alec sighed. "I begin to see why people find me so annoying." he muttered to himself. Rhys snickered.
"Hey... I learned from the best." He looked back at the building they faced. "So... what's up with this place?"
The two men lay prone on a shadowed rooftop overlooking a deserted streed, the only light coming from partially lit streetlights. The building they faced was a nondescript warehouse with broken windows leering jaggedly into the darkness. The only thing that made this building stand out beside the others was the three armed men patrolling it casually every fifteen minutes or so.
"It's a drug warehouse. They stock some of what we'll need."
Rhys nodded slowly. "Cool. Let's go." He started forward, and Alec restrained him with a hand on his arm.
"All I had planned for tonight was recon, Rhys."
"So? That was when there was just you. Now there's both of us. Let's go."
"No... I don't think the time is right." Alec's voice came out hesitant, and he cursed inwardly. Rhys froze, and turned to pin him with a glare.
"Look, Alec. I spent the last three years in solo operations. I know what I'm doing, here. You don't need to protect me. I know that you've been keeping me to the sidelines." Rhys paused, softened his tone. "I can take care of myself. Really."
Alec stared at him a minute, then gritted his teeth and nodded. "Sorry," he said. "I know I've been an ass."
"You've been a old granny." Rhys told him frankly, coming to a crouch and preparing to jump to the next building before the guards returned. "But, hey.. that's nothing new." He leaped.
Alec stared after him, aggrieved. "I am not an old granny!" he hissed after Rhys, knowing the other transgenic would hear him. Rhys just snorted and made a run before vaulting the space between his location and the warehouse roof. He landed with a faint 'oof', and Alec smirked and followed. He landed beside Rhys soundlessly, and arched an eyebrow pointedly.
"Oh, shut up." Rhys told him. "It was quiet enough."
Alec licked his lips, gave him a superior look, and moved to the nearest skylight into the building.
"It was." It was Rhys' turn to grit his teeth. "Prick."
Alec's snicker was almost lost in the wind. "You say that like it's a bad thing." He dropped through the skylight.
"You know, now I'm starting to understand why people find you annoying." Rhys said to the air, and followed.
They found themselves among stacks of boxes. Each took one side, scanning labels and codes rapidly. "Hey, Alec. What are we looking for again?"
"This place carries Melatonin, DHEA, and Tryptophan, so we'll be getting some of those." Alec replied, picking boxes off shelves at random. "But we need to hide this, make it look as though it was a standard break in. So just grab a little of a lot." He paused, looking at a box of hormone-replacement drugs. "Hey Rhys... when was your last shot at Manticore?"
"About two and a half years ago."
Alec's grinned into the darkness. "So... when did you last go into heat?"
"Toronto." Rhys answered him without thinking, then stiffened as Alec snickered. "It wasn't funny."
"It never is." Alec's lips twitched. "What'd you do?"
"Practically the whole nun contingent." Rhys winced as Alec laughed out loud. "You know, I always thought nuns were supposed to be chaste, but these ladies had some serious imagination."
Alec grinned at his friend's discomfiture, then sobered. "The shots are only good for twenty four or twenty six months. We'll be running into problems soon, with both sexes." He scanned the nearby boxes, then grabbed a stack. "Some extra birth control might be useful, too." He reached into the right side pocket of his cargos, withdrew a large black fabric bag, and began dropping the boxes inside.
"Just recon, my ass." Rhys muttered, tossing another couple of boxes inside.
Alec just shrugged. "Let's go get the good stuff, buddy."
They filled the sack with a generous sampling of what they needed, and some things they didn't, then re-arranged the boxes so that it looked as though they'd never been there.
They made it back to TC before midnight, and the place was still buzzing with activity. Zane was organizing the transgenics present into similar skin colours, holding up various bottles of iridescent tattoo inks and rubbing behind his ear thoughtfully. Alec waved Rhys on with their loot and headed over.
"Aren't those a little.. bright?" he asked, eying the containers skeptically.
Zane grinned at him. "They need to interfere with the wavelengths of light produced by your barcode. You don't get that with skin tones. And... speaking of barcodes.." He gestured towards the stairwell. "Lise is waiting to remove yours. Max is already done."
Alec winced and headed reluctantly for the stairs. "At least I just brought in some extra anaesthetic," he muttered. He paused at the bottom of the steps. "Any news on our missing members?" he asked.
Dix shook his head wordlessly, and Alec headed upstairs.
Rhys watched him go from the table where he had dumped their cargo of stolen pharmaceuticals. He bit his lip, then turned back to sort the drugs, coming nose to top of head with Max, who was watching him suspiciously.
"Hi Rhys," she smiled. "We haven't really had a chance to chat, have we?"
His lips quirked as the soldier in him recognized the veiled order, and he followed her to a nearby private room, where she handed him a cup of coffee. He took it with a smile.
"How do you like Terminal City so far, Rhys?" Max asked. "Settling in okay?"
"Yeah." Rhys sat, leaned back in his chair, and crossed his ankles. "Feels good to be back among family."
Max's smile was genuine this time. "Yeah. I kind of miss that, sometimes." She caught the look on Rhys' face and amended her statement hastily. "I'd still like to find the rest of my unit."
Rhys' eyes frosted slightly. "The other escapees."
"Yes." Max took a deep breath, then tried again. "Alec is happy that you're here."
"Alec isn't happy at all, Max." Rhys stopped as Max's face tightened. "Look... let's start again. I'm Rhys, named by nuns. And you're Max, light of Alec's days."
Max laughed. "Well, it took me a while to get his attention."
Rhys snorted. "Johan told me about that. I'm still having trouble believing you put him in a cage and survived."
"It was a close thing." Max tilted her head. "How well did you know Mel?"
The abrupt change of topic left Rhys blinking. "We were unit mates at Manticore, Max. You already know what that means."
"Yeah." Max's face was grave. "I'm worried. This is the third person out of Alec's unit that's disappeared in the past four months. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep everyone in check."
"That's an awfully open thing to say to a stranger." Rhys' eyes were sharp on her face. "Which means you either want to divert me, or else you're looking for me to give you some insights into controlling your boyfriend."
Max blinked. "You're not a comfortable conversationalist, are you?"
"Not about this." Rhys sat forward abruptly. "I'll give you some insights you won't like, Max. First of all, you're worried you're losing control here. You're not worried about keeping everyone in check. You're worried that Alec will turn on you. And you're worried that that might be the right thing to have happen, cause you're not qualified to lead us."
Max's face whitened as he spoke, but she didn't interrupt.
"You're right on the first count. It's only a matter of time." Rhy's voice was brutally matter of fact. "Your policy of non-intervention and 'peaceful co-existance' is bullshit and it's gonna get more of us killed. I'm only here cause he is."
"It's the only way! I..." Max told him hotly. He held up his hand to stop her.
"On the second point, you're dead wrong. There are a few things that Manticore taught us that we all held on to, Max. One of those things is loyalty." He caught her eyes with his, intensity burning from him. "He would never turn on you on his own." Max smiled at him. "I'm not done, Max. You are the threat there."
"Have you never thought that maybe Alec has his own reasons for supporting you as head of this group the way he has? That his agenda makes this a good arrangement? Alec has always shied away from the leadership role, Max. But that does not mean he isn't the most capable leader I know, and in the time I've been here I can tell you that he is singlehandedly responsible for you still being in charge."
"I'm not an idiot, Rhys." Max was getting pissed off. "I know what Alec's support has meant here. And I see how he keeps deferring to me. But I'm also providing necessary direction here; direction that someone who hasn't lived on the outside couldn't provide."
"Hasn't lived on the outside?" Rhys laughed. "Uh, Max. Alec was a solo specialist. You can't really think he wasn't able to operate in the real world. That any of us could? I mean, come on. Our lives didn't end when you guys escaped, you know."
Max gritted her teeth.
"You're the threat cause, while he would never go against you on his own, if you push him too far, you'll lose his support. And that will have the same effect." Rhys frowned. "Look, anyone could see he loves you, Max, but I'm telling you, as someone who's known Alec his whole life... don't put him in a position where he has to choose between you and his family. Cause it might destroy him, but he'll put them ahead of himself any day. And if that means not supporting you, if he really believed there was no other way, he'd do it in a heartbeat."
The muscles in Max's jaw bunched as she fought back her anger. "I don't need to ask you what you think of the third, do I?" She stood, stiff with anger, and stalked out of the room. Rhys stared after her.
"You should have." he laughed to himself. "You could be a leader to be proud of, if only you'd stop trying to be so damned 'normal'."
"Hey Ames. Checking in."
"Progress?"
"Well...I think you're right about this place being a powder keg. All it needs is the right match. We could likely pick up some impressive intel while we're at it."
"You have two only two objectives here. Disrupt operations. And, Get. Me. 452."
"That wasn't in the profile, Ames. You never said anything about going after 494's girlfriend. I thought I already demonstrated that I don't have a death wish."
"That bitch took my son. I want to... ask her about it."
"I hear you, Ames." *pause* "But you have to know you're playing with one very dangerous individual here."
"I can handle 452. Just bring her to me."
"There was never any doubt in my mind about that. Fenest'ol."
Alec lounged in front of the TV in his overstuffed armchair, flipping channels and pretending to watch old movies. He heard Max in the hallway and stilled, setting the remote on the arm of the chair and taking a sip of his scotch. Max came in, closed the door, and approached the chair, stroking her hand gently against his hair.
"What are you watching?" she asked softly.
"Dunno." He rose and turned to Max.
Max smiled at him. "You should try watching something from the twenty-first century," she told him.
"Nah." he replied, wrapping her in his arms and burying his nose in her hair as gunfire sounded on the television. They both turned to look as the character on the screen threatened a stoic bad guy with a gun, then, in an extreme of rage, threw the gun away and shouted, "You're not worth it!" The police swarmed the scene and took the bad guy away in cuffs.
"Why is it that in all of these shows, no one seems to care how many flunkies get killed, but when it comes to the Big Baddie, there's always some moral imperative to let him live? I mean, come on. What a crock." Alec blew his breath out in a snort, flipping off the TV and tossing the remote onto the couch.
"Cause there's supposed to be a greater purpose to seeing justice done." Max told him, cuddling closer. Just like that, the mood was broken. He stiffened, and set her away from him.
"What kind of greater purpose, Max? I mean, bad guy - good guy is just a matter of perspective, right?" Alec was angry. "To White, you're the Big Bad. Do you think for one instant that if he had you in his hands, that he would turn away in the name of 'justice'? Or, for that matter, anything else?"
"No." Max's voice raised with her own heat. "But I've still managed to survive every time anyway."
"We need to start fighting back, Max. We are only as good as our threat, and right now we have none."
"Our threat is why the people out there are scared spitless of us, Alec. It's what's causing all of this hostility!"
Alec stared at her. When he spoke, his voice was soft. "No, Max. The people... the ordinaries aren't any concern of mine; they aren't the issue here. It's the Familiars we need to stand and face, Max. And they are sure as shit not afraid of us."
Max's jaw set stubbornly. "It's the normals that we need to have on our side, Alec. We need to cultivate trust with them, because it's their world we have to live in."
"I'm not disagreeing with that!" Alec thrust his hand through his hair. "I'm trying to get you to look at real danger here! It isn't the ordinaries that are hunting us down and killing us one at a time; they're just the tool. We need to make a point to the Familiars. A big, messy fucking point."
"No." Max locked her eyes with his. "We can not afford to make any messes, Alec."
Alec turned away from Max, fists clenched. "We can't afford to go on this way, either, Max." he said to the wall.
She curled her hands around his shoulders. "I know," she told him. "We'll come up with something."
"It better be fast, Max." Alec sounded tired, bone weary. "I think you're running out of time."