Max could hear a soft rumbling and the sound of music. She opened her eyes, slowly, but didn't move. It was important not to give too much away until she understood what was going on. She was in a car. Why had she been sleeping in a car? She barely slept in her own bed, especially now. Her head was aching

She closed her eyes again, in the hope that the headache would go away. No luck. She opened them again. An oldies station was playing on the tinny radio. Some turn of the century rapper shrieked about things feeling empty without him. She came to realise that she was in a van, probably the same one they had loaded back at Logan's. She wondered who was driving and turned her head to look at the seat beside her. There was nobody in it. She squinted, despite her perfect eyesight. Vans did not drive themselves. There was a slippery feeling to the air around the steering wheel and in her head when she looked at the seat.

'Emerald?'

'Yeah?' She came into focus then, around her voice. It didn't sound like a happy 'yeah'.

'What's going on?'

'We're making the delivery'

'Logan's stuff?'

'Uh huh.' Emerald kept her eyes on the darkened street, driving slowly with the lights off.

Something occurred to her. 'Where's Alec?'

Emerald glanced at her. 'He left. He had to return the passcard' There was a pause. 'He's not in such great shape, Max'

Max wondered how Emerald had made that sound less like a statement and more like an accusatory question. Then it came back to her. Logan's apartment. The argument, the fight, brief and vicious. Alec had knocked her out, that much was obvious. She tentatively raised a hand to her face. The bruises from her sparring that morning had merged with new areas of tenderness, there was dried blood below her nose.

The music on the radio changed to aggressive metal-rock, there was a grinding crash of drums and guitar, the female vocalist alternately growling and screaming.

Alec. In bad shape. She felt, again, her fists, pounding into him, knuckles plunging into the soft flesh of his sides, crunching into his face. Aiming for the eyes. She glanced at her knuckles and saw that they were grazed in places, and crusted with blood. His blood, probably.

It felt abstract. She couldn't find the context for her blows. Where had all the anger gone? It had seared through her like a firestorm and left nothing behind. She tried to feel angry with Alec again. She couldn't. She couldn't feel sorry for hitting him either. She registered her own scathing words with a grim disinterest.

Emerald's voice interrupted her. 'Do you want to tell me what happened?' To Max, she sounded like a parent would sound, trying to be fair before administering a punishment.

'We fought.' She offered.

Emerald didn't say anything as she turned the van into the street level of a multi-storey car park.

'We…'Max struggled for words. 'Argued.' She scrubbed at her face with the pads of her fingers. 'Not in that order.'

'Right.' Emerald was concentrating hard as she turned the tight corners. They travelled down a level and Max realised that though she had been living in Seattle for most of her life, she had no idea where they were. 'What about ?'

Max felt a surge of emotion. 'Logan.' She realised with a twinge of shock that she was on the verge of tears. Her voice was creaky. 'He hit me.'

'Who? Alec?' Emerald sounded surprised.

'I hurt him so badly.' Max couldn't stop the tears from coming. She fought the embarrassment of it, falling back on a technique she had invented herself, holding her breath to stop the sobs from slipping out.

Her breath, when it came, was a gasp. 'I couldn't stop.'

The van went down another level, and the radio cut out.

There was silence.

The van's lights illuminated the empty car park half-heartedly, barely denting the darkness. Emerald turned another corner and another down ramp loomed in front of them. They descended until they came to a large roller door.

The van stopped and Emerald killed the engine and got out. The car's dim headlights illuminated an ancient looking keypad on one side of the door. She could feel Max's dark brown eyes on her back. She turned and walked back to the van, positioning herself behind the wheel.

The ancient roller door began to lift itself, groaning loudly from the effort. Halfway up, it stalled and there was a sharp screech of metal on metal until the door shuddered and continued up its track.

Emerald didn't say anything.

She started the van again and slipped it into gear. She drove even slower than before, driving the van into a far corner and parking it there. She looked over at Max. A brief internal argument occurred.

'Stay here'

She knew it would be easier with Max's help but some part of her didn't want Max to know Mole's secrets. She opened the back of the van and slid out the first box. It had a mixture of kitchen and medical supplies in it, jumbled together like an afterthought. It was light, and she carried it to the half-hidden door in the wall that Mole had told her would be there.

The handle turned silently and she cursed her norm-level night vision as she looked into the blackness beyond. She put the box down and fumbled in the back of her pants for the torch she had clipped there.

She held it in her mouth, the light surprisingly strong for such a small torch.

There was the shadowy dampness of a disused sewer ahead of her. She walked ahead for couple of meters and there it was. Rope, Hooks and a stack of white plastic tubs. A pulley system, stretching beyond the light of the torch and into the darkness.

Amazing.

She loaded the box into one of the deep plastic tubs but there was still room, so she turned to go back to the van. Beside the door, where she had not noticed it before, was a little wheeled trolley.

Emerald smiled.

She made short work of the van's contents, wheeling it to the tunnel and loading it into the tubs. Max did not stir from the van. There where 5 tubs in all, full and quite heavy. She dragged them, one at a time, onto a small metal platform, and used a metal lever to pump them high enough to be hooked to the ropes.

They swayed slightly, and she had a moments doubt about the system. It seemed too easy somehow, but the ropes held. She pulled the lower one towards her and the plastic tub slid away down the corridor, clearing space for the next.

As she was loading it occurred to her that the system had been specially modified to allow someone without trans-gen strength to operate it. After that, another thought came to her and she slipped it into the back of her mind to be pondered over later. Some matters required considerable thought.

Max watched Emerald climb behind the wheel, a small secretive smile hovering around her mouth.

She wanted to say something, but she didn't know what.

'I don't know what to do.' It surprised her, but it was true. It sounded right.

Emerald looked at her, her muddy brown eyes thoughtful. 'About what?'

She thought. 'About everything. The government. Alec'

Emerald nodded. 'Something has to be done'

'Any advice to offer?'

'Wear Sunscreen.'

'Excuse me?'

Emerald shook her head. 'Max, I don't know what to tell you. We need to make plans to deal with the government but only you can make the decisions… unless you want to shoulder that responsibility on to somebody else?'

Max looked thoughtful. 'I'm not the best qualified.'

'Who is?'

'I don't know. Got any ideas?'

'Define qualified. What makes the best kind of leader Max? Somebody who has the best interests of the people at heart? Someone who's won a lot of battles? Someone who has the best grip on the intell?'

'I don't know'

'You need to know. Before you erode everybody's confidence in you by showing your self doubt.'

'You don't understand.'

'That's right. I don't. That's why I can't really help. You already have the answers Max.'

'Then why am I so confused?'

'Probably because you're not being honest with yourself'

Max felt pressure on an already raw nerve and gave a bitter little smile. 'You been talking to Alec lately?'

She waited for Emerald to speak. The engine started and Emerald frowned in concentration as she backed the van up and turned it around. The van struggled up the ramp as the roller door closed behind it. Emerald was squinting over the wheel and it occurred to Max that Emerald probably didn't have great night vision.

She spoke. 'You need to fix that, Max. We've probably only got a week before the shit hits the fan.'

'How?'

'I don't care how. Just do it. If word of this gets out at T.C… things could get messy.'

Max struggled for something to say, but Emerald was right. Whatever was happening with her and Alec had to be resolved. And fast.

The radio came back, crackly at first, then clearer. A news bulletin.

'has stated categorically that Canada will not become embroiled in the Australasian war. In news closer to home, President Markson has sidelined corruption allegations, today offering the full support of the armed forces to the beleaguered government of Washington State.'

The voice of the President rustled over the airwaves, gaining in momentum.

'This administration is not afraid to tackle the problems of the past. This administration will confront the pestilence head on. This administration is poised for immediate action.

The people of America must no longer be forced to live in fear. The people of Seattle can no longer be expected to live with a nest of vipers in their midst'

No recourse will be given to the secessionist mutants of the so-called freak nation.

All their avenues of escape will be closed to them. No surrenders will be accepted. This administration will not be attempting to leash those monsters but rather, to eradicate them. The people of Seattle, no, the people of America, deserve that much'

The car rolled to a stop as Emerald took her foot off the gas. Max met her eyes.

'This is not good'

Alec didn't look up from his beer when the President stopped speaking and the crowd in the bar cheered. He didn't need to see them, rejoicing over his future death. Cheering the destruction of the freaks. He had seen enough when Biggs had died. A good friend. A great soldier, who had fought for his country, unpaid, courageously, again and again. Strung up on the street. Mocked. Burned and desecrated.

What had he done to deserve it? What had any of them done to deserve it? What would they do now?

He downed his beer and laid a note on the bar. Time to head back to T.C

Blue winced as Lucas used the tweezers to pull yet another tiny fragment of glass from her palm. She glanced at her left hand, immobilised by the bandages wrapped around it. A mummy hand. She grinned, and focused on Lucas, his forehead creased with concentration. She was careful to suppress the gasps of pain as he probed her flesh.

They worried about her too much when she was injured. Just like she worried about them.

She looked at his bowed head, the buzz cut hair and broad neck, the muscled shoulders. The skin, she knew, was firm and soft. She remembered touching it, slick with sweat and arousal, her hand sliding across his broad back. She felt a slow burn of arousal low in her stomach at the thought. He looked up at her and smiled lazily, the sudden rise in pheromones catching his attention.

The door clicked open behind her, and she knew it was Eric.

'Hey. The president committed the army today. We might be seeing some action soon.'

Blue looked over her shoulder at him, and raised an eyebrow.

'You think so?'

'Well, yeah. Unless…'he trailed off as he came closer, the smell of the room sinking in.

He was silent as he came to sit behind her, bending his face into the crook of her neck.. Lucas put the tweezers aside, in slow motion, and lifted the bandages, caressing her wrist and kissing the scrapes as he wrapped her fingers one by one. He reached her undamaged thumb and lowered his mouth one again, sucking on it briefly and leaving it bandage less.

Blue leaned back into Eric as he kissed her neck, sucking on the pulse beneath the skin. A low moan escaped her and Lucas looked up, dark eyes meeting hers seriously.

'You going to be alright? These are pretty bad.' He squeezed her hand gently.

She could barely find the breath to answer him as he leaned forward to kiss her.

'We'll work around them'