The girls have gone into one of Jondy's old haunts. Max learns a dark secret of Jondy's and a strange truth about the cult along the way. The Colonel and Brin have a heart to heart at gun point while Eyes Only discusses life, liberty and the concepts behind power and control with Captain Cowers. It's just another strange day in a broken world.
There's only a few chapters left of this particular tale. More stories in the history are on the way of course, but this one is nearing its exciting conclusion. I hope everyone is enjoying it. I would like to thank those who did review and the couple of new people speaking up for the first time. It's great to have you on board. Thanks.
Now. Continuing in my usual Idiom I would just like to say thank you to the reviewers. I appreciate every word you have to say, always. To the lurkers out there, I hope you are enjoying it as well. And from my end. As always, read, review and let me know what you think.
ENJOY!!!
Mysterious Ways
RCF Industrial
Sector Nine…
Colonel Donald Lydecker was not a stupid man. He was cold, calculating and in control of the things around him. Only three times in his life did he meet or cross paths with someone or something he wasn't sure about. Only three times did he not have control of the situation.
The first time, he came home to find his wife dead. The way he found her brought darkness to his soul which would never go away. He loved that woman more than any would ever know. Most of him died that day. He tried to get that part of him back. He did. He wanted what had been lost returned to him, but there was nothing he could bring back. She was gone and with her went most of what made him a stable man.
It's how he found his way into a bottle. He stopped in that place, hanging out, experiencing it. He liked the bottle. It had become a part of him. It had become a large part, replacing what had been lost when she went away. He had grown accustomed to the emptiness being filled by things he couldn't remember.
When his beloved Military pushed him away, he actually thanked them. He was happy in a strange, psychotic way. Going home that first night after the hearing left him comfortable. It was a bizarre comfort but it was comfort. He had thanked the old General and his staff for the dismissal and moved on to the nearest liquor store. He spent every penny in his pocket on the dark nectar. He welcomed the blissful oblivion it brought him. He enjoyed the lack of everything that it left within him.
He forgot.
He wanted it that way.
There was no memory of the time he spent locked in that cold hotel drinking. He remembered nothing of the days that passed. He didn't care that life went by while he tried desperately to summon Death every night. He tried. He tried to bring the sweet darkness he knew would give him the nothing he deserved.
Only… death never came to him.
A man named Sandemann came for him instead. Doctor Sandemann wasn't the death he sought, but he was a hell unto himself. He was the second point Colonel Donald Lydecker met in his life that gave him pause. Sandemann was in control. The Doctor was all about control. It was all he had ever known.
He pried the bottle out of the Colonel, or maybe he pried the Colonel out of the bottle. Neither man knew for sure. Neither man cared. When Lydecker finished that first month of sobriety he realized he no longer cared about the bottle. His wife was still lost to him but Sandemann had replaced his only love with children that needed guidance, the only guidance that a man like Colonel Lydecker could provide.
The project was even more covert than Lydecker's black operations while he was with the US Army Rangers. They had started a program to create the perfect soldier. They had begun to shape creations they could use to save a world. They had created a new human prototype, one they could shape into whatever they wanted.
It had been Sandemann's plan all along. He had known things were coming that Lydecker couldn't have foreseen and the Colonel tried to wait. He wanted to trust Sandemann, but the man wasn't forthcoming with enough information. He wouldn't tell the Colonel any more than he needed to know.
So the Colonel, devious as only he could be, decided to find out for himself. It hadn't taken long actually. It only took a few weeks of digging, but he found out. He found everything he was looking for. He found all of it and shortly after that last piece of information fell into place, Sandemann found him.
They confided that night. The Doctor, with his Sherry and The Colonel, with his tall glass of ice water sat comfortably in a quiet office under the umbrella of some state of the art technology. No one could hear the secrets they traded between them.
A group, known only as the committee, had arranged everything. They gave Sandemann the money, the technology and the facilities to create these soldiers. Then something happened. The committee changed. It became something different, something wrong, something that should never have been.
It became something evil.
It became the one thing Sandemann and Lydecker didn't want it to be. They launched a plan to save the project they had both become so involved in. They went against the committee and for that they were hunted. Sandemann was the first to find a way out, while others died or were disappeared. The Colonel stayed behind, honoring the age-old tradition. He stayed to take one for the team.
It didn't work that way, though. A situation presented itself and he found he was in a unique position. He was given the duty of training a new class of soldiers. The committee gave him a test and he passed with flying colors. He was put in charge of a group known as X-5.
He picked them up when they were two years old. By the time they were five, they had learned so much that they were easily two years beyond the remnants of the previous class. The learning curve they existed on was off the scale. They were and would become the best the world would ever see. He knew this. He had worked toward this goal since the day he met Sandemann.
When 13 of them escaped in 2009, he remained objective. He picked out a few special targets and isolated them to make it appear his team was doing their job. He remained in control although he had again become a target. A new director was brought in from the committee with credentials that even Lydecker couldn't get to. Things had changed again.
The Colonel was ordered out into the field. He was told to find the escapees at any cost short of termination. He found one in LA. The boys name was Zane. He had become an accomplished little thief and as The Colonel and his team moved in, something happened that would change the face of the world forever. The pulse came and went. A nuclear airburst fried every circuit. Everything had been affected. Everything except the committee.
The Colonel knew they had been preparing for something when he received directive 13. It was time to go dark. He welcomed this opportunity to solidify a base of operation. He knew the committee would eventually contact him again and exert their control. When they did, he needed to be in a position to show them he was in control. When they came, he had what he needed.
They didn't like that he had not found any of the escaped children. They sent troops to remove him and take over the operation. He took out three of the committee members himself within a single day. He stated his position. He was on board with the whole program. He was just on his own board. The committee had no choice but to give him control of the field. They did so reluctantly, continuing to send the occasional political officer to watch him and report back. They reported only what he wanted them to know.
He set up his operation in the southeast of Seattle in an abandoned military hospital. It was the third facility the project had ever maintained. The first had been dismantled. The second, in Gillette, was the main base and now Colonel Lydecker sat in the main office of his own base. He had five hundred hand picked soldiers. They were the cream of a non-existent crop of highly trained specialists from all branches. He had a large team of doctors and specialists in all fields and he had the kids. Remnants of X-3 and 4 were in secure positions. The remaining X-5 had mostly been placed in field assignments and a few of the most accomplished X-6 had been used. The remaining X-6 were used as guards to keep out the unwanted. Lydecker was pleased. He even had two new groups being coming up. The X-7 and X-8 were young but the training was moving along well beyind any expectations.
Things were beginning to fall into place. It had taken several years to get where he wanted to be and in that time he hadn't given up the search. He had maintained just enough of an effort to appease the committee. He kept an ear to the ground, but for his plan to work he couldn't readily bring them in. He needed them to be out there, learning.
And that is exactly what they did.
They learned well. One in particular learned too well. It was the littlest X-5 from that perfect group that Colonel Lydecker was most proud of. She had become everything the project had ever hoped it could create. Sandemann would have been proud beyond his greatest expectations of the one designated X5-452.
She was the one the project had been designed for. She was the epitome of the super-soldier they had sought to create. She was pure in every respect of the word.
Colonel Lydecker remembered the discussion in his office with the young soldier under his command. "I saw a girl, a woman really..." The boy had said. "Built like a girl... a woman." The words echoed in his mind. He had been trailing an X-5 known as Seth. He had found a link to his future in the shadow of a small girl instead. Seth chose death rather than go back to the project, but she was there that day. She would eventually take Colonel Lydecker directly to the place he hated being the most.
She put him and everything he had worked for over the years right out there in the worst possible position a covert operation such as the Colonel's could encounter. She set Lydecker and his secrets in front of a powerful and dangerous adversary that by all intents and purposes didn't actually exist. X5-452 led Colonel Lydecker into the realm of a man with no name. She offered his secrets to a man that had no face. The one that had chosen her name first, rather than be a number, the one called Max had placed Colonel Lydecker and all his secrets in plain sight of a most formidable foe.
The third loss of control Colonel Donald Lydecker had ever known came from X5-452. Max had taken his covert operation and placed it on the mainframe of the all-seeing entity known as Eyes Only. The infamous cyber-journalist had hacked his way into the history books. He had broken ground on vigilance and he had become the first person in history to hack the entire planet. A hack that repeated for seven consecutive hours and warned The Rogue escapees as well as several X-5 placed in deep cover operations throughout the world. In trying to protect the Rogues, he had disrupted over forty Manticore missions.
He had pushed the threshold and with it The Colonel. The island had been his first acknowledgement. "We have the suspects. Five miles…" Those words had bounced around for days in the Colonel's head. Of course the Colonel had no idea who the man on the other end had been. He didn't know then that Eyes Only had hijacked and jammed his second teams signal. He just knew someone had played him.
A long time had passed and he knew nothing. He watched sitting in his cold, dark apartment waiting for news to break. He remembered watching all of the hacks as they came. He saw the criminals falling to their inevitable doom at the hands of the all-seeing eyes. He hadn't put it together. He hadn't even worried until the day he hatched the plot to get Zack to lead him to the others. 599 was a loyal soldier, even at his worst times and when the situation came to a head, just at the moment he was processing the data from the implant and preparing to move, the hack came.
"Do not attempt to adjust your set. This is a streaming freedom satellite hack of the Eyes Only Informant Net. This hack cannot be traced and it will not be stopped. This goes out to those known as X-5. You have been compromised. You know what to do…" The hack said. It ran every hour on the hour for seven of them. He told himself he would find the man no matter what.
He vowed to find him. He vowed to make sure it wouldn't happen again. He set up a team to monitor and trace the activities of Eyes Only. They monitored, but it was impossible to track the man. He was good. He was elite. He was better than the best. Lydecker knew this because he had the best working for him and they were stumped.
He watched the hacker; every broadcast after that. He saw a few hacks in the following weeks. Some more major players fell with a dull thud. He knew Max was involved at this point. How deeply she was in was unknown, but when Brin came back to the project and Tinga fell to the blonde bitch, he realized there was more to her relationship with Eyes Only than anyone had realized.
She and Logan Cale were in love. They had that kind of relationship only true soulmates could have. They were meant to be. He recognized it every time they looked at each other.
Sandemann had planned for this contingency. He had meant from the beginning for each of the children to one day find someone and eventually couple but he had always believed they would find one among their own. Max found the only one like her out in the real world, not within the confines of Manticore. She happened upon a person walking the dark road, maybe even waiting for her there. She found her soulmate and she refused to give him up for anything.
He had worried at first. He was not unlike a Father trying to protect his daughter from the wrong influence in the matter. He judged this man from the beginning as a mere human like himself. Tinga and her son Case planted the seed for his eventual acceptance of the man. It was one of the reasons he called Logan 'son' so much. When that man walked into Manticore and left with his perfect soldier in his arms, he knew she was with the right man. She had chosen wisely.
He was proud of her. He was almost as proud of another of the Rogues. 734 had been returned, near death due to a flaw in her genetic structure. She was suffering from Progeria, an aging disease. They had lost four others to the disease before they found the flawed gene sequence and corrected it. When Max and Zack sent Brin back Deck had taken point personally. Renfro was on her way in at the time and he knew her from back in the day. She was power mad and she would eventually turn against him.
He would not lose control to her. He knew her to well and when Brin began her re-indoctrination he was left with only one choice. He planted a trigger. He had hated doing it but knowing what he did left him with no alternative.
Checking his watch, he knew she would be here soon. He would have expected her to be watching him already but he had heard nothing. Of course, where the X-5 soldiers were concerned, that actually meant nothing. He was a smart man though and he had been a good soldier despite his dishonor in the end. He was backed up against a solid brick wall with the only two possible entrances into the room visible before him. She would have to come in them. He might not have a chance to react but she would have not other choice on the entrances.
Her footsteps echoed along the hall near the door from the right. She was coming alone. This was not a surprise. She was more than capable of taking him. She knew this.
"In here Brin." He said quietly. It was still loud enough for her to hear.
"Brin is dead." She answered. "My designation is X5-734." She said as she stepped into the room. She had come prepared. Her weapon pointed directly between his brows. "Tell me where Eyes Only is or I will kill you."
Safe house
Sector Nine…
Captain Cowers stepped from the hummer. He looked around but could spot nothing out of the ordinary. Some homeless people were trying to hide from them. A couple of others, lost wandered the streets.
He ordered his guards to their positions and sent a team inside to scout the building. He smiled. He had planned to stay ahead of the game. He wasn't going to let Eyes Only make a fool of him. He was certain he had the upper hand in this.
Twenty minutes later, ten minutes after he had lost contact with the infiltration team, he heard his phone ring.
"Who is this?" He demanded.
"I just wanted a friendly little chat. I did not want to teach you a lesson. But you leave me no choice." A voice said.
Four bullets ripped into his vehicle. The radiator began to smoke from two points while the radio short circuited inside the hummer. A fourth bullet shattered the rear view mirror beside him and lodged in the door just inches away from his free hand.
"You may proceed inside and discuss the matter at hand or you can turn and leave, pondering your ignorance as I crumble your entire operation around you. The choice is yours." The voice said.
He knew it was Eyes Only. It wasn't hard to figure out. He walked in the door without looking back at his men. It was better than letting them see the fear in his eyes.
The room upstairs was lit. It was the only one in the building that showed any light. It was waiting for him on the table. A very impressive rig with a huge monitor sat on the table. The screen was dark as he peered into the room. He would have to sit with his back to the door.
"I don't like this." He mumbled.
"I don't care." A disembodied voice boomed. "Step into the room." It said. "You know the alternative."
Captain Cowers stepped into the room. The light dimmed and the screen grew snowy, slowly dissolving into the sickeningly familiar grey eyes on a red, white and blue scrolling background. They stared back at him with an intensity he couldn't hope to match on his most determined day. He didn't have it in him. Eyes Only did.
"Sit down."
"What do you want from me?" Cowers asked. "What happened to my men?"
"I will not argue such things with you Captain. I will tell you that your team is unharmed. If you wish them to stay that way, then you will do exactly as I say."
"What if I don't?" Cowers asked. He sneered as if he knew something Eyes Only didn't. A bullet ripped through the window to his left and broke through the chair leg sending the Captain tumbling to the floor over the collapsed leg behind him.
"Are you going to persist with the stupid questions?" Eyes Only asked. "I can end this right here and now. It would only take one shot."
"NO!" Cowers shouted. He lifted himself from the floor.
"Then sit down and lets talk like civilized human beings about this." Eyes Only ordered.
"On what?" Cowers asked.
"On the chair, fool."
Cowers glared at the screen as he struggled to balance the chair he was sitting on. He was terrified. Eyes Only had the control here and he knew it. He could see it in the hacker's eyes. "What do you want from me?"
"I want you to open that folder on the floor in front of you. It contains information that you need to read. There is a group trying to take over the world." Eyes Only said. "I have been collecting any and all information I could find on them. I have run across much of this information in unlikely places." He continued. The Captain flipped through the folder.
"Do you expect me to believe any of this?" He asked those eyes.
"I expect you to be an intelligent man. I will not force you into anything. I will let you take this information and read it and in two days time I will contact you for your response." Eyes Only said. "The choice is yours."
"If I choose your side in this, what then?" Cowers asked.
"We will save the world." Eyes Only said.
"And If I refuse?" Another bullet ripped through the window and shattered the remaining rear leg sending cowers back onto the floor. The folder pitched across the room and papers slid out in an orderly but expansive pattern.
"Do we understand each other?" Eyes Only asked.
"How can I verify any of this?"
"I can put you in touch with someone that has been on the same trail I have. He has much of the same information I have, but little that I don't. I can give you his name and number if you wish or you can just meet with him."
"Who is it? What makes you think I would trust one of your people?"
"His name is Donald Lydecker." Eyes Only said. "He was your former commander I believe."
"You're lying. Lydecker is dead."
"What makes you think that?"
"Director Renfro…" The Captain started but stopped quickly.
"She failed. I killed her myself. She destroyed Manticore, not me. I set those children loose when she was going to burn them alive. How a sniveling little coward like you gathered a platoon under your command I'll never know." Eyes Only yelled. The Captain sat on his butt on the floor staring up into those eyes with fear in his own. "You worked for the very people that are trying to control this world. I WILL NOT LET THAT HAPPEN." His disembodied voice echoed through the distortion in the computer speakers. "I will give you this option. Your ill-conceived attempt to destroy me has failed. Your ignorance in this matter will get you killed. I can do this without you. I can do it easier with you on my side."
"Your side? How is it you have a side. When I was back in Manticore there was only one loose end. Colonel Lydecker was the man, the only man in a position to muck up everything we worked for…"
"You worked for? You were a patsy of the committee. You were placed to watch and report on the project. You were the loose end that mucked everything up. I want you to understand something. Your precious X-5 commander, the one named Brin is in conference with Colonel Lydecker right now. She is reading information similar to what I have given you in that folder. I will bet your life that she is not arguing this as heavily as you are right now." Eyes Only laughed. "You are a fool. The cult has been planning this conquest for the last seven-thousand years. What don't you understand about that?"
"7000?" Cowers voiced the number in barely audible tones.
"Yes. They have only one agenda. They want to control the world. Manticore was created to fight this cult. I don't know how or why Manticore's creator knew about them but I assure you I will find out. Do not doubt me. Do not cross me. Do not fight me. You will lose. I guarantee you would not survive such a confrontation."
Cowers sat on the floor for a long time. A few minutes passed. He just stared into the eyes. Eyes that didn't blink. Eyes that frightened him. Eyes that could remove him from the picture with a word or a thought.
"I will read your folder and take everything you have presented to me under advisement. I will not however make any promises that I will back you in this." He said.
"You do not make that decision. My city, my rules. You will follow the chain of command in this. As I clearly stated before, you know the consequences."
"You're going to kill me?"
"Yes."
The Captain swallowed hard. He had not expected such a flat, unfeeling, cold response. "Just like that?"
"Only like that. You came here to do no less to me. Work with me and live. Work against me and you will not make it back to your vehicle alive. I cannot let anyone stand in my way. Especially not the likes of you." Eyes Only said. "Now pick up that folder."
"What about Lydecker?" Cowers demanded.
"What about him? Do you wish to speak to him?"
"Yes."
"He is ten blocks from here on the other side of the sector. There is an abandoned building marked with the letters RCF. It was an old industrial complex. He is there with Brin now."
"Brin?" Cowers asked. "Who is Brin?"
"X5-734." Eyes Only said. "You were specially educated weren't you?"
"I don't believe you."
"Are you going to start this again?" Eyes Only asked. Cowers scurried out of the line of sight from the window. He stared in fear at the window for a minute before looking back to the monitor.
"RCF you say?"
"Brin and the Colonel are there now." Eyes Only said. "It would not be unexpected if you were to arrive. I would read that stuff on the way over."
"What do I have to do?"
"Go and talk to the Colonel." Eyes Only said. "That's not too complicated, is it?"
"He knows about this?"
"Yes. You have one minute to return to your vehicle or my people will open fire." Eyes Only's fading laughter could be heard as his framed eyes slowly dissolved into a snowy background before the screen went blank.
Cowers quickly picked up the papers and stuffed them in the brown folder before running out of the room and down the steps to the door he had entered. When he rushed outside he was surprised to find that he was alone. His guards had abandoned him. His hummer was broken down. He had only the folder in his hands and the word of a known enemy to trust.
He had no idea how to proceed. He just stood there waiting for the bullet to rip into him.
It never came.
Fashion Square roof
Phoenix, Arizona…
"What do you mean?" Max demanded.
"About what?" Jondy asked.
"You said something about someone not wanting to see you." Jace said climbing the stairs behind Max.
"Oh… that…" Jondy smiled.
"I wouldn't worry about that."
She continued. "I was just
mumbling to myself." She said. Max
didn't buy it.
"Jondy!" She said.
"It's nothing really. I knew this guy once. We were close but it didn't last. You know the type of things I'm talking about Max." She said. Max nodded. Jace didn't
"I don't. You used to be with this guy?" Jace asked. She was curious. She had only recently escaped Manticore.
"Sort of." Jondy said. "That thing in the alley actually happened, Max. The one I told you about. It's just that those guys that assaulted me weren't just a bunch of drunken gangbangers. They were a gang. I stole something from them."
"You were a thief?" Jace asked.
"I didn't steal things, per se. I liberated them from people that didn't need them and gave them to people that did." Jondy said. They reached the top of stairs. "It was kind of a really weird Robin Hood thing." Jondy reached for the door but it opened before she could reach the handle.
"Well, well, well…" A strong male voice said. "You've got a lot of nerve showing your face around here." The man was all muscle with his fair share of scars. He wasn't pretty to look at but the right kind of woman would find him strangely attractive. "We never thought we'd see you again."
"And you don't see me now. Out of my way Bull." Jondy said.
The big man stepped aside and let Jondy walk past but he reached out with his big hand toward Max about level with the top of her low-cut shirt. "Only you. The other two will stay…"
She intercepted his hand twisting the wrist up and out forcing the big man to bend at the waist. She easily snapped his wrist. A simple shove sent him sprawling to the ground. "No one but my boyfriend puts his hands there." She warned. "Anyone else want to try their luck?"
No one made a move toward the girls. Jondy was laughing. Max was pissed and Jace clutched the baby tightly to her own chest. She was watching everyone closely.
"No?" Max continued. "Good. I'm not in a great mood today. The first broken bone is a warning. The next one that tries anything gets a broken neck." She warned.
"C'mon." Jondy said. "He's over here."
"Who?" Max asked.
"Joe." Jondy confessed.
"Joe?" Jace asked. "Who's Joe?"
"I am." A man said. The girls looked up toward what appeared to be a raised platform. A man stood there. He was smiling one of those smiles that hid meanings of things lost for ages. Jondy walked right up onto the platform and stood in front of him. He dwarfed her small frame as she stood there and stared up at him. "It's good to see you, little one."
"I didn't know if I should come back or not." Jondy said. "After what happened that one time, I was worried that you might not like me."
"It wasn't like that. When I returned to the apartment and found you had left…" He didn't finish the thought.
"I missed you." Jondy said. She stepped closer to the big man as he reached down and engulfed her in his arms. She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck pulling up to meet his lips. They kissed. Deeply.
Max cleared her throat. She wasn't pushy about it, but she was trying to get the point across that it wouldn't be long before White would have the entire city crawling with agents and his personal warriors, The Phalanx.
The kiss lingered for a minute before he set Jondy gently to the floor. They stared at each other for a short time before anyone spoke. Max felt really strange. She recognized something in the way they were staring at each other. She knew she had looked at Logan that way a time or two.
It was Jondy that spoke first. "We've got a situation." Jondy said.
"When do you not, little one?" The big man called Joe, asked. "Who are your friends?"
"These are my sisters. The ones I told you about. The tall one is Jace and her baby is little Maxie. That's Max. She's my best friend." Jondy said. "We've run into a bit of a situation with a guy named White."
"White? You mean Ames White?" Joe asked. Jondy nodded.
"That's his name." Max said. "You know him?"
"I do." Joe said. "We've crossed paths before."
"What do you mean?" Jace asked.
"I've run into him on occasion. We have a mutual understanding. I don't like him and he doesn't like me." Joe said. "An explanation of that is irrelevant. I assume you've come for your package." He asked Jondy.
"I did." She answered. "Do you still have it?"
"I do." Joe said. "Stunned that I would keep it?"
"When you didn't show up back at the apartment I figured you didn't care anymore." Jondy said. "As if you ever cared in the first place."
"I did care. You were the one running from who you were. I went out that night and found some information you probably wouldn't have liked me knowing anyway."
"What kind of information?" Jondy asked.
"What you are." Joe said.
"So that's why you didn't come back?" Jondy asked. "Because you learned that I'm not exactly human?"
"No. I didn't come back that night because I got into it with Ames over something that was beyond my control." He said.
"What are you to talking about?" Jace asked.
"It sounds more like an argument." Max said. "What I'd like to know is how come you seem to know so much about Ames White?"
"That's a long story." Jondy answered before Joe could. "And we don't have a lot of time."
"Come with me." Joe said. "There's a back way to my quarters." He turned and walked toward a second stairwell leading down. There were two guards standing there watching the girls closely.
"I want to hear it." Max said.
"You won't like what you hear." Joe said. "But if you come with me then I will tell you a deep dark secret that Ames White and his cultists don't want you to know."
"Tell me now before we take another step." Max demanded.
"Not out here."
"Why?" Jace demanded.
"Because I can't." Joe said growing visibly angry.
Jondy stepped forward. She looked into Max. Max stared back at her sister, her best friend. "Trust me. Please."
"I do, Jondy. I just don't trust him." Max said.
"But I do. As much as you trust Logan."
Max stared at Jondy for a full minute before looking at Joe and nodding. "Sorry."
"I understand. In a moment you will as well." Joe said. "Just not out here." He turned and headed into the stairwell. The girls followed him into a large hall leading into an open chamber with far more room than anyone needed for private living quarters. There were several people around, all of them watching the girls suspiciously. Most of the people were women. A few were men. The girls followed Joe through a veritable maze of small islands of collected groups whispering among themselves of the new arrivals.
Joe led them into another larger chamber about half the size of the main hall. "The place used to be a fashion mall. This was a Limited before the pulse. Eighteen different shops in one main department store at the end of the mall made up this place. When I arrived there were still working shops here. Mall security learned very quickly that I wasn't going anywhere." He explained.
"So you just moved in and no one said anything?" Jace asked.
"There wasn't much anyone could do." Joe said. "The country had fallen apart. Martial law was in effect everywhere and the looters had already stripped everything. There were very few people with wealth. Most were just wandering around banging their heads together and asking why."
"So you set yourself up as some kind of leader, a kingpin the people could flock to?" Max asked. She was wandering around the large former shop looking at things. Memories of the Chinese Theater flooded her mind and she smiled. It had been hard at first but now she only remembered the good times.
"I set myself up a home to live in. Others came later." Joe said. "Then more and still more after that. Before long, the entire fashion mall was inhabited by displaced people, outsiders and lost souls. My warriors and I protect them. We keep out the darkness that constantly tries to swallow them up and engulf them in its evil."
Max was wandering around the room looking at things, poking her head here and there while Joe was digging for something behind his bed. He pulled out a lot of things piling them beside him. Finally he pulled out a small box. He turned and sat on the edge of the bed looking at Jondy.
"I can't believe you kept it all this time."
"How could I not?" Joe asked. "I had always hoped I would see you again. I believed I would."
"I just never expected you would lead Ames White right to my doorstep upon your return."
"What happened that night?" Jondy asked.
"The same thing that happens every time we cross the same path. A war breaks out." Joe said. "I was going out on a routine hunt to try and bring in some more refugees from…" He paused looking at Max. Max was watching him. "From the road." He said. He knew Max didn't buy it.
"And White was there."
"White is always there. He doesn't like losing people anymore than your Colonel Lickerwanker or whatever his name was." He smiled. Jondy laughed.
"Lickerwanker?" She said. "You're a nut."
"Yeah, look. I know you wanted this back so I wrapped it in this box and left it back there where only you and I ever went."
"Thanks." Jondy said. "You don't know how much this means to me."
"I think I do." Joe said.
"What I don't know is, these refugees you were talking about." Max said. "Who are they and why was White looking for them?" She was holding a jersey of some kind in her hands and looking at Jondy.
"Max?" Jondy said her name. She was confused and watching her sister closely. The jersey hadn't gone unnoticed.
"So you know." Joe said.
"I know this much." Max started, but two men burst through the doors and cut her off.
"What is it?" Joe demanded.
"Choppers circling." One of the men said. "They've got five choppers and full squads. I think they intend to drop troops."
"He wouldn't be that foolish." Joe said.
"He would be. He has no fear of anyone." Max said. She had remained mostly quiet watching the situation play out. "I kicked the crap out of him but he just kept coming."
"Joe. We have to get out of here. Our bikes are stashed on the west side of the building." Jondy said.
"Jondy. We have to get out of here and the less he knows the better it will be for us." Max said.
"Max, you don't understand…"
"I understand perfectly." Max said. "He's playing you Jondy. He's not this great guy you think he is."
"What are you saying Max?" Jondy asked.
She tossed the jersey onto the bed. It landed with the right arm in plain view. A patch was sewn into the shoulder there. "Is that your shirt?" Max demanded. Joe nodded.
"It is." He said.
"Jondy. That's a Phalanx patch. Joe is one of White's soldiers. You've walked us right into the middle of a cult encampment." Max said.
"Max. You have to listen to me." Jondy started.
"No. Jondy. She doesn't. The three of you need to get out of here."
"You're not going to turn us over to him?" Max asked. She seemed stunned.
"No. I'm not. I wouldn't do that to any of you."
"But you're Phalanx."
"Yes. And so is every other person in this place."