Here is chapter three of Shadow of the Cat. Part seven of the Season One Future History. We find things getting out of control in and around Seattle. Wandering Soul, an Eyes Only informant finds a key piece of the puzzle, but an unexpected player in the game disrupts things in a most unusual way. Everything points to something big on the horizon, but unfortunately, with Max and Logan missing, no one knows what it is or could be…
As always to everyone, read, review and above all else, enjoy!
Identity
Identity…
That's a concept I'm not familiar with.
I don't know who I am.
I did once, I think. Remember… no, not remember. I knew once who I was. I know I did.
I think I did.
I look around as I walk down this barren, deserted street. I see dim lights shining in strange wavy patterns around dark curtains, and I know there are people inside doing things that I don't understand but know how to do.
I walk alone. I stand alone. I do everything alone.
I don't know why. I don't know how. I just don't know. There is, I think someone who could tell me. I see her in my dreams at night when I regenerate. At least I think they are dreams… I don't know for sure. They could be nightmares. They could be memories. They could be dreams.
Sometimes she's alone. Sometimes she's with a man. I don't know either of them but they seem familiar to me. I lie there at night wondering who they are and how they seem to be the only ones I remember. I often ask myself if I actually remember them. I often ask myself if I didn't invent them.
She's beautiful. She's more beautiful than I could ever have imagined a woman could be. I look around day and night as I walk wherever it is I'm going, and I don't see any women as beautiful as the woman in my dreams. She doesn't always smile. She doesn't always frown. The look on her face and in her eyes is always somewhere in between sadness and happiness. It's as if she alone carries some burden a girl her age was never meant to carry. Nothing changes the fact that I don't know who she is, though.
Sometimes there is a man with her. He is tall and strong, and when they are together, the girl seems to almost be a part of him. It's unnerving, really. I can't say that I fully grasp the meaning there. I guess that's just the way it's meant to be. When she's alone, she's somewhere not quite peaceful, but when she's with that man… he is an oddity.
He stands tall behind her, and strong, but now that I think about it, I've never noticed his legs. I can't remember anything below his stomach. I admit I've never really looked, but I notice these things. It's as if he is floating around her, not actually real but not really actual…
That doesn't make sense, I know. Nothing makes much sense right now. I know I am connected in some way. Good or bad, there is a connection. Somehow, they are a part of my non-existent life. Somehow, I'm going to find the angel of my nights and her man, and then I will have the answers I seek.
Somehow…
Somewhere…
I'm not sure when it began. Well, that is actually a lie. Not that I am into deception as a rule. I use it because I know how. It's all a part of the mystery. I know exactly when it began. I remember right down to the second when I awoke.
Can I call it that? Can I actually say I awoke, that I awakened?
I have no other response. I awoke. Yes. That is exactly what happened. I was asleep and then I was awake.
It was November 16, 2021. It was a Tuesday. It was 5:06.43 p.m.
It was black. There wasn't the slightest bit of light and I only realized why when I tried to move. I was secured inside of a box. That was the weirdest part. I was confined in a box. It wasn't hard to get out of. I had the strength to do it. When I stood there naked, staring down at the box, it seemed to me that the Styrofoam had been fitted to my form. There were tubes attached to my arms and my nose. I recognized the tube in my nose as pumping pure oxygen. The tubes were from some bag marked in medical terms that I didn't care about. I pulled the tubes from my nose and arms, and looked around.
I was in some sort of warehouse. The crate I had been in seemed to be the only one like mine, but I wasn't going to stick around to find out. I could hear people moving around. Step by step as they walked. That had been the first time I realized that I had knowledge of certain things. I knew they were guards.
I also knew I needed to get some clothes. That turned out to be easier than I thought. One of the guards was heading toward a room by himself. I followed after him and surprised him by a locker. He was holding non-uniform style clothing, blue jeans and a shirt. There was also a brown leather jacket.
Getting out was just as easy. I move fast. I move remarkably fast. One minute I was standing behind a set of high shelves packed with boxes, and the next I was standing fifty yards away. It took less than five seconds to traverse that distance. 3.3 to be exact.
Who moves that fast?
I do.
That had been just a few days ago. It was a long couple of days. Now I'm walking along the street wondering what this feeing is in my stomach and trying to figure out who I am.
I don't know how long I walked around that area. There were a lot of people standing around, obviously living on the streets. The city was a mess. Somehow, I knew it had been this way for a long time. I'm not sure how I knew that, but I did know it.
I had wandered for a long time, just taking in everything I could and trying hard to remember even the slightest things. I had followed a well-traveled path to the edge of a river. It was the Mississippi. I'm not sure if I was just remembering facts I had known before or if this was all a part of something from my past, like maybe I had lived here once.
Looking around, I could see a hoverdrone approaching from the east, and several boats full of people, tied along the shore. South of my position was a giant silver arch, now tarnished and missing several large pieces of steel around the lowest points. It became obvious as I approached that the panels had been used to build the small shantytown near the base that led into an underground passage below.
Armed guards were blocking the passage. They eyed me suspiciously as I passed, but I knew even with the weapons… they were no match for me.
I walked up along the broken chunks of pavement beneath the arch, across what used to be a commons area and small urban park. The arch towered over my head, and I felt a sudden, irresistible urge to climb to the top. Looking around and seeing no one watching closely, I headed into the superstructure and started the long climb to the top.
The stairs were rusty and creaked, but they still held strong. Panels had been removed or had just wasted away, so small pockets of light were trickling in. I had realized early on that I could see in the dark, so it wasn't a problem for me.
I didn't care how much time had passed, but when I reached the top, I did feel just a bit winded, so I stopped and sat down for a while, and looked out through a rusty hole over the city across the river. It was peaceful here in the high place…
The high place. That's exactly where I was. I had come to the high place before, only it was a different high place. I remember there were several of us up there that night. We were collecting teeth on an old tray. It was funny, but Jace had smuggled a candle into the barracks. She said it smelled nice, and she would often sit on her bunk late at night, and just hold it in her lap and breathe in its flavor. I remember when she gave it to me. The night Krit's tooth had fallen out; we had taken him to the high place up on the roof above the barracks. I remembered the look on his face. Ben had taken each one of us up there when we lost a tooth. It was an initiation of sorts. I remember because the young one, Krit he called himself, had just lost his first tooth about a week after Max had. He had that goofy grin we all had when Ben dragged us up there to offer our teeth to the blue lady.
The high place. It was all we had. Krit… Max… Ben. We had the high place, but only Ben could talk to the blue lady. Why would I remember that? What did it mean? Who were Krit, Max, and Ben? I know there were others up there with us. I know we were all a part of the same group, but who the hell were they and why do I remember them?
Why can't I remember myself?
A noise reaches me from the main chamber and I'm immediately on my feet, heading into the small upper room at the top of the arch. I can hear groaning as I approach a wall. 'Duty', 'discipline' and 'mission' are spray-painted on it. A glance out to my right shows the same view I was staring at earlier, and as I move around the side, I see a man chained in a very uncomfortable position.
He looks familiar to me.
"X5-599?" He seems as startled to see me as I am to see him. "I thought you were dead?"
"Dead?" I ask. "I'm not dead. Who are you and what is an X5-599?"
"You are. Your designation is X5-599. You're a Manticore soldier," he says. Something changes in his eyes. I pick up on the subtle change for some reason. "I saved your life. You have to help me."
"What are you talking about?" I ask. I get another flash of something. A man screaming, "RUN!" I was in a wooded area and just before I became a part of the forest, he was shot. I recognize him now. "You're the doctor who gave me the drugs, and then helped me escape."
"Yes," he says. The look on his face is one of worry mixed with hope. "I helped you escape that night so you could be free."
"They shot you. I watched you die."
"Manticore has ways of bringing you back from the edge. They didn't allow me to die."
"How did you escape?" I demand. "If this thing took you back… how did you get away?"
"What thing?" The doctor asks. "You mean Manticore? Manticore is a covert genetics lab that bred super-soldiers. You are one of those soldiers. Manticore is gone."
"Gone?" I don't know why, but for some reason I'm relieved.
"You don't know, do you?" He asks me. "It was 452. X5-452 was recaptured and brought back to Manticore. They had started her retraining, but it wasn't working. She was resisting everything. Then He came after her."
"Who?" I ask. There is another flash suddenly. Grey eyes framed above a beautiful young woman. I can feel something building inside of me. It's as if there is something pushing me. I know it has something to do with those eyes. Manticore doesn't matter, just those damned eyes.
"Eyes Only." The Doctor says. "Somehow, he got into the facility south of Seattle and brought the whole thing down. No one knows how he did it, but they know it was him. He ran a series of hacks, including one just a few days after the incident in which he claimed to be the sole person responsible."
"How can that be?" I ask. I want answers.
"Get me out of here and I'll tell you everything including where to find Eyes Only." The small man says. I look down at him.
"Why should I?"
"I saved your life. I gave you freedom from that place." The Doctor
says. "Help me and I will help you."
"How could one man take down an entire operation training super-soldiers? That's not possible." I know a few things about fighting. I'm fast and strong. I understand the concept of super-soldiers. I am one, according to this Doctor.
"Get me out of here." The Doc says. "I'll tell you what I know."
"I know you'll tell me before I cut you loose." I say to him. "I've got no problems leaving you here for whoever chained you to the wall like that."
"I don't know how he did what he did. I just know that he got into the facility somehow and used his programming skills against us." The man squirms in his bonds. "The Director took 452 to him, which was a mistake. They had some kind of relationship. As soon as the Director left the room, Eyes Only took control of everything and set to destroying the place. The Director never made it out of there."
"How is that possible?" I need to know. "What about the soldiers?"
"Eyes Only ran a hack. When the committee found out about the hack, they ordered the site cauterized and the project dismantled. The only problem was Eyes Only. He was already in the system. He locked down most of the techs and scientists and sealed them into their offices and released all of the soldiers."
"And?"
"I don't know anymore than that. You'll have to ask the Colonel if you want more information."
"Where can I find this Colonel?" I reach down and pull him up by his throat. "Tell me where he is."
"I don't know where he is. After we administered the nanocytes to 452's boyfriend, the Colonel and I split up. He never made it to the rendezvous. I haven't seen him for weeks."
I want to twist his head off. I want him to suffer, but he saved my life. I have no choice; I have to let him go. Making short work of the chains, I have him loose, and together we head down the far side of the arch from where I climbed up.
"Where are we going?"
"There's a no-tell motel I've been staying in. It's on the south side of the city. I'm going to get my stuff and continue on my way to the Gulf. I can charter a ride there and get to Cuba. Won't take long for me to get out of this hemisphere after that," the Doctor explains.
"What about me?" I grab him and pull him up off the step with one arm. "You're going to tell me everything."
"I am. We'll talk on the way," He says.
Two hours and a long walk later, he's packing his things into a bag and getting ready to leave. The place is noisy and dirty. This Doctor seems to fit right in.
"Colonel Lydecker and I were supposed to meet here in town. He never showed up so I waited for a week. That week is up and I'm leaving."
"What about the girl?" He had told me about the Manticore soldier who had chained him to the wall. He said she had planned on taking him to 452 in Seattle.
"She's going to be very pissed that I'm gone. She was going to take me back to 452 and Eyes Only," he replied. "She's not going to be happy about losing me."
"And you're the only one who knows exactly what happened to 452's boyfriend?" I ask.
"Colonel Lydecker knows. He was the one who programmed the nanocytes. I would imagine it's a moot point now though. The guy is most likely dead. He wasn't a soldier. It wouldn't have been easy for him to survive inside the conclave."
"And this cult… they're the reason Manticore existed."
"Not at first, but later, yes," he explains. "From the first moment we learned about them, we started to structure the project toward that goal."
"Eradication of the cult…" I'm beginning to understand.
"We had no choice. They intend to take over the world. They intend to exterminate any who are not like them. They want the planet for themselves. We have to stop them, but thanks to Eyes Only, that may not be possible anymore."
"Why?"
"The Colonel knows where only a handful of the soldiers are. They are centered in Seattle, but they are not large enough in number to do anything about it. We need to find most of them if we want to stop the cult from conquering the world," the Doctor says.
"How do we find them?"
"We don't. You can try if you want. 452 might know. In all honesty, though, the soldiers themselves are the only ones who actually know."
"Where is this conclave? Where is the cult headquartered?"
"The cult doesn't have a headquarters, but the conclave itself is in North Carolina," he says just before he ducks out the door and disappears into the night.
So I was a super-soldier for Project Manticore. I have to admit that I don't fully understand what that means, but it does explain some of my apparent abilities. I apparently owe my freedom to the Doctor as well. What bugs me is that another of the soldiers, one like me, had him strapped up in the Gateway Arch and was waiting to deliver him to someone.
That doesn't sit well with me. I need to find this super-soldier and make her understand the error of her ways. My only problem is, I don't know where to start looking for her, and that feeling in my stomach is getting worse. I'm going to have to find my way back to the arch and wait there. Maybe the soldier can tell me what's wrong with my stomach.
The trek back across town is an easy one. The hoverdrones don't seem to care that I exist and the waterfront is surprisingly lacking in checkpoints. I make my way back to the river. I will hike north on the river bank until I find my way back to the arch.
At least, that's the plan…
Plans change.
"Hey." Someone shouts. They aren't shouting at me so I keep walking. "Hey babe! What say you and I go rock this world somewhere private?"
"Leave me alone," a woman answers.
"I don't think you understand," the man says. "You better play nice."
"Play nice? Is that a threat?" The woman asks. I can't help it. I have no choice in the matter. My curiosity gets the better of me and I turn to watch. Five men are moving on her position. Judging by their attitude, I can see they have control. This is their territory.
A quick assessment later, I have devised my plan. If they were attacking me, I would go for the tall one first. He has a strange twitch in his stride that points to weakness. The two shorter, chubby ones look tough, but that one jiggles just a bit too much and would crumble with one punch. His buddy, stockier but less adept at fighting, pulls a weapon. He holds it in a way that would allow me to stab him with it at least a dozen times before he could loosen his grip.
The remaining two men, one older and one younger seem to think they have the upper hand. I watch, mesmerized by the woman's movements. So subtle and perfect she is that I can't help thinking about cats. Her foot barely moves, but the effect is devastating. She smiles, wide and flirty, but the look in her eyes is one of complete control. These men don't stand a chance.
"I'll give you one chance." Her smile widens. "Turn around and find some one else to play with or fall where you stand."
"You can't be serious," one of them sneers. The stocky one flips out his tactical blade and moves into an attack posture. The tall one laughs as he heads off to her left and the chubby one goes to her right. "There are five of us."
"Wow, you can count. I didn't expect that." The woman laughs. "Are you sure you really want to do this?"
"You gonna play nice?" The first man asks.
"No," she snickers.
"Then we have to do this." He smiles, baring mostly gold and silver teeth.
"Your loss," she says. It's over before any of them can react. She jumps once at the leader and his buddy. They go down hard, unconscious, their bodies sprawling in opposite directions from a scissor kick to their respective heads. The woman drops into a crouch and jumps at the tall guy. She moves so fast I can barely track her movements. They can only see a blur in front of them as she moves through their panicked semi-circle.
I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. Over in the doorway, where the first guy had been waiting, three more young men come out. They have guns and one is aiming at the woman. I glance back at her to notice she's disarming blade boy before turning on chubs. He has other plans, however, and is already turning to leave.
It's interesting, if unfulfilling, to watch, but she is moving fast… as fast as me. That alone tells me I need to get to know this woman and find out who she is. Maybe figure out who I am.
I glance over to see that she has noticed the gunmen as well, but I am already moving. They never see me coming, but she does. As I turn among the three men, I notice she has stopped dead in her tracks and is watching me. The one that was aiming at her drops first from a broken neck. The other two fall next from similar wounds. I am standing with all three weapons in my hands when she runs up to me.
"Zack," she says. "Is it really you?"
I can't help it. I just stare at her. She stares back, waiting for a response.
"Zack?" She speaks the name again. My heads tilts to the side and she tilts her head with mine. "Don't you know who I am?"
"Who are you?" I ask her. "How do you know me?"
"Max and Logan showed me your picture. I, we thought you were dead. Max said you…"
"Who am I?" I ask.
"You're Zack. You really don't know who you are?" She asks me. Her hand comes up and gently touches my face. It feels good. I don't understand the feeling. "What did they do to you?"
"Who did what to me? What are you talking about?" I demand. "My designation is X5-599."
"Zack. I know your number. I have one, too, but you have to trust me. What just happened here isn't something we can deal with. I know why there is a barcode on the back of your neck and I'll explain everything to you, but we have to get out of here. Please, trust me," she pleads. When she pulls my arm, I don't resist. For some reason, I can't.
Half an hour later, I find myself in an abandoned warehouse. She introduces herself to me while we walk. She says her name is Eva, and in a strange way, it sounds familiar to me. She turns around and shows me the back of her neck. She has a barcode there.
"You have one, too." She smiles. She pulls me toward a dirty, broken mirror. She pulls something out of her pocket and holds it up behind my neck at the perfect angle for me to see I had one as well. "See."
"I don't know what it means," I say.
"It means you are special. We all have one, 599 is your barcode. Mine is 101, but we don't use designations out here in the street. We use our names. My name is Eva. Your name is Zack."
"We?" I ask her what 'we' means.
"It means that we are Children of Manticore, but you are more special even than that. You're a Rogue. You escaped Manticore many years ago and lived out in the world. Does any of this ring a bell?"
"Not really," and it doesn't. "But… the Doctor… something is familiar somehow."
"Like what?" She asks.
"Your name," I look into her eyes. "I seem to have a reference for it, although I don't know what it means."
"I was there the night you escaped. Twelve of you. I was going to go with you, but Colonel Lydecker shot me. I don't remember much after that. Not much but the pain," Eva says.
"Who are the Rogues?" I don't know the term.
"You're a Rogue. Tinga, Ben, Brin, Syl, Krit and Jondy escaped that night. Max, Zane, Kalyn, Rik and Kai went over the wire as well. Seth made it out later, but I didn't know about it until long after when they put me through retraining.
"Max…" The name is familiar to me. So was the name she had said with it, but the name grates on my nerves. "You mentioned that name before."
"Max and Logan... You knew them. Max told me how you looked out for all of the escapees. She said you used to watch over them, that you used to make rounds as if you were traveling here and there to keep an eye on them."
"I did?" I certainly don't remember it. "Is Logan one of us?"
"No. He's, umh, he's with Max. Those two are pretty inseparable." Eva says. "At least they were until the Colonel got his hands on the man. Now Logan is missing and Max has been looking for both of them ever since. I found the Doctor though."
"What Doctor?"
"The Doctor who administered the treatments for Logan's spinal injury; I've got him strapped up in the high place." I swallow hard when she mentions the high place. I know she sees it. "He's not going anywhere, but Syl, Krit, and Zane are on their way to pick him up and take him back to Seattle, so Max and Jondy can interrogate him. We need to find out what happened to Logan."
"Why?" I ask. The name is beginning to annoy me. I just don't have a good feeling about this guy for some reason. "Why is he so important?"
"He's Logan. He belongs to Max, and Max belongs to him. They've done many great things together, but since his disappearance a few months back, things have deteriorated rapidly, especially in and around Seattle."
"So this Logan guy is the reason Seattle was stable?"
"No. But Logan was the only one that was in a position to do something about it." Eva tells me. "He had the resources and the connections to do the right thing, and even though his approach was unorthodox, he always did the right thing."
"What do you mean?" I ask. Eva stares at me with a look on her face I can't place. She doesn't seem sure that she is doing the right thing.
"I can't explain everything to you because I don't know everything. What I do know is that there was a reason for Manticore. We were all created for a reason, but somewhere along the way, that reason got twisted, and in the end, they tried to kill all of us."
"Who?" I look around as we walk, realizing that we are heading directly for the arch. It's looming in the darkness above us, disappearing into the clouds of an approaching storm. I'll have to tell her soon what I had done.
"No one really knows, but there is a cult that has been around for thousands of years. They have been working for a long time to try and gain control of this world. They are very close to succeeding, and they almost killed Logan just about a month ago. It got out of hand, but they went after him personally," Eva explains. I am about to ask her why he was so important, but she seems to sense my question. "I don't know why he was important to them, but I was working for a man at the time, he had it in for Logan in a real bad way. It turned out they were enemies from back in the day, and it all came to a head on my watch. All I know is that a lot of people want him dead. Most will stop at nothing to take him out of the picture."
"How does Max fit into all of this?" I have to ask. There is a nagging feeling in the back of my mind, and I realize that I know more about Max and Logan than I had at first realized. "Is it because she's with Logan?"
"She at the top of the cult's hit list." Eva says. "She and Logan are both up there. Right at the top, with everything else they want removed from this planet pulling a close second."
"And you've seen this cult thing…" I admit, I have no reference to it. "I mean, you know they are real and they are…"
"Trying to conquer the world," she says. "They've been working toward that goal since ancient days."
"Who else knows about this?" I ask. "What do you mean, ancient days?"
"The cult is thousands of years old. Max can give you more detail and show you proof. I don't deal with that. I'm on the case for Eyes Only." Eva says.
"Eyes Only?" I know the name. It causes a strange feeling in the back of my mind, which cycles over the top of my head and into my frontal lobe. It's like a dull throbbing thump behind my right eye. "You work for Eyes Only?"
"I don't work for him, but I am a member of The Informant Net," she explains to me. "The cult is the reason we need to worry. They have power. Power I can't even begin to explain to you. Only Max and Logan understand their reach."
"Who all knows about this cult?"
"Just us," she says. "The transgenics and Colonel Lydecker, wherever he is know about it. Max and Logan, and a small handful of others know of it existence."
"They're the resistance?"
"If you want to call it that…. though I wouldn't expect you to believe it. Look, I'm glad you're here. We have to go up there," she says, pointing to the top of the arch. "I've got the Doctor up there. Syl, Krit, and Zane are coming into town to take him back to Seattle to answer to Max for what happened to Logan."
"Yeah, about the doctor," I said. The time has come. "I sort of let him go."
"You what?" Eva spins on me with a look in her eyes. "When did you do this?"
"About two hours ago, but I know where he is." I explain. "If we hurry, we can still catch him."
Seattle
Alec's Apartment.
"What'cha got there?" Alec asked. Biggs looked up and smiled.
"Heckler and Koch, 9mm," he said. "What about you?"
"Found another Makarov," Alec said. "I ran out of bullets for that old Ruger. The Eagle is still back at my place. Just couldn't bring myself to get rid of it. I liked the power."
"I never liked the Eagle. It's too noisy." Biggs said. "You ready?"
"Too noisy…" Alec cocked his head and laughed. "It's a gun." He said.
"Give me a nice .357 and I'm happy." Biggs laughed.
"What's that about noisy?" Alec asked. "Why don't you hunt up one of those .44 automags while you're at it? Ya never know when you'll have to shoot someone through steel plating."
"Shut up. You Ready?" Biggs dropped the subject.
"Yeah. Let's do this." Alec smiled. He turned and headed out the door with Biggs in the lead. They were heading over to Sector Six to hook up with Brin. The three of them were going to do some recon in two sectors and try to find out how the Phalanx were getting troops into the city. They knew it had something to do with Parker Industries, but what that was exactly remained an unknown.
"You know, Brin's going to be pissed." Biggs said with a glance to his watch. "She will be expecting us in about ten minutes. There's no way we'll make it."
"This isn't Manticore. We're not on base." Alec said. "She can deal with it."
Twenty minutes and an encounter with a confused drunk later, Alec and Biggs were heading into the former operational headquarters of the man they all referred to as Captain Cowardly. Sector cops had never seen them coming. Brin was standing at a large table perusing several different sector maps with her 2IC and tapping her fingers on a small silenced revolver lying on the table.
"I just talked to Jondy. She's been looking for Max, but no one seems to know where she is." Brin said. "You're late."
"Yes." Biggs acknowledged. "So if Max isn't at her usual haunts then where is she?"
"She's probably up on the space needle. You know… 'The high place' or whatever the rogues called it." Alec said. He rolled his eyes. Brin shot him a glare, but he ignored it.
"Jondy called from there. She said OC thought she saw movement in the shadows, but couldn't be sure. She said OC felt something, but Jondy could see and hear nothing." Brin explained. "I know Max is good, but she's not that good."
"Or Jondy isn't all that she can be." Alec added. "Look, whatever it is I'm sure, no… scratch that, I know that Max can take care of herself. She's probably just taking a long ride on the Ninja. She's been pretty stressed lately. She needs to unwind. Damn girl is wrapped so tight it's ridiculous." Alec mumbled the last sentence.
"Well, whatever the situation. I've been in contact with Skywalker over at Cale Industries. The situation is going as well as can be expected. Unfortunately for the Phalanx, Cale Industries is primarily guarded by Manticore soldiers at this point."
"Why is that unfortunate for the Phalanx?" Biggs asked.
"They've been sending infiltration units into Cale Industries main compound. Skywalker's people are all over it. No one has got through, but there were two attempts this week alone and it's only Wednesday." Brin said. "We're stepping up the operation before the Phalanx is at full force. I'm expecting Suede at any moment with some new information that might be vital to our position here in Seattle."
"What about the situation with Lydecker?" Biggs asked. "Any word on his whereabouts, and if not, what about the doctor, anyone find either of them?"
"No real information there, but Jondy said that Syl, Krit and Zane went out two nights ago to meet with an Eyes Only informant in the mid-west somewhere. The informant has a lead, but there is no data there yet." Brin said.
"So what are we waiting for?" Alec asked. "Let's get this crap over with. I've got a hot date tonight."
"Trixi is not a hot date. She's a dancer, and she only likes you because you give her money." Biggs laughed. "And only when you show up at the club." Brin snickered.
"Hey. I'll have you know that Trixi is a very wholesome girl." Alec argued as Biggs walked toward the front door of the old warehouse with him. Brin turned to her 2IC.
"Full alert until I get back. No one in or out without proper clearance. Make sure the runners hook up with CeCe over at the main barracks, and get team five in the field just in case we need back up. You know what to do with Suede's information when he shows. Fill him in so his people can plan accordingly and I'll go over everything with you when we get back." She turned without saluting and headed for the door to catch up to Alec and Biggs.
Sector twelve
White's HQ…
"Do you realize what kind of a fool that statement makes you sound like?" Suede asked the smallish man pointing the gun at him. He couldn't help laughing.
"Look. I don't want you to get the wrong impression here, but I have the gun. You don't." The would-be thief said. "Here's how this is going to play out. You're going to give me your money and I'm not going to shoot you." The little man said.
Suede laughed.
"What are you laughing at?" The gunman demanded.
Suede laughed louder. The gunman pointed the weapon toward Suede's head. "I'll shoot you." He said.
Suede stopped laughing. He moved fast, dodging the weapon arc and coming in from the side of the mugger. The last thing the little man remembered was slamming into the large brick wall with a force that could only cause him pain. Suede stood over the smaller man's body to make sure he was still breathing before he headed on to his real reason for being outside of the Phalanx headquarters.
It surprised him to note no soldiers were on patrol outside of the building, but when he stumbled past the main entrance of the perimeter fence acting like a lost drunk, he noticed cameras and three guards near the front doors. His staggering path took him around the corner of the mini-compound and along a very deserted alley toward the back of the main building. Two more guards were out there eyeing him suspiciously, but mostly unconcerned with the presence of a drunk.
Suede stumbled, fell and rolled up against a wall and sat there for a few minutes to see if anyone would come out after him. When no one did, he crawled a few feet before shakily regaining his footing and heading down the road away from the building. When he was clear, he picked up to a soldier's pace and ran around a few buildings until he found a high warehouse roof where he could maintain decent surveillance.
As he headed out onto the rooftop, he noticed a small group of Military Hummers escorting a jeep into the immediate area. He hyper-focused on the lead vehicle and could make out two men and a woman. One was a tall dark haired soldier and the other was very short. He knew who the short man was. The woman in the back seat was an Amazon with flaming red hair.
The small caravan of military vehicles headed directly for the building Suede had recently cased. He needed a closer look and the building next to the one he was on would take him closer to the action outside the building. It was a risk, but a necessary one. He gauged the distance between buildings and made the jump easily, dropping upon landing and rolling to a crouch. He stayed low, moving to the edge of the building and peering into the dimly lit scene below.
The redhead was giving orders to some of the men in the hummers. There were at least a dozen men, heavily armed and wearing body armor. They moved around as ordered to secure the area. Suede recognized the patterns. He had secured a few perimeters in his day. It might not be as easy to get out as it was to get in. He needed to get closer to the conversation outside the main gate.
Three minutes later, Suede stood in the shadows of a second floor window. He could hear the small man and the redhead discussing the matter at hand.
"The transgenics are here." The small man said. Suede verified his identity. He was sure it was Ames White. He had been the one behind the whole takeover of Cale Industries, trying to use Lempkin as his patsy.
"My men report nothing in the immediate area." The Redhead said.
"Well, keep looking. They are specialists, trained from birth to be spies and assassins. You would be wise to realize and remember that." White said.
"We've been training for seven thousand years. Our techniques are sound. I don't care if the traitor created these things, Brother White." She said. "We can and will defeat them beyond a doubt."
"I survived Terminal Arena the same as you." White said. "I've been in the field for a while now and I have been tracking these things for over a year. You WILL accept my knowledge in this when I tell you not to underestimate these abominations."
"You may have survived Terminal Arena. You may be in charge, but when it comes to the fight, there is none better than me."
"What about your brother, Thula?" White asked. "He was the best. I was there when he walked over a hundred of our finest in Terminal Arena without breaking a sweat. Then he turned and jumped into the pits."
"It was a loss." Thula said. "He gave up a glorious career."
"He leads the rebels." White announced. Thula's jaw dropped. "And they have pledged their support to the transgenics in the coming war."
"He's alive?" Thula asked. "How is that possible?"
"There is a way out of the pits." White explained. "We've sent people in to try and find it, but none have ever returned. We don't know where it is or how they get out."
"What about infrared..." Thula started to ask, but Suede had heard enough. It was time to go back and make his report. He was through the building and onto the street in a matter of seconds. There were two guards marching out of the alley on the far side of the building when Suede exited. He followed behind them sticking to the shadows.
When he reached the road at the end of the alley, the guards could clearly be seen heading around the building back toward their HQ. A quick glance behind him confirmed his suspicions. Another set of guards marching the perimeter were entering the alley. He had no choice. He had to move.
Hugging to the side of the building, Suede stalked the edge of the light until he found a door. It was locked. Again, with no real choice, he had to continue on. The first set of guards had turned the corner. It was a risk, but he had run out of options. He phased, moving faster than humanly possible, to the other side of the street and charging for the alley. He heard the clang of weapons against armor before he heard the shout.
"Freeze," Someone shouted from behind him. "Call for backup."
Suede didn't stick around to listen. He launched himself down the alley at full speed. He didn't look back but he could hear them in the distance. They were slower, but still fast enough to maintain a good chase. Suede smiled. He would give them.
"This is unit four. We've got an intruder in section 6 heading for the waterfront." The soldier shouted into his mic. "Moving very fast," He said. "It's a transgenic!"
Suede reached the corner, ducking around the edge of the building, stopping and backing up against the wall. Seconds later, the men came around the edge of the building and Suede made his move. He was on the second one instantly. In a flurry of motion, the man was dead on the ground. His neck had been broken. Suede moved on the first guard as he turned and fired his weapon without hesitation, forcing Suede to dodge several bullets. The big, dark man remained out of the line of fire though, and easily knocked the weapon from the guards grip.
"So the worthless creature wants to play?" The guard taunted Suede. Suede punched him, sending the Phalanx soldier reeling back a few steps, but not taking him down. "Transgenic garbage!" The guard shouted as he reset his footing and launched at the big man. Side-stepping the assault, Suede caught the man's head in his strong arms. He pulled down, then up and to the side, smiling when he heard the bone give in his grasp. He dropped the body and reached for the weapon as bullets ripped across the ground near his feet.
"Take him alive." Thula shouted. White was plainly visible standing beside her, barely coming up to her shoulders. Suede lifted himself, holding the Phalanx weapon in his hands. He glanced toward the water several feet away before he heard the footsteps coming up behind him. The wall of the building was on his right side, the Phalanx was in front of him and behind and he had black, murky water on his left.
"You're trapped." White shouted. "You have no where to go."
Suede smiled. He was prepared for a fight.