Hey Everybody! Finals are officially driving me round the bend, but fortunately for y'all I'm having an attack of the procrastination bug and I also feel guilty for neglecting my poor story. Rest assured that I've had far less interesting things to be writing lately. I swear that once I go home for the holiday's the updates will be as sugar plum fairys dancing in your heads, that is to say frequent and trippy. Also, look for Max and Alec to be reunited within the next chapter or so but expect as always something to go angstly awry. Also, this is for MM and Glitterina and anyone else who won my guessing game at the beginning of the story, as both of you have also had input guessing about certain other things you guys get to choose boy or girl for the big event. If it's a tied request then I'll have to look to our panel of readers. Enjoy!
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The first green fingers of Cano Pelour come into my view through the window of the helicopter just before dawn breaks across the sky. Somehow, given its history, it looks like such a peaceful place.
"Earth to Max, we're almost there oh divine supreme leader." Naia snorts at Mole.
"Welcome to hell. He named it you know? The madman that leads these murderers. He was a revolutionary from the time he was a young boy, he was only fourteen when he aided the leftist forces in toppling the Vargas regime. When the Brazilian army toppled the new regime ten years later with the help of our government, retributions were taken by the new military government against the rebels. He was only twenty three, he and four other rebels including his fiancee had fled Rio de Janiero and were hiding out in Salvador in the oldest portion of the city called Pelour-inho. They had taken refuge in the church of the White Lady, Igreja da Senhora Cano, when the army finally caught up with them. The Manticore files were very descriptive. It was written that the inside of the church was all white marble and by the time that they were done it was drenched in red. The sergeant in charge of catching the rebels was something of a sick case himself and he had his men scrawl the word traitor into each of the rebel's chests before leaving them to bleed to death. Unfortunately for us, Pardido survived."
The sun begins to rise and at that moment there is a sudden flash like a camera
going off in front of my eyes and I can see it all in my head as though I were
there. A very young Alec carrying the bodies of two girls, one over each
shoulder, through the jungle. Naia and Biggs looking at the markings on
the girl's chest while Aidan wretched in the background. The symbol on
their chests is familiar for some reason, not in and of itself but as though
I've seen a variation of it before. The light becomes brighter and things
start flashing faster, a dark haired little girl with pale skin crying in the
middle of a pile of rubble, Mole and Joshua running through a dark corridor
yelling my name, a man dressed all in black slashing at me with a knife and
cutting across my forearm as I danced out of his way. Light pores through
my vision with unbearable intensity and the visions move faster, so quickly
that I have trouble following them, Logan sitting beside a young woman in the
office at the senator's mansion, an old woman laughing insanely in the middle
of a city bazaar, Kate kneeling on the ground staring at me dazed, Alec
shouting my name, Alec shouting my name and reaching for me.
"Max!" The lights stop flashing and Kate's face appears inches from the end of my nose. Her eyebrows are raised in consternation and she is snapping her fingers at my left ear. "Are you alright honey? You just phased out there for a minute. Not any problems with the...?"
"No." I reply a little too vehemently trying to prevent Kate from blurting out my secret in front of the entire command crew. Kate gives me a miffed snort and rocks back on her heels so that she is no longer in my face.
"Dix was just trying to get your attention, if we get any closer to the island we run the risk of them being able to hear the chopper or pick it up on short range radar. We're gonna have to make the jump now." I give her a distinct look of annoyance before peering out the window again. When Manticore went up in flames not everything was destroyed, and Mole had taken a team out to the compound to scavenge. Now I'm riding in the surprise that he'd had for me and Alec, a fully functioning black hawk with night scopes. Unfortunately we'd gotten a later start than we'd planned because the stupid thing had stalled out the first time we'd tried to lift off and a complete double check of the systems had been required.
This next maneuver is going to be tricky. Mole has to lower the copter enough so that we can drop Naia and Kate who will then deploy two rubber rafts and hold them steady as the rest of us drop. I take a final look at the verdant blanket of the approaching island and wonder where he is in that mass of green.
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Four hours earlier…
"Dr. Livingstone I presume?" The girl rises from her cot with queenly self-possession and offers a slender and rather grimy hand to me. Her accent throws me for a moment before I remember that she's been at boarding school in England since she was old enough to be sent away from home. Giving a sketchy bow and a mock salute I take her mud grayed hand in mine and give it a courtly kiss. All things considered I feel rather like I've just saved the princess in a fairytale. Except that this little girl is not the princess that I want to be rescuing. Then considering that my princess never really needs rescuing I'll have to make do with a kidnapped teenager.
"Ms. Elizabeth Burnhart I presume? Your mom's been frantic for you." She sniffs dismissively at me. "She really has been worried about you. My name is Alec and this is Erick, we'll be your chauffers today." She drops into a little curtsy.
"Mr. Alec, Mr. Erick, I'm very pleased to meet you. I've never met a real live transgenic before, it's quite an honor." Her voice contains no hint of irony beneath the upper-crusty British accent so I take her statement at face value.
"I've never met a person with an English accent before so I guess we're even. Now what we need to do is find the other two hostages and then sneak back over to the south side of the compound so that we can wait for a ride out of here." A look of surprise crosses her young face.
"I assumed that you would know. I hope that your friends are bringing a big ride because we may have one or two more passengers."