I fling myself out of the makeshift shelter and into the magnetized storm raging outside. The gutted palm trees offer little shelter as I dash between them, and the palm fronds which I'd ironically found pretty when I arrived on the island slash into my skin as I run leaving small welts and thin trails of blood on my arms and legs. A brilliant flash of lightning illumines the dark blue sky and I fling myself to the ground lest my pursuers catch sight of me. A small chunk of palm tree trunk disappears in front of me, splintered and eaten away, a small dart embedded in the bark. My last coherent thought as footsteps crash around me and I battle the encroaching darkness is that they must have some kind of air propellant to make the darts go so far.
Then she's on me, kissing my face and neck and hands, anywhere her lips can touch. I can hear the sounds of the cavalry fighting off my attackers, and her delicate hands on my neck gently pulling out the embedded dart. Her lips close over my neck and she begins dragging on the wound. The urge to make some crack about hickies battles with the urge to sleep. Then just as quickly as it started I can feel the heavy headedness retreating. "Oh god I missed you so much. We aren't ever splitting up ever again, the senator can shove it up her ass cause I don't care if the world is on fire. I was so scared you asshole, you couldn't have called a little more often could you? Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
If she's scolding me then she's okay now. I can feel her pulse beating wildly beneath my hands which are currently trapped between our chests. To stop her imprecations I free one of my hands and pull her head down to meet mine. For once she does what I want, stopping her accusations with schizophrenic speed and fisting her hands with almost painful desperation through my soaking wet hair.
"I love you Maxie." She bursts spontaneously into tears which mix with the rain water and leak into my mouth with every kiss. Carefully gripping both of her hands in mine I struggle into a sitting position and pull her onto my lap. "What's wrong Max? What happened?" The star shine reflects in her eyes as she looks up at me.
"I have something to tell you Alec, something big." I feel something burn in my chest at seeing her face like that, the light that glows up from within like a million candles, that light has been missing for a while now. Can it possibly be that something good has happened to her for once? I reach out tentatively and brush my thumb across her pretty wet red lips letting my hands skim over the surface of her skin to the nape of her neck. Gently wrapping my hands around her neck I pull her in again for another kiss, her thrumming body warming my chilled and rain soaked one. Before things get out of control a voice clears behind us.
"Okay you two love birds we got to move it, right this minute kind of move it. Save the simpering looks for later and move your asses." Her mood is so light that she just laughs at Mole and helps me too my feet. I grab her hand as she begins to walk towards the reinforcements, and I can't help but be amazed by the sheer number of them. It seems that everyone I know signed up for this little rescue mission.
I lean over to whisper in her ear. "What's the big secret Maxie?" She turns halfway towards me and gives me one of her thousand watt smiles and a childish giggle.
"It's just a little secret, but don't worry it'll get bigger." I raise my eyebrows at her Lela-like crazy speech. "I'll tell you later, this isn't the right time or place for this conversation." This time she is the one to silence me with a kiss, just a small peck on the lips, and now she is all business again.
"Okay, we're assuming that Alec knows the layout of this new place, and that they'll know that he knows. We don't have too much of the element of surprise on our side here. Also, according to Naia here these pea-shooter toting sweethearts are clones of 466 and 487. That means that we're going up against an evenly matched opponent for once. Judging by the size of the compound they can't have more than a dozen transgenic clones on hand, and those are probably all copies of 466 and 487 since those two were lost on this island. Since we're pretty evenly matched in numbers we just have to watch out for the stupid, slow, everyday gun slinging criminal types and we should all be kosher. Well actually since none of us were raised with religion, that means that none of us are likely to be Jewish and are therefore in fact not kosher at all." We all glare in sharp annoyance at the lizard man. "The point is that we're going in again at night fall, landing on the rooftop, repelling in, snatching the kid and the cyber geek and the shifty senator type if we can find him, then getting the hell out of dodge on the hellllicopter that I so brilliantly procured for us. Questions, comments, I don't give a shit so save them til your dead."
"Leave it to the crack team to have it all figured out." Max pokes me gently in the ribs in remonstrance.
"Obviously better than your usual plan of break in and kill them all honey." What can I say? The girl has a big mouth on her, and I wouldn't have it any other way.