"Nothing's Worse Than Cold Casserole"
by iluvaqt@hotmail.com

Disclaimer: as per default chapter.
iluvaqt's Notes: A little more resistance, you got it ;)


Part 9

Krit held the gun on the intruder, while Syl tied her up, none too gently.

"So, any more of us out there?" she queried curiously. Picking the woman up by her upper arm and pushing her into a chair. She'd honestly like to be able to anticipate an attack. If her sister's clone was anything to go by, she'd have a clone out there ten times more bad ass than herself.

Sam didn't answer, she just started at her target. He was early thirties maybe, scruffy hair, glasses, needed a shave badly. Probably could use a clean pair of clothes too - looked like he'd been sleeping and living in that pair for at least a week, ewww. Her clone was in love with him? Must have caught him on a bad day.

Feeling uncomfortable having eyes that looked identical to Max's - but not - assessing him, Logan decided to do some probing of his own. "What's in it for you?"

Surprised at his question, Sam found herself answering, "Do what ya gotta do. Play nice and they play nice with you."

Syl had never once thought about what it would be like if they hadn't escaped. She didn't like thinking that she'd ever been there. Looking at her sister's clone now, she knew that it couldn't possibly be compared to what they went through when they were little. Ten years on...just being outside, life sometimes sucked. But doing solo assassinations, the training, the punishment...she didn't even want to imagine.

When her phone started vibrating, she visibly tensed. Sam forced herself to look indifferent but the younger man must have caught her momentary shift in posture.

"Well answer it," Krit barked, sensing the electronic vibrations from where he stood.

Sam smiled sweetly at him and lifted her arms, "Love to, but I'm a little tied up. In case you hadn't noticed."

Ignoring her sarcasm, he reached over and pulled it out for her. Flipping it open, he held it to her ear.

"X5-453, it's not like you to be late. What's going on? Eliminate the target and get back here, ASAP."

Sam's face paled slightly and before anyone knew what she was doing, she'd snapped the ties Syl had used and run for the window.

By the time Logan had time to say, "Not again."

She'd crashed through it and landed several stories down. Before throwing herself over the railing and dropping to the over pass below.

Syl snatched the phone from Krit and demanded, "Who is this?"

Renfro heard the commotion in the background and hadn't heard X5-453 respond at all. "You're making a big mistake..."

"Oh I'm feelin' faint over here. Am I supposed to feel threatened by you?" Syl cut her short. "How do you think we stopped her? We're not your run of the mill dummy."

"You're one of Deck's," Renfro sneered. "Who's the target to you?"

"If you were a bright spark, you wouldn't have to ask me that." And she cut the call, turning to see Logan ready to tear his hair out.

"What'd you do that for? We could have tapped the line."

"Relax, hun. It was good ol' blonde bitch, I never forget a voice. So where do you think she was calling from?" Syl smiled.

Quickly, she went to Logan's computer and started typing in commands. She pulled up a map of the city and entered more commands. Tapping into a local satellite, she issued a code sequence and hit enter. Letting the equipment catch up, she sat back and watched the process lines.

"You planted a tracker," Logan said impressed.

"Actually, my darling – handy – hot boy did," Syl gave Krit a sassy smile, he cringed and turned away, pretending he didn't hear her comment. "And here we go."

Logan followed the movement on the screen. It was shifting fast, the satellite was bouncing through signals, until it locked on. "You've got her. Highway 90, Sector 15."

Syl got to her feet. Running to grab her jacket from the kitchen, she yelled to Krit, "Coming?"

"Actually, I think you should stay with Logan," Krit said slowly.

Logan could see from the look Syl gave Krit, that a storm was coming. He was thoroughly relieved when a shrill tone interrupted the impending battle. "Yeah."

"Oh god, Logan."

"Max!" Logan was on his feet ready to move, impatiently waiting for her to tell him her location. "Max, what's..."

Max cut him off. "You've got to get out of there...She looks like me, she's not - Just get out of there," she pleaded.

"It's okay, she's gone. I've got your family watching my back. Where are you?" Logan asked, his edginess evident. In the background he could hear explosions and static, it only served to heighten his anxiety.

"Lydecker's got a chopper on the way, but it's getting pretty dicey."

"Tell me what I can do," Logan paced, glancing up at the two who stood quietly waiting instruction. "We want to help."

"Manticore's going down, that's a given. But whether we can get out of here is another thing." Max looked at the fire burning below. From this point, they could see the whole facility. No movement on the ground, the TAC soldiers seemed to have disappeared. No such a good sign. All of a sudden, another explosion rocked the base. This time knocking out the power for good, the facility was in darkness again, only the orange flames illuminating the area.

"Max…" Logan shouted.

~*~*~*~

Their line was breaking up. She tried to respond but the static continued until the signal was lost altogether. For a long moment she stared at the silent cell, before handing it back to Lydecker. "Lost the signal."

Zack looked over at Lydecker and nodded, "Your guys better come through, or we're sitting ducks. And I'm not going down without a fight."

"They will," Demeter assured him. "Or I'll personally kick all their asses."

A smile played on her lips at that comment and Max looked over at Demeter. She was really beginning to warm to the girl. She had interesting features, not to mention a totally rockin' attitude. "Where's smart-Alec by the way?"

"Who?" Zack asked, irritably. His eyes still trained on searching for movement below.

"Gees, you'd think you'd leave an entry for the guy." Alec heaved himself over the East side the concrete wall. Tossing the rope on the floor, he dusted off. Nursing his injured arm, he glared at the blonde-haired woman standing a few feet away. "Thank you," he grunted to Dem, who smiled pleasantly back.

"You're most welcome." She was about to walk to the wall, when gunfire showered the roof from below.

"Down!" Lydecker ordered.

Everyone hit the deck and more bullets sailed harmlessly overhead. Dem looked up, making eye contact with Zack. At her nod, Zack reached towards her duffle bag, and pulled out a canister and two hand grenades.

"The canister is full of two separated elements. Twist it anti-clockwise and throw. It's only got a five second delay." Demeter caught the two grenades Zack tossed her and crawled to her end of the watchtower. "Attack point, 200 ft North-West." Which left her own coordinates at 340 ft South and 69 ft South-West. Back up against the wall, she turned to look at her companions.

"On three," Zack advised. "One, two...three." He twisted the canister till he sensed the tiny grinding click and threw it over the edge, towards the concentrated location of heavy activity.

Dem pulled the pins, counted out to three and tossed over her load.

TAC soldiers down below scattered in all directions when someone yelled, spotting the object thrown from the tower.

The explosions caused burst of dirt and shrapnel, the impact causing the tower to shudder. Sixty feet up, the sound of crumbling stone didn't ring a comforting tune in anyone's ears.

Following the blast was the sounds of anguished screams and less feet running...This time, away from the tower. More explosions followed, throwing smoke and ash high into the sky.

"What was in that?" Max asked curiously.

Dem gave her a weary grin, "Hydrogen sulfide and nitric acid. The wind is moving north at the moment. A good sign. It'll keep anyone trying to use the North gate at bay, for at least another ten minutes."

"Remind me to keep you in mind whenever I'm in a jam," Alec said thoughtfully. "I'll be sure to never cross you either. Boy, your mean side is just freaky. Never trust a woman with that much heat."

"We can't leave them all in there to die. Isn't there some way we can get them out?" Max asked of Lydecker.

The man said nothing. Dressed in light-weight Kevlar with a folded black shi-mask, he looked every bit the military type. "I wasn't the one that locked-down the barracks."

Max rounded on him, Zack just watched on curiously. "And you would have what? Shot them all instead...oh wait, you always enjoyed a good drowning."

"Just how do you plan on rescuing these obedient, well trained Manticore soldiers? If you've forgotten, we're the enemy," Lydecker retorted calmly.

A loud crashing and revving noise broke the quiet and Max turned to the main gate.

"Wait. How?" Max looked at black van that was driving full speed towards the facility. A feminine figure jumped out and ran straight for the burning building. "Is she insane?"

Zack didn't answer. He grabbed the rope that Alec had just used and threw it over the edge. Max stopped him from getting any further but yanking on his shirt. Zack gave her a murderous look.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Max yelled.

"Zack, our only tactical advantage is our height. On the ground you'll be killed."

"I wasn't asking for your permission," he spat at Lydecker. "Out of my way, Max." Zack pushed her aside, his eyes were blazing. And anyone with sense would have given him a wide berth. Not Max.

"You think they cheated you? What about me, huh? If anyone deserves payback, it's me. No way, big brother, she's all mine," Max argued. She gave him a moment's battle of the wills before grabbing the rope from him and jumping over the edge.

"Why are you kids so impulsive? I taught you better than that." Lydecker muttered.

"Maybe it's because we have this innate stubborn streak, that just won't go away," Demeter supplied.

Lydecker clenched his jaw and said nothing. There was just no predicting what would come from his daughter's mouth or when. Sometimes he really wondered what had driven him to save her that night. He never pondered long. One look into her eyes, told him all his reasons.

"You know, if we get out of this, I'd really want to know just how you got entangled in all this," Alec said, coming up behind her.

Dem felt the warm breath brush her cheek, and she blushed. "Maybe. But then I thought you'd already made your assessment of me."

"I don't know…" Alec started.

Lydecker abruptly cleared his throat and Demeter grinned at Alec and moved to her father's side. Later, she mouthed to Alec.

Zack was disturbingly quiet, his jaw set at an uncomfortable angle. Lydecker gripped his rifle reassuringly, before addressing the younger man. "Zack?"

Zack didn't look up, only grunted. His eyes trained on the facility, his arms itching to dive down after Max and extract his vengeance.

"She's not the enemy." Lydecker knew he was treading on dangerous ground, but what was more treacherous, was Zack trying to get even with X5-453.

"Who is then? Renfro?" Zack spat. He couldn't believe he was even speaking to his ex-tormenter. Hadn't he used the same trick? He looked at Lydecker, eyes blazing, full of hurt and anger. "You. None of this would have ever happened...It's your fault, you're to blame-"

Demeter, not liking the turn the conversation had taken, stepped between her father and Zack. "Don't. This isn't about my father."

Zack turned on her aggressively, "What would you know?" He shoved her hard, before staring Lydecker in the face. "This isn't over."

Demeter forcibly approached Zack, ready to fight him, but her father held her back.

Slinging his M16 over his shoulder, Zack reached for the rope and jumped out of the tower.

"Are they all nuts?" Demeter yelled. When Lydecker didn't answer, she looked to Alec. He just shrugged.

Letting out an audibly frustrated sigh, Dem kicked the concrete roof support column and checked her watch. They'd better be back soon, or they'd miss their only ride. If they were both still alive.