In the Shadows
Part 5
By Gem
Joshua had walked into Alec's new home as confidently as he would have entered Max's apartment or Logan's, as easily as Alec would have walked into Joshua's room in Terminal City just two days ago. Friends didn't bother with things like knocking, especially friends who'd been invited to come over. And yet having made himself that much at home, he stopped dead in the middle of Alec's living room, suddenly made nervous by the sight of his former roommate being domestic.
"Josh, hey man," Alec looked up from the table he was clearing to acknowledge his friend's entrance. "Thanks for getting over here so quickly."
Joshua thought fast. Alec didn't look embarrassed by his current chore, at least not enough to stop, so obviously this was not the reason he had been called. He tried to sound casual as he fished around for clues.
"Some... thing wrong with little monkey?"
"No, no, she's fine. She's in her room playing."
Alec dumped the stacked dishes into a bin he'd found in the break room, and gently stood the silverware up in a tall glass. One chore down, seventeen or so to go, he thought to himself. Taking care of a small child entailed a lot more work and time than he had ever imagined; the whole process of bathing had taken an hour alone, and ended in him taking two showers in one morning.
"I just need someone to watch her for a little while. I have to go out."
The tall transgenic looked pleased, and surprised. "You want Joshua to... baby-sit?"
"That's the plan, buddy." Alec smiled at his friend's obvious delight. "If you don't mind," he added to be polite, although Joshua's face made the gesture somewhat pointless.
Joshua immediately began planning the morning's activities. "We have fun. Paint."
"Yeah, painting's good." The response had come without thought; a habit Alec was already learning could be dangerous. "Wait, no, that paint you use – it really stinks. She probably shouldn't be breathing it."
It took a moment for the irony to strike him; his daughter was genetically immune to some of the deadliest toxins and diseases known to man, but oil-based paint he had to worry about.
"Read books to little monkey?" It was Joshua's second favorite hobby, and one he would gladly pass on to his newly acquired 'niece.'
"Perfect." Alec pushed aside the problem of what there was for Joshua to read to the child; that was the babysitter's problem, and one he was far better able to deal with than Alec. "And, you know, thanks. I really appreciate this."
"Alec need..." Joshua sought for the correct expression, and then seized it with a triumphant smile, "space?"
"What I need is a car." It hurt to admit such disloyalty to his beloved motorcycle, but Alec had no choice. "Getting out to pay the detective is no big on my bike, but then I'm going to have to borrow Logan's car, because a certain young lady has some serious shopping to do." He quirked a smile. "Thanks to that fire she only came with the clothes on her back, and they had the tags cut out. I don't even know her size."
Joshua thrust out his hands, leaving about two-and-a-half feet of space between his palms. "Little," he suggested.
"Uh, yeah, thanks, but I think I need to be a little more on target." Alec patted Joshua consolingly on the shoulder. "Right now she's wearing an old T-shirt of Dalton's, minus a couple of inches off the bottom. But she's not real happy with the fashion statement. Which reminds me," he smacked his palm against his forehead, "I owe him a shirt too while I'm out."
"Alec gone long?"
"Don't worry; I won't take up too much of your time, buddy. Since I don't know her size, I'm going to have to take her with me. And," he added as he began sweeping the crumbs from the table into the bin, "I think I'm gonna need a woman's opinion too, even though every masculine bone in my body shudders at the thought of asking."
"Take Little Fella?" Joshua's innocent question turned sly as he added, "Or Brin?"
"Neither one, believe me." Alec's figurative shudder became literal at the thought of one woman finding out he'd asked the other. "They ran into each other here last night and it was not a good scene. Which," he turned up his hands in supplication, "makes absolutely no sense to me. I mean Brin and I aren't like that."
He thought of the previous night's kiss and almost reworded his statement, but something held him back. Whatever the kiss, and the conversation that preceded it, had meant was yet to be determined, but Joshua was not the one he needed to talk it out with.
"And Max and I..." Alec paused again on the edge of uncertain territory. "We're not... I mean hey, until she broke up with Logan, she always looked at me like I was something she scraped off her bike tire. And even now, after the siege and all, we're still..." he shrugged, "we're just not like that. But let me tell you, there was enough cat DNA on parade here last night to build your own hairball."
Joshua nodded sagely, one man of the world to another. "Sisters."
"You said it, bro. That's why I'm going to beg Original Cindy to give me a hand. I am guaranteed not to get into trouble with her, at least as long as I don't talk." He grinned, thinking of the many and varied ways he knew to annoy his former coworker. "Or, you know, breathe too loudly. Or too often."
The tall transgenic shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He was, of course, sympathetic to Alec's situation but time was wasting and he was impatient to assume his new duties. "Little monkey need new clothes. You leave soon?"
"Soon enough. I just have to wash out these dishes and then I'm outta here. Can you go in and play with her while I'm down the hall?"
Joshua needed no further prompting; he grabbed a book from the nearly empty shelves and sped into 49614's room, ready to assume responsibility for his newest, and smallest, friend.
* * * * *
Ames White whistled as he strode down the long corridor towards the communications hub for his latest, and greatest, operation. He couldn't get over the difference a day could make in his life. Yesterday at this time his plans were still only that: plans. Today he was already well on his way to getting Ray back and putting an end to the migraine that was 452. In a few more days the time without his son would only be a memory.
His good mood lasted all the way down the hall, but died a quick death shortly after he entered his command center. Things were simply too quiet to be encouraging. The agents he'd assigned to hack into the computer in his father's old house were lounging in a corner drinking coffee and talking baseball, while the agent who was supposed to be monitoring phone calls from the same residence was leafing through an old issue of 'People' magazine.
"I'm so glad I could give you all such a nice little break in your routine," White sneered as he strode into the room. "I wouldn't want to wear you out with all that listening."
The agents scrambled to their feet, quickly shoving coffee cups and magazines out of sight. Special Agent White was known as a man with little sense of humor, and what sense he had was not reputed to be particularly kind. The chances of him understanding the concept of friendly conversation were roughly about as good as a transgenic's odds for being accepted at the FBI academy.
"We're waiting for the subject to resume making phone calls, sir," the newest, and least cautious, agent said smartly. "Until then..." he shrugged expressively.
"Until then I expect to see you doing some work," White snarled. "Your assignment was to crawl into this guy's hard drive and sift through it for something useful. Whether or not he also uses a telephone, ham radio or lights the house on fire to send up smoke signals should be irrelevant to you."
"We already tried pinging his system, sir," one of the other agents admitted, casting a quelling glance at his overly chatty coworker. "No dice. This guy's got firewalls upon firewalls – we were lucky to get out before he caught us."
"And you're sure you didn't get caught?"
Survival instinct kicked in, prompting a crisp, confident, and more than a little optimistic, "Yes sir!"
White ran his hand over his short, dark hair and sighed as he contemplated his staff. He needed to regain control of this conversation, before these bozos started losing sight of the mission. "Fine, so we can't get through to his computer. That still leaves notes of the previous conversations to be transcribed."
The agent stationed at the phone tap pulled out a small sheaf of papers from behind her computer monitor. "Right here, sir.
White snatched them from her hand and began leafing through, becoming progressively more agitated as he read each succeeding page. The junior agents shared nervous glances as they awaited his reaction; they were all well aware of the contents of the transcripts, and none of them had any doubts about the magnitude of the explosion yet to come.
"This is wrong," White said loudly when he reached the last page. "This has got to be wrong." He threw the sheaf of papers onto an empty desk and advanced menacingly on the agent who had transcribed them. "I want you to go back over your tapes, transcribe them again, and this time get it right."
"Sir, they are right." The most senior of White's subordinates stepped up to take the heat. "We all heard the conversations as Agent Lauria was transcribing them."
"So you honestly expect me to believe that X5-494 has spent over a year trying to find this kid only to hand her off to someone else two days later? That's crazy," White said flatly.
"Agent White, sir, you can listen to the tapes," Agent Lauria offered. "This man on the phone... he doesn't identify himself... but he seems to be dealing with friends. We ran the names and numbers through some databases after we traced the calls, and all these people have been on lists at two or three adoption agencies for at least a year. Unless this guy's got a sick sense of humor, or he's somehow stumbled across more than one female toddler in the last 12 hours, 494 really is planning on giving up the little girl."
White opened his mouth to roar, and then choked back his instinct. Losing control meant handing it over to the mutants, and that was not a plan he was prepared to carry out. He drew a few deep, harsh breaths through his nose and then growled, "Just great. We give her to him on a silver platter and he passes her off like day old bread. Can these freaks possibly screw up my life anymore?"
"Sir?" Otto hovered uncertainly in the doorway, something he found himself doing quite frequently these days. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
White motioned impatiently to his assistant to be quiet; he needed to think and he needed to do it fast. He was not going to let himself be outwitted by a bunch of genetically engineered jokes his father left as a legacy, not in this lifetime, anyway.
"Okay, okay, we have a problem, but we can still spin it our way." He began to pace, visualizing the revised plan as he spoke. "So far all we have is hearsay from an unknown source. What we need to do is put a scare into our new daddy, just to get a handle on his real feelings here. With any luck we can also convince him, temporarily at least, that he's the only one who can protect his little bundle of joy."
"But how do we do that, sir? They're shut up in Terminal City; we can't get to them there."
White smiled for the first time since he'd walked into the room. "Otto, surely you didn't think I was counting on luck to draw them out into the open when I first came up with this plan? Leave nothing to chance; that's the way to get the job done."
"So how do we get to her?"
"The same way you get to any woman's heart, Otto. Take her shopping."
* * * * *
Max gripped the doorknob firmly in her hand and started to twist, not remembering until the last second that new rules were now in place for Alec's apartment. She released the doorknob as though it was on fire and moved her hand up to knock on the door, then was stopped again by the sound of running water down the hall.
She strolled down the hall and into the former break room, stopping in the doorway to silently observe Alec's newfound domesticity for a few minutes before she made her presence known. He was washing dishes in the metal double sink, his back turned towards her, and his attention apparently split between a stubborn bit of crust on a plate and the tune he was whistling. Of all the strange things Max had witnessed in her life, Alec washing dishes had to be near the top of the list.
"You gonna help or just take notes?" Alec finally asked, not bothering to turn around.
"Take notes." She pushed herself off of the doorjamb she had been leaning against and strolled over to seat herself on the counter next to the sink. "I'm just aquiver at seeing this side of you, Alec. You can't blame me for not wanting to spoil the picture by putting myself in it."
"Well, I may not have pulled a lot of k.p. during my life," he admitted, "but Manticore really knew how to inspire a guy to keep things in order. I mean the ten-mile hikes barefoot through a Wyoming winter were one thing, but who wants to be brainwashed into picking up your socks?"
The smile he flashed made Max a part of Alec's memories in a way she hadn't felt since the bombshell of 49614's existence had been dropped. But remembering what had broken the link only stiffened her resolve to keep anything else in her world from going sideways.
"Speaking of brains, where's yours?"
To the casual listener her tone might have sounded conversational, even teasing, but Alec knew her better; he could hear the angry edge beneath the banter. With a sigh he pulled his hands from the soapy water and shook them off.
"Okay, Max, what did I do now?"
She waved a hand around the break room. "I see you being all Suzie Homemaker and that's great. I mean you put on a good show." Her hand fell to her hip, fingers digging into bone as she fought off the urge to wrap that same hand around his neck and twist. "What I'm not seeing is the audience. How could you be so stupid as to leave a kid that small alone? How could even you be so irresponsible?"
Alec reached behind her to grab a dishtowel. "She's with Joshua."
"Oh." Max dipped her head, hoping the long dark hair slipping over her shoulders would shield her burning cheeks as the bubble of her righteous anger abruptly burst. "You could have said that when I walked in, you know."
"You mean, 'hey Max, how are you, I am fine and by the way I have provided adequate care for my child while I am not physically in the same room with her'?" He shot her a sidelong glance through his eyelashes as he dried his hands. "Something like that?"
"You're just so new to all this," she complained as she forced herself to face him. "And it's not like I'm any big expert or anything, but..."
"But you care what happens to her," he finished quietly. "I know that, and it... it means a lot to me. Look, I know I don't know what I'm doing here, Max, but you have to believe I'm thinking about it pretty much ever second that I'm awake." He rubbed one hand over his red eyes. "Which I'm guessing is going to be basically all the time for a while."
"So, umm, Joshua is with her right now?" Max slid off the counter. "Do you think he needs some help?"
Alec began drying off the plates, gently placing each one on top of the other on the counter after he was done. His care, in this case, was not motivated so much by a desire to protect the dishes as a devout wish to avoid looking Max in the eye. "If he does, then I asked the wrong man to baby-sit today."
Max had started walking towards the door, but Alec's words stopped her short. "You asked Joshua to baby-sit?"
He still didn't look up. "Yeah."
"But..." she floundered for a way to make her question not sound like a complaint. "Did you think I wouldn't do it after last night?"
Alec couldn't look at her now; no matter how much sense the argument made to his own ears, he knew the truth would hurt Max. "No, I, uh... actually I just thought he'd be the best choice."
Max raised her eyebrows and pretended she didn't feel his words cutting into her. "Excuse me? Since when did Joshua get his child care merit badge?"
"None of us knows anything about kids, except maybe Gem. But that's not why I asked him anyway." He met her eyes reluctantly, wincing a little at the hurt he saw reflected in their dark depths. "I have to go out for a little while, and I need to know she'll be safe when I'm not around."
He didn't come out and say it, but his implication was clear. It was, in fact, so painfully clear she felt like Alec had punched her, except that no physical blow had ever taken her breath away quite so thoroughly.
"You think I wouldn't protect her?" she choked out when she finally regained the power of speech. "You actually think I would let something happen to that little girl?"
"I think..." he sighed deeply. "I think you've been hanging out with Logan too much."
"I what?" she sputtered. Whatever she had been expecting, it had not been this.
"Or maybe that's why you two hooked up in the first place," he continued over her protest. "You have this blind spot, Max, same as him – you see the good in people. You want to see it, and if it doesn't exist you still think you see it. I don't know how or why; I mean you'd think even just ten years at Manticore would've knocked it out of you." He shook his head. "But it's still in there and I can't risk it getting in the way of my kid's safety."
She heard the words, but her dazed mind couldn't begin to process them. His whole idea was insane. No, Alec was insane.
"And Joshua's the savage here? Are you even listening to what you're saying?"
Alec shrugged. "I'm not saying he's a savage. But he's a realist; he sees people for who they really are, not who he wants them to be. I need someone who sees White as he is."
"I know what White is," she said through gritted teeth. "He's a monster, a real one. I wouldn't even let him near her, and if he tried to hurt her..."
He gave up the pretense that he was paying any attention to his domestic chores and laid the dishtowel down on top of the stack of dry plates.
"Max, hold up. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to see the good in people. It, uh," Alec looked away for an instant, "in fact it reminds me of someone I used to know. But even taking the time to look for it in the wrong person can sometimes get you killed." He turned back to face his friend, maybe his best friend, suddenly implacable in his judgment of her. "You look at Ames White and a part of you can't help but see a guy who's been turning the world upside down to find his missing son. Joshua looks at the same guy and sees a psycho who let some freaks poison his son on the off-chance the kid could survive and join the family cult."
"I don't..." she began, but Alec wouldn't let her finish.
"You see a guy who let his wife live until he really, really had to kill her," he continued stonily. "Joshua looks at good old Ames and sees a guy who killed an innocent defenseless girl just to stir up a revolution."
She didn't know how she was supposed to respond. He was rejecting her help, again, but this time he was doing it because he thought she was too nice, too good. He actually thought she was more of a marshmallow than Joshua, and while part of her was angry for his lack of trust, another part of her was unwillingly touched that Alec thought there was some fragment of her innocence left untarnished by Manticore.
"So what do you see when you look at White?" she asked softly.
Alec smiled crookedly at her, as though he pitied the naïveté that had prompted her question.
"Oh, don't go by me, Max. I'm the class cynic. Or maybe I'm just the class bigot." He cocked his head to the side, his smile turning into a mock frown. "No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to get past the cloven hoofs and those bright red horns."
"You honestly believe I would let White hurt her because I'm too stupid to know he's the bad guy?"
All pretense of humor, dark or otherwise, vanished from Alec's face as though it had never been. "I think you would hesitate, and Joshua wouldn't. I honestly believe that if it came down to it you would hesitate because you thought you could find some tiny piece of humanity in White that could be appealed to. And in the same instant that you hesitated... White would win."
Max didn't know how to make him see how wrong he was. It had taken her a long time to learn to trust Alec, but it had never occurred to her that he might not trust her in return. Yet it seemed like everywhere she'd turned in the past 24 hours, she discovered yet one more way he had to show her just that.
"Come on, Max," Alec said abruptly, pushing himself away from the counter. "I got places to go and things to do." He winced at the mental image that immediately assaulted him. "Just wish I didn't have to do them driving the Aztec sacrifice."
* * * * *
"Sir, this plan... it seems a little risky."
'Risky' was the politest term Otto could think to use; 'insane' was closer to his real opinion, but he would have to be equally nuts to be honest with his boss at this point. And he knew the real score, too; he knew what White was actually after. If he thought the plan was crazy, knowing what was truly at stake, what must the other agents, who believed this was just another mission, think of the idea?
"It's not risky, Otto; it's bold. It's creative. It's inspired." White was beaming; he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of this before.
"Maybe we should just move straight to Stage 3," Otto suggested, doing his best to hide his wince at the thought. He wasn't looking forward to Stage 3 either, but he had to keep the goal in mind.
"No, it's too soon. And at this point we're not even sure it will work; that's why we need to test the waters." White looked around the room for approbation, but he settled for the resignation and slight fear he could perceive. "What better way to up the ante than with a little pre-game hostage situation?"
"But sir, the civilians... children, sir; it will be a children's store. We lost control of the fire at the orphanage and there were... casualties."
Otto closed his eyes for an instant, trying to shut out the images he had seen on the news the night before, and in his morning pile of surveillance photos. It didn't help, though; the ravages that fire had created fed on darkness.
Opening his eyes both literally and figuratively, he tried again to appeal to White's professional instincts. He knew it was no use trying to tap into the man's better nature; it was becoming increasingly clear that White's humanity began and ended with his son.
"Do we really want to chance that happening again? The chance of exposure alone..."
White looked surprised, although he had expected an objection. He just found it hard to believe his subordinate could still be caught up in yesterday's news.
"That fire getting out of hand was an accident, Otto; just a freak accident." He clapped his assistant on the back, adopting a placating tone. "Maybe it's just the way I phrased it, Otto; maybe 'hostage situation' is overstating the case. All they need to do track 494 and the girl using the implant, and when they reach a nice, quiet kid's store, pretend to rob it. A little gun-waving, maybe a few carefully aimed shots fired overhead... where's the danger in that?"
Otto couldn't begin to list the problems he could see arising from White's plan, but he also knew the set to his boss' jaw. When White had that look on his face, and that certain mild, perfectly rational tone in his voice... the one favored by so many serial killers on the nightly news... there was nothing to do but hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
"How many agents are we going to need, sir?" Otto asked, trying to keep his voice as calm as White's. There was no need to let the rest of the agents know they were all going to die until they were all actually going to die.
"Four... No, better make that five." White nodded at his currently unoccupied hackers. "Those three clowns can make themselves useful, and then grab two more... doesn't matter who. Two of them will actually go inside to stage the robbery, and the other three should be stationed outside to drag them out after 494 disables them. He'll get the hell out before the sector police arrive, so we shouldn't have to worry about our men getting nabbed for the robbery."
"And if we do get caught by the police?" one of the hackers asked warily.
"Well, if you give them my name I'll deny I ever heard of you," White assured him with a breezy smile. "So my advice? Don't get caught."
"So we're just going to run in, grab some money out of the till, threaten the transgenic and let him kick our asses?" The agent was talking to White, but looking imploringly to Otto as the last hope for reason.
"You're not going to threaten 494," White snapped. "I swear, it's like I'm talking to myself here. Threaten the kid, the kid; you got that? Kick start 494's parental instincts, and then let him get away. Which," he added almost as an afterthought, "will probably require letting him kick your asses. Just, uh, try not to let him kill you. It would create way too many questions."
* * * * *
Logan heard the piano music as soon as he walked in the door. It took him a moment to realize it was the same song he'd heard the day before, undoubtedly produced by the same musician; he only wished he knew why it had seemed familiar then and now.
He stood for a moment in the living room before bowing to the inevitable and descending the staircase to the basement. There he found Alec, as he'd known he would, although seeing Original Cindy sifting through a box of magazines in the corner beneath a window came as a surprise.
"You know," Logan said as he took the last step down and rounded the corner, "there's something about that song that just seems so..."
And like that the song was over, Alec smoothly segueing into another tune without hesitation. "Logan, how ya doin'? Can I borrow the car?"
As usual Alec's voice betrayed little of his true emotions, but Logan was learning to read between the lines. Whatever that song was... and eventually he would remember the name... it meant something to Alec he had no intention of sharing right now. Harping on the point would only create problems on top of the ones they already had in abundance. Better to take the safe road, Logan silently decided.
"Now how did this happen?" he appealed to Original Cindy, feigning a bewildered look. "He becomes a father and yet I'm the one handing out the car keys."
"Man has a way of turning the rules upside down and upside yo' head," Original Cindy agreed with an emphatic nod of her head. "Supposed to be part of his charm."
"It is a large part of my charm," Alec said stoutly, his fingers still flying over the piano keys. "People feel good about saying 'yes' to me because they're being both cooperative and defiant at the same time."
"Scary part is, they didn't just let him make babies," Original Cindy drawled as she strolled over to stand next to the piano. "They asked him to. Or did you volunteer for once?"
Alec stiffened. He didn't usually let Original Cindy's jibes get to him, but he was feeling a little raw right now, especially about his Manticore days. "I didn't do anything in that breeding program. Ask Max; she'll tell you."
Original Cindy was surprised by the sharpness of his tone, but she ignored Logan's warning glance. She wasn't seriously trying to wound Alec; Max had, in fact, told her enough about the breeding program and Alec's part in it to know that there were no debts owed in this area. But teasing Alec was second nature by now; it was the way Original Cindy communicated. If the boy didn't know that by now, she told herself, he just hadn't been paying attention.
"You didn't do nothin' because Max didn't let you do nothin'." She planted her hand on her hip and smirked down at him. "You try to do somethin' and my girl woulda made sure you never do anythin' again."
Alec stopped playing and turned slowly on the bench to look her straight in the eye. Original Cindy had never bought any of his lines before; he was pretty sure she could tell he wasn't shining her on now. "You think I went into that cell trying to charm the pants off of her?" he asked quietly. "You honestly believe I'd risk giving Renfro another kid of mine?"
She suddenly realized she'd gone a step too far. It was something she'd never thought possible to do with Alec; he'd never given her reason to believe he had enough depth to strike bone.
"Hey, boo, now you know I didn't mean..."
"Guys, hey," Logan said hastily, "remember me? The one with the keys?" He dangled the key ring in the air, breathing a silent sigh of relief when both sets of eyes turned towards him. "Why do you need the car anyway? Or don't I get to ask?"
Original Cindy gratefully seized the out. "We goin' shopping for the new girl in Alec's life. Child ain't got but the clothes on her back, and no way a sister can live like that for long, even if she only 2."
"I could have brought the car over," Logan said, looking strangely at Alec. "It's not like you're shy or anything Alec; why didn't you just call and ask?"
"I kind of figured Max wouldn't like it if I dragged you back to Poison Central," Alec explained. He slid around on the bench to face the piano again, but he only tapped at random keys rather than trying to play anything in particular. "She's mad enough as it is; even I'm not crazy enough to stoke that fire."
Logan was tempted to ask if anything new happened after he left the night before, but he decided at the last instant he really didn't want to know. Max was an adult and so was Alec; at some point in time, hopefully soon, they had to start learning to treat each other as such without Logan running interference.
"It, uh, probably is a good thing you didn't call," he said instead. "White's tapped the phone."
Original Cindy stared at him, and then quickly shifted her attention to Alec when the transgenic's hands slammed down on the piano, creating a discordant crash that resounded against the stone walls of the basement.
"Now why would White be keepin' his ear to your door?" she asked. "You think he got his nose twitchin' about the next gen?"
Alec ignored her. "You're sure?" he asked tersely, staring down at his hands splayed out on the keys.
"Pretty sure. They definitely tried to get into my computer, and the cell is blocked. Now there's a hum on the regular phone."
"Great." Alec stood up abruptly and stalked over to stare up at the grey sky through one of the high windows, knocking over the piano bench on his way with his uncharacteristically jerky movements. "So this really wasn't just one big happy coincidence. Well hey, who wants a family reunion anyway?"
"I didn't think you were in the market for one," Logan said slowly.
Alec turned sharply on his heel, reminding Logan of the predators' DNA that ran through his veins. "Do you see why now? Do you finally get it?"
"Hey, easy; I'm on your side, remember? Or at least I'm on your daughter's side, and I'm trusting that's the same thing."
Alec forced himself to calm down, even if it was only fractionally. Logan was right; he wasn't the enemy. Alec wasn't sure if they could actually be called friends, but at least he knew the man was too much of a do-gooder to consciously try to hurt him.
'Consciously,' unfortunately, being the key word.
"How much did you say before you figured out White was drooling into the other end?"
"Give me a little credit; I figured it out before I said anything." Logan tried to look offended, but in truth he didn't blame Alec. Had their positions been reversed, he would have thought the same thing. "So I made a few calls, and told some very careful truths that I hope... that I believe... will shake White up, and maybe make him do something stupid."
"So we're trying to force him into doing something rash and impulsive and really, really dumb? White?" Alec scratched his head and frowned. "Okay, but I thought I was supposed to be the one with the crazy plans that Max needs to rescue me from. You're the one with the maps and the life insurance."
"Why do you think I buy the insurance?" Logan countered with a small smile.
"Can I just say Original Cindy don't know what the hell you two are jammin' about?" Original Cindy broke in. "But if it means we get to take a big old meat hook to that rattlesnake White and hang him up by his..."
Logan quickly raised his hand to ward off the image her words were creating in his mind. "Please, stop. I'm begging you from the bottom of my... heart."
She shook her head at his squeamishness, but forbore from commenting on it. "All I'm sayin' is count me in."
Alec blew a sigh out between his teeth. This was all getting seriously out of control, and every Manticore-generated molecule in his body was scrambling to find some area of his life where he still had the sense that he was in command.
"Right now, god help me, I need to count on your fashion sense." He swiftly crossed the room and snatched the keys still dangling from Logan's fingertips. "Thanks, Dad. We'll be home by dawn."
Original Cindy trailed after Alec up the stairs, protesting all the way. "Now what did you mean about Original Cindy's clothes? I just know you wouldn't have the nerve to diss a sister to her face when you already be askin' for her help."
"I'm saying no leopard skin, O.C. Also no zebra, no lizard, no snake... nothing that looks like it used to have a previous occupant."
"This child gonna have no style," she grumbled. "No style at all."
* * * * * *
Two dark and nondescript government-issue surveillance sedans pulled up to the curb one block down from a store in downtown Seattle with the unlikely name of "Tailored Tots." The tracking device implanted in 49614 had led the NSA agents on a winding course through the city, featuring brief stops at a number of local children's stores. This store, however, was the first one where the subjects had spent more time inside than it took for the agents to find a parking place. From this White's highly trained operatives determined the amusing, but unfortunately useless fact that X5-494 was a little choosy when it came to apparel.
They gave the transgenic ten minutes before they moved in, just to be sure he wasn't simply window shopping. At ten minutes plus one second, Special Agents Victor, Yosh and Andrews slipped out of their car and moved unobtrusively down the street towards Tailored Tots. When they reached the alley next to the store Andrews turned, preparing to cover the rear entrance. Victor and Yosh grimly slid ski masks over their heads and darted in the front door a minute later.
The next fifteen minutes would forever remain a blur to the agents involved, a jumble of shouting and gunfire and the sound of breaking bones hitting breaking walls. When they pooled their memories much later, in the quiet and safety of the NSA infirmary, the story that emerged was still only a partially coherent narrative.
Special Agent Victor had fired the first round at a wall, as instructed; on that much the faux robbers were in agreement. And X5-494 had reacted to the shot with both speed and ferocity, two more points that stood out in all minds. But the questions of who fired the next six shots that took out the alarms and surveillance equipment, who reduced the computer that spewed out receipts into a pile of twisted metal and who barricaded the store's patrons and staff into the dressing rooms with racks of clothing remained mysteries.
The question of who threw the three agents in the store out onto the street, via the front wall, was of course not really a question at all. Special Agent Andrews only considered it lucky that Special Agents Kiruk and Macleod were able to drag their unconscious and bleeding compatriots to the safety of the car before anyone police made it to the scene.
Ames White didn't call it luck, naturally. To him it was all part of the plan, a plan that succeeded better than he could have dreamed.
"We got him, Otto." White rubbed his hands together with glee as he paced around the infirmary where his agents were being stitched and bandaged. "He wouldn't tear these guys up like that if he wasn't attached to the little mutant. This is just perfect."
Otto wearily surveyed the piles of bloody clothing on the metal carts in each cubicle, the rings of plaster spatters on the tile floor from numerous casts being shaped, the glare of fluorescent lights bouncing off a seemingly never-ending banner of white bandages swathing three of the NSA's best agents.
"Yes sir. Perfect sir," he murmured dutifully.
"Oh lighten up, Otto." White made a face at his unduly serious assistant. "So there were casualties; it's all part of the game. The important thing is we've got a bead on 494's mindset, even if these bozos did almost blow things by sending too many men in at once."
"Sir, when I heard the commotion in the store I felt I should..." Andrews began, but White gestured for him to be quiet.
"Do I look like I care about your feelings, Agent?"
"No sir."
White nodded briskly. "Nice grasp of reality."
Otto almost choked on the slightly hysterical laugh that was trying to force its way out of his throat. Reality. As though his boss was even on speaking terms with the concept these days.
* * * * *
Max was not designed for a desk job. Her DNA, like the rest of the X5's, was skewed towards fighting battles, not picking up the field afterwards. Yet since she had come to Terminal City, more and more of her time had been taken up with the day-to-day details of running a large base camp. Today it was the blueprints for the SeaTech Research Inc. that demanded her attention as she tried to figure out a way to restart the central air conditioning without blowing the whole power grid. Since the building was now known as the Icebox due to the large concentration of Arctic Division transgenics living there, the need for such power was becoming urgent. But when Alec strode into headquarters with his daughter in his arms and Original Cindy hard on his heels Max quickly pushed the paperwork to the side and got up to find out what was wrong.
There was urgent, and then there was urgent.
"You did the right thing, Boo," Original Cindy was saying to Alec's stiff back when Max caught up with them. "She's fine; we all doin' fine. It's all good."
"What's all good?" Max asked, glancing worriedly from Alec to Original Cindy and back again.
Alec spun around before Original Cindy could answer, his face displaying a depth of anger Max had never seen from him before.
"She could have been killed," he hissed at Original Cindy. "White's men must be waiting just outside the perimeter and I never even saw them until it was almost too late."
"White?" Max asked sharply. "You saw him? He fired on you?"
Neither Alec nor Original Cindy paid Max any attention; they were too focused on the argument that had begun almost the moment they ran out of the ruined clothing store.
"You can't know they were his boys," Original Cindy protested. She held out her hands, palms upward, in a silent appeal for reason in the universe, if not from Man. "They didn't have no little stun guns with them; those were plain old 'I need some cash and I need it now so just give it here' guns. And if they were working for White, why they try some dumb ass hold-up on the side? You think he don't pay them enough, so they try to collect some on their own while they out collecting you?"
Max tried again to be heard. "There was a robbery?"
"I think it was a set-up," Alec said quietly. The darkness had faded from his face, leaving behind a blank mask that was somehow even more unnerving than the raw anger it replaced. "They weren't looking for money; they were looking for me, and for her. The rest was just smoke and mirrors."
Original Cindy shook her head, almost wishing he were right. Life would be a lot simpler if only bad guys with missions and targets were allowed to be violent. "You really think bad things, they don't just happen?"
"I think they happen all the time," he answered grimly. "I used to make them happen, remember?"
"But White, you think he need to go through all those hoops just to hang that pretty little head of yours on his wall? Alec, he want you, he take you; man ain't got much more poetry in his soul than that, and he got no reason to need more."
"Just hold it," Max snapped before Alec could reply. She inserted herself between her friends, with one hand on Original Cindy's shoulder and the other on Alec's, and tried to find a jumping-off point in the conversation she had just overheard. "Someone had better tell me what's going on here fast, before I have to do a little gratuitous violence myself."
Alec sighed heavily and shifted 49614 to his other shoulder. The child accepted the move without a sound, as she had accepted everything since the moment the 'robbers' burst into the clothing store. It should have made things easier for Alec, not having to deal with a hysterical child, but instead it only fueled the rage he felt in equal parts towards Manticore and White. One had trained her from birth to exhibit this stoicism, and the other would take full and base advantage of it, given half a chance.
"We were at a kid's store," he began slowly, each word dragging memories to the forefront of his mind he would spend the rest of his life trying to hide from. "We'd been in there maybe ten minutes when a couple guys came running in and pretended to rob the place."
"They did try to rob the place," Original Cindy protested. "Would have too, if someone hadn't gone all super soldier on their asses."
"Yeah, except I wasn't fighting some street kids; these guys were trained in combat maneuvers." Alec looked somberly at Max. "They weren't Familiars, or if they were then they were seriously holding back. But the moves they were pulling they didn't learn holding up liquor stores."
"You think they were White's legit team?" Max asked. "But why would they pull a bonehead play like armed robbery just to get to you? They could have waited 5 minutes more and caught you on the way out. Snatch and run; no one would ever have noticed you getting pulled into their car. Or if they did, White's men have badges to flash along with those guns. Nobody would have said a word."
Original Cindy nodded emphatically. "She got you there. Just don't make sense to do what they did if all they was after was you and not money."
Alec ran his free hand through his dark blond hair. "I know it doesn't," he admitted. "But I know who they were; I know it in my gut, and all the logic in the world isn't going to change that."
Max watched him silently for a minute, trying to gauge the depth of his certainty. "So where does that leave us?" she finally asked. "Do we send guards with you when you go out? Or are you planning on never leaving Terminal City again?"
"You got a better idea?" he asked dryly.
She smiled brightly. "We could kill him. Something really, really painful. And kind of lingering, you know?"
"I said 'better,' not 'more fun'," he reminded her.
"What do you say we beat him at his own game?" Logan suggested as she strolled over to join them. "I've got a plan if anyone is interested."
"Logan!" Max stared at him in undisguised surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"And how?" Original Cindy asked practically. "Everybody else got superpowers round here; you suddenly grow wings?"
Logan smirked; there could be no other word for the strange expression that overtook his normally benign feature.
"Alec left his bike, didn't he? I figured I'd return it and pick up my car; save us both a little time on the switch."
The moment of stunned silence was gratifying to Logan at first, and then he began to find it just a little insulting. Before he could give his hurt feelings a vent, Alec managed to collect his thoughts enough to ask what they were all thinking.
"You know how to ride a motorcycle? A real one?" he added before he could help himself.
"Yes, I know how," Logan protested indignantly, suppressing the memory of his rather jolting ride through the back streets and deserted alleys of Seattle. It hadn't been a pleasant ride, and it bore little resemblance to what he remembered of learning to ride the gardener's dirt bike at his Uncle Josiah's summer home as a boy, but he'd managed it and he saw no reason to dwell on the details.
"That's... that's great, Logan." Alec shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts and focus on what was important. It was not, however, an easy task. "Thanks for returning my... oh god, my bike. You didn't... the bike is okay, right?"
Original Cindy stared at him in disbelief. "Man say he got a plan to get White off your back, and you worried about your bike? Men," she summarized with a snort.
Max knew exactly why Alec was concerned; had it been her motorcycle Logan had been driving she would have reacted much the same way as her fellow X5. She opened her mouth to explain to Original Cindy, and then snapped it shut again without making a sound. She had her pride, and after all, it wasn't like it was her bike they were talking about.
"Your bike is fine, but thanks for the vote of confidence," Logan said sarcastically. "Notice I didn't have the same panic attack over you borrowing my car?"
Alec frowned and cocked his head to the side. "I don't get the connection," he said impatiently.
Max decided it was time to take charge of the situation before they all choked on the testosterone fumes. "Logan, you said you had a plan to beat White's ass. Tell us a story and make it sweet one."
"Not here." Logan glanced around the busy 'war room'. "It's too distracting with everybody coming and going, and you know eventually they're going to start tossing in their own suggestions. And then they'll start disagreeing with each other's suggestions and then..."
Max held up her hand. "Enough said."
"We can go up to my apartment," Alec offered. "It's probably the only private place in TC that's big enough for all of us. Not that it's actually all that private..." he interrupted himself with a grin, "but since most of the people who would be interrupting us are already going to be there," he shrugged, "we should be good."
"Why don't we just invite them?" Logan suggested. "We'll need Joshua, and probably Brin too." He considered the options for a minute and then added, "Mole wouldn't be a bad idea either. I'm starting to get kind of warm and fuzzy about that bazooka he won't put down."
Max and Alec shook their heads and smiled with much the same degree of pity for Logan's innocence when it came to weapons. Original Cindy's expression leaned more towards sour disapproval.
"Man getting' a big old thing for guns," she grumbled, as though she had expected better of Logan. "Now ain't that a surprise?"
* * * * *
"You've got to be kidding," Max said flatly. "That's the big plan?"
She regretted her outburst the moment the words left her mouth; she hated to know that the hurt in Logan's eyes was her fault. But the stakes were high these days, even by Max's standards, and every time she contemplated their next move against White she came up against the inescapable fact that they were gambling with the life of a very small child.
Alec's child.
"Our only hope is to take White by surprise," Logan said stiffly in the silence that followed Max's sharp comment. "Right now he's calling all the shots because he knows what he's really after and we don't. By forcing his hand and making him come to us before he's ready, we get some advantage back."
Max glanced over at Alec before she spoke, hoping that he would at last have some contribution to make to this conversation about his daughter's future. He gave no sign he'd even heard Logan's proposal, however; the whole of his attention was focused on the child herself, watching her 'teach' her stuffed panda to draw. Once upon a time Max would not have believed Alec could be so intent on anyone but himself, let alone so quiet about it, but she was beginning to become accustomed to his surprises.
"It's too risky, Logan," she said finally, when it became apparent that Alec was not going to comment. "If you really think White knows Alec is thinking of..." she stopped herself just shy of saying the unutterable words in front of 49614, "of what he's thinking when he's not really thinking," she hastily compromised, "we shouldn't be confirming it for him. I mean if Alec really is dumb enough to go through with it..."
"Max," Logan said quickly, "don't go there. Not now."
"I'm trying to be supportive," she protested. "If he really is going to do it, I just think it's probably not a good plan to tell the bad guys before we even get things set up. Shouldn't we be, oh say, giving them a fake plan? That's the way they taught us to operate at Manticore," she finished with the faintest trace of smugness overtaking her face. As intelligent as Logan was, he was at an undeniable disadvantage when it came to battle tactics; he simply didn't have the background.
"Manticore? You mean the place that burned to the ground a few months ago?" Logan regretted the sarcasm he heard in his voice, but decided it was better than the emotion it was masking. Of all the people in this room, he had the least right to feel anger about that night. "Oh, yeah, now those people knew their plans."
"It worked, didn't it?" Max asked bitterly. "Except for Renfro they all got away."
"And so did all the people they were trying to kill. You'd already destroyed the lab; all they covered up was historical data."
"Big talk from a guy who already knows what's been dog paddling in his gene pool," Mole growled from his post by the door.
Joshua's ears perked up. "Dog paddle?" he asked hopefully.
Original Cindy couldn't see this conversation going anywhere good for her girl, or anyone else, for that matter. It was time for cooler heads to prevail.
"So Logan, who you gonna get to play this sucker out?" she broke in. "Or are you really gonna ask your friends to be bait?"
Logan shook his head. "No, I feel bad enough that I used them in the first place to get this set up. Eyes Only has some contacts who can help, though. I'll start putting out the feelers tonight... after I, uh talk to him, of course."
"What about X5's?" Brin asked, focusing on the practical with effort. She was wholeheartedly with Max on this score; she didn't like this plan and she didn't trust this plan. But if Alec didn't say something soon, it looked like this plan was going to be the plan. "We're a lot stronger and faster than any of White's men; it's the safest way."
"Joshua help too," Joshua chimed in anxiously. He was stronger than any of the X series and they all knew it.
"White can recognize transgenics, remember?" Logan said after a quick nod of assent in Joshua's direction. "He can pull them out of crowds, so he can sure as hell spot them when there's only a few people in the room. And he has to believe that the couple are human; otherwise it doesn't make sense."
"Like it makes sense anyway," Max grumbled under her breath.
"She won't be alone with them," Logan said to Original Cindy, pretending he hadn't heard Max's comment. He knew it had been directed more at Alec than at him, and he understood how deep the hurt ran that had prompted it. "It's not like White would buy it if we just dropped her off on their doorstep."
"Logan, don't." Max gestured to 49614, playing quietly in the corner of Alec's living room. The child seemed to be paying no attention to the adult conversation going on around her, even when it verged on an argument, but they already knew she understood much more than any of them felt comfortable with.
"Joshua help too." There was a faint undertone of a growl in Joshua's voice as he repeated his offer. "Joshua... protect." The more he thought about Alec's little monkey being in the same room as White... being on the same planet as White... the more anxious the transgenic became. Nothing could go wrong with Logan's plan. Nothing.
"That's right, Joshua, we'll all be there with her," Logan said carefully. "Alec can pretend to... do what he's thinking of doing... and White will try to stop him. But this time we'll be ready for him."
"What if we're not?" Max asked desperately.
Alec came back to them at last, turning away from 49614 with resignation in his hazel eyes.
"Then she's dead," he said softly. "And so am I." He switched his tired gaze from Max to Logan. "When do we start?"
* * * * *
To Be Continued