AN: Sorry for the late update. was doing some work on the document manager, so I couldn't update. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter. Some of the big stuff is yet to come!

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Chapter 14

"Okay, well, thanks for keeping your eyes and ears open. Yeah, we'll be in touch. Stay safe." Shalimar pressed a button on the cell phone, ending the call that had been held on a secure, scrambled phone line. "Jason says his contacts and circle of friends hasn't seen or heard anything about the Dominion for days. He even said it was kind of creepy, since there was so much activity two weeks ago, and now there's nothing."

"Never thought I'd be anxious for the Dominion to make a mistake. Okay, you've called Jason, Allie, Rick, Sheena and Paul. I've called Sean, Melissa, Rachel, and Mike. Is there anyone we forgot?"

"There's got to be… Oh, Kelley!"

"I'm on it." Lexa started searching the memory for Kelley's number. Finding it, she dialed and held the phone to her ear.

"Hey guys, any luck?" Shalimar looked up to see Brennan enter the room. Lexa moved over to the side of the room so he and Shalimar could talk.

Shalimar looked up to Brennan's face. "Not yet. Lexa's calling Kelley right now. How's Jesse."

"He's still in his zone. He's been in the medbay for four days. I took him food though. If he doesn't eat it this time, I'll shove it down his throat."

"I think he's feeling a little guilty about his genetic structure being fixed and not ours."

"Yeah, I guess. But he should ease up a bit. You know, take a break. Hey, tomorrow I'll drag him out of there and we'll shoot some hoops, even if he's not done with whatever he's working on. Hell, I'll even play soccer with him."

"Shal, Brennan…Kelley says he's got a lead for us. We can meet him behind The Phoenix Club sometime between 11:00 and 12:00 tonight."

"All right, then." Brennan checked his watch. "Eesh…we'll have to leave now if we want to make it."

Brennan called out to Jesse that they were leaving, and then the three of them took off.
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"Mrroooow."

"I swear, Shal, if that cat doesn't take a hike, I can't be held responsible for my actions." Brennan and Shalimar were mingling among the crowd at the door of the Phoenix Club. They were standing close enough to the alleyway that they could easily look down it occasionally and check the back door for their contact.

"Mreooow."

"That's it," Brennan growled.

Shalimar heard the telltale sizzle of Brennan's tesla coil and from the corner of her eye she saw a short blue arc of electricity connecting with a metal trashcan across the alley. A meow of protest and a clatter followed.

"Oh, leave it be. It's just a feral cat." She turned into him, reaching one hand into his hair, the other to his collar. "You like ferals, don't you?"

"I sure do." Brennan nuzzled her neck, dropping a kiss on her neck. "There's one in particular that I can't get out of my mind." He kissed his way up her neck, briefly pausing to nibble her earlobe, finally, to Shalimar's delight, reaching her lips, which he captured with reckless abandon. There was no way to describe the way she tasted, he thought. She was familiar, she was home. But she was new every time he touched her, kissed her, and he was addicted to the sensation.

"Hey guys, I hate to break up your little, uh, session, but our contact just stepped out the door." Lexa's voice emanated softly from both their comrings. She was positioned on the street at the other end of the alley.

Brennan reluctantly pulled away and dropped his forehead to Shalimar's. "I swear, Jesse and Lexa seem to have the worst timing."

"Yeah, I know. We'll finish this later," she purred. Then, glancing down the alleyway, she pulled Brennan around the corner and down the alleyway. "We see him," was the reply to Lexa.

Brennan, with his higher vantage point, made a cursory sweep of the alleyway as he and Shalimar approached the man.

"You Shalimar?" the young man asked. He was of average height, with a stocky build. His hair was shorn close to his head, making him look as if he were a bouncer from the club.

"Yeah, are you Kellogg?" He nodded. "What have you got for us?"

"It's a disc, but I'm not sure exactly what's on it." He began to meticulously pat his pockets. "I know I have it somewhere. My cousin and I worked for the Dominion. He was a programmer, I was on security. When the place went down a couple weeks ago, I got out, but Jake stayed. A few days ago, he drops by my place with this disc." He fingered the disc in his pocket, but remembered that this disc was a decoy. The real disc had been put into one of the less obvious pockets of his clothing, but he couldn't remember which one. "Says if anything happens to him, I should take it to something called Mutant X. I haven't heard from him or been able to get a hold of him since, so I put in a word to Kelley.

"Well, thanks. I hope you find your cousin.

"I hope he's okay. Things were getting really creepy in there just before –"

Kellogg didn't have a chance to finish his sentence. Shalimar cried, "Down!" and a split second latter a series of bullets passed by them. They dashed behind a dumpster. Finding the source of the shots, Brennan let loose several bolts of electricity. Unfortunately, they seemed to have no effect on the men, who continued their barrage of fire.

"Damn it. They've got power suits on."

"Well, at least we know we're on the right track. The Dominion's the only one's who have suits like that."

"Lot of good that does us right now." Brennan fired another tesla coil, aiming for the unprotected head and weapon, and managed to disable one of the men. "Got any ideas?"

Kellogg poked his head out, but quickly drew it back in to avoid a round of fire. "Damn it," he swore. "It's a retrieval squad. They're sent to eliminate security risks, and they're damn good at their job." He patted his pockets frantically, finally locating and pulling out a small computer disc. "Here it is. Take it, quick!"

Shalimar tucked the disc into her jacket pocket. Brennan saw her eyes flash yellow as she used her heightened senses to sweep the alleyway. "There's a narrow path. Lexa, it's down the south side of the alleyway. Do you think you can give us some cover?"

"I see it and I'm on it."

Brennan and Shalimar saw a beam of light shoot its way towards the balcony on which the men were standing. However, instead of aiming for the men as Brennan had, she aimed for the metal supports holding the balcony in place. In a few short seconds, the beam had heated the supports enough for them to give way, causing the fire escape to fold down, dumping the men into the alley below. The moment the men began to fall, Shalimar and Brennan took off, Brennan pushing Kellogg in front of him. They darted over the miscellaneous trash on the ground, making their way to the other end of the alley, where they could make a clear escape into the crowded street.

The men who had been dumped 15 feet onto the ground below were obviously well trained. Within moments, they resumed their fire, even as they climbed to their feet. Their weapons were designed for public close-quarter contact. They fired short laser bursts, leaving scorch marks on the brick walls of the alley rather than bullets, which could be traced and would create questions with the local law enforcement agencies. The men focused on their mission – eliminate the target and retrieve the disc. It didn't matter that they had known the target, and had worked with him. The man was a security risk and must be handled appropriately. One of the men let loose a series of carefully targeted shots, which landed precisely where he meant them to – in the middle of the traitor's back. One shot had strayed, hitting in the arm the other man who was racing out of the alley. That man tried to help the traitor along, but gave up and continued running when he realized he was already dead. That the others had escaped was of no concern, there had been no time to make the exchange. The main objective had been achieved. He held up his left hand in the signal to cease fire. "The target is down. Commence extraction and retreat," he whispered into the communications radios.

Silently, one of the other men approached the dead man, patting his pockets until he found an unlabeled computer disc. "Got it, sir."

"Good, leave the body for the locals. Let's move."
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Lexa, Brennan and Shalimar didn't speak until they reached their transport. They had silently made their way through the throng of Friday-night party-goers, slowing their pace to blend in at times, sprinting across empty lots at others.

"Where's Kellogg?" Lexa queried as she jumped into the driver's seat.

"He's dead. Bastards nailed him right in the back."

Shalimar nodded. She had known Kellogg was dead when Brennan caught up with her. She hadn't heard a fourth pair of pounding feet, and had smelled the stench that she had come to associate with the moment of death.

"Damn it. Did you get the information?" Lexa started the vehicle, moving out of the parking lot and onto the streets.

Shalimar pulled the disc out of her pocket and handed it to Lexa. "Yeah. He finally found it. What do you think is on it?"

"I don't know, but I hope it was worth his life."

"Me too." Shalimar twisted in her seat to look at Brennan, who was in the back seat. "Brennan, where'd you get hit?"

Brennan looked up. He contemplated denying any injury, but discarded that idea when he saw Shalimar tap her nose. She had smelled his blood. "It's just a nick on the arm. It's the same damn arm those dominion creeps hit last time, too. The bleeding's already stopped, though."

Satisfied, Shalimar turned back around in her seat. The three of them sat in silence the rest of the way back to The Cave, each of them cursing the Dominion in their own way for its most recent transgression.

Twenty-three minutes later, at 1:48 am, they walked into the main cavern, Lexa heading toward one of the terminals, Shalimar leading Brennan towards medbay so she could wash and bandage his wound. Shalimar was thankful that Jesse was no longer there; the man had been working almost non stop for days and he needed to rest. He must have gone back to the mansion for the night.

Out in the main room, Lexa placed the small disc into the computer drive. The first thing she noticed was that the information was both encrypted and scrambled. She hadn't expected anything different, but she could always hope. Making several copies of the information, she placed them in numerous places in the computer system, then tucked the disc back into her pocket. She'd have Katie put it in the safe, just in case. Right now, though, all Lexa wanted to do was get back to the mansion and get some shut-eye.

At about 9 o'clock the next morning Shalimar, Lexa and Brennan were hanging out in the kitchen as they watched Katie cook breakfast for them all. They had all offered to help, but Katie refused, stating that she'd probably just trip over them if they did, despite the large size of the room. So the three mutants had contented themselves with sitting at the counter, nibbling on a fruit plate.

Lexa plucked a grape from the dish. "Hey, Katie, have you seen Jesse this morning. I knocked on his door on the way downstairs, but didn't get an answer.

Brennan shrugged. "Maybe he's still sleeping."

"No," Katie said, slipping more bread into the toaster. "He went down to The Cave early this morning. I ran into him while I was getting my coffee. He had a piece of toast in his mouth and an orange in his hand." She shrugged. "At least he's eating."

Shalimar moved towards the door. "I'm going to go and drag his ass back here. He's been shutting people out too much lately. It's not normal for him. He needs some people time."

However, before she could make it to the doorway, the object of their discussion burst into the room.

Shalimar took in his wild hair and wide eyes. "Jesse, what's wrong?"

Jesse looked each one in the eye as they took a concerned step toward him. He held up a hand, his mouth working as he tried to figure what exactly he would say. He closed his eyes, then reopened them.

"Jess, what is it?"

He tilted his head and said in an amazed voice, "Adam didn't fix my genetic structure."

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AN: Well, as you can see, a bit of a cliffhanger here…the big stuff is coming up and there will be answers! Hold on for the ride…it's going to get a little complicated! Again, thank you all for the reviews! They make it all worthwhile.