Title: Total Recall, Chapter 21
Author: CSIphile/redwing
AN: Heeeee, hope everyone is still reading after that nasty cliffhanger I left you with last chapter. Maybe this one will make up for it. This chapter is a little….squeamish inducing, at least to my beta, so you are warned.
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Chapter 21: Minor Surgery
It's not a lot of blood, not by their standards, but it's enough to concern him. Shit, shit, shit.
He leans down and touches her neck; she is still warm, and her pulse is beating steadily, but she's not conscious. Looking at her back-the jacket left behind in the office-he notices a small bullet hole just under her right shoulder blade. Leaving one hand on her upper arm and leaning over her, he peeks around the corner; guards are bearing down, and quickly.
"Come on, baby, I can't carry you out of here," he mutters.
As if hearing him, she suddenly grips his wrist. "Help me up."
Without argument, he holds her arm and gets her standing. For a moment, she sways, and he worries she will faint on him. But then she steadies herself, and he looks at her carefully, but quickly.
"You ok?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine. Let's go." Giving him a small smile, she waves her left hand at him. "At least I held onto the shoes."
He shakes his head at her and they blur to the stairs, surprised when more gunfire doesn't ring out. Sprinting up the stairs, they turn right and blur the 10 feet to the door. Alec grabs the handle and pulls it open to reveal another guard blocking the door with his bulky frame, almost waiting for them.
Before the larger man can act, Alec punches him squarely in the jaw, rendering him unconscious. Leaning down, Alec pulls the man's gun from his belt and weighs it in his hand before nodding. Fully loaded.
Scanning the area, he is surprised to find the dark hallway empty except for them. He can still hear the alarms ringing; it's louder here, and ringing in his sensitive ears. Alec wonders where everyone is, since he figured to come upon more resistance. Then again, the security force probably didn't figure on two genetically engineered humans being their target, and assumed the team of twelve could take care of them.
Sorry to disappoint.
Looking up, he sees signs directing visitors around the large complex. Seeing what he wants, Alec points to the right and the two take off, blurring down the hall and around the corner before their pursuers even come through the door to also find the hall empty except the unconscious man.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Dix looks over the information yet again. He has printed everything out and has it organized on the conference table. There has to be something in here to nail Manticore with.
He picks up one piece of paper and studies it. The list of the Manticore sites across the US. Many more than they anticipated; fifteen including Boise. They are mostly in the west, but there are a few sprinkled on the east coast. Sighing, he places the paper back on the table just as Mole walks in.
The lizard claps him on the back before speaking. "How's it going? Figure out how to bring 'em down?"
"No, this information is…useless almost. It's great that we know where the sites are, and what they are pretending to be. And sure, we can release it to the press anonymously, 'cause who wants to hear from the transgenics, but Manticore would probably just destroy the sites, like they did in Seattle."
Mole starts to try and interrupt, but the smaller transhuman continues. "Which, by the way, is STILL on this list. Some of these sites could be abandoned by now!"
"Dix, man. Relax. There HAS to be a reason Alec sent us this. We just aren't seeing it."
"Do you realize that Manticore is hiding its funding in a program for adoption! A federal program to assist couples wanting to adopt! Unreal." Dix throws his hands up in frustration. All this information and he can't figure out how to use it. Then again, he isn't trained for forming missions and creating strategy…Alec and Max are.
Mole sees his friend's frustration. "Get everything to Logan; see if Eyes Only can do anything. Maybe if we expose everything at once, they won't be able to do anything about it. It'll be hard to explain fires at all the facilities at once."
"Yeah, yeah. We just need a credible source to get the information out. Hearing it from us isn't going to work. At all."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Oh god, it hurts," she mutters, and slides down the wall, coming to a stop when her ass hits the barren subfloor.
Alec regards her with concern; they had managed to get out of the facility through the very unsecured loading docks, but they had to walk a while before Alec could steal a suitable vehicle to get them to the airport. And Detroit in December ain't exactly warm, so by the time they found the Olds, Max was shivering so hard Alec was sure she was going to seize on him.
Getting to the airport hadn't been a problem; they had snuck into an old part of the terminal that was being renovated, but with the holidays right around the corner, no one appeared to actually be working. So now, here she sits on a drywall dust-covered subfloor. Kneeling at her side, he looks up the wall at the wide bloodstain left behind.
Alec carefully grasps her shoulder and assists her in laying on her left side, back to him. She moans slightly as she comes to a stop on the floor, trying to curl into a tight ball. Alec winces at her moan, but carries on, ripping the thin fabric of her shirt to gain better access to the wound. Tearing off a part of his shirt, he wipes some of the blood away; she's still bleeding, which concerns him. It's a pretty small hole considering, and he palpitates around it.
"Alec, please stop." Her small voice holds a tone of begging, something he never hears from her.
"I'm sorry, Max. I have to see how deep." He purses his lips; he hates to hurt her. Leaning into her ear, he whispers. "Just another minute, ok, baby?"
She merely nods at him, and he feels her tense under his fingers, anticipating the pain. Quickly he goes back to inspecting, wanting to get this over with. When he hits a sore spot just to the left of the injury, she gasps and twitches slightly, as Alec feels his heart clench. Biting his lower lip, he pulls the fabric back together and rubs his hand lightly over her arm, trying his best to be comforting.
He takes a moment and looks at her. Her skin is tinged blue from the blood loss. Her eyes are starting to glaze over, the normal life and fire they hold seeping out slowly with every drop of blood; although thankfully, the blood flow has eased a bit, her body finally starting to do its job. Max may be a transgenic, but she is still fallible -- and if she was all human, she'd be dead already. He has to stop the bleeding or she will bleed out in front of him, and he won't be able to stop it. Watching carefully, he notices her start to shake slightly, barely visible movements that send a river of ice through his veins. It could just be the cold since they are in an unheated area or…. Come on Max, don't seize on me. I can stop bleeding, but I can't find tryptophan.
Brushing hair back from her face, he speaks to her in low tones. "I'm going to get the bags and see what I can find to do a little minor surgery. Hang in, Max; I'll get you out of here."
Regretfully, he stands and shrugs out of his jacket, laying it carefully over her; she hasn't even responded to his words. Standing, he walks to the large plastic sheeting separating the construction area from the rest of the terminal. Giving her one last look, Alec quickly moves into the crowd, careful to look like everyone else -- a harried traveler. Moving as fast as he can without drawing attention, Alec starts the arduous task of collecting what he may need to save Max's life. He hates to leave her alone, but it has to be done; he can't just watch her bleed to death. Not once considering what would happen if he can't save her, because failure is not an option.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"They haven't checked in yet?!" Richard practically screams at Jacob.
"No sir, and there are reports from Detroit about a break-in attempt at a software company. They are reporting that one of the burglars was injured."
"Jesus. Dammit!" Richard screams and turns to the window. He cannot afford to lose 494 and 452 now, not with the committee wanting them to breed in a bad way. Once his boss had seen the genetic reports, word had come down not to wait for her heat: 452 is to have in-vitro performed, if she's not already pregnant. Unfortunately, that would take 452 out of fieldwork, and in only 2 missions, she had proved to excel there. But implanting her fertilized egg into another X was iffy at best. They had tried and failed miserably at that also; the best chance was to implant it into the genetic mother, and even that success was now barely 15% of the time. But the committee wants it and who is Richard to argue.
Human surrogates took to the implanted fetus better than the X5 females. The geneticists had speculated that because the X's genes had been tampered with, when a fetus not carrying half the mother's genetic code was introduced into an X, their bodies reject it as a foreign body to be destroyed. Their antibodies were "reading" babies' genetic code more or less. Human females, without the specific gene coding present in the transgenics-and therefore unable to "read" the tampering-, had a nearly 90% success rate -- all they had to do was match the blood types. The human antibodies did not recognize the baby as anything but that. Unfortunately, human female surrogates were harder to find in this day and age. Additionally, bringing in more people could mean more exposure if they decide to talk, which is exactly what the grand committee was trying to avoid.
Which brought Richard to the problem at hand. If the reports were correct, then 452 and 494's children could be the future of Manticore -- the future that he, and everyone else, had been searching for for a generation. Richard had already targeted several other breeding pairs whose genetic signatures read perfectly – just like his missing transgenics, 452 and 494.The most compatible of the pairs have the pleasure of being the guinea pigs.
"Find them." He hisses at Jacob, and doesn't even turn from looking out the window.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Twenty minutes after leaving her, Alec returns to their hiding hole. Before departing Metro, they had stored bags with a change of clothes and new identities in a locker. In the event they were found out – as they had been – they would change clothes and book a flight back with the new names. They had come as business professionals, and that's who the police would be looking for, but they would leave as college students.
Pushing plastic aside, and making sure no one was looking, Alec steps in to find Max in the exact same position she was when he left. Sighing, he approaches her slowly; afraid she has died in the time he was gone. The thought of taking back a body almost brings him to tears; he can't imagine life without her now. It's been that way a while now, a while since they stopped being adversaries and started being friends, and sometimes more. So long, Max, so long we figured we had all the time in the world to be more. We, of all people, should have known better. There's never enough time in the world for transgenics. We may outlive our human counterparts, but that's only if someone doesn't kill us or put us in a cage first.
Closing in on her, he is relieved when his sensitive hearing picks up her steady breathing.
"Max?" he whispers.
"Max…" Louder this time. But this time, he gets a response.
"Alec?"
He reaches out and brushes her hair back as she turns her head to see him.
Oh god, no….
Her lips are tinged blue.
Frantically, he looks down on the floor, his cat-like vision making up for the lack of light in the room. There hadn't been blood there before, but now there is a puddle the size of his shoe, and it's only getting bigger.
"Max, how do you feel?"
"Tired, really tired. And cold. It hurts so bad, Alec. I almost passed out while you were gone."
His heart clenches at this revelation: she was here alone and in pain. She's going into shock.
"Max, I'm going to have to dig the bullet out and cauterize, ok? It's going to hurt like a bitch, but I need you to stick with me, ok?"
Please don't leave me.
She nods, and adjusts so her back is more accessible to him.
Grabbing his bag, Alec pulls out the meager supplies he was able to procure. Hopefully it will be enough.
Opening her shirt again, he touches the skin once more; she is cold to the touch, colder than before. Swallowing, he pulls out his knife and sterilizes it with a lighter. Placing one hand on her arm, he makes circles with his thumb, not only holding her in place, but hopefully providing some kind of comfort to her.
"Here we go," he says, and digs the knife into her skin. Not surprised in the least when she cries out slightly. "Shhhh, Max. You have to be quiet, ok?"
"Hurts, Alec… oh god, stop."
"I can't, Max -- if I don't get this out, it could get infected and kill you."
He can hear her stifle a sob of agony, and tries to hurry, slicing through her skin, making the hole slightly bigger until he feels the tip find resistance. The bullet. Putting the knife aside, he grabs a pair of tweezers he bought at a kiosk. Pushing the tweezers through blood now seeping out of the wound, he quickly finds his target and grabs hold, pulling quickly.
As the projectile exits her skin, Max lets out a sigh of relief, and he drops the bullet on the ground, the hollow plinking sound as it hits the concrete almost deafening.
Unfortunately, his job is only half done. She is bleeding more profusely, and Alec wonders for a moment how she has any sustenance left in her body.
Pulling off his shirt, Alec presses it to the wound, willing the staunch of blood to slow. Leaning over her, he is relieved to see that she is still awake.
"Hey, Max. How you doing?" He runs the hand not holding his shirt across her sweat-covered brow.
"Oh-okay," she stammers, obviously racked with pain. "Still have to cauterize."
It's a statement, not a question.
"Yeah, but you have to stop bleeding first."
"I…I'll work on that."
He cracks a small smile. "Thanks."
"Th-thanks," she says into the silence.
"For what? Saving your ass? You've done it for me a lot."
She snorts lightly. "Y-yeah. I guess we-we are past thanks."
"Yeah, I'd say so, babe."
"I-I'm sorry, Alec. If..if we take down Man-Manticore, we need to make time."
Time for them. For their potential future, a future they had tiptoed around for two plus years now.
"We will. I promise, Max."
Pulling away from her slightly, he checks the shirt; the blood has eased, her transgenic healing abilities doing their job.
"It's time."
Again she nods, and closes her eyes tightly. This is going to hurt worse than pulling the lead out of her back.
Grabbing his knife again, he cleans the blood off and again holds it under the lighter. When it glows red, he pulls it away, hesitating for just a moment.
"Ready?" he asks.
"Just…do it," she hisses at him through clenched teeth.
Leaving her laying on her side, and without further preamble, he applies the hot knife to her skin, almost pulling away from her when her body arches away from him in response to the pain. Allowing his training to kick in, Alec wraps one arm around her chest, while keeping the knife applied to her back, holding her in place.
"Just a couple more seconds…" he whispers at her, guilt flooding him as he sees the tears springing from her eyes. Alec would trade places with her in a second if he could. The sizzling of her skin is almost unbearable for him; he's hurting her, something that Alec promised a long time ago he would never do….
"I promise to never leave you, or let anyone hurt you again, Max. I may be a bastard sometimes, and moderately unreliable, but I never, ever renig on my friends."
The smell of her skin burning permeates the air, and Alec hopes it's only his transgenically- enhanced sense that allows him to smell it. Because if the smell is too strong, one of the many people walking by on the other side of the plastic sheeting might notice, blowing their cover.
After several seconds that feel like hours, Alec pulls the knife away and inspects the wound. The cauterizing has accomplished its goal; the ragged edges of the hole are now seared together, stopping the bleeding. Alec knows that Max's body will heal itself from the inside, but for now she needs rest, and there's no way they can get on the six o'clock flight. It's already 5:30. He'll have to leave her again, to contact Manticore, before they send out a search team for them.
Turning his attention back to her, he notices Max shivering slightly.
"Max, you ok?"
"Yeah, just cold."
"I know, hang on."
Getting up, Alec grabs her bag and pulls out the low-rise jeans, long sleeved black shirt, grey hoodie and thick socks. Returning to her, he assists Max in stripping out of the suit and redressing in the warmer and more comfortable clothes.
Laying her back on her side, Alec curls up behind Max and pulls her cold body into his. He had tried to find supplies to perform a blood transfusion, but was unsuccessful; the best he can hope for is that her stem cells regenerate quickly.
Wrapping his long arms around her, Alec nuzzles his face into her hair, and for once in his life, hopes they can get back to Manticore soon.
tbc………………………………