Title: Total Recall, Chapter 23
Author: CSIphile
AN: You guys rock so hard, I didn't realize how many reviews I had for this fic. I've never had so many for any fandom I've written. I love it…just love it. Please, keep it up! I love to hear what you think, and it's so inspiring for the next fic!
AN2: Coming down the home stretch here. About 5 chapter left to go…sniffle, its kinda sad really.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Chapter 23: Information Explosion
Before Alec even speaks, he shoots out one hand, capturing the other person around the neck, pushing them into the opposite wall, and pinning them forcibly.
"Can I help you?" the X asks sweetly, his voice a stark contrast to the fire burning in his green eyes. This guy seems to be around Olivet a lot, and in Alec's estimation, that means he's trouble.
"You…like that….disk?" the man chokes out between gasps of breath.
Alec's hold on the man's throat loosens somewhat. THIS is their man on the inside? Quickly he sizes up the human. Alec never would have figured Olivet's right hand man for a traitor.
"Yeah, nice info. So you're the guy?"
"Yeah…I'm the guy."
Alec narrows his eyes at the man. "How do I know you aren't working for Olivet? That you won't turn me in?"
"You don't, but you have to believe me," Jacob responds.
"Why?"
"There was more information on that disk than you ever could have dreamed. Hopefully by now, your TC counterparts have realized that."
"How…?" He's quickly tiring of asking the questions.
"How did I know you would transmit the data? Come on, Alec, I'm not dumb."
He is almost startled by his name being uttered by someone beside Max; it sounds foreign to him. Alec slowly releases the man, but leaves his arm on the wall next to Jacob, making it clear that the wrong move would cause the assistant serious pain.
"You HAVE to trust me. Meet me before lights out in the old classrooms with no cameras. You'll get your answers."
Alec stands, stunned, as the man straightens his shirt and walks away from the transgenic. And is even more stunned to realize that they had been standing in a cameraless corridor.
This human is smarter than I give him credit for, he muses, and continues on his path back to his room. As much as he wants to visit Max, he's guessing that the doctors won't just let him in. THAT would certainly raise eyebrows.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Max wakes to relief from her constant pain. Through the drugs, her first instinct is to call Alec's name, but she stops herself.
Fluttering her eyes open against the harsh lighting, she takes a look around. She's in the med ward all right -- last in a line of white hospital beds along one wall. On the other wall are various cabinets supposedly holding medical supplies. The doorway is, of course, on the opposite end of where she is, which happens to be right under a large window that encompasses almost the entire wall. It's almost dark now, as the blazing oranges and reds of the sunset come through the tint on the window and light the ward in an amazing display. The reflective medical equipment in the room bounces the sun's rays off every possible surface.
She hears movement from her right side and sees Olivet lounging against the wall with the window, staring out onto the massive grass training fields with an expression that Max can only define as satisfaction.
Without even turning, he addresses her. "Nice to see you awake, 452."
"Yes, sir. Glad to be alive, sir."
"I'm sure you are. The wound wasn't serious, but you could have bled out. Thankfully, 494's field med training saved you."
"Yes, sir." She isn't sure where he is going with this. This ass acted unlike any director she had the displeasure of serving under. Even Lydecker was a joy in comparison.
"Your handler will be down later to debrief you. Dr. Brady says you'll be cleared tomorrow."
"Thank you, sir. I look forward to my next assignment."
"I'm sure you do, 452. We have a special one just for you." With that, Olivet turns and walks away, leaving a very confused transgenic in his wake.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Dix looks at Mole, contemplating. "Did you ever find out who Jason's boss was?"
"No, the little bastard refuses to give it up. All I managed to get was that he missed Manticore for some reason and thought that by turning in Max and Alec that would happen."
Dix shakes his head. "He cant see that Manticore was only out for their own good, screw us? He's in lockdown right?"
"Apparently he saw Manticore in a different light. Yeah, he's good and locked down, I've got Ethan watching him."
Dix sighs loudly, but moves on, obviously Jason hadn't seen the good that has come from being free, he only misses what he knew -- stability. Understandable -- to a point. "Ok, so we have a list of all the turncoats, the name of the shell Manticore hides in. So what do we do with it?"
"Dix, little man, tactical was never my forte. I'm more of a…shoot 'em up kinda lizard."
"I sent it all to Logan -- maybe he can come up with something….."
Mole suddenly sits up in his chair, almost startling Dix out of his. "Come on, man -- first day at Manticore: what do they teach you about attacking multiple sites?"
"Do it simultaneously," the smaller man responds, the answer dawning on him.
Mole smiles and his grin is quickly matched by Dix's. "You are a tactical genius, Mole! And I can't believe I didn't think of it too!"
"Well thankfully we didn't have to embarrass ourselves by asking the X's for help. That would have been ego-deflating."
Dix snorts in response and the lizard throws his hands up.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Alec slowly approaches the double doors to the old classroom facilities. It was behind this building that Max and Alec had made a promise. It felt like an eternity ago, but in reality, it was only a week. Pausing, he listens to the utter silence, trying to detect an army ready to strike. Sensing nothing, he draws closer to the doors; they have the old u-shaped handles, about waist-high. There is chain link running through both handles, with a key lock attached to the ends, securing the door closed. Alec was about to complain about how he hadn't exactly brought his lock picking tools when he notices the lock may appear closed, but the arm is not inserted into the mechanism -- it's just above it, so it's not locked at all.
Pulling the lock away, he yanks the chain off the doors, and Alec flinches at the grinding sound of metal against metal as the chain slips noisily to the floor. Again he pauses to see if anyone heard him.
They hadn't. Or were pretending not to.
Opening one door, Alec leaves himself enough room to squeeze through, and closes the door behind him. Taking one step into the room, his senses are on full alert, searching for anything indicating this might be a trap.
He's in a small classroom; there is just enough light from the sunset to illuminate the dusty, abandoned room, which is devoid of anything except a chalkboard and one desk on his left. Some of the windowpanes are broken out, and a few have been covered with small pieces of plywood before whoever was doing it gave up or left. A thin layer of dust covers every surface, the once white walls a dull gray from dirt and inattention. The ceiling is old 4-by-4 square tiles -- most missing, the rest weathered and falling out of their resting places. One fluorescent light swings at half-mast in the middle of the room. It gives Alec a creepy feeling.
Sauntering around the perimeter of the room, Alec comes to a stop at the desk in front of the chalkboard and leans against it lightly, not wanting to get too much grime on his camos.
He doesn't have to wait long before the creaking of the door hinges alerts him to someone else entering the room. Swiftly he stands up, posed in a fighting stance, ready to go on the offensive.
He is mildly relived to see Jacob, and only Jacob, enter the room and close the door as Alec had earlier. The transgenic keeps his eyes focused on Jacob, looking for any indication of deceit. That's something Alec can read from years of dealing with not always dependable suppliers.
Alec merely nods in the other man's direction. Jacob asked for this meeting, not him.
Jacob approaches, and stops a few feet from Alec, obviously not wanting to get too close after the incident in the hall earlier.
"49- Alec. Glad to see you came."
"Well, you've got me all curious now. You know how we cats are." He stares down the other man, making it perfectly clear Alec is not human and capable of destroying him in a second.
"Yes, I'm well aware." Jacob pauses, but when he realizes Alec isn't going to talk, he continues. "Why don't I start by introducing myself? Jacob Arnot, personal assistant and lackey to Dr. Richard Olivet, site director. You can call me Jake."
"'K, Jake. Why'd you call me here?"
"There is a group of us here at Manticore who have come to despise what Manticore has become…"
Alec cuts him off. "Like it was sunshine and roses before, buddy."
"You have no idea, Alec. In the years since the Seattle site was exposed, the pressure on the remaining facilities has been unbearable. The Grand Committee needed to see results, and fast, to prove to their funders that the project could continue despite the interruption you and 452 caused. Manticore used any means necessary to create the perfect soldier, and the remaining 5's underwent some serious behavior modification, unlike anything I'd ever seen. Manticore literally rewired their brains, making them more pliant, less likely to rebel against their creator, but they could still pass as human." Jacob pauses and looks down.
"And that was just the start. They tried producing new soldiers in test tubes -- failures. The X's only got pregnant a small percentage of the time if they weren't in heat, and with heat cycles only coming every 3 months and putting the solider out of commission, that wasn't considered the best alternative."
"Wait…why didn't they do what they used to? Surrogates?"
"You try finding a willing surrogate after the information explosion from the Seattle disaster. Any healthy women of child-bearing age were hard to find besides we couldn't risk them talking, it would be exposure the Grand Committee didn't want, too risky. We've been flying under the radar for a long time, Alec."
"What started our small crusade against Manticore were the fetuses. It wasn't real to any of us until I saw a baby that…wasn't human, transgenic or transhuman. It was a horrible attempt at speeding up gestation periods. And they kept on trying. Babies were being born after 3 or 4 months in the womb -- sometimes of normal size, but always with a "defect" that Manticore deemed unacceptable. And let's just leave it at they didn't keep the undesirables anymore. Learned their lesson. Not to mention what they were doing to the ones that made it, experimentation on a level I'd never seen."
"That was two years ago, a year after your "Freak Nation" was created. Since then, I've gathered the sympathy of quite a few people within Manticore."
By now the sun had nearly set, and there was only a silver of light keeping the room lit. Alec was fine, but he suspected that his companion was having a difficult time seeing -- as evidenced by the man's constant squinting.
"So it was ok when they did it to us, but when the experiments inflamed your senses, you do something?"
"Look, Alec. I don't think any of us really understood what was going on. I wasn't where I am now when I started here. We didn't know…."
"Yeah, whatever, man. Too late for us now anyway." His tone is bitter.
"Its not too late, Alec -- despite your background, despite who you really are. You are thriving -- you and all your brethren on the outside."
Instantly, Alec's face darkens. "It's a real joy. Having to steal food, not being able to leave Terminal City without fear of being killed, the constant threat from our own government and that jackass White and the familiars. Exactly what I always wanted."
"You're free, Alec -- you can make your own decisions. Babies are born without barcodes-free to live a life without maneuvers, training and torture. Yeah, it's hard, and survival is a struggle, but it's improving for you every day. You have hope now, Alec, something you never had here."
Alec looks down and realizes Jacob is right. Alec knew all this when his life on the outside started. But somehow between then and now, he had forgotten it all. So consumed with the daily struggles to live, and making sure everyone around him did too, he had lost sight of the goal: True freedom. To live on the outside alongside the humans, not feared by them. And Alec knows it will happen….eventually.
"What do we do?"
"That disk."
"Yeah, with the names and…."
Alec stands a little straighter, and suddenly he realizes the true nature of the information. That was the list of traitors, of turncoats within the system.
"Yes, and by now TC also should have figured it out. What we need to happen is a simultaneous release of information and uprising by us. Also on that disk is the corporation Manticore hides under."
"Why were you waiting?" Alec questions.
"Because we were missing one thing. Someone so powerful in the upper echelon of government that this news could come directly from the White House. If our group attempted this, we would be squashed before the information could make it to the public. If TC tried it, the public would dismiss it as transgenic rhetoric. It needs to start high, and then we can stop Manticore from going to Plan B upon exposure."
"Cauterizing the sites." Alec takes one step toward Jake. "You want Eyes Only to find that person in the government."
Jake flinches slightly at Alec's movements but doesn't back away. "He's pro-transgenic and seems to have connections to both Terminal City and DC. It's our only choice, especially since you and Max appeared at our doorstep."
Alec contemplates this. It's everything they ever wanted on a silver platter. But he's also suspicious; it's almost too good to be true. That's when it occurs to him.
"How did you know? That I wasn't 494 anymore?"
"I'd had my suspicions. Your handler let me in on some information -- he's one of the good guys. I made sure you were assigned to him when you came in."
"Ok, great. But what if we never regained our memories? Then what?"
"Oh, you would have. Eventually."
"What the hell does that mean?" Alec is getting annoyed with the man's non-answers. Suddenly he smells something, another person, just outside the door. He hadn't been there before, Alec is sure of that. He sends a glare toward Jacob before directing his voice at the mystery person. "Or maybe the man behind door number one would like to answer."
The other person emerges from his hiding hole and Alec has to hold back his shock. It's the last person he was expecting.
tbc…………………….