James Cameron and Charles Eglee own Dark Angel. My use is in no way meant to challenge their copyrights. This piece is not intended for any profit on the part of the writer, nor is it meant to detract from the commercial viability of the aforementioned or any other copyright. Any similarity to any events or persons, either real or fictional, is unintended.
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Starting Down a New PathKeri rolled off of Alec, sweat dripping from her brow and lending her body a gleaming luster. Alec reached over to the nightstand and grabbed a cigarette, lighting it with a practiced flick of the lighter, and looked over to his spent protégé. "That was…" He struggled to find the right word, considering – and rejecting – astonishing, volcanic, and epic before deciding that the inability to find the appropriate word said far more than any adjective ever could.
"Yeah," Keri agreed, borrowing Alec's cigarette and taking a long drag.
"Not good for your lungs," Alec chided as he took back the cigarette and enjoyed a long drag, himself.
"But it feels good," Keri responded with a playful grin. "Makes me even more lightheaded than I already am. Which is no small feat."
Alec only smiled in reply. He'd been expecting a solemn, guilt-ridden young woman to walk through his door after the hit, and even then only after hours of introspection and self-therapy. Instead he found a charged dynamo in a black silk teddy waiting for him.
Keri had been insatiable in the hours since, and was only now starting to settle back down to her usual, reserved state. She was once more the quiet, unassuming girl that few would ever expect to have been a stripper, and none would guess was now a professional assassin. She's gonna be amazing someday, Alec decided. As long as she doesn't get careless, as long as she never gets to like it too much… And as long as she keeps studying with me, of course.
"I think I might be ready for some sleep now," Keri muttered, rolling over just enough to pick her glass up from the floor next to the bed and drain the last swallow of her drink.
"So soon?" Alec quipped. She turned back to him and flashed him a thin, seductive grin.
"Well I know you're not ready to go again yet, anyway," she teased as she got out of bed and headed back into the kitchen for another Beam and Coke.
"Give a guy a chance," Alec objected, taking the time to enjoy the view as the last rays of sunshine glistened off her pale skin and sparkled in her lavender eyes.
"And maybe some viagra," she called out once she'd reached the safety of the other room. "You need a refill?" she asked, her voice accompanied by the singsong clinking of ice cubes being dropped into her glass.
"Always. But hold the Coke this time." Alec's smile slowly died away as he steeled himself to talk business. "You did well today," he said evenly, trying not to sound too congratulatory. He first wanted to see how she'd react to the reminder of their hit before he discussed it too much. The tone of her voice back at the warehouse was still on his mind; he wasn't going to rush her into dealing with it if she wasn't ready.
"You, too," she replied, her grin vanishing.
Silence reigned for several minutes, Alec trying to decide what to say next. Keri returned to the comfort of the bed, handed him the bourbon, and left him to continue the conversation. He wondered at his inability to speak with someone he'd come to know so well. It's not like me to be unable to talk business, he noted. This is definitely different, and not in a good way. The silence was starting to grow painful, and every moment Alec let it drag on, the harder he found it to break the stillness.
"Look, I'm gonna be fine," she assured him, finally taking from Alec the burden of starting the necessary conversation. "It's sweet of you to be concerned, though."
"Huh?" Alec asked, hoping he didn't look as surprised as he knew he sounded. "It's not about being sweet. It's about making sure you're okay. If you don't want to go out there and do that ever again, that's fine. This isn't something that's for everyone. And besides, if you're not gonna be able to handle it, I need to know now… before we're in the field and any hesitation might mean my life. Or yours."
"I'll be fine," Keri told him again. "I'll admit that I was a little weirded out at first, but I got over it pretty quickly. Right afterward I even felt a little sick, actually, but then I felt this… rush, or something. I got sorta wound up, and…"
"I noticed," Alec replied, fondly remembering Keri mauling him before he'd even taken off his jacket.
"Hope you didn't mind too much," she said, a flirtatious pout spreading across her lips. "'Cause, you know, we don't ever have to that again if you don't want."
"No, I want," Alec assured her. "Oh boy do I want."
"So you say," Keri cooed. "But we're about to find out just how badly," she whispered in his ear, just before she rolled over and straddled him again.
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623, 639, 653, Alec counted silently, checking each of the house numbers on the opposite side of Pugh Street. There it is – 679. He watched for several minutes, trying to detect the slightest indication that there was anyone inside. Minutes passed, and Alec once again checked the surrounding lighting, hoping he had enough cover behind the long-overgrown bushes outside an abandoned home – just one of many in the once-booming college town of State College, Pennsylvania. With the Pulse had come concerns having more to do with survival and less with higher education; when the students had left, the local economy had utterly collapsed.
And of course this is where my target is, Alec thought, cursing his unfortunate luck. With no one around it'll be next to impossible to approach the building undetected without getting at least a little luck on my side. Minutes finally grew into hours, and Alec glanced at his watch. 03:50. Not too long before the eastern horizon's gonna start getting a little gray, he warned himself. If this is gonna happen under cover of darkness, it'll have to be soon.
"Fuck it," Alec grumbled, dashing out from behind the bushes and darting across the cracked, uneven asphalt that had once been a smoothly paved road. He reached his destination – another group of overgrown bushes – and paused slightly, sensing no indication that he had been detected. So either no one's seen me, or I just haven't figured out that they have, he decided. Here's hoping for Option #1.
He moved again, stunned that he was able to make it to the doorway of 679 Pugh Street without coming under fire or setting off an alarm. He'd found two trip-wires and could only guess at their purposes, since he didn't stop to check them out; but Alec still couldn't shake the feeling that it was all too easy. I can't imagine it would be as simple for anyone else if they came for me.
He set up the explosives in seconds, a practiced, transgenically engineered hand taking a fraction of the time that could be managed by the most accomplished demolitions specialists in the world. He braced himself to the side of the doorframe and pressed the detonator. The shaped charge blew the door inward, simultaneously giving Alec both an entrance and a cloud of debris that served as a modicum of cover. He entered warily but quickly, hoping to find his target in the first few seconds, before a proper defense could be mounted. For the first time in his life, Alec found his lucky streak continuing unexpectedly.
A dark form dashed into the room at the edge of Alec's peripheral vision. What would have been an easy coups de grace against an ordinary turned into a huge tactical error when faced with a transgenic's heightened reflexes – Alec's target really never had a chance. Alec dove for the floor, hearing his opponent slice through the unexpectedly vacant air where Alec's head had been only a fraction of a second earlier. Him and that sword of his, Alec cursed silently. Only one of his group would be stupid enough to being a sword to a gunfight. Alec rolled forward, bouncing to his feet and leveling his weapon with cold indifference. No words accompanied his victory; there was simply one round, fired directly into the center of his target's chest. Hope that doesn't end up killing him, Alec thought absently, trying to force any sentiment from his mind. Woulda preferred a tranq, but that's out of the question. It's not what our enemies would have used. They would be out to kill, no questions asked, and I can't risk raising questions by being merciful.
With the one defender out of the way, Alec proceeded down a hallway, opening every door he came across. The third one he tried led to a stairway that descended into a basement. That's where I'd put him, he decided, proceeding cautiously into the gloomy darkness, searching for a light switch that might relieve him of the burden of counting on his nightvision. He found one, but predictably enough no light burst to life at the flip of the switch. Probably hasn't been power in this damn building for at least a decade, he cursed.
A moment later he discovered he wouldn't need any lights. He found a huddled form lying at the back of the basement, its head covered in a hood. "Who's there?" a young voice called out.
He can smell me, Alec realized. Even through the hood. Or maybe he can tell that I walk differently… Either way, he knows I'm not the same one who's been holding him hostage. "It's okay," he replied reassuringly. "I've come to get you out of here." Alec removed the hood, looking into the small eyes with the most compassionate expression he could muster.
"Who are you?"
"Not now," Alec answered, suddenly remembering that his most compassionate expression was less than worthless – he was still wearing his ski mask. "Let's get out of here first. Let me see your wrists," he muttered, gesturing to the shackles that held the boy to the wall. As soon as the child's attention was diverted, Alec drove a syringe into his arm, injecting enough anesthetic to keep him asleep until they reached the Mississippi.
"What?" the child cried out, realizing he had been deceived.
"Quiet, Ray," Alec said soothingly. "I'm taking you back out West. I need your help with something." There's no telling what'll happen once my plan gets going, Alec reminded himself. Any one of a bazillion things could still go wrong, and I'm not going to the table without an ace up my sleeve.
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Alec grabbed his mug as he rose from the new couch and walked into the kitchen, deciding to retrieve the hidden bottle of Jameson whiskey he kept in a cabinet above the refrigerator – safely away from Keri's curious eyes. Time to make my morning coffee a little Irish. He doubted Keri would have approved had she been there, but she was out getting groceries at a new market that had opened a few weeks earlier. "They actually have a steady stock of items," he remembered Keri telling him wistfully the first time she had asked for money to go shopping for them. "This is the first full-service supermarket in the area in, like, twenty years. Trust me, you'll be happy I went." Alec had trusted her, and Keri had been proven right. One stop shopping, Alec marveled, wondering briefly why anyone would trust the same store to carry everything they might want. It seemed almost unnatural not to have to go to an outdoor market consisting of a myriad of specialty shops. What'll they think of next? And how much will it cost me when Keri decides it's too good to pass up?
"Don't even go there," he muttered threateningly to his subconscious, which was once again addressing a concern he'd rather ignore until some other time. Like when? he asked himself, wondering if, in fact, he actually had a separate personality living deep inside his mind, the product of some kind of long-forgotten Manticore torture that had caused him to dissociate to the extent that his personality was fractured. Too often he found himself playing devil's advocate, speaking to himself as if there actually were two people in the conversation. He wondered if other, "normal" people did the same thing. And if they don't is this something Ben did?
That disturbing thought was easily pushed away. Unlike other memories, there was absolutely no part of him that ever wished to dwell upon the possibility that he had any form of slowly developing psychosis. Unlike other memories, that all too familiar voice in his head teased. Like the memories of the only other women you got close to, perhaps?
"Son of a bitch," Alec growled. "Fine, I like Keri," he mumbled, making an admission that did little else than scare him. "But this is different. It won't be like last time." Or the time before that? he asked himself. "Fuck."
The time before that, he thought, his mind racing along memory lane to its destination – a place Alec's thoughts had not visited for a long, long time. Rachel, he remembered with a heavy combination of pain, guilt, and rage. He hadn't really thought about her since a couple of months after her death; he'd done his damnedest to repress every memory of the first woman he'd ever loved, deciding that forgetting her – and all the good things he'd enjoyed with her – was far easier and preferable to deciding whether he was angrier with his Manticore superiors for giving the order that led to her death, or himself for giving in so easily. It would be so easy to change, he decided. If I could go back in time, the solution would be so simple. If I only knew then what I know now…
Alec once again rose from the couch – this time sans mug – and walked into the kitchen, deciding to make his morning coffee pretty much exclusively Irish and not at all coffee. Not that drinking away the sorrow and guilt will solve anything, he noted silently, surprising himself with the straightforward manner in which he admitted the reality of his problems. It had been years since he had forced himself to face certain truths, most importantly the ones that dealt with consequences and the need to own up to them.
Fine, he told himself. I've made mistakes, and things ended badly for the only two women I ever cared about. I made mistakes because of inexperience, because of bad judgment. And even because of a lack of follow-through, he admitted, wincing as the words "half-done" burst forth from the deepest closet in his mind. That doesn't mean I'm bound to make mistakes again. I'll be careful this time. I'll take care of Keri. I'll make sure I'm worthy of the affection she gives me. I'll be the guy she thinks I can be. I owe her that much.
Alec grinned at his unexpected ability to address his guilt about past mistakes and fears about future ones. I can be happy again. And I'll prove it as soon as Keri gets back.
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"You awake?" Alec asked softly, half-hoping that Keri would be sound asleep.
"Yeah," she answered groggily. "What's up?" Keri turned over onto her side to face Alec, having no idea how clearly his enhanced eyes could see her in the near-darkness.
"Tomorrow is June 15th," Alec muttered.
"Uh-huh."
"And I get my assignments on the 15th," Alec told her needlessly. Keri knew all of this already, and Alec sensed that she knew he was stalling, trying to avoid what was really bothering him. She remained silent, waiting for him to get to the point. Or maybe she just fell asleep. "I'm not sure I want you going with me on my next job."
"What?!" If she hadn't already been fully awake, she certainly was now. "That's bullshit, Alec. You let me go last month, and I've only gotten better since then. I haven't done anything wrong… I don't deserve this."
"It's not like I'm punishing you," he responded, pleading for understanding and forgiveness. "I just don't think I want to put you out there again. Not like that."
"It's not your decision to make."
"Actually, it is… and you're too important to me to put you in danger," Alec yelled, surprised at the forcefulness in his voice. He noticed that it almost completely concealed the fear, the anxiety over her welfare.
"Too important?" Keri answered incredulously. She sat up and scowled down at him. "What the fuck are you doing?"
"I don't want to lose you." The words were barely audible, Alec afraid to allow himself to hear them, no less bare his soul to Keri. But she heard him.
"What makes you think you'll lose me?" she asked, in a heartbeat her self-righteous rage gone, replaced by tender compassion.
"Because it always happens that way," he answered, knowing how absurd he sounded.
"Huh?"
"It's not important." He began to roll over, only to have Keri grab his shoulder in a vice-like grasp, forcing him to look at her.
"What do you mean?" He wanted to stay silent, but she was insistent. "Tell me, Alec. Tell me right now or I'm walking out the door."
"Do you trust me?" he asked, wondering even as he spoke why that question had been so important. It wasn't something he had meant to say.
"Without reservation," she assured him
"I love you," Alec admitted, his voice sounding frightened and empty, belying the warmth of his words. "And every time I love someone…" His voice trailed off as he searched for the best way to put it. "It ends badly," he told her.
"I'm sorry."
"And it's always my fault." Keri continued to look at him, almost as if she expected him to continue. He didn't.
"I see," she finally said with a faint nod of the head. "I know it must be painful, Alec, but you can't blame yourself for everything." Alec could tell she was choosing her words carefully, not wanting to make a big deal of his confession until she knew exactly what the circumstances had been but still being unwilling to dismiss his claims as exaggerated.
"You'll have to trust me when I tell you that it's perfectly reasonable to blame myself for this," he told her. "I'm a very dangerous person to be around, in more ways than you can imagine."
"I pretty much expected that, hon," she replied with a grin. "Given what you do for a living, I expect a little bit of danger."
"Not because of what I do," he said evenly. "Because of what I am." He hadn't expected to get into this with her, but he realized that he had gone too far, that his subconscious was demanding honesty with the woman to whom he'd let himself grow too close.
"You're an assassin," she said with certainty and understanding.
"No, that's what I do," he said, slowly shifting his weight so he could reach behind him and turn on the light on the nightstand. Then he rolled back over, his face into the pillow, and pointed to the back of his neck. "Take a look," he directed. "It's been a few days since I took the laser to it. You should be able to see it, faintly."
Keri looked closely, and he felt her fingertips brush against his skin right where he knew his barcode was reappearing. "Holy shit," she gasped. "You're a . . . you're…"
"A freak," he finished for her, rollig back over to lock his eyes on hers.
"That's why you didn't want me saying that word," she commented with a smile of sudden understanding. "No, Alec, you're not a freak. At least I wouldn't say so."
"Oh really?" Despite the look in her eyes, despite his desire to believe her, Alec's gaze shifted to Keri's hands, wary for the slightest movement that would indicate she was reaching for a weapon. The only move she made was toward him, grasping him in a tight hug.
"I'm strangely fine with it," she explained. "Seems weird to me, actually. Maybe 'cause it's not something I ever thought about happening to me. I thought the transgenics were extinct."
"Not quite yet," Alec admitted. "There are still a handful of us. We don't pass on our traits to offspring if we mate with ordinaries, though, and there aren't enough of us to create a stable gene pool. Within fifty years we'll be well and truly gone." He felt uncomfortable explaining the plight of his people so casually, just moments after he was on guard against Keri attacking him for being a transgenic. The whole situation was starting to become rather surreal.
"Out of curiosity," she suddenly asked, "does this mean that those other ones – the Familiars – are they still alive?"
"Probably," Alec answered, giving voice to the fear he'd always secretly held. "Been years since I've seen one, but there were more of them than there were of us, and they could hide far more easily. I'm sure there are still some left… though I hope they're as badly off as my kind are." Memories of the global war fought between the transgenics and the Familiars came back to him – cities reduced to ash, governments toppled when they took one side or the other, entire civilizations destroyed as the Familiars played nations against each other in order to create cover from their enemies. Five bloody years that had ended with the worldwide assumption that the two sides had fought to their mutual extinction. Alec had always assumed that most world leaders knew better – that mutual extinction would have been well nigh impossible to achieve. No one could be that lucky; but no one in his right mind was in a rush to suggest that one or two super-species might still be in existence, each possibly planning its next attempt at worldwide domination. The overwhelming majority of the ordinaries weren't ready to deal with that possibility.
"So what exactly does this all have to do with me?"
"It's like this," Alec tried to explain. "The normal person, from what I can tell, lives a rather uninteresting life. He wakes up, goes to work, comes home, has dinner, then goes to sleep. Most days are just like that, with the only variety being the tasks that are assigned during the workday, or the different shows he may watch on TV while unwinding after he finally gets home. Not very riveting. My life has always been different. I have a life with enough action, excitement, and variety to be the basis for some over-priced TV series of its own."
"Oh, aren't you getting self-important right now," Keri teased. "Hate to break the news, but I can't imagine anyone getting more than one season out of you… well, one good season, anyway, transgenic or not."
"I'm serious," Alec retorted in frustration. "Don't you see what I'm saying? Things happen to me that don't happen to normal people, Keri. I go out and kill people for a living. People shoot at me. People try to blow me up. That's usually no biggie for me, because I'm a transgenic. I can pretty much squeak by no matter what happens. But you're an ordinary, and ordinaries tend to get killed when very bad people come looking for me."
"I can take care of myself," Keri assured him. "Don't think you're shutting me out of your life."
"I'm trying to do the exact opposite," Alec explained. "I'm trying to keep you in my life. I'm trying to keep you safe, and that means keeping you away from the things I do. For instance, what if a Familiar settled in Seattle and tracked me down? Don't think for a second that you'd stand a snowball's chance in hell if that Familiar set his sights on you."
"But that could happen whether I'm working with you or not," Keri pointed out. "At least if I'm working with you I'll be learning to take care of myself; I'll be keeping a sharp edge. I won't be the vulnerable little thing I was before you started training me."
There was little Alec could say to that; he hadn't thought about it that way before. What if she's right? he wondered. What if just being around me at all is dangerous, whether I take her into the field or not? This whole thing may have been a terrible mistake. "Let's just talk about it in the morning," he replied, hoping to draw a compromise – and some time to think. "I'll take a look at whatever jobs they have for me this month, and we'll discuss whether you have any skills yet that could be useful. If you do, fine. If not, you'll just have to accept being left out of the loop."
"Fine," Keri said reluctantly. "We'll talk in the morning."
To be continued……………………………………