Director Raigan leaned back in her chair and surveyed her new office. New
company, new name, new office; same mission. A small grin flickered over
her face, 'and they all think I'm dead…' she mused 'well, I was tired of
being Elizabeth Renfro anyway.' Now all she needed was a good lead. Leads
had been lacking recently, but Raigan knew she would find them – her two
special soldiers. It was just a matter of time.
"Director Raigan, some new information has just come in, ma'am." The young soldier snapped a smart salute as he gave the news.
"What is it?" Raigan asked, perhaps a bit sharply. She was tired of the dead-end leads White was always feeding her.
"Ma'am, records show someone named 'Elizabeth Renfro' logged into the Manticore network two days ago at 23:00 and stay on until 23:32." This definitely caught her attention. Raigan's chair shot back and spun as she jumped out of it.
"The Manticore network? I thought those computers were destroyed." Raigan snapped, leaning on her desk towards the young soldier.
"The Department of Defense went in and made sure the information was not lost after the '20 fire, ma'am. However, besides some maintenance people from the DOD, no one has logged into it for years." Raigan stared at her desktop for a moment, letting the information soak in. 'I should've known that network would be preserved. Should've known that years ago.' She could kick herself for not thinking of that before. Then the other piece of information sunk in.
"Who did you say was logged in soldier?" Raigan snapped. A flicker of amusement flashed in the soldier's eyes.
"Elizabeth Renfro, ma'am. For approximately 32 minutes." He answered without expression.
"Using which login path?" the director asked cautiously.
"Unknown ma'am. All we know is that 'Elizabeth Renfro' logged in using a twelve digit password." Her eyes widened in shock and she sought her chair. The soldier did not understand the significance of this, but Raigan did.
"Bring me the file. Dismissed." She waved her hand and soldier promptly disappeared. Raigan could not believe her luck. Not only had she found the Manticore network intact, she also had the lead she'd been looking for the past 11 years. The only twelve-digit password she had ever used was for a login site that only two soldiers in the world could access. A sly grin spread over her face as she turned on her computer. There was a lot of work to be done.
****
Max sank heavily down into Logan's couch. She clenched her hands together, trying to make the shaking stop. 'Perfect DNA, my *ss,' Max thought, 'why the hell do I still get seizures…?' Thinking back, it had been a while, but this one was feeling like it could get bad. 'Where is Logan…?' Max wondered briefly. The elevator door opened as if to answer her.
"Max?" Logan asked, concerned when he saw her uncharacteristically lying down. He rushed to her and knelt beside her head.
"Hey Logan." Max tried to smile. The shaking was getting worse. "Looks like I'm gonna hit a rough spot, thought I'd come here." Logan brushed her hair from her face and kissed her cheek.
"What do you need Max?" Logan asked gently. Max had already taken her pills, now she just had to wait for them to take effect.
"Just stay with me." Max whispered as the shaking increased. Logan settled down by the couch, gripping her hand.
"I'm right here." He whispered.
As always with the seizures came the dreams and flashbacks: Glass shattered, 'Tinga no!' The cold, damp body was limp and lifeless in her arms. 'I'm sorry.'
The scene switched: 'State your designation.' 'My name's Max!' 'State your designation.' 'Kiss my transgenic ass!' 'How long can an X5 live without food or water?' 'Six days.' 'Call me in a week.'
'State your designation.' 'X5-452!' 'You don't fool me, I know you're just playing along.'
'Let me show you something….' 'You destroy everyone you love… your brother Zack, your sister Tinga…'
'All that's left of your sister, X5-656….' The image of two test tubes haunted her mind. 'We were testing her DNA. Found some pretty amazing things in there….' 'These two test tubes will soon be the finest soldiers Manticore will ever produce…'
'Relax big fella.' 'You relax, little fella.' 'Whoa, you can talk.' 'To bad this isn't a room with a view.' 'Max and Joshua, outside, that's the plan.'
Max jumped awake. Logan was still clutching her hand. The seizing subsided a bit, but Max could feel it was only a moment of calm. Logan looked worried so Max tried to smile at him.
"I'll be alright Logan." Max squeezed his hand weakly. Logan just nodded, his eyes still worried. On impulse, Logan propped Max up and sat down behind her. She leaned back against his chest and smiled as his arms came up to wrap tightly around her.
"It's almost over…' Her voice trailed off, as again she was lost in flashbacks.
'Max, I've found them!' 'Where?' 'They've been being trained in the old Gillette facility, along with a few others who were re-captured.' 'Under whose command?' 'A Director Elaine Raigan.'
'Fall in.' The two kids jumped out of their cots to fall in line. 'There's been a change in your mission status--extreme and unforeseen. You've been betrayed by your own command. What do you do?' 'Redeploy.' 'Correct. How?' 'Unknown, ma'am. We have no training with regard to that circumstance.' 'Do you know what that means?' 'No, ma'am.' 'All your training goes out the window.' 'Yes, ma'am.' 'Starting with your blind obedience to Manticore and all it represents.' 'Yes, ma'am.' 'Do you understand?' The two little expressionless faces stared up at her, 'Yes ma'am.' 'Alright then, follow me.'
Max's eyes opened slowly. The seizing had stopped. The flashbacks were gone. She could breath easy again. Logan felt her sigh and squeezed her tight. Max snuggled closer to him in response as he kissed the top of her head. Eventually they both drifted off to sleep, Max in Logan's arms, no longer haunted by the ghosts of her past.
****
Dear Angel,
You're X5-452. And Zane is X5-205. Your unit leader was X5-599, Zack – but he died so you could have his heart. Two others died too, X5- 493, Ben, and X5-656, Tinga. They were doing DNA research on her, something about being able to pass her traits on to her offspring. Some of the files on her were deleted, I wonder why…?
Pretty amazing things can be found out once you get inside the network, don't you think? See, I have this implant… it allows me to plug a phone line or an Internet cable into an outlet in my wrist. From there I can connect and essentially become part of the Internet. Pretty crazy, don't you think? Yeah, me too. But, it comes in handy when I need to get info in a flash.
My biggest piece of news – I have a brother! My heart just about leaped out of my chest when I read that. Now I know I am not totally alone in this world – there is someone out there like me. I just have to find him. The memories make sense now – we were twinned, trained together until you got us out. Funny, I always assumed I was seeing myself in the memories, now I know it was him. I do wonder though, why there were only two of us. All the other X generations had 30 or so to a unit! But whatever file had that information must have been deleted. All I know is that we're from the X5 line – whatever that means.
Zane is a slave driver these days. Training, training, training. I finally won a match last night! I was so proud of myself! Though, now that he knows I'm to that point, I get the feeling he is just going to get tougher. Wish me luck,
-- Teli
"Director Raigan, some new information has just come in, ma'am." The young soldier snapped a smart salute as he gave the news.
"What is it?" Raigan asked, perhaps a bit sharply. She was tired of the dead-end leads White was always feeding her.
"Ma'am, records show someone named 'Elizabeth Renfro' logged into the Manticore network two days ago at 23:00 and stay on until 23:32." This definitely caught her attention. Raigan's chair shot back and spun as she jumped out of it.
"The Manticore network? I thought those computers were destroyed." Raigan snapped, leaning on her desk towards the young soldier.
"The Department of Defense went in and made sure the information was not lost after the '20 fire, ma'am. However, besides some maintenance people from the DOD, no one has logged into it for years." Raigan stared at her desktop for a moment, letting the information soak in. 'I should've known that network would be preserved. Should've known that years ago.' She could kick herself for not thinking of that before. Then the other piece of information sunk in.
"Who did you say was logged in soldier?" Raigan snapped. A flicker of amusement flashed in the soldier's eyes.
"Elizabeth Renfro, ma'am. For approximately 32 minutes." He answered without expression.
"Using which login path?" the director asked cautiously.
"Unknown ma'am. All we know is that 'Elizabeth Renfro' logged in using a twelve digit password." Her eyes widened in shock and she sought her chair. The soldier did not understand the significance of this, but Raigan did.
"Bring me the file. Dismissed." She waved her hand and soldier promptly disappeared. Raigan could not believe her luck. Not only had she found the Manticore network intact, she also had the lead she'd been looking for the past 11 years. The only twelve-digit password she had ever used was for a login site that only two soldiers in the world could access. A sly grin spread over her face as she turned on her computer. There was a lot of work to be done.
****
Max sank heavily down into Logan's couch. She clenched her hands together, trying to make the shaking stop. 'Perfect DNA, my *ss,' Max thought, 'why the hell do I still get seizures…?' Thinking back, it had been a while, but this one was feeling like it could get bad. 'Where is Logan…?' Max wondered briefly. The elevator door opened as if to answer her.
"Max?" Logan asked, concerned when he saw her uncharacteristically lying down. He rushed to her and knelt beside her head.
"Hey Logan." Max tried to smile. The shaking was getting worse. "Looks like I'm gonna hit a rough spot, thought I'd come here." Logan brushed her hair from her face and kissed her cheek.
"What do you need Max?" Logan asked gently. Max had already taken her pills, now she just had to wait for them to take effect.
"Just stay with me." Max whispered as the shaking increased. Logan settled down by the couch, gripping her hand.
"I'm right here." He whispered.
As always with the seizures came the dreams and flashbacks: Glass shattered, 'Tinga no!' The cold, damp body was limp and lifeless in her arms. 'I'm sorry.'
The scene switched: 'State your designation.' 'My name's Max!' 'State your designation.' 'Kiss my transgenic ass!' 'How long can an X5 live without food or water?' 'Six days.' 'Call me in a week.'
'State your designation.' 'X5-452!' 'You don't fool me, I know you're just playing along.'
'Let me show you something….' 'You destroy everyone you love… your brother Zack, your sister Tinga…'
'All that's left of your sister, X5-656….' The image of two test tubes haunted her mind. 'We were testing her DNA. Found some pretty amazing things in there….' 'These two test tubes will soon be the finest soldiers Manticore will ever produce…'
'Relax big fella.' 'You relax, little fella.' 'Whoa, you can talk.' 'To bad this isn't a room with a view.' 'Max and Joshua, outside, that's the plan.'
Max jumped awake. Logan was still clutching her hand. The seizing subsided a bit, but Max could feel it was only a moment of calm. Logan looked worried so Max tried to smile at him.
"I'll be alright Logan." Max squeezed his hand weakly. Logan just nodded, his eyes still worried. On impulse, Logan propped Max up and sat down behind her. She leaned back against his chest and smiled as his arms came up to wrap tightly around her.
"It's almost over…' Her voice trailed off, as again she was lost in flashbacks.
'Max, I've found them!' 'Where?' 'They've been being trained in the old Gillette facility, along with a few others who were re-captured.' 'Under whose command?' 'A Director Elaine Raigan.'
'Fall in.' The two kids jumped out of their cots to fall in line. 'There's been a change in your mission status--extreme and unforeseen. You've been betrayed by your own command. What do you do?' 'Redeploy.' 'Correct. How?' 'Unknown, ma'am. We have no training with regard to that circumstance.' 'Do you know what that means?' 'No, ma'am.' 'All your training goes out the window.' 'Yes, ma'am.' 'Starting with your blind obedience to Manticore and all it represents.' 'Yes, ma'am.' 'Do you understand?' The two little expressionless faces stared up at her, 'Yes ma'am.' 'Alright then, follow me.'
Max's eyes opened slowly. The seizing had stopped. The flashbacks were gone. She could breath easy again. Logan felt her sigh and squeezed her tight. Max snuggled closer to him in response as he kissed the top of her head. Eventually they both drifted off to sleep, Max in Logan's arms, no longer haunted by the ghosts of her past.
****
Dear Angel,
You're X5-452. And Zane is X5-205. Your unit leader was X5-599, Zack – but he died so you could have his heart. Two others died too, X5- 493, Ben, and X5-656, Tinga. They were doing DNA research on her, something about being able to pass her traits on to her offspring. Some of the files on her were deleted, I wonder why…?
Pretty amazing things can be found out once you get inside the network, don't you think? See, I have this implant… it allows me to plug a phone line or an Internet cable into an outlet in my wrist. From there I can connect and essentially become part of the Internet. Pretty crazy, don't you think? Yeah, me too. But, it comes in handy when I need to get info in a flash.
My biggest piece of news – I have a brother! My heart just about leaped out of my chest when I read that. Now I know I am not totally alone in this world – there is someone out there like me. I just have to find him. The memories make sense now – we were twinned, trained together until you got us out. Funny, I always assumed I was seeing myself in the memories, now I know it was him. I do wonder though, why there were only two of us. All the other X generations had 30 or so to a unit! But whatever file had that information must have been deleted. All I know is that we're from the X5 line – whatever that means.
Zane is a slave driver these days. Training, training, training. I finally won a match last night! I was so proud of myself! Though, now that he knows I'm to that point, I get the feeling he is just going to get tougher. Wish me luck,
-- Teli