Disclaimer: All of the characters that appeared in the TV show Dark Angel (Max, Zack, Logan, etc.) belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Becky/X6-405, etc.).
Notes: Takes place alongside chapter 43 of "Dysfunctional."
Max looked suspiciously at the two guards that were escorting her from her cell to Renfro's office. First Alec actually doesn't show up at my cell and now this. I'm pretty sure I haven't done anything to piss Renfro off that I haven't already done in the past couple of months, but maybe she's in a creative mood. When the three of them reached the office, one of the guards opened the door and nudged Max inside.
"Reporting as ordered, ma'am," Max said sarcastically.
"Ah, 452," Renfro said. "So glad you made it here."
"I would hate to disappoint you," Max said sweetly.
"Charming," Renfro said. "I wanted to have a little chat with you about your friend, Eyes Only."
"What about him," Max said. She shrugged, but she felt her stomach flip-flop a little. What does this bitch want? You'd think she'd know I won't say a damn word about Logan.
"He must think very highly of you, 452, for him to be pursuing us this intensely," Renfro said casually.
"He has good taste. What more can I say?" Max said.
"I'm going to ask you one more time, 452," Renfro said. "Where is Eyes Only and who is Eyes Only."
"And I'm going to tell you one more time," Max said, looking Renfro right in the eye. "I'm not going to tell you who and where he is."
"Well then," Renfro said. "Allow me to congratulate you on sending everybody here to their deaths."
Max narrowed her eyes. Crap, Becky was right! "What are you talking about?"
"I just received a phone call from the committee," Renfro said, smirking triumphantly. "They decided that they didn't want to take anymore chances and wait for Eyes Only to expose our location. Within an hour, this whole building will be nothing more than a pile of ash and twisted metal. Did I mention that all of you animals are going to be locked inside their cells while the building burns? I'm just going to take this disc here--" She ejected a CD out of her computer, placed it in a jewel case, and slid it inside one of her suit pockets. "—which contains the entire Manticore database, and I'm going to go on my way and at some point in the future make new soldiers, better ones. Manticore will continue on, 452. Nothing you can do will stop it."
"Over my dead body," Max said.
"Funny you should mention that," Renfro said coldly. She turned to the guards. "Ki—" Max didn't even let her finish her sentence before she made her move, grabbing one guard's rifle, spinning around and slamming the butt of it into the face of the second one and kicked the first guard in the head. Renfro rushed to her desk when she saw Max attack the guards and picked up her phone and hit a button. "This is Director Renfro authorizing Operation Omega. Repeat, commence Operation Omega."
"You bitch," Max yelled, running to Renfro and knocking her to the ground. She got down on the floor and grabbed Renfro's throat with one hand and raised the other, ready to punch.
"It's over, 452," Renfro said, coughing. "You can't save them."
Max lowered her free hand. "As long as I'm breathing, there's a chance." She reached behind Renfro's neck and snapped it. She started to stand up, paused, grabbed the CD from Renfro's suit pocket and shoved it into one of her own pants pockets before she ran like hell to the control room.
Zack lay on his bunk, staring at the ceiling silently. It had been a relatively quiet night for him, which put him on his guard more so than usual.
This isn't right, he thought. They normally take me back over to Psy Ops at some point after dinner to screw around with my head for a few more hours before they dump me back here so I can sleep. It's got to be close to ten-thirty and they haven't come by yet. He sighed to himself. I can't wait until Max and I get out of here. Still, I wish I could take Becky and Brin out with us. I have no idea where Brin is or even if she wants out again and Becky...I'd do the same for my family if I was in her situation. He got up and walked over to the mirror that was above the small sink in one corner of the cell.
Good grief, I look like hell. Like they'd really care what I look like. Just as long as I'm X5-599, good soldier, does what he's told, they wouldn't give a shit. Screw that. Never again. They couldn't break me six months ago when I turned myself in to Lydecker, and they're damn well not going to break me now. Between me, Max, and Becky, we'll find a way out of here soon and then I won't have to put up with this again. Zack nodded to his reflection and went back over to his bunk and lay down and closed his eyes, only to open them when he heard a sound coming from the cell door...
"...98...99...100," Becky counted. She got up off the floor of her cell and brushed herself off and started pacing restlessly. The weather outside had stayed the same, looking as if a nasty storm was coming at any minute.
I hate this kind of weather, ever since I can remember. It's not good, but it's not completely bad, it's like it's like...it's that little kid I saw when I was on that mission two years ago that was trying to walk along a curb and just about to completely lose his balance and fall. Something's about to happen, it's pretty damn inevitable at this point, and it's gonna be nasty. She bit her lip as unwanted memories hit her. I remember it was like this outside when they took 662 away seven years ago. Damnit, she hadn't done anything wrong! It wasn't even her that fired the stray bullet that accidentally hit and killed that trainer and they all knew it. They fucking knew it and they blamed it on her anyway because they didn't know who the hell did it and they needed someone to blame it on and poor 662 happened to be standing first in line-up so it was just all the easier to grab her to haul her off to Psy Ops, wasn't it? She closed her eyes. I really dodged a bullet when they didn't throw me in Psy Ops when I found out who did fire that shot. That little bastard 427 from unit 5 had fired the shot and didn't say a damn word when they dragged 662 away! I was lucky I ended up with only a few weeks in solitary after the beating I gave him. I never saw 427 again, thank goodness.
A soft metallic thunk-click made Becky jump and turn around. Why the hell would they be locking the cell doors now? We're not supposed to lock down for the night for at least an hour. She walked towards the door when she froze in her tracks. Smoke. She could distinctly smell smoke.
No. No way. They can't... She heard a distant bang, followed by another one that sounded a little closer. Shit! She grabbed her personal guns and some spare clips from a drawer, shoved them in her pants pockets and tried to open the door. It wasn't moving. She tried kicking it. Still nothing.
"Come on!" she screamed. She could hear the explosions getting closer and it smell the smoke and fire getting closer. "Open, damnit!" She kicked the door again unsuccessfully. "Come on!"
TBC