Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Logan, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show 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: In case you don't know who's who in Jeff's family (the ones who are in T.C.), Riley is 252, Ralph (who earlier I decided to make a part of Jeff's family) is 334, Vance is 437, Dustin is 583, Wes is 312, and Christian is 111.

Max paced back and forth in the unofficial control room/headquarters in Terminal City. "Damnit, damnit, when are they going to call?"

"They'll call when they have the surveillance and comm van patched in," Krit said. "Don't worry, Maxie. This will go fine."

"I'm not used to have to pull off a rescue on this kind of a scale," Max admitted.

"That's why you have us," Kyle said. "We'll pull them out of there."

"Right," Max said. Her cell phone rang and she pulled it out and hit speakerphone. "Talk to me."

"We're up and running," Xavier said. "Felicia and Vance and I are patched into every hoverdrone and security cam within a mile of the store. We're sending a feed to you guys right now."

"I'm picking it up," Dix said. "Got it."

"Good work," Kyle said. "This is from directly across the street from the store, right?"

"Right, it's a hoverdrone feed," Xavier said. "I can pan around a bit and change the angle." They watched as the camera view began to zoom in and the angle lower. "There's a heck of a crowd gathering. Yeah, there's a surprise—"

"Wait," Max said suddenly. "Stop at that angle and zoom in."

"Sure," Xavier said. The view zoomed in a little bit farther. "What is it?"

"That guy…" Max trailed off. She looked at it for a moment later and then started swearing loudly. "Son-of-a-bitch! I knew it! I fucking knew it!"

"What is it?" Syl asked.

"I told you about that run-in with White that Zack and I had, right?" Max said. "That's White's freaky buddy. This was a set-up. It's a big set-up for us to go in and grab them and get nailed."

"…and even if we don't get nailed, there's plenty of collateral that White could nail us for," Alec finished. "Plus it's in public so he could seriously force our hand and expose us as transgenics if we try something fancy and get caught."

"Looks like the bastard's starting to grow a brain," Sasha agreed.

"Damnit," Max said. "Xavier, pan around some more. I want to see if White's in the area or if his cult buddy appears to be running the show for the time being. Also, can one of you guys get audio?"

"I'm working on the audio," Felicia said. "Just a…got it. I'm sending you an audio file taken from a security cam that's located near this guy. Do you guys have it?"

"I do now," Luke said. He hit a button on his keyboard and they listened in on it.

"…yeah, it is scary when it happens," Stephen said. They heard a cell phone ring in the background. "Can you excuse me for a moment? I need to take a call." He answered his phone. "Fenos'tol."

"Fenos'tol," White said. "How are things shaping up so far?"

"Things have gotten off to a great start, buddy," Stephen said. "Our man led his team in and they took the hostages, including 599, 405, and 941. None of the three of them has made a move to save themselves or the hostages yet. They're playing it cool so far."

"The team doesn't have a clue exactly why they're there and what they're doing?" White asked.

"Not a clue," Stephen assured him. "Our guy is the only person aware of the true plan. Once we have him let it slip that there's transgenics being held with the other hostages, we sit back and watch the show. Have I mentioned that these guys aren't too fond of the freaks?"

White laughed. "I've always liked your sense of humor, Stephen."

"Same here, Ames," Stephen said. "You'll be getting here soon?"

"Absolutely," White said. "I'll be there within half an hour."

"I'll be looking forward to it," Stephen said. "Fenos'tol."

"Cut it," Max said to Luke. She and the others walked over to the big conference table in the room and sat around it. She put her cell phone in the middle of the table before she sat down. "Okay we need to start setting this up here, people. This is obviously one nice big trap so we've got to anticipate things. Number one: snipers. We've got to figure out that White's got at least one sniper up there to screw things up at some point so we've got to put at least one of our own up. Riley, how about you?"

"Actually, Max, I think Kevin should be our sniper," Kyle said.

Kevin nodded. "I'm mostly at base-X6 level in terms of my physical abilities, but I somehow managed to get X8-level eyesight. The only one in my family who was a better shot than I am was Becky and I could outscore her on the range about once every ten times. I was the sniper on missions that I'd gone on that required one."

"Great," Max said. "Do you know where you could set yourself up?"

"Yeah," Kevin said. "1010 Baker Street. I set myself up on the roof and I'll have a great shot of the area, no pun intended. Can you guys see anybody up there from your spot?"

"Nope," Xavier said. "You're good to set up there, Kevin."

"That's one down," Max said. "We've got Vance and Xavier and Felicia set up in the van. Now we need to come up with a definite plan to go through with to get everybody out." The others nodded. "I've got an idea."

"Shoot," Alec said.

"A group of us slip into the building. We have another group spread out outside to help with crowd control and maybe White's buddies and distractions that we may need."

"Sounds pretty good," Riley said. "We should probably set a second sniper of ours up as a precaution. I've got no doubt how good Kevin is, we'd go up against each other on the range occasionally back at Manticore after they consolidated the facilities a year ago and he'd beat me practically every time, but with something of this scale we need more than one sniper."

"Right," Max said. She turned to Kyle. "Looks like you were right about me needing help."

"I can't believe she admitted it," Alec said. That got him a smack from Max.

"Smart ass," Max said. "Alec, Riley, Kyle, do you have any suggestions as to who the second sniper should be?"

"Ordinarily I'd suggest Sasha since that was often her function on missions," Alec said. "But she should stay back here with her twins."

Sasha nodded regretfully. "I'm sorry, Max. I'd do it if I could."

"You don't have to apologize," Max said. She smiled. "I totally understand. You don't want to leave those girls without a mother. You and Brin will stay back here and make sure that the welcoming committee is ready for us. Any other suggestions?"

"I'll do it," Kyle said. "You're probably going to need some power on the team that goes in to get everybody out, which means that you'll need Riley for that. I'm a pretty good shot. Not quite as good as Kevin or Becky, but not much worse by a long shot. I tested high with the sniper rifle."

"Excellent," Max said. "Where should we set you up?"

"As far as we can tell, 1005 Baker Street looks clear," Vance said.

"Good," Max said. "Like Kyle said, I'm going to want Riley to be in the group that enters the building. I'm going in also and I'm going to need one more person. Alec, you in?"

"Sure," Alec said. "What the hell."

"Ha ha," Max said. "That puts everybody else on the ground team. Syl, do you think you can lead that group?"

Syl nodded. "Definitely."

"We need to see what kind of supplies we have here," Alec said. "Have you guys set up some kind of storeroom yet?"

"Yeah, the building next door, in the basement," Mole said from where he stood behind Dix and Luke. "We've got plenty. Shotguns, automatic weapons of all sizes, grenades, everything. It never hurts if we find more, though."

"Becky's got some toys of her own in her apartment," Maggie said.

"Yeah," Max said. "Somebody should go get her things and probably her motorcycle from there."

"I'll go do that now," Kyle said. "Maggie, let's go." Maggie nodded and followed Kyle out of the room.

"I'll go with them," Wayne said. "I'll get Zack's things." He followed Kyle and Maggie.

"I guess in the mean time we wait until it's time to make our move," Max said.

"Why don't we just go now?" Dustin asked. "What's stopping us from going out there right now and grabbing them and getting the hell out of there?"

"We need to keep watch on them," Max said. "We need to know about these men and also about their leader. White was as strong and as fast as an X5, plus he didn't feel any pain. The same with his friend. He mentioned to me and Zack that there were others and they had other abilities. I don't know if that means they can do mental tricks or if they have varying levels of physical and/or mental abilities like regular X-series, but we need to be careful."

"I want to get in there and get my big brother," Dustin said. "Besides, why should I believe you, you du—"

"Dustin, sit the hell down and grow up," Ralph, who was sitting next to him, said in disgust. She grabbed him and yanked him back down into his seat. "Max knows what she's doing."

"Oh yeah? She—"

"I know what you are going to say and it better not come out of your mouth," Riley said. "It might just be for that exact reason that we should listen to her on that. She's been out in the world a lot longer than we have and she knows how people think better than we do. Deal with it."

"Why should I?" Dustin muttered.

"Because I said so. Now I know that you are worried about Jeff but you need to get your act together right now. Is that clear, Dustin?" Riley said. Dustin muttered something under his breath. "What was that, 583?"

"I said that you're right," Dustin admitted. "I'm sorry."

"I know you are and we're all worried," Max said. "I'll tell you what. I know that Jeff had some toys of his own at his place. How about you and Christian go get them?"

"Thanks," Dustin said gratefully. He and Christian got up and left the room.

"I guess that's it for now," Max said. "We'll do some recon and maybe start putting the ground group in position when they get back." She stood up and walked over to the wall and leaned against it and sighed. Krit, Syl, Brin, and Rena walked over to her.

"You going to be okay, Maxie?" Rena asked.

"I will be," Max said. "I'll feel even better once we get Zack and Becky and Jeff and those hostages out of there." She laughed bitterly. "It's scary sometimes. I feel like I'm back in Manticore, planning out a training mission that Lydecker told me to lead. Sometimes, no matter how hard you run from something, you can never completely be free of it."

"Tell me about it," Brin said.

"Yeah," Krit said. He looked thoughtful for a moment before his eyes widened and he looked over at Syl. "Oh my God."

"What is it?" Rena asked. She looked confused. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Krit said. "I hope it isn't."

Max looked at him and realized what her brother was thinking. "It's a year to the day, isn't it?"

Krit nodded. "Exactly. We took out the DNA lab a year ago today."

"Please don't let that be an omen," Syl said. "I am not losing another brother or sister, even if it turns out to be temporary."

"You won't," Max said. She felt her composure return and she grinned. "Don't worry. We plan this through and we'll beat this bitch. We'll teach White and friends another good lesson on why they shouldn't mess with us."

TBC