Disclaimer: Dark Angel and its characters obviously do not belong to me. I am writing this purely for non-profit entertainment. No infringement intended, so don't sue me!

A/N: Thank you very much to those who reviewed the last chapter. I enjoyed each and every review. There's more action coming up in this chapter, but the next one will be different. Hope you enjoy this! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year everyone!

Retrieved - Chapter 38 - Elimination

(by elle6778)

Sandeman could hear the choppy sounds of the helicopter blade and the frantic movements of the transgenics. Through the fogginess of his mind, he realised that he was in a helicopter. Transgenics were hovering over him, inserting tubes into his arms. A steady series of beeps could also be heard. Sandeman could only catch bits and pieces of the conversations which surrounded him, his mind flitting in and out of consciousness.

"…not stabilising. His blood pressure is too low and his pulse weak…"

"…something to jolt him…"

Sandeman wanted to tell them to leave it. He was old; he had lived his life. At times, he had done things he was not proud of, but he knew he could rest now knowing that he had told the transgenics what they had to know.

(Flashback)

His wife was asleep, exhausted after having just given birth to a healthy baby boy. Sandeman looked down at the baby in his arms, his paternal instincts warring with his training as a familiar. But he knew what he had to do. Numbly, he went out of the bedroom into the deserted hallway, the baby snuggling in his arms. After planting a kiss on the baby's chubby cheeks, he held his hand over the child's mouth and nose, suffocating the life out of the small body.

(Flashback)

Two years later, faced with the same decisions, Sandeman found that he could not do it. He had hidden the child instead. That was when he realise that he had to do something about the entire mess.

(Flashback)

The Initiation ritual of one of the other familiar's third son had just been completed and the room at which the ceremony had been held was now deserted, except for Sandeman. Slowly, he approached the ceremonial goblet, which was still half-full with the combined blood of the snake and the High Priestess. From his pocket, he withdrew a large vial and proceeded to fill the vial with the blood.

He needed it for analysis.

(Flashback)

The DNA analysis of Manticore's latest batch of X5 transgenic babies were laid in front of him on the table as he flipped through each of them, nodding in satisfaction when the reports showed him what he wanted to know. It had taken many sleepless nights for him to come this far, but it was worth what he was seeing now. Not all of them could transfer their immunities to the Ordinaries, but there was enough.

He reached for a file labelled X5-452 and began to read. As he scanned down the page, his eyes widened and he expelled a gasp of surprise. No junk DNA. What did that mean? All of her sequences were coded for some specific purpose.

Sandeman narrowed his eyes as he realised that he had seen some of the sequences before. His heart thudded as it dawned on him what it meant.

X5-452 was effectively the transgenic version of the High Priestess.

She was his special one.

(End Flashback)

A small smile curved Sandeman's lips. Well, he had done all he could and it was the transgenics turn to make sure they did what they were created for. He was happy that he had the chance to return and to know some of them. They would do well, he knew.

With a last sigh, he let himself go.

The steady beeping of the monitor instantly went flat.

Brain sat in front of Lydecker, studying the tense expression on the older man's face when as he told Lydecker what he had come up with based of the information they got in their database.

"I have analysed what I can and I think we have a few options," Brain said.

Lydecker waved for him to continue. "What is it?"

"The most obvious plan is to assassinate Eyes Only to stop the broadcast. The chance of success will be 96.8. However, the chance that someone else may turn up and find out about us, even after we have taken out Eyes Only, is 78.2. That is if we take into account that Eyes Only have assistance in finding us, which is a reasonable assumption. So, basically, assassinating Eyes Only will solve our immediate problem, but not in the long run."

"It may be the only thing we could do," Lydecker said with a frown. "Though I have to admit that Eyes Only sometimes is useful in terms of watching out for the Ordinaries. He just chose the wrong cause this time."

"Sir, with all due respect, if we can get him to be on our side, it will help," Brain suggested.

Lydecker snorted. "What are the chances of that?"

Brain took him literally. "42.1 chance, sir."

"Not exactly the best option, is it?"

Clearing his throat, Brain continued, "Another option is to move again. The success rate is lower this time, only 66.9. There aren't enough safe areas to accommodate all the transgenics in this facility. We will have problems bringing such a large number to those places without being detected."

"What if they're spread out into the different safe zones?" Lydecker asked.

Brain shook his head. "There're not enough people on the command team to ensure discipline and order. The X4s and the X5s are alright to operate independently, but the X6s, X7s and X8s require supervision. We'll be spreading it too thin."

Lydecker sighed. "Anymore options?" he asked wearily.

Brain hesitated for a while before he spoke.

When he finished, Lydecker's expression was thoughtful.

Logan watched the screen, glowing with satisfaction as the cable hack transmitted over the satellite to millions of television sets. Now the world would know about Manticore's existence, he thought. His eyes stared back at him from the screen, the word Streaming Video Bulleting scrolling past smoothly as he listened to his own voice.

"… Since the early 1990s, billions of your tax dollars have been diverted from legitimate government programs to fund secret experiments in genetic engineering. This covert operation is known as Project Manticore. Its goal is to create the perfect soldier, genetically enhanced for superior strength and speed. These children are subjected to relentless training and propaganda. In the winter of 2009, twelve of them escaped from a facility in Gillette, Wyoming. Some of them were captured; some of them were tortured; some gave their lives fighting to stay free. Since these cable hacks began, Manticore has consolidated its operations to a secret location. Eyes Only have incriminating evidence against Manticore and will use this to bring them to justice. This has been a streaming freedom video bulletin."

Logan sat back as the video ended, a smile on his lips. The next broadcast would be in exactly twenty-four hours. He had pre-recorded it and uploaded it to the satellite for automatic transmission at the set time. That should give the public an opportunity to work up an outrage, thus forcing those in charge to take action by the time Manticore's location was revealed.

Logan beamed; it was a perfect plan.

This is a cause for celebration, he thought, reaching for the phone.

When a female voice answered on the end of the line, Logan said, "Asha, hi. I was wondering if you want to come over for dinner tonight…" A pause while she answered, and then Logan continued, "Great. I'll see you at nine then."

He hung up and made his way to the door. The dinner called for some pasta and chicken, which he would get from South Market. He just hoped that the market would have some fresh stock.

A few minutes later, in his car, Logan secured his seatbelt across his chest and started the ignition. As he began to drive off, he absently noticed a dark SUV behind him. Ignoring it, he continued to drive towards his destination.

The car stereo belted out a soft tune from a pre-pulse channel, enticing Logan to hum long. Slightly off-key, he thought but who cared. When the song ended, he reached down to change the channel to a classical one. As he straightened himself, he happened to glance at the rear-view mirror.

He frowned as he noticed that the SUV was still behind him. Has it following him since he left his Penthouse?

Logan sped up just to see if his deductions were true. The SUV did the same.

Logan turned left into a small road. The SUV followed him.

His heart beating faster now, Logan pushed his foot down on the accelerator to try to outrun the SUV, but the dark vehicle kept to his tail, not wavering at all.

The first gunshot hit his rear window, shattering the toughened glass into smithereens. Logan gasped, but continued to drive, his hands shaking in fear. Who are these people? Manticore can't possibly have got to him so fast. He just broadcasted the stream less than half an hour ago, Logan thought frantically. He noticed the people around the streets screaming and running for cover. Call for help, you idiots, he thought.

The second shot came through the gap left by the broken window. Logan let out an involuntary scream as the bullet hit his left arm. The pain was burning, almost blanking him out. But he forced himself to remain focussed on the road. He needed to get to somewhere safe, like the sector checkpoints.

Thank goodness it was not too far away.

Thula sat in the car with three other familiars. The shotgun in her hand was smoking slightly after the second shot she had fired. A smile graced her face when she realised that her second shot had hit the target.

"The second one connected," one of her comrades said, his face twisted in an expression resembling satisfaction.

Thula glanced at him. "As expected. After all he deserves what's coming to him after all his snooping."

"It's While's incompetence which led to this, you know that right? If he haven't gone to Cale and used his cellphone for those calls, then Cale would never have started a trace. Our techs said that there were multiple attempts at locating our base especially those days right after we got Sandeman," another familiar said with a sneer.

Thula nodded. "Once we're through with this, we need to do something about White. He's a loose canon. And we can't afford someone like that in the Conclave…" Her eyes widened as she noticed where Logan's car was heading. "What the hell? He's heading towards the sector checkpoint! Get him before the sector police starts shooting at us. We can't be exposed," she exclaimed.

Another familiar leaned out of the window with his weapon and trained it in Logan's direction. He released three shots in rapid succession.

The car in front of them skidded erratically, right before the checkpoint. The sector police started shouting and holding up their guns, aiming it at the familiar's SUV.

As the police started firing rounds, Logan's car door opened and he slumped out of the car. He lay in spasms on the ground, clutching his arm.

Thula narrowed her eyes and fired off a last round just before her comrade turned their SUV around. She turned back to watch through the rear window and her face contorted in disappointment when she realised that the shot she released only hit him in the lower part of his spine, and not his heart.

Matt flattened himself against the wall, creeping sideways towards a curtained off chamber as Beet followed close. The lighting in the basement was dim, lending a mysterious look to the surroundings. The transgenics wrinkled their noses in distaste when their sensitive organ picked up the smell of dried blood and snake venom.

"Very hygienic. If this is what selective breeding does to you…" Blade muttered, a disgusted look marring his dark features.

Max grinned and continued to move alongside Blade until they reached the curtains. "Okay, this is it," she muttered under her breath.

At a nod from Matt, Blade grabbed a fistful of the curtains and yanked it off its hooks.

As the curtain tore, the four transgenics blurred into the chamber.

Jondy, Gab and Biggs were on their way to Logan's penthouse after receiving Lydecker's instruction to stall the second broadcast for as long as they could while Manticore prepared for their escape plan.

They were about to turn right on their bicycles to head towards the penthouse when a commotion on the left caught their attention. A nod to each other signalled that they should check it out. A few seconds later, they skidded to a halt at the back of a crowd which had gathered to one side of the sector checkpoint.

Jondy's eyes widened as she took in the bullet-riddled car surrounded by the crowd. She elbowed Gab and said, "Hey, isn't that Logan's car?"

Gab looked in the direction she had pointed and his jaw dropped. "Shit, this is not good. We need to see if he made it," he said, as he elbowed his way past the sea of people, Jondy and Biggs following close behind.

When they got to the front of the crowd, they saw Logan being lifted in a stretcher into the back of an ambulance. He was still conscious, taking into consideration the groans of pain he was emitting. Gab grimaced when he saw the amount of blood flowing from the Ordinary.

"He's alive," Biggs said unnecessarily. "I think we need to split up. Jondy, you follow the ambulance to the hospital. Gab and I will go to his place to wreck the next transmission," he said in a low voice.

Jondy and Gab nodded in agreement.

The furious motions of arms and legs thrown in a coordinated fight sequence continued for only a few seconds before Alec's opponent found himself restrained by a muscular arm around his neck. The familiar wheezed painfully and then Alec gave the familiar's neck a twist putting an end to the familiar's life.

Alec had heard the call for back-up from Matt and Max, and he had been trying desperately to get to them for the last ten minutes. But it was not easy. The path between the front door and the basement seemed to be blocked by a never-ending throng of familiars.

Jay, Lia, Vicky and two X6s were with him. Mick was leading the rest of their unit, not far behind Alec's team.

"Jay," Alec yelled for the male transgenic who had just shot a familiar in the heart. "Cover me. I'm going down to the basement. Lia, you come with me."

X5-680, or better known now as Jay nodded, his cleanly shaven head bobbing up and down. "I'm ready."

Lia, a dark skinned female transgenic also known as X5-501 said, "Right behind you, sir!"

Alec blurred down the stairs, dodging the familiars who were bent on stopping him. Jay released shot after shot, distracting the familiars from Alec and Lia.

A few minutes, and a half dozen familiars short later, Alec, Lia, Jay, Vicky and the two X6s found themselves in the basement. Another half a dozen familiars appeared to stand in the way between them and the curtained area from which Alec could hear the voices of Matt and Max. Alec could not make out what Max was saying, but he knew that she was furious about something.

Gritting his teeth in irritation, Alec methodically fought off the familiars until he reached the curtained area. He blurred through the gap between the torn curtains to find himself in some sort of ceremonial chamber.

He scanned the scene, finding Blade and Beet lying unconscious on the floor, blood pooling around them. Matt was having some trouble as he tried to fend off two familiars at the same time. Max, Alec noted with relief, seemed to be doing fine fighting with some bald-headed female whose skin was covered with multitudes of ceremonial markings. Alec guessed that this female must be the High Priestess. Matt's team had done quite a bit of damage, Alec thought as he saw five either dead or unconscious familiars on the floor.

A yell from Matt caught his attention, and Alec blurred towards the other CO to help him with his two opponents. As he fought the familiar, Alec saw Max fighting in close proximity with the High Priestess.

Between him and Matt, it did not take long for them to disarm and take down the two familiars. Just as Matt released a shot into his opponent's heart, the rest of Alec's team rushed in. They were about to rush towards Max when Max roughly shoved her Merc tactical knife deep into the High Priestess's heart, eliciting a horrifying scream from the woman.

The transgenics broke out in a triumphant cheer when the body of the High Priestess slumped against Max before she fell lifelessly to the floor. Max turned to them with a small, weary smile as she released her knife, letting it fall with a clank.

Suddenly realising that something was not right, Alec's heart beat rapidly as he watched Max. She swayed unsteadily as she tried to walk, but two steps later, she collapsed onto the floor. Alec blurred over, calling her name.

And then Alec felt his heart stop as he saw the ceremonial knife embedded in Max's side.

t.b.c.

A/N: Please review and let me know what you think! Next chapter will be the concluding chapter!