Disclaimer: As ever, this is not mine. I am just indulging in a little fantasy. Belongs to Cameron and consorten.

A/N: I am really, really sorry this took eons to update. Wasn't holding this chapter hostage, by no means. The reviews for this surpassed my expectations after the prologue. So thank you. Curtsy The tragedy was that I lost the book I had this laid out in. I had the whole thing written in this little china book - the black ones with the red border- and it is gone. Just vanished. Can't find it anywhere. I could cry, I can tell you. Anyway, so I have to recreate this from what I remember in my head. Looks like it will be shorter than I had first planned. And I indulged in a little vanity here and put myself in it, of course not in a starring role.

Chapter 2

After passing on the information to Dix, who promised to add it to the map they were drawing up, Alec and Biggs made their way up to Bellevue, immeasurably relieved when their resident computer freak phoned back to say there was only the one protestant church in that particular part of town. It was a block and a half away from a parking lot where Alec and his friend stashed their bikes. They walked the rest of the way. An old imposing building the church reached up to the sky with fingers of stone. Time and pollution had ganged up with each other to give thebuilding a reddish-black hue, but the glazed windows were still intact, illuminated from within by the flickering lights of candles.

The two transgenics pushed the heavy doors open as gently as they could, unsure of the reception they should maybe have been expecting. However the vestibule was empty, at first glance anyway.

"Be welcome." The voice was soft, gentle in an indefinable way. Tension sang through Alec's body and he was sure that Biggs felt the same. Slowly they turned their bodies to face the voice, knowing full well that voices could not be trusted. The softest voice could issue the harshest commands and leave you broken and hurt on the floor. And the cruellest voices where often those which bent a little, understood the stress and compensated. No, voices could not be trusted.

This one however seemed to match the body. Behind them stood a smallish woman, smaller even than Max. Plump and rounded she was bundled up in a cardigan that seemed two sizes too big for her. Brown curls framed her square face with its rounded cheeks and rosebud mouth. The lines on her face spoke more of laughing, although a vertical line between her brows spoke eloquently that when necessary she could and did frown. Brown eyes, hidden behind a pair of spectacles, gazed up at Alec. The transgenic was so confused that he almost missed the clerical collar almost hidden by the cardigan.

"You're the pastor here?"

"That would be me. And what can I do for you?"

"We're looking for a friend. A young woman about so high. Dark hair, brown eyes." Alec looked at the woman expectantly and felt his heart sink when her expression darkened.

"And what is it you want with that young woman?" Her expression chilled and Alec could practically see the waves of cold anger coming off her.

"We're friends. She's been missing since yesterday and we found out she came here." Alec didn't know why he was passing on so much information, but it felt right. As nothing indicated the woman was unbending even in the slightest, he added: "Her name is Max. I'm Alec and this is Biggs."

It was as if the sun suddenly came up. "Well why didn't you say that in the first place. The young woman was here this morning. Nice young girl. Said her name was Max and she was looking for someone, wouldn't tell me who though." Then the woman's face darkened again. "She had come about that horrible incident here last week. Somebody left some teeth below the high altar. Wretched thing. My cleaner found it and went hysterical, poor woman. Max had heard about it, thought it might have something to do with an old case she was on. You two with the state department, too?"

Alec only just managed to hide his grin: "No, ma'am. Just good friends of Max."

"Well, I couldn't really help her, don't know too much myself about the going's on. She was very nice though and told me not to worry. That they were dealing with it and then she left. Walked over to the park over the way" The woman's face grew worried and she added: "I'm sorry to hear she's missing. I will pray for her." Alec felt like snapping that no amount of praying had ever helped them when they really needed it, but did not want to offend the lady.

Nodding their thanks to the pastor and with one last look into the serenity of the church, Alec and Biggs left to follow Max's rapidly cooling trail.

Biggs was getting fed up. "We have been looking in this park for almost half an hour and found nothing. Nothing that says Max was ever here. We are wasting time."

"I know that!" Alec yelled, loosing his hard won composure. Logically he knew Biggs was just voicing what he was thinking, but it really wasn't helping.

"Don't think I don't know that. Max could be anywhere, dying in a pool of her own blood and we have nothing to go on, except the ramblings of a woman who was rapidly fading. Don't for one second think that I don't know time is everything. But there is nothing I can do at this point except try to find her and hope that Dix pulls a miracle out of his hat, or that some god happens to be looking in the right direction at the right time and feels in a good enough mood to help us." Alec's shoulders sagged as the full weight of his despair descended on his shoulders. "I don't know what else we can do at this point in time. I have every available man and woman scouring the city in search of her, and the two of us are here, in this crappy little park looking for the most important person in my life."

Biggs had the grace to look chagrined: "I'm sorry Alec. I wish-"

Anything he might have said was interrupted by the rheumy cough erupting from the bushes next to them. It sounded like somebody was choking on a slug.

The cough was followed by an old, extremely smelly man, almost Alec's size, though it was hard to tell with the amount of coats the man had thrown over himself.

"Heard ya talkin'." He wheezed.

Alec and Biggs were on the defensive immediately. "And?"

"Might be able to help ya. If'n you want ta - whas the word? Re'mburse me."

"You want money?" Biggs questioned. "How do we know you have information we want?"

"Well, ya don. Do ya? Tell ya what. I'll start an you can go after an giv' me what ya think s'right."

Alec and Biggs exchanged incredulous looks. This was almost too good to be true.

"So, we gotta deal?"

Alec nodded tersely.

"Ri' then. Saw this woman here a while back, figger, she 'm be t'one you be looking' fo'. Kinda sad lookin'. Coupla guys jumped 'er back there. Big guys, or I woulda helped." The man looked shifty, convincing Alec that he had not helped, notbecause the men were so big but because he was plain and simply a coward.

"'N-way. Girl gave as good as she got. Wen' on fer a long time, then somebody else came. Girl took one look at 'im and the heart wen' out of 'er. Could see it. Jus' gave up. They had 'er down in less than the time it would take one of ya to blink."

At this point, the man gave Alec a shrewd look. "Looked kinda like you, but deader."

Alec didn't comment on the first. "What do you mean, deader?"

The man shivered, clearly uneasy. "Seen a lotta things in my life. But thon man scared me. Nothin' on 'is face. No feelin's like. Get what I mean?"

"Go on." Biggs prompted.

"Well, nothing much left ta tell. Picked 'er up and popped 'er inta a van. White like. Drove of thatta way." The man pointed north.

Alec frowned, then nodded: "You've been very helpful." Without looking he gave the man all the money in his pocket and walked off, leaving the hobo spluttering in his wake about how it was too much and he didn't really do anything.

Biggs felt obliged to comment: "You know he's right. That was way too much."

Alec didn't bother looking at him. "Nothing's too much, if it means we get Max back."

"What did he mean, the man looked like you?"

Alec sighed again. "You remember the clone program? Well, one of Max's 'brothers' was my clone. Looks just like me. First time Max saw me, she thought I was him and freaked."

Biggs nodded, still confused. Alec sighed to himself and hoped Max would forgive him for breaking her confidence the way he was about to, but he needed somebody to know, in case things went haywire. If Ben was back and there was nobody to help, the others might take him in at first sight, and it looked like Ben had shifted sides. Not that he blamed him, he didn't know what they had done to him after all and Manticore had had ways and means to make you believe the sky was pink. No accounting what the Familiars had perfected in their thousands ofyears existence.

"It's like this. When Max met me, Ben was already dead."

"Come again? I thought that man just said he saw him."

"That's the weird part. You see, Ben went psycho, what Logan was referring to at his flat. Killed people and left them in churches. Max found out and went after him to stop him. Had an all-out raging battle in the forest and Max beat him. Wasn't dead though. Max told me she thought she could have helped him in some way." Alec stopped, his heart still hurting for her when he thought of what happened next. "Then Lydecker found them. Max heard them coming in the distance. Ben had two broken legs and Max wasn't strong enough to carry him. There was no way the both of them would have made it out of the forest."

Biggs had the sick feeling he knew where this was going. "So what happened next?"

"Max, distracted him and snapped his neck."

"Aw, shit. Alec. Poor girl."

"Got that right."

"S'that why she sometimes looks at you funny?"

"Yeah. Happens less and less though."

Biggs' brow furrowed. "So, if Max killed Ben, who was that in the park?"

"Don't know. Can't be a clone, not enough time, unless they have technology Manticore didn't. And then there's the fact that the man said my look-a-like looked dead. Sounds like brainwashing to me."

"That's just -" Words failed Biggs for the moment. "Those bastards. What, fiddling with the world and trying to drag everything into the next apocalypse isn't enough, they have to mess with our minds, too?" Alec's friend was really upset, while Alec looked at him, relieved. It helped that somebody else knew. Shaking off the feelings of dread settling in his stomach he went back to business.

"Let's get hold of Dix and pass on what we know. Maybe somebody else was luckier." As he said it though, Alec had the sinking feeling, that he and Biggs were on the hottest trail. 'Just hope we're fast enough to keep the trail hot.'