Disclaimer: Dark Angel and its characters do not belong to me, but the plot is mine. This fan-fiction had been written purely for entertainment purposes. No infringement was intended and no profit had been made out of this.

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! Hope you'll enjoy this chapter. I wonder how long it'll take for them to realise that they want to grab hold of each other for another reason other than to fight.

Irresistible Rivals - Chapter 7

(by elle6778)

The time was 0155hours when Max went back to the bar for the second bottle of scotch and vodka for Ivanov's table. The three of them had been at it for hours. Mesher was not faring too well, but the rest of the party did not seem to have the inclination to stop anytime soon. The club, which had officially closed almost an hour ago, was now deserted apart from the three of them, but Max guessed that the manager did not have the guts to throw out his most generous customer.

As soon as she had placed the order at the bar, she turned back to watch them. Mesher looked decidedly worse for wear, practically slumping onto the table, but Alec and Ivanov were still going strong.

She had heard everything they said, thanks to the small bug she had planted under their table. It was a good thing that she went undercover as a waitress. If she had been just a normal customer, she would have had to enter via the front entrance, which would mean that she had to go through the scanner to be swept for prohibited objects. She was sure that audio bugs were one of the things on that list of objects.

So far, the conversation had not been particularly useful in terms of her mission, she thought, a little disappointed. She had gathered that Alec would try to find out more from Ivanov, and was counting on being fed some information the easy way. But all they had been discussing was the allocation of profits which would come from the future sales of the weapons, but no information on the weapons itself. But at least she now knew what Alec's plan was.

From what she could see, the whole drinking thing was just a ploy for Ivanov to get more information from Alec, and vice versa. But neither of them was giving in from what she could see and hear. Ivanov had been pouring Alec his scotch more often than he was drinking. And Alec was just drinking. And drinking. He had finished an entire bottle of scotch all by himself.

Without any visible effect.

Well, he can't be going on like that for much longer. Max shook her head, a wry smile on her lips as the barman pushed a full bottle of scotch and Ivanov's 'special' vodka in front of her. She smirked, knowing that Ivanov's 'special' vodka was nothing more than a watered-down version of the real drink.

She leaned forward when the barman gestured for her to do so.

"Hey, what's going on there?" he asked, nudging in the direction to Ivanov's table.

Max shrugged. "I don't know. Must be a guy thing," she said disinterestedly as she laid the bottle on the tray.

The barman frowned. "I need to go in five minutes. Can you lock up?"

"Sure," she said casually. Inwardly, she was beaming. Some of those keys would allow her access into the control room, the one which housed the security closed-circuit television feed and hopefully an archive of the old videos.

Ensuring that her expression remained neutral, she pocketed the ring of keys and headed to the table with the tray in her hand.

Ivanov's smile had occasionally slipped and become more like a leer about an hour ago. And his hands had been getting friendlier too, much to her dismay. She guessed that the alcohol must have had some effect on him, watered-down or not.

Arriving at their table, she leaned down, taking the bottles off her tray and setting it down on the table.

"Max, come join us," Ivanov said, patting the empty seat beside him. On his other side, Max noted that Mesher was now down for the count. Poor guy, she thought pitilessly. He must have been drinking Ivanov's share of the vodka.

She gave him an apologetic smile. "I can't. I need to clear up," she fabricated.

Ivanov was not so easily thwarted. "That can surely wait. We need the company of a beautiful lady here," Ivanov said insistently.

"Yeah, Max. Come join us," 'Alec' joined in.

She fought the urge to glare at him. From the knowing gleam in his eyes, he obviously knew why she did not want to stay. The smartass! She wanted to tell the both of them to go to hell, but she knew that she could not afford to alienate Ivanov.

"Okay," she said with an inward sigh and sat in the empty spot Ivanov had pointed at earlier. His arms immediately went around her shoulders, pulling her closer. The urge to ram her elbows into his side was almost overwhelming. But she managed to keep her elbows safely tucked at her side, just barely.

"So, enjoying yourselves?" she asked brightly. Under the pretence of serving them their drinks, she moved forward, effectively freeing herself from Ivanov's grasp. After handing Ivanov his vodka, she leaned over to give Alec his scotch, noting the wariness in his eyes with glee. The guy was a fast learner.

Ivanov turned to Alec as he took the glass from her. "We're discussing some business. It's probably too boring to interest a pretty thing like you," the Russian man said, patting her knees.

Her eyes widened. "Oh? What business? Alec's working for you?" she asked innocently.

"No, I'm not working for him," Alec denied. "I operate my own business."

Ivanov laughed. "But we might be working together soon," he said meaningfully, taking a sip from his glass. "To new partnerships," Ivanov toasted.

"Not so fast, Andrei. We still need to iron out the finite details. Make sure that we understand our commitments," Alec added smoothly just before he downed his glass of scotch.

"What sort of details? Oh, this is so interesting. I wish I can do business like the two of you," Max proclaimed, pouring them another drink, thinking that at the rate they were going, it would not take long before they needed a third bottle of each of the drinks.

"Of course you can, my dear. It's just like playing cards, it involves strategy and money," Ivanov said, obviously humouring her. He raised a questioning brow at Alec. "Don't you think so?"

Then Alec spoke. "Hmm, I'm not sure about that. I think she's better off keeping clear of this sort of things. It's not easy, and it can be stressful and often very risky," his tone was condescending.

Max's lips tightened. She was sure that he had deliberately said it that way just to rile her. Ivanov probably did not get it, but she could not fail to miss the meaning behind Alec's words. Was he trying to say that she could not do her job? As if!

"Now what makes you think that I can't handle it?" she asked, careful to keep the challenging tone from her voice. The last thing she wanted was for Ivanov to suspect her of being someone other than an innocent waitress.

Alec shrugged carelessly. "It's not the kind of job suited for someone as young and inexperience as you. Business is a cutthroat industry. It requires a certain amount of, let's say, ruthlessness."

"Well, if it'll buy me a nice big house with a pool and a nice new wardrobe, I'm sure that I can learn," she said with a giggle.

Ivanov laughed. "If you want a nice big house with a pool, you're always welcomed to use mine."

She spun around to face him. "You've got a pool in your house?" she exclaimed, injecting just the correct amount of surprise and longing in her voice. In her peripheral view, she noted with satisfaction that Alec's eyes had narrowed almost imperceptibly. One more point to the home-girl; zero for the smart-ass, she grinned inwardly.

Ivanov smiled indulgently at her. "When are you off work next?"

"Tomorrow," she replied excitedly. This was happening sooner than she had hoped for. All she had to do now was to get home and report back to the rest.

"Good. You'll visit me tomorrow then," he stated, the gleam of anticipation in his eyes not missed by Max. "You have to give me your address so that I can pick you up."

She quickly said, "I need to be here to open up this place around noon. How about we meet here?"

"Noon it is, then." Turning to Alec, Ivanov continued, "Well, it looks like I'll be busy entertaining tomorrow. So, I'm going to call it a night."

Alec nodded. "What about him?" he asked, directing his gaze at Mesher.

Ivanov turned and shook the unconscious man roughly.

Mesher sputtered incoherently as he blinked his eyes open. "Wh-What?" he gasped, pulling himself up into a sitting position. "We're leaving?"

"It's nice to know that our company is so riveting, Anthony," Ivanov remarked sarcastically.

Mesher straightened. "I apologise." Standing up on wobbly knees, he extended a hand out to Alec. "Well, thanks for joining us."

"I think it's best for us to think carefully about this partnership. I'm sure we can work something out once we decide what we want," Ivanov said to Alec.

Standing up, Alec gave him an assessing look. "Before we go any further, I want to make it clear that the current terms are not acceptable. If that's what you're aiming for, then we should just part ways while we're still ahead. With mutual respect."

His tone was polite, but he had just made it clear that he would not take any shit from Ivanov, Max thought, reluctantly impressed by his confidence. Whoever he was working for, they were lucky to have him.

But that did not mean that she was going to let him win. The way she saw it, it was either him or her. The one who got to the weapon first was the winner.

And Max was going to make damn sure that she was the one holding the big shiny trophy at the end.

Alec waited impatiently in the shadows, wondering what was taking her so long. She had shut the door behind the three of them almost two hours ago. He had pretended to drive off with the rest of them, and then quickly doubled back, parking a small distance away from the club.

Two hours. Long enough for her to dig around the club for clues, he concluded sourly as he continued to watch the staff entrance. He played with the idea of breaking in, and the almost instantly, discarded the idea. It was too soon to take the risk of blowing his cover.

Maybe she had left via some other exit. Maybe she had suspected that he would do exactly what he was doing now. He scowled. It drove him mad that she had managed to evade him and to get the best of him on more than one occasion. Yeah, he had been holding back a little, just enough to avoid suspicion, but she still should not be able to get past him.

Just as he was about to conclude that she really had managed to evade him this time, the rear exit door, not the staff exit, creaked open.

Max walked out, quickly closing the door behind her.

Alec moved fluidly further back into the shadows, holding his breath automatically. When he realised what he was doing, he made himself breath normally. There was no chance of her hearing him breathe from that distance. She was good. But not that good.

She began to make her way out onto the streets, gathering her knee-length black jacket closer to her. It looked as if she was planning to head home on foot. Well, that made things a little easier for him. Now he did not have to worry about keeping his car out of sight.

He waited until she was about 300 feet away from him before he moved out from his hiding place. Keeping close to the buildings lining the streets and ensuring that he was hidden in the shadows, he trailed her for close to forty minutes, turning into hidden alleyways and past all sorts of obstacles. Alec grinned. This was obviously a routine to make sure that she was not followed.

Too bad she did not know about his superior tracking abilities, he thought with a smirk.

Finally, she slowed down and turned towards a building. Then she let herself in.

Staying put, Alec just waited, his eyes glued to the building. Halfway up the building, the light on the second floor flickered on. The corner of his lips tilted, and then stretched to a full-blown smile.

I got you now, Max, he thought smugly.

Payback time.

Her senses told her that she was being watched. She had been checking the route she had been using, frequently glancing at the display windows on the surrounding building, using it as a mirror. Not that it was particularly effective considering all the dust over the windows, but that was her best shot.

But she could not see anything out of the ordinary behind her. Everything seemed in place. She should know, after all she had scoped out the area extensively before starting her mission.

She bent down under the pretence of scraping something off her heel and surreptitiously glanced around her. Still nothing. She just could not shake away that feeling of being watched. And there was only one person she could think of who would want to tail her.

Alec.

She scowled. The guy was rapidly becoming a pain in her ass. She could not take that risk of being found out, even if the apartment was not really her home.

Well, she had no choice but to put her back-up plan in motion.

It took a while for her to do the detours, definitely longer than she would have taken to get home normally, but it was necessary. The last thing she wanted was for Alec to turn up unannounced at the apartment. With all guns blazing of course. Her lips twitched. She had seen the look in his eyes, and she was pretty sure that given a chance, he would try to get back at her.

When she finally got back to her apartment, she stepped in and immediately tensed.

Someone was in her apartment. She could see a shadow cast along the floor next to the couch.

Damn it, how did Alec get here before she did?

Just as she was about to back out of the door, a voice called out, "Max?"

Max closed her eyes briefly and exhaled the breath she was holding. "Zack, what are you doing here?" she asked, a little annoyed at him for putting her through that two seconds of anxiety. Turning to her left, she slapped her hand onto a switch, lighting up the room.

He stood up and walked towards her. "This is definitely not the welcome I'd expected," he said wryly.

She frowned as a thought occurred to her. "Did Zane or Seth send you here?" she asked, laying her hand on one hip.

A look of confusion came across Zack's face. "Zane or Seth? Huh? No, they didn't. Jack was the one who told me where you are. I haven't seen you for a while."

She relaxed. "Oh, it's okay, then," she said, sinking back onto the couch. At least Zane and Seth did not send Zack here to watch over her. It would have been the last straw.

Zack gave her a curious look. "Why did you ask?"

"Nothing," she muttered evasively, looking away.

"You can tell me, Max," he coaxed, sitting beside her. His blue eyes searched hers, the sincerity in them softening her resolve.

She sighed. "This is going to sound stupid."

Zack raised his eyebrows and waited silently.

She leaned back against the back of the couch and tilted her head up, staring at the white ceiling. "I had…words…with Seth," she finally confessed.

"Hmmph."

At that unexpected exclamation, Max dropped her gaze back down to Zack. "What did that mean?" she asked, surprised.

Zack shook his head, a frown on his brow. "I knew this was going to happen sooner or later."

"What?" It was her turn to frown.

He sighed. "You and Seth. The whole thing about you two being together is causing problems for both of you."

'It got nothing to do with that," she protested. Seth was just being his usual self. It had nothing to do with the fact that she was together with him.

"Oh yeah, was he like this before the two of you hooked up?" Zack asked, raising an eyebrow.

Max fell silent. Then reluctantly, she admitted, "Okay, maybe it was different before. Just a little. But look at Zane and Jondy, and Syl and Krit."

"Zane and Jondy aren't together, Max," Zack pointed out impatiently. "They were smart enough to not confuse heat with something more. And Syl and Krit had gotten together long before anything physical happened."

Max groaned and buried her face in her hands. "I just don't know what's up with him," she muttered.

"What did he do?" Zack asked quietly.

She lifted her head and then turned to Zack. "He didn't do anything. He just says stuff, you know. The latest was that he practically ordered me to listen to Eva. We got into a little fight about the fact that we're not in Manticore anymore, and he insisted I should still follow orders," she explained.

"Okay, maybe not orders. But you still need to follow some plan when you're on a mission," Zack said calmly.

She let out an exasperated sigh. "Yeah, I know that. It wasn't so much what he said, but how he said it that bugged me. Then when I finally agreed to do this mission, he asked if I needed help. He even offered to come with me. What? Did he think that I can't handle this by myself?"

"I take it that you told him to shove off, seeing that you're alone here now," Zack commented with a wry smile.

Max exhaled loudly. "It's not working out," she said wearily.

Zack's lips twitched. "I'm not going to say I told you so."

She glared at him. "You'd better not. Anyway, since you're here. I can save the trouble of going through the comms."

"You need to report something back to base?"

"Yeah. I'm going to the target's place tomorrow. I have a feeling that I might need back-up, just in case something goes wrong. Can you tell Zane to come out to the club tomorrow just before noon? I'll be there to meet the target at noon, and I need Zane to do back up. Invisibly."

Zack frowned. "There's a problem with that plan. Zane had gone with Eva to join Jondy and Tinga. Jondy needed some help. There have been some issues with Tinga."

"What issues?" she asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

"Eva didn't explain fully," Zack replied. "She was rushing out when I got back. Jack told me that Tinga got into some sticky situation with someone she met on the mission. That was all he told me. Apparently Eva warned him to keep quiet about it until she finds out what's really happening."

"I hope she's alright."

Zack laid a hand on her shoulders. "She got Eva, Jondy and Zane with her. They'll be able to sort it out between them. Tomorrow, however, might be a problem."

"Zane's supposed to be my mission buddy, so who's doing back-up for me then?" she grumbled.

"You don't have many choices," he said.

For some reason his words sounded ominous to her. She was almost afraid to ask. "Yeah? Who's available?"

"Seth."

t.b.c.

A/N: Yep, that's it for now. Sorry I can't have MA all the way, I need to move on with the plot ;P. Please review to let me know what you think!