Choices 19-"TWENTY-FOUR"
Mystic25 (yellowrubberduck31@hotmail.com) SUMMARY: A run in with White leaves Zack with 24 hours to prevent his own death. Ready, Set, Go.. RATING: PG14 for violence and language
DISCLAIMER: Mr. James Cameron meet Ms.-Non-Profit-No-Law-Suit
A/N: I wanted to do something special for my 19th and 20th chapter. So I came up with this for the first. I once in a while do little lighter fics, but that's not really my style. It'd be like asking Monet to paint a completely black canvas and call it "Water Lilies II"-just can't work. Angsty is how I write, it's what I'm good at and what I like to do.what happens here though)
A/N #2: Zack always had his moments, but I never saw an episode (except "Some Assembly Required") that focused mostly on him. I know Max is the main character, but they gave Alec an episode, and Cindy had her spot with Diamond. So this is Zack's turn. I'm still incorporating everyone else; just he'll be focused on more. His life, what he does when he's not saving his siblings or hanging out with Max.
*****
SEATTLE PUGET SOUND 0800 HOURS (8:00 AM)
The air outside was breezy, updrafts coming in off the water. Silence hung there, save for the few calls of seagulls who came out for an early morning breakfast.
The Sound was seemingly deserted, waves lapped at empty sand. Further up one solitary figure was there. Dressed in black leather and blue wool, with the wind blowing through locks of blonde hair.
A seagull culled overhead and the man, Zack, looked up to see the source of the noise.
The bird cried out again and then did a nose-dive into the water for something it had found.
In it's prime Puget Sound had been a magnificent place, a wild landscape where tourists and Seattle residents alike would flock. Now the chain linked fence surrounding the sand and the litter of various metal from old canning buildings covering the area kept people off the beach.
It was this that attracted Zack to this spot. It was a place believed to be too filthy to dirty anyone's hands in cleaning it, so it was abandoned and barred with gates to keep people out. Zack wasn't one to like a lot of people. He took to the solitude, what years of running and being on the lamb had accustomed him too. Even after everything, rescuing his sisters, being an uncle three times over, having a girlfriend, he still needed time by himself. He was still a solider, now and forever, eleven years of freedom, of trying to find the normal life didn't change that.
His footsteps were quiet as he climbed back over the fence and silently landed back on the other side of it where his black Kawasaki Vulcan stood waiting.
A seagull that had followed him over the fence suddenly culled a sound of alarm, something had startled it. A car, about three yards back stood in the night, off the worn road, and had started it's engine. The vehicle was black, almost concealing it from view almost.
Zack stood perfectly still and listened. His ears and the heightened and revved up hearing inside heard the quiet growl sounds of an engine that was on.
Light flashed him a second later when the occupants of the car blasted their halogens on him.
He revved up his bike and screeched out from the fence, dirt creating a billowy cloud from the tire kickback.
In the rearview mirror of his bike Zack could see the car follow as he made his way back into the heart of the city. The car doubled its speed and plowed into Zack's tailgate. The bike swerved, but because of his good coordination he managed to pull it back upright. He increased the throttle and pulled ahead of the car again.
Another jolt lurched his bike forward and careened it into a stack of fruit crates beside the outside wall of a building.
Zack lost control of the bike and wiped out onto the boxes. He recovered and climbed out of the crates. The car was now stopped two feet in front of him. Now that it was close enough he could see it was a black Hummer. The civilian equivalent to the military's Humvee, minus the triple plated armor and the rotating automatic gunner on top. It was the pansy army's car, and any good soldier knew that if this kinda vehicle came after him it defiantly wasn't government issue.
Men got out dressed in black Kevlar, old body plates since Kevlar became extremely rare after the Pulse. Some carried AK-47's and M-20's while others had military ranking air tasers.
Zack was surrounded, but he wasn't about to go down quietly "You wander away from military school again guys?"
The men with tasers shot them off, launching an assault of electrically powered strings into Zack's shoulders, arms and stomach. He groaned and struggled to break free, but the currents were high voltage and he didn't struggle for long.
Once he was put down another figure rounded the side of the Hummer, his black trench coat sweeping behind him.
Agent White stared down at the unconsciousness X5 "Load him in back. Leave the bike where it is"
"Yes Sir"
*****
FOGGLE TOWERS 0900 HOURS (9:00 AM)
"Logan?" Max called his name, searching for her husband. She entered the living room, still not seeing him. She stopped her search when she saw him asleep at his computer.
She padded over to him, standing behind his office chair. "Hey sleeping beauty" her hands touched the backs of his shoulders.
Logan came awake then, turning to look for the source of the touch and the noise "Hey" he paused for a moment "Did I wake you?"
She shook her head "You weren't there when I woke up, so I was just curious"
"Sorry baby" he apologized "I had to get some more hours in on this Eyes Only feed"
"Eyes Only is all powerful, but Logan Cale can't function without sleep."
"Yes mother"
She cocked an eyebrow at him "Is that how you see me?"
"Not a chance," he reassured "I never have thoughts about my mother the way I have thoughts about you"
"So long as there are no whips involved" a pause "Coffee in the kitchen?"
"Fresh pot"
She smiled "I could get use to you workin' at the crack of dawn" she headed into the kitchen.
He shut down his computer and followed her "Don't I even get a 'good morning'?"
"Not a good mornin' until I've had my coffee" she snagged a mug from the cabinet and poured herself some black Columbian Supreme.
She smelled his cologne on her a second later when he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her midsection.
"Don't think we're up to havin' anotha baby just yet" she said of his close proximity to her.
"Doesn't mean we can't come close" his head moved and he kissed the back of her neck through her hair.
A knock sounded on the front door.
"Door" Max said
"I heard it"
She tilted her head to face him, breaking out of his hold "This coffee ain't spiked with an aphrodisiac is it?" she left him there and went to answer the door.
"Asha" Max saw the blonde outside the door.
"It's early I know" Asha began, she hesitated for a moment before continuing "Is Zack here?"
"No" Max said, sensing something more in Asha's voice "There a problem?"
"We had this argument" Asha walked through the front door, letting herself inside. She turned around to face Max who was closing the door "He was at my place last night, for-the whole night, but then this morning we got into it and he took off. I just-I thought you might know where he went. He usually just takes a drive and then comes back. He's your brother Max Is there something I coulda missed?"
Max shook her head "Zack thinks alone. When he's in that mode he makes sure he can't be found." Asha gave her a look "It's none of my business what you two were raggin' about. He probably just got on his bike and drove. I do that, and it makes you loose track of things"
"For three hours?" Asha asked
"Zack locked himself in the weapons storage bunker for two days before the escape" Max informed "None of us knew where he was until he shot off a signal with a flashlight on that night"
"He can take care of himself Asha" Logan came out of the kitchen "He doesn't exactly lack self sufficiency"
"Self sufficiency isn't what I'm worried about Logan" Asha informed
"Sure he's fine" Max reassured
Asha turned to her "When has that ever been a guarantee?"
Her answer was silence
*****
(SCENE OPENS TO AN OPERATING ROOM. ZACK LAYS MOTIONLESS ON A GURNEY STRAPPED DOWN IN RESTRAINTS)
Zack blinked his eyes, shaking his head and looking at his surroundings. He pulled one arm up, but doesn't get very far.
"You're wasting your time" a voice comes over an intercom system. "That's tempered tempered steel. King Kong couldn't put a scratch in it"
Zack whipped his head around trying to find the source of the noise. A two-way mirror is in front of him. "Why don't you stop hiding behind a damn two way you fuckin' coward!"
"You are such a hot head 599. You really need to control that temper of yours." A door, that Zack didn't know was there opened and White stepped in. "Is that better?" the door closed automatically behind him. He stepped over to Zack on the gurney.
"Careful" Whit leaned over to look at something behind Zack's neck
At those words Zack tried to yank White down by his face "What the hell did you do to me?"
White pulled back with a smile "There's that temper again." White pulled down the large magnification glass attached to the mobile arm right up to Zack's skin "If all goes accordingly *I* won't have to do anything to you, but I'll still get the result I want"
"What the hell you so happy about?"
White didn't answer him, instead coming back with a sardonic smile. "I'm sure you're use to this 599." He started to slowly circle the gurney "From what I know you were quite popular with the whole guinea pig thing back at Manticore"
"So I'm an experiment to you?" Zack snapped, "Guess now I'm suppose to cry like a pussy"
"CORRECT on the sixty dollar question 599!" White held up one finger like an overly happy game show host. "Except-" a pause "I wouldn't call this an experiment so much as your mission"
"Well ya better re-examine your battle plans cause seems to me my mission is to string you up by your balls to a electric wire and turn on the juice so you light up like fuckin' Christmas lights"
"I'm Atheist 599 I don't celebrate Christmas" White sneered, "I won't even celebrate your demise. I'll just drop you back in the ground with all the other evolutionary freaks"
"What makes you think I'm just gonna sit here and wait for you to kill me?" Zack barked "Cause last time I checked you and I weren't best buddies"
"You don't need to be buddies to kill someone 599" White reminded "And who said anything about ME killing you? Oh no no ---you always underestimate me" he pulled something out of his pocket, a small black box with several buttons on it. He pressed a few and a beeping sound filled the room.
"What is that?" Zack didn't ask
"A marvelous little device. The mechanism of which has been implanted in the back of your neck right below your cerebellum. Nifty little implants that the so-called Red Series warriors used on their kind. Except I tweaked one to go right past a strength inducer and go straight to self destruction." He fiddled with some more buttons on the device, so that the beeping grew louder "That's not your heartbeat 599. Think of it as a mini bomb in your brain"
"You're dumber then I thought you piece of shit if you use the controls right in front of my damn face!" Zack wasn't about to take his self-destruction lying down.
"What this?" White held up the device "No no 599 THIS is only an activation control. I have had far more years of these kind of procedures then your shitty little Manticore training can wrap its head around so I deserve a little more credit then that."
The only door in the room opened again, and the same nameless armed men who had surrounded Zack came inside.
White stared Zack in the face "It has been a pleasurable visit 599, but I'm afraid I've got other engagements now" he turned to one of the men "Drop him back where you got him"
"Yes Sir" the man said before he and another man shot off their tasers.
*****
Zack opened his eyes again to find himself lying in the same pile of fruit crates he had wiped out at. He climbed out of them and looked in all directions into the night, but no one was there. His bike still lay on its side where it fell. There didn't appear to be any sabotage to it.
He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling something just under the skin. On a second thought he checked his pocket. His cell phone was still there, and after looking in the ignition of the Vulcan he also discovered that his keys hadn't been lifted off the bike. Whatever White was planning, he was letting Zack get away, for now.
Zack was always the cautious solider, asking a million questions and suspecting everyone that crossed his path. But right now he just wanted to get the hell outta there and have some relatively secluded place to figure out what the hell just happened.
He mounted the bike and started the engine, only looking back briefly before he drove off.
*****
JAM PONY 9:15 AM (23 HOURS 45 MINUTES LEFT)
"Five bucks Normal says bip bip bip in the next five minutes" Alec stated beside his locker
"I'm not loosin' money boy" Cindy let him know, standing beside him with her bike "Like askin' me if I would give an eye roam if some super fine honey worked her way in here" she looked up at him "Gotta find you a sucker for a sucker bet Alec"
"Yeah but Sketchy's out on a run" Alec informed
Cindy had to smile at that, shaking her head. Sketchy was her boy but he was always a pigeon "Didn't find your sucker, but I found my super fine honey" Cindy gave a nod up to Max who was walking through the entrance of Jam Pony that minute.
"Gotta agree with you on that" Alec stated, watching Max
"Agree but don't act boy" Cindy said straight up "Ain't nobody bustin' up a good thing on Original Cindy's watch"
"Relax woman" Alec reassured "I've been beaten off that road before. Sides its no good chasing a chick who hounds me back and wants to beat my ass down"
"Mmmhmm" Cindy was in full agreement of this "She can do it to"
"I said WANTS to" Alec corrected
"Wants to what?" Max was now joined with the other two.
"Depends on what you want to do Maxie" Alec waggled his eyebrows at her
"Boy you gettin' all those lil testosterone swimmers all over me." Cindy pulled something out of her pocket, throwing it at Alec "Here's a dolla, buy yourself somthin' pretty far far away"
Alec caught the crumpled dollar, putting it in his pocket, underneath his radio strap "Me thanks you for the stiff offer M'lady" he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek and pulled back before she could say anything.
"Prince Charmin' reject get outta here and go do your job" Cindy's voice was teasing, not angry. She watched Alec leave before turning to Max. "Lookin' super fly boo" Cindy's eyes checked out Max in her black biker crop pants, gray muscle singlet and black hoodie. "The borrowed man look works on ya, or am I missin' my guess in thinkin' the top belongs to ya man?"
Max plucked at the singlet she was wearing with on hand "Didn't have any clean of mine"
"Say no more boo. Permanent shack ups wid someone includes bein' able to swipe some of their threads." Cindy smiled, "And when that someone is a man, makes any sugah look hotter."
Max smiled herself, and adjusted her black baseball cap that was sitting sideways on her head backwards so that it wouldn't come off when she rode. "Havin' his smell all day is anotha plus"
"Fo' sure" Cindy agreed. Her gaze suddenly shifted to the entrance of Jam Pony "Is that your boy back there?"
"Logan?" Max asked, dropping her eyebrows slightly
"No sugah" Cindy corrected "That blonde, commando fine brotah of yours" Max looked this time and saw Zack standing at the entrance of Jam Pony. "Boy looks like he spent too much time out on the town"
Max's eyebrows creased more when she got Cindy's meaning. Zack looked like he'd been slammed through a jet plane's engine and lived to tell about it.
"You had a lot of potential kid" Normal spotted Zack, and was starting to talk to him "At least I believed it until you turned out to be just like ALL the other slackers"
"Can't bip him down Normal" Max analyzed "He doesn't work here anymore"
"I thought after you got married you STOPPED hanging around with random guys" Normal said
"Guy's not random when he's your brother" Max told him
Normal looked a little shocked. In all the time he had seen Zack he never made that connection between them. Max never told him, she never told him anything about her siblings. He only found out of their existence by coincidence. "I never knew you two were related, you don't look a thing alike"
"What ya never heard of a mixed family?" Max asked
"So all those people that paraded in here were your family and him too?" Normal was kinda taken aback.
"Can't help it if dad didn't believe in birth control" Zack finally spoke out, turning to Max "Need to talk to you"
"Hey just because I find out she's your sister my former prodigy doesn't mean you can distract my employee when she's still on the time clock" Normal informed Zack
"Consider it a family emergency" Max stated walking away with Zack outside Jam Pony outside to the spot where the employees hung out to suntan, and smoke.
Spike was out there, drinking from a brown frosted root beer bottle, but everyone knew it really had Jack Daniels inside of it.
"Hey Spike" Zack called out
Spike looked up from his drink "Hey Sammie boy" he held out his free hand "Where ya been hiding yourself?"
"That's classified information Spike" Zack told him, slapping his hand in a loose shake
Spike just laughed
"Hey man you mind leavin' so I can talk to my sister alone?"
Spike looked at Max, then his smile grew wider and more suggestive "Sure man. I'll leave you two some alone time." He slapped Zack on the back with one hand "I know how it is with sisters, I got a date with mine tonight" he laughed and headed inside.
"Guess Asha's hunch was right" Max said after Spike was gone
"Right about what?" Zack asked
"That'd you'd re-emerge lookin' like you spend last night in a ditch" she clarified
"If that would've been an option I woulda taken it" Zack said
His serious tone is what got to Max "Okay now you're sounding paranoid even for you-" she then noticed red marks peeking out of the U neck on his dark blue sweater. "What are these?" she grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled down, seeing more red patches lower on his skin underneath the fabric
"Mosquito bites compared to what's been done to other parts" Zack spoke cryptically. He turned around and pulled down his jacket collar.
Max reached up with her hand, pushing some hair away off the nape of his neck, seeing something there just below the surface of the skin, underneath his barcode.
*****
SEATTLE MERCY 11:00 AM (21 HOURS LEFT)
"I'm finished now" Sam spoke into the intercom that connected to the inside of the CT scan room. He released the mechanism to slide Zack from the machine, who was lying on the board. Zack soon climbed off. "What is it?" he entered the room where Sam and Max were sitting.
Sam stared at the computer image of Zack's brain scan "It's defiantly some kind of computer device. Surrounding the cerebellum."
"So it's like the Red Series" Max said
"To a certain degree yes." Sam agreed "It's the outer casings from a Red Series implant, but it's been fused with a detonation device, a micro chip bomb that scientists and intellectuals used following the Pulse to destroy what was left of their hard drives to keep the terrorists from obtaining the information. It's designed to give a one thousand volt shock to the hard drive it's embedded in, frying the circuits, and destroying the memory card completely."
"Or in this case my brain" Zack said. He looked up, seeing Max's eyes on him then
"Can you take it out?" Max asked
"It's not that easy" Sam enhanced the image of the cerebellum, magnifying the implant to 500%. "See these?" he pointed to a section of tiny half inch spikes sticking out at measured intervals from the implant into the surrounding tissue. "I count ten of them and they're all embedded into the surrounding brain tissue. Whoever did this set them in such a way that they don't inhibit the normal brain functions so long as they remain there, but if anyone tries to remove this these spikes will tear into the brain tissue in the areas affecting involuntary and motor responses. Even if taking it out doesn't kill right away the damage will leave you mute and cause major organ systems to fail, which will kill you anyway."
"There's gotta be something" Max argued "Zack said they gave him a count down time. There wouldn't be one if there wasn't a way to stop this"
"These spikes look triggered My guess is that they were mechanically set with some kind of outside device, and it can retract them again to remove the implant once it's been used"
"Who'd want an implant after it's been blasted to hell inside someone's skull?" Max was getting more and more agitated.
"The casing on the implant is incredibly strong" Sam told her, wheeling in his office chair for a second to get something off another counter. "This was salvaged from what was left of one of the Reds." He picked up something in a clear plastic bag, holding it up so they could see it, an implant, the same one Max still had in the back of her neck "After it detonates in the target the casing remains intact to be salvaged later. It may be tiny but I figure that these little things cost no little fortune to manufacture."
"So that really does leave me with twenty-four hours to find this outside device before I'm blown sky high" Zack stated "But why do this?" Zack was more impatient then Max, cause after all, he was the one who had the bomb in his brain. "If he wanted to kill me, why not just do it fast, so I'm NOT so pissed off about waiting to die?"
"Maybe he wants something first" Sam spoke
"Yeah well I never returned any favors for him, so he needs to quit fucking with me!" Zack stormed out of room.
Sam watched Max go after him while deleting the scan from the computer's hard drive.
"Thanks for letting me use the CT Maria" Sam said to the Radiologist in the hall
"Not a problem" Dr. Maria Wilkins responded, from the oval desk she was sitting at "Will there be anything else?"
"No, I think I got everything I need" Sam stated
*****
"I a sick of bein' a FUCKIN' guinea pig!" Zack slammed through the front doors of the hospital
"I'm past sick of it" Max agreed "But no one seems to listen to us"
"Yeah well they better, cause I'm not getting blown around like shrapnel just to satisfy some shit's joys of sadist masturbation."
"He'd have to have something bigger then a toothpick for that to work" Max corrected
A phone rang.
"Zack" Max pointed to his pocket "it's you"
Zack looked at the Caller ID 'Unlisted Number' he connected the call
"So you make it home okay 599? I take it you didn't get much sleep last night"
"You're not gonna get much sleep either shit fuck after I find you and slice you balls to confetti"
"Bad idea" White taunted, "You remember that lil bomb stuck in your brain? Well I know where the de-activation device is, and if you kill me, there'll be nothing to prevent you from going off like a teen in a triple X porno movie" there was a long pause "So 599----do you like games?"
"What the hell are you getting at?"
There was quiet laughter on the other end "I thought so. Well you're going to love MY games."
"What if I don't want to play your games you fuckin' pussy?"
"You loose." White stated, in almost a sing song voice "And all the others who lost with you"
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"Patience 599" a pause "You'll find out." another pause, longer "Oh and I wouldn't loose this cell phone if I were you, or you'll loose a hell of a lot more. Don't bother tracing this call 599, you can't, and besides, I'll be calling you back anyway" the call disconnected
*****
JAM PONY 12:30 PM (20 HOURS 30 MINUTES LEFT)
"Family crisis averted?" Normal watched Max come back inside with Zack "I docked your pay for being late again missy"
Max ignored him, and also ignored the look Spike was giving her.
"You okay boo?" Cindy furrowed her brow at Max
"Coo'" Max told her, shooting a look at Zack.
"Haven't showed yourself around here that much boy" Cindy tried to break the tension she sensed with Zack.
Zack offered her nothing, no remark, no movement of any kind. The only noise that broke his silence was the sound of his cell phone ringing.
He didn't even look at the caller ID this time, he already knew who it would be.
"Very good 599, your reflexes work fine. You'll need them"
"And you'll need a good coffin when I get done with you" Zack growled, disregarding the stares he was getting.
"We'll see" White informed, "How well do you know your classical compositions 599? I'm sure Manticore drummed them into your brain enough to make you learn faster."
"I haven't been schooled in a long time prick" Zack spat
"Then I suggest you remember." A pause "look above you--you see that air vent right above your head? Right over the head of that hunched over looser wearing those thick glasses"
Zack looked and saw it, a diamond shaped vent above where Normal was standing.
"What if I told you sitting right above it is a twenty gallon drum full of Napalm and a machine sealed inside that's programmed to ignite a flame in three minutes that would light up the building faster then a naked stripper walking through. Well I just did, didn't I Zackey-boy" White laughed
Zack ran over to and up the rickety stairs and found the sealed drum. The lid had been mortared shut, red five red coils ran outside the barrel. Beside the drum sat an electric timer, with the count down on two minutes.
"I know you don't know most of these people" White's voice came through the phone again "And why should you care if they burst into flames, but wait, MAX is here. And you know she won't leave you alone once she realizes what's going on-"
"Zack!" Max made her way to the second level and walked over to him, stopping when she saw the drum
"You see those wires Zack? One of them leads from the timer into the machine's circuit module, the rest don't. There are numbers painted on them. 27, 36, 12, 34, and 19. In a minute the timer device will play a section from "Mozart's Requiem Mass", a single measure whose number coincides with one of the ones written on the wires. After which it will leave you with fifteen seconds. Listen to the piece and choose the correct number. That's the wire you have to cut in order to deactivate the machine. You only have one shot 599. Cut the wrong wire and the timer locks out and detonates the bomb via a back up flamer. If anyone else but you cuts the wire it will detonate. If I hear anyone trying to help you it will detonate." Try to move everyone out, and I detonate the bomb in your brain as well as this one before you can get out."
"How the fuck can you tell who does it?" Zack finally spoke
"Hidden camera 599" White taunted "You think I'd miss all the fun?" another pause "You better get started, the final curtains about to fall"
A click was heard and then Mozart's haunting requiem began. Zack could see the small spy camera fused inside the barrel, watching him.
"Its after the second movement, so it's past measure 20-" Zack spoke out loud to get Max's attention on what was happening "The choir speeds up at measure thirty five so it's gotta be in between there, that makes it either 27, or 34,
Max listened to it, weighing it in her mind. Then the music stopped and the timer grew louder on a fifteen second countdown.
15..
Max signaled to Zack it was measure 34.
14..
Zack shot her a look that asked her if she was sure
13...12...11..
Max signaled back she was sure. It had been played right before the training mission with the prisoner
/FLASH: The X5's listen to the Requiem Mass, an open score in front of them. It was used to test their memory knowledge, and also the stopping point would be how long they let the prisoner run for before they attacked him/
10...
Zack grabbed the wire cutters that White so conveniently left there and raised them to the red wire marked '34'
9...8...7...6...5..
He snipped it.
4...3...the timer went black. Both X5's held their breath. Nothing.
"Excellent 599" White leered "You're alive, for now. But it only gets harder after this. The camera by the way was bought at a local black market supplier who rubs off his serial numbers so don't think you can trace it. I'll be in touch again 599. Until then" the phone cut off.
*****
"Guess Manticore was good for something" Max was still in the same spot, so was Zack.
"After everything else that's happened today don't make me picture Manticore being GOOD for something Maxie" Zack stood up from where he was crouched over the drum, brushing past Max and back down the stairs.
"Zack" Asha stood by Normal's desk, though it was unclear how she knew that he would be there.
"Hey pretty lady" Sketchy smiled at Asha
"Sketchy don't-" Max cut in on his move.
Sketchy looked from Asha to Zack and then back to Asha again. "I have deliveries" he left it at that
"What are you doing here?" was Zack's first question to Asha
"I didn't know where you were all night Zack" she confessed, "I just figured you might turn up here"
Zack looked at her, then "I guess you figured right" he brushed past her like he did Max, leaving his girlfriend and his sister looking at him, watching him retreat.
"Disappears again" Normal was watching too "This is why I don't make any money"
*****
6:50 PM (13 HOURS 10 MINUTES LEFT) WATERFRONT
Zack took another hit from the pack of cigarettes he had bought. He never smoked, but tonight it just fit his mood. His revved up body adjusted to the nicotine and tobacco better then normal people so he didn't cough on it.
The beach was dark. Blue-black waves struck on the shore. He took one more drag from the cigarette before pitching the butt into the water. The only sounds in front of him were the waves on the water. A slight wind blew through his hair, but he paid no notice of it.
He stayed out there for three more seconds before silently walking back to where his bike was
= = = =
FENTAL AVE
Asha opened the door before he even got to it. She had heard someone coming and looked through the peephole to see that it was Zack. She let him in without a word.
"Were you smoking?" Asha could smell smoke emitting from his leather jacket
Zack shook his head "I had a swing with a woman who works at a barbeque pit" he ignored Asha's gaze, sliding out of his leather jacket and throwing it on the couch.
"Is that where you were last night?" she picked up his jacket and threw it on top of her dining room table so it wouldn't smell up her sofa.
"I never kiss and tell" Zack headed into her kitchen and opened her refrigerator. He searched for a moment before pulling out a bottle of Heineken. He opened lid with his teeth, then took a swig "You gotta start buying better beer"
Asha didn't say anything and invaded his personal area to shove past him and reach inside her fridge for another bottle of the same beer. She opened hers with a bottle opener and leaned against her kitchen counter as she drank it.
"What happened there?" she noticed a red mark and scratches near his collarbone where his blue long sleeve cotton shirt didn't cover. She stuck out her free hand and barely touched it before he snapped back from her. "Wanna tell me what's going on?"
Zack ignored her and headed over to her couch.
Asha sighed. She took another sip from her beer before setting it down on the counter and walking out of her kitchen. She sat down on the arm of her couch beside him "All right mister take it off, let me see the rest"
Zack whipped around to face her "What the hell are you talking about?"
Asha grabbed a hold of his shirt collar and yanked down before he could pull back "These things didn't just magically appear in the night." She let go of the fabric "So you either show me the rest or I do it for you"
"You think you can take me down?" Zack wasn't convinced at all of her statement
"Cut the crap Zack or you're gonna find out" Asha's tone was a growl. She could've been an honorary X5 at that moment, at least in the 'pissed-off' category.
Zack stared at her for the longest time before reaching around to pull up the sides of his shirt. The cotton went over his head, leaving him bare from the waist up. "Don't think you can get away with making me do this every time"
Asha inched closer "I already do" her eyes roamed over the red blotches that were on his collarbone and chest, along with several abrasions from where he had skidded of his bike and onto the road.
She touched a larger one on the edge of his abs. He didn't flinch even though it stung. He was too hard for that. "These look like taser burns"
"I had to pick a girl who just doesn't sit there and fawn over them"
"Like you'd want that" she snapped back. She pulled back and looked him in the eye "Where were you REALLY last night?"
Zack didn't answer but turned around and showed her the nape of his neck.
"What am I-"
"It's under the barcode" he cut in
She put her hand under it and felt something just below the skin. "What the hell is it?"
"My one way ticket to Slam City" he felt her hand move off his neck "In the words of the fucker who did it it's a nifty little mini bomb in my brain" he turned around to face her then, seeing the complete look of shock on her face.
"A mini bomb-what the hell-can't it be taken out?"
"That would be to easy wouldn't it?" Zack slid back into his shirt, reaching for the rest of his beer.
Asha still had that shocked look on her face, and rightly so "So what can we do about it?"
Zack took a sip "If I knew that I wouldn't be sitting here"
"So you just dropped by here to tell me that you're gonna blow sky high in a few hours?"
"Twenty-two if my calculations are correct"
"Dammit Zack!" Asha spat "Stop pussy footing around this! There has to be SOMETHING we can do about this. You're a fuckin' solider for cripes sake!"
Zack reeled on her then "Don't you act like you know what it's like being who I am Asha cause you
DON 'T. And what the FUCK do you think 'we' can do about it? The last time I checked YOU didn't have a fuckin' piece of metal on a timer in your neck!"
"I'm sorry I thought being in a relationship meant that the two people involved HELP each other in a problem. That was MY understanding at least."
"In case you haven't noticed YOU'RE not dealing with a normal relationship Asha!" Zack snapped "If you think you are then you're very much mistaken little girl. You need to crawl out of the puddle you created from your own pussy and see the real world!"
Asha towered above him then "Get out! She went to her table, grabbed his jacket and pitched it at his head "And take every little piece of shit you brought with you! You know you think this is just YOUR fight Zack, that every damn thing that happens to you ONLY affects you. Well you need to wake up and smell the fuckin' shrapnel soldier, that IS the real world!"
"Don't even act like you know what you're talking about!" Zack cut in "You've gotten a glimpse of my life for just a little over a year and you think you can sit an analyze it. I've had to deal with the shit all my fucking life! You think this is the first attempt on my life I've had? The first time I've ever this shit fall on my head! You think you can snap your fuckin' fingers and make it all go away?"
"I said GET OUT!" she shouted at him, pointing towards her door.
"You throwing me out?" he was a CO, he didn't TAKE orders, he delivered them
"Yeah I am. See it's not just about you anymore Zack. It STOPPED being about you the moment we hooked up. That's what HAPPENS in a relationship. After all this time I THOUGHT you understood that, but I guess I was fuckin' wrong. So go and count down the hours you have left to live on your own pal, cause I'm not sitting here and doin' it for you!"
"Have a good time on your own" Zack growled
"Fuck you!" Asha spat, hearing her front door slam so hard it rattled the walls.
= = = =
Yo they say this love wasn't meant to be Two people from different worlds we wasn't be It must have been faith you were sent to me We'll make it threw these hard times eventually The standard fight brought by faith not by sight We all the same color when u turn out the lights I take the sunshine with the pain Grab my Sara gone sad that when it rains No French kept the food on the window pain We all breath the same air so we all the same I am trapped in this ghetto maze trying to make it out If you don't know me don't judge me what you talking bout I am dividable by broken dreams Single moms you my heroes you my queens To get my mom out the hood that is my hopes and dreams To reach my son to be a solja by any means
= = = =
*****
CRASH 10:00 PM (11 HOURS LEFT)
"You aiight boo?" Cindy leaned over the foozball table for her next maneuver "Been actin' kinda wiggy all night" she scored a point in Max's goal "Somethin' on your mind?"
"Nuthin' really" Max argued shooting the ball through the hole again
"Means it's something girl" Cindy lost control of the ball and Max scored a point. She looked up to the doorway, seeing Zack enter Crash. She looked from Max to Zack "Somethin' goin' on with your boy? He don't look right"
Max looked over her shoulder at her brother. He looked as usual to her, except maybe a little more keyed up. She finished scoring another point and won the game again "How bout a pitcher?"
"Aiight" Cindy agreed as they left the pool table.
Max slid into the seat beside Logan at a table
"Zack's here?" Logan looked over to the other man. He didn't normally frequent Crash. Just on occasion. Asha tended to come here more often then him.
"Probably just felt like a drink" Max took a sip of her almost empty mug.
Cindy came to the table carrying a full pitcher. "Ain't that why we're all here?"
"Where are the kids?" Max asked, Logan had been keeping his eye on them.
Cindy pointed over the rim of her drink "Over there with Alec"
"You let my children play with Alec?" Max cut in
"The nightmares shouldn't be permanent" Logan joked
Max shot him a look and got up from her seat.
"Hey Max" Alec heard her approaching "Thank God you're relieving me from my babysitting duties"
"More like saving my kids" Max returned "You're not exactly Dr. Spac" She roughed up her sons hair who was sitting on the bar near Alec "Where's your sister?"
"She's right-" Alec turned around and pointed "there" his brow creased when he saw the stool beside him was empty "She was sitting right here"
Max was already looking around the bar, jumping over it to look behind the counter
"Hey!" the bartender called out to her "No freebies!"
Max ignored him, searching the crevices. She jumped back up "Lexi!" her eyes roamed up and down the room, not seeing her in the crowd.
"Max?" Logan heard all the commotion "What is it?"
"I can't find Lexi" she told him, making his interest peak to full status
"Saw her with Alec twenty minutes ago" Cindy said. Cindy started to look too "Lexi" she started walking around "If you're playin' a game sugah it's time to stop!"
From across the bar Zack was about to go over to Max when his phone rang.
"I take it your you were successful if you can answer your phone"
"Guess your disappointed" Zack spat
"On the contrary 599-" White taunted, "If you would've failed the first game I wouldn't have gotten to do all the others. Like the one that's going on right now." A pause "Bet 452 is starting to get frantic looking for your niece"
Zack looked at Max again then.
"I mean I would if I ever lost my kid"
"What the hell did you do with her?" Zack was growling into the phone
"Women walk below invisible tunnels 599" White went for a cryptic poetry style for his reply
"What the fuck is that suppose to mean?"
"It could be anything 599" White taunted "Could mean that I kidnapped the girl and have her in a sub basement with pipes, hence "invisible tunnels" Or I could've just made all of it up and dumped her alone somewhere. But if you want to find her I suggest you figure it out." The line went dead
"There's no sign of her in this room boo," Cindy admitted to Max, trying not to sound too panicky, but isn't working.
"She's only two" Max was more frantic then Cindy "She couldn't have gotten very far. She knows not to go with strangers, And to scream like hell if they force her to go." She saw Logan approach her
"No one saw anyone leaving with a kid at the front door"
"Logan these guys are too wasted to see ANYTHING" Max ran a frustrated hand through her hair "I just want her back" she wasn't about to have this happen to another child of hers.
"Woman might've gone into the bathroom with her and took her out the window" Alec threw in his two cents, which wasn't helping "There's a big ring for that kind of stuff with little girls-"
"Oh God" Max didn't believe in God, but she was desperate.
"Boy shut your mouth!" Cindy barked, shooting daggers at him. She put one hand on Max's shoulder "We'll find her, but sugah you need to calm it a lil or you're not gonna be able to think clearly."
Max didn't say anything for a moment "I should check the bathroom-"
"Women walk below invisible tunnels-" Zack muttered to himself. He looked up and saw two women leaving the ladies room. "She's there-" he ran ahead of Max
Women made startled noises at the sight of Zack entering the Ladies Room. Some also made noises of appreciation in the back of their throats.
Max busted through the door a second later "Where is she?" she heard Zack's declaration and demanded an answer.
Zack searched around the ceiling, finally spying what he was looking for, an air vent "Invisible tunnels" He ripped the metal grate off of it exposing the empty hole. "Lexi can you hear me?"
There was a muffled noise in response
"She's up there" Zack looked to Max "You're smaller then me, you'll fit better"
Max had no arguments about that. She took off her jacket so it wouldn't get caught and stepped into the foothold Zack had created with his interlocked hands.
He hoisted her inside and she grabbed the sides of the metal duct system to pull herself the rest of the way.
"Lexi" she called out to her daughter "Baby can you hear me?" she crawled on her belly through the darkness, using her night vision to see.
"Mommy..." her daughter's voice was faint
"I'm coming to get you sweetie, but I need you to keep talking so I can find you, can you do that for mommy?"
"Mommy it's dark in here. I don't like it"
"I know hon, I'm gonna get you outta here" she finally reached her daughter who was tucked up against a side of the duct. "It's okay sweetie" Max touched her "Are you hurt?" she couldn't see any injuries "Did they touch you?"
"No" her woice was wimpering
"Okay. We're gettin' outta here."
Ten minutes later Max slid out the hole head first doing a flip to land on her feet. She quickly turned around to grab her daughter and lower her down
"Is she okay?" Zack asked
Lexi was crying by this time, clinging to Max's body.
"Just scared the piss outta her" Max said in a low voice to her brother. She rubbed Lexi's back and cooed to her "I got you baby, it's okay. Shh-" she put a hand on her forehead, smoothing back the hair.
A phone ringing cut through the air.
"Is she safe and sound now 599?"
Zack didn't answer and threw the phone against the wall, casing a chunk of it to break off the body.
Max felt something bulky in the pocket of Lexi's jacket. She pulled it out. It was a piece of folded paper with Zack designation hand written on it.
Max held it up in front of Zack's sight. He took it from her and unfolded it.
*65 Industry Way. 6:00 AM*
*****
An hour after Zack left Crash Asha sat at the bar downing shots of straight Tequila. She didn't hear someone come up behind her until the seat next to her was filled.
"Take it that's good hooch" Alec watched her slam her third shot.
"So long as it's alcohol it doesn't matter" she set the empty shot glass back on top of the bar. She stood up grabbing her coat of the top of the bar.
"You look a little down Asha" Alec analyzed "Anything I can do to put a smile on your face?"
Asha slipped on her coat "You can wipe the shit eating one you have off" she turned and left.
Once outside she stuffed her hands into her coat pocket, walking slowly to her car.
She opened the door to her Cherokee and was about to get in when something grabbed her around the neck and pulled her back.
"Hey pretty momma, where ya goin'? Your ride is this way"
A needle pierced her neck and she fell. After she was out the man hauled her off to a black vehicle parked a few feet away.
*****
FOGGLE TOWERS
"Don't turn off the light!" Lexi cried, clutching at her stuffed rabbit. Ever since being rescued at Crash she had been scared to have anyone leave her alone or leave her in the dark.
Max sat on the edge of her bed and gathered her in her arms "It's okay honey. There's nothing that can get you." She rocked her back and forth like she did when she was an infant.
Her bedroom door opened and Logan came in. Seeing his daughter crying he joined his wife on her bed.
"Sweetie you're safe" Logan reassured her, stroking her baby fine hair. "Mommy and I won't let anything else happen to you"
"Just don't turn out the light daddy, please" she begged
Logan touched one had to her tear tracked face "Sweetie I want you to close your eyes-Close your eyes" he said again trying to coax her to do it this time. She did. "Tell me what you see"
"It's dark" Lexi rested against Max's arm.
"Can you see stars?" Logan asked
"No. Just black"
"Imagine the twinkling stars that come out at night, filling the sky with sparkling flecks" he waited for a moment "Do you see them now?"
"Yeah. Lots of them"
Max smiled at Lexi's declaration "Are there any shooting stars?"
"No" she said, eyes still closed "Just ones that twinkle"
"That's okay" Logan reassured "Now every time it's dark and you're afraid, just close your eyes and find those stars and you won't be so scared anymore." He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.
"Daddy?" a pause "Was I put in the dark cause I was bad?" her eyes opened, two huge blue saucers staring at him
Logan shook his head "No honey. You weren't bad. You didn't do anything to deserve that."
He shared a hard look with Max.
*****
5:00 AM 65 INDUSTRY WAY
Zack dismounted his bike and looked at his surroundings. Industry Way was a street filled with abandoned warehouse buildings. It was a perfect place to go if you wanted to hide, or play in a futuristic looking playground.
He scanned the night, looking for other people, forms. But there was nothing there but himself and the quiet hum of some kind of motor that was running somewhere in the darkness.
Another sound soon filled the air after a phone rang. But this time the ring wasn't Zack's cell phone, it rather belonged to a payphone that was welded to one of the sides of the warehouses.
Zack walked over to it and picked it up.
"Take it you got the memo" White's voice came through the other line
"I'm starting to loose the little patience I have mother fucker"
"Patience is a virtue Zack" White called him by his name for the first time "If you loose your temper and slip up you have only yourself to blame for the consequences it brings"
= = = =
White turned to look at the woman he had chained by her arms with handcuffs metal pipe suspended in the ceiling. "You're familiar with a woman named Asha aren't you 599?" using Zack's first name was over "Thin blonde, but still has a nice body, looks like she needs to spend more time in the sun"
Asha could only glower at White. She had woken up chained to the pipe and after several failed attempts to break the cuffs she just hung there, panting from the strain, and trying to think of something else to get out of them.
"What would you say if I made her part of our little game?"
= = = =
"You are one dickless prick you know that?" Zack growled
"You could write for Dr. Seuss 599." White leered. "But what if I told you that strapped around her body is a bomb set to detonate at 7:30, two and a half hours from now. And if you don't find her in time and deactivate it, let's just say the results will be grizzly."
"You shit!" Zack shouted into the phone. His patience was now gone "You think this FUCKIN' game will drag me down and submit me to your fucking bidding!"
"That's exactly what I think 599. I know you better then you think I do. Better then you know yourself. You act like such a tough macho solitary soldier, but we both know that if I stick any one of those sniveling soldier wanna-bes you call your brothers and sisters in harms way you'd risk everything in order to save them. 452 is living proof of that isn't she 599?" there was a long pause. "Tell me something 599, are you close with this woman. I mean are you giving her a good screw to keep her coming back for more every time you roll back into the city?"
Zack didn't answer, but apparently it gave White all the answer he needed "Never figured you for a lover 599. But then I guess the right woman can give any man the right kinda sensations down in his head"
"If you hurt her I swear the only kinda sensation you'll feel in your head is that last sharp pain after I slice it off"
"Have I found your weakness 599?" White jeered, "Should I call up 452 and tell her that she's not the only one-"
"Don't you FUCKIN' touch Maxie you dick head!"
"Relax I have no reason to this time. My superiors wanted me to find the leader of the 2009 Manticore escape and bring him in alive to HQ. But I don't always listen to my superiors 599. I've been trying to erase you more times then I can count, but this time I can't fail. Knowing your enemy's weakness soldier is to know how to bring them down. This bomb I've set will go off at 7:30, THIRTY minutes before the one you're programmed with is gonna blow you out of your skull. Her location is exactly thirty minutes away from where I've placed the de-activation device to stop the countdown on your brain. At 14 and 21st street on the roof of Seattle Mercy Hospital. There isn't enough time to disengage both bombs before they go off. Don't think you can arrive here early. Even at your speed, from your location it will not give you enough time to make any leeway. This dilemma has only two possible outcomes. If you try to get to the hospital first you will have enough time to deactivate the device and keep yourself alive, but she dies. If you save her first, you're a noble soldier six feed under the ground. Heads or tails, your life or hers? Which is more important? Don't think you know the answer first hand, cause you might surprise yourself. The clock is ticking 599-" the call ended.
*****
FOGGLE TOWERS 6:30 AM (1 HOUR 30 MINUTES LEFT)
"Everything around Seattle Mercy are businessness still in function. There'd be no way to put a kidnapped woman in hiding with people still around" Logan typed on his computer, bringing up a street map of Seattle. "The only thing that isn't up and running anymore is an abandoned Marina just west of the hospital. He enhanced the map to get the street name "On Fowler and 14th"
"How far away is it from there?" Zack asked
"White was right on the money" Logan informed "Thirty minutes."
Zack looked at the screen for the longest time, before turning to grab his jacket. He slipped it on, looking to Max. He took something out of his pocket and handed it to her. It was his cell phone "Voice Mail code is 0285364. Zane sometimes gets drunk when he calls so you have to decipher through all the babbling." He looked up to her with a long pause "Promise me you'll keep fighting them Maxie. This is YOUR life now, not theirs" before she could say anything he left, the door closing quietly behind him.
Logan stepped over to her after Zack left "You ready?"
She nodded
He handed her a mic to slip under her ear, she took it, sliding Zack's cell phone in the pocket of her jacket.
*****
FOWLER AND 14TH
"Is that too tight baby doll?" White leaned down next to Asha, grabbing onto the metal chain that was wrapped around her body and also chained to the floor, securing the bomb in place. He pulled a loose chain and yanked the links tighter around her body. She gasped through the tape covering her mouth "How's that?" He looked over at the timer on the bomb "599 doesn't have much time" he looked to Asha leering, "But I guess you're the kinda girl who likes to takes things slow huh?"
*****
Zack's motorcycle sounded like it was ready to break at the speed he was pushing it too. People cursed him for nearly running them off the road. But he never gave a rat's ass about what people thought of him
*****
7:26 AM
The Vulcan slowed down in front of the once prominent Marina. Now it was dilapidated and crumbing from the years of neglect. Rats and pigeons lived solely inside now. Well tonight they added one more rat to their list of occupants. Zack searched for a way inside, finally finding a smashed in window twenty feet above his head. He took a few steps back then using most likely his cat genes, leapt up and grabbed a hold of the wooden sill and used his upper body to pull himself inside. He ducked into a barrel roll when he hit the dirt two stories down, landing on it and bits of broken glass. Climbing to his feet he searched the darkness, not calling out her name so as not to compromise his location.
There was a half crumbling stairwell two yards to his right and below it there was a small shadow cast. It was this that he ran too, and sure enough found Asha chained to a pipe that somehow managed to stay suspended above on the staircase support beams.
She tried to say something to him, but with the tape on her mouth nothing came out but garble. Zack didn't take it off, concentrating fully on the set of multicolored wires locked around the timer device that now showed only four minutes and a handful of seconds left.
A noise came out from behind him, Max appearing out of the darkness with a phone, his cell, in her hand. It was up to her ear. She approached where he was, still listening to the other person talk on the end.
"It's a standard self district device" Max was talking to the person on the other line, looking at the bomb strapped to Asha's body. "There are three sets of wires, blue, red and yellow." She listened, then looked up at Zack "Jondy says the yellow wire should run from the timer to a metal canister of explosive somewhere in back."
Zack looked, and could see an aluminum tube like container where the wire was wrapped around.
"You have to cut the wire from the timer and the canister to prevent any back up mechanism from activating and setting off the bomb."
Two minutes were now left. Zack had no knife, so he searched for something, anything to cut through the wires. The glass shards he fell in were also under his feet, and he picked up one of them, using it to saw through the wires. It was a tedious job. The glass cut into his hand and with lack of a good angle for gripping made it hard to use. One end of the wire fell loose from the timer, which still counted down from the power supplied by the other wires. He worked, ignoring the one-minute warning. At the thirty-second mark his sweat and blood made the glass slip out of his hand and get lost in the sand. Zack didn't try to find it and instead twisted the wire around in his hand to loosen it, pulling on the plastic to get it to rip.
The wire fell away at nine seconds. The timer went down to three, two, one and finally zero. Even though it had been deactivated, everyone held their breath, waiting. Nothing. Asha breathed the biggest sigh of relief.
Zack finally took the tape off her mouth. Even though it was raw and hurt, she didn't complain "Thought you might like it quieter around here for a change." She yanked at her arms, trying to get them free from the cuffs. Zack used a piece of splinter wood to free the mechanism and unlock the cuffs. Asha's wrists were raw from hanging there so long, but all she did was rub them even though they hurt like hell.
"You still have time" Max spoke again "There's still twenty five minutes left"
"There's no way I can make it in twenty-five minutes and get to the roof of the hospital in time Maxie" Zack informed her. Even though he was talking about his own demise, he still was a hard ass about it.
"Not by going on the ground you can't" she stated elusively
*****
ROOFTOP
Somehow they all managed to get on the roof of the Marina without it falling on them. Max handed Zack her crossbow.
He took it "You always bring your equipment with you everywhere you go?"
"Seem to recall learning that from a brother I know"
He glanced at her, before shooting off the crossbow into the air, catching it on the roof of the next building.
"Before you go-" Max's voice made him turn back to her. She held out his cell phone "You'll need this back"
He took it from her and then slid down the black rope over to the next building's roof.
He landed with barely a sound on top of the next building. He took the cell out of his jacket and opened it up. "Okay all powerful Eyes Only tell me where to go" Zack walked around the roof.
"There's a five story hotel on your right" Logan spoke into the phone. He was tracking Zack's movements on his computer, directing him to which rooftops led to the hospital. "It should be almost a level landing"
"Almost isn't good enough Logan you know that"
"I'm not a perfect creation Zack" Logan reminded
"Maybe you and Maxie are really made for each other" Zack aimed the crossbow and shot off "Kinda like the Yin and the Yang"
"Like you and Asha?"
"Yeah well if I make it outta this thing alive remind me to thank you for that" Zack jumped to the next building.
= = = =
10 MINUTES LEFT
"The clock is winding down Cale, which way?" Zack now stood on a low-level office building.
"It takes time to process Zack" Logan said, typing, working to find the next building
"Well time is something I'm a little short on. And you are vastly decreasing your chances of getting any thanks from me"
"There" Logan said, "It should be right in front of you. Wind socks and all"
Zack looked, and sure enough saw the illuminated roof of Seattle Mercy. "Did I ever tell you you're my hero?"
"You're not gonna start singing are you?"
"I'm not on a suicide mission." Zack returned. He launched the crossbow for the last time. Once it was secure he slid on it hitting the side of the roof. He grabbed with his hands and pulled himself the rest of the way. The helipad was empty, the windsocks blowing in the natural breeze, not from the blades of a landing Medivac unit.
"So what the hell do I do now?" Zack spoke more to himself then in the phone. He started walking around the expanse of the rooftop.
"Looking for this?" White was behind him, holding up a control switch "I must say you impressed me 599. Manticore was taught to keep itself alive at all cost of civilian life. You went against your instincts."
"It's not instincts when they beat it into your head" Zack growled, hanging up on Logan.
"You must be sitting on top of the world now 599." White circled him "Not only did you get to save the girl you also have enough time to save yourself" there was a pause as he walked over to the ledge "Too bad I don't believe in fair games" he dropped it over the edge of the building.
Zack didn't scream out "No!" but he tried to catch it before it fell, it slipped out of his fingers, and fell into the night
"Don't think that'll it break down there and stop the timer, it can handle being run over by a freight train"
The box fell down the four stories, landing hard on the concrete. It was just at that time that Asha jumped off behind Max on her Ninja and saw the thing fall. She ran to where it landed and picked it up.
"Still in tact. Ames White really is a rich white bastard" she hit a few buttons on the computer device. The device had a lock out code to prevent just anyone from deactivating it. White planned to double cross Zack with it, but now- "Give me your barcode string," she said to Max who was behind her "I can't deactivate it but I can override the system by making it think it's been programmed to blow up the wrong X5 all this time"
Max read off her barcode numbers to Asha who punched them into the computer. It beeped a few times
*System Override-Program Lost*
= = =
Both White and Zack, being otherworldly human could hear a tiny sound of a mechanism releasing.
"You have a guardian angel 599" White approached him "Too bad this is the real world. See I never really intended to let you walk out of this thing alive. That timer may have shorted, but the internal one planted inside the casing in your skull hasn't, it's called backup. In the form of a simple pop device I once set up to try and deal with another smart mouth X5. And if you don't have the implant removed from the back of your neck in the next seven minutes you won't live to regret it" White grabbed Zack around the neck "Didn't I tell you I would get the results I wanted?"
= = = =
Asha and Max came through the ER reception area of the hospital.
"Hey you need to sign in first!" one of the receptionist called out, waving the phone in the air that he was talking on.
Asha didn't stop in her running pace to find the elevator. Max pushed the button, watching the numbers light up slowly.
Max had it "Stairs" she instructed the other woman. They both turned to the door leading to the stairwell.
"Hey!" the receptionist called out again
"Fuck off!" Asha shouted before banging through the stairwell door
= = = =
"I never believed a fucking thing you ever told me" Zack pulled White's hand off his neck and threw him to the ground. He was about to attack again, when a jolt, almost like an electrical shock threw him to the ground.
White was on his feet again "It's already starting to take affect 599." He towered above him "I added that little extra myself, isn't it great? As much as I love to watch this I have things to do but I'll be back to pick you up after you've expired" he walked to the edge of the roof and leapt off, jumping from the hospital to the building behind it until he hit the ground.
*****
"Zack!" Asha found him first. He was writhing on the ground.
"Take it out!" it wasn't a request "As long as it's inside it can still kill me" he looked at his sister "Maxie Asha carries a switchblade"
Max retracted the blade after Asha handed it to her. "This is gonna hurt like hell Zack I don't exactly have anesthesia with me"
"I don't fucking care!" Zack spat "Just do it!"
Max gripped the back of his neck "Hold still, I don't wanna know what happens if I cut the wrong spot." She pierced his neck with the blade, twisting it in a circle then pulling up. The implant came out tinged in blood. It remained still for five seconds then popped in a small explosion, but one that would've defiantly killed someone if placed in the right spot of the brain.
Zack had stopped having spasms from the electric shock and stared at the device, feeling blood trickle down the back of his neck.
*****
8:20 AM
Bling finished stitching up the laceration in the back of Zack's head "No major veins or arteries were hit" he snipped the suture thread "Just a lot of blood and drama. You're lucky you had a good surgeon" he set down his scissors.
Zack turned and faced him, feeling Bling's handiwork.
"Any double vision or fuzziness?" Bling asked looking back at Zack
"If I ever saw two of you Bling I'd put that implant back in myself"
"Thanks for the love Zack" Bling chuckled after a minute.
"Okay if he has visitors?" Max walked over to her dining room table where Zack was sitting with Lexi in her arms.
"Fine by me" Bling stood up and leaned down to kiss the baby.
"Uncle Zack have an owee?" Lexi asked
"Yeah he does" Max answered
"Does it hurt?"
Zack looked up at his niece "Whadda you think?" he said it without any anger so it didn't sound like he was reprimanding her.
"Yeah but Uncle Zack's tough, he can take it" Asha stated, standing up from the couch. She didn't take her eyes off Zack.
"C'mon sweetie, let's go brush your teeth" Max said to her daughter
"But I don't wanna brush my teeth mommy"
"But you need to little miss, you've got all that oatmeal still in them"
"Yeah c'mon Lexi, me and your mom will help ya" Bling said. He followed Max with the baby to the master bathroom.
Logan shut down his laptop in his office. He stepped out into his living room "I'll just-go-help."
"You guys aren't very subtle ya know that?" Asha informed
"Who said anything about being subtle" Logan argued before disappearing into the master bedroom.
Asha still stood the same distance away from Zack as before.
"Guess I'm still alive" he still didn't look at her
"Guess so" she responded
"How'd you know how to override the system?"
"You think Logan's the only one who knows anything about computers?"
Zack finally turned to face her
"I taught him a lot of the things I know" she stepped closer
"Guess I don't have to thank him after all" a pause "Which is good cause it keeps from spoiling my record of never having to kiss his ass."
Asha managed a tiny smile then. "Ames White slithered back into the night for now"
"A snake will always slither it's way back out again."
"Guess I'll have to keep my ass stomping boots close by"
"Where did you get ass stomping boots?"
"I borrowed them from you"
This made him go quiet
"Want them back?" she asked
"I suppose you could hang onto them for a while"
She moved again, until she was two feet in front of him "Can I hang onto a few other things too?" she came right into his personal space
He didn't answer. He wasn't a hopeless romantic kinda guy. He just looked at her, a gaze that she understood.
She leaned in to kiss him. She was acting by herself for a few moments before she felt on hand move around the back of her neck.
= = = =
I see you're true colors shinning through I see your true colors and that why I love you I see your true colors shinning through (straight up) I see your true colors and that's why I love you baby...
= = = =
*****
6:35 PM
"Agent White, this committee is baffled by your repeated failures to bring in ANY of the Manticore escapees we have assigned you to track down" the chairman for the committee sat in his seat, glowering at White through his glasses. "These failures are causing us substantial financial losses that we cannot keep recuperating"
"With all due respect Mr. Chairmen I think this agency is under the impression that tracking down Manticore fugitives is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel."
"No one is undermining the difficulty of your job Agent White," the chairman argued "We all here know that Manticore made some tough hard to find freaks, but your numerous failed attempts to catch any of the damn things is a disgrace to this agency. Even now when you were in the closest vicinity to the X5 who led the first revolt of Manticore in 2009 you were STILL unable to apprehend the subject and bring him back to HQ. You are an excellent agent, Agent White but your sloppy track record is tarnishing that reputation."
"I request the permission to speak to you privately after the session Mr. Chairman" White asked "Maybe between the two of us we can work out the problems with my track record once and for all"
"Very well" the chairman agreed, banging his gavel on the desk "This meeting is adjourned"
*****
CRASH
"Guess your boy ironed out his problems" Cindy looked over at Zack sitting with Asha. "With a little help from his sista"
Max took a sip of her beer "I didn't do anything but carve his neck up"
"If that ain't love sugah I don't know what is"
= = = =
"Hey Sammie" Spike found Zack, he slapped him on the shoulder with his free hand. "See you got another date with a "sister"
Asha was looking at Spike funny /What the hell is he talking about?/
"Goodbye Spike" Zack cut in
"Hey, ooo, sorry Sam, didn't mean to wreck your vibe. Gotta go find someone to make beautiful music with" he left
Asha cocked an eyebrow at Zack after Spike was gone "Sam? What the hell was that all about?"
"I'll tell ya later"
"Anything you say 'Sam'" she sipped her beer.
He grabbed her arm, pulling the mug away from her face "Shut up" this time he kissed her.
*****
"What is it you want to talk to me about Agent White?" the chairman closed the door to his office. "Please" he gestured to a chair.
"If you don't mind I'd like to stand"
"Fine" the chairman stated, taking a seat behind his office desk "Now what is this all about?"
It's about my record Sir" White responded "As far as it being 'tarnished'"
"I'm sorry to crack down so hard on you Ames, but we've got an agency to maintain. And that agency thrives solely on the capturing and studying of Manticore's creations. It is the only thing on our agenda"
"I understand Sir" White agreed "But in my best interest I only did what was necessary"
The chairman was confused "You best interest? What do you mean by that?"
The door opened, revealing a figure clothed in a dark red robe.
The chairman stood up from his seat, staring at the figure
The robe lowered and revealed the face of the tattooed Priestess.
"You see I have my own agenda Mr. Chairmen" White went on, as the Priestess approached him "I've had them for hundreds of years. Joining your agency was the perfect stepping stone I needed to have exposure to these transgenics, to understand how they function, and what must be done to bring them down."
The chairman backed up "What the hell is this? Who are you?"
White turned to him, fixdating him with a stone cold gaze "I am Ames, son of Aaron, grandson of Sir'us, a powerful ruler who spent his lifetime seeing that his children, his grandchildren and beyond are bred and ready for the Second Coming"
"The second coming of what Ames?" the chairman shouted "What kind of a sicko freak are you?"
"You are mistaken Sir" White said "The only freaks are the ones your agency spends all their time trying to track down"
The priestess removed her hands from her robe and produced two diamond head rattlesnakes coiled around her arm. She turned her painted head to the chairmen "Sirno'ah moa kariff mo'ss" the snakes reared their heads and bit the chairman on the neck and face. He cried out and hit the floor, falling unconsciousness a minute later.
They stood staring at the still form of the chairman
"Fen'os'tol" White said in a low voice
"Fen'os'tol" The priestess turned to Ames "Maha ka'at kirh nok le'ouah k'note res reu-ah" ("They will discover the body soon enough we must leave")
"E'pnorah musa k'noss. Mo'ta'ak' nos'ke re'oat moab no'atka'ia" ("Leave one snake. It will look like it simply crawled it's way from the forests to get warm")
The priestess set a snake down and it immediately crawled around the chairman's body. "We'nok muah loa'k mei e'akei? ("Was the test successful?")
"Ea'a ,("Yes,") M'ar t'kenob k'rot ah lu'nin k'att minua we'fa kne' ken'da hiif raiir me'asn ne'k a'ah" ("The transgenics lack our strength but have powerful minds to compensate in solving our situations")
"R'mik ("Good") "T'wana me'akah w'ak liia r'ajk'ah so'wa hi'kata" ("Your son will be ready for the trails in ten days.") "R'ak meiak l'noa h'kia lunia k'akra'ah ("Then the work shall be set in motion") "Our day is coming Ames" she spoke to White in English this time "The preparations have begun" she placed her hood back over her head and left out the door, White following her.
(Close up of the snake slithering around the chairman's neck)
(FADE OUT)
*****
The 'unfinished' ending is setting itself up for another chapter. The way the Familiar's speak to me sounds a lot like Ancient Egyptian, as far as the harshness of the vowel sounds and the way the words are arranged. And in the show they used hieroglyphs so I just made up the words for White and the priestess talking using the word formation I've seen when researching a paper for Queen Nefrititi, wife of Ramases the II. They had inscriptions written in ancient Egyptian, and it used a lot of 'ak and K sounds, so-I just made it up...at least it looks authentic.
I didn't realize until I wrote this that the plotline was almost like "Proof of Purchase" where White put a bomb in Alec's brain and made him murder all those transgenics or he would kill him. It was pure coincidence, but once I found out about it I ran with it (i.e. having White have a back-up bomb, the same thing he tried to kill Alec with)
The song I used in here was "True Colors" by Fredo Star from the "Save the Last Dance" soundtrack. It just fit the moment, so I stuck it in there.
R/R please.
Mystic25 (yellowrubberduck31@hotmail.com) SUMMARY: A run in with White leaves Zack with 24 hours to prevent his own death. Ready, Set, Go.. RATING: PG14 for violence and language
DISCLAIMER: Mr. James Cameron meet Ms.-Non-Profit-No-Law-Suit
A/N: I wanted to do something special for my 19th and 20th chapter. So I came up with this for the first. I once in a while do little lighter fics, but that's not really my style. It'd be like asking Monet to paint a completely black canvas and call it "Water Lilies II"-just can't work. Angsty is how I write, it's what I'm good at and what I like to do.what happens here though)
A/N #2: Zack always had his moments, but I never saw an episode (except "Some Assembly Required") that focused mostly on him. I know Max is the main character, but they gave Alec an episode, and Cindy had her spot with Diamond. So this is Zack's turn. I'm still incorporating everyone else; just he'll be focused on more. His life, what he does when he's not saving his siblings or hanging out with Max.
*****
SEATTLE PUGET SOUND 0800 HOURS (8:00 AM)
The air outside was breezy, updrafts coming in off the water. Silence hung there, save for the few calls of seagulls who came out for an early morning breakfast.
The Sound was seemingly deserted, waves lapped at empty sand. Further up one solitary figure was there. Dressed in black leather and blue wool, with the wind blowing through locks of blonde hair.
A seagull culled overhead and the man, Zack, looked up to see the source of the noise.
The bird cried out again and then did a nose-dive into the water for something it had found.
In it's prime Puget Sound had been a magnificent place, a wild landscape where tourists and Seattle residents alike would flock. Now the chain linked fence surrounding the sand and the litter of various metal from old canning buildings covering the area kept people off the beach.
It was this that attracted Zack to this spot. It was a place believed to be too filthy to dirty anyone's hands in cleaning it, so it was abandoned and barred with gates to keep people out. Zack wasn't one to like a lot of people. He took to the solitude, what years of running and being on the lamb had accustomed him too. Even after everything, rescuing his sisters, being an uncle three times over, having a girlfriend, he still needed time by himself. He was still a solider, now and forever, eleven years of freedom, of trying to find the normal life didn't change that.
His footsteps were quiet as he climbed back over the fence and silently landed back on the other side of it where his black Kawasaki Vulcan stood waiting.
A seagull that had followed him over the fence suddenly culled a sound of alarm, something had startled it. A car, about three yards back stood in the night, off the worn road, and had started it's engine. The vehicle was black, almost concealing it from view almost.
Zack stood perfectly still and listened. His ears and the heightened and revved up hearing inside heard the quiet growl sounds of an engine that was on.
Light flashed him a second later when the occupants of the car blasted their halogens on him.
He revved up his bike and screeched out from the fence, dirt creating a billowy cloud from the tire kickback.
In the rearview mirror of his bike Zack could see the car follow as he made his way back into the heart of the city. The car doubled its speed and plowed into Zack's tailgate. The bike swerved, but because of his good coordination he managed to pull it back upright. He increased the throttle and pulled ahead of the car again.
Another jolt lurched his bike forward and careened it into a stack of fruit crates beside the outside wall of a building.
Zack lost control of the bike and wiped out onto the boxes. He recovered and climbed out of the crates. The car was now stopped two feet in front of him. Now that it was close enough he could see it was a black Hummer. The civilian equivalent to the military's Humvee, minus the triple plated armor and the rotating automatic gunner on top. It was the pansy army's car, and any good soldier knew that if this kinda vehicle came after him it defiantly wasn't government issue.
Men got out dressed in black Kevlar, old body plates since Kevlar became extremely rare after the Pulse. Some carried AK-47's and M-20's while others had military ranking air tasers.
Zack was surrounded, but he wasn't about to go down quietly "You wander away from military school again guys?"
The men with tasers shot them off, launching an assault of electrically powered strings into Zack's shoulders, arms and stomach. He groaned and struggled to break free, but the currents were high voltage and he didn't struggle for long.
Once he was put down another figure rounded the side of the Hummer, his black trench coat sweeping behind him.
Agent White stared down at the unconsciousness X5 "Load him in back. Leave the bike where it is"
"Yes Sir"
*****
FOGGLE TOWERS 0900 HOURS (9:00 AM)
"Logan?" Max called his name, searching for her husband. She entered the living room, still not seeing him. She stopped her search when she saw him asleep at his computer.
She padded over to him, standing behind his office chair. "Hey sleeping beauty" her hands touched the backs of his shoulders.
Logan came awake then, turning to look for the source of the touch and the noise "Hey" he paused for a moment "Did I wake you?"
She shook her head "You weren't there when I woke up, so I was just curious"
"Sorry baby" he apologized "I had to get some more hours in on this Eyes Only feed"
"Eyes Only is all powerful, but Logan Cale can't function without sleep."
"Yes mother"
She cocked an eyebrow at him "Is that how you see me?"
"Not a chance," he reassured "I never have thoughts about my mother the way I have thoughts about you"
"So long as there are no whips involved" a pause "Coffee in the kitchen?"
"Fresh pot"
She smiled "I could get use to you workin' at the crack of dawn" she headed into the kitchen.
He shut down his computer and followed her "Don't I even get a 'good morning'?"
"Not a good mornin' until I've had my coffee" she snagged a mug from the cabinet and poured herself some black Columbian Supreme.
She smelled his cologne on her a second later when he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her midsection.
"Don't think we're up to havin' anotha baby just yet" she said of his close proximity to her.
"Doesn't mean we can't come close" his head moved and he kissed the back of her neck through her hair.
A knock sounded on the front door.
"Door" Max said
"I heard it"
She tilted her head to face him, breaking out of his hold "This coffee ain't spiked with an aphrodisiac is it?" she left him there and went to answer the door.
"Asha" Max saw the blonde outside the door.
"It's early I know" Asha began, she hesitated for a moment before continuing "Is Zack here?"
"No" Max said, sensing something more in Asha's voice "There a problem?"
"We had this argument" Asha walked through the front door, letting herself inside. She turned around to face Max who was closing the door "He was at my place last night, for-the whole night, but then this morning we got into it and he took off. I just-I thought you might know where he went. He usually just takes a drive and then comes back. He's your brother Max Is there something I coulda missed?"
Max shook her head "Zack thinks alone. When he's in that mode he makes sure he can't be found." Asha gave her a look "It's none of my business what you two were raggin' about. He probably just got on his bike and drove. I do that, and it makes you loose track of things"
"For three hours?" Asha asked
"Zack locked himself in the weapons storage bunker for two days before the escape" Max informed "None of us knew where he was until he shot off a signal with a flashlight on that night"
"He can take care of himself Asha" Logan came out of the kitchen "He doesn't exactly lack self sufficiency"
"Self sufficiency isn't what I'm worried about Logan" Asha informed
"Sure he's fine" Max reassured
Asha turned to her "When has that ever been a guarantee?"
Her answer was silence
*****
(SCENE OPENS TO AN OPERATING ROOM. ZACK LAYS MOTIONLESS ON A GURNEY STRAPPED DOWN IN RESTRAINTS)
Zack blinked his eyes, shaking his head and looking at his surroundings. He pulled one arm up, but doesn't get very far.
"You're wasting your time" a voice comes over an intercom system. "That's tempered tempered steel. King Kong couldn't put a scratch in it"
Zack whipped his head around trying to find the source of the noise. A two-way mirror is in front of him. "Why don't you stop hiding behind a damn two way you fuckin' coward!"
"You are such a hot head 599. You really need to control that temper of yours." A door, that Zack didn't know was there opened and White stepped in. "Is that better?" the door closed automatically behind him. He stepped over to Zack on the gurney.
"Careful" Whit leaned over to look at something behind Zack's neck
At those words Zack tried to yank White down by his face "What the hell did you do to me?"
White pulled back with a smile "There's that temper again." White pulled down the large magnification glass attached to the mobile arm right up to Zack's skin "If all goes accordingly *I* won't have to do anything to you, but I'll still get the result I want"
"What the hell you so happy about?"
White didn't answer him, instead coming back with a sardonic smile. "I'm sure you're use to this 599." He started to slowly circle the gurney "From what I know you were quite popular with the whole guinea pig thing back at Manticore"
"So I'm an experiment to you?" Zack snapped, "Guess now I'm suppose to cry like a pussy"
"CORRECT on the sixty dollar question 599!" White held up one finger like an overly happy game show host. "Except-" a pause "I wouldn't call this an experiment so much as your mission"
"Well ya better re-examine your battle plans cause seems to me my mission is to string you up by your balls to a electric wire and turn on the juice so you light up like fuckin' Christmas lights"
"I'm Atheist 599 I don't celebrate Christmas" White sneered, "I won't even celebrate your demise. I'll just drop you back in the ground with all the other evolutionary freaks"
"What makes you think I'm just gonna sit here and wait for you to kill me?" Zack barked "Cause last time I checked you and I weren't best buddies"
"You don't need to be buddies to kill someone 599" White reminded "And who said anything about ME killing you? Oh no no ---you always underestimate me" he pulled something out of his pocket, a small black box with several buttons on it. He pressed a few and a beeping sound filled the room.
"What is that?" Zack didn't ask
"A marvelous little device. The mechanism of which has been implanted in the back of your neck right below your cerebellum. Nifty little implants that the so-called Red Series warriors used on their kind. Except I tweaked one to go right past a strength inducer and go straight to self destruction." He fiddled with some more buttons on the device, so that the beeping grew louder "That's not your heartbeat 599. Think of it as a mini bomb in your brain"
"You're dumber then I thought you piece of shit if you use the controls right in front of my damn face!" Zack wasn't about to take his self-destruction lying down.
"What this?" White held up the device "No no 599 THIS is only an activation control. I have had far more years of these kind of procedures then your shitty little Manticore training can wrap its head around so I deserve a little more credit then that."
The only door in the room opened again, and the same nameless armed men who had surrounded Zack came inside.
White stared Zack in the face "It has been a pleasurable visit 599, but I'm afraid I've got other engagements now" he turned to one of the men "Drop him back where you got him"
"Yes Sir" the man said before he and another man shot off their tasers.
*****
Zack opened his eyes again to find himself lying in the same pile of fruit crates he had wiped out at. He climbed out of them and looked in all directions into the night, but no one was there. His bike still lay on its side where it fell. There didn't appear to be any sabotage to it.
He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling something just under the skin. On a second thought he checked his pocket. His cell phone was still there, and after looking in the ignition of the Vulcan he also discovered that his keys hadn't been lifted off the bike. Whatever White was planning, he was letting Zack get away, for now.
Zack was always the cautious solider, asking a million questions and suspecting everyone that crossed his path. But right now he just wanted to get the hell outta there and have some relatively secluded place to figure out what the hell just happened.
He mounted the bike and started the engine, only looking back briefly before he drove off.
*****
JAM PONY 9:15 AM (23 HOURS 45 MINUTES LEFT)
"Five bucks Normal says bip bip bip in the next five minutes" Alec stated beside his locker
"I'm not loosin' money boy" Cindy let him know, standing beside him with her bike "Like askin' me if I would give an eye roam if some super fine honey worked her way in here" she looked up at him "Gotta find you a sucker for a sucker bet Alec"
"Yeah but Sketchy's out on a run" Alec informed
Cindy had to smile at that, shaking her head. Sketchy was her boy but he was always a pigeon "Didn't find your sucker, but I found my super fine honey" Cindy gave a nod up to Max who was walking through the entrance of Jam Pony that minute.
"Gotta agree with you on that" Alec stated, watching Max
"Agree but don't act boy" Cindy said straight up "Ain't nobody bustin' up a good thing on Original Cindy's watch"
"Relax woman" Alec reassured "I've been beaten off that road before. Sides its no good chasing a chick who hounds me back and wants to beat my ass down"
"Mmmhmm" Cindy was in full agreement of this "She can do it to"
"I said WANTS to" Alec corrected
"Wants to what?" Max was now joined with the other two.
"Depends on what you want to do Maxie" Alec waggled his eyebrows at her
"Boy you gettin' all those lil testosterone swimmers all over me." Cindy pulled something out of her pocket, throwing it at Alec "Here's a dolla, buy yourself somthin' pretty far far away"
Alec caught the crumpled dollar, putting it in his pocket, underneath his radio strap "Me thanks you for the stiff offer M'lady" he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek and pulled back before she could say anything.
"Prince Charmin' reject get outta here and go do your job" Cindy's voice was teasing, not angry. She watched Alec leave before turning to Max. "Lookin' super fly boo" Cindy's eyes checked out Max in her black biker crop pants, gray muscle singlet and black hoodie. "The borrowed man look works on ya, or am I missin' my guess in thinkin' the top belongs to ya man?"
Max plucked at the singlet she was wearing with on hand "Didn't have any clean of mine"
"Say no more boo. Permanent shack ups wid someone includes bein' able to swipe some of their threads." Cindy smiled, "And when that someone is a man, makes any sugah look hotter."
Max smiled herself, and adjusted her black baseball cap that was sitting sideways on her head backwards so that it wouldn't come off when she rode. "Havin' his smell all day is anotha plus"
"Fo' sure" Cindy agreed. Her gaze suddenly shifted to the entrance of Jam Pony "Is that your boy back there?"
"Logan?" Max asked, dropping her eyebrows slightly
"No sugah" Cindy corrected "That blonde, commando fine brotah of yours" Max looked this time and saw Zack standing at the entrance of Jam Pony. "Boy looks like he spent too much time out on the town"
Max's eyebrows creased more when she got Cindy's meaning. Zack looked like he'd been slammed through a jet plane's engine and lived to tell about it.
"You had a lot of potential kid" Normal spotted Zack, and was starting to talk to him "At least I believed it until you turned out to be just like ALL the other slackers"
"Can't bip him down Normal" Max analyzed "He doesn't work here anymore"
"I thought after you got married you STOPPED hanging around with random guys" Normal said
"Guy's not random when he's your brother" Max told him
Normal looked a little shocked. In all the time he had seen Zack he never made that connection between them. Max never told him, she never told him anything about her siblings. He only found out of their existence by coincidence. "I never knew you two were related, you don't look a thing alike"
"What ya never heard of a mixed family?" Max asked
"So all those people that paraded in here were your family and him too?" Normal was kinda taken aback.
"Can't help it if dad didn't believe in birth control" Zack finally spoke out, turning to Max "Need to talk to you"
"Hey just because I find out she's your sister my former prodigy doesn't mean you can distract my employee when she's still on the time clock" Normal informed Zack
"Consider it a family emergency" Max stated walking away with Zack outside Jam Pony outside to the spot where the employees hung out to suntan, and smoke.
Spike was out there, drinking from a brown frosted root beer bottle, but everyone knew it really had Jack Daniels inside of it.
"Hey Spike" Zack called out
Spike looked up from his drink "Hey Sammie boy" he held out his free hand "Where ya been hiding yourself?"
"That's classified information Spike" Zack told him, slapping his hand in a loose shake
Spike just laughed
"Hey man you mind leavin' so I can talk to my sister alone?"
Spike looked at Max, then his smile grew wider and more suggestive "Sure man. I'll leave you two some alone time." He slapped Zack on the back with one hand "I know how it is with sisters, I got a date with mine tonight" he laughed and headed inside.
"Guess Asha's hunch was right" Max said after Spike was gone
"Right about what?" Zack asked
"That'd you'd re-emerge lookin' like you spend last night in a ditch" she clarified
"If that would've been an option I woulda taken it" Zack said
His serious tone is what got to Max "Okay now you're sounding paranoid even for you-" she then noticed red marks peeking out of the U neck on his dark blue sweater. "What are these?" she grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled down, seeing more red patches lower on his skin underneath the fabric
"Mosquito bites compared to what's been done to other parts" Zack spoke cryptically. He turned around and pulled down his jacket collar.
Max reached up with her hand, pushing some hair away off the nape of his neck, seeing something there just below the surface of the skin, underneath his barcode.
*****
SEATTLE MERCY 11:00 AM (21 HOURS LEFT)
"I'm finished now" Sam spoke into the intercom that connected to the inside of the CT scan room. He released the mechanism to slide Zack from the machine, who was lying on the board. Zack soon climbed off. "What is it?" he entered the room where Sam and Max were sitting.
Sam stared at the computer image of Zack's brain scan "It's defiantly some kind of computer device. Surrounding the cerebellum."
"So it's like the Red Series" Max said
"To a certain degree yes." Sam agreed "It's the outer casings from a Red Series implant, but it's been fused with a detonation device, a micro chip bomb that scientists and intellectuals used following the Pulse to destroy what was left of their hard drives to keep the terrorists from obtaining the information. It's designed to give a one thousand volt shock to the hard drive it's embedded in, frying the circuits, and destroying the memory card completely."
"Or in this case my brain" Zack said. He looked up, seeing Max's eyes on him then
"Can you take it out?" Max asked
"It's not that easy" Sam enhanced the image of the cerebellum, magnifying the implant to 500%. "See these?" he pointed to a section of tiny half inch spikes sticking out at measured intervals from the implant into the surrounding tissue. "I count ten of them and they're all embedded into the surrounding brain tissue. Whoever did this set them in such a way that they don't inhibit the normal brain functions so long as they remain there, but if anyone tries to remove this these spikes will tear into the brain tissue in the areas affecting involuntary and motor responses. Even if taking it out doesn't kill right away the damage will leave you mute and cause major organ systems to fail, which will kill you anyway."
"There's gotta be something" Max argued "Zack said they gave him a count down time. There wouldn't be one if there wasn't a way to stop this"
"These spikes look triggered My guess is that they were mechanically set with some kind of outside device, and it can retract them again to remove the implant once it's been used"
"Who'd want an implant after it's been blasted to hell inside someone's skull?" Max was getting more and more agitated.
"The casing on the implant is incredibly strong" Sam told her, wheeling in his office chair for a second to get something off another counter. "This was salvaged from what was left of one of the Reds." He picked up something in a clear plastic bag, holding it up so they could see it, an implant, the same one Max still had in the back of her neck "After it detonates in the target the casing remains intact to be salvaged later. It may be tiny but I figure that these little things cost no little fortune to manufacture."
"So that really does leave me with twenty-four hours to find this outside device before I'm blown sky high" Zack stated "But why do this?" Zack was more impatient then Max, cause after all, he was the one who had the bomb in his brain. "If he wanted to kill me, why not just do it fast, so I'm NOT so pissed off about waiting to die?"
"Maybe he wants something first" Sam spoke
"Yeah well I never returned any favors for him, so he needs to quit fucking with me!" Zack stormed out of room.
Sam watched Max go after him while deleting the scan from the computer's hard drive.
"Thanks for letting me use the CT Maria" Sam said to the Radiologist in the hall
"Not a problem" Dr. Maria Wilkins responded, from the oval desk she was sitting at "Will there be anything else?"
"No, I think I got everything I need" Sam stated
*****
"I a sick of bein' a FUCKIN' guinea pig!" Zack slammed through the front doors of the hospital
"I'm past sick of it" Max agreed "But no one seems to listen to us"
"Yeah well they better, cause I'm not getting blown around like shrapnel just to satisfy some shit's joys of sadist masturbation."
"He'd have to have something bigger then a toothpick for that to work" Max corrected
A phone rang.
"Zack" Max pointed to his pocket "it's you"
Zack looked at the Caller ID 'Unlisted Number' he connected the call
"So you make it home okay 599? I take it you didn't get much sleep last night"
"You're not gonna get much sleep either shit fuck after I find you and slice you balls to confetti"
"Bad idea" White taunted, "You remember that lil bomb stuck in your brain? Well I know where the de-activation device is, and if you kill me, there'll be nothing to prevent you from going off like a teen in a triple X porno movie" there was a long pause "So 599----do you like games?"
"What the hell are you getting at?"
There was quiet laughter on the other end "I thought so. Well you're going to love MY games."
"What if I don't want to play your games you fuckin' pussy?"
"You loose." White stated, in almost a sing song voice "And all the others who lost with you"
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"Patience 599" a pause "You'll find out." another pause, longer "Oh and I wouldn't loose this cell phone if I were you, or you'll loose a hell of a lot more. Don't bother tracing this call 599, you can't, and besides, I'll be calling you back anyway" the call disconnected
*****
JAM PONY 12:30 PM (20 HOURS 30 MINUTES LEFT)
"Family crisis averted?" Normal watched Max come back inside with Zack "I docked your pay for being late again missy"
Max ignored him, and also ignored the look Spike was giving her.
"You okay boo?" Cindy furrowed her brow at Max
"Coo'" Max told her, shooting a look at Zack.
"Haven't showed yourself around here that much boy" Cindy tried to break the tension she sensed with Zack.
Zack offered her nothing, no remark, no movement of any kind. The only noise that broke his silence was the sound of his cell phone ringing.
He didn't even look at the caller ID this time, he already knew who it would be.
"Very good 599, your reflexes work fine. You'll need them"
"And you'll need a good coffin when I get done with you" Zack growled, disregarding the stares he was getting.
"We'll see" White informed, "How well do you know your classical compositions 599? I'm sure Manticore drummed them into your brain enough to make you learn faster."
"I haven't been schooled in a long time prick" Zack spat
"Then I suggest you remember." A pause "look above you--you see that air vent right above your head? Right over the head of that hunched over looser wearing those thick glasses"
Zack looked and saw it, a diamond shaped vent above where Normal was standing.
"What if I told you sitting right above it is a twenty gallon drum full of Napalm and a machine sealed inside that's programmed to ignite a flame in three minutes that would light up the building faster then a naked stripper walking through. Well I just did, didn't I Zackey-boy" White laughed
Zack ran over to and up the rickety stairs and found the sealed drum. The lid had been mortared shut, red five red coils ran outside the barrel. Beside the drum sat an electric timer, with the count down on two minutes.
"I know you don't know most of these people" White's voice came through the phone again "And why should you care if they burst into flames, but wait, MAX is here. And you know she won't leave you alone once she realizes what's going on-"
"Zack!" Max made her way to the second level and walked over to him, stopping when she saw the drum
"You see those wires Zack? One of them leads from the timer into the machine's circuit module, the rest don't. There are numbers painted on them. 27, 36, 12, 34, and 19. In a minute the timer device will play a section from "Mozart's Requiem Mass", a single measure whose number coincides with one of the ones written on the wires. After which it will leave you with fifteen seconds. Listen to the piece and choose the correct number. That's the wire you have to cut in order to deactivate the machine. You only have one shot 599. Cut the wrong wire and the timer locks out and detonates the bomb via a back up flamer. If anyone else but you cuts the wire it will detonate. If I hear anyone trying to help you it will detonate." Try to move everyone out, and I detonate the bomb in your brain as well as this one before you can get out."
"How the fuck can you tell who does it?" Zack finally spoke
"Hidden camera 599" White taunted "You think I'd miss all the fun?" another pause "You better get started, the final curtains about to fall"
A click was heard and then Mozart's haunting requiem began. Zack could see the small spy camera fused inside the barrel, watching him.
"Its after the second movement, so it's past measure 20-" Zack spoke out loud to get Max's attention on what was happening "The choir speeds up at measure thirty five so it's gotta be in between there, that makes it either 27, or 34,
Max listened to it, weighing it in her mind. Then the music stopped and the timer grew louder on a fifteen second countdown.
15..
Max signaled to Zack it was measure 34.
14..
Zack shot her a look that asked her if she was sure
13...12...11..
Max signaled back she was sure. It had been played right before the training mission with the prisoner
/FLASH: The X5's listen to the Requiem Mass, an open score in front of them. It was used to test their memory knowledge, and also the stopping point would be how long they let the prisoner run for before they attacked him/
10...
Zack grabbed the wire cutters that White so conveniently left there and raised them to the red wire marked '34'
9...8...7...6...5..
He snipped it.
4...3...the timer went black. Both X5's held their breath. Nothing.
"Excellent 599" White leered "You're alive, for now. But it only gets harder after this. The camera by the way was bought at a local black market supplier who rubs off his serial numbers so don't think you can trace it. I'll be in touch again 599. Until then" the phone cut off.
*****
"Guess Manticore was good for something" Max was still in the same spot, so was Zack.
"After everything else that's happened today don't make me picture Manticore being GOOD for something Maxie" Zack stood up from where he was crouched over the drum, brushing past Max and back down the stairs.
"Zack" Asha stood by Normal's desk, though it was unclear how she knew that he would be there.
"Hey pretty lady" Sketchy smiled at Asha
"Sketchy don't-" Max cut in on his move.
Sketchy looked from Asha to Zack and then back to Asha again. "I have deliveries" he left it at that
"What are you doing here?" was Zack's first question to Asha
"I didn't know where you were all night Zack" she confessed, "I just figured you might turn up here"
Zack looked at her, then "I guess you figured right" he brushed past her like he did Max, leaving his girlfriend and his sister looking at him, watching him retreat.
"Disappears again" Normal was watching too "This is why I don't make any money"
*****
6:50 PM (13 HOURS 10 MINUTES LEFT) WATERFRONT
Zack took another hit from the pack of cigarettes he had bought. He never smoked, but tonight it just fit his mood. His revved up body adjusted to the nicotine and tobacco better then normal people so he didn't cough on it.
The beach was dark. Blue-black waves struck on the shore. He took one more drag from the cigarette before pitching the butt into the water. The only sounds in front of him were the waves on the water. A slight wind blew through his hair, but he paid no notice of it.
He stayed out there for three more seconds before silently walking back to where his bike was
= = = =
FENTAL AVE
Asha opened the door before he even got to it. She had heard someone coming and looked through the peephole to see that it was Zack. She let him in without a word.
"Were you smoking?" Asha could smell smoke emitting from his leather jacket
Zack shook his head "I had a swing with a woman who works at a barbeque pit" he ignored Asha's gaze, sliding out of his leather jacket and throwing it on the couch.
"Is that where you were last night?" she picked up his jacket and threw it on top of her dining room table so it wouldn't smell up her sofa.
"I never kiss and tell" Zack headed into her kitchen and opened her refrigerator. He searched for a moment before pulling out a bottle of Heineken. He opened lid with his teeth, then took a swig "You gotta start buying better beer"
Asha didn't say anything and invaded his personal area to shove past him and reach inside her fridge for another bottle of the same beer. She opened hers with a bottle opener and leaned against her kitchen counter as she drank it.
"What happened there?" she noticed a red mark and scratches near his collarbone where his blue long sleeve cotton shirt didn't cover. She stuck out her free hand and barely touched it before he snapped back from her. "Wanna tell me what's going on?"
Zack ignored her and headed over to her couch.
Asha sighed. She took another sip from her beer before setting it down on the counter and walking out of her kitchen. She sat down on the arm of her couch beside him "All right mister take it off, let me see the rest"
Zack whipped around to face her "What the hell are you talking about?"
Asha grabbed a hold of his shirt collar and yanked down before he could pull back "These things didn't just magically appear in the night." She let go of the fabric "So you either show me the rest or I do it for you"
"You think you can take me down?" Zack wasn't convinced at all of her statement
"Cut the crap Zack or you're gonna find out" Asha's tone was a growl. She could've been an honorary X5 at that moment, at least in the 'pissed-off' category.
Zack stared at her for the longest time before reaching around to pull up the sides of his shirt. The cotton went over his head, leaving him bare from the waist up. "Don't think you can get away with making me do this every time"
Asha inched closer "I already do" her eyes roamed over the red blotches that were on his collarbone and chest, along with several abrasions from where he had skidded of his bike and onto the road.
She touched a larger one on the edge of his abs. He didn't flinch even though it stung. He was too hard for that. "These look like taser burns"
"I had to pick a girl who just doesn't sit there and fawn over them"
"Like you'd want that" she snapped back. She pulled back and looked him in the eye "Where were you REALLY last night?"
Zack didn't answer but turned around and showed her the nape of his neck.
"What am I-"
"It's under the barcode" he cut in
She put her hand under it and felt something just below the skin. "What the hell is it?"
"My one way ticket to Slam City" he felt her hand move off his neck "In the words of the fucker who did it it's a nifty little mini bomb in my brain" he turned around to face her then, seeing the complete look of shock on her face.
"A mini bomb-what the hell-can't it be taken out?"
"That would be to easy wouldn't it?" Zack slid back into his shirt, reaching for the rest of his beer.
Asha still had that shocked look on her face, and rightly so "So what can we do about it?"
Zack took a sip "If I knew that I wouldn't be sitting here"
"So you just dropped by here to tell me that you're gonna blow sky high in a few hours?"
"Twenty-two if my calculations are correct"
"Dammit Zack!" Asha spat "Stop pussy footing around this! There has to be SOMETHING we can do about this. You're a fuckin' solider for cripes sake!"
Zack reeled on her then "Don't you act like you know what it's like being who I am Asha cause you
DON 'T. And what the FUCK do you think 'we' can do about it? The last time I checked YOU didn't have a fuckin' piece of metal on a timer in your neck!"
"I'm sorry I thought being in a relationship meant that the two people involved HELP each other in a problem. That was MY understanding at least."
"In case you haven't noticed YOU'RE not dealing with a normal relationship Asha!" Zack snapped "If you think you are then you're very much mistaken little girl. You need to crawl out of the puddle you created from your own pussy and see the real world!"
Asha towered above him then "Get out! She went to her table, grabbed his jacket and pitched it at his head "And take every little piece of shit you brought with you! You know you think this is just YOUR fight Zack, that every damn thing that happens to you ONLY affects you. Well you need to wake up and smell the fuckin' shrapnel soldier, that IS the real world!"
"Don't even act like you know what you're talking about!" Zack cut in "You've gotten a glimpse of my life for just a little over a year and you think you can sit an analyze it. I've had to deal with the shit all my fucking life! You think this is the first attempt on my life I've had? The first time I've ever this shit fall on my head! You think you can snap your fuckin' fingers and make it all go away?"
"I said GET OUT!" she shouted at him, pointing towards her door.
"You throwing me out?" he was a CO, he didn't TAKE orders, he delivered them
"Yeah I am. See it's not just about you anymore Zack. It STOPPED being about you the moment we hooked up. That's what HAPPENS in a relationship. After all this time I THOUGHT you understood that, but I guess I was fuckin' wrong. So go and count down the hours you have left to live on your own pal, cause I'm not sitting here and doin' it for you!"
"Have a good time on your own" Zack growled
"Fuck you!" Asha spat, hearing her front door slam so hard it rattled the walls.
= = = =
Yo they say this love wasn't meant to be Two people from different worlds we wasn't be It must have been faith you were sent to me We'll make it threw these hard times eventually The standard fight brought by faith not by sight We all the same color when u turn out the lights I take the sunshine with the pain Grab my Sara gone sad that when it rains No French kept the food on the window pain We all breath the same air so we all the same I am trapped in this ghetto maze trying to make it out If you don't know me don't judge me what you talking bout I am dividable by broken dreams Single moms you my heroes you my queens To get my mom out the hood that is my hopes and dreams To reach my son to be a solja by any means
= = = =
*****
CRASH 10:00 PM (11 HOURS LEFT)
"You aiight boo?" Cindy leaned over the foozball table for her next maneuver "Been actin' kinda wiggy all night" she scored a point in Max's goal "Somethin' on your mind?"
"Nuthin' really" Max argued shooting the ball through the hole again
"Means it's something girl" Cindy lost control of the ball and Max scored a point. She looked up to the doorway, seeing Zack enter Crash. She looked from Max to Zack "Somethin' goin' on with your boy? He don't look right"
Max looked over her shoulder at her brother. He looked as usual to her, except maybe a little more keyed up. She finished scoring another point and won the game again "How bout a pitcher?"
"Aiight" Cindy agreed as they left the pool table.
Max slid into the seat beside Logan at a table
"Zack's here?" Logan looked over to the other man. He didn't normally frequent Crash. Just on occasion. Asha tended to come here more often then him.
"Probably just felt like a drink" Max took a sip of her almost empty mug.
Cindy came to the table carrying a full pitcher. "Ain't that why we're all here?"
"Where are the kids?" Max asked, Logan had been keeping his eye on them.
Cindy pointed over the rim of her drink "Over there with Alec"
"You let my children play with Alec?" Max cut in
"The nightmares shouldn't be permanent" Logan joked
Max shot him a look and got up from her seat.
"Hey Max" Alec heard her approaching "Thank God you're relieving me from my babysitting duties"
"More like saving my kids" Max returned "You're not exactly Dr. Spac" She roughed up her sons hair who was sitting on the bar near Alec "Where's your sister?"
"She's right-" Alec turned around and pointed "there" his brow creased when he saw the stool beside him was empty "She was sitting right here"
Max was already looking around the bar, jumping over it to look behind the counter
"Hey!" the bartender called out to her "No freebies!"
Max ignored him, searching the crevices. She jumped back up "Lexi!" her eyes roamed up and down the room, not seeing her in the crowd.
"Max?" Logan heard all the commotion "What is it?"
"I can't find Lexi" she told him, making his interest peak to full status
"Saw her with Alec twenty minutes ago" Cindy said. Cindy started to look too "Lexi" she started walking around "If you're playin' a game sugah it's time to stop!"
From across the bar Zack was about to go over to Max when his phone rang.
"I take it your you were successful if you can answer your phone"
"Guess your disappointed" Zack spat
"On the contrary 599-" White taunted, "If you would've failed the first game I wouldn't have gotten to do all the others. Like the one that's going on right now." A pause "Bet 452 is starting to get frantic looking for your niece"
Zack looked at Max again then.
"I mean I would if I ever lost my kid"
"What the hell did you do with her?" Zack was growling into the phone
"Women walk below invisible tunnels 599" White went for a cryptic poetry style for his reply
"What the fuck is that suppose to mean?"
"It could be anything 599" White taunted "Could mean that I kidnapped the girl and have her in a sub basement with pipes, hence "invisible tunnels" Or I could've just made all of it up and dumped her alone somewhere. But if you want to find her I suggest you figure it out." The line went dead
"There's no sign of her in this room boo," Cindy admitted to Max, trying not to sound too panicky, but isn't working.
"She's only two" Max was more frantic then Cindy "She couldn't have gotten very far. She knows not to go with strangers, And to scream like hell if they force her to go." She saw Logan approach her
"No one saw anyone leaving with a kid at the front door"
"Logan these guys are too wasted to see ANYTHING" Max ran a frustrated hand through her hair "I just want her back" she wasn't about to have this happen to another child of hers.
"Woman might've gone into the bathroom with her and took her out the window" Alec threw in his two cents, which wasn't helping "There's a big ring for that kind of stuff with little girls-"
"Oh God" Max didn't believe in God, but she was desperate.
"Boy shut your mouth!" Cindy barked, shooting daggers at him. She put one hand on Max's shoulder "We'll find her, but sugah you need to calm it a lil or you're not gonna be able to think clearly."
Max didn't say anything for a moment "I should check the bathroom-"
"Women walk below invisible tunnels-" Zack muttered to himself. He looked up and saw two women leaving the ladies room. "She's there-" he ran ahead of Max
Women made startled noises at the sight of Zack entering the Ladies Room. Some also made noises of appreciation in the back of their throats.
Max busted through the door a second later "Where is she?" she heard Zack's declaration and demanded an answer.
Zack searched around the ceiling, finally spying what he was looking for, an air vent "Invisible tunnels" He ripped the metal grate off of it exposing the empty hole. "Lexi can you hear me?"
There was a muffled noise in response
"She's up there" Zack looked to Max "You're smaller then me, you'll fit better"
Max had no arguments about that. She took off her jacket so it wouldn't get caught and stepped into the foothold Zack had created with his interlocked hands.
He hoisted her inside and she grabbed the sides of the metal duct system to pull herself the rest of the way.
"Lexi" she called out to her daughter "Baby can you hear me?" she crawled on her belly through the darkness, using her night vision to see.
"Mommy..." her daughter's voice was faint
"I'm coming to get you sweetie, but I need you to keep talking so I can find you, can you do that for mommy?"
"Mommy it's dark in here. I don't like it"
"I know hon, I'm gonna get you outta here" she finally reached her daughter who was tucked up against a side of the duct. "It's okay sweetie" Max touched her "Are you hurt?" she couldn't see any injuries "Did they touch you?"
"No" her woice was wimpering
"Okay. We're gettin' outta here."
Ten minutes later Max slid out the hole head first doing a flip to land on her feet. She quickly turned around to grab her daughter and lower her down
"Is she okay?" Zack asked
Lexi was crying by this time, clinging to Max's body.
"Just scared the piss outta her" Max said in a low voice to her brother. She rubbed Lexi's back and cooed to her "I got you baby, it's okay. Shh-" she put a hand on her forehead, smoothing back the hair.
A phone ringing cut through the air.
"Is she safe and sound now 599?"
Zack didn't answer and threw the phone against the wall, casing a chunk of it to break off the body.
Max felt something bulky in the pocket of Lexi's jacket. She pulled it out. It was a piece of folded paper with Zack designation hand written on it.
Max held it up in front of Zack's sight. He took it from her and unfolded it.
*65 Industry Way. 6:00 AM*
*****
An hour after Zack left Crash Asha sat at the bar downing shots of straight Tequila. She didn't hear someone come up behind her until the seat next to her was filled.
"Take it that's good hooch" Alec watched her slam her third shot.
"So long as it's alcohol it doesn't matter" she set the empty shot glass back on top of the bar. She stood up grabbing her coat of the top of the bar.
"You look a little down Asha" Alec analyzed "Anything I can do to put a smile on your face?"
Asha slipped on her coat "You can wipe the shit eating one you have off" she turned and left.
Once outside she stuffed her hands into her coat pocket, walking slowly to her car.
She opened the door to her Cherokee and was about to get in when something grabbed her around the neck and pulled her back.
"Hey pretty momma, where ya goin'? Your ride is this way"
A needle pierced her neck and she fell. After she was out the man hauled her off to a black vehicle parked a few feet away.
*****
FOGGLE TOWERS
"Don't turn off the light!" Lexi cried, clutching at her stuffed rabbit. Ever since being rescued at Crash she had been scared to have anyone leave her alone or leave her in the dark.
Max sat on the edge of her bed and gathered her in her arms "It's okay honey. There's nothing that can get you." She rocked her back and forth like she did when she was an infant.
Her bedroom door opened and Logan came in. Seeing his daughter crying he joined his wife on her bed.
"Sweetie you're safe" Logan reassured her, stroking her baby fine hair. "Mommy and I won't let anything else happen to you"
"Just don't turn out the light daddy, please" she begged
Logan touched one had to her tear tracked face "Sweetie I want you to close your eyes-Close your eyes" he said again trying to coax her to do it this time. She did. "Tell me what you see"
"It's dark" Lexi rested against Max's arm.
"Can you see stars?" Logan asked
"No. Just black"
"Imagine the twinkling stars that come out at night, filling the sky with sparkling flecks" he waited for a moment "Do you see them now?"
"Yeah. Lots of them"
Max smiled at Lexi's declaration "Are there any shooting stars?"
"No" she said, eyes still closed "Just ones that twinkle"
"That's okay" Logan reassured "Now every time it's dark and you're afraid, just close your eyes and find those stars and you won't be so scared anymore." He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.
"Daddy?" a pause "Was I put in the dark cause I was bad?" her eyes opened, two huge blue saucers staring at him
Logan shook his head "No honey. You weren't bad. You didn't do anything to deserve that."
He shared a hard look with Max.
*****
5:00 AM 65 INDUSTRY WAY
Zack dismounted his bike and looked at his surroundings. Industry Way was a street filled with abandoned warehouse buildings. It was a perfect place to go if you wanted to hide, or play in a futuristic looking playground.
He scanned the night, looking for other people, forms. But there was nothing there but himself and the quiet hum of some kind of motor that was running somewhere in the darkness.
Another sound soon filled the air after a phone rang. But this time the ring wasn't Zack's cell phone, it rather belonged to a payphone that was welded to one of the sides of the warehouses.
Zack walked over to it and picked it up.
"Take it you got the memo" White's voice came through the other line
"I'm starting to loose the little patience I have mother fucker"
"Patience is a virtue Zack" White called him by his name for the first time "If you loose your temper and slip up you have only yourself to blame for the consequences it brings"
= = = =
White turned to look at the woman he had chained by her arms with handcuffs metal pipe suspended in the ceiling. "You're familiar with a woman named Asha aren't you 599?" using Zack's first name was over "Thin blonde, but still has a nice body, looks like she needs to spend more time in the sun"
Asha could only glower at White. She had woken up chained to the pipe and after several failed attempts to break the cuffs she just hung there, panting from the strain, and trying to think of something else to get out of them.
"What would you say if I made her part of our little game?"
= = = =
"You are one dickless prick you know that?" Zack growled
"You could write for Dr. Seuss 599." White leered. "But what if I told you that strapped around her body is a bomb set to detonate at 7:30, two and a half hours from now. And if you don't find her in time and deactivate it, let's just say the results will be grizzly."
"You shit!" Zack shouted into the phone. His patience was now gone "You think this FUCKIN' game will drag me down and submit me to your fucking bidding!"
"That's exactly what I think 599. I know you better then you think I do. Better then you know yourself. You act like such a tough macho solitary soldier, but we both know that if I stick any one of those sniveling soldier wanna-bes you call your brothers and sisters in harms way you'd risk everything in order to save them. 452 is living proof of that isn't she 599?" there was a long pause. "Tell me something 599, are you close with this woman. I mean are you giving her a good screw to keep her coming back for more every time you roll back into the city?"
Zack didn't answer, but apparently it gave White all the answer he needed "Never figured you for a lover 599. But then I guess the right woman can give any man the right kinda sensations down in his head"
"If you hurt her I swear the only kinda sensation you'll feel in your head is that last sharp pain after I slice it off"
"Have I found your weakness 599?" White jeered, "Should I call up 452 and tell her that she's not the only one-"
"Don't you FUCKIN' touch Maxie you dick head!"
"Relax I have no reason to this time. My superiors wanted me to find the leader of the 2009 Manticore escape and bring him in alive to HQ. But I don't always listen to my superiors 599. I've been trying to erase you more times then I can count, but this time I can't fail. Knowing your enemy's weakness soldier is to know how to bring them down. This bomb I've set will go off at 7:30, THIRTY minutes before the one you're programmed with is gonna blow you out of your skull. Her location is exactly thirty minutes away from where I've placed the de-activation device to stop the countdown on your brain. At 14 and 21st street on the roof of Seattle Mercy Hospital. There isn't enough time to disengage both bombs before they go off. Don't think you can arrive here early. Even at your speed, from your location it will not give you enough time to make any leeway. This dilemma has only two possible outcomes. If you try to get to the hospital first you will have enough time to deactivate the device and keep yourself alive, but she dies. If you save her first, you're a noble soldier six feed under the ground. Heads or tails, your life or hers? Which is more important? Don't think you know the answer first hand, cause you might surprise yourself. The clock is ticking 599-" the call ended.
*****
FOGGLE TOWERS 6:30 AM (1 HOUR 30 MINUTES LEFT)
"Everything around Seattle Mercy are businessness still in function. There'd be no way to put a kidnapped woman in hiding with people still around" Logan typed on his computer, bringing up a street map of Seattle. "The only thing that isn't up and running anymore is an abandoned Marina just west of the hospital. He enhanced the map to get the street name "On Fowler and 14th"
"How far away is it from there?" Zack asked
"White was right on the money" Logan informed "Thirty minutes."
Zack looked at the screen for the longest time, before turning to grab his jacket. He slipped it on, looking to Max. He took something out of his pocket and handed it to her. It was his cell phone "Voice Mail code is 0285364. Zane sometimes gets drunk when he calls so you have to decipher through all the babbling." He looked up to her with a long pause "Promise me you'll keep fighting them Maxie. This is YOUR life now, not theirs" before she could say anything he left, the door closing quietly behind him.
Logan stepped over to her after Zack left "You ready?"
She nodded
He handed her a mic to slip under her ear, she took it, sliding Zack's cell phone in the pocket of her jacket.
*****
FOWLER AND 14TH
"Is that too tight baby doll?" White leaned down next to Asha, grabbing onto the metal chain that was wrapped around her body and also chained to the floor, securing the bomb in place. He pulled a loose chain and yanked the links tighter around her body. She gasped through the tape covering her mouth "How's that?" He looked over at the timer on the bomb "599 doesn't have much time" he looked to Asha leering, "But I guess you're the kinda girl who likes to takes things slow huh?"
*****
Zack's motorcycle sounded like it was ready to break at the speed he was pushing it too. People cursed him for nearly running them off the road. But he never gave a rat's ass about what people thought of him
*****
7:26 AM
The Vulcan slowed down in front of the once prominent Marina. Now it was dilapidated and crumbing from the years of neglect. Rats and pigeons lived solely inside now. Well tonight they added one more rat to their list of occupants. Zack searched for a way inside, finally finding a smashed in window twenty feet above his head. He took a few steps back then using most likely his cat genes, leapt up and grabbed a hold of the wooden sill and used his upper body to pull himself inside. He ducked into a barrel roll when he hit the dirt two stories down, landing on it and bits of broken glass. Climbing to his feet he searched the darkness, not calling out her name so as not to compromise his location.
There was a half crumbling stairwell two yards to his right and below it there was a small shadow cast. It was this that he ran too, and sure enough found Asha chained to a pipe that somehow managed to stay suspended above on the staircase support beams.
She tried to say something to him, but with the tape on her mouth nothing came out but garble. Zack didn't take it off, concentrating fully on the set of multicolored wires locked around the timer device that now showed only four minutes and a handful of seconds left.
A noise came out from behind him, Max appearing out of the darkness with a phone, his cell, in her hand. It was up to her ear. She approached where he was, still listening to the other person talk on the end.
"It's a standard self district device" Max was talking to the person on the other line, looking at the bomb strapped to Asha's body. "There are three sets of wires, blue, red and yellow." She listened, then looked up at Zack "Jondy says the yellow wire should run from the timer to a metal canister of explosive somewhere in back."
Zack looked, and could see an aluminum tube like container where the wire was wrapped around.
"You have to cut the wire from the timer and the canister to prevent any back up mechanism from activating and setting off the bomb."
Two minutes were now left. Zack had no knife, so he searched for something, anything to cut through the wires. The glass shards he fell in were also under his feet, and he picked up one of them, using it to saw through the wires. It was a tedious job. The glass cut into his hand and with lack of a good angle for gripping made it hard to use. One end of the wire fell loose from the timer, which still counted down from the power supplied by the other wires. He worked, ignoring the one-minute warning. At the thirty-second mark his sweat and blood made the glass slip out of his hand and get lost in the sand. Zack didn't try to find it and instead twisted the wire around in his hand to loosen it, pulling on the plastic to get it to rip.
The wire fell away at nine seconds. The timer went down to three, two, one and finally zero. Even though it had been deactivated, everyone held their breath, waiting. Nothing. Asha breathed the biggest sigh of relief.
Zack finally took the tape off her mouth. Even though it was raw and hurt, she didn't complain "Thought you might like it quieter around here for a change." She yanked at her arms, trying to get them free from the cuffs. Zack used a piece of splinter wood to free the mechanism and unlock the cuffs. Asha's wrists were raw from hanging there so long, but all she did was rub them even though they hurt like hell.
"You still have time" Max spoke again "There's still twenty five minutes left"
"There's no way I can make it in twenty-five minutes and get to the roof of the hospital in time Maxie" Zack informed her. Even though he was talking about his own demise, he still was a hard ass about it.
"Not by going on the ground you can't" she stated elusively
*****
ROOFTOP
Somehow they all managed to get on the roof of the Marina without it falling on them. Max handed Zack her crossbow.
He took it "You always bring your equipment with you everywhere you go?"
"Seem to recall learning that from a brother I know"
He glanced at her, before shooting off the crossbow into the air, catching it on the roof of the next building.
"Before you go-" Max's voice made him turn back to her. She held out his cell phone "You'll need this back"
He took it from her and then slid down the black rope over to the next building's roof.
He landed with barely a sound on top of the next building. He took the cell out of his jacket and opened it up. "Okay all powerful Eyes Only tell me where to go" Zack walked around the roof.
"There's a five story hotel on your right" Logan spoke into the phone. He was tracking Zack's movements on his computer, directing him to which rooftops led to the hospital. "It should be almost a level landing"
"Almost isn't good enough Logan you know that"
"I'm not a perfect creation Zack" Logan reminded
"Maybe you and Maxie are really made for each other" Zack aimed the crossbow and shot off "Kinda like the Yin and the Yang"
"Like you and Asha?"
"Yeah well if I make it outta this thing alive remind me to thank you for that" Zack jumped to the next building.
= = = =
10 MINUTES LEFT
"The clock is winding down Cale, which way?" Zack now stood on a low-level office building.
"It takes time to process Zack" Logan said, typing, working to find the next building
"Well time is something I'm a little short on. And you are vastly decreasing your chances of getting any thanks from me"
"There" Logan said, "It should be right in front of you. Wind socks and all"
Zack looked, and sure enough saw the illuminated roof of Seattle Mercy. "Did I ever tell you you're my hero?"
"You're not gonna start singing are you?"
"I'm not on a suicide mission." Zack returned. He launched the crossbow for the last time. Once it was secure he slid on it hitting the side of the roof. He grabbed with his hands and pulled himself the rest of the way. The helipad was empty, the windsocks blowing in the natural breeze, not from the blades of a landing Medivac unit.
"So what the hell do I do now?" Zack spoke more to himself then in the phone. He started walking around the expanse of the rooftop.
"Looking for this?" White was behind him, holding up a control switch "I must say you impressed me 599. Manticore was taught to keep itself alive at all cost of civilian life. You went against your instincts."
"It's not instincts when they beat it into your head" Zack growled, hanging up on Logan.
"You must be sitting on top of the world now 599." White circled him "Not only did you get to save the girl you also have enough time to save yourself" there was a pause as he walked over to the ledge "Too bad I don't believe in fair games" he dropped it over the edge of the building.
Zack didn't scream out "No!" but he tried to catch it before it fell, it slipped out of his fingers, and fell into the night
"Don't think that'll it break down there and stop the timer, it can handle being run over by a freight train"
The box fell down the four stories, landing hard on the concrete. It was just at that time that Asha jumped off behind Max on her Ninja and saw the thing fall. She ran to where it landed and picked it up.
"Still in tact. Ames White really is a rich white bastard" she hit a few buttons on the computer device. The device had a lock out code to prevent just anyone from deactivating it. White planned to double cross Zack with it, but now- "Give me your barcode string," she said to Max who was behind her "I can't deactivate it but I can override the system by making it think it's been programmed to blow up the wrong X5 all this time"
Max read off her barcode numbers to Asha who punched them into the computer. It beeped a few times
*System Override-Program Lost*
= = =
Both White and Zack, being otherworldly human could hear a tiny sound of a mechanism releasing.
"You have a guardian angel 599" White approached him "Too bad this is the real world. See I never really intended to let you walk out of this thing alive. That timer may have shorted, but the internal one planted inside the casing in your skull hasn't, it's called backup. In the form of a simple pop device I once set up to try and deal with another smart mouth X5. And if you don't have the implant removed from the back of your neck in the next seven minutes you won't live to regret it" White grabbed Zack around the neck "Didn't I tell you I would get the results I wanted?"
= = = =
Asha and Max came through the ER reception area of the hospital.
"Hey you need to sign in first!" one of the receptionist called out, waving the phone in the air that he was talking on.
Asha didn't stop in her running pace to find the elevator. Max pushed the button, watching the numbers light up slowly.
Max had it "Stairs" she instructed the other woman. They both turned to the door leading to the stairwell.
"Hey!" the receptionist called out again
"Fuck off!" Asha shouted before banging through the stairwell door
= = = =
"I never believed a fucking thing you ever told me" Zack pulled White's hand off his neck and threw him to the ground. He was about to attack again, when a jolt, almost like an electrical shock threw him to the ground.
White was on his feet again "It's already starting to take affect 599." He towered above him "I added that little extra myself, isn't it great? As much as I love to watch this I have things to do but I'll be back to pick you up after you've expired" he walked to the edge of the roof and leapt off, jumping from the hospital to the building behind it until he hit the ground.
*****
"Zack!" Asha found him first. He was writhing on the ground.
"Take it out!" it wasn't a request "As long as it's inside it can still kill me" he looked at his sister "Maxie Asha carries a switchblade"
Max retracted the blade after Asha handed it to her. "This is gonna hurt like hell Zack I don't exactly have anesthesia with me"
"I don't fucking care!" Zack spat "Just do it!"
Max gripped the back of his neck "Hold still, I don't wanna know what happens if I cut the wrong spot." She pierced his neck with the blade, twisting it in a circle then pulling up. The implant came out tinged in blood. It remained still for five seconds then popped in a small explosion, but one that would've defiantly killed someone if placed in the right spot of the brain.
Zack had stopped having spasms from the electric shock and stared at the device, feeling blood trickle down the back of his neck.
*****
8:20 AM
Bling finished stitching up the laceration in the back of Zack's head "No major veins or arteries were hit" he snipped the suture thread "Just a lot of blood and drama. You're lucky you had a good surgeon" he set down his scissors.
Zack turned and faced him, feeling Bling's handiwork.
"Any double vision or fuzziness?" Bling asked looking back at Zack
"If I ever saw two of you Bling I'd put that implant back in myself"
"Thanks for the love Zack" Bling chuckled after a minute.
"Okay if he has visitors?" Max walked over to her dining room table where Zack was sitting with Lexi in her arms.
"Fine by me" Bling stood up and leaned down to kiss the baby.
"Uncle Zack have an owee?" Lexi asked
"Yeah he does" Max answered
"Does it hurt?"
Zack looked up at his niece "Whadda you think?" he said it without any anger so it didn't sound like he was reprimanding her.
"Yeah but Uncle Zack's tough, he can take it" Asha stated, standing up from the couch. She didn't take her eyes off Zack.
"C'mon sweetie, let's go brush your teeth" Max said to her daughter
"But I don't wanna brush my teeth mommy"
"But you need to little miss, you've got all that oatmeal still in them"
"Yeah c'mon Lexi, me and your mom will help ya" Bling said. He followed Max with the baby to the master bathroom.
Logan shut down his laptop in his office. He stepped out into his living room "I'll just-go-help."
"You guys aren't very subtle ya know that?" Asha informed
"Who said anything about being subtle" Logan argued before disappearing into the master bedroom.
Asha still stood the same distance away from Zack as before.
"Guess I'm still alive" he still didn't look at her
"Guess so" she responded
"How'd you know how to override the system?"
"You think Logan's the only one who knows anything about computers?"
Zack finally turned to face her
"I taught him a lot of the things I know" she stepped closer
"Guess I don't have to thank him after all" a pause "Which is good cause it keeps from spoiling my record of never having to kiss his ass."
Asha managed a tiny smile then. "Ames White slithered back into the night for now"
"A snake will always slither it's way back out again."
"Guess I'll have to keep my ass stomping boots close by"
"Where did you get ass stomping boots?"
"I borrowed them from you"
This made him go quiet
"Want them back?" she asked
"I suppose you could hang onto them for a while"
She moved again, until she was two feet in front of him "Can I hang onto a few other things too?" she came right into his personal space
He didn't answer. He wasn't a hopeless romantic kinda guy. He just looked at her, a gaze that she understood.
She leaned in to kiss him. She was acting by herself for a few moments before she felt on hand move around the back of her neck.
= = = =
I see you're true colors shinning through I see your true colors and that why I love you I see your true colors shinning through (straight up) I see your true colors and that's why I love you baby...
= = = =
*****
6:35 PM
"Agent White, this committee is baffled by your repeated failures to bring in ANY of the Manticore escapees we have assigned you to track down" the chairman for the committee sat in his seat, glowering at White through his glasses. "These failures are causing us substantial financial losses that we cannot keep recuperating"
"With all due respect Mr. Chairmen I think this agency is under the impression that tracking down Manticore fugitives is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel."
"No one is undermining the difficulty of your job Agent White," the chairman argued "We all here know that Manticore made some tough hard to find freaks, but your numerous failed attempts to catch any of the damn things is a disgrace to this agency. Even now when you were in the closest vicinity to the X5 who led the first revolt of Manticore in 2009 you were STILL unable to apprehend the subject and bring him back to HQ. You are an excellent agent, Agent White but your sloppy track record is tarnishing that reputation."
"I request the permission to speak to you privately after the session Mr. Chairman" White asked "Maybe between the two of us we can work out the problems with my track record once and for all"
"Very well" the chairman agreed, banging his gavel on the desk "This meeting is adjourned"
*****
CRASH
"Guess your boy ironed out his problems" Cindy looked over at Zack sitting with Asha. "With a little help from his sista"
Max took a sip of her beer "I didn't do anything but carve his neck up"
"If that ain't love sugah I don't know what is"
= = = =
"Hey Sammie" Spike found Zack, he slapped him on the shoulder with his free hand. "See you got another date with a "sister"
Asha was looking at Spike funny /What the hell is he talking about?/
"Goodbye Spike" Zack cut in
"Hey, ooo, sorry Sam, didn't mean to wreck your vibe. Gotta go find someone to make beautiful music with" he left
Asha cocked an eyebrow at Zack after Spike was gone "Sam? What the hell was that all about?"
"I'll tell ya later"
"Anything you say 'Sam'" she sipped her beer.
He grabbed her arm, pulling the mug away from her face "Shut up" this time he kissed her.
*****
"What is it you want to talk to me about Agent White?" the chairman closed the door to his office. "Please" he gestured to a chair.
"If you don't mind I'd like to stand"
"Fine" the chairman stated, taking a seat behind his office desk "Now what is this all about?"
It's about my record Sir" White responded "As far as it being 'tarnished'"
"I'm sorry to crack down so hard on you Ames, but we've got an agency to maintain. And that agency thrives solely on the capturing and studying of Manticore's creations. It is the only thing on our agenda"
"I understand Sir" White agreed "But in my best interest I only did what was necessary"
The chairman was confused "You best interest? What do you mean by that?"
The door opened, revealing a figure clothed in a dark red robe.
The chairman stood up from his seat, staring at the figure
The robe lowered and revealed the face of the tattooed Priestess.
"You see I have my own agenda Mr. Chairmen" White went on, as the Priestess approached him "I've had them for hundreds of years. Joining your agency was the perfect stepping stone I needed to have exposure to these transgenics, to understand how they function, and what must be done to bring them down."
The chairman backed up "What the hell is this? Who are you?"
White turned to him, fixdating him with a stone cold gaze "I am Ames, son of Aaron, grandson of Sir'us, a powerful ruler who spent his lifetime seeing that his children, his grandchildren and beyond are bred and ready for the Second Coming"
"The second coming of what Ames?" the chairman shouted "What kind of a sicko freak are you?"
"You are mistaken Sir" White said "The only freaks are the ones your agency spends all their time trying to track down"
The priestess removed her hands from her robe and produced two diamond head rattlesnakes coiled around her arm. She turned her painted head to the chairmen "Sirno'ah moa kariff mo'ss" the snakes reared their heads and bit the chairman on the neck and face. He cried out and hit the floor, falling unconsciousness a minute later.
They stood staring at the still form of the chairman
"Fen'os'tol" White said in a low voice
"Fen'os'tol" The priestess turned to Ames "Maha ka'at kirh nok le'ouah k'note res reu-ah" ("They will discover the body soon enough we must leave")
"E'pnorah musa k'noss. Mo'ta'ak' nos'ke re'oat moab no'atka'ia" ("Leave one snake. It will look like it simply crawled it's way from the forests to get warm")
The priestess set a snake down and it immediately crawled around the chairman's body. "We'nok muah loa'k mei e'akei? ("Was the test successful?")
"Ea'a ,("Yes,") M'ar t'kenob k'rot ah lu'nin k'att minua we'fa kne' ken'da hiif raiir me'asn ne'k a'ah" ("The transgenics lack our strength but have powerful minds to compensate in solving our situations")
"R'mik ("Good") "T'wana me'akah w'ak liia r'ajk'ah so'wa hi'kata" ("Your son will be ready for the trails in ten days.") "R'ak meiak l'noa h'kia lunia k'akra'ah ("Then the work shall be set in motion") "Our day is coming Ames" she spoke to White in English this time "The preparations have begun" she placed her hood back over her head and left out the door, White following her.
(Close up of the snake slithering around the chairman's neck)
(FADE OUT)
*****
The 'unfinished' ending is setting itself up for another chapter. The way the Familiar's speak to me sounds a lot like Ancient Egyptian, as far as the harshness of the vowel sounds and the way the words are arranged. And in the show they used hieroglyphs so I just made up the words for White and the priestess talking using the word formation I've seen when researching a paper for Queen Nefrititi, wife of Ramases the II. They had inscriptions written in ancient Egyptian, and it used a lot of 'ak and K sounds, so-I just made it up...at least it looks authentic.
I didn't realize until I wrote this that the plotline was almost like "Proof of Purchase" where White put a bomb in Alec's brain and made him murder all those transgenics or he would kill him. It was pure coincidence, but once I found out about it I ran with it (i.e. having White have a back-up bomb, the same thing he tried to kill Alec with)
The song I used in here was "True Colors" by Fredo Star from the "Save the Last Dance" soundtrack. It just fit the moment, so I stuck it in there.
R/R please.