Choices

by Mystic25

UPDATE CHAPTER 28 SUMMARY: Jessie finally asks Max about her past

20. Youth of the Nation

CHOICES 21-"Youth of the Nation"

AUTHOR: Mystic25

EMAIL: little_girl_island34@hotmail.com

SUMMARY: Max attends a genetics conference with Kendra, but the day turns deadly when a terrorists movement takes the event hostage

DISCLAIMER: I own everyone who isn't Cameron's, unless he wants to make me an offer.

A/N: SORRY it took so long to get this up, no real excuse for me, just sorry. In case the summary sounds familiar, it is. This is my version of the Season one episode "Prodigy" I've had two attempts at this chapter so far, then I decided to go with this. I enjoy setting old episodes into my fanfic time line. I know I write things with a lot of hostage situations and such, but I don't like the whole 'sit down and wine and dine' story line, there's only so much cuddling I can take.

A/N #2: A side note to the title; it's the name of a song from the band "POD"

THANK YOU'S: Major props to my beta Sammi for all her great "polishing" work on this.

*****

"I was not a child prodigy, because a child prodigy is a child who knows as much when it is a child as it does when it grows up."

~Will Rogers

*****

FOGGLE TOWERS

9:35 A.M

"Mommy this stuff stinks!" Lexi complained loudly at the smell of the peppermint extract and baking soda shampoo combination that Max was using at the current moment to wash her daughter's hair. "Why can't I use the strawberry one?"

"Sorry baby," Max worked the homemade shampoo into Lexi's wet brown hair. "The store doesn't carry that brand anymore." A group of teenage protestors had torched a warehouse shipment that was headed towards one of the only remaining chain stores in the city two weeks ago, protesting against supplying things such as Q-tips to a store's shelves when the aisles where food was suppose to be stocked remained empty. In a lame effort to keep other businesses from becoming targets the sector police shut down all major business in the area for an "indefinite" amount of time. The streets were now filled with people waiting to buy off the black market or swapping recipes to improvise on items like shampoo, baby powder, even coffee.

"Tilt your head back," Max raised the shower head sprayer and rinsed out the small amount of foam from Lexi's hair. "Done," she smiled at the three year old, "Hop on out."

Lexi wriggled her small naked body over the edge of the bear claw tub, stepping on the plush bath mat and into the blue cotton towel Max held out for her.

Max rubbed Lexi's growing brown hair dry with one edge of the towel and wrapped the other around her body which served as more then enough covering for her. "Think ya can get dressed on your own or you need some help?"

"Mommy-" Lexi wasn't even a teenager yet, but she had that annoyed tone down pat.

"Hey sorry girl," Max held up one hand. "Didn't know I was talkin' to a big league playa" she kissed her on the forehead "Aiight, go get changed in your room and come out to let me see the threads kay?"

"Kay mommy," Lexi agreed. She looked down towards her mother's stomach which was now enlarged in five months of pregnancy. "I'm going to change now Lucy, but I'll come back." Max had already told her kids the name she had picked out for the baby. This time she had found out the sex when the ultrasound tech asked her about it. After she had done the "surprise" thing with Alexis she wanted to know the sex. It gave her more of a chance to start bonding with the baby.

"Hey honey," Kendra lifted her black boot clad leg to let the little girl pass under it. "Where are you headed?"

"I'm gonna put on my yellow sweater to show you aunt Kendra!" Lexi informed on her way to her bedroom down the hall.

"Okay girl. I'll be waiting out here with your mommy to see it." Kendra turned towards Max with a smile. "She's really grown up, she's starting to act like you." She leaned carefully on the

doorframe so her white crocheted button up sweater wouldn't get snagged. "But that just means she's learning from the best," she smiled again. "How'd my shampoo go over? " She had stopped in to give Max two bottles of homemade shampoo she had concocted last week. Max wasn't exactly hurting for money anymore being married to Logan, but this business shut down had affected people from every walk of life. "The peppermint oil makes for a heavenly aroma and it also cleanses the scalp to the extreme."

"She didn't take to the smell, but you get my props for a good improv." Max praised Kendra's handiwork. "What I don't get is, we're in a marketplace lock down due to our corrupt city government but you can still find peppermint oil."

Kendra looked at her with a sly smile. "If you know the right people." she watched her friend pull herself up into a standing position "Lexi's not the only one who's really grown." She waited a few seconds as Max walked over to her before continuing. "You gonna let me have my way into naming this one?"

"Honey-" Max put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Morgan's a name that's just gonna get my baby beat up on the playground."

"Like any of that matters with a mom like you Max." Kendra had chosen the name Morgan when Max was pregnant the first time, but like now it didn't take. "I'm sure you'd have his back."

"True," Max admitted, letting her hair down from the green butterfly clip she had stuck it up in. "But I already told my mom I'd give her the honors." she raked her fingers through the long brown length to loosen any snarls in it.

"Glad to see you're connecting with her," Kendra hadn't met Lucia yet, but she had heard about her. "I just hope you're not getting involved too deep with someone who's just gonna hurt you." Kendra's mother had given birth to her at seventeen and had put her up for adoption when she was born. She had tracked her down when she was twelve, only to have the woman tell her that she wanted nothing to do with her. All this for the soul reason Kendra took after her biological father, her mother's exboyfriend.

"It's coo'. " Max reassured her, silently touched at her concern. She knew the deal with Kendra's past. "At first I thought she was runnin' a scam, but I haven't been played for a fool yet."

"So long as you're happy girl."

"Oh I'm there," Max agreed. She killed the lights in the bathroom and headed through the hallway to the dining room where Kendra immediately picked up a packet of paper several sheets thick from the marble table in the center of the floor.

"Hey Max how do you spell- uh-" Kendra took a moment to look at her typed sheet to try and pronounce the word as best she could. "Poly-merase?"

"P-o-l-y-m-e-r-a-s-E," Max spelled out the word for her. "Except it's pronounced "Poly-meraze with a "z" like enzyme, which is what it is. Responsible for the duplication of the DNA molecule by allowing oglionucleiotides primers to bond to the individual strands. Scientists became interested in it in the US, Japan and China after molecular biologists from South Africa discovered a way to clone an entire DNA pattern of a human being without sub coming the copy to any defects at the chromosome level."

"You're such a dork you know that?" Although Max had just rattled off facts that would probably get her on a research committee at any bio tech laboratory Kendra thought she was kidding.

Max nodded at the stapled papers in Kendra's right hand "What's all that?" she let the dork remark slide. Original Cindy and Alec were the only two of Max's friends who knew the nature of her background, Alec for very obvious reasons of course. Kendra was Max's girl, but Max had just been closer to Cindy and never found opportunity to tell her other friend what her real deal was.

"Got a gig for this Japanese doctor who's in town," Kendra's voice was proud as she told Max she landed a higher second job then just translating racing forums for Japanese businessmen. "He's giving a paper on gene sequencing, RNA nucleotides and correcting genetic abnormalities at the cellular base. Don't ask me what any of them mean. All I know is this job pays cold hard cash."

"Nice," Max nodded her head in approval. "You want some coffee? I need my fix."

"Max uh it's nine o'clock in the evening, and I don't think it's a good thing to be drinking caffeine when you're five months pregnant."

"I've been through this drill before girl," Max walked into her kitchen in bare feet with a tiny silver toe ring on her middle toe. It had been a late birthday present from Lucia. Max didn't normally wear jewelry with the exception of her wedding and anniversary rings, but she liked the color of it, and the reason it had been given to her. She opened the cabinet right above the black Hamilton Beach coffee maker sitting on the counter top and pulled out a bag of Columbian Supreme Decaf. "It doesn't matter the time or the condition I'm in. I've gotta get my coffee no matter what. 'Cept on some occasions I just gotta go with the virgin stuff." she held out the decaf up so Kendra could see what had been brewed in the coffee pot. "You can't tell me that there's not something satisfying about having authentic Columbian Supreme instead of that freeze dried crap you have to get off the back of the ration supply truck."

Kendra inhaled imaginary coffee aroma fumes and sighed with content. "You're right about that. Walter managed to find real provolone cheese last week at some boarded up shop at the South Side Market, but I'd give it all up for one cup of real coffee." She opened her eyes and came back down to earth for a moment. "Makes me kind of wish I held out for a handsome man like you who has enough money to hire Juan Valdez to personally pick my coffee."

Max handed her a green stoneware mug filled with the black steaming liquid. "Girl I think you better drink this before you keep goin' whack with hallucinations." She paused to take a sip from her own mug. "I thought Walter was totally movin' your furniture."

"Oh he is Max. Believe me he is." she took a sip from the mug in her hands. "Damn this is the next best thing to sex, even if it's decaf." She sighed deeply in the back of her throat "Maybe if this thing holds together long enough we'll be shacked up as tightly as you and Logan."

"So long as there's not some hot doctor at this genetics conference to sweep you off your Faragomas."

"Knock off Faragomas Max." Kendra examined her black leather stiletto boots she had gotten off the black market. They were a steal for twenty dollars; even generic designer brands were high up on the expensive items list. "And Walter and I are perfectly happy with our love set up." She drank from her cup again. "This whole conference is kind of dope. This doctor-Tanaka, he took a premie crack baby with no chance of a normal mind- kid had the IQ of celery, and turned him into a genius." She held up a photograph of a little boy in with a Page boy haircut and silver wire frame glasses staring down at a chessboard with rapt interest. "Isn't he cute?"

Max studied the picture in front of her. "So they eradicated the problem by futzing with his genes after he was born?"

"Guess so." Kendra smiled at the photo "He almost looks like our man Jesse except for the glasses. 'And Jess is cuter then this of course."

"But this kid comes in at a close second," Max, took the photo from her with her right hand "Mind if I tag along for the event? I'm kinda a buff when it comes to gene sequencing and DNA duplication."

"That's kind of why I'm here-" her eyes adapted a guilty puppy dog look, "You see this conference is in the high end of town and you need a class three security pass to even get into the hotel." She put down her coffee cup,"So I was hoping-"she linked her fingers together and lowered her hands to her lap in an act of nervousness. "That Logan could hook me up with a pass. I know they issue them to all the wealthy businessmen in the area and with Logan owning his fare share in his family's industries-"

"Kendra you're babbling," Max tried not to laugh at her girl's fidgeting. "I got you covered." She glanced over the brochures Kendra had laid on the counter of the Stienlitz Hotel where the conference was being held. "They puttin' you up in this high end crib for the event?"

"Not a chance," Kendra said sadly. "I could've scored some towels in a place as nice as that. But since Walter and I only need one I guess it's not that big of a deal-"

Max made a disgusted face. "I will get Logan to get you in the front row if you keep your water conservation techniques to yourself."

"Front row of what?" Logan rounded the corner into his kitchen with a mesh bag of groceries in one hand that he had just picked up at the South Side Market; at one of the stalls the cops couldn't close because it was on the black market and hidden in an alleyway. He set the bag on the counter, pulling out a head of lettuce on the very top. "Hey Kendra how's it going?" He kissed the woman on the cheek before unpacking his load. He had gotten lucky by finding a stall owner who smuggled items from a supermarket to her shop. There was almost a twenty-five person long line, but most of them had nowhere else to buy food.

"Can't complain at all Logan." Kendra smiled at the kiss Logan had given her. He was the nicest man Max had ever hooked up with and she couldn't be happier for her friend for keeping him.

"Kendra got a job as a research assistant for a Japanese doctor, Tanaka." Max began regaling Logan with the conversation that was going on before he had come in.

"Really? That's fantastic." Logan agreed, "Tanaka? Isn't he the genetics doctor giving that conference tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Kendra agreed. "He hired me to translate his research report from Japanese to English and wants me there to keep his work organized during the event." She looked to Max, silently reminding her of their deal.

"Kendra was wonderin' if you could hook her up with a security pass for the Steinlitz Hotel where the conference is goin' down tomorrow mornin'." Max asked.

"If it's not a problem I mean." Kendra jumped in, turning on the charm with her big eyes, not for seduction, but for guilt.

"I think I can meet that request." Logan put the last item in the grocery bag inside the freezer and shut the door. "I'll drop it off at your place before you leave in the morning."

"Really?" Kendra stepped over to Logan and hugged him. "Thanks. I appreciate this a whole lot."

"You're welcome," Logan told her after Kendra pulled back. "Is 9:30 okay for you?"

"Fine, I have to be at the conference at ten anyways." She looked to Max "This one's a keeper girl."

"Oh I already know Kendra." Max agreed.

"So I better get going." Kendra walked out of the kitchen to grab her black knee length suede coat with the feathery pattern on the front. "Thanks for the coffee Max," she hugged her. "Ooo-" she pulled back when she felt the baby in Max's stomach kick out against her body "I'm not the only one who wants to get her show in the road" she put a hand on her friend's belly "Ride it out a few more months kiddo and Auntie Kendra will give you the best coming out party you've ever seen." She attempted to kiss Max's belly but Max stoped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Kendra I love ya, but stick to kissin' my baby after she's born."

Kendra made a sheepish face. "Sorry." she pulled back. "See ya tommorow then?"

"Aunt Kendra you didn't see my sweater!" Lexi came running out to the living room, buttoning up her canary yellow sweater over her dark blue jeans.

Kendra caught her when Lexi leapt into her arms. "Sorry honey I almost forgot." She held her at arms length to look at her clothes "I would say that's one great outfit." she kissed her "You are definitely going to turn some heads in that." She kissed her again, on the nose.

"You think it's slammin like Aunt Cindy said?"

Kendra laughed "Most defiantly. Alexis Marie Cale is the most slamming girl in Seattle." She set her down on her feet, turning her attention back to Max "Can you pick me up tomorrow Max? I hate to take the bus, it'll look so unprofessional." she lowered Lexi back down to a standing position on the floor.

"I'll be there at nine thirty with the passes." Max said. "I'd hate to be a contributor to any non-professional behavior."

"Great." Kendra adjusted her black purse strap to sit more over her right shoulder. "Who knows? With the right kind of sweet talk I still might be able to score my free towels." she walked over to the door and opened it. "Buy guys," she waved at them once more before heading out.

Max chuckled softly at Kendra's remark. "So you bring me the merchandise?"

"What merchandise baby?" Logan turned back to his wife, confusion on his face, which he masked a few seconds later to pick up his daughter, "You all set for school today kiddo?"

"Daddy it's vacation," Lexi stated in a matter-of-fact voice that sounded almost identical to her mother's. Every two months all teachers, from preschool level to PhD professors were required to pass a federal mandated teaching exam. This was enacted after a case at an elementary school two years after the Pulse where a second grade teacher was arrested for preaching the Communist Manifesto to his class.

"Oh that's right I forgot." Logan rested his forehead against her's. "Well then Jess said something about playing fetch with Kaja this morning, why don't you find him?"

"Kay daddy I have to help, he can't throw at all." She squirmed to be set down, and after her feet touched the floor she took off to find her brother.

"You hard of hearing or something? Actually one of my facilities that's still in tact," Max remarked of Logan's early question after Lexi had left to go find Jesse.

"I knew you had that 'Logan I want something' look on your face" he stepped over to her and kissed her.

"Don't I always?" she quipped, falling into the kiss. "Was that sugar to suck up cause you didn't make good on the deal?"

"No, it's because I love you and think you look just a little hot standing here right now." he gave her a sexy smile.

"Nice answer," she pulled closer for another, longer kiss. "Now where is it?"

He drew back from his wife, with a small sigh that he hid. He couldn't believe that he had just gotten interrupted, by food of all things. "It's in the freezer."

She walked over to the black door for the freezer side of their refrigerator and looked for the item she wanted. "Ben and Jerry's Raspberry and Dark Chocolate." She pulled out the pint sized container of ice cream and closed the door, snagging a spoon from the drawer beside the fridge a few seconds later. "You are so the man right now."

"A guy likes to hear that from his wife every once in a while," he gave her a coy smile. "I was just lucky that Tamika had that in stock. Ben and Jerry's went almost non existent after the Pulse."

"You got connections baby," she spoke around a spoonful of ice cream. "Nothing the all-powerful Eyes Only can't handle."

"Speaking of connections." Logan had to suppress a laugh at his wife almost diving head first into her ice cream. She had rarely gotten cravings with the first two pregnancies, but now-he once had to call in a favor with a friend at the Chinese Embassy in New York to obtain Tempura from one of their catering services who serviced the ambassadors. "I take it by your conversation before I walked in that Kendra wants you to go with her to this genetic's conference tomorrow?"

"Mmm." she talked around her ice cream again, swallowing another spoonful before continuing. "I want to check it out. Dr. Tananka is presenting a paper on genetic research."

"Yeah I think I heard something about that," he joked, ducking when she pitched the lid off ice cream cylinder at his head.

"He is one of the world's leading authorities on genetic abnormalities," She threw the now empty cardboard container in the trash. "Claims he can cure what ails you by just moving your genes around. If his ideas are on the level maybe he can help me out with this pregnancy."

Her pregnancies normally went off without a hitch except for one thing, seizures. And they weren't exactly a minor complication. They were non existent all other times, but when she got pregnant, the low seritonin levels in her brain due to the fetus taking up more of the hormone caused them to return. With both Jesse and Lexi she had gone into premature labor due to seizures triggering contractions. Jess had to be delivered via C-section and she had to be on bed rest for three months with Lexi because of preterm labor contractions. Already her OB Dr. Anna Janston had scheduled several dozens exams and tests to check Max's seritonin levels to prevent a miscarriage and pre term delivery. But none of these things were a solution to the problem. Janston went even so far as to prescribe Tegratol, a drug for severe grand mal seizures should her seizures become bad; but that had it's extreme risks in causing fetal birth defects in certain percentages of pregnancies. Tryptophane was working for now, but Max was worried about what would happen when it stopped being effective.

"You think Tanaka can help?" Logan was skeptical about any guy who claimed to have a miracle cure. He had heard enough of them during his battle with paralysis. "What if he's just in it for the money? Supe up the kid and show his off for public display and commendation?"

"Think my cynicism is wearin' off on you baby," Max leaned against the connecting wall that joined the kitchen and the living room. "This is just somethin' I gotta look into" her tone turned serious. "Cause I'm not in the mood to have another complicated pregnancy."

He approached her then, and laid a hand on her stomach, feeling their baby kick out against her black button up X large top. "I'll get it set up." He kept his hand where it was for a few seconds before pulling away.

"How long do you need to swing two security passes?" she came back.

"One," he corrected. "Kendra's the only one who would need a pass for clearance. Being married to one of the prime shareholders of the Cale industries makes you something of an heiress in the eyes of the upperclass. And it doesn't matter if you have didn't have any prior knowledge about genetics. Just the fact that you're Mrs. Max Cale will get you in the door with the staff catering to your every whim. These kind of events are always looking for money for private research funding."

"Guess I should bring my check book then for a little donation then dah-ling." she spoke in a fake British accent "Does this mean I don't get to go as Rachel Glasser?"

He was confused at that remark."Who's Rachel Glasser?"

"A geneticist from Connecticut. Use to work for the CDC before she opted for a more covert practice in the woods of Wyoming." she went for the honest answer. "She was eradicated after the batch of RNA nucleotides she replicated for placement in interbred X-series created a rash of mutants, babies born without any pituitary gland, mute, no eyes. She was doing some sort of side project of her own. Tryin' to see how long a kid like that would live for some kind of privately funded grant."

/FLASH: Max laid on a metal exam table with a sheet covering her legs as Dr. Glasser, a young raven haired brunette extracted ova from her body. It had already been several weeks since Max had miscarried the X-series baby she had been inseminated with. The techs were trying something different now, breeding the interbred X-series into petri dishes.

"Dr. Glasser-" Lydecker stood over the woman in full surgical gear. "This latest extraction better be a success" his eyes shifted over to Max on the exam table. "We cannot afford any more abnormalities."

"The ova from the last X5 was damaged Sir." Glasser explained, capping off one vial containing a set of ten of Max's ovum in preservation fluid. "The radiation levels we used for super ovulation were over the safe limit, causing the DNA to mutate. However I'm glad to say that we've corrected the problem by using less radiation therapy and more manual extractions."

Lydecker looked at a piece of medical equipment behind him, a small black box shaped machine used to admit radiation for the ovulation process. A smaller portable version of what used to be used to treat caner patients in the early nineties. "The level of radiation is the same as used on the previous soldier doctor, you made a note of it in your chart. So how can this be a factor in mutations I've got sitting in a VC unit?"

Glasser looked at Deck nervously, silently cursing herself for being so stupid as to leave such a blatant paper trail./

"And yet you want to impersonate this deceased doctor and have your face attached to a long chain of strategically planned medical mistakes all for the sake of a four hour conference?" Logan didn't understand Max's logic in this matter.

"Some of the eggs used in her gene manipulation game were mine and I thought I'd just pay the bitch back for wasting my perfectly viable ova for a scrambled egg fest."

/FLASH: "You wasted perfectly viable ova for your own personal gain Dr. Glasser." Deck glared coldly at the woman. "You think that I'm blind and only look for researches who can get their head good and stuck up my ass?"

"Colonel Lydecker, if you'll allow me to explain-"

"There's no need for explanations doctor." Deck pulled something out of his leather jacket, a black military issue revolver. "As of today, you're terminated." the gun went off point blank into Glasser's forehead.

Max flinched as she watched the doctor fall right over top of her. Her eyes moved up to the Colonel's.

He expressed no trace of remorse, or any emotions what so ever at having just executed someone. "Get dressed immediately and help dispose of the remains soldier."/

"Given the fact that Manticore probably kept records of all doctors on their staff I doubt this would be a tactic that you could pull off." Logan crossed his arms over his chest hidden under amaroon long sleeved cotton U neck shirt.

"You doubtin' the skills baby?" she raised an eyebrow at him.

"No sweetheart." They always tended to pour on the pet names when they were in a debate about something, even if it was meant in good humor. "I'm doubting the method of delivery."

"How bout this method of delivery?" She approached him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissed him in a single, suck-the-air-out-of-his-lungs-move.

After he recovered from the effects of her taste on his mouth, he pulled back. "It's not a fair assessment of skill level if one party has tactical advantage over the other."

She smiled seductively, "Don't hate the playa. Hate the game."

*****

JAM PONY

THE NEXT MORNING

8:35 AM

"So how was everyone's weekend?" Normal's remark got him the 'say what?' eye from several of his employees who normally weren't used to him conversing with them, ever. "Good? Maybe a restful two days means you can ACTUALLY get some work done around here."

"Speak for yourself Happy Man" Cindy informed, before turning back to the group that had gathered near her locker. "Feel it. Last night Original Cindy had herself a date with a lickety boo, tall blonde, and damn could she work a pool cue." she smiled at the memory, adjusting the strap on her black messenger bag. "We had a few jello shots, she showed off her skills-"

"So what's the problem? " Alec analyzed, shutting the door to his locker. "I mean other then the fact that this super fine lady could've been at my apartment, it sounds like a down night to me."

Cindy turned and glared at him, "Down night went down the tubes after sistah girl drops the news that she swings BOTH ways."

"Ouch," Alec made a face, knowing now why Cindy was so upset. She didn't do the whole bisexual thing. "Would it be too pretentious of me to ask for her number?"

"Boy-" Cindy pulled her arm back with a threat to slap him, but Alec backed away so she didn't get her chance.

"I still don't see a problem." Sketchy informed from the bench he was sitting on in the middle of the lockers "I mean all women are basically slaves to bisexuality aren't they?"

"Sketch, you messed up ya know that?" Cindy shot back "The whole playin' on both sides of the sand box dealio would've have been that bad if she didn't also drop the 411 that due to a whacked out shack up with anotha lickety chick, she's celibate."

"What's the point of being bisexual if you're celibate?" Sketchy asked confused.

"THANK you" Cindy agreed, "Knew we connected on some level bout the hot mommas. Speakin' of which-" Cindy broke off to look over her shoulder at Max, who had just walked inside dressed for the genetic's conference in a black pinstriped woman's suit with the top few buttons on the single breasted top unbuttoned just above her cleavage line, her feet clad in black leather boots. "Damn girl, look at you flossin'." she did a turn movement with her hands to see the other side.

Max turned slowly to showcase her clothes. "Just thought I'd upgrade the threads. This genetics conference is all into high end fashion."

"Suga you're DEFINITELY high end as they come." Cindy had pleasure in her voice at seeing her girl look so good.

"I don't know why you bothering to attending this shindig," Alec stated "There's absolutely nothing wrong with your genes Maxie. Dressed in that you'll probably get offers from rich bureaucrats to form branch off groups."

Max glared at him. "Ever had you ass handed to you?"

"Depends on what day you're talkin' about Max" Alec went on.

She shot him a look "You're an idiot."

"Well well well," Normal's voice was impressed as he approached Max. "I see my influence is finally starting to rub off on you kids." He examined her for a few seconds "I must say Max I'm impressed at your desire to maintain the proper business mystique needed at Jam Pony."

"Are you done?" Cindy cut in annoyed, "Max isn't stayin' at this run down excuse for a business today."

Normal's appreciation for Max's excellent work ethic just went down a notch. "I retract everything I just said until I get a the pathetic palm off excuse as to why you're skipping work." He looked at his watch. "You have two seconds to make the attempt."

"I have a doctors appointment." Max went for the excuse that was fool proof.

"And your physician couldn't fit you in at any other time?" Normal asked. "Say when you're not wasting minutes on my time clock?.

"Funny thing about doctors in this city Normal. They don't tend to pencil you in at your BOSS'S earliest convenience. Unless you want me to go public with how you denied a pregnant employee's right to her OB exams?"

"Fine go, but bring me a note." Normal was scared shitless of any thing remotely hinting at legal action against him or Jam Pony. The business was barely legal on the Seattle Law books as it was, due to all the gang related paraphernalia they would shuttle back and forth. "And I'm docking every cent of your pay until 8:00 tomorrow morning. You want that kid to eat, don't miss anymore work." He looked around at people standing beside Max "The rest of you, time is money. Bip Bip Bip!"

"Score you some towels," Max told Cindy after Normal left in a huff back to his desk.

"Coo'." Cindy said with a smile.

"And Max if you see any hot usherettes at this place-" Alec gave her a raised eyebrow look "Tell her I have some gene therapy of my own to show her."

"Alec-" Max cut in.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

*****

STEINLITZ HOTEL

"This place is amazing," Kendra walked beside Max, adjusting her short red skirt with black flowers embroidered on the fabric in a sporadic pattern over her legs. "One of the only remaining hotels in Seattle that still has a round the clock health spa. Remind me to thank your rich husband for the pass."

The two women walked along the ivory colored floor behind men in black business power suits and women in either dresses or power suits like the men. Ahead of them was an arch of white marble supported by two Roman era carved white marble columns standing on either side of it. A hanging crystal chandelier stopped a good thirty feet short of the floor. People were conversing below it on the plush blue green carpet that started a good five feet out the door of the conference room and continued on inside.

"Ahh Mrs. Cale-" A man with a cooperate style hair cut and black business suit complete with a charcoal gray silk tie greeted Max warmly by the opened door to the conference room. Logan had called earlier to let the hotel know of Max's arrival, describing her features to the staff so she would be recognized. Already the prospect of the spouse of a wealthy benefactor had the entire hotel staff out in full force to kiss up to her. "So nice to have you at our convention.

I trust that you will find it a most enjoyable experience." He turned to someone on his left, without allowing her to remark on the conversation. "May I present Dr. Tanaka, the head of this conference."

Tanaka was a middle aged Japanese man with the same hair cut as the manager but unlike the other man he was wearing a charcoal gray single breasted suit. He said goodbye to the woman he was talking to before extending a hand out to Max. "How do you do."

"Nice to meet you Dr. Tanaka." Max's greeting was polite, but with the sterility of a solider staking out a new situation, revealing nothing more than what was needed to be given out.

"The Cales' are a great contributor to the advancement of scientific research Dr. Tanaka," the suit beside Tanaka continiued, hoping for a cash reward from Max in return from bragging about her efforts to better society. "Last year a substantial contribution from the Cale Industries went to further Parkinson's research."

Tanaka smiled at Max. "It is a great privilege to meet such a beautiful supporter of this important research."

Max smiled back. "I was curious. You know how when you try to resequence nucleotides you always end up with one stray intron? Have you ever considered using plasmids to transfect the new base-pair vectors directly into the codon sequence so that that won't happen? One stray intron can mess up your whole output sequence."

Tanaka looked at her, startled and impressed at the same time "I never considered that."

"Ladies and gentlemen-" and announcer's voice boomed on the mike from inside "The conference will begin in five minutes. Please begin finding your seats."

"I must be going now Ma'am," Tanaka told Max, "I hope you find my work up to your obviously high standards."

"I'm sure I will," Max said watching Tanaka leave.

"Can I show you ladies to a seat?" The man at the door was the manager of the hotel, and was acting as a host and greeter for the conference.

"I think we know where the seats are," Max shot back.

He nodded politely "If there's anything you desire today Mrs. Cale please don't hesitate to ask, my staff will accommodate you in any way we can."

Max gave him a forced smile. She had had all she could take of his sucking up.

"I must say being wealthy has its perks," Kendra said once they cleared the conference room door and was out of earshot of the manager.

"More like it's irks," Max corrected her. She walked down a nearly empty row of teal plush fold out chairs, before claiming one in the middle, sighing under her breath cause her feet were killing her.

"I would love to be in your situation." Kendra leaned against the row of chairs in front of them. "I'd personally appreciate being pampered over. Though I know it's not your forte."

"Kendra, nobody kissin' up to my face cause they think I'll drop large on their establishment is my forte."

"At least you have money to give." Kendra went on. "And genetic research is an admirable cause." She checked her watch. "Tanaka wants me back stage in fifteen minutes to go over my notes."

"You'll do fine," Max reassured her. "Don't be intimidated by all the terminology bout PCR results and base pairs. I'm sure half the audience here is just one point over the IQ of your average college undergrad who only took biology cause they thought they could score some honey's."

"Okay you're intimidating the hell out of me Max," Kendra'a voice was nevous. "I've never even went to college so these kids are shoulders above my educational background."

"You're not the one giving the presentation so chill," Max told her. "All you hafta do is just stay cool and hand off the bio medical research to Tanaka, and any woman who can wrap a sector cop around her finger has more brains then any kid mommy and daddy dished out green for to get into Harvard."

"You really think I have that much of a shot?" Kendra didn't seem to have that much self-respect in herself with this project. It was just looked upon by her as a way to make extra money.

"Not if you don't get up there before the conference starts."

"Right" Kendra picked up her notes, tucking them close to her knitted red long sleeved top. "Wish me luck." she walked out of the row of chairs and started making her way to the front of the room where three carpeted steps lead up to a black stage with wooden floors.

After a few minutes Dr. Tanaka walked out across the stage, stopping in the middle by a projector screen the hotel staff had lowered a few hours before the conference had started. A hotel employee dimmed the inset lighting set in the roof of the conference room, leaving just enough visibility for people to read by. A few feet away in the right corner of the stage sat a black Baldwin baby grand piano; the cover already removed from the black and white keys. "Good morning ladies and gentlemen." Tanaka's voice boomed out from a silver lapel microphone clipped to his black silk tie. "And welcome to what I hope you will all view as one of the modern genetic marvels of our time." He clicked a button on a hand held black remote in his hand and an image of a tiny premature infant with various wires attached to him came up on the projection screen.

"This is Jude Thatcher at birth," Tanaka began. "He weighed just three and a half pounds. He needed oxygen because his lungs were underdeveloped. He had no swallowing reflex, so had to be fed intravenously. He was addicted to crack cocaine. His mother, incarcerated for drug abuse and prostitution could not afford the most basic health care. Jude was heading for an early and unlamented grave until our foundation stepped in and took over the health management of the child. We began an intensive course of surgical, pharmacological and genetic intervention. The results were encouraging." He clicked the remote again, revealing another slide, this time of the boy Jude at a later age walking with the aid of Tanaka. "This is Jude at two years, six months." Another click, and a new image of Jude, bright eyed, wearing thin wire framed glasses. "This is Jude at four years." Another click of the remote and the next image of Jude, a few years older then the first image, around six years of age. "And this is Jude today, living proof that there are no limits to what the human body can achieve with the right training and environment."

At the same moment Tanaka showed the most recent image of Jude, the image's namesake walked out on the stage dressed in a pair of black pants and a dark navy blue V-neck sweater. "Konichi-wa, Domo Ich-ni-Suan." (Welcome honored guests.) He bowed politely in the traditional Japanese way. "Esto es un día más emocionante para la investigación genética." (Today is a very exciting day in the study of gentics.) "We hope you find the proceedings infomative and enlightening." Jude turned to Dr. Tanaka. "Hello Dr. Tanaka."

"Konichi-wa Jude-san." Dr. Tanaka greeted the boy with a smile. "Why don't you play something for us?"

Jude nodded at his cue and walked over to the baby grand, sitting down in the umber leather upolstered piano bench. His small hands found the right position on the keys and he began to play "Italian Concerto" by Johann Sebastian Bach.

From her vantage point at her seat Max watched the faces of several audience members become impressed at this small child flawlessly playing one of Bach's famed musical compositions.

"It's a good thing you're here dear," A sandy blonde haired woman in her late thirties in a gray Anne Klien skirt suit leaned over to whisper this to her from her. "Classical music has been proven to enhance the minds of babies even before their birth." She had obviously noticed Max was pregnant before the lights went dim. The woman smiled at the boy on the stage. "Such a child prodigy this boy. Dr. Tanaka has done an amazing job."

MAX VOICE OVER: "At Manticore we learned that prodigies didn't exist because every individual had the same capacity to learn higher skills as everyone else. We were taught, "what the mind can conceive, the body can achieve."

/FLASH: Lydecker walks down a row of X5's who are all sketching with charcoal pencils on sketch paper. Max is among them, her hands moving rapidly on the paper, shading in darker areas of the drawings. She had never drawn before, but now she was mastering skills that would rivel Michangello or Da Vinchi.

Deck stopped in front of Max, pointing with one hand at the paper. "What is this soldier?"

"Chaux Cathedral Sir," Max reported on the image of the Gothic church with its high towers and peaked roofs she had sketched on the paper. "The design was derived from a section of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Erected in Washington D.C. in May of 2004."

"Chax Cathedral was destroyed by arson in 2008 soldier," Deck informed. "Martial Law requires the immediate eradication of all records of religious establishments after they are no longer of use." He looked Max right in the eye "So how is it that you know of and created a perfect replica of a cathedral that has no documented visual images or descriptions?"

Max didn't have an answer to that question. She simply stared back at her superior.

"Your minds are powerful weapon soldiers." Deck moved away from Max and continued walking down the line. "Within it lies all the knowledge of the entire world. All you need is the proper instruction to unlock it's potential. Putting one person above the rest for their intelligence is a mistake, because you then begin to see them with a genius that exceeds your own. These are nothing but cheap lies for you to become lazy and not reach your maximum status level."/

Max kept her eyes focused on Jude, watching the boy playing on the piano, but seeing no real passion behind it. It was more of a mechanical motion. He played effortlessly; but it was like he had simply been turned onto perform, and could be turned off just as easily.

MAX V.O. "Deck always preached to us that we could accomplish anything if we just tapped into the hidden blueprint containing all the answers. I wonder why we didn't turn on him then-"

/FLASH: Deck watches as Eva is strapped down by doctors for a round of medical experiments to see how long it took the ulna bone in her arm to heal after being broken with a vice crusher.

Eva looked up to him, emotionless expression on her face, but after the first sound of her bone cracking her eyes clouded over in pain./

MAX: V.O "We knew we had the ability. But we were afraid and he knew it."

"Is this seat taken?"

Max immediately turned her head at the sound of the voice, staring into the face of Lydecker, dressed in a black shirt and gray suit jacked. He slid into the seat beside her.

She watched him get situated in his chair, pulling the tail end up on his suit jacket so he wouldn't wind up sitting on it. She still hadn't said anything to him.

"Fascinating that Dr. Tanaka is just now jumping on the RNA resequencing wagon." Deck didn't look at Max when he spoke, pulling out a pair of silver framed reading glasses from his coat pocket. "Any good geneticist would've appreciated the direct opportunities presented to them after the successful mapping of the human genome in 2003." He slid his glasses on his face, and started thumbing through his program packet. "Still Tanaka's research is ground breaking. That's the reason that I'm here."

Max turned to face her old adversary then. "Why are you tellin' me all this? You thinkin' bout opening a branch off group to your little warped summer camp?" It didn't matter how many times Deck had offered his help to her in the past, it wasn't that easy to forget that he was the same man who had tortured her for nine straight years.

"I have to keep my options open Max," Deck addressed her by name, then lowered his voice. "You think after twenty years in the U.S. Army and years as CO of Manticore I would just hang up my beret and retire to some cabin deep in the woods, never to be heard from again?"

"You still didn't answer my question," she cut in with a low growl.

"I thought I taught you kids to always take on every new opportunity thrown at you with a head on approach." Deck wrote something down he deemed noteworthy from Tanaka's presentation on a legal pad.

"What opportunities are we talking about?" She shifted in her seat to look him full in the face "Cause unless I lost my memory Renfro terminated you from your position at Manticore a few months before it blew sky high."

"You think I give a damn what's written about me on paper? *I* came up with the concept of the combination of DNA." He spoke with bitter malaise at his former boss "Anna Renfro was a figurehead recruited by those that knew about the project. She was only there to sign papers and shake down curious onlookers."

"So what was your part in this? Were you the base player?"

"Regardless of your reservations about my methods Max, you kids are some of the finest genetics ever created. Perfect soldiers to be marketed on the battlefield."

"Funny, I don't picture public auctions being held at the recruiters office being deemed as standard military protocol." The look in her eyes could burn holes in head.

"Believe me, you are a very expensive commodity. Any branch of the military would've spared no cost to obtain you once you they saw what you kids were capable off."

"It may be the pregnancy hormones Deck, but I'm gonna start ballin' here." Max faked appreciation at his words. She stood up from her seat and walked out of the aisle heading down the thick teal hued carpet to the ladies room which was located down a maroon carpeted hallway.

/Kid's sitting on my bladder constantly. At this rate it'll be reduced down to the size of a pancake before she's born./ She exited the stall and washed her hands in the basin with the gilt faucet.

A brunette woman with long wavy curls looked over at her from the next sink on the long white marble counter top "Your first?" She looked to be a few years older then Max, maybe twenty-eight or twenty-nine, wearing a black boat neck shirt and a delicate white skirt with a scattering of tiny orange and black monarch butterflies on the hem.

"My third" Max shut off the water stream from the faucet before reaching over to dry her hands on the cotton hand towel that hung from a gold colored towel ring attached to the wall. Apparently the wealthy didn't believe in brown paper towels.

"Oh wow," the woman remarked with a smile. "You must love large families. I have a one year old at home and he's more then enough to handle. Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?"

"I hafta be getting back now," Max mustered up a smile before exiting the bathroom. She didn't normally poor out personal information to strangers. She had had enough with Jesse and Lexi and now this baby of random people coming up to her wanting to touch her stomach, guess her due date, offer advice. It drove her insane.

"Max," Kendra's black suede strapped closed toed high-healed shoes squished on the carpet as she spotted her. The conference had just taken a fifteen minute recess "So-how do you like the conference so far?"

Max picked up on her hidden meaning. "You did aiight Kendra. Very believable with your handing off technique."

"You really think so?" Kendra tilted her head slightly, like a curious kitten eyeing a ball of string. "It was a little sketchy there at the beginning when I almost spilled Sake over the RNA sequencing diagrams, but it must've been a blessing in disguise cause I glided after that."

"Now what is the esteem Dr. Tanaka doing throwing back Sake before his big conference?"

"He likes to have a small glass beforehand to calm his nerves." Kendra revealed "And as long as I get paid Max I don't care what his habits are."

"Excuse me Mrs. Cale" an usher in a hideous maroon suit that matched the carpet approached her "The conference is about to start up again and the manger asked me to escort you back to your seat." He held out his arm, waiting.

"Thanks but I can think I can find my way on my own." Max was three seconds away from killing the next person who had money related intentions behind their respectable attitude.

"As you wish ma'am." The usher turned around and left back down the hall.

"If I were you Mrs. Cale I would've taken up on the offer." Lydecker stood a few feet behind her, obviously hearing the conversation, although she didn't get the formality of him calling her by her married name. He walked around to her line of sight. "Kid was just probably looking for a tip that you can obviously provide."

"I'm not in the habit of accepting chivalry that comes with a price tag." Max wasn't exactly comfortable that Deck considered her someone to socialize with at this conference.

"Excuse me," Kendra stepped between them. "I get the feeling you two know each other-" she took one step closer to Lydecker and held out her hand. "Hi I'm Kendra Ashton. Dr. Tanaka's research assistant."

"Colonel Donald Lydecker," Deck shook her hand, with a slight trace of a smile.

"Oh wow so you're a Colonel?" Kendra sounded impressed.

"Yes ma'am U.S. Army Special Ops." Deck informed, being polite to her. "And I must say you're doing a very sufficient job. The presentation so far has been flawless." He may have been a covert base military CO with a cruel streak ten miles long, but he could put on the most convincing facade of politeness.

"Thank you." Kendra smiled at the compliment, slightly relieved that now two people found her a useful asset to the conference and not just someone picked off the street because she happen to speak Japanese, even though it was true. "So if you don't mind me asking how do you know my friend Max?"

"Her mother did some work for me back in '09." Deck went for the half truth in answering Kendra's question.

"Max you never told me your mom was in the military?" Kendra turned to her friend with this remark.

"She was discharged after getting pregnant." Deck stated. "With the job description she had she couldn't perform her duties after gestation."

Only Deck noticed the cold hard look Max was shooting him. "It's been a pleasure to meet you Ms. Ashton, but I should be getting back." He turned around and walked down the carpeted hallway to the conference room.

"Now that's a great man." Kendra sighed after Lydecker had left. "Less testosterone and more charm, but sometimes less is more. I can't believe you didn't introduce me to him before," she complained to Max.

"Kendra you have a man," Max reminded. "Remember Walter?"

"Yes I remember Walter," she threw back "And I love my boo boo bear to death, but I could've gotten into Colonel Lydecker if I hadn't hooked up with him. He exudes this strong assertiveness that's actually very sexy." She stopped talking to check her gold banned wrist watch "Damn, that break went quicker then I thought. I should be getting back."she shoved some of her long blond hair behind her ears. "You're not going to bail are ya?"

"Not a chance," Max reassured. "Sides I'm your ride home."

"Right." Kendra felt a little embarrassed for having forgotten that part. "Then I'll see you afterwards." She turned and headed back to the conference room.

Max walked through the few people that were left out in the hallway for the remaining five minutes of the break. Most of them began moving a few seconds later to reclaim their seats inside the conference room.

She headed back inside and slid into her own chair soundlessly.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the manager spoke into a black hand held mic from the back of the room next to the exit doors. "The conference is about to start up again so I ask that you please make your way back to your seats. Thank you."

"I would think with all your training Max you wouldn't be foolish enough to use you real name in a government regulated event." Deck turned to face her slowly, having gotten into his seat a few minutes before the intermission was over.

"I doubt I run the risk of tactical exposure at an upper rent district hotel, unless the manager has been doin' things on the sly behind my back this whole time."

"Big Brother is always on the alert for you soldier," Deck reminded. "And it's always when you least expect it."

"Leave the 1984 ideology outta this Colonel." Max referenced Orwell's futuristic novel the way Deck had just done. "It's bad enough you seek me out tryin' to act like a friend on my top ten list, now I have to listen to your whole 'good soldier mantra' on top of the other crap."

"That crap is some of the finest training in the world. And after a while the training is no longer a mantra, it becomes a reflex."

"You act like I give a damn about your ideal GI Joe brainwashing bull." she turned to face him with one sharp movement of her head. "How bout you and I take a vow of silence for the rest of the conference?" she snapped her head back and said nothing more.

"Is that what you teach those kids of yours?" Deck obviously didn't go for the idea of not speaking. "That they can just turn off something that preexists inside them and waste very valuable sequences of DNA coursing through their veins."

Max turned back around then, even though she had just informed him that she wouldn't say another word to the man. "Let's get one thing straight. What I teach my children is none of your damn business and if you try and make it your business I'm gonna remind you that I'm not the scared kid you brainwashed eleven years ago by kicking your ass."

"No one can deny that you've adapted well without the proper training over the years." Deck wrote something down on his legal pad again.

The audience around Max and Lydecker broke out in applause at Jude who had just finished the "Air" movement from Bach's "Water Music" composition.

"Thank you-" Tanaka bowed graciously at the applause "Thank you so much. Jude is an extraordinary boy." He turned to the child with a smile, and then turned back to the audience. "A singular creation whose very life is the culmination of decades of genetic research. Jude is also a messenger of hope, bringing good news to each and every one of us. How, you ask?" Tanaka searched over the crowd for someone to give his statement merit "You Ma'am," he pointed at Max. "Would you please stand?"

Max set down her program packet and stood up from her chair in full view of the rest of the people, hearing the whispers already as to what Tanaka could say about her.

"Thank you." Tanaka said before continuing "I see you are pregnant. Would you mind telling me how far along you are?"

"Five and a half months," Max told him flatly.

"Five and a half months." Tanak repeated the information. "Already your baby's genetic DNA sequence has been mapped out, predetermining if he will have blue eyes, or how tall he will be, or tragically whether or not he will have any genetic defects that may hinder his growth and future development. Have you ever heard of an amniocentesis?"

"It's where you insert a long bore syringe through the amniotic sac surrounding the developing fetus and draw a small amount of fluid to use in chromosome mapping to determine if their are any abnormalities in the genetic material. It's mostly done on women over thirty-five who run a higher risk of birth defects such as Downs, Klienfelter, Fragile X."

Tanaka was once again impressed by her knowledge. "Yes that's correct. Right now all we can do with the amniocentesis is simply predetermine the existence of any genetic defects. Sadly those that wish to keep the baby will spend a lifetime caring for a handicapped child. But what if I today found a defect in your baby and then told you that the code for a perfectly healthy child was already in his genes. And that by snipping here-" Tanaka used a laser pointer to show a computerized version of an RNA strand being cut. "-grafting here, and using some of the baby's own healthy RNA from another area to seal the graft, he would grow up never knowing he ever had a birth defect." The crowd seemed pleased by news of this future advancement.

"Guess you'd be my hero then" Max stated.

Tanaka gave her a smile. "Thank you ma'am, you may sit down now. This same technique also allows us to treat and cure other distressing conditions such as congenital blindness, deafness even severe neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's Parkinson's, epilepsy, even severe grand mal seizures." Tanaka rattled the on a list of diseases his RNA grafting could bring new hope and even a possible cure too. "All these can be remedied by manipulation of their genetic code-- a minor rewriting..."

Max noticed movement in the seats behind her and honed in her vision to see a man in the audience pulling out a concealed weapon from his jacket.

Before Tanaka could continue with his speech the back doors of the conference room suddenly burst open revealing at least three men dressed in black carrying black AK-47's and Tommy guns. One of the usherettes dropped her tray of water glasses, and pulled out a hand held machine gun from her behind her back.

"Go, go! Everybody stay calm!" one of the men moved in front of the group waving his AK-47 around. "We are the May 22nd movement!" the other men began walking down the aisles of the conference room, their weapons pointed into the crowd of people.

Several women in the audience began screaming at the sight of the weapons being pointed at them.

"Oh God!"a random woman shouted and then screamed again.

"I said everybody stay calm!" the same man who had spoken before addressed everyone again "We don't want any trouble!"

"Please!" Tanaka held up his hands, an act of submission to show he wasn't going to try anything rash "What are you doing?!"

"We are the May 22ND movement," the man walked up to the stage aiming his gun at Tanaka and Jude "We've come to liberate the boy" his laser sight was directly on Tanaka's chest. "Stay calm and out of our way and you will not be harmed!"

"I want everyone on the floor NOW!" another one of the terrorists barked out this order to the crowed. "No one try to make a move for the exits or I will be forced to shoot!"

The faded blue fold out chairs began to move around as people began to sit on the floor.

"Here" Lydecker handed his black Sig Sauer that he had hidden inside his jacket to a dazed Kendra who had come up beside him "Take it, they won't search you."

"What? No!" Kendra was shocked at him offering her a gun. He could get them killed if one of the terrorists found it on her.

"Trust me," was all Deck said to her, holding out the gun farther from his body to coax her into grabbing it before they were found out.

Kendra finally hastily grabbed the gun and shoved it inside her maroon feathered handbag.

"You two! Enough of the talking!" a man came over to Lydecker and Kendra, and then aimed a gun at Max who took a little longer to get down on the floor "I thought I told you to get down!"

Max glared up at him, intending on saying something but, decided against it, not knowing what would piss him off. She finally managed to lower all of her weight onto the ground and pleased the guy enough so that he left her alone.

"No!" Tanaka's voice echoed off the walls surrounding the stage as he clutched Jude to him. "You're not going to hurt him!"

A gun was aimed at his face "If you want to keep the boy safe Dr. Tanaka I suggest you let him go."

"You stay away from him all of you!" Tanaka screamed.

One of the men grabbed Jude by the arm, yanking him away from Tanaka's grip. Jude looked petrified, and began to scream.

"No! Tanaka cried, trying to struggle out of the hold two of the terrorists had on him " Leave him alone!"

"Come over here by me sweetie." Max held out her arm and gently ushered Jude to go over to where she was sitting "You'll be okay."

The man pointing the gun at Tanaka whirled on her. "You keep your mouth shut!"

"He's only a kid." Max informed in a fierce voice, "You're scaring him."

"We're liberating him." the man corrected "Setting him free from this existence."

"These are great liberation techniques." Lydecker threw out.

The gun trained on him "You better watch it old man."

Deck remained cool. "If your intentions are to not hurt any of the hostages then I suggest you point that gun somewhere else son."

Jude had finally broken free of the man's grasp and walked slowly over to where Max had asked him to come.

"It's aiight honey." Max grabbed at the boy's shoulders, and lowered him gently to a sitting position on the floor, talking in the same soothing voice she did when her own kids were scared of something.

*****

JAM PONY

"Bip Bip Bip!" Normal tapped his pencil on his watch, shouting at employees that he deemed lazy. "Lunch was over twenty minutes ago."

"Not by my watch." Sketchy informed from the table situated in the area above the lockers designated as the "employee break room". He took another bite of his sandwich.

"Unless you want to eliminate the need for a work break completely by not having a JOB to take breaks at I suggest you get your lazy bum up and stop wasting company time!" Normal threw back.

"Relax Normal." Alec popped the lid off of a Coke he had just gotten from the cooler beside the tables. "We're the only ones who are willing to work in this dump for the meager pinch pennies you throw our way. So you can't fire us unless you want your whole business to go belly up." He took a swig of his drink.

Cindy had to hold her fist out for the way he laid it down. Alec banged his hand against hers. "Brotha speaks the truth Normal and you know it. So we'd appreciate not havin' our lunch hour docked cause that stick shifted more up your ass."

"The only speaking I want from you missy is asking for signatures on runs. Which if you don't get started doing in five minutes you'll soon be speaking to people on the street to look for a new line of work." He pitched a manila envelope at her chest. "Thirteenth and Madison, bip bip bip!"

Cindy rolled her eyes and shoved the package inside her messenger back sitting beside her on the chair. She looked over to Sketchy's sandwich "Dude what is that you're chompin' on?"

"A watercress, endive and tomato sandwich." Sketchy spoke in a fake snooty rich voice around a bite of his sandwich.

"Then how come I don't see no watercress or endive on that?" Cindy only spotted a big nearly rotted chunk of tomato on the four grain bread.

"Now how the hell is he suppose to have any of those things with the Market lock down?" Alec reminded, drinking more of his soda and sliding into a vacant chair at the table. "It was only by my brilliant tactics that I was able to even score some risotto for my dinner last night."

Cindy shot him a look "And by brilliant you mean you slim jimmied ya way inside?" it wasn't really a question because she already knew what the answer was.

"Damn straight." Alec agreed. "It's not my fault the Italian Embassy has such low grade security."He crushed his now empty soda can and pitched it into the plastic wastebasket that sat in a corner next to the faded counter with the thirty year old microwave resting on it's surface.

"Dude are you serious?" Sketchy looked up from his tomato sandwich. "You broke into the Italian Embassy for some rice?"

"I'm pullin' one over on ya Sketch," Alec lied, shooting a look at Cindy. "There's this low key market hook up near my apartment. Girl who works there just happened to score big on her Italian Cuisine supplies last time."

"Perchance was this a hot girl working behind the counter?" Sketchy perked up immediately at the mention of a female.

"Boy I'm surprised Natalie still keeps your playin' ass." Cindy whacked Sketchy upside the head. "That whole dealio with Lydia shoulda taught you that a sistah only shares nail polish and clothes, NOT her man."

The television that was just on am Extreme Dirt Bike Stunt show switched its picture to a well dressed blonde news anchor woman. "We interrupt this broadcast to bring you breaking news." The shot switched again to a swarm of sector cops and Seattle PD cruisers outside of a building with officers of both groups out setting sharp shooters on nearby buildings. "This is the scene at the Steinlitz Hotel where a heavily armed group identified as the outlawed May 22nd movement stormed a scientific conference being held there. Police arrived moments ago and are attempting to set up communication between themselves and the terrorists inside."

Sketchy stopped eating his lunch and turned up the volume with the black remote.

"Damn," Cindy cursed. "It's one thing for Sketch to play make believe gourmet cause he's broke, but a bitch like that throws you back to reality town fasta then a bisexual changes preferences."

Alec was still watching the screen, and a look passed across his eyes "Steinlitz Hotel?" he turned back around to face the group "Isn't that where that genetics conference is?"

Cindy's look of worry just shifted up another notch "Shit boy, you're right. What kind of whack set up is this? And Kendra's in there too."

Alec just stood up from the chair he was sitting at.

Cindy looked up at him "Where you goin'?"

"Gotta go make a phone call." Alec leapt over the railing to the ground level, and pulled out his silver wireless phone.

"Suit yourself," Cindy watched him leave. "I'm gonna get my ass over to that hotel and see if those punk cops know anythin' bout my girls." She grabbed her bag and ran down the stairs and out of the building.

"Glad to see you finally showing appreciation for your job!" Normal called out to her, mistaking her speed to get to the hotel as her going on a run.

*****

FOGGLE TOWERS

The doorbell rang as Logan was in the middle of typing up a letter to his Aunt Margo. The light from the computer screen bounced off his glasses as he read over his the last part of his letter for errors.

"...I appreciate your offer to hire a contractor to build on a gym on to mom and dad's cabin, but I really feel that it would take away the woodland hideaway aspect of the whole place. Thank you for the idea, though I will have to decline it. I look forward to seeing you at the yearly fiscal meetings."

-Love Logan"

/Looks fine to me./ He hit print and took a sip of his coffee before standing up to answer the door. Margo didn't believe in email because any "average person" could just type words on a keyboard and hit "send". She wanted to resurrect the old tradition of letter writing where the events of the day were described in great three page length details. He despised every minute of it though, having to pretend like coming up with pleasant things to say about his aunt wasn't as painful as having a root canal with no anesthetic.

He did a quick check on the kids who were playing 'soldier' on the floor of the living room with the dog.

"Lucia, hi." Logan opened the door to his mother-in-law standing there in her black overcoat.

Lucia smiled at the younger man, "Hey Logan, is Max around?"

"Sorry Max is attending a conference with one of her girlfriends."

"Oh" Lucia stated, "I just wanted to give her something. I can come back-"

He extended his arm to let her know she was still welcome. "Please. She should be back in a few hours. why don't you just leave it here?"

"Thanks" she stepped inside the penthouse, her black high heeled zip up leather boots making soft clunking noises as she stepped over the hardwood floor at the entrance way.

"Would you like some coffee?" Logan asked.

"Yeah that would be great hon thanks." She slid off her coat to reveal a ribbed boat necked "coffee-with-cream" colored sweater and boot cut dark rinse jeans. She took a seat at one of the two black wrought iron stool sitting under the counter where it jutted out into the living room. "I went down to this little vintage shop on Thirty Second Street and look what I found-" she held up a little "Diesel" black zip up baby hoodie. "Isn't it cute? I found it after the baby shower and didn't have the chance to give it to her since work has been a major stress builder." This was the first grandchild Lucia would get to see be born, and she was excited at the prospects of it.

"That is cute", Logan agreed, handing Lucia a blue mug with coffee in it.

"It's a shame they don't market Diesel anymore," She took a sip of her coffee. The company had gone bankrupt in 2015 and all the remaining clothes in all the chain stores hand been snapped up by greedy customers in a sale. "Cause honey, there were some fly outfits in that place. I remember when Rick and I were dating I bough this low cut black dress with a lace up corset top from there during their closeout sale, dropped that man's eyes to the ground. Is it a wonder he proposed to me the next night?" She laughed at the memory, and then looked back to the small hoodie in her hands. "I want my granddaughter to be stylin' like her momma. Max would've knocked out everything on those racks."

"Nana!" two sets of feet came running towards Lucia.

She set down her coffee and caught the first grandchild that jumped on her, which happened to be Lexi. "Hey!" she settled her in her lap and kissed her face "You get prettier every time I see you baby" she turned to look at Jess who had climbed up into the stool adjacent to her. "And you my man? Where's my hug?" she leaned over and hugged the boy who complied eagerly. "Thanks kiddo. You guys are shooting up like rockets. I bet Jess is gonna be taller then his daddy soon enough."

Lexi squirmed to look Lucia in the face "What am I gonna be Nana?"

"You, my bonita nina (pretty girl), will be just as kickin' as your momma." She kissed her on the head again. "You two excited about having a new sister?"

Lexi nodded excitedly, "Mommy told us her name is going to be Lucia, like you nana!"

Lucia smiled at her enthusiasm. "That's cool huh? Wanna see what I got for the baby?"

Lexi nodded again, looking in wonder at the article of baby clothing Lucia held in her hand "It's a little hoodie I found at store down town. She'll be stylin.'"

"Like momma?" Lexi asked.

Lucia shook her head "DEFINITELY like momma."

"Am I stylin' too nana?" Jesse asked from his stool in his blue jeans and green high necked sweater.

"You're stylin' too baby," Lucia reassured. "You're gonna drive the girls crazy one day."

Jess made a face. "There's too many girls around me already." He was talking about his sister, his mother, Cindy, Kendra, plus his four aunts and Asha.

"There are not!" Lexi retorted.

"Are too smelly head!" Jess cried back.

"Are not poopy ichin!"

"Ichin?" Lucia looked at Logan for clarification.

"She means "urchin" Logan corrected, giving a reprimanding look to his children. "And guys, nana didn't come over hear to listen to you two fight. Try and be nice to each other okay?"

"She started it!" Jess pointed a finger at his sister.

"Did not!" Lexi returned.

"Okay you two that's enough" Logan ordered.

"But daddy-" Lexi started in again, she was defiantly her mother's daughter when it came to her argumentative skills.

"Alexis Marie Cale-" He warned her not to say anything more. He walked over to Lucia and picked up his daughter from her lap. "You know you're wearing such a pretty sweater. It'd be a shame to ruin it with that scowl on your face."

"Aunt Kendra said I turn heads." Lexi reminded, looking down at her yellow sweater, feeling the knitted wool with her small hand.

"Oh defiantly," Logan gave her a sloppy kiss on the forehead.

Lexi wiped it off with her right hand "Daddy that's icky."

"Sorry," he apologized. "Then I guess it'd be better down here," he lifted up her sweater and blew a raspberry on her stomach.

"Daddy stop that tickles!" Lexi said around a fit of giggles. "Nana help!"

"Oh I'll help sweetie," Lucia got up from the stool "Does this help enough?" she started to tickle the back of the little girl's neck with both hands. Lexi was squealing now.

"Hello?" No one but Jesse had heard the phone ring, so he gone to answer answered it. "He's right here" Jess was getting very mature for four years old. On the phone he sounded just like his mother "Daddy it's Alec-"

Logan turned to his son. "Did he say what he wants?"

"To talk to you," Jess sounded like Logan should have known that. He was his mother's son in more ways then one.

/This third character better take a little after me or I'm going to go insane with three miniature versions of Max running around./ Logan took the phone from his son. "Thanks kiddo."

"Logan?"

"Ye-ah" he drew out the word, annoyed that Alec had just stated the obvious.

"Have you turned on the news lately?"

"No why? And is this the only reason you called my house, to ask about the news?"

"Okay I admit it; I called to drop the news that I'm the father of Max's baby."

"Alec you have three seconds to give me a legitimate reason for calling before I come hunt you down-"

"Logan I don't have time to divulge into your fantasy world right now. There's a situation at that hotel where Max is at, a hostage situation."

Logan's heart about stopped when he heard that. He covered the receiver with is hand "Luc turn on the TV."

His mother-in-law grabbed the silver RCA remote and switched on the screen. There was an image of the outside of the Steinlitz Hotel parking lot swarming with police officers and military vehicles. A female reporter was doing a voice over about the scene unfolding.

"The May 22nd movement takes its name from the birthday of terrorist Theodore Kaczynski known as the Unabomber who, for three decades, in the late 20th Century was responsible for the murder of dozens of people through out the United States. Movement founder Jon Darius praised Kaczynski's methods as "a call to arms against modern technology." Darius' own list of gruesome accomplishments includes blowing up bio-testing laboratories to, in his words, "liberate the masses from a corrupt Martial Law government which encourages genetic engineering with lab rat experimentation on human subjects.'"

Lucia walked closer to the TV, her eyes fixed on the screen. "What kind of shits are these people? They're protesting the wasting of a little boy's life to science, but they're willing to sacrifice all those other lives including MY daughter and unborn granddaughter to liberate this child?"

"They don't care about the consequences," Logan said, not taking his eyes off the TV screen in case there was any more new information. "All they want is to get their point across and they'll do whatever it takes to accomplish that goal." He picked up the black cordless phone in his office from its base.

"What are you going to do?" Lucia focused her eyes away from the screen for a moment.

"The guy who heads the May 22nd-Darius," he began dialing a familiar number. "I interviewed him a few times before. Maybe I can help out." He broke off when his call connected "Put me through to Detective Matt Sung please."

"Is mommy in there?" Jess had come inside the office and stared at the images of the sharp shooters on the screen.

Lucia grabbed his waist and pulled him into her lap. "Yeah honey." She kissed him. "Mommy's in there. But don't worry, she can take care of herself." She hugged him to her body. "I'm sure she wouldn't want you to worry about her."

"Yeah I understand, thanks." Logan hit the end button on his phone before turning his eyes up to Lucia. "No calls are being forwarded to him at the moment to keep the lines open for Darius and the other terrorists." He stood up and went to grab his coat. "I'm going down there, see if I can get a hold of Sung."

"I'm coming with you." Lucia set her grandson back down on his feet.

"I appreciate the offer Lucia, but I think it's best if I go alone." Logan told her straight out

"I don't think the police will be happy as it is to have a journalist hounding them."

"Max is my daughter," she reminded him. "I can't just sit here on my butt while she's in trouble. And I know how to deal with men like Darius Logan. I've been a hostage negotiator for hire for five years."

Logan looked at her confused, and a little stunned at her proclamation. "I thought you sold insurance over the phone?"

"City pays shit for hostage negotiations honey. I needed something to supplement my income. I don't know what kind of a live wire Darius is, but the cops in this city will be forced to hand this off to military control. And those soldiers only care about getting their man in the end. If a deal isn't reached they'll have no problem of busting in there, guns blazing and take the boy out, even at the cost of hostages' lives." Lucia walked over to where her coat was and slid it

on. "Don't argue with me on this one Logan, you'll loose."

Logan didn't say anything, but the look on his face said enough. This was one battle he couldn't win.

"Daddy?" Lexi pulled on his pant leg with one hand "Is mommy gonna be okay?" her big blue eyes had tears in them.

Logan reached down and picked her up with one arm. "You remember how strong mommy is?" he kissed her nose, watching her give him a nod "She won't let them hurt her."

Lexi hugged him around the neck, resting her head on his shoulder, sharing a scared look with her older brother.

*****

STEINLITZ HOTEL

Several of the women in the conference were now quietly whimpering to themselves, including Kendra who was biting on her lip to try and keep herself quiet.

"Cooperate with us and no one gets hurt," Darius walked up and down the front row of chairs where all the hostages were now sitting on the floor "Our only incentive is to free the boy."

"Free him from what?" Tanaka asked, starring Darius in the face.

Darius stopped pacing and stood right in front of Tanaka, glaring down at him. "From you and your freak show. You've turned him into the poster child for your morally bankrupt techno-state."

"And what do you plan to do with him?" Max growled at him.

"Give him a normal life," Darius turned to face her "A home, a family where he can live like a normal human being."

"And shout slogans and shoot people," Deck added, "I'm sure you have to compete with the Young Communists League." this time no one pointed a weapon in his face.

"What you are doing is wrong!" Tanaka cried out "This boy IS my family!" he stole a glance at Jude who was still sitting beside Max.

"He's your lab rat," Darius corrected.

"You are wrong!" Tanaka returned.

"You dare call yourself this boy's family?" Darius was getting more pissed off. "He's nothing but a prototype to you, a pawn to further your own genetic research, okay? You know NOTHING of family." Darius suddenly turned back in Max's direction and pointed at her. "Maybe she knows," he looked back towards Tanaka. "But you don't, you cold manipulative son-of-a-bitch."

The ringing of a phone broke out over the air of the conference room.

"The police," Lydecker spoke in a soft, but authoritative voice. "Calling to negotiate."

Darius walked to the back of the room and picked up a red touch tone phone that was bolted in place to the wall. "This is John Darius. We're the May 22nd. We're armed and we're holding thirty-five hostages."

"Detective Sung, Seattle PD." Matt Sung spoke into headset attached to his cell phone.

"Well Detective-" Darius began, turning back to look at the group of people sitting terrorized on the floor, "If you try anything." He punctuated each word slowly. "If any of your men come near this building hostages will die."

"I understand." Matt agreed.

"No I don't think you do understand Mr. Sung." Daruis cut in. "There are THIRTY-FIVE lives in your hands. No wait, make that thirty-six if you count the one hostage who's pregnant, and their blood will all be on YOUR hands if my demands are met to the letter."

"What is it you want?" Sung asked.

"We want safe passage for ourselves and the child known as Jude." Darius began listing his demands. "If you don't comply with this request we will kill one hostage every hour."

"What you're talking about is going to take more then an hour," Matt informed.

"You're first hour's already up." Daruis slammed down the phone, turning back to a member of his outfit "Terrene." He nodded over to Tanaka "I have a job for you."

'Terrace', a large burley man dressed in all black shoved Kendra to one side, "Move!"

Kendra whimpered, and got up, moving over to sit by Max and Jude.

Terrene stared Lydecker in the face, and for one brief moment it looked like he was going to grab him by the collar, but instead he yanked Tanaka up on his feet.

Tanaka turned back to take one last look at Jude, who stared at him with eyes as big as saucers "Jude. Be brave."

Terrene and another goon dragged Tanaka up the elevator to the roof of the hotel that was only three stories above them.

Tanaka remained silent for most of elevator the ride, and then spoke up. "What are you going to do?"

The elevator dinged and opened up to the tan colored concrete roof of the Steinlitz Hotel. Tanaka tried to make a run for it but Terrace and the other man grabbed him by the shoulders, and dragged him out.

"What the hell are you doing?" Tanaka cried, then saw that he was being dragged towards the edge of the roof.

"Just showing you the scenery Dr. Mengele." Terrene grabbed Tanaka's legs and hoisted him over the edge of the building.

"No!" Tanaka cried out as he felt himself falling.

*****

Logan had just gotten out of his car when he heard screaming coming from beside the hotel. He and Lucia looked up in time to see someone falling off the roof of the hotel, his body picking up speed and finally hitting the pavement below with the sickening sound of bones cracking.

/Holy shit./ Logan's stomach turned at the thought that this could very well happen to Max. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, but all female X5's tended to slow down in agility when they were pregnant, just like any other woman would.

"You have 59 minutes before we do that again," Darius spoke to Sung on the phone inside the conference room.

"Logan!" Cindy waved at him from her standing position behind a police barricade. Lucia pulled Lexi out of her car seat. "Let's go guys-" she turned to her grandson, who was standing on her right. "Hold my hand baby and stay together" There had been no time for them to find a baby sitter so the two children had to come along. She and Logan made their way over to the barricade where the police were holding back the crowd that had gathered in front of the hotel.

"Did you find out anything?" Cindy looked at the man with a shit scared expression on her face after having just witnessed a man being thrown off the roof. "None of the body armor cops will drop any 411 on my ears."

Logan took his daughter from Lucia and handed her over the barricade to Cindy. "Take them." he released his grip on Lexi's body after she was safely in Cindy's arms. "I'll see what I can find out."

"Hey c'mon on this side of the concrete my man." Sketchy coaxed Jesse over to him with a wave from a black bicker glove clad hand. "you'll probably get wiped out by all the Kevlar if you stand there."

Jesse turned to his father. "Daddy-"

"Go over with Aunt Cindy sweetheart." Logan ordered gently, watching as Jess finally complied and crawled under the barricade to stand between Sketchy and Cindy. "I want you and your sister to stay there okay?"

"Are you gonna go get mommy?" Lexi asked from Cindy's arms.

Cindy looked down at the girl. "You momma will be aiight suga. Ya dads knows what he's doin'" she kissed her on the head before looking up to Logan. "As soon as you get the hook up on any new info, drop it in my direction."

"I will." Logan agreed, before turning around to look for Det. Sung.

"I'm sorry Sir-" a man dressed in green fatigues held his gloved hand out to prevent Logan from going forward "This is a restricted area, I'm going to have to ask you to step back."

"Matt!" Logan finally spotted Sung a few yards away in a gray trench coat taking with another officer.

Sung turned at the sound of his name. "Let me know if another call comes in."

"You got it." the other officer replied as Sung turned to walk over to Logan.

"I need some answers about what's going on." Logan stated.

"There's not much I can tell you right now Logan-"

"Anything you have would be helpful Detective," Lucia put in beside Logan.

Sung turned to the woman beside Logan. "And you are?"

"Lucia Weston." Lucia introduced herself "Hostage negotiator."

Sung turned to the Private who was standing by the barricade. "They're okay." The man stepped aside to allow Logan and Lucia to pass by the barricade.

"Max was at this conference." Logan told Sung as the three of them walked past countless police cars and camo green military jeeps. "Along with a friend of hers, Kendra Ashton."

"A few folks managed to get out when this shit started." Sung looked down at the clipboard he was holding in his hand, frowning a bit before looking back up to Logan "Still unaccounted for. I'm sorry."

"Have their been any demands? Lucia asked Sung.

"They want safe transport for them and the kid Tanaka was doing his research on." Sung responded "They threaten to kill on hostage every hour on the hour until these demands are met. We've already had to peel the late Dr. Tanaka off the pavement after being dropped from thirty stories."

"Daruis is a very serious man," Logan informed his friend, "And a very dangerous one."

"We gather that now Logan," Sung agreed. "But we're at a very delicate point right now. The military boys are about to take over this operation, and if we can't get Darius to agree to release the thrity-four live hostages he still has they'll have no problem treating these people like disposable commodity in order to get to him."

"Has anyone had contact with him since Tanaka's death?" Lucia asked, sliding into her position as a negotiator. "Try and get him to let some of the hostages go?"

"No one around he has even attempted it after Tanaka was flung off the roof." Sung said, his tone laced with a hint of anger, "I think the military's just looking for any excuse to charge in there. We're getting a baseline set up with the hotel phone system. Since you work in hostage negotiations Ms. Weston maybe you could give it a shot."

"Let my son-in-law have a shot at it first." Lucia glanced at Logan out of the corner of his eye "He said he knows Darius."

Sung shot Logan a look, he never knew that they were related, but he was more interested in how Logan knew John Darius. "How do you know this man?"

"I interviewed him a few years back," Logan stated. "He wanted someone to get his message out for his hatred of political anarchy."

"Let me get you set up in the surveillance van. Sergeant Waters-" he caught the attention of a soldier dressed in green fatigues and a maroon beret. The large burly man was standing outside an opened black van containing surveillance equipment with a black M-20 strapped diagonally to his mid section.

Sung and the other two walked over to the van. "I got a man who knows Darius." Sung addressed the sergeant. Name's Logan Cale, he's willing to try and talk to him."

Waters stared at Logan with as much respect as an ant would get from a kid with a magnifying glass. "Just how do you know this clown, Darius?"

"I interviewed him a few years back for a story." Logan answered "And he's not a clown, he's highly intelligent, and obviously very dangerous."

"If he was so dangerous why didn't you turn the bastard in when you got the chance and saved everyone the trouble?" Waters asked before speaking into his shoulder communication unit "What's the ETA on those sharp shooters?"

"An hour away Sir," came a crackly voice on the other end.

"Well I'm a journalist not a police officer." Logan reminded Waters.

"And as a journalist Mr. Cale you have no involvement in this matter."

"And you have no credibility to a man who's holding a group of innocent hostages." Logan spat back "As a solider you represent everything he despises."

"And as a soldier I intend to do my job."

"You deem creating a shooting gallery with thirty-four innocents to get to one man as part of your job Sergeant?" Lucia finally spoke up. She had no respect for the way the military had corrupted itself. "This man might be willing to listen to reason if you or any of your trigger happy unit would give the opportunity a shot."

"You can't reason with terrorists ma'am," Waters growled at her.

"Maybe I can convince him I can get his message across," Logan tried to talk to Waters again.

"The man just killed someone and you want to give him a bigger audience?"

"We should give it a shot Sgt." Sung broke in "We all want the same thing, to free those hostages. Ms. Weston here is a professional hostage negotiator. If Mr. Cale can't reason with Darius we can use her as back up." He didn't mention the fact that Logan was married to one of the hostages. Waters might see it as "personal involvement" and deny them access.

"Fine," Waters retorted with a huge sigh. "But you better keep your people under control, Detective. I'm not letting any two bit civilian amateurs mess up my operation." He stepped inside the van's interior. "Get Darius on the phone"

"Yes Sir" a private sitting at a switchboard responded, dialing the number inside the hotel.

*****

STEINLITZ HOTEL

The young blonde usherette who had volunteered as a movement member just last week stood next to Darius in the back of the room. "How can we kill one person every hour?" she asked in a low voice "I never agreed to that, it's crazy. We were just suppose to free the boy."

"Are you questioning me?" Darius snapped at her.

"Yes" the woman retorted. Snd was about to say something else when the phone in the back rang again.

Darius walked cooly over to it and picked it up. "You better be calling to tell me that our transport is ready."

"Mr. Darius, this is Logan Cale." Logan's voice came over the phone.

Darius adapted an almost whimsical look on his face. "Logan Cale-"

From the front of the room Max could hear the entire conversation and her head turned at the mention of her husband's name. She had moved to sit in the front row of folding chairs because it had began to hurt her back sitting on the floor.

"It's been a long time." Darius addressed Logan "How'd you get drafted for this assignment? You sleep with a publicist or something?"

"That's not important. What's more important is the safety of all those hostages."

"And you have thirty-three minutes Mr. Cale or there'll be one less one to worry about." Daruis barked into the phone.

Kendra whimpered again after hearing Darius' remark. She turned towards Max, moisture behind her eyes. "He's just joking right? He's not really going to kill all of us?"

Max didn't say anything. Kendra took her silence as an answer and rested her head on Max's shoulder "I'm sorry I dragged you here."

"Not your fault girl." Max said in a low voice to her. Beside her Jude sat perfectly still, not even blinking, a emotionless expression on his face.

"He's a brave little soldier." Lydecker analyzed, looking at the boy.

"He's a scared kid," Max shot back.

"Fear accomplishes nothing." Deck turned to face her. "I hope he learns that now if he hasn't already."

"That's that same crap you tried to unload on us back there." Max growled "Just shake it off and move on."

"That boy is a valuable asset," Deck reminded. "It would be a shame to see Tanaka's work go to waste after all his years of research." He turned back to Kendra. "Give me the gun."

Kendra lifted her head off Max's shoulder and removed the top section of her skirt handing off the Sig to Max to hand to Deck.

Max held the gun in her hand, uneasy at the proposition of giving it to him.

/FLASH: They all stood in facing Lydecker, Eva in the lead. She raised the gun she was holding in the air but before she could squeeze off Lydecker took aim and shot her in the chest. Everyone flinched at the sound. Eva fell, the gun dropping from her hand, slidding across the linoleum floor, stopping by Max's feet./

"You will exploit tactical advantage," Deck spoke to Max like they were back at Manticore. "Things will get worse before they get better, you know that. Now hand me the weapon."

Max finally moved her hand and held out the Sig to Deck who took it and tucked it away inside his jacket.

= = = =

POLICE VAN

"You should know Mr. Darius that this won't be a police affair for very much longer," Logan told the terrorist. "The military's involved." He ignored the warning looks Waters was shooting him about keep that part a secret. "And from what I see they're quite anxious to do their thing."

"Doesn't surprise me," Darius began. "They've been hunting us down like animals for the last ten years."

"Then you probably know they're looking for any excuse to come in there locked and loaded to take you out," Logan rationalized. Lucia signaled that she wanted to talk to the man.

Logan handed her the phone without a word.

"John Darius?"

"Who the hell is this?" Darius growled.

"This is Lucia Weston, I'm a hostage negotiator."

"Well you're wasting your time lady because if our demands are not met on time there won't be anything to negotiate about."

"Just calm down Sir," Lucia tried to get Darius down from his rise. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a young man enter the van. He wasn't a cop, and he wasn't a soldier. He looked to be about Max's age, dressed in a blue sweater and brown suede jacket. Waters was too involved with the phone conversation to notice the unauthorized access the man had just made.

"No!" Darius spat back. "You tell those soldiers out there that if they try and come 'Hu-Ah'ing here they'll have a lot of dead hostages on their hands."

"I don't think they care, so long as they have you." Lucia told him straight out. It was all true. The military couldn't care less about lives they deemed expendable for accomplishing their objective.

"Nothing like a good massacre to stir up public opinion against these butchers. People need to know what they've done to this country... The human race... The entire planet."

"What age are you living in Darius?" Lucia growled "No one's ever gonna find out about this. The authorities will turn your martyrdom into a nonevent; everyone will get paid off to forget it in a couple of months. The whole deal will be history that never happened. Is that what you want?" she paused. "Because it doesn't have to be that way. You can get your message out."

"How?"

"Mr. Cale here is willing to set up a broadcast. He has contacts that are willing to tell your story. You have my word on that. But first you need to release the hostages."

"Not a chance in hell," Darius disagreed "They'll storm the building in a second and you know it."

"Then why don't you show the world you really are more compassionate then your enemy?" she asked "Let the women and the boy go."

"I'll think about it" the call disconnected.

"You really think that's gonna work?" Alec's voice startled Waters.

"Who the hell gave you permission to come in here kid?" he walked right up in Alec's face "You better get the hell outta here. Two unauthorized personal botching up this job is more then enough."

"It stands a pretty good shot," Logan answered Alec's question, ignoring Waters. "How'd you hear about this?"

"Uncle Sam blew the whistle after his Class-Nine armored jeeps were blocking the way back to my apartment." Alec informed. "Figured it wasn't time for the annual military parade. There's an usherette position by the door with an M-16 with almost a full magazine, cyanide piercing by the looks of them." he rattled off the information with percision that only came from years of a soldier's lifestlye. You make contact with Max?"

"I figured it would exploit a weakness to admit that I knew one of the hostages personally," Logan reminded.

"Hey!" Waters snapped them back to reality. "I'm the head of this operation. If you three don't start communicating with ME I'm gonna throw your asses out of this van."

"Sharp shooters are in position Sir." a private's voice came over radio in Water's hands.

"Have them set up." Water responded "And give the order to be on ready."

Alec snatched the walkie-talkie from Waters'hand,"Private this is Staff Sergeant Peterson, what's the twenty on the shooters?"

"What the hell are you doing?" Waters demanded.

"We have two positioned on the roof of the hotel and two more along the outer wall Sir." one of the shooters responded to Alec via Water's radio.

"Okay I want you to move the two men on the ground across to the fountain at the front of the hotel. If Darius' men were to eyeball the perimeter they could tip him off on the shooters from their current location." He was actually planing to clear a way to get inside the hotel without getting his ass blown up by armed snipers.

"Copy that," came the staticy reply.

Waters was now furious, his big eyes bulging at Alec like he was about to beat the living crap out of him with his bare hands. "You mind telling what you think you're doing? Who the hell are you anyway?"

"I'm nobody" Alec threw back.

"Damn right you're nobody," Waters agreed. "And you better get your nonexistent ass out of here before I throw you into a brigade under military arrest."

"That'd be a little hard to do considering that all your soldiers are busy at the moment initiating perimeter security. And if this man Darius sees any movement by these guys to escort me out he's gonna go ballistic on your ass." Alec stared down Waters "And I think's that more blood loss then even you care to loose."

"You have a big mouth son-" Waters growled stepping into Alec's face "Now I want your skinny civilian ass out of my van before I do more then just throw you in a brig."

"Hey!" Lucia cut in to break the two men from the confrontation. "Can we get back to the task at hand?"

"Lady," Waters backed down from Alec and turned to her. "There won't BE a task if anymore civilians trespass in this operation." He scratched his chin glistening slightly with sweat and tiny bits of black peach fuzz from the remnants of a shaved beard. "I don't even understand why we need a friggin' hostage negotiator anyway. We already tried reasoning with Darius, but he couldn't be bought. And I'm not going to let this son-of-a-bitch get away again just to save a handful of people."

"My daughter is one of those handful of people Sgt. Waters." Lucia snarled, she couldn't believe the turn the military had taken. They were suppose to protect civilian life at all cost, not consider them disposable. "And she's pregnant. So if you plan to turn these people into sacrificial lambs to further your own malicious agenda I'm going to go public with how the United States Military ordered the deliberate murder of thirty-five hostages including an woman and her unborn child. It'll be an old fashioned 1960's protest rally all over the streets of D.C."

"If your daughter were smarter she wouldn't be in this mess Ms. Weston." Waters returned after Lucia's tirade. "And all your ranting afterwards on the matter won't mean a thing. Nobody listens to protestors anymore."

"Oh they'll listen to me" Lucia threatened.

The phone rang again, and this time Lucia picked it up. "Yeah?"

"Bring me Cale and I'll let the women go."

"What about the boy?" Lucia asked.

"I'm a compassionate man lady, not a stupid one. I want a guarantee that there will be a safe transport waiting for my organization and the boy. Do this and I'll live up to my end of the bargain. If Cale isn't inside in the next ten minutes the deal will terminate." the line went dead.

"What'd he say?" Logan asked after the call disconnected.

Lucia turned to him. "If you go in as a good faith gesture he'll let the women go. But he wants security. Safe passage for the others and Jude to a civilian air strip before he releases the other hostages."

"Excuse me if that deal sounds tainted," Alec spoke up. "After they get him inside what's to stop them from fulfilling their terrorist job description?"

"Right now it's the best chance we have for getting at least some of the hostages out Alec," Logan threw back.

"He's not getting any escort out of here," Waters notified to the group "Not a chance in hell."

"Just one step at a time then," Logan said. "Let me go in and talk to him. Face to face."

"Let's be clear on two things:" Waters threw back. " I don't have to honor any deals you make and I can't guarantee the safety of an untrained civilian."

"That's never stopped you before." Alec returned from his spot next to the van's equipment.

"I just want to seize whatever chance we have to get some of the hostages out unharmed." Logan spoke out.

"I can't offer you any protection in there." Waters notified.

"I'm not asking you too" Logan shot back.

= = =

A few minutes later Logan was crossing the street heading to the Steinlitz Hotel entrance. A few of the armed terrorists came out of the building meeting Logan halfway "Mr. Cale, Darius is expecting you."

"Great I get an entourage," Logan stared at the weapons in the men's hands. They were pointed down to the ground, but they still had their fingers poised on the trigger.

"Move fast." One of the men raised his weapon at Logan's chest. "Any funny business and this deal will terminate right here." they walked behind Logan pushing him the rest of the way to the hotel.

*****

INSIDE THE HOTEL

Darius walked slowly to the front of the conference room. "Since we are fighting for humanity, we're making a gesture of humanity. The women are free to go."

Kendra's eyes closed in relief. She pulled herself up off the floor and offered a hand to Max.

"You'll be escorted to the lobby," Darius went on. "Any games and you will be shot."

"Come on honey." Max put her arm around Jude and began walking out with the other women.

Darius stopped her. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"We're taking him with us." Max looked at him coldly.

"No you're not," Darius growled. "The last time I checked this kid was not a woman, and I just said that only the women are free to go."

"Then I'm staying here. With him." Max tightened her arm around the boy's shoulders.

"Max no!" Kendra hissed, trying to run forward but one of the May 22nd members aimed his gun on her, halting her movement.

"I wouldn't advise that." He pushed Kendra back with the side of the weapon.



Darius smiled sardonically at Max. "That's very noble lady. But also very stupid." He yanked the boy away from her. "Come on Jude."

Jude looked to Max with big eyes. He had just met her, but already he was starting to bond with the woman. She was the closet thing to a mother he had ever known.

"Move!" another terrorist pointed his AK-47 at Max's back "And this time no more of your crap." He pushed Max forward with the butt of his gun. The other women were already scrambling out of the conference room and down the long maroon carpeted hallway.

Max felt someone looking at her and turned her head around to see Logan walking down the hall about thirty feet away from her being escorted by two terrorists dressed in black suits.

Logan locked eyes with Max and shook his head, mouthing the words "Go". He saw something in her eyes that told him she was about to do something dangerous./Don't do anything rash baby, you're pregnant, you can't move as fast./

Max kept her eyes on him for a few more seconds before turning her head back around.

"Isn't that-"Kendra turned her head real quick to sneak a peek at Logan.

"Yeah," Max agreed. "I'm gonna go say 'hi'. Don't tell." She slowed down her pace.

"Keep moving!" one of the armed men ordered, cocking his rifle. He had seen Max starting to slow down.

The women were led over to a carpeted stairway. Max staggered behind them, walking slowly down the steps. She slipped her foot out, pretending to have tripped. "Ow! My ankle!" she fell back against the wall, landing in a sitting position beside the stairs.

One of the men escorting the women out turned to the other "Stay with them. I'll take care of this."

Kendra turned around in time to see Max on the floor. Her eyes went wide "Max-"

"Move!" The other terrorist shoved her forward with his gun, pushing her into some of the other women.

"Get up," the man staring down Max ordered her.

Max grabbed her foot with both hands and looked up to him with what she hoped he considered "doeful eyes" "I think I twisted it."

In an act of sudden compassion the man held out his hand to her "Here."

She reached up and took his hand. "You're such a gentlemen." She faked a gracious voice, but instead of getting up she grabbed his arm hard and slammed him against the wall. He hit it hard, smacking his head on the white concrete wall before rolling down the stairs, unconscious. "To bad I'm not a lady."

A hand covered itself over her mouth. She struggled to yank herself free and attack whoever it was.

"Max relax it's me."

Max pulled the hand off her mouth. "Alec what the hell are you doing?" she stared the other X5 in the face. Her confusion was evident on her face, along with livid anger for having him treat her like a female victim in a campy 1950's kidnapping movie.

"I didn't know if you still had any trigger happy company." Alec looked down at the unconsciousness man. "Though I can see you have it covered. But that whole "help me Mr. Big Strong man, I seem to have twisted my ankle'" crap almost made me toss my cookies."

Max ignored his remark. "Where are they taking Logan?"

"How the hell should I know?" Alec informed, "He went and offered himself as a substitute kill in place of the women. You really need to let your lover boy know that chivalry died over four hundred years ago."

"Did you see which direction they went in?"

"They went back to the conference room.From what I see Darius is none too happy at seeing Logan. He must have met him before."

"Alec shut up and-" his hand covered her mouth again. This time he put a finger to his lips to get her to keep quiet, hearing footsteps coming towards them in the hallway.

Max heard the same sound after a few moments, turning her head towards the source of the noise.

Alec slowly lowered his had from her mouth, signaling with his hand for her to double back down the same hallway she had just left. He immediately took the lead, stepping in front of Max and checking in both directions for any movement. They had both had the same level of training at Manticore, but Alec knew that Max being pregnant made her vulnerable and if she went first it would be a grave tactical error.

Max knew this too, which is why she didn't care that Alec was now keeping close tabs on blocking her as they went down the long carpeted hallway she had just been shoved down. They were both trying to protect their weakest link, her baby.

/Hate to think this, but Alec might make a good dad one day, or a body guard for Gary Coleman./

They were halfway down the hallway when one of the terrorists spotted them, and took aim with his gun.

Alec turned his head quickly to see that another one was positioned at the other end, mimicking his partner's position. "Don't move you two, put your hands where I can see them!"

Alec turned to face one of the men. "I'm sorry I thought this was the way to the bathroom." Alec began walking to the man "My wife seems to have no sense of direction anymore. You know how women can be while they're like this." He kicked him in the chest, knocking him down to the ground, snatching his weapon. "On second thought you look like a bachelor to me." He knocked him out with the butt of his gun.

"Hands in the air ma'am!" the other terrorist aimed his gun on Max. "I don't want to shoot someone in your condition but I will if you don't cooperate."

"Are you hittin' on a pregnant woman?" Max stepped right up in the guys face.

True to his words he didn't make a move. "I said stay right there!" He was not much older then her. Brainwashed by the 22nd Movement the same way Hitler brainwashed hundreds of scared kids into joining the Third Reich.

"Ya know that's not how you rack up points with the honeys." Besides if ya really wanna hit on someone-" she took aim with her fist, dealing him a fierce blow right across his face. "That's the only way to do it" he fell to the ground at her feet "But thanks for the offer." She picked up his gun and unloaded the magazine, stuffing the clip into one of the pockets in her jacket.

She walked over to Alec who was checking the rounds on the gun he had lifted off the other guy.

"Remind me to kick your ass for that remark after we get outta here."

"Remind me to care," Alec cocked the gun he was carrying and continued walking down the hallway, stepping over the body of the man he had taken down.

*****

"I'm sick of hearing all this chivalrous bull," Darius circled Logan who stood in front of the room a few feet away from the first row of chairs. "Offering yourself in the place of the ladies. What I don't understand is why you left your noble white steed at home."

"I'm an old fashioned guy," Logan threw back. It was then that he noticed Lydecker sitting in the seat directly in front of him. Deck didn't say a word, didn't even give the slightest hint that he knew the other man.

"And also very crazy for getting mixed up in this" Darius stopped circling and stood right in front of Logan. "You do this kind of thing all the time? Putting your ass on the line for a bunch of people you don't even know?"

"It's called having a conscience," Logan interjected, "You should try using yours sometimes."

"Why do you think I'm here?" Darius was getting mad at this discussion. "Think I'm just going to sit around and watch Tanaka continue to perform inhumane experiments on a seven year old boy all for the sake of some research that will just get disprove in two or three years?"

"You want to talk about inhumane Darius, how about throwing a man off the roof of a thirty-four story hotel?"

"Tanaka deserved what he got," Darius growled. "The man is a scientist, not a parent. His only intentions for that boy were to advance his own selfish agenda. I didn't do anything that he didn't already have coming to him."

= = =

SCENE OUTSIDE OF THE HOTEL

All of the women began scrambling out of the hotel, Kendra lagging somewhere in the middle of them. Her eyes were still dazed, as she looked frantically into the night for something.

"Kendra!" Cindy called out to her friend from the barricade, holding onto Alexis.

Kendra started to run forward, but one of the sector cops held her back.

"It looks like she's okay," Sketchy analyzed to Cindy.

"Max is still inside!" Kendra shouted to her friends when she couldn't get to them.

"Ma'am this is still a dangerous area" the sector cop began herding Kendra and the other hostages back of a military convoy truck. "We need to evacuate you to a safe location immediately."

"You gotta be kidding," Sketchy looked dazed at Kendra's remark "Damn sons of bitches. They released all of the other women-"

"Where's mommy?" Jesse looked up to Cindy with large eyes "Why isn't she here yet?"

Cindy touched his head "She just got delayed." She ruffed up his hair, trying to sound nonchalant about it.

Jess could see right through Cindy's voice, there was something about it that he didn't like.

"You're lying!" He ducked underneath the barricade and ran off amidst the police officers.

"Jesse!" Cindy tried to follow him, but a sector cop held her back. "This is a restricted area ma'am I'm going to have to ask you to stay back."

"Jess, come back here!" Cindy kept calling after the boy.

Waters poked his head out of the surveillance van and spotted Jess running around by the feet of his soldiers. "What the hell? Get that kid out of here!"

"You need to go back behind the barricade-" one of the soldiers grabbed Jesse's hand.

Jess whirled on him and grabbed his arm in both hands, shoving the soldier down hard enough that the 5'9 man fell to the ground.

The other soldiers around him didn't know how to react to a four year old in their area, and three of them aimed their automatic rifles on him.

"No!" Lucia spotted them and jumped out of the van, pushing into the group of soldiers and shielded her grandson from their aim with her body. "What the hell are you doing?" she looked down to Jess. "You okay sweetie?"

"He tried to grab me nana" Jess spoke out, pointing at the man on the dirt.

Lucia looked at the man struggling to get to his feet with all of his gear on before turning back to Jesse with a surprised look on her face.

"This is a restricted area ma'am." the soldier growled, "Any non personnel needs to be behind the barricades."

"He's just a little boy!" she spat back to the "What the hell are you doing taking aim with assault rifles on him?"

"Kid shouldn't be here in the first place." The solider had finally gotten up on his feet, and there was mud stuck to his fatigue flack jacket.

"You were planning to shoot at a four year old boy for walking in front of you? Or are you just forgetting all the news crews here who are salivating over any chance at turning you into the new spokesman for Post-Pulse Military Brutality?" The military had become a lot of awful things since the Pulse, but stupid wasn't one of them. She knew that so long as the media frenzy continued they wouldn't risk the exposure by committing one of their acts of planned cruelty.

"Just keep him away from this area," the man growled, turning around in a huff, not wanting to face the fact that a four year old had just hauled him one.

"Jess honey, your daddy and I told you to wait behind the barricades with the others. You could've been hurt very badly." Lucia didn't say anything to the fact that he had just thrown a full grown man at least three times over his body weight to the ground in a single move.

"Mommy's not okay is she?" Jesse's words were completely deadpan, no anger, no sadness, nothing.

"She's fine Jess" Lucia reassured.

"No she's not! Why does everyone lie to me nana?" Jess's angry reply was so grown up that for one instant Lucia thought she was talking to Max instead of him.

"Baby she's FINE," Lucia's tired to calm him down, moving to rough up his hair but he jerked away.

"Please tell me for real nana," Jess was pleading with her now.

Lucia sighed. He was a smart boy, and even though he was only four, she felt he deserved to know the truth. And BECAUSE he was so smart she figured he would figure it out on his own eventually.

"I don't know if she's okay sweetie, but if she was in any danger I would know, believe me. She's your mommy, but I'm HER mommy. And mommy's know these things about their kids."

Jess didn't say anything for a long moment, absorbing all this information into his brain. Then he looked up to Lucia with a completely serious look on his face. "Don't tell Lexi kay? She's too little, she'll only get scared."

"I won't baby I promise." She bent down and picked the boy up, kissing his forehead.

"Ms Weston if you're running this hostage negociation shit I suggest you get your ass back in here ASAP!" Waters barked at her from his seat inside the surveillance van.

Lucia sighed again before looking down at Jesse in her arms. "I gotta get back to work honey, but first I'm going to deliver you back to where it's safe."

"That man has a filthy mouth nana," Jess announced when they reached the police barricade.

"Tell me about it." Lucia passed his form over the barricade into Cindy's arm. "He's worried about Max." She told her, responding to the look Cindy had shot her after taking Jess from her.

"We're all worried about her suga," Cindy agreed. "There's some bad shit goin' on up in there."

"No arguments here," Lucia returned. There was a few seconds of silence, then she spoke, "I gotta get back to work. Military's libel to do something idiotic without me as watchdog." She turned around and started heading back towards the police vans.

"Let us know if anything goes down," Cindy called out to the retreating figure.

"I will" Lucia threw out over her shoulder without turning back around. She entered the van, taking a seat next to the Private who was barking out Water's orders to his unit. "Anybody gets a shot. Take it. Aerial units move to jump off position. Await Co-Army command."

"Copy that," a reply came through the radio before the sounds of four rounds from AK-47's filled the air. Two of the terrorists guarding the outside of the hotel, including the blonde usherette, fell to the ground, their weapons falling around them. Spectators began to scream.

Waters reached down and snatched the headset off the Private's ears, "Confiscate the weapons and expand the perimeter thirty yards. I want sharp shooters poised at every exit. Tell them to await my command to enter."

"What are you doing?" Lucia snapped, "You can't send sharp shooters in there now. The situation is still critical."

"That chicken shit's time is up lady," Waters hissed. "I'm through playing his games. This "situation" is now going to be handled my way." He lowered the mic piece of the headset in front of his mouth again. "All unit commanders entrance time is clocked in ten minutes."

"Roger that, moving into position now."

= = =

ROOFTOP

Two sharpshooters lowered themselves from the harness attached to helicopter. After they were cleared the black military helicopter pulled away from the roof.

The soldiers dropped their gear packs and started to attach their cables to hooks on the roof of the building that lifted a door to an escape hatch. But, before the man could attach his metal connecting hook a terrorist shot out from behind the brick structured area surrounding the doorway to the roof. He aimed his weapon on the soldier, firing twice, the soldier fell.

The sharpshooter's partner reached for his gun, but another terrorist took aim and shot him once in the head and twice in the chest.

= = =

"What about the hostages?" Lucia demanded an answer from Waters.

The army sergeant shot her the coldest look she had ever seen. "They're expendable." He ignored her shocked expression. "Our objective is worth more then the cost of a handful of lives ma'am. It's standard protocol."

Lucia couldn't believe what she was hearing. If there weren't soldiers with loaded assault rifles all around her she would've killed the man. She got right up in Water's face, so close she could smell the stale coffee on his breath from his breakfast hours ago. "And you're a standard prick Sgt. Waters-" her eyes shot steel daggers into his. "If my daughter dies in there today because of your warped sense of protocol I will personally beat your ass to the ground."

She stepped back from Waters and turned her fury to the Private. "Get Darius back on the phone."

"Ma'am I'm not under obligation to take orders from you-"

"DO IT!" Lucia bent low, invading his space.

The Private stared at her only briefly before dialing the number, handing her the phone.

After several rings it connected.

"What is it?" Darius snapped over the reciever.

"You're falling like flies Darius. I suggest you drop the mind games and release the other hostages before this turns into a shooting gallery."

"I'll drop the games when I get everything that I want," Darius hissed. "So far your armored pals have only delivered a blockade around our escape route, something that wasn't part of the deal."

"A man with your understanding of today's military should know that they don't always follow through with their deals."

"Well you tell them they better satisfy their end of the bargain or else these remaining hostages will give them the shooting gallery they wanted."

"They don't seem care about that anymore, " Lucia snapped. "You both have more in common then you imagine."

"I tried to tell you all for years that these soldiers were nothing but a bunch of sadists who got paid off to form a gun club for terrorizing the country."

"Yea well that gun club's about to come in their full force and take you down. Some of your members have already been used for target practice."

*****

Darius hung up the phone, cutting Lucia off in mid sentence.

"Max can take care of herself" Deck finally spoke to Logan.

"Forgive me if I worry about the safety of my pregnant wife in a hostage situation." Logan snapped back in a low voice.

"Your pregnant wife is a soldier son," Deck reminded. "Her current medical status is hardly hindering to her capabilities. She was born for situations like this."

"What the hell's going on?" Darius circled Logan until he was staring down directly on him "They've killed some of my people. And their trying to land soldiers on the roof. So much for deals." His anger was over the boiling point. "Their word means nothing." He stared down Logan for the longest moment. "And neither does your life." He turned to Terrance and another unnamed man. "Take him away."

Terrance forcefully grabbed Logan's shirt and yanked him to his feet, aiming his gun at his back. "Let's go."

= = = =

Max and Alec crept inside the black control room. One of the terrorists was seated at the control panel, starring out of the two-way mirror that looked inside the conference room.

Alec tapped the guy on the shoulder "Sorry this conference is over." He slammed the butt of the rifle in his hands in the man's rib cage.

The terrorist gasped, all the air going out of him and blacked out a second later when Alec punched him in the face, knocking him out.

Max leaned close to the two-way, and caught site of Terrance and the other man dragging Logan out of the room at gunpoint./Shit, why does he have to be so damn gallant?/

Alec was also watching the scene as well. "Doesn't Logan ever get enough of that chivalrous get-himself-killed crap?"

Max didn't answer and ran out of the room, down the hallway just in time to see Terrance pushing Logan down the carpeted hallway with a loaded automatic rifle.

She skulked after them silently, always lagging a good three or four feet behind to keep herself from being noticed.

Terrance and his companion were completely engrossed in their task of completing Darius' dirty work. So one of them looked back around once to spot Max as she follwoed them up to the roof of the building.

Terrance pushed Logan over to the edge of the roof. "This hotel has a great view of the city."

The sounds of the cops and people below reached Logan's ears, and he also came to the sickening realization that from this angle he would hit the triple plated armored roof of a military Humvee that was parked below."I don't think the view's that good." He was trying to stall and also trying to keep himself from loosing it being up so high. Acrophobia wasn't a fear of heights for nothing.

Max silently ran over to the edge and picked up one of the dead sharp shooter's harnesses. She strapped it around her non existent waistline and latching the other end to the metal emergency exit handle that jutted out from the roof. She knew that the force exerted on the harness from the snap back of the rope was dangerous for her to take on directly on her stomach, but she had no choice. If the harness were placed any lower there wouldn't be enough stability to hold her weight.

"Why don't you see for yourself?" Terrance grabbed at Logan's legs before he could make a move and heaved him over the side of the hotel.

Max immediately dove over the edge after him, hearing the screams of the people below watching.

The rope made an airy "swishing" noise as it unraveled after her. She kept her feet down straight to pull her body down faster and reached out her hand to Logan.

He managed to close the gap between them and grab at her hand, his body sliding behind hers right as the rope reached it's limit snapping to a harsh stop like a bungee jumping cord.

Max sucked in her breath when the rope dug into her body, feeling like someone had punched her in the abdomen. Looking above her she spotted Terrance undoing the harness chain from the roof.

She turned her head back and spotted a window at the same level they were suspended from. She seesawed her body causing them to swing towards it. She held out her foot and kicked in the window pane before they broke through so they wouldn't be cut to pieces on shattered glass.

The impact of crashing through flung them both through the window and landed them hard on the double bed inside the hotel room.

"You all right?" Logan got out, staring up at her sprawled out on top of his body.

"You okay?" Max's word's tripped over her husband's. "What the hell do you think you're doin' sacrificing yourself for us?" her tone shifted from concerned to pissed off. "Are you completely stupid or do you just have a death wish?"

"You might try thanking me," Logan got out, looking up into her eyes, not voicing the fact that he was extremely relieved that she was okay. She wouldn't want to hear anything like that now, she was too mad.

She glowered at him "Me thank YOU? Are you completely whacked our something,-" she broke off with a hiss when a spasm hit her abdomen. She grabbed at her stomach, pulling herself off of his body, sliding in the empty spot beside the bed.

"Are you okay?" he leaned closer to see what was the matter.

"Just a little bruised," she hissed taking off the harness from around her body.

Logan lifted up the hem of hem of her button up top and revealed a thin rope length bruise already spreading across the stretched skin of her belly. "You put this thing around you're waist?" His voice was shocked. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that is for the baby?"

"Yes I'm aware of how dangerous that is, but it's not like I had a choice." she hissed again when he probed the discoloration with his fingers. " I wasn't just gonna sit idly by while my husband took a header off of a thirty-four story building."

"To which I am eternally grateful, but it was an incredibly risky procedure." the look in his eyes had changed. He was reprimanding her for endangering herself and their baby to save him, but he had just risked his neck for her.

She gave a slight shrug. "No pain no gain." Her breath sucked in again because she was now really starting to feel the entire length of the bruise.

"I'm going to get you out of here." He stood up from the bed and pulled her up on her feet beside him.

"I'm fine." Max informed, "Jude is still out there."

"No. You're five months pregnant and your hurting from a from the impact of a harness after diving off of a high rise, you're NOT fine."

"Those goons out there only want Jude as new blood for their Wacko-Vigil-Anti Terrorist Organization. He'll be just another kid totin' around Seattle with a loaded M-16 for The Cause unless we get to him in time."

"Baby-"

"Don't baby me unless you plan to help me Logan," Max snapped back, glaring at him. "I'm not leaving that kid out there pegged as fresh meat. Is that somethin' so hard to wrap your head around?"

He sighed inwardly knowing that this was a battle he could never win. Max would stand her ground to the death over a cause she believed in. "Just go save the bo- "

Before he could get all the words out Max grabbed his face, pulling him down to her for a long hot kiss. She pulled back after about ten seconds, breathless.

"Be careful," he touched her face briefly.

She brushed her lips against his briefly, before backing away to head out the door. She paused briefly at a gold plated full-length mirror to brush the dirt off her sleeves and straighten out her jacket.

Logan couldn't help the smile that came to his face at the procedure. They were in a dire hostage situation but she still found the time to check herself out.

Max opened the door slowly, peeking out to see if the hallways were clear. "Girl's gotta look good." She threw back as she turned around to face him, and then quietly slid out the door and down the hallway. She moved soundlessly down the plush carpet stopping at every hallway cross section to check if she had any visitors. She soon stepped silently into the fire escape stairs and made it up two flights of stairs before spotting an armed man standing at the landing on the floor where the conference room was contained.

"Hey!" The man spotted her and squeezed off several rounds from his gun.

Max dodged the bullets expertly. She ducked one just in time for it to zing into the metal handrail of the stairs inches from her forehead; the bullet smoking from the point of impact. She was on the man before he had the chance to blink.

"Sorry pal, this is a non-smoking facility." She nailed him in between the eyes with a hard punch, knocking him out with a second blow to the side of his head. She unloaded his weapon and stashed it behind a loose faded tile from the drop ceiling. She checked the noise level above her, hearing nothing out of the ordinary. No one had heard her maneuvers. She checked in all directions anyway, just in case, before stepping over the man's body and continuing up the stairs.

*****

"Full Breach Full Breach! Squads are in position!" Waters spoke into his radio "Wait for my signal!"

"You're really into total anarchy aren't you?" Lucia snarled beside him.

Waters released the call back switch on his radio, twisting around to face her. "Ms. Weston I'm going to have to ask you to leave. This matter is no longer under civilian jurisdiction."

"And when the hell was it EVER under civilian jurisdiction Sgt. Waters?" If the old cliche of "looks can kill" were true Waters would have been lying in a puddle of blood at her feet by now.

"Just back the hell off and let us do our job ma'am." Waters looked to the Private. "Ramons, escort Ms. Weston out of here."

"Sorry ma'am you need to leave," Ramons stood up and grabbed her arm, but she jerked him away.

"If you don't want to be the first soldier who ever lost an appendage in a non combat situation Private Ramons I suggest you back off."

The young private released his grip and turned back to Waters. "Sir she doesn't want to leave." He didn't want to admit that Lucia's assertive tone scared the crap out of him. He was a green Private, fresh out of boot camp and Lucia sounded too much like a drill sergeant he had back at Ft. Drum.

Waters gave her a long look before heaving a huge angered sigh "Fine." He pointed at her with a finger with filth under the nail. "But stay the hell out of our way."

*****

"What do you mean he got out?" Darius growled into a cell phone. "He was thrown of a building for cripes sake! Have someone check it out. The goddamn military's already making their move." He hung up the phone and turned back to Terrance.

"Let's get out of here. Grab a hostage."

Terrance cocked his weapon and walked right over into the face of Lydecker. "Time to move old man."

Deck pulled out his weapon, but before he could fire it, Terrance knocked him to the ground with his rifle.

"Come with me Jude." Darius snatched up the scared kid's hand. Jude's eyes became huge as he stared at the gun in Darius's left hand.

The back door to the conference room suddenly burst open causing three men to aim their weapons at it.

Alec strolled in as casually as if he were walking into his own apartment. "Now now boys you know better then to start a party without me." He ducked as they fired rounds at his head, shooting off the rifle he had lifted off another man. Two of the men dropped to the ground the third rushed took aim at him from behind.

"Drop it you little prick!"

"Now why do you have to disrespect me like that?" Alec turned and slammed the muzzle of the rifle into his gut. "All this unnecessary mouthing off is just gonna further piss me off" he picked up the weapon where the man dropped it. "And I don't think you want that." He fired two rounds and the man fell hard onto the carpet.

Darius had enough of the scene. "Come on!" He yanked Jude into the sound booth and closed the door.

The remaining hostages seized this opportunity to flee the area, running out the back door, trampling over the bodies of the two men Alec had shot.

"You always show boat to exploit your enemies weak points soldier?" Deck had regained his composure and stood up from the floor, staring down Alec.

Alec turned confused to the older man "Come again?" he was part of the newer group of X5's that were kept in isolation away from Lydecker per Renfro's orders. He had only heard the name Donald Lydecker in reference to the traitor he was to Manticore.

"I hate to think that after my forced resignation Anna Renfro let Manticore become sloppy in their tactics training." He was now looking directly at Alec, observing his reaction at this remark. "You're the genetic duplicate we made off of X5-494 aren't you?"

"The name's Alec bitch." Alec hissed at Deck. "And don't even catalog my name next to that messed up science experiment freak show I was cloned from. Your propagandist BS doesn't work on me."

"It's because of this propagandist BS that you were able to take down two heavily armed men without breaking a sweat. Without it you'd be the one with boot marks all over his ass."

****

Keep quiet kid," Darius grabbed Jude's mouth, shoving him under a black table behind him. He spotted Max's shadow being cast on the screen by the slide projector that was still turned on.

He opened the sound booth window and shout out sevreal rounds, satisfied when her shadow dropped out of sight.

Convinced that he had either killed or wounded her severely, Darius leaned over the window to spot her fallen form.

A hand tapping his shoulder made him turn around.

"Looking for me?" Max asked elbowing him in the face, then the stomach, watching him double over before corkscrewing her body in the air and kicking him in the chest.

She turned around and spotted Jude cowering underneath the black table, hugging his knees to his body.

"It's okay." She grabbed his arms gently and pulled him out to stand in front of her.

Jude stared out the open glass window, his eyes gazing at the running projector images of Dr. Tanaka teaching him how to walk at three years old.

Max turned back and saw the images on the screen, then looked back to Jude.

"What's going to happen to me now? Where will I go?" Jude's words were sad. He had gone from the amazing seven year old to the scared kid that was hidden underneath all the intelligence.

"It's okay." She knelt down to his level. "You don't have to be brave anymore."

Jude threw his arms around her then, holding onto her like he would never let go.

Max hugged him back just as hard "Let it out." She rubbed his back. "It's all right."

Jude squeezed her impossibly tighter. "Can you be my mom?"

His words were so heart breaking that Max had to take a moment before shaking her head sadly. "I'm sorry baby, but I can help you find a better girl for the job okay?" She ruffled his hair and picked him up, carrying him in her arms out the black emergency exit door that lead outside.

*****

The soldiers cautiously stepped inside just as Darius was dragging himself out of the sound booth.

"On the ground now horse shit!" A soldier took aim at Darius, running over and kicking him in the chest when he didn't move as fast as the solider wanted.

"Base this is Unit Four. Subject is down." He kicked Darius in the stomach, pleased at the grunt he omitted.

The remaining four soldiers in the group joined in with their unit member, kicking the downed man with their steel toed boots.

"Hey!" Deck approached the group of soldiers, pulling out his military ID "Hey! What are you men doing?"

"We're interrogating the prisoner." a tall soldier dealt Darius another blow with his boot.

"Under the laws of this country this individual is entitled to due process." The soldiers immediately came to attention after seeing Deck's ID. He was now diretly in front of the men. "You want him showing up for an arraignment like this?"

"No Sir" the same solider responded.

"You want the judgment of your Co-Army Commander, the credibility of your military undermined by your reckless behavior?" Deck got right up in the soldier's face, unfastening the front holster in his flack jacket and removing his issued revolver, cocking it. He glanced down seeing Darius writhing on the ground.

"No Sir."

"Neither do I." Deck fired the gun directly into Darius' chest. "Problem solved." He handed the black weapon back to the soldier. "What happened here today solider?"

"The suspect opened fire and we had to return it, he was killed in the crossfire." the Private caught Deck's hidden meaning to cover up Daruis's execution.

Lydecker turned his attention to Alec who hadn't even flinched when Darius was killed. He had witnessed these things too many times. "You can collaborate on this story son?"

Alec stared down at the body oozing blood from a single gunshot wound to the chest. "I didn't see a thing." He wasn't lying either. Right before Darius was shot Alec had averted his eyes so he wouldn't witness the event. As soldiers they were taught never to lie under direct interrogation unless ordered too. But they could use whatever means necessary to keep any truths that could be used against them away from their direct knowledge. Alec wasn't one a good little Manticore solider anymore, he jus didn't want to face the military interrogating to get him to lie about his eye witness account.

"You perform your tasks very efficiently soldier."

"Thank you Sir." the Private immediately thought Lydecker was talking about him; missing completely the glance over the Colonel was giving Alec.

Alec stared at Deck hard for a brief moment before simply walking out the back door that had been flung open by the sharp shooters.

Deck pulled out his silver wireless phone, hitting a speed dial number. "This is Lydecker, I need a level three security sweep. Be at the Steinlitz Hotel in fifteen minutes." He hung up, turning back to the young Private "Prepare the body for transport."

"Yes Sir."

*****

"Where are we going?" Jude looked up to Max who was still holding him in her arms. His eyes were questioning, weary, afraid.

Max glance down to the small boy. "Somewhere safe." She stepped back down onto the street, shielding Jude's face from view of the police and the military. If either of them saw him out with her he would be taken away to god knows where, maybe even experimented on.

"Max!"

She turned and saw Cindy behind the barricade, relief evident in her face that her friend was okay.

"Mommy mommy!" Lexi squirmed in Cindy's arms as she struggled to get down. Cindy lowered her to the ground and both her and Jesse ran over the concrete in a beeline for Max.

Max set Jude back down gently on his feet and moved to embrace her children when they jumped her. She kissed them both on top of their head, picking up Lexi and holding Jess to her with one hand who squeezed her leg in a death grip. Jude looked on this scene the whole time, a silent envy in his eyes, but muted by more powerful emotions of longing.

Cindy stepped over to Max. "You okay Suga?" Her eyes gave away her concern.

Max nodded, falling into the hug her friend gave her. She pulled back after a moment "How's Kendra?"

"She's aiight. Girl was trippin' with worry over you." There was a pause. "She wasn't the only one." Cindy fell silent as Lucia approached them, walking directly over to Max.

"So I take it the conference wasn't that big of a hit?" Lucia was just like Max in admitting worry. She was so relieved that she was alive, but right now she just engaged in casual conversation because she didn't have any other way to deal with all the swirling emotions in her. She wasn't a throw her arms around someone and weep kinda lady.

"Not what I expected." Max pulled Lexi up higher on her body when she started to slide. "But nothing in my life is."

Lucia had to smile at that. "Honey I could've told you that a long time ago." she leaned forward and hugged her this time, because she was her mother and mother's worry.

*****

"What do you mean they transported the body?" Waters stared down the young Private. The police had already started clear out and move the media crews back.

"The orders were to-"

"What orders" Waters cut him off. "Who gave the goddamn fucking orders to remove a suspect without my go ahead?"

"A Colonel Lydecker Sir." the Private responded. "He-" a pause "helped ascertain the prisoner and ordered the transport."

"Where the hell too?" Waters growled.

"The Colonel wouldn't disclose that information Sir."

"I want you to track down this Colonel Private." Waters pointed a finger at his chest.

= = =

Lydecker sat a dozen yards away in his tan Lexi's LSI, listening to the conversation over the tiny bug he planted on the handle of the Private's Sig Sauer.

"I want to ask him about his god damn orders." Water's voice broke over the audio feed on Deck's open laptop computer.

"Yes Sir."

A tapping at his window made him roll it down to a Staff Sergeant in green fatigues "Daruis body had been cleared for transport back to base."

"Alert them of our arrival. I want him in a containment facility ASAP."

"Right away Sir." the sergeant backed away from the car and pulled out his radio "Central command, relaying message.."

*****

FOGGLE TOWERS

Max knelt down next to Jude, who was staring at the front door of their apartment. He had stayed with them overnight.

"When is he coming?"

"Soon honey." Max ruffed up his hair "You'll like him I promise" she kissed the side of his head.

He turned to her "How long do I have to stay there?"

"Until you can find a permanent home." Logan had already been looking for foster parents for Jude, but it was a slow process. She had no problem with him staying with her and Logan except she was afraid that someone would recognize her from the conference and track Jude down for some kind of revenge or moneymaking scheme.

A knock on the door made her stand up, slowly pulling herself up on her feet. She had been checked out by Janston in an emergency visit last night. Besides lingering soreness and a massive bruise around her abdomen, she and the baby were fine.

"I didn't know you knew how to knock like a normal human being."

Alec, who was standing outside simply shot her a look. He walked a few feet inside the penthouse before turning back around to face her. "The thing I don't get is, if I saved you're your ass how come I'm doin' you the favor?"

"You still owe me large for that remark you dropped about my "family way'," Max reminded. "And it's not a very sufficient way to get in good with a kid when you talk about him like he's not in the room."

Alec glanced over at Jude who he didn't know was there. The boy stared back at him, curious. "You couldn't leave him with one of your sisters? Or Zack?"

"Can you picture him taking in a kid?"

"I'm not exactly Ward Cleaver either Maxie. And the only reason Zackie boy isn't up for the job is cause he too busy bangin' the hot blonde from the S1W."

Max ignored him and knelt down next to Jude, putting an arm on his shoulder. "This is Alec, Jude. He's gonna be watchin' out for ya for a little bit. Make sure he stays out of trouble."

Jude finally broke into a smile. His gaze softened on Alec, like a little boy who had just found a friend. "Do you have a piano?"

Alec tried to hide the cringe at that remark. It brought up too many memories of Rachel Berrisford and his mission to kill her father. "All I have is a TV and a Hi Fi kid."

Jude looked at him quizzically. "What's that?"

"Damn you have been sheltered." He stepped closer to Jude. "Trust me Jude, you'll like it. And if you really want to hear classical music so badly there's PBS special tonight with Yo Yo Ma." He paused for a moment to check his watch. "I hate to break up the whole bonding session but I have to go, and if you plan to come along kid you gotta get movin'."

Max handed Jude a small soft back book with an red-orange cover and the words: "Tread Not Gently" printed in black calligraphy across the front. "It's a collection of Dylan Thomas poems from Logan's library. In case PBS gets a little boring."

Jude took it from her, staring at its shiny cover. "Thank you ma'am."

Max gently maneuvered the book in his hand so he was holding it to his chest."My name's Max okay?" She hugged him again "Remember that." She slipped something else into his hand, a small 4 x 7 photo of Dr. Tanaka taken in his laboratory a few weeks earlier. Lucia had managed to confiscate it off of one of the MP's who had rampaged the small room at the hotel where Tanaka had housed Jude before the conference.

Jude looked long and hard at the photo in his hand. "Max-" he took her up on her offer to call her by her first name "Did Dr. Tanaka really love me?"

Max didn't respond, she didn't know what to say. A small part of her wanted to tell Jude that Tanaka loved him dearly, that he was like a son to him, but the analytical soldier side of her knew better. Tanaka cared for Jude on some level, but it was tainted with his hope for research, for the future study of genetics. Jude was sadly a major part of that research. But she couldn't tell him that. He had to have something good to hold onto, he'd been through so much already. "You better get goin." She couldn't tell him, so she didn't say anything.

Jude leaned over and kissed her once on the cheek. "Bye." He walked over to Alec.

"You owe me for this major," Alec pointed out. "There aren't enough paid hours in the day for me to be a free lance baby sitter."

"Consider it an advancement in the future." Max got back up on her feet.

Alec rolled his eyes. "Yeah right." He turned to Jude "Let's go kid."

"Take care of my boy." Max threw out.

Jude gave one last glance at Max, smiling at that remark before they were out the door.

Logan's footsteps echoed on the floor as he approached her from behind, lying a hand on her shoulder "You okay?"

Her answer was to turn around to face him, and do a quick subject change. "Thanks for bailing the gals outta there. Myself included. All though the next time you attempt something so stupid and risky I'm gonna hafta lay your ass out."

He put his hand on her stomach. "Right back at you." The baby moved underneath his hand.

"Least now she has good braggin' rights about goin' sky diving before any of her future classmates."

Logan managed a smile on that one, then his tone turned serious. "Did you find the information you needed to know?"

Her original plan for attending the conference, besides baling out a friend was to try and find a solution for her seizures. "Tanaka's "six feet under." kinda threw a monkey wrench in the plan."

"Not to mention a hostage situation," he added. She didn't voice it, but he knew how badly she wanted to stop her seizures and the fear they always brought on with her pregnancies, "You'll get the information next time."

"Yeah next time." Her hand moving to cover his where it rested on her blue sweater. "Too bad I don't have a lot of time left to change fate before nine months is up." She looked down as she felt him lean over and kiss her, which brought her head back up.

She fell into the kiss, wrapping her arms around the back of his head, and after ten seconds of heated passion she pulled away. "Ya wanna know what really bums my ass out? I had the chance to swipe some prime percale cotton towels for Original Cindy and I totally spaced it."

"I think she'll understand considering the extenuating circumstances with Jude."

Max shot him a look at the mention of the boy's name who had just walked out of their apartment.

MAX V.O. "Deck taught us that were no such things as prodigies, that they were convenient lies people told to excuse the reason why they weren't as strong as they could be."

(PAN OUT OF THE SHOT WITH MAX AND LOGAN HOLDING EACH OTHER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LIVING ROOM. CUT TO: SCENE OF ALEC WALKING DOWN THE SIDEWALK TO HIS APARTMENT WITH JUDE IN TOW)

MAX: V.O "We had it beat into our heads that flawless skills existed inside everyone, not to just an elite few. A single indivisual could never be labeled as smarter then any others in one particular area. "

A man passed Jude on the sidewalk, wearing a black trench coat. He lifted his eyes to stare at the boy, keeping them on him as he passed.

Jude stared back at the face of one of the terrorists from the May 22ND, recognizing fully who it was after he had vanished from his line of sight.

MAX: V.O "Because life is never an exact science."

(FADE TO BLACK)

*****

End

SORRY! I know I was SOOOO bad at keeping up..but glad to say my "personal problems" are settled so I'm back on a writing track. I have several ideas for the next chapters so don't worry, there's no end in sight for this.

D*mn, this one was looong. Think it's the longest one yet. But I didn't want to gip on the story just to keep it short. Lucia's "real job" was something I thought up cause I didn't just want the woman to sell insurance, I wanted her to be involved with Max's situation in this chapter as something more then just a worried mom. Did you catch the character change I gave Rachel Glasser? Max could've had an alais, but the reason she needed it in the episode was for credentials and I removed that obstacle by having her be recognized as an "important person" by the hotel staff.

I'll get the next chapter up faster, promise. I already have the idea. Which I will leave you a peek into before I go: ready? Max is with Lucia (someplace which I don't know where yet) during a storm and she goes into labor. There'll be more to it, but I'll iron out the details later.

R/R please

Peace, mystic