Deadly Fix
Summary: Max, Alec, the cure, a hostage situation…
Thank you very, very much for the lovely reviews. And now, finally we get to the hostage portion of this little outing…
Chapter Three
Max ran through Terminal City waving anyone aside who held up a hand to try and stop her. She had to get to Alec.
She hadn't seen him for 32 hours, not that she was counting. After they left the doctor, Logan had wanted her to come back to the house with him, but that was just dumb with the virus still in play, not to mention that she had things to do.
She'd arrived back at command to find that Alec had already organized a supply run and left with his team. If Logan had been frustrated with her refusal to go home with him, she was just as frustrated with Alec's evasive maneuvers. She'd waited for him to return, but even then, he'd managed to never be where she was. It was especially irksome, since normally she couldn't seem to get rid of him. Max needed him now though. This was more important than whatever weirdness was going on between them.
She finally arrived at the door to his apartment and began banging on it furiously. She was just about to pick the lock when it finally opened. Alec was in stocking feet, wearing an old t-shirt and sweatpants. He looked at her through bleary eyes and scratched a hand through his hair.
"Max?"
"Get dressed. We have a problem."
"Sure," he said simply. He padded back inside leaving the door open behind him. Max followed him in, anxious for him to hurry.
As always it surprised her how clean Alec's apartment was. Despite some of his tendencies for prodigal behavior, she supposed that military life had ingrained in him the need for order. There was a TV, of course, in a prominent spot opposite a comfortable, if worn, looking sofa. There was a small table and a lamp sitting on it. In the kitchenette, he had a single cooking pot, a cup, a plate, and a fork sitting on a shelf. Everything else had been shared out, she imagined. Their life in Terminal City was certainly a Spartan existence. The TV was a luxury most of them didn't have. The privilege of rank, he'd happily informed her when she'd asked how he got it.
Alec came back in from the other room, now in khaki trousers and a fresh t-shirt, pulling on his jacket. He rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes, and sighed.
"I wake you?" she asked, as he closed the door behind them.
"Trying to sleep," he answered, ignoring her acerbic tone. "Hadn't got very far."
"You know it's the middle of the afternoon, right?" She could see the dark circles under his eyes. He looked painfully tired.
Alec shrugged. "Gotta sleep when you can." They walked outside his apartment building and as Max broke into a jog, Alec did likewise. "You gonna tell me what's up?" he asked.
"Cops came to the gates asking for help. They've got a transgenic holding hostages and he's refusing to talk to anyone but another transgenic."
Max saw Alec nearly stop jogging he was so surprised, but he quickly caught back up with her. "They asked you to help them?"
"Yes. And they're pissed they had to ask, so be nice," Max ordered.
She wasn't reassured when Alec grinned. "I'm always nice. You're the one with the anger management problems."
"I am not."
"It wasn't me who threatened to turn Mole into a purse."
"That was a bargaining tactic. Worked too," Max answered, trying not to laugh as she remembered the look on Mole's face.
"Lizard's a pushover. You don't even carry a purse," Alec said doubtfully. "Now a pair of boots I'd have believed."
Max would have made a reply, but they were arriving at the makeshift gates. A troupe of cops stood waiting for them and, if anything, they looked even more annoyed than when she'd left.
"You sure you want to do this?" Alec asked, eyeing their very hostile audience.
"The guy could kill innocent people," she answered. "He wants a transgenic and I've been all over the news. He'll recognize me." Alec still didn't look convinced. "We've got to try and the cops have promised us safe passage."
Alec snorted derisively, but when he spoke it was a question she hadn't expected. "Why me?"
"You look half-decent on TV," she replied. Alec grinned at that, suddenly smug. As if she'd ever denied that he was handsome? Manticore had given her a working pair of eyes. "It's good PR."
"I bet you tell that to all the guys."
"Look, this could get hairy. I need someone I can trust and that's you."
Alec simply nodded, accepting it as fact. They'd relied on each other too many times now to deny it. They worked well together. Mostly. With lots of griping and a few too many tantrums thrown in.
"You believe they'll just let us go?" Alec asked, seeing the policemen were beginning to shift in irritation at having to wait while he and Max had their little confab.
"No," Max answered, giving him a look to tell him he'd been silly to ask in the first place. "We can deal with an exit once we've dealt with the hostage situation." She looked at the small army of cops gathered outside and smiled, knowing it was almost feral. "I think we can take 'em."
Alec's eyebrows rose. "You know the phrase 'you and what army?' You're not really supposed to follow through on it. It's just to piss off people who are annoying you."
"So says the government trained assassin."
Alec shook his head. "Never gonna let that go are ya? Do I hold it against you that you were a cat burglar?"
"That's because you think it's sexy."
"You have no idea," he said lowly and suddenly Max felt warm all over, as if the sun had just peeked out from behind the clouds. She glanced over at him and her heart skipped a beat when Alec winked at her.
Quickly getting herself back together, Max nodded to the guard stationed at the gate. He opened it and stood back at full attention. Normally, she would have snapped at him to knock it off, but now wasn't the time to let the cops see any dissent in the ranks, nor was it the time to make it look like they didn't know what they were doing.
Max and Alec walked through the gates, shoulder to shoulder. Several of the waiting policemen reached for their guns, making no effort to be subtle. Max and Alec pretended not to notice, but simply kept walking toward the officer who was waving them to his car. They both slid into the back seat, not quite as able to pretend they didn't notice that it was a car with a metal cage between the front and back seat and bars on the windows. Not a setup, just a sign of the times, Max mentally reassured herself.
The car quickly pulled away from Terminal City and the other police vehicles fell in behind them. The uniformed man driving their car kept looking at them in the rearview mirror as if they might suddenly sprout horns and try to rip his head off.
"Can you give us any details?" Max asked him, trying to keep her aggravation level low. The situation was going to be tense enough.
"We were chasing one of the freaks," he coughed nervously and again glanced at them in the mirror, "a transgenic, I mean, and he ran into an accountant's office. He's got about fifteen people in there and won't say anything other than he wants another fr-, transgenic, to talk to."
"Anyone hurt?" Alec asked and the cop's eyes shifted from her to him.
"We don't know."
"Weapons?"
"We don't know," the man said again. "We assume so."
"Then why were you chasing him?" Alec asked mildly. The cop didn't notice the steel beneath the tone, but Max did.
"He was shoplifting in a grocery. He ran too fast to be human."
Max heard Alec swear under his breath and he looked down, closing his eyes. They were in this mess because the poor guy had been hungry. And they weren't even going to acknowledge him as human.
"What's he look like?" Max asked.
"Huh?"
"Does he look… normal?" Not that any of them were normal, but she needed to know if this was an X-Series or one of Manticore's more colorful creations. It might be why they weren't calling him human, but then an Anomaly wouldn't have gotten into the grocery in the first place.
"He looks like you guys," the officer said, frowning.
"Ok, thanks," Max said, and the man almost jumped as if he hadn't expected common courtesy.
Alec shifted in his seat, his expression still troubled as he watched the buildings outside continue to fly by. It was a small car and they were sitting fairly close together, but not touching. Max felt the sudden urge to reach out and place her hand over his, just to make contact, to reassure herself, to reassure Alec that, yes, they were human. No, they weren't alone.
She stopped herself though. 32 hours. Closer to 33 now.
She had never been quite so aware of him, his movement, his body. It was right there. The Cure. It was right there in the shape of Alec who was biting his lip, his eyes moving rapidly to keep up with the passing view.
As the car sped around a corner, going too fast so that the driver had to brake quickly, Max saw Alec brace against the car's movement. If she hadn't been watching so closely she never would have seen the nearly effortless shift of toned muscle, the rebalancing that made it look like he'd barely noticed as the car tried to sling them around.
As if he'd realized he was being scrutinized, Alec turned his head toward her and their gazes met. She half expected him to grin, or smirk, or make some smart remark, but instead he just looked at her.
And suddenly the car wasn't nearly big enough. She wanted to touch him and yet not touch him. She wanted to move closer, yet back away. This was Alec. They were friends. They were partners. They were close. But that didn't explain the hunger in his eyes, the near desperation. It didn't explain her response to it.
"Hey, you two quit staring at each other. You're freaking me out," the cop said. "Pardon the phrase."
It was enough to snap them both out of it. Max blinked as if she'd been in a trance and Alec's head snapped to look out the window so fast that she thought it probably hurt. She hadn't touched him, but she suddenly felt cold, now that his gaze was no longer on her.
The car came to an abrupt stop and the cop got out. He opened the door for her since the doors wouldn't open from the inside. Max stepped out into a mass of people and hesitated at the open hostility, images of the mob surrounding Biggs' corpse flashing through her mind. Alec stepped out of the car behind her. She couldn't see him, but he must have realized her need, or been feeling the same, because he put his hands on her shoulders to reassure her that he was there.
Every eye was on them, some belligerent, some pitying, some angry, some purposely blank. The cop who'd driven them there pushed his way forward and Max assumed they should follow. As they began walking, Alec moved to her side and kept a steadying hand at her back. Her first instinct was to elbow him away. She didn't want to look weak in front of these people, but his presence was too comforting in the face of so many enemies.
The people moved back, parting in a wave as they approached and Max fought not to snarl. It wasn't like they had the plague. They were here to help them. They'd been asked to come.
"Easy, Maxie," Alec whispered so that only she could hear.
The policeman leading them finally stopped near a large oversized RV type vehicle that seemed to be the command post. He knocked and the door opened after a few seconds. The person who opened the door looked behind the cop and saw them, his expression changing to something akin to disgust. He went back inside and after another minute someone else came to the door and then stepped down to come and meet them.
"I don't think they trust us in the command post," Max said, her lips pursed.
"Would you?" Alec smirked. "They probably think we'll try to help the guy escape."
Max almost smiled. Of course they did. And they'd be right.
The man approaching them had thinning hair, was in his mid thirties, wore a dress shirt and tie and looked more than a little beleaguered. He stopped several feet in front of them keeping a wary distance. "You're the transgenics?"
Max just nodded. He knew they were. She'd been on TV more than Seattle's mayor since the whole Jam Pony disaster.
"I'm in command of this operation. You remember that and we'll get along just fine."
Max and Alec shared a glance that said how much they cared. "Just tell us why we're here," she said.
The man sighed, not liking it, but knowing he had no other choice. "This guy has been holed up in that building," he pointed toward a small one story office building, "for over two hours now. He won't say anything except get him a transgenic to talk to or people will start dying." More officers were gathering around them now, sensing that things were finally getting going.
"What's the phone number in there?" Alec asked, taking his cell phone from his pocket.
"He won't answer," the cop replied. "I've been trying since this started."
"We'll see about that. The number?"
Alec punched the number in as the officer recited it and raised the phone to his ear. He listened for several seconds, then pushed a button to cancel the call. Alec repeated the procedure twice more at different intervals and it dawned on Max and those surrounding them what Alec was doing.
"You guys got a secret handshake too?" the cop asked angrily.
"Wouldn't be a secret if I told you, now would it?" Alec said, grinning sweetly. He then dialed again and held the phone out to Max. "Here. He'll answer this time." Max was surprised that he'd handed it over, but Alec shook his head. "You're the famous one. He'll recognize you."
Max quickly took the phone. On the fourth ring it was picked up. "You asked for a transgenic, so here I am," she said. "You look out the window, you'll see me directly in front of the building."
"I see you."
"My name's Max. You wanna tell me who I'm talkin' to?"
"I said I can see you, 452. You think we weren't warned about you? You're an '09er! What kind of game are you people playing?" the man shouted. In the background, Max heard a flurry of voices, frightened by the hostage-taker's heightened agitation.
Alec swore and the cops around them frowned worriedly. "What's going on?" the commander asked.
"Possible problem," Alec hissed.
"What, you can hear him?" the man asked wide-eyed, and Max glared at them all to shut up.
"You think I'm gonna trust a traitor?" the hostage-taker screeched.
Alec ripped the phone out of her hand. "This is X5-494. State your designation, soldier."
There was a long pause on the other end, then finally Max heard the man clear his throat. "X5-017, sir."
Alec nodded, facing the building. "Report."
"Spotted me in the grocery. Couldn't get away. You here to extract me, sir?"
"How many hostages?"
"Fourteen, sir."
"Injuries?"
"Negative, sir. Waiting for extraction, sir."
"Fourteen hostages, everyone's ok," Max said, passing on the information to the policemen, ignoring it when another round of 'freak super-hearing' broke out in the ranks.
"Excellent job, 017," Alec said. "Sit tight. No action until I'm on scene. I'll be inside in two."
"Yes, sir."
Alec ended the call and looked back at Max, his expression troubled. "This isn't good."
"You're not going in there alone," she said angrily, just as the cops around them simultaneously burst into similar shouts.
Alec silenced them all with a glare and Max was stunned at the ferocity in his gaze. "Those hostages have maybe ten minutes before he shoots them all and runs for it. He said he was waiting for extraction. The second I told him we were here, the countdown started for those people. Pre-extraction procedure means removing witnesses who can identify you."
They all just stared at him in open-mouthed horror, Max included.
"If you guys decide to go in," Alec looked at the commander, "he starts shooting hostages the second he sees you move. And you, Max, are an '09er. You'll just piss him off or worse get those people killed. So, it's just me. Got it?"
Max saw him smirk, and it made her insides churn. She'd seen him in action often enough now, but his smiling in the face of death had never seemed quite so hollow. Again, she saw the exhaustion making lines around his eyes, his too pale skin.
"Are you kidding?" the commander asked.
Alec rolled his eyes. "Did that sound funny?" He looked at his watch. "If the hostages don't start coming out in five minutes, tear gas the building and come in hot. Understand?"
The cop just nodded, nearly slack-jawed. He then turned and started giving orders to the officers surrounding him.
Alec set his hands on Max's shoulders and squeezed lightly. She looked up into his eyes and didn't bother to hide how frustrated or worried she was. "This is a bad idea."
"Don't look so scared, Max," he said. "I haven't forgotten I'm an incubator. I'll be back in time."
Max blinked in surprise. She hadn't been thinking about the cure. All she'd been worrying about was Alec going in there alone. "Be careful."
Alec gave her shoulders one last squeeze. "Always." He stepped back, sharing one last glance with her, and then confidently strode toward the building, disappearing through the front door. It was only after he was gone that Max realized he wasn't armed. She hadn't thought to ask, but she guessed that either Alec didn't want a gun, or thought he didn't need one. It had her skin crawling though to know he was that much more vulnerable.
Max paid no attention to the activity around her, instead counting down the seconds in her head. There was no movement, no sound from inside the building. The policemen were all in their gear, getting in formation to storm the office.
Three minutes.
Two minutes.
One minute left of the five Alec had allowed.
Hostages started streaming out of the front door and the police hurried to corral them, moving them out of their line of sight to the building. That was when she heard it.
Gunfire.
Max waited, eyes on the front door, willing Alec to appear. He was fine. Alec was fine. She'd know if he wasn't, wouldn't she?
Max kept her eyes on the door, hope dying as the seconds ticked past. She'd told him to be careful. The idiot never had followed orders.
More soon… Y'all know how I love a Sunday afternoon nap, so it'll probably be Monday.