Recicup: I was kinda hoping he'd grow on people.
Read, and hopefully you'll review! I've started writing out the next season, I figure to end this whole thing at season 5 just like the writers had a five year vision, mine will end there to. I just love writing for Max and Alec, their a great couple. Though what would be cool is if I could find one of those writers and find out what the possible game plan was going to be. Something none L/M romantically related.
Season 4. Ep.2
I looked out the window of our small apartment. The girls were still asleep next door and we had an hour till we left for our B & E. Gamble's new development was still eating at my every nerve ending. I didn't want this to be happening. We were so close and to find out that he could be a threat or he could be a friendly…it was a lot to take it. Only my Manticore mask prevented anyone besides Alec from seeing how much this was stressing me out.
Zack's attitude on how I was handling operations period wasn't helping let alone what he obvious felt about how I was handling Gamble. I was hoping to get my brother back in here, I'd forgotten how much of a relentless ass he could be when it came to the security of a compound. He was always going to be Manticore…and that was just something I was going to have to accept.
I just hoped he'd never try something stupid within these walls. They were our only form of refuge. It's why I always had someone watching out for him. Anything unusual and they'd report to me. Not anyone transgenic or transhumant specific but anyone out there who spotted something. The weather looked like it was clearing up a bit. A small drought of rain was something Seattle saw enough of during the fall season, and not enough of during the summer season.
I touched the window seeing how cool it was outside. The fall weather making the chill in the night air more noticeable, I texted Gem to put something more so over the girls before we got it. The mother within me, not wanting her new born twins to catch a cold, though the odds with their DNA and heritage, if you could call it that, would be seldom and not likely…still.
"You ready?" Alec called from the bathroom. His dark black turtleneck covering his barcode easily as my equally black zip up sweater covered the same. Throwing my hair back into a braided ponytail I tucked the end into the sweater to avoid it catching on anything along the way. Dix had called us ten minutes ago telling us he had the buyer and art piece ready. All that was needed was for us to make the delivery.
Alec and I had gotten ready so easily that changing in various rooms of our apartment was second nature. I smiled remembering how as I had been putting my dark denims over my hip hugger lace panties I heard a tight groan briefly before a small stumble. Alec had grin on his face. We both knew he fell on purpose but for what purpose? "What can I say? You knock me off my feet." I broke out in laughter as he gave my ass a slap before walking into the bathroom to take care of amenities.
Even transgenics need to release fluids. Don't need to be dangling from a skyscraper and need to go pee. Leaving out the door we headed to HQ where Dix gave us a picture of the item we were jacking. "Wow…an original 'Raquel Sarangello' or a really expensive forgery?" I asked looking at the piece. I did enough research on different art institute's and from what I saw in books over the years to recognize different artists. "According to the intel original." Dix told me.
"Detailing is simple enough. Question is what is she looking at?" Alec asked turning the picture all around. It was of a woman, her nude back was facing the viewer, and she was looking down at something on the table. Her body's positioning preventing even the mirror in front of her from capturing her face. "Should be simple enough." I take the picture back from Alec, "Where is it?" and please let it be close by. "You're gonna love this one Max." I looked over to Dix whom wore a grin on his face.
"Remember the guy Gamble was suppose to go see today?" my eyes widened, "No way!" Alec exclaimed, "Let's go!" I wasn't gonna let this opportunity pass us up. Dude already had mob connections so he was dirty already. Plus I didn't believe his whole 'tryin' to get out of the life rap'. Once you're in, you're in. Only out after his level of entry is by death so we all knew he couldn't be out.
Jumping on my bike, Alec mounted his one with equal fever as we took our tunnel and side streets to sector nine. Turns out the place we were looking for was five minutes from Foggle Towers. It would make for a more interesting way of getting inside. The houses security was similar to Logan's old place so I knew as long as we went in by roof top it would be a cinch. We just had to climb up there by the one side of the building most closed off.
That had been the plan till I saw the amount of security personnel outside the house – if you could call the goliath that, not including the near 13 foot tall entrance gate. However even for a private security detail it seemed like a lot of extra muscle was out tonight. I don't get it? "What's with the extra sides of meat?" I hushed into the night, "Ever think maybe he's paranoid what with all the mob connections he's severing." It did sorta make sense now.
If he was truly trying to get out then he'd need all the fire power he could get to avoid death. Which meant we were going to have to take more extreme measures to get onto the premises, let alone inside the large home. The structure was just huge to be blunt. I saw many points of entry for us but they were all on the second floor. Only a trained eye at night could spot the gaps to be seen. The three story house was the biggest monster in the area.
I doubted anyone else complained much about the owners. The area itself while not completely isolated did have more privacy than other houses in the area. Then again the other houses were mostly two stories only. This had a second story balcony with a couple of third floor easy access windows – well easy access to a couple of transgenics – right above it.
Plan of action mapped out I instructed, "Follow my lead." I hush at him, "You are my leading lady." He laughed out. I glared to him. Not the time for sarcasm. He shrugged his shoulders and made the hand gesture of 'lead the way'. I rolled my eyes and made my leap. I angled my body and tucked my feet under my bum to avoid nicking the gate in any way since the design of it had visibly sharp points.
Any movement, non-animal could alert whatever sensors were there. I doubted they had motion sensors on the outside, that's what the extra beef was there for. Landing I heard the slight rustle of wind that signaled Alec had made his leap over the gate with ease. I motioned to follow my lead, hiding ourselves behind a shrub. It would give us a spare 15 seconds to look for the next spot as the guard passed by us.
Roughly six guys, all with flash lights for visibility. As the first passed us we darted to our right and slid in between more shrubbery, used that for cover as we waited out the next guard. He came by but with our positioning he wasn't able to spot us. Once his back was turned, we stealthily made our way up the side steps that provided access to the gardens in front of the house. We each slid behind a supporting column as another guard stepped in front of us.
He looked around briefly as if he heard us before stepping away. But his round just went around the column. I signaled to Alec to climb up and use the visible trellised lining the balcony to pull ourselves up. Alec got their first and made to pull me up. I took hold but my foot slipped on the moist plastic. Alec without thought hauled me up and out of view before I could think right.
I knew he wanted to say 'be careful' so I simple signaled 'don't bother, I know!' before he could say or signal anything. We stood on the balcony making sure all the windows were either covered with curtains or had no light on in the room. Seeing nothing but darkness in the rooms we crouched down not wanting to attract unwanted attention from down below.
Granted no one would be looking up but we were on a time crunch here and couldn't afford ANY accountability. Seeing my entry point I put two fingers up by my eyes then pointed at the window. Alec nodded his agreement as I leaped the round about 12 feet to the ledge of the window. Curling one arm on the ledge for leverage I used my other to pull out the knife in my back pocket. Window was locked with a twist action catch, like most regular windows out there.
Sliding the thin blade in between the frames I slowly slid it unlatching the visibly gold mechanism, avoiding it sliding fast with a resounding click. Seeing it over just enough I put the blade back into place and used the same hand to apply just enough pressure on the center of the glass to move it upward with the leather of my gloves providing just enough grip to avoid it falling even an inch.
Once up high enough I let go and with lightning fast speed caught the bottom preventing any slippage. I pushed it up the rest of the way, made sure it stayed in place before lifting the rest of my body through the window. I stretched my arm out signaling to Alec to come in. I heard the briefest of thumps. Only transgenic hearing could hear the noise, that's how soundless Alec made his entrance.
Pushing the window back down he went to speak when I put my hand over his mouth preventing any words from being uttered. He looked to me in confusion till he followed my signal to look over. There on the bed was a woman. Judging by her lack of night attire I'd say either wife or mistress. Either way I didn't care but Alec needed to be quiet. We didn't know if she was a light sleeper or not.
Slipping out of the room with minimal light to be seeped inside we walked down the hallway. Our mission was in the basement. And yeah there's the aspect of basement windows but according to Dix's report read on the way to the tunnel, the basement windows were all hidden on the property and not even we could take the time out to find them, avoid guards, figure out how to get inside WITHOUT creating a shit load of noise and getting caught.
We didn't have that kind of inside Intel and were good but this needed to be done in such a way that no one knew what hit them till too late. We didn't have enough Intel or the proper tools to get inside. This way was longer, yeah, but easier and way less time consuming. We were on the clock here after all and it would create a great escape route for our way out.
We made our way to the private collection room in the basement, where we were told our piece would be. Getting down there was easy. We blurred through the right camera angles to prevent ourselves from being seen even at the high speeds. A blur of anything and they would try to use it against us. At least this way that two seconds of a gap between frames would give us the time we needed to sneak past them. Sliding down to the basement door I took a look at the lock.
"You've gotta be…" I was pissed. This wasn't just one lock, it had a fucking dead bolt, and a single slide in key WITH a touch tone key pad for a combination lock. I got on my phone to see if Dix or Luke could get a hold of the combination. "Any way to get the code for the keypad?" I asked. "Keypad?" I heard Dix fumbling around, "He must have gotten that in only a little while ago it wasn't in his records for the place." Fuck! "There's got to be a way to figure this out." I groaned.
"What does it say for the manufacturer?" he asked, "Morning Industry HKK 01-HQ." I read off. Typing…more typing… "Can you see how many keys were used for the combination?" Dix asked me. Thinking about what either Alec or I can on I remembered the powered foundation I used on occasion to hide my barcode. Finding it at the bottom of my inner pocket I fished it out. Opening it, I scratched at some of it and blew the newly formed dust on the keypad. "Five digits."
Dix muttered, "Figuring if it has a ten digit key pad not including an enter or exit button…" he seemed to be calculating something… "Assuming there's no repeats in the combo's…its 125 possible combinations, if there is…over 3,000 combinations are possible." I sighed, "Thanks Dix. Wind beneath my wings." I stated dryly. "So what now?" Alec asked, keeping both our backs safe.
"Do what I always do. Make it up as I go along." Before I could hit a button Alec stopped me, "What about a combo that he picked out?" I looked back, "Like what?" he shrugged, "Birthday, anniversary…" he threw out, "Assuming it's a one digit month…" he pressed on, "The house owners birthday is March 15th, 1950." Dix supplied, "Ok so if were going by 3 – 1 – 5 – 5 - 0…" I said aloud.
Nothing… "What about the bedmate?" I asked Alec, "Ah..." Dix was muttering as he looked up any known associates of the guy, "No one else at the residence except for a Gwyneth…" I didn't care, "Just the birthday." I groaned out, "December 6th, 1978." Using that we got in. "Who knew true love lied within a combination." Alec's little remark did little to entertain, "Let's just get the painting and leave." I surmised.
I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Its supposed value was 10k. It was around the price we'd need for the implants on Gamble. According to our Intel this so called 'collector' added it to his collection when he was denied access to the 'private show rooms' due to his recent money issues with mob affiliations. All of which he denied, I didn't care, I had a buyer lined up, all we needed to do was deliver the piece and buy the implants.
We already had that buyer lined up thanks to Dix's tech work. That buyer, once we went down to the docks in sector two, would give us the implants and we'd implant Gamble. It was all good and simple as long as everything went as planned. Apparently mob affiliations or not he knew how to lock his shit up, but not for a transgenic. Alec rolled the painting up as I pulled out the knap sack especially designed for long packaging. It would do perfectly.
Strapping it to my back and securing both ends we slipped out of the basement as quietly as we came in. We were back in the bedroom we slipped into when the girl in the bed started to wake up, "Honey, that you?" he voice rough and crackly from sleep. She sat up in the bed as the sheet started to slip down. I looked to Alec to see if he caught it. His eyes were on hers only. Then again he was trying to avoid getting caught here, as a thief so avoiding getting even slightly distracted was key here.
Alec cleared his throat and did his best mob guard impersonation, "Just security miss. I thought I saw something. I was mistaken. I will leave now. Go back to sleep." His voice had me in near giggles. It wasn't that bad but for some reason his 'goodfella' angle just didn't work out to his benefit. But her sleep minded state didn't care about it. She waved it off then fell back asleep.
Slipping out the window we jumped down to the balcony and slid from that down the rest of the way we came in. Getting out was easier than we'd thought. Jumping back on our bikes we jetted our asses through back roads avidly avoiding sector cops as we speed over to sector two. We made it there though a few minutes late barely managing to avoid spooking the guy who was there. "You got the painting?"
He looked like an even shadier version of Bruno. Didn't know that was possible. "You got the bank roll?" I asked. He gave me a medium size sack. I looked in seeing the money in there. Mentally counting how many wades were in there I counted to the point, "Good." Alec pulled the painting from the back sack that I had on me. Giving it to him, the man unrolled it seeing his investment. His smile broke from his face, "I could never resist a gorgeous woman."
I hooked the sack of money to me then heard him say under his breath, "Nor can I resist the amount I would get for your bodies." Both Alec and I looked up to see a few men coming out with Taser wands. "You played us!" I yelled out. "I know what your kind are worth and there are some prospect able buyers out there willing to pay large for your bodies alone." We so did NOT have time for this. "You're making a big mistake." I warn him. He smiled.
He rubbed his chin in amusement, "No your big mistake was to trust a dealer during this day and age. Plus considering where you got this from and whom the original owner was what kind of two-man team can do what you two did in that amount of time? Mine couldn't." Alec retorted before I could, "Your men just aren't as good as us." He looked offended now, "You are nothing but meat to me!" he shouted.
Memories of Renfro's words haunting me even now, "Not the first time I've heard that, or the last." I muttered out just loud enough for them to hear. He came closer to me, "You will not ruin my good name with your cheating cocktail ways." He said it like it was a blasphemy to him. Rolling my eyes as his crap attempt at sanctum, I opened my mouth to protest but he went on, "I, Vladimir will not be shunned nor embarrassed by an over the top expensive animal."
Once his tirade was done and his men moved in I whispered under my breath, only for Alec to hear "You got the four on the left and I got the four on the right." Alec nodded and whispered, "We gotta make this quick." I nodded, "But not wet. There just low level thugs. Not worth our time." He looked over for only a minute second, but I saw the brief agreement in his eyes.
Seeing my four guys coming at me I looked for the Tasers knowing they would be the weapons of choice for us. One guy even had a stun gun, but with one kick it would be gone and useless. Not needing to feel electrocuted…ever really…I blurred to the guy on my right, kicking the Taser wand out of his hand, landing it near the Barger. Too far for the other men to try and get, not unless they wanted to abandon their comrades, and they'd need all of each other just to TRY and take me down.
The second and the third guy look to each other weighing their odds then decidedly came at me together seeing how I took out their first comrade. Smiling a feral smile, I couldn't help but want to show them what I was really made of. Using my cat DNA I jumped up with a cat like grace and ease, wrapped my legs around the guys neck, leaned back and to the side, grabbed the other guy with my arms around his neck and yanked hard, pulling both stunned men to the ground.
The one went to stun me so I flung my leg over my head and kicked it clean out of his hand before I kicked his feet out from underneath him. Once again he was on his back and I was on top. Seeing two guys from Alec's side already down but seeing the other two coming at his back I charged at them as I saw Alec break from the guys he took down to take on the two that I had dropped.
It occurred to me that we'd pretty much went right to left and took each other's foes on. I smiled briefly that we could be so in sync to pull that off. I ducked one punch and hit the guy in the face. I was aiming for a knock out. He collided into the guy beside him. It gave me a few seconds to see if Alec was doing okay. Ha! Well I already knew he would be, so it gave me a few seconds to see my man in action.
He aimed a kick at one guys midsection causing him to careen over onto his back, then blocked a hit aimed for his head from the other one, grabbed his arm in the process, then slammed his fist into the guys face effectively knocking him out temporarily. He blurred around, grabbed the guys offending arm before slamming his fist into his face rendering him unconscious.
The first guy he took down came back to him but with two punches to the gut he flipped himself over the guy, and cut off his air way. After only three seconds with the pressure the guy went limp. Turning back around I deflected three punches with ease as the last two guys tried to gang up on me. Slamming my elbow into one guys face twice to knock him out of the fight I heard the snap of a bone and a cry of shock and pain as Alec broke what sounded to be an arm in one of his - my former - guys.
I then reached behind my newly knocked out guy, pulled, then threw him forward to tumble into the other offending guy, causing him to lose whatever balance he had and careen into a stack of crates with his knocked out comrade lying motionless on top of him. Angered at having the technical dead weight on him not to mention losing a fight with three other men to a single female, he shoved his fallen comrade to the side and came after me…again.
I was briefly stunned that he attempted a more advanced move, a spinning kick that failed before he left the ground. It was sloppy and he would sooner crash and burn just by me stepping back than with me hitting him. I rolled my eyes as I stood my ground and ducked the crappy kick then blocked the next poorly executed kick that was aimed for my side. Deciding this guy was just to embarrassing to fight against I ended it.
He aimed a punch at my head. I deflected it, then used the same arm to grab onto his head, pull down, as I slammed my knee up into his gut, effectively knocking whatever breath he had in him out. His looked to me bleary eyed. I shoved him by the forehead. He collapsed to the ground. Seeing there was still one last guy he pulled out a gun. Shakily. I couldn't help but smile. He knew he was out manned.
This was his last ditch effort to avoid what he thought to be defeat or worse death. No I'd deal him a fate worse than death. For these guys embarrassment is worse at times. Alec pulled out his revolver, out of reflex, I suppose but before I could protest he shot at the butt of the guy's gun, knocking it out of his hands causing the guy to cry out in pain. I sighed in relief, for a moment there I thought he was going to…I should know better than that by now.
I smiled at him, "Well were only five minutes off schedule, at the most." I stated slightly bored. It had been a while since I'd been able to fight like that and it felt fucking awesome! I think I'll be doing this a bit more often. Months spent as a pretty face with Gamble did little to quench the thirst I had for kicking ass and B & E's. "Let's bounce." Alec stated. I followed him as we hopped on our bikes. In all honesty the guys should have been more prepared than a few Tasers.
But at the same time I was glad they weren't. It would have taken up time we couldn't afford to lose. Luckily our seller for the equipment was only 15 minutes from here so we didn't have too many worries with getting close to him. All in under what two hours? I smiled at the ease of that, even with the fight it took very little time to disarm and take down eight fully grown men. Making it there we saw our guy waiting for us. I also noticed he had several men all around the place.
It was an old sawmill. Abandoned like most everything else in this area. "Your late." He sneered. Now I remember why I didn't like working with this guy Alec knew. He was ridiculously punctual. He put Normal to a crying shame. "We're late by like a minute." I grouched. I noticed Alec gave his a sarcastic smile, "Do you have we what we need or not?" this guy though a punctual ass was very good for his product, probably the reason why Alec kept him on his line to this day.
"You have the cash?" he demanded. I made a movement. All of a sudden the dozen or so men came out of their hiding places, "Relax." I reached gently for the sack of cash and tossed it to him. His runner up man came and grabbed it, nodding his head 'yes' to his boss, "Here's your supplies." His man brought a case to me. His eyes shifted from me to Alec. A shiver passed through me at his smile.
"Mind you Alec if it were not for your continued patronage and your history with my youngest you would be on the next boat to Africa." Alec nodded. "See you next time." I saw both men nod before Alec slowly backed up and turned away. Once we were far enough from them and close enough to our bikes I asked, "Your history with his youngest?" he bit his lip.
"His kid, tiny little thing, barely 13 got manhandled by some twenty something guys trying to rough her up. It was right after we helped those kids out in the barn. Felt like trying to do something worthwhile before leaving. They got their asses handed to them and the girl ran off. Go figure she was his kid." He nods behind us, "First deal I did with him she was in the back and spotted me. It's also the reason why he doesn't like her coming out here."
We made it to the bikes. "Why? Besides the obvious 'you shouldn't be here?'" I asked mounting my baby. "She ran up to me and without any thought to who was watching jumped and hugged me. Nothing else just hugged me. She kept saying 'thank you'. I gave her a pat on the back watching all these men with guns look at the scene and her father getting pissy." That must have been kinda scary and hilarious at the same time. "She let go and told her father I was the guy she was telling him about." I 'ahhed' at it.
"So now you're in his good graces…sorta." I asked, "A little…his daughter loves me in that big brother, hero type of way, her dad…not so much. But she made him promise not to ever let any harm come to me. So while he knows what I am he keeps his promises to her. She's his little baby angel. Just like our girls are to me." He almost seemed to get misty eyed.
"Come on we have gear to plant on one Mr. Spencer Gamble." Nodding his kicked his bike into gear and with mine we speed off back to TC. Taking back roads yet again we pulled up through our tunnel, dismounted and walked to our little prison ward. Spotting Syl and Krit we signaled them to come over. "Hey unless these two are some of the world's best actors they've never met." I nodded. It had been a thought. "Okay you guys go get some rest, we have bugs to plant." I motion for them to leave.
"I'll bug Gamble you check in with HQ. See how everything is. And by that I mean see how things are with us NOT there and with ZACK in there." Getting my point he gives me a quick kiss before checking HQ. I however walk to Gamble's cell. "You wanna do this the easy way or the hard way?" I asked. He voluntarily stood up, "Whatever you need Max." I pulled the bugging equipment out, "Sandeman always said you were going to be his greatest achievement."
My head snapped to his. He smiled, "We all knew if the prophecy ever came true that you'd be the one to bring the conclave and all it stood for down. It's why several of us, starting with Sandeman, left the conclave. We know we can't hide forever." I shuddered in remembrance of telling OC the exact same thing when I nearly got taken away by the CDC at Harbor Lights.
"Your exposure now is proof that we are not immune either. Even if it was our own that exposed you. It will only be a matter of time till the familiars are exposed and are over run as well." It never occurred to me that the familiars would become exposed. It gave me a few ideas. "The sad part is just like your kind there are those of us that left the breeding program to have our own lives to ourselves." So there are some good familiars out there…
"How do I know you're not feeding me bull?" I demand. "In a week's time I was to go visit Sandeman's camp. I'll take you and your mate there." Sandeman… "You know where he is?" I demanded, forgetting temporarily about the equipment, "Yes, but only when I'm due there. Otherwise it'll raise suspicion. White cannot know and my leaving early for my annual once every three month recreational time would flare suspicion." I had to agree.
"He'd have a team sent there in a heartbeat if he found out where his father and the other so called 'traitors' were." I held no doubts about that. "But first I must prove my loyalty, or else this will have been for naught." I nodded and planted. I was grateful that Deck was fast asleep in his cell and Logan was now knocked out in his own cell. I still held reservations about killing him. No matter what he's done I still find myself wanting to try and save him.
I must be a glutton for punishment. The odds of saving him are not even remotely in my favor yet we can't keep an obviously mentally unstable man with us. I'm going to have to decide soon on what to do or else I know Alec will make it for me knowing it's something my heart won't let me do. After all could he have done it to Rachel if the situation were reversed?
I didn't want to even think about it. My own reservations were enough to handle. Once last glance to Logan I tried to remember anything that could help him recover. Help him become the man I first met. He was a decent, smart, amiable egotistical and high and mightily on his own rocker but he has his heart in the right place. Now I had Gamble to try and save. I just hope I was putting my focus into the right person and not squandering it fruitlessly.
Tracing implants in place I opened the doors up and called for Mole and Daniel to come
in and take him out. It was nearly four a.m. when they returned. After all the midnight runs and driving back, and insertion of implants I was aching to go to bed and crash. I know Alec was to. We'd both been up for an obscene amount of time. "There's got to be a way to work this out." I muttered in a tired near defeated voice.
I was now pacing back and forth in mild aggravation. With Gamble now officially out of TC and back with his guards, and now implanted, I still felt uneasy. I was avoiding letting it show. Didn't need anyone to feel that my emotions or decisions were becoming compromised, Zack would pick up on it in a heartbeat and try to use it against me. Only Alec would try and back me up, maybe even Cece. Hell even Daniel would probably agree with Zack.
"He has to be on our side. It's only this past year of being around him at those stupid functions and gala's makes any type of sense." I reasoned. "You don't need to convince me Max." Alec soothed. He walked up behind me encompassing me in his arms, soothing my frayed nerves. Last time we had a situation like this is was Deck. But unlike Deck, Gamble hasn't been trying to capture me and mine for years on end. He was on a flip side of a coin. And I was afraid what side would pop up.
"I know but Daniel and the others aren't as easy goin' as you are." I was about to make a remark about how easy going he was when he sighed. Kissing the top of my head he loosened his hold, "They'll learn. They're only seeing it as a possible enemy walking out of the door. I hope we're wrong on that assumption as much as you are." Blending truth with a tinge of hope…only Alec.
Mole and Daniel walked back in shutting the door with a little more force than necessary, making it known they weren't happy campers. "He's safe with his guards." Mole stated in a more tired military tone than usual. Yeah he definitely didn't like my choices as of lately. It was the only time when he used THAT tone. However before I could respond, "Unfortunately." Came out of Daniel's mouth.
"The hell - " the ass cut me off, "You know I've been known to make some asinine mistakes and errors in the past but this, letting the enemy walk literally out the front doors, is a new god damn low." I narrowed my eyes at the blatant challenge, "You've got something to say spit it out. Never stopped you before!" I demanded, my tone rising along with my anger level.
He was all too eager to let me have it, "Tell me what is it with your blind faith that things will work out?!" I opened my mouth, "Gee I don't know how about a sense of intuition and not relying on the systematic logic that Manticore pounded into us!" I spat back in sarcasm. Hands on hips I was ready for the verbal assault. Firing back with, "Or how about how we now thanks to my so called 'blind faith' have both Deck and Logan in our cells?!" he opened his mouth.
"Listen…" Alec cut in, "NO!" Daniel prevented the cut off, "I've had it with your mate's obvious illogical decisions that wind us up with tiger's tails to hold." Daniel shot back. I saw the response coming and fired back before he could, "So you'd rather Deck be trying to rebuild Manticore? You'd rather that an unstable man with untold knowledge on transgenics and possible transhumans, whose also hopped up on transgenic blood, roam the streets of Seattle?! I demanded.
"So what's your plan then?" Daniel asked, his voice lower but still edgy in its own right, "If we can keep Deck from his military sources and Logan from the massive blood mobiles then we might end up with two lesser problems on our hands." Daniel laughed at my words, "'If' and 'might', your words inspire so much confidence. Ignoring the jib I continue, "If I recall correctly Deck helped make Manticore, ergo no Deck, no one to sell the 'transgenics are military only' card."
"Logan is off mentally with the blood ergo, getting him off it gets us a stable man again." And one less problem to deal with…Daniel stepped forward, near threatening in his stance. It caused Alec to shift his stance to being on guard. "You just don't get it do you?" Daniel asked me, arms crossed over his chest in aggravation. Shifting my own stance to show more intimidation, something that only ended up making him more upset, not that I cared, I told him, "Enlighten me."
But the stance also showed him I was willing to fight an alpha fight if necessary. Not something a contender wanted to do with said alphas mate in the room. Holding his ground but now seeming to be avoiding the fight I was willing to fight he stated, "There's
Always going to be a power player. Either the familiars want us dead or the military wants us to disappear, or return as soldiers." It was safe to say that none of us in the room that is wanted that.
"NO matter what someone's there. It's a recurring game of whack-a-mole. No offense Mole." Mole himself shot him a look before grunting his displeasure at what he had dubbed a 'stupid synonym'. "Down goes familiars up pops military." He saw my mouth about to open in protest, "The military is a part of the government so don't even try to deny it." I wasn't going to…
He looked towards Alec to get his agreement on the issue. "You know I'm right." He tried. I knew Alec had a tough time with this one. Anything that opposed me he knew could land him in the dog house but if he agreed with me all the time it would make people wonder if he was just a lap dog, and he wasn't. Daniel was confident in his words, fully believing them.
"You really believe we'll never be at peace?" I asked Daniel trying to give Alec a break or at least a chance to answer more 'diplomatically'. Daniel laughed at me, "You wanna know what peace is?" his question had me wondering what his definition of peace was. I watched as he cackled with near sadism to it. "Peace is NOT having to look over your shoulder at every turn." I made to interrupt but he kept on.
"Peace is NOT waiting for the bombs to go off cause their sick of dealing with us!" I stopped him there, "That's enough!" marching up to his bull headed self I gave him a piece of my mind, "Wanna know a little something to?!" seeing how he wasn't backing up and wasn't liking the look in my eyes I used it to my advantage. Grabbing the lapels of his jacket, I shoved him hard enough to end him on his backside.
"You're always gonna be watching your back! Whether transgenic, transhuman, familiar, government, human, 'tomato', 'tomahto', and either way you're always watching your back for whatever reason. At least here you have friends to back you up." I could tell he was gonna use a defense here. "And don't even try to use Manticore as a back up." He fell flat, mouth closed.
"Manticore didn't do anything but take away childhoods, make us fear them, and take away unit members. That the 'back up' you were about to talk about?" I demanded standing over him. My presence I knew thanks to my alpha DNA as Alec had called it once in a while was domineering and demanded respect. His mind was buzzing looking for something to use.
"Manticore provided us with clothes, food, a roof over our heads, trained us on how to protect ourselves!" he sputtered. Mole mutely agreed. Alec turned his head. Having had people he'd cared about and loved over time, stolen from him by Manticore himself. It wasn't a nice picture. "They trained us how to kill!" I ground through clenched teeth, trying to keep my voice level more threatening and not screeching. But I was upset that after everything Manticore had done to them it still had people defending it.
In each other's faces now Alec spoke up, "You know she's right." We looked over. He stepped forward, to my side, his right hand going around my back in a small show of support, "Sure they gave us all we'd need…but it had a price." Daniel shrank back. "One life lost doesn't - " All it took was one hard push from Alec to send Daniel against the wall, "She wasn't just one. She was one of many."
Daniel knew he'd crossed a line, "Just because your unit was cream of the crop once our unit went into psy-ops because of the '09 incident doesn't put you in a better position to defend." I gave a smirk, "We've all lost someone here to Manticore so defending them here isn't a wise choice." Alec let go of the argument and went back to the topic at hand, "Let's not forget that we need to record everything that goes on with Gamble." We at least all agreed on that one.
"I'll have Dix and Luke go in to shifts on monitoring, hopefully it'll be boring." I hope…I saw Daniel shift, "It better be or all of whatever happens next will be on you." His pointed finger caused me to glare at him, "You've been hanging around Mole too much." I mutter. He turned to look at me, "He said something similar at the Jam Pony siege." I briefly saw Daniel rolled his eyes Alec and I cracked smiles.
We still had a few things left on our agenda before this agreement with Gamble came to its conclusion. And both things were currently sitting side by side in cells. Fix Logan…if possible and…figure out what the hell to do with Deck. I know the guys have been itching to beat on him but we need for him to tell us what he saw inside the familiar compound. If we could get inside information on anything it could be extremely useful, at least I'm hoping so.
He had refused to talk with anyone once he got it. Even after the minor brief torture some of the X5's had given him. He stayed true and therefore to avoid an 'accident' I had to keep him under lock and key in the jail cell. Given fresh clothes only once a week, standard three meals a day since he was human, and as much as we hated to do it, one technical cup full of trannie blood in an I.V. once a week to keep his system safe from the toxins within.
We made sure to have Carr prevent the dosages from getting addictive the way they were with Logan. Didn't need Deck getting psychotic on us, with his 'your country needs you' attitude. No we made sure to keep it at a minimum before contemplating where to put him once we felt he could be trusted. At least that way he could be further from the toxins and not get the risk of getting sick.
People didn't mind his so much though as Logan. His system required more than triple that amount. It was why he was the quicker issue that needed to be resolved. Deck could wait Logan and his unstable condition and how it was taking over everything around him could not. Even Deck himself worried over the man. From what I heard he tried to talk to the man into letting go. But his X5 with X5 speech only infuriated him more.
I was almost waiting for the day when Logan would try to break out and I'd have no choice but to put a bullet in his head. It sickened me on what I might have to do if it came down to that. Here I am the supposed voice of reason, me 'kick ass Max Guevara-McDowell', and my mind couldn't come up with a logical choice to end the issue. No…an obvious choice that I may have to make Alec make.
I don't think I had the balls or the stones to do it. Alec would understand…that I knew…he'd pull the trigger if asked…anything to do whatever he thought was best to protect his mate, his daughters, his city. It's what any man would do. Some days I feel he's more of a leader than I am. He can make some of those quick decisions while other days we both know only I can work the problem out.
I suppose it's what makes us the perfect two-sided coin. We both need each other to feed off of and to gain extra support. It's what Logan and I wished that we'd had. It's what we were trying to build. Yet with Alec it's almost like I was fighting it cause it came so naturally whereas with Logan, we were trying so hard to make something so fruitlessly come to pass. Maybe if I tried to talk to Logan about my dilemma…alone…after my other talks with him he'd see some type of reason.
It just hurt that someone I once loved a great deal would no longer be with us…I just hope I could help him. A futile wish I knew. My own words came back to haunt me…hope…hope is nothing more than a con job people trip behind till they finally get a grip on the cold hard truth…and yet still…I hope…