Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Angel so don't sue me. Thanks. :-)
A/N: Hey everyone, hope you're enjoying the story! The THANK YOU shout-out for the last update goes to Alexa, Sandra, Unknown x5, Deanna, Stargate fan (x2), Tina, Alie, 452max, and nattylovesu! In response to Tina's question, yeah, you'll be hearing more about Alec and his position at Manticore, but it'll probably be in snippits unless he randomly decides to tell someone his life story. Which he very well could. ;) Thanks for all the response to the story, everyone; I love reviews, they make me incredibly happy!
Ex Multus Familia
Chapter 13
To Krit's relief, it turned out that Syl didn't drool when she was on a plane. She and Krit read up on African customs and bickered about where they should get a hotel. They raided the drink cart whenever it passed by and harassed the stewardesses by asking for pillows and blankets.
"She's going to hit them with the next pillow they ask for," Seth said as he and Robin watched Syl tug on another flight attendant's shirt sleeve.
Robin grinned at Seth. "Good thing you're a medic."
"I don't think that a pillow is going to hurt her," Seth said, returning the smile. The two of them were spending the flight sleeping and figuring out where to get the cell phone from. Logan had suggested a couple of places, one in particular, and it definitely seemed easier to get a cell phone in Africa than it was in America. Africa wasn't a ruined dynasty; they still had a working market and economy.
Robin shifted Taylor from her right arm to her left. The baby had cried for the first hour they had been on the plane, freaking Robin out. Taylor never cried, and she definitely never cried for an hour. Seth said she was just getting acclimated to the high altitude, and, well, she couldn't like everything. It had turned out fine; she had cried herself into exhaustion and fell asleep. She hadn't woken up for the past few hours. The embarrassed blush in Robin's cheeks had faded from her cheeks, but she could still feel the other passengers glaring at her, angry for bringing a baby on the plane in the first place.
"Do you want me to hold her?" Seth asked, noticing Robin's movement. She shook her head.
"No, it's fine," Robin said, "I'll tell you when my arm goes to sleep."
Seth laughed. "All right, let me know."
They sat in silence for a few minutes. With her free hand, Robin fiddled with the cool, tiny TVs that were built into the backs of the seat, wondering how they worked. The movies weren't free, and they didn't have any extra money to spare, but Robin could imagine that the flight would have gone by much faster and easier with something to watch.
Beside her, Seth pulled a thick, hardbound book out of his carry-on and flipped it open. Robin got a brief glance of the cover and laughed.
"What?" Seth asked, glancing at her.
Robin shook her head. "That's not exactly light reading." The title of the book was Military Tactics of Southern Africa: A Land Together. She wasn't sure where he had gotten it, but it wasn't a book for the faint-hearted.
Seth gave a sheepish smile and ran his hand over the smooth white page. "Some habits die hard. I asked Logan to get something about the military for me to read, and he brought this from one of his contacts."
"I think my book's better," she said, nudging her bag with her foot. Like him, she had pulled her book from her bag yet. Seth reached down and dug through her bag, shifting around the diapers and baby things. Eventually he picked up a worn paperback with yellowing pages.
"T.C. Library?" he asked, noting the condition of the book. She rolled her eyes at him.
"It's a good book," she said, taking it from him. She flipped it over and showed him the cover: A Wizard of EarthSea by Usula K. Le Guin.
"Oh, a fantasy reader."
Robin's eyebrows rose. "And is there something wrong with that?"
Seth shrugged. "I just prefer to keep my head in the real world."
Robin snorted. "The real world? Look around, Seth. This world that we live in now is the stuff of sci-fi stories from the past." She lowered her voice. "We're the stuff of sci-fi and fantasy stories. If anything holds a gleam of truth about what to expect in our world, I don't think it's going to be that." She nodded at his book.
Seth stared at her a moment. "So wait, you're saying that fantasies are more truthful than non-fiction?"
Robin leaned back in her seat and smiled. "Nope, I'm just saying they reveal more truths. And predict them." She played with one of Taylor's wisps of hair. "Your books teach you from what happened in the past. Mine try to warn or teach about what may happen in the future."
"I feel like I'm in a class being taught by some twisted philosopher," Seth said, grinning at her.
Robin laughed. "Maybe you are. I've heard there are a few crazies among us."
"Yeah, there are. I guess I better watch out in case you come up behind me with a knife one day or something."
"You never know." Robin winked at him.
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"We will shortly be descending for the Cape Town Airport, arrival time schedule in twenty minutes." The captain's voice crackled over the speaker. "It will be 4 p.m. in South Africa. Please notice the fasten seatbelt sign is on. All chairs should be in the upright position and trays should be securely latched."
"Oh, thank goodness, I am so ready to get off this plane," Robin said.
"No kidding." Syl was beside them, on her way back from the bathroom. "I don't do well with being cooped up for long periods of time with nothing to do."
"We've noticed," Seth said wryly.
"So what's the plan for when we land?" Syl asked, ignoring the evil looks the flight attendants were giving her. If she didn't sit down soon, she'd probably be harassed by a flock of vengeful women more than thrilled to order her to do something.
"Well," Seth said, glancing at the growing number of flight attendants who were eyeing Syl. "We'll probably rent a car so that we can go wherever we need to. Logan's got a reservation booked for us at a nearby hotel, and from there we can start looking for Sandy." They had decided to refer to Sandeman's wife as 'Sandy' in conversations just to be safer. Sandeman wasn't exactly a usual name, and they didn't want to take chances on who might be listening.
"Sounds good," Syl said. She hadn't gone to all the meetings Logan had called before leaving, and the information had kept changing. She hadn't minded leaving logistical details in Seth's hands, she'd never really cared about that stuff anyway. It was the action that interested her.
She couldn't wait to start on the search for Sandeman. Logan hadn't been able to find an exact address; instead he had found about seven. Logan had assumed that this was a precaution of Sandeman's and had warned them that by visiting one of the residences, they would probably trigger alarm. That alarm would become serious when they visited more than one place. It presented a challenge, and Syl loved challenges.
"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to please find your seat."
Syl stared at the bird-like flight attendant. "Oh, don't worry, I know exactly where my seat is."
The woman's lips tightened and thinned somewhat, "Ma'am, will you please be seated? We're descending, and everyone needs to be in their seats and buckled in." Her eyes brightened as if she was expecting for Syl to challenge her.
"Sure, ok," Syl said. She looked at Seth and Robin. "See you guys on the ground."
The woman stared as Syl retreated to her seat. The poor attendant's mouth was in a tiny little 'o'; she was obviously shocked that Syl had complied. And from Syl's smile as she sat down, that was exactly why she had been cooperative. She loved reactions.
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"This is going to be it."
"You said that about the last three houses."
"No, I said those were probably it."
"I have perfect memory, Sidda. I know what you said."
Sidda glared at Alec who was in turn glaring at the empty, desolate road surrounded by equally empty, desolate land that was cloaked with dark, sunset shadows. The monotony of this place and the fact that Logan had given them six possible locations for this guy to be at was starting to drive both of them crazy.
"It isn't my fault they shot at you at the last house," Sidda said, "You shouldn't have gotten out of the truck."
"I'm sorry," he grumbled bitterly, his hands tightening around the steering wheel. "I couldn't exactly see the nutcase in the attic! My bad."
"I didn't see her until she started shooting hot lead at us," Sidda replied just as angrily. She crossed her arms and leaned back against the door, setting one elbow against the window and her chin on her hand. The truck hit a deep pothole and bounced, jostling her and threatening to send her into the air. She was starting to think Alec was hitting them on purpose. "I guess we should both be more observant next time."
"Oh, are you expecting more shotgun-toting attic grannies?" Alec said, tossing her a frown. "Because, if you are, I'd like some warning."
"God, you're so annoying!" Sidda snapped. She was trying to make amends, and he was just making it worse. Sidda flung an arm out as she whipped toward him, her irritation hitting a peak. "If there are anymore I'll just drive off and let them kill you, how's that? Then I won't have to deal with your whining!"
"Good!" he said, "Then I won't have to deal with your bad navigational skills."
"My navigational skills are perfectly fine," Sidda hissed, her hazel eyes narrowed, "I can't help it that you're a sucky driver."
"I'm a damn good driver," Alec said, taking his eyes off the road to glare at her. "Evasive vehicular maneuvers are my expertise."
"So it's normal for you to get shot at in cars?" Sidda replied, rolling her eyes at him, "That's just great!"
"That's not what I meant, and you know it."
"Whatever, you're just—" Something flickered in the corner of her eye, and Sidda gasped. "Alec!" A car with busted out headlights popped over the low hill in front of them, speeding at them in their lane, going way faster than their own 75 mph.
Alec's eyes widened before setting in determination. He spun the wheel to the left, sending their tires squealing in sudden torture. Sidda could see the drunk driver's shocked, stupid face as their truck peeled into the other lane, briefly rising up on two wheels. Adrenaline coursed through their veins, but the intense-situation calm that Manticore had trained them to have had taken over, making them both blank-faced until Alec guided their car back into the right lane.
"You okay?" Alec said, glancing at Sidda.
She nodded and let out the breath she had been holding. "Yeah." She gave him a shaky, ironic smile. "Nice driving."
"Huh. Shouldn't have taken my eyes off the road."
"Hey," she said, shaking her head, "You may not be the safest driver, but you're right." The anger she had felt before had been replaced by relief. She patted his leg and snickered darkly. "You've got the evasive part down."
Alec smirked at her. "Damn right."
They drove in silence for a while, the previous argument fading into the past. In a few minutes, they passed the tree break between one farm and another. Up in the distance, a small white farmhouse stood in the middle of a field of tall grasses like a little girl's abandoned dollhouse.
"There's the house," Sidda said quietly.
"Looks…nice…I guess?" Alec said. They both stared at it a bit, telescoping and looking for any movement.
"See anything?" Sidda asked.
"Nope. Though of course that doesn't mean that there aren't any gun-toting grannies in the basement."
Sidda rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, better watch out for those evil old ladies in dark corners. They can really do some damage."
"Hey," Alec said seriously, "You'd be surprised. See who's laughing when you get shot by one of them."
"I wouldn't get shot by them," Sidda said, stressing the 'I'. "You, however, might be another matter."
"I never said they would shoot me," Alec said, "In fact, I bet I could charm them into giving me dinner."
"You're ridiculous." Sidda gave the house one last sweep then decided that there was no point in staying in the truck any longer. "Come on, let's go check it out. Even if we don't find Barker, we need to see if we can find out what happened to him or at least proof that he lived here."
"If he lived here," Alec said. He and Sidda hopped out of the car and headed cautiously toward the house. They still didn't trust the seemingly empty impression that they were getting.
They climbed the stairs to the porch without incident, and after ringing the doorbell several times, they finally decided to go in. If they had heard movement, they would've waited a bit longer, but the only noise they'd heard was the normal scuttle of small rodents.
The hallway they moved into was a mess. Tables were overturned, papers were strewn everywhere, pictures were askew. The kitchen and living room revealed the same thing.
"You know what I'm thinking?" Alec asked.
"Manticore," Sidda replied without hesitation.
"Looks like it was a while ago, too," Alec said, running a finger along the mantle above the fireplace. It came away grey with dust. He rubbed his fingers together and looked at Sidda. "Guess nobody's home."
"Well that's for sure." She stopped in front of the bookcase that was to the right of the fireplace and then moved to the one that was on the left side.
"What are you doing?" Alec asked.
Sidda reached forward and grabbed one of the books. Instead of coming out all the way, it stopped when it was sticking about forty-five degrees out. Sidda let go, and the book stayed suspended there. She smiled as they heard a clicking noise.
"So obvious," she said, pulling the bookcase out and to the side.
"What, do all the Manticore geneticists have secret offices?" Alec asked, stepping in to look at the small room that had been hidden behind the bookcase.
"Pretty much." Sidda felt around inside the room and flicked on a light switch.
"How do you know that?" Alec looked up from the papers he was rifling through. Had Manticore sent Sidda on some of those 'retrieval' missions?
Sidda smirked. "I actually read through a lot of the info Logan gave us. I'm guessing you didn't."
Alec shrugged and moved to another pile of papers. "I knew you would."
"Maybe next time I won't. Then what will you do?" She started on the other side of the room from Alec. It was a compact space; obviously there man had been more of a theorist than a lab technician. Sidda couldn't even make out what half of the notes mean. She'd never studied a whole lot of genetics. But that was ok, Max had. They could at least pack some of these up and mail them back to Max. Maybe there was something useful here.
"I guess we'll both just be screwed over," Alec said. He turned and looked at Sidda. "Don't you think it's funny Manticore never found this room? They're usually pretty thorough, even if this place is out in the boonies."
"Maybe they only sent one person to retrieve Barker," Sidda said, "Maybe they were going to come back and finish the job later. After all, they didn't know Max was going to blow Manticore up."
"I don't know, but this is definitely Barker's place." Alec held up a stack of mail. "Or else the residence of someone obsessed with him."
"Hmm, I wonder if there's anything interesting in there," Sidda said, moving toward Alec, "It'd be nice if he'd kept in touch with some of his old friends back at Manticore.
"You know, I wonder if that's it," Alec said, looking around. "If Logan thought he was alive, it would've been because he wasn't on the attack list. So maybe the guy was safer than he thought he was. Maybe he spooked and ran."
Sidda was skeptical. "Then why does the place look like it's been trashed?"
Alec shrugged. "Maybe to do what it almost did to us. Throw people off his trail. If everyone thinks Manticore got to him…"
"Then they certainly wouldn't expect for him to be alive right now." Sidda gave Alec an approving look. "Glad to know you can use your Manticore-given brains, buddy."
"Geez, thanks for the compliment, sugarcake."
"I'd rather not be a pastry," she said, rolling her eyes at him. "You're already the cupcake, I don't want to be a sugarcake." She walked over and stood at his elbow, looking at the letters in his hand. "Why would he leave correspondence behind? I mean, it's sort of stupid, especially if Manticore or the government may still be after him. Manticore would know about these secret offices."
"I'd never do it, but sometime's smart people are stupid about common sense things." He split the stack in half and handed it to her. "Ready for some heavy duty reading?"
"Sure, honey-bunch," she said, taking the letters and retreating to the only chair in the room.
Alec sat down on the floor and leaned back against the wall, setting his stack of letters on the floor beside him. He riffled quickly through the first few letters, tossing the bills and random notices into a messy pile. "Who brings the mail out here, anyway?"
"One of those mail-guys that the government hires, I guess," Sidda said, "They're supposed to be dedicated to bringing the mail, no matter what."
"Dedicated to putting money in their own pockets is more like it," Alec replied, flinging another bill at the pile. "There's another bill for the mail service. Half of these are bills for the mail service."
"You'd think someone paranoid enough to trash his own house would think to burn these letters," Sidda said, "Or not even have an address."
Alec nodded. "Sorta weird," he said, "Most ex-Manticore personnel keep their heads down and go for the high ground, get out of country. Seems like this guy attempted to have a normal life for a little while."
"A normal life might be nice," Sidda said. Hers definitely wasn't normal. Sitting in the house of a possibly dead guy and going through his junk mail was so not normal.
After he finished his pile of letters, Alec stood up and stretched his legs. He nudged the stack of rejected letters with his foot. "Nothing in there."
"Nothing here, either," Sidda said. She huffed a sigh and tossed the last of her letters onto his pile. "Just a lot of useless things." She pulled her legs up into the office chair and spun around toward the geneticist's desk. "I just don't understand what he's doing here. If he's not dead, why make it look like Manticore trashed the house if he couldn't be sure that they'd think he was dead? And why leave this office like he was going to come back to it? Manticore would find it if they were really looking for him."
"Maybe he wasn't good at making a good scene."
"It's hard to believe that Manticore would hire someone that stupid," Sidda said as she started looking around the desk for notes.
Alec shrugged as he inspected the small room. He started pulling science books from a tiny shelf, flipping through each of them before putting it back on the shelf. Maybe he had hidden some notes that would be useless for Max in the pages. He was on the sixth book, one about human research test subjects, when something small and cream-colored fluttered out of the pages. He snatched it out of the air and turned it over so he could read the front of it.
"Hey, Sidda, look at this." He held up the letter for her to see. The script on it was tight and flowing and it was covered in stamps.
"Where's it from?"
"It doesn't have a return address," Alec said as he handed it to her, "But it's in Italian."
"But Italy's where the Hayden guy is."
"Weird, isn't it." Alec's eyes were dark as his mind churned, trying to find the link that was missing between the two geneticists.
Sidda snatched the letter from him and flipped it over, her eyes scanning the half page piece of paper. There were only a few short lines on it, everything written in Italian.
"What's it say?" Alec asked, crossing the short distance to lean over her shoulder.
"Not much, not really," she said, frustrated. "Just a few sentences, "The terms have been agreed upon, and the price set. Come immediately to La Serenissima. Your new Queen awaits.""
"All right, what the hell does that mean?" Alec demanded.
"It's not that hard if you know Italian," Sidda said as she looked up at him, almost embarrassed. "La Serenissima's a really antiquated term for the Republic of Venice, which used to be an Italian state until the late 1700s."
"How long were you in training for Italy?" Alec asked, a bemused eyebrow raised at the random fact.
Sidda ran her hand over her forehead as she grimaced at the letter. "Too long. But anyways, the Republic of Venice refers to a lot of land, not just Venice."
"So this is still definitely Barker, not Hayden, right?"
"It's addressed to Barker, but the whole mention of the queen means that whoever got this letter went to Venice." Sidda handed him the letter and rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on. Barker, Hayden and no clear information on either of them, just snippets Logan had found.
"How do you know it's Venice from that?" Alec asked, taking the letter and staring at the foreign words. He knew English, Celtic, Spanish, French, Latin, Mandarin, Farsi, Japanese, and a few varieties of Arabic, but he had never needed Italian, and Manticore never taught you things you didn't need to know.
"Venice is also known as the Queen of the Adriatic," said Sidda. "It's blunt if you know a lot about Italian, but if it was sent by a private American messenger service or something like that, they'd most likely never understand it even if they read it."
"So do you think this has something to do with our Hayden guy?" Alec asked as he dropped the letter on the desk. Sidda sighed and looked up at him.
"I don't know yet. Maybe Hayden's Barker or Barker's Hayden, however that works. Maybe they're using each other." She put her elbows on the arms of the chair and smirked up at him. "Why don't you tell me, dreamboat?"
"Give me a little while to figure it out, and I will, snuggle-bunny."
Sidda shook her head and started laughing. "We have to stop that. It's disgusting."
"I don't know, baby-cakes, I like it."
She was about to reply when a sudden deep rumble from overhead cut her off. "What that thunder?"
"Sounded like it," Ale said. He smiled at her roguishly. "We might be forced to stay the night here. We'll have to cuddle for warmth."
"We have a 103.5 F temperature. I think we'll be fine," Sidda replied as she stood up from the chair.
Alec blocked her way to the door, putting his arm on the doorway. "Yeah, but cuddling is more fun for the both of us. You might like it."
"Or I won't," Sidda said. She darted forward and ducked under his arm. "Come on, lover boy, let's at least get our stuff before it really starts coming down."
Alec shook his head before following her out the door and into the growing storm, the purple-grey clouds gathering thick and dangerous on the horizon.