"No."

Khan's dark brow rose, his expression clearly unamused. So far, he found her stubborn attitude to be entertaining, but now it was just becoming a nuisance. As much as he admired her fiery spirit –which he no doubt intended to break someday soon –he had to resist snapping her neck out of pure annoyance. She still had her uses, after all. "No?" he echoed.

"No," she repeated adamantly. "I'm not going to seduce Harry with my 'feminine charm'." Here she rolled her eyes behind her glasses and Khan could just picture her lifting her hands to create quotations with her fingers much like the people of his century had once done.

Khan barely resisted the rolling of his own eyes. "If you do not then we will dispose of him," he said. When she made no reaction he continued. "My way."

He got the reaction he was looking for when she flinched noticeably.

After mentioning her sister, she hadn't questioned him on how he knew about her, but he could see the clear confusion –mixed with a heavy dosage of hate –in her eyes. She was definitely clever enough not to ask him how he knew as she probably knew full well that he would not oblige to answering such an unimportant question. He needed her full cooperation and using her family may have been a low blow, but it was necessary and he found he didn't care. Humans had used his family against him for much more trivial things. He wasn't above blackmail.

Finally she sighed, her shoulders slumping in defeat as she leaned back in her chair and Khan wanted to grin triumphantly, but maintained his intense stare. "Isn't there another way? Besides killing or flashing him, I mean."

"There are, but they would take more time. Time that we do not have," he replied brusquely. He was becoming impatient. "Do I have your cooperation, Aubrey?"

She threw him a sharp glare and he thought it was probably due to the fact she hadn't given him permission to call her by her first name yet. Again he did not care.

"You've had it since the moment you popped out of that damned cryotube," she grumbled. Khan couldn't help himself from letting out a low chuckle of amusement.

"I beg to differ. You have refuted my every command so far."

This actually made her smile at him as if she realized she had won some sort of victory over him. He didn't like it. "I have, haven't I?" she chuckled. "Although that doesn't seem to stop you or change your mind."

"You would be foolish to think anything or anyone can."

She gave another huff of laughter as she shook her head. "Figures." Then she sighed. "When I'm done my shift we will prepare –"

"No, we will do it now," he interrupted and she immediately stopped to stare at him with her mouth agape.

"Now?" she asked incredulously.

"The longer we linger here we run the risk of being discovered," he explained quickly. "The sooner we leave the more difficult it will be to find us."

"But I have work to do –"

"Leave it. It is no longer important."

Aubrey huffed and glared at him. He slowly grinned, knowing she hated it when he interrupted her and that made her even angrier. Briefly he thought she had an attitude that matched his people and whatever she lacked in physical strength, she certainly made up for in spirit. As soon as the thought occurred however, he quickly banished it from his mind; she was a lesser being –a human –one of Marcus' kind. She was a means to an end.

"Oh, I think it is," she snapped finally, her glare not lessening in the slightest. "I have two more rounds to make in Hangar 16 that I have to complete specifications for and not to mention my paper work. If I don't submit those then Starfleet Command will know something is wrong."

"You forget that I have already killed one of your guards. He will be discovered soon enough and when that happens we cannot be here," he growled back harshly. Her disobedience was really starting to grate on his nerves now. He saw her recoil slightly at his tone –and probably at the reminder of her dead comrade –but she tried to hide it by glaring right back at him.

Holding out his hand to her, he didn't allow them to break eye contact. "Give me your PADD."

"Why?" Her tone was even and she didn't make a move. She really was resilient.

He twitched his fingers in a motion for her to give it to him without a word and after a few more moments of hesitation, she finally lowered her eyes and handed the device over to him. He smiled triumphantly and promptly snatched the PADD from her outstretched fingers. With an ease that seemed like second nature his fingertips flew over the screen too fast for Aubrey to see the images, words and codes flashing along the transparent glass. Mere seconds later he was handing it back to her.

"The specifications are set to be submitted at 1200 and 1600 hours," he explained, his tone almost sounding bored as she accepted the PADD with a dumbstruck expression. "Are those times sufficient?"

"Uh…" she mumbled dumbly. "Yea –Yes, those are perfect." She cleared her throat gently as her eyes traveled back and forth between him and the PADD. "How did you do that? It should be impossible."

Khan gave a chuckle and paced away from the front of her desk only to slowly circle around the back and behind her chair. He watched her stiffen, but she didn't turn to watch him as he moved out of sight. "When I worked at Section 31 there were a multitude of override codes that I memorized quickly after being revived," he explained as his hands came to rest on the back of her chair. "Clearly your Starfleet wasn't intelligent enough to change some of those codes, especially since I wrote a few of them myself. It was simple to hack into the programme and set a timer." As his hands traveled higher, he placed them on her shoulders, enjoying the discomfort she was portraying even though she tried to hide it. Her shoulders were so tense he could feel every taunt band of muscle beneath his palms.

"If it's so easy, why not just hack in and find the codes for your crew?" she asked, but her voice wavered slightly with suppressed nervousness. He could tell she wasn't scared; no, she did not fear him. However, she didn't trust him and she was right not to.

"You Humans aren't that unintelligent," he scoffed. "Starfleet changed the override codes to that sort of access and although I would eventually gain entry, I find it far easier and amusing to use you, dear Aubrey."

"You really are a tyrant," she hissed at him. Was he seriously only keeping her alive to torture her with the waiting? To see her suffer not only physically, but mentally as well? How sick was that?

"I was a ruler of tyrants," he growled, his touch on her shoulders shifting from passive to taunt. His fingers tightened to the point where they seemed to dig into her collar bone. She didn't doubt bruises would form from such pressure only to match the ones forming around her neck. "And it was taken from me," he continued, his voice a harsh whisper by her ear. "Taken by those who feared our superiority. They drove us away only to entrap and threaten us once again." Aubrey felt his pressure on her shoulders increase as he turned her chair so that she was facing him and he glared down at her as if she was nothing more than the bug crushed beneath his boot. She was vermin to him; a mouse. And he was the cat.

"I assure you history will not repeat itself, Aubrey," he whispered again. "I will not be made a puppet of your vile species ever again. You can count on that."

Aubrey swallowed and stared into the deep depths of his seemingly endless gaze as it bore into her. "If you hate my species so much then why are you relying so heavily on me?" At first her voice shook, but gradually her strength returned and her tone held a confidence she didn't really feel.

He scoffed as he released her shoulders and straightened to stand and look down his nose at her. "I rely on no one, least of all you."

"Either you're lying to yourself or you are actually so smart you're a fool," she shot back snidely. "If you haven't noticed, I'm the one keeping you alive right now. I helped you back in the hangar, I helped you sneak into my office, I will be aiding your escape from a high security, top secret facility run by the most powerful organization on the planet, and I will be hiding you in my home while simultaneously adding myself to Starfleet's most wanted list! At any point in the past hour I could have called in and had you stopped, but I didn't!" She was vaguely aware that she was now standing and waving her communicator around like a madwoman while her chest heaved out of anger and frustration. It only made her angrier when he did nothing but stare back at her, seemingly unaffected. "If that, Khan, isn't you relying on me then I don't know what is."

As soon as the words left her mouth, she gasped as he snapped out his hand to knock the communicator away and as it smashed to pieces on the ground the same hand came to wrap his fingers around her neck just like he had before in Hangar 16 only this time instead of pushing her up against something he lifted her clear off the ground, her toes not even brushing the smooth tile anymore. She choked and sputtered and feebly attempted to smack his hand away, but unsurprisingly he didn't budge; he didn't even seem to be putting any effort into it, he just glared at her.

"I would advise you to think about your words more carefully before you speak them, Aubrey," he warned, his tone low and threatening. "Say the wrong thing and you may find yourself joining your dear Jonathan in an air vent. Do I make myself clear?"

He let her go then and the suddenness caused her to crumple to the floor unprepared for the impact as she coughed and heaved. Her throat was extremely sore at this point, but she figured getting choked three times in one morning by a superhuman would do that to you. She was pretty sure she had a bruise around her neck at this point; and she worried that Harry would definitely know something was up if he saw bruises in the form of handprints on her.

Throughout her musing she glared up at him, but he was of course unfazed. When she spoke next her voice was rough and weak and haggard. "… So, what's the plan then?"

His grin sent a trickle of fear down her spine.

As it turned out, Harry did notice the bruising and hadn't even bothered to pay attention to her 'seductress' act. The moment she was close enough, he spotted the discolored skin and immediately jumped from his chair to rush to her and grasp her at the shoulders. He shook her and demanded she tell him who had done such a thing to her, not even noticing that Aubrey's hair was no longer in the conservative bun she always had it in. Instead he shook her and babbled until he was blue in the face, too frantic to let her get a word in or to realize there was someone approaching behind him.

Khan, who had snuck along a few side hallways, appeared from a small opening in the wall just behind Harry and swiftly approached to bash an elbow into the back of his head. The security guard collapsed against Aubrey and the poor woman tried her best to hold the older man up long enough to lower him safely to the ground. Once she was on her knees with Harry laid out before her as she cradled his head Khan crouched by his side to search his pockets.

After several moments of scavenging, he finally rose after claiming Harry's identification card and phaser to move over to the man's desk. Aubrey made sure that Harry's head was set down gently -while apologizing profusely to the unconscious man- before slinking over to Khan's side where he sat at the chair working his fingers over the various PADDs and displays.

"Did you dispose of him?" he asked calmly without missing a beat. He didn't even pause in his mad typing and swiping.

"No, he's unconscious on the floor where you left him," she spat back.

"Where you left him, Commander," he corrected unfazed.

"You honestly think I'm strong enough to lift a 200 pound man?" she snapped angrily. "I don't know what I look like to you but I am certainly no body builder!"

He paused only for a moment to twist in his seat and give her a look before going back to his hacking with an impatient sigh. "I continue to forget you are not one of my people," he grumbled quietly. It was difficult to hear over the thudding of his fingers over the desktop and how softly he had spoken it, but Aubrey heard it nonetheless leaving her confused.

It was obvious with his tone that he didn't expect –or possibly even want –her to hear him, but she had. And now she was left wondering what he meant. He knew damn well she wasn't an Augment; he had just been shouting to her about how human she was just a few minutes ago. However now was not the time to bring it up.

Her last thought was confirmed when the power suddenly died and the main lights around them went out leaving the immediate area pitch black. Immediately Aubrey grasped the edge of the desk to make sure she wouldn't lose her footing as she wildly glanced around. But a hand grasped her wrist soon after, followed by one at her waist that made her nearly jump out of her skin. When the hands pulled at her she resisted, digging her heals into the ground as best as she could.

"The power will only be out for a few seconds, Aubrey, we must go," she heard Khan whisper to her sharply while giving another tug. "The scanner is off and we must go through before the power returns."

With another, more forceful, tug they were off with Khan in the lead and dragging Aubrey at his side as she stumbled in the dark. It was still pitch black after several minutes and Aubrey slowly came to realize that he had lied to her and only told her they would be on soon to get her to move faster. Immediately after discovering this she wanted to kick him, but instead glared into the blackness where she knew he'd be.

"How the hell can you see where we're going? Better yet, how do you know? I've been here five years and I still don't know these halls well enough to walk around blindfolded," she snapped irritably as he pulled her around a corner harshly.

"My eyesight supersedes yours by 50 percent and I memorized a map of the compound back in your office," he explained nonchalantly.

Aubrey blanched, knowing there was no map of the facility anywhere in her office. "What? When?"

"When I programmed your PADD for timed submission I took the chance to glance over the layout of this facility," he replied.

"You had my PADD for less than 30 seconds," Aubrey stated dumbly.

"I read fast," he deadpanned. "And my memory is superb."

"Clearly."

He led her around corners and down hallways, ducking and running and creeping. It was quite clear to Aubrey that he was not using the main entrance that she normally used –which would have been stupid if he did –but she found she had no clue as to where he was going instead. It was still dark and she could hear the commotion from other Starfleet personnel all around them and echoing off of the walls. When they were in another smaller area that was void of any others, Aubrey took the opportunity to speak.

"How long will the lights be off?"

"Approximately another five minutes," he responded dully as he stopped at a corner before dashing down the adjacent hallway with her in tow.

"And where are we going?" she continued.

"The parking garage."

"But I don't have a car."

"Harry did."

Aubrey blinked and took a moment to process this then without thinking smacked his arm that was closest to her. Now that her eyes had adjusted somewhat to the light she was able to see a vague outline of him, but running around corridors was still difficult. At her weak assault he paused to glance back at her, but said nothing. "You stole his car keys?" she asked incredulously. She hadn't even noticed he took them earlier.

"Yes," he simply replied.

Aubrey let out a groan of annoyance. This man would be the death of her sanity.

Khan led them out of the complex with what Aubrey could only describe as ease. There was no hesitation to his calculated steps or to which route he took and soon they were climbing a small engineer's shaft and afterwards found themselves in large parkade that was at least 2 football fields wide and long with 5 floors. Finding Harry's car was going to be a nightmare and Aubrey worried they might be caught before they were able to make it to the damnable machine.

She stood there dumbstruck at how large the parkade was as she'd never been there before in all her five years working for the secret facility –she'd never had reason to. She then looked to Khan who also stood silently at her side, his eyes roaming over the vehicles nearby.

"Too bad you wanted to get out of here quickly," she scoffed laughingly. Khan gave her a wry, unamused look which she ignored. "It's going to be fun trying to find the car in this mess."

He didn't even reply. Instead he just lifted his right hand which held the car keys and pressed a button on the small remote. A light beeping noise emitted and then the front of the device where a tiny LED flashlight rested detached itself and floated in front of them. The flashlight then turned on with a blue glow and the beeping continued as it started moving away from them. Aubrey watched it in fascination as it floated off at a decent pace and only moved when Khan began to follow it.

"What the hell is that?" she asked.

"Tracking device," he explained. "All models made after 2190 are equipped with it. Ideal for large parking garages such as this."

Aubrey blinked as they picked up their pace when the tracker sped up. "Oh, well that explains it then."

"Explains what?" he asked thought he didn't actually sound interested in her answer.

"It explains why I've never heard of it before. The only car I ever owned was made in 2162. After it died I didn't bother getting a new one and decided to take the bus or taxi instead," she replied, her tone only slightly haggard from their jogging.

Khan raised an eyebrow and glanced at her curiously. "Have you never seen advertisements for such things?"

"I don't have television and could care less about reading magazines," she laughed. "I prefer real books to gossip."

Khan didn't reply except for a noncommittal hum as the tracker let out a few quick louder beeps and the light flashed as it hovered over a blue car that Aubrey didn't care to know the make of. Khan pressed the same button on the remote as he had before and the tracker stopped flashing and beeping to float back over and reattach itself. He then pressed another button and the clunking of the locks releasing echoed in the parkade.

Without another word, Khan moved to the driver's side door as Aubrey shuffled over to the passengers. Within moments, he had the car started and hovering peacefully in the parking stall as he looked behind him to make sure there were no other cars to ram into. After Aubrey buckled herself in she reached over to the center console to turn off the country music that had begun to play when the engine started –she had noticed Khan's frown of distaste –then proceeded to enter her address into the built in GPS unit. Minutes later they joined the gaggle of busy traffic in silence.