There was something almost cathartic about blurring through the slick streets of Seattle. Feeling the air, heavy with the promise of rain, bend and sweep over her cheeks made her feel invincible in some way. The tall buildings around her, rooted to the ground but reaching up into the sky, took all of mother nature's abuses but maintained and persevered, like they were in control of whether they stood tall or crumbled; just as she was in control of whether she stood tall or crumbled under the pressures of this operation. 'In control' was exactly what she wanted to feel after finding out she'd been unknowingly dosed, by people she trusted, with a deadly retrovirus targeted to her mark. She replayed the whole night, from the moment she'd sat in the infirmary getting her shots until she returned with the antigen hours later smelling lightly of smoke from the faux-Manticore roast.
Which one of those shots was really the retrovirus? And if they gave her a biological and fatal virus knowing she'd be going back under for the Cale mission, knowing what she'd have to do, didn't that mean they were essentially greenlighting Cale's death? If that was the case, then why hadn't he died? Was there really just the one dose of the antigen, the existence of which meant to instill in Cale a sense that he'd barely dodged death this time, and he needed to be more careful in the future? Or was the virus itself a lie, not meant to kill him at all?
The moment Alec sauntered in to the penthouse, not a care in the world (albeit under a persona that wasn't really him), she'd felt the shift, but chalked it up to him being a great actor, and maybe a hint of whatever factor it was that landed him the nickname The Accelerator. As he explained what was happening to their mark with the same lack of enthusiasm she might have expected from a teacher two months from retirement, she'd put together that he already knew about the virus and hadn't told her. She assumed his tight lip was probably under Director's orders. She didn't have to like that he hadn't told her, but why hadn't he? Alec had been so straightforward with her, more and more as they'd worked together, more and more as they'd gotten to know each other. Handlers didn't have to be transparent with their own nor the Director's orders, and with Zack's motto making ripples in her mind of doing whatever it takes, she felt grateful Alec had shared more with her than Zack or Lydecker ever did. He'd given her unfettered access to his files using his own credentials, but he hadn't found a time to let her know Manticore's plans? It seemed out of character for him.
There was at least one huge silver lining to this virus storm cloud, though. She wouldn't have to touch or be touched by the scraggily-haired man ever again (except for that moment when she would finally end his life). 'Ever' was a long time, and she could be simultaneously grateful for that and furious that she'd not been informed, or hell, even asked.
Running so fast she thought she looked like an impressionist painting come to life took the edge off her sparking energy. She was doing something, something physical and taxing with her body. It felt like Alec really had lit the proverbial fire under this operation's ass. For the second time tonight, she was running toward someone, but this time, that someone was Alec.
It was nearing half-past three when she made it to the apartment Alec would use for his cover. It had once been a higher end building, flush with large condos and a few penthouses, back before the Pulse reduced hundreds of millions of dollars to just cents in mere seconds. The world had been rebuilding ever since, but construction was slower in some of the harder-hit hubs like Seattle. Not to mention, funds were typically diverted to more important things like the defense budget and infrastructures in hubs and other destination states. It didn't surprise her to see that this building had leaks in its halls or that the elevators didn't really work. Unless the owners were still alive and had billionaire bucks, she doubted there'd be much upkeep. She bounded up the stairs and by the time she reached Alec's floor, he'd had the door open already, worriedly waiting for her.
"Can you come in?" he asked, picking up immediately on her anger. It wasn't her impassive face - at least not on its own - but a whole vibe that emanated from her being. "I have some news." He held the door while she decided.
She wasn't going to have any kind of conversation out in the hall; she had no idea who his neighbors were or even if he had any, but she and Alec needed to portray certain roles to maintain cover. They couldn't talk about handler-agent stuff or anything related to their mission, and she definitely didn't want to talk about their personal relationship if they had an audience. She shuffled inside with a terse nod.
Alec locked the door behind her. He appeared to have just redressed after a shower, wearing a pair of dark jeans and a damp white tee that clung to his chest. "The place is clean, I did a sweep hours ago; nothing inside."
His apartment was spartan, despite it being one of the larger-sized dwellings in the building. With a great room concept, the floor plan boasted wide open space just past the kitchen island. There was a short hallway leading to a bathroom, the master bedroom, and a secondary bedroom he'd use as tech space. The kitchen offered a (chipped) black granite island that had little gold flecks marbled through it, and two barstools, but it looked like the fridge, oven, and dishwasher just might work. That, and the fact that he probably had just taken a shower gave her hope for hot water in the bathroom. For such a large area, there was little furnishing to decorate it. The great room had two out of three pieces from an olive green sofa set - the loveseat and the single chair - in front of which sat an old distressed wood coffee table, and a wall of eight old school TVs, a few stacked on top of the others. She raised a confused brow at Alec.
"One of Manticore's IT units used to live here. Saw patterns in everything and predicted the outcomes based on the things he observed," Alec explained.
She nodded mutely, her face a careful mask of nonchalance and deadpan. It was a countenance she'd perfected with Zack, a look he'd never bothered to decipher.
But Alec noticed. His shoulders tensed. "Max, can you say something please?"
And she wanted to. She wanted to ask him about the virus, about how he could have made a decision or went along with the Director's decision to manipulate her blood and not tell her, but memories of Zack's disappointed brows hung over her like a gloomy cloud. She had always done whatever it takes, and if a retrovirus was whatever it took, she'd do that too.
"You're freaking me out with the silence, can you say something?" he tried again.
"What do you want me to say?" she asked, feeling small, careful not to reveal too much, lest she seem insubordinate. Just because Alec hadn't written her up before didn't mean he wouldn't.
He huffed. This was not the woman who'd read him the riot act for diving toward a bomb because there was a little thumb drive next to it. "Say whatever you want, just say something. Yell if you need to - I can take it - if I were you I'd be irate."
"Yeah, I'm fucking irate," she mocked. "You manipulated me. This virus in my body - you didn't even tell me about it. You didn't even ask if I was okay with it."
Alec pressed his lips together, trying to work out all the things he needed to tell her and in what order. "I floated the idea of a retrovirus targeted to Cale's DNA to the Director after the Dorokov mission."
"You told to the Director what I said in the hotel that night?" She recoiled, imagining Alec telling the Director that his perfect Romeo was complaining about her job. But that night, he had also promised to think of something so she'd never have to be with Cale again. Two opposing ideas.
His brows turned up. "No, I didn't tell him anything like that. I just... told him that I was considering a retrovirus to strengthen Cale's feelings for you, since he clearly wants power over everything and everyone, including power over you. And now, he can't have it. I also hoped you'd be okay with it because it would solve the other problem of him getting his grubby little hands on you."
She wasn't sure if his explanation made it any better; the fact that he'd thought it out past the initial 'hey, what if we do a retrovirus' question proved he should have had time to run it by her. "Why didn't you ask me about it? Making a decision like that undermines my personal autonomy."
She had a point. He jerked his head backward. "I didn't know Lydecker signed off and got the ball rolling on it until after you were already in the infirmary for your shots, but you're right. I still should have asked you if you were willing to move forward with a plan like that. I'm sorry. It'll never happen again."
"And now I have to live with this weird virus in my system for the rest of my life," she added.
"No, it's only temporary. There really is a 'cure,' for lack of a better term. Just say the word and we can go back to base and undo this whole clusterfuck. You can say I held it back from Manticore or that you got it before Manticore burned down."
Temporary? Well, he sure buried the lead on that one. Funny how one little word changed her perspective on the entire situation. "So there's no real risk to me. What about Cale?"
Alec paced to the kitchen island and grabbed his tablet. "The antigen he would need each time he touches you is really just a specific and very potent synthetic medicine." He handed her the tablet, and on the screen was the antigen's molecular structure.
"So I won't kill him if he touches me?" This was confusing. If he doesn't die from the virus, then why make her the carrier at all?
He shook his head. "Not by just touching you. It'd likely be from additional infections or diseases. This virus induces a cytokine storm while essentially making his body unlearn ages-old mRNA instructions. He'll get rashes and lesions - he could get viruses against which he'd been vaccinated as a child; he could even slip into a coma if he doesn't get the medicine, especially the more he touches you. Next time, it'll be a little worse. He'll probably think he's dying, though, which was kinda the point. I saw him physically twitch away when you went to touch him again."
She gave a thousand-yard stare into the distance. "After the antidote, he tried to get me to come closer to him, but without knowing the full extent of what the retrovirus does - or the full mission parameters - I told him I didn't want to risk it. You should have seen the look on his face. It was like someone stole his favorite toy."
Alec took that in as proof that the retrovirus concept had merit after all. If Cale thought of Max as his own toy, his own property, then it was exactly like someone had stolen her. He reiterated, "Now that he can't have you, he wants you even more." Like a petulant child.
She took a deep breath. "I still don't like that you couldn't even find two minutes to tell me."
He reached for her hand and met her stare. "I promise it won't happen again. I may technically be your handler, but from now on, we're a team. Everything I know, you'll know. Starting with your MASVAB results."
They sat on the loveseat and he opened up a few documents on the tablet. "Your scores from your original test are on the left, and your scores from your retest are on the right."
Max darted between the two sets, searching out her Romeo scores. Partway down the list, she said, "I aced Romeo both times."
"Yes, you did. But you also aced several others originally, and a few more with the retest."
She'd been so focused on proving she was a Romeo because of her perfect score that she barely registered the other sections she'd aced. She tilted her head at him. "What does that mean?"
It meant his instincts about her were right. "You should have been in the Chimera program... with me." He tried not to make it sound like her whole training program was a mistake. It was more like she'd been grossly under-trained.
"You're a Chimera?" She was surprised a moment, but not because he wasn't an outstanding operative. "Wait, I emphasized the wrong part of that sentence. I thought the Chimera Program was just a rumor? You telling me you're not a 'Nova?"
He grinned slyly as if to suggest that, like Fight Club, Chimeras had the singular rule. "I appreciate the compliment, but no, I'm not a Romeo. I can do Romeo - not as well as you - but that's not my specialty." He reached for the tablet, and through a series of screens, pulled up his own MASVAB results. "It's like a parent company with little offsprings of specialties. Foreign policy, Media, Transportation, Romeo, Weapons, Cyber, Psychological, the list goes on."
Accepting the tablet, Max perused Alec's test results. He didn't ace Romeo, but - apparently, like her - he did ace many other sections. "Holy shit, Alec. So why was I put in Romeo?" She imagined how her life would have gone if she'd been recruited into Chimera. She would have had more opportunities to travel around the world, help bring down international criminals. Maybe she'd have had a chance to do what Alec had done - infiltrate and dismantle drug cartels, and weapons outfits, and destroy political coups.
"I can't be sure, but maybe because of Nicholson."
Max remembered him. Guy thought he was slick, thought of the women hybrids as his own, like how a pimp might feel about his ladies. Her upper lip curled up in disgust. He used to watch them train, intently eyeing the sparring girls. "Talk about pervy." Max handed him back the tablet.
"Speaking of, how was Cale when you left?" Alec turned off the tablet's screen and set it on the coffee table.
"Still alive, unfortunately. I know it has to be that way for now, I just-"
"I know. He's an entitled douchebag."
Max nodded. "To put it mildly."
"Felt like forever until he finally fell unconscious, but then that's when that blonde showed up."
"Her name's Asha," Max informed. "Don't know much about her, except she knows he's Eyes Only, so she must have some kind of political connection to him, or likely a quid pro quo deal. And she must have some kind of daddy issues if she's making big blue moon eyes at him. She's into him."
Accepting that information as a possible new challenge, Alec agreed. "We'll get IT on her. She cares about him, that's evident. But is he into her?"
"Too early to tell. My surprise 'return' felt kinda like a monkey wrench. She knew who I was right away."
If Asha knew who Max and Cale both were, then she must be in tight with Cale. He must already trust her. It would present another layer of difficulty, but Alec felt confident under the added pressure. "Then we still have a decent shot at staying in the game. Especially since he suspects something might be going on between us."
Isn't it? A smile snuck up one corner of her mouth. "What did you tell him?"
"Didn't. He passed out before I could answer."
She saw no indication regarding how he felt about Cale's potential assumption. Could they be a couple like Edward and Eva?
Again, she considered the Chimera program. She truly thought it was just a rumor. Whispers of operatives so skilled at espionage that they could blend in under just about any circumstances. She'd put together in her own mind that the Chimera program's myth entailed acing every single section of the MASVAB; however, Alec hadn't aced Romeo, nor some of the other sections, but he'd been recruited. "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course." His easy smile offered authenticity.
This was the Alec she'd been getting to know. No wonder he was so good at his job; people felt his genuine energy and just wanted to connect with him and keep him smiling, keep him talking. "Have you had to use 'Nova tactics on your Chimera missions?" She hoped her euphemism didn't come across as nosiness. She amended, "I mean, when you went on that overnight, I passed by your barracks and saw you packing condoms. I didn't mean to snoop, I just wondered-"
"No, I have not used sex in my missions in almost two years."
Two years without sex?! What was he, a frickin' monk?
He quirked a brow at her and grinned. "Let that hamster off the wheel, Maxie, I'm not a monk," he read her mind. "My last partner was months before I was assigned as your handler."
She realized suddenly that she managed not to have to utilize intercourse as a weapon or a tool ever since she'd met Alec. Eilers and company didn't know what she looked like naked. The Dorokovs did, however, they had only come close to a strange three-way. The Christina Op had zero romantic undertones.
Retreating into her memory of the Texas couple's Aztec guest bedroom had her blushing. That's where she learned little morsels of how Alec really felt; that's when he first truly opened up to her.
The ripples it sent back through all of his glances, touches, and actions now felt charged. Maybe he really had a difficult time looking at her at the gala because of his growing attraction to his agent, one from which he felt he was supposed to maintain a professional distance.
"Can I ask you another question?" At his affirming nod, she leaned toward him. "At the Eilers dinner, did you, uh, did you know Colleen was on her way to the study?"
Light speckles rose up on his cheekbones and he reflected on the memory, clearing his throat. "I had an extremely hard time concentrating."
Extremely hard. The echo of it pushed against her skin from the inside.
It was the answer to her unasked question, and his hazy eyes burned into her, promising more. She remembered everything he'd said when they waded in that cold harbor water, preparing to fake her death.
"We were kissing and we were undressing each other and you were pulling my hair and I just... I lost control."
Yeah, me, too, Max thought, holding Alec's stare. Their eyes could have been mirroring one another's, the dark chocolate of hers and the Hunter green of his both equally minimized by their eclipsing pupils.
"So, about Cale," Alec began again. It was like he desperately needed to get business out of the way. "How do you want to play this? I don't think he believes I'm true blue; he thinks my allegiances are fluid."
"So we play into that," she answered, her instincts coming to life. "Your loyalties are in whirlwind. You're not sure what to do - on one hand, Manticore seems to be gone, so you don't have that to go home to. On the other hand, you're compelled to stick around with me. But why?"
Everything else stilled as he focused on the woman before him. "Because I've never met anyone like you my whole damn life. You're sharp, you're funny, you're fucking brilliant, and you're gorgeous." With sparkling green eyes and darkening freckles, he seemed about ready to pull her into his lap, and she was ready to let him.
Struck speechless, Max's mouth fell open and her cheeks heated. She was going to kiss him, and there'd be no one here to stop or interrupt them. No white Texan coca growers, no weirdo congressmen swinger couples, no ballrooms full of stuffy one-percenters, no Manticore scientists, no marks, no one. She leaned toward him and touched her lips to his.