He took cover and instructed those closest to him to do also. He had seen the small glint of ignition from behind enemy lines, and had pre-empted the dull thud the metal canister made as it dropped. Under the cover of thick foliage, Zane clasped his hands over his sensitive ears, tucking his head to his knees as he rested on his haunches and felt the raw explosion. The terrain underfoot reverberated. Shrapnel and debris flew into and beyond his hunched figure, leaving Zane to suspect that the damn grenade had invariably come into contact with a mine upon hitting the earthy stretch between the two enemy camps.
Just their fucking luck, he fumed silently and clenched his jaw against the pain of superficial cuts. He tried not to think of the encounter that had both sides baying for blood. Of the loss he had incurred.
The enemy's number greatly outnumbered their own. The mantra that kept his team cautious, tight and in front, rose to the surface of his mind and Zane forced himself to get a grip. It was this simple fact that kept his wits sharp against that maddening heat and frustration and worry threatening to consume him.
Coughing as musty soil filled his nose and lungs and caught in his throat, Zane rose to survey the perimeter. His green eyes squinted against the dust and the X5 was surprised to see shadowy figures approaching. A good king always sent their pawns into battle first he thought grimly.
Through the sticky heat and weighty damp of the jungle, Zane glanced to his commanding officer Owl, in a languid movement that belied anticipation. The other soldier nodded. Time to engage. Casting his eyes skyward, a prayer to Her sent in the event of death, Zane hastily wiped the bead of sweat from his cheek, the thrill of combat coursing through him. Adrenaline fuelled him with a primal fury. He'd be damned if he let those bastards take his own. Bearing his teeth in an unconscious snarl, Zane cocked his semi-automatic and opened fire into the flesh of others as controlled as he.
Really, Zane thought absently as multiple recoils jolted his muscles and rattled his brain, they were all pawns in one big fucking game and innumerable smaller ones.
Everyone would be sacrificed and reach the same end, irrelevant of whether they were a martyr or an unwilling combatant
It didn't matter- so neither did their screams.
The first thing Jondy noticed as her eyes began to flutter was the sensation of blinding white light. White-hot pain shot through her retinas like pin pricks as her eyes struggled to adjust to the ethereal glow. She instinctively squeezed them shut, wincing in pain. Her head ached a dull thud of a bass-line as she buried her face into the downy pillow supporting her, one futile act in her fight to reclaim her tiredness and the blissful ignorance that came alongside it.
Although Jondy wanted nothing but to return to her slumber, she was becoming more alert as the seconds ticked by. There was a heavy exhaustion in her bones and prior to waking she had felt so unbelievably relaxed, sinking into the cushiony mattress beneath her, curled up in Zane's arms, that she almost didn't want to move. Her mind still foggy, Jondy instinctively reached out to find her lover. Her hand found itself bereft of contact. She encountered naught but duvet and a cool expanse of mattress to indicate that he no longer slept beside her.
Sleepily Jondy blinked and fighting a nauseating wave of dizziness as she made to sit upwards, she tried to recall the events of the previous night. Her memory came up frustratingly blank.
Squinting and blinking against the bright light, Jondy prepared to search the room for the whereabouts of her husband, when she heard a doorknob squeak.
He must have gone to get breakfast… It seemed the most rational explanation for his absence. Silently, she watched the bedroom door open.
Her head ached as her eyes struggled to make out his form against the blinding light. She found herself wondering just how much she had drank the night before, when he stepped into the room. Squinting, under her gaze his grayish silhouette seemed shorter than it ought. Confused, Jondy brought a heavy hand up to her eyes, her instincts screaming at her that something was terribly out of place.
"Za-" She weakly uttered through her parched lips, her voice sounding foreign to her ears. Hoarse. Harsh.
As her husband made his way to her left, panic rose into her chest as she realized his gait wasn't right- his step was too heavy. Anxiety clawed at her throat when Jondy realized she could not see on her left hand side; her vision was filled with darkness, her left eye feeling heavy and swollen within her face. And despite her best efforts, she could not turn her stiff and sore neck to see who the stranger was inside the room.
What the hell had happened last night?
It was only the modicum of rational thought she possessed that ensured she fought to remain calm.
Her instincts were screaming at her to take action, to either attack or run.
"Zane?" Jondy questioned hoarsely as she gingerly tried to shift her heavy body in the direction of the person beside her, her incredulity mounting in a panicking wave. Clearing her throat, she prodded uncertainly, heart thrumming in her chest, "wh-where have you been?"
Jondy felt incredibly exhausted. Not even back at Manticore had she ever felt so unbelievably worn out. The strong smell of black coffee began to consume her senses while the person- masculine, she asserted- moved towards the chair at her bedside. As her sluggish mind attempted to become more alert, her heart beat faster in apprehension: she only knew one person who drank that…
The echo of an eleven-year-old gunshot filled her memory.
Jondy's mouth went dry, her mind going into overdrive: the situation wasn't right, something was fundamentally wrong. She was supposed to be in Chicago- it was supposed to the five days before Christmas- it was supposed to be snowing- they had been at her work Christmas Party, where Dave had challenged her to eighteen Sambuca shots the winner taking home the glory of bragging rights.
She heard his exhale of breath, the straining of joints, the soft impact of the chair as he sat down and sensed his posture to be rigid. He-
But… there had been a shooting- that's what they had told her- bullet straight through the heart. People weren't supposed to survive that, she had commented at the time and laughed with weary relief that one demon had been put to rest.
She brought both hands to hold her aching head, closing her eyes in confusion. Everything was hazy.
She had never seen first hand what had transpired that inky black night, only been too willing to believe in the words of others she trusted. The revelation sat bitterly in her stomach, it tartly accentuated the ravenous acid that homed there and Jondy swallowed when the stranger came into her line of vision. Her right eye quickly adjusted under his shadow.
From her vulnerable position she reached up to touch her left, feeling it tender and struggling to open.
How?
She remembered the impact of a sinewy fist, once, twice, thrice.
White. Arrogant, vicious…
She swallowed, feeling hot tears prick behind her eyes and focused on cataloguing the changes to the intimidating figure before her: he sat with ram-rod straight posture inside his worn leather jacket, although his face held more lines than before and his hair was graying, his eyes were just as cold as in her nightmares.
Jondy glanced quickly around the room, ascertaining only two exits- the bedroom door to her left and the window directly in front of her- as her fingers gently traced down from her blackened eye, she felt soft paper and tape across her cheek bone. Someone had patched her up…
Glancing upwards, his name sprung unbidden from her lips. "Lydecker?"
His intake of breath caused irrational panic to rise into her chest and fear to swell in the pit of her
stomach. He must have done something to Zane, an internal voice whispered suspiciously in her ear, he must have locked him away somewhere.
"Where's Zane?" Jondy hissed, her tone stronger and more insistent. "What have you done with him?"
The Colonel sighed irritably. Doctor Jacobson had suspected this would happen.
"He's fine." Lydecker told her, trying to keep his tone placating and his frustration from his voice. His kids were too damn predictable sometimes. "He is away at the moment, but you will see him soon."
Jondy stared at him, her brow knitted in confusion. "But-"
Lydecker watched as comprehension began to dawn on her face.
"He's fine, Jondy." Donald Lydecker, road flashing behind him.
Darkness, motor churning… men in kevlar.
O'Neil. Kilan. Cameron.
Her hands shook from emotional stress as the fragmented reality of her past circumstances flickered through her minds-eye, disconnected and emotionally loaded.
"I- where am I?" Jondy demanded, uncomfortable beneath Lydecker's scrutinizing gaze. Her eyes cautiously followed his every movement as Lydecker stood and shifted the chair closer to her bedside. Jondy was reminded of a lion watching its prey. She had the urge to kick him in the face and run from the room. She would have, if not for the deep exhaustion in her bones.
"You're safe here. No one will find you." Lydecker reassured her truthfully in a measured tone. He knew that on paper their current residence had ceased to exist years ago. But Jondy did not feel very reassured; in fact she felt more on display than she had in the past couple of months. If she were a moth, Lydecker would have cut her up into a million pieces by now and preserved each in its own separate glass box.
"No-" Jondy responded tersely shaking her head, she saw bandages around her wrists and felt bile at her throat. "I- where am I?"
She encountered Lydecker's closed expression and was instantaneously reminded of Zack and the secrets he kept from her in the name of survival. "Lydecker!"
It was imperative she knew: she did not give a damn if she was being disrespectful.
A pause, consideration on his behalf. "You are in Gillette, Wyoming."
Lydecker's words pierced Jondy like knives and her feelings of shock, of revulsion, of disbelief that she could be anywhere near Manticore, the hellish origins of her existence, caught in the web of her childhood abuser and antichrist, sent her heart racing.
"Manticore's gone. I don't understand-" Jondy bit out in confusion, her voice husky from disuse. Her breath came out in short shallow gasps- she was supposed to be in Chicago. With Zane.
"This is my house." Lydecker told her measuredly, his gaze unblinking as he cataloged her reactions, the threadbare emotions she displayed, filing away knowledge of the girl's weaknesses for later use.
"You- your house?" Her voice shook as her mouth suddenly went dry in horror.
No. It-it wasn't right-
With her mind ensconced by sensations of confusion and disorientation, Jondy felt heady. The room glowed lighter momentarily and her instincts kicked in.
"I-I can't stay here. It-it- I have to go." She attempted to move the duvet and suddenly Lydecker's hands were clasped around her forearms, pushing down, holding her still and trapped. Lydecker watched her tense figure, malnourished and older than her years, reveling in the close contact he exerted over the X5, aware that it was a liberty he could never have taken in his managerial position back at Manticore. Jondy looked fearfully into her Colonel's face, but met his hazel eyes with a glint of determined gaze.
"You-will-not-leave-this-house. Understood?" He spoke slowly, his tone authoritarian.
Snake like Jondy went to slap him.
Lydecker caught her wrist in a movement far faster than she had expected and fear bloomed in the pit of her belly as he slowly applied pressure to the joint, bruising her.
"Understood." Jondy lied privately shocked to be confronted by her own weakness. In her distracted state trying to make sense of this foreign reality Jondy did not notice the small caress Lydecker administered as he released her arm.
"Now," Lydecker begun lightly, settling back into the seat at her bedside. Jondy looked at him with expectant luminous blue eyes, aware of the throbbing of her body and the ache of her swollen jaw. "You have been unconscious for nine hours since you were extracted from the enemy's base. You sustained many injuries. As a result, we had to give you a blood transfusion."
She remembered blood, so much blood. Screaming. Pain.
She averted her gaze and cleared her throat, eyes burning.
"Now, you need to get up and start moving." Jondy fought the urge to snort- with the way she was feeling it would be a cold day in hell before that happened.
"You are to be in operational shape ASAP." Lydecker ordered, sensing her despondency.
Jondy glanced at him indignant. Bastard. She was not some lab-rat- some prototype model to be tinkered with, to be programmed into operation. Jondy pulled the duvet back to reveal her thin and bruised legs, her thighs covered by the night-shirt she wore. She twisted, placing her bare feet solidly on the rough floorboards and looked up challengingly into Lydecker's face.
With a satisfied gleam in his eyes, Lydecker stood, ready to aid her should she fall. Privately he marveled at the success of the X5 Officer class: his kids always had been the best of the best.
Lydecker watched as the battered woman, one of few to have survived enemy interrogation, a soldier with only seven years of training, got onto her feet on spindly legs, momentarily triumphant, before her knees crumpled and she was plummeting to the floor. His hands caught her waist and he pulled her towards him. Jondy panted, her mind resistant, her need compliant and underneath it all afraid. The Colonel made sure he was carrying the girl's featherweight, made sure she was secure and stable at his side, before he spoke next.
"You need to take it easy, Jondy," Lydecker advised, concerned. "You're body isn't as strong as your mind." He sensed her bristle at his tone. "We'll take it slow-"
The Colonel made to move, but Jondy stood stock-still feeling sick to her stomach at his manipulation.
"Where are they?" The girl asked breathlessly. Her chest worked hard to regain oxygen as she stole some time to mentally push aside her profound discomfort at being so close to the one person who had endeavored to hunt her down and put her back in a cage for the majority of her life.
"Who?" Lydecker snapped; trying to remain patient and stick to the tactics he and Doctor Jacobson had discussed earlier.
He smelt of pine trees and coffee Jondy realized absently, finding such humanizing knowledge disconcerting.
"O'Neil. Kilan and Cameron." She ground out tiredly, irritated.
"They're with their families." Lydecker replied, feeling her tense at his words, their meaning and implications. "Come on."
He took a step. Jondy followed, her feet shuffling unresponsively.
It was slow going as they left Lydecker's guest bedroom. Jondy felt more heady and exhausted with each step. The hallway they entered smelt musty and was dimly lit. Even as they began down it, the X5 was becoming achingly labored.
At her side, feeling like a goddamned nurse, Lydecker led her down the hallway. He was acutely aware of her thinness beneath the cotton she wore and the fluttering of her exerted muscles under his fingertips as her breathing quickened. He was damned proud to call her one of his own after hearing Doctor Jacobson's report assessing the damage White and his cult had inflicted. Jacobson had advised that ideally speaking, Jondy was to have two weeks bed rest and three weeks of slow therapeutic movement in order to regain her balance, strength and agility. Jacobson had advised that ideally, she should see a counselor for her mental health for at least one hour a day, every day for the next three months. In reality, Jacobson had worked for Manticore, he had pushed the capabilities of the X5 Series and he had given Lydecker one word of real advice: endurance. Whatever the X5 could endure would not kill her- only reach Lydecker's ends.
In the coming days, Lydecker fully intended test her endurance.
Jondy's grip on him tightened as she grunted in pain as her foot rolled at the ankle, stumbling into him as her knee crumpled under her weight and disuse- she hadn't walked since her capture six months ago.
"Keep walking." Lydecker ordered instantly, setting her upright, ignoring her pursed lips indicating her pain and discomfort.
"I can't." She hissed hating how heady and weak she felt, yet knew she was pushed beyond her present limits.
"It is simple." Lydecker snapped at her when he saw her cautiously shift her weight off of her injured right leg. He felt a cold frustration at the weakness she displayed. "One foot in front of the other."
His jaw clenched and intent on their reaching the living room, Lydecker decided he would not carry her- she would drag herself through that door if need be. He took a step and turned to look at her expectantly, purposely goading her.
"You're an asshole." Jondy spat bitterly, her mind cast back to her time in the tank as child under his watchful eye. She recalled how he had stood fascinated before her and her unit behind the glass, a stopwatch in hand. He had made his expectation of her unit clear that day when he had refused to release her brothers and sisters from their anchors until their time was up, ruthless in his ambition for them and willing to risk individual deaths over the accomplishment of the project goal.
Survival of the fittest was Lydecker's only fundamental lesson as a mentor.
Gritting her teeth, blocking the pain, Jondy shuffled in-line, crossing the barrier into what appeared to be his living room. Lydecker led her to an armchair in the middle of the room, noting her flushed cheeks and the heaviness of her weight against his side. Lydecker purposely stopped and untangled her from himself. Forcing the girl to stand on her own two feet, he observed Jondy sway slightly before rebalancing herself and disregarded the glare shot in his direction as she remained upright. Her demonstration of ability satisfied Lydecker, it affirmed to the Colonel that not only was she one the best of his kids- she was one of the special ones. And that he was doing the right thing by her.
"Sit down, Jondy." Lydecker ordered, allowing her to sit and watching her do so critically. The Colonel observed Jondy lean back in the chair tiredly and he suspected she wanted to do nothing but sleep.
Too bad, Lydecker thought grimly as he cleared his throat, you're mine now.
It had been a long time since Lydecker had dealt with an X5 so weak. He knew he needed to ascertain her limits, though he did not want to miss his opportunity to build rapport with the stranger before him. Despite subjective and biased stories from Max and Logan Cale- every bit of information Lydecker had gathered pointed towards a full-scale war with these Familiar insurgents. Jondy was Max's agent in the field. She had been in deep cover for a year. Lydecker knew she had volunteered for the assignment due to her longstanding personal relationships with key elite cult members. What he didn't know was why she was involved in the first place. Or why her mission had gone sideways roughly around the time he had re-established contact with Max and took over operational control.
Jondy looked up, her stomach instantly knotting. Colonel Lydecker stood in front of her, his face impassive and gaze icy. Chills of trepidation ran down her spine, she wanted to flee from the foreboding she experienced, but instead found herself rooted to the spot. Jondy sat straighter in her chair, her arms and hands flush against its armrests, knowing he hated sloppiness. No preamble had to be spoken, the X5 knew instinctively that he was going to interrogate her, knew that there was not a damn thing she could do about it.
"You were apprehended at 0200 hours, on July 25th, in sector 8 of Seattle." Lydecker began in an unassuming tone that exuded authority and dominance. "Correct, soldier?"
"Yes." Jondy whispered, mind spinning emptily. She was too tired for this.
"What was that soldier?" Lydecker growled and she jumped.
He growled, ripping into her, pain laced her insides.
She convulsed, his taser connecting with her stomach.
Jondy felt fury lace her insides at Lydecker's presumptuousness.
"Yes, Donald."
He wanted to hit her, she could tell.
"What happened, soldier?" Lydecker began to pace in front of her. Jondy pushed away her underlying anxiety. There was no time.
"White engaged me in combat after discovering my identity." Her eyes stung. "I was knocked unconscious and awoke in the enemy's t-torture chambers i-in what I later ascertained was known as Ante Atrium One." She gripped her hands in her lap. To her own ears her voice sounded weak, threadbare. "I-was-there-for-one-hundered-and-eight-one-days-and-interrogated-every-twelve-hours-about-Maxie-and-our-operations"- Her sisters face, white and bloodied flashed before her eyes and she fought the urge to blanch- Jondy took a shaky breath willing her heart to stop racing, the adrenaline flooding her system to abate. "He- He wanted the security codes for transgenic-cell 'roger-major'… and q-questioned me on my position as spy in enemy ranks."
"I see." Lydecker gazed down on her, calculating and gauging her reaction, knowing he was pushing her limits. "And what did you disclose to the enemy?"
Jondy bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, before releasing a breath.
"Nothing of value." She replied defiantly, chin jutting out slightly, tone sarcastic to hide offence.
He hid his delight at her attitude. It was rewarding to know that she was not broken.
"It was not within your mission brief to prioritize intel on your own personal whim as worthy of disclosure to the enemy, soldier. What specific information did you pass to White?"
Jondy always had been a master at avoidance techniques during interrogation. Lydecker recalled her as a seven-year-old buzz cut soldier denying emphatically that Max had asked Zack to obtain contraband, before he had later discovered from another one of his kids that Max had signed her request. Lydecker did not think for one moment that she no longer considered him the enemy- he knew that right now, in her mind, he posed as the lesser of two evils.
Jondy glared at Lydecker, irritated at how predictable she thought he must find her.
"I used forward-planning you asshole- do you think we would be here right now if it wasn't for me?" The X5 hissed, head pounding. "I feed them miss-information intended to aid-our-objective. POW 101." Jondy spat at him. Her stomach churned as she recalled the consequences of her deception. "I leaked that operation 'Combat' was going to be executed a day later than the official date and at a different time. I asserted that Max was unsure of the meaning to the runes and – and that she was too caught up in her personal life to truly be a leader-" she tried to ignore her guilt at being such a liar "-I told them our threat analysis was under resourced due to lack of intel. I led the enemy to believe that in-house fighting had left us disorganized and susceptible to the hostility of every man and his dog- and ignorant to the real threat of the cult-"
"White believed you?" Lydecker asked mildly, tone surprised.
He pushed her face first into the bucket of cold water, she emerged twenty minutes later blue and choking and spluttering.
The taser burnt across her back, her limbs jerking uncontrollably.
The burning cigarette bud was pushed viciously into the flesh of her breast as he blew the smoke savagely into her face.
"I am a terrific liar, sir." Jondy replied steadily, tone sardonic, her gaze void. "I learnt from the best."
Lydecker let the veiled attack slide.
"And yet," he hit back, "Ames White did get the truth out of you- Eyes Only's location, names of arms dealers and other assets valuable to us. That could almost be classed as treason, soldier."
The word alone ignited shame in her belly.
"Please," Jondy sneered, ignoring her shaking hands. "The only thing valuable to our plight is Max and he never got her, you did."
Oh yes his Jondy was still in fine form. Lydecker felt his ire rise, he did not intuit the fear and hurt behind that comment.
"And she is being well looked after by the appropriate channels under my command." He pronounced, glaring coldly.
Jondy's heart pounded in her ears, her stomach roiling; the words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. "You sick son of a bitch."
"You watch your mouth 210 or I will have you terminated." Lydecker ground out, his tone abrasive.
Before Jondy could open her mouth to respond, the Colonel swooped down on her, grabbing her chin in a vice like grip and forced her to confront the cold rage in his gaze, "do-you-understand-me?"
Eva, felled by his gunshot, he stepped from the darkness, enraged.
Feeling violated all over again, Jondy could not cease the tremors running through her limbs at the knowledge that he meant every word he said. He would do it - and that scared her the most. Jondy swallowed, her throat catching and eyes glazing over as she realized she was only alive to achieve his ends.
"Perfectly." Her voice shook. She couldn't stand this, being jerked around.
Lydecker pushed her back into the chair with great force, seeming to come to his senses. "We're done here."
Jondy closed her eyes, sending tears spilling down her cheeks. She couldn't move away as Lydecker stood over her in a moment of realization that he had pushed her beyond her limits too soon.
Jondy sat, listening to Lydecker's footsteps echo down the hall, desperately wishing it was five days before Christmas and she was with Zane, far away.
Feedback much welcomed.
