Act Two, part two
Jondy would always regret not focusing her attention more intently on their audible surrounds. Sounds, like those of her feet deftly stepping across the mixture of jagged and slippery rock surfaces that lined the riverbed or the roar of rapids a distance ahead, did not travel far in their pitch-black and compact environment. The ceiling of the rock structure they traversed was low and the lack of light made it hard to see- even with her genetic gift of night vision. This fact ensured Jondy focused intently on Alec's doubled-over form in front, matching his movements and alert for any clues he gave to indicate what she might discover in the unknowns ahead. Then, when she felt the path take a sharp decent south, she observed him slip out of sight.
Knowing it was better to stay together, Jondy picked up her pace. The air clung her to skin humid and teeming with life and the X5 fought back a girlish reaction of disgust to the midges and mosquitoes spawning along the waters edge that shot up her nose with each inhalation. Tracking Alec's lithe movements below, she guessed based on their current descent and the typographical maps she had committed to memory that the cave-entrance they sought was about eight hundred meters away and closing. In spite of not wanting to get ahead of herself, a rouge sense of accomplishment began to bloom in Jondy's chest: things were going to plan and with any luck they'd be back in the States for dinner-time.
There was a swell in the river and the body of water turned into what the younger X5 thought could almost be a wide, flat deep lake. Circumnavigating the pitiless water, which thankfully did not reflect her movements, she made her way around to the large fissure in the rock she had spied at the top of the crest. As she approached, Jondy saw the cave entrance appeared shallow and was at best only two meters wide. It could have easily been mistaken for an enclave of unimportance and would not be obvious to anyone without her inherent knowledge of the Familiar's rituals and sacred places.
When she reached Alec's side, his hot breath was the only tell tale sign alerting her of another person's presence. In the heart of the underground chamber, Jondy could not see her hand three centimeters from her face. And now, unsurprisingly, the fissure she had observed was swallowed by darkness.
"Is this it?" Alec asked skeptically. It was not the grand impression she had given to command of the Familiar's scared spaces full of elaborate rock art for their snake-loving rituals.
"Yes." Jondy replied softly. "I can feel it."
"Feel it?"
"Don't argue. This is it." Jondy reached out a hand, sensing deep engravings in the rock as she traced etchings that had been marked over thirty thousand years ago. An electrifying thrill shot down her spine at the knowledge she could comprehend their meaning. "Just give me a moment. Cover me. I need to concentrate."
After twenty minutes studying the Sumerian runes Jondy determined the engraving was a map. It referenced constellations and seasons, and indicated something about a 'sacred heart'. Her only guess was that another, more important cave was situated somewhere behind the one they originally sought.
"Ok." Jondy announced to collect Alec's attention while she gathered her thoughts.
"What's the plan, oh-mystical-one?"
Despite their pitch-black surrounds, Jondy automatically rolled her eyes.
"The 'plan' is to maintain our orders and complete our respective objectives." She couldn't keep the haughtiness from her tone: he was such a smart-alec sometimes. Jondy took a breath reminding herself that in any other situation she would not have a problem with Alec's joviality, it was just the high-pressure nature of their mission getting to her nerves. "So, three of these symbols reflect our existing Intel which is positive. Translation of the runes is interpretive at best-" Jondy knew it always paid to cover one's ass- "though it seems to indicate two caverns or caves: a larger and a smaller- the smaller probably contains what you're after-" her tone was grim "-and I'd say there's no doubt our target's inside- we're right on time for midsummer solstice."
"You make the hit." Alec confirmed seriously: he had noticed the slight tremor in Jondy's voice when she mentioned their target. "I'll concentrate on my end of the mission. We've got this."
The teenager swallowed down her nerves.
"Going in, let's maintain radio silence- keep communication at a minimum and via Morse code only," she instructed touching the device encircled around her wrist, "- at least until we have the upper hand."
"Nothing worse than two-to-one odds when the enemy has the upper hand," Alec's tone was rueful as he edged his way behind her.
"Damn straight. Weapons at the ready."
Jondy took a step forward climbing into the tight crevice. Keenly aware that they were going in blind, instinctively her sense of smell sharpened and her hearing became highly acute. As she shimmied further into the tight crevasse her sense of touch dominated her body's information pathways feeding back digital data in degrees to provide miniscule detail of gradients and probable environmental hazards. Jondy turned her head back toward Alec, brushing her cheek roughly against the hard salty rock surface, to mutter sarcastically, "even though we can't see shit, keep your eyes peeled."
"Roger, right behind you."
Bouldering quickly across the rock wall millimeters from the jagged edges at her back, Jondy was thankful for her petite frame. However she experienced no small sense of relief when the crevasse widened two kilometers later to become less claustrophobic-inducing, not to mention less hazardous. Instantly the blonde X5 felt the oxygen levels around increase somewhat and her head clear slightly. Taking it as a sign of progress, her insides burned with anticipation: their target was close- and most importantly they would have nowhere to escape from her in this warren of caves and tunnels hundreds of meters below the earth.
The almost imperceptive the sound of voices a distance off filtered through to register with Jondy's distracted mind. One moment later the thin bracelet on her wrist vibrated out a string of Morse code. It appeared that Alec knew how to keep his head in the game: he'd clocked three distinct voices half a click away.
Jondy listened harder. Armitage. Raeburn… McKinley.
Her hand brushed her hip and reassured that her gun was still holstered there, loaded.
The X5 quickly tapped out an order on the device at her wrist.
Engage
The pair of X5s scaled down the vertical rock wall. They moved deftly and quickly towards the faintly illuminated landing Alec had spied from his higher vantage point. The ground underfoot was level and gave way to a tiled surface. Splashes of light flickered out across the sections of the tiles from within a stone archway, forking out across the tiles to show the intricate mosaic pattern of a Manticore. Their night vision now accurate due to the low levels of light, the pair determined the depth of the arched entrance to be shallow and more importantly saw that it appeared to curve in two directions.
Jondy glanced at the hieroglyphs tiled around the top of the arch with wide eyes. Reflected once again were the three symbols that had shown on her body some months ago when she had been extracted from White's custody. There was no mistaking this was it.
At her side Alec signalled the all clear and silently they breached the entrance. The source of the flicking light came from torches bracketed high on the tunnel walls. Although each one cast a section of light to illuminate the path the pair stealthily travelled, both Jondy and Alec were hyper alert for another human's presence concealed in-between the dark shadows where the torchlight ceased. At the last one hundred meters and closing, the pair saw the tunnel gave way to a deep reception chamber recessed further into the rock bed and decorated with elaborate mosaics and alfrescos. Approaching the end of the chamber, Jondy made out two archways, one leading to the left and the other to the right.
Jondy shot out a hand signalling to hang back. The X5s stood together in a shadowy patch, their backs to the tunnel wall, and observed the happenings before them. There were approximately five robed figures, one positioned on an alter facing four kneeling bodies, and a guttural chant echoed eerily around the chamber in a round.
Jondy instantly recognized the fertility chant as a part of midsummer celebration. However in the context of their mission, of the world destroying aim of the Conclave, she had never heard anything quite so ominous. She suspected the four huddled figures to have been chanting for at least eight hours and knew by now they would most likely be in the depths of a deep thrall. The Priestess however would be their primary threat, positioned as she was in direct line-sight of she and Alec.
Jondy clasped the bracelet at her wrist. One.
Phase One had been devised in collaboration with what was left of the old guard scientists of Manticore- a tasteless, scentless vapour that combined nerve gas and sedative designed to absorbed into the blood stream instantly and non-reactive the two X5s unique DNA. Alec handed her a canister. It felt weightless in the palm of her hand except for its rubber lining, which was to ensure the canister bounced soundlessly when Jondy yanked the pin and pitched it into the chamber hall before ducking back for cover.
Her bracelet buzzed. 10-0-6. Jondy nodded the affirmative.
Silencer-guns at the ready the two X5s engaged. It only took four minutes for the pair to make quick work of the room: five Familiars lay sprawled across the ground, bare feet poking outside their voluminous robes and each one contained a bullet to the head. However, the ominous silence brought with it a small contingent of reinforcements. And there had to be one of the three who recognized Jondy. Armitage.
"Quisling!"
The term alone ignited shame in her chest. It was the worst term a Familiar could throw at one of their own: no one wanted to be known as the traitor who had collaborated with the enemy occupying their territory, who had given away their secrets to the meek.
Jondy rolled her luminous blue eyes.
"Nice to see you too Armitage." She growled to the young six foot five man as he approached her, his red robes billowing and his aristocratic face masked in white ochre. "The last time we were in the same room, I think you were perving on my tits."
His lip curled as he circled her and his eyes narrowed hatefully. "You deserved every single moment of it you traitorous bitch."
Jondy bared her teeth in an unconscious snarl. In one automatic reaction she struck out a fist, hitting him square under the chin and knocking him off of his feet. His head hit the tiled floor with a sickening crunch. Sometimes there were advantages to being short. In one swift movement, Jondy fired off a shot cleanly and efficiently. She had bigger prey to hunt. Then a strong arm wrapped around her chest grabbing her from behind. In one fluid motion Jondy used her body weight to flip over her assailants head.
Firing off a shot into his opponent's temple, Alec looked over to see his fellow X5's fighting style was quite distinctly different to the standard push and thrust of combat regular X5s were trained in. It was also unlike Max's creative street-influenced combat style, no it was an entirely different beast: a fluid and aerobatic style that swerved and dived around her opponent. It was a firm reminder that however much he and she shared origins and however much Max may vouch for her, the fact was Jondy had been raised with the enemy.
And Alec wasn't quite sure how he felt about that.
Skulking over to glance down at the woman slain at Jondy's feet, Alec noted scratch marks traveling down the side of Jondy's face from her hairline to jaw, clocked the blood trickling rapidly down her neck beneath her collar. Command had indicated that she was still not entirely at operational capacity and he had been given express orders to ensure she came out of this mission in one piece. He handed her a set of robes, while one-handedly shrugging on a pair himself.
"We have to move fast," Jondy cautioned in a low tone and pointing to the off-shooting passageways, and she issued her directive as they ran quickly to the end of the chamber. "Take the right. I'll take the left."
"We should stick together," Alec argued one step ahead; he rubbed sweat from his forehead scanning the corridor for movement. "We're going in blind here."
"Trust me. I have a good feeling about this."
"How about logic, huh? Ever considered that?"
"I've got us this far haven't I?"
He smirked. "Well, when you put it like that. Rendezvous back here in sixty."
"Affirmative."
Ignoring the sticky feeling caused by the blood drying over her left shoulder and chest, Jondy relished the adrenaline thumping through her system. She felt wired. She was hyper alert as she kept close to the walls, a shadow among shadows creeping into the unknown. The passageway was short, only three hundred meters or so and it gave way to a set of narrow steps carved out of the rock bed. The stairway space was incredibly cramped and Jondy pushed aside her instant concern regarding manoeuvrability were she to be caught. Weapon at the ready, she kept herself compact while carefully manoeuvring her way down the uneven steps as silent as a ghost in the night.
McKinley didn't notice her at first. Jondy was just one of the many robed and hooded figures praying before the thirty thousand year old replica of Ni'ate with her head turned and her two snakes, Or'ian and Scori entwined along her long arms, representing the male and female energies. Jondy's heart skipped a beat when she looked directly at Ni'ate, while the collective effervescence of the small cavern invaded her senses installing a sense of wonder. Head bowed beneath her hood, the young X5 contritely kneeled at the back of the low ceilinged room and prayed.
Jondy knew she would be here a while. There were at least twelve Familars present- too many of them for her to fight alone. She would have to wait for the lower caste Familiars to exit the sacred chamber. Being of a high-caste order like herself, McKinley would be required by protocol to maintain a continuous presence fasting until the end of Solstice. For Jondy had planned their mission well, the time she and Alec had infiltrated being so early in the morning meant that in an hour or so she and McKinley would be in Ni'ate's chamber alone.
Jondy did not think as she joined the mass chanting under her breath; her mind subconsciously scanned her environment and over a period of forty-five minutes noted eleven Familiars leave the chamber to undertake ritual assistance. Then, she heard muffled steps and caught a whiff of incense that returned her to her senses as the High Kinslei left, walking past her prostrate form swamped in red.
A pair of booted feet came into her line of vision.
"Fe'nos'tol. I knew you would come this Solstice, my Girl."
Jondy raised her hooded head slowly to look up into McKinley's round face, her luminous blue eyes cutting through the hazy yellow light.
"Fe'nos'tol my Father." Jondy uttered the polite words slowly rising to her feet shrugging off the red robe to reveal her black cat suit, her hands resting by her sides in a deceptively casual move.
McKinley gave her a once over, something like betrayal glittering behind his gaze.
"I heard, you know, what the Phalanx did to you when you were found out." He spoke conversationally, like they were old friends catching up over a meal. "How their delight to finally have one of Sandeman's weapons on their hands led to an over zealous appeal for information."
Jondy swallowed, feeling the blood drain from her face.
"I know they were particularly unkind to you. And, how you endured Ames' special interest." McKinley smirked. "You know how he is, always wanting to redeem himself."
The Elder peered at her through his glasses.
"Well," he drawled, "was it worth it?"
"It will be," Jondy retorted brandishing her hand gun in one fluid move- then she felt herself slammed bodily into the wall some feet behind her, pinned by the invisible force of McKinley's gaze.
"I-see-Samuel-taught-you-a-new-trick-" she spat out through gritted teeth, fighting against the invisible weight on her chest.
McKinley slowly approached her spread-eagled form letting her tire herself out. Wrenching the weapon from her hand, he tisked, "you had so much potential, my Child."
Jondy glared. "You-can't-hold-this-up-forever. You've been fasting for days."
"Yes I am fatigued- that's why you came," McKinley commented, "but a little discipline never hurt you before."
Jondy felt irrational panic begin to rise from the pit of her stomach while her head wound continued to bleed slow and steady. "Let-me-down."
McKinley tisked once more. "Is that how you speak to your Elders?"
Jondy struggled defiantly for a while, before finally conceding. All the while McKinley watched calculating.
"Please, my Father," she chocked out as the weight pressing on her lungs become unbearable, "I invoke the mercy of Ni'ate on this hallowed eve. You are duty bound to deliver it. Kin-to-kin let us resolve our dispute."
"Very well." Jondy fell like a sack of potatoes onto the tiled floor, coughing. "I knew a proper upbringing had beat out the filth of your origin."
In one quick move, Jondy rushed at McKinley tackling him hard to the ground, knocking over a flaming torch-stand in the process. As the flames licked the material wall hangings, smoke billowed and slowly began to fill the cavern.
"Sacrilegious Quisling!"
Jondy punched him square in the face, savouring the sickening crunch of his jawbone. McKinely spat blood onto the floor, his shattered glasses hanging lopsidedly on his face. His rib bones dug into her legs as she sat across his chest, his limbs rubbery at his sides as she purposeful cut off blood flow in an attempt to incapacitate him. Jondy relished how weak the ten day fasting ritual had left him. It was almost too easy, but first she had business to attend to.
Jondy reached for the collar of his robes, yanking his face toward her. "Three days ago a contingent of Transgenic soldiers were taken hostage in Nice. What has DeMonde done with them?"
"I 'ave no know-ledge about 'ti'sis." McKinley told her around broken teeth.
"Liar!" She did not believe him for a second; he was first-cousins with DeMonde through his mothers line, if any of the Familiars in the Americas knew about operations in Europe McKinley would.
Jondy punched him again. This time his glasses flew off of his face shattering on the tiles, while around smoke continued to billow as the wall hangings smouldered in the cramped cavern environment.
McKinley started coughing.
"Tell me!" She demanded shaking him.
Struggling to breathe, McKinley nodded, gasping out, "Alright, alright. They were taken to the Old Town."
At the sound of a sudden roar, Jondy glanced up to see the lacquered alter consumed by flames. McKinley pounced. Jondy found herself flipped on her back, McKinley now pinned her to the ground. Jondy quickly punched him in the mouth again and took advantage of McKinley's dazed state to leverage her free arm and knee him in the stomach, creating enough distance to roll away from him and get to her feet. Quickly taking in the growing fire around the perimeter, Jondy turned back to face the Elder, fists raised, knowing they had minutes before they'd both be burnt alive.
"Trans'enic scum!"
In his rage all pretence of candour was gone, McKinley attacked hard and fast. Jondy blocked blow after blow with both her arms and legs as he pressed his advantage successfully backing her into a corner. His hard elbow to the side of her cheek left her ear ringing. McKinley grabbed her arm, twisting her around to wrench her elbow up the small of her back and pressed her wrist between her shoulder blades. With his free hand, he wrenched her head back by her hair. It would have been easy for him to strangle her there and then.
"I don't know 'ow you escaped Ante Atrium- but I intended to send 'ou back there."
"Fat chance old man."
Jondy pushed all her weight onto him and leveraging herself, walked her feet up the wall, to flip neatly over McKinley's head and un-holster her concealed weapon. Yanking him around to face her, Jondy pressed the weapon into McKinley's temple.
"Make your prayers." She ordered.
Instead of fear, his gaze was shrewd as he stared at her.
"DeMonde has more pressing priori'ies than your 'ilthy compa'rio's." He spat at her sweat trickling down his forehead. "It's the Old Town cells you 'ould be worried abou', they're crawling with defec'ors."
Jondy refused to take the bait about her parents. It was a transparent ploy to distract her and her instincts were screaming that McKinley hid something important.
"Bullshit." She scoffed; sweat running down her back against the heat of flames behind her. "Where is DeMonde holding them? Answer!"
Behind them the billowing smoke grew thicker, stinging Jondy's eyes and itching her throat.
Looking her square in the eye, McKinley took his chance, head butting her sharply. In one swift move, coughing against the lack of oxygen in the room, he kicked her swiftly into the wall, the sound of her ribs cracking making a satisfying crunch.
"Your mate won't get out of there alive." McKinley enunciated his promise, staring down at her soot-streaked face. He spat out two of his broken teeth in her face. "And it looks like you're going to meet the same fate… Now, where is 4-9-4?"
As per Jondy's irrational order, Alec stealthily navigated the shadows of the arched passageway. For someone of his stature it was cramped, the ceiling hung low overhead and unlike the entrance to this labyrinth, it was annoyingly poorly lit. Only because of his inherent night vision could Alec make out the grainy figures of two darkly robed individuals ahead. He didn't know who they were, but he had a feeling with the limited options this current scenario presented they would lead him to where he needed to be. Sticking to the shadows he followed, imperceptible to those around.
They led him down the wending course of a small, undecorated tunnel. It smelt of salt and damp. And when Alec's hand brushed the walls he was unsurprised to encounter them slick with mineral deposits. His primary objective was to collect the chemical weapon their intelligence indicated was being held in this location. The Familiars had a strange sense of occasion- Alec could not fathom why in the hell anyone would store weapons of mass destruction in a place used for religious worship. Eagle eyed and focused, Alec spied the pair halt and open a door at the end of the corridor.
Approaching silently, weapon at the ready, Alec saw that the last two hundred meters of the small passage way was made up of four off-shooting doorways. An interesting turn of events, he had no idea which one would house what he was after. Alec hung back, watching as a moment later the two Familiars returned, carrying trays of incense and a pot of clay. Jondy had mentioned something about castes and ritual preparation though he hadn't really been listening at the time. It had all been a bit superfluous to the main mission objective. The pair sauntered purposefully past oblivious to his hidden presence.
Intelligence indicated the weapon would be most likely stored with the initiation pathogen and the other pathogen strains the Familiar's used to initiate certain castes into other more rigorous breeding programs. Alec had assumed he would be looking for lab, but sensed the clue might be a little more parochial than that. After all the Familiars didn't seem to take too warmly to new fandangle concepts, such as science.
As luck would have it, the last door on the right hand side of the corridor was the one he was after: the caduceus symbol was a strong indicator. Quietly Alec opened the heavy cedar door and stepped into the small cramped space. The room was illuminated by candle light flickering from a small alter situated at the back of the room dedicated to one of their holy snake gods.
"I wondered how long it would take you to figure it out," commented a snide voice to his left, one Alec would recognize anywhere.
"Hello 494."
Alec did not have time to react before Ames White landed a deafening blow to his head, sending him reeling backwards. Palms slapping against the wall face down, he managed to successfully break his fall while keeping his enemy in view. Rolling his shoulders to work away the impact that climbed up his arms, Alec smirked at White, not showing his surprise.
"Didn't realise you were into cross-dressing Ames." Alec quipped rubbing his cheek.
The hate White harbored for the X5 could not be hidden behind his ochre white mask. White's eyes narrowed spitefully.
"You didn't come alone 494." His tone was too assured for Alec's liking. "Where's that bitch?"
"Which one? Ladies love following me around," Alec retorted, eyes scanning the cluttered room for anything that might signal he was in the right place. The weapon was small, concealable and highly toxic. It left him with a lot of options to work out on his own. Somehow he had to get White to tip him.
White smirked arrogantly.
"2-1-0." He spelt out, holding up a grainy print out. "Surprise. Caught on candid camera. We have unfinished business and I owe it to her to put an end to it all."
Shit.That explained why he was questioning Alec, rather than pummelling him within an inch of his life.
"No idea." Alec shrugged inching his way into the room. "Could be having a holy snake baptism for all I know."
His hand brushed the concealed weapon at his thigh.
"I know she is in the Labyrinth somewhere." White stepped toward him, robes flaring, an aura of intensity radiating from his core.
"Funny." Alec commented sarcastically, unlocking the weapons safety. "I wasn't expecting to see you here White. See heard through the grape vine that your name is mud in these parts."
"You think you can goad me into giving up intelligence?" White scoffed. "Our plans far exceed the limited scope of your imagination 494."
Alec's eyes narrowed at the barb regarding his indentured service to Familiar some year and a half ago.
"Like, biblically bad?"
White barked out a laugh. "What the hell are you doing here 494?"
Then Alec saw it, glinting in the breast pocked of White's suit concealed under the brown robes he wore.
"Oh you know, just seeing the sights Mexico had to offer," Alec quipped drawing his weapon in one fluid move. He fired one quick efficient shot into White's thigh. The Familiar didn't even bat an eyelid. Sometimes it really sucked that the sonofabitch didn't feel any pain.
Executing plan b with a roar, Alec tackled the Familiar driving him to the ground. He made sure to land several blows to White's head hard and fast. Brawling on the ground, both men quickly became tangled in the copious amounts of material of the brown and red robes each wore. In melee Alec, true to the slight of hand he was famous for on the poker table, expertly swiped the vial concealed on White's person. He took action just in the nick of time, because the Familiar was then able to manoeuvre his way from out beneath him with a well-placed kick to Alec's stomach.
Circling White, fists raised, Alec caught his breath.
"Bet you folks will rethink your no weapons on Midsummer Solstice rule, huh?"
"Has anyone ever told you, you have a smart mouth?" White retorted landing a flurry of punches squarely on his opponents jaw.
Half dazed the X5 dropped a round-house kick. Tangled in his robes and off kilter, White fell hard to the ground, smacking his head hard with a thud. Alec stood over him foot pressed to White's chest, gun trained squarely on his forehead. Then, the pungent smell of smoke assaulted Alec's sensitive nose and caused panic to rise in his chest.
Knocking White out cold, Alec made a break for it, happily leaving Ames White to burn.
His face concealed under the hood of his robe, Alec retraced his steps walking swiftly back to the rendezvous point. Their sixty minutes were up and Jondy was nowhere to be seen. Worried, he decided to venture down the path Jondy had taken, following the direction the whiff of smoke came from. At the end of the passageway the X5 saw faint plumes wafting up from a cramped stairwell. Crouching low, weapon at the ready Alec carefully stepped into the unknown, drawn on by Jondy's wane voice speaking fluent Familiar.
From his high vantage point Alec observed one Senator McKinley, Seattle's most recognizable politician, stood over Jondy's prostrate form.
"- 4-9-4?"
Catlike Alec vaulted, noting Jondy's gaze track his movement.
"Right here." Alec announced. McKinley turned. It only took .025 of a second for Alec to put a bullet in his brain.
Swiftly approaching Jondy, who lay, semi-conscious on the ground, Alec honed in on her right palm. It had been cut horizontally, a red deep gash wrapped in a snake-shaped brand. A ceremonial ivory knife lay next to her.
Alec roughly shook her shoulder and the young woman coughed against the smoke and grime present in the air.
"See I told you, you couldn't do this alone." The words came out more harshly than intended.
Alec stretched out a hand to Jondy's prone form, lifting her to her feet. The hazel eyed X5 gave her a once over seeing that she bore her weight evenly: she could walk, though he was more concerned about the way she was holding her side.
"So, it's out the trap door we go, hey?" He made sure to keep his tone somewhat jovial.
Alec pointed to the wooden panel in the corner of the chamber, eyes watering against the smoke and heat. Thankfully he had thought ahead and brought grappling gear along for the mission. He would be able to successfully hoist them both into the roof cavity. Running over and quickly yanking the pulley cord, Alec opened the trap door and the burst of oxygen into the chamber whipped the flames into frenzy. Time was not on their side.
"C'mon!"
Alec observed Jondy critically as she jogged across to him. He was conscious of her deteriorating condition- she was looking decidedly blarey-eyed. They needed to make their exit fast. Taking charge he quickly fired off the grappling hook, anchoring their rope to the tiled floor with a heavy carved statue of a naked woman.
"Ok," Alec turned back to the soot covered X5. "I'll piggy back you. Get on."
Jondy jumped, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and Alec knew she couldn't have possibly weighed more the fifty kilograms. He launched himself up onto the rope, traveling slightly slower with the extra weight and thought grimly to himself that the world outside Manticore's bars had made him soft.
Suddenly, a yell rented the air cutting through the thunderous whooshing of the raging fire. The X5s both turned their heads quickly to see Ames White, battered and bruised from Alec's handiwork, limping into the fiery chamber, his face contorted in rage.
"I can take him." Jondy hissed into Alec's ear and he knew she was consumed by thirst for revenge. Already, she was reaching one-armed for her secondary weapon, throwing him precariously off balance.
"No." Alec ordered upping his pace. There was no mistaking his authority. "We fallback. Hold on tight. We have to get the hell out of here before the whole place goes up in flames."
Scaling the rope rapidly, they climbed into the roof cavity. Quickly pulling the heavy trap door shut, dodging the bullets that tore through the cedar wood trapdoor courtesy of White's frenetic firing below, Jondy's gasping filled the dark small space while the pair took a moment to regroup.
Alec turned to face her and when she met his eye, he didn't like her mutinous expression one bit.
"Don't start."
He was mightily aware that the roof cavity was rapidly becoming unbearably hot.
"But-"
Alec pointed to the rough surface of the chute above their heads. Through the opening overhead the stars were visible, tiny specs glittering some seven hundred meters above.
"Climb."
… so you see Sir, I fucked up. The Familiars now know we are assassinating their top castes. White most likely is alive. McKinley is dead not because I could complete my objective- and we lost the weapon."
Jondy glanced down to her shaking hands, before looking up to Lydecker.
The Colonel's expression was grim to say the least.
—_-_-
The small bar tucked in a Gillette alley was busy for a weeknight. It meant patrons were too busy catching up with friends, dates or colleagues to pay attention to the impish blonde and her two handsome companions who occupied a table in one dimly lit corner behind the bar. It was just the way they wanted it.
"Max has made it clear she trusts him. We don't have a lot of options- public sentiment being what it is." Alec's tone was dry.
"I don't care what Max says." Jondy snapped recalling Zack's frequent diatribes about her sister's recklessness. "We have a choice. Lydecker can't be trusted. Don't think for second that he won't double cross us when this is all over. He will broker the deal to sell who's left of us to the highest bidder!"
"You mean sell any remaining X5s back to The Committee for a profit." Cale said knowingly over his whisky. "Despite Eyes Only's failed efforts to find out more and expose their true interests, I have every suspicion that The Committee is biding its time; waiting for the right opportunity to get Manticore back into action."
"Sounds accurate." Alec mused. "They can't be happy with the hit they've taken to operations at home and aboard in the past eighteen months."
A heavy silence descended on the group.
"Look into a Director John Worthington." Jondy was the first to speak and her tone was decisive. "Lydecker met with him to discuss arms supplies. Something's going on- I know it- they're old military buddies."
"Ok." Cale nodded. "I'm sorry we couldn't stay longer-"
"No, it's fine. I need to sharpen my negotiating skills." Jondy dismissed. "Poor result getting you two up here for only three days to do this op with me."
Alec knocked back his whisky and smirked at her words. "Well no one said Lydecker was a fool. First rule of command: control information flows."
Knowing her time was up and she was due back at base, Jondy rose from her seat, threw a fifty-dollar bill to the table and took the photographs Cale had placed there with a small sigh.
"What happened-?" Cale instantly honed in her injured palm.
"Nevermind." Jondy swiftly replied. "Look, I know she's caught up being the poster child for all things transgenic." The X5 shot Cale a piercing look as she pulled on her duffle coat. "But remind Maxie not to forget who the real enemy is." Turning to the hazel-eyed man at her side, her eyes were grateful. "Later Alec- and thanks, you know, for having my back- and sorry- for being such a bitch. Logan-" Jondy held up her new scrambled cell grinning-"I'll be in touch."
Alec watched the young woman walk away with a contemplative stare; she was more dangerous than given credit for.
"Happy Logan?"
The older man shot him a look before knocking back his whisky with a smack of his lips. "Having eyes and ears here will do for now."
"That it will." Alec nodded and absently shrugged a shoulder, before he cracked a sarcastic grin. "Lets go, tell Max the good news."
The pair made their exit, strolling in-step. None of the other patrons paid mind to Alec other than to notice his good looks wrapped inside a dapper black leather jacket. None thought anything of his right hand buried inside its pocket nor would have ever suspected it held in place a palm-sized cylindrical vile concealed in the jacket's slippery lining.
—_
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