A/N: Please listen to the music video. I think it enhances the chapter
****
"I knew you would be along eventually." The grey-suited man on the brothers' couch lit a cigarette. "Which one of you is Gabe? I'm looking for Alex Robertson, Richardson, or Brown, or whichever last name she's using."
Gabe drew his sword. "You shouldn't be the one asking any questions. Who are you? How do you know about Alex? What do you want with her?"
Cale drew his sword and flanked him.
Grange lifted an eyebrow. "Alex didn't tell you about me? Well, she has reasons for her secrets. I'm from the agency. Alex has done a few jobs for me lately, but she stood me up this morning and I want to find her."
"You're from the agency? What do you want with Alex? I don't believe you," Gabe said, rapid fire.
Grange flipped open a leather billet and tossed it over to them. "Good enough?"
"If you're from the agency, ask Brockner where she is." Cale examined the badge and flipped the billet back to him.
Granger caught it expertly . "Brockner? What do you know about Brockner? Is Alex with him now? Brockner is dangerous and we need to find her."
The man's cool demeanor cracked. His eyes hardened, his lips thinned in anger and he hand clenched over his badge, knuckles white.
"Perhaps I should explain." Cale sheathed his sword.
***
It took a little while, but Cale told as complete a version as he knew.
"I certainly hope you didn't buy that load of crap from Brockner." Grange rocked back on his heels. "Didn't Alex tell you she was assigned to trap Brockner?"
"Sort of." Cale eyed his silent, angry, eldest brother and decided to not tell Grange the whole scenario.
"So why did you believe him? Even if you didn't totally trust Alex, don't you think Brockner was a bit prone to exaggeration?" Grange sounded puzzled by their attitude. "'Power to make anyone love her'." He snorted in derision. "Where did he get that, a bad 1950's science fiction movie?"
"What can you tell us about her powers?" Gabe, flushed an embarrassed deep gold color, and he examined his sword's edge.
"Her flying ability comes from a nuclear fission slipstream generator in her chest, so she can fly whenever she is conscious. Her powers are neuro-electric from cultured organic grafts, stimulating various portions of the nervous system of her target. It certainly does not make her target fall in love with her. Those powers take a toll on her, so she needs a lot of sleep to regenerate her own nervous system.
"We've suspected that Brockner was a mole for awhile, but we hadn't had much luck pinning anything on him. When he became interested in project AL-X, we figured it would be a perfect trap for him. When he chose Alex for the project, he picked his own predator. He saw exactly what we wanted him to. We faked that murder on her training mission. It made her irresistible to him and he chose her. She was no psychopath."
Grange shook his head at them. "She was an overly eager raw recruit who happened to perfectly fit the necessary biophysical profile. When she found out, there wasn't a day that went by that she wasn't trying to receive the implants. It was all she cared about. Brockner made his move before we or Alex were ready. Even worse, he was double-crossed by his own operative, Morgan. Neither Brockner nor I could pick up his trail. I wish I knew who or what that Morgan character was. Brockner falsified all Morgan's information."
"We should have believed Alex, but she said she made up the bit about trapping Brockner," Cale said.
Grange nodded. "Some part of her remembered it, I'm sure. Bits of memory tend to surface under stress."
"Please, take a look at this." Cale handed over the little device.
Grange stubbed out his cigarette and took the machine for closer inspection. He pressed play and listened a moment before shutting it off. "Advanced subliminals. Talk about twisting your minds. This is very bad. This means Brockner has a lot more support than we suspected. I need your help. If we're going to save Alex, we must work together."
"We don't know where she is either, but we think she's with our brother," Cale said.
"Where would they go?"
"Knowing Rile, they're after revenge," Gabe said sourly.
Cale drummed his claws in the palm of his other hand. "Maybe back to that warehouse in the projects?"
"It's a start. We need to leave now." Grange took out his car keys.
*****
On the way over, Cale quizzed Grange. Gabe remained quiet, brooding. They found the building empty, all traces of the equipment gone. Grange gave them a questioning look, but didn't say anything.
"Josef Hermann's lab," Cale said. "Alex once said that creep knew something about her powers, about who to contact to sell her. I bet they went there."
*****
Rile and Alex made their way towards Hermann's lab through the streets of New Orleans, sticking to smaller streets and alleys.
"You're awfully quiet," Rile said.
Alex rubbed her temples. "Enjoy the silence."
Rile hissed softly, upset that she had withdrawn once again from him. "Tell me what my jerk of a big brother said to you."
"Are we going to do this or gossip like girls?" Alex said. "There's the building. What's the plan?"
"I'm making this up as I go along."
Alex snorted. "Perfect. Tell you what: I'll short out that security camera. Neuro-electric powers still have electricity. Then I'll try my hand, literally, on the hand scanner."
"If that doesn't work?"
"Then make it up as we go along, Dragon Boy."
Alex flattened against the wall, watched that no one was around, and fired a blast at the security camera. It shorted out with a sad hiss.
She placed a faintly glowing hand on the scanner plate and waited, holding her breath. It beeped and the door opened. She and Rile slipped in.
A foyer of grey concrete slabs with a large case full of glass specimen jars greeted them. It quickly branched off into two long hallways, large metal lined doorways breaking up the outline.
Rile pushed her into the nearest doorway and motioned to a security monitor.
"Watch for the security guard. Time his pacing so we can avoid him."
They gazed at the screen. Rile held up his hand, fingers extended. He folded each finger and when the last finger went down, he bounded off.
Alex started, then pain crossed her face and she fell to one knee, clutching her head as the short circuit flared once again.
"Hey you!"
Alex looked up at the security guard and blasted him. Then she froze when she saw who was behind the security guard.
Rile was halfway down the other hallway when he turned and saw that Alex wasn't behind him. He turned back and saw Morgan before his world went black.
****
A/N
Good villains don't stay dead! Or rather, a counterpart takes the place of the dead one!
This chapter and the next gave me fits writing and finding holes and rewriting and finding more holes. Let me know if you see any! You'll hear the screams across the globe, but in the end, I'll appreciate it...
Dedicated to faithful readers
Angel_Eyes1514
And
efrosinia_g
Dedicated to
who's unflagging support keeps me going through my "everything I write is crap" troughs!