by L. C. Mawson
Ever since her talk with Jan, she had seemed to be more open to the idea of others joining them, for which Gus was glad.
“Don’t worry,” Gus told his sister as they made their way to where Mia would most likely be. “She’ll be more than receptive to our offer.”
“How can you be so sure?” Alex asked.
Gus looked away. “Her brother. It was so pointless, not even a fight or anything, but when he was out on a mission, he got caught in an accident. He survived, but he took a hit across the front of his face. Despite our healing technology, his eyesight is gone.”
Alex frowned. “But why does that mean that Mia will join us?”
Jan was the one to answer that. “Because if they had no resources for an Enhanced with slightly less than optimal genes, do you honestly think they have any for one who is blind?”
“Ah.”
Gus nodded. “They were still discussing what they were going to do when I left, but it didn’t look good. They can’t just kick him out, in case word gets out about us still existing. They have to decide between feeding, clothing, housing him, or... Well, not. And the latter seemed pretty likely the last I heard.”
It didn’t take them particularly long to find Mia. She was incredibly tall, onyx skin and similarly dark eyes. She kept her cloud of black curls pinned back with a pink clip that matched her pink sundress.
She raised an eyebrow as they approached, and Gus wasn’t sure whether that was a good sign or not...
“Well, I can’t say that I expected to see you alive again,” she said to Alex. “I thought you would have been tracked down and dealt with by now.”
Alex shrugged. “I guess they taught me how to evade tracking a little too well.”
“And now you have friends, which tells me that you are no longer satisfied with mere evasion.”
Alex shrugged again. “They got too close for comfort, and I realised that if I ever wanted to be free from them, I would have to stop them. Permanently.”
“So now you’re approaching those who would help,” Mia said as she looked over to Gus and Jan. “Your brother makes sense. And I suppose after what happened with Sam, Jan, you were already looking for a way out.”
Jan nodded. “We thought after what happened to your brother, you might feel the same way.”
Mia sighed. “While it has certainly opened my eyes to how little we mean to those who would command us... Asking me to join you means asking me to walk away from my brother. As long as I’m at the base, I can keep an eye on him. I can be there if they decide to send him away. But... I had considered attempting to get my brother out. The problem was, we had nowhere to go. If you will help me, and take both of us, then I will join you against the other Enhanced.”
Alex folded her arms. “What did you have in mind? For getting your brother, I mean. I assume you have some sort of plan.”
Mia nodded. “I will return to the Enhanced, and I will smuggle my brother out. There were a few others that I had been considering asking for help with this. I imagine, with the hope of somewhere to go, they would be more than willing. And with a group of us leaving all at once, we are unlikely to be stopped. All we need is a rendezvous point to meet you at, and a promise that you would help us to escape once we’re out. And that you would not turn my brother away.”
Alex nodded. “Done,” she agreed. “I will give you an email address to contact when you’re ready to get your brother out. That gas station half a mile south of the base should act as a decent rendezvous point. Once we meet there, we can get you out of the US, and away from the Enhanced’s prying eyes.”
“I’m scheduled to return back there tomorrow. Hopefully, it should not take me more than a couple of days to organise my brother’s escape.”
“We have one last person to recruit in the meantime,” Alex told her. “Once we have seen to them, we will make our way back stateside.”
“If you truly do as you say, you have my thanks.”
Alex nodded once more as Mia walked away.
“Well, that was easier than I expected,” Jan said as soon as Mia was out of earshot. “I mean, I knew that she had a reason to leave, but after the mess with Sam, and what you said happened with Bob...”
Gus folded his arms. “I don’t know that I’m happy about this,” he told them. “Alex, you shouldn’t have just agreed to help get her brother. We should have talked about it as a team.”
Alex blinked, before nodding. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I really shouldn’t be just unilaterally making these decisions, but after what you said about her brother... Well, I assumed this is what you thought would happen. That she would ask us to help her get him out.”
Gus frowned. “I assumed that how they had treated him would give her a reason to leave. But for her to make her loyalty conditional on this... I suppose I’m just not happy with the idea of someone joining us just to get something out of it.”
Alex raised an eyebrow. “That’s why we’re all here, Gus. Because we have something to gain from it.”
“Not me,” he said simply.
It wasn’t entirely true. If he had managed to cause that fire through some kind of magical ability... He needed to be as far from the other Enhanced as possible.
But that hadn’t been why he had left in the first place.
Alex stopped dead at his words, seemingly caught off guard.
She hadn’t thought of that, Gus realised. She hadn’t even remembered that she was the reason he was there.
Because he cared about her.
It should have angered him, he thought. He should have been furious at the realisation. But he was just worried. Worried for his sister and how lost she had seemed recently.
“I know you think you lost everything when you lost Freya,” he told her softly. “That isn’t true, Alex. You still have family.”
Alex looked away. “I’m sorry,” she told him, and for the first time in a long while, he could recognise his sister in her voice. “I’ve been taking you for granted, and I shouldn’t be.”
He sighed, shaking his head once more. “It’s fine. Just... Try to remember that you’re not alone in this.”
“I’ll try,” she promised.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Mia
Keeping her composure as she arrived back at the base was one of the most difficult things Mia had ever had to do.
They had to be on high-alert with Gus and Jan now working with Alex. They must have missed check ins by this point, which meant that the rest of the Enhanced would know that Alex was recruiting.
Which would mean that everyone who had been out of the base might be under suspicion.
That was hardly an ideal situation from which to stage a breakout, but it would be even less ideal if Mia acted suspiciously and tipped them off.
“What’s with all the extra security?” she asked as she re-entered the base, only to be searched by five guards instead of the customary three.
One of the guards - Gar, she recalled - shrugged. “Some kind of problem with check in procedure. Probably nothing to worry about.”
Mia wasn’t sure that he believed that, but he at least didn’t seem to have any contradictory information.
So, they were still keeping any information on Alex locked down, she mused. She supposed that telling the others that Alex had managed to recruit some of their peers might only lead them to question how those peers had been swayed, and if Alex actually had anything worth listening to.
After a while, the guards seemed happy enough with the idea that Mia wasn’t trying to sneak in contraband, waving her through to the other side of the entrance.
Her monitor, Fey, was waiting for her on the other side. She was an older woman, though her Enhanced genes kept her looking younger than a regular Human. She had freckled olive skin and black hair that was cropped short enough to stay out of her hazel eyes.
“Did you have a nice time away from the base?” Fey asked.
Mia shrugged. “I suppose. The foo
d was better, but I didn’t exactly have time for much.”
Fey nodded with an understanding smile. “It’s a shame that we can no longer risk having you away from the base for so long. Speaking of, you weren’t contacted by anyone while you were out there, were you?”
Mia did her best to keep her features from betraying her. This was the moment of truth. If they already knew that Alex had contacted her, and she lied about it, they would know that she had joined her. If they didn’t know and Mia admitted that Alex approached her, saying that she rejected her, she could be placed under suspicion that would compromise her attempt to get her brother out.
“Aside from you?” Mia asked, her voice cool and natural. “No, why? Who would know I was out there?”
Fey sighed, shaking her head. “There have been some troubles with check ins. Nothing to worry about, I’m sure, but it’s best that we stay up to date. Now, I suspect you need a shower and change of clothes. Go on, we can discuss the rest of your mission later.”
Mia nodded before heading off, running almost straight into Tina.
“Mia!” Tina cried with a grin as she saw her. “I heard you might be back.”
“I’m going for my debriefing,” Mia told her. “I just need a shower first.”
Tina nodded, quickly catching on. “Yeah, I actually need one too. Mind if I join you?”
She winked, and Mia smiled, knowing that anyone listening would immediately tune out, taking their words to mean that they were going to ‘let off some steam’, rather than going to conspire against the rest of the Enhanced. Not least because the two of them had done so before, so it was hardly out of the blue.
“Not at all,” Mia told her as the two of them headed off.
Thankfully, the showers were mostly empty, and they quickly stripped off before getting into a single cubicle and turning on the shower. Between the noise of the shower and their proximity, no one would likely be able to hear their whispers, and even anyone who did would have to strain to hear exactly what was being said and would probably assume that it was something entirely different.
“Gus hasn’t checked in,” Tina whispered by Mia’s neck as they stood close enough to not draw suspicion if anyone happened to notice how close they were - or weren’t - standing.
“I know,” Mia said. “Or at least, I assumed. It would have been more helpful if he had kept up the pretence for a little longer, but I can see why he didn’t bother.”
“Wait, you already know? How? Have you spoken to him? Have you spoken to Alex?!”
Mia nodded. “They came to see me. Alex isn’t looking to just evade them anymore. Jan is with them, too.”
Tina frowned. “I hadn’t heard that, but it would explain the extra security and the rumours...”
“Rumours?”
“Hell was supposed to leave, but they’ve kept her here.”
“Do they think she’ll join her siblings?”
“That was what we thought, but now they’ve tapped me and my brother, Jim, for a mission in a couple of days, in exactly the same place they were going to send Hell.”
Mia’s eyes widened in understanding. “Gus knows that she was supposed to head out, doesn’t he?”
“I can’t imagine he didn’t ask, given that he was obviously thinking about recruitment before he left.”
“And there’s no way they wouldn’t try to recruit their sister.”
“So it’s a trap?”
Mia nodded.
“Shit... We can’t warn them. There’s no way we wouldn’t be caught. Not with how carefully communication is being watched now.”
“Maybe we don’t have to warn them,” Mia said after a while. “I came back to get my brother out, maybe this is the perfect opportunity.”
“How?”
“If they’re looking to capture them, they must be using a transport with cells of some kind, right?”
Tina nodded. “They’re going to drop off a ground transport by air.”
“What if we can smuggle Ty and me out in the transport? I mean, the cells won’t be used until we capture Alex and Gus. And then we can sabotage the transport after they’ve been captured and escape.”
Tina hummed in agreement. “We probably could, assuming they capture Alex, Gus and Jan, instead of just killing them.”
Mia shrugged. “It’s the best choice we have.”
Tina sighed. “I guess you’re right. I’ll go and talk to Jim.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Alex
They made their way to France to meet the last potential recruit, and Alex found herself hoping for another ally.
As reluctant as she was to trust the other Enhanced, if they indeed intended to help Mia escape with her brother, they would have to either be incredibly lucky or have more than just the three of them.
Alex supposed she should have realised that before she had agreed to help Mia, but if she hadn’t agreed, then they would truly only have the three of them in the fight.
As much as Alex liked Jan, she doubted that the single addition to the team would allow them to face off against Effie and Jay again.
“So, who are we asking this time?”
Gus smiled. “Hell should be out on assignment right now, so I thought we would ask her.”
Alex couldn’t help but grin back at the news. As nice as it was to have Gus with her, she missed her other siblings.
“Why didn’t you tell me? We could have gone to her first.”
Gus shook his head. “She was scheduled to go out on assignment just a couple of days ago. I wanted to make sure that she would have arrived, without her monitor, before we went to meet her.”
Jan frowned. “If she was scheduled to go on assignment after you left, do you really think they would have stuck to that schedule? I mean, after you defected, do you honestly think they would have trusted another of your siblings with that kind of freedom?”
Gus shrugged. “I see your point, but I can only work off the latest information I have. If she’s not there, then we will simply have to make do with the three of us until we can get Mia and her brother out, and whoever else she manages to wrangle into this.”
Alex’s smile faded as worry crept back in.
“I’m sure it will be fine,” Gus assured them, but it didn’t settle Alex’s nerves, and it was evident from Jan’s frown that she was similarly unsettled.
They made their way to where Hell should have been staying, only to round a corner and find themselves surrounded by a group of Enhanced.
“Shit,” Alex muttered as she turned to see that more had appeared behind them.
They were cornered and outnumbered.
A small amount of relief came from realising that Hell wasn’t with them. Their sister hadn’t betrayed them.
But apparently, they had been predictable.
Alex could have cursed herself. She should have seen what would happen. They shouldn’t have attempted to recruit their siblings yet. They were too easy of a target.
A smaller blonde woman stepped forward, and Alex recognised her as Gus’s monitor.
“So, it’s true. You did join your sister,” she said, disappointment clear in her voice. “I had hoped when we lost contact with you that they had been wrong. When you returned to us a year ago and told us that you had been unsuccessful in retrieving Alex – that you had missed her completely – I had vouched for you, when others told me you must be lying. For you to throw my trust back in my face like this...”
Gus shook his head. “I didn’t do it to betray you. I did it to protect my sister.”
“Why? Because you share a small percentage more common DNA with her than the rest of us? Are we not also your family?”
“You stopped being my family when you attacked Alex.”
His monitor simply folded her arms. “I didn’t attack Alex. None of us here did. Her monitor made a bad call in an uncertain situation. An understandable mistake, given the things he saw in the War. The things he was frightened would happen agai
n. Especially when Alex proved that she was more loyal to our enemy than she was to us.” She turned to Alex. “I am sorry for what your monitor did to you, but he is not the rest of us.”
Alex shook her head. “You can’t expect me to believe that. We do not act without orders, and there is certainly no way that he would have done something so drastic unless it was part of the mission parameters.”
Gus’s monitor shrugged. “Ever since the timeline changed, as a result of an Angel that we thought we had safely in captivity, there have been standing orders to capture and examine any Angel we may come across, at any cost. Obviously, we felt that it was implicit that the cost should not be one of our own. Now we know to be more specific in the future.”
Alex frowned, not believing her. Alice had said that if they had caught up with her and Freya, they would have killed her. The Oracle certainly had no reason to lie.
“And what about me?” Jan asked. “How are you going to justify what happened to me?”
Gus’s monitor frowned. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean. To the best of my knowledge, the Enhanced have done nothing to earn your ire.”
Jan glared at her. “And that’s the problem.”
Alex nodded, any hesitation she might have felt stripped away by Jan’s words.
“You talk of family, but we’re nothing to you but meat. Tools. Disposable weapons for your war.”
“That was what you were built for,” Gus’s monitor reasoned. “This is your purpose.”
“Well, fuck your purpose.”
A minute later, Alex was out cold.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Mia
“Will you stop tugging me like a child?” Ty hissed as Mia led him across the vehicle storage, approaching the ground transport Tina and the others were preparing.
“I’m sorry, did you suddenly regain your eyesight so that you can see where they are and where it’s safe to hide?” Mia hissed back.
