What's Next? -- Chapter 21
Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Alec, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Becky/X6-405, etc.).
"Anything yet?" Dennis asked as he drove his jeep around the outskirts of Seattle.
"Nothing," Becky murmurred from where she sat in the front seat. "Hold on a minute. I might have something. Zack, turn towards my direction and look straight ahead, about twenty degrees or so to your right."
Zack nodded from where he sat in the back seat and did what Becky had asked him to do. "Two hummers. Civilian model, but fairly stripped down. One is obviously a rental and the other has a forged license plate."
"Is it them?" Dennis wondered.
"I'm not sure," Becky said. "Zack and I are going to move in for a closer look. Stay here with the car. We'll be back soon."
Zack and Becky got out of the car and crept closer to the house. They made a few gestures and hid behind bushes on either side of the gravel pathway that ran between the sidewalk and the house and listened intently. "I hear them," Zack murmurred. "They're here."
"Me too," Becky said. She looked down for a moment. "Zack...how the hell are we going to keep this from Jenny? More likely than not one of us is going to end up killing her father and regardless of what he's done or what Jenny thinks of him now, he's still her father. How can we keep this from her?"
"I don't know," Zack replied honestly. "I'm feeling as gui--" He suddenly stopped and gestured for Becky to be silent as well and they focused their attention towards the house and the voices that they heard coming from the living room.
"She hasn't changed one bit, has she?" Patrick remarked dryly.
"Not a single bit," Lydecker said. "If we're lucky, we won't have to hold her for long. All we have to do is wait until 599 and 405 and possibly 452 come and try to retrieve her. As soon as they are out of the way, we'll take care of Caroline."
Both Zack and Becky's eyes narrowed and they glared murderously in Lydecker's direction. I'd like to see you try, you fucking bastard, Becky thought.
"I hope it's not long," Patrick said. "She wasn't so bad when she wasn't aware of what I really was doing or when she was faking amnesia. I never loved her, but she was nice enough and a good cook and pretty good in bed." There was a brief pause. "How long do you think it will be until they try to get her?"
"It depends on if 312 stayed conscious long enough to recognize me," Lydecker said. "If he did, it could only be a few hours from now. Even if he didn't, I still expect that it won't take longer than a few days. Those kids are very efficient when they want to be and I can only imagine how efficient they would want to be in this situation."
"Good," Patrick said. "I've got a week before my flight back to Munich."
"Where did you fly into?" Lydecker asked.
"Not Seattle-Tacoma, don't worry," Patrick assured him. "I flew into LAX and then caught a puddle-jumper from there to Lake Tahoe and I rented a car there and drove up here. I figured that I'd surprise my sister there after this is done and before I get back to Germany. Hell, she's the only person in my family who's still talking to me, much less still on good terms with me."
They were silent for almost a minute before Lydecker started to talk again. "Have you talked to your daughter recently?"
"No, the last time that I talked to Jenny on the phone was before this whole mess happened," Patrick said. "I didn't want to push her into talking to me. She is only ten years old, Don."
"I know," Lydecker said. "What if when Caroline's body is found she thinks that you had something to do with it?"
"I don't know," Patrick said. "I know that we'll try to set it up to look like an accident, but if Jenny doesn't believe that and insists that I killed her mother, then I'll have to kill her. She's my only child, but to tell you the truth I never wanted to have kids at all. Caroline was the one who wanted children and I had to give in and have at least one kid with her or I'm pretty sure she would have tried to split. She was starting to get pretty antsy about by the time I gave in and we conceived Jenny. She's not a bad kid but if I never have to see her again it won't be any skin off of my nose."
Zack shook his head. So much for any guilt about Jenny, Zack thought. He turned his head to look at his sister and he could tell that Becky was thinking exactly the same thing.
"Speaking of antsy, we should dig up something in the kitchen and feed Caroline before she gets really angry," Lydecker said.
"How are we going to be able to tell?" Patrick joked. He and Lydecker laughed and went into the kitchen.
Zack and Becky turned back to each other and made some more gestures and then split up and walked around a different side of the property, both of them careful to stay hidden. They carefully scanned the area before finally returning to Dennis twenty minutes later. "It's definitely them," Becky said. "And this isn't going to be easy."
Dennis nodded. "Isn't going to be easy how?"
"Getting into the house," Zack said. "Lydecker was smart. He set up a top security system, the kind of level of security that you would see at a government site."
"The kind that nobody's supposed to know about," Dennis guessed.
"Exactly," Becky said.
"Have either of you had any experience on the particular system that Lydecker used?" Dennis asked.
Zack shook his head. "I haven't."
"This particular one came onto the market around 2017," Becky said. "I trained on it and I've had mission experience with it, but it's incredibly tricky to get around and to deactivate. You need at least a team of three X-series, preferably at least one more, to successfully get around it and even then it will take a few hours. Lydecker knows that I have experience with the system. We figure that he's counting on myself talking Zack and Max through whatever they have to do while trying to handle my share at the same time."
"Which is impossible?" Dennis said.
"Nearly," Becky said. "It would take an incredible amount of luck for us to pull it off if that were the situation, which it obviously isn't."
"He does know us somewhat," Zack conceded. He smirked. "Unfortunately for him, he doesn't know us as well as he would like to think."
Becky nodded and pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number. "Dix, it's me."
"Becky. What do you need?" Dix asked.
She filled him in on the situation. "Search the database for me, please. I'm going to need a team of at least two and preferably three to help me with the system."
"Coming right up," Dix said. Becky waited for a few moments before Dix spoke up again. "Got it. Will Alec, Biggs, and Jeff work for you?"
"They'll be perfect," Becky said.
"I'll call them for you," Dix said. "What's your location?"
Becky gave him the address. "Thanks, Dix."
"No problem," Dix said.
Becky disconnected and turned to Dennis, since he hadn't been able to hear both sides of the conversation. "Alec, Biggs, and Jeff should be on their way here soon and then the four of us will start in on the security."
"Good," Dennis said.
"Are you okay?" Zack asked.
Dennis shook his head but he tried to attempt a smile for his son and daughter's sakes. "Ask me that question again after we get your mother back safe."
"Yeah," Becky said. She took a deep breath.
"Keep it together," Zack said. "We will pull this off."
"I know we will," Becky said. "I'm just...I can't believe I'm this worried. I haven't known Caroline that long but...I think I'm really starting to think of her as my mother. It's not that I haven't thought of her as my mother before, but...you know?"
"I do," Zack said softly. "I feel the same way."
Dennis looked at his children. "Don't worry. It will work out. Trust me."
"I do," Zack said.
"So do I," Becky agreed. The three of them looked at each other and smiled before they settled down and waited for Alec, Biggs, and Jeff to arrive.
TBC