What's Next? -- Chapter 35a

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.).

“What’s the dealio?” Max asked Sasha as the two of them plus Gem and Rena walked through Terminal City the following day. “Have you heard anything on the Brandi front?”

Sasha shook her head. “None of us have heard a thing. I called Alec to get an update from him and he told me that he’d checked in with Dix here this morning before he left to go to work and Dix said all was quiet. Dina, Bryan, Kai, Diane, Ted, Melanie, Lori, and Cam all called into him first thing as well and apparently none of them has seen even a glimpse of Brandi, not even Diane and Melanie.”

“Do you think that Diane and Melanie would be willing or are covering for Brandi as we speak?” Gem asked.

“Based on the meeting last night, I would have to say no,” Sasha said. “They were even more floored by this than the rest of this. I really can’t blame them there. The person who’d been their best friend their whole lives did something so heinous that even scares a fellow transgenic witless.” She bit her lip. “As much as I rag on Diane and Melanie, they’re not stupid, Diane especially. Despite their friendship with Brandi, they know what they have to do.”

“Thank goodness,” Max said. “At least that’s one less thing that we have to worry about.”

“Yeah,” Gem agreed. “We definitely have enough on our plates.”

“Whatcha guys talking about?” The four X5 women turned to see Riley approaching them.

“Hey, Riley,” Max said. “Don’t you have work?”

“Getting Mom practice in?” Riley remarked. She grinned. “Sorry, Max. I’ve got the day off today.”

“It’s cool,” Max said. “Sorry for going all Mom on you.”

“No problem,” Riley said. She looked off in one direction and grinned wickedly. “Speaking of which, here comes Daddy.” That got Rena laughing and Sasha smiling and Gem trying to hide a smile while shaking her head in disbelief.

Zack’s eyes narrowed in suspicion as he approached them. “Do I want to know?”

“Probably not,” Max said. She kissed him. “Hey, baby. Enjoying your own day off?”

“Now that I have my errands done,” Zack agreed. “I was thinking about going over to the gym to get a workout in. Do you want to come with me?”

“Sure,” Max said. “I can do some light exercise. Right, Sasha? Gem?”

“Sure,” Sasha said. “I’ll even come with you to walk you through it.” She started to walk off with Max and Zack but stopped. “Damn. Biggs left this cell phone back at the apartment and I’d told him that I would bring it over to him by lunchtime.”

“Chill,” Rena said. “I’ll go grab it for you. I don’t have to be into work until noon and their offices are on the way to the garage so it’s no problem for me to swing there on my way to work. Speaking of apartments, how are you guys coming along with finding a good place out in the city?”

“We’re planning on signing the papers on one next week,” Sasha said. She stretched. “Thanks, Rena.”

“No problem,” Rena said.

“I’ll go with you,” Gem said.

“Is this your way of asking me for a ride to your job?” Rena teased.

Brandi and Cam made their way into a still-abandoned apartment directly across the street from Biggs and Sasha’s. They sat down on the dusty living room floor and began to unpack the contents of the cases that they’d been carrying. Cam’s expression was calm but otherwise blank but Brandi had a small smile on her face.

“I am so going to love beating the bitch at her own game,” she said as she put the sniper rifle together. She snapped on the silencer and set the gun down next to her.

“It will be satisfying,” Cam agreed. He finished putting together his own rifle and also put it down next to him. “After we get Sasha and hopefully Biggs today, how do you want to do Alec?”

Brandi looked thoughtful. “I was thinking that we move on to your area of expertise and do something involving explosives. We’d probably have to wait and make sure him and that ‘09er bitch that he’s shacking up with and their brat kid are all out of their apartment before we plant anything. That’s definitely going to have to take more precision than this will.” She made a face. “As much as I hate and have always hated Alec, he certainly was an exceptional soldier. We both know that it can and has been done, but getting the drop on him still won’t be easy.”

“Agreed,” Cam said. They picked up their rifles and opened the window enough for them to stick them through so that they could get good shots. After a few moments, Cam grinned. “Bingo. Sasha has been sighted and it looks like she’s brought a friend with her. It’s not Biggs, but I know that face though I don’t know her exact name. It’s 849 from Unit 4.”

“I never liked her,” Brandi said. “I’ve got the shot on Sasha. You take 849.” Cam nodded and they carefully sighted in and then fired. Brandi started to smile in satisfaction as she saw the redhead in the other apartment clutch at her chest area and go down from the hit, but then frowned a little. “She wasn’t pregnant. Damn, it was the ‘09er.”

“849 is down. Chest wound,” Cam said. He turned to look at Brandi and smiled reassuringly. “Hey, this will still cause Sasha a hell of a lot of suffering and you did get an ‘09er. God only knows how much crap they caused the rest of us and especially you to go through.” He set his rifle down and took off the backpack that he’d been wearing and unzipped it and took out a bottle of champagne and two champagne flutes. “That’s still cause for celebration, don’t you think?”

Brandi perked up. “True.” She put her own rifle down and the two of them moved into the kitchen.