What's Next? -- Chapter 35b

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.).

Sasha and Max were laughing as they talked and watched Zack working out when suddenly Sasha stopped and frowned. She made her way to a nearby bench and sat down on it, deep in thought. Max grew concerned and sat down next to her. Zack and Riley, who’d been working with the weights, also noticed and went over to her.

“Sasha, what’s wrong? Is something wrong with the baby?” Max asked.

“No,” Sasha said. She shook her head, though she clearly was still troubled. “I’ve just…I’ve got a bad feeling, Max. Something’s wrong. Something is wrong with somebody or something and I don’t know, it’s as if my own blood is yelling at me that there’s trouble. Fuck.”

Zack exchanged a look with Max and Riley. “Call the nursery to check on the kids. Riley and I will double check your apartment.” He and Riley quickly went into their respective locker rooms, changed, and were out the gym door in barely a minute. “Do you think Sasha’s right?”

“I hope not,” Riley said. “I just hope that I won’t regret leaving my personal weapons back in my apartment.”

“Me too,” Zack said. They reached Biggs and Sasha’s apartment building and went inside. They started walking up the stairs to the fourth floor, but Riley suddenly paused and sniffed the air about halfway between the third and fourth floors. Zack frowned. Riley, like himself, had a little wolf DNA so her sense of smell was even more sensitive. “Riley?”

“I don’t know,” Riley said. “It’s coming through pretty vague. You should be able to pick it up in a sec.” They continued on and sure enough, Zack caught onto the faint smell that had gotten Riley’s attention. The smell got stronger the closer they got and by the time that they reached the fourth floor and had stepped into the hallway, Riley’s eyes widened and she bolted down the hall for the apartment. Zack also placed the smell and he almost flew down the hall too, his heart in his throat. He stopped short when he saw Riley at the apartment door and she slowly turned the knob and went inside. She gasped when she saw Gem and Rena lying unconscious on the floor, red staining the front of both of their chests. “Oh my God.” She quickly got to Gem’s side and checked for a pulse. “She’s barely got a pulse, Zack. We need to get her to med bay pronto.”

Zack nodded. He held his breath as he checked Rena, only releasing it when he saw that the wound was just up and left of her heart. Another half an inch and… He couldn’t finish the thought. Instead, he reached over and gently shook her. “Rena, wake up. Come on, little sister, wake up.”

Rena groaned and squinted up at Zack. “You wanna help me figure out whether it’s my shoulder and chest that hurt worse or my head?”

“You must have hit your head when you fell,” Zack said, relieved. He looked up at Riley. “Make the call.” He watched Riley somehow take her cell phone out and speed dial the med bay to get help and inform them of what had happened while still trying to help Gem as much as she could. Zack nudged Rena again. “Stay awake, Rena.”

“I know,” Rena said, sounding dazed. “I’ve had concussions before.” She turned her head and finally saw Gem and what little color had been in her face left it. “Oh my God, is she okay? Will she be okay?”

“I hope so,” Zack said. He grabbed a throw off of the couch and held it against Rena’s injured shoulder. “Rena, do you remember what happened?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Rena said. “I—Gem and I were talking and I think Gem had been cracking a joke about some guy who works with her and I was laughing and the next thing that I knew I heard glass break and I didn’t have enough time to get out of the way. As I was going down, I could see Gem also taking a hit and then the next thing I know is you waking me up.” She managed a snort. “Whoever shot me couldn’t even get it right.” Riley suddenly looked up and towards the window. Her face darkened and Zack could almost see the expletives coming. He looked in the same direction and after a moment he knew that he couldn’t blame her. He was thinking the same thing.

“Later,” he said quietly. Riley nodded. Only moments later, transgenic paramedics arrived and took over working on Gem and Rena. Zack squeezed Rena’s hand as they put her on a stretcher. “Hang in there, little sister. We’ll be by the med bay as soon as possible.” Rena gave him a thumbs-up with her right hand as they took her and Gem away. Zack had a few words with the paramedics before he took out his cell phone and speed dialed a number.

“Dix here,” Dix said. “What’s going on, Zack?”

“We’ve got a massive emergency,” Zack said grimly. “Rena and Gem were just shot by a sniper but most likely snipers while they were in Biggs and Sasha’s apartment. Riley and I found them. Our best theory is that it was Brandi and possibly somebody else.”

“Why—oh,” Dix said. “Mistaken identity?”

“Why else?” Zack said. “Have a security team standing by. Riley and I are going to try to locate Brandi. We’ll notify you if and when we find her.”

“Will do,” Dix said. “I’ll hear from you then.”

“Thanks, Dix,” Zack said. He disconnected and then speed dialed another number. “Max. Sasha was right.” He took a deep breath. “Rena and Gem had been shot in Sasha’s apartment.”

“What?” Max said.

“Max, calm down,” Zack said. “Rena seems like she’s going to be okay, she was hit more towards the shoulder, but Gem took it right in the chest. She’s still alive as far as I know though.”

“Where are they being taken?” Max asked.

“Terminal City med bay,” Zack said.

Max’s voice took on a hard edge. “Do I even have to guess who was behind this?”

“Don’t waste your breath on that,” Zack confirmed. “Riley and I are going to track Brandi down. Call the others and let them know.”

“We’ll meet you in med bay,” Max said. Zack disconnected and he and Riley went into Biggs and Sasha’s bedroom. Riley went over to a non-descript looking trunk and opened it, revealing Biggs and Sasha’s personal weapons stash. Riley reached for the hip holster that was obviously Sasha’s and took it and secured it around her waist.

“I have a feeling that neither of them will mind if we borrow a few of their things,” she said dryly as she handed Zack the other hip holster.

“You’re most likely right,” Zack agreed as he fastened it on. Riley found a tranquilizer gun and some darts and handed them to Zack, who loaded a dart into the gun, placed it in the holster, and put the extra darts in one of the pockets of his jeans. He reached in the trunk for a handgun and checked to see if it was loaded before securing that. “How good are you at stealth?”

Brandi laughed as she poured Cam and herself their second glass of champagne. “I think that you might just be right about that one, Cam. I always thought that trainer was harsher on us than the other ones. I could definitely see why Diane would have turned him down, though. He smelled worse than 665 did after he’d gotten in trouble that one time and they made him do ten laps around the entire facility at night before lights out.” She took a sip of her drink. “Diane once told me about how she had standards and how fortunate for her it was that most of the guards met them.”

“I slept with her twice,” Cam recalled. “One time was the night before the start of the first breeding program and the second was back in January of 2019. Good times.”

“Speaking of good times,” Brandi said. “I wonder what I’m going to do after I take care of all three of those idiots.” She looked thoughtful. “God only knows I’m going to get out of the United States and Canada is just as obviously out of the question. I always liked warm weather.” She grinned. “Maybe I’ll go to the Bahamas. Can you imagine how nice that would be?”

“That would be incredible,” Cam said.

“You’d be welcome to join me,” Brandi said. “Especially if they somehow get wise to you.”

Cam looked touched. “Thank you.” He smiled. “You know, I remember when I was a kid that I’d thought that you were one massive bitch. Then as you and myself especially grew up I came to realize that you weren’t nearly that bad and we got along decently enough. Hell, I think that the last time that I got angry with you was when I was thirteen.”

Zack and Riley entered the building across the street. “If there are two shooters, and based on the distance between the two shots on the window I would have to say that there are, this could get messy,” Riley said. “I know that the two of us could take them out if we go straight two-on-two, but as much as I hate saying this, we should keep them in as much of one piece as possible for when they’re questioned.”

“I know,” Zack said. He clenched his fists and took a deep breath. Stay calm, he thought. Brandi and her accomplice if she has one will pay for hurting Rena soon enough. You need to keep a clear head, soldier. Zack and Riley went up to the correct floor and saw that the door to the apartment that directly faced the living room of Biggs and Sasha’s was ajar. He motioned Riley forward and they crept over to the door and listened in. After a moment, Zack began to gesture to Riley. You were right. There are two of them, Brandi plus a male. Do you recognize the other voice?

Riley nodded. I do. It’s Cam, designation X5-237. He’s also from Alec’s unit.

Got it, Zack replied. He thought for a few moments. We go in and one of us lures the one of them out so the other can hit him or her with their tranquilizer gun then we go in for the other one. He waited for Riley’s acceptance of his plan before they slipped silently inside. They made their way though a small hallway and then into the living room before each hid behind a piece of furniture and held their breath as they waited to see if either Brandi or Cam had heard them. When they didn’t hear anything except for the other two’s chatter and laughter, Zack discreetly motioned to Riley before he nudged the decrepit armchair that he was hiding behind. They heard a chair scrape in the kitchen and Cam got up and walked into the living room. Before Cam could do anything, Riley fired her tranquilizer gun, hitting Cam with a dart right into his neck. Before he could hit the ground, Riley caught Cam and noiselessly lowered him down to the floor and secured him with zip ties. A few moments later, they heard Brandi get up to check on what was going on. She entered the living room and saw Riley standing over the unconscious Cam and narrowed her eyes.

“252,” she said. “What do you think that you’re doing here with Cam?”

“Gee, Brandi, what does it look like I’m doing?” Riley said sarcastically. “Oh, that’s a nice gun that you’ve got. Did you shoot either Gem or Rena with that or did you use another toy? Either way, that was a classy move. Didn’t your egg donor tell you that attacking from the rear means that you’re a wuss?”

“No, I was simply demonstrating that I had paid attention during my assassination lessons years ago back at Manticore,” Brandi said. “I might not have gotten rid of the twin that I had wanted to, but at least I took out an ‘09er and maybe it wasn’t Biggs that Cam took down, but it’s not like either him or I liked 849 very much. Better than nothing, I say.”

Don’t kill her yet, Zack. “Wow, that makes you even double a wuss. You wouldn’t go head-to-head with what you believed was a pregnant woman?” Riley said in mock shock. “Oh, Brandi. Where did you go wrong?” Brandi’s eyes darkened and Riley repressed a wince. Oh, shit. Maybe I did take that one too far. I know that I can normally take her on without too much of a problem, but I wouldn’t underestimate the psychotic at all!

“Where did I go wrong?” Brandi repeated. “Listen to me, little girl, I didn’t go wrong anywhere.” She grabbed for Riley’s throat, but Riley got out of the way just in time and the two women began to circle each other. “I was simply misunderstood.”

That’s it. Focus on me and nothing else. “Misunderstood? I’m not sure if I would have put it that way.”

“Oh, I was misunderstood, you little bitch,” Brandi hissed. She lunged for Riley, who jumped over Cam and out of the way. Brandi started to move towards Riley, but Zack shot her with his own tranquilizer gun and she dropped to the ground, out cold. He holstered the gun and secured Brandi before looking and Riley, who didn’t suppress a wince that time.

“Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have called her a wuss a second time,” she agreed. Her expression sobered. “We should get these two taken care of.” Zack nodded and after Riley had pulled out her handgun and held it over Brandi and Cam, took out his cell phone and speed dialed Dix once more.

“Dix, it’s Zack,” he said. “The other shooter was Cam. He’d shot Gem and Brandi had shot Rena. Riley and I have secured both Cam and Brandi. Send the security team to 333 Drake Avenue, apartment 4E to pick them up.” He disconnected the phone and ran a hand through his hair and exchanged pained looks with Riley before waiting for the security team.