<Episode 26>

Some how he got the feeling being in the run again would have been easier on the nerves. Rachel and himself were hanging around the main area waiting. Jack was trying hard to not let the stares get to him. But it wasn’t easy. For some strange reason he was reminded of high school of all places. Mainly in the way some of the guys back then looked they wanted to kick his ass. For some reason it was oddly comforting, something he was familiar with he guessed. He’d have to remember to ask Rachel about that later. “So how long are we suppose to be waiting here again?”, he asked her while he leaned against a pillar.

“I have no idea,” she told him. “All the guy said was that we be put to work and somebody would tell us where.”

“I wonder who’s gonna draw the short straw,” Jack half joked. Rachel gave a small laugh anyway. Jack started feeling a small tug on his jacket.

“Excuse me,” said a little girl, who looked half afraid to keep talking.

Rachel knelt down and tried to appear nonthreatening, “Can we help you?”

“My brother threw Polly up there.” Both of them looked around until the saw a small white bear in a gutter hanging between two rafters.

“Is that Polly?” The little girl nodded. “Now that wasn’t very nice of him was it?”, She shook her head this time. “Don’t worry we’ll get Polly down for you. Jack ghe’s asleepet the bear for her.”

“Why do I have to get the bear?”

“Because she asking you to,” Rachel told him. The little girls eyes were pleading with him. How in the hell did his mom ever say no when he gave her that look.

“Never let it be said I left a bear hanging,” he sighed. And of course there were no ladders near by so he had to do this the heard way. He tested the pillar, it seemed pretty sturdy and started climbing. Jack reached the gutter with no problem, but he got the feeling he was being watched and looked down. All the Drakan in the area was staring at him. “Does anybody else want to get the bear?”, he asked the crowd. Nobody said anything so he reached over, grabbed the bear and dropped down. He dusted it off a bit and handed it back to the girl, “Here you go.”

“Thank you,” she said as she grabbed the bear. The girl surprised him with a quick hug before running off.

Jack started rubbing the back of his head and said, “Tell your brother I said he was a jerk.” After a few moments he mumbled, “God, please don’t let him be an eight foot tall Drakan.”

“Knowing your luck he probably will be,” Rachel teased him.

“You’re not helping,” he told her flatly.

“Well, at least that’s one little girl you won’t have to worry about for awhile,” she said.

“I don’t think her parent will be too happy about it though,” Melissa said as she came up to them. Jack and Rachel looked at each other and shrugged, if they were going to be that upset that he helped her out that was their problem. “The legend of the Drakan Killer had a surprising little side effect,” Melissa explained. “You basically became our new boogieman Mr. Davidson. I’ve heard many of the parents around here say ‘Be good or the Drakan Killer will get you’. Although I don’t think any of the children here thought they actually see you in person.”

“Did it ever work?”, Jack asked, he was curious now.

“It worked like a charm when you arrived yesterday Mr. Davidson. Before we get started is there anything I can do that will make your stay a little easier?”

“Yeah there is you high and mightiness,” Jack said, “stop calling me Mr. Davidson. The last Drakan who called me that is on my ass kicking to do list.” Rachel put her face in her hand and slowly started shaking her head.

Melissa crossed her arm in front of her not looking impressed, “Fine, I won’t call you Mr. Davidson if you don’t call me your high and mightiness, or anything else for that matter. I have a name and I prefer to be called by it.”

“Same here,” he told her.

“All right then. So…,” she looked really uncomfortable, “Jack, is there anything else?”

“He’s fine,” Rachel said quickly. “We were just wondering what we could do to help out.”

“I can speak for myself,” Jack complained.

“I know,” she replied, “that’s why I spoke up.” Jack stuck his tongue out at her that she ignored.

Melissa looked slightly amused at the exchange, “Well if you two will follow me I’ll show you were you’ll be working today.”

That caught them by surprise. “We weren’t expecting you to show up,” Rachel said.

“I was heading that way any way and thought it would save some time,” she explained.

“Makes sense,” Rachel said and turned to Jack. “Let’s go ‘Boogie’,” she snickered.

“Be careful or I’m gonna get you next,” he shot back.

***

Melissa led them through a series of underground tunnels. Rachel thought it might be a good idea to see if they could get a map of the complex. Anybody could get lost down here if they weren’t careful. Of course the fact they used to work for Anderson and World Inc. might be a problem. She and Melissa were going to have to talk about that sooner or later. “Here we are,” Melissa said over what sounded like a … waterfall? Rachel and Jack entered another huge area. The overhead lighting showed a dirt floor under their feet. That waterfall she heard turned out to be water coming from a storm drain that was over a small pond of sorts. Melissa softly said, “Emily said it was going to rain today.”

Jack whistled as she said, “I wasn’t expecting anything like this.”

“Getting this set up was the hardest part,” she told them. “It took us a while to find any usable ground under all the concrete. We got lucky that storm drain was here and not somewhere else. I have no idea how we would have transferred the water to here if it wasn’t.”

“You know,” Jack said, “I gotta ask. How go you find a place like this to begin with?”

“By going through a lot of forgotten paperwork,” she answered. “Rumor has it that all of this was supposed to be a bomb shelter of sorts during the fifties. Seeing how it wasn’t on any public record we could find I’m assuming the public wasn’t supposed to know about it.”

“So politicians’ worrying about their own skin first isn’t a new thing then,” Jack joked.

Melissa smiled slightly, “And you find this surprising. We expanded and rebuilt as we needed too.” She looked around until she spotted somebody, “There’s Frank, he’s in charge of the garden center.” An old bald man hobbled over to them with a cane and looked her and Jack over.

“This them?’, he asked not looking at Melissa.

“Yes Frank,” she said like she gone through this before.

Frank looked Jack over one more time. “He looks like a wimp to me. I’m telling you now, you work for me you’re gonna work hard. And I don’t want to hear any complaining, do you hear me?

Before they could answer somebody yelled out, “Comin’ through!” A group of children ran through the garden center being chased by one who dropped his human disguise. They all laughed as they passed between them.

“Blasted kids!”, Frank shouted as he shook his fist at them. “No manners. They wouldn’t have gotten away with that when I was growing up.” He walked off still mumbling but Jack kept his eyes on the children.

“Was that bug two colors?”, he asked after a moment.

“Yes he was.” Melissa explained further, “Some of the younger ones decided to dye parts of their skin a different color to show their devotion for the cause. We keep telling them that will make it easier for them to spot. But you know kids at that age, they never listen. Hopefully they’ll grow out of it sooner or later.”

“Some never do,” Rachel said looking right at Jack.

“Oh you’re just a riot today ain’t you?” She just grinned at him as he took off the jacket. “So where do we start?”

Melissa pulled her hair back in a ponytail and headed for a rack lined with gardening tool. “Usually you just pick a spot and start from there.” She handed Jack a shovel while she handed Rachel a hoe and took one for herself. “We’re replanting so you don’t have to worry about digging anything up by accident.”

“You’re going to be working down here too?”, Rachel asked.

“Going a little far to keep an eye on us aren’t you?”, Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

Melissa actually laughed this time, “We all do a turn in the garden center. Every so often I have to give somebody a long term assignment for a disciplinary problem, but that’s pretty rare.” She led them to a patch of dirt that looked like it hadn’t been tended to yet. “We got a saying, you want to eat, you have to help grow it. Don’t get me wrong we have other sources of food as well. If you noticed there no kind of livestock down here. But we grow our own produce, and what we don’t use we send to the other cells.”

Jack stuck his Shovel into the ground and leaned against it, “And that line gets everybody down here?”

“Well, almost everybody,” she admitted. “We got a few that miss there turn down here, no matter hard some of the others try to guilt them into it.”

“This is just a wild guess on my part, but hat guy with the blue hair, uh… Sparky. He’s never been down here has he?”

“How did you know that?”, she asked.

“Just a vibe I learned to read while growing up.”

“Uncle related I’d imagine,” Rachel said. Jack simply nodded.

“Well, I’m sure that’s an… interesting story but…, ” Melissa started.

“But we got work to do,” Rachel finished for her as they started at the ground.

***

“There has been no sign of Davidson, Haily or Logan sir,” Taylor informed him. “Davidson hasn’t been in the city and so far our street teams haven’t been able to get a signal from the tracker in his head. Where ever they’re hiding it’s keeping them pretty well protected.” That was an understatement Anderson mused. His city was huge, plenty of places a person could hide. But they would find them eventually, Davidson had to slip up sometime.

“Did Dr. Parker get that new shipment yet?”, he asked changing the subject slightly. They were all taken by surprise when a group of rebels intercepted the last one.

“We confirmed a successful delivery,” his VP said. “Although the good doctor is still claiming Armstrong did something to it.”

“The wisest decision I ever made was to keep those two separated,” he said while turning his chair around to look out the window. “Did Armstrong check out?”

“We tracked Dr. Armstrong movement to a few days before the delivery was intercepted. If he was the one who warned the rebels we couldn’t prove it.” For the most part he was glad, Armstrong was a valuable resource, it would be horrendous if he turned traitor. But that still left a problem.

“Then there is still a leak somewhere. Tell Perez to have somebody on this full time. I want this leak, or leaks, fixed as soon as possible.”

“Yes sir,” Taylor responded. “Oh, I almost forgot to mention. Apparently some of the men are still trying to figure out who among them is a Drakan.”

Anderson sighed, that much was to be expected. Humans could be so suspicious at times. He imagined it gave them a sense of control or something like that. He hated the fact he had to deal with them on a daily basis. “I’ll talk to Perez about it. We need our men working together and not against each other if we want to control the rebels. That will be all Mr. Taylor.”

“Uh sir,” he said before leaving. “I was wondering, do you think it’s possible that Davidson and Logan both died?”

An interesting question, one that never entered his head. Anderson looked down at the street below, like he was trying to divine an answer from the commotion that was daily life. “It’s possible,” he said slowly, “but something tells me Davidson is still alive. Until I see a body I will not believe otherwise.”

***

Oh was he was going to going to be sore in the morning. They both worked in that garden center for hours. Well Mom always said good honest worked never hurt anybody. Then again she never worked underground. Both of them were thankful the time went fast and it was time to grab lunch. Melissa showed them where the eatery was, basically it was an underground cafeteria. Jack and Rachel grabbed a bowl of the stew they were serving and a warm pop. They found a table near the back nobody was using and sat across from each other. Jack had to smile as he realized what they done, “This almost seems like old times.”

Rachel started grinning too, “Just don’t start complaining about people taking our table this time around all right.”

Jack glanced around the room, “From some of the looks they’re giving us I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem. I’d bet you dollar to donuts that this table has unofficially been labeled as ours.” Jack took a taste of the stew, “Not bad.”

“I guess working for it makes it taste better,” she said. Rachel sighed suddenly, “I can’t believe we were talking about something that happened a few months ago as old times.”

“It’s only been that long?”. She nodded, “Damn, I could have sworn it was longer than that.” They ate in relative silence for a bit. Jack looked up at her and she started wondering if he would have made it this far without her by his side. Part of him was saying he was crazy for trying to ditch her back then. He apparently stared a little too long because she noticed.

“What is it?”

“Just thinking,” he said, “nothing to worry about.”

“The fact that you’re thinking at all gives me cause to worry.”

“Look at my side, do you see it splitting?”, he told her. She started laughing and so did he. Yeah he left himself open for that one. They stopped when a young man sat at the table next to them. Normally he wouldn’t have worried about it but the kid kept staring at him. Rachel was mumbling that he should ignore him but it was getting in his last nerve. “Can I help you with something?”

“I’m sorry, I just needed to talk to you.” he looked around nervously before saying, “I guess I look a little different in regular light than in front of a campfire.”

Jack took a long hard look at the kid, he did see him before, “Fido?”

“Jack,” Rachel said in that warning tone of hers.

“It’s all right, I’ve probably been called worse,” the kid said. “My name is Arron by the way. I know you’re Jack,” he looked over to her,” I apologize, but I don’t think I ever heard your name.”

“It’s Rachel,” she said as he nodded. The kid was acting older than he looked, must have been a green thing. “You said you wanted to talk about something.”

“Well it’s more of a question actually.”

“Something like why you’re still alive?”, Jack asked for him. Arron nodded as he played with his stew. “I couldn’t kill bunch of kids, simple as that.”

“I’m not a kid, I just turned eighteen,” he said a little too defensively. Now his age was starting to show.

“But you weren’t eighteen back then were you?”, Rachel said. Arron turned away embarrassed.

“Kid, you were just defending the others,” Jack told him. “I was the bad guy in that situation.”

“Like you were defending Rachel when it looked like I was threatening her.” Jack briefly made eye contact with her as he said that. They quickly looked somewhere else, their turn to be embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything.”

“Don’t worry about it Fido,” Jack said quickly.

“So are the other children here too?”, Rachel asked changing the subject.

“No, they’re safely at home now. My father doesn’t exactly trust Anderson, I guess some of that rubbed off on me. So I thought the rebels might have been a better option.”

“So why are you still here then?”, Jack asked. “A smart person would have high tailed it out of here by now.”

“I know, but I discovered I believed in their cause. I was never really comfortable with anybody doing something for me because they thought they had too. When we were brought here to wait for travel arrangements to be made I felt like I belonged. It took awhile but I was finally able to convince Christopher to let me stay, he was in charge of things before Melissa.”

Jack started to play with his stew again, “We’ve meet.”

“Everybody knows,” he informed him. Arron quickly apologized, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said it like that. I have to be on guard duty soon, if you will excuse me.” As he left Jack looked at Rachel then at the other Drakan. This might have gotten a little harder.

***

She knew the biggest challenge for this alliance would come the first time she needed Davidson for a mission. There were so many things that could go wrong it gave her a headache just thinking about it. This was the path she had chosen and it was too late to get off it now. That challenge came three days later in the form of a letter from Lance. As she waited for the others to enter the make shift operation room they had she read the note again. Anderson had several deliveries made to a warehouse on the outskirt of the city. Surveillance equipment mainly, but there might be something else there they could use.

Rachel surprisingly entered first, alone, “Where’s Jack?”

“Trying to drag Sparky away from his motorcycle,” she informed her while sitting down. “I guess me or Dusty should have warned you that Jack’s a little over protective of that machine.”

“He wouldn’t be the only one,” she told her. “I’ve seen how some of the men around here treat the cars and vans we have like babies.” There was some nervous laughter and an uncomfortable silence as they waited for the others. Melissa she might as well get this over with. “So you were Jack’s mission operator?” Rachel answered yes. “What exactly did you do in that position?”

“Technically I was supposed to send Jack out on his mission and monitor things from World Inc.” She seemed hesitant to say, “I’d imagine you can tell I didn’t exactly do that.”

“From the moment I got close enough to you,” she replied. “Well, actually when you were far enough away from him that I could. The smell of Drakan blood on you isn’t as strong as it is for him. So what did you end up doing?”

“I accompanied him into the field. Anderson wanted a written report after every mission. That was my first major assignment and I wanted to make sure those reports were as accurate as possible.”

“So you were there when Jack killed Christopher.”

“No,” she said.

“You just said…”

“I know, but that time was different. Jack had a bad feeling about that one and talked me into staying outside while he went in. He never told me what happened, and I asked a lot those first couple of days because he went after Anderson right after it went down.” Melissa wanted to call her on a lie, but she was telling the truth. She pushed her ability as hard as she could to find the faintest hint of a lie in there. God, she wanted somebody to confirm Emily vision, somebody that wasn’t Davidson. “Is that all you needed from me?”

“No, actually I had something else in mind. I need you to be his mission operator again, well it’s not exactly the same job. I’m going to have to send Jack out on some missions, teamed up with my men more times than not. What I need is somebody with a level had out there with him. According to Dusty and Friedman you’re the perfect person for the job.

She seemed to be taken aback, “Sure, but why me?”

“Because I’m pretty sure Jack wouldn’t listen to one of my men. Or one of my men might try to antagonize him into doing something stupid. You’re technically the only neutral party here. And after what happened with Christopher I don’t think anybody would trust my safety out in the field.” Rachel thought it over and accepted the position.

“… I’m telling you, I got some great ways to make some money with that ride of yours,” Sparky was saying as he followed Davidson into the room.

“Do you ever shut up?”, he snapped.

“Not when there’s money involved,” Arron said behind them. The two others she sent for came soon after. Davidson leaned against the wall next to Rachel as they got started. Melissa went over the letter and the basic of the job. Get in with a van, locate the surveillance equipment and anything else they could use then get out. A simple snatch and run job.

“Are there any questions?”

“How are we going to fit all of us and whatever we need without taking the time to be choosy?”, one of the other asked.

“Simple,” Jack spoke up, “me and Rachel follow you guys on my bike to free up some space.” That caused a bit of a commotion.

“It’s a trick!”

“You don’t trust anybody around that bike do ya?”, Sparky said with a grin after things died down a bit.

“No, I thought the lasers might come in handy,” he said.

“Laser?”, Melissa asked for them all. He was telling the truth.

“The KR-1000 as built in World Inc. R&D department,” Rachel explained. “It looks like a regular motorcycle but the engine most definitely isn’t. Not only was it designed to be the fastest thing on the road it as also built with a pair of laser for offensive purposes.”

She got a way too familiar feeling from Sparky. “The fastest thing on the road you say?”

“You had to get him started didn’t you,” Jack said to Rachel

“You might,” Melissa told him, “want to be careful in how you address your operator.”

“My…,” Jack was dumbfounded. “You mean she’s gonna be…”

“Your boss,” Rachel said while not looking at him, but she was smiling, “again.”

“Well son of a bitch,” Jack said as he left the room. The others followed him out.

“Rachel,” she called out, “don’t to enjoy this too much, huh.”

“I’m very serious when it comes to my job,” she told her. “But you have to admit the look on Jack face was priceless,” she added before following.

“Well, Dusty did warn me about those two,” Melissa said to herself.

***

To smooth things over with the others Sparky said he ride his bike along side them. The other two agreed but said it as on his head if they bolted. On the way there he looked over at them and yelled out that they had to race one of these days. Rachel said she was sorry she brought it up the tenth time he did it. “What were we saying the other day about old times?”, he asked her after Sparky finally shut up.

“So you’re alright with this then?”

“It just caught me by surprise. There’s nobody else I would want for the job.”

“You just took all the fun out of this, do you know that?”

“That was the idea.” She slapped him lightly on the side if the helmet. In moments they reached a single story building with the familiar World Inc. logo on it. Arron and one of the other guys jumped out of the van, got the gate open and waved them through. They traveled to the back where the loading docks were. He jumped off the bike and quickly picked the lock on the door then he and Sparky went in and worked on the sliding door of the docks. The van, Arron and Rachel entered with flashlights in hand.

“Where are the guards?”, Rachel asked looking around. Jack took a flashlight and looked around the ceiling and doorways. He didn’t see any signs of a security system or force either.

“I got a bad feeling about this,” Arron said.

“Then let’s hurry up and get the stuff,” Jack told him. He waved Arron over and quietly said, “Keep an eye on her, just in case.” He nodded and pointed Rachel toward some crates.

“Jack give me a hand here,” Sparky called out. He was working on a big crate labeled surveillance. He reached under and helped him pick it up. As they headed for the van Sparky lost his grip and his end fell to the ground. It busted open on impact but the equipment they were expecting wasn’t inside. Sparky picked up a cinder block that was inside. He and Jack just looked at each other, “Oh crap.”

“Check the others,” the guy driving the van ordered. Jack found a couple of crowbars and tossed one to Arron. They opened five more crates, all of them had the blocks inside of them.”

“Merde,” Rachel muttered as the light came on and a World Inc. assault team surrounded them.

“Put your hands up now!”, one of them commanded. Almost at once Arron changed into a green wolf and got Rachel into hiding. They started firing as Jack and the other dove for cover, but the driver took one to the head. Sparky turned into a blue eel with a slick looking skin as the other one turned into a red lynx and jumped the assault team. Jack took the chance and got his left arm up while he knelt behind a crate. The belt appeared and he swung it to the side and raised his right arm to his face.

“Henshin!”, he shouted as he slammed his right hand on top of the belt. His body was scanned by the belt and in moments was covered by the black bodysuit and blue armor. He leaped over the crate he was hiding behind and tackled a group of them. Lucky for him the bullets ricocheted off the armor. Jack got up and came face to face with one of the troopers as he grabbed Jack by the shoulders and threw him. He crashed into the wall hard. Drakan, definitely a Drakan, “Were Rachel and Friedman the only humans there,” he muttered as the trooper turned into a red praying mantis.

The Mantis went after the Lynx next as a couple of troopers got in his way. Sparky knocked them down and said, “We got to help Danny.” He glanced over to where Rachel and Arron where, the trooper dropped their guns and brought out the shock sticks. Jack was started to get worried until Rachel grabbed a fire extinguisher and blinded them, giving the wolf a chance to knock them out. He didn’t have to worry about them. Jack rushed ahead of Sparky and punched the mantis on the side of the head. Sparky dragged the lynx out of there saying, “Let Jack handle this guy.”

“Thanks a lot Sparky,” he muttered as he spun around and kicked the mantis in the gut. A shock to his his back made him fall to his knees. The lynx tackled the trooper behind him as the mantis wrapped a spiked forearm around his neck and started squeezing. Jack quickly kicked it in the gut again to make it let go and started throwing punches. It jumped up suddenly and kicked him right into Sparky. He got up and tried to run at it but the mantis grabbed the lynx and threw it at him. Sparky jumped over them and placed both hands on its’ chest. The Drakan recoiled from the shock but not for long enough as it threw him into the truck parking area. Jack tackled it from behind, grabbed its’ head and started pounding it into the concrete. It reached over and grabbed a cinder block and swung it into the side of his head. The damn thing didn’t look that flexible as it quickly ducked out of the way. Another trooper ran in and started jabbing him with the shock stick to make him back up. Every time Jack tried to make move the bastard would shock him again. Finally he grabbed the stick and crushed it. He glared at him from behind the helmet as he grabbed him by the vest and threw him into a stack of crates.

Looking around he saw the meter start flashing as the mantis grabbed a pipe and started to stalk Sparky in the lower section of the loading bay. Jack ran in and twisted the pod down. It raised the pipe above it’s head, going to impale Sparky, as he shouted out, “HEY!”. The mantis saw him swung as Jack slid under the attack and panted his foot into it’s chest. The Drakan flew back into the wall and exploded. Jack swung his legs around until he was kneeling in the upper platform and looked around. Anybody in a World Inc. uniform was down for the count so he deactivated the system. Arron and the lynx changed back into their human forms.

“Is everybody all right?” Rachel asked. Jack looked over to her and saw the vulture behind her, nobody else was seeing it. He closed his eyes and started willing it away. “Jack?”, Rachel sounded concerned as she came over to him.

“Nothing broken,” he said trying to hide his relief that the vulture actually went away.

“We better get out of here and tell them what happened,” she said.

Sparky changed back into his human form and grabbed him by the hand. “Dude, from now on I am officially your best friend. Come to me for anything. I mean it, anything you want, no question asked. You and me are going to be inseparable”

Jack slapped his forehead and looked at her, “Just what I needed, a blue haired freak following me everywhere I go.”