Session 3.4 is here, and for this second-to-last of the Originals, I've got one humdinger of a story. I started writing this my Freshman year of high school, and didn't finish it until near the end of my Sophomore year. For all its length, and for all the time I put into it, I really don't like this story. It was loosely planned, didn't make much sense even to me, and it reeks of "Newbie."

But, hey, my science teacher did think it was a Dean Koontz novel at first, so I guess it's not that bad. :)

Here ya go, boys, my first full story, in its original format. The pretentiously titled BAK…

X had escaped no less than two days ago, and already they had sent two of their best hunters after her to track her down. She had finally managed to get away from them long enough to get out of the city and across three counties. Now, her memory all but gone, she stumbled into the abandoned shack and entered the bedroom. She dropped to the ground into an exhausted sleep, unaware that in the distance, a bloodhound howled.

Jacob Williams sighed angrily as he saw the latest report scroll up. "Daniel," he shouted, "get your butt in here now!" A short man with short blond hair came through the open door behind Jacob, nervously darting his blue eyes left and right. "Is- is anything wrong?" he asked.

"Why haven't my agents caught Project X yet?" Daniel shifted his weight restlessly but didn't reply. "I want you to get every available man out there hunting her. If she regains her memory and goes to the press, Operation Takeover is finished! Do you understand?" Daniel nodded and left hurriedly. Jacob stood and sighed again, he hadn't meant to yell at Daniel but their current matter was serious, not only was Operation Takeover in trouble, but the world wasn't prepared for what they had accidentally unleashed. If they failed to get Project X back, the world as Jacob knew it would be destroyed in a very horrible way.

Jacob left the room and walked past Daniel, who was quickly faxing the new orders to all seventy-five stories of the building. Jacob continued walking and entered the room across the hall. There, machines lined both walls to his left and right and also along the wall directly in front of him. The upper half of that wall had been removed and instead replaced by a long panel of three sheets of tempered security glass. People in white lab coats went from machine to machine, sometimes checking something, other times typing in instructions on the keyboard. Through the glass the experimental chambers below could be seen. The cells contained various animals and scientists checked the animals for any signs that the formula known only as BAK was working. Only one cell was vacant and that one had recently held Project X, the only test subject that had been a success, and they didn't know why. All other humans before her had had the same conclusion as with the animals, they all had died, except for her. She was their key to discovering BAK's properties and she had escaped. Jacob stared down at the captured animals and began to think of what would happen if Project X managed to stay alive.

X was moving again. She didn't remember waking up but somehow she had arrived where she was. Her memory was still extremely hazy but she did recognize her old house. She didn't dare go in because whoever lived there now would be in extreme danger, and she didn't want to endanger any more lives. She walked around to the back and climbed the fence there.

A low growl started up as a dog, a Siberian husky, came out of a dog door. Its ears were laid flat back on its head and its lips were pulled back in a snarl that revealed its sharp teeth. The dog barked twice and charged the intruder. When X held up her hands the husky stopped, confused. A light cut on in one of the upstairs bedrooms. A window opened and a girl around the age of eleven or twelve poked her head out the window. "Ace?" she called. The yard was empty. The young girl came downstairs and went outside. "Ace? Where are you?" There was a grunt near her mother's garden, she walked over there slowly. "Ace, did you catch another squirrel?" A muffled thud came from the bushes and she gasped.

The next day, her mother was doing some gardening in the backyard when she came across an odd lump buried under leaves. She cleared the leaves carefully, wondering what it could be when her hand came across a paw. She froze and then began to clear them away faster till the whole body was exposed. "Oh God," she whispered. Ace, who she thought was still asleep in her daughter's room, had been strangled to death. The poor dog's eyes nearly bulged out of its head and its tongue was swollen and black. Vines were wrapped tightly around his neck.

She was walking along the sidewalk when a little boy bumped into her. His eyes were red and puffy. "Are you okay?" she asked him. The boy sniffled and pointed to a bike that was lying on its side. The stranger quickly guessed what had happened and looked for the boy's house. She picked him up and went across the street. A few minutes after ringing the bell, a lady in her early thirties answered the door. "May I help you?"

"I do believe this is yours," she replied and handed the little boy to her.

"Jeremy, how on Earth did you get your clothes so dirty?" his mother faked surprise. "I'm sorry this happened, Jeremy's a little accident prone. Why don't you come on in? Oh, by the way, my name is Jessica Cooper, but my friends call me Jessie."

Jessie was not the type that just let people into her house uninvited. Least of all people that were total strangers. But, contrary to what she believed, she had let this woman in. And the oddest thing was that Jessie knew the woman. She couldn't place where or when; she just... knew

Jessie led her through the house to the kitchen. A TV was on and tuned into the news. "Would you mind if I use your bathroom a moment?" the lady asked. Jessie nodded and she left while Jeremy was telling her what happened. Suddenly he stopped and pointed to the TV. "Look Momma, it's the lady that found me!" Jessie continued to fix dinner but listened to the television at the same time.

"And now in a repeat of today's top story, Kelly Archer, a twelve-year-old from Jackson was found murdered today in her backyard with her dog. Police are currently searching for thirty-one year old Eleanor Johnson. She is to be considered extremely armed and dangerous. If seen you should notify your local police immediately. Eleanor is a Caucasian female, weight: 137 pounds, height: 5'6", brown mid-shoulder length hair, brown eyes. We repeat Eleanor Johnson is extremely dangerous. If the police are not available than dial this number..." but Jessie had stopped listening and had instead picked up the telephone and had already punched in the first number for 911 when she finally realized that the lady had returned and was watching her. Jessie hung the phone up slowly. "Jeremy," she said, "go on outside and find your friends. Ask Mrs. Hubert if you could stay there for a while. Tell her I'm going out and I couldn't find a babysitter. Okay?" The boy nodded and left. Eleanor walked the rest of the way into the room and cut off the TV. She pulled a chair out and sat in it backwards. "Either you don't care about your son or your just really unprotecttive," she said calmly.

Jessica was confused. What the heck was that supposed to mean. Why me, God? Just why did all of this had to happen now? I hope she doesn't kill me. I don't want to die... Eleanor stood and picked up a steak knife that Jessica had been using. She examined it carefully before turning her gaze back onto Jessica. "I won't give you no trouble if you do exactly what I say. Got that?" Jessie nodded.

"What do you want?" she asked in a small voice.

"Three things: your car, your phone, and you."

"Hello, Detective Harvey's office."

"May I talk to the detective?"

"I don't know. He's pretty busy right now with a client." There was the sound of a door slamming which was quickly followed by shouting.

"On second thought, I think he would be happy to see you. Hold on for just a second." The secretary placed the phone on hold and paged the detective.

"Julie, what are you bothering me for now? No, I don't even want to know," a man's voice came through the intercom with a crackle.

"Begging your pardon, sir, but you have a possible client on your phone but, seeing the kind of mood your in, I'll just tell her to--" The hold light abruptly flashed off.

"This is Detective Harvey. To whom am I speaking to?"

"Tom?" There was a brief period of silence before Tom was able to speak again, during which he sat down with a bewildered look on his face. He raised one hand and ran it through his dark brown hair.

"Tom? Are you there?"

"I-I'm here. Eleanor? Is it really you?"

"In the flesh, or rather, in the voice," came the reply. Tom leaned back in his chair and scratched his beard.

"It's been a long time, Eleanor. Nearly two and a half years. Where have you been all this time?" he asked excitedly.

"Oh, around. Tom, I need to talk to you. Badly. Do you think you can meet me somewhere private?"

Sure, how about that greenhouse that you use to always go to to buy plants?"

"That would be perfect. Oh yeah, I'm bringing a friend along. That okay with you?"

"Fine, Ellie. Nine o' clock okay? I would be there sooner but I've got some work to do."

"Fine with me. See you later, Tom." There was a click as Eleanor hung up. Tom sighed and put the receiver in its cradle. He hated to do this to her but he was going to report her. He looked at the pages he had gotten earlier. All the information the police had on Dr. Eleanor Johnson. As he walked out the door, he told Julie to take the rest of the night off. Outside, he climbed into his car and headed for the police station.

Eleanor drove in silence. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. Out of the corner of her eyes, she watched Jessie. The lady was staring out the window at the passing scenery. "I promise that I won't hurt you as long as you cooperate. I know you would rather be somewhere else doing something else and frankly, so would I. You see, I need your help desperately. Someone ruined my life and I intend to find out who," Eleanor said. Jessie turned to look at her but continued her silence. "I know you probably think that I'm some sort of crazy lunatic and so do I some times but I'm asking you just this once to trust me. I promise that after I meet up with Tom that you can go home. I'll never be in your life ever again."

"You expect me to believe that? You kidnapped me, taking me as a hostage to someplace I don't want to go, and now you say you'll release me? Ha!" Jessie laughed bitterly. "Well you've got another thing coming, lady. I'm going to escape and then I'm going to get the rest of the FBI, the CIA, and the police on your butt. Plus anyone else I can find." Eleanor jerked up at that but kept her eyes on the road. Jessie was glaring at her but was trying not to let her see it.

How did I get here? Eleanor wondered. She couldn't remember anything before her escape and even her memory of that was vague. All she did remember was countless days of pain, voices, and injections of some sort of clear liquid and then bumping into little Jeremy. The letters BAK kept floating around in the back of her head. She knew it meant something, but what? She glanced at the clock at saw it said eight fifty-three. It should take them another five minutes to the greenhouse, which gave her plenty of time to think of why the FBI should bother her so much.

Alex Hunter politely knocked on Carol Archer's door. A tired looking woman answered the door. "Who are you?" she asked. Alex took out his ID.

"Police, miss. Can I come in please?"

"I already told you guys all that I know. I am really tired of all you cops coming around here bugging me and my family," but she did turn to let Alex in. She guided him into a cluttered and messy living room. Moving a pile of dirty clothes, she motioned for him to sit down. Carol took a seat in an old dusty chair that looked like it had seen better days and now probably belonged in an antique shop. Alex flipped open a small notebook and took out a pen. "Now, I first need to know how your daughter, Kelly, died."

"How did you think she died? She was murdered for God's sake!" Alex sighed.

"That wasn't what I meant and you know it. Now, will you please answer my question before I decide to take you to the police station and have them question you. And trust me, they are much more hostile than I am." The threat worked, Carol's eyes widened and she shifted uncomfortably.

"I found her after I thought she had left for school. She usually leaves before I get up so I wasn't worried. Ace is in her room sleeping or outside by the time I get up. I showered and dressed to work in my garden. So after I brewed myself a cup coffee, I went outside and began to work. Soon I had found Ace and after some clearing away plants, I found my daughter to. She had been strangled the same way my dog was, vines wrapped around her neck and body tightly." The poor lady was blinking back tears.

"I'm sorry to upset you Mrs. Archer, but the sooner this is over the sooner I can leave you to your grieving. Did you notice anything weird about the way your daughter had died?"

"There was something that I had overheard one the officers saying. He mentioned something about no signs of a struggle. But that's all I caught." Alex nodded and jotted this down in his notebook.

"One more question please. Why do you think this Eleanor Johnson killed your daughter and what will happen if she's caught." A glimmer of anger flickered in Carol's tired blue eyes.

"Why did she kill my sweet little girl? I'll tell you why. This lady is some sort of maniac or psycho. She shouldn't even be given a trial, just killed right on the spot. Her life in exchange for my daughter's." Alex nodded but didn't write that down. He had asked the question just to see what her answer would be. He stood and thanked her for answering her questions honestly and without trouble. Saying he would find his own way to the door, Alex pulled out the small tape recorder from his inside coat pocket and began to rewind it. You may not know it lady, but you've been a big help, he thought. He climbed into his blue Dodge and started it. He drove about a block before pulling over and retrieving the manila envelope from under his seat.

Switching on an overhead map-reading light, Alex poured the contents of it out on to the seat. Judging from the information on the sheets and the time the police estimated Kelly's death, Alex had a pretty good estimate when the doctors would be getting their little surprise. They probably were already dead by now.

Alex picked up Eleanor's pictured and studied it. The woman staring back at him did not look at all like a killer. He thought she looked to nice for that. But even in the photograph, her eye's were dark with hidden thoughts. After replacing the papers to their envelope, Alex Hunter left for the next destination on his list, Eleanor's apartment.

Jacob walked among the many caged animals and watched as the older ones hissed or howled or barked in pain mixed with anger. He stopped in front of Project X's cell. The damage she had caused had been extensive. With no physical weapon, she had managed to kill three of his top guards, elude the rest of his agents for nearly a week, and, if the news was correct, murdered an innocent child for no reason. He now watched the repairmen move a new sheet of glass into position over the shattered remains of the first.

Daniel walked up behind him. "Sir, reports just came in. You were correct, someone from the installation is helping Dr. Johnson. Apparently, they faxed information to an area in the district 182. Also, police have gotten a call from Detective Harvey. He is supposed to meet her at nine in the building we specified. He says that she didn't sound like she was on to our little plan. If all goes well, we might not even have to worry about killing Tom, Jessica, and Mrs. Archer." Daniel handed Jacob a folder. "All of the information you asked for is in there." He turned and left the room.

Jacob turned and looked back at all the cages full of animals. One rat in particular was staring at him. He hated that rat. It scared the mess out of him because its normally red eyes had turned to a sickly yellowish-gray. It bared its nasty black teeth at him and its large, swollen, rotting body writhed in pain. It would die soon, its artificially boosted intelligence told it that. The BAK was nearly through running its course through the disgusting creature's body. Suddenly, it rolled over, uttered one last shrill shriek, and died. Jacob wished Eleanor would do the same thing at that same moment.

Two figures moved through the darkened greenhouse. The only sound was an odd chopping noise. They stopped in a clear area filled with trees and creeping vines. Eleanor waited in silence as a lone shadow detached itself from the deeper shadows and began to walk towards them. He's changed, Eleanor thought in the darkness. Tom's eyes were bloodshot and tired. He looked as if he hadn't slept a day since she had left him nearly two years ago. Either that, or he had started to drink. Eleanor guessed the latter. "You don't look to good," she told him. Tom didn't reply and suddenly, it came to her again, that feeling of wrongness. Stop fooling yourself. You're just surprised at actually seeing him after so long. But she knew it wasn't that. "I haven't been feeling to well since you left." Tom said coming closer. Liar! her mind cried.

A noticeable budge showed underneath his jacket. She saw him reach for it although he made it look like he was just putting his hands into his pockets. "Stop," she was surprised to hear herself say. Jessie turned to look at Tom fearfully. She had noticed his gun also. Tom's hand froze where it was. The trees around them suddenly stirred as if there was wind. "Eleanor," Tom was saying, "I'm sorry but I have to do this. I had no choice. They said they were going to kill me if I didn't cooperate..."

"I wasn't lying, Jessie, you can leave whenever you want. Okay?" Eleanor told the startled woman next to her. The unseen wind began to get stronger. Tom finally stopped talking and instead seized his gun, pointing it around him. Eleanor finally realized what had been wrong with Tom. He knew what had happened to her. Not only that, but whoever was chasing her had used Tom to get to her, and if that was true... "Get down!" Eleanor shouted and pulled Jessie's arm as she dropped. Crap! I should've brought that knife instead of leaving it in the car! Above them, glass shattered all around them. The wind roared furiously, whipping the trees into a frenzy. Cursing angrily, Eleanor pulled herself and Jessie up and they made a break for the one of the doors and for Jessie's car.

"I don't really know why I won't let anybody rent her apartment. I guess that I still believe that she's not really gone. I treated that girl like she was my own daughter. Well, here you go." Mrs. Anglina Jeffries was an elderly black woman that managed a ten-story apartment building that was no more than fifteen minutes from Carol Archer's house if you drive at seventy miles per hour on the freeway, which is exactly what Alex had done to put as much distance between that crazy lady and himself.

Eleanor's old apartment still looked like it did the day she had left for Operation Takeover nearly six months ago. Alex set his jacket on a chair and went to the far end of the spacious three room studio. He stared out the window at the New Jersey skyline and checked his watch. It was nine fifteen. If his contact was right, he should be getting a phone call in approximately forty-five minutes from whoever it was that sent him the envelope. Turning around, he thanked Mrs. Jeffries for the use of his "sister's" studio.

"No problem. You just remember to tell Mr. Johnson how sorry I am about your sister dying in that accident. Now don't you forget." Alex nodded and Mrs. Jeffries left. He walked into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror.

For a thirty-three year old man, Alex still looked as if he was only twenty years old. His sun-bleached blond hair hung down to his neck and contrasted sharply with his ice blue eyes. Over the past two days, he had grown a beard and, using some of the things he had brought with him, he showered, shaved, and dressed in clean clothes. He checked the clock as he exited the room and saw he had ten minutes remaining till the call came. Walking back into the living room, Alex sat in a chair and closed his eyes to await the call.

Jessie ran as fast as Eleanor could pull her but glass had embedded itself in her right leg and hindered her. Eleanor made a split second decision before pulling Jessie towards Tom's car. They had climbed inside before Eleanor realized they had no keys. Before she had a chance to act, Jessie leaned over and quickly pushed a key into the ignition and turned it. The car started up and Eleanor pulled away quickly.

Keeping her sight on the road, she noticed the chopping sound she had heard earlier, a helicopter. That's what had prompted Eleanor to run and what had broken the glass. The only thing that didn't explain was the wind. It would have blown once the windows had broken, but the wind had started before the glass broke.

The sound of a phone brought Eleanor back to reality. Startled, she pulled over and they began to search for the source of the ringing. She found a cellular phone in the glove compartment and handed to Jessie. The phone had rung eleven times and now rang five more before she decided to answer it. "Hello?" she asked.

"Give the phone to Eleanor." The voice was deep and gravelly as if the person had a sore throat and was hoarse. Jessie did as she was told and gave it to Eleanor. Confused, Eleanor put the phone to her ear. "Hello? Who is this?"

"Go to your old cafe. Meet someone named Kevin Litton. I'm sure you will remember him once you see him. Tell him you are there as a favor to the owner. He will know what you're talking about. I will call you again at eleven-fifteen so take this phone and the gun behind the backseat. Be there within the next fifteen minutes or else you will never remember your past. One more thing, make sure you keep Jessie and the phone with you. 'Bye." There was a click as the man hung up. Eleanor turned around and retrieved the gun where the man said it would be. Jessie gasped and her eyes widened but she said nothing. Eleanor turned the ignition key and pulled the car into traffic. "I hope you don't mind sticking around for a while. This is gonna be a long night," she said to Jessie.

Alex opened his eyes and picked up the phone on the second ring. "Talk to me," he said.

"They are on their way. I trust that Eleanor will follow my instructions to the letter." The deep voice said.

"I don't know if you can trust her, Jazz. She is a criminal, or have you forgotten?"

"Alex, I've dealt with much worse. Now, I trust you are at her apartment?"

"Hey, I answered her phone, didn't I?"

"Whatever. Cut on her computer and insert the disk I gave you." Alex turned and pushed the power button to Eleanor's computer on her desk. Once at the DOS prompt, he pulled a disk out of his jacket pocket and pushed it into the disk drive. "What next?"

"Type this in letter for letter or else the computer will erase everything in it's hard drive. Kowleski ynomi dragayfus omnasi. Want me to spell it?"

"Spell what! All I heard was a bunch of gibberish! How I can I possibly type that!"

"Alex, kid, calm down. It's a language that Eleanor made up. Roughly, it translates into 'This is my second.'"

"Second? Second what?"

"Apparently, she has two computers. Just like it says, this computer is her second. It contains just mostly background information on her life. Journals, newspaper articles, stuff like that. Now here is how you spell it." Jazz spelled the password, gave Alex the rest of his instructions, and told him the time when he would call again. Then he hung up.

With the password entered, Alex browsed through the files stored on the hard drive. According to newspapers, Eleanor's mother had been murdered when she witnessed the attempted assassination of a Senator when Eleanor was eighteen years old. Her family had taken it badly but eventually overcame it. Or, that is what everyone thought. Eleanor suddenly decided to change careers from being a lawyer to becoming a scientist for the government. No more than a year after her first in college, she was diagnosed with diabetes. Despite the problems her illness caused, Eleanor graduated in top five percent of her class. Six months after her graduation, she was excepted to apprentice with a bio-genetic chemist, a scientist that specialized in engineering chemical viruses made to enhance certain genes in animal bodies.

Three years she worked and studied in that one particular area before the man she studied with finally thought she was qualified for a job with the government. Eleanor soon after that got an opportunity to work on a top secret government project. It was during that time that her ex-boyfriend, Tom Harvey, left for California on a police case and, without telling Eleanor, who was still his girlfriend at the time, began dating other women. Furious, Eleanor left ten months before he was supposed to return. Both of them lost touch after her strange "disappearance". The rest of the files on her computer contained no other useful information. Just her college thesis, some theories on different parts of science, and article names she had typed in to help her research.

Alex scanned the files once more for anything he might have missed. The only other thing he thought was interesting was the number 368983. The only thing unusual about it was that it was repeated ten times throughout her journal entries, although Alex could figure no reason why it was there.

He glanced at the clock as he began the second part of the instructions that Jazz had given him. Alex began to make backups of all the files on the computer. Five minutes later, he stored the disks inside his coat and pulled out his .38 Smith and Wesson and began to clean it.

Cliffhangers was as far from a cafe as it could possibly be. Ten years had changed the place dramatically from the way Eleanor remembered it. Tables lined the walls and part of the clearing in the middle of the room now had a raised platform where a rock band was either tuning up or actually playing, Eleanor didn't know which but it sounded awful. The other half contained a handful of teens ranging from eighteen to twenty-one dressed in dark colors dancing to no particular rhythm. The place was dark, gloomy, and had a hidden air of depression and danger in it.

The smell of stale cigarette smoke filled the air as Eleanor and Jessie entered. Eleanor went immediately to the man behind the bar. A large burly guy with big muscles was cleaning glasses. He hardly looked up from his glass cleaning as she spoke. "I'm looking for Kevin Litton. Have you seen him?" The bartender pointed with one hand towards a man leaning against the far end of the bar. Eleanor walked over to Kevin just as the band started to play even louder that they had previously. "I'm here as a favor to the owner," the increased noise had forced Eleanor to shout in order to be heard. Kevin looked at her and Jessie and motioned for them to follow him.

Walking behind the counter led them into large storage room that doubled as the office. The far area held shelves full of supplies and things littered the floor here and there where the janitor had not bothered to clean up. A barely seen light indicated an exit in case a fight should break out that the guards couldn't handle or any other harmful disaster. Kevin shut the door behind them and the blaring music was suddenly greatly reduced. Soundproof was Eleanor's guess.

"So, you don't really remember a thing do you?" Kevin was saying. "It looks like Jazz was right, you two did get into trouble at the greenhouse. You're also hurt." Eleanor looked at herself in surprise and then turn to Jessie. Her right pants leg was covered by a large dark red stain.

"Why didn't you say something?" Eleanor asked.

"I didn't want to bother you. It doesn't hurt to much," the lady replied softly. Eleanor sighed and asked Kevin for a first aid kit. He handed it to her then looked surprised when she told him to leave. When the door closed behind him, Eleanor ordered Jessie to remove her pants so that she could remove the glass. Once that was done, Eleanor bandaged it up without even thinking but that still left the problem of clothing. Nobody had noticed Jessie's leg so far but if she continued to wear her old clothes, someone would surely notice. Eleanor quickly solved that problem by searching around the room. In one corner was a box full of clothes that people had left behind during parties. Exactly what kind of parties, Eleanor didn't want to know. Digging through that Eleanor managed to find some pants that fit Jessie.

After that was over with, Kevin came back in. Walking to the desk, he reached inside and pulled out an envelope and a second gun. "I'm sure that both of you know how to use a revolver. As I am also sure you both know enough that people would try to kill you to keep you two from talking. But that's not important. What is important is for the two of you to stay alive until this thing blows over. Unfortunately, until Eleanor regains all of her memory, I'm not allowed to help you guys anymore than necessary." He pushed the envelope towards them and tossed a set of keys to Eleanor. "Immediately after you leave, take the black car out back. In the trunk, you will find a week's worth of clothes for the both of you. In addition to that, there is a bag containing five hundred dollars in cash." There was a knock at the door and the bartender came in. He nodded to Kevin, who muttered a curse under his breath and pointed to the emergency exit. It took a few seconds for Eleanor to realize he was telling them to leave. She quickly picked up the items on the desk and followed Jessie outside. Inside, shouts could be heard.

Eleanor had the strange and sudden feeling that they were in horrible and deadly danger. Without knowing why, she opened the trunk and pulled out the clothes and money. When Jessie began to climb into the car, Eleanor shook her head and began to back away from the car.

Turning, she surveyed the parking lot. There were at least ten cars including Tom's. One of them, a black Camaro, was still running at the end near the street. Jessie stared uneasily at the car and turned towards a blue pickup truck. The door was unlocked and she climbed in the driver's side. A few seconds later, the truck started up and Jessie pulled out and stopped beside a stunned Eleanor, who gave her a questioning glance before getting in.

As they drove passed the Camaro, Eleanor noticed two men in black clothes loading automatic sub machine guns. They hardly looked up at them, instead a third man she hadn't noticed before because of his dark clothing was peering intently at the car she and Jessie was going to get into. That sense of immense danger swept over Eleanor again and made her shudder and she suddenly remembered where something like this had happened before: At the greenhouse just before that helicopter had shattered the glass. "Drive!" she shouted to Jessie.

Jessie accelerated and didn't slow down till they were two blocks away. In the rear view mirror, Eleanor watched as the sky behind them was illuminated by a bright ball of flame followed by an ear shattering roar. Minutes later, police sirens could be heard in the distance and two fire trucks sped past them. Jessie drove for another mile and then turned onto a small parking lot.

As soon as they stopped, Eleanor turned to Jessie. "How did you learn to hot-wire a car?" she asked. Jessie grinned.

"When you live in Manhattan for several years, you learn how to make money very fast."

"You stole cars?" Eleanor asked incredulously.

"Hey, it's not much worse than what you did."

"That reminds me, how come you haven't left yet? You've had plenty of chances to turn me in to the police or run away and I would have let you."

"Call me crazy. Curious too. Also, considering how I can never go back to my past life had something to do with it. But don't you dare think for a minute that I will help you because I'm nice. I am still angry with you for kidnapping me and I seriously doubt that I'll forgive you anytime soon." Eleanor nodded and hid a smile.

"And your son?" she asked.

Jessica glared at her for some bizarre reason. "Don't make me kick you out of the car." Eleanor smiled and handed the envelope to her. "You do the honors." Again, Jessie glared at her.

Inside the envelope was several sheets of paper that contained nothing of any consequence that helped them. Only two sheets contained any useful information at all. One had been typed and filled only half the page. It had been given to Kevin as a warning not to inform them about a man named Jazz Regal. He was the one that had called Eleanor over half an hour ago. The other held a list of addresses. Jessie's house, the greenhouse, and Cliffhanger's were all on the list. The other three addresses tugged at Eleanor's memory but she couldn't recall why they seemed familiar. After a few minutes of quick discussion, they finally decided to go to one of the addresses and see what would happen. Jessie started the truck up and they left for the fourth address. They didn't notice the blue Honda pull out after them.

When the phone rang, Jacob sat up with a start. He had been dozing at his desk while waiting for any reports. Grumbling, he picked up the phone. "What do you want?"

"You're never going to catch her." Jacob sat up.

"Who is this?" he demanded.

"You can keep trying but as long as I'm alive, X is going to stay away from you."

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"You are a fool, Williams. You're little agency can't help you out of this. I am going to make sure they survive and blame you for their disappearances. Talk to you later. Bye- bye." A click signaled the end of the conversation. Jacob replaced the receiver and realized he had broken out into a cold sweat. He glanced at his watch. Eleven o'clock.

Sighing, he stood and walked into Daniel's office. The young man was reading a paperback novel and sipping a steaming mug of hot, black coffee. He looked up as Jacob entered. "Daniel, I'm going home for the rest of the night. If any new information comes, call me immediately. Got that?" Daniel nodded hurriedly.

Walking to the end of the hall, he pressed the down button for the elevator. Turning around, he surveyed the doors. Five of the seven led to the individual research labs where scientists studied in genetics, chemistry, and other fields of science. The men and women chosen for this building were the most intelligent minds on the planet. This project had been designed for the United States only, but in order to keep tension at a low, other people had been involved. He could not be called one of those brilliant minds. Instead, he was the head chief of security. It was his job to make sure that X didn't live long. It was his men that killed the coroners that had been examining the Archer girl's body and her dog.

A ding signaled the approach of the elevator and he stepped inside. Placing his hand on the smooth black panel, he said his identification number and the ground floor out loud. As he headed out past the final defenses that he himself had personally installed, he smiled. Project X may be out for now, but he was going to catch her very soon.

He fell out of the chair as the phone rang loudly. Angrily, he answered it. "What is it?"

"What's wrong, Sleeping Beauty? Wake up on the wrong side of the chair?"

"Jazz? You jerk! What's the big idea of calling me now. I didn't expect you for another hour."

"There's trouble, kid. Litton's dead. Seems as if someone decided to rig the car I was giving your girlfriend." Quickly, he related what had happened to Alex.

"Wait, you said girlfriend?"

"Sure. I've noticed you fawning over Ellie like some love-sick puppy. Now, here's what I need you to do. Take those back-ups of yours and head for the Westwood Mall. I have to move things faster since Ellie found out where to go before I told her. I'll be there already, of course you won't recognize me. This is very important, you must, I repeat must get there before she does. Stand at the pay phone near the fountain, I'll call you."

"Why not just tell me person to person."

"To dangerous. Just make sure you find those two and talk to me. You have a half an hour. See you later, kid." Alex sighed and stood. This was starting to get on his nerves. Grabbing his keys and jacket, he walked out the door, locking it behind him.

Sneaking past Ms. Jeffries had been easy. Losing the tail he had spotted had been harder. Twenty-five minutes later, he parked and entered Westwood mall. After a quick check with the directory, Alex headed for the fountain in the middle of the mall and stood looking bored.

Not many people were in the mall at the time. Who would be at twelve in the morning? The only people there now were janitors cleaning up and homeless people with nowhere else to live. After closing hours, the mall supported a soup kitchen and sleeping area. Volunteers worked both and most really enjoyed what they were doing. Alex watched as the volunteers escorted men, women, and children to the food area. He checked the overhead clock, twelve o' five. Leaving his things at the fountain, he headed for the kitchen to see if they needed help.

"This place looks awfully familiar," Eleanor said as she closed the truck's door. Jessie slung one of the bags over her shoulder and stuck the revolver in her belt under her coat. "Exactly why are we here?" Jessie asked. Eleanor shrugged and slid the other gun into her coat.

"I know about as much as you do to what is going on. I just hope that they don't mind cleaning up vomit."

"Oh now come on. The food wasn't that bad was it?"

"I don't know. Do I look green to you?" Jessie shook her head and headed for the door. On their way to the mall, Eleanor had complained about being hungry so Jessie stopped at a McDonald's and got her a cheeseburger. Only ten minutes later, she had begun to complain about stomach pains. It was beginning to drive Jessie nuts.

They entered the mall and Eleanor said she would meet her later at the fountain and headed for the woman's bathroom. Jessie walked to the fountain and sat down. She watched people eat their soup and other food. What is taking her so long? How long does it take to throw up old hamburger mush? she thought angrily. Bored, she let her eyes roam and gave a start as they landed on a manila envelope marked Private in the same script as the other letters in the folder they had gotten. She reached to pick it up and noticed the man standing in front of her. "Who are you?" he demanded angrily.

Eleanor rinsed her mouth out in the sink. Silently, she made a mental note to send a letter of complaint to McDonald's when this was over. She turned and was grabbing a paper towel when she noticed the wall. There was nothing unusual about it. Just an ordinary plain cream colored tile wall. Eleanor gingerly reached out one hand at placed it on the wall. The block holding back her memory cracked and for just a second...

With a jolt, Eleanor pulled backwards and inhaled sharply. She was trembling. Slowly she forced herself to relax while reviewing what had just happened. Apparently, the wall had triggered some point in her memory. Unfortunately, she could not remember what had happened perfectly. What the memory was about, she didn't know so she put it out of her mind to deal with later. Only one real thing nagged her, but she didn't know what.

Jessie walked in while she was still pondering this. "Do you know some guy named Alex?" she asked. When Eleanor shook her head, Jessie frowned. "This is bad."

"Why?"

"This Alex guy demands for us to come with him or else we'll die. He said Jazz told him."

"I've heard that before." Eleanor sighed. "But what choice do we have?"

"We could escape."

"Yeah? How?" Jessie was silent. Finally she shrugged and made a comment that Eleanor couldn't quite catch. The two of them walked out and she saw a man standing at the front doors. When he saw them, he impatiently waved at them to hurry and picked up a duffel bag.

"Let me guess. You are Alex?" Eleanor said.

"Yes, I am. Now will you both please come on? I am in a hurry."

"Give one good reason why we should trust you?"

"This is why." Alex held up the two disks he had copied from Eleanor's computer and explained what they were. She frowned but nodded slowly. He grabbed one of the bags and headed outside. Reluctantly, the women followed.

They reached Alex's Honda and threw their stuff into the trunk. Then, since Eleanor nor Jessie trusted Alex, they spent a good five minutes arguing over who would drive. Finally, Eleanor drove with Alex next to her and Jessie sat in the backseat and propped up her injured leg.

With directions from Alex, Eleanor drove for nearly a half an hour before they came to a house. Alex led them inside and Jessie instantly claimed the first room that had held a bed. After more arguing, Eleanor got the guest room and Alex was stuck with a couch, a pillow, and a blanket.

"How is our patient?"

"Doing better than we expected, Frank."

"If this formula of yours is a success, then we can inject our agents with it without worrying about killing them." Frank said.

"True. But we still have to test the stuff in a social environment to see if they can blend in with society."

"How long do you think that will take?"

"I don't know. So far, all of our subjects have shown cases of extreme violence among their own kind. That's why we never test more than one kind of species at one time." A door opened and another man entered.

"Luke! Glad you could make it." the woman said.

"Frank! Kit! Good to see you again. How's the kid?" asked the newcomer.

"Like I said, doing perfectly well." replied Kit.

"Any other deaths?"

"None whatsoever."

"Speaking of which, how is the most recent human guinea pig responding?" The three turned towards the wall of glass and stared into the single cage below. A girl and a dog sat at opposite ends of the cell. Four different colored balls sat in front of each of them. One of the doctors stood in front of the cage. Every so often, he would scribble on a notebook he was carrying.

"The girl scored a three hundred and seventeen on the IQ test." answered Frank, indicating the human. "The dog on the other hand, seems to be experiencing some problems controlling his mental powers."

"Interesting. Well, keep me posted on the escapee. If anything new pops up, you know where to find me." Kit looked up from the scene and turned to Frank.

"There is one thing. It's only a theory, but I believe that we could actually use the animals telepathic link to find our missing human."

"Do you think it is possible?"

"It is only a theory, but from the info Eleanor left us, it should be possible." Frank glanced at the room and shrugged. "If it is possible, then it's possible to keep a check on all of them. We might not have to kill X after all. Well, good night people."

Eleanor stood in the kitchen, a glass of water in one hand and two aspirin in the other. She had been up nearly two hours and still could not believe how late Alex and Jessie could sleep. Just to make sure, she checked the stove's clock again although she already knew what time it was. Sure enough, it was one in the afternoon.

As she popped the tablets into her mouth and took a swallow of water, she silently stared out the window. The sun's light had been dimmed due to the sudden appearance of clouds. The gray light gave everything a gloomy cast to it. The weather matches my mood perfectly, she thought. At least it's not raining. That would really make me grouchy. It could be worse, though. I could have gotten stuck with the couch like Alex. A door closed somewhere in the house and the shower cut on noisily. It was followed by a television turned up loud enough to be heard over the shower.

"Speaking of the devil..." she muttered absently.

"What did you say?" She turned and watched Alex shamble into the room.

"I said 'You could at least turn it down a little.'"

"Didn't sound like it." He went to the coffee maker and inserted a new filter. Eleanor was about to say something rather nasty but decided against it. She shook her head. It hurt enough as it was already. No sense making it worse. "You want some coffee?" asked Alex.

"No thank you. Do you have any tea?" She ignored the weird glance that he shot her and, turning to the window, resumed her brooding. Eventually, Jessie entered and asked what was bugging her. Eleanor didn't answer so Jessie shrugged and began to dig around in Alex's refrigerator.

"The explosion happened sometime between eleven and twelve in the morning. One witness says that he saw a truck and a car leaving the building minutes before the building went up in flames. Police have no clue yet as to why someone would blow the place up."

Eleanor only half listened to the rest of the report. After she had heard the possible time of the explosion, her mind had happened upon an idea. She want to her room and retrieved the cellular phone. Carrying it back to the kitchen, she sat down at a table and began to examine it.

"What are you doing?" asked Alex.

"I have a hunch."

"Yeah. So?" Eleanor looked up.

"Tell me something, how far is it from that greenhouse I was at and Cliffhangers?"

"I don't know. Ten, maybe twenty minutes away. Why?"

"We left that greenhouse at nine. By eleven-fifteen, the time Jazz was suppose to call us, we were already headed for Westwood Mall. How come he didn't call?"

"Because he was calling me and telling me where you were headed."

"True. But how did he know where we were headed?"

"I don't know. You're the genius. You tell me."

"Considering how he knew where we were, there could only be two possibilities. One: he was following us, or two: he tracked us." With that she smashed the phone against the edge of the table. It broke and small little computer bits fell out. She pried it the rest of the way open and held up what she found. Hidden inside of the shattered remains of the phone was a small, flat, black disk. Along the edge, a red light pulsed on and off at regular intervals. A homing beacon.

Eleanor pulled the disk out and tossed it to Alex. He examined it curiously and handed it to Jessie, who had reentered the room while they were talking.

"Well this is good." she muttered, tossing onto the table. "I'm sure he has a good reason for this."

"I'm sure he does, Jessie, and the sooner we find out the better." Alex replied angrily.

"I'm sure he's bound to call us soon." Eleanor said, "All we have to is wait till then."

Alex glared at the disk and calmly picked up and crushed it in his fist.

"He's bound to call us now." Jessie looked up from the remains of the homing device.

The trio sat in silence for awhile. Finally, Eleanor said, "You want to know what I want to know? How on Earth did that wind start in the greenhouse? And how did I know not to take that car at Cliffhangers?"

"For that matter, how come those people in the black car didn't follow? They were obviously going to stop you two if you didn't get in the car," said Alex. "Jazz told me what happened." He said to answer their surprised glances. The three of them fell back into silence while they pondered these new questions. "It's simple. You're physic, Ellie."

Both Alex and Eleanor gaped at Jessie.

"Come again? I could have sworn you just said I'm physic."

"What other explanation could there be? Think. That wind did start before the windows exploded. The only explanation could be that you made the trees move without even knowing it."

"I think I would know if I could move things or not."

"Well let's test you. Do you think you have anything we could use, Alex?"

"I probably have some tennis balls stashed away someplace. But, I could find them." Alex stood and left the room.

"Do you have anything that are different colors?" Eleanor called after him. There was no reply but a moment later, Alex came back carrying two golf balls, one white and one red. He set them on the table in front of her. "Now what?" he asked.

"Aren't you supposed to concentrate on them or something like that?" asked Jessie.

"I guess. Might as well try it. Not like it's going to work or anything."

"Stop being such a pessimist, Eleanor."

"Fine, Jessie." Eleanor stared at the golf ball for five minutes. Nothing happened.

"You've got to try harder than that." said Alex.

"I'm trying as hard as I can." she remarked angrily. Another ten minutes passed. Eleanor glared at balls. There was absolutely nothing even remotely interesting about them. The only thing was that worth looking at was a line of dried mud that wound its way partway around the red ball. At least Eleanor thought it did. Just for something to do, she pictured what the other side of the ball would look like.

"It moved!" Jessie exclaimed. Eleanor looked up, surprised. She glanced back down and saw that the red golf ball had indeed moved. Now, the rest of the mud faced her. Experimentally, she pictured the ball in her mind again and gave it slight twist, so that it would revolve clockwise. The real one mirrored the image exactly, turning in a slow circle. As they watched, mystified, the crack in her mind began to widen...

"Hey, Ellie. How are they treating you?"

Eleanor leaned back so quickly that the chair she was sitting in tipped over. She fell and landed on her back. She lay there, stunned, while Alex and Jessie stood over her. Their mouths' moved by Eleanor heard no sound come from them. Eventually, sound penetrated her ears and formed words she could understand. "Ellie, are you okay?" That came from Alex.

"What happened?" Jessie asked. "You were staring at the golf ball and you shouted suddenly and fell out your chair." Eleanor groaned and accepted the hands they held out to her. While she caught her breath, she related to them what had happened. She also told them about her experience in the bathroom in the Westwood Mall.

"Well," said Jessie, "at least now we know that your amnesia isn't permanent. Do you think that Kitrina helped you to escape?" Eleanor shook her head.

"I don't think so. If she did, then I don't remember."

Alex asked, "How did you escape, Eleanor?"

Eleanor frowned in thoughtful concentration. "I'm not sure, but I think it involved killing someone." She shook her head, clearly agitated by something. Sighing, "Well, at least we know I'll eventually get my memory back."

"Yeah, but when?" Jessie asked.

"Jazz?"

"I'm here, kid. What's up?"

"We are in big trouble. I mean huge. The bug just cut off."

"What!"

"Not so loud! If they catch me talking to you, I'll be fried."

"Sorry. Where are you? Who's on duty?"

"Kitrina Larson. You know that. She's the only one here. I don't think we can trust her for much longer."

"Is Jacob on to us yet?"

"He has his suspicions about Kit. He knows that someone is sending you information, but so far, he can't prove that either of us is helping you."

"Does Kit know?"

"She still has no idea who helped her make X's escape possible. So far, I don't think she even wants to know."

"As long as she keeps sending Alex information instead of me, he'll have the continual edge. Are you sure the bug cut off?"

"Positive, sir. The last known address of was at Alex's house. Unfortunately, Security is already on their way."

"How did they find out?"

"Before she was injected, Eleanor was working on a new strain of BAK. This new strain allows the other empaths to know how far they are from here and where all other BAK injected empaths are, among other things. We're using the new human to track down X."

"That's a new one. Does X know?"

"No, her amnesia also blocks out most of her empathic abilities. That's giving her a small measure of protection. He should be unable to sense her unless she starts using her powers a lot."

"Interesting. I think I'll give them a quick call. You know where to reach me if anything new comes up. Talk to you later."

"So long."

Jacob stood in his office and listened. Smiling to himself, he thought, Who knew telephone wires could be so interesting? He turned to the guard, "Tell Dr. Larson that I wish to see her in my office." The guard turned to leave when Jacob added, "Oh yeah, kill Daniel when he comes out of there." The guard nodded and left.

Minutes later, the door opened and blond-haired, brown-eyed woman in her late twenties entered. "You wanted to see me Jacob?"

"I just wanted to know why you helped X escape."

"I don't know what you are talking about." Jacob leaned forward and smiled,

"I think you know exactly what I am talking about."

For the remainder of the day, the three sat and thought of a way to trigger the rest of Eleanor's memories. Finally, they decided to sleep on it and went to bed. The next day, sitting in the living room, Eleanor and Jessie watched Alex pace back and forth in front of the television. "You know, if you keep pacing like that, you'll eventually wear a trench in your floor." Jessie commented. Alex frowned and glared at her.

"Here's an idea. Why don't you let me see those disks." Eleanor volunteered. Alex continued to frown but he left the room. A moment later, he comes back with a lab top and handed it to her. Eleanor hooked it up and inserted the disks. At the password screen, she entered it without a second thought. Alex left again, muttering something about going to the store.

"Don't forget the tea!" Eleanor called after him. Alex shouted back an insult and both women started laughing. "Men," she said, grinning, "they just don't appreciate a good cup of tea."

"I agree." Jessica said and both of them started reading.

It was the pain that brought Eleanor out of the flashback. Wincing, she put one hand to her head and stood up. Jessica looked at her, concerned. "Are you okay, Ellie?"

"No," was the strained reply. Her head didn't just ache, it hurt. It felt as if someone was trying to drive a chisel into her skull. After a few more seconds, she realized that it felt more like something trying to get out of her head rather than in.

She had to sit back down when the pain was accompanied by a wave of dizziness. Jessica left, saying that she would get some aspirin. Eleanor gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. What on Earth was causing the pain?

"Here," Jessica's voiced drifted in, "drink this." Something was pressed into Eleanor's hands. The aspirin, she recognized. But the other object... She open her eyes and found herself mesmerized with the glass of water in her hand, which was rapidly getting warmer. Abruptly, she set the glass down on the table and, standing, backed away from it, dragging Jessica with her.

"Eleanor, what on earth are you doing?" Jessie exclaimed. Eleanor hushed her, her eyes intent on the glass; any pain she had felt was now forgotten.

The water inside was steaming faintly, leaving vapor trails on the sides of the glass. She heard Jessica give a soft gasp. The water began to simmer, several lines of bubbles winding their way to the top. These rapidly grew larger as the water boiled, first slowly, then with increasing violence. It what felt like an eternity but was in actuality only several seconds, the water rushed up out of the glass, hissing and sizzling as it evaporated. In another ten seconds, all of the water was gone.

Jessica took a step towards the now empty glass and stopped. Eleanor remained tense. "I don't think it's over yet." The words were barely out of her mouth when the television cut on.

The channels began to change, first slowly, then more rapidly. At the same time, the volume dwindled till there was no longer any sound. Abruptly, the screen went black and the television began to emit a high pitch whine.

Eleanor covered her ears, desperately trying to block the sound. And the pain surged back, stronger than before. Somebody please make it STOP!!! The last word came out as a shout. Almost at once, the noise vanished. The television screen cracked and blew out, smoke and the acrid smell of burning rubber spilling from it. The glass exploded with a sharp crack, spraying shards everywhere. Eleanor cried out in fear before blacking out.

X opened her eyes and calmly observed her three captors. Even through three sheets of reinforced glass, she could still hear them as clearly as if she was standing next to them.

There was a slight twinge of hesitation but she forced it down. In order to get out of this place, she must act without fear. Focus on the rage and remember nothing else except that rage. Impatience, on the other hand... Where the heck are you, Kit? I know I said I would wait, but this is taking to long!

Jessica alternated between watching Eleanor pace and watching Alex stare at the table. Eleanor had had another one of her flashbacks, but she refused to tell them what it had been about. Must be something private, Jessica thought.

To break the silence, she said, "So... Anybody have any clue about what exactly we're up against?" Alex looked up her and Eleanor stopped pacing. "What?" he asked Jessica.

"What is this stuff Ellie's been injected with? And who's responsible?" She looked at Eleanor, who responded by saying, "Don't ask me now; everything in my head is fuzzy. Ask Mr. FBI Agent." Eleanor resumed her pacing.

Alex shrugged. "I'm afraid I can't really say much. All I was told was to apprehend Eleanor for questioning. The FBI wanted know what certain people that Eleanor had worked with were doing. I had no clue she had been the subject of some sort of experiment."

"Imbeda," Eleanor said abruptly. "The people who ran the experiment worked for the Imbeda Corporation."

"Those computer people?" Jessica asked, surprised. She had bought one of their computers last year. It had been a good one, too. They couldn't possibly be connected with this. Eleanor shook her head. "From what I remember, the name is just a facade to cover up for what they actually do: scientific experimentation."

Alex snapped his fingers. "I remember! A few years back, some other FBI agents were investigating them. It seems as if someone has been sending them huge amounts of money. As it turned out, the corporation was owned by several government officials. I think they all came out clean."

"So this is a government building," Jessica said.

"Not exactly," Eleanor replied. She stopped pacing and massaged her temples; a fierce look of concentration on her face. "My memory is still fuzzy in some places." After a few moments, she dropped her hands and started pacing again while she talked. "No. Although the government owns some of it, Imbeda doesn't receive government funding."

"Then where are they getting all of that money?"

"Many places: Britain, Japan, Russia. If it's a world power, then they give Imbeda money. Concerning the U.S., just know that there is a reason why the National Deficit never seems to get smaller."

"Our tax dollars at work, huh?" Alex said. Eleanor nodded. "Are your memories getting any clearer?" Again, Eleanor nodded. "Much clearer."

"So Imbeda does experiments for various countries. What types?" Jessica asked.

"Mainly weapons testing," Eleanor stopped her pacing and stared out the window. "There were about nine hundred people broken up into divisions. Each division specialized in a particular area. Like, for instance, there was the Non-Projectile group. All they did was create and improve upon various types of non-projectile weapons."

"You mean they built laser rifles," Alex said.

"No, not just rifles. Handguns, cannons, any type of gun you could think of. I think they had one big enough to be on a tank. Fully operational, too.

"There was another group called the Bomb Squad. All they did was make bombs. They created a nuclear bomb powerful enough to eradicate New York, but it's about the size of a can of pop."

"Oh my God," Jessica said, shocked. "How many of those things do they have?"

"Eight, so far. When I escaped, they were working on a even more compact version."

"If one of those things fell into the hands of a terrorist or even a enemy country," Alex said, "We would all be in one heck of a lot of trouble."

"And they had a Bio-Genetics division. Those guys came up with one nasty virus."

"Bio-Genetics. Is that where they took you for that experiment?"

Alex gave Jessica a confused look. "Took?" Alex glanced at Eleanor as he said, "Jessie, Eleanor wasn't taken anywhere. Eleanor wor-"

"Yeah," Eleanor interrupted hastily. "That's where they took me." She met Alex's eyes and shook her head slightly. To Jessica, "And it's not a place I particularly missed."

She's hiding something from me, Jessica thought. She hadn't caught what Alex was saying because of the way that Eleanor had broken in. Jessica had a hunch that whatever he had been about to say had been important. To cover up her sudden suspicion, she asked, "What do these Genetics people do?"

"From what I remember, they were trying to create the perfect soldier."

"And they did this with genetics?"

Eleanor nodded, "Their goal was to make a person that could follow orders to the letter."

"This is bad." Jessie groaned.

"And it's going to get worse if we don't leave. Now." Jessie turned to Eleanor. She sat there as she had five minutes ago, eyes closed and breathing slowly.

"She looks like she's comatose." Alex looked out the window.

"We are all going to look a lot worse if they get here before we leave. We'll have to drag her out to the car," Alex said. Jessie nodded and grabbed Eleanor's arms. Alex took hold of her legs and, together, they moved her to the garage and Alex's car. They lay her in the back seat. Then, they reentered the house to grab the guns and disks.

Jessie was grabbing Eleanor's bag when she happened to hear a shout from Alex. Too late, she turned around to see two men wearing all black and aiming guns in her direction. They ordered her outside where they proceeded to handcuff her and shove her into the back of a van.

She wasn't the only one in the van. Alex slumped in the seat beside her, blood trickled from a large and swelling bruise over his right eyebrow. Two men sat across from them. The first had dirty blond hair and brown eyes. He must have been at least thirty-five or forty. Strangely, he looked familiar to Jessie, but she didn't know why. The second man she knew on sight. His brown hair covered his eyes and he had more beard stubble than when she had seen him last. "Tom. Tom Harvey." He didn't answer her. A man appeared in front of the van. He addressed the first man.

"Sir? We've searched the entire house. X is gone."

Wait a minute, something's wrong here. "Jacob, what did I just sign?"

"Miss? Can I help you? Are you all right?" The man asked cautiously. A woman stood at the end of his driveway, studying his car, which he had been in the process of washing. She didn't acknowledge him, just continued staring at his car. "Hello? Are you in trouble?" Instead of answering him, she turned an unfocused gaze on him. She opened her mouth to say something. The next thing he knew, he was holding his water hose preparing to rinse off his car, only there was no car. He turned at the sound of tires screeching in time to see the back end of his car speed out of sight around the corner.

I swear I'm going to kill him, Eleanor thought as she drove. She turned sharply, nearly collided with another car, and headed for the freeway. Considering how she was driving, she was slightly amazed that she hadn't been arrested yet. Before her amnesia, she was always known as a reckless driver, but the way she drove now made that look safe.

As she drove, Eleanor was busy thinking up all the different ways she could kill Jacob. The little ingrate doesn't deserve to live. She was consciously aware of the fact that her memory was returning, and with it, her mastery over her powers. She was also aware that someone was trying to invade her mind. That was what had prompted her to leave Alex's house moments before they got there. Glancing at the road signs, she smiled. She knew perfectly well where she was going.

Jessie watched silently as Tom and the familiar-looking man argued outside the van. Finally, Tom pointed in a direction. The man nodded and walked out of Jessie's sight. Tom climbed back into the van and closed the doors. There was a rumble as the van started up and then they were pulling away. "So, Tom, what are you here?" Jessie asked angrily.

"I'm really not in the mood for this now, Jessie." Tom growled.

"Too bad. Why are you still hanging around here?"

"Because I got no choice, okay? They said they were going to pay me big if I brought you two in. You know what I got? Injected with that stupid BAK stuff, that's what I got."

"They injected you with BAK? Do you know what that stuff is then?"

"As if I wanted to know. Let me guess, you want me to tell you what it is, right?"

"No, I was hoping it would come to me in my sleep." Jessie said sarcastically. Tom glared at her but nodded.

"BAK is the product of twenty-seven years of science. It is a highly advanced virus designed to enhance human cells by changing the structure of the DNA in the cell. It not only physically enhances the subject, but also mentally. A normal human uses only three percent of their brain on average. An injected person can use up to fifty percent with experience."

"Why do I think this is really larger than you're letting on."

"Because if I told you everything in detail, it would take days." Jessie sighed.

"Okay, so what does all of this have to do with Eleanor, besides the fact she was injected."

"Eleanor was a scientist that had helped design the strain of BAK that made the subject telepathic, clairvoyant, and psychokinetic."

"Telepathy. I've heard of that. It means you can talk to her mind-to-mind, right?"

"In a sense, if you pardon the pun, but, of course, she's not telling me anything."

"What about the other two?"

"Psychokinesis is the ability to move objects with your mind. Clairvoyance is being able to sense something or some event without using your ordinary senses."

"Well, that certainly explains a lot." Jessie groaned and leaned back. She suddenly had a large headache. "Okay, then tell me this, why am I still here? I've been given more than one chance to leave and I am not even sure why I haven't."

"This is easy. You were brainwashed. I'm surprised you never remembered. You see, you and Eleanor were good friends. When she took her new job with the government, they insisted that no one knew of her whereabouts. So, they brainwashed everyone who knew her, including you, and they staged her death."

"If that's true, then what's up with Alex?"

"He hopes that he can get a date with Eleanor."

"Fat chance of that ever happening. All they did last night was argue constantly."

"You know what they say, 'Opposites attract.'" Alex muttered.

"I see you're awake. Hi, I'm Tom." Alex merely grunted and sat up.

"Hey, where are we going."

"To the Operations building." Tom answered gravely.

Lying on her stomach, Eleanor watched silently as her friends were shoved into the Operations building. It had taken her nearly another seven hours to get here. She had ditched the car earlier and had arrived here on foot.

Finally, she walked up to the two guards at the door. They both reached for their holsters when they saw her. To show them that she meant no harm, Eleanor raised her hands in front of her. One guard asked for identification. She pulled out an I.D. card and held it out to him. The guard reached out to take it. As he did so, she grabbed his wrist and gave it a sharp downward twist, breaking it. Spinning around, she shifted all of her weight forward, throwing the man onto the ground. He gripped his wrist painfully and made a half successful attempt at rising. Eleanor spun as she heard the second man draw his own gun. As he pulled the trigger, Eleanor flung up her hands on a useless reflex. Something that felt like a semi-truck slammed into her, throwing her backwards.

Lying on her back, it took her a long moment to realize that she was still alive. Groaning, she sat up and looked around. Both guards lay on the ground. The one with the broken wrist looked as if something had stunned him momentarily, but he was alive. The one that had tried to shoot her, lay on his back a couple of feet away. The smell of charred skin and clothing filled the air and wisps of smoke rose from his clothing. His eyes were open but glazed. Eleanor had the feeling he wouldn't be looking at anything for a long time. Pulling herself to her feet, she shoved the door open and staggered inside.

Jessie stumbled into the room, followed closely by Alex. "Let us go you creep!" she shouted at Jacob.

"Not likely. Tom! Stay in here and watch them. I've got more important things to attend to." Jacob left the room, closing and locking the door behind him. Jessie looked around their improvised prison. It looked every other office she had ever been: computer, desk, one of those chairs you could spin around in, window overlooking the lagoon that occupied the western side of the five acres that the building was situated on. Sighing, she leaned back against the desk. "Well, now what do we do?"

Alex moved to the chair and sat in it. "How on earth am I supposed to know?"

Jessie frowned at him. Alex ignored her and glanced at the computer, which was on. His expression turned to that of surprise. "Hey, Jessie, look at this." Jessie walked over and stood behind him. On the screen was a long list of names. Next to each name was a number followed by the word failure or success. Most of the names were failures, the only success were three individuals. Two of them were Eleanor and Tom, the third was only identified by a number. At the very bottom of the list was another number. Unlike the others, it was marked "unsure". Jessie and Alex glanced at each other.

"What do you make of this?" Alex asked.

"I don't know. But if it means what I think it means, I think Eleanor's in big trouble. We have to find out where she is and warn her." Jessie answered.

"Don't bother. She's already here." Tom muttered from his corner of the room.

"Here? Where?" Alex said just Jessie shouted angrily,

"Why didn't you say something? How long have you known that?"

"To answer your questions, Yes, she is here. About ten floors below us. Because you never asked. And for quite awhile."

"I swear, Tom, you are just as annoying as Eleanor can be." Alex said.

"Well, I am truly grateful for the compliment." Alex sighed. "But all the same, this is not doing Eleanor any good. You guys need to get out there and help her."

"That's a good plan and all, but we're stuck in here. How do we get out?"

Tom smiled. "Wait." No more than a few seconds had passed than the door crashed open. Two guards, both holding guns, entered the room. "Come on, both of you. You're being moved to another room." Jessie suddenly realized that they were talking her and Tom, but not Alex. They hardly noticed him. As she was escorted out the room, she gave Alex a firm glance, he nodded and stood. "I'll try to get you guys later," he said softly.

"Get going. I can only fool them for so long." Tom said. Alex nodded again and turned in the opposite direction.

"You think he has a chance of finding her?" she asked Tom.

"In this place? Not a chance. He'll be lucky to even find an elevator."

This is bad. Elevators don't switch directions. Eleanor watched the floor numbers fall. The elevator stopped at the last of the sub-basements. The doors in front of her opened to reveal a barely lit room full of crates. At the far end, another door could be seen. A path had been made from the elevator to the door, with branches leading off to what she guessed would be more doors.

Fully aware that this could be a trap, she stepped out into the room and headed for the other door. Before she was halfway across the floor, she sensed something so powerful that she was forced to her knees. As she fell, she felt something fly over her head at an incredible speed. Throwing herself to one side, she ducked behind a stack of boxes just as the door exploded. Rolling, she got her feet under her and went to another aisle. -Nice dodge, Ellie.- The words were not spoken, instead, they came from inside her head. -Next time, I won't miss.-

She heard footsteps walking the in the aisles behind her. -Hey Eleanor, there's no use hiding. You always were pitiful at hide-and-seek.-

Stupid jerk. Eleanor thought angrily. She refused to answer his jibes though. With him talking to her telepathically, she was able to at least get an idea of what direction he was in.

-Come on, Ellie. You might as well give it up. I'm going to get you. If you give up now, I just might let you live.-

Only a slime like him would try to bargain with me. Just then, Eleanor had a surprising thought. If she could sense where Jacob was by his psychic powers, what if he was using the same trick on her? She suddenly noticed that she couldn't hear any footsteps. Not bothering to look, Eleanor began to move silently away from where she had been sitting. The stack of crates behind her exploded outwards. A series of lights swept through the aisle, just barely missing the top of her head. Eleanor ducked down as low as she could, wincing every time another crate exploded. Finally, it stopped.

"Are you going to stand around sulking all day?"

"Maybe."

"I swear you are impossible to talk to, Tom." Tom glowered at Jessie and didn't reply. Muttering under her breath, Jessie turned back to the computer screen. After Alex had left, she tried to get more information on the test subjects being used for BAK. Instead, she found a long list of names and addresses. Many at the top of the list were those that had been under the test list.

Jessie frowned and thought about that for a second. Finally, she concluded that the list she was looking at must have been of people planned to be test subjects. That meant that these people were in danger. Unfortunately, there was nothing that she could do to help them. Or was there?

Jessie printed the entire list of names. Then, with the practiced thoroughness of an experienced computer hacker, Jessie created and deployed a stealth-virus program. With some luck, nobody would notice the bug until files started vanishing from the system.

"Well you're just full of surprises, aren't you."

"Tom, you are really starting to bug me. Do you know that?"

"Really? I truly wasn't aware."

"That's it. Now I am really getting angry."

"I'm so scared. What are you going to do? Give me a paper cut with that stack of papers there?"

"No this." Jessie walked up to Tom. He glared down at her. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he dropped to his knees in pain.

Jessie smiled sweetly, "Now, if you ever give anymore problems, I am going to kick you a lot harder. So hard, in fact, that you will sing soprano for the rest of your miserable life. Okay?" Tom could only nod. "If you are ready to cooperate now, can we please get out of here?"

For a long time, Eleanor did not dare raise her head, for fear another series of blasts would start coming. Only this time they wouldn't miss their intended mark. Unfortunately, she knew she couldn't hide forever. Sooner or later she was going to make a mistake that was going to kill her. She couldn't let that happen. Somehow, she had to find a way out of this mess. Somehow, and soon.

Alex glanced around the dark room. He had finally managed to find his way out of the labyrinth of offices and had entered the elevator. It must have been express because it took him directly to the last floor. He hesitated briefly before stepping out into the room and beginning his search for Eleanor.

Eleanor lifted her head until she could see over the stack of crates. Jacob stood in the aisle next to her's but he didn't seem to be paying any attention to her. As she watched, he lifted the gun at his side and took careful aim at something that Eleanor could just barely see. With a start, she realized that he was aiming at Alex's head. Without a single hesitation, Eleanor began to shove against the crates. After a few strenuous moments, the crates shifted and let out a loud groan. The sound alerted Jacob and he brought the gun around just as the stack started to topple. The crash of the crates did nothing to muffle the sound of the gun firing, and they certainly did nothing to diminish the strength of the beam. The force from the blast slammed her into the far side of the narrow aisle.

For a moment, darkness consumed her vision and she could see nothing. After what seemed like an eternity, she became aware of someone shaking her and calling her name. Opening her eyes, her blurred vision finally focused on Alex's concerned face. "Are you alright?" He asked. Eleanor managed a nod, which seemed to satisfy Alex. " Come on, we need to get you of here." He slipped an arm around Eleanor's waist and put her arm over his shoulder.

Eleanor felt something warm and sticky oozing down her right side. She realized that her right arm was entirely numb. She could not move it even a little. She also realized that the crate she had crashed into was splattered with blood. Her blood. Behind them, Jacob groaned under the pile of crates she had pushed on top of him. "He's starting to recover." Alex said. "I better get you out of here."

As Alex helped her up, Eleanor paused briefly and stared at Jacob's body. Silent, she stared at him for a long moment. Finally, Alex's hand on her arm brought her back to reality.

They made their way through the room and back to the elevator. Inside, Eleanor sat against one wall. She pressed her free hand against her shoulder, exploring the wound. Alex punched a button at random and sat down next to her. "How's the arm?"

Eleanor sighed and let her hand drop, absently wiping the blood onto her pant's leg.

"My arm is fine. The shoulder, though... That blast ripped my shoulder muscle apart. With time, I think my shoulder will heal fine. That is, if I don't die from lack of blood first."

"You're not going to die. All you need to do is look on the bright side."

"Bright side? Tell me one thing that's good out of me being shot." Alex was silent, thinking. Finally he said, "Well, now you know what it's like to be left-handed." Eleanor whacked him with her left hand. "Okay, try this: At least your still alive."

"Barely," was her sour reply.

"You are not in a good mood, are you?"

"Good mood? I've practically just had my arm shot off and you're asking me if I am in a GOOD MOOD?"

"I was trying to cheer you up. You don't have to snap my head off."

"You're failing miserably. Why don't you just quit while you're ahead?"

"Because I'm trying to keep you awake so you don't fall asleep and die! Remember, if it wasn't for me Mr. Trigger Happy would have shot off more than your arm!"

"The way I remember it, if it wasn't for you, I would've never been shot in the first place! What on earth were you down there?"

"Trying to save your worthless butt! I should've never gotten involved with you." It was Eleanor's turn to silently think. She stared at her limp right hand, laying on her lap.

Finally, "What made you decide to help me?" Alex glanced at her then shrugged. "I don't know. I was supposed to be tracking you down for the FBI. They're interested in you and your work." Eleanor turned to look at him. He was staring at the roof of the elevator. Probably to avoid her eyes. "Yet you disobeyed orders by helping me, didn't you?"

"They told me to bring you in anyway possible. But I have this thing about dragging innocent women to places they don't want to go against they're will. I just can't do it."

"Is this thing against dragging women around meant for all women or for just certain ones? Namely me."

Alex chuckled softly. "I'm a hopeless romantic, aren't I?"

Eleanor smiled at him. "I wouldn't say hopeless. Foolish, yes. Hopeless, definitely not." She leaned her head against his shoulder and sighed deeply, letting her eyes close. Alex was surprised then he smiled gently and hugged her waist briefly. His eyes wandered to the floor counter. How many floors does this place have? he wondered. "Seventy-five," Eleanor murmured absently against his shoulder.

With a single thought, all of the crates lying on him floated into the air and burst into flames. Jacob let them drop to the ground in a smoking heap of ash. Calmly, he retrieved his gun from where he had dropped it. For a long moment, he mentally searched the building, sorting through the voices of many minds for one in particular. There! In the elevator heading up. But he couldn't feel her like he was able to earlier. She was weaker, barely able to remain conscious let alone use her powers to block him.

Jacob calmly yet quickly walked to the main power control for the elevators. Every system in the building was powered by its own, separate generator, another security measure that he had thought necessary. He pulled the main switch, shutting off all power, including the back-up generators. Leisurely, as if there was nothing wrong, he walked to the elevator shaft and forced it open with his mind.

He could easily kill her by just severing the elevator lines, but that would be underestimating her. And that would be very dangerous. Stepping into the bottom of the shaft, he aimed straight up and a little to his left to where she was sitting. Even in total darkness, he would be able to point her out unless she was cloaking herself somehow. Jacob smiled coldly, "There's a time to live, and a time to die. Your time's up, Ellie."

"--time's up, Ellie." The echoing voice sounded so familiar, but Eleanor couldn't place it. Her head hurt to badly for her to try and identify it. That was one sign of how close to death she was.

Eleanor opened her eyes, even though it was pointless to in the darkness. Alex had stood and was somewhere, swearing under his breath. "I can't get the doors open." Eleanor used her good arm to help her stand. She squeezed her eyes shut as a wave of dizziness overcame her. When it had passed, she spoke, "The doors are locked automatically when power is cut off. Supposed to prevent terrorists from using them or something like that."

"Than how are we supposed to get out?"

"Normally, we would wait until power's restored, but under our circumstances, we just use the hatch in the ceiling."

"Don't you think that it's rather pointless to have locked doors when the terrorists can just use the hatch?"

"Now that you mention it, I guess it is." She stepped forward to see if she could find the hatch. It was that step that saved her life. As her other foot left the ground, a searing blast of white light came through the floor where she had been sitting, illuminating the interior of the elevator. It was accompanied by a deafening roar. It lasted for a brief second, then it was gone. The silence and darkness that followed was so amazing that for a moment, Eleanor thought that she had gone blind as well as deaf. A purplish haze of after vision seemed to form a solid bar in front of her. If I hadn't moved... the thought trailed off abruptly. "Alex?" she called shakily.

"Oh...My...God!" was the only answer she received. Relived, she began to let out a sigh of relief and froze. That danger sense flooded her mind. She knew what that meant. Eleanor threw herself forward as a second blast vaporized the floor and ceiling of where she had been standing half a second before. Again, light filled her vision, but it didn't vanish like before. Squinting, she saw that the beam was cutting across the floor towards her. Alex stood to her right, staring wide-eyed at the beam as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Quickly!" she shouted at him, "The hatch!" Alex stared dumbly at her than glanced up. But he didn't move. Her swearing was lost in the roar. The beam was within one foot of her but moving slowly, inching its way towards her as if the shooter had all the time in the world. Alex responded to none of her words. Just kept his eyes locked on the beam. Finally, in a fit of rage, frustration, and fear, Eleanor did the only thing left that she could think of. She backhanded him with her good arm, hard.

If nothing else got his attention, that sure did. He glared at her and yelled something that she couldn't here. Eleanor ignored him and pointed towards the hatch. Alex leaped up and hooked one hand under the hatch. He hung in the air for a second while using his other hand to push the cover away. Then he pulled himself up.

Jacob must have sensed her escaping because the beam suddenly swung quickly in her direction. Anger caused power to envelope Eleanor and she radiated it outwards. The laser stopped moving towards her and began to slide backwards as she shoved it away. Finally, the beam vanished. Eleanor groaned and nearly collapsed as she released the shield. Pain swept over her, nearly knocking her out. She held on to it with an incredible strength of will.

"Ellie? Are you okay?" Eleanor looked up at Alex. The red emergency lights cast shadows across his face so she couldn't see him. For an instant, she thought that there were more to his feelings than just concern for her. That he had been lying to her all along to gain her confidence before hauling her away to his FBI friends. Eleanor shook her head, clearing away the unpleasant feelings.

Lack of blood, fatigue, and fear were starting to affect her. And there was something else nagging her in the back of her mind. Something that she had overlooked but was the key between life and death. And not just her death, but countless others. "I'm fine." she replied. Everything is just fine. But if it was fine, then why did she sound as if she was trying to convince herself?

Jacob had been startled for only a moment when the laser had begun to slide backwards. But he quickly recovered and shut the gun off. It had to be recharged anyway. Funny how someone so weak could be strong enough to block a particle laser cannon. He had underestimated her yet again.

Stepping back inside the storage room, Jacob began to rethink his strategy. There was a key factor that he was leaving out of his plan that he decided to put into play. But before he could began his final preparations, he had to wait till Eleanor was about to leave. He had to wait until then to strike again. Unfortunately, patience was not one of his best talents.

"You guys have no idea how happy I am to see you two alive." Jessie said. She and Tom had met up with them outside one of the offices and the four had ducked in to let Eleanor rest. "For all I knew, you could have had your heads blown off and I would've never known."

Eleanor, sitting in a chair, looked surprised, "Why? Didn't Tom even tell you I was hurt?" Jessie shook her head and both women turned to glare at Tom. He merely shrugged and continued talking to Alex about how they were going to escape.

"How did you ever manage to put up with him as your boyfriend, Ellie? I can't stand him for even five minutes." Eleanor laughed.

"He is not my boyfriend. And to answer your question, you just have to know how to deal with men like him. Ignore them half the time and get on their nerves the other half. They'll buy you anything you want because they love you and to just get you out of their sight."

"So that's how you do it!" Jessie exclaimed. Both of them laughed, which got them really annoyed looks from Alex and Tom. "But seriously, Tom has told me most of this BAK stuff and how you're involved, but something isn't clear. If most of the test subjects died from this stuff, how come you are still alive?"

"I've been thinking about that myself. While Jacob was stunned from the crates on him, I had a brief chance to search his mind. Turns out that since he had no idea of how to make BAK and couldn't get into my computer to get it, he found a note pad that I had scribbled a version of the formula on and used that. What he didn't know was that the formula had been specifically designed to work for my DNA and no one else's."

"Then why does it work for Jacob? And Tom for that matter?"

"I'm diabetic. Or at least I was."

"The BAK cured you?"

"In every sense of the word, yes it did. At any rate, Jacob's DNA slightly resembles mine; he is my cousin after all. Jacob is also a diabetic, and that lent a hand in why it worked.

"Tom on the other hand, I don't have a clue. For all I know, his BAK is just as dangerous as the animals."

"Can you find a cure for him? For all of them, animals included?"

"I shouldn't have any problems with Tom or myself. The animals will just have to die, I guess. There were different results for each species. That is going to make it a lot harder to find a cure for each individual species." Jessie nodded solemnly. She didn't like the thought of killing off all of those animals. Of course it was better if all of them died then if one of them managed to escape. Alex broke in on her thoughts.

"If you two are through with your girl talk, Tom and I have figured out a way out of here without Mr. Psycho downstairs know we're leaving. Since Tom is the only one capable of even reaching the parking lot without getting into trouble, he's going to get a van and we'll meet him outside." Jessie nodded and watched Eleanor stand. She locked eyes with Tom.

"If this plan of yours is going to work, than you better get going now, Tom. Still though, Alex should go with you. Just in case." Tom looked as if he was about to object to her ordering him around but checked himself. Eleanor let her gaze drift to Alex. Neither of them said a word. Finally, he smiled briefly and together, the two men left.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Jessie asked.

"We are going to do nothing." Jessie was startled by Eleanor's mind-speech. "You are going to go with them to get the van." For a moment, Jessie couldn't say anything. There was something in Eleanor's eyes that she didn't like. Something very dangerous.

"Ellie," she began.

"What are you going to do?"

"You know that I'm not leaving unless you tell me."

"That's good enough for me."

Moments later, Jessie caught up with Alex and Tom at an elevator. "What the heck are you doing here?" Alex exclaimed.

"Shut up, Alex, we don't have time for this." She turned to Tom. "You know what to do?"

"You didn't have to ask. I knew before you did." Alex glanced at both of them, frustrated. He muttered under his breath, "Will somebody please tell what is going on?" Tom gave him a sideways glance and stepped into the elevator as it opened. Jessie followed him, answering Alex behind her back, "You really don't want to know."

The two scientists jumped as the door slammed open. Upon seeing who it was, one man tried to escape through the other door. He had barely made it two steps before he crumpled in a heap on the ground. The second man tried to move but he couldn't. "What are you going to do to me?" he asked. Ignoring his question, Eleanor closed the door and locked it. Turning to the laboratory table, she searched its contents for a pad of paper.

For about ten minutes, she scribbled numbers onto the pad, erasing some and carefully copying others onto a second sheet of paper. When she was done, she released the scientist from his bonds of air and held up the second sheet. "With my help, could you make this formula into a serum in about five minutes?" The man nodded, but seemed confused.

"This is a formula for BAK, is it not?"

"Not exactly. Enough with the chatter, let's get to work."

Five minutes passed and the scientist held up two flasks filled with liquid: blue and green. The blue liquid was poured into two vials and sealed. The green into only one.

Eleanor studied the green vial, no longer paying any attention to the scientist. It wasn't until he spoke that she remembered him. "So you're not going to kill me?"

No, I am not going to kill you." She stared him straight in the eyes and gave him a critical glance. "But you are going to do the job for me. From now on, you will do exactly as I say with no questions: In your office, retrieve the loaded gun you have hidden there and take off the safeties. You are then going to put the barrel of the gun in your mouth, count to five hundred and pull the trigger. Got that? Good." The scientist turned towards the door and waited for Eleanor to unlock the door. Grumbling under her breath, Eleanor waved a hand at the door. There was a "click" and the door swung open.

After he had left, Eleanor leaned her back against the table and placed one hand to her head. She suddenly had an extremely bad headache. After a few moments, it passed. Eleanor straightened and carefully wrapped the vials in some paper before shoving them into a case small enough to fit in her pants pocket.

Eleanor stepped out of the room. A brief glance down both halls revealed no one near by. She could sense other people, but they were too far away to be of any danger. Eleanor paused, cocking her head to one side as if she was listening. Someone was calling her telepathically. Not directly, more like sending out signals that she could detect. There was a certain urgent plea to them, like someone asking for help and needing it very soon. Then the signals faded. "No, wait!" she called, "I can't find you unless you keep sending to me."

The signal returned. Eleanor sensed the sender close by, but was unable to figure out who (or for that matter what), the person was. It occurred to her that this could be a trap set by Jacob. Well, one way or another, she was going to find out.

Jacob lifted his head, pausing for a moment to listen to Eleanor's monologue with someone else. He immediately disregarded it as being important. If the other person wasn't even strong enough in power to talk to her directly, then why bother about them being a threat to him?

And yet, something nagged at him in his mind. Jacob lacked Eleanor's talent for sensing danger. But he was able to predict where she could possibly be sometime in the near future.

Jacob used his limited clairvoyance now. In the room that he was in, he knew that she would eventually arrive here. But, for some reason, he couldn't track either of them beyond this room. That meant that he would be unable to track any longer after a certain point in time.

For once, Jacob was unsure of what to do. His result had suggested that either he or Eleanor would die. And since he didn't look to the thought that she would kill him, Jacob wholeheartedly hoped that he would be the one to kill Eleanor

But he had delayed long enough. Jacob returned his attention to the box full of wires in front of him. Connecting two wires together, he gave satisfied grunt as the LCD display lit up for a few seconds and shut off. After a few more minutes of fiddling, he connected the box to the tall metal cylinder in the middle of the room and activated it.

Jacob took a step back to admire he was handiwork. He was nearly ready.

"Where is she?" Alex growled. He leaned against the door to the building, watching the sky.

"Which 'she' do you mean: Eleanor or Jessica?" Tom asked, also watching the sky.

"Jessie. She said it would take her only a few minutes to find a van."

"You forget, Alex. First she has to find a van. Then she has to see if it's open. And then she has to see if it has keys in it." Tom's gaze sweep across the parking lot, taking in the cars and the still unconscious security guard; no sign of Jessie yet. Alex grumbled and didn't say anything else. Tom returned his gaze to the sky.

Actually, he was letting Jessie find their means of escape on purpose. If asked, he could've easily found an open van. But no one had asked so he hadn't bothered.

Closing his eyes, Tom let his mind wander. Everything around him ceased to exist: sounds, the light filtering through his closed eyelids, even of the mental voices of Jessie, Alex, and the people in the building. He floated, alone, in infinite blackness.

In that darkness, he slowly became aware of a sound. It was like a dull roar, growing in intensity as it came louder. As the distance between the roar and the source of it closed in on him, white light penetrated the darkness. Soon, light was everywhere and the roar had become deafening. Just as Tom thought he couldn't take anymore, there was an explosion of noise, like a bomb had been set off, an eerily high pitched whine, and then silence. Simultaneously, the light became blinding, turned to blood red and vanished.

For long minutes, nothing else happened. Finally, on a invisible wave of moving air, a smell filtered in. Like the sound and light, it grew slowly in intensity. Tom, although he knew he couldn't in this dream-like place, wanted very badly to throw up. The wave of air smelled like meat that had been set in the sun for some time and had become rotten and infested with maggots. Or like a dead, decomposing animal that had been sick when it died. Or, even worse, a freshly opened putrid grave with the body still in it after only a few months had passed, when the rate of decomposition was at its highest. To be frank, it smelled like death.

It was too much for his body. Tom came out of the vision, and his lunch came out of his stomach. Alex, surprised, stepped away as Tom vomited what felt like his food from the past week. Finally, when it passed, he stumbled over to the guard, grabbed the man's sleeve and wiped his mouth on it. He straightened and groaned.

"Tom, that was really sick." Alex's face had turned a pale shade a green and the poor man looked as if he was about to puke himself. Tom ignored him.

A lot of people are going to die, he thought as he turned back to the building. All from an immense explosion. But what about Ellie? Or the rest of us? In the vision, there had been no visible sign that anyone was going to escape. But one thing had been clear. Even outside the vision he could still sense it growing stronger. "Alex, she's walking into a trap."

Eleanor paused outside a door, waiting expectantly. There was the sound of a gun going off. People, shouting, ran past her. Not wanting to be noticed by a guard, she opened the door and stepped in, closing it quickly behind her.

The room was dark, but Eleanor didn't feel like cutting on the lights. Outside, she could hear people running down the corridor.

Putting her back to the door, Eleanor sat down. Her headache had started up again, and to make matters worse, she was beginning to bleed from her wound. She closed her eyes, feeling drowsy suddenly, and immediately fell into a deep sleep.

Now. With her guard down, she couldn't fight back. And as long she was asleep and he wasn't, Jacob could control her dreams and do anything he wanted. This was finally becoming fun.

Eleanor leaped to her feet. Immediately, she wished she hadn't. Sitting down again, she checked herself, relieved that Jacob's 'experiment' hadn't worked after all. Of course, that didn't mean she would be willing to try that again.

Finally, Eleanor stood. Okay, she thought as she reached for the doorknob, if that murderous, idiotic, accidental son of a slug and a jar of mayonnaise wants war, he is getting World War III! And then, I'm going to do what Lorana Bobbit did and chop off his-- The door exploded outwards, revealing one of the guards. Eleanor screamed and leaped back, terrified.

"I'm sorry, Doctor. Did I startle you?" he asked. Eleanor vaguely realized that he couldn't see her with the lights off. But that was the last thought in her mind.

"Startle! Startle!! You stupid jerk, you could've KILLED me for God's sakes!!! I could've had a HEART ATTACK, you imbecile!!!! Don't you ever, and I mean EVER do that to me again!!!!!! IS THAT CLEAR!!!!!! Otherwise I'm going to rip off that stupid thing called a head and PULL YOUR BRAINS OUT THROUGH YOUR NOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!" At the end of the tirade, Eleanor stopped to catch her breath. The guard was simply amazed that she had been able to say it all in one breath while shouting at him. When he saw that she wasn't going to pass out or hyperventilate, he shrugged and left.

Eleanor stood in the darkness for a while. Okay, she thought, now that that's over, I can get on to the more important things. But how? She frowned as she exited the room. What I need is a plan.

Jacob sat up groggily. How long had he been out? He got to his feet and stood for a moment, readjusting himself to his surroundings. There was no way he was going to be doing any dream roving for a while. It was just too exhausting.

Suddenly, Jacob cocked his head to one side, as if trying to hear something faint. Angry surprise rolled over him like a wave: Eleanor was still alive!

Jacob turned to his metal cylinder. He couldn't face her yet. He still wasn't ready. Picking up one of his tools, a small blowtorch, he set to work with a vengeance.

Alex glanced at Eleanor out of the corner of his eyes. Oh great. Now what? She had found him nearly ten minutes ago; wandering around the halls and trying to find some trace of her. Alex thought that she would have been happy to see him. Instead, she had snapped at him and had stormed off; leaving him to follow.

"Why is it that every time something bad is about to happen, it seems like you pop up?" Eleanor grumbled.

Alex shrugged and grinned, "I'm just a trouble magnet."

"You're also an optimist." she shook her head, smiling. "It just wouldn't work."

Alex gave a puzzled look. Eleanor merely shook her head; chuckling at some private joke.

Soon, they reached a large, metal door. Alex pulled on it, but it didn't budge. Frustrated, Alex began to tug at it, straining. Eleanor watched his pathetic attempt silently. After it was evident that the door was not going to move, Eleanor approached it and placed one hand on it.

Alex watched, amazed, as her hand and the door began to glow a faint white. There was a click, a loud snap, then the door swung silently outwards. Eleanor stumbled backwards and braced herself against one wall. Her good hand was pressed to her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" he asked, concerned.

Eleanor waved her other hand and nodded. "I'm fine. Just a little tired from the strain." With that, she straightened and entered the room.

Alex couldn't help noticing the large, bloody smear that remained on the wall.

Following Eleanor, Alex observed the chamber. It was nothing more than a wide, empty corridor. Another door, smaller than the first and made of wood this time, lay at the far end. "Do you know where we are?" he asked as Eleanor crossed to the door.

Eleanor placed her hand against the door as she had before, but only to lean on it. "This passageway leads to a series of chambers where the BAK-infected individuals had been kept." She closed her eyes briefly. When she opened them, there was something different in her eyes, but Alex couldn't quite think of what it was. Eleanor lowered her hand to the door handle. "We'll pass through several smaller chambers before we reach the main one."

"What's so important about the main chamber?" Alex asked.

"That's where we'll find Jacob." She opened the door.

Alex followed her through. "How do you know that he's there?" Eleanor didn't look up at him. Gazing at her peripherally, Alex could sense something behind Eleanor's behavior. A hidden emotion or power that she was just barely keeping in check.

"Oh he's there," she said softly, "I'd stake my life on that."

Eleanor leaned against the wall and silently, if angrily, watched the scene before her. Alex knelt next to one of the several narrow beds and carefully examined its young occupant. He lifted her and carried her back over to where Eleanor waited. Other than a few minor scratches on her arms and a minor bruise on her head, the girl was fine.

Eleanor shook her head. "Alex, we cannot take them with us." She indicated the girl and the dog that had followed behind Alex. It sat next to Eleanor and pressed it's nose into her palm. "It is too dangerous."

"Well, what do you think we should do? Leave them here?"

"It's either that or take them to Tom and Jessie."

Alex didn't reply. He just stared at her. Eleanor returned his glare calmly. The staring match continued for some time before, with a heavy sigh, Eleanor relented. "I must be nuts," she muttered. She placed one hand on the girl's forehead and concentrated. There was flash of light, a brief but cold wind, and the girl opened her eyes.

She blinked several times; her eyes focusing on Alex. "Who are you?" she asked. "And where exactly am I?" Her gaze settled on Eleanor, who had closed her eyes. The young girl's eyes widened in surprise. "I know you! You're the one I saw at my house. You saved my life!"

Alex was startled. "What do you mean?"

Eleanor opened her eyes and snorted. "I didn't save your life. As far as I'm concerned, I'm the one that got you into this mess."

The girl squirmed out of Alex's arms. She shook her head. "Something wrong with your memory? You saved Ace and me from those men."

By now, Alex was clearly puzzled. "Men? What men?"

Eleanor made a dismissive sound. Gesturing to the girl, she said, "Alex, I would like you to meet Kelly Archer." There was a bark. "And her dog, Ace."

Alex stared at the girl. "Now wait a minute. According to the autopsies, you were found dead at the scene. So why am I standing here staring at you? Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

"Nope." Kelly responded brightly. She gestured to Eleanor. "Dr. Johnson saved my life. Those men were going to kill me."

Alex put one hand to his head. "Would you please explain this, Ellie?"

Eleanor snapped herself back to reality. Don't let your mind wander, she told herself fiercely. I've got to stay focused, if for only just a short time. Then it won't matter what I think.

Aloud, she said, "There really isn't anything to explain. I sneaked into the backyard, sent Kelly and Ace to 'La-La Land', and left."

"She means she knocked me out." Kelly piped up.

Alex was looking at Eleanor strangely. "'La-La Land'?"

"Shut up and let me finish. Anyway, after Kelly had been taken to a hospital, a bunch of guys killed the doctors and any witnesses. They made a phony report about Kelly being murdered, and brought Kelly and Ace, both of them still alive, here."

"For someone who was busy kidnapping Jessie at the time, you sure do know a lot about what happened to Kelly."

"Of course I do. It was stand procedure to create phony deaths to anyone that was a BAK test subject."

"Then Kelly..."

"Would have been brought here anyway. Besides, they wanted to see if my contact with her had 'infected' the girl."

"'Infected'?"

"BAK is a virus, Alex. I'm pretty sure that I can infect people with it if I'm around them long enough." Eleanor winced. "Enough talk. Kelly?"

Kelly had been busy messing with Ace. She looked up as Eleanor called her name. "Yes?"

"Do you think that you can find your way out of here?"

Kelly suddenly became wary. "Sure. Why?"

Eleanor had a feeling that this would happen. "I need you to find two of my friends outside. Their names are Jessica Cooper and Tom Harvey."

The young girl studied Eleanor. Finally, she sighed. "Come on, Ace. Let's go."

Alex chuckled as they left. "I could've sworn that she would've put more of a fight."

Eleanor didn't pay attention. From one pocket, she retrieved the case. She stared at them, thinking. "Alex," She handed it to him. "I want you to take this." Alex opened the case and examined the three carefully wrapped vials. He gave Eleanor a questioning gaze. "What--" Eleanor quickly silenced him, placing her hand over his mouth.

"Don't, Alex. Just take them. Afterwards, when all of this is over, give one of the blue vials to Tom. If either Kelly or Jessie show signs of being infected, give them half of the other blue one. That should remove any and all traces of BAK from their body."

"You've made a cure." Alex said softly. He carefully lifted the green vial. "Who gets this one?"

"Hopefully, no one." Eleanor pushed herself away from the wall and crossed the room. At the other door, she paused. "Alex." She hesitated. "I want you to go after Kelly and make sure she reaches the others okay."

There was a long silence. Eleanor refused to turn around. Finally, Alex said, "You can't be serious, Eleanor. You are hurt. I know you don't expect to go up against Jacob alone and actually survive, do you?" She could literally feel his sudden shock as he finally figured out what she intended. "That's it, isn't it? You don't intend to survive." Her continued silence confirmed Alex's suspicions.

"Alex, you can't stay here."

"Give me one good reason why I can't. And it better be one Hell of a reason, Eleanor."

Because I'm better off dead. Because I don't want to live. Because... Eleanor's eyes closed, although Alex couldn't see her face. Or the anguish on it. Because I don't want to see you hurt. Because I... I....

"Because, even if Jacob didn't kill me, I've lost too much blood by now. I would die anyway."

"That's not going to happen."

"You don't know that."

"Neither do you, Eleanor."

Eleanor whirled around to face him, angry now. "That's not the point, Alex! I don't know what's going to happen to me; nobody does except God. And at this particular moment, I am not in the mood to ask Him to help me live."

"You still haven't given me a good reason."

"Then allow me to help you in your decision, Mr. Hunter." Neither had time to move as Jacob, in the doorway behind Eleanor, fired the gun at her back.

Then, she was falling. Her head hit the ground and the entire world exploded into white light before fading into a misty gray. Small points of color broke through the gray and brought the pain with it. Sound quickly followed. "...Dr. Johnson..."

Eleanor groaned.

"Wake up, Doctor. You've got to wake up."

Eleanor opened her eyes. Everything hurt. Even her clothes, if that was possible. Kelly knelt in front of her. The girl was frightened. Wait a minute, Kelly?

"What are you doing here? And where's Alex and Jacob?" Eleanor tried to sit up. Kelly had to help her.

"Ace went nuts and came back this way. As for the two men, they started fighting and went through that door." Kelly pointed to one of the doors. Then she glanced over Eleanor's shoulder. Eleanor turned and saw the dog.

Ace was sprawled on the ground a couple of feet away. There was a gaping hole in the dog's midsection with wisps of smoke trailing out of it. The dog was clearly dead. "He leaped in front of the light beam," Kelly said softly.

Eleanor stood. "I'll see that he has a decent burial." It was a pitiful thing to say, but it was all she could think of. Then she turned away and headed it through the open door. Kelly, after a moment's hesitation, got up and followed.

Alex felt the satisfying crunch of bone underneath his fist. Jacob howled in pain and stumbled backwards, one hand to his bloody and broken nose. Alex grinned. "Had enough, Jacob?"

Apparently, he hadn't because he charged Alex. Alex waited for the right moment, then sidestepped and swept Jacob's legs out from under him. Jacob hit the ground hard enough to make Alex wince and lay unmoving. A minute later, Jacob was climbing back to his feet, if unsteadily.

Alex sighed, "Don't you think it would better if you stayed down?" and walked towards the man, intending to knock him out.

Jacob spat out a glob of blood and faced Alex. Despite the blood and broken nose, the man was grinning. It was creepy. But, if the guy wanted to get his face rearranged, Alex was happy to comply. Jacob's grin widened and his hand flicked slightly.

Which, Alex found out a few seconds later, turned out to be a really bad gesture. Shaking his head to try and clear it, he was surprised to find himself all the way across the room sprawled on the floor. "Okay," Alex growled as he got to his feet, "if that's the way you want to play it."

"Indeed, that is the way I want to play it." His hand moved again and Alex was shoved into the wall but he didn't fall. It had become very hard to breath. Jacob stood in front of the wheezing man. "Oh, poor Alex. Are you finding it a bit difficult to breathe?" Alex couldn't work up the breath to swear at him. Instead, he glared. Jacob chuckled then smiled devilishly. "Is it just you or is it getting warmer in here? It must be just you."

Alex realized that it did feel hotter in the room. A bead of sweat worked its way down the side of his head. It was followed by another. And another. And another.

"Have you ever seen what a man looks like when all of the blood in his body boils, Mr. Hunter?"

"You're already going to suffocate me, why cook me, too? Why bother wasting your energy?"

Jacob smiled. "Because, Alex, it's so much fun watching you suffer. It's going to be even more fun seeing Eleanor's face when she sees your dead."

There was a sudden blast of cold wind, and Alex could breath again. Jacob got an annoyed expression on his face. "Speaking of Eleanor... What took you so long, cousin?"

Eleanor stood in the doorway. Behind her, Kelly peered into the room. Jacob, still smiling, studied her. "Tsk, tsk. Your clothes are a mess. And blood stains are so hard to get out." The woman didn't answer. She stepped forward out of the doorway and halted. Her eyes flicked briefly to Alex then she returned her hard stare on Jacob.

"Leave him alone," she said.

"Oh how charming. The brave, and half-dead if I may add, heroine is trying to save her boyfriend. That is so cute. I applaud your courageous efforts."

"Stuff it, Jacob."

Alex felt someone grab his arm. Glancing down, he noticed Kelly. He knelt so he could hear her. "Dr. Johnson said we should get out and stay down," she whispered.

"Why?" he whispered back. Kelly shook her head, but she kept throwing apprehensive looks towards Eleanor, who was still yelling at Jacob. She looked very tense. Alex agreed that now might be a good time to leave before whatever Eleanor let loose what she was holding in.

Alex glanced at Eleanor and swallowed thickly. Grabbing the girl around her waist, he hefted Kelly and sprinted for the door. Behind him, there was a sudden feeling of tremendous pressure. "Oh crap," Alex muttered. Before he made it to the door, all hell broke loose. Alex lost his footing, hit the ground, and rolled to a stop. He used his own body to shield Kelly from whatever was going on.

And whatever was going on, it was very weird.

The walls, the ceiling, even the floor had vanished. Which didn't make any sense since he could still feel the floor beneath him. Everything had dissolved into a glaring neon orange gas. Then the wombats appeared; reality disappeared, and sounds became sights while tastes became sounds. Alex realized that he was going out of his mind. Then he realized he was out of his mind when he found himself staring at himself. Something smacked him in the face and he glanced down to find out that he was holding a dead pig in his hands. Giant elephants were being devoured by tiny fleas. Ice cream cones filled with blood splattered against the nonexistent walls. Then the world imploded and a dinosaur ate the remains. And this was the most normal part of the entire experience.

Alex opened his eyes. Reality had returned to normal. But the walls still seemed to be covered with blood. Alex blinked, trying to clear the illusion from his mind, and finally realized that the blood on the walls was real. He suddenly didn't feel to well. Nearby, Kelly stirred and groaned.

Alex stood up shakily. "Oh man..." he said hoarsely. A hand touched his shoulder and an equally hoarse voice whispered, "Alex." He spun around and threw his arms around Eleanor. "Thank God your alright," He told her. Eleanor returned the hug and gave a soft laugh. "I warned you but did you listen? Of course you didn't. You never did, and I hope you never do, Alex."

Alex drew back and examined her. The entire right side of her shirt was crimson and so was some of her pants. She was disheveled and her face was flushed, but otherwise, she looked fine. Alex smiled. "You look like something tried to eat you and found you unappetizing."

Eleanor chuckled, "That's how I feel." She sighed. "We need to get out of here as soon as possible. The bomb the Jacob built is going to detonate soon."

Alarmed, Alex looked around. "Bomb? What bomb?"

"That bomb." Eleanor gestured towards the center of the room and winced. The air blurred and a tall metal cylinder appeared. The LCD display showed fifteen minutes and it was counting down.

"You're right. We do need to get out of here so we can warn the other people in the building."

"Alex," Eleanor glanced from the bomb to him then to Kelly, "We aren't warning anyone else."

"What?"

Eleanor took a deep breath, "We can't save them, Alex. They have to die. All of them." She forestalled Alex's argument with a stern glare. "They can't escape. Nobody that knows about the BAK project can. If one person with information about BAK gets away and contacts the people we worked for, then they'll be able to restart the project. They will also find out about us," she gestured to include Kelly, "and they'll try to find us. Specifically me. And if that happens, then I'll be right back where I started from, only you, Jessie, Tom, and Kelly would be dead. I can't... No, I won't let that happen." She fell silent.

The sheer hardness of her stare disturbed Alex. He spoke into the silence, "You are talking about the mass murder of over one thousand people. And I'm guessing that many of them have families. And I don't believe you are willing to go that far to end this." Eleanor's gaze softened somewhat and she looked away.

"Then, maybe you don't know me as well as you thought you did." She pushed past Alex and knelt next to Kelly. The girl moaned, but didn't awaken. "She's unconscious. Can you carry her back outside?" Alex carefully picked the girl up and cradled her in his arms. Eleanor was watching the girl's face. Softly, "Take her to the elevators. I'll meet you there."

"Where are you going?"

"There's something I have to do."

Alex paused, uncertain, then nodded. "Be careful, Ellie."

Eleanor looked up at him, surprised by the tone of his voice. A faint smile flickered across her features. "Aren't I always?" she asked him. Then she surprised him by kissing him on the cheek. She turned away before he could do anything else. Alex watched her for what seemed like a long time, then he left the room.

"What happened to you guys? And who's she?" Jessie demanded. Alex waved her away.

"I'll tell you later, Jessie. Where's the van?"

"Over here. It's not in the best shape, though." Alex sighed. Behind him, he heard Eleanor laugh.

"As long as it's running, Jessie, I don't really care. But we need to hurry and leave the area before that bomb blows."

"Bomb?" Jessie said, startled. Alex sighed again.

"Just get in and drive, Jessie." Alex said.

"Well fine then. Don't tell me anything. I can handle being in the dark."

Tom approached. "I think I'll carry the girl, Alex. You look tired ." Alex was more than eager for the switch. He clambered into the last row of seats, grateful for the chance to sit down. Tom stretched Kelly out in the middle row and climbed into the front seat. Eleanor leaned against Alex and sighed deeply, "It feels good to rest." Alex agreed wholeheartedly and shut his eyes. From the driver's seat, Jessie glanced at the two and grinned. "Oh, how sweet!"

"Drive, Jessica," Alex and Eleanor said simultaneously.

For awhile, no one spoke. Jessie cut on the radio and began to sing along to some country song. Tom switched the station. Soon, the two were arguing loudly.

"It's been longer than fifteen minutes," Alex whispered to Eleanor.

"I know," she answered.

"The bomb hasn't gone off."

"I know."

"You disarmed it." He opened his eyes and gazed down at her.

"I know." She smiled.

"And you lied when you said that you were going to die from blood loss."

"I did?"

"Yes, you did." Was it just his imagination, or did her smile widen slightly?

"You're right, I did. I thought you wouldn't catch that one."

"My God, Eleanor. You can be so frustrating at times."

"I know." A slight chuckle.

Alex sighed, "Is there anything you don't know?"

"Yeah, there is. Like when are those two immature adults going to shut up so that I can get some sleep?" she yelled at the two up front. Jessie gave Eleanor an innocent grin and went back to bickering with Tom. It was Alex's turn to laugh.

"So, what are we going to do now?"

Eleanor settled back against Alex and relaxed. "Take Kelly home to her mother. Get me to a doctor. And get away from the two nutcases up front."

"And what are you going to do after all that is done with?"

"I don't know. Sell my place and go to some other country?"

"Sounds like a plan to me. Of course, being as paranoid as I am about what just happened, I'll have to follow you to insure your constant safety."

"Safety my foot. You're going to follow me because you're madly in love with me and can't bear to leave my side."

"Ha! You wish."

"Fine. I'll go by myself." Alex laughed. "Wait a minute... You little liar. You were going to follow me anyway!"

Alex smiled and hugged her. "I know."

Eleanor stood on a balcony in a hotel. Her eyes scanned the horizon, then were drawn, almost instinctively to a distant point. She no longer wore the sling around her arm. Her shoulder had healed almost completely. Another miracle of science.

Alex had left earlier and was securing their flight from Los Angeles to France. Eleanor had claimed not to feel well; explaining that she was having slight nausea from the BAK anti-virus she had taken. It had been only a half-truth. Eleanor felt sick, but it was not because of the serum. She hadn't taken the serum. Instead, she had thrown it out.

She could still sense them, even all the way across the country. Voices, hundreds of them. Animal and human. And they would hunt her down. Unless...

"No," she said aloud. "I made a promise. I will not kill again."

A voice answered her. The sound of it chilled her very blood. She had thought that voice was long gone. And let them kill you instead? Hardly a fair trade, X.

"My name is not X."

Face it, you've been X since they injected you. That was the day Eleanor Johnson died, right? Promises to dead friends are no longer valid.

"Nevertheless, I will keep my word."

Uh, huh. And when they try to hurt Alex? What then, oh mighty one?

"Stop mocking me. I'm sick of it."

The voice laughed coldly. Oh, you're sick all right. You have a choice: Stay Eleanor and watch everything you love crumble around you, or let me loose and kill them all. What do you say, X? It'll be just like the time you killed the guards. Release me and I'll handle the rest.

Her sigh was a heavy one. Because of them, she had no choice. Well, because of them and the BAK raging through her bloodstream. "Damn you," she said softly and let her eyes close.

Her mind separating itself from her body and was back in that room as fast as she could think. The bomb remained as she had left it; invisible to anyone else's eyes except her own. Eleanor sighed. She placed an invisible hand on the bomb and concentrated. The LCD display re-lit, showed all eights for a few seconds, then returned to the time it had been at when she had stopped it.

Removing her hand, she sent an unconscious command to every living thing in the building telling them not to leave under any circumstances. Then she returned to her own body in California.

"Are you feeling any better?" Alex asked, placing his hand on her shoulder. Eleanor jumped, startled, and gave him a weak smile. "Yeah. A little." Alex smiled and nodded. "Well, we've got several hours till our flight. I'm going to take a shower."

"Okay," she answered absently. Her eyes were once again draw to that distant point. Alex studied her carefully. "They can't hurt you anymore," he told her.

"I know that," she answered. She watched for a moment longer, then pulled her gaze away and smiled at Alex. "Really, Alex, I'm fine. Go take your shower." She gave Alex a firm push towards the balcony door. Grumbling about never knowing anything, he left.

Eleanor entered the main room and dug through her stuff. I wish I could tell you everything, Alex. I didn't want to lie to you, but I won't endanger any more lives. From one bag, she pulled out her passport and a plane ticket for Germany. Although Operation Takeover is gone, the government won't be happy to hear that their perfect soldier escaped and they are going to try to get X... to get me back. And I know for a fact that they will kill to do so. She quickly crammed as much clothing as she could into one suitcase. I know they won't hurt me, but they will hurt Alex and others just to get to me. I won't let that happen. She called room service and checked to see if her cab had arrived. It had.

She hesitated at the door. Walking out meant being alone for the rest of her life. If she stayed, she would be able to stay with the one person in her life that she truly cared about, but for how long before he was killed? Could she leave him? More importantly, did she have a choice? She sighed, wishing that for once in her life the choices that she had to make would be easy.

But then, nothing in life was ever easy. Or without a price.

X stepped into the hallway and glanced behind her briefly before closing the door. She did, after all, have a plane to catch.

…

…

………..still here? I'm impressed. You're probably suffering from imaginative overload by now (I know I am.), but just hold on for one more Session. We'll be taking to the skies in part 5: Science Fiction.

It's short, I promise.

All works are copyright 2003 Kristin Renee Taylor. Plagiarists will be pursued to the fullest extent of the law, and crazy ferrets will eat your eyeballs while I sing kareoke. You've been warned. This has been a production of Blueberry Enterprises. Really, you don't want to hear me sing…