Doppelganger

Chapter 21

The buildings went by in a gray-black blur as Alec pushed the stolen streetbike to the limit. When he had gotten the call from Quip, he had been attempting to get a fine young woman's number, but he was also unable to keep his mind off the half-pint he'd left at home. He knew should've taken her to Joshua's if he was going to leave her alone at night; she was too smart for her own good in some instances and then horribly naïve and kiddish in others. He wasn't sure where this current incident fell, but he'd be damned if he wasn't going to find her and fix it.

When his cell vibrated, Alec had known it was her. It was as if his Quip-sense was tingling, like that Spiderman guy from those old movies who knew instinctively when something was going wrong. Her panicked voice had made his fists clench, but he had gotten the information he had needed before whoever was chasing her found her.

The streetbike he had stolen had been right outside Crash and hotwiring it had only taken a few seconds; it was faster than finding a working car in that part of town.

Reaching the burnt-out mall had been the easy part. Throwing people around until someone finally told him that two grunts had run off with his kid might have been considered the hard part except for the fact that Alec was so enthusiastic about it. Street people were not ones to freely give information, but after they had seen how effortlessly he could break bones, they had been a little more forthcoming with the information.

The two men were huge, Caucasian and had left with a little blond girl that looked a lot like him about twenty minutes ago. They had been heading in the direction of the docks, but no one knew exactly where, though some scruffy Hispanic kid with a missing arm identified them as Russian.

Krenski had Quip. It wasn't hard to put the facts together. He had probably been doing an ever widening sweep of the area where Quip had seen him and had been searching for the kid that had one-upped him.

Alec cursed at himself as he pushed the bike to its limit, dodging around other vehicles and narrowly missing pedestrians who wandered into the street. He should've protected her better, he should've helped Max and Logan find that damn Russian when they couldn't do it on their own, he should've...He should've done a lot of things, but dwelling on the possibilities wasn't going to help Quip.

He needed a plan, an infallible one, but it was impossible to actually make one without knowing anything besides the fact that Krenski's grunts had snatched Quip and he was going to make them painfully regret it in the most literal sense.

When he reached the docks, he parked the stolen streetbike and left it in a semi-hidden spot between some old pylons. Cold air wafted in off the sound and there was a quiet electronic noise carried on it.

Alec ducked behind a concrete pillar as a hoverdrone floated by, off on its search for petty criminals and people who didn't really deserve to be caught while...shit, Logan must've been getting to him. Right now, the hovering security device was a problem, and the sooner it was gone, the better.

Without anything to stop it, it drifted on, making its slow sweep of the area. When it had gone a safe distance, Alec ran out from behind his pillar and blurred across the street. Before the pulse, this area had been a big tourist destination, or that's what the old timers in his building said. He crouch down underneath a window that sported a torn sign telling about a mummy that was inside the store. A big creepy organ stood nearby, providing good cover from the streets.

If Krenski was as rich as it seemed, he would probably have tight security, though Alec wasn't very worried about breaching it. He was an X5, a damn good Research and Development project and Krenski had stolen something that was his; nothing was going to keep him from getting her back.

After checking again that his two handguns were loaded and ready, Alec headed to the back of the building. From there, it was easier to sneak around and not be exposed like he would be if he came from the front.

He thought that Max and Logan had searched this area, but it could be that Krenski had been moving around the city, never settling in one spot. That would be a smart move since he probably knew he had someone after him, though Alec doubted he knew exactly 'what' was after him.

Alec could smell something strange in the air, something else among the scent of the sound and bodies. The smell of chemicals, ones that he recognized. Reds. The African enhancement implant. He had had run-ins with guys hyped up on those before, back when he had run missions in Europe. He wasn't aware that any were in the U.S., but Manticore wasn't always big on spilling unnecessary information to its pet projects.

However, that made Quip's kidnapping make more sense. It would be difficult, almost impossible, for normal humans to chase down an X8. They were created for agility, flexibility and speed, not strength, but with a momentary boost, some people with Red implants could match an X8 for speed over short distances. It also helped that Quip was just a kid and not completely developed or trained; it would make it easier for Reds to snatch her.

Quietly, he followed their scent, sticking to the shadows, determined to locate Krenski's hideout and kill him or maim him, whichever suited Alec's fancy when the time came. Either was an acceptable outcome, though the maiming might be more satisfying.