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Chapter 3: Flight! Part 1

"Damnit! Ixel you have to get up," Tod urged the seemingly lifeless hybrid. He lowered his ear to her chest. No heartbeat or breathing either. Somewhere between scared and desperate he looked around at the passers-by who had stopped to look at what was going on. "Someone please help her," he pleaded though none made any moves to render aid or even make a phone call. With a frustrated growl he took her arm and slung it across his shoulders and stood to his feet lifting her dead weight. He couldn't believe how heavy she was, and he wasn't sure he was going to be able to drag her unassisted down the block to the urgent care center but he was sure going to try.

He didn't get but a couple of steps before she suddenly gasped for air and shuddered, her weight shifting suddenly as she moved her feet underneath her. He stumbled and just about dropped her right there but he managed to stay upright. "Ixel? Are you alright? You just about gave me heart failure!" he asked, all his words coming out in a rush of relief and concern.

Ixel, in a haze of confusion, pushed him away, immediately ending up falling to the ground again on her knees and holding her head in her hands. "Where am I?" she asked and looked up at the genet. "Who are you? What is this place?" she asked looking lost and frightened. She started backing away from him on her knees.

The commotion finally attracted the attention of someone standing nearby, a large tiger in a pair of grey cargo pants and loose fitting black tee shirt who detached himself from the crowd and started to walk toward the pair.

Tod didn't notice the tiger at first. He lowered to his knees in front of the confused girl to be more at level with her. "It's just me, Tod," he said to her keeping eye contact. "Can you stand? We need to get you to the hospital," he said keeping his voice low and soft so as to appear as non-threatening as possible.

Ixel continued her slow retreat from the genet, checking her surroundings with natural senses alone while her wetware reinitialized. "Where am I?" she asked again. "Why am I not in the lab?"

"You're in Southhaven, Ixel. I don't know what happened, but you've had an attack or something. Don't you remember?"

"Is everything OK here, sir?" said a gruff voice behind him. Tod looked up to find the tiger behind him staring intently at Ixel. "I'm a doctor. I can help."

Tod stood to his feet and took a step back from the confused hybrid. "Oh thank goodness! I'm not sure what happened. We were walking together and she just collapsed. She wasn't breathing and I couldn't find a pulse for several seconds. She woke back up just as suddenly but she's got some kind of amnesia."

The tiger's eyes never left Ixel as Tod explained the situation. He placed his paw on the genet's shoulder giving it a rather firm squeeze. "Don't worry," he rumbled. "I'm sure I can help her. You stay here."

Something about the tiger's demeanor made Tod feel anything but reassured. As he stepped toward the hybrid Tod got a good look at him. He was large and powerfully built, at least 6 and a half feet tall and had a nasty scar across the bridge of his muzzle. His initial impression would be security rather than doctor if he had to take a guess. He noticed the doctor mumble something into his wrist. Curious.

"You were on a mission when we lost contact," the tiger told the girl in a low voice, barely audible. "I've been sent to retrieve you and return you to the lab for debriefing, 31."

In a flash, Tod understood at least part of what was going on. These were the people that his friend was trying to avoid! "Oh hey, it looks like she's going to be able to walk so I'll take her to the hospital," he offered stepping forward.

The tiger suddenly turned and Tod found himself looking down the barrel of a handgun pointed right between his eyes. "I said I will help her and you stay there, spotty," the tiger growled. "Now how about you go get nice and personal with that wall over there. Put your nose on it and don't move unless I tell you otherwise."

A chorus of gasps and screams and running feet could be heard as the crowd scattered in all directions away from the scene. Ixel was watching Tod intently. She didn't seem scared anymore but it was impossible to determine what she might be thinking.

Tod slowly walked back toward the wall, eyes flicking between the gun and the hybrid. Five figures in similar attire to the tiger started to advance on the scene, not scared off by sudden turn of events and each one drawing a sidearm out into the open. "Ixel run!" he suddenly shouted out to her. "They're here to..."

A shot rang out sending a shower of rubble from the brick that the bullet embedded itself into not far from Tod's head. His ears rang and he jumped flattening his back against the wall with both hands up. The tiger's full attention was on him and the other people looked his way as well in that moment.

"I said nose against the wall!" the tiger growled in irritation. "Now shut the fuck up or the next one is going to go between your eyes!"

What happened next seem to flow in slow motion for the genet. He bared his teeth in anger at the tiger but was silent, about to turn around to face the wall. In the next moment, he saw his assailant's head twisted at an unnatural angle with a sickening crack while in the same motion Ixel stripped the gun from his lifeless hand and fired off 5 shots dropping the five armed men before the tiger's body even hit the ground. She took a moment to scan the area then turned to Tod. "Are you ok?" she asked him.

He simply stared at her for a moment, then his eyes rolled back in his head and his was the next body to hit the ground.

For a few moments, Ixel was conflicted for the second time that day and for a similar reason. The proper thing to do would be to leave him here and get out of the area quickly. But the possible ramifications for the genet should she leave him here like this could lead to legal trouble for him for the rest of his life. Or worse, the team dispatched to collect her could capture and interrogate him to try to find her. She knelt and picked him up easily, patting his cheek with her palm. Tod, wake up. Please, it's not safe here," she urged him. She had already picked up the chatter on the police dispatch channel and knew she had very limited time.

Tod came to fairly quickly, groaning aloud then startling as he looked up at her face. "Ixel? You're alright?" he asks as he struggled out of her arms getting to his feet. "You have got to get out of here! They're hunting you." He was still a little groggy and unsteady on his feet. He grabbed her by the arms though giving her a shake. "Go on, run. Get out of here while you can. I'll stall them here." The realization that he would be the lone survivor in the midst of 6 dead bodies hadn't hit him yet.

Ixel smiled when he woke up despite the situation, glad to see that her friend was ok. "I know," she replied and then started rifling through the tiger's pockets collecting his gun, wallet, and spare clips. "Small arms," she said holding up the gun as if doing so was supposed to communicate something. "They weren't expecting to contact me directly." She stood upright and looked him in the eyes. "There will be more and they will be better armed. You need to go. Run far away from here. They are after me, not you, and you are not safe with me. I will find you later when it is safe to do so."

Tod stared right back at her. "Isn't that what I just told you to do?" he asked her. "After what just happened there is no way I'm leaving you on your own. You just blanked out," he protested. "You fell over like you were dead or something and when you came to you couldn't remember anything. What if that happens again? They'll just collect you."

Ixel's pockets could only hold so much so she improvised by tearing the shirt off of the tiger's body and started laying items out on it. She quickly started doing the same pocket check with the other gunmen taking weapons, ammo and personal effects. "It will not happen again," she told him while efficiently frisking the other bodies. "I can evade the rest of them and lead them away from the town. I do not want you to get hurt." She looked at him making sure he understood what she was saying.

"You don't know that," Tod protested while helpfully relieving one of the bodies of their personal belongings and weapon. "I don't want you to get hurt either. You are a *person* not property, and no one is going to take you somewhere against your will as long as I have any say in it." He brought the items over to deposit them on the growing pile on the shirt and the two fell into silence while they finished frisking the final bodies. Once done, she gathered the edges of the shirt up making a makeshift sack of it to carry the items in.

She popped a magazine into one of the guns and handed it to him, a modified Colt 1911 .45 caliber. Further argument would only waste more time, and time was something they were very short on based on the sound of the approaching sirens. "Do you know how to shoot?" she asked him.

He accepted the gun by the handle, but did not slide his finger into the trigger space. "No," he replied honestly, "but who is going to ask someone holding a gun if he knows how to use it?" He gave her a quick grin. The experience didn't quench his sense of humor at least. "If you've got everything, we need to get out of here. The police are on the way and if anyone in the crowd described what happened even close to accurately they may be bringing in the SWAT team too. That was pretty damned impressive." What he didn't add is that he about wet himself when she efficiently took out the tiger and his team too.

Ixel simply nodded to that. The logic was sound and Tod had already proven to be useful as a distraction buying her time. "You need to learn, but not now. Let us go. There is a place I know of that we can use as a temporary hiding spot," she said and started leading him through back alleys and streets he didn't even know existed, setting a pace that made it difficult for him to keep up on foot. He resorted to holding the firearm in his mouth while chasing after her on all fours in order to not get left behind. A couple of fences were easily scaled by the both of them in their flight. At last she led him to an abandoned warehouse in the industrial district, close to the city docks. She chose a side door that was padlocked, well out of sight from any of the roads surrounding the building. To Tod's surprise she just grabbed the lock and ripped it off of the door, hasp and all. "Get inside," she urged him holding the door open.

Tod scurried in and she closed the door behind them locking the doorknob lock behind them. She scanned the area and checked the emergency response channels for any indication of pursuit. Satisfied that they were safe for now, she led him into a side office. The warehouse had clearly been unused for some time. A thick layer of dust and soot covered every available surface and even the local weeds had started to make a foothold growing in between the cracks in the floor wherever there was sunlight and a leak in the roof. A thick musty smell permeated the entire facility. Ixel laid the makeshift sack out on a dirty steel table near the office door, then turned to her fellow fugitive before going through the contents.

"I am sorry that you got caught up in this," she said with her head lowered slightly, looking apologetic.

Tod took the gun out of his mouth and laid it on the table top. "Don't be. You tried to tell me this morning and I didn't believe you. *I'm* sorry," he replied. "I guess you saw something like this coming. Do you have a plan for what to do, or did those thugs trying to capture you in broad daylight mess things up for you?"

She shook her head. "No, I was planning to leave today no matter what actually happened and I had planned for several scenarios. Except for you," she added, looking at him. "This is not your fight, Tod. Helping me will only mean more trouble for you. I can only hope that the people who witnessed the attack will have difficulty describing you to the police."

"That is wishful thinking and you know it," he said reaching over to rest his hand on her forearm. "I am the only genet in town and many of the residents would recognize me. It looks like we are partners whether we want to be or not." He grinned at her as much to reassure himself as her. "It could be worse. I could be in trouble with the law over someone far less attractive."

As was par for the course, she did not understand the humor in that, even though she did recognize by this point that he was trying to be funny. She smiled back at him. "I want to thank you for your help in keeping the agents distracted during my system reset. That has never happened before. It should not be possible at all." She shook her head.

"What *did* happen back there? We were talking and then it was like someone hit your off switch or something?"

Ixel started looking through the items that they pulled from the dead would-be attackers while she replied. "A short range tracking beacon that I was not aware existed turned on spontaneously. It was not fully compatible with my primary processing systems and it caused a system reset. I have disabled that subsystem and am running a low priority full diagnostic routine to make sure nothing else might cause a similar event. Much of my wetware consists of first generation prototypes so glitches are a possible ongoing concern, especially without access to updates and tuning in the lab." She emptied out a wallet - state-issued ID, some bank cards, petty cash, and another ID card which she quickly scanned and then showed to Tod. "Talon Security. They are a private security company with extensive government contracts. Most of their agents are ex-special forces. We can expect them to be far better prepared and armed next time."

Meanwhile Tod just stared at her for a moment. "Ok, you're losing me here. What is wetware? And with all of this talk of jamming cameras and tracking beacons and whotnot I haven't seen you access any, oh, I dunno, spy devices or nano computer thing-a-ma-jigs or stuff like that."

Ixel continued looking through the other wallets while she talked. Cash was set aside in the same pile as guns and knives. The 'useful' pile. Cards, wallets, and other unnecessary items were put in the discard pile. "I told you, Tod. I am a weapon. I do not carry devices; they are integrated into my body and genetic coding. My brain for example is half artificial, half biological, and completely engineered. The biological side allows for easier cultural and language processing as well as housing the instinctive parts of the various predator species that I was genetically engineered from. This was a less expensive and faster method than developing a full AI, though designs were drawn for future series to use a fully artificial brain with AI. The artificial half takes care of threat assessment and response systems, heads-up display, active and passive EM scanners, on-board combat computer, and other systems which would be hard to explain to you easily."

"Including, perhaps, a short range tracking beacon that has the potential to, um, reboot you?" he asked her with eyebrows raised. "That seems a little too conveniently timed to be a coincidence. What other things might there be hiding in your 'wetware' that might pop up and cause a real problem? You don't have an actual off switch do you?"

The discard pile was moved back onto the shirt-turned-pouch. She finally turned to look at him. "No it was not a coincidence," she agreed. "That tracking device was not in my original specification so it must have been installed at another facility without the knowledge of my creators. I was taken to other labs a few times for various purposes and it may have been added during one of those visits. The security team must have known I was in the general area and activated it to give them exact coordinates to my location. They were likely as surprised as I was with the results." she mused, then added. "I no longer have a kill switch. That was surgically removed just prior to my escape."

Tod just shook his head. "I going to stick with you, regardless. It sounds like there are too many possibilities for something unexpected to disable you for you to be left entirely on your own. You'll have to tell me more about your life before we met, but later. I feel like we're running out of time here and I don't even have the knowledge of these people that you do. So what is our exit strategy? After dark I am presuming?"

Ixel popped the bullets out of one of the clips. "Yes. We should be safe from satellite surveillance here and much of the glass in this building is the sodium wire reinforced type, which will make it more difficult to break into as well as shield us partially from thermal scans. I did not want you to be dragged into this," she said, looking at him. "I am glad for your companion.. I mean your company and appreciate your help. However, I need the extra time to think through how to get both of us out of here safely."

She loaded the empty clip into the gun and handed it to him. "And you need to learn to handle a firearm. I hate to say it, but you may soon need to use one."

He held the gun thoughtfully, looking at it. "Let's hope not. If these guys are ex military it is highly unlikely I'd stand much of a chance and if you shut down again.." He looked up at her. "I don't think I can pull off another couple of minutes of distraction like before while waiting for you to come back. Not with both of our hides intact anyway. This white fur of mine isn't doing us any favors either," he added, brushing some soot off of his hip which had bumped into the tabletop. "There's enough dirt and soot around here that I can probably darken my fur with it since I don't have any fur dye handy. I'd make a passable enough mink or weasel from a distance."

Ixel looked him over dubiously. "That could help, at least for moving about tonight," she said trying to sound optimistic. "I cannot promise that a similar occurrence will not happen again. Most of my wetware is experimental and designed specifically for me. Several systems have not been fully tested yet. I was not certified for field work yet. The compatibility problem was something I could correct but without the resources of my lab available to me, there are limits to what I can do in case of a problem. If I should have another system shutdown..." She let her voice trail off, figuring he could get the picture. "You should find a place to lay low once we leave here. They will not waste resources looking for you if I can keep them chasing me."

He nodded his head. "This is all new to me. I can think on my feet, but I'm kinda in your hands at the moment," he admitted. Now that there was time to think instead of just react, he could admit to himself that there was no place for false machismo by 'defending his girl'. And for the first time he realized that he was even thinking of her that way. "I don't like the idea of you on the run with the potential for other compatibility issues, but I'm sure I'm probably slowing you down. If you need to dump me off somewhere I understand. But at least give me something to do so that I can at least feel like I'm helping you in some way." He smiled at her sheepishly.

Ixel regarded him with mixed emotions, which was a very strange state for her. Under normal circumstances, she would have already left him to whatever fate and escaped to further plan the next steps in her self-appointed mission. Logically this was the proper course of action. Emotionally she felt attached to him in a way she could not explain, and she was overly concerned for his well-being - in direct conflict with her training. Emotional engagement was retained in her programming in order for her to be able to relate to other people that she would come in contact with in the course of missions. Previous prototypes had been utter failures in the field because without emotions they were simple war machines, and they could not make appropriate value judgements or compromises.

"As of this morning, you are probably not safe either with me or not," she said slowly, finally speaking what had been nagging at the back of her mind. "You said we are partners. Talon is going to think that after you helped me take down their men. They do not know what kind of alliance we have so it is reasonable to assume that they will simply view you as a threat and deal with you accordingly."

The smile disappeared from Tod's face. He nodded.

"I need to get to my camp and gather my things before it gets dark. I should not be much longer than an hour or two. Let me show you how to use that," she said, gesturing at the gun he was holding.

It was a crash course to be sure with her demonstrating proper stance, aiming and basics of how to fire the gun in just a few minutes while he copied her. He was an attentive student and felt confident enough that he could properly operate the firearm in the short time that they spent practicing. She handed him about half of the clips and stuck the others in her pocket along with the cash and scattered the rest of the equipment across the tabletop and floor. "They'll eventually discover that we were here. This will help make it look like we came here, got what we wanted, and left. I am going to go out through the door we came in and you follow me a couple of minutes later. If they get here before I return, our footprints will look like we left already. Unless they have dogs they will search briefly and leave. There is a tree on the other side of the warehouse that overhangs the roof enough that you should be able to climb it and get back in through one of the open windows. Watch for rusted spots in the roof."

"Got it," he said with a nod, setting the safety on the gun. "Now go. I'm going to darken my fur and then follow you out. If you get back and everything has gone to hell I want you to leave and not look back. I'll either be dead or in custody, and there's so little I actually know about you that there isn't much that they can get out of me anyway. You'll be safe." He then grinned and gave her a quick hug. "I care about you, Ixel. I'm glad we got to know each other, in spite of the current mess we're in."

The embrace surprised her, but she returned it. "Be careful, I will return soon," she said as she stepped away from him. "If anyone comes, get out of here as fast as you can. I will find you." With those final instructions she grinned at him and gave him one last surprise. Dark scales turned to green with a banded pattern making her look much like an iguana without the frills and spikes. She winked and then quickly left the building without making a sound.

Tod had to chuckle. She was full of surprises. Once she was gone he looked around the warehouse trying to locate the darkest dirtiest corner he could. He disliked being dirty but under the circumstances he was just going to have to suck it up. He took a deep breath and simply rolled around in a pile of industrial offal getting himself covered up to his neck in soot. His face he treated more gingerly gathering some of the soot and smearing it into his fur avoiding his eyes and nose. He ended up coughing on account of the dust anyway but by the time he was done he was indeed a much darker genet sporting a uniform coaldust grey coat. After a patting down and hopping in place to dislodge the loosest of the soot from his fur, he sighed and then grabbed his firearm and walked out of the warehouse following Ixel's trail until he reached the fence. He scaled it and then turned down the alley where the detritus blowing around in the yard would clear any trace of his passage until he reached the tree. Gun in mouth he, scaled it and carefully walked along the roof to a partially open window that gave him access to one of the ceiling support girders. He stretched out along the shadowed girder to wait.