(ZACK – when he and lydecker go in search of tinga)
He’d never known fury or felt the need for vengeance quite the way he felt it now. This was a rage so consuming, a desperation so deep and burning that it scorched his gut and seared through his veins and even made bile seem sweet by comparison. It was an entirely new level of sensation and he found hmself turning the Colonel’s words over in his mind:
‘Make it work for you.’
Oh, he would. He would turn the emotion into the energy he needed to end the son of a bitch who killed his sister. It was that simple. To hell with protocol, regulations be damned. The man was going *down*.
Turning his weapon on his companion, Zack disengaged the saftey with an ‘click’ that sounded loudly in the otherwise quiet room.
“What are you doing, son?” Lydecker asked cautiously, careful not to make any sudden movements that might set the younger man off.
“Did you know what was in these reports before you told me to read them? Was this some sort of sick joke?
Mocking me to my face and trapping me all at once?”
“I don’t follow, son.”
“I’m *not* your son! Stop pretending to care, you son of a bitch!”
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t care, Zack,” Lydecker defended. “I don’t know what triggered this…sudden animosity, but if you tell me what the problem is, I’m sure we can work it all out. Now, why don’t you put the gun down and we can discuss this rationally?”
Zack pressed the barrel against Lydecker’s temple and stared at him through narrowed eyes.
“You planned this. What did you do, record Max’s voice? Have her set up the meet and then kill her because she wasn’t conforming to standards?”
“Max is very much alive, Zack, I can assure you.”
‘Crack!’ The pistol came down hard on Lydecker’s cheek, breaking the skin.
“Careful with that,” Lydecker cooed despite the soreness of his jaw, “You wouldn’t want to do anything you might regret, Son.”
“I don’t think I’d regret taking out the guy who made our lives hell from day one. Or the bastard who murdered my sister.”
“Why do you keep saying that? I left Max on the other side of the silo, Zack, along with a team of soldiers dedicated to rescuing Tinga.”
“Explain this!” Zack shouted, shoving the file in front of Lydecker’s face, exposing the image of a girl who looked just like Max labeled ‘Deceased’. The file was dated from one week earlier and listed cause of death as a shot to the heart.
“That’s not Max, Zack.”
“Liar! Look at her; that’s Max!”
“Zack. Look closely. The barcodes are different. That’s X5-453.”
====================
“Someone knew we were coming, it’s the only explanation. You finding that file was a set-up.”
“But why? What good would it do to make me believe Max was dead?”
“Distraction. Give them more time to move into position, maybe. All I know is that we lost precious time and now I’m not getting anything from Max or her unit.”
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