Chapter 5

The sun was setting on another day when Lydecker entered his own house. He turned on the lights to the living room and sat down on the sofa. Immediately the eyes were upon him. Her deep brown eyes and shining smile reflected at him from the picture frame on the mantle. A joy filled laugh echoed through the silence in his mind as he remembered her. His wife and only true love.

Lydecker did not know why he had begun to think of her so much as of late. His own belief that emotional attachments limit a person did not apply here at all. She had been his inspiration and his downfall.

The latest reports of escaped X5 activity sat on the coffee table. At the top of them was Max's presence in Seattle. Another record from two days before mentioned a girl getting a barcode removed at a tattoo parlor only a few miles away from Manticore. Maybe it had been a bad decision or maybe it was one of his kids. It would be another thing to investigate.

He sighed, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes. Those kids didn't know what was good for them. Maybe he had been foolish to attach himself to them so emotionally.

There had been Max, who Lydecker had created from his wife's inspiration. The eyes, the hair, and a much further exaggeration of her grace than his wife had possessed. The other girl, no she would be a woman by now, that came into his mind was X5-825 or Ivy as her siblings had called her. However, unbeknownst to all but one Manticore scientist (long since killed off), 825 had been the next step in Lydecker's preservation of his wife's memory. She was their child, created from a frozen embryo concocted in lab after a visit to a fertility specialist when Lydecker's wife was still alive. She had always wanted children.

Lydecker had been at the birth of every X5, but when 825 had been born something had been different. 825 was his own offspring and despite how Lydecker frequently despised himself he remembered looking upon the newborn infant with the impression of perfection. The night she had escaped with the others was still clear in his mind.

Lydecker could have prevented it, but the only way would have been to shoot his own daughter.

Lydecker glanced back at the Hummer and grunted a breath. They were escaping right under his grasp. He stared into the frozen trees for a moment before taking some steps into a copse of pine trees. It was then that she had seemed to fall right into his lap.

A small, thin figure tumbled out of the trees and stopped only a few feet before him. Recognizing the child instantly as an X5 Lydecker trained his weapon on him or her. He would not fire unless necessary.

The child looked up at him and Lydecker lowered his gun. Blue eyes met. X5-825 stared at him in fear. Lydecker stepped back and waved a hand. "Go!"

The young child only stared at him, half-frightened. There was confusion in her eyes and horror whenever her gaze settled on the gun. "Sir…"

Lydecker sighed and nodded. "That's an order, 825! Get out of here!"

The girl half nodded and swiftly backed away into the trees.

Back in the present of post-pulse America, Lydecker stared at his wife's picture. "I miss you."


Ivy was sitting on her bed finishing off the last of her homework when there was a knock on her bedroom door. This was probably the inevitable talk about her sneaking out. Jack had been too busy to lecture her for the past two days.

"Ivy? Can I come in?" Jack said.

Ivy tossed down the textbook and sighed. "Yeah."

The door opened and Jack looked around the room. "Well, I haven't been in here for a while."

Ivy smiled. "I, uh, really couldn't stand the blank walls." She had plastered the walls with photos.

Jack nodded as he sat down at the desk. "Ivy, where were you really the other night?"

Ivy smiled sweetly. Still clad in the camouflage fatigues of his day job, Major Jack Kinlan was intimidating, but Ivy knew he had a soft spot for her. "I was with Jessica and Megan. We went to see a movie," Ivy admitted. "It ran too late and I meant to call, but…"

Jack raised a hand. "Ivy, I trust you, but you're also just a seventeen-year-old girl and there are people out there who would –"

Ivy rolled her eyes. Here we go again. "Believe me when I tell you that I can take care of myself."

Her father sighed and smiled. "I know you think you can, but there are people who would target a beautiful girl like you. Your mother read something about that self-defense course being offered at your school. We want you to take it."

Ivy laughed. "Dad, that would be a waste of time. I could drop a two-hundred pound man with my thumb. Remember when Uncle Patrick tried to sneak up on me last Christmas."

Jack shared the laugh as he remembered back to that event. "Ivy, as I recall, Patrick was stone drunk that day."

Ivy shrugged. "It didn't make him any lighter."

Jack's face became serious. "What are you going to do if someone bigger than you tries to attack you?"

"Break my cello over their head?" Ivy inquired from creative thought.

Jack stood and paced. He sighed. "Ivy, we just want you to be safe. Will you do this? For us?"

Ivy hesitated and then nodded. "It's gonna be a waste of time though."

Jack headed for the door. "Tell me that when it saves your life."


Ivy sat cross-legged on the gym floor among the other girls who had been forced into participating. It was late afternoon and she was currently daydreaming about sleeping late the next morning. She was jolted back to reality by the rhythm of footsteps echoing across the wooden floor.

A tall man, probably in his late twenties strolled in. He was obviously military by the strides her took. He stopped a few feet in front of the group of girls. "I'm Sergeant Parker. I'll be teaching the self-defense course over the next week. I'm sure you all think you have better things to do so I'll be brief. The bottom line when it comes to self-defense is to disable your attacker and run. Don't try to be a hero. Just get out of there." He prattled on for several minutes.

Ivy was tuning out when the instructor started shouting, snapping her back to reality.

"You! What's your name?" He had stopped pacing right in front of her.

Ivy pointed at herself and the instructor nodded. "Ivy."

The man beckoned her up.

Ivy stood.

"Now, looking at Ivy here for an example, she's not a big girl. What do you weight 110?"

"Something like that," Ivy shrugged. She hardly wanted her weight made public knowledge.

Parker nodded. "Anyways the point is that size doesn't matter. You can defend yourself against a person twice your size. Watch what I demonstrate here. We're going to see what you know so far. Ivy, I'm going to attack you from the back. You do what your instincts tell you."

Ivy nodded, stood still and waited. She honestly wasn't sure what to expect. Suddenly, she was aware of the man behind her. His breathing was soft, but it vibrated the air and his footsteps echoed. He was coming from the right. In an instant she felt his arms wrap around her, but Ivy was one step ahead. She grabbed his right arm and twisted it to force him to release her. Once he let her go she twisted away and dropped down and kicked one leg out under him. The man fell flat on his back.

Ivy stood up slowly. There were whispers among the other students. They all just stared at her.

"How the hell did you do that?" Sergeant Parker questioned, getting up off the floor. "Ivy?"

Ivy blinked and zoned back into reality. "I don't know."

The man studied her for a moment, then shook his head. "Well, good work. Okay everyone, pair up."

Later on, Ivy was packing her gym shoes in her bag and pulling on her jacket to leave with the rest of the class when the Sergeant approached her.

"You're Major Kinlan's daughter right?" Parker questioned. "You don't look like him…or Mary for that matter."

Ivy shrugged. "I'm adopted. Do you work with him?"

The man shook his head. "No. I work under Colonel Lydecker. You've got some natural talent, Ivy. And you say you've never done anything like this before?"

She shrugged. "Not that I remember."

The man smiled. "Well, tell your dad, you don't really need a class to defend yourself. But you might want to work on your technique. If I'd known you could fight, I would've been expecting that and dodged it. You sure you didn't pick that up from Jack?"

"Why?" Ivy questioned.

Parker shrugged. "Some of the stuff you were doing looked like standard hand-to-hand training the army teaches."

Ivy shrugged again. "It was kind of natural."


Jack was working late so it was only Ivy and her mother at the dinner table that night.

"So how did the self-defense class go?" Mary questioned as she passed a bowl to Ivy.

Ivy shrugged as she picked at her food. "I knocked the teacher on his back."

Mary raised an eyebrow. "You're joking right?"

"No. He must have been testing me or something," Ivy suggested. "Anyways I've been looking at schools and I've already got my application filled out. I just need the processing fee."

Mary sighed. "Sweetie, are we going to get stuck in this conversation again."

"Mom, I can pay for it," Ivy pleaded. "I'll give music lessons."

Mary shook her head. "People these days are saving their money for things worthwhile, like food."

Ivy stabbed a piece of lettuce with her fork and stuffed it in her mouth. "I am not enlisting. I know you and Dad were practically born into the Army, but it is not what I was born to do."

"I'm not telling you that you have to," Mary defended. "Ivy, there are so many things you could do. Even if you go to school, there's no guarantee you won't end up flipping burgers somewhere. In some places you would be lucky even to find that kind of job."

Ivy put down her fork and pushed her chair out from the table. "You don't have control over me. You can't tell me what to do."

"What?" Mary questioned. "Ivy, I love you. I would never-"

"Then why can't I?" Ivy questioned. "Mom, do you know what my IQ is?"

"You're a smart girl, Ivy, but the world doesn't care about that," Mary pressed the issue. "The world today is like a lottery and only a few people have winning tickets. The rest are out in the cold. Your father and I love you too much to see you get hurt."

"Yeah," Ivy said, standing up and shoving the chair back against the table. "That's what you always say." She stomped up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door.

Ivy had to restrain herself from taking her frustration out on the cello that lay in the middle of her bedroom floor. As easy as she knew it would be to demolish, buying another one would be difficult. Especially with the state of the American economy.

In a sudden rage she thrust her fist out at the first object it would contact, which happened to be the wall. There was a thud as her fist went clear through the drywall. Ivy was not hurt at all by the strike. She was used to the mild pain, but did not know why. She removed her fist from the wall and studied the gaping hole that fortunately had not gone through to the hallway. Her gaze shifted to her knuckles that were dusted with white from the chipped paint. She shook out her fist and flexed her fingers.

"I never knew you to have a temper," a voice intruded from the other side of the room.

Ivy jumped, turning towards the source of the voice.

"Who are you?" Ivy questioned. She felt her fists tighten as she regarded the man who had just revealed himself. "How the hell did you get in here?"

The man smirked slightly. He was about twenty with a medium muscular build and taller than her. Straight blond hair fell over his forehead. His chiseled features seemed to soften as he took a step towards her. "But then you were a bit forgetful."

Ivy stepped back towards the door and stared at him. "I'll ask again: who are you?"

"It's me Zack. You couldn't have forgotten me could you?" The blonde haired man smiled slightly. "I saw you in Los Angeles. I didn't think it was you at first, because you're in the lion's den, Ivy."

Ivy shook her head and reached for the doorknob behind her back. "What the hell are you talking about? Am I supposed to know you?"

Zack raised a hand. "Ivy, don't open that door."

"What do you want?" Ivy questioned as her grip tightened on the doorknob.

Zack raised his hands in the air. "I'm here to help you. I saw you in LA like I said, tracked you back here. It's a good thing I did. Ivy, honestly, how stupid are you? The idea is to stay under the radar and look at you. You're right under their nose!"

"Under whose nose?" Ivy swallowed a scream rising in her throat.

"Exactly why I came here," the man mused. "They've already got Brin and I'm not going to let them get you. We have to get out of here now." In two strides he had a locking grip on her left arm. "Let's go!"

"Let go of me!" Ivy screamed and pulled against his grasp, but the man was even stronger than she was.

"I'm giving you an order, Ivy!" he shouted. Fury consumed his gaze.

"I don't know who the hell you think you are, but let me go!" Ivy pulled with all her strength, but was not able to dislodge his hold. "Somebody, help!"

Zack released her and pushed her to the floor. "What the hell has gotten into you, Ivy? You're even more stubborn that Max!"

"Ivy!" Voices erupted from downstairs and there was the sound of footsteps coming up the stairwell.

The man shook his head. "Ivy, don't you remember me?"

Ivy met his gaze for a moment. She was utterly confused. "You said your name is Zack?"

Realization hit his eyes. He shook his head. "You don't remember me. You don't remember any of it."

There was a pounding on the door.

Zack looked at her. "I will come back for you. I won't let them have you." With that he dove out the window.

In that last instant Ivy saw the tattoo on his neck. A barcode.


Lydecker stepped through the front door of the Kinlan house, stepping aside from the other officers that were on their way out. Everyone else had already been through, heard the story, seen the broken window. He had been tied up at Manticore when the word came through that an X5 had snuck onto the base.

He found Ivy in the kitchen. She had her hands on the table and was staring blankly at the wall. Mary was in the corner drinking a cup of something that barely passed as coffee. She nodded at Lydecker and stepped out of the kitchen.

Lydecker sat down at the table with Ivy. "Ivy, I need you to tell me what happened."

Ivy locked her eyes on him. "What do you want to know?"

"Let's start from the top. What did he tell you?"

Ivy sighed and started talking. When she was finished, she shook her head. "He must've thought I was someone else.

Lydecker inhaled a sharp breath. He studied the girl. She fit the age bracket, hair color, eye color. Zack wouldn't take the risk of breaking onto an Army base unless he believed this was her. Lydecker stood up and started to pace the room. "Have you ever seen him before? Anywhere?"

Ivy shook her head. "No." She put her head down and shut her eyes.

Lydecker gave her a pat on the back, but then used the opportunity to glance at her neck where the dark hair had spilled aside. He felt his heart drop when he saw the skin was completely unmarred. No barcode. He moved away.

"Ivy, look, the man who broke in is an extremely dangerous felon. If he ever shows up again, you call me. This is very important." Lydecker explained. "Understand."

Ivy nodded. "Yeah." She looked up with red eyes. "Who is he?"

Lydecker sighed. "He was under my command a few years back. Went AWOL and… he's a dangerous man. You're safer not knowing anything else. Get some rest." He walked towards Jack who was now standing in the doorway "Give me a call if she remembers anything else."

"Thanks, Donald," Jack said goodnight and went to Ivy. "Sweetheart, are you all right?"

Ivy was drawing invisible circles with her fingers on the table top. She nodded slowly and looked up at him. "I'm fine. It was just…scary." She stared past her father at Lydecker walking out the front door.