X-Men; X-Men 2 Read online

  “I know,” Logan said.

  Jean and Scott and Storm had also made that very clear. And for the first time since he had woken up in that meadow, his only memories being nightmares of pain, he felt as if he had a place to go—a place he almost belonged. This mansion was now his home. It was a wonderful feeling.

  “Are you going to say good-bye to the rest?” Xavier asked.

  “No,” Logan said. Then he smiled. “I suspect they already know I’m going for a little trip.”

  Xavier laughed, a twinkle in his eye. “I suspect you may be right about that.”

  Logan moved to stand in front of the professor and extended his hand. “I’ll be seeing you.”

  Xavier shook the hand, holding it tightly, then nodded. “Good luck.”

  Ten minutes later Logan was headed down the front steps of the mansion, toward the driveway. The professor had said there would be transportation waiting there for him to use. What he found was Cyclops’ wonderful black motorcycle, the same one Logan had stolen to get to the train station.

  The keys were in the ignition, and there was a note taped to the gas tank. Good luck. Scott.

  He laughed and kicked the motorcycle to life. If he couldn’t say anything else for old Visor Boy, he had good taste in women and motorcycles. And he was a pretty fine leader to boot.

  Logan sat on the bike, letting the smooth rumble of the engine surround him for a moment. The day was gorgeous—not too hot, not too cold. Perfect weather to start a trip.

  Without even a look back, he headed down the driveway. He knew he’d be seeing the place again.

  On the big front lawn a bunch of the students were playing soccer, Rogue among them. He pulled over and stopped, letting the engine idle as he watched her run and play and laugh, being what seemed like a normal kid.

  She deserved that much at least, while she still had some childhood left.

  After a moment she looked up and saw him. With a wave she ran his way, smiling, looking happy and flushed from the exercise. He put out a gloved hand and took hers.

  She nodded, seemed about to say something, then let go of his hand and looked down into her palm. He’d given her his dog tags.

  She stared at them for a moment, then looked up at him, tears appearing in her eyes. “Thank you.”

  “No,” he said, smiling. “Thank you.”

  She had no idea what she had done for him. Maybe, ten years from now, she would understand. They’d talk about it. Maybe.

  With that, he straightened his back, clicked the engine into gear, and with a smile for Rogue, headed down the driveway. He had some of his past to find, some answers to dig out of some ruins in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

  Then he could come home.

  Now he had a future.

  Epilog

  Xavier smiled across the chess table at his old friend, Eric. They hadn’t played chess in years, and Xavier hadn’t realized how much he’d missed it until now. Maybe they would have to make this a regular occurrence. Maybe.

  Xavier moved a pawn.

  Eric nodded. “Doesn’t it ever wake you in the middle of the night, the feeling that someday, someday very soon, they will pass that foolish law?”

  He also moved a pawn to counter Charles’ move, then kept talking. “Or maybe a law like it. And they will come for you and your children, and take you all away.”

  “It bothers me very much indeed, Eric,” Xavier said, moving a knight.

  “And what will you do when you wake up to that happening?” Eric asked. He moved a rook two spaces forward.

  “I will feel a great swell of pity,” Xavier said, “for the poor soul who comes to that school looking for trouble.”

  He made a pawn move; Eric countered with another rook.

  “You know this is war, don’t you, Charles?”

  Xavier nodded. The board was beginning to look like a one-sided war, as well. He had all his pieces in position, and it didn’t even seem as if Eric had noticed.

  “And I intend to fight this war by any means necessary,” Eric continued. He aggressively moved a knight, again ignoring what Xavier was doing.

  “And I will always be there, old friend,” Xavier said.

  With that he moved his queen two spaces, taking away one of Eric’s knights.

  “Check,” he said. He didn’t add the word “mate.” There was no need.

  He pushed his plastic wheelchair back from the board and smiled at his old friend. “Thanks for the game, Eric.”

  Then he turned to the clear plastic door. Beyond that were nothing but plastic walls. There wasn’t an ounce of metal within a half mile of this cell. It was a very special jail, designed for one very special occupant.

  “Why do you come here, Charles?” Eric asked as Xavier reached the door and the guard on the other side opened it.

  Xavier looked back. “Why do you ask me questions to which you already know the answers?”

  “Ah, yes,” Eric said, smiling. “I forgot about your continuing search for hope.”

  The two looked at each other for a moment. Then Eric said, “It could be our world, Charles.”

  “It’s always been our world, Eric. It’s only when we lose sight of that that we imprison ourselves.”

  He wheeled out, and the plastic door slid shut behind him. His old friend was left studying the board. And wondering what he had done wrong.

  About the Authors

  DEAN WESLEY SMITH was a founder of the well-respected small press Pulphouse. He has written a number of novels—both his own and as tie-in projects—including Laying the Music to Rest and X-Men: The Jewels of Cyttorak.

  KRISTINE KATHRYN RUSCH is the Hugo and World Fantasy Award–winning former editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. She turned to writing full-time two years ago. She, too, has written a number of original and tie-in novels, including the Fey series and Star Wars: The New Rebellion.

  A Del Rey® Book

  Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group

  TM and copyright © 2000 by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  Del Rey and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  X-MEN character likenesses: TM and copyright © 2000 by Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

  www.delreydigital.com

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 00-190322

  e-ISBN 0-345-46490-7

  First Edition: June 2000

  v1.0

  A novelization by

  Chris Claremont

  Based on the story by

  Zak Penn and David Hayter

  and Bryan Singer,

  screenplay by

  Dan Harris and Mike Dougherty

  A Del Rey® Book

  BALLANTINE BOOKS • NEW YORK

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  Also available from Del Rey Books

  Copyright

  to Beth

  Chapter

  One

  Mutants. Since the discovery of their existence, they have been regarded with fear, suspicion, and often hatred. Across the planet, debate rages: Are mutants the next link in the evolutionary chain . . .

  . . . or simp
ly a new species of humanity fighting for their share of the world? Either way, one fact has been historically proven: Sharing the world has never been humanity’s defining attribute . . .

  —Charles Xavier

  “ ‘We are not enemies, but friends,’ ” the tour guide said as she led the group through the East Wing entrance of the White House. “ ‘We must not be enemies,’ ” she continued, pausing to let them gather inside the foyer beneath one of the presidential portraits that lined the wall. “ ‘Though passion may have strained, it must not break the bonds of our affection.’ Abraham Lincoln.”

  Alicia Vargas had made this speech hundreds of times, yet she had a knack of making it sound as though she’d just thought it up. She was a short young woman who looked barely out of college, with big, wide-spaced eyes, an open face, a ready smile. That way, you’d miss the fact that those lustrous eyes never stopped moving from person to person among the group she was shepherding along, or that the drape of her blazer masked the Sig-Sauer pistol resting in its snap-draw holster at the small of her back.

  Alicia Vargas was Secret Service, just like the tall, broad-shouldered, stone-faced men in business suits who stood at intervals along the walls. At the reception desk and at the doorways leading to the interior of the White House were their equally imposing uniformed counterparts in the Executive Protection Service. When the decision was made to continue public tours, in spite of the ever-present threat of global terrorism, the Secret Service had insisted that its people take over the job of guides. They understood the political and public relations realities of the office, but their job was to protect the man who held that office, and from that perspective, they argued, you could never be too careful.

  Offering up another smile, Alicia indicated the portrait that hung behind her, the sixteenth in the line of chief executives that began with George Washington and culminated today in George McKenna.

  “President Lincoln said that in his first inaugural address. It’s one of my favorites. I like to think, especially with all that’s happening in the world, that those words are more important than ever.”

  With an apologetic gesture, intended to put the tourists at ease, she led them toward the security desk.

  “I just want to repeat what you were told at the Main Gate. Obviously, with the President in residence today, we want to be especially careful. One at a time, please approach the desk, present a photo ID, place your bags and purses on the conveyor belt, and pass through the metal detector. Your possessions and all cameras will be returned to you when you leave. I know that sounds harsh, but I hope you understand.”

  One man in the back caught her eye. He was wearing a Red Sox baseball hat, pulled low. He wasn’t doing anything wrong; far from it. His body language was totally relaxed and easy. Maybe that was it. Most people visiting the White House came through the door excited, upbeat, impatient, and impressed. Then, seeing the airport-style X-ray console and the metal detector, even the best of them got nervous, wondering if they’d inadvertently brought something that would sound an alarm and get them into trouble.

  Red Sox didn’t seem to have a care in the world.

  Quickly, as she ushered the first woman in line through the cage, Alicia recalled the scene at the Pennsylvania Avenue gate, where the tour had been admitted to the grounds. She’d watched them come through on the surveillance screens and now that she replayed the scene in her mind’s eye, there had been no Red Sox hat in the group.

  Turning back to look for him, she registered a faint sound, the bamf of imploding air, like when a balloon pops.

  Red Sox was gone.

  From the East Wing entrance, a broad hallway—called the Cross Hall—runs lengthwise through the heart of the building. Originally, this had been the area where the everyday work of the household was done—the rooms housed butler’s pantries, closets, and the like—but successive renovations and the growing need for space had transformed them into formal receiving rooms: the Roosevelt Room, the Vermeil Room, the China Room. At the moment, none of them was in use, which is what caught Special Agent Donald Karp’s attention when his peripheral vision registered some kind of movement in one of the doorways.

  When he turned to peer down the corridor, all he saw was shadow inside the deep alcove—that was one of the problems caused by the comparatively low, vaulted ceiling, it made the hallway hell to light properly. He knew it was probably nothing, but he was bored and in the mood for even a minor break in routine. Once before he’d opened an office door and found a couple of midlevel staffers behaving far too friskily for their own good. They’d been lucky they weren’t fired on the spot, but they really should have known better.

  To his surprise, as he stepped closer to take a proper look, someone was there—though for some reason he wasn’t sure until the figure stepped clear of the shadow, a lean-bodied man whose stoop-shouldered stance belied the fact that he was roughly Karp’s height, wearing nondescript clothes and a Red Sox baseball cap. Boyoboy, would he have fun roasting Alicia’s ass for being so careless as to let a tourist stray from the group.

  He reached for the man’s shoulder.

  “Excuse me, sir, are you lost? I’m afraid you can’t leave the group—”

  The man rounded on him—and Karp gasped, goggle-eyed, to find himself face-to-face with a demon. Skin so dark a blue-black it was as if the man were cloaked in his own personal shadow, the only points of color his gleaming yellow eyes. The ears were pointed, the teeth had fangs, and the hand that grabbed Karp’s wrist possessed two fingers instead of the normal four.

  Training took over. Without a conscious thought, Karp went for his gun—and a forked tail wrapped tight around his throat, cutting off his cry of alarm. The tail spun him like a top into the alcove, and he felt a blinding pain as the side of his head cracked hard into the arched stone. After that he never felt the blow to the side, chop to the neck that finished the job of knocking him unconscious.

  It was all over in a matter of seconds, but those seconds made the difference.

  From the East Entrance came Alicia Vargas’ shout—she was already through the hallway doors, coming at a dead run with sidearm in hand, ahead of the other agents and uniformed officers.

  Karp’s partner was closer. He lunged for the intruder, who tripped him up with a sideways sweep of the legs—ditching his shoes in the process to reveal elongated, weirdly articulated feet with a two-toed configuration that matched his hands. The intruder leaped across the hall for the opposite wall, somehow grabbing hold of the falling agent’s gun and pitching it clear. His leap landed him up by the ceiling. To Alicia’s astonishment he stuck there, three-quarters upside down, as though fingers and toes were tipped with Velcro.

  Above the chandeliers, he was suddenly hard to see, and Alicia realized with a shock that he was blending with the ceiling shadows. Against a dark background, the intruder’s indigo skin made him functionally invisible.

  With a snarl, he was gone, scampering faster than her eye could swallow, around the corner toward the executive offices of the West Wing.

  Alicia had a mini-mike clipped to her sleeve; she used it now.

  “Code Red,” she cried. “Code Red. Perimeter breach at visitors’ checkpoint! Agent Vargas in the Cross Hall, ten meters in from the East Entrance. Intruder is hostile, two agents are down. Threat to Braveheart!”

  At the rear of the mansion, in the opposite wing, President George McKenna was working the phones, applying a measure of charm—with just the faintest edge of threat—to a senator hoping to make some political ink by throwing a monkey wrench into the latest administration initiative. The President was a rancher by temperament and wished, as he found he often did since assuming the Oval Office, that he could solve the problem by simply hog-tying the man and planting his brand indelibly on that arrogant posterior. He liked cows better than legislators. At least they knew their place.

  He looked up with irritation as the door to the outer office burst open and Sid Walters, the head of his prot
ection detail, strode inside. He was about to lose his temper—which was legendary—when he realized that Walters had his gun in hand and, from the look on his face, he wasn’t going to be interested in any comment the President had to make.

  “Say again,” Walters snapped into the mini-microphone clipped to the cuff of his shirtsleeve, “how many are there?”

  “What the hell—” the President began, but all questions and any thoughts of protest evaporated as a halfdozen more agents rushed into the room to form a living shield around his desk. The two biggest stood on either side of him. Four of the team were in suits, with pistols in hand, but these last two were in full combat gear, helmets and flak jackets, with MP5 submachine guns in their hands. McKenna had been to war, he’d been shot; he knew at a glance that this was no drill. These men believed he was in deadly danger, and they were prepared to give their lives to save him.

  McKenna heard a tinny voice demanding attention, belatedly realized he was still holding the phone.

  With a calmness that astounded him, that he never dreamed he possessed, the President raised the receiver to his ear.

  “Trent, I’m sorry, I can’t talk right now, something’s come up. I’ll call you back, soon as I can, all right?”

  Without waiting for an acknowledgment, McKenna hung up. He sounded so normal, not scared at all. The analytical part of him knew that fear would come later and that it would be very rough indeed. If there was a later.

  He looked at the pictures on his desk, thankful now the first lady was in San Francisco and the kids were at school. Nobody home but him.

  “Sid?” he said.

  “You’ll be fine, sir. You have our word.”

  The West Wing was a madhouse, agents trying to evacuate the presidential staff at the same time they were hunting down the intruder. There was no pretense of order; that had vanished with the first gunshot. The guards weren’t polite and they weren’t gentle. Their goal was to get everyone clear as fast as possible. Thing was, they were just as scared as the civilians.