Logan had asked Max to go out to Leo Fiori's yacht in the middle of the night to break into the onboard safe and get the proof he needed to out the man for his nefarious dealings with the mob. Of course, she had said. Are you sure? he had asked, the guy lives out in Mount Vernon. Max had thought about it. No sweat. She was up for an adventure and she had shark DNA anyway and didn't sleep very much.
She was hanging out with Original Cindy, watching a pre-pulse movie she'd never seen when Original Cindy finally fell asleep, leaving Max ample time to duck out of their apartment and head toward the docks.
It was a cold night and her breath came out like cigarette smoke, rising above the cold air into the night sky. She knew she found the right yacht when she saw "Fiori's Fire" painted at the aft of one of the longer yachts. It helped that he was extravagant with little multi-colored lantern lights strung along the edge of the vessel.
She was about to step onto the boat when she heard someone with a heavy New York accent call out to her.
"Just where do you think you're going?"
Max spun around to see what had to be one of Fiori's lieutenants with two heavily armed guards standing behind him. They raised their guns, pointing them directly at her.
"Um, isn't this, like, Gabby's party?" she asked in full-on valley girl.
"I don't think so, sweetheart," the lieutenant said. The two guards approached her and motioned to knock her out. While she was distracted with blocking their jabs, the lieutenant tased her. Max fell to the floor, immobilized. The lieutenant laughed, then pulled a second taser out. He shot her again, into unconsciousness.
The next time she opened her eyes, she was locked in a little steel box. It didn't seem to have any flaps or sides that were moveable. She tried to feel around inside, but there was no light source and not a lot of rom. She could hear some men laughing and the water fast underneath them.
"Throw it overboard," she heard the lieutenant's voice command.
Max knocked around inside the box as it was picked up and carried, presumably, to the side of the yacht.
This can't be it, she thought. It would be no use screaming. They were going to toss her overboard in a heavy box, and it would sink, and she would hold her breath for as long as possible while it filled with seawater before finally, she would drown.
Max panicked and started pushing against the sides of the box with all of her might. But it was to no avail. She was trapped. She felt the millisecond of weightlessness as the men let go of the box. It hit the water with a big splash, and as water started to fill the box, she heard the slapping water sound dwindle into nothingness.
Fully underwater and sinking fast, she tried to think about a way out of this. That's when she heard it. The tiniest sound of a dial clicking.
I'm in the fucking safe! Max realized with a jolt that there must have been someone out there waiting for the boat to disappear before they could attempt to rescue her. But it couldn't be Logan – he would have had a forklift or a crane or something on stand-by to lift the box out of the water, and there wouldn't have been enough time to plan that. Plus, he couldn't lift it himself.
Whoever this was, they were trying to crack the combination. It had to be someone with enhanced hearing. It had to be Alec. Oh, please, let it be Alec! Let it be Alec who followed me out here!
After eleven and a half minutes underwater, she felt the pressure change and knew she was going to drown. She couldn't hold her breath anymore. She instinctively tried to suck in air and water came in instead, filling her mouth, her nose, her ears and eyes, her lungs. Though she wanted to cough it out, she couldn't force anything out with no breath.
This is it.
Her childhood flashed before her – those years at Manticore with her brothers and sisters. Even Lydecker came to mind. Breaking out, staying with transients and families, moving from place to place and taking odd jobs to survive. Coming to Crash and meeting the daring and stylish Original Cindy. Hiring that punk-ass P.I. Vogelsang. Meeting Logan and him already knowing her secret. Finding and losing her brothers and sisters. Meeting the cocky and undeniably good-looking Alec.
Max's world faded like a dying light. Nothingness.
When she regained consciousness, she couldn't open her eyes. She could feel someone's lips on hers, desperately trying to fill her with oxygen. It wasn't anyone's lips she recognized. She felt the gravel and sand under her fingertips and against her skin, but she couldn't grasp it.
She felt so far away. Was she on her way to heaven? Or maybe the other place. The basement with the nomalies… She nearly panicked. Why couldn't she reach the surface an open her eyes and shout out that she was alive?
She could hear a faint mumbling, but it seemed so far away, like a masked iris off in the vanishing point of an infinite painting. The voice was rasping, "Come on, Max, wake up. Don't die. I can't do this without you." There was a harsh need in that husky voice.
The person's hands felt like a cold, heavy rock against her chest, pressing harder and harder. They cracked her rib. She would have cried out in pain if she could have. Then the warmth of their lips on hers returned, inflating her lungs. It hurt like hell, the pressure. Her heart beat violently in her chest.
"Come back to me, Max," the voice gruffed. "Come on, Maxie."
Alec.