-1Spaceneedle, three months after the manticore assault
Logan is sitting on the top of the spaceneedle with a picture of Max in his hand, thinking:
For three months I have been asking myself the very same question time and time again: was it worth it?
Every time I see something reminding me of her, every time I wake up and every time I go to sleep, the exact same thoughts run throgh my head. And I try to explain to myself; it's what she wanted, death was better than capture, and we did it to be together. But every time, I answer with: I shouldn't have let her do it, I should have been in there, on the field with her, and most painfully: she did it for you; she sacrificed her life to be with you...
So I decided to go down this path, to either calm my conscionce, or to join the only person I love in this world... Max, this is for you... for us!
-----
Manticore
Renfro and another man are standing around a table.
Man: I'm sorry, but no matter what we do to her, she won't say who he is or anything about him at all for that matter.
Renfro: Did you fail reprogramming her?
Man: No. She really wants to do her duty, but something prevents her. It seems that she still remembers some of those old thechniques Lydecker usel to train them in.
Renfro: Tell me more.
Man: Well, Lydecker once used to train X-series in forgetting stuff. Y'know, so they wont be able to tell the enemies about anything. Also he used to teach them to create compulsive behaviour.
Renfro: If it is one of those techniques, as you call them, how do we solve the problem.
Man: When one of the 09 escapees was captured, Lydecker knew that he was aware of where the others are. He let him Think that one of the doctors helped him escape. He first found one of the escapees, then he started trying to remember again…
Renfro: And if it's the other?
Man: I'm not sure… The compulsive behaviour is a logic, and all logics have holes…
-----
Manticore
Max are practicing at the firing range, competing in who can get the highest score. While Max uses an M16, Brin uses her weapon of choice, a P90.
They run out of ammo, and look at their monitors.
Brin: Ha! I beat you!
Max: Really? You have a really small spread, but look where those shots hit. They ALL hit the guy in the arm, except for these five that hit him in the lung.
Brin: This is an SMG, you have an assault rifle.
Max: No excuses, you picked your gun, I just got the standard model.
A lieutenant enters the room, and both girls quickly try to appear like their working.
Lieutenant: ATTEN-TION!
Max quickly holsters her gun, and stands in attention.
Max: X5-452 reporting for duty, SIR!
Lieutenant: Your progress has been astounding, 452...
Max: Thank you, sir.
Lieutenant: Director Renfro wants to see you, immediatelly!
Max: Yes, sir!
-----
Crash
Original Cindy is sitting at a table with Scetchy and Herbal.
Scetchy: Man, is Normal a pain in the but or what? I mean, I can't believe he fired you for no good reason...
Herbal: Normal is a man of narrow mind... believing he is a person to judge another man right. But it will be all good on the day of the abomination...
OC: Right on, bruvva!
Cindy notices Logan at the bar.
OC: I'll be back, fellas...
She slowly walks up to Logan and sits next to him. She watches him swinging the glass of whiskey that was in his hand, before he swallowed it all in one go. He hadn't shaved since the assault, and his hair was a mess.
OC: Still grieving, huh...
Logan: Yeah.
OC: Hitting the bottle is no solution.
Logan: I've come to realise that... but it makes me forget... for a while at least.
OC: You're hiding sumtin'.
Logan: I'm planning to do it again...
OC: Get chronic?
Logan: No. Attack Manticore.
-----
Manticore
Max enters the room, standing in attention.
Renfro: Good to see you, 452...
She picks up a dossier, and starts looking at it.
Renfro: You've made surprising progress... it's allmost like you've caught up the latest ten years of training in like, three months.
Max: Thank you, ma'm.
Renfro: We've got a mission for you...
She hands Max the dossier. Max opens it, and asks: Where? Renfro smiles at her.
Renfro: If you can, in his own home. Make it look like mafia execution.
-----
Logan's apartment
Logan's sitting in his computerchair, tapping away on his keyboard. On his desk is a pistol, that had been laying there ever since he returned from the Manticore assault. That night he had planned to make the process short with himself, but fortunatelly, he decided to have revenge first.
Suddenly his cellphone rings. He answersm and hears a familiar voice.
Lydecker: Son, I think I'm on to something...
Logan: On to what.
Lydecker: Manticore's new site.
Logan hears something moving behind him.
Logan: I think they've found me first.
He quickly grabs his gun, gets to hi feet and points it at the dark figure behind him.
Logan: Don't sneak up on me like that again, Asha.
Asha smiles, while Logan looks annoyed.
Asha: You can't be THAT angry over me sneaking in. You need to chill. Noone'll sneak in and kill you.
Logan: Maybe not, but someone I knew used to do that. Y'know, entering through locked doors without knocking…
Asha: You mean that genetically engineered Max girl.
Logan: Somehow that term doesent make her justice.
Asha: Is it OK if I borrow your shower?
Logan: Yeah, sure.
She exit's the room, and Logan gets back to conversating with Lydecker. A few moments later he hears another sound. He hangs up, gets his gun and a flashlight and starts walking through the appartment.
Logan: Asha!?!
He hears her replying from the bathroom.
Logan: Never mind.
He keeps walking until he reaches the corner of the apartment, where the glass roofpanel is. The panel is open, and a rope leads down through it. Logan puts his gun on a table.
Logan: Max?
He keeps walking, but no sign of Max.
Logan: Asha, is this some kind of joke, cuz I'm not enjoying it.
He turns of the flashlight and keeps walking untill he reaches his office again. There, by the table is a curvy female, looking at the computer screen, with those unmistakable brown curls.
Logan: Max, is that really you?
The female turns around, and looks back at him. At first shocked, and then smiling. It most definitely is Max.
Max: Mister Eyes Only…
Logan smiles, and replies: Yeah, how did you…
She quickly moves her right hand, and grabs a pistol off the table, whereafter she points it at him.
Logan: What is this?
Max: You're going to pay back for what you've cost me.
Logan: What do you mean?
Max: I kill Eyes Only, and my ten years of absence will be forgiven, and I become a petty officer.
Logan: After all we've been through, this is how you'll end it.
Max: This is as good a way as any other, don't you agree?
Logan ducks around the corner and runs towards the corner room where he put his gun. Max fires after him, but fails to hit. Logan grabs his gun, and pops out and scans the corridor. He sees her through the glass walls, and tells her to freeze.
Max: I thought you loved me.
Logan: I love Max Guevara. But you're not her.
Max: Damn straight I aint.
A second later the glass shatters as Max opens fire with her pistol. Logan ducks, whereafter he pops out and shoots. Max responds, and hits him in the leg. She runs out of ammo, and Logan points his gun at her.
Logan: Max knew that I'm paralyzed, and that I therefore don't feel anything there.
Max quickly kicks the gun out of his hands and punches him. Logan leaps through the air to get his gun, and suddenly he hears Asha saying: Freeze.
Now both he and Asha had loaded guns pointed at the unarmed Max.
Logan: Asha, don't shoot atless I tell you to.
Asha: Sure… Who is this?
Logan: It's Max, or at least what's left of Max.
Max seizes the opportunity and runs towards the dining room, where she swoops out the window.
Asha: What the hell is going on here?
Logan: She'll come back.
He starts walking towards his office, where he grabs the phone and calls Lydecker.
Logan: Hi, I just had an unexpected guest, wonder if you could help me prepare better till next time.
-----
Max walks down an empty alley until she reaches a payphone.
Max: 452 here. We've had an operational mishap. Yes, target ID was confirmed. I'm requesting some extra firepower, a heavy SMG or assault rifle. Maybe three mags.
She hangs up the phone and walks through the city. She walks past a Laundromat, seeming strangely familiar… nostalgic even… She hears the familiar hum of a motorcycle, and soon she can see it drive against her and past her. She sees a couple hugging in the street. She starts to walk faster, untill she sees it on the horizon, the space needle. She starts getting flashbacks, and soon tears start running through her eyes. She drops to her knees, and wonders what's happening to her.
-----
The next night
Logan's sitting by his computer again. The glass on the floor has been cleaned up, and the window is once again covered with plywood. Suddenly he hears glass shatter. He gets to his feet and grabs his gun. This time he immediately hears gunfire. AUTOMATIC gunfire. He shoots blindly against the wall the fire's coming from. Max runs around the corner, where she starts firing again. Logan drops to the floor to avoid the fire. Soon Max feels an accute pain in the back; Lydecker had shot her with a tazergun. Soon she feels another shot in her arm, coming from Asha. Logan gets to his feet. Max sees this, and lifts her gun to shoot him. Asha quickly notices, and upholsters her pistol with her left hand, and shoots Max in the arm, knocking the gun out of her hand. Logan quickly pulls his tazer and fires, making Max drop to the floor, unconscious.
-----
A few hours later
Asha: I'm so sorry, but I had to do it.
Logan: Well, at least you didn't shoot her in a worse spot.
Lydecker: That's bad enough. She needs a proper medic, but since she's transgenic, we can't exactly take her to the hospital.
Logan: Yeah…Do you think those restraints will hold her down?
Lydecker: I'm quite sure they will. Can you guard her?
Asha: Sure, where are you going?
Lydecker: I know this old retired Manticore surgeon. He was one of the first medics to have anything to do with transgenic s, but he refused to do any medical research on X-series, so he got fired.
Lydecker leaves, and Logan looks down on Max. Asha puts her hand on his.
Asha: She'll be allright.
Logan: When she got shot… and I thought she'd got killed, that same night I thought I'd end myself. Even when we didn't have those feelings about each other, life still seemed a lot easier with her around…
Asha: I know. What are we going to do with her if she doesent get to her sences?
Logan: I don't even want to imagine that scenario… To kill her would be the most accepted sollution. Or I could just leave her here, leave town and call Manticore and tell them where she is…
Asha: Like you said herself, if she doesent come to her senses, then Max is gone…
Logan puts his hand on Max's forehead, and calmly she moves her head back.
Logan: Can you watch her for a few moments?
Asha: Yeah, sure… why?
Logan: I need to shave…
Asha: Yeah, you haven't shaved since.. Y'know
Logan: Yeah
Asha: A haircut wouldn't be out of place either…
Logan smiles, and leaves the room. Asha looks at her, when she notices Max's hand cramping. Within minutes Max wakes up. She looks arround, pretty calmly until she sees Asha.
Asha: Does that hurt?
Max tries to throw herself at her, but the restraints are holding her down. Angrily she lays down.
Asha: Now you listen you little bitch. The logical thing to do right now would be to shoot you right here and now, and dump you body in the nearest swamp so it would decompose your ass before Manticore start searching for you, but Logan wants you alive. Y'know why?
Max shakes her head as a negative response.
Asha: He still loves you, or Max, in case she's actually out of your head. Me, I just want you to get well again so I won't have to hear him go on about Max being so great at this or how Max made his life better by doing that. It's all he ever talks about. Without you, he's strictly an Eyes Only informant. He HAS NO private life.
-----
Lydecker and an older man enter the little room where Max is. The man has a really old field medic kit, a green metal box. He puts it on the floor, and opens it.
Old man: Good, you stopped the bleeding.
He gets a syringe, and fills it up.
Old man: This is going to sting a bit, young lady…
He puts the needle against Max's arm and empties the syringe. Logan enters the room, shaved, and with a somewhat tidier hair due, although the hair still is too long. The old man starts removing the bandage. Suddenly bloods starts flowing from the wound, and he immediately shows Asha to put pressure on the wound.
Man: I don't like to work in front of an audience… could you two please…
Lydecker knods, and starts walking towards the door. He and Logan sit down in the Livingroom.
Logan: So tell me… As far as I know, you ordered to have any scientist or medic who worked at Manticore dead, you knew where to find this guy, and yet here he is…
Lydecker: He's a personal friend. When I took over back in '97, noone trusted me. Everyone was unwilling to turn it over to the army. He showed me the ropes, helped me to set the specifications for the X5-series.
Minutes of silence pass, as Logan uncomfortably waits for the outcome. After half an hour, Asha steps out.
Asha: She'll be fine. Listen, the doctor might want some more help, could you take over, Logan.
Logan: Sure.
He enters the room, where the older man is washing Max's arm from blood.
Man: Sorry bout your sheets. I'd preferably switch them, they're not very hygienic.
Logan: Don't worry about it. You finish up, and I'll take care of it.
Man: So what's your story. I know that you're not gonna sell her on the market, you don't seem…ruthless enough for the job.
Logan: In '09 she escaped from Manticore, a little over a year ago we met, and we fell in love… Making a long story short, she got captured a few months ago, and was then reprogrammed. She got assigned to kill me.
Man: Reprogram…that they still believe in that stuff.
Logan: What do you mean?
Man: Back in my time they tried doing that too. Yes, they can suppress personalities, but that's just a survival mechanism. Give the person a month, and the effects are gone. Thing is, espionage missions usually take longer than that. Anyone who has studied psychology will know that.
The man finishes cleaning the scar, and walks out. Logan unties the yet again unconscious Max, and lifts her down on the floor, so he can change the sheets.
-----
It's the middle of the night, and Logan is feeling drowsy, he's been watching Max for eight hours. He's holding Max's tied down hand, as if it was giving her comfort. The moments pass, and Logan falls asleep. Max slowly starts waking up. She looks around her, when she feels Logans hand around hers. Logan feels Max moving, and wakes up.
Logan: How are you feeling?
Max: Tied down.
Logan: If it wasn't for you trying to kill me, that wouldn't be the case.
Max: You don't still believe you can make me as ignorant as I once was again.
Logan: Actually, yes. And you weren't ignorant, you knew what you wanted from your life, unlike now.
Lydecker walks into the room, and sits down in a chair next to Logan.
Lydecker: My watch.
Logan knods, and leaves the room. Max stares at Logan, and then at Lydecker.
Max: How could you betray Manticore, colonel?
Lydecker: How do you think? They wanted me dead, because I didn't approve in killing X5's. And don't call me colonel, you're a disgrace to the US army.
Max: What figures?
Lydecker: A true soldier puts his country in first place. Eyes Only, which you were going to kill without second thought, has reduced corruption and large scale criminality in the US…
Max: Yeah whatever.
Lydecker: May be so that Manticore want me dead, but I'm still higher ranked than you, not to mention that I decided to have you made, so you will treat me with respect.
Max: Fat chance.
Lydecker: SILENCE!
He gets his gun and starts disassembling it, where after he starts cleaning it . Upon seing it, she gets flashbacks.
Lydecker shoots Eva, Logan getting gunned down in the street by Mari Stecklers men, Max getting shot outside Manticore, Zack accidentally shooting another X5, Max shooting Logan and Asha shooting her.
For the rest of the night, Max gets followed by flashbacks of the time after the escape.
-----
Voice: How ya feelin', boo?
Max looks around her, and next to her she sees Logan and Cindy. At first she doesent reckognise her, but after a while, realises it's her old best friend. She remembering the old times.
Max: Cindy?
Cindy: Yuh, sista girl's right here.
Max: Thanks… Please let me go.
Logan: You remember her?
Max: I remember almost everything, it's just that I couldn't connect the dots right… Please let me go Logan.
Logan: How do I know you're not acting?
Max: To be honest, I have no idea how to answer that.
Logan hesitates, then he grabs both a tazer and a pistol, and puts them in his pockets, whereafter he releses Max. She gets on her feet, and nearly throws herself over Logan. He goes for his tazer.
Logan: I hate them… Please Logan.
There she was, in his arms once again. Not the strong woman he was used to, but desperate and fragile. He lets go of the tazer, and embraces her.
Logan: It's alright. They won't get you again…
-----
Manticore
Renfro: How's the status with 452?
Lieutenant: Not good. Last contact was 38 hours ago. We doubt she's KIA or taken prisoner.
Renfro: Prolonged mission?
Lieutenant: No. I suspect AWOL. The last contact we had with her was when we gave her extra armament. It was an M16A2, fully equipped. It gives space for improvisation.
Renfro: Improvisation HOW?
Lieutenant: Use the scope to take the target out from a distance, the silencer to walk up to him in a crowded street to kill him without anyone noticing, take out his vehicle with the grenade launcher, or whatever. The COAs are nearly infinite… Had she wanted to take the target out, she would have done it long ago.
Renfro: Dammit… She knows Eyes Only, and she knows where we are. Probably she's working with Lydecker again. Prepare your X5's to guard the perimiter.
-----
Crash
Cindy: I can't believe you're back.
Max: Neither can I. Wonder if I can get my job back.
Cindy: I've got ya covered…
Lydecker: So it all comes down to one event.
Logan: I don't feel we can risk it. You know how it went last time…
Lydecker: We have more manpower this time. We have Syl, Krit, Jondy, two ex Manticore special ops, whats her name…Asha, and the three of us. Cindy: Four!
Max: Excuse me?
Cindy: You're not the only one with secrets, Max. I used to be in the army before I joined Jam Pony.
Max: Why?
Cindy: After the pulse my familys cash got wiped clean. I couldn't go to school, so I decided to get some military training.
Logan: OK. When are we going to do this?
Lydecker: Tomorrow. They're probably suspecting that Max has gone AWOL, and will try to attack Manticore again. My guess is that they're expecting us to strike at night again, so we strike in broad daylight.
Max: We still can't do it.
Lydecker: And our equipment is so far, my armored Durango a Humvee, Max's M16, a bunch of sub machineguns, and a few pistols, plus a couple of Kevlars.
Cindy: How we gonna do this?
Lydecker: They'll probably seal of the roads miles away. We'll need a diversion…
-----
Road, a few miles away from Manticore.
A car swooshes down the road, towards a Manticore checkpoint. A trooper raises his hand, to signal the car to stop. The car slows down, until it stops at the troopers feet. The doors open, and out step Cindy and Jondy.
Cindy: What's the problem?
Trooper: Road's sealed.
Cindy: But we really have to use this road.
Jondy: We're gonna miss our own wedding if we don't take it.
Trooper: Where are you heading?
Cindy: Johnsville.
Trooper: If you give me a map, I could perhaps show you another way.
Cindy: How nice. Let me just get the map.
She walks over to the back of the little sedan. Miliseconds after she opens it a bang echoes through the air, and the trooper in the Humvee collapses after his head explodes in a fountain of blood. The other troopers are immediately alerted. Jondy draws a pistol from the back of her pants, and shoots the one next to her in the chest. Cindy draws Max's M16 and shoots the Hummers gunner. Jondy walks closer to the one they had just been talking to. He knows there's a sniper in the woods, and that Cindy has the assault rifle aimed at him, so he drops his gun, and raises his hands. Jondy aims her gun against the underside of his jaw. Before he realises anything, she pistolwhips him, making him unconscious.
Slowly two SUV's cruise through the forest, until they reach the two girls. Lydecker rolls down the window, and says
Lydecker: What are you waiting for, commandeer that vehicle.
-----
Perimiter
Brin's standing by her Hummer, when a message comes through her radio.
Contact with alpha five has ceased. All units proceed to range 1.
Brin and her unit quickly jumps into the hummer, and drive off towards Manticore. In the distance she can already see smoke. Before long the radio sounds:
We have contact with bogeys. Three vehicles and about ten soldiers, heavily armed. They reach Manticore, where Brin can see the two hummers, with turrets firing at Manticore Special Ops, which have them surrounded. Only gunners, and another person per vehicle remain. Brins men quickly storm out, and try to engage the cars. Soon the fire ceases, as the machineguns run out of ammo. Brin calmly starts walking through the thirty remaining MSO's, and walks up to the enemies by the cars. The first one she walks up to is Cindy, who drops her gun.
Brin: I don't reckognise you, you're not transgenic… nor an MSO. Who are you.
Cindy: I'm a friend of Max's.
Brin: Since were both Max's friends, I'll be nice to you.
Swiftly she punches Cindy out cold. She grabs her gun, and looks up towards the turret, where she recognizes Jondy.
Brin: Haven't seen you for a while… Jondy.
She raises the gun, and aims at her. Suddenly a door bursts open behind them, and smoke and transgenic storm out from the building. Brin turns around, trying to kill the deserters, but she realises that it's all of them. Neither she, nor the troopers do anything to stop them. X-series in the troops even decide to throw away their guns and join them. After a while, Max and the others walk out among the transgenic stream. Brin aims her gun at her:
Brin: I thought you were my friend.
Max: I AM your friend. Put down the gun.
She hesitates, before she realizes that it's a few MSO's against the ten of Max's friends. There's no way she could survive killing Max. She drops her gun. Manticore stands in flames.
-----
Logan's apartment
Max and Logan sit on the couch in the living room, and look out over Seattle, sipping some cheap champagne.
Logan: So, back to normal again.
Max: Not really. It won't feel normal for a long time… What are we going to do with Brin.
Logan: I don't think she'll try to kill anyone. I'm thinking you could try to convince her to work with you.
Max: Yeah, that would be nice.
The silence spreads, as the two finish their champagne. A smirk fills Max's face.
Max: The entire apartment to ourselves.
Logan: Yeah.
Max: Where were we… Before Zack disturbed us, I mean.
Logan gets a broad smile over his face.