Had me a nice little vacation of sorts this last weekend. Came back to more than a few e-mails wondering where I have been and why I haven't posted the next story. I'll get to it, I promise. In the meantime I thought I'd upload some short stuff that has absolutely no bearing on anything and isn't really involved in any plots. It's all just some stuff I wrote.
This one came about after a discussion of a challenge on Cape Haven. I mentioned it and others wanted to read it. Again, here it is. It's not good, it's not bad. It just is.
Not rated. Not that kind of a story. I don't own any of this just playing with the possibilities. Let me know what you think and enjoy.
The Locket
Max woke with a start. The locket that once belonged to Logan's mother still clutched tightly in her hand. She realized after a short moment that she was still in Logan's bedroom where she had stretched out after her shower.
"Logan." Max called. She listened for the sound of his fingers dancing on the keys in his office but the apartment was silent. There wasn't a single sound emanating from anywhere within. Panic threatened but was controlled as she stood up and headed for the doorway into the bedroom. She lifted up the necklace and dropped it around her neck as she crossed the threshold into what suddenly became another world.
"Over here." Someone shouted. Max didn't recognize the voice but there was an underlying sadness to it. "I can't believe this. Did any of you know about this?" He asked.
"Can you believe this? Do you really think he was?" Someone asked.
"It must be so." Said a girl's voice. "MOM! HURRY!"
"What is it, dear?" A woman asked from somewhere behind Max. She turned to find herself facing Maria Cale. The two women were seemingly staring right at each other and Max found she was frozen in place unable to move. Max noticed that she was wearing the exact same locket around her neck. She wanted to move but could not get out of the way. Her feet suddenly didn't work.
The two women connected for a split second as the lockets came into contact with each other. Both women suddenly becoming aware of the other as Maria walked through Max where she stood. Both women instantly became fully conscious of each other and their respective worlds in the scheme of things. Both women suddenly possessed each others thoughts as if they had traded places in that moment.
Max knew the history of the woman that just walked through her. She remembered everything Maria Cale had ever experienced. Her childhood in Chicago with an absentee father and a mother that was more worried about her furs than her daughter. Max knew her time spent in boarding schools and her guaranteed admission to Vassar. She felt the wild months in a young Logan Cale Senior's life on board his family yacht sailing the Pacific and traveling throughout the Orient on a train only to return to a lavish wedding and a wonderful life beyond anything she had ever imagined. She remembered giving birth to Logan Jr. and experiencing the extremely intense but thankfully easy pregnancy that was his. She remembered watching him grow up and being so proud of him when he accepted the student awards time and again for his journalistic efforts as she stood wrapped in the strong arms of Logan Sr.
Maria turned as if about to feint. She had a glazed look in her eyes as she experienced the strange birth in the lab back in Manticore. She understood but could do nothing about the propaganda she was forced to watch as part of her daily sustenance growing up. Maria hated the violent and angry experiences she was forced to endure. She wanted to resist but could not when she was handed the blade and forced to kill the convict strung up against the tree. She wanted to cry when the boy was killed for failing in the mission. She wanted to scream out in rage when they took Jack away. She entertained thoughts of strangling the man called Colonel that seemed shorter than he should have been. She relished the wind in her face as she climbed out of the icy waters near the base and ran for everything she was worth escaping that hellish prison she had been born in.
Max turned to stare at Maria as Maria seemed to focus on Max. The memories were fading, as if retreating to a secret place to be protected and remembered only on special days.
"MOM! YOU'RE MISSING IT!" The girl said again. "Can you get it back?" She said to someone else. "Get it back!"
Max stared into Maria's eyes as Maria seemed to stare back into hers before tilting her head to the side and walking toward the office. Max stood in stunned silence wondering what had just happened. She looked around the apartment noticing that nothing was where it had been before. It had been decorated differently although it was obvious that someone had torn the penthouse apart looking for something they could not find.
Max followed the hall all the way around noticing everything that had once been in the apartment was now broken and smashed, ripped off the walls or just plain gone. She walked into the living room toward the mantle where Logan kept some of his family pictures. They were broken and scattered all over the floor. None of the pictures Max had given him were there.
She reached for one but her fingers passed through it. It was a picture of Logan Cale as Max remembered him. He was wearing a parka and leaning on the railing of his Uncle's Yacht. The strange thing was that he wasn't alone. A young woman stood beside him in a wild multi-colored parka with a huge grin on her face. She was obviously Logan's sister. Max knew that Logan had a sister once but like his parents, she was killed in the plane crash with them.
"There it is!" The girl yelled. "Look what Johnny found." Max heard a familiar sound. One she had learned to respect and dread at the same time. It was the beginning hiss, crackle and pop of the streaming freedom sat hacks Logan had been doing for years. She hurried into the office just as the snow dissolved into Logan's eyes.
"Why would Logan have an Eyes Only satellite hack on the computer, Mom?" The boy named Johnny asked.
"Look at his eyes, dear." Maria said. "Now do you have to ask me that question? Max looked at the older woman and realized she knew. She hadn't until this moment but being Logan's mother, one look at his eyes and she knew immediately.
"Oh my God…" The girl said. Max noticed the same girl from the weird picture. "It's Logan… isn't it, Mom?" She asked.
"Yes." Maria said. "That's my son." She whispered as tears started to stream down her face. The girl reached in and hugged her mother. The realization that her son was The Eyes Only hit her and she reacted with pride and anger. Criminals feared the man and what his hacks did to them. The authorities were unable to catch him or even figure out who he was.
"What now, Mom?" The girl asked. Max looked at her. She was strong. She was healthy. She was proud. The young boy, also obviously a Cale was just like his older brother. He also had a wild blue in his eyes and skill with the keyboard. He was completely calm although Max got the feeling he had skills in other areas as well. His movements as he stood up from the computers were smooth and dangerous. This one had training. Not Manticore but Martial Arts. He was at least a 3rd dan grade or higher easily and still a teenager.
"We have to pack some things. They are probably watching us. Johnny. Take your sister to the house over on Oak street and wait for me there."
"Mom?!?" The boy started to protest.
"Go now and don't argue with me. Someone is watching us right now. It could already be too late. I feel something here but I can't…" She paused. "I can't place this feeling." Maria said. "Go and take your sister. It's too dangerous for you to be here. I'll call when I'm leaving."
The boy nodded and grabbed his sister's arm pulling her toward the front door. The girl protested all the way to the stairwell. When the kids, both still teenagers were safely away Maria turned toward the living room. She was almost facing Max directly as if she knew Max was watching her.
"I know you can hear me. I don't know where you are but I imagine you are watching me as well. Know this. My son may be gone but my family will always continue!" She said. Her words were diplomatic. Her face was stoic and brave and Max admired the woman that raised the man she loves.
"I wish you could hear me." Max said. "I wish you could tell me what is happening. I want to know what happened." She said. The frustration was building. She knew she couldn't affect anything in this apartment. She had already tried.
"Show yourself." Maria shouted.
"I can't!" Max shouted just a foot away from her. She reached for her locket. She lifted it in her fingers and looked at it. She wanted to talk to Maria. She had so many questions.
Maria reached for the locket she wore around her neck. Inside were pictures of the two men she had devoted her life to. The right side held a picture of the elder Logan, her husband and the left side, a picture of her son, both now deceased. She broke then into a fit of tears dropping to her knees and pulling Max to hers in sympathy. Both women clutched the same locket.
"Why do you torment me? Why won't you say something? I know you are watching me. I can feel you!" Maria asked.
"I didn't." Max said keeping her voice soft as she wrestled with her own tears. "Logan is alive. He's… I just saw… I was waiting…" She whispered.
"Who said that?" Maria asked suddenly dropping the locket back to her neck. "I heard you. You said Logan was alive! What kind of a sick bastard are you? I was at his funeral. I was there the day he died. I was talking to Dr. Carr when…"
Max fell back a few feet away from Maria. "You can hear me?" She asked but Maria just cried harder and screamed her curses. Max watched closely as the woman almost began to freak out. Calculations and scenarios were running through her head as she tried to figure out the key. She was still holding the locket when Maria reached for hers again. "Can you hear me?" Max asked.
"Who are you?" Maria asked clutching the locket tightly in her hand.
"My name is Max. I'm a friend of Logan's." Max said.
"What do you want Max?" The older woman asked. "Why can't I see you?"
"I need you to trust me. I will not harm you." Max said. "But I need you to take off the locket and hold it in your hand. Will you do that for me?" Max was taking a chance.
"I trust no one." Maria said. "What does this have to do with my son?"
"It has everything to do with your son." Max said. "Please. Trust me. You're son isn't dead. I can't explain unless you do what I ask."
Maria stared straight ahead through the broken picture window facing the skyscrapers across the plaza beneath Fogle Towers. She hesitated for only a minute before pulling the necklace from her and holding it in her outstretched hand.
Max pulled the locket from her neck and looked deep into Maria's eyes. "Whatever happens, whatever you do, don't let go of the locket. Do you understand?" Max asked. Maria nodded. Max scooted closer to her across the floor. She reached out slowly and gently placed the locket directly on top of the like one in Maria's hand before quickly closing Maria's fist over both lockets. Max gripped the older woman's hand holding it fast around the now single locket.
Maria gasped as Max just appeared before her when Max grabbed her hand but when she tried to pull away she found she could not. The young girls grip on her hand was too strong. "Who are you?" Maria demanded.
"My name is Max. I am a friend of Logan's." She said. "We live here. Here in this penthouse."
"My son is dead. He has been alone since that fiasco of a marriage to the redhead." Maria said.
"You mean Valerie?" Max asked.
"Whatever." Maria answered bitterly. "She used my son. I will never speak her name. Tell me the truth and tell me where you came from." Now it was her turn to make demands.
"I told you. My name is Max. I live here with Logan. We…" She paused searching for the right words. "We, Logan and I are partners. By choice."
"Partners?"
"Eyes Only. It's a long story but I broke in here one night to rob him. I was a thief but he saved me. He showed me there was a better way and we became friends. He helped me find my…" Again she searched for the right word. It had finally become a comfortable word to her. "He helped me find my family. After a while it just became natural to be around him. I started to miss him when I was away from him for too long. I…"
"You fell in love with him." Maria said.
"It didn't happen. Logan isn't dead. I was asleep in our bedroom when I heard a noise. I came out into the hall and you walked right through me. It kind of freaked me out but I listened and I realized that this couldn't be true." Max said. "This isn't real. I left Logan sitting at that very computer working on a case before he joined me in bed."
"This isn't true." Maria said. "It can't be."
"It is. Logan is a great man. He has single handedly brought a better way of life to the northwest sector. The economy is better and the people are happier. There is even a thriving community in Terminal City where several people live and work and help develop new scientific and medical advancements. No one suffers the food riots or the gang wars anymore."
"Logan cleaned up the toxins in the biohazard area downtown?" Maria asked.
Max realized what she was saying and who she was saying it to but it was already too late. "Sure." She said. "He's working hard right now while I lay in there on the bed dreaming." Max said. In actuality, she had no idea what was happening. She was just trying to calm the nerves of a woman obviously on the run. "You have to tell me what happened." She said.
"It's my brother in law. He sent a hover-drone to kill my husband." Maria started to cry. "There was a report from Eyes Only on television and then the hover-drone came for my son. Jonas sent it but he had already been killed by his own invention and now no one knows where the drone is." She looked into Max searching for something. "You say he is Eyes Only. You are his partner? You are his woman?" She asked Max. "How long has he been doing the Eyes Only thing?"
"He is my man. We've been together for over three years now. He's been working on the Eyes Only gig for over a decade now. He started it when…"
"When?" Maria demanded it suddenly. "He started it when? What were you going to say?"
"I shouldn't."
"You have to."
"Logan started Eyes Only when Jonas hired an assassin to kill his father." Max said. "After the plane crashed on the runway during takeoff, Logan worked very hard to prove the crime. No one would listen and everyone on board died that day."
"What do you mean everyone?" Maria asked.
"I mean everyone. The pilot and crew. Logan's father. His sister. You." Max said. "You know I'm telling the truth." Max stared into the older woman's eyes. She stared back. Slowly she nodded. "This is my dream. I know Logan is outside but how I can, I mean… I don't understand how you and I…"
"How you know me so well?" Maria asked. "Tell me about my son."
"What do you want to know?" Max asked.
"I want to know what kind of a man he has become since we left him to the evils of his Uncle." Maria said. "I know he is strong and I always knew he would find his own path but this Eyes Only thing. It is reckless and dangerous."
"It is." Max agreed.
"But he has a protector doesn't he, someone that watches over him and keeps him from harm." Maria watched as Max started to realize. "You protect him don't you?
"Yes." Max said. "He protects me as well. If it hadn't been for him I would have died on any number of occasions. We are always there for each other."
"Yes." Maria said. She easily pushed herself up from the floor to stand pulling Max up with her. There was a slight glow about her. "It is as she suspected. She sent me to check on you. She wanted to make sure you had finally found yourselves. It was imperative that you do so but she couldn't send anyone until now. The trigger wasn't present."
"What are you talking about? What trigger? Who sent you?"
"The Locket Max." Maria said. "It brought me to you."
"But who sent you?"
"You know who. She has always watched over you and your brothers and sisters."
"The Blue Lady?"
"Yes. She has always watched over you. Every one of you. There were some she couldn't protect but that is the way of things. You though are important to the future of this world and it was imperative that she check on you. The Locket gave her that opportunity."
"I don't understand. You mean she exists?" Max asked. "She's not just a picture."
"Do you really have to ask?" Maria asked.
Max remembered the chapel in the hospital when the strange old woman had been sitting there. "No." Max said. Maria stepped past her to reveal Logan still sitting at the computers. "Why the drama then, why not just check on me?" Max asked.
"You mean us here finding these things out the way we did? A future scenario that didn't play out. It is what could have happened had things gone differently. He would have eventually turned to the computers and started Eyes Only whether we died or not. You are the one but she didn't know if you realized it or not."
"What does that mean?" Max asked. "I've heard that before."
"Only he can answer that." Maria said. "Or at least lead you to the answer. He'll find it. He has his Informant Net."
"I can always find him working on that rig of his protecting the downtrodden. That I am sure of."
"His one great flaw, I'm afraid." Maria said.
"He does great things with it but you're right. I need to take him away from it for a while." Max said. She watched him for a minute and realized he was about to wrap things up for the night. She turned and followed Maria through the apartment. It was no longer the ransacked place she had found Maria and her kids in. It had become the calm peaceful sanctuary that Max knew it to be. It had once again become her home.
Maria floated gently toward the bedroom as Logan powered down his rig and headed into the kitchen with his coffee mug to rinse it in the sink. "I am so proud of him and you as well, Max. You two have a great destiny to fulfill. People will remember you and my son for centuries to come."
"Is that good or bad?" Max asked.
"Yes." Maria answered as she floated into the bedroom dissipating into a glowing haze. Max followed and could see her body still lying right where she had been before she came up startled earlier in the evening.
"Yes what?" Max asked. Maria faded out and Max felt she was losing a part of herself. "Yes it was good…" She started to ask.
Logan entered the room. "Or yes it was bad…" Max said as she sat straight up on the end of the bed. Logan rushed over to her sliding in beside her and wrapped her in his strong arms.
"What is it?" Logan asked. "What was bad?"
Max looked at him only for a second before holding out her hand and making sure she still had the locket. It was there and for some reason she knew it would always be near. Maria Cale had poured her spirit into that locket when she was alive and now Max would do the same for her children.
"Max?" Logan asked again.
"It's okay. I was dreaming I guess." Max said.
"What were you dreaming about?"
Max smiled as leaned in to kiss Logan. "Us."
"There was something bad about us?"
"No. Nothing at all. It was just some weird dream. I woke up from it when I heard you at the door. Don't worry about it."
"Was it Manticore? Did you remember something about Manticore?" Logan asked.
"No. I don't dream about Manticore anymore. I haven't for a long time now." She smiled and gave Logan another kiss. "It's time for bed. We have a big day tomorrow and we have to get up early."
"I thought you didn't sleep." Logan asked with a cheesy grin.
"I don't." Max said. "I thought you had insomnia?"
"I do." Logan smiled. Max set the locket beside his glasses on the nightstand. They both knew they wouldn't get much sleep but they would be ready for whatever the world had in store for them.