Disclaimer: Dark Angel and its characters are property and copyright 2001-2002 Twentieth Century Fox and James Cameron and Charles Eglee. This original story is copyright 2003 Star24.
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Chapter Nine
Office Building, several hours later
Logan continued to sponge Max down with cool water and after a while he was even able to get her to swallow some juice that he had found in the small laboratory refrigerator. After that she slipped into a natural sleep, as opposed to her earlier unconscious state. He was impatient to speak to her before the doctor returned, but he was reluctant to wake her up, so he forced himself to wait patiently.
Finally she muttered something and she shifted restlessly on the examining table. Logan was sitting in the small metal chair that was the room's only other furniture, leafing through an old magazine that he had found in one of the cabinets that took up the top half of one wall of the examining room. He put it down and watched as Max's eyes fluttered open.
"Logan?" she said as she turned her head and saw him sitting there. He rose immediately and went to her placing his hand on her forehead. Her temperature appeared to be normal and she wasn't sweating as she had been earlier. Her skin was back to its normal color. "What happened?" She tried to sit up, and he placed a hand behind her back to aid her, then reached down and raised the top half of the table so she could lean back against it in a sitting position.
"How do you feel?" He ignored her question for the moment.
"Like I just got run over by a truck. Other than that, I'm good." Max attempted a smile.
"Here." Logan had poured her some more juice and she took the cup from him and drank it down greedily.
"So where are we?" Max asked again.
"Do you remember anything about last night?" Logan asked her.
Max frowned. "I broke into the offices, but the file you saw wasn't there…"She stopped as memory returned. "It's him. Your Dr. Windham isn't who you thought he was. He's the doctor from Manticore. His name is Gertals. The one I told you about who took away my brothers and sisters. He came in while I was searching for the file, and I recognized him and went after him. He injected me with something. That's all I remember until now."
"It was a setup, Max." Logan looked at her grimly. "There was a warning on my machine last night from Lydecker. Somehow this guy found out there was an X5 loose in Seattle, and he made the link between us. He used me to lure you here. The file I saw in his office that appeared to say Zycinor was the bait."
"So how did you end up here with me in Dr. Frankenstein's lab?"
"When I got Lydecker's message I came after you. He must have been expecting me because he hit me over the head and here I am." A look of self disgust came over Logan's face. "Some hero I make."
"Its okay, Logan." Max said softly. "Thanks for coming after me."
"Thank me when we get out of here." Logan said. There was silence for a moment as their eyes met. "I should never have sent you here. I should have guessed it was a trap before I got Deck's message. My mind was on other things and I got careless. I'm sorry."
"What does he want me for anyway?" Max asked even as a chill ran over her.
"He says he wants the antibodies that X5s produce when infected with disease. He's already infected you with something, that's why you feel the way you do."
"He wants to continue his experiments." Max whispered. "The ones he was doing when I was younger. They made him stop after the Zycinor failure, but he must have been waiting all these years for another chance."
Logan sat on the edge of the table and put his arm around her shoulder. "We're not going to let him use you. We'll get out of here."
"How, Logan? Right now I don't feel like I could take on a French poodle and win."
Logan looked worried. "If we could get word to Lydecker where we are…I need access to a computer. I have my cell phone, but something in this building is jamming the reception."
Before Max could respond the door opened and the doctor stood there holding a gun on them. "I see that you're awake and recovered." He smiled at Max.
"No thanks to you." She spat at him. "I thought doctors were supposed to cure diseases not cause them?"
"Disease in humans my dear. And you aren't really human, are you?"
"She's more human than you'll ever be." Logan rose threateningly. Max grabbed his arm as she saw the doctor's fingers tighten slightly on the trigger of the gun.
"Its okay, Logan. He can say whatever he wants. He's the real monster here, not me, and we all know that."
"Very touching, your devotion to each other." The doctor sneered. "He pointed the gun at Logan. "Mr. Cale you need to move to the far wall and stand facing it. Now."
Logan stood there, stubbornly refusing to move.
"Do it, Logan. I'll be okay." Max gave him a shove in the direction of the wall. He looked down at her but she shook her head and indicated he should do as the doctor said. Reluctantly he moved to obey. "Now what?" Max wanted to know.
"Now you come with me, quietly and with no trouble or I shoot your friend." The doctor continued to point the gun at Logan. Max swung her legs off of the table and stood shakily. "Come along." The doctor stepped back into the hallway allowing room for Max to exit the room, while still keeping the gun aimed at Logan's back.
Max slowly walked toward him, biding her time until she could make her move. She still felt shaky and hoped she had the strength to pull it off. As she drew even with the doctor she started to turn and bring her hands up to take him out. But she was still weak from the infection and before she could touch him, he pulled his other hand from his pocket and she felt the same prick she had felt the night before. At the same time he shoved her into the hallway and kicked the examining room door closed with his foot. She heard the click as it locked automatically, isolating her from Logan.
"That trick won't work twice," she gritted out as she struggled to maintain her balance.
The doctor simply stood there with a smile on his face as the drug once again overcame her, and she slumped against the wall.
* * * * *
It seemed like forever to Logan before the door opened and the doctor carried Max back into the room. She was limp in his arms, and her face and arms were covered with small marks, almost like measles. Doctor Gertals placed her on the examining table and stepped back allowing Logan to go to her.
"What did you give her this time?" Logan demanded. He started toward the doctor only to be faced once more with his gun.
"A minor viral disease. She'll be fine. Her body has already made the necessary antibodies to it." Doctor Gertals was unconcerned.
"How many times do you intend to do this? You're going to kill her if you keep it up at this pace."
"There's only one more disease left that I need her for. These first two were merely tests of her immune system. I had to be sure it was the same as the other X5s I've used in the past. The crucial one is the one I haven't done yet."
"What one might that be?" Logan had a sinking feeling that he already knew.
"You know which one that is, Mr. Cale. It's the one you were so interested in when you came to see me."
"You can't infect her with Zycinor. Even X5s can't fight that one off. You know that."
"The X5s I used were children and they resisted it for days before succumbing. She's in the prime of her health and strong. She may be the one I need. If not…" he shrugged his shoulders. "At least I'll have more data on it."
"Why are you so obsessed with a disease that doesn't even exist naturally?" Logan wanted to know.
The doctor was silent for a moment, staring at him. "But it does exist and other powers besides the US know of it. They may even have it. We need to be prepared."
"So for a vague possibility that someone may someday get it, you're willing to kill her?" Logan sensed there was more to it and he pushed.
"Zycinor killed my wife." The doctor ground out fiercely.
Logan stared in shock.
"She was a lab tech at Manticore, assigned to the Zycinor project. But something went wrong and she was infected. I watched her die through the window of an isolation room. Alone and in pain. And I swore I'd find a cure for it."
"By killing innocent children?"
"They weren't human." The doctor snarled at Logan.
"They're constructs. Created in a lab. What better use
for them than to save the lives of real humans? If we'd done this as soon as we
made the disease, my wife could be alive today. She was worth hundreds of these
creatures."
"You let it loose in Seattle didn't you?" Logan said slowly, realization dawning. "You did it to draw Max out into the open, to draw her to you. And you knew about me somehow."
"I knew the rogue X5 who was loose would know exactly what Zycinor was. And I knew that she was associated with a Logan Cale. That she had given him stem cell enriched blood in order to heal a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed. Come, Mr. Cale. You were quite willing to use X5-452's blood to heal yourself. How can you grudge my using her to help others?"
"She gave me her blood. Of her own free will. And she didn't risk her life doing it. But how do you know about that? Even Lydecker doesn't know."
"I was a close colleague of Adrianna Vertes. Last year she sent me a medical file. She was working on the case of a man who had received stem cell enriched blood, but whose body was rejecting it. She asked me for some suggestions on solving the rejection problem. I gave her some but at the same time I kept note of the file. And when I recently found out that a rogue X5 was in Seattle…it was an easy connection to make. I arranged to have several people infected with Zycinor. And you and Max, as you call her, did exactly as I expected."
"You're insane." Logan whispered as he looked into Gertal's eyes. "I won't let you do this."
"And you Mr. Cale, are helpless to stop me. Once I have what I need from the X5 I won't need either of you anymore." He backed out of the room, leaving Logan staring after him.
End of Chapter Nine