A/N: I love you guys. I mean really. I can't believe anyone is still reading this thing but you just don't give up! Thank-you!
Chap. 11 -
Max walked them across the interior of the building, which from the look of it was some kind of abandoned manufacturing plant. Rising through the dirt of disuse were the neglected skeletons of old machines, their purposes long forgotten. They loomed over the three transgenics with reaching arms and unexpected teeth like the fossilized remains of dinosaurs.
They climbed a set of metal grating stairs to a large landing where Logan was waiting for them. He was seated at a rickety table amidst the grime, looking as cool and collected as if he were sitting behind his immaculate desk in his immaculate penthouse. Resting on the table just inches away from his right hand was a large handgun.
Logan and Wy exchanged a nod as she approached him, following close behind Max.
When Logan met Alecs' eyes he nodded again and Alec nodded back. "Logan." He said in a deep, serious voice.
Max shot him a dirty look from across the table.
"Alec." Logan answered dryly, recognizing the mockery.
"What have you got?" Wy asked, interrupting the little scene impatiently.
The other three looked almost surprised, remembering that she was there. "We got to the club as Whites' men where closing on you. Sloppy." Max added to Alec.
He gave her a bored half-hearted glare.
"We couldn't get to the purple-haired guy but we picked up someone else." Max added and walking across the floor, she flipped a switch on the wall and the light in what was probably once the foremans' office came on.
Inside, blinking against the sudden light was a man who looked vaguely familiar to Alec.
"One of White's?" Alec asked.
"Yep." Max answered grimly.
"Can he see us?"
"One way glass. Soundproof." Logan offered from behind them.
Alec approached the glass. "Of course." Getting a little closer, he realized where he knew the mans' face from- sitting in that room was one of the agents who had held him captive while White stuck an explosive to his brain stem.
Alec gave him the finger through the glass.
"Real mature." Max observed.
Alec shrugged.
Turning, she and Logan exchanged one of their glances, saying-oh-so-much without words.
"You ready for this?" Logan asked her.
"No sweat."
Max unlocked the door and entered the little room. Alec leaned against the wall just beside the window to watch. This should be entertaining, he thought to himself.
Logan and Wy also moved forward to watch.
Max perched on the edge of the table, sitting a little too close to the man to be anything but threatening. "Rough night, huh?" She asked.
He didn't respond, just glared down at the table in front of him.
Max leaned over until she was just inches away from him and her voice went as hard and flat as her now black eyes, "It's about to get a whole lot rougher."
Raising his head finally, the man looked Max straight in the face. He held her eyes for a long moment and then with great deliberation he raised his right hand between them, gripped his index finger firmly and snapped the bone. It made a sharp ugly sound that was clear even through the glass.
"You don't scare me."
Disgust washed over Maxs' face but she didn't recoil. "We'll see about that." She answered.
"He's breeding cult." She said grimly as the door shut behind her.
"How can you be sure?" Logan asked.
"When have you ever seen someone deliberately break their own finger? Apparently, they don't feel pain the way normal people do. How the hell am I supposed to interrogate this guy?" She demanded- her voice tense and frustrated.
Neither Alec nor Logan had an answer for that.
"And they'll be coming for him." She added; her jaw tight.
From a few feet away, Wy studied the other girl, then she glanced at the door to look back at Max. Her expression was almost . . . sad for a second but it slipped away quickly, "Give me ten minutes with him."
"Ten minutes?" Max asked skeptically.
"Trained in interrogation, remember?"
She shrugged. "Who wasn't?"
Wy smiled a little with the corner of her mouth, "As much as I admire your technique Max, I know a few tricks that amount to a little more than offering to pound someone's bitch head in."
"You gonna dazzle him with your rapier wit?" Max asked sourly.
The other girl raised an eyebrow, "Wait and see."
When she moved toward the door, Alec spoke up, "If he's breeding cult, he should be restrained- preferably with chains."
Max nodded her agreement but Wy only smiled again, a strange little expression that combined sorrow and self-mockery in equal measures. "That won't be necessary." She told them, opening the door and entering the tank before anyone could protest further.
The others watched through the glass. Alec had his arms crossed tightly against his chest and he gripped his elbows hard enough to numb the tips of his fingers.
On the opposite side of the table from the man, Wy pulled the one empty chair around roughly. Sitting down with sudden grace she leaned back casually, making herself comfortable. Across from her the cultist folded his arms against his chest and gave her a contemptuous look.
"So is this good cop/bad cop? Are you going to be sympathetic and offer to help me out of this?" He laughed sharply.
Wy stared up at the ceiling for a moment like she was bored already and then looked back at him. "Nope."
Her casual attitude seemed to irritate him and he opened up with a string of profanity so obscene and inventive, all three watchers winced. Alec wore an expression of distaste, "Do you think he kisses his carefully selected breeding cult approved mother with that mouth?" He asked.
Meanwhile in the tank, Wy didn't react at all except to watch the man like he was a mildly interesting TV commercial or a fish in a tank. Every once and a while she would look up at the ceiling or around at the walls. Toward the end of his tirade, which lasted several minutes the cultist started to follow her glances into the corners of the room as though she was beginning to make him nervous.
"What is she doing?" Max asked, perplexed. No one answered.
When the man finally wound down, Wy leaned forward onto one elbow to rest her chin in her cupped hand as though to study him closer. Her gaze was not threatening but his eyes darted over her shoulder and he shivered.
"What do you want?" He demanded, suddenly.
Wy shrugged and continued to watch him.
"I'm not afraid." He insisted.
"Of course not."
"What do you want?" His voice took on a shrill note.
Moving with a swiftness that made the man start, Wy stood. With a quick neat gesture she set the light above the table swinging from side to side. Her face fell into shadow and then back into light, into shadow and back into light with its motion.
"What do you want?" He screamed.
"You know what we want. Tell us White's plan."
He shook his head fiercely from side to side. "For my father before me and my sons after me. . ."
"What is White's plan?"
"I won't tell you. I won't tell you! For my father-" His eyes were bulging and he looked around wildly. His body shook as violently as his voice. Wy stood with the palms of her hands resting on the table.
"What is White's plan?" Her voice became soft and insistent.
He drew his feet up onto his chair and wrapped his arms around his legs, oblivious to his broken finger. He shook his head frantically. "No." His eyes moved constantly, scanning the shadows at Wy's back.
"Tell me White's plan."
"No."
"There is no other way out of this room."
"No." He was hiding his head in his arms, refusing to look.
"Look at me!" Wy's voice lashed out with sudden authority and he looked up. His face was pale and there was moisture on his skin that shined briefly in the swinging light. "What is White's plan?"
With a cry of absolute despair, he broke down and sobs shaking his body, he poured out the truth-
The phone call Logan intercepted was a hoax. Releasing someone had tipped off the good witch, White recognized that he had an information leak- a leak that quite possibly had some relation to Max and he had designed a ruse to draw the transgenic girl out. Which explained why the sniper had used darts and not bullets- the point was to capture Max not to kill her. Purple hair was just a recent capture who had been funneling White transgenics in exchange for his own life.
White had diverted a lot of money and man power into the plan and his superiors would not be pleased at his failure.
Wy pressed him for more details but he was weeping too hard to speak clearly by that point. She watched him impassively for a moment before exiting the room.
On the other side, she shut the door carefully behind her and leaned back against the metal surface for a moment. Her eyes fell closed briefly before she faced them. Max, Alec, and Logan were all staring at her when she opened her eyes again. A strange smell- cold and wet like the basement cells at Manticore drifted past Alec's nose.
"It's a trap." Wy said.
"You think?" Max asked. They all turned unconsciously to look at the cultist, who was sobbing with his head down on the table, beaten and broken.
Wy flinched when their eyes turned back to her.
"Yeah." She said and addressed Max, "I don't know what you want to do with him but stay out of that room for at least an hour. Our friend should be pretty docile for the next few hours after that though . . . if that's any help." She walked away slowly. They all watched her retreat.
"She didn't even touch him." Logan observed, breaking the silence first and frowning. "How did she do that?" He and Alec both turned to Max.
"How should I know?" She demanded irritably. Wy looked very small in the murky light of the factory as she walked away but somehow that made what had just happened more frightening and inexplicable. The air between the three was full of tense unspoken questions.
"I'll see you later." Alec promised, moving quickly to follow the girl.
"Wait-" Max turned to make some demand but Alec hardly noticed.
He waved a hand vaguely behind him as he walked away. "Later, Maxie."
As Alec hurried across the dark floor after Wy, he caught the strange scent again and suddenly the shadows were as dark and ominous as cage bars. It made him feel vulnerable and out of control and alone- all the things he had promised himself he would never feel. He pulled his jacket closer around him, making sure it covered the back of his neck. It was a gesture he hadn't realized had become habitual.
Alec caught up with her near the bottom of the stairs.
Wy was paused, holding onto the railing with tight fingers. He knew something was wrong when he reached out to touch her and his hand on her shoulder blade made her jump. This wasn't about a sleepless night in an old freezer or even about whatever had been in those darts. When she looked back over her shoulder at him, her face was milky pale.
The shock he felt at her hollowed eyes and the rigid weariness in her shoulders stopped him cold but she straightened under his gaze, her jaw going hard as usual and he demanded, "What happened back there? What's wrong with you?"
She started back down the stairs, the only tell of her weakness the hand she kept on the railing. "You wanted answers, you got answers. What does it matter, how?" When she reached the bottom, she stumbled and he had to reach out and catch her elbow.
"It matters if you're not telling us everything. You've been hiding something since the first night I met you."
Wy tried to pull her arm away but he wouldn't let go and she was forced to stop. Turning to face him, she pushed her hair out of her eyes with her free hand. "Have you told us everything, Alec?" Her voice was low and bitter as she stared up at him. He could feel her trembling in his grip, "Have you confessed to all the little things they programmed in- the desire to take orders, the way you constantly look for danger or weakness? Have you ever told anyone how easy it is to start hitting and how hard it is to stop? We were made to be killers. Do you and Max talk about how sometimes it feels good to do what we were made to do?"
Alec's lip curled in disgust and he was about to push her away when he saw the look of relief pass over her eyes.
He shifted his grip to her upper arm.
"Nice try." He said coolly.
"Just let me go, Alec." It was almost a plea.
"Yeah, right. What are you gonna do? You can barely walk."
"I'll be fine. I just need to get home so I can sleep." She took one shaky step away from him and then another.
He snorted. "How are you going to get there? You could hardly make it down the stairs."
"Maybe I'll follow your example- I'm sure there's a bike around here I can steal."
"You couldn't ride to the end of the block like this." He stopped her from taking another step, pulled her around to face him again, "We'll take Max's bike." He produced a set of motorcycle keys from his pocket with a sharp smile that quickly disappeared, "Then you're going to answer some questions."
She didn't argue so he figured that for assent. Holding her firmly by the elbow, Alec half walked half carried her and found where Max had left the Ninja. During the ride, he was surprised when she rested her face against his back. He could barely feel her arms around his waist but the steady in and out of her breathing was distracting in its insistence. The ride to her squat wasn't very long but by the time they got there, she was so weak she stumbled and very nearly landed in the mud when she tried to dismount. He caught her just in time.
Alec considered his options and then with a sigh made up of equal parts irritation and resignation, he swung her up into his arms. "This had better not become some sort of pattern," he told her dryly.
She fought him weakly in response, trying to get free but he tightened his arms around her until she could hardly breathe let alone object. Thumping his arm grudgingly, Wy signaled her surrender.
"What's wrong with you?" Alec asked, "Do you need a doctor?"
Wy shook her head, banging her temple gently against his chest.
"No. I just need to sleep for about six hours and then," She yawned hugely, "I'll need to eat. Incidentally," She added in a sleepy slur, "if you tell anyone about this- I swear to god- I'll find a way to hurt you."
"Whatever." He argued, "I could take you easy."
But she was already asleep.
In the alley, Alec had to set her on the ground propped up against a wall to paw through her jacket and find the key to the padlock on the door. Not even the cold hard cement or his invasion of her pockets woke her. After unlocking the door and pulling the chain free, he picked up her slight form and slipped inside. Swinging the door shut with a foot, he let his eyes adjust to the dark before making his way to the bed. He lowered her gently and then shimmied off her boots before tucking her under the covers. She slept on oblivious.
He studied her for a moment. Curled on her side, with her knees pulled up to her chest, that's how Wy slept- like someone who was used to conserving body heat or someone who expected to be assaulted at any moment. She shifted restlessly and he touched her, sliding gentle fingers over silk-shiny hair until she stilled.
It was hard to reconcile this dozing sweetness with the woman who had coolly reduced a man to tears less than an hour before.
With a sigh, Alec glanced around Wy's place. Six hours of waiting and she didn't even have a TV. She said she would need to eat when she woke up and the thought gave him an idea. Turning away from the bed, he wandered into the kitchen to rifle through the cupboards.
The girl had one apple, some rice, and an old tin full of green tea.
Pathetic.