The Puppetmasters by Star24
Disclaimer: Dark Angel and its characters are property and copyright Twentieth Century Fox and James Cameron and Charles Eglee. This original story is copyright Star24 2003
Chapter Ten
CRASH, that night
Max looked at her watch. It was 9:15 PM. Lina was fifteen minutes late. It had been a slim chance that she would come anyway, one of Max's spur of the moment, making it up as she went along, inspirations.
Sketchy returned from the bar with a full pitcher of beer and began to pour out glasses.
"Thanks, Sketch." Max picked hers up and took a gulp. She looked across the table at Original Cindy who was deep in a debate with Herbal over the merits of Rastafarianism versus Zen Buddhism. Maybe it was for the best. Maybe she should just butt out and let whatever happened, happen.
She drained her glass and was about to rise, preparatory to leaving, when she glanced at the back stairs. Lina was walking down them, looking around the room as she did.
Sketchy and OC had their backs to the stairs so neither had seen her yet. There was still time to head her off, but Max just sat and waited. Lina looked down at a paper in her hand and then headed over to the bar. The bartender pointed in the direction of the Jam Pony crew's table. Lina started over toward the table. When she was halfway there she spotted Max and she stopped. The two stared at each other. A look of comprehension crossed Lina's face.
Lina started to turn to leave, but Sketchy picked that moment to turn around, alerted by something in Max's face and posture.
"Celine." He jumped up and ran the few steps to where she stood frozen. Oblivious, he put his arm around her waist and pulled her over to the table.
"Guys, you won't believe who's here. This…"
Original Cindy broke off her conversation with Herbal and turned impatiently to face Sketchy. Max felt like everything was moving in slow motion. A look of surprise crossed Cindy's face as she saw Lina standing there with Sketchy's arm around her waist.
"… is Celine." Sketchy was saying. He trailed off as he took in Original Cindy and the way she was looking at Celine.
"Lina?" Original Cindy said, her hurt and disbelief clear in her face and her voice.
Sketchy turned to look at Celine as he began to understand. "Celine? What's going on?"
Celine/Lina looked at them. A look of venom crossed her face as she stared at Max. "Ask your friend here. She set this up."
She wrenched herself away from Sketchy. Sketchy and Original Cindy looked from Lina to Max.
"She's a player. Running and selling drugs. She's been using you guys as mules to deliver her shit. She ever ask you to deliver a package for her, Sketchy?" Despite her strong words, Max wanted to shrivel up and die at the looks on Original Cindy and Sketchy's faces as the meaning of what she was saying hit them.
"Is it true?" Original Cindy asked Lina.
Lina shrugged. "Every word of it. You two were convenient with your Sector Passes. What cop bothers to stop a bike messenger? It was a good game. Too bad it's over." Lina flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder as she turned and left Jam Pony.
"OC…Sketchy…" Max began. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean…"
"Not now, boo. Original Cindy needs to be alone." Cindy said quietly as she rose and headed for the opposite exit from the one Lina had used . When Max turned from watching her go, Sketchy had already headed out in the other direction. Herbal remained seated at the table looking at Max.
"I shouldn't have done it. It wasn't my business," she said bitterly.
"Jah works in his own ways, Max. He chooses his instruments and wields dem wit care."
"Yeah, well maybe I don't like being an instrument, Herbal. Maybe I want to pull my own strings for once." Max slammed her glass on the table and followed in the wake of her friends.
She briefly considered going to Logan's, but he had acted kind of weird on the phone earlier that day, telling her that he had a lot of work to do on the cable hack and that he needed some time alone to do it. Instead she climbed on her Ninja and sent it roaring through the Seattle streets, letting the feel of its 650cc's purring under her wash away her confusion and upset.
She finally pulled the bike to a halt, only to find herself staring up at the dark tower of the Space Needle. With a shrug she parked the bike and began the long climb up to her familiar aerie, high above the Seattle streets.
Fogle Towers, Next Morning
Logan was exhausted. He'd hardly slept for either of the two previous nights. Instead, he had found himself watching the video of Max shooting the Senator over and over again. When he finally forced himself to stop playing the video, the picture of Max firing the rifle kept replaying in his mind. Interspersed with it were images of Max as a child, blood on her face as she stood looking down on a mutilated and torn body.
Lydecker's voice echoed in his head, "They were designed to kill. Coldly... efficiently ...and happily...They're all killers. All they need is a trigger…she's not the girl next door…not the girl next door…killers…all killers…"
Somehow he had ended up on his couch the previous night. He had dozed off and on for a couple of hours, drifting in and out of nightmares of Max as a Manticore assassin. In some she stood there and calmly shot an unknown man, smiling as he crumpled to the ground, while Logan watched, helpless to stop her. In others she stood there and fired round after round from her automatic weapon into Logan's own body. He felt the fire of the bullets tearing through him and he listened to her laughter as he fell…
"What if there was something horrible that they made me do while I was there?" Max's own words to him sounded in his head repeating over and over. "What if…what if…what if…"
He'd finally given up trying to sleep and made himself some coffee, sipping it as he watched the anemic sunrise from his windows. The day was going to be gray and cloudy again, a fitting accompaniment to his mood.
Driven by a macabre compulsion he set down the coffee mug and went back to his computer. He reached out, intending to hit the PLAY button but then something happened. New pictures began to play in his head, crowding out the ones that had haunted him for the past day and a half.
Max looking at a picture of a child with a balloon, her face soft and somehow sad. Max carrying a small, frightened boy out of the Steinlitz Hotel, soothing him with soft words. Max hugging another young boy on the steps of a burned out cabin. Max lying seizing on the floor, after putting a deadly implant into her head in order to save the life of her best friend. Max sitting there on his couch, wearing a red dress, holding his mother's locket out to him with a soft smile…
Max standing at his windows, tears in her voice as she spoke of getting away from Manticore…
Max sitting next to him on the Space Needle, speaking wistfully of the people down below them, "… if I sit up here long enough I start to feel like I'm just one of those people, a regular girl."
Logan shook his head as if to clear it. He highlighted the enhanced video file and then sat there staring at it as its icon flashed monotonously on his screen. Finally, he moved his mouse so that the cursor was on the file and he punched a button.
ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DELETE THIS FILE?
YES he typed and then he hit the ENTER key. The file vanished from his screen. He sat back, lost in thought.
* * * *
"Logan?" Max's voice broke into his thoughts.
He had no idea how long he had been sitting there, but judging from the light, it had been a while. He turned to face her, relieved that he had deleted the file before she had a chance to see it. "Hey, Max."
"What's the scoop? Did you have enough footage for the hack? Is it done? " She smiled at him from the doorway to the computer room.
An image of her aiming and firing a rifle popped into his head. Logan banished it. "I need to verify just one more thing," he told her, making a sudden decision. "There's someone I need to go see. You want to go with me? The guy's a former Manticore employee."
"In that case, you're damn straight I'm going with you."
Logan grabbed a black windbreaker from his coat rack and shoved his car keys into his pocket. "Let's do it then."
* * * * * * *
Half an hour later they pulled up in front of a rundown tenement building. They climbed out of the Aztek and walked up the cracked and crumbling steps of the building. Inside the hallway Logan stopped to double check the name plates on the mailboxes in the lobby.
"5A. Looks like there's no elevator, so I guess it's the stairs."
Max led the way up the flights of stairs, stopping at each landing to scan for any signs of trouble. The building was quiet; most of its inhabitants were evidently out at their daily activities.
"You sure he's gonna be here?" Max asked Logan when they reached the fifth floor.
"He's here. He has nowhere else to go right now."
When they reached the door, Logan stepped in front of Max. "He knows me." He knocked sharply on the wooden door and they waited. After a few minutes the door opened a crack and an eye peered out cautiously. "It's me. I need to talk to you for just a few minutes more." Logan said.
The door closed and there was the sound of a chain being taken off. It opened again, barely wide enough for the two to walk in. Max took the lead this time, shooting Logan a glare when he tried to stop her.
Nothing happened as they entered. Logan turned to see his informant closing the door behind them and putting the chain back on, once he had thrown the bolts mounted on the door.
"I gave you what I had. What else does your boss want?" the man began sulkily. "Thought you were gonna get me papers and transport out of here. If Manticore finds me I'm a dead man."
Before Logan could answer, there was a gasp behind him as Max turned from surveying the apartment for any signs of trouble, and got her first sight of the informant.
The informant turned white and pulled a gun from his pocket. "You double crossing sonuvabitch. You brought that thing here to kill me." He held the gun in shaking hands pointed at Max.
Logan looked at Max and a chill ran down his spine. Her face was blank and cold, emotionless, an expression he had seen on it during their stay at the safe house.
"My mission is to eliminate a traitor. You betrayed Manticore. The penalty for that is death." Max's voice was as cold as her eyes.
"Max. Stop. The mission is over. You aren't Manticore anymore." Logan interjected.
The informant's fingers began to squeeze the trigger of the gun pointed at Max. Before he could complete the motion, she moved in a blur of speed too fast to follow. It ended with the informant standing there unarmed, and Max standing in front of him holding the gun.
Max raised the gun and aimed it at the man. Simultaneously, Logan threw himself at the informant pushing him to the floor. Logan found himself sprawled on the floor, half on top of the other man, looking up at Max who was standing over them still pointing the gun.
"Max, this isn't you. You kicked them out of your head once already. You can do it again. It's all a lie. They can't control you if you don't let them. You aren't their puppet anymore. You're yourself. Your own person." Logan stared up at Max. He could see the conflict and confusion swirling in Max's eyes as they locked with his. "Max, you can do this." His voice was calm and sure.
"My mission is to …kill the traitor. I have to kill him…they said I have to kill him…" Max was still holding the gun but her voice sounded hesitant, unsure, as she repeated her orders. It was almost as if she was trying to convince herself.
"Max, you aren't a Manticore assassin anymore. The mission is over for you."
"How do you know that?" she demanded of Logan.
"Because," he said slowly and surely as he looked at her. "I know who you are. And so do you."
Logan held his breath when she didn't answer. He could see her fingers beginning to tighten on the trigger. Then with an exclamation, she threw the gun across the room. Before Logan could say anything, she threw open the door to the apartment, breaking the locks and the chain in the process, and she was gone.
End of Chapter Ten