A/N: Thanks to ShanghaiLily for editing advise, and for reminding me how Logan is always touching Veronica or sweeping her hair back, especially when they kiss. Who could resist that kind of affection?

(Sigh) I own nothing, except maybe Adam. I've grown quite fond of him at this point so I think I'll keep him.

Chapter 12 – New Recruit

Veronica and Adam entered FBI New York Headquarters at the same time Monday morning. They went through security and rode the elevator in companionable silence, she lost in thought about the meeting to come and he giving her the time she needed to think. Once they had reached their desks and stowed their civilian belongings, he finally broached the elephant in the room.

"Logan is going to be here in an hour. What's the plan?" Adam asked.

She sighed. "Well, this is Jerry and Marjorie's deal. I already gave them a heads up. They'll take the lead with Logan this morning; I don't even need to be in the room. It's up to you if you want to join them, or be with me on the other side of the observation mirror. Jerry's a little pissed that Logan disappeared like that since they were surveying the back of the club, so it should be kind of fun to watch." She grinned a bit, picturing the ass chewing Jerry had planned for her erstwhile …Friend? Ex-Lover? Pain in the Ass?

Adam nodded. "Sounds good. And hey, thanks for Saturday. That was a lot of fun. I'm always down for shooting people when I don't have to write a ten page report after. Plus, I got bonus points for taking that paintball for Trent." He waggled his eyebrows to let her know just what those bonus points earned him.

Veronica ignored the unwanted information and focused on their double date. "That was a blast. We lucked out on the movie too. Can you believe Charlie had never seen The Philadelphia Story? He went out and bought his first DVD yesterday so he could watch it again. Then he asked me if any of the actors made any other movies."

Adam rolled his eyes. "I love Charlie Boy but his parents should be charged with neglect. Who is almost thirty that hasn't seen The First Lady of Cinema spar with Spencer Tracy? The Ordinary Hero talk to an imaginary six foot rabbit? He was definitely born in the wrong decade. Hell, the wrong century."

Her nod of agreement was short. "I know. It's one of my favorite things about him. Anyway we should finish our reports about Friday night before the meeting…."

At nine o'clock she and Adam were on the observation side of a two way mirror watching Logan be escorted to his seat by an intern. They smirked at each other when he figured out there was no way out of the room after waiting for five bored minutes, and had given up pounding on the door five minutes after that. He'd spent his time since pacing irritably and checking his watch every twenty seconds.

Adam chuckled and sat back, kicking up to enjoy the show like it was a movie. "Jerry is fucking with him. I love it. Logan has no idea what he's in for."

While part of Veronica enjoyed seeing Logan's annoyance, she was anxious to get the meeting started. The sooner they got his information about the party, the sooner he was out of this mess and life could get back to normal. She breathed a sigh of relief when Jerry and Marjorie finally entered the room at 9:15.

Adam's smile grew only wider when Jerry ignored all pretense of pleasantry by pointing Logan into a chair and ordering tersely, "Sit down, hotshot."

Logan's demeanor instantly shifted, and Veronica knew the smart ass had come out to play. She silently pleaded with him to knock it off. This was going to go from bad to worse if he treated Jerry like Don Lamb.

His tone overly pleasant in response to Jerry's order, Logan responded, "Well, I don't mind if I do, since you asked so nicely. How are you Jerry, Marjorie?" Taking his seat he plastered a large, smarmy smile across his face.

Logan's sarcastic politeness was met with only a stoic expression by Jerry. He had no better luck with Marjorie who irritatingly said, "What do you say we cut the crap, Logan, and just get this done."

Realizing he had won over no friends in the room, nor participants in his favorite game of verbal fencing, Logan arrogantly waved his hand for them to continue.

Jerry uncapped his pen and poised to take notes. "Just so we're clear, you approached Agents Mars and Rogan with information about a secretive party, a party you knew was of special interest to the FBI. You were thanked for the information and requested to not attend the party for your own protection. Against this advice you instead attended said party. We had agents at both the front and back of the club. You entered at 8:04pm and when agents entered the club at 8:07, you had disappeared. The club has no cellar or other exits. Where did you go?"

"A hidden tunnel off the storage room downstairs. It led to a stairway and tunnel that opened into an alley in what I would guess to be a block over. My escort mentioned something about the club being a speakeasy at one point. Apparently one the FBI never uncovered." Logan smiled sardonically at Jerry when tacking on the last tidbit.

Unamused, Jerry fixed him with a glare before continuing. "And what happened when you entered the alley?"

Logan continued to act like the whole interview was a lark. He told Jerry, "I was attacked by what looked like a vampire, but was saved by a tiny blonde woman with a wooden stake. Weirdest thing."

As Jerry threw down his pen in irritation, Logan allowed his anger to show in his tone. "What is your problem, Jerry? You wanted to find out more about this party and I got in. I'm planning on being fully cooperative and telling you everything I know, so why am I being treated like a criminal?"

Jerry stood slowly and placed his hands flat on the table, then leaned forward to stare down Logan. His words were laced with frost. "Criminals we shoot. You knowingly put yourself at risk after specifically being requested by agents of this department to do the opposite. You are being treated with as much civility as I can muster under the circumstances, Mr. Echolls. Now, what happened when you entered the alley?"

Logan attempted to meet his stare, but the look in Jerry's eyes made it clear he would never outlast the older man. He wisely chose to dial back the smart ass schtick, though it went against his nature to drop it entirely. "I was put in a limo which had windows too dark to see out of, and was requested to turn off my cell phone and hand it over with my wallet, which were put in a silver bag and sealed. I signed the seal so I could tell if it had been broken, like a urine sample. Then I had to sign a confidentiality agreement. After, we drove for about twenty minutes. When we stopped they opened the door in front of an elevator in a parking garage. I got in the elevator which went down. While in the elevator my escort scanned me with something that I assume looks for bugs and recording devices. I was patted down meticulously enough that I think he owes me a dinner, before being given a mask and a name tag."

Obviously familiar with this scenario Jerry asked, "Could you tell where you were? What did the mask look like and did you use your real name on your name tag?"

Logan rolled his eyes and deadpanned. "Yeah, I could tell I was in a parking garage in New York City, so that should be easy to narrow down. The mask was just a black cloth that covered my hair and the top half of my face, leaving holes for my eyes and no, I was instructed to choose a noun for my name tag, no proper nouns allowed."

"And you chose?" Marjorie asked.

He looked at the mirror and, though it was impossible to see through it, managed to lock eyes with Veronica before saying, "Bobcat."

When she heard his pet nickname for her roll off his tongue, a hundred memories flashed through Veronica's mind at once, most of them carnal. He had played that name occasionally when teasing her, but mostly pulled it out during foreplay or when trying to seduce her. He had also used it as a code word when they were with a group of people to let her know he couldn't wait to get her alone. Hearing it again while staring into his eyes, a jolt of remembered desire shot through her, and caused her to gasp slightly in surprise. She felt immensely grateful he wasn't in the same room with her when she reacted, but was irritated that Adam was.

Cocking an eyebrow at her Adam asked, "Do I even want to know? ...Scratch that, I definitely want to know."

"It's nothing Adam, just residual mindfuckery from our past. Let it go." Veronica said, exasperated.

Adam drawled, "Yeah, like that's going to happen. It will just go in the file for the next time we're on stakeout and bored out of our minds."

Veronica ignored him and went back to listening to Logan's description of the party. "…so here we are, 50 or so of the elite of the Big Apple drinking cocktails and chatting about anything and nothing. No names or careers were allowed to be shared, so it was a lot of mindless chit chat and reminiscences about past parties since they change the theme every time. At first, I thought the party was getting more guests because there was less and less room to spread out. When I really paid attention though, I realized the room was slowly narrowing. The walls actually moving in, changing the square layout into a rectangle. Then a door lit up at one end, and painted on it were the words Enter Me. So, realizing the adventure had started, well, we went down the rabbit hole."

Jerry was furiously scribbling notes through this, so Marjorie picked up the line of questioning, "What does that mean?"

"We went through this wild maze, obviously inspired by Alice in Wonderland. It was creepy and surprising and took about three hours to get through." Logan grinned at her. "It was kind of a blast, like being at a theme park without all the screaming kids. Then we ended up in the same room where they had laid out a feast for us, Eat Me, Drink Me style. We drank, ate, and danced until the wee small hours of the morning when the limo ride thing was reversed to drop me off a block from my apartment."

Marjorie leaned forward and inquired, "Did you recognize anyone, or get any identifying information from the other participants?"

Logan shook his head. "Nothing concrete. I was the only newbie and everyone stuck to the rules of the game pretty well, keeping themselves as anonymous as possible. There were no couples or groups of friends. A few mentioned how hard it was to keep the party from their partners, but they all seemed to get off on having a bit of a secret life. There was one guy though, I'd know him if I saw him again. We spent a fair part of the night talking about swing dancing, and he told me about a club he goes to every Tuesday night."

"If we brought a sketch artist in here could you describe him?" Marjorie asked.

"Sure." Logan confirmed, then launched into a description. "Average size, mid 20s. Brown hair, brown eyes, Caucasian, 5'10" to 6 feet tall. Majority of his face covered by a black mask. I'd know him if I saw him but all your sketch artist will get is a picture of Batman's sidekick. But I have a better idea."

Jerry stopped writing and fixed him with a warning glare. "Just what are you suggesting?"

"I'll go to this club, find the guy and figure out who he is." Logan offered.

Jerry and Marjorie looked at each other, and then stood up. Jerry tersely ordered Logan, "Wait here."

"Is that an order or a request, Jerry?" Logan asked.

With all deliberation Jerry put down the pad of paper and pen he was holding. He crossed his arms and stared hard at Logan for a moment. Veronica watched this face off with trepidation. While on the outside Logan appeared as unflappable as ever, she had to wonder what was going on in his head. She knew that from the time he was small he had been faced down by his hulk of a father who yelled and hit, taking the brunt of fury from a psychotic jackass who had selected him as his personal target. But Aaron had nothing on Jerry for being able to create fear in just a glance. When the man spoke, he made no attempt to hide the hell hounds pacing under his reasonable speech.

"Let's get something straight here, Mr. Echolls. Despite a specific request not to, you elbowed your way into this investigation. My investigation. Civilian or not you will see your part through to my satisfaction. During that time you will follow my every order, treating me and my team with nothing less than the respect we deserve. You will not go renegade again, or do anything else to compromise my investigation, or put my agents at risk. Are we clear?" Jerry demanded.

Veronica almost laughed out loud when Logan looked down in contrition. Proud he might be, but he wasn't stupid. All traces of smarminess gone from his demeanor, he simply replied, "Yes, sir."

With a nod Jerry headed for the door, which Veronica hit the switch to unlock. Marjorie followed and they left Logan alone in the room to slump and put his head in his hands.

Returning fifteen minutes later, their instructions were concise. "Be ready at eight o'clock tomorrow night, dressed appropriately for the venue. An agent will show up at your apartment and escort you to the club where you will attempt to identify the other party attendee you mentioned. The agent will give you further instructions tomorrow."

Wisely, Logan only nodded and said, "Yes, sir," before following the same intern out of the office.