Chapter Nine: The Plan
As per Tima's suggestion she took the conference back to her place. It was the closest thing that she could think of that could be considered neutral ground, and that would still be private. Logan's place while nice would give him undo psychological advantage, and while this wasn't the most neutral place, being that Kito was familiar with it, it was better than the alternative. She could feel the tension building the whole way back. Logan was suspicious of Kito from the word go, and Kito looked sour to have outside help brought in.
Logan took a seat on her scarlet lounge while Kito remained standing, both with their arms crossed and both looking like there were ready to either attack or be attacked. Feeling uncomfortable Tima just leaned on the counter at the close-by kitchen.
Kito looked the new man over intently. He was about forty over twice his own age, though he looked to be in good shape. He was fairly tall but fell short of Kito's height by many inches, and he was thinly built. His hair was graying from its usual almost brown color. The man's bright blue eyes measured him intently, wariness and suspicion easily read in the features of his face. How could this old fart be of any help to them at all? He was just a Norm.
Kito was feeling the time pressure building, and he wondered just how long it would be until they moved Max free of the facility and hid her somewhere else. His need to get back and get the woman out of there, was overwhelming to him, even if it didn't make much sense why he would care about it. They needed to get this over with so they could get a plan in action.
Logan was assessing Kito just as much, wondering if he could trust this Kito any further than he could throw him. By now he had convinced himself that this whole thing was just a ploy to get Logan to expose his illicit abilities to Lydecker's people. To set him up to be captured and the next in a long line of experimentation to find out just why Manticore blood could affect a normal human the way it had him. He was ready to do whatever possible to avoid falling into the hands of the Manticore scientists, even if he was curious himself why it had happened the way it had.
He was oddly satisfied that this kid looked as nervous and anxious as he felt. The Kid was the same age as Tima, about sixteen, though he could have passed for someone in his twenties easily. He was tall, heavily built and his skin was naturally a dark brown. His hair was pitch black and his eyes were so dark that Logan could not pick out the pupil from the iris easily. His pupils were much the same as Tima's though, slightly oblong, and Logan wondered silently why X-10 had a penchant for the more catlike trait. Just how were they mixing their DNA lately anyway?
Logan blinked and finally broke the silence, "Tima tells me you came here to request her help in freeing someone from Manticore," Logan started, "She in turn asked for my help in the execution of this rescue."
Kito nodded, "Though what help you're going to be I don't know," He looked sharply at Tima then, accusingly.
Logan smiled crookedly as if he knew something Kito didn't, "So tell me the story," Logan said leaning forward daring Kito to impress him, "Why should I get involved with this? Honestly I don't trust you, I think you're setting me up for a fall."
Kito's eyebrows raised as he looked at this bold man. Who the hell did he think he was dealing with? Taking a breath he said, "I discovered a woman in a building on the base. One that has been secretly training more Manticore kids. She was strapped into a chair so tightly that she could not move more than a centimeter or two. She had been beaten, repeatedly from the look of her injuries. She was Manticore herself, but an earlier lot, X-5, X-6… I couldn't be sure. Her bar code was on the back of her neck."
Logan leaned back nodding, OK that was easily enough fed, and even Logan knew the difference between the younger and older generations of Manticore's. Logan continued to listen as this Kito went on, "She woke up then, thinking that I was there to kill her when Lydecker wouldn't. She was angry and accusing, but I convinced her that I had nothing to do with it.
"She told me then that she had been captured during an escape attempt here in Seattle three no four years ago. Something about her and her husband being ambushed by Lydecker's people," Kito had Logan's interest now, but he wasn't entirely convinced, all of that would be knowledge that would be fairly easily attainable, "She said that he had been injured and captured, that her husband had told her to run. She said that she had waited too long, and was shot. She said that she didn't remember much after that except waking up in Manticore. She said that she had almost died though."
"What else, what did she look like?" Logan pressed him.
Kito looked at him again, "She was of Mexican decent, very rounded face, soft featured, dark almond eyes, very full lips. Her hair was reddish brown, like it was hi-lighted, wavy. She was short probably no more than five two… five four, slight of build," Kito paused a moment, his eyes becoming very distant, "There was an odd scar, just under her bar-code on her neck, semi-rounded but it looked as if it had been cut."
Logan's eyes widened and he sucked in a shocked breath that had been the Red's implant scar. He tamped down any further reaction… it was still too coincidental, "Did she tell you anything else?"
Kito thought for a moment then reluctantly shook his head in the negative, "No."
Logan watched Kito for a few minutes before he drew in a deep breath and stood. He walked over to where Tima stood, "Sorry Tima, I'm not convinced. He knows a lot but it is all common knowledge that any Manticore operative could have been given. I can't get involved with this, you know that, I risk exposure of the one thing that would make me their lab rat," Logan shook his head and turned to leave.
Kito approached closing the distance between himself and the retreating man, "So now he's just leaving?" Kito spouted incredulously, "He knows everything now… he could expose me."
"Leave it Kito, he has a lot to lose if he gets involved and he's not convinced its worth the risk," Tima tried to explain.
"Like I didn't?" He reached for Logan's shoulder, "You're not going to tell anyone anything!"
Before Kito knew what had happened he found himself looking up from the floor the older man standing over him, poised to put him down if the need came, "No," He spit, "I'm not going to tell anyone anything, but not because of your threats. I've kept more Manticore secrets than you're even aware of," With that the man stepped back. Tima tried hard to suppress a laugh at the dumbfounded look on Kito's face.
Kito looked at the man incredulously, "Y… you're him!" Kito said astonished, "You're the guy who helped Tima escape!"
"Yes, I'm the guy."
"But you're not Manticore, you're a 'Norm'!"
He actually laughed then, "Yes and no," and he turned and began to walk away.
"Who are you?" Kito asked.
He looked back at Kito crossing his arms over his chest, "My name is Logan… I'm Max's husband."
Tima thought Kito was going to faint for a moment, "She…she thinks you died," Kito whispered solemnly. Logan's eyes darted to his face now, testing his sincerity with his eyes. He found nothing but honesty in his face, and Logan realized that his danger sense had not so much as twinged the whole time he had been near Kito.
Logan nodded once sharply, "Let me see if I can add to our threesome," Logan said succinctly.