Chapter Fifteen: Show me to the Door
Logan kept the gun trained on Lydecker as he slowly regained his feet, "Go on, unlock her bonds!" He ordered.
Lydecker's face pinched in pain as he looked back at the younger man, "What makes you think that I am going to help you? I could just as easily let the others my men have get scragged, and you'd be helpless to stop it."
"Just how much do you value your life?" Logan said, "Because make no mistake if those men and women with me die, your life means nothing to me. I still owe you… For her," He nodded toward Max, still groggy in her chair, "For the hell you put me through in taking her away from me, for making me think that she was dead, and for taking our baby from us…" the last was a whisper of barely controlled emotion.
For a moment neither of them moved as Lydecker assessed Logan's resolve. He must have seen the absolute lack of want to live if this went bad for Logan and his group. Lydecker wondered how this man had lasted this long with out killing himself, his eyes were so desolate. Slowly he moved toward where Max was held, pulling out the key to her locks. Slowly he began to unlock her bonds glancing back occasionally to see him still hovering several feet back from him and the gun was still steady on his head.
As Lydecker finished releasing her, he slowly looked up as he stood, "So what now?" He asked.
"Now you back your men off and show us to the door," Logan said sharply sidling over to Max and lending his shoulder to her to help her stand up. She gripped Logan's sleeve heavily as she pulled herself to her unsteady feet. Logan's eyes never left Lydecker, "Now!!"
Lydecker jumped despite himself at the level of authority in his younger voice. Against his best judgement he slowly pulled out the radio bringing it up to his mouth, "Tach team twelve, this is Lydecker come in," He said in a level voice watching the gun still trained on him.
"Yes sir awaiting your orders…"
"Code thirty two…" He said calmly.
"Sir?" The incredulous voice on the other end said.
"You heard me," he barked, "Fall back to starting point!"
"But sir… the prisoners?" She said.
"Leave them," He said acidly, "Their no longer our concern."
"Y… Yes sir," The female voice said.
Kito looked angrily and dejectedly at the soldiers surrounding him and this group, wondering if there was going to be a way to get out of this situation that didn't involve being carried out in a makeshift casket. His arms were aching from holding them with numb interweaved fingers on his crown. His legs were also aching, the soldiers had made them kneel down and his thighs were shaking from the position. His whole body hurt from his previous encounter with a fellow Manticore. He was pretty sure that he had fractured a rib or two and the swelling in his face, arm, and lip pounded a dull metronome on his nerves.
Zach, Tima, and Tinga all looked as uncomfortable as he felt. They shifted minutely as the time stretched out into infinity. Around them the soldiers aimed steadily at them, no signs from them that they were fatiguing.
The silence was cut by the static of a radio coming on line, and even the stoic soldiers jumped at the sound.
As Kito listened to the exchange he shared a befuddled glance with his other detainees. What was going on?
They were further perplexed when the contingent began to back away from them. They disappeared to either side of them without ever relinquishing their aim.
Slowly they all dropped their raised hands still exchanging confused glances, and stood up. They found themselves alone in the hallway, still weaponless but free none-the-less. But what now?
"What just happened?" Kito asked of no one in particular.
Zach shrugged, "I'm not sure, but I have an idea," he said turning to face the interrogation room door as it slowly opened.
"Now what?" Lydecker said darkly.
"What do you think?" Logan answered him, "You will precede us out of here to be sure that your men don't get any heroic ideas on our way to the gate."
"My word promising your safety isn't good enough?"
Logan laughed shortly, not amused, "I've seen what your promises are worth, Lydecker, no deal."
Max had recovered enough to actually understand what was happening around her, and she could only stare at Logan, surprised at the hard edge she heard in his voice. Had her absence affected him so much? He's always had an edge, a well-hidden one granted, but it was always there. It seemed that her loss had exacerbated it and brought it dangerously close to the surface.
It then occurred to her what it must have taken for him to get this far into a Manticore installation. She found herself awed and proud of his accomplishment. This was a well set up and well guarded base from what she had seen of it four years ago. That he had infiltrated it to get her out said a lot about his determination, and it also told her something else. Before she had been taken he had been extremely reluctant to use his newfound ability, embarrassed even about even possessing them. Now it seemed apparent that he was using it and doing well at it. She wondered what had brought about that change in him.
Her brows furrowed as she thought of something else…she thought that she had seen Zach, how had Logan enlisted his help? They had never gotten along, in all the time that she had known Logan, he couldn't stand Zach, and only barely tolerated when his assistance was needed. She knew just as Logan did that Zach was attracted to her and that made him a direct rival for her attention even after she and Logan had gotten married.
These were questions that were going to have to wait for later, in the middle of a Manticore base was not the best place to broach the subject. So she remained silent content just to be out of the chair and warmed by Logan's body. She thought she would never understand what it was to be cold. The past three years had been nothing but cold. She was physically tormented and mentally abused until she was cold to the core, but she had never been sure whether it was an actual physical symptom of her captivity or the mental knowledge that she had been captures after remaining free for twenty one years.
Her strength was slowly coming back, but she was still unable to support her own weight. She wished she could just to give Logan a better position to keep Lydecker at bay. She was hindering his freedom of movement.
"Move to the wall," Logan continued to instruct Lydecker, "Now slowly open the door," He did as he was told not making any false or sudden moves. He slowly produced the card key and the light over the lock turned green. He then turned the knob and slowly pulled the door inward.
The first person through the door was Lydecker and Zach immediately grabbed him by the lapel and yanked him all the way through, not exactly knowing what was going on. He hoped that his guess had been right, that Logan had somehow overpowered him and there was not a room full of corpses behind the man. He threw Lydecker to the deck and was poised to do him some damage, "Wait," a tired voice said from behind him. Zach turned around to see Logan with a gun in one hand and Max supported in the other, "We need him to get out of here."
Zach straightened as Logan neared him and handed him the gun repeating, "We need him alive," looking sternly at the younger man. Zach didn't look happy about it but he nodded crisply as he yanked Lydecker to his feet and stepped back covering him with the gun. Logan looked around slowly, "Is everyone OK?"
Everyone around him nodded, and he looked relieved to hear it, "Let's get the hell out of here."
Zach made sure to pat Lydecker down as Kito covered him with the gun, Tima had retrieved the shotgun that Logan had left behind and backed Kito up. Zach took Lydecker's radio to monitor the other soldiers on the base and ensuring no counterstrike was being assembled against them. They moved down the hallway one gun on Lydecker and the other covering their retreat from behind. Tinga had relieved Logan of Max's burden as he started to tire from overexertion and anxiety. His energy seemed to dissipate now that the objective was achieved. Tinga hoped that he didn't fall too far into his stupor in the case of this going south, which it had every possibility of doing.
To everyone's surprise Lydecker was as good as his word as they retreated to and out the perimeter gate. They remained cautious on their trek back to the van, still hidden in the woods. No one opposed them as they all piled in, Lydecker included and left for the city.
"What about him?" Kito said still steadily aiming for him, as the van jounced down the dirt road for the main road.
Zach glanced back, "Dump him."
Kito only nodded, looking back at the man that had been his leader, and nodded for Tima to open the doors.
"Kito you're making a big mistake here," Lydecker admonished him.
"No you made the mistake, Sir," He couldn't stop himself from using the title even now, "I've seen now what a hypocrite you are…telling us that we can never come back if we leave. Even if it's not our fault, even if we want to return, that it means death for us. Then I find you with a Manticore that had eluded you for years, kept alive just for… for what?" He couldn't make himself say the things he knew were true.
"You won't get away Kito, none of you will."
"Oh I think you're wrong… we've done it before us Manticore's, and I think we can do it again," and before he could think about what he was doing he pushed Lydecker from the back of the slowly moving van.
He watched for a while as Lydecker became smaller and smaller behind their retreating vehicle, trying not to think about the life that he had just thrown away this past several weeks, and unsure what the future would hold for him now. Slowly he shut the van doors and turned back to the others. He said nothing as he resumed his seat and closed his eyes, suddenly he was very tired.