It was the third warehouse they'd been through and there was no sign of Alicia anywhere. Not even a footprint in the dust for them to go on. How do you find a person that has the same abilities, and better training, but doesn't want to be found? Max and Zack were both coming to the conclusion that you don't find a person like that.
"She could be anywhere," Max declared, frustrated. "She could be getting with Lydecker right now and we couldn't do anything to stop her!"
"If your boyfriend had minded his own business none of this would have happened," Zack retorted angrily. Had Alicia seen them at some point? If she was running from him, did that mean she really was playing him? No, he decided. She's upset, and she wouldn't want to talk to him with Max there.
His comment hit Max hard. She stared at Zack for a long moment as he looked out the upstairs window, seeing if he could spot Alicia on the ground. "What did Logan see?" she asked quietly, afraid that she already knew the answer.
Zack didn't answer.
"You slept with her, didn't you?" She was furious with him suddenly. "You knew the girl was in a bad time, and decided to make a tactical advantage. You didn't let anyone in on the plan, and Logan thought you were the one getting played."
"It was not tactical advantage," Zack said, his jaw clinched. "Cale should have kept his mouth shut and let the soldiers deal with the situation."
"Not tactical? Then what was it?" Max retorted, "You trip and fall on her? Zack you do know what's going on downstairs not going to have anything to do with what's in her head? Nine years at Manticore got you thinking everything is a sentimental lie, what you think eighteen years did to her?"
He knew what eighteen years had done to her. He looked at Max, his eyes ice cold. "It's none of your business," he said coolly.
That was not the face of someone using physical means to get the upper hand. "You know she probably uses it as a tool all the time," Max said, far more gently than before. "Lydecker never got around to teaching us that part, but you know she learned how to use it."
"Maybe the others do, but she doesn't," he said much calmer as well, and then started to head to the stairs.
"How do you know that? It could all be an act."
"Some things can't be faked."
Max went to push the issue, but what he said hit her. "Oh…" she squeaked. They had been alone together awhile before Seattle. Had they then? Probably. She went to follow Zack downstairs but her cell rang.
She answered it impatiently. Logan. "Did you see anything?" she asked.
"No," he replied. "I was just checking on you."
"We're probably coming back soon," she said. After another talk with Zack, she thought to herself.
There was a sudden crashing from downstairs. She raced down the steps, and saw Zack with three Reds going after him, and one getting back up off of the floor. She dropped her cell, and launched herself at one, knocking him down. She somersaulted off of him, and landed in a defensive stance next to Zack.
"Only four?" she sneered. "Tell you what, we'll give you a ten second head start before we start kicking your butts."
The Reds seemed amused by that. Then she realized why. There was four more getting out of another van. She glanced upstairs, and saw another four up there. Two more were at the back windows. Another two were at the side windows. Sixteen to two, she thought. Bad odds. All of them had stunners. Worse odds.
***************
Logan had heard the phone fall, and the sounds of crashing. Max had said something about a head start, and then there was more crashing and thuds.
"Max!" he yelled uselessly into the phone. "MAX! ANSWER ME!!"
Bling had come in at hearing Logan's shout. Logan had used the speakerphone when he called Max so that he could keep working. Now, Bling could hear everything. There was some more crashing, and then a single gunshot.
Logan could feel his blood turn to ice when he heard a sound he'd never heard before. Max screaming. He was frozen. She had not told him where she was, and she was screaming. Her cell phone was secured so that its position couldn't be located. He'd made sure of that himself.
There was a long moment of silence. Then someone picked up the phone.
"Hello?" said a man. There was no discernable accent. "Hello? Did the phone break?"
"I'm here," Logan said through gritted teeth. "If you hurt Max I swear I'll…"
"Hurt her?" he interrupted. "No, no, she is quite well, as is her friend. But it seems we have a bit of a problem now. I seem to have the wrong merchandise. It's plenty valuable enough, but I would much rather have the upgraded version."
"I don't have any upgrades," Logan snapped. They wanted Alicia. Damn her. They wanted Alicia but they would take Max instead.
"Hmmm…that's too bad." The man seemed completely unconcerned. His dapper tone made Logan want to pull him through the receiver and rip his head off. "Well, I suppose this one will do." Logan could hear him talking to someone else. "It's not quite what you had in mind, true, but it's a prototype. Maybe we can take two percent off of my fee?"
"Wait!" Logan yelled. "I can get you an upgrade, it'll just take some time."
The man returned to the phone. "Really? What a change of heart. You must be a businessman. Since I know you can't call the police, why don't I give you, say, three hours? We'll be at the docks. Warehouse J."
He hung up the phone. Three hours, Logan thought. Why wasn't Max fighting? Was she drugged? Had she been shot? How was he going to set Alicia up to get caught so Max could go free?
"We have to get Alicia to the docks," he said aloud. "The Reds want the upgraded model, they can have it."
Bling raised one eyebrow, but didn't say anything. This wasn't like Logan, savior of humanity. Of course, Logan was always a little off where Max was concerned.
"We don't have to set her up at all," Bling said. "She's supposed to protect the X-5's. All we have to do is tell her."
It made sense. IF she'd been telling the truth about her mission. There wasn't much of a choice now anyways.
Logan turned to his computer, and went to the game Alicia had logged into earlier. She had been looking for messages to the fair Gwendolyn. His computer had tracked her movements, and the messages that she read.
He checked, and neither Frigia nor Shade was on-line. He decided to post a message and pray she would respond. She said they were all encoded. It seemed to be mostly veiled messages. He hoped she would understand and respond. It was all he could do.
Fair Gwendolyn, he wrote. The Red Menace holds thy two charges beneath its claw. Seek ye the one whom ye threw away. It looked stupid enough, but it was all he had. He sent it, and began waiting.