It was déjà vu, Zack thought as he tried to figure out where Alicia had taken off to, and why. Something had to have set her off. He didn't get the feeling that she would have walked just on the basis of what Cole said. Now something Logan had said, that was a possibility. All Zack knew was that the last time Cale upset her like this, she'd nearly gotten killed. That was not going to happen again.
They had come back in a few minutes before. Bryn was on her feet, a coat wrapping around her hospital gown. They went to put her in the guest room, and Logan had told them Alicia was sleeping in there. Max and Jhondie put Bryn in Logan's room, and Zack went to check in on Alicia. He knew she'd still be upset and, well, as sappy as it sounded, he just wanted to see her.
Logan was putting food on the table when Zack came in. "Where is she?" Zack asked perfectly neutral. Logan had no idea how close to death he was.
Logan looked a little confused. "She said she was going to sleep. Is she in the bathroom or something?"
Now Logan could see the hint of the fury that was building in Zack. "Exactly what did you say to her this time?" Zack snarled, his hands clenched into fists. Max heard him, and came running into the kitchen.
Logan didn't back down. He'd gotten rather immune to Manticore threats. How many people in the world could get menaced by a genetically engineered killing machine and consider it routine? "I told her that you were coming back soon," he snapped. He could see Zack back down almost imperceptibly. "I also told her I was going to make breakfast. Which one do you think spooked her?"
Jhondie heard his last sentence. "You don't know where Alicia is?" she asked, worried. "What about the cameras?"
They all went to the computer, and Logan cued up about two hours before when Logan told Alicia that he was going to make breakfast. She went into the computer room, and they could see her going to get on the headsets. Her brow wrinkled a little in confusion, and she listened to what was being said. They all knew then what had happened when she sat up, her face rock hard. She did something at the computer, and then told Logan she was going to sleep. A few minutes later, she slipped out of the apartment.
Logan's fingers flew over the keys on the computer. Unless you logged in with a special password, it would track everything that you were doing, including passwords. He pulled up what Alicia had been doing, and couldn't help but whistle low when he saw the dollar figure in the account. He tapped the screen.
"Why didn't you guys tell me you got paid so well?" he asked. They could all see what had impressed him.
"Looks like she wanted to keep daddy from that," Max said. "Can you lock it down so she can't score any more off of it?"
"Maybe," he muttered, looking at the last transactions. "But she just moved a big chunk to another location, and bounced it again. It might be an automatic transfer from where she put it to make it untraceable."
"How big?" Zack asked. If it weren't too terribly much, maybe she would need more soon.
"At current exchange rates, about a quarter million dollars US," he replied matter-of-factly. He tried to find what US bank she'd sent it to, but no luck.
"Cole said he would meet her anywhere in the world," Max said. "She got the cheddar to make that work now."
"She won't put the baby in that kind of danger," Zack muttered. She'd promised him that. He kept thinking of what Cole had said. She was Manticore to the bone. She would always come back. He'd taunted them because he knew she didn't want to be outside. Did hearing it said again upset her, or was it that the others knew what he'd said. It didn't matter. He needed to make sure she wasn't going back.
"Unless she contacted Manticore, it's going to take longer than two hours to get good enough sector passes to leave the city," Jhondie said. "And you don't just hop down to the bank on the corner and ask for a quarter million dollars. So, you think she's going to go for her people or her cash first?"
"People," Max, Zack, and Jhondie said simultaneously. Money was a tool. It could be grabbed at any time. People counted.
"Max, stay here with Bryn," Zack ordered. Max went to protest, but Zack cut her off. "She knows who you are," he said. "I don't want her waking up alone."
"Besides," Jhondie said with a little smile, "just ask my boss. I'm very good at finding people that don't want to be found." Her eyes met with Logan's, and he smiled a little. It really explained a lot about the LA team knowing she was Manticore. It was actually a relief in some ways.
Zack and Jhondie left, and got into the elevator. Zack had a cell. If Logan spotted Alicia on any of the cameras around the city, he was going to track her and call Zack. They got onto the elevator. There was a moment of silence until the other rider got off on the next floor.
"You love her don't you," Jhondie said, not asked. He didn't reply. "That's why you were so messed up five months ago. You were so furious when you found out that Justin and I were serious, but you were perfectly OK a few months ago when I told you we were getting married. Not one lecture on security risks. You understand what the real thing is now, don't you?"
His grunt was rather noncommittal. Jhondie sighed, thinking about her adoptive sister. "You're going to break Kayla's heart if she finds out."
That at least got him to look at her. "She's not that bad."
Jhondie rolled her eyes. "She picked out her wedding dress when I picked out mine," she informed him. "And if anyone asks about the motorcycle charm you got her for her birthday that she wears on her necklace, she tells them," she began to imitate Kayla with devastating effect, "a VERY special friend gave it to me. Not a boy from school. He's…older."
Now Zack smiled a little. "She's a sweet kid."
"You don't have to live with her."
The elevator doors opened on the lobby floor. Zack's voice lowered. "We're going to check the cyber-café's first," he said. She might be getting hold of Cole that way. If not,"
"If not," Jhondie interrupted, "we start doing real investigating. I've been doing this for a while, remember?" He nodded, and they left the building in search of the missing.