***********************
Max could hear the soldiers coming up the stairs, and decided to throw caution to the wind. There was no point in her getting caught, even if Devon did save her. She just didn't have the time to save him right now. Max jumped up from her hiding place, and sprinted across the room, not even stopping as she heard Devon call her name. She was going to make it to her destination, and nothing was going to stop her. She reached the window and crashed through it, just as Lydecker and his men crashed through Devon's door. Max landed softly on the ground below, and ran to her bike, hopped on, and sped out of there as fast as she could. The further she got away from Devon's place, the slower her heart was starting to beat, but the more her conscious was starting to eat at her.
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"Sir, do you think that this is wise?"
"Are you questioning my authority soldier?"
"No sir. It's just that..."
"Just what soldier?"
"It's just that... this is your son! And besides, what will torturing him accomplish?"
"First of all, this is war, and there are no family ties in war. Secondly, he's managed to build up an alliance with my dear little Max. Now unless you want me to come down on you for allowing her to escape right now, I would suggest you leave my sights immediately."
"Yes sir!" The soldier saluted Lydecker and turned out of Devon's room to meet up with his team and Devon downstairs.
Lydecker walked up to the broken window, looked down at the bustle of activity below, and smiled. "I know you too well Max. You've become too human, and have let your emotions control you. You witnessed this happen, and you'll fall right into my trap the second you try to help my boy."
**************************
Max quickly got into Logan's apartment, slammed the door, and then leaned heavily against it, closing her eyes, and breathing a sigh of relief. Any contact with Lydecker was stressful, but almost getting caught really took a lot of a person.
Logan heard the door slam, and immediately got up to check it out. It couldn't be Max, because she always comes and goes without a sound. Logan came around the corner, and saw Max half slumped, half standing against the front door. His heart skipped a beat and he rushed to her, fearing the worst. "Max! What's wrong? Are you OK?" Logan bent down slightly and grabbed her into an embrace. She reached around his neck and pulled herself to him. She felt good being held after what had just happened. Logan put a hand behind Max's head and pulled it to his chest. "Max, are you ok?"
Max closed her eyes and sighed, reveling in the feeling of Logan's strong arms around her. "Yeah, just had a close call is all."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Could we maybe sit down and talk about it? I'm kind of spent, and I need to just relax, and now that I'm here, I can do that."
"Of course Max." Logan allowed her to pull away from him slightly so that she could walk over to the couch, but he made sure that he still had a tight grip around her waist. She may have said that she was ok, but she always did that, and he was still extremely worried about her. She normally wasn't this drained after any kind of event, so this had to have been particularly tense. Logan led Max to the couch, and let her flop down. He watched as she clutched a pillow to her chest, and saw her eyes close, allowing her to rest. I wonder what happened. This is not good if it drained her this much, both physically and emotionally. I want to ask her, but I'll let her rest. Maybe I'll make some soup for her and it'll be ready when she wakes up. Logan walked into his bedroom, and grabbed an oversized fluffy blanket that he intended to cover Max with as she slept. As he went to lay the blanket over her sleeping form, something caught his eye. As he leaned in to get a better look, Logan noticed a few shards of glass sticking out of her clothes, and could see a bit of blood oozing out of the cuts. How did I not notice these when I hugged her? I would've felt them, wouldn't I have? Logan looked down at his shirt, and noticed that it was ripped slightly, but nothing overwhelmingly noticeable. Being extra careful so as not to wake her, Logan removed the shards of glass from Max. As he was removing a large one, Max winced in pain. Logan's hand flew from the glass and he looked at Max with worry in his eyes. "Max, I'm so sorry, are you ok?"
Max looked down and could see the pieces of glass sticking out of her. "Actually, now that you mention it, I'm in a little bit of pain." She looked up at Logan and smiled, easing his tension a little bit. "Just take them out Logan."
"I don't want to hurt you though."
Max reached up and put her hand on his cheek. "It's ok. I'm built for this, remember? Just get it over with." Max closed her eyes, and braced herself for the pain. Logan was extremely gentle, and only a few of the shards caused a feeling of fire to run through her body.
"We're going to have to clean these wounds Max, I'll just get some peroxide and some bandages." Logan got up, and walked to the kitchen so he could throw away the shards of glass that he held in his hand. He then headed into the bathroom, and gathered up all the items necessary to clean Max up. He returned to her side, and sat down beside her. "Ok, this is going to be kind of tricky, because I can't really see them through your shirt."
Max looked at Logan and smiled. She could see that he was trying to gather up the courage to ask her to remove her shirt so he could get at her wounds more easily. She decided to make it easier for him, and started to pull her shirt off. The cuts hurt more than she had thought though, and she got stuck half in and out of her shirt.
Logan chuckled at Max. He knew that she knew he was having trouble asking her to strip in front of him, so she decided to help, but now she was stuck. "Here, let me."
Max relaxed, and let Logan carefully pull her shirt the rest of the way off of her body. She looked into his eyes, and all she could see was compassion. His eyes simply made her melt inwardly.
Logan smiled at Max, and went to work on patching her up. After he finished, he tucked her in on the couch, and got up to make her some soup. He came back about an hour later, and placed the bowl on the table in front of her.
Max felt Logan come back in to the room, and opened her eyes as she smelled the wonderful soup he had made for her. "Thanks Logan." Max sat up and reached for the spoon that Logan had put beside the bowl, and started to eat.
Logan sat in the chair across from her, and watched her eat. As soon as she finished, he saw her lean back on the couch. "Do you want to tell me what happened now?"
Max looked at Logan and smiled. "Only if you come sit by me."
"I think I can do that." Logan got up, and went to sit by Max. As soon as he sat down, she leaned up against him, putting her one hand over his heart, and leaned her head on his shoulder. Logan in turn wrapped his one arm around her shoulders, to hold her close.
"Well, I went over to Devon's, and hung out there for what seemed like forever. He wasn't there, so I just waited. Finally, he came back and all he was doing was muttering about how he didn't know what he was going to do. Then his phone rang, and guess who it was. My own personal anti-Christ. I guess he found out that Devon had warned me earlier, and wasn't too pleased. Soon after that, I heard an army of trucks pulling up outside. I knew it was Lydecker, and I was going to get caught, so I blew my cover, and jumped out the window, and blazed over here. How's that for an interesting afternoon."
Logan squeezed Max even closer to him. She had almost been captured, but something still didn't add up. She had been close to being captured before, but it never seemed to bother her this much. "What else is going on in that mind of yours Max?"
Max pulled away from Logan so that she could look into his eyes. "You know me too well Logan."
"Well?"
Max laid her head back on Logan's shoulder. "My conscious is eating at me. I mean, Devon saved me, for some reason, and I let him get caught. I feel I owe it to him to help him. God knows what Lydecker is going to do to him, and it's all my fault. I have to help him, but I don't know how, and I don't know where to start."
Logan leaned over to kiss Max's head. "Why don't we start on it in the morning. Even Lydecker won't move that quickly. You can crash here tonight, because you seem pretty comfortable where you are."
Max looked up at Logan again and smiled. "You know, I'm going to have a very difficult time explaining to Kendra why I haven't been home in what, two days now? And then to try to explain to Normal why I should be allowed to keep my job. I don't think even someone with my kind of background in negotiations can deal with those two."
Logan grinned at Max. "Well, I can't help you with Kendra, but I think I can persuade Normal to let you keep your job. Leave that up to me. Now as for you, where do you want to sleep tonight?"
"I think right here is good."
"Right here it is then."
Logan and Max hugged each other, and then both drifted off into a very peaceful sleep, while holding each other in each other's arms.
****************************
Devon woke up stiff and disorientated. He tried to open his eyes, but even when he did, everything was dark. It took him a moment to realize that he was blindfolded. His arms were tied behind his back to some kind of chair with a heavy rope. Not nearly as soft as his socks that held him to this position only days ago. Devon tried to move his legs, but found that those too were bound tightly to the chair.
"Ah, I see someone is awake."
Devon whipped his head towards the sound of the voice, but his brain seemed to swim in his head, and he momentarily felt as though he would quickly loose consciousness again. They must have pumped me full of some kind of drug. "Why are you doing this? Where's my father?" Devon felt the abrupt pain shoot through his body as the person in the room with him, backhanded him across the face.
"You don't even deserve to call him that after what you did."
Devon spit out some blood on the ground. "At least I didn't let her escape. I only warned her. You were the one that actually let her go." Devon winced as a swift backhand was dealt to him once again.
"Very cute, but the colonel is not impressed with you one bit. Have you anything to say for yourself?"
"Not to you." Devon once again felt the fire burn through him as yet another blow was dealt to him. His already swimming mind was screaming to shut down, and cause him to loose consciousness.
"Enough!"
Devon felt a wave of relief pass over him, but then thought better. It may be his father, but he did not tolerate any kind of diversions from the plan, and Devon had done just that. By being his son, he might even be given a harsher treatment. Devon could hear his attacker leave the room, and a door close, leaving him alone with Lydecker. He could hear his father walk up to him, and his breath hitched in his throat, preparing for the inevitable beating.
"Why did you do it son."
Devon was taken aback by his father's quiet tone. It was enough to get him talking. "I couldn't let you do it father, she's my sister, and she seemed fine. She didn't appear to be sick or anything. But she was different. She was fast. Faster than a normal human."
"It's her illness that causes that son."
"I've never heard of anything that does that. Can you untie me dad?"
"Just because you're my son doesn't mean I'm going to take it easy on you. You disobeyed a direct order, and warned the suspect, allowing her to get away. I won't let you free until you tell me why she was in your apartment, and where she is now."
"I don't know why she was in my apartment, I didn't even know she was there!" Devon once again felt the pain in his face that came from another well placed hit. He could feel the blood start to flow from his nose. He couldn't help it, but he started to loose it. He was scared for his life, and even his own father was beating him. Tears started to freely run down his battered face.
"Are you crying soldier?"
"I'm not a soldier!" Devon screamed at his father. A mistake, but he couldn't help it.
"Where is she now?!"
"I don't know!"
"Is she at her apartment? You know where she lives. Is she at work?"
"She wouldn't be at her apartment. She's almost never there. I overheard a bunch of my co-workers say that she had some rich boyfriend somewhere. She's probably at his place."
"Where does this boyfriend live?"
"I don't know!"
"Why don't you know! Do you know anything?"
"I tried following her there a bunch of times, but she always took her bike there, and she's so fast on it, I always lost her."
Lydecker backhanded Devon again. "That's not acceptable."
Devon was freely crying now. "Dad! Stop it! You're hurting me! I tried to do as you asked. I tried! I really did!"
Lydecker turned away from his bloody son, and started to pace around the room. As he did, an idea began to form in his head. As it did, he left the room, to get things ready. He was going to capture Max, and he was going to use Devon to do it.
**************************
Max strolled into work, late as usual, and made it over to her locker, with a smile plastered on her face. She desperately tried to remove it from her face the whole way from Logan's to work, but she just couldn't get it to leave. She was just too happy. Nothing could compare to falling asleep in Logan's arms, and then waking up in them. It was the best feeling in the world. As she sat down by her locker, she could sense Original Cindy come up behind her.
"Hey boo, someone didn't get home last night."
"Yes, I stayed at Logan's, and no, we didn't do anything."
"Right, and that's why you're looking like a clown with that grin of yours."
Max looked at Original Cindy as she sat down beside her. "What? Can't a girl just be happy?"
"Not when it comes to you and Logan. Something had to have happened for you to be this happy."
Max leaned in and whispered in Cindy's ear. "That may be, but I'll never tell." Max leaned back from Cindy, and smiled at the reaction that she had caused. So, are you going to go on some runs with me, or what?"
Cindy shook her head. "Course boo, how could I miss out on the opportunity of you slipping and telling me something?"
The two girls got up and started to head over to the front desk to pick up some packages. On their way, just as they were walking by the phone, it rang. Original Cindy looked at Max and grinned. "Maybe it's your boy."
Max just rolled her eyes and answered her friend with her ever present sarcastic tone. "Maybe you should just answer the phone."
"Whatever you say boo." Original Cindy picked up the phone as Max headed to the desk to get their deliveries. She knew it wasn't Logan, because if he wanted to get a hold of her, he would've just paged. Max walked back over to Original Cindy and became interested in who was on the phone, since Original Cindy was yelling at whoever it was. "No, she does not want to talk to you!... I don't care if it's important... She's already got a boyfr... No I will not put her on!"
Max was shuffling through the assorted envelopes she was holding and when she locked eyes with Original Cindy, Original Cindy rolled her eyes.
"No! For the last time, I'm not putting Max on the phone!"
Max looked up at Cindy again when she heard her name. "Who is it?"
Cindy put a hand over the mouthpiece. "It's that creep wannabe Devon."
Max dropped the envelopes and package the she was holding and grabbed the phone from Cindy.
"Hey, hey, hey! Those packages aren't yours to drop there missy!"
Max ignored both Normal's yelling and Cindy's look of utter bafflement, and turned away from them both so she could talk to Devon. "Devon?"
"Hey Max! So, what you up to?" His voice was dripping with sugary sweetness.
Max got very annoyed, very quickly. Devon wasn't in any danger as far as she could tell. "Working, like you should be doing, but oh yeah, Normal fired your lazy ass."
"Well, now that I have some more new found free-time, and you had to see me so badly that you were waiting for me to get home... how about you and I hook up later tonight?"
"I don't think so Devon." Max turned and smiled at her friend. "Like Original Cindy said, I have a boyfriend. Goodbye!" Max was about to hang the phone up, when Devon's pleading voice stopped her.
"Max! Max, wait! Don't hang up!"
Max listened closely to Devon's voice, and with her enhanced hearing, she could make out the sound of a gun being cocked very close to his ear, probably his temple, and a voice telling him that he better not let her hang up. Max turned her back to Original Cindy once again, and got very serious. "Where do you need me?"
"Meet me at the abandoned warehouse on 15th in sector four at 10:00 tonight."
"Ok, I'll see you then." Max hung up the phone and turned to see a very confused Original Cindy.
"Girl, that just whack."
Max ignored Original Cindy's comment. "Can you cover for me today? I have to go see Logan."
"Oh, so rich boy is still in the picture?"
"Thanks." Max flew by Cindy and out the door, on her way to Logan's.
*************************
"I know it's a trap! Don't you think I know that?" Max was furiously pacing around the room. She had made it back to Logan's place, and first of all she had to waste time waiting for him, because he was uncharacteristically not home when she got there, and then when he did arrive home, and Max had told him everything that had happened, he replied with one of the stupidest and most cliche lines in this line of work possible: "Max, it's a trap." Max continued to pace while Logan sat on the couch and watched her. "I have to do it Logan!"
"Why? Why do you have to do it, when it could get you killed? I highly doubt Lydecker would kill his own kid."
"That's how sick this man is! He would do anything to get one of his precious X-5's!"
"Exactly why you shouldn't go!"
"Logan, he saved my life. I have to reciprocate."
"Maybe it's all part of a plan, and Devon really is still working for his father, and they just did that whole set up to get you to trust him, thus luring you into this trap."
Max stopped her pacing and looked right at Logan. "Logan, bad guys don't get that technical with their plans."
Logan knew that Max was right. Defeated once again, he sighed. "So what are you planning on doing?"
"I get in, grab the guy, and get out. Purely a box job."
"Max, I don't have to tell you to be careful, do I?"
Max smiled, walked over to Logan, and leaned right down into his face. "I always am." She closed the gap between the two of them and gave Logan a kiss on the lips. She pulled back, smiling at him. "Now, I'm going to get changed, and no peeking while I'm doing it! I need some actual concentration tonight!" Max walked around the back of the couch, and went into Logan's bedroom to change into her catsuit. She made sure to leave her black lace bra under his pillow. A little gift for him because she knew that she'd be away most of the night.
************************
Devon sat nervously in his chair. He couldn't believe that Max was going to come and get him. Maybe she isn't coming. Then I'm as good as dead. Devon sat in the darkness of the small room he was in. I hope I actually am at the warehouse I told Max to meet me at. I don't even know if I am. I haven't been able to see anything.
************************
Max sat crouched a few blocks away from the warehouse, and went over the plans of the place in her head again. Logan had downloaded them for her just before she left. The warehouse design was relatively straightforward. The front door opened into the main, large room. Near the back were three small rooms that were used as offices. A short hallway in the back led to a back door, and a staircase that would take a person to the upstairs loft. The loft only reached halfway across the ceiling, so there was ample room for a squadron to lye undetected. As well, there was a catwalk that ran the length of the walls that the loft did not cover. There was a window on each side of the warehouse, one on top of the catwalk at the front of the building, and one on the back door. From her vantage point, Max could see through the front window to the loft, and could see no one there, so unless they were all waiting for her just inside the door, there was no one in there, except for Devon. Definitely a trap. Max quietly crept through the streets to the warehouse. She scanned everywhere, and couldn't see a sole. No one was out and about tonight. Max walked up to the front door, and listened. She decided against going in the traditional way, and instead, rounded the building, and went in one of the side windows. Sure enough, near the back, Max could see three doors. Knowing that she didn't have the time to look in all three, she went straight for the door on the right. Max had previously guessed that this was the room that most likely held Devon. She came to this conclusion by using simple logic. Lydecker would never put him in the middle room, because that is the door that most people would choose out of a group of three. She then chose the right door because in a decision between two objects, people tend to choose the one equivalent to their dominant hand. Since Lydecker was right handed, he would've gone for the door on the right. Max quietly crept up to the door, constantly checking to see if anyone was around her, and she keeping her senses to their peak abilities so that if anything went sideways, she'd be ready for it. Max tried the handle, but of course, the door was locked. She quickly picked it, and was in. There was no light in the room, but she could easily see Devon tied to a chair, blood still oozing out of numerous wounds on his face. Max rushed over to untie him, and as soon as she did, the door to the room slammed shut. Max tensed up, and held the swaying form of Devon close to her. Max listened carefully, and could hear the doors of the warehouse explode open, guards pouring in. She was trapped, and there was no way out.
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