Chapter seven: To Hell…

Chapter seven: To Hell…

Logan's whole world had narrowed to a grayed out vision of the large dark tent before him, what it held and what it had meant to him. The guards surrounding the tent were edgy as the rest of the encampment went up in arms looking for the escaped X-5 and the accomplices that got him sprung. Logan strode urgently to the entrance where the guard stopped him.

Looking annoyed for being halted Logan said in a deep hard voice, "I have an update for Lydecker concerning the escape," The guard looked him over sternly then waved him through, Logan sighed inwardly that the man had not called his bluff. It would not do to give away the surprise he had in store for Lydecker. He had visions in his mind of having to blow him and his buddy away and in turn warn Lydecker of what was coming.

Logan stepped into the well-lit tent immediately raising his shotgun aiming it at the back of the man who was the source of his loss. Logan's sight was now nearly black and only one clear spot remained in his vision and that was directly in front of him. Lydecker didn't seem to realize that Logan was in the room. The same could not be said for the two others in the tent with the head of the Manticore Project. Logan was so focused that he did not even see the two young Manticores barreling at him. He ignored his danger sense now screaming behind his eyes, he had no need of that now. His finger began to tighten on the trigger, it was a clean shot… it would be a quick kill.

Logan was tackled heavily by not one but both of them, and the shotgun went off but the pattern went high only causing Lydecker to duck. The gun in Logan's hand was knocked loose as he connected heavily with the deck and in a tangled heap all three of them rolled out the flap of the tent into the yard beyond. The two guards nearest the entrance were startled when the three flew past them, Logan managed somehow to disengage himself from the two young warriors. He now faced off with them wanting to get back to the matter of Lydecker's death. Unfortunately he was now faced with fighting through not only these two young transgenics, but the now fully alerted contingent of regular soldiers between him and Lydecker's tent. He had come to his feet with his back toward his objective, wanting to just turn around and head back for Lydecker. That would be futile effort, he would get cut down the moment he stepped that direction. He was beginning to see his folly in this effort, but shook his head. He would find a way to get to Lydecker he had to.

His eyes measured the two before him, both were about fourteen or fifteen. Both were dressed in infiltration suits similar to the one he himself was wearing. The smaller one was a girl her shortly cropped hair was bright red and her eyes were icy green, she was slim and showed some promise of height in the future. The other was an oriental boy with dark gray eyes and black hair. He may have been young but he stood nearly Logan's height, and when he filled out he would be twice his bulk. Between their brows were the 'marks of Cain' as he had once called them, dark easy to read barcodes. Both showed the cold remorseless eyes that Logan remembered seeing in a picture of Max as a girl. They were the eyes of a killer.

Logan stood stiffly at the ready feeling his danger sense sing even as he heard the guns come up training on his body.

"Wait," He heard Lydecker's voice behind him, grating on his nerves, "Let them hash it out," he said.

"Thank God for his like of theatrics," Logan thought. Though the two before him were not going to be easily overcome either. They moved in as one, and Logan was hard pressed to block the blows thrown his way much less throw any of his own. He held his own for long moments blocking the flurry of jabs, chops and kicks, but he knew that he was not going to be able to hold out forever.

Logan stepped into one of the blows lessening its intensity as he brought up his palm into the chin of the boy sharply, sending him to the ground. The girl moved in then sweeping out with a leg. Logan somersaulted over the leg intended to trip him. Landing awkwardly, he stepped back kicking out with the intention of connecting with her chest. She blocked it with one hand sending his foot to one side and throwing him off balance. As his left leg landed, putting Logan in an awkwardly wide stance, the girl dropped an elbow on his thigh. Logan buckled hearing himself cry out in pain as she connected squarely with his previous injury, and suddenly he couldn't breath. His vision was filled with stars and he groaned in a very undignified fashion.

His mind told him he needed to get back on his feet before long but he was unable to get past the agonizing burning pain. It shot not only down to his feet but up through his back and all the way up to the base of his skull nearly crippling him.

"This is it," Logan thought to himself, "This is what you wanted… to go out in a blaze of glory." It echoed in his head as he saw the two Manticore kids descend on him. He blocked one blow automatically, distantly as if he was no longer in control. Some animalistic part of him kept fighting. He barely felt blow to his jaw and another to his gut, locked in an internal struggle with himself that took all of his concentration, "Only… you don't get to kill Lydecker… he gets to watch you die," rang through his head.

"No," He heard himself whisper out loud, and suddenly he was afraid. He was afraid of death, as most mortals are. Suddenly the darkness that had ruled his soul the past several weeks was gone, "Forgive me Max, I want to live," he said softly as tears of anguish mingled with those of pain. The pain in his leg intensified ruling his world until he was not even aware of where he was, before long it shorted out his nervous system and Logan lost consciousness.

Lydecker smiled proudly as his two kids relaxed their stances around the now unconscious assailant. Slowly he walked up to where the man lay crumpled on the dirt more than a touch curious about who would be brave enough to attempt to kill him in the middle of a Manticore encampment. The man was faced away from him limp and unmoving in the half fetal position. Lydecker had not even gotten a good look at his face when he had infiltrated his tent. Lydecker kneeled down looking over the unconscious form of his would be assassin, looking for a bar code that might be present. The man's short graying hair was not long enough to hide it, but there was none present. He slowly rolled the man onto his back his lips pursing as he studied the younger man's face. His face was swollen, bloody and caked with dust making it hard to determine what he really looked like. The man looked very familiar despite his injuries but Lydecker couldn't place where he had seen him before.

He could tell the man was older, probably in his late thirties, but he was in excellent shape as evidenced by the impressive display of skill staving off his kids' attack. But that led to a dilemma, he wasn't Manticore, he had no kids that were that old, not even the few X-1's he had left had reached that age yet. So was he from another foreign project? And why would he be here helping out two rogue X-5's?

He looked up at the two X-10's flanking him, "Bind him and take him into my tent, I think he and I need to talk."

"I can't believe you even let him get involved with this if he was in that state of mind!" Tinga yelled incredulously after hearing the story Zach told her, "He just lost his wife and you drag him on some mission when you know he wants to end it all! What kind of a friend are you?"

"I'm not his friend, never have been," Zach said defensively, "We have never gotten along. We have worked together on occasion, but only because of Max."

"But you still were willing to utilize him and possibly get him killed by bringing him along?" Tinga asked still confused by Zach's logic.

"What business of mine was it if he wanted to come here exact revenge for Max's death and then kill himself to join her? None! Absolutely none! As long as he didn't endanger the mission to get you guys out, the rest was all on him."

Tinga stood up and looked at him with a mixture of anger and disappointment, "You always were an asshole you know that?" then she stormed away.

Tinga moved over to the stockpile of weapons rummaging through different boxes pulling out various weapons that she figured she was going to need. Zach sighed and stood himself, "What are you doing?"

"I'm going back and getting him out," Tinga said, looking up at Zach with a steely expression, "If he's still alive."

Zach's jaw worked, "You know he's dead by now."

"We don't know that," Tinga shot his direction, "And until I know for sure one way or the other, I'm gonna make the attempt. You can stay here, seems how the mission for you is done… I should be able to handle this one on my own," She finished acidly returning to selecting what she needed.

Tinga started donning the harnesses she was going to need to carry some of the grenades and rockets that she was brining along. Zach stood for long moments just staring at Tinga in her calculated motions, furious that she would place the blame for this on him. Finally his guilt made him move and he started gathering together a similar set of ordinance.

Tinga looked over at him trying to keep the smug smile off her face, "What are you doing?" She said still able to sound mad, "I thought you absolved yourself of this?"

"If you think I am going to let you walk into a Manticore encampment by yourself with two Manticore Transgenics to deal with, you're sorely mistaken Tinga."

Tinga nodded once, chalking up the small victory in her mind. She knew attacking his pride would bring him around. They said little else as they prepared to lay siege to Lydecker's Base of Operations here in Yreka.

Logan started back awake, his head jerking sharply then falling back against his chest. That only served to give him one winner of a headache. Slowly he opened his eyes swearing he could see the red of the blood rushing through his head. He was sitting in a semi-upright position leaned against a narrow post that bit heavily into his back between his shoulder blades. He tried to raise his hands only to find that they were secured behind him and around the pole. Logan moved slightly regretting the decision as his whole body protested. His face hurt and he ran his tongue over the split in his lower lip, one of his eyes was nearly swollen shut. The rest of his pain was mostly overexertion though he did feel several bruises in different places over his abused body.

Logan's left leg was extended out in front of him and his right was folded supporting his left under the knee. Logan's brows furrowed as he looked at his left leg. Someone had cut the leg off the pants he was wearing and he wretched dryly at the look of his thigh. The gunshot wound had reopened sometime during the past several days and it had gotten infected. The wound itself was a sickly green color surrounded by dead white tissue, it was swollen and feverish looking and red streaks radiated out from the wound a telltale sign of the blood poisoning that had started. The limp and the pain that he had been noticing were supposed to warn him about the degradation, but he had been much more concerned about wanting his revenge. And he had told Zach that he was single minded in all things.

Now that Logan was no longer being driven by his suicidal tendencies he began to worry that he might lose the leg. And it would be his own fault if he did.

"You're awake," Logan heard off to one side, he froze physically and mentally, looking up only with his eyes. Standing in pretty much the same place he had seen him last was Lydecker, "Good, because I have some questions that only you can answer."

Lydecker moved over near Logan crouching to be on eye level with him, "Who are you?" He started, and Logan looked away hoping that Lydecker had not recognized him. They had first met at the Tanaka conference back in 2020, sat next to each other for hours before the terrorists had tried to throw Logan from the roof of the building.

Then there was the alley, Logan's face pinched again at the thought. He was unsure if Lydecker had even seen his face when he had ordered Max killed, he wasn't even looking at him, but he had been unconscious for God knows how long. Logan didn't know how good the man's memory was but wasn't about to risk being recognized. Logan avoided eye contact.

"Who do you work for?" Lydecker pressed, and Logan remained silent. Logan saw his lips purse when Logan wouldn't cooperate. He nodded minutely, "Pretty nasty infection you have there… bet it hurts like hell. You really shouldn't let it go that long without seeing a doctor," Logan's eyes met Lydecker's, knowing what he was implying, still he remained silent. Lydecker nodded again slowly standing. Logan did not look up as Lydecker stood steeling himself for what he knew was coming next. Lydecker shifted his weight raising his left foot and setting in on top of the gunshot wound. Slowly Lydecker shifted more weight back onto his left foot, and Logan grit his teeth and held his breath as stars of pain flashed behind his eyes. The pressure increased until Logan was crying, "This can all stop if you just answer my questions. Who are you?" He repeated.

"I won't tell you anything, you bastard," Logan bit out his voice ragged from the pain. Logan writhed as the weight increased again, he saw blood now oozing from the wound, running down the side of his thigh to pool in the dirt. Logan quickly drew his right leg free and kicked up and over, connecting with Lydecker but only enough to throw him off balance. Logan gasped as the pressure was removed and the blood rushed back.

Lydecker recovered slowly, obviously not thinking that Logan would have been capable of that or else he would have secured Logan better. He looked back at Logan who was now leaned to one side supported on his right elbow gritting his teeth at the fresh round of pain surging through his leg. Logan felt him in his radar just behind and to one side of him. He could almost feel his eyes burrowing into the back of his skull.

Lydecker slowly came back into his visual line of sight and Logan glared at him sidelong breathing heavy. Lydecker sighed heavily, "I guess your kind of people just have to learn the hard way," He shrugged, "So be it."

He was wishing that he had never started all of this now, wondering what had possessed him, he obviously had not been himself since Max had died. He swore to himself that if he lived through this that he was never going to use his ability again, not for fighting. It had cost him too much already.

Logan watched Lydecker through a haze of pain wondering what he was going to do to him next in his interrogation. He was already losing consciousness barely able to keep his eyes open, and he knew he was going into shock. He drifted off again, only to be startled awake by a loud explosion near the edge of the encampment.