Chapter Five- Reborn
Three months after Logan's death, with the help of Bling, Max made her first Eyes-Only broadcast. The whole city of Seattle was buzzing about the new dark-eyed female that had replaced the blue-eyed man. It had taken a while to convince members of the informant net that she was for real and wasn't trying to uncover them for there contact work.
After deciding to take over Eyes-Only in April of 2019, Max's very first act of business was to quit her job at Jam Pony. Then much to all of her friends surprise, she moved into Logan's apartment, living by herself for the first time since she'd moved to Seattle.
For the first year after she'd taken over Eyes-Only, she was doing it to honor Logan, to keep his memory alive. Then slowly, inch-by-inch, it became a battle that she was fighting for herself. She once commented to Bling, who was more of a partner in Eyes-Only that an informant, "When Logan died, in a way, I did too. Then when I re-started Eyes-Only, I was reborn."
Gone was the old Max who cared only for her self. Born was the new Max, a more serious Max, who never gave up a battle.
As she became more adapt at using Logan's computers, Max surpassed what Logan had ever hoped of accomplishing. While he had still been Eyes-Only, the cable hack had only been along the west coast. Now it was throughout North America, much of Europe, and parts of Latin and South America. Whenever Max did a hack she had to do it several times, translating it into several languages. But she never let it consume her, the way Eyes-Only had to Logan. He'd believed that saving the world was everything. Max still hung out at Crash with the Jam Pony crowd. Cindy knew of Eyes-Only and had turned out to be a valuable informant when it came to distracting people while Max broke into places to get evidence and information. Cindy was just to loud for people to be able to pay attention to anyone else.
One by one, Max tracked down each X-5. Through various sources, she was in constant contact with all of them, now more than ever.
In July of 2021, with the help of the rest of her brothers and sisters, Manticore fell. Lydecker ran like hell out of the country, his legs firmly tucked between his legs. With the government backing pulled and the facility completely destroyed, the X-5s no longer had to run. Most of them became informants in the Eyes-Only informant net. That was one to the main reasons they had become so successful. It helped having eight or nine genetically enhanced killing machines backing you up.
Zack had settled considerably. After the threat of Lydecker and his evil henchmen were eliminated, he moved to Seattle permanently. The stick up his ass had been swiftly eliminated after Max gave him an ultimatum. Learn how to relax or get the hell out. He even had a girlfriend now, a sweet girl name Paige. Paige was a tiny little thing, barely clearing five foot, yet she had black belts in various forms of martial arts, and stood up to Zack whenever he went off on his 'military man' tangents.
Max sat lounging around her apartment, reading the file on the Delaney family crime syndicate, music pumping out of the stereo system behind her. If all went well at tonight's party, Max would have enough to do a hack and bust the hell out of the people.
It was 2024, five years after Logan's death. Eyes-Only was flourishing, Max was as content, and everything was well.
Meanwhile...in San Francisco
Logan Cale stepped out of the airport, smiling softly at the area around him. It was nice to be back in the States after five years of running away from it.