Disclaimer: Don't' own them, don't profit from them, just like to play with them.
A/N: Sorry it's been awhile. Life has caught up with me recently and I haven't had much time to keep this up. Obviously in this fic AJBAC didn't happen.
The soft ringing of his cel phone roused Logan from sleep and he groggily groped on his bedside table trying to locate the phone by feel without opening his eyes.
"Looking for this?" Max's voice pulled him to full alert and he opened his eyes to see her sitting up next to him holding out the phone. He was suddenly aware of her body only inches away from his. Distracted, he reluctantly took the phone from her having better things in mind to do than answer a phone call.
"Umm" he muttered as he brought the phone to his ear.
"Cale here." He listened for a moment then came to full alert as the import of the words sunk into his brain. Max laid back lazily on the pillows enjoying watching him, his hair rumpled from sleep, eyes still unfocused but intensely blue without the shield of his glasses. Unable to resist she reached out and ran a finger down his chest enjoying the feel of the light coat of hair over surprisingly strong muscles. Absent-mindedly Logan reached down and captured her hand before she could explore further.
"Okay, I got it. Not good news. We'll be over shortly, I'd appreciate your keeping tabs on the situation until we can get there." Frowning he pressed a button to close the call and placed the phone back on the table.
"Logan?" Max questioned.
"We need to go see Sebastian. Something very interesting has come up and I'm not sure what to think." He was already swinging himself to a sitting position preparatory to getting up as he spoke. Max sighed and quickly followed suit. At her sigh he turned to her in understanding and taking her face in his hands lightly kissed her.
"I know, but we'll have all the time we need later."
"Just once I'd like to be a normal girl with normal problems. But I guess that's not going to happen anytime soon. Like not in this lifetime."
"Ah but think how boring life would be without our favorite black helicopter guys to keep us sharp." he teased.
"Like you couldn't come up with enough baddies to chase as Eyes Only" she threw back at him. He grinned at her,
"Point to you. Now lets get moving. Sebastian awaits." By this time they were dressed and out the door. The elevator quickly whisked them to the parking garage and in minutes they were on their way to Sebastian's.
Once on the road Max turned to Logan, "Spill it. What's going on?"
"Remember I asked Sebastian to check Brin for tracking devises before we took any chance of being around her?" At her nod he continued, "She does have a tracker which we assumed. That's no surprise. But something odd is going on at Manticore. Sebastian was able to hack into their systems and he found some very odd surveillance recordings.It seems that Lydecker is unaware of the tracker – he thinks Brin is gone and is blaminganother player there. He refers to her only as 'she'."
"But if Brin has a tracker he should know they can pick her up anytime." Max protested.
"Seems our friend doesn't know. Sebastian also found a parallel surveillance system. This one goes directly into Lydecker's own personal computer. Sebastian says there's some video footage I'll find very interesting on it."
"So I guess a visit to my sister is not in the picture."
"Not yet. Not unless we can disable the tracker before they come and pick her up. Sebastian's working on it." Max sighed knowing that in all likelihood Manticore was already enroute to get Brin. "I wish we could do something about her."
Logan glanced over at her and nodded in sympathy. "Wouldn't do much good to get yourself caught too. I promise we'll think of a way, one that doesn't put you in jeopardy. Can you give me time on it?"
Knowing the logic in his words Max nodded reluctantly hating to think of her sister back at Manticore but knowing Logan was right. "But I will get her out one day, Logan. I swear I will."
In what seemed like no time they were at Sebastian's settled down with him in front of his network of computer screens.
"So what's this surveillance you found?" Logan asked.
"Watch" Sebastian responded. They sat there waiting as he brought up the file and started it playing. A blonde woman appeared on the screen and then a man entered.
"Wha.." Logan exclaimed recognizing his uncle's partner, then settling down to watch.
The transaction was brief and ended with the woman agreeing to buy the killer hover drone technology developed by Cale Industries and the man leaving. After he left she made a brief phone call and then pulled a picture of him from her printer.
"Whoa. So now we know who bought the hover drone technology and what happened to my uncle's partner. Manticore has it."
"But what's going on at Manticore? Who is this woman and why is Lydecker running his own surveillance on her?" Max asked.
"It seems that we have a power play going on. I would guess that this is the "she" Lydecker referred to. She must be the one with the implant in Brin and she isn't telling Lydecker."
"How is Brin?" Max asked anxiously. Sebastian hesitated then answered slowly.
"They picked her up a few minutes before you got here." Max frowned and Logan reached over to take her hand, squeezing it gently.
"Max, I promise we'll get her back. If you had gone there you would have been picked up as well." She nodded and briefly leaned against him.
"So now what do we do?" Max asked.
"I think we sit tight and continue to monitor the surveillance. We need to find out what Manticore is up to."
"One good thing, Logan. From the tapes I read monitoring Lydecker he's called off the Eyes Only tracking for now and she doesn't appear to be interested in resuming it. She referred to it as one of Lydecker's useless projects."
"Really. That's interesting. Wonder why Deck is dropping me?" Logan mused.
"Well at least the heat's off for the present for both of us." Max commented. Sebastian nodded.
"I'll continue to monitor and let you know the minute anything interesting turns up. In fact I can set up a direct feed to you Logan so you can have the same real-time information I do."
Logan smiled. "Yeah let's do that. I appreciate all your help Sebastian, you're a real friend."
"Logan, you've always been there when I needed you. It's the least I can do for both of you." Max blushed at the look Sebastian gave them but passed it off with a shrug.
"Sebastian you know we've got your back if you need us. Page me anytime if you can't reach Logan and you need some ass kicking done." Logan looked at her and smiled as did Sebastian.
"We better get going. I need to get back to set up that feed." Max rose and the two of them left leaving Sebastian working intently on his system.
"So, coming back over?" Logan asked casually.
"Any chance of getting fed?" Max teased.
"I might be able to whip up one of my culinary miracles."
"In that case the answer is yes." Logan smiled and the two relaxed back, listening to one of his CD's as they headed back to his apartment.