Chapter Eight Kent & Kiki SMITH Kathleen Norvell 2 5 2001-10-26T15:08:00Z 2001-10-26T15:08:00Z 5 1665 9496 n/a 79 18 11661 9.2720 0 0

Author: Catherder

Disclaimer: Dark Angel is owned by Charles Eglee, James Cameron, and Fox. I claim no rights to these characters, alas, although I like to play with them.

Summary :  Continuation of "Encounter." Renfro grabs Logan for experimentation and Lydecker has to deal with the consequences.

Spoilers/Timeframe:  Between Pollo Loco and Hit a Sistah Back

Rated: PG for language

A/N: This is in response to the reviewers who asked me to continue the story. I bow in awe to a fan for great insight in reviewing and making excellent suggestions. Reviews are appreciated.

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Chapter Eight

The sirens blared and doors automatically shut and locked all along the corridor. Running footsteps echoed throughout the hallway. Renfro had indeed let loose the troops. Lydecker decided it was time for him to leave. He had to catch up with Logan before Renfro's goons did. He drew his gun and went out into the hallway. Since he had given Logan the schematics of the building, Lydecker knew what route he would be taking.

Lydecker walked down the corridor, gun still drawn. Black-clad guards ran by him and he diverted them in another direction with a motion of his hand. Silently, he strode away from them, checking doorways and stairwells as he did. There was no sign of Logan, which he hoped was a good thing. The guy must be making good time. It had to be hard to sneak around in a wheelchair.

"Good thing I oiled the wheels. Wouldn't want to be squeaking right about now," Logan said, rolling up behind Lydecker. "Where'd you dump the body?"

"She went back to her office – to send the guards out to find you," Lydecker replied. At Logan's alarmed expression, he added, "It's all right for now. I sent them off in the opposite direction."

"Thank God for that. Let's get out of here."

They carefully crossed an intersection, watching for Renfro's henchmen, but the guards were nowhere in sight. Halfway down the hall, they heard footsteps approach and Logan caught a glimpse of the orderly he'd knocked out earlier. Lydecker ducked into a doorway, using his pass to open the door and motioned to Logan to follow him. Logan quickly wheeled himself into the room. He turned around, locked the brakes of the chair, and picked up the gun. They waited until the footsteps passed.

Lydecker stuck his head out the door. "Come on!" Once again, they continued down the hall.

"How much farther?" Logan asked. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this."

"Hey, don't give me any of that 'Are we there yet?' crap," Lydecker replied. "We've got a couple more corridors to cross." Saying that, he inched sideways down the hall, checking doors on either side.

Logan followed behind him, sticking close to the older man. He knew that he was a moving target, literally a sitting duck. Lydecker could move quickly out of harm's way, but he couldn't. He hoped he made the right choice, trusting Lydecker with his life.

It seemed like hours before they reached the next intersection. Every now and then, Lydecker would use his pass to open another door and they would duck in until Logan's pursuers had passed. Renfro phoned twice more and twice more, Lydecker put her off, telling her he hadn't seen Logan, but that he was still looking for him. It was a big facility, after all, and who knows which way he went?

They were nearing the next intersection when Lydecker quickly, but quietly pulled out his gun. He screwed a silencer onto it. "We're getting close to Renfro's office," he whispered. "She's probably got guards posted at the door."

He crept across the corridor toward the other side of the intersection and motioned for Logan to follow. Just as Logan got halfway across, a guard stepped out of Renfro's office. Before Logan knew what was happening, Lydecker tipped him forward out of the wheelchair and onto the floor on his stomach. He looked up and saw the guard turn around. At the same moment, Lydecker aimed and fired. The guard slumped against the doorjamb and slid down the wall.

"Nice shooting. Thanks." Logan spoke in a hushed tone.

"Sorry I had to do that. No time to warn you. Need any help?"

"Under normal circumstances, no. But in the interest of getting my ass out of here as fast as possible, yeah, I could use some help," Logan admitted. He locked the brakes of the chair, then Lydecker helped him back up and into it.

"OK. Let's go. Not very far now. I hope she didn't hear any of that." Lydecker watched Renfro's office for a minute, but there was no more movement. He motioned for Logan to get moving.

They proceeded down the last corridor. From the noise behind them it was apparent that the dead guard had been discovered. Footsteps sounded in several directions, including behind them. Lydecker swiped his pass in front of a scanner at a door, but not quickly enough. Logan had been spotted. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a guard running toward them. With one hand, he wheeled the chair around; with the other, he fired the gun.

The guard stopped in his tracks, then went down. He fired wildly but hit nothing but the wall. Logan wheeled back around and took off, with Lydecker alongside him.

"Nice moves," Lydecker said admiringly.

"Basketball."

"What?"

"I play wheelchair basketball. Gotta have moves. Didn't think they'd come in handy off the court."

"You're a piece of work, Logan Cale," Lydecker said in amusement and more than a little admiration.

In a few minutes, they were at the back door of the facility. Lydecker quickly disarmed the alarm and opened the door. They found themselves at the top of a loading dock ramp.

"Where the hell's my car?" Logan said. "I thought you said it was parked nearby."

"It was. I guess somebody moved it."

"Great. Now what? I'm kind of exposed here."

"Stay here. I'll go find it."

"Like I trust you that much."

"I got you this far, didn't I?"

Logan had to concede that he did, but he wasn't sure he would be able to go any farther. He rolled down the ramp to the driveway. Lydecker followed him.

"There's more cover here, in case anyone figures out that you've gotten out of the building." Lydecker walked away to find Logan's car, leaving Logan concealed beside the loading dock. The older man looked back over his shoulder and saw Logan, sitting very upright in his wheelchair, gun drawn, every nerve on edge.

Logan waited, hyperalert, ears straining for any sound that would indicate that the black-clad guards had spotted him. He'd never felt so vulnerable. Not for the first time, he silently damned Bruno Anselmo and the bullet that had put him in the wheelchair. He looked around at the building he'd exited. It looked so innocuous. He wondered what other experiments they were carrying out inside. He shivered.

Just then, he heard an engine and turned the chair in the direction of the sound. True to his word, Lydecker drove up in the Aztek, working the hand controls somewhat jerkily. Logan couldn't remember when he'd ever been so glad to see it.

"Idiots left the keys in the ignition." Lydecker said as he got out of the car. "You'll have to break through the perimeter gate. I'd come with you, but Renfro doesn't know I'm involved and I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible."

"All right, I understand. Don't want to blow your cover."

"Something like that."

Logan opened the front door on the passenger side and locked the brakes of the chair. As Lydecker looked on, he went through the familiar routine that got him into the car and behind the wheel. Once he was situated, he said to Lydecker, "Make yourself useful and stow my chair, will you?"

Lydecker did so. "Now, here's what you do." He instructed Logan on how to get to, then through, the perimeter gate. "I hope you don't mind getting this thing shot up a bit."

"Better than me getting shot up a bit. Been there, done that. Didn't like it much."

"Well, good luck."

 "Thanks. I owe you big time for this one."

"Yes, son, you do," Lydecker agreed. "And I'll come to collect some day." He smiled enigmatically and walked away, leaving Logan with a quizzical expression on his face.

Logan started the car and slowly drove down the driveway. He gathered speed as he headed toward the perimeter of the Manticore compound. The perimeter guard came out of his booth and motioned the Aztek over to the side of the road. Logan ignored him and sped up. He saw the chain link perimeter gate a few seconds before he crashed through it. He heard the sound of machine gun fire, and he swerved the car to the left, then to the right as the guard fired after him. A few rounds hit the back of the Aztek; one shattered the rear windshield, but he didn't slow down until he was sure he hadn't been followed.

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Lydecker returned to the main building and walked slowly toward Renfro's office. As he neared the door, he heard a commotion and then a crash. He ran the last few yards, gun drawn. Another crash. Lydecker ducked into the office suite, stepping over the dead guard.

"What's going on? Is everything all right?" he shouted.

"No! Everything is not all right!" Renfro screamed. Lydecker cautiously entered her office. The first thing he saw was the remnants of an expensive vase, shattered on the floor. Then he looked up and saw Renfro's face contorted in fury.

"He got away!" she said between clenched teeth. "I just got a call from the perimeter guard. He crashed through the gate in his car! How could he get away? He's a cripple in a wheelchair!"

Lydecker put his gun back in its holster. He said calmly, "That may be so, but he's apparently a very smart cripple in a wheelchair." He wanted to laugh at her, but his military training kicked in and he restrained himself.

"Not only that, but he took out a couple of my guards! Where the hell did he get a gun?" Her voice was beginning to get shrill.

"I have no idea," Lydecker replied, figuring that he'd let Logan keep the credit for the other guard that he had shot. "He was more resourceful than you thought. I told you that grabbing him was a bad idea. He's proven it."

Renfro was almost snarling. "And where the hell were you?"

"Looking for him, like I said I would. Some of your guards saw me out in the hallway. Obviously, I couldn't find him. By the way, did I ever tell you that I met him last year?" Lydecker commented, almost offhandedly.

"Do I want to hear this?" Renfro looked at him through narrowed eyes.

"It might give you a clue to who you were dealing with. I was attending a genetics conference at a hotel in Seattle. Some Luddite terrorists held a bunch of us hostage. Logan Cale traded himself as a hostage for the women. Later, they took him away and were going to throw him off the roof – they'd already done that to one hostage. I never did find out how he got away, but he did."

"Damn! Now I'll have to go to the trouble of finding another research subject!" Renfro said.

Lydecker sighed. She had entirely missed the point. "Well, while you search for one, it will give me time to perfect the process. That way, this kind of thing won't happen again."  He turned to leave. "Pour yourself a good stiff drink, Elizabeth, and forget about the one that got away."

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Safely down the road, Logan reached into the glove box for his cell phone. He pulled the phone out and found a piece of paper wrapped around it. He pulled over and read the note. The handwriting was strong, but unfamiliar.

"Give my regards to Eyes Only. Tell him I will be in touch."

Donald Lydecker

Logan reread the note and smiled.

END