Part .10

"Max," Logan half-whispered. Her tone had been flat, devoid of emotion. "You know, you were out the door so quickly you never explained that . . . I figured it out, thought. Olive Juice to you, too."

Max made a barely perceptable movement of the mouth; an almost smile. "I'm glad," Max turned her eyes toward Renfro, her head still straight toward the camera. "How my boos?"

Logan considered his words carefully. Finally, he took a humorous approach on the subject. "They all good, ya know? I be roomin' with ya best boo, be talking with Marley-man, and the Painter is okay, too."

Giving a choked sob, Max asked, "and . . ."

"They're here . . . number of years I've known you . . . " he gave Max a significant glanced, ". . . you're friends are a real handful . . ." again, he gave Max a glance.

Max slowly mouthed the word five. Renfro stepped forward, roughly jerking Max back. Quietly, Max stepped to the left, just out of Renfro's reach.

"So," Renfro said, "do we have a deal?"

A deal. It would mean the total end of Eyes Only. Could he do that? Logan wasn't at all sure he could. Renfro wouldn't be able to stop him from rescuing Max . . .

"I'll think about it," Logan abruptly motioned for Original Cindy to discontinue the converstaion. Smacking the keyboard loudly, she stopped the sharing of their camera footage. "Nobody move," Logan said quietly. "I don't trust Renfro. Somebody want to go and disconect our camera manually? That way no footage can be sent from our place . . ."

Wordlessly, Zack walked behind the camera and began removing wires. After he had pulled the last cord from the camera, he looked up. "Done," he said simply.

Logan walked over to Original Cindy. "Cindy," he said, "bring up all the cameras."

Immediately, Original Cindy started a rapid finger dance across the keyboard. "Good thing you made me learn your computer, because Zack boy would be totally lost here . . ." she said as the screen suddenly devided into six parts. "Ol' lady took down the first camera."

"What I expected," Logan tapped the screen. "Take it off and give me some sound on Camera three."

Original Cindy moved the cursor and clicked a few times. The first screen disapeared, the last five all enlarged a few times over to take its place, and they started to hear Madame Renfro bawling out Max.

"What the hell was that in there, soldier?" Renfro screamed, her face inches from Max.

"Ma'am, it was just friendly conversation," Max replied. Her image became blurred as she moved swiftly toward the door.

Logan walked out of the room, followed by Zack. "Keep that recording, Cindy," Logan called.

"Will do," Original Cindy afirmed.

"What was that?" Zack asked angrily as Logan and he entered the bedroom, where Logan sat wearily down on the bed.

"We don't want to appear desperate," Logan told him.

Zack threw his hands up in the air. "I don't get you, Cale. You want Max back, don't you?"

Quietly, "Yes."

Angrily, "Then why are you putting her life in danger? Drop Eyes Only!"

"Do you think it is that easy, Zack?" Logan looked up suddenly. "I want Max back more than anything else. I will give up Eyes Only if it is the only way, but, we have those plane tickets. We're using them. If all else fails, I will give up Eyes Only."

"So its like a last resort? Let go of something to save Max's life *only* if nothing else works?" Zack asked cynically.

"Yes," Logan answered truthfully.

"I think that's a pile of -- " Zack began.

"I don't care. I'm running this show here, Zack," Logan reminded him. "I'm doing it this way."

"Go to hell," Zack told him.

"After you," Logan retorted.