Chapter Five:
"Oh, sorry!" Max said as she dashed over to grab a pile of paper napkins of the counter. "The thing just slipped right out of my hand." Max said apologetically as she quickly mopped up the spilt coffee off the hardwood floors.
"Don't worry about it," Ben said as he walked over with a broom and dustpan.
They quickly picked up the shattered pottery, Ben dumping it into the trashcan, when Max sat at one of the bar stools. "So about this, what is it, Manticore? What do you need Logan's help with?" Max asked innocently.
"I had an interesting interview with the director of Manticore, a woman named Renfro. Back in '09 a group of these kids broke out, and they are still out today. One of them is in New York, and I want Logan to help me catch her, in exchange, Manticore will let me inside their base to take photos of their genetics lab."
Max felt faint. She was trying as hard as she could to keep a straight face, act impassive, but it was quickly becoming impossible."
"How are you going to know if it is one of those kids, it could just be a mistake?" She said nervously.
"With this." Ben said, walking across the room to pull a leather bound photography portfolio out of a briefcase. "Take a look at these." Ben slid a stack of several pictures across the counter to Max.
Max forced her hand to stay at her side. It was a series of pictures, ten total, close-ups of barcodes on the back of children's necks. Barcodes of Max's siblings. There was Zane, Krit, Syl, Jondy, Zack, Tinga, all of them that escaped that night. All except Ben and Bryn obviously, Max thought, a searing pain shooting through her head.
Ben watched Max closely as she flipped through the pictures. Her face had remained impassive, like she hadn't a care in the world, but the way her hands were lightly shaking, it told Ben that something more was going on. "I really want to help Renfro catch these kids. We can't just have killing machines wandering the streets. These kids have to be seriously screwed up people, and really shouldn't be in regular society. I mean; the one was a serial killer. I think he killed around twenty people."
'Tell us about the good place, Ben.'
Max threw the pictures down on the counter as if an electric current had passed through them. "I'm going to go wake up Logan, I'll be right back." She said in a haunted voice before turning and fleeing the room.
"Wake up! Logan, wake up!" It felt like a mere minuet since Logan had laid his head down on the pillow that Max's frantic voice infiltrated his sleep. When he opened his eyes long enough to glances at the digital alarm clock on the nightstand next to him, he found out that he wasn't that far off. Knowing it had to be good for Max to sound panicked; he sat up in bed, scratching his head. When he saw the expression on her face, it only solidified his feeling that something had to be wrong. "I told you, I'd go out with you tonight, I just want to get some sleep." He said flippantly, scratching the back of his head as he tried, pathetically, to avoid the bad news he knew was coming.
"Ben is working for Manticore." Max whispered fiercely.
Logan was fairly sure his jaw hit the ground. He hadn't known what to expect, but it wasn't that. "I think I must have heard you wrong. Did you just say *Ben* is working for Manticore? You've got to be joking."
"Ok, Logan, your right, sorry to have woken you up, this was all a big joke." Max snapped, standing up from where she had been perched at the edge of the bed to pace back and forth.
"Max, calm down. What do you mean Ben is working for Manticore, he's a photographer." Logan asked rationally.
"I don't know, but he has a whole stack of pictures with all of our barcodes, mine included, and he is talking about how we need to be removed from society. He thinks we are serial killers, Logan!" Max cried, throwing her arms into the air. "He called you out here to help Manticore capture the X5s with him." Max laughed bitterly. "Oh, the irony…"
Logan swung his legs off of the bed and quickly stood. "Your going back to Seattle on the next plane." He ordered as he pulled on pants.
"No, I'm not." Max shot back.
"I'm not letting you stay here when it is probably crawling with Manticore TAC teams." Logan said firmly as he pulled a sweater over his head.
"First off," Max said in a low voice. "You don't *let* me do a damn thing. I make my own decisions, not matter how long we've been together." She paused, just daring Logan to say something. He knew much better. "And two, if Ben said that there is an X5 in New York, and if he knows that, then Manticore is like three days ahead of him. There are still five of my brothers and sisters that we have no idea of their location, and it could be anyone of them. They might need my help, and I am not going to hop on the next plane to Seattle just the appease you."
Logan silently sat on the edge of the bed with an exasperated sigh. Since they had become involved six months before, it had been relatively quiet for them, well, as quiet as it could be when one half of the relationship was an anonymous guerilla cyber journalist and the other was a fugitive military experiment that had been on the run for the past eleven years. But now it seemed as if it was all catching up to them at once.
Max crossed the room to kneel in front of Logan. She laced his fingers with his and laid her head on his knee as she spoke softly. "I can't turn my back on them, Logan. It could be any one of them out there, and as much as I'd like to make you happy and go home, I couldn't live with myself if something happened because of it."
They sat like that a moment, Logan running his hand through Max's hair as they both sat in their own private worlds.
"Come on." Logan said lighting nudging Max. "Let's go find out how much Ben knows and how far into this he is. You never know what we might be able to use him for."
Ben stood in the kitchen, flipping through the sports section of the newspaper as Max and Logan walked back in a few minutes later. "Hey, sorry Max. I didn't mean to freak you out about the thought of these people walking the streets and all." He said sympathetically.
"Oh, don't worry about it." Max said easily as she sat down at the table, hiding her shaking hands under the table. "I was just startled because Logan was working on almost the exact same story a couple of months ago."
"Really?" Ben asked, looking up surprised at Logan. "How's that for irony? Well, I guess that makes sense because Madame Renfro said that there was an X5 who was sighted several times in Seattle." Logan reached under the table and gripped Max's shaking hands.
"Yeah, I…we…"Logan corrected nodding towards Max, "We hit a dead end a couple weeks ago."
"Well there is definitely one here, in the city. I've been helping the Manticore TAC teams with tracking her down. We have it pretty much narrowed down to three mile radius." Max and Logan winced at Ben's reference to the X5 being an 'it'. Not him or her, but 'it.'
"But, Ben." Logan interjected. "Why are you so dead set on capturing them? From what I could tell they blended in with society and had no reason that they needed to be taken back to a place that they didn't want to be at. We can't force people to be in the military that don't want to be there, and how is this any different?"
"Blending in with society? Logan, these are trained killers. As children they ritualistically killed a convict as a training exercise. What do you think they are capable of adults? The one is accredited of over 25 murders, and he would have kept going but someone ended his miserable stay on earth. They can't blend with society, they aren't the kind of people who can lead normal lives, and they shouldn't be walking around the streets so one day they snap and kill 25 more." Max wanted to run out of the room. She wanted to cover her ears and run out of the room. She wasn't a killer. She wasn't. But the way Ben was speaking of her brother…it made something boil up in the back of her throat, something that she couldn't tell if it was rage at his defamation of Ben's memory, or grief that that was what his life had come to. It was another irony that Ben seemed to narrow out the one X5 who hadn't gotten away from their past as well as the rest, and they shared the same name.
The only thing that kept her from breaking out into hysterical tears as she seemed to do when she ever remembered the feel of Ben's neck snapping under the grip of her hands was Logan's reassuring squeeze of her hand under the table as he sat and debated with Ben over whether the X5s were threats to everyday people or not. She could lead a normal life, she had so far. At least as normal as she could ever be.
"Look," Ben conceded after a long forty-five minutes of debate. "Manticore has set up a trap to try and lure the X5 out of hiding, come with me tonight and you can see what these 'innocent kids' as you put it can do to people."
"Oh, sorry!" Max said as she dashed over to grab a pile of paper napkins of the counter. "The thing just slipped right out of my hand." Max said apologetically as she quickly mopped up the spilt coffee off the hardwood floors.
"Don't worry about it," Ben said as he walked over with a broom and dustpan.
They quickly picked up the shattered pottery, Ben dumping it into the trashcan, when Max sat at one of the bar stools. "So about this, what is it, Manticore? What do you need Logan's help with?" Max asked innocently.
"I had an interesting interview with the director of Manticore, a woman named Renfro. Back in '09 a group of these kids broke out, and they are still out today. One of them is in New York, and I want Logan to help me catch her, in exchange, Manticore will let me inside their base to take photos of their genetics lab."
Max felt faint. She was trying as hard as she could to keep a straight face, act impassive, but it was quickly becoming impossible."
"How are you going to know if it is one of those kids, it could just be a mistake?" She said nervously.
"With this." Ben said, walking across the room to pull a leather bound photography portfolio out of a briefcase. "Take a look at these." Ben slid a stack of several pictures across the counter to Max.
Max forced her hand to stay at her side. It was a series of pictures, ten total, close-ups of barcodes on the back of children's necks. Barcodes of Max's siblings. There was Zane, Krit, Syl, Jondy, Zack, Tinga, all of them that escaped that night. All except Ben and Bryn obviously, Max thought, a searing pain shooting through her head.
Ben watched Max closely as she flipped through the pictures. Her face had remained impassive, like she hadn't a care in the world, but the way her hands were lightly shaking, it told Ben that something more was going on. "I really want to help Renfro catch these kids. We can't just have killing machines wandering the streets. These kids have to be seriously screwed up people, and really shouldn't be in regular society. I mean; the one was a serial killer. I think he killed around twenty people."
'Tell us about the good place, Ben.'
Max threw the pictures down on the counter as if an electric current had passed through them. "I'm going to go wake up Logan, I'll be right back." She said in a haunted voice before turning and fleeing the room.
"Wake up! Logan, wake up!" It felt like a mere minuet since Logan had laid his head down on the pillow that Max's frantic voice infiltrated his sleep. When he opened his eyes long enough to glances at the digital alarm clock on the nightstand next to him, he found out that he wasn't that far off. Knowing it had to be good for Max to sound panicked; he sat up in bed, scratching his head. When he saw the expression on her face, it only solidified his feeling that something had to be wrong. "I told you, I'd go out with you tonight, I just want to get some sleep." He said flippantly, scratching the back of his head as he tried, pathetically, to avoid the bad news he knew was coming.
"Ben is working for Manticore." Max whispered fiercely.
Logan was fairly sure his jaw hit the ground. He hadn't known what to expect, but it wasn't that. "I think I must have heard you wrong. Did you just say *Ben* is working for Manticore? You've got to be joking."
"Ok, Logan, your right, sorry to have woken you up, this was all a big joke." Max snapped, standing up from where she had been perched at the edge of the bed to pace back and forth.
"Max, calm down. What do you mean Ben is working for Manticore, he's a photographer." Logan asked rationally.
"I don't know, but he has a whole stack of pictures with all of our barcodes, mine included, and he is talking about how we need to be removed from society. He thinks we are serial killers, Logan!" Max cried, throwing her arms into the air. "He called you out here to help Manticore capture the X5s with him." Max laughed bitterly. "Oh, the irony…"
Logan swung his legs off of the bed and quickly stood. "Your going back to Seattle on the next plane." He ordered as he pulled on pants.
"No, I'm not." Max shot back.
"I'm not letting you stay here when it is probably crawling with Manticore TAC teams." Logan said firmly as he pulled a sweater over his head.
"First off," Max said in a low voice. "You don't *let* me do a damn thing. I make my own decisions, not matter how long we've been together." She paused, just daring Logan to say something. He knew much better. "And two, if Ben said that there is an X5 in New York, and if he knows that, then Manticore is like three days ahead of him. There are still five of my brothers and sisters that we have no idea of their location, and it could be anyone of them. They might need my help, and I am not going to hop on the next plane to Seattle just the appease you."
Logan silently sat on the edge of the bed with an exasperated sigh. Since they had become involved six months before, it had been relatively quiet for them, well, as quiet as it could be when one half of the relationship was an anonymous guerilla cyber journalist and the other was a fugitive military experiment that had been on the run for the past eleven years. But now it seemed as if it was all catching up to them at once.
Max crossed the room to kneel in front of Logan. She laced his fingers with his and laid her head on his knee as she spoke softly. "I can't turn my back on them, Logan. It could be any one of them out there, and as much as I'd like to make you happy and go home, I couldn't live with myself if something happened because of it."
They sat like that a moment, Logan running his hand through Max's hair as they both sat in their own private worlds.
"Come on." Logan said lighting nudging Max. "Let's go find out how much Ben knows and how far into this he is. You never know what we might be able to use him for."
Ben stood in the kitchen, flipping through the sports section of the newspaper as Max and Logan walked back in a few minutes later. "Hey, sorry Max. I didn't mean to freak you out about the thought of these people walking the streets and all." He said sympathetically.
"Oh, don't worry about it." Max said easily as she sat down at the table, hiding her shaking hands under the table. "I was just startled because Logan was working on almost the exact same story a couple of months ago."
"Really?" Ben asked, looking up surprised at Logan. "How's that for irony? Well, I guess that makes sense because Madame Renfro said that there was an X5 who was sighted several times in Seattle." Logan reached under the table and gripped Max's shaking hands.
"Yeah, I…we…"Logan corrected nodding towards Max, "We hit a dead end a couple weeks ago."
"Well there is definitely one here, in the city. I've been helping the Manticore TAC teams with tracking her down. We have it pretty much narrowed down to three mile radius." Max and Logan winced at Ben's reference to the X5 being an 'it'. Not him or her, but 'it.'
"But, Ben." Logan interjected. "Why are you so dead set on capturing them? From what I could tell they blended in with society and had no reason that they needed to be taken back to a place that they didn't want to be at. We can't force people to be in the military that don't want to be there, and how is this any different?"
"Blending in with society? Logan, these are trained killers. As children they ritualistically killed a convict as a training exercise. What do you think they are capable of adults? The one is accredited of over 25 murders, and he would have kept going but someone ended his miserable stay on earth. They can't blend with society, they aren't the kind of people who can lead normal lives, and they shouldn't be walking around the streets so one day they snap and kill 25 more." Max wanted to run out of the room. She wanted to cover her ears and run out of the room. She wasn't a killer. She wasn't. But the way Ben was speaking of her brother…it made something boil up in the back of her throat, something that she couldn't tell if it was rage at his defamation of Ben's memory, or grief that that was what his life had come to. It was another irony that Ben seemed to narrow out the one X5 who hadn't gotten away from their past as well as the rest, and they shared the same name.
The only thing that kept her from breaking out into hysterical tears as she seemed to do when she ever remembered the feel of Ben's neck snapping under the grip of her hands was Logan's reassuring squeeze of her hand under the table as he sat and debated with Ben over whether the X5s were threats to everyday people or not. She could lead a normal life, she had so far. At least as normal as she could ever be.
"Look," Ben conceded after a long forty-five minutes of debate. "Manticore has set up a trap to try and lure the X5 out of hiding, come with me tonight and you can see what these 'innocent kids' as you put it can do to people."
