Chapter 12:
Rubber squeaked against pavement as Zane pushed the basketball against the blacktopped surface. "Come on, Maxie," He said with a feral grin.
"You're the self proclaimed goddess of basketball!"
"F**k you." Max said breathlessly as she reached up with the back of her hand to wipe away the sweat that was trickling down the side of her face.
"Will you stop standing there and play? It's hot as hell and I'd like to get this over with."
"Poor Maxie. She gets b**chy when it's hot outside." He replied condescendingly. Before Max could comment, Zane had shot sideways, bouncing the ball low to the ground as Max pivoted on her foot and slid back, keeping herself between the net and the basket.
Logan stepped out of his nicely air-conditioned car into the blinding heat wave that had taken the west coast just as Zane drove forward and sunk an easy jump-shot, to which Max cursed for almost a minuet straight. Since Logan had been keeping track, he knew this was now officially the new record for how many time she could say 'goat f*cker' in one sentence.
"That's 21-28. Two more points and I've got game." Zane said arrogantly.
"I'm going to laugh when I win." Max said as she put her hands on her knees to catch her breath.
Zane watched Max as she stretched her arms over head. "You okay?" He asked offhandedly, keeping his voice light enough that only she could hear. Max was extremely proud, and would barely admit something was wrong to one of the X5s, not less what Logan was standing on the edge of the court, observing the last of the game. But the way she was out of breath after a simple game of basketball, and she was sweating like they had just ran cross country, something had to be up.
"I'm fine, I guess I'm just off today." Max said easily, ignoring the dull aching headache that was quickly progressing into a sharp piercing migraine.
"You sure?" Zane passed Max the ball and she dribbled left handed as she wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her arm.
"Yeah." Max snapped defensively. "Now lets go. Check." She bounce passed the ball to Zane, who fluidly bounced it back. Max mustered the little bit of energy she seemed to have that day and shot forward, spinning and rolling off of Zane and dribbled towards the basket. Just as she was jumping up for the easy lay up, Zane jumped in front of her, knocking the ball down and throwing off her balance. She stumbled as she hit the ground, off balance, she tripped, falling forward, and breaking her fall with her hands.
"Nice shot." Logan commented as Zane cleared to ball and sunk a three pointer with a swish of the net.
Zane grinned, doing his best to hide the concern from his eyes. Max was supposed to have the best balance of them all, but there she was, rolling onto her back as she lay on the ground.
"Good game, Maxie." He said as he offered a hand to pull her up.
When Max was on her feet again, she brushed the loose gravel off the front of her shirt and smiled. "You're lucky I have a killer headache, or else this game would have been all about me."
"You have a headache?" Zane asked. "You sure it wasn't just my mad skill?"
Max snorted as she pushed Zane back playfully. "Yeah right."
The peal of ringing from her bag had them both looking up. Max jogged across the court, passing by Logan silently as she pulled her cell phone out of her bag. Zane followed, stretching his arms overhead as he walked up to Logan. "Hallo guter Sir. Wie sind Sie heute nachmittag?" Zane asked.
"Sorry, German's not my thing." Logan said as he loosened his tie. The sweltering heat was almost suffocating, the humidity so thick you could practically cut it. "Hey, is it just me, or does Max look pale?"
Zane stared at him a moment before turning to walk away. "Yeah, Something's up." He said evasively.
Max turned back to them, her face now bright as she talked into the small blue phone, her voice animated with obvious pleasure. "Yeah…Zane and I just got done playing a game of basketball... 31-21, his game… hold up." She held the phone away from her ear for a moment. "Tinga wants to know if they are holding the ice capades in hell now."
"Its Tinga?" Zane's face lit up as walked over to where Max stood. "Let me talk to her a sec."
Max handed the phone to Zane and after picking up the water bottle, crossed back to where Logan stood.
"Que, você que tenta ao dado do curso de calor? Porque você andaria ao redor em um terno e amarraria quando seus quase cem graus para fora aqui."
"Why do you people insist on not speaking English? I don't have a clue what you said, but more than likely it was insulting, so I'll just do the smart thing and agree with you."
Max grinned as she gulped from the water. "You know me oh so well."
"Question for you."
"Am I going to see in printed in big bold words in a magazine sometime?" Max asked innocently.
"Off the record."
"Go ahead than."
"Do you guys ever do anything but hang around base and mess around? I've watched countless games of basketball, watched you guys terrorize each other, watched as you messed around with your car. Millions of dollars of technology and this is what you do?"
Logan knew he hadn't offended her when she laughed. "We are on call to save the world 24/7. I think that gives us the right to terrorize each other when we feel the need."
To there right, Zane was idly walked in slow circles as he talked on the phone, a habit that only Max recognized. Zane was always moving, whether it be simply tapping his foot or running around in circles, but he simply put, was never still. "Is that your other sister?"
"Yeah, Tinga." Max said quietly. "She got deployed to Korea, you know about war they have going with India. Well, basically, she was sent there because it is too uneasy of a situation for any diplomat to go, and Tinga is the only one with the slightest knowledge of politics, so she's there on behalf of President Murray."
"You miss her." Logan said more as a statement rather than a question.
"Yeah." Max took another sip of water. "She was deployed while I was."
She caught herself before she said too much. "I was on a mission." Max walked away, screwing the top back onto her water bottle and dropped it on the ground.
She grabbed the basketball from where it had rolled at about half court. She wiped her face off on the edge of her gray tee shirt as she walked close to the basket and made a simple jump shot.
She felt Logan's eyes on her as she grabbed the rebound on its first bounce and shot again. Max would have had time to really comprehend that Logan was either checking her out or she had something stuck to her a**, but when spots danced in front of her eyes, and her mind clouded, she didn't have time to think of much of anything. 'No, not here. God no, not now.' She thought desperately as she dropped the ball. Logan watched as Max dribbled the ball, and then suddenly stopped, the ball hitting her foot and rolling away. She brought her hands up to her head, pressing on the sides of her head as she tightly closed her eyes.
Zane's head whipped around when Max cried out in pain. "Ting…I've got to go." He dropped the phone on the ground as Logan quickly walked to Max.
"Maxie! What's up?" He asked apprehensively.
Max opened her eyes, blinking rapidly at the light that hurt her eyes.
"I…my vision got all blurry for a second, and my head's killing me."
"Why don't you sit down?" Logan said soothingly as he took her arm and started leading her off the court. The way her eyes were clouded over with pain scared the hell out of him.
Max started to walk off court, but when her head shook forward enough to throw her hair in her face, she yelped. "Zane." was all she managed before she fell backwards, seizing violently.
"Fuck." Zane said, panicking as Logan caught her seconds before she hit the ground. He sprinted towards her bag and grabbed it even as he was turning to run back towards the shaking and unconscious Max.
He dumped the bag onto the ground inches from Max head, loose change and lip-glosses, the various other items she carried with her spilling out onto the sun-baked blacktop. He shoved everything aside as he grabbed the small black case and ripped it open.
"What the hell is going on." Logan trailed of as Zane pulled out a small hypodermic needle and slid it into Max's arm.
"We all have a neurological condition that causes us to have seizures."
Zane spoke in a deadly calm voice as he depressed the needle. The clear yellow liquid emptied into Max's bloodstream in a matter of seconds. "I don't know why I didn't see the warning signs that she was going to have one. The headaches, she's been tripping over he own feet all day…damn it."
Zane swore as Max stilled.
Logan watched in horror as Max went from violent shaking to deadly still almost in the blink of an eye. "Shouldn't you take her to the base infirmary or something?"
Zane's dark brown eyes shot up. "They don't know about the seizures. If they knew we had them, then we would either be taken off of active duty or we would be killed. Don't you even think of?" Zane's stopped abruptly as his eyes darted towards the door.
"F**k. Lydecker's coming."
"What? How do you know that?" Logan asked startled as Zane effortlessly picked up Max and carried her off and laid her down behind a wall that couldn't be seen from the courts. Zane stared at Logan icily as he followed. "Stay with her. Don't make a sound and stay our of sight."
Zane ran quickly back to the basketball court and was picking up the ball was Lydecker walked out the door. "Zane." He called.
"Yes sir." Zane kept his face carefully blank.
"Just wanted to remind you that you have flight simulation in about a half hour."
"Yes sir." Zane shot from the foul line and watched the basket bounce on the rim and hit the ground.
"Have you seen Max around?" He asked.
Logan stared at Max, her pale sweaty face, her body so eerily still that he couldn't help himself from checking her pulse. He pushed her hair back off her damp face and pressed his fingers against her throat, relieved when he felt the steady beat under his fingers. Max moaned lightly as her head rolled to the side.
"No sir, I think she might have went to work with Zack on breaking the encryption codes." Zane ad libbed, praying for time.
"No, I was just there. He said she was with you." Lydecker said.
Max's eyes fluttered open to see Logan's face looming above hers.
"Shit." She muttered as she fought the sleep that threatened to over take her. "Help me up." She said, her voice weak.
"You're not going anywhere." Logan whispered, pushing Max back down as she tried to sit up. "Lydecker is right around the corner with Zane."
Max swore again. "Please help me up. Zane's not going to get busted because I screwed up."
"How is a neurological condition your fault?" Logan asked even as he supported her neck while she sat up.
"I ignored the warning signs. I didn't take the pills when I started losing my balance, so this is my fault."
"I don't know where she--" Zane was cut off by a sound behind him. He whirled around to see Max leaning against the side of the wall, Logan standing beside her. To Zane, Max looked weak, like she was getting ready to collapse at any second. To Lydecker, she just looked like she was being cocky and fascias, as usual.
"Sorry, I was back here showing Logan how we can run up walls." Her voice sounded close to normal as possible, if a little quiet, and her eyes were mostly open, if a little droopy. Zane was proud, considering the medication that he'd injected her with usually had most of them out of it for at least twenty-four hours.
They all talked a moment, the epitome of normalcy, but Zane watched as Max leaned more and more against the wall. If Lydecker didn't get out of here soon, she was probably going to pass out from the effort of staying upright.
The second Lydecker walked into the building, Max collapsed to the ground in a heap of twisted limbs.
"Hell." Zane jogged over to where Logan crouched over Max's body. "I'd hate to drag you into this mess, but I really don't have any choice."
Logan looked up at Zane unwaveringly. "What do you need me to do?"
"I don't have time to get her home, and Lydecker will know that I'm gone since I have flight simulator in like twenty minuets. Can you drive her home, get her into bed, and let her sleep this off."
"Yeah." Logan said. "Let's just get her into my car and I'll get her there."
Max was settled into the passenger seat, at Zane's command for when base security watched them drive by, Max asleep in the front seat would look a lot less suspicious that Max asleep in the back, she hadn't stirred at all.
"Thank you, for covering her a** on this one." Zane said sincerely. "We owe you."
Logan started the car and drove off without a word, one eye on the road and one eye on Max as he drove towards her house.
Rubber squeaked against pavement as Zane pushed the basketball against the blacktopped surface. "Come on, Maxie," He said with a feral grin.
"You're the self proclaimed goddess of basketball!"
"F**k you." Max said breathlessly as she reached up with the back of her hand to wipe away the sweat that was trickling down the side of her face.
"Will you stop standing there and play? It's hot as hell and I'd like to get this over with."
"Poor Maxie. She gets b**chy when it's hot outside." He replied condescendingly. Before Max could comment, Zane had shot sideways, bouncing the ball low to the ground as Max pivoted on her foot and slid back, keeping herself between the net and the basket.
Logan stepped out of his nicely air-conditioned car into the blinding heat wave that had taken the west coast just as Zane drove forward and sunk an easy jump-shot, to which Max cursed for almost a minuet straight. Since Logan had been keeping track, he knew this was now officially the new record for how many time she could say 'goat f*cker' in one sentence.
"That's 21-28. Two more points and I've got game." Zane said arrogantly.
"I'm going to laugh when I win." Max said as she put her hands on her knees to catch her breath.
Zane watched Max as she stretched her arms over head. "You okay?" He asked offhandedly, keeping his voice light enough that only she could hear. Max was extremely proud, and would barely admit something was wrong to one of the X5s, not less what Logan was standing on the edge of the court, observing the last of the game. But the way she was out of breath after a simple game of basketball, and she was sweating like they had just ran cross country, something had to be up.
"I'm fine, I guess I'm just off today." Max said easily, ignoring the dull aching headache that was quickly progressing into a sharp piercing migraine.
"You sure?" Zane passed Max the ball and she dribbled left handed as she wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her arm.
"Yeah." Max snapped defensively. "Now lets go. Check." She bounce passed the ball to Zane, who fluidly bounced it back. Max mustered the little bit of energy she seemed to have that day and shot forward, spinning and rolling off of Zane and dribbled towards the basket. Just as she was jumping up for the easy lay up, Zane jumped in front of her, knocking the ball down and throwing off her balance. She stumbled as she hit the ground, off balance, she tripped, falling forward, and breaking her fall with her hands.
"Nice shot." Logan commented as Zane cleared to ball and sunk a three pointer with a swish of the net.
Zane grinned, doing his best to hide the concern from his eyes. Max was supposed to have the best balance of them all, but there she was, rolling onto her back as she lay on the ground.
"Good game, Maxie." He said as he offered a hand to pull her up.
When Max was on her feet again, she brushed the loose gravel off the front of her shirt and smiled. "You're lucky I have a killer headache, or else this game would have been all about me."
"You have a headache?" Zane asked. "You sure it wasn't just my mad skill?"
Max snorted as she pushed Zane back playfully. "Yeah right."
The peal of ringing from her bag had them both looking up. Max jogged across the court, passing by Logan silently as she pulled her cell phone out of her bag. Zane followed, stretching his arms overhead as he walked up to Logan. "Hallo guter Sir. Wie sind Sie heute nachmittag?" Zane asked.
"Sorry, German's not my thing." Logan said as he loosened his tie. The sweltering heat was almost suffocating, the humidity so thick you could practically cut it. "Hey, is it just me, or does Max look pale?"
Zane stared at him a moment before turning to walk away. "Yeah, Something's up." He said evasively.
Max turned back to them, her face now bright as she talked into the small blue phone, her voice animated with obvious pleasure. "Yeah…Zane and I just got done playing a game of basketball... 31-21, his game… hold up." She held the phone away from her ear for a moment. "Tinga wants to know if they are holding the ice capades in hell now."
"Its Tinga?" Zane's face lit up as walked over to where Max stood. "Let me talk to her a sec."
Max handed the phone to Zane and after picking up the water bottle, crossed back to where Logan stood.
"Que, você que tenta ao dado do curso de calor? Porque você andaria ao redor em um terno e amarraria quando seus quase cem graus para fora aqui."
"Why do you people insist on not speaking English? I don't have a clue what you said, but more than likely it was insulting, so I'll just do the smart thing and agree with you."
Max grinned as she gulped from the water. "You know me oh so well."
"Question for you."
"Am I going to see in printed in big bold words in a magazine sometime?" Max asked innocently.
"Off the record."
"Go ahead than."
"Do you guys ever do anything but hang around base and mess around? I've watched countless games of basketball, watched you guys terrorize each other, watched as you messed around with your car. Millions of dollars of technology and this is what you do?"
Logan knew he hadn't offended her when she laughed. "We are on call to save the world 24/7. I think that gives us the right to terrorize each other when we feel the need."
To there right, Zane was idly walked in slow circles as he talked on the phone, a habit that only Max recognized. Zane was always moving, whether it be simply tapping his foot or running around in circles, but he simply put, was never still. "Is that your other sister?"
"Yeah, Tinga." Max said quietly. "She got deployed to Korea, you know about war they have going with India. Well, basically, she was sent there because it is too uneasy of a situation for any diplomat to go, and Tinga is the only one with the slightest knowledge of politics, so she's there on behalf of President Murray."
"You miss her." Logan said more as a statement rather than a question.
"Yeah." Max took another sip of water. "She was deployed while I was."
She caught herself before she said too much. "I was on a mission." Max walked away, screwing the top back onto her water bottle and dropped it on the ground.
She grabbed the basketball from where it had rolled at about half court. She wiped her face off on the edge of her gray tee shirt as she walked close to the basket and made a simple jump shot.
She felt Logan's eyes on her as she grabbed the rebound on its first bounce and shot again. Max would have had time to really comprehend that Logan was either checking her out or she had something stuck to her a**, but when spots danced in front of her eyes, and her mind clouded, she didn't have time to think of much of anything. 'No, not here. God no, not now.' She thought desperately as she dropped the ball. Logan watched as Max dribbled the ball, and then suddenly stopped, the ball hitting her foot and rolling away. She brought her hands up to her head, pressing on the sides of her head as she tightly closed her eyes.
Zane's head whipped around when Max cried out in pain. "Ting…I've got to go." He dropped the phone on the ground as Logan quickly walked to Max.
"Maxie! What's up?" He asked apprehensively.
Max opened her eyes, blinking rapidly at the light that hurt her eyes.
"I…my vision got all blurry for a second, and my head's killing me."
"Why don't you sit down?" Logan said soothingly as he took her arm and started leading her off the court. The way her eyes were clouded over with pain scared the hell out of him.
Max started to walk off court, but when her head shook forward enough to throw her hair in her face, she yelped. "Zane." was all she managed before she fell backwards, seizing violently.
"Fuck." Zane said, panicking as Logan caught her seconds before she hit the ground. He sprinted towards her bag and grabbed it even as he was turning to run back towards the shaking and unconscious Max.
He dumped the bag onto the ground inches from Max head, loose change and lip-glosses, the various other items she carried with her spilling out onto the sun-baked blacktop. He shoved everything aside as he grabbed the small black case and ripped it open.
"What the hell is going on." Logan trailed of as Zane pulled out a small hypodermic needle and slid it into Max's arm.
"We all have a neurological condition that causes us to have seizures."
Zane spoke in a deadly calm voice as he depressed the needle. The clear yellow liquid emptied into Max's bloodstream in a matter of seconds. "I don't know why I didn't see the warning signs that she was going to have one. The headaches, she's been tripping over he own feet all day…damn it."
Zane swore as Max stilled.
Logan watched in horror as Max went from violent shaking to deadly still almost in the blink of an eye. "Shouldn't you take her to the base infirmary or something?"
Zane's dark brown eyes shot up. "They don't know about the seizures. If they knew we had them, then we would either be taken off of active duty or we would be killed. Don't you even think of?" Zane's stopped abruptly as his eyes darted towards the door.
"F**k. Lydecker's coming."
"What? How do you know that?" Logan asked startled as Zane effortlessly picked up Max and carried her off and laid her down behind a wall that couldn't be seen from the courts. Zane stared at Logan icily as he followed. "Stay with her. Don't make a sound and stay our of sight."
Zane ran quickly back to the basketball court and was picking up the ball was Lydecker walked out the door. "Zane." He called.
"Yes sir." Zane kept his face carefully blank.
"Just wanted to remind you that you have flight simulation in about a half hour."
"Yes sir." Zane shot from the foul line and watched the basket bounce on the rim and hit the ground.
"Have you seen Max around?" He asked.
Logan stared at Max, her pale sweaty face, her body so eerily still that he couldn't help himself from checking her pulse. He pushed her hair back off her damp face and pressed his fingers against her throat, relieved when he felt the steady beat under his fingers. Max moaned lightly as her head rolled to the side.
"No sir, I think she might have went to work with Zack on breaking the encryption codes." Zane ad libbed, praying for time.
"No, I was just there. He said she was with you." Lydecker said.
Max's eyes fluttered open to see Logan's face looming above hers.
"Shit." She muttered as she fought the sleep that threatened to over take her. "Help me up." She said, her voice weak.
"You're not going anywhere." Logan whispered, pushing Max back down as she tried to sit up. "Lydecker is right around the corner with Zane."
Max swore again. "Please help me up. Zane's not going to get busted because I screwed up."
"How is a neurological condition your fault?" Logan asked even as he supported her neck while she sat up.
"I ignored the warning signs. I didn't take the pills when I started losing my balance, so this is my fault."
"I don't know where she--" Zane was cut off by a sound behind him. He whirled around to see Max leaning against the side of the wall, Logan standing beside her. To Zane, Max looked weak, like she was getting ready to collapse at any second. To Lydecker, she just looked like she was being cocky and fascias, as usual.
"Sorry, I was back here showing Logan how we can run up walls." Her voice sounded close to normal as possible, if a little quiet, and her eyes were mostly open, if a little droopy. Zane was proud, considering the medication that he'd injected her with usually had most of them out of it for at least twenty-four hours.
They all talked a moment, the epitome of normalcy, but Zane watched as Max leaned more and more against the wall. If Lydecker didn't get out of here soon, she was probably going to pass out from the effort of staying upright.
The second Lydecker walked into the building, Max collapsed to the ground in a heap of twisted limbs.
"Hell." Zane jogged over to where Logan crouched over Max's body. "I'd hate to drag you into this mess, but I really don't have any choice."
Logan looked up at Zane unwaveringly. "What do you need me to do?"
"I don't have time to get her home, and Lydecker will know that I'm gone since I have flight simulator in like twenty minuets. Can you drive her home, get her into bed, and let her sleep this off."
"Yeah." Logan said. "Let's just get her into my car and I'll get her there."
Max was settled into the passenger seat, at Zane's command for when base security watched them drive by, Max asleep in the front seat would look a lot less suspicious that Max asleep in the back, she hadn't stirred at all.
"Thank you, for covering her a** on this one." Zane said sincerely. "We owe you."
Logan started the car and drove off without a word, one eye on the road and one eye on Max as he drove towards her house.
