Part five

***

He had been unable to curtail his curiosity and headed for the window where he could hear the voices. Two hearts thumping alluringly. There was something familiar, beckoning to him. The voices had suddenly stopped. He was now hovering in front of the window, listening in.

"To think Gentech went through all that trouble to hire you, and you were on it from the beginning." As Angela grabbed the pile of notes and moved towards the exit, Natalie searched the darkness for an object she could throw towards her assailant. "You saved us a lot of trouble, Natalie. Say nightie night, now."

The flash of recognition had hit him the moment everything around him exploded in a bright light. He was thrown out of balance and eventually fell when one of the caryatides on top of the building tumbled down towards him.

***

Max was pacing. Natalie had been supposed to escape the attention of the guards and let them believe she had gone into the building. When the guards would be out, there would be several explosions inside, a fire and Natalie's "body" would be found in the morning, unrecognizable except for her ID card. There were quite a few holes in the plan they had hurriedly put together but that was all they could do on such short notice. And there was Matt Sung, the detective, too, who had promised to back them up. Max was supposed to make sure no one got hurt. "Easy job, Logan," she muttered, cursing under her breath. Except for the fact that Natalie was not at the meeting point. And inside, the thunder-like noise heralded the second series of explosions.

***

Natalie had been expecting the explosion. When Angela whirled around and stumbled, Natalie's first thought was to get the gun. But Angela was too far away, so she did the only thing she could: she ducked and crawled towards the door. Soon the explosions inside would go off. This floor would be only slightly affected if everything went according to plan, accordingly Natalie didn't waste much thought on Angela. She only thought of Max, who by now was probably worrying that she had not reached the meeting point. Yes, and there was the slight matter of her papers that had flown through the room when Angela had fallen down. Not even the slightest chance of picking them up. Natalie cursed for the first time in years.

As she ran down the corridor to find the rope ladder Max had left for her, the building shook with loud explosions never letting her hear the inhuman roar of rage and despair behind her.

***

For the umpteenth time since he had first met Max, Logan wished he could pace the wooden floor of his penthouse. Rolling over it just didn't bring the same release. He had been confined to the house since Max needed the superior processor power of his desktop computer to hack the passwords. Now, he berated himself once more for accepting Natalie's idea. It had made him suspicious, and he had waited for a chance to test her before approaching her with his offer. This had seemed the ideal opportunity. But now, since he knew that Natalie hadn't shown up at the meeting point, the worst thoughts crossed his mind.

***

The police were already in front of the building, together with several onlookers as always, an ambulance had just arrived and the loud voices of the firemen yelled over the chaos when Max, who had been about to storm the building herself in search of Natalie, finally glimpsed the object of her worry sneaking to the meeting place. Max breathed in deeply, preparing a long tirade of selected vocabulary addressed at her charge when she was suddenly interrupted by the yells of the doctors and police carrying an body out.

Max swore, looking Natalie over. "What happened?"

"My tech assistant, Angela Barnes, had a sudden urge to see me dead or handed over to Gentech. She should be okay, though," Natalie frowned, "I was the one who barely got away."

"You surely look like it, lady, let's give Logan the 411, he's probably sprouted legs to pace around by now." Max dragged her into her dark corner and let her talk to Logan on the cell while she observed the hullabaloo around the clinic. The fire was still raging and for a while, Max feared that it would extend to the other wing of the building. They had planned the explosions well, however and the fire was contained after a few hours. Logan had come to pick Natalie up, leaving Max behind, who had wanted to stay for a little while more, at least until they found the body.

***

Logan's Aztek felt like Heaven itself to Natalie. After the adrenaline rush, she was now slumped in her chair and had a difficult time keeping her eyes open. She noticed that Logan was silently eyeing her over as if trying to decide whether he should speak or forever hold his tongue. He might have been cute, but she wasn't in the mood for it.

"What ?!" she snapped.

Logan opened the board hatch and handed her a new ID, a sector pass and a plane ticket. Then, he took an envelope and handed it to her as well. "It isn't much, but it might help to get you started."

Natalie started to protest or at least thank him, but he raised his hand and stopped her with an icy look. The moment of silence weighed heavily on Natalie. What could he want?

***

Max was starting to lose her patience. The fire had been extinguished, and she was still there, acting like she had to earn her degree in mass psychology. Natalie had been declared missing by the guards and the search went on and on and on. "Come on guys, a girl's gotta catch some sleep once a week!" she griped, starting to feel cranky.

She had noticed a ragged, unkempt figure among the trees in front of the clinic, silently observing the crowd, but she kept her distance. She wasn't responsible for all the catastrophe eager bums on the streets of Seattle. Now, if he were one of Lydecker goons, well yes, that was an entirely different matter, she smiled.

She snapped to attention, as there seemed to be some sort of commotion at the entrance. "They found Dr. Brandis!" Two firemen were coming out, carrying a covered body.

As agreed, detective Matt Sung was there, receiving the identification tag of the victim. "Yes, this was Dr. Natalie Brandis" he indicated, lifting the cover for barely a split second. Then turning away, he motioned for the orderlies to carry the body to the coroner's van. Max sighed. Mission accomplished, Thumbs up for Eyes Only.

She had barely put her helm on to jet away into the night when for a few seconds, a heart rending howl - or was it a scream?--sliced the silence of the place. She whirled around to identify the source, somewhere between the trees, but it had already stopped. The bum who had been there moments ago had vanished. Whatever. Max revved up her baby and disappeared into the night, glad to just go and crash at her crib.

***

Logan's blue eyes had locked with hers as they had stopped in front of the safe house. Deep blue, usually warm and compassionate eyes, now impassive. They reminded her of something. Nick ? No, something else.

But he interrupted her train of thought, "Dr. Brandis is now officially dead. You can make a new start now. But I'm still curious." He seemed to decide that surprise was the best course of action and hit the jackpot with the question he uttered almost with delight, "Dr. Lambert, why is Gentech really after you?" In response to her stunned silence, he dropped the rest of the bomb, "Does it have anything to do with your research in Toronto ?"

Logan smirked slightly as he saw that the second part had been right on target as well. It had been a shot into the blue, just a hunch, nothing he had found in the hacked files. Still, it had hit home.

The woman was flabbergasted.

Seeing her close her eyes, Logan berated himself for doing this in the car of all places. After all he was alone with her and she wasn't old enough to be unable to scratch his eyes out or the like if the fancy struck her.

Natalie had tried to be patient, but this question topped it all. In her opinion, this had nothing to do with Gentech or Eyes Only. The new rush of adrenaline let her physically feel her own thoughts clicking into place. She slowly, seductively turned to him and looked in his eyes when she oh so sweetly replied, ""So, Logan, you're not just Eyes Only, you have brains, too." With that she stormed out of the car and into the cabin, leaving Logan alone in his Aztek.

"Yeah, 'Ass Only', she should have said," he thought, hurriedly getting out of the car. At least she hadn't locked the door. Maybe he still had a chance.

She was facing the fireplace, her back to him.

He stopped in the doorway, as if afraid she would feel cornered. Sensing that the woman in front of him could not be more angered than now, Logan decided on a change of plan:

"Natalie, the reason I brought that out was that I need your help."

Silence. He would never know if it had been his calm, even voice or something else that made her turn around and unleash her wrath on him. She was fierce, but at least she was talking, it occurred to him. "Mr. Cale, I will not deny it, I was Natalie Lambert as you already seem to know. But I reserve myself the right to forbid any further intrusion into my private life."

Her eyes ablaze, the words were coming out like stones raining upon him. He had wanted to get her attention before entrusting her with his deepest secrets but he seemed to have opened a hornets' nest. She continued, pacing, some of her anger spent already, "Not even I have the answers you are searching for. There are still many pieces missing in my past, and I don't appreciate it being prodded for my deepest feelings. And I am sure you don't, either."

Logan dared to close the door behind him, but remained at a distance, his embarrassment plainly evident on his face. At the guilty look in his blue eyes and the sheepish grin he was trying to apologize with, all of Natalie's anger dissipated into nothingness. With a pang in her heart she tried to chase Nick's memory away and to concentrate on the task at hand.

On a lighter tone, she asked, "Well, what is it that you need help for?"

His head came up, and she could see relief wash over him. He started, treading carefully, with the short variant. "Natalie, you have been around Max and me the last few days. I'll make it short. As a result of our standoffs with Manticore and Gentech, Max now carries a deadly, genetically tailored retrovirus, a virus that only I am susceptible to. It can be transmitted through the most coincidental contact. I don't have to tell you that I care a lot for Max, and that this situation drives us both mad. Natalie," he pleaded, "Please help us find a cure."

Nothing could have prepared Logan for the look he now saw on Natalie's face. She was flabbergasted, that much was clear, though it couldn't have been just the news he had given her. There was something else, too. Apart from the surprise, he thought he read intense pain and sorrow, but also compassion and tenderness. What was going on? The silence was as thick as brick, and Dr. Lambert had barely managed to press her open lips together so she wouldn't look like a complete moron for the second time this evening.

Logan hurried to explain. "I can see you are surprised, and I can't promise it wouldn' t be dangerous, but it really is our only hope of ever being together. I've waited so long because I wanted to make sure you know that you are under no obligation to help us. What we did today, we would at any time, without expecting anything in return. We wanted to help. That's why Eyes Only is around. And of course, we have our own little war against Manticore and now against Gentech, too. But this, this is our own personal hell, and you have just been invited to step in."

Natalie got a grip on herself. She settled comfortably in the armchair. This was going to be a long night. "Why don't you come closer, I don't bite." She shivered. "We should get that fire going, it's getting chilly in here." She watched him use his exoskeleton to get up and felt ashamed for bossing him around. But tonight, there was no place for niceties, only for the truth. Well at least part of it she thought, smiling to herself. As he was busy with the fireplace, she rose to get themselves two cups of hot chocolate. Logan might be a man, and a yummy one at that, but hot chocolate was a rarity these days, and it had never hurt anyone.

She stretched in her chair and looked impishly at the seated man in front of her. "Before I give you a definite answer, I'd like to hear the long version of the story."

AN: I had thought about giving this a new ending, make the story longer and shippier. For the moment I'll just post it as I have it. If you want a different ending, let me know. Last part will be in on Monday morning.

P.S. Forgot the disk with explanations on Natalie at home. Sorry. Will be up with the last part.