"Alec" he looked up to see Shay standing in the doorway. He nodded at Garrett, who was suggesting something to the others, and stood up.
"What's up?" he asked him.
"I want to go. On the mission tonight" Shay told him.
"No" Alec replied. "Shay, they'll take care of it. Okay? You've just come off a mission, you shouldn't go out again yet."
"Alec, listen to me. I have to go. It's my fault. I left them there. I should have checked to see if anyone else had been held there. But I just left"
"No. you did what you had to do. You followed your training. You may not have gotten out if you'd taken the time to look around. then, we couldn't have helped anyone."
"You would have checked." Shay looked down at the ground. Alec put his hand on Shay's shoulder.
"If I had known, for a fact, that they were there. How could you have known?"
"I just, I don't like to think of Tim there, by himself."
"Me neither."
two hours later.
Max looked up as Alec entered the room. "Everything all set?"
"Yeah" he told her, taking a seat. "They'll head out as soon as it gets dark. Gives them about 8 hours to prepare."
"Plenty of time" Max commented, looking at her watch. It was barely mid- day. "How's your leg?" she asked him. "What did Neil say?"
"That I could run a marathon, if I wanted to, but that I still wasn't fit enough to fight with you." He smiled at her.
"Idiot" she told him, moving over to kneel beside him, running her hand up his leg. "Seriously, is it okay?"
"Yeah." He told her, placing his hand over hers. "Its sore, but I heal pretty quick, only took a couple of days to get over being shot." He put pressure on her hand, so that she was pressing down on his thigh.
"Show off" she replied to his comment, and moved her hand lower, running it gently over the gunshot wound.
"Nah, just very, very good" he laughed. She shook her head. "Idiot."
"You keep saying that" he told her, lifting her chin with his hand and kissing her lightly. Max groaned lightly, increasing the pressure on his leg as she moved up to kiss him harder. Alec gasped as her hand exerted slightly too much pressure on his leg. She pulled back instantly, moving her hand. "Sorry" she told him. Alec shrugged, shifting position so that his legs were on either side of Max. "Did you hear me complaining?" he asked, reaching his hand out for her.
"I need you fit" she told him, standing up. "Fine." He told her, taking a deep breath and switching into soldier mode. "Listen, Garrett needs a detailed map of the area. can you grab one while I check with Dix about the weaponry?"
2320 hrs.
"God, what the hell is going on?" Alec asked, nervously pacing the distance of the room.
"Give them time" Max told him, trying her best to annoy him by acting as relaxed as possible. She sat against a wall, with her feet out, directly in the line that Alec was pacing in.
"They've had time. 80 minutes without contact. What the hell are they doing?"
"Not good at waiting, are we?" she asked him.
"Yeah, 'cause I did so much of that at Manticore. Sat on my arse and waited for missions to be over." Alec replied sarcastically. He reached the end of the room and turned around, glaring at the communications equipment on the table, which was doing nothing but taking up space.
"You're really annoying" she told him as he stepped over her, reached the wall, and turned around.
"Move your feet then" he told her, stepping over her again. Max reacted, the minute he was on the other side of her, she pushed up off the ground with her arms. Her legs moved around him, her top leg into his midsection, and her bottom leg against the back of his knees. She flipped him to the ground and moved on top of him, her hands pressing his to the ground.
"You're annoying me" she repeated. "promise to stop pacing, or I won't let you up" Alec stared up at her, not saying anything, completely content to stay where he was.
The radio crackled to life "Base, team three" Max moved quickly to grab the mike. "Base, go ahead." She replied.
"Nothing. Place is empty. Mission is a wash."
"Shit" Alec cursed, slamming his hand down on the table.
"Base, we're pulling back, unless you want us to do another sweep?"
"No, pull back." Alec took the mike off Max, shaking his head.
"Heard that, Base. See you soon." Alec threw the mike at the wall. It shattered into a hundred pieces and fell to the floor.
"Now what?" he asked.
"Now, I go see Logan" she told him, sighing.
Alec closed his eyes, fighting for focus, fighting not to say the things running through his mind right then.
"Can you handle the debrief when they get back?" she asked him
"Yeah" he said dully.
Max stared at him, hating that she had caused the expression on his face. His jaw was clenched, and his expression looked strained. She wanted to put her arms around him, tell him that the only reason she was going to see Logan was because she wanted the information. But, she thought maybe they weren't at that stage yet.
"I'll see you tomorrow" she told him, and he winced.
there was a new tunnel out of TC, and Max took it, nodding at the guards stationed at the entrance. There were guards at the other end too, although they weren't that obvious. Two teenagers playing ball in an abandoned lot. Two X6's. she smiled a greeting at them, and one of them nodded slightly, before throwing the ball back to his friend. Give Mole a little responsibility, and look what he could achieve. Max was very, very impressed. This was far better than jumping over a fence all the time. And safer. She reached Joshua's house, where Logan was staying, and she glanced around her, scoping the place out, checking for anyone who may have been watching. It seemed safe. She knocked lightly on the door, and waited. Finally the door opened.
"Max" Logan greeted, looking surprised, but happy to see her. He quickly gestured for her to come in. "What's going on?" he asked her. He led her to the couch, and offered her a seat, before taking a chair opposite. He leant forward eagerly.
"I need your help" she told him, taken aback slightly by the expression on his face. This was the Logan she had first gotten to know, in the first few months that she had known him. Smiling, and relaxed and not so constantly caught up in improving the world.
"Tell me what's been going on"
Max gave him an abbreviated version of the events since he had left. When she spoke of the mission, and of losing Tim, her voice cracked. She had spent so much time trying to appear strong, to Storm, the other transgenics, and then later to Alec, that she had almost ignored how she had felt about it. Tim was probably the one she was closest to, she had spent a lot of time with him, sparring and showing him some moves, and just talking. She felt tears well up in her eyes, and she blinked furiously, angry with herself. Logan moved to sit beside her, hesitantly placing his arm around her.
"Max?" he asked softly. Max turned to look at him. "I have to find Tim. Can you help? Look for troop movements, or whatever? Put out the word on your informant net?" she looked at him hopefully. Logan nodded. "I'll do what I can." He told her, squeezing her shoulder. "I don't know what I can do, but I'll try, okay?"
Max nodded.
the four teams walked into HQ, dejected at having found nothing. Alec heard them enter, and went to greet them. He nodded at some of those he recognised, and gestured to Garrett to get the other team leaders and join him in the room he had just come out of.
"Talk to me" he looked at Garrett when the five of them were seated. "Yes, Sir" Garrett replied. "We entered the compound, carried out a search. There was nobody there. We saw a window, smashed out, like Shay described. Apart from that, there were two rooms that seemed to have been used as prison cells. We found handcuffs, among other things. One of the rooms was right near the broken window. Must have been where they held Shay."
"And the other one held Tim" Alec guessed.
"Very likely, Sir. But we found nothing there, no blood, nothing."
Alec nodded. At least they hadn't shot Tim in there, then removed the body. "Carry on" he asked.
"Nothing else to report. No other clues."
"Okay." Alec looked around. "Good job, guys. Well done. Pass on my thanks to your men." The four nodded, standing up to attention. "Thank you, sir" they spoke as one, evidence of their Manticore training. Renny, Travis and Matthew turned to leave, but Garrett stayed where he was. As the other three close the door behind them, Alec looked up at him.
"Something else?" he asked, gesturing for him to sit down again.
"Thanks, Sir" Garrett smiled, sitting down. "I don't know if it's relevant or not, probably not, but one of the rooms we found there, it was." Garrett paused, as if searching for words.
"What" Alec asked, leaning forward.
"It was like Manticore, like Psy Ops." Garrett shook his head. "The room, it was completely white. Blinding. I went in there, and shut the door behind me, and it was like I was back in re-indoctrination, you know?"
Alec nodded. He knew all too well what psy ops was like.
"What do you think it was, Sir? Why have a room painted that colour?"
Alec shrugged. "No idea."
"That's all, Sir." Garrett stood up. "It was just, I don't know, it brought back some weird memories, that's all"
"Thanks" Garrett left, and Alec stared into space. He remembered re-indoc all too well. There had been a room there, painted black. So black, that it was hard, almost impossible to tell where the walls were. Why the hell was there a white room at that facility?