"Max, can we talk?" Logan asked, glaring over at Alec.
Alec smiled innocently, flipping himself to his feet in one fluid movement,
then moved to stand behind Max. probably closer than was truly necessary,
but, oh well. The look on Logan's face was priceless.
"did you find anything?" Max asked eagerly, stepping forward half a pace to signal to Alec to back off. He didn't move.
"Yeah, its kind of classified." Logan said pointedly, staring in Alec's direction. Alec turned innocently to look behind him, looking for some eavesdroppers. He turned back. "We're good" he told Logan. Max bit her lip, hard. She reached behind her, and pushed Alec back slightly. Logan looked at the ground, then back up again. "Max, seriously. The informant I got this from is deep within the organization" Alec smirked, and Logan pointedly ignored him "I said I would keep it as confidential as possible, not to reveal anything that might lead to his identification" Logan continued.
Alec laughed. "We should use codenames then" he tried for a straight face. Didn't work. "Your informant could be 'deep throat', and we could call you, uh, starfu." he took a quick step back as Max turned to him.
"Go away" she told him. It was Logan's turn to smile sweetly.
"Fine" Alec commented. "Not like I won't find out soon anyway." He turned away, walking off slowly. "Max, stop laughing." He whispered as he left, his voice low enough that only Max could hear him.
"Storm!" Mole called, throwing a pen in his direction. Storm turned in the direction the pen had come from. "Huh?"
"Got something you should see" Storm shrugged and walked over to him. "This is Doom" Mole gestured to a fanged, red eyes transgenic who stood beside him.
"Hey" Storm greeted, glancing over at Mole, confused.
"Doom just finished reading a book on piano repair." Mole grinned slightly.
"Great," Storm grinned sarcastically back at him. "If we had a piano, Doom could fix it"
"Shut up, junior" Mole replied.
"So.?" Storm asked, jumping up onto a table. "Why do we need to know how to fix a piano, when we don't have a piano?"
Mole just grinned back at him, lighting a cigar.
"Like hell." Storm commented. He looked at Mole, waiting to hear a punch- line. It didn't come. "You seriously got a piano in here? Without being caught?"
"More or less"
"Prove it"
"let's go" Mole nodded to Doom, who followed him out the door. Storm shrugged, and followed. This was bound to have entertainment value. When they reached Alec's apartment, however, he started to think hard. Was it possible? Nah. Mole could not seriously have gotten a piano into TC. And even if he had, Alec's apartment was on the top floor. A decent piano would not fit up that staircase.
Logan motioned Max over to a couple of crates. Sitting on one, he turned to her. "So, what did you find out?" she asked him.
"well it took me a while, but I managed to get into contact with an old informant, a guy who works for the sector police. He remembers a van coming through his checkpoint not long after the time and date you gave me. The driver handed over FBI ID. Thing that made him remember, was that the van hadn't come into the sector through that checkpoint. The FBI are usually pretty pedantic about using the same routes." Logan watched her carefully, trying to read her face, to tell if she believed his lie. Max looked at the ground for a minute, then up at him.
"We can track it, then, right?" she asked, starting to get excited. "If we have a license plate number, we can get further records from sector police, find out where they went?"
Logan nodded. "My informant couldn't get any more information than that. But, he does know where the central records are kept. The headquarters in sector 4, all the records are stored in a computer there. If we can get in, we can get the information, it should tell us where the van went. Where they took your friend."
Max nodded. "Okay, give me the location. I'll put a mission together."
"I'm coming" Logan told her. Max shook her head. "It's too dangerous, Logan. This is my problem, its my fault that Tim was taken, I have to make this right."
Logan reached towards her and took her hand. "It used to be, that things were OUR problem. and technically, you're wrong. The mistake on the mission was Alec's. you know that. He acts before he thinks. He always has. He takes chances, and sometimes, things go wrong."
"No" Max replied. "It wasn't Alec's fault. We had almost zero lead time on that mission. We all had to improvise."
"Then how is it your fault?" Logan tightened his grip on her hand. "I had the clues before anyone. The answer to everything we were doing, Sandeman's plan, I should have figured it out. I was meant to lead, Sandeman assigned that role to me. And Tim was taken."
"Max, listen to me" Logan touched her face, turning it towards him. "Mistakes happen on missions. You all knew the risks, you chose to continue anyway. You just said as much yourself. Nothing that happened was your responsibility. This, however, the rescue mission, is. The two of us, we can complete this mission. You can get us in, I can hack the computer, get the information I need."
"it's too risky. I'd want at least two others, to act as guards."
"Who?" Logan stood up, pacing. "Alec?" he turned to stare at her. "Max, come on. You saw what he was like before, you were kicking his ass. He was never in your league, anyway, but he definitely isn't now. he's hurt, Max. I can see it, you can see it. Taking him on a mission would jeopardise it. Then, the things that go wrong will be your fault."
Max nodded. He had a point. She didn't have to like it, but he did have a point. She gave in. "When do you want to do it?"
"Tonight. Around two, three in the morning. There won't be anyone there. We can be in and out. No-one will know."
Storm laughed as he took a seat on Alec's couch. "I'm impressed." He said. "Seriously. I'm impressed." He looked over at the piano and shook his head. If he hadn't already closely examined it, it would have appeared perfectly normal to him. yet, he knew it wasn't. around the back of the piano, Doom lay on the ground, adjusting a wire.
"Try it" he called, and Mole struck a black key. Doom swore. "The white one, you moron. This one" he pulled on the wire, and a white key lowered slightly.
"Sorry" Mole pressed down on the key, and a soft sound filled the room. "Flat" Doom commented. "Try again" Mole hit the key again.
"Got it" Doom stood up. "I think it's good" he replaced the top and back of the piano, and ran his hand over the top of it.
Mole grinned. "We just need to tie a ribbon around it."
"Are you going to tell me, or what?" Storm asked.
Mole shrugged, and took a seat. "Wasn't that hard. Sent an X on a recon mission, found the thing in some rich guys apartment. Stole it" Mole shrugged, like it was no big deal.
"How do you get a piano out of a building?" Storm had to know.
"There are these things, humans call them service lifts. You wheel the piano into one, hit a button, and the lift goes down to the parking lot on the basement. Next, you wheel the piano into a van. And leave." Mole laughed, throwing Storm a beer. "No problem"
"And then you stripped it down, and smuggled it into TC?"
"Not bad, junior. Yeah, in about twelve different pieces. The wooden sides and top were the hardest to get in, but, here at Manticore, we love a challenge."
"I'm impressed" Storm had nothing else to say.
"Me too." The three of them spun in the direction of the voice. Alec stood in his doorway, leaning against the frame, his arms folded.
"Uh, hey, Alec. What's going on?" Storm asked.
"I could ask you the same thing." Alec walked into the room, and stared pointedly at the piano.
"Happy birthday" Mole commented
"It's not my birthday" Alec replied, his eyes locked on the piano.
"You know what? We bought you a present. You could at least pretend its your birthday. You could say thanks"
Alec stepped closer to the piano, lifting the lid. He looked over at Doom, questioningly. "Tuned it myself" the transgenic replied. Alec pressed down on a key lightly, and smiled at the sound. He tried another. And another. With one finger, he played a slow jazzy tune. Doom slid a seat over to him, and he sat down without taking his eyes of the keyboard. He moved his left hand up to the keys and started to play faster. He purposely syncopated the beat, inserting jazz refrains, everything the opposite of what Manticore had taught him. a slow grin spread over his face.
On the couch, Storm grinned at Mole, and nodded towards the door. It was time for them to leave. Mole nodded to Doom, and moved to the door, the transgenic trailing him. Storm grabbed a bottle of beer, and opened it, placing it on top of the piano. Alec stopped playing long enough to look at him and nod. "You're gonna teach me that, sometime, right?" Storm asked. "Yeah" Alec nodded. "No problem."
"Have fun" Storm grinned, and headed for the door.
"Thanks" Alec commented. "Oh, and Mole?"
"Yeah."
"Logan's in the parking lot." Alec turned towards the door, one hand tapping out the theme song to 'Jaws' on the piano.
Mole's entire face lit up. "I love you, man" he told Alec, tapping Storm on the shoulder.
"Same here" Alec turned back to the keyboard, grinning. "Happy hunting, man."
"did you find anything?" Max asked eagerly, stepping forward half a pace to signal to Alec to back off. He didn't move.
"Yeah, its kind of classified." Logan said pointedly, staring in Alec's direction. Alec turned innocently to look behind him, looking for some eavesdroppers. He turned back. "We're good" he told Logan. Max bit her lip, hard. She reached behind her, and pushed Alec back slightly. Logan looked at the ground, then back up again. "Max, seriously. The informant I got this from is deep within the organization" Alec smirked, and Logan pointedly ignored him "I said I would keep it as confidential as possible, not to reveal anything that might lead to his identification" Logan continued.
Alec laughed. "We should use codenames then" he tried for a straight face. Didn't work. "Your informant could be 'deep throat', and we could call you, uh, starfu." he took a quick step back as Max turned to him.
"Go away" she told him. It was Logan's turn to smile sweetly.
"Fine" Alec commented. "Not like I won't find out soon anyway." He turned away, walking off slowly. "Max, stop laughing." He whispered as he left, his voice low enough that only Max could hear him.
"Storm!" Mole called, throwing a pen in his direction. Storm turned in the direction the pen had come from. "Huh?"
"Got something you should see" Storm shrugged and walked over to him. "This is Doom" Mole gestured to a fanged, red eyes transgenic who stood beside him.
"Hey" Storm greeted, glancing over at Mole, confused.
"Doom just finished reading a book on piano repair." Mole grinned slightly.
"Great," Storm grinned sarcastically back at him. "If we had a piano, Doom could fix it"
"Shut up, junior" Mole replied.
"So.?" Storm asked, jumping up onto a table. "Why do we need to know how to fix a piano, when we don't have a piano?"
Mole just grinned back at him, lighting a cigar.
"Like hell." Storm commented. He looked at Mole, waiting to hear a punch- line. It didn't come. "You seriously got a piano in here? Without being caught?"
"More or less"
"Prove it"
"let's go" Mole nodded to Doom, who followed him out the door. Storm shrugged, and followed. This was bound to have entertainment value. When they reached Alec's apartment, however, he started to think hard. Was it possible? Nah. Mole could not seriously have gotten a piano into TC. And even if he had, Alec's apartment was on the top floor. A decent piano would not fit up that staircase.
Logan motioned Max over to a couple of crates. Sitting on one, he turned to her. "So, what did you find out?" she asked him.
"well it took me a while, but I managed to get into contact with an old informant, a guy who works for the sector police. He remembers a van coming through his checkpoint not long after the time and date you gave me. The driver handed over FBI ID. Thing that made him remember, was that the van hadn't come into the sector through that checkpoint. The FBI are usually pretty pedantic about using the same routes." Logan watched her carefully, trying to read her face, to tell if she believed his lie. Max looked at the ground for a minute, then up at him.
"We can track it, then, right?" she asked, starting to get excited. "If we have a license plate number, we can get further records from sector police, find out where they went?"
Logan nodded. "My informant couldn't get any more information than that. But, he does know where the central records are kept. The headquarters in sector 4, all the records are stored in a computer there. If we can get in, we can get the information, it should tell us where the van went. Where they took your friend."
Max nodded. "Okay, give me the location. I'll put a mission together."
"I'm coming" Logan told her. Max shook her head. "It's too dangerous, Logan. This is my problem, its my fault that Tim was taken, I have to make this right."
Logan reached towards her and took her hand. "It used to be, that things were OUR problem. and technically, you're wrong. The mistake on the mission was Alec's. you know that. He acts before he thinks. He always has. He takes chances, and sometimes, things go wrong."
"No" Max replied. "It wasn't Alec's fault. We had almost zero lead time on that mission. We all had to improvise."
"Then how is it your fault?" Logan tightened his grip on her hand. "I had the clues before anyone. The answer to everything we were doing, Sandeman's plan, I should have figured it out. I was meant to lead, Sandeman assigned that role to me. And Tim was taken."
"Max, listen to me" Logan touched her face, turning it towards him. "Mistakes happen on missions. You all knew the risks, you chose to continue anyway. You just said as much yourself. Nothing that happened was your responsibility. This, however, the rescue mission, is. The two of us, we can complete this mission. You can get us in, I can hack the computer, get the information I need."
"it's too risky. I'd want at least two others, to act as guards."
"Who?" Logan stood up, pacing. "Alec?" he turned to stare at her. "Max, come on. You saw what he was like before, you were kicking his ass. He was never in your league, anyway, but he definitely isn't now. he's hurt, Max. I can see it, you can see it. Taking him on a mission would jeopardise it. Then, the things that go wrong will be your fault."
Max nodded. He had a point. She didn't have to like it, but he did have a point. She gave in. "When do you want to do it?"
"Tonight. Around two, three in the morning. There won't be anyone there. We can be in and out. No-one will know."
Storm laughed as he took a seat on Alec's couch. "I'm impressed." He said. "Seriously. I'm impressed." He looked over at the piano and shook his head. If he hadn't already closely examined it, it would have appeared perfectly normal to him. yet, he knew it wasn't. around the back of the piano, Doom lay on the ground, adjusting a wire.
"Try it" he called, and Mole struck a black key. Doom swore. "The white one, you moron. This one" he pulled on the wire, and a white key lowered slightly.
"Sorry" Mole pressed down on the key, and a soft sound filled the room. "Flat" Doom commented. "Try again" Mole hit the key again.
"Got it" Doom stood up. "I think it's good" he replaced the top and back of the piano, and ran his hand over the top of it.
Mole grinned. "We just need to tie a ribbon around it."
"Are you going to tell me, or what?" Storm asked.
Mole shrugged, and took a seat. "Wasn't that hard. Sent an X on a recon mission, found the thing in some rich guys apartment. Stole it" Mole shrugged, like it was no big deal.
"How do you get a piano out of a building?" Storm had to know.
"There are these things, humans call them service lifts. You wheel the piano into one, hit a button, and the lift goes down to the parking lot on the basement. Next, you wheel the piano into a van. And leave." Mole laughed, throwing Storm a beer. "No problem"
"And then you stripped it down, and smuggled it into TC?"
"Not bad, junior. Yeah, in about twelve different pieces. The wooden sides and top were the hardest to get in, but, here at Manticore, we love a challenge."
"I'm impressed" Storm had nothing else to say.
"Me too." The three of them spun in the direction of the voice. Alec stood in his doorway, leaning against the frame, his arms folded.
"Uh, hey, Alec. What's going on?" Storm asked.
"I could ask you the same thing." Alec walked into the room, and stared pointedly at the piano.
"Happy birthday" Mole commented
"It's not my birthday" Alec replied, his eyes locked on the piano.
"You know what? We bought you a present. You could at least pretend its your birthday. You could say thanks"
Alec stepped closer to the piano, lifting the lid. He looked over at Doom, questioningly. "Tuned it myself" the transgenic replied. Alec pressed down on a key lightly, and smiled at the sound. He tried another. And another. With one finger, he played a slow jazzy tune. Doom slid a seat over to him, and he sat down without taking his eyes of the keyboard. He moved his left hand up to the keys and started to play faster. He purposely syncopated the beat, inserting jazz refrains, everything the opposite of what Manticore had taught him. a slow grin spread over his face.
On the couch, Storm grinned at Mole, and nodded towards the door. It was time for them to leave. Mole nodded to Doom, and moved to the door, the transgenic trailing him. Storm grabbed a bottle of beer, and opened it, placing it on top of the piano. Alec stopped playing long enough to look at him and nod. "You're gonna teach me that, sometime, right?" Storm asked. "Yeah" Alec nodded. "No problem."
"Have fun" Storm grinned, and headed for the door.
"Thanks" Alec commented. "Oh, and Mole?"
"Yeah."
"Logan's in the parking lot." Alec turned towards the door, one hand tapping out the theme song to 'Jaws' on the piano.
Mole's entire face lit up. "I love you, man" he told Alec, tapping Storm on the shoulder.
"Same here" Alec turned back to the keyboard, grinning. "Happy hunting, man."