I didn't stay with Logan too much longer. My clothes were done, and I had done all I intended to do that night. Logan and I did have a talk about children being exploited like I had, and that he was going to do some hacks letting people know what was slipping through the cracks of the social services department in New Orleans. I thought about my little twins. He would shit if he knew about them. I would be one of those evil people abusing children. It's not a matter of right and wrong on the streets; it's a matter of survival. I could only suppose that from his lofty view, it was hard to get down and see that there was more than one viewpoint to the world.
I went back to my hotel, ignoring the shadow that followed me. I almost called to Zack to stop trying to tail me and just get over here and talk to me, but it was better to be underestimated. Later, as I stretched out on my bed in my hotel room, I thought about the day, and reviewed my options. Letting go was not one of them. I thought about letting Zack in on all of the details, but rejected that quickly. He couldn't handle it. No, I was on my own for this one, but I was used to that. I just needed to do what I had to, and then I could go back to my life.
But it wouldn't be the life I had once had. Ben wouldn't be there. Never again. I closed my eyes and made myself think of nothing. It was the only way to keep from screaming. I miss you Benny. I already miss you. But I was determined that she wasn't going to get away with it. Not now, not ever. With that in mind, I finally slept.
The next morning, the sun was shining, and the city seemed marginally less dismal. Maybe it was just my new outlook. A chapter in my life had ended, but before it ended completely I was just going to have to do one small thing, and then I could go back to the life I had loved the best. Two weeks on the outside. I could handle that.
I got dressed, had breakfast, and wandered over to Jam Pony. I thought it might be a little more personal for me to go to her job rather than home. To seek out a person at their job, you really wanted to see them. Trust me, I knew that from men coming to the club to beg one of my dancers to come back to them. It was pitiful, and that was what I needed to be for now. Pity is a fool's emotion. It makes you stop looking over your shoulder. Bad move for someone in Max's position, but she wouldn't know that until it was too late.
Jam Pony was a big warehouse type building bustling with people and packages and bikes. There was a man behind a counter with a headset shouting various insults to the couriers. Not the way I would have run the place, but then again, he didn't have all of my charms to get the riders to do what was needed. I wandered over to the counter, recognizing Sketchy loitering about.
"Hot run!" the man with the headset yelled, tossing a package to Sketchy, who grimaced.
"Normal, this is in gang territory," he complained. "Can't Max do it? She likes those runs."
Normal gave him a scathing look. "Max is, for once, working, which is what you better start doing before you're fired!" That was my cue.
I walked up to Sketchy with my best walk, the one that's all liquid seduction. From the way Normal's eyebrows shot up, I could see he liked the show as well. "Sketchy darling?" I said, getting his attention. He turned to me with a huge dopey grin.
"Terran," he greeted. "So, uh, need a special delivery?" he asked, his tone full of meaning.
I smiled. "Well, baby you never know what I might need signed, sealed and delivered later," I teased. "But right now I need to talk to Max." I picked up the package he had just rejected. "If she had to run out and deliver this, then I couldn't talk to her until tonight, and that would just make me so sad." I ran my finger under his chin. "You wouldn't want to make me cry would you?"
"No!" he gasped. I was expecting his back leg to start thumping at any moment. I handed him the package.
"Hot run then," I said with a smile. I winked. "See you later." He was on his bike in a flash, pedaling out of the building. I turned back to Normal who was gaping at me.
"I hope I didn't intrude," I said, dropping the sugary, little girl tone.
"You didn't," he replied, sounding impressed. He glanced at the door Sketchy had just flown out of. "I've never seen him stop complaining and take off before. I didn't think he'd stop slacking even for a woman."
I grinned. "I know how to handle those types," I replied off-handed. "I have this little bar down in New Orleans, and trust me, I know exactly what you mean about having problems with lazy help." Actually, I didn't. My help was never lazy. If they were, they weren't there for long.
"Never wanting to do anything but sit around and watch TV," he sighed.
I nodded. "Bouncers that would rather booze than bounce. And then when the bartender starts dating a dancer…"
He was nodding and gesturing to show he knew the feeling. "Then they want all their runs scheduled together so they can go home together and when one gets sick, they both need the day off." We both sighed in total understanding. He gave me an odd look, and then asked, "Did you say you were here to see Max?"
"I am," I replied airily. "While she's on break, of course," I continued with a more flirtatious smile. He swallowed hard. So typical. I held out my hand. "I'm Terran."
"You don't seem to be the type to hang around Max," he commented looking me over. I had dressed nice casual in jeans and a nice blouse with a jacket.
I leaned against the counter. "Now is that a compliment to me and an insult to one of my oldest friends, or vice versa?"
He gave a tiny laugh and looked away. I had a feeling he didn't talk to women much. "Well, uh…" he stuttered, a voice from behind me saving him.
"Terran?" Max called out. I turned, smiling at her. Courage, girl. You're on stage. Show only what they want to see. Stick to the mission, and all else will fall into place. "Hey," she said, coming closer.
"Hey Maxie," I replied, my smile faltering a bit. That wasn't contrived. It wasn't easy to not scream at her; make her see what she really did. "I'm didn't mean to disturb you at work," I said quickly in a low tone, "but I had to see you and apologize for last night."
She smiled, her happiness that I had come back obvious. Stupid little bitch. Don't you know that being an X-5 means never using the word "sorry"? No, obviously she didn't. "You want to get some coffee or something?" she asked hesitantly.
"You have a job!" Normal yelled.
"I'm taking lunch!" she yelled back, grabbing my hand and dragging me out of there. I wanted to laugh. As much as Normal talked, I seriously doubted that he meant half of it. He probably meant all of it. I certainly would have. He put up with a lot of shit from these assholes. I would have broken a few bones myself, but that was just my way.
Max and I went to this little café close to Jam Pony. We sat down and paid an obscene amount of money for lousy coffee. Scooping a Styrofoam cup into the Mississippi and getting some mud might taste better than this. Max didn't seem to mind. She probably didn't have any Columbian drug runners bringing her some French Vanilla Roast on a regular basis either though. I loved it when Rico came to the club. He tipped my girls well, and always had a bag of beans for me. I never knew what the flavor was going to be, but it was always a little bit of Heaven in a cup.
"So," I said when we sat down, for once at a loss of words. How should I proceed?
"So," Max echoed. There was a long pause.
"About last night," we both chorused, and then laughed. Maybe there was something in the genes there directing the conversation.
"I shouldn't have run out like that Max," I said. For a moment I let the thought of Ben touch me, and real tears formed in my eyes. It really did hurt. "It wasn't you. I knew something like this would happen if Ben didn't stop, and he swore to me he was, that the last time was the last time. I came here to tell you that he was going to need all of our support and help to stop, and the thing I had feared the most had happened already."
Max had tears in her eyes now. "I didn't want too," she said softly. "But it was that or Lydecker was going to take him, and he begged me to do it." She could have thrown her scalding hot coffee on me right then and I wouldn't have noticed it. All I could think of was my Ben on the ground being forced to make that decision. Beg for her to kill him, or go back. It should never have come to that. Never.
Max caught the meaning behind my silence. "You and Ben were close weren't you?" she asked.
I nodded. "We were very close," I admitted. "It was coincidence that we met, and you know Zack was furious that we'd run into each other. He ranted and raved for hours about keeping separated and all that military bullshit. I told him to fuck off and he left in a huff that time." Max smiled a little in understanding. She'd had to deal with Captain Asshole; she knew what it was like.
"How did you two hook up?" she asked. Tricky question. It was a little like telling Logan how I got my club. She needed to hear enough of the truth so that it would be honest enough not to get her wind up, but there was no way I could tell her everything.
"Every now and then I just take a few days off and take the first flight from New Orleans," I told her. That was very true. "I think it must be Zack's whole 'keep on the move' speech that gets to me." She giggled a little. Five minutes and we were already chatting like the best of friends. Sometimes, I'm so good I scare me.
"I ended up in Miami that time. It was September; the weather was still warm, and I was enjoying some tanning on the beach, and just having a good time. There was this church down the street from where I was staying, and I was walking past it one morning on my way out, and Ben walked right out the front door. I saw him, and had the strangest sense of déjà vu. He turned to leave, and I saw the barcode, and knew exactly who he was. We ended up spending the week together, and when I went home, I read in the papers, and realized what he was doing there."
Actually, I had known from the start. I had seen him go into the church and followed him. It was quiet and cool in the early morning and we were the only two people around. He pulled a rag from his pocket and placed it near the statue of The Blue Lady. He turned around to leave, and jumped back a little. He hadn't been expecting to see anyone.
I smiled at him. He was the first X-5 besides Zack that I had seen, and I couldn't help but be excited to see him. "Damn," I said. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?"
His eyes widened slightly. "Hello Terran," he said, glancing over my shoulder, looking for a route of escape. My eyes fixed on the cloth beside the statue. It was bloody. I knew right then what was in it. I brushed past him, and opened it up, seeing the bloody teeth lying in the cloth.
I turned back to him with a mock stern look. "And I would have thought you had outgrown all this by now," I teased.
He looked confused. I doubted he could have ever imagined that response. Zack would have yelled at him, and I knew what Max would have done. "They…they make her stronger," he said.
I laughed. "And that's why we went to the high place so we could make her stronger so we'd go to the good place where we could sleep late and have all the rations we want. I remember all that too," I said, running my fingers across his cheek. He was easily one of the most beautiful men I had ever seen in my life. There was something captivating in his eyes. "Damn, it's good to see you again," I said softly.
He was stunned. I didn't care. I didn't know the details just then, but I knew how he acquired those teeth. "You in the mood for breakfast?" I asked.
He blinked. "I…I have things that I have to do…" he said uncertainly.
"And we," I interrupted, "have years of catching up to do." I grabbed hi hand, and started dragging him out of the church, telling him how I ended up in New Orleans and all that had happened. He did tell me about what he was doing and why, and I wasn't who was more surprised, him or I that I simply didn't care. He took me to this abandoned building where he was staying, and had his next hunt locked in a room.
"Benny," I said firmly. "When you get done tonight, you are going to my hotel and I will show you how humans are supposed to sleep." I looked around. "And I do hope that man in there is whoever decorated the place." It was Manticore all over again with all their propaganda on the walls. I understood why he was doing what he was doing. I stripped; he killed for The Lady. It was thumbing our noses at Manticore in a strange fashion. Not that we wanted to switch; Ben never removed his clothes for a public audience, and I never went hunting with him, but the concepts were the same.
I'd left him, and to my delight, he showed up late that night. It was strange because we didn't make love that night. We stayed up until dawn lying in bed together and talking quietly about life, the universe and all things. We stayed together for the rest of my vacation, our relationship becoming wonderfully intimate, and he promised to come visit me soon in New Orleans when I left Miami.
"Terran?" Max was calling my name, shaking me out of my reverie.
"I'm sorry," I said with a tiny smile. "Just thinking about everything."
Max smiled sadly. "I wish it hadn't happened. But it did get us together."
I took a sip of my coffee. "That it did baby sister," I said softly. She thought she could be some kind of replacement for my Ben? Not fucking likely. "After finding out everything," I said sweetly, "I can't think of one other person who I would want to be with."