From the second she had tumbled onto White's wet bathroom floor, Talia had had the feeling that time was not on her side. So she decided the best thing to would be to waste none of it. In a flash she was out in the hall and making a run for the end room. But after opening the door she realised her mistake, the room was empty, it couldn't be Whites. Reeling back she tried the next one. BINGO! She had found it. Quickly, she got to work. Throwing open cupboard doors and bugging suit collars and shoe heels. Half the job was already done.

 She rummaged through bedside drawers till she came across his cell phone. Then unclipped the bug packs from her waist and spilled its contents onto the plush carpet. As soon as she located what she was after she took up the strange looking device and plugged it neatly into the bottom of the mobile. A screen lit up on the device and a series of numbers flew across its blue-lit screen. They read like a battery charging up and started at 10% of 100% copied.

 It was the extracting device Logan had given her back at Joshua's. With this, they would have every number stored into White's cell phone at their disposal.

As it reached 65% of 100% copied, Talia heard the front Oak door of White's house open.

'Come on… come on' she begged the device to hurry up.

72%…. 79%…84%…

'Come on…'

* * *

"Did you get a good look at it?"! White shouted at Otto.

"No" He replied

"They held you hostage for 4 hours Otto! That's 4 hours to inspect your surroundings and you mean to tell me you got nothing!" White could not believe the insolence of this man

"Sir, it was like I said" Otto wheezed, by the sounds of it, he was in a lot of pain.

"They took me into the house blindfolded, I was blindfolded when we left. All I saw was the inside of a run down house on ground floor."

"Yeah well unfortunately that describes over half the houses in this fucken city" White went to slam his fist into the wall but thought better of it. If his superhuman strength were revealed to Otto then he'd have to kill him. And that would be unfortunate. Though Otto was an inferior human, the man did have a passion for killing transgenics, which pleased White.

* * *

Upstairs, Talia's extracting device seemed to be slow down immensely as it reached the final 5% of completion. Downstairs, the conversation had quieted down a fraction and changed to Otto's injuries. It seemed that White was offering to take him up to the hospital but Otto was refusing and saying he'd be alright but he needed to lie down. Then White had offered to let Otto stay the night so he could have an interpretational artist come over early in the morning to draw up a sketch of the unknown transgenic girl who was now apart of Max's freak team.

At the mention of her, Talia's heart skipped a beat.

'They won't need a picture of me if I get caught'

'Why won't this damn thing go?' she thrust the device into the carpet and it went up 2%. Surprised, Talia tried it again. First repeating the first action, before settling for gentle shakes. But it was to no avail. The thing simply wouldn't go.

'Damn thing wants me to get caught'

"There's cold beer in the fridge, make yourself feel at home. I'll throw on a shirt and then get your room ready" She heard White telling Otto.

'Oh no, he's coming upstairs. HE'S GOING TO FIND ME!!!' Warning signs flashed through Talia's mind and in a hurry she unclipped the extracting device and threw the phone back in the drawer.

'97% would just have to do' She made her way over to the window and slipped her knife under the wood, all the time keeping one eye trained on the hallway for White. Try as she might, the window wouldn't budge. Outside she could see Alec hiding in the bushes and she tried to signal to him. Of course it was useless because he wasn't looking. Just then, a shadow passed just outside the room and Talia, knowing that she couldn't escape, ducked into the closet.

White entered the room and went straight for his drawers. Otto was staying the night, though he trusted the guy, White knew he he'd have to be extra careful with himself tonight and be sure to close guard his secret. That meant tying up all loose ends. And speaking of loose ends, there was a huge one just waiting for him down the hall. That's why he now had to find that key, so he could lock the door to the room. But where was it? He was sure he'd put it in here somewhere…

"A huh, found you" he said to himself and snatched up the key.

From the cupboard Talia could see him leave. She let out a breath.

'I gotta get outta here before he comes back' She eased her way out of the cupboard. 

White leaned over the banister to make sure Otto was out of sight before he headed to the room. Recently it had become his little office, the only place in the house that really relaxed him. He'd even slept there on more than one occasion.

He flicked the lights.

He'd initially set the room up for Ray when he came home. But lately it had served another purpose.

All over the wallpaper he had plastered pictures and pictures of Max and her freaky little friends. Some were photos he'd even taken himself. Files were scattered all over the floor. Documents and documents. All of them on transgenics. Pictures of Max's entire Manticore group. All 12 escapees. He'd even had them analysed and reproduced as pictures of what the kids may look like today. He was a sick man. And he loved it.

White smiled at the sight of his work.

Leaving the room, he turned off the lights and locked the door.

* * *

Before she had a chance to formulate an escape White returned. This time he placed the key in a safe compartment within a book.

He still wore only a robe and it seemed that for the first time tonight he himself noticed it. He began opening drawers and rummaging through clothes. He finally withdrew a grey t-shirt and a pair of training pants. From the crack in the cupboard door Talia watched his every move. But still she had yet to see his face. Placing the clothes neatly on the bed he moved out of Talia's view.

Disturbed by the fact that she could no longer track her enemy's whereabouts a feeling of panic took hold of her, and for a second she indulged in the fantasy of making a run for it.

She could move fast, she'd make it…maybe…. probably not. But at least if she did get caught her fate would be sealed. Anything had to be better than being stuck in a closet fearing every possibility.

On the other side of the room stood a full-length mirror. If she leaned her head just a fraction to the left maybe she'd be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of what White was doing in it. It wouldn't be much but it'd sure put her mind at ease if she could see him. As she leaned her head, White stepped back into view. This time however, he wasn't wearing the robe. 

* * *

 A quick intake of breath was all Talia could manage. The sight of him was devastating, but not in the way one would expect if ever they came to see their archenemy in the bare flesh! Everything Max had said about him must be a lie, surely this man wasn't the monster he was reputed to be?  Talia thought.

'We're all ugly in our own way T, some people just wear their ugliness on the inside'

Tolka had told her that once, how true it had turned out to be in his case.

After realising her lungs felt as though they would burst, Talia let out a breath. Her face flushed and she felt her whole body begin to heat up.

Oblivious to what was going on in the closet, White continued to clean his gun. The fact that Max had come to his house greatly disturbed him. He took out five bullets from a box he had tucked under his arm and carefully loaded the revolver. Spin…. click. Loaded. He tossed the gun on the bed and took a moment to admire his naked self. He rubbed a hand over his biceps and flexed. Then he ran a hand through his still wet hair and cleared his throat. Time to get dressed.

* * *

Between all the flexing and rubbing, all thoughts of escape had somehow fallen away. Replaced instead, by thoughts of being captured. Of White finding her here in his closet and punishing her in ways which would make her sorry for being such a bad bad girl.

And then, just like that, he was gone. So were his clothes and the gun. But still the fantasy remained.