A/n There seems to be a serious falling off in readership in this story so
if I don't hear anything this will be the story finale. In effect the story
is being cancelled due to lack of interest.
A/n I know I said that they were in a bed in breakfast but it ended up more like a hotel. Just think really big bed and breakfast.
Logan heard voices in the room next to him. Not just any voices familiar voices. One of the voices he would have once considered the sweetest sound in the world solely on the merit of its master. Without a doubt it was Max and Alec on the other side of that wall. Not only the voices matched but the bantering as well. Logan slumped to the floor. *They had caught up to him. Now there was no telling what they would do to him or what would happen when they got their hands on the beeper. Logan jumped up from the floor and began pacing frantically trying to think of a plan. Anything to stop or at least delay his almost certain fate. The beeper was clutched tightly in his sweaty palm as he desperately sought for a way to amend the situation. He knew there had to be a way.
Logan worried long past the time when the adjacent room fell silent. He was terrified of staying and terrified of leaving so he sat immobile. By the time the sun began to peek through the window he had made up his mind. He quickly got to his feet and paused listening. He heard silence in the transgenics room. *If he left now he could escape while they were distracted. They would never even know he had been there. * He grabbed his coat and scrawled a quick note to Sumo.
" Sumo, sorry for everything. You were a very good hostage but I had to skip town without you. I hope you can understand.
Sincerely, Logan
P.S. Could you please pay my speeding ticket? I will find a way to reimburse you at some point in the future."
Logan reread the note. Satisfied, he placed it on the dresser and stepped out into the hallway. Logan glanced both ways to make sure no one was in sight. He began to walk down the hall supremely happy that he had figured out the speeding ticket mess and technically wouldn't be breaking the law.
Alec was lying in a king-sized bed with his arms wrapped tightly around a naked sleeping Max. He stared down at her still not believing his luck. Max was so beautiful and she loved him. He ran his fingers gently through her hair. It was moments like this that he was glad that he was alive. He had an overwhelming wish to stay there forever in the perfect moment. Well… the semi perfect moment. There was the slight distraction of his stomach telling him it was time for breakfast but other than that… Besides, he could withstand a little hunger. He was a Manticore soldier and could go for weeks without food. He stared down at Max again entranced. The smell of bacon and eggs began to drift up the stairs from the dinning room. To Alec's extra sensitive nose the aroma seemed to swirl and spin around him enticing him with promises of flavour sensations. It tortured his empty belly and made his mouth water. Maybe Max would like breakfast in bed. He reasoned as he eagerly but reluctantly slid out of Max's embrace. He picked his boxers off the floor where they had been discarded and pulled them on. Not bothering with other clothing Alec grabbed the key and headed down the stairs to breakfast.
Logan heard a door opening in the hall behind him. He glanced back, eyes opening in terror as he realised what door it was. *He couldn't be caught! Not now! What if his speeding ticket never got paid? He could have a criminal record! That would make Mr. Eyes Only himself no better than the people he exposed. He wasn't going to let that happen! Just like he wasn't going to let Alec destroy technology or steal his girl. * Logan reached out and tried the nearest door handle. It was locked. He hurried on and tried the next one. It too was locked. He could hear the door down the hall opening wider. He sprinted the few steps to the end of the hall and turned the corner. He pushed the elevator button desperately. He could hear footsteps walking steadily down the hall coming closer and closer. Logan looked around like a cornered cat. He spotted the janitors closet and prayed silently that it was open as he turned the knob. Nothing. He turned it again frantic now. The handle turned and Logan yanked the door open and jumped inside. He pushed the door shut without so much as a glance down the hall.
The room was dark and filled with strong chemical odours. Logan reached upwards and turned on the single light bulb hanging from the ceiling. Then he sat back and waited. He was going to be very sure that Alec and Max were long gone before he came out.
All conversation in the dining room stopped as Alec entered. The women gawked openly at the scantily clad man whose hair was ruffled sexily from bed. The men glared jealous of his trim physique. Alec didn't appear to notice the attention he was attracting as he got a plate and stood in the buffet line up. Alec may not have appeared to notice the attention but his senses were on full alert. His eyes flicked rapidly around the room assessing dangers and possible threats. *Damn the Manticore training * he thought. * He couldn't even enter a room without filtering conversations and calculating postures to determine each person's motives. * He noticed several women staring intently at him and realising his exposed condition casually ran a hand through his hair so it covered his bare barcode. There was almost an audible sigh from the women in the room as he did so. It amused Alec. He knew that he could have any women in the room but he also knew that he was no longer interested and never would be. Now that he had Max he had everything he wanted…except breakfast. He picked up a plate and joined the buffet line. His goal now was to get as much food as fast as possible so he could go back to Max and not leave the room until Monday morning. Alec quickly piled his plate high with food and left the dining room but not before several women had shoved napkins with their phone numbers into the waistband of his boxers.
Logan looked at his watch. 15 minutes. Alec and Max should be long gone by now. They probably wanted to get an early start. Logan opened the door only to see Alec walking out of the elevator in his boxers with a huge plate of food. Logan slammed the door shut again and twisted the lock violently. Logan sat with his back against the door waiting for Alec to punch through it and grab him by the neck. Nothing happened. *He's toying with me. * Logan thought. *He wants me to think I'm safe and come out in the open. But I'm not that stupid I won't do it. * He thought smugly to himself.
Unbeknownst to Logan Alec had been so intent on getting back to Max that he hadn't even noticed the janitors closet door opening and closing. He had returned to his room where he discovered Max just waking up. He smiled as the disappointment he saw in her face when she realised he wasn't in bed with her changed to a grin when she saw him standing in the door with a plate of food. She motioned him forwardly seductively and he complied.
Logan was getting bored. He had been sitting in the closet for an hour. He had even begun to read the labels on the bottles of chemicals. Actually he'd read through them all…twice. He pulled the beeper out of his pocket and considered it while twirling it in his hand. *How much trouble has been caused by such an insignificant bauble. * He thought. *And it will cause more. * He realised. *Unless somehow he destroyed it. It had to be possible. There had to be a way and if there was he would find it. * Logan got a hammer that was hanging on the wall and hammered at the beeper until his arm was too tired to raise. He dropped the hammer and examined the beeper. It didn't appear to have even a scratch. He reached over and grabbed a saw.
Logan worked for several hours using a variety of different tools. He was about to give up when he noticed that the casing seemed to be coming apart slightly in one corner. He grabbed a pair of pliers and pulled. With great difficulty he managed to pop the shell open exposing the guts of the machine. *Jackpot! * He thought as he went to work with some wire cutters. Logan cut like a madman. He wanted to destroy this abomination and the pain that it had caused. He wanted to hurt it until there was nothing left to hurt. Logan began to cackle. The pieces became smaller and smaller and Logan cackled louder and louder. When the last little bit of the beeper had been cut up as small as it would go Logan stopped and stared at the pile of beeper particles that were left on the floor in front of him. *He had massacred it. * He realised in shock. * He had become a murderer of innocent technology. He was becoming a lawless fiend. A cold-blooded killer. At this rate he would be kidnapping teenage girls to ship all over the world as prostitutes or owning an international drug ring by the ended of the month. He had to get rid of all the evidence. No one must ever know that Logan Cale was anything less than an upstanding citizen. Anything less than perfect. * Logan's raging mind kept running around in similar thought circles as he opened random bottles of chemical and dropped bits of beeper in hoping that they would become dissolved and corroded. * Now I have to get as far away as possible from anything that put me at the scene.* He thought to himself impressed with how he was handling the situation. He put everything back in its proper place and went to the door.
Preparing for the worst Logan held his breath as he turned the handle. Nothing happened. He tried again. The door didn't budge. *What if Alec had locked him in and was waiting for him to starve to death while he ate his greasy breakfast on the other side of the door? What if nobody found him? It was Sunday! Nobody worked on Sundays in small towns. He would be trapped for at least a day and would probably die forgotten in a closet. How the mighty have fallen. * He mused *And even if he was alive when they found him how could he explain being in the closet in the first place? Someone would get suspicious and it would become a crime scene. Then they would find it. They would find the dismembered body of the beeper and they would take him away. He would go to jail and have a big red X placed on his record forever. * Logan tried to hold back tears as he surveyed the room around him. *His fingerprints were all over the bottles, his DNA was everywhere and some of the body was clearly visible where it was sitting in clear plastic bottles. They say that when you commit a murder you make 50 mistakes. If you are a genius you can name 20 of them. Well I can name at least 30 but I already knew I was a genius. Maybe if I mix the chemicals up it will corrode faster…*
There was a knock on the door and Alec groaned.
"Max get the door."
"You get the door I can't move."
"And you think that I could move after that?"
"Well you shouldn't have brought up so much food then." Max said sternly.
"I was planning on eating it over several hours until you started the eating contest."
"Which I won." Max said jabbing Alec's protruding belly.
The knock came again.
"Urg…" Max said.
"We'll both get it."
"Nooooooo!" Max said as Alec lifted her up and carried her to the door. The knock came again stern sounding. Max reached for the door and flung it open. The two trangenics stared out into the empty hall. Then they heard the sound of a voice being cleared way down on the floor.
"Sumo!" Alec yelled and dropped Max to embrace the overweight squirrel. Sumo seemed unimpressed.
"We're so glad you're back!" Max said scratching his head. "Where's Logan? You didn't kill him did you?"
Sumo glared and handed her the note.
"He got a parking ticket too?" Alec fumed. " I told you that Cop was out to get me."
"Alec we have more important matters to attend to than the speeding ticket."
"Such as?" As said pouting.
"Whether or not we are going to go after Logan." Max said softly.
Alec looked her in the eyes.
"No." He said finally. "We have Sumo back that's all that's important."
Max nodded.
"We had better get back to Seattle we have a lot of loose ends to tie up like the Normal/Sandeman thing."
"Hey I'm not tying up Normal!" Alec said. "I've already done the gladiator suit thing and that was enough. I'm never doing that again!"
"Not even for me?" Max said coquettishly. Alec grabbed her and pulled her into a kiss.
"I'd do anything for you."
Behind them a forgotten Sumo grinned. It was time for him to go for a walk.
Logan poured the chemicals from the clear bottles into a white plastic bucket. He swirled the mixture around and noticed that the beeper bits were indeed corroding at a faster rate. A noxious green gas began to form in the little closet. Clouding up towards an unsuspecting Logan. He breathed it in and began to take deep wheezing breaths. His hands reached for the door knob frantically fumbling. They came in contact with the bolt that Logan had turned when he had entered the closet. Logan realised his mistake and turned the bolt as he began to black out. The door came open and Logan fell into the hall unconscious.
A/n I know I said that they were in a bed in breakfast but it ended up more like a hotel. Just think really big bed and breakfast.
Logan heard voices in the room next to him. Not just any voices familiar voices. One of the voices he would have once considered the sweetest sound in the world solely on the merit of its master. Without a doubt it was Max and Alec on the other side of that wall. Not only the voices matched but the bantering as well. Logan slumped to the floor. *They had caught up to him. Now there was no telling what they would do to him or what would happen when they got their hands on the beeper. Logan jumped up from the floor and began pacing frantically trying to think of a plan. Anything to stop or at least delay his almost certain fate. The beeper was clutched tightly in his sweaty palm as he desperately sought for a way to amend the situation. He knew there had to be a way.
Logan worried long past the time when the adjacent room fell silent. He was terrified of staying and terrified of leaving so he sat immobile. By the time the sun began to peek through the window he had made up his mind. He quickly got to his feet and paused listening. He heard silence in the transgenics room. *If he left now he could escape while they were distracted. They would never even know he had been there. * He grabbed his coat and scrawled a quick note to Sumo.
" Sumo, sorry for everything. You were a very good hostage but I had to skip town without you. I hope you can understand.
Sincerely, Logan
P.S. Could you please pay my speeding ticket? I will find a way to reimburse you at some point in the future."
Logan reread the note. Satisfied, he placed it on the dresser and stepped out into the hallway. Logan glanced both ways to make sure no one was in sight. He began to walk down the hall supremely happy that he had figured out the speeding ticket mess and technically wouldn't be breaking the law.
Alec was lying in a king-sized bed with his arms wrapped tightly around a naked sleeping Max. He stared down at her still not believing his luck. Max was so beautiful and she loved him. He ran his fingers gently through her hair. It was moments like this that he was glad that he was alive. He had an overwhelming wish to stay there forever in the perfect moment. Well… the semi perfect moment. There was the slight distraction of his stomach telling him it was time for breakfast but other than that… Besides, he could withstand a little hunger. He was a Manticore soldier and could go for weeks without food. He stared down at Max again entranced. The smell of bacon and eggs began to drift up the stairs from the dinning room. To Alec's extra sensitive nose the aroma seemed to swirl and spin around him enticing him with promises of flavour sensations. It tortured his empty belly and made his mouth water. Maybe Max would like breakfast in bed. He reasoned as he eagerly but reluctantly slid out of Max's embrace. He picked his boxers off the floor where they had been discarded and pulled them on. Not bothering with other clothing Alec grabbed the key and headed down the stairs to breakfast.
Logan heard a door opening in the hall behind him. He glanced back, eyes opening in terror as he realised what door it was. *He couldn't be caught! Not now! What if his speeding ticket never got paid? He could have a criminal record! That would make Mr. Eyes Only himself no better than the people he exposed. He wasn't going to let that happen! Just like he wasn't going to let Alec destroy technology or steal his girl. * Logan reached out and tried the nearest door handle. It was locked. He hurried on and tried the next one. It too was locked. He could hear the door down the hall opening wider. He sprinted the few steps to the end of the hall and turned the corner. He pushed the elevator button desperately. He could hear footsteps walking steadily down the hall coming closer and closer. Logan looked around like a cornered cat. He spotted the janitors closet and prayed silently that it was open as he turned the knob. Nothing. He turned it again frantic now. The handle turned and Logan yanked the door open and jumped inside. He pushed the door shut without so much as a glance down the hall.
The room was dark and filled with strong chemical odours. Logan reached upwards and turned on the single light bulb hanging from the ceiling. Then he sat back and waited. He was going to be very sure that Alec and Max were long gone before he came out.
All conversation in the dining room stopped as Alec entered. The women gawked openly at the scantily clad man whose hair was ruffled sexily from bed. The men glared jealous of his trim physique. Alec didn't appear to notice the attention he was attracting as he got a plate and stood in the buffet line up. Alec may not have appeared to notice the attention but his senses were on full alert. His eyes flicked rapidly around the room assessing dangers and possible threats. *Damn the Manticore training * he thought. * He couldn't even enter a room without filtering conversations and calculating postures to determine each person's motives. * He noticed several women staring intently at him and realising his exposed condition casually ran a hand through his hair so it covered his bare barcode. There was almost an audible sigh from the women in the room as he did so. It amused Alec. He knew that he could have any women in the room but he also knew that he was no longer interested and never would be. Now that he had Max he had everything he wanted…except breakfast. He picked up a plate and joined the buffet line. His goal now was to get as much food as fast as possible so he could go back to Max and not leave the room until Monday morning. Alec quickly piled his plate high with food and left the dining room but not before several women had shoved napkins with their phone numbers into the waistband of his boxers.
Logan looked at his watch. 15 minutes. Alec and Max should be long gone by now. They probably wanted to get an early start. Logan opened the door only to see Alec walking out of the elevator in his boxers with a huge plate of food. Logan slammed the door shut again and twisted the lock violently. Logan sat with his back against the door waiting for Alec to punch through it and grab him by the neck. Nothing happened. *He's toying with me. * Logan thought. *He wants me to think I'm safe and come out in the open. But I'm not that stupid I won't do it. * He thought smugly to himself.
Unbeknownst to Logan Alec had been so intent on getting back to Max that he hadn't even noticed the janitors closet door opening and closing. He had returned to his room where he discovered Max just waking up. He smiled as the disappointment he saw in her face when she realised he wasn't in bed with her changed to a grin when she saw him standing in the door with a plate of food. She motioned him forwardly seductively and he complied.
Logan was getting bored. He had been sitting in the closet for an hour. He had even begun to read the labels on the bottles of chemicals. Actually he'd read through them all…twice. He pulled the beeper out of his pocket and considered it while twirling it in his hand. *How much trouble has been caused by such an insignificant bauble. * He thought. *And it will cause more. * He realised. *Unless somehow he destroyed it. It had to be possible. There had to be a way and if there was he would find it. * Logan got a hammer that was hanging on the wall and hammered at the beeper until his arm was too tired to raise. He dropped the hammer and examined the beeper. It didn't appear to have even a scratch. He reached over and grabbed a saw.
Logan worked for several hours using a variety of different tools. He was about to give up when he noticed that the casing seemed to be coming apart slightly in one corner. He grabbed a pair of pliers and pulled. With great difficulty he managed to pop the shell open exposing the guts of the machine. *Jackpot! * He thought as he went to work with some wire cutters. Logan cut like a madman. He wanted to destroy this abomination and the pain that it had caused. He wanted to hurt it until there was nothing left to hurt. Logan began to cackle. The pieces became smaller and smaller and Logan cackled louder and louder. When the last little bit of the beeper had been cut up as small as it would go Logan stopped and stared at the pile of beeper particles that were left on the floor in front of him. *He had massacred it. * He realised in shock. * He had become a murderer of innocent technology. He was becoming a lawless fiend. A cold-blooded killer. At this rate he would be kidnapping teenage girls to ship all over the world as prostitutes or owning an international drug ring by the ended of the month. He had to get rid of all the evidence. No one must ever know that Logan Cale was anything less than an upstanding citizen. Anything less than perfect. * Logan's raging mind kept running around in similar thought circles as he opened random bottles of chemical and dropped bits of beeper in hoping that they would become dissolved and corroded. * Now I have to get as far away as possible from anything that put me at the scene.* He thought to himself impressed with how he was handling the situation. He put everything back in its proper place and went to the door.
Preparing for the worst Logan held his breath as he turned the handle. Nothing happened. He tried again. The door didn't budge. *What if Alec had locked him in and was waiting for him to starve to death while he ate his greasy breakfast on the other side of the door? What if nobody found him? It was Sunday! Nobody worked on Sundays in small towns. He would be trapped for at least a day and would probably die forgotten in a closet. How the mighty have fallen. * He mused *And even if he was alive when they found him how could he explain being in the closet in the first place? Someone would get suspicious and it would become a crime scene. Then they would find it. They would find the dismembered body of the beeper and they would take him away. He would go to jail and have a big red X placed on his record forever. * Logan tried to hold back tears as he surveyed the room around him. *His fingerprints were all over the bottles, his DNA was everywhere and some of the body was clearly visible where it was sitting in clear plastic bottles. They say that when you commit a murder you make 50 mistakes. If you are a genius you can name 20 of them. Well I can name at least 30 but I already knew I was a genius. Maybe if I mix the chemicals up it will corrode faster…*
There was a knock on the door and Alec groaned.
"Max get the door."
"You get the door I can't move."
"And you think that I could move after that?"
"Well you shouldn't have brought up so much food then." Max said sternly.
"I was planning on eating it over several hours until you started the eating contest."
"Which I won." Max said jabbing Alec's protruding belly.
The knock came again.
"Urg…" Max said.
"We'll both get it."
"Nooooooo!" Max said as Alec lifted her up and carried her to the door. The knock came again stern sounding. Max reached for the door and flung it open. The two trangenics stared out into the empty hall. Then they heard the sound of a voice being cleared way down on the floor.
"Sumo!" Alec yelled and dropped Max to embrace the overweight squirrel. Sumo seemed unimpressed.
"We're so glad you're back!" Max said scratching his head. "Where's Logan? You didn't kill him did you?"
Sumo glared and handed her the note.
"He got a parking ticket too?" Alec fumed. " I told you that Cop was out to get me."
"Alec we have more important matters to attend to than the speeding ticket."
"Such as?" As said pouting.
"Whether or not we are going to go after Logan." Max said softly.
Alec looked her in the eyes.
"No." He said finally. "We have Sumo back that's all that's important."
Max nodded.
"We had better get back to Seattle we have a lot of loose ends to tie up like the Normal/Sandeman thing."
"Hey I'm not tying up Normal!" Alec said. "I've already done the gladiator suit thing and that was enough. I'm never doing that again!"
"Not even for me?" Max said coquettishly. Alec grabbed her and pulled her into a kiss.
"I'd do anything for you."
Behind them a forgotten Sumo grinned. It was time for him to go for a walk.
Logan poured the chemicals from the clear bottles into a white plastic bucket. He swirled the mixture around and noticed that the beeper bits were indeed corroding at a faster rate. A noxious green gas began to form in the little closet. Clouding up towards an unsuspecting Logan. He breathed it in and began to take deep wheezing breaths. His hands reached for the door knob frantically fumbling. They came in contact with the bolt that Logan had turned when he had entered the closet. Logan realised his mistake and turned the bolt as he began to black out. The door came open and Logan fell into the hall unconscious.