Smoke & Mirrors by Star24
Disclaimer: Dark Angel and its characters are property of Twentieth Century Fox and James Cameron and Charles Eglee. This original story is property and copyright 2003 Star24.
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Fogle Towers – two days later, early morning
Logan's phone was shrilling insistently when he rolled out of his bathroom, obviously just out of the shower. His hair was wet and a towel was slung around his neck. Droplets of water gleamed on his chest where he hadn't yet had time to dry off.
"Alright already, I'm coming," he muttered in annoyance as he wheeled himself rapidly over to the phone.
"Hello?" he answered briefly. He listened a moment and then his tone changed. "Syl. I've been trying to get in touch with you. I've got some news I know you'll be happy to hear."
He waited again. "No, I don't want to talk about it over the phone. How fast can you get to Seattle?"
A smile crossed his face, "That's great. Okay listen, I can meet you in about half an hour. Same place we used last time."
Logan hung up the phone and headed over to his closet, clearly not wanting to waste any time.
Street outside Fogle Towers
Max stood motionless in the shadows of a deep doorway opposite the parking garage exit from Fogle Towers. She had received a page from the garage attendant twenty minutes earlier, letting her know that Logan had ordered his car. She smiled at the thought that a sexy smile and an implied promise of much more, had gained her such quick results.
The honk of a car horn, warning pedestrians on the sidewalk to move clear of the garage entrance, recalled her attention to the garage. Within seconds a beat up, dark blue Aztek came into view. It stopped and then pulled left onto the street. Max focused in to be sure it was Logan driving, and smiled in satisfaction as she confirmed that it was. As soon as the car reached the end of the block and turned down the side street, moving out of sight, she was out of her hiding place and across the street.
Within minutes she had made her way down the garage ramp and past the attendant who was seated in a small cramped office watching television. Reaching the elevator bank she punched in the access code and entered the empty car that opened up for her. The doors closed silently behind her and the car began a smooth ascent to the Penthouse.
"I'm on my way in. Subject has left the apartment and I should have free access to the computers. Is the other setup ready yet?" she whispered into her comm unit. Smiling at the answer she received, she leaned back against the wall of the elevator car and watched as the floor numbers climbed steadily higher on the display above the doors.
Abandoned Warehouse, Seattle
Logan pulled the Aztek into the dilapidated warehouse in a section near the abandoned docks. Judging by the names still visible on the building exteriors, the area had once been home to many international shipping concerns. Now it was deserted, except for a few gulls and some four legged scavengers rooting through the debris that cluttered the streets.
The warehouse seemed empty, but Logan reached over and pulled his gun from the glove compartment. He checked to be sure it was loaded, and then unlocked his car doors and cautiously climbed out. It was eerily quiet. He steeled himself and walked toward a raised platform. There was a table set in the middle of it, with a few battered chairs clustered around it. He climbed the few steps up to the platform and stood there, looking down at the battered table top.
Max stands outside of a black SUV next to Donald Lydecker. Logan is standing with Zack, Syl and Krit looking at her, thrilled to have her back but then he feels a chill of fear at her next words
"Always on the run, constantly looking over your shoulder. You said it yourself. They'll never stop looking for us. They'll hunt us down one by one until we're either dead or in a cage. It's time to bring this war home."
"Maybe you're right. But what about him?" Syl answers, looking at Lydecker.
Zack intervenes, hostility clear in his voice and stance, "And you expect us to believe he's had an epiphany because of what happened to Tinga?"
Max replies calmly, refusing to back down. "Maybe. Or one of his bosses wants him dead in a big way."
Now it's Krit's turn to interject, "Take a number."
"Either way he's going to help us." Max isn't giving an inch.
Logan has never seen Max so determined and he tries to make her see some sense, "Or double-cross you. Again." Reminding her of the incident with Brin.
"I don't expect you to trust me, but remember what I taught you. The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Lydecker finally speaks for himself…
"Hard place to come back to, huh Logan?"Logan started at the voice behind him, and turned to see Syl standing at the bottom of the steps.
"You should be more careful. I could have been Manticore, come to take you out." Her tone was chiding yet gentle. Logan had gotten to know Syl in the months after the Manticore raid when she had taken to dropping in to see him from time to time, 'checking up on her sister's squeeze' in her words. He fed her when she came by and they developed a casual friendship, nothing like what he had shared with Max, but comforting in its own way.
Syl climbed the steps to the platform and Logan stepped over to her and gave her a hug. "It's good to see you. Lucky that you were in town when I called."
"No luck about it. I got your message the other night and it sounded like something that needed some personal attention." Syl studied Logan closely. "You're looking…better."
Logan smiled at her. "That's because I am better. She's back."
"Who's back?" Syl was confused. "Your message was kind of unclear on that point. What's going down, Logan?"
"Max. She's back. She didn't die. They transplanted her heart…" Logan stopped suddenly, remembering exactly whose heart Max now had. "Damn."
"What, Logan?"
"I'm sorry. I've just been so happy to have Max back that I forgot."
"Logan, you're not making a whole lot of sense here. Sit down and start at the beginning."
Logan dropped into one of the chairs and Syl perched on the railing, waiting for him to go on.
"When we left her in the woods, they picked her up and brought her back into the facility." Logan paused, thinking about how to continue.
Syl nodded, unsurprised. "I figured they'd do as much. I'm positive Lydecker did too. That's why he left her. So they had organ banks there? Good thing for Max they had an X5 heart available."
"The thing is they didn't have one. Not in the organ banks."
Syl was staring at him intensely now, "Go on."
"They brought Zack in as well. He was injured but not seriously. He was there when they decided to harvest Max's organs. He shot himself in the head so they would take his heart for Max." Logan stopped and waited for Syl to take in the story. She was silent, face impassive.
Finally she sighed, "Leave it to Zack. Sometimes I think that underneath all that die-hard military attitude he had the softest heart of us all."
The two were quiet for a moment and then Syl shook it off, and looked at Logan with curiosity. "So what's the problem? Max obviously got out and came home. Why the secret meeting with me?"
"I'm not sure. Something doesn't feel right to me."
Syl cut straight to the heart of Logan's unease. "You think she's been re-indoctrinated? Then why would she be out here and not back there with Brin?"
"I don't know. I do know that she doesn't remember me. At least she doesn't seem to."
"Not at all?"
"Not as anything more than a casual friend."
"Logan, you know about the Manticore memory techniques don't you? She probably made herself forget about Eyes Only and other things in order to protect you. Thing is there are degrees of forgetting, and each person uses the techniques in their own way. They're an art not a science." Syl's voice was gentle.
"I know a little bit about them, and it's pretty obvious that she used them. But there's more to it that just that. I can't quite put my finger on it, but somehow she doesn't seem right. For one thing, neither Original Cindy or I can get the details out of her of how exactly she escaped from Manticore. She just keeps saying she doesn't want to talk about it."
Syl cut to the heart of the matter, "What do you want me to do?"
"When I called you a couple of days ago I was hoping you could tell me how to help her remember me. Now I'm not sure." Logan looked at her, clearly at a loss.
"Here's the deal then." Syl's brow was furrowed as she thought. "I'll try to come up with some ideas on how to break through to her. At the same time I'm going to stay close by and keep surveillance on your place, especially when she's around."
"My place?" Logan looked at her in surprise.
"Logan, did you ever think that if Max has been re-indoctrinated you might be the target? Eyes Only has been hot and heavy on the trail of Manticore the last few months. I'm surprised they haven't come after him already." Syl looked at him with sympathy in her eyes.
"You think Max is here to…kill me?" Logan looked at her grimly. "Then why hasn't she done it already?"
"I said Eyes Only, not Logan Cale. If Max made herself forget that you're Eyes Only, you'd be safe unless she figured it out. When and if she does find it out, it's going to be a test of whether the conditioning they've given her can win out over her feelings for you. That's why I'm going to stick close to you until we find out exactly what's going down with her."
Logan was silent.
Syl reached out and took Logan's hand. "Logan it'll come right. Max cares too much about you to let Manticore win. It'll be tricky, but I gotta believe we can get her back." She paused, "They've already gotten three of my brothers and sisters. They can't have Max as well."
Logan nodded grimly. "Thanks…sis." He squeezed her hand gently.
Syl smiled at him. "Lets get to work. There's a lot you need to know."
End of Chapter Eight
