Breakdown 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.
Safe House somewhere in Seattle 10:00 AM
The mattress Logan was lying on was lumpy and uncomfortable. Dust rose from it every time he shifted even slightly. The exo lay discarded in a corner of the room out of his reach. Max had shoved it there after they arrived and she had roughly stripped it off of him. The only furniture in the room, besides the bed he was lying on, was a battered chest of drawers and a rickety table. There was a window but it appeared to be boarded up from the outside. Cracks between the boards let in what little light there was. The walls of the room were cracked and stained, the plaster broken in places to show the studs behind.It seemed that he had been here for days, even though he knew in reality it had only been a few hours.
Max had returned a short time before, waking him from his restless sleep. She hadn't said anything, but had proceeded to start pacing back and forth across the small room. She seemed agitated and unsure of how to proceed next. Logan had never seen her act quite like this before and he didn't like it at all.
Logan watched as she continued to pace restlessly across the dingy room. "You know, I'm pretty damn helpless without the exo, and my wrists are going numb. Do you think you might see your way to untying them?" he asked mildly.
Max glanced around the room to see if there was anything dangerous within Logan's reach. She shrugged, and then walked over and snapped the rope as if it was a piece of flimsy string, freeing his hands.
"Thanks." Logan shook out his hands, massaging his wrists where red marks evidenced the rope cutting into them. "It's bad enough that I can't use my legs. I don't need to lose my hands as well."
"Do you honestly think you're going to have much time left to use them anyway? Your hacking days are over, Eyes Only." Max's voice was scornful.
Logan didn't bother to try to deny who he was. "You know that I'm not going to give you the codes for the Informant Net." He smiled calmly at her, refusing to be rattled by her words.
"Maybe it's not me you have to worry about getting them from you. The others who want them won't be as gentle as me." Max sneered at him. Logan noticed a sheen of sweat on her forehead and a slight flush to her cheeks.
"Answer this question for me then, Max. Why are we here? Why didn't you send out the word last night and bring your people down on my place? They could have taken me and my entire system back to Manticore to work on at their leisure. Plus, they would have recaptured another rogue X5, as a bonus."
Max seemed to hesitate before she snapped off the answer. "This is my mission and I'm going to complete it, that's why. Renegade X5's aren't the mission. She's irrelevant. We'll pick her up sooner or later." She stopped pacing and ran a hand across her brow.
"Are you okay?" Logan looked at her in concern.
"I'm fine. You should be more worried about your own health." Max unzipped her vest and pulled it off, leaving her clad only in a one piece black cat suit. She pulled the zipper of that down a few inches as well, revealing a glimpse of skin that seemed to be covered in a light sweat. "Damn, it's hot in this rat hole."
"So when do we start with the interrogation? Are we waiting for reinforcements with the cattle prods and whips to arrive?"
"Shut up. We start with the questioning when I'm ready to start. Until then just keep your mouth shut." Max seemed to be on edge, almost out of control, and Logan continued to study her, thinking hard as he waited for her next move.
Fogle Towers
"Damn it, Krit, I need to talk to Deck now. Not tomorrow, not next week, now. We have a serious situation here" Syl listened for a moment, "Well, do your best. I know he's a slippery bastard but right now he's all we've got. I hacked into the Manticore Psyops files using Logan's programs, and found out what they've done to Max. They used experimental drugs on her and the dosages were off the scale. If she makes it through the drug withdrawal that's about to set in, we'll need to use the right deprogramming techniques on her or we could risk destroying her mentally. Manticore won't have her, but neither will we – she could end up a mental basket case."
Syl closed her phone with a snap, and turned to where Bling sat watching her. Frustration was etched clearly on her face. "Have you had any luck with the safe houses?"
"I think there's a chance she might be at one of these two." He pointed to two flashing locations on the onscreen map. "For some reason Logan never abandoned them, and I'm pretty sure she used them for him last year for a couple of his missions. You know she might have gone somewhere completely different than one of his houses."
"I know but it's the only lead we have right now. Is there any way of finding out if there's been any suspicious activity at either one of them?"
"Let me get on the net and see if I can scare up some information."
"Thanks, Bling. You know, Logan's lucky to have a friend like you."
"I'm the lucky one. Logan's the kind of guy that you don't see too often in this screwed up world. Maybe if we had more like him, it wouldn't be so screwed up. And Max…well she's something special herself. If I can help it, I ain't gonna let Manticore take either of 'em down."
Syl's voice was grim as she responded to him. "We'll get 'em back, Bling. Manticore isn't going to get Logan, and it's not going to get another one of my sisters. Not this time."
She turned away and began to pace restlessly. Bling watched her for a minute and then went back to his computer work.
End of Chapter Two