Reaching for the Moon by ThePekingNoodle
AN: Sorry this chapter is kind of serious but I couldn't get around it. Don't worry more fun and games are on the way. TPN.
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Chapter 29: A time to laugh and a time to cry
Some serious issues for our hero and heroine to deal with…
It was a good two hours before Max and Logan were finally alone and faced with the prospect of talking to each other about the night's events. Before doing anything else, Logan had called a contact he had on the Seattle Police Department to come over and take charge of the two thugs. He had arrived with two police officers within twenty minutes and quickly took charge of the situation.
Detective Matt Sung had listened calmly to Logan's story about Ratburn's two attempts to kill him because Ratburn suspected that Logan had seen something he shouldn't have. He appeared to take it all in stride and at face value. When Logan assured him that he had a feeling that the two prisoners would be happy to talk and implicate their boss within the next twenty-four hours, Sung simply lifted an eyebrow.
"Our friend working this one?" He asked.
"Yeah, I believe he is. I think these two are going to be ready to save their own hides very, very soon. Think you can hold them on a simple breaking and entering charge for about twelve hours?"
Sung smiled, "I can do that." He snapped closed the pad where he had jotted notes, and reached out to shake Logan's hand, before heading out after the two officers he had brought, who had already left with the two prisoners. Max sat quietly the entire time, content to let Logan handle this aspect of things. Logan had briefly introduced her to Sung but after a polite inquiry into her well being he had concentrated his attention on Logan.
The door closed behind Sung with a soft click. Max's hearing picked up the opening and then closing of the elevator doors. Only then did she turn to Logan. "Twelve hours? What exactly is going to happen in twelve hours that's going to make those two willing to turn on their boss?"
Logan regarded her calmly and then shrugged. "Eyes Only will broadcast a hack implicating Ratburn in the embezzlement scheme and the police department will receive the documentation. They'll be happy to cooperate in order to save their own asses."
"You mean the video I saw before, and the file that you slipped to Detective Sung when you thought I wasn't looking?" Max challenged him.
Logan smiled at her. "Can't get anything past you, can I?"
"So you're Eyes Only," she mused. "Did you know that you were a legend even in my girls school back east? The cyber terrorist who eluded everyone in authority? "
"I prefer to think of myself as a crusader for truth and justice in this screwed up world."
"Did my father know about Eyes Only? Is that why he thought you could protect me?"
Logan looked at her and answered slowly, "I think he knew. At least, he made a comment in his last letter to me that makes me think he did. We never discussed it. As for protecting you, he asked me to promise I'd do that years ago. Before Eyes Only came to be."
"Guess I don't have to ask anymore about what you were doing in Ratburn's study, and why you have the software you do. Good to know I'm not married to an amateur porno videographer."
"A what?!" Logan looked outraged at the idea and Max giggled.
"I was trying to guess why you had all that sophisticated movie making equipment and the hidden file system on your computers. I figured it had to be something less than legal." Logan continued to stare at her and she added quickly, "I didn't really believe the porno part, Logan. But Eyes Only slipped past me."
"So now you know. That makes three."
"Three?"
"In the know. You and me and Bling."
"Not Detective Sung?"
"He thinks I'm just a member of the Eyes Only Informant Net like he is."
There didn't seem to be much more to say about it for the moment, and Max was silent as she digested the implications. He watched her for a moment and then broke into her thoughts.
"Your turn."
Max looked at him and he saw a flash of alarm in her eyes.
"It's okay." He hastened to reassure her. "I'm on your side. You can tell me, Max. I know you were adopted by Nathan and Annette, he told me the story the first time I came to visit your home. That was the first time he asked me to promise to protect you if something should ever happen to him."
Max still looked at him, clearly not sure of how much she wanted to reveal. Logan walked over and gently lifted her hair off of her neck and traced her barcode.
"This is part of it isn't it? What does it mean, Max?"
She turned from him to look out the window. Her voice was bitter as she replied. "It means I was made. In a lab. I'm not real, not human. I'm a freak, a made up creature. A product of some obsessed scientists thinking they could play god."
Logan looked at her as something suddenly clicked in his mind. "Project Manticore," he said almost to himself.
Max stiffened and swiftly turned to look at him. The look in her eyes sent a shiver down his spine. It was a look of pain and darkness, a look that didn't belong in the eyes of the young woman Max ostensibly was. "How do you know that name?" Her voice was harsh as she demanded an answer. Logan noticed her fists clenched at her sides and a look of wariness in her eyes.
He reached out a hand to take one of hers. "About three years ago I got a report from a lab tech who had worked on a covert genetics project. It was called Project Manticore. They were experimenting with recombinant DNA techniques, mixing animal and human DNA in an attempt to create the perfect human. He didn't like what was going on and wanted out. Before I could help him he vanished. Before he did, he told me that they had succeeded to an extent. He also told me that in 2009 about a dozen of the kids they made had escaped."
Max continued to stare at him, neither confirming nor denying his words.
"You were one of them, Max, weren't you? It was no foster family you ran away from. It was Project Manticore. Is that barcode a tattoo they gave you to identify you?"
She laughed but it wasn't a pleasant laugh. "I wish. About two years after they found me my parents tried to have it removed. It came back in three weeks. It's permanently etched into my gene code. Their ownership brand so to speak. Run a scanner over it and maybe my price would come up on it. I'm not a person, Logan. I'm a thing. That barcode is the reminder of that every day."
Logan felt a pang at her words. Since he had picked her up at the cabin, the physical attraction that simmered between them had distracted him and colored all of his thoughts of her. Suddenly he saw behind the mask of the spoiled, society girl to the pain she hid underneath. A pain similar to his own.
He tugged on the hand he still held in his and pulled her with him to sit on the couch. When they were seated, he dropped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a light hug.
"You're every bit as much a person as me or anyone. More of one than those two goons or their boss are."
Max shrugged within the circle of his arm, "Maybe."
Logan sighed. "Did your parents know about Manticore?"
"No. I never told them. They thought I was abused and traumatized after what I had been through and didn't remember things. They believed I was an orphan who had been subjected to illegal medical research, and I never wanted them to know more." She paused and there was a catch in her voice, "I thought they'd be safe if they didn't know. Instead they got killed. Maybe if I told them they could have protected themselves. It's my fault they didn't."
"Max, I think Nathan knew. He suspected there was more to your story five years ago. And he alluded to some information he was sending to me in his last letter. He knew that dangerous people were after him. There's nothing more you could have done."
"I could have been there with them. Maybe I could have stopped it."
"I don't know exactly what your abilities are but I doubt even you could have prevented a tampered with plane from crashing."
"Was it tampered with, Logan?" she demanded.
He nodded slowly. "That's what my preliminary investigations indicate."
There was a silence but this time it was more companionable. Max seemed more relaxed than she had earlier. There was still a wariness, but Logan didn't think she was going to jump up and run.
"So anyway what is in your DNA? Other than such items as beauty and grace and definitely brains," he teased, trying to lighten the mood. There would be time for more serious talk later.
Max slanted him a look, "Feline for sure, maybe some eagle for vision, and I don't know what else."
Logan laughed. "Nathan did know. He left us both a message."
Max just looked at him.
"Your alias. Maxine Felina."
Max had an arrested look in her eyes and then she smiled. "Yeah, I guess he did after all."
Their eyes met as they both thought about Nathan Guevara. The look stretched out, and Max was suddenly aware of Logan's arm resting around her shoulders. She could hear the strong beat of his pulse just inches from her. Logan for his part noticed the soft fragrance of her hair, and the warmth of her body where it pressed lightly against his.
Neither said a word as he slowly lowered his head to hers and their lips met in a gentle kiss. His lips were warm and soft where they pressed against hers, gently tasting and exploring the contours of her mouth. Max sighed and relaxed against him as he deepened the kiss. There was none of the urgent passion that had colored their previous kisses. This one was almost searching, yearning, as they began to open up to each other in a way neither one had ever done before.
Logan had just reached out his arms to pull Max closer against him when the phone began to shrill. He sighed and pulled back from her. "I need to get that. It might be Matt. Or an informant."
Max nodded and watched as he strode to the computer room. Her hand went to her lips tracing the path his lips had just taken over them. Logan was busy on the phone, and she watched him for a few minutes. Then she made a decision. She rose from the couch and retreated to her room, locking her door behind her. She needed to think.
When Logan hung up the phone he wasn't surprised to see Max gone. He looked in the direction of her room but then turned to his own. He needed to do some thinking.
End of Chapter Twenty-Nine…TBC…
