Reaching for The Moon by ThePekingNoodle
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Chapter Fifty-Eight: Hide and Go Seek
In which our hero and heroine play several games of hide and go seek…
Logan and Max took their time over lunch, as each one enjoyed the simple pleasure of the other's company. The atmosphere was more relaxed than it had been since before Max's heat. Somehow it seemed that despite all the recent turmoil, they had passed some kind of a watershed in their relationship.
Max finished her food and sat back with a satisfied smile on her face Logan couldn't resist and reached over with his napkin to wipe her chin.
"You had a spot of sauce, right there." He explained as she raised her brows at him.
Max wasn't convinced, but she decided it wasn't worth arguing over. She was enjoying this Logan too much. Just then, the light sparkled off of the diamond that Logan had given to her, and she glanced down at her hand. "Oh." She said quietly.
"Oh what?" Logan asked.
Max started to pull the rings off of her finger. "I guess you need these back, now that we successfully got past your aunt."
Logan reached out and stopped her with a hand over hers. She noticed that he still wore the wedding band he had had her slip onto his finger for the weekend. "Leave them on." His words were casual, but the look in his eyes sent a shiver through Max. They stared at each other for a moment. "There's no rush. We still need to keep up appearances," he quickly covered.
Smooth Logan. What is wrong with you when it comes to Max? You seem to forget every move you ever had…
"Right. Appearances." Max said slowly.
That look in his eyes says it's more than appearances.
No, Max. Don't project your own wishes onto him. This is a charade. Remember that and you won't get hurt.
"So anyway, guess we better get back to researching our friend, the Colonel. You up for more?" Logan was asking her.
"Sure. Lead on."
When they reached the computer room Logan let out a curse.
"What, Logan?"
"Remember that flicker of the lights while we were eating? "
"Yes."
"One of our lovely brownouts. Not enough to cut out all the power, but look." He indicated his system. "It froze the system. I need to reboot. Pain in the ass." He was busy flipping switches as he spoke. Within seconds the hum of equipment powering down and then back up could be heard.
The screen came back to life and Logan swiftly brought it back to where it had been. With one tiny difference. There was no longer an alert icon flashing on the screen.
"Okay, lets get back to this."
"You said you were going to make Lydecker not want the technology? How?"
Logan smiled. "Piece of cake. I'm going to change the records. Add some new experimental data to indicate that the chip really does nothing at all. The prior results will turn out to have been an anomaly in the test data."
"Don't you need to let your project leader know what you're doing?"
"Absolutely. And I'm going to move the original records off of the Millenium server onto a secure one that I have available. Only he and I will have access."
"Are you sure you can trust him?"
Logan stared at Max. "Absolutely. This thing is personal to him. I told you about his son. He wouldn't compromise it for anything."
"You said that this information isn't publicly available. How did Lydecker find out about it to start with, unless he has an insider at Millenium?" Max persisted.
"Industrial espionage." Logan said slowly.
"One of the things the X5s were designed and trained for." Max mused out loud.
"You think…?"
"There may be an X5 at Millenium? I wouldn't rule it out."
Several Hours Later
Logan straightened from his computers and stretched. Max had grown tired of watching him manipulate files and data, and had wandered off to amuse herself a while earlier. Logan stood and wandered out of his computer room wondering what she had found to do. She wasn't in the common areas of the apartment and she wasn't in his bedroom, so he wandered down the hall to the guestroom.
"Max?" Logan stood in the doorway of the guestroom.
Max was engaged in the time honored feminine pursuit of inventorying her wardrobe. Except that her wardrobe wasn't exactly conventional in nature. Spread on the bed was a black catsuit, several pairs of leather gloves, a black quilted vest with interior pockets, a black backpack, and various pieces of tools and gear. Logan saw a set of what looked like lock picking tools as well as several skeins of rope and climbing clips.
"Nice outfits. Planning on some breaking and entering by any chance?" He asked with raised eyebrows.
Max looked up and smiled. "Never hurts to be prepared for anything. Never know what a girl's gonna need to do. I wouldn't want to be caught without the right outfit for the occasion."
Logan looked around the room, his thoughts momentarily distracted. "You know this room is in serious need of a paint job. I'll get the painters in tomorrow to get it done."
"Logan, I don't exactly feel like sleeping with paint fumes." Max protested.
"Guess you'll have to move into my room then. Temporarily of course," he said blandly. Max just looked at him and he returned her look with one of complete innocence. "What? You can't sleep in this room the way it is. It offends my esthetic sensibilities."
"Heaven forbid that Logan Cale's sense of esthetics is offended."
"Exactly. You might as well move in tonight. The painters will be here early. That way you won't have to worry about them disturbing you in the morning."
"You just said you hadn't called them yet."
"Did I say that? You must have misunderstood. Need a hand with anything? Moving it I mean."
"I think I can manage. Did you finish the files?" Max switched subjects, not sure what she thought about the whole idea of moving into Logan's bedroom, and wanting to think a while on it.
"All done and I talked to Professor Higgins. He knows where the real files are, and he's good with the false ones I planted. Now we just have to figure out how to ferret out our mole. A task for tomorrow."
As Max was about to answer,the phone shrilled in the other room. Logan turned to go and answer it. He was back in less than five minutes. "Guess who that was?"
"Never tell me, Colonel Lydecker."
"He wants us to have dinner with him two nights from now."
"And you said?"
"Yes, of course."
End of Chapter Fifty-Eight…TBC…
