Chapter 5: Capture
Logan and the others stared in shock. That was the last person that they had expected under the mask. Although it was Max, she was different. Her hair was now long and straight and slightly thinner. But that wasn't what got to Logan. It was her face. Her eyes, her face expression. She had a blank expression on her face. No one knew what to say. At first Logan was so overwhelmed with shock, then happiness, then suspicion. Why had it taken so long for Max to come back? Actually, she hadn't really come back voluntarily. Someone had ordered her to come back. But why? Logan couldn't think of that now. Syl blurted out the question,
"Max, what happened to you?"
Max merely answered, "I am a soldier. I do not answer to traitors." There was no expression in her face. It was like she was a robot. She wasn't answering with expression.
Krit said then, "They did this in Manticore."
Logan asked, "what?"
"She has been brain washed. She doesn't remember us. Either they made her forget, or she made herself forget us."
It felt as if a bullet had gone through all three of their hearts. Max had forgotten everyone? Logan, Cindy, Herbal, Sketch, dare I mention Normal? She had forgotten her life. But how could that be? What was filled in those blank years? Had she forgotten the escape? Many more of these questions flowed through Logan's mind. Logan said,
"Come on, we need to get her someplace safe."
Syl and Krit both looked at Logan and said, "any ideas?"
Logan answered, "well there are only two places that I can think of that could hold her. She could stay at my place or one of my friends. He's in a wheel chair and can't talk, but all the same he probably has a medical lab that we could keep her in."
Syl answered, "Honestly, I think that she would be held more efficiently at your friends place. But, if we want her memory to come back quickly, then you're home. Kit? What do you think?"
Krit looked from Max to Syl, "lets move her to your friends home. We don't know what Manticore has done to her. Does your friend have a body scanner on hand?"
Logan answered, "yes, he has in his medical lab."
Syl nodded. This was it. They had to get Max to a body scanner to see if anything had been reprogramed. Krit bent down to get to Max when he saw something, "what is this?"
A large metal disk had been placed right over Max's temple. What was it? A new device from Manticore? Who knew what they had done to Max. Logan bent down as well to take a look,
"I don't know. Listen, we better get her to my friend's home. The sooner we get that thing off, the sooner she can recover."
Syl and Krit nodded in agreement. They had to get Max somewhere and soon. That metal disk, could be a tracking device. They had to know. Syl untied Max's chains, that was a stupid thing to do they soon realized. Max tried to fight them she yelled, "I MUST ACCOMPLISH MY OBJECTIVE."
Syle asked her, "What is your objective?"
Max glared at Syl and answered, "To destroy you."
It took a lot of fighting and struggling to stuff Max in the back of the van that Syl and Krit had taken to get there. In about ten minutes they were at Logans friends house and after introductions, the group sedated Max and stuck her in the Body Scanner. They all waited while watching the little computer screen that would detect and strange and abnormal objects. Logans beeper went off again.
BEEP BEEP, BEEP BEEP
Logan walked over to his friends phone and dialed the number. Cindy's voice came over the phone,
"Where you at Logan? Who was that person?"
Logan then told her, "Cindy, it's Max. She's alive."
Cindy immediately asked, "Is she ok? Is, is she there? Logan I want to talk to her!"
Logan then told her, "It isn't that easy Cindy. Max isn't herself. She has been reprogrammed. She doesn't remember us."
Cindy stayed silent.
CLICK
She had hung up the phone.
Logan hung the phone up as well. He heard his friends compters voice, which served as his own because he could not speak,
"Logan, we have found something."
"What did you find?" Logan asked.
"The disk that is on Max's head was placed directly over her temple. We can take it out. Krit was right. It has a tracking device in it. But that's it. That's all that I can find. Also, there is no heart damage where she was shot. There is a scar on her front and reappears on her back. But there is no heart damage."
Logan said, "But how can that be? I saw the bullet wound."
Krit piped in, "unless"
Syl finished, "Unless this isn't her heart."
"That could be true. That is a definite probability. A heart that has been shot through as you have described would have created total liquification. Manticore soldier or not, that is something that you can't usually survive from."
Logan sked, "but who's heart could she have? She would have to use another X-5s heart, otherwise the blood wouldn't match right?"
"Correct."
Syl said, "oh no. Krit, she must have Zac's heat. He was the only other X-5 that was taken that night. And he was injured."
Silence.
