PART TWO : " Intrinsicality "
"It's been a long road. Who would have thought that our escape from Manticore a decade ago would eventually result not only in its destruction, but the uniting of transgenics from around the world? We weren't the only project location, though that's what we were led to believe at the time. Once news of what happened in Seattle hit the papers, we started receiving word from others like us. Like us... Two years ago I would have given anything to be normal. Now it's been over a year since we united, hoping to force our government to accept responsibility for us. The government seems to have lightened up a bit about capturing or restraining us. Not sure what's going on with that but I'm not complaining too much if it means we don't have to lose anyone over it. The locals still don't like seeing some of the more aesthetically exotic transgenics like Mole or Joshua, but usually nobody makes a scene. Still, it's fresh in our minds so we stay low as a matter of common sense."
"Logan and I are back on track with the help of a couple of those newcomers from outside Seattle. Someone at Manticore had the brilliant idea of taking a couple of the best and brightest from an earlier series of transgenics and assigned them to R&D of Manticore's gene stock. Those R&D kids discovered that some of my DNA is programmable, and after they figured out how to tell the little guys to take on the virus it was adios muchachos for the damn things; so long and don't come back now y'hear? Also, Logan is walking for good. Turns out Joshua has some kinda hybrid canine chromosome that rebuilt Logan's damaged neural pathways for good when he gave Logan that transfusion a year ago. We spent a few weeks not really knowing what to do; here we'd been at arm length for so long it was a built-in reaction to keep our distance. Talk about messed up... but we worked it out ok. Found out something else too; we're great in bed together."
Max stopped typing and looked over at Logan, busy helping Joshua dig through one of the storage bins to find a particular paint color for his latest masterpiece. After allowing herself a brief feeling of warmth for the two of them, she turned back to the terminal.
"Joshua's been in a strange mood lately, his pictures are weirder than normal. He won't talk about them much, just says he dreams them. Pretty whacked dreams if you ask me and he's not the only one; I've been hearing from a lot of our Terminal City locals about dreams lately."
"This diary is going ok. Logan talked me into writing in it every day or so. Haven't had time to write much of anything except nonsense until today, which is why I'm backtracking and starting from the Jam Pony escapade. Keepin' it all in order. Gotta admit, it's a stress breaker. At first I thought it wasn't one of his brighter ideas but ya have to hand it to Logan, he knows his stuff. Writing about things seems to get them off my mind and I don't have to tell anyone about it. Good thing it's got a security code though or I'd never use it."
"Alec is seeing one of the R&D transgenics, named Beck. Kind of a cute couple, really. Odd though, I'd never have thought he'd go for the brainy type. She's the one who found a way to develop an anti-toxin so Logan and Asha and a few other outside friends can stay in Terminal City. They just take a pill every couple of days and no worries. Lately..."
A strange but familiar sensation distracted Max mid-sentence. Ever since the runes on her skin appeared a year ago and then disappeared a couple of months later, she'd had these incidents. They weren't quite premonitions, more like... being conscious of certain related events. Sometimes what she sensed did happen and sometimes it didn't. The first time she felt it was at Jam Pony when she 'sensed' the intruders entering the building and that turned out to be true. This time she could feel that it was someone she knew; but that was all. "Tam..." she called out. "We've got a visitor or visitors at the main gate." Tamara, an X6, sounded off and ran to tell the gate patrol to expect arrivals.
She caught Logan and Joshua looking at her. Logan stopped rummaging through the storage boxes and sauntered over. She saved her diary file and wiped it from her screen. "You ok?" he asked, in that way that always melted her. "You look kind of spooked."
Max started to give him her 'nothing I can't handle' look, but he always seemed to see right through the tough-chick exterior. "I don't know. Someone I know is coming."
Logan leaned back against the chair beside the desk Max was using. "Is that a bad thing?"
She smiled at him. "Not lately, but we've had it pretty easy for a while. Never pays to let your guard down too much when things get mild. Not for us, anyway."
He looked at her guardedly. "Us? Meaning?"
"Meaning Terminal City. You and me, all the transgenics, all the outsiders who live here now; Asha, Bling, OC and the rest." Max eyed him carefully. Sometimes he tended to be a little sensitive when someone referred to the difference between transgenics and 'Ordinaries', the common catchall phrase for normal people. She understood; it was only because he never really thought of her or them as better or worse, just different. She couldn't judge him badly for that since she had been the same way before she found her 'family' again. If she wasn't careful, he'd go into 'Eyes Only lecture mode'. Even now she didn't really think of ordinaries as, well... ordinary. She'd seen too many times how resourceful even untrained non-transgenics could be. And since she happened to be in love with one of them...
Logan nodded and gave her an apologetic grin. He knew that he wore his feelings on his sleeve sometimes. A commotion in the outer room startled them; he and Max got up to see what the noise was about. She could see Mole and Tam carrying a woman in and felt herself shocked into action as she recognized the woman as Hannah Sukova, the tech who'd picked her up after the escape from Manticore back in '09. Hannah was in bad condition; it seemed like there wasn't a spot on her that wasn't bruised or bloody.
Medics had been alerted, but it was soon apparent that they didn't expect to get anywhere with her injuries. Hannah stirred and opened her eyes. Her eyesight cleared and she saw Max standing close. "Hey."
Max knelt beside her and took her hand. "I'm here. Who did this to you?"
Hannah coughed and speckles of blood appeared on her chin. "Listen... I found her, but you're in danger. We all are." She coughed again. The medics backed away, and motioned to Max that there wasn't anything they could do. The injuries were too severe.
"Max, I found your mother..."
Max almost jerked her hand away. But she controlled herself, moving closer, eager to hear but dreading what Hannah was about to say. "She lives in Maltby, up by Snohomish. Works in Bellevue in one of the medical labs..." Hannah started coughing again, but managed to control it through sheer will. She tried again. "Go to Sci-Tech Industries at the old Dec-West building. She-aaaaaahhh!" Her strained speech turned into a grimace of pain for several seconds, then her body relaxed. Max had seen the hand of death many times. She didn't bother to ask the medics to help.
They moved in to take care of the body. "Severe beating. There were major internal injuries and broken bones." one of them said. "Nothing we could do except make her comfortable. Tam gave her a pain killer as soon as she was in the gate. She asked for you by name."
Max felt a little 'beaten' herself. She had thought Hannah was safe when they last parted. She stood, and looked over at Logan. He knew what she wanted, and two years of getting to know what made this woman tick was the only thing that kept him from arguing. "I'll hack into SCI-Labs and get an employee roster. Shouldn't be too many people who work there and live in Maltby, that'll narrow the list a bit. If I ask you to be careful, that all this seems sudden and contrived, would you listen at least a little bit?" He tried to make it sound tongue-in-cheek.
For once she didn't argue. "I'll try. I know it's far fetched but I want to hope; even if just a little. O.K.?"
He smiled. He was always telling her to have hope. He couldn't deny her that now. And he knew how important this must be to her. "I'll call you on the cell when I get the info."
She smiled her thanks, but the happiness left her expression as she gave Hannah one more look and walked out.
Logan watched her leave, and as Joshua stepped up beside him he glanced over at the medics. "See if she has anything on her; bugs, ID, whatever. Then take her to the morgue and put her on ice. We'll hold the funeral when Max gets back."
Joshua looked solemn. "Max knew her from Manticore. I remember her. How did she know Max was here?"
"I don't know, Joshua. That's why I hope Max thinks twice about this. We can only assume that whoever killed Hannah wanted to keep what she knew a secret."
They both watched in silence as the medics took Hannah's body away.