The Story of Max Cale
[Disclaimer, etc. , found in chapter 1.]
Chapter Twenty-One…
It wasn't that Syl had *no* personal skills whatsoever.
Because she did. Really.
She just chose to use them very rarely. She refused to acknowledge the possibility that
this facet of her personality came from being born and bred at Manticore… Rather, Syl
preferred to think of herself as the "quiet type". When she wasn't blowing things up or
kicking ass. Which did happen, occasionally.
But even what few personal, conversational, whatever skills Syl had, seemed to vanish
when it came time to ask Logan the questions she needed to ask him. Granted, she
could just beat the answers out of him, like she'd originally planned… But it had been a
long day. Syl was tired…she had a headache. Zack still hadn't responded to her
continuous messages. And, damn it, she wasn't Jondy, or Max, or Dem. She needed
sleep. Sleep she wasn't gonna get with Mr. Logan Cale sitting in her passenger seat.
His passenger seat. Whatever. All she wanted to do was cuddle up into a little ball and
doze off. And as appealing as the word "cuddle" sounded, to Syl, next to the name
"Logan"…despite the situation… That wasn't gonna happen. She'd decided beating
the hell out of him wasn't going to happen.
So where did that leave them? Needing to talk. Syl didn't even know where to begin.
She'd confronted…okay, captured…Logan after his talk with Deck, considering him the
enemy. But after everything that had happened since then, she had to wonder about her
immediate assessment. She still didn't trust him… But she did wonder about Logan's
intentions.
If he was just after Syl to sell her back to Manticore, or wherever the fuck else Logan
had decided to sell her, why hadn't he made the call to turn in their location while he'd
had the chance; when Syl had been roughing up those perverts outside that bar?
Assuming, of course, that he *hadn't*. Assuming that Manticore, or someone equally
unpleasant, wasn't trailing them at that exact moment. And being reeeally slow about it.
Better yet, why hadn't Logan gotten away while he'd had the chance? Syl's immediate
reaction, after the fiasco at the bar, was to think that Logan had only helped her in order
to protect his "goods"; namely, her. But after thinking about it a while, Syl wasn't so
sure. There was no way that pathetic crowd of losers could have messed her up bad
enough to hurt Logan's take, assuming that he was after one.
Maybe she had the wrong idea about everything that was going on. Maybe she should
give Logan that chance to speak he kept talking about.
Maybe Syl was even more exhausted than she'd thought.
Or, maybe, the caffeine was starting to get to her.
Syl took a swig of her third R&B in about as many tens of minutes. Nah…
It couldn't be the caffeine.
She heard a muffled groan, coming from just below and to the right of her, and smirked.
"What's wrong, hubby?" Syl asked, alluding back to their short, faked stint as Mr. and
Mrs. "Can't sleep?"
The groaning, tossing, and turning that had been going on abruptly stopped. Logan's
voice replied, still muffled yet clearly agitated.
"Could you sleep well in a trunk?" he demanded. Yeah. She could sleep standing up if
she put her mind to it. But that was neither here nor there…
"Be happy I left it open," Syl told him, reaching over to push the trunk lid so that it
wobbled up and down. They'd ditched Logan's SUV at a roadside a few clicks down,
and had stolen the jalopy they currently "owned" from a RV park. "This way you can
breathe. And you don't have to roll around in…*whatever* that is in the back seat."
Syl was lying between the trunk and the back windshield, so that her weight wasn't
keeping the trunk shut, but so that Logan couldn't climb out without her knowing it,
either. She peered down through the glass at her side and made a face.
Inside the trunk, Logan snorted.
"Yeah. Thanks," he deadpanned. Syl smiled. If she didn't know better, she'd swear
she was starting to like this guy.
Then Syl frowned. 'No I'm not.'
"Somebody's grumpy without their leg room," Syl said aloud, to take her mind
off…well, the things her mind was on.
"It's cold," Logan insisted, sounding suspiciously close to whining.
Another smirk graced his transgenic companion's face.
"Well…if you hadn't been in such a hurry to get your clothes off in front of me, maybe
you wouldn't be feeling quite such a draft right now."
Logan snorted yet again. "It's not like I had a choice, you know," he said.
Syl shrugged. "Of course you did." But her eyes and smile were full of mischief.
"No…I didn't. I only took my coat off. And only because there was a mean, ugly dog
attached to it."
Syl bit her lip to contain a laugh. That wasn't entirely correct…Logan had taken his
coat off. *And* the dog had taken about a third of the right side of his shirt off, as well.
It was a good thing he'd had another change of clothes with him in the SUV.
Unfortunately, he hadn't brought another coat. They'd left the one he'd been wearing
back at the RV park with the Fido from hell.
"Well, you shouldn't have messed with the mean, ugly dog's ice cooler. That's
probably why his owners chained him out there, you know. To ward off would-be
thieves."
Logan's voice couldn't be more irritated or more incredulous.
"Well, you can't very well call it 'warding off thieves' if said thief…and I was not
"thieving", by the way…can't even see the damned dog," Logan said in his own
defense. "Who the hell digs a dog a trench beneath an RV so the thing can lie in wait?"
Syl looked up to the half-finished six pack sitting on the roof of the car. She tossed her
now empty can into the bushes and grabbed another. "Someone who really values their
root-beer, I'd say," she told him, popping the top.
She hated root beer, and made a face as the liquid hit her tongue. But caffeine is
caffeine… So Syl didn't complain. Besides, it wasn't like she'd had much of a
selection to chose from. And Logan had done the selecting. She'd ordered him to swipe
that cooler next to one of the RVs in the RV park where they'd also acquired their new
wheels. That's where he'd found the dog. Or where the dog had found him.
But it wasn't Syl's fault. Well…it kinda was. But she'd been *really* thirsty. And Syl
became very unpleasant when she was thirsty and in need of a caffeine fix. And after
that whole debacle at the bar, she hadn't wanted to stop at a convenience store or gas
station.
Besides, why pay for much needed caffeine when she could just swipe some instead. Or
have Logan swipe some for her.
"It was your idea to take the cooler in the first place," Logan charged. "Was that really
necessary?"
Syl's eyes narrowed. "Yes," she replied, vehemently. Her caffeine addiction was no
petty matter.
"You're the genetically engineered soldier…why couldn't you have gotten the damned
cooler if you wanted it that badly?"
Funny… Logan almost sounded…perturbed. He'd never looked perturbed whenever
Syl had watched him before. But then, she often had that effect on people.
Syl shrugged. "We weren't designed for menial tasks." Logan didn't say anything to
that.
And Syl made up her mind. If they needed to talk, then they would talk. They'd been
talking for about ten minutes, already, and that hadn't gone so badly… Right?
Besides, there was no time like the present. Syl didn't want to be parked at the rest stop
where they'd parked any longer than necessary. And maybe if she and Logan had their
little talk, she'd feel less uncomfortable with the thought of getting back on the road, as
close as she was to falling asleep.
Or maybe she'd find out that all her initial fears were correct. And then she'd shoot
him.
Either way…
Syl jumped off the car, and pulled open the trunk lid. Inside, Logan lay on his back
looking up at her.
"Get out," she told him, standing back. Logan just looked at her, then blinked.
"You're going to kill me now, aren't you?" The question was spoken conversationally,
almost congenially. Syl smiled.
"Uh-huh," she replied, happily.
Logan climbed out of the trunk.
"So…talk."
Syl leaned back against the tree they'd parked by, arms crossed over her chest. She'd
helped herself, as well, to the clothes Logan had brought with him for his little trip to
Gillette; she'd changed out of the black clothes she'd been wearing – and had torn in
that fight outside the bar – and into one of his white dress shirts. Along with a pair of
jeans and a denim jacket she'd liberated from yet another RV at the park. Those places
were veritable shopping centers… If you "shopped" the way Syl did.
Logan winced, imagining the damage Syl must have done to the expensive fabric by
rolling up the sleeves and tying the front around her waist as she had. Doing so allowed
him to *not* concentrate on the fact that there was a woman standing in front of him,
wearing an article of his clothing. And wearing it *well*, despite the fact that the shirt
was sizes too big for Syl.
"What about?" Logan asked, knowing the question was absolutely absurd, but acting as
if he hadn't realized this, arms crossed in front of his chest the way Syl's were. He sat
on the bumper of the car. After all…it really was cold out there. It had been a long day;
he had a headache. He had no idea where they were, at this point. And he was
shaky…whether from lack of sleep, lack of food…or the woman wearing his shirt,
Logan wasn't sure.
Syl raised an eyebrow and rolled her eyes.
"I don't know…how the Lakers are doin' this season, maybe," she quipped, harshly.
Logan didn't even bat an eye. "Lousy. And I had good money on the last two games,
too." Syl's eyes narrowed…and Logan moved on when he saw the threat there.
"I thought you'd already drawn your own conclusions about why I was meeting General
Lydecker," he said, knowing that was what Syl was really asking about.
She shrugged. "I did." She pushed off the tree to walk closer to him. "But I'm
wondering, if you came out here to Wyoming to sell out me or mine…then why are we
here right now, on the side of the road?" Before Logan could reply, Syl, now standing
in front of him, continued. "Why didn't you call in the troops during that whole fiasco
at the bar? Or better yet…why not have them waiting at the roadside where you and ol'
Deck had so much to chit-chat about?" Syl's eyes were on Logan's face and her gaze
was piercing. "You knew I was there," she charged.
Logan had expected accusations, of course. That's all he'd gotten since he'd met this
strange, startling woman - silent accusations and very verbal threats. But this accusation
wasn't one of the many he'd expected Syl to verbalize.
Which was neither here nor there, since Logan had given up trying to determine what
exactly he *should* expect in Syl's company. He hadn't expected her to show up into
his life, trying to rob his penthouse and then spying on him from a rooftop, night after
night for so long. He hadn't expected her to follow him to Wyoming. He hadn't
expected to find her beating the crap out of a bunch of scumbags outside that bar in the
middle of the night. He hadn't expected to nearly get his ass bitten off stealing a pack of
root beer Syl didn't even seem to be enjoying.
And Logan hadn't expected Syl to just jump into this conversation. He'd expected her
to feel him out first…see exactly what he knew and how he knew it, and then figure out
what to do about all of that. But apparently Syl couldn't be bothered with such
formalities. If this was any sign of how well the X5s' military training had stuck over
the years, then maybe Logan didn't have to worry after all.
Or maybe Syl really was going to kill him, regardless of what he knew or how he knew
it, and *that* is why she didn't bother with any formalities.
Logan swallowed.
"I didn't know you were there," he stated, simply.
Syl laughed as if she found the answer amusing, although she looked thoroughly
unamused, and rolled her eyes. "You had high-resolution amplifiers at the site where
you met," she informed Logan dryly, as if the information weren't new to him at all.
Logan blinked. 'High-res…' "I had no idea," he said sincerely.
"Mm-hmm. So, what? Next you're gonna tell me General Lydecker had "no idea" they
were there either?"
"I don't know what the General had…"
"Because if Lydecker had been the one to know I was there at that roadside, you can bet
your ass we *wouldn't* be standing here right now," Syl began. "I'd be sitting in a
nice, cold cage. And I don't know what kind of agreement or whatever you *think* you
have with the General… But I can promise you, you wouldn't be alive right now if
Manticore had their way."
Logan frowned. "You talk about Lydecker like his only goal in life is to bring you kids
in."
Syl blinked at the word "kids", but other than that showed no expression, despite the
sudden concern she felt. So Logan knew about the others, too?
'Don't be so surprised, stupid. For all you know the guy knows everything.'
"You saying you're sure it isn't?" Syl said aloud.
Logan shook his head. "And you're sure it is? Lydecker left Manticore when you
were…what? One, two? A toddler."
Syl's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, well, when you dedicate your life to keeping "kids" like
me in a cage, you kind of create a legacy for yourself." She couldn't remember General
Lydecker personally, of course. But neither Syl nor any of her siblings could remember
a time when the man's name didn't hang over their heads like a cloud of doom. Doctor
Renfro had repeatedly charged the X5s "failings" to "Deck", as she called him. She'd
told them again and again how the General had left a successful career in the army to
head up the Manticore project, only to abandon it when the X5s turned out to be
somewhat less than a success; weak, rebellious. Plagued by seizures. All the guards
and doctors in Gillette seemed to remember the man and talked about him whenever
Renfro couldn't hear them. They'd respected him. And Renfro had seemed to envy that
respect.
Syl was sure that any man who could be respected in a hellhole like Manticore, and
envied by a monster like Renfro, couldn't be trusted as far as a human could throw him.
Logan's words brought Syl out of her reverie. "I think you'd be surprised by what the
General's dedicated himself to," he was saying. Logan knew a few files and one
meeting didn't give him exclusive knowledge of the other man's character, but what he
did know didn't give him the impression of Lydecker that Syl seemed to have picked up.
"And he doesn't want anything more to do with Manticore than you do," Logan added.
"Yeah, now," Syl scoffed. "Now that he's been AWOL for about twenty years. But if
he had a transgenic up his sleeve; something to buy his way off of Manticore's hit
list…"
Logan had considered that possibility. And he realized that he'd risked a lot on his faith
in the other man's intelligence. Apparently Syl wasn't willing to do the same.
"Do you really think that would work? You think Lydecker could just turn you over,
and walk away a free man?"
Syl shrugged one shoulder. "It isn't about what I think," she informed him, guardedly.
"It all depends on whether or not Deck thinks the same way."
"You must have at least heard about the man when you were a child. You really believe
he's that stupid?" Logan asked, incredulously.
"He was stupid enough to go AWOL, wasn't he?" Syl pointed out.
"I'm sure he had his reasons," Logan replied, cryptically, causing Syl to roll her eyes yet
again. "And you shouldn't be so quick to judge." Logan tried using some language the
soldier in Syl might understand. "He could be an ally, you know? He doesn't have to
be the enemy." 'And neither do I,' Logan thought. His primary concern was Max. But
he couldn't help but feel compassion towards Syl and her "siblings", even if their nature
frightened him. Children, raised like prisoners…hunted like animals. He'd created
Eyes Only to protect victims like the X5s, even if this particular bunch of victims could
each take on about ten men without breaking a sweat.
But Syl wasn't following Logan's line of reasoning. She smiled a bitter smile of irony.
"Yeah…I hear Lydecker used to have a saying he liked to spout about that. 'Once my
enemy, never my ally."
Logan didn't know exactly what to say to that.
So he moved on to the point he'd been trying to make ever since Syl had, essentially,
"grabbed" him.
"I wasn't meeting with Lydecker to "sell you out"," Logan said. "I was just collecting
information."
"Why?"
Logan hesitated.
"For that matter," Syl continued, eyes narrowing. "How? How'd you even find out
about Manticore in the first place. And Lydecker."
"I have my ways."
Syl snorted. "Yeah. Late-night meetings in parks and old playgrounds." Surprise
registered on Logan's face, but Syl didn't linger on the observation. "Unless Manticore
opened up a public recreation program in Seattle, I doubt you found out about the
project by hanging around those places."
Logan shifted uncomfortably on his feet. And Syl took a step closer, so that they were
nearly standing nose to nose.
"Of course, there's those nice, new computers you got hooked up in your penthouse.
But you can't exactly find former secret government officials through your average
search engine, either."
Logan just stared. He didn't know if Syl knew his identity as Eyes Only, but by her
comments it was obvious that she knew more about him than he'd thought. She hadn't
just been spying on him at home…apparently she'd been following him around town, as
well. He'd considered that, and had beefed up security during informant meetings as a
necessary precaution. But none of his men had ever detected anyone. He'd
underestimated how stealthy his cat-burglar-turned-spook really was. And how
suspicious.
As their eyes locked, Logan realized just how much danger he was in at that moment,
with Syl standing there, believing him to be the enemy. He supposed he'd sort of
thought, throughout the entire time they'd spent together, that if he could just get Syl to
listen to reason, explain that he meant her no harm, then everything would be fine. But
he'd been naïve. After how she'd grown up, always looking over her shoulder, Syl
wasn't content with a simple explanation. To her, the fact that Logan even knew about
Manticore, the fact that there was anything to explain, was reason enough to suspect
him.
So, suddenly, he changed tracks.
"I think I might know where to find another X5. One you don't know about," Logan
blurted out.
Syl blinked, momentarily thrown off guard. "What?"
"An X5 who escaped, but not in '09. I came to Wyoming to collect information on that
chimera. Not you." Logan used a term he read in the file Lydecker had given him,
trying not to give away Max's name if he didn't have to. Originally, he hadn't wanted
to mention Max at all. The General's warning about the '09 X5s seeing Max as a threat
was still fresh on Logan's mind. But if he didn't reach an understanding with Syl fast,
he was certain the whole issue would be made moot by Syl eliminating *him* as a
threat. And perhaps honesty really would be the best policy in this situation. If Logan
could explain about Max, and get Syl to believe him, then hopefully she could pass on
that explanation to her siblings. Should the need arise. Logan felt that the possibility of
it doing just that was growing more and more likely. Everything seemed to be spiraling
out of control.
Logan reached behind him, to where he had folded and tucked his file on the X5s into
the waistband of his pants. "Look, I can prove it," he told Syl. And he offered the file
to her. Syl eyed the folder warily, and Logan told himself to remain calm. After all, it
wasn't really Max's information in there. Just information on who Max could have
been, had Lydecker and Vertes not saved her. A number; X5 452.
Syl finally took the folder and looked into it. "There's information on all of you in
there. I almost lost it, too, back at the RV park. I had to wrestle that damned dog to
keep it all…" Logan was saying this as he watched skepticism, then curiosity and
surprise travel across Syl's face. But he stopped when she looked up, looking not only
skeptical, once more, but confused, as well. And not pleased.
"I thought you said you had info on all of us," she said to Logan, closing the file and
holding it up. "There's nothing in here but some kid's adoption papers and a death
certificate."
Logan just looked at her. Then he snatched the file before Syl could object.
"Hey!"
"Of course there's…" Logan shuffled through the papers in the folder, twice, his words
fading away as he did. Then he paled. "Oh, shit…" he mumbled to himself.
Syl stilled, alarmed. "What?"
"Damn it!"
"*What?*"
Logan looked at her. "They must still be back at the park." Syl was certain she wasn't
hearing correctly. "What?" she asked quietly.
Logan couldn't believe he'd done something so stupid. Those files were what he'd
come to Wyoming for in the first place. Of course, now that surviving Syl had become
his primary agenda, his attention had strayed considerably… But still…
"I must have dropped them while I was running from the dog," he admitted. "When…"
But Syl interrupted him.
"Who all was in that folder?"
"I…"
"Who?" Syl repeated, emphatically. Logan had said "all"; who did that include?
"Uh…you. Someone called 394, 656." Then Logan remembered the boy in the
photograph. "A guy Lydecker said might be named "Zack". I don't…"
Syl paled now, as well. "Zack?"
Logan didn't like the way she said that name. Or the way she looked at him when she
did. But he answered anyhow. "Yeah," Logan said.
Syl's hand shot out so fast Logan barely saw it, and then her fingers were wrapping
around his throat, lifting him slightly. Reflexively, his hands went to the one slightly
choking him.
"You had information on Zack in that file?" She demanded, a tiny sliver of fear creeping
up from beneath the anger and accusation Logan saw shining in her blue eyes. Damn.
And things were just starting to calm down between them…
Syl leaned into Logan and her eyes narrowed. "Was the information updated?" she
asked.
Logan coughed a little, and tried to shake his head. But it was hard to do so with Syl's
vice-like grip on his throat. Then, suddenly, she released him.
Syl's hands went to her own temples, as if massaging them. "Shit. Oh, shit…" she was
mumbling to herself.
While rubbing his throat, Logan tried to reassure her.
"Just calm down," he said. "The files should still be back there…"
"With the dog," Syl reminded him, throwing her arms into the air and gesturing. "And
the police, who those campers no doubt called after we stole their car!"
"And their ice chest and some clothes…" Logan caught the dangerous look Syl was
sending him and immediately shut up, not knowing what he'd been going on about in
the first place. This whole fiasco was giving him a headache.
And it seemed that he wasn't alone. Syl suddenly looked almost…ill.
For some reason, despite the possible physical harm he was inviting upon himself,
Logan took a step closer to the woman and put a hand on her shoulder. Syl looked up at
him in surprise.
"What do you suggest we do?" he asked.
Syl just looked at him a moment. And then, regaining her composure, she brushed his
hand away. "What's there to suggest?" she was saying. "We can't just walk away if…
No bullshitting me right now. You're serious about there being information on the X5s
back there?" The look in Syl's eyes said exactly what she would do to Logan if he were
lying.
Logan nodded. "Unfortunately? Yes."
Syl silently cursed. She took a calming breath. "Okay… Fine. Then we've got to go
back there."
But Logan stopped her, earning another deadly glare. "Wait. Let me make some calls
first." Syl looked like she was about to laugh, so Logan went on. "Maybe I can get
some of my connections to pull some strings. No tricks; I don't want those files to end
up in the wrong hands any more than you do."
Syl still looked skeptical. So Logan assured her, "You can listen in if you want."
Syl considered the request for a moment. Then she closed her eyes, briefly, and sighed.
"If you fuck up this situation any further…"
Logan shook his head. "I won't. What do you say?"
[Disclaimer, etc. , found in chapter 1.]
Chapter Twenty-One…
It wasn't that Syl had *no* personal skills whatsoever.
Because she did. Really.
She just chose to use them very rarely. She refused to acknowledge the possibility that
this facet of her personality came from being born and bred at Manticore… Rather, Syl
preferred to think of herself as the "quiet type". When she wasn't blowing things up or
kicking ass. Which did happen, occasionally.
But even what few personal, conversational, whatever skills Syl had, seemed to vanish
when it came time to ask Logan the questions she needed to ask him. Granted, she
could just beat the answers out of him, like she'd originally planned… But it had been a
long day. Syl was tired…she had a headache. Zack still hadn't responded to her
continuous messages. And, damn it, she wasn't Jondy, or Max, or Dem. She needed
sleep. Sleep she wasn't gonna get with Mr. Logan Cale sitting in her passenger seat.
His passenger seat. Whatever. All she wanted to do was cuddle up into a little ball and
doze off. And as appealing as the word "cuddle" sounded, to Syl, next to the name
"Logan"…despite the situation… That wasn't gonna happen. She'd decided beating
the hell out of him wasn't going to happen.
So where did that leave them? Needing to talk. Syl didn't even know where to begin.
She'd confronted…okay, captured…Logan after his talk with Deck, considering him the
enemy. But after everything that had happened since then, she had to wonder about her
immediate assessment. She still didn't trust him… But she did wonder about Logan's
intentions.
If he was just after Syl to sell her back to Manticore, or wherever the fuck else Logan
had decided to sell her, why hadn't he made the call to turn in their location while he'd
had the chance; when Syl had been roughing up those perverts outside that bar?
Assuming, of course, that he *hadn't*. Assuming that Manticore, or someone equally
unpleasant, wasn't trailing them at that exact moment. And being reeeally slow about it.
Better yet, why hadn't Logan gotten away while he'd had the chance? Syl's immediate
reaction, after the fiasco at the bar, was to think that Logan had only helped her in order
to protect his "goods"; namely, her. But after thinking about it a while, Syl wasn't so
sure. There was no way that pathetic crowd of losers could have messed her up bad
enough to hurt Logan's take, assuming that he was after one.
Maybe she had the wrong idea about everything that was going on. Maybe she should
give Logan that chance to speak he kept talking about.
Maybe Syl was even more exhausted than she'd thought.
Or, maybe, the caffeine was starting to get to her.
Syl took a swig of her third R&B in about as many tens of minutes. Nah…
It couldn't be the caffeine.
She heard a muffled groan, coming from just below and to the right of her, and smirked.
"What's wrong, hubby?" Syl asked, alluding back to their short, faked stint as Mr. and
Mrs. "Can't sleep?"
The groaning, tossing, and turning that had been going on abruptly stopped. Logan's
voice replied, still muffled yet clearly agitated.
"Could you sleep well in a trunk?" he demanded. Yeah. She could sleep standing up if
she put her mind to it. But that was neither here nor there…
"Be happy I left it open," Syl told him, reaching over to push the trunk lid so that it
wobbled up and down. They'd ditched Logan's SUV at a roadside a few clicks down,
and had stolen the jalopy they currently "owned" from a RV park. "This way you can
breathe. And you don't have to roll around in…*whatever* that is in the back seat."
Syl was lying between the trunk and the back windshield, so that her weight wasn't
keeping the trunk shut, but so that Logan couldn't climb out without her knowing it,
either. She peered down through the glass at her side and made a face.
Inside the trunk, Logan snorted.
"Yeah. Thanks," he deadpanned. Syl smiled. If she didn't know better, she'd swear
she was starting to like this guy.
Then Syl frowned. 'No I'm not.'
"Somebody's grumpy without their leg room," Syl said aloud, to take her mind
off…well, the things her mind was on.
"It's cold," Logan insisted, sounding suspiciously close to whining.
Another smirk graced his transgenic companion's face.
"Well…if you hadn't been in such a hurry to get your clothes off in front of me, maybe
you wouldn't be feeling quite such a draft right now."
Logan snorted yet again. "It's not like I had a choice, you know," he said.
Syl shrugged. "Of course you did." But her eyes and smile were full of mischief.
"No…I didn't. I only took my coat off. And only because there was a mean, ugly dog
attached to it."
Syl bit her lip to contain a laugh. That wasn't entirely correct…Logan had taken his
coat off. *And* the dog had taken about a third of the right side of his shirt off, as well.
It was a good thing he'd had another change of clothes with him in the SUV.
Unfortunately, he hadn't brought another coat. They'd left the one he'd been wearing
back at the RV park with the Fido from hell.
"Well, you shouldn't have messed with the mean, ugly dog's ice cooler. That's
probably why his owners chained him out there, you know. To ward off would-be
thieves."
Logan's voice couldn't be more irritated or more incredulous.
"Well, you can't very well call it 'warding off thieves' if said thief…and I was not
"thieving", by the way…can't even see the damned dog," Logan said in his own
defense. "Who the hell digs a dog a trench beneath an RV so the thing can lie in wait?"
Syl looked up to the half-finished six pack sitting on the roof of the car. She tossed her
now empty can into the bushes and grabbed another. "Someone who really values their
root-beer, I'd say," she told him, popping the top.
She hated root beer, and made a face as the liquid hit her tongue. But caffeine is
caffeine… So Syl didn't complain. Besides, it wasn't like she'd had much of a
selection to chose from. And Logan had done the selecting. She'd ordered him to swipe
that cooler next to one of the RVs in the RV park where they'd also acquired their new
wheels. That's where he'd found the dog. Or where the dog had found him.
But it wasn't Syl's fault. Well…it kinda was. But she'd been *really* thirsty. And Syl
became very unpleasant when she was thirsty and in need of a caffeine fix. And after
that whole debacle at the bar, she hadn't wanted to stop at a convenience store or gas
station.
Besides, why pay for much needed caffeine when she could just swipe some instead. Or
have Logan swipe some for her.
"It was your idea to take the cooler in the first place," Logan charged. "Was that really
necessary?"
Syl's eyes narrowed. "Yes," she replied, vehemently. Her caffeine addiction was no
petty matter.
"You're the genetically engineered soldier…why couldn't you have gotten the damned
cooler if you wanted it that badly?"
Funny… Logan almost sounded…perturbed. He'd never looked perturbed whenever
Syl had watched him before. But then, she often had that effect on people.
Syl shrugged. "We weren't designed for menial tasks." Logan didn't say anything to
that.
And Syl made up her mind. If they needed to talk, then they would talk. They'd been
talking for about ten minutes, already, and that hadn't gone so badly… Right?
Besides, there was no time like the present. Syl didn't want to be parked at the rest stop
where they'd parked any longer than necessary. And maybe if she and Logan had their
little talk, she'd feel less uncomfortable with the thought of getting back on the road, as
close as she was to falling asleep.
Or maybe she'd find out that all her initial fears were correct. And then she'd shoot
him.
Either way…
Syl jumped off the car, and pulled open the trunk lid. Inside, Logan lay on his back
looking up at her.
"Get out," she told him, standing back. Logan just looked at her, then blinked.
"You're going to kill me now, aren't you?" The question was spoken conversationally,
almost congenially. Syl smiled.
"Uh-huh," she replied, happily.
Logan climbed out of the trunk.
"So…talk."
Syl leaned back against the tree they'd parked by, arms crossed over her chest. She'd
helped herself, as well, to the clothes Logan had brought with him for his little trip to
Gillette; she'd changed out of the black clothes she'd been wearing – and had torn in
that fight outside the bar – and into one of his white dress shirts. Along with a pair of
jeans and a denim jacket she'd liberated from yet another RV at the park. Those places
were veritable shopping centers… If you "shopped" the way Syl did.
Logan winced, imagining the damage Syl must have done to the expensive fabric by
rolling up the sleeves and tying the front around her waist as she had. Doing so allowed
him to *not* concentrate on the fact that there was a woman standing in front of him,
wearing an article of his clothing. And wearing it *well*, despite the fact that the shirt
was sizes too big for Syl.
"What about?" Logan asked, knowing the question was absolutely absurd, but acting as
if he hadn't realized this, arms crossed in front of his chest the way Syl's were. He sat
on the bumper of the car. After all…it really was cold out there. It had been a long day;
he had a headache. He had no idea where they were, at this point. And he was
shaky…whether from lack of sleep, lack of food…or the woman wearing his shirt,
Logan wasn't sure.
Syl raised an eyebrow and rolled her eyes.
"I don't know…how the Lakers are doin' this season, maybe," she quipped, harshly.
Logan didn't even bat an eye. "Lousy. And I had good money on the last two games,
too." Syl's eyes narrowed…and Logan moved on when he saw the threat there.
"I thought you'd already drawn your own conclusions about why I was meeting General
Lydecker," he said, knowing that was what Syl was really asking about.
She shrugged. "I did." She pushed off the tree to walk closer to him. "But I'm
wondering, if you came out here to Wyoming to sell out me or mine…then why are we
here right now, on the side of the road?" Before Logan could reply, Syl, now standing
in front of him, continued. "Why didn't you call in the troops during that whole fiasco
at the bar? Or better yet…why not have them waiting at the roadside where you and ol'
Deck had so much to chit-chat about?" Syl's eyes were on Logan's face and her gaze
was piercing. "You knew I was there," she charged.
Logan had expected accusations, of course. That's all he'd gotten since he'd met this
strange, startling woman - silent accusations and very verbal threats. But this accusation
wasn't one of the many he'd expected Syl to verbalize.
Which was neither here nor there, since Logan had given up trying to determine what
exactly he *should* expect in Syl's company. He hadn't expected her to show up into
his life, trying to rob his penthouse and then spying on him from a rooftop, night after
night for so long. He hadn't expected her to follow him to Wyoming. He hadn't
expected to find her beating the crap out of a bunch of scumbags outside that bar in the
middle of the night. He hadn't expected to nearly get his ass bitten off stealing a pack of
root beer Syl didn't even seem to be enjoying.
And Logan hadn't expected Syl to just jump into this conversation. He'd expected her
to feel him out first…see exactly what he knew and how he knew it, and then figure out
what to do about all of that. But apparently Syl couldn't be bothered with such
formalities. If this was any sign of how well the X5s' military training had stuck over
the years, then maybe Logan didn't have to worry after all.
Or maybe Syl really was going to kill him, regardless of what he knew or how he knew
it, and *that* is why she didn't bother with any formalities.
Logan swallowed.
"I didn't know you were there," he stated, simply.
Syl laughed as if she found the answer amusing, although she looked thoroughly
unamused, and rolled her eyes. "You had high-resolution amplifiers at the site where
you met," she informed Logan dryly, as if the information weren't new to him at all.
Logan blinked. 'High-res…' "I had no idea," he said sincerely.
"Mm-hmm. So, what? Next you're gonna tell me General Lydecker had "no idea" they
were there either?"
"I don't know what the General had…"
"Because if Lydecker had been the one to know I was there at that roadside, you can bet
your ass we *wouldn't* be standing here right now," Syl began. "I'd be sitting in a
nice, cold cage. And I don't know what kind of agreement or whatever you *think* you
have with the General… But I can promise you, you wouldn't be alive right now if
Manticore had their way."
Logan frowned. "You talk about Lydecker like his only goal in life is to bring you kids
in."
Syl blinked at the word "kids", but other than that showed no expression, despite the
sudden concern she felt. So Logan knew about the others, too?
'Don't be so surprised, stupid. For all you know the guy knows everything.'
"You saying you're sure it isn't?" Syl said aloud.
Logan shook his head. "And you're sure it is? Lydecker left Manticore when you
were…what? One, two? A toddler."
Syl's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, well, when you dedicate your life to keeping "kids" like
me in a cage, you kind of create a legacy for yourself." She couldn't remember General
Lydecker personally, of course. But neither Syl nor any of her siblings could remember
a time when the man's name didn't hang over their heads like a cloud of doom. Doctor
Renfro had repeatedly charged the X5s "failings" to "Deck", as she called him. She'd
told them again and again how the General had left a successful career in the army to
head up the Manticore project, only to abandon it when the X5s turned out to be
somewhat less than a success; weak, rebellious. Plagued by seizures. All the guards
and doctors in Gillette seemed to remember the man and talked about him whenever
Renfro couldn't hear them. They'd respected him. And Renfro had seemed to envy that
respect.
Syl was sure that any man who could be respected in a hellhole like Manticore, and
envied by a monster like Renfro, couldn't be trusted as far as a human could throw him.
Logan's words brought Syl out of her reverie. "I think you'd be surprised by what the
General's dedicated himself to," he was saying. Logan knew a few files and one
meeting didn't give him exclusive knowledge of the other man's character, but what he
did know didn't give him the impression of Lydecker that Syl seemed to have picked up.
"And he doesn't want anything more to do with Manticore than you do," Logan added.
"Yeah, now," Syl scoffed. "Now that he's been AWOL for about twenty years. But if
he had a transgenic up his sleeve; something to buy his way off of Manticore's hit
list…"
Logan had considered that possibility. And he realized that he'd risked a lot on his faith
in the other man's intelligence. Apparently Syl wasn't willing to do the same.
"Do you really think that would work? You think Lydecker could just turn you over,
and walk away a free man?"
Syl shrugged one shoulder. "It isn't about what I think," she informed him, guardedly.
"It all depends on whether or not Deck thinks the same way."
"You must have at least heard about the man when you were a child. You really believe
he's that stupid?" Logan asked, incredulously.
"He was stupid enough to go AWOL, wasn't he?" Syl pointed out.
"I'm sure he had his reasons," Logan replied, cryptically, causing Syl to roll her eyes yet
again. "And you shouldn't be so quick to judge." Logan tried using some language the
soldier in Syl might understand. "He could be an ally, you know? He doesn't have to
be the enemy." 'And neither do I,' Logan thought. His primary concern was Max. But
he couldn't help but feel compassion towards Syl and her "siblings", even if their nature
frightened him. Children, raised like prisoners…hunted like animals. He'd created
Eyes Only to protect victims like the X5s, even if this particular bunch of victims could
each take on about ten men without breaking a sweat.
But Syl wasn't following Logan's line of reasoning. She smiled a bitter smile of irony.
"Yeah…I hear Lydecker used to have a saying he liked to spout about that. 'Once my
enemy, never my ally."
Logan didn't know exactly what to say to that.
So he moved on to the point he'd been trying to make ever since Syl had, essentially,
"grabbed" him.
"I wasn't meeting with Lydecker to "sell you out"," Logan said. "I was just collecting
information."
"Why?"
Logan hesitated.
"For that matter," Syl continued, eyes narrowing. "How? How'd you even find out
about Manticore in the first place. And Lydecker."
"I have my ways."
Syl snorted. "Yeah. Late-night meetings in parks and old playgrounds." Surprise
registered on Logan's face, but Syl didn't linger on the observation. "Unless Manticore
opened up a public recreation program in Seattle, I doubt you found out about the
project by hanging around those places."
Logan shifted uncomfortably on his feet. And Syl took a step closer, so that they were
nearly standing nose to nose.
"Of course, there's those nice, new computers you got hooked up in your penthouse.
But you can't exactly find former secret government officials through your average
search engine, either."
Logan just stared. He didn't know if Syl knew his identity as Eyes Only, but by her
comments it was obvious that she knew more about him than he'd thought. She hadn't
just been spying on him at home…apparently she'd been following him around town, as
well. He'd considered that, and had beefed up security during informant meetings as a
necessary precaution. But none of his men had ever detected anyone. He'd
underestimated how stealthy his cat-burglar-turned-spook really was. And how
suspicious.
As their eyes locked, Logan realized just how much danger he was in at that moment,
with Syl standing there, believing him to be the enemy. He supposed he'd sort of
thought, throughout the entire time they'd spent together, that if he could just get Syl to
listen to reason, explain that he meant her no harm, then everything would be fine. But
he'd been naïve. After how she'd grown up, always looking over her shoulder, Syl
wasn't content with a simple explanation. To her, the fact that Logan even knew about
Manticore, the fact that there was anything to explain, was reason enough to suspect
him.
So, suddenly, he changed tracks.
"I think I might know where to find another X5. One you don't know about," Logan
blurted out.
Syl blinked, momentarily thrown off guard. "What?"
"An X5 who escaped, but not in '09. I came to Wyoming to collect information on that
chimera. Not you." Logan used a term he read in the file Lydecker had given him,
trying not to give away Max's name if he didn't have to. Originally, he hadn't wanted
to mention Max at all. The General's warning about the '09 X5s seeing Max as a threat
was still fresh on Logan's mind. But if he didn't reach an understanding with Syl fast,
he was certain the whole issue would be made moot by Syl eliminating *him* as a
threat. And perhaps honesty really would be the best policy in this situation. If Logan
could explain about Max, and get Syl to believe him, then hopefully she could pass on
that explanation to her siblings. Should the need arise. Logan felt that the possibility of
it doing just that was growing more and more likely. Everything seemed to be spiraling
out of control.
Logan reached behind him, to where he had folded and tucked his file on the X5s into
the waistband of his pants. "Look, I can prove it," he told Syl. And he offered the file
to her. Syl eyed the folder warily, and Logan told himself to remain calm. After all, it
wasn't really Max's information in there. Just information on who Max could have
been, had Lydecker and Vertes not saved her. A number; X5 452.
Syl finally took the folder and looked into it. "There's information on all of you in
there. I almost lost it, too, back at the RV park. I had to wrestle that damned dog to
keep it all…" Logan was saying this as he watched skepticism, then curiosity and
surprise travel across Syl's face. But he stopped when she looked up, looking not only
skeptical, once more, but confused, as well. And not pleased.
"I thought you said you had info on all of us," she said to Logan, closing the file and
holding it up. "There's nothing in here but some kid's adoption papers and a death
certificate."
Logan just looked at her. Then he snatched the file before Syl could object.
"Hey!"
"Of course there's…" Logan shuffled through the papers in the folder, twice, his words
fading away as he did. Then he paled. "Oh, shit…" he mumbled to himself.
Syl stilled, alarmed. "What?"
"Damn it!"
"*What?*"
Logan looked at her. "They must still be back at the park." Syl was certain she wasn't
hearing correctly. "What?" she asked quietly.
Logan couldn't believe he'd done something so stupid. Those files were what he'd
come to Wyoming for in the first place. Of course, now that surviving Syl had become
his primary agenda, his attention had strayed considerably… But still…
"I must have dropped them while I was running from the dog," he admitted. "When…"
But Syl interrupted him.
"Who all was in that folder?"
"I…"
"Who?" Syl repeated, emphatically. Logan had said "all"; who did that include?
"Uh…you. Someone called 394, 656." Then Logan remembered the boy in the
photograph. "A guy Lydecker said might be named "Zack". I don't…"
Syl paled now, as well. "Zack?"
Logan didn't like the way she said that name. Or the way she looked at him when she
did. But he answered anyhow. "Yeah," Logan said.
Syl's hand shot out so fast Logan barely saw it, and then her fingers were wrapping
around his throat, lifting him slightly. Reflexively, his hands went to the one slightly
choking him.
"You had information on Zack in that file?" She demanded, a tiny sliver of fear creeping
up from beneath the anger and accusation Logan saw shining in her blue eyes. Damn.
And things were just starting to calm down between them…
Syl leaned into Logan and her eyes narrowed. "Was the information updated?" she
asked.
Logan coughed a little, and tried to shake his head. But it was hard to do so with Syl's
vice-like grip on his throat. Then, suddenly, she released him.
Syl's hands went to her own temples, as if massaging them. "Shit. Oh, shit…" she was
mumbling to herself.
While rubbing his throat, Logan tried to reassure her.
"Just calm down," he said. "The files should still be back there…"
"With the dog," Syl reminded him, throwing her arms into the air and gesturing. "And
the police, who those campers no doubt called after we stole their car!"
"And their ice chest and some clothes…" Logan caught the dangerous look Syl was
sending him and immediately shut up, not knowing what he'd been going on about in
the first place. This whole fiasco was giving him a headache.
And it seemed that he wasn't alone. Syl suddenly looked almost…ill.
For some reason, despite the possible physical harm he was inviting upon himself,
Logan took a step closer to the woman and put a hand on her shoulder. Syl looked up at
him in surprise.
"What do you suggest we do?" he asked.
Syl just looked at him a moment. And then, regaining her composure, she brushed his
hand away. "What's there to suggest?" she was saying. "We can't just walk away if…
No bullshitting me right now. You're serious about there being information on the X5s
back there?" The look in Syl's eyes said exactly what she would do to Logan if he were
lying.
Logan nodded. "Unfortunately? Yes."
Syl silently cursed. She took a calming breath. "Okay… Fine. Then we've got to go
back there."
But Logan stopped her, earning another deadly glare. "Wait. Let me make some calls
first." Syl looked like she was about to laugh, so Logan went on. "Maybe I can get
some of my connections to pull some strings. No tricks; I don't want those files to end
up in the wrong hands any more than you do."
Syl still looked skeptical. So Logan assured her, "You can listen in if you want."
Syl considered the request for a moment. Then she closed her eyes, briefly, and sighed.
"If you fuck up this situation any further…"
Logan shook his head. "I won't. What do you say?"