Disclaimer: See previous chapters. Not saying it again.
A/N: Many thanks to alaidh and catherder for the beta. For those who asked, I am posting weekly.
Chapter 5
Logan was startled by a knock at the door of the room. He guiltily looked at his watch, realizing it was probably housekeeping wanting to tidy the room. Room? He looked around him. Guess it's a room. Guess I'm floating. There was another knock. "Coming!"
Logan pulled up behind the door. "I was in the shower," he said through the closed door. "Can you come back in an hour?"
"Sure, sir," a female voice answered.
Logan sighed and looked at the exoskeleton. Despite his exhaustion, he really wanted to keep going. The sooner this was finished, the sooner he could be back…
*~*~*~
Max donned the headset Normal handed to her, rearranged the bundles of paper on the desk, and generally set herself up for the working day. Alec didn't move from where he was lounging on the counter, resting his back against the frame on one side and his boot against the other.
"Don't you have anything better to do than hang around here and get in the way?" Max asked sharply. She poked him none too gently in the leg to get him to roll off the pile of papers on which he was half-sitting.
"Not really," came the mild response. "Why, is my presence bugging you?"
"As a matter of fact, yes." Max glared at him.
""Well, we can't have that, can we," he responded sarcastically, lightly dropping to his feet. "Might affect the b-a…"
"Alec," Max growled.
"What?"
"Get outta here."
He tipped her a lazy wave, and headed out the door.
*~*~*~
Logan regretfully shut down the laptop and prepared to leave the room. Something made him disassemble the wheelchair and pack it back in the Aztek. Maybe it was just that the exoskeleton hadn't failed for a while, or maybe it was just caution. He felt badly in need of a caffeine fix. The cheap instant coffee the hotel provided tasted like dissolved dirt and just didn't have the required kick. He climbed into the SUV, started the engine, and headed out onto the main road.
*~*~*~
Alec wandered up the street from Jam Pony and found a sheltered vantage point at a bus stop, where he could watch the comings and goings from the bike entrance without being obvious about it. He pulled a newspaper from the inside pocket of his jacket and flicked it out to read – or at least, pretend to read. The reality was more that the supermarket tabloid held no interest for him and was merely a prop. He was doing a job, one that he was good at, no matter how tedious.
*~*~*~
Logan took up a booth in a dark corner of the diner, from which he could see the door but not be seen easily. Dinahs Dinah (the lack of punctuation in the name had made him grimace) was quiet at this late hour of the morning, but the coffee was hot and plentiful, and the food fresh. Taking a cautious sip of hot liquid, he opened the laptop. Turning it away from view, he went back into the system, retracing what he could to try to locate the source of the surveillance video and how it came to appear on his computer screen. For a moment, he was reminded of his teenage years when popups had been a common, and highly annoying, occurrence on the internet as it was then. Eventually popup blocking software had come into existence, and the popup programs had had to become more and more complex in order to beat the blocking…and then the Pulse had come and most of the internet had disappeared overnight.
*~*~*~
Max walked out of Jam Pony at mid-day and wandered slowly in the direction of the markets, not seeming to notice anything or anyone around her, including Alec, who was bent over his motorcycle, pretending to tinker with the engine. She was aware of the dark-haired shadow who detached himself from a shop wall and followed her up the street. Alec didn't miss him either. His eyes followed Max and her tail. He had to give her some credit for the performance she was giving, her normal sexy swagger replaced by the rolling waddle of a pregnant woman. Come to think of it, he mused, that's just what she is. Still, this was different from the way she'd moved this morning, and he couldn't help but feel she was putting on an act.
Alec started the motorcycle and revved it a couple of times, trying to show that it was faulty – malfunctioning. He slowly rode up the street. Max entered the markets at the upper level as Alec roared past. He quickly parked the bike between two cars and followed her and her shadow in.
*~*~*~
Max became aware that she was being followed almost as soon as she left Jam Pony and deliberately headed for the busy market. She knew the rabbit warren of a building intimately and engaged in the time-honored dance of escape and evade through the crowded corridors, up and down ramps and stairs, stopping to look at this and that and making good use of her peripheral vision. She was aware of Alec in the rear, and was annoyed that he was also following her, figuring that Logan had requested him to keep an eye on her. Logan isn't telling me something. I am gonna so beat on his ass when he gets back. The tension was working its way down her spine, and the adrenaline surging through her system was making itself felt elsewhere. The baby kicked and rolled constantly, a distraction she really didn't need on her tour of the markets. She caught Alec's eye for a moment and made a quick hand-signal, blocking it from her shadow's view with her body. He nodded almost imperceptibly and moved around behind the shadow.
Max was about to make her move when she felt a sharp prick on her arm. She pulled away, turning and swung her other fist up, connecting with flesh. She followed up with a shove that sent her assailant flying into a concrete column. His head hit with a solid thunk and slid to the ground. She smashed the dropped syringe with her foot, and found herself facing two others, Alec having already taken out a third.
"Run, Max!" he shouted. She turned and fled, pushing her way roughly through the crush of people, and out the nearest exit to the street, where she had to stop. She bent over grasping her side. Alec came up behind her, startling her. She straightened quickly and swung around, her hand a fist. He caught her arm before she swung. "Hey, it's only me. You okay?"
"I'm fine," she winced, rubbing her side ruefully.
He looked back quickly. "I think we better get moving!" He grabbed her hand and pulled her along for a few steps, then gave up and ran to start the bike, driving up onto the pavement to collect her. They roared off down the street, leaving any pursuit behind.
"Hey! Hey!" she hit Alec on the shoulder trying to get him to pull up. "Hold it a minute."
"No!" he shouted back over his shoulder. "I'm getting you the hell outta here, now, whether you like it or not."
"Alec, stop!"
"No!" Alec responded vehemently.
Max sat behind Alec unhappily as he drove out of Sector 9, sitting uncomfortably on the bike, her belly against his back. He exited the sector via the back-streets, avoiding the checkpoints, and headed east across into Sector 5. "Alec, if you don't stop soon, I'm gonna pee my pants," Max grunted through gritted teeth.
Alec smiled into the wind. "Not far now…"
*~*~*~
Alec ran the motorcycle right into the foyer of his apartment building and into the open elevator door before stopping. Max slid off the bike, gripping her side, and hit the button for the second floor, while he turned off the engine. "Your place?"
"Yeah."
He wheeled the bike out of the elevator and let them both into his apartment, grinning in amusement as Max headed straight for the bathroom. She came out more slowly, shaking wet hands. "You, ah, didn't have a towel in there."
"Sorry." He tossed her the dish towel he'd slung over his shoulder after using it to dry a couple of cups he'd had to rinse out in order to make coffee. "Feel better?"
Ignoring his question, she sat on the sofa. "Thanks for coming to my rescue." She looked over at him and smiled hesitantly.
"Bet that cost you," Alec grinned, pouring boiling water into one of the two cups on the counter.
"Alec, why were you following me? Did Logan call you?"
A series of fleeting expressions passed over his face. "He asked me to watch you."
"I'll deal with why you didn't tell me another time. I'm just kinda glad you were there."
Alec shrugged. "You okay now?" he asked, bringing the two cups of coffee into the living room. "You want me to call a doctor or something?"
"I'm fine…at least, I think so…"
"Maybe I should call Bev Shankar…"
Max sighed, and rubbed her hip. The guy who had tried to jab her with the syringe had elbowed her as he went down and there was a large painful bruise forming on her hip as a result.
"Max?"
"Yeah?"
"Should I call Bev? You know, just to be sure…"
"I wanna speak to Logan first." She frowned. The stress of the day had completely taken her mind off her other worry.
Alec tossed her his phone. "Go for it. Speed dial 5."
*~*~*~
A quiet beeping and a blinking light warned Logan that the battery in the computer was getting low. He regretfully shut it down, paid the check and returned to the car. Driving back to the hotel, he tried to think things through, still pondering the source of the video. He had been connected to the satellite uplink. All he could think of was that his secure connection had been compromised…again. He got a sudden sick feeling. Oh, God, Max. What the hell is going on? He frowned in concentration and mounted the steps to his room, intending to get out of there. If they, whoever they were, had managed to find his computer, then they could find him as well. He frowned in concentration as he inserted the key in the lock.
A voice shouted from across the parking lot, "Don't op…"
The rest was lost. There was a loud bang and Logan was blown back hitting his head on the verandah post. He sagged to the floorboards, unconscious.