Disclaimer: I still don't own Max Steel. (Sigh)
A/N: I'm sorry if anyone was offended or bothered by the last chapter, but I did warn you.
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"Well?" asked Josh later that night in the confines of his bedroom. "Have you found anything out yet?"
"As far as what they're planning, nothing. I'm sorry, hermano. Apparently, Dread is only giving out need to know information about his plan, even to his goons. Our mole has almost nothing. He can't even give us the exact location of the base, since they blindfolded him when they took hi there, just in case. But he did overhear Dread and Psycho talking about something."
"What?"
"He said that Dread said something about Psycho not barging in and kidnapping her. To get her they had to make sure you couldn't stop them. He had to come up with a plan before collecting the insurance."
"What were they talking about?"
"He's not sure. That's all he heard."
"Make sure I can't stop them?" The realization hit him then. "Mindy."
"That would be my guess, hermano."
"So that's why they want her so bad. They want something to hang over my head so I won't interfere in whatever their plan is. Not very original, but effective."
"Pretty much."
"So, they'll probably go with the usual try to lure me away and kidnapp her routine."
"If Psycho's in charge, it's quite possible."
"Terrific." He sighed. "You are so lucky to not have my life, bro."
"Oh, I don't know about that. Being me isn't always fun either," Berto told him, thinking about the restless night he'd had. Every time he got to sleep, that dream was there. And he always woke up, covered in sweat and shaking like a leaf, at the same place. He'd spent the better part of the night torn between wanting the dream to go away and wanting to see what happened next. Finally, he'd given up on sleep all together and downed about an entire pot of coffee just so he wouldn't have to dream again. He didn't know what he was going to do about tonight, but he tried not to think about it.
"That may be true, but at least you aren't two different people with seperate lives, one of which is constantly making the other one miserable."
"There you've got me."
It was a little past midnight. Mindy was wide awake. She wasn't sure if it was the extra hours of sleep she had gotten, courtesy of the sedative, or her fear of the nightmares that grew steadily worse each night that kept her awake now. Silently, she wished she had someone to talk to or at least something to do. Josh was probably sleeping like a baby by now and she was reluctant to wake him. So, instead, she sat in a chair with her knees drawn up to her chest, looking out the window.
The moon was almost full now. The light it cast reflected off of the waves, giving the water an eerie glow. It was tempting to go out and have a swim, but she knew that sharks would be feeding at this time of night. Besides, the water would be freezing and Josh would kill her for doing something so foolish. Instead, she had to content herself with watching the waves.
A whining sound caught her attention. She turned her gaze to the sidwalk in front of the house and saw a shaggy dog. It was limping badly and whining pitifully. Instantly, her heart went out to the animal. She stood and headed for the door, but something stopped her. She hesitated. She had a really bad feeling all of a sudden. It would be unwise to go outside when there may be people out there who would welcome the chance to abduct her. The dog whined again. She looked around the room. There was no way she would just leave an injured animal out on the street to fend for itself. But taking a little something outside with her for protection wouldn't be such a bad idea.
Thinking quickly, she picked up the pin Max had given her. If she wore it on her sleep clothes, it would look suspicious. After a moment's thought, she snatched up a dark blue schrunchy from the nightstand, slipped it around her wrist and pinned the transmitter to it. It was well hidden against the dark color. After that, she went over to the closet. It only took a few seconds to locate what she was looking for. It was a mini baseball bat that was about a foot long. A souvenir from a baseball game they had gone to when she was around 12. She didn't think Josh would mind if she borrowed it for self-defense. She slipped it into the waistband of her shorts and underneath her shirt.
Psycho smirked from his hiding place as Mindy exited the house. He'd known an injured animal would be the perfect bait. And her being awake at this hour, sitting at the window no less, had made it easier to set his plan into action. That was the only helpful thing that idiot he had assigned to follow Mindy at the fair had told them. Mindy had an affinity for animals and had spent quite some time in the temporary petting zoo that had been set up. Her cousin and friends had to practically drag her away from it. This was just too easy.
The dog whimpered and backed away as Mindy approached. He was afraid of humans. Humans did mean things to him. Like that awful man who had hurt his leg. Stll, this human seemed harmless enough, reaching out and speaking soothingly to him. Cautiously, he approached. Reluctantly, he allowed her to scratch him behind the ears. After a few seconds, he decided that this human was alright.
Mindy very carefully examined the dog's leg. It whimpered as she lifted the leg as gently as she could for a closer look. Suddenly, the dog started to panic and back away. She started to sooth it again. Then she realized it wasn't afraid of her, but something behind her.
The Dread soldier was surprised when the girl turned around before he could grab her. He was even more surprised when she dodged his hand and knocked the chloroform soaked rag away from her and out of his grip. He lunged at her. She sidestepped him. Before he could turn and make another grab, she cold cocked him, thanking whatever god had let him not be wearing a helmet.
Psycho rolled his eyes.Why did he even bother sending these boys to do a man's job? He stepped out of the shadows.
The second Mindy saw the freak from the ice rink, she made a mad dash for the house. She may have been able to beat up most of the other terrorists who'd been after her, but she wasn't dumb enough to try and fight this guy. Even Max had a hard time handling him, so there was no way *she* could beat him.
Another Dread soldier managed to grab her as she ran for the door. He covered her mouth instantly to muffle her voice as she tried to scream. She bit down on his hand. He yelped as he felt the bite right through his glove. She drove her elbow into his stomach and then stomped on his foot. She would've gouged at his eyes, but this one was actually wearing a helmet. He lost his grip on her and she turned around and kneed him as hard as she could. He fell to the ground in shock and passed out from the pain.
Psycho was almost upon her. She turned and tried to make it into the house again, but it was futile. He grabbed one of her arms from behind and started to drag her backwards off the porch. Mindy whipped out the bat, turned, and struck him across the face.
Now, despite the fight he'd had with Max at the ice rink, Psycho's mask had stayed on the entire time Mindy had seen him. Now, it flew off as she struck him, quite by accident, in just the right way. As the mask went flying, Mindy stared up at him, horrorstruck by what she saw. Her shock only lasted a split second. Then she did what any sensible girl would do in her position. She *freaked!*
Psycho covered her mouth, effectivly muffling the screams that were rising from her throat and ripped the bat away.. He signaled to some of the other soldiers via a radio. They hurried to play their part in the plan. He began dragging her toward the street.
Mindy struggled vainly against her captor. He was much too strong for her. However, her wriggling was making it very hard to keep a firm grip on her. He shifted to get a better hold. She took the opportunity and barely managed to yank his hand away from her mouth just long enough to scream for her cousin.
"Shit," snarled Psycho. She was making too much noise.
A van pulled up in front of the house and two more Dread soldiers leapt out of it. Quickly, they ran to the door and stood on either side of it. A few seconds later, Josh came barreling out. The Dread soldiers jumped him from either side, catching him off guard. He saw Psycho shoving a still fighting and screaming Mindy into the back of a van. He fought off his attackers as fast as he could. It wasn't fast enough. The van took off.
Lights were coming on in some of the neighboring houses. Josh didn't care. He started chasing the van on foot. Josh could run very fast, even without his powers, but the van was pulling steadily away from him. "Going turbo," he said, hitting the button on his bio-link. At this point, he didn't give a damn if someone saw him glowing. The only thing he cared about was the fact that Psycho was getting away and he was taking Mindy with him.
Mindy watched desperatly through the back windows of the van as Josh grew further and further away. If it hadn't been for the street lights, she would have seen his body glowing a strange yellowish color. As the van made a sharp turn, just before she was thrown to the side, she saw Josh stop running as he realized he would never catch up. She fought back tears. Her shoulder had connected, rather forcefully, with the side of the van, but that wasn't the reason she wanted to cry. Never in her life had she been so terrified.
Josh stared after the van. He was still in shock. How had they gotten their hands on her? He would have heard them if someone broke into his house. Surely Mindy wasn't stupid enough to have been outside. Not unless they had found a way to lure her out. Finally, he recovered and hit another button on his bio-link.
Berto was surprised to be hearing from Josh at this hour. "Hermano? What is it?"
"Assemble the team," he said.
"What? Josh, it's the middle of the night. What's so impor-" He never got to finish the question.
"They have her, Berto. Dread's got Mindy."
Berto didn't hesitate in alerting the others after that.
Josh went back to the house and grabbed his keys. He climbed in the car and was about to start it when a sound caught his ear. It didn't take long to determine that the sound was coming from under the car. He climbed out and peered curiously underneath it. There he found a shaggy dog whining and looking extremely frightened. He sighed. As much as he wanted to take off for N'Tek, he didn't want to run over the dog. It took a few minutes of coaxing, but finally the dog came out. He didn't know how it had fit under the car in the first place, as it was a fairly large animal. He got back in the car and the dog started to limp away.
Wait a second. He got back out and took a closer look at it's leg. He wasn't a vet, but somehow he got the feeling that it's injuries were deliberate. So that was how they had gotten Mindy out of the house. Without a second thought, he picked the animal up and put it in the car. Then he drove to headquarters.
Everyone was fairly surprised when Max walked into the conference room with what looked like an english sheepdog in his arms.
"Um, Max," asked Kat, pointing at the dog, "what's with the living carpet?"
"He needs medical attention. I think his leg is broken. I thought Dr. Yevshenko could take care of him."
Everyone stared at him in disbelief. "Max, your cousin was just abducted and you want to help a dog with a broken leg?" asked Rachel.
"I think the dog had an unwilling hand in it," he explained, setting the dog on the table.
They were about to question him further, but Jefferson Smith walked into the room. "Alright, how long ago did they take her?"
"Less than half an hour," answered Max.
"How did they get her?"
"Well," started Max. He explained what he was fairly sure had happened. They had injured the dog, who Smith had finally noticed, and made sure Mindy had seen it outside. She had gone outside to help it, and they had attacked. Two soldiers had been left behind to buy Psycho and whoever was driving enough time to get away. "By the way, they're probably still laying on my doorstep," he finished.
"Why didn't you bring the in or call for them to be picked up?" asked Rachel.
"Well, gee, I'm sorry, I was a *little* preoccupied," he shot back. "Now, how are we going to get her back?"
Meanwhile, Mindy was now in a completely different vehicle. They had taken her clear across town and then switched to a different van. This one had the logo of a phone company on it's side. The freak with the metal grin was keeping a close watch on her, making sure she didn't try to jump out or anything.
Well, at least now I know why Max called him Smiley, she thought.
Max! She had *completely* forgotten about the transmitter. Trying to be as subtle as possible, she began fiddling with her scrunchy. She tried to make it look like it was just a nervous habit or something. She activated the pin.
Max sat up straighter as he heard a signal through his bio-link. It took him a second to realize what it was. Then a small smile touched his face. Mindy had the transmitter he had given her and she was using it to call him. "Guys, I'm getting a signal from Mindy's transmitter."
Everyone looked at him. "Are you sure?" asked Kat.
He nodded, looking somewhat relieved. He abruptly stood. "I'm going to go and find her."
"Wait," said Rachel, looking thoughtful. As Max paused, she continued. "If she is supposed to be their insurance plan, then it's more than likely that they will take her to their current base for safekeeping."
"And that is relevent how?" asked Max. He didn't like where this was going.
"Well, if we know where they are, we can surprise them."
Max leaned forward. He had a threatening look on his face. "What are you saying, exactly?"
He was not going to like this. "I think we should wait a few hours and then follow the signal to their base of operations."
There was a short silence. Then Max exploded. "Have you lost your mind!?" Everyone jumped. "I'm not leaving her alone with them for any longer than I have to! Who knows what they have planned for her?!"
"Max," said Rachel as calmly as she could, "I don't like the idea of leaving her at their mercy any more than you do, but this could be our only chance to strike at them before they can proceed with whatever their plan is."
"Forget it!"
"She's right Max."
He turned, shocked, to Kat as she uttered the soft words. "Say that again."
"Look, Max," she said, standing and laying a hand on his arm to calm him a little, "I like Mindy a lot. You know that. But, one girl's discomfort for a few hours balanced against how many lives if Dread has his way? It's not much of a choice."
Max stared at her in disbelief. She couldn't be serious. He looked around the table. Everyone else seemed to agree with her. Finally, he turned to Smith. "Dad? It's Mindy. I can't just leave her there."
Smith was silent for sometime. He loved Mindy very much. Leaving her with terrorists was the last thing he wanted to do. Unfortunatly, he also knew that the others were right. Forcing his own emotions into the back of his mind, he looked seriously at Max. "It may be the only chance we get."
Max was dumbfounded. They couldn't seriously be ordering him to leave his baby cousin with Psycho. "Now, I *know* I'm not hearing this right. Are you agreeing with them?" At his father's silence, his heart sank into his shoes. He tried to remain calm and reason with them. "Did it ever occur to you people that they might find the transmitter and destroy it? Or that wherever they take her might be built like a fortress and the signal will be blocked? If that happens, we may not be able to find her at all. Another thing, Dread has been dying to cut me open to find out why I survived being intergrated with the Max probes. Mindy has a genitic link to me. He might decide to pump her full of the probes just to see if she lives, too. And if she does, he'll just run a thousand tests on her or worse to try to find out why."
They *hadn't* thought of those things. He had a valid point. Those were all very possible occurances, not just the worried mind of a loved one at work.
"Berto, how closely can you moniter the signal from the main console?" asked Kat.
"Within a few feet of her location."
"Moniter them as closely as you can," ordered Rachel. "If anything happens to the signal, alert the rest of us right away. At least then, we'll have someplace to start looking for her."
This wasn't good enough for Max. "And how long, exactly, do you still plan on leaving my cousin in Psycho's demented hands?"
Rachel looked at Smith, who looked like he was having second thoughts about this plan. "I should say at least two hours, just to be sure."
Smith thought for a moment. "One hour," he stated firmly. "No more than that. Then, you are going to find my niece. I don't care if she's leads us to the Dread base or not, you will go and bring her back."
Rachel nodded. She still thought that it would be wiser to wait a bit longer than that, but wasn't about to argue with her superior right now. Or Max. It was their family member whose life was hanging in the balance, after all. They had every right to be worried.
"They've already had her for half an hour," pointed out Max. "And who knows how long it will take us to get to wherever they have her? I still say we should go now."
"One hour from now, Max. I am very sorry, but we are going to have to take the opportunity to find them."
Max clenched his fists, nails digging into his skin. He kept his jaw clenched to save him the energy of arguing when he was clearly going to lose. He ignored the sympathetic looks he was getting from the other agents. Silently, he turned and went towards the door.
"Max," called Smith. Max paused, but didn't turn around. "If you leave here to find Mindy before I tell you to, you'll be disobeying a direct order."
Max left the room. As if he *could* go after her without consent. Any vehicle he took, wether it was Shadow, Hawk, or something else entirely, could be overidden and controlled from the main console. Frusterated beyond belief, he made his way to the training room to vent on the equipment.
Mindy kept glancing out the back of the van. She didn't recognize where they were or see any sign of Max. It was obvious that they were no longer in the city, but that was all she could tell.
"Forget it," stated Psycho. "Your little hero has no clue where to find you. He's not coming."
She glared at him. Oh, what she would give to take a blowtorch to that permanent grin of his. She continued fiddling with her scrunchy. He didn't notice her turn on the microphone of the transmitter. "Where are we going?"
"Somewhere where your little friend will never find you."
"If this is about my uncle paying a ransom, you aren't going to get one red cent."
"As if I care about that. You're not a meal ticket, you're an insurance policy. Max Steel would never let anything happen to you. And if he wants you to stay safe, he'll stop sticking his nose where it doesn't belong."
There had to be something else. She and Max didn't even know each other until after someone had tried to kidnapp her. She would have pressed the issue, but she didn't really care at the moment.
"Max *will* come for me. Don't think he won't."
"Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that." He sounded as if he wanted to laugh. "Face it, your little friend isn't coming," he said, seeing her glance out the window again.
She glared daggers at him. "My 'little friend' is going to kick your ass."
"In your dreams. I could take on Max Steel any day."
"You just keep telling yourself that, *Smiley*," she retorted in a mocking voice.
He growled. "Don't call me that!" The way he was looking at her told her that this conversation was over.
She glanced out the back again. She reached up and rubbed her hands over her face. She let them rest there for a few seconds. Placing her mouth next to the pin, she whipered softly, "Max, where are you?"
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Sorry, that's all I could come up with for now. Maybe I'll get lucky and the 'keyboard demon' will take over like it did for the first few chapters. And I should probably tell you now, my imagination went on overload with possibilities for this character, so there will be more than one story about Mindy McGrath. Probably three. Most of Mindy's past (I hinted at it in chapter 10) will probably be explained in the second story. I was going to put it in this one, but it's running kind of long already. If anybody objects to my writing a series featuring Mindy, speak now or forever hold your piece. Of course, I'll probably write more stories anyway. Then again, you don't have to read them. Thank you for reading what I've written so far. Please review.
Rhiannon Faylinn
A/N: I'm sorry if anyone was offended or bothered by the last chapter, but I did warn you.
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"Well?" asked Josh later that night in the confines of his bedroom. "Have you found anything out yet?"
"As far as what they're planning, nothing. I'm sorry, hermano. Apparently, Dread is only giving out need to know information about his plan, even to his goons. Our mole has almost nothing. He can't even give us the exact location of the base, since they blindfolded him when they took hi there, just in case. But he did overhear Dread and Psycho talking about something."
"What?"
"He said that Dread said something about Psycho not barging in and kidnapping her. To get her they had to make sure you couldn't stop them. He had to come up with a plan before collecting the insurance."
"What were they talking about?"
"He's not sure. That's all he heard."
"Make sure I can't stop them?" The realization hit him then. "Mindy."
"That would be my guess, hermano."
"So that's why they want her so bad. They want something to hang over my head so I won't interfere in whatever their plan is. Not very original, but effective."
"Pretty much."
"So, they'll probably go with the usual try to lure me away and kidnapp her routine."
"If Psycho's in charge, it's quite possible."
"Terrific." He sighed. "You are so lucky to not have my life, bro."
"Oh, I don't know about that. Being me isn't always fun either," Berto told him, thinking about the restless night he'd had. Every time he got to sleep, that dream was there. And he always woke up, covered in sweat and shaking like a leaf, at the same place. He'd spent the better part of the night torn between wanting the dream to go away and wanting to see what happened next. Finally, he'd given up on sleep all together and downed about an entire pot of coffee just so he wouldn't have to dream again. He didn't know what he was going to do about tonight, but he tried not to think about it.
"That may be true, but at least you aren't two different people with seperate lives, one of which is constantly making the other one miserable."
"There you've got me."
It was a little past midnight. Mindy was wide awake. She wasn't sure if it was the extra hours of sleep she had gotten, courtesy of the sedative, or her fear of the nightmares that grew steadily worse each night that kept her awake now. Silently, she wished she had someone to talk to or at least something to do. Josh was probably sleeping like a baby by now and she was reluctant to wake him. So, instead, she sat in a chair with her knees drawn up to her chest, looking out the window.
The moon was almost full now. The light it cast reflected off of the waves, giving the water an eerie glow. It was tempting to go out and have a swim, but she knew that sharks would be feeding at this time of night. Besides, the water would be freezing and Josh would kill her for doing something so foolish. Instead, she had to content herself with watching the waves.
A whining sound caught her attention. She turned her gaze to the sidwalk in front of the house and saw a shaggy dog. It was limping badly and whining pitifully. Instantly, her heart went out to the animal. She stood and headed for the door, but something stopped her. She hesitated. She had a really bad feeling all of a sudden. It would be unwise to go outside when there may be people out there who would welcome the chance to abduct her. The dog whined again. She looked around the room. There was no way she would just leave an injured animal out on the street to fend for itself. But taking a little something outside with her for protection wouldn't be such a bad idea.
Thinking quickly, she picked up the pin Max had given her. If she wore it on her sleep clothes, it would look suspicious. After a moment's thought, she snatched up a dark blue schrunchy from the nightstand, slipped it around her wrist and pinned the transmitter to it. It was well hidden against the dark color. After that, she went over to the closet. It only took a few seconds to locate what she was looking for. It was a mini baseball bat that was about a foot long. A souvenir from a baseball game they had gone to when she was around 12. She didn't think Josh would mind if she borrowed it for self-defense. She slipped it into the waistband of her shorts and underneath her shirt.
Psycho smirked from his hiding place as Mindy exited the house. He'd known an injured animal would be the perfect bait. And her being awake at this hour, sitting at the window no less, had made it easier to set his plan into action. That was the only helpful thing that idiot he had assigned to follow Mindy at the fair had told them. Mindy had an affinity for animals and had spent quite some time in the temporary petting zoo that had been set up. Her cousin and friends had to practically drag her away from it. This was just too easy.
The dog whimpered and backed away as Mindy approached. He was afraid of humans. Humans did mean things to him. Like that awful man who had hurt his leg. Stll, this human seemed harmless enough, reaching out and speaking soothingly to him. Cautiously, he approached. Reluctantly, he allowed her to scratch him behind the ears. After a few seconds, he decided that this human was alright.
Mindy very carefully examined the dog's leg. It whimpered as she lifted the leg as gently as she could for a closer look. Suddenly, the dog started to panic and back away. She started to sooth it again. Then she realized it wasn't afraid of her, but something behind her.
The Dread soldier was surprised when the girl turned around before he could grab her. He was even more surprised when she dodged his hand and knocked the chloroform soaked rag away from her and out of his grip. He lunged at her. She sidestepped him. Before he could turn and make another grab, she cold cocked him, thanking whatever god had let him not be wearing a helmet.
Psycho rolled his eyes.Why did he even bother sending these boys to do a man's job? He stepped out of the shadows.
The second Mindy saw the freak from the ice rink, she made a mad dash for the house. She may have been able to beat up most of the other terrorists who'd been after her, but she wasn't dumb enough to try and fight this guy. Even Max had a hard time handling him, so there was no way *she* could beat him.
Another Dread soldier managed to grab her as she ran for the door. He covered her mouth instantly to muffle her voice as she tried to scream. She bit down on his hand. He yelped as he felt the bite right through his glove. She drove her elbow into his stomach and then stomped on his foot. She would've gouged at his eyes, but this one was actually wearing a helmet. He lost his grip on her and she turned around and kneed him as hard as she could. He fell to the ground in shock and passed out from the pain.
Psycho was almost upon her. She turned and tried to make it into the house again, but it was futile. He grabbed one of her arms from behind and started to drag her backwards off the porch. Mindy whipped out the bat, turned, and struck him across the face.
Now, despite the fight he'd had with Max at the ice rink, Psycho's mask had stayed on the entire time Mindy had seen him. Now, it flew off as she struck him, quite by accident, in just the right way. As the mask went flying, Mindy stared up at him, horrorstruck by what she saw. Her shock only lasted a split second. Then she did what any sensible girl would do in her position. She *freaked!*
Psycho covered her mouth, effectivly muffling the screams that were rising from her throat and ripped the bat away.. He signaled to some of the other soldiers via a radio. They hurried to play their part in the plan. He began dragging her toward the street.
Mindy struggled vainly against her captor. He was much too strong for her. However, her wriggling was making it very hard to keep a firm grip on her. He shifted to get a better hold. She took the opportunity and barely managed to yank his hand away from her mouth just long enough to scream for her cousin.
"Shit," snarled Psycho. She was making too much noise.
A van pulled up in front of the house and two more Dread soldiers leapt out of it. Quickly, they ran to the door and stood on either side of it. A few seconds later, Josh came barreling out. The Dread soldiers jumped him from either side, catching him off guard. He saw Psycho shoving a still fighting and screaming Mindy into the back of a van. He fought off his attackers as fast as he could. It wasn't fast enough. The van took off.
Lights were coming on in some of the neighboring houses. Josh didn't care. He started chasing the van on foot. Josh could run very fast, even without his powers, but the van was pulling steadily away from him. "Going turbo," he said, hitting the button on his bio-link. At this point, he didn't give a damn if someone saw him glowing. The only thing he cared about was the fact that Psycho was getting away and he was taking Mindy with him.
Mindy watched desperatly through the back windows of the van as Josh grew further and further away. If it hadn't been for the street lights, she would have seen his body glowing a strange yellowish color. As the van made a sharp turn, just before she was thrown to the side, she saw Josh stop running as he realized he would never catch up. She fought back tears. Her shoulder had connected, rather forcefully, with the side of the van, but that wasn't the reason she wanted to cry. Never in her life had she been so terrified.
Josh stared after the van. He was still in shock. How had they gotten their hands on her? He would have heard them if someone broke into his house. Surely Mindy wasn't stupid enough to have been outside. Not unless they had found a way to lure her out. Finally, he recovered and hit another button on his bio-link.
Berto was surprised to be hearing from Josh at this hour. "Hermano? What is it?"
"Assemble the team," he said.
"What? Josh, it's the middle of the night. What's so impor-" He never got to finish the question.
"They have her, Berto. Dread's got Mindy."
Berto didn't hesitate in alerting the others after that.
Josh went back to the house and grabbed his keys. He climbed in the car and was about to start it when a sound caught his ear. It didn't take long to determine that the sound was coming from under the car. He climbed out and peered curiously underneath it. There he found a shaggy dog whining and looking extremely frightened. He sighed. As much as he wanted to take off for N'Tek, he didn't want to run over the dog. It took a few minutes of coaxing, but finally the dog came out. He didn't know how it had fit under the car in the first place, as it was a fairly large animal. He got back in the car and the dog started to limp away.
Wait a second. He got back out and took a closer look at it's leg. He wasn't a vet, but somehow he got the feeling that it's injuries were deliberate. So that was how they had gotten Mindy out of the house. Without a second thought, he picked the animal up and put it in the car. Then he drove to headquarters.
Everyone was fairly surprised when Max walked into the conference room with what looked like an english sheepdog in his arms.
"Um, Max," asked Kat, pointing at the dog, "what's with the living carpet?"
"He needs medical attention. I think his leg is broken. I thought Dr. Yevshenko could take care of him."
Everyone stared at him in disbelief. "Max, your cousin was just abducted and you want to help a dog with a broken leg?" asked Rachel.
"I think the dog had an unwilling hand in it," he explained, setting the dog on the table.
They were about to question him further, but Jefferson Smith walked into the room. "Alright, how long ago did they take her?"
"Less than half an hour," answered Max.
"How did they get her?"
"Well," started Max. He explained what he was fairly sure had happened. They had injured the dog, who Smith had finally noticed, and made sure Mindy had seen it outside. She had gone outside to help it, and they had attacked. Two soldiers had been left behind to buy Psycho and whoever was driving enough time to get away. "By the way, they're probably still laying on my doorstep," he finished.
"Why didn't you bring the in or call for them to be picked up?" asked Rachel.
"Well, gee, I'm sorry, I was a *little* preoccupied," he shot back. "Now, how are we going to get her back?"
Meanwhile, Mindy was now in a completely different vehicle. They had taken her clear across town and then switched to a different van. This one had the logo of a phone company on it's side. The freak with the metal grin was keeping a close watch on her, making sure she didn't try to jump out or anything.
Well, at least now I know why Max called him Smiley, she thought.
Max! She had *completely* forgotten about the transmitter. Trying to be as subtle as possible, she began fiddling with her scrunchy. She tried to make it look like it was just a nervous habit or something. She activated the pin.
Max sat up straighter as he heard a signal through his bio-link. It took him a second to realize what it was. Then a small smile touched his face. Mindy had the transmitter he had given her and she was using it to call him. "Guys, I'm getting a signal from Mindy's transmitter."
Everyone looked at him. "Are you sure?" asked Kat.
He nodded, looking somewhat relieved. He abruptly stood. "I'm going to go and find her."
"Wait," said Rachel, looking thoughtful. As Max paused, she continued. "If she is supposed to be their insurance plan, then it's more than likely that they will take her to their current base for safekeeping."
"And that is relevent how?" asked Max. He didn't like where this was going.
"Well, if we know where they are, we can surprise them."
Max leaned forward. He had a threatening look on his face. "What are you saying, exactly?"
He was not going to like this. "I think we should wait a few hours and then follow the signal to their base of operations."
There was a short silence. Then Max exploded. "Have you lost your mind!?" Everyone jumped. "I'm not leaving her alone with them for any longer than I have to! Who knows what they have planned for her?!"
"Max," said Rachel as calmly as she could, "I don't like the idea of leaving her at their mercy any more than you do, but this could be our only chance to strike at them before they can proceed with whatever their plan is."
"Forget it!"
"She's right Max."
He turned, shocked, to Kat as she uttered the soft words. "Say that again."
"Look, Max," she said, standing and laying a hand on his arm to calm him a little, "I like Mindy a lot. You know that. But, one girl's discomfort for a few hours balanced against how many lives if Dread has his way? It's not much of a choice."
Max stared at her in disbelief. She couldn't be serious. He looked around the table. Everyone else seemed to agree with her. Finally, he turned to Smith. "Dad? It's Mindy. I can't just leave her there."
Smith was silent for sometime. He loved Mindy very much. Leaving her with terrorists was the last thing he wanted to do. Unfortunatly, he also knew that the others were right. Forcing his own emotions into the back of his mind, he looked seriously at Max. "It may be the only chance we get."
Max was dumbfounded. They couldn't seriously be ordering him to leave his baby cousin with Psycho. "Now, I *know* I'm not hearing this right. Are you agreeing with them?" At his father's silence, his heart sank into his shoes. He tried to remain calm and reason with them. "Did it ever occur to you people that they might find the transmitter and destroy it? Or that wherever they take her might be built like a fortress and the signal will be blocked? If that happens, we may not be able to find her at all. Another thing, Dread has been dying to cut me open to find out why I survived being intergrated with the Max probes. Mindy has a genitic link to me. He might decide to pump her full of the probes just to see if she lives, too. And if she does, he'll just run a thousand tests on her or worse to try to find out why."
They *hadn't* thought of those things. He had a valid point. Those were all very possible occurances, not just the worried mind of a loved one at work.
"Berto, how closely can you moniter the signal from the main console?" asked Kat.
"Within a few feet of her location."
"Moniter them as closely as you can," ordered Rachel. "If anything happens to the signal, alert the rest of us right away. At least then, we'll have someplace to start looking for her."
This wasn't good enough for Max. "And how long, exactly, do you still plan on leaving my cousin in Psycho's demented hands?"
Rachel looked at Smith, who looked like he was having second thoughts about this plan. "I should say at least two hours, just to be sure."
Smith thought for a moment. "One hour," he stated firmly. "No more than that. Then, you are going to find my niece. I don't care if she's leads us to the Dread base or not, you will go and bring her back."
Rachel nodded. She still thought that it would be wiser to wait a bit longer than that, but wasn't about to argue with her superior right now. Or Max. It was their family member whose life was hanging in the balance, after all. They had every right to be worried.
"They've already had her for half an hour," pointed out Max. "And who knows how long it will take us to get to wherever they have her? I still say we should go now."
"One hour from now, Max. I am very sorry, but we are going to have to take the opportunity to find them."
Max clenched his fists, nails digging into his skin. He kept his jaw clenched to save him the energy of arguing when he was clearly going to lose. He ignored the sympathetic looks he was getting from the other agents. Silently, he turned and went towards the door.
"Max," called Smith. Max paused, but didn't turn around. "If you leave here to find Mindy before I tell you to, you'll be disobeying a direct order."
Max left the room. As if he *could* go after her without consent. Any vehicle he took, wether it was Shadow, Hawk, or something else entirely, could be overidden and controlled from the main console. Frusterated beyond belief, he made his way to the training room to vent on the equipment.
Mindy kept glancing out the back of the van. She didn't recognize where they were or see any sign of Max. It was obvious that they were no longer in the city, but that was all she could tell.
"Forget it," stated Psycho. "Your little hero has no clue where to find you. He's not coming."
She glared at him. Oh, what she would give to take a blowtorch to that permanent grin of his. She continued fiddling with her scrunchy. He didn't notice her turn on the microphone of the transmitter. "Where are we going?"
"Somewhere where your little friend will never find you."
"If this is about my uncle paying a ransom, you aren't going to get one red cent."
"As if I care about that. You're not a meal ticket, you're an insurance policy. Max Steel would never let anything happen to you. And if he wants you to stay safe, he'll stop sticking his nose where it doesn't belong."
There had to be something else. She and Max didn't even know each other until after someone had tried to kidnapp her. She would have pressed the issue, but she didn't really care at the moment.
"Max *will* come for me. Don't think he won't."
"Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that." He sounded as if he wanted to laugh. "Face it, your little friend isn't coming," he said, seeing her glance out the window again.
She glared daggers at him. "My 'little friend' is going to kick your ass."
"In your dreams. I could take on Max Steel any day."
"You just keep telling yourself that, *Smiley*," she retorted in a mocking voice.
He growled. "Don't call me that!" The way he was looking at her told her that this conversation was over.
She glanced out the back again. She reached up and rubbed her hands over her face. She let them rest there for a few seconds. Placing her mouth next to the pin, she whipered softly, "Max, where are you?"
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Sorry, that's all I could come up with for now. Maybe I'll get lucky and the 'keyboard demon' will take over like it did for the first few chapters. And I should probably tell you now, my imagination went on overload with possibilities for this character, so there will be more than one story about Mindy McGrath. Probably three. Most of Mindy's past (I hinted at it in chapter 10) will probably be explained in the second story. I was going to put it in this one, but it's running kind of long already. If anybody objects to my writing a series featuring Mindy, speak now or forever hold your piece. Of course, I'll probably write more stories anyway. Then again, you don't have to read them. Thank you for reading what I've written so far. Please review.
Rhiannon Faylinn