AN: A recap of the basics for those of you who forgot what this story was about. And yes, it's still unbetaed.
While at work, Max finds out that EO's identity has been revealed and that Logan Cale is dead.
She receives a message to go to the Space Needle, thinks it's from Sung, but gets there too late, or so she thinks. Alec is there to bring her her bike back. Unbeknownst to her, Logan, alive and well, is the person waiting for her and he sees her with Alec.
Her inquiries into Logan's "death" show Max that senator McKinley is the one responsible. The senator however is nowhere to be found. Frustrated, Max uses the idle moment to leave town and get Zack, who might be in danger during the anti-transgenic craze sweeping the country. Max and Zack are Deck's prisoners for a week but flee before they can find out about his mysterious plans. On the run, they crash a chopper near San Francisco. Meanwhile, Zack is regaining his memory.
Logan leaves for San Francisco where he sets up shop under a new identity. Bling and Beverly Shankar help him. Battered and drunk, Lydecker shows up with a plan to bring White down and Logan agrees, staking out the Familiar Headquarters. The plan goes wrong and Logan is stuck in the lion's den with Otto and a few hostages.
Now on with the story before everybody lynches me:
Part 30Belly of the Beast I
One would have thought that a car crash accompanied by an explosion would cause some disarray in the daily business of the Familiar headquarters. But that didn't seem to be the case. The guards in front of the entrance were highly trained and the clerks inside knew exactly what their tasks were in an emergency situation.
The small hallway Logan and Otto had been ushered through opened up into a wide, marble floored patio, only furnished by a tall, Spartan looking reception desk. On the other side of it, a long hallway led deep into the building. Everything around them, from the burgundy plush runners on the marble floor to the crystal chandeliers bathing the hallway in artificial light, had an aura of wealth and snobbish exclusiveness.
Logan's first thought was of aunt Margo after his parents' death. She would have felt right at home in here. And no doubt, just like the Cale mansion she had redecorated, this place made the hair stand up on his arms. Good that he was used to the feeling.
Logan took in the ordered chaos around as quietly and unobtrusively as he could. Suit clad people hurried to and fro, but never for a second would you have thought from their well-calculated movements that something could have been amiss.
The guard accompanying them stopped at the reception desk.
"Wait here!" he barked at them. As he proceeded to call for assistance, the guard glared at Otto menacingly.
Otto, poised and sure of himself, seemed to ignore him, but Logan noticed he froze at the sight that revealed itself in the hallway, on the other side of the patio. About a dozen people, almost all bystanders and witnesses of the incident, stood in front of a padded door, waiting. A well-built blond man ushered them in, one by one.
Otto didn't know much of the headquarters, since he had been here only once, accompanying White, but he trusted his instincts. This was bad. Glancing at Nick, as the brown haired man had introduced himself, Otto saw his rescuer was not very comfortable either. A strange smile played on the man's face for a moment and then his lips tightened as he caught sight of movement in the opposite corner of the long hallway. Otto followed his gaze and gulped.
Careful, as not to attract the attention of the guard who was listening intently on the phone, uttering an occasional "Yes, sir", Otto leaned his head on one side and whispered.
"You need to get out of here." As soon as he said it, the futility of his words occurred to him. Indeed, they both needed to get out. How they were going to do it was still a mystery.
Logan answered with a look of surprise on his face that turned into an enigmatic smile. "I do?" He did question his own sanity as he realized where this was going to take him, but the situation presented oportunities that were just beginning to get interesting.
Otto whispered back, slightly annoyed by the seeming lack of comprehension.
"If I could, I'd run as fast as my legs would carry me." And it was the truth. His status with White offered him some degree of protection against whatever could be happening here, but for the other man.. The chances were slim.
"But you can't?"
This time, Otto looked Logan in the eyes, slightly irritated. And yet, he'd answer truthfully. The man had saved his life and probably had no idea what he was getting into. "Not yet. In my case it would be too late anyway. You however.."
Logan had his lips pressed tightly together, a grim expression having chased away the enigmatic smile. Looking at his lanky frame and the brown beard hiding most of the facial expressions, Otto couldn't help thinking that there was more to him than met the eye. The man knew something and it became evident in his next answer:
"It's too late for me, too."
Otto was sorely pressed to ask more questions, but the guard had finished listening to the monologue on the other end and ushered them through the glass door into the hallway.
"You sure?", Otto whispered to the man next to him.
"After you," Logan answered decisively.
Logan gulped. He was in. He was convinced that there was more he could do inside than on the outside. As for the risk.. to hell with it. He had nothing to lose.
They had almost reached the end of the hallway and with it, the door Otto had been dreading, when a guard came out.
"Otto.. we were expecting you." Not a word about the disaster outside. The zaccharine smile on the guard's lips couldn't be more fake and Logan wondered why the guy even bothered. He understood seconds later as the man inquired in a sickeningly polite tone, "And the gentleman is?"
His careful planning shot to hell, Logan had decided to play the role of the innocent and ride it out, hoping to find out more on the enemy and to just be around in case his worst fears came true and the witnesses were going to vanish.
"I, just.." Logan began.
Quickly, Otto interrupted, his tone surprisingly firm, "He's with me."
The guard bid them inside while behind them, the padded door closed with a thud.
