THIRTEEN

Xavier seemed perplexed when he noticed us sitting in a plush grey couch, me idly flipping through a magazine and Wraith seemingly engrossed in the sight of his fingernails. Xavier wheeled himself towards us, a smile on his face but not in his eyes. "Logan, this is a surprise." He said, and then turned his attention to Wraith. "I don't believe we've met."

Wraith stood up and offered his hand. "John Wraith." They shook hands and Wraith remained standing as I got to my feet. Xavier looked at us both for a few seconds, his jaw working slowly. "I think we can talk in my office without being disturbed." He led us down a long hallway to his now familiar office. When we were seated, he offered us refreshments. Wraith accepted the offer of iced tea, I stuck with water. When Xavier had finished ordering, he placed his hands flat on his desk and leaned forward. "Let me start by saying I would have appreciated a call before you came, Logan," He said, catching my eye. "But I realize that sometimes life doesn't run to schedule. This is about the case?"

I nodded. My face felt hot, and I suspected it had a lot to do with his reprimand. I could feel my good reputation going down the drain as he looked into my eyes. I had already broken one of the terms of our agreement. I cleared my throat. "A few things have come to light that I thought might interest you."

He nodded. "Such as?"

"Well sir, I've been doing a lot of research on your father's dealings with the government, read some papers on him." I offered Xavier a smile. "Although a lot of it is over my head, I did manage to uncover some interesting bits of information." I sat back, taking my time now. "Professor, have you read any of your father's files?"

Xavier's brow creased. He took a while to respond, as if trying to remember if he had. "Some files. I was going to have it catalogued, and when I had that finished, I was going to dedicate some time to studying them in greater detail."

"What exactly was in these files?"

Again he frowned, sighed a little. "As far as I can recall, the files I looked at contained information regarding muscle growth, stimulation of certain muscles for strength, speed and so forth. It was fascinating but a little dry and rigid, as was my father's style." He smiled sadly for a moment, then caught my eye again. "His work, as I said when we first met, depended largely on outdated practices and principles. It would not be of use except for academic purposes today."

Wraith watched this whole exchange silently, absorbing the information, keeping an eye on Xavier's face as he spoke. If Xavier was uncomfortable with his presence he didn't show it.

"You didn't mention that some of his files survived the theft."

Xavier's from deepened. "What are you talking about?"

I took my notepad out, flipped back a few pages, then leaned forward. "I took a trip to the storage facility where they were kept, and I told that only certain files were taken. They told me they delivered a list of the boxes that were stolen, and on that list, it clearly stated that some of Dr. Xavier's files were left behind. They wouldn't tell me anything else, didn't let me see the files, but they are on the list I was shown."

"The list I received was an inventory only. Some of the files they have recovered were personal correspondence kept by my father, not connected to his work."

Bingo. I had him caught with my lie. I produced a folded piece of paper from my pocket, unfolded it and held it up for him to see. "I was given a list of people who had permission to access the files in question. As you said before, they are all people connected with your school. You don't think any of these people could be responsible for the theft."

"We are going over old information, Mister Logan," Xavier replied curtly.

I held up a hand, telling him to be patient. "Why did you lie about the files, Professor?"

His jaw started working again. "It must have slipped my mind," He said flatly. "Those files have no bearing whatsoever on my father's professional life."

"Have you read any of the correspondence?"

He paused before answering, as if working out if his response could sway my opinion of the situation. "I have. Not all of it."

Wraith looked a question at me: what are we doing here?

I wrote the word liar in my pad, underlined it. "May I see those files?"

"I don't see what relevance they could have on the case at hand."

"All the same."

He shook his head for a brief instant, smiling. "The storage facility didn't say anything about the other files, did they?" He said softly.

I half smiled when he met my stare. "No, they wouldn't tell me a damn thing, but they told me all I needed to know by what they weren't telling me, so I took an educated guess."

He laughed at that, placed a hand on his forehead. "And now you think I am hiding something?"

"Are you?"

"Perhaps I was. But in no way was I doing so with any forethought."

I nodded my understanding. "Help me out here, Professor. I can't do my job with all these blocks in front of me…"

"How have you been blocked?" He cut across me.

I shrugged. "It's been an uphill struggle to get this far. Nobody knows anything, and it seems like the closer I get, everyone moves back a few hundred paces."

Xavier leaned back then, as if he was taking in what I was telling him. His demeanor had changed since he's worked out I was bluffing; he seemed relaxed somehow, as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "I thought this would be simple to begin with, like some kind of corporate espionage had backfired and someone had taken the wrong files, but I began to see exactly what was happening." His eyes slid to me, tired and resigned. "I got you involved too late in the piece, Logan. I should have never called you. I do apologise."

"You want me to stop the case?" I leaned forward and frowned. None of this was making sense. Xavier looked stricken. He nodded.

"I want you to stop."

"That just ain't gonna fly, professor," Wraith interjected, startling us both. Wraith looked in control, his directness obviously disturbing Xavier. "Tell us why you lied."

Xavier regarded Wraith for a few long moments, squinting at him. He sighed a long, heaving sigh and laced his fingers on his desk. "You want me to tell you why." He smiled the same smile he had when he revealed he had been lying. "This is a very dangerous case, Logan. I think I told you that there were people out there who wanted to stop my school, to discredit my teachings. Some of them are unfortunately in positions of power, and their reach is long. I think that whoever stole the files knew about your involvement in the case and began to step up their campaign."

"Wait a minute," I said, looking from Wraith to Xavier. "I was attacked by Kwannon before I formally took your case."

Xavier nodded. "But after Peter made the offer."

That was true. I had the feeling I was being watched when I spoke to the big Russian outside my building what seemed a lifetime ago now. I put it down to Joe Greenson's snooping, but I hadn't considered someone was tailing me. Had seen the conversation, probably heard it, and reported it to whoever ordered the hit on me. The whole story worked well when you looked at the established facts with this new information already in your mind. I was almost certain Xavier knew of this before he offered me the job. He knew something about these omnipotent forces that he was still withholding. "If it is indeed enemies of your school," I said slowly, trying to place my thoughts in some kind of order before I spoke. "Why do they care so much about me? And why didn't they steal all your files at the storage facility?"

"I don't have the answers you seek," Xavier said with rising annoyance, flicking his gaze between Wraith and myself. He swiped a hand over his sweating brow, studied his wet fingertips, and sighed. "I am sorry. This has been a very trying time."

"I do appreciate that. You need to understand, I am committed to getting to the bottom of this."

He looked up at me with surprise. "You mean you are still on the case?"

I nodded. "But I need to work without any further lies. I can't be kept in the dark."

"You have my word."

I wanted to believe him. Whatever Charles Xavier was, he wasn't a bad man. Perhaps his father's shadow still held him in sway. At least that would explain his reluctance to divulge much about his father's correspondence. I knew that it was an invasion of privacy to ask him to turn over his father's letters, but I needed them. I felt like a heel for asking. He called the storage facility and instructed them to turn over the remaining boxes for my inspection, his voice rising over the complaints of the person on the other end. He put down the receiver and looked at me pointedly. "Everything is set, Mister Logan."

I thanked him and I elbowed Wraith to indicate we were leaving. Wraith was staring at Xavier with an intensity I had not expected from him. When we were outside I asked him what it was all about.

"He's still lyin'" He growled as he dug his keys from his pocket.

"There's no law against that," I pointed out.

"Maybe not, but I get the distinct feeling he's covering for himself."

We got in the car and when we were on the freeway, I turned to Wraith, who was smoking a stogie and looking thoughtful. "Why do you care so much about this case?" I asked.

He frowned in my direction. "Are you touched in the head or something? You invited me along for the ride."

"You went pretty hard on Xavier back there. He could smell we were doin' the whole good cop bad cop thing."

"You got what you wanted though. Access to Xavier's daddy's files."

I couldn't argue with that. We'd got what I had set out to achieve. Wraith's interrogation of Xavier notwithstanding. "He's a scholar, Wraith. Whatever his daddy may have been up to, I think he's on the level."

Wraith nodded. "Ok, whatever you say, Logan."

"You don't think he's on the level."

He chewed his words before he spoke, changing gears and smoking with his free hand. "I think he's pulled you into something bad, Logan. However honorable his intentions might be, I would be very wary."

"You keep on saying that there are bad things happening, Wraith," I said with a long sigh. "You keep telling me there are bad men out to get me, but where are they now?"

"Logan, do you even hear yourself talking? I saw the look in your eyes when I took you to Mastodon's grave. You remembered something from all those years ago. You try and tell me I'm making any of this up."

I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn't tell him I didn't remember. Back at the cemetery, his words had sparked a chain of images that burned themselves into my mind. He remembered more than me, that much was obvious, but he was reluctant to tell me any more than the bare bones of our history. I knew he was trying to keep me in the dark for what he thought was my own safety. "What do you remember about me?" I asked him.

He looked sideways at me. "Man, I told you. You're better off not knowing what happened…"

"I ain't talking about any of that top secret stuff," I glared at the side of his head for a few seconds. "I want to know what sort of man I was."

He sighed, a blue stream of smoke escaping his mouth. He kept his eyes on the road as he talked. "You ain't changed that much, Logan," He said softly. "I mean, yeah, OK, we were involved in some pretty messed-up stuff. We did some things that good men would baulk at, stuff that would give good men nightmares. Back then, we told ourselves we were following orders, but you…" He sucked on his cigar and closed his eyes for a moment. "You were the one we all wanted to be. You were a good man, someone with as much integrity as a killer could have. What I didn't know at the time, what none of us knew, was that the rest of us were just failed prototypes. You were the one they wanted, so they pulled you off our detail, put you on a plane and we never saw you again. Meanwhile they sent us on a mission that we were never meant to return from, tying up all the loose ends. Mastodon worked out we were being conned and we got the hell outta there." He ducked his head and frowned at the memory. "We went our separate ways, going as deep underground as we could; making sure each of us knew nothing about the others' whereabouts. It worked for a good few years until Mastodon up and died. Then I found out that our old bosses were looking for you."

I listened to all of this as passively as I could, trying not to stop the flow of his words. I absorbed every word, trying to feel the same spark of memory I did at the cemetery. Nothing, just plain emptiness. Wraith's words were not reassuring, but at least he was telling the truth.

"Who have they sent after me?"

"I don't know. I have a good idea, though. And if it is who I think it is we are in serious trouble."

"Who?"

"Look man, I've already told you enough…"

"Wraith, who?"

He sighed again. "Creed."