EIGHTEEN

We didn't need to speak on the plane. Warren would not give us any information because it would deprive him of his dramatics, and both Wraith and I had been plunged into deep thought by the revelation about Mastodon If what Warren had said was right, then we were all on borrowed time. If the technique of age repression had been tested n Mastodon, what hope did any of the rest of us have?

The plane touched down and we were hustled into another limo, this time with two new goons for company. Warren rode in a second car, told us he would catch up later. Wraith stared out of the window as endless pristine white snow rushed past; it was hard to tell if we were moving at all. The air was oppressive and heavy in the limo, the two goons saying nothing and watching our every move.

"A few hours ago we were walking along a street in New York City," Wraith said almost in wonder. "Now we're in Canada, in a limo, being taken God only knows where."

"You think Warren is going to kill us?"

"I have a strong feeling that he might."

"That stuff about Mastodon…" I began, watching Wraith's face. "What was that?"

Wraith shrugged. "He's probably telling the truth."

"So it had to have been him who stole Xavier's files."

"If he didn't do it then he knows who did, and he has had some access to all that material," Wraith responded.

"He said another name," I said. "Maverick. Who was he talking about?"

"The good David North is Maverick," Wraith said. He let that knowledge sink in, and said, "Warren told us just to show how clever he was. He wanted us to know that he located the team before we even started looking. He knew, and he was waiting for something before he made his move."

"He already knew I was in the city. He had me kicked out of his club more than once."

"He had you kicked out because of that red head that haunts your dreams, man." His eyes met mine over his glasses. "What that says to me is, he used her as a honey trap."

"Christ Wraith, gimme a break…"

Wraith held up both hands to quiet my objections. "We don't know how far ahead he worked," he said. "Maybe she was there to lure you in right from the start. Maybe she's still doing it. I mean, what was that little scene out front of Harry's the other night? Wouldn't you call that odd?"

I had to admit he was right. On some levels, my instincts had kicked in when Madelyn spoke to me outside Harry's, told me to be wary, to not be so eager to accept what she was saying. But in the face of her beauty I had to admit I didn't listen. I didn't listen to Edmund's warning before that, telling me not to be such an idiot over a woman. Had she sold me down the river? Was she sent there by Warren to unsettle me? She had certainly looked scared, that wild look in her eye probably from the fear that she would be caught out.

I stared out the window, trying to shut out the thought that I had really messed up, had thrown years of good solid detective work away because a woman reminded me of the phantoms that haunt my dreams. I couldn't even tell if the dreams were real, if I was ever in Madripoor, and if I ever knew a red haired woman named Jean. Warren said they had experimented on Mastodon to stop him ageing; if that was true then what else did they do? Edmund said that they were working towards creating mindless soldiers living only to take orders. Is that what Wraith and I were? Is that why I can't remember?

"I've really messed this up, haven't I?" I said to Wraith. "If I'd been smart and put things together sooner, we would have got the jump on Warren, and it would be us telling him how it will end."

"You can't blame yourself for this, Logan. If they presented me with the ghosts of my past, then I would have been similarly blinded. If it was the woman in my memories who was planted before me, I'd want to believe her too."

"I was an idiot."

"Maybe you were, but it didn't have a damn thing to do with our current predicament. Warren planned this. He set us up from the start."

"I keep going back to when this whole thing happened. The last time I saw Warren, and when Kwannon tried to kill me, I immediately thought of him. Mastodon…I mean North, he told me to leave the Worthington angle alone, even though my gut said it was him."

"Warren did this clean, Logan. He left no traces of himself in any of this, and I can guarantee you that when this is over, he will go back to Manhattan with his pristine image intact."

"He implied someone was working with him back in the limo," I said. "He said he was fooled along with everyone else."

Wraith nodded. "I reckon we're going to find out who that is quite soon."

The limo rolled to a stop outside a huge warehouse situated far from the specter of any large city. The ride had been long and silent, and the countryside had become indistinct and identical. The driver and our goon escorts all exited the car, and they ordered us out too. Whatever was going to happen, they were not going to let us out of their sight. Behind the limo, someone had already begun to lock a gate that was topped with razor wire. In fact the whole compound was surrounded by wire fencing topped with razor wire. It put me in mind of a war torn country. The only thing missing was jackbooted soldiers and rabid dogs.

Wraith did a full 360 degree turn and low whistled. "Do you get the feeling those fences are meant to keep things from getting out?" He whispered.

I looked at the warehouse, which looked as if it hadn't been used in a few decades. Windows were busted, walls were cracked and crumbling, and the whole site was eerily silent. Warren had obviously chosen this place for the atmosphere, and its physical separation from any potential witnesses. There were official looking signs everywhere that warned trespassers would be shot.

"Mister Worthington will be along shortly," one of the goons said. He squared his shoulders and heaved a breath, which came out as a plume of mist from his nostrils. "Please follow me, gentlemen."

He trudged towards the warehouse and we followed, with the other goon bringing up the rear. There would be little chance to fight back and we both understood it would be wise to play along. I'd been in similar situations before, but on smaller scales. Wraith looked as if he had been doing this sort of thing his whole life.

Inside, the space was bare. There was a cement floor which looked like it had been recently resurfaced. Directly above us was a catwalk that ran right around the huge room. There were ladders everywhere leading to the catwalk. There were doorways on every side of the room, some open and some shut and padlocked. As we walked past one of the open doorways I felt a chill air. It looked as though the path from that door led directly underground. I glanced at Wraith, who was frowning into the doorway too.

The goon in front of us gestured towards the door. "In front of us now." He said.

"So we're already in the middle of nowhere and you're sending us underground?" Wraith said incredulously. He smirked at me and shrugged when he got no response. "Why don't you guys just shoot us in the back and get this over with?"

"Move." The other goon said. "Now." He leveled his weapon at Wraith and Wraith shrugged again.

We walked through the doorway and entered a surprisingly narrow corridor that smelled of wet earth and stale air. The goons had chosen to send us head first into the corridor, one behind the other, and it was a very wise decision; the corridor was barely wide enough to accommodate one person, let alone two side by side. The other reason was that it was pitch dark. If we got any ideas to jump one of them it would be easier here. The goon who was up to that moment leading us was now behind us just in case we tried anything funny. He was in the perfect position to shoot us in the back.

It was at least a five minute walk until we saw light. The ground was beginning to slope sharply and the cold air was getting practically freezing. Wraith emerged into a well lit room about half the size of the warehouse's main floor, and unlike the main floor there were people here. Wraith stopped short and I bumped into him. His eyes were wide and his mouth agape. "Jesus, Logan."

I pushed him out of the way and saw four huge circular tanks against the wall opposite. Two were still intact, and the other two had been broken clean in half. The glass was moldy and dull, but you could easily tell that it was thick and sturdy. You would have had to hit that sorta glass with a fair amount of force to shatter it so cleanly. Ad my eyes focused in the light, I looked around and clocked a lone figure sitting in front of one of the tanks. Her red hair fell over her face and her hands were cuffed in front of her.

Madelyn.

I took a step towards her but Wraith held me back with a look of warning. It was wise not to trust anything at the moment.

"Welcome, gentlemen," came a voice from behind us. We turned and saw a tall, barrel-chested man in a sombre black suit. He had a thick black moustache and squinty brown eyes. He was smoking a cigar and he exhaled a plume of blue smoke to the ceiling. "You've met Madelyn Pryor, of course." He moved aside and revealed two men sitting behind him. "And the distinguished Professor Charles Xavier, and Edmund Lock, historian and failed scientist." He smiled down at Edmund, who sneered in his direction. Neither of the older men was restrained.

Wraith looked at me and I returned his puzzled glance. This was too strange. I felt a twinge deep in my gut and knew that whatever was happening, we were about to find out what secrets Warren had promised before. Edmund had raised his head and met my eyes. He looked saddened beyond measure. His shoulders stooped and he looked suddenly like the frail old man he was. Xavier's face was curiously blank. He observed the stranger in the suit with cool authority. He wasn't about to let defeat dent his pride.

"My name is Barrington. I once served my country as a general and I have since retired." He smiled, which was indicated by no more than the corners of his moustache lifting slightly. "I forgive both of you for not remembering me, but you see, I wanted it that way. It is good to see you both again, though."

"You killed Kwannon…" I said quietly. His eyes locked onto mine and he didn't respond. "You paid her to kill me and then you ordered her murder."

He held my glare for a few more moments, and then nodded. "She was employed for a specific purpose and she failed. She didn't know why the hit on you was ordered, but she didn't much care. When she failed, I decided she was a liability and a security threat."

"Did you know she'd fail?" I asked

He laughed heartily. "Of course I knew she'd fail! She was an extraordinary assassin, very skilled and professional, but she was no match for you. Your training bested her." The merriment went out of his eyes and he fixed me with a serious look. "But you were meant to kill her. When you showed her that small mercy, I knew that I would have to step in and fix the situation before she went to the authorities."

"And you made it look like I murdered her."

"That was a pleasant aside, yes. When her body was found, I knew your old buddy Maverick would come onto the scene, and I made sure Wraith would come into possession of the crime scene photos. In fact, your decision not to kill her had progressed my original plan quite nicely."

Wraith's body was shaking but I doubted it was because of the cold. "You worked on some project, an experiment we were subjected to."

Barrington smiled again. "So were the two fine men you see behind me, to varying degrees. Professor Xavier was just a boy when we started the project, but his father was one of its guiding lights. Edmund was a young lab assistant when he started on the project, but he rose through the ranks when he helped with some major breakthroughs." He took another few puffs of his cigar and chuckled. "Professor Xavier had started to dig through his daddy's past and we suspected he was close to discovering the truth of his work. When we learned of his contact with you, Logan, we knew that he had identified you as one of the test subjects."

I looked to Xavier who looked at me and nodded. "Yes, I knew."

"Why didn't you say anything to me?" I demanded, taking a step forward and being blocked by Warren's goons.

Xavier looked imploringly at me. "Would you have believed it?"

I opened my mouth and shook my head. Xavier had contacted me because he knew everything. He was playing some kind of sick game like the rest of them!

"Edmund…You knew all about this too?" I asked softly.

Edmund nodded glumly. "I'm not proud of my part in this, Logan. I was a boy when I worked on the project and I stayed alive by not divulging the secrets of the project! But when last we met, I decided that there were greater things than kept secrets. That's why I told you about the project. I had trusted you would piece the rest of it together by now…" His voice trailed away and he swallowed hard. "Regardless, I can offer no reasonable excuse for my actions, or my participation in the situation now, but I do apologise."

The depth of Edmund's apology was touching, as was Xavier's. My mind and body reeling, I turned away from both men and stared at Wraith disbelievingly. "I've changed my mind," I said. "I don't want to find the answers now."

Wraith patted me on the shoulder. "He's trying to psych you out, Logan," he whispered. "Don't let him do it."

I shrugged Wraith's hand off me, and spoke to Barrington in what I hoped was a calm voice. With every sound magnified in this hollow room, I felt certain he could hear the tremor in it. "Who is she in all this?" I pointed to Madelyn, who raised her head but did not speak.

Barrington's smile broadened. "Ah, the lovely Madelyn. She was a pawn as well, used to devastating effect, I must say."

"What?"

"I hate to break the news to you like this Logan, but the woman you remembered in Madripoor is not the woman you see sitting in the chair now. In fact, the woman in your dreams does not exist at all. She was a construct of my design, planted into your subconscious as you were going through several months of intensive hypnotherapy and brain surgery." He was warming to his subject now, clearly impressed with himself. "We were hoping to achieve a total control over each subject, one who has no higher function than to follow orders, but the human brain is a thing of many mysteries and wonder, so it isn't easy to break a man of his habits, erase his memories and personality traits, and reconstruct him whole.

"My research and testing had been the most advanced in the world at the time, and when I met with Brian Xavier and his team, who came to me with a proposition, I naturally jumped at the chance. When the long and arduous task of redeveloping these men began, I realized that it would not be possible to wipe the slate clean, as it were. There were too many factors, not the least of which was the cost of developing such a procedure and the time it would take. So we compromised and I decided to plant false memories into each subject so as to make them more malleable. The implants, surgery and hypnotherapy sessions all contributed to the first successful prototype for the Weapon X project."

I heard Wraith's voice behind me, raw and low. "Mastodon."

Barrington nodded. "Yes, top marks for you, Johnnie Wraith. Using those detective skills that have helped you and Logan over the past few weeks."

"Actually, Warren told me."

Barrington barked a laugh and nodded. "He does like to steal my thunder, boys."

"Why do you want us back now?" Wraith pressed on. "If the government abandoned the project then there is nothing to gain from this."

Barrington sighed and shook his head. "They had no idea about the project. At least, not directly. The President at the time was not privy to the details of Weapon X. One department would flow money to another, a sub department would then filter that money through other areas, and would eventually end up funding the project. The very nature of the project demanded that kind of secrecy. But the key players all walked away after we lost all but three of the original four test subjects."

"This is what I couldn't work out," I said. "How did you lose us?"

Barrington took his time answering. He looked at Xavier's pained expression and his brightened visibly. He was enjoying this. "We sent you on several successful top secret missions. Many were assassinations carried out under a veil of dense secrecy. One such mission was to have been carried out on Russian soil, roughly ten years after the project was completed. The mission objective was simple enough; all you had to do was blow up a facility that we had reason to believe housed the Ruski's attempt at a Weapon X. We called that mission Terry Adams But something happened during that mission, and three of you just walked away and seemingly vanished into thin air." Barrington fixed me with an amused look, his eyes twinkling. "Can you remember, Logan?"

Barrington took out a small silver device that was roughly the size of his palm and pressed a button. A low buzz emitted from the thing, which grew louder and louder until it was an ear piercing scream. Me and Wraith both started to back away, as the screeching became unbearable. I clutched my hands to my sears to cut out the sound but it was no good. Xavier and Edmund obviously could not hear it; they looked on with concerned expressions. I sank to the ground on one knee, gritting my teeth. My nose had begun to bleed and my head was swimming. I lurched forward as my vision began to turn grey, then I slipped into blissful oblivion.