Thankyou all so much for your enthusiastic reviews – I really appreciate them very, very much!

A huge thanks to Alaidh for focussing all her efforts on betaing this chapter for me which is particularly long!

A/N: This is actually part one of a three part chapter. The next two parts are written and will be posted ASAP. I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 24

The sun that had been shining with such fervour for most of the day was finally beginning to succumb to the bank of solid, grey clouds that were slowly but surely monopolising the greater part of the sky.

Logan let the muscles around his eyes relax as the glare was suddenly cut by more than half, vaguely wishing that it was something as simple as glare that was causing the tightening of muscles in his arms and back. He breathed deeply in a futile attempt to stem the tension he felt, twisting in the passenger seat as he did so to peer through the grimy, back windshield, looking past the bulk of Seth to the dirty window beyond. At times like this he wished he kept his car a little cleaner.

"She's out of sight," Bling said quietly, his own eyes darting to the Aztek's rear-view mirror. "But I saw her about five minutes ago...she's hangin' back."

Logan nodded. Thankful to think of anything rather than Genevieve and Monique at the mercy of a man like Jaeger, he let his mind wander to an image of Max on her motorcycle – the orange tinted glasses, dark hair whipped back from her face and streaming behind her, the lithe body crouched low over the handlebars. He could still remember the moment of exhilaration as he'd managed to shift gear – his own uncharacteristic whoop of unrestrained exultation echoed weirdly in his mind. Unconsciously he bit down hard on his bottom lip. Not much to whoop about lately, he thought moodily as his green eyes stared out the window.

Logan let his restless gaze wander desultorily to the vastness of the scenery before him. The suburbs of Seattle had been left behind some time ago, and they were now travelling through picturesque farmland that had somehow managed to escape the ruthless scarring that was usually an inevitable legacy of the Pulse. Still the stuff of postcards, Logan mused as he noted that this part of the state looked little different to all intents and purposes than it had ten or so years ago. In the distance, the snow-capped peak of Mt Rainier reached majestically skyward. Logan could vaguely remember the advertisements Gray Line used to run – all day bus tours to Mt Rainier, including a lunchtime stop at the newly opened Old Seattle. Tourism had been at its peak, he remembered.

"You pick up anything new?" Bling ducked his head in the direction of the laptop sitting on Logan's lap.

Logan let out a grunt of frustration, his eyes now focused on the view through the front windshield. "Damned internet's still down."

Once again Bling's eyes went to the rear-view mirror, but this time they focussed inside the car. "How yah doin'?" he called to Seth.

Seth answered stoically, "I want to find Emma."

"Well, that's what we're hoping to do," Bling told him kindly.

"Emma doesn't know where the stolen money is," Seth added firmly, this time looking towards Logan.

Logan half-turned in his seat to look at the boy. "I know," he told him sincerely. With strained patience he pointed out yet again, "We're not looking for the money, Seth. We just want to find Emma and the two girls."

Seth studied Logan's profile for a long moment; finally he sat back with a vaguely relieved expression.

Logan raised his brows at Bling. He hoped they'd done the right thing by bringing Seth along, but the boy had looked hurt and there'd even been a wild hint of anger in his eyes when Logan had told him he'd have to wait at the apartment for them to return.

"I need to help Emma," the boy had announced, jumping to his feet from the couch to stand before Logan with a pugnacious attitude. "Old Seattle is a big place. Max will need help. You can't help her, but I'm strong – I can fight." To illustrate his point he held up one of his huge hands and knotted it in a tight fist.

"Fists run a poor second against bullets," Max cut in dryly.

"You've been to Old Seattle?" Logan asked with quick interest, choosing to ignore the attempt at intimidation. At Seth's nod he asked, "With Emma?"

Again the young man nodded, but this time he volunteered some information. "Emma took me there ... after he died."

"You mean Grant?" Max jumped in.

"I didn't like him," Seth mumbled guiltily. "He made Emma cry."

"Seth, did Emma take you inside Old Seattle?"

"Yeah, but the man made us leave." Seth's eyes clouded over once more. Apparently the memory was both a happy and a sad one.

"But you did see inside?" Logan insisted.

Seth nodded, unaware of the exchanged glance between Logan and Max.

"He could be helpful," Logan suggested to Max, letting his fingers drum a tattoo on the wheel of his chair as his mind struggled to process even yet more information. "We don't know for sure what's inside. He could show us where Emma took him."

Max hesitated a moment. She felt unsure of Seth. His latest outburst had made her wonder how emotionally stable he was. Knowing that Logan was watching her, awaiting her decision, she eventually gave him an almost imperceptible upward movement of her shoulders as an answer.

"It'd be hard on him if he had to wait behind," Logan told her under his breath, wheeling closer to her, away from Seth.

"Maybe harder, but a heck of a lot safer," she answered, brown eyes briefly locking with green. All of a sudden he knew that it wasn't just Seth she was speaking of.

"Besides, who knows what he may take it into his head to do if we leave him to his own devices," Logan continued quickly, in a matter-of-fact manner, as he wondered why he'd felt so flushed - so conscious of himself - under that intense gaze.

Max looked up as Bling returned, announcing that he'd found a tracking device on Logan's car. She folded her arms, looking down at Logan as she leant against his desk. "So, how d'you wanna play this?" she asked with a touch of curt resignation.

"The bodywork took a bit of a beating yesterday," Bling commented wryly.

"Damn. I forgot about that," Logan said suddenly with dismay. He looked up at Max. "Is it...?"

"It's driveable. Got us home last night okay," she answered him quietly. She wasn't happy with the uneasy feeling that had crept up on her in the last half hour or so, making her throat feel tight and uncomfortable.

"The tracking device looks like a hi-tech gadget," Bling told Logan.

"Good. I wouldn't want Jaeger to lose me," Logan told him. As he spoke, he wheeled across to his other desk where his laptop sat.

Bling watched as Logan made sure the computer was properly charged. "If you're gonna be using that, why don't I drive?"

"Didn't know you were comin'," Logan told him coolly.

"Logan, I care about the girls too," Bling insisted quietly. "I want to help."

Logan hesitated, quickly considering what Bling would be getting himself into. It was one thing to involve Bling in basic Eyes Only meets and other general things he did that required backup for the unexpected. Driving out to Old Seattle, however, could more likely be construed as sticking your head in the lion's mouth, and the last time he'd done that, he'd lost a bodyguard. Worse than that – he'd watched as the bullets ripped into Peter's body with deadly accuracy. Peter had been a close employee, but Bling's connection to Logan had become something deeper than that – they were friends. Did he even have the right to involve him in his plan to release the two girls?

"I would've thought the more the merrier," Bling added persuasively. "You don't have any intel to know what Max'll be up against out there."

"It's cool with me," Max put in quietly. Even if he does nothing more than stopping Logan from doing something stupid like offering himself up to Jaeger as some type of martyr, her mind concluded cynically.

Logan eventually nodded, not entirely happy with Bling's decision, while at the same time honest enough to admit that, in this case, Max could probably do with more backup than a guy on wheels.

"I'll follow you on my motorcycle," Max added in a clipped, purposeful manner.

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Using a map programme on his laptop, Logan quickly calculated how close they were to the closed tourist site.

Staring ahead through the windshield he noticed a run-down truck stop coming up on their right.

"This is our stop," he told Bling.

Bling looked around carefully as he drove the car into the driveway. There were three other vehicles parked at the dilapidated diner.

"Take your pick," Logan muttered with a tight smile.

Not bothering to kill the engine, Bling got out and walked to the front of the Aztek. Logan could see him bend down with a casual movement as if he were checking something on the car. He was out of Logan's sight for a second until he stood up again.

Logan watched him taking out his wallet as he wandered across to the diner. As he came alongside a large, rusty looking truck, Logan saw the wallet slip from his fingers. Bling bent down to pick it up, resting one hand on the wheel as he did so. His movement was quick, but in the next instant his hand snaked under the car and came out a second later. With a casual glance around the parking lot, Bling headed into the diner, the tracking device now firmly in place on the other vehicle.

Logan looked around cautiously, almost sure that someone must have been watching, but the depressing area remained deserted. Well, if Jaeger had been tracking the Aztek, he'd now only know that they were in the area – but not their actual time of arrival at the abandoned tourist park. Unless, of course, the truck that Bling had transferred the tracking device onto headed back to Seattle – then Jaeger would be really confused.

Seth's breathing sounded particularly loud in the car and Logan glanced around at him, half expecting to find him asleep, but Seth met his look with a serious gaze.

"We should be there soon, Seth," Logan told him. He was surprised to see a small smile light up the young man's face. It changed him completely – suddenly he became just like a regular kid – out to have some fun with his friends - only Jaeger was no friend.

A movement by the diner caught his eye, and he looked up to see Bling approaching with two Styrofoam cups in his hands. Logan opened his window as Bling reached the car, and took the two cups Bling held out to him.

"Thought I'd better make it look real," Bling murmured, watching for a moment as Logan handed the other cup back to Seth. "Figured you could both do with coffee."

"We good to go?" he added as he slid back behind the wheel and put one hand on the key in the ignition.

"I still haven't seen any sign of Max. She should know we're close by now," Logan murmured in a worried tone as he stared through the windows.

Bling looked about as well. "She knows what she's doin'," he remarked calmly. With a small smile and an admonition to drink your coffee, he started the car.

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Max rode with a frown, concentrating on keeping Logan's car within sight, while at the same time trying not to make it look too obvious that she was following him. Her eyes constantly darted to her rear-view mirror. Several times cars came up close behind her, but both times her instincts told her that neither were the car she sought.

She wondered coldly what Jaeger would do? Rush to the site before them and try to be in and out before they arrived – or follow them in the hope that Seth would lead him to his buried treasure.

What would you do if someone were threatening someone you cared about?

Logan's question whirred in her mind like the constant revolutions of the wheels beneath her.

Suddenly the full lips curved upwards with a sneer of contempt.

"Just let 'em try," she snarled almost hopefully.

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"There's the turn-off," Logan pointed out, perhaps a little needlessly, as they came across a faded billboard amongst some roadside trees, pointing proudly to Old Seattle.

"Step back in time," it invited the prospective visitor. If only...was Logan's initial instinctive response, only to be annoyed by a rational voice in his mind pointing out to him all the things he would have to go back to and the one person he would have to give up.

"Whatever," he muttered under his breath. He was far too concerned with the current situation to direct any rational thought to an imaginary one.

Looking across to the other side, Logan caught the enquiring expression that Bling was directing at him.

"Just thinking aloud," he snapped a little defensively.

"You can talk to the trees for all I care," grinned Bling, turning the car off the main road as he spoke. The smaller road that led to the tourist park was badly potholed and Logan had to grab for his laptop as it nearly slid off his knee.

"Hope you've finished your coffee," Logan called over his shoulder to Seth as the car lurched once more. This time he had to grab onto the door, as well, to brace himself.

"Oops, sorry," muttered Bling, "these damn holes are kinda hard to miss."

"There it is," Logan said with a calm voice that belied the tension he felt inside. "Let's pull over here and wait for Max."

Ahead about 300 yards to their right, was the now abandoned Old Seattle, barely discernible through the trees that grew either side of the road and spread out to the countryside beyond. Perhaps the land here had been too poor to farm, or maybe too hilly, and that was why the location had been chosen in the first place, Logan mused distractedly as he looked about.

Quickly flipping open his laptop, he had another try at accessing the Internet. Bling peered hopefully at the screen as well, but the amount of time the screen was taking to load told its own story.

"Damn!" Logan fumed.

"Is this bad, Logan?" Seth asked, undoing his seat belt to lean forward.

"There was a site I wanted to look at – it had a detailed map of the town...would've come in handy," Logan told him, trying to keep his frustration under wraps.

"Here she comes," Bling murmured, his eyes on the rear-view mirror.

Within minutes, Max had pulled up alongside Logan's door. It said a lot for her present frame of mind that she made no sassy comment about the countryside or anything else. She simply looked ahead with a focussed expression as she examined the town from where they'd parked.

"That wall run all the way around?" she asked Logan with a frown as she looked at the ten-foot high brick fence.

"Not sure. Internet's down," was the terse reply.

Max shrugged. "Well, I guess I'd better do a bit of recon. You up for it, Bling?"

"Wait a minute... you got a plan?" Logan asked bitingly.

"Find the girls – break 'em out," Max responded coolly.

"And Emma," put in Seth firmly.

"Yeah." Max gave him a small smile of approval. "Besides," she said to Logan, "every time we've had a plan lately, something's gone whack."

"Aren't you at least gonna take Seth in with you?"

"Nah." Max fiddled with her mirror as she added smoothly, "I figure I can come and get him if I feel I need him."

Logan closed his mouth tight and snapped shut his laptop, not entirely sure if her decision to leave Seth in the car was for Seth's benefit or his own.

Sensing his tension Max turned her large brown eyes on him. She didn't appreciate him questioning her methods, but he was always kinda cute when he was worried about her and she couldn't quite hide the slight movement of her full lips that could have been taken as a smile. Her tone, however, when she spoke, was as sassy as ever. "Chill out, Logan. Bling and I will do a circuit of the fence before we head in there." She made a sudden face. "I guess we'd better walk. Don't wanna tell the whole world we're here," she told Bling.

"Fine with me," Bling smiled, appearing as unperturbed as Max by the magnitude of the task they'd set themselves.

Max stared ahead once more – but this time her pupils dilated, making the dark brown eyes appear to be almost black, and her gaze zoomed in with telescopic accuracy.

Logan looked up at her. "You see anything?"

"Just a big fence. If Jaeger's in there, he's not advertising the fact," she murmured as she continued to probe for any sign of life. Giving up, she swung her leg off her motorcycle and pushed it further along the shoulder of the road until it was in front of Logan's car. The grass was so long it nearly covered the wheels.

Logan watched Bling as he double-checked that his gun was loaded. "Your meds are due in half an hour," he murmured to Logan as he stuck the gun in the shoulder holster he wore under his jacket.

Logan couldn't help shake his head a little at the man.

"I don't recall that line ever being used by Arnold before he was about to take on the bad guys," Logan remarked caustically.

"That's coz he didn't have a stubborn boss," Bling shot back.

Heading back to Logan, Max bent over a little, laying both arms along his open window. "You'll be okay here, right?" She understood how little he relished a long, tense wait.

"Sure. We can always play Eye Spy while we're waiting," he replied dryly as he opened his laptop once more in the hope of getting a link.

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"I should go in there. I can help," Seth said restlessly for the third time as he paced up and down beside Logan's door. He seemed to take a lot of satisfaction in trampling the hitherto long blades of grass that grew with wild abandon at the side of the road.

Logan rubbed the back of his head. He'd tried calling Matt but had only received a voice mail message, and to his utter frustration the Internet remained stubbornly offline.

The sky had become ominously dark and a chill wind now played with the leaves in the trees and managed to scatter further the few pieces of paper that littered the side of the road even out here – it appeared to be only a matter of time before the heavens poured forth with a vengeance.

Logan rubbed his hands together to warm them up. If Seth hadn't been outside he would have closed his window. He'd tried doing that very thing sometime earlier, but Seth's constant questions or declarations of strength had meant that he was only opening it again every few minutes to hear one of Seth's comments that he had absolutely no interest in hearing.

Logan absently watched Seth's long legs surely beating a flat path amongst the weeds and long grass beside the Aztek. A quick glance at his watch showed him that Max and Bling had already been gone almost thirty minutes. Logan tried to keep back the thoughts that were rushing at him: What if Max still hadn't come out in an hour? How long should he wait? Should he call Matt? Could Seth do anything? Max wouldn't rush things, he told himself. She'd take her time. And Bling...well, he practically invented the word 'patience'. He grimaced suddenly. Boy, I hate that word.

"Seth, can you do me a favour?"

Seth stopped at once and turned his head towards Logan.

"My wheelchair's in the back of the car. Would you put it next to my door?"

Seth looked at Logan closely, his bland expression now replaced by a hint of worry. "Max wouldn't like me to do that. She wants you to stay in the car," he told Logan unexpectedly.

Great, thought Logan, Max isn't even here and she's got him scared of offending her. On another level, Seth's intuition on Max's unspoken words surprised him. You sure couldn't write him off as being stupid.

"I don't wanna use it – I just want to put it near me where I can reach it later," Logan explained with as much patience as he could muster.

Seemingly satisfied, Seth went around to the back and brought the pieces back to Logan. Instead of putting the chair beside Logan's door like he'd asked, he opened the driver's side door to put it inside the car. Immediately his eyes fell on the contents of Logan's black bag. While Seth had been pulling out the pieces of his chair, Logan had dutifully taken out the bottle of water to have his meds. The bottle of tablets however, was nowhere to be found and in the end he'd taken out the couple of things that sat on top to try and find them.

Logan had just popped two of the anti-biotic pills in his mouth when he suddenly realized that Seth was motionless, half in and half out of the car, his gaze riveted on the small, soiled piece of cardboard that had been Emma's only bookmark to that other part of her life.

It was as if the reality of what they were doing here had suddenly sunk in – perhaps Emma was close by – hurt, in trouble.

Logan could see the pain in Seth's eyes, but he also saw the grim determination of a sudden decision.

"We have to wait here, Seth. Max knows what she's doing," Logan told him quickly, trying to sound calm,

"I need to help Emma. She needs me," Seth said with more emotion in his voice than Logan had yet to hear.

Logan reached out with his left hand and tried to grasp the boy's arm in the hope of bringing him back to an attitude of sense, but it only seemed to infuriate Seth and he grabbed Logan's arm instead in a painful grip and proceeded to squeeze.

"I...have...to go to her," he ground out, and Logan could well believe the stories now of him snapping every once in a while when teased by the neighbourhood bullies.

Logan knew he had to stop him somehow – if Seth went rushing in there he could ruin everything.

"Seth..." he began, thinking wildly for inspiration.

A sudden beep gave Logan the fuel he needed. "That's my laptop. It's telling me the Internet is working again. I can check the website that had the best map... if you let go," Logan told him persuasively.

Seth looked down at his hand that still held Logan's arm in a vice-like grip. Logan watched his expression carefully. The boy looked surprised – as if he thought his hand had got there of its own volition.

"You gonna let me check this out?" Logan asked in an off-hand manner.

Seth relaxed his hold, and waited expectantly while Logan searched for the site he wanted.

"This is it." Logan turned the laptop a little so that Seth could see the screen as well.

"Okay, what've we got here..." His studied the screen intently as he spoke, pleased to find it was a far more thorough map than the other one he'd seen. "Now that's something new," he added tersely, pointing with his index finger to Seth. "D'you remember seeing a mine when you were here before?"

Seth suddenly looked at Logan with a wild, startled look. It was as if Logan had jolted him with an electric charge. "Emma told me about that. She wanted to show it to me but the man came." His voice seemed to almost quaver as he spoke with the intensity of emotion behind his words. "That's where she is."

Before Logan had a chance to say another word, Seth, moving with surprising speed, had backed his huge frame out of the car and began running at top speed towards the town.

Logan opened his mouth and took a breath as he prepared to call out but instead he closed his eyes and slowly exhaled – a long, drawn-out action that centred every thought in his mind on the gnawing tension and frustration that was eating away at him.

"This is not the way it was meant to happen," he muttered as he finally opened his eyes and watched Seth's quickly retreating back.

What was it about a mine that would have Seth running off so determinedly? his thoughts flashed at him.

Intent on finding an answer, Logan put his head down and stared intently at his screen.

They were unoriginal, trite, even clichéd, but Logan was surprised to discover how economically two words conveyed such a wealth of sinister meaning.

"Don't move."

He hadn't heard the car approach from behind. He hadn't been aware of the figure silently stalking his car as he'd watched Seth disappearing into the distance – and now it was all way too late.

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TBC