Once more - my many thanks for any reviews.
Huge thanks to Alaidh for all her work betaing this.
Chapter 26
The shadows were well and truly lengthening by the time they headed out of the alley. Logan was amazed how loudly and with what force he could feel his own heart beating in his chest. He was uncomfortably reminded of the smiling yellow ducks in the old shooting gallery games – Damned if I can understand what they have to be so cheery about, he thought dryly.
The girls stayed close behind him. Even though Genevieve gave him a tiny grin every time he twisted his head to check on the two of them, he could see the well warranted, fearful anticipation in her eyes.
Logan kept to the sidewalk as they headed towards the mine. At least it offered them some slight protection – though it might not have been much more than a feeling of being not quite so exposed.
Trying not to think too closely about men with guns hiding in shadows, Logan continued along at a fast pace. His breath was coming quickly by the time they'd reached the end of the sidewalk.
It looked to be a very long way to the mine from here. A very long 'no-cover, no- protection, highly-exposed' way from where he sat with the girls.
"Is it far now, Logan?" Genevieve asked.
"Mmmm," murmured Logan as he looked across in the half-light to the faded sign that announced 'Lucky Strike Mine.' Logan couldn't help but roll his eyes a little. How original – Max will be so impressed. The creators of Old Seattle had done their best to make it look like the mine was out in the open country somewhere by planting a large grove of trees about the front of the mine.
Logan absently wiped his sweaty palms on his pants then repositioned the gun a little so that it would be at the correct angle if he needed to pick it up quickly – a movement not lost on Genevieve, who watched him with serious eyes. A slight tremor ran through her body, but she said nothing, merely gripped Monique's hand a little tighter.
"I'm tired," Monique announced plaintively at that point.
Logan looked at her closely – her small form was plainly flagging.
"Hey, not long to go now, Monique. Can you walk just a little bit farther? Then you can stop and have a nice long rest."
"I wanna ride," she whined a little, sounding precariously close to tears.
Logan looked at Genevieve for some inspiration. He'd have no hope at all of defending them if he had Monique on his knee.
"Come to me, bub-bub," Genevieve said to her in a soothing tone, holding out her arms to pick the child up.
Monique went willingly, resting her small head on Genevieve's shoulder.
"You okay with her?" Logan asked doubtfully. "She's heavy."
Genevieve shrugged. "I've carried her lots of times."
"Good girl," Logan encouraged her as he flashed her one of his rare, wide smiles. He didn't realize that it was the best tonic he could have given her. Genevieve silently resolved to carry her for miles, as long as it earned her Logan's approval.
The wind was beginning to blow really hard now, swirling paper and dust high into the air.
Picking out the smoothest path for his chair, they braved the open area and moved out from the wooden sidewalk. "Now remember what I told you," Logan reminded Genevieve. "At any sign of trouble..."
"I run and hide until Max or Bling find me," she repeated carefully.
"That's right."
Logan's eyes probed the darkness as best as they could. There were so many shadows now – towards the mine the tree branches moved wildly in the wind. It was impossible to see if there was someone lying in wait for them. If Jaeger were in there, would he have a man on guard? More than likely, he had to admit. The thought shook him. He knew he was counting on the fact that Max would've taken the guy out.
Pushing hard, his shoulders beginning to burn with the effort, Logan began counting down the distance they had yet to traverse – they were more than half way, with perhaps only seventy-five yards to go. Considering their present predicament it looked to be more like five miles, thought Logan with a grimace. A bullet could travel seventy–five yards in a remarkably short space of time. His eyes searched intently even as he murmured a few encouraging words to Genevieve.
It was now only forty yards or so to go – there'd been no wild calls to stop and no ear shattering reports of gunshots. Logan began to dare hope that they'd make it without incident.
"Logan." Something in Genevieve's tone put that hope depressingly to rest.
"Cale!"
"Run!" Logan called to Genevieve as he stopped and swung around. Too slow, he warned himself as the manoeuvre was awkward on the uneven, stony surface of the road – made doubly so by his frantic haste.
Vaguely aware of Genevieve clutching wildly at Monique, he finally turned far enough to lift his gun and face his attacker.
Davies was already on the main street. Even as Logan watched, a flash of light erupted from the end of his hand, but it was the deeper boom from close behind him that made him jump.
Confused, but incredibly relieved, he watched as Davies slumped to the ground.
The next instant, someone ran past him and knelt down beside the unconscious man, then hauled him over his shoulder and started walking towards Logan. Davies is having a rough night, thought Logan unsympathetically as he remembered the painful boot between his shoulder blades, not to mention the bruises on his face.
"See you found the girls," a deep voice murmured with unmistakeable surprise and pleasure. Logan felt a firm hand clasp his shoulder and saw a flash of white teeth as Bling headed over to the mine entrance with the, once again, unconscious Davies. As he passed, Genevieve and Monique ran out from behind the tree they had sheltered behind.
"Bling, where's Max? I need to warn her – Jaeger has explosives," Logan called to him a little breathlessly as the three of them followed him over. Bling dumped the body of Davies on the floor then knelt down and flicked on a flashlight to check out the extent of the man's injuries, revealing a creased temple.
Logan glanced quickly around. The visitors' entrance was more like a large cavern – the area where parties would meet before doing a tour of the tunnels themselves.
Genevieve and Monique stayed nervously right in the entranceway, neither looking thrilled at the prospect of actually entering.
"Max is inside the tunnels looking for Jaeger," Bling told Logan, reaching into the bag he carried and bringing out some rope.
"She still hasn't found him?" Logan asked incredulously.
"The damned mine's got tunnels goin' off in all directions. He's in there somewhere, all right – we could hear voices, but the sound was echoing so badly it was hard to tell what direction they were coming from."
"Seth?"
"I haven't seen anyone else. Not in there, anyway. I met up with Max before. We tried a few tunnels, then she sent me out here to check on you – gotta hand it to that girl when it comes to timing," Bling got out quickly.
"You gotta go back in there and warn Max," Logan repeated, casting anxious glances towards the back of the cavern where the tunnels themselves started.
Bling hesitated. This wasn't exactly Max's orders – and now that Genevieve and Monique were here... "Max can look after herself. I think we should get the girls to safety."
Logan spoke quickly. "I'll watch the girls..."
Logan was surprised to see Bling no longer in front of him as he disappeared in a choking, swirl of dust that filled the air. Logan didn't know if he yelled at him – he was vaguely aware that his mouth was open when the deep-throated boom tore at his ears with an intense vibration that swept right through his entire body.
For a fraction of time Logan was only aware of the intense pain in his eardrums as the sound seemed to echo and reverberate, then he realized his arms were raised above his head as it was no longer just dust that fell but brutal meteors of timber and rock that had been forced from the mine by the intense force of the explosion.
"Logan. Logan..."
"Damn," he managed to mutter, his voice thick with dust. "Bling, you okay?" The words sounded strange, foreign – almost as if they belonged to someone else. Why was it so damned dark, he wondered. "Bling," he tried again, but this time the word stuck in his throat and instead he coughed deeply with an intensity that hurt his ribs – or hurt somewhere, he thought vaguely.
'Dammit, Bling," he called again, once the paroxysm had passed.
"I'm here, Logan," Bling's voice told him clearly and he looked up to see his trainer's face close to his own.
His hearing seemed to be returning to something like normal, because now he could clearly hear the sound of a child sobbing and Genevieve's frantic voice calling his name.
"Girls, it's okay," Bling called back. "Just wait there, we'll be out in a minute."
Logan struggled to relieve a painful tension in his neck – with some surprise he realized he was actually lying on the ground and his neck felt so strained because he was lifting it from the ground to look around. Something seemed to be digging cruelly into his upper back.
Logan squinted quickly as a wide beam of bright light transfused the darkness into a hazy world of dust and tortured beams and rock fragments. With a grunt he attempted to struggle up onto his elbows.
"Don't move," Bling's voice cautioned him quickly as the beam of light travelled up first his legs, then the rest of his body.
Logan looked about and his shocked gaze took in what looked to be the total destruction of the mine. "Oh God. Max! Bling ... she's in there." His words were an appeal...desperate.
Bling looked about quickly to ascertain the degree of damage. "Just hang on a moment," he told Logan with a calmness he wasn't really feeling.
He quickly squatted down beside Logan, then looked up as two small incongruously clean figures amongst all the dust and dirt came to stand in silence next to him.
"Here, hold this," Bling said at once to Genevieve, handing her the flashlight. He sensed the child had questions he didn't want to answer. "Shine it on Logan."
"Bling, I'm fine. You need to find Max...the others."
Without a word, Bling swept deft hands over Logan's body, feeling for any irregularities or oddly bent limbs while Logan struggled to sit up.
"Easy," cautioned Bling, removing from the top part of his legs what he now thankfully realized was a reasonably light wooden beam as Logan pushed himself into a sitting position.
Logan strained to see through the murky depths of the dust-filled gloom to where he knew the mine tunnel extended into the hillside. "Bling...the tunnel?" He couldn't bring himself to put his fears into words. Had it totally collapsed? Were Max and the others trapped in there somewhere? As he stared ahead, a starkly vivid picture appeared in his mind of bodies crushed and bloodied beneath tons of rubble with twisted limbs and awkwardly bent necks...brown eyes staring at him in blank accusation.
Bling, who was righting his wheelchair and clearing it of debris, spoke to him sharply. "Logan. You still with us?"
Logan shook off the numbing affects of shock with determination. When he looked up Bling had the wheelchair at his side.
Still worried about any internal or other injuries that he was unable to diagnose, Bling said a curt, "No," to Logan as he positioned himself to haul his body into the chair. Instead the trainer stood behind him, his hands beneath Logan's shoulders. Bling had just taken his full weight in his arms when a ghost-like, dust-besmeared figure came staggering from the tunnel.
"What the..." Bling began. He quickly closed his mouth as he saw the gun Jaeger held on them. Caught as he was with Logan in his arms he could do nothing. Frustratingly he could feel the weight of his own gun in his pocket.
"Jaeger," Logan struggled out in shock as he realised who it was. "What of the others...Max?"
"You think I care?" the FBI agent spat out, then literally spat a mouthful of dirt from his mouth.
He waited until Bling had transferred Logan, then he snapped to the trainer, "You move and I'll shoot you."
"Why don't you give up, Jaeger? Haven't enough people died already because of this money?" Logan asked him coldly, determinedly trying to quell the voice in his head that said, This man killed Max.
"You're a self-righteous bastard aren't you, Cale?" Jaeger sneered. "Well maybe I don't have all your money, but I have enough sense to know that all the money in the world won't bring your girl back."
Logan stared blankly at Jaeger. It seemed as if, for a cold moment, a part of him had been extinguished. "You won't get away with this, Jaeger. I will find you." Logan was surprised at how calm he sounded...how coldly certain of his promise.
Jaeger was walking away now – out of the mine, away from the destruction he'd caused, away from the lives he'd destroyed with his greed and ruthlessness.
The agent's eyes darted to the two girls who were now trying to hide themselves behind Bling. A quick gleam lit Jaeger's eye and before Bling had a chance to react, the agent reached out and grabbed Monique by the arm.
Bling reached for his gun with lightning speed but Jaeger picked the child up and held her across his body like a shield with his gun pressed to her temple.
Monique turned wide, imploring blue eyes at Logan, too scared to even cry.
"Don't Jaeger," Logan cried out, while Bling could only stand there with his gun raised.
"Throw down the gun," Jaeger snarled.
Bling didn't hesitate. He threw it down, then watched coldly as Jaeger picked it up.
Within seconds, the agent had disappeared into the night with the child.
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"Bling, follow him," Logan urged his trainer above the sound of Genevieve's broken sobs.
"You tellin' me that scumbag got away?"
Logan turned his head to look down the tunnel as Genevieve swung the flashlight in that direction. He watched, startled, as three figures slowly emerged from the dust-churned tunnel, not unlike spectres returning from the dead.
"Mommy, Daddy," Genevieve cried out, this time unable to stop the tears that coursed down her cheeks. "He took Monique!"
She hardly looked like Max – her face was blackened, her clothing and hair covered in fallout. In the flashlight's beam as his eyes searched hers with less restraint than was usual he caught her flicker of surprise at his presence. Max stared for a moment as his eyes reflected the heartfelt relief that flooded his body. For the briefest of seconds, her lips curved in a small tight smile, in answer to all the questions she saw in his expressive green eyes. Then the look was gone and she was handing her charges into the hands of Bling as she quickly tried to grasp what it was Genevieve was saying.
Max didn't even comment as Logan told her coldly that Jaeger had Monique.
"Emma and Seth are in there. They need help," she told Bling, and then she was gone.
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Max ran from the tunnel, only pausing momentarily as she reached the open area in front of the mine. Driving rain beat against her face and turned the dust on her leather jacket to dirty rivulets.
"Jaeger, you're really beginning to piss me off," she said bluntly as she looked around for either him or Monique.
As soon as Logan had broken the news to her, her mind had begun calculating Jaeger's most likely move. Old Seattle was stuck in the middle of nowhere - he'd need a car to escape.
Her eyes searched with an intensity that was more than just her Manticore training. How far would Jaeger go? she asked herself.
Know your enemy. Evaluate. Decide. Act. It was all so much more clear-cut when the life of someone you cared about wasn't involved – but they didn't teach you that at Manticore.
What would you do if someone were threatening someone you cared about?
Max tried to ignore the thought as she stared into the wet night, but the image of Monique's sweet, delicate features filled her mind.
What if you couldn't help them? What if you failed...as Logan had failed Sophy? The thoughts tormented her. How would you deal with it? Did Manticore train you to accept defeat?
"Oh no!" The words were wrung from her even as she tried to ignore the wave of foreboding that swept over her. She stood still for the merest second before the gravity of what she saw galvanised her into action.
Through the heavily falling rain she could see Jaeger, with Monique hanging on grimly to his back, traversing the lower edge of the rooftop of the saloon.
"The man's whack!" she grated out as she raced across to the only three storey building in the town. She knew his car was parked close by on the other side, but the rooftop was well above the ten-foot fence.
As she neared the building, she realised that Jaeger hadn't gone to the saloon on an impulse. A long ladder was leaning against the side of the building – it was all too much of a coincidence. Jaeger was a professional. It suddenly became clear to Max that Jaeger had been planning to come to Old Seattle for some time. Certainly long enough to have his escape route ready.
Availing herself of the ladder, Max, using her sure-footed Manticore speed, climbed up to the base of the steeply pitched roof. She stood there, unaware of the buffeting she was receiving from the force of the wind and rain. Her eyes were captivated by the sight of Jaeger, with Monique still clinging desperately to his back, at the farthest end of the roof from where she stood.
He was now attempting to climb the steep roof itself, apparently intent on reaching the very zenith of the building. Max's eyes zoomed in on a taut line that she could see running from the chimney and disappearing below the back of the building – Jaeger's escape route! The line was probably attached to the perimeter fence.
Max wasted no time. Rather than attempt to climb up the roof, she leapt the distance, and landed on the highest point, only to wobble precariously as one foot immediately slipped on the slick shingles. For a moment she balanced like a trapeze artist with both arms stretched out either side of her until she found her equilibrium.
Jaeger, meanwhile, some twenty yards ahead of her, was slowly making his way up the steeply sloping roof. Max could clearly see Monique on his back – her small arms locked tightly about his neck. Even as she watched, one of Jaeger's feet slipped on the treacherously wet shingles. Amazingly, he somehow managed to keep his other foot in place, which was just as well as it was highly unlikely their wayward progress would be stopped until he hit the ground, three, long, storeys below. The only thing at the edge of the roofline was the thin guttering, and it was unlikely to halt his progress.
Max moved even as she watched Jaeger's progress. She was thankful more than ever, this night for her feline DNA as she 'tight roped' her way along the very top of the roof with incredible speed.
Jaeger had nearly made it to the top by the time Max was almost abreast of the agent.
"Give it up, Jaeger," she called loudly above the shriek of the wind and steady rhythm of the rain drumming steadily on the wooden shingles.
He was cool, she had to admit. The man barely made a sign that he was surprised by her presence, but she knew he had to be.
He was only about five yards away from her now, when, to Max's surprise, he suddenly quickened his movements as if he were trying to get to his goal before she caught up with him.
The decision was a bad one – as soon as he put too much pressure on the wet shingles, his feet simply slid right off them and he lost his footing. Almost by instinct, Jaeger managed to reach out his right hand and somehow got a handhold on the top shingle
Max rushed farther along until she was even with him. To her amazement, she found herself looking into the barrel of his gun.
"Get back," he yelled at her.
"I don't care about you, Jaeger. I just want the child," Max told him coldly.
"You've gotta be kidding me! She's my ticket outta here," he rasped back.
Max went to reach for Monique, regardless.
"Don't even think about it!" Jaeger snapped back, now with a dangerous edge to his voice. They both knew it was impossible for him to hold on much longer.
Unexpectedly, the decision was taken out of both their hands when the shingle he was holding onto broke away – before he'd taken a single breath, both he and Monique were sliding down the roof, and there was nothing to stop them or break their fall until they hit the ground.
Virtually the same instance, Max lunged and grabbed Jaeger's hand. The added weight proved to be her undoing, as well, as the shingle she stood on gave way, causing her feet to slip out from underneath her. Suddenly all three were heading, with increasing speed, down the sloping roof.
Max, who was half sitting up, had a brief glance of a small face quickly raised to look at her with terrified, frantic eyes, as Jaeger's speed increased, regardless of his attempts to dig his fingernails into the shingles to slow their progress.
Max didn't hesitate. Somehow, she reached across to Jaeger, who was slightly in front of her, and grabbed Monique's arm, wrenching it free. Like a drowning man grabbing onto another, so too did Jaeger try to grab onto Max. Without hesitation, Max kicked him off, but he reached out to grasp her leg again. She could see his hand wildly clutching – and then she could only see his face and then nothing as he dropped noiselessly over the edge of the building. And then Max's legs were disappearing over the side as well. She could no longer feel the hardness of the shingles under her feet and she knew she was taking Monique to a painful oblivion.
She knew there was only one chance. There would be no second chances. Logan failed –people failed.
Still holding onto Monique's hand, she felt the child begin to disappear over the edge of the building, as well. Max kept her eyes open and watched – as soon as her hand came near the gutter, she reached for it and held on with an iron grip.
Max's ears, even above the wind and rain, heard the guttering creak and groan as it bore the sudden brunt of their weight – then she heard the ominous pop as brackets snapped and rusted screws pulled away from rotten timber. Then even louder she heard the sound of Monique screaming as she looked down at the inky blackness below her.
Worse still, the gutter was filled with mud and slime and leaves and her handhold was tenuous at best. For the first time, Max had to face a bleak fact – sometimes her designer DNA strength just wasn't enough. Sometimes you couldn't beat the circumstances that life threw at you or the reality of the laws of gravity.
Without a doubt, her handhold on the gutter was beginning to slip.
She knew that she could survive a fall like this – but Monique? Could she cradle her as they hit the ground – would it be enough?
Then suddenly her handhold was gone and she was clutching at the air...and Max knew what it was to be human...and she experienced the same emotion she'd felt when they'd given Brin up – only ten times worse.
"No!" she screamed, as she jabbed upwards for her handhold once more and even in that very instance, her foot, which had been searching the building wall desperately for a foothold encountered something. She didn't know what it was - a bracket, the top of a window, whatever - but it was enough. Within seconds her other foot had found a corresponding foothold and she knew with certainty that she'd succeeded.
With a flood of relief, she was able to lever herself up at least twelve inches – and quickly change the grip she had on the guttering for a surer one. Now able to brace herself, she drew up the hand that held Monique and lay her safely on the guttering and then pulled herself up as well.
For a moment the two of them lay on the guttering – Monique in Max's arms, completely bewildered and sobbing deeply on her chest.
Max let her sob until the convulsions finally eased – almost overawed to feel the warmth of the child safely in her arms. It had been too close...way too close.
Finally, Max took the child surely in her arms and stood fearlessly at the rooftop edge,
even though the rain still drove hard against her face and the wind whipped crazily at her hair.
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Monique's parents met her at the bottom of the ladder, still so shocked by what they had just seen that they could only smile at Max tremulously and hold Monique tightly in their arms.
Max walked around to the front of the building where she found Logan with Jaeger.
"Someone shoulda told them not to put a horse trough there," she remarked.
Logan looked up at her – it was her usual smart-ass tone, but underneath it there was something else.
Jaeger would probably have had a good chance of survival if he hadn't landed awkwardly on the wooden horse trough below.
Logan watched her as she shrugged unsympathetically. "So, insteada four million, he ends up with a broken neck," Max murmured as her dark eyes looked down at the twisted and broken body with a coldly penetrating stare that never ceased to amaze him. It was an expression that didn't match her twenty years.
"You did good up there," he told her quietly.
Max turned away from him and gave an unconcerned laugh. "Yeah, I'm thinkin' of joining the circus. Hear they have openings for girls like me."
Logan frowned at the tone he heard in her voice, but he was distracted by Bling running up to him. The man quickly took in Jaeger's battered body and the family reunion still happening by the ladder, but his face when he turned to Logan was serious. "You'd better come."
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The flashlight's beam was beginning to yellow and grow dim, but perhaps it was just as well, because a harsh light would have been too cruel in the presence of such grief.
The figure rocked back and forth, crouched low over the body, all the while a low, intensely painful moan seemed to emit from somewhere deep within.
Max paused on the threshold.
She didn't stir when Logan and Bling came in a few minutes later, only to pause as she had – mesmerized by the depth of emotion they saw before them.
Finally, Logan pushed forward slowly, both because of the debris and because this was a task he felt completely unprepared for. What could he possibly say? He knew from experience that sometimes words, however well intentioned, were sometimes more painful than the silence.
Seeing Logan's intention, Bling stepped forward and wordlessly cleared a path.
Once Logan had reached the two figures, he hesitated for a moment, then reached out and put a hand on the other's shoulder.
The figure became gradually still, and slowly quieter.
Logan swallowed hard, his eyes intent on the figure kneeling in front of him.
Finally, she looked up at him, with eyes that held more pain than he'd ever wanted to see.
"It's my fault," she whispered. "It's my fault Seth's dead."
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Epilogue to follow.