Author's Note: Sorry this was late, but the computer had to be fixed up and I wasn't told before it was taken away, otherwise I would have let everyone know.

Disclaimer: Kay and Paige are the only ones who are mine.

Black Ice

By Be Boring

Chapter 2: The Thrill of the Hunt

"Anybody home?" Max called as she closed Logan's front door behind her. The familiar sound of his fingers tapping away on his keyboard greeted her ears and she smiled, almost sure that he hadn't heard her call out. Along with some of his other projects, he was extremely focused on helping the police (an entirely new concept for him) find and expose as many remaining cult members as he could. When he was working on that particular project, he wasn't even aware of anyone else around him. When she turned the corner and entered the living room, however, something on his face told her that he was working on something very serious. He glanced up when she knocked gently on the wall of the living room, but the focused expression never left his face.

"What are you working on?"

He sighed and sat back, scribbling something down on the notepad next to him. When she took a second look at the paper, she saw that he had written down a series of several addresses with phone numbers next to them. When he noticed her looking, he ripped it off the pad and started pointing to the different addresses as he spoke. "This is an elementary school in Kalispell, Montana. About a month ago their Little League baseball team won the state championship with flying colors. Apparently their pitcher, the youngest player on the team, is some sort of incredible sports prodigy. He's only seven years old and he can throw a pitch that would make a national level pitcher jealous. The only problem is that they never actually say the kid's name A quote from the local newspaper mentions that they couldn't get a proud quote from his father because he was too busy working at a feed mill just outside of town. When I checked out the employee list, the man I'm guessing to be his father was listed only as Mr. Bransen, no first name, and he works the regular eight-hour shift you would expect. But I also discovered his name on the employee lists of AT&T, where he's a telemarketer for five hours, and also at the local law office where he's a typical paper pusher for six hours. So, since no one by the name of Bransen is on the list for the bus route, his schedule appears to work something like this: he drops his son off at school, starts working at the feed mill at eight o'clock, gets off at four, takes his kid home, works at AT&T from six to eleven, then I'm assuming he goes home and sleeps for a couple hours, because he starts working at the law office at one o'clock in the morning and gets off at seven, giving him just enough time to make it home, eat breakfast, maybe take a really fast shower, and take his kid to school to start the whole day over. Sounds like a bit of a grueling schedule, doesn't it?"

"What's the last address?"

"It might not be right, but I think it's where he lives. He has a different address listed at each work site, but one of them is a house just outside of town that is also listed by the local real estate agency as for sale, and another is an apartment that I've checked into which turns out to be currently unoccupied as well. The only thing all three work sites have in common is a cell phone number that he gave them, and I've tracked down where the majority of his calls have been made from. It turns out many are from the other address that he gave out, which is nearly a half hour out of town. Even though the phone number for the house is unlisted, I haven't been able to find anything that says the house is for sale or unfit to live in, so I'm fairly sure it's where he's really living."

Max studied the addresses with her head tipped to the side. "Wow, three different jobs, three different addresses, two of which are fake, and he's not releasing his first name anywhere. Plus his schedule is ridiculously busy and his son is some kind of prodigy. Sounds a little suspicious to me."

"Yeah, it was actually the kid who drew my attention to this, because he seems to fit the profile of a Familiar child, but I think you'll be surprised by what I found." He leaned forward and clicked on something on the bottom of his screen. In the next second, a picture popped up of what was obviously a Little League team that had been scanned from a newspaper. Her eyes flashed over the kids' faces, then suddenly her eyes widened as they landed on the smallest boy in the photo, standing in the front row on the far right. "Oh my God, it's Ray!"

Ben had been following the Familiar woman all day, making sure to keep enough of a distance so that she wouldn't be suspicious. She had gone to what he guessed to be her home, but only to change into a businesslike outfit and walk straight to a laundromat. He didn't like the thought of going in there, it was virtually empty and he'd be too easy to see, but his curiosity got the best of him. Once his target had walked into the back, he opened the door, cringing at the bell that jingled merrily above his head to announce his arrival. No one came out of the back, though, so he breathed a sigh of relief and crept as close to the door to the back as he dared. After all, he would need time to get out if they came out suddenly.

"Fen'os tol," came the woman's voice, completely void of all emotion.

"Fen'os tol." The reply was male, but Ben didn't recognize it. "Is the information you were sent correct?"

"Yes, sir, the child is everything he said she was. Is he in charge of removing her from the mother?"

The man in the room hesitated slightly, and then said, "He believes he is, but I have another plan. That's why I called you here. He told me that he's planning on taking the child today, and I want you to be there. I'll be sending a team of our people with you. They will be in charge of setting explosives around the house, while you will have to remove the child before they are detonated. I believe he will kill the mother, so I want you to be removing the child at the same time she is killed. With any luck, his house will blow up before he realizes that the baby is gone."

"Not to sound insubordinate, sir, but so many things could go wrong with that plan. What if they are in the same room as the girl? I won't be able to take her right under their noses."

"The team is very creative, they will take care of any surprises that come up. Your only concern is the girl. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir. Can I be of any other service to you?"

Silence dominated for a few moments, then the man asked, "How long will it be before the girl has enough blood in her body for our purposes?"

"She would probably have enough right now, but we'd have to drain her dry. Is that what you want?"

"It would save us the time of killing her later. You know as well as I do what she is, and I won't tolerate her kind with our people. Once everything is said and done, she'd be useless anyway."

As they started their obligatory "Fen'os tol" farewells, Ben reached up and removed the bell from above the door and left, leaving the bell on the sidewalk. He stepped into an alley next to the building and waited for the woman to come out. He hadn't understood a word of what was said, the only thing he knew was that he would be dealing with several Familiars. Who says I can't pick them off one by one?

Max couldn't take her eyes off the Little League photograph. The article had mentioned his father, so that meant that Ames White was alive. "How could they be alive? You told me that Ray was gone when you got back to your house after the big fight, so you assumed he somehow found a way there. How could a kid his age survive something like that?"

"Maybe White saw him and got him out of danger. You told me that Ray was the only important thing to White at that point, so it's not like he had a reason to stick around once he got his hands on him. It doesn't really surprise me that he's alive, the bad ones always manage to get away, I'm just shocked that he's in hiding. He never really seemed the type, did he?"

Her eyes flicked down to the list of addresses, three of which were White's jobs. "And why is he working so hard? If it's just him and Ray, why does he need the money? And another thing I don't get about this is he was so set and determined to get Ray, but now that he has him he's hardly spending any time with him. How could he with that schedule? Who's taking care of Ray? I know he's a pretty tough little kid and all that, but I wouldn't leave him alone for so long."

"For all we know, he's hiring a babysitter, but that's not the important thing. It's your first question that concerns me, why is he working so hard? He must have an account somewhere, maybe I'll see what he's been buying lately. Of course, all three jobs are minimum wage, so maybe he just needs the cash to keep them afloat. I'm sure he has bills to pay."

"I'm tempted to send his address to his cult buddies and drive over there so I can watch them rip him to pieces. It would be the only good thing I ever got out of him."

Logan raised an eyebrow at her sudden vehemence. "Are you forgetting that he's the one who made it possible for you to escape at the big fight? You know, I never asked before, but why did he even bother to take you to the stadium? Couldn't he have taken your blood back at your cell and neutralized Thula's blood without you there?"

"Yeah, but he wanted me there to lure Kay out. He wanted revenge on her for telling him Ray had died." She stopped abruptly, she hadn't even said Kay's name since that day. It was easier to push her sister out of her mind.

Logan noticed the immediate change in Max's behavior. "Is she still that painful to think about? I would think that after all this time that you would have forgiven her for everything. After all, seeing as how White's alive, we have to assume she's dead."

That had never occurred to Max before. It was true, her sister hadn't been active at all since the fight. It was like she'd disappeared off the face of the planet. "Why would you assume she's dead because of that? The last time I saw her, she was walking after Thula."

"I know I never mentioned this to you, but surveillance of the fight showed White heading to the same room that I know Kay and Thula were in. Since Thula is dead, Kay hasn't been heard from, and White's alive, I can't come up with any other possibilities. You said yourself that White wanted revenge, so maybe he got it."

Max crossed her arms, thinking back to that day. "You know, I don't really understand why she was going after Thula in the first place."

"She never told you?"

Max looked at him curiously. "Told me what?"

Logan couldn't believe she didn't know anything about this. "Sandeman made her to fight Thula. He knew someone would need to be strong enough to take her out, so that's where Kay came in. That's why she was so much stronger than the rest of you. The thing that really surprised me was that she was actually the second key, but genetically enhanced on top of it. She's Thula's younger sister."

If Max had been expecting to hear anything, it wasn't that. "So she's part Familiar? When did she find that out?"

"The day that Ben died, I'm assuming. Back when we thought she was dead too. Don't get bitter about it now, that was months ago. You know, if Kay was somehow alive and I had to guess what happened, I'd say that she hightailed it out of here as soon as Thula was dead. It's not like she was welcome anywhere around here. For all we know, she could be living a completely different life right now."

Kay sat at the kitchen table, nibbling without much interest on a grilled cheese sandwich. She knew she had to eat, but her mind was so preoccupied that food was the last thing she was thinking about. Although she wanted to confront Ames, she didn't want to do it when Ray was around, but it had been a long time since she had been alone in the house with Ames. Whenever Ray was at school, Ames was at work, and they both came home at the same time. Still, she wanted to hear his explanation for what was going on. She didn't know why he had bothered having their daughter's blood tested. They already knew the facts; Paige was mostly Familiar with some genetic engineering in her background. What else did he need to know?

Suddenly, she heard the familiar sound of Ames's car pulling into the driveway. She glanced at the clock in surprise. What was he doing home so early? Hurrying to the window, she peered out and watched him climb out of the car. For some reason, it looked like he slipped something into his pocket before closing the car door. Focusing her eyes on his pocket, she easily spotted the outline of a syringe. Tension started to creep through her stomach, this wasn't good. The shape of the syringe was long, so if she had to guess, she'd say that there was already something in it. Grab Paige and get out of the house, the voice piped up suddenly, now sounding much more worried than amused. But what if I'm being stupid and I just guessed wrong at what was in his pocket? she argued back. Well, wouldn't you rather be safe than sorry? it replied, starting to sound annoyed. Without wasting another second, Kay dashed back into Paige's room and scooped her out of the crib. "Shhhh, honey, you have to be really quiet right now," she murmured softly, rocking Paige gently as she headed for the window. Just before she reached it, something inside her made her freeze. Hairs stood up rigidly on the back of her neck, practically screaming that something wasn't right.

The barely audible snap of a twig breaking drew her attention. Someone was outside, coming towards the house from behind. She distantly heard Ames's footsteps on the porch, so who else was outside? Her eyes stared out into the trees, but she couldn't see anything. Just as the front door opened, she heard another snap that indicated that the stranger was moving around the side of the house now. She looked out at the woods again, struggling to see any signs of movement, but once she was convinced that nothing was out there, she pushed the window open and slid out, landing easily on her feet. She reached up and grabbed the window, pulling it down as far she could before the space between the window and the sill was too small for her hand to fit in. Occasionally she could still hear the snapping of twigs, now on both sides of the house. Listening intently as she crept into the trees, she finally decided there were approximately three or four people in the woods with her, but they all seemed to be going towards the house and hadn't noticed her. If they had, she would take care of it.

"You know," Max began, pacing around in the living room as Logan continued to tap away on his computer, struggling to find out anything else he could about White, "maybe I should go over there and see if I can find out what happened with Kay. I know we weren't on the best terms then, but it's pretty obvious that without her, we wouldn't be in the position we're in. She got rid of Thula, so now we're more accepted. Besides, she's still family. I have to find out what happened to her."

Logan sat back, staring at his computer with confusion etched all over his face. "How fast can you get over there?"

"Why?"

"Well, I don't know what White's up to, but according to this bank statement, he purchased something very expensive and his check was written out to Lethil & Prowdovet."

"What's that?"

"It's a company that specializes in anything to do with warfare, whether it's weaponry, biological, or chemical. I'm not sure what he bought, but if he bought it from these people, it's nothing good. Something that doesn't really surprise me is that the president of the company was discovered as a Familiar two months ago. Perhaps the cult managed to make sure his successor was another one of their people. Either way, I don't like the thought of any of their products ending up in White's hands."

Max pulled the keys to her motorcycle out of her pocket. "I'll be there before those people can cash their check."

Ames tore angrily through the house for at least the seventh time. Where had she gone? Why, of all days, did she pick today to run away with Paige? In his anger, he stormed into his office and kicked over the nearest stack of files. His eyes flew around the room, looking for anything else that would be safe to destroy. That was when his eyes landed on Paige's file across the room. Because he went through it so often, it was usually more disheveled than the rest of his files, but for some reason it looked meticulously put back together. Sure enough, when he picked it up and flipped through it, he noticed that the paper with Paige's birthday on it had somehow migrated from the top of the file to the middle. "That bitch, why did she have to get curious now?" he growled out loud, throwing the file down and causing papers to fly all over the place. How long ago had she discovered the blood test results? Did she even know what they meant? She must have, otherwise she wouldn't have run off.

A light creak echoed throughout the house, and Ames turned and started slipping through the house silently, heading for Kay's room. That stupid floorboard right next to Paige's crib always creaked when someone went to look at her. He stopped just outside the door, listening silently as someone moved around the room. Had Kay come back for something?

Finally, he poked his head around the doorframe and peeked inside, stunned to see the Familiar from the free clinic digging through Kay's drawers, apparently checking for anything missing. "What are you doing here?" he snapped, stepping into the room and glaring at her furiously.

Jennifer jumped, then turned to him with a cold look on her face. "I was sent to make sure you took care of everything like you promised, but I don't see any sign of that girl anywhere. Did you tip off the mother and allow her to go into hiding?"

"Of course not. This is my opportunity to rejoin my people, why would I do something to jeopardize that?"

"I wouldn't know, I don't know what goes through your traitorous mind. If you have any idea where she could have gone, it would be best to speak up now."

He rolled his eyes. "The only place she ever had friends was in Seattle, but I doubt she would go there. She's terrified of them finding out she has a child with me. As far as I know, she doesn't have anywhere else to go."

"For your sake, you'd better not be lying. I suggest you wait here to see if she comes back for anything. I'm sure the High Priest will send out a team to search the surrounding area, and until he has the girl in his hands, I doubt he'll want you involved in any of our operations at all." With that said, she went back through the window and headed for the woods. Ames stormed into the kitchen, his eyes landing on a half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich. How had he not noticed that before? Kay was the type to eat lunch in the middle of the afternoon, sometimes close enough to supper to spoil her meal. It had always been a source of irritation for him. Unless she had eaten lunch early, this meant that it wasn't that long ago when she left. Screw them, I'm going to look for her myself.

Ben sat in the trees and watched as White came out the front door, cracking his knuckles angrily. I wonder what's got him so riled up? he thought with some amusement. The woman he'd been following had been joined by three other familiars, all of whom were now watching White intently. If what I heard at the laundromat is anything to go by, they're planning to kill him. That didn't bother him, but he'd rather have the chance to do it himself. If all went according to plan, he'd have five new people to add to his record, the first Familiars he had ever had the pleasure to kill. It would be challenging, but he was sure he was up to it. His best shot would be to wait for when they came back, though. Then maybe he could take care of them all while they were inside the house. He fingered the handgun at his side. He wouldn't shoot to kill, just to injure. He wanted the pleasure of killing them with his bare hands. The funny thing was, despite his concentration on every sound that came out of the woods, he never noticed the two people he hadn't counted on sneaking through the trees not even fifty feet behind him.

Kay had circled the house a few times, picking out the three familiars that were watching the house. She'd also overheard Ames arguing with a woman in the house, but now they had both left it empty. With that woman going through the trees to the highway where she'd parked, and the three other familiars following Ames, there was nothing to stop her from going back inside and grabbing some of Paige's things. After all, if she was going on the run, she would at least need some diapers. She waited until Ames had disappeared in the trees just to the right of their driveway on the opposite side from her with the three familiars trailing along behind him. Just as she turned to make her way to the back of the house to sneak into her room, she saw another head just at the very edge of her front yard, barely visible with the brush that was surrounding it. Maybe they decided to keep someone watching the house until I come back. At any rate, she wouldn't be able to get back into the house without him at least hearing her. Restraining a groan of frustration, she gently lowered herself down to the ground to wait for him to move on.

Max had been gunning her motorcycle the entire way, and she was pretty happy with the time she was making. She could stay on the interstate most of the time. She found it interesting that not a single cop had tried to stop her from racing down the road at top speed, but that was probably why most vehicle accidents happened on the interstate these days. The extremely understaffed law enforcement in this country had decided to stick to the big cites, leaving rural areas and the major roads to fend for themselves. She wasn't the only one flying at breakneck speed down the road, so it was easier to blend in. The sun still had plenty of time to set by the time she reached a small town called Lakeside, despite leaving Seattle at five-thirty.

She started winding her way through the streets, finally leaving out the north side of town. When she passed by the school, she stared at it curiously. Why hadn't White sent his kid here? Just before reaching a long, winding driveway with White's address posted on the red sign next to it and a yellow sign reading DEAD END, she saw a green sign that informed her that the next town, Somers, was only two miles away. Why in the world was White sending Ray to school in Kalispell when there were two towns so nearby? He was going a half hour out of his way to take the kid to school. Wouldn't it have been easier to have Ray go to school in Lakeside so that the bus could pick him up? Then he would have been able to take a job anywhere he wanted instead of having to keep it close to Ray's school so he could take him there and back home. I will never understand how these people's minds work, she thought incredulously.

Instead of taking her motorcycle all the way up to the house, she set it in the brush next to the ditch and covered it up completely, then started the long walk down the driveway. It was a ridiculously long walk, but just as she was thinking about whether or not to start jogging so she could get there faster, she heard the unmistakable sounds of someone walking through the woods. Stepping quickly behind a tree, she snuck a quick look around it to the area on the other side of the driveway. Even though he didn't appear to have seen her, White was carefully making his way through the trees at least a hundred yards away from her, heading in the opposite direction. What was he looking for? What surprised her more was when she saw the distinctive shapes of three more people sneaking along behind him, apparently without his knowledge. What in the world have I walked in on here? When they were a safe enough distance away, she stepped back out onto the driveway and continued on to the house. It was probably a better idea to just wait for him there.

Kay and Ben both looked up at the exact same moment when Max came into their view. Ben simply stared at her for a minute as she passed by him and walked up to the house, going through the door that White had left open and disappearing inside. He toyed with the idea of going in there by her and revealing himself to her, but the desire to have his fun with the Familiars overrode it. If she was still around after that, he would talk to her. Although he enjoyed his lifestyle to its fullest extent, he knew it was wrong of him to let her believe that she had killed her own brother. Of course, she had been around Zack and Brin for so long that he wondered if she didn't already know. Either way, she still thought he was dead, just as Zack and Brin did. She had caused a problem for him now, though. He couldn't exactly kill the Familiars in front of her, so now he had no choice but to follow them into the woods. Making sure Max couldn't see him, he darted across the driveway and started soundlessly following the search party in the forest.

Even though a tree was blocking her view of him as he crossed the driveway, Kay was pretty sure that the person who'd been watching the house had moved on. She could see his shadow moving through the trees, slowly growing smaller as he followed the others. With a sigh of relief, she climbed back to her feet and headed back for the house. She would have to be more careful now that Max was inside, but she was still determined to get some of Paige's things, maybe even steal some money if she could find it.

Making a quick decision that it probably wasn't a good idea to take Paige inside with her, Kay settled her now sleeping daughter in a dip between two roots of a tree on the edge of the yard, making sure that the blanket protected Paige from the roughness of the bark. The woman who had argued with Ames earlier had left the bedroom window wide open, so she stole a look over the sill to make sure Max wasn't there. When she was satisfied that the coast was clear, she easily popped up through the window and started grabbing what she needed. She made sure to avoid the crib, the last thing she needed was for that creaky floorboard to alert Max of her presence. She shoved the small pile of things she wanted to take under the window. They would just slow her down while she was sneaking around looking for the money.

Listening to the sounds of Max walking around in the kitchen, Kay stepped into the hallway and headed for Ames's room. If she was lucky, he had set his wallet down while he was searching for her. Sure enough, it was sitting on the bedside stand next to his cell phone. She picked it up and started flipping through it, pleased to see that he must have just gone to the bank, for there was well over two hundred dollars in front of her. I'm glad he has all those ridiculous jobs, even if it is just so he can avoid being around me. She shoved the money into her pocket, then froze when she heard light footsteps coming down the hall. Max was coming! Looking around the room wildly, she finally threw herself down and slid under the bed. It would have been impossible for her to get out the window before Max reached her, and the closet was just too obvious.

Max's feet strode into view, drifting meaninglessly around the room as Max explored carelessly. Suddenly, the sound of the front door opening reached both of their ears. Max turned and slipped out of the room, giving Kay time to pull herself out from under the bed and sneak back into her own room. Just as she reached the window and glanced out to check on Paige, her breath caught in her throat. Even from here she could tell that the space between the roots was completely empty. Where was Paige?

Author's Note: Please review!