Disclaimer: Kay and Paige. That's all I have to say. I wish Ben was mine, too, but oh well.

Black Ice

By Be Boring

Chapter 6: Time to Talk

It was well past six when Ben finally woke up again, and during his surprisingly long nap, Brin had been thinking things over. How could he have possibly survived a gunshot wound to the head? Why didn't he come back before now? And what the hell was he doing with a baby? It didn't take long for the sneaking suspicion to enter her mind that he was killing again. What else could have kept him away? He loved his family, she knew that, but she also knew that his passion for killing tended to be stronger. She was sure he wouldn't have stuck around so long last time if it hadn't been for Kay. Oh no, Kay! Did Ben know everything that had happened with her after his "death?" It was a lot to wonder about, but it wouldn't leave her mind the entire time she watched the baby. Paige only woke up once while she was on babysitting duty, and after changing her diaper the kid was good to go. The baby was the only thing that made absolutely no sense to her. She could make up possible excuses for everything else, but the baby was a mystery.

When Ben finally groaned and crawled out from under the covers, immediately awakening little Paige, it took him a moment to figure out why Brin and a baby were in the room with him. Once it all came back, he knew he'd be answering some questions. He was grateful that at least Brin waited until after he went into the bathroom to run some cold water over his face to wake himself up further. There was no point in being drowsy during an interrogation. As soon as he came back out, Brin started to ask her questions.

"What happened that day in Manticore?"

He sighed and sat down in a stiff armchair on the opposite side of the bed from Brin. "White didn't hit me straight on, he just blew off part of my skull. It turns out the Red who was with us that day, Chris, didn't die in Sandeman's office like I'm sure we all assumed. When he came down the stairs, he found me and realized I was still alive. He took me out of there before the building blew up, and he took care of me afterwards. He took me to a hospital that he knew would be discreet and they put a metal plate over the missing part of my skull until my bone regenerated. Chris had to take it off because we didn't want to have to explain to them that I could regrow bone like that, and then it was a while before the skin came back properly and my vision returned fully in my right eye. Chris died from the implant a few months ago, so I've been on my own ever since."

"Have you been killing again?"

He knew that question was coming, but he hadn't expected her to ask it so soon. "Sometimes, yeah. Don't get on my case about it, because I'm not really in the mood right now to defend myself to you. How have you been doing?"

"Fine. I'm working with Max at JamPony now, along with Zack, Jondy, and Alec. I'm living with Zack, and Max and Logan got that virus mess fixed up so they can be happy together. Jondy just gave us some surprising news today; it turns out she's pregnant. I actually found out last night because she was freaking out about how to tell Alec, but everyone else got to hear about it today."

Jondy's pregnant? I can't imagine Zack took that very well. "That's great, I'm sure she'll be a good mother. Now, when you say you're living with Zack, am I to take that to mean that you two are together romantically?"

She nodded, blushing at the astonishment on his face. "I know, it's a weird match, but it works for us. I think he's loosening up now that everyone knows about transgenics and we're not seen as such a threat anymore. As long as he doesn't have to do his protector act, he has the time to have a life. But don't think you can change the subject, I didn't plan to talk to you about my love life. I'm a little curious, how much do you know about everything that happened while you were gone?"

Ben looked down at his folded fingers in his lap. "I know everything that happened up until the big fight. I had Chris sneak into Terminal City and spy on you, and don't get upset because it wasn't so much you that I wanted him to check on, it was Kay. I wanted to know how she was doing. I know everything about her situation with White and what Zack did because of it. I also know that she organized the entire big fight by helping half of Terminal City escape and taking them to the stadium. I stopped watching over her after that."

Brin wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer, but she asked anyway. "Why?"

"Because I confronted her at the fight. Chris took me there because I wasn't in very good shape yet, and I talked to her in the heat room. Suffice it to say that it didn't end well. I left and haven't seen or heard from her since. I assume White killed her though, because I saw him go back down the hall to where she was with his gun in his hand."

Brin stared at him in astonishment. Every now and then she wondered what had happened to Kay, but the thought that Kay was dead had never crossed her mind. "Are you sure? Did you hear the gunshot?"

"No, but Chris and I were out in the middle of the fighting before he had time to get to her. I thought you were upset with her?"

"Well yeah, but I never wished for her to die. We became so close on the farm after Wendy died, I just can't believe there's a possibility that she's gone too." The thing that hurt Brin the most, even more than the thought of losing another cherished friend, was the thought that Kay could have died believing that Brin hated her. She didn't think she could handle that.

Kay glanced anxiously at the clock, which told her that it wouldn't be long before Max came back. Max had gotten off work a few hours ago, and Kay was sure she would want to tell Logan what happened in Montana. Kay just didn't want to be here when she came back. Logan seemed oblivious to her anxiety, however, as he was completely immersed in calling his contacts and looking things up on his computer. He hadn't come across anything important yet, but to him that signified that the target hadn't changed vehicles just yet. He had been checking various towns along the interstate to see if they had reported any vehicles that had magically appeared out of nowhere, but he hadn't found anything so far. He was slowly making his way towards Seattle with his search, but he didn't know where he would go after that.

As he finally brought up the list of confiscated vehicles in Seattle, his eyes landed on the vehicle at the very top of the list, showing that it was the most recent addition. According to the report, a dark green Chevy Tahoe had been found abandoned in an alley in Chinatown. He immediately picked up the phone and dialed Matt Sung's number.

"Hello?"

"Hey Matt, it's Logan. Are you busy right now?"

"No, it's been a slow day for once. Did you need something?"

Now Logan had to come up with a reasonable excuse for why he was looking for the Tahoe. "Yeah, I have a contact who reported a murder yesterday, and I believe the murderer may have come through Seattle. A vehicle that matches the description of the getaway car was found in Chinatown, and since that area's under your jurisdiction, I was wondering if you could dust it for prints? Right now it's at the junkyard right around the corner from your station, so it shouldn't take you long. Do you think you could do that?"

"Sure, but I've got to warn you, we've been hit with a serious computer virus here, so it will take a while before I can run the fingerprints through the database and look for a match. Plus our area has been having brownouts every other hour it seems like, so I really don't know how long it will take."

"Well, if it starts to become too much trouble, I'll just drop by and pick up the prints and take them to another station where everything's running smoothly. Don't take that as an insult, it's just that I'd like this done as quickly as possible. I believe this may be a serial killer that we have on our hands here, so it's top priority for me at the moment."

When he hung up, Kay placed her hands on her hips and looked at him eagerly. "Well? Did you find something?"

"A Chevy Tahoe was dumped in Chinatown, and I think there's a good chance that it's the right one. As far as I can see, though, there have been no reports of a stolen vehicle around there."

"Well, either this guy could be staying in that area, or he could have called a cab to take him somewhere. Could you check the taxi records?"

"Sure, but this could take a minute. Maybe if Matt has some more free time on his hands, I could ask him to go around the inns in Chinatown and ask if a man with light brown hair came in at a strange hour of the morning. They don't have any computer systems for me to hack into, so it's a lot of footwork."

"Why don't you let me do that part? I can ask around easily enough."

Logan shook his head firmly. "No, you can't do that. I'm sure this guy knows about you, and if he sees you coming, he'll be long gone. It's better to have Matt handle it, he won't look quite as suspicious. If you really feel the need to do something, I suggest you call anyone else who was involved in your situation and see if they know more than you do. You'll have to make the call short and block your number from any caller ID they might have, because I don't think it's in your best interest to let them know where you are, but maybe you'll be able to find out if they know anything about our target. You never know, they might have an exact description of the target, maybe even a name."

Kay nodded, that was a really good idea. "Could I borrow your phone?" He gestured to the phone that was barely visible on the counter in the kitchen. When she was satisfied that he wouldn't be able to trace her, she finally pushed in Ames's cell phone number.

"Who is this and why is your number blocked?" came the answering growl on the other end of the line.

"Really friendly, Ames, you sure have a way with words. I don't think I need to tell you what I'm calling about."

No, you don't. He'd picked up Ray a few hours ago. Now he and Ray were at a motel in Kalispell, and he had knocked out his neighbor so that he could take his laptop and get online to try and track the priest down. He couldn't believe the way he'd been stabbed in the back. Slow down now, don't you think killing Thula and disposing of her body might be counted as backstabbing too? Of course, the Conclave didn't even know about that part. "Please, I think you could have figured out for yourself that I don't know where Paige is. Would I have been running through the woods if I was in on this?"

"I never said I thought you were. I want to know about who took Paige." She made sure to talk quietly so Logan couldn't hear anything.

"Jennifer was just another familiar, but I'm sure they've got her hidden now."

"I doubt it, unless they think hiding a body is really that important."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. That woman's body was in the trunk of her own car in a gas station in Lakeside. I want to know about the man that killed her. He's the one who has Paige now."

"I have no idea who he is, but if he killed Jennifer, then he's not a familiar. With the way he ran, I'm guessing he was a transgenic."

A transgenic? Other than Max and I, why would another transgenic have been there? "Are you sure? I don't see any reason why a transgenic would be there."

"I don't know, maybe he heard about what they were planning to do and thought he'd join the fun. It doesn't really matter to me, I'm more concerned about what will happen when the Conclave eventually gets their hands on Paige, which believe me, I'm sure they will."

"You were planning on handing her over to them anyway, so why do you care what they were planning to do to her?"

"I had a deal set up with the Conclave that if I gave them Paige, they would ignore her genetic background and raise her like they would any other familiar child. I was supposed to be brought back into the cult, and when Paige was old enough we would set off the Coming like planned. The fact that the Conclave sent a team in to take Paige when it was supposed to be my job tells me that they didn't plan on holding up their end of the bargain, but they still wanted Paige. She's part transgenic, so if they aren't planning on sticking to our agreement, do you really think they would bother raising her like one of my people? As far as they're concerned, she's a means to an end, and they'll get to that end however they feel like it."

Kay was horrified at the thought. Did that mean they would kill Paige? Now it was almost a relief that she was taken by that man, at least she wasn't in imminent danger of death. Not that she knew of, anyway. She hung up the phone before Ames could scare her any more with his dark thoughts about the Conclave's plans. She didn't want to think about any of that. Her top priority was to get Logan set straight on his search. He looked up as she approached, his fingers poised above the keyboard as though she had interrupted him in mid-stroke. "I assumed the man was a familiar, but it sounds like I may have been wrong. I think he's actually a transgenic." Her mind was still reeling after her conversation with Ames. He must have assumed that she knew everything, because he had mentioned the Coming. That had never occurred to her before. Just because the virus wasn't active in her didn't mean that she couldn't pass it on to her offspring. After Logan promised to start searching right away, she decided it was probably best if she headed back to Bling's place. After all, Max could come back at any time.

Ames glared at the screen of the laptop. It wasn't the computer's fault that he was angry, it was his own. For some reason, he couldn't remember the High Priest's name. Of course, he was used to thinking of the other man as the High Priest, and he'd been in that role for all of Ames's years in the cult. His appearance was deceiving, but he was actually Ames's senior by twenty-five years. Unfortunately, spending so much time thinking of a man as his title tended to make his real name fade into distant memory. He knew he'd heard the name before, but it must have been a long time ago. It's something old-fashioned, it's not very common anymore. I think it started with an A. Abraham? No, that wasn't it. Albert? Huh-uh. I'm sure it started with an A and an L. Wait, Alistair! The name came out of nowhere, but as soon as he thought of it a grin spread across his face. It wouldn't be too difficult to search for someone by the name of Alistair. He didn't remember the man's last name either, but he'd remember it if he saw it.

It didn't even take two minutes of searching before he saw the right name. Alistair Bougeman. That was him all right. A few clicks later and he had a phone number, although if it was a home phone then he might not get an answer. He grabbed his phone and glanced over to make sure that Ray was preoccupied with some toys, then dialed the number. It rang a few times, but then he heard someone answer it.

"Hello?" That voice was easily recognizable. Apparently this was a cell phone number.

"Fen'os tol. Tell me what you thought you were doing today."

Alistair smiled with amusement. Ames was persistent, he'd give him that. "Fen'os tol. I thought I was retrieving my key."

"You know damn well that I was going to bring her to you, so I have to assume that since you tried to stop me from doing my half of the deal, then you weren't planning on doing the other half. What were you planning on doing to my daughter?"

"Honestly, drain her of every last drop of blood in her body, but that doesn't matter at the moment. It's not like anyone has any idea where the girl is, and she's our last hope."

Ames sat there for a moment, then something entirely new crossed his mind. "No, she's not. As long as the mother is alive, our hope isn't gone. The girl is of no importance to us if we can recapture X5-358. You could even take a leaf out of my father's book and implant several of her fertilized eggs into surrogates. Then you'd have more than enough blood to start a hundred Comings. If you fertilized her eggs with the sperm of a second class familiar, the offspring would be even more potent that my daughter's. After all, my daughter is part anti-key. It wouldn't take much for the virus in her to be neutralized as well."

Alistair could hardly believe this stroke of genius. As much as he despised the scientific way of doing things, it didn't make much difference to him as long as he got what he wanted. "The idea has promise, but we have no more idea of where the mother is than the child. I don't care which one I get first, as long as our goals are achieved. If you can bring me either one of them before my men do, I will keep my promise to you and bring you back into our culture. On that you have my word." He hung up the phone feeling very pleased with himself. Ames had given him another option for how to bring about the Coming, and if his own men could find either the X5 or the child first, then he wouldn't have to bother with that traitor anymore either.

Unfortunately for him, Ames already had a guess for where Kay could be. He knew she was dead set against going back and seeing her old friends in Seattle, but something told him that she might change her mind in this situation. She would never tell them about her daughter, but she might be able to convince them to help her. It at least gave him a place to start looking. He knew now that his only option was to hand Kay over to the cult. Giving up Paige would be hard for him at this point, but Kay? He could do it in a heartbeat.

Max was practically bursting with the need to tell Logan everything by the time she was off work, but everyone was going to Crash to celebrate Jondy's pregnancy, and she knew it would be rude to miss that. Jondy appeared to be uncomfortable with all the attention, especially when everyone made a big deal about the fact that she couldn't drink alcohol. Everyone knew that Jondy wasn't stupid enough to drink while she was pregnant, but they insisted on making a fuss about its importance. Sketchy seemed to think it was funny every time he took a large swig of beer in front of her. He'd make a ridiculous apology, always making sure to refer to the fact that if she followed his lead, her child would turn out like him. That's enough to scare anyone into giving up beer. When it finally seemed to be an appropriate time to leave, she made up a quick excuse about desperately needing gas for her motorcycle and wanting to get it before the gas truck left for the night, and then she got out of there and headed for Logan's as fast as she could.

He looked up in surprise when she came charging into his living room, obviously dying to say something but unsure about where to start. "Hello to you, too. Sit down before you have a heart attack. I take it this has something to do with your trip to Montana?"

She nodded quickly, and then words began to pour out of her mouth at an alarming rate, jumbling into each other as she spoke. "For some reason, when I first showed up I could see White walking all over the place in the woods outside his house with a bunch of guys following him, but I don't think he knew about them, then I went into the house to wait, but I heard this baby crying and suddenly there was this huge chase in the woods with some woman carrying the baby and White and all his stalkers and another woman that came out of nowhere, and I'm not sure but I think there was one extra guy that I hadn't noticed before because I don't think he was in the group following White, but he was really fast, I mean he passed everybody except for the woman with the baby, then the other woman was behind him but way too far behind to ever catch up to them before they reached the highway, but I didn't get to see how it ended because White and I got into a fight, but I'm pretty sure it was the woman with the baby and the man behind her who made it away, because when I looked up I saw that other woman fighting with the guys who had been following White and she really kicked their asses, then she jumped onto the back of a truck and got away." She was breathing really hard by the time she finished talking, and Logan thought that if that had continued much longer, he would have gotten a headache.

"That has to be the longest run-on sentence I've ever heard in my life, but I think I caught most of it. Do you have any idea what it was all about?"

"No, that's why I wanted to tell you, but you were still asleep by the time I had to go to work and I didn't think it was right to wake you up. I'm not quite done yet, I've got some other stuff to tell you."

"I recommend taking a deep breath before you start again, because I think otherwise you might hyperventilate," he joked.

She rolled her eyes at him and started talking as though she hadn't heard him. "Well, then I finally got to talk to White, but he was really distracted so I think it caught him off guard when I asked him about Kay. He said the last time he saw her was when we both spotted her first coming into the stadium. Apparently by the time he went into the room where she and Thula had been, Thula was dead and Kay was already gone."

Logan frowned as he matched the story to Kay's. Either one of them was lying, or they both were. His thoughts led perfectly into her next question. "Then I watched that video clip on your computer last night from the big fight. I know you tried to cross it out, but do you think that Kay and White left the stadium together?"

"I'm pretty sure they did. That doesn't mean they stuck together long afterwards, but I'm sure they left together. I don't know why White would lie to you, but I'm almost positive what he told you wasn't the truth."

Max was almost disappointed. For how eager she had been to tell Logan everything, it hadn't gotten her very far and she couldn't help feeling that it was a little anticlimactic. "Do you have any ideas about that baby? It seemed to be a big deal for everyone."

"No, not yet, but maybe it has something to do with whatever White bought from Lethil & Prowdovet. I don't know exactly what, but those are two very suspicious occurrences that happened within a very short period of time, all revolving around White. I don't think the timing is a coincidence, and the same goes for White's involvement. We just have to figure out why this baby is so important. I really think that's the key factor in all of this." In the future, when he looked back on that sentence, his reactions varied from seriously considering hitting himself to cracking up laughing. "You know, I haven't had supper yet. Are you hungry?"

Max chuckled and flopped out on the couch. "Nah, I'm too drunk to really feel like eating right now. I had to go to Crash because everyone was throwing a celebration for Jondy. It turns out she's going to have a baby. Isn't that cool?"

Logan grinned at her, incredibly amused at seeing Max this intoxicated. "Yeah, that's cool. I'm happy for her. So, why are you drunk?"

"I was getting really antsy waiting to come see you and tell you everything, so I drank a lot to pass the time. It's been a long time since I got so trashed."

Feeling his appetite slowly fade into the background, he stood up and walked over so that he towered above her. "So, are you telling me that you're vulnerable?"

Max laughed and sat up, hugging him lightly around the middle and staring up at him from where her chin was resting against his stomach. "Don't tell me the great Logan Cale is thinking about taking advantage of a poor little drunk girl?"

He reached down and pulled her up playfully by the arm so she was standing with him. "One, you're no poor little drunk girl. Two, it's hardly taking advantage when the subject is willing." With that, he swept her up into his arms and headed for the bedroom, ready to have a little normalcy in his day.

A/N: Please review! You guys are awesome! :)