New Discoveries
The Orphanage, Sector 7
December 30 2021
When Max and Logan stepped out of the car a middle aged woman was waiting for them.
"Ms Hedgecoe, hi I'm Logan this is my wife Max" Logan shook her hand and put his arm around Max
"Mr and Mrs Cale, it's lovely to meet you" Max and Logan smiled at each other "Come inside and we will discuss your options. So why do you want to adopt?"
"We love kids and we can't have kids of our own, so we thought adoption would be the next best thing" Logan said
"Well lets see what we can do" Ms Hedgecoe led them into her office, she sat down at the desk and Logan and Max made themselves comfortable in the swivel chairs on the other side. "So how long have you two been married?" Ms Hedgecoe looked over her glasses at Max
"Oh about 2 years now, isn't the right honey?" Max grabbed Logan's hand and smiled sweetly at him
"I think that's about right, you're better at remembering dates than I am" Logan smiled back
"That's true, I'm always having to remind him when our anniversary is, he's so forgetful"
"That is lovely, now are you interested in a boy or a girl?" Ms Hedgecoe was making notes as they talked
"We don't mind, but a girl would be nice" Logan answered, Max was surveying the room
"There is still a lot more we need to discuss, you need to fill out some paper work, we also need to do background checks and your living arrangements need to be assessed. But before we go ahead with any of that you should meet the children and see if you like any, there's no point in going any further if you don't find a child that will fit your family"
"Of course" Max agreed
"Right this way please" Ms Hedgecoe led them out of the office and down the corridor "Most of the children are in the recreation room out the back"
"Excuse me, may I use the ladies room" Max asked
"Oh yes just down the hall to the left, shall we wait for you"
"No you go ahead I will meet you there" Max walked to the bathroom, she waited until Ms Hedgecoe and Logan were out of sight before she crept out and back into the office. She quietly closed the door behind her. There were two desk drawers the top one didn't have much in it just a few pens and other stationary the second was locked. Max whipped two pins out of her hair and picked the lock. The drawer contained files on the orphans just like the ones in the directors office, Max flipped through them then she found a file labelled 'Simone Clark' inside was a picture of a young girl and her details,
Name: Simone Clark
Age: 10 years
Date of Birth: 17th September 2011
Background: Both parents killed in the earthquake. Found on the streets. Arrived 30th of January 2018
Comments: Very quiet, reserved young girl. Never makes any trouble. Lacks social skills and has made no connections with the other children.
Max put the file back and locked the drawer. She checked the corridor and carefully exited the office, she was walking down the hall when she heard a little noise in the room she was walking past. Max stopped and looked in, there was a young girl about 5 years old sitting on the floor holding a teddy bear.
"Hey there, what's the matter?" Max looked into her tear filled eyes, the girl just blinked back "Why are you out here all by yourself? Do you want to go and play with the other children?" the little girl nodded and took Max's hand. They went out to the rec room where about 20 children where scuttling about playing, the little girl ran in and sat down with several other young children who were drawing.
Max joined Logan and Ms Hedgecoe "I'm so sorry" Ms Hedgecoe said sympathetically
"What's wrong" Max asked but before Logan could say anything Ms Hedgecoe butted in
"Mr Cale was just saying how upsetting it was when you found out you were infertile"
Max glared at Logan "What is that little girls name?" Max asked nodding at the little girl she came in with
"That's Sophie, isn't she adorable" a young boy walked up to them and tugged on Ms Hedgecoe's sleeve "How can I help you Nick? Mr and Mrs Cal this is Nicholas Ridge one of our older boys"
"Nice to meet you Nicholas" Logan shook his hand
"Ms Hedgecoe can you please help me get the basket ball out of the closet" Nick asked
"Of course Nick, excuse me, feel free to talk with some of the children, I will be back in a minute" Ms Hedgecoe went down the hall while Max and Logan walked around
"You told her I was infertile" Max was a bit hurt
"I had to tell her something she was asking questions"
"Why couldn't it be you?" her whispers were getting louder
"Find anything" Logan changed the subject as they pretended to be interested in what the children were doing
"Yeah, you know Simone Clark from May 16, she's one of these kids"
Logan looked at her in surprise, Ms Hedgecoe came back to them "See any that you like?"
"They are all so gorgeous how can you choose, actually a friend of mine was here a few months ago and she said she met a really lovely girl by the name of Simone" Max said
"Yes our friend said she would fit right in to our family" Logan added
"Oh she's gone home" Ms Hedgecoe's immediately lost her smile when she heard the name Simone
"Well that's good" Logan eye balled Max
"So did any of the children stand out?" Ms Hedgcoe asked as they walked back to the office
"That Nicholas was a nice young man" Logan commented
"We find that younger children tend to settle in better"
"We were looking for an older child about school age because we both work during the day"
"Well Nicholas isn't ready for adoption he still has some eh ... emotional issues to work through"
"I think we will have to think about it a bit more honey" Max looked at Logan "Thankyou so much for your time"
"No, thankyou for coming" Ms Hedgecoe shook their hands and showed them to the door
"We'll be in touch" Logan said as they climbed back into the car.
"There's something suss going on there. Did you see her face when I mentioned Simone? Somehow I don't think she went home" Max said
"What makes you think that?" Logan asked
"Both her parents are dead, said so in her file"
"Maybe they found some relatives. I will see if I can check it out tonight"
"What was with that infertility thing"
"I told you already she was asking questions and I had to tell her something"
"And why wasn't it you with the problem?" Max crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows
"I was the forgetful one remember" Logan smiled Max wasn't amused "Oh did I tell you I found something on that letter sorting office in Montana"
"No, what did you find?" Max all of a sudden forgot that they were arguing
"You're in luck there is only one registered disused letter office in Montana"
"Where is it?"
"I'm still working on it, we can have a look when we get back"
The rest of the trip home was in silence, Max's mind was racing with the thought that she may actually find her mother one day, Logan however was trying to put the pieces together from the orphan case.
When they got back to Medtronics Max immediately dragged Logan over to the computer "I'll make some coffee" Max said after she had sat Logan down
"And I'll find out where this letter office is" Logan said dryly
"Hey guys! Saw you pull up on the surveillance, I was wondering when you'd get back. How'd it go?" Alec appeared from the tunnel, Logan almost jumped out of his skin
"Yeah not bad" Logan answered
"You must be able to smell coffee brewing from a mile away" Max came out from the kitchen carrying a cup of coffee
"Actually I've come to drag you away Ms Mayor" Alec replied
"Me ... no way"
"Yeah, did you forget the meeting?"
"Oh yeah" Max left the cup on Logan's desk "Catch ya"
"See ya" Logan called back as Max and Alec disappeared down the tunnel
When they got to the control room Joshua got up and gave Max a big hug "Hey little fella"
"Hi Joshua what's up" Max sat down at the table, Dix, Luke and Mole were there along with a few other representative from the different transgenic groups.
"First order of business is supplies" Alec started the meeting.
Terminal City
December 30 2021
Max was hanging out with some of the other transgenics in the area below the media centre when she saw Logan walk in he went over to Alec and said something to him then both of them came over to Max.
"There a problem?" Max was a little bit suspicious
"No, I have some news" Logan helped Max up and led her to an empty room with Alec not far behind
"What kind of news?" Max shot Alec a look when he came in and closed the door
"Do you want the good news or the bad first?"
"The good news I guess" Max was worried now
"I found out where the Manticore archive is"
"Where?"
"It is in a small farming town just outside of Shelby on the other side of mountains" Logan didn't look excited
"What are we waiting for?" Max went for the door
"Max wait."
"What's the bad news?" Alec asked as Max sat back down
"I found out what happened to Simone" Logan said
"What happened?" Max looked up at him
"When we got back this morning I gave Detective Sung a call and asked him about the missing kids, Simone is one of them, she went missing on May 16th. All those dates you gave me were dates of when children have gone missing, two from the sector 7 orphanage, and the others from different orphanages around the state"
"What about December 31st?" Max asked
"I assume that another kid is going to go missing tomorrow. We need to find out who and where these kids are going. Max we need to get that diary"
"What about the archive?"
"Max that will still be there next week, right now we need to focus on these kids"
"Logan's right, the sooner we get to the bottom of this the sooner we can go check this archive out" Alec stood beside Logan, Max was annoyed at them for ganging up on her but she knew they were right. She brushed past them and went out the door, Logan was going to go after her but Alec stopped him "She'll be back"
"I hope you're right"
Orphanage Director's House, Sector 7
December 30th 2021
The night was still young when Max pulled up on her motor bike and switched off the engine. She snuck around the side of the house where she got in the other night and jumped up on to the roof outside the second floor window. She tried to open the window but it was jammed. Max looked in the window to see what was stopping it from opening and she saw it was dead locked, she wouldn't be able to open it without making a lot of noise. Max jumped down from the roof and headed for the back of the house, as she went past the lounge room she saw the director watching TV. The rest of the house was dark so Max picked the lock on the back door. She closed the door carefully behind her and silently walked through the kitchen. Darkness was not a problem for Max as her feline DNA gave her excellent night vision. She hugged the wall as she approached the lounge. The director was still watching TV so Max quickly crept up the stairs and went straight to the office, the diary was sitting on the desk.
Max was stuffing the diary into her satchel when she heard a low growl, she looked up and saw the silhouette of a dog framed in the door. Max zipped up the bag backed up to the window, the dog slunk in snarling and never took its eyes of Max. Max fiddled with the lock trying to get the window open, the dog was almost at the desk when she heard the click of the lock opening. She quietly opened the window and began to climb out when the dog leapt for her. All the noise from the upstairs office brought the director upstairs, Max slammed the window shut just as he reached the door. The dog was barking wildly as Max dived off the roof and the man was working frantically at the window to get a glance at the intruder. Max raced to her bike, she heard shouts coming from the door of the house and the dog came bounding down the street after her. She started the bike and raced off leaving the bewildered director trying to drag the barking dog back to the house.