A/n: once again, huge thanks for all your reviews. Now that this story is nearly over, it's nice to know the sequel will have plenty of readers.
Epilogue I: Deck's Two Cents.
Lydecker sat at his desk, thinking over the events of the past few days. In front of him was all of the information he'd managed to amass on Logan Cale. It was a small pile; he seemed a fairly inconspicuous man at first glance. But appearances can be deceptive, the colonel mused.
Lydecker smiled to himself, remembering Renfro's reaction when the doors locked down in the X7 training room. When they discovered their communications were out, she'd gone straight to the door to unlock it with the override code only to find it had been changed. The great Director of Manticore had completely panicked and launched into a screaming tirade at everyone but herself, then ordered the X7's to break down the door. It had taken over an hour to get to her office, by which time Cale and Brin were long gone. The only guards outside were those at the gate, who could only tell them that a car had crashed through the gates with two occupants. After the head count, it was clear who was missing.
Renfro's going to get a real pasting from the committee for losing Brin. Lydecker grinned at the thought. And this time she can't possibly shift the blame onto me. I wouldn't like to be Cale when we catch up with him; she'll make sure he suffers for running rings around her.
The various techs were completely confounded by the virus that had been dropped into their computer system. Apparently it had been designed to erase the hard drive and then repeatedly overwrite it with nonsense so none of the data could be recovered. They also had trouble believing that he'd changed the security code so quickly. It seemed Cale was a top level hacker; a fact conspicuous only by its absence in his files. And his powers of persuasion are pretty good too, thought Lydecker. He even talked me into helping him escape by distracting Renfro. And I can't believe Cale got away with Brin. I kept reminding myself not to underestimate him because of his injury; and I still did.
And despite myself I can't help liking him. He's brave, resourceful, highly intelligent, knows how to manipulate people, calm under pressure… a natural leader. Not even being shot has slowed him down. No wonder Max got involved with him; he'd be a great man to have at your side in combat. What higher praise is there?
Now, the next question is how to find him. Because I think he's the key to finding not just Max, but Brin and possibly others as well. Not to mention Eyes Only. Perhaps it would be a good idea to get in touch with the not-so-doting uncle. I'm sure he could be persuaded to give us more information, at least. Cale's too smart to go back within a mile of his apartment, and he'll probably ditch the cell phone now he knows I have his number. Still, it's possible someone will try to contact him there, so it's worth keeping the stakeout team in the place.
I could always enlist the help of the Seattle PD again. Although I expect Cale has enough contacts there to stall me for a while. What's really bothering me is the fact that he seems to have dropped completely off anyone's radar for the past five years. That FBI file is completely useless; no leads at all. If I didn't know better I'd say it had been tampered with.
But no matter what happens, we will find Cale. And he will tell us everything he knows. No matter what we have to do to loosen his tongue.
The phone on the desk rang suddenly, making Lydecker jump. He picked up.
"Lydecker."
"Sir, there's been a development in the search for X5 656."
"What kind of development?"
Let me know what you thought.