"Do you trust me?" he asked.
"Cut the crap." Her tone was as clipped as his was tense. He looked up in surprise. "No," she shrugged. "I have no idea who you are because you and my cousin have decided to keep something major secret from me. I've known you two days, during which time you hit on me, pissed me off, and rescued me. I'm very thankful, but I don't trust your inconsistency." She waited for his rebuttal. "Well?"
Alec shrugged now. "Well, you'll have to trust me." He threw her a hood. "Put this on. We're going for a ride."
Eve looked scared as she realized that Alec wasn't simply being dramatic about trust. "What's going on?"
"What's going on? A secret cult of superhumans wants to take over the world, and one of the cultists was also a geneticist who designed me and hundreds of other soldiers in test tubes for a secret government agency, and he just might be your father. Put the hood on, Eve." He wasn't supposed to tell her any of that, but he didn't feel like lying to her today.
Eve tossed the black cloth back to him. "No! This is ridiculous! You're not making any sense! If my father were any of those things, do you think he would have left my mother and me?"
Alec approached her, cornering her in her seat. "Yes. It's complicated, Eve." He was about to add "trust me," but realized those words wouldn't help much. Their faces were so close he could feel her breath on his cheek. He saw her eyes drop to his mouth and back to his eyes again. It was an invitation, which he accepted quickly with ardor. He'd wanted to since he met her at Crash, and especially last night when he watched her fitful dreaming. He would have to ask her later about her own inconsistency of character, but first...
His left hand found the bundle of nerves under her jaw. He pressed hard and swiftly, causing her to instantly pass out in his arms.
That was probably the last kiss he'd get from her.
"Well do you know how to get in touch with him? It's really important, Aunt Jessie." Logan was stunned to find out that his aunt's one-time lover more or less matched a description Max had tortured out of Lydecker. "Yes I'm sure. Yes, please do. Thank you. I love you, too, Aunt Jessie. G'bye."
Logan took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Life could not get any weirder.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned, swallowing a yelp.
"Luke." He should be used to transgenics by now, shouldn't he? He donned his glasses again.
"Hey Logan." Luke wore a goofy grin on his face, as usual. "Will you come with me?"
Logan was up and following Luke before he thought to ask, "Where to?"
"To the labs. Dix and I have been setting up some equipment. You know, making ourselves at home." The guy sounded really excited.
"What kind of equipment?"
Luke never answered his question because they arrived at the abandoned laboratory. Joshua was there, too, beaming proudly.
"Dix and I were thinking about this virus thing, trying to figure out how to beat it, right?"
"Only, it keeps mutating, so there's no way to really get rid of it permanently," Dix continued.
"And?" Logan's throat was suddenly painfully dry.
"So we got to thinking outside the box," Luke continued. "We can't get rid of the virus, and we can't change your DNA, but what if we made YOU immune to the virus, like Max is?"
"How?" This time his one syllable question came out as a whisper. He felt slightly dizzy. They were talking about a cure. His heart rate accelerated. For him and Max...
"Well if we can get your immune system to produce antibodies to the virus structure then it shouldn't matter how it mutates, because your antibodies will mutate with it. Like how rats are immune to the real hantavirus."
"I...I don't understand." His mind was racing with the idea that he could finally take her in his arms...
"Max and Logan. Getting busy." Joshua was beside himself with happiness for his friends.
"I think what Joshua is trying to say is that your last transgenic blood transfusion made you a good deal...healthier. If we can make you immune to the Hanta virus, then we should be able to make you immune to Max."
"Well," Dix looked at Luke, "Not to Max per se, but to her virus. In theory."
"In theory," Luke agreed.
"Let's do it."