Disclaimer: No infringement intended. Not affiliated in any way with anyone. Nothing to sue here people, move along. I don't own anything here. I am not making any money on this.

Huge THANK YOU to Maria for making time to Beta this no matter how hectic her RL gets.

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Scene 6: Beliefs.

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"The other two marks were Bennett and John Cale. I don't think that this had anything to do with Logan's … activities. I think it has to do with his family," Matt stated.

"Yeah. That sounds logical," Max replied automatically. As soon as her momentary shock wore off, she resumed command of the situation. "Matt, I'm still going after these guys. It doesn't matter why they were after Logan. I and ... everyone owes Logan too much. For that matter we need Logan too much to not to deal with this situation aggressively. Agreed?"

"Agreed. What can I do to help?" Matt asked.

"Stay in touch. I'll keep you informed on what I find out. Let me know if you get any clues from the perps."

"Will do."

"Roger. Stat. Out." Max barked off quickly, leaving Matt to wonder which branch of the military she was from.

She snapped Logan's phone shut. "Bling, how much do you know about Logan's family?"

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Bling didn't know anything about Logan's family, but he did know about the Informant Net. Everyone was eager to help one of their own, regardless of why help was needed. Max hadn't felt such a sense of camaraderie since she left Manticore. Against her better judgment, she found herself liking these people and enjoying working with them.

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Bling's first phone call was to David MacCullum; a retired lawyer that used to work in the District Attorney's office. He was aware that Logan's wealth financed most of the cost of running Eyes Only.

"Hey David," Bling began.

"Bling?" David asked.

"Yeah, can you talk?" Bling asked.

"Yes. Are you alright?" David had been concerned since he got the e-mail warning him to watch his back.

"Yeah. It was Logan they were after. He's fine, but he didn't get much sleep last night. He's safe now. It doesn't look like it had anything to do with us. They had two other Cales on their list."

"Which two?" David asked.

"Bennett and John," Bling answered.

"Hmm. Has anyone checked on the others? Do you know if they were targeted by a separate team or not at all?"

Max heard everything, but she didn't know anything about Logan's family either. She shook her head at Bling to indicate 'no'.

Bling took the fact that she could hear both sides of this conversation in stride. "I don't know any others. How many Cales are there?"

"Hundreds, but only a few are closely related to Logan. Bennett and John are his cousins; they have two other brothers, Adam and Joseph. I'll check on them. You don't think they would be behind this, do you?"

If that is his first guess on who is trying to kill Logan, maybe I should reconsider if I even want 'family'. Max's horror was plain on her face.

Bling continued on stoically. "Don't know. Who would benefit from their deaths?"he asked. What kind of family does Logan have that they are the prime suspects to want him dead? No wonder he never talks about them.

"Unfortunately that information would be in probate, which is locked up at City Hall. Logan could probably afford to bribe someone with that information, but it will be another couple of hours before anyone is even there."

Max grinned and bolted. Bling looked up just in time to see the door shut behind her.

David was absolutely astounded when a small courier delivered the information to him just a little over an hour later. Max would have had it done sooner but she needed to take Logan's car back to get her motorcycle.

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David was already on the phone with Bling by the time Max got back to the safe house.

Logan's grandfather's will made it all too clear who would benefit if Logan died. Neither Max nor Bling even suggested waking Logan up to tell him. It wasn't said out loud, but the both understood that they were trying to find some evidence that it wasn't so before Logan woke up.

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Kyle Conner volunteered to try and sneak into Cale Industries to plant his toys that would, hopefully, relieve their suspicions, or more likely confirm them. Bling actually chuckled at his offer, and then told Kyle to just get the devices ready; a specialist was on the way.

Max wondered briefly if anyone really considered the security at Cale Industries to be adequate. It was nothing compared to what she was used to. She got in, installed Kyle's toys, and got out again without leaving a single trace; all before Jonas even strolled in after 9 am.

She would never, ever, complain about men and their toys.

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Kyle was happier than a kid in a candy shop, despite the grim circumstances. Everything was working perfectly. They had successfully tapped into Cale Industries own internal security system, as well as planted six additional microphones that communicated independently to the router hidden in the ventilation shaft that relayed all this information to Kyle over the cell phone network. It was working perfectly. They would never detect it because it wasn't generating traffic either in to or out of their network.

Kyle finished going over the security records for any trace of the person that planted these devices; there was no such trace. He couldn't believe it was the small female that picked them up. Well, not unless she's a were-cat or something.

Max arrives back at Kyle's apartment just as Adam Cale entered the office of his father, Jonas Cale.

"Just in time for the show," Kyle quipped as his fingers flew over the keyboard.

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"Good morning, son. I'm glad you're well. I've received the most disturbing reports about your brothers." Jonas smiled and gestured for his secretary to leave the room.

The instant the door shut Adam said, "And I thought you might be upset."

Jonas walked around his desk to slap Adam across the face. "You are damn right I am upset! What the hell were you thinking?"

Adam clenched his teeth and faced his father's anger with his own. "That they were useless! Bennett was a damn bleeding heart and he's dating that …that ..."

Jonas interrupted as Adam was searching for an appropriate insult. "Is. Bennett is fine."

"What?"

"They are all fine. The security at Logan's apartment complex managed to capture your cheap thugs. Damn, Adam, how could you have been so stupid? I assumed that it was either you or Joseph that hired them. From your comments it was you. You think they won't tell the police that?"

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Max shook her head at their sheer stupidity. They hadn't even turned off their own security camera. At least they thought it was security that took down the assassins.

Kyle felt for Logan. They had known each other and worked together for years. He knew Logan wasn't particularly close to his family, but this? He hoped his friend would be alright. He knew Logan was strong. Just look at what he had been through in the past year. Still, every man had his limits. He shook his head in sadness, but recorded everything, one copy for his hard drive and one on a flash drive for Matt Sung.

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"I didn't use my real name. I paid them the deposit in cash," Adam stammered.

"Can they identify what you look like?" Jonas demanded.

Adam's silence was all the confirmation he needed. "How did I sire such a fool? I'm tempted to order blood tests!"

"I thought the risk of them being able to identify me would be less than bringing in another person."

"Fool. You think I don't have people that I can trust?"

"I didn't think you would have wanted anything to do with this."

"You should have come to me. This was pointless and foolish. How dare you even consider harming your brothers? Have you no loyalty? No allegiance? No damn sense?"

"If Logan isn't dead before next year he is going to get half of everything! Just because he is the only surviving child of his father! He doesn't do anything for the company! He never has! He doesn't deserve anything! Not even what he is getting now!"

Jonas let Adam rant. "Through?"

"Yes," Adam forced out through gritted teeth.

"Logan does deserve what he is getting now. He's a Cale, and the amount that he is getting is a pittance compared to what is at stake. Logan doesn't even know about the will, and he never had to. You said it yourself; he never has anything to do with the corporation or the trust fund. He trusts me to handle all of that, you fool. It is the investigation that your ridiculous attempted murder is going to trigger that might bring the will out into the open."

"The administrator of the estate would have informed him." Adam tried to defend his actions.

"No, actually, I wouldn't have." Jonas glared at Adam until it sunk in.

Adam looked appropriately contrite. "Oh. So now what?"

"I'll see if I can shut down the investigation. If Logan finds out about the will then we will have to kill him or go broke just trying to cover up this little fiasco of yours. From now on - you come through me, and if you ever try to harm any of your brothers again I will punish you."

Adam stared at him defiantly.

"Remember, I do have people I can trust. It's amazing what you can survive."

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"Not if you cross me you … you … traitors!" Max mumbled under her breath.

Kyle was not aware that he was mere inches away from a furious genetically enhanced killing machine, but some inner intuition let him know that he should be afraid, very afraid. He quickly put the video and audio on the drive and handed it to Max. "That's everything we have so far, including a copy of the will that David e-mailed me. If anything else comes up I'll page you. I'm going to keep monitoring for a while."

Max took the disk. "Thank you." She felt she should say more to this man that was helping her save Logan, but she didn't have words to express her gratitude. She had no practice with this. She'd never really had much reason to be grateful to anyone before; words failed her.

"You should take that to Matt." Kyle smiled, exceptionally grateful that she was on their side. He hoped.

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Once she reached the police station Max was politely directed to Detective Matt Sung. Being a courier was endlessly useful. She followed the directions automatically.

She was contemplating the logistics and morality of killing Jonas and Adam and framing another rag-tag group of thugs for it so that Logan never had to find out about their betrayal, when she turned a corner and there was Logan.

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… to be continued.