Author's Notes: This part is a bit short, but I feel bad for taking awhile to update and wanted to get it posted. Thanks again to everyone who has reviewed, I hope I don't disappoint.

xxxxx

"Would you stop packing my things?" Logan asks, exasperated, as he looks over at Asha from his computer.

She stops long enough to glare at him. "You need to get out of here now, Logan. She knows where you live."

"I can't just up and leave," Logan says patiently. "Besides, I have people depending on me…"

"A lot of good you'll do them dead," Asha says irritably, before walking over to him. "Eyes Only will take care of it, anyway. Worry about yourself for once, Logan."

Logan bites his lip and turns away from her. "I'm not leaving," he says determinedly. "I can't."

"Fine," Asha snaps. "I swear, Logan, I don't think you'll be satisfied until you get yourself killed. I'll just never understand this need you seem to have to martyr yourself."

"Asha," Logan says tiredly, but she's not listening, she's heading towards the door.

"Call me when this is over," she snaps, and she doesn't have to turn around for him to know she's close to crying. "If you're still alive."

The door slams shut harshly, just as footsteps start from the other direction. Logan rolls his eyes, already knowing who it is, even before he speaks. "What's with her?" Alec asks.

Logan winces a little, too tired to give Alec a bad time for showing up uninvited yet again. "Max told me she was sent to kill me," he says. "Asha wants me to leave."

Alec was somewhat surprised by that, because it certainly wasn't standard procedure to tell your mark you're going to kill them, but he doesn't spend too long thinking about it. "You own this place, right?" he says casually. "Mind if I crash here once you're gone?" Logan isn't sure if he means once he's left or town, or once he was dead, and he doesn't ask for clarification.

"No," he snaps. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Suit yourself," Alec says, "but you don't have any obligation to Eyes Only, you know. You started it and you can stop anytime you want."

"Eyes Only is an obligation," Logan protests. "Especially considering I got everyone into this."

"Fine," Alec says with exasperation, "but she's right, you know, you're only going to get yourself killed."

Logan spun in his chair to glare at him. "How long have you been here?"

Alec smiles widely and shrugs. "Maybe I'm always here. You have good food."

Logan rolls his eyes again and gets up from his chair, but Alec does have a unique viewpoint in all this, and eventually he turns back to look at him. "What do you think I should do?" he asks.

Alec sighs. "I told you, get the hell out of here, before they find out who you are—because if they learn you're not just some informant, they'll chase you. As it is, they might let you slide and look for another lead."

Logan doesn't respond and now it's Alec rolling his eyes and turning away. "Not that you'd ever do that," he says. "And you probably wouldn't like door number two, which is to, say, give Max another informant to play with." Alec doesn't have to turn around to feel Logan's glare at that particular suggestion. "So, basically, you're screwed. Just try not to look her in the eye too much. They're a dead giveaway. X-5's have great memory storage, and if she thinks to compare you with Eyes Only…"

Logan sighs. "Well, I'll just have to hope Max doesn't look too closely," he says. "She may be reluctant to kill me, but that's only because she thinks I don't matter in the big scheme of things, and she'd rather have him."

"See, right there—'him,'" Alec says. "Sometimes, Logan, I think you've got yourself fooled into believing Eyes Only is someone else too."

Logan sighs again, because sometimes he thinks that too.

"No one would hold it against you if you stopped," Alec says. "You've already done more than anyone I've known. I think you've got enough brownie points by now that you can try living your own life for a change."

Logan shakes his head and turns away. "This is my life," he says. It's what no one understands. If he leaves they really will have killed Eyes Only, and as Alec pointed out, Eyes Only wasn't someone else, it was him—pure and simple.

xxxxx

Max is pacing the floor of her motel room when she hears the sound of a window slipping quietly shut. No one only human could have heard it but she doesn't miss it, and she turns around, crouching into a fighting stance. It's Zack that appears in the doorway, and she rolls her eyes and gets back to her feet. "What are you doing here?" she snaps. "I'm in the middle of a case."

"Lydecker filled me in," Zack says with a nod. "We have a problem."

"What's happened?" Max asks with a frown.

"We believe Eyes Only may be in contact with an X-5, especially considering what you said about Mr. Cale having been in contact with your clone. Lydecker is worried that Eyes Only might learn the location of Manticore, reveal it on one of his hacks. If he does, they'll destroy Manticore, Max, they'll kill us all."

Max rolls her eyes with a sneer. "Please. We're Lydecker's pathetic little life, he wouldn't do it."

"Maybe not," Zack snaps, "but Renfro would. She's got a hand in everything these days, and she values secrecy over everything. Eyes Only needs to be stopped now, before things get out of hand."

Max winces. "So, what? You want to bring Logan in? Torture won't get you anywhere. He won't break, I can tell."

Zack looks at her, disbelieving. "Logan?" he snaps. "Tell me you're not getting attached."

"I—" Max starts to speak, but all the denials die on her lips, because Zack can read her better than anyone and he must already know.

"Max, you're smarter than this," Zack snaps. "He's working with the enemy."

"Did you ever think maybe it was us working for the enemy?" Max snaps. "I'm tired of doing Lydecker's dirty work."

"He'd have you killed if he heard you talking like that," Zack says. "You have to focus on the mission, Max, it's the only thing that matters."

"Yeah?" Max says, smiling tightly. "And how sad is that?"

"We have to catch Eyes Only," Zack hisses.

Max tenses but nods. "Agreed, but Logan doesn't have to pay the price for getting caught up in this, Zack. He's only trying to help people and I don't think I can kill him for that, not even for Lydecker—especially not for him."

Zack sighs and drops to sit on the bed. "You're getting far too many ideas lately, Max."

"Imagine that," she snaps.

He looks up to glare at her. "But I might just be able to help you get away with this one."

Instantly relieved at the support, however reluctantly given, Max relaxes. "How?"

Zack pulled out a small vial, holding two white tablets. "A couple of months ago, Lydecker tracked down 494."

"I remember hearing about that," Max says. "He escaped again."

Zack nods. "But not right away. He made a deal first, promised to give Lydecker Eyes Only."

Max's eyes widen. "He's the one Lydecker believes is working as an informant for Eyes Only?"

Zack nods again, and tosses her the vial. She catches it without taking her eyes off of him. "He was going to cooperate at first. Sent Eyes Only to a bogus meeting. Our guys almost had him, Max, they even shot him, but 494 managed to get away from Lydecker and showed up to help Eyes Only get away. He killed everyone at the scene, but, clean-up managed to find a blood sample. From Eyes Only."

Max looks down at the vial suspiciously. "So?"

"It's a virus, specifically targeted to his DNA. We need you to infect Cale." When Zack saw Max about to protest he shook his head. "It won't hurt him. It will only infect Eyes Only, we just need Cale to be our carrier. He's the only informant we've tracked down that we believe actually has contact with Eyes Only."

"And if he doesn't?" Max says.

Zack shrugs. "We'll have to bring him in, find out what he knows. You know procedure, Max, but Lydecker is willing to wait it out for awhile, see what happens. It will give your little boyfriend a stay of execution if nothing else."

Max glares at him and pulls him to his feet, before marching him to the door and shoving him out. "Look, just be careful, Max," Zack warns, before she slams the door.

Max stares at the door for a moment, listens to the footsteps carry her brother away and twists the vial around her fingers. The pills snap against the glass as she turns it around, and she hears the sound clearly, hiding behind the beating of her heart. She finally starts moving, turning to grab her coat.

She never did have a glass of wine with Logan, she thinks as she puts the vial in her pocket. And she's in the mood for it now.