Chapter 5: Truth, Lies and Transgenics

Three weeks later.

Max had finally extricated herself from her work in leading the transgenic community. She had climbed up to the highest part of the dam overlooking the new settlement, to be alone, to grieve.

"Not as good as the space needle, Logan," she said aloud, clutching the gold locket she now wore at all times. "You remember that night before the mission on Manticore when we sat up there together, and looked out over the city. Did you go up there again after I died? Did you do what I am now, sitting up high, talking to myself, trying to pretend that you can hear me? I miss you so much, Logan."

"Logan. It feels so good just to say your name. None of my peeps down there dare mention you in case I start crying. Except for Mole, but he didn't know I was listening. You know what he said? "I guess that pet ordinary of Max's had his uses." Coming from Mole, that's practically a medal."

"Joshua found some paints in one of the trucks, he says he's going to do some paintings about the loss of Terminal City. I think you'd have liked that, you always were fond of art. We're making a tribute to the lost as well, for Biggs and Cece and Brain and all the others that were killed."

"Everything's coming together now, Logan. We have enough accommodation for everyone, the water purification system is in place, we even have the sewage system sorted out. We're settling in; the groups are mixing nicely, even the X7's. I just wish you could have been here. Met Jondy, taught the X6's to play basketball. Just been here for me to talk to."

"Even if we couldn't touch, I felt so much better when you were around. Like… how did you put it, that day down by the waterfront? "Anything and everything is possible.""

"I think that's all the news for now, Logan. I love you, so much. I wish I'd been brave enough to say that when you were alive. But if you're really dead, how come I still think I'll see you again? Maybe because I know if I didn't, I'd throw myself off this dam."

"If you are out there somewhere, Logan… be careful."

Logan woke with a start, to see a red-headed woman standing over him.

When his eyes flickered open at last, Thula was startled by their intense colour. She had checked on the prisoner's progress every day since his arrival at the most closely guarded building in Washington DC, the small private Highview College for the children of the familiars. He looked around at the clinical surroundings, and only focussed on Thula when she spoke.

"About time you woke up."

"Oh, it's you. From Jam Pony, right?"

"You remember me?"

"I have a pretty good memory for faces. Names, I'm not so good at."

"Thula. And you are…"

"Logan Cale. Where are we?"

"A specialist medical facility in Washington DC. You were found badly wounded in the ruins of Terminal City in Seattle. We brought you here and patched you up."

"How long have I been out?"

"About three weeks. The doctors wanted to keep you sedated while the nanocytes repaired your injuries."

"Nanocytes? You have no idea how long I've been trying to get my hands on some of those. Did the treatment work?"

"If it hadn't, you'd be dead."

"I'll take that as a yes. And now if you'll excuse me, Thula, I'm going back to sleep. Wake me for White's interrogation session." Now, to try and find that dream about Max again, he thought.

Thula watched him, nonplussed, as he proceeded to fall asleep. She wasn't used to being ignored, especially by men. This one will bear watching, she thought, as she went to tell White the prisoner was conscious.

"Wakey wakey, Mr Cale. Rise and shine, it's a new day."

"If my math is right, it's a new month, Mr White," said Logan, not bothering to open his eyes. He hadn't managed to recapture his dream, and was feeling a little put out.

"Technically true, yes. As you are no doubt aware, I have a number of questions for you."

"Oddly enough, that thought had occurred to me. The answers to your first two questions are yes and I have no idea, respectively."

"My son is alive, but you don't know where he is. And you expect me to believe that because…"

"You saw me there with Max when we took him from that school. The fever broke on our way back, and she took Ray to Eyes Only to get him out of the country. You know how paranoid that son of a bitch is about protecting the innocent, fighting the power, yada, yada, yada."

"You don't like him?"

"I used to be in the informant net. Until I got shot on a mission and wound up a helpless cripple. Since then, I've stayed as far away from him as possible."

"Then how come when my wife went to Eyes Only to find Ray…"

"She reached an out of date contact. He passed the info on to me, thinking it would go further up the food chain. I decided I'd find the kid myself, Wendy was offering a lot of money for Eyes Only's help."

"So you don't know who he is?"

"Never met the man. Only ever communicated through e-mail. The guy's a security freak, his own mother probably doesn't know his name."

"So that brings us on to the question of what the hell you were doing in Terminal City."

"Long story. After I got shot, I started looking into a lot of potential cures. When I – accidentally - hacked into the military special ops mainframe, I stumbled on the existence of Manticore. I managed to track down one of the twelve rogue X5's from the '09 escape. At that time, I was still wealthy enough to be able to buy a blood transfusion from her."

"It was 452?"

"Yeah, she's lived in Seattle a while. Anyway, the pluropotents in her blood fixed my back, but the effect was temporary. My body rejected her stemcells after two weeks, and I thought that was it. I got hold of the exoskeleton after a while, but it's still not a patch on walking under my own steam."

"Then, a few months back, Max contacted me again. She said she had pretty well unlimited supplies of transgenic blood and I could have as much as I wanted for free if I used my computer skills to help them out."

"So you jumped at the chance," said White, savouring the irony of the phrase.

"Almost bit her fingers off." Logan showed no signs that his captor's choice of words had affected him. "I had to keep as many transgenics as possible alive to provide me with blood."

"So why were you left behind in Terminal City? We know you were messing with our surveillance and trying to stall the bombers…"

"I was between transfusions, and the damn exoskeleton shorted out while I was copying loops into the camera feeds. I thought if I could stall the planes, it would give me time to call for help and get a transgenic to carry me out."

"So how did the transgenics get out, exactly?"

"The remains of a company called Medtronics. It has tunnels connecting all its buildings, and only one of them is inside Terminal City. Where they went after that, I don't know."

"Can you make an educated guess?"

"San Francisco, maybe? Max once said she'd always wanted to go there, and it's pretty underpopulated since the big quake in 2012."

"San Francisco, huh. I may just look into that. Thank you, Cale, you've been very helpful." For the first time in the conversation, Logan opened one eye.

"My pleasure, White. By the way, thanks very much for the nanocytes."

"You're welcome. You don't mind staying with us a while longer, I hope?"

"Not at all. I'm more than willing to co-operate with the people who gave me my legs back, especially that redhead, Thula."

"I'm sure that can be arranged," smirked White, leaving the room.

"Little Fella, Little Fella!" Max looked up from her map of the local area to see Joshua coming towards her, covered in paint.

"What's up, Big Fella?" She asked, amused at his excitement.

"Come. Got to show you something, surprise, present!"

"For me? Wow. I'm coming." With great ceremony, Joshua led her over to the restored building he shared with a number of other transgenics. He put his huge hands gently over her eyes and nodded to an X6 standing by to open the door. The two transgenics moved carefully into the room and then Joshua removed his hands.

There on a makeshift easel in the centre was a large portrait – a double portrait. It showed Max and Logan facing one another, embracing, smiling slightly, just gazing into each other's eyes.

"Remembered, from when we looked for gossamer," Joshua said, softly.

Max was speechless for a long moment. She had no photos of Logan, let alone of them both together, only indelible memories in her mind. The image of him was so lifelike, down to the premature lines on his face and the light reflecting off his glasses. Joshua had even managed to capture the precise shade of his vivid blue irises.

"Thank you, Joshua," she whispered, at last, hugging him, feeling the tears slide silently down her cheeks. "It's beautiful."

Sorry, everyone, it might take a few more chapters to get Max and Logan reunited. And in the meantime, there's going to be lots of stuff like this, because I just love writing it.

If you like this story, read the other one I posted recently, I need some suggestions on what should happen next in that one.