Outside Logan's, Max prepped Alec. "Just let me do the talking," she said. Alec rang the bell, and a moment later, Logan swung the door open.
"Hey Max," Logan began. "Alec."
Alec nodded and mentally refrained from insulting Logan with some Transformers-type insult. It would have been something along the lines of "Binocutron," but he did what Max had asked.
"Logan, we need your help."
Logan gestured them in and led the way to his office. "What can I help with?"
"We need some fake IDs," Max said, leaning against his desk. Alec stayed at the door jamb.
"For?" Logan prodded. He folded his hands in his lap as if he was being pitched a movie he knew he wasn't going to fund. He didn't like the way that Alec looked at Max when she wasn't paying attention.
"Found a transgenic in need. It's a two-man job – Alec and I need some fake IDs so we can get in there and rescue her."
Alec didn't bother correcting Max. At this point it was neither here nor there.
"What kind of IDs do you need?" Logan asked, looking only to Max.
Max shot a glance to Alec.
"We have to infiltrate a business. A hotel in Denver. Used to be called the Oxford Hotel, but I think it's got a new name."
Max's eyes widened. "Colorado?" Must be some girl – someone really close to him. Or someone he's really close to.
"Okay, I can set you up with some IDs and a reservation. How long do you think you'll need?"
"Couple of days," Alec said.
Logan turned to his computer and began typing. "I'll get you a week."
As Logan focused on the computer, Max dragged Alec into the living room by his arm. "A week, Alec?" she asked in a harsh whisper.
"Yeah, you know, you and me, a little one-on-one action over at the Oxford Hotel. A week's stay on Logan under the pretense that we're saving a Manticore alumnus from a little genetic discrimination," he toyed playfully. "Come on, it'll be fun. They have bath tubs the size of Logan's office! We could start a bubble bath together and see what happens."
Max, somehow, had envisioned this gigantic bubble bath, and had mentally put herself and Alec – both stark naked – in it, covered up to their necks in glorious bubbles of soap, relaxing.
"A little 'you-wash-my-spot-and-I'll-scrub-yours', maybe some vanilla candles," he added, Max getting that far-off look in her eyes again. "You know, like the scent you use in your hair."
Woops, he thought. Too much.
The vanilla detail he inadvertently slipped in broke her right out of that gorgeously intimate trance. She slapped him on the arm, harder than he expected.
"Ow, Max, I was just trying to show you what you're missing!" he said, covering his vanilla-mistake with a jesting truth.
She made a fist and bumped him lighter at the same spot she had just slapped him.
"Ow, Maxie, you really know how to get a guy hot," he continued, watching the flare in her eyes grow into a brown, peppery fire.
Before he could continue, she did something he never thought he'd see. She smiled. Then laughed. Loudly.
Alec felt a smile draw on his face.
Alec folded his arms across his chest and decided to cut to the chase. "I asked for your help, Max, I didn't think it would be conditional."
Max pouted. Why did he have to be all noble and helpful and honest right now?
"How are we going to get time off work for this?" she asked.
Alec smiled. "I already asked Normal. He thinks we're visiting my sick Aunt Patty in St. Paul, Nebraska." Alec looked rather pleased with himself at the feat of getting time off for them both, totally ignoring the possibility that she would know he requested it in advance of his asking her for help.
"We?" she asked, returning to the semi-angry scowl. The nerve!
"Oh, yeah, and Normal thinks we're dating," he added, giggling boyishly. "So maybe want to revisit some of that bathtub imagery when we get back."
Max scoffed.
"Or not."
"How did you know I would help you?" she asked, mirroring his image and folding her arms.
"Because, Maxie," he said, "that's what you do." Before she had a chance to argue, he threw his arm around her and led her back toward Logan's office. "Come on, honey," he said jokingly. "If you get too tense, I'll have to rub some lotion all over your taut muscles – ow!"
She punched him in the side, gentler than a transgenic could take but harder than a human could, then shrugged off his arm as they passed the jamb of Logan's office.
Logan swiveled in his chair, catching the tail-end of the maneuver. To him, it appeared as though maybe Max was trying to spare Logan's feelings and didn't want to 'show-off' in front of him that Alec had won the girl.
"Okay, so I've got you lined up for a week's stay at the Oxford Hotel, which you were right," he said to Alec before continuing, "has been renamed. It is now referred to as The Lux."
Max interjected. "The Lux?" Some hoity-toity gig out in Denver that's a bit too pompous for its own good.
"It's a high-end hotel now. I guess it used to be high-end in the early 90s." Logan looked over to Alec.
"And now it's higher-end," Alec finished. "They have some corrupt and unsavory clientele there."
"Let me guess," Max started sarcastically. "That's how your friend got in trouble."
Alec nodded.
Logan sat back in his chair. "According to my source, they employ a lot of underage orphans in many despicable ways – the young girls are used for prostitution," he said, as if there was an awful taste in his mouth he couldn't get rid of, "and the boys are used as petty burglars, to steal from their patrons."
"The big pot for them is when they 'invite' the folks who owe them money," Alec said.
"Mafia-owned?" asked Logan, an eyebrow up at this tidbit of which he wasn't aware.
Again, Alec nodded. "Yep, and sometimes, these orphans-" he looked to Max, "or as you and I might call them, transgenics – have to clean up the mess, or find themselves out of a life."
Max's eyes widened. "The girls get indentured prostitution and the boys have to do shit-work for the mob. That's just perfect. How did so many of our kind get involved in that?"
Alec shrugged. "They don't all have a conscience, Max," he said. "And some are desperate."
"How many of them have died?"
"I don't know. Probably not many, though. You know our Manticore comrades are smart and they can find a way out of almost anything. Plus, my SIC has been watching over our unit. This is one he needs help with." Alec leaned against the wall.
"When are you leaving?" Logan asked.
Max glanced at Alec again. He answered, "as soon as those IDs are ready."
"I'll have them for you by tomorrow morning."
"Thanks," Max said.
The two transgenics turned to leave, but Max stopped and faced Logan again. "One more thing."
"What's that?"
"Nah, never mind, we can pick one up on the way," she finished.