Today 'They' Won the Battle
By Rhasa
Part 17
Disclaimer: Not mine Eglee and cameron et al. No money being made. No infringement intended.
The plan
He had expected something different. A yell. A slug maybe – that was, if she had recovered any sort of strength by now. The last thing that Mole had expected when he made his way back into the command centre of Terminal City was for Max to be up and hobbling around and for her to throw her arms around his neck and give him a hug – as weak as it was.
"You're alive…." She had whispered weakly in his ear.
"And grateful for it," he told her as he allowed her to hold him for a moment or two, while looking up at Logan who was standing nearby.
"We thought you must be dead," Max admitted when she pulled back. "It's been a while since you left and then when they didn't hear from you or Alec…… Well they assumed the worst." She threw her head in the direction of Luke and Dix who had come to welcome their friend home.
Mole nodded. He knew that he would have to do some quick explaining when he got back. "We ran into some trouble, which is an understatement," he said. He paused while deciding just where to begin. Never one for beating around the bush, he looked at his leader and gave it to her straight. "Max, White's got Alec."
"I know," she said simply and sadly.
"How?" the lizard man asked.
For a second, he saw a flicker in Max's eye, something he couldn't quite read. But then she righted herself, and told him, "First things first. Do you know where White's keeping him?"
"Yes," Mole replied simply.
"Then the 'how's and all the rest can wait for later," she told him. "We need to get him out of there. And we need you to tell us everything you know."
"I'm sorry. I would have had this information back sooner, but I just couldn't shake them," Mole said apologetically, as Luke handed him a cup of water. He was grateful for the cool liquid. He paused to take a sip. Both Luke and Dix had been fussing over him like two mother hens ever since he had walked back into the command centre. He had shaken their attentions off until now, but after a full twenty minutes of talking, he finally accepted their offer, and wet his whistle, so he could continue to brief Max.
The information Mole provided ws more than Max had hoped for - Alec's location; the warehouse where he was being held; an estimate of the number of enemy forces and a breakdown of the type of fire power they seemed to have on hand (at least the ones Mole could see). Max had to had it to the guy. He sure was good at what he did. Getting that kind of intel wasn't easy.
After draining the water, Logan took the canteen from Luke's hand and moved forward to refill Mole's cup. The repitlian shook off the ordinaries' gesture and pierced him with an uncomfortable glare. "No thanks. I'm good," he croaked.
"You were lucky to get away from them," Logan told him.
"I managed to give them the slip at the pier and then follow them back to base," Mole continued. "But after an hour or so outside the perimetre they were on my tail again. They followed me into the sewers. They chased me for twenty-two hours. Lucky for me I could tolerate the stench. I think that's what made them give up after so long."
"Yes. Lucky for you," Logan replied solemnly.
Mole looked up at Logan's comments. Staring into the older man's face, something dawned on him. "Just what are you implying?" he asked.
Logan stepped backed and folded his arms. "I was just thinking."
"Yeah, well, whatever it is you're thinking, think it out loud would ya'" Mole challenged him.
"Well, I just think that you were incredibly lucky, that's all," Logan continued. "I mean these are familiars we're talking about. Not the kind of warriors that give up so easily."
Max, sitting in the chair at the head of the command centre table shifted uncomfortably in her seat, then looked from Logan to Mole and back again. "You think they 'let' Mole go?" she asked softly.
Logan looked over at her, noticed the small beads of sweat that broke out across her brow. She was pale and obviously in pain. He thought about arguing with her yet again - telling her to go to the infirmary - but all previous attempts to have her take it easy had failed and he knew she would rather use her strength arguing with him than heeding his warnings– especially when she was hell bent on finding a way to rescue Alec and Jed. Sooner or later she would collapse, of that he was certain. "Forgive me if I am just a little bit paranoid when it comes to White and these freaks-"
"I'd watch your use of that term there, if I were you Logan," Mole quietly threatened.
Ignoring him, Logan pushed on to make his point. "I'm just saying, I can't imagine why they would give up on you like that. They knew you knew their location, and that in all probability you were returning to Terminal City, and so what? Things get a little on the nose and they head home?"
Max thought about what Logan was saying for a moment, before asking an obviously miffed Mole, "Any chance they deliberately let you get away?"
Logan didn't miss the muscles that twtiched in Mole's neck. He obviously hated the fact that Max was taking his theories seriously. That, and he hated to be second guessed. His prowess was at stake.
"I don't think so," Mole answered curtly. "But then I was running for my life at the time. I didn't think to stop and ask if they were serious or just playing around."
"If they let you get away, then we have to assume it was because they want us to attack," Max said.
"Maybe Mole was just good at evading them?" Luke offered meekly.
Max looked from Luke to Mole. "I'm not doubting you, Mole," she said. "We just have to be prepared. We wondered why they ddn't come into TC after the first assault, especially knowing how weak we were. They may have resons to want to draw us out in the open. They may want us to bring the fight to them. They may have let you go because of that. But even if you did manage to evade them, even if this isn't some kind of set up, they still know that we know where they are. If it's not a trap then they may want to move base asap, or they're preparing to face us head on. Either way, we can rule out a surprise attack. So we have to come up with other options and we had better come up with them fast. We don't have much time."
"Any chance we could hand White's son over to him?" Dix asked.
"Not a chance. We could never live with that kind of blood on our hands," Max told him emphatically.
"Besides, White wouldn't honour the deal, anyway," Luke told him.
"What about Lydecker?" Mole suggested.
"What about him?" Max asked tersely.
"Face it, Max. We might not be able to do this on our own. Maybe we could do a deal-" Mole began to explain before being cut off.
"Too risky," Logan dismissed with a shake of his head. "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't, don't you think?"
"I take your point, Mole" Max said. "Making some sort of deal with Lydecker or the US military is something Alec and I have discussed before. It was seen as one possible long term plan. We might look at that if we run out of other options. Apart from the obvious disadvantages, it takes time to set something like that up. Time we just don't have. Time that Alec doesn't have……." she finished softly.
Max couldn't let herself really think about how little time they may have. Alec was depending on her, and she was afraid she would let him down – again. Suddenly overcome with a tiredness she had been desperately trying to repress, she closed her eyes. She could see Alec, standing over her when she was hurt in the tunnels, begging her to hang on, begging her to live. Distancing herself from the world around her, she thought silently to herself, 'Hold on Alec, please. Don't give up on me. I'm coming……" and as a secret afterthought, "I love you…."
As her private prayers overwhelmed her, causing tears to well up in her eyes, she heard a voice, and looked up again. "There is a way," Logan had whispered.
"What?" Max questioned what she heard him say.
Staring at her, Logan seemed to swallow hard. He shuffled his feet and nervously shoved his hands in his pockets. Sighing, he looked straight at Max. "Max, we need to talk. In private," he said.
Wrinkling her brow in confusion, Max questioned him again. "You said there's a way."
"Yes. I think so. There could be, but we need to talk," he said a little stronger.
Leaning forward, Max couldn't stop impatience in her voice. "Tell me Logan. Tell me how we can save Alec."
"I will," Logan said, as he took a few steps towards her. "But there's something I have to say first, if we could just go somewhere-"
"No," Max said, getting increasingly angry. "Tell me. Tell me now!"
Logan clenched his jaw, stole a look at the others around him, then came and knelt in fron of Max. "Max, I love you. I've always loved you. I know when we parted we….. Well, we thought that it was hopeless, us being together. We kinda agreed to move on, because it was too painful not being able to be together. But with the cure, things have changed. I've made plans, long term plans - for us to be together."
Max stared dumbfounded. "I don't understand."
"I know. I know," he repeated. "I promised myself that I would take things slow that I'd give you time. I thought you'd need time to understand…."
"Understand what, Logan? You're not making any sense," Max told him, her brow wrinkled in annoyance.
"I've always prided myself on being a rational man. Everything, no matter how screwed up was relatively easy before I met you. The good guys the bad guys, my purpose in life. My work on Eyes Only … It's what I believed in. And I thought I could go back to that. Even in Canada I thought I could still fight the good fight, but I can't," he told her. "Because of you. I love you Max. You're all I've thought about. I worry every day. My life is never going to be the same."
Max's head was swimming as she tried to understand just what it was that the older man was trying to say. He loved her? What did his loving her have to do with saving Alec? She tried to concentrate on the one thing that he had said that made sense to her. "You said there's a way to help Alec."
Logan sighed again, He couldn't hide the fact that he had expected to say something else after he had just poured his heart out to her. "Yes. I think there is," he told her, sadly.
"What is it?"
Logan stood up abruptly, and turned his back on her a little before answering. "A neuro toxin that I believe will work on White and the cultists and not Alec or any X5 for that matter. Their blood chemistry is different. We know that from the ceremony they endure to join the cult. The one you watched Ray go through. The poison from the snake venom, alters their DNA, gives them….. abilities. But like every venom, there's a way to make an anti venom. If we can the administer the toxin somehow, as in an aerosol form, it should knock them out. Our people, some X5s will then be able to go in and recover Alec without succumbing."
The way Logan had said 'our people" was not lost on Max and Mole as they exchanged looks.
"Will it kill them?" she asked.
"I don't know about kill. I don't think so. Incapacitate them, definitely. But to what extent I can't be certain. At the very least, it should be enough to give whoever goes in there the advantage."
"How did you come across this toxin?" Dix asked.
Logan looked up, as if he only just remembered that others were in the room. "Through the work we did on Max's blood trying to find a vaccine to the virus," he told the mutant coldly.
"I don't understand," Max said puzzled. "To make an anti venom you need an amount of venom. How did you—"
Logan sighed again, his shoulders dropped as if an incredible weight had just settled there. "It's a long and rather complicated story," he said dismissively. "But one that may just end with giving Alec a fighting chance."
"And you can get access to this toxin?" Mole asked.
"Actually, I have it on me. I brought it down from Canada. Thought it might come in handy. All we need is for Kyra, or whoever, to develop a way of administering it."
"Well then let's go. Kyra's in the infirmary," Max said, as she made an attempt to move.
"Sage has a background in chemistry. Biological weaponry unit," Luke told them. "Dix and I will round him up."
"I'll let Kyra know we're coming," Mole informed the group as he, Luke and Dix moved out of the command centre.
Taking the opportunity to finally talk to her alone, Logan moved towards Max, stilling her with a firm grip on her arm.
Fearing he was about to tell her to sit this one out or some other nonsense about resting, she ignored him by asking, "How long will it take to concoct an aerosol version of this toxin? And can we test it?"
"Max wait," Logan attempted to stop her. "I can't let you have it. Not without promising me something first."
"What?" she asked incredulously.
"I want you to promise me that once Alec's back, and once you're well enough, you'll leave Terminal City and come back to Canada with me."
"What?"
"I want your word that you'll give up Terminal City."
"Logan, that's ridiculous!" she spat.
"I mean it Max. If I …… had more time …… time to make you understand, I would have done this so differently."
"You want me to 'deal' for Alec's life?" she asked in disbelief while tearign herself out of his grip. "What makes you think I would agree to such a thing?"
"Because I know you feel responsible for Alec's capture. And I know you'll do anything to get him back. And I know that you wouldn't go back on your word. That's all I'm asking, Max; for your word. I was right to worry about you. It's too dangerous here. You're in danger here. You've got to see that I have your best interests at heart. I want to protect you, Max. I want to keep you safe. I lost you once. When I arrived in Terminal City, seeing you lying there in the infirmary, I thought I had lost you again. I can't do this anymore. I've never stopped loving you. If anything happened to you…… well, let's just say I couldn't go on living. What I'm asking is reasonable. Hell, it's sensible. Just give me your word, I'll give you the neuro toxin and Alec will have a chance."
"You're blackmailing me?"
"It's not blackmail," he told her. "It's love."
Max stood there, wishing she had more strength, both emotional and physical. She couldn't believe what he had asked her. He heart beat furiously in her chest and her vision began to swim slightly. Feeling helpless, she told him "Logan, I don't think you understand. I could never abandon Terminal City."
"Maybe," he admitted. "But can you abandon Alec?" he asked her.
TBC
Author's Note:
Okay don't read too much into the whole 'toxin' concept. It doesn't really matter how it works on familiars or how Logan got it. It was a means to an end.It was used solely to put Max in a difficult position.
Okay so I have posted three chapters (one of which was for my other story Storm Brewing DA MA all the way) in 3 weeks. Am I forgiven for such a long hiatus? Will you please feed me reviews now? Pretty pretty