Chapter Eleven

Unaware of the chaos that had followed her home, Max managed to slip through the all checkpoints along the way without being recognised. Lifting a slab in the garden outside the small Sector Seven house, she replaced the key once the door was open, and wheeled her bike in with her. The house was pretty bare, with no decorations of any kind and Spartan furniture, it's only real function being an easy way for those who needed it to slip in and out of Terminal City, but occasionally a couple of the people living inside the fences might come up here for a little peace and quiet.

The house was empty as Max passed through, as was the tunnel beyond. Once inside Terminal City again, she took notice of how quickly the new security cameras were being set up. In the half day she'd been gone, they seemed to have gotten around most of the perimeter. Although like everything else in Terminal City , the cameras were usually pieced together from old parts, Max had no doubt they worked as well as any standard system.

Inside the Command Centre – over the main entrance to which, Max noticed, somebody had actually hung a cardboard sign with 'Command Centre, Authorised Mutants Only' scribbled on it in black marker – Dix was working on the feeds for the new cameras.

"The cameras themselves were easy enough, we were able to salvage them from all the old businesses," he told her. "But there aren't enough screens to go around, so we're linking the feeds. Some we'll see in split-screen, and any of the monitors that are too small to be divided up into a bunch of separate pictures, we're rotating the feeds, you know, this camera one minute, that one the next."

"Anything on Lydecker?"

"We were able to map out his movements from the security feeds he's been showing up on around the city. Tracked him to an apartment building not far outside here. Good view of the crowds outside, likely place to catch any action as it happened. Logan sent a couple of his Eyes Only guys to check it out.

"Most of the apartments were just full of squatters, but we found the one he was in. And the only reason we know it's the right one is that the whole place was wiped down. No prints, no fibres. Way too clean for such a dump."

"He told Logan he saw the bombing," Max mused, "and I don't think he meant on the news. Odds are he was there as late as yesterday morning."

"Two days ago, now," Dix pointed out, checking a clock on the wall. It was two-thirty in the morning.

Although she doubted Lydecker would be found again unless he wanted to be, Max gave the order to keep up the search, just in case he became a problem.

"Uhh…" Dix hesitated, "we asked around to see if anybody remembered the guy who was running Manticore between Sandeman taking off and Lydecker taking over. Turns out we got a couple of X-3s from their main squad. They all say he looks pretty different, but they agree it's definitely the same guy – McKinley – who had the runaways executed and, well, you know."

"Kinda makes you wonder where Lydecker gets his information," said Mole, appearing from behind one of the computer monitors. "I hate computers," he groused.

"Looking for love?" Max asked.

"Trying to see if I could order some cigars. Everything's gone to hell since the Pulse. Most of the big suppliers survived it, even if they're too afraid to ever set up shop Stateside again, but apparently they'll deliver – not that I'll ever know. Y'got any idea how much they want for anything worth lighting?" He patted through his pockets and pulled out a stogie. "My last one. Things are gonna get ugly around here real soon," he warned. Max couldn't be entirely sure he was joking.

"There's something else," Dix told her. "I know you wanted to tell him yourself, but Joshua walked in when we were talking to the X-3s. He heard pretty much everything before I realized he was there."

Just as she reached the Infirmary, Joshua emerged from within. He greeted Max as cheerfully as ever, but wouldn't meet her eyes. When she handed him the book she'd picked up in the city, he began flicking through it distractedly, not really seeing any of the artwork. He hugged her softly, thanking her for the gift, and then quietly left.

"Nothing for me?" Alec appeared behind her, fully clothed, his hair arranged to hide the remnants of the doctors work.

"You're supposed to be on bed-rest," she chided.

"I was. All day. We're not designed to sit on our asses. At least I'm not. I get bored too easy." Looking her over briefly, he seemed happy with what he saw. "Glad you didn't come right back?"

"Yeah. It was good seeing them again. Sketchy's got a new girl," she announced. "WAY out of his league, but she seems to like him."

"Well, if so many girls weren't willing to slum it a little, most guys would spend their whole lives alone," Alec chuckled.

Max had to laugh at this. "And of course, you don't include yourself in that group of guys," she teased as she began walking.

"Well, even I might have to cut back a little," he shrugged innocently.

Smiling a little before remembering about McKinley, she asked, "How's Joshua?"

"Hard to tell," Alec said after a moment. "His whole life seems to be about revenge lately – first White, now McKinley. He just spent the past hour sitting in there talking to me, and never said a word about it. I only knew 'cos Mole had already told me."

"Revenge just might be in the cards. This stalemate can't last forever."

"Well, if this ever comes to a fight, just make sure to give him a shot at McKinley or White. Both if you can. Maybe not the kind of therapy any shrink would support, but it could be the best thing for him." Looking around, Alec asked, "Are we going anywhere in particular?"

"I'm gonna head up to the house. Get away from the noise, get some sleep."

"You seem to be doing that a lot, lately," he noted. "Sleeping. Aren't you one of the lucky few who doesn't need to do that?"

"Well, I used to spend my nights either breaking into places, hanging at Crash, or riding my bike all over the city," she reminded him. "Can't really do any of those things lately. Unless you're so bored you wanna build a bar."

"Yeah, right," came the chuckled reply. "If the Ordinaries ever start sending in those supplies the Mayor was talking about, I'll tell them to make sure beer and pool tables are at the top of the list."

"Don't forget cigars for Mole," Max smiled. "He might just kill us all pretty soon."

"Well that makes a nice change," Alec joked. "Lately the whole place has been worried that you were gonna snap and kill us all. Mole isn't nearly so scary. Of course, there are other things you could do instead of letting all your spare time go to waste."

It took a moment before Max registered what he'd just said. Lamely trying to counter for the obviously scandalized look she must have had on her face, and Alec's laughter at that same look, she slapped him lightly on the back of the head. "So, is the brain damage permanent?"

"Cute. I'm fine, by the way. The doc came back, patched up the holes with the some sort of prosthetic. Apparently in a few weeks it'll have meshed well enough with the bone that even an X-ray wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Stuff looked like clay."

"Great, just what you need – more rocks in your head!"

Feigning a grievous wound at her humor, Alec wished her good night as they reached the tunnel, and began making his way back towards the Command Centre. Max stood watching him curiously for a moment before disappearing inside.

Once at the end of the tunnel and inside the house, she made her way upstairs. Inside the one furnished bedroom was a single bed with a thin blanket. She kicked her shoes off and lay atop it, not bothering to take her clothes off or get under the blanket. She noticed an old book apparently left behind by whomever the last person to come here instead of sleeping inside Terminal City. It was so careworn that the front cover was gone, the back one unreadable.

Doubting she'd actually fall asleep for some time, she picked up and began reading, and was unconscious before she'd reached the end of the first page.

Next Morning

Melissa brushed past Sketchy, stepping into the shower as he was stepping out, and was pulling him back in with her when Sketchy's phone started ringing. Groaning in frustration at the timing, Sketchy slumped his shoulders and went to answer it.

Logan skipped right over any greetings. "There's another package for you at the house," he told him. "I know you'd have gone by to check anyway, but I needed to talk to you about this one."

"Is something wrong?"

"I want you to bring this one straight your editor."

"Yeah," Sketchy reminded him, "that's what I did with the last one, just like the note said."

"I know, but this one you show only to your editor," Logan ordered strictly. "Don't let Ben Mitchell see it. He's dangerous – if he finds out about this, he'll try to stop the story from running."

Sketchy felt his throat run a little dry at the warning. "How dangerous, exactly?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

"Don't worry," Logan assured him. "You're protected. But if word gets about this to the wrong people in advance, they could make a mess trying to control the flow of information. People might get hurt."

"Okay. I'll make sure nobody else knows about it. But listen, man; there's something you should know – my editor? She knows all about you. I tried to tell you when you called before…"

"What exactly does she know?"

"Everything, I think. She was prepping a story exposing you as Eyes Only when I brought her this one. She's promised to put that aside for now, but there's no way to be sure she'll do that."

Logan fell silent for a while, and Sketchy was about to ask him if he was still there when he spoke up again. "I doubt she'll run that story yet, but it doesn't really matter if she does," he said. "They can't find me anyway, and there isn't really anyone left for them to go after in order to get to me. My family would probably wind up leading the effort to lock me up for the rest of my life, and nobody who knows my ex-wife would bother trying to use her as a hostage. Even Max is well out of harms way, more for everyone thinking she's already dead than because she's in Terminal City."

"You're not a little worried about the whole world finding out it's you?"

"Can't really keep the secret much longer anyway. The bad guys already know – the rest of the world finding out would be a pretty minor pain in the ass at this point."

It was only after the conversation was over that Sketchy realized what Logan had told him – that he was 'protected'. He didn't get much time to think about what that meant before Melissa called from the bathroom.

"You coming back in here while the water's still hot?"