Kaboom
..."Hey Asha, Ive got the information you wanted" He handed her a file
"Thanks Logan. Look I've just seen your broadcast. Do you really think you can pull this off?"
Sketchy was giving Max a drunken lecture on something, but she paid no attention. She was busy focusing on the conversation.
"By myself no, with the help of the S1W, yes"
"I really appreciate everything you have done for us Logan, I really do, but this is just not our kind of thing. We can't risk exposing ourselves for something as small as this"
"small! This guy is responsible for the downfall of this city. All I need you to do is make sure nothing happens when we are transporting her to the courthouse, after that you can disappear, what could go wrong?"
"Something must be able to go wrong, otherwise you wouldn't be asking us to do this"
"Please Asha, consider it payback for everything Ive done for you, what about when I buried what you did last month. You know I didn't agree with it but I still helped you"
"I'm sorry Logan, but you are on you own for this one, really don't get you self hurt"
Logan raised his voice "If you cared you would do this for me. And if you won't do it for me then do it for Sophie"
Asha ignored him and abruptly stood up and stormed out of the bar. Logan banged his fist on the table before he marched towards the door with a look of defeat on his face.
"Nice meeting you guys, but i gotta go now. Catch ya later" Max left without waiting for a reply and hurried after Logan. She flattened herself against the wall and poked her head around the corner. Logan was getting in to an old beaten up blue-gray SUV and started up the engine. Max flew back down the alley and jumped on her Ninja. She let Logan get get ahead of her a little before she started following him so she wouldn't look too suspicious. She followed him through a couple of checkpoints and then to the high rise district. This part of the city looked very different form the rest. Everything was clean and new. There was nobody on the streets trying to survive, hardly and police patrolling the area . Logan drove up a ramp into a garage behind a building called called Fogle Towers. Max followed still keeping a cautious distance. She noticed that the space he parked in was labeled apartment 024. He locked the car doors and skulked over to the elevator he started mashing the buttons with his hand in impatience. Max looked around the garage. She decided to go up the fire escape, there would probably be less security cameras that way . She crept through the shadows and up the fire escape unnoticed.
the fire escape led her to the roof. Light was emerging from a skylight. Max crept over and peered down. She saw Logan walk beneath her. That was easy. The skylight was slightly open, she fully opened it and dropped down. Max cursed herself for being so careless. She didn't need to look, her heightened senses told her that someone behind her had a gun aimed at her head. She spun around and kicked the gun out of the hand of a big bulky man and unloaded the clip. "Guns make me nervous" Max whispered with an innocent expression before she silently gave him a left hook to the head knocking him out. She caught his body so it wouldn't make any noise when he hit the ground and gently let him down on to the ground. She crept down the hallway keeping in the shadows Max surveyed the paintings and ornaments. This guy has some money, and his taste aint to bad. She entered his living room. It was perfect, so clean and tidy, so minimalistic. Quite the opposite to what she had expected for the apartment of and associate of the S1W. This guy was good. There was no evidence of anything, there was absolutely nothing left lying around. She moved over to a bookcase, nothing but a few books which looked unused, though it was quite a collection. Great expectations, the little Mermaid, a fairly big collection of books on conspiracy theories, And one unmarked notebook. Max pulled it out and a few pieces of paper fell out from behind it. Max stuffed them in her bag and opened the notebook, it was mostly just a bunch of scribblings and words that didn't mean anything.
"Hold it there" Max looked up to find a shotgun pointed at her. She quickly grabbed a statue of a cat and a few other items and shoved them in a bag hoping Logan would think she is just a common thief.
"Put it down! Now!"
Max dropped both the Notebook and the bag
"Peter!"
"If he's the side of beef he's fine, give him a minute"
Logan noticed the bag of loot on the floor "your a thief?"
"Girl's got to make a living" Max backed away innocently
"Thank God"
"First time Ive heard that one"
"I was expecting someone else."
"Guess it wasn't the pizza delivery guy"
"We're just a little tense right now"
"You have good taste. French, 1920s, a tribute to Chitarus." Logan moved his eyes to the bag, and to the one item that Max intentionally grabbed
"Whoever that is" Max yawned
"Oh. So... What, you liked it 'cause it was shiny?"
"No, because it's the Egyptian goddess Bast, the goddess who comprehends all goddesses, eye of Ra, protector, avenger, destroyer...giver of life who lives forever." Max hesitated "But I do like shiny things as well"
Max saw in the mirror that Peter, the bodyguard had come round and once more had his gun raised.
"Stay back, Peter. Security's on the way" Logan cautioned
"I'd love to hang and discuss art, but I got to jet. By the way, I love your apartment"
The door burst open and a group of armed goons came running in
"Building security!"
"Hold your fire!" Logan raised his hand, there was something more to this girl.
Max ran and dived through the window shattering the glass, she rolled as she landed and ran off into the night.
Logan watched with amazement. She was so graceful, so cat like, so perfect. He had to find out more about this girl, he couldn't just let her go like that. He continued to stare out of the window. He saw a figure speed along the road on a motorcycle, it had to be her.
"Peter start the car! If we take West Road we might be able to catch up with her"
"Logan..." Peter wanted to find out who this girl was just as much as Logan, but he knew speeding into the night after her wouldn't be a good idea, then again neither is trying to talk Logan out of something.
"I'm on it Logan"
Max Parked her bike up and entered her apartment closing the door behind her resting against it. I messed that one up big time. If Lydecker knew he would pull me off the mission in a second. Still, I'm going to have to go back there though, there was something about that guy.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a low bleeping sound. She scanned the room trying to figure to what it was. By the time she realized what it was it was too late, the low bleeping turned into one long high pitched tone the room exploded into a ball of fire blowing all of the windows out, The force threw Max against the door tearing it off. She was smashed through the window in the hallway and landed on the cold hard road three floors down. She could hear the chaos around her, screaming, police, ambulances, then she passed out.
"Well, shes not your average girl"
"It looks like she is having some kind of seizure Should I call an ambulance?"
"No" Logan placed his hand on Peter's guiding his phone away from his ear "Something tells me that she doesn't want too much attention. Get her in the van before anyone sees us"
Peter flung her over his shoulder and carefully placed her in the back of the van.
"Where are we taking her then, she needs help" Peter asked
"Back to my place. Something tells me that she'll pull through a little faster than a normal person. Still, I'll get Sam over to take a look at her"
"Who is this girl anyway, your new girlfriend?" peter asked
Max woke up to find the sun shining brightly in her face She shielded her eyes with her hand. Well she wasn't back at Manticore, or in a hospital or police a cell, so that was a good thing right?
Wrong.
She tried to sit up but couldn't make it all the way. She fell back down onto the soft bed letting out a grunt of exhaustion. She was greeted by a deep soothing, calming voice
"Morning. How are you feeling?
"Great never felt better" Max lied
"I wasn't sure you were going to make it, when the seizures really started to kick in"
"Thanks Bling" Logan appeared from another room and Bling disappeared
Max lat an "Oh god" Slip out as she saw his face "You"
"I had a seizure? How did you stop it?" Max resumed the conversation she was having with Bling
"I gave you Tryphotpan, Well I had to dissolve it in water a force it down you throat, you kept coughing it up though"
Max grabbed is shirt and pulled him an inch away from her face "How did you know to give me Tyrptophan?" She snarled
"You have a lack of Tryptophan in your brain right, its what causes the seizures "
"Come over here" Logan helped Max up and guided her out of the room into the hallway. She would have tried to fight him but she just didn't have the strength
"Come here. I want to show you something"
"A mirror" Max pretended to be surprised
"No, I meant this. Probably the most singularly beautiful face I've ever seen" Logan slowly brought his hand up to her face and stroked it. He slowly moved his hand to the back of hr neck and brushed her hair aside. The barcode. It was there. Max quickly batted his hand away and turned away.
" And now I think I know pretty much everything. Suppose I could help you locate the other ones?"
"The other ones?"
"The other ones like you"
"You lost me" Logan was Lucky Max could hardly stand, or she would have killed him then
"Now, come on, Max. First I watch you take out a 250-pound ex-cop bodyguard without breaking a sweat"
"Girls kick ass. Says so on the T-shirt"
"Then I watch you dive headfirst out a window like you're Rocky the flying squirrel, then I find you on the floor Having a seizure, I give you tryptophan and your fine. Any Idea on who tried to blow you up by the way?"
"Your guess is as good as mine. Look I don't know what kind of game you're playing here, but I'm out because you're a wack-job"
"I located a guy claiming to be a med tech on something called Project Manticore, which was using recombinant DNA to produce a superior human...a warrior...an advanced infantry soldier"
"Not that I don't enjoy a good urban legend now and then, but what does any of this have to do with me?"
"The bar code on your neck, Max. I know who you are and I know who you're running from. There were a couple dozen of these transgenic kids. And about a year ago, 11 of them escaped"
"Escaped?" This made no sense.
"I know you're one of those kids, Max"
"Escaped, none of us ever escaped, not that we haven't thought about it though, plenty have being killed, but its impossible to escape" Max dropped her act, Logan knew who she was. Memories of her unit came flooding back.
"Whats it like there?" Logan asked gently
"Its no walk in the park"
"If your not one of the escapees, then what are you doing here?"
There was no point in lying, he knew everything. "I'm on a mission"
"What kind of mission?" Logan asked knowing he wouldn't get an answer
"I can help you Max"
"Help me what?" Max had regained her bad-ass attitude
"Find the others" Logan said using his charm
"I told you! No one has ever escaped from Manticore!"
"My source tell me different Max. Zack right he was your CO before the escape X5-599? Or what about ben and Tinga?"
"They did not escape, You want to know why? Because they were all killed, im the only one out of my unit that survived, who ever gave you that intell got it wrong" Max wiped a tear away trying not to let Logan see he was getting through her defenses
"why are you trying to help me anyway, shouldn't you be counting your money or something?"
"Because I need your help with something, just a little protection work. A fried of mine is going to testify against Edgar Sonrisa, I've arranged for her, and her daughter to be put in witness protection, But Sonrisa will do what he can to stop her getting to safety. Thats where you come in"
"I don't think Lydecker would be too happy about me helping the enemy with his deeds, good or evil. I gotta get going" Max blurred and was gone within seconds, Logan didn't go after her, he had a feeling that he would be seeing her again.
Lydecker. Logan had heard the name somewhere before. Logan booted his computer up, picked up the phone and began working.
Max went back to her apartment to see what was left of it, but it had been completely destroyed, she was lucky she wasn't killed . Someone knew who she was and wanted her dead. Cale? No, he had his chance to kill her and he didn't want her dead he needed her, and not just for the Sonrisa thing. Who else could it have been though? Who knew what she was? Max had her phone in her hand about to call Lydecker and tell him what happened. NO he would pull me off this mission in an instant, and who knows what he will do once i get back to Manticore. Max was relived to see her 'baby' was unscathed. She hopped on and went for a ride. It would give her time to think.
She stopped at run-down diner to get something to eat. The place was filled with dodgy looking people. Max took a seat right at the back. The seat cover was torn and the table didn't look like it had ever being cleaned. A middle aged woman dressed like a 19 year old girl came to take her order. A few minutes later she returned with a cup of coffee and a plate of colored mush which they called 'The Breakfast special' Max took a look it and let out a moan of disgust, she ate it anyway though as she hadn't eaten in almost a day. She was about to pay when she realized that she had spent all of her money , she managed to slip out of the back door undetected.
Over the road Max saw a painted wall with a bike and the words 'Jam Pony' beneath it "Its as good as anywhere" she mumered to herself. She walked in to see to most disorganized scene that she had ever known. People and bikes were sprawled out everywhere casually talking doing as they pleased. While some crazy guy in a sweat soaked vest behind a metal cage was shouting Bip Bip Bip! Throwing packages in every direction and screaming various street names in between screaming Slackers, incompetent fools, morons and constant threats of firing them. Max guessed that this was 'Normal' from Sketchy and Cindy had told her. She approached him, but strongly considered leaving.
"excuse me, I'm looking for a job" Max shouted over the chaos "Hello?"
"Oh, Take this and fill it out, and return it as soon as possible" He pushed a crumpled piece of paper
towards Max. No time like the present right? Max flattened out the application form against the wall and began to fill it in. At the section that asked for her name she paused for a second before Writing Max. She cast her mind back to the first person she had met on this Mission. Guevara. She handed the form back to Normal who took a quick glance at it "Ok Miss Guevara You can start right away" Normally I don't just hire anyone, but we're very shorthanded at the moment" Sketchy appeared on his his bike a crashed into the counter.
"Max, what are you doing here"
"Idiot" Normal blasted "Max is your new work colleague, and you can show her the ropes" Normal took another look at Sketchy "or not"
"you!" Normal pointed at O.C "Show her how things work around here, Grab yourself a bike and get working!"
"What up Boo. What brings you here?" O.C greeted
"Hey, i was looking for a job and where better than somewhere I already know a few people"
"Well, this is the nerve center of Jam Pony, Not because there is lots of work here, but because Normal there gets on you nerves" O.C raised her eyebrows
They both headed out of the door and grabbed a bike. Halfway down the road O.C resumed her commentary. "Now, the aim is to take as long as possible to get the package delivered, See this is going to Millfield avenue. Maybe 10, 15 minutes away from here. However if we take a left here it will add another 15 minutes to our journey, which means less time to deliver more packages"
"I like the way you think girl" Max replied "What was the deal back in there?, it was crazy"
"Ah, Normal, Just fired half of us last week for being 'incompetent fools' leaving him a little shorthanded, which is why everyone is, so...comfortable in their actions . In other words we can do what the hell we want because Normal knows he can't fire us or he would be left with nobody"
Max was on her last run of the day, she saw two Black SUV's speed past her. She took a left down a back alley. She emerged from the alley to see an old beaten up Aztec. Logan's Aztec. The driver of one of the SUV's threw it around the corner and slammed into the back of Logan's car spinning it around. Logan tried franticly to start the car up again, but to no avail. A group of armed hitmen burst out of the SUV's. Peter emerged wielding two pistols. He took cover behind the car and started firing. Max wanted nothing to do with this. She backed into the alley and tried to get as much distance between them as he could. Max heard the scream of a little girl in the distance. Danm. She threw her bike down and ran back. Another car pulled up, this time Bling stepped out "Logan over here!" Logan was running across the street with a young girl over his shoulder occasionally firing behind him, and peter followed close by, they had taken some of the hitmen out but they were still heavily out numbered. Max looked around the corner just in time to see Logan take a hit. He crumpled onto the ground. Peter went into a rage and emptied a clip into Logan's attacker, but he too was gunned down. Blood was pouring from Logan. One of the hitmen was trying to pull the girl out of Logan's arms, but Logan fought back with everything he had, ignoring the agonizing pain pulsing through his body. Someone tapped the hitman's shoulder.
"BOO!"
Max delivered a clean kick straight to his face sending him flying into a wall at the other side of the street.
"Max?" Bling shouted with a mixture of surprise and relief
"Get them into the car!" Max ordered. The two remaining hitmen were closing in on Max, She gave one of them a kick to the ribs. The last one stood there not knowing what to do. Max kicked the gun out of his hands and unloaded the clip. The hitman attempted to pull the trigger only to realize that he had no gun in his hand "Guns make me nervous" Max stated innocently, She finished him off with a left hook to his face. Bling had managed to get Peter and the girl into the car. Max scooped Logan up and threw him in Blings car, then Max jumped into the front herself, Bling put his foot down
"Max" Bling didn't Know what to say.
"I didn't do this for Logan, I did it for her. Don't think I'm buying any of this save the world crap" Max made it quite clear that Bling should keep quiet.
She looked in the back, Peter was out cold, and Logan was only just breathing.
"Once we get them all to safety I'm gone"
And there you have it, thanks for reading, and as always please review :)