Max showed up 10 minutes early to her appointment with Dr. Carr since there was barely any traffic to sector 6. She felt nervous, excited and confident all at the same time. Today, she was armed with a ton of information about Dr. Carr, courtesy of White and Manticore. Apparently, Carr had been a pediatric physician at Manticore, although she had never seen him in her days there. He had left Manticore around '95 and had gone into hiding in Seattle, where White had found him and recruited him back onto Team Manticore, apparently just for this special little mission of exterminating the X-5s.
Max was Dr. Carr's first patient of the day and when eight o'clock rolled around, Max started feeling paranoid and nervous. Sam has never been this late. Wonder where he is. Maybe he just got stuck in traffic. Yeah, cause there were so many cars on the road. I mean, I got here early. Well, maybe he's a slow driver.
Max walked down the hall of offices, hoping to catch a nurse or doctor who could tell her something about Sam. Great. Logan and Alec are going to have a field day when they hear about this. Max arrived at the door of the break room where she heard several woman discussing what they had planned for the weekend. Max peeked into the room and noticed that the TV was on, but had been muted. One of the nurses saw Max standing there and asked her if she could help her.
"Yeah, I have an appointment with Dr. Carr. He's not here yet and I'm worried about him." Max stepped into the room.
"Oh, didn't you hear? Sam passed away last night." The nurse didn't look concerned, but rather nervous.
Max's mouth dropped. "He was perfectly healthy when I saw him yesterday. Who told you about this?"
"It was on the news a few minutes ago. One of the doctors who lives close to him found him dead. You know, I can have a therapist speak with you about it, if you'd like." The nurse stood up and walked over to the phone. "Let me see if someone's available."
"Uh, no thanks. I'll just be on my way." Max did not want to get caught up in the hospital and she needed to get to Logan's to confirm the news. After all, the media was even more corrupted and untrustworthy after the Pulse. You couldn't trust 'em then and you can't trust 'em now.
Max was practically running down the hall, trying to shake a creepy feeling she was getting. Suddenly, a gloved hand grabbed her arm and yanked her into an office, practically ripping her leather jacket in two. Another hand came up and covered her mouth to keep her from screaming. Max struggled to get free and once she did, she swung a punch at the mysterious head.
The person grunted and said, "Oh," as her gloved fist met his jaw. "Geez, Max. What was that for?"
"Logan?" Max couldn't believe it. "What the heck're you doin' here?" She still wasn't used to Logan gaining back the ability to walk.
"I heard the news about Sam and got here as soon as I could. When I saw White's men outside…I just. I thought I had lost you again." Logan's voice faltered.
So that's who the nurse had really been calling. "So, White set me up. But where's Sam?"
"Sam's dead, Max. One of my sources confirmed it." Logan's jaw was numb from the pain and he massaged it gently.
"Wow. And I'd bet it was White who had him killed. White doesn't like to get his hands dirty. You think we should check the crime scene?" Max whispered.
"No, I really don't. White probably has men there too. Just like here. Max, there's a mystery here that desperately needs to be solved. Let's get outta here."
Logan made a move towards the hallway, but Max stopped him with her arm and mouthed that she would go first. Max crept down the hall towards a window. She looked down at her Ninja, which stood untouched. A movement caught her eye and she noticed the snipers that had been set up on the buildings across the street. Man, White knows how to go all out when he's throwing a party. 10 snipers. No way I'm getting my baby back any time soon, if ever.
Logan whispered to Max that he had parked the Aztec down the street as to avoid White and his men. Max looked around for other escape routes: an elevator, two other hallways that led to who knew where and a set of stairs. Take the elevator, you can't see who's waiting at the bottom. Take the stairs, there's nowhere to go if you get caught. One hallway goes south, not where I wanna go. Max made a quick decision to risk the hallway to her right. At least it led north, the direction of Logan's Aztek. Max silently stalked down the hall, stopping every 10 feet to listen for intruders.
At one point, about halfway down the hallway, Max and Logan heard voices arguing loudly in an office ahead. The voices got louder when someone opened the door from the inside. Max instinctively grabbed Logan's hand with her gloved one and pulled him into a storage closet. Logan and Max could hear each other's hearts beating as they silently and anxiously waited for the men to pass. A minute later, the voices faded into the distance and Max poked her head into the hall to take a look.
"All clear," She whispered. "Okay, Logan. The only other room I know in this place is the cafeteria." A girl's gotta eat sometime. "And I have an idea."
Max and Logan stopped at the end of the hall and looked to their left: another closet. Logan turned to his right and poked Max. Just what she was looking for: a stairwell. Max stealthily led Logan down two flights of stairs and quietly entered another hallway.
Max motioned to two sets of locker rooms and Logan understood what she was thinking. Each entered their respective locker rooms and returned five minutes later dressed in scrub-like clothing, carrying a bag containing their clothes.
"Logan, there's a back door in the kitchen. We make it there, we go through an alley and should end up about a block or so from your car." Max walked into the kitchen, grabbing an apron and pretending to busy herself with it as she walked through.
Luckily, the people in the kitchen were busy, so no one paid any attention to Max and Logan. However, when they opened the side door, two armed men were there guarding it. Max quickly kicked the guns out of their hands and, in slow motion (or so it seemed to Logan), she overpowered both men and threw a few punches that she said "might leave a mark." Max smirked at the arrogance of men. Mostly White, of course. He thinks he and those breeding cult freaks of his can take down an X5? Please.
Max and Logan ran down the alley, and once they reached the end, they had to stop to take 'a breather', as Logan called it. Max's eyes moved swiftly from right to left, up and down, searching for SWAT teams, hover drones, anything connected to White. She didn't see anything, so she slowly crept out of the alley and motioned for Logan to take the lead since he knew exactly where he parked.
Logan reached his hand into his front right pants pocket as he approached the car, trying desperately to find the key. No luck. Crap. He felt a hole and realized it was big enough to stick three fingers through. Max looked at Logan quizzically as she saw Logan's annoyed face. "I lost my car keys, Max. There's a hole in my pocket. I don't know what happened to them."
Max took a deep breath and said, "I might be able to pick the lock. Hold on a sec." Before Logan could step around her and see what she was using to pick his driver's side door, Max had the door opened and was practically pushing him into the seat. Logan's shoulder received a soft punch as Max motioned for him to move over to the passenger side. Max reached under the steering wheel to hot-wire the car. All those years living on the streets taught me some useful info. Lydecker would be proud of this transgenic.
Once Max started the car, she drove towards sector 9. Logan said something about dinner and maybe a movie. Apparently he was planning on keeping her hostage instead of giving her a ride to work. Not that I mind.
While Max was focused on driving the Aztec as if it was her Ninja, Logan kept an eye out for any cars that seemed to be tailing them. He was half-turned in his seat, and every time he looked away from the road, he found himself looking at Max. He wanted to talk about what had transpired over the last two days, but as he glanced back to the road, he spotted a navy blue Jeep that he could have sworn he'd seen before.
"Max, the navy Jeep three cars back, I think it might be tailing us." Logan adjusted the rear-view mirror so Max could see the Jeep.
"Let's see what they can do." Max said with a grin.
"Uh, let's just see if we can lose 'em, Max." Logan wasn't up for a standoff with White's men.
Max rolled her eyes playfully and said, "You always ruin the fun, Logan. But that's okay. I have another idea."
Max rolled the car up to the policeman at the sector checkpoint, flashing her Jam Pony badge. He nodded for her to roll down the window so he could check out the badge. When he handed it back, Max looked innocently at the cop before she said, "Officer, you see that Jeep? It's been following us for like, ever, and it's kind of freaking me out. Would you mind checking it out?"
The cop glared at the Jeep like it had offended him in some way. Logan guessed the cop was taken with Max and her damsel in distress façade. Just ignore me, why don't ya? But Logan knew cops. They had turned into something like the Mafia; blackmailing innocent civilians and using their firepower whenever possible, but always willing to help out a hot chick.
The cop put his hand over Max's. "Sure, sweetie. You go on ahead like everything's okay and I'll have a word with 'em."
"Oh, thank you, officer." Max's voice dripped with fake gratitude, but the cop didn't seem to notice.
Max pulled the car away from the checkpoint and sped all the way to the city, only slowing down once she reached downtown because cops were all over the place there. Logan had kept a watch out for the Jeep, but once Max had started driving like Jeff Gordon, they'd lost them. Hopefully Mr. Sector Police gave them a warm welcome at the checkpoint. Max smirked.
Max pulled up to the curb in front of Fogle Towers. She and Logan got out of the Aztec and walked into the building, not looking anyone directly in the eyes. Max just wanted to get inside and take a nap, maybe use Logan's shower. Logan, on the other hand, wanted something to eat. Maybe Italian. Chinese sounds good.
They stood in silence as they rode the elevator all the way up to the top floor. They didn't say a word to each other as Max picked Logan's door lock—they still hadn't found his keys.