Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence.
5 Months into the Cale Mission
"Hey," Max called, stepping out of the bathroom after having cleaned up from a hurried, sloppy, and dissatisfying quickie in Logan's living room. At least the disrupter had a chance to work its magic. It's the only thing magical about tonight, she thought dryly.
She pasted a smile on her face and tried to prepare herself mentally for what she might come out to - sleepy Logan, angry Logan, righteous Logan? Her grin fell the moment she saw what was on the bespectacled man's computer screens.
Dozens of images were scattered on his desktops, all of injured, abused and dead animals.
"Do you see this?" Logan asked, gesturing toward the screens. "This is what Manticore does to animals. Hundreds, no, thousands of animals every year, sacrificed for glory, so Manticore could claim to be on the cutting edge of genetic manipulation. Sacrificed so that all of you X5s and all your fellow hybrids or whatever you call them can see better and hear better, and who knows what else!?"
Fuck better, her mind supplied unhelpfully. The utter disdain on Logan's face gave her pause. She knew Manticore was not responsible for the acts portrayed in those pictures. She also knew there were other companies out there far more willing to destroy the animal in the process of studying them and obtaining genetic materials.
But for some reason, he saw red, and his usual composure disintegrated. He was only able to focus that rage on the X5 soldier in front of him. He truly hated X5s, and had he not believed her when she expressed her loyalties to him, he would have tried to kill her. She wouldn't have let him, but he would have tried.
Logan turned toward her and she backed up a step.
I was in the bathroom for three and a half minutes. What could possibly have happened in so short a timeframe?
He stood up, enraged. "These are the people you work for!"
"Okay," Max said warily, hands stretched down in front of her. "You know I don't work for them," she expertly lied, and considered the idea that he was so irate he couldn't see he was acting like a rabid animal himself.
He took a menacing step closer. "Some of these animals are endangered, but you just don't care about that, do you? Anything for the cause, anything for that bald eagle vision, those white tiger hunting instincts, those cheetah running skills - what do you call it, blurring? How many stem cells do you have coursing through your body?"
Oh, he had no idea how much and what she'd personally sacrificed for the cause, this cause specifically. "You make it sound like we had a choice. We were created, Logan, not hired. I had no control over how they made me."
He bristled. "You are a genetically enhanced super soldier. You could overpower every single one of those guards and officers, but you didn't. You chose to stay and use everything at your disposal to further Manticore's mission," he accused. "How many people have you killed in their name? How many innocents' lives have you destroyed?"
Oh, fuck this. "That's fucking rich," she said, eyes narrowed and chin raised at her longtime mark.
He planted another few steps toward her, but she would not back down from this. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"You parade around this town like a goddamn proud peacock, use your contacts to do all the shit work so you don't have to get those ivory, soft hands dirty, all so you can do your little hacks and anonymously and publicly crucify others, and you're calling me, what, opportunistic? You're a hypocrite!"
"The hell I am," he defended. "I am the one standing up for the lives of the innocent. Without me, this whole city would fall prey to darkness - darkness that you put out into the world when you were, what, thirteen? Fifteen? It's not just animal blood on your hands. It's the blood of this city, this country, of all its citizens-"
Christ, this man's righteousness knows no bounds.
Cale continued, "men and women massacred for their genes, and babies-"
"Oh, is that what your wife used to tell you so you could sleep at night?" Max interrupted, knowing she'd saved this juicy bit of arsenal for just the right time, and judging by his tensed body, she lad led him right to pure, red hot ire.
She didn't think he'd do it, and she'd rarely been wrong before, but she was wrong this time, too, she realized, when the ball of his fist plowed through the air toward her. She hadn't pegged him as a domestic violence kind of guy; alas, here they were.
She had a split second to decide what to do. She could block him like the Manticore trained soldier would have, fight him back. But that might undermine her position with him and compromise the mission. Part of her definitely wanted to compromise the mission and get the hell out of this fucking pompous poseur's penthouse.
Or, she could let him hit her. Let him use that aggression to possibly make a mistake. Act hurt, storm off and make him work to get her back, give herself a little time out from this mission.
Whatever it takes, Zack's voice reminded her. Haunted her.
Letting Logan believe he could and did hurt her would work the most to her advantage. With some difficulty, she kept her arms down and took the blow. It was harder than she expected and would leave a mark for about a day. She twisted on impact and fell to the floor, raising a hand to her stinging cheek, and looked back up at him.
Immediately, his eyes softened as if he truly didn't know what'd just come over him. Rage blackout, probably. He twitched to try to help her up, but she purposely flinched at the tiny movement from his fingers and scooted away from him to stand, false tears forming in her eyes.
"Max, wait, I-"
"Fuck you, Logan." She grabbed her leather coat from the office, hurried out the door, and bounded down the stairs instead of using the elevator. No chance he could catch up to her that way.
She made her way to the roof of the community center where she was set to meet up with Zack, and sat there for twenty minutes, the chill of the Seattle air on her cheek like an ice pack. She smiled to herself, eager to have a few days away from the cyber-journalist and to let Zack know what happened, and ready to hear his report on whether they'd achieved their objective today.
"The disrupter did its job," Zack said, crossing the graveled roof to Max. "We got Vogelsang."
Max smiled. Today was just full of sweet little victories. "Good, then the hell I just paid was not in vain."
"What happened this time?" Zack asked when he finally saw Max's swollen cheekbone.
"Call it domestic violence," she informed. She didn't want to tell Zack that she didn't shut him down, that she incensed him until he broke, that she mentioned his dead wife.
His head twirled in a fed-up semi-circle. "You didn't hit him, did you?" He stopped short of animatedly throwing his hands in the air in surrender. "Max, how many times do I have to tell you this mission is bigger than you or me-"
While Zack lectured on, Max sealed her lips closed. If she spoke again, she'd be seen as insubordinate.
But come the fuck on, she thought. I tell him I've been assaulted, and the first words out of his mouth are not 'are you okay?' But instead, 'what did you do?' Sure, I'm a super soldier and I heal quickly , but I'm also a human being. At least, the majority of me is.
If asked, she could repeat every word of Zack's diatribe, but her mental energies were spent better on thinking about a girl's night out. Or maybe even a trip to the coast for a day. Just...away. Away from Zack, away from Logan fucking Cale. Away from fucking Logan Cale.
But at least they got Vogelsang, the PI Logan had hired months back to investigate Max and her past. Vogelsang hadn't been able to find anything on Max, and then suddenly he got a little too close to discovering one of the rendezvous points she had with Zack. That's when Manticore decided to bring him in. Once informed of his employer's true nature, and offered competitive compensation, Vogelsang agreed to the job. A Double Dick, he used to say, hired for double penetration. Max just rolled her eyes and prayed for the day that skeezy old men did not make tactless innuendos.
After a few weeks with just a trickle of suspicious information to report, Logan had become more paranoid and was damn certain the 'mole' in his organization was Vogelsang. Once Max heard him making plans to eliminate the mole, she relayed the plan back to Zack, and Lydecker ordered Vogelsang to be picked up.
"We've got him in a safe house, very comfortable, working to take out Cale's network piece by piece." Zack ran a hand through his hair, annoyed that it was long enough to obstruct his vision sometimes. Or maybe he was annoyed that she was not doing everything exactly how he would have done it.
With Vogelsang under their protection, Cale would no longer be able to call on him for any PI work, not just work on Max's life. It would only be a matter or days until they'd fake the private dick's death, and Cale would find himself back at square one with regard to Max's involvement with Manticore.
Turned out, it was only a few hours before IT leaked the private investigator's death to a few media outlets: defenestration. Word traveled quickly, though, and Cale was panicked, calling Max every five minutes until she was ready to throw her cell phone off the Space Needle.
She'd eventually told Zack what she'd said, and he frowned like a disappointed parent. "Answer your phone and tell him you're sorry."
"For what?" Max crossed her arms and ground her teeth. "He's the one that punched me!"
Zack shook his head. "Tell him you're sorry you brought up his wife. He believes Manticore killed her, and you might be the only person he trusts enough to let in on his plans. You have to play this smart, Max."
Goddamn it, I know that, you fucking asshole! I'm not sorry Ibrought up his wife and I didn't get her killed; he did.
"Make him believe you," Zack encouraged firmly. "Make him believe that you think Manticore's coming after you next. It needs to be you two against the world, he has to feel like he is saving you from Vogelsang's gruesome fate."
"I think the mission would be better off if he had to do without me for a week; let him see that he needs me in order to achieve his goals, and that beating his girlfriend results in some serious consequences." She huffed at Zack's refusal to accept her idea. "You can't seriously believe that a Manticore trained super soldier would take his shit?"
It was more a rhetorical question, but he answered it anyway by ordering her to call Cale and follow through with his plan. Dick.
She hated every fucking second, even had to mute her call while he attempted to apologize for striking her, and stared daggers at the empty space where Zack had been standing while she explained how sorry she was to have pushed him so hard. Even said Vogelsang sold him out when he found out about Cale's deceased wife.
He forgave her, asked her to come over for dinner so he could apologize properly.
And like a good Romeo, she did whatever it took.