The accident
Seattle
August 2025
Logan drove back to Seattle with Joshua and Mole in the early hours of the morning. He was in the back seat this time, Mole was driving like hell as usual and Joshua was in the passenger seat holding on to the door handle. On the one hand because he didn't completely trust the lizard man's driving style and on the other hand because he wanted to be able to get out of the car quickly and be ready to fight if the worst came to the worst.
At first everything seemed to be going well. Mole was still puffing on his cigar at the front and was confident that everything was going as planned.
Joshua, on the other hand, was skeptical
"Joshua bad feeling," came out of his mouth curtly.
Logan replied: "It's all planned out and well thought out Joshua. It'll be fine."
They were now tasked with arriving back in town without Logan being seen, making everything seem normal and spreading the rumor that Max had left the country with the children and no one knew when and how she had accomplished that.
Logan was supposed to get back to business as usual for a while and Max wanted to show up again at some point.
They had to put on their best poker faces and try to keep up appearances while they had to figure out who or what wanted to harm the children and who was behind the attempt to kill them. Although Logan already had a hunch. Ever since Max and Alec were kidnapped shortly after Seth's birthday, he had had this idea and had already put his informants on it.
Last week when little Ben was born and Seth was desperate to spend a night in the hospital with his brother and Max, Max heard a nurse talking to someone on the phone.
She only heard fragments of words.
Mission….kill…..children
That was enough and without looking further into who exactly the sister was, who was behind it and without thinking any further, Max left the hospital that night with both children and a plan had to be made quickly to thwart this diabolical plan of the stranger.
And so it was now up to the three returnees to keep up appearances and not let anything get noticed, while investigations were already underway in the background as to who could have given this terrible order.
However, Logan's informants had only provided vague information and so far nothing useful.
They were just crossing the first sector boundary. Unseen, because after the easing of restrictions in recent years there was no guard here at this time. They had researched carefully where they could get through without being seen.
Suddenly a large black pickup truck appeared behind them. Tinted windows, no clear view of the occupants.
The big car drove up quickly, pushing ever closer to the van from behind.
The van was past its best and was not suitable for an attack of this nature. Mole did his best to keep it on the road while driving faster without giving the pursuer room to ride alongside them. But when he was on a curve just before the first houses in town, the pickup managed to sit next to them and with a short swing into the side of the van, he sent it onto the shoulder. The van swerved and Mole lost control of the vehicle. They shot off the road at top speed into the last open field before the city. Mole and Joshua tried not to be knocked out of their seats at the front and were thrown forward during a hard stop on an old tree stump.
Neither of them were prepared for this situation and so the impact on the dashboard or steering wheel knocked them out for a few seconds, or was it a minute.
Everything had happened incredibly quickly. When the two opened their eyes, unharmed and quickly regaining full consciousness and in possession of their keen senses, they jumped out of the van to face the attackers.
But faster than it had come, the pickup had disappeared again.
The back van door was open and they discovered that Logan was also missing.
There was blood on the back seat and Logan's glasses were lying on the burnt grass a meter from the car.
What had happened here? Had Logan been kidnapped or killed?
Was his life in danger?
They looked at each other perplexed. Neither of them knew what to do next.
A chance pursuit was hopeless.
Mole suddenly jumped to the van, grabbed a backpack and took out a cell phone, pushed Joshua towards the city and urged him to hurry.
"Come on Joshua, we have to get to Terminal City as quickly as possible, maybe one of the techies there can locate Logan's cell phone."
Both set off as quickly as their transgenic feet would carry them.
They were fast but it felt like they had been running for days when they finally stood at the gates of Terminal City.
Joshua could only utter a wild wolf howl. Unlike Mole, he couldn't think clearly and ran wildly from side to side, growling and howling.
Mole, on the other hand, shouted: "Luke! Dix! Get your asses to your computers now!"
Dix ran as quickly as he could over to the platform still set up on a pedestal in the center of the large hall where the computer monitoring unit was set up.
Only when he was ready to go on his swivel chair facing the screen did he ask what he should do.
"Locate Logan's cell phone"! Mole instructed in a commanding tone.
They were all used to communicating briefly and succinctly in such situations; even after years, this training was still deeply rooted in them and was available at any second.
Dix and now Luke sat like robots in front of their screens and typed like crazy without saying a word.
Joshua circled the platform yelping and Mole puffed nervously at small clouds of smoke and stared at the computer geeks without a movement except for the clouds of smoke that continued to rise.
"There! Got him!"
Luke jumped up, revealing the screen to everyone.
A small red dot on the map blinked and blinked.
It was now clear to everyone that Logan was in great danger where this point flashed.
The address was well known to everyone. What the hell were the kidnappers doing with Logan there?
They had been there a few years ago. All.
Max had freed her then.
But they had assumed that no one could stay in this place anymore after everything there went up in flames.
Max and Alec met there back then. And Max and Alec were also found nearby after they were attacked almost a year ago and reappeared without memory after another three months, in which no trace of either of them was to be found.
The dot flashed in the middle of the Manticore Quarters where Joshua had spent most of his life in Gillette, Wyoming.
The four of them didn't know whether they should leave immediately but decided to make a plan until Alec and Max returned and the children were safe.
But Luke had a brilliant idea. They sent out the bat boys.
The X7 series was given bat genes. They communicated inaudibly with each other using ultrasound and always traveled in a pack. They were stronger and faster than the previous X series, but you could only communicate with them using sophisticated technology.
After the great battle, Luke and Dix discovered a computer program that could be used to communicate with this X7 series.
These guys were perfect for probing and exploring unknown areas. In their unity as a pack, they were almost invincible if they encountered guards there, but they were also as silent as bats.
All they could do was wait. They didn't know how smoothly Max and Alec had gotten through.
They hoped the two of them had managed to reach their destination at least in 48 hours.
The next evening the phone finally rang.
Alec was on the phone. When he reported from where Max and he had placed the children that everything had gone according to plan, he was briefly informed about Logan's situation and they hoped to have the two of them at their side quickly.