5th chapter
LOGAN
Seattle and
Gillette, Wyo
August 2025
Just before they reached Seattle, Alec started talking.
"There's something else you should know before we get there."
"Get out, things can't get any worse at the moment."
"So…."
"Don't make it so exciting Alec!"
"Something happened…..with Logan…..".
"What about Logan?"
"Now let me just finish a sentence."
Alec started talking about the phone call and what Dix had told him about Logan and the kidnapping.
"And you're telling me that NOW?
We had 24 hours and came here in silence without you deeming it necessary to tell me what situation my friend was in."
"Yes, sorry Max…"
"Sorry? Real? Just sorry….."
At that moment, the two saw a squad of X7s coming back. They literally flew into Terminal City in formation.
They had come straight from an assignment and at the moment Max could only imagine a single situation that could have led Luke and Dix to send out this somewhat difficult to control group.
She sprinted off and reached the headquarters together with the X7 troop. The bat children were there at Dix's computer to report.
They shot their observations using ultrasound directly into the computer's microphone.
The program translated: Logan located. Wyoming. Manticore ruins. No guards.
Max was almost ready to jump when Joshua held her arm.
"Wait, little one!"
"What's big guy, let's go, he's unguarded".
"Dix and Luke make a plan"!
She paused for a moment and now Dix and Luke were finally able to explain what it was about, what had happened since Mole and Joshua returned and what the plan was. The X7 squad had already provided an assessment of the situation on site.
They packed up their weapons and packs and left Terminal City together, but at different exits. They passed different checkpoints and since the sight of transgenics no longer frightened too many people, they got out of the city quickly and unmolested and met up again outside.
Luke had refloated an old transporter and was the last to arrive at the meeting point.
Everyone jumped up and if it hadn't been for Logan's life at stake you would have thought they were just setting off on a trip to the country.
However, there wasn't exactly a school trip feeling along the way.
Dix had an old map spread out on the floor of the truck's bed and everyone was gathered around it, discussing the mission plan and assigning everyone's roles on the mission while Luke pushed the accelerator and made his way.
They drove for several hours. In the meantime, all possible scenarios had been discussed, the few supplies had been eaten and one or two had even taken a short nap.
They were on the home stretch, so to speak, when the transporter braked abruptly.
They sat quietly in the back of the hold and listened to what was happening out there.
They heard Luke talking to someone up front
"Hey you bum, what do you want? I have to be on time to pick up my goods."
"Control," it came back very briskly.
A scratchy voice that made Alec sit up and take notice. He had heard that croaking sound before.
He crawled to the tarpaulin of the van and tried to catch a glimpse of the person through a gap at the bottom.
Alec suddenly froze, Max noticed his tension and couldn't understand what could cause such terror to a fighting machine, genetically enhanced to perfection.
She saw beads of sweat on Alec's forehead.
"Alec, do you know that person out there," she whispered to him.
"Mmmhhh," it came back quietly.
Alec turned around and signaled to everyone in a military-style hand signal that they had to remain absolutely still and not move, but that they had to get out of here somehow.
Max pointed upwards, meaning the roof of the van.
That was the solution, because jumping out the back and trying to escape was a death mission with the controller armed, no matter how fast you went, that person would get you.
One by one they silently pulled themselves up onto the roof of the van. There they pressed themselves as flat as they could onto the roof and hardly dared to breathe.
Max lay between Alec and Joshua. Josh had fallen into a state of paralysis and was in stealth mode. Which wasn't exactly true for Alec. Max had the feeling that she could even feel him shaking, which she couldn't believe. He was like a little child hiding in the closet from his abusive father.
Then it suddenly occurred to Max.
THAT WAS A MANTICORE GUARDIAN and he had contacts with the Familiars!
She hadn't heard that voice since her escape in the winter of 2009 and could only vaguely remember it.
Alec, on the other hand, had spent many more years in Manticore; he had spent some time with all of the refugee twins in a reprogramming wing
PSY-OPS spent. Later, when his twin brother Ben couldn't cope with life outside and became a multiple murderer, Alec had to face the assessment alone again. Manticore came to the conclusion that he had no tendencies to act and think like his brother, but from then on he was always under a little more scrutiny.
At that time, they thoroughly drove out all free, self-determined and critical thoughts about Manticore, or so they thought.
When Max met him in her captivity after the heart transplant, Zac's sacrifice for her, he was still a loyal subordinate, or at least that's what she thought at the beginning. Later she could feel all the pain he was hiding, even from Manticore, and since then she admired his strength to hide his true feelings even from this deep brain research.
But that made him even more inscrutable to her.
At the moment the facade was crumbling. He was still shaking, almost imperceptibly, but clearly noticeable to her with her sensitive senses.
Dix must have noticed something too because he turned his head to Alec and looked at him questioningly.
That would certainly earn Alec a swipe later if everything went well here.
At the front, Luke tried to engage the inspector in conversation, but he was more than hostile.
"Who would hire a freak like you anyway," he asked provocatively.
Luke replied calmly because he had heard this kind of innuendo more than once: "It's enough to be a driver, I'm not behind the counter in a fashion store. But what is there to check here on the highway?"
"It's none of your business, you freak!"
Luke realized that he wasn't making any progress and hoped that he had delayed the inspector long enough for everyone at the back to react.
The inspector walked around the van and then straight to the back to inspect the loading area.
He pulled the tarp aside and looked at an empty truck bed.
"What are you supposed to pick up here?"
"I don't know, I'm not the boss, I'm just driving, do you want the address and inquire there?"
Luckily, the inspector didn't take up the offer and Luke's bluff wasn't exposed.
The inspector made one last skeptical circle around the transporter, then waved Luke through.
Luke quickly started the engine and made sure it got going again.
He didn't know where the rest of the troop was, so he just drove until he was safely out of sight and then stopped.
He now thought he would have to wait some time until everyone made their way to him. He went to the back and opened the tarpaulin in preparation to let everyone jump in when he almost fell over in shock.
A grinning Joshua with his huge dog face had landed right in front of his nose with a jump from above.
They had also waited until they were out of sight and now jumped down one by one and climbed back onto the truck bed.
Everyone was back on the loading area safe and sound, although a little ruffled by the wind.
Luke quickly recovered from the shock, rushed to the driver's seat and was off almost immediately.
They were not far from Manticore, which was burned to ruins after Max liberated it.
Of course, they didn't just drive up and walk in the front door.
They hid the van about a mile from the fence surrounding the property and camouflaged their getaway vehicle with pine branches.
Then the troops set off on their mission.
Luke waited near the transporter so he could get it ready to go quickly. He handed out radios to everyone and water and weapons to each.
Max and Joshua were not happy about the weapons, both refused to carry a weapon. Even at the prospect of entering their former prison, both wanted to rely on themselves and their extraordinary abilities.
Alec, Mole and Dix, on the other hand, armed themselves and happily pocketed the remaining weapons as well.
They went into two troops, Max and Alec leading the groups. Mole and Dix were to head out under Alec's command.
"Then I hope we won't be discovered if half the forest shakes from your trembling," Dix couldn't help but say.
Alec just gave him a warning look. Max shuddered because this look was not only a warning not to subordinate himself to the squad leader but also a warning not to delve deeper into the cause of Alec's fear. But none of the others knew that this nasty guy was not only one of the guards back in Manticore, but also one of the kidnappers who had held Max and Alec prisoner almost a year ago. Alec still couldn't remember everything, but when he heard the voice, an image flashed through his mind that he would have preferred to suppress.
Dix immediately understood that he had taken a step too close to Alec and even took a step back and saluted, indicating his willingness to fight.
Trauma therapy wasn't on the to-do list at the moment so the two squads silently took off onto the Manticore grounds.
They jumped over the fence in a hidden place. This jump was not difficult for any of the transgenics and things moved on quickly.
Max, closely followed by Joshua, followed the straight path to the ruin while Mole and Dix, under Alec's command, circled to the other side so that in case of doubt, if Max encountered an obstacle, they could attack from an ambush.
But everything seemed to be deserted, just as the X7 had reported.
They passed through several destroyed parts of the area until they reached the core complex. Here it only went underground.
Since they could now all only go one way together, one person stayed behind to keep watch at tactically important corners on the way where someone could unexpectedly appear. Joshua accompanied Max and Alec further into the depths.
They had a rough idea of where to find Logan via the tracking system and made their way through the rubble and chaos that was left behind after the fire.
After a few impassable passages, the path suddenly became more pleasant, as if someone had cleaned up the area and set up quarters.
At the end of the hallway, a light shimmered behind a door.
Could this be the room where Logan is being held captive?
Max was a little surprised at this uncomplicated mission, but the thought of quickly rescuing her loved one made her inattentive for a moment and rushed forward at a rapid pace. It clicked, she briefly felt something. A wire?
Alec grabbed her shoulder just in time to pull her into a side room where Joshua was already ducking when the bomb went off.
The corridor collapsed with a loud crash and a cloud of dust made Max's hopes of finding Logan alive fade into the distance.
They were trapped and now called out to Mole and Dix and hoped they hadn't spilled it somewhere along the way.
Dix had been responsible for digging trenches, so the noise didn't bother him much and he was already making his way to the buried victims.
It didn't take long before his face, which took some getting used to and was now still caked in dirt, appeared on the door to the room where Max, Alec and Joshua were stuck.
Together they continued to make their way to the room at the end of the corridor. Dix had taken a rough look at the door before breaking through to them and found the path to be bomb-free.
Mole remained at his guard post further up. He suddenly heard a scratching there and then he saw a shadow slip out of a niche further up and disappear into the labyrinth of the ruins. The figure was not unknown to him. But could that be?
"LYDECKER"!? Colonel Donald Lydecker had been after the transgenics for many years. He had escaped from his captivity in the cult's madhouse during the great battle with the snake cult and so far no one had heard or seen anything from him in all these years.
Mole heard shouting and screaming from below. His thoughts had been absent and he had spent too long observing this ghost that he thought was Lydecker.
Downstairs, the four others had made their way to the room at the end of the hallway. Joshua couldn't wait and literally ripped the door off its hinges.
There he sat.
"Logan!"
Max almost screamed, but her voice was drowning in emotion and sounded even more desperate than she wanted to reveal.
He sat there tied to a chair with his head hanging down and no one knew for sure whether he was still alive.
Max reached him first. She squatted down in front of her loved ones and immediately began to open the cuffs.
Alec handed her the water he still had in his cargo pants pocket to give to Logan.
Logan groaned softly, then opened his eyes and sheer terror was reflected in his eyes.
At the same moment, Max swayed and fell to the side in a daze.
Joshua immediately jumped to her side and tried to keep her awake.
"Come on little one, you have to stay awake," he said in his somewhat clumsy way of speaking.
Alec freed Logan and gave him a drink of water. Logan finally found the strength to say a few quiet words.
"Cult…Virus," he managed to say, breathing heavily.
However, they had defeated the virus that was sent to Logan at the time and that was transmitted via Max.
What was it then?
"Logan, speak plainly!" Alec whispered to him impatiently.
"Take Max away immediately, Joshua has to give her a blood transfusion otherwise she is lost. The virus is killing me anyway but it's saving her. PLEASE"!
Alec stood there frozen for a moment, then turned to Joshua.
"Come on big man, you heard him".
Joshua picked Max up with ease, he cried as he held the lifeless body in his hands, but then he rushed out the door with his valuable cargo and then towards the exit.
He brushed against Mole and whispered to him, "Follow Joshua."
Mole and Joshua hurried with Max to get to Luke at the transporter. Luke always had transfusion tubes in his pack because it wasn't the first time that her transgenic blood was needed to save one of her companions.
They arrived at the transporter. Joshua was still howling like a wounded animal while Mole had already regained his senses and Luke had already dug out a transfusion system.
Joshua sat down in the back of the transport and let Max slide onto a blanket next to him. Mole moved as quickly as he could to connect the two with the tubes and Joshua's blood flowed over to Max.
Now it was time to wait.
Mole and Luke positioned themselves at the stern to keep watch. Mole was puffing nervous little clouds of cigar smoke again.
It seemed like an eternity before they saw Alec and Logan. Actually, they saw Alec. He had shouldered Logan and was now coming straight to them.
"How is Max," was the first thing he said and looked up at the truck bed, more than worried.
"Hopefully Joshua is helping her right now," Mole sounded skeptical as always when he mentioned other people's attempts to save someone, but he also sounded hopeful.
He laid Logan on the grass in front of the back of the van. Luke rushed over.
"Who will give him blood?"
"I don't think anyone," it came out of Alec's mouth quietly, but it rang like thunder in the friends' ears.
"Are you saying he's...," Luke came closer, knelt down and felt Logan's pulse.
"Shit, it's true"!
"How are we supposed to explain this to Max? If she makes it, I mean," Mole was, as always, rather pessimistic. But he was also deeply shocked and worried about his little friend, who was fighting for her life in the back of the van.
They first decided to put Logan on the truck bed covered with a blanket. And to say goodbye to this terrible place.
So they set off. They sat in the truck bed in silence and hope and Luke pushed the accelerator almost through the floor of the cab again.
He slowed down before the spot where the guard had stopped them on the way here. But the path was clear, no inspector in sight, so he got back on the gas and they were on a tough ride home.
Alec was silent. He stared at Logan lying under the blanket and the only thing he could think about was the short conversation he had had with Logan down there, the promise he had made and how he was going to tell Max that the rescue operation was now more or less had become less just a rescue.
His thoughts revolved around these two things the entire trip.
He decided to concentrate on Max first, to support her and, now that the children were safe, not to mention to her the promise he had made to Logan down there.
He made it a little easier for himself but once again he buried a secret. His brain had been trained over many years in Manticore to hide secrets, no matter how deeply and persistently someone searched, only he could willingly reveal them. But this should remain hidden for a long time.