Episode 1
TO
WHERE IT BENT IN THE UNDERGROWTH
Chapter Four
PRE-MEETING
JITTERS
A look of
surprise crossed Logan’s face, “Who is this?”
“No one
you know,” said the voice on the other line.
“You want the ops on this address or not?”
“I do.”
“Good. My boss wants to schedule a meet.”
“That can
be arranged” He said sarcastically. “Of course if you double cross -”
“Tomorrow…”
the man waited for Logan’s response, when he didn’t get any, “…at
zero-3-hundred hours. There’s an
abandoned building in…”
<
JOSHUA’S PLACE >
Max
stopped her ninja in front of Joshua’s.
Again, she walked her baby at the side of the house and covered it
with the huge cloth meant for her bike. Walking up the porch, she entered the
house slowly wondering why there weren’t any lights on. Logan should have
been here by now, she thought as she opened the door. Even before she scanned the room with her
night vision, her ears already told her no one was there. But she noticed that the boxes were
missing. Frowning, she scanned the
room again for any sign of Logan having gone back to the apartment. “He’s
been here,” she muttered as she decided to go into the kitchen. Opening the fridge, she got a pear and
decided to wait it out for Logan to come back.
Minutes
later, Logan parked the Aztec and stepped out to go into the house. He didn’t know who told the anonymous guy
what he was searching for, but word sure got out. Frowning as he walked up to porch and opened the door, he could
not help the feeling that this guy might double cross him, but he has no
other choice. He has to go to the
meet if he and Max are to get any nearer to Sandeman. He opened the door and stepped inside the
hall, automatically opening the lights.
Turning, he stood still at seeing Max slumped on the couch eating a
pear and staring at him. He could feel his heart beat faster and his breath
catch as he gasped, “Max!”
“You seem
to be screaming my name often these days,” Max quipped. “Hey, I didn’t enter
the window this time. Window at the
back is still open though.”
Finally
regaining from his initial shock, “I didn’t know you were in here. The lights
-” Max looked pointedly at Logan knowing fully well he knew and remembered at
that instant about her night vision, “ – right.” He motioned at her pear,
“Dinner good?” smiling at her.
With all
the bravado she could muster, Max tried to smile and throw Logan’s comment
Back at him, “Never better.” Inwardly followed by, *God! I wish I knew how to
do this!*
As Logan
stepped into the kitchen, Max stood up to follow him. “So, what do you say to
some dinner? Gazpacho with Galic Coutons – on old family recipe of fresh
vegetables flavored with oil and vinegar –“
“Ummm…”
“Veal
Peccata – veal cooked in chicken broth, lemon juice and parsley -”
“Mmmmm”
“Rosotto
Alla Milanese, and Strawberry Shortcake for dessert?”
Max could
almost hear her stomach grumble at the all those different kinds of food, but
she has to put up a fight, “It’s late Logan. You don’t have time to put all
those things together.” She sat down
on the table to look at Logan.
Hiding his
smile, Logan bent towards the oven. “Right. I don’t.” He took out something
from the oven and revealed a black bowl filled with Veal Pecatta and placed
in on the table. Bending, he took
another bowl filled with Rosotto Alla Milanese and placed it on the table to
Max’s widening eyes. “That’s why -,”
Logan stood up to open the fridge and took out another black bowl, “- I took
the liberty of preparing before I left this afternoon.” He turned, placed the
bowl of Gazpacho on the table.
Bracing himself on the table, he leaned down and looked closely at
Max. “The strawberry shortcake is in the fridge. You just have to go and get the wine over there.” He motioned
at one of the cabinets near Max, “while I get the plates and dinner is up for
the taking.”
Max,
recovering from her initial shock, stood up to get the chiller where the
bottle is from the cabinet, “Sounds good to me.” She sat back on the table as she looked at Logan, “Logan?”
Logan
looked up from the plates, and utensils he is placing on the table, “Yes,
Max?”
“You read
my mind!” She took her plate and spoon from the table where Logan shoved them
to her.
“You can
start, I’ll just be a minute.” Logan rushed from the kitchen and came back
within minutes – wearing his latex gloves.
Max took
one look at his hands and stopped eating, “Right.” He face a mask devoid of
emotions. She looked up at Logan,
muttering, “We can’t be too careful.”
Logan
sighed, “Max, let’s just enjoy dinner.” He sat down in front of her.
“Forget
it. Forget I said anything.”
“Max.
Please.” The look in Logan’s eyes is enough to let Max keep her sarcastic
remarks to herself. It was also
enough to stop her from shoving her plate forward and jumping on her ninja to
head back to Terminal City.
“Right.”
And Max focused her attention to her meal.
She tried to make the atmosphere lighter by smiling up at Logan as
saying, “…after all, you did go through all this trouble.”
Logan
relaxed and smiled his understanding, “…not to say you want a piece of that
strawberry shortcake for dessert.”
< LATER
>
Max and Logan
are in the living room. Logan is in
front of his computers checking out the Eyes Only informant net as he
continued to tell Max about the phone call he received right after delivering
the boxes to Alec and the gang. “…we scheduled a meet with his boss at 3 am
tomorrow.”
Max is
pacing up and down the living room, trying to think of how to tell Logan
about why she’s really here. “That’s
still less than 7 hours away,” she told Logan to indicate that she’s still
listening to him. She was fidgeting
with her hands and fingers.
“Yes, but
that’s not the point.” Max continued
pacing. “He knew my number.”
“Uhuh.” Her thoughts were running fast in her
mind. She can’t tell Logan. Not now. *Why did he have to cook that dinner?
…And deliver those boxes?* she thought.
She sighed her exasperation as she thought of a way to make this
easier.
Logan
looked up from his computer and noticed for the first time that Max is pacing
up and down before him. He raised his
eyebrows and decided that teasing her would be the best approach if she’s to
tell him what she was thinking, “If you go any faster, you’d be digging a
hole down the basement.”
“Yeah.”
This got another frown from Logan as he continued looking at Max idgeting
with her hands and fingers, lost in her own thoughts.
Meanwhile,
Max couldn’t stop herself from thinking about the whole idea of her ebing
here besides Sandeman… and Logan. *Oh
God! What am I supposed to say to
him? That I’m some kind of a wacko
who figured lying to him is better than being with him? That the sky cleared my eyes and I
realized Alec was not for me? What would be his reaction? He’d probably get so angry at me, he’d
throw me out if he could. Should I
just tell him the truth?* She
remembered how Logan utilized all his resources as Eyes Only for the
negotiations that would allow transgenics to live off at Terminal City. How Logan would drop off supplies to them
when they could hardly go out. How he
used the informant net to tap people into convincing others that the
transgenics were not harmful. It
wasn’t much of a success, but at least everything didn’t turn up into a
bloody battle. He deserved her
honesty. “Oh God!” she groaned.
Logan was
still staring at her wondering at what she was hyped up against, “My point
exactly.”
That
stopped Max in her tracks, “Huh?”
Knowing
fully well that Max wasn’t 100% into what he had been debriefing her for at
least 30 minutes now, Logan decided to play it dumb – as if he didn’t know
she was thinking about something else -, “They know my number. Hell, for all I know they might be able to
track me.”
“Who?” She
stared at Logan unable to move.
“The
informant we are supposed to meet” he looked at her pointedly, “at 3 am -?”
Max shrugs
it off, “I know about that. He knows your number. So? I know your
number.” Logan gave her a level look
and then it hit Max, “Oh. No.”
“Yes, ‘oh.
No.’”
Max walked
to stand in front of the computer behind Logan, “Have you found anything on
the guy?”
“Got his
number on my cell. DoD files tells me
he used to work for them. But no
illegal records whatsoever. No files on what he’s been up to since the pulse,
except for the truck registered to him indicating he works for a ranch in
Montana.”
“Do WE
know anyone in Montana?” Max emphasized the ‘we’ part due to Logan’s
extensive network of informant in various parts of the country. Heck, maybe even various parts of the
world!
Logan
sighed, Max clearly haven’t been listening to anything he’d been saying, “One
of the 5 Eyes Only informants I met today was with Marianne Forseblad, a
teacher in 64th who grew up in Montana and…”
“I know, I
know. I heard ya.”
“So?”
“So you
meet up with them while I watch from the upper part of the building. You can drop me at the back while you go
and meet with them at the entrance of the warehouse.” With that, Max started pacing back and
forth again. Then it hit her! She could tell Logan while they were on
the road and well, she won’t have to wait for his response since they’ll be
meeting with his informant! She turned her head towards Logan and stated, “I
need to sleep.”
Logan looked at her in shock. He knew she would sleep for 4 hours maximum, but it’s not like
Max to just tell him she needs to sleep as she flopped herself on the couch
and made herself comfortable. A frown
forming on his brows, he went into his room – a formerly vacant room in the
house -, got some blankets and pillows, went back into the living room, and
bent down before max lying on the couch.
He lifted her head and placed the pillow under her head, stood up and
covered Max’s sleeping form with a blanket, his face inches from hers as he
stared onto her face and brushed off a lock of hair on it. He got up and went to sit in front of his
computer, looking from his jacket-covered arms and staring on his latex-gloved
hands. On the couch, Max opened her
eyes and looked at Logan seated on his computer vowing to tell him the
truth. With that, she closed her eyes
snuggling under the covers to try and sleep it off.
************
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