This story starts just after the Pulse. Before Max and Logan have met. It jumps around, back and forth between times, events and episodes. Logan is paralized in the beginning, then it skips a beat. Self-explainatory. It started as a Logan/Max story, somewhere did a lil flip-flop, and one of the background characters decided she wanted to live. If you hate the story, shoot my muse. Email is very welcome, I may not post the rest of the story if no one takes an interest.

Email: [email protected]

Chapter Three

She’d synthesized her meds, enough pale blue liquid to last a week.
She drank her first dose in two days, shivering as it hit and raised all the hair on her body. It was a high, it was a recharge, it was borrowing time. Every year she tried fighting it, and every year the dosages got larger and she needed the drug more. Without the drug she began to wind down like an old clock, and ended up twitching like a bug sprayed with poison.
This dose would not be enough, she needed two more, at least.
She sat, watching her hands shake.
It was time to hit the streets, darkness was falling. She’d avoided Logan, it was just too hard to hide the withdrawal. Another reason to leave when this was over and Max was back on her feet.

She’d insisted on going alone this time, it was too dangerous to try fighting while Logan was in danger, and she managed to convince him of it, finally.
She insisted on her methods, she felt safer living on the street... it was more her territory than the Red’s.
"If I don’t find Spooky I’ll be back in two nights, okay?" She told him.
"How do I contact you, in case..." He didn’t continue.
"I’ll call in." She rummaged in the pocket of her jacket, produced a card. "If I can manage it. Okay?"
Logan rummaged in a pocket, and produced a pager, passing it over. "Much easier."
She took it reluctantly.
He had insisted on dropping her off.
She’d thought a moment when he offered, several things she could say as excuses to refuse the ride. Lies at best, then decided on distraction and what-if. "What if Max shows up?"
He laughed. "She can let herself in, she usually does anyway. I don’t think she’ll show tonight."
On the way, the subject of Eyes Only came up.
"Would you be interested in helping out, once in awhile? I’d be happy to pay -"
She smiled. "Logan, I don’t need your money. Money isn’t always the answer, and sometimes it makes more problems than it solves. But, irregardless, I’ll be happy to help, so long as it doesn’t violate any of my personal rules."
"Maybe you should tell me what rules those are?"
"Okay. I don’t kill for hire, although if I have to, I can bend that one-I just don’t accept pay for it."
Logan laughed. "Okay."
"Also, in lieu of cash, I do accept gifts."
"What did you have in mind?"
"Whatever you consider the job worth. Surprise me. I’ll send you my resume. See you in forty-eight hours." She grinned slyly, then hopped out, shutting the door of the car before he could respond. In seconds, she had sprinted from view, heading down an alley.
She selected a fire escape, climbed fast and in a few minutes she was looking over the neighborhood from the roof of the broken building. Logan’s car, now distant, was just passing from view.
Tomorrow would be business as usual. Tonight would be spent finding a hole to sleep in, a secure spot to stash her stuff, and some time to forget about Logan Cale. The roof was already inhabited, so she hit street level.
Lexa was prowling.
While she hunted for information, she had to make herself a target. Old contacts had to be dusted off, old habits emerged from the layer of ghostly lace she’d allowed to cover they way she was on the streets.
Most of the time, cash was scarce on the streets, but there were others way to pay.
Lexa had learned the fastest way to get it was usually by doing things that were illegal, which was almost a game. Her games had rules though-she didn’t kill anyone who wasn’t a bottom feeder, she didn’t ruin people’s lives, and she did the jobs anonymously using an in trade or barter.
The payphone rang.
"Gimmie a min." The voice said.
"How bout now, shithead?" She growled. "What’s to interest me?"
"I hear you’re lookin for some guys that bleed from their eyes."
Her eyes widened. "Go on, you got my attention."
"I have a tape. I’ll throw in the player."
"Price?"
"Whatcha got?"
"Gems. Nice stones."
"Worth?"
"Six figures. You’d have to pop them from the settings."
"I know I can trust you. How long will it take to get them together?"
"Three hours. Call me in three hours. Don’t screw me." She growled.
"Gotcha in three." Click.
In the old days, the jobs kept her pretty busy, but it wasn’t a line of work someone like Logan Cale would have respected.
She had stashes of gems, and other useful items all over town. Each one marked a job she’d completed, and cash was not always the best form of currency. It took some time to walk to the building she’d stashed the gems in, head to the basement, pull apart the fake plumbing and remove the bag.
The bag was heavy. She sighed replacing the pipe, and wondered why Logan’s respect was something that concerned her.
She untied the cord holding the bag closed, shook it over her gloved palm.a set of sapphire jewelry glinted in the dim light. One necklace, two bracelets and a pair of hair combs studded with tiny stones. Perfect stones. She put the jewelry back into the bag, all except for the combs. The bag went into her carry-all belt pouch, and she zipped it closed.
The combs went into her pocket, she might need them, and the jewelry was plenty. It better be, she couldn’t afford to waste time.
The tape her contact had promised had to give her a lead.
Perfect sapphires to save Max’s life.
She zoned out then, partially withdrawal, but mostly because the drug wasn’t working fast enough, or maybe not at all. That’s when she became aware of what had been nagging at her, something she’d been ignoring. Logan’s pager, which was on vibrate and in her shoulder pocket, was vibrating. She unsnapped the pocket glanced at the number and turned it off.
At street level, she melted into a wall long enough for the police hover-drove to pass, then she sprinted down the side street, and into a stairwell. She sat for awhile, panting.
They’ll be time later to ponder if I’ve developed resistance to the drug again. She told herself. You got less than thirty minutes. Get up, it’ll be dawn soon and all you need is some sector guard checkin’ you out and finding six figures o’ gems on your ass.
She got up, sprinted to the drop she’d worked out, securing the jewelry in a small garbage bag hung on the handle of an old battered trash can. A leisurely walk to a payphone in view of her drop, and she dialed Logan.
"What’s up?" She said, swooping out of the view of a hoverdrone, she banged the phone accidently.
"Hey. Find anything?"
Lexa watched as a guy on a bicycle pulled up to the can, untied the bag, looked around. "Well, no, but I’m trying to stay visible. Trust me I know how to subtly get my name circulated. You sound distracted. What’s up?"
"Can’t really talk about it, over the phone."
"You... okay, Logan?" She asked. The biker hopped back on the bike, and took off.
"Yeah, I’m-"
"Shit." She hissed. "Logan I’ll be by ASAP, but now I gotta handle something. Seeya." She hung up, breaking into a run. She had to stay hidden while she caught up to the little shit, but she saw he was about to pass under a bridge and leapt catching the biker and driving him to the ground.
He swore, fighting, but she put her foot on his throat.
"The tape better be in that pack you’re carrying." She growled.
She released him, let him sit up, and took the backpack he shouldered out of. He didn’t move or breathe until she pulled out the camera and started the tape, then he twitched. She sat on him and kept watching.
The tape showed an alley, lots of graphitti.
She was absorbed in trying to memorize the patterns to figure out the location when a body flew out of the alley on the tape. She watched the guy slide on his back on the concrete into what looked like a street.
She stopped breathing when Spooky came out of the alley, following the guy. He reached down, picked him up, and broke him like a twig.
The tape ended.
She stood up. "Get outta here." She yelled, and the messenger ran off, forgetting his bike.
After he was out of sight she permitted herself to double up, she’d just torn the hell out her half-healed wound.

She arrived at Logan’s penthouse in clothes she’d spent the night in, wishing she had time to change. Her hair was a cloud of snarls, and she was disgusted in herself.
Two days, and all I found was a tape that lasts about two minutes.
Bling answered the door. "He’s in the kitchen."
"Thanks." She smiled, and tried squelching the feeling that she looked like she’d spent two days sleeping in alleys. Just because it was true, didn’t mean she wanted to look like it. But the tape couldn’t wait.
She found Logan adding berries to something in a bowl.
She pulled out the camcorder and passed it over.
She watched his face as he played it. She knew when Spooky broke the guy in half, Logan’s eyes widened. He looked at her.
"Do you know where this is exactly?" He asked.
"I was hoping you did." She said sadly. "I’ll hunt up my contact and see if-"
"Not tonight." Logan said quickly. "I’m making dinner. I invited Max over, and hopefully we can sit down and talk-"
He wasn’t meeting her eyes.
"Logan what’s wrong?"
"I’m not sure. When I called her place, Original Cindy told me Max has been acting ‘spaced’."
"Define ‘spaced’" Lexa asked.
"Well, I guess we’ll find out. When Max called me back I told her to dress up, make it formal. If nothing else maybe we can all talk."
Lexa frowned.
"You did advise a dinner that she could dress up and-"
"It’s not that. I don’t have anything I can wear. My glitzy stuff is, elsewhere, all I have is jeans, street stuff." She said sadly, "I’ll just take a rain-check I need a shower..."
Logan grinned. "About that rule you mentioned, gifts in lieu of cash..."

Logan had presented her with a box, and offered his bathroom for her use.
It would be faster, so she accepted, opened the box to reveal a length of black covered in tiny diamonds. He handed her a smaller box, shoes.
The dress, black, sparkling with a thousand diamonds, sparkled like the night sky as Lexa twirled in front of the bathroom mirror, the back of the dress was a diamond spiderweb, but she was grateful for the shawl that hid the view of her back. Heels completed the picture, everything fit.
She tried not to break the spell by wondering where he’d found out her size, even in the shoes.
She added the two sparkling gem-encrusted combs that were still in her pocket to pin her hair up, after a battle with a brush she’d tamed it’s tendency to frizz. Her make-up was more dramatic than she was used to, but it was the only stuff she had with her. It was nice to look good again, and besides, it was only Logan.
She exited the bathroom to run into Bling in the hall.
He whistled softly, and she spun around, giggling.
"Girl, that dress didn’t look like that in the box. Logan will never know what hit him."
She grinned. "Thanks, but I’m just a guest. You’re lookin’ good." She commented, looking at his party-type clothing and new jacket.
He nodded. "Logan says dinner’s ready... and I’ve got a date." Bling told her. "Max hasn’t arrived yet. So... I guess I’ll see you later, or maybe not." He grinned.
She smiled, nodded. "Okay. Bling... does Max and Logan have... something?"
"He says not, she says not. I think there is a connection, but not that kind. They’ve tried, but..." Bling shrugged.
She nodded thoughtfully, returning his wave, and walked around the corner and noted that yes, dinner was done, the table was set for three, complete with candles and fresh flowers on the table. Logan was putting a dish on the table.
"Need some help?" She asked.
"Actually yes," He hesitated, a long moment actually seeing her, then continued on trying to cover his mental lapse. "there’s one more dish on the counter, would you?"
"Sure." She took the dish, and set it onto the table.
"You look... uhm... nice." He said hesitantly.
"Gee, thanks." She said with a smile. "You look adorable yourself."
He looked confused. "Did I... say something wrong again?"
"No, Logan." She said chuckling. "Have you ever told Max she looks ‘nice’?"
"Uhm," He looked thoughtful. "Yes, I have told her she looked ‘nice’. Is that bad?"
"Wellll..." She said slowly, considering. "You might want to use a little stronger language when complimenting Max. Like ‘wow’, or uhm how about ‘fantastic’?"
"Why do I get the feeling," He said removing the covers from the dishes, "that you’re trying to ‘help me’ with Max?" He stirred the contents of a dish thoughtfully, "because... I and Max are friends, just friends."
She nodded. "You sound as if I’m the latest in a long list who’ve been ‘helping’?"
He nodded. "Yeah, and I’d rather not talk about it. I hunted up a few, unusual recipes. Want to sample a few? I’m not a bad cook."
She handed him her plate. "Is Max coming?"
"Soon, I hope. Depends on what’s up tonight." He scooped a generous helping onto her plate, then passed it back. "Pace yourself, you might not like it."
She sat. Her first urge was to smell it, but she was very aware that Logan was waiting for her reaction.
What the hell... probly won’t kill me. She thought, and picked up her fork.
"I think it’d be a good idea to hit the streets again, tonight." She told him, chewing thoughtfully.
"Give me a chance to put the tape on the web maybe..." He smiled.
"What?"
"I can’t get used to losing my best informant."
"You haven’t, I’m just changing formats."

Max wasn’t in the best mood, her day had been a real brick, and had ended with her and Original Cindy getting into it over Max ‘being all spaced’. Max agreed that she hadn’t had alot of private time lately to be with Herbal, Sketch and Original Cindy, not to mention Zack... but sometimes it had to be that way-there just wasn’t enough time in the day.
Besides, Max had reasoned, I work with ya’ll all day.
For Original Cindy it had been a reason to get up in Max’s face. She was pissed that Max had a whole new shadow-life thing going on, even though Max had promised not to hide shit with her whole ‘I’m a reved’ up killin’ machine speech’, Original Cindy told her she was aware that Max was making ‘dumb excuses to cover up’, and Original Cindy continued while she was on a roll, ‘although Logan was one fine piece of boo, Max was better off looking than hanging around waitin for him to call, geeze wasn’t it obvious he wasn’t interested in Max that way- and who was that hanging with Logan now’?
Max had to endure Original Cindy’s speech, as she was getting decked out.
Logan had invited her to dinner, asked her to dress formally, and promised dinner would be worth it. The downside was he’d also invited Lexa. She supposed she should get to know her genetic cousin and make peace-but she damned sure gonna look good tonight. She was trying to decide whether to wear something short, sparkling and low-cut, or the formal dress Logan had bought for her, for that wedding, when her pager went off. She smiled, expecting to see Logan’s number displayed, but the smile faded quickly as she took note of the unfamiliar number. Strange.
She grabbed the phone and called it anyway, ready to hang up if the person wasn’t a friend.
"Hello?" A male voice, familiar.
Max’s eyes widened. "Zack?! I thought you were leaving-"
"Yeah. I’m at Campbell and First. Meet me there."
"What’s up?"
"Meet me." Click.
Max bit off the irritation and hung up, deciding to wear her leathers instead. There would be time to come back and change if she made it short.

"It’s late." Lexa said, setting the last dish into the dish drainer. "I should probably change, and hit the streets."
Logan studied her for a moment. "I thought you could stay here, I wanted to talk over what to do about the squid. Max will probly show a little later. But if you want, take a nap, leave in the-"
"I’m okay, I’m not even tired." She said, interupting.
She pulled the plug from the sink allowing the sink to drain, and turned to look at him. "I heal fast, I can catch some Zs out there. I gotta find my contact before the trail’s cold... I haven’t forgotten my... obligations."
He nodded, thoughtfully. "I’ll drop you-"
"Logan, I’m a big girl. I’ll just change and hit the streets." She frowned at his expression, then surrendered. "Fine. Gimmie a minute and I’ll be right with you."

Max stabbed the door bell one last time, then got disgusted.
I should just punch the damned door in.
"Max?" Logan’s voice from just behind her, spun around looking annoyed. "Bad day?"
"Kinda. Isn’t it a little late to be driving around?" She asked. "I thought you had a curfew."
He opened the front door, walking into his penthouse ahead of her. "I took Lexa home." He said, repeating the cover story he’d thought up.
"I thought Lexa was a big girl, can’t she find her own way home? I thought she lived next door?"
Logan regarded her for a moment. "Her other home. She hasn’t moved in yet. I would have thought you’d be grateful I gave her a lift. Something wrong?"
"I’m not worried about Lexa, she can handle herself." Max said, "Need to use your bathroom." She passed him, and as she passed Logan’s bedroom a dark shape on his bed caught her eye and her vision amplified automatically. A dress. Very expensive, it was draped over his bed, .and on the floor, a pair of matching shoes. For a brief instant anger burned through her. It sure wasn’t Logan’s dress, it wasn’t Bling’s...that left one person. Forgetting about the bathroom she went out and seated herself at the dining room table, moodily toying with a candlestick. "I guess you already ate."
"Max, it’s like," He consulted his watch, "three in the morning. We had dinner, we waited for you for awhile, we did the dishes and against my better judgment I dropped Lexa off near Prescott."
Max remained expressionless. "’Against your better judgment’?"
"Yes, Max. She’s still got about four broken ribs, and day before yesterday she got the living hell beat out of her. You do remember that don’t you? She might be tough, just as tough as you are, but she’s not at 100% yet. Don’t you care at all?"
"All damn day I’ve been gettin’ my chops busted about how I don’t care. I’m gettin’ sick about trying to please everybody!" She said angrily. "I guess Bling didn’t join you for dinner, huh? He’s not the candlelight and flowers type." She glared at him.
Logan returned the look, confused. "Max are you jealous?"
Max got up fast, and walked out without a look behind her.
Logan shook his head, still confused, as his front door slammed shut, shaking the floor of the penthouse. "Drop in anytime." He said quietly, as he noticed the candlestick on the table that Max had been toying with- it was now bent almost in half.
A chill went down his spine. Lexa had mentioned watching Max for ‘unusual behavior’. He thought it over, shook his head, sighed.
Max wasn’t acting unusual. She’d gone off on him that night she’d sailed in and caught him alone with Lexa, Zack hadn’t helped. Max was jealous. For some reason instead of hugging Lexa as he’d seen Max do to her other siblings, she found Lexa to be competition.
He walked into the hall, and into his room, looking for his laptop.
He saw the dress, walked to it, touched it. Obviously, he just didn’t understand the female mind. That was obvious from his marriage he supposed. He just couldn’t connect with Max, dinners lately ended with several empty wine bottles and awkward silences.
He frowned. The stones on the dress flashed even in the dim light.
Why had Lexa returned his gift?
Why was Max acting like this, after months of dinners where there seemed to be no connection at all... well at least romantically.
Why?

Impatiently, Lexa tapped her long nails on the side of the phone booth, wincing when she noted the scratch marks. She hadn’t even been trying.
They’re claws actually, designed to rip, rend and eviscerate. I wonder what line of work my creators intended for me? Tupperware sold door-to-door?
Finally someone answered. "Yeah."
"It’s Lexa. I need Malik."
"I got the stones, nice."
"Glad you liked them. I want the location the tape was filmed."
"We can work something out."
"Don’t stress me, Malik."
"Vicinity of Fletcher and Cardiff."
"Fletcher and Cardiff are about twenty blocks apart."
"Best I got. Later." Click.
She sighed, thinking it over. Going wasn’t the problem, but she should drop by Sebastian’s, pick up her gun. Good plan.
She was halfway there when the pager vibrated in her pocket, she was so tense she jumped, heart thudding in her chest.
Terrific timing Logan.
She didn’t bother going further toward Sebastian’s, Logan’s was closer. She could borrow a gun from Logan, something untraceable hopefully. She just took the short way around, and went straight to Logan’s building. She got off the elevator to find that Logan’s door was not only open, but Bling was standing in the hallway.
"Trouble?" She asked.
"Yeah." Bling said quietly, "Max is freaking."
She felt the blood drain from her face. "Everyone okay?"
He waved her in. "C’mon in, Logan will explain."
She went in, glancing around. She found Logan in the living room, looking out of the window-one of several large living room windows, that appeared shattered. She automatically took note that the glass was on the floor, the breakage was from the outside-in.
She decided to smile, as he glanced back. "Hey." She said, avoiding the broken glass, and standing next to him. "Where’s Max?"
"She’s been acting increasingly.... agitated, irritable-"
"Angry." Bling supplied. "Not to mention pissed off."
Lexa nodded at the window. "Recent?"
Logan nodded. "She came over... the night I dropped you off. She told me that everyone was angry at her because... well, I got the impression she’d had a bad week. She left after grilling me about why I drove you... home, I asked if she was jealous- I was joking... I think. Anyway she left, just left, slammed out." He nodded at the window. "She came over again, the next night... I told her, I tried to tell her..." He made a sweeping gesture. "She’s been acting jealous... there’s no reason and she seemed to pick a fight, it sure seemed that way. This morning she crashed in, literally, and I woke up to find her in my room staring at me, wild-eyed and angry. She was looking for you. She brought up that maybe she should be hanging out with ‘her own kind’."
Lexa blinked. "She was looking for me, in your bedroom?"
Logan nodded. "At four in the morning. She made a quick run through the house, and went out the way she came in. I’m worried about her. I tried paging her. No response. She’s never acted like this before."
"She’s never had competition before." Bling interjected.
"I’m not competition." Lexa informed him.
"Of course not. You get Logan now on his feet, start hangin’ with him, something that only Max used to do-and suddenly Logan is acting all concerned for you-"
"You make it sound like I’m cheating on Max,’ Logan said sounding irritated, "I and Max are not seeing each other, we are friends."
"Where is she?" Lexa interupted.
"I have no clue." Logan told her.
"I have a lead on that... problem." Lexa told him. "I need to call Sebastian, then I have to get going." Lexa said, already heading for the tech room.
She grabbed his phone, dialed. Bling had walked away in the direction of the kitchen. She shouldered the phone. "I need a gun, spare clips, and I’ll take a ride to Sebastion’s on the condition that you drop me at Cardiff street and leave."
"Uhm sure." Logan answered, he left, returned with a gun, handed it over with two spare clips. "it’s a throw-away."
"Sebastian, I need to borrow some medical supplies... I’ll be there in a bit, thanks." Lexa explained. "Logan I need to use the web..."
He nodded.
Lexa accessed a website after bouncing around a bit.
She ignored Logan, watching over her shoulder silently, then he took a seat, watching her pull up some screens on genome manipulation and tryptophan deficiency. She did it standing, leaning over to type on the keyboard occasionally.
"Are you accessing GenTech files?" Logan asked nervously.
"No. These are file bases I ‘pushed’ to another site. I copied anything that might be useful, storing them on a secure website. Alot faster and easier than taking it all on disks and I wasn’t sure what I’d need. I’m a little worried about the tryptophan problem, since it interferes with brain chemistry and so does..." She trailed off in case Bling was near.
He watched the screens scroll as she scanned for what she was searching for. "Would you mind if I browsed through this stuff sometime?"
"Sure, but it isn’t in order I haven’t had the dedicated equipment to sort it out into anything resembling order." She paced as the file she requested accessed.
"Are you alright?" Logan asked, watching her. "you can sit down."
"I think better on my feet." She lied. The screen filled, and she leaned over, using the mouse to close a few windows, then frowned as she pulled up a screen.. "How much tryptophan is Max taking?"
"I’ve seen her gulp downs handfuls when the seizures are bad. Why?"
"Looks like some is good, but alot is not necessarily better." She answered. "I looked into some of the problems that the kids from Manticore might have. The lack of sleep is tactically a plus, but not being able to rest means that the brain doesn’t rest. Studies on ‘regular’ humans that weren’t allowed to sleep for long periods showed increasingly violent behavior... lack of sleep, lack of seritonin."
"But the tryptophan supplies the seritonin that her brain can’t produce." Logan said, "it’s the only thing that helps when the seizures- wait are you saying she’s taking too much or not enough?"
"Too much causes irritability, agitation, possibly mood swings, paranoia. Too little causes seizures, slow-down of reflexes and actually the whole body ending in coma, then death.." Lexa answered. "That implant may be producing chemicals which helped the Reds but may be pushing her over the edge. Or... it could be something wrong with her brain chemistry, the seizures could just be the beginning. Or..."
Logan looked from the screen to Lexa. "This could be the start of loss of control. We have to find her."
Lexa sighed, straightening again from her bent position. "Yeah, well finding her isn’t the biggest problem."
Bling spoke quietly from the doorway. "Lexa, you’re bleeding."
She stretched a little examining the spreading stain. "I just hate when that happens."
"Lexa, sit down, please." Logan asked. "You okay? I thought your blood was packed with little- ?"
She straightened carefully. He pulled his chair closer.
"I had to tackle a... client this morning." She said, not fighting Logan as he pulled the cloth from her back, exposing one of the wounds. She winced.
"You can’t take on a healthy Red like this, we need Max." Logan said quietly.
"He’s not healthy, I’ve already worn on him a little. Logan, I have to get going." She said firmly. "I’d rather you try to track down Max-"
"We’ll use the car." Logan informed her.
"Has either of you thought about what you will do when you find her? She’s not exactly herself." Bling pointed out.
She resisted wincing as Bling produced a bandage and a roll of medical tape and didn’t fight it as he patched her up, Logan was watching.
"Drop me at Cardiff, and hang with Sebastian. I’ll follow my lead and if I find it. I’ll call. I’m not suicidal, I’ll wait for you. Come armed." She flexed against the bandage, which would last five seconds in a fight. "I’ll meet you at Sebastian’s if I strike out. You can page if you find her."
"Sounds good." Logan agreed.
Bling’s face told her he wasn’t buying half of the cover story. She mentally shrugged, and put on her jacket hiding the stain.
Bling followed, Logan didn’t argue with him.

She directed him to the general area, as he spoke small talk.
"Very scenic area." He said. "Lexa?"
She came back from her thoughts. "Hmm?"
"I think I’m getting better at... " He trailed off. "I get the feeling something is bothering you. How right am I?"
She smiled. "Right instinct, bad timing. You can drop me anywhere."
"Will I see you again?" He asked bluntly.
"Logan I just don’t know.." She answered, not meeting his eyes. She opened the door, and grabbed her small pack from the back seat.

Times like this, Lexa thought sourly, slipping into shadows as she passed the third block. I really wish I had a real plan. Vasily used to say: Keep to the shadows, we are shadows, shadows don’t bleed. Right he was. Why does it seem things were simpler then? The training was intense, there was always pain, but if you lived it was a good day.
She stopped, keeping in the shadows. The alley to the left was covered with the right graphitti. She smiled sourly, catching sight of a payphone. It would have been more convienient if she hadn’t found one.

Sebastian had watched her fill her pack with the small square kit of syringes, vials, and stoppers. Somehow he hadn’t noticed she’d left something behind.
Bling had, he’d almost sat on it.
A small tape recorder.
He placed it on the desk.
"That is not mine." Sebastian said.
He and Logan’s eyes met.
Logan picked it up. "There’s a tape in it."
"Play it." Sebastion prompted.
"Logan, Sebastian. I’d imagine you’re both gonna be pretty pissed. Sorry I didn’t see a choice, and I’m pretty good at chess, well I used to be. I can get the blood but I had to tell you what to do with it. My nanobots are the key... I hope. If they destroy the ones from the Red’s blood, we’ll be in business. Mix my blood with theirs. I left a couple pints of mine, just in case. In the freezer, key is under your keyboard, Logan. If it works, give Max some, keep checking her blood-you’ll have to knock her out. I’m pretty certain you won’t need to operate, once the nanobots die... my theory is, they built the stuff in her head-it didn’t all come from the implant... maybe mine will do the ‘defend organic tissue’ hat trick and take it apart. If they don’t... you could always try freezing Max, it’ll slow them down. That’s all I know. Be careful. Max if you’re listening... well, luck to you."
Logan pressed the stop button. "She never intended to come out of this in one piece."
"We need her. Her nanobots do not survive long outside of her body." Sebastian intoned.
Bling stood up. "Let’s just go find her."

The shadows ended up ahead.
She heard voices, just two, but if they were both Reds she was screwed already. One she might be lucky enough to dazzle with bullshit, two... two and she would be a smear of color over the lovely graphitti.
Here, squid, here, nice lil silver brain-sucking squid. She shook her head. I’m losing it. Get a grip. All you have to do is stick him with a syringe the size of a small harpoon, he’ll never notice.
She rounded the corner, dropped behind the metal dumpster and got a good view.
Her eyes did their magick. One snake-head-Spooky, one normal.
I could take the normal out now, one shot...
The dumpster rolled past her.
Her eyes adjusted to the close up. A Big, gorllia with bleeding eyes was standing in front of her blocking the view. It was Spooky, and the throat wound had probly killed him.
Reflexes took over, which was good because her gun had gone sailing out of her hand. She rolled, came up to see a fire escape above and lept for it. Spooky was just behind her, he took the ladder full in the face. She climbed, thinking fast. Halfway there she jumped making the roof in half the time of the Red behind her. She reached down grabbed the iron rail called the electricity and as her hair rose up she surged.
His hands stuck to the railing, his feet to the steps. His hair flamed, his eyes cooked, his clothing burst into flames.
During the agony of the surge she caught sight of the fresher Red, whom she dubbed Spooky, looking up.
She let go. The fire escape was hot, the breeze wafted up the smell of cooked meet. She turned, searched, and ran. It’s hard to hide in shadow when you have bright red frizzy hair.
She ducked behind a wall, and reached down, into her body looking through her genetic bag of tricks. She knew she had it when her skin color mottled, the hair on her arms standing up. Her hair faded into greens and grays... It was good, but up close he would see her.
Natural camo was one of her genetic bonuses.
She smelled him on the wind. Very close. Not close enough. She risked the noise of the zipper, withdrew the syringe, pulled off the plastic lid. In the pack were severals vials she could fill if he would just lay there and let her find a vein.
Yeah right.
She stood, took a step. His back was towards her, there might never be a better chance.
Shadows make no sound. She gathered her muscles, and lept.

Logan played the video tape back, again. The graphitti was every color of the rainbow, but in the dark it would be hard to find. He noticed a large red bird on the wall, good enough. He drove, from Cardiff down several streets, back. From Cardiff, further down.
"Wait." Bling said suddenly, "back up."
Logan put it in reverse.
It was the right wall, behind them, they hadn’t seen it.
Logan squinted. "What’s that?"
Dark shape on the fire escape, upside down.
"It’s a body." Bling said quietly.