4.03.04

[virtualda]

Act III

EPISODE 4.03 - DOUBLE TAKE Written by Dark NTernal, MrAndyPuppy, Shywr1ter and Zanna

ACT IV

Hotel Hallway – 9:56 PM

Logan looked down at his jacket, bunched up in Zack’s hand, and then looked up and glared at him. “Let go of me, please.”

Zack paused for a moment, as if giving it some thought. Then he released the jacket and stepped back. “What are you doing here, Logan?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Logan shot back.

Lydecker stepped between them. “Break it up, you two. I suggest that we continue this discussion someplace more private.”

Zack glanced at them both and then nodded. “Back in here.” He started walking toward the door from which he and Lydecker had just exited.

As Logan followed Zack and Lydecker, he heard Max in his ear. “Logan, what’s going on?”

“Ran into some old friends; Zack and Lydecker,” he answered quietly.

“Yeah, I heard, but what’re they doing here?” she asked impatiently.

“Don’t know,” he replied, “but I’m going to find out. Keep listening.”

He looked around as they entered the room. It appeared to be an unused conference room. One long table occupied the middle of the room, while stacks of neatly piled chairs lined up against one wall.

Lydecker turned to Logan with a smirk. “Now, I believe we asked first.”

Logan gave him a wary look. “Can I assume you’ll reciprocate?”

“Of course.”

“Okay, here’s the Cliffs Notes version. I got word from an informant that the CDC lost some of its computer equipment. Seems a former employee decided to go into business for himself. He was arrested, but not before several items ended up on the black market. One of the items is a hard drive that used to have Max’s CDC file on it. The file was deleted, but anyone who has the hard drive could reconstruct it, if they have the right resources. And that would mean exposure for Max. I traced the hard drive to this auction, and Max and I took on the identities of two of the bidders to infiltrate the auction and retrieve the hard drive before it goes on the auction block, which could be any minute now.”

Zack and Lydecker looked at each other. “What did you do with the real bidders?” Zack asked.

“I had my people grab them at the airport and take them to one of my safe houses. We had them locked up and sedated,” Logan answered.

“What do you mean, ‘had’?” Lydecker asked.

Logan ran his hand through his hair in annoyance and embarrassment. “Yeah…they somehow got away from my people. They’re here in the hotel somewhere.”

Zack snorted with derision. Logan glared at him and continued, “I’ve already spotted the woman that Max is supposed to be impersonating. I haven’t seen my guy yet, but I have to assume that if she’s here, so is he.”

“And he would be Gregor Jupkin,” Lydecker supplied.

Logan looked up, startled. “Yes, how did you know?”

Lydecker and Zack again looked at each other. Logan looked suspiciously at both of them. “Okay, I think I’ve answered enough of your questions. How about you start answering some of mine? What are you doing here?”

Now it was Lydecker’s turn to look annoyed. “Not long after Manticore was destroyed, I bluffed my way into White’s base camp and liberated from him a briefcase that used to belong to the late but unlamented Elizabeth Renfro. The briefcase had two diskettes that she had downloaded all of Manticore’s R & D onto, and a DNA workup on Max. When I was supposedly killed, that briefcase and everything in it disappeared. I’ve been trying to find the contents ever since. The DNA workup is still missing, but just last week I managed to track the whereabouts of the diskettes. They had somehow fallen into the hands of the Russian Mafia, and the rumor was that they were going to be sold to a private buyer at this auction. Our plan was to intercept the seller, a Mr. Gregor Jupkin, at the airport, but he didn’t show up.”

“How did you manage to get him past us?” Zack asked. “We had people at all the airport exits.”

A ghost of a smug smile played at the corners of Logan’s lips. “But I’m guessing you didn’t have anybody on the airport staff. My people grabbed him almost as soon as he got off the plane.”

“I’ll have to remember that,” Lydecker said grudgingly. He then continued, “I got word from my agent at the hotel that he had arrived here. Only it wasn’t him, it was you.”

“The plan was for me to take his place, and for Max to take the place of the North Korean representative, just long enough for us to retrieve the CDC hard drive,” Logan explained. “Once we had it, we were going to trade places with them again and call in the police to shut the auction down. But now that they’re here, we have to be on the lookout for them, and still get the hard drive before it goes up for auction.”

“Our main objective is Jupkin,” Zack interjected. “He has the diskettes, all the R & D that Manticore put into all of us, including Max.”

Logan shook his head. “The CDC hard drive is just as much of an exposure risk for her.”

Lydecker interrupted both of them. “It would seem that we have multiple objectives now, and time is of the essence. I suggest that we work together.”

Neither Zack nor Logan looked too happy at the thought of working together, but they finally both agreed.

“By the way,” Logan asked, “who’s your agent in the hotel?”

“The desk clerk, of course,” Lydecker answered with a smirk.

Shaking his head, Logan spoke into his microphone. “Max, did you get all of that?”

Outside Wall of Hotel

“Yeah, I got it all. I’m heading back inside now,” Max said as she crept along the ledge, occasionally wiping the sweat off her brow and neck, and nervously wiping her hand against her pant leg. She had unbuttoned the top few buttons of her blouse, but even the cool night air seemed to be doing little to soothe her feverish skin.

When she reached the window, she quickly ducked in, crossed the room to the door and slipped back into the hallway. She had gone to the end of the hallway and was peering around the corner when she heard someone stepping out of a room behind her. She straightened and took a casual step forward, as if she were simply another guest strolling down the hallway. But then she heard the safety clicking off on a gun and a woman’s voice.

“Turn around and keep your hands where I can see them.”

Terese Lionne came into view as Max slowly turned around. She had Marc’s gun and was pointing it at Max’s chest. For a moment she looked into Max’s face, her head cocked in amusement. “Wow, he wasn’t kidding about your lips,” she observed, but then her expression became flinty. “I believe that’s my identity you’re wearing.”

“Well, you can have it back as soon as I’m done with it,” Max quipped.

“You’re done with it now.” Lionne flicked the barrel of the gun toward the adjacent hallway. “Let’s go back to the auditorium, shall we? I’m sure the other bidders will be most interested in finding out who you and your partner really are.”

Max obediently turned and took a step forward, but then suddenly whipped back around and, in a blur of speed, kicked the gun out of Lionne’s hand. The gun sailed through the air. Max caught it neatly, quickly unloaded the clip and tossed both it and the gun behind her.

“Didn’t your mother ever tell you that a lady doesn’t point guns at people?” Max asked coolly.

For a moment, Lionne seemed stunned to find herself disarmed so quickly, but then she recovered and dropped into a fighting stance. “That’s all right, I don’t need a gun to take care of you,” she hissed. For a moment they circled each other. “Do you have any idea what it was like being locked up with that lunatic?” Lionne spat. “I’m going to enjoy taking you out.” She aimed a punch at Max’s head, which Max easily sidestepped. Another punch aimed at her throat was just as easily avoided. Lionne then stepped back and whirled into a roundhouse kick. Max neatly caught her foot and, with a flick of her wrists, sent her sprawling on the floor.

“Are you sure about not needing that gun?” Max asked tauntingly. “Maybe I should let you have it back, ’cause you’re not doing so hot without it.”

With a snarl, Lionne leaped up and lunged at Max, her hands outstretched like claws. Max again sidestepped her, grabbed her by the collar as she passed, whipped her around and smashed her against a wall. Lionne slid down the wall and crumpled in a heap on the floor.

Max looked down at the unconscious woman. “I guess your mother never told you that a lady doesn’t lose her temper, either,” Max commented.

Unused Hotel Conference Room

“Max? What’s happening? I heard a struggle…” Logan spoke anxiously into his lapel.

“Terese Lionne won’t be bothering us for a while.”

“Logan, what’s her status?” Zack asked as he moved forward toward Logan.

“She crossed paths with Lionne, and took her out,” Logan said.

Zack spoke into Logan’s lapel. “Where are you, Max?”

Logan listened to her voice in his ear, and relayed her answer. “She says she’s in the corridor marked 315 – 325.”

“I’ll go meet up with her, and help her retrieve the hard drive,” Zack said as he walked away.

Lydecker turned toward Logan. “That leaves us to go after Jupkin and the diskettes.”

Logan nodded in agreement.

Hotel Auditorium

The auctioneer stalled for a few moments, keeping his eyes on the people in front of him for another bid. He called out to the audience, “I have a bid of 600 from Number Ten on lot 50. Do I have 650?” His eyes looked around the room. “Will anyone give me $650,000?”

A woman wearing a gray suit raised her paddle. Seeing her, the auctioneer motioned his gavel toward her with a smile. “Six hundred fifty to Number Seven. Do I hear anyone else? Anyone for 700?”

While he waited for several of the bidders to finish conferring with their employers on cell phones, he gave a signal to his assistants to bring the next item.

As three of his men left the room, another bidder increased the bid by raising his paddle. Quickly, the auctioneer responded, “Thank you. That’s 700. Do I hear a 750? This is a valuable item, ladies and gentlemen…”

Hotel Hallway

Zack quickly walked down several corridors, looking at the numbers on the doors and the signs on the walls at each intersection. He found the corridor that was marked with the numbers Logan had given him, and turned down it just in time to spot Max dragging the unconscious Terese Lionne into a storeroom. By the time he entered the room, Max had already found a laundry bin tucked into a corner, and was hoisting Lionne’s limp form over the rim.

“I thought you might need a hand getting the hard drive,” Zack commented as he walked up to her.

Max looked at him and smiled as Lionne landed in the bottom of the bin with a thump. “I’m always willing to accept a helping hand from a brother.” Her eyes began to drift downward, taking in his body. She forced herself to look up at his face. “I know where the hard drive is and I can get it out through the window, but there’s a guard inside the room. I could use a distraction to draw him out.”

“There’s no time for that,” Zack disagreed. “The hard drive is going up on the auction block any minute now.”

“Then I guess we’re just going to have to go in through the front door,” Max said. “I was getting tired of crawling around on ledges, anyway.”

As they left the storeroom, Max found herself lagging behind and admiring Zack’s ass, until he turned around. “C’mon, Max, which way do we go?”

“Right…it’s this way,” she said as she walked past him, and resolutely did not look back.

They quickly went down several corridors and stopped just before rounding the last corner. Max gestured at Zack with several hand signals, indicating how many guards there were and what her plan was. He nodded. She mussed up her hair, pulling several strands out of the ponytail, and undid a few more buttons on her blouse. She then stepped around the corner and sauntered toward the guards, weaving back and forth slightly.

One of the guards immediately stepped forward and blocked her way. “I’m sorry, miss, but I’m going to have to ask you to turn around. This area is closed off.” He then took a closer look at her. “Hey, weren’t you here earlier looking for the ladies’ room?”

Max ran admiring eyes down the length of his muscular body. “Yeah, but I’m not looking for the ladies’ room now. I’m looking for a party. Do you know where I can find one?” she asked suggestively. She stumbled and fell against him. “Mmmmm,” she murmured as she ran her hands up his chest. “I want some of this.”

The guard tried to push her away. “I’m sorry, miss, but I’m on duty and I think you’ve had too much to drink. You’re going to have to leave now.”

“You’re no fun,” Max pouted, but then she gave him a predatory look. “I bet I can change your mind.” She grabbed a hold of his head and pulled him in for a kiss, pressing her body against his.

The other guards behind him began to whistle and cheer him on. “Way to go, Dave! Give her a good one for us!” At first he struggled with Max, still trying to push her away, but then he pulled her closer, running his hands over her body.

Suddenly, she sagged in his arms, her head lolling back. He caught her under the arms and muttered under his breath in disgust, “Why do they always pass out just as things are getting good?” He tried to lift her up, but she was completely limp and was starting to slip out of his grip. “Somebody give me a hand here!” he called to the others.

The guard inside the merchandise room came out. “What’s going on out here?”

“Some stupid broad got drunk and came here looking for a party,” Dave answered as he struggled with Max’s sagging body. “Now she’s passed out. Grab hold of her legs, will you, Marty? We’ll get her into one of the rooms and dump her on the bed.”

“And then what?” Marty asked as he went over to Max’s legs and hoisted them up.

The two of them began carrying her to the nearest room. “She said she wanted a party. Who said she had to be awake for it?” Dave answered with a grin.

Marty shot Dave a look of contempt. “That’s sick, Dave. I think we should just leave her on the bed and let her sleep it off.”

One of the other guards joined them. “I think we should report this to security.”

“We are security, Jack,” a fourth guard quipped.

Jack gave him a withering glare. “Hotel security, not us, you idiot. We just work for Timms.”

Yet another guard joined them and glanced down worriedly at Max. “She could be sick. Maybe we should call for some medical help.”

Marty looked up in annoyance as he adjusted his grip on Max’s legs. “For cryin’ out loud, she’s only drunk.”

Half of the ten men in the hallway now surrounded Max, all of them arguing about what to do with her. The other half remained at their posts, but were distracted by what was happening with Max. It was at that moment that Zack came around the corner in a blur of speed and attacked them. Two of them he grabbed by the collars, and smashed their heads against the nearest wall. A third tried to punch him, but he neatly caught the man’s fist in his hand and brought his elbow down on his arm, breaking it. The man fell to the floor, screaming in pain, a scream that abruptly ended when Zack knocked him out with a punch.

It was then that Max stiffened and kicked out, striking Marty in the head. She then grabbed Dave’s lapels and flipped backward over his head, yanking him down as she landed and smashing his head against the floor. While she was still crouched down, she swung out her right leg and swept another guard off his feet. He landed on his back with the breath knocked out of him. Before he could recover, she elbowed him in the face.

There were now only four guards left standing, but the element of surprise was now gone and they were starting to draw their weapons. With one kick, Zack disarmed one of them. Another kick to the stomach sent the man crashing into the wall, where he slid down and fell in a crumpled heap on the floor. Another guard took aim at Max. She leapt up from her crouch, grabbed him by the hand and wrenched the gun out of his grip. She then twisted his arm behind his back and held him in front of her, so that he was between her and the remaining guards. One of them raised his weapon at her, but found his aim blocked by the man she was holding in front of her like a shield.

“Careful,” Max taunted, “you wouldn’t want to shoot your friend here. It’d be a shame to waste such a fine ass.”

The last guard began shooting at Zack, who easily avoided the shots as he ran in a blur of speed toward him. In the blink of an eye, Zack had him by the throat with one hand, while he disarmed him with the other.

At that moment, the three men that the auctioneer had sent for the hard drive came around the corner. Having heard the sounds of fighting, they already had their weapons drawn.

“Max!” Zack yelled.

One of the newcomers had his gun pointed at Max. She turned her head to look, just in time to see him pull the trigger.

Another Hallway

As Logan and Lydecker came to an intersection in the hallways, Lydecker said, “We’ll cover more ground if we split up,” and walked away in one direction without waiting for Logan to agree.

“Right,” Logan muttered to Lydecker’s retreating back, and turned and walked away in the opposite direction.

As he rounded the corner at the end of the hallway, he bumped into a man coming in the other direction. “I’m sorry,” they both said. Then the man looked down at Logan’s shoes. When he looked up, there was barely contained fury in his eyes. Logan had just a split second to recognize Gregor Jupkin before Jupkin’s fist came up and smashed him in the jaw.

“That’s for locking me up with that ice queen!” Jupkin snarled.

Logan staggered backward, and then Jupkin had him up by the lapels. Logan glared at him. “That’s the second time today that someone’s wrinkled my suit. I’m getting kinda tired of it.”

“Not half as tired as I was listening to that bitch whine,” Jupkin spat. He spun Logan around and pushed him back the way he had come. “We’re going to find someplace private where we can have a nice long chat about what you hoped to gain by taking my place.

Logan glanced back at Jupkin. “And if I’m not in the mood to talk?” he asked apprehensively.

Jupkin nudged the back of Logan’s head with the gun and said, “Oh, I think you’ll find me a most engrossing conversationalist.” He gave Logan a shove. “Keep walking and keep your hands where I can see them,” he ordered. As Logan walked ahead of him with his hands held up, Jupkin looked down curiously. “By the way, what is that contraption you’re wearing?” he asked.

Logan hesitated a moment, and then answered warily, “The contraption is called an exoskeleton.”

“Really? What does it do? Be honest now.” Jupkin’s voice was casual, but had an edge of menace to it.

Reluctantly, Logan answered, “It enhances speed and strength in the legs.”

“Interesting.” Jupkin continued conversationally. “When our chat is over, I think I’ll take it off your hands, or perhaps I should say legs. I’m afraid you won’t be needing it after I’m done with you,” he said with mock regret.

Logan stopped walking and glanced back sharply at Jupkin. “I wouldn’t recommend taking it,” he warned. “It can be somewhat temperamental.”

“Oh, I have no interest in using it, my friend,” Jupkin sneered. “It’s worth much more to take it apart and see what makes it tick. I have a room full of very clever men who would love to reverse-engineer it.” When he noticed that Logan had stopped walking, he gave him another shove forward, harder this time. “I said keep moving!” he ordered.

Logan took a few steps forward, but then his right leg began to twitch, and he stumbled and fell to his knees.

“What’s wrong?” Jupkin asked suspiciously.

“It’s the exoskeleton,” Logan grimaced. “I told you it’s temperamental. It’s always shorting out on me.”

“Get up!” Jupkin demanded.

“I can’t,” Logan protested. “I’m a paraplegic. Without the exoskeleton, I can’t stand or walk.”

“You expect me to believe that?” Jupkin asked derisively.

“Look, I’m telling you the truth.” Logan’s leg began to shake again and he fell forward onto his hands. “I was shot in the back three years ago. You can look at the scars on my back if you don’t believe me.”

Jupkin grabbed a handful of the back of Logan’s jacket and shirt and jerked it upward, revealing the scars on his back.

“Oh, for the love of…” Jupkin muttered in frustration. He hooked his hands under Logan’s arms and started to hoist him up, the gun still in his right hand. Logan grabbed hold of the gun, and soon they were both rolling on the floor, struggling for possession of it. Logan was on top first and managed to smash Jupkin’s hand against the floor several times until he dropped the gun. Then Jupkin rolled both of them until he was on top and started smashing Logan’s head against the floor. Logan then somehow managed to tuck his legs up between them and gave Jupkin a tremendous shove in the gut with his feet, sending him flying down the hallway. The gun was just a few feet to the right of Logan’s head and he lunged for it. They both got up off the floor, Jupkin looking warily at Logan, who was now pointing the gun at him.

“So you lied about being paralyzed?” Jupkin accused.

“Oh, I was telling you the truth about that,” Logan answered. “But I may have exaggerated a little about how temperamental the exoskeleton is.”

Suddenly, there was the sound of a gun being fired with a silencer, and Jupkin crumpled to the floor. Lydecker stepped around the corner, tucking his gun back into its holster.

“You didn’t have to kill him,” Logan protested. “I had the situation under control.”

Lydecker stooped over Jupkin’s body and began searching through his pockets. “I’m sure you did,” he said condescendingly, “and I’m sure you would have eventually found a nice place to tie up and gag our friend here, but we don’t have time for niceties.” He pulled a diskette wallet out of Jupkin’s inner jacket pocket and held it up. “Ah, I believe this is what we’re looking for.” He looked up at Logan. “Now we can stand around and debate my methods, but I believe we still have a CDC hard drive to retrieve.”

Logan glared at him. “Fine, but one of these days we’re going to have another talk about what I think of your methods.” He stalked off angrily down the hall.

Lydecker got up and started to put the diskette wallet in his pocket, but then he paused and opened it. The wallet had four sleeves. Two of them held diskettes labeled Manticore Project Data Files. The other two were empty, but impressions left in the soft plastic indicated that they had recently been occupied. For a moment he looked worriedly at the empty sleeves, but then he closed the wallet, tucked it into his pocket and followed Logan down the hallway.

Previous Hallway

Zack twisted the neck of the man he was holding, breaking it with a sickening crack, and tossed the body at the men the auctioneer had sent to get the hard drive. The men dodged the body that came flying at them, but the man who was shooting at Max lost his aim, and the bullet went high into the ceiling.

Max rushed at the last of the original guards, pushing the man she was holding ahead of her, and cracked their heads together. Before they even had time to fall to the floor, she turned and was running up against the wall toward the newcomers. They barely had time to be amazed at the feat when she whipped around behind them in midair and knocked one of them out with a solid kick to the head.

Zack rushed at the last two men, leapt into the air and jackknifed his legs forward, smashing his feet into the chests of both. He and Max both landed on their feet in a crouch. As they got up, they surveyed the damage around them. All of the guards were either unconscious or dead.

Max flashed Zack an exhilarated grin. “Now that’s what I call coming in through the front door.”

Zack rolled his eyes up, a smile playing at the corners of his lips. “C’mon, let’s get this hard drive of yours.” As he strode toward her, his jacket gapped open, revealing the butt of his gun in its shoulder holster.

Max looked at it with a raised eyebrow. “You had your gun the whole time and you didn’t use it?”

“Are you kidding?” It was now Zack’s turn to grin, and Max felt her pulse speeding up as she watched him. “Up ’til now this mission’s been nothing but recon. This is the most fun I’ve had all week.”

As he passed by her on his way into the merchandise room, she caught his scent, a scent that was unmistakably male. With his back turned to her, he didn’t see her hand unconsciously reaching for him as she followed him into the room. He looked around at the remaining merchandise lined up on the tables, and saw that there was more than one hard drive. “Which one is it, Max?”

Suddenly, Max grabbed him from behind, spun him around and pulled him into a crushing kiss. His eyes widened in shock as he struggled to push her away. When he finally managed to get her at arm’s length, his nostrils flared as he breathed in her scent.

“Max, you’re in heat!”

“No kidding!” she practically growled as she reached for him again.

“Max, we can’t…not now! Fight it!” She managed to grab hold of his jacket and started pulling herself closer to him. He was shaking his head and blinking, as if disoriented.

“I don’t want to fight it,” she purred. He had stopped pushing her away and she was now pressing herself against him, licking his neck. “I want to…I need to…please…” There was desperation in her voice.

She licked her way along his jaw line to his mouth and kissed him again. For a moment, he continued to struggle weakly against her, but then he relaxed and opened his mouth for her, his hands coming up her back as he pulled her closer. She began moving them toward a table while she tugged at his clothes. They bumped into the table and fell across it, knocking the computer components that were carefully laid out on it onto the floor. The ensuing loud crash seemed to bring Zack to his senses. He sat up. “Max, wait! What about Logan?”

She had managed to get his jacket off and was now trying to tug his T-shirt up. She hesitated a moment at the mention of Logan’s name, but then continued trying to undress Zack, not looking up at his face.

Zack saw the hesitation and seemed to come to a decision. “Max, stop. Look at me.” Her hands stopped, but she didn’t look up at him. He brought his hands up to her face and forced her head up. “Look at me!” When her eyes finally came up to meet his, he could see the anguish in them. “Is this really what you want?” he asked.

Slowly, she shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, a tear slid down her cheek.

He gently wiped the tear away. “Don’t be.”

At that moment, Logan came rushing into the room with Lydecker behind him. “Max, we have the disk…” He stopped in his tracks as he saw the two of them holding each other and Zack’s state of partial undress.

“Logan!” Max’s voice came out in almost a squeak of panic. “It’s not what it looks like…nothing happened…we didn’t…I didn’t…” She stuttered to a halt and just looked at him, pleading for understanding with her eyes.

For a moment, Logan just stood there and glared at both of them, his jaw clenching and unclenching. Finally he took a deep breath. “Grab the hard drive,” he ordered tersely, “and let’s get out of here.” He turned and walked out the door.

Max quickly found the right hard drive, while Zack pulled his jacket back on. They followed Logan and Lydecker out of the room, down the hallway and into the nearest stairwell. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they found an exterior door. Lydecker took the lead and cautiously opened the door to peer out, his gun at the ready. “It’s clear,” he reported with relief. “Our van is just around the corner,” he said over his shoulder as he walked out. “This way.”

As they followed him down the back alleyway, Logan pulled out his cell phone and speed-dialed a number. “Matt,” he spoke into it, “we’re out. It’s a go.” They found the van, piled into it and sped away.

Seattle Street

Max sat in the front passenger seat of the van, hands firmly tucked under her thighs. She kept her eyes resolutely looking out the front windshield, trying to ignore the fact that it was beginning to fog up.

Lydecker cast a sidelong glance at her and laughed softly. She glared at him and snapped, “This isn’t funny!”

At the back of the van, Logan and Zack looked at each other. “You know nothing happened, right?” Zack asked quietly.

Logan nodded once, but Zack continued, “The heat was riding her pretty hard, but she got it under control.”

Logan nodded again, and looked over at Max, trembling on the seat in front of him. “I know,” he said softly.

Logan’s Apartment Building, Garage

Lydecker drove the van into the garage and parked it by the elevators. Max, Logan and Zack climbed out. As Logan reached back inside to lift out the hard drive, Lydecker looked back at him and asked, “Are you sure I can’t convince you that it would be safer with me?”

Logan tucked the hard drive under his arm, closed the van door and walked over to the driver-side door. “Nice try, Lydecker, but we need to find out what’s been done to it, and I’m better equipped to figure that out.” He walked around the van to where Max stood.

“Can you give me a minute?” she asked him.

He gave her an understanding look. “Sure. I’ll be waiting by the elevators.”

Max turned to Zack. “Thanks for…you know…not taking advantage back there. You could have, you know.”

Zack gently brushed some of her hair away from her face. “I’ll always care about you, Max, but you love Logan. I know that now; I accept that. You would have hated yourself if something happened, and I couldn’t live with that.” He stepped back and climbed into the front passenger seat. Lydecker put the van into gear and turned it around.

“Take care, bro!” she called out to him as they drove off. A smile and a wave were the only indications that he heard her as the van exited the garage.

Max then turned and walked toward the elevators, where Logan was waiting for her. He was pressing the up button as she came up beside him. For a moment, she shifted her weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other. “Um, Logan, what you saw back there, it was just the heat. You know that, don’t you?”

“It’s okay, Max. Zack told me what happened, or rather what didn’t ha – ”

“But it almost did,” she interrupted him. “You don’t understand. If Zack hadn’t stopped me, you would have walked in on us doing the dirty.” She looked at the floor, the wall, the ceiling, anywhere except him.

He coughed and, after several uncomfortable moments, asked, “So, how did he stop you?”

She sighed. “He asked me if it was what I really wanted, and I said no, but it was so hard. You’ve no idea how hard.”

He turned and grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to look at him. “Max, you still made a choice. You didn’t just let the heat control you. Life’s too short to beat yourself up over the things that almost happen. Just accept the way things played out and move on.”

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “So says the king of guilt. Have you ever tried taking your own advice?”

“Well, uh…”

A soft ding signaled the arrival of the elevator. Logan looked up with relief as the elevator doors opened. They both stepped inside. He barely had time to press the button for the penthouse when Max suddenly pushed him up against a wall.

She grinned at him wickedly. “If I’m not going to beat myself up with guilt, then I think you owe me a quickie.”

He gave her an answering grin. “Max, I’m beginning to think that small, enclosed spaces turn you on.”

“Stop talking, Logan.”

She leaned into him and they kissed. As the kiss deepened, his hand slid up her back, pulling her closer to him. The elevator stopped and the door slid open, but they were both too oblivious to notice.

END OF ACT IV


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