Prophecy -- Chapter 18

Disclaimer:  The TV shows Dark Angel and Supernatural, all of the characters that appeared on them, and everything else that has to do with the shows belong to their respective owners, not to me.  No money is being made off of this fic.  I only own the original characters (Dylan/X6-175, etc.).

“Hey, Max,” Alec said cheerfully the following night as he caught up to her on his way into the control room.  “Looking forward to whatever Logie’s got to yap about?”

Max rolled her eyes.  “I might not be too happy with the man at the moment, but I still don’t like that nickname you’ve got for him.  It’s annoying.  But to answer your question, I’m not looking forward to it all that much.  I’m just happy that it won’t be only me taking his vid call.”  She glanced around the hallway.  “Is Dylan going to be there, too?”

“Yeah, Dylan will be there,” Alec confirmed.  “He should be on his way over now.  He spent most of the day with Audrey when he wasn’t on duty somewhere.”

“Oh?” Max said curiously.  “Audrey never mentioned that she was going to be hangin’ with Dylan today.”

“They’re adults, Max,” Alec reminded her.  “Technically barely, in Dylan’s case, but they’re still grown ups.  Neither of them absolutely have to let us know what they’re doing every single second of the day.  And yes, I know what you’re thinking and as far as I know, Dylan hasn’t made any kinds of moves like that.  Not because of any lack of desire, but more of a sense of being a gentleman.  And maybe a little fear mixed in.”

“Okay,” Max said.  She turned her head and smiled.  “Speaking of the devils…”

“What were you talking about?” Audrey asked suspiciously.  She looked over at Dylan.  “You’re the one with the better hearing.  Did you catch anything?”

Dylan shook his head.  “I’m sorry, Audrey.  It’s pretty noisy around here.  I couldn’t hear all of the details clearly, just our names and maybe one or two other words.”  He shrugged and smiled innocently.  “I’m sure that Alec and Max will be more than happy to fill us in on what they were talking about, won’t you guys?”

“Sure…when hell freezes over,” Alec said, grinning.  He laughed when Dylan stuck out his tongue.  “Charming, Dylan.  Real charming.”

“Boys, behave,” Audrey told them.  “Holy crap, I feel like the homeroom teacher I had for eighth grade.  I spent that entire year in this shitty group home in Pittsburgh and they would ship us off to school when it was in session.  My homeroom teacher was this huge woman.  I still think that she could and would have made some of the trainers back in Wyoming run screaming for the hills.  Then again, most of the other kids in homeroom with me really made that lady earn her salary, know what I mean?  She was always trying to keep them in line.”

“You would have loved the woman that taught some of the languages back in Seattle,” Dylan commented.  “She was a civilian, but she was actually the sister of one of the trainers.  Professor Marks was the most uptight person you’ll ever meet, not to mention one of the ugliest.”

“Kind of like Max’s and my old boss Normal, except without the decency,” Alec added.  “I don’t think she’d ever been laid in her life.”

Max slapped Alec across the back of his head.  “Could you act mature for once in your existence?”

“Thank you very much, Maxie,” Alec said.  “Nothing quite makes my day like you hitting me.”

“You’re welcome,” Max said sarcastically.  “We’re here.”  She glanced at her watch.  “With a minute to spare.”

“But since Logan can be as anal retentive as ol’ Professor Marks sometimes, he’ll have been waiting by his computer for the past fifteen minutes at least,” Alec whispered to Dylan and Audrey, who both snickered.  Alec gave Max an innocent look.  “I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.”

“Sadly, yes,” Max conceded.

“Sadly for who?” Dylan wondered.

“Logan more so than Alec,” Max replied.  “Hands down.”  They walked behind Dix’s computer terminal and waited until the transhuman had typed the commands that started the video link.  Sure enough, Logan was already seated and waiting for them on the other end.  “Logan.  What’s up?”

“I just heard from one of my contacts,” Logan told her.  “He came across evidence of embezzlement of government funds.  Ordinarily, that wouldn’t have a direct impact on you guys, except that he also found proof that these funds were being funneled towards possible anti-transgenic projects, ones that the government does not know about.”

“But that White and company might know plenty about,” Alec guessed.

“Possibly,” Logan agreed.  “He wants me to meet him out in Novelty late tomorrow morning.”

“Novelty?” Mole repeated.  “Where and what is that?”

“In this case, a town east of here,” Max said.  “It’s kind of middle-of-nowhere from the maps that I’ve read.”  Alec and Dylan exchanged worried looks, though nobody seemed to notice.  “What kind of evidence are we looking at, Logan?  Disks, printouts, photographs?”

“Eyes—I mean, I was told that it was mostly on disks, no printouts, but some photographs,” Logan informed her.

“Nice to hear that Logan’s starting to learn how not to refer to himself in the third person,” Mole growled.  Max shot him a dirty look and he shrugged.  “I just call them like I see them, Princess.”

“Did Mole just say something?” Logan wondered.

“Nothing that bears on this conversation,” Max said.  “Sounds like the dirt that your contact scored is pretty major.”  The X5 paused.  “We’ll send a couple of our people to go with you when you pick it up.  I don’t want to take chances.  Sound okay to you, Logan?”

“Yeah, sure.  That sounds fine,” Logan agreed.

“I’ll go,” Alec spoke up.  He looked over at Dylan.  “Dylan, you want to come with?”

“Sure,” Dylan said gratefully.  “Count me in.”

“Then that’s settled,” Max declared.  “You two stay on the line with Logan and work out the details.”

“Actually, Max, I need to get going,” Logan apologized.  “I’m supposed to take a video call with another one of my contacts in five minutes.  I’ll definitely be free around seven tonight.”

No, Logan, Max won’t be joining you for dinner tonight, Alec thought.  The guy’s about as subtle as a wrecking ball.  Hmm, I wonder if he actually has a contact to talk to in a few or if he’s not in the mood to put up with me for a couple of minutes while we iron out details about tomorrow.

“Good to know and I hope you enjoy that dinner by yourself,” Max said sweetly, causing Alec to cheer silently.  “Make sure that you’ve got your secure cell handy so that Alec and Dylan can contact you.  If they’re not able to reach you by eight, then your ass is on your own.  Is that all right?”

“That works,” Logan told her, though the transgenics could see, even through the webcam connection, the human grinding his teeth in frustration.  “I’ll be talking with them then.  Until next time.”  The connection cut off.

“Peace.  Out,” Alec mocked, getting snickers from Dylan, Mole, and a few others.

“Very funny, Alec,” Max said.

“Actually, it was,” Alec remarked.  “Thanks for noticing, Max.”

Max sighed and shook her head, but she was clearly resisting the urge to smile.  “Yeah, whatever.  Okay, you and Dylan start putting a plan together that you can fill Logan in on later.  I’ve got a shift on vehicle maintenance.  It wouldn’t be so bad if Wade wasn’t scheduled there with me.  Sometimes I don’t know what I’m going to do with that guy.”

“Well, he can’t complain about you being too high-and-mighty about doing grunt work,” Alec said helpfully.  He gave Dylan an ‘I’ll catch up with you later’ gesture and followed Max as she left the control room.  “Just relax, Max.  You’ve put up with Wade and his crap for weeks now and you haven’t cracked yet.  You can do it for the long haul.  I know you can.”

“Thanks, Alec.”  Max smiled and got a grin from Alec in return.  “And thanks for volunteering to baby sit Logan when he meets his contact tomorrow.”

“No problem,” Alec said.  “I’ve done this kind of thing once or twice before on missions and I know and trust Dylan to pull it off with me.”  Not to mention that we’ve potentially got a heads up on White showing his selectively inbred head where it isn’t wanted.  As good as that can be, I’d still rather this didn’t happen to Dylan.  These weird nightmares are freaking him out.  I wonder how much more the kid’s gonna take.  And what if it actually comes true 100 percent?  Dylan took it hard when we didn’t get there in time to save Coop a couple of days ago.  I just want—

“Alec?  Earth to King Smart Ass.”

“Sorry, Max,” Alec apologized.  “I was just thinking about tomorrow.”  Sort of.  What would Max think if I told her about Dylan?

“Oh.”  Max shrugged and stretched her arms out.  “I should get going over to the main garage.  Wish me luck putting up with Wade?”

“Of course,” Alec said.  “Good luck with the red-headed stepchild.  Look on the bright side.  There’ll be two other people on the shift to share your misery with you, right?”

“I know,” Max admitted.  She smiled and leaned up to give Alec a kiss on the cheek.  “Thanks.  Gotta blaze.”  The female X5 walked off.  Alec smiled before turning around to look for Dylan.

TBC