TITLE: New Perspective

AUTHOR: Sarge

E-MAIL: sarge2525@hotmail.com 

RATING: pg-13

SUMMARY: Logan once more asks Max to help him, but this time she has a common interest in the problem.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters. James Cameron, and the other guy who's name I sadly can't remember do.
As well as Fox.

Max couldn't believe that she was doing this. She was sure that she was insane. Why couldn't she have just waited for
Logan to page her like she should have? Well first she thought that he might be holding out until he had another errand
to run and try to sucker her into it which he couldn't do if she wasn't there and if she came before he had a job then she
got out of the next one even though this most recent one had been helpful to her. Another reason was that honestly
she had missed him. It wasn't like they were even friends so the reason for her missing him was beyond her in fact she
was sure that if Logan knew he would laugh at her.

Logan sat in his office that was in his apartment wondering what Max was doing. True if Max knew she'd probably laugh
because she wasn't on one of his assignments for her, and therefore he shouldn't be worried about her, but if you knew
the only person that could currently help you was being hunted most of the time you would worry to. Then again even if
she did stop by now he would have a problem because he didn't have any information for her. That was the bad part.
No matter how much he thought it was a good idea to have her come visit he knew she wanted to know what was in
the picture and until he got Zach's file back from storage he was in big trouble. Not that this was anything new.

Max got to the door of Logan's appartement and simply walked in. You know you'd think that the guy who was Eyes
Only would be more paranoid, but he wasn't. Then again even if it had been locked she could have gotten in, and so
could most of the people that were after him. I guess that made the point pretty much pointless.

"So what do you have for me?" Max asked as she walked into the room wondering if he would have anything, and if he
did if he would lie and say no until he had anther job he could have her do for him.

"I know that all 12 of the Manticore's that escaped are still in the United States. That makes them easier to track down."
Logan told her.

"How do you know that they're all still here?" Max asked as she moved closer to him looking for the file he would have
put the information into. "Did any of them ever leave?"

"I checked the records of those who left the country. Children under the age of 18 are never allowed to leave the
country without parental consent, and even if some of them did get taken in, I doubt that they would want them to
leave."

"We could have smuggled ourselves out." Max said glaring at him for stating in an indirect way that the others were
incapable of taking care of themselves, "We were trained to stay out of enemy range."

"This from the one who's currently in danger from them." Logan told her, "Seems the idea of the suicides didn't fly with
the police department. They are looking for a killer, and sadly one of the nurses pointed out the missing picture, and
now the military is involved. They know now Max. More then they did before."

"They'll never link it to us though right?" Max asked, "Besides they don't have proof that it's murder. No one saw me do
it. Even if someone did if they knew what those two were like they'd keep quite."

"Max are you listening to a work that I am saying?" Logan asked her, "They know that you are in Seattle, and they now
know that you know about the others."

"They already knew that," Max objected, "My detective's place was bugged a few weeks ago. Now we have to worry
about how much they find out with that knowledge."

"Maybe we should lay low on the search for awhile. Not drop it, but not go so headlong into it." Logan suggested, "Max
they will do almost anything to get you back. What do you think happened with Hannah."

"Look, I don't care what they want, I care about finding the others." Max told him firmly, "And if you can't help me with
that, or you won't help me with that just let me know. I have to find the others Logan. They are the parts of that puzzle
you were talking about."

"What would your friends think if I had to go and tell them one day that you got yourself killed?" Logan asked her, "Max
you have to be more careful. They will find you if your not, and then they will hunt you, and there is no chance that you
will make it out alive without some sacrifices."

"I seem to remember this speech in a different context," Max said thoughtfully, "Only it was me giving it to you about
you going out with Susan and putting her in the whiteness protection program."

"Well you can see how that turned out when I didn't listen can't you?" Logan asked her. "So are you going to be smart
or are you going to be dumb?"

"I'm going to ask one more time if you have any information on the photograph." Max answered.

"Not currently no," Logan answered her, "But I'll get Zach's file back the day after tomorrow and then I can tell you if it's
Zach or not."

"Good," Max told him, "Page me when you have something useful. Until then leave me alone."

"Max your being stupid," Logan said outright, " Your going to get yourself killed."

"I have a plan Logan. I'll just go into the next town and create a diversion for them. something that makes them think
that I've switched cities," Max answered, "I'll make sure to be careful."

"They won't fall for it, because they know your somewhere in Seattle and the surrounding area. Going more then two
towns over is a risk that you can't afford to take right now. all that going into the next town will prove is that you are
still in the area and they should keep hunting here."

Max knew that he was right and it was time to admit defeat, but she couldn't give up without a fight. That just wasn't
her way. She had to care about what was going on, and she had to find the others. If that meant putting herself at risk
then so be it. Max doubted Logan would understand.

"Like I said," Max told him softly as she headed toward the door with the intention of going to the space needle for
awhile to think. She needed to think right now. she had information to process. True it wasn't much information, but it
was there, and she had to be able to use it somehow.

Logan watched Max walk out of the appartement and sighed as the door closed. It would be so much easier to be close
to that girl if she didn't keep pushing people away. Still walking out of his appartement didn't really qualify as something
stupid, so he knew she'd expect information about the doctor and his relationship to project Manticore. To bad right now
he didn't have any or he might have talked her out of whatever it was that she was going off to do.

When Max had gotten to the top of the Space Needle she sat down and looked down at what was left of the city once
more. It had once been so grand. No this wasn't the time to go down that rode again. This was the time to think about
the others and the fact that they were out there. They were even in the same country as she was. If she ever found
them she knew that they could get out. They could leave and go to a place where they wouldn't be hunted as science
experiments, and where people wouldn't look at them and expect things because they wouldn't know that we were any
different. Then there was Dr. Poodle, or rather the late Dr. Poodle. Max should have known something was up with him,
any doctor named Poodle shouldn't be trusted, in fact no doctor should be trusted in the first place. Did he really know
something about project Manticore, or was that just a picture he had? Putting those bar codes on things had been
common back before the blast, but that had required computers, and those weren't to useable as of late. It could have
been from one of the others, but why would they have let him get close to them. none of us were raised to be trusting
we were raised to rely on teamwork. That's why Zach wouldn't let them hold him. He knew what would happen. Max
spent another two hours thinking before climbing down because she didn't want to be late to work. Even though she
could probably keep herself alive without working for Jam Pony she had something to fall back on if the fencing got to
tough.

"Max I got a hot package for you to the riverfront,"Normal yelled as she walked in, "Make sure it gets there within the
hour."

Max looked down at her watch. That wasn't really all that much time, sure pretty much everyone on the squad could do
it, but it would take fast speed and no delays something that wasn't always reliable in Seattle any more. Max spent the
afternoon doing hard runs. Guess the world had it in for her today because she didn't get a choice in them, or the
chance to beg someone else into taking them from her. It was going to be a long day.

When Max was done with work, she headed home and changed into darker clothing. It was time for some after hours
work. Work that really payed the bills. Work that was much more fun then riding like hell all day for Normal only to come
back and get another run. Sketch had only taken two today and he had been on longer then she had today. She had
taken a short shift because she wanted to do this after hours.

As Max was heading out of the last job she noticed a women in an alleyway that was getting beat up by a scumbagg
and said scumbagg was doing a wonderful job. She was bleeding. Max totally blamed Logan when she realized that she
couldn't just walk away from this. This is what was going to get her into trouble.

"You know I hear that guys aren't supposed to hit girls," Max said as she walked into the ally, "If I were you, I'd let the
girl go and run before something bad happens."

That's when Max noticed quite a lot of movement behind her. Of course this was a trap for her. How they knew where to
set it was beyond her. The she realized that the district she was in had been having crime problems lately and they had
made the news. They didn't know why she was involved in good deeds so they just flashed crime on the news and
waited for her to come to it. Smarter then she had given them credit for.

Max leapt onto the old fire escape realizing that the blood was fake, and that this was all a set up. Even the girl was an
actress and she would be alright. Max ran into the empty building and kept going. She didn't stop. She knew better then
to stop. They might find a way to get her if she stopped. If she kept moving she would make it back to her bike. Thank
goodness that she had strapped everything she had stolen to her back otherwise they might get ever more helpful
information about her, and somehow she didn't think that it would keep her alive.

"Maybe I should start listening to Logan when he says not to do things," Max said as she ran and leapt onto the ground
in the next ally and took off. Though slightly disorientated at first she quickly found her way to her motorcycle. Good for
her, she had never even heard them get a bullet off. It was a good thing she wore gloves.

Max started to wonder as she drove home if they had any leads on the others, and if they did if they had squads that
were always hunting them as well, or if for some reason she was special. She saw no reason for the second, it didn't
make sense for that to be true. They had all been created equal. So only 12 had escaped the others hadn't been there
at the time. She wondered if the others that hadn't made it out were still alive. Then she thought of the way she
thought of herself as a science experiment that went wrong once it had gotten out, the others were a part of that. they
most likely were dead. Max returned home still wondering about the others and still wondering how much longer she
would be safe in Seattle. It wouldn't last much longer.