Panic Room/Logan’s Quarters

Logan sat on the bunk in the panic room, one foot on the floor, the
other leg stretched out on the mattress, twitching.� His face contorted
in an expression of annoyance and desperation as he tried to massage
the spasm away.� Finally it stopped, and he breathed a sigh of relief.�
Suddenly there was a knock at the door, and before he could answer,
the door opened and Max stepped into the room.�

“What’s up?” he asked brusquely, trying to hide the nervousness
in his voice.

She hesitated, then shrugged.� “Nothin’.� Can’t I just stop
by?”� He didn’t say anything, so she continued. “Things
are quiet around here, for once.� And we haven’t, you know, had any
time for…for us, lately.”�

Logan just looked at her for a few seconds.� “You noticed that
too.”�

Max nodded briefly, then walked past him and went over to Logan’s
worktable, picking up a screwdriver and turning it end over end, eager
for something to occupy her hands.� “I’ve been thinking…now
that it looks like our days here are numbered…I’ve spent all this
time wanting to leave, and now…be careful what you wish for, right?”

“Yeah.� I know what you mean,” Logan said softly.

Max looked over at him.� “Doesn’t look like Clemente’s gonna
drag you off to jail, so far as I can tell, you don’t have much to
worry about.� Now that you’re rollin’ in the dough again, you can
set yourself up nice and start doing your save-the-world dealio again.”�

Logan laughed softly, and a little sadly, then looked over at her,
and their gazes locked.� “Gonna need a cat burglar-type to do
some legwork for me.”�

“I don’t know.”� She looked away.� “Things are gonna
be different now.”� She turned away from him, hiding the look
of uncertainty and sadness she couldn’t contain.

Logan’s face tightened and his skin paled as his calf muscle suddenly
started twitching, but Max was still turned away and didn’t notice.�
“What would make you think that?” he asked through partly
clenched teeth, grabbing his leg and massaging angrily.

She shrugged, and turned to face him as he yanked his hands away
from his leg.� “Look at me, Logan,” she said, pulling up
her sleeve up to reveal the runes that were still clearly visible.�
�I’m a freak.� Except this time, everybody knows it.� I mean, Seattle
isn’t exactly the smartest place in the world for me to hang around.”�

“Max…” He trailed off, unsure of how to continue.� “Your
life is here.� You’re not…you can’t just run away when the going
gets tough, now that we’re together.”

Max walked over and sat down next to him, her hand settling on his
knee.� He looked down nervously, not moving a muscle.� Their eyes
met, and she leaned in to kiss him hungrily.� “Don’t know about
you, but I could use a little mirth right now.� You got any to spare?”�

She leaned back on one arm, raised her other hand to his cheek, and
kissed him again, more intensely, but this time Logan pulled back.�
“Actually, I, uh, just got a call from an informant, and I have
some work to do here.� Some Eyes Only stuff.� You know, back to the
grindstone,” he said casually, swinging his leg over the side
of the bunk and acting as though he were ready to stand up.�

Max sat looking at him for a second, her expression changing from
surprise to hurt. “Thought maybe you’d wanna celebrate a little,”
she said softly.

“Max…” Logan started, but ended in a sigh when he couldn’t
think of anything else to say.

“You know, I never did give you that massage I promised.� Is
your back still�”

“No.”� Logan cut her off abruptly.� “I mean, it’s
fine now.”

Max continued to stare at him, then shook her head and stood up,
forcing a smile.� “Hey, no big dealio.� Maybe you can pencil
me in for next week.� Catch you later,” she said, and headed
for the door.

Rooftop

Max stood on the roof of the Command building, looking out at the
city with a forlorn expression etched onto her beautiful features.�

So it’s finally ending.� I kinda figured
we’d all end up dead � a coupla times thought we’d kill each other
before the government could do it for us.� But maybe there is a light
at the end of the tunnel after all.

Who am I kidding?� Even if we do get out
of here, my life isn’t ever going to be the same. Just look at Logan
and me.� Thought we had it all figured out�then I turn around and
he’s running for the exit.� Can’t say I blame him�I�ve never read
a fairytale about a prince and a killing machine in a freakshow body.
��

And the strange just keeps on coming…

Unidentified Office

The man sat again in the overstuffed desk chair, turned away from
the desk, a phone receiver pressed to his ear.� “How could you
have let that happen?� I thought I had impressed upon you how carefully
we worked to set up that little mix-up last night.”

From the receiver came the same female voice.� “I couldn’t do
anything.� There wasn’t enough time�”

“Well, now you’re out of time.� Our bosses think the best plan
of action now is to get those transgenics you told us about to stage
a mutiny against 452.� So it’s up to you to�”

“I can’t…I can’t say too much on the inside, or I risk revealing
my loyalty, and then I’m useless to you.� Anyway, I’m calling to tell
you…the cop, Clemente, met with 452 today.� Rumor is they’re
trying to end the siege.� If that happens, the rebels won’t have a
chance to mutiny.”�

“Okay,” he said finally.� “Call tomorrow and I’ll
let you know what your assignment is.”� The chair swung around
to face the desk as the end of the conversation neared, and Agent
Martin ran a hand through his hair and loosened the tie around his
neck.���

“One more thing,” the voice on the other end said.� “452
told me something interesting the other day.� It’s about transgenic
blood. �I think you may want to look into this…”�

Standing in a phone booth on the corner of two busy streets, the
woman, dressed in a winter coat with the hood pulled up to shield
her face, continued, “…I’ll try to find out more, but if you
have access to Manticore research…yes, sir, I understand.� I will.”�

When the phone call was completed, the woman hung up, then picked
up the receiver again and, slipping in a few more coins, dialed.�
“It’s me.� Yeah, the crisis is over.� Hope you’re ready to celebrate
in style, even if it is a couple days late…okay, I’ll be over in
a few.”� Replacing the phone on the cradle, the woman stepped
from the phone booth.� As she headed away from Terminal City, Ginger
pushed back the hood of her coat and smiled to herself.�

END OF EPISODE 3.11