It was strange, a quiet, remote part of Logan’s mind mused as he kept up the ground eating lope he had maintained for the past several weeks. He knew exactly how much time had passed since Rogue had been taken, and he knew exactly how many miles he had covered and how many he had yet to go, but he couldn’t remember whether he had stopped to relieve himself or if he had consumed any of the energy gels or water from the heavy pack he carried. Not good, he told himself, forcing his focus away from the smells around him and any signs of disturbance in the surrounding foliage. Taking a quick inventory, he realized the skin over his ribs was starting to pull sharply, sure signs of dehydration and probably several lost pounds. Grunting, Logan came to a sudden stop, dropping his arms down and letting the pack slip off his back with a jerk of his shoulders. He wasted no time unzipping the bag and guzzling a bottle of water. He unwrapped an energy bar and slipped a few gels into his front pocket so he wouldn’t have to stop again to retrieve them. Finally, he checked the battery charge of the phone, vaguely remembering he had swapped out the battery just the day before. He carried a half dozen spares, knowing it would be impossible to charge the phone anywhere, but he didn’t dare turn it off to save the battery while he was still waiting for word from Hank and the professor.
Logan held the energy bar between his teeth as he tucked the phone into its easy access side pocket and slung the heavy pack onto his back once more. As soon as he took his first step he was fully immersed in his surroundings and back to his previous pace. He could probably cover another forty miles before it got dark. He would be forced to slow down a bit then, his night vision vastly superior to others, but still not good enough that he could wind his way through the trees at full speed. About eight hours of total darkness, for the waning moon would be covered by thick clouds, and then in the grey-green light of predawn he would be able to pick up the pace again.
* * *
“It’s been six weeks, Charles, and we still haven’t made any progress,” Hank said quietly. “You’re certain we shouldn’t give up?”
NO! The sharp mental denial was accompanied by a menacing glare that had Hank rocking back on his furred feet.
“I…no, please don’t think I’m suggesting that I believe we should give up. I’m afraid I phrased it badly. We will, of course, continue looking for Rogue until we find her, whatever the outcome. What I should have asked is are you sure there isn’t a more efficient way to search? Logan’s been roaming aimlessly for miles and miles after we were unable to narrow the field down. And do you think there’s still a chance she’ll be…whole…when we recover her?”
Xavier sighed and leaned against his wheelchair as if seeking support from it. It was such a defeated, tired gesture that Hank began to fear his friend was falling ill. “He hasn’t been wandering aimlessly, Hank. He’s following a widening arc pattern, trying to pick a trace of them while not missing any ground. And no, I don’t think she’ll be ‘whole’ when she returns to us. I do believe that she is alive, though, and that her captors will keep her alive. The only reason someone would have taken Rogue is for her mutation. And if we haven’t been able to fully understand the way her skin works even after years of study, whoever took her won’t be able to figure it out so fast either.”
Now Hank sighed. “Charles, I’m afraid you’re overlooking something. If whoever took her is concerned with doing harm to Rogue, they’ll certainly be hampered in their research. If, however, they don’t care about hurting her, they can conduct a number of studies that will be incredibly informative. Also, while it was my first inclination to believe she was taken for research and possibly experimentation, what if they took her for other reasons? Her ability to absorb knowledge with her touch would be priceless to certain intel gathering organizations.”
“But how would they know about that?” the professor argued wearily. “All the evidence suggests Rogue was targeted as a direct result of the interview she and Logan did. She never divulged that aspect of her mutation and, knowing Rogue’s personality, she certainly wouldn’t be cooperating with her captors and volunteering information.”
Hank nodded. “That’s all true,” he acknowledged, his brow furrowing as he thought through the sequence of events since the interview. Gradually, a horrifying answer became clear to him. “Charles,” he began, his voice hoarse. “The interview can’t be blamed for them knowing where to find her. There is one other significant exposure in addition to the interview. We’ve been emailing Logan and Rogue, discussing the nature of her mutation.”
Xavier shook his head in quick denial. “No, Kitty said it was secure, untraceable.”
“And what about the satellite sending and receiving the information?”
“I…Hank, are you suggesting someone hacked the satellite?”
“Not necessarily. What about whoever owns the satellite?”
“The government? You think the U.S. government did this? But the president promised they’d be protected if they did the interview. I’ve seen his mind. He’s not the kind of man to go back on his word.”
“He might not even know.”
“You mean like it was with Stryker?”
The office door flew open and bounced off the wall with a loud crash. Both men jumped and Xavier inhaled so suddenly in surprise that he started to choke. After the coughing fit eased, he reprimanded the intruder with a stern glare.
Kitty Pryde stood in the open doorway, her eyes wide and her chest heaving. “I think I have a lead!”
* * *
The chirping immediately behind him didn’t register at first. Logan subconsciously dismissed it as yet another bird calling in the otherwise still forest and kept up his soft-footed strides for another dozen yards. When the chirping didn’t recede with distance, he realized it was the phone ringing for the first time in nearly a week.
Tearing the phone lose from the side pocket, Logan flipped it open and gasped, “Chuck?”
“Logan? Kitty figured it out. It’s the phone. Get rid of it.”
He didn’t wait for any other instructions, just popped the claws on his left hand and skewered the phone while it was still connected. Logan spent the next minute shredding the device into pieces no bigger than grains of rice, all the while berating himself for not realizing sooner how the bastards had managed to evade him the past several weeks.
Logan? The mental query was hesitant, remorseful.
Yeah, Chuck, he thought with a sigh, ignoring the fuzziness in his head that always accompanied this form of communication.
I’m so sorry, Logan. We should have realized sooner. I’m afraid we were all so convinced it must have been due to the interview that we completely overlooked the phone conversations.
Not your fault, Logan admitted wearily, his shoulders and head hanging with fatigue and discouragement. Months ago, everything in him would have protested the posture as advertising weakness and inviting attack. But here in the middle of a forest devoid of human activity, Logan just didn’t care anymore. What do I do now? he thought to himself, not intending for the professor to hear. But he did.
I don’t know, Logan. But surely you’ll start making progress from here on. They were able to stay ahead of you before because they could always pinpoint your location from the phone. Now that it’s gone they’ll have no way of knowing where you are.
I should have know, Logan railed silently, his hands balling into fists at his sides. I should have trusted myself more the couple of time I thought I smelled aviation fuel. So what if the scent was a couple weeks old each time? I still should have spent the time checking the areas out more thoroughly.
But Rogue wouldn’t have been there, Logan. You would have been wasting time while she got farther and farther away. And you know they’ll eventually have to stop moving.
You sure about that, Chuck? A mobile lab isn’t an impossibility.
You’re forgetting Elizaveta’s vision. I’ve gone over it with her more than a dozen times now. What she’s seeing is definitely a stationary structure. And underground.
A wave of despair swept over Logan, one so heavy he felt the need to drop to his knees.
How the hell am I supposed to find her then? I was right on top of the one at Alkali Lake and didn’t know it.
Kitty’s looking into it. She was correct that she set up an untraceable system with the laptop, so she’s tapping into satellite surveillance images and applying a program to trace heat signatures from the landscape.
A vague sense of urgency rose up in Logan. The ground will be warmer above an underground facility, won’t it?
Yes, Xavier confirmed. But I have to caution you, Logan, it may still take some time. The difference in surface temperatures will depend entirely on how far underground they are and how big the facility is.
Have Kitty look for geometric shapes with hotspots within those shapes.
Hotspots?
Ventilation. Gotta have a way to get air underground. And wherever the air comes out, heat will too.
Yes, of course. The murmured quality of the thought had Logan wondering if the professor had intended him to hear the comment. And you, Logan? Should I send Kurt to bring you back to the cabin?
The kids! Logan realized suddenly. The bastards will know exactly where to find them. I used the phone there most often.
No. No, Logan, Xavier soothed him. Kitty was able to find out how and when they first started monitoring the phone. While they may indeed have the location of the phone, Kitty assures us that they have not been listening in. They don’t know about the children, Logan.
Barely relaxing, Logan asked, You sure? Are you sure they’re not going to go and check the location now that they know I’m not there?
Why would they? Xavier asked. They have what they want. And because they’ve made every effort to stay away from you, I hardly think they would go to a place you might return to and risk having you track them from there.
Exhaling, Logan acknowledged, You’re right. Okay. Send Kurt. And tell Kitty I need to talk to her.
* * *
“What?” Logan growled a few hours later. As soon as Kurt teleported them into the kitchen, Logan had slumped into one of the chairs. Now the silent stares of the past couple minutes were starting to irritate him. Even Kurt had given him a single, long look when he popped up in front of Logan in the forest, albeit at a safe distance in case his arrival startled Logan into attacking.
Now, silence was the only answer he got. Lifting his head wearily, he scanned the faces in the room. All of the kids and the adults stared back. Finally, Rachel moved swiftly to the refrigerator and swung the door open. She emerged a few seconds later with a large bowl of spaghetti and meatballs and dropped it on the table in front of Logan along with a fork she had grabbed from a drawer on the way.
“Eat,” she commanded.
Surprised, Logan met her eyes. The woman hated him, so why would she be trying to take care of him now? Still, Logan reached for the food, eyeing her suspiciously as he began to eat. He was aware in his peripheral vision of the way everybody else seemed to relax.
“What?” he asked again around a mouthful of pasta.
“You look terrible, Mr. Logan,” Elizaveta breathed.
Surprised again, Logan just blinked as he chewed. What did they expect, he wondered, when he had spent the last several weeks in the woods. They had to be aware that personal grooming and clean clothes had been the least of his worries.
He narrowed his eyes as everybody nodded in agreement with Elizaveta. “Hey, listen,” he said gruffly, “I know I must look pretty bad and I probably don’t smell that great either, but what did you expect?”
Todd cleared his throat awkwardly. “We didn’t expect you to look like you’re starving to death, that’s for sure.”
Logan frowned, forking more spaghetti into his mouth and quickly spearing a meatball that disappeared before he even finished chewing the first mouthful. The next time he twirled more pasta onto the fork, he was aware that it was scraping the bottom of the bowl. Grunting, Logan looked around for Rachel.
“You got anythin’ else to eat?”
“Logan,” Todd protested, “Slow down. You’re going to make yourself sick.”
“So I’m eating fast. Big deal. I’m hungry.”
But Todd was shaking his head. “You know I’m a nursing student. I’m telling you you should take it easy for a while.”
Sudden cramping in Logan’s stomach made him wince. Surprised yet again, he looked down as if he might actually see the source of the discomfort. What he saw, however, was the outline of his own ribs through the thin material of his shirt and the large hollow beneath them.
Logan pivoted away from the table and strode down the hall to the closet where Rogue had placed an over the door mirror a few days before she had been taken.
His inhaled in shock, the movement making his ribs even more pronounced. The bones of his face stood out starkly above the tangled growth of beard. Logan immediately began shrugging out of his shirts. Tugging the tails from his jeans, he realized that his belt was loose around his waist, barely holding the jeans in place.
When the clothing fell to the floor, Logan stared at his reflection, unable to believe how he could be stripped so bare of flesh. Musculature stood out prominently beneath the skin, but it had the stringy appearance of rawhide rather than healthy muscle tissue.
“What the hell,” he breathed, seeing Todd’s approach in the mirror. “I ate. I know I did.”
“And it’s probably the only reason you’re not dead,” Todd acknowledged quietly.
Logan snorted, still staring in disbelief at his reflection. “I don’t die. Thought you would have realized that from the interview.”
“Maybe,” Todd said grudgingly. “But I think even you might become unable to move if you get weak enough. You need to rest. And you need to eat.”
“We don’t have time for that,” Logan argued, finally turning away from the mirror. He ignored Rachel’s gasp as she finally saw how thin he was.
“You’re going to have to find the time. You’re no good to Rogue if you don’t take care of yourself.”
Logan grunted softly, bending to retrieve his shirts when he realized he was becoming chilled. He couldn’t quite control a shiver as he stood. He saw Todd nodding and raised a brow in inquiry.
“You’ll probably feel cold for a while until you gain back some weight, Logan. It’s normal.”
“There’s nothin’ normal about this whole sorry mess.” Logan sighed wearily, hating the feeling of helplessness that swamped him when he realized that for the time being, he could only wait for information to point him in the right direction.