Finder's Keepers

Notes:

See warnings on Chapter 1. Still don't own or make any money on this

 

Chapter 7 – Nice Pants

Watching all the commotion at the hospital now that he had arrived, Alec had bitten his lip in frustration. So hard in fact, it was bleeding. The bittersweet tang set off an alarm in his head. His blood tasted off. It threw him for a minute trying to figure it out. He licked at it like others picked at scabs as he scoured the site trying to figure out how to get into a building where everyone was being forced out behind a barricade.

He knew the taste of his own blood from the many times he’d been in fights or screaming in pain from some Manticore procedure. He never cared for the taste of it but he could certainly recognize it was different now – even if only slightly – as if whatever had changed it was starting to fade.

With a sudden epiphany, he had what the transfusions meant. Unlike a normal transfusions used for replacing lost blood, theirs was more like a swap. In order for Logan to be able to absorb enough transgenic blood, he had to make room for it. So it was now a two-way procedure deemed safe for the donors as the DNA of the Transgenics would overwrite anything Logan donated to them. He wasn’t just donating his blood to Logan – he was also taking Logan into himself. He had Logan’s blood inside him. He could sort of recognize the taste and scent of the man lingering underneath his own. It seemed – hinky. That was all well and fine for Max to have the scent and taste of her lover inside her – but Alec wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

What he did know with a sudden certainty was that Ben would certainly pick up on it in Logan. What that meant for Logan, Alec didn’t know but it terrified him. Alec’s scent within Logan would be much stronger than Logan’s was within himself since the Manticore genetic structure tended to overwhelm anything else.

Ben as a Hunter would be far more apt to be a slave to his senses than Alec trained as an Assassin would be. He would smell ‘himself’ in Logan if Logan were cut in anyway. Alec was sure that had already happened based on the phone call. Alec was certainly attuned to his senses but was trained to ignore any sense of animal instincts in favor of cool, logical planning per his “Assassin’s training”. Hunters were trained in the opposite way – they were encouraged and honed to use their animal instincts to catch their prey.

Damn…they were caught up in one fucked up giant knotted Manticore hairball, weren’t they?

And how the hell was he going to get in?

---

Logan had almost made it to the stairwell. At least this one didn’t have any corpses draped across it. He pushed hard but the lock hadn’t been released yet. Another couple of minutes.

‘Fuck,’ he thought.

He had hoped that they might have been open. His left leg was beginning to throb. He could feel it wanting to give out. He probably wouldn’t be running too much longer. He was tired, bleeding, and sore as hell.

He saw a laundry cart left in the hall about two doors up. Someone must have been in the middle of delivering clean scrubs when the commotion started. They had apparently abandoned the cart for safer floors since it was so close to the stairwell.

He grabbed the cart and rolled it around the corner. He could hear Ben coming. Seeing some green pants on the cart, he grabbed a pair and hurriedly put them on. He would have tried to be quiet about it but realized there was no point. Ben was on his scent so he just moved quickly instead to get dressed.

They were a little short on him, but he didn’t care. As ridiculous as it was – having pants on made him feel much more optimistic. He thought of grabbing a shirt but realized he didn’t have time.

There was a small circular mirror in the corridor as there was at every corner for safety reasons. Logan ducked below the cart but kept an eye on the mirror. He could see Ben approaching the turn in the hallway. Hoping the “object may be closer than appears” illusion wasn’t too far off – he rammed the cart as hard as he could just as he thought Ben was turning the corner.

For once, luck was with him. It knocked Ben sideways, against the wall.

Ben grunted as the force knocked the air out of him.

Logan pulled the cart back to ram it again but Ben was quick to recover and was able to jump onto the cart to lunge at Logan.

Instead Logan let go and Ben rode the cart backwards a few feet losing his balance. Logan ran the other way. He heard Ben laugh.

He didn’t make it more than thirty feet before being tackled to the ground. His chin hit the floor as he went down. The jolt shot through his entire body and he wasn’t sure he hadn’t broken his jaw this round.

“See, wasn’t that fun?!” Ben asked, stretched across Logan’s back. He handcuffed Logan’s arms together behind his back.

“Super,” Logan muttered half conscious, winded and just about ready to give up. His head was spinning and Ben grabbing it one more time and slamming to the floor didn’t help.

“Now – time to go,” Ben said as he knelt up and rolled Logan over. Logan looked up at Ben grinning at him. The red emergency lighting behind him made him seem as if he had a demonic halo.

Logan felt himself being hefted up and thrown over Ben’s shoulder. He was trying to get his bearings as he was bounced along.

“Nice pants, by the way,” Ben added as he smacked Logan’s ass with his free hand. Logan tried to struggle but he was in no position to do so.

The stairwell door opened to Ben this time and he carried Logan up the stairs to the top floor even while Logan was trying to shrug himself off of Ben’s shoulders. The blood was rushing to his head which was still throbbing. He felt dizzy and faint. The sounds of Ben’s whistling a sharp pinpoint in the blackness that threatened to overtake him.

Logan felt Ben climbing the stairs. He squinted against the daylight that brightened the stairwell through large windows at each landing.

---

Alec was scouting around the fringes of the crowd trying to figure out how to get in. He’d worry about finding Logan once he was inside.

There was a flurry of activities as busses were pulling up to take the most mobile of people and patients away from the scene. There were a few ambulances loading more critical patients. There were still a number of people to be removed off the premises so Alec was able to blend easily into the crowd.

Seeing that most of the police and Swat units were focused on the front left building as he faced it, he assumed that must be where they were. He saw a young uniformed officer approaching a man behind a police van looking at hospital architect plans. He got as close as possible to them order to hear what was happening.

“Sit Rep?” the man reviewing the papers asked.

“All of A and B have been completely evacuated. Floors 1-5 on C and Floors 1-6 D are evacuated. Looks as if C only has two more floors to clear but they are the more critical care units. D has four. It has ten floors – not eight like A and B buildings.”

If Alec remembered correctly– Building A was for the high up muckety mucks that had cash and status and B was the one they were pointing to.

“ER patients?”

“Still working on those since they’re a bit more problematic – but all the mobile patients have been evacuated and about 75% of the more critical ones have been moved to the University Clinic until this is resolved or we can get them to St. Mary’s – but that’s two hours away. How likely do we think this guy could really build a bomb the way he said?”

Just then a third person joined them, a short young woman wearing a bomb squad uniform. She was completely covered and Alec could only tell she was a woman by a prominent bustline and scent.

“According to admin, the parts are all there – although not sure on the dead man’s cell phone trigger. Is that possible?” the man in charge said.

The person spoke confirming her gender with her voice, “Yeah – with as many oxygen tanks available on that floor? Probably just a spark would be needed if he’s left a valve open. All he needs is a spark to ignite it could cause a cascading explosion: first from the rest of the tanks on that floor and then probably to all the subsequent floors if any of the shielding doesn’t hold.

“How does he get it to spark remotely?”

“Probably as simple as creating a short in a cell phone receiver near it and all he has to do it dial the number. On many phones these days, it wouldn’t be hard to preprogram a call. It’s probably not so much a dead man’s switch as an ‘I’ll cancel a preprogrammed call.’

“Odds of that happening?” the young officer asked?

“Slim, but do we want to risk that he doesn’t know how to do it?” the woman asked back.

The man in charge took a deep breath. “The Mayor doesn’t so the helicopter’s on the way. Mayor’s convinced he really does just want out and if we can by possibly only losing the one hostage – he calls that a win.”

“Except for Logan,” the officer said.

“Who?” the woman asked.

“The hostage.”

“Alec may not feel the need to take the man with him. He may end up just fine,” the other man said but sounded unconvinced.

Alec realized two things: one - they were giving up on rescuing Logan and were going to let Ben escape on the helicopter. And two – Ben had used Alec’s name as his cover which he just knew was going to bite him in the ass in the near future.

He had to worry about problem one now and the other problem later. Alec was sure that Ben had no intention of letting Logan go and once he got him on that helicopter – Logan would be a goner – if he wasn’t already dead, that was.

--

Logan got his bearings back a bit and took all his remaining strength to swing his bound arms up and under Ben’s groin. Probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do on a stairwell as Ben dropped Logan who bounced down several steps before hitting the landing. Logan rolled and slid sideways to get back onto his feet. He began to run down the steps. He’d made it two flights before Ben had jumped in front of him at the sixth floor landing.

He had caught up by jumping over the angle of the steps and sliding over the banister. Ben was faster and more athletic than Logan normally but now – Logan knew he couldn’t beat him physically. He had hoped he’d distracted Ben for longer but just hadn’t been able to get enough momentum behind him.

Ben smiled and backed Logan towards the back wall of the stairwell against the window.

“If you wanted to go down on me, Logan – you could have just asked,” Ben smiled. He head-butted Logan which caused Logan’s head to smash against the window pane. The glass cracked at the impact but didn’t break. Logan’s head felt like it was going to. He swooned trying to get his feet but Ben spun him around so the side of his face was pressed against the grimy glass.

“We’ll have plenty of time to play later,” Ben said as he licked up the side of Logan’s throat and face. His arms were wrapped around Logan’s chest and each hand painfully squeezed Logan’s nipples.

“Yeah – I’d like to skip recess,” Logan blurted – although it came out half slurred and unintelligible. So much for witty rejoinders.

Ben didn’t answer. He just grabbed Logan’s bound arms and drug him up the stairs. Logan scrabbled to get his feet under him but Ben was hauling him too fast. Logan felt the shoulders straining at the socket and thought they would both be dislocated before long if Ben didn’t stop pulling him or if he couldn’t get onto his feet. At the next landing, he managed to get traction, but just barely. He managed to stay on his feet to the eighth floor and which point Ben picked him back up but this time bridal style.

Logan was too exhausted to fight and chose to try to catch his breath for a few minutes. He noted the florescent lights were on in this hall. It was easier to see but Logan still couldn’t see a way out.

Ben whistled as he carried him.

---

Alec had slipped off to the side of the building to get a better sense of the area. In a moment of luck he looked up in time to see a figure walk past a grimy window with body heaved over his shoulders. He recognized his own profile climbing the stairs. He thought that was Logan he was carrying.

Then he saw the back of the man’s head crack against the sixth floor landing window. The figures were murky but sure enough, in a few moments the person’s face was pressed against the glass and Alec confirmed it was Logan. He then saw Ben’s face beside Logan’s and even through the dirt and scum on the glass; he could see Ben licking Logan and his hands on Logan’s bare chest.

Logan looked in pain. Ben looked way too happy.

Alec was transfixed seeing the tableau before him unable to look away but knowing he needed to do something.

His stomach churned as he watched Ben haul Logan away from the window. It spurred him into action.

Alec looked around and saw a dumpster. He noted there didn’t seem to be as many people on this side of the building. He saw one of the bomb squad members walking behind a bush. He assumed to take a leak – and how unprofessional of him to do that then so Alec thought it only fitting that he relieve the man of his uniform as he relieved himself.

One unconscious and stripped bomb squad member later and Alec was able to slide behind the dumpster with few people thinking it was odd. They all probably assumed he’d been assigned to look for explosive materials around the ground.

There was a small window behind the dumpster. After a quick look around told him no one was watching; he broke the window with a stone on the ground. The noise of the police and the news crews hid the sound of breaking glass.

He was able to slip in, cutting his hands on a few shards of glass on the way in. Cursing, he was able to grab a paper towel from the exam room he had landed in and wiped himself off as he looked around.

The room itself was small and dismal. He thought only the dregs of society would have been looked at in that room. The walls were peeling and moldy and supplies were few. He took the helmet off as he couldn’t really see with it. He headed off towards the top floors where he knew they were headed.