"How did you manage to get the money?" "Never mind that." "Can you help me get my hands on one of these gismos?" "I'll call my contact in Singapore." "Could probably have it here in 12 to 14 weeks." " That long?" " Patience." "I'm all out of patience." "I need to be up and walking - now." "The processor you are looking for is also used to control the robotic arms in nuclear reactors." " How am I supposed to get one of those?" " Knock knock." " Could always ask your in-house cat burglar." " Logan?" "Yeah, I'll be right there." "She's not in the loop on this little project, and I want to keep it that way." "No reason she needs to know what the chip is for." "Oh, that's sneaky." "I like it." "Got to go." "What happened to that Chinese urn that was there?" "Don't tell me you sold it." "Gotta do what you gotta do." "We got a situation that needs your attention." "Got anything to eat?" "Max, this is a red alert for what remains of Western civilisation - if Pierpont Lemkin fences one of these to the Taliban militia." " Pierpont Lemkin's in bed with the Taliban?" " I'm afraid so." "And they're looking for a chip just like this one, programmed with the activation code for the Star Wars missile defence system launched back in '05." "So?" "That stuff's just a bunch of space junk." "The government's trying to keep it under wraps, but some of the warheads are still live." "The chip we need is in the servo controller of a robotic arm in the Orcas nuclear facility." "You sure about this?" "Lemkin and the Taliban after some Star Wars widget in a robotic arm?" "Next thing, you're gonna tell me aliens are involved." " I wouldn't rule it out." " Really?" "The point is, I need you to do this for me." "You know, it's hot in here." " So, are you gonna do it?" " Whatever." " Thank you." " I think I'm coming down with something." "Really?" "I hope not." "Cos, you know, it was a year ago Thursday that you broke in here, tried to rob my place." " Is that right?" " It's an anniversary of sorts, and I was thinking we should celebrate." "I could use a little mirth in my life." "Yeah." "It can't be easy, knowing they have Tinga." "Zack found out they didn't take her to Manticore." "Hope he can turn something up on where they've got her." "Then we'll get her out." "Thursday night there will be an abundance of mirth, and maybe a little surprise." "What?" "Well, then it wouldn't be a surprise." "Take off your clothes." " Excuse me?" " You heard me." "Make it snappy." "# What's your name?" "Cos I'm impressed #" "# Can you treat me good?" "I won't settle for less #" "# You a hot boy #" "# A rock boy #" "# A fun toy, tote-a-Glock boy... #" "Nice pecs." "Get over on the bed." "# Can I move with you?" "Do you need some help?" "#" "# I cook boy #" "# I'll give you more #" "# I'm a fly girl #" "# And I like those hot boyz Say what?" "#" "# Baby, you got what I want #" "# See, cos y'all be driving Lexus jeeps... #" "I hope you're as good as you look, soldier, cos I'm not a girl who takes disappointment lying down." "This can't be happening." "# See, cos y'all be driving Jaguars and the Bentleys and the Rolls-Royce... #" "Logan?" " What are you doing here?" " Don't ask me." "It's your dream." "Yeah, and you know what that means?" "Oh, God." "I'm in heat again." " You're jokin', right?" " I wish." "Yet another of the frightening biological facts of my rotten, miserable life." "So how often does this oestrus-cycle bitch happen?" "Two, maybe three times a year." "It's awful." "I get this uncontrollable craving." "So... basically, because of this feline DNA that you got in you, every few months you run around acting like an average male?" "Somehow guys can pull it off." "I just turn into this freak show." "You could lock yourself in a closet until it's over." "Tried that." "Blew the door right off the hinges." "Damn!" "If you see me going to the dark side, do me a favour." "Smack me really hard in the face." " For real?" " It's the only thing that seems to work." "OK." "Ohh..." "Look at hot boy down there." "He's got some biceps on him." "Mmm!" "Don't make me put the smackdown on your ass." " Yeah." "Ohh..." " Walk." "Oh, about the stealth drone." "Let's keep the committee out of the loop." " Your call." " Right answer." "Deck." "Wanna tell me why the executive committee met today and I wasn't notified?" "Would you excuse us, please, Agent Sandoval?" " I didn't tell you cos I didn't want you there." " I'm sure you didn't." "The boys upstairs are on the warpath about that X5 female who escaped." "Tinga, is it?" "You're responsible for her escape, and you damn well know it." "Committee doesn't see it that way." "They see it as operational mishandling on your part." "You've always been a genius at covering' your ass." "I went to bat for you, and I think that I managed to fend off a full procedural review." "So, say "thank you"." "Pissy little bitch." " Do I look flushed?" " You're trippin', boo." "You got an itch, go scratch." "It ain't got to be all complicated." "The male mind understands the difference between love and sex." "Sketchy, come here." "Hello, ladies." " I wanna get busy with you." " Outstanding." " But forget about it as soon as it's over." " No problem." "Don't be all moo-eyed and "Baby, I love you."" "Yeah, whatever you say." " See?" "No complications." " So when are we gonna do this?" "Get away, fool, before I put you in a world of hurt." " I knew it!" " I'm not gonna just hit it with some guy." "That's how I hooked up with Leo and Darren, and Eric - almost." "Total disasters that only happened cos I'm a teenage Frankenstein created by Manticore." "Fine, don't be 'bout it with just anybody." "What about Logan?" "Somebody you're into." "It's not what I want to happen." "We're not like that." "Whatever you say." "Can we stop talkin' about scratching'?" "I wanna beat this bitch." "You got my back?" "Who's your girl?" "Did, uh, someone order a large sausage?" " Hi." " Max..." "What's your name?" " Rafer." " Hot run, 95 Round Hill Road." " I'm on a hot run." " No, you're not." "Come on." "See you around." "Whoa." "According to your debriefing regarding Tinga's escape," "X5-656 somehow managed to slip out of her shackles and overpower the soldier detailed to her guard." "Yes, sir." "You were unaware of the struggle right behind you?" "It happened very fast, sir." "Before I knew it, she had punched through the partition and grabbed the driver from behind." " And you couldn't stop her?" " I was trying to keep control of the vehicle." "I'd made a deal to secure Tinga in exchange for sparing her son's life." "Yet you tried to capture the boy and X5-452 as well." "Yes, sir." "The scope of the mission was changed during the briefing." " It wasn't my mission briefing." " I assumed you were in the loop, sir, since Agent Sandoval was..." "Agent Sandoval?" " Yes, sir." " Thank you." "You've been very helpful, X5-734." "Dismissed." "Nothin' like an ice-cold shower to keep your mind off the dirty deed." "I'm not even gonna ask." "I gotta sit in the same car with Logan tonight." "Is that wise?" "You say you don't want anything to happen." "I have no choice." "We have to run an... errand." " He got the 411 on what's up with you?" " Are you kiddin'?" "He's the last person I want to know about this." "How're you gonna keep from laying' out for the boy?" "Gonna sit on my hands, try not to look at him, try not to think about... his scruffy beard and... those cute little glasses that make him look all sexy and intellectual." "Oh, God, I gotta take another shower." " Hey." " Hey, yourself." "You ready?" "Never readier in my life." " Well, let's do this." " She'll meet you downstairs." "OK." "You, drop and give me 20." "OK." "Zakes?" "It's good to see you again." " What brings you here?" " Hoping we could do business." "Every few years we talk about business and you go back to Johannesburg disappointed." "I'm a persistent man." "We remain interested in pursuing a transgenic programme, along the lines of Manticore." "I'd like to propose a trade." "I'm not interested in neural implant technology." "My kids perform fine without sticking some gismo in their brain to rev 'em up." "You've made that quite clear." "So, what are you offering?" "We can find her for you." " How?" " She's got one of our implants." "How the hell did that happen?" "Long story." "The point is, the mechanism is made of a metallic alloy that returns a distinctive signature when hit with an electromagnetic signal." " What would that alloy be?" " If I tell you that, what do you need us for?" "All right." "And what's the price tag for your assistance here?" "Some genetic data from your early prototypes." "Maybe an in-vitro embryo." "To sweeten the pot." " All right, but nothing current, understood?" " We can live with that." "We'll have her home for you in no time." "What's up with the windows?" "I don't know." "Why are you askin' me?" "I'm just sayin', they're all fogged up." "Must be humid or something." "Must be." "The guards should have changed shifts by now." "# What's your name?" "Cos I'm impressed #" "# Can you treat me good?" "I won't settle for less #" "# You a hot boy #" "# A rock boy #" "# A fun toy, tote-a-Glock boy... #" "Wanna make out with me while we wait?" "What?" "Can you make out anything past the gate?" "No." "Not a thing." "Where's my phone?" "Sorry." " I gotta get this thing over with." " Hey, the guards haven't..." "Just doin' a rad test." "Don't mind me." "Wow." "Is there a problem?" "Have either of you been experiencing any hair loss lately?" " What?" " Hair loss?" "Maybe you should go get some coffee, while I figure out what's goin' on here." "Guys, there's no rad test scheduled for tonight." "Hey!" "We have a security breach." " Freeze!" " Hold it!" " Did you get it?" " No, I won a wet T-shirt contest." "Course I got it." "Yeah, yeah, we foiled Pierpont Lemkin's plan and saved the world." "Can we get outta here?" "So, the lady Max made it home with her virtue intact." "Very funny." "I just gotta get through the next 24 hours." "And of course today's the anniversary of when Logan and I met." "And of course he had to remember." "And of course he wants to have dinner." " Can you make it without jumping' his bones?" " I don't even wanna think about that." "I just need to focus on the task at hand." "And the task at hand is delivering packages." "Where does this go?" " Hey." " Hi." "Max, right?" "Normal!" "I need to take a personal day!" "Just a minute." "Which part of "just a minute" do you not understand?" "Spilt coffee on my brand-new chemise." "Maybe I'll get it out before it sets." "# Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh #" "# Bounce # # Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-uh-oh #" "# Come on, bounce #" "# Uh-oh # # Come on, bounce #" "# I feel it # # If you can feel it in your back, baby #" "# It's the sounds of the mother... #" "Hold on one cotton-pickin' minute, girlie girl." "No knock!" "Normal, I didn't know you worked out." "Are you all right?" "Whoa!" "Whoa!" "Slow down, female." "Thanks." "I needed that." " Max needs a personal day." " Take a week." "Damn!" "I didn't know this condition of yours was that bad." "Whoa!" "The South Africans are airlifting their tracking equipment in." "I need your authorisation to release those files to them." "I'm putting Dochnovich on point in the search for the girl." " But, sir..." " I need you here." "Yes, sir." "Peter." "He's taken you off the search?" "Something's going on." "He's badgering an X5 for information, poking through evidence." "Now he's giving classified information to the South Africans." "He's desperate to salvage his reputation with the committee." "Who knows how far he'll go?" "Well, I was hoping it wouldn't come to this." " Lydecker's gonna have to be contained." " Are you sure that's necessary?" "I haven't told you everything I know." "I can't." "He's been compromised." "Containment is the only option at this point." "You're the only one that I can trust with this." "I know." "It's for the good of Manticore." "Set up the drone with his photo ID." "You know what to do." "I appreciate you staying home with me." "No problem." "How you feelin'?" "You gonna be OK for your anniversary shindig with Logan?" "Think so." "Feels like the worst of this thing's passed." " Is it sweet he remembered?" " Real sweet." "And I thought only lesbians grabbed any opportunity to celebrate an anniversary." "You know, I feel pretty OK." "It's gonna be fine with Logan tonight." " Stay home, play it safe." " I've been cooped up all day." "It'd be nice to get out." " OK, that's it." " What?" " We're done with this game." " Why?" "Look at your words." "So?" " "Hung"." " Like a noose around your neck." " "Prick"." " Like with a needle." "You have a dirty mind." "Yeah?" "What about this, which I'm not gonna say cos I kiss my mama with this mouth?" "Oh, God." "You're right." "And I'm supposed to be there in an hour." " Are you gonna go?" " I can't." "Not like this." " Well, then, you'd better call and cancel." " I can't cancel." "You either go or you cancel." "It's on you." " Hello?" " Logan, it's me." "Hey, glad you called." "Could you stop on your way over and pick up some strawberries?" "Listen, I really hate to do this..." "But I can't make it over tonight." " Oh." " Something came up." " Is everything OK?" " Can we talk about it tomorrow?" " Max..." " I'll call you." " Where you goin'?" " To put 600cc of raw power between my legs." "Gotta clear my head." "Any reason you want to start here?" "Target's last known location." "We intercepted a call she made a week ago from a payphone on the corner." "If she's anywhere within two kilometres, we should get a hit." "Two clicks." "About covers all of Sector Five." "Right." "Give us a minute to configure the antenna and we'll get started." "Here we go." "Jam Pony messenger." "Can I go through?" "Nothing." "Where to?" "Let's move on to Sector Four." "Max!" "A'ight." "Original Cindy's gonna break it down for you, boo." "You can sing the blues all you want to about how what you did was wrong and bad, and now you feel cheap and empty." "But that's just a bunch of BS." "The truth is, you love Logan." "Look, we're not even like that." "Fact is, we'd both be better off if we'd never even met." "Yeah, right." "He has to spend his life in a wheelchair on account of me." " I didn't see you on TV pulling no trigger." " But I could have protected him and I didn't." "That's on me, 100 per cent." "I'm nothing but trouble." "I'm poison." "The best thing for me to do is keep my distance before I get him killed." "He doesn't seem too worried about that." "The way he always looks at you all dreamy-eyed." "And what do I do?" "I stand him up on our anniversary and go have sex with a total stranger." "That's what I call true love." "The reason you ended up with hot boy is you were running from the reality of the situation." "Now, you gonna have to step to the real about you and Logan, sooner or later, or your little head's gonna explode." "But what do I know?" "I'm just a big ol' lesbo." "Why is it taking so long?" "She's a fighter." " Yes?" " He's coming to meet me." " I told him I needed to talk to him in private." " About what?" "About you." "I said I didn't know if he could trust you." "That hurts my feelings." "When it's done, go back to the tracking van." "I'll meet you there." "This girl they're looking for..." "I'm anxious to bring her in." "Do you wanna talk?" "I wonder what this is all about." " What the?" " You forgot who you work for!" "Consider yourself fired." "I'm taking over." "Anything you get on the girl should be reported to my office immediately." " But Colonel Lydecker..." " Forget him." "Where's Agent Sandoval?" "I gave him time off." "He wasn't looking well." "I wasn't expecting to see you here." "Surprise." "Just came by to get a progress report." "I'm glad to see you have a personal interest in X5-452." "You don't know how important your kids are to me." "No." "But I'm beginning to get an idea." "I think you got your nights mixed up." "First time I broke in, it was about midnight." "So, way I figure, it's still our anniversary." "Well, in that case, I've still got a bottle of cheap champagne in my fridge." "So about last night..." " It's no big deal." " I owe you an explanation." "See, I go through these phases." "Phases?" "Cos of my feline DNA." "Oh, God, this is something I so don't wanna talk about." "You know, cats." "Mating cycles." "Oh!" "Cycles." "Really?" "So, you go into..." "Wow." "So that's why I decided not to..." "Come over." "Because..." "Well, because." "Well, I'm glad you're here." "Now let's just forget about it." "Yeah." "Let's." "Max, it really is OK." "No, it's not." "I hate it." "I hate that this happens to me." "I hate what it does to me, the things it makes me do." "All you did was miss dinner." "Right?" "I should have stayed home and gone to sleep, but I didn't." "I went out for a ride to clear my head and get some fresh air." "I ran into this guy." "It was a mistake." "It wasn't me." "It's just something Manticore tricked up inside of me that I can't control." "Makes me feel like... no matter what I do, or how far I run," "I can never get away from them." "Never." "It's all right." " Courtesy our crazy friend Phil." " Why didn't you tell me?" "I wanted it to be a surprise for last night." "An anniversary gift." "I'm sorry." "You have nothing to be sorry for." "Or ashamed of." "Cos I know who you are." " Dammit!" " It's OK." "Sorry, let me just..." "I'm sorry." "Logan..." "You've got nothing to be sorry for or ashamed of." "It's never been about you being able to walk." "Not for me." " Will you look at us?" " Pathetic." "Hopeless." "Lucky we hooked up." "Happy anniversary." "Maybe, uh..." "Maybe we should wait." "You know, until you're yourself again." "This isn't Manticore." "This is me." "Looks like I caught you at a bad time." "You want to go save Tinga or has something more urgent come up?" "We've covered Sectors One through Eight and everything south of Seneca." "That only leaves Sector Nine." "The high-rise district." "Got some info from a pencil-pusher at Manticore." " Same guy that told me Tinga wasn't there." " Where is she?" "There's a research facility inside a converted silo near the municipal border." " I'm pretty sure that's where they got her." " When do you wanna do it?" "Tonight." "You know I have to do this." "She's your sister." "We can't let them do to her what they did to Brin." "And I promised her little boy he'd see his mom again." "I know." "I wanna help." "I'll hack into some surveillance on the place." "We can stay in touch on coms." "This'll wait, right?" "We have all the time in the world." "We've got a hit." "Locked and tracking." "This is Command, authorisation Longbow Portent, calling for mobilisation." "Roger, Command." "We're on the move." "She's headed northeast on Highway Nine." "We have the subject." "Rendezvous at three clicks northeast of checkpoint K." " Form a convoy behind my lead." " Roger, Command." "Logan?" "We're in the silo approach tunnel." "You got anything?" "Yeah." "I hacked into the feed off a Chinese spy satellite." "Got the location on screen." "There's cloud cover, but from what I can tell, not much security." "We're goin' in." "All right." "This is the location." "Form a containment field in perimeter around the structure." "Let's go." "Take it." "We dunno how much muscle they got." " I'm not gonna use it." " Take it!" "I'll go up front." "You see what you can find on the other side." "I'm headed up top." "See if there's a way in." "Copy that." "Still can't see much, but I'll keep you posted." "Control, perimeter is established." "Over." "This time, there's nowhere to go." "I'm in position." "Let's move in." "Max?" "Zack?" "Max?" "Zack?" "Full military convoy." "I'm hit." "Get outta there." "Max?" "Max, pull out." "It's Manticore Special Ops." "Under whose command is this location guarded?" "I don't know, sir." "Prepare to engage." "Max, you gotta go." "Tinga, no!" "I'm sorry." "Max?" "Are you OK?" "Talk to me." "Max?"