Part 19

At nine, Logan finished setting up Nathan’s laptop to receive the video images from the Institute. The laptop and video camera were pointed towards the other side of the kitchen table. When the Institute contacted them, the camera gave them an image of Nathan in the middle with Logan on the right and Angel on the left. The breakfast dishes had been cleared away and Logan had made sure they all had paper and a pen to take down notes.

A man of apparently mixed African-American descent appeared on the screen, a large black ‘M’ was tattooed over his right eye, his shoulder length black hair was combed back from his face and a trim black goatee delineated his chin. He chest and arms were covered in a dull black, form fitting armor with a two inch stylized golden ‘X’ within a circle on his right shoulder clearly visible.

“Cable?” the man asked in a deep baritone.

“We can hear you, Bishop,” Nathan replied.

“Good,” Bishop said and looked down to enter commands into a keyboard that was below the camera range.

Warren Worthington, III appeared in a small square that appeared in the top left hand corner of the laptop screen. His blond hair, pale complexion and the tips of his white folded wings contrasted with a dark background and the shoulders of the navy blue business suit he wore.

“Archangel?” Bishop asked.

“I can see them,” Warren replied.

“Cable?” Bishop asked.

Nathan nodded and replied, “We can hear and see Archangel.”

Bishop nodded back and typed more commands into the keyboard.

The view on the laptop changed from the straightforward view of Bishop’s head and shoulders to an angled overhead view of a large conference room. It was the same conference room where Logan had placed Angel on a cot in the corner, but the center table had changed from a flat top to a three dimensional replica of the San Francisco Bay and environs. The edges of the table sloped down into computer screens and flat keyboards. Bishop sat in a chair to the right of the head of the table. He looked up towards the camera, “Now?”

“We can see the conference room,” Nathan replied. “Hello, Professor. Cyclops. Jean. Storm. Northstar. Iceman. Nightcrawler. Jubilee. Beast. Sage.” He paused in the roll call around the table and raised an eyebrow, “Juggernaut.”

Angel realized he must have named everyone for her sake. She recognized everyone except for Sage, Juggernaut and Bishop, the last three, clockwise around the table. She wondered at Cable’s pause before he said Juggernaut’s name.

“Juggernaut is here at my request,” Charles informed Nathan before he could ask why a known criminal was sitting in on a mission teleconference. “He has provided some very useful information in regards to the equipment Cyclops’ team recovered from the second Werewolf hideout Halo located. He is also willing to join any team that I decide to send west. It is still not well known that he has been aiding our cause recently and we may use him as an undercover agent.”

“I don’t trust him,” Logan growled.

“Then I won’t be sending him to join your team,” Charles countered. “S. H. I. E. L. D. has provided me with information that San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco will be attacked in a concerted effort by multiple parties.”

Logan bared his teeth as he exhaled in a slow hiss. Angel frowned uncomprehendingly and Nathan nodded grimly, he’d expected more than what he’d been able to find out, but he hadn’t expected multiple attacks in multiple cities.

“We have received written documentation from Bridge, the head of Mutant Affairs at S. H. I. E. L. D., formally requesting X Corporation Agents to aid them in the field. S. H. I. E. L. D. has created a taskforce to deal with these possible attacks and, with the permission of the United States Government, will be integrating several organizations and individuals under their authority including our X-men, members of the Avengers, a few independent paranormals and limited local government forces. They will be conducting a meeting aboard one of their helicarriers at 1900 tonight. Once the leaders of our three teams have been designated, they will contact them with the exact coordinates. I suspect it will be over the Pacific …”

Angel looked at Logan and whispered, “Is a helicarrier some sort of helicopter?”

“Helicopter the size of an aircraft carrier,” Logan whispered back without turning his head from the laptop screen.

She looked from Logan to Nathan and whispered, “I don’t have to go, do I? I’m not an agent and I’ll be busy scanning the Worthington buildings … right?”

Charles stopped in mid sentence, “Halo, do you have something to say?”

Angel looked at the laptop, wondering if someone had entered the conference room back at the Institute that she couldn’t see. She didn’t know who ‘Halo’ was.

Nathan sighed and looked at Angel.

“We haven’t told her yet,” Logan told the people on the laptop. He turned to Angel, “Angel, the Professor raised your status to Agent with the X Corporation so you could join us on this mission. He gave YOU the agent designation, HALO.”

“Halo? Why?” she asked turning from Logan to the laptop screen.

“I couldn’t very well call you Angel,” the Professor explained, “Archangel was originally known as Angel and, in combat situations, his name is usually shortened to Angel. You were effectively reborn through regeneration from Archangel’s blood and although he no longer wears his old uniform it had a halo motif on the chest. In reflection, I considered it to be a most appropriate symbol and decided that it would be your agent designation. Your reflective shield is a strong circle of protection for those within and your scanning radius allows you, among other things, to detect danger or those who need protection. Both abilities are circular in nature. Your kinetic force, which you call a ‘push’ or a ‘shove’, is more like a powerful blow, a ‘smiting’ blow in fact, to keep with the religious theme.”

“That sounds alright, but wouldn’t the name Halo suggest that I’m … ‘Holy’. I mean I try to be good … but I’m most definitely not a Saint.”

“You’re as much of a Saint,” Warren spoke up, “as I am a member of the Holy Host. Just like Logan is named Wolverine, Bobby, Iceman, and Hank, Beast. Everyone who’s important knows it’s just a designation, something to help describe your abilities.”

“Oh, okay,” she assented and then turned back to Nathan, “what’s your agent name?”

“Cable,” he replied.

“Oh, I thought that was your name.”

“No, my given name is Nathan.”

“You don’t have any cables that extend from your body. Why are you called—?”

“It’s a long story,” Nathan waved off her question, “I’ll explain it to you later. And, no, you will not be attending the S. H. I. E. L. D. meeting.”

“Oh, thank God,” she sighed in relief.

“We’ll discuss what you’ll be doing later. We’ve more important things to talk about,” he said sternly, turning back to the laptop screen. “I’ll need to talk to Beast after the meeting. Wolverine discovered another side affect Halo received from the explosion.”

“My studies have determined Lycanthrope cells in her DNA. Has she developed symptoms?” Beast asked.

“Could be related.”

“Will it interfere with your mission?” Scott asked. Secretly, he was hoping it would and they’d have to send Angel back to the Institute. He didn’t believe she should be on this mission with her recent injuries and now the complication of the possibility she could become a werewolf.

“Doubt it,” Logan replied, “she’s just gone inta heat.”

Beast began to type into the keyboard in front of him, his clawed fingers moving swiftly, yet carefully from long practice.

“What? What’s going on?” Warren asked with a confused look on his face. He hadn’t heard about the possibility of Angel turning into a werewolf.

“Halo has been infected with the werewolf mutagen,” Beast explained. “I suspect the biological contamination occurred during and possibly after the explosion in the sewers. The prodigious infusion of regenerative blood into her system may have incorporated the introduced somatic cells of the lycanthropes into her DNA,” On the computer screen in front of him, he examined Angel’s medical record, which he had transcribed into the computer database. “Wolverine is correct. Following her normal cycle, as a feral, she has reached estrus.” He began typing into the keyboard again, “Interesting. What are her symptoms?” He looked up at the large screen that showed the three in San Francisco.

“Oh, please, not in front of everybody,” Angel moaned and covered her eyes with her hand, which did little to hide the fact that her face had turned bright red. She wished she could just sink through the floor.

“You can talk about it when you have a smaller audience,” Nathan halted their discussion before it could start, looking pointedly at Angel before returning his gaze to the laptop screen. “I’ve decided it would be best to work with S. H. I. E. L. D., I’ll take leadership of any agents you deem necessary to send to San Francisco. I don’t feel we need any, but if there are any volunteers I’ll take them into consideration.”

“We have several team leaders here,” Charles replied, “and two positions left.”

“Their intelligence leads them to believe either the naval base or shipyards are in danger in San Diego,” Scott said. “I’d like to head up that team.”

Charles nodded in acceptance, he rarely refused Scott his choice of leadership, “That leaves Los Angeles. S. H. I. E. L. D. had information on the naval bases in San Diego and the skyscrapers in San Francisco, but very little on Los Angeles. They think there are several, possibly unrelated, targets including media and power supply. This could mean they plan on blacking out all of the Los Angeles area and bombing various television and radio stations. Creating panic and riots seems to be the main goal.” Charles glanced from Ororo to Kurt to Jubilee. “It might be best if we sent several teams to Los Angeles.”

“The economic situation in California should also be considered,” Hank said. “California has suffered a great financial crisis in the past few years. This has been reflected in the budgets of every city. Many have had to retire more experienced professionals and postpone the hiring of new law enforcement officers and emergency services staff. Politically, there is already talk of impeachment of their current governor. California is ill prepared to deal with terrorist attacks.”

“Once it was brought to his attention, the Secretary of Homeland Security requested S. H. I. E. L. D.’s cooperation,” Charles replied, “and S. H. I. E. L. D. has solicited the paranormal community to assist in this time of crisis. Our teams will therefore report to S. H. I. E. L. D. and not any of the forces of the United States government.”

“I remember,” Angel spoke up, removing her hand from her face, a small frown creasing her forehead, “there used to be paranormal teams here in California and then they all moved away and I never understood why.”

“Too much publicity,” Warren responded, answering her question. “California prides itself on being the media capital of America, if not the world. It became more of a hindrance than a help when we couldn’t step out of the buildings without getting our pictures taken. The helicopters flying overhead got pretty tiresome, too. Some paranormals achieved superstar status and it went to their heads.” Warren’s image was too small for Angel to make out who exactly he was looking at, but he seemed to be trying to make a point to someone. “We couldn’t do anything covert because the media was crawling all over us. Wolverine began to rack up an impressive list of assault charges from paparazzi when they started following him. Xavier sent him out of the country until the lawyers could deal with the plethora of lawsuits.”

“Some o’ the bastards still followed me even then,” Logan growled. Then an evil smiled appeared on his face and he leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms in front of his chest, “but I took care o’ them in Macao.”

“Yes and the X Corporation paid some hefty fines to lift their warrant for your arrest,” Bishop warned him, “The United States has an extradition treaty with Macao.”

“How was I to know one o’ the assholes stashed his film up his—?”

“We seem to be getting sidetracked,” Jean broke into the conversation.

“Yes,” Charles agreed. “Halo, your information on a secondary location for the werewolves proved fruitful. It seems they were using a hidden storage facility as a new base of operations. Several crates of explosives, munitions and the laptop you identified earlier have been recovered. We are also in the process of interrogating the werewolves that we were successful in detaining.”

“How many?” Logan asked.

“Four. We were unable to apprehend the two remaining leaders. The Pack seems to have a suicide policy.”

“I’ve heard of The Pack,” Logan said, his eyes narrowing. “One of those biker gangs that’s become a wannabe paramilitary survivalist group. Last I heard, they’d holed up in the Montana backwoods.”

“From what information I’ve already obtained,” Charles told him, tapping the side of his head, “that was their cover. They’re an international mercenary organization. I’ve already determined that the werewolves are one of their elite forces and have had combat training from Victor Creed.”

“Shit! That explains a few things,” Logan growled, remembering the beating he’d taken when he’d tried to take on the werewolves for the first time at the Lobo Technologies building.

“He was also instrumental in creating the team that staffed the Lobo Technologies building, although I don’t have any evidence that he is still working with The Pack at present. We do know that they began infiltrating Lobo Tech approximately three years ago and have been in place and running surveillance on the Institute and key staff members for over a year. It was quite an extensive network of motion detectors, camera’s and satellite relays. They were under orders to remain sub rosa, concealing their activities and avoiding any of the telepathic agents at all costs. I’ve sent out some of the newer recruits to begin dismantling their remaining surveillance equipment in the surrounding area and the White Queen is interrogating the werewolves as we speak.”

“Three years?” Warren asked in dismay, “They’ve been planning this for three years?”

“Possibly longer,” Charles replied. “Their motivation is a mystery. It was only recently that they were ordered to make themselves known. The list of their crimes is actually quite diverse and extensive and many fall under the recent federal terrorism legislation that has been enacted. I informed S. H. I. E. L. D. of their activities and Bridge believes, as I do, that there is a small chance that the Lobo Tech incidents may be related to what is going on in San Francisco so he has given us full discretion in the interrogations as long as we adhere to the United Nations Pact on Psychic Probes.”

“Did you tell them about Halo’s scanning ability?” Nathan asked.

Charles shook his head, “No. I thought it best to leave her abilities undisclosed for the moment.”

“I’d like her scanning ability classified as ‘on a need to know basis’,” Nathan informed him. “It could be our ace in the hole here and I don’t trust S. H. I. E. L. D. or the local government to keep it quiet. I don’t want her to become a target. Disclosing her other abilities and background should keep them satisfied as to why she’s with us.”

Charles nodded and said, “Agreed.” He looked around the table and the others also nodded in assent except Cain who just shrugged and said, “Whatever.”

“I would like to see the White Queen’s report when she’s finished with the werewolves,” Warren said, starting the dialogue back up.

“I’ll have it sent to all of you,” Charles replied, “Any questions you have should be directed to her. We anticipate further interrogations to extrapolate on her initial report. As for the laptop that was recovered, the werewolf leader tried to destroy it, but Sage and Forge were able to salvage a considerable amount of data. The preliminary information they’ve decoded has revealed their day-to-day operations, a few of their contacts and some of their arms dealers. Juggernaut confirmed and identified some of the arms dealers for us. S. H. I. E. L. D. has already agreed to send a team to join us in apprehending them. Any pertinent information will be sent to you once all the files have been decoded.”

“When do you plan to move on the arms dealers?” Nathan asked.

“Afterwards,” Scott replied. “It would take up to many of our resources to find them and apprehend them now with the crisis looming over our heads.”

Nathan nodded, “I’d like to be in on it.”

“So noted,” Scott replied with a nod before he turned his attention to Warren. “What information have you gathered so far?”

“Someone notified the local media of my arrival last night,” Warren said in an annoyed voice. “I’ve already dodged two of the local stations media vans that were camped out front of the offices and the phone has been ringing off the hook requesting interviews and offering invitations to social events. I haven’t accepted anything as of yet, but I probably should within the next day or two.

“It was easy enough to retrieve the blue prints on all the buildings and the records of any changes or upgrades. The personnel files have been filtered in regards to the specifications that we discussed and the results are more than I expected. It’ll take a while to wade through them and really pick out the suspects. What I’m truly concerned about is the fact that so much of these buildings are vacant, approximately ten to fifteen percent of each building has been vacant for over six months or more. I’ve already made a call to my real estate people to find out why.”

Nathan and Logan exchanged looks.

“Add your real estate company to the list of suspects,” Logan said.

“I already have,” Warren replied.

“It looks like Cable’s team is in place and have everything planned out for the next twelve hours,” Charles said. “If you don’t mind Cable, I’ll talk to S. H. I. E. L. D. about any undercover operatives they have that might be of use to your unit. I’ll contact you if I receive a positive response.”

“They probably already have teams set up and ready to dispatch to each of the hot spots,” Nathan said leaning forward in his chair. “Tell them to send their uniforms down to L. A. I want to keep this as quiet as possible so I won’t accept anything less than their covert and black ops people. My team may be the only one with the opportunity to trace this up the ladder to find out who’s giving orders and I’ll use everything at my command to dig out those sons of bitches.”

“We may have the opportunity to follow a trail in San Diego,” Scott said.

Both Logan and Nathan snorted.

“You’re dealing with the military, Cyke,” Logan drawled, “a bunch o’ bored uniforms stuck at a friendly border. With all the drugs and boozin’ goin’ on you think they can keep a secret?”

“I won’t say that the security is the tightest,” Scott said stiffly, “but we may get far enough up the chain of command to make some connections.”

“Or scapegoats,” Nathan commented.

“I’m going to call this meeting to an end,” Charles said before Nathan could deride his father any more than he already had. “We all have work to do. Beast, if you will remain with me, we need discuss Halo’s newest development with Cable’s team.”

Chapter 20

Hank moved to a chair next to Charles as the other agents left the room and prepared the computer to update Angel’s files.

“Do you want me to disconnect?” Warren asked.

“No,” Charles answered quickly. “You are Cable and Wolverine’s backup. You need to know what the situation is between Wolverine and Halo.” Belatedly he added, “And Cable.”

Nathan frowned and raised a hand in denial, “I’ve haven’t had any reaction to Halo.”

“Yet,” Logan said as he turned to look at Nathan. “We haven’t tested your reaction to her scent.”

“Is it scent only?” Hank asked his hands poised over the keyboard in front of him.

Logan shook his head, “No, it’s scent and taste. Just like Wolvesbane when she first went into heat.”

“Oh, shit. Don’t remind me,” Warren said. “The rooms at the Institute stunk to high heaven wherever she went.”

“You had it easy,” Logan replied. “You didn’t have her crawling all over you. The first time it happened, she was fourteen. At least Beast was able ta turn it off with a shot.”

Nathan smirked, “From what I was told, it didn’t stop her from getting into your bed.”

“Nothin’ happened,” Logan replied with a sideways glance. “I held her down while Beast injected her with some sort of birth control. Took her out o’ heat in a few hours.”

Nathan looked at the screen and asked Hank, “Do you still have it?”

“It would need to be made for the individual,” Hank replied, “but I do not believe such a solution is available for Halo.”

“Why not?” Angel asked, joining into the conversation. She was slightly relieved to know that her “condition” wasn’t unknown among these men although she wished they’d go into more detail about feral females since she now seemed to be part of that category.

“There is a strong possibility that your regenerative ability would negate the effects of the serum within moments,” Hank answered. His hands hovered over his keyboard, “I need to know when you first began feeling symptoms of going into estrus.”

“Uhh,” Angel looked at Logan and shrugged, “Saturday afternoon, I guess.”

Hank frowned and typed something into the computer, “Wolverine, when did you first notice her fragrance?”

Logan put his elbow on the table and stared at Angel for a moment before he turned to Hank, “Friday. But I didn’t realize it then. I didn’t know what it was ‘til last night ‘fore I went ta bed. This mornin’ I confirmed it.”

The surprise was obvious on both Charles and Hank’s faces as they glanced at each other. For Logan to NOT have noticed, or smelled rather, a woman going into the most fertile time of the month was a surprise.

“Explain,” Charles ordered.

“Most women smell … more like what they normally smell like,” Logan replied.

“Their natural aroma increases in strength,” Hank confirmed. “I can verify that. Why did you not realize that Halo had entered her estrus?”

“Because it doesn’t smell like her. It’s not her natural scent,” Logan explained.

“Her body has undergone a change, Wolverine,” Charles said. “It would be a good assumption that her scent might change also.”

“It’s not normal,” Logan stated, “she smells and tastes like marmalade.”

“Marmalade?” Hank said typing into the computer. “As in the preserve made from the pulp and rind of citrus fruits?”

“Yeah. Orange marmalade,” Logan said quickly.

All eyes turned to Angel. A few eyebrows were quirked.

She looked around and said, “I haven’t had any and I don’t have a clue as to why he thinks it’s marmalade.”

“Wolverine, does she also taste like marmalade?” Hank said looking down at his keyboard. If he didn’t have fur covering his face it would have been turning a slight shade of red. Asking such a very personal question about two people’s romantic involvement wasn’t on the normal list.

Logan unconsciously liked his lips, “Yeah.”

“From what locations on her body did you taste this ‘marmalade’ flavor?” Hank continued typing into the keyboard.

“Uh,” Logan hadn’t really expected Hank to ask him that and he could see Angel’s face getting redder by the second. “Everywhere.”

“Explain everywhere please,” Hank responded.

“Inside her mouth, on her skin, inside her,” Logan didn’t want to use a derogatory remark in front of Angel, “uh … between her legs.”

“The secretions of her Greater Vestibular Glands?” At Logan’s frown, he clarified, “Vaginal secretions?”

“Yeah.”

“Cable, do you also smell this marmalade aroma?” Hank asked looking up at the large man seated at the end of the table.

It was obvious that Nathan hadn’t thought about it and his nostrils flared as the breathed in. “Not really. I smell oranges, but she just ate some fruit with oranges in it.”

Hank looked up at the screen and wished the viewer could actually zoom in on the men’s faces. Logan’s eyes looked slightly dilated, but he couldn’t tell on Nathan’s one real eye. He’d ask Bishop to improve the picture and focus on their facial features during the meeting while he prepared his luggage and supplies for the trip to the West Coast. He could use the down time on the jet to go over the data.

“Assuming from previous experience with female ferals, the air in Halo’s bedroom should contain a high content of her pheromones,” Hank looked at Logan who nodded. “Has the room been ventilated or aired out in some way?” Both Logan and Angel shook their heads. “Good, Cable, would you please walk into the room Angel slept in last night?” Hank typed on the keyboard as he entered the information. He felt a sense of frustration. If only the crisis in California hadn’t occurred, her case was unique and required a proper controlled environment for analysis.

“Are you sure this is necessary?” Nathan asked. He didn’t like being a guinea pig and even if he was attracted to Angel, who he already was just because she was a beautiful woman, Logan wasn’t going to just hand her over to him if he could smell her pheromones.

“We need to know if this new development will cause problems, Cable,” Charles commanded. “Wolverine seems to have had long term exposure. He is also a Feral. You are not—”

“Hoo, yeah. Found that out,” Angel said under her breath, but the microphone on the laptop picked it up.

“—and it would be best if we had more than one source to determine whether she will affect the people in her immediate sphere of influence,” Charles finished.

“You’re not taking her back to the Institute,” Nathan said stiffly. “We need her scanning ability.”

“I will order her return if her hormones are affecting either Wolverine’s or your judgment. You can still carry out your plan of operations if we can obtain the personnel from S. H. I. E. L. D. or I can divert some of the more subtle agents to San Francisco.”

“Oath!” Nathan stood up and stalked into Angel and Logan’s bedroom.

Charles waited a few heartbeats after Nathan walked off camera before he asked, “Halo, was there a problem? With Wolverine?” His glance traveled from Logan to Angel, whose face was a rosy shade of pink.

“You heard that?”

“The microphone on your equipment is quiet sensitive,” Charles replied.

“Shit,” she looked at Logan and made an apologetic face.

Logan gave a slight shake of his head, “I’d have to tell them anyways.” He turned to the laptop, “I lost control. I went Feral on her.”

Hank’s head snapped up in alarm, “Halo are you all right?”

“Yeah. He didn’t hurt me that bad,” she responded. She wondered if her face could get any redder than it already was. Thank God, Cable, or rather, Nathan, had left the room. It’d be a little tougher to talk in front of him. She knew he’d heard them earlier in the morning. And Warren … well he was just a little picture on the screen and he was being quiet. She could almost ignore him. And this was important. She’d have to bite her tongue and stop feeling embarrassed. Think of it clinically, as if it had happened to someone else. Charles needed to know because he was her employer and responsible for sending her. Hank seemed to be the only resident medical mutant doctor at the Institute even though he said he was a biochemist. “We were having sex. The adamantium on his bones makes him pretty heavy and he’s strong enough to manhandle me. What little damage I received was mostly a bite and some bruising. The regenerative ability I inherited from Warren, I mean, Archangel, pretty much took care of the damage. I’m fine now.”

“Wolverine, why …” the ‘why’ of the matter was obvious, “… HOW did you lose control?” Hank wasn’t as worried now, Angel seemed to want to dismiss the incident or at least drop the issue, but it was still a concern and could grow to be a problem. “Please start from the beginning.”

“I think it started yesterday afternoon in the Infirmary when I took over watching Halo for the nurse,” Logan began as he went on to tell them the true activities that had occurred the previous afternoon.

Angel could sense Cable, no, she’ll have to remember, Nathan, walking around in the bedroom. She looked across the room and watched him and thought about what he must be seeing. Both beds slept in, but one was much more messed, the one that she and Logan had lain in while they had sex and made love.

Nathan toed a towel that lay on the floor between the beds and sighed. They were wasting time. He didn’t feel attracted to Angel any more than normal. Of course, knowing she was fucking Logan added spice, but she was far too naïve to be of much interest to him, if they’d met on the street, maybe a one night stand or a pleasant interlude for a few days. Nothing more. When he’d first walked into the room he’d noticed the smell of sex in the room. It was pretty obvious with the way the bedcovers were askew on the one closest to the window. He heard Logan talking about his responses to Angel and smirked. Nothing like having your weaknesses aired to damage your ego.

He kept half an ear to the conversation as he looked at the large curtain across one side of the room. He walked over and opened it to look out at the scenery and the building straight across. He gauged the weaknesses of their rooms. The whole hotel wasn’t very defensible, but it had the location and suites he needed on their arrival. He made a note to himself to check the Internet for a more suitable base of operations, especially if they were to expect company.

In the other room Hank asked incredulously, “You’ve had unprotected sex three times?”

“I’m on Norplant,” Angel replied, “Condoms aren’t really necessary. I assumed that if Lo- Wolverine had regeneration that we didn’t have to worry about STD’s.”

“Stars and garters,” Hank said under his breath as he considered how to explain things to Angel. He raised his voice, “With your new regeneration ability, the contraceptive hormones in the Norplant capsules may not be enough to counter affect your feral hormones now that you are in estrus.” A thought struck him, “Or they may be affecting your feral hormones. This marmalade essence is an unknown quantifier. I will need new samples to determine—”

“Hold on a minute,” Angel said angrily. “I can comprehend that the only reason why I was so attracted to someone who is anathema to my ideal of a mate is because I’m now a feral and so is he, but now you’re telling me I could get pregnant—I could BE pregnant?”

“Yes,” was Hank’s succinct reply.

“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier!” she exclaimed.

“It has only recently become known to us that your are a feral,” Hank replied quietly, “nor did I know the status of your relations.”

“Halo,” Charles said, placatingly, “Wolverine is considered to be an Alpha Male in the feral mutant community. Considering your current condition I doubt you would have been able to resist becoming intimate with him. You are in no way at fault for your situation.” If anything, Charles thought, I am, for putting you into this situation. I should have realized something was wrong when you and Logan began your relationship, but I thought it would be more useful in the long run. Now the consequences are beginning to escalate, but there is nothing that can be done until this crisis is resolved.

“Oh, God,” Angel groaned as she buried her head into her arms on the table, “I wish I’d never answered your damned employment advertisement.”

There was an uncomfortable silence as the men absorbed her statement.

Nathan had been listening to the conversation from the other room, he hadn’t felt any reaction to her pheromones and felt it was time he returned to the meeting. He’d reached the doorway by the time Angel finished her statement. When no one else spoke, he moved into the room and made his way to Angel.

He placed his hand on her shoulder and said, “I’m glad you did. All my life I have fought against tyranny in all it’s forms, the most insidious uses terrorism to dictate how the rest of us live our lives. The people responsible for coordinating these attacks here in California need to be found and stopped. It will be near impossible without your help.”

Angel raised her face from her arms to look at him, searching his face to make sure he was telling the truth. He bent down and kissed her on the lips, his other hand coming around to stop her from retreating as he forced his tongue into her mouth.

Her eyes widened in surprise staring into his before she moved to begin fighting him off.

Logan consciously stopped himself from surging forward as Nathan forced himself on Angel, but he couldn’t stop the growl that rose in his throat.

Warren, Charles and Hank helpless to stop what was occurring in the hotel room, watched with growing alarm as Angel and Nathan’s kiss continued while Logan looked on in obvious growing irritation.

Angel found her movement restricted, somehow she wasn’t able to move her body although her eyes still blinked and her tongue still moved as Nathan’s tongue plundered her mouth. She could sense Logan’s body tensing up as she heard his growl. He wasn’t immobile. Breathing through her nose she gathered the air to force out a whine of protest.

“Let … her … go,” Logan finally ordered between clenched teeth, his voice reverberating with the growl that emanated from his chest. He could feel his claws moving within his arms just short of breaking the skin.

Nathan abruptly broke off his kiss with Angel and stood straight, releasing his telekinetic hold on her body. He would need all his power to stop Logan. He looked Logan in the eye, practically daring him to attack as he moved to the head of the table and sat down.

Angel shuddered and drew a deep breath. Her arms moved defensively to her chest as she stared at Nathan, her mouth open in surprise.

Logan, refusing to break eye contact with Nathan, asked, “Darlin’, you okay?”

“I think so,” Angel replied, staring at Nathan and rubbing her upper arms, “I couldn’t move.”

“Telekinesis,” Nathan said calmly, “I wanted to be able to move you out of the way if Wolverine attacked me. Halo can verify that I am not influenced by her pheromones.”

There were audible sighs of relief from the laptop as the others realized the reason for Nathan’s actions and the fact that there most likely wouldn’t be a fight.

“Halo?” Charles asked softly.

Angel looked at the laptop and saw Charles’ raised eyebrow, a silent question. She turned and concentrated on Nathan. He was tense and his blood pressure was elevated slightly, but he and Logan were still staring at each other in a type of Mexican standoff, refusing to be the first to look away. His penis was completely flaccid and relaxed against the scrotum in his underwear. There was barely any seminal fluid in his vas deferens. She turned back to the laptop, “Nothing. He’s not aroused at all.”

“What about Wolverine?” Hank asked.

She considered the man across from her as he relaxed and broke off eye contact with Nathan to look at her. “During our kiss, Wolverine’s claws moved forward and he was prepared to attack, but he didn’t. He’s … slightly aroused, but for as long as I’ve known him he’s usually in that condition. He was slightly aroused the first time he and War- Archangel brought me dinner in my room at the Institute. I guess it’s a natural state for him.”

Logan looked at the laptop, smiled wryly and shrugged.

“Do you think my awareness of his physical state may have influenced my attraction to him?” she asked Hank.

“Indubitably,” Hank replied. “As a feral your knowledge that another feral in your area was ready to mate would have been an important factor. Whether an unconscious reaction or not.”

“So I would have been attracted to anyone who showed interest in me or my body?” she asked, trying to figure out the chain of events.

“Yes, your pheromones would have made any male feral in the area react positively to any physical overture,” Hank answered.

“During my physical and CAT scan,” she pressed her point, “you were attracted to me and I was reacting to it.”

“It is a reasonable assumption,” Hank replied slowly, “I was indeed physically attracted to you, but you gave me no sign that you were interested in me.”

“You didn’t notice the pheromones either,” she stated.

Startled by her revelation, Hank sat back in surprise, “Oh, my, you are correct. This does bear some investigation,” he turned to Charles, “If only for her safety.”

Charles nodded and sighed, “I was already planning for you to travel to Los Angeles, but I suppose you could be diverted to San Francisco.”

“He’s too obvious, Xavier,” Nathan said negatively. “He can come and get whatever he needs, but he’s not staying. He’ll blow our cover.”

“You will both need to attend the meeting on the S. H. I. E. L. D.’s helicarrier,” Charles replied. “Cable, since you are the one who will be attending, you can take Beast back to your lodgings and let him obtain whatever he requires from Halo. I will ask S. H. I. E. L. D. if they can spare some of their laboratory facilities for our use. If not, Beast, you may purchase what you need and set it up in the facility that they are using as their Los Angeles Base of Operations.”

“Yes, sir,” Hank replied.

Charles sighed, “We have already taken up enough time with this discussion. It was important, but there is little that can be done about it until we have further information. You have a long day ahead of you all. Dismissed.”

Chapter 21

“He’s been expecting you,” Warren’s receptionist said as she ushered them down a hallway, past two office doors to a set of elegantly carved double doors. She was a short Asian woman, shorter than Logan, but Angel could tell she was probably not just a receptionist in an expensive, purple pantsuit, but also a bodyguard. Her movement and the muscles on her body screamed martial arts master.

“The personnel from Gulogulo have arrived, Mr. Worthington,” the receptionist announced as she stood to one side with the door open.

“Thank you, Gina,” Warren said from his seat at his desk. “Please make sure we’re not disturbed for the next hour, will you?”

“Yes, sir,” Gina replied as she closed the door behind her.

Nathan and Logan immediately headed for Warren’s large mahogany desk. Nathan sat down in one of the two large leather upholstered chairs that had been placed in front of the desk and brought his metal briefcase up onto his lap, opening it and revealing his laptop. Logan walked around the edge of the desk to stand at Warren’s elbow. Logan examined the papers lying on the fancy blotter before looking at the sleek high tech computer monitor screen that was embedded in the top edge of the desk.

Angel held back near the doors, remembering Logan’s comment that Warren was a feral. She didn’t want to cause problems with her presence. Looking around, Angel’s senses told her that Warren’s office suite took up half of the top floor of the building. It consisted of his receptionist’s desk and his two administrative assistant’s offices, his own office, and through a discreet door off the office, a small apartment.

Surprised, she asked, “You live here?”

All three men looked at her, but Warren was the one that answered, “No, I have a penthouse suite in one of my other buildings.”

She motioned towards the wall that divided the apartment from his office, “Then what is it for?”

Warren glanced at the wall and smiled, “Convenience.”

“What?” Nathan asked, their conversation going over his head.

“He has a studio apartment up here complete with bed, bath and kitchen,” Angel replied with astonishment. “He doesn’t even have to leave his office!”

Nathan looked over at the door that led to the apartment, “What type of setup?”

“Everything money can buy,” Warren replied. “My home away from home.”

“Mind if I take a look?” Nathan asked.

“Go ahead, the door’s unlocked.”

Nathan looked at Logan as he stood up, “You know about it?”

“Yeah,” Logan said, “Used it a few times.”

Nathan placed his briefcase on his seat and went to investigate Warren’s apartment.

Logan looked over at Angel, “Darlin’, bring your laptop over here and we’ll load the building schematics onto it.”

Angel hesitated a moment before she walked forward and placed her blue laptop case on the edge of Warren’s desk. As she opened the case, she sensed Logan’s nostrils flare and wondered why, he’d been with her the entire time, and then she realized he might be scenting something from Warren. Warren wasn’t aroused so she didn’t know what he smelled.

Warren picked up three data sticks from his desk and held them out to her. “I hope you have room for all of these,” he said.

She took them from him and looked at the labels on the sides that told her how much information the sticks could contain. She frowned, “I’m not sure. I have a lot of personal stuff on here. Are they set up so I can examine them one at a time?”

“Yes.”

“Okay,” she nodded, “It should be able handle the files. I can keep them right?”

Warren smiled, “Yes, we’re on the same team. Just don’t lose them. I don’t need any thieves with instant access to all the security measures.”

“They’re on here, too?” she asked, surprised. “I don’t need that information.”

“Can you verify they’re all up and active?”

“I can verify that there’s something there physically, a box with wiring or a camera, but I can’t detect what it does or if there’s electricity in the wiring or if infrared beams are active. All I can do is trace the wires to electrical outlets and make sure they’re not unplugged or cut.”

“Better than nothing,” Warren replied. “If the plans say there should be a camera or a security box and you didn’t detect one, then I know something’s wrong.”

“It’ll be easier for me to look at the plans and take notes before actually going through the buildings.” She looked around his office to make a point about the fact that, although the room was richly paneled and accented in mahogany, the room only contained his desk and two chairs, “Is there an office I can use?”

“Both of my Assistants have already called to tell Gina they’re coming in,” Warren began, “and I need them to help me get organized and up to speed, so that rules out their offices. I suppose she can use—”

“She can work in here,” Nathan said from the open apartment doorway, “while we go over your personnel files. I don’t know how long it will take her to go through the schematics, but I want her here so I’m taking her to scan a couple of restaurants this afternoon and it’d be easier if I don’t have to track her down.”

“What if I’m already done with the schematics and this building?” she asked.

“Then we go to lunch,” he replied. “Logan, you’re coming, too, I need your nose.”

Angel wasn’t so sure about staying within Warren’s vicinity, “Won’t I ‘stink’ his place up?”

Nathan and Logan looked at Warren.

Warren looked at her in surprise, “I don’t smell anything.” He’d thought about the odor that Logan had mentioned immediately after the conference call, but he’d gotten so busy, not to mention worried about the fact that his office buildings had been targeted, that he’d nearly forgotten about her having gone into estrus.

Angel frowned and looked at Logan, “I thought you said he was a Feral?”

“I wasn’t sure. He’s got wings.”

“Oh, thanks,” Warren said, “and the term Archangel means nothing? I haven’t tested positive on half of the Feral tests.”

Logan shrugged and said, “Kiss her then.”

Warren looked at her, then glanced from Logan to Nathan. Sighing he stood up and motioned for her to lean forward over his desk.

“No,” Nathan said as he walked over to the desk and pushed Angel to the side, “you’re not going to get away with a peck on the lips. We need to know if she affects you and that won’t do it.”

Logan grabbed her arm and guided her towards Warren.

“I won’t say this isn’t a dream come true,” Angel said with a smile as she was pressed against Warren’s chest, “kissing the handsome prince in his tower and all, but I didn’t think the two guardian Ogre’s would be the one’s forcing us to do it.”

Warren smiled at her analogy, “Just as long as one of us doesn’t turn into a Toad.”

“A horny Toad,” she countered.

His smile broadened even more, “Yes.” He brought a hand to the side of her face and leaned down to kiss her.

She opened her mouth as his lips touched hers to give him better access. His tongue darted into her mouth, sliding against her tongue. She closed her eyes and held still, not responding to him. She knew he had a girlfriend and it wasn’t right to try to make it into a real kiss. Instead she focused on his body, seeking the earliest sign of his arousal. His wings shifted for balance, opening slightly.

Just as she sensed the blood rushing to his loins, he broke away from her abruptly, “Damn!” He stepped back a few feet, shoving his chair backwards.

Logan stepped between them and asked, “What’d you taste?”

Warren wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, “Oranges.”

“Anything else?” Nathan asked, moving behind Angel to pull her away.

“Mint.”

“Toothpaste and mouthwash,” Angel replied at their questioning looks.

“Well, it looks like you test as a Feral in this little experiment,” Logan drawled.

“But I don’t smell anything,” Warren protested. “She didn’t affect me until we kissed.”

“Remember, Hank didn’t smell anything either,” Nathan said. “Logan?”

“Could be the type o’ Feral,” Logan said, turning to look her up and down hungrily. “I can smell her, no problem.”

“Maybe it’s canine hormones,” Nathan said. “Hank’s a feline and you’re some sort of avian.” He looked at Logan. “Think it’s safe to put her in his apartment?”

Logan looked at Warren, “Wings?”

Warren slid a glance to Angel before he looked at Logan, “As long as we’re not kissing I can control it. Whatever it is.”

“I’m not planning on kissing you anymore,” Angel said reassuringly. “I’m not sure what Paige can do, but I’m pretty sure she’d try to kill me.”

That got a smile out of Warren, “Maybe. We haven’t been together that long.”

“Let’s just … keep it on the friendship level then,” Angel said. “I don’t need any more complications in my life right now.”

“Agreed,” Warren replied.

“He’s … uh,” she looked at Nathan, “returning to normal.”

“Good,” Nathan nodded. “Then it should be safe for you to use his apartment—at least for a few hours and we’ll make sure to air it out before we leave. Just in case.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Angel walked down the hallway, clipboard clutched against her chest. She stopped in front of a set of double doors.

“Did you want me to open this one, too?” asked the balding man in uniform by her side.

“Yes, if you would, please.”

The man, who’s starched security uniform bore the name tag ‘Langley’, pulled out a handful of keys and selected one before pressing it into the keyhole and twisting it to release the lock.

Angel sighed. She was on the last floor she needed to check and, other than one disconnected camera in the underground parking, she hadn’t found anything wrong or faulty. She hadn’t been bored at least. Some people kept pretty interesting things in their desks. The alcohol, drugs and sexual objects in the more enclosed offices had kept her entertained. She wondered if the security staff knew about half of what she sensed. She’d made coded notes during the entire time she inspected the building. Most of the notes were nothing, but some were so she could tell Warren about the illegal drugs. She didn’t want him to get into a lawsuit, but maybe it would be better if he knew what type of tenants he had.

They’d found out early on that she’d need someone from the security staff to follow her around to open the entrances to the office suites that were over fifty feet from the exterior wall so she could be sure she was thorough.

Don Langley was the current On Duty Supervisor and she’d learned a bit about him during their time together. He’d served in Viet Nam, but quit military service at the first opportunity because he hadn’t believed in the war. They’d bonded quickly over that. With his military background, he easily found employment as a police officer and rose to the rank of Sergeant before he was injured in the line of duty during a hostage situation. His wife had pleaded for him to get out of the service before something worse happened. “And here I am,” he’d said laughingly, tapping at the badge on his shoulder “still serving and protecting ‘til the day I die.”

“There you are,” Langley said stepping back to let her through the doorway first.

Angel walked in and looked around. It was a lawyer’s office and she could sense a thick wall of legal books on the inside of the largest office. She walked around the small cubicles used by the receptionist, clerical staff and paralegals.

“You know if you find a fire hazard here, they’re more likely to sue you for defamation than fix the problem. Goldstein and Fitz have been here since the building was built,” Langley said. “They were one of the first tenants.”

Angel smiled. They’d explained the reason for her examination of the building as to make sure it was up to all codes and that all the security measures were in place and functioning. One of the other security guards had been assigned to tape her movement through the building on the security cameras.

Logan had suggested they just hand the keys to the building over to him and Warren had advised him that according to their contract, the security company couldn’t do that unless their contract with Worthington Enterprises had expired. They’d been resigned to the fact that they’d have to have someone follow Angel throughout her examination of all the Worthington buildings. Since the security company Worthington hired used mutants, the men went through the security personnel files to find people with enough seniority to enter every office, but at the same time weren’t listed as mutants. Even then, Logan had gone with Angel to arrange her escort by Langley and do a physical check through Logan’s nose and Angel’s senses to make sure he wasn’t an unlisted mutant, Feral or otherwise.

“No,” Angel said as she opened the door to the main office and took a peek inside, “I don’t see anything to cause alarm. And this is our last stop I believe.” She made the pretense of checking her clipboard and making a few notes as she left the suite and waited for Langley to lock the doors behind her.

Langley checked his watch, “Just in time for lunch.”

Angel glanced at the watch on her wrist. It was almost noon. “Could you have them deliver the security tapes to Mr. Worthington’s office?” she asked as they headed towards the bank of elevators.

“Sure,” Langley replied, “I’ll get them myself and bring them up before I head out to lunch.” He hit the elevator call button on the wall and one of the elevator doors popped open.

“Thank you so much,” Angel beamed at him as she headed towards the opening and stepped inside.

Chapter 22

The rental SUV was parked backwards, front facing out at Angel, Logan and Nathan as they left the elevator. Nathan keyed the button that unlocked the doors and the vehicle’s driving lights flashed and horn honked, echoing against the cement walls of the dim parking garage.

“Drive,” Nathan said to Logan before tossing the keys to him. Logan caught them deftly with a raised questioning eyebrow. Nathan gave an almost imperceptible nod that Logan replied to with an acknowledging grunt.

“Why don’t you let me drive?” Angel asked with a smile, “I’m probably more familiar with this area than either of you.”

Nathan opened the back passenger door and motioned for her to get in, as he said, “No.”

Angel hesitated before entering the vehicle, “Why not?”

“Get in,” Logan ordered with a growl from the driver’s seat.

Nathan closed her door and got into the front passenger seat, his door slamming shut with the force of the truck shooting forward as Logan put it into drive and hit the gas.

Trying to attach her seatbelt in the moving vehicle, “Are we in that much of a hurry?”

“Time,” Nathan said.

“Going to be a quick meal then, isn’t it?” she asked sarcastically.

“No, we’ll take as long as you need,” Nathan replied.

“Then why are we going so fast? And you guys better fasten your seatbelts before the cops see you’re not wearing them or they’ll tag you as easy money,” she advised.

At the entrance/exit of the parking garage, the man in the little security booth gave a small wave and smile as they passed.

“You think his co-workers alerted him that we were leaving?” Angel asked out loud after she waved and smiled back at the guard. “He wasn’t paying attention when we arrived.”

Logan grunted, but Angel saw one side of his lips draw up in a smirk as he turned to check the street for access while putting on his seatbelt.

“Go ahead and go, Logan,” Angel told him. “It’s a one way street and there’s no one coming on the other side of that double parked UPS truck.”

Logan glanced in the rear view mirror and said, “Thanks,” before he pulled into the street.

“Now do you see why it would’ve been better to let me drive?” she asked.

“Do you know how to detect and get rid of people who are following you?” Nathan asked rhetorically before he continued, “The media’s attention is on Warren right now and if they do any checking, they’ll realize that Gulogulo is part of the X Corporation, too. I wouldn’t put it past one of them to try to follow us and find out what we’re doing.”

“You’ve got to be kidding!” she replied, “We’re just going to lunch!”

“That’s what we want them to think,” Nathan said picking up a manila folder from between his seat and the center console. “Don’t forget this is a working lunch.”

“Yeah,” she said with a sigh. She concentrated with her senses and noticed two vehicles pull away from curbs behind them. Nathan might have been right about them being followed. As Logan drove, she made a note of the two vehicles, one was a van filled with metal and plastic equipment and four people inside, two in the back and two in the seats up front. The other vehicle was a sedan with only one person, the driver. She felt another vehicle leave the Worthington garage, but she lost her ability to make out any details on it as Logan turned their SUV around a corner and several buildings blocked her direct contact.

“Damn,” she muttered.

“What?” Logan asked, his superior hearing picking up her voice.

“I think a car left the garage, but I can’t be sure,” she explained. “You turned the corner so now I can’t track it.”

“We’re only a couple blocks away,” Nathan said, “I thought you could sense that far.” He was pleased that she’d taken to heart what he’d just said about them being followed and that she’d immediately started looking for pursuers without him having to ask.

“When we turned the corner several buildings worth of concrete and iron blocked me from making out any details. I’ve already picked out a car and a van that might be following us, but the vehicle from the garage is a normal car. I’m not sure about make and model. We’re moving, they’re moving and there are a lot of cars moving along the same route not to mention people on the sidewalks. It makes it more difficult to concentrate with so much distraction. It’ll be easier if and when we get on the freeway.”

“A car and a van?” Nathan asked.

“Where are they?” Logan asked, his eyes scanning the vehicles in his side and rear view mirrors.

Angel turned and looked out the tinted rear window. After a few moments, she said, “The car is blue and behind that green family van with the lei hanging off the mirror. The van … Oh, crap,” disappointment crept in to her voice, “I thought it was a news van. It’s over on the right behind that red sports car.”

Nathan flipped the sun visor down and pulled open the flap to reveal a cosmetic mirror. He angled it to see out the rear windows. “What made you think it was a news van?” he asked.

“There’re four people in it and a lot of equipment. Two in the front and two inside the van sitting next to the equipment,” she replied, “but it doesn’t have any markings that I can see. It sort of feels like a news van, but it’s just a white commercial van.”

“Keep track of them,” Nathan commanded. “Tell me if they’re still on our trail when we get on the freeway.”

She nodded and sat back in her seat, closing her eyes to better concentrate on her scanning sense.

A few minutes later, her eyes still closed, she said, “Uh, Logan, you need to get into the right hand lane to get onto the freeway.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Nathan responded, “he knows what he’s doing. Are the van and car still following us?”

“Oh,” dawning comprehension on her face. “Yes, they’re still there, but so are a few other cars. I think one of them might be from the garage.”

“Jus’ keep track, Darlin’,” Logan said with a glance in the mirror.

“I am, I am,” she replied, her eyes had never opened.

Logan continued driving and eventually encountered another entrance to the freeway, which he took. Nathan looked back at Angel, miniscule movements of her head and her eyes moving beneath her eyelids telling him that she was concentrating on the vehicles surrounding them. He waited.

“Definitely the van and the car,” she said opening her eyes, “plus another car and possibly a truck.”

“Shit!” Logan exclaimed, grip tightening on the wheel. He glanced at Nathan, “They can’t all be dirt diggers.”

Nathan nodded with a grimace and looked into the backseat at Angel. Watching her face, he noticed, her eyes were closed and her body relaxed, moving with the vehicle as it dipped and swayed where the shocks didn’t cushion their movement along the pavement. A faint expression of concentration dipped her eyebrows along with the ever so slight movements of her head, turning first this way and then that as she scanned the vehicles around them. “Where are they?” he asked.

“The truck is coming up on the left to pass us,” she said. “There’s only the driver and he has a cowboy hat on.”

Nathan saw an older model truck move up on the driver’s side, it was a dirty, serviceable brown Chevrolet and looked like it had been on the road longer than it should. The driver was a middle-aged man with darkly tanned, leathery skin. Dark hair and sideburns were barely visible beneath a light colored cowboy hat. He was relaxed with only one hand on the top of the wheel. As if feeling the eyes upon him, he turned to look briefly at the occupants of the Ford Expedition and then returned his gaze to the road in front of him.

“Can you tell if he has any weapons on him?” he asked her.

Her eyes snapped open and peeved, she said, “You like to make life difficult don’t you?”

“Just do it,” he ordered.

“If I get a migraine, it’s your fault,” she replied before closing her eyes again.

He watched her face go through many facial expressions from annoyance to alarm to consternation.

“He’s … he’s got a gun and a couple of knives, but he also has a badge,” she said finally. “He’s wearing a phone thing … a … what’s the term? A wire.”

“Can you tell what type of badge?” Logan asked.

“I’m trying,” she replied. “I can barely tell what it is, but I can already tell you it’s not a cop’s badge. It’s got some weird design on it, the whole thing is like a bird with its wings spread.”

“SHIELD,” Logan said with a smirk and a glance at Nathan. “Chuck’s already told ‘em we’re here by now. Only a matter o’ time ‘fore they tried to find out what we were up to.”

“You think it’s SHIELD?” she asked. “The writing is smaller … maybe, I guess it could be.”

Nathan sighed, “We’re to meet with them tonight. You’d think they could wait.”

“Not Fury,” Logan replied, a smile creeping onto his face.

“I thought Bridge was in charge,” Nathan said.

“He might be in charge, but he’s not calling the shots,” Logan replied. “With a situation like this, Fury’d take over. He just had Bridge contact Chuck because he had to go through legal channels to make us all,” his voice turned sarcastic, “one big cooperative team.”

“Do you guys still want me to watch him now that we think he’s a member of SHIELD?” Angel asked from the back seat.

“Would you recognize him if he shows up later?” Nathan asked. When she didn’t answer right away he looked over his shoulder and saw the same look of concentration on her face. “Angel?”

After a few more moments, she said, “Now I will.”

“You’ll be able to tell it’s him even if he shaves or changes his clothes and armament?”

“I won’t say I’ll be one hundred percent,” she replied, “but I’m fairly certain I’d recognize him. If we get within ten feet of each other, without metal between us, I’ll be able to guarantee it.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Inside the brown truck, the earpiece in the cowboy’s ear came to life, “Hey, Chevy! You still following the three little pigs?” The masculine voice used a false Mexican accent to pronounce the name of the driver.

The man in the cowboy hat thumbed the switch that allowed him to reply, “Yeah, just passed them. And stop calling me Chevy.”

Laughter over the earpiece, “Okay, Chevy, you passed ‘em. What’s the sitch?”

“I don’t know,” uncertainty crept into Chevy’s voice, “Wolverine kept checking his side mirror and Cable was looking at me when I passed them. Are you sure they’re not—”

“What the hell? What did you do? We’ve got no ‘path readings here.”

“Nothing! I ran through the mental list just like you told me. Even if he did try to pick something up, he should’ve gotten Average Joe vibes.”

“You must’ve done something wrong if they’ve sniffed you out already.”

There was the sound of voices in the background, but Chevy couldn’t make out the words. “I’ve done everything by the book. Are you getting any readings right now?”

There was a slight pause and then, “No. Cable’s not using his powers.”

“What about the girl?”

“Nothing.”

“You got any info on what she does?”

“Not yet, they’re playing hush, hush with her. Saying that it’s NTK only.”

“Need to Know? Shit. What the hell is she?”

“We got a poll going,” the voice on the radio offered.

“What’re the options?”

“Mental, Physical and Other.”

“Other?”

“Whatever doesn’t fit the first two, personally, I’m siding with Other. Cable’s Mental and Wolverine’s Physical. Xavier doesn’t usually double up. From what I hear there’s still some debate about her having joined them. Seems she might be a lamb running with wolves.”

“Hmmmm,” Chevy looked at the red Ford in his rear view mirror, “What’re the odds?”

“Right now five to one Mental, fifteen to one Physical, and forty to one she’s Other.”

“Pretty long odds.”

“Well, she’s showing no obvious Physical mutations and Other mutations ARE fairly rare.”

“Have you seen her?”

“She has a decent DMV pic.”

“Better in real life.”

“Thank God! I can’t standing looking at Wolverine’s ugly mug for long.”

That got a laugh from Chevy, “Yeah, me neither. You want me to pull off or keep going?”

“We’ve got no readings to say they’re on to you so stay ahead of them and radio in when they turn off. We’re going to fall back.”

“Sure, and put me down for Physical.”

“Roger!”

The radio went silent once again.

Inside the white commercial van, a young blonde man in his mid twenties pulled a headset off his ears and rested them on his neck before turning to the two older, militaristic looking men in the front bucket seats. “You hear that? Put Chase down for Physical.”

“Will do,” the passenger replied, pulling a small notebook and pen from his breast pocket.

The remaining man in the van was an Asian with short-cropped black hair and brown eyes. He was watching a set of gauges and making notes on a clipboard, obviously a technician of some sort. “Who was looking at him?” he asked.

“Wolverine and Cable. You want me to play it back to verify?” the blonde replied.

“No, I’ll synchronize it with my readings later to prove Cable wasn’t using his abilities.”

“You think it might have something to do with her?”

“Probably,” the tech wrote more notes down, “I can’t calibrate the equipment to scan for mutations I don’t know about.”

“You sci-tech guys are probably looking forward to tonight. What with forty or more paranormals arriving that you can scan and monitor for a few hours.”

The tech shook his head with a grimace, “Not us grunts, we’ll be pulling forty-eight hour shifts to compile all the data. It’s going to be a Bitch.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Angel found a parking space for them within half a block of The Fez. Nathan dropped quarters into the meter for two hours, more than enough time for what they needed. As she led the way to the restaurant, Nathan fell into step beside her while Logan followed.

“So the van and two cars?” Nathan began.

“Yes,” Angel replied. “And I think the truck might be back, too.”

“You’re still keeping track?”

“Yes,” she repeated in a worried tone. “The van just turned onto the street behind us, coming this way.”

Nathan noticed the shop they were approaching, “You need to buy clothes.”

“What?” she was surprised by the change in topic, “No, I was going to stop at my house and—”

Logan caught on a lot faster, “There’s a shop in front of you. You need to buy new clothes.” The last was said as an order.

“O … kay,” she said slowly. Her eyes caught sight of the display in the window of the clothing store and a big smile lit her face, “It’s your credit card.” She headed into the store and immediately started checking the clothes on the first rack.

By the time the van passed the clothing store, Logan had pulled out a cigar and was in the process of lighting it. As he snapped the lighter shut, he said around the cigar, “You had the long term girlfriend.”

Nathan practically growled and headed into the store. He was surprised to find Angel with several pieces of clothing over her arm and sorting through a rack against the wall. “The van?” he asked quietly.

“What about it?” she asked, pulling the clothing to the side so she could see the color and design.

“Who was in it?”

“I don’t know. Both of you told me to go shopping,” she lowered her voice, “You didn’t tell me you still wanted me to keep track of all those vehicles.”

Nathan’s eyes grew wide and he took a deep breath, looming over her, “Don’t tell me that you stopped—”

She lifted up the clothes in her arms, holding them out to him. Raising her voice she said, “Here. Take these.”

He looked at the clothes. They looked like dresses and pants in blues and greens. He was surprised that she’d picked out quite a few clothes in under five minutes. “Angel,” he began.

“Don’t stand there like a … SHIELD,” she said, emphasizing the last word. “I needed to do some shopping. Take these to the register. I just have to pick out some khimars and I’ll be done.” She shoved the clothes into his chest until he raised his arms and took them from her.

He realized she’d been joking with him at first, acting the ditzy blonde. She’d cryptically told him that the men in the van had been more SHIELD agents. He should have known they’d have sent a team to follow Wolverine and Cable, one normal human, no matter how good the training, wouldn’t be able to keep up with them.

The word ‘khimars’ circled around in his brain as he observed Angel stop at a rack of scarves and then it came to him. It was the name of the headscarves that Islamic women wore to cover their hair. He quickly looked around and saw he’d sent her into a small ethnic store full of women’s Arabic clothing. The displays in the front window had looked like dresses, but now he saw that they were caftans, ankle length flowing gowns with long sleeves.

A plump woman, wearing a tan, embroidered long tunic and matching pants with her hair covered in a matching scarf or khimar approached Angel and asked if she needed any help. Nathan heard her ask about pins to use with the khimar and the woman told her they had a display near the register. Angel picked up the khimars she’d chosen and followed the woman to the display.

Nathan walked over to the register and dropped the clothes onto the counter. Expecting Angel to be as quick about picking out the pins as she had the clothes, he dug a credit card out of his wallet. He wasn’t disappointed as the two women joined him at the register within moments.

He looked out the front window and saw a small cloud of smoke float up. Logan was still in position, waiting and watching for an attack. They weren’t taking any chances with Angel. Although she’d told him that the van held more SHIELD agents, it could just as well have been a group of Friends of Humanity terrorists looking to score a hit. They didn’t need to find out how long her regeneration would take for her to recover enough to continue her mission of scanning the Worthington buildings. While he got her out the back door of the store, Logan, having the fastest healing ability, would have been able to take any damage they dished out and still be ready and able to continue their mission within a few hours. The less the local Police knew about their activities, the better.

Angel taking the credit card out of his hand drew him back to the situation at hand. He glanced at the digital display on the back of the register and grunted. A few hundred was worth the peace of mind. If she didn’t figure it out he wasn’t going to tell her why they’d sent her into the store, he doubted Logan would either. He signed the slip of paper the clerk handed him and took the receipt, placing it and the credit card back into his wallet. While he placed his wallet back into his pocket, Angel grabbed the handles of the bags and with a polite smile and farewell to the clerk, started for the front of the store.

“That was fast,” Logan commented when she stopped next to him.

“You should see me during Christmas,” she smiled.

Logan stood straight from leaning against the wall and peeked into the bags. In a low voice he asked, “You still tracking?” At her nod he added, “Anyone get out? Following us?”

In a whisper she replied, “The man across the street looking into the used bookstore is the driver of the blue car. No badge or weapons, but he does have a small digital camera, a tape recorder, a PDA and a cell phone.”

Nathan came out of the store behind her, “You want to put those in the truck?”

“Sure,” she said and they headed back to the SUV. “All the vehicles are parked now,” she said quietly. With a motion of her head towards an opening between buildings, she said, “The other car is in the alley, the driver should be turning the corner in a sec. No badge that I can tell. A gun, a knife and a cell phone. I THINK there’s another gun and some sort of rifle in the trunk of his car.” To anyone who had been watching the two men next to her, they didn’t seem to react to her announcement, but she could tell in the bunching of certain muscles along their arms, backs and legs that they were on the alert.

The man with no badge rounded the corner. He was a short, thin Caucasian man wearing a dirty white Giants baseball cap over light brown hair, sneakers, baggy blue jeans and a black t-shirt with “WTF?” in large white block letters. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed a number while he casually glanced up and down the street.

While Angel placed her purchases in the SUV, Logan asked, “Abort?”

“No,” Nathan said, “Continue to the restaurant. Looks like the punk is our only worry at the moment.”

Chapter 23

“You want me to take him out?” Logan asked, hitting the button on the key ring. The Ford honked and it’s lights flashed to confirm it received the command to lock the doors.

“No,” Nathan replied with a smile. “I have an idea to kill three birds with one stone and get some information while we’re at it.”

“Three?” Angel asked, shutting the door.

The punk looked in their direction using the honking horn as an excuse to actually observe his prey. He saw the tall, older man with short grey hair and the physique of a bodybuilder, a much shorter but no less muscular man with dark hair that almost reached his wide shoulders and a thin woman with long, loose blonde hair that reached past her waist. He’d have no problem keeping track of such an unusual group. They matched the faxes he’d received along with the orders to follow the trio and find out where they went after leaving the Worthington building.

Nathan dug into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He flipped it open and dialed a number before putting the phone to his ear.

Logan placed his hand on Angel’s back. “Let’s go get some grub,” he said aloud. Quietly, he added, “Keep track o’ the men and cars ‘til Nathan tells ya ta stop.”

There was concern in her voice as she whispered, “I’ve never concentrated this hard for this long. I know, back at the Institute, I told you all that I could do it, but …” She shook her head, “The buildings are one thing. Keeping track of moving vehicles and people, especially long distance.” She sighed tiredly, “I’m not used to this.”

Logan nodded in understanding, “Nathan’s tryin’ ta relieve ya o’ that burden. Just keep it up a li’l while longer.”

“Maybe after the next building we can take a break?” she asked.

“We’ll see how ya feel,” he replied, making no promises. As she moved ahead, leading the way to the restaurant, the wind blew her pheromones into his face and he mentally steeled himself, keeping his body from reacting. Out in the open it was easier to maintain control as thousands of other smells mingled with hers and he could concentrate on picking them out. Her scent had been overwhelming in the closed interior of the truck, but his driving and the knowledge that they were being followed had allowed him to put his own hormones on hold. It would be more difficult to maintain control in the restaurant as they sat next to each other, but Cable said he wanted him to use his sense of smell to help Angel determine if the restaurant harbored any of the terrorists. Her scanning might not turn up any physical evidence they could use, but he might smell the residue of chemicals used for explosives or a scent that might give them an important clue later. Nathan obviously thought this restaurant was important and tied to the terrorists in some way and he wasn’t going to leave anything to chance.

What he needed to do out on the street was keep enough distance between himself and his companions in case they were attacked. It would be careless of him if he didn’t make sure he had enough room to maneuver. He casually looked around, his practiced eye noting the placement of rooftops, doorways, windows and vehicles. He knew Nathan would be doing the same. Like his father, Scott Summers, Nathan was an excellent strategist, but unlike his father, he was unscrupulous in executing his plans using whatever and whoever to further his goals. Being forced to work with SHIELD would give them better resources and at the same time force Nathan and himself to tone down their ruthlessness. Xavier probably saw it as a win-win situation.

He’d agreed with Scott that Angel should’ve stayed at the Institute. She wasn’t combat trained and needed counseling to get her through her recent ordeal not being flown cross-country to possibly face more of the same. Although Xavier had made it look like it had been her decision, it was obvious to him that Charles had influenced her in a weak moment with the talk about the World Trade Center. Then Xavier had made this mission even more difficult for him by ordering him to take care of her. Finding out she’d become a feral and gone into heat added even more complications than he’d care to admit.

Behind them, Nathan was contacting SHIELD. Aware that anyone could pick up a cell phone conversation given the right equipment, all Xmen carried cell phones with scramblers. He trusted Xavier to have given SHIELD the codes to the Xmen phones, but at the same time he was aware that there were satellites that monitored cell phone conversations. Scrambled conversations could be flagged as could voice imprints. Protocol dictated he use code words, no agent names or key words that would belie their operations. More formal conversations were to be made from dedicated landlines with another scrambler if possible. After several brief conversations with lesser personnel, he was routed to the correct phone. “I don’t like party crashers, George,” he said.

“Nathan, what an unexpected surprise,” came George Washington Bridge’s deep voice. There was an echoing quality to Bridge’s voice and Nathan knew he was on a speakerphone.

“Surprise my ass,” Nathan replied. “Tell your people to go home or do something useful.”

“People? I don’t know what you—”

“Cut the bullshit,” out of the corner of his eye, Nathan saw the Punk put his cell phone away and head down the street in the same direction they were walking.

“I sent them,” a different voice said, suave and confident. “I’ve been waiting for your call. I was told you had decided to join the festivities instead of having your own private party.”

“I’ll show for the big bash but you didn’t have to send an escort,” Nathan complained. He recognized the voice of Nick Fury, the Head of SHIELD. His eyes began to scan the rooftops of the buildings across the street.

“Your godfather advised me that you have a debutant with you. He wanted me to keep an eye out for her, make sure you don’t lead her astray,” Fury said.

“He already assigned her a chaperone.”

“There are many things I would call him, but chaperone is not one of them,” there was a hidden laughter in Fury’s voice.

“Depends on your definition,” Nathan glanced at Logan, watching him covertly studying their surroundings. Nathan noted that the Punk passed the supposed Reporter and was looking in the windows of the stores on his side of the street, using them as mirrors to monitor their progress. He doubted the Punk even knew what was inside the stores. Angel’s advance warning had alerted them to his presence, but even without it, the way the man constantly looked in the windows practically shouted ‘Tail’. “Right now we’re just getting more appetizers for the party tonight. We don’t need you to hold our hands. We’re big kids we can do things on our own.”

Fury’s voice hardened, “I know the two of you well enough to keep tabs on your whereabouts. Both of you have a history of bringing home unpleasant friends and making a ruckus. The other residents of that … apartment you purchased won’t take very kindly to loud parties. Now that I know you’ll be attending my soiree and following my rules, I’d like to invite you over to my place. It’s not far from where you’re at already. And I feel it would be safer all around.”

Staying at the hotel had fulfilled their immediate need of a place to stay last night and was within a short distance of all the Worthington buildings that had been targeted. He’d thought about moving, but considered their current arrangements to be adequate for the moment. Now, the Punk and Reporter may not be the only ones following them. Fury was right, it would be safer for the innocent civilians in the neighboring hotel rooms if they moved. SHIELD would have a secure location where they wouldn’t have to worry about Tails following them up to their rooms. The only problem would be the accommodations. Angel had specific needs and he wasn’t sure if the SHIELD location could provide them. “I’d like to discuss arrangements,” Nathan replied, accepting Fury’s offer, “We’re heading to lunch. Why don’t you and the boys come down and join us?”

“How did you find them by the way?” Fury asked, referring to the men he’d sent to follow them.

“Rearview mirror.”

“They’re not amateurs,” Bridge said, joining the conversation and dismissing Nathan’s excuse. “And my information shows you haven’t used your talents. Was it the girl?”

“Does it matter how we found out?” Nathan asked. “They weren’t our only escort.”

“Your mirror must have been crowded.”

“It was,” Nathan said dryly. “Besides your boys, we have two party crashers that we were able to pick out. One’s a critic who’s more of an annoyance than a hindrance. The other looks like a local tough. I’d like to find out who sent him.”

Bridge’s voice held a warning, “The critic will be easy enough to remove for the short term, but unless something more interesting comes up, harassing him would just raise suspicion and then he’d be like a dog digging up a bone. We’ll see what we can do about your other problem.”

Angel and Logan had reached the doors to the restaurant and when they looked at him, he waved them inside. “We’re at The Fez restaurant if you’d like to join us. I’ve been told it’s been remodeled recently so I decided to check it out.”

“Interesting,” Fury said, “I’m to busy right now, but I’ll send the boys down. They can tell you about the accommodations at my place.”

“Get a table for six,” Bridge ordered. “The boys’ll pick up the tab since it’s turning into a business lunch.”

“Excellent. We’ll wait for them,” Nathan hung up.

Putting the cell phone back into his pocket, he quickly examined the exterior of the restaurant and surrounding buildings on the street. Like most buildings in San Francisco, they were all sharply rectangular, tall and narrow with flat roofs. It looked like they had been built in the 1930’s or 1940’s when economy of space and building materials had been more important than appearance. The only differences were the heights and colors of the buildings.

At six stories, it was the tallest building on the block. A shiny new plastic sign hung from the front of the building between the fifth and sixth floors, a cylindrical red hat topped by a gold tassel and stylized writing labeled the entire building “The Fez”. From the closed curtains on the upper floors, Nathan guessed it might still be in use as a hotel although he didn’t see a vacancy sign.

Entering the building, Nathan saw that a Middle Eastern gift shop occupied the entire ground floor. On display were several ethnic gifts, most of them typical of what people who had never been to the Middle East expected to find; water pipes, bronze oil lamps and incense holders, Turkish coffee sets, jewelry and clothing in various styles ranging from long tunics and pants to belly dancing outfits made with shiny, faux brass coins. There were also chintzy items found in any tourist trap plus more realistic items such as books and posters of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Most of the items gave buyers the fantasy of the Middle East without any of the realism. A sign hanging from the ceiling pointed the way towards stairs and an elevator. Behind the cash register, a large sign proclaimed The Fez restaurant newly opened with meeting and banquet rooms available.

Movement caught his eye and he saw Angel browsing. Logan followed her, apathetically picking up the occasional trinket and turning it in his hands before returning it to its place. Logan had been to the Middle East and knew junk when he saw it.

Since the vehicles had stopped moving Angel only had to keep track of the occupants. She knew when three of the SHIELD agents had left their vehicles and began to approach the building. Assuming Nathan had called SHIELD and they were supposed to be the good guys, she didn’t think it was important to notify him until they were closer. She used her browsing as an excuse to roam around the entire floor of the building. She located security measures and picked up discrepancies in the architecture. She’d need to go up a few more floors to accurately scan the top floors. The floor above was the restaurant and bar, above that were several rooms filled with tables and chairs which were probably the meeting and banquet facilities that were being advertised by the signs behind the register and in front of the stairs and elevator.

Nathan’s eyes followed Angel, but he walked over to stand next to Logan. “Told Nick about our problems,” Logan knew that ‘them’ meant SHIELD and he nodded as Nathan continued. “He offered to let us stay at his place.”

“Ya wanna do that?” Logan asked.

“Not sure, but I agreed to talk to his people. They’ll be eating lunch with us.”

Logan’s eyebrows rose, “You want to discuss that here?” His eyes slid to the smiling young man who had moved from behind the cash register to ask Angel if he could help her in any way.

“It should be safe. I’ll have her tell us if it isn’t,” Nathan whispered his reply confidently, observing Angel and her fawning attendant.

Angel knew the young man was just trying to get her to buy something in the gift shop, but most of what she’d seen didn’t appeal to her. She wasn’t a gullible tourist with money to spend. In fact, now that she thought about it, the only money she had was in her bank account and on her own credit cards. For all she knew, the X Corporation would give her a bill to pay for the outfits she’d bought at the ethnic clothing store. She better ask Nathan about it before they left. She could still return them after lunch if necessary.

“She’s gettin’ tired,” Logan said quietly.

“I thought she said she could do this?” Nathan asked, keeping his voice low, but Logan could hear the anger creeping into it.

“Buildings don’t move an’ she still hasn’t had enough sleep,” Logan explained.

“She still has four buildings to search,” Nathan didn’t waver from the goal he’d set for her. “We need those buildings searched as soon as possible.”

“She didn’t find anything in the first one,” Logan said.

“It’s possible they just haven’t placed it.”

“They may not have placed anything in the others either. Warren said he’d look inta the broken camera in the garage. If a requisition hasn’t been filed or it’s been ‘misplaced’ then we c’n legally suspect someone in charge o’ Security. The grunts would’ve noticed it and at least one o’ them would’ve filed a report o’ some sort.”

“Unless the whole security company is involved.”

“Worst case scenario.”

“According to Warren,” Nathan sighed, “but we’re looking at the bigger picture. Worst case is we find nothing and the shit still hits the fan. Suspecting the security company is just good policy.” His eyes found Angel fondling the belly dancing outfits. It was obvious the sales clerk would love her to try them on. “Should we rescue Angel?”

Logan glanced over at her and the sales clerk, “Naw. Let her buy one of those outfits. She owes me a dance.”

Nathan remembered the note about multicultural dancing in her file. “She knows how to belly dance?”

“Haven’t seen her dance yet, but she’s a certified instructor so I suspect she’s not half bad. Northstar’s the only one who’s seen her in action.”

“Really,” Nathan drawled, a smile raising the corners of his mouth slightly. “She trying to turn him straight?”

As the suspected SHIELD agents neared the doorway, Angel pulled one of the dancing outfits off the rack and made her way over to the two men. Holding it up to her body she said loud enough for the clerk to hear, “What do you think?”

“If you wan’ it, I’ll buy it for ya, but yer gonna have ta dance in it fer me,” Logan told her with a grin.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “I might not have enough to pay back Nathan for the other clothes I bought.” Quietly she added, “Three of the badges are coming.”

Nathan smiled and shook his head, “Don’t worry about it. The clothes are yours. The company will pay for them.” He stepped closer to her and whispered into her ear, “SHIELD’s been invited to lunch. You can stop paying attention to them, but I still want you to keep track of the other two.”

“What about this?” she asked shaking the dress, making some of the faux brass coins chime.

Nathan glanced at Logan and spoke in a normal tone of voice, a smirk on his face, “Only if you want it, but I’d prefer you get the blue or green one myself.”

“I’m not dancing for YOU,” she said and turned around intending to place the outfit back on its stand.

Logan grabbed her elbow and spoke quietly, “Neither of us have seen you dance. We’ll need to see what you can do.”

“Why?” she practically hissed.

“No reason to get upset,” Nathan said before he lowered his voice, “I need to know what my people can do.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes, the tension leaving her face, “You want me to get one or not?” She had more authentic belly dancing costumes at home, but if they were willing to buy her new ones she could use them for now and then break them down for their materials later.

“Go ahead,” Nathan said.

“Which one?” she asked. “The blue or the green?”

Logan shrugged, “I’ll buy both if ya want.”

“Fine,” she said and putting a smile on her face she walked back to the clerk who was hovering near the clothing rack, waiting to find out what the verdict had been.

As the clerk rung up her purchases, the three SHIELD agents entered the shop. Nathan recognized one of them as the Cowboy they had seen pass them in the truck earlier and he walked over to greet them while Logan paid for Angel’s clothes. The two men accompanying the Cowboy had very short dark hair and tanned skin. They both wore loose dark grey T-shirts with a breast pocket tucked into blue jeans above black Nike shoes. One of them had a small notepad and pen in his shirt pocket. Angel sensed that all three were solid muscle underneath their clothes and combined with their short hair, it reminded her that SHIELD was just another type of military organization. She felt more out of place than ever.

The SHIELD agents just nodded and smiled at Angel and Logan while Nathan led them all towards the stairs. Angel, having been to The Fez before, took the lead up the staircase but soon regretted it as she felt the eyes of the men behind her watching her ass as they ascended to the second floor. She knew that what they were doing was a normal male reaction, but she was more self-conscious knowing she’d become a feral mutant and sending out sexual pheromones. It made her wonder if any of the agents were mutants or, more importantly, feral mutants.

The staircase they had taken was also the emergency stairs and went from ground level to the top of the building. On the second floor landing next to the elevator shaft was the entrance to The Fez restaurant. The upper corners of the doorways had been filled to create shallow domes and the walls had been painted in pale beige with friezes of tile along the ceiling. Large murals of faux windows looked out on courtyard gardens or beautifully painted domed mosques. Strategically placed potted flowers, palm and dwarf fruit trees matching those in the faux windows completed and complimented the Islamic décor.

“Whoa!” Angel exclaimed once she saw the changes that had been wrought on the restaurant. “They really changed the place.”

Another dark haired young man, possibly a younger brother to the one in the gift shop by their resemblance, stood near the entrance at a small kiosk. He looked up and smiled at Angel’s exclamation. “Welcome to The Fez. You’ve been here before?” he asked her. His eyes quickly traveled up and down her body, taking note of a lack of rings on her fingers and resting briefly on her cleavage before rising to her eyes.

“Yeah, about six months ago,” she answered.

He nodded and his smile grew wider, “Welcome back. We’ve made some changes since you were here last. You’ve already seen the new gift shop downstairs and here in the restaurant, they’ve removed all the old Casablanca décor including the bar and dance floor and replaced it with a brighter family orientated atmosphere. We now have rooms suitable for business meetings and large parties on the floor above. In a few weeks, the top floors will be finished and The Fez will again be a fully functional Hotel.”

“Oh, wow,” Angel said, “that’s wonderful! Would it be possible to get a tour?”

“The hotel rooms aren’t finished yet,” the host said regretfully. “Only the three bottom floors are open to the public for safety reasons.”

Angel nodded affably, apparently easily dismissing the inability to view the rooms upstairs. “Did you change the menu, too?”

“Not by much. We have the same staff as before so if you had a favorite meal and it’s not on the menu, they can still make it for you.” He pulled several menus from within the kiosk and, finally paying attention to the men he asked, “I’m sorry, I didn’t ask, but are you all together?”

“Yes,” Nathan answered. “You said you have meeting rooms upstairs. How big are they?”

“Our smallest rooms fit ten people comfortably and we can provide materials such as whiteboards or overhead projectors for an additional fee. Our largest rooms are suitable for groups up to fifty. All the rooms have connecting doors so we can accommodate just about any size group, but we request advance notice for anything over twenty.” He looked inside the kiosk again, “I have a pamphlet—”

“That won’t be necessary,” Nathan cut him off. “Could we use one of the smaller rooms right now?”

“Yes, if you’d like,” he said. “There are extra fees—”

“That’s fine,” Nathan interrupted.

Without missing a beat, their host said, “Follow me.” He led the way up the stairs to the next floor.

Logan grabbed Nathan’s arm and held him, allowing the others to get ahead of them. “You sure about this?” he asked under his breath.

Nathan whispered, “I want Angel to get a good look around.” Logan couldn’t fault his logic, being on the second floor and unable to wander the restaurant at will was entirely different from being on the third floor with unlimited access to the entire length of the building. Even if there were cameras and listening devices in the walls of the conference rooms, Angel would still be able to do her job. He let go of Nathan’s arm and they caught up to the rest of the group at the head of the stairs.

It was obvious the owners of the hotel hadn’t changed the layout of the rooms when they decided upon the function of the third floor. Long hallways separated blocks of rooms where all the doors stood open waiting for occupants. Angel could sense where they had knocked out or built walls to enlarge or shorten the rooms. Architecturally speaking, the building was still structurally sound since they hadn’t tried to remove any of the major supports. A metal gate and Do Not Cross construction tape barred the stairs up to the fourth floor.

Their host led them to a small room just off the landing. It was decorated in the same style as the restaurant. It held a central table that could easily accommodate ten people, fourteen if they pushed it plus a narrow table the lay against the far wall. Both tables were covered with white tablecloths.

After they had all filed into the room, their host asked Nathan, “Would you like a coffee or tea service brought up?”

“Coffee,” Nathan said as he sat down in the seat at the far end of the table.

Their host waited until they were all seated before he started handing out the menus. He noticed in passing that the short man with the cowboy hat led the woman to sit to the right of the businessman while the others sat across from them. “If you like,” he said, “I can take your drink orders now.”

“Coffee,” Nathan repeated.

“Yes, sir,” their host replied, “I’ll have the service brought up, but is there anything else?”

“Water?” Angel asked.

“Certainly,” he replied.

“You need caffeine,” Logan murmured to Angel.

“And a Diet Pepsi?” Angel added.

“Yes, Miss.” He glanced back and forth between the men who hadn’t announced a choice, “Anything else?” When they shook their heads negatively, he said, “I’ll have your server bring up a coffee service, some pitchers of water and Diet Pepsi for the lady.” He left the room, leaving the door open behind him.

For a few moments the X-men and SHIELD agents eyed each other before Nathan asked, “Angel? Are we private?”

She took a moment to make sure she didn’t sense any listening devices before she replied, “The only security cameras on this floor are at both ends of all the hallways and on the landing.”

“Nothing in this room?” he pressed.

“As far as I know,” she said with a smile.

“Excellent,” Nathan said. “Before our waiter shows up we better introduce ourselves.” He turned to the SHIELD agents, “You know our names and what we can do. Who are you?”

SHIELD agent Chase, pushed his cowboy hat back on his head and asked, “Name’s John Chase and we don’t know what SHE can do.”

“If we stick together long enough or your superior tells me you have clearance, I’ll tell you,” Nathan replied.

“Steve Adams,” said the man with the notebook and pen in his pocket. He had blue eyes and a dimple in his chin as if a child had pressed a finger into it and it had stayed depressed.

“Luke Mills,” the last agent said. He had brown eyes and a definite American Indian cast to his features including a hawk-like nose.

“As for clearance,” John said with a smile, “we’re part of a special division specifically created to handle out of control domestic situations.”

Chapter 24

“Yeah, Babe, I’ll—” Sean eyed Nathan Summers reflection as it disappeared inside The Fez. “Shit, Hun, I gotta go.” He turned to look directly at the hotel, half an ear to his girl’s reply. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll call you. Later.”

He hung up and immediately dialed another number. He leaned back against the window casement behind him and waited for the other line to pick up. At the gruff answer on the other line he said, “I followed them to The Fez hotel in the raghead dist—” he was interrupted by the voice on the phone. “Yeah, The Fez. Six-story hotel on West El Dorado—” the voice interrupted him again. “’kay. Ya want me to wait and see if they come out?” Sean glanced at the hotel checking to make sure his quarry hadn’t left the building. “Alright, can do. Whatever ya want.”

He hung up and dialed another number. “Hey, my man, you up for some action?” he asked with a smile.

XXXXXXXXXX

The Host of The Fez restaurant was walking back down the third floor stairs from having taken the orders of his new patrons when the phone at his kiosk rang. He grabbed the receiver on the second ring, “Thank you for calling—”

“Kutty, two men and a woman entered your building a short time ago,” a deep masculine voice stated in Arabic.

The Host’s gaze deadened and his dark eyes quickly darted around the restaurant floor, taking note of the seated customers, picking out groups of individuals. “Can you describe them,” Kutty responded mildly, keeping the discourse in Arabic.

“The woman has long blonde hair and is accompanied by a tall, white haired man and a short, dark haired man.”

“Ah, yes, but they were not alone. There were three other men with them when they arrived. They requested one of the banquet rooms on the third floor.” Kutty snapped his fingers and caught the attention of one of the bus boys that was exiting the kitchen in preparation to clean a table that had recently been vacated. The young man hurried over and stood awaiting orders.

“I do not know about the three men, I was not told about them, but be aware that the woman and two men I have described are creatures of the lowest form, blaspheming mutants, agents of the X-men. Your position may be compromised.”

“I will take action,” Kutty said stiffly, turning away from his customers, his spine rigid and face a mask of determination.

“You will do no such thing,” the voice responded quickly. “I do not want you destroying all of our carefully laid plans by an act of rash bravado. This is a delicate matter and requires finesse.”

“They are isolated,” Kutty insisted. “It would be nothing to—”

“Get yourselves killed!” the voice replied angrily. “Did you not hear me? They are X-men, filthy mutants trained as assassins and spies! The tall man has the power to see into your mind and know your secrets, the other has the soul and claws of a shaidan, a demon. Do not send anyone who knows our plans to serve them if you value your life and those of your men.”

Kutty let out an angry sigh, “Then what do you want me to do?”

“Post guards and don’t let them wander to the upper floors. Find out why they are there.”

“First you say do nothing and then you say post guards,” Kutty said in confusion. “What do you want me to do?”

“Unless they are acting with the police, X-men tend to avoid conflict as much as possible wherever there might be witnesses. It would damage their reputation and hurt their cause to further mutant rights. You have a building full of people, placed correctly, you have witnesses and a reason to surround them with your own men.”

“I understand,” Kutty replied. “Thank you for the great confidence you place in us, and we implore Allah Almighty to help us serve His cause and render our work for His Sake.”

Together, Kutty and the voice intoned, “Ameen.”

After Kutty hung up the phone he turned to his subordinate, “Gather the men on the fifth floor and have Farid come down when they’re assembled.”

The boy nodded and ran to the elevator.