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This is a stand-alone story following the events of Max Allan Collins' DARK ANGEL novel SKIN GAME, and incorporating information revealed in D.A. Stern's THE EYES ONLY DOSSIER. -- author's note

"I don't need a babysitter."

"I'm not here to babysit," Alec said, the words melodramatic, as if he was shocked at the very idea.

"Then why are you here?" Logan asked dryly, glaring at his unwelcome guest over the rims of his spectacles. He was making dinner in the apartment's small, but well equipped kitchen -- roast chicken if the delicious smell wafting through the flat was any indication.

The temptation was cruel. Alec's mouth began to water, and he swallowed quickly. He really was hungry. But so were a lot of people in Terminal City.

"Well?" Logan prompted.

"You makin' dinner for you and Max?"

"That was the plan. But she just called. Said she wouldn't be back until really late."

"Yeah," Alec said. "She called me too."

Logan's eyebrows rose.

"We were supposed to go over some building plans this evening -- that night club down on Pontious, The Silver Spur. Word is the gangster owners usually keep a lot of cash in their safe. We figured it would be a good hit."

"So, if you knew Max was going to be out, again I ask -- why are you here?"

"Can't I just pay you a friendly visit?" Alec tried.

"She asked you to stay with me, didn't she?"

"Not in so many words," Alec lied. "Really, I was hopin' to take advantage of my 'inner circle' status and maybe talk you into lettin' me take a hot shower. We've got water enough in TC now, usually, but it stinks to high heavens and is cold as ... well, it's cold." He gave a little shiver at the memory of his last quick wash in Joshua's apartment a couple of days earlier.

Logan's eyes weren't unsympathetic. "You could use a shave and a haircut, too," he commented, eying Alec's beard stubbled chin and the brown locks that hadn't seen scissors in weeks.

Alec reached up and brushed strands out of his eyes. "Hey, at least the barcode's covered. Keeps Max off my back."

"Max doesn't want to lose anyone else she loves," Logan said.

Alec's eyes narrowed at the older man's comment, but he let it go. "Yeah, well, how about that shower? And in the meantime, we'll both keep Max happy by you not bein' all alone here this evening and maybe a target of -- well, God knows enough people want you dead so just take your pick."

"Thanks," Logan said, his tone caustic again. "But like I said, I can take care of myself." He put his hand on the pistol that he now always kept within reach.

"Logan," Alec said, his voice taking on an authoritative edge. "I'd really like to get a shower."

The two men locked eyes for a moment. Logan knew damn well that Max had asked Alec to come here and stay with him while she was gone, be his bodyguard. He hated the fact Max trusted the much younger man to handle their enemies -- that she thought he couldn't protect himself.

"Hey," Alec said softly, his hazel-green eyes a little too knowing. "I'm an X5. You're never gonna win a pissing contest against me, so you might as well give it a rest."

It was really all there was to say -- and both men knew it. If a highly trained, genetically engineered assassin was offering to be his bodyguard for the evening, who was Logan Cale to turn the assistance down?

"Towels are in the cabinet under the sink," Logan said with a heavy sigh and a glance toward the bathroom door. "Knock yourself out. Just don't use all the shampoo."

Alec's grin was genuine as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Hot water at last," he said. Then he looked toward the kitchen, a hopeful look on his handsome face.

"There's enough for two," Logan said tiredly, raking fingers back through his untidy short hair.

"Thanks," Alec said, still grinning, and a hungry gleam in his eye.

*****

The two men ate supper in what might have passed for companionable silence, Logan's foul mood and Alec's earnest chewing limiting the conversation. Afterwards, the older man relegated his X5 babysitter to a corner of the living room. "Just go read something," Logan said, gesturing vaguely at a pile of books and magazines. "I've got work to do."

"Meaning, keep quiet," Alec clarified. "No problem. But would you mind if I turned the channel on the TV and watched--"

"I need to monitor the news at all times," Logan said, his tone brooking no argument.

"Right," Alec said carefully, thinking how sick and tired he was of watching nothing but news shows day in and day out, especially since Terminal City was no longer the headline story. Resigned, he plopped down in a comfortable chair, propped stockinged feet onto the coffee table, and scooped up a pile of magazines and folders. At least the shower had felt good, and his skin didn't itch any more.

Skimming with X5 neural-enhanced speed through copies of Time, Newsweek, and The Consumer Report (and beginning to wonder what Max saw in a guy with such boring tastes in reading material -- not even a National Geographic to liven things up), Alec came to a stack of file folders. A glance across the room told him Eyes Only was lost in whatever research he was doing on the computer. And Logan had told him to read ...

The files were written records of some Eyes Only investigations, probably back-up copies of material already stored on the various hard drives in the apartment. Names and locations had been hand-written on the tabs, along with dates.

"Now we're talkin'," Alec said under his breath. Of course he'd snooped in Logan's records before, but only superficially -- utility bills, insurance premiums, personal things like that, nothing Eyes Only-related. There could be some real good information here, stuff no one else knew about. To an undercover trained operative like X5-494, files like this were irresistible.

Besides, he was bored.

Quietly, with an occasional flicker of his eyes in Logan's direction to make certain he wasn't being observed, Alec began to read, memorize, and on a subconscious level, analyze.

*****

Half an hour of dead silence from Alec was unusual, Logan realized -- and possibly cause for alarm.

"Hey," he said, turning around in his chair and rubbing bleary eyes with the backs of his hands. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Alec said. But there was something strange in the younger man's voice.

"Alec?"

"Uh ... yeah," the X5 said, looking up, teeth biting his lower lip.

Logan's eyes went to the pile of records Alec had obviously been reading. Oh, shit.

"I didn't realize I'd left those there."

"Too late," Alec said quietly. "Max doesn't know, does she?"

"Know what?" Logan said, desperately hoping Alec didn't mean what he thought he meant -- but knowing it was virtually impossible that the X5, with his near 200 I.Q., hadn't put two and two together. Alec might be a lot of things, but mentally slow wasn't one of them.

"That you've got case's in here that you know involved X5's, and I'm not talkin' about the Pope or Jewel's supposed future hit on the Russian guy."

"I didn't want to worry her," Logan said. "It's not as if she could have done anything to prevent the murders. Those X5's ..."

"X5R's," Alec corrected him. "The elite, reconditioned kids, like the one sittin' in your living room right now. Remember?"

"Those X5R's," Logan said levelly, "were under orders at the time those crimes were committed. There's nothing Max could have done about them. Some of the assassinations date back years."

"It's never gonna be over, is it?" Alec said softly. "For Max and me."

"No," Logan said, leaning forward in his chair, his eyes earnest behind the lenses of his glasses, "The X5R's, the original group of escapees and their twins, were the best of the best, and the damage they did is phenomenal. Part of me thinks Manticore's misdeeds should be exposed to the world. But part of me also knows that if I do, it will hurt people I'm close to ... bring Max ... you ... into a circle of danger you might never escape from. You and Max are worth millions of dollars, a biosynth organic weapons system half the countries in the world would empty their coffers to possess. Max's ova ... your sperm ... you guys are like Fort Knox on legs to the genetics research community."

"Gee, I feel so special," Alec said dryly.

"You are special. They're never going to stop coming after you. I honestly don't think there's any place in the world you guys can hide. The last thing you need is for more attention to be drawn to the fact that X5 assassins are responsible for most of those cases in that pile."

"So, you're sayin' there's no way out for Max and me?"

"No. Not really. Even if the government promises to leave you alone, foreign entities will always be after you."

"Meaning we'll never have a normal life -- any of us."

"Probably not."

There was a long moment of silence between the two men, who both knew that statement included not just the two X5's.

"There's something else," Alec said, nodding at the pile of reports.

"What?"

"You've got a case dated 2018, the suspected assassination of Milo Jenkins, founder and CEO of Jenkins Environmental Nuances Company, a biotech operation better known as JENCO. They were into fancy genetics research, supposedly to improve the environment, but were subsidized by Manticore. The murder was never solved. Police and feds reached a dead end." He picked up a file folder.

"And?" Logan said, his blue eyes questioning, his hands open on his lap, waiting.

"His neck was broken."

"The official records say he fell down a flight of stairs," Logan replied evenly.

"Jenkins was a danger to the United States government, suspected of selling biotech secrets to the Chinese."

"No evidence of that was ever found," Logan said. Then, his voice softened. "But that's what they told you, isn't it? That Jenkins was a traitor? When they sent you after him?"

"Yeah, that's what they told me," Alec said, his eyes boring into Logan's. "Case closed." He tossed the file into a nearby trash can, then glanced up at the clock on the wall, his whole demeanor changing in an instant from brooding to bright in a way that was almost scary. "Max is here. Right on cue you might say."

"She's not due back until--"

The basement door opened, and Max stepped into the apartment.

"Heard her on the stairs," Alec said off Logan's questioning look. "Ears of a Peruvian Fruit Bat, remember?"

"Hey," Max said. "Did you guys have a good time without me?"

Alec stood up, stretched, and looked around for his shoes. "You've gotta hang onto this one, Maxie. The guy can cook."

"You ate my dinner?" Max groused, but the look in her eyes was affectionate as she eyed her X5 partner.

"Every bite," Alec teased. "You still wanna go over those plans tonight?"

"You got time?" Max asked, with an apologetic look toward Logan.

"I'm all yours," Alec quipped.

"You wish. But yeah, let's go down to headquarters and go over the blueprints. I'll ask Joshua to come up here with Logan until I get back. We could pull the job tomorrow night if that storm front holds off."

"Why, you afraid you'll melt in the rain?"

Max pushed him through the basement door toward the tunnel that led back into Terminal City. But for just a moment, Alec hung on the doorframe, his eyes on Logan. The older man shook his head "no." He didn't want Max to worry about the other X5R's ... didn't want her to find out.

Personally, Alec thought it was a bad idea -- Logan keeping secrets like that from Max. But it really wasn't his business. Was it?

"Alec!" Max called.

"Right there, Max!"

THE END