More Than the X Can See

Chapter 18

Nathan stepped out of the shower and began drying himself off with the white terry towels the hotel provided. His mind racing with thoughts about what he’d planned for his team and whether they’d been derailed with the information he’d telepathically received from Charles Xavier.

Finding out that an integral part of his plan to stop a terrorist threat could unexpectedly turn into a werewolf was not something he wanted to hear. There wasn’t anything he could do about it except ship her back to the Institute an’d b’d be damned if he’d do that. Charles hadn’t said anything about returning her, just gave him the warning. Nice to know Charles trusted him and Logan to deal with the situation if it arose. Not something he’d likely do if it’d just been Logan and Warren with the girl.

In the plane, they’d described the werewolves to him as tall beasts with long sharp claws and teeth. Their canines so extreme they’d stuck out of the top and bottom. And strong enough that their claws had dug into the steel skin surface that Agent Husk had manifested. Hilediled to himself, they hadn’t had a Mentalist with them at the time that could’ve blasted the beast’s minds to incoherency or telekinetically toss them about. One werewolf? And inexperienced at that? They’d be able to handle the girl if she changed.

He used a towel to clear the mirror of steam droplets, combed his hair and began to brush his teeth. S. H. I. E. L. D. Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage and Logistics Directorate under the guidance of Nick Fury last he’d heard. It’d been a while. Charles said he’d talked to Bridge. George Washington Bridge most likely, he’d been Head of Mutant Affairs at S. H. I. E. L. D. at one point in time. It was possible Fury had returned him to the job.

He spit out the toothpaste, rinsed his mouth and wet his face before rubbing shaving gel onto it. Going through the motions reminded him that he hadn’t often had the luxury of a real bathroom in the past year. He’d spent far too much time in the Middle East following false leads. His companions had turned out to be the enemy, terrorists working for an organization that had ties to Al-Queda. He’d captured ‘terrorists’ with his companions, but after he went through the minds of his associates, he’d found out that they’d just shipped them off to other compounds in the Middle East, to learn from their mistakes. The terrorists had been using him to find out their own weaknesses and correct them.

It’d been when they’d been victorious against a rival organization he’ he’d noticed something was wrong. Instead of sending most of the occupants of the enemy camp to ‘Jail’ to be interviewed as he’d been told, he’d overheard ‘his’ men talk about how they’d easily slit the throats of the shackled scum and buried them in a shallow grave. It was then that he’d become more aware of the double entendres in their spee Soo Soon after, he’d mind probed his ‘Lieutenant’, Mahmud, and found out he’d been deceived. It was short work to incapacitate his whole band and little effort to go through their minds, wrenching out every last bit of useful information. After that, he’d known them all intimately, knew none of them were redeemable in any way. Turning them in so they could go to prison for their crimes would’ve been a waste of time, money and resources that could be put to a better use.

The cook, Raashid, one of the men who usually stayed behind during conflicts and watched their camp, had been the true leader of his men. The information in Raashid’s mind had led him to another man, Aasim ibn Thabit. Thabit had been the grandson of the Mayor of Sakaka, a large town near the Iraqi/Saudi Arabian border. It’d taken some skill and the help of a young boy to infiltrate the Sakaka palace, wrest information from Aasim before he killed him and several guards, and then reach the nearest airfield. He’d hijacked a plane with the boy’s help again and taken him with to Ito Israel. His status as an X-Corporation Agent had gotten the plane down safely and he’d left the pilot of the plane and the kid with the Israeli Mossad while he caught the next international flight to London.

He’d bought his toiletries and shaved off his beard and mustache before boarding the flight in Israel. Having grown them out had made him blend in with the locals and the grey in his hair had given him added prestige as an elder. His telepathy had allowed him to blend in more thoroughly by letting him pick the minds of those around him to facilitate discussing the Quran or local matters to fit the image.

Finished in the bathroom, he got dressed in a white button-up shirt, black cotton Dockers, black socks and shoes, the image of a distinguished businessman in work casual. He rd upd up the long sleeves as he opened the door connecting his to the rest of the suite and headed straight for the coffee pot that sat on the counter of the small kitchenette. While the coffee brewed, he went back into his bedroom and retrieved his laptop and cellular phone. He turned on the computer and typed in the codes that would allow him to access it’s data, hooked it up to the phone jack provided for the hotel’s business customers and connected to the Internet.

While the computer downloaded his mail, he poured himself a cup of coffee. He made note of the noises coming from Angel and Logan’s bedroom and checked his watch. They were up earlier than he’d expected but, based upon the type of noises he was hearing, he didn’t expect them to come out anytime soon. He sat down and began to go through his messages. At a particularly loud cry from Angel, he turned to look at the wall that separated him from them and smiled before returning to his email.

At five after eight in the morning, one of the hotel staff showed up with their breakfast cart. After the young man had wheeled it into the kitchen area, Nathan told him to leave everything on the cart, gave him a tip and followed him to the door to see him out and make sure he hadn’t seen anything important as half of the kitchen table was covered with his business machines and paperwork. Nathan made his way back to the table and began condensing the stacks of paperwork to make room for the various breakfast dishes that sat on the two-tiered cart.

Logan walked out of his bedroom dressed in his customary look; jeans, cowboy boots and hat. The only variable was the shirt, this morning it was a button-up, long sleeved dark blue. Spying the half full coffee pot, he walked over and poured himself a cup and placed it on the table before he approached the food cart. He began lifting lids off the plates to check their contents. Choosing one with steak and eggs, he sat down at the table and began to eat.

Finished shuffling the paperwork into a semblance of neat piles, Cable joined Logan by grabbing another plate of steak and eggs and sitting at the head of the table.

“How is she?” Nathan asked conversationally once they’d both finished half their plates.

“Fine,” Logan replied. “She woke up a dawn, something about feeling everything waking up and moving around. She’s an early riser apparently.”

“If I’d known that, we could’ve been out of here by now,” Nathan said with a frown.

Logan shrugged, “We should’ve asked her.”

Still frowning, Nathan grunted as he placed a fork full of steak in his mouth.

Logan’s eyes wandered over the machines and paper at the end of the table, “Any changes in the plan?”

Nathan swallowed, “Charles contacted me earlier. Says S. H. I. E. L. D. wants X-men to help with suspected terrorist activity on the West Coast.”

Logan snorted, “Did he tell them we were already on it?”

Nathan shook his head, “No, but he does want S. H. I. E. L. D. to take the fall if all Hell breaks loose,” he paused, “or get all the glory if we succeed.”

It was Logan’s turn to frown, “S. H. I. E. L. D.? Not the locals? He’s not makin’ friends that way.”

“Not sure about the full details,” Nathan replied, “but I know my information wasn’t complete. I’d like to find out what they know, who their sources are. If we have the same information, then we might be done here in time for Alex’s wedding or maybe even his bachelor party.”

“Your father’s in charge of the bachelor party,” Logan replied and shook his head, “It’s gonna be boring.”

“Then we’ll just have to make sure it isn’t,” Nathan smiled.

Logan nodded and smiled back, “Damn straight.” He took another bite of food and got a serious look on his face, “you said your information wasn’t complete,” he said around the mouthful, “What do you mean?”

“I didn’t get far enough up in the ranks to really know what they’re planning. They knew they were going to target the Worthington buildings here in San Francisco. It’s the only town on the west coast that even has tall buildings. San Diego and Los Angeles have a few, but not nearly as tall or clustered like the ones here in the downtown area. And Worthington Enterprises is more condensed here in the Bay Area. It makes him a better target.”

“He’s rethinking that strategy,” Logan commented.

“Now that he’s a target,” Nathan replied.

“So you wanna work with them? S. H. I. E. L. D.?”

Nathan drew a deep breath and then let it out, “I’d rather not. Between the three of us, we should be able to handle it, but …”

“You wanna make sure.”

“Yes,” he acknowledged, “I’d hate to have underestimated them.”

Logan stared at his plate for a moment and then said, “I would, too.”

Nathan nodded, Logan had complimented him by telling him that he agreed with his decision. “We’re supposed to hook up a link to the Institute at nine. Charles also said something about your girlfriend.”

Logan pulled back his shirtsleeve and checked the time on his watch, “I’ll set it up after we’re finished eating.” He let go of his sleeve and picked his fork up, “What about ‘er?”

“She could turn into a werewolf,” Nathan said bluntly.

Logan’s fork made a ‘Tick!’ sound when it touched his plate as his hand landed on the table and he stared at Nathan, “What?”

“That’s all he said,” Nathan looked over at Angel and Logan’s bedroom door. “He wanted to be sure we knew about it before we left the hotel.”

Logan supported his chin with his hand as his elbow came up to rest on the table, “Shit.”

Nathan returned to eating his breakfast.

“But it would explain the pheromones,” Logan said quietly.

“Hmm?” Nathan grunted questioningly, his mouth full of egg.

“I noticed Angel was puttin’ out pheromones last night. Stronger than normal for a human.” Logan lowered his hand and lifted his fork to skewer a piece of steak, “I was gonna talk to Hank this morning, but …” he placed the piece of steak in his mouth.

“But, what?”

“Occupied,” Logan said around the meat in his mouth.

Angel opened the bedroom door and walked into the room. She wore a knee length, loose blue and white summer dress with a large floral print of dark blue roses that tied in the back and low, fashionable dark blue Birkenstock sandals. Her damp hair hung in a loose dark gold curtain behind her.

Nathan slowly looked her up and down before returning his gaze to Logan, “You’re bottherther casual for going to work.”

“It’s Sunday,” Logan replied. “Casual day.”

“Grab some food,” Nathan said to Angel and motioned to the cart. “I want all the Worthington buildings scanned before people start arriving for work tomorrow.”

“How many are there?” she asked, moving forward to the cart.

“The most important ones are the five here in the downtown area,” Nathan replied. “They’re office buildings and will take you the longest to inspect. They’re the one’s I suspect the terrorists are planning on knocking down. Depending on how long it takes you to finish those, I have several smaller buildings I need scanned.”

“All of them by tonight?” worry filled her voice, “I don’t think I’ll be able to—”

“Just the office buildings first,” Nathan broke in. “We’ll worry about the rest after those are done. I want to be sure the Worthington five are clean. If you’re as good as you say, as I’ve seen, you should finish them tonight at the latest.”

“Oh,” she sighed in relief and bent down to pick up a plate and clear wrap covered fruit bowl from the cart’s second level and walked over to the last empty table spot.

“Chuck contacted Cable this mornin’,” Logan said, looking at Angel and tapping the side of his head.

“What about?” she asked as she took the cover off her plate and fruit bowl.

“He said you could turn into a werewolf,” Nathan repeated. He watched her reaction out of the corner of his eyes as he took another bite of his breakfast.

Surprise and shock were reflected on her face as she sat down heavily in her chair, her mouth dropping open.

“How?!” she looked at Logan pleadingly, “they didn’t get near me! They never touched me!”

Logan shrugged and shook his head.

“They’re expecting us to call the Institute at nine,” Nathan said. “We’ll find out then. I need to know what will set you off and see if we can avoid it. If it’s set off by the full moon, we’re safe. I checked. It was last week so you have another three weeks before you’ll turn.”

“It’s not the moon,” Logan told him. “The first time we met them was before the full moon. They changed then, no problem.”

Nathan shrugged, “We’ll talk to Doctor McCoy, see what he says.”

Logan looked at the distress on Angel’s face, “Don’t worry, Darlin’, Big Blue’s the best there is. If anyone can do it,” he smiled, “he’ll figure out how to stop ya from changin’.”

“Eat,” Nathan told her. “You’ve got a long day ahead and I want you at the top of your form. I’m counting on you to tell us if there are any explosives in the Worthington buildings or where they would place them for the most damage.”

She glanced from Nathan to Logan and then down at her food. She’d pretty much lost her appetite, but she picked up her fork, speared a piece of strawberry from the fruit bowl, placed it in her mouth and began chewing.

Nathan gave Logan a look that spoke volumes.

Logan gave him a brief nod, he was responsible for Angel and he would have to make sure she was capable of fulfilling her part of their mission.