More Than the X Can See

Note: Words in *---* = mental conversation.

Chapter 26

Logan was itching to do something. Sitting and waiting for their lunch to arrive seemed a waste of time, but Angel’s ability covered more ground than his own and with more detail. The only thing he could contribute was his superior hearing to listen in on conversations and exceptional sense of smell to identify the enemy. “Are any of the workers upstairs on the fourth floor?” he asked her.

Angel stopped her concentrated scanning and made a quick reconnoiter on the floors above. Without raising her head or opening her eyes, she said, “They went into a set of rooms on the fifth floor.”

“All of them?” Nathan asked with a glance at Logan. “What about the other floors?”

“Yes,” she replied, annoyed at their interruption and the sudden change of direction for her scanning. “All of them. All the workers on all three floors are going into a suite of rooms on the fifth floor.” She opened her eyes and looked around the room. “That’s important isn’t it?”

“It could be,” Nathan mused, leaning back in his chair. “What’s in those rooms?”

Angel’s eyes lost focus as she searched the specified area, “No weapons except what they bring into the room. No explosives. A phone and lamps are plugged into the electrical outlets so I guess they’re in working order. A table with wood blocks on it, I think they’re holding down blueprints because they’re in a large rectangular pattern. Paint cans and brushes, nails, tools of all sorts, a few coffee mugs and garbage. Nothing I’d consider dangerous.” She shook her head and her eyes regained their focus on Nathan, “I think it’s the center of operations for the renovations.”

“Focus on them,” Nathan ordered, “I want to know what they’re doing.”

John’s eyes narrowed as he listened to Angel list the items and actions of the men in the rooms above. Somehow she could detect what was happening two floors above them. Obviously it had been her talent that had clued the X-men that SHIELD and their other tails had been following them. If he didn’t already know, he’d have to report this information to Fury. A mutant who could detect security measures and enemy movement from a distance would be a valuable commodity, but would seasoned X-men like Cable and Wolverine think that it was enough to counterbalance her inexperience. He seriously doubted it.

“They’re all just standing around talking.” She looked at her watch, “Maybe it’s lunch time and they need to sign out. When do they make their religious obeisance? You know, bow to Mecca? Isn’t it five times a day?”

Nathan looked at his watch, “Yes, the third salaat’s at noon and it’s past that.”

Searching her memory for anything the men above may have done that would signify religious movements, Angel said, “They weren’t praying when we arrived or since.”

“It’s not always noon,” Luke broke into the conversation, “it depends upon the time zone. In San Francisco, it’s closer to one o’clock.”

“How do you know that?” she asked.

Luke winked at her and smiled depreciatingly, “Know thine enemy.”

“Oh,” she smiled uncertainly in reply, not for the first time feeling out of her depth. She knew some basics about Middle Eastern culture, the events of 9/11 and the media blitz afterwards had guaranteed that most American’s gained some knowledge of the religious, political, and social differences inherent in the mainly Islamic countries, but she had very little practical knowledge when it came to facing off against Islamic terrorists.

She felt movement along her senses as the elevator began to ascend.

“What’s with the elevator?” Logan asked her, hearing the electric whine and scrape of metal against metal before anyone else.

Unconsciously, she turned and looked up towards the fifth floor where a man stood at the elevator doors, waiting for its arrival. “One of the men is leaving the fifth floor,” she said, describing what she sensed.

“Can she actually see him?” John asked, trying to gain more information on her abilities.

Angel snorted, “Better than that.” She smiled as she turned to look at John and then froze, the smile dying on her lips as she felt and then caught Nathan’s frown out of the corner of her eye. She glanced at Nathan’s face to confirm he was upset at her specifically before settling her gaze in her lap. “Sorry,” she said apologetically, while inwardly she really didn’t care if she revealed her abilities to these SHIELD ‘Black Ops’ men. They were bound to figure out she was able to scan her surroundings if Nathan continued asking her to use her ability in front of them.

Nathan sighed heavily in frustration. Women talked too much. “Only one?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied.

Nathan placed his elbow on the table and rested his chin on the back of his hand, watching Angel for reactions to the movement she sensed.

“Drink your soda,” Logan muttered as he sat looking upwards at the ceiling tiles. Angel quickly bent forward and took a long pull from her straw. “Is there a crawl space between floors?” She shook her head, straw still between her lips. “Would I fit in the air vents?”

She considered the layout of the air ducts in the building. It was an old structure, but it had been renovated once before and it was in the process of a second renovation. “On this floor, yes. The airshafts have been refitted to commercial size, but if you want to go up, you’ll only fit in the main lines. The ducts to the individual rooms are too small for a human.”

“Damn!” Logan clenched his fist in frustration and Angel could feel his claws slide forward without breaking the skin before retreating to their normal position.

“You might not be able to see them,” she said, correctly deducing that Logan wanted to spy on the workers, “but I know that you’d be able to hear them.”

“How soon do you think it will be before we get lunch?” Nathan asked her.

She switched her attention down to the kitchens, still keeping aware of the movement of the workers above. The chef and his assistants were very busy with the lunch rush and she couldn’t tell by feel which meals might be theirs. She shook her head, “They’re really busy and I’m not familiar with their kitchen or the meals. It’s too difficult.” The man from the elevator was talking to the Host and she noticed when the Host turned away and walked to the elevator. “But the Host talked to the man who came down in the elevator and now he’s—” the elevator kicked on and began to rise “in the elevator. The Host, I mean.” She looked around the table, “Maybe it IS lunch time.”

“Wait a bit,” Nathan said and Angel wasn’t sure if he meant her or Logan and his plan to enter the air vents. Under his breath he said, “I wish Jean was here.”

“Emma,” Logan said, hearing him. At Nathan’s questioning look he clarified. “She’s subtle, more practice goin’ through minds without the victims knowin’ ‘bout it.”

Nathan nodded in agreement, “You’re right.” With a sarcastic smile he added, “How is Ms. Frost?”

“How should I know,” Logan replied. “I avoid the bitch.”

“I thought you’d appreciate having the White Queen on your side,” John smirked.

“She’s a cock tease who likes to screw with people’s minds,” Logan growled resentfully. “Always has, always will be.”

“Why is she called the White Queen?” Angel asked. She knew Emma Frost as one of the teachers at the Xavier Institute. She’d been introduced to her during her walk through with Charles the morning she’d arrived. Frost was an attractive older woman with dyed, shoulder length blonde hair who had bucked the system of wearing the gray school uniform and chosen instead to wear white leather pants and what would barely pass as a matching white midriff top. She’d felt the woman stare intently at her as they shook hands, but now she realized the stare hadn’t been to size her up as competition or a possible lover, but most likely to try to get into her mind. It seems Charles had made sure all his telepaths tried to get into her head once she arrived. Devious.

“She used ta belong ta a criminal organization where the leadership named themselves after the pieces of a chessboard,” Logan answered. “Where’d the elevator stop at?” he asked, changing the subject.

“The fifth floor,” Angel answered quickly. “Emma Frost used to be a criminal?” she asked with a frown.

“Yes,” Logan replied matter of factly. “What’s he doing?”

“Walking towards the workers. Charles didn’t tell me he hired former criminals as his teachers.” Logan stood up, dropped his hat onto the table and walked towards the vent in the ceiling between Nathan’s seat and the wall. “Is that a common practice of his?”

“Probably didn’t think it was important,” Logan told her before turning to Nathan. “Ya wanna lift me up?”

“The school is the least of your concerns right now,” Nathan told Angel firmly as behind him Logan rose into the air. As he neared the top, Nathan looked up at him and Logan moved more center of the vent. “Concentrate on making sure we don’t have any surprises while Logan’s duct diving.”

Logan checked the screws on the vent cover and popped a small amount of claw, licking it to remove a small drop of blood before he inserted it into the groove at the top of the screw.

Considering the damage Logan’s sharp adamantium claws could do to the vent covers including removing the paint and making it obvious to anyone looking where he might have gone, Angel called out, “Logan, stop!” Logan froze and looked down at the people seated at the table below him. She turned to Luke and said, “Why don’t you give Logan your knife pendant? It has a screwdriver head on it that might not tear up the screws as much as his claws will. If he’s still gone when the waiter comes up, he might notice the damage.”

Luke looked to John for confirmation, who nodded his head, before he fished the necklace out from under his shirt and off over his head. He stood up and at Logan’s open hand signal that he was ready, threw the necklace and pendant up to the feral mutant.

“Good call,” Nathan told Angel with a smile as Logan figured out how to open the pendant and reveal the flat screwdriver device. “It’s the details that make the difference between a good operative and a dead one. The vents would be one of the first things I’d look at when one of my enemies disappeared from a room,” he said encouragingly. She had a head on her shoulders and with her abilities, it probably wouldn’t take much to train her into a decent X-man.

“He’s right,” John seconded his assessment, “I’d look at the vent into the room also. If it didn’t look touched or I thought it was impossible for them to escape along that route, I’d start searching the nearby rooms and then spread out searching the floor above and below. Basic tactics for a human opponent who has been searched and cleaned of tech.” John leaned back into his chair with a smile. “Gadgets,” he explained amiably. “Now a mutant opponent is something else entirely. You don’t let them out of physical OR technical sight and you put them into a secure room.”

“Gadgets?” Angel asked curiously. “Like the one in your mouth?”

John’s smile froze on his face and his eyes narrowed. Angel sensed his tongue slide along the metalwork in his mouth before he slowly answered, “Yes.”

In the tense silence that followed John’s answer, the slight rattle of the vent cover as it came loose from its moorings drew everyone’s attention upwards. Logan looked down, the vent cover in his hands, “How’re we gonna do this?”

“One of you want to replace the vent cover after he’s inside?” Nathan asked the SHIELD agents. “I have to relay Angel’s directions to him,” he continued, explaining why he didn’t volunteer Angel or himself.

“I’ll do it,” Luke said, standing up and moving behind Nathan’s chair.

Logan floated down rather quickly and he barely had time to bring his legs under him before touching down. Luke steadied him and took his utility knife along with the vent cover and screws from Logan’s hands.

“A little slower on the lift,” Logan told Nathan as he prepared himself to reenter the vent tube. Nathan slowly raised him up to the vent entrance and then continued to steady him until a bend in the duct made his assistance unnecessary.

Luke stood under the vent and Nathan telekinetically raised him up to the entrance and held him there while he replaced the cover.

Angel’s attention went from Logan in the duct to the Host talking to the men on the fifth floor to Nathan and the SHIELD agents she could visually see before her. In the background, she was sensitively aware of the movement of the people in the restaurant below and cars passing outside the building. She wasn’t just tired, she was also developing a tension headache. She leaned back in her chair and relaxed her body, focusing on her breathing, aware of everything around her, but focusing on nothing, trying to lessen the ache in her temples, neck and shoulders.

Nathan let Luke down and mentally contacted Logan, *Are you going to need directions?*

*No,* Logan replied, *After I get up ta the fifth floor, I should be able ta hear where they are.*

*You’re right,* Nathan’s mental voice was slightly tinged with anxiety, *Angel’s tired.* Logan received an image of Angel slumped in her chair. *After this we’ll grab our gear and head over to the SHIELD base. Give her a few hours of sleep and while we’re at Fury’s meeting, John and his boys can take her downtown and finish the—*

*Not while she’s in heat,* Logan said quickly. *She’ll be unpredictable and emotional. Normally when Ferals let themselves go into heat it’s intentional since the government recognized the need to provide them with birth control or they’d overrun the country.* He had to suppress an urge to snort. *You know how the normals fear us Ferals.*

*You’re usually more volatile than other mutants,* Nathan replied, *it’s understandable.*

Logan smiled and nodded in the small dark corridor he was slowly crawling through, *And we’re considered a throw back. More animalistic than the Neanderthals.*

*Yeah, you’re a bunch of degenerates. I’ve heard the argument before,* Nathan said trying to get the conversation back to Angel. *You think Sunshine here will rip the men apart?*

*Until she starts showin’ more lupine characteristics, I’d say she’d just crush ‘em. You know what she can do?*

*Yes, Charles showed me the recording. No finesse, but she can take care of herself and others if necessary.*

*Now put mega hormones behind that power.*

*If you’re trying to tell me we shouldn’t have brought her, you’re a little late,* Nathan replied wryly.

*Nah, as long as her sexual needs ‘re met, she should be a lamb. After what happened with Rahne, I looked up canine reproduction. From what I remember, canines ‘re in heat anywhere from five to fifteen days dependin’ upon the breed--*

*Five to fifteen?* Nathan’s mental voice was a little incredulous.

*But she’s a human, too, so I don’t know how long it’ll last. And Hank should be able to do somethin’ ‘bout it in the next few days if he gets access to a good ‘nough lab.*

*What if he doesn’t?*

*Some pretty bad stuff happens to bitches that don’t breed. It fucks up their immune systems and shit.*

*So it might be good if she IS pregnant.*

Logan paused and then said, *Ask Angel if I turn left or right to hit the main duct.*

Logan should have been able to pick up the voices of the workmen in the shaft and follow it up to a vantage point without Angel’s help. Nathan recognized the diversion for what it was and took a different tack, *She said left. So if she doesn’t ‘breed’, you think it will affect her regenerative ability?*

Nathan felt the equivalent of a mental shrug, *Your guess is as good as mine. Hank should know once he examines her.*

Author's Note: The bit about bitches not breeding is a real condition called Pyometra.