Unlikely Allies

Unlikely Allies

****

“Thanks guys,” Logan said as he settled down in the back seat while Scarlett drove out of the parking lot.

Bonnie turned around and asked Logan, “So… Who were those two girls we rescued you from?”

Logan chuckled and almost blushed as he answered, “We met them at the Siren’s Song, out in Swallow Crossing.”

“Yeah, and then we met them again at the beach,” Scarlett added as she started to wonder about their repeated run-ins with the two girls, “twice, I think.”

“That’s strange,” Bonnie said thoughtfully, but then she decided to tease Logan about it with a mischievous grin. “Are they following you?”

“No,” Logan scoffed, but even as he did so, he realized that it might be true, and that was the reason why he had begun to feel uneasy around the two of them. “Well, I don’t think so,” he added uncertainly.

“Whahoo! Logan’s got groupies!” Scarlett joined in the tease as the two girls laughed.

Logan chuckled again and shook his head, “Maybe I should hire you two as bodyguards.”

“Oh, that would be lots of fun,” Scarlett giggled, “Right Bonnie?”

“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Bonnie stammered quickly,

“I bet Bonnie would just love to play Body Guard!” Scarlett laughed as she glanced back at Logan, and they both caught Bonnie blush and look out the window. It made them both laugh, and soon Bonnie was laughing right along with them as they turned on the street that led them straight to Smith Industries.

Their laughter had died down as they walked through the cool, echoing hallways of Smith Industries. Once inside, Scarlett let them through the maze of corridors and staircases to Grace’s office. Logan vaguely remembered coming here a few years ago, looking for Grace’s help. Now, it looked like it might happen again, this time to help find Victoria or ask for help finding Heather. Scarlett noticed his hesitation and gave him an encouraging nudge.

As they entered, the first thing that caught Logan’s eye was Grace kneeling on her swivel chair, swishing left and right. It made her round ass sway sideways as it stretched the seams of her tight jeans. He briefly wondered if it would break. Grace’s butt did look really great in those jeans.

This time, Bonnie caught him staring and nudged him with her elbow as she brought a finger to her eyes, giving him a mischievous look. Logan blushed sheepishly, running his hand awkwardly through his hair. Pulling his eyes away, it was then that he noticed that Grace was in front of six screens as she furiously typed on her keyboard, her eyes darting between the screens, watching the shifting graphs, numbers, and scrolling Matrix-like readout that only she could understand.

“What’s he doing here?!” Grace almost snapped as she frowned at her friends, “I told you to find out if he heard from Heather. Not to bring him over.”

“We had to save him from some groupies,” Scarlett teased.

“Of course you did,” Grace mumbled, and they all saw her roll her eyes.

“Sorry Grace,” Bonnie started to say. “But, maybe he can help us.”

“Look, I’m sorry, Gracie,” Logan tried to apologize. He saw her narrow her eyes at him. He guessed she didn’t like being called Gracie, but it also made her look really cute. “But I can’t reach her either, and I’m worried too. She’s my cousin, you know, just like Vicky. I want to know what happened and help find them.”

Grace let out a frown, shifting her head as if unsure whether to believe him or not. Bonnie hurried to cut the tension as she said, “We all have friends out there. We’re all worried about them. Maybe we can find them if we work together.”

“Oh, all right! He can stay!” Grace gave in, throwing a hand in the air and gave in, “But no funny business in my office!” She glared at the other two blondes.

Scarlett and Bonnie both giggled and looked at each other and back at Grace who seemed to fume back at the them. “That’s different!”

Logan looked back and forth a little confused by the exchange, ”What-?” he started to ask and then just shock his head. ”Never mind,” he added. ‘Probably some inside joke between them,’ he thought. They had more important things to do, like find out why their family and friends weren’t picking up the phone.

Grace waved him over and Logan pulled up a chair next to her, “Thanks,” Logan nodded as he looked at the screens wondering how anyone could make sense of it all, “So what do we know so far?” he asked. Bonnie took another seat next to him while Scarlett sat behind him, her arms draped around his shoulders as she rested her chin on him.

“Not much,” Grace said, and he noticed that she seemed really wound up about something. “I’ve been talking to Vicky all weekend, and then nothing. Nothing since yesterday.”

“Maybe they went hiking and camped out?” Logan offered. He didn’t really believe it. Heather wasn’t a big fan of long hikes in the woods, and she definitely wasn’t down to go camping and he doubted the same went for Vicky or even Ashley, for that matters.

“I thought about that too,” Grace added, “But when I couldn’t contact Heather or even Gavin, it made me think something was wrong,” she added. “So I tried pinging their IP.”

“That’s… their internet address?” Logan tried.

“Yeah,” Grace said, a little surprised that Logan would know about something like that. She had always thought he was more superficial, like some of his friends with whom he usually hung out with. “Anyway, it wasn’t responding.”

“Could the storm have knocked out the power?” Logan offered.

“I thought about that too,” Grace said, almost rolling her eyes before recognizing that he might not know much about computers, but he had come up with a reasonable idea. “But they went silent yesterday afternoon. Hours before the storm would have reached them.”

Now it was Logan’s turn to frown, “I’m guessing you're going to also tell me it's not likely that their router broke.”

Grace raised her eyebrow. He was fast, “Nope,” she said almost smugly, “I know what equipment they took, satellite dish and all, and it’s pretty darn good and…”

“And if it was a problem with the router, Gavin would probably be able to fix it.” Logan finished the thought.

“Yep!” Grace nodded, looking at Logan with renewed appreciation. He definitely wasn’t as superficial as she thought he was.

“My uncle has a satellite dish at the cabin,” Logan offered as he pulled out his phone. “Maybe we can call him and see if he can check up on them,”

“We tried,” Bonnie said warily, “The connection is there, but nobody answered.”

“Probably everyone over there’s sleeping in late after their... party,” Scarlett added and gave them an amused grin.

“Probably,” Logan nodded, not only knowing all about the rumors surrounding Uncle Robert’s weekend parties with his friends, but he also knew they were true. Well, some of them at least. “Could they have decided to come back early?” he offered and saw the amused look on their faces,”Yeah, not likely unless someone got hurt,” he admitted, “and we’d know about it.”

They all looked back and forth at each other for a while, and at the screens Grace had up and running. The only thing they recognized was the satellite view from Google Maps. Looking at Logan suddenly had an idea.

“Grace?” he asked, “Is there any way you can see if someone else is in the area? Maybe we can call them as ask them to check out the cabin?”

“Hey, that’s a great idea,” Bonnie chirped, “Beats a three-hour drive.”

“I could do that,” Grace said, “but by the time I get it done, we could have driven over.”

“I think we can get there in twenty minutes, maybe a little more,” Logan said, tracing a finger on the screen, from Azure Rock across the lake to the cabin.

“Couldn’t you do the same thing you did to find Logan?” Scarlett offered, “That was quick.”

“That was easy because I knew his phone number,” Grace explained, “It’s easier with that info.”

“Is there anyone we know in that area?” Logan asked hopefully, even if he didn’t think there would be someone.

“Mmm,” Grace hummed and looked a little embarrassed. “The only other person I know that is out there is Dylan.”

“Dylan?” Logan grimaced with disgust, “Why do you know Dylan’s out there?”

“Hey, it’s not my fault!” Grace shot back, “Vicky was freaking out about Zack being a stalker, and Heather had me and Gavin tracking him down after we found out about him.”

“What?” Logan asked, not understanding.

“Yeah, Gracie. What are you talking about?” Scarlett asked. And then Grace started telling Logan all about Victoria’s unease at being followed. Bonnie quickly joined in, and the two blondes launched into the whole story of Zack’s crush on Vicky. Grace and Gavin’s search to clear up his name, Vicky’s secret stalker, and the final revelation. That Victoria’s mystery stalker was Dylan. And how Grace had used her backdoor into the local street camera at _Alfred’s _to track the traffic heading out to the cabins by the lake and see Dylan's car on the road.

Logan was surprised by everything. He had no idea Vicky thought she had a stalker or he would have tried to do something about it.

“See if you can find him out there,” Logan told her, his voice surprisingly firm and decisive as Bonnie gave them Dylan’s number. Grace surprised herself by quickly following his order.

She logged back on and ran her trace. The screen showed how the signal bounced from one server to another. They were surprised when the signal actually went outside the country to Europe, then South America, Asia, back to Europe untill it finally settled down just two miles from the cabin that had gone dark.

For a moment, they all stood there staring at the screen and that damned red balloon globe pointing at the spot where their nemesis had last been.

“We have to get out there.” Logan said softly as he stood up, “They might be in trouble.”

“Shouldn’t we call the police?” Grace asked, looking up at him.

“The police have to wait twenty-four hours after a missing persons report. And that’s if they believe us and don’t think it's just ‘the kids ignoring parents’ kind of thing.” Logan said, “We don’t have time.”

“But, but it’s a three-hour trip,” Bonnie said incredulously. All three girls looked at Logan as if he were talking about a trip to the local supermarket.

Logan gave them a knowing smile and ran his finger over the screen, “Not if we take a boat.” his finger traced a route over the lake from Azure Rock all the way to the cabin, “Can’t be more than 20 minutes by boat.” And he watched understanding light up their eyes.

“What are we waiting for!” Scarlett bounced off her chair with a cheer.

As they started leaving, Grace called out to them, “Wait, we can’t leave yet.”

“What?” Bonnie asked, confused, “Are we going or staying?”

“We’re going, but I need to get something first. Come on.” Grace said. Bonnie and Scarlett looked at Logan, who just shrugged and followed Grace.

She led them down the hallway to a large room full of metal shelves full of boxes with supplies that the IT department used. Everything from coaxial cables to routers, to RJ-45 pins, and more. Grace grabbed a plastic basket and gave it to Logan as she walked down one of the passages, she started pulling out boxes and passing them to Logan as if she were shopping. Satellite phone adapters, a router, a battery pack, pin connectors, crimpers, and a few more things.

“What's all this for?” Logan asked as he passed the basket to Bonnie when Grace handed him a satellite dish and a roll of coaxial cable.

“Just in case it did break,” Grace said smugly. His blue eyes seemed to light up with understanding and Grace smirked back at him. Logan nodded as he gave her a charming and appreciative smile that made her heart skip a beat.

Carrying all the equipment outside, Scarlett insisted they take her Honda Civic. The four classmates climbed into the car as Scarlett drove them to the small dock the town had on the lake. All the while, Logan tried to convince the police that their friends were really in danger and that no, this wasn’t some prank.

Arriving at the marina, Logan and Grace quickly rented out the only free boat left. They approached the small boat and loadee it with the gear they brought, when they realize there was only enough room for three of them.

“One of us is going to have to stay,” Bonnie said, looking at her classmates. She was torn in two, wanted one of them to back out and let her go, but she was also worried about going out there. In the end, she decided that she really did want to go help Chloe, and maybe, make it up to Logan for what she had done.

“I’m going,” Logan said as he strapped the cargo down in one of the seats, “and Grace has to come to use all this stuff. Just in case.”

“Oh,” Grace let out a little gasp. She hadn’t thought she would actually have to go. She had assumed that Logan would take things over and Gavin would put it all together. Then she realized that if something had happened to Gavin, then she would be the only one who could fix things at the other end.

Scarlett and Bonnie looked at each other for a minute while Grace climbed into the boat. “You go,” Scarlett finally said, “I’ll try to convince the police and the park rangers to go help.”

Bonnie gave her a quick hug as she whispered, “Thank you,” and jumped into the boat.

Logan walked up to Scarlett, “You’re not coming?” he said, a bit disappointed. After last night’s drive, he thought she would stay with him.

“Someone has to convince the police this is real,” she said. Scarlett pretended to straighten out a crease on his shirt as she ran her fingers over his chest, remembering their boat ride, “Can’t have a repeat on this boat ride, can we?”

“Guess we won’t have time for that,” Logan chuckled as he put his hand on her waist, “What if they don’t believe you?” he asked.

“Scarlett shrugged and grinned, “Guess I’ll just have to run a red light and make them chase me all the way.”

“Good plan,” Logan said, pulling her closer to him.

“Good luck,” Scarlett whispered as she gave him a peck on his lips before hugging him. “Give her a chance, she really wants to make up for it,” she whispered into his ear and felt Logan stiffen in her arms.

“You’re not trying to pull a Sharon on me are you?” Logan ask remembering how Sharon would try to push him towards other girls.

“Never!” Scarlett said as she raised her knees to tease his cock, “Not after I found you!”

“If two are done with the funny business, can we go!?” Grace called out to them, and Logan gave Scarlett another quick kiss before jumping into the boat.

Logan pushed the throttle forward, and the boat slowly picked up speed as they raced across the placid lake. As they sped to the far end of the lake, Grace busied herself charging everyone’s phone, her tablet, and the satellite phone adapters while Bonnie stood nearby to help her out.

After that Bonnie moved next to Logan and kept glancing over at him, trying to read the through the concentrated look on his face. She wanted to ask him a bunch of stuff but was afraid he might take it the wrong way, that she was probing him for information to publish in TattleRock.

Logan was aware of Bonnie’s unease. He would have dismissed it but for their talk thins morning and Scarlett comment. Could he give her a second chance? He wondered. She looked sincere. He thought about it for a while. ‘If Dad can give Mom a second chance after whatever terrible thing she did, even if it was for the right reason, maybe I can too.’ Logan thought. After all, she did do what he hoped would happen back then, He just never thought it would work that well, or how it would come back to bite him in the ass like his father had warned him.

He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to him. “We’re going to get our friends.” he said. “Everything’s going to be all right.”

“Thanks Logan,” Bonnie said with relief as she leaned into him. And for a moment both of them wondered if they were both talking about their friends of their past.

Finally, after a little over twenty minutes, they caught sight of the cabin. And as they approached, they saw a commotion just outside the cabin.

**********************

NOTE: From this point on Logan and Zack thread merge. I will be continuing this over at Zack's thread.