"-purpose of this?"He heard one man say.Logan wasn't sure if he or the man was underwater,but it sounded as if one of them was.

"You know what this will mean,"another man said.He had some kind of accent he thought was American.

"If it works."

"It will."

"The others didn't."

"The others weren't as impossible to kill as this motherfucker,"the American said smugly."Believe me,we've tried."

The pain,dull but insistent,was becoming a bright red glow on the fringes of his vision,like summer sun bleeding in through his eyelids.But there was no warmth;he felt so cold,but he couldn't even move enough to shiver.He felt like he was buried under ice.

He heard noises,footsteps on a metal floor,and the underwater man said,
"Neuotransmitter activity increasing,adrenaline spiking.What are you giving him?"

"Nothing."

There was a pause,and underwater man said,sounding horrified,"What?What do you mean nothing?You can't operate on him without anesthesia."

"He rejects drugs.As soon as they're given to him once he adapts and they're useless."

The pain was now a raging fire spreading throughout his body,his nerves feeling like frayed wires,sparking into pools of gasoline.While freezing to death,he was burning alive from the inside out.He was desperate to scream,a pressure building inside his chest,but he was no longer sure he was breathing.He wanted to move,but he couldn't. He wanted to scream,to rage,to fight,to escape,but he couldn't.

This was hell.He wasn't dead,but he was still in hell.

(And this was his home now.He was trapped here.He existed only to suffer and never quite die,just hang on the precipice somewhere in between while they flayed him alive,cut his living flesh to pieces.)

"You can't just cut him open!He's a human being,for Christ's sake!"

There was a brief pause,and then the American said coldly,"No,he's not."

Logan jolted awake with a scream,everything in him primed and ready to kill those motherfuckers.He quickly searched the darkness for them,shaking with rage,all the adrenaline dumping into his system making his heart race a thousand miles per second-

"Logan?"A woman's concerned voice asked behind him.

He snapped his head around,flinging cold sweat from his forehead,and even though reality seemed to slide sideways for a moment,he realized he was in something moving,something that sounded familiar,smelled familiar,nothing like that cold, sterile,electronic prison where he had been.This placed smelled of him and exhaust, cigar smoke and women and blood.

Truck.Back of his truck.

He ran his hands over his sweaty face and wet hair,and remembered it all in a rush. Adrenaline left a familiar,bitter taste in the back of his throat as his heart fluttered in his chest like a panicked bird,and even though small,electric shocks of fear continued to shoot through his system,he was more embarrassed than anything.

(But he remembered something-but why was it always pain?So much pain...)

"You scared the shit out of me,"Elena said,turning her attention back to the road.
"Must have been a hell of a nightmare.I've never heard anyone scream like that."

"Wasn't a nightmare,it was a memory,"he grumbled,glancing back at them.

Elena was facing the road,deliberately not looking at him,but Alex was peering over the seat at him.He could only see the crown of her head,her slightly curly black hair a bird's nest,and her hazel eyes wide again,but this time in fear and curiosity more than shock.He gave her a dirty look that had no effect,and turned away,resting his head in his hands.

He should have never slept,no matter how tired he was.He glanced at his watch,and saw he had been asleep for just about six hours.Long enough.

He'd slept in his sleeping bag still in his jeans,because he had no desire to undress in front of Alex,and he assumed he might be woken up to fight.While he'd been nude in the snow before,he had no desire to repeat it,even with boxer shorts on.

He needed to take a piss pretty bad,and he knew he could use a drink (coffee,water, beer-didn't matter;he'd flop sweated away about a pound),but luckily they were about a half mile away from one of the last gas stations before Watson Lake.He had time to pull on a white t-shirt and a red flannel shirt first,and he was prepared to blame his continued trembling on being cold,but either no one noticed,or no one commented on it.

He knew there hadn't been much traffic through here lately just by the general cleanliness of the men's bathroom,and then he joined Elena and Alex in the small general store attached to the station.

It was strange,not a bright mini-mart but an actual old store,with wooden shelves and dim lighting,and a slight smell of must that no glass cleaner could ever quite wash away.It was also drafty,and cool enough in the store that they probably didn't need to have a separate refrigerator,but even so,it was warmer than it was out there.He guessed the temperature to be somewhere in the teens;the snow was turning hard as stone.

Alex was off perusing the juices while Elena was looking over the pre-packaged foods that sold well with truckers on the run and skiiers on the way elsewhere,and he got himself a cup of coffee.The caffeine didn't effect him (a shame),and he thought the stuff tasted way too bitter,but the heat was nice right now;that woke him up if nothing else did.

He was dumping another packet of sugar in the brownish black liquid when Elena suddenly showed up at his elbow."Want one?"He asked,gesturing with his head to the coffee.

"Sure."But she moved in closer than she needed to,and whispered,"I'm sorry,Logan."

He looked at her curiously.Had she dented his truck?"'Bout what?"

She hesitated,and he noticed for the first time she looked flushed,her cheeks a bright red,her lips a bloody crimson,as if she put on lipstick.But he knew she hadn't.The heat seemed to be radiating off her in waves,and he knew it was just fever.When had she started getting sick?She must have known she would,but took over driving anyways.Finally,she looked up at him with what looked like pity."For whatever they did to you."She put a hand on top of his,and for a single half second, the warmth of her touch was nice.But as soon as the reality of what she said sunk in,he yanked his hand away violently.

"What-"he began angrily,then stopped.He'd asked her if she had been one of the ones to do that to him at the truck stop;she'd just put two and two together with his screaming nightmares/memories."I don't need your pity,"he snarled,grabbing his coffee and walking away towards the check out,where the old guy who probably owned the store and made up most of the staff was manning it.

He paid him for the gas,coffee,and whatever food they had grabbed.He just threw a wad of bills on the counter and let the man sort it out.Only after he'd done so did he notice one of the bills had blood splatters on it,but the man never caught it.

The coffee now tasted like sweet sludge and was absolutely disgusting,but it was warm against the cold outside air,and he figured he could suffer it until he got a beer.

Once inside the relative safety of his truck,he leaned his forehead against the steering wheel,and considered just driving off and leaving them here.He could-it was relatively safe here,and he owed them nothing.

He put the keys in the ignition,and was a second away from starting the truck.So what stopped him?He didn't know.But he was still in that curious position-hand on the keys in the ignition,forehead resting on the top of the steering wheel,cup of coffee wedged firmly between his thighs-when the passenger door opened and Elena said,"I wouldn't have blamed you,you know."

He stared at her,several snarky things coming instantly to mind,when he heard the camper door open,and Alex clamber inside."Blame him for what?"She asked.

"For taking off and leaving us here."Elena said,climbing in and shutting the passenger door.She had her own cup of coffee,and a snack cake of some kind in cellophane wrap.

"He wouldn't do that,"Alex answered,with very childlike assurance."He likes fightin' 'em too much."

That made him snort humorously.

Damn.How pathetic was he when a kid had his number?

Canada-Now

From here on out was an almost completely flat wasteland of snow and permafrost,and ice so thick you'd have to bust through a foot of it before you hit the frozen earth.It was impossible for standard vehicles to traverse this area.There were no roads here-why would there be?It was the arctic equivalent of a desert.This close to the Northwest Territories,wedged between a no man's land of its flat vales and the Caribou Mountain valley,there was no reason for there to be roads out here.The highway diverged elsewhere,towards Yellowknife,towards the more populated area of the Territories,although what passed for 'populated' around here was now funny to Logan.There were more people in Seattle alone than in the entire Northwest Territories.

But on the horizon,in spite of nightfall and the steel grey layer of snow clouds making a ceiling of the black sky,there were faint pinpricks of lights,probably not visible to those with normal sight.They were the only signs that the building housing Eden Biotechnics unofficial Research and Development lab was straight up ahead,across the snowy plateau.

And what a wonderful spot for a fortress,Logan mused.Anyone approaching this place would be visible for quite a while,on instruments if nothing else,and attack would be suicide.The satellite photos revealed what looked to be a high fence surrounding the building,probably electrified,and Logan was willing to bet that was all the outer security the building had.It was too cold and too abandoned to warrant sentries of the unautomated variety.

Breaching the outer perimeter would be easy;all the fun would be waiting for them inside.

Unless Logan brought them out.

That was basic battle strategy:make your opponents play your game,and you will have won half the battle.

"Trust me,I've fought a lot,"he told her.Wasn't that the understatement of a lifetime?"I know what I'm doin'."

"I just hate to see you get hurt,"she said,biting her lip as she looked towards the ghostly shadow of the building on the horizon.

He grunted in amusement."I hope they do hurt me.That just pisses me off more."She turned to him with a sceptical frown,and he assured her,"They ain't got nothin' that can take me down.They're not expecting something like me."

"Someone,"she corrected.

He shrugged.Didn't matter,whatever she called him.He knew what he was.Sort of."Just stick to the plan.Don't deviate,no matter what's goin' on with me.I can handle myself.You know that better than anyone."

She nodded,breath leaking like smoke from her nose,making clouds in the air.

They had abandoned the ATV three fourths of a mile back,and come in on the things they had rented back at the lodge on Stengman's Pass:it was easier than risking the ATV on all this compact snow and ice,where there were no roads,just hope.

He turned away to get this show under way,sorry Bob and Helga couldn't make it.

Well,he'd never counted on them,and as always,that was a good thing.

Suddenly,Alex said,"Hey,Logan,can I ask you something?"

He shrugged,looking back at her over his shoulder."What?"

She looked slightly embarrassed,and he knew then it was going to be bad.He should have said no."I've always wondered if...you and my Mom had a...thing."She met his eyes hesitantly,ice crystals freezing in her curly black lashes.

"A thing?"He repeated,chuckling."When would we have had time to have had a 'thing'?"

She tried to chuck a hole in the ice with the toe of her boot,but the permafrost was as solid as concrete.She was strong enough she could have made the hole if she really wanted,but why waste the energy?"Well,there was that time-"

"Your mother was a hell of a lady,"he said,suddenly remembering the smell of blood and death,burnt skin and hair,and always cordite,wafting on the air like a ghost you couldn't quite get rid of.It made his blood boil anew,but he did his best to hold it back,for the moment.He would save the old anger for the soldiers."She fought all the way.I like that in a woman."

She smiled faintly and nodded,looking back down at the snow."Yeah,she never gave up. I tried to emulate that."

"You did good."

She glanced at him from beneath her dark brows,her grimace doubtful and almost painful."Is it stupid for a grown woman to admit she misses her mother sometimes?"

He shook his head."No.She'd be proud of you,you know."

"You think?"

"Yeah.Hell,I'm proud of you-you did better than me."

At least that made her smile,albeit anemically."You know,she didn't trust a lot of people-for obvious reasons-but she never had any trouble trusting you.I asked her why,and she said because you were a decent man."

That made him laugh and shake his head."Sure she didn't mean indecent?I get that a lot."

But she fixed him with a solemn look,and said quietly,her words rising in the air between them like vapor trails:"I think she kind of loved you,Logan."

It felt like he had ice in his blood.He shook his head vigorously,denying it,and walked away."I hope not,"he said quietly,feeling a twinge of sorrow and pity for a woman who probably would have never given a damn.

***

Canada-1990

The snow here was almost knee deep,and he could feel it getting in his boots, melting,making his socks sopping wet.It was fucking uncomfortable,but he wasn't in danger of frostbite-was he ever?

Over a small hill were trees,mostly scrub pines,clinging desperately to the hillside
,boughs so heavy with snow and ice the trees looked like they were slouching under the strain.

Logan smelled the people long before he saw them.

He told Elena he'd just be doing recon,and then he'd be back to let them know what he did or didn't find,but that was a lie.He planned to take out any motherfuckers he found,and maybe ask a few questions of the survivors.

The sky was a strange shade of white due to the clouds overhead,mirroring the snowy ground,and he could see and hear everything with a clarity that was almost painful. Boot prints,the crunch of snow under foot,nervous whispers and the crackle of radios,their exhalations leaving contrails in the air.

It was a group of four men,wearing brown camouflage,perhaps to blend in with the trees,but did it not occur to any of them they stood out like sore thumbs against the overwhelming backdrop of snow?

They never heard him,never saw him coming.

There was no need to do anything fancy-the first two he came upon were standing side by side,so he simply grabbed their heads and smashed them into one another.They met with a sickening thud,and as both men fell,the other two turned to see what had happened.

Logan launched himself at the nearest one,giving him a flat handed hit in the throat that leveled him,sent him falling to the snow,choking and writhing for breath,and the second one managed to fumble out his automatic pistol before he had him.

Logan ripped the gun from the young man's hand and grabbed him by the lapel of his parka,throwing him violently against the nearest tree.The impact knocked the air out of his lungs and shook wet clumps of snow from the tree,and as he sank to the snow wheezing,trying to get his radio,Logan picked him up by the throat.Not too hard,just enough to get him to his feet and make him think twice about going for the radio.

"Eden Biotechnics,right?"Logan growled in the man's face.He couldn't have been over twenty four.Right now,he was all terrified,bloodshot eyes,and windburned cheeks. "Where's the rest of people?Where have you set the trap?"

When the boy got his breath back,he opted for defiance."Who the fuck are you?"

"The mutie who took out your troops back in Brascomb."He saw a flicker of fearful recognition play across his round,pimpled face."Now spill it,or you'll be pickin' your guts off the ground."The wheezing of the second soldier on the ground faded as he lost consciousness.

Logan could smell fear coming off him like a bad aftershave,but he wasn't about to give it up to a freak."Go fuck yourself,"the boy spat,trying to sound braver than he felt.

Logan grinned angrily,rather glad he chose the wrong answer.He let go of the boy's throat,only to put his fist against it."You got 'til the count of three,"he told him."One-"He popped the claw on the right side of the boy's throat,letting it come out slowly,so close that he had to feel the warm metal press against his skin before the tip embedded in the tree trunk behind him.The boy's fear spiked a hundred fold, and he stiffened,but was too scared to move away."-two-"he popped the claw on the opposite side,and this time the claw sliced lightly through the skin on the left side of his throat,drawing up a hair thin line of blood that made the boy so scared he could barely stand the reek.Logan looked the boy straight in the eyes,and gently dug the knuckle of his middle finger into his Adam's Apple."Wanna go for three?"

The guy was just about pissing himself in fear,his eyes so wide they looked in danger of falling out of their sockets."Please don't kill me.Please-"

He hated the ones that begged."Tell me what I wanna know," he snapped,his fear as acrid to his nose as vinegar.

"They're setting up down by the road,a full frontal assault on the truck,'cause the girl will survive any action. Please,I don't want to die-"

"How many?"

"Standard assault unit.Twelve in front,twelve on rear guard.Pl-"

"Were you part of the rear guard?"

He almost nodded,then remembered the claws bracketing his throat and thought better of it."Yes.The rest are down in the valley."

"Armaments?"

"Small arms,some stun grenades.The frontal assault team has a rocket launcher."

Jesus!They really were serious about taking out his truck weren't they?"And the explosion wouldn't hurt the girl?" Somehow he found that hard to believe,but would it have hurt him?Sure,the burns would have stung for a while-but hadn't he survived an explosion before?

"If it had,we'd have known she was fatally flawed."

So survival itself was part of the litmus test.These fucks sounded like they were testing him.

(Why had he thought that?)

"Do you know me?"

The kid,who had pissed himself (hard to tell-fear smelled almost exactly the same), now stared at him in confusion.He must have thought this was a test as well.

"Wh-what?"

"Am I one of your projects?Do you know?"

"N-no,I don't think so.I don't know."

Logan nodded,disappointed but not all that surprised.

"Please don't-"the kid began again,but he was tired of listening to this pathetic soldier.He head butted him,knocking him cold,and retracted his claws,so the kid fell unencumbered to the snow.

Logan heard the radios on the soldiers crackle and hiss,and he looked down the valley,at the icy black ribbon of road,winding towards what had to be a fatal ambush.

Well,for someone.Not him.

Logan started down the hill,wondering how big their rocket launcher was as he popped his claws once more,this time all at once.

**

"I told you to stay with the truck,"he snapped,turning aside to spit out some blood. It was a livid crimson splash on the blanket of white,but since he just fought twenty soldiers (not exactly all at once,but close),what did he expect?

Elena emerged from the shadow of a laden tree,one gun drawn,and gave him a weary look merely tinged with a hint of shock."I thought you were only doing reconnaissance."

He thought about telling her they started it,but oh hell-why?He didn't have to explain himself to her."I lied."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head,Alex remaining a tree behind her,simply taking in the scene without comment.If it affected her in any way,it wasn't immediately apparent."Logan,you macho dickhead,"Elena said with a sigh,holstering her gun."This is our fight,not yours."

"Hey,these fucks were planning to take out my truck with a surface to surface missile-it is too my goddamn fight."

There,that surprised her."They had a missile?"

"Why d'ya think there's a bonfire down there?"

One of the soldiers-and weren't they all geniuses?Motherfucking Mensa candidates, each and every one-had decided to try and hit him with the missile once it became clear they hadn't a hope in hell of taking him down.Logan just dove for cover,and the asshole blew up two of their own vehicles.Smooth move Chester.He also managed to put a couple of his own guys out of commission too.That was one hell of a fighting force that Eden Biotechnic had put together there.Couldn't burn a tick off a dog's ass with a blow torch.

The look Elena gave him was one of measured horror."Did you set it off?"

He scowled at her,ready to proclaim that yes he had,when Alex said,with the confidence of a genuine witness,"They tried to use it on him."

The horror remained on Elena's face,her bloodshot eyes almost shiny with fear."Oh my god,is that true?"

He shifted his scowl to Alex,farther away than and a bit behind her mother."Usin' that telepathy of yours finally?"

Even Alex looked weary,shivering in her oversized parka,which was so large it looked like it was trying to swallow her."I'm not a telepath."

"Bullshit.You sent me that extremely loud S.O.S.,remember?"

"She's a pseudo-telepath,"Elena explained."If she concentrates she can send,but she can't read anyone's mind.You could call it a vestigial telepathy,never fully formed."

One of her 'flaws',he bet,but not enough to qualify as fatal?"Like a broken radio, she can only send not receive?"

"Hey,"Alex protested."I am not a broken radio."

"No,but it's a fair enough analogy,"Elena admitted,giving her 'daughter' a sympathetic grimace.

"How'd you know they tried to nail me with their Roman candle if you weren't readin' my mind?"Logan wondered,as he entered the copse.As he passed Elena,he could smell as well as feel the heat coming off of her,but it wasn't so bad now.Maybe the cold was helping keep her temperature down.

Alex shrugged her small shoulders,lips twisting in a minor grimace."I guessed.After you took out their helicopter,I bet they freaked big time when they saw you."

Elena grabbed his arm to stop him."You took out their helicopter?"

He frowned evilly at Alex,who only said,"Well,you did!"

He was really regretting not leaving them at that truck stop outside Watson Lake now.Things were so much easier when he rarely had to talk to anybody.

**

By the time night had closed in,the weather had gotten worse.More snow had come in, and while it was far from a blizzard,it had dumped a half inch of powder in less than three hours,and the rising North wind had given it a hard crust of ice so the roads quickly became a skating rink.Even for the Yukon-well,this part-it was freakish.Driving became close to impossible-when the wind kicked the snow up, visibility dropped to maybe three feet-and finally that and his desperate craving for a beer made him pull off in the closest thing to a town they could find out here,in the official ass end of nowhere.

At least the good news was there was no way in hell someone could fly a chopper in this weather.

They were temporarily stuck in a place called Seaton,a speedbump of a town that registered on few maps,and wasn't so much a town as a random collection of buildings huddled against the winter snows and overall nothingness.

Most of the buildings were private homes,bought by pipeline workers who wanted to keep their distance from others,with a few small businesses that catered to them and any travelers accidentally waylayed by the weather.

There was a bar,Gilroy's,but it doubled as a sort of restaurant/communal meeting place,so it was crowded,filled with the smells of too many people in an enclosed space,and to make it worse,the ratio of those people were eight to one men.But that was not a shock:the farther North you went,the more women became an endangered species.It was well known that Alaska had a 'female shortage',but even they had more than the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.The landscape,especially during the spring and summer,could be lovely,and the peace was incredible,but these places were wastelands,and living here was hard,verging on brutal,especially in the winter.Logan figured it either meant women were smarter,or simply had less to run from than most of the men who lived here.

He sat at one of the few open tables near the back,with Elena and Alex,who garnered a few looks,but not many.The men who openly stared got a glare from Logan that seemed to take every single nasty thought out of their heads.Which was a good thing for them,but not only because he could kick all their asses.Alex was a theoretically indestructible mutant,and Elena was packing enough heat to take on the F.B.I.-they'd be lucky if they just faced him.

He finally got his beer,while both Elena and Alex stuck to soda,and split a platter of french fries.The t.v. on in the back was too loud,broadcasting weather reports from the CBC,but as annoying as it was,it guaranteed no one would be able to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"So who's the head cheese of Eden?"Logan wondered,savoring the slightly bitter taste of the beer.He had to admit,the fries smelled good too;well,better than the thick bodied pipeline workers,truckers,loggers,and drifters who otherwise filled the place.They could all be grouped into a category of alcohol soured body odor and stale cigarette smoke.The Yukon male uber-smell.

Elena sighed,dunking a french fry into a small puddle of ketchup on the far side of the plate."Barton Perevil is the supposed President,but there seems to be a huge financial tie to Esmail al-Saud."

Logan shook his head."You say it like I should know it."

"Would Prince al-Saud make it more familiar?"

He thought about it for a moment,thinking it was passingly familiar-something he'd heard before-but not something he really knew."Not really."

"He's the crown prince and ruler of the country of Rhajan."

It took him a moment,but he finally placed it."Oh,one of those Indonesian islands."

She nodded."Wealthy as sin on oil money,and stable due to its regular economy and religious homogeny."

Finally,it started to come together in Logan's mind."Perevil?That name's kinda familiar too."

She nodded,nibbling her french fry like a carrot stick."Oil man,connected to Global Petrol International."

This almost made sense.Almost.But it was like a strange puzzle where putting it together was only half of the solution."So,oil money is bankrolling Eden Biotechnics?"

She hesitated before she answered,using the time to finish her fry."Actually,big business is bankrolling Eden-nearly every name on its board of directors was connected to some huge corporation or another."

"That smacks of conspiracy,doesn't it?"

She nodded."I think it is.But what I don't get is why they'd want a bunch of super soldiers."

"Asswad probably wants 'em as a private palace guard or somethin',to protect his coddled butt when the peasants figure out they really got a raw deal,and monarchies are so nineteenth century."

"al-Saud."

He shrugged,stealing one of their french fries."Whatever."

Elena gave him a "you damn smart ass" look,but didn't comment on it further."His angle is easy to figure.The complicated part is what Perevil and the rest could want out of this.They don't have oil money dependent pseudo-democracies on the line."

The fry was good-hot,crisp,salty,probably a real one as opposed to a bulk frozen variety-and he took another one as he tried to think up a plausible scenario.Even over the shouting of a reporter on the television,sent to a windy mountain pass to report on road closures,he heard someone put "New Orleans Is Sinking" on the radio.A cacophony,but he liked the music;a rare,genuinely gritty blues rock song by a bunch of extremely white Canadians.But he had to listen to it a couple of times before he realized the chorus began:"My memory is muddy,what's this river that I'm in?"It made him wonder if his subconscious liked to play sick jokes on itself.

He dipped his newly stolen fry in the ketchup,and said,"They must want to protect themselves from something-a private army to protect their holdings overseas?"

She considered that a moment,lips curving downward slightly as she thought, occasionally glancing at the crowd around them in case anyone revealed themselves to be hostile.But Logan was sure he'd know if anyone after them turned up;he had some sort of instinctual radar he learned to never question.If he had a feeling things were going to get ugly,or someone was looking for trouble,he was always right.Maybe that was his version of a sixth sense.

"But they can do that with mercenaries."

It was then something clicked in his head,a key piece of the puzzle finally falling into place."Not against mutants.Look at how those fucks crumble before me."

Elena froze,fry raised half way to her mouth,staring at him with great shock."Oh shit,"she gasped,when she could finally speak.

"Usin' mutants to protect them from other mutants,"he grumbled,as a sour feeling settled into his gut.It sounded familiar somehow-why did that sound familiar?

For a moment,their eyes locked,and they just stared at each other across the table. He suddenly wondered if she was thinking that that explained what he was-a mutant made to fight other mutants.

Did it?

"What about those drug dart thingies?"Alex suddenly interjected,breaking the tension.

"What?"He asked her.

"You said,back at the first truck stop,that they brought drug dart guns for me."Alex said,pretending there hadn't been any tension just a moment before."But everything just bounces off me.Why did they think a needle would get through?"

That was a good point he couldn't believe he had missed."Nothin' gets through your skin?"He glanced at Elena for confirmation.

"Not that we can tell,"Elena answered.

"What about adamantium?I can cut through stuff most people think is impenetrable."

Elena and Alex exchanged an uneasy glance."I hadn't thought of that,"Elena admitted sheepishly.