Ellie pulled up the situation board and began typing in the updates...wild fires in California, crack down in Myanmar, more suicide bombings in Iraq and Pakistan, Croatia on the edge, Russian Georgia heating up again, Afghanistan chaotic, Turkey glaring at Iran, pirates off the east African coast and all the rest of the six o'clock news, distilled into threat levels and probabilities that Cassidy and Cal would use to manage the still slender reserves of Listener personnel.  She glanced over to where Michael was running the board this afternoon.  They had two teams out and Gideon's team was next in line.  She registered them in the back of the room, playing cards with some of Trevor's security guys who were on call today, while she wondered how long it would be before they had to deal with another major disaster.  Then she chided herself for borrowing trouble and focused her attention on her typing.

About an hour later her concentration was broken by the call alarm sounding and Gideon's team saddling up.  Michael was already busy typing in coordinates and switching the monitors as he briefed them.  "Somala, Buur Hakaba, Somalia Islamic Courts base, under attack, mortar fire, small arms, grenades but appears to be ending, sightings have insurgents withdrawing.  New One, adolescent male, thready consciousness, injuries unknown, also civilian casualties.  We'll deploy Novak to meet you on the scene."

Cal listening from his desk, looked up at the monitors where Michael was displaying the scene from the point of view of anyone he could tap into using the New One as his link.  If the New One lost consciousness before the team arrived, they'd lose their link.  If they went too soon they land in the middle of a firefight.  He looked at Gideon and gave him the go signal.

Gideon and his team zapped out and reappeared in the middle of a typical Somalian village that was along the line of conflict.  Huts burning, mingling the smell of smoke with the stink of gunpowder and the eye-burning residue of burning oil; the noises of pain and terror and the silence of death.  Around them, the villagers were starting to emerge, to assess, to find friends and loved ones starting to either curse or thank god.  Gideon saw Ethan materialize just to his left while Jessica, Jackson and Carson were already spread out, searching for the New One and the wounded.  It was a measure of the insanity, he supposed, that the appearance of five relatively well-dressed white folks dropping in out of nowhere didn't even rate a batted eyelash.

Ethan was already going to work, letting the team locate the New One while he concentrated on the wounded he found. A baby, the mother wailing over it, he concentrated on what he was doing not paying any attention to other things though there was enough loose gunfire going off to make a lot of people flinch.

Then, instead of sporadic and unfocused gunfire, there were trucks pulling up, tires crunching over bodies as well as burning huts and men were leaping out of them, automatic fire aimed indiscriminately at anyone moving.

Gideon felt the rifle butt slam into his kidney and his knees buckled, while a voice yelled at him a language he didn't understand.  When he was too slow to react, the rifle butt repeated its command against the side of his head, sending him face down into the dirt.  He was aware of Jessica screaming somewhere beyond him and Jackson yelling to Carson to get out now, an order he'd have endorsed if he could have.  He began fighting against the overwhelming urge to just close his eyes and was pushing himself up onto his knees when the rifle butt returned, its command made plain by a vicious blow to his temple and then, as he lost consciousness, another to the back of his head.

Jessica screamed again as Gideon hit the dirt and didn't move, and then began slowly backing up, away from the guerrilla troops closing in on her, fighting to control her instinct to just zap out of there.  Behind her, Jackson was bent over the New One, unconscious and close to death.  She gritted her teeth and began projecting mentally a calm, non-threatening aura and prayed.

Carson, who'd heard the warning too late, yelled for help.

Cal knew as soon as the trucks hit the monitors that they were in deep shit.  He hit the alarm while telling Michael to call in back up for the boards, that he wanted every link he could establish on the monitors and then waited for the guys who made the decisions.

Those guys came pelting in within seconds. Trevor was scanning the monitors already trying to come up with a plan. Laz, Chance, Paul and Tobie arrived right behind him. Natha was at the gym, and Laz mentally alerted her.

"I count twenty guerrillas," Trevor said quietly. "We've got one man down for sure. Anyone got a status on the rest of our team?"

Cassidy, arriving seconds later was searching the monitors as Michael ran it down, sounding as if it were just another brief for a team. "All others unhurt, Jessica and Jackson are within a foot of each other, Carson's about 100 yards away but moving in and Ethan's in the center.  Guerrillas are moving everyone to the center of the village, separating by sex.   Small arms fire very sporadic at this point.  Civilian casualty count unknown, estimate at least ten, several critical.  Jackson has the New One, Ethan working on an infant."

Stephen, who'd arrived in the middle, followed closely by Marc and the minions, took in the monitors in a glance and then looked at Trevor.  "Ideas?"

"We put a team in, say, behind that scrub. Far enough away they won't notice, I hope, near enough to get a chance to flank around. Depending on what they do with the groups we may need to get someone in each group.  But so long as they can zap everyone with them out of there, I'd rather not.

"What's that?" Trevor asked.  One of the guerrillas had walked over to where Ethan was working and grabbed his arm pulling him away from the infant. The mother, leapt at the man, to try to drive him way so Ethan could work. The guerrilla, with a shrug, shot her first and then the infant. Ethan froze where he was.  "Christ, don't do it," Trevor whispered prayerfully.  "Don't move. Just freeze."

Laz, shoving it away as a distraction, was watching the rebels organize themselves, some beginning to search the remaining structures for anything of interest or value while three were bent over map spread out on a truck hood, arguing, presumably, about where they could find more people to kill today.  His eyes narrowed as several of the younger women were herded away.  The male villagers were now on their knees, arms behind their heads.  The white folks, their folks...the rebels were displaying a lot of not unremarkable interest in them, all things considered, he thought, watching one jab his gun into Carson's back, forcing him forward, towards the guys by the trucks.  No question, it was going to get a lot worse.

He reached Natha mentally, told her it was definitely show time, and to bring the gear for all of them and then he brought his attention back to Trevor.

Natha arrived on the run with the gear, Anja with her, helping her carry it. Both were dressed for an op.

Trevor dared draw a breath, when one of the guerillas decided to grab Ethan and towed him over to work on one of their comrades who was lying in the back of one of the trucks.

"Laz, here, here and here?  Two each. Work your way around as best you can."

Cal was getting coordinates for the three locations Trevor had pointed out, each of them with some cover. Laz nodded, changing into his gear while he studied the sites Trevor was indicating.  Natha, you and Anja take the northeast side, you're gonna have to deal with Carson as well as making sure Jackson and Jessica get the hell outta there when they get the signal.  Paul, you and Tobie take the one closest to Ethan.  Chance and I'll take the far one where Gideon is.

"I don't like dropping you all in at the same point, even if there is more cover there," Trevor was muttering to Laz.

"Me, either," Laz agreed, lacing up his combat boots, and then looked at the others, making sure they were ready.  "Keep an eye on that guy by the women, he's looking a little itchy to me; and take the three guys by the truck out first if you can.  I'm guessing if you do that the rest will run." He flashed a feral grin.  "Okay, we're set."

Trevor recited the coordinates and it was only as Laz was winking out to his he realized that six were going and one of 'em wasn't Trevor.

Natha and Anja appeared behind the mostly wrecked but still serviceable hut the women had been herded into. Laz and Chance near the truck where Ethan was working hard on the guy who seemed to be bleeding out, with two of the guerillas standing over him. Paul and Tobie had taken the central most position, where most of the villagers still alive where huddled in a terrified heap, with ten guerillas standing nearby smoking and chatting each other up and finding the whole thing funny as hell.

Natha signaled to Anja and then crept silently along the edge of the hut, while Anja worked her way along the opposite side.  When Anja was ready, Natha came up behind the first rebel, guarding the door, her hand over his mouth and worked the pressure point in his neck and helped him slide silently to the dirt, out cold.  Then she peered carefully around the side of the hut, listening to Michael in her head telling her the next guard had his back to her.  She gave Michael a mental nod and moved catlike up behind the rebel.  He started to turn as she reached to cover his mouth from behind.  She changed her stance on the awareness, and snapped his neck.  As she let the body fall, Anja was reaching the last guard on the hut.

That guard must have heard something for he turned and was bringing his gun down toward where Natha was, but with a movement to swift to see, Anja had him in a choke hold and the guy was sliding down silently into a heap at Anja's feet. The two got ready and Anja in the lead, entered the hut. Sure enough, the sorts of of things most women fear regarding guerrillas was already happening. Two men, their pants puddled around their feet were raping two weeping women. Within a matter of a second, and with just one shared look,  both men were not just out cold but dead.

Natha, a finger to her lips was signaling to the women to stay quiet when a burst of automatic fire broke the stillness.  From the window she saw Laz and Chance freeze, while a rebel kicked a villager in the head and then fired another burst into him to make sure.  She found Gideon, alone across the road, and watched him stir.  Motioning to the women to stay down she and Anja left the hut and moved back into the scrub, before working their way around to their next target.

Laz watched them slip through the scrub and gave Chance the signal, then sighted on the three rebels over by the truck.  He squeezed off a burst and one dropped, while Chance opened fire from his position and sent a second to the ground, while the other rebels whirled, searching for the source of the attack.  Paul, across the way, shoved Jessica to the ground and fired over her, into the back of the man guarding her, while Jackson took the opportunity to zap the New One back to the Refuge.

Gunfire broke out then in wild bursts as the rebels began firing in all directions, trying to figure out where their attackers all were. Ethan went down just as Laz and Chance were able to take out the last few near the trucks.  Carson zapped out and the other rebels began backing away.

Stephen, watching on the monitors in the ops center, saw Ethan go down and started swearing softly.  Cassidy tightened his jaw and just kept watching.  Michael didn't flinch, he just keep relaying information while Cal coordinated the feeds.

Paul told Jessica to stay down and wait, then he sent a short burst into the back of the rebel closest to him and ran for the cover of the next hut, before covering Tobie's advance.  Laz, now moving perpendicular to his line of fire, reached the hut diagonally across from him.  Paul nodded to Tobie and she opened fire, sending the rebels towards Laz and Chance, while Natha and Anja closed the box around them.

When they were all in position, Laz signaled the others mentally and they opened fire from four sides, killing three more outright and sending the others to the dirt.  He was about to start the mop up when a mortar round ripped through the air, hitting the truck, followed by another round that leveled the hut next to Tobie.  She crouched heading for the cover of the next hut when one of the rebels got of a shot, hitting her in the upper chest.  As she went down Laz, swearing vehemently, opened fire again, taking out two more rebels and forcing the others flat on the ground.  Natha and Anja moved in to keep them down.

Chance, as soon as Michael sent the all clear was working on Tobie, bleeding sluggishly from a bullet wound that looked like it had smashed into her collar bone but done nothing worse.  He drew a beep breath of thanks and zapped her back to the infirmary then turned his attention to Gideon, laying unconscious fifteen yards away.  He could see Paul heading for Ethan while Laz and the others were dealing with the remaining rebels.

Laz suddenly let out an oof as he found himself tackled and flat on the ground.  He looked around wondering just what the hell had happened, when he saw Anja get up with one fluid move and kick a handgun out of a rebel who'd been pretending to be dead. That's when he felt the trickle of blood coming from a flesh wound along his temple.

He looked at the blood on his hand and then at her.  "Thanks."

Stephen, back in the ops center, went from swearing softly to swearing loudly making Tommy grin.

Anja nodded at Laz and went back to calmly finishing up the mopping up. They transported the wounded civilians to the nearest clinic and took Ethan with them back to the Infirmary.

Jackson was still busy with the New One, while Doni and Tabitha were trying to stabilize Gideon, when Tobie and the unconscious Ethan were brought in. Kalket took on Ethan, assessing that Tobie could wait for a few minutes until he had an idea how badly the healer was hurt. He examined him and discovered a line of automatic weapons fire had nearly severed an arm and blood loss was the urgent problem. Tobie, pale and hurting, just sank into a chair to wait her turn.

Kalket fused the flesh on Ethan's arm to stop the bleeding hoping it wasn't too late.

Doni surfaced as they'd stabilized Gideon and hurried over to Tobie.

In the ops centre an exhausted security team were slumped in the chairs at the back of the room, trying to catch their breath and slow down their heart rates.

"Well done," Trevor said, looking all of them over.  Then he hurried off to the Infirmary to check on Tobie.  Tobie just grinned and nodded her head, saying in response to query, "No worries, I need the combat pay, Christmas is coming."  Then she passed out into Trevor's arms.  Cassidy helped him get her to a bed.

"How is Gideon?" Trevor asked Kal, once he and Cassidy had gotten Tobie settled.

"Too early to tell.  Same with Ethan. Tobie on the other hand, will be fine. But as you can tell, it hurts like hell."

Trevor nodded, as Stephen and Marc came in to check on their folks too.   Stephen went directly to where Tabitha was working on Gideon.  Thea, standing by to help Tabitha, just looked at him, her face saying it all and then went back to work.  He watched for a moment more and then joined Marc and Trevor.  He nodded his head towards Ethan.  "Make sure you know where he is and what he's doing for as long as he's here."

"I don't think he's going anywhere any time soon," Trevor commented, but Stephen knew he'd also make sure he kept an eye on Ethan.

Those left in the ops center were gradually coming down off their adrenalin high, and the security team were stripping off gear and trying to get their minds out of Somalia.  Laz wiped the blood off his face and sighed, as he watched Chance settle in a chair near Tobie, where he'd stay until she woke up again. Watching them made him feel lonely all of sudden as he remembered the times he'd done the same for people he'd known and cared about, now gone beyond everything but the reach of his prayers.

Cassidy looked at Trevor, Stephen and Marc.  "When do you want the debrief?"

"Let's give everyone an hour and then meet in the main conference room," Marc replied, staring down at Ethan, unconscious.

Anja hearing that got up and after sharing a look with Tobie, headed for the showers.

Cassidy watched her go.  "She handled herself well."  Then he took a deep breath and looked at Marc.  "Who's telling Irisa?"

"You I think," Marc replied.  "Later, I'll try to remind her it wasn't her fault."

Cassidy nodded.  "I'll see you in an hour, then."

Irisa was up to her ears in paperwork, trying to sort through invitations to the dinner and deciding who could sit near whom, how someone ranked in the grand scheme of things, and remembering a weekend on a desert planet when she had a second to do so. She smiled to see Cassidy coming through the door, but the smile faltered the moment she'd taken in the look on his face.

She paled and stood up.  "What?"

"We had a pick up go bad.  Ethan got hurt and he's here, in the infirmary," he said, giving it to her straight, watching her closely, ready just in case he needed to catch her.  "He's lost a lot of blood and it's possible he won't make it."

She opened her mouth to say something but no words made it past her lips. She sank back down into her chair, and just looked at him.

He eyed her for minute and then stuck his head out the door.  "Daisy, there's a bottle in my office...file cabinet, top drawer."

Daisy, looking worried, hurried off for it.

"He's ... really badly hurt?" Irisa asked, her voice a whisper.

Cassidy just nodded, hoping Daisy would hurry...and grab a glass.

Daisy came back with the bottle and two glasses. She looked, wide eyed, at Cassidy, then let herself out of the inner office, closing the door behind herself.

Cassidy poured both Irisa and himself a short shot and used both hands to put the glass into Irisa's cold hands.

"Thank you," she replied absently, her mind obviously elsewhere.

He sat in one of her chairs and waited a moment.  When she made no move to drink he said, gently, "Irisa, honey, drink it.  It'll do you good, help the shock."

Her eyes focused on him and then she nodded.  She drank it down and then looked down at her hands. "I wished him ill, Cassidy."

"So did I," he said.  "But wishing and causing are totally different."

She nodded. "Yes, yes they are. You should get back to work. How is everyone else? Tobie? Did she go?"

"Tobie took a bullet to her collar bone, but she'll be fine.  Laz has a cut on his head.  Gideon is also touch and go right now."

"Geez, it really did go bad," she replied.  "I'm fine. Really . Go on, get back in there. I'll, uhm, I'll go see Tobie. I guess Gideon wouldn't know I was there."

"No, probably not.  Tabitha's still working on him and Doni's helping."  He stood reluctantly.  "I'll, uhm, pick you up for dinner around seven?  Right?"

"Uhm, yeah, sure. See you then."

Cassidy didn't like it but he left and went directly to his office where he shut the door and poured himself three fingers of scotch while his alter egos went berserk.

The outbrief was going on in the conference room when Irisa walked into the Infirmary. She stopped in the doorway, took a deep breath, and noticing that the place was calm and she wouldn't be in anyone's way, crossed the room to where Tobie was lying on down, looking bored already.

"Hey there, girlfriend. I'm glad it wasn't worse. You gonna break out soon?"  Irisa took a seat by her bed, pointedly not looking toward Ethan.

Tobie grinned.  "I just sent Chance for the get away ride.  How're you doing?"

"Uhm, I'm not the one who just got a bullet in her clavicle or wherever it was.  Does it hurt still?"

"I know it's there," she said.  "Otherwise it's okay.  Seriously lady, you doing alright?"

"I, uh, it's a shock. I feel kind of numb at the moment." Irisa risked a glance over toward where Kalket was deep in a trance with Ethan.

"Yeah, I bet you do.  Rotten thing to have happen."  Tobie studied Irisa's expression.  "You're not thinking you had anything to do with this are you?"

"Uhm, no, not exactly."

Tobie touched her arm lightly.  "What's not exactly?"

Irisa drug her eyes away from the other bed to look down at Tobie. "I, uhm, wished him ill, Tobie. It's not something I'm very proud of. I know it's irrational. But..."

Tobie nodded, careful with the motion.  "I don't know what to say, except platitudes and those aren't worth much.  But the truth is, we all wish people ill and sometimes it happens.  Doesn't make us anything but human."

"Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right. I'm just so relieved you'll be okay. And I'll be praying for Gideon too."

"Me too," Tobie said.  "Somebody's gotta keep Chance outta trouble."

"He's really very sweet. Are you two, uhm, you know?"

Tobie burst out laughing. "I'm sorry," she said.  "I like him, sure and he likes me, but there's no way working together like we do, neither of us wants the complications of worrying about the other when our minds should be on the job.  Besides, he likes to play it loose, ya know?  No ties, able to pick up and go when the mood strikes him."

"Oh, sorry," Irisa replied with an embarrassed grin. "Smart though, I guess. Men are... complicated."

"Nothing to be sorry about.  Easy to get the wrong idea.  We're like...well, like mates, you know, the way we mean it the other side of the pond."  Tobie eased herself up higher on the bed before going on.  "Men are no more complicated than women.  One of the weird things about this job I've got, I'm like one of the guys, so they talk around me sometimes.  And they think we're just as tangled."  She shook her head.  "Some of the things I heard them talk about, you wouldn't believe."

Irisa grinned. "Don't tell me, I don't wanna know. Particularly if it's about me. So, uhm, do you have a couple of days off? On sick leave or what? I'd just... well, thought maybe I'd drop by if you were going to be stuck at home."

"That'd be great.  I'll probably take about a week off, so drop by whenever you want.  I'll put the kettle on or we can get pissed and have a giggle about men, whichever you want."

"Sounds like a plan. I'll bring wine. Or maybe scotch," Chance was swinging in through the door so Irisa bent down to plant a kiss on Tobie's cheek. "You take care of yourself. See you soon."

She stood off a bit while Chance helped her get up and got her out off there, then Irisa walked over to stand near the bed where Kalket was still deep in trance with Ethan. She was shocked by what she saw. Ethan looked raw and vulnerable now, weak and possibly dying.

She reached out a hand, but drew it back before she could touch him, and disturb Kalket's bond with him. She turned and walked out of the Infirmary.

Irisa lay deeply asleep with her head pillowed on his chest while he stared at the ceiling, his alter egos stirring from their haze of sexual satiation.

"Well," his frontal lobe pointed out smugly, "we survived Ethan and it was my advice that worked."

His brain stem was too smug about the amount of sex they'd had in the last twenty-four hours to do more than sniff disdainfully.  "Ethan is a problem delayed, not a problem solved."

"Whaddya mean?" his frontal lobe demanded.  Yeah, Cassidy thought, what does he mean?

His brain stem pointed out Ethan was still among the living and could return at anytime.  Both Cassidy and his frontal lobe were forced to admit the truth of that observation, though his frontal lobe wasn't inclined to see it as something of any great concern.  When and if, was the attitude there.  Cassidy just said, "Hmmm," and let it go for now.  He was much more interested in the conversation he'd had with Irisa after dinner and what it told him about Irisa's state of mind and state of readiness.

"Yeah," his brain stem smirked.  "She was ready."  Cassidy ignored him, interested in a different train of thought, one that led to the altar and the honeymoon and the delivery room and was defined by happily ever after.  His brain stem, a fan of extended honeymoons, nodded.  "She's getting closer," it said, "but she ain't there yet and you need to nudge her along."

His frontal lobe wanted to know how and his brain stem suggested buying her a ring.  "You know how women love diamonds, and if we just sortta hinted, or maybe left the box out sometime, strategically placed..."

"Oh, get a grip!" Cassidy said.  His frontal lobe echoed him, "Yeah, get a grip bozo," it said, feeling daring in the wake of it's recent success.  Cassidy made haste to forestall the wrestling match and returned to his ruminations.  She was coming around to his point of view, as it were, but she wasn't quite there yet.  And for the life of him he couldn't think of a way to hurry her along that didn't interfere with his adamant determination to not rush her.

"Well," his brain stem said slowly, one eye on his rival, the frontal lobe, "we could like, get ourselves hurt, shake her up a bit."

Cassidy shook his head, starting to wonder if this inner dialogue stuff might not be worth mentioning to a doctor.  His brain stem growled at the thought, while his frontal lobe told the brain stem that if he would refrain from airing such asinine ideas the question would never come up, causing the brain stem to snarl and Cassidy to conclude he should give it up and go to sleep.  He looked down at the head pillowed on his chest, her breathing soft and rhythmic.  They'd get there, he thought, and he didn't need to do anything to hurry her along.  He settled her against him more comfortably and placed a kiss on her hair.  They were doing just fine.