Aedan was whistling another happy tune as he knocked on the door.  He'd gotten the log in information and was about to deliver it to Dino.  He was through with early morning mass and the lunatic priest.  Plus he was going to pay off his bookie.  Life was indeed good.  And the other irons he had in the fire were starting to sizzle.  He grinned and knocked again.

Dino himself answered the door. He grabbed Aedan's wrist and tugged him unceremoniously off the stoop, looking out the door suspiciously then drawing his head back into the house and slamming the door.

"What the hell man?" Aedan said.

"Just give me the user id and password, quick," Dino hissed his eyes turning a dangerous yellow.

Aedan pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket.  "Where's my money?"

"I put it straight into your bookie's account. Now scoot. Let the professionals work."

Aedan nodded and left, just as happy not to stick around.  Dino certainly didn't look like he was in the mood for a friendly natter.

Leroy and Lis, hidden off in a side alley, shared a look. Leroy scooted off to follow Aedan. Lis hunkered down.

Inside, Dino took the password and ID to the Bishop, who was already staring into a glowing screen - much as he had been since he'd arrived.  Didn't the guy do anything other than eat pizza and compute?

Bishop took it and keyed it in, his concentration on the screen never wavering.  No wonder he died young, Bitsy thought.  "So what now?" she asked Dino.

"Bishop gets to show me how brilliant he is, and maybe stays out of Hell. We'll see.  So?" he asked the Bishop.

"I'm in. There. Reset things and I'm in permanently."

"And then what?" Bitsy said again.  "I mean in is fine, but why?"

"We're going to ... well, wreck the registry if pizza boy here is up to the challenge," Dino said, reaching for a fresh coke for pizza boy.

"Never doubt it," he said, taking the coke.

Bitsy stared at the screen without comprehension.  "Well sounds good to me," she said.

"I want it trashed completely so no one can use it ever again, and they have to rebuild the bloody thing. Can you do that?" Dino asked the Bishop.  "You know they gotta have a backup squirreled away somewhere.  So can you maybe put a virus in so the new one will self destruct too?"

Bishop looked at him and blinked.  "Maybe, but it'll take a while 'cause I gotta set a trigger.  Lemme see what I can do."

Meanwhile, outside, Lis's cellphone vibrated. He answered it with a curt, "Yeah?"  It was Leroy.

"Aedan got the psi gizmo, dammit. Abner had a duplicate he left at his house. Aedan broke in and got it out of the safe there."

"Well, it's not related to this, surely?" Lis replied. "I mean, Dino hasn't shown any interest in Aedan beyond the registry right?"

"True," Leroy conceded.  "Well, keep an eye on them anyway. I'm off to see what the hell Aedan's gonna do with the gizmo. Oh, shit, he's getting on a dragon. Gotta go."

Aedan mounted and patted the animal's neck, sending a picture of his destination and making sure the tube of schematics was secure.  "Whenever you're ready, there dude," he said aloud to the dragon.  In an instant he was airborne.

Leroy was yelling mentally for Jelly. "Can you tell where that dragon's going?  Go after him!"  he pleaded.

Jelly gave a dragon sort of laugh and helped him mount.  "Of course," she said and launched herself into the air.  Don't worry, we'll catch him."

Lis's phone vibrated again. When he answered it this time it was Langton. "So are they in the database?" Lis asked.

"Yeah, just got in.  Look, we gotta meet.  I'm gonna send someone to take over there," Langton said, clearly distracted by something.

"Okay," Lis agreed, wondering just what Langton found distracting.  He wanted to know what was going on, and thought he could maybe infiltrate with magic, so he sent his senses, as light as a feather toward the house.

Dino looked up, hesitated, and then said, "Ah, Byleth.  There he is," he pointed to the Registry entry.

"Oh man," Bitsy breathed.  "Not him."

"Yeah, him. The boss wants him out," Dino replied.

Lis backed his consciousness the hell out of the house and knew, somehow, he'd been noticed, and that the warning was meant for them.

An hour later Langton settled them all in Lang's office again and passed around lattes.  "I thought we needed the fortification," he said.

Leroy was still missing but Lis was there. "So, I'm pretty sure I know what's up. And Dino made sure I knew it."

"I'm listening," Langton said.

He was looking at the database with the Bishop and I sent in a tendril of consciousness. He sensed it, and then said: Byleth."

Azria looked up startled.  "Oh God!" she said.

"An understatement," Lang said.  Langton drank some coffee and then said, "The Governor as decided to let them try to hack in."

"So why so startled about this Byleth guy?" Lis asked.

"Byleth is a king of hell, pretty close to Lucifer's second in command.  The sort of demon you'd think helped Pol Pot and Stalin, those sorts of guys," Lang said.  "It makes sense that Dino doesn't want to help him get out."

"But he's got no choice in the matter? So he's hoping we foil the plot?  But won't that put him in a world of trouble?" Lis asked.

"Depends on who knows that's what he's doing," Azria said.  "So we can't just move Byleth.  We're going to have to do this so that it looks like Dino did his job and it just didn't work out."

Langton's phone rang then and he answered it to hear Leroy on the other end. "I'm on Earth. Aedan's got the plans for the gizmo and delivered them here to .. I'm not sure who this is."

"Yeah," he said.  "Take a picture and meet us in Lang's office.  We can worry about Aedan later."  Leroy hung up.

"So.. So we need to make it look like the plan failed and it isn't Dino's fault, because...." Lis asked.

"Because we like Dino alive and useful," Lang explained.  "If they find out he'll still be alive, only in the fires and not useful.  They'll replace him with someone else who might not be useful."

"So he's like a double agent?" Lis asked, clearly fascinated at the thought.

"Well, not in the sense that we've any control over him," Lang said.  "He does as he pleases and occasionally he pleases to not do what he's told, or to find a way so that doing what he's told doesn't work out."

"Ah, and that's far better than someone dedicated to making sure all the bad stuff really happens," Lis said, thoughtfully.

Leroy zapped in then and handed his cellphone to Langton. "Here's the guy Aedan delivered the plans to. From what i can tell he's from Earth, so I'm not sure you'd know him."

Langton looked and shook his head, "No, I don't."  Then he filled him in on the developments of the morning.

"Okay, so we need to make certain the plan fails and Dino has reasonable deniability.  Right," Leroy said.

"Anybody got any ideas?" Langton asked.

"We let them hack the database, but have a backup ready to go online and set it up so it looks like it's automatic?  A bit of security they couldn't know about?" Leroy suggested.

Langton nodded.  It's a start.  It protects the registry.  How do we let them think the prison break's going to work?  Maybe even is working when it's not."

"Have your folks take over the computer system and separate it from the prison. Run it like the prisoners are released, then hit the house where they are at the same time. Round up who's there but Dino escapes by the hair of his teeth."

Langton rubbed his face and drank some more coffee thinking about it.  "Yeah, it's do-able.  It'll be complicated, we'll have to get the timing just right.  What I don't like is them playing around in the real system  But if we set up a copy, maybe it's possible we could fool them into thinking it's the real one."

"Well, even if they suss it out, " Lis pointed out. "We have a team ready to go in and round 'em up, and again let Dino escape by his wit and cunning. Then he just says that the Bishop failed and that you guys figured it out."

Langton nodded.  "Okay, I see the dean and set it up.  They're backing up everything right now, just in case.  And biting their nails wondering if they're nuts.  You guys keep an eye on Dino."

"And what about the psi gizmo?" Leroy asked.  "You know, the guy looks vaguely familiar to me."

"Let me see the picture. Most everyone comes through Hoolihan's eventually," Lis said.

He looked at the camera picture and whistled. "That's not a good thing."

"What?  Who is he?" Leroy asked.

"That's Adrian Blakesley, a kick-ass magician and head of the Rose and Cross. Oh, and the Grand Mage of the Vampire Prince of England."

Bitsy wasn't happy about it, but Dino kissed her, promised her a vacation on the French Riviera, and waved her off on her way. He watched her nice little bottom until she was well away from the private house where he and the Bishop were busily hacking their way into the most secure database in the unimensional worlds.

"So, getting anywhere?" Dino asked, as the Bishop held out his hand for yet another slice of cold pizza.  Dino plopped a slice into it and even opened a fresh coke for the hacker.

The Bishop nodded.

That was when Dino felt it. Just the merest hint. Just a slight something, quite unidentifiable. Shit!

Azria went still deep in the shadows around the drapes and prayed.

"Did you feel that?" the Bishop asked Dino.

"Yeah. I think it was a disturbance in the Force. The Dark Side. You keep computing, I'll check the house."

Dino began doing a search and looked straight at Azria, winked, then kept up his search. "Dunno," he said to the Bishop. "Maybe we're just being a bit paranoid, or something. We've only got a few hours anyway. As soon as Bitsy gets the time and place to the guard to get it to Byleth, we'll be ready to roll."

Azria blinked out of the house as soon as she heard that and called Langton to pass the news along, reflecting that Dino certainly was being helpful.  Then she returned to her post in the house to watching and waiting.  Leroy and Lis were outside, keeping an eye on things.  Langton had said he would call Joe Turpin and have him put a man on Bitsy to see who she made contact with.  Finding her would be simple since if this was going down in a few hours the guard would have to be on duty.

"Hah! Got it!" The Bishop whooped. "When the hell can we go? I'm ready to activate now!"

"Can't until we get the word from Bitsy for sure that Byleth knows it is tonight. I think he can roll with a change of time of a few hours, but unless he's ready for it... Well, that's the bottom line," Dino explained. "If we fail at getting Byleth out.." Dino drew a finger across his neck. "You too."

Azria registered the information and hunkered down amid the drapes to wait while Bishop called out for fresh pizza and then logged onto a gaming site.

Lis let Lang and Langton know that Bitsy was coming round the corner, looking pretty pleased with herself.  She knocked on the door and Dino met her there. "Got the word to Byleth?" he asked brightly, kissing her with relish.

She kissed him back and nodded.  "So far as I know.  The guard was right where he was supposed to be and I was in and out like you said."  She sniffed.  "Hot pizza for a change.  Does this mean he got in?"

"Yup, come on have a piece. I got beer for us too. How that guy can wreck his stomach with that coke I don't know."

She laughed and headed for the refrigerator to grab one and shivered as she passed the windows.  "That's funny," she said, looking at Dino.  "I'd swear..."

"You'd swear what?" Dino asked, handing her a beer.

She looked over at the window.  "Don't you feel it?" she asked.

"Wait... Oh shit!" he yelped and tossed his beer and threw a spell at the same time, freezing Azria where she stood in the draperies.  "Got it!" Dino said.

"Oh man," Bitsy yelled, dripping with beer.  "Couldn't you have tossed that the other way?"

"Sorry darlin'.  I'll buy you a new outfit when I get paid. So, you filthy spy. Thought you'd find out what we're up to did you?  Bishop, pack up, we're gonna get outta here."

Bishop jumped and then cursed as his man got killed.  "We what?"

"You idiot, we've been made. Grab that computer and let's get!"

Lis, on the phone with Lang, heard from him. "Shit," he said to Leroy.  ""They made Azira and she's in a stasis hold.  We gotta get her out of there."

"Right, What's a stasis hold?" Leroy asked.

"Way to stop ghosts from just winking out. She's like frozen there. They could kill her. Byleth certainly will," Lis replied.

"Right. So, let's go!"

Bitsy was shoving the beer into a sack while Dino helped Bishop pack up the computer when the door crashed open.  She threw the sack at the two men rushing into the house, and then wished she'd opened them first.

Dino threw up a ward but Lis had magic and it dissipated against his lance of magical energy., Leroy came barreling through and tackled the Bishop which made the computer crash to the floor and explode into pieces.

Dino swore and grabbed Bitsy, zapping away while Bishop just looked at his dream computer, tears in his eyes, pizza smeared on his tee-shirt and coke dripping from his glasses.

"Azira?" Leroy asked looking around.  "You okay?"

Azria made a strangled noise from the drapes.

Lis hurried over and assessed the situation. He passed a hand across where she was bound and then closed his eyes. He muttered a word or two and she was freed.  "There ya go."

"So," Leroy said, taking a firm hold on the Bishop. "You're not gonna like where you're going."

"Huh?" Bishop said, focused on his computer.  "Can I have a coke?"

"Oh yeah, I'm sure they'll had you one every time you ask." Leroy zapped them out to the GDA office, Azria doing her own zapping.  "Sorry. Bitsy and Dino got away. I'm guessing you got the prison locked down in time?"

"Yes," Lang said.  "Once they found out it was Byleth they weren't in an experimental mood anymore."  He glanced over at Bishop.  "I think they'll try to cut a deal with him to achieve the same end."

"Feed him coke and cold pizza and he'll probably help you protect that database forever," Leroy laughed.

"True.  So," he said, "You and Lis did great.  You want to stick around and help us track down the plans Aedan stole?"

"Sure," Leroy replied. "Just so I have time to ferry Chris back and forth. What about you Lis?

Lisandro frowned. "Dad won't like it, but sure."

"Why not?" Lang asked.  "There's no proof Blakesley knows what's going on."

"True.  But Ian doesn't strike me as the type to just walk into something blind," Lis replied. "Still, it'll be interesting."