The next day Marc did not show up at the office. Reno did go off to check on him. When he came back he slipped a pistol into his desk and then went off to reassure Stephen that Marc was fine, just hung over as hell and sleeping it off.

It wasn't until the next day that Marc made an appearance. He looked fine, or at least was brazening it out.  Everyone in the Refuge had heard a bit of the story.

Reno, when Marc appeared, slipped out to get a carafe of coffee for him and some food, which he doubted Marc would eat, but then Reno was an optimist at heart.

Then, once Marc was settled in his office, he closed the door and left his boss to his conscience - if he had one. Then Reno slipped down the hall and nodded to Tommy through the open office outer door.

Tommy nodded back and passed the news to Stephen who finished what he was doing, walked into Reno's office and looked at him.  "You wanna announce me or just let me walk in?"

Reno hopped up and went to knock on the closed door. "Stephen's here boss," he said and held it open for Stephen.  Marc had his chair turned away from the desk and was looking out toward the Monastery.   He didn't say anything when Stephen walked in, nor did he turn his chair.

"Dinah left here," he began without preamble, "and went back to the hotel.  Yesterday morning Tobie and Chance returned here and told me that she was gone, They didn't know where and Mabel has informed me that Dinah wants it that way.  Your personal life is your business but Dinah is and always will be my business.

"Secondly, if your association with Ms DeCara is based on the obvious predicate whose purpose is the obvious goal, then I'd suggest that whores, no matter how gilded are rarely trustworthy when the currency is not cash but kind."

Marc's chair turned around then. Marc's eyes were underlined with dark circles. Otherwise he looked fine. "I won't trouble Dinah again.  All politicians are johns or whores. Thus we allow you good men keep your hands clean and arrange the things you are too pure to touch."  Despite the words his voice was quiet, resigned.

"My hands are hardly clean."  I just tend to pick a different sort of filth."  Stephen said, his voice matching Marc's. "But, then, of course no one's ever have been or ever can be as dirty as yours, or have I misunderstood?"

"Can we just speak plainly," Marc asked with a sigh. "My head hurts too much to decipher metaphors."

Stephen finally took a seat and signed.  "From what I can tell, in your view, given the past, you're much too corrupt and evil for there to be a hope of ever changing that or at least of anyone ever getting past that if only because whatever it is you've done is so heinous...more heinous than anyone who ever lived or will live....and if anyone one ever found out just how heinous it is they'd reject you out of hand.  So you reject them first.

"That's the armchair assessment.  The punchline is, I don't give a damn what you did, and I will refrain from boring you with the rest of the speech, you can take it as read.

"I, on the other hand, have a very nice public image and my own little house of horrors and would like to think that you and I can be friends in spite of them, rather than despite them.  So when I make remarks like I did about Ms DeCara, it wasn't as someone who's trying to rub your nose it while remaining above the fray, it's as someone who's had to wipe the filth off before you."

Marc regarded Stephen levelly for a moment. "What I did in the past... you're right. It doesn't matter. But what I've just done... That does, and I'm deeply sorry for it, although it seems a bit self-serving to say that now. As for the rest, not to worry. I have a plan, which, if it succeeds,  will wash me clean as the driven snow. Problem is that things, people, whatever, seem to keep getting in the way of my deeply laid brilliant strategy. Of course I'm still having a bit of an issue with forgiving myself, as you've noticed, so even if I succeed in altering some things, there's no guarantee I'll be much less angst ridden. Sorry."

"Jesus, Marc, I don't care about angst either.  You have yours and I have mine."  Stephen drew breath and continued in a more conversational tone.  "I had what might be termed an unusual day yesterday.  After chatting with Mabel long enough to determine she's at least as bad as Tabitha I went looking for Tabitha, whom, I should add, I'd looked for the day before and been unable to locate.  To make a long story short, Tabitha after a degree of hedging and to-ing and fro-ing, excessive even for her when she doesn't want to tell me something expanded my horizons in a manner you, I understand have already experienced."

"Ah, interesting, as I was under the impression she wanted to avoid that at all costs."

"Yes, well, I am not nearly as sleepy as I look and she's always been a puzzle worth solving as Melly would say.  So uhm, maybe its time for me to tell you a few things and if they are sufficiently cogent, we can stop fencing about your long range plans.  If that sounds like a plan, Reno has a glass of some rather nasty looking green stuff that Mabel sent this morning that she says will help."

"Good lord she is too much like Tabitha," Marc muttered as he mentally asked Reno to bring the bloody stuff. When it arrived he dutifully drank it down.

"Thank you, Reno. I might be able to handle something to eat in an hour or so, if you'd be so kind."

Reno saluted Marc as he left the two in privacy.

"All right," Marc said, "My brain seems to be a bit less soggy. Fire away."

"I got interested in Tabitha and Eli in a rather focused way when I was about seventeen.  But at seventeen one lacks the resources to indulge that sort of curiosity and I had other interests of a more predictable nature so I just wondered a lot.  Later, years later, on three occasions in the space of as many months, Tabitha came to me and told me something was happening somewhere and that I needed to do something about or someone would die.  She was right every time.  I knew then, just like I know now that precognition isn't among the gifts we see among the awakened so I started poking around.  I didn't get far, but I was fairly sure that our Tabitha and Eli were not, perhaps, who they pretended to be in some ways.

Over the years after that more or less frequently she would do the same thing.  The last time she did it was the night Richard tried to kill himself and Doni lost the baby saving him.  If she hadn't they both would have died.   I share the specifics of the last incident because it is paradigmatic of the ones previous.

"Everything I know about her and Eli supports her possession of a strong and reliable precognitive gift.  As for the rest if you ask Doni she is willing to tell you what she saw in the minds of Lily's and Richard's children.  That she knows is a fact I would prefer to remain between the three of us alone."

"Yes, she's told me she is a precog as well. But I fail to see the relevance to our earlier discussion."

"It becomes relevant because of what trying to figure out Tabitha and Eli led me to about fifteen years ago and that was Johanna and Thad, whom she and Eli had been....protecting, I think would be the best description.  Johanna and Thad are a bonded couple who have three children also fully gifted.  Johanna and Thad both are the children of non covenanted Awakened.  Johanna and her daughter are able to Awaken others, to trigger Awakening like they were flipping a switch, like you or I would produce a glass of water.  Doni has seen their minds, both Johanna and her daughter's.  They are like Lily's children, in that Lily's children had the same gift."

"Lily's children," Marc repeated, meeting Stephen's eyes.  "So you've known, or at least suspected, since Doni's return the reason she was taken, the the reason the children were spared."

"It is one possibility.  I am convinced it's why Bella did what she did.  But that doesn't mean it's why Doni was taken or the children spared.  Doni believes that no one knew she knew about Lily's children from the beginning.  I didn't know and I'm bonded to her.  And it's likely she wouldn't have told me if...events...hadn't intervened."

"Even so, it makes sense, and is the only reason I've seen that would do so. And these people, Johanna and her daughter, will you let me meet with them?"

"Yes, they're expecting us.  Whenever you're ready.  But we go without an escort, Marc."

"Let's go."

As he said, so they did.  They went.  To a middle class house in a middle class neighborhood on a tree lined street.  Stephen knocked on a door that was opened by a smiling woman with soft brown hair and hazel eyes who greeted him with a hug.  "You're just in time.  The older ones have just left so there's peace in the house for a minute at least.  Come in."  She shifted her gaze to Marc, the smile the same, saying "And you must be Marc.  Stephen said you might be coming and if you did I wasn't to believe a word of your flirting."

Marc took her proffered hand and replied, "I'll try to be on my best behavior then. I'm pleased to meet you."

"Oh, that's too bad.  I was hoping he was wrong.  Oh well.  It's still a pleasure to meet you. Jessica and I are outside watching Thad work.  Would you like to join us?" Johanna asked, leading them towards the back of the house.  "He's trying to repair the car.  And I've iced tea if you'd like already made or I can bring some coffee."

They indicated they would be delighted to follow her and that iced tea would be just fine. She led them through a lived in house, with evidence of children who were allowed to actually utilize the place, through to a porch on the back side of the house, where chairs and a table awaited them in the shade of a large oak tree. They took the seats offered them.

Johanna served them, convinced her daughter, who looked to be about two years old, that the screw driver wasn't a lollipop and then joined them at the table, holding her daughter.  "Stephen told me, Marc, that you would want to talk to me, about this gift I seem to have and that Jess has.  He also said it was possible you might want to 'see' it, see our minds like Doni did.  I told him yesterday that would be okay, 'slong as you can handle the mind of two year old and that of woman crazy enough after three children to have a fourth."

Marc smiled. "I've quite often had my own sanity questioned so I doubt I'll 'see' anything too frightening. It is kind of you to trust me so far. The reason I want to actually 'see' your mind, is that I .. one of my own Gifts, is to do something similar. If I can see how your mind is structured it might help me in my own studies to design a way to lift others through latency to full use of their Gifts."

"You want me or Jessica first?"  Johanna asked.  "I warn you she's rather precocious, so I keep her rather contained."

"Let's do you first so you will see how I mean to look at her mind, if that's all right."

"Oh, sure. Do I need to do anything?"

"Other than drop your outer shields no," Marc explained.

"All right," Johanna said with a smile. "I'm ready."  She sat there as still as she could be while holding her daughter.

Marc's mind slid carefully into hers. He let her see where he went and what he looked for. As she saw, he was interested in the structure of her mind: its organization, the parts that fired the most, how things were connected, how her Gifts flared as he tweaked them.  She could see something of his mind too, of necessity some of his shields were down as well. His though were far more complex than hers, stronger, as if they'd been tested for a very long time and sometimes almost failed. It was as if there were scars left on those shields. She found herself far more intrigued by what she could see of him, than she was in what he was doing to her.

So when he left her mind she was a bit startled. "Already?  That didn't hurt a bit," she said with a grin.

"It's been 10 minutes," Stephen said, having watched and partially 'seen' some of it himself.

"Wow, I'm not sure Jessica will sit still that long," she said worriedly.

"Your fetus, by the way, is quite well. It's mind is developing along some interesting lines. I'm afraid you'll have another precocious child."

She smiled. Yes, I saw you contact him. He's already curious."

Marc raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"Jessica," Marc said to the child. "You were watching what I did to your mom, do you mind if I do that to you?"

She turned her huge eyes on him and shook her head.  And her mind reached out to his before he even attempted to join with hers.

She was more than precocious, she was fascinated by his mind, as he slipped past her and looked beneath her thoughts at how they formed and at how she was Gifted. She watched for a time but then went barreling past him and banged up right against one of his shields pretty much demanding entry. He mind-smiled at her and gave her just a glimpse. She mind-laughed at what he'd shown her. A city, like a fairy story city, on a high hill, outlined with brilliant lights of many colours. She clapped her hands with delight as he let her see.  But then she dove further in and he had to go dig her out of there. But when she saw...her mind ran back to him and he cut the connection then, as she suddenly clung to her mom, her eyes wide, staring at him.

"I'm sorry," he said after a moment to Johanna. "She surprised me and saw something that frightened her a bit."

Before Johanna could respond Jessica suddenly beamed at him and said, "want more!" and she was back in his head.  She smacked up against his shields again and stopped.  Then she began to change the way her mind appeared to his.  She remade her mind, turned the resonances of it into a mate to his and scampered through his shields like they weren't there.

Johanna gasped and suddenly her daughter was gone, contained tightly by her mother and looking like someone had stolen her favorite doll.  "Want more!" she demanded, stamping a mental foot.

"No." her mother said.  "You know you aren't supposed to do that."  Johanna looked ruefully at Marc.  "I'm sorry.  We're trying to teach her she can't just invade like that but she doesn't understand yet."

Marc barely heard her. He was examining the traces Jessica had left of her passage. His outer shields now set, she couldn't invade again, but from those few moments, ideas were blossoming in his own mind.   He came back to himself in a minute or two, and answered, "I understand. She's very gifted. And in a quite incredible way. I've only seen that in.. well, at one other time."

"Well, if that means you have some child rearing suggestions, please share.  He brother is already doing it as well and isn't as easy to stop,"  Johanna told him.

"I'll give your problem some thought," Marc replied, surprising her, as she'd really expected him to just laugh.

"Why were those people wearing the things on their necks?" Jessica suddenly asked.

"Ah, they helped them to do what you can do."

"Oh," Jessica replied, apparently content with that.  Marc allowed himself a glance at Stephen.

Stephen looked back and asked, "Anything else?"

As he asked Jessica started squirming on her mother's lap.  "Daddy coming..."

On cue Thad appeared, the other two children with him.  The older, Cass, was a six or seven year old version of her father, while the younger by a year or so, was a boy, Jon, who looked like an amalgam of both Thad and Johanna.  Thad was wiping his hands on a rag while the children were both talking together about something that hadn't worked out as planned.  Jessica added to the din, obviously having decided that her father was more interesting, perhaps due to the grease and dirt on his clothes.

Johanna smiled at Thad, called her children firmly to order, and made the introductions.

"Daddy, want teddy bear like Marc has!"

Marc almost choked on the swallow of tea he'd just taken.  Then he looked apologetically to Johanna and Thad.

Johanna laughed and handed her daughter to Thad, who was saying no, firmly, as he took her.

"So," Thad began, laughing at his daughter's pout, "how'd it go?  Will she destroy the world or cure cancer in the next generation?"

"I wouldn't bet against either," Marc replied. "Tell me, did anyone in either of your families, genetically speaking, have any similar abilities to hers?"

"You mean making hash of someone's shields?" Thad asked.

"Well, she seems able to adjust her mind's resonance to someone else's. It's a gift I've seen before, but not often. Very young fully operant, er, fully awakened children have an ability something like this, but it fades as their minds grow apart from their birth mother. I just wondered..."

"Well, the other two do it as well.  They get it from my mother.  And they've gotten better at it with time, but then manners take over as well..."  he said the last with a look at them that was pointed.

"I see," Marc said. "Can you still do it?" he asked the children.

Cass spoke for them both. "'Course.  It's easy.  We do it with lots of things.  That's why we can't have a dog."  Disgust dripped from her childish treble at being so deprived.  "Dogs don't like it."

Jon nodded vigorously.  "They're dumb that way."

"I see," Marc replied. "Thank you for telling me. And thank you Johanna and you Jessica for letting me 'see.'"

“Want some lunch,” Stephen asked as they stood on the steps outside the house. He had to ask twice for it to register through Marc’s abstraction.

“Lunch?”

“Yeah, lunch, somewhere we can talk, without interruption and you can ask me all the questions burning in your brain and I can decide whether to answer them or not. And we can figure out the price of secrets…yours and mine and whether it’s affordable. I’m thinking crabs, myself. Sound good?” Stephen grinned at him.  “Besides, I figure Trevor’s already pissed and Tommy’s resigned so what the hell. Make the most of freedom, I say…but if you’d rather…?”

"We'd might as well make a break for it now. Otherwise he might throw us in the brig. Do we even have a brig here?"

"Cal wants one.  I have the drawings in my office.  I'll show 'em to you when we get back.  He might have a point the way things are going."  Stephen grinned and laid a hand lightly on his shoulder and zapped them out of there.  They re-emerged in front of a shack on the shore.  Stephen led the way in.

The owner, or so he seemed, headed towards them as soon as he saw Stephen.  "Stephen, it has been so long.  Come, come this way.  You do not stand in line in my place.  The usual table?"

"Please, Jacques.  And this is a friend of mine, Marc Rogatien.  But be careful around him.  He's got a golden tongue that will sell you soft shells in March.  Marc, this is Jacques, who sells the best crabs on the Eastern Shore."   Stephen performed the introductions as they followed Jacques through the dining room and off to the side, to a small comfortable room with a paper covered table and a spectacular view of the Chesapeake Bay.

Jacques laughed and got them settled, returning himself within minutes with two icy cold beers, and a basket of bisquits, still steaming from the oven.  Then he asked, "Is it the usual today, Stephen?"

Stephen grinned and nodded.  "Just start them coming Jacques and keep the count."  He looked at Marc.  "That's crab...just crab...fresh...just tell the man how you like yours.  He and I reached an understanding on mine years ago.  And if you want anything with them.  I tend to stick to beer."

"I'll try his version, Jacques. And just beer along with them."

Jacques nodded and left, saying, "It's so good to see you again Stephen.  I will tell Therese, she will stop by before you go."

"Good.  It's great to be here."

Jacques nodded again and shut the door as he left.  Stephen took a long pull of his beer and leaned back in his chair.  "So...what's on your mind?"

"Hmmm?" Marc said. He'd just pulled out his pen out and was madly drawing a sort of flowchart on the papered over table.

Stephen watched and just waited.

The arrival of the crabs finally brought Marc back to the present. Especially as some of them ended up on his drawing.

"Sorry.  I was just thinking. The way Jessica's mind was able to alter its resonance, there might be a way to incorporate that into a program to ...Oh, never mind.  I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Stephen laughed, as he started cracking his crab.  "I asked what was on your mind."

"Thank you for that, Stephen. I appreciate that it was a gift. A very valuable gift."

"It was time you knew.  Tabitha has a way of precipitating events when she chooses.  The question is what now?"  Stephen asked, popping a chunk of crab in his mouth.

"Are there others like Johanna's family?"

"Different families, different gifts.  Once I realized what Tabitha and Eli were up to, I started looking."

"And just what are they up to? Every time I think I understand that ... I don't understand her, Stephen. I'm a man of science not belief."

"I'm not sure.  But it's nothing to do with God or theology, though she, especially, wraps it up in that.  She uses it as an envelope because for millenia it was the medium that worked...I think.  A lot of this is what I think...I got more answers out of her yesterday than I've gotten in the thousand years prior to that."  Stephen chewed his crab for a while and thought about what he was going to say next.  "Do I believe what she told me yesterday?  I don't know.  But it fits with what I think I'm seeing in a way...the beginning of a massive genetic shift.  Tommy's running some numbers for me with Cal, but I'm pretty sure that what he's going to come back to me with is that there's been a statistically significant shift in the sorts of gifts we're seeing.  I've also asked Melly to work discreetly with Baz here and a couple of others on Home on the issue of the New Ones without a full complement of gifts and see if she's right about the blockages.  I'm guessing she is and I'm guessing the reason is the sort of gift."

"Genetic shift..." Marc repeated. He wasn't eating, he was making wet beer ring diagrams with his glass. "What is your theory on the blockages in the New Ones?"

"I think she's going to turn out to be right.  I think when we start examining them that what we'll find is a whole range of new gifts and if that's true I can only guess at the mind behind it all."  Stephen said.

"And someone, what, wants to keep those gifts hidden? Possible. As to the genetic shift..."

"Yeah.  As incredible as it seems.  The other thing I did was ask Baz to start finding out if other children have disappeared.  From among the non covenanted, especially the mixed parented."  I should hear something from him starting tomorrow but it'll be slow."  Stephen swallowed some beer and waited for Marc.

"My... my theory has to do with that genetic shift. So no, it isn't incredible. Although I think the genetics have been in place for longer than any of us realize. It's just that something is going to cause those abilities to, for lack of a better term, turn themselves on.  Being Awakened isn't the ideal in anyone's view. If we could ... If those who need to be Awakened, could be helped without going through that..."

"Johanna and her children.  Now Lily's children.  I know.  I've thought about it since I met Johanna."

"Yes, I can see why. But there's another way too."

"Another way?"  Stephen prompted.

"This diagram.. It's what I used to do. What I can still do, but I can't do it alone. I need a metaconcert.  Myself, a healer, and a channeler. And then, we go into a child's brain and turn their talents on.  It's difficult. And exhausting. Hurts like hell. And won't always work. But it can be done. The thing is to find how to do it more efficiently."

Stephen struggled for clarity.  "Well, if I understand Tabitha and all the rest of this, there are two things happening here.  One is that Lily's children, mine and someone else's will be born, fully awakened...aware, emergent and gifted.  But that with them there will be recessive genetics that need to be triggered as well.  Mixed in with this is the beginning of a genetic shift that is also bringing a number of new gifts, like Johanna's with it."

"Well, I'm not certain about new talents, but I think I can trigger them, whatever they are."

"But you're not into religion.  Or it's bedfellows...unless it's Michael and the host in one or another of his incarnations?"

"True. It's a bitch ain't it."

"Yep, and brings me back to my original question.  What are we doing or rather where are we going?  What do we want to do?  For instance, do I need to start taking steps to protect the families like Johanna's?  As a practical question, but long term...with what Tabitha's saying and the potential."

"I'm not sure. For every person like Johanna there might be 10 out there we don't know about. Maybe we need to just make sure they know to come here if they are in danger. And the ones who can't protect themselves, those we bring in."

"And the bigger picture?  If what I'm guessing is happening, then..."  Stephen deliberately trailed off as Jacques took the garbage and left beer behind.

Once Jacques left them again, Marc picked it up, "Then... we need to find a way to trust each other with more secrets."

Stephen, who'd been holding a mental breath finally let it out.  "Yeah.  And I'm not sure what will work for you there, since I suspect I'm might be easier to satisfy."  Stephen toyed with his beer.

"Stephen, it isn't that I don't think I can trust you. It's that... I'm sure Cal has said some things to you about Ocala, for instance. There are secrets there that could, literally change history. Mostly in the wrong ways. Weapons, things that aren't ready to be discovered yet."

"I'm sorry.  I wasn't clear.  I have different sorts of secrets.  Some aren't mine.  Dinah for instance was one.  Others like Johanna are and thus are available as it were in the service of the cause.  If  I understand what Tabitha told me, then you haven't been born yet and in about twenty two years you'll start cycling through some part of history again that you've already seen once.  If I understand you right, you have an abiding need to right the wrongs of the first trip through.  Regardless your secrets also fall into two types, shareable and not, like mine.  The not in large part relate to the past you've already lived and want to change.  So I suggest we deal with the shareable in an ad hoc way, perhaps and the not as the need arises."

"It's been a long time, a very long time, since I've trusted anyone, Stephen. I'm trying."

"I know.  I'm asking you tell me how to help with that, and make it easier if I can."  He hesitated.  "I think for a number of reasons it's too important not to.  And I'll try to give you all the room you need."

"Then let's leave it at this. We share what we can, as the need arises."

"That works.  Are you going to get Jessica a teddy bear?"

"Unfortunately the kind she wants has been extinct for a million years."

"So make it a stuffed bear.  She'll adore you for life.  Gonna be a powerful woman our Jessica.  Best to make friends now, I say."

"I'll take that under advisement. Now shut up and eat your crabs."

Cassidy signed and ran his hands through his hair. He looked at Trevor and asked, already knowing the answer, “All of them?”

Trevor nodded, his face set.

“And still no information on where they are?”

“None.”

“Tommy said he headed for Marc’s office at about ten. Reno said he took some papers in about an hour later and they were gone. That was three hours ago. Neither of the minions has any idea where they are.” Cassidy reported.

Trevor, who seldom even raised his voice, never mind curse, released a string of apparently Hindi curses. Cassidy made a note to learn them.

That was when the two errant bosses suddenly walked into the ops centre laughing.

The two truants, however, had the laughter die on their lips once they saw the expressions on Cassidy and Trevor and registered the silence in the ops centre.

"What is it?" Stephen asked, suddenly all business.

"Three teams attacked. All lost. Half my security as well. The monitors registered nothing."  Trevor's eyes flicked from Stephen to Marc and back again. The crispness of his voice and the look in his eye the only indication of how furious he was. Trevor, when he did let his temper fly, generally speaking, managed to do it in private, rather than in front of  thirty or so already traumatized Listeners.

Stephen nodded.  "Any still out?"

Cassidy shook his head.

"Who?"

Cassidy recited a list of names.

Stephen looked at Trevor and said, "My office I think.  It's closer."  Trevor nodded.  Stephen looked at Cassidy and said, "I want to know if we get any more calls, before anyone goes."  Then he led the way across the hall.  He acknowledged Tommy and then said to him, "Go take a break."

Tommy gaped and went, heading for Reno's office.

Once the three men were in Stephen's office, the door firmly closed, Trevor spoke first. "Have you any idea... The Listeners were terrified you'd been attacked. We had no idea... " He stopped, apparently struggling for control.

"I'm sorry.  I should have at least told you we were leaving without security.  It won't happen again.  I take it no one asked Doni?"  Stephen obviously meant it.

The thought dawned on Trevor and he muttered, "Blast. No. But then she has her hands full with the few security members who did manage to return."

Stephen waved them to chairs.  "I can offer you scotch.  Or get Tommy back and have him bring some tea."

"Scotch," both Marc and Trevor replied.

Once each man had a glass Trevor commented, "I have no idea what happened. If any of my people survive perhaps they can tell us something. Nor do I understand how the Monitors saw nothing."

"They see where they look.  It's totally a matter of field of view.  If whatever it is is happening outside that, then they wouldn't.  But this would also suggest that what's happening is either occurring from a distance or using some sort of talent that...as much as I hate to say it...raises specters of the invisible man."  Stephen grimaced and swallowed some scotch.

"Well, whatever it is we have to find a way to keep the teams safe."  Marc searched his empty glass for inspiration.

Trevor seemed equally out of ideas. "Sending more security doesn't seem to be of much hope unless we know what they need to watch for.  If one of my security team pulls through, then maybe we can hope someone will have an idea of what happened."

Stephen poured them all another scotch, pushing all thought of Doni on the teams as far away as he could.  "I take it everything was like the first two.  No bodies and a lot of blood?"

Trevor nodded. "I've got a bunch of shots I took when I went out to see what happened, but they aren't much more help than the last ones were."

"And nothing happens until the team gets there.  What if we sent the security first, and the team after, say by a minute?  Instead of at the same time and see what happens.  Jesus..."  Stephen looked at his scotch finding no inspiration.

Trevor nodded. "It's something. Since we can't very well not send the teams."

"Yeah, though at this rate there won't be teams to send."  Stephen observed morosely.

"I've just asked Reno to have Irisa join us. We've got to figure out a strategy. I don't see how we can keep this hidden," Marc commented.  "I've also asked Reno to see if we have any monitor tapes to look at."

"Have him bring Cassidy along too, if you would," Stephen asked, finishing his scotch and considering the bottle.  "And some coffee.  Scotch is way too tempting at the moment."

"Done," Marc reported. Both he and Trevor understood what terrors Stephen must be dealing with. It was mere chance that Doni had not been on one of those teams.

Cassidy arrived first, but Irisa was not far behind.  Trevor filled the two of them in with what they knew. And when Reno brought the Monitor data they sat and watched the playback. It was brutally short.  A spray of blood, and then nothing. Not a sign of who or what the attacker was.  Or how the attack was done. The blood spray blocked the Monitor's view.

"So," Cassidy said slowly, "It's brutally fast and what ever happens, that amount of blood, in that short a period of time, could only be the result of almost simultaneous and instantaneous ex-sanguination."

"I don't see what we are gaining by keeping this secret," Irisa said, calm despite the fact her face was white as a sheet after watching it. "If we share this with the press, perhaps someone will recognise some sort of signature with regard to the method, or remember some other deaths that are similar."

"I agree we can't keep this quiet.  How would you suggest releasing it?" Stephen asked.

"I call an immediate press conference, at the council chambers. I  report the loss of three teams. I ask for input. I tell them you," she looked at Stephen, "and you, Marc, are too busy dealing with the crisis for attendance at the news conference. You lock the Refuge down, or you're going to have not just press but every Awakened still on Home down here to 'help.'"

"I agree," Cassidy said.  "The longer we sit on this the worse it will be."

Marc and Stephen shared a look and both nodded. Stephen handed Irisa a disc.  "Shots from the scene we got from one of the security guys." Irisa nodded, grabbed the disk and pretty much ran out of the room.

Trevor had been silent during all of this, not feeling qualified to deal with aspects of Awakened politics. Now he said, "Cassidy, if we stagger team members, both temporally and location wise, and make sure the security team is on the ground and deployed before the first of them arrive, by at least a minute, it might help. Not promising but at least it might give us a fighting chance to keep your teams safe."

"Anything we can do at this point will help.  They're getting spooked and it's going to be a problem soon."  Cassidy said.

"I don't blame them. Hard to fight a ghost."  Trevor observed.