The security left and then, two minutes later the team zapped out after them. Cassidy noted the precision absently as he rubbed the back of neck. He could feel the tension tying knots in he muscles of his neck. He also knew Jordon, Cal and Trevor knew why he was there observing operations and that they thought the whole thing was hilarious.

He didn't blame them. He'd had, all along, to exercise iron self control to keep himself from doing something incredibly asinine like trying to forbid Irisa to go out on the call with them. Or, failing that, to stop himself from unilaterally attaching himself to her hip for the duration of the video shoot.

Trevor, without any prodding, from him had detailed extra security for the shoot. It didn't help. His scalp was tingling with presentiment, his brain stem was doing its war dance and his frontal lobe had checked out for the beach. Cassidy signed and studied the board. It was gonna be a very bad day, no question about it. He stifled a groan and drained his coffee cup.

Jordon, watching with more sympathy than he was willing to share grinned and headed off for more coffee for them both.  All he knew for sure was that it was going to be a long day.

And then Irisa and the newsies arrived. Despite the usual discipline in the Ops Center, with a bunch of civilian nosey-parkers who disrupted everyone sticking cameras in their faces and asking ridiculous questions.  Jordon brought Cassidy a fresh cup of coffee perhaps knowing to keep the bosses mouth too busy to talk.

Irisa, dressed for a day out in the wild, was still all business, gathering up her strays efficiently and having them form up into a little group where she gave them a quick lecture on the boards and the procedures that were public. And then the alarm went off and Cassidy's attention was on business, forgetting the visitors, making sure security left and noting that Trevor himself was going out with the group, perhaps to assuage his own worries.

The team formed up, and zapped out. Irisa gave them two minutes then left with her gang and security to follow.

Cassidy watched them go and noted the time.  If God was good this would be over in thirty minutes or less.  If God hated him...

Fifteen nail-bitingly tense minutes later Cal hit the alarm button and Cassidy's coffee cup fell from suddenly nerveless fingers.  They'd lost contact with a team.  His brain stem demanded action.  His frontal lobe was no where around. "Which team?" he demanded, moving to where Cal was punching buttons frantically.  A back up security team zapped out.

Cal didn't answer and Cassidy started swearing under his breath.  He was still at it when a screen flashed on the wall and a grid appeared overlaying a map of the Earth.  Next a series of blinking points of light appeared, marking the location of both teams.  But Cassidy still didn't know which team had been hit.

Irisa and her journalists had responded to a small plane crash in the mountains of central America. It was hot and humid and rain pelted down out of a turbulent sky. The cameramen whipped out special protection for their high-value cameras and kept filming. The narrators just told the cameramen to show the scene and not them, and gave a running commentary regarding what they were seeing and how the team moved off to locate the New One. There was some blood and gore and that got a good bit of attention. Not far from Irisa, Trevor stood openly keeping an eye on things. The hidden security and monitor were off a bit further away from the site, and he was relatively sure this would be an easy pick-up from listening to the chatter from the team and from the Ops Center.

Then came Cal's voice, suddenly tense, asking for acknowledgement that they were all right. Trevor responded himself, asking for details of what was going on.

"Lost contact with the other team." Cal told him.  "Plus the security.  But I got the trackers."

Trevor signaled for Irisa and whispered to her what was going on. Trevor then, with Natha, who'd been along, zapped out. Members of the news media, being pretty smart and noticing when things went not quite as expected, saw that and one guy caught Natha's sleeve just in time to zap out with them.

When she and Trevor arrived on scene she realized what had happened, and cold cocked the bastard, but not before he managed to get off a shout to his cameraman.

"Shit, that tears it," Trevor muttered.  He and  Natha, and the out cold reporter were crouched down behind some bushes, as Laz and the emergency response team arrived. "Shit," Laz repeated as suddenly a bunch of civilians began popping in.  Irisa, looking furious as hell, arrived shortly there after.

"Get down, you idiots!"  Trevor yelled.  He signaled Laz to circle around one way while he circled the other, and authorized Natha to stay there and shoot anyone who tried to follow.

Laszlo, who fought in a lot of places and seen a lot of things was crouched and small moving slowly out of the underbrush towards the clearing when the smell hit him.  He ignored it and kept moving, his security team spread out around him.  He could hear someone retching and ignored that too.  He did spare a brain cell to hope the reporters weren't down wind.  He sent a signal right and left for them to spread out some more.  The, slowly, he peered through the scrub and almost started retching himself.

Bodies, in various stages of decay, were tossed in a jumbled heap in the middle of a small clearing.  Piled on top, willy nilly as if they'd been tossed out like garbage were the bodies of the team they'd lost.  He got a vice grip on his stomach and his imagination and gave the signal to secure the perimeter they'd established.

No one, there was no one around at all.  So they moved into the clearing slowly, hesitantly, sleeves in front of their noses, pale and horrified.

Laz saw Trevor, white-faced, looking down at the pile of discarded bodies. Their eyes met. It had been, what, 6 minutes tops since they'd lost contact and ... "Christ."

Then the security team reported the area was secure and Natha, rather than shoot anyone, asked Trevor if she should just let them see. He agreed, reluctantly. But they'd seen enough, heard enough, there was no keeping this quiet, and he wasn't even sure he wanted to.

And sure enough the media mob came pelting toward them, cameras and mics already running. Irisa, looking white as a sheet, slid to a stop near the pit, and looked down on what was left of people she'd seen at breakfast only that morning.

Cassidy had endured a wait of endless minutes before it registered that it was the other team.  Then the damn fool woman had decided to zap herself into what was conceivably a hot zone.  He'd had enough for one day.  His brain stem took over and even as the all clear was relayed to Cal, Cassidy zapped himself to where Irisa was playing war correspondent.  Afterwards, when he was rational again, he had cause to be grateful for the shock of the carnal house that was the clearing.  It stopped his brain stem mid-amok and brought his frontal lobe back on line to decipher what he was looking at.  Then the smell hit full force and he was fully occupied with trying not to gag.

Irisa stood there stoic, other than the tears that ran down her cheeks. The newsies were in their gory glory, and film was already winging its way to Home.

Cassidy, his reflexes under control, stifled the impulse to just take her in his arms.  Instead he stood next to her offering her what comfort his presence might provide, his hand gently rubbing her back, while his brain tried to make sense of the senseless.  She looked around, shock in her eyes, surprise at seeing him there.

Trevor and Laz and the others were rounding up the media and zapping them back to the Ops Center.  Trevor, Irisa and Cassidy the last to leave.

When they zapped in the news media were frantic, trying to get statements from everyone in sight.. Irisa snapped back into work mode and gathered them up in a nice group by the simple expedient of promising them a Q&A in two hours, which would give them plenty of time for the evening news broadcasts. They zapped back to Home on their own, but would be back in two hours for that briefing.

Marc was off planet. It was gonna have to be Stephen.

"No." was all he said she told him.  Then he said it again, just in case she missed it the first time.

"Please," she pleaded. "It was shocking. They need to hear someone tell them that it'll be okay. Who else can I ask?  They want you, or Marc and he's O&A. Secretly I might add."

"And because they want it they get it?"  Stephen asked her.

"Stephen, if they don't hear from you they'll be asking the Council to talk to them and you'll end up with the Council down here demanding information. But if that's what you want, I'll .. I dunno, do something.."

"Blackmail.  I love it.  Works every time."  He sighed.  "They get five minutes, not a second more.  Got it?"

Irisa grinned and leaned over the desk to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Thank you, thank you. I promise, five minutes. I'll do up a statement and you don't even have to read that if you don't want to. I'll pass it by you and deliver it. So if you want to just make a personal statement after that you can, and just claim you're handling it and too busy to talk, and I'll take it from there."

"Yeah, whatever it was you just said, that's what I'll do."

Irisa walked out of Stephen's office and headed for her own, and that was when it hit her, the whole horror of the thing. She leant weakly against the wall, suddenly not just queasy but light headed too.

Cassidy didn't ask questions.  He just scooped her up and carried her into her office, laying her on the couch, pulling her close to him and sending Daisy for a cold cloth and then a cup of hot tea, strong and sweet that he made her drink.

"You should be at work, not taking care of me. How did you get there? What were you doing there?  Oh, god, Cassidy, why would someone do that?"

"Have some more tea," he said, wrapping her fingers around the cup.  "I'm where I should be, I walked, taking care of you and I don't know."

"I'm okay. Honestly.  I'm sorry I lost it. Dammit."

"I lost it too.  Everybody did one way or another.  We just have more practice sublimating."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah.  Ask 'em...Trevor, Laz...even Natha.  It's like courage, sweetheart.  It's not that you aren't scared.  It's that you do what has to be done anyway."  He smoothed the hair away from her face, letting his fingers linger on her cheek.  "You did fine.  You held it together to get the job done.  Afterwards...well, would you like it better if you were indifferent or numb?"

"No. I don't ever want to be like that. Listen, I need to get some work done. And I know you do too. So, uhm, meet me for dinner later?"

He took his dismissal with overt grace.  When he was safely behind the closed door of his office he poured him self a shot and downed it, amazed to find his hand didn't shake.  She'd be the death of him, he was sure.  He poured another shot and drank a toast to Stephen and Trevor and all the other men in the world who fell in love with damn foolish women and then spent the rest of their lives trying to cope.

It was during the Q&A that it started to sink in. Really sink in.

Since Cassidy had taken over he’d found himself more and more removed from the daily operation of Listeners, not aware of every detail, not working one on one with the teams as he had always done. He wasn’t sure he liked it; in fact he was pretty sure he didn’t. But he accepted the necessity. Compounding all that, having Doni back had focused a large part of his attention on her and rebuilding their life together.

Stephen leaned back in his chair and looked out across the valley, remembering the day he’d first seen it. It had been a day not much different from this one a bit later in the fall, bright and sunny. As soon as he’d seen it, he’d wanted it and bought it. Then he’d begun the long process of buying up the land around it, parcel by parcel until he had a buffer zone that he thought was large enough to keep the secrets that needed keeping.

From his window he could see the spire on the monastery church, the cross atop of it. Tommy would have notified Clem that there had been more deaths. Clem would say a funeral mass tomorrow or the day after. Then they’d intern all the bodies they’d found today, including the latest victims.

Just tossed in a heap, was how the media described it, and then left to rot.

Stephen stood abruptly and headed down the hall. “Laz, I want to go out to the site you found today.” He said it without preamble, abrupt and emotionless.

Laz hesitated a minute and then picked up the phone and told Natha where he and Stephen were going. Hanging up he said, “Right. Let‘s go then.”

Seconds later they were there. Laz, understanding, took up a position behind Stephen but at a distance, alert and silent, giving him privacy, or something as closely approximating it as he could.

A perimeter had been established and a guard set. But otherwise the site was undisturbed except for the signs of Trevor’s people looking for clues, it having been too late when they’d finished to start removing the remains. They planned to do it tomorrow. Otherwise it was a remarkably peaceful spot, so long as you didn’t focus on what was piled in the shallow pit in the middle.

Stephen focused on what was in the pit, doing a roll call of names in his mind. He’d known them all, just as he knew all the other Listeners, had always known each one personally, been friends with many of them and friendly with the rest. He’d handpicked each one and knew their strengths and weaknesses. He’d worked in the field with them, trusting his life to them even as they’d done the same with him. He was surprised to realize how much he hated that that was about to change.

He thought back, to Richard and the last time they’d been under attack. That they had been attacked it had been bad enough, but he hadn’t been isolated from them, he’d shared the same danger they shared. Now he was in his office all day or on Home working on the election or any one of a number of other things while they were out here risking their lives and sometimes dying. Dying for no reason he could discern.

He felt, he knew, responsible for them, for making sure they had what they needed to do the job and do it safely. Now he couldn’t even keep them alive, let alone safe. Nor could he share the danger with them. And, underneath, driving the anger he was feeling was the grief for the losses, for the individual lives, people who’d had names, who’d dreamed dreams and hoped for better things, people who’d trusted him, who’d believed in what he believed in and given those two things had signed up as Listeners. And they’d stayed signed up through the lean years.

He was failing them. It was a bitter taste in mouth, like acid, and made his gut clench as he realized his helplessness. His fists clenched as he allowed his mind to shape that truth. He was failing them and there was nothing at all he could do about it except bury them and be ready to bury the next team, and the next after that for however long it lasted, until finally they found a way to stop the slaughter.

How long he stood there staring at the pit, etching the tangled of arms and legs and torsos into his memory he didn’t know. But eventually he sighed and looked around for Laszlo, indicating he was ready to leave.  Seeing it hadn't helped, it had only made it worse.

---------------

There was a process for this sort of thing.  Periodically Healers would rotate, since the Hospital on Home took New Ones and any overflow of Listeners the Infirmary couldn't handle. So it paid to rotate healers through both facilities.

The two due for this rotation were standing by, and had out briefed the hospital. Both had been to the Refuge before so really it was merely a matter of getting updated on newer procedures. But there was also the danger there now, as they'd hardly helped but see the graphic footage from the abattoir.  It was shocking and causing immense waves of emotion throughout Home society.

Bobbi was the most experienced of the two, having gone out with the teams within the last few years. Ethan, however, had been busy with hospital administration and other such duties so hadn't had the opportunity to get down to the Refuge for quite some time. He was looking forward to seeing it again. And, looking forward to seeing some acquaintances, one in particular, who he knew to be there.

When the two zapped into the Ops Center, Cassidy was there awaiting them, their dossiers in hand. Tabitha was on her way over from the Infirmary.

The two looked around to get their bearings, and then Cassidy stepped forward.

He held out his hand to Bobbi, but spoke to them both.  "Sebastian Cassidy.  I'm handling all the ops these days.  Welcome back to the Refuge."  He shook Bobbi's hand and then Ethan's.

Ethan looked around and commented, "Seems like quite a few changes since I've been here, not only you."  He smiled and nodded to several folks in the room he knew.

"We saw the footage," Bobbi said. "It seems working the teams is a more dangerous thing these days."

"We're working on making it less dangerous.  Or perhaps just normally dangerous, since it was never all that simple."  Cassidy commented.  "Why don't we have a seat.  Tabitha is on her way over from the infirmary, she's running it now.  It's a separate building now." He took a seat at the conference table in the back.

Bobbi and Ethan both sat comfortably awaiting Tabitha with evident unconcern.

Ethan cleared his throat. "Tabitha...I thought she wasn't.. I didn't know she was a healer. Same woman who used to run the House?"

Cassidy nodded.  "That's her.  Minnie and Murgie Murgatroyd run the House now.  Tabitha's made an amazing difference in the infirmary since she took over."

Bobbi smiled. "I'm looking forward to studying her techniques then."  Ethan nodded in agreement.

"Seems to be more than a matter of technique, but you can discuss it with her yourselves.  Here she comes."  Cassidy said, standing politely as Tabitha joined them.

Tabitha's eyes took in Bobbi in a single comprehensive glance then moved to Ethan.  "Welcome back to the Refuge," she said, her hands folded in front of her.

Bobbi grinned. "I hear you've made many improvements. I look forward to working with you."

Ethan sat back and then added, "You should come to Home then and brief the staff there on your innovations."

"Perhaps," she said.  "Has Mr. Cassidy been briefing you?"

"Mr. Cassidy, Tabitha?  What did I do to deserve that?"  Cassidy asked, chuckling.  "We were just about to start the briefing.  If you'd like to join us, we can get started."

Tabitha nodded and took a seat where she could see both newcomers full face, while Cassidy led the through the changes, security requirements and training requirements.

"We never did field training before,"  Bobbi said, "unless we were on the stand by rotation.  I'm not."

"We're putting more healers in the field now, so you'll both be field certified and then assigned regular rotations on the teams."   Tabitha answered for Cassidy.  "Unless there's a problem...?" she added.

"it seems a waste of healer time to me. If we're more centrally placed we can be handy for emergencies, rather than out in the field where we might not be needed at all.  Ethan shrugged. "I'm not suggesting your methods are wrong, just I'm wondering why the change."

"Ninety-eight percent of our patients are New Ones, injured during Awakening.  In the last month, since we started this, our mortality rate has dropped by over thirty percent."  Tabitha said.  "The goal is a healer on every team and we're very close to that with you two."

Bobbi smiled to hear that. Ethan frowned, then said, "How did you manage such a feat. It can't be merely that a healer is there during the chaos."

"No, it's not.  But without the healer, the skin isn't as effective.  If you don't want to work in the field, Mr. Novak, arrangements can be made, I'm sure." Tabitha said calmly.

"Skin?" he asked.

"Yes.  One of the innovations you'll be trained on.  It came to us through the kind offices of Mr. Rogatien."  she replied.

"Interesting the hospital doesn't have this innovative skin."

"Yes it is, isn't, Mr. Novak.  But then, they don't do field work, do they?" Tabitha suggested gently.  "They wait for the patients to come to them."

"Well, Tabitha, I look forward to learning to use this strange 'skin'."

"I look forward to it, too, Mr. Novak."

Cassidy, aware of the undercurrents grinned. "Any other questions? If not we'll get you implanted and then see about room assignments.  Things are a little tight here, so it may not be what you're used to.  On the other hand," he said, grinning at Tabitha, "the dining room has expanded it's hours."

There were no other questions, well not for Cassidy anyway, but Bobbi was asking Tabitha questions as the three of them headed off toward the Infirmary for their tour of the new facilities.

They'd just reached the main door when Irisa came in, her hands full of folders, her mind a million miles away. So when she suddenly banged into someone she looked up embarrassed. And then turned sheet white.

"Hullo Irisa. Good to see you again."  Ethan helped her pick up the folders that had slid from her hands as she'd looked at him.  "Maybe we can get together for coffee later?" he asked.

"I.. uhm, I'm sorry, I've an engagement," she said and hurried up the hallway to her office.

Tabitha watched her rush off and then waited until Ethan's attention returned to her.  "The infirmary's this way," she said.

Irisa had sent Daisy home early and she was still in her office trying to decide what she was going to do.  Her mind was not helping. It kept cycling through old memories.  Some quite wonderful. Others, not so much.

A noise made her look up.  Ethan was standing in the doorway.

She tried on a smile. "Ethan. Hullo. Long time.  I didn't know you were coming here."

He walked into the office and noted that she pulled back just a bit.  He stopped where he was.  "I'm here on rotation as healer. I've gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with your boss' little innovation."

"My what?" she asked unsure what he was talking about.

"The skin. It's pretty impressive. I wonder why Marc decided not to share it on Home."

"I don't know, Ethan. You'll have to ask him that. So, how long are you going to be here?" She managed a smile.

"Six months. Although I'm not really happy about being expected to go out on the teams."

"Yeah, I can imagine."

His eyes narrowed.

"So," she hurried to say, "what have you been up to?"

"Not as much as you, certainly. I see you on the news all the time, Irisa. Seeing you always takes my breath away."

"I, uhm.. I'm seeing someone, Ethan."

"Dump him, you know you want to. No one's ever made you feel as much as I can."

It was true she thought. Although not quite the way he meant it.  "I've moved on," she said evenly.

"I want you back, Irisa."

She began clearing off her desk, straightening things up.

"Come on, I'll take you to dinner," he said, giving her his best smile.

"Thanks, but I've got plans," she replied.

"It's only dinner."  His voice was a bit harder. He always hated it when he didn't get his own way.

"I'm busy, Ethan.  After all, I had no idea you were going to be here. Maybe we can do lunch."

She stepped out from behind her desk and took several steps toward the door.

He moved to stand between her and it, then smiled. "I want to hear what you've been up to, sweetheart."

Her eyes narrowed. "You never gave a damn about what I was up to when we were together. Why now, suddenly."

Ethan shrugged. "I've grown up? Listen, what happened, it won't ever happen again, Irisa, I promise."

No, it damn well wouldn't, she thought, but instead said, "I'm not going to say anything about it. You just do your job here and I'll do mine."  She took a step toward the door again and he grabbed her arm, his grip tight and determined.

"I've missed you, Irisa. We were good together."

She goggled at him. "Ethan, please let go of me."

"Not until you promise me you'll come with me to dinner."

"No," she said quietly, somehow finding the will to meet his eyes.

"Yes, you will," he replied, his anger sounding hard and his grip becoming painful.

"Let go of me, Ethan."

"Come to dinner with me," he hissed, "and I will."

Tommy cleared his throat again, not having been heard the first time, and said, "Ms Diamond, I'm sorry to interrupt, but Stephen was wondering if you had a minute?"

Tommy saw relief on Irisa's tense face. "Oh, yes of course. Ethan, if you'll excuse me, I have a job to do."

Ethan looked around at Tommy, and frowned. "Who's this?"

"He's Stephen's assistant," Irisa replied her voice icy. "Mr. Thomas Aneas, Mr. Ethan Novak. Now, if you'll excuse us, Ethan."

Ethan smiled at Tommy. "Ah, I see. All right. I'll see you later Irisa."  Ethan, with a cold glance at Tommy walked out.

Irisa waited for several heartbeats until she asked, "Is Stephen still here?"

Tommy shook his head.  "Are you all right?  Want me to call someone or get you anything?"

Irisa sank into her chair. She motioned for Tommy to take a seat. When he did she said, "Thank you for interrupting that. Uhm, I'd really appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone what you heard or saw. it's... private."

"Uhm, I don't know, Ms Diamond.  He, uh, he looked like he was hurting you and he knew it."  Tommy said hesitantly.

"I really appreciate your concern, and my name is Irisa. But, well, you know I'm dating Cassidy, right?" Tommy nodded. Everyone knew that. "And well, I'm worried about well, he's possessive and well, I don't want to hurt Ethan's career, or especially not Cassidy's. So if we can avoid a confrontation..."  she let the words drop off and held her breath.

Tommy thought it over and finally nodded, unhappy but willing.  "Okay." he agreed.

"Thanks, Tommy. I really appreciate it. I promise I'm not trying to keep secrets from Cassidy, but, well, Ethan was a boyfriend. It makes things awkward."

Tommy nodded, not convinced but now committed.  "Sure.  Anything else I can do for you?"

"Yes, please. If you see Ethan doing anything that isn't right, treat him as you would anyone else, okay?  I'm not asking you to cover for him, just to let me break this to Cassidy. Okay?"

Tommy shook his head.  "I can't do that, ma'am.  I'd have to tell Stephen."  Tommy was firm on that point.

"Yes, I'm sorry, that's exactly what I meant. Just not about this. Tonight."

He nodded, now a lot more unhappy than before.

Irisa looked at Tommy for a moment. "Okay, how about this. If your conscience bothers you, talk to Stephen. Just not Cassidy.  Okay?  Honestly, I don't want to make you uncomfortable and it isn't right for me to ask you to do something you don't want to."

He nodded, liking that arrangement much better.  "Yes ma'am, that works," he said smiling a bit.

"Thank you so much, Tommy." She stood up and he did too. She put a kiss on his cheek and smiled. "You're a good friend, Tommy."

He blushed and nodded, looking at the floor.

"Good night, Tommy. I promise I'll tell Cassidy." She just wasn't sure when.

He nodded again and fled, as fast as dignity allowed.

Cassidy watched him go, then took his place in Irisa's office.  "Hi?  Ready for some dinner?" he asked, dropping a swift kiss on her mouth.  He scanned her face and decided to let it ride for now.

"Can I have a hug first?" she asked.

He enfolded her in his arms and held her close for a moment or two before moving her back a bit, "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked her gently.

"I'm not sure how to start," she admitted.

'Well, start at the beginning and just spit it out, maybe?" he suggested, pulling her down on the couch next to him.

"Ethan? The healer?  He and I were lovers. I just wanted you to know that. It's over and has been over for a very long time. And I don't want him and I just.. He's a great healer."

Cassidy waited until he was sure she was finished.  Then he said, "Okay.  I appreciate you telling me."

She hesitated a minute, as if she expected more then gave him her best smile. "So, what's for dinner?"

"Dining room I afraid." he told her.

"That's fine," she said as she got up. "So how was your day?"

"Oh, the usual." he said, his brain busy trying to figure out what it was she wasn't telling him.

The ops center was quiet as Stephen walked in, possibly in deference to the trial run planned for today. Gideon’s team was up and had one of the new healers with them…Ethan he thought the guy’s name was…who was going to try to certify today. Paul, Chance and Laz were also waiting for the next call and hanging out in the back playing cards while they waited, with Gideon, Jackson and Carson. From where he was standing it looked like Laz was winning.

“Morning Cal,” Stephen said as he approached the board, scanning current activity. Where’s the star of the show?”

Cal grinned broadly. “Trevor’s outside with her, waiting like the rest of us. He’s got Natha with him, too. Be just our luck we get a real slow day.”

Stephen was about to reply when the board started flashing and Michael began speaking, while the teams got ready. “Tornado touch down, just south of Jonesboro Arkansas, house down, woman, shocky, sliding in and out, no one else around.

Paul relayed to Natha and then he, Laz and Chance were locked, loaded and gone. Outside Trevor grinned, settled himself on Kalie’s back and they were gone too. Inside the ops center, the 2 minute clock started ticking as Cassidy joined them, nodding to the team and taking a seat in front of the monitors. “Should be a simple pick up,” he observed.

“Total loss of consciousness,” Michael called out as the monitors went blank, then picked up again, using feeds from the security team. They showed a woman, with a compound fracture half buried under a collapsed house, a small child held close and probably dead.

The two minute clock went off and the team was gone. Seconds later the monitors showed the new feeds, Ethan already bending over the woman with Jackson DeMarkian the healer assigned to the team, standing by observing, while Gideon and others began preparing to get her out from under the debris.

Trevor on Kalie popped in, and Kalie cloaked them both. Just as they did so Trevor felt a .. He couldn't really put a word to it. But he trusted his instincts and said to Kalie, "I think we're going live."  Kalie dived as Trevor sent the signal to Laz, Chance and Paul. He alerted Natha to bring in the backup team.

Kalie veered left almost throwing Trevor as she did so. There was a wavering over an area right above where the team was, and something seemed to be materializing. Trevor didn't dare shoot, because if he missed the team was right below. Kalie dove to attack.

First she drove her wing straight through the still unformed shape, forcing it down and away from the team.  Then she leveled off enough to give Trevor a clear shot if he wanted.

On the ground, the back up team was covering Paul, Laz and Chance as they approached the shape.

Paul passed on the info an attack was coming and the team redoubled their efforts to free the woman. Ethan tossed aside caution and dove into the rubble after her, letting the rest of the team work at stabilizing the structure. He was crawling on his belly through darkness, the rubble shifting above him. If he could just get one hand on her he'd zap them both out of there. That was when he heard the weapons the security team had start blasting away at whatever it was that was coming for them.

Kalie dove again and drove her wing through the amorphous mass twice more, once on the way down and once on the way back up.  The second time it coalesced into recognizable shapes, reptilian shapes.  Laz, his finger frozen on the trigger, watched them tumble to the ground from a hundred feet up.  It appeared there were three of them, but it was hard to tell from the mess of legs, claws, tails and snouts.  The fall seemed to have stunned them, given the lack of motion when Kalie dove again and then leveled, hovering over them.  "I can kill them if you want."  She said it matter-of-factly.

"No, we need to try to figure out who they are and what they want. Who sent them. We need to take at least one alive."  Trevor signaled to the others to close in, as he kept his weapon trained on them and Kalie hovered.   "Kill them it looks like they will either escape or can manage to hurt our team, " Trevor added, when he saw some movement amongst the creatures.  "Watch it!" he shouted to Laz.

But Laz had already seen the movement as the team moved in, prepared for nearly anything.

Meanwhile the rubble shifted and began to crash down, despite how carefully the team was working to give Ethan a chance to reach the new one. Then, at the last possible second, they felt the snap as Ethan, with the New One in hand, zapped out and back to the Refuge.

As the rubble crashed down one of the reptiles began hissing, its tongue extending and growing longer and broader, before it flashed out and wrapped itself around Laz's neck.  The second it did Paul and Chance started firing and blood started flying from Laz.

Kalie let out a roar and dove down, neatly biting off the thing's head and safely missing Laz. He shuddered and got what was left of the tongue off himself, even if he was feeling peckish what with loss of blood.

Trevor shot another one who had begun moving, giving Chance and Paul, with Laz's best attempt at assistance, a chance to toss a net over the creature left alive.

The pick up team zapped back to the Refuge and, the security team, along with the back up team followed, leaving Trevor and Kalie there alone.

Trevor swore and then laughed.  "Looks like we're going back the long way, sweetheart.  Nice job, by the way!"

Kalie gave a dragon sort of laugh and launched herself into the sky, her great wings moving rapidly as the ground fell away and the miles with them.

Irisa caught up with Stephen as he was about to enter the conference room, stopping him with a hand on his arm. “Marc’s not available, so I need you for a Q&A as soon as possible.”

Stephen let a small sad smile mold his mouth. “No.”

She started to protest, but he cut her off. “No. I’m not doing any interviews, I’m making no appearances. If you threaten me with an invasion of the council I’ll get out the deeds to this place and toss them and the press out. You handle it; give ‘em pictures of Kalie, of the lizard man, of whatever. Draft a statement and release it over my signature.”

He headed into the conference room without waiting for a response, nodding to Cassidy as he took a seat in the back corner.  He was here to listen only.  Around the table and on the sides of the room were Gideon and his team, Laz and the security personnel and Ethan Novak, the healer who’d been working on field certification.

Jordon was there taking notes. Trevor was still flying cross country on Kalie, ETA unknown.  The thought made Stephen's lips twitch.

Cassidy nodded back and started the debrief, beginning with Gideon's team who took him through an over view, then detailed the high points. Then he got down to specifics, starting with Ethan.  "Ethan, would you walk me through what happened from your perspective, please?"

"The New One was trapped and weakening, deeply in the rubble. I heard the alerts on the attack and wasn't sure how long we had to get her out. So I went in, trusting the team to do what they could to stabilize the structure while I crawled in after her. I was able to reach her, checked for additional injuries and I zapped her back here while the security team took care of the attackers."

"What did you do to stabilize her prior to going in?" Cassidy asked, making a note.

"Couldn't really reach her so let Jackson do what he could while I dove in after her."

Stephen raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"And prior to going in, you coordinated your efforts with Gideon and the rest of the team?" Cassidy looked up from his notes as he asked.

"NO.  We were under fire. The first thing I thought of was getting the new one away from a firefight given what happened to the last team that was attacked." Ethan's voice had gotten silky hard.

"Thank you.  Now, Laz, from your point of view, what happened?"  Cassidy asked, before taking him through it step by step and then working with Paul and Chance on the details.  Finally he shared a glance with Stephen who shook his head.  "Okay, unless Trevor adds something surprising, that'll be all.  You guys did a great job.  Thanks."  He said, dismissing them.  As they were leaving he caught Ethan's eye, saying, "A moment if you wouldn't mind."

Ethan sank back down into his chair and waited.

After they were alone Cassidy leaned back in his chair regarding the other man.  "I was wondering if you'd mind expanding on a point for me."

"Delighted."

Cassidy grinned.  "About the accessibility of the New One.  The feed we were getting in the ops center showed her as fairly accessible, at least accessible enough so that it was clear she had a compound fracture of her arm."

"True. But hardly a fatal wound. We didn't know about the rest of her. I made a decision under fire to find that out as quickly as possible."

Cassidy nodded.  "As a function of your other decision to act without coordinating with Gideon, as it were, even though your purpose there was to certify as a healer in the field."

"I'm already certified as a healer in the field. The only thing we were certifying was my use of Skin. I've been doing this longer than you've been alive, and far longer than you have experience in saving New Ones."

Cassidy grinned at him.  "Thank you Ethan.  I appreciate your candor."  He stood and regarded him.  "I also appreciate the time you've taken to clarify things for me."

"Is this about Irisa?" Ethan asked.

"I beg your pardon?  Why would it be?" Cassidy replied.

"Oh, no reason at all," Ethan said as he stood and walked out.

Cassidy watched him go, his brain stem in over drive and his frontal lobe demanding his attention.  Ethan Novak, he thought, was an insecure, egomaniac who had anger issues.  Not good.  Not good at all.  His brain stem and his frontal lobe agreed.  He gathered up his notes, considering alternatives.