Cal crawled out from under the risers and stood up, brushing the dust off his trousers. “Try it now Ellie,” he said.

She flipped a switch and fiddled with the keyboard. Finally she looked up and smiled. “It’s working. What was wrong?”

“Nothing. It looked like when we were running cable to the new work stations it just got pulled a bit loose. It should be fine now. But if it isn’t let me know.”

She was about to respond when the call came in. Instead she slid into her seat and started typing, sending input to the wall monitors. The on call team appeared and as soon as she had connected with the New One she started feeding it into the data stream, “Earthquake, Pacific bed, looks to be massive, still going. Two, one Tonga, female, very young…” and she went through the data, while the back up team appeared plus the security teams.

As they left three more calls came in within minutes of each other. Michael, on the board called out, “CNN reporting 7.8 on the Richter scale, tsunami warning posting across the whole basin, centered on New Zealand.”

Cal took the call out data and started feeding it across all the monitors. He was calling in Cassidy and all off duty personnel when the next three teams left. Cassidy appeared and Cal took him through it. Just as he finished the new map, pinpointing calls, started to light up like a Christmas tree. Cal counted fifteen and hit the alarm, without waiting for Cassidy to give him the order.

The alarm began it’s series of three bongs and a pause while the lights started flashing in the whole house.

Before Marc had authorized the staff increase, the alarm was a not infrequent sound and the denizens of the House were well rehearsed in how to respond. But that had been weeks ago and better than seventy five percent of the personnel were new. In seconds the ops center was in chaos.

Cal, who had no chain of command fears yelled mentally for Stephen while Cassidy, a man who knew when he needed help and had no trouble admitting it, went to work getting the teams organized. His first decision was that they were dispensing with paired teams for the duration, a smart move since by now there were eighteen calls on the grid.

Trevor arrived next, with Laz and Natha. It took him less than a minute to grasp the situation and he had Natha call everyone in from Ocala except the monitors.

Stephen arrived on his heels, bringing Doni with him. By now Reno had sent word to Marc and Jordon had arrived.

Stephen moved to the front of the room and told Cal to shut off the alarm. It’s silencing was the signal for everyone else to quiet down. Cal went straight into the brief.

“We got seven teams out so far, and eighteen, no make that nineteen calls backed up. Everyone’s called in. Tsunami warnings have gone up over the entire region; the epicenter is almost dead on for Wellington, New Zealand.

“How many teams here?” Stephen asked.

“Twenty two” Cassidy said. Cassidy handed him a penciled list. Marc arrived as he was speaking.

“Trevor...” He didn’t need to finish.

“I can cover the teams here and maybe four more, but that’s it unless we strip the Refuge of security personnel.”

Stephen nodded. “We’ll have to deal then. Keep the minimum here and give me the rest.  Cal call ‘em all in from Home, everybody. Doni, tell 'em to send everyone they can move from the infirmary over to Clem and notify Donna on Home she’s getting the overflow.” Then he said to the teams, “We’ll work it like we did the last disaster. You have two minutes before I start calling the board. Cassidy, as they split off start breaking the extra men into pairs.”

Trevor and Laz started assigning security personnel to teams. As the teams poured in from Home Jordon started sorting them into smaller groups and calling names to Cassidy.

Stephen glanced at the teams and then focused on the grid, now showing twenty-eight points of light, calling a name and a site based on the map grid. When he got to the end, Cal went into an update and he started shifting personnel based on the casualty count.

Stephen was still four teams down when he finished, Reno having gone with the last team, and Liam, called in, had taken Melly with him.  All the security personnel were assigned. He looked across the room at Marc who could count as well as him. Doni, who already knew what was coming next moved to stand next to him.  Laz, not a man given to contact with the Deity, started praying.  Trevor swore under his breath.  Stephen, still looking at Marc said, "I'll take Tonga, number four.  Cal, you've got the board, the Queen Charlotte Sounds will be your next problem when the wave moves through them.  Cassidy, the teams will be doing drop and go's so watch it."

"I'll take Queen Charlotte," Marc said. "Give me whoever you have left."

Trevor looked at Laz. "You stay here no matter what. We're screwed if something happens."  And he moved over to stand with Marc.

Laz nodded and kept praying as they winked out.

Trevor and Marc winked into pure chaos. People were running for their lives in every direction. Marc signaled to Trevor to follow, since he was the only one of them who could track the New One.  The tsunami had left chaos in its wake, pulling half the city into the sea with its retreat, and leaving massive chunks of buildings, cars, dead animals, trees and whatever else it found precariously perched as the sand and water retreated.  It was deadly dangerous simply to cross the rubble strewn flats left, as the footing was treacherous and  there were deep fissures in the roadways and basements waiting to suck down the unwary. There were bodies, too, not so many as most had been sucked back out to sea. There were already attempts to rescue those left alive but trapped under rubble or hanging from what was left of the palm trees.  Sounds were mostly the sounds of misery. The screaming of those in pain, the shouts of directions as rescuers worked in teams.  Marc ignored it all, Trevor not so much. Without the sound of the new one in his head to guide him, his thoughts skittered off in every direction.  And Marc wasn't helping. He was rushing toward the worst of the damage single-mindedly.

Then suddenly they were shifting rubble and Marc was digging frantically. "Can you just zap it away?" Trevor asked.

"Too dangerous. I zap the wrong piece and the whole structure collapses. But if we can make a pathway for me to crawl through I can shore it up with my talents."

"Right."  They dug frantically for a few minutes, then Trevor asked, "Can you tell how far in he is?"

"It's a she. Very young. Too terrified to understand what is happening. Barely conscious.  Just dig, there. No wait."

Trevor froze.

"Can you wriggle through that area. If I go in there I'm not going to have a way to watch if this structure shifts."

Trevor was down flat on the ground and wriggling through the dark passage in a heart beat. Then, to his surprise, he was hearing Marc's voice in his head. 'Next change curve to the left. Not much farther. No. Right there. Can you see her?'

Trevor struggled to try to see. It was dark and dust from the rubble at his slightest move danced in the air around him. Sweat stung his eyes. He dared not move much. He felt outward with his hand. 'Yes, just a bit further,' Marc encouraged.

Then Trevor felt something, just a patch of cloth, covered over with rubble. he followed the cloth and found an arm, which he followed up until he found her head. When he touched her face she began sobbing.

"It's all right, we're getting you out of here," he said, 'hoping his tone of voice would be enough to make her understand.  She began struggling to reach him then and the whole structure above them groaned. Pieces of  wood and other material that supported too much weight began to crack. Just then things went black and when Trevor next had any awareness he was on the floor of the Infirmary, still holding tightly to the injured and screaming child.  Marc knelt down and helped detach the child and handed her to a healer.

Trevor looked up and Marc smiled down at him. "Well done. You got yourself and her out of there."

Trevor sat up and examined himself. Nothing broken, a few scrapes and cuts.  "I tend to transport when in a bind."

"Good time for it. I'm headed back to the Ops room to see if they need any more help." Marc winked out as Trevor was still getting to his feet.

As the teams started returning, they left the New One in the infirmary, now taken in hand by Tabitha working with Greer.  When Cal called in the teams on Home, he’d also, having worked the last tsunami and several other disasters as well, called in all the healers and empaths he could get from among both the Listeners and from Donna.  They set up triage in the hallway, and were handling the critical cases into the treatment areas and using the empaths to move the non critical cases onto the hospital on Home where Donna had put all her staff on alert.

Stephen and Doni returned twenty minutes later, bringing a young girl, about ten or eleven years old, stabilized by Doni in the field.  They handed her off to Tabitha and headed back to the ops center.  Cal was sending out a team on another call as they arrived.  When he was finished he turned to Stephen and began to bring him up to date.

“Currently the board is clear, but there will be a second round, I’m sure.  The aftershocks are still going.  We’ve had seven DOAs.  CNN’s saying that the Cooke Islands are totally underwater and that the Navy had a carrier group moving through those straights as it hit, so it’s going to get worse.  So far all our people are fine.”

Stephen nodded and scanned the news channels on the wall.  “What else is happening in the world?”

“It’s all quiet right now, thank God except for the usual.”

As they spoke Cassidy joined them and Cal returned to the board, assigning teams as soon as they returned.  It went on like that for another five minutes before Marc returned covered in dirt.

"I'm good. Last I saw the New One was latched onto Trevor and wouldn't let him go. He'll be along in a minute.  What's next."

Before Stephen could answer Cal said, "The ferry's getting ready to keel over in the Cooke Straights and there's two so far, but quite close together.  From the looks of things you've got minutes or less before that boat goes down."

Stephen scanned the monitor rapidly and then said, "I'll need you Marc.  Ready Doni?"  And then they were gone.

Trevor hurried in just in time to feel their breeze. "Who?" he asked Cal.

"Stephen, Marc and Doni."

"Bloody hell."

Stephen zapped them onto the sinking boat, near the bridge. He located both New Ones and headed towards the stern, already starting to lift upward as the below deck areas took on more and more water.  As ran he said mentally, "Marc, take the one on the left.  She conscious and seems to be pinned against the bulkhead."  He and Doni headed towards the other one, unconscious now and bleeding from a head wound.  Doni went to work while Stephen began clearing the debris.  He'd almost finished when the boat lurched and the floor started rising upward as the stern tilted downward.

Marc was already with the other New One, when the ship began to explode. Engines, boilers, something had ripped a hole in the side of the boat and suddenly the ship began to roll.

"Marc!" Stephen shouted both mentally and verbally when he suddenly lost all contact with both of them.

Stephen glanced back at Doni who shouted to him to go, and after a split second of hesitation he ran back to where he'd last placed Marc.  The explosions in the engine rooms as the fires reached the fuel oil had had only one direction in which it could move...upward, through the flooring.  It reached the outer deck and slammed Marc and the New One, whom he'd freed, back against the bulkhead, knocking them both unconscious.  Stephen swore and started furiously trying to move the debris that covered them, praying that Doni would have the sense to take the other New One and get the hell out of there.

Doni didn't.  She sent the loudest scream she could to Tabitha and zapped the New One straight back, trusting him to providence and then raced after Stephen. She'd just reached them when a second explosion ripped through the boat, catching both her and Stephen in the shock wave, knocking them unconscious.

Cal and Cassidy went back to the monitors, prioritizing calls based on the status of the New One, as best they could using Adam to feed them data, while Ellie and Michael worked the monitors, keeping a set free for new calls.

The one point they, and everyone else, missed was that the shield had come down to accommodate the influx of personnel from Home who hadn’t been programmed into it.  It was standard procedure…Michael had opened it automatically when Stephen had given Cal the order to call everyone in. He'd left it that way because of the traffic from the infirmary to the hospital on Home.  It was a window of opportunity unlikely to come again and, unfortunately, the wrong people knew it.

Laz and Natha were in the security office watching the CCTV screens while Paul and Tobie were tracking the security personnel in the field.  But it was Chance, bringing coffee, who saw it first, maybe a dozen bodies suddenly appearing on the front lawn, heavily armed and moving towards the front door.

Chance sent the mental alarm and threw the coffee, reaching for weapons at the same time. Natha wasn't more than two steps behind him. Laz had to pause to hit the alarms and warn everyone broadcasting an emergency call for help to anyone who might be able to get back there. He already could hear automatic gunfire coming from the front lawn and saw the intruders scatter as Paul, Tobie, Laz and Natha set up a perimeter to protect the House.

Trevor heard the alarm in the ops center and 'ported to where Laz was providing cover for Paul as he moved into position in the shrubbery.  Natha tossed him a weapon and then flashed five fingers three times and gestured with a sweep of her hand, indicating that the enemy was spread out.  Cassidy after a fast exchange with Cal zapped to the entrance, materializing an Uzi as he went.

At that point Laz started to like the odds a lot and a feral grin appeared on his face.  He saw that Paul was in position and then nodded to Tobie and Chance who spread out across the windows to the left and Natha to the right inside the House, knocking out the glass and then opening fire as the intruders began to advance.

Trevor signaled to Laz and began to sweep around the far side of the building to catch the intruders in a crossfire. Cassidy fell in with him. "You're gonna ruin that nice suit," Trevor whispered when they were standing together trying to see around a corner.

"Armani, too," Cassidy sighed.

Just as he said it, a fresh burst of automatic weapons fire broke out and they hit the ground, Trevor keeping his head low as he peered around the corner.  "There's three of them two over by the trees and one coming up behind.  They're head this way."

Cassidy nodded.

"Head for that jeep, while I keep them busy," Trevor told him, signalling to Laz their intentions as he spoke.

Cassidy took off as Trevor opened fire, while Laz and Paul laid down several short bursts from the front.    When Cassidy was in position, Trevor nodded to him and they opened fire together, sweeping the area waist high with a sustained round of fire, killing two of them.  The third man began to retreat, backing into Laz's cross fire and going down.

Meanwhile, Tobie, Chance and Natha had the rest pinned down.

Laz and Paul, with Trevor and Cassidy closing from behind to cover them took off, dashing towards the brick wall across the drive and diving into the shrubs in front of it.  They now had six of the intruders trapped between them and the house, leaving them only a path straight through the field of fire now controlled by Natha, Chance and Tobie.

Trevor gave the signal and they opened fire from both sides, killing four and driving the other two back towards where Tobie, Chance and Natha had the rest pinned down.  They killed one more as they drove forward and were getting set to take out the rest when the intruders opted for discretion rather than virtue and zapped out again.

Laz was about to make a confirmatory sweep when Cal's voice in his mind stopped him.  "Cal's lost Marc, Doni, Stephen and the New One from the grid," he shouted to Trevor.

Trevor took off running back to the house, yelling for Natha, Paul and Laz to come with him, leaving Tobie and Chance to finish the clean up operation with Cassidy.

Trevor skidded to a halt in the Ops Room. It was dead silent. Everyone knew they'd just lost all contact.  "Who can get me there?" Trevor asked. Paul checked the boards and grabbed Trevor. The two winked out.

They landed on a heaving deck, canted 45 degrees.  They slid down the metal grasping for hand holds. Fire and smoke darkened the air and burned their lungs. Trevor squinted to get his bearings, Paul scanning behind them. "Must be the explosions," Trevor shouted to Paul. He took off pulling himself up the sloping deck hand over hand along the railing until he got to a ship's ladder and scrambled up it to the upper deck. There he found Doni, her clothing scorched.  He called back to Paul and moved forward, finding Stephen prone and bleeding from the shrapnel.

Paul reached Doni and sent a call back for Laz and Natha.  When they arrived he waved them forward towards Trevor, then zapped out with Doni.

Laz reached Stephen just as Trevor located Marc and the New One, Marc groggy but regaining his senses.  He continued his hand over hand climb, inching forward as the boat shuddered and the deck angle tilted into the sixty degree range.  They had minutes at best to get them free.  Laz reached Trevor and started zapping debris away, uncaring about finesse while Natha reached Stephen and zapped him away.

Marc grabbed hold of the New One and zapped out. Trev and Laz now the only two left, looked at one another and zapped back to the Ops Center.

"We got 'em," Trevor said as he passed out. That was when they noticed his hands were burnt badly and raw from the hot metal he'd been climbing.

"Jesus!" Laz swore and grabbed him as he fell, heading for the infirmary.

Marc took a look at the grid, clear for now of new calls and sank into a chair, dropping his head into his hands.  Cassidy decided to wait to tell him about the front lawn.

When the call went out for all Listeners as the disaster struck Earth, Home stopped in its tracks and reached for their TV remotes. Channel after channel flipped off their scheduled programming and went to wall-to-wall coverage of the events unfolding at the Hospital on Home, taking in as many New Ones as it could, and focusing as much as they could on the Refuge.

It didn't take long for the Press to realize the shields were down - had to be for all that traffic - and they began popping off to the Refuge a few at a time at first, and then in herds.

Irisa had been on Home doing a puff piece for a weekly magazine when it all went down, so she was behind the first of the enterprising newsies but ahead of the mob.

She arrived in time to see gunfire on the front lawn, and see Cassidy go whizzing past with an Uzi. Luckily the press are pretty savvy. They know how to dive behind the nearest wall or fence and stay the hell down, although the cameramen were less sane, and were risking their necks to hold cameras where they could get both still and live stream shots.

When the gunfire ended, and the last of the danger cleared, newsies began rushing out of their hiding places, microphones, cameras and cell phones at the ready to beam back the latest to Home.

Irisa jumped up and strode across the lawn, stepping over a dead attacker with aplomb and beat all of them to the front steps of the House.  She held out her hand and said, in a voice that brooked no argument. "Fire up your cameras, boys, I'm making a statement.  This is the one official one you'll get tonight. I'll pass out detailed data the moment I can compile it. The first one of you who tries to get into the House will be blacklisted from the Refuge and you'll on my shit list. Got it?"

Jeffries, a stringer for print and film, took on the role as spokesman.  "Not 'til tomorrow," he whined.  "But that means we'll miss the morning drive time.  You gotta do better than that.  How 'bout you let just a couple of us in and we'll share with the others?" he pleaded.

"No, not until it's cleared. I will agree to go inside, get a few quotes for you and then feed them to you for the next news cycle. How's that?"

"Will you get us an interview with Stephen in the morning?"

"I'll do my best. Now, be patient and I'll be back as soon as I can."

There was grumbling but they were willing to give her some leeway.

When Irisa entered the main doors she found Chance lurking there.

"Shoot the first one who tries to get inside. Politely."

He grinned, "Yes, ma'am!"

She hurried up to the Ops Center and saw the chaos she knew to expect. Too many people, too much exhaustion and emotion. She finally spotted Cal and hurried over to him. "I've got a ravenous pack of Press outside who if they don't get fed a bone or two might do something drastic. Can you give me a head count of New Ones rescued and an idea of how many teams went out?  Any casualties?"

Cal glanced over at Cassidy.  "Give me just a minute and I'll have some data for you."  He waited until she nodded and then trotted over to Cassidy. "News came in while you were out there, raising hell.  We lost a team, slaughtered like the last one.  No survivors.  Irisa wants data for the press."

Cassidy nodded.  "I'll handle it, thanks Cal."  He took a deep breath and headed over to her, Cal behind him for back up, or so it seemed, making him grin involuntarily.  "So, what are you hoping for to feed the vultures?"

"A head count of New Ones and whatever else is safe to share. Everyone okay?" She watched his face change and sighed. "Okay, you don't have to tell me that news. We'll deal with that when we have the full picture. Just give me enough to hold them off until tomorrow morning. Oh, and they want a press conference with Stephen tomorrow. I didn't promise but said I'd try."

He shook his head.  "OK, first for you so you can be ready, and not them.  We lost a team and right now we've also lost contact with Stephen, Doni and Marc.  You can tell them the count on the New Ones is forty-four, and there are still sixteen teams out in the field, some minor injuries to the teams.  We also don't think we're out of the woods yet."

She frowned for a minute. "What was that on the lawn?  Intruders? How many? I can use that to distract them from asking any questions I don't want to answer."

"Yeah, intruders, and Awakened but that's all we know except we got them without any losses or casualties."

"Got it, thanks, Cassidy. Nice suit, by the way. Jesus. ..." With a backward worried glance she hurried off to deal with what she could.

She stepped out the main doors and gave the press her best smile. "Here are the numbers, guys. "The New One count is 44. All are doing as well as can be expected. We still have 16 teams in the field, however, so look for more yet. I'll have updates for you first thing in the morning, and will have a press availability in time for early morning news."

"That interview with Stephen?" someone called out.

She shrugged. "Can't promise guys. Look, we've still got 16 teams out there. The Ops Center is busy and bustling. I'll try to get to him as soon as I see him, how's that?"

"Any casualties? Teams wounded?  Any sign of an attack?"

"Oh, yes, the attack!" she said quickly. "The one we walked in on. They were Awakened."

That silenced them all.

"It was handled well, no one hurt on our side.  So I ask you, what Awakened group would attack Listeners while they are dealing with a major catastrophe and risking their lives to rescue our New Ones? There's where your focus needs to be. Who hates the Listeners so much as to do that?"

She ran her hand across her throat to indicate she was done. She watched as the group broke up and they all headed Home to get their stories in. Once she was sure they were gone she headed back up to hear, what she hoped, would be good news.

She arrived in time to see Marc drop into a chair exhausted and Cal send another team out.  Cassidy who'd had his eye on Marc met her at the door. "All gone for now?"

"For the moment. Does that," she said with a nod toward Marc, "mean we've got Stephen and Doni back too?"

Cassidy nodded. No joy in his countenance though.

"How many did we lose," she asked softly.

"Three on the teams, and the DOA count is eleven so far."  He ran a hand through his hair.  "This is just nuts, you know that right?  Why in the name of all that's holy would someone be doing this?  Why would any Awakened attack the teams, not to mention us here?  There is no sane reason."

"I agree. I pointed that out to the press. Hopefully they will start Home asking that same question."  She looked over at the exhausted faces, still tense for the safety of those out in the field. Then she looked back at Cassidy. "You can only do so much, you know. And from where I'm standing you all have done wonderfully. I'll get out of your way now. But I'll be around if you need me."

Irisa showed up at the Ops Center very early the next morning.  She had a press availability due in an hour and needed an update and a hint with regard to what she could or couldn't say about the team they'd lost.  She nodded to Cal as she walked in. "Everyone back?" she asked.

He nodded. His eyes had dark painful looking shadows under them. He looked like a stiff breeze would knock him over. He looked like he needed to sleep for a week.  "Everyone else is fine."

"Good.  Where's Cassidy?  I need to tell the press something. They're going to want something more definitive than I gave them last night."

"He left an hour ago for a shower and something to eat. You might catch him in the dining room."

"Thanks," she told Cal.  "You could use some rest. I hope you can get some soon."

"Yeah. I'm due to be relieved in a few."

She nodded and headed off toward the dining room.  She'd already visited the new Infirmary, and gotten updates on everyone, relieved to hear that all would be fine.  She came to a stop in the main doorway to the dining room and smiled to herself when she spotted Cassidy. He was slumped against the wall next to him asleep over his half-eaten breakfast.  She stopped at the coffee bar and got herself a latte and him a fresh, hot coffee, black.

Cassidy woke up as she slipped into the chair beside him.

"Hmmm," he said smiling at her. "I could sense you coming 10 feet away."

"Oh?" she asked handing him his coffee.

"Your scent. It's very you."

"And apparently way too strong. I'll stop using it."

"No, don't do that. It's just... I suppose you need an update for the press?"

She noted his sudden change of topic but did not react. "Yes, I'm sorry. They have the early morning shows to fill. And everyone wants to know details. I got most of the numbers from Cal. I'm just wondering what to say about the team you lost. I'm sorry."

"What happens if we don't release the information yet?" he asked her as he inhaled the coffee.

She thought for a moment. "They'll ask how many casualties. I could say the total number and maybe avoid questions regarding attacks on the teams. I don't want to lie to them, Cassidy. So long as they trust me they'll give me some room to give them answers. The minute they think I'm lying to them, they'll be digging into places you don't want to think about."

"I see.  So in this case withholding is the same as lying?  I hadn't realized that."

She frowned at him. "No that isn't what I said. But they'll ask. I need an answer. I can perhaps get away with 'I'm not authorized to say,'  which they'll interpret as an affirmative. They aren't dumb, Cassidy. They're damn good at their job."

He was about to say something else when he spotted Stephen and Marc.  "Hold on, here come the bosses, they can decide how they want to handle it.  I haven't had a chance to talk to them yet."

"Good." She sat back and watched him signal Stephen and Marc and then slipped something out of her pocket. "I got this for you too. I have a friend at one of the major outlets. I asked him to get me all the footage he could that was taken during the attack on your front lawn. He got me the raw stuff, too, not just what was broadcast." She handed him a jump drive. "Maybe you can get a lead on who it might have been."

He took the drive, his face suddenly animated.  "Thanks, Irisa, this is really great!  I'm really glad you thought of it.  This will be spectacular help!"

"What will?" Stephen asked, dropping into a chair across from Irisa.  He held his hand out to her and said, "I don't believe we've met, formally anyway.  I'm Stephen."

She smiled at him "Irisa Diamond. Thanks for the opportunity to help the Refuge. I appreciate it."

"Ah, Marc told me you were taking us to keep us out of trouble.  Let me know how I can help."

Marc joined them then. "I saw the press conference last night. Had it taped. Good job, Irisa."

She colored a moment then said, "Thanks, Marc. I'm not so sure I can do as good a job in," she checked her watch, " twenty minutes."

"So what do you need?" Stephen asked.  "I'm good at making things up, if that helps."

She grinned. "I need to say something about the casualties and I'm expecting a question regarding attacks on the teams. I'd rather not lie outright. And any lies of omission are going to be tantamount to an admission there was an attack. Unless..."

"Unless what?" Stephen encouraged.

"Unless one of you will agree to either an interview or a personal appearance and taking some questions."

Stephen opened his mouth and then shut it with a snap.  "I don't give interviews and I most certainly do _not_ do appearances."

Cassidy grinned behind his mug.

Everyone looked at Marc. He sighed, wondering if his jaw looked swollen. "All right. I'll do it."

Stephen grinned at him.  "I will fall on my sword for you anytime, pal," he said, toasting him with his coffee mug. "Just let me know when."

"All right!" Irisa said, jumping up and grabbing Marc's arm, tugging him upright. "Come on, we need to talk strategy."  Marc looked over his shoulder at Stephen and Cassidy and they got the distinct impression they would pay for this