Billie Jo stifled another yawn and handed the bermuda-shorted slots player another drink.  She smiled brightly at the quarter he dropped in the tip glass and wished him luck with  the machine he'd been playing since before her shift started.  She glanced at the clock as she moved on and let out a sigh of relief.  Two minutes more and she was off.  Off work and off the spike heels.  Two more minutes and she could go back to the apartment and take a nap, catching up on the sleep she'd given up without a qualm last night bringing Leroy's experiment to a successful conclusion.

She headed back to the bar to clock out, her lips quivering.  They'd kept Bobbie awake too, or so she concluded based on how grumpy she'd been this morning.  She handed in her tips and punched out, counting the steps to the locker room and the bench where she could sit down and slip the heels off.  Eight hours of it, with only two short breaks and a half hour for lunch.  She pitied the women who did it day in and day out without an end in sight. 

She pushed the door open and smiled at the woman who had gotten there ahead of her, already rubbing her feet, her expression stoic.  "I know," she said, an expressive grimace on her face as she went past, then grinning again as the woman agreed.  She slipped her own shoes off and started rubbing one foot, a sigh of immense relief slipping free.  She lifted the other foot to repeat the rubbing process and frowned to herself, not seeing Bobbie. Then she shrugged.  She wasn't in a huge rush.  Bobbie must have gotten held up checking out.

All she felt was a quick sting. She slapped where she thought the mosquito might be, and was slipping into oblivion in less than a second as the woman who'd been sitting next to her leant over her.

When Bobbie finally got through the hold up at the checkout, the ruddy machine was acting up. Again.  Someone stepped on her heel and she turned around to see who.  She began to around for Billie. That was her last conscious movement as she sank toward the floor and oblivion.

Betty Jo retraced her steps back to the locker room from the apartment where she changed for what she devoutly hoped would be her last shift.  She checked in the mirror and adjusted the bodice of her uniform and then sat down and eased a foot into a shoe.  She didn't like the idea they were pulling out, and she was pinning her hopes on Stephen's operation to find the agents or at least find out for sure what happened to them.  Still she wasn't going to miss the casino or being away from Ian.  She smiled.  Oh yeah, she was hooked on him in every way there was or at least that she knew about.  She bent down to slip on the other shoe and felt a prick in the side of her neck.  She twisted hard to get away from it and didn't succeed.  She whispered his name as she fell forward.  It was the last thing she remembered before plunging into blackness.

Leroy, in the middle of dealing a hand, saw a shadow come up behind him. His instincts went off about the same time as Ian's mental shout hit him. He dodged left away from where the shadow had been and whirled. The table, bolted to the floor, caught his elbow, sending shrieking pain through it. He zapped out of there.

Ian was in the shower when he sensed it. His name and suddenly blackness.  He mentally shouted to Stephen and Marc, then to Leroy. He didn't bother to dry himself or even think about clothes, he translated himself directly to where her last thought had come from. He was barely in time to see her winking out in some man's arms.

The first thing Marc (who'd been doing paperwork) and Stephen saw when they zapped to where Ian was, was the Englishman dripping wet and naked, and a ton of half dressed waitresses staring open-mouthed at him, and not all of them offended at the sight. Ian was off, his consciousness searching.

Marc zapped him dry and into clothes before he said, "Ian."

Stephen, leaving Ian to him for the moment, sought and found Tobie and Chance on the casino floor.  They reported Leroy's abrupt departure and the chaos currently reigning amongst the punters who'd seen him just disappear.  He was about to reply when Laz reported from the ops center that Leroy was with Terry and neither of them had any contact with the sisters.  He swore under his breath and told Marc.

Marc put a hand on Ian and zapped the two of them to Terry and Leroy, figuring Stephen could deal with the op in the casino and what was going on there.

Leroy stood there, eyes open wide looking close to panic. "I can't find them - any of them."

Terry nodded. "I was connected to them, you know the way you guys showed me, and first Billie and then the other two winked off. I thought... I didn't know what to think, honestly and then Leroy was in trouble and.. It was only a few seconds...."

Stephen arrived in time to hear the last.  "Tobie and Chance are covering the penthouse to the extent that they can.  Laz is sending some more people to help.  They reported a lot of security movement in the moments before Leroy disappeared.

"We've gotta go in there, now," Marc said, looking at Stephen. "Maybe we'll get lucky."

Stephen just nodded.  "Right now."  He glanced at Ian.  "He say anything?  Or is he still trying to find her?"

"Not yet," Marc replied.  "From what I can tell he knows nothing much more than we do. Ian," he added, addressing the Brit.

Ian's eyes refocused and he looked around, a bit surprised by his surroundings.

"Sorry. You were rather a sight," Marc replied to the implied question.

"I've lost all contact with her," Ian said, panic vying with anger in his eyes.

"Yeah. So have we all," Marc replied looking over at Terry.

Leroy, lips pressed together, said, "I'm going in after them too."

Stephen agreed absently, his mind elsewhere, listening to something.  "Cal pulled the building plans last night.  He says he can override the security on the elevator and maybe on the penthouse floor itself.  He also says that from what he got when he hacked into the county commissioner's office, they've pulled permits for extensive electrical work up there so if we cut the power they'll maybe think it's that for a few seconds."

"Let's go now then. Do it," Marc replied. Leroy zapped himself up a Kevlar vest and a Glock. He nodded. Ian didn't bother with niceties and was barely restrained from setting off at that second by Marc. "Wait, on a signal."

"Hang a sec," Stephen snapped.  He was clearly listening to something.  Then he nodded and watched Laz appear, along with Paul, Natha and Anja carrying extra weapons.  Stephen took his, hiding his distaste and said, "Cal's going to cut the power in two minutes.  He's in their security system and is set to feed them tape he spliced together so when the generators come on they'll see what we want them to see.  Tobie and Chance are at the elevator having an altercation and keeping people away from it.  To the left off the elevator is the construction area.  To the right is intact."  He listened again for a second and grinned.  "Cal's also going to fire every alarm he can in the city to tie up emergency services.  They'll go twenty seconds before he cuts the power here.  He's starting the clock now."

"It couldn't happen to a nicer city," Laz said as he flicked the safety off on his Uzi.  Paul snorted and did the same.

Marc took one of the extra weapons, taking a moment to check it. He thrust one into Ian's hands, although the magician seemed uninterested in weapons of that sort. "Take it," Marc directed. "You never know."

Terry took an Uzi in lieu of his service weapon, a pistol, and donned his vest.

The emergency preparedness siren came first.  Stephen flipped the safety on his weapon as the sound rose and fell.   Then he said, listening to Cal, "Three, two, one GO!" and the lights went out and the casino alarms screamed on as he and the others winked out.  He reemerged on the penthouse floor in the half glow of battery operated lights in the windowless hallway.  He cut right behind Laz and Paul, hugging the corridor wall opposite Laz, Natha a few feet behind him.  Laz and Paul took either side of the double doors and then Laz looked a question and he nodded. 

The next thing he heard was Laz kicking the door open, hitting one guy in the face with it as it flew open.  Make sure doors open outward next time, he thought as he moved past the man, unconscious and bleeding from a broken nose.  Then he jerked his mind back to what he was doing as Paul opened fire, using a short burst that hit another man in both legs, sending him to the ground, screaming.

Ian and Leroy were ahead of everyone else, necessitating Natha, Paul and Anja to abandon protocol and back them up. Leroy was focused and systematic, although ignoring anyone trying to slow him down. He shot two casino security men in the knees ruthlessly to get them out of his way. Ian wasn't using his weapon for more than an adjunct to his fist. The two of them seemingly in tandem worked their way forward leaving the others to watch their backs. Ian used magic to smash doors down between him and his target.

The last door, reduced to a cloying smoke, revealed several people, several of whom looked slightly panicked as they tried to zap out and couldn't. And a woman who didn't.  Ian had her in a magical death grip and she wasn't going anywhere.

Stephen met her eyes from behind Ian.  Then he looked at the other occupants.  "Terry, the woman's ours, the rest are yours.  Get 'em outta here."  He turned to the woman.  "Ms DeCara, back from hell, I see.  Where are they?"

Roz ignored it all, her eyes locked on Marc's.

It was all Marc could do not to reduce her to smoking atoms as his eyes met hers. Ian, busy with holding her could only stare. Leroy walked up to her and demanded, "Where are they?"

Terry woke himself from his astonishment and with help from Paul and Chance zapped the others in the room out of there to the Zoo holding tank, a place supposedly locked down against psi powers.

Roz didn't say a word.  Her face impassive, she watched Marc, waiting...relaxed and unafraid.

"Leroy," Marc said quietly, "leave her to me."  He walked forward slowly eying her all the way. "So. What shall we do with you?" he asked her softly.

She smiled, a smile as soft as his voice.  "Not a thing I expect, darling.  It is good to see you again though.  I've missed you."

"Dinah does, I'm quite certain, send her love.  Who are you working for and why are you lowering yourself to unimportant little Las Vegas. Reduced to this, eh, money laundering. I'd never have thought it possible."

"Where are the Jos!" Leroy hissed. "I don't care who she is or what your history with her is."

Roz swept him with a disdainful look and then dismissed him without a response.   "Ah yes," she said  returning her attention to Marc, "the little Dinah.  And a mother now.  I did try to save you from that darling.  But it seems your taste in companions hasn't altered."

"No, true.  I still, as I always did, find you appalling. Who has the Jo's. If you want to live you'll get them back for us. Otherwise, I swear I'll take you apart atom by atom and take my time about it."

"So fierce, darling.  It's so exciting."  She smiled again, and folded her arms across her chest.  "Unfortunately, I've no idea who you're referring to.  Though I do wish I did."

Marc held out his palm and a helix rose. "Well, you see, I have a few new play toys, darling. I haven't experimented with it much, but I'm sure it should prove interesting if I take your pretty little genetic helix and make a few changes, perhaps try a bit of genetic evolution in real time. What do you think? Perhaps I'll start with that pretty face."

"You could, of course," she said, still relaxed.  "And I know you well enough to know you would, without a qualm.  But it won't enable me to tell you what I don't know, now will it?"

"Who has them, Roz," Marc asked, beginning to snip out a part of her DNA, everyone else in the room frozen, watching him do it.

Except her.  She just smiled and shook her head.  " Your adventures on the Rim have given you delusions of grandeur.  That sort of thing is so showy, and has no impact.  How could it?  The worst you can do is kill me.  Making me ugly or worse...that's nothing.   As for the Jo's, as I believe you call them, well honestly, I can only speculate.  Or, as a favor for an old and cherished friend, I might do more if you'd allow me to make a call."

Leroy shot her in the kneecap. "How's that for incentive you bitch," he hissed. "What's the number?" he asked as she fell writhing to the floor, blood spattering out of the wound and her reaching to staunch it.

Marc shut down the DNA display and closed his palm.

"Leroy, Leroy," Marc said affectionately. "Such a hothead."

She took a moment to get her breath back and then said, her voice unchanged, "You should explain to him, darling, that whatever happens to me will happen to them. I'm sure he didn't know that's why you're being so very careful to keep your temper in check."  Then she glowed golden, and in seconds the bullet spat out onto the floor and the bleeding had stopped.  When she finished healing the wound she looked at Marc again.  "If I might make that call?"

Marc's face hardened still more. "Yes, Roz, what was that number? I'll dial for you."  After he did so he said into the phone," Hullo, calling for Roz. Who might I be speaking to?"

A woman's voice, pleasant and low said, "Please hold the line and I'll connect.  And, as good as her word, a moment later a man's voice, lower and less pleasant, came on the line.  "Yes?"

"This is Marc Siolastre.  We've got Roz and we want our three DuBois women now."

"I imagine you would.  They are delightful."

"Whereas Roz is anything but delightful," Marc replied, keeping his temper in check and a weather eye on Ian who was looking very dangerous indeed.

The man laughed.  "You just have to know how to bring out the best in her."  Then there was silence on the line for a few moments.  "Yes, I suppose she's worth three women to me.

Marc hesitated. Then he finally said, "However, I'm not so sure she's worth three women to me. After all ..." he was staring at Roz, his temper beginning to flare.

Stephen moved, taking the phone and saying into it, "One moment please."  Then he looked at Marc.  "You want to tell me?"

"I want a guarantee they're unharmed and we'll actually get them back. I don't trust anyone she's been dealing with.  And .. and we've got her now."

"Which is a good indication we'll have her again," Stephen said and then spoke into the phone again.  "Somehow you're going to have to convince us the sisters are alive and absolutely unharmed both now and when we make the trade."  Then he waited while the man on the other end of the line considered his options, his eyes on Marc.

Marc shifted his stance and looked away. Ian, watching, eyes narrowed, held his fire. Leroy his eyes wide with shock, looked horrified at what he was hearing.

"Well, I have no idea how to convince you now since I suspect my word wouldn't mean much.  But how about this.  If they aren't in pristine condition when we make the exchange you can keep Roz."

Stephen told him to wait and repeated what the man said.  Then he waited, never taking his eyes off Marc.  When Marc didn't say anything he said, "We can't bring them back.  We can save the sisters.  Not doing so, as you made plain before Grande Isle, makes us like them.  You may think you already are but I don't."

Marc met Stephen's eyes for some time, then turned to look at Ian and then at Leroy. "All right." He looked down at Roz. "It was a mistake letting me know you're alive. I won't stop until you are dead by my hands."

"Then I'll never be lonely, will I darling?" Roz said while Stephen agreed.

Stephen ignored the byplay.  "Where?"

There was another moment or two of silence then the man said, "Hoover dam parking lot, in two hours."

Stephen didn't say a word, he just broke the connection.  "Two hours, Hoover dam.  In the parking lot."

"Right," Marc replied, never taking his eyes off Roz.  "Ian, Leroy, you two stay out of it. Let Stephen and me handle it. Laz, you and your folks as back up."

"No!" Leroy yelped, at the same time Ian was looking daggers at Marc.

"He's right.  We'll bring them straight to the Refuge.  It's...safer," Stephen said.  "I can have Michael there and you can watch the whole thing, every second."

"Safer?" Ian spat out.

"Ian, you are emotionally involved. We need clear heads at the exchange," Marc insisted.

"Is that was I was watching? You with a clear head?" Ian replied getting right up into Marc's face.

"Kill him later," Stephen said, moving between them.  "Hell, kill me too.  But later."

"Ian," Leroy said, reluctance in his voice. "He's right. They'll try to taunt us. Mess it up. Let Marc and Stephen handle it and.. and we'll get the bastards after the Jo's are safe."

Ian looked around at Leroy. He opened his mouth to protest then instead sighed. "All right. But," he added, swinging back around to look at Stephen, "if anything happens to Betty Jo ...."

Stephen sighed himself.  "I know.  And I'll probably do it to myself.  Now I've got things to do."  He looked at Laz.  "You better go get set up.  We'll see you there.  We need to get out of here before we have company who wouldn't understand our priorities."

Laz nodded and he and his people left.

Marc walked over and grabbed Roz's arm none too gently.  He reached into her mind and she gasped with pain. "Give me problems and I'll wreck that brain of yours."  Then he zapped her to the apartment they'd set up for Terry's surveillance.

Stephen waited until Leroy and Ian left for the Refuge and followed Marc.

Two hours later, the sun had slid behind the horizon and the parking lot at the dam was deserted except for Stephen, Marc and Roz standing near but not in the light cast by the parking lot lamps.  Across the lot Stephen could see a man also avoiding the light.  Near his feet, in the light, were three women, bound, blind folded and sitting on the curb.  Behind the women were two more men, holding what he figured were automatic weapons.  So far, so good, he thought and walked to the mid point between them.  "Stand them up he said, his voice uninflected by anything other than hardness.

The man laughed and gestured to the guards who helped them up.  When he gestured again the guards helped them turn around, one at a time.  Then he said to the women," Tell him how you are."  And in tones that lacked any affect at all they each said they were fine.  When asked to say if they were hurt, they each said no.

"Walk toward us, ladies," Marc said. "Let them go, now."

He gestured towards the guards.  "Now send Roz," he said as they started walking.

"Move," Marc said to Roz, letting go of her arm and shoving her toward the men in the shadows.

She stumbled and then recovered moving swiftly across the lot, passing the sisters before they'd gotten half way.  When she'd reached the man she smiled, at Stephen and called out in a clear voice,  "Give Doni my regards Stephen.  I did so enjoy having her as my guest.  I was so sorry when she felt she had to leave, and without saying goodbye, too."  Then ignoring Stephen's hissed in breath she looked at Marc and blew him a kiss. "Do tell Dinah I'll be in touch, darling."  She moved to turn away and then stopped.  "Oh and I almost forgot," she said and in a single fluid motion took a gun from the guards and fired, hitting one of the sisters in the knee cap.  "Tell Leroy that's what happens when you're impetuous."  Then she laughed.

The man moved before Stephen or Marc did.  A second shot was heard and another sister hit the ground.  Then they were gone, before Laz and his people could fire.

Leroy and Ian were there within seconds, even before Marc or Stephen could recover to reach the women. Bobbie was sobbing, holding her sister. Billie, her kneecap blown out, was crawling trying to get to her two sisters. It must have been a hollow point bullet because the bullet had entered the back of Betty Jo's head cleanly and had destroyed her face totally.

Ian, going death white, sank down onto his knees and reached out to what was left of Betty Jo. Leroy zapped in, himself going pale, to wrap up Billie and hold her tightly in his arms.

Ian, covered now with blood and brains, grasping Betty Jo's hand, just stared. Bobbie was sobbing uncontrollably.

Stephen, about to say something, stopped suddenly, looking at where the pant had ridden up the leg on the body.  Then he yelled, "It's not her, it's not her, god damn it!" He dropped to his knees, ripping the pant leg, showing a pale, muscular limb covered in curly black hair.

Marc was there falling to his knees, grabbing Bobbie and hanging onto her. "Look, it isn't her. It isn't her. Ian, look."

It took awhile for Ian to hear and even longer to comprehend. Bobbie kept saying "Ian, it's not her, Ian, it isn't her."

Billie looked wide eyed, staring herself so she could be reassured, the pain of her knee blocked out by the terror for her sister, at least for the moment. "Come on," Leroy said, "I'm getting you back to the Refuge and the healers." He zapped her way.

Bobbie looked at Stephen and Marc, then back at Ian.  "You need to get him out of here," she said finally, when Ian didn't move or respond.

"Right," Marc said and grabbed Ian's arm and zapped him away to the Refuge. Laz and his people, Anja near the lead were running toward them.

Stephen helped Bobbie up and waited for Laz to get there.  "Get Terry Marsh to deal with the body.'  When Laz nodded he zapped himself and Bobbie to the Infirmary where Doni was working on Billie's knee and Tabitha was trying to get Leroy to give her room.

Leroy did move out of the way for Bobbie to get in next to her sister. Ian, hollow eyed, watched. "Where is she, then?" he asked aloud, what they all had been thinking silently.

Marc replied, "I don't know, but we'll find her Ian. I promise."

Ian fell to his knees sobbing.