Stephen had taken Terry Marsh's call and listened to his request with a feeling of resignation. Then he'd agreed to the meeting in Vegas, one of his least favorite places in an hour, a time Ian had agreed to as well. He considered calling Rimes and decided that that would come after his meeting in Vegas. He had a nasty feeling from the little Terry had disclosed on the phone that his involvement wasn't going to be confined to a short seminar. But, he told himself, there was no point courting trouble, it knew where he lived and found him without any help on his part. It was at times like these that he missed Marc the most. Marc had a different attitude towards trouble. Then he shrugged and went to tell Tommy he was going to be away for the afternoon.

He found the apartment without much trouble and knocked on the door. He was unsurprised to see he was carefully scrutinized through the peep hole before the door opened. "Hi," he said, "I'm Stephen. I'm looking for Terry Marsh."

Terry, who looked like he ought to be a silicon valley entrepreneur rather than a DEA agent, waved Stephen in. Then he held out his hand. "Sorry, no one would tell me your last name."

Stephen snorted. "That's because I don't have one. At the time I was born people didn't have them."

"Oh," Terry said. "Uhm, sure. Come on in. Ian should be here soon." He got Stephen a scotch and managed not to stare too badly when the bell rang at the apartment door and Terry scrutinized the new visitor, eventually letting Ian in. "Hello again. I assume you know Stephen."

"Indeed I do. Hullo, Stephen, how's it going?" Ian asked politely as the two men shook hands. "I'll take one of those, if you don't mind Terry," Ian said, indicating the drink Stephen held.

Terry made himself useful.

Stephen considered the look around Ian's eyes. "Should I commiserate?"

"You've no idea. Oh, well, perhaps you do. Sorry. I wasn't that involved in the Refuge when you were trying to find Doni. How is she, by the way?"

"Basking in motherhood and staying out of the line of fire for a change," Stephen said. "It's a method I'm going to have to employ again."

Ian groaned.

Terry glanced over. "Ah, she did tell you. I wasn't sure."

Stephen looked from Terry to Ian. "Ah, I see."

"You do?" Ian asked, looking confused.

"Well only that she's saving the world while gestating the next generation. Is there more?" Stephen asked.

"That isn't enough?" Ian asked. Terry snorted.

So did Stephen. "Usually, at least to make her significant other a basket case. Marc and I discovered the benefits of copious amounts of single malt when Doni and Dinah were pregnant. Along with the shared brotherhood of men having the dubious good taste to involve themselves with strong-minded females of independent disposition not slowed down in the least by a little thing such as pregnancy. We expect Baz to join the club some time soon, along with Cassidy. There're no dues or fees if you're interested in membership. Just an assurance of scotch, fellow feeling, survival tips based on experience and a safe place to vent."

"You'd probably better invite Leroy too," Ian added downing his scotch. "So, Terry, what can we do for you?"

"Well, I knew Betty Jo could, uhm, teleport, I think she said is the proper term. I didn't know Leroy could as well. And, well, since it appears our bad guys can too, I hoped for a quick and dirty primer on what I can expect, or at least what I should be looking out for so I can try to keep the girls and Leroy out of trouble."

"Well first I recommend excising the term girl from your vocabulary in relation to the Jo's. But that's your call," Stephen said, pouring more scotch for himself and Ian. "As for what you can expect, that tends to be an individual thing. Telepathy and teleportation often occur together, but not always. Most of my people combine those talents with the ability to manipulate energy to create things out what might be called thin air along with a greater or lesser degree of projective empathy."

"Create things," Terry repeated. "What things?"

"Anything at all really," Ian replied making a pistol appear in his hand. "Quite simple really, for both Stephen's kind of people and for mine."

"And yours are, uhm, magical," Terry said, fighting to pretend his head wasn't spinning."

"Correct. Not much difference from your point of view I dare say," Ian said, looking at Stephen for confirmation.

"Not in the concrete. The issue is the outcome, not how one gets there," Stephen said. "There are also other abilities as well that show up here and there, like healing, or channeling. Manipulation of things like the weather or the reality an individual experiences or being able to literally record and replay what one sees and hears. At the end of the day though it's all energy dependent. It all takes energy of some sort and most people have limited access to amounts other than the personal. A mage, more than an Awakened has developed methods to get around that to a degree."

"And how can I tell if someone is a mage or one of your group? Speaking of the bad guys. Or should I not worry, just understand that they can do things we can't?"

"Well, I think you can count on Leroy and Betty Jo to be able to tell you, when they see it. For you, if you see something that looks impossible, they are probably talented. I'm not sure how you run an op against them if most of your agents are normal."

Stephen nodded. "Ian's right. I'm surprised Rimes didn't call us in when he found out about it."

"There are a lot of questions I have for Mr. Rimes," Terry muttered. "He supposedly was recruiting me, so you think he'd have briefed me on the people a bit more."

"Well it's possible, since I get the feeling this came up suddenly, he was relying on Leroy and Betty Jo to handle it. And he may have thought that since he was called in the people calling him in knew why they were doing it," Stephen suggested. "But I'll be talking to him today and I'd be happy to convey your concerns if you'd like."

"Please do so, and you can tell him he owes me a bottle for my pains."

"Betty Jo and Leroy can speak to each other telepathically, so I'd say that should be a big help," Ian said. He paused, then said, "Also, I've got a few spells on Betty Jo. So I should know if something goes wrong."

Terry's eyebrows rose. "And what, you come in and bust up all we've worked for?" He sounded none too pleased.

Ian frowned.

Stephen sighed and passed Ian the bottle. "I don't think he quite meant it that way." He considered Terry for a moment. "Is it allowable for you to tell us what's going on? Or should we let Rimes do it? I ask because I'm already morally certain you're in over your heads, so it will help me plan."

"Help you plan what?" Terry asked.

"How to deal with what you can't."

Terry rubbed a hand over his face. "All right, here's what I'm dealing with." He didn't name names, but he laid out the problems they were investigating. "We're not sure what the full story is," he concluded.

Stephen exchanged a look with Ian. "You're thinking they're laundering drug money. And given what you know it's international. Plus you think there's an agenda you aren't seeing yet," Stephen said. He thought for a moment. "Yes, well. Let me talk to Rimes and I'll get back to you. Or more likely he and I will." Stephen shook his head. "That man is as consummate a politician as FDR was. I gotta hand it to him."

"I'll hand it to him," Ian hissed.

Stephen shook his head again, equal parts admiration and annoyance. "I think I see what he's hoping for so I'll probably help you."

"What's that?" Terry asked, "other than to expand his sphere of influence."

"I don't think he wants that at all. That's being done willy nilly into this arena, something he didn't expect. So now what he needs are talented personnel to handle these sorts of jobs because, for reasons I'm not going into, he doesn't want to rely on us all the time. The problem is we're his only source for people with those attributes who also have the sorts of skills he needs," Stephen said.

"Fine but how is this helping the Zoo to get the talent it needs? He's recruiting me, for crying out loud. Until two days ago I had no clue."

"Everybody doesn't have to be talented," Stephen said. "What he's hoping is that now that I know the situation and that Ian does, we'll steer the sorts of people he needs his way, rather like we sent him Leroy. Or we'll offer to do it for him, as contractors. Or, more likely, some combination of both."

"And will you?" Terry asked.

Stephen looked at Ian again. "I may have no choice."

"Bloody hell," was Ian's comment. "If he thinks this will make me and mine more cooperative..."

Stephen shrugged. "Won't it? One way or another? Ask yourself the question -- do you want to be running ops like this on a regular basis? Or would you prefer he did it and let you do your job. We either help him by expanding our efforts to self police or help him gather the resources he needs to do it himself, or negotiate something that includes some of both. I don't see another alternative."

"I got involved with Blackheath for you lot," Ian replied. "I'm not happy about that either."

"Who's Blackheath?" Terry asked.

"The Zoo's counterpart in Britain," Ian replied.

"I guess I am behind the power curve," Terry said thoughtfully. "So, can we count on your help? We'll try to keep it within school but if we can't?"

"Bloody hell," Ian replied.

"Thanks. That's what I thought," Terry replied. "Thanks for coming by. Give Rimes my love and tell him no."

"Yes, you can count on our help," Stephen said, ignoring Ian.

"Thanks, I appreciate it."