Tales of WID 72 #18 Out of the Fire

     “So, what do you make of him?” Detective Pauline Belton asked her partner, Detective Melsa Ripley.  They were looking through the one way window into the interview room at the police station.  The man in there had been found cutting his way out of a huge flying reptile that had crashed in the street.  He was walking back and forth, and looking at everything with wide eyes and an open mouth.      “Not sure,” Melsa said.  “I ran his speech through a translator, and you’ll never guess what it is.”      “What?”      “English.”      “Then why does it sound like nonsense?”      “Old English, like two thousand years old.”      “I mean, that creature did look like a Dragon,” Pauline said.  “But what, a Dragon ate a guy back in like 1007 or whatever, and he somehow is still alive now in 3007?  That seems unlikely for a number of reasons.  Did you get anything useful from what he said?”      “His name is William, and he is a farmer.  Apparently he was fighting off some invading army, when these Dragons attacked as well, and one of them ate him.  He says he was only it for hours, at most.  You know what I’m thinking?”      “If you say time travel again, I am going to put in a request for a new partner.”      “It makes sense.  And just wait, if Agent Blackwood comes to take over this case, that’ll just prove it.”      “Time travel isn’t real, Agent Blackwood works for Interpol, not some secret time travel police, and you’re ridiculous.”           William looked over as two women entered the room.  He recognized Melsa as she had already been talking to him, but the other was new.  She was dressed similarly though.      “Hello, William, I’m Detective Pauline Belton.”      “Hello,” William said.  He did not understand the magic with which they made themselves understandable to him, and vice versa, but he thought it a good thing that they could communicate.  Not that they had explained anything of use to him yet.      “Do you know where you are?” Pauline asked.      “Detective Melsa Ripley said a city called San Francisco,” William said.  “But I do not know where that is.”      “Where are you from?” Pauline asked.      “A farm, by the fortress town of Celliwig,” William said.      Pauline looked at Melsa, who shrugged.  “According to the historical records, it’s a place connected with King Arthur,” Melsa said.      “Who’s King Arthur?” William asked.      “Not important,” Pauline said.  “Do you know how you got here?”      “I was swallowed by that Dragon, and by the time I was able to cut myself out, it had travelled to this San Francisco of yours.  I do not know how, and this place is clearly some sort of magical realm, but you do look Human, even if your clothing is strange.”      “Nothing magical about this realm,” Pauline said.      “Then how else are we able to understand each other despite the differences in our languages?”  William asked.  “Or that flying horseless carriage I was brought here in.  Or some of those buildings I saw in the city as we came here.  Even aside from how tall so many of them were, there were buildings that seemed to be floating in the air, and I think I saw people disappearing from the top of one building, and appearing on the top of another.”      “None of that is magic,” Pauline said.  “It’s technology.”      “If you say so,” William said.           Pauline started pacing after returning to the office she shared with Melsa, who sat down.  “So, what are we thinking?” Pauline asked.  “Like, near as I can tell he hasn’t committed any crimes, so we need to let him go, but where are we letting him go to?  And what do we do about those supposed Dragons.  I mean, they’ve gotta be some kind of alien species, right?”      “Cardaillians look kind of like Dragons,” Melsa said.  “Possibly these are other species from their planet.”      “If so, this is a bit above our pay grade.  But if that’s the case, how does William figure into this?”      “You see why I’m thinking…”      “Don’t say time travel,” Pauline interrupted.      There was a beep on the comm before their supervisor, Captain Maven Travers started talking.  “Detectives, Agent Blackwood is here to take over your investigation.”      “What?” Pauline asked.  “Why?”      “Because clearly there is time travel involved,” Melsa said.      “Not this again,” Maven said.  “Just have everything ready for Agent Blackwood, and she’ll be down to your office in five minutes.”  The comm went silent.      “Five minutes?” Pauline asked.  “We’re going to need time travel.”      “Not really,” Melsa said.  “It’s not like we really don’t have a whole lot of anything.”           Agent Sarina Blackwood took the elevator down and walked through the hallway.  She had been here enough times that she knew her way around.  Upon arrival at Pauline and Melsa’s office, she knocked on the door.      “Come in,” Pauline said.      Sarina opened the door and walked in.  “Good day detectives,” she said.      “We don’t have a lot of info on whatever happened,” Pauline said  “But we’ll give you all we have.”      “Transferring it over right now,” Melsa said as she pressed a few buttons on her computer pad.      “And I understand you also found a Human in one of the creatures?” Sarina asked.      “Yeah, William, he cut his way out,” Paulin said.  “He’s in one of the interview rooms.  I can take you there.  Follow me.”      Pauline led the way out of the office, and led Sarina to the interview room, and led her in, but someone else was already in there with William.  His grey hair and wrinkled face indicated his age, but there was a certain amount of vigor in his eyes.  Sarina did not immediately recognize him, but there was something familiar about him.  William was sitting off to the side.  He was watching, but not doing anything.      “Ah, Agent Blackwood, I was wondering how long you would be,” he said.      “Who are you and what are you doing here?” Pauline asked.      “Agent Cid Jameson, with Interpol” he said as he revealed his badge.  “Could Agent Blackwood and I have the room?”      “Right,” Pauline said as she went out.      “Who are you really?” Sarina asked after turning on a scrambler to make sure no one could be listening in.      “You want to have the conversation in front of him?”  The man pointed at William.      “It doesn’t matter what he hears,” Sarina said.      “I suppose not.  I am Rupert Teleros.”      “Wait, the Rupert Teleros?” Sarina asked.  “What are you doing here?”      “I’m with the TRD now, just like yourself, although my membership is something of a secret.  But you can check with Director Wilcox to confirm it.  And I’ll be taking William with me.”      “I’m in charge of dealing with the incursion of the Dragons through the time door.”      “You are, yes, with one exception.  William was supposed to die in that battle.  His survival is a change to history, so we’re considering making him an agent, and I’ll be overseeing that.”           “Maybe this Cid is another time agent?” Melsa said.      “Agent Blackwood was really surprised to see him, and I’m not sure she actually knew who he was,” Sarina said.  “He did look familiar though.”      “The way you described him, kinda reminds me of my grandpa.”      “You say that about every old guy, which leads me to believe your grandpa is the most generic old guy ever.  And I don’t know, this whole situation just seems weird to me.”      “That’s because of the time travel,” Melsa said.           “There’s one other thing before you go,” Rupert said.  “One of the detectives here, Melsa Ripley suspects the time travel stuff.”      “Yeah, I know,” Sarina said.  “But she doesn’t have anything conclusive, so we’re leaving it alone for now.  And depending on what she does discover, we might even make her an agent.”      “She would make a fine agent,” Rupert said.  “Now, if you’ll excuse us.”      “Right,” Sarina said.  She looked at William one last time before leaving the room.      “So, William,” Rupert said as he turned to him.  “You are understandably rather confused by all of this.”      “Yes, sir,” he said.      “You have been transported into the future,” Rupert said.  “By a couple thousand years.”      “That’s what you were talking about with that other agent?”      “Yes, we are both part of a time travel organization, and I would like for you to join the same organization.”      “I’m just a farmer.”      “You fought and killed a Dragon.”      “I was eaten by a Dragon, and managed to cut my way free.  It was luck, nothing more.”      “Maybe, but what else do you plan to do with your life?” Rupert asked.  “Even if we returned you to your time, you have nothing to return to, but with us, you can have purpose.”      “I suppose I have little other choice,” William said.

Các giao dịch bất động sản ở Massachusetts cho các hạt Hampden, Hampshire và Franklin, ngày 26 tháng 4 năm 2020 AgawamBrian P. McCabe cho Jason D. Desclos và Evelyn Desclos, 103 White Fox Road, 260.000 đô la.Cig4 LLC, đến Fatima Obaid, 41 Elm St., $ 230.000.Cig4 LLC, đến Gerald L. Nicholson III, 1031 Main St., $ 262,400.Cynthia Fern-King và Cynthia M. King cho Mark E. Benoit và Susan R. Dawson, 52 Deering St., 240.000 đô la.James G. Couture và Alice N. Couture cho Christina Duquette, 32 Center St., $ 224.000.Joseph Frigo và Lisa Frigo đến Pavel Duducal, 71 Bridge St., $ 125.000.Leo J. Hamel và Kalene L. Hamel đến Keith R. Laflamme và Heather F. Dulude, 23 Portland St., 210.000 đô la.Michael J. McElligott và Melanie M. McElligott cho Nicholas D. Griffin và Ashlee A. Griffin, 129 Wagonwheel Drive, 575.000 đô la.Michael Sohay, Matthew Sohay, Mark Sohay và Kathleen Fila đến MAA Property LLC, 38 Depalma St., $ 120.000.Michele A. Adkins, giám đốc điều hành, Marilyn Mable Ashline, bất động sản, và Marilyn M. Ashline, bất động sản, đến Patriot Living LLC, 38 Fruwirth Ave., 100.500 đô la.Peter Panchelyuga và Irina Panchelyuga cho Brian Brady và Christina Brady, 231 ổ đĩa Lancaster, $ 415.000.Rachel I. Fraser và Marie Vartanian đến Betty Lempke, 23f Castle Hills Drive, 255.000 đô la.Richard M. Lewis đến Norman Cheever, Leslie Cheever và Stephanie K. Cheever, 351 Meadow St., 238.000 USD.Sandra A. Viens và Sandra A. Trembley cho Anthony Francis Lopes và Megan Beth Lopes, 61 South Park Terrace, $ 217.000.Thomas E. Marmo và Antoinette Marmo cho Brian P. Machos và Christine M. Machos, 40 Marlene Drive, 420.000 đô la.Thomas E. Marmo và Antoinette Marmo cho Brian P. Machos và Christine M. Machos, Marlene Drive, 29.000 đô la.Ngân hàng Wells Fargo đến Edward Smith, 201 Southwick St., $ 106.000.AmherstJamroth LLC, đến Henry Whitlock, ngõ 54 Pomeroy, $ 40.000.BelchertownJacque Kurkland và Pauline E. Stokes to Jill Hoover Attebury, 27 Bay Road, $ 241.000.Summer Hill Estates Development LLC, đến Peter Finn và Galina Finn, 111 Daniel Shays Highway, 285.000 đô la.BernardstonChristal L. Cutler cho Karen A. Kelly, 24 Harwood Drive, 210.000 đô la.Cánh đồngU S A Phát triển Nhà ở & Đô thị đến Kathryn Chicione, 116 Wales Road, $ 157.500.ChesterDuane Salvhus và Nancy J. Salvhus đến Michael Murray, 278 Tuyến đường 20, $ 30.000.William J. Thomas và Roberta M. Thomas đến Brookside Springs LLC, 14 Johnson Hill Road, $ 695.000.ChesterfieldDonald Joseph Bienvenue và Gina C. LaFlamme, luật sư thực tế, đến Thomas A. Osborne, 12 Willcutt Road, 40.000 đô la.ChicopeeAshley K. Shinkwin đến Dominic V. Alfano, 21 Overlook Drive, 194.000 đô la.Chicopee Acquisitions LLC, đến AGKMMT LLC, McKinstry Avenue, 67.500 đô la.Chicopee Acquisitions LLC, đến Amys Landscaping LLC, 420 McKinstry Ave., $ 202.500.Emery Street LLC, đến J & M Premier Properties LLC, 1-7 Emery St, $ 315.000.Partyka Partners Limited Partnership, Partyka GP Trust, ủy thác và Joan Partyka, ủy thác, đến Dwayne Pafumi, Robbins Road, 2.000 đô la.Eugene Skip Pula đến Jacob S Gardner, 10 Greenwood Terr, 139.200 USD.John P. Meroski đến Blanco Realty LLC, 26 Holland St., 150.000 đô la.Paul A. Lebeau, Paul E. Lebeau, Madeline A. Lebeau và Madeleine A. Lebeau đến Gene M. Desko, 36 Felix St., 129.900 USD.Premium Properties Inc., đến Reynaldo Santana và Joymarie Sierra-Lopez, 395 Chicopee St., 204.000 USD.Robert N. Dougherty, James Dougherty và Mary Dougherty cho Carleny Henriquez, 32 Walsh St., 255.000 đô la.Ruby Realty LLC, đến Dominique Properties LLC, 564-566 Springfield St., $ 190.000.Susan G. Enselek đến Teri A. Lee, 585 Sheridan St., Đơn vị 8, $ 188.000.Thomas M. Marshall Jr., đến Leonce Obas, 106 Taylor St., $ 235.000.Yelena Yefimiadi đến Amber Haywood, 90 McKinstry Ave., Đơn vị 305, $ 75.000.CummingtonJohn W. Campbell và Sharon L. Walker đến Donald M. Smith, Potash Hill Extension, 35.000 đô la.Đông LongmeadowCbatts Properties LLC, đến Chuck Ferros, 70 Fairview St., $ 245.000.D R Chestnut LLC, đến John Power và Maureen Power, 17 Vòng tròn rộng, $ 515.000.D R Chestnut LLC, đến Sharon Cohen và Eric Barker, 7 Ribbon Grass Lane, Đơn vị IV-17, 494.500 đô la.James M. Serra và Dale M. Serra cho Alex James Serra, 36 Fraser Drive, $ 320.000.Karen L. O hèConnor to Kathleen B. Kelly và Patrick M. Kelly, 55 Alpine Drive, $ 297.500.Hội trường Megan và Hội trường Gregory đến Chad P. Herrick và Christina Lee Herrick, 198 đường Road, 206.000 đô la.Mitchhdeep S. Sethi và Reema R. Sethi đến Quang Lưu và Giang Tran, 136 Allen St., $ 197,600.Quercus Properties LLC, đến Alohomora LLC, 264 North Main St., Đơn vị 12, $ 95.000.Đông thànhRebecca Lansky và Miriam Lansky đến Alexandra Sheskin Hurd và Paul Porto, 36 Grooween St., $ 315.000.Jesse D. Bemben và Moriah Elizabeth Wright đến Jessie E. Beland, 165 East St., 130.000 USD.Marguerite G. Belkin, Elisabeth Papademetriou, luật sư thực tế, đến Paula J.Gunn, 38 Adams St., $ 170.000.Mitchell J. Korn và Susan Korn đến Angie Montalvo-Greene, 41South St., $ 190.000.XóaDouglas A. Baker và Lawrence E. Giard cho Brian E. Frank và Anna Vdovichenko, 29 Ridge Road / Vòng nguyệt quế, 65.000 đô la.GranvilleKaren H. Schultz và Arline P. Schultz đến Timothy K. Derrig, 12 đường Borden Brook, 90.000 USD.Cánh đồng xanhSonya Kimberly Cheney và Daniel D. Garant đến Cristina Clark, 296 High St., $ 171.000.Luna L. Greenwood cho Emily Hildebrand và Benjamin Walker, 29 Woodleigh Ave., $ 220.000.Hà LanDishington Construction Inc., đến Keith M. Corey, 16 Vinton Road, $ 277.000.HolyokeAlex S. Engelson đến Joseph Greene và Wendi Greene, 100 Pearl St., $ 377.500.Diego Garcia và Ivelisse Colon-Garcia đến Marcos Marrero, Marcos Andres Marrero và Wanda M. Colon-Cartagena, 34 đường Pinehurst, 350.000 đô la.Homer R. Renaud đến Dawn M. Donahue và Homer R. Renaud, bất động sản cuộc sống, 26 Breton Lane, 100 đô la.Mary Ciuk, người được ủy thác và Martha E. Stewart Revocable Trust, người được ủy thác của Sean G. Kelly, 40 Sherwood Terrace, $ 190.000.Ronald P. Methe và John Grimaldi đến Amy E. Hutchins, 887 Homestead Ave., $ 223,000.LongmeadowJeffrey L.Kaufman và Mary Kraft đến Howard A. Dickstein và Julie A. Jaron, Đường 181 Prynnwood, $ 570.000.Robert C. Barkman và Dawn D. Barkman tới Ruixiu Lin, 10 đường Chatham, 375.000 USD.LudlowCheryl H. Reed để Denise K. Veroneau, Đơn vị 95 Chapin Greene, 95, $ 230.000.Donna Beaulieau và Donna Beaulieu đến Margaret E. Mayberry, 34 Carol St, $ 118.000.Michael J. Turgeon đến Monique L. Verteramo, 71 đường Woodside, $ 280.000.MPower Capital LLC, đến Jazmin Serrano, 115 Howard St., $ 194.000.Đức ôngAlice B. Konicki đến Irene St. Amand và Gerard J. St. Amand, 46 Palmer Road, Đơn vị 32, $ 288.500.Phát triển Nhà ở & Đô thị cho Michael Pelland, 6 Hilltop Drive, 146.500 đô la.Tiêu đề pháp lý Trust II Prof-2013-S3, ủy thác và Ngân hàng U S, ủy thác, cho Denali Properties LLC, 4 Fern Hill Road, $ 159,075.Giáo dụcSunny Chernyl, người được ủy thác và ban phước từ Thiên Chúa cho Niềm tin của người Do Thái, đến Caie MA, 107 Moser St., $ 515,888.Timothy G. Ryan, đại diện cá nhân, Stephen Grden, đại diện cá nhân và Michael T. Ryan, bất động sản, cho Claire Christopherson, 15 Sumner Ave., 271.000 đô la.James P. Krawczynski và John J. Krawczynski đến Sofia A. Frydman, Amy JoLee và Amy J. Lee, 18 Dickinson St., 335.000 đô la.Philip Geoffrey Allen đến Heather D. Connelly, 80-82 Williams St., $ 197.000.Roland Barbeito cho Jason C. Bolton và David J. Zellmer, 435 đường Florence, 382.000 đô la.Alex Vilkhovoy, người được ủy thác và AJ Capital Realty tin tưởng vào Christopher R. Blais và Jessica Blais, 6 Austin Circle, $ 239.900.Angeline C. Chereski và Angeline C. McWilliams đến Caitlin S. S. Martin, 104 Dunphy Drive, $ 253.000.Mark Esposito và Rachel Currie-Rubin đến Victoria Elson và Timmon Wallis, 137 Barrett St., 373.000 đô la.Daniel Breen và Anna G. Breen cho Rowan Lupton và Nicole Perez, 8 Dunphy Drive, 243.300 đô la.Stephanie J. Arvai đến Peter M. Levy và Madeleine Maguire, 68 Ridgewood sân thượng, 530.000 đô la.Richard J. Rubin và Colleen C. Currie cho Rachel J. Currie-Rubin và Mark J. Esposito, 203 State St., $ 415.000.James H. Wood III, đến David Rodriguez-Solas, 28 Graves Ave., $ 290.000.Sân phía bắcFannie Mae, bởi luật sư, Hiệp hội thế chấp quốc gia liên bang, bởi luật sư, và luật sư của Continental Real Services Services Inc., đến Gabriela Constantin, 754 Mount Hermon Station Road, 89.900 đô la.trái camAR Sandri Inc., đến Gary Barnett, 235 Hayden St., 50.000 đô la.Scott Savoy cho Michael D. Allen-Larhette và Kelly M.Melanson, 112 Cheney St., 175.000 đô la.PalmerJill Ann Laganas, Dean Alden McKee và Dawn Aileen McKee đến Kimberly E. Clarke và Theodore F. Clarke Jr., 42-44 South St., $ 156.000.Judy Bergdoll đến Jonathan E. Towne, 2142 Palmer Road, $ 247.500.Melissa K. O hèConnell cho Roger Parker, 12-16 Commercial St., $ 159.900.Roger W. Barnes cho Donald J. Potter và Brenda C. Potter, 198 Emery St., $ 320.000.Nam HadleyDavid A. Langone đến Kevin Haczyneki, 266 North Main St., 350.000 đô la.Bernice B. Strong to John Devlin và Barbra Devlin, 3 Strong Farm Estates, 3 Strong Farm Lane, 385.000 USD.Mario Valdebenito Rodas đến Ximena Vicuna Cubillos cho George E. Como, ủy thác và George E. Como Irrevocable Trust, 185 Pine Grove Drive, 233.000 đô la.Premier Home Builders Inc., đến Stephen P. Malanaphy Jr., và Christine M.Talamini, 62 Old Lyman Road, $ 359,900.SouthamptonElizabeth E. Lempke và David R. Lempke cho Daniel R. Breen và Anna G. Breen, 1 Birchwood Drive, $ 435.000.NamwickAnne S. Miller đến Mark F. Jerusik, Nancy A. Jerusik, Johnathan E. Jerusik và Abigayle S. Jerusik, 59 Miller Road, 295.000 USD.Laura I. Ferrentino và Laura I. Ronghi đến Robert E. Matthews III và Arielle Matthews, 94 Bungalow St., 200.000 USD.Marcia J. Pickard cho Richard S. Lempke và Angela Lempke, 18 đường Matthews, $ 265.000.Robert Hart và Lorraine Hart đến Adam Hart và Katie Ann Hart, 6 Cây thông Knoll, 350.000 đô la.Vanessa Filiault đến Wade R. Modestow, 75 South Loomis St., 210.000 đô la.SpringfieldA Plus Enterprises Inc., đến Allison M. Hanna và Brendan M. Hanna, 1730 Parker St., 200.500 đô la.Cơ quan Tài chính Nhà ở Massachusetts cho Gabriel Ortiz Jr., 29-31 Ralph St., $ 163.000.Amber C. Haywood và Eduardo Henrique Haywood (JR & O) đến Cynthia M Vives, 820 Roosevelt Ave ,. 146.300 đô la.Anthony Bourget đến Damaris Lopez-Robles, 17 Clantoy St., 165.000 đô la.Ngân hàng Mỹ đến Daniel T. Beauregard, 61 Bellwood Road, 146.000 đô la.Ngân hàng New York Mellon, ủy thác và Cwabs Inc. Chứng nhận tài sản được cấp lại 2005-9, ủy thác cho Travis Orszulak, 42 ​​Peach St., 97.500 đô la.Ngân hàng New York Mellon, ủy thác và Cwabs Inc Chứng nhận tài sản sê-ri 2007-2, ủy thác của Michael Gardner, 9-11 Cloran St., $ 170.000.Blueline Management LLC, đến Matthew Byrnes và Samantha Deland, 336 Newhouse St., $ 203.000.Brendan M. Guidi đến Keith D. Anderson, 37 Crest St., 90.000 đô la.Bretta Construction LLC, đến Ruben Luna Rivera, 208 Gilbert Ave., $ 269.900.Buong Van Le đến Dinessa Figueroa, 245 Allen St., $ 170.000.Constance E. Allen và Robert Gould cho John Thomas Leydon, 22 Mary St., $ 149.000.Darrly O. Pollard, Bonita Oliver, Maria M. Cruz, đại diện, và Norman Wilson Oliver, bất động sản, đến Yveline M. Hulse và Clarence L. Hulse, 377 St James Ave., 164.900 đô la.Quận Capital LLC, đến Janet L. Franklin, 71 Peach St., $ 174.999.Djuan Barklow đến David Pujols, Bianca Pujols và Denisse Martinez, 170 Walnut St., 158.000 USD.Donald C. Bechard và Judith A. Bechard cho Karen O hèConnor, 185 Lower Beverly Hills, 180.000 đô la.Dulce Maria Garcia Vasquez và Dulce Maria Garcia đến Tyrie J. Pearson, 46 Parkside St., 153.000 USD.Emerald City Cho thuê LLC, đến Nicholas Benoit và Jaclyn Benoit, 23 Fairway Drive, $ 190.000.Emtay Inc., đến JJJ17 LLC, 29-31 Knox St., $ 110.000.Erik P. Ducharme đến Kevin P. Russell, 473 Nassau Drive, Đơn vị 473, $ 147.000.Georgina Roy đến Nelson Cruz-Resto, 162 Packard Ave., 177.000 USD.Glen D. Horrigan, Robin M. Horrigan và Robin M. Kimble đến Sandra K. Henry, 100 Eleanor Road, 150.000 đô la.Helder Nunes đến On The Mark LLC, 42-44 Virginia St., $ 120.000.Hồng Xuân Hang tới Vòng Hai LLC, 69 Crystal Ave., 83.500 đô la.John Martin đến Nydia Burgos, 191 Shawmut St., $ 162.000.Leo A. Duclos và Kimberly A. Duclos đến Janusz Lecko, 82 Jardine St., 55.000 đô la.Luis A. Diaz và Maritsa Rivera Diaz đến Aimee K. Lessard, 126 Fair Oak Road, $ 183,900.Mandi Chater, đại diện, đến Corey Gengenbach và Leslie Gengenbach, 82 Yorktown St., Đơn vị 82, $ 95.000.Marc V. Costanzi và Christine A. Costanzi đến Opus Durum LLC, Vòng tròn Breckwood 128-130, $ 185.000.Matthew J. Spence, Elizabeth R. Tetreault và Elizabeth R. Spence đến Châu Á Kenney, 623 Parker St., $ 170.000.Meg Realty LLC, đến Elizabeth Benitez Garcia, 50-52 Vermont St., $ 200.000.Michal S. Czerwinski và Damian S. Cieszkowski cho Claire Carter, 62 Washburn St., $ 259.000.Modesto Delgado đến Hector L. Marte, 45-47 Florence St., $ 175.000.Richard D. Baez và Dianilyz Baez đến Marzena K. Sochacka-Medina, 12 Danaher Circle, $ 181.000.Robert F. Connery đến Denise A. Mason, 151 Porter Lake Drive, Đơn vị 151, $ 98.000.Ruby Realty LLC, đến Juan Santana, 200 El Paso St., $ 100.000.Ruby Realty LLC, đến Manfred Karori và James Ndungu, 42 Emily St., 70.000 USD.Ryan J. McDowell cho Addison R. Brewer và Hannah A. Brewer, 380 Tinkham Road, $ 252.300.Sheila M. Grassetti, Sheila V. Grassetti, Daniel R. McDonald và Donna V. Nolan đến Lucky 13 Homes LLC, 49 Caseland St., 184.900 USD.Simone S. Carvalho đến Edward Perez, 202 đường Pasco, $ 186.000.Stephen Lonergan đến Kinda Leona Boyle, Parkway 120 S, $ 192.500.Stephen M. Nareau và Paula Nareau đến Madison L. Taylor và Austin W. Taylor, 1274 Berkshire Ave., $ 217.000.Timothy E. Cupp và Lindsey Cupp đến Patrick R. Inglesby, 754 Morgan Road, $ 245.000.Tommy Espinal đến Carolyn Morera và Harry Colon-Morera, 477 Wilbraham Road, 155.000 USD.Yarlene Sanchez đến Matthew Thomas Moylan và Pamela Vazquez Quezada, 36 Burns Ave., 220.000 USD.Xứ WalesCrystal L. Ryan và Crystal L. Pearlman cho David Michael Vanwagoner, 4 đường Monson, $ 171,796.JTL Construction LLC, đến Thomas Trafford, 2 đường Monson, $ 177.000.đồJNB bất động sản đầu tư Inc., đến Lizbeth DeJesus và Lizbeth De Jesus, 35-37 High St., $ 197.000.Tây SpringfieldThiên thần R. Villar và Ruth Villar cho Mark D. Hunter và Nancy Villar-Hunter, 615 Rogers Ave., $ 173.000.Christopher A. Nyman, Ashley L. Nyman và Ashley L. Armstrong cho Amina Asvandiyeva, 62 Paulson Drive, 240.000 đô la.Fannie Mae và Hiệp hội thế chấp quốc gia liên bang, đến Cig4 LLC, 243 Circle Drive, $ 145.000.Glenn M. Spadoni, đại diện, và Melissa Claire Spadoni, bất động sản, cho Henry F. Spadoni III, và Marnie Spadoni, 137 Squassick Road, 300.000 đô la.Ronald E. 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Tales of WID 72 #7 The Mystery of the Missing Blood

     Sherlock Holmes looked over the crime scene.  There was a remarkable lack of blood both in the body and on the ground around it.  The second was not the surprising, since the only open wounds where two small holes on the neck.  But the first meant that something had been done with the blood.  That made this the sixth example of this in as many nights.  Somebody was collecting blood, but to what purpose, he could not hazard a guess.      “There were no witnesses?” he asked the police constable, William Whittaker.      “No witnesses,” the constable said.  “There haven’t been any witnesses for any of these murders.”      “Most curious,” Sherlock said.  “Clearly the murderer knows what he is doing, and how to do it when no one will see.”      “I know you’re retired, but we could really use your help on this.”      “Yes, clearly,” Sherlock said.  “And this case does seem quite curious, so I will be willing to assist.”      “Thank you, sir.  We greatly appreciate it.”      “Don’t thank me yet, there is still much work to do.  What times were the bodies found?”      “They’ve mostly been found in the mornings, one in the afternoon but in a location where it could have been there for longer.  And we have been able to determine that most of them were seen the previous evening.”      “So, nighttime killings,” Sherlock said.  “That is not at all unexpected, although I wonder if there might be something more to it than just the convenience of the dark.”      “Like what?”      “I don’t know yet, but there’s something about this that seems off.”      “We have bodies that have been emptied of large amounts of blood.  That seems a bit more than just off to me.”      “Indeed.”      After returning to his home, Sherlock sat down in his chair and began considering the crime scene in his mind.  He had seen some pretty gruesome murders before, but nothing like this.  The missing blood especially, it was like no other case before, at least none that he had encountered.      Perhaps his brother would know something about this, but he would rather not have to talk with Mycroft if he did not have to.  They had not spoken in a while, and had not parted on particularly good terms.  In addition, Sherlock had heard that his brother was increasingly busy with some big new project as of late, the details of which were exceedingly secret.  Presumably it was related to the war.      While Sherlock was thinking things over, he had not even noticed as he stood up and started pacing.  He only noticed as he stopped in front of his bookcase.  He grabbed a few books that seemed like they might be of use.  Some medical texts, a book on cults, and one on ancient rituals.  Any of them might prove to be useful, so he started looking through them for any ideas.      Sherlock suddenly woke, surrounded by books.  “Aha!” he exclaimed.  He picked up one of the books that was laying next to him.  Not a textbook though, it was a novel, one from Watson’s collection, all of which he had inherited.      Sherlock had never had much interest in fiction, but he had not found himself able to part with any of these.  This one in particular featured a man who drank blood to survive.  It was a ridiculous notion, but what if the killer had read it and was not in his right mind.      That was not much of a lead, it might not even be correct, but when there was a lack of evidence, you sometimes had to follow the strange ideas, and see if they took you anywhere.  Sherlock started skimming through the novel.  If the killer was basing his identity on this, there might be a clue as to where he would be hiding, or how he would be operating.      Sherlock walked through the city that night.  He was sticking to the darker parts of the city, the places were where the killer was more likely to strike.  The book had not offered a lot of assistance on where he should look, although it would potentially be of help if he actually encountered the killer, assuming he was indeed copying the behaviour from it.      So far it had been a quiet night.  That was not too surprising, Sherlock thought.  There was no reason to assume he would strike every night, and no reason to assume this was even the area where he would strike.      As Sherlock continued walking, he also started thinking about the other assumptions he had been making.  For instance, he was assuming it was a man based on the size and placement of the wounds on the dead body, and the average sizes of men and women.      As he was thinking about the body he remembered something.  While the neck wounds where the blood had been drained were the more obvious, there were also bruises, and their placement and type indicated a style of fighting he had encountered before.      But there were only a small number of people who used it, even fewer here in England.  The only practitioner of it he had encountered in the country was dead.  Although he himself had also been thought to be dead after their final encounter.  It was not much of a lead, but there was no good lead here.  Whoever was behind this was good at covering their tracks, another thing that hinted at that individual.      The next day, Sherlock was going over property ownership records for the town.  It was a decent sized town, so there was a lot to go through.  But he was starting with the large houses, as if his theory was correct, that is where the person would be.      After about an hour, he came upon information on a house that had been recently purchased, about two weeks ago, just before the murders had started.  It was on the edge of town, and the name of the buyer was listed as Jack Joule.  That could not be a coincidence.      This was almost assuredly who he thought it was, and even if not, it was someone who knew him, and wanted to be found.  Which meant that if Sherlock went there he would be walking into a trap.  He knew that, but he also knew that his opponent would know that he knew that.  So there was nothing else to do, but to spring the trap.      Sherlock knocked on the door, and waited.  It was not long before the door was opened by a servant.      “Mister Holmes,” the servant said.  “The master has been expecting you.  Please, come in.”      “Thank you,” Sherlock said as he followed the servant inside.  The foyer, while large and impressive, was fairly plain and lacking in decoration, not even any windows.  The servant lead him down a hallway, whose walls were equally bare.      “In here,” the servant said, gesturing at a door.  “The master will be with you shortly.”      “Thank you,” Sherlock said as he entered what turned out to be a library.  And unlike what he had so far seen, the walls of this room were full.  There was a vast collection of books in here.      Sherlock started walking along one side of the room, looking at all of the titles on display.  Some he recognized, but most he did not.  These books were from all over the world, and a variety of different times, covering a large amount of topics.      “Admiring my collection, Mister Holmes?”      “It is quite impressive, Moriarty,” Sherlock said as he turned around.  “Also quite impressive that you survived.”      “We were both thought to have died that day,” James Moriarty said.  Strangely, he looked no older than the last time Sherlock had seen him.  “Is it really so surprising that I would have survived as well.”      “I did not say it was surprising, just impressive.  And I see you are now here to get revenge.”      “Don’t be ridiculous.”      “Then why the murders?” Sherlock asked.  “They were clearly committed by you, but that seems out of character for you to be killing en masse.  Personally, I mean, don’t you usually have underlings for that?”      “So, you thought it was just to draw you out?” James asked.  “You must be out of practice, spending all of your time with bees instead of people.  I mean, I expected you to be lagging behind, but not to this extent.”      “Well, no matter the reason, now that I know it was you who committed the murders, I can have you arrested.”      “Can you now.  What proof do you have that it was me?  That the bruises are consistent with a form of martial arts that I know?  Really Sherlock, you know that won’t be enough.”      “Maybe not, but I will find something that will be.”      Sherlock returned to his home.  He had to consider what to do next.  If Moriarty was committing these murders himself, there was a reason for that.  He clearly still commanded considerable wealth, as evidenced by his home, so it seemed unlikely he would be unable to afford thugs to do his dirty work.      It might be that he wanted to commit them personally for one reason or another.  He denied that it was for revenge against him, but that could be a lie, or he might be out for revenge against his victims for some reason.  This was a small enough town that the victims mostly all had connections, but Sherlock had not noticed any connections that would have made them enemies of one such as Moriarty.      Or perhaps, Sherlock thought back to the novel, perhaps his earlier theory about it was correct.  It was possible that while Moriarty had not died during their last encounter, he had gone mad as a result of it.  Maybe he even thought he had died, and believed he had come back as a creature of the night.      There had been no windows in the house.  At the time Sherlock had thought it curious, but it may indicate more.  And then there was the fact that Moriarty had not seemed to have aged.  Makeup perhaps, to maintain the delusion?  Unfortunately, he did not have enough to go to the police yet.  What little he had would simply cause them to get in the way of the investigation if he told them.      That night, Sherlock hid in some bushes near to Moriarty’s home, from which he could wait, and watch.  For the first two hours, he was just waiting, but then, at midnight exactly, he noticed the door being opened, and someone coming out of it, and going down the street.      The individual was wearing a cloak, with a hood over their head, but the person was the right size and shape to be Moriarty.  Sherlock followed behind, doing his best to keep out of sight.      The odd thing was that all of the murders so far had happened inside the town, and this individual was leaving town.  It could be a decoy, Sherlock really wished he still had someone he could trust so he did not have to be doing everything himself.      He decided to continue following this individual, as they went further and further out of town, until eventually they found a tree stump along the side of the road, upon which they sat down.  Sherlock was not sure what to make of this, but after about ten minutes an automobile pulled up.      Sherlock could not see who was driving it, but he did see the person he was following pull down their hood before getting in.  It was not Moriarty, but even still, Sherlock was glad to have followed this person, as he instantly recognized him.  It was one of the murder victims, the one he had been shown the previous day, which meant this case had just become a lot more interesting.      “You want to what?” William asked.      “I would like to see the bodies of all of the murder victims,” Sherlock said.  “Surely that should not be an issue.”      “Well, you see, about that.  They bodies have all gone missing, except for the most recent.”      “Indeed,” Sherlock said.  “And you did not think to inform me of this development?”      “Well, you see, it did not seem relevant to solving the case, and we…”      “You did not want to be embarrassed by admitting to this, but everything that happens is relevant.  When did they disappear?”      “They have tended to disappear the night after they get brought in here.”      “Indeed, and have you tried putting people in place to watch over them?”      “We have, but we have limited manpower, and can’t watch every entrance.”      “Then perhaps you should be having someone watching the bodies themselves,” Sherlock said.  “In fact, I volunteer to watch the most recent one tonight.”      That night, Sherlock was in the morgue, staying hidden under a table, from which he could see where the body was lying.  And then he watched and waited.  One hour passed, without anything happening, and then a second, still with nothing.      Then during the third hour, he noticed something, as the corpse lying on the table suddenly sat up.  He watched as the individual stood up and started walking around.  There was initially a bit of confusion to the movements, as if he was surprised to be alive again.      Sherlock went over drugs in his mind that could simulate death.  But none of which he was aware would produce an effect like this.  Especially with the amount of blood loss the individual had suffered, it would be impossible.  And when you had ruled out the impossible, whatever remained, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.  The truth then was that Sherlock was dealing with the undead, specifically Vampires.      After returning to his home, Sherlock started looking through his books for anything on Vampires.  The novel, Dracula, had certainly provided a lot of information, but it was a novel so who knew how much of it was even accurate.      Unfortunately, there were few other books Sherlock had on the matter.  There were a few mythology texts that mentioned them, but they gave wildly different accounts.  Most agreed that Vampires did not like the sunlight, although they varied on whether it harmed them, or simply prevented them from using their powers.      Many said that religious symbols such as the cross worked on them, as well as holy water, but Sherlock wondered if that might just be dogma.  Several also mentioned garlic, which Sherlock found curious.  A stake to the heart also came up in a few of them, which was intriguing.  Stakes to the heart tended to kill most things, but would it work on something already dead?      Either way, Sherlock wanted to be as prepared as possible, so he gathered up garlic, wooden stakes, and crosses, as he prepared for his next meeting with Moriarty.  Unfortunately he was unable to obtain any holy water on such short notice.      It was the middle of the afternoon as Sherlock returned to Moriarty’s house.  He knocked on the door, and waited until it was answered by the same servant as he has seen the previous visit.  The servant, at least, seemed to have no issue with direct sunlight.      “Mister Holmes, welcome back,” the servant said.  “Please follow me.”      Sherlock followed the servant to the library again, and then waited as the servant went to get Moriarty.      “And to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” Moriarty asked as he entered the library.  “Do you think you can take me down yet?”      “I can’t have you arrested yet,” Sherlock said.  “Although I imagine that’s probably not the best way to deal with you, in any case.”      “Have you come here to kill me then?” Moriarty asked.  “Because we previously tried to kill each other, and yet here we are, both alive.”      “One of us is alive, at any rate.”      “Ah, so you are finally starting to catch up then.  That’s good, as much as I was enjoying toying with you, it was somewhat pathetic on your part.”      Sherlock took a crucifix out of his pocket, and held it up as he advanced on Moriarty, who simply laughed.      “That has no power over me,” Moriarty said.  “I mean really Sherlock, surely you can do better than that.”      Sherlock took out a clove of garlic and threw it at Moriarty.  It hit him in the hand, where it caused a slight burn, causing Moriarty to hiss in pain, but that was it.  Sherlock used the moment to rush at him with a stake, and attempt to drive it into his heart, but Moriarty was able to easily grab Sherlock’s arm and twist it, causing Sherlock to drop the stake.  He then threw Sherlock to the ground.      “You are an old man, much older then when we last met,” Moriarty said.  “I have continued to grow wiser with time, but my body is still at it’s peak, and even better in fact with my vampiric strength.”      “Even if you kill me, someone will stop you,” Sherlock said.      “My orders here are not to merely kill people.  I am turning people, building an army.”      “Even if you turn me, I will not serve you.”      “Perhaps, perhaps not.  Most Vampires have no choice but to serve who turns them.  Some can fight it, but not easily, and a very select few are completely immune.  I am curious as to which you are.  If you are the first, that would be ideal, but even if you were the second, I could have people watching you, to ensure your full compliance.”      Sherlock stood up as Moriarty was advancing on him.  He took out some more garlic, and threw it at Moriarty, before making a run for the door.  He exited the library, and found the servant right outside the door.  Sherlock pushed him aside with little difficulty, and kept running, until he was outside in the sunlight.      As soon as Sherlock returned to his home, he made sure all of the blinds were open, to allow as much sunlight inside as possible.  It was unlikely any Vampires would come here during the day, but better safe than sorry.  That encounter had not gone the way Sherlock had hoped, but it had still been quite enlightening.      Moriarty was working for someone else, whoever had turned him.  He could clearly fight it to some extent, but there were people around who were ensuring that he followed orders.  This was so much bigger than just the murders.  As much as Sherlock did not want to, he realized that this was the point where he needed to inform his brother of what was happening here.

Simple Complications #923

     Amazing Archer rode his motorbike down the street, weaving through the traffic, trying to catch up to the thief fleeing in a truck.      “Where did he go?” Dark Hawk asked.  He was on the bike with Amazing Archer.      “He turned down a side street,” Elizabeth said over the comm.  “You’re gonna want to make a left up ahead.”      “The street up ahead, or that alley we’re fast approaching?” Amazing Archer asked.      “The alley,” Elizabeth said.      Amazing Archer made a sharp left, cutting off a driver who started yelling at them as they barrelled down the alley.      “I think that’s the truck over there,” Dark Hawk said as they came back out onto a street.      “Okay, I’ll get us ahead of him, and then you’ll jump across to the truck,” Amazing Archer said.      He sped up, and shot past the traffic by going down median, rocketing past the truck and pulling in front of it.      Dark Hawk jumped across onto the hood, at which point Amazing Archer moved to the side, and pulled next to the truck.  Just in time too, as the driver pulled out a gun and aimed it at Dark Hawk, but Amazing Archer threw a dagger through the open window, knocking the gun out of the guy’s hand.      Dark Hawk swung himself into the truck from the passenger side window, at which point Amazing Archer set his bike to autopilot, and aimed his energy bow at the thief, made sure it was set to stun, and fired, knocking the guy out.      Dark Hawk took control of the truck, and pulled it over to the side before getting out and dropping the unconscious criminal in the box.      “Just like I said,” Dark Hawk said.  “Not even a challenge.”

Simple Complications #829

     “I’m confused,” Rachel said as she looked at herself in the mirror.      “What’re you confused about?” Krissy asked.  “I think you look great.”      “She does,” Murshidah said as she came out of the change room.      “That’s what I’m confused about,” Rachel said.  “I thought bridesmaid dresses were supposed to look ugly, but these look good.”      “I’m pretty impressed too,” Murshidah said.  “You even managed to have them incorporate a hijab into the design of mine.”      “I know it’s important to you,” Krissy said.  “And that means it’s important to me.”      “Mine could stand to show off a bit more cleavage though,” Rachel said.  “That’s important to me.”      “Uh huh,” Krissy said.

Tales of WID 72 #16 The Trail of Blood

     “I know how it sounds,” Sherlock Holmes said as he paced in the office, occasionally glancing at the bookshelves lining the walls.  “But there’s no doubt in my mind that Moriarty is now a Vampire, and he is working for another Vampire who is even more powerful than he is.”      Sherlock’s brother, Mycroft Holmes, sat back in his chair behind the desk.  “It does sound rather ridiculous, but in the past few years I have encountered quite a lot of ridiculous things.  How much do you know of my current job?”      “You’re the Director of some secret organization or another, I haven’t really looked into the details of it.”      “I’m the Director of the ESS.  It was started decades ago by Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla and a number of other scientists in order to protect humanity from threats of a scientific nature.”      “Okay?”      “Vampires are hardly scientific.  Even if they are real, they hardly fall under the purview of my organization.”      “Everything that exists has a scientific explanation.  But this will just be an argument of semantics.  Regardless of your purview, they are building an army, and that’s something we have to be ready for.”      “In case you missed it, there are multiple armies that we are already at war with.  I cannot simply take resources away from a war that is very obviously happening, to fight a war that may not be.”      “Are you willing to stake England on that?”      Mycroft sighed.  “I suppose I can give you a small team.  I’ll have to check for certain, but maybe about half a dozen people.”      “Give me a team?” Sherlock asked.  “In case you were unaware, I’m retired.  And even if I wasn’t, this is a bit…”      “A bit what?  A bit outside your purview.”      “Fine, I’ll do this, but only because someone has to, and I can’t trust you to send your best agents on this.”      “Excellent, you can return here tomorrow morning to meet your team.”           The following day, Sherlock returned to the ESS headquarters, and was lead to a small meeting room.  There was a table in the center with chairs around it, but it was otherwise empty of any furnishing.  Mycroft was at the head of the table, and there were six other people seated around it.      “Ah, welcome Sherlock,” Mycroft said.  “Meet your team.  I believe you already know Joseph Wiggins.”      “Ah yes, the old head of the Baker Street Irregulars,” Sherlock said.  “I see you’re all grown up now.”      “Yes, sir,” Joseph said.  “And I am very honored to work with you again.”      “He will be your second in command on this mission,” Mycroft said.  “Next up we have your pilot, Joyce Callaghan.  She’s one of the few that has any experience with the type of jet you’ll be using.  It’s an experimental design that will allow you to travel all over the world in a matter of hours.”      “Just tell me where we need to go, and I’ll get us there in one piece,” Joyce said.      “Yes, staying in one piece would be preferable,” Sherlock said.      “You are also in luck that Dorothy Kingsmill was in town right now, from Australia,” Mycroft said.  “She has some experience with…the seemingly supernatural, and I’m sure she’ll provide some valuable insights.”      “Compared to what I’m used to dealing with, Vampires should be a welcome vacation,” Dorothy said.      “I look forward to hearing more about that,” Sherlock said.      “We also have Jacob McNeil, who was part of a program to make perfect snipers,” Mycroft said.  “I’m not sure how well long range weapons work against these Vampires of yours, but hopefully he will prove to be an asset.”      “I am honored to be serving under you, sir,” Jacob said.      “Then there is Daniel Najam, who didn’t believe you were real until this morning,” Mycroft said.  “But he is a brilliant doctor, which you may end up needing during the course of this mission.” “Sorry about that,” Daniel said.      “To be fair, Mycroft has spent the past few years trying to convince the general public that I am merely a fictional character,” Sherlock said.      “It makes it easier to make my own existence a secret,” Mycroft said.  “And it wouldn’t have been necessary if your friend Watson had left me out of the stories he published about your various adventures.  But either way, the final member of your team is Sally Dallen.  She’s a close combat specialist, which I’m sure will be extremely useful.”      Sally just nodded.      “It’s good to meet you all,” Sherlock said.  “I’m not sure how much my brother told you, but yes, we will be dealing with Vampires.  Recently, I discovered the my old nemesis Moriarty is not dead, as I thought, but in fact undead.  He is a Vampire, and working, somewhat unwillingly, for the Vampire that turned him.  There is apparently some level of mind control.”      “How much do you know about the mind control?” Dorothy asked.      “Assuming the information is accurate, most Vampires must fully obey those that turn them,” Sherlock said.  “Moriarty is one of the rare few that can disobey as long as he is not in the presence of whoever turned him.  And there are an even more rare few that do not have any such compulsion.  But that is why his master has put other safeguards in place to keep an eye on Moriarty.”      “Who is the Vampire that turned him?” Joseph asked.      “I do not know, but whoever it is, is trying to build up an army, and Moriarty is just one of his many recruiters.”      “What is our first step?” Jacob asked.      “Assuming he hasn’t left, we know where Moriarty is,” Sherlock said.  “So the first step is to go in and capture him.”           The following day, Sherlock walked up to the front door of Moriarty’s house, along with Sally.  The rest of the team were hidden in various locations near to the house, covering all sides.  Sherlock knocked, and after half a minute the door was answered by the same servant as the last time he had been here.      “Mister Holmes,” the servant said.  “What are you doing back here?”      Sally grabbed the servant by the collar, and pulled him out into the sunlight, which did nothing to him.  She pushed him to the ground, and he landed on his back.      “Is Moriarty here?” Sherlock asked.      “I will tell you nothing,” the servant said.      Sherlock looked at him.  “You already have.”  Sherlock took out his radio.  “Wiggins, come over here and make sure this one doesn’t escape.”      “Of course,” Wiggins said before running over from the alley he had been in, and pulling the servant up off the ground.  “Let’s go buddy.”      Sherlock looked inside the house, and there was no one immediately visible.  Sherlock stepped inside, with Sally following him in.  They went down the hallway, and by the library that Sherlock had been in on his previous visits.  Moriarty was not there either.  They continued on, and found a staircase up to the second floor.      At the top of the stairs was another hallway, with several doors.  The first they tried was an office, and the second a bedroom, but one that had not seen any use in quite some time.  The third they checked was the master bedroom, and there they found Moriarty, sitting in a chair, reading a book.  He looked up at their entrance, and put it down on the table next to him.      “Ah, I was wondering how long until your next visit,” Moriarty said.      “We have captured your servant,” Sherlock said.      “Have you now?” Moriarty asked, his mouth becoming a grin.      “A member of my team is holding him outside,” Sherlock said.      “Your team?” Moriarty asked.  “I must admit, I did not expect you to put together a team.  With the exception of that Watson fellow, you always seemed to prefer to work alone.”      “Desperate times,” Sherlock said.  “Now, please surrender yourself.”      “Of course,” Moriarty said, as he held his hands out.  “Do you wish to cuff me?”      Sherlock took a pair of handcuffs out of his pocket, and put them on Moriarty, who offered no resistance.  “Let’s go,” Sherlock said, and they led Moriarty outside, after covering him with a blanket to protect him from the Sun.           “Doesn’t that seem a bit convenient how easily he gave up?” Joseph asked.  The team was back on their jet, and Moriarty and his servant were each in one of the holding cells on it.  “Did he even try to stop you?”      “No,” Sally said.      “He wanted to be captured,” Sherlock said.  “As I said earlier, he can partially disobey his master, and once we captured his servant, that meant he no longer had to worry about his disobedience getting back.”      “Why wouldn’t he have just killed the servant then?” Dorothy asked.      “The servant doesn’t check in, then Moriarty’s master sends people after him,” Sherlock said.  “You are all correct to suspect Moriarty of something though.  Getting out from under the hand of whoever he is forced to work for is indeed one of his motivations, but there is likely a lot more than that which he plans to do.”      “Do you want me to question him?” Joseph asked.      Sherlock raised an eyebrow.  “No, I will do that myself.  Although, if you wish to question the servant, you can do so.  Just make sure not to mention that Moriarty willingly surrendered himself.”      “It could give us an advantage to turn them against each other,” Joseph said.      “Perhaps, but at this time we do not know that for certain,” Sherlock said.  “It is important to gather as much information as possible before making a plan.”      Sherlock went to the back of the upper level of the jet, where one of the holding cells was, and sat down outside it.      “So, what do you wish to know?” Moriarty asked.  He was lying on the cot in the cell, looking up at the ceiling.  He did not even bother to look over at Sherlock.      “Who is your master?” Sherlock asked.      “My sire is Dracula.”      “Dracula is a fictional character, created by Bram Stoker.”      “And we are fictional characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, or so your brother has much of the world convinced.  Do you think that’s the only time that’s ever happened?”      “Assuming you are telling the truth, what is he planning?  He’s quite obviously building up an army, but to what end exactly?”      “To conquer, of course.  How much, and where first, I do not know, but he wishes to rule, and it is to that purpose that he is building up an army.”      “And what is your plan?”      “My plan?”      “Do you plan to take his place, as the head of this army, if we can get rid of him?”      “Please Sherlock, you know me better than that.  I have no desire to rule the world, or anything so quaint.  I prefer to control things from the shadows.”      “Even still, an army of Vampires would be useful to those ends.”      “I suppose they would at that,” Moriarty said.           Joseph sat down outside the cell that Moriarty’s servant was in, which was in the back of the lower level of the jet.  The servant was sitting upright on his cot.      “So, I don’t believe we ever got your name,” Joseph said.      “You may refer to me as Jervis Albertson.”      “We may refer to you as such?  So that’s not your actual name?”      “It makes little difference to you whether it is my real name or not.”      “Sure thing,” Joseph said.  “What about your boss, what’s his name?”      “You know his name, it is James Moriarty.”      “And his boss?”      “I know not who you refer to.”      “Of course you don’t.”           “Wait, are there any fictional characters that aren’t really real?” Daniel asked after Sherlock had told the team what he had learned from Moriarty.  “First you and Moriarty, and now apparently Dracula?”      “Assuming Moriarty is telling the truth,” Jacob said.      “Yes, assuming that,” Sherlock said.  “I believe he is telling the truth on that, but there is certainly more that he is hiding.”      “Did he give us anything we can use to track down Dracula though?” Dorothy asked.  “Or should we just check Transylvania?”      “Isn’t that controlled by the Axis?” Jacob asked.      “Hmm, yes, that is a slight concern,” Sherlock said.  “But with how fast this thing goes, we should be able to get in without much risk of being noticed.  Joyce, set a course.”      “Understood, sir,” Joyce said.      “What’s your plan for when we get there?” Joseph asked.  “Like, should we really be assuming that he’s returned to his old home, especially considering there’s a novel about him?”      “Even if he is not, it may provide clues as to where he is now,” Sherlock said.      “And what if he is there?” Jacob asked.  “You said he’s putting together an army.  That would be a big enough threat on its own, but if they are within a country we are at war with, we can’t even get local reinforcements.”      “Yes, we will have to be cautious,” Sherlock said.           The plane landed just outside a forest, and then drove into it a bit, to try and hide it from view.      “We’ll split into two teams,” Sherlock said.  “Dallen and Kingsmill will go in with me from one side of the castle, and Wiggins, you lead McNeil and Doctor Najam in from the other side.  Callaghan will remain with the plane.  Make sure it’s ready to leave on a moment’s notice.”      “Yes, sir,” Joyce said.  She remained at the controls, as everyone else disembarked from the plane.      “This is just supposed to be recon, correct?” Joseph asked.      “Yes, Wiggins,” Sherlock said.  “Do not engage in combat unless you have to.  I’m not as spry as I used to be, so my team will go at the castle from this side, why don’t you lead your team around from the other?”      “Yes, sir,” Joseph said.  “Jacob, Daniel, let’s go.”      As those three went off, Sally and Dorothy followed Sherlock.    �� “So, Agent Kingsmill, what sort of seemingly supernatural things do you have experience with?” Sherlock asked as they walked.      “Greek Gods, sir,” Dorothy said.  “I am the ESS liaison to New Olympus.”      “Hmm,” Sherlock said.  “That’s interesting.  But no experience with Vampires before this?”      “I’m afraid not,” Dorothy said.  “Looking at the literature though, I think I have a grasp on how to deal with them.”      “I guess we’ll find out as we continue on,” Sherlock said.      They got to the top of a hill, and looked towards the castle with their binoculars.      “There’s lights coming from inside the castle,” Dorothy said.      “Yes, and there is some movement,” Sherlock said.  “There is definitely someone in there, possibly a lot of people, but we have a rather limited view of the interior.”           Joseph, Jacob, and Daniel circled around to the other side of the castle, where they climbed up into some trees to get a view, while staying out of sight.      “Definite movement in there,” Joseph said as he looked through his binoculars.  “Not enough windows to get even an idea of how many people there are though.”      Jacob looked through his.  “Give me eight hours of watching this place, and I’ll have a decent estimate, possibly sooner.  It’s just a matter of watching people pass the windows, keeping track of when you see new people, or the same people again, and doing that for every window.”      “If they’re Vampires though, that’ll only work at night,” Daniel said.  “They’ll avoid the windows during the day.”      “Which would also be informative,” Joseph said.  “Even if there are Vampires in there, we don’t know that all of them are.”  He took out his radio.  “Wiggins here, do you read me Mister Holmes?”      “Yes, I read you,” Sherlock said.  “Do you have something?”      “McNeil thinks he can get an estimate on the amount of people inside if he watches for about eight hours,” Joseph said.      “It should only take four hours for myself,” Sherlock said.  “But yes, let’s both our teams work on that, and we’ll compare numbers when we have them.”           Four hours passed, and Sherlock estimated that there were at least a hundred people inside the castle.      “Those numbers are going to be a big problem for us,” Dorothy said.      “Certainly, if we fight them on their terms,” Sherlock said.  “But they do have easily exploitable weaknesses.”      “How many of them have we actually confirmed though?” Dorothy asked.      “I have confirmed that garlic damages them, and a crucifix is useless,” Sherlock said.  “The evidence indicates that sunlight is bad for them, but I have not yet learned how bad.  I am unsure of holy water, though the uselessness of the crucifix makes me doubt it will do anything.”      “So, we need to determine how bad sunlight is then,” Dorothy said.  “And if it’s bad enough, we attack during the day.”      “Not only that, but we concentrate not on attacking the Vampire army, but rather the building they are inside,” Sherlock said.  “Take out the roof and walls, and suddenly the sun may do our work for us.”           “I don’t know if we have enough explosives for destroying that castle,” Joseph said after the whole team had returned to the plane.      “We don’t need to destroy the whole castle,” Sherlock said.  He took out a paper and began drawing the castle on it.  “It’s simply a matter of placing what explosives we do have at the proper locations to maximize the sunlight within the castle.”      “So, we’re going to have to go in then?” Daniel asked.  “That seems a bit risky.”      “We’ll do it during the day,” Sherlock said.  “And we’ll figure out routes to keep near windows as best as possible.”      “And what if not everyone in there is a Vampire?” Dorothy asked.  “Moriarty’s servant wasn’t, so it’s possible they have others working for them that aren’t.”      “Yes, that is something I had considered,” Sherlock said.  “Unfortunately there is not much we can do about that, other than ensuring that we are all well armed.”      Sherlock finished the drawing of the castle, and began marking X’s on it.  “The problem is that we do not know much of the interior,” he said.  “Some of these we can place without going inside, but others will be difficult.”      “We could always try asking Moriarty about the interior,” Dorothy said.  “I’m sure he knows at least some of it.”      “Indeed,” Sherlock said.           Moriarty looked up as Sherlock once again came and sat down outside his cell.  He was holding a large rolled up piece of paper this time.      “Good day, Mister Holmes,” Moriarty said.  “Is there something more you need my assistance with?”      “Perhaps,” Sherlock said, as he put the paper through the bars of the cell.  Moriarty took it, and unrolled it.      “Hmm, this is a decent drawing of Dracula’s castle.  You perhaps missed your true calling as an artist.”      “What we need to know is the layout of the interior.”      Moriarty noticed the X’s on the drawing.  “Ah yes, I see what you are looking to do.  A pen or pencil, if you please?”      Sherlock handed Moriarty a pencil, and he began adding to the drawing, before passing it back to Sherlock.      “It’s a large castle, as you are aware,” Moriarty said.  “So I have only drawn the passages that are necessary for your use, and a few extras, in case exits are blocked.”      “Thank you,” Sherlock said.  “Can I assume then, that sunlight is damaging enough for this plan to work.”      “Oh yes, it is quite damaging.”           After returning to the front of the plane, Sherlock showed the team the map.  “We’ll go to the castle as a group, but with Agent McNeil in a tree over on this side of the castle.  Agent Kingsmill, I understand you have some experience with rock climbing.”      “That is correct,” Dorothy said.      “Do you think you can scale these walls?”  Sherlock pointed to the outer walls of the castle.      “Yeah, that’ll be easy,” Dorothy said.      “Then you’ll go up and over, and let us inside.  We’ll then split up into teams of two,” he said.  “Agents Wiggins and Najam will take this route and place explosives in these five locations.”  He traced a path on the map.  “Agent Kingsmill, you’ll be climbing and placing explosives here, here, and here,” Sherlock said as he pointed to locations on the walls of the castle.  “Agent McNeil will be your partner on the ground, ready to take out any threats that may present themselves.  And finally, Agent Dallen will go in with me, as we will place the final four explosives, along this route.”  He again traced a route on the map.  “Everyone memorize your areas.  Any questions?”      “When do we go in?” Joseph asked.      “Tomorrow, an hour after sunrise,” Sherlock said.  “We want to ensure we have plenty of daylight to use on this.”           The next day, Sherlock led the team down to the castle.  It was a quiet, sunny day, almost seemed peaceful.      “All clear,” Jacob said over the radio.  “I’m not seeing any movement on the outer wall.”      “Agent Kingsmill, you are up,” Sherlock said.      “Right,” Dorothy said as she went up to the wall.  She looked it over, put her hands on it and, and found some protrusions, pulling herself up.  There was an indent, that she used as a foothold, and continued going up, looking for whatever she could use.      “Everyone knows what they are doing when we get in?” Sherlock asked as he looked at the rest of them.  They all nodded.  “Remember, if you have to choose between carrying out your assignments, and getting out of there alive, make sure you get out alive.  If we fail at this, we can try again, but we can’t bring you back from the dead.”      “At least not that we’re aware of,” Joseph said.  “But I mean, we are fighting Vampires, so who knows what is and isn’t actually possible.”      “True.”  Sherlock chuckled.  “But I’d rather we not have to figure that out.”      The doors opened at that point, and Dorothy was standing there.  “Welcome to Dracula Castle, please watch your step, and protect your neck.”      “Let’s go, Agent Dallen,” Sherlock said and Sally followed him, while the others went their own ways.  They went to a set of doors that led into the castle itself, and Sherlock pulled them open.  There were four people directly inside, who seemed surprised at the intrusion.  “Hello, ladies and gentlemen.”      All four of them, two men, and two women, glared at them, and bared their fangs, showing themselves to indeed be Vampires.  Sally attacked before they could though, grabbing one of the men, and throwing him towards the door before he could react.  The second he was in direct sunlight, his skin caught fire, and he started burning, while Sherlock closed the door between them.      The other man went at Sherlock, while both of the women went for Sally.  Sherlock stepped to the side, and used his cane to trip the Vampire.  He then took out a canteen filled with holy water, and began pouring it on the Vampire.  To his surprise, it started burning him, not like a fire, but like an acid.      Sherlock looked over to the side, where he saw that Sally had staked both of the Vampires she was fighting in the chest, and they were both lying on the ground, motionless.  He drove the end of his cane, which he had sharpened into a stake, into the heart of his own opponent, and he too went motionless, as the holy water continued eating away at the body.      “Fascinating,” Sherlock said.  He pulled his cane out of the body, and suddenly, the Vampire was conscious again.  He stuck the cane back in, and it was once again still.  “Hmm, so a stake to the heart merely puts them into a coma-like state.  That’s quite interesting.”           Joseph ran up to a door, with Daniel coming after him.  He opened it a crack and looked inside.  There was no one immediately visible, so he slowly opened it further, and went in, with Daniel following.  The door had led into a kitchen, which was empty of people.  Joseph said as he went over to a door on the other side of the kitchen, and opened it a crack, before closing it.  “Shit, there are dozens of people in the dining room out there.”      “Vampires?”      “There are people that looked like they are strapped to the tables, so yeah, I assume that the ones who aren’t are probably Vampires.”      “Dammit,” Daniel said.  “How many prisoners are there?”      Joseph opened the door a crack again, and looked out for a bit longer before closing it.  “I can see seven, and some of them look to be in pretty bad shape.  Looks like forty or so Vampires though.”      “I…I don’t think we can deal with forty Vampires,” Daniel said.      “We need to get past them though, and I don’t think there are any alternate routes we can take at this point.  So, we’re just gonna have to sneak past them.”      “How?”      “None of them are paying much attention this way.  We should be able to get out the door, and stay low behind tables and make our way around the room.  Just stay low, and stay quiet.”      Joseph opened the door and crept out, crouching as much as he could, while still being able to make quickly and quietly.  Daniel followed his lead as he came after him.  They both moved around the edge of the dining room, and were at the midpoint when Daniel tugged on Joseph’s sleeve.  Joseph looked back at him.      “We can’t just leave these people here,” Daniel whispered.  “We can’t just leave them to be fed on like this.  It’s not right.”      Joseph kept his expression neutral as he shrugged, but he knew Daniel was right.  “Two of us against forty of them.  We can’t beat them.”      “Not in a direct fight, but we’ve got to do something.”      “We will, we will, but first we need to get through here,” Joseph whispered before continuing on, and eventually they reached the closest location to the door out, that still left them hidden.  From this vantage point he could see the door opened up to a hallway outside, which was empty as far as he could tell.  He looked over at the Vampires feeding, and none were looking in this direction.  “Now,” he whispered to Daniel.      They both moved for the door as fast as they could, and went out into the hall, which was indeed empty at the moment.  They hugged the wall to avoid being seen from the dining room as they went down the hall.      “What are we going to do about all those people in there?” Daniel asked.      “We just need to stick to the plan, and take out the Vampires, and then we’ll be able to free the people.”      “It could be too late for some of them.”      “But if we try to free them now, all that’s going to happen is we’ll end up dead, and not able to help anyone.”           Dorothy climbed up the side of the castle, and put the first of her explosives in place.  She continued on, working her way up, and to the right, as she moved towards the second location.  This was a very old castle, something she was grateful for as that meant a lot more handholds, which made the climb easier.  Then she heard the sound of a rifle firing.      “What’s going on?” she asked into the radio.      “I noticed some archers noticing you,” Jacob said.  “By the windows that don’t have direct sunlight on them at this time of day.  Unfortunately bullets only seem to be slowing them down, not putting them down.”      “Try shooting them in the eyes,” Dorothy said.  “They can’t shoot me if they can’t see me, I hope.”      “Good call, I’ll do my best.”           Sherlock continued through the castle with Sally following after him.  They had placed two of their explosives so far, and had so far only had a few encounters with Vampires, and always small groups which Sally had been able to quickly neutralize.      Then as they approached a corner, Sherlock glanced around it.  The hallway went down to a large, ornate door, which was guarded by twelve Vampires.  Sherlock pulled back before he was spotted, and whispered to Sally what he had seen.      “That’s too much for us to take out directly,” Sally said.      “We need to place one of the explosives in that room,” Sherlock said.  “And clearly it belongs to Dracula himself, so here.”  Sherlock handed one of the explosives to Sally, while keeping the other for himself.      “What are you doing?”      “I’ll get in there and place this one,” Sherlock said.  “You continue on and place the final one, then get out of here.”      “No offense, but you’re really old.  If I can’t take out that many, what makes you think you can?”      “I don’t have to take them out.  Just go, that’s an order.”      Sally looked at him for a couple seconds, before nodding, and running off.  Sherlock watched until she was out of sight, and then took a deep breath, before walking around the corner, and towards the door.  The guards all looked at him in confusion.      “I would like to formally announce myself,” Sherlock said.  “I am Sherlock Holmes, and I have come here to see your master.”      “How did you get in here?” one of the guards demanded, as he approached Sherlock.      “With your lax security, how could I not?” Sherlock asked.  “But I am not here to talk with an underling such as yourself.  I am here to see your master, so either let him know that I am here, or kindly step out of my way.”      The guard approaching laughed, as he got up to Sherlock, and looked him right in the eye.  “Oh, you’ll see him all right, after I have turned you.”      “Fine then, go ahead and turn me.  And then you can see for yourself how he’ll react after learning that you turned Sherlock Holmes yourself, instead of letting him do so.”      The guard turned back to the others.  “Any of you heard of this Sherlock Holmes?”      “He’s some kind of detective from England,” one of them said.  “Arch-nemesis to Moriarty, I do believe.”      The guard in front of Sherlock closed his eyes for a second, as a frown came on his face.  “One of you let Master Dracula know that Sherlock Holmes is here.”  He turned back to Sherlock.  “This better not be a trick.”      One of the guards knocked on the door, and was admitted inside.  After half a minute he came back out.  “Master Dracula will see you now, Mister Holmes.”      Sherlock walked past the guard in front of him, and continued on past the others, before going through the door, and it shutting behind him.  The room was large.  There was an extravagant bed in it, but one that looked pristine, like it had never been used.  There was also a desk, at which Dracula was sitting, and writing, but he put the paper aside and stood up to face Sherlock.      “I was wondering how long it would be until you showed up,” Dracula said.  “Moriarty is a useful servant, if somewhat self-serving, but I knew his actions would eventually lead you here, no matter what precautions I took.”      “Well, I do have to stop your plans,” Sherlock said as he walked over to the bed, and sat down on it.  “I do apologize for sitting on your bed though, but I am not as young as I once was, and this trip has been rather exhausting.”      “I can help you with that, you know,” Dracula said as he approached Sherlock.  “Make it so you do not tire.”      “I am not interested in your sales pitch,” Sherlock said as he stood back up, to look Dracula straight in the eyes.      “Your interest is immaterial,” Dracula said.  “By coming here you have already sealed your fate.”           Daniel placed another explosive, while Joseph kept watch.  “Okay, that’s the last of them, now we need to figure out what to do about the prisoners,” Daniel said.      “What we need to do is get out of here, before we set them off,” Joseph said.      “So, we’re just going to leave them to die?”      “The dining room should survive the explosions.  The prisoners will be okay, and a lot easier to save after we destroy the castle.”      “Those that the Vampires don’t finish off by then,” Daniel said.           Dorothy placed the last of her explosives, before climbing back down to the ground.  She ran to the still open gate and went out of the castle walls.      “All set?” Jacob asked her over the radio.      “That I am,” she replied.  “Anyone else?”      “I’m done too,” Sally said.  “But Mister Holmes and I split up, so I don’t know if he placed the last one he needed to or not.”      “Why would you split up?” Jacob asked.      “It was his idea,” Sally said.  “I’m on my way out now, per his orders.”      “We can’t just leave him,” Dorothy said.      “He is the boss,” Jacob said.  “And if he said to leave him, then he presumably has a good reason.”           “Fine,” Joseph said, as he and Daniel walked back towards the dining hall in silence.  “We’ll try something, since that’s the way out anyway.”      “What’s the plan?” Daniel asked.      “What, you don’t have one already?”      “Not really, no.”      “Well, like I was saying, there’s way too many of those Vampires for us to take on, so we’re going to need to get them out of there somehow.  A distraction of some sort, something to get their attention.”      “If we had any more explosives, even just something small, that would work,” Daniel said.      “But we don’t.”  Joseph stopped, and pulled out his radio.  “Jacob, you there?”      “Yeah, I’m here,” Jacob said.      “So are Sally and I,” Dorothy said.  “We’re done and out, where are you guys?”      “We’re on our way out,” Joseph said.  “We’re going to use the same way we came in, through the dining room, but there’s a bunch of people being fed on in here, and we want to get them out.”      “How many?” Jacob asked.      “Seven prisoners,” Joseph said.  “But there were like forty Vampires in there earlier.  If we’re lucky, that was just the breakfast rush, but I don’t know.  Either way we’ll probably need a distraction.  There was a bell in one of the castle towers, right?”      “There’s at least two bells that I can see,” Jacob said.  “You want me to make some noise?”      Joseph and Daniel were right outside the dining hall now.  “Give me a minute,” Joseph said.  He glanced through the door.  There were less Vampires than earlier, but still around thirty.  Out in the hall were suits of armor on display.  He turned to Daniel  “You think you can get in one of those without making any noise?”      “I can certainly try,” Daniel said.           Sherlock and Dracula circled each other, their eyes locked.  Sherlock knew Dracula was simply toying with him.  Between the enhanced strength of his Vampiric nature, and the reduced strength of Sherlock’s elderly body, Sherlock was outmatched physically.  And even from just watching the way Dracula walked, he could tell that his fighting prowess was such that Sherlock’s skills would not be enough to make up for the difference in strength.      Sherlock considered how long it had been.  Enough time for the others to have placed all of their explosives, but that was assuming that none of them had run into problems as well.  But every second he waited, it increased the chances that Dracula would attack him, and that could ruin the plan.      Sherlock made up his mind, and when he was closest to the wall where he needed to stick the final explosive, he sprinted at it, and stuck the explosive to it.  He took out his radio.  “Now, blow it now.”      “What?” Jacob asked.  “Are you out?”      “Now!” Sherlock yelled, even as he felt Dracula right behind him, and the radio was torn out of his hand.           Joseph finished getting inside a suit of armor, while Daniel was only halfway through putting on his own.  He then turned on his radio, just as Sherlock was yelling “Now!”      “What’s going on?” Joseph asked.      “Holmes wants us to blow the place now,” Jacob said.  “I think you guys will be okay in the dining hall, and that’ll make an even better distraction then the bells.”      “Wait,” Joseph said, before he heard the explosions start all throughout the castle, followed by various crashes as the castle fell even further apart then the initial damage from those explosions.      Daniel was still only partially in armor.  His hands and legs were still visible, as the Vampires in the dining room started running out, but none seemed to notice him in their haste.      Joseph waited until no more were coming out.  He had counted twenty-seven that had left.  And as he went in, still armor-clad, there were still four inside.  They looked at him as he came in.  He shot at them with a crossbow, managing to stake two of them through the heart, before the other two were on him.      One of them was trying to grab his arms and hold him in place, while the second started pulling off his helmet.  He tried to get out of their grasp, but the armor made that difficult.  As his helmet was pulled off, that Vampire leaned in towards his neck, when he heard the sound of wood piercing flesh, and the Vampire fell to the ground.  The other one turned to look, just as they too were shot by Daniel.      “Good shooting,” Joseph said as he started taking the armor off.  “Now let’s get these people down and out of here before any more come back.”           Sally watched as the castle crumbled.  “Holmes, do you read?” she asked into the radio.      “I see Joseph and Daniel coming out with the prisoners,” Jacob said.  “And plenty of Vampires, dead or dying throughout the castle.  I’m not seeing any signs of Holmes though.”      “Keep me updated,” Sally said.  “I’m going back to the plane.”  She jogged over to it, and went aboard, going to Moriarty’s cell, after grabbing the map.      Moriarty looked up at her as she approached.  “Ah, welcome, I don’t think I caught your name earlier.”      “You didn’t tell us that this was Dracula’s room,” Sally said as she pointed at the map.      “I don’t suppose I did.  Why?  Did something happen?”      “The Vampires are all dead, or will be soon, but so is Sherlock.”      “That is unfortunate,” Moriarty said.  “Also unfortunate is that Dracula himself has still survived.”      “There’s no way he survived.  He was in his room, as was Sherlock, and even if he survived the explosion, he’d be exposed to the sunlight.”      “Ah, but Dracula is not like other Vampires.  He is not affected by the sunlight in the same manner as the rest of us, and I can sense he survived and is even now escaping.  You’ve delayed his plans, but you have not prevented them.”      “And your plans?” Sally asked.      “You needn’t concern yourself with my plans,” Moriarty said.  “I am, after all, your prisoner.”

Simple Complications #822

     “So, how go the auditions?” Ted asked as he entered the auditorium and sat down next to Lyle and Rachel.      “Not well,” Lyle said.  “Most of the people are not nearly as good as they seem to think they are.”      “That guitarist was pretty good,” Rachel said.      “But guitar is my thing,” Lyle said.  “We don’t need another one.”      “What about this guy?” Ted asked as he looked at the current person trying out, who was playing a clarinet.  “He seems really good.”      “I mean, yeah, he’s pretty good at playing clarinet,” Lyle said.  “I don’t know if that’s really that what our band needs though.”      “Well, it’s not really a band until we actually find a few more people,” Rachel said.  “So, eventually we’re going to have to accept someone.”

Tales of WID 72 #11 The ESS Job

     The lock clicked open and Diego Serrano put his lock pick equipment back into his bag.  He opened the safe, and found a stack of cash, a folder filled with papers, and a handgun.  He grabbed the cash and the folder, but left the gun as he closed and relocked the safe.      “We’ve got a problem,” Jacques Dupont said over the comm.  “The maid is making her way up to the office.”      “That’s not a problem,” Diego said.  “I can just leave through the window, I’m not too high up.”      Diego looked out the window as he opened it up.  He grabbed his whip from his belt, ran, jumped out the window, flicked his whip towards a streetlamp, which it curled around, and he swung down to the ground.  Jacques was waiting in the car, and Diego ran up, got in, and Jacques took off.      “So, you go the folder?” Jacques asked.      “Yep, and a bit of cash too.  Looks like about $100,000 so not bad of a bonus.”      “Hopefully our employer doesn’t have a problem with that.  She just asked us to get the folder.”      “What she doesn’t know can’t hurt us,” Diego said.      “Here you are,” Diego said as he slid the folder across the table to their employer.  They were in a coffee shop.      “Good work,” she said.  “The money has been transferred to your accounts.”      “It was a pleasure doing business with you,” Jacques said.      “And I understand you two also got a bit of a bonus on this job,” she said.  “Don’t worry, it’s fine that you took that $100,000.  Although, if you would like to make a bit more money, I do have another job.”      “What kind?” Diego asked.      Their employer opened up the folder and looked through it.  She took out a paper, and put it on the table.  “This is a set of blueprints,” she said.  “It is quite valuable to us, but the prototype has already been built, and that would be even more valuable.”      “What is it?” Jacques asked as he picked it up and looked at it.  “Is this some kind of weapon?”      “Nothing so crude,” their employer said.  “But I don’t want to bore you with the technical details.  I think you’ll be more interested in the price I’m willing to offer.”      “I can’t believe we accepted that job,” Jacques said as he drove them back to their apartment.      “It’s a lot of money,” Diego said.  “We could retire after this job, if we want to.”      “If we wanted to we could have retired years ago.  But that’s boring.”      “Which is exactly what stealing from the ESS will not be.  Like, we’ve dealt with their security before, but this is the main ESS headquarters.  The most secure building on the planet.  Just think, we pull this off, we’re legends.”      “Can we pull this off though?” Jacques asked.  “Like this feels like it’ll be more than just a two man job.”      “So, we put together a crew then?  I mean, it’s been a while since we’ve been part of a larger crew, but we both know a few people we could bring in.”      “Oh yeah, who are you all thinking?”      “This is an FBI building,” Jacques said the following morning.  “Why are we outside an FBI building?”      Diego checked his watch.  “She should be getting out shortly.”      “Who?”      “Remember Roz?”      “Of course I remember Roz.  Why are we here for Roz?”      “She’s the best lock breaker we know, but she got caught a couple years back in Vegas, so decided to work off her sentence with the FBI,” Diego said.  “And there she is now.”      Jacques looked over as Roz was coming out of the building.  She noticed them almost immediately, and a frown appeared on her face.      “Hey Roz, long time no see,” Diego said.  “How’s Sam?”      “We broke up after I got caught,” Roz said.  “What are you two assholes doing here?”      “We’re putting together a team,” Diego said.      “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m on the other side now,” Roz said, pointing her thumb at the building she had just come out of.      “Good point,” Jacques said.  “We’ll just be on our way.”      “Wait,” Diego said.  “Would it interest you if I told you it would be enough money to disappear and start over?”      Roz pulled up her pant leg a bit to show off an ankle monitor.  “I’d need to disappear first.  And once that happened, there’d be no going back unless I want to spend my time in prison.  How difficult is the job?”      “You ever hear of the ESS?” Diego asked.      “You can’t be serious,” Roz said.  “I know you guys think you’re the best of the best, but the ESS are so far out of your league it’s not even funny.”      “If you’re not interested, that’s fine,” Jacques said.  “Plenty of other people we can ask.”      Diego took out a piece of paper, wrote something on it, and handed it to Roz.  “In case you change your mind.”      “Uh huh.”  Roz stuffed the paper into her pocket without even looking at it.      Jacques knocked on the door, and waited.      “Is this really a good idea?” Diego asked.      “You wanted to get help from Roz.  You lost your right to criticize my suggestions.”      “Did something happen between you and Roz?  Like, that seemed like you had more of a problem than just her being with the FBI now.”      “Just drop it.”      The door opened, and Jacques’ brother Marcel was there.      “Jacques, it’s been too long,” Marcel said.  “How are you doing?”      “I’m doing okay,” Jacques said.  “You remember Diego?”      “Hey,” Diego said.      “Ah yes, your annoying friend,” Marcel said.  “Come in, come in.  What are you two doing in town?”      “We’ve got a job, and it’s more than just a two person operation,” Jacques said.      “Who else do you have so far?” Marcel asked.      “It’s just the two of us, so far,” Diego said.  “Unless you’re in.”      “Tell me about the job,” Marcel said.      “We’ll be stealing something from the ESS,” Jacques said.      “What was Dad’s number one rule?” Marcel asked.      “Don’t steal from law enforcement,” Jacques said.  “But he’s long gone.”      “It was a good rule though,” Marcel said.  “Remember when Uncle Jean tried stealing from Interpol?  Remember what happened?”      “This is different,” Jacques said.      “You’re right it’s different,” Marcel said.  “It’s the ESS, that’s so much worse.  And besides, I thought you were done working with family.”      “So you’re not in?” Diego asked.  “Not a problem, we can find someone else.”      “Of course I’m in,” Marcel said.  “Jacques is my brother, and family is important to me, even if it’s not important to him.”      Diego and Jacques entered the gym, and looked around.  There were a handful of people exercising, but not a lot.  And most of the equipment looked old, with some of it no longer even looking functional.  They went to the manager’s office, and knocked.      “Come in,” someone said.      They went in, and saw the manager, Darren Jefferson, working on the computer.      “Jacques, Diego, good to see you guys,” Darren said.  “Please, sit down.”      “Thanks,” Jacques said as he sat down.      “So, how are you doing?”  Diego glanced at the computer screen as he sat down.      “Eh, I’m doing okay,” Darren said.      “Business is down though, I see,” Jacques said.      “I’ll figure something out,” Darren said.      “Before bankruptcy?” Diego asked.  “I couldn’t help but notice those financial reports you’re looking over.”      “It is what it is,” Darren said.      “We’re putting together a crew for a job,” Jacques said.      “You know I went straight when I married Greg,” Darren said.  “I mean, not straight straight, but I stopped being a criminal.”      “We could really use you on this one though,” Diego said.  “You’re the best bruiser I’ve ever worked with.”      “What about Ivan?” Darren asked.      “Ivan’s good, but he’s not you,” Diego said.  “And last I heard he’s in a Russian prison.”      “Carlos?” Darren asked.      “He’s getting chemo for his cancer,” Jacques said.      “That sucks, I hadn’t even heard about that,” Darren said.  “But surely there’s someone else you can go to.”      “With your cut from this job, you could afford to keep this gym open for the rest of your life,” Diego said.  “You don’t have to decide right now, but call us if you decide to join.”      “You think he’ll decide to join us?” Jacques asked as they walk through the city.      “Yeah, I think so,” Diego said.  “Roz too.”      “I’d be very okay with her not joining us.  Besides, even if she did, how would we know she wasn’t just going to turn us over to the FBI.”      “Come on, we know her, we can trust her.”      “The fact that I know her is why I don’t trust her.”      “I know you asked me to drop it, but really, what happened.”      “Well…” Jacques started saying, before a teenage girl bumped into him.      “Sorry,” she said before running off.      “Did she just?” Diego asked.      Jacques checked his pocket, and his wallet was gone.  “She did.”  He looked up, and she was gone from sight, so he took out his phone.  “Looks like she took a left up ahead.”      “I can loop around and get ahead of her,” Diego said.      “No, I have a better idea,” Jacques said.      Carlie looked through the wallet after she had returned to the warehouse attic she was living in.  There were a couple twenties in it, a driver’s license, and a few other IDs.  No credit cards though, that was interesting, but cash was nicer anyway.  Harder to track.      As she was looking through it, she heard someone coming up the stairs.  She hid behind some crates, and looked out, to see the guy she had taken the wallet from.  And after looking at his phone, he was headed straight for her.      “Could I get my wallet back please?” he asked.      Carlie stayed in her hiding place, as he continued to approach.      “And are you interested in a job?” he asked.      “What kind of job?” she asked, standing up.  There was not really any point in hiding anymore.  “And how did you find me?”      “I have an app for that.  Well, for tracking my wallet that is.  And I’m a fellow thief.  My partner and I are putting together a team.”      “So we have a pickpocket for our team?” Diego asked, later that day.  “No offense, but this might be a bit out of her league.”      “Not much more out of her league than it’s already out of our league really,” Jacques said.  “And we need all the help we can get.  So far we have a pickpocket and an impersonator.  That’s not much.”      “We’ll have a bruiser and a lock breaker as soon as Darren and Roz agree.”      “If they agree.  But even still, we’re trying to steal from one of the most secure places on the planet.  It’s not going to be easy.”      “We don’t want too big of a team though.  After a certain point, adding more people is just going to complicate matters.  Especially since we’re apparently already including some pickpocket we just met.”      “How long were you planning on waiting for Roz and Darren?” Jacques asked.  “I don’t think our employer wants to wait forever on us doing this job.”      “No worries, we can start on the planning right away, and bring them up to speed when they get back to us.”      “And if they don’t?”      “Don’t worry, they will.  Have I ever steered you wrong?”      “Malibu, two years ago.  Tokyo, five years ago.  Brisbane, six years ago.”      “See, only three times in the decade that we’ve known each other, that’s not bad.”      “Those were just the big ones.”      “So, what exactly is the ESS?” Carlie asked.  “And what are we stealing from them?”      It was the following day, and Jacques, Diego, Marcel, and Carlie were beginning to work on the plan.      “The ESS are a secret organization that dates back to World War 2,” Diego said.  “Possibly even older.”      “They are an international organization,” Jacques said.  “They deal with threats of advanced scientific natures.”      “A secret science police, essentially” Marcel said.  “Some of the most advanced technology on the planet.”      “Uh huh,” Carlie said.  “Like, I’m just a pickpocket here, what are you expecting from me?”      “You’re a really good pickpocket though,” Jacques said.  “You managed to get my wallet, and I almost didn’t notice it.  That’s no easy task.”      “You haven’t answered her other question though,” Marcel said.  “What are we stealing?”      “Don’t know exactly,” Diego said.  “It’s a device of some sort, and we know what it looks like, but we don’t know what it does.”      “Ah yes, this sounds like it’s going to go amazing,” Marcel said as he rolled his eyes.  “How much intel do you have on the ESS base?  And which one for that matter?”      “We know a fair amount about it,” Diego said.  “Probably one of their more well known bases, at least amongst those who know of the organization.”      “Well known also tends to mean better security,” Marcel said.  “Wait, please tell me it’s not their London base.”      “It’s not their London base,” Jacques said.  “It’s their Winnipeg base.”      “Dammit, that’s almost worse,” Marcel said.      “How is that worse?” Carlie asked.  “London is controlled by an evil alien empire.”      “Yeah, but the Winnipeg base is better secured,” Marcel said.  “It’ll be easier to get to, but harder to deal with once we’re inside.”      “What we’re thinking is that you’ll be posing as a government official doing an inspection,” Diego said.  “The rest of us will be your staff.  Roz and I will be your security specialists, Darren will be your bodyguard, and Jacques your driver.”      “And me?” Carlie asked.      “You’ll be an intern or an assistant or something,” Diego said.      “They’re not going to let an intern in, even if they let the rest of you in, even if we’re able to fool them in the first place,” Marcel said.      “Thus why I said ‘or an assistant or something,’” Diego said.  “And don’t you have that friend in the Spanish government?  He could get you credentials.”      “It might work, but it will take more than just his assistance, and I still can’t promise we’ll be able to get your entire crew in,” Marcel said.      “We’re also still assuming Roz and Darren are going to join said crew,” Jacques said.      “Wait, so not everyone you’re planning on including in this has even agreed to join?” Carlie asked.      “Not yet,” Diego said, before his phone started ringing.  He took it out.  “Oh, this is Darren right now.”  He answered it.  “Hello?”      “So, assuming this plan doesn’t totally fail, and we get in, what happens next?” Marcel asked while Diego was on the phone.      “We have a basic layout of the base,” Jacques said.  “So we know where the device is, and we just need to work our way in that direction.”      “Okay, Darren is in,” Diego said after he hung up the phone.  “So, now we’re just waiting on Roz.”      “Question,” Marcel asked.  “Do we have a computer person?  Like, I know Roz is good with locks, and I’m sure we all have decent computer skills, but doesn’t this seem like the kind job where we need a dedicated computer person?”      “You have anyone in mind?” Diego asked.  “I know a number of hackers, but none that we can reach out to for this.”      “Gregor?” Marcel asked.      “He’s living on Maltork Four these days,” Jacques said.      “Cinda?” Marcel asked.      “She’s working with the Scorpio Syndicate on some project in Antarctica,” Diego said.      “What about that Dalton chick?” Marcel asked.      “Diana?” Diego asked.  “Maybe, she’s not really a thief though.”      “Did you hear about that job in San Francisco three months ago?” Marcel asked.  “With the cars?”      “That was her?” Diego asked.  “Impressive.”      “Do you know her?” Jacques asked.      “I know someone that does,” Marcel said.  “I can reach out.”      “With her we might not even need Roz,” Jacques said.      “If they just have computer controlled locks, sure,” Diego said.  “But if they have any others, we’re still going to want Roz.”      Diana Dalton checked the status of the program she had running on the computer to her left.  It still had another three minutes to go, at least.  So she turned to the computer on her right, and made sure the virus was ready for upload.  She then turned to her center computer, and checked the floor plans of the building.      “You’re going to want to make a left turn up ahead,” she said over the comm.      “Is the security down yet?” came the reply.      “It’ll be down by the time you get there.”  Diana checked the computer on the left.  “I hope.”      Her phone started ringing.  She did not recognize the number, but the program she had on her phone identified it as Marcel Dupont.  She picked it up.  “Bonjour?”      “Hello, this is Marcel Dupont, although I assume you already know that.  And your accent is atrocious, by the way.”      “You’re Lisette’s cousin, right?  I worked with her on the San Fran job.”      “Yeah, and I’m part of a crew looking for a hacker at the moment,” Marcel said.      Diana checked the computer on her left.  Still another minute on it.  “What kind of job do you need my help with?”      “We’re going up against the ESS.”      “I’m in.”      “What, just like that?”      “It’s the ESS, that’s like, the ultimate challenge.  I’ve been developing a few things I’d like to really put through some tests, and this is the perfect opportunity.”      “Oh…okay,” Marcel said.  “I was expecting to need to convince you.”      “No worries, but I need to get back to my current job first, so I’ll talk with you later.”  Diana hung up the phone, just as the computer on her left finished running its program.  She turned to the right, and uploaded the virus.  Then over the comm, “Okay, security is down, you have five minutes to get in, get what you need, and get out.”      “So, you never really told me why you decided to ask Carlie to join our crew,” Diego said as he sat down with Jacques for some drinks.      “A teenage pickpocket?” Jacques asked.  “Honestly, she reminds me of you at that age, back when we first met.”      “I mean, I can’t deny that there are some similarities, but we don’t really know anything about her.”      “I didn’t know anything about you back then, but I knew you were in a world that had failed you.  I didn’t know how back then, but I could sense that was the case, and I sense that with her too.”      “I mean, anytime someone’s living on the streets that is a pretty big indicator right there,” Diego said.  “But bringing her into this isn’t necessarily the best idea for her.  Like, the rest of us, we’re career criminals, that’s not going to change, but she still has a chance.”      “It changed for Roz and Darren, and you still went to them.”      “That’s different, we know them.”      “You’re taking this job because of the challenge and the money.  I’m mostly just taking it because you are.  Darren actually needs the money to keep his business afloat, and Carlie is in this because she needs the money to get her life afloat.”      “I just hope we don’t end up sinking them,” Diego said.      “We could always back out, if you’re worried about that.”      “No, no, we’re still going to do this.”      After the crew arrived in Winnipeg, they met up at the hotel they were all staying at.  Diana was setting up her computers.  Darren was doing pushups in the corner.  Carlie was playing with a yo-yo.  Diego was writing on a whiteboard.  Marcel had fallen asleep on the couch.  And Jacques was ordering some pizza.      “Yeah, and extra cheese on that last one,” he said.  “Thanks.”      “So, what are the chances we run into one of the local superheroes?” Carlie asked.      “Probably not very likely,” Diego said.  “I doubt they’d get involved in ESS business.”      “You’d be surprised what superheroes all involve themselves with,” Diana said.  “But even still, they’re probably busy enough with other stuff.  It’s a decent sized city.”      “So, how long until we go in?” Darren asked.      “What do you think, Diana?” Diego asked.  “How long until your system is up and running?”      “I’ll have everything set up in about an hour or so,” Diana said.  “After that, it’s a matter of how long it takes me to get into the ESS computers.  That I can’t really predict.”      “If you even can get in,” Jacques said.      “I haven’t met the computer system that was able to keep me out yet,” Diana said.  “It’s a matter of when, not if.”      “Okay, let’s go over the plan one more time,” Diego said the next day after Diana had finally gained access to the ESS network.  “Just to make sure everyone knows what we’re doing.”      “I’ll be posing as a government inspector from Spain,” Marcel said.  “I had to call in so many favors in order to get the right credentials, so we better pull this off.”      “And Roz and I will by your security consultants,” Diego said.      “Despite Roz still not being here or even contacting us,” Jacques said.      “She’ll be here,” Diego said.      “I’m his bodyguard,” Darren said.      “And I’m his personal assistant,” Carlie said.      “I’ll be driving you all in, but I’ll be waiting in the car,” Jacques said.  “If I have to do anything else than driving, that means things have gone wrong.”      “Once you’re inside, if you can get ID cards, I can rewrite them,” Diana said.  “They have a built-in computer, and I can rewrite the information to fit you guys.”      “Are you sure you can do that?” Jacques asked.      “Yep,” Diana said.  “That said, the less I have to change, the less likely I am to be noticed, so preferably go for people that already have the right security clearance.  That way I’m just changing personal information, although if you can get people of the same size and hair and eye color and such, that would certainly help as well.”      “And gender, I assume,” Darren said.      “That’s only in the medical data section of the card, which can only be accessed by medical professionals under normal circumstances, so I’m not even going to bother dealing with that section,” Diana said.      “Okay, and once we’re able to pose as ESS agents, we’ll need to get away from any that we’re with,” Diego said.      “I’ll be figuring out security blindspots for that,” Diana said.  “Or creating them, if I have to.”      “And then we find our way to the device we’re after,” Diego said.  “Which according to the base layout we have, is likely in this area.”  Diego pointed to a spot on the printout they had on the wall.      Jacques drove the limo into the parking garage.  He stopped before the barrier, and rolled down his window.  There was a panel with a button to print out a ticket, but also with a number pad.  He typed in the sequence that Diana had got for them, and then hit the button.      The ticket it printed out included a parking spot on it which was located on the lowest level, so he drove down there, and parked in the spot the ticket indicated.  As soon as he put the car into park, the parking spot started descending, eventually coming to a stop in a much nicer looking parking garage, even further underground.      “Okay, we’re here,” Jacques said.      Darren got out of the car first, and looked around.  There were a few ESS agents in the garage.  Most appeared to be arriving or leaving, and did not pay them much attention, but there were a few that looked to be security, and they were eyeing him up.      Darren opened the door for Marcel, who got out, with Carlie and Diego following after him.  The four of them walked over to the elevator, where two guards were standing.  One of the guards held out a computer pad with an outline of a hand on the screen.      “Good day,” the second guard said.  “What is your business here today?”      “My team and I are here on behalf of the Spanish government, to inspect the base security,” Marcel said as he put his hand on the computer pad.      “We weren’t informed of any inspection,” the second guard said.      “Well, it wouldn’t be a very good inspection if you knew it was coming, now would it?” Marcel asked.      “His credentials do check out,” the first guard said.  “Now the rest of your team.”      Darren put his hand on the computer, and the guard nodded, then Carlie went next, and the guard nodded again.  And finally Diego did so.  The guard raised an eyebrow as he looked at the screen.      “Something wrong?” Marcel asked.      “The system says he checks out,” the first guard said.  “It just took a moment longer than usual.”      “And this is your whole team?” the second guard asked.      “My driver is in the car, where he’ll be waiting.”  Marcel pointed at the car.  As he was doing so, they noticed another car come down into the garage, and Roz stepped out of it.  “She’s also with us.”      “Sorry, I’m late,” Roz said as she came up to them.  “Hit some traffic on my way here.”      The first security guard held out the computer pad to her, and she put her hand down.  He nodded.  “Okay, you all check out.”      “You’ll have to go to the visitor check-in,” the second guard said.  “That’s the only place the elevator will take you until you get an ID card.”      “Thank you,” Marcel said as he entered the elevator, along with the rest of the crew.  As soon as the elevator doors closed behind them he turned to Roz.  “I’m surprised you actually showed up.”      “I said she’d make it,” Diego said.      “This better not go sideways,” Roz said.      “Guys,” Diana said to them over the comms.  “Could you warn me if you’re going to start talking about stuff you don’t want overheard while in places with security cameras.  I’ve got footage on loop to cover your conversation, but some warning would’ve been nice.  Oh, and unless I say otherwise, assume you are always in a place with security cameras.”      “Right,” Diego said.  “Oh, you’ll need this.”  He handed Roz a comm which she stuck in her ear.      After going down to the visitor check-in, they were given visitor IDs and an escort to show them around the base.  No one seemed exactly pleased at this random inspection, but no one seemed to think it was suspicious either.      “Right this way,” their escort, Agent Evelynn Woods said.      Diego looked around as she led them down a corridor.  There were a lot of people around, more than he had expected, and a lot of them seemed to be in a rush, running one way or the other.  “Something big going on?” he asked.      “I don’t know all of the details, sir” Evelynn said.  “But the UES Unity is back at Earth for some restocking of supplies, and apparently they brought back some sort of intel.”      “What kind of intel?” Roz asked.      “I’m sorry ma’am, but I don’t know myself,” Evelynn said.  “It’s for level eight security clearance and above.  I’m only a level five.  Hopefully this won’t get in the way of your inspection.”      “Quite the contrary,” Marcel said.  “It’s when people are at their busiest that security is most likely to be vulnerable, thus making it the perfect time to locate said vulnerabilities.”      “I suppose,” Evelynn said.  “Okay, right in here is the main security room,”  She led them into a large room.  The walls were lined with screens and there were various holographic displays throughout the room.  There were about two dozen agents in the room, who looked up at their entrance, before most returned to their work.  One came over to them.      “Agent Woods,” she said.  “These are the inspectors?”      “Yes,” Evelynn said as she introduced them to Agent Kate Zimmerman, who was in charge of security on the base.      “A pleasure to meet you,” Marcel said.      Uh huh,” Kate said.  “Just try not get in the way of my people while you’re working.”      “We’ll do our best to make sure you don’t even notice us,” Marcel said.      “Right,” Kate said.  “There’s a computer over there you can use, and if you need anything else, you can have Agent Woods talk to me.”      While most of the crew gathered around the computer, Carlie made her way around the room.  She was pretty good at being ignored, so most people did not even take much note of her, with the exception of the few she bumped into, who gave her dirty looks as she apologized.      One, though, actually looked her over as she was apologizing.  “You’re here with the inspection team?  You look a little young.”      “Yeah, I get that a lot,” Carlie said.  “Just the random nature of genetics, I suppose.”      “Uh huh, just try to pay more attention to where you’re walking.”      “Right, yes, I’ll do my best,” Carlie said before going back to the crew.      “How did it go?” Diego asked.      Carlie lifted the sleeve on her left arm to show five ESS ID cards she had nabbed.  “All level ten or higher.”  She passed them out, just before Evelynn returned to the group with some coffees.      “So, what do you think so far?” Evelynn asked.      “Everything in here certainly looks good,” Marcel said.  “But we’ll need to check out a few areas.”  He brought up a map on the computer screen.  “There, there, there, and there.”      “The first two and the fourth will be no problem,” Evelynn said.  “But the third area is restricted.  You need special permission from the Director to go there.”      “Don’t ask about the Director,” the crew all heard Diana say over the comms.  “There’s a complicated situation with him, and I haven’t figured out how much you would logically know.”      “Then just the three areas for now,” Marcel said.  “I’ll take one of my consultants to the first, while my assistant takes the other consultant to the second.”      “Oh, you want to split up?” Evelynn asked.  “Umm, right, about that…”      “It would be more efficient,” Marcel said.  “And allow us to get out of your way faster.”      “No, yeah, that’s, yeah,” Evelynn said.  “I’ll just go grab another agent to escort the second group.  Not a problem.”  She looked around the room.  “Agent Barnes, get over here.”  The agent came over as she introduced them.  “This is Agent Luke Barnes.”      “Excellent, let’s go Barnes,” Marcel said.      Diego and Carlie followed Evelynn as she lead them into a power station room.  There was a generator in the center that took up most of the room, and a few computers on the wall for diagnostic purposes.      “Okay, I’ll walk you through what you need to do,” Diana said to Diego and Carlie over the comm.  “Carlie, you might want to distract Agent Woods while Diego is doing this, or else she’s probably going to notice.”      “So, Agent Woods, how long have you been with the ESS?” Carlie asked as Diego started working on the computer.      “Six years,” Evelynn said.  “My mom is an agent too, and my dad is an engineer, so I was able to join right out of high school.”      “That’s pretty cool,” Carlie said.  “My parents kicked me out when I was fourteen, so I can’t exactly rely on them for job opportunities.”      “That sucks,” Evelynn said.  “But you seem to have done pretty well for yourself.”      “Yeah, I’m pretty resourceful, if I do say so myself,” Carlie said.      “Be careful what you say to her,” Diana said over the comm.  “Don’t want her learning too much about the real you.”      “But that was years ago,” Carlie said.  “I know I look like a teenager, but I am in my twenties.”      “No, don’t bring that up if you don’t have to,” Diana said.  “That just sounds more suspicious.”      “I didn’t want to say anything, but yeah, you do look pretty young,” Evelynn said.  “I mean, I still get carded myself whenever I try to buy some drinks.  And up here the drinking age isn’t even twenty-one, it’s eighteen.”      “Okay, I think she might be flirting with you,” Diana said.  “Maybe try asking if she’s interested in going out for drinks later.”      “Do you want to maybe go out for drinks later?” Carlie asked.      “I mean, maybe, it’s pretty busy here, so I’m not sure when I’ll have some free time, but maybe,” Evelynn said.      “Okay, I’m done over here,” Diego said.  “We can move on.”      Marcel, Darren, and Roz followed Luke down the corridor.  Marcel was about to nod to Darren, when a door opened, and three people came out.  They were wearing uniforms that showed them as UES fighter pilots.      “So then, do you know what Pandaherbs said next?” one of them asked.      “What did she say?” the second one asked.      “She said that those Ghotelon ships looked like butts.”      “That wasn’t me,” the third one said.  “That was Dino Chick that said that.  I mean, I agreed with her, but she was the one that said it.”      “Are you sure?”      “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I know what I did and didn’t say.”      As they passed them, Marcel waited until they had turn down a different corridor, and then nodded at Darren, who grabbed Luke in a chokehold and held him until he lost consciousness.      “Over here,” Roz said, checking a door.  “This broom closet should be a good place to hide him.”      “Right,” Darren said as he stuffed Luke into the closet.      “How far down to the vault?” Marcel asked.      “It’s three floors down,” Diana said over the comm.  “There’s an elevator just ahead you can take down there.”      The three of them went to the elevator and rode it down.  There was an automated checkpoint just after they exited it.      “Let’s hope this works,” Marcel said as he swiped his card on it.  It asked for a fingerprint and eye scan, so he put down his finger and lined up his eye, and the light turned green.  “Green is good, right?”      “Yeah, green is good,” Diana said.      Darren and Roz did the same and got through as well.  They went down the hallway, which had multiple doors.      “The next one on your left,” Diana said.  “There is a keypad, but I can’t get into that remotely.”      “Don’t worry, this is where I come in,” Roz said.  She sprayed a film on the keypad, which revealed fingerprints.  “One, four, seven, and zero make up the code.”      “It should be a five digit code,” Diana said.  “One wrong attempt will alert security.  Two wrong attempts will lock down the door.  Three will release a knockout gas both inside the vault, and immediately outside it.”      Roz looked at it.  Without touching it she started moving her fingers over the buttons in different orders.  “One definitely follows from seven, zero is last.  Four is probably the double.  I’m thinking it’s four, seven, one, four, zero.  Unless it’s the seven that’s the double, in which case it’s four, seven, one, seven, zero or seven, one, seven, four, zero.”      “Just make your best call,” Marcel said.  He kept glancing down the hallway.      Roz pressed four, seven, one, four, zero.      “Security alert was just sent,” Diana said.  “I can take care of it, but the next attempt needs to be right.”      Roz looked over it a bit more before pressing seven and one.  She stopped and looked again, and then pressed four, seven, and zero.  There was an electronic sound coming from the door, and after ten seconds it opened up.  They went inside, and found the walls lined with safes.      “Okay, it’ll be the one marked KR-052,” Diana said.      “It’s over here,” Darren said.      “Okay, now comes the fun part,” Roz said as she looked it over and frowned.  “It’s a hybrid lock on this thing with both a mechanical and an electronic mechanism.  I’m going to need some silence here.”  She put her ear up against it as she started turning the mechanical lock.  “Never mind, it has a silencer on it.”      “Meaning?” Marcel asked.      “Meaning I can still do it, but it’s going to take even longer,” Roz said.  “I’m going to guess it’ll be at least an hour.”      “There’ll be security patrols down there multiple times in that hour,” Diana said.      “Then everyone else will just have to keep them distracted,” Roz said.      As Diego and Carlie were being led to their next destination by Evelynn, Diana contacted them over the comm.      “There’s been a slight change of plans,” Diana said.  “Apparently the lock on the safe is a bit more complicated than we thought it would be, so we need to keep security from finding them for the next hour or so.”      “So, Agent Woods,” Diego said.  “Could you tell us a bit about security patrol schedules.”      “Of course,” Evelynn said.  “We can go back to the main security room, and I can show you them.”      Over the comm Diana said, “The next patrol will be in about ten minutes.”      “Actually, first, is there a restroom around somewhere?” Diego asked.      “Yeah,” Evelynn said and pointed.  “Just over there.  We can wait for you outside.”      Diego entered the bathroom, and did a quick check to see that all of the stalls were empty.  “Okay, what happens if Darren just takes out the security patrol?” He asked over the comm.      “When they don’t check in, a much bigger security team will be sent down there,” Diana said.      “What kind of check in?”      “They make an audio report after each floor they look over, and if they are late, their supervisor gets a notification.”      “So, in theory anyone could make the report.”      “Their voices are on record,” Diana said.  “The computer will recognize if it’s someone else.”      “Well, then I guess we’re about to figure out who’s better, their voice recognition, or Marcel’s voice imitation.”      Darren stood next to the door, and waited until it opened.  Two guards came in, and started pulling out their weapons as they saw Roz and Marcel.  Darren punched the one closest to him in the side of the face with his right fist, before pushing the guard with his left arm, causing him to get knocked into the other guard so they both hit the wall.      The guard that Darren had directly attacked had dropped his energy pistol, which Darren kicked towards Marcel.  The other guard though still had his as he stood back up and tried to aim it at Darren, who grabbed the first guard in a chokehold, and tried to use him as a shield, while also causing him to pass out.      “Drop your weapon or I drop you,” Marcel said as he pointed the energy pistol at the guard who was still armed.      The guard turned and pointed his pistol at Marcel.  “Do you even know how to fire that thing?” he asked.      Darren used the momentary distraction, and threw the now unconscious guard he was holding aside, before kicking the energy pistol out of the other guard’s hand.  He then went over and grabbed the guard by the shirt collar, and punched him a few times until he too was knocked out.      “What was that?” Darren asked as he put the guard down.  “We’re not trying to kill them.”      “These things have a stun setting,” Marcel said.  “And it would have been nice if you had left one of them conscious a bit longer, so I could have heard more than just a single sentence from one of them.”  He searched through the pockets of the one who had spoken, and took out their comm and ID.  “This is Agent Chandler,” he said, his voice mimicking that of the guard.  “Everything on this level seems to be normal.”  Then into his own comm.  “So, did that work?”      “I think so,” Diana said.  “There don’t seem to be any alerts raised, at least not yet, but I’ll keep my eyes on them.”      Diego and Carlie were back in the main security room with Evelynn, who was showing them security patrol schedules.  Diego was only half paying attention to them, as he noticed the doors open, and some security rush in, and go to Kate.  They whispered something to her, and she said something to them before they came over to Diego, Carlie, and Evelynn.      “Could we have a word?” Kate asked.      “What seems to be the problem?” Diego asked.      “Agent Barnes was just found unconscious in a broom closet, and the rest of your team is unaccounted for,” Kate said.      “That’s odd,” Diego said.  “Have their been any breaches in security?”      “Cut the bullshit,” Kate said.  “I’m having my people do a closer inspection on your credentials, but you could save yourselves a lot of trouble and just confess now.”      Diego glanced at Carlie, who’s eyes were wide.  “There’s nothing to confess to.  Whatever’s happened here, it’s not our fault.”      “We’ll just see about that,” Kate said.      Jacques was still waiting in the car, which was parked in the garage.  He was increasingly noticing looks from the guards, who were clearly being told something over their comms.      “Did something happen?” he asked over his own comm.      “There has been a complication,” Diana said.      “What happened?”      Diana filled him in on what had been happening.      “That’d explain why those guards keep looking at me funny.  Oh great, and now they’re coming over here.”      “The cameras will catch it if you do anything to them, and I can’t put these ones on a loop without someone noticing.”      “What about the elevator?”      “I can loop that before you get on, but someone might still notice you entering the elevator on the garage cameras, and not being in the elevator on the elevator cameras.”      The guards were up to the car.  “Please step out of the vehicle, sir,” one of them said.      “Do it,” Jacques said before he opened the door, and slowly got out.  “Something wrong, gentlemen?”      “You’re going to have to come with me,” the same guard said.      “Of course,” Jacques said.  “That’s not a problem at all.”      He got out of the car, and the guards led him to the elevator, with one of them bringing him in, while the other went back to his post.      “No cheesy elevator music in here?” Jacques asked the guard who was standing behind him in the elevator, who did not respond.  “Also, you probably should have brought another couple guards with you, I’m not just a driver.”  Jacques backed into the guard, pressing him back against the side of the elevator, grabbed his arm and twisted his wrist, causing the guard to drop his energy pistol.  Jacques elbowed the guard in the chest, before picking up the pistol and pointing it at him.      The guard coughed.  “What the hell are you…”      “This thing is set to stun, right,” Jacques asked, looking at the setting.  “Excellent.”  He fired at the guard, knocking him out.      “What are you doing?” Diana asked.  “Even without them seeing that on camera, it’s only a matter of time until he’s found.”      “You said Roz needs time to crack the lock, so I’m providing a distraction, I suppose,” Jacques said.      The elevator came to a stop, and the door opened, showing three guards, who quickly reached for their energy pistols, but Jacques managed to shoot all three of them first.      “Okay, that was definitely caught on camera,” Diana said.      “Figured as much,” Jacques said.  “Where are Diego and Carlie at?”      Carlie and Diego were being lead down a hall by four guards.  Two were in front of them, and two were behind.      “Jacques is on his way to you,” Diana told the two of them over the comms.  “But they are also after him, as he’s knocked out a few agents.”      Carlie looked at Diego who was looking at the guards in front of them.  “Well, I guess the jig is up,” he said before spinning around, his whip coming out of his sleeve, and he used it to knock the pistols out of the hands of each of the guards behind them.  Then he turned back to the front where the other two guards were turning around, and did the same to them.      Carlie backed up to the wall, as Diego kept turning around and around, whipping at the guards hands whenever they tried to pick up their guns.  Eventually, two of them charged at him and tackled him to the ground, while the other two were finally able to get at their guns.      Diego got his arm out and flicked his whip at one of the pistols still on the ground, and managed to sent it flying over to Carlie who caught it.  She aimed it at one of the guards who was just picking up his, and fired, then aimed it at the other one going for a gun and fired at him too.  Then she shot both of the guys on Diego, and he pushed their unconscious bodies off of himself.      “Good shooting,” Diego said.      “I used to play a lot of shooting games on the Wii,” Carlie said.      “Uh, we’ve got a slight problem,” Diana said over the comm.  “Remember how earlier we were talking about the local superheroes?”      As she was saying that, the superhero known as Amazing Archer and and his teen sidekick Dark Hawk came around a corner.  Amazing Archer had his energy bow drawn, and was aiming straight at Diego.      “Oh shit,” Diego said.      Carlie aimed the energy pistol at Amazing Archer.      “Surrender and we won’t have to hurt you,” Amazing Archer said.      “I could say the same thing to you,” Diego said.      “My costume will diffuse the stunshot from that pistol,” Amazing Archer said.  “And I can drop you long before you get close enough to use that whip of yours.”      “Yet you haven’t shot us yet,” Diego said.      “That’s because I’d prefer you just surrender,” Amazing Archer said right before getting tackled from behind by Jacques, who knocked away the bow.      Amazing Archer tossed Jacques over his head, and Diego ran over to help, while Dark Hawk tried running over to Carlie, but she aimed the energy pistol at him.      “Don’t come any closer,” she said.      “Hey yeah, no problem,” Dark Hawk said, as he slowed down but still continued moving forward.  “But you know, my suit will disperse the stunshot, same as Amazing Archer’s.”      “You sure about that?” Carlie asked as she fired, and the stunshot was indeed dispersed by Dark Hawk’s suit.      “Pretty sure,” Dark Hawk said.  “You know, you’re really cute.”      “What?  Are you hitting on me or trying to arrest me?”      “Oh, right, sorry, surrender and we won’t have to fight.”      “I mean, I’m not exactly fond of either of those options,” Carlie said.      “Oh, umm, well those are kind of the options here.  I’m not exactly used to criminals not fighting back.”      “Are you making progress here?” Marcel asked as he stood over Roz.      “I’m working on it,” Roz said as she was continuing to turn the lock on the safe.  “And could you not hover over me?”      “Sorry,” Marcel said as he backed off.  He walked over to Darren who was watching the door.  “No more patrols yet?”      “No, according to Diana they’re being kept busy by the rest of our crew,” Darren said.      “Hmm, I hope they aren’t doing anything stupid,” Marcel said.      “You don’t much care for Diego, I’ve noticed.”      “After Jacques started running with him, he stopped running with our family.  And family is important.”      “You ever ask Jacques about it?” Darren asked.  “Find out what his reasons were?”      “Does it matter?”      “Of course it matters.  When I came out to my family, a lot of them stopped acting like family.”      “No one in our family cares that he’s bi, if that’s what you insinuating.  And it’s not like him and Diego are a couple anyway, I don’t think.”      “Maybe no one cares, maybe someone does, but either way there could be any number of reasons that he stopped running with family.  And it’s not like he cut off contact, did he?  I mean, you’re still here.”      “He still talks with a few of us, but not many.  He wasn’t even at our father’s funeral.”      “Then you should talk to him about it.  Communication is important.”      While Diego and Jacques were still fighting Amazing Archer, Carlie was continuing to talk with Dark Hawk.      “I mean, I suppose it doesn’t matter too much,” Dark Hawk said.  “Like, your friends over there are going to lose and be captured.”      “Says you,” Carlie said.      “Come on, I’m sure you’ve heard of Amazing Archer.  Have you ever heard of him losing a fight?”      “Well, no, not exactly.”      “Exactly,” Dark Hawk said as he took a pair of handcuffs out of his utility belt.      “Cuffs?  Shouldn’t you at least buy me dinner first?”      “Wait, are you flirting with me now?”      “Sorry,” Carlie said.  “Although you are probably pretty cute under that mask.”      “Yeah, I’m not falling for that and taking off my mask.”      “Suit yourself.  And fine.”  Carlie put her hands out in front of herself, and let Dark Hawk come over and cuff her.      “See now, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Dark Hawk asked.  He glanced over to see Diego and Jacques were still giving Amazing Archer trouble.      “No, it wasn’t, Bobby,” Carlie said.  He looked back to see her drop the cuffs on the ground while looking at his learner’s permit.      “How did you do that?”      “I’m a pickpocket.  I’m also half decent at picking locks.  So, Bobby Anderson I was right, you are pretty cute under that mask.  And I thought driver’s license pictures always looked horrible.”      “That’s…um…just a fake ID for preserving my secret identity.”      “For someone with a secret identity, you’re a pretty bad liar.”      “Aha,” Roz said as she turned the lock, and it clicked into place.      “You got it?” Marcel asked.      “Part of it,” Roz said.  “Like I said, it’s a multi-part lock, but I’ve got the mechanical lock figured out, so next is the electronic lock.”      “Hurry up in there, if you can,” Diana said over the comm.  “Diego and Jacques are in a fight with Amazing Archer.”      “How are they doing?” Marcel asked.      “They’re still conscious,” Diana said.  “Although I’m not sure for how much longer.  And there’s more security on it’s way to their position.”      “I can go help,” Darren said.  “I don’t think you still need me down here.”      “Yeah, we can handle ourselves,” Marcel said, and Darren took off.  Marcel turned back to Roz.  “How much longer are you thinking?”      “Could be a few minutes, could be another half hour,” Roz said.  “Hard to say for certain.”      “You said it was an electronic lock, so what if we…”      “That might work,” Roz interrupted.  “Unless they have a failsafe in place, in which case, we’ll be screwed.”      “Right,” Marcel said.      Darren rode the elevator up to the level that Diego, Jacques and Carlie were on, but it was a short distance away.  As the elevator doors opened, he saw a bunch of ESS agents running down the hall.  He reached out and grabbed one.  “Sorry,” he said before hitting the guys head against the wall, knocking him out.      Darren stepped out into the hall, and there were five agents who had run past but were turning around now that they noticed one of them was missing.  One had just passed the elevator, and was within range for Darren to grab his wrist, and twist it, causing the guy to drop his gun.  He then punched the agent in the throat, before grabbing him by the shoulder and forcing him to turn around.  “Sorry,” he said.      The other agents were trying to get a shot on Darren, but he was doing his best to keep the agent he was fighting between him and them.  He then grabbed the agent by the top and bottom of his shirt, and threw him at the others.  Darren used the momentary confusion to run up to the rest of them.      He bodychecked one of them into the wall before elbowing the next one in the back of neck, and moved from that motion right into a punch in the back of the head of the third one, and then kneed the fourth one in the side, saying, “Sorry,” after each hit.  While the last three were knocked to the ground by the blows, the one he had bodychecked came at him from behind, and tried to grab him.      Darren let him, but then pushed back causing them to both trip over one of the people on the floor.  Darren’s head hit the agent in the nose, and Darren was pretty sure that nose was now broken.  “Sorry,” he said as he jumped back to his feet.  The final one, the one he had kneed in the side, was getting back up at the same time, and Darren used his momentum from the jump to punch the guy in the forehead, knocking him back down.      “Sorry,” Darren said as he made sure each of the agents were knocked out before moving on.      “You could have just taken an energy pistol and shot them with it,” Diana said over the comm.      “I don’t like guns.”      “They have a stun setting, which does a hell of a lot less damage than you beating them into submission.”      “I don’t like guns.  And the worst I did was break a nose.  ESS medical tech can fix that no problem.  Medical tech they chose not to share with the general public, for that matter.  How much further to the others?”      “Take the next left, and you’ll see them.”      Darren took the left, and saw Diego and Jacques being beaten pretty soundly by Amazing Archer, while Carlie and Dark Hawk were off to the side talking.  Darren ran up to Amazing Archer, who did turn around and catch Darren’s right-handed punch, before Darren kneed him in the stomach.  Amazing Archer barely flinched, but Darren did not let up, and punched him in the head with his left hand.      That staggered Amazing Archer for a few moments, enough for Darren to get him into a chokehold.  That caused Dark Hawk to run over, but Jacques and Diego started fighting him, while Darren choked Amazing Archer until he seemed to lose consciousness.  He then continued for a bit longer, just to be on the safe side, before dropping him to the ground.      In the meantime, Diego and Jacques had managed to restrain Dark Hawk long enough to tie him up.  “So, should we check who they are under those masks?” Jacques asked.      “It’s not really our business,” Darren said.      “I already figured out who Dark Hawk is,” Carlie said as she tossed his wallet on him.      “Doesn’t really matter though,” Diego said.  “I’d rather not become an arch-nemesis to a superhero.”      “Y’all might want to get out of there,” Diana said over the comm.  “There’s more agents on their way.”      Marcel was pacing back and forth as Roz continued to work on the lock.  He was trying not to keep asking her how much longer it would be, when he heard something in the hallway outside.  He went over to the door and listened.  Someone was just getting off the elevator, but it sounded liked it was just one person.      “Who’s down here with us?” he whispered into his comm.      “There shouldn’t be anyone else down there,” Diana said.  “Just give me a second.”      Marcel listened as whoever it was got closer and closer.      “Someone else is looping the camera feed,” Diana said.  “I mean, besides me.  It’ll take me a bit to get past it.”      Marcel sighed, before stepping out into the hallway.  Admiral Jon Teleros was there, and Marcel immediately recognized him.  He did not have a weapon drawn though.      “Admiral Teleros,” Marcel said.  “I wasn’t expecting to see you down here.”      “Yeah, I have a habit of showing up unexpectedly,” Jon said.  “And I suppose this explains the distraction the rest of your team is causing upstairs.”      “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Marcel said.  He put his hand close to the pocket he had hidden an energy pistol in.      “You can pull that out if you want,” Jon said.  “But I should warn you, that I am pretty quick on the draw.  I wouldn’t have come down here on my own if I couldn’t handle myself.”      “Look, I’m as confused by all of this as you are,” Marcel said.  “I was lead down here as part of my inspection by Agent Barnes, and then I don’t know, he said he was going to use the restroom or something, and he never came back.”      “He was found in a broom closet, and three other members of your team, your driver and your assistant, as well as one of your specialists, have all been seen assaulting agents.  Not to mention that we’ve discovered that the video cameras in several sections of the base are running on a loop.  I had our technicians put this section on an additional loop, as I assume your team was still getting the actual feed.”      “It’s possible my team was using this as a method of infiltrating the base.  My specialists were assigned to me by my government, I did not choose them personally.  And my driver was hired from a local company for this trip, recommended by your organization, I might add.”      “You’re a good liar, I’ll give you that,” Jon said.  “But I’ve been going over your credentials, and tracing back messages and while some are legitimate, others are not, so I did some digging, Marcel Dupont.  Your driver is your brother Jacques, and Diego Serrano is one of your specialists.  Our computers almost caught him when you came in, but you apparently have a really good hacker on your hands.”      “You sound pretty sure of yourself there.  So, do you think you know who everyone else is?”      “Not yet, but we’ll figure it out,” Jon said.  “If you willingly surrender yourself, and give the real identities of the rest of your team, things will go a lot better for you.”      “So, what’s next?” Darren asked as they got into an elevator.      “How’s Roz doing?” Diego asked.      “She’s still working on the safe,” Diana said over the comm.      “How long is that going to take?” Jacques asked.  “We should’ve been on our way out by now.”      “She’ll get it,” Diego said.      “I’ve got some bad news though,” Diana said.  “Marcel’s comm just shut off, but before that happened he was talking with Admiral Jon Teleros, who knows who he is, and who Jacques and Diego are.”      “That’s bad, that’s very bad,” Jacques said.      “What about the rest of the crew?” Diego asked.      “From what I heard just you three have been identified, but Teleros is trying to get Marcel to turn on the rest of us.”      “That’s bad, that’s very bad,” Diego said.      “He won’t turn on us,” Jacques said.  “Family is important to him, and I’m his brother.”      “Teleros already knows about you though, so he wouldn’t be turning on you,” Diego said.  “And the rest of us aren’t his family.”      “You’re the only of us he doesn’t like though,” Jacques said.  “I don’t even think he’d give away your name, but since that’s not a concern, I think we’ll be okay.”      “Then why did he turn off his comm?” Darren asked.  “I don’t want to be insensitive to the idea of you guys getting arrested, but I have a family.  And then there’s Carlie.  She needs a home, not prison.”      “Definitely don’t need prison,” Carlie said.  “Not sure on the home thing though.  That didn’t exactly work out for me.”      “Even if he gives you up, which I don’t think he will, Diana should be able to get you a new identity,” Jacques said.      “I like my name,” Carlie said.  “Plus, he only knows my first name.”      “Although if you want I could get you set up with Carlie as your legal name when we’re done here,” Diana said.      “Yeah, that would be great,” Carlie said.      “If we get through this,” Darren said.  “And I don’t want to have to change my name either, and I have a life that I don’t want to leave behind.  And Marcel does know my full name.”      “Then we’ll just have to hope we get down there before he says anything,” Diego said.      “If he says anything,” Jacques said.      “Aha,” Roz said as the safe door unsealed, and she opened it up, revealing the device within.  She had no idea what the device was, but it matched the picture she had been shown, so she picked it up and stuffed it in her bag.  “Roz to everyone,” she said over the comm.  “I have it, let’s get out of here.”      “There’s a slight problem,” Diana said over the comm, and explained about Marcel and Jon.      “Shit,” Roz said, as she stood up and turned around, just as Marcel and Jon came into the vault.  Jon was now holding his energy pistol, and had it pointed at Roz.      “Hello Roz Montoya,” Jon said.      “You gave him my name?” Roz asked.      “I had little choice,” Marcel said.  “We’ve lost.”      “Put the bag down,” Jon said.      “Right,” Roz said as she slowly lowered it to the floor.  “Just out of curiosity, why are the lights so bright in here?”      “What?” Jon asked.      “Now?” Diana asked over the comm.      “Yes, please,” Roz said, and the lights went out, and Roz grabbed her bag again, while trying to silently move from where she was standing.  She was trying to circle around to the door without being noticed.  She just managed to go through the door as a flashlight was turned on, but it was still pointed inside the vault, and Roz went running down the hallway, in the opposite direction from the elevator.      The elevator that Jacques, Diego, Darren, and Carlie were on, lurched to a stop, as the lights went out.      “What happened?” Jacques asked as he turned on a flashlight.  “Did they locate us?”      “No, that was me,” Diana said over the comm.  “Had to take out the base power a bit sooner than we would’ve liked, or else Roz would’ve been captured.”      “Of course,” Jacques said.  “Well, then let’s get going.  Only ten minutes until it comes back on.”      Darren went over to the door and pried it open.  They were just passing a floor when it had stopped.  “It’ll be a tight fit, but we can get out,” Darren said.  “And looks like this corridor is empty.”      They all pulled themselves out, and started walking down the corridor.  “What floor are we on anyway?” Jacques asked.      “Let me just bring up the base plans,” Diana said.  “Okay, you are on the floor with…the experimental vehicle storage.”      “Experimental vehicles?” Jacques asked.  “Give me a rundown on whatever you can find out about what’s stored here.”      Roz turned a corner as she kept up her run.  “Where to?” she asked.      “There’s an emergency staircase not too far from you,” Diana said over the comm.  “Take the next right, and then a left after that.  But be careful, without power in the base I can’t be watching what’s happening through the security cameras.”      “Yeah, no worries, I can take care of myself.  Do the stairs lead all the way to the top?”      “No, they only go up a single floor, but that’s where the rest of our crew are at the moment.”      “And where do we go from there?”      “Still working on that, just try and get there in one piece.”      “Right,” Roz said before she heard something behind her.  She made the right turn, just before an energy blast went past, and hit where she had just been, a second earlier.      “You’re only making this harder on yourself,” Jon shouted.      “How much distance between the turn I just made, and the next one I have to make?” Roz asked.      “Five hundred feet,” Diana said.      “And then how long to the staircase after that?” Roz asked as she shut off her flashlight and counted in her head as she ran.      “There’ll be a door the staircase on your left after one hundred feet,” Diana said.      A light appeared behind Roz just before she made the left turn, and she increased her pace as she went down the this hall until she stopped and felt along the wall for the door.  She opened it and went through to the staircase.  For that she turned her flashlight back on, and started running up the stairs.      Jacques looked over the controls of the hovercar as he got in the driver’s seat, and they looked simple enough.  It was really more of a hoverbobsled though, as its shape was long and thin.  It seated five, and it was the only vehicle they could find that would fit through the doors in this place.      “How do they even get the other vehicles in and out?” Carlie asked as she got in the second seat.      “Teleporters,” Diego said as he got into the third seat.  “Unfortunately those aren’t an option for us.”      “This seems like a bad idea,” Darren said as he got into the fourth seat.  “Even if this thing fits through the doors, it’s still going to be a tight fit.”      “I can manage it,” Jacques said as he started it up and it lifted a foot off the ground.  He turned a dial, and it raised another half foot.  He put his hand on a lever and twisted it, and the hovercar started moving forward.  He pulled it back a bit to increase speed.      “How’re you figuring this out so quickly?” Carlie asked.  “There’s no labels on anything.”      “It’s what he does,” Diego said.      Marcel faked himself tripping as he ran alongside Jon.  Jon glanced at him, but continued running, leaving him behind.  Marcel turned his comm back on as he got up.      “I’ve got myself away from Admiral Teleros,” he said into the comm.      “Yeah, after giving up the rest of the team,” Diana said.  “What the hell were you thinking?”      “I only gave up Roz’s identity, and she’s going to need a new one either way because of the whole FBI thing.  It was something I could give him to earn some trust, but it doesn’t change anything.”      “And if she hadn’t got away from him in the vault?  You could have at least lead him away from that.”      “How?  If I had run, he’d have just shot me, and would have checked the vault anyway.  I did what I had to do.”      “Right.”      Roz exited the stairwell, and found herself in a hallway that was being lit by an approaching vehicle, which stopped right before her.      “Get in,” Jacques said.      “Right,” Roz said as she got into the backseat, and Jacques drove off.      “Guys,” Diana said over the comm.  “Marcel turned his comm back on, and he’s telling me that he just gave up Roz’s identity, since it won’t matter anyway, and that he didn’t give up any of the rest of us.”      “Screw that,” Roz said.  “Like I believe him now.”      “I believe him,” Jacques said, as he came to a stop.      “What are you doing?” Diego asked.      “We need to go back for him,” Jacques said.      “No, we need to get out of here,” Diego said.  “And even if we wanted to save him, this thing is full.”      “He’s my brother, I’m not leaving him behind,” Jacques said.      “Fine,” Diego said as he got out of the hovercar.  “I’ll go get him, you get the rest of the team out of here.”      “What?” Jacques asked.      “None of the rest of us are going to be able to drive this contraption out of here,” Diego said.  “So get the rest of the team out, and I’ll get Marcel, and we’ll figure something out.”      “But…” Jacques started saying.      “Get Carlie and Roz and Darren out of here,” Diego said.      “Right,” Jacques said.      Marcel was going down the hallway.  “Is there just the one staircase from this level?” he asked over the comm.      “Yeah, sorry,” Diana said.      Marcel opened the door and listened.  He did not hear anyone in the stairwell, and started going up the stairs, when the lights turned back on.  The staircase only connected the two levels, so he as he approached the top, he stopped and listened again.  He still did not hear anyone, so he went up and out the door.  But that is when he heard someone, and saw that someone, Jon, come running down the hallway.      “Finally caught up?” Jon asked.  “Your team has escaped, so I’m going to need the names of the rest of them now.  If we can get them before they leave the city, that’ll take years off your sentence.”      “Yeah, about that,” Marcel said.  “You already know all of the names that I know.  I don’t know the names of the bruiser or the kid.”      “And the computer hacker?”      “Sorry.”      “That’s too bad, but…” Jon started saying, before he suddenly turned around, and brought up his energy pistol, right before it was knocked out of his hand by the crack of a whip.      “Sorry, I’m late,” Diego said.      Marcel picked up the fallen energy pistol and pointed it at Jon as he went next to Diego.      “Ah, the famous Diego Serrano,” Jon said.  “Although maybe a bit too famous now?”      “Naw, I’m fine with my level of fame,” Diego said.      “Even if you escape, we’ll be able to track you down,” Jon said.      “You’re hardly the first to claim that,” Diego said.      “We’re the ESS,” Jon said.  “There’s nowhere you can run to that we won’t find you.”      Darren covered his eyes as the hovercar went down the hallway at ludicrous speeds, but then peeked out through his fingers to watch as Jacques seemed able to turn on a dime every time they came to an intersection in the hallway.      Up ahead now, there was a door that was closed, and Jacques started slowing down, but then it was opened as a bunch of security came through.  “Everyone down,” Jacques said as he started speeding up again, and the agents started shooting at them.      The hovercar raised up, and went just above the agents, and through the doorway, with less than an inch of clearance, into a stairwell, where it went up the stairs, in a spiral, at a speed that left Darren wondering how they had not yet crashed and died.      Eventually they made it to the top, after having passed multiple floors, and Jacques slowed to a stop, so he could get out and open the door.  He then went back to driving the hovercar, and brought it out onto the roof of the parking garage the ESS used as a cover for their base.  He drove off the roof, and a few blocks away, before letting everyone out.      “Now what?” Carlie asked.      “Now the three of you go meet up with Diana, while I go back inside for Diego and Marcel,” Jacques said.      “By yourself?” Darren asked.  “Look, I don’t exactly want to have another go in that hovercar, but I think you need me.”      “Maybe,” Jacques said, but then he took off, before Darren could climb back into the hovercar.      “Well, let’s get back to the hotel room then,” Roz said.      “We can’t just abandon them,” Darren said.      “We have the item we were supposed to steal,” Roz said, holding up her bag.  “And whatever I may think of Jacques, him and Diego are some of the best.  If he doesn’t think he needs us for this, I’m inclined to trust him.”      “Fine, we’ll go back to the hotel, and decide our next move from there,” Darren said.      Diego and Marcel ran down the corridor, in the same direction that the rest of the crew had gone.  As the they were approaching the staircase, twelve ESS guards came out, their weapons at the ready.  Marcel pointed his stolen energy pistol at them, and Diego had his whip at the ready, but they knew they were outnumbered.      “Put down the weapons,” the lead guard said.      “Dude has a whip, that’s not much of a weapon,” another one of the guards said with a snicker.      Diego briefly considered it, before slowly putting his whip down, as Marcel put down the energy pistol.      “Cuff them,” the lead guard said, and two of the others went forward to do exactly that, when a sound came from the staircase, and suddenly the hovercar came out, and went over the guards, and landed between them, and Diego and Marcel, on its side.  The bottom was facing the guards.      “Get in,” Jacques said, and both Marcel and Diego climbed in, while Diego grabbed his whip.      Jacques brought the hovercar back into the air, and as they were going back past the guards, Diego flicked his whip outside the hovercar, and knocked the energy pistol out of the hand of the guard that had laughed at it earlier.  The hovercar once again shot up the stairs at a ridiculous speed, but then it started slowing down.      “What are you doing?” Diego asked.      “It’s not me,” Jacques said.  “It’s running out of power.  We’re going to make it to the roof, but that’s about it.”      And sure enough, the hovercar stopped just after exiting out onto the roof.  The three of them got out and went over to the edge of the roof.  It was five stories tall.      “Okay, they’ll have the exits guarded, so we’re going to need to climb down.”  Diego said.  “We should be abled to drop down from level to level without much difficulty.”      “Maybe you can, but I’m not, no, I can’t,” Marcel said.      “Me neither,” Jacques said.  “If I try, we’re going to have another situation like in Boston, at best.”      “The hovercar you were using should have a couple jetpacks in it,” Diana said over the comm.      Jacques checked in the storage area.  “There’s one.”  He handed it to Marcel.      “I’m not leaving you behind,” Marcel said.      “Don’t worry, I’ve got an idea,” Jacques said.  “Just go, and then Diego and I will be right behind you.”      “You’re sure?” Marcel asked.      “I’m sure,” Jacques said.      Marcel strapped on the jetpack, turned it on, and tested it.  It worked perfectly, and he flew off.      “You don’t have an idea, do you?” Diego asked after Marcel was out of hearing range.      “Not really,” Jacques said.      “I could try and help you down my way.”      “Even then, I don’t know.  You should just get out of here.”      “You know I’m not going to leave you behind.”      “Yeah,” Jacques said.      At that moment two dozen ESS guards came out onto the roof.  They did not even say anything, just shot Diego and Jacques with their energy pistols, knocking them both out.      “We have to go back for them,” Darren said.  He was back in the hotel room, with Carlie, Roz, Diana, and Marcel.      “How?” Marcel asked.  “They know all our faces, except for Diana.”      “And I’m not really wanting to go in there,” Diana said.  “I’m strictly a voice over the comm for these kind of jobs.”      “They also know who both Marcel and I am, thanks to him,” Roz said.  “So that introduces even more problems.”      “I had to give them something,” Marcel said.      “So you say,” Roz said.      “And you’re going to need to change identities anyway,” Marcel said.  “That’s why I gave them your name, and not Darren or Carlie’s.”      There was a knock at the door, and everyone looked at each other, before Diana checked the security camera feed in the hotel hallway.  “It’s an older woman,” she said.      “Possibly our employer?” Marcel said.      “But how did she find us?” Roz asked.      Marcel walked over to the door, and opened it.  “Hello?”      “Can I come in?” she asked.  “I believe you have the object you were hired to procure.”      “Diego and Jacques aren’t here, so how do we know that you are our employer?” Marcel asked.      “How else would I know where to find you?” the woman asked as she pushed her way in.  “Now let’s see the object.”      Roz took it out of her bag.      “Excellent,” the woman said as she took out her phone.  “I’ll transfer the money to your accounts right away.”      “And what about Diego and Jacques?” Darren asked.      “They’re getting paid as well,” the woman said.      “Yeah, but they are in ESS custody at the moment,” Marcel said.      “Oh, don’t worry about that,” the woman said.  “I’m sure they’ll be fine.”      Jacques and Diego were in an ESS holding cell.  Diego was pacing, while Jacques was leaning against the wall.  It was a standard ESS holding cell, with walls on three sides, and a forcefield on the fourth.  There were beds and chairs inside, as well as an attached bathroom.  There was even a touchscreen computer built into the wall, but it was not on a network.      “This is my fault,” Diego said.  “You didn’t even want to take the job.”      “It’s fine, we’ve been arrested before, and at least the rest of the team got out.  And thanks to this, Darren will be able to keep his business, Carlie won’t be living on the street anymore, and Roz can start over.”      “Marcel’s going to have to start over too though, and he didn’t need or want to before this.  I may not like the guy, but even still.”      “Yeah, I know what you mean.  Whatever problems I have with Roz, I’m still glad she’ll be able to start fresh.”      “You never really told me what happened between you two.”      “You remember how she used to be dating Sam?”      “Yeah?”      “Do you know who Sam was dating before that?”      “Wait, you and Sam?” Diego asked.  “Really?”      “It was before we met.”      “I mean, obviously.  Pretty sure I know everyone that you’ve dated since we met.  But anyway, what’s our next move here?”      At that moment, someone walked in front of their cell.  It was the woman that had hired them.  “Good day gentlemen,” she said.      “How did you get in here?” Diego asked.      “I work here,” she said.  “Quite impressive work you did, even if the two of you did get caught.”      “Wait, what the hell is going on here?” Jacques asked.      “We needed to test for vulnerabilities in our security,” she said.  “After finding out that you two broke into a former apartment of Jack Masterson last year, we thought you’d be the perfect candidates, and were we ever right.”      “Wait, this whole thing was a setup?” Diego asked.  “Then our crew?”      “They were still paid, and are being let to go their own way,” she said.      “And the two of us?” Jacques asked.      “You’re being transferred to my custody,” she said.  “You see, I’m putting together a team of my own.”

Tales of WID 72 #6 The Jaguar Strikes

     The Jaguar threw a knockout dart at one of the guards, while rushing at another, and getting him into a chokehold.  The dart hit, but it was going to take a bit before it actually took effect, and in the meantime, he drew his gun.  The Jaguar kept the guard she was holding in between her and the other one, and luckily he seemed to not want to risk shooting his partner.      “Put him down,” the guard said.      “How about you go down first?” the Jaguar asked as the guard collapsed, the poison taking effect.  She continued choking the guard she was holding until he passed out, and then dropped him to the ground too.      She went over to the door they were guarding, and opened up the keypad.  She plugged a USB device in, and waited for half a minute, while it hacked the system and unlocked the door, which she went in.      Why do bad guy bases always have so many hallways, the Jaguar wondered as she wandered down yet another one in this building.  Like, based on the size it did not need so much space taken up by hallways.      She was checking doors as she went along, but so far most were offices or labs.  Some of the labs had scientists in them, but she was only ever cracking the doors open, and they never noticed her.  It was late enough that the offices were empty though.      There were guards patrolling, but it was easy enough to avoid them, so clearly no one had noticed that the guards she had taken out were missing yet.  That would only be a matter of time though, so she was trying to be quick.      There was one more door before she turned a corner.  She opened it, and found yet another office.  This one was not empty though, there was a woman sitting at the desk, working on a computer.  She looked up at the intrusion.      “What the hell?” the woman asked as the Jaguar jumped across the desk, and grabbed her by the neck, and pushed her back against the wall.      “Tell you what,” the Jaguar said.  “How about I ask the questions.”  She held the woman up against he wall with her right hand, and on her left hand, she activated the claws on her glove.      “Sure, sure, whatever you want,” the woman said.      “What’s your name?”      “Monica.”      “Okay, Monica, first question.  What are you doing here.”      “Umm, I’m an accountant, I’m just…”      “No, not you individually, what is the Scorpio Syndicate doing here?”      “I, umm, I don’t know.”      “What do you know?”  The Jaguar moved her left hand closer to Monica’s face.      “I, umm, I know they are running some kind of science experiments.”      Under her mask, the Jaguar rolled her eyes.  “The Scorpio Syndicate running science experiments.  Really?  You’ve gotta give me something more than that.”      “I know it has something to do with animals.  They have a bunch in cages downstairs.”      “Have you been downstairs?”      “No, but I’ve seen the invoices for the cages, and I’ve seen animals being brought down there.”      “How many?”      “That I’ve seen?” Monica asked.  “Maybe hundreds.”      “What kind of animals?”      “Mostly stuff from the Amazon, but a few other random things too.”      “Any Human prisoners?”      “Not that I know of.”      “Hmm, okay, thanks,” the Jaguar said.  “I’m going to have to knock you out now.”      It took her a while, but eventually the Jaguar found stairs down to the basement.  She made her way down there, and came out in a massive cavern, filled with cages.  Monica’s estimate was a bit low.  There looked to be over a thousand animals down here.  No Human prisoners that she could see though.      There were some guards patrolling down here though, but only a few, and it was easy enough to avoid them.  They were probably mostly just in case any animals got loose, and were not expecting someone to have snuck down here.      There were also a few scientists down here, still at work despite the late hours.  One of them was having some guards put an unconscious jaguar onto a pushcart, that was then being pushed towards an elevator.      The Jaguar followed after this scientist and jaguar, curious about what the scientist was up to.  After the elevator doors shut and it started moving, she pried the doors opened, and looked in.  The elevator was going up, so she started climbing after it.      The Jaguar waited a bit before exiting the elevator shaft, and came out just as the scientist was wheeling the jaguar into a lab.  Unfortunately there were two guards outside the door, who saw her coming out.  They both aimed their guns at her.      The Jaguar threw daggers at each of them, from inside her sleeves.  She hit one in the hand, throwing off his aim as he started shooting at her, while the other managed to move out of the way.   She had meanwhile started running at the one that had avoided the dagger, and got up to him before he started shooting.      She grabbed his gun by the side, and pushed it in the direction of the other guard, who was not firing at the moment, probably worried about hitting his fellow guard.  With her free hand she clawed the guy in the arm, causing his grip on the gun to loosen enough to pull it away from him.  She then elbowed him in the chest, before pointing the gun at the other guard.      “Drop your gun,” the Jaguar said.  “Or I’ll drop you.”      “You shoot me, and I’ll shoot you, and we’re both going down.”      “I’m covered head to toe in a costume that’s mostly bulletproof.  You have a bulletproof vest on, leaving plenty that’s not protected.  Who do you think’s going to survive longer if we both start firing?”      The guard seemed to consider it for a moment, before putting his gun down.      “Good call,” the Jaguar said.  “Now both of you sit back to back.”  The guards complied, and she took out a piece of rope and tied them together.      That done, she went over to the lab door and opened it just a crack.  Looking in she saw the scientist having some guards help move the jaguar into some strange device.  There were these two large capsules connected by some sort of piping.  The jaguar was being put in one, while there was a man in the other, the person that the Jaguar was here to find, Chuck Johnson.      Chuck was awake, put very restrained.  He was in what looked similar to a straitjacket, but a full body one, almost like he was a mummy.  Only his head and hands were visible.  There were a dozen guards in the room, but with the exception of the three assisting the scientist, every one of them had their full attention on Chuck.      The Jaguar took a small device out of her pocket, and turned it on.  She set the timer for half a minute, then put it on the floor while she readied herself for what was about to happen.      Chuck had noticed that the door was cracked open, but no one else in the room had seemed to.  He had caught a glimpse of someone looking in, and he was pretty sure it was that costumed vigilante that was active around this area.  The Jaguar was what she was called.      He smirked at that, considering an actual jaguar had been brought into this room just before she had arrived.  He was curious at the timing, her being here at the same time as he was.  He was also curious as to what this machine he was in was supposed to do.  He knew the Scorpio Syndicate was doing some sort of strange experiments here, but he did not know what the purpose of them was.  His orders had simply been to get in, and shut them down.      He had a razor blade held between two of his toes, and was slowly working on cutting his foot free.  Chuck was not sure what the Jaguar had planned, but presumably she had one, so he wanted to be ready for it.      As soon as the Jaguar’s EMP device activated, the lights all went out, and she jumped into the room, going for the closest of the guards.  She had night-vision goggles in her mask, so she could see them easily, as they fumbled around trying to figure out what happened.      She struck quickly and quietly, as she went around attacking the guards.  She had taken down five of them, before emergency power kicked in, and the lights came back on.  She grabbed one, and had her claws to his throat and her back to the wall, as the other six pointed their guns at her.      The Jaguar was unsure if they might decide to risk hitting the guard she was holding to get at her, when Chuck broke out of his restraints, and came at them from behind.  Between him and her, they made short work of the guards.  The scientist had already fled.      “Thanks for the assist,” Chuck said.  “What are you doing here though?”      “Looking for you,” the Jaguar said.      “Oh?”      The Jaguar took a photo out of her pocket and showed it to Chuck.  It showed him with another person.  “That person you’re with.  I need to know who he is.”      “What for?” Chuck asked.      “Look, I know who you are.  I’ve heard all about you and the things you do, and I think you seem like you’re a good person.”      “Okay?”      “That guy with you in the picture, he killed my uncle.”      “Ah,” Chuck said.  “So then, I’m going to guess you are Adriana Rocha?”      “Maybe…”      “The person who killed your uncle works for the CIA.”      “Yeah, that doesn’t exactly surprise me.”      “Do you know what your uncle did for a living?”      “I’m not naive, I know he was a criminal, and I was working to bring him down, but not by killing him.”      “But you have killed before.”      “Only when I have to,” the Jaguar said.  “I don’t assassinate people.”      “I’m not going to try to justify what he did, but I’m also not going to tell you how to find him.”      “I just saved you.  You owe me.”      “Then let me give you some advice.  Revenge is a bad idea.  I have seen good people go bad in its pursuit.  And it doesn’t solve things.”      “I don’t want revenge, I want justice.”      “So what?” Chuck asked.  “You’re going to arrest a CIA operative and hand him over to the police?  Even if they believe you and don’t just immediately let him go, he’s too valuable of an operative for the CIA to let rot in a Brazilian jail.  They’ll have him out within a couple hours.  Especially since he was only following orders.”      “Isn’t that always the way it works.  The people in power can do whatever they want, and there are no consequences.”      “We all pay for our sins eventually,” Chuck said.  “And trust me when I say that he has paid for plenty.”      “No offense, but I don’t exactly trust you.”      “I understand.  We should probably make our way out of here though.  The charges I set around the base are set to go off in a few minutes.”      “Charges?”      “To cripple their operation here.  That’s my mission.”      “Right, okay, but this isn’t over.”      “Nothing ever is.”

Simple Complications #799

     “So where is everyone?” Rachel asked as she met Lyle.  “I thought we were doing auditions today?”      “That was the plan,” Lyle said.  “But I may have made a slight mistake.”      “What kind of mistake?”      “I accidentally put down the date for next Sunday, instead of today,” Lyle said.  “But wait, that only accounts for why no one showed up from my posts online.  What about your posts?”      Rachel took out her phone, and looked through it.  “Oops,” she said.  “I completely forgot to actually give a date.”      “Maybe we should just move the auditions to next Sunday.”      “Sure thing,” Rachel said.  “It’s a bit too late to try getting people coming out today anyway.  And I’ll put in the date now.”

Simple Complications #966

     Drake went over to the weapons console as they were about to drop out of superspace.      “We are dropping out now,” Gina said.      The viewscreen changed from the emptiness of superspace to the star filled appearance of normal space.  And ahead of them was a fleet of Caldore starships guarding the wormhole that led to their galaxy.      “Any sign that they’ve noticed us?” Kira asked as she leaned forward in her chair.      “They aren’t making any moves towards us,” Drake said.      “Lyle?” Kira asked.      “Our science sensors can only penetrate their shielding so much, but I’m not noticing anything out of the ordinary,” Lyle said.      “Bring us to the wormhole,” Kira said.  “Slowly though.”      “Understood,” Gina said.  “Bringing us in, slowly.”      They moved through the fleet towards the wormhole, Gina making sure they did not pass too closely to any of the Caldore ships.      “Still no sign that they’ve noticed us,” Drake said.      “Several of the ships have opened comm channels with each other though,” Elizabeth said.      “What are they saying?” Kira asked.      “Not sure,” Elizabeth said.  “There is a lot of talking going on, so the translator program is having some issues with keeping up.”      “Route it over to my computer,” Murshidah said.      “Right,” Elizabeth said.      Murshidah put an earbud into one of her ears and started listening.  “Hmm, it’s going to take me a while to get through all of this, there is a lot of conversations going on, but I don’t think any of them are talking about us.”      “Keep me updated if that changes,” Kira said.

Simple Complications #904

     Drake Bartel pressed the jump button on his controller to try and avoid the attack, but Henry Andrews clearly expected that, as he threw an explosive upward as his character ran below Drake’s.      “You’re out of practice,” Henry said.      “I mean, video games haven’t exactly been the top of my priority list lately,” Drake said.      “What have you been up the these last few months anyway?  Like you were working on tracking down Abigail for such a long time, then we finally find her, and apparently she’s part of some time travel organization.  But then after that situation on the rogue planet, it’s like you just vanished for a few months.”      “I just had to spend some time finding myself.  Figure out who I want to be.”      “Oh?”      “I mean, you remember back when we first starting university, and I had this perfect plan for my life.  Become a journalist, start a family, all that.”      “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I definitely remember that.  You were a bit obsessed with following said perfect plan.”      “Yeah, but clearly the universe had a different plan for me.  I mean, first I thought Kira was the perfect girl for me, and that ended just as some secret government organization tried to kill us.  That was definitely unexpected.”      “Whatever happened to that group anyway?” Henry asked.      “I think they fell apart around the time of the Caldore invasion.”      “So, what have you figured out about what who you want to be?”      “Well, for one thing, I do still want to become a journalist.”      “Are you planning on returning to school then?”      “I don’t know yet,” Drake said.  “I mean, I already have a decent grasp on how to do it, and it shouldn’t be too hard for me to get a job, what with my slight celebrity status.”      “Yeah, fighting an alien invasion definitely looks good on a resume for almost any job.”

Simple Complications #847

     “Hey Ted, what’re you up to?” Rachel asked as she sat down across from him in the library.      Ted looked up from his laptop and took off his headphones.  “I’m listening to bands, looking for one for the wedding reception, since your band doesn’t seem like it’ll be ready.”      “Ah yeah, makes sense, but I mean, what’re you up to with acting weird around Krissy?”      “What do you mean?”      “She said you were getting all nervous and whatever earlier.  I assumed it was just because of planning a wedding in such a short timespan, but when I mentioned it to Ricardo, he got unusually quiet, like he knew something, but wasn’t supposed to say anything.”      “I suppose Ricardo being quiet is a bit unusual.  I can see why you’d assume the worst.”      “Whoa now, no using humor to deflect.”      “There’s nothing to deflect from.”      “Uh huh.  Feel free to keep denying it.  I have all day.”      “What about school and work?”      “I just invented a device that I can’t tell you about because the science behind it is classified.  I think I can afford to miss a day of school and work.”

Tales of WID 72 #17 What’s in a Name?

     Green Man looked around the mess hall and saw a table with a few of his fellow fighter pilots: Cheddar Cheese, Pandaherbs, and Dino Chick.  After grabbing his food he went and sat down with them.  Cheddar Cheese and Pandaherbs were playing a game of Scrabble, and looked up as he sat down, while Dino Chick was reading her computer pad, and did not look away from it.      “How goes the game?” Green Man asked.      “We’ve just started, so it’s too early to tell,” Pandaherbs said.      “But this is going to help me out,” Cheddar Cheese said as he placed the word ‘cheddar’ on the board.  “Double word score, and a double letter score on the H.”      “Playing your own callsign, or at least a part of it,” Green Man said.  “Nice play.”      “Does that mean I have to play ‘panda’?” Pandaherbs asked as she looked at her tiles.  “Because I don’t think that’s happening anytime soon.”      “How’d you get that callsign anyway?” Green Man asked.  “There’s gotta be a story behind Pandaherbs.”      “It’s not that interesting,” Pandaherbs said.      “Come on,” Cheddar Cheese said.  “There’s got to be something.”      “Well, how’d you get your’s?” Pandaherbs asked.      “Well, you remember how I was one of the test pilots for the Falcon-class space fighters?” Cheddar Cheese asked.      Green Man rolled is his eyes.  “No, you’ve never bragged about that dozens of times.”      “I mean, it was an honor to be picked for that, but…do either of you have any experience with them?” Cheddar Cheese asked.      “I got my start on the Eagle-class before switching to the Hawk-class,” Pandaherbs.  “I kind of miss the extra firepower, and I can’t imagine how bad the Falcon-class would be.”      “I’ve been on the Hawk-class my whole career,” Green Man said.      “Okay, well, the prototype versions of the Falcon-class had a problem with the environmental systems,” Cheddar Cheese said.  “Nothing disastrous, but after my first test flight, the cockpit smelled like cheese, really strongly so, and the flight crew started joking about that, and the name kind of stuck.”      “That’s hilarious,” Green Man said.  “Come on Pandaherbs, your story can’t be that bad.” “What about your story?” Pandaherbs asked.      “I mean, my story is about as boring as Dino Chick’s,” Green Man said.      “Hmm?” Dino Chick asked as she looked up from her computer pad.  “Did I hear my name?”      “Whatcha reading about?” Green Man asked.      “A new study suggesting that dinosaurs may have been a bit fuzzier than previously thought,” Dino Chick said.      “Cool, cool,” Green Man said as Dino Chick went back to her reading.      “Yeah, we all know she got her name from her love of dinosaurs,” Cheddar Cheese said.  “So what?  You love the color green?”      “I’m all about environmentally friendly solutions to problems,” Green Man said.  “Come on, you guys know that right?”      “Honestly no, I don’t think I did,” Cheddar Cheese said.      “Me neither,” Pandaherbs said.  “I don’t think it’s come up.”      “Huh, I’ll have to be more vocal, I guess,” Green Man said.  “But now we all know the reasons for each others’ names, except for your’s.”      “Okay, it goes back to when I first joined the ESS,” Pandaherbs said.  “Long before I even thought about becoming a pilot, but the nickname kind of stuck.  See, there was this thief we were after, and he used marijuana for medical purposes.  So I was posing as a dealer to try and find him, and I’m waiting at the meeting point, only he doesn’t show.”      “Okay, then what happened?” Cheddar Cheese asked.      “Okay, and I’m not bullshitting you on this, I waited an extra twenty minutes, when I heard someone coming up behind me, so I turned around, and there’s a panda there.”      “No, come on, that’s not true,” Green Man said.      “I swear it’s the truth,” Pandaherbs said.  “The agent training me kept making jokes about me trying to sell drugs to that panda for years afterward, and eventually it became a nickname.”      “Where did the panda even come from?” Cheddar Cheese asked.  “Was this in China?”      “No, apparently the panda had escaped from a zoo,” Pandaherbs said.  “It showing up was just a coincidence.”      “Come on, I don’t believe that,” Green Man said.      “Believe what you want,” Pandaherbs said.  “But that’s what happened.”

Tales of WID 72 #15 A Strike Against

     Alec Riker and Chuck Johnson walked away from the building as it exploded behind them.  Alec flinched a bit, but Chuck was stoic.  They got to the tree line and entered the forest, just as helicopters came overhead, and shone searchlights down to try and find them.      “It’s only a matter of time until they send teams out to search these woods by foot,” Alec said.  “We need to be long gone by the time that happens.”      “Or we hide and wait it out,” Chuck said.  “I have a hiding place where they’ll never find us.”      “No, the last time you said that, we ended up being stuck in a tiny cave for a week, with a single bottle of water to share.  We are not doing that again.”      “Fine, just follow me, and we’ll get out of here in one piece.”           She saw the explosion in the distance, and although she did not know for certain, she assumed it was related to her quarry.  She ran in that direction.  She could hear helicopters overhead, but those would be useless with how thick the canopy of the forest was.      Her search might not go much better, she thought.  Even on the ground there was only so far you could see through the trees, and it was a big forest.  She had memorized a map of the area in a guard outpost she had snuck into upon arriving here, and she went over it in her head.  If she was trying to get away, undetected, where would she go?           “On second thought, maybe the cave idea isn’t so bad,” Alec said as he looked over the side of the cliff to the river below.      “It’s not too far down,” Chuck said.  “Remember when we jumped into that lake at summer camp that one year back when we were teenagers.”      “You jumped into the lake, I was busy flirting with the girls.”      “Either way, it’s doable, and we don’t have much choice.  Listen, there are dogs coming, they’ll find us within minutes.”      “Fine,” Alec said.  He looked down again.  He backed up a bit, then ran forward and jumped off the side of the cliff.  He dove into the water, and was very thankful that it was deep enough that he did not hit the bottom.      He swam up to the surface, and looked around.  Despite jumping in after him, Chuck was already climbing out at the edge of the river.  Alec swam over and climbed out after him.  “Now what?”      “I have a Jeep about five minutes that way,” Chuck said pointing, as he looked Alec over.  “Maybe ten minutes.  Assuming it hasn’t been found.”      “Right, let’s get going.”           She waited in the trees near the cliff for the soldiers and their dogs to pass by.  As soon as they did, she went over to the cliff, and looked over the side of it.  There was no immediate sign of them at the bottom, but it is where she would have gone if she were them, so she dove off the side, and landed in the river.      She climbed out onto the riverbank, and looked around.  There were some tracks in the mud, although she could only recognize a single set, even though she knew there were two of them.  She was pretty sure the tracks she could see belonged to her quarry, and it did not surprise her that Johnson knew how to avoid leaving tracks.      She climbed up into the trees, and went in the direction that the tracks led, doing her best to stay out of sight of anyone on the ground, and being as silent as she could.           Alec followed Chuck through the forest, as the brush got thicker and thicker, and he was getting a few cuts from branches.  Then they came out into a clearing, where a there was a Jeep.  Alec got into the driver’s seat, while Chuck got into the back, and checked the mounted gun he had there.      “I don’t know how you drove in here without being discovered,” Alec said.  “The outer perimeter is the reason I used that experimental flightsuit.”      “I’m sure Isaacs will be glad to hear that it worked,” Chuck said.      “It was actually Declan that designed this one.  Funny story in fact…”      “Shh,” Chuck cut him off.  “There’s someone approaching.”      “Where from?”  Alec just started looking around, when he felt himself being tackled right out of the Jeep, and to the ground.  He looked up to see a costumed individual holding him down.  Her costume was yellow, with black spots, like a jaguar, and he recognized her as the superhero named after said animal.  “Oh, hello.”      “This is not the time for your vendetta,” Chuck said.      “You stay out of this,” the Jaguar said, glaring at him.      “What vendetta?” Alec asked.      “He didn’t tell you?” the Jaguar asked.  “You killed my uncle, and I’ve been tracking Chuck for months, so that he would lead me to you.”      “I’ve killed a lot of people, you’re going to have to be a bit more specific than that,” Alec said.  “And how the hell did you track Chuck Johnson for months, without him noticing.”      “By not tracking him specifically, just following the trail of destruction,” the Jaguar said.  “Let’s be honest, there’s a reason he’s so effective, and that’s by being extremely unsubtle.”      “She’s got you there, Chuck,” Alec said with a chuckle.      “So, what are you planning on doing now that you’ve found him?” Chuck asked.  “We had this conversation last time.  Arresting him will do nothing.”      “And in case you hadn’t noticed, we are in the heart of territory controlled by the Scorpio Syndicate at the moment,” Alec said.  “So maybe not the best time to be trying to arrest me anyway.”      The Jaguar got off Alec, and he stood up.  “Fine,” she said.  “We’ll get out of this area first.”      “Excellent,” Alec said as he went back into the driver’s seat of the Jeep, and the Jaguar sat down next to him.  “So you didn’t mention who your uncle is.”  He started driving through the forest.      “Geraldo Rocha,” the Jaguar said.      “Ah yeah, I remember him.  He was running a drug operation, and I was sent in to shut it down,” Alec said.      “Because the CIA is never okay with drug operations, right?” the Jaguar asked.  “Or I guess just not ones they don’t have a hand in.”      “It’s a messed up world,” Alec said.  “There’s no disagreeing with that.”      “Messed up enough that shutting something down is synonymous with assassinating people?” the Jaguar asked.      “Sometimes, yes,” Alec said.  “Look, I sympathize that he was your uncle, but I mean, everyone has relatives, and that doesn’t absolve them of crimes.”      “Not everyone has relatives,” Chuck said.      Alec rolled his eyes.  “Most people have relatives.”      “What would you do if someone killed one of your relatives?” the Jaguar asked.      “Depends on which relative,” Alec said.  “Like, I don’t really know any of my uncles or aunts well enough to particularly care.  But if someone killed my mom, I’d hunt them down and make them pay.”      “My Uncle Geraldo may not have been a good man, but he helped to raise me,” the Jaguar said.  “He was more of a father to me than my actual father.  So what if someone killed your father?”      Alec grimaced as he glanced at the Jaguar, before looking back to where he was driving.  “Someone did kill my father, and I bear him no ill will.”      “You sure about that?” Chuck asked.      “I bear him no ill will for that,” Alec said.  “My father got what was coming to him.”      “Clearly, I’ve touched a nerve,” the Jaguar said.      “Not really,” Alec said, his grimace turning to a smirk.  “But if you want to believe that, you go right ahead.  You are here to hurt me.”      “I’m here to get…I don’t know…answers or some kind of closure or something,” the Jaguar said.      “I mean, the answers are pretty simple,” Alec said.  “I was sent in with a job, I completed that job, which included killing your uncle.  As for closure, that’s up to you to figure out on your own.  Real life doesn’t have nice, tidy endings.”      “You’ll have to continue this conversation later,” Chuck said.  “There’s a blockade up ahead by the gate.”      “You sure?” Alec asked.  “I’m not seeing anything through these trees.”      “You’ll see them soon enough,” Chuck said.  “But yeah, I definitely hear them.”      Alec kept driving through the woods, going as fast as he could without hitting any trees, until he could see the edge of the tree line, and beyond that he did see at first a few glimpses of metal, and then could tell that there were multiple vehicles there.  Mostly they were SUVs, but there were also three tanks.  Soldiers were getting out of the SUVs as they approached.      “I’m thinking we do like we did in Russia, two years ago,” Chuck said.      “That was a terrible plan then, and it’s a terrible plan now,” Alec said.      “It worked though,” Chuck said.      Alec turned to the Jaguar.  “Just follow our lead.”  Alec spun the Jeep to a stop, so the back was facing the blockade.  Chuck started the mounted gun firing at the SUVs, before jumping out of the Jeep and running towards one of the tanks.  Alec and the Jaguar also jumped out, and Alec ran behind a tree as he felt bullets whizzing past him.      He climbed up the tree, and took out his sniper rifle.  He chose a target at random, and made a headshot, before switching to another target.  “This isn’t going to work for very long,” Alec said over the comm.  “My bullets are more limited than their soldiers.”      “I’m working on it,” Chuck said, and Alec noticed him climbing into a tank, before its driver was tossed out.      As Alec continued taking out targets, he noticed the Jaguar had managed to get close enough to some of the soldiers to fight them hand to hand.  Then he noticed one of the tanks aiming at the tree he was in, and just managed to jump out of it, before it got hit, and was turned to splinters.           The Jaguar jumped over one of the soldiers, and into another one that she tackled to the ground.  She pulled his gun out of his hands, and tossed it at one of the other soldiers, while jumping back to her feet, and leaping over another soldier, to put him between her and the others.  She grabbed him by the back of the head, and smashed his head into the side of the SUV they were next to a couple times.      She then threw him at another group of soldiers, as even more were arriving.  They were not shooting, for risk of hitting each other, which gave her a slight advantage, but not much, as they still had overwhelming numbers.      She was punching and kicking at everyone that got close, but she was quickly finding herself surrounded.  Someone punched her in the head from behind, and she went forward, but she turned the momentum into her own attack on some of those in front of her, before vaulting over them, and landing outside the circle, and ran behind an SUV, as some of the soldiers now started shooting at her, without risk of hitting their own people.           Chuck turned the tank he had taken over, and started firing at one of the other tanks, the one that had shot at Alec.  He continued firing at it, even while he started driving towards groupings of soldiers.  Many of them scattered as he did so, but he did manage to drive over a few of them.  Both of the other tanks had also started firing on him, in spite of the collateral damage that wrought on the soldiers near his tank.      He managed to take out one of the tanks though, and opened fire on the other.  He set it to continue auto-firing, before jumping back out of the tank, and into the fray.  He had timed his exit to be in between shots from the enemy tank, and he ran towards it, as it continued firing on the tank he had just been in.  He mowed down a dozen soldiers before getting there, and climbing onto it.  This driver was clearly being more cautious, as the hatch was locked from the inside, so Chuck stuck some C4 with a detonator to the hatch, and ran away from it, before blowing it up.      The tank stopped moving and firing.  Chuck was not sure if that meant it was dead in the water, or if it simply meant the explosion had taken out the driver, so he ran over to check.           Alec had climbed another tree, and started sniping again.  He noticed the Jaguar was in a bit of trouble, so he started taking out the soldiers near her.  As he did, he noticed her climb into one of the SUVs, and she drove over to the tree line.      “Get down here, and get in,” she yelled up at him.      He climbed down the tree, and got into the passenger seat.  “Be careful, or it might seem like you actually care if I get out of here alive.”      “Just because I hate you, that doesn’t mean I’m going to leave you behind to die,” she said as she drove over to where Chuck was climbing back down from a tank.  He got into the backseat, and she drove past the blockade, even as the remaining soldiers continued firing at them.  “This is the edge of what they control, right?” she asked.      “Pretty much,” Chuck said.  “And with their base destroyed, they’ll probably be off this land by morning.”      “What were they working on here anyway?” the Jaguar asked.      “Same thing as the base where we met,” Chuck said.  “This is where they moved those experiments.”      “You never really told me what those experiments were,” the Jaguar said.      “Cause you were more interested in finding about Alec here,” Chuck said.      “And I’m flattered, really,” Alec said.  “But if you’re really curious, they are trying to build an army of humanoid animals through genetic engineering.”      “What?” the Jaguar asked.  “That’s ridiculous.”      “They’re the Scorpio Syndicate, everything they do is ridiculous,” Alec said.  “And I mean, honestly, I’m not sure it’s even practical.  Like, you take a lion and put it on two legs, and turns its front legs into arms, you’re probably going to end up with a much weaker lion, and slower.”      “The bigger threat is that they’re also working on changing their intelligence to that of a Human,” Chuck said.  “That’s far more dangerous, especially if they apply it to otherwise unchanged animals.  Imagine walking through the park, and the squirrels there could be listening in on what you say, and reporting back on that.”      “So you were here to destroy their research?” the Jaguar asked.      “Yes,” Chuck said.      “And what about you, Alec?” the Jaguar asked.  “I can’t imagine the Chuck Johnson needed your help on this.”      “Maybe not, but I was in the area,” Alec said.  “And we’re old friends, so we help each other out with missions from time to time.”      “Uh huh,” the Jaguar said.      “So, now that we’re clear,” Alec said, glancing back in the direction they had come from.  There were no signs of pursuit.  “You decided what, if anything, you’re going to be doing with me?”      “You’re probably right that even if I turn you over to the police, you’ll be out within days, at most,” the Jaguar said.  “You know, it’s people like you that first made me decide to become a vigilante.  Too many people working within the system are corrupt, which is why I decided to take justice into my own hands.”      “You’ll get no disagreements from me on the corruptness of the system,” Alec said.  “I’m not going to lie, I’ve done plenty of things in my career that I’m not proud of.  And I’m sorry, but killing your uncle was not one of those things.  No matter what he was to you, he was also a criminal.”      “A criminal in Brazil,” the Jaguar said.  “What gives your country the right to think they can just go in and do whatever they want in other countries.”      “Well, we’re in Canada at the moment, so all of us have gone into a foreign country to do what we want, yourself included,” Alec said.  “And I don’t see you criticizing yourself, or Chuck for that matter.”      “Don’t give me the ‘maybe we’re not so different’ line.  You know how often I’ve heard that one?” the Jaguar asked.      “We all hear that one a lot,” Alec said.  “There might be a reason for that.”      “Usually the reason is that the person saying it is an asshole,” the Jaguar said.      “I’ve never denied being an asshole,” Alec said.      “Well, at least we can agree on one thing,” the Jaguar said.  “But I suppose I can’t really do anything about you at the moment.  So as soon as we get back to civilization, we’ll go our separate ways.  But now that I know who you are, I’ll be watching you.”      “I look forward to it,” Alec said.  “It’ll just be like that time I thought I had a stalker, but it was actually a Russian agent trying to kill me.  Good times.”

Tales of WID 72 #14 My Alien Friend Menok

     Richard Isley looked at the results.  He put the paper down, stood up, and started pacing in his kitchen for a few minutes before sitting back down at the table.  He picked up the paper and looked at it again.  It showed the same thing, he knew that it would show the same thing, but somehow he had hoped it would have changed.      He took out his phone, and started scrolling through the contacts.  He had hundreds, but he scrolled past every single one of them.  There was no one to really talk to.  No real friends, no family left, just colleagues and acquaintances.  He put his phone down, and went to bed.  There were things he would have to do, but those could wait until the morning.           Richard woke up in the middle of the night to an extremely loud noise, like something had crashed into the yard outside his house.  He went over to the window and looked out to see that something had.  It was sort of spherical, and about the size of a golf cart.  Some kind of escape pod, he wondered.      He put a robe over his pajamas, and grabbed a golf club as he went out into his backyard, and approached the craft.  There initially did not seem to be any obvious doors, but then a section slid open, revealing a green-skinned alien.  It had two legs and two arms, but calling it humanoid would be a bit of a stretch, as its limbs were a lot thinner than that of a Human, and its torso had different proportions.      The torso also two holes straight through it, around where the belly button would be on a Human, and little under the neck.  They were each a few inches wide but only one inch high and did not look like wounds.  And the head was shaped kind of like a football, but with the points at either end looking like ears, and a third point in the front for a nose and mouth.      “Who are you?” Richard asked, the golf club still in his hands.  “What are you doing here?”      The alien looked at him and closed it’s eyes for a few seconds.  “My name is Menok, I am an Arkon.  You speak English and look Human.  Is this Earth?  This should not be Earth.”      “It is Earth, why shouldn’t it be?”      “I need to contact…no, I don’t know who I need to contact.  But if this is Earth than I am way off course of where I should be.”      “Where should you be?”      “I cannot tell you that,” Menok said.  “I do not know if I can trust you.”      “I don’t know if I can trust you either,” Richard said.      “Where is the nearest spaceport?”      “What, can’t you just use that thing again?”  Richard pointed at the pod.      “That is an escape pod, my ship was sabotaged and destroyed itself.”      “Well, there’s only one spaceport on Earth, so far, well, other than whatever the Caldore have, but I don’t imagine you’re going to want to go there.”      “No, I do not.  Nasty people, those Caldore.  Where is this spaceport?”      “In Australia, by Sydney, so other side of the world.”      “Hmm, that is unfortunate, but I suppose I have little option.”      As they were talking, Richard heard the sound of vehicles driving down the road, and parking in front of his house.  “Well, it sounds like someone else noticed your crash too.”      “Please, I can’t be taken in,” Menok said.      “If you’re going to want me to trust you, you’re going to need to give me a reason.”      “I am a diplomat, but recently I discovered some information that certain individuals in my government have been keeping secret, and they found out that I discovered them, and are now trying to kill me.”      “It’s a good story, but how I do know it’s true?”      “I sense there is something wrong with you,” Menok said.  He reached for a device on his belt, and Richard tensed.  “Don’t worry, this is just a medical scanner.  Hmm, yes, I see what is wrong with you.  Do your people have a cure?”      “No, there’s no cure.”      “My people have a cure for it,” Menok said.  “If you help me, I can help you.”      Richard heard his doorbell ringing.  He looked at the escape pod, and at Menok, and up into the sky.  “Okay, yeah, we can’t hide the pod, but I should be able to hide you.  You’re just going to need to do what I say.”           ESS Agent Kimberly Ford waited, and rang the doorbell again.  Finally, after about a minute, the door was opened, and an older man stood there, wearing a bathrobe over his pajamas.      “Hello, sir,” Kimberly said.  “I’m special agent Ford.  We detected an object from space crashing in your backyard, and we’re here to investigate.”      “Hmm, oh yes, of course,” Richard said.  “It was quite the shock, let me tell you.  I was just sleeping and then that happened.  I almost didn’t hear you ringing the doorbell after that.”      “It’s quite all right, sir.  If you could just let us into your yard, we’ll make sure it’s safe, and then we’ll take it and get out of your way right away.”      “Go right ahead.”      Kimberly nodded at her agents, and they went to the backyard, before she turned back to Richard.  “Did you go look at it yourself?”      “I saw it,” Richard said.  “Looked like an escape pod or something.”      “That matches what we saw on our sensors.  Did you see anyone come out of it, Human or otherwise?”      “No, I did not, but I was not watching it the whole time.”      “Of course, of course.”  Kimberly noticed her comm beeping.  “If you’ll excuse me for a moment.”  Richard nodded, and she went outside.  “Yes?”      “Agent Ford?” came the voice over the comm.  “This is Admiral Teleros of the United Earth Spacefleet.”      “Sir, what can I do for you?”      “I’ve been informed that you’re investigating a crashed escape pod in Montana.”      “We still need to confirm that’s what it is, but yes.”      “It may be an escaped Arkon criminal.  So make sure you and your people are prepared for that, and if you encounter him, you are to capture him.  Do not use lethal force unless absolutely necessary, and also keep me up to date at all times.  If you manage to capture him, as soon as you have him in custody, no one is authorized to speak to him until I arrive.  Understood?”      “Yes, sir, understood.”           Richard waited while his yard and house were searched by the agents.  He had just realized that they never actually said what agency they were with, as they finished loading up the pod onto a truck, and it drove off.      “Well, there doesn’t seem to be anything else on the property, but please call me if anything else should happen,” Kimberly said as she handed Richard a card.  He looked it over and it had contact information, but did not specify any agency either.      “I’ll be sure to do that,” Richard said.      Kimberly and the rest of her agents went out front, got into their vehicles, and drove off.  Richard waited until they were out of sight, and then another five minutes before he went down to the basement.  It was a fairly small basement, with half of it being used for laundry, and a desk in another corner with an old computer on it.      Richard went over to the computer, and typed out a password on it, causing the walls in the other corner to slide open, revealing a much larger part of the basement, with a lab set up in it.  Menok was sitting at a table, looking at a plant growing inside a glass box.  There was no soil or water in the box with the plant, but it looked healthy in spite of that.      “It’s fascinating,” Menok said.  “How does it survive without water?”      “It’s not surviving without water, it just needs a lot less, so that even just the water vapor in the air is enough for it.”      “And how did they not find this room?  Those were ESS agents, and the kind of sensor technology they have would not be fooled by a wall.”      “I don’t know what the ESS is,” Richard said.  “But I did get some fairly advanced sensor blockers on the black market for my lab.  Some of the work I do here is…not exactly legal.”      “Oh?” Menok asked.      “It’s just a matter of laws not keeping up with the rate of scientific progress.  I’m sure it will be legal in a matter of decades, but I don’t know that I have that long left, even if you do manage to cure me.  I’m not exactly a young man anymore.”      “Either way, I thank you, once again, for your assistance.  And now I have to figure out how to get to this Sydney, Australia, was it?”      “That’s where the spaceport is,” Richard said.  “And how exactly are you planning on getting there?”      “I do not know.  I am not particularly familiar with your world.  Are there teleporters I can use?”      “Those haven’t made their way to public use yet.  For travelling around the world, you’re going to want to go by airplane.  But without a passport you’re not going to be managing that.”      “A passport is a form of identification, yes?”      “Yes.”      “You mentioned a black market earlier.  Could they assist in that?”      “I don’t know.  I could put in a call to the person I know, and find out, but I don’t know for certain.”      “I would be extremely grateful if you would.”           A few hours later, after multiple telephone conversations, Richard went back down to his lab, where Menok was sitting in what looked to be a meditative position.  Menok’s eyes opened, as Richard came in.  “Were you successful?”      “Yeah, it’ll be pretty expensive, but I can afford it,” Richard said.      “You are most generous.”      “You said you can cure me, and if I die I’m not going to need the money anyway.”      “When do we leave?” Menok asked.      “We’ll be picking up the passport and other necessary IDs in the morning, and as soon as we have them, I’ll book us a flight to Sydney.”      “Us?”      “Well, I should go with, should I not?” Richard asked.  “To make sure you get where you’re going safely?”      “And to make sure I keep up my end of the bargain?”      “I’m not going to lie, I still don’t exactly trust you.”      “I understand.”           Kimberly entered the lab where the escape pod had been taken.  It was in the center of the room, and several scientists were running scans on it.  She walked over to the lead scientist, Sam Wagner.  “What’ve you found?”      “Hmm?”  Sam looked up from her computer pad.  “Well, it’s definitely Arkon tech.”      “Yeah, I could tell that just by looking at it.  What can you tell me about who was using it, and where they went?”      “We found some trace amounts of DNA left behind by the occupant, and are comparing that to the sample we were given by Admiral Teleros, so we’ll know in a couple minutes.  As for where he went, I couldn’t tell you that.  Earth wasn’t where he was headed though.  The navigation systems overrode the commands he put in, because his destination was too far for the pod to travel, but a malfunction kept the display from showing him that.”      “Where was he trying to go?”      “A planet called Nerva, it’s on the edge of the Cardaillian Empire.”      “Hmm, so it’s possible he’s more than just a regular criminal, could be a traitor.”      “That isn’t for me to guess at,” Sam said.  “Although Nerva would be a strange choice to go to for that, as it’s just a small mining colony.”  Her computer pad beeped and she looked down at it.  “Oh, good news, the former occupant of this pod is indeed the individual that we’re looking for.”      “Not sure if that’s actually good news, but thanks.”           Menok was acutely aware of all the people staring at him as he followed Richard through the airport.  Even with aliens being known about on Earth, they were not exactly common.  Several were taking pictures with their phones.      Menok had done his best to disguise his identity, but he could not exactly make himself look Human, so he just had to hope if pictures of an Arkon visitor to Earth got back to his people, his disguise would at least be enough to keep them from realizing it was him.      In addition to the stares, he was also aware of the emotions, which were mixed.  Some felt excited or curious or amused.  But others felt scared or angry.  Most, if not all, of these people had first learned about the existence of life beyond their planet when the Caldore attacked, and he supposed that for many the distinction between different aliens was something they had yet to learn.      “Please put any metal objects in the bin,” a security guard said as they were in line by the metal detector.      Menok put his medical scanner into the bin, as well as his computer pad.  He stepped through the metal detector, which did not go off, and on the other side the security guard was looking at the objects in the bin.      “What is this?” the guard asked pointing at the medical scanner.      “It is a medical scanner,” Menok said.      “You some kind of doctor?” the guard asked with a raised eyebrow.  “I better call someone down here.”      “He’s not a doctor,” Richard said.  “I’m a scientist, Doctor Richard Isley, and he’s an associate of mine, we’re on our way to a conference in Sydney, and going to be showing off that device.  And I’d rather not miss our flight.”  Richard looked at his watch with a scowl.      “Right, sorry,” the security guard said.  “You can go on.”      They walked a distance past security, before Richard spoke again.  “It’s a good thing I did come with, or else you wouldn’t have made it through there.”      “Yes, he did not trust me.”      “It’s his job not to trust, but old, rich, white men often get trusted automatically.”           Menok sat down in his seat on the airplane, and Richard sat down in the seat across from him.  This area of the plane was pretty spacious, Richard had said it was first class.  Menok was glad for that, as the other parts of the plane seemed pretty cramped with people.  But even with less people in this area, he was still getting a lot of stares.      The emotions he could sense were generally along the same lines of those he had sensed in the airport, although amongst these there was more of the curiosity and amusement, and less of the fear and anger, but some of it was still there.  There was also something else he could just barely sense, but he could not recognize what it was, just that it felt off.      “It’ll be a little over twenty hours until we get to our destination,” Richard said.  “Just get comfortable and enjoy the flight.”      “Do I not look like I’m already comfortable?” Menok asked.      “You keep glancing around, and looking nervous.”      “This is an unfamiliar place to me, and I am simply trying to observe and understand my surroundings.  Also I am sensing something that I can’t identify.”      “What do you mean exactly by sensing?  You mentioned earlier that you could sense something was wrong with me, I assumed you were just reading body language or something.”      “My species has some telepathic abilities.  The exact amount varies from individual to individual, but I can sense the emotions of those around me.  Sometimes thoughts, but that is a lot harder, especially when the person knows I can do so.”      “Have you read any of my thoughts?”      “No, despite your strong emotions, you have a firm grasp on your mind, and it would take considerable effort for me to pick up even an errant thought.”      “Thanks?  So what does it mean that you’re sensing something you can’t identify?”      “There are multiple things it could mean,” Menok said.  “While some emotions are common across species on various worlds: fear, anger, curiosity, happiness, and so on, there are others that are not, so it’s possible there are Human emotions I am simply unfamiliar with.”      “I assume that’s the best case scenario.”      “It could also mean that there is someone here purposely trying to hide themself from me.  Which could be as simple as a person familiar with my species’ telepathic abilities trying to block them out just because of paranoia, but it could be something more.”      “You think someone is tracking you?  Like those agents that were at my place?”      “Possibly.”           Kimberly was in her office, checking for any reports of Arkons on Earth.  There were thirty-four officially on Earth at the moment.  Most of those were in Australia or Asia, with a few in Africa and the Americas.  Only three were currently in the United States, with one in California, and the other two in New York.      So, knowing that there were none supposed to be in Montana, and having that as a starting point, it did not take long to locate social media posts of an Arkon at an airport in Billings.  She managed to use the pictures to figure out which flight he had gone aboard, and also made a note of the fact that Richard was in the pictures alongside him.           Richard reclined in his seat, and started dozing off as the lights were dimmed in the plane for the night.  But he was awoken a few hours later by Menok lightly shaking him.  Richard opened his eyes, and saw Menok looking around the darkened cabin.      “What is it?” Richard whispered.      “What I sensed earlier, I think there is someone here to kill me,” Menok whispered back.  “And I think they are getting ready to strike.”      “What do we do?”      “Follow me.”  Menok got out of his seat, and Richard followed after him.  It looked like everyone else was sleeping.  But then he heard a sound of movement, and saw someone coming in from the coach section.  The person looked Human, but was carrying an energy pistol.  Menok and Richard ducked behind some seats before the person saw them.      They glanced through a crack between seats as they watched the person go to where their now-empty seats were.  Menok jumped out at the person from behind, and managed to knock the energy pistol out of the person’s hands, and it skittered across the floor.      Richard went for it and picked it up.  The grip was not quite shaped for Human hands, but it was close enough, and he stood back up to aim it at the attacker, but the person Menok was fighting, no longer looked Human.  In fact they now looked identical to Menok.      “What the hell?” Richard asked as the Menoks backed away from each other, and Richard kept moving the gun back and forth between pointing at each of them.      “He has a holographic disguise,” the Menok on the right said.  “And now he’s using it to look like me.”      “Don’t believe them,” the Menok on the left said.  “They are the one with the holographic disguise looking like me.”      Richard looked at the left side of the energy pistol, which had some sort of setting dial, but the symbols on it were unfamiliar to him.  “What is this thing set to?”      “It’s set to kill,” the Menok on the right said.      “Move the dial two notches clockwise in order to set it to stun,” the Menok on the left said.      Richard turned the dial two notches clockwise, then shot the one on the right who fell to the ground, unconscious.      “How did you figure it out?” Menok asked.      “I initially suspected when you said they, and they said he, considering they presumably know who you are, but we have no idea who they are under that disguise.  Then when they knew what the pistol was set to, despite the dial being on the wrong side for them to see, that confirmed it.”      “Luckily no one seems to have woken up during our struggle.”      “But when they do, we have a problem,” Richard said.  “What do we do with the body?”      Menok searched the body, and pulled off a small circular device, causing the person’s appearance to change to that of another Arkon.  “Hmm, so it is one of my people,” Menok said.  “Which means they know I am here.”      “Did they follow you to Earth, or was this someone already here?  And if so, how did they find you.  The pictures taken at the airport have probably found their way onto social media, but that wouldn’t have given them enough time to get aboard the plane, unless they were already at the airport.”      “I only started sensing her after we had come aboard.  It may not have been enough time to come aboard normally, but there could be another way.”      “What way?”  Richard asked.  “And she?”  He looked at the attacker, and while he could see differences between her and Menok, he was not certain which, if any of them, indicated her gender.      “Now that she is unconscious, the mental blocks she had in place are no longer in effect,” Menok said.  “There’s not much I can sense while she is unconscious, but I can tell her gender identity.  As for how she got aboard, I am not certain.  Based on what I know of your world, it seems unlikely that there’s a teleporter aboard this plane, so it’s possible she has a cloaked ship that attached itself.”      “If that’s the case, is that something we’d be able to use?”      “Potentially,” Menok said.  “Follow me.”  They went through to the coach section of the plane, where the attacker had come from.  “Hand me the energy pistol,” Menok said.      Richard looked at it for a moment, and then at Menok, before handing it over.  Menok changed the setting on it again, and started firing at the ceiling.  An energy beam, instead of single shots, came out of it, and hit the ceiling, but did no damage.  Menok moved the beam over the ceiling, until a certain point where it caused the ceiling to shimmer.      “Boost me up there,” Menok said, and Richard helped him climb through a spot in the ceiling, which shimmered as he went through it.      “Another hologram?” Richard asked.      “Yes,” Menok said as he reached down, and pulled Richard up through the hole.  “She must have attached, made a hole, and used a hologram to hide that fact.”      “If we detach…”      “We’ll attach a cover first, so the plane doesn’t depressurize.”      “And then what?” Richard asked as he looked around.  It was a small vessel, like a shuttle of some kind.  There were three seats up front by the controls, as well as benches along the sides.      Menok went to the controls and sat down in one of the seats.  “This vessel is space capable, and with a superspace drive, so I can use it to continue on my journey.”      “Does it have what you need to cure me?” Richard asked.      Menok brought up a different page on screen.  “No, the medical supplies aboard this vessel are rather limited.”      “Then I am coming with you,” Richard said.      “It’s going to be dangerous out there,” Menok said.  “The fact that an assassin tried killing me in such a public way here on Earth means this is even more dangerous than I thought.  Even if we can get what we need to cure you, I can’t promise you won’t die anyway.”      “I’ll take my chances,” Richard said.           Kimberly and her team were in Sydney, Australia, and as soon as the plane landed, they went aboard.  The pilot showed them the tied up Arkon.      “This isn’t the Arkon we’re after,” Kimberly said, and she showed him a picture of Menok with Richard.  “This is who we’re looking for, and he’s with this Human.”      “Well, they aren’t aboard anymore, and this one was, but you might also want to see this.”  He showed Kimberly the ceiling of the plane, where a plate was covering a hole.      “Agent Derrickson, get over here,” Kimberly said.      Agent Derrickson came over, and ran a scan on it.  “This plate is made of a plastic of Arkon design.”      “Probably that Arkon over there came aboard to capture or kill the one we’re after,” Kimberly said.  “But then Menok overpowered that one, and got away aboard their ship, and presumably Richard is still with him.  Keep looking over the plane for clues.”      Kimberly got off the plane, and found somewhere private, before she contacted Jon over the comm, and told him what they had found.      “I was worried that the Arkons might try sending one of their own people in,” Jon said.      “So, what does this mean?” Kimberly asked.      “For one thing it means I am going to have a massive headache in dealing with the Arkon government over this.  But also, that Menok has presumably fled Earth, which means he’s outside your jurisdiction.”      “Sir, with all due respect, I would like to continue the search.”      “Continue it then.  Maybe I’m wrong, and he is still on Earth, but if he has left, and you find anything to suggest where he left to, make sure to let me know, so we have a better idea of where one of our ships can continue the search.”      “Of course, sir.”