LaShaunta's sleek biceps gathered beneath her smooth mahogany skin hauling the scared man back upright. She pulled harder when he didn't get his balance quickly. A single vein snaked over the still growing peak of her left arm. Then little networks of smaller vessels appeared across the top of her pecs and on the triple heads of her shoulders. Annoyed, LaShaunta finally gave Alphonse a tug that pulled him upright and firmly on his feet. The retired judge pried his eyes open and looked up in near disbelief, no fire, no smoke, no gunshots, just this young woman's arm. Alphonse's eyes swept up from her clutched fingers to her sinewy forearm, over that rising bicep, and to her rapidly flexing deltoids. The small fibers in her shoulders flexed like waves breaking against a shore, an unending undulation of feminine perfection. LaShaunta kept an eye on the old man as she let him go making sure that he wouldn't fall over before she turned around, but Alphonse kept his eyes firmly on this ebony beauty.

She wore a skin tight strapless cocktail dress and lavender pumps with five inch heels. Her legs were amazing, thick, muscular, and shapely. She had an ass so round that it defied gravity or any adequate description. If a scientist ever wanted an example of the perfect female athlete, LaShaunta would be on the short list of candidates. Strong, explosive, raw athletic ability radiated from her every sensuous curve, and she was just standing still.

"That… that was absolutely amazing! You're amazing!", Alphonse exclaimed to LaShaunta's muscular back because she'd already turned towards Morgen who was regaining what little composure he'd lost during his near death experience.

"I knew you would come through", he told LaShaunta who put a hand to her hip and frowned.

"Of course I came through, but do you realize how long it took me to pick out this outfit! To get my hair and makeup done! And now I smell like a burned match."

Morgen took LaShaunta by the arm and led her some distance away. "You saved my life, Shaunie. I mean really did. Usually I have some sort of angle or plan worked out, but not this time."

LaShaunta's face softened and she leaned in closer. "You aren't going to tell me what's going on are you?"

Morgen smiled, even smudged and sooty his face was painfully handsome. "It's better if I don't. You'd insist on helping, and I want you to go home."

"Since when did you start looking out for my well being?"

Morgen put his hands over his heart. "LaShaunta you wound me", he said seriously even as he smiled. "I only called you because I was out of options."

"I know that", LaShaunta said and wiped some soot off Morgen's cheek. "I just like making you squirm from time to time."

Morgen laughed. "You are one of the few people on Earth who can do that to me." LaShaunta chuckled. She'd known Morgen since she was five and early in her life he'd been more of a male role model than her own father had been. Not that Morgen was the best role model for an impressionable child.

"You shouldn't fret so much. You look beautiful no matter what dress you wear."

"Don't try and butter me up, Morgen. This party's supposed to be amazing and the damage has been done."

"I can call a friend in Hamburg", Morgen began with a shrug. "She could fit you for a dress on short notice."

"No, there's a place in Taipei that's open on New Year's day. I've been there before… a couple of years ago. They're going to charge me like crazy though."

"Charge it to me. It's the least I could do since you saved our lives."

LaShaunta looked over her shoulder then back to Morgen. "I don't mind saving your life, and maybe even that robot chick too, but him", she said and motioned with her head towards Alphonse. "I don't trust him at all. He's a snake. I hope you don't trust him either."

"I don't", Morgen replied.

"I'm just saying. What kind of father plots to kill his own child… his only child? He's probably got some trick up his sleeves, a trick that maybe not even you can…"

"Shaunie", Morgen said and put his hands to her bare shoulders. "I'm going to be fine. Stop worrying", he said and kissed her forehead. "Have fun at your party."

LaShaunta exhaled. "You promise to call me if it hits the fan. I can come back in battle gear if I need to."

Morgen laughed. "Get going." LaShaunta disappeared and Morgen sighed. He didn't want her to be a part of this. Morgen had a soft spot for LaShaunta in the same way the Broker had one for Caeda. It just proved that both of them were human after all. Morgen made his way to Alphonse who hadn't quite gotten over the euphoria of being alive. Morgen spoke to X-417 first. "Go get us a vehicle. Be discrete", he added after the curvy Black Femme had started walking away.

"Where are we?", Alphonse asked. "That girl didn't say. What's her name?"

"I know exactly where we are, and her name isn't important."

Alphonse was far too excited at being alive to take offense to Morgen ignoring his question. "Now I know why you call her your travel agent. Can she go anywhere on Earth?"

"Anywhere at all as far as I know. I ask her to take me somewhere and poof we're there. That's what she does."

Alphonse knew that Morgen was dodging on purpose, but decided not to press. "So where are we?"

"We're about two hours from where we need to be. As soon as we get our new ride you'll have some time to answer my questions."

"What questions?"

"Why did you bring those metal beasts to the hideout and not tell me? Then once you answer that, you can explain what in the hell they are." Morgen saw a little bit of pride and sadness come over Alphonse when he asked about the Aceros. Unlike Alphonse, Morgen was going to press for answers. X-417 drove up in a boosted Porsche Cayenne. Morgen opened a rear door for Alphonse then slipped into the seat next to him while X-417 drove. Morgen was determined to get answers even if he had to use his powers to compel Alphonse to speak, but once they were on the road Morgen found that using his powers wouldn't be necessary. Alphonse was eager to talk.

"Stare at the light", a doctor said while examining Taylor for signs of a concussion.

Taylor Matthews felt silly and grateful as she looked into the really bright light. She had an oxygen mask on her face and a saline drip going directly into her left arm. She hurt so badly that even with her massive pain threshold she felt like passing out. Heather had cracked some ribs to save her life, so Taylor couldn't take a deep breath. Her right arm was broken too. There had to be ligament damage in the same shoulder because every time she tried to move it a sharp pain shot down her back which was already aching. It was mind numbing to categorize all her aches and pains so she stopped. She exhaled a ragged breath, but when she saw a group of agents gathering for a meeting, she readied herself for more action.

She reached up with her left arm to pull aside the mask. "I really appreciate what you're doing", she told the doctor and started to sit up from the lawn chair. A hand touched her shoulder and gently urged her back down. She wanted to resist, but it hurt to push back.

"Not this time, Taylor", her uncle had to nearly yell over the whirl of a helicopter landing nearby. She looked up at Jack, pleading with her eyes, but he shook his head. "You need to let these people treat you."

"I'm going to be fine, Uncle Jack. You already know that, plus I can take more of a pounding that this. I might not look like it sitting here, but I could do what I just did all over again if I had to."

Jack smiled broadly and kissed Taylor on the cheek. "You're injured Taylor", Jack told her. "You'd have to use your power just to stand up from that chair."

Taylor looked shocked. Her wishes were rarely defied even by her own family. "Don't try and tell me different", Jack continued a litter more sternly. "I raised a girl just like you."

Taylor wanted to lie, but her uncle was right. "You don't have Sara. You might need me", Taylor tried her uncle again, but he held firm.

"I'm bringing you back to your mother in one piece, Taylor. Not in several pieces that have to eventually grow back."

She started to tear up. Thomas stepped up. "Don't worry Taylor. We'll get Uncle Ted back." Jack smiled down at Thomas, not telling the young teen that he wouldn't be coming along either. He was more interested in Taylor at the moment.

She sighed and laid her head against the chair. "I see your mind working", Jack began. "Don't try anything or I'll use some of Joelstine's special sedative on you myself."

"You wouldn't!"

"You know I would. Now you let these medical people help you and I promise I'll bring your Dad to you safe and sound."

Taylor finally gave in. "Okay", she said and meant it. Jack and Thomas started walking away.

"Uncle Jack could you send Jan up here. She has to set my arm. I can feel that it's broken. I'd get Heather to do it but every time she looks at me she starts crying all over again."

"You had us all crying", Jack said then turned. "Thomas, run over there by the lake and get Jan."

Jan stood with her hands clasped behind her back watching Montez threaten to dunk one of DeBraya's guards under the shallow reedy water again. He'd captured the man in the swamp and Jan thought it proper to give him the first shot at interrogating. "I don't have time to play games", Montez threatened. "If you keep stalling I'll start to think that you don't know anything and I'll just leave you face down next time."

"Do it! I dare you!", the man yelled defiantly. Montez started to lower the man's head towards the water.

"Hold on a sec. I've got a better idea", Jan spoke up and walked closer. Montez guessed that she was about to use a bit of her incredible strength to cause pain like Montez himself couldn't begin to with his bare hands, but Jan never unclasped her hands from behind her back. "There's a transport coming to take prisoners. Most of these assholes are going to the local sheriff's lock up until they're processed. You could go with them if you cooperate. If you don't, I'll charge you with terrorism. Under the Patriot Act that means a one way trip to Guantanamo Bay. No lawyer, no outside contact, no trial. So unless you want to spend the rest of your life locked away in a tiny box where the sun never shines, you'll tell us what we want to know."

The guard searched Jan's face for even the smallest hint of deception, but couldn't find any. The blood stains on this young woman's tattered uniform showed that she'd been in the thick of the recent battle. He didn't see a blemish on her though. She was hard core. He didn't know the half of it. "It's at a construction site. The airstrip is probably the only thing finished at the entire place, but there's no tower or lights. It was supposed to be part of a planned community back in the day that fell through. All I know is that the boss bought it and restarted construction."

"Where is it?", Montez asked the obvious question.

"I don't know. I've never been there. He never let any of us go. The only people who know where it is for sure are the boss and that blond advisor of his."

"That's all you know?", Jan asked him while wearing a menacing scowl. "You better have something more than that!" She started to get angry. Montez could tell. It was written all over her.

"It…. It's on the coast…on the Gulf side. Oh and the chief of security had scheduled about an hour for the trip from here to the airstrip. I saw him writing out times while I was eating lunch. That's really all I know. I swear."

"Were you planning on going by boat?", Jan asked and the man shook his head vigorously.

"We were going to take cars… plain ones, but it would have taken too long to get them out of the armory before it came down."

"That might be the first thing you've told us that I actually believe", Jan said with her frown deepening.

"I'm telling you the truth! Look, prison I can handle, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life in fuckin hole." Montez pulled the guy up and escorted him to the paddy wagon. Jan sighed when Montez closed the doors.

"Do you believe him?"

"Yeah, I do. That guy told you everything he knows. He didn't seem smart enough to misdirect us like that, but an hour's drive could be fifty of sixty miles of shoreline. By the time we find the strip DeBraya could be long gone." Jan's spirits sank. Montez put his arm around her shoulder. "Fortunes can change quickly, Jan", he began then grinned. It was so disarming. "I mean look at us. A day ago you were about to punch a hole in my head and now I'm comforting you."

"You aren't going to let that go are you?" Montez threw his head back and laughed. Thomas ran up then and saved Jan from her own embarrassment.

Taylor looked weaker than Jan could remember seeing her. Her face was bruised and cut. Her skin was pale, and her breathing was labored, but one look in Taylor's eyes showed that the fight was far from out of her. She'd face a battalion alone if she had to, but Jack had pulled her out of this fight. "You're going to have to rebreak it", Taylor told her cousin and looked away while her arm sat across Jan's lap. "Believe it or not I've broken my other arm before. Mom thinks to this day that I did it on purpose."

"Now why would you do that?", Jan asked while taking two firm grips on either side of the break, which was visible beneath Taylor's skin.

"I didn't of course. I just wanted to see if…" CRACK!!! Taylor gasped and blinked rapidly while the wave of pain ebbed. She exhaled then looked at Jan. "Well played."

Jan gave a tired smile and patted Taylor's shoulder then stood up. Looking down at Taylor, Jan felt the enormity of the weight her cousin carried on her shoulders. It was a load that Taylor usually carried with effortless ease, but she was hurting now. "How's Sara?", she asked before Jan started walking away.

"I don't know. The doctors said that she would be fine as long as she got to a hospital quickly. They're taking her to one in Tampa." Jan wasn't going to say anything about her suspicions with Joelstine, but she did, explaining how Kevin had gone with Sara on the chopper to make sure nothing funny happened.

Taylor understood and nodded. "I want to thank her for saving my life. I think I'll go to the hospital. I can relieve Kevin so he can get back in the fight."

"Let me see if I can get you a ride."

"Don't bother", Taylor began. "I'm not helpless. I'll make my way there. Go find Uncle Jack and bring Daddy home."

Jack stood in the inner ring of a loose circle while his new team leaders learned the situation and their roles in the still formulating plan. Jan was one of the few people standing around Jack who had been around the table to help formulate the original plan. She looked and listened intently. The information they'd gotten from the prisoner was helpful and overwhelming. How could so few people cover so many miles of Florida shoreline in so short a time? The short answer was that it couldn't be done. Jack frequently glanced at Joelstine studying the man's every tick and motion trying to glean clues about his mind frame. The Regional Director of National Security mostly stood with his hands folded.

"So", Joelstine finally spoke up after listening for about ten minutes. "This entire operation depends on Agent von Edder, who is out of radio range and alone with all the bad guys."

"She's really resourceful", Jan put in quickly.

Joelstine raised a hand for her to stop. "What are the possible ways she could contact us? We should be monitoring every frequency and band that she might have access to. I read her file, Agent Caufield. I know Agent von Edder's skill set and her IQ. Both are quite remarkable."

Jack turned around and motioned for an agent to come close. He relayed Joelstine's suggestion almost word for word. The agent took off running. Jack couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of that, but in his own defense he'd gotten used to having Sara close by on missions like this.

Alisha sat near the growling fan with her knees tucked in to her chest and her fingers stuck firmly in her ears. The engine and fan were so loud that she could hardly think. The cold spray from the swamp water hit her face and wet her hair until she was shivering, but no one saw her or heard her or smelled her. Alisha kept up her illusion knowing it could mean both her life and Ted's. He was near the front of the boat with Martin DeBraya and Carri, the double agent. It's always hard to trust a double agent even if they're doubling in your favor. Jan trusted this woman, but as Alisha often told her tall friend, she trusted too much. It was an understandable trait for Jan to have, and it often got her in trouble. To Alisha's eyes, Carri looked like she needed to get shot right in the middle of her forehead, but on the flip side Ted was still alive and most of that was Carri's doing.

Alisha looked at her radio transmitter with a bit of dismay. The battery was charged, but this boat was far more than three miles from the armory. Alisha racked her brain, fighting the noise of the engine and rotor, to come up with some way to communicate to her friends. She'd have come up with a plan beforehand, but she'd expected Sara to have already contacted her. Alisha didn't jump on this boat to report its location. She'd jumped on to make sure Ted lived long enough for the cavalry to come get him. It had been almost thirty minutes and not a peep from Sara. That was troubling. Sara was nothing if not reliable. Some people crack under pressure, but Sara seemed to like it for some odd reason. Whatever had taken Sara's attention must be serious. Alisha wouldn't allow herself to even think that Sara might be hurt or worse. Thoughts like that would make it hard to concentrate and without concentration bullets would start flying Alisha's way, and she wasn't bulletproof like Jan and her cousins.

"We're on the way to the air strip", Morgen began and settled in next to Alphonse. "So now you can explain what those metal things were."

Alphonse's smile was like that of a father thinking about his children. "They are constructs, Morgen, built with both arcane knowledge and modern science. Unfathomable power lies just beyond our grasp. You already know that there are people in this world who have abilities that make them super human. We witnessed it with Jan Caufield and her cousins the Matthews sisters. You might think that their strength is the same as their power, but it is not. The power manifest differently in different people, but the source of the power is interconnected." Morgen just stared so Alphonse continued.

"My family has searched for the key to unlocking the riddle of this power for centuries and we made a breakthrough in the early 70's. We learned how to grow life from nothing using this power!" Morgen was skeptical now.

"It's not life like it is commonly understood. It was not a product of natural selection or evolution. This life was built by us, by man! It has no higher consciences. No wants or wishes or instincts. It has only purpose", Alphonse talked fast like the ideas entered his brain faster than his lips could form words.

"What is its purpose?", Morgen asked.

"Whatever you want it to be! That's the beauty. The Aceros were made to be ultimate instruments of death. Greater than tanks or bombers. A platoon of Aceros would make entire nations tremble with fear. Think about it. They are only a bit more than double the size of a man, but are stronger than whales and quicker than any vehicle with the power to destroy them. They have the capacity to destroy any enemy put before them."

"Until Jan Caufield and her cousins came along. Makes all that effort to construct them useless, I suppose."

Alphonse scoffed. "I thought my monsters would have been more effective against those girls, but there are other constructs however", Alphonse said with a pride saving sigh. "Our organization learns from past failures and moves on."

Morgen relaxed a bit after Alphonse spoke. Back at the Armory Morgen had feared that his power wouldn't work on those alien consciousness, but as it turns out he shouldn't have worried. His power worked on them because in some strange way they were fueled by the same power as he. Only he generated his and Alphonse had found some way to charge his Aceros with it. "You should have trusted me. You hired me to have a plan, and I had one. Those monsters nearly ruined it."

"Nearly? We were about to die!"

"We didn't die. No thanks to you. If you had listened, we'd be in Palm Beach having a drink commemorating your son's untimely death."

Alphonse twisted his face into a contemplative scowl. "Perhaps I was wrong to do what I did, Morgen. But trust is hard earned, especially with the stakes being this high."

"How high are the stakes?"

Alphonse took a breath and opened his mouth like he wanted to say so much, but he let that breath linger. He sat back against the seat. "We're on the verge, Morgen. We're on the verge", was all he said.

"Verge of what!?!", Morgen demanded, frustration getting the better of him.

Alphonse grinned and leaned towards him. "Have you ever thought about not aging, living for millennia? Have you ever thought about getting smarter than a genius and more insightful than a sage? About ruling the world without ever having to lift a finger?"

"You're talking about fairy tales!", Morgen shot back and threw up his hands.

Alphonse only smiled. "We're on the verge."

"We're running low on everything", an agent reported and Jack sighed. Heather, Jan, and Montez sighed along with them. They hadn't lost hope, but they needed just a little bit of good news. It came from an unexpected source.

"I ordered resupply an hour ago", Joelstine deadpanned. "A one for one replacement for what was originally brought. I doubt we'll need it all, but it's easier to take something back that not necessary." The faces around him were stunned, Joelstine looked at Jan and Heather. "I even ordered new uniforms. Yours seem to be a bit tatty."

A convoy of trucks from Florida's northern region rolled into the long forgotten armory's driveway and started unloading box after box of resupplies. There were even eight new fully armed agents brought in to replace the guys who'd been injured or killed. Heather came over to Joelstine after changing into a fresh uniform and scarfing down two MRE's. She was still chewing and guzzling water when she walked over to Joelstine who had just gotten off the phone.

"How in the world do you keep that figure eating the way you do", Joelstine said. "If you don't mind me asking?"

"I don't always eat like this, but combat makes me hungry", she only sort of told the truth. Heather had pushed her healing ability to near its limits and her body was running out of nutrients and fluids. Growing back a functioning eyeball indistinguishable from the other one in less than four minutes wasn't easy even for her, on top of the bullet wounds and the complete bashing she'd taken from the Aceros earlier. She cleared her throat.

"What made you change your mind and help us? If you don't mind me asking."

Joelstine cracked the smallest of smiles. "Isn't this looking a gift horse in the mouth, Agent Matthews?"

"I've always been the curious type."

Her reply made Joelstine's smile grow…. a little. "I've never met your father, but look at the effort you all are willing to go through. Makes me want to meet him. I understand that your family is hard to kill, but your sister nearly died and is still willing to continue the fight if only Jack would let her. Ted Matthews must be some kind of guy."

Heather finished the last of her water. "He is. Imagine having to raise Taylor." Joelstine actually laughed. Heather turned away to walk towards Jan. Joelstine was still laughing when he starting talking to one of his assistants.

"Looks like a tree", a man said as the boats drifted closer. "A big fuckin tree."

"This is a good time to check our bearings", the lead bodyguard said, and pulled out a folded map with a flashlight.

"I thought you had one of those GPS receiver things", Martin DeBraya said.

"It gives me latitude and longitude which doesn't help much us much." Martin, his chief of security, the boat drivers, and Carri looked at the map. None of them noticed a miserably cold young woman standing in their midst looking and listening. "We're here", the man pointed at a squiggly line on the map.

"That says we should be on solid ground", Martin exclaimed.

"The swamp changes by the day, sir. We have to pass through this way. Jerry and the rest of the guys are waiting for us right here", he touched the map then looked up at the tree in their path.

"I know the swamp changes, but the channel up ahead is semi-permanent. We have to get to it. A bypass will be miles and miles out of our way." Martin sent a bunch of his men splashing through the knee deep water towards the tree. No one realized how big that fallen cypress was until the burley men were next to its trunk. The group of them could have linked arms and barely reached around it. Only one of these men had enhanced strength and even with him in the group the tree barely moved a few feet. The men were so winded that Martin was about to inquire about portaging in the boats when there was a splash next to the boat.

Carri trudged through water that was nearly waist deep on her and gathered the men around her. She pointed up at the trunk then climbed on top. She must have seen something. "Give her some light", Martin ordered. The spots illuminated Carri working her fingers into a small fissure about four feet from the tree's knee.

Carri bowed her back to force her fingers into the tightly packed wood, her muscles matching then exceeding the tree's own fibers in density and strength. Inch by inch she slid her hands into the tree. Her triceps and pectorals flexed rock hard, the tree fighting her. She finally paused to take a breath or two, then when her fingers back to back inside the tree, Carri pulled her hands apart. Her muscles flexed so hard that water flew from her skin. Her form fitting clothes stretched to accommodate her growing muscles, but still the trunk held firm. Carri's already tapered torso grew cartoonish as her shoulders and lats thickened while her waist stayed as hard and small as ever. Her muscles set like sculpted concrete. The trunk popped and creaked as the wood tried to repel this attack, but Carri redoubled her efforts.

She bore down. Her skin flushed as blood rushed to where she wanted it. Her muscles grew bigger than ever and the tree just couldn't keep up. The crack widened from a little flaw in the trunk to a foot wide then two feet then three, as Carri's muscle continued to grow. She wasn't getting weaker, she just got stronger, but the tree had one more trick. When Carri's arms were fully extended, the bottom third of the trunk was still intact. Carri was undaunted.

She dropped her entire body into the crack, putting her hands and feet against the newly rent trunks. This time she pushed with her entire body. Everybody had already seen Carri's impressive upper body, but her legs were even more impressive. Carri's quads were unreal with muscles growing and growing at angles from her hips to her knees, thick unyielding muscle. Carri made short work of the tree once she dropped her entire body into it. Even Alisha was impressed.

Jan must have been in a real fight going against Carri. The lusting men staring at Carri's tight ass didn't understand that Carri wasn't just some hired gun who had taken some of the watered down juice like the rest of the enhanced muscle heads in Martin's employ. Whatever had made her this strong was either natural or the result of a real scientist with a real lab, and not some back room chemist who went from cooking meth to cooking strength juice.

When the tree was detached from the roots, Carri worked with the others to get that tree out of the way. Her biceps looked like grapefruit stuffed under her sleeves as she curled the far end of the trunk so the rest of the men could swing it out of the way like a huge gate.

"Now that we can get to the main channel we can get somewhat on schedule. We can get to Jerry and his guys in about another thirty or forty minutes." He started to put up the map.

"How far are we from the airstrip?", Martin asked and Alisha got excited. It was the question she wanted to ask if she could have. The chief of security pointed at a spot on the map so quickly that Alisha almost missed it, but she didn't. She now knew where she was and where she was going, but as the drivers went back to their boats Alisha's mind started to race. She took up position next to the propeller again and curled up trying to figure out a way to contact her friends. An airplane was waiting and if Martin got on that plane if might be too late for Ted. Alisha grinned despite the noise and heavy thoughts. She got a look in her eyes that her friends would have recognized at once. Alisha had what she called a floating idea. Now all she had to do was grab it.

Special Agent Kevin Bechet sat in the intensive care unit at the hospital's ER outside Sara's room. A couple of cute nurses walked by giving him furtive glances, but he was in no mood to reciprocate. He had his pistol covered by a flap on his vest, but it was only a split second from being in his hand. The more Kevin thought about what Jan had said the less he trusted any person who walked into Sara's room. He questioned each one of them and timed their stay. They didn't stay inside any other room for less than 40 seconds or more than 2 minutes. Any shorter or longer in Sara's room would raise Kevin's hackles, and the staff knew instinctively that they didn't want to do that.

Kevin turned his head to see a man coming from far down the hallway. For some reason he knew that this man was heading for Sara's room. There was something odd and familiar about the man. He wore a white coat like many of the doctors, but his wasn't quite as bright white. It was almost an antique white. Kevin lost sight of the man behind a large piece of equipment being moved by an orderly. When the man reappeared Kevin frowned. "It can't be", he breathed. Kevin's left hand went to his right wrist as the man got closer a the glimmer of old pain returned.

The man smiled broadly then put his hands on Kevin's shoulders in a familiar embrace. "It has been a long time. It's good to see you Mr. Bechet."

"You can't be the same man", Kevin muttered. Kevin had been five years old when an old lady had accidentally driven through the front of a bakery. Kevin had been standing next to his mother waiting on a chocolate chip cookie when the crash made everybody face the front of the store. A shard of glass four feet tall had come from high on the plate glass window. Kevin had put his hands up to block his face and the falling glass had hit his arm. It shattered on impact showering everyone with glass. Young Kevin had gotten the worst of it. His right hand and wrist were hanging by a thin flap of skin that was moments from tearing under the weight. Kevin's mother and the woman behind the counter were in hysterics, but one man was cool. He walked over to the boy and sheltered him beneath his coat. Kevin couldn't recall in detail what had happened only that the man had spoken some words to him before the man's hands had gotten very hot against his young skin. He remembered looking up at the man's face as he'd backed away from him, then noticing that his hand was back where it belonged. He'd wiggled his fingers, but had stayed in shock otherwise. "I expect great things from you", the strange man had said more than twenty years earlier as he'd walked away to check on the old woman who'd started the mess in the first place.

"You haven't aged a day", Kevin told the man with the kind eyes.

Yonatan laughed. "Oh yes I have. It just doesn't show." He took Kevin's right hand and held it up. "It's still attached. At least my efforts weren't in vain."

Kevin wiggled his fingers like back when. "Are you here to save Sara?"

"Saver her? No. These doctors would do a good job. She'd probably have three months to make a full recovery, but since I was in the neighborhood, I thought I would spare her the suffering. Plus I wanted to see you. Sometimes I don't get a chance to see those I touch again. You put that right hand to use in service of your country. That's a noble calling, but you've got a long, long way yet to go Kevin." He slid open the intensive care room door. "This should not take long." He came out in two minutes which made Kevin grin.

"So is she all better now?"

"She's still exhausted both mentally and physically. Some rest will fix both of those conditions; although I get the feeling she won't get a full night's sleep tonight."

Kevin nodded then pointed at Yonatan's lab coat. "Next time if you're going to use a disguise you should steal a coat that matches all the others. Just FYI."

Yonatan looked down his coat and memories passed across his eyes. "I didn't steal this coat. I bought it the day after I graduated from Cambridge Medical School in 1886. That was the first time I'd gone through a modern medical school, but not the last. The more science learns about the body the easier it is for me to do what I do."

"You were alive in 1886?!?", Kevin almost yelled.

The man smiled. "And in 1786 and 1686 and 1586, you get the idea. Tell Sara I said hello. And when you see her, tell Alisha that I'll be getting in contact with her soon. I have something exciting to tell her."

Kevin watched the man named Yonatan walking back down the same hallway he'd approached from. He stopped and talked to an orderly and then to a nurse and then to a doctor before he went to the elevator.

A couple of nurses came to Sara's door from the other direction and Kevin stopped them. "We're taking her for an MRI", one explained and Kevin nodded. That would confirm that there was no damage and they'd probably put Sara in a regular room for observation after that. Kevin was about to follow the staff to the imaging room when someone else familiar came down the hallway.

Taylor's right arm was in a splint and immobilized against her chest. She had a large bandage on the left side of her neck, but she had a fresh uniform on and had regained the sense of superiority that she always carried along with her. She walked directly up to Kevin. The last time she'd done that he'd nearly pissed his pants because she'd been pissed. This time she leaned down and wrapped her one good arm around his shoulders. "You saved my life. I can't ever really thank you enough", she whispered in his ear.

"Sara did most of the work", Kevin deflected just as they were wheeling her bed into the hallway. Taylor looked up with worry on her face. "It's okay. Sara's completely fine. I would explain what happened just before you got here, but I'm going to stay with her while they take her to imaging."

"I'll stay", Taylor said at once. "There's a Blackhawk ready to take you back to the mission if you want. I'll keep an eye on Sara."

"Okay", Kevin didn't need to be told twice to get back to the fighting. "Just remember to tell her that Yonatan says hello."

"Yonatan?"

"She'll know."

Taylor shrugged her shoulders. "Okay. I'll tell her." Kevin hurried to the elevator. He had to get to the security office. He'd stashed his sniper rifle there. The helicopter was waiting for him. Taylor already knew what his answer would be. The pilot took off, heading back to Jack and his team.

"A-2 to control. Repeat, A-2 to control how copy?", Alisha whispered into the microphone even if no one on the boat could hear her.

"Like shit", came the reply from the agent monitoring the radio like Joelstine had suggested. "What's your situation?"

"I'm on a speeding airboat somewhere in the swamp. Wait, we're slowing down." The people standing around the radio held their collective breath, and miles away Alisha did the same. The boats slid onto the muddy grass and stopped. Four SUVs turned on their headlights when the boats got close. "We're transitioning to road vehicles, dark colored Suburbans. There are at least twenty more guys. Big guys. I can't tell from here if they're enhanced or not, but my best guess would be that they are."

The smoke from the circuit board got worse. "Take down these coordinates and haul ass getting here." Alisha hurried to give the information before her makeshift radio went up in flames. There was no way of knowing if they got all the info because Alisha tossed the melted plastic board into the water as soon as she finished talking. She shook her hands to cool her skin then turned to realize that everybody was already off the boats. She ran to a gathering near one of the Suburbans.

"What are we going to do with him?", one of the new men asked pointing at Ted. Alisha's heart started to race thinking that she might have to jump into action, but it was Martin who staved off Ted's demise this time.

"We need him alive. This man might be the only thing that stands between us and his daughters."

"And my niece", Ted put in with pride. It cost him a blow to the ribs.

"They're tanks in human form. Beautiful human form", Martin added thinking back to the time he'd first seen Jan at his charity event and later when he'd seen her cousin Heather at his house. Both of them dripped sex effortlessly. That appeal almost got Martin killed.

"This doesn't make any sense", one of the guards said.

"Just trust me. We need this asshole alive."

Alisha made sure got in the same vehicle as Ted. He sat next to Martin in the second row while Alisha was in the far back. She was ready to settle in for this much dryer ride, but after looking at Ted she realized that she had one more thing to do. "Don't worry Mr. Matthews. The cavalry's coming", Alisha's power made it sound like she was whispering in Ted's ear. He turned his head towards the sound of her voice, but saw only Martin where Alisha should have been.

"Look natural", Alisha suggested. "You won't want them to know I'm here, but I've got your back." Ted couldn't repress his smile. It was good that only Carri noticed it.

Helicopters dotted the clearing and people scurried beneath their whirling blades as Jack and his team prepared for a final assault. Joelstine had pulled every string in his bag to get these National Guard choppers. Joelstine seemed to have had a total change of heart. Jack and his teams were tired, but they were about to go after Martin and his men so hard and fast that they'd get burnt rubber over their asses. Jack stood under the lead chopper with Jan when a truck slid to a stop about fifty feet from them. The driver's door opened quickly and a young woman jumped out. Her face was swollen and bruised. She had a slight limp too, but she wore an urban battle uniform with an M-4 carbine strapped across her chest, night vision goggles hanging around her neck, and a stone cold expression on that battered face, which broke when she saw Jan.

"I'm so sorry", Angie gushed, feeling that it was her fault that Ted and Montez had been abducted. She hadn't been good enough. She'd failed.

"It's not your fault", Jan said softly trying to calm her one time rival. "I don't blame you and neither does anybody else." Angie looked somewhat unconvinced, but she dried her eyes. "What are you here for?", Jan asked.

"I'm going with you", Angie declared and stood up straight.

"Who are you?", Jack turned and asked.

"Angie James. I was the agent on duty when Hugh Hastings was killed... when Montez and Mr. Matthews were abducted. I know I screwed up, sir, but I just want a chance to make this right. I got the crap beat out of me back at the hospital, but it won't happen again."

"Are you cleared for duty?", Jack asked just as another truck slid to a stop much closer than the last one.

"No, she's not!", Martha Worthington exclaimed. "I knew you'd find out the location of this place", she accused and pointed a finger in Angie's face. "You are supposed to be at the hospital. The doctors…"

"The doctors don't know anything! I'm not 100 percent, but I'm here and I'm ready to go." Martha was about to speak, but Jack tapped her shoulder and stepped closer to Angie who instinctively stood at attention.

"I like the spunk and the fighting spirit, Agent James, but I don't like the subterfuge and the disregard of orders. How do I know you won't ignore my orders if you were to join my team?"

"I promise I never would, sir. I didn't want to go against Mrs. Worthington, but I want this so bad. I feel it's my fault and if I can't do some little thing to help make it right then I don't think I can live with myself, sir."

"Are you just asking on this mission to get payback for that ass whoopin you got at the hands of that blonde girl Carri?"

"Nothing could be further from the truth, sir."

Jack looked Angie over one more time then asked for a moment in the distance to talk with Martha. "I won't even think of trying to go over your head, but I believe you should let her go with us."

"She's a really good agent, almost a perfect agent until tonight."

"We all lose some", Jack said.

"It's not that. Angie's been augmenting her strength, taking some sort of super strength serum. She had it synthesized from a sample that she stole from evidence. This is serious stuff. Aside from stealing evidence we have a no drug policy, a strict one. I knew her body was getting pretty damned ripped, I just didn't know she was doing it that way."

"How strong is she?"

"You can't be serious!"

Jack leaned closer to Martha. "I've lost Taylor and Sara. A company of men might not be able to replace those two, but here comes Angie out of the blue. It might be the edge we need. She's already fought several of these guards and almost won. I put her together with Jan and Heather and we've got one hell of a corps of shock troops."

"She's not as strong as either of them. She's maybe enhanced level 1 strength."

"Ok", Jack began. "Let me add her to the team, and if she does well, when her hearing comes, try to remember the good stuff she'd done as an agent and not the bad stuff."

"Are you telling me how to do my job, Mr. Caufield?"

"Wouldn't think of it. I'm just trying to inject a bit of mercy into a business that rarely has room for it."

Jack marched back towards Angie who stood waiting to hear her fate. "Get the rest of your shit from the truck", Jack ordered in a no nonsense tone. Then he called over Montez. "You're on his team, not the other way around. He's going to go over the plan and you better be a quick learner!"

Angie smiled despite her swollen jaw and ran from the truck and jumped onto the helicopter. Martha watched the helos take off wondering if she'd just made a good decision or the worst one of her career.

Taylor was sitting at Sara's bedside when the patient woke up and looked around. She smiled when she saw Taylor then let her head lower back to the pillow. "How do you feel?", Taylor asked.

"Tired, but pretty good actually", Sara took a deep breath and propped herself up on her elbows. "How do you feel?", Sara asked.

"Not bad considering I should be dead." Taylor took Sara's hand inside her larger one and gave a gentle squeeze. "Thank you", was all she could say as a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Don't mention it", Sara's drawl was punctuated with a tired chuckle. "You'd do the same for me." That made Taylor smile even if her eyes still watered. "I can imagine you on top of that pile tossing tons of debris this way and that trying to un-bury me." The two of them were silent for a while before Sara asked, "How did I get here?"

Taylor took her time explaining what Jan and Kevin had done for her. "Do you think Joelstine's pilots were really going to let me die?"

Taylor shrugged her one good shoulder. "I don't know. You're the one who reads minds."

"It doesn't matter. I guess I'm out of the fight now anyway. The doctors haven't told me exactly what's wrong."

"Nothing at all. Kevin told me that you were fine, just tired. He also wanted me to tell you that Yonatan said hello."

Sara sat up straight in the bed, the fatigue suddenly forgotten. "Yonatan was here! Did you see him?"

"No, but who's this Yonatan guy. Kevin seemed to know him too."

"He heals people! This summer when we had to rescue Jan, Alisha got shot, like mortally shot. She was dying, but this guy came from nowhere and healed her completely. That's his power. So if he came to see me… Hold on a second." Sara reached out with her mind and found Kevin. She'd only just met him, but she'd been around him long enough to recognize his mind. They had a very brief mental conversation. Sara felt like jumping for joy when it was over.

"So from the look on your face, I guess that means this Yonatan fellow healed you?" Taylor only wished that he'd stuck around another couple of minutes to do the same for her, although she couldn't complain. She'd be fully healed soon enough. "Since you're all fine, it's too bad we're here."

"We don't have to be if we don't want to be."

Taylor shook her head. "They didn't tell me where the airstrip is located."

Sara smiled and patted Taylor's hand. "I know where they're heading. I can feel your father right now."

"Is he all right?"

"He's fine, relieved actually. Alisha's with him and he knows it."

Taylor jumped up and grabbed Sara's uniform from the drawer. "You get dressed, and I'll get us transportation."

"It'll take forever for me to get discharged", Sara said as she swung her feet to the floor.

"I have faith in you", was all Taylor said as she hurried out the door and down the hall. Sara put her black uniform on then opened the window. She was six stories up, but that didn't matter. It took a little fidgeting to get the outer window out of the way. Sara climbed onto the ledge and using her gift, lowered herself to the ground. No sooner had she landed than a police car pulled up. "Get in", Taylor urged.

Sara jumped into the passenger seat and off they went. Taylor drove with only her left arm, which didn't impede her ability to go fast. "I didn't steal it, if that's what you're thinking", Taylor said once they were on the highway. Sara just grinned and gave directions. She didn't even want to know how Taylor had scored this ride.

Slater Hastings checked the directions he'd written on a napkin to make sure he was heading in the right direction. The roads around here had no names, or no signs anyway, but he'd gotten the location of the secret air strip from Martin himself. Slater had a little influence since he had a large chunk of DeBraya's money. Martin had pretended to be all chummy a day ago, but in the end he'd stabbed Slater in the back. He'd taken Ted Matthews away before Slater could kill the bastard. Slater continued down the road hoping to see an airplane at the end of it. He hoped Martin, Ted, and all the rest of them were dead. He paused when he thought of Carri, remembering her awesome body with her tomboy swagger and shapely muscles. "Fuck her", Slater said and continued. She'd left him in that room alone, left him to die. 'Maybe she'd been beaten or arrested', Slater thought. 'Maybe she died inside that burning building and I'm the one who was too chicken shit to help her?' Slater shook his head and slammed the heel of his hand against the wheel. "Why am I thinking about her so much?", he exclaimed as building shapes appeared out of the darkness.

He came around the corner and an entire ghostly village sat arrayed before him. Dozens of skeletal buildings were arrayed before him in grids and swirls. None of the two, three, and four structures were finished with roofs, windows, or doors. The encroaching swamp had been pushed back recently, but this entire town looked like all the construction workers had simply vanished leaving concrete husks behind. Slater rolled slowly over a short bridge that spanned a man made creek that fed a small lake near the center of town. The planners had wanted a pristine flow, but the swamp had taken over and the murky vegetation choked creek looked like a concrete lined sewer. Slater could only imagine that the 'lake' looked as bad or worse. He stopped the car when the headlights showed a faded sign advertising the planned community with modern hurricane proof construction.

Slater chuckled at the corny sign and drove on. The old asphalt was rough under the wheels, but not broken up. Weeds grew out of the sidewalks and Slater guessed that an alligator hid behind each gaping doorway. He was right that there was danger behind almost every door, but he'd guessed wrong at the nature. He rolled slowly, not knowing which way to go when suddenly a man dressed in black stood in the middle of the road. He held a military rifle, but didn't point it at Slater who stopped the car. Suddenly there was a tap at the driver's window. Slater jumped and turned to see the muzzle of a gun pointed at his head. His pistol sat on the seat next to him, but he dared not reach for it. He rolled down the window instead. "Give me a reason to let you keep breathing", the man with the gun challenged.

"I'm a little early", Slater began, trying to keep the utter terror out of his voice. "I'm supposed to meet Martin here. I thought you guys would be more welcoming than this." Slater tried to add a chuckle. It came out as a squeak. More men came from the shadows and stared. "Where's the airstrip?"

"The strip's about a quarter mile north", the man in charge pointed. "You have to park that car on go on foot." Slater didn't argue. One of the garrison showed Slater to a roofless garage where he shut off the Aston Martin and started out on foot. He stuffed the pistol in his waistband and walked and walked and walked through this creepy town until he finally saw a long strip of concrete. He didn't see the airplane until he was only a hundred feet from it.

The Learjet 60 sat with all the lights off, but the door was open. Slater walked up the stairs and entered the nicely appointed cabin and found the pilots sitting there. "You guys should move the pane to take off position. When Martin gets here, he'll probably be in a hurry."

"Who are you?", one of the pilots asked.

"I'm Mr. DeBraya's advance man, and you'll answer to him if you don't do as I say." The two pilots looked at each other and headed to the cockpit. The engines were whining after a couple of minutes, and the plane was moving in a couple more seconds. Slater grinned and returned to the cabin and popped open a can of soda. He'd originally reached for something stronger, but wanted to keep his head clear. He felt a ton as he fell into one of the cushy seats. He took another sip from his drink then laid his head back against the seat. He didn't plan for it to happen, but Slater was asleep in a manner of seconds.

X-417 drove through the darkness, her enhanced eyes seeing what neither of her passengers did. She came to one the scary half finished buildings and stopped, seeing a camouflaged man in the shadows. She didn't have a gun, but she was ready to defend Morgen with her life it need be. It wasn't necessary. "Pull over there", Morgen said and exited the Porsche. "You must be Mr. Stern", a guard said as he emerged into the still low light. "Some guys said that little punk who came earlier was Stern, but I didn't believe it. The boss said that I'd know Morgen Stern when I met him."

That made Morgen grin. "That punk must be Slater Hastings. Get word to the pilots that they aren't to take off unless Martin gives the word." The guards watched Alphonse got out of the car with a no nonsense Black woman next to him. Morgen used his power to order X-417 to stay near the car in case they had to leave in a hurry while he and Alphonse checked the defenses.

"I see lights below!", Jan yelled and pointed off to the right of the pilot.

"I don't see a damn thing", the pilot fired back.

"I see it too", Heather exclaimed and almost hit her head on the ceiling when she started bouncing. It took another minute for the rest of the helicopter crew to see the tiny specs of light in the otherwise black swamp. They were miles away, but light carries far on a night like this. The pilots of the three choppers zeroed in on the dots and pushed closer. The line of vehicles was moving fast, but they had no chance of out running Blackhawks.

"You hear that", one of the guards in the rear most SUV asked. "Sounds like a helicopter, but I can't tell which direction it's coming from."

"Fuck!", an Army vet security guy yelled. "It's probably a Blackhawk. You can't tell which direction one of those is coming from even when you know what direction it's coming from. Matt, tell the guy up front to haul ass. It's gonna be on us soon!"

It was already on them. "There're four Chevys moving as fast as they can on a dirt road. That's got to be them." Gun barrels poked out of the open doors on the sides of the choppers.

"Nobody fires!", Jack ordered. "There are friendlies inside. Nobody fires until I give the order." It's too bad the guys in the Suburbans weren't listening. They rolled down the windows in every vehicle and opened fire with every gun they had. The helicopters climbed and banked to avoid the gunfire. A few bullets hit the bottom of the fuselage, but didn't penetrate. The pilots weren't willing to risk it. They moved back, but kept in sight.

"Turn on the lights and spook 'em", Jack ordered and blinding spotlights shined down from the helicopters to the SUVs. It only made them drive faster. Martin was near a panic as they bounced over the uneven roads.

"You're gonna tell them to back off!", he screamed at Ted then held a gun to his head.

"I can't tell them anything. Your only chance is to surrender. Anything else and you're going to die, Martin. Just give up and I guarantee that no one in my family will hurt you. They're professionals."

"You tell that to all my boys they killed back at the hideout!"

"I bet they arrested many more than they killed", Ted kept his voice even, like he was speaking in a cushy boardroom instead of in a car seat with a gun to his head. "I promise you Martin that if you order these guys to stop and surrender, everyone here will be alive when this is over. But if you pull that trigger, nothing on Earth will keep my girls from killing you. Not even those big metal things could stop them. They tore through them. Think Martin! Think!"

Martin was thinking. He kept the gun pressed against Ted's head, but his finger wasn't on the trigger, which was a good thing because Alisha was half a second from blowing Martin's brain out herself. Martin looked out the window and then at his driver. He looked at the other Suburbans as he weighed Ted's words. Martin had met all of Ted's 'girls'. He'd seen Taylor with her sublime perfection, and Jan with her captivating mix of beauty, grace, and strength at his charity event. Heather he'd met later, at his house alone. He'd seen Heather fight and knew that for her beating up trained guards was just fun. Taylor had beaten up some of his toughest guys without using her awesome strength. Martin knew that Ted was right, but it didn't matter. "Drive faster!", he ordered the driver. "We're not giving up!"

"They're going to make a run for it. Stupid bastards!", one of the pilots said and settled in for the chase.

DeBraya's convoy rushed into the village and barely broke as they tore towards the middle of the half finished town. The security team jumped out of the Suburbans and the security men already on sight emerged from the shadows. "Man every position you have! They're coming!"

The lead guard on site smiled. "Don't worry. We've got something waiting for them!"

The helicopters came in low over the tress into the skeletal village and lit up the area with the spotlights. A voice on the loud speaker urged DeBraya and his men to surrender, but in reply machine guns fired from hidden posts nestled inside the thick concrete walls of the buildings.

"Return fire!", Jack ordered as the helicopters evaded the bullets, but nothing they had on them could penetrate the reinforced concrete walls.

The pilots wanted to fall back, but Jan had an idea. "Get us closer. Heather and me will open up some room for the rest of you guys to rope down."

"I can't get you guys within a hundred feet of the ground!", the pilot complained.

"A hundred feet is fine", Jan replied to the man's surprise. He was good to his word and maneuvered the Blackhawk to a spot partially shielded from gunfire by a building, but the structures were too close to allow the blades to get much lower. It was good enough. "Next time I leave a helicopter", Jan began as she perched herself on the edge of the helicopter's door. "It better be on the ground!" Heather laughed and they jumped.

"Somebody's falling!", an agent in Jack's helicopter yelled.

Jack spun with his binoculars in time to see. He grinned. "They're not falling. Standby. Jan and Heather about to open us an L.Z."

Jan and Heather landed hard and rolled to their sides, brushing off the pain of a brutal impact then getting to their feet and sprinting towards cover. They spoke quickly before Jan entered the nearest building while Heather ran for the one a block away. Her every motion was full of purpose. Jan held her carbine close and entered the darkened building expecting to meet some resistance, but there was none. DeBraya's advance guards had used scaffolding to be a platform inside the three story tall hulk. Two men and an old .30 caliber machine gun were on top of it. Jan could have climbed to the top and dispatched those guys, but she was in a hurry. She made her way under the platform having to slink and duck her way over and under and around the steel cross members at the base. Jan put her hands on the lowest run of the jacks and squatted her butt to the ground. She took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the oxygen her muscles would need momentarily. Jan powered up her legs and the steel gave a groan. Muscles filled out the pants until the material barely contained them, and the entire scaffold system rose higher as Jan's knees straightened. Quads burst and her hamstrings were cable tight and razor sharp. Her shoulders bulged. The melon sized caps teamed with striations as her arms added strength to her already powerful lift. The speed increased until all thirty feet of scaffolding shot out of the top of the building like a jack-in-the-box. Jan put her hands on her knees, her lungs sucking in air, but she stood up straight after a few seconds, determined not to let the night's accumulated feats wear her down.

Heather silenced the second gun and met Jan on the street. They took cover in the shadows and watched the third machine-gun crew start to worry. They searched the streets with their eyes, but the gunman kept shooting at the helicopters. Jan and Heather started forward. This gun was going to get some special attention. They climbed the scaffolds and made short work of the three men on the top platform. Heather trained the gun to her left and fired into the midst of a group of previously covered DeBraya defenders. Two men were shot to pieces immediately. One more took a bullet to the foot and the rest dove behind a concrete wall. The bullets knocked chunks out, but couldn't quite burst through the three decade old cement.

"Now's our chance!", Jack yelled. "Go! Go! Go!" Two helicopters swooped towards the ground and heavy ropes dropped to the ground. Every agent was on the ground in seconds. Jack and his team moved towards the eastern side of the street and Montez's team held the west side. Both groups fired at DeBraya's mercenaries.

While Heather poured a solid stream of lead down on the targets, Jan jumped to the ground and worked her way behind the men behind the wall. Jack grinned as he watched his daughter use concealment like the expert she was until she was in a position to mow down all the men behind the wall. She took a firm grip on her rifle and ran to the corner behind the men, within conversational distance. "You have six seconds to throw your guns over the wall", Jan informed them from around that corner. "If my count gets to six a grenade kills you all." The men looked at each other for a couple of moments before realizing that they'd had enough. Death before dishonor was bullshit amongst mercenaries. Jack ordered his men forward.

"We've lost all forward positions!", a voice yelled over the radio. "They're pushing forward!", the same voice screamed.

"What does that mean?", Martin asked as he yanked Ted out of the Suburban by his injured shoulder.

"It means you're running out of chances", Ted said, only to get a kick to the back of his knee.

"The airstrip isn't easily visible from the village, and we can't use the trucks or they'll track us by air. We have to take you there on foot", the head of the village defenders told his boss. Everyone ducked as bullets flew close by and struck trees and concrete in the distance. Montez's group was coming up the west side and getting very very close.

"We aren't going to even make it to the plane at this rate. They're making your men look like amateurs", Martin accused.

The mercenary leader grinned. "We've got another couple of surprises for them", he said and spoke into his radio. A second later a chorus of growls sounded even over the gunfire as a bunch of diesel engines started up. The smoke rose high into the winter night and the ground shook when the tracks began to turn and churn up dirt like plows.

Jan and Heather both spun towards the sounds and very quickly saw the trails of smoke coming towards them. On the ground Jack feared the worst. It seemed that DeBraya and his men had come up with surprises at every turn. Jack ordered his men to take good cover as they waited for contact. The rumbling got worse and then two massive bulldozers came around the corner. Once on the main street they formed up next to each other and continued forward. Both dozers had menacing polished steel v shaped shearing blades attached at the front. The prow of those blades looked like sickles aiming to cut down Jack and his men like wheat stalks. Every piece of the cab and engine compartments were covered with thick welded steel plates, even the smokestack was armored. Even worse, they had military style anti rocket skirts welded to that armor. Even if Jack ordered the AT-4's forward, they would probably explode harmlessly. Jack exhaled through his nose and tried to come up with options. The dozers pushed over everything in their paths, knocking over concrete walls and street lamp stumps. Jack opened fire, but his bullets bounced off, so did everyone else's.

Heather spun her machine-gun to fire at the oncoming dozers, but these bullets bounced off too. One of the monster dozers started right towards her. Heather jumped down from the top of the building as the bulldozer smashed through the the side. The entire structure teetered then collapsed. The dozer driver backed up to gain some speed, then burst through the other side of the fallen wall. Thick rebar and broken concrete surrendered to its diesel supplied power.

Without express orders, one of Jack's men took aim and fired one of their anti-tank rockets. Jack was annoyed but hopeful as the rocket blazed towards its target. The bulldozer's driver saw the flash  and without really thinking about it, lowered his blade until it was tearing up asphalt. It saved his life. The agent had fired the rocket beneath the level of the skirt armor and would have impacted against the dozer's hull. Instead the rocket's head hit the slanted side of the blade and was redirected. The rocket exploded against an empty building some distance away.

The intense explosion threw Martin and all his men to the ground. They'd been making good time towards the airstrip when the rocket stopped them cold. The two men nearest the explosion were down, maybe dead. Others had to pick themselves off the ground while Martin lay stunned and too scared to scream. Alisha never allowed her illusion to falter. She'd been near the rear of the group close to Ted, and as Martin and his team tried to regroup, she knew that this was her chance. She took Ted by his uninjured shoulder and allowed him to see her. He gave a big smile, but Alisha didn't smile back. "We need to go now!" Ted didn't hesitate. He followed Alisha eastward towards the swamp. She stopped when she saw Carri getting back to her feet and dusting off her hands. "Stay here", she said to Ted and rushed up to Carri.

The air in front of Carri shimmered for a second before Alisha appeared. "Now's your only chance. You helped Mr. Matthews and my friend trusts you, so you if you don't want to get shot and killed come with us." Carri looked at Martin and then back to Alisha. The blonde nodded and suddenly Ted appeared. The three of them ducked gunfire going from building to building to get out of town when suddenly more engines started up. These didn't have the deep burble of diesels though.

Dozers weren't the only armored vehicles DeBraya's mercenaries had created. They'd added armor to big work pickups and cargo vans too. Now that Jack's team was scattered by the armored dozers, these smaller vehicles swooped in. They had machine gun ports cut into their sides and they opened fire when they got close to the battle line. One of the vehicles parked at an intersection blocking Alisha's intended path towards the forest. Several machine guns started shooting from the gunports in the side, some of the bullets came towards Alisha even if the people inside couldn't see her or those with her. But the worst thing happened next. Four stabilizing legs extended towards the ground like the ones on a mobile crane. The roof of this converted van opened up. Alisha couldn't see what was inside the van until a big boom made her cover her ears. The mortar shell flew for a few seconds before a crater making explosion knocked Jack to the ground and made he and his men find shelter.

"Shit!", Alisha exclaimed and rested her back against a concrete wall. "That's the way we have to go. I can make us invisible, but I can't make those bullets miss us. We'll have to find another way."

"No need", Carri said and moved next to Alisha. "Just keep me invisible as I approach that thing. Once I get to it, the illusion won't matter much." That plan seemed as good as any. This time Alisha nodded. Carri grinned and patted Alisha's shoulder before running towards the armored van.

"Oh my God", Taylor breathed as she and Sara rushed towards the village. "The battle's already started." Explosions lit up the night sky on the horizon. They were driving right into a fire fight and the closer they got the more Taylor worried about Sara. Then bullets started pinging against the car's fenders. One smashed through the windshield and hit the plexiglass screen behind them. Taylor slowed down.

"What are you doing?", Sara demanded.

"You almost died saving my life", Taylor began. "I'm not going to let you get shot full of holes."

Sara laughed and slapped Taylor lightly on the shoulder. "Don't worry about me. That bullet was heading towards your head. It's easier to reroute bullets rather than stop them. Don't worry about me getting shot. Neither one of us is going to get shot as long as I'm close by." Taylor stomped on the gas and the police cruiser accelerated. "Head towards the center of town. I think the action's going to be there."

Carri lowered her shoulder and ran fast, her thick muscular legs propelled her at tremendous speed. She pulled her fist back and punched the side of that armored van. That punch lifted all four tires off the ground. The plate steel looked like a wet napkin had been rammed by rhino. It was creased and cracked and dented in the center to the length of Carri's arm. A machine gun turned towards her, and she kicked the side of the van so hard that the gunner was thrown to the other side of the vehicle. He wouldn't get a chance to take back his position. Carri pulled her fist back, tightening her muscles and taking aim then she punched the van again in the exact same spot. She punched the destroyed armor plate all the way to the inside of the van. Carri stepped into the hole. The van rocked and guns went off inside. Men screamed and there was a big puff of steam. The engine died, and then Carri stepped back out of the ruined van. She had a new scratch on her shoulder and a trickle of blood running down the unhealed wound on her forehead, but she was fine. Carri motioned for Alisha and Ted to join her. Alisha was impressed. As she passed the van, Alisha understood what her friend Jan had been up against when she'd fought Carri, but she might have been even more impressed if she'd actually seen Jan at the moment.

The driver lowered his blade when Jan ran into his narrowed field of view. Tons and concrete, dirt, rocks, and asphalt rolled up as the blade destroyed everything it came in contact with. He pushed the throttles to the max as she came forward. This chick was tall, he noticed. She had to be more than 6 feet tall, but the blade on this Caterpillar was taller than that. He'd never crushed a person and he was eager to hear to sound a body made when it got smashed to tiny bits. He pushed the throttles to the max. She jumped, soaring over the blade and landing behind it. That was a horrible place to be. There wasn't room enough between the blade and armored radiator housing for a person. The driver pulled back on his lever and the blade started coming up.

Two ultra powerful hydraulic rams raised the massive blade. Jan spun towards it and put her boots against the approaching steel. Her legs were forced higher and her shoulders pressed painfully against the unyielding steel behind her. Those hydraulic rams were so powerful that they hadn't even felt any of Jan's resistance yet. She put her hands flat against the cold radiator steel and extended her arms. She let the blade continue upwards for a time, while her body compressed like a spring. When her knees were near her chest, she hardened her body like an unbreakable nut that this bulldozer wasn't strong enough to crack.

The diesel engine sang a deeper note as it shifted more power to the hydraulics to overcome whatever was against it. Jan felt every bit of this engine's power. It was awesome, but it wasn't enough. Jan's muscles flexed harder than the old steel around her and she pushed the blade towards the ground. The dozer shook as something overpowered it. Jan's eyes were narrow slits and she exhaled slowly like she was doing a heavy set of leg presses. The tear drop above Jan's knees thickened as her long striated quads flexed. Her hip flexors were a tangle of ligaments, tendons, and thickening muscles as her legs pushed straighter inch by inch. The hydraulics screamed in protest now. Jan's entire body was a maze of veins and deep muscle shapes. Her always gorgeous body hid most of its secrets, but it revealed a few of them as she finally overpowered the powerful blade, forcing it down to the ground. It hit the asphalt, but Jan didn't stop. When her legs were straight, Jan pushed off with her hands. Her triceps filling the sleeve of her rather loose uniform until the stitches started to pop. The low edge of the blade broke the asphalt as Jan pushed the huge blade down into the ground. Two inches then three then four inches into the hard ground, until finally the hydraulics couldn't take any more and failed spectacularly. Steaming hot fluid sprayed high into the air.

The driver's mouth hung open as he took his hand off the blade control. He pushed the dozer forward aiming to crush this bitch against the building in front of him. He hit the wall with a crash that shook the entire dozer. He imagined that strong bitch crushed between the armor and a few tons of reinforced concrete. Then the entire cab gave a groan. It had to be loose concrete lying against it. He didn't worry. Then the whole dozer started to vibrate and shake. Steel screeched and hollered. The driver didn't know what to do. He went to the left side of the trembling cab and unscrewed a porthole in the armor. He nervously removed the heavy piece of steel then fell back to his seat.

The biggest, hardest, most vascular, bicep he'd ever seen filled the porthole. He made out the slow rhythmic beating of this woman's heart as her arteries pulsed in time with its metronome like timing. The driver had no idea what she was doing, but he whimpered when he saw that already thick bulbous biceps flex even bigger and thicker. A second peak rose up above the first one, a jagged craggy peak that he was sure was stronger than his entire body. As if to prove it, the bulldozer shrieked and a gap appeared at the base of the heavily armored cab. No one could be that strong, the driver tried to tell himself. She was peeling off both the armor plating the original frame that was welded directly to the dozer's massive skeleton.

Jan's biceps flexed until the skin above the muscle glowed red. Individual fibers throbbed and thick squirming veins pumped gallons of blood to Jan's hungry muscles. The driver's mouth watered as his mind tried feebly to imagine what the rest of this goddess' body looked like. Jan's body was far beyond what he could have imagined. With a mighty tug, Jan ripped the entire top of the bulldozer off, exposing everything from the engine compartment in the front to the axle gears in the back. The driver cowered as he saw Jan fully for the first time. She held tons of cold steel over her head like it wasn't heavy for her at all. With her arms fully extended her uniform rode up exposing her rugged midsection. Eight blocks of deep etched muscle were visible under her skin. A network of veins ran down her abdominal wall before gathering into twin vessels that disappeared beneath her pants. Her Adonis belt wrinkled and writhed as she breathed. The driver's heart wanted to stop when her deep blue eyes settled on him. "D…. don't kill me", he whimpered. Gone was the murderous tough guy from before. He'd met someone far tougher and he didn't have the courage to confront her.

Jan took a deep breath then her muscles rippled and leapt as she pushed the top half of the dozer over and off the side to the ground. Real tears streamed down the driver's face as she jumped down to the cab floor. He backed away until his back was against the wall. Jan felt no pity for this man, only contempt. She could have killed him in any of a thousand ways and none of them would have required much effort. She patted him down for weapons, finding a pistol which she stuck in her waistband. She held onto the man's wrist and gave it a hard squeeze. The man screamed and screamed as Jan compressed his bones until they were on the verge of fracturing. "You don't have enhanced strength", she told the driver something he already knew. She reached into a cargo pocket and felt around; she felt in another then she rolled her eyes. She was out of zip-ties. Jan grabbed the right side steering clutch and snatched the steel rod from its linkage with one smooth pull. "Turn around", she ordered and the driver did as he was told. Jan's powerful muscles got a little more work as the looped the solid steel rod around the driver's wrists. It wasn't her best bow, but this guy wasn't strong enough to get out.

The second bulldozer rolled to a stop after hitting and cracking the wall of a roofless building. The thick armored cabin looked like a bomb had exploded inside it. The thick sheets of steel were peeled back like sardine cans. The driver was gone, and Heather stood on the deck wiping her bloody hands on her trousers. Some of that blood was hers and some of it belonged to the driver. He laid face down in the middle of the street after Heather and thrown him from the cab after breaking half the bones in his face. She wouldn't have hurt him if he hadn't have insisted on shooting her in the throat. Heather was pretty well fed up with being hurt. She jumped off the dozer and walked the sixty feet to where the driver had landed. Heather looked at her arms as she cuffed the driver and laughed. Brian would have fainted if he got a chance to see Heather this pumped.

Jack and his men rushed past the destroyed dozer towards the center of town. Martin had too big a head start. He didn't wait around to witness Jan and Heather eliminate the bulldozer threats. Martin had too big a head start already and anymore waiting might make all this fighting meaningless.

Montez and his team kept to Jack's left side making sure that Jack couldn't get flanked from that side. He looked over his shoulder to see Angie holding her rifle across her chest looking ready for anything. He'd been at the hospital when they'd both failed their missions. For someone reason Angie got more blame for that than Montez did, or maybe she just internalized it more. Either way he hoped her mind was right because he had a feeling that lives would depend on Angie's clear head.

Jack came to one of the squares and ordered his men to file behind him as he worked his way east around the square rather than across it. Montez and his people worked the west side, keeping to the shadows and darting from cover to cover. There were several small gun battles happening inside this village and no one wanted to catch a stray bullet. Everything was on schedule. Jack even thought he saw the clearing for the airstrip. He pushed a little bit faster, and that's when the first mortar shell exploded. It opened a crater about thirty feet in front of Jack. Jack's second grabbed the leader by his shoulder and dragged him back towards a building. Another mortar landed, and then another. Men screamed as shrapnel sprinkled their bodies.

Montez rolled behind a building when a mortar destroyed the unfinished fountain in the middle of the square. Big chunks of concrete rained down on everybody. Angie started towards Montez, hoping to keep the team together and get through this barrage, but a blast lifted her in the air and tossed her back twenty feet. She scrambled to her feet. Two hands yanked her into a building. She looked up to see Agent Fiero give her a reassuring nod. She'd only just caught her breath and calmed her raising heart when another explosion reduced the back of this two story building to rubble. The side wall cracked away from its foundations and tumbled inward. Angie wanted to run for the door, but only for an instant as another explosion illuminated the scene she saw Agent Fiero on the ground with the wall crashing down. Angie ran towards the toppling concrete. She put her boots against the mossy ground and thrust her hands up. The concrete hit her hands like a battering ram. Angie's muscles flexed katana sharp. It took every bit of her chemically enhanced strength to hold up this wall.

Jack tapped his second's hand and stood up on his own. Both men ran towards a hollow doorway hoping the concrete would give them a little cover. A shell exploded in their path. This time it was Jack's second who took the worst of it. Jack called for a medic and lifted the man off the ground by his belt. He put the man over a shoulder and ran left into a building then laid the man down to look for injuries.

Suddenly an armored van drove into the center of the square. It bristled with machine guns which sprayed the square with bullets. Two nearly struck Angie as she held the wall. She couldn't duck or move away. She could only pray that they missed. The driver headed directly towards the building with Jack and the wounded man. Bullets gouged out the concrete until the steel beneath was exposed. Jack put his head down, but knew he had to do something or they were both going to die. He pulled a grenade from his vest and threw it out the window next to the door. All the guns stopped firing for a second as that grenade rolled along the ground and under the armored van. Then it exploded with a deafening boom and a cloud a smoke. Jack ran out of the building and threw another grenade towards the rear of the van then sprinted towards the center of the square. He hoped to explode the van's gas tank. He watched the rear wheels lift off the ground a couple of inches before settling back down. Then the van turned towards him. Jack took cover behind the battered walls of the fountain, but that concrete wouldn't last long as every machine gun fired at it. Jack rolled away as bullets hit the ground where he'd been laying, but as he spun to a stop he realized that he had no more cover.

Angie spit and swore as she looked on helplessly. Her heart broke in two as she realized that she might be responsible for Ted Matthews getting captured and for Jack Caufield's death. She couldn't bear to look any member of Jan's family in the face ever again. She could save Jack, but something inside her wouldn't let her doom Agent Fiero to do it. He still lay helpless on the ground. She yelled for him to wake up, but even if he did it would be too late. Jack looked up as a machine gun barrel traversed slowly until it was pointing at the center of his head.

In the Learjet an explosion scared Slater awake. He spilled his soda on the plush rug and rushed to a window. Flashes light up the sky beyond the trees. Slater pulled the pistol from his waist and ran to the cockpit. "Take off!", Slater screamed, but the pilot refused to even taxi until Martin was on the plane. Slater couldn't believe the defiance, but he remembered something he'd learned from Carri. He smashed the side of the pistol against the co-pilot's temple then pointed it at the pilot's face. "Take off now, I'll blow your brains out and take my chances with this asshole. You've got to the count of 1 to make up your mind." The pilot pushed the throttles forward and the plane started moving down the runway. Slater stepped back with a satisfied smirk on his swollen bruised face.

Jack's hands reached for his last grenade knowing it wouldn't save his life. His vision tunneled on the barrel, realizing that this was how he was going to meet his end. He didn't expect to even see the flash or hear the shot when that machine-gun fired, but suddenly the ground shook violently, like it had been hit by a missile, but it had been hit by something far more powerful. Jack backed away when the van shuttered again, then the front tires left the ground. The front of the van was forced higher and higher into the air. Then Jack saw Taylor at the rear of the van lifting everything with just her arms. She'd punched holes straight through the armor plate and now she lifted the entire van until its steel covered grill pointed straight up at the night sky. Taylor's arms didn't shake and her face didn't look strained as she bent her knees a little. Then with a burst of strength she launched the van up like a rocket. Several tons of steel flew higher than the tallest buildings in town, so high that one of the circling helicopters had to move to keep from being struck.

Taylor hurried towards her uncle. The van reached its apex and started its final journey to the ground. "Are you okay?", she asked as the van crashed to the ground behind her. "I'm fine", Jack replied and shook his head. "I thought I told you to sit this one out."

"You did", Taylor began then grinned. "You also told me once a long time ago that I'm really hardheaded."

"You get that honestly from your mother", Jack quipped and walked towards the ruined van. A couple of men had actually crawled out of the wreckage. Taylor started towards her uncle then heard Montez call her name. He motioned for her to hurry.

Montez had dragged Agent Fiero from beneath the falling concrete wall, but Angie looked to be at the end of her rope. She couldn't get herself from beneath the massive weight.  Sweat rolled down her nearly purple face, and her muscles spasmed as they'd reached their full hyper shredded limits. Taylor stepped next to Angie and put her left hand flat against the wall. "Okay, I've got it", Taylor said softly. Angie collapsed. Montez carried her to the street. Taylor held the wall until everyone was clear before she casually pushed it over with one arm. It fell against the building next door and it crumbled to pieces.

"That was a good job", Montez told Angie, while she once again caught her breath. Taylor gave Angie a smile then turned away in case she grimaced while gingerly putting her arm back into the sling. Her injured shoulder felt like it was on fire after lifting that van, but she refused to let her pain show.

Jack ordered his team to form up as he jogged towards his niece. "Where's Sara?" Taylor pointed down the street where Jack saw a smoking armored truck. The big v8 engine had been ripped out and the armored panels lay strewn across the street. Sara crushed each man to unconsciousness then finally took a breath herself. Jack jogged towards Sara and was more amazed to see her standing there than he was at what she'd done to this armored truck.

"Last time I saw you young lady, you were on a gurney. Did you suddenly get Heather's recuperating powers too?"

Sara shook her head. "Yonatan", she said simply and Jack understood.

"We need you to locate Ted", Jack urged.

"He's safe with Alisha. They're over there in the woods. She wanted to come into the fighting, but I told her to stay put." Jack couldn't do anything but smile. These girls never ceased to amaze him. "Objective 1 competed", Jack announced over his radio so every member of the team could hear. Most of them were relieved, but Heather and Jan were overjoyed.

"Let's bring Martin down before he gets to the plane!" Everybody headed north.

Martin couldn't understand where Carri and Ted had gone. He'd wasted too much time looking for them. He felt exposed without the shelter Ted's very existence gave him, and he felt weak without Carri's muscles at his beck and call. He ran behind his most trusted men ducking and diving from one position of cover to the next. The airstrip was in sight, but for some reason the damned plane was already moving.

Slater smiled as he stood at the door to the cockpit, knowing that he should buckle into a seat, but unwilling to let either of the pilots out of his sight. He was home free. He could just about feel the sand between his toes and taste the frozen drink on is tongue. Then he saw a blinking light up ahead. It wasn't the first helicopter that had circled the airstrip, but this one didn't seem to be circling at all.

Kevin leaned close to the Blackhawk pilot and smiled. "Take us in two thirds down the runway." The pilot was understandably skeptical about playing chicken with an airplane, but Kevin had something else in mind. He slid open the copter's door and laid on his belly. He tucked his trusty sniper rifle in close to his shoulder and leveled his breathing as the helicopter leveled above the runway. "Keep it steady", Kevin urged and looked through his scope. He'd never shot a target moving this fast, but at least it was heading right towards him. Kevin took careful aim and fired.

Slater bumped his head on the ceiling when a bullet hit next to him. "Keep going!", Slater screamed, but the pilots had already started to throttle back the engines. "Go!", he screamed over the sound of air rushing through the bullet hole in the windscreen. He put the barrel of his pistol to the pilot's head and the man unfortunately pushed the throttles to the max. He didn't get a chance to remove his hand from the control because Kevin fired again. This shot hit the pilot's right arm just above the elbow. Blood sprinkled Slater's face. He fell against the wall when the plane turned hard to the right. It rolled off the runway and bounced over uneven ground until the front landing gear broke and the damaged plane nosed to the dirt.

"Fuck the lot of you!", Slater yelled and put a bullet into the co-pilot's chest before running to the cabin and opening the door. He jumped to the swamp and ran back towards the runway.

Martin was near tears as he watched his plane destroyed, but he didn't get a chance to lament. Gunfire erupted near him. He ran for cover, but there wasn't any. The man in front of him died and the man right behind him, his head of security died while giving orders. Martin stood unhurt but unnerved. He ran towards town as the rest of his security detail melted away around him. He wished Carri was there. She never would have deserted him like this. Martin picked up a rifle and ran. He rounded a corner and bumped into an agent's back hard enough to knock the man over. Martin recovered fast enough to spray the agent with bullets. Martin continued into the town running for his life. He stopped and aimed his gun when he saw an arm waving him over. "Dad?!?", Martin yelled and ran into the building.

"Round 'em up boys!", Jack screamed and pushed forward with Taylor to his left and Sara to his right. Small knots of resistance fought on and fought hard. Jack stopped behind a concrete wall a couple hundred yards from the airstrip, but Taylor looked towards the blank strip of concrete and saw something that none of the others did. She ran forward despite the bullets flying in every direction.

Slater hurried towards the trees when out of his peripheral vision he saw a shape coming towards him. He turned quickly and nearly froze up solid when he saw Taylor standing twenty feet from him. "Stay the fuck back", he screamed and raised his gun. She was tired, he saw, exhausted really, and she was injured. Despite all of that, she looked as maddeningly perfect as before and as regal as ever. Slater's gun hand didn't shake even as Taylor's cool blue eyed stare tried to intimidate him. She took a step towards him and as if on its own the gun fired. The bullet struck Taylor just below her collar. The gun fired again. The boom filled Slater's vision as the second bullet hit her chest. She stumbled backwards and Slater felt like a massive weight had been lifted from his shoulders until Taylor righted herself.

"Wow", she began then leaned against an unfinished foundation. "I didn't think you'd actually shoot me. You've certainly changed a lot in the last few days. You did shoot your own father, so I should've figured that I couldn't intimidate you like I did at the club."

Slater raised his gun. Taylor held up her hand towards him. "No no. Don't soot me again", she begged in a weary voice. "If you shoot me one more time I'll rip your arms off." Slater was so stunned that he just stood there watching as Taylor reached into the shallow wounds to pull the flattened slugs from her chest. She tossed them to the ground and sighed. "These will probably take almost half a day to heal", she complained. "Oh, I have that cute turtleneck blouse", she remembered and brightened her own mood.

"Wha… what the fuck are you?" Slater started backing away.

"Conflicted", Taylor replied with a sigh. "I never thought I'd have this much trouble from not killing someone, but if I'd killed you back at the Montcastle's party none of this would have happened. I guess no good deed goes unpunished."

"Good deed! Are you fucking crazy?!? You ruined my life."

"Don't be so dramatic", Taylor scoffed. "I ruined your face. The rest of this is your fault. I guess it ends now though."

"You're right it does", Slater said and pointed his gun right between Taylor's eyes as if that shot would have changed anything. He'd just put pressure on the trigger when a tremendous punch knocked out the rest of the teeth on the right side of Slater's head and put him down to the ground.

"You didn't think I'd let him shoot my niece again do you?", Jack said as he bent down to cuff Slater's wrists.

Taylor chuckled weakly. "Oh I really would have pulled his arms off if he'd shot me."

Jack nodded and patted her cheek. "I know you would have. Alisha's got your father back that way. I'm not sure, but I think he was looking for you." Taylor got up like her legs weren't tired, like her body didn't ache. Her beautiful face sprung into a smile like she hadn't sported in ages.

Alisha walked out of the forest with Ted to her left and Carri to her right. "This is where we part ways", Carri announced and stopped.

"Are you sure?", Alisha asked.

"Getting arrested isn't my idea of fun, besides my real boss is waiting on me."

"I don't know who your real boss is. I know you're not going to tell me, but try and stay on the right side of the law."

Carri smiled impishly and turned to run away. "Wait", Ted called out and stepped towards her. "I want to thank you", he said and extended his hand. "For everything you did for me."

Carri laughed. "I'd lie and say it was no problem, but you're a hard man to save." Carri looked to Alisha then back to Ted. "I'll try and stay on the right side of the law if you promise to never get abducted again." Carri smiled then released Ted's hand and ran towards the center of town. The persona of Carri disappeared as she ran, and by the time she reached her destination she was the cold Femme X-411.

"They're patrolling to mop up the remaining pockets", Morgen said as several agents came close to their hiding place. Martin wanted to tear his hair out.

"I told you that you shouldn't have come!", Martin grunted through clenched teeth. He looked over at Morgen. "Get him out of here. I don't know how, but get my father far away from all of this. I'll hold them off here for as long as I can. That'll stall them."

"They'll catch you or kill you", Alphonse said like a worried father.

"I'll eventually surrender, Dad", Martin said. "I'll make sure they never find out about your involvement in any of this. I'll plead guilty to whatever they want and there's no way they can make me talk. I remember all the tricks you taught me back in the day. You'll be safe and the family will finally have the Great Recipe. That's the most important thing, Dad. That's all I want." Alphonse looked at his son while Morgen tugged on his arm, urging him to leave. The closer those agents came the smaller his chance of escape became. "Hurry Dad. Go on!", Martin yelled and put his procured rifle against his shoulder.  "Morgen, talk some sense into my father."

"He's got a workable plan, but we have to move now or there'll be nothing I can do", Morgen said and peeked out of a window at a group of agents working their way building to building.

"Come on, Dad! Time's running out!", Martin urged.

"Yes, son. It is", Alphonse said softly then put the barrel of a nickel plated snub nosed against his son's chest and pulled the trigger twice.

Morgen was shocked into inaction. With agents surrounding him, Alphonse had wanted Martin dead so badly that he was willing to lose everything to do it. Martin's death seemed to be more important to Alphonse than his own life.

Morgen's eyes locked on Martin's face as the smoke wafted from the holes in the dying man's chest. He clutched at his father and in the last moments of life Martin's eyes asked why.

"You were never as strong or as smart as you wanted to be", Alphonse said as his son died. "I'm sorry it had to be this way, but it does." Morgen held his breath as Martin died. Alphonse turned towards him and Morgen tried to remember to breathe.

"I need to get you out of here", Morgen managed through cotton mouth.

"No need for that", Alphonse said smugly and put the gun in his pocket. "That's taken care of." Just then a helicopter landed in the square behind them. A group of men jumped out, but one looked like he was in command. The man walked up to the doorway with the agents in tow. "Sir", the bureaucratic man began. "The helicopter is waiting to take you wherever you want. "

"Very well, Mr. Joelstine", Alphonse said with a bit of a grin. "Were you men able to capture the girl?"

"Negative. It would seem that Jan Caufield is more intuitive than I thought. She's not just brute strength and a pretty face", Joelstine replied.

"Ah, getting Miss Hewitt would have been a very nice side victory, but our man objectives have been met." Alphonse started out the door then turned back. "Robert, have you met Mr. Stern? He's been more than helpful."

Joelstine extended his hand and Morgen shook hesitantly. His mind couldn't erase the look on Martin's face as he died, the look of betrayal and lingering love. It shook Morgen like nothing had quite shaken him before. "Pleasure to meet you", Morgen made himself say.

Alphonse said something to Joelstine that Morgen didn't even care to overhear, then the retired Federal Judge turned back to Morgen. "You're one of the best I've worked with." He looked down at his son's dead body and shook his head. "It's too bad he wasn't more like you. We'll be in touch Morgen, I've got an opportunity that you'll have to see to believe." With that Alphonse walked towards the waiting government helicopter with his shoulders straight and his head held high, like shame couldn't touch him.

"Mr. DeBraya says that you own an Aston Martin that some young punk stole. It's about a hundred yards from here. When you leave, head southwest to get out of the village. I'll make sure that route is unguarded. Have a nice day", Joelstine said then hurried to join Alphonse. Morgen watched them take off before heading to his car. He ordered X-417 to find X-411 then return the borrowed Porsche to where she'd gotten it from. Both pretty young women drove all the way back to Boca Raton as if nothing at all had happened.

Morgen couldn't put the night behind him so easily. He couldn't have explained how he felt if he'd tried. He got in his car and drove southwest like Joelstine had suggested. Good to his word, Morgen didn't see a single Federal agent. Morgen wasn't far out of town before he stopped and pulled out his satellite phone. He looked at the keypad and hesitated before dialing all the digits of a number that he'd started to dial a hundred times before. "Hallo", a firm German voice answered.

"Frohes Neues, Papa."

"Happy New Year to you too Morgen!", Heinz Stern replied. "It is so good to hear your voice, son."

"It's good to hear you too, Papa. How's Lena?", Morgen managed to ask without sobbing.

"Your sister is well. And little Lukas is wondering when he'll see his Uncle Morgen again." There was a long pause. "I'm wondering when I'll see you again as well?" A tear rolled down Morgen's cheek, knowing how much pride his father had just swallowed to ask him that.

"Very soon, Papa. I have to finish up some business here and then I will be on the first plane to Leipzig… if that is fine with you?"

"My door is always open to you. No matter what has happened before. None of that will matter when I'm able to see your face again." Morgen couldn't hold back and cried openly for the first time since his mother's death.

"Give Lena my love. And Papa, I just want to say. I love you.  I always have." Thousands of miles away Heinz Stern smiled broadly and returned the phone to the cradle. There was nothing more that needed to be said. He sat in his plush office chair and looked up at the ceiling wondering if could remember the last time he'd felt so happy.

Jack looked on as Taylor and Heather were reunited with their father. Jack didn't think the tears would ever stop between the three of them. Jan sat next to her father, nuzzled against his side, watching the joy. Jan had hugged her uncle and couldn't be happier, but there was something special in the love between a father and his daughters that had no real equivalent. The tears had barely dried when after an hour's helicopter ride Ted was reunited with his wife. Kat hugged him and kissed him and cried on his shoulder, and made time to thank Jack. She didn't have to. Jack told her that, but Kat didn't listen. After a while, Heather pulled away to give her parents some space even if Taylor and Brice weren't ready to do that yet.

"I think I'll sleep all day tomorrow", Heather told her uncle and sat down next to him.

"I understand the feeling, but that won't be possible", Jack said with a sigh.

"Why not?"

"Remember the deal I made with Otis in his store?"

"Oh yeah", Heather began and stood up slowly, fatigue finally catching up with her. "I better go tell Mom and Dad that we're spending New Years on an Indian Reservation."

Otis Osceola had been a little worried about the gathering of his family and Jan's. Otis and his family shunned extravagance and luxury, but his guests were used to wintering in Palm Beach. He couldn't put words to it exactly, but before he met Jan he'd never seen anyone as powerful as she was, but once Jack had agreed to spend New Years with Otis and his family, Otis' grandson Wayne's home would be holding Jan and five other extremely powerful people. He shouldn't have worried though. The day had turned out to be beautiful, almost as beautiful as the atmosphere inside the house.

"Could you pass the rolls", Jan asked and Wayne's daughter Jill reached a long arm out to hand them off. "Thanks for the clothes by the way", Jan said and Jill waved it off. She hadn't even remembered leaving those clothes at her grandfather's store. Of course it was nice to be able to help even if it was nearly impossible to look directly at Jan, her cousins, and several of her friends.

"Does the brightness of these auras ever wear off?", Taylor asked.

"It takes lots of meditation and practice to be able to attune yourself to see the very essence of a person. But from what Grandfather says, it's not a switch I can turn on and off unfortunately."

"I guess that's a no", Thomas said as he snatched a roll too. Everyone around the table smiled.

"Well I wish I could dim my light a little for you", Taylor replied.

"No you don't", Jill's mother Brenda said as she came around the corner with a fresh tray of food. "I doubt that dislocated shoulder and broken arm would heal right otherwise."

A couple of rooms over, Jack wasn't in a smiling mood. He and Ted were watching their Ravens get beaten by the Browns. It was enough to make Jack sick to his stomach. He looked up when Wayne stuck a cold beer in front of his face.

"At least your boys have won a Super Bowl recently. The Dolphins haven't won since I was in the 5^th grade."

Ted and Jack laughed. Carol and Kat were across the room talking to each other, reliving the horror of almost losing Ted even if they wanted to forget how it felt. This was as far from Ted as Kat had been since last night. She looked over at her husband feeling the relief all over again, but she offered to help Brenda in the kitchen. Kat couldn't keep looking after her husband like he was going to get himself lost.

With the big meal nearly finished, it was time for the Caufields to share some of their New Years traditions. They always exchanged gifts to extended family and told stories. Jan had already given her cousins their gifts, but Heather was in the middle of fulfilling her family's other tradition. Taylor might be better at coming up with wisecracks, but when it came to spinning a yarn Heather was in her element.

"That is completely misconstrued", Taylor claimed, but Heather was in the middle of this story and she wouldn't stop now.

"Oh it's true. Jan was at that camp. She'll back me up."

Taylor blushed a little and continued filling her fork with macaroni, which she did left handed since her right arm was once again immobilized.

"So they took us to the main cabin where they wanted all the campers to speak our minds about whatever we wanted. That might have been the day when I realized that a certain percentage of people are just hopelessly stupid, but I digress. After a while the conversation turned to religion. Why? I don't know, but everybody seemed to have a opinion except Taylor who reclined in a chair looking completely bored like she does most of the time. The camp counselor chick was determined to get Taylor to participate so she asked for her opinion on the whole higher power thing. So Taylor scoffed, then glared, then stood up out of the chair like this." Heather stepped out from the table so everybody could see her strike a sultry, yet annoyed pose. "People had been giving all these deep philosophical answers on both sides, Taylor just sweeps her hands down her body and says, 'Does this look like the result of random chance to you?' No really! That's what she said!" Everybody in the dining room laughed, even Brice who'd heard the story before and Jan who was in the cabin when it had happened.

Taylor tried to suppress her grin, but failed. "Hey, it got us out of that stupid gathering didn't it?"

"Yeah, back at the dorm all the girls were talking about what body part they'd fix with plastic surgery first. You made all those poor girls feel inadequate."

"You certainly made that entire retreat more interesting", Jan said and finished off the roll she'd asked for earlier.

Taylor looked up at her cousin with a smirk. "That was the same retreat where you boasted about being able to play any instrument with keys." This time it was Jan's turn to blush. "Oh, I see you remember your adventure on stage with that accordion."

"Some memories are best forgotten", Jan lamented before hiding her face.

"Speaking of that, Brice, get Jan's present out of my car if you don't mind."

"Or even if I do mind", Brice muttered as he headed for the front door. A few minutes later he came back with a bulky box wrapped in yellow and gold paper. "We were going to give this to you once we got back, but now seems like a good time", Taylor said and waited as Jan started tearing off the wrapping. She quickly revealed a guitar case.

"Oh my, it's beautiful", Jan gushed as she opened the case to reveal a blonde Gibson L7 guitar straight from the famed maker's custom shop.

"Read the inscription on the inside", Taylor urged.

Jan angled the guitar so she could see through the holes. "From Taylor, Heather, and Brice. To Jan, because you're too good at piano." Jan laughed and laid the guitar across her lap. She tried a couple of chords, but sounded terrible. She handed it off to Brice. "Here play something." Brice took the guitar and started in on 'Auld Lang Syne'. It wasn't long before everyone in the kitchen was singing along.

Brice was giving Jan her first guitar lesson when Taylor stepped into the living room. She walked right over to her father. They hugged each other with their one good arm since father and daughter had matching immobilizers. Ted wasn't upset that Taylor had torn every ligament in her shoulder, but would be completely healed before the day was over. She sat on the sofa between Jack and Ted. "Oh Daddy, I meant to ask you this morning, who's Smiley Burnette?"

Jack chuckled and Ted frowned. "He was Gene Autry's goofy sidekick", Ted replied and Taylor laughed into her hand. "How do you know about him?"

Taylor smiled looking at her uncle. "I was all broken up when you got abducted. I just couldn't understand how you could have gotten yourself in trouble like that. Well Uncle Jack explained that you always thought you were John Wayne, when you're really more like…"

"Smiley Burnette", Ted finished and Jack laughed. "Man, you better be glad my child's between us. I wouldn't want to smack her accidentally instead of you."

The banter went back and forth until Otis came ambling into the room. He took a seat on the chair and smiled. "Oh these are the good times. I know this last day was tough, but all of us will look back on these days with fondness. Troubles come every few generations, sometimes good wins, and sometimes it loses, but with your families on the right side, I believe that this time trouble's going to get a bloody nose."

Taylor grabbed a brew from the cooler next to Wayne and downed half the can in one pull. "Well, Mr. Osceola, we may not look it, but I know I feel terrible, and the rest of us do too. So if these trouble makers want a good fight we'll give them one, just let us relax for at least a few days." Otis laughed and Jack raised his beer can to tap against Taylor's.

"I'll drink to that."

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