Perchance to Dream - Next of Kin Short 6

by DKGWrites

Interrupting her school day, Lena is dragged off to a Checkmate mission where she meets two other pawns and finds her leadership tested. It's really the aftermath that shows things are headed to a boil.

Interrupting her school day, Lena is dragged off to a Checkmate mission where she meets two other pawns and finds her leadership tested. It's really the aftermath that shows things are headed to a boil.

This fic is a prequel to the first book in the Next of Kin series. If you haven't read that yet please do not continue. This contains spoilers. If you've read NoK, well, here's the sixth of several short pieces of some backstory I plan to post. I hope it helps to flesh out some of these characters and fills in some questions for you all. The prequels should be read in this order: "Queen Takes Pawn", "Queen's Pawn to Queen Four", "Kiss of Death", "Swiss Gambit", and "Alligator Sp3rm".

Lena Luthor was good at many things. Even among the Luthor family of geniuses, she was known for her quick and inquisitive mind. At the age of six, she left a mall Santa blinking, like the lights around him, at her very serious and specific list of science textbooks. She was an honest-to-god chess master at the age of ten. On the wall of her childhood bedroom she had posters of people like Timothy-Berners Lee 'Inventor of the World Wide Web' and Mildred S. Dresselhaus the 'queen of carbon science' to whom she would look up dreamily and hope to join their ranks one day (though she did keep some Nsync pictures hidden in the back of a binder away from prying eyes … shhhh!). She referred to her flawless ability to spew out huge digits of pi as a 'party trick' with a glimmer in her eye that made even her brother Lex sigh. She had received a full scholarship to MIT when she was barely into her teens and managed top grades while keeping up other … let us say extracurricular activities. Yes, Lena Luthor excelled at many things, but philosophy was not one of them.

Her eyes in slits as her head teetered, Lena Luthor found herself dangerously close to unconsciousness. Oh, it wasn't late nights, long hours, and too little caffeine. Even at a young age, it had become clear that was going to be a way of life for the youngest Luthor. It was the subject that was proving too much for the attention span of someone whose mind devoured white papers on cosmic phenomenon the way other children at sweets. As the cutoff shorts and sandal wearing professor spoke, Lena's head lolled forward, her brain filing his words away into a shady recess of her mind labeled 'Not Math or Science. Do Not Open Until the Apocalypse'.

"You've all heard the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Parents teach that to their children as a basic rule for decent human behavior and interaction. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Give people the things in this life that you yourself want. It's a concept which, at its core, seems like a simple model that should work. However, even if every person were well-meaning and followed this like I'm sure everyone in this room does," there was laughter, "the world would still be filled with discontent. Who can tell me why?"

Lena's head was sliding off her hand.

"Yes?" The professor asked.

"Because we don't all want the same thing?" A student suggested.

"Exactly," said the professor, "because we're complex organisms with different desires. Assuming that every person you meet will have their needs met the same way your needs are met is unsophisticated. It's a good philosophy for teaching basic right and wrong to a young child, but it isn't an overarching world moral view. The next intuitive step from there would be the platinum rule: Do unto others as they would have you do unto them. I'll say that again. Do unto others as they would have you do unto them. Now, I'm not telling you that we are all responsible for meeting out the needs of others, but in order to live a moral life, we need to understand that pushing our needs onto others may actually achieve the opposite of this goal."

As the professor began to write on the chalkboard, Lena's phone repeatedly buzzed in her pocket, startling her to full wakefulness. It didn't stop, forcing her to pull it out and press a button as she furrowed her brow at the screen.

Central Command: "All Agent Alert. Call in immediately with Code: Polish Immortal Game. You will be given further instructions. Delete this after reading."

Lena wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth and mumbled, "What in the bloody hell is an all agent alert?" After deleting the text, she closed her textbook and blank notebook, tossed her backpack over her shoulder, and headed to the front of the room on her way to the door.

"Going somewhere?" The professor asked as Lena passed near him.

"Ah …" Pinned to the spot by the confrontation, she held up her phone. "Yes, I've got an emergency."

"Family emergency?"

"Yes? I mean yes. My um … father, my father died and uh—"

"Oh, my God. Your father just died?"

Lena sighed both in a hurry and with no energy to bluster through this conversation. "No, my father died years ago. I have a non-family emergency, but your class is boring as hell, no offense. Honestly, I'm just going to drop it." She placed the textbook on the corner of his desk. "Maybe someone else can use that. I'm here for my engineering degree. I don't even know why we teach philosophy at this school."

"Because two humanities credits is a requirement," the professor said, his voice rising.

"Right." Lena smiled. "Well, then, maybe I'll just make a human for my credits, okay?"

He crossed his arms. "That's called sex."

Behind Lena, the class laughed.

One eyebrow raised, Lena surveyed the room. "Not the way I do it." Lena turned and left, throwing a quick, "Later, heteros," over her shoulder as she left without looking back again.

Once outside, Lena walked to an open part of the green before making the call. "This is the White Queen's Pawn. I need a secure line. The password is Polish Immortal Game."

The line was transferred over quickly to a woman she didn't know. "Queen's Pawn, glad you're still active."

Lena stiffened. "What do you mean, still active?"

"You're about to receive an encrypted email. Read it, get in your car, and get to the airport. Based on what the email tells you, buy a ticket to wherever you need to go. Meet up with any other agents when you get there. Good luck."

"Wait. Wait. Who will be meeting me there?"

"No clue."

"Oh. Okay. Am I at least staying in the country?"

"I don't know."

"What resources will be available to me?"

"Um … yeah, I don't know. I hope your credit card is paid off."

Lena pulled the phone away and glared at it before speaking into it again. "Is this a prank? Am I being hazed? Is Kalia behind this? Wait, is it Oksana? Did she get drunk, really drunk, I mean actual Russian level of blotto drunk, and decide to have a bit of fun with me?"

"No, this is like really legit. I'm basically the emergency alert system. We do tests sometimes, but this is real. This only happens when the shit hits the fan and well … I guess it's pretty brown and smelly around here."

"Oh, my God." Lena took a breath in an attempt to calm herself as she pulled her ponytail loose and dragged her hand through her hair. "How many other agents have called in?"

"You're the first one to call in. For all I know, you're the highest ranking active agent we have left."

"What!?" Lena looked around at her own sharp voice. "But I'm only eighteen."

"Really? You sound cute. Are you single?"

"Okay, now I'm hanging up." And she did.

Her earlier philosophy induced stupor long since forgotten, Lena returned to her room and checked her email. The encrypted message was sending her to Harriman, New York, a little town upstate with a population of less than 2,500. Apparently, they'd had multiple people fall into what had initially been classified as a coma with an unknown cause. This disease was fast spreading. Blood work had been ordered, but Lena didn't see any information on results yet. She could see they were looking for the presence of a pathogen or any common genetic markers among the victims. Also, the town was seeing power outages and equipment failures without cause. All anyone could agree upon was that it started in Harriman and was spreading throughout the town. The Army had been called in to quarantine the town. Seventeen hours ago, Checkmate was called in. Three hours ago, central command had lost contact with the last of the Checkmate teams that had been dispatched. Any transmissions had been spotty at best, but the email did let them know that there was one person wandering Harriman awake. He was a male in his early to mid-twenties, and the working theory was that he was the meta responsible. The commanding Army officer on site was a General Sam Lane which wasn't good news. He was a shoot first and kick anything that still twitched afterward kind of guy especially if he thought there was a meta. There was a report that he had fired a missile, against orders, but it had dropped into the town without effect. Members of Checkmate had credentials as part of a United Nations peacekeeping taskforce and would be going in with those. Though recognized by the Army, they wouldn't be welcomed.

Lena had her private plane readied as she packed a bag. She drove to the airport and took the three-hour flight from Logan Airport to the Stewart International Airport and the less than a thirty-minute drive to the perimeter outside of Harriman New York. She argued a bit with several Army personnel who checked her credentials at each checkpoint before she came to the imposing figure of General Sam Lane.

"Who the hell are you?" he barked.

"You already know who I am, General," Lena replied as she pulled off her sunglasses to look at the map on the table, refusing to meet the General's gaze, "and I don't appreciate all of the stall tactics. Are any more of my people here?"

Lane snorted. "What are you, twelve-years-old?"

Lena glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "I'm not the one behaving like a petulant child. You were ordered to hold the quarantine line and nothing else. You dropped a damn missile in there, General."

"I was just doing—"

"I'm not done!" Lena spun and faced him head-on, though her head was several inches lower than his. "You dropped a missile on a civilian target in direct opposition of your orders. That's already in our report. Before you fuck this up any more than you already have, why don't you try and salvage some of this and work with us? Give me something to add to this report that doesn't make you look like a maniac out for career suicide."

Lane glared for several moments while his lips turned white with strain. "Your people went in and stayed in. It's like a damn roach motel. Nothing comes out of there. Feel free to join them. I won't stop you."

"I'll pass, for now, thank you. Now, have any more of my people showed up since the last group went missing?"

"Just you."

Grumbling, Lena slid her glasses to hang off the front of her shirt as she slipped her hair into a ponytail. "My intel says there is one active on the ground inside. Do we have any way of tracking him?"

"It depends on the zone." The general pointed out some colored markers on the map as he spoke. "We set up motion detectors throughout the town when we arrived, but anywhere that these are red are dead zones. The green ones are still working, but we don't know for how long. If he pops into a green zone, we'll be able to track him."

"Until he hits a red zone," Lena said. "And you have all of this historical data on his movements?"

"We do."

"Get it to me."

Lane frowned. "Why? What are you thinking?"

Hands on her hips, Lena sighed. "Right now I'm thinking I don't have enough information, so I need more. This is information. Also, I'll need to see blood panels that were ordered on the people in there."

"Are you a doctor?"

"An engineer, unfortunately. It doesn't sound like what we need."

"If you can engineer a solution to kill that thing, you'll do."

"That thing?" Lena pinned the general with her best Luthor glare. "That thing is a person who is alone and probably terrified. I'm sure he has no better understanding of what's going on than we do. He just doesn't have the backing of the United States Army to get his point across."

"Right, he just gets to knock out entire towns because he wants it to happen. Don't give those things your sympathy. It will be the last mistake you make."

"General …" Lena sighed. "Look, I'm not here to have a philosophical discussion with you. Not having to do that is the only good thing about being here. Don't ruin it for me. Now, how do I go about getting that data?"

Lane nodded to a nearby Corporal who nodded back and left the tent. "It's on its way. You need anything else?"

"Someplace to set up? I assume you don't want to share space with me, and I'll need a table and a few more chairs for when more of my team shows up. I could also use a copy of that map."

"You can use one of the tents your people were using before unless you need more space. How many people are you expecting?"

"That's need to know. I'll get equipment from my car."

As Lena left, the general growled making his soldiers tense. "This has got to be a fucking joke. Someone get Washington on the phone for me. If they think some kid even younger than my own daughters is going to come in and run this operation, they've got another think coming."

Lena Luthor didn't do idle well. Oh, she could sit still, but you could practically hear the gears in her mind grinding if you got close enough. Given a problem, she wouldn't back down. She'd work toward a solution. A Luthor my name, a genius by nature, a single mother not by choice, and an agent by necessity of the unconditional nature of the love she felt for her child, Lena was many things, but passive was not among them. So, nearly two hours later, she sat with a jittering leg as she drank hot tea from a travel mug and read through medical reports in a tent that had been set up for her team's use. Another copy of the map was spread across a table, and she had her laptop with the motion detector system running on it. She closed one of the folders, rubbing at her temples to fight off an impending headache to make sense of a serious lack of usable data in a specialty that was not hers, before picking up the next folder and forging forward.

"Knock, knock."

Lena lifted her head, her gaze falling upon a man and a woman in their mid-twenties and both in civilian clothes. The man was African-American with a close beard, his hair also close to his scalp. The woman was white, a brunette with her hair short and round, wire-framed glasses over rosy cheeks. The man offered a gentle smile as he waved and entered the tent, handing off the flap to the woman who let it close behind her.

"Hey, there," the man said. "So, I hear you're the agent in charge."

Slowly, Lena pushed to her feet, her gaze sliding between the two newcomers. "In charge of …?"

"Uh …" The woman looked at the man and then shrugged before returning her gaze to Lena. Operation Polish Immortal Game, I guess. I'm not really sure what else to call this mess."

"Oh, thank God." Lena deflated, one hand resting on the table as she allowed some of the stress she had collected to melt off of her. "I was beginning to think no one else was going to show up. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was still holding onto the hope that this was some kind of prank."

Eyebrows high, the woman looked around. "Kind of elaborate, don't you think?"

"Well, yes," Lena admitted. "You don't know my family, though. We're the go big or go home sort. I'm Lena." She held out her hand.

"Lucas."

"Renee."

Everyone shook hands, exchanging the briefest of niceties and smiles.

"All right." Lena nodded. "Let me get you both up to speed on what I know, but first …" She raised a brow.

Lucas reached into his pocket, pulling out a white chess piece. "White king's knight's pawn."

Matching the movement, Renee showed her piece and said, "White queen's rook's pawn."

"Oh, you're both pawns."

"Yeah, most people are," Lucas said with a chuckle. "Is that a problem?"

"No, of course not." Lena pulled out her piece. "White queen's pawn. I suppose I was just hoping for someone … else."

Renee leaned forward, speaking in hushed tones. "We're it?"

Lena nodded.

"How long have you been here?" Renee asked.

"Two hours, and before you ask, the other teams that went in haven't come out. Unless someone else shows up, we're it."

Lucas let out a long whistle as he pulled out a chair and settled in. "Well, as the ranking agent, Lena, what's the plan?"

"Ranking agent?" Lena's eyebrows rose swiftly. "What makes you think I'm the ranking agent? I'm sure you both have tenure on me."

Lucas watched Renee who took a seat without commenting, so he said, "Maybe, okay, likely, but that doesn't decide rank. You report to the queen. Unless a name piece shows up, you're in charge."

"Or the king's pawn," Renee added. "If he shows up, you two can duke it out to see who's in charge."

"If anyone else wants to run this shit show, I'll happily hand over the reigns." Lena sunk into her seat with a look of defeat on her face. "This mess is making me long for philosophy 101."

"You're a philosopher?" Lucas asked.

"Don't insult me. I'm an engineer."

"Where?" Renee asked.

"I'm in school." Hurriedly, Lena added, "I'm working on my master's degree."

"Oh, you're older than you look."

Lena gave Renee a half-hearted smile. "Yes, I get that a lot. Anyway, here's what I have so far. These spots on the map are active motion detectors. The red ones are detectors that have failed for what we can only assume is the doing of a meta. Inside is one moving subject. I'm trying to get an image from our less than helpful friends in the Army so we can run it through facial recognition. Maybe it will help to explain all of this. Machines have been failing without reason, and people are falling into unexplained comas."

"Saw that part in the original email," Lucas said. "Nothing new in the medical reports?"

Lena pointed toward the reports. "I've read a few. I requested the first twelve known patients printed out hoping to find some kind of pattern, but medicine isn't my strength."

"I'm a biochemist," Lucas said. "Mind if I take a look?"

"Please do. I'm sure you'll spend a lot less time with google than I am. Renee, what's your specialty?"

"Archeology."

Lena spread out a hand in front of her. "You're in charge of the map."

Brows furrowed, Renee asked, "Because archeology and cartography are the same thing?"

"No, because we're desperate." Lena pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look, the machines in there seem to be falling apart, and the people are inert. Just pretend the whole place is thousands of years old. You'll feel right at home."

"Except for the metahuman," Renee said.

"No neighborhood is perfect."

As Lena stood, Renee asked, "And what will you be doing?"

"I'm going to go harass the Army for more information. Oh, so you know, they dropped a missile into the middle of this, and we aren't amused."

"No wonder you're the queen's pawn," Lucas said smiling at Lena when she made eye contact. "You're bossy."

"Well, I'm going to go boss around a three-star general. I'll be back soon."

As Lena left, Renee studied the map. "She's got pep. I like her."

"Me too," Lucas said flipping over a page in the first medical report. "This is a really crappy situation, though. I wouldn't want to be her."

"Me neither."

Though bossy wasn't Lena's nature, it was her nurture for the last fifteen years. Between being henpecked about every aspect of her existence by her mother, henpecked to be more like her mother by her mother, and just general rules of how to be a Luthor drilled into her to a degree that would have made any Army Sergeant proud, Lena knew all about being bossy. So, when the nineteen-year-old was forced to face off against an obstinate three-star General with the back of the U.S. Army, it was no real surprise when she eventually reappeared with a clipboard and more paperwork in hand.

"Well, I believe we've IDed our meta. Lucas, I have a gift for you." Lena held out a file.

"Awesome, it isn't even my birthday. What did you get me?"

"What a shitty way that would be to spend your birthday," Renee said as she placed another sticky flag to the map.

"You haven't met my mother. This is an improvement." Lena gestured to the file. "Tyrone Marks, age twenty-three, is our suspected meta. He works in construction. Tyrone has a high school diploma with no criminal background. He lives at home with his parents Mary and Eugene Marks."

Lucas dug through the files, pulling out two of them. "They're in the initial patient reports."

"They are," Lena agreed. "What you have now is Tyrone's medical file. Let's hope it helps us."

"I'll start reading."

While he did, Lena studied the work that Renee was doing. "Care to explain your flag system?"

"I have two colors," Renee pointed out the thin yellow and orange stickies on the map with writing on them. "Yellow are people and orange are things. Now, there's a lot for which we can't account, but I'm trying to account for movement, pattern, and the equipment failure and notifications of people falling into comas that we have on record from the hospital and the sheriff's department. We can expect some lag in the reporting, but there are times that we can see a direct correlation between the two occurrences."

"As if whatever is causing one is also causing the other." Lena smiled at the other woman. "I knew you'd be good with maps. Well, while not surprising, confirmation always feels good."

"Unless it's of something that's going to kill you," Renee pointed out.

"Oh, quite right. Okay, so we now know a little bit more than we knew before. What exactly do we know?" Lena asked.

Renee tapped at her laptop, pulling up an excel spreadsheet. "Okay, the first patient was a Dr. Lacomb, and we have power outages around her office space at the same time."

Lucas raised his hand as he read. "I've got a hit on Dr. Lacomb in Tyrone's file. The meta was seeing Dr. Lacomb for … oh." He lifted his head. "Acute, chronic insomnia."

"Why oh?" Renee asked.

"A lack of sleep can weigh on a person," Lucas explained. "Maybe it made this guy snap and brought out his meta abilities."

"I would think we'd have a few more of them running around during finals if that were the case," Lena said.

"Just be glad the gene that makes one of us into one of them is rare or we probably would. So, assuming we're right, are we any closer to fixing this?" Lucas asked.

"What if this is about sleeping?" Renee asked. "What if those people are all just asleep?"

"What about the machines?" Lena asked.

Renee shrugged. "You're the engineer. I know it isn't the same, but don't most modern machines have a sleep function to power down and save energy? Maybe that's what Tyrone is doing to them."

"I … could explore this from an engineering perspective. Lucas, what do you say as a biochemist?"

"That metas break every rule known to modern science, so it could be possible. I'd love to be able to examine one of the patients. That might answer our questions."

"Well, they're all inside the town still, and it's in quarantine so …" Looking at the map, Lena bit at the ball of her thumb.

"Having a bright idea?" Renee asked.

"Possibly a stupid one," Lena admitted, "but it's an idea. Lucas, outside of what teams have done to stop the effects of the meta's power so far, any suggestions for entering the area safely?"

"Nothing yet. You?"

Lena shook her head. "They've gone in wearing their best environmental containment suits, and still they all were taken out. Maybe we could use mirrors to check our paths. Reflective surfaces might not transfer the ability."

"Sounds chancey," Renee said.

"Sounds like Perseus versus Medusa," Lucas added.

"Poor Medusa." When the others looked at her, she said, "What? She was attacked by Poseidon, so Athena gave her snake hair to protect her so she would never be defenseless again. Then asshole after asshole came after her because her not matching their definition of beauty made her a monster. Finally, some over-privileged man sent his son to get rid of her and use her power for his goals. That's why the symbol of Medusa is used for women's shelters. The real story is men suck, and yes, I'm looking at you, Lucas."

Lucas held up his hands. "You know I didn't even say anything, right?"

Smiling, Lena squeezed Renee's shoulder. "You are officially my favorite person here."

"Everyone else is either with the Army, unconscious, or part of cis-male nation," turning, Renee smiled at Lena, "but thanks anyway. So, what's the plan to go in there and examine someone?"

"It would probably be faster to take someone out with us and examine them here," Lucas said.

"And break the containment area?" Lena shook her head.

"Your queen is in there. We could go to her last known coordinates and—"

"We don't break protocol, especially for our people. We all signed up for this. If someone does get moved out of there, is will be a civilian, but we're not there yet." Lena pulled up the motion detectors on her laptop. "Okay, Tyrone is in a dead zone right now, but when he pops up on this, we can track him for so long as he stays in the green."

"And it stays green," Lucas added.

"True. Still, if we had someone go to an inhabited area as far from where he showed up as possible, that would give us a good chance to go in, examine someone, and get out without running into the meta."

"That's got to be me," Lucas said. "I'm the closest thing we have to a medical doctor. If this … whatever the effect hadn't spread so quickly, I'm sure we'd know more."

"I'll drive you," Lena said.

"No reason to risk two of us."

"It will be faster in and out if there are a driver and a passenger, and you'll need someone to keep watch and provide steady contact back to command here. If I see anything, I can warn you to try to get you out of there in time. If you or Renee lose contact with me, you head back here immediately, understood?"

Lucas shook his head. "I don't think that—"

"She's right," Renee said, "with one exception. I'm going in instead of Lena."

Hands on hips, Lena asked, "And why is that?"

"Because I'm the archeologist."

"That … literally makes no sense," Lena replied.

"It makes perfect sense," Renee argued. "Look, you have rank, so you need to stay with command. That's how leadership works. Plus, I'm an archeologist. A biochemist could come in handy. An engineer we might need. Unless we find proof that this meta crawled out of some ancient Egyptian exhibit they had on display here, I'm the disposable one."

"You're not disposable," Lucas said.

"I know, but you know what I mean. Now come on, Miss Daisy. Let's go requestion us a ride so we can prep to have me drive you around while the boss here figures out our entry point."

Everyone unhappy but in something as close to agreement as possible, the group split up. Renee and Lucas came back with a jeep and communication equipment, and Lena had selected several areas for entry based on where the meta showed up next. With Renee driving, she and Lucas sat on the southern end of town with the expectation that would be their entry point based on the meta's last ping on the motion detector. When they got another blip, Lena grabbed a radio to signal the team.

"He's in quadrant C2 on the southern edge and moving north. Get going."

"You got it, boss," Lucas said as Renee put the jeep into first gear and took them past the soldiers who guarded the quarantine perimeter. It wasn't long before he said, "Okay, we've got someone down on the sidewalk. I'm going to investigate, and Renee will stay with the vehicle."

About a minute or so later, Renee's voice came across the radio. "I've turned the jeep around preparing for a hasty retreat. Man, it's a ghost town here. I don't even hear any birds chirping. It's so quiet like in a blackout."

"You're in a dead zone. You see any motion?"

"There's a flag blowing in the breeze outside of one of the stores, but that's it. Except for the guy lying in the street, the place looks deserted. I've done archeological digs that were livelier than this. Put this down for an eleven on the creep scale."

"I'll add that to our notes. Keep an eye out."

"Oh, don't worry. My head is on a swivel. So, what college?"

"Excuse me?"

"You said that you're working on your Master's degree in Engineering. What college?"

"Oh, MIT."

"Damn good school. How do you like it?"

Lena pursed her lips. "Are we making small talk?"

"Yes, we're making small talk. I'm supposed to look around and keep a steady stream of conversation going so you know I'm conscious. You keep up your end. So, how's school?"

"It's … educational I suppose."

"Fun parties?"

"Not really my scene. I'm taking a lot of classes, and then there's this so … You know."

"Right. You have a boyfriend?"

Lena cleared her throat. "Also not my scene."

"Ah. Girlfriend?"

"Dating doesn't really seem to mix in with all of this, you know? I wouldn't know how to balance it."

"You can balance it."

"How?"

"Hey, I travel to exotic and not so exotic corners of the world, and I manage it. Where there's a will, and certain biological urges, there's a way. Are you interested in dating?"

Lena huffed. "Well, I'm interested in doing something about certain biological urges. Dating seems rather complicated."

"Eh, it can be, but we've already given over too much to the agency. Don't give them everything. Carve out a little niche for yourself. Be happy."

"Huh." Lena nodded. "Do you tell someone? Can you tell someone?"

"Well, not on date one, but if it gets serious, sure. The agency does a full background check on anyone you want to establish a relationship with. It's pretty thorough, so if they stole an eraser in the second grade, you'll find out about it. If you want to tell someone, that takes on one more level of approval."

"And have you gone this route?" Lena asked.

"With my fiancé, yes."

"Wow, congratulations."

"Thanks."

"And how did he, I'm assuming he but feel free to correct me, take it?"

"Yes he, Joseph, and he was pretty relieved that I wasn't having an affair."

Lena's eyes widened. "He thought you were cheating on him?"

"Too many business trips and late-night meetings, apparently. As much as he's worried about the whole secret agent thing, it's a different kind of worry than he was feeling before. Look, relationships are hard but harder if you can't be honest. Find the right girl and you can … hold on."

Lena stood, the radio gripped in her hand. "What's wrong?"

"Where are you going?" Renee called out.

"Renee?"

"Lucas just ran down the street. Do you have the meta on your display, still?"

"Yes," Lena replied. He's still in quadrant C2. Do you see motion?"

"No but … I'm going after him."

"Do not leave the vehicle," Lena said. "I repeat, you are not authorized to leave the vehicle. Do not follow on foot. Understood?"

"Understood. I'm turning the jeep around again and following him that way. Keep an eye on that meta for me."

"I haven't stopped." About two minutes later, Lena checked in again. "Renee, I need a status update."

"Sorry. Sorry. I was yelling at Dr. Dumbass here. We're uh … we're heading back. Our ETA is twelve minutes, okay?"

"Fine. What happened?"

"We'll show you when we get back. I've got to drive."

Nodding, Lena placed the radio down before stiffening. "Wait, show me?"

Just about twenty minutes later, Renee entered the tent again.

"Where's Lucas?" Lena asked.

"Right behind me."

Lena sighed with relief. "You two scared the hell out of me. I hope you got whatever data you needed to …" As Lucas walked in with a bag over his shoulders and something in his arms, Lena frowned and asked, "What's that?"

"You've never seen a baby before?" Lucas asked.

"Not very often, actually," Lena replied taking several steps back. "Where did it come from?"

"Do you really not know," Lucas grinned, "or is this some sort of gay joke you're playing?"

"Asshole," Renee said fondly. "This is the reason we got sidetracked."

"You took a person out of the quarantine site?" Lena stared at Lucas with wide-eyes.

"No, I took a baby." He smiled down at the infant in his arms with great affection as he moved toward Lena. "Here, hold the little one."

"No. No. No." Lena waved her hands in front of herself. "That person could be a carrier. Also, they're a baby. I'm not good with children. The smaller they are the worse I am."

"Then it's a good thing this one isn't conscious," Lucas said as he pushed his arms at Lena, forcing the infant into her stiff arms. "The patterns we've tracked don't make it seem like this travels from person to person nor do any of the lab reports. If it does, you'd be screwed over just from being around us since I touched someone. I'm going to find us a cot or something I can use as a cot. I'll be right back."

"No, don't leave me with …" Lena's protests died off as Lucas left. She turned, offering a helpless look to Renee. "Would you like to hold the baby?"

"Nope, it smells like pee. Enjoy."

Lena wrinkled up her nose in agreement. "Why did we steal a baby?"

"Lucas said the kid needed medical attention." Renee pointed to a bag with a medical insignia that Lucas had placed on the floor when he left. "We would have been by sooner, but we had to stop by some medi-clinic place to grab medical supplies."

"That they won't have here?"

"He needed pediatric supplies."

"Oh." Lena nodded and examined the infant that lay in her arms breathing but otherwise unmoving. "It looks pale. Are baby's lips supposed to be this pale?"

Renee came over to investigate. "No, they're dry also. Lucas was pressing on their chest and said it was a sign of dehydration."

"How so?"

Renee shrugged. "I'm an archeologist and a driver, remember? I have no idea. Lucas said dehydrated, so I guess it means dehydrated. Oh, hold on." Renee left and came back in with a pack of diapers, some wipes, and a tub of ointment. "We got this from a local store while we were out. We should change the baby."

"You went shopping?" Lena rolled her eyes. "What were you two thinking?"

Renee grabbed a blanket, laying it on the ground. "That you would tell us if the meta was heading our way, and that the baby smelled like pee. Want to flip a coin to see who changes it?"

"As the ranking agent," Lena smiled and lay the baby on the blanket, "no."

"Leadership becomes you."

Renee went about changing the baby, dealing with a nasty case of diaper rash. Not having another option, they took one of Lena's t-shirts for a makeshift baby sleeper. At Lena's insistence, they threw out everything including the baby's wet clothes and blanket from earlier. Then they wrapped up the baby in the Army blanket right about the time Lucas came back in with a folded cot and an IV pole.

"This should work," he said as Lena gave him a hand setting things up. "Sorry to have sprung this on you."

"No, it's fine. I mean maybe you've doomed us all, but you did what you thought was right. Plus, it's a baby."

"Yeah, I was doing my assessment on the guy we found when I saw motion. It scared the hell out of me. There was a big breeze, and it literally pushed the stroller down the street. I was hoping it was empty, but obviously, it wasn't."

"Obviously," Lena agreed.

"I did a quick assessment and saw the baby was dehydrated."

"Something to do with their chest?" Lena asked.

The cot set up, Lucas motioned for Renee to place the baby down on it, and she did.

"Oh, dry diaper. That's better huh?" He smiled as he pulled up the t-shirt they'd placed on the baby.

Renee nodded. "By the way, we have a girl."

"Well, if you push down on this little ladies sternum," Lucas said demonstrating, "you'll see it stays white. With adults or children, you use the fingernails. When you push down on mine or yours," he repeated the process with his nail, "the color returns immediately."

"Because blood returns," Lena said.

Lucas grinned as he grabbed the medical bag and pulled out the saline. "We'll make a doctor out of you yet. Hang that bag of fluid for me?"

Nodding, Lena did so as Lucas dug around in the bag more and came out with an IV line. He pulled out two sets of gloves still sterile in their covers. "I managed to find a 24-gauge catheter. The smaller the better especially with this little one being dehydrated." He held up the smaller set of gloves. "Who's my assistant?"

"I'm out," Renee said. "I'm not a fan of needles. The bodies I work with have been dry for thousands of years."

"I'll help." Lena took the gloves, opening the package and pulling them on. "What do I need to do?"

Lucas lay some surgical tape next to the baby. "Just hold her hand in place for me. I don't think she'll move, but I need her very steady just the same." He pulled over a light and wrapped a piece of surgical tubing around the baby's arm, then he put on his gloves and wiped down the back of her hand with alcohol. Lucas began to feel around on the back of the girl's hand.

"Looking for a vein?" Lena asked.

He nodded. "The tourniquet will help collect blood at the vein which will help. I'll need all the help I can get with her only being a few months old and being dehydrated. At least she isn't moving."

"The cause is also a blessing in this case?"

Carefully, Lucas uncovered the needle and slid it into the babies hand. It took him four sticks before he got what he needed with a relieved sigh. "Okay, I suck at this."

"And I'm sure most MDs aren't great biochemists," Lena said offering him a reassuring smile while he taped the IV into place and set the drip at the right level. "Hey, you did a really good thing, here. Who knows how long she'd have gone without fluid otherwise."

He smiled back and bundled the infant up again. "Thanks. Let's hope we're right about her not being a carrier."

"Let's hope." As the group sat around the table again, Lena asked, "So, did we learn anything from the expedition into town?"

"Besides that Lucas is a natural mom?" Renee smirked.

"I'm a natural dad, thank you," Lucas smiled back, "and as a matter-of-fact, I think we did. R.E.M."

"Like the song 'Losing My Religion'?" Renee asked.

"No, like Rapid Eye Movement. The man I examined was dreaming."

"Oh, so he was asleep." Lena nodded. "Then we're on the right track. Where do we go from here?"

"We could try stimulants to wake them up," Lucas suggested. "This thing was hitting so quickly that they were just documenting and recording patients. They had blood work ordered and hadn't gotten to do anything with the results before this reached an epidemic, the town was shut down, and then we were called in."

"Likewise, we could grab one of the powered down machines and see if we could reboot it perhaps through a power surge," Lena suggested. "If we screw up, I'd rather blow out a motion detector than a person."

Pointing at the map, Renee said, "I'll go get one."

"Renee—"

"Doctor," Renee pointed at Lucas, "engineer," she pointed at Lena, "and archeologist/shuttle driver. I'll go get us one. I saw one we could grab on our way in, and the meta is still in a green section."

"Fine," Lena said with a tone to her voice that made it clear it was anything but fine. "Don't take any chances, and stay in communication."

"Hey, I'm not the baby stroller chaser in this trio. I know how to stay within mission parameters."

"Whatever, if you saw a mummy walking down the street, you'd be out of that jeep and off task so fast, it would make our heads spin."

Renee snorted and headed for the door. "Don't be ridiculous. There are no such thing as walking mummies."

"How do you know there isn't a meta that can bring ancient Egyptian dead back to animation? Maybe that's what the original curse of the mummy was." Lena said with a cheeky grin.

Turning, Renee pointed at Lena. "You … it … No." Then she left without another word.

"Nice." When Lucas held up his hand, Lena slapped it.

True to her word, Renee was gone and back with one of the motion detectors in short order. Though Lena fiddled with it for a while, she wasn't able to get it back online. She even tried a power surge as earlier discussed.

"This is hopeless." Lena tossed the grid relay from the motion detector away. "There is nothing wrong with this thing. It should be working. It's like it's … it's …"

"Asleep?" Lucas suggested.

"Yes, but machinery doesn't work this way." She walked away to stare at her laptop. "This is so fucking frustrating. I hate when the natural order of things is unnatural. What's the point of being a scientist if science is broken?"

"Maybe we just need to hug it out with the meta," Renee suggested.

Lena grunted. "Now you sound like my philosophy professor." She glared at her computer for several moments before turning back to Renee. "Wait a minute. Maybe you're onto something."

"You want to go hug the meta?"

"God no, but maybe this isn't about what we want. Maybe this is about what the meta wants. Lucas, you said the meta was being treated for severe insomnia, right?"

"Acute, chronic insomnia," he said looking up from the medical reports he was reading. "How does this help us?"

"Well, instead of trying to wake people up which is what we want, we should focus on the platinum rule."

"The platinum rule," Renee suggested. "Educate me."

"We worry about giving the meta what he wants and needs and he needs to sleep. Ugh, if this works the worst part will be admitting I got anything out of that stupid philosophy class."

"You really hate philosophy, don't you?" Lucas asked.

"Yes, I'm a bad person. Get on with your life. At any rate, if the meta wants to sleep, maybe that's what we give him. Let's help him sleep."

Lucas flipped through one of the medical files. "Tyrone seems to have gone through a number of different sleeping aids to which he has become resistant, but we could try …" He looked up at the others. "No one can get mad at me for this suggestion. This is basically Lena's idea."

Lena rolled her hand in front of herself. "Out with it."

"Rohypnol."

Lena blinked at him rapidly. "You want to roofie the meta?"

Lucas shrugged. "It was your idea."

"No place in our report will it say that giving the meta a roofie was Lena's idea. I'm not signing off on that." Lena sunk back in her chair. "Do you think it would work?"

"It could," Lucas admitted. "At least, it could knock the meta out. I'm not sure if that would wake anyone else up, but we don't have a lot to go on here. Rohypnol produces a decrease in delta wave activity. Hypothetically speaking, it could be this abundance of delta wave activity that is giving the meta his powers, or it could be anything else. I'm really just making this all up now."

Squeezing Lucas' hand, Renee said, "We all are. We do we have to lose?"

"Well, there could be paradoxical effects," Lucas said.

"As in opposite?" Lena asked, a dangerous note in her voice.

Lucas nodded. "In a small percentage of people, the user becomes anxious, aggressive, confused, even violent."

"Violent." Renee sighed. "Okay, well I volunteer again for the—"

"Wait," Lena said. "We have another issue." When the others paused, she said, "If this works, then the best resolution is everyone wakes up and the machines all work again, right?"

Renee and Lucas nodded.

"Well, thanks to General Jackass, we've got a missile lying in the middle of town. Does that go off?"

"That," Renee paused with one finger raised and then dropped her hand, "is not a question for an archeologist."

"Or a biochemist." Lucas smiled.

"Right, so I guess I'll be making a trip into the middle of town. Do we know where that thing went down?"

"We'll get as much information as we can," Renee said, "but we know it fell off the radar and didn't show up on a motion detector."

"Of course, it didn't. Why make it easy? We should just assume it's in the worst possible location. We'll probably be right." Lena sighed.

"Okay, then what will you need?" Renee asked.

"Tools and full technical specs on whatever the Army launched," Lena said.

"I'm on it." Renee jumped to her feet.

"Hey, what do you think the odds are I can use this little missile disarmament as my project for my graduate work?"

"I think the whole top secret clearance thing will throw the kibosh on that," Renee replied.

"Ah, and just when I thought there was a silver lining to this giant-ass cloud hovering over our heads. Okay, so one more thing occurs to me. Where do we, three agents in good standing attached as a special arm of the United Nations, get an illegal drug in the middle of a military quarantine zone in upstate New York?"

When Lucas shrugged, Renee said, "That's a good question. When I got up this morning, this is not where I thought this day would take me."

As it turned out, a quick hacking and search of the local sheriff's evidence database showed the drug they needed was in town behind lockup. They were able to get the number of the evidence bag and make a plan to retrieve it. With all the people and the electronics out in that area, they would literally be walking in, taking keys from the sheriff, and helping themselves.

Lena's role at disarming the missile was more complicated. She went over the plans with the Army engineers and had a good understanding of what she needed to do. Her concern wasn't that it would explode while she worked, but that it would explode once the meta was asleep. She also needed to disconnect the flight motor to keep the thrusters from coming back online.

"Okay, the tools as supplied by the Army engineers are packed in the jeep. You ready to do this, MIT?" Renee asked, wiping her hands together.

Lena frowned heavily at the diagrams laid out across the table and pointed at them as she spoke. "As ready as I'm going to get. We're dealing with a TOW 2B Anti-tank missile. It has forward and aft warheads because apparently, one warhead isn't enough. The good news is there is a door for the safety and arming device. I wouldn't say disarming it will be a snap, but at least we won't have to cut into the thing to get to the components we need. The launch motor is deep inside this thing, but there is a digital electronics unit along one side. If there's a convenient door for that, it's not on my diagram, so we're cutting our way in."

"Well, at least that's not near one of the warheads. Small blessings, right?" Renee grinned. "Lucas, ready to steal some illegal drugs from police lockup?"

"Yup, and I'm really looking forward to putting this in my report … assuming it works."

"Well, if it doesn't, likely none of us will be writing a report at least for a while. With no one else showing up, I think we can consider ourselves the last-ditch effort."

"Then let's hope it works for everyone's sake," Renee said. "Come on. Our jeeps await."

The team split up. Lena and Renee took the information provided by the Army and headed off in search of the missile. Lucas left in another jeep for the sheriff's department which was, of course, at the other end of town. Finding an anti-tank missile laying in the streets of a deserted looking town wasn't all that difficult, just a little bit time consuming, but Lena and Renee managed it readily enough. Lucas was still off raiding the sheriff's department when they rolled up on it.

The TOW 2B is a cylinder about four feet long. It has X-shaped fins for stability in the middle and a vertical and horizontal tail at the end. The tip is rounded off, and it's your standard Army green with little other color. It lay in the section of dug up street it had created on impact, looking both dangerous and ineffective.

"Huh," Renee pulled herself out of the driver's seat and stood on the lip of the jeep frowning at the dangerous piece of armament, "it's smaller than I expected. Did you know it was that small?"

With a tube of diagrams in hand, Lena hopped out and walked to the back of the jeep to grab tools. "It's on the specs, but seeing it in person is something different. They're made to stop a tank. I suppose you just expect something … more."

As Lena met her gaze, Renee nodded. "Okay, tell me what I can do." She followed Lena in setting up next to the missile.

Lena lay the tools and the tube down before examining the missile. "Well, first we hope this thing landed the right side up, or we have to find a way to turn it and …" Lena smiled back at the other agent. "Maybe luck has finally turned our way."

"Doubtful but I'll take it. Hold on. Let me grab something else from the jeep." Renee left and returned with four cans.

"Beans? Are we having lunch out here? Not the place or last meal I would have chosen," Lena said as she pulled out the diagrams from the tube.

"I'll pass along your feedback to the chef." Renee took one side of the diagrams from Lena, placing a can of beans on each corner. "They're weights."

"Ah. Archeologist trick?"

"We tend to have plenty of rocks laying around, but yes. We're often outside in sub-prime conditions. I bet you spend most of your time at a desk."

"You'd win that bet. I'm not exactly an action hero." Lena began to root around in the tool bag.

"You're faking it pretty well then, G.I. Jane. Maybe you'll consider a more active job after you get your degree."

Lena chuckled as she looked at the diagrams. "No thank you. Scientific exploration is exciting enough for me. I'm looking forward to a boring life of leisure."

"O-kay. Then what made you join Checkmate?"

An eyebrow quipped, Lena said, "My uh … I had a family member in trouble. The White Queen made me a deal, an offer of employment in exchange for protection. I wasn't exactly in a position to refuse. It was mutually beneficial."

Renee frowned. "That sucks. How old were you?"

"I had just turned eighteen."

"Wow, you weren't even ripe yet, and they plucked you right from the tree, huh? That really sucks."

Instead of commenting, Lena said, "What about you? You already had travel and excitement in your line of work. What made you join up?"

"I suppose you could say it was just a matter of circumstances. Our paths crossed." When Lena just made a noncommittal noise and began to open a panel, Renee said, "I was working on a dig when one of the other archeologists stumbled upon a pendant of Tiamat."

Lena lifted her head, her brows creased together. "The chromatic dragon from D&D?"

Slowly, Renee smiled. "You might want to tuck your nerd back in there. It's flapping in the breeze. No, I mean Tiamat the Mesopotamian primordial goddess of the oceans."

Smirking, Lena went back to opening the panel. "As if knowing that makes you any less of a nerd than me."

"True, but I'm a nerd for pay not for play. Anyway, I don't know if she actually put it on. I can't imagine she did that, but somehow she seemed to be possessed by something that had powers well beyond our explanation. She could transform into this giant dragon and was looking for 'the younger gods' to take revenge on them for the murder of her husband, Apsû."

"Mind holding that light for me?" Lena asked as she got the panel open.

"No problem."

"So, giant dragon as opposed to small dragon?"

"Hey, I was pretty convinced at dragon of chaos and destruction, but the fact that she was like thirty feet high, that sold it. Can you see all right?"

Lena nodded.

"Anyway, these government types show up to add to the movie theme we have going on, and they're not having any luck fighting a dragon. We've all been taken off to a hotel and locked away. Going through the files on my computer, I'm looking through the images I have of the pendant, and I find something I think may help. After a lot of arguing with various government folks, this guy named Jack finally comes to see me."

"Jack?" Lena asked as she examined the diagrams, comparing them to the wiring inside the panel.

"Jack Wyznowski, the White Queen's Rook. He and I have a sit down over my research, and I discuss the translations I've done on the pendant. The dig site is near a body of saltwater. I think that's what made Tiamat emerge in the form of the dragon. However, she exists in a paradox, and her other side is of the beauty of the feminine, of the creator through her link through Apsû with freshwater."

Lena holds out her hand. "Wirecutters."

Renee slaps them into the waiting hand.

"Okay, so freshwater. Then what happened."

"I suggested the way to get rid of the dragon is to lead her into freshwater. It worked."

"Really?" Double checking the diagrams, Lena snips a wire. "I wish all we needed to do was throw a bottle of Poland Springs at this meta. So you got the dragon to drink from the firehose and saved the day?"

Renee chuckled. "Not exactly but yes. After speaking with his superiors, Jack approached me at my university and offered me a position reporting directly to him. I was intrigued but cautious. We met a few more times, and he assured me it was his first dragon sighting, before I finally signed on the dotted line. I'm now our expert on all things Mesopotamian."

"You wouldn't think that would be in particularly high demand."

"It's not," Renee agreed. "I've gotten called in for Egyptian related issues, Roman Empire finds. I once got called when someone was possessed by the spirit of Jack the Ripper with the 'it's history' excuse. I mean hell, call Scotland Yard. What do I know?"

Lena nodded. "I understand. All engineering is not the same."

"Yet here you are disarming a missile while a meta with sleep powers wanders around."

"Yes, my life went terribly off track somewhere. Wouldn't Mother be proud if she could see me now."

"You're saving lives. I'm sure your mother—" Renee stopped speaking suddenly, holding up a hand to her ear com.

"What is it?" Lena asked as she looked away from the missile and watched the other woman.

Renee nodded twice, cursing under her breath. "Got it." She took her hand off her coms. "The Army says the meta has disappeared off of the motion detectors and is moving fast, heading in our general direction."

"How fast?"

"Probably driving. What do we do?"

Lena barely paused before returning to the missile. "We keep working. He could stay out of motion detector range for days for all we know. We need to get this disarmed now that we've started it. Does Lucas know about the meta?"

"He confirmed."

"Good, then we all have the same information. You keep an eye out, and I'll work as quickly as I can. The meta is probably just headed to the grocery store or something."

"Uh, the grocery store is on this street."

Lena sighed heavily. "Of course, it is. In that case, he's definitely going to the grocery store. Signal me if you see something."

"What kind of signal?"

"Something casual that won't startle me or the meta. I am disarming a warhead."

Renee nodded, and about two minutes later began to curse quietly but loud enough that Lena could hear her. "Fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck, shit, fuck."

Lena paused, blinking as she stared at the missile. "That's the signal, isn't it?"

"The fucks were," Renee said swallowing hard. "The shit was an explanation for an involuntary muscle reaction."

Despite the situation, a smile tugged at the corner of Lena's mouth. "You know, I really am quite fond of you. I'm almost done with this part."

"How close?"

A car stopped near them, the door opening and closing, and a man asked, "Who are you?"

"I may say shit again," Renee whispered.

"Stall him," Lena whispered back.

"Excuse me?" Renee asked in equally hushed tones. "You want me to what?"

"You faced down a dragon. This is just a man. Talk to him. Stall him."

"I ran from the dragon and read my notes in my hotel room. Mama Rockwell did not raise any fools."

"Renee, just convince him that we're doing something he wants us to do. He needs to believe he doesn't want us to sleep. We still don't know how his power works, but it seems to be linked to his desire."

"And how exactly am I supposed to convince him of that?"

"Be honest with him. You know," Lena shrugged, "hug it out."

"Hug it out," Renee muttered before turning to face the meta and smiling.

Before her was a man, who looked much like he had in his photo. He was fairly average but muscular, and he looked haggard. He stood with his hands in the pocket of his hoodie, had dark rings under his eyes, and watched her with a skeptical expression.

"Hi, I'm Renee. This is Lena. We're here to help."

He frowned. "How do you intend to do that?"

"Well, first we're disarming this missile those Army assholes shot in here, so it doesn't hurt anyone. Well, Lena's disarming it. I just drive the jeep and hold the light." Renee waved the flashlight around a bit. "Then a friend of ours is going to bring you something you need."

"And what's that?"

Lena reached back blindly, saying, "Flashlight." When Renee handed it off, Lena gripped it between her lips and continued working.

"Some medicine to help you sleep. Would you like that?"

With a sigh, the man ran his hand through his brown curls. "I'm so fucking tired."

"I bet you are, buddy. It's been a while since you slept, huh?"

"Over a week, I think. It's hard to tell when the days all blur together."

"Damn. Look, just let us finish up what we're doing here, and then we'll see about helping you. We really are here to help, but it's important that we stay awake until we're able to deal with this missile and get you your meds, okay?"

He pursed his lips as he studied Renee. "None of the drugs have worked in a while."

"Yeah, we read your medical records." When he tensed slightly, Renee held up her hands. "My friend Lucas is a doctor, and he was looking for a way to help you, Tyrone. Is it okay if I call you Tyrone?"

"It's my name."

"Anyway, Tyrone, my friend Lucas, the doctor, he noticed that you've gone through a lot of sleep meds, and they're not working anymore. We're trying a different one."

"Which one?"

"It's … not exactly legal in this country." Renee held up her hands in front of herself again. "It won't hurt you. I promise."

"Lady, that's the least of my worries. I'm about ready to put a bullet in my own brain just to shut it off. I just want to turn my brain off. You get that?"

"Yeah, yeah, I do."

From a side street, another vehicle moved into view but stopped suddenly.

"That's my friend," Renee said. "Wait here a moment, okay?"

Tyrone shrugged.

Stepping back over to Lena, Renee said, "Lucas is here, but he's holding at the other end of the street. What's the plan?"

"Ggg gttt thhh mdds."

"What?" She took the flashlight from Lena's mouth.

"Thank you. Go and get the medication from him, then send Lucas back to the tent with whatever our friend here shouldn't take in case we fail in completing the mission. Lucas will need to take the rest of the medicine and complete it himself."

"Got it," Renee said shoving the flashlight back into Lena's mouth, getting into the jeep, and driving off to join Lucas at the other end of the street.

Lena tensed as a hand grabbed the flashlight in her mouth.

"Can I help you with that?"

Swallowing hard, she forced a smile to her lips and kept her gaze trained on the arming device. "Thank you."

"You're sweating. Are you hot?"

"Nervous," Lena explained. "It's my first time disarming a missile."

"Hope it's not your last because, you know," when Lena glance at him he puffed up his cheeks and blew out the air, "kaboom."

"Agreed," she said with a nervous laugh that had nothing to do with the device in question. "So long as I stay awake, it won't go off." She eyed him twice as she returned her attention to the missile.

"I'm not trying to hurt anyone, you know."

"All right."

"I mean, I know that people and things keep … they just keep stopping. Sometimes that's on purpose because they're trying to hurt me, but mostly it's just me thinking about wanting to sleep, and thinking about how lucky they are to be able to sleep, and the next thing I know—"

"Don't think about it now!" Lena stared at him wide-eyed. "Right now think about how awful it would be if this blew up and scattered bits of me all over the street. You wouldn't like that, would you?"

"Not particularly."

"That makes two of us." She looked down at the diagrams again, shaking out one of her legs. "Pins in needles. I'm sure under other circumstances, my leg falling asleep would be funny. Sorry. Try not to think about that either."

"I'm still thinking about the explosion."

"Good. Concentrate on that. Wait." She turned, staring at Tyrone. "You can't make that happen by thinking about it, can you?"

"I don't think so. So far all that's happened is people falling down around me, things not working. Nothing has exploded. There have been a few car crashes, but that's because of people asleep at the wheel, I think."

Lena nodded, feeling around inside the missile and clipping a wire, then looking back at the diagram one more time. "I think that does it." She nodded again, sighing. "Yes, that does it."

"It's disarmed?"

"It is, but I also need to work on the ignition system or that may activate again. Armed or not, we don't want this thing shooting through the town. It could hurt someone."

As Lena moved closer to the far end of the missile, Renee returned in the jeep. She exited with a bottle of Gatorade and four pills in her hand.

"Here, take two," Renee said. "If for some reason that doesn't work, then and only then, doctors orders, can you take another two."

As Tyrone reached for the pills, Lena said, "Wait, how long do these take to work?"

"Lucas said fifteen to twenty minutes."

Tyrone grabbed the Gatorade and cracked the bottle, swallowing the first two pills.

Her eyes widening, Renee asked, "Did you finish disarming—"

"Yes, but I still need to disengage the ignition system. Give me the other two pills and get me the blowtorch."

"I bet the three of us could move it," Renee said. "Why don't we put it in the jeep and drive it out of here? It's smaller than I thought it would be."

"What if Tyrone falls asleep and it ignites in the jeep?" Lena shook her head, taking the pills from Renee and slipping them into her pocket. "We're not taking that chance. Grab me the blow torch while I make sure I have the right cutting area."

"But … fine."

Renee left and returned with the blowtorch and accouterments. Tyrone actually proved quite handy in setting it up, having some welding experience from construction. Lena wasn't unfamiliar with the tool either in her engineering work, so in about ten minutes, she was ready to go.

"Okay, Renee, now leave."

"No, I came with you. I leave with you."

"This isn't up for debate. It's an order. If something goes wrong, you and Lucas will have a better chance of completing this than just him."

Renee frowned but nodded.

Lena held out her hand. "Give me your earpiece so I can call for a ride when we're all set."

"You'll have the jeep."

"No, you're the driver and my Uber when I call. Now, give me your coms and stop wasting my time. I may not have much of it left, and I have to get this missile open."

Grumbling, Renee slapped the coms into Lena's hand. "This is under protest. I'm putting that in my report."

"Lovely. I'll speak with you soon." Sliding the coms into her pocket and her goggles down, Lena ignored the jeep pulling away as she began to cut into the missile casing where she had marked it. The process only took a few minutes, and soon she had access to the electronics unit that was attached to the launch motor. "How are you feeling, anything yet?"

"Maybe," Tyrone admitted. "What is this stuff?"

"Honestly, we roofied you."

"Like, the stuff assholes slip into girls drinks in bars?"

Lena nodded as she looked at the diagram, pulling the unit away from the rest of the device which only left it dangling by a few wires. "I'm that asshole."

"Oh, no wonder my doc didn't prescribe this. How'd you get this?"

"Stole it from the sheriff's station, evidence lockup, since everyone there was asleep." She shrugged and snipped all of the wires, removing the entire unit. "Well, that was a lot less harrowing than the warheads. I think we're good."

"No more dangerous missile?"

Leaning back against the missile, Lena grinned. "I think we have officially ruined the Army's plan to blow you up unless you know of any other explosive devices around town. Please say you don't know of any other explosive devices around town. I'm really better at building things than taking them apart."

"Whew." A bit shaky, he turned and sat next to her. "I think you're good. So are these pills."

"Not feeling too well?"

"I'm feeling kind of groggy, sort of foggy."

"That's good. That means they're doing something." She offered him a tight smile. "So, we might want to consider moving away from this missile in case my first attempt at disarming a missile goes about as well as my first attempt at rewiring a microwave did."

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Not good?"

"Let's just say that although chef was louder, Mother was less pleased with the results." Lena grinned. "My brother, on the other hand, he thought it was hilarious."

"But not the cook or your mom."

Lena sniffed. "My mother was born without the gene to smile. The chef … Well, let's just say that that was the day I learned that jebo te patak was Serbian for 'May a duck fuck you.' When eight-year-old innocent me asked my brother how that was anatomically possible, he just laughed harder."

"Hmmm." Tyrone's eyes drifted closed. "Sounds like you guys had a fun time growing up."

"Oh, God no. It was awful," Lena said with a bark of laughter. "That's why I got out of there as quickly as I could and turned to a life of missile disarmament. Speaking of which, do you maybe want to … Tyrone?" She turned, nudging him only to have him slump slightly. "Tyrone, can you get up? Tyrone."

As a solid snore was pulled from the man, something clicked within the missile. Lena gasped, jumping to her feet and spinning where she stood, one hand to her heart and another outstretched perhaps in an attempt to ward off an explosion. When the hum of electronics filled the air, the street lights shone and storefronts glowed softly, and she still lived, Lena let out one shuddering breath.

Sinking to her knees, she allowed the tension of the last day to roll off of her. "Thank you MIT engineering department." As motion from within stores caught her eyes, Lena placed the com in her ear and said, "Renee, this is Lena, do you read me?"

"I do. I take it you're not talking in your sleep."

"You'd be right. I also didn't explode." She grinned.

"So it worked?" There was obvious enthusiasm in the other agent's voice.

"I'm calling for my Uber. It will be a passenger and me. Please bring Lucas. I think we'll need help moving Tyrone."

"Consider us on our way as soon as he and I meet up. Oh, and good work, boss."

Lena rolled her eyes. "Speaking of which, I'm going to stand by this missile and blather about a chemical leak to anyone local who comes out to speak to me. Feel free to get anyone who ranks me, which is just about anyone, to come out here and take over. I need to get debriefed and then get back to school so I can grovel to a philosophy teacher and see if he'll let me back into his only mostly useless class."

"Yeah, just stay put. The channels are lighting up, so our people are checking in. We'll be there soon."

Lena turned at the sound of a vehicle, squinting as it pulled near and she saw the familiar face of a white knight named Isobel Sanchez. "Actually, one of our people just found me, and as expected, she outranks me. Thank God."

"Still need that Uber?"

"No, hold tight. I'll check in again in twenty. Oh, great work today, Renee. From now on when I need help with something that has absolutely nothing to do with archeology, I'm calling you first."

Laughter rang, sharp and joyful, over the coms. "I'll make sure to repay the favor with all non-engineering tasks one day."

"Please do."

"Maybe I'll just hit you up for a job one day."

"I … I don't see how I could ever help you especially in your field."

"I'm pretty sure the whole world will be working for you someday, Lena."

"God, what an awful thought," Lena said signing off as she began to give Isobel a quick verbal report on the mission.

Kalia Campbell was known for many things. She was a highly-skilled and highly-trained nurse. She was an expert in armed and unarmed combat. She was a decorated U.S. soldier. She was the White Queen of Checkmate. Right now she was a pissed off and protective big sister.

"Where the fuck is he? I'm gonna kill him!"

The black pawn standing outside of the tent stood a head taller than the woman who strode up at him and looked about ready to piss himself at her approach … with good reason. "I'm sorry, your majesty, but his majesty left instructions—"

Kalia didn't break her stride as she struck out twice with just two fingers on her left hand, dropping the larger man to lay twitching and drooling on the ground as she passed.

"Kalia, wait!" Oksana Verchenko ran after her queen who had already disappeared within the tent.

"Lord, you son of a bitch!" Kalia said as she burst past several Checkmate members of the black side of the Board, focusing in on her target with laser accuracy.

Max Lord stood up from where he sat and grinned. "Ah, Miss Campbell, what an unexpected—" As Kalia's elbow connected with him on an upstrike that had the full force of her body behind it, Lord momentarily left the ground before crashing back to it.

The room erupted into chaos as members of the black grabbed the White Queen, pulling her away before she could score more than a glancing blow with a booted foot against the head of the Black King who lay at least stunned, possibly unconscious, in a heap on the ground.

"You do not touch her!" Oksana yelled as pushed past people to pry them off of Kalia, wrapping her arms around the smaller, struggling woman and saying, "No, my Queen. We are outnumbered, and this is a breach of protocol. We should retreat to our people."

"Let me go." Kalia shrugged. "I'm in control, Oksana, let me go."

Nodding, Oksana slowly released her queen.

Pulling her uniform back into order, Kalia shared a heavy glare across the room. "When Lord comes to, tell him he and I need to have words. We had this situation under wraps before he got heavy-handed and set the meta off. He fucked this up, and he needs to pay for one of his mistakes before someone else does."

"Is this about the Black King or about his company," The Black Queen asked.

"Don't give me that shit, Patricia," Kalia shot back. "This is about everything about him, about the way all you assholes do business. He fucked up today, but it takes both royals to approve a pawn. You two crossed a line with me."

"Kalia?" A voice asked hesitantly as a gangly young man pushed his way through, frowning.

Kalia's frown mirrored his in every way. "You shouldn't have been here. You are too goddamn inexperienced to be called in as part of the initial group on a mission like this."

"Oh get over yourself, Kalia," Patricia Grace-Colby, the Black Queen, shot back. "From what I can see, it was your pawn who basically rode in here and saved the day, and she's younger and not much more experienced than your brother." She smirked. "What's her name again?"

Oksana pulled at Kalia's arm, urging the queen toward the exit.

Kalia shook off the hand, pointing at the Black Queen. "Don't push me, Patricia. I've got Lord in my sites. Don't step in front of him, or you won't like the results."

"Just got out of my tent," Patricia said turning away. "I've got post-operation physicals to do on my people and a bloody king to fix up. Go harass someone on your side of the board with your sunny disposition."

Kalia turned to leave, sparing a painful look back to meet her younger brother's gaze before she exited the tent grumbling. "If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to take that son of a bitch Lord down. It's either him or me." With a surge of anger, she stormed away.

Though taller, Oksana paused and sighed heavily, watching her queen speed back toward their tents. "My fear, my queen, is that it will be him."