A/N: Not much to say about this other than this is where our OC will be introduced. Enjoy!

Bass guided his horse towards the small town cautiously. He was far enough away from Texas that he shouldn't have been worried, but he always had that little voice in his head reminding him that this luck never held out. He'd barely made it into the plains before word must have gotten back to Blanchard about his having abandoned Willoughby.

It was obvious that the man was not only angry he'd broken he terms of his pardon but also still feared he'd go back east and cause trouble. He'd had a few close calls as he worked his way north, but the Rangers must have given up because they'd seemed to have stopped pursuing him by the time he'd entered the wastelands.

He saw a battered sign up ahead:

Welcome to Arco!

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"Well doesn't that make them special?" he mumbled aloud as he went through the city gates. He doubted the population was even half what the sign suggested now, by the looks of things. The center of town had a few market stalls, most of which appeared to be closing up for the day. The people he saw looked tired, as if their everyday existence used them up. He dismounted and walked his horse to what looked like the local inn and tied it to the hitching post outside.

After over six weeks on the road, he was exhausted and would give anything to stop. He was still a few weeks away from Canada, his ultimate destination. He was far enough removed that he knew it was unlikely he'd be recognized or that anyone would even care about his presence here if they found him out, but somehow Canada seemed safer.

He went into the building, hoping there was a room available. He was tired of sleeping out in the open. The main entrance to the inn opened up into a common area with several tables and (thank God) a bar. He took a look around as the door closed behind him. Instincts kicking in, Bass measured up the twenty or so people that were in the establishment. There were a few that looked like they could hold their own if there was trouble.

A large black man in the corner had an ill-concealed Patriot rifle, likely having stolen it during the war before coming to this miserable country. A younger guy with greasy blond hair was watching his surroundings like a man that was used to having to watch his own back. There were also a couple of men that were obviously members of one warclan or another. They sat in the back by the pool table.

He almost laughed the way the occupants of the bar were measuring him up at the same time he was them. After noting where the exits were, Bass ambled up to the bar. The bartender came over, shooting him a wary look. This town was apparently suspicious of strangers. "Help you?"

The bartender had balding reed hair and a full beard streaked with white. He had at least four or five inches on Bass' six feet and must have outweighed him by at least fifty pounds of muscle. He might be at decade or so older, but the man didn't look like he was a pushover. He added him to his mental list of people to keep an eye on.

"Whatever'll get the job done," he said. He kept his eyes downcast in an attempt to appear non-threatening. The last thing he wanted after being on the road this long was to get in a bar fight.

The man just stood there. Bass sighed in annoyance as he lifted his gaze to meet the man's stony expression. "Payment first."

Bass dug into his pocket and pulled out a diamond. The bartender pulled a jeweler's glass out and examined it. Deciding that it was good, he pulled out a bottle and a halfway clean looking glass from under the bar. He left the bottle. "Don't got change," he said as he walked away.

He used the tail of his shirt to wipe out the inside of the glass before he filed it. Taking a drink he realized he needn't have bothered. The vile liquor he'd bought would have killed anything festering in the glass. It burned as it went down, but after a few weeks with nothing, he welcomed it.

He knew the bartender was watching him as he sat there. After a while he motioned for the man to come back to him. "So you just run the bar, or do you own the joint?" he asked quietly.

Still not trusting Bass, the man kept his answer a bit vague. "Depends on what you're looking for."

"No trouble. Just a room and a few hot meals," Bass told him.

"How long?"

Bas thought about this. For some reason, this town made him uneasy but he needed time to recharge. "Two, maybe three days, and then I'm pressing on."

The bartender considered him for a few minutes. "I might have something available. You gotta name?"

"King. Jimmy King." The name rolled easily off his tongue. He knew using it was a risk, but with New Vegas destroyed the chances of anyone from there being in Idaho was slim. They dickered over the price for a bit, just because custom dictated that they should. When they finally agreed, Bass paid the man and was given the key to his room and a bowl of stew and bread. The meal wasn't exactly five-star fare, but it at least kept the swill he was drinking from tearing a hole in his stomach.

After eating and taking time to wash up in the galvanized tub out back, he found his bed. He lay there, not yet able to quiet his mind enough to fall asleep. Images of what had led him north swirled around his mind. That was the drawback of not sleeping in the wilderness. Out there he'd been more concerned with not getting killed in his sleep to think. But in the quiet of his room, that's all he could do.

He tried to tell himself that it was pointless. Thinking about what he'd left behind wouldn't do him any good. If Charlie hadn't hated him before, well she probably did now. He had no doubt in his mind that Miles knew about what he'd done. Even if going back became an option someday, it was unlikely that any of them would ever want to see him. He even thought about Connor. He would never have been able to trust him again, but he'd seemed to have wanted them to have dealt with that day at the reservoir. Now, he'd never know what could have been.

No, none of it mattered. Miles would forgive Rachel because she was his own special drug and would figure that it was just Bass being Bass – unable to keep his dick in his pants and always wanting what Miles had – another Emma. It was just another reason why their brotherhood should have been severed long before the lights went out; just another reason why the world would have been a better place had Miles left him to his jack and his dad's Ruger and let him be with his family that night.

He was finally starting to doze when he heard a sound at his door; a soft scraping, indicative of someone trying to work the lock. Instinct had him jumping out of bed and reaching for a weapon. He pulled the blanket up over the pillow, concealing the fact (he hoped) that it had just been used. The scraping continued on, suggesting that his would be intruder was either an amateur burglar or just not a very good one.

With an incredulous sigh, he took the time to pull on his pants and buckle his sword belt. He drew his gun once more and waited – and waited. I could have slept a while longer. Eventually the lock clicked open. He waited in the shadows as the door slowly opened. When the figure of a man appeared in the room, he moved quickly, grabbing him from behind while jamming the barrel of the gun in the intruder's temple. "Who are you? Who sent you?" he asked in a harsh whisper.

"Monroe?" The voice was eerily familiar. It took him a second to place it.

"Staypuffed?" With a chuckle, Bass released him. Within seconds, Priscilla came spilling into the room, ready to defend her chubby companion. He easily batted the knife out of her hand before yanking her all the way into the room and shutting the door.

He lit the small oil lamp in his room, a luxury that had cost him quite more than it was worth. Aaron got a strange look on his face. He picked up the lamp and held it to Bass' face, causing him to flinch as the light and heat got too close. "He's good," Aaron said as he turned to Priscilla. "Pupils contract in the light."

Bass held a hand up and nudged the lamp away from his face before Staypuffed burned him or blinded him. "No, that's not weird. Um, what are you doing?"

Aaron set the lamp back down. "We heard that the new boarder went by the name Jimmy King. That's the name you used in New Vegas, right? Lucas said you looked like you'd seen some action so we wanted to see if you were you – which you are, obviously." He sat down on the edge of Bass' bed, there being no other seat in the room. Before the owner of said bed could protest its new occupant, Aaron twisted his body to face him. "Jeez, did you have to do the bit with the gun?"

Bass stood there, still a little stunned. "Well, I wouldn't have had to if you'd just bothered knocking. And you are horrible at picking locks, by the way. Seriously, I had time to get dressed." Unreasonably irritated that Aaron was sitting on the bed, he suddenly reached out with one hand and shoved him off onto the floor. "Sitting on a man's bed after you just broke into his room is rude, man. Didn't your mother teach you any manners?"

Priscilla's mouth formed a thin line. "That was uncalled for," she snapped as she went to help Aaron up.

Bass only shrugged. He knew he was a dick, Aaron knew he was a dick. Why would anyone be surprised? "So why did you break in? For that matter, why would you care if I am me, which I obviously am, as you so weirdly put it?"

"Because we didn't think you'd be you," Aaron explained.

"Then why did you bother in the first place if you thought I'd be someone else?" Bass was almost shouting – okay, he was shouting.

Priscilla took a step forward. "No, we were sure you'd be you, just not… you."

"Oh for heaven's sake." He went to the door and yanked it open. "Okay, I've had enough," he said as he dragged a hand over his weary face. "It's late, the two of you are weird and I'm getting aggravated."

Aaron finally picked himself up off the floor. "Just give us a chance to explain." He was using his most placating voice. Thinking for a second, he pulled his flask out. "I have refreshments."

Bass closed the door, snatching the flask from Aaron's hand before flopping back down on the bed. He sat there with his legs extended and crossed at the ankles casually, as if this was an everyday occurrence. "You have five minutes." He took a drink, relishing the fact that it was actual whiskey. "Starting now."

"There's a town about thirty miles west of here. There's been a lot of weird things going on there People have told stories about seeing lights there," Aaron began cautiously.

"Wait, they have electricity?" Bass took another drink as he thought about that. "Then what the hell are you doing here?"

Priscilla crossed the room to look out the grimy window. He noticed that she looked nervous, like she was afraid of being watched. "Because if the rumors are true, it's that last place anyone wants to be."

"Really? Well if they have power, that's exactly where I want to be. Maybe I could finally get a hot shower. I miss showers- more than I ever thought possible." Aaron just rolled his eyes at him. "What?" he asked innocently.

"Could you at least pretend to take this seriously?" Aaron asked. He stopped talking and locked eyes with Priscilla for a second. With a shrug, he turned back to Bass. "How much do you know about the cause of the blackout?"

"Absolutely nothing, other than Rachel and Ben somehow caused it."

Aaron and Priscilla spent the next several hours explaining everything they knew about the nano, including what had happened to Priscilla and what she'd seen. "And the optical exam?" he asked when they were finished.

"We've come across a few people that have escaped or been released from that town. They aren't the nano – at least not like Priscilla was. But, there's something wrong with them, like the nano did something. Their eyes are always dilated." Aaron was sitting on the floor again, leaning up against the door. "We had to make sure you weren't one of them; that they hadn't taken you over."

"Why would you think I was?" Bass was confused. He still wasn't sure that Staypuffed and Creepy Girl weren't just nuts, but some explanation for the blackout –however crazy was better than none at all.

"Because you're supposed to be in Texas." Priscilla said. She was looking at him now, her dark almond eyes boring into his blue ones.

"Yeah, well it didn't work out. I'm just passing through, actually. I'm headed to Canada." He tossed Aaron his flask back.

The other man frowned when he went to take a drink and found it empty. "That's just it; you're not the first person to come here from Willoughby."

Bass sat up, interested. "Who else have you seen?"

"Ed Truman and Tom Neville. They headed towards Bradbury just a few days after we got here."

Suddenly, Bass' demeanor changed. He grew cold, reminiscent of the general from long ago. "Take me there."

XXXXXXX

Bass was laying on the rise above the town of Bradbury. It had taken them two days to get here from Arco. They'd given the town a wide berth as they'd gone around to get to the rocks overlooking the settlement. Aaron and Priscilla insisted that this was as close as he should get. The nano were distracted, but if he got closer he'd be on their radar. Considering he'd watch them burn people alive, he was more than happy to be cautious.

They walk three hours from where they'd set up camp to get into position. Aaron and Priscilla have insisted on it. As they show him where he could best see the town, it hits him. "Rumor has it my ass, you've been here before."

Aaron reluctantly acknowledges this to be true. "We come by time to time to keep an eye on them, but we can't get close enough to see what's really going on. The nano are distracted. The more people and things it tries to control, the harder it is for them to focus."

"What do you mean? I thought you said these things were everywhere." Bass is beginning to regret not shoving them out of his room two nights ago. "

Priscilla hands him a pair of binoculars so he could see what they were talking about. "The physical nanites are everywhere, yes. But the NANO is kind of like a collective consciousness that ended up in the code somehow. It can manipulate things on a molecular level at will and it can think faster and process more than a human mind, but it's not omniscient – it doesn't know everything."

"I know what omniscient means," he says under his breath. "I'm not Miles, I can and do read." He lies down on the ledge and focuses the binoculars. It's dark, but it's not hard to find his target. The damn town is lit up like a Christmas tree. "How do they have power?" he asks.

Aaron slides into place next to him, keeping low out of fear of somehow being discovered. "The nanites' original programming was to absorb energy. When I tried to bring then back online after Randall Flynn launched the nukes I accidently did something to the code and it programmed them to form a collective AI. The nanites can suppress their ability to absorb power at will. Technically speaking they are keeping the power off everywhere else intentionally – and I have a feeling that they need it somehow to reproduce themselves."

"So they literally eat electricity… That's scary."

They'd been watching them for over a week. Aaron and Priscilla wanted to know what they were planning, whereas Bass just wanted a glimpse of Truman and Neville to confirm their presence here. From what he could see all they were doing was walking randomly in and out of the buildings. "I don't get it. There's no pattern to their movements. From the looks of things, they're not actually doing anything." He'd turned back to face Aaron who was sitting in the shade under an outcropping of rocks.

"Oh, they're doing something. We just need to find out what," Aaron said as he cleaned the dirt off of his glasses with his shirt.

Bass turned back and watched the town for a while longer. He hadn't seen either of his targets yet and was about to give up on it. He was just about to lower the binoculars when he saw someone he did recognize. "Wait a minute… that's Jack Davis. What the hell?"

Davis was walking across the center of town. Bass watched as he disappeared inside a building – a movie theatre by the looks of it. The neon lights on the sign attached to the front of the building were lit up.

"The U.S. President is here?" Priscilla asked from where she sat next to Aaron.

Bass turned back again. "Fake president. I didn't vote for him."

Aaron put his glasses back on and dug for his flask. He wasn't going to let their companion get anywhere near it while they were out here in the wilderness. "Well technically you're guilty of treason, so you wouldn't have been allowed to vote anyway.

"Suck it, fatboy," Bas said under his breath as he turned back around to resume his spying. His surveillance reminded him of when he and Miles were doing the same thing outside of the Patriot training camp when he'd returned from New Vegas. He shifted uncomfortably. Now he knew what Miles had meant when he was whining about rocks in his junk. The memory of the two of them sent shard of regret through him. He pushed it away. That bridge was officially burned.

"Hang on," Bass said. Just outside of town he saw a figure dodging in and out of the scrub, trying to get close without being seen. "It looks like someone is trying to sneak in."

"It's probably one of them coming back. Then nano sends them out from time to time. We saw it yesterday," Aaron reasoned. They'd been coming here for the past week. Every day they saw more come. It was unclear what they were doing, but as the number of people inside Bradbury increased, they became more uneasy about it. Two days ago, they'd seen a few of the nano's people leave only to return the following afternoon.

Bass motioned for Aaron to take a look. "No way. If he was one of them, he wouldn't be trying to hide." When Aaron had joined him, Bass handed over the binoculars and pointed him in the right direction.

"Huh, You're right. Can't get a good look at him though. Whoever it is, they're just going to get themselves killed – or worse."

Bass snatched them back and took another look. "Wait a second… It's a kid." He watched him for a few more minutes, his mind already racing, calculating. Without another word, he scrambled backwards away from the ledge towards where Priscilla sat. "Ow," he said under his breath as a rock dug into a particularly sensitive portion of his anatomy.

"You alright?" Aaron said as he squinted his eyes at the brush in between them and the town.

"I wasn't using it anyway," he grunted as he stood up the second he'd was far enough away. He picked up his pack and grabbed a few spare clips before checking his weapon. A few minutes later he rejoined Aaron on the ledge and watched the kid for a few more minutes. Abruptly he slapped the binoculars in Aaron's hand.

"Um, where are you going?" Aaron asked as Bass scooted sideways on the ledge to where the drop between the ledge they were on and the ground below wasn't quite as far.

I'm gonna go get the kid," he said innocently. Before Aaron could protest Bass braced himself and shoved himself over the ledge. He landed hard but on his feet. "I'm getting too old for this shit," he grumbled.

Aaron leaned over and looked at him. "Are you crazy?"

Bass was crouched down to avoid being seen. He stopped and looked up. "Uh, yeah?" He said with s a shrug. "Would I be out here spying on the nano-zombies with you if I wasn't? We can't just leave him here."

"No, I get that. I mean why didn't you just go around stupid?" Aaron clarified.

Bass just stared at him. Aaron's face was beet red and he looked like he was about to have a panic attack. "It was faster." With no further explanation, he got moving, keeping low along the brush and slowly making his way towards the town.

Aaron lifted his vision skyward. "Yeah, cause that's why we throw ourselves off of small cliffs, folks – it's faster." With a sigh, he watched Sebastian Monroe work his way across the overgrown grass and brush to save a kid he didn't know from the nanotech.

As he got closer, Aaron started getting nervous. If the nano caught him he'd either be fried or turned. There was one man from Arco that had joined the strange commune just a month ago. He'd been acting strange before then. His wife had died of influenza and he'd walked blindly all over town talking to her. Then one day he was gone. Priscilla had noticed him in the town when they'd come to spy a week later.

When they'd seen the president was there, it occurred to Aaron that there was a pattern. The man from town, David, Neville – even Truman all had something in common. They had nothing left to lose. And that profile fit Sebastian Monroe to a t.

Aaron watched as he finally caught up with the kid. The child had startled and looked like he was taking a defensive stance. They appeared to talk for a few minutes before the kid stepped closer to Bass. The former general put a hand on his shoulder and nudged the kid away from the town. They kept low and slowly made their way towards the rise above town. They disappeared from view as they went around. Aaron scooted back from the ledge. They'd made it away. It would take a few minutes to go up the slow leading to the rocks, but it meant he wouldn't have to help get the kid and Bass back up.

"Alright, pack it up. We better get back to camp, Bass said from behind him.

Bass creeps up on the kid. He doesn't want to scare him and risk him bolting. That could result in drawing too much attention to themselves and could get them both captured or killed. "Hey, kid!" he says in aloud whisper when he's close enough.

Just as he'd predicted, the kid recoiled from him. Bass holds up his hands. "I'm not gonna hurt you, okay? I just want to talk to you for a second."

He notices how thin the kid is. It's probably been a while since someone has taken care of him. The child watches him warily. "Where's your folks?" The boy responds by pointing to the town. "Are you from here?" A shake of the head. "Listen, it's not safe here. You can't go in the town, okay?"

The kid shakes his head again. "I've been in town before. They made me leave."

The fact that he's been inside surprises Bass. He'd like to question him in more detail, but he doesn't like being this close. "Who made you leave?"

"The fireflies." As he says it, his eyes well up a little.

Bass is ill equipped to deal with a child's tears. He clenches his jaw and looks away for a second. "Listen to me. I've got a few friends waiting for me on top of that rise." He points towards where the Pittmans are hiding. "They aren't like the people in town. I bet you're hungry." The look in the kid's eyes verified that as truth. "Come with me and we'll get you something to eat. It's not safe here."

The boy thinks about this, but shakes his head. "My mom is in town. She told me to never leave her side."

Bass feels for the kid. He must have followed her all the way here. "The people in that town are sick.

The kid responds by crying in earnest. "I can't leave my mom. I don't have anyone else," he snivels.

"Listen, my friends and I have been watching the town. I don't know if the people in there can be fixed, but my friends and I are going to try. Come with me and I promise that if I can I'll get her out, okay? But we have to leave now. Bad things will happen if they find us here." Every instinct is telling Bass to get out of there now. They're too exposed this close.

The kid stands in indecision. Bas knows that he doesn't have anywhere else to go. Eventually, he comes over to him. Bass places a hand on his shoulder in some type of support and then points him in the right direction, nudging him gently along. "Keep low, we're going to cross the field and then climb up to the rocks, over there."

The walk from the rise to where their wagon is hidden takes about three hours. They'd been afraid to bring it any closer. After about an hour of walking it becomes obvious that the kid was dead on his feet, so Bass picked him up and started carrying him. He was no expert on children, but the kid seemed a little light for his size.

Aaron and Priscilla had a lot of questions, but Bass told them to hold it until they were a safe distance away and had made camp for the night. He was still uneasy and wanted to put more distance between them and the camp before anyone had a chance to speak.

Later they had a fire going. The kid sat a ways from them, huddled under a spare blanket. Bass approached him with a plate of food and some water. "When's the last time you had something to eat?" he asked as he settled down next to him with his own meal.

The kid looked at the food for a second before he started to dig in. "Day before yesterday. Then the fireflies chased me. One of the men in tan said I wasn't chosen and I had to leave."

Bass watched as the boy shoveled food into his mouth like it was the last meal he'd ever see. "Slow down. You'll make yourself puke," he warned. The kid looked up at him and obeyed, slightly. "What's your name kid?"

"Jeremy," he replied as he took the last bite of his food and started to wash it down with the water. "What's yours?"

The name made Bass recall an unhappy memory – a guiltless friend condemned and killed in a fit of paranoia. He pushed the image back into the darkness from which it came. He watched the kid for a second, trying to decide what name to give him. It'd be easier to tell him his alias, but he second guessed it. If they were going to get him to talk, the kid needed to trust him. "My name is Bass, and is Aaron and Priscilla. They're friends, sort of."

Jeremy gave him a weird look. "Bass? Like the fish?"

He laughed. "Yeah, I guess."

"That's a dumb name," he scoffed.

"Hey!" Bass wasn't really insulted, but the kid took him by surprise. Jeremy suddenly tensed up like he was afraid he'd punish him or ditch him or something. He ruffled his hair and laughed again. Jeremy visibly relaxed a little. "It's short for Sebastian. But when we get to Arco, you can't call me that. Call me Jimmy alright?"

"Okay," he said quietly.

"So where are you from, Jeremy? How did you get here?" Bass asked after a few minutes of silence.

The boy's eyes filled again. "I came with my mom. We're from Salem. Mom started talking to Grandma when she thought I wasn't listening. Grandma told her to come."

Priscilla went over to him and tried to comfort him, but the child cringed and inched closer to Bass. He shrugged at her confused look. He patted the kid on the shoulder, not knowing what to do. "It's okay. You're safe. No one's going to hurt you, okay?" He was helpless. He had no idea what he was doing. "How old are you?"

"Nine," he said, his breath hitching as he fought back tears. "I think I've been bad."

"Jeremy, honey, why do you think that?" Priscilla asked. She kept her voice gentle.

"Because my mom stopped loving me. She used to give me hugs and tell me stories at bedtime and stuff, but when we left Salem she stopped. She was going to leave me there, so I followed her." He started to sob harder.

Priscilla gave Bass a meaningful look. "Hold him," she mouthed.

Bass pulled the kid into an awkward hug. It occurred to him that if Shelly and the baby had lived his own child would have only been four or five years older than this one. He sat there with Jeremy until the kid fell asleep. Thankful, Bass laid him down on his bedroll – he'd just have to make do without it tonight.

He started to clean up after their meal. "So why did you go after him?" Aaron asked as he bent to help.

"What did you want me to do? Leave him there?" Bass found himself getting rather irritated quickly.

"Most people, no. You…" Aaron trailed off, not wanting to directly insult him, but obviously thinking it.

Bass went over to the wagon to put the rest of their food inside it. "Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence, Staypuffed."

Priscilla got in between them. "Will you two keep it down? You'll wake him up."

Bass checked his pistol and grabbed his remaining blanket. "I'll take first watch. We'll head back to Arco in the morning. I've seen enough here."

Aaron nodded as he handed two bedrolls to Priscilla for her to lay out. "What are you planning to do with the kid?

Bass thought about this. In reality he hadn't planned any further than getting the kid away to a safe distance. "Take him with us, I guess." He saw the incredulous look Aaron was giving him. "What? He's been inside. Maybe he heard something or saw something useful. He might even know what they're doing. And it's not like we can leave him here. From what you've told me if his mom's really in there, she's not his mom anymore."

Priscilla went to lead Aaron away so they could sleep before it was his turn to watch. "He's right you know. No one's been taking care of him. He's underfed and looks like he's scared to death."

The next morning they ate a quick meal and then headed out. Bass was driving with Aaron sitting next to him. Jeremy squirmed in between them an hour into their journey. It was like he was afraid if Bass was too far away from him, then he'd be left.

As they got closer to Arco, they got Jeremy talking. Mostly he just confirmed what they already knew. The nano had some kind of control over the people in town. Most of them walked around like they were living, but they didn't talk and rarely slept or ate. They didn't really do much of anything other than wander in and out of the buildings. Only a few of them talked. When Bass asked Jeremy to describe what the talkers looked like, a few of them sounded like Davis, Truman and Neville.

He said that the talkers seemed to be following orders that only they could here. And the fireflies buzzed around all the time, especially around the people that talked. When they'd chased him out of the town, the fireflies had swarmed him.

The only new information that the kid had was that he'd overheard two of the talkers say something about a glitch in the system. "It was something about how some of them weren't awake. They couldn't talk to them."

They arrived back in Arco right before dusk. Bass rented a room for a few more days. His funds were getting low, and feeding the kid was only going to deplete them faster. They were either going to have to find a way to raise some cash or get out of here sooner rather than later. Once they had him fed and settled Bass went to leave the room. "Just stay here and sleep. I've gotta talk to Aaron for a bit. I'll be back later." He turned back around before he left. "You're safe here." He didn't know why it was important to remind Jeremy of that, but it was.

He joined Aaron and Priscilla at a table in the common room. "I wonder what the kid meant about a glitch," he said as he raised his drink to his lips.

The Pittmans exchanged another weird look. Bass noted they did that a lot. "I think I might know," Aaron said. "When we were on the way to the tower, Rachel got hurt pretty bad. She had me use the pendant to program a plastic capsule. She told me that it had been inside Danny and that hid had kept his lungs from failing somehow."

Bass vaguely remembered that before the blackout, Rachel's youngest child had been sick a lot - some kind of asthma or something. "Okay…"

He leaned over and whispered the rest, as if he thought someone was listening in. "Then she had me put it in her leg. Dude, she had a compound fracture. Without a hospital, it would have eventually killed her. I watched that thing heal her in minutes. She said that the capsule was designed to reprogram the nano without affecting the rest. She said it was dangerous and that if they were programmed wrong it could explode, but done right the nano inside it could be told to do just about anything."

"So where is this thing now?" Bass had a sinking feeling about this.

Aaron shrugged. "As far as I know, it's still in her leg."

Bass groaned. "We're going to have to go back to Texas, aren't we?"