Normally, Rachel would have been thrilled to find an enormous vase of lilies on her desk, however, this particular bunch came accompanied by one former head of N-tek.

"Marco, I do believe I asked you to stop appearing in my office without an invitation."

"I may recall you having said something of the sort," he responded, smirking a little.

Rachel sat down with a sigh. Marco Nathanson was not a man who was easily dismissed. "I'm really very busy."

The man leaned back in his chair. "Yes, I've realized you've seemed extraordinarily busy lately. So busy that I don't think I've seen you more than two times since I've come to stay here."

"Well, that can hardly be helped," Rachel replied dismissively while shuffling a small stack of papers.

"I would even go so \far as to say you've been avoiding me."

Rachel put the stack of papers back where they had originated.

"I was just curious as to the exact reason for it. Remorse, maybe?

"No," she stated firmly, looking up to stare back at him. "It's because I've realized from the moment you stepped foot on this base that you don't plan on leaving."

Nathanson leaned forward, looking interested. "And how could you possibly know that?"

"When you look around here, when you stroll through the halls, when you sit in these chairs, you're not someone who is taking a trip down memory lane. You're not someone who is amused at the irony of the situation. You're someone who thinks he is back where he belongs."

Nathanson smiled benignly at her. "You always were the clever one, Rachel."

"Obviously not clever enough. If I had been, I would have put a stop to things as soon as I saw that look on your face the first time. But I did not. I allowed you to get more and more comfortable. I did not say a word as you brought that man into N-Tek. Nor when I began seeing your granddaughter creeping around in restricted areas. Not even when you brought Jean Mairot back into the picture- something which, I assure you, has caused many people here much discomfort."

"I've requested that Jean keep a low profile. He is, however, very useful."

"That's not the point."

"Then what exactly are you saying, my dear?"

"Marco Nathanson, John Dread, I don't believe your main purpose here is to capture Psycho and Dragonelle. I believe you are going to try and take back control of N-Tek."

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Laura Chen fumed as she made her up the last of many flights of stairs, the suit bedecked man following silently after her. The elevator had mysteriously refused to function.

"What's our plan of action?" he finally asked, knowing his superior would be in a slightly better mood now that the ending of the stairs was near.

"Our plan of action is to enact counterespionage measures against N-Tek. They have separated themselves from the United States, and we are therefore allowed to go after them once they've been proven as a threat."

"And how do we go about doing that?"

"There must be something…can you put that on silent or something???"

The man had been fiddling with his PDA most of the way up the stairs…which had been a very long time. "I'm trying to help out the investigation. I've been slowly leeching information from their network- it's been difficult, and I've only been able to get small pieces in each area- someone's obviously very good at keeping out snoops, but we are *the* snoops."

Chen sighed in relief as she opened the door to the parking garage and felt a fresh breeze come in through the garage door. "That we are. What are you working on?"

The man was greatly relieved by the change in tone. Laura Chen was someone he was proud to work for- she really was a great person…as long as you shared her goals and didn't make her angry. "I'm getting the list of all non-personnel admitted to the building within the last year. In their line of work, they must deal with *some* questionable characters- god knows we do."

"Do you honestly think they'd be dumb enough to leave that information available?"

"It's worth a try. They're probably not even aware of most of the lower profile cons we keep tabs on." He continued fiddling as they made their way towards the visitors' end of the lot. "I've been scanning the list as I get information…you can tell how slow it's going, and so far I haven't found any-" he suddenly stopped in his tracks, staring at the device. "Oh you're going to love this."

Laura turned to face him, raising an eyebrow.

"You may recall a certain rogue trainee we had a few years back. Learned everything we would teach him, excelled, and then robbed us blind."

Recognition slowly dawned on Laura's face. "That's right. Stole everything he could get his hands on. Weapons, armor, ammunition, even some prototype merchandise that never made it anywhere- shirts and coffee mugs. We still don't know how he got away with it."

"Do you remember his name?"

Chen narrowed her eyes. "Of course I do. Blaine D. Sarlo."

The man turned the PDA towards her so that she could see the name currently displayed on the screen. "He's been in and out here for months."

Laura smiled victoriously. "I believe we have us some motivation. I don't care how much the UN loves their little pet agency, there's no denying this- Sarlo's been on our list for years."

The man grinned back. "Let's go declare war."