Chapter 10

Four days later, not a lot had changed. No one could recall having seen Will, and Doctor Hughes had stopped leaving a paper-trail months ago. Right after being turned down for a grant to research the physiological underpinnings of the ability to intuitively solve logic problems from point A directly to point Z without needing to go through any of the intermediate steps.

Will must have been the ideal research-subject for such a woman…

There was nothing to indicate that any of the three facilities initially indicated by Henry were in fact Cabal. Nothing to indicate that they weren't, but nothing adequate to justify a risky raid on any of them, either.

Nor had there been any action on any other fronts. No other Sanctuary house, nor any employee, patient, or associated abnormal, had been targeted since Will's abduction.

Which Magnus supposed was something. So the threat was against Will specifically and not against the Sanctuary in general. But she still hated the idea of him as a prisoner, subject to God only knew what. Nor was she the only one.

"I say we raid all three places anyway," was Henry's contribution that morning over breakfast.

"If it weren't for Will, I'd say firebomb all three," Ashley muttered.

Magnus was too tired to chastise them. She was, in fact, inclined to agree. But that was probably the fact that she had only gotten a few fitful hours of sleep since this whole mess came to light. The modafinil could only do so much. She was exhausted.

"The other Sanctuary houses appear to be safe," she told them. "I think it's time to call in the other field-personnel and stage a full-scale offensive."

"Now you're speaking my language," Ashley told her.

"I want you two to rest up," Magnus continued. "I'll call in the others, but it will be hours before even the closest arrive. I want us all to be fresh for this. We'll raid all three locations at once so there's no advanced warning."

"We'll get some sleep when you do," Henry told her.

She frowned, startled by his sudden assertiveness. Normally, he deferred to her as a sort of Alpha. Ashley was nodding and the Big Guy let out a grunt of agreement. It occurred to Magnus that the three had probably decided in advance that it was time to put their collective foot down.

"I need to contact the other Sanctuaries…"

"Henry and I have it covered," Ashley told her firmly. "Are we going to have to sedate you?"

She sighed. "This is mutiny, Mister Christian."

"You're damn straight it is," Ashley agreed, unrepentant. "You got a problem with that?"

"No, but I have to say that I always thought that if anyone here was going to rebel against my authority, it would have been Will." Her heart gave a little pang. "Sort of thing he would see fit to do, man who once killed me to save my life."

"We'll get him back, Doc," Henry assured her. "Leave it in our hands for now. Don't worry. We'll bring you back off the bench for the end-game."

"You're mixing metaphors, man," Ashley murmured.

"Oh, sorry."

"Seriously, Mom," Ashley agreed. "You look like a damned extra on Night of the Living Dead. Get some sleep. We promise not to storm the castle without you."

"Very well," she sighed, climbing to her feet. "I suppose I could use a few uninterrupted hours of sleep. Otherwise, I'll be quite useless leading this retrieval." She sat down again abruptly. "Damn. There are three facilities…"

"And three of us," Ashley answered, grasping her shoulder. "One to lead the raid on each of the three facilities. You're not thinking straight, Mom. Go get some rest."

"We have it covered, Doc," Henry promised. "Come on. It's like you told me that other day. Being abnormal doesn't mean you don't have needs. Also, Ashley sort of hid all the stimulants. Ow!" he protested when the girl leaned across the table and smacked him on the arm. "Come on, Ash, she was going to figure that out eventually."

Ashley conceded this with a shrug. "This is how things are going to go, Mom. You're going to sleep or I will tranq you." She put her hands on her hips. "Do we understand each other?"

Magnus regarded her daughter thoughtfully for a moment, before conceding defeat. Ashley was what Henry might call 'hardcore'. She was not above shooting her own mother with a tranquilizer dart if that was what it took to get the job done. Nor would she feel remotely sorry for it after the fact.

"No field-actions without me," she told them firmly before retreating from the kitchen.

0101010

"Man, I can't believe we just faced down Helen Magnus," Henry muttered, shaking his head as they walked to Magnus' office.

"Yeah, well, don't let it make you cocky," Ashley replied grimly. "Because I seriously doubt she's ever going to let us get away with it again."

"You could have something there," he agreed. "Next time, better just tranq her without warning."

"Yeah. That'll go over just great with her. If things were any less serious, I would have just let her push herself to the point of collapse. But we need her to have her head in the game."

"Yeah. So, you take the English-speaking Sanctuaries and I'll talk to the rest?"

"I'll be done before you. I can take some of the Spanish-language ones, too."

"Sounds good. Thanks."

"No problem. You know, not all of them are going to want to send people who might be needed there."

"True," he admitted, shrugging. "But we don't need to be going in with a whole army. That raises all the wrong kinds of notice."

"I hear that," Ashley agreed. "Small tactical teams make more sense. Might even be possible to infiltrate without raising any alarms."

Henry nodded. "That would be nice."

"Once we figure out how many forces we're going to be able to raise, we'll have to come up with a strategy," she told him.

"I've got it covered. Once it became clear those facilities might be Cabal, I hacked into the City's mainframe and grabbed the schematics. No way of knowing how accurate they may be, but it's better than nothing."

"Way better," she agreed, touching his arm. "And the Big Guy's getting the weapons together, so I think that's everything?"

"I need to check and calibrate the field-gear. Don't think I'm going to be getting much sleep between now and the raid. Any chance I can have some of whatever your Mom's been taking?"

"Considering that I don't know what it is or how it interacts with valium? You really want to risk that, Henry?"

"No. But I want to risk dropping the ball when Will's freedom is at stake even less."

She considered this for a long, thoughtful moment, then gave him a weak smile. "Stimulants all around, then."

He shook his head. "No, Ash, I know how you feel about taking meds you don't need."

"Need is the operative term in that sentence, buddy," she pointed out quietly. "This is for Will. And, in a way, it's for you, too."

Uninvited physical contact was not something that, as a rule, Ashley responded well to. This knowledge did not keep Henry from pulling her into a hug. It probably said something about how upset Ashley was that she hugged him right back without even pretending to resent the intrusion. He had meant it as a quick embrace, but Ashley seemed disinclined to release her tight hold on him and he was honestly appreciative of the comfort her presence offered.

He held the hug longer than he probably had a right to, then reluctantly dropped his hands. "We should probably start contacting the other Sanctuaries."

"Yeah, guess so," she agreed, not looking at him as she absently smoothed her shirt.

"Okay, let's get our game on," he said. "You know, this being Will, we can probably rustle up some backup in the local abnormal community."

"Good point. I'll handle that after we've contacted the other Sanctuaries," she agreed, smacking his shoulder. "Now, let's get down to the med bay and mainline some not-caffeine."

"You hid her drugs in the med bay?" he asked, staring at her. "You are magnificent!"

"I have my moments," she agreed with a smug grin. "Last place she would look. Come on, Henry. Let's go save our friend."