"So, what do we have?" Vanessa asked. Phineas had gotten this control center put together quickly, and it showed. Breadboarded circuits were barely hidden under hastily-fastened panels, and many parts were clearly reused from earlier objects. The screens had clearly been pulled from the body-scanner that they had been using to monitor Isabella's implants.

Behind her, Colonel Scott looked around dubiously. She didn't envy his position; Ottawa was making quiet protests in Chicago's direction, but nobody expected those to go anywhere. They had, ultimately, no proof that the Americans had taken the two scientists at all. So the Canadian Forces had been instructed not to stand in Phineas's way, but not to particularly help him either.

"Well, Ferb and I did a lot of work on stealth systems before we came up with the idea of the tumbler bomb," Phineas said. "It was actually an offshoot of the stealth work initially. We tried to use other dimensions for stealth, but it didn't work out."

"Okay. So what is this?" Colin asked.

Phineas patted the small, light-blue ovoid. "This is a sensor drone that's designed to seek out Ferb and Doc and return their location. It's set up to sniff their chemical signatures. It's got an enhanced stealth system that should render it almost invisible to American sensors. So we slip it across the border, it finds them, and then tells us where they are."

"What does it do until it finds a whiff of them?" Isabella asked.

"Random-walk. It'll go to Fort Harrison first, though, because that's where we think they are."

"And then what?" Vanessa asked.

"It tries to come back here. I considered having it try to carry escape tools to them, but it's too likely that it would get detected at that close a range."

"How does it communicate back?" Vanessa asked. "Doesn't that make stealth difficult if it's broadcasting?"

"It tightbeams data back to a drone on this side of the border. It has to be careful, though - if the Americans figure out it's receiving on any frequencies, they can use that to try to detect it. They're set to frequency-hop to try to keep it as undetectable as possible."

Colonel Scott looked at it and nodded. "Sounds good. Make it happen."

Holly had had some time with nothing else going on, so she'd talked to Erik some more about their situation. He'd said that they basically never had any issues with the slaves being abused while they were there. Sanford West, as the unit was called, was a hidden Council site within the larger base of Fort William Henry Harrison, just outside Helena, Montana. There were several other hidden Council sites at military bases around the country - at least one in the territory of each faction. Each site had its own purpose, most of which Erik wasn't currently familiar with.

Because Sanford West was restricted to cleared Council members only, the only people on the base who could come and go were General Archer and Lieutenant Knox. Since the general was busy with other duties in addition to his research work, that meant that day-to-day operations were all on Lieutenant Knox's shoulders.

"Why did the Council want slaves in the first place?" Holly asked.

He shook his head in shame. "I was so sure I was some sort of superior being. This group of people - old money, we called them the Royals - had come to the conclusion that the rest of the country was mostly cattle. So, they figured, why not just own them outright? They worked up a plan, and then recruited up-and-coming people who were upset with how the government was going. I fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. I was better than all of them, so much better that I should just be in charge of them for their own good."

"What made you change your mind?" she asked.

"I got sent to Central for negotiations, just after the Los Angeles attacks. And I recognized a couple POWs that had been enslaved. One of them had been part of my security escort for a while - great guy. Had a wife, couple adorable little kids. And there he was, wearing a collar, getting treated like complete shit by some rich asshole. And...that was when I realized that, if the slavery laws went through, the folks who knew any slave I owned would consider me that rich asshole who was treating their friend like shit. And they'd be right."

"So you got back to Southwest..."

"I got back to Southwest, and outed a few of the more obnoxious Council members to some of the more fervently anti-slavery folks in the military, and they 'just happened' to get hit by random attacks. Dropped the SLAVE Act, got a law passed for compensation for families of POWs who had been enslaved. And did what I could to make sure that Southwest won the war. Not that that isn't biting me in the ass right now."

"Oh?"

"The research they're doing - some of the other Council folks bailed after seeing what slavery really meant. Some of them never even realized that was the goal; they'd just been useful idiots. Tom Maybourne came up with some great ideas. One of them was the brainchild of these two scientists, Conway and Vargas. They had worked out a way to put nanotech biomechanical implants into soldiers to make them superhuman."

"Like Isabella?"

"Who?" Erik said, confused.

"Friend of mine, I think she was mixed up in that. Had some experimental bio-implants that Archer was trying to track her down for."

"Probably, yes. Was she an orphan, by any chance?"

Holly nodded. "Yep. Santa Fe. Archer said you pulled her out of the rubble, actually. If you like irony."

Erik winced. "Oh. Shit. That Isabella. She ended up with Maybourne? I..." He hung his head. "Jesus, I screwed up her life completely, didn't I? What happened to her?"

"She got caught at the end of the war, and Ferb's brother bought her - by accident, he claimed, and then they all escaped to Canada. Archer wanted to vivisect her, she said. And the mayor wanted to rape her, beat her, and probably do even worse things to her, not necessarily in that order."

"Sounds like Dutch, alright. He always was a little creepy, even when he was on my side. So, yeah, Maybourne led this Project Dewdrop..."

"I heard the mayor and general talking about that, that's what they're working on here, right?"

"Right. They want to make supersoldiers, but even more..." He shook his head. "The Council wants even better implants for themselves. After all, if you think you're inherently better than the rest of humanity, something that makes you more physically capable is the season's absolute must-have."

Holly chuckled.

The door to outside the slave pen opened with a *click*, and Lieutenant Knox stepped through. "Holly, come with me, please," she said.

"Duty calls," Holly said, and Erik laughed as he waved her off.

The lieutenant led her to the door to the research area. "In," she said, so Holly went through. Holly had been worried that the Lieutenant would make her life difficult after their refusal to cooperate, but nothing had been said about it.

They passed through a few more secure doors, coming to one marked 'Black Hole'. The lieutenant badged into this final door and led Holly inside.

The short Indian man who had been with Ferb sat in a chair facing the door. She saw that he had been strapped down to it, so that he couldn't move. Another chair sat directly across from him, the straps dangling loosely.

"Sit," the lieutenant said. Holly sat in the chair. Straps went around her arms, chest, waist, thighs, and ankles, making sure that she was not getting out of the chair under her own power. "Open," she said, holding a ball gag to Holly's mouth. Holly opened, not seeing many alternatives, and the gag was buckled into place.

"Now, Slave Tjinder," the lieutenant began.

"Doctor Tjinder," he corrected her.

She tapped a button on the remote, and he convulsed briefly. "Slave Tjinder, that is what the shocker in your collar feels like. Not comfortable, is it?"

"That hurt quite a bit," he said.

"Good. Now, here's the deal. Until you agree to start working on the implants we want, Slave Holly here is going to get to feel that pain quite a bit. This is entirely under your control. You can make it stop any time you want."

"No, I cannot. You can. Your attempt to pass the blame to me for your actions will not work," he said calmly.

Holly tried to tell the doctor that she'd be fine, that he shouldn't give in, but the gag kept her from making any noises other than an indistinct mrfl.

"Really," the lieutenant said. "So, you feel no guilt about this?" She pressed a button on the remote, and agony swept over Holly. The world was pain, agonizing pain, radiating out from her neck. It felt like her neck had been doused in acid and then lit on fire.

And then, suddenly, it stopped as quickly as it started. She was breathing heavily through her nose, trying to get enough air with her mouth sealed by the gag.

"I do not see why I should feel guilt when you are the one pushing the button," the doctor said calmly. "You have kidnapped me - committing an act of war in the process, I might add. You are attempting to force me to undertake illegal research on an unwilling subject who, I suspect, is also not legally a slave. You have broken at least three laws to this point. My acquiescence to one point would not change the fact that you are the one entirely in the wrong here. But even so, I refuse to grant you even that small satisfaction."

"You're just going to watch her suffer?" the lieutenant said, pushing the button again. Holly thought she heard the woman continue to speak, but she was unable to process the words through the pain. She was sure her neck was a blistered mess now from the flames.

And, again, it stopped.

"She has said that she does not want me to do this to prevent you from pushing the button," the doctor was saying as calmly as he could. "It would be unkind of me to waste her sacrifice by yielding anyway."

Lieutenant Knox pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "Why did I let them talk me into this job? Why?"

"That I do not know," the doctor said.

Lieutenant Knox glared at him. "Are you familiar with the concept of a rhetorical question?"

"Yes, but they have never been my strong suit."

"I noticed." Lieutenant Knox walked over to Holly and removed the gag. "Here, let's try it this way. Let's let you hear her scream." She pressed the button, and Holly felt another wave of pain. She wasn't sure if she was screaming, she was too busy coping with searing agony.

"Now, you'd like him to make that stop, wouldn't you?" Knox asked.

"I can take it," Holly said, her voice only wavering a bit.

Knox stared at her. "Seriously?"

Breathing deeply, Holly nodded. "Yes."

"Thank you," the doctor said.

"Pfeh," Knox said, shoving the remote in her pocket and stomping out of the room.

Holly smiled. "No, thank you. I want to make these assholes' lives as difficult as I can."

"I agree." The doctor looked around. "I do not believe we have been introduced?"

"Oh, right, sorry. I'm Holly Washington. I used to work for the Mayor of Danville until I recorded him confessing to setting the Danville bomb. And you?"

"I am Doctor Baljeet Tjinder, from Toronto. I was working on a special project for the Canadian forces with Mr. Fletcher when we were abducted."

"Yeah, I know Ferb from ages ago. I used to date his brother back in high school."

The doctor looked uncomfortable. "Oh? I was working with his brother, and...a woman friend of his."

"Oh, you worked with Isabella? It's okay, she's a friend of mine too."

He looked relieved. "That is nice to know, Ms. Washington."

"Oh, call me Holly, please."

He smiled at her. "Thank you, Holly. Please, call me Baljeet."

The door opened, and Lieutenant Knox came back in. "Time to go back, folks. You first, Tjinder." She knelt down to start unstrapping Baljeet from the chair.

"Doctor Tjinder," he said icily.

Knox glared at him. "I could just leave you here, you know."

"How far out are we?" Isabella asked, entering the room where Phineas was monitoring the drone.

"About ten minutes," he said, not taking his eyes from the screen. The image shown swept over the Montana countryside, scattered houses amid grassy fields. To the right and ahead, tall mountains stood proudly on the horizon.

"Want me to get you anything?" she asked.

"No, I'm good. Might want to let Vanessa know we're almost there."

"Will do." She kissed him on top of his head and pulled out her phone, sending a quick text to Vanessa's number.

Almost there, in case you want to be here when it arrives.

A moment later, a reply arrived.

On my way. You might want to check the news, I think you'll be interested.

Isabella frowned, puzzled. News? What's up? She switched her phone over to a web browser, bringing up the CBC site. A large headline appeared under a picture of Mayor Abercrombie, and a picture of the shattered rubble that remained after the Danville bomb had gone off.

LEAKED RECORDINGS CLAIM DANVILLE BOMB SET BY SECRET 'COUNCIL'

Underneath, a smaller headline read, Rescuing Heroes May Have Been Bombers.

Isabella quickly brought up the full article, reading it avidly. She didn't even notice Vanessa arriving, as she was too busy muttering under her breath.

"There's the fort," Phineas said. "Chem sensors aren't finding anything in particular yet."

"Ping the ground scanner? Underground bunker, maybe?" Vanessa said, sitting forward on the edge of her seat.

"I'd like to avoid broadcasting until I know they're here if I can help it," Phineas said.

"Fuckers!" Isabella said suddenly.

"Huh?" Phineas asked, looking back at her.

"Let me guess," Vanessa said. "You just found out why your family was killed?"

"Why all of our families were killed," Isabella said. "Why we had that entire fucking war in the first place."

"Mm?" Phineas said.

"Sons of bitches wanting slaves," Isabella said. "The fucking Liberators were patsies. That asshole Archer and the fucking Mayor blew up Danville."

"Wait, what?" Phineas looked up at her, stunned. "Mayor Abercrombie was one of the rescuers after the Shatter Day bombing, it was part of his campaign..." He trailed off, his eyes wide. "He was in on it all along, wasn't he?"

"Yep," Vanessa said. "Everything - the bombings, the war, all of it."

"They broke up the country and killed millions of people to make it possible for them to 'prove' they were so superior they should own people like cattle." Isabella grimaced. "This is being censored in America, I assume?"

"Of course," Vanessa said. "The media are all still under war-time controls. It's leaking around the Internet, though, so I suspect it'll be big enough they need to respond soon."

"Maybe we can use that for cover when we go get Ferb and Doc, then," Phineas said. "Speaking of which..." He turned back to the screen, which was still showing the view above Fort Harrison. "Still nothing. There's some buildings that aren't on the directory up in the hills over most of the base, let me take the drone down closer to the largest."

"That's a pretty big building there," Vanessa said.

"What's that green light in the corner?" Isabella asked.

"Potential Ferb detection. Good enough. Let me scan the building more closely," Phineas said. "Okay. Five people in there...there's Ferb, there's Doc. That's where they are."

"Well, then," Vanessa said. "How do we get them back?"

"The drone left our airspace, sir," Higgs said.

"Heading back toward Canada?" General Archer said, looking up at her.

"Yes, sir. Should I call for an intercept? I know we can't get a missile lock on it, but a fighter should be able to get it with its cannon."

"No, we want them to think it succeeded."

"Damn near. Sir. If we hadn't happened to catch that radar burst, we'd have never seen it."

"See what you can find on how they were controlling it. Now that they know what's in Building 22, they'll be sending people down. And once they're here, we can catch them."

He saw Higgs start to say something, then catch herself. She'd only asked what was in Building 22 once, and had kept her mouth shut after being told she wasn't cleared to know. "Do we know who they'll send?"

"I'm betting that we'll get a Dewdrop soldier to do research on after all," he said with a smile.

"You think they'll send Echo Three, sir?"

"I'm counting on it."

"Okay. Here's the building plan that we know," Colin said, rolling the paper out on the table. "Ferb and Doc were seen here and here - looks like a residential pod inside the building, Two other people in this area, looks like another residential pod."

"What's this area?" Phineas said, poking at a set of larger rooms.

"Another residential pod, but a fancier one," Colin said. "VIP housing, perhaps. Rumour is that this building is a secret slave-holding site for muckety-mucks."

"How about this area with the fifth person in it?" Isabella said.

"Control room is our best guess," Colin said. "And we have no idea at all what these rooms back here are. Labs, lounge areas, kinky sex dungeons, who knows?"

Phineas laughed briefly, then caught himself. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"If it is where top-secret slaves are held for government officials, then...well, we know some of them are into some seriously weird stuff," Colin said.

"Like Mayor Abercrombie," Isabella added darkly.

"Oh," Phineas said quietly.

"This one black space is a Faraday cage or similar," Colin said. "Might be for testing electronics, might be for doing things you want to be sure can't be recorded. There may have been more people in there, we have no way of knowing."

"We can assume there are cameras all around the edges, probably visible and infrared," Isabella said.

"Right, I've marked the ones that are known from satellite images on the plan." Colin pointed as he talked. "There's only three doors in. This large open space is a garage, big enough to hold a semi. Large garage door, plus a smaller personnel door. And a direct door into the VIP pod."

"So both the personnel doors are on one side. What are the walls made out of?" Phineas asked. "Can we cut through?"

Colin shook his head. "Reinforced concrete. No way through unless we bring explosives, and those are too likely to draw attention."

"So, we're going in through one of the doors, then," Isabella said decisively. "Which one?"

"It looks like the VIP area is unoccupied, and probably has the least restrictions," Phineas said. "Might be easier to go from there into the slave pods than vice versa."

"We can get directly into the control room from there, too, and that will let us take out the person in there faster," Isabella said.

"That makes sense," Colin said. "But how do we get there without being noticed? Unless you've got a stealth implant planned I wasn't aware of..."

"Nope," Phineas said. "Stealth generators are too big for personal use. Hm."

"Is there data connectivity between the building and the rest of the base?" Isabella asked.

"Probably not. I assume it's sectioned off. Hard to be sure, though, the power and any hypothetical data cables are all buried," Phineas said. "Why?"

"Because if I can get into their network, I can fake out the cameras," Isabella said.

"Hm. So you need a way into their network remotely, then?" Phineas asked.

Isabella nodded. "Why, do you have an idea?"

Phineas grinned. "I think I do."

Colonel Scott came into the room. "Warrant Officer Park?"

"Yes, Colonel?"

"Word just came down from above. You're scrubbed on this. If Ms. Garcia-Shapiro wants to go, she can for now, but we cannot send Canadian personnel."

Colin paused, looking at the colonel. "Yes, sir."

Phineas lay in bed, Isabella's bare body draped across his own, and felt her breathing slow. Tenderly, he kissed the top of her head. "Love you," he whispered.

She lifted her head to look at him, a lazy grin on her face. "Love you too." She nestled her head back on his chest and sighed contentedly.

He gently stroked her back. I wish we could just stay here like this forever. Instead of having to... He tensed, thinking of tomorrow, and she lifted her head again, concerned.

"It'll be okay," she said. "I promise."

He smiled faintly. "I know. I just worry."

She leaned up, inching her face closer to his. "I know. But it'll be fine. I can handle this."

"Just be careful, okay?"

She kissed him, gently. "Always."

"Be careful," Vanessa said over the radio.

"Always," Isabella said from the pilot's seat. She ran final checks, then took a deep breath. She pulled up on the altitude control, lifting the hovercar straight up. "Flight systems nominal," she said. "Activating stealth mode." She paused a moment, then said, "Stealth mode active. How's it look from outside?"

"I'd say it looks good," Phineas said over the radio, "but I can't see it at all. Vanessa, how do the sensors look?"

"All the sensors see is blue sky," Vanessa said. "I think you're good to go."

"Roger that," Isabella said.

"I wish we could give you a camera," Phineas said. "So we could see how you're doing."

"The building's too far away, they'd probably pick up the radio," Isabella repeated. She'd had this discussion with Phineas several times. "Time to head out. Beginning radio silence. See you in a while with a few more passengers,"

"Godspeed," Vanessa said.

Isabella nudged the speed control forward, and the hovercar leapt, flying across the prairie. She took it higher, keeping it below the traffic lanes but high enough up that its passage shouldn't be audible on the ground.

She crossed the border half an hour in, and kept an eye out in case somebody sent a fighter to intercept her. No visitors seemed forthcoming, so she continued on for another 45 minutes to Fort Harrison.

Building 22 was somewhat isolated from the rest of the base, up in the hills to the east. There was a low ridge just south of it which she should be able to hide behind. She piloted around carefully, checking for cameras and other sensors. Once she'd seen all that she could, she carefully targeted one of the cameras with the dart-gun that Phineas had added.

The hovercar remained steadily still in the air as she centered her crosshairs on one of the rear cameras and gently squeezed the trigger. She confirmed the hit, then took the hovercar down behind the ridge.

She checked the passive sensors, confirming that nobody seemed to have noticed her. Wish I'd had one of these back with Dewdrop. Would've made a lot of missions easier.

She picked up her DIMMER, checked it, and took the palmtop computer Phineas had set up for her. Her gear set, she double-checked around the hovercar, then turned off the cloaking field and opened the door. It opened silently, revealing the ridge, bare and brown.

Isabella slipped through the door, her DIMMER ready, her hearing cranked up. The dusky sky was quiet, but in the distance she could hear the sound of the base, and the highway beyond it. The door closed behind her.

She slid her communications periscope out of the palmtop computer and peeked it up, just above the level of the ridge. She could see Building 22, squat and wide, with just a blank wall facing her way. To the right, a driveway led up to it, ending in a garage door at the end and a small parking lot in front of the building. She focused in on the dart in the camera, and brought up the communications system.

SEARCHING...

SEARCHING...

SEARCHING...

SIGNAL ACQUIRED.

We're in business, she thought. She began by seeing what information she could get from the camera itself; not much, other than a view of the ridge. She checked its network status, and found the address it was sending data to. A quick probe indicated it was a standard-issue Southwest video control module, which she could take over in her sleep. A moment later, she had control of it, and could pull the data from all the camera feeds.

And that's why Echo team had the best kill ratio of any part of Dewdrop.

She ensured she had solid access to the video control, and then checked what else was part of the network. A lock controller seemed to control most of the internal locks, which were set to badge and palmprint access. She added her blank access card to the system for access with any palmprint. Finally, she set the cameras to loop so that she wouldn't be seen inside the control room.

Twilight was deepening around her as she slipped over the ridge and toward the building, The lights around it shone brightly, and she hoped nobody was watching it from a distance. It seemed unlikely, though - there wasn't much else around here.

She slipped around the building, peeking around the corner with her periscope. No cars in the lot, no movement heading up, nobody around.

Archer watched Lieutenant Knox operate the controls in the Building 22 control room. "She's coming in over the ridge?" he asked.

"Yes, sir. The pressure sensors show she spent half an hour or so there before coming over. The cameras don't see anything, but the main computer's been hacked, so we won't get anything useful from it until we do the hard reset."

Archer smiled. "Good. Bets on which door she tries?"

"I'm thinking it's the garage," Knox said, watching the screens. "Easier access to the slave quarters."

Archer shook his head. "Hm. Yeah, I could see it. Well, we'll know soon enough. The traps are set?"

"Of course."