Serena managed to fall asleep fairly easily on the train and started her work week well rested. She saw Janet in the cafeteria on Monday evening and noted the RFID hanging off her belt. Serena thought about just walking past her with the duplicator in her hand, but couldn't bring herself to do it that day. On Tuesday she didn't see Janet at all, but on Wednesday she was lining up at the buffet just as Serena walked in for lunch. Serena decided that this was the time to do it. She reached into her pocket and flipped the switch on the duplicator. She lined up next to Janet.

"Hello," said Janet.

"Hi," Serena replied smiling. She tried to act natural and relax and hoped that her nervousness wasn't showing.

As they were serving food onto their plates Serena got right up close to Janet, almost touching her. Her pocket was at about the same height as the RFID hanging from Janet's hip and she hoped that it had been close enough. She would have to wait until later to check as she didn't want to take the duplicator out where people could see. When she had gotten her food she noticed Jeremy waving at her from a table and joined him.

After lunch Serena went to the bathroom and pulled the RFID from her pocket. To her relief the light was green. She turned off the switch and hoped that it would work on the server room door.

Later that night when most people had retired to their rooms Serena found her way to the place that Ethan had showed her on the map. She didn't see anyone else and this helped to increase her confidence. She located the server room and tried the RFID. To her relief it worked. She used her sleeve to open the door. Inside the room there were four server racks. She walked around behind them and noted that all of them had USB ports. She wiped down the USB drive Ethan had given her and plugged it into one of the ports on the second rack. Nothing happened. She watched it for a few seconds, hoping that everything was working, then left the room, opening the door with her sleeve again.

The door had just closed behind her when she saw someone turning the corner at the end of the corridor. She started walking away, trying to keep a relaxed pace, even though her heart was pounding.

"Hey, you," she heard a voice behind her and froze. She turned around slowly. The man was walking towards her. He was wearing what she had come to identify as a security guard uniform.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"Oh, um," she started nervously, "I, I'm lost. I wanted to go to the park, but this seems like completely the wrong place. Can you help me?" She gave him a pleading look.

He seemed to believe her and his expression softened. "Yeah sure, come with me," he said.

"This place is a total maze," Serena explained defensively as she walked with him. "I keep taking wrong turns."

"Yeah, I know," he said sympathetically, "It takes a while to get used to it. Here we are," he said after they had walked for a minute, and gesturing towards a door that looked like every other door, except for a sign on it that said 'The Park'.

"Thank you very much," Serena said, opening the door.

"Not a problem," he replied, "Have a good night."

Serena walked into the park and was amazed as always at the stark difference on either side of this door. On one side was a sterile corridor and on the other side it felt just like she was outside. She hadn't been here at night before and noticed that there were stars out.

Since she was here already and she didn't feel like going to bed yet she decided to go for a walk. It was actually quite pleasant. The air was cool and there was a gentle breeze. It helped to calm her after her close encounter. She sat on one of the benches for a while looking at the stars and wondering how they were simulated.

On Friday she had finished her work for the week and was in her room packing when a security man came and asked her to come with him. She got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, but tried not to show any outward nervousness. He took her to one of the meeting rooms and motioned her inside, closing the door behind her.

Kristen and the security guy that she had run into on Wednesday evening were standing on the other side of the table. Janet was also there, sitting down with a laptop in front of her. This made Serena even more nervous. She had a good idea what this was going to be about and she wasn't sure her acting skills would be good enough to deny what she knew they knew, or at least suspected.

"Hello, Serena," Kristen said pleasantly, with a friendly smile, but somehow it didn't help to ease the heavy feeling in Serena's gut. "Please have a seat."

Serena pulled out a chair and sat down. She put her hands in her lap and willed herself to keep still.

"Serena," Kristen was studying her face intently, "Lukas here says he saw you outside the server room on Wednesday night. What were you doing there?"

"Um," Serena kept her voice level, "I have no idea where the server room is." Kristen raised one eyebrow. "On Wednesday I was trying to get to the park and I got lost. I'm still working on finding my way around this place."

Kristen nodded, her expression unreadable.

"Can you tell me what this is?" Kristen said putting the USB drive on the table in front of Serena.

Serena tried really hard to keep her expression neutral. She picked up the drive and examined it like she had never seen it before. "It looks like a USB drive," she said putting it down.

"Can you tell me what this was doing plugged into one of the servers?"

Serena looked at Janet, who was watching her looking very displeased, and then at Kristen, who still had that unreadable expression. Lukas was looking forward at nothing in particular. She put on a confused expression, shook her head and said, "No."

"Empty your pockets," Kristen demanded. Serena hesitated, still looking confused. "Your pockets. Put their contents on the table." A hint of a threat was creeping into Kristen's voice. "If you prefer Lukas here can help you out."

Serena looked from Kristen to Lukas. After a moment's hesitation she stood up and did as Kristen asked. She took out some tissues, some change and, reluctantly, the RFID duplicator. She cursed herself for not hiding it in her room somewhere, or even better throwing it out. Ethan hadn't mentioned anything about what she should do with it.

Kristen picked up the RFID and handed it to Janet who held it up to a scanner connected to the laptop. The two of them looked at something on the screen and then at each other. Serena couldn't see what they were looking at, but had an idea what it was.

"Well, isn't this interesting?" Kristen said, straightening up. "Can you explain to me why you are carrying around an RFID that is an exact duplicate of Janet's?"

Serena knew she had been caught. There was no point in trying to deny or defend herself anymore. She stared at the table and said nothing.

"By your silence I will assume that you have no explanation other than you planted this device on our servers." Kristen started pacing the room. "You know, Janet was very unhappy that her entire security system that she worked so meticulously to set up was compromised. You almost got away with it too. Whoever wrote the software on there is very good. Unfortunately for you Janet was setting up some RFIDs yesterday and happened to notice that someone had accessed the server room. Imagine her surprise when she found out it was her and she had no recollection of the event. Then we questioned the security patrols to find out if anyone had seen Janet sleepwalking." Kristen grinned, but no one else seemed to find it particularly funny. "Then we found out Lukas had seen that new engineer girl walking around in the vicinity of the server room and well, you know the rest." Kristen was now standing right behind Serena.

Serena sat perfectly still and kept her eyes down, waiting to find out what was going to happen to her.

"It's all right, Serena," Kristen said, in a friendly voice, putting her hand on Serena's shoulder. "I know this wasn't your idea. Tell me who put you up to this and you'll be fine."

Serena remained silent. Kristen leaned against the table facing her.

"You're giving me the silent treatment? Maybe you don't understand the gravity of the situation. Look at me, Serena," she commanded taking Serena's chin in her hands and pulling her face up their eyes met. "Give me a name. Who put you up to this?"

Serena looked in Kristen's eyes and saw something scary. She didn't know what to say, what she could say to get out of this in one piece. Something told her that trying to lie to Kristen would not end well.

"Ethan," she said quietly.

Kristen narrowed her eyes. "Ethan Hunt?" she asked.

"I don't know. I just know him as Ethan."

Kristen let go of Serena and began pacing again, this time briskly, deep in thought. Finally she stopped and went over to Lukas. She said something in his ear that Serena couldn't hear and he left the room. Kristen walked back to the other side of the table.

"You are going to catch this Ethan for us," she said.

Serena looked up at her surprised. She shook her head, "No," she said feebly.

"Yes, you will," Kristen stated. "What do you care for him anyway. He got you into this mess. Do you know what I normally do to people who try to hack into my servers?" Her expression and the tone of her voice made Serena shrink back into her seat involuntarily. Then the look was gone, replaced by her usual friendliness. This was really messing with Serena's mind and she didn't know what to think. "In case you're having doubts," Kristen continued, "I'm going to give you some extra incentive." She nodded at Janet who clicked on something and then turned the laptop around.

"Do you recognize that house?" Kristen asked.

Serena's eyes widened and she couldn't keep the fear off her face. It was her sister's house and they were watching it in real time. She could see Laura walking in front of the window with Marcus in her hands.

"They don't have anything to do with this," she said, weakly.

"Oh, but they do now. Don't worry, they're not aware of anything. And it's in your power to keep it that way."

Serena could clearly read the threat in Kristen's voice, even though it was friendly on the surface. Just then Lukas came back and handed something to Kristen.

"This is what you're going to do, Serena." Kristen explained. "It's very simple. You're going to get Ethan to drink this," she put down a small vial with a clear liquid in front of Serena, "then you're going to call us."

Serena looked at the vial, then at Kristen. She knew she only had one choice at this moment and that was to agree. She could think about other options later.

Kristen and Janet were watching her, waiting for her to make up her mind. She thought about how she might get Ethan to drink this. She had some doubts about her ability to fool him.

"Can I have another one?" she asked finally, looking up at Kristen. "In case I fail the first time or something."

"Of course," Kristen smiled, then nodded at Lukas who left the room again. "I am glad that you can see the situation clearly. We are not going to follow you any more closely than before, because I know Ethan Hunt is very careful and we wouldn't want to make him suspicious. But remember, it only takes one word from me and that house," she pointed to the laptop, "is going to burn down with all the people in it. Embed that image in your head and think about it if you get any ideas." She said it all in a neutral voice, but the message was quite clear for Serena.

Lukas came back and put down a second vial next to first.

"Lukas is going to take you to your room so you can get your stuff and then he'll take you to the train."

Kristen nodded at Lukas, who opened the door. Serena got up and put the two vials in her pocket along with the other things that she had taken out earlier.

"Have a good trip," Kristen said as if sending off an old friend.

Serena turned around for one last look, her heavy expression a stark contrast to the smile that was now on Kristen's face.