A/N: Many thanks to blaiseatmac for adding both me and the story! Welcome!

Many thanks also to ladyrayne13 for another review. Yes, Robots. There's a good reason for them and they are the strangest thing in the story (I think) so if you can handle them you should be good. Thanks for the reviews! I hope you continue to like the story.

Anyone else submits a review, I'll respond to them too. I'll read them, I promise!


Chapter 10: Back to the Yard

Zachariah Johnson was starting to get used to the being-squeezed-through-an-inch-wide-tube-with-no-oxygen feeling that was apparating. But that didn't stop him from feeling relieved at seeing the facade of Scotland Yard standing in front of him. He was used to strange things, being a member of SIS made that happen. But it had been an unusual day even for him. He needed some familiar surroundings. Too bad his job made sure no one remembered him here.

He and Albus walked in the front doors and Zachariah flashed a SIS badge. It was so much easier now that SIS was public; well most of it. "I'm Agent James, this is Agent Jessie. We're headed for the lab," he said. The woman behind the desk nodded and motioned to the elevator.

"Why didn't she recognize you?" Zachariah asked as they walked to the elevator. "You did work here before you joined the case right?"

"The Ministry wiped me from the memory of the employees when I got reassigned," Albus told him. It was scary how infiltrated this Ministry of Magic was.

They rode the elevator in silence. The elevator door opened onto a glass hallway that was well lit in blue light. The sides of the hallway were made up of room after room of really expensive looking equipment and scientists leaning over them pulling their hair out. One looked up to see who was coming out of the elevator, but looked away again frowning. The two men walked down the hallway without even earning a first look, let alone a second. They were invisible.

Zachariah loved the place.

They walked toward the only person in the whole complex who could pick Zachariah out of a line: Sarah Walker-Robinson. She worked in the trace evidence department and she was a beautiful, thirty-ish woman who always had her red hair pulled back in a tight pony-tail with a few strands hanging loose across her face. If circumstances were different and those who he loved were not in danger, Zachariah would probably have asked her out years ago. Yeah, she was only a little older than his son would be, but that really wasn't that strange anymore. Of course, if things were different he'd probably be married. And his name would not be Zachariah. Eventually he'd convinced himself that she was off limits, but she'd still become like a daughter to him. He'd come to love her anyway, just not in the same way.

Zachariah knocked on the door to her lab before they entered. She looked up and smiled, locking her computer screen and running over to hug Zachariah. "Zachariah Johnson," she said, stepping back. "This is certainly a surprise. I don't remember the last time you actually came by before I said I had something."

"Well, my partner had some business here," Zachariah said. "Tell me you have something."

"I'm not a miracle worker," she said, faking offense. Zachariah just gave her a raised eyebrow. "Ok," she said, "I've isolated your nuclear sample so if you give me something to test against, we can try to match it."

"Get the sample from your friend," Zachariah said to Albus. Albus moved back down the hall. "What else?"

"Nothing," she said, skipping to her computer and unlocking it. She switched files to a program that was running a fingerprint. "This is the fingerprint you pulled from the storage at Fort Charles. I've been running it for three weeks and am getting nothing. I've run it through the known criminal database of both England and the United States, the military database for His Majesty, even Interpol and I've got nothing. This is the database for Save the Whales protesters. No matches."

"Try running it against the general population," Albus said. "James is on his way down."

"The general database?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah, they've been recording fingerprints on babies for decades," Albus said.

"Yes they have. That's exactly why it takes about three weeks to run it against the database, if you're lucky," Sarah said.

"Humor him," Zachariah said.

"You're not seriously suggesting I do that are you?" Sarah asked.

"What if you exclude the people you've already checked?" Zachariah asked.

"That might work," she said, turning back to the computer. She pushed some buttons and the machine emitted some beeps and whistles as she started the search.

The elevator beeped and the man Zachariah assumed was James emerged from within, holding a newspaper under his right arm and a vial of dirt in his left hand. The man looked exactly like Albus. Zachariah thought they must be brothers. Albus caught his eye and he began moving toward them. "Pull up the uranium test," Albus said.

"Ok," Sarah said, doing as told.

"You got a way to tint these windows, right?" Zachariah said.

"Yeah," she said.

"Do it," he said.

"Can she be trusted?" Albus asked.

"I trust her with my life," Zachariah said.

The windows turned black with the push of a button as James entered the room. He gave the vial of dirt to Albus and he gave it to Sarah. "Test this against it," he said.

"It needs to separate. It takes three weeks...what is that?" she said. Albus wasn't listening. He had pulled his wand and was placing protective spells on each of them.

"Radiation protection," Albus said. Zachariah's eyes told her not to ask. Sarah put the vial on a piece of equipment and Albus placed his wand on it. The vial unsealed and the dirt swirled and swished inside. Slowly, it rose from the vial and separated into different colored layers, rising three feet in the air. Then it reversed and settled into the vial, still in the layers. "It's separated," he said.

"That was..." Sarah began.

"Magic," Zachariah said. "Don't tell anyone."

"You have my word," she said in a tone that said they'd discuss it later. She started the machine. "Where did this come from?"

"Tel Aviv," Albus said as if it didn't matter.

"That was quick. What did you hop a spy plane there and back?" she asked.

"Something like that," Albus said.

"It's still going to take a while," she said when she noticed everyone looking at the computer.

"So, what's the paper for?" Albus asked James.

"Third page," James said, handing it to Albus. The paper was the day's Daily Prophet. Albus flipped to the page and chuckled. The headline read "Muggles react to magically cleaning vomit at the Western Wall."

"Know anything about that?" James asked skeptically. Albus handed the paper back with only a smile.

His phone rang. "That phone's archaic," Sarah said as he pulled the large flip phone out.

"I didn't get it for Angry Birds," Albus said as he flipped it open. "Hello," he said.

Zachariah couldn't hear the other end of the conversation, but he could figure out what was going on. And he didn't think he liked it. Albus' face lit up when he answered the phone, indicating that his wife was on the other end. The "honey" he said every once in a while confirmed it. But Albus' face dropped very quickly in the conversation. Zachariah had warned him. The job had dangers.

Albus hung up the phone and turned away into a corner of the room. No one said anything. They had all seen the look on his face and they all knew something was wrong. Ten minutes later, he turned and addressed Zachariah and James in turn.

"Ashley's been attacked," he said. "She's okay for now. She's heading to the Ministry to stay in touch."

"I'm sorry," James said. "I should have been there."

"She said her attacker was going to take her somewhere in Missouri," Albus said to Zachariah. "Does Missouri ring any bells to you?"

"Nothing," Zachariah said.

"Yeah," James said. "The SIS has a file on an Air Force Base there."

"You've read SIS files?" Zachariah asked, irritation creeping into his voice.

"We do what we have to do," James said returning the irritation.

"That's what tyrants say," Zachariah said loud enough for only him to hear.

"What's the base?" Albus asked.

"I don't remember," James said. "Something with a color in it."

Sarah jumped onto her computer and opened a search program. "Whiteman Air Force Base," she said. "It's American, what business do we have there?"

"A joint program," James said. "We've sent people to get trained with some special bomber housed there. There's been one to two British soldiers housed there for decades; since they were training on the old B-2."

"We could be looking for a British soldier," Zachariah said. "Maybe, our guy -"

"Or gal," Sarah interrupted, anticipating Zachariah's words.

"Or gal," Zachariah repeated, "was stationed at this Whiteman, or white-woman, Base." Zachariah shot her a look, but she smiled in return. She stuck out her tongue for good measure.

"We should probably check it out," Albus said.

"Right," Zachariah said. "I'll notify the State Department and see when we can get in."

"No time for that," James and Albus said simultaneously.

"Well, how do you plan to get in?" Zachariah asked. "You can't just walk into a high-security Air Force Base. Especially an American one."

"I wasn't planning on walking in," Albus said.

"Okay," Zachariah prodded. "Again, how are you planning on getting in?"

"How else do you enter an air force base?" Albus asked. "I plan to fly." He shoved Sarah gently out of the way and got onto the computer. James and Zachariah flanked him while Sarah came up behind him saying something about it being her lab and wanting it back. Albus had pulled up a program that would have looked at home on an ancient DOS computer. "Here," Albus said. "There's a flight scheduled from London tomorrow morning."

"And it's also booked," Zachariah said. "Two passengers and no one else."

"How did you know how to get on that program?" Sarah asked.

"Well I wasn't expecting a commercial flight," Albus said, ignoring her.

"We can get on the flight," James said.

"Why was I expecting that answer?" Zachariah said to no one in particular. Everyone ignored him.

"James, can I borrow your batch?" Albus asked.

"Hello..." Sarah said. "Beautiful woman here who'd really like her lab back." Zachariah looked at her apologetically. He noticed that James smiled like he'd heard.

"Used it last night," James said. "I'll get you another one though. Go see your wife. I owe you a favor anyway."

"Thanks, bro. Meet me out front an hour before flight," Albus said. "That's five o'clock."

"O-500," Zachariah corrected.

"O-500," Albus said, beginning to search randomly online.

"Does this mean I can have my lab back?" Sarah asked.

"Oh, right," Albus said, pushing three keys on the keyboard and returning the computer to the home screen. Zachariah gave Sarah a quick hug before following James and Albus out of the lab. James apologized to Sarah as he left.

Sarah waited until the three men had left the lab before pulling up the internet and checking the history. It was blank. She smiled. "Nice try," she said, loading up the hard-drive's history. It was blank too. She sighed and fell back into her chair. "Really nice try," she said.