Hiya all! Still with me?

A few things come together and even more fall apart. Which, really, is about what you can expect from here to the end.

Enjoy!

Dmitri didn't know how long he'd been sitting there, dangling his feet in the cool water of the little stream where he'd learned to swim and fish as a boy. The landscape was hazy, as though still shrouded in a touch of morning fog, but the sun was high in the sky. Beside him, Ivanna laughed at whatever absurd story he had been telling her as they traded the little anecdotes of their lives.

Suddenly Dmitri woke from the strange stupor that had held him. He turned and gripped his companion's shoulders tightly with hands that shook. "Ivanna?"

She smiled at him, the lines of strain and old loss vanished from her ageless face. "It is about time, my friend. I had wondered when you would truly join me here."

"My God in Heaven! Ivanna! You're…no." Dmitri's joy vanished. "It was not a dream. You are dead. This is the dream."

"Yes, and an important one." She moved her hands along Dmitri's arms until she could gently get him to curl his fingers in hers.

"Ivanna…I…I cannot say how sorry…I…" Dmitri wanted to close his eyes and turn away as his voice failed him, but he dared not take his eyes from her lest she vanish.

"I know," she said softly. "I know, dear one. I hold no anger in my heart for you. I am only sorry for what was done to you, and where it has led us." She took a deep breath. "But perhaps there is good in it all yet. Not for the lives lost, but for the choice open to us now. Were I still living, I would not have known that you are needed."

Dmitri knew he should be focusing on what Ivanna was trying to tell him, but he couldn't. Instead, he reversed the grip of his hands and drew her palm to his lips to kiss it softly.

"I know, Dmitri."

"I have to say it to you," he shook his head. "I don't care if you know it already. You must let me say it if only just this once."

Ivan inclined her head.

"I love you. I have always loved you. But…I loved Ilja too, better than a brother. You made him so happy for the time that he had with us. I could not take him from your heart when he had been taken from your life. But…I always loved you, Ivanna."

"You silent Sentinels are all the same," she said fondly, her eyes wet. "You assume that because the rest of us cannot see for miles that we cannot read what is before us. Yes, dear one, I knew. I knew before you did, I imagine."

Dmitri barked a laugh. "Oh, probably."

"Can you forgive my heart that could not see you as anything but a tribe-brother to Ilja and could not return your feelings?"

"Always," Dmitri assured her. "You loved Joel, though," he pointed out.

Ivanna sighed. "I don't know if I did or not. I never will, I suppose."

"I have taken that from you too," Dmitri said in a low voice. "I am so sorry."

"Do not weep for what you have done," she said, and there was ringing strength in her tone that made him meet her eyes in surprise. "If you must weep, then weep for what is to come. The danger is great, and there is nothing I can do for it."

"But you said I had a choice. Does that mean there is something I can do?" Dmitri asked. "Is the danger more than the robots outside?"

"Much more," Ivanna nodded. "Hundreds of thousands of lives hang in the balance as well as the future of our people. And already it is a nearly impossible thing that must be borne by those who are already so tired. But unless something is done, the last hope they have of success will vanish beyond the Seventh and those who remain will fail."

"I am injured, but give me the word and I will be as a man half my age."

Ivanna shook her head. "It is not the strength of your body that is needed, but the strength of your soul."

"You know better than anyone that I am not a Guide," Dmitri said.

"No, but you are a Sentinel with a full Seventh which you can use. And, more importantly, your nature is unique in this regard."

Ivan released one of her hands from Dmitri's and swept it across the water at their knees. The ripples shimmered for a moment before resolving into a view of the battle raging at the lodge. Dmitri could see the spirit animals who battled as well as the robots and men.

"Tell me," Ivanna said. "Why is Blair a wolf? What does a wolf do that is a part of Blair's truest nature?"

Dmitri thought for a moment before he let the words pour out of him. "He…is cunning. Swift and hardy. And fierce, no matter how he's cornered or out-numbered. And…he gathers people together to hold them in a pack, I suppose. He and his mate protect their territory and their kin. He is resilient and can wander the globe if he must, but his territory and his pack are home."

"All true," Ivan nodded. "And Jim with his jaguar?"

"A silent and capable hunter. Territorial even beyond most creatures. An apex predator. Independent and untamable and powerful and ferocious."

"Now, think on some of your words. What does Blair, as a wolf, do? What does Jim, as a jaguar, do?"

"Blair…defends his territory and his pack. And Jim hunts."

Ivan touched the water again and Dmitri found himself looking at his own wild horse. "And what can a horse do, Dmitri? I know that you are noble and swift and intelligent and agile. What does a horse do?"

Dmitri blinked. "…Run? Live in a herd? Carry a…" He stopped. His head snapped up. "They carry someone or something else. Even a long distance. Horses are not just creatures in and of themselves. They can also transport others."

Ivanna smiled. "Precisely. You of all our brethren have within you the capacity to carry another home safely from even deep within the darkness of infinity. And that is what is needed for one who has gone too far beyond his ability to return."

"But you said it was a choice," he said, beginning to sense what all this might signify.

"Yes," Ivan did not look away from his eyes. "You are untrained, and you are not a Guide. Your Seventh is true, but weak. If you undertake this task, it will certainly kill you."

"And if I do not, how many others will suffer? No," Dmitri shook his head. "My life means nothing now. The instant I lifted a hand against you, I should have been executed by our tribe. We both know I cannot live on with that betrayal across my shoulders. I would be grateful to die in the right cause. Perhaps it would begin to atone for my failure."

"That is your perspective, right or wrong," Ivan told him, but the wariness in her eyes suggested she did not agree. "But I will say this. The soul you would save may be the difference between life and death for all we hold dear. He will never make it home without help, and there will be no time before it is too late for any other to match him in power."

"I will go. Guide me but once more, Ivanna."

She folded her large arms around him and drew him close. "Then I will send you to the spirit only you can save. Go swiftly, Sentinel. And when it is over and you pass through the Door to what waits beyond, Ilja and I will be waiting for you."

-==OOO==-

Kaimi couldn't really feel her legs anymore. For that matter, she couldn't feel much of anything. From the brain down, everything seemed numb and far away.

It hurt – it seared her mind to stretch one last time.

The final robot, pushing itself along with two legs like oars in the torn-up ground, swiveled its head and the red eye gleamed.

Kaimi gave a wretched howl and willed her albatross to strike just once more…

"It's all right now. It's over," came a soft voice at her temple.

Kaimi thought she must be crying for her face felt cold. She tried to touch her cheeks but her arms wouldn't move.

"I've got you," the voice said. "Hold still."

"How are they?" called another voice from somewhere in the fog.

"Blair and Jim are still out. Ngama's coming around now."

"Zoned?"

"I don't think so. Passed out, maybe."

"We'll need help to get them out of here. Damn. Just when you need a Sentinel to see if the coast is clear."

"Hey, Maxim! If you're listening, we need to know if the threat is neutralized. If it's safe, shoot as many times as you beat me in checkers that one weekend."

"Checkers?"

"It's the only game we both knew! I've taught him poker since then."

A sharp buzz echoed and Kaimi realized it was a series of gunshots.

"Geez. How many games did you play?"

"About eleven, I think. And, yeah, he won eight. The man is a wizard."

"That means the danger is over, but we still need to be careful. There's no telling what surprises Zin might have for us down there."

"Ngama! Hey, calm down, buddy. It's all right."

"…Kaimi…"

"She's here. She's right here. Your Guide's okay."

Kaimi realized her eyes were closed. She fought to open them.

The little space – Kaimi's brain had decided to think of it a Nest even though she knew that wasn't the right term for it – didn't look too bad. The metal walls had held up under the onslaught, and the truth was that most robots hadn't really gotten to within even 50 yards of the building before the spirit animals had taken them out. Jim and Blair were both stretched out on the ground, unmoving. Simon and Race stood nearby, flicking anxious glances around. Daryl and Jessie were just starting to help Ngama to his feet. He looked drawn and worn out as Kaimi had never seen.

"Think you can stand?"

Kaimi realized she was leaning almost all of her weight against Joel. He had one arm secure around her waist, holding her up against him. He had tucked both of her small hands into his large one, and she could feel that her fingers were still cramped in the claw-like shape she'd folded around her metal slats to keep herself upright.

She tried to nod and get her feet under her, but her knees refused to hold. After a moment of trembling, Joel shook his head and swept her into his arms in one smooth motion.

"Easy there, Kaimi. You did real good. Now you let me take care of things."

Kaimi was too depleted and exhausted to argue, so she just tipped her head against the warm shoulder and let go of her remaining tension.

Ngama looked up from where he was balanced between Daryl and Jessie. "Kaimi. Are you all right?"

Kaimi tried to smile. "I guess. We did it."

"That you did," Simon said softly. "The four of you did what a whole army couldn't have done."

"Kaimi…and Blair…did the real work," Ngama said. "Jim and I could only do half what they did…not counting Blair's…whatever that was."

"Okay, buster, you better rest," Jessie told him. "When you get imprecise with your language, you are dead on your feet."

Ngama didn't bother to answer.

"Rest, Kaimi," Joel told her kindly. "I've got you. You'll be safe."

Kaimi's eyes drifted closed, but she spoke almost without being aware of it.

"I know that. But…something's still wrong…

-==OOO==-

"Everybody clear away!" Leilani shouted. "I've got to try the paddles."

"We're losing him, aren't we?" Eric asked, looking fearfully at where Lai was holding Angie and Melly back from interfering with Leilani's increasingly-desperate efforts to revive Dmitri.

"No," Melly shook her head, tears coursing down her face as she clutched a whimpering Bandit to her chest. "We already lost him."

-==OOO==-

In a darkness marked only by the light of potential, of lives that had not yet come to be, the horse searched for the one who was lost.

-==OOO==-

Jonny was watching himself with increasing amusement as his body artfully rattled off the driest and most boring information he didn't even know he'd contained – all without ever giving away anything important like how to best teach Sentinels to piggy-back their senses for both increased ability and a decreased chance of zoning – when he felt a change in himself. It was subtle; if he'd been doing anything but paying attention to his surroundings, he never would have felt it. But there it was.

The twins are gone. I'm sure of it.

Jonny assessed his situation. He was back in the lab with the elder Samuels brother, standing at attention and talking over the man's shoulder while he took copious notes. After an hour, Samuels wasn't even looking at him anymore.

Jonny drew his fox into sight. Do it.

The red fox barked a chirpy sound, its tongue lolling out of its jaws like an overly-happy dog, and dove.

Jonny felt for an instant as if his body were being squeezed through a cheese-grater. Then his ears popped and, just like that, he was back to himself. He actually blinked and flexed his fingers just to be sure. Yes, that sense of disassociation was gone. He was fully himself once more.

Cognizant that he had only moments before Samuels would finish writing out whatever the last of his words had been before he would be expecting more, Jonny moved. At least he'd had plenty of time to plan!

At a nearby table, Jonny had spied a ready set of syringes, all prepared in case a Sentinel was brought in while in immediate distress or actively resisting. Jonny grabbed for the strongest tranquilizer of the bunch and jabbed Samuels in the shoulder in one smooth motion. The man went lax before he even registered the pinch of the needle. Not wanting to sound any kind of alarm, Jonny worked in the best silence he could, rolling Samuels in his chair to a bed in the far corner and tipping him into it, lashing him down with the very restraints he had used on so many Sentinels already. There was even a ready gag to keep Sentinels from biting their tongues off that Jonny affixed in place. Lastly, he pulled the privacy curtain around the bed to completely hide the unconscious man.

That done, Jonny took care to cover his tracks. He turned off the work-light at Samuels' desk and piled things together into a rough approximation of how he'd seen the desk before, picking up Samuels' notebook and tucking it into his pocket. Then he listened carefully at the nearest door, but he could hear heart-beats and breathing. So he opted for the other door at the far end of the room. Beyond it was only silence. He found himself in a corridor that seemed mainly to be filled haphazardly with supplies.

Probably Sunshine never even put anything away – they weren't going to be here that long. He just opened up the pallets and used them from here. Which means somewhere…jackpot!

Jonny reached into an open box and withdrew a small white noise generator. He flipped it on at its lowest setting, which would drown out only the area immediately around him. Now invisible to any Sentinels who might be able to listen for him, he slipped into a closet and closed his eyes.

I know I was supposed to get more intel on what Zin is going to do next, but with Hadj in trouble and dad hurt, I've got to get them out of here while I can. Time to find you guys.

It took Jonny a few moments to focus his senses around the white noise before he could start seeking his family. He first honed in on his father's breathing, finding it easily by its harshness. It wasn't far off.

Jonny followed the sound into a new corridor. A pair of guards stood outside one door on the next hallway – the right one. Jonny threw back his head and mimicked the glare he'd felt himself use when watching the assault on the lodge.

"Get out of here. I'm taking over. Master's orders."

The two men glanced at one another, then back at Jonny. Whatever they saw in his attitude, or maybe in what they remembered from his first pass through must have been awful because they turned and bolted down the hall without a word. Jonny stepped into the room.

"Dad!"

His father looked up from where he hung in the chains. "Jonny! Oh, god, son. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Hadji...uh…it's a long story," Jonny scurried over to his father, appalled at the clear strain he could hear in Benton's breathing and voice. He ran his hands over his father's arms, his sense of touch picking up the bruised and swollen muscles. "What happened to you?"

"Don't you know? You…never mind," Benton shook his head. "It's not important." Then, with a flash of his usual smile, he shook himself. "It looks a lot worse than it is."

"What about your ankle?" Jonny remembered his limping from their arrival.

Benton winked. "Faked it the whole time."

Jonny grinned at his father's audacity. "I'll get you down."

It took Jonny a couple of minutes to find a chair and something with which to pick the manacles, but once he had the height and the tool, it was the work of only a few moments to undo both cuffs. Benton sagged to the ground with a groan.

"Dad, can you walk? We probably don't have a lot of time here," Jonny leaned down, assessing with every sense he possessed.

"Yeah. Just let me get some blood back in my arms and I'll be fine. Like I said, it wasn't as bad as it looked."

When he finally got shakily to his feet, Jonny concurred with his father's assessment. He wasn't in great shape, clearly, but he'd played up his fatigue and pain. His arms and legs were sore and he was bruised head-to-foot, but he was otherwise functional. And with a few minutes of walking, he was able to get his blood circulation moving again and he looked more like his old self.

"Where's Hadji?" Benton asked.

"Um…" Jonny cast out his senses again, listening, scenting, even feeling along the string that bound them that he could not begin to name. "Upstairs." Then he paused. "His heart-beat is really slow."

"He said he would be meditating beyond the Seventh Door to help you," Benton pointed out.

Jonny led the way from the room, listening past the white noise generator as best he could for any surprises around a nearby corner. "No, it's more than that. He was doing that for a while, but it was too much for him and he…"

A sharp pain brought Jonny to his knees.

"Jonny! What is it, son?"

Jonny felt a terrible truth burn through him. "It's Hadji. I'm too late."

-==OOO==-

The last of Hadji's depleted energies gave out. He had fought with every bit of power, every cultivated strength he had ever possessed, but the tides that tore at him were irresistible.

I am sorry, my brother. My Sentinel. I have failed and now our life will end.

Hadji resigned himself to the infinite cosmos that were calling him. Even the feather he had left in Jonny's soul was not strong enough to lead him back. He was already fading into stardust and the particles of a new galaxy, his soul passing on in a last haze of profound sorrow

I should have liked to have stayed with you in this life.

And so you shall.

Hadji might have thought it was his imagination – and here that was nowhere that would not make it any less real – but he felt gathered up, wrapped in a blanket of certainty.

I am here to carry you home.

Hadji's confused consciousness took a deplorably long time to identify the presence. Dmitri?

Not for long. It does not matter. You are needed.

Are you not?

No. My time ends by this last act. All is as it must be. Do not weep or fear. I am at peace.

Hadji could feel the truth of it. Then I thank you, my friend, for my life and for Jonny's life.

Thank me when you are safely on the other side of the Seventh Door, body and spirit. When all is safe. I will be sure to listen for you, and I will not be far from you all your days. None of us are.

Distance is nothing to the mind, Hadji agreed.

I understand that now. I did not before. But I had never come here with a true Guide before, either.

Hadji could feel strength returning to himself. He no longer seemed as scattered, as though the molecules of his spirit were being flung throughout creation.

You will recover, but you will be forever changed, Dmitri told him. For as long as you wish your body to be bound to your soul in this life, you will be in danger of becoming lost once more. That which tied you to life is thin and frail now.

I cannot continue without an anchor, Hadji realized. I understand. I had come too close to losing myself too many times before.

But you may also touch a power that few Guides have ever known. In that same ability to let go of the world lies a tremendous capacity to change it. But be wary. I will not be able to save you again.

I understand. I will be careful.

Hadji could see the Seventh Door. He felt the presence around him begin to dissolve.

Goodbye, my friend and Guide of my tribe. Strength and victory to you and all our people.

Goodbye, Sentinel. May you be welcomed in the light of peace and enlightenment.

Hadji opened his eyes.

Even before he was fully aware of his own body he was aware of Jonny's; his time in the body of his brother had bound them anew as he could not have imagined. He knew without question that Jonny was returned to himself, was just recovering from his close call with death, and was leading their father to him. He knew that he would always know where Jonny was, what he was doing, in a way that surpassed the physical. He would taste Jonny's concern and love like food and water, and he would be tempted to fall into such awareness to explore it on a level now open to him that beckoned like a siren's call.

"And from there I would not return," Hadji told himself firmly, standing up. "Praise be that discipline is something I practice rigorously. I believe I shall need it."

He could feel Jonny's surprise as the Sentinel picked up his words.

Hadji moved to the door of his chamber. He didn't need the Seventh to open such a simple lock – his concealed lockpicks would be more than sufficient.

"Jonny, I will meet you and Doctor Quest three floors down from your current position in the unused warehouse. There is a jeep there, and very few guards in the area. We must escape at once. I already have all the intelligence we sought, so there is no reason to delay."

Resolutely not thinking about anything – not what had happened, not what he had done, not what he now Knew from spending so long beyond the Seventh he had even seen Zin's final plans fully illustrated – Hadji focused on the immediate present and prayed they were not too late.

Because if we fail to stop Brackett and Anaya and Melana, I do not know that any of us will survive the night.

-==OOO==-

The DHS cavalry arrived about thirty minutes after the Sentinels of SELF called the all-clear. Their trucks roared through the broken perimeter and over the uneven ground, mounted guns at the ready while a platoon of soldiers began forming up in defensive lines.

"All dressed up and nowhere to go, huh Howitzer?" Race greeted his old friend with a tired smile.

Howard did not smile. "It shouldn't surprise you that I spent more time mobilizing reliable troops and securing the area before we actually moved in. I know most of what you and Benton have cooked up here in the last few years. I thought the locals should be kept out of the way before they witnessed whatever ridiculous thing you would be springing on them."

Simon paused in the extremely labor-intensive job of beginning to clear out the ruined robots and the debris from the battle to say, "That reminds me – how did you tap-dance around that whole thing with the giant spirit guardian when Jonny and Hadji put out the fire a few years ago? We couldn't have been the only ones who saw it." Simon was grateful for the momentary break from clean-up. It wasn't the most immediate task at hand, but there was no knowing if Zin had left any surprises behind, so they couldn't risk leaving the downed robots where they could be a threat later.

Fritz shrugged. "Actually, very few people did see it who weren't part of the forest service, and they were given the usual 'secret government national security spiel' that we give everybody and they took it seriously. After that, we just leaked an exaggerated report of it to the bottom-feeding local supermarket tabloid and when their headline came out raving about giant chicken mutants trying to destabilize the bear population, well, nobody else wanted to go public."

"I saw that issue," Henri walked up. "Joel had it at his desk for some reason."

"I framed it," Joel smiled. "And after Simon and Jim and Blair finally came clean about all this to me, I gave it to Blair for a Christmas present. He loved it."

"He still loves it," Simon nodded. "He keeps it in his room at the loft."

"Speaking of whom, where is Doctor Sandburg?" Fritz wanted to know.

"He and Jim are off resting along with Kaimi and Ngama," Race answered. "Most of this is their work."

Howard raised an eyebrow. "Want to explain that, Bannon?"

"Not really," Race shook his head. "Ask them later. Much later."

"Don't worry, I will. After the Quest system came out of lock-down, IRIS reported a few minor injuries to me along with one fatality from the attack. I'm sorry to hear about Dmitri. He was a good man." Howard meant it sincerely, and those who had worked with him for the last few years knew how rarely he offered that much praise.

"He didn't die in the attack," Henri spoke up. "Or, well, I mean, he did. But not because of it."

"We don't know what happened, exactly," Joel said softly. "Melly told the others that something had happened, but she was pretty upset. She's with Angie and Rafe for now. Everybody else is trying to clean up the mess and check for traps."

Howard glanced at the piles of twisted metal, the torn-up earth, the fragments of walls and roofing that had been blasted away in the onslaught, the many downed trees. He nodded. "We can probably help with that, with your permission."

Galina approached, Luka and Hasna beside her. She inclined her head to the agent, but turned to Simon.

"The tribe will follow us until the others are well and Doctor Quest and Jonny and Hadji return. But we wish your advice, Simon. We feel…unsettled."

Simon frowned. "What do you mean?"

"We are angry, like hornets whose nest has been kicked, but there is a greater fear in us. It is how Jim described his single encounter with the woman Alex Barnes." After having learned the story of the person who had successfully killed Blair, the tribe had never referred to her as a Sentinel again. According to them and by all they held dear, she didn't deserve the honor. "Something is encroaching on our territory. Something threatens our people."

"If you can get any more details than that, we'd love to have them," Race rubbed a hand over his hair. "Even for us, that's as murky as diving for a submarine in a bayou."

Howard was opening his mouth to say something when a sharp chirping noise filled the air.

"What is that?" Galina cringed at the piercing tone, belatedly adjusting her senses to compensate.

"It's the Quest emergency beacon!" Race exclaimed, pulling out his phone.

Another echoing beep grew nearer as Jessie raced up, her own phone in her hands and Daryl, Eric, and Lai in her wake. "It's them!"

"I know that. Give me a minute," Race snapped, peering at his phone. He began keying commands.

"It's not the normal one," Jessie explained, her own fingers flying on her phone as well. "There's a beacon in each of our phones that connects through the Quest system and can be activated any number of ways, but this is actually the backup. That means that their phones were damaged or even destroyed."

"Not quite, Ponchita," Race said. "This is the tertiary signal. The main one is activated when someone hits the panic button on virtually any piece of Quest tech. The second one goes off when certain pieces of Quest tech are destroyed. But the third one can be activated in an emergency with just a single chip from one of the phones plugged into anything with a phone line or an internet connection. It's not much more than a homing beacon, but it's active."

"Where is it?" Daryl asked.

"Oregon," Race frowned. "Astoria, I think." He enhanced the tracking screen. "Looks like a library or something."

"I can send a retrieval team. There's a Coast Guard base not far from there too," Fritz said, signaling one of his men to hurry over.

"Do it," Simon nodded.

"And get them on the fastest transport you have," Race added. "Strap them into a rescue helicopter if you have to. We need those three here now."

"How do you know it's all three of them?" Eric asked softly.

"Yeah," Henri added. "I want to believe they're together, too, but…"

Lai rolled her eyes, then reached up and expertly flicked Eric on the forehead. "Idiot."

"Ow! What?"

Lai crossed her arms. "Exactly which of Doctor Quest, Jonny, and Hadji do you think would actually go to a library to signal for help without bringing the other two with him?"

"You're right," Jessie nodded. "Jonny would tie himself to the tread of a tank if it meant not leaving his dad and Hadji behind."

"So if they're signaling, it means all three are okay?" Daryl asked.

"It means they're together," his father said. "It means they're safe for the moment."

"And if they can hang on for less than an hour," Fritz added, "they'll be as safe as I can make them."

"Given the day we've had," Race glanced at the ruin around him, "I'm not sure that's saying a lot."

-==OOO==-

"You incompetents! What do you mean they have escaped? It is not possible!" Zin bellowed.

The two Samuels brothers exchanged glances. They knew their failure was probably fatal this time.

From the nearest guard, Doctor Zin snatched up a chain whip. Without warning, he brought it down upon the younger brother's bowed shoulders. To his credit, the man who had been overseer of security for the facility did not bend or move away from the punishment. But he couldn't keep from crying out.

Zin lashed the chain whip sideways, raking the sharp taloned end across the elder Samuels's face before hitting both with the flat of the chain. When he spoke, his voice was deadly cold and still.

"This is unforgivable."

He was turning his back to them – the most dangerous sign of them all; those he forgot had ever existed usually ceased to exist in slow, painful ways – when the soft tone of a call coming into the computer sounded. Zin chose to accept the call without returning his attention to the Samuels brothers.

"Speak."

"It is done, father."

"Excellent. There has been a change of plans," and he turned a baleful, cool eye on the pair that were bleeding and trying not to move to cradle their hurts before him. "I will join you at the meeting coordinates myself. Zin out."

Then his gaze turned fully back to his two employees. Or were they prisoners? To be honest, the brothers realized they had never really known.

"You are necessary for now, as I do not have the time to retrain others to take your positions. But you will be watched. If you do your parts well, I may recall your past service, though a pardon will only be awarded for exemplary work. However, if you behave acceptably, I will make your deaths easy. If you fail again, or if you flee, you will regret it for a long, long, long time before you die."

-==OOO==-

"Help will be here soon, boys." Benton tried to smile at his sons.

As useless an enterprise as it is to compare one's hurts, he thought, I cannot decide who is the worst among us. I was merely abused a bit and humiliated. Jonny looks cold and sick, and I can tell he's only barely keeping himself from wrapping around Hadji – he looks so…frightened. And Hadji…I wish I knew what happened to him. If I didn't know better, I'd say he, too, has been scared beyond anything I have ever seen in him, but that would not explain his aloofness. Oh my poor sons. What have I done in bringing you here?

"It's a good thing Zin's pet Sentinels can't track worth anything," Jonny commented, keeping his senses open for danger; thankfully, the library was empty except for one college-age part-timer downstairs. "And how many of them did you zone, anyway?" he turned to his Guide.

Hadji had barely looked up since they had abandoned the jeep he had driven with unerring accuracy into the city, with no explanation as to how he knew where they were, of course. Now his dark eyes landed not on his father or brother, but on the ancient card catalog behind which they had found a small concealed corner. "No fewer than seventeen, no more than twenty-six. I cannot be more precise than that as I do not know if some were the same individuals who resisted me initially only to fall on a subsequent attempt."

"And you're sure you're okay?" Jonny asked. "That's a lot of zoning people with the Sixth and Seventh." Jonny made an abortive movement as if to tuck an arm around his brother, but he stopped and let the arm drop with palpable frustration.

Hadji didn't turn to him. "I am fine, Jonny."

"He's taking lessons from you, dad," Jonny grumbled.

Benton huffed a laugh. "None of that out of you. I get it enough from Race with that blasted list he keeps."

"Doctor Quest."

Benton looked at his son, gratified to see at last Hadji was making eye-contact. But there was something in Hadji's expression he did not like. "Yes, Hadji?"

"When our allies arrive to shepherd us to safety, we must not let them lock us away. There is too much at risk."

"He's right, dad. Zin's whole plan is to try to force all of SELF's Sentinels to surrender to him so he can brainwash them and have an army for the whole take-over-the-world type stuff. He's gonna hold something hostage that he thought they wouldn't dare resist."

"So, clearly not us, then," Benton commented. If Race isn't here to keep things light and you don't feel up to it, Jonny, I'll do it myself.

"No," Hadji shook his head. "No, it is far worse than that."

"What's he going to hold over them?" Jonny asked.

"The entire population of the Pacific Northwest. And we cannot allow him to succeed, no matter the cost."

-==OOO==-

Jim groaned and flung an arm over his eyes. "I don't want to know," he growled. "I'm sleeping here, Simon."

"Don't care if you want to or not – you're getting up," came Simon's steady voice.

Jim sighed. "I feel hungover…like that time we let Brown order the drinks."

"I'm sure you do," Simon's voice didn't waver – not a flicker of a smile. "But this is important, Jim. We need you."

That woke him up some more. He removed his arm and blinked, trying to force his vision to focus. "How long was I out?"

"No more than an hour. Sandburg and the kids are still asleep. Didn't know if I should wake them or not."

Jim sat up, rubbing at his face. "Yeah, let them sleep at least for now. What's going on?"

"What's the last thing you remember? You were pretty out of it." Simon leaned forward with a glass of water, which Jim took gratefully.

"Fighting robots. Sandburg needed me in the Temple. Kind of lost it for a while there, but we took them out." He looked up with alarm. "We did, didn't we?"

"Yeah, we did," Simon nodded, sticking out a hand to help Jim peel himself off the couch on which he had been dumped. "We were in the middle of cleanup when Fritz showed up. He and the others are taking care of the leftovers and reinforcing the perimeter. Oh, and we got a signal beacon from Benton and the boys."

"Are they all right?" Jim demanded. He got his feet under him, just turning to look to assure himself that his Guide was safe. Blair was flopped all over a couch in the greatroom that had been pulled next to his own, with Ngama and Kaimi nearby. Now that he was awake, Jim was amazed he'd slept through the racket going on outside and all the running and shouting across the lodge.

"Fritz sent somebody to pick them up. We don't have any details, but they're at least in protective custody right now and on their way back to Cascade."

"So what's the big problem?" Jim asked.

Simon, looking truly rumpled and half-dead on his feet and, to all appearances, still going strong anyway, grimaced. "One of the robot heads or bodies or whatever they are started beeping. Some kind of backup system that didn't fry. Joel and Race were all ready for it to be a bomb, but it's doing that projector thing. Zin and Brackett are on it, and they want to talk to you specifically."

Jim felt his face contort into an ugly snarl. "What do they want now?"

"Won't say," Simon shrugged. "Not until you're there. Jessie and Fritz are trying to triangulate wherever the signal's coming from. We're keeping the rest of the Sentinels back for now, just in case."

"Good call," Jim nodded. He glanced again to his Guide and the young Sentinel-Guide pair curled up nearby. "Let's keep them out of this as long as possible."

Simon smirked. "Thought you might say that. Are you sure you're up to this?"

Jim's resolve hardened. "Absolutely. Let's go see what those bastards want."

Striding with a confidence and steadiness born under a lifetime of duress, Jim made his way from the corner of the greatroom out the main doors. He didn't need to look far for the giant projection of Zin and Brackett standing side-by-side – the robot doing the projecting had been taken down just at the break of the woods, so he had an unencumbered view of the larger-than-life images of the two men. Facing the projection were Race and Joel; Fritz and Jessie were a few yards away, typing furiously on their devices. Jim knew most of the tribe was nearby, but well out of sight.

Jim strode up to flank Race, Simon at his shoulder. "What do you want, Brackett?" he asked coldly.

"Good to see you again," Brackett smiled. "I was starting to think you'd been taken out in our little visit."

"Apparently not."

"Detective Jim Ellison," said Zin, steepling his fingers before him. "Mister Brackett tells me that your Sentinels follow you, that they obey hierarchy and will submit to your will."

"Not sure where he got that idea," Jim frowned.

"It's amazing what you can learn about Sentinels when you start finding them all over the place," Brackett shrugged.

"Let us be direct," Doctor Zin fixed his eyes on Jim. "I am prepared to offer a proposition, and you will hear it out or I will not be responsible for the consequences."

"Oh yes you will," Race whispered fiercely.

"I'm listening," was all Jim would say.

"I and my forces have infiltrated the Cascade Nuclear Power Plant. We have planted explosives on multiple levels of the facility, undetectable by any conventional or Sentinel means. If you do not acquiesce to our demands, we will trigger the explosives. Cascade may or may not face a nuclear explosion, but it will certainly find itself at ground-zero of a far greater radioactive meltdown than Chernobyl. Every man, woman, and child for hundreds of miles will be exposed to toxic radiation, and if the doses do not instantly kill, they will certainly cause great suffering for all in the years to come as it destroys their bodies from the inside."

"Oh my God, you can't do that!" Joel yelled.

"Silence!" Zin snapped.

Jim swallowed around a fury so potent he thought he might fly apart from it. "What do you want, Zin?"

"You and every Sentinel under your command will meet me at a set of coordinates you will find embedded in this message. Your deadline to appear is four hours from this moment. You will surrender your entire organization to me and you will undergo my procedure. If even one of you fights me or if you delay in any way, the lives of every person in the state of Washington will be forfeit."

"What's your answer, Jim?" Brackett asked. "He's serious, you know. Oh, and we want Blair Sandburg, too."

Jim felt certain the only reason he wasn't howling his rage and fear and hate was that he couldn't seem to unclench his jaw.

Suddenly there was motion at his side. "We will agree, under the condition that you allow me to join the members of SELF long enough to acquire the locations of the bombs from you to ensure they are removed," said Fritz, his expression utterly placid. "You cannot expect us to comply unless we have a guarantee we can maintain the integrity of the nuclear plant."

"Your stipulation is permissible," Zin nodded. "But the agreement is with Ellison."

Jim turned to Fritz, totally dumbstruck. His line-of-sight carried him past the DHS agent, however, to Jessie, who was urgently mouthing something. It took Jim a moment to understand.

She was repeating the Chopec word for "trust" over and over again.

Jim turned back. "You want us so bad, Zin, you've got us." He glowered. "Hope you're happy."

"Very," Zin smiled broadly. "I will see you in four hours."

And the transmission ended.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Simon rounded on Fritz.

But Howard held up a hand. "First, make sure that thing is truly dead." He pointed at the robot.

Jim listened carefully, then strode over to where part of its circular body had been pried open. Following his hearing and his sense of touch, he located every single wire that still sang with energy and unplugged them, even tearing apart the battery with angry abandon until Jessie poked her head over his shoulder.

"That should do it. It's not going to go far in that many pieces," she told him.

"Okay, now tell me what the hell you are doing!" Simon yelled.

"Just as the signal from Zin came in, I received a transmission from Doctor Quest," he answered. "He advised me that they had learned of this plan while incarcerated by Zin. And he made an urgent plea to agree to Zin's terms."

"We are not handing everybody over to them!" Joel denied.

"No way," Race agreed. "But we can certainly double-cross them. They'll expect us to play fair. There's no way we'll play fair with so much at stake."

"You okay with that?" Fritz looked at Jim.

Jim shrugged. "I don't care what we do! We just have to stop them. No matter what."

"That's what Hadji said," came a new voice. Jim looked up to see Blair striding forward, his eyes flashing with angry purpose. "We chatted while I was resting."

"Is he okay?" Jessie wanted to know.

"That's…complicated," Blair admitted, "but he's okay enough. They all are. And we have a plan."

"A plan to stop Zin, keep all the tribe from ending up brainwashed zombies, and save Cascade? You've got a plan to do all that?" Simon frowned.

"Yeah," Blair nodded. "But we're not going to stop Zin. You are."