Blake looked up from his work. He smiled as he gazed upon the containment structure. It was a little ahead of schedule. Of course, it didn't really matter since he was at the point where he had to add the bentolium.

"MASTER."

"Yes, NEDS."

"I HAVE RECEIVED A COMMUNICATION FROM YOUR AQUAINTANCE, A MISTER KEVIN. HE IS REQUESTING PERMISSION TO DOCK."

"Permission granted. Let him know that I'll meet him at the front door."

"YES MASTER."

It was a quarter past eleven at night. Blake was happy that Kevin had made it before the deadline he had imposed. He was also happy that Danny was asleep right now. He imagined that he would get quite the earful if she learned he was going to be using bentolium for this project.

"NEDS. Did you wake Danny yet?"

"NO MASTER."

"Alright. Don't wake her for this. Also, if anyone deviates from the path to or from the lab without being accompanied by me, then I want them immobilized. Understood?"

"YES MASTER."

With that out of the way, Blake made his way out of the lab and to the front door. There he waited, and waited, and waited some more. In retrospect, Blake thought, he probably should have just let them through and waited in the lab.

"Hello? Anybody in there?"

Blake slapped himself in the forehead. It was probably a dumb idea to tell them to wait there and expect them to knock. He quickly opened the door for him.

"Oy. I've been waitin' for ya."

"As was I, Kevin. Let's continue this inside, shall we?"

Blake allowed Kevin past him. Oddly, he was the only one that was there. He looked farther out and saw that the rest of the crew was still on board the ship. He began to worry that something was about to go down.

"Oy. I can't get into your lab. The door's shut."

Blake looked back to Kevin. He had indeed shut the door to the lab behind him.

"Just a second. I'll be right there."

"What's with that look?"

"It's nothing."

"Oh no. I remember that look now. It's your ol' 'someone's out tah get me' look you got there. Am I right?"

"Perhaps."

"Well, I hope it ain't meant for me. That's half ta' reason I left my workers on the boat."

"What would be the other half?"

Didn't know how much ya wanted."

"I probably need about three-quarters of a ton."

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! That much? Are ya stockin' up? What in Heaven's name would you need that much of ta' stuff for?"

"In all honesty, it would be better if you didn't know. Though, if it works, I believe that the world will be a much better place."

"I hope so. For all our sake's"

"Let's just get this inside first."

Blake opened the door and led in Kevin.

"There's a spot over by the wall that I want you to put these. Leave it there. All of it."

"It'll take a bit of time to get that all in here. Can we chat while it all gets brought in?"

"I suppose we can. Is there something specific that you wanted to 'chat' about?"

"It's about Mr. White."

Blake frowned deeply.

"Yeah. That guy."

"What happened? It must be pretty serious if you dropped your fake accent."

"It is, and don't my crew about my accent. My fake accent works wonders for all sorts of things. I still can't figure out how you knew. Nobody else has even figured it out."

"It's actually a trade secret. However, in exchange for not telling your crew, you can't ask about how I figured it out."

"I suppose that's fair."

"Back to the subject at hand. What happened with White?"

"He got violent on this one."

"Violent how?"

"Usually, the flow comes up enough that we can harvest the liquid bentolium in several places without having us run into anybody else."

"I take it that didn't happen this time?"

"Oh it did. The problem was that he seemed to be actively searching for us."

"That doesn't make sense. Sure, White is an arrogant, greedy ass, but he knows to not stir up trouble around raw bentolium. It's basically like magic lava in that form. Nobody in their right mind would try anything near it."

"I'd agree with that, except word has it he started getting treatments for Priceless."

Blake got very serious.

"I can't believe it. I never would have thought he would develop Priceless syndrome."

"Apparently he didn't have the normal symptoms of it."

"Then everything comes together perfectly. Priceless treatments can cause paranoia in some cases. A most unfortunate side effect."

"It was a good thing we were already halfway packing up to leave when his goons found us. Unfortunately, not all of us got away. We lost Tucker."

"I didn't know Tucker. I actually don't know almost any of your men. I think the only guy I know is Stringer. It's the reason I have the mansion on alert."

"Heh. I must be slipping. I didn't even notice. Anyways, you're more of a recluse. I doubt you would know anybody other than my right hand man."

"I'll agree with that. Still, losing a man is never a good thing."

"No, it's not. What's worse is what I have to do after we are done here."

"Which would be what?"

"I have to break the news to his wife, Carolyn."

Blake stopped short upon hearing that.

"What was his share going to be?"

"That's an odd question to ask."

"Something I learned a long time ago was that you never make girls cry. It is one of my four codes that I live by. I am indirectly responsible for his death. The only thing I can do for her is leave her something. I can give her money. That is what I can do. However, if she inquires about it, say that it was a hazardous risk bonus that he set up to be given in case of his death so that he would know she would be taken care of."

"I do wish you would show this side of yourself more often Blake. People would think you're much less of an arrogant asshole."

"Oh please. I have to keep up appearances you know."

He laughed and slapped Blake on the back.

"Too right! You does at that."

Blake was about to ask about his accent, but quickly realized that they had made it back to within earshot of Kevin's craft.

It was about the size of a yacht. That, however, was probably the only thing it had in common with one. It pretty much just looked like an upscale tugboat. It had a large cabin in the front that rose up three stories. Behind it, there was a long, flat section around 300 feet long with containers lined up along the entire expanse.

"I guess you got more than just the amount I asked for."

"Of course. I still dinna get as much as I wanted tah. Should've had the containers stacked up three 'igh. Blasted White and 'is cronies."

"Save it for later. Let's get the ones I need to my lab. Make sure none of them deviate from that path. If they do, they will be getting a nasty surprise."

"They'll listen. I told 'em before they got 'ere that if they did anything stupid, then they wouldn't be gettin' paid. That shut 'em up real quick like."

"Good. Get in and out and that's all. Shall I send your payment along with you or do you want it transferred to your usual account instead?"

"A few of them got scared. They's saying it'll be their last job. I'll be needin' the money up front this time, mate."

"Go ahead and get started then. I'll go get your usual payment plus the forty percent as we agreed upon. I'll also wire the other sum to a new account and give you the numbers later, alright?"

"Sounds good, mate, sounds good."

Blake turned around and started walking back from the dock. His thoughts went back and forth between two subjects. The first was Arturo White. He knew that as long as he was being treated for Priceless that the bouts of paranoia would get steadily worse. In all likelihood, he was probably getting the treatments himself. Any doctors who notice symptoms of paranoia in Priceless patients will likely get help to secure the patient. Paranoia in these cases starts with the doctors themselves. Those instances in which patients leave their doctors due to the onset of paranoia usually die soon after since a lack of continuous treatments can cause a dramatic relapse that speeds up the progress of the illness. In White's case, however, he was willing to bet that he threw money at the problem and received treatments elsewhere.

It really didn't matter that much to him right now. He would ask some contacts to spread the word about it and soon the problem would take care of itself. Nobody dealt with people who had Priceless. It was like the AIDS epidemic in the last century, or the bubonic plague in the 14th century. People were uninformed and afraid of it, and because of that people simply avoided them like, well, like the plague. The same held true today.

Dismissing that, his other thought was on his project. Since his work on the containment device was halted, he could take the time to work on the device he would use to create the arc portal. It would take about half an hour. In that time, Kevin's men should finish unloading the bentolium into his lab. He could then shape the bentolium into the containment device and seal it up before Danny awoke from-

"Blake!"

He looked up to see Danny's irate form standing in the front doorway. He then let out a hefty sigh.

It looked like he was going to get an earful after all.