They holed up in a patch of tall reeds, just under the lip of the stream bank. Water chattered below them, and they could hear birdsong in the trees above. Nui was panting a little, and stared ruefully at the paint splatter on his arm. "Bugger. I'd forgotten how much that hurts."

Reese allowed himself a slight smirk.

"Not that it's anything like what you've had," Nui hastened to add.

Reese didn't reply to this. He peered cautiously out of their hide, but ducked down again. The barrel of a paintball gun was poking out from behind a tree about ten yards away. He caught Nui's eye and put a finger to his lips.

They waited, very quietly. Reese allowed his breathing to slow, relaxed his muscles. Sank into that meditative state where he was aware of everything, poised for action – yet entirely at rest. The minutes went by.

Nui stirred uncomfortably. "D'you think they've gone?" he whispered.

Reese moved again, very slowly and smoothly, to take another look. No dice. The gun barrel was still there. He gave a minute shake of his head, and settled back to wait some more.

Ten more minutes of silent stillness went by. Then they heard the owner of the gun moving off. Nui let out a sigh. "Jeez, you're good at that." His glance at Reese was frankly admiring.

Reese shrugged. "I should be. Used to be what I did."

"Special Forces, right? I thought you might be."

"Yep."

Nui stood, stretching the kinks out of his muscles. "I tried out for the SAS here. Didn't make it, though."

"Oh. Hard luck." Reese tried to inject the right amount of sympathy into his voice.

"Oh, ancient history, man. I wasn't good enough. Didn't have the mental toughness, really."

They began to pick their way along the stream bed, allowing the sound of the water to mask their progress.

"You were in Yugoslavia, though, Piri told me," said Reese.

"Yeah. One of those toothless UN so-called peacekeepers. Like there was a peace to keep." The man sounded bitter.

"Yup. Stuck in the middle, there," sighed Reese.

"Oh. You were there too?"

"Before I joined the Rangers," said Reese. "I was just a grunt back then."

"Like me," said Nui with a laugh.

"First time I killed someone was over there," Reese found himself saying.

"Mm," said Nui. He drew a breath. "I, um..." he trailed off.

There was a pause as they reached a little waterfall and negotiated their way down it.

"Piri seemed to think you'd killed someone," said Reese.

"Huh. Jerry can't keep his bloody mouth shut." Nui shot him a glance. "Yeah, I did. In Bosnia. I ran over someone. He was drunk, lying in the road for God's sake, it was dark and I went right over him in an armoured vehicle."

"Ouch."

"The Commission of Inquiry cleared me of all blame. But it was bloody nasty. Not the highlight of my military career." He gave Reese a sharp glance. "The first time you killed was in Yugoslavia? You got notches on your gun?"

Reese gave a small shrug, wishing he'd kept quiet.

"Special Forces. Huh. Those SAS guys, they don't mix much. Never had much to say for themselves."

"I guess not," said Reese neutrally.

"They did some pretty serious stuff, though. Got their hands dirty. Once I came to my senses I was pretty glad I didn't make the grade. Maybe I'm happier as just plain old Nui Jones the grunt, eh?"

Reese didn't reply.

They came to a sharp bend in the stream. He stopped, holding up a hand. There were voices up to their left. He dropped down on hands and knees and crept up the bank. The ground had opened out into rough pasture. Joss and Piri were there, heads together. Piri was gesturing in the direction of the scrub they had left behind. Joss was shaking her head, unconvinced about something.

Reese kept his eyes on them, and gestured for Nui to come up and join him. When they were both prone against the bank and ready he mouthed "I'll take Joss". On seeing the understanding in Nui's eyes he took his aim, squeezed the trigger and watched the paint bloom on her side just a fraction of a second before Piri looked down in shock at the sudden impact of the paintball on his chest.

And next to him Kara cursed. His guy had dropped like a rock: a head shot, right through the apricot. Lights out and goodbye in about one nanosecond. But her shot had just clipped her target. He was down, scrabbling around in the fallen leaves with one hand clamped to the side of his neck. She scrambled up the stream bank and walked rapidly over to him, pulling her pistol from inside her jacket. Shot the man twice in the face from a couple of feet away and walked back towards Reese, putting the piece away again. Looked down at the blood spatter on her knuckles and casually sucked it off. He admired her cool ruthlessness...

"Hey! John!" Nui was looking at him in concern. "You okay?"

He shook his head to dispel that image from a Czech forest, six, seven years ago and it still comes back. Damn.

They had another game of manhunt, which ended in a draw when neither side was able to hit the other. Then, wet and muddy, they got back into their cars for the drive back home.

"Piri," called Reese as they were about to go. "Is there anywhere in town we can buy electronic components?"

Piri thought for a moment and said "There's a place called PB Tech at the south end of the main drag. They're not very big though."

"Okay, thanks. See you at the O'Connells." He ducked back inside the car before Piri could follow up with a question.

Carter was looking a question at him as they drove. "What are we going shopping for, John?"

"I have a plan for dealing with Jared."

"A legal plan?"

"Mostly. I think." He drove for a little while, then added, "Non-violent, anyway."

Joss looked out the window, evidently debating with herself about how much she really wanted to know. Finally curiosity won out.

"So. Tell me."

Reese smiled a little. "You ever take Taylor to see Toy Story? The original?"

"Yeah, we had it on DVD for years."

"I got to thinking about that movie, and it gave me an idea..."

POI*POI*POI*POI*

PB Tech was exactly the kind of store Reese had been hoping to find. When they got back to the car they had a good supply of hardware, all the kind of stuff Finch had stashed away as a matter of course. Not as high-end as Finch's, or the stuff the Agency used to supply, but good enough.

Joss was still shaking her head over Toy Story.

"I would still love to know how you ever got to see that movie, John. Wouldn't have thought it was your usual taste."

"Well, no, it's not. One of the guys got some bootleg DVDs sent over from the States, but his girlfriend had gotten the disks mixed up. We thought we were getting Die Hard with a Vengeance, but we got Toy Story instead."

"Wow, I bet the reaction was… memorable."

"We were pretty pissed," he agreed reminiscently. "I bet his four-year-old wasn't too pleased when he found his Toy Story disk had gone, too."

Joss snorted. "Okay, so we're loaded up with some technology of questionable legality-"

"Hey, it's all legal!" he protested.

"Won't be by the time you've finished adapting it. And I'm pretty sure the use you're planning isn't quite on the right side of the law, either."

"If you've got a better idea I'd like to hear it."

She sighed. "It beats allowing this kid to intimidate Piri. Not to mention any others in his circle of friends. So okay, I'm with you. But what I was about to say was, are we going to bring Piri in on this?"

Reese pulled the car out onto the road again as he thought about this. "We're going to need his help for some of it. Or at least, it'll be easier with his help. I think we keep him well away from anything that might get him in trouble."

"How?"

There was another long pause as he contemplated the options. "I guess we tell him straight out. We have a plan to take care of Jared, we need one piece of information from him, and that's all we tell him. I think he'll trust us."

Joss snorted again. "Well, we've played paintball. I guess that counts for something."

"Getting shot at together is a bonding experience, Carter. Admit it."

That drew a smile. "When you put it like that, I have to agree."

POI*POI*POI*POI*

The afternoon passed quickly enough. Reese spread out his newly-acquired tools on the kitchen counter and began adapting some of his hardware. For his plan to work he was going to need eyes on Jared almost constantly. Some of this could be achieved by hacking the numerous electronic devices the kid routinely carried, but there was also the need to go old school with some serious surveillance. He was slightly bemused by the way he relaxed into the job of putting together the bugs and cameras. When he'd first joined the Agency the course covering this stuff had been an unexpected pleasure. He'd never done much electronics before, and when he was first confronted with the tiny objects he had worried and fumbled and dropped bits on the floor. The women in his class, by contrast, had been naturals with their smaller hands and fingers. But a bit of perseverance had borne fruit and he graduated near the top of the class. It all came down to breathing, like using a sniper rifle… He felt his thoughts drifting into dangerous waters, and got up to pace around the room, rubbing the small of his back and shaking out the kinks. He looked out across the bay. The rain was definitely clearing. There would be good weather for the barbecue that evening, which was great. He was starting to really look forward to it.