Jack Carter let the two boys go when their parents came to pick them up; as he'd expected, they were equal parts proud and horrified. He informally arranged "community service" doing gruntwork at GD – technically, not the sheriff's job, but Henry was the court system in Eureka for most of the small things. On the rare occasions someone from outside Eureka broke the law to any extent greater than a traffic citation, Jack simply handed them over to the county or state police and let them take care of it.

He gave Andy an edited version of the scheduled events of the next day – leaving out any reference to magic, of course, not wanting to have his deputy call in Dr. Hughes to cure his boss' delusions. He was disappointed at not being able to go, but he completely understood and promised not to let Eureka be taken over by weaponized hornets while everyone was gone.

"That . . . hadn't actually concerned me till now," Jack said.

"Well, then, don't let it keep you up nights, Boss," Andy said. "The odds are almost infinitesimally low. The chances that Eureka'll be destroyed by explosion are thousands of times greater."

"Thanks again," Jack said sourly. "At least I'll know who to blame."

Jo spent the night with Zane and Andy and SARAH were having a minor tiff. Nothing serious, not even serious enough to make her grumpy towards him, but enough to keep Andy away for the night.

So, with Allison at that medical conference (she was getting back Sunday) and Kevin and Jenna with their grandmother – Jack loved the kids and Allison knew he had no trouble taking care of them, so it hadn't been that, they'd apparently just been overdue for some time with grandma – Jack, for the first time in approximately forever, had the house completely to himself.

He ate pizza, watched the Mariners lose to the Orioles, and got, if not a good night's sleep, at least a decent one before SARAH woke up him up. A shower, a Vinspresso, and a bacon-and-egg sandwich later, and he was at GD ready to get tracking.

XxXxX

Willow explained how they were going to get Beverly Barlowe to Maryland. It seemed simple enough, but Vi had the feeling Willow was holding something back. "Is it going to drain you too much?"

"That's not it. I'll be down, but not out. No, it's that it's going to take pretty accurate timing to get it to do exactly what we want it to do. I don't have no leeway, but I don't have a whole lot, and being even the slightest bit outside that range will make it screw up somehow."

This was more than a bit worrying. "Isn't there anything else you can use?"

"Not under these circumstances, no," Willow said. "If we'd gone by ourselves, we could have just knocked her out, you know, at our leisure, but this is the trade-off for the possibility of not cutting all ties with Eureka."

"We did kind of have no choice," Vi pointed out.

"No, we had choices, but this was as good a one as any, and I hadn't come up with anything by the time we needed to, so really, no problem. I'm just making sure you know so if the timing isn't quite perfect, you're ready to do whatever you need to do to get clear, and maybe get me clear. Okay?"

"Okay."

Then they spent a couple of hours going over possible scenarios over and over, all the while knowing that they couldn't possibly prepare for everything, and then they went to bed.

The next morning Willow spent an hour or so building up a store of power – she couldn't keep it forever, but she could hold it in for what they needed today. Then they headed over to Global Dynamics to finally track down Beverly Barlowe once and for all.

XxXxX

7? Ha! Jo Lupo was at GD by 6, ready to go. The security team that was going with them on the mission was there by 6:30; they weren't fools, either. Most of them were former military, so they knew when the orders were serious, and this one was serious as a heart attack (serious, even in Eureka). Besides, like pretty much everyone in town, they also had a beef with Beverly Barlowe and Senator Wen. The general public might not know about the senator's crimes, but they were hardly a secret around town, and everyone from her most trigger-happy guard to Vince was ready to do her serious damage.

That was actually what she stressed most in her orders about Beverly Barlowe: Bringing her back alive was crucial. Her bullet-riddled body, while it would be emotionally satisfying, wasn't what they were after; her most trigger-happy guards were staying behind for this one. (Everyone going was fully qualified to shoot the wings off a gnat from a quarter mile away, but none of them were the shoot first and ask questions later type.)

Willow, Vi and Jo showed up at about the same time, a few minutes before 7 o'clock, and Fargo showed up at 7 on the dot. When everyone was wondering where Taggart was, he came out of the elevator and said, "Hello there. Got the stuff and I'm ready whenever you are."

Some members of the security team looked puzzled, but they were too disciplined to ask any questions; anyone who didn't quickly grasp the concept of need-to-know when it came to high-level GD operations quickly found themselves looking for a job somewhere else.

After they had a quick meeting, they all headed outside. Most of the security was told to go their vans and wait; a few were deployed at the outer edge of where Willow was going to cast her tracking spell and told no not only to stop anyone from trying to take a peek but to not do any peeking themselves unless they heard someone yell for help.

She walked the perimeter, keeping an eye both on her security guard and what was happening inside. She didn't understand any of it, but the same could be said for most of the science that went on around here, and it worked too.

She was finally letting herself be optimistic: This time, they might be able to pull it off.

XxXxX

Douglas Fargo slept like a log for the first time since Holly's death. No, they wouldn't be getting the person directly responsible, but they would be getting the person indirectly responsible, and that was a good start. Beverly Barlowe had made a career out of being able to talk herself into and out of anything; of being the lesser of two evils, a lot of the time.

She was still the lesser of the two evils, compared to Senator Wen. But the lesser of two evils was still, well, evil.

When Fargo got to work, everyone else, except for Taggart, was already in the lobby. He got everyone in the know together for a quick conference just in case there were any last minute developments or problems. Fortunately, there wasn't. He handed Willow two books owned by and a pantsuit worn by Beverly Barlowe and she nodded and she said, "Yeah, this'll do."

After they were done, they headed outside. Fargo was going to simply go to his office, but he wanted to see Willow cast the spell.

After a half hour had passed, Fargo was beginning to understand why spellcasting wasn't a spectator sport. He and Jo had been walking around the perimeter and Jo was getting more and more impatient. Once, about twenty minutes in, she took a few steps inside, headed towards Willow to see what was taking so long – Jo had a lot going for her, but patience wasn't one of her strengths – and Vi intercepted her before she finished her third step.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"To find out what's taking so long."

"Did you hear Willow yesterday? She said she didn't know how long this would take. This is bigger than any tracking spell she's ever done before. I think she's getting close to being done – but I'm an expert at magic only compared to you guys."

"And what if it takes another hour?" Jo asked. "Hey! Eyes out!" One of the guards had half- turned when he heard Vi say "tracking spell," but spun back around so quickly it was like he was attached to a motorized clamp.

Vi said, "Willow would have said she couldn't handle it, if this was going to take her too long, she'd have said something. She hasn't. So calm down. Please."

"I'm calm," Jo said in a tone that said she was anything but. "I just want to get going, already."

"The woman we're trying to find is indirectly responsible for my aunt's death. You think you're anxious?"

Jo nodded. "Good point," she said, and moved back to the perimeter.

That was one of the reasons he wasn't going, in fact; his personal stake in this. He didn't trust himself not to do something stupid, under these circumstances. (The possibility of getting shot at wasn't one of the others; he'd brave worse to catch the people who killed Holly. But, while training for the Astraeus mission had given him a reasonable degree of physical fitness, he'd still be a liability when it came to a military-style assault.)

For maybe another ten-twelve minutes Willow remained kneeling, only her measured deep breathing signifying that she wasn't actually asleep.

Then she opened her eyes.

XxXxX

Willow had spent most of her waking time that morning continuing to draw in and store what power she could. It wasn't like it had been with the books after Tara'd been killed; those were quick hits of massive power, shocks to her system, and it had put her more on tilt than she already was at the time. This was taking what the earth would allow her to take, nothing more. And as the manner taken was at the leisure of the Earth, so could the manner of release be at her leisure. (Well, she couldn't keep it forever. But long enough for the day.

Vi handled any questions for either of them - Willow spoke only when Fargo handed her clothing and books belonging to Beverly Barlowe - and made abundantly clear to everyone not to interrupt her while she was casting the spell unless a literal disaster was about to happen. It wasn't exactly more complicated than the one she'd done yesterday morning, but it was more massive; she couldn't get the spell to encompass the entire planet unless she wanted to spend the next week preparing, but a radius of a couple hundred miles was doable. (The casting time expanded faster than the radius did.)

And so, she knelt on the earth, thanked the gods and goddesses for their help past and future, mixed the powder, watched as Taggart sprayed his scent nullifier into the air and then gave a thumbs-up sign, closed her eyes, and concentrated. The smell of garlic root beer faded.

Let me find the path. Show me the way to the woman to whom these items belong.Distantly, she heard a conflict, but didn't allow it to disturb her focus. Vi knew how to bring her out if it was necessary.

Okay. She was beginning to see a path. It led somewhere off to the southwest – and there wasn't a whole lot of west to go, here in Oregon. She couldn't tell distance, other than "more than 100 feet," and, that close, Willow was fairly sure they would have caught that.

There. An approximate distance – around 150 miles. Of course, that was on a straight shot, or technically, an arc of the curvature of the Earth shot – she didn't know driving time, of course, but this was going to be an all-day affair.

Okay. 144 miles. Now she could give them a limited area to search in.

Just a little more and –

Got you.

She opened her eyes.

"I have found her," she said. "Can I see a map?"

Fargo, with Jo, came forward and handed her his cell phone. "Bigger," she said. "Oh! And a ruler, too."

At Jo's nod, one of the security force ran into the building, coming back five minutes later with a paper map of the northwest, and a ruler. She laid the map down, asking Vi and Taggart to hold the edges, and, using the scale on the map, measured out 144 miles –

Then began laughing.

"What's so funny?" Jo asked.

"Beverly Barlowe has a sense of irony," Willow said. "She's hiding out in Eureka -"

"Here in town?" the sheriff said. "Then why'd you need the ruler?"

"You didn't let me finish, Sheriff," Willow said. "She's hiding out in Eureka, California."