"Sorry that I hurt her I went astray;

Hurt her mind and broke her heart.

But there's no stopping once you start; she went away;

Understanding is a virtue, hard to come by.

You can teach me how to love,

If you'll only try; So please,

Don't give up so soon."

"Five minutes out."

Kim's eyes floated open at Dimitris' buzzing transmission. She reached up for the intercom, missing it twice.

"Roger."

Holstering the microphone sloppily, she closed her briefcase and returned it, catching Ron from the corner of her eye. He lay sprawled over two seats, head slumped, asleep. He had a pair of brand new combat boots on, unlaced with lolling tongues. Kim saw his pair of socks hanging off the table, which briefly became a pair of pairs. She sat down and closed her eyes behind her palms for a few breaths. Still feeling dazed, she retrieving two parachutes, tossing one into his exposed lap, jolting him awake into a shout.

"Are we crashing? I can't die yet."

"It's go time." She said, unenthusiasically.

"Already? What's the plan?"

"What it's always been," Kim strapped her parachute tight and taking a long breath, "Follow my lead and try to be helpful."

Towards the back of the plane was a flight door, which Kim unlocked and rolled open. Hanging dangerously at the threshold, she checked her watch, pulling up GPS, and pulled her hair into a ponytail. With some difficulty, Ron finally secured his parachute, zipping Rufus in his pocket. The humans donned visored helmets.

"It's been a while since I did this, could you give me a brief run-throu-"

Kim fell in the bustling sky, leaving Ron with his finger hanging uselessly.

"I guess it's sorta like riding a bike." He said, before plummeting to follow.

The dark sky glowed orange at the horizon, flooding the barren landscape, a patchwork of pale tan, with long shadows. Kim directed herself expertly towards her target, aiming for the property's edge, smiling languidly in the rush of air. Ron flailed about, actively pushing against his freefall. He was about to cry out in frustration when -

"Ron, pull your chute at a thousand feet."

"A thousand?" He swung his head around looking for some comparison on the flatland, his body twisting to follow.

"Just watch me."

He straightened out to see Kim much closer to the ground, when a black plume exploded behind her and drifted sideways into the wide field. It collapsed to the ground in an unnervingly short time.

"Pull when I say."

"Now?" He said, hand gripping the pull-cord

"No, hold-"

"Now?"

"No, lis-"

Ron's chute jolted open and he drifted downward, knees at his chest, to entangle in a barbed wire fence. Her parachute evacuated, Kim rendezvoused with him at the property line.

"See what happens when you don't listen to me?" She whispered, crouching down beside him. Ron struggled against the fence, warping and jingling it.

"When I don't listen to you?" He began, twisting and freezing, "It's poking me."

"Stop," Kim said, patting and retrieving snips from her cargo pants to clip him out. She dragged him backwards, leaving him lying. He sloughed off his parachute then rose to crouch beside her.

"I could have gotten myself out." He said.

"Your knees are shaking," She commented.

"That was more painful than it looked."

"It looked painful."

"Yeah, why did they have to barb it? Why not just straight wire? That must be just as effective, right?"

"Shh, come on." Kim passed through the snipped fence. The rising sun hit the large building, the only real fixture on the horizon, outweighing the shed on the dark background.

"You're going to the large building. I'm checking the shed. Stay hidden, don't engage. If you're spotted, call for help." She tapped his helmet at the earpiece, then duck-walked at a remarkable pace over the open ground, stumbling with an immediate recovery once. Ron rubbed his side and unzipped Rufus.

"Eyes and ears, buddy."

Rufus saluted and scoped the empty horizon as Ron moved towards the building, keeping as close to the ground as he could. When they met the windowless steel building, Ron tried its side door, finding it locked. From his coat, he withdrew a slim black case, unzipping it to reveal a lockpick set.

"Time for a pro to show off his craft," Ron said, handing the kit over to Rufus, who immediately got to work.

Kim reached the shed, its multicoloured plywood shedding paint and tin roof rusting patches. It sat dilapidated on the field, rot attacking its wood foundation. She approached with caution, although it was for naught. Beyond the wobbly door was a selection of antique hand tools and a floor full of junk and shuffled rat's nest. She retreated out into the brightening morning, seeing the other building more clearly.

"What did you find?"

"It's a jungle in here."

"Excuse me?"

"Plants and lights. It's warm and damp, like a greenhouse," He said, his voice reverberating, "Shouldn't we have code-names? This would work better with code-names."

"Focus. It's not what we're concerned with. Get over here; to the northwest."

"Yeah, I can see you."

She squinted her eyes through the rising sun and saw him waving at the side of the building. She could feel her focus re-tightening as the morning stretched out.

"What part of stay hidden- just get over here."

Involuntarily sneering, Kim kicked at the nearest pile, which elicited a squeak and scampering, both from a rat and from Kim. Outside the door, she collected herself, embarrassed by her irrational fearfulness. Removing her helmet, she pulled up her watch.

"Wade, it's just junk." She hissed.

"What?"

"The shed, it's junk. Your heat signature must have been the sun off the tin roof or something." She said, pulling the old roofing up with a finger and letting it slap back against the fascia.

"No way, that's... I would have..." He said, rolling off screen momentarily and returning shamefaced, "Er, you might be right. I'm certain that's his property though. What about the big building?"

"I think it's a grow-op," She said, looking up to see Ron crawling conspicuously through the grass towards her and rolling her eyes.

"I'll drop a GPS pin at the house then." Wade said, "But a grow-op fits. I just finished that fiber sample readout. It wasn't hair, it's Kenaf."

"Kenaf?"

"Yeah, a kind of hemp. It's an unprocessed strand from a really healthy specimen, but botany isn't my area of expertise."

"Hemp as in marijuana?"

"Close but no. This would be more for industry like paper-production or textiles. I could run an immediate cross-examination with a visual inspection."

"Give me five." She said and shut down the communication.

Ron finished crawling over, rising to stand beside her and catch his breath, tossing his helmet off.

"Wade needs to see those plants." She said.

"Seriously? All this crawling is wreaking havoc on my pentacostal muscles."

"Pentacostal?"

Ron waved a vague hand over his thighs. Kim narrowed her eyes and started out towards the large building in the quiet, empty horizon, with Ron in tow.

"Those are your quadriceps," She said.

"Yeah, well, I'm using their scientific name."

"Costals are your ribs. Pentacostal isn't even anatomy."

"Look, whatever, I'm just trying to say my legs hurt."

"Well we still have eight hundred yards to go to the house, not including going back right now."

"Eight? I am not crawling eight hundred yards."

"No one told you to crawl. Anywhere." She said, pinching the bridge of her nose, "Just to stay hidden."

"What am I supposed to do then?" He said, "I can't do your stupid crouching run."

"It's called a duck-walk, and if you keep complaining, I'm going to hurt something you actually know the name of."

Ron shut his mouth into a grimace as the building loomed in front of them. Kim went through the same door Rufus picked, and emerged less than a minute later while Ron kept watch, holding his cheek up with a fist.

"They're a match. That's a stamp and a plant." Kim said, pulling the compass on her watch up and striking out west, towards the circumferential beacon indicating the house, "I'm almost certain Lurman's involved."

Ron followed her, his attitude etched on his face.

"Keep your eyes peeled," Kim advised, "Our only hope here is to spot before we're spotted."

"But we can walk now."

"Walking was never-" Kim began, then sighed to silence.

"Why are we going to the house?" Ron asked, "I thought we were here for the shed."

"No, we're here to find evidence that connects Lurman to the school."

"But what about the shed?"

"Ron, just, drop the shed."

"Ok, now my costals hurt too."

They covered a seemingly long distance of flat sandy land. Previously tilled field battered by age to a lumpy bed of dry fescue. A farmhouse emerged far on the horizon.

"So your plan was to parachute into the desert and hoof it?" Ron asked, inflecting as sarcastically as he could. Rufus stood on his shoulder, keeping watch with and paw to his brow and inferior mole-rat vision.

"We're actually in a mesa." Kim said, kicking in a step, "Desert wouldn't support plant-life like this."

"Can you let go of the details and focus on what I actually mean?"

"Which would be?"

"I mean, shouldn't you have thought this through better?"

Kim stopped in her tracks and he bumped into her. She turned to face him directly. "Are you being intentionally aggravating to spite me, or does it just come naturally?"

Ron contemplated his answer, to which Kim spun around and marched straight ahead. Ron caught up.

"Don't take it so personally," Ron said, "The only thing I care about is this mission going smoothly."

"Funny, that's the only thing I care about too."

"So we're on the same page?"

"I -," Kim broke a sarcastic grin and looked sidelong at him, "We're on the opposite covers. We couldn't be further apart, Stoppable."

"You realize a dust jacket is one page."

Kim's eyes dulled and she worked her jaw. "That's not what I meant."

"Why did we parachute in from a jet?" He asked, maintaining his momentum, "Why not just drive? Or, ooh, a helicopter."

Rufus gave an enthusiastic smile and nod at the notion.

"Do you even listen to yourself sometimes?"

"I mean, how are we even getting out of here?"

"Oh, I'm sure I'll find some opportunity. Just like I always had to."

"See, you don't even have a plan. I bet most of your ideas are improvised on the spot. How am I supposed to work with that?"

"You're supposed to stop asking me what to do and just follow what I'm-"

Rufus' squeal preceded by seconds a gunshot that cut the air around them. The pair dropped to the ground, Kim retrieving small binoculars and rising just above the crop to scan. A lone rifleman was running towards their position. The horizon on either side was clear.

"One shooter, two o'clock," Kim said, replacing her binoculars and crawling forward through the rough pasture, "You head north, I'll stay west."

"Split up? Are you mad?" Ron hissed, stowing his pet from the danger.

"Fine, if you're such a baby," Kim reached into her sack and pulled out the stainless steel automatic from the canyon, checking the breech and handing it to Ron, "Then sit tight and cover me."

"Why do you have a - cover you? Kim, what are you -"

Tensing her crouch, Kim sprang up from the grass, catching the aim of the gunman, who fire and missed. She hit the ground running, watching him work the bolt a hundred yards ahead. Beginning to zig-zag, she drew another round that struck the ground beside her. His figure, plaid shirted and bald headed, grew relentlessly as she dashed across the field as erratically as possible. Cheer-leading practice flowed through her once again. Backing away slowly, he ran the bolt and tried leading her with his sights, barrel waving sloppily. He fired when she was nearly point blank, as her fingers grappled the rifle from his grip, directing the muzzle into the dirt. Spinning, she brought her heel hard against the side of his head, knocking him to the ground, out cold.

Ron's head poked out when the silence held, a shaky glimmer beside him. Seeing the coast was clear, he ran to meet Kim, who was unloading the rifle, chest heaving.

"You're insane," He cried, jostling her as soon as he was in reach.

"Insanely awesome," She amended, dropping the empty rifle to the dirt, "I had to do something, seeing as my cover fire was out to lunch."

"I'm sorry, I couldn't, I was worried I'd hit you, or get shot, or miss, and I-"

"Relax. You seriously think I'd give you a loaded gun?" She jerked the automatic from his hand, racking the slide to reveal an empty chamber before thumbing the return and dropping it in her sack. "All I did was make sure you wouldn't do anything dumb."

"You..." He shoved her again, playfully relieved, and she burst into a great laugh, shiny white teeth and eyes shut with crow's-feet. He started laughing as well, resting his hand on her shoulder. Slowly, awkwardness pervaded their happiness. They thought simultaneously of the cool curbside from hours past. He retracted his hand to his pocket.

"Shouldn't we be worried about more coming? Like those big surly types Squeegee mentioned?" Ron asked hesitantly, withdrawing.

"They would have come when they heard shots. I have a feeling we caught Mr. Lurman here all by himself this morning." Kim used a pointed foot to flip the limp body over, Francis Lurman's unconscious face staring up at them.