He continued: the emergency call from the Lawrence house had not been exactly 'suspicious', after all, it had concerned the attempted murder of an Aunt. Aunt Lydia no less. It's just that when the emergency personnel had arrived, it became clear that the Lawrence household had not been searched thoroughly. Events in the central part of town pulled security forces away from Lawrence's before that scene could be secured. (There had been a house-fire across the street from Commander Waterford's - indeed, Waterford's own house burned a few days later!)

Still, the emergency personnel went into their medical mode, stabilizing the Aunt. The medical people were not Eyes, nor did they wish to become acquainted with them. There was only one Guardian there, and he had been attached to the Red Centre.

Commander Judd said that when he was awoken at the news of the attempt on Lydia's life, he had immediately ordered Aunt Vidala to be detained and be brought to his office where she'd been held. (It didn't relate at the time, but later I put two plus two together, and remembered the initial fight over the existence of the Bloodlines files to begin with, as well as who would hold them.) That's why Judd immediately came here after finding out what Vidala had known, or to put it more properly, hadn't known.

Once the Eyes had arrived, Lawrence's marthas did not know, so they said, where their Commander was. Then in quick succession: Lawrence returned home at about midnight. He said he'd been looking for his handmaid. Then a surprise security alert came from the Mackenzie home. Three emergencies in one night can be waved away as a coincidence. Commander Mackenzie was away and Mrs. Mackenzie was dealing with a security matter on her own. So it was, instead of an on-the-spot investigation and questioning at the Lawrence house, the investigative squad raced to the Mackenzie's, just as Aunt Lydia was being transported to hospital. Over at the Mackenzie's, the Waterford Handmaid (Offred) had been found. She had been obsessing about the Mackenzie child, Agnes. Mrs. Mackenzie had 'talked her down', before the Handmaid had been taken into the custody and brought back here to the Red Centre for disposition.

Offred was in the basement here in a locked room. A junior Aunt went upstairs with the intent of letting Aunt Lydia know, but Lydia had not been in her room. That junior Aunt was going to wait until morning not knowing that Lydia was in hospital.

Then, Commander Judd asked rhetorically, "How many balls are we to keep in the air at once?" A few members of the Mackenzie detail then went over to the Waterford's, to inquire as to a fourth emergency. The most serious of them all. Four emergencies in one night is not a coincidence, it is a conspiracy.

Indeed, the Eyes had thought to go over there anyway, because why was their Handmaid found elsewhere so late?

So, if you, dear reader, can follow this - two more things about that. One was that the Waterford house had been in disarray. To all appearances, Commander Waterford had been kept there, 'for his own protection' by his driver, who'd had Guardian training. Second, Mrs. Waterford was hysterical as the final disaster for the evening emerged - their recent birth, baby Nichole, was missing. The Guardian who had briefed Commander Judd just a moment ago said that, while strange, that the Eyes were satisfied that the driver had acted appropriately, and that he was to be left alone. But why had the disappearance of their baby not been reported?

Commander Judd concluded this account of the evening's strange occurrences with, "So you see Aunt Elizabeth and Aunt Helena, I'm here and at none of those places. Why would that be?" he asked rhetorically, as he pointed into the empty closet. "Gilead is under attack, there are three sites of emergency, and no one knows where those files are." It was crystal clear why he was here and not elsewhere as 'situations' developed across Gilead.

They should have gone after that gender traitor and baby Nichole. I never said it, but I blame the obsession by Commanders over information about them which we held as the reason why a lesbian can kidnap a baby and make it to Canada. Suffice it to say that that night that three other people were more important and being ignored - Aunt Lydia, Offred, baby Nichole. It may have been the prelude to a coup.

Which it was not. But the Commanders acting as if it might have been, delayed things. Lydia was right - men are fools.