Hicks

I was impressed; even at ten, in overlarge gear, Nick kept up a pretty good hiking pace. I hated to have to push him that hard, but I had no way of knowing how long that thing was going to be stuck in its cocoon, and I really, really did not want to be there when it got out. Finally, we made it up onto a reasonably high hill, still fairly well-covered with trees, and I called a halt.

"Thinking we'll make camp here for the night," I told him. "You want to see about getting us some wood for a small fire?"

He appraised the area, gaze falling on a tree that had obviously come down in a storm not too long before. "Uh, actually, Major, if you'll give me that folding knife, I can make us a shelter for the night. We're farther south than I'm used to, but I bet it's still going to get pretty cold tonight."

Right, he'd grown up on the coast of Maine, hadn't he? He didn't have much of an accent, so it was easy to forget. Well, fine, I'd done okay in survival training, but honestly, I'd feel better being the one poking around the woods anyway, just in case. I handed over my knife and started working on clearing brush and leaf litter away from an area of ground.

"Hey, pile that up over here, will you?" he called, as he started placing branches along the fallen log to make a tent shape, occasionally trimming them with the knife. "They'll be good to cover the walls with, plus I can make a bed."

"Been in the woods a lot, huh?" I asked, doing as requested. I was used to that from Nick as an adult, but I guess I'd always assumed he'd picked it up doing grad work.

He nodded. "Yeah, my mom worked Search and Rescue, plus she and Grandpa and I used to go camping when I was little. Mom and I still go in the summers, but Grandpa says he's getting too old to sleep on the ground anymore."

And for "camping," read "wilderness survival training," given how easily he'd picked out the best place to build a shelter that'd hold the both of us comfortably. Meanwhile, I got on with making a tent of the driest sticks and leaf litter I could find, pulled out my flint and steel, and made a fire. Looking over at Nick, I saw he was turning the folding knife over in one hand, thoughtfully.

"Grandpa has one of these, the handle's made of whale ivory," he said slowly. "He always says it's going to go to me when… when he dies. I wonder why I wasn't carrying it?"

I grimaced. I didn't know for sure, but I did know that Dimitrios and Anna Tatopoulos, and their daughter, Eleni, had died in a nasty storm during Nick's freshman year of college, when the bluff their house was on had partially collapsed. Half the house had gone with it, and from all the reports, it had been bad. Nick had been eighteen all of about two months, and as the only living relative, the entire estate mess had fallen on him. Which might explain a few things about the guy, to be honest.

"... Hey, you want to give me a hand with this rock?" I said, rather than answer. "We can heat it up in the fire, use it to keep the shelter a little warmer tonight."

Nick shook himself like a dog shaking off water. "Yeah, sure. I guess they teach you this kind of thing in the Army, too?"

"The basics, at least. You do a lot of camping?"

He shrugged. "Mom and I go in-country at least once every summer, and Grandpa's been teaching me to use an air rifle this last year. It's basically that or read, we live too far from town for much else. Though I did get to stay over at Bruce Thorne's house last month for his birthday party, he had an Atari. That was really cool."

With the shelter built and the rock heating, I pulled out a couple of protein bars and my canteen. It wasn't the fanciest dinner, but it stopped our stomachs rumbling, and if I maybe made sure Nick got more of the water than I did, well, I don't think he noticed.

"All right, kiddo, better crawl in there and get some sleep. Don't think I didn't see you yawning."

He grumbled a bit, but crawled into the shelter and snuggled down into the bed he'd made out of leaves and fir tree boughs. "What about-" A yawn almost split his head open. "What about you?"

"Scoot over." Once he did, I wiggled in beside him. It wasn't the most comfortable bed I'd ever had, but it was warmer and softer than the ground. The rock we'd dropped into a hole in the front of the shelter radiated enough heat to keep us cozy the rest of the night, and I'd banked the fire low enough that I should be able to doze without worrying about setting the forest on fire, though I wasn't going to be sleeping all that soundly. Wouldn't be the first time I'd spent all night on watch.

Beside me, Nick was already asleep, looking way too young and innocent for the sheer amount of chaotic hellstorm I knew the kid could unleash. This was a man who'd managed to rout an alien invasion, admittedly with the help of four equally brilliant and evil-minded people, plus a giant overprotective lizard. But right now, he was a ten year-old boy who'd run himself out of steam on a camping trip.

With a soft murmur, he turned over and snuggled into my side, seeking the extra warmth. I sighed, folding my arms under my chin and putting my attention on the fire. It was going to be a long night.

Randy

Augh, it was no use. The bed was pretty soft, the pillow was softer, every muscle in my body ached from the day, and the soldier they'd bunked me in with didn't even snore, but I just could not fall asleep. My brain was still bouncing around my skull like a superball on speed, and I couldn't shut it down. Finally, I admitted defeat. Getting up, I dressed as silently as I could and slipped out into the hotel hallway.

Not like I had any idea what to do. At midnight, Finn had finally put his foot down. Said we weren't going to be seeing any movement on anything until sunrise, and we'd be no good to anybody if we were all loopy from pulling an all-nighter. He'd ordered three of the soldiers to stay and monitor the equipment and call if any alarms started going off, then he, Venkman, and Zeddemore had somehow herded us back to the one hotel in the town. Lucky it was the off-season, because we pretty much took the whole thing over all by ourselves.

Hm. I'd seen a common room downstairs with a big TV in it. I could probably put that on low enough not to bother anybody, maybe watch something stupid until I could finally fall asleep.

...Or I could be, like, seriously late to the party. The TV was already on, though it was on mute, and playing one of those home video shows which seemed to be based around finding newer, cooler ways to show people getting hit in the 'nads. Doc C and Elsie were both there already, cuddled up together on the couch and not actually watching. No sign of Monique, not that I was surprised. She was as worried about Nick as the rest of us, I knew she was, but I also knew she'd learned to sleep whenever and wherever she could. Nothing was going to keep her awake unless she wanted it to.

And there were Dr. Venkman and Lieutenant Finn, sitting at the big table, playing cards. One of the coffee urns was bubbling away, but when I took a sniff, I got a noseful of chocolate, milk, and vanilla. What the hell, hot cocoa sounded good to me.

Nodding to the lovebirds as I passed the couch, I got myself a mug full, snagged a couple of the little marshmallows somebody'd set out alongside the urn, and sat myself down at the table.

"Room for one more?" I asked, taking a slug of cocoa. … Damn, this was good stuff. Definitely not instant.

"Not a problem," Dr. Venkman answered, starting a complicated shuffling pattern. "Peter Venkman's poker clinic is open for business. We'll play for Starlight Mints. What's your game? Stud? Draw? Texas Hold 'Em?"

I snorted. "Five card draw's all I know, but I'm up for expanding my horizons."

"Well, since I was schooling the Lieutenant here in the finer points of Texas Hold 'Em, we might as well start there." He started dealing out the cards with practiced motions.

"Couldn't sleep either?" I asked Finn. He snorted.

"I'm so green, my butter bars might as well be salad bars, I really shouldn't be in charge of this outfit. I mean, Sergeant MacMillan has enough experience for three of me, and I'm smart enough to listen to him, but still. I won't be sleeping well until we get the Major back in charge where he belongs."

He rearranged his cards for a second, then continued. "Besides… I owe him a lot. Major Hicks, I mean. I… to avoid talking about things I'm really not supposed to talk about, let's just say that my career through OCS was non-traditional and maybe not regulation in a lot of ways. But I was a cadet, I didn't know any better, and when I did, well… there was always someone to explain to me why whatever I felt was off was perfectly fine after all.

"It wasn't, though. Fine, I mean. And I might have wound up doing some really, really bad stuff, except I got assigned as security for a high-up who then had the misfortune of crossing the Major's path. He saw exactly what she was, somehow, and he made somebody listen. I've spent the last year learning what it means to be an officer, and unlearning half of what I was taught up until that point. Major Hicks, he'd go to the wall for any of us, and we all know it, so yeah. Even hearing he's okay, we're all on edge."

He sighed. "And of course, we're all worried about Dr. Tatopoulos, too, which isn't making things any easier."

I blinked. About Nick? That was kind of… unexpected, really. I tried to find a way to say that that didn't come across way meaner than I meant it to, and finally settled for a weak "Really?"

"Randy, our job is to throw ourselves in front of these giant monsters so they don't hurt anybody else, but you guys are the reason none of us have died doing it. We keep it back, herd it away from people, but you're the ones figuring out how to finally stop it for good, rather than just holding it at bay. And hell, half the time, we see you guys playing distraction with nothing but sheer guts and a flare gun! General consensus in the unit is that Dr. Tatopoulos is crazy enough to be a parajumper, and the rest of you aren't far behind."

Yow. I'd picked up enough hanging out with military dudes over the past two years that I knew exactly how crazy that was, and yeah, when it came to Nick, that was probably a fair assessment. The man just did not weigh risks to himself the same as ones to everybody else.

"I prefer to think of myself as 'bueno', rather than 'loco', but I'll admit to taking a few risks here and there," I replied. "On the other hand, Dr. Craven over there is of course a staid, sensible man who never takes insane risks like, oh, taking a roboticist hostage to make an entire JSDF squad stand down."

Craven blushed roughly the color of Elsie's hair, while she had her face buried in his shoulder to stop her giggling. "Leave me out of this, you electronic ne'er-do-well."

Venkman snickered, anteing up. "Yeah, we may all have been accused of being a little cracked on occasion ourselves. Except Winston, of course, he got all our common sense and has to keep our idiot asses in one piece most of the time."

"No wonder he and Monique seem to be getting along," Elsie commented, giggles dying away. "Probably a nice change of pace."

"Ah, she loves us," I replied cheerfully. "She has to, she hasn't shot any of us yet."

Finn snorted, then laid down a full house.

… Man, it was a good thing we were only playing for candy.

Nick

I'm not actually used to waking up with leaves in my hair. Usually when Mom and I go camping, we've packed sleeping bags, and tents, and a tarp. Just because I know how to get along without things like that doesn't mean I'm dumb enough to leave them behind when I don't have to.

I slept pretty well, but I still woke up as the sun started to rise. It looked weird, the orange light through the green energy dome turning everything sort of greenish-grey. Next to me, the Major was crawling out of our little shelter, pulling leaves out from under his uniform jacket and grumbling about being too old to be sleeping rough. Yawning, I followed him out and used my fingers to comb the leaves out.

"Up for breakfast, Worm Guy?" he asked, digging out another couple of protein bars.

My stomach growled before I could answer, and he laughed as he tossed one over to me. Unwrapping it, I took a bite and chewed before asking the question at the front of my mind.

"Why do you keep calling me that, anyway?"

He made a face. "First time we met, you'd just been pulled off a three year stint studying mutated worms in Chernobyl- the nuclear reactor there had a meltdown in 86. By 98, it wasn't quite as hot, so it was safe. Anyway, I was having a bad day anyway and…"

"You couldn't pronounce Tatopoulos?" Wouldn't be the first time. Or the tenth. I'd had one teacher, in kindergarten, who hadn't even tried, just called me "Nicky T." all year.

"Hell, half the time I couldn't even remember it. We were all under a lot of stress. I got more practice, though, and now it's basically just a nickname."

Okay, that explained it. Obviously I hadn't minded it before, the Major didn't seem like the kind of guy to poke at people like that. I focused on my protein bar and took a few sips of the water from the canteen he gave me. I made it look like I was drinking more than I actually was- I was way smaller than he was, he was going to need the water a lot more.

We both stretched for a bit to loosen up, then cleaned up as much of the campsite as we could, stomping out the remnants of the fire and burying the embers so they couldn't flare up.

"All right, Finn said we were west of town, so if we keep heading east, we should hit the edge of the barrier closest to civilization," the Major said. "It's late April, so… the sun's just a little north of true east. You ready for a hike?"

"Oughta warm us up," I replied. It wasn't freezing outside or anything, but I could see my breath.

We set off, headed downhill following the course the Major'd set, and it wasn't too long before we came to a road, paved and everything. It was headed in roughly the direction we wanted, so we started following along. Roads, especially ones this well maintained, had to go to a town sooner or later.

Maybe half an hour later, we started hearing the sounds of engines somewhere ahead of us. I hopped off the pavement and got as deep into the underbrush as I could, remembering my mom's warning that idiots tended to drive a lot faster on deserted forest roads than they really should, which meant they didn't always make the turns. Best to get at least one tree in between me and a possible road accident.

The Major was right behind me, and pulled me down into a crouch as the noises got closer. "Finn would have called on the cell if they'd gotten through the barrier," he told me quietly. "If somebody else is in here, I'm thinking we may not want to get their attention."

Oooh, that was a good point. I kept my head down as the first car passed us, a big black boxy thing that looked kind of like a Jeep on steroids. Behind it came a big flatbed truck with black plastic walls around the back, and then another one of those boxy cars. Next to me, the Major swore quietly.

"You've got to be kidding me." Pulling out his phone, he dialed a different number than the one yesterday.

"Hey, Finn, you think you can inquire, delicately, if there's any CIA or worse, NSA idiots operating in this area? We just got passed by two SUVs and a flatbed… he's what? Already? Don't they put any security on their top secret satellites anymore or did they just give up and give him a password? … uh huh. Okay, thanks, that's not encouraging, but better to know. Right. Hicks out."

I raised my eyebrows at him and he rolled his eyes. "One of your team members is a menace to every type of computer security imaginable, and apparently hacked an NSA database via satellite phone while we were talking. In short, no, there are no government operations active in this area, so whoever those guys were, they're not authorized and probably not friendly."

"And after something about fifty feet long… like that cocoon!" I straightened up a little as the realization hit me. "We need to go after them!"

"Not a chance, Tatopoulos, our objective is to get to the barrier and get out of here. We need to regroup, and get you somewhere safe."

"Major, if those guys get away with that cocoon, we may never find it again, or at least not until a giant butterfly starts attacking whatever targets they decide to give it." Because they had to have some way to control it, or at least think they did, or they wouldn't bother going after it. I'd read enough comic books to know how people handled weapons. "Who knows how many people will get hurt before we can stop it? Besides, they got those trucks in, they probably have some way of getting them out again, too. We've got a better chance of getting out, both of us, if we follow them and find out what it is, rather than heading for the barrier and hoping we don't run into the rear guard… right?"

He stared at me for a long moment. "I think the world is really lucky you didn't become a lawyer, Nick. Fine, but you do what I say and only what I say, all right? No getting a bright idea and putting it into motion before discussing it with me."

"I promise, Major." Huh, why did that feel familiar… and kind of like my brain was crossing its fingers behind its back?

Monique

Dawn arrived, bringing with it the clearing of the cloud layer that had persisted through the night. I was relieved; a cloudy night followed by a clear morning was likely to be the best weather for those two caught out in it. While I was certain that Major Hicks's survival training would be more than adequate to the task of keeping them intact, every obstacle they did not have to face meant more energy to bring to bear when things inevitably went wrong. I am not a pessimist, merely French, but after so many years in "insurance," I know that it is impossible for everything to go according to plan. With HEAT involved, the occurrence is even more likely to be explosive.

The area outside our small hotel swarmed with activity, as the equipment was loaded into a fleet of Humvees for our trip to where the highway met the edge of the barrier. Dr. Venkman looked surprisingly well-rested for someone I knew had not slept at all the night before. His teammates had informed me that this was a common occurrence, and that in fact the only way for the man to be awake at dawn was not to have slept since sundown.

Randy did not look quite so chipper, but he was awake and consuming the hotel's coffee, which was tolerable, though it had no business being labeled "French Roast." He and the other two members of HEAT had at least gotten three hours, which was better than nothing.

A noise caught my attention, the soft whistling from Lt. Finn's radio that presaged one of Major Hicks's impossible phone calls. I had my suspicions as to what was in play, but as yet, there was no evidence, simply a strong hunch. I sidled a bit closer to eavesdrop; it was part of my profession, after all.

"Finn here."

"Hicks again. Change of plan. We're going after the intruders to see if we can use one of their rides to get out of the barrier, and maybe find what the hell they're up to in the process. You guys keep working on a way through, but keep the road clear. I wouldn't want to lay odds against us having to leave the area at a high rate of speed."

Finn nodded unconsciously. "Understood, sir. We'll be waiting."

Shaking his head, he looked up and gave me a rueful glance. "The kid talked him into it, I bet."

"I would agree. I very much doubt that being youthened has in any way diminished Dr. Tatopoulos's force of personality." And Dr. Tatopoulos, of course, would never let himself be removed from the area so long as there was any chance of danger to others.

"At least the Major's not yelling about it this time," Finn offered. I could see he was thinking, as I was, about the… discussion the two of us had overheard earlier.

As the rest of the team had been boarding the helicopter, Dr. Tatopoulos and Major Hicks had hung back, conducting their conversation in low tones. I think they had expected the noise of the rotors to cover their exchange, but I have always had exceptional hearing, and the Lieutenant, I suspect, is much the same.

"Damn it, Tatopoulos, when are you going to stop running roughshod over every "Keep Out" sign in a hundred miles?" Which, to translate from the "emotionally constipated" dialect of the typical American male, meant When are you going to stop worrying me half to death by risking your life, reputation, and career pulling these reckless stunts?

"That thing was a threat to everyone and everything in a hundred mile radius, Major, you saw what happened to the wildlife. They had no business trying to capture it, especially given how spectacularly their containment had already failed. Sending out a squad without even one flamethrower was just offering it a free buffet." Offering you as a free buffet. An order to commit suicide, couched in such a way as you could not disobey.

"You destroyed most of an Army facility as well as the thing, with those firebombs of yours. I thought Colonel Torrence was going to have all five of you shot!" Stop doing things that mean I can't protect you!

"He'd have had to get past Godzilla first. As for prosecution, HEAT has a few more friends these days than we did when we started. Now if you'll excuse me, we're wasting daylight."

They'd spoken about nothing other than business for the trip up, and upon arrival, the current situation had consumed everyone's attention. And now this. Despite all his records being accessible by anyone who cared to look, Nick Tatopoulos was not a man who was easily known. I was, however, starting to put together certain items together to make a picture I did not appreciate.

"Are you riding in Truck One or Truck Two?" Finn asked, drawing me from my thoughts.

"Truck Two, with the equipment and those responsible for it. I will allow you to handle the command staff." And, of course, Dr. Venkman, Winston Zeddemore, and Dr. Chapman. If worst came to worst, he would have very skilled backup, which he was quite capable of utilizing to potential.

Parting ways, we headed for our respective vehicles. At least for once, Randy would likely be too busy with his coffee to flirt as more than a reflex. Although he did seem to be growing on me…

Hicks

Even taking a straight route overland, by the time we reached the clearing that surrounded the cave entrance, the new guys had already arrived, parked, and headed inside. At least I assumed so, since there were three empty cars parked around the cave mouth, but no sign of any people. I didn't see any equipment, either, which seemed a bit off.

Nick was obviously following my train of thought. "How are they going to get it out of there? I don't think it'll roll."

"Not without making a mess of what's inside, anyway," I agreed. "And I don't remember seeing any… wait." Faint voices were starting to waft up from below, and I pulled him down beside me, behind a screen of bushes.

After a minute or so, I saw the cocoon floating out through the mouth of the cave, followed by six men in black windbreakers and blue jeans. It wasn't the most subtle outfitting I'd ever seen, but better than the MIB suits the NSA liked to wear when they weren't really trying.

Next to me, Nick's eyes were the size of saucers. "Antigravity?"

"Either that or magic," I replied, then braced myself. The last time I'd heard somebody bring up magic as a possibility around Nick Tatopoulos, he'd ranted for five minutes straight on bad methodology and lack of fact-checking. Pretty sure the existence of the Ghostbusters gave him ulcers, even though all their stuff was peer-reviewed and held up under examination.

I was wrong, though, because he just nodded. "That would explain why there's no obvious gear." He must have seen me looking at him, because he blushed a little.

"Major, I apparently lost twenty years somewhere. Even if there is a scientific explanation for it, it's probably complicated enough that 'magic' is just as good a term."

"'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,'" I quoted. I do read things other than weapon manuals you know.

We watched as the six of them floated the cocoon into the back of the truck, securing it down with various straps and zipping up the black plastic on the back of the truck, so that from the outside, it looked like a load of something innocuous, like styrofoam. Then the six of them turned around and returned back into the cave.

"Okay, follow my lead," I said quietly. Slowly, I made my way down the slope, Nick right behind and sticking to my path like glue. We snuck up on the truck from cover, just in case. Up close, I could see some sort of glyphs, in an alphabet I didn't recognize, worked into the paint of the car. Magic wasn't my field, but I was pretty good with pattern recognition, and it didn't take much to recognize a key code when I saw one. The truck was an old one, and probably didn't have an alarm fitted to it. Not really expecting much, I reached up to try the handle, and was surprised to find it open. I mean, it was the middle of the woods, not a Wal-Mart parking lot, it made sense they wouldn't expect someone to steal their ride, but… really?

Hoisting myself up into the driver's seat, I checked to see if the keys were tucked above the sun visor. No such luck, unfortunately. Down on the ground, Nick shifted a bit self-consciously.

"Uh… Major? I don't know about the other cars, but for that truck, we wouldn't actually… need the keys," he said hesitantly.

I stared at him. "You know how to hotwire." I don't know why the hell I was surprised at this point, honestly.

He shrugged. "Apparently one of Mom's old boyfriends taught her how a long time ago, and she taught me. It's not that hard."

Jesus, now I was wondering what the hell Nick's teenage years had been like. Or maybe I really didn't want to know.

And… crap, he was getting that thoughtful look on his face again, looking at the cave. I sighed. "Okay, Worm Guy, what is it?"

"Just… if the cocoon's what they're after, why did they all go back in? What else is in there that they think is important?"

Shit, I was afraid of that. And of course, like always, he had a good point. Sliding out of the truck, I shut the door as quietly as possible. "So how much do you know about engines in general?" I asked.

"I can name most of the parts on a diagram and put water in the radiator. Why?"

"You know what a distributor cap looks like?"

He grinned, and I knew he was following my train of thought.

"I'm going to sneak in there and see what they're up to," I continued. "You stay out here and see if you can't get those cars disabled. Even if they have magic, the loss of their wheels is likely to slow them down. When you're done, you hide and you wait for me, are we clear?"

A nod and a sloppy salute. "Yes, sir!"

I couldn't help it; I reached out and ruffled his hair. "Okay. This shouldn't take too long."

Its not like I'm in covert ops or anything, but you learn a little bit about sneaking around even in the regular Army, especially when you're young and doing something your CO wouldn't approve of. Or occasionally wasn't allowed to approve of, despite strong inclination to do so. Helped that there wasn't a lot of plant life around, and the floor in the cave was pretty bare, not covered with pieces of fallen ceiling. I eased my way down the corridor, taking advantage of the dim light coming from up ahead and the fact that I'd been there before to avoid having a flashlight give me away.

The main room was ahead, and I tucked myself behind a bend in the wall and watched. They'd obviously had to cut a lot to get the cocoon itself out, and now sheets of silk hung down from the ceiling in places, turning what had been a single large gallery into a maze of paths and barriers. In the center of the rock floor, a circle had been painted on the ground in multiple colors, and I recognized some of them from outside. Four of the windbreaker guys were standing around said circle and chanting, and in the center, a ball of light hung. It was currently about the size of a volleyball and shining with reddish light, but I could see sparks of energy being absorbed into it, and I suspected it was getting bigger. The whole thing was giving me an incredibly bad feeling, and I knew I needed to get closer.

Quickly checking to be sure I was out of anyone's sightlines, I slipped into the maze of silk hangings, staying crouched to avoid throwing a sudden shadow anywhere. Finally, I found a place with a good vantage point and pulled out my phone again.

Apparently last year in Japan, somebody made a mobile phone that had a digital camera integrated with it. Somehow this got back to one Willow Rosenberg, who has never heard of these things called limits. Or common sense, really. She promptly made a fleet of them for her friends, though as she herself said, "using magic as a carrier signal is probably cheating." And somehow, as I seem to have gotten my ass adopted by Sunnydale's crazy clean-up crew, I wound up with one too. "Rugged field testing," as Harris put it.

Regardless, it was coming in handy now. I took about six shots of the ceremony before the memory filled up- even magic can only do so much, after all. I'd just tucked the phone back in my vest when I heard the scuff of a boot behind me and the click of a safety being released.

"Hands behind your head," the voice behind me ordered. I did as I was told, not resisting as he hauled me to my feet and shoved me along. We curved along the outside of the cavern, tracing the wall, until we stepped out into a mostly open space about twenty or thirty degrees of curve from the door I'd come in by. My escort kicked the back of my knee, dropping me down into a kneeling position. I wound up facing the four in the center, as yet another one of these guys came over to us. All of these guys felt off to me, somehow, in a way I couldn't put my finger on. Whatever it was, though, it was strongest with this one, blond hair and light brown eyes that almost seemed gold in the flickering light.

"What's this?" Goldilocks asked. There was a faint accent to his speech the other guy didn't have, but again, something I couldn't identify.

"Found him poking around over in that direction," the guy behind me said. "Don't think he'd been there long."

"And just who are you, may I ask?"

I was suddenly glad I'd covered my nametape before I'd come in. "Bob Jackson," I replied immediately. "I was checking my trap lines when the sky went crazy. What the hell is going on here, anyway?"

Golden-brown eyes sized me up, then almost visibly dismissed me, turning back to my captor. "Shoot him, drag him outside and dump him in the nearest ravine," he ordered. "And make sure you don't get any splatter on the circle, the last thing we want is a backlash."

"Yes, sir." There was a rustling behind me, probably adjusting his position to better direct the exit wound. At least Nick wasn't here to see this. Maybe if I was lucky, he'd hear the shot and run, but somehow, I didn't see that happening. I refused to close my eyes, though, and given that I was looking right at that miniature sun in the middle of the ritual, I was in the perfect position to see what happened next.

Something too small to make out went flying from the entrance directly into the ball of energy, which roiled and rippled, before bursting like a soap bubble. Forgetting the gun aimed at my head, I immediately went prone, hands over my ears, eyes closed and mouth opened as the shockwave from the biggest damn flashbang I ever saw went rocketing outwards, sending bodies flying in all directions. Flat on the ground as I was, I missed the worst of it, although my back was feeling a tad sunburned.

Pushing myself up onto my knees, I felt a small pair of hands lock around one of my biceps, trying to drag me to my feet. I looked up, but I didn't really need to, as I knew damn well who it was.

"I know you said stay put, but…"

"Extenuating circumstances," I assured him, finally making it to my feet. I looked around the room. The circle was scorched in some places and obliterated in others, there were unconscious or dead guys in windbreakers everywhere… and the silk hanging from the ceiling was smouldering, with flames beginning to appear in places.

Nick's tugging got more insistent, and I followed him, still getting my balance back.

"We need to go," he said tightly. "Silk is fire-resistant, it's not fire-proof. And given that resistance, when you do manage to get it to ignite…"

It burns really, really hot. Crap. I stumbled along faster, out into the open air. Boosting Nick up into the passenger seat of the truck, I swung around to the other side, climbed in, and twisted the two helpfully prepared wires together. With a rumble, the diesel engine started up, and I quickly started turning the truck around.

"Buckle up," I told him. "We're going to be going at slightly unsafe speeds for a while." He did as ordered while I followed my own advice. Then I had to concentrate on getting the truck down an old logging road, but soon enough we came out onto the pavement.

After a second, I broke the silence. "Okay, what the heck did you even do?"

"Well, I got the distributor caps off, and I was looking at the engines… and there was all this rubber tubing…" He held up a branch that had been carved into a serviceable slingshot. "It seemed like a good idea at the time?"

I laughed, even if it did make my back hurt.

"... I'm sorry," he continued, quietly.

"For what?"

"It was my idea to go in there, and it almost… you almost got killed."

Oh no, I was nipping this in the bud right now. "It was your idea, but I made the decision to go along with it my own damn self. Nobody's fault but mine I got my ass caught. And besides… you were right."

"I was?"

I nodded. "Whatever they're doing in there, it was something more important than just trying to get their hands on this. Which reminds me…" I pulled the phone out of my pocket and tossed it to him.

"I'm gonna need you to make a call for me, kiddo. I've kind of got my hands full at the moment."

The look he gave the phone was a pretty dubious one, but his mouth slowly firmed up, and then he nodded, once.

"Okay, Major. Ready when you are."

A/N - Randy apologizes to batzulger for unintentionally stealing one of Cesca Santana's best lines. The author does not apologize to Joseph Payne Brennan for having HEAT destroy the monster from his 1953 short horror story "Slime" as part of a Noodle Incident. I steal because I love.