"What the hell is your father up to, Rory?"

The young man standing stiffly in front of her desk looked slightly puzzled.

"Ma'am?" he asked. "What do you mean?"

"This 'Parahuman Operation' he's being irritatingly coy about. It's very annoying, and I want to know what the hell is going on."

"Oh."

"Yes. 'Oh.' Explain it." Emily wasn't in a particularly good mood right now.

"I'm afraid I can't, Ma'am," Triumph said. "I don't actually know."

"He hasn't told you anything?"

"No, not really. I've been staying on the Rig most of the time for the last few months, so I don't see him or Mom all that often anyway. The last time I was home was about a week ago and I know he was going to meet some mystery parahuman with Mr Hebert from the DWU, but I don't know who, where, or when. Or what happened, aside from the fact that when I called Mom a few days ago she said he kept snickering to himself." He swallowed a little dryly. "Your name may have come up at one point."

"Really." She scowled. It was all too plausible. Studying the young man who looked uncomfortable, holding his helmet under his arm, she wondered if he was hiding something. Family loyalty could make people become very quiet about things sometimes. But she didn't think that was the case right now, he genuinely seemed mystified by the whole affair.

"Thank you, Rory. That will be all."

"Ma'am," he replied with a dip of his head, then put his helmet back on, before turning and leaving.

"Fuck it all." She muttered something about the ancestry of the Christners, which she was beginning to think hid some dark secret. Possibly something like piracy. Or mimes.

She hated mimes.

Checking the time she grumbled a little more, then closed down her computer, standing up and heading for the door and the trip to the Rig to find out what on earth was so important that Armsmaster would resort to his peculiar behavior to get her there.

"Hey, Taylor," Vicky said as she stopped next to the Hebert girl at her locker between classes. "Did you have a good Sunday after we split up?"

"It was… interesting," the brunette smiled.

"My entire weekend sure was," she grinned. "I have to thank your Dad and Raptaur for letting me help. After all that crap at home it cheered me up a lot. Amy seemed to have fun as well. Pity you weren't there, it looked amazing from the outside."

"Dad said," the girl laughed. "I was sort of tied up on Saturday. Maybe next time. But he said you were very helpful. He seemed impressed." She looked around, then back to the other girl. "Actually, I was going to pass on a message to you via Amy, but I haven't bumped into her yet, I was a bit late this morning and missed her. Dad and Raptaur wanted to know if you and New Wave would be interested in helping out tomorrow. Just in case something weird happens."

Vicky stared at her, then leaned closer. "Do you know what's going on?" she asked in a low conspiratorial tone.

"Yep." Taylor smirked.

"Will you tell me?"

"Nope."

"Fuck." Vicky grinned, as did the other girl. "Worth a try."

"It was. Anyway, if you want to know more, stop by the Yard after school. He said the DWU would be grateful for some extra parahuman backup just in case, but they and the Mayor don't want to involve the PRT if they can help it. Something about independent parahumans having less red tape involved."

"I can understand that," Vicky sighed, remembering all the rigmarole Dean had to go through if he had any action. It was a wonder the poor boy ever got anything done in his work as a Ward. "I'll call Mom at lunch and see what she says."

"OK." They both looked up as the bell rang. "Oops, got to go. See you later, Taylor."

"See you." They headed in opposite directions, Vicky quickly trying to get into the right mindset to deal with English Literature, which was interesting but sometimes tedious.

"Thank you, Vice Principal Howell," Danny said. "I'm sorry about the short notice but it came up rather suddenly. Taylor will be back on Wednesday."

"All right, Mr Hebert," the woman's voice said, sounding mildly disapproving. "Please try not to repeat this sort of thing too often. It disrupts the child's education. However, Taylor is doing very well here, we're quite pleased with how quickly she made up for lost time, and indeed I hear she's tutoring a number of students in mathematics. Bearing in mind her enthusiasm for learning and her quick wit, I doubt one day off will affect her too badly."

"I hope not," he replied, smiling to himself. "I'll make sure she does any homework she has. She's very good about that."

"Excellent. In that case I will mark her as absent with approval from the administration for tomorrow. Good day, Mr Hebert."

"Good bye, Vice Principal," he said politely, before hanging up. Ticking off another item on a very long list, he nodded to himself, then picked up the phone again.

"Hello, Roy. I trust that my suggestions were of use?"

"They were, thank you very much, Phil." Roy leaned back in his chair, still in a good mood about his minor tweaking of Director Piggot, who definitely hadn't seen the funny side. "Danny was very impressed and incorporated all of them immediately. The plan is proceeding well, we're ready for tomorrow. I've emailed you an itinerary and there's a place for you in the VIP section if you want to see what happens."

A short pause was followed by a chuckle. "Ah, yes, I have it here. Thank you, Roy. Of course I would be pleased to attend. I will arrange to have a room booked in the best hotel Brockton Bay has."

"I've taken the liberty of doing that for you, Phil," Roy smiled. "An entire suite in the Brockton Royale. That should be sufficient for you and any staff you want to bring. I've made sure it was set up to your… exacting… standards, and hopefully you won't have any problems."

"That is very good of you, Roy, thank you." His friend sounded approving. "I will have a trusted colleague drive down today to inspect it and make sure nothing is amiss."

"Great. I've just forwarded you the details."

"Yes, I have them here." Phil chuckled again. "I must confess this little project of yours has given me considerable amusement and provided some hours of interest. I expect that the main attraction may well be… quite spectacular."

"I very much hope so," Roy snickered. "The people involved have a talent for dramatic introductions. It should be something to remember. I have a feeling this Tuesday will become legendary."

"You may well be correct. I find myself looking forward to it." A faint beep sounded on the line. "My apologies, I have another call I must deal with, from a colleague who is beginning to become somewhat irritating. He seems to have caused himself some problems. Until tomorrow, Roy."

"I'm looking forward to seeing you again, Phil. It's been too long."

"It has." The line went dead with a click. Roy put his phone down, then rocked back and forth for a moment, grinning, before getting up to get ready for the press conference in half an hour. He expected a lot of questions, and he was going to have to work at it to make people feel he'd answered them without actually doing so.

But then, he was a politician. That was his superpower.

Watching the two people in the lab, as they moved around her with what she immediately recognized as counter-surveillance equipment, Emily wondered what the hell had brought all this on. Eventually satisfied, Armsmaster put down the device he'd been waving over her and picked up a metal box about the size of a shoe box. "Please place your phone and any other electronic devices you might have in here, Director."

"What the devil are you up to?" she asked with asperity.

"I can't say more until you comply."

Staring at him with narrowed eyes for a moment or two, Emily glanced at Hannah who looked apologetic yet also firm, sighed heavily, then rummaged around in her pockets. Her PRT issue phone, another backup one, and an old-fashioned pager she had for reasons even she didn't recall these days all went into the box, which he closed. Touching a control on it made it beep twice and a small green light illuminate. Putting it to one side he seemed to relax slightly.

"I apologize for the inconvenience, Director, but this is a security nightmare. We have reason to believe that the security system in the PRT building may well be completely compromised, and I have to assume that the threat may well have reached to the Rig as well. The only place on it that I can guarantee is not affected is this room. Both myself and Dragon regularly sweep it for any form of covert signal or intrusion and it is both hardened and of a custom design that should be resistant to attack."

He indicated a chair, then both he and Hannah also sat. "I also apologize for the unusual report. I… no, we, both felt it was best to give the person who may be monitoring our systems something to read that contained just enough information to make him satisfied it was innocuous."

"It was close to art, to be honest," she complained. "I've never read such a collection of meaningless waffle before in my life. It made the last presidential election speech look like Shakespeare."

"Excellent. I had hoped it would suffice." He seemed pleased. Hannah hid a small smile as Emily looked at her in exasperation.

"Now that you're certain we're locked away from this mystery person, may I please inquire who it is?' she snapped, the last three words at louder than normal volume. "This is beginning to get ridiculous and to be honest I'm not in the mood for it. Explain yourselves."

"It's Coil," Hannah sighed, making her look at the woman sharply.

"Coil? What the hell is that bastard up to now?"

"Apparently the same thing he's been up to for months if not years, trying to take over the city," the woman replied. "We have received information that, if true, implicates him in a surprisingly large number of incidents around the place, many of them aimed directly at us."

"I tend to believe that this information is, in fact, accurate," Colin added. "A preliminary covert remote check of the PRT computer system has uncovered several different places that the security camera network has been exploited recently, with indications that this has been going on for some time. There are also traces of access to personnel databases, internal threat assessments and security reports, timetables, meeting schedules… More or less all the information one would need if one was to try to either hide an operation against the PRT or guide it for nefarious purposes."

Emily stared in shock. This was very bad. "This is on top of the other things you found, Hannah?" she asked. The other woman nodded.

"Yes. At least one of the agents I identified and arrested is responsible for some of this, but we have no idea who has done most of it. We know that the E88 had a man inside, but he had nowhere near high enough access to be able to install some of the backdoors Colin and Dragon discovered. Dragon is still trying to trace where some of them go, but she has to work very carefully because whoever is behind them was very good and trapped everything to a ridiculous level."

"Fuck." She sat back in her chair and considered what they'd been told.

"It looks like our informant was probably correct when she said that we had to assume our entire local organization was compromised. I don't know how Coil managed it but we have found traces everywhere we've looked in the PRT building. I am still working on the best way to sweep the Rig without tipping him off."

"OK. Shit. First things first. Who was the informant?"

"Tattletale of the Undersiders."

"What?! How the hell did you even manage to talk to her? And why would she tell us all this anyway?"

They exchanged a glance. "There was a major gang fight in the Docks yesterday afternoon..." Hannah began.

"I know, I heard the sirens and explosions. I thought it was the ABB causing trouble?"

"It was more than trouble." Colin looked seriously at her. "The Undersiders ran a raid on one of the ABB safe houses. It turned out to be one of Lung's main ones. They got away with a large amount of cash, but in the process didn't quite manage a clean escape. He caught them on the way out and they fled, which resulted in more or less the entirety of the ABB going after them. It was a very large fight and in the process, at least two of the ABB gang members died." After a moment's pause, he added, "As did Oni Lee."

"Oni Lee is dead?" Emily shouted. "Why the hell didn't you open with that?"

"My apologies, Director, I assumed you would want the background information."

"I do, but lead with the important stuff, Colin!"

"As you wish. Oni Lee died during the fight as a result of a mishap with his own grenades, which he did something unwise with then failed to get away from in time. His death was essentially instant. The three Undersiders, Regent, Grue, and Bitch, barely escaped with their lives. Shortly afterwards, they were intercepted by Raptaur who gave them safe passage back to the BBFO premises at the DWU, where they remain."

She stared at him.

"Shortly before that, Tattletale, the remaining member, was attacked by a ramped up Lung. She managed to survive long enough for Raptaur, again, to fight Lung to at least a draw, then extract a promise from him to leave the Dock area and not return as it was now Family property, as were the Undersiders and their loot, in exchange for his life. He accepted and left. Raptaur is uninterested in him as long as he stays out of her territory."

Emily kept staring, feeling a sensation akin to dread.

"Raptaur has stated that the Undersiders are under her protection and that she would take a dim view of any attempt to harm, arrest, or remove them. In exchange they have given their word not to commit any further crimes while under that protection. Additionally, the DWU has offered them room and board, I suspect getting in exchange the use of their abilities in the event the facility is attacked again. They are currently restricted to the DWU facility and have promised that they will not attempt to leave."

She shook her head for a moment, trying to make the pieces fit. Colin kept talking.

"Tattletale, at Raptaur's urging, divulged that the Undersiders were put together as a team, and were being paid, by Coil. She has given us all the information she has pieced together or otherwise extracted from the situation. In addition, she and Raptaur, and I believe Saurial, have worked out a method to locate Coil, his base, and get his civilian identity, all of which information they will give us in exchange for us looking into the events surrounding the charges leveled against Bitch, or Rachel Lindt, which Tattletale claims are spurious. We tentatively agreed to the deal subject to talking to you."

The staring was beginning to make her eyes itch, so she blinked a few times.

"Tattletale expressed a willingness to meet you and confirm this information, and answer further questions, but told us it would be a very dangerous thing to do that on PRT property. After our investigations I conclude she is correct. Raptaur offered the use of the BBFO office, which is the most secure and heavily shielded building in the city, and probably the country. I would suggest that this is a good option."

He finally ran down, leaving her gaping at him.

"Christ," she finally said faintly. "Those are the highlights?"

"You asked for the important items first, Director."

"I did, didn't I," she sighed. "Let me get this straight. The Undersiders, who are now quite possibly essentially part of Raptaur's group, if not actually basically DWU capes, were working for Coil, raided Lung's favorite safe house, stole an undefined but presumably large amount of money, managed to 'accidentally' off Oni Lee in the subsequent fight, while Raptaur successfully bargained with Lung for his life in exchange for them, and have now given us everything they had on their previous employer?"

"Concisely put, Director."

"Oh, for god's sake," Emily muttered. "OK. Start at the beginning." She looked at her watch. "Two hours isn't going to be enough time for this."

Leaning back in the surprisingly comfortable chair, she listened to their reports, which were detailed, worrying, and absolutely going to cause her headaches for some considerable time.

"Mr Mayor!" A black-haired woman in a suit waved at him frantically, as did most of the other dozen or so press people in the room. Roy pointed at her, causing her to stand, while her compatriots subsided with ill grace.

"Yes, Andrea, isn't it?"

She smiled a little. "Yes, from the Brockton Bay Chronicle. Mr Mayor, you have said that this mysterious project will bring new prosperity to the city, while reducing crime and cleaning up the environment. Those are bold claims. Can you give more details?"

She sat down again, pointing her recorder at him.

"Unfortunately, due to commercial confidentiality and contractual obligations, full disclosure of the entirety of the current plan is unavoidably not possible at the current time, Andrea," he smiled. "Suffice it to say that in the fullness of time more information will become publicly available concerning the overall progress and scope of the civil improvements scheduled for imminent actioning. We here at City Hall feel that going forward, it's important that we act with social responsibility and empower the citizens of this good city and the economic ecosystem which has so sadly decayed during previous decades. By focusing on a forward looking plan to future-proof the growth of the commercial and business sectors, we can secure a chance to generate new wealth and attract inward investment to Brockton Bay for years to come."

He was rather proud of that one.

"Without the good men and women of the Dock Workers Union who have been working tirelessly for some time in advance of this announcement, we would be unable to succeed in the manner that I, personally, feel confident that we will. We should be proud as a city of our hard working people."

Smiling at the woman, who was now looking confused, as were most of the others, he added, "I hope that answers your question, Andrea?"

She nodded slowly, frowning a little as she tried to parse the previous sentences. It would keep her busy for a while. Inwardly smirking, he pointed at another journalist.

"Yes, you there at the back, in the blue shirt."

The man stood. "Alex Jones, Boston Globe. Mr Mayor, can you give us any details of the parahuman aid that is being used in this operation?" He sat again as everyone looked at Roy, falling quiet. He thought quickly. It was the question he'd been waiting for, and had to be handled carefully.

"A newly formed local company, Brockton Bay Family Operations, LLC, is generously donating the time of one of their Parahuman operatives for this project. She hasn't been seen in public yet, although her sisters have. You may be familiar with them from the news and certain online sources."

"You mean Raptaur and Saurial, sir?" the journalist said, pointing his recorder at himself for a moment, then holding it out again.

"That is correct, yes," Roy confirmed with a confident smile. "Two independent heroes who have between them been responsible for stopping more than two dozen crimes, mostly violent ones, in the last few weeks, recovering a truly impressive amount of illicit weaponry and drugs, and indeed even capturing the infamous Hookwolf of the Empire Eighty-Eight, with what may be the smallest quantity of collateral damage or injuries on record in our city. They are both operatives of BBFO as well."

"While I'm not from here, we've heard that this so-called Family lives in the bay," the man persisted. "Is that the case? Are they all lizards?" He paused, smiled a little, and added, "There are rumors that there are some of them out there even bigger than Raptaur. Do you know if that is true?"

"Woah. Lots of questions," Roy chuckled. "Let me see if I can answer some of them. Yes, I believe that the Family does live locally in the bay, and that they are all reptilian in nature. And I can say that they do come somewhat larger than Raptaur." Inside he was laughing like an idiot. Outside, he made sure to keep a pleasant smile on his face. It was important to be as honest as possible about this part to make people feel safer, while not giving too much away. It had to be given to them gently.

After all, tomorrow a nearly hundred foot tall lizard was going to walk out of the sea. People might look askance at that without at least a little warning…

"The parahuman in question is larger than her sister, although that doesn't really matter except insofar as it makes her work easier." He smiled at the man, who was looking thoughtful.

"Can you tell us how large, Sir?"

"I'm afraid I didn't have a tape measure when I met her, Alex." He smiled more widely, while a ripple of laughter ran around the room. "Fairly large is all I can really say. But she is a pleasant person to talk to and very competent. I expect that with her aid the project will proceed rapidly."

He checked his watch. "I'm afraid that's all we have time for today. I'll be holding another longer press conference tomorrow afternoon at around six PM. Thank you for your time, everyone."

There was an immediate clamor from the press who wanted more. After a few seconds of shouting he held up both hands, making a quieting gesture. "I really do have work to get back to, but I have time for one more brief question."

Several were shouted out at once. The reporters all glared at each other, then tried again, with similar results. "One at a time, please," he smiled confidently.

A loud voice from the side shouted, "What is this cape's name?"

Everyone turned to the middle-aged woman who he recognized as the representative of the local TV station. Roy debated with himself for a moment.

"Her name is Kaiju."

Picking up his notes, he nodded to them all. "Thank you. If you can make it to the press event tomorrow I can answer more questions. Hopefully you will watch the operation start from the press viewing area. Bring cameras." He grinned. "It's going to be interesting."

Quickly leaving the room before the shouting could start again, he chuckled, wondering how many of them would work out what might happen from the name, which he'd looked up the meaning of much to his amusement. Kaiju had a sense of humor.

Danny looked up from his computer at the knock on the door, calling, "Come in!" The door opened to reveal a familiar blonde girl, who looked around the room with interest. "Ah, Lisa. Come on in."

She entered the room, closing the door behind her, then heading to the chair he waved her to. "How did you sleep?"

"Amazingly well all things considered," the girl replied with a smile. "Thank you very much for everything you're doing for us, and all your people."

"You're welcome," he said. "Raptaur is a friend of mine and she thought it was the right thing to do. I happen to agree."

The girl smiled in a slightly smug way. "A friend of yours. I see. Like Saurial?"

"Yes, exactly," he grinned. "She said you knew."

The smugness went away a little. "Ah."

"Ah indeed."

"We should talk somewhere more private."

"I agree." Standing, he hit the sleep button on his keyboard, then headed to the door. "Come with me."

She followed him out of the office. "I'm popping out for a while, I'll be back soon," he announced to the various workers in the outer admit office. Several of them nodded, before going back to what they'd been doing.

They walked without further talk to the entrance to his daughter's building, which he unlocked with his keys, making a mental reminder that he needed to order a set for Amy as soon as he got back to his desk. Inside he disarmed the beeping burglar alarm, which to be honest was probably utterly redundant now that Taylor had reinforced the building to the point it would most likely survive an asteroid strike, and turned the lights on. Waving Lisa in, he locked the door from the inside, then went to the table and sat down.

She sat in another chair and regarded him. "Raptaur, Saurial, and that fucking terrifyingly huge thing calling itself Kaiju are all your daughter Taylor," she said abruptly.

"Yes."

"How the fuck does that work?"

"Her story to tell. But it's… complicated."

"Amy Dallon knows all of it."

"Also yes."

"Taylor would kill anyone who threatened you or her." It wasn't a statement.

"That's true."

Lisa sighed a little, leaning back for a moment, then inspected him with a careful look.

"You'd kill anyone who threatened her. Or Amy, for that matter."

"Probably, yes," he smiled, showing his teeth in a way that he felt was something that he couldn't have done before meeting Varga. It seemed to work, as Lisa paled slightly.

"I'm not threatening any of you, believe me," she said hastily.

"Oh, I know, Lisa. I know."

She relaxed a little. "I have a bad habit of knowing way too much and sometimes I get too curious," she sighed. "It can cause issues. But that aside, I really am extremely grateful for what Taylor's done for me. For all of us. I know I'd be dead if it wasn't for her, and I'm fairly sure that some of the other would be as well."

"They're more than just your team-mates, aren't they?" he asked with a nod of understanding.

The girl shrugged. "Rachel is a barely house-trained, aggressive, very dangerous girl who can't read, write, or understand most human interactions more than a particularly smart dog can. Alec is just this side of being a sociopath, he's emotionally stunted from something in his past, he can't keep his mouth shut most of the time, and he's got at least as snarky a sense of humor as Amy has, while being a lazy bastard most of the time on top of that. Brian is the most normal one, and even there he's a slightly paranoid guy who wants approval from people he looks up to. Me, I'm too clever and quick to show it off, which has nearly got me killed more than once."

"Interesting summation," he noted. "It fits what I've seen so far."

"But even with all that, they're all I've got," she sighed. "They're sort of my family. My real family are people I never want to see again. Coil may have put us together, but even in only a few months, and despite everything I just said, we have a sort of… ease… with each other, that I don't think any of us have ever had before. I don't want to lose that."

Studying her for a few seconds, Danny finally smiled. "I think I understand. Hopefully we can keep you guys together and out of trouble. We'll need to find a lawyer for Rachel, one with some knowledge of Parahuman issues, but that shouldn't be a problem in Brockton Bay. We have way too many Parahumans and a lot of lawyers." A thought struck him which made him stop, then grin. "I just had a really weird idea on that front, actually. I'll have to think about it."

She looked hard at him, then snickered. "Oh, god. That would be wonderful. Piggot would go purple."

He knew she'd used her power to deduce what he was considering. "It might not be the best choice, but it might also be a good point to start. I've already got the DWU legal department looking into the issue as well. Brian's situation will probably benefit from legal aid to make sure nothing takes us by surprise."

"You think the PRT might use us as leverage to get at BBFO."

"It's… not impossible. It wouldn't work, but people sometimes do stupid things under pressure." He sighed a little. "I don't want my daughter having to take on the entire PRT."

"Even though you have a sneaky feeling she might actually win," Lisa said with a look of mild shock.

"Especially since I have a sneaky feeling she might actually win," he corrected. "She doesn't want to fight if she can avoid it and I'd like to prevent that sort of thing becoming unavoidable. Hopefully I can count on your help?"

"Of course. We're in this together, I think," she smiled. "Zephron explained some of the DWU ethos to all of us last night."

"I'm not surprised," he chuckled. "He's a good man and feels he owes his family's life to the Union. He'd do anything to keep it going. A lot of the people here would."

"You would too."

She seemed certain. After a moment, he nodded slowly. "I probably would. I've known all these people for years. We trust each other. They'd back me up, they have backed me up during that Hookwolf thing, and I couldn't do less for them."

The blonde girl nodded back. "Which is why they all look up to you. They know that. Boss."

"Oh, hell, he told you, didn't he?" Danny groaned. She smirked at him.

"Yes, he did. I want to see his salute when he works it out."

Danny pointed at her. "DO NOT encourage Zephron. He's bad enough without help," he instructed firmly, with the only result being that her smirk got wider.

"This is going to be a mistake, I can feel it," he muttered.

"It'll work out," she grinned, then looked around. "Oh, I wanted to count our cash, and also get some so we can pay for things." She hopped up and retrieved one of the three bags, opening it on the table, while he got the other two. His eyes widened at the sight of vast piles of notes in neat bundles.

"Holy shit," he muttered. "That really is a lot of money."

"I should have realized when we saw it that we were hitting what was probably Lung's main stash," she sighed a little as she started pulling bundles of money out of the bag and stacking them up. "I'm not sure it would have made all that much difference in the end, he's not a forgiving guy, but it must have really pissed him off. Losing Oni Lee will make it worse."

"I'd suggest staying well away from him," Danny suggested. She gave him a look that made it clear she'd already worked that out, which made him grin.

They emptied out all the bags, in the end finding that there was seven hundred and ninety eight thousand, four hundred dollars present. Grue's helmet, Regent's mask and scepter, and a few random useful things were pushed to one side. "Shit. That's even more than I thought there was," Lisa said in an impressed voice, staring at the substantial pile of money.

"Nearly two hundred thousand each. Not bad. Now if only you could have earned it legitimately," he laughed.

"There is that," she said in a resigned tone, before beginning to put it back in the bags. The girl separated out ten thousand dollars from the main amount, pushing it to one side. "For expenses. Alec is going to want video games sooner rather than later, for example," she explained.

Shortly it was all packed away again. She left their various costume parts on the table. Looking at them, she shrugged. "I have no idea if we'll need them again or not."

"They'll be safe here whatever happens," Danny commented. "Let's put everything up there on top of the workshop out of the way." They lugged all the cash up to the top of the two-room block Taylor had made. On the way down, Lisa indicated it with her thumb.

"What goes on inside there?" she asked curiously.

"I don't know yet," he replied. "Those two are keeping it close to their chests. I'll find out sooner or later, I expect."

She looked closely at him, then slowly nodded. "OK."

Sitting down again, she put her head in her hands and stared at the comparatively small amount of money on the table for a little while. "A month ago this would have been a good take from a job," she said with a small smile, picking one of the bundles up and feeling it, then dropping it on the table again. "Now it's petty cash. Things seem to have changed."

"Things tend to," he agreed. "Life is like that at the best of times in my experience. Some things are good. Some are bad. We just have to keep going through them all. As long as you're alive, the rest is just a matter of persistence."

"That's one way to look at it," she snickered. "Possibly an oversimplification."

"Maybe, but so far it seems to work," he smiled.

"What's the big project the DWU is working on?" she asked without preamble. "I've been trying to figure it out for hours and I keep running into issues with my power. Probably because Taylor is in the middle of it and she gives my power a massive headache. Me too."

He studied her. "Really? That's weird." Wondering how the Varga had pulled that one off, he debated with himself for a few seconds, then told her. When he finished, she was staring wide-eyed.

After some time, she nearly fell over laughing hysterically. "Oh, my god," she chortled. "The PRT is going to go completely mad. And what PHO is going to do… It will probably melt the servers. I have to watch this."

"Feel free to go up to the roof of the dormitory block, you'll have a good view from there. You have to stay on DWU property for the moment but you're all free to wander around, as long as you stay out of dangerous areas and don't get in the way."

"Thanks, Danny," she said with genuine gratitude in her voice. "For everything you and Taylor, and Amy, have done for us. It means a lot to all of us. Even Rachel. She's been looking a lot happier since yesterday. Actually, since our first run in with Raptaur, she's been different. I'm still trying to figure out exactly why, but I think it had something to do with meeting what her strange canine instincts recognized as a much bigger predator than anything she could hope to be. It… changed her. Possibly for the better in some weird way."

"I hope she fits in around here. A lot of the guys like dogs, so hers will certainly get attention."

"That could be good or bad, I think," Lisa frowned. "I'll keep an eye on her and get the guys to do the same thing."

"OK." He looked at the remaining item from the bags, the large envelope that she'd said contained documents that Coil wanted. Or planted. Or both. "Let's see what this is."

Picking it up, he shook the contents onto the table, then handed her one of the sets of paperwork, which consisted of three sets of pages stapled together in batches of ten or so, looking like some sort of legal form. They began reading curiously.